Flashback Friday: Contact

For this week's Flashback Friday, I decided on Contact, which is my favourite film of 1997. When it was released that summer, critics called it "science fiction for adults" (in contrast to 1996's Independence Day, a special effects-laden summer action film that was aimed at young movie-goers). Based on a novel by Carl Sagan, Contact is an intelligent film about a scientifically minded atheist lady (played awesomely by Jodie Foster) whose life-long dream is to make contact with extra-terrestrial beings.

It's been awhile since I've seen this film. I had a copy on VHS but never upgraded to DVD because I suspected that a two-disc DVD collection might be released at some point (though it hasn't and there hasn't been any indication that there will. But as soon as I buy it, then Hollywood will probably decide a two-disc set is a good idea). I really love this movie for many reasons. However, I am also baffled that atheists and humanists I know love this movie too. Are they crazy?!? The movie is incredibly spiritual! In 1996-1997, I was involved in my former high school teacher's group: Humanists of Georgia. I remember in the summer of 1997 hearing many of the humanists praise this film. I suppose they were thrilled to see a character on the silver screen who admits to being an atheist. That's such a rare thing. The villain in the film is the guy who steals credit for receiving the radio transmission from Vega and during an interview process about who gets to travel in the strange machine first, he uses his supposed religious beliefs against the atheist scientist.

I don't know why Jodie Foster was never nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for this role, because she was fantastic. The scene that most exemplified this was when she had expected to speak at the White House Press office about the discovery but was passed over by her supervisor, who took the credit. The camera focuses on her face and you can see all the pain and hurt in that moment, before she puts on a brave face and smiles in the pride of the history of the moment. She did all of this without a single word. Any actor or actress who can emote that well deserves an Oscar nod (to see an example of bad acting, watch Madonna in most of her movies. She cannot emote well at all).

My favourite line is when her supervisor acknowledges to her that he wishes that we could live in the kind of world that she had presented to the selection board. Her response was beautiful: "I always believed the world was what we make of it." So true. Such a great comeback line. What's the point in pretending to an ethical or moral life? We create the world we live in each day of our lives.

The reason why I'm baffled that atheists and humanists love this movie is because the entire movie is like a metaphor for the Near Death Experience, which atheists and humanists are always quick to dismiss as "oxygen deprivation to the brain causing hallucinations." Anything that cannot be logically explained by the laws of science is dismissed. Atheists and humanists are so certain that death is the end of existence that they don't even want to entertain the possibility that there might be things that science cannot explain. Things like ESP, NDE, Remote viewing, manifesting, synchronicities / coincidences, out of body experiences, ghosts, telekinesis, and other ideas considered "paranormal." Scientists are weary about even entertaining such possibilities for fear of being thought of as a flake and not being taken seriously. However, there have been studies that have shown benefits from meditation and prayer. Patients who have had people who pray for them have recovered faster than patients who don't.

There are a few indications that Contact is a more spiritual film than atheists and humanists want to admit. Matthew McConaughey plays a religious advisor to President Clinton (who has a cameo in the film that was taken from actual press conference about the Mars rover). In one scene, he argues with Jodie Foster about religion. She bases her beliefs on lack of evidence that God exists. He tries a different tact. He asked her, "Did you love your father?" She is taken aback but responds that she does, very much. He breaks her out of her wistful nostalgia for her father when he bluntly says, "Prove it!" Can science ever prove that love exists? Why not?

The biggest indication that Contact is more than just some humanist movie is the final act. When I first saw the film, I loved the way it built momentum and intrigue to the point where Dr. Arroway meets the extra-terrestrial life forms who sent the design for the expensive space transportation machine. Then it was kind of disappointing when they get to the "contact" part of the movie. But the film redeems itself when the audience learns that everyone has doubts about her testimony. At a Congressional hearing, evidence is revealed that she was the unwitting receipient of an expensive hoax by an eccentric wealthy guy who conveniently died. The atheist scientist argues that every fiber of her being knows that her experience was real and she can't deny what she knows to be true, even though the evidence to everyone else looks like a hoax.

That is the brilliance of the film. Like I said, I view Contact as a metaphor for a Near Death Experience (I really wish that someone would make an incredibly spiritual film about Near Death Experiences). Thus why I find it amusing that the atheists and humanists that I knew who loved this movie couldn't see the connection. They had no qualms about dismissing Near Death Experiences, yet they love this spiritual movie because the lead character is an atheist (who has a spiritual experience she can't prove).

I started losing interest in the Humanist group because of the narrow-mindedness I found among members. Though they would say that religious people were "narrow-minded", they thought of themselves as open-minded. Whenever I would ask about interesting ideas that fall under the catch-all "new age spirituality" category or psychology (such as synchronicities), they were every bit as dismissive of it as people who considered themselves religious. I learned that it didn't matter if a person was a fundamentalist Christian or a die-hard atheist. Both of them were fiercely dogmatic about their beliefs and reject even the idea of entertaining other possibilities. I don't like this narrow-mindedness.

For me, I believe that every single spiritual idea I come across should be examined for the possibility of being true. Whenever I come across a religious claim, I will examine it and see how it "fits." If it makes logical sense, I'll consider it further. If its illogical, I'll dismiss it. I have a test for logic, so its not an outright dismissal. For example, reading about Scientology's claim that an evil warlord once ruled the galaxy and thetans inhabit volcanoes on earth, which infects every human born on this planet, thus requires everyone to undergo an expensive "auditing" process through the Church of Scientology can be dismissed pretty quickly. Why? Well...a science fiction novelist is making this claim to explain how our world came to be. How can anyone believe anything claimed by a writer whose job is to create the kind of alternative worlds for that genre of fiction? Then there's the money aspect (it is too expensive for most people on our planet to take all the auditing courses required to be declared "thetan-free"). One can logically deduce that Scientology is a money-making fraud. I'm still uncertain, though, if it meets the standard of "cult." I don't throw that word around as easily as evangelical Christians do.

An example of spiritual ideas that aren't so easy to dismiss include Near Death Experiences and reincarnation. Brave scientists such as Dr. Raymond Moody and Dr. Ian Stevenson have spent much of their careers, putting their reputations on the line, to document and study NDEs and reincarnation, respectively. When you use the criteria of consistency, it becomes harder to deny the strong possibility that both these spiritual ideas are worth considering. Dismissing them outright seems foolish if you want to understand the meaning of our existence on planet earth.

I'm in such a strange position in terms of spirituality. Because I haven't met many people who are as open minded about spiritual ideas as I am, it is pretty lonely. Some people in my church think I'm influenced or tricked by Satan because I believe reincarnation is true. They use the fear of searching for more spiritual knowledge will take me away from God, which couldn't be further from the truth. On the other hand, humanists clump me with the fundamentalist Christians because its just easier to lump together all people who don't believe in the strict rules of scientific theories and laws. That's a mistake. With humanists, I share the commitment to a separation of church and state. With religious people, I share the belief that some phenomenon cannot be explained or proved by science.

I heard an awesome quote recently that sums up what I believe. I can't remember who thought it up, but its true: "When we decide what is, we close our minds to possibilities of what could be."

I'm So E

I've been meaning to write about the HBO series Entourage, which I watch as soon as each season is released on DVD. I first watched it a few years ago out of curiosity about young celebrity in Hollywood. For years, I had heard about these young celebrities who travel with an entourage in tow and I thought that was strange. It reveals the neediness of the celebrity who can't spend a minute alone, as well as the parasitic relationship of the hanger-ons. If I was a celebrity, I would not have an entourage. Sure, it would be fun to take a trip to Las Vegas, Sundance, or the Cannes Film Festival with your best friends, but to live in the same house and hang out all the time (even on the set)...just seems weird to me.

This show was developed by Mark ("Marky Mark") Wahlberg and is loosely based on his experience as a young guy in Hollywood in the 1990s. He was known for having an entourage, which included his once more famous older brother, Donnie (the lead guy in the boy band New Kids on the Block). Entourage centers on actor Vincent Chase, who is so casual about his fame and career that he really needed a disciplined personal assistant to look out for his best interests. That person is his best friend since elementary school, Eric (or E, as he is called). He has an older brother who achieved modest fame before him and struggles with Vincent's bigger fame and popularity. That brother is nicknamed Drama, because he is overly dramatic (not to mention annoying as hell). In a brilliant casting call, Drama is played by Kevin Dillon, who is the brother of the more famous Matt Dillon. The final member of the group is a guy nicknamed Turtle, who no one knows what his whole point is. Turtle is the leech of the group, though he does find a role as the chauffeur and the one who gets the drugs for the group.

Vincent Chase kind of reminds me of one of my best friends. When Nathan visited Portland a couple years ago, he invited me out for a couple evenings with his brothers, but he withheld information each time (as he often does). The first time, he didn't reveal that he had invited an Asian-Australian woman to spend time with the group. The second time, he didn't tell me that he invited some other guy, along with the Asian-Australian lady and her friend along. When I later confronted him about his withholding information about other people he invited to hang out with him and his brothers, he admitted that he knew that I wouldn't have come along if he had told me at the outset (before I left my apartment, in other words). I admit that when it comes to friends, I am selfish. I've always been a one on one type of guy and hate hanging out in groups. Its hard to get to know people in groups. Groups are fine if I know everyone, but when someone new is introduced into the group, it always changes the vibe. I'm naturally reserved around people I don't know, and I prefer to observe people at a distance before I feel comfortable.

I admire Nathan's ability to attract people of all kinds into his group outings. But during this visit, it hit me that he is the entourage-type. He always has to have a group around him, and to be the center of that group. He would make a natural celebrity if he had that ambition (he doesn't). Out of all my friends, Nathan is the most star-quality person I know. In all the times we've gone out, I notice women checking him out. He turns heads all the time but doesn't seem to realize it. This is one of the reasons he achieved best friend status: when I point out that women are checking him out, he often says, "they're not checking me out. They're checking YOU out!"


On Entourage (I'm currently watching Season 5 right now), I quickly identified with E (played by Kevin Connolly). His personality and role is how I see myself. If Nathan or some other friend of mine was an actor or politician, I would be the natural go-to guy who manages his career or serves as a political aide. I like the behind the scenes work. I would love to be the guy who reads the script and gives my endorsement on which ones to accept an acting job for. Or, in the political world, I would be the aide who learns about the issues in depth, sustains the relations with staffers of other politicians, and gives the summary advice the politician needs to do the job.

Basically, that's how I see my ideal career. I handle the details so the star or politician can shine, schmooze, and get the work done. Like E, I have the traits of being the serious guy, I'm intelligent, a hard worker, and most important of all: loyal to a fault. Even more like E, I would make a great gatekeeper who guards access to the VIP. I think I have a good sense for people who want to take advantage (since I've seen the types that hang around my brother). Celebrities are always at risk for parasitic people who latch on when the money is good. Falling prey to these people leads to self-destruction (like Michael Jackson) because they need people who has their best interests at heart and won't indulge the celebrity's ego.

Nathan is the one person I would love to be the E for, but he neither desires a Hollywood career nor a political one. That's probably for the best, since his politics are more conservative than mine and it would be difficult for me to work for anyone who wasn't a Democrat. Last year during the city council race, I met the candidate I wanted to be the E for. He was a month older than me, more accomplished, and shares similar worldview. During the campaign, I really loved meeting people in a parade and pointing out to him which people wanted to talk with him. I also liked when we drove to a neighbourhood to canvass or drop literature door to door. He would ask my opinion about some issues or my impressions of certain people. Unfortunately, he lost. Hopefully he'll run again, because he has my loyalty for life and should he win, I would make a great political aide for his career.

So, I'm just an E in search of a person who needs a loyal advisor to advance his career. Any takers?

When the Puppet Breaks Free of His Manipulator

This past week was one of the most insightful Time Magazine cover stories I've read in a long time. It was a special report on "The Final Days of Bush and Cheney." Basically, the strange story of the Vice President lobbying hard for President Bush to pardon his Chief of Staff Scooter Libby. This news when I first heard about it earlier this year truly surprised me. It was the first instance I heard about where Bush actually stood up to his minder, Dick Cheney. Why didn't Bush pardon Scooter Libby? It was the one pardon I truly expected him to make. Maybe Bush has some inkling of a principle after all. Reading the article, I did feel a little bit of respect for Bush, which is no easy feat.

It may come a surprise to my regular blog readers, but I always saw Bush as a likeable guy. Its true...he is the kind of guy you wouldn't mind having a beer with (if only he and I drank beer). But that doesn't mean he should be president! It seems obvious that Bush never wanted to be president. That's how he began his campaign in 1999...by telling people that he had never grown up wanting to be president. People should have listened to him and moved on. It would have saved our country and the entire world the pain of the last eight years. During his debates with Senator John Kerry in 2004, he said repeatedly that being president was "hard work!" It sounded like he was complaining. Again, the American people should have listened to him and spared him the burden of having to work so hard. In his last year in office, he seemed gone already. The pictures revealed a broken man. He was too cocky and arrogant to admit to any mistakes, but you could see from pictures in the final year that he was not his usual frat boy self. The burdens of a failed presidency truly weighed on him.

How and why did Bush become president? I read a comment awhile back that former governor Michael Dukakis blames himself for losing in 1988. Had he won, Vice President George Herbert Walker Bush would not have been president and the ne'er-do-well son would not have been pushed into running for governor of Texas in 1994. According to press accounts, the matriarch Barbara Bush thought their son Jeb would easily win the governorship of Florida in 1994 and that George was the long-shot to win the governorship of Texas from the popular Ann Richards. When the reverse happened, Barbara is said to have exclaimed, "Can you believe it?!?"

In retrospect, having two of the one-term president Bush's sons run for governor in 1994 seems like a set-up to put one of them back into the White House in 2000. Of course, Jeb was the serious son who had an interest in politics all his life. It could not have been easy for him to see his irresponsible older brother who lived life without any set goal, going from one failed venture after another, beating him to the White House and thereby wrecking any chance he might have to become president. Then again, if Jeb hadn't been such a willing player in helping his brother steal the election in Florida, he would have spared us the disasterous presidency of his irresponsible brother. I hope Jeb will live the rest of his life with the knowledge that his helping to steal the election for his family created a karmic boomerang on his own ambitions.

Around 1995, there was speculation that former Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney might run for the Republican nomination in 1996. Cheney had joined the executive board of Halliburton and was a member of the Project for a New American Century, a neo-conservative think tank that advocated the overthrow of Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq. Cheney had self awareness, though. He realized that his personality was ill suited for the glad handling of a political campaign. People would actually have to like him, and his personality was about as pleasant as rubbing sandpaper on your arms. He knew he couldn't get elected dog catcher, so he decided not to run. Around 1998, though, in the midst of Clinton's sex scandal, Cheney was reported to have visited with Governor Bush many times, probably urging him to run for president in 2000. Bush received many visitors who begged him to run for president. He was seen as the next Ronald Reagan. An oafish guy without any curiosity who would do whatever he was told and had the likeable charm to fool enough Americans that the harmful policies he would enact would actually benefit the middle and lower classes.

I knew something was afoot when Cheney was in charge of the Vice President selection committee after Bush secured the nomination, and after supposedly vetting several candidates (including Governor Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania), selected himself for the job. I had a feeling that was the plan all along. Cheney wanted to be president really bad because he disagreed with President George Herbert Walker Bush's refusal to invade Iraq after liberating Kuwait and going all the way to Baghdad to remove Saddam from power. Back in 1991, even I was disappointed when Bush left Saddam in power because it made the whole Gulf War seem like a pointless and expensive exercise. Cheney needed an incurious moron he could control. Bush the younger served as the perfect puppet for his nefarious plans. I believe the whole rationale for the second Bush presidency was to correct the first Bush president's mistake: leaving Saddam in power.

A revealing moment into Bush's psyche occurred when he cited Saddam's attempt to assassinate Bush the father as one of the reasons he ordered the invasion of Iraq. It makes me wonder if the whole thing was staged, just to make it personal for the younger Bush, in case he lacked the resolve to wage illegal war against Iraq, as Cheney planned from the beginning.

Iraq might have been the prime reason for the necessity of the stolen election of 2000 (because it was common knowledge that a President Gore would not likely go to war against Iraq), and the entire Bush presidency can be boiled down to Iraq. The entire case for war has been discredited. It has been an expensive disaster which resulted in a blowback to our economy (Afghanistan was expensive enough without adding Iraq into the mix). The case for war was very flimsy and politically motivated. Bush the younger forced a vote on the Iraq War resolution BEFORE the mid-term elections in 2002, whereas his father waited until after the 1990 mid-term election to push for a war vote because he didn't want to politicize the process. The 2002 war resolution forced some weak-kneed Democrats into a clever trap, even though many of them knew better (namely Senators John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, and John Edwards; all of whom had presidential aspirations). The vote was political: support the president's war plans or else be branded as "unpatriotic." Senator Paul Wellstone, the most firebrand liberal member of the Senate, was the loudest opponent against the war and he died a month before reelection in a mysterious plane crash that I wouldn't be surprised if it was deliberately sabotaged by rightwing operatives.

The Bush regime made a doomsday scenario out of the spectre of Saddam having nuclear weapons, with talk of not wanting the "smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud." This scare tactic came on the heels of the unresolved Anthrax attacks (which was later found to have originated in a U.S. government lab, which spurred talk of an orchestrated effort by certain elements in our government to terrorize the American people into going along with the neo-conservative plan for war). The Central Intelligence Agency sent former Ambassador Joseph Wilson to investigate the claim that Saddam Hussein had sought to buy yellowcake uranium from Niger to use in making a nuclear weapon. Wilson was the American Ambassador to Iraq during President George Herbert Walker Bush's presidency and was the last American to have shaken Saddam's hand in 1990 before Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. Ambassador Wilson had impeccable credentials (aside: I had worked for him briefly when I was a Naval reservist during my two week duty at the base in Vaihingen, Germany. He had the career that I thought I wanted at the time and I asked for his advice. I learned that he had worked for Gore when the Vice President was in the Senate).

Wilson had also served the Department of State in a few African countries and was fluent in French. He had personal contacts all over Africa, so he was the best person to find out the truth about the claims presented in a mysterious paper that the British government had. It was this paper that Bush cited in his 2003 State of the Union Address to make the case for removing Saddam from power. As it turned out, the paper was a forged document that was written by a grad student (perhaps with neo-conservative backing). Wilson found this out in his trip to Niger. When he wrote about his findings in the New York Times, the White House was livid. Someone in the know revealed to the media that Wilson's wife was a CIA operative. Publically exposing a CIA agent is against the law. Even more audacious, Valerie Plame (the agent in question) was working undercover to secure loose nuclear materials that could be bought on the black market by terrorist groups to use against our country. Blowing her cover put her and the people who worked for her in harm's way. There's a reason why it is illegal to reveal the name of undercover agents. Considering how pro-secrecy conservatives are, it is surprising that someone in the Bush White House would do such a petty thing to get back at Joseph Wilson.

What's really interesting about this is that Bush's father is quoted as saying something to the effect that anyone who reveals the identity of an undercover agent is committing an act of treason. Had it happened in the Clinton White House, you can bet that the rightwing would have been all over that with their outrage. Clinton would have been impeached for something like that (they had to settle for lying about a blow job). That it happened in their beloved president's administration, they tried to spin it by attacking Wilson's character. An investigation was launched and though Karl Rove's and Dick Cheney's fingerprints seem to be all over this petty act of revenge, Scooter Libby was the only one indicted, tried by a Grand Jury and found guilty. He was sentenced to jail and given a half million dollar fine. Bush commuted the prison term, saying that it was unduly harsh. He kept the fine in place, which Libby's legal defense fund paid for (how's that punishment if your supporters pay your fine?).

According to the article in Time Magazine, Bush saw this punishment as enough. For Cheney, though, he kept pushing a full presidential pardon. Without one, Libby can never practice law ever again (GOOD!). As a convicted felon, Libby can't vote, either (GOOD!). But that's not the reason why Cheney was obsessed with securing a pardon for his loyal Chief of Staff. The former Vice President is worried that Libby might be pressured into revealing everything he knows about his former boss in possible investigation into the crimes committed in the Bush White House. The most secretive Vice President in our nation's history has a lot to hide. He is the darkest, most evil person to ever work so high up in our government.

I personally believe that he is the true mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks (with Osama Bin Laden probably hired out through intermediaries to recruit and train the 19 terrorists to commit the deed). Why do I believe this? For several reasons:

(1) He is a founding member of the Project for a New American Century. In a document written in the late 1990s, this group advocated for the U.S. government to overthrow the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq. This document acknowledged that the American people would not support an unprovoked war against Iraq, and that "it would take a Pearl Harbor-type event" to change people's minds. 9/11 was exactly what they needed.

(2) In the days leading up to 9/11, there was an increase in short selling of United and American Airlines stock. This was an obvious upswing from the norm. What that means is that someone (or some group of investors) placed bets on Wall Street that stock on United and American Airlines would take a nosedive on 9/11 and 9/12. Who did this? No other airlines received such heavy bets. Additionally, someone told Attorney General John Ashcroft not to fly commercial aircraft the week of 9/11.

(3) When the 9/11 Commission requested to interview the President about the events, conditions were made: the interview would not be under oath, it would not be recorded, the commission could not take notes or reveal what was said in the interview, and most baffling of all, Bush and Cheney would be interviewed together.

Think about that. It is the most outrageous demand ever! Why would they not want to be put under oath and allow for a transcript of the interview to be made? Most of all, why would they insist that both had to be present for the interview? The whole incident spells conspiracy and coverup. It gives the impression that Bush could not be trusted with the answers without his minder present. Cheney didn't trust the president alone with the 9/11 Commission? Of course, Bush is on record of having said in a couple interviews that he saw the first plane hit the WTC as it happened! How did he know a plane was going to hit the WTC? If you saw the first plane hit the WTC, then you had advance knowledge of the terrorist attack. Maybe it was slip-ups like this that Cheney was worried about.

When Clinton had to face Ken Starr for a four hour interrogation in 1998, it was videotaped, he was sworn an oath, and he didn't have Vice President Gore in there with him. This only proves the inconsistent double standard of Republicans. Democrats are held to a higher standard, while Republicans can flaunt the law without consequences.

The article had an interesting quote that made me laugh for the sheer audacity of it. Bush is quoted as saying about the Scooter Libby indictment: "Our entire system of justice relies on people telling the truth. And if a person does not tell the truth, particularly if he serves in government and holds the public trust, he must be held accountable." How can a liar like Bush make such a statement without any hint of self-awareness or irony? He has never been held accountable in his entire life! He has lied without paying the price. Any sympathy I might have had about Bush as I read this article was gone by the time I hit that statement. He may have been Cheney's puppet, but he can't avoid his role in the crimes of the past eight years. He was, after all, the President. Cheney was only the Vice President.


According to the article, the reason why Bush did not pardon Scooter Libby is because all of his personal staff of advisors and lawyers were deadset against it. They believes that it might backfire on Bush one day, and supposedly Bush was afraid that there was some sort of coverup going on under his nose. Cheney's constant lobbying for a presidential pardon annoyed Bush to the point where he had to remind Cheney who the decider was. All those years of Cheney calling Bush "the Man!" apparently wore off. To Bush's credit, he's not a big believer in political pardons. Clinton's pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich did not sit well (it was, I admit, a wrong pardon that damaged Clinton's exit from the White House, particularly as news came out that Rich's wife had donated large sums to Hillary's Senate campaign and Clinton's presidential library fund). Beyond the political aspect of a presidential pardon, Libby wasn't found to be remorseful or taking responsibility for his wrongdoing.

Hopefully this is not the end of that. I really hope that President Obama's Attorney General will pursue an investigation into the crimes of the Bush White House. Someone needs to go to jail. Ideally that would include Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Douglas Feith, Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, John Bolton, John Ashcroft, Alberto Gonzales, Karl Rove and George W. Bush. But at a minimum, Dick Cheney needs to be indicted, tried, convicted, and given the death penalty for committing treason against the United States of America. He is the most vile, evil person to ever be bestowed with power in our government. The sooner we send him back to hell where he came from, the better for our planet. Let him return to his lord and master Satan. I'm willing to forgive Bush for his disasterous presidency because I believe that he didn't realize he was a pawn in Cheney's scheme until too late. It is a small act of redemption that he stood up to Cheney in the final hours of his presidency. I give him credit for that.

In thinking about the relationship between Dick Cheney and George W. Bush, the best comparison I could come up with is from Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. In the film, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine manipulates a naive young Jedi, Anakin Skywalker, into going along with his plans for an empire. At first, Anakin is confused when Palpatine tells him that it is useful to learn "all aspects of the Force, including the dark side" rather than rely on the just the good side. Cheney is quoted as saying that our country needed to go to "the dark side" in our war against terrorism. As we learn in the Star Wars film series, Palpatine was the one who manipulated the invasion of the peaceful planet of Naboo in order to put himself into power of the Galactic Senate. He then manipulates a civil war to cause a conflict that necessitated the creation of the Grand Army of the Republic so he could create an empire.

I wouldn't be surprised if Cheney found inspiration in Emperor Palpatine. They certainly look alike. In pictures of Dick Cheney, you really see a difference between pictures of him pre-1995 and post-1995. Something happened to him around that time that completely changed him. Even an old friend, Brent Scowcroft is quoted as saying that he didn't recognize Cheney any more. Cheney always has his lips in a sneer and his head slooped down (like Mr. Burns of The Simpsons or a vulture). I honestly would not be surprised if he sold his soul to Satan for power in 1995. Not that I believe Satan exists, but perhaps he made an alliance with evil spiritual forces. The recruitment of Bush for president, the stolen election of 2000, 9/11, and the illegal war in Iraq are all his doing. For that, he deserves a lifetime in hell when he dies. He is an evil man to his core.

This evil was most apparent when he accidentally shot a buddy in the face with birdshot a few years ago and failed to tell either the police or the president for several hours (to allow time to lessen his blood alcohol level). His friend had to go to the hospital and apparently almost died of a heart attack. Had he died, would Cheney have been arrested for murder? We'll never know. But, what does it say about a person who cared so little about his buddy's safety that they would go hunting while intoxicated and not seek medical care until the body dilutes the blood alcohol level? To top it off, his friend apologized to Cheney for the inconvienence being shot in the face caused the Vice President! Like I said, EVIL.

Playing With the Queen of Ignorance

On Sunday afternoon, Governor Sarah Palin officially resigned her duties as governor with her trademark rambling and incoherent style. You betcha. Also. God bless the troops, right?

I listened to her 18 minute speech and failed to see what it is about her that has the religious conservative base of the Republican party so enthralled. She lacks eloquence and if you thought Bush spoke out of his ass, Palin makes him look like Winston Churchill (considered one of the finest orators of the past century).

On Facebook, I made the mistake of "joining" the 2012 Draft Sarah Palin Committee. I was curious to read the comments her rabid fans make and I seriously thought we on the left were being "elitist snobs" for making fun of these people as trailer park idiots...but my God! It's true. Their logic is baffling! An example: Palin is getting praises for quitting in the middle of her first elected term as governor because its such a "mavericky move." But...Senator Obama is the "real quitter" because he didn't serve his full Senate term. Um...the American people PROMOTED him to the Presidency, thereby he kind of had to give up his Senate seat so he could assume leadership of the country! How complicated is that for these brainless morons? Meanwhile, their beloved Sarah is giving up her governor's seat WITHOUT any kind of job offering (unless there's a secret Fox Propaganda Network show in the works).

More amazing, Sarah ridiculed Obama during the Republican National Convention last September for being a "community organizer." Well...turns out, based on what Palin has said in her farewell address, she's going to "fight even harder for you, for what is right, for truth." Speculation is that she is going to develop her grassroots network, which is exactly what "community organizing" is. Duh! What a hypocrite. However, I remember how Republicans ate that up in the convention. Now, of course, they are going to argue the opposite because community organizers are now officially cool.

This ability of conservatives to do a full 180 degree reversal on a previously held belief is perfectly demonstrated in George Orwell's famous novel 1984. One minute, the people are hating Eastasia and allies with Eurasia. Then the government of Oceania decided to switch the two and the people start hating Eurasia and thinking of Eastasia as allies. No one seems to notice this switch. It was an eerie part of the novel and one would almost find it laughably absurd, if we hadn't seen it too often in recent years. Remember, Saddam Hussein was our ally in the 1980s. Then he became "worse than Hitler" in the 1990s, but not enough for President George Herbert Walker Bush to remove him from power. President George Walker Bush took care of that, even as he vowed to bring Osama Bin Laden to justice. Then later was quoted that he didn't spend much time thinking about Bin Laden and to this day, we don't know what happened to the world's most wanted terrorist suspect.

Since I came into political awareness in the late 1980s, conservative voters have gotten more and more rabid with their absurdities and contradictory criticisms. Clinton was a bad man because he received oral sex from a willing intern, but Governor Mark Sanford flying down to Argentina to cry in the arms of his mistress on Father's Day (while his kids go to a beach with mommy) gets a pass. Hillary is a scary, socialist lesbian feminist who will destroy America, but Sarah Palin is "well qualified" to become president because she carries a gun and can see Russia from Alaska. Barack Obama is a Muslim communist fascist terrorist who will surrender our country to Islamic mullahs, but Bobby Jindal with his Hindu religion background and exorcism-practicing Catholicism is an all-American immigration story to be proud of. With conservatives, its the demonization of any intelligent liberal and a sanctification of an ignorant ideologue who shares their extremist religious views. Where's the logic?

Its high time for the media to treat the conservatives in our country for who they really are: complete whack jobs who prefer to live in ignorance and fear instead of learning the issues and making a logical argument that doesn't include more bends than a pretzel doing yoga. Honestly, if a candidate I supported for president in the future resigned in the middle of his or her term of office, they would automatically lose my support. The doubts about their resolve would always be in the back of my mind. As a matter of fact, when I think about Clinton being hit with three controversies (dodging the draft, Gennifer Flowers, and marijuana smoking) before the 1992 New Hampshire primary, he could have done what Gary Hart had done before him: quit. But he stuck it out. I remember that I was impressed by that back then, even though I didn't quite trust him at the time (he only won my vote after he selected Gore as a running mate). I'm also glad that he did not resign in 1998 because of the Monica scandal. When the going got tough, Clinton stuck it out. No matter how personally embarrassing the scandal, he never flinched in the performance of his duties and he left office with high approval ratings, a surplus, and a booming economy.

If, God forbid, Sarah Palin became president...would she quit at the first terrorist attack? Or when President Nicolas Sarkozy pinches her ass at the G-8? Or when Congress defeats her initiatives? Or when David Letterman makes a joke about her kids again? We are talking about a woman with a pattern of flakiness. She went to five different colleges before she got her degree. She was appointed to a position with Alaska Oil and Gas and quit after two years. Now she quits the governorship after serving two and a half years. Granted, she served as Mayor of Wasilly for eight years. No doubt, Palinistas will argue that her eight years as Mayor trumps President Obama's four years as President. That's how they roll. No rhyme or logic. Never mind that Wasilly had a population under 10,000 people during her mayorship. A university president has more executive authority than a small-town mayor in a podunk town on the fringes of America.

My impression of Palin remains. It is this: She has an obvious chip on her shoulder and desires the limelight to prove to all the people who were mean to her growing up that she is better than them. She doesn't want to be president because she cares about our country and the lives of the American people. She wants the prestige of president, and who else would have a bigger prestige than her if she became president? That's right. Sarah Palin only cares about one thing. She wants to be glorified in history as the first woman president. That's the prize her winking, lyin' eyes are after. You betcha! That'll show them!

Here are some select quotes from her Farewell Address that I found interesting...

First, she starts off by praising the natural wonder of Alaska. Then she praises the troops (always a guaranteed audience pleaser among the conservative base...never mind if you slash funding for their medical care, GI Bill, or transition assistance. Just send them to neverending wars and praise their sacrifice and you're an instant hit with the moron base of the Republican party).

Palin says: "...we are facing tough challenges in America with some seeming to just be hell bent maybe on tearing down our nation, perpetuating some pessimism, and suggesting perhaps that our best days were yesterdays." Pardon my Alaskan, but is she for FUCKING real?!? The woman who incited the crowd during her rallies last fall that Obama "pals around with terrorists" and laughed off the audience cries of "Kill him!" It is the conservative Christians who are talking up a doomsday scenario by constantly questioning Obama's birth location, and with their teabag rallies claiming that Obama will lead our nation to economic collapse. And yes, it is the Republican that is obsessed with the glory days of their beloved Ronald Reagan! Who's the one looking backwards into yesterday?

She goes on to trash the media and once again praises the troops: "Democracy depends on you, and that is why, that's why our troops are willing to die for you. So, how 'bout in honor of the American soldier, ya quit makin' things up. And don't underestimate the wisdom of the people, and one other thing for the media, our new governor has a very nice family too, so leave his kids alone."

This proves that Palin is either a bad liar or she has no self knowledge whatsoever. She made up stuff about Obama and she gets mad because the media ridiculed her inability to name a single newspaper or magazine she reads? Will the media attack the new governor of Alaska? Doubtful. He probably won't parade his children around for political points. After all, Sarah was the one who forced her very pregnant daughter to hide behind a blanket when she was revealed to be McCain's running mate that fateful day last August. What kind of mother would expose her daughter to the national media, all for the sake of appearances? There's no rule or law that says a politician's children has to appear at rallies. Remember Rudy Giuliani? His daughter supported Obama and his son hates him, so he never had his children at rallies. Then again, he lost.

She claims that Alaska has a secure future ahead as the energy producer for the rest of America. Then she knocked Hollywood. She said: "...you're going to see anti-hunting, anti-second amendment circuses from Hollywood and here's how they do it. They use these delicate, tiny, very talented celebrity starlets, they use Alaska as a fundraising tool for their anti-second amendment causes. Stand strong, and remind them patriots will protect our guaranteed, individual right to bear arms, and by the way, Hollywood needs to know, we eat, therefore we hunt."

Seriously. I can't believe she made it as far as she did in elective office. She seriously needs a speechwriter. With comments like that, though, we are beginning to see the unhinged Palin emerge. She's definitely positioning herself to take up the mantle of the cultural wars...extending it into a new decade. This never ending ludicrous battle of non-issues. Republicans don't realize it, but the cultural wars were merely a distraction as the corporate executives raided their pensions and pocketbooks, all the while screaming at false outrages like Janet Jackson's exposed boob at the Superbowl or speculating on the sexuality of the purse-carrying purple Teletubby. You know how to win the culture war? Spend your money elsewhere. Don't watch television. Read a book. Get educated. Stop listening to the cultural warriors who specifically seek out things to be outraged by. They remind me of my school marmish co-worker. Every day, she finds something to get angry about. She thrives on anger and always finds just the outrage she needs to fuel her righteous indignation. I seriously feel sorry for people like that. Pop culture is rarely worth the attention we give to it.

Near the end of her speech is this gem: "So, we are here today at a changing of the guard. Now, people who know me, and they know how much I love this state, some still are choosing not to hear why I made the decision to chart a new course to advance the state. And it should be so obvious to you. It is because I love Alaska this much, sir that I feel it is my duty to avoid the unproductive, typical, politics as usual, lame duck session in one's last year in office. How does that benefit you? No, with this decision now, I will be able to fight even harder for you, for what is right, for truth. And I have never felt like you need a title to do that."

Did you catch the giveaway into Sarah's psychology? Right there, she said it. "A title." That's what being governor is to her. A title. Like a beauty pageant crown. She's discarding it like it was a trifling thing that messes up her hair. A title! The governorship is more than a title. Its an office. An office which people are elected for a four year term. A military enlistment is also a four year term. By Palin's standard, what would be the reaction if a person decided after two and half years of serving in the military, that he or she wanted to quit because the military person already "accomplished" everything he or she set out to do? Would that fly?

Guess what? I served in the military for four years and ten months. I did not renew my enlistment because I achieved everything I wanted to achieve (travel, money for college, and making the rank of E-5). I was given a two month early out because my supervisor wanted me to either extend for the entire Med cruise or to get out before the ship left for a Med cruise. I chose the early out so I wouldn't miss the 1996 Olympic Games in my home city of Atlanta. Otherwise, I would have extended for another trip to Europe, via an aircraft carrier on a six month deployment. But I served a full enlistment and ten months extra. And I have the Honourable Discharge certificate to prove it.

Awhile back, I read a conservative pundit's view on Palin's resignation. He said it best. Something to the effect of: any person who fails to complete the term of office to which they are elected should be disqualified from seeking a higher office. Simply put, if you couldn't hack a full term as governor (or senator), you have no business seeking higher office. The only office Palin would be suited for is the House of Representatives, because its a quick two years.

Palin had been hinting for a couple weeks now that once she sheds her official duties as governor, she will be unleashed and tell people what she really thinks. She'll Twitter her every banal observation and incoherent rambling. I can't wait. Perhaps they should rename Twitter in her honour: Quitter.

A few weeks ago, I read an essay by Reagan's speechwriter Peggy Noonan, who is deathly afraid of what Palin will do to the Republican Party. It was amusing to read, since Noonan (along with other people in the GOP) are responsible for the model of president they like the best: ignorant idiots who have the charisma to con the masses most of the time and are willing to whore themselves out for the interests of the moneyed elite on Wall Street and K Street. Neo-conservative Bill Kristol is credited as the guy who saw potential in Palin when his cruise ship docked in Juneau in 2007 and he scheduled a meeting with the unknown governor. I'm sure after an hour of a revealing discussion (revealing that she really does know nothing about anything of importance), he thought he found his next Dan Quayle (Quayle ruined the GOP puppet parade of idiots by declining to run for Arizona governor in 2002 to put him in line for 2008's presidential campaign). Kristol was supposedly one of a few people (Rove was another) who pushed McCain into selecting Palin as a running mate.

This all points to an interesting future for the Republican Party in 2012. The moneyed elite do not like her (except for people like Kristol, who still seems under her spell) and will most likely back Mitt Romney, who proved in 2008 that he can out-whore the biggest whore of them all (that'd be Bush the younger). Romney has the experience in turning around failing companies as well as a full (single) term as governor (sometimes I wonder if he wished he had run for a second term). His only problem is his Mormon religion. So, Palin has the potential to split the vote in 2012. Let's say that Romney does become the GOP nominee and to placate the conservative base, he selects Jeb Bush as his running mate. Meanwhile, Palin has yet another grudge to bear and decides to do the Teddy Roosevelt thing and revive his Bull Moose Party (of 1912). This time, she takes the evangelical Christian votes with her while the Republicans get the votes of the wealthy class and the Mormons. This is the Democratic Party's dream scenario.

This potential situation almost makes it worth secretly supporting Palin's run for president. However, I'm cautious in that I would absolutely hate it if this woman ended up as president. It would be a true disaster for our country because the woman is clearly too ignorant to even handle the job as governor of a low-population state like Alaska (the Portland metro area has three times more people than the entire state of Alaska; the city of Portland itself has 100,000 less people than Alaska's population, which puts our mayor almost on par with being a governor of Alaska). Her history of quitting colleges and government jobs does not lend much confidence in her ability to tough things out. If she runs, Billy Ocean should remake his hit song with a new title: "When the Going Gets Tough, Sarah Gets Going."

I would love to see Palin fracture the Republican Party and put it in the political graveyard next to the Federalists and the Whigs. But I'm not willing to risk the most important elective office on the planet to the whims of a petty, ignorant woman whose only motive to run is to cement her name in the history books for centuries to come. Make no mistake, I want to see a woman become president in my lifetime, but I want someone intelligent, tough, and in it for the right reasons. A woman like Hillary Clinton, Kathleen Sebelius, Barbara Boxer, Christine Todd Whitman, or Kay Bailey Hutchison. Intelligence and a consistent work record matter if we want our country to be the best it can be.

I just wish evangelical conservatives would be honest and consistent. Palin is not the saviour they are looking for to bring them back into power. Her candidacy could destroy the Republican Party for decades to come. She's that divisive.

Music Video Monday: Maroon 5

I've been meaning to feature this music video for several months now. After I finished watching my James Bond Marathon (since November, I watched each James Bond film in order of release until I got to the latest release, Quantum of Solace, which I watched on DVD in June. I saw it in theaters in November), I thought about what band could the makers of this film series get to sing the next Bond song. They haven't had a good Bond song in a long time. Madonna's "Die Another Day" was the best in awhile, but the 1980s were the heyday of great Bond theme songs.

When I saw the video "Wake Up Call" by Maroon 5 a year ago or longer, I loved the mini-film aspect of it. They truly did make a short film out of the video, with a sense of humour to boot. The music is equally awesome. The song just sounds like a Bond song. It has that attitude and driving force that made Duran Duran's "A View to a Kill" such a killer song. Maroon 5 is the perfect band for a Bond theme song. After all, the lead singer Adam Levine probably fancies himself as a James Bond type, who most likely does get groupies on tour.

This will be my last music video selection for awhile. I'm thinking of taking the entire month of August off from Blogging to focus all my energy (for real, this time) on landing a new job. 6 of the last 8 jobs I've had were found in the month of August. Last year, in all the places I've applied, I got my first job interview in the month of August (after applying all year!). I absolutely need to be in a new job before Labour Day because the Fall Season is crazy season at my work and after last year's stupidness of management, I really cannot psychologically handle another fall season with these dysfunctional idiots. So, may this song release whatever energy needs to be released. This is my wake up call to the universe! I'm ready to bust out of here, after three years of hell. Hopefully in terms of news and celebrity deaths, nothing will happen that will prove too much to resist blogging about!

The Coincidence That Brought Me Back to God

Pictured above is the sprawling Italian metropolis of Naples, one of the most polluted cities I've ever been to (only Alexandria, Egypt was worse). Though there is not much to like about this city, it remains as the site of the most significant coincidence of my life. In keeping with my plan to write about my experiences with coincidences and synchronicities, I wanted to share the most significant one I had in my life. In fact, it was the coincidence that convinced me that there was more to our world than either Christians or atheists claimed in their rigid ideologies.

First, some background. I was raised in the Community of Christ all of my life (known as the RLDS Church until members approved the name change at the 2000 World Conference). When my dad was stationed in Germany during my teen years, there wasn't a church congregation near us, so we were only able to attend church retreats during Christmas, Easter, and reunion during a week in August at an American-operated resort in Berchtesgarten in Bavaria (near Salzburg, Austria). My dad wanted us to maintain our regular church service, so we attended the protestant service at the base chapel, with additional involvement with the youth group (under threat of no allowance if I refused to go). Because of my resentment over having to learn ideas I did not believe in by hypocritical evangelical Christians who considered my church a "cult", this resentment (matched with natural adolescent rebellion) formed a seed in my soul that would sprout in my Senior year, when (at a stateside high school) I discovered that my favourite teacher (Mr. Malone, who taught U.S. Government and World History courses) was an atheist.

For several months, I would hang out in his classroom after school to ask him all kinds of questions regarding his beliefs and his thoughts on religion. He was just 30 years old (hard to believe today, as he seemed to me at the time to be over 40). He had no intention to dissuade me from my religious beliefs, but I couldn't help but fall sway to his sense of logic. I already had numerous questions myself over the years about the hypocrisy and inconsistencies I personally saw in evangelical Christians. So, one day in December 1989, I decided to shed myself of religion and consider myself an atheist, like my personal hero.

This view was fine. I didn't want anything to do with an inconsistent God and I wanted proof that such an eternal being existed. I joined the Navy, did my thing, focused on enjoying my newfound freedoms away from family influences, and had debates with fellow sailors who considered themselves religious (even though they drank and fornicated like horny rabbits). I couldn't help but be amused by the comparison. I didn't need religion to live a good and moral life, but these sailors used religion to mask their behaviours, which only undermined their credibility. 1991 and 1992 were such great years for me that to this very day, I have not had a year that comes close to the emotional high I sustained for most of those two years. I really lived the life of my dreams in Europe during that two-year period.

Then came 1993. I remember waking up in January with one of my eyes bloodshot red. It wouldn't go away after a couple days. Guys joked that someone "must have come in your eye!" Yeah, guy humour is crude like that. A month passed with my eye still bloodshot red. So I saw the Squadron doctor about it. He didn't know what was wrong with it and recommended that I see an eye specialist at the U.S. Naval hospital in Naples. Because the USS Orion was set to be decommissioned, with the USS Simon Lake sailing from Holy Loch, Scotland to replace it in La Maddalena, Sardinia, we had a lot of work to do in getting ready for the cross-decking (transferring everything from our office to the other ship). Besides, the Yeoman I worked for kept teasing me that going to Naples would be seen as a boondoggle and wouldn't look good on my record. So, I kept resisting. The Squadron doctor looked at my eye again and was alarmed when he saw some cells break apart. He didn't know what it meant and he insisted that I had to go to Naples if I cared about my eye. He raised the spectre of possible blindness if I didn't get it treated.

Boondoggle or not, I finally relented and got orders. I flew to the airport in Rome and had to rush to catch the last train to Naples before the strike went into effect. This was a common occurence in socialist Italy. Unions would go on strikes all the time, shutting down the transportation and inconveniencing travel for everyone who didn't have a private automobile...just for the hell of it. I did make the train, though. Otherwise I would've been stuck in Rome for however long the strike lasted (anywhere from 24 to 48 hours, if memory serves). When I arrived at the Naval Hospital in Naples in the evening, a female officer on duty checked me in and set up an appointment with the eye specialist the next day. She even made sure I got a meal, bringing it to me like a concerned mother. I was impressed by her maternal instinct (it is unusual for an officer to serve an enlisted person, which is what she was doing by delivering a tray of food at the closed hospital dining facility).

I checked into the barracks at Capodichino (one of the sites that the U.S. Navy leases from the Italian government in the Naples metropolitan area). In the barracks, I found one of the sailors from the USS Orion who was there indefinitely for reasons I can't remember now. He was pleased to see me because I brought something of his that he had left behind in La Maddalena. It was Madonna's notorious Sex book. He had let some shipmates borrow the $50 book (with the metal covers that came off the combed spine) and they didn't return it to him. He thought he would never see that book again, so I did a very good deed for him. To answer a question you might have...yes, I did look at every page in the book. I even photocopied one photo that I found hilarious: Madonna on a hang-glider, completely naked! I thought the book was a dumb idea and the lowest point in Madonna's career. I feel sorry for her children when they one day learn that their mother made such a provocative and explicit book. No one wants to see their mothers in that light.

There was another USS Orion buddy who was reassigned to Naples. He hated the ship and life in La Maddalena, which was a shame. We had met a year earlier when we both got to ride the USS Sunfish (a fast attack submarine) for three days (from La Maddalena to Naples). He told me that he was in Naples and refused to go back to his command. He had gotten a lawyer to defend him because his situation involved some male sailor who had a sexual interest in him. He wouldn't give me the name of the sailor, but I had my suspicions because I had also been solicited. I couldn't believe that one could refuse to return to one's command. I tried to convince him to return, but I had my own reasons. It was rare to meet an enlisted person who shared my interests in other cultures and travel, and who could have an intelligent conversation.

This guy, though, had an Italian girlfriend and they had sex in his barracks room. When I told him that he could get in trouble for that, he didn't even realize it was against Navy regulations, but he didn't care. His girlfriend was amusing to talk to. She confused the Mormon religion with Jehovah's Witnesses and would rant about the Jehovah's Witnesses because her grandmother had converted to this strange American religion. The rest of her family saw it as a betrayal of their Catholic heritage. If I remember correctly, she believed that Italians could only be Catholic because everyone was Catholic. After all, Vatican City and the Pope were in Italy.

The next day, I went to my eye appointment at the Naples Hospital. The doctor looked at my eye and said that he had never seen anything like that before. He gave me some kind of ointment to put on my eye each night. When the appointment was finished, I boarded the shuttle bus to take me back to Capodichino barracks. At the bottom of the hill, the bus came to a jerky stop. I stared out the window and saw two guys in suits on bicycles. One waved nervously to the bus driver. The bus drove and as we passed the guys on bicycles, I was shocked to see that one of the guys on the bicycle looked like my old friend from 7th grade, John Adams. He never kept in touch after I moved away from Nebraska in 1985, but I always remembered him. He was a Mormon and these two guys on bicycles were definitely Mormon missionaries. Back at the barracks, I looked up information about the Mormon church. I learned that one of the Navy Chaplains on the base was a Mormon, so I called him and told him about that coincidence in coming across this possible old friend of mine. He investigated for me and got back with me.

What I learned was that the missionary was indeed John Adams, but he was not assigned to a mission in the Naples area. He was in a Rome mission and I was able to get the address. After I received the confirmation of my hunches, I was shocked by the meaning of it all. I had not seen or heard from this guy in eight years. What was the likelihood that his path and my path would intersect on the road leading up to the U.S. Naval hospital in Naples, Italy in an afternoon in the spring of 1993? As the Navy Chaplain told me, Elder Adams had to come to the American hospital to get new contact lenses or something eye related. So, we both had an eye problem. And this chance meeting could have been missed if I had taken a later bus that day, or if I had gone to Naples weeks earlier as my Squadron doctor recommended. It was a coincidence that depended on both of us being at that exact spot at that exact time and day. It also required that I had the ability to recognize an old friend (for John had no way of seeing who was on the bus or might not even remember me).

This coincidence opened the way for a new understanding. It was the one event I needed to shatter the logic-based view of atheism forever. I know that atheists and agnostics dismiss coincidences as "just a coincidence" but when I think about how improbably that situation was, I knew that there was an unseen force in our world that works in a mysterious way that defies any sense of logic or mathematical probabilities.

When I was released from the doctor's care, I dealt with another of the Navy's bureaucracy...getting back to my command in La Maddalena. I had to wait on a MAC flight, with no guarantees that I would get on a specific flight. MAC flights were twice a week, if I remember correctly. I kept my command up to date on my status. The Yeoman I worked for kept referring to my stay in Naples as a boondoggle, which annoyed me. The Navy was keeping me in Naples. True, I took advantage of being in Naples by shopping in the Navy Exchange and buying the latest paperback novels in the Stars and Stripes Bookstore (which La Maddalena did not have) and eating at Wendy's (no American fast food restaurants in La Madd either). But I decided that rather than wait for a MAC flight, I would return on my own dime and get reimbursed. Talk about initiative! The Navy was giving me an extended "vacation" in Naples by delaying my MAC flight spot, but I used my own travel abilities to get back to my command.

In Rome, I stopped by the Mormon mission office to talk with John Adams, who didn't remember me as much as I remembered him. Everyone was curious about this coincidence story and I got to see how a mission office operated. They even gave me an Italian language Book of Mormon. Normally, American missionaries aren't permitted to use a military hospital, but since Adams was an Air Force dependent, he had an I.D. card that allowed him use of the hospital. Back in the seventh grade, my circle of friends were all sons of Air Force personnel, since our junior high school was near Offutt Air Force Base.

After the short visit, I made my way to Civitavecchia to catch the overnight ferry to Olbia, Sardinia. The next day, I caught the bus from Olbia to La Maddalena, and my trip was completed. Did I receive thanks from my Yeoman supervisor? Hell, no. He was a complete dick. He thought the whole thing was a scam to get a free vacation to Naples, even though I had medical documentation. I think in retrospect that he was jealous that I got to go to Naples while he had to work his ass off. Besides, it seems like the universe conspired in a way to get me to that place of having an amazine coincidence.

What does that coincidence mean? To be honest, even sixteen years later, I still haven't a clue what it means. I know some would think that this means I should join the Mormon church, seeing as how the Mormons played a huge role in this coincidence. However, my years at BYU and all the information I learned about this church, not to mention all the coincidences I have within my own faith community over the years, have taught me that I wasn't meant to be a Mormon. At least not in this lifetime.

I did get a letter or two from John Adams after our meeting, but no friendship sustained itself, so that's another dead end. The best answer I could come up with is that this coincidence was a wake up call. The kind that God knew I needed to experience for proof of the spiritual force that operates in our world. It was the coincidence that began a series of coincidences.

My eye returned to normal. I think my red eye lasted for three or four months. I still don't know what was wrong with it. Its one of those spiritual mysteries, I suppose, whose sole purpose was to get me to Naples to be in the precise location to experience that coincidental meeting. I wish I had a profound coincidence like that right now. I could really use one, particularly one that relates to my job search. But, at any rate, I have decided to devote more attention to the little coincidences and synchronicities around me. Most of the ones I've had are small ones. I consider the coincidence in Naples to be the biggest one of my life. I've had a few other big ones, but nothing lately.

What I did learn about this is that I don't like sharing coincidence stories with atheists and agnostics because they generally are dismissive of it. I suppose they don't want anything to disrupt their logic-based worldview. They don't want to search for a spiritual force at work in their natural based world. Its sad to live a life based strictly on logic. For when I look back over my life, it was the moments of coincidences that really make life remarkable to me. I guess this only proves that I am a person who looks for meaning in things, for a life without meaning is a life not worth living.

Don't Mess With Dr. Dean!

Above is a photo of me with Dr. Howard Dean in Plains, Georgia in January 2004 when he attended church with Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter two days before the Iowa Caucus. I made the three or four hour trip from Atlanta to be there, as it killed two birds with one stone: I wanted to meet Dean (for a second time) and I had wanted to see Jimmy Carter teach Sunday School since I first heard about it in the late 1980s. That's right...two Sundays a month, former President Jimmy Carter gives the Sunday School lesson at the Maranatha Baptist Church in the tiny town of Plains (near Americus) in southern Georgia. It truly is one of the best experiences I've had in life. Tourists come from all over to attend church on the Sundays that Carter is in town and on the teaching schedule (this schedule is available at the Carter Presidential Library, the Plains Visitor's Center, as well as the Maranatha Baptist Church website). The lesson that Sunday was on the trials of Job.

Anyhow, in the summer of 2003, I was leaning towards Senator John Edwards in the Democratic primaries. Then, I received word that Howard Dean's campaign kick-off announcement would be aired live at various locations around the country, including Atlanta. Each location set up a videolink and had food available. I went out of curiosity because when I was an intern in D.C., I had heard quite a bit of good things about this progressive governor in Vermont, who contemplated running in 2000 but decided against it (only former Senator Bill Bradley had the courage to give Vice President Gore a run for the nomination, which I saw as a good thing for Gore. Walking to the nomination without a competitor doesn't toughen a candidate up for the fall campaign against the Republican nominee).

At this campaign event, the Dean volunteers served small sandwiches, including my favourite: mozzarella and tomato. That was a good sign. This campaign had style, and they fed us. We also got a goodie bag that included a Dean for America button and bumper sticker as well as campaign literature, including a biography sheet. The speech was broadcasted live from Vermont and Dean said everything I had wanted to hear a Democrat say in the aftermath of a stolen election in 2000 and the outrageous extremism of the Bush presidency. The line that got the biggest applause was "I'm Howard Dean and I represent the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party." It was a line that he co-opted from the late Senator Paul Wellstone (who was widely expected to run for president in 2004 had he not died in a tragic plane crash within a month of the 2002 elections). So, Howard Dean filled Wellstone's void quite well and I walked out of that meeting a devoted volunteer for Howard Dean.

He was character assassinated by the media with the way they overplayed his post-Iowa caucus speech that was dubbed "The I Have a Scream Speech." He became ridiculed and riled as an unhinged, off his meds, angry guy, which could not be further from the truth. His speech showed no trace of anger. He reminded me a lot of the cool Company Commander who helped drill our company until his company formed in basic training. This Company Commander had an infectious enthusiasm that when he yelled, it wasn't an angry yell, but an excited one that the guys in the company found to be a good motivator. Many of us wished that this person had become our Company Commander because he was just cool and had a track record of leading companies to the coveted status of "honour company" (the best of the best). Anyhow, that's how Dean came across to me in that infamous speech: trying to pump up the enthusiasm and excitement to all the campaign volunteers who were depressed about Dean's third place finish in the Iowa caucus (behind John Kerry and John Edwards).

Though he did not become the Democratic nominee, I've read a few books (ones he wrote as well as the one his campaign manager Joe Trippi wrote) where Dean did not really expect to be the nominee. He was shocked by how quickly his campaign caught on with the activist base of the party. He ran with the expectation that he would not gain the nomination but still could influence the debate for his pet issue: universal health care. As the only Democrat who was bluntly honest to tell people what he really thought of the Bush presidency, his campaign was a breath of fresh air.

I've read online speculation that the Democratic Party establishment feared Dean's popularity (as they preferred Democrats from the Clinton/DLC wing of the party, which represents the corporate interests) so they supposedly allowed him to be the Democratic National Committee Chairman with the condition that he would not run for President again in 2008. It was a smart move, because Dean was a great DNC Chairman. The Kerry/Clinton/DLC wing of the party wanted to focus on blue states and a few swing states, as they saw that as the path to victory. Dean's vision was that Democrats needed to run everywhere, especially in the red states. Conceding conservative Congressional districts to the Republicans meant that they were allowing the Republicans to define Democrats and not giving people a choice. Dean's 50-state strategy paid off in the 2006 Congressional and Gubernatorial elections. And yes, I would even daresay that there would be no President Obama Administration without Howard Dean paving the way in 2003. If not for Dean's run in the previous cycle, we would now be living in a President Hillary Clinton America (not that that's a bad thing, though. She's seriously impressing me as Secretary of State). Obama definitely picked up the grassroots who supported Dean in 2004.

Yesterday, Howard Dean came to Portland to talk about the health care debate and to sell his latest book (Howard Dean's Prescription for Real Healthcare Reform--a thin campaign-style treatise). The odd thing about his Powell's City of Books appearance was that it was scheduled for NOON, rather than the normal evening lecture. By fortunate luck, Friday was my furlough day (I don't like being furloughed, as it means a serious hit to my paycheck that will only put me behind in my bills. We have five of them, spread out over one per payday. More incentive to find a new job soon!). I was free to attend the lecture instead of working. It was strange for me to see Portland during the weekday. Particularly Powell's City of Books. I thought the evenings were pretty crowded, but its even busier during the day. I'm certain that many of the people browsing the books were out of town tourists, though (you can easily spot them because they are completely shocked by the sheer size of this four-story, one city block-large bookstore).

The lecture space was also crowded. As Howard Dean began speaking about health care reform, an angry man in the back started speaking up and calling Dean a liar. Dean stopped what he was saying to give the man a stern rebuke, telling the man that he was being rude to everyone else, many of whom were on their lunchbreak. He went back to his talk and was interrupted again by the guy. Then another guy raised his voice to criticize Dean for something. Everyone else was frustrated and angry with these two party spoilers. Dean was not pleased either. He raised his voice and once again mentioned that people had come to the lecture on their lunch break to hear him and it was rude to disrupt.

Fortunately, a Powells employee escorted the two men out of the room. Someone in the audience asked if that happened to Dean at other lecture/booksigning events. Dean laughed and said, "No. Only in Portland." That got a laugh, because Powells lecture attending regulars know that this simply does not happen...and I've been to many of them with far more partisan flair (though I don't recall a conservative person making a lecture tour stop here). Why Dean attracts the angry disruptive men is baffling to me. I couldn't figure out if they were conservative Republicans (a rare breed in Portland) or Dennis Kucinich-type liberals obsessed with progressive purity.

Though Dean did raise his voice at the two disruptors, it only reminded me of what I most love about Dean. He is a scrappy fighter with a kind of raspy-ish voice that I find appealing to listen to. He is perhaps the perfect opposite to the wimpy and milquetoasty Senator Reid (a man who seems afraid of his own shadow). So, I love seeing Dean go after people with his blunt honesty. He let slip in his talk the word "whackjob" in referencing Limbaugh and Coulter. Yes, he actually used the term "whackjob," which received laughter and applause.

With the two disruptive hecklers gone, Dean explained that he was fine with free speech and being questioned by opponents in a political arena, but he also understood that nearly everyone there came to see him and hear him speak about the current health care debate in Congress, not some hecklers who don't like what he has to say. For me personally, I find it rude to disrupt a speech. I wouldn't do it at a Cheney or Palin speech, as much as I loathe those two individuals beliefs. I believe they have a right to speak their thoughts without interruption. During the Q&A portion is the appropriate time to ask the tough questions. When Sarah Palin releases her inevitable book, I truly hope she comes to Powells for a lecture booksigning because I definitely plan to attend and hope to ask a question that would reveal more of her ignorance.

Dean spoke for ten minutes about the current health care debate and touched on some controversies. As a medical doctor, he has credibility in what he says. He even said some surprising things, such as pharmaceutical companies are not the evil people seem to think they are because these companies have reduced hospital stays by developing new drugs that help patients recover faster. He also revealed that he was still skeptical of homeopathic and alternative medicines even though many Portlanders are into holistic medical practices, which the scientific, traditional medical field still remains cautious about embracing. Dean advised people to never give politics a rest, otherwise we'll just end up with people like Bush/Cheney. Like I said, I love how he is a clear partisan and not afraid to speak his mind. His blunt candor is exactly what you want in a doctor as well as a politician.

The debate over medical care seems to rest on "single payer" and "public option." But he gave a perfect example of the fear tactics used by the right. Republicans screaming about how universal health care is creeping socialism seem to ignore the fact that all members of our Congress have government run health care. If a member of Congress has a medical issue, they simply go to the medical office in the U.S. Capitol to get treated and they never get billed. As an intern in the OVP office in the U.S. Capitol, I did visit the Congressional medical office to get treated (I had a bad case of the coughs early in the winter semester). It was quick, easy, and free. And, I learned techniques to lessen the coughing (drinking lots of water!). So, hearing these Republicans scream about socialized medicine just makes me laugh. I want a medical care as simple as they have it.

In the early 1990s when our country went through this debate the last time, I was in the Navy and was shocked to hear my fellow sailors call Clinton's plan for universal health care as socialized medicine. I had to point out that what we had in the Navy was socialized medicine! Duh! No one complained about not getting a bill and wondering how they would be able to pay for it. I am all in favour of the Public Option. I believe universal health care is the right way to go for a society that cares about the well being of its citizens.

Dean then allowed questions for the remainder of the hour. I was impressed that nearly all of the questions dealt with some aspect of health care. Its good to see that people are asking relevant questions. Had the media been present and selected to ask questions, I'm sure that they would ask about his "Scream speech", about his failed presidential campaign, and about his consistent personal "attacks" on Bush and Cheney. To me, the quality of the questions by American citizens tells me that the media are out of touch and superficially shallow. Dean even mentioned that he found it interesting that Jon Stewart is considered the most trusted news anchor.

In answering one lady's concerns about the possibility of Americans being scared by the right again to reject universal health care, Dean was more optimistic. He doesn't believe the tactics of 1993 will work this time because too many Americans around the country have seen and felt the rise in health care costs, have faced a medical crisis themselves or know someone who was financially ruined because of a health related crisis. He also mentioned that people have become accustomed to the scare tactics of the right that it doesn't resonate well anymore. The Bush years have been far too damaging to many lives that Republican credibility is simply not there anymore.

For the final question, he selected a person who wore a white plastic campaign hat with a Howard Dean for America sticker attached. He even said that he was picking the person for that reason. The question was about whether Dean planned to run for president again (I'm assuming 2016). Dean gave a very Gore-like statement in saying that he thought it was highly unlikely but he didn't want to say a flat out no, because circumstances might one day cause him to run and it would be awkward to have to address such an absolute if he made one. I totally understand his answer because it applies to all areas of life. Never say never. I've said never on some things only to see a few years later that I actually did what I said I would never do. Sometimes I think the universe plays with you when you make an absolute statement, so one should always leave wiggle room for possibilities.

I don't see Dean running in the future, though. He has found his niche, which is as a private citizen using his fame and experience as a medical doctor to promote universal health care to the grassroots so that we can put the fire to the feet of the politicians who represent us. Like Gore and his personal advocacy of climate change, Dean is just another person who realizes quite wisely that sometimes you can affect more change from outside of public office. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. should be a model for many people. He was never president, but he transformed our country with his crusades for civil rights. Who has more monuments in his honour...President Lyndon Johnson or Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.? Obviously, the King trumps the president in our history books. So, people who are hoping Dean will run again don't seem to understand that he is where he needs to be. In 2016, there will be candidates we probably have not heard about yet who will be on the scene. We might even see a Hillary Clinton versus Kathleen Sebelius contest for the Democratic nomination in 2016.

After the questions, Dean signed copies of his campaign treatise on healthcare reform. When I got to the table, I told him that we had met when he attended church with Jimmy Carter in January 2004. I also told him that I was the guy who gave him the Keb Mo cd, which jogged his memory and he actually remembered! Then he did something amazing for a politician. He was brutally honest. He told me that he listened to that CD, but ended up giving it to a campaign staff member who was a huge fan of Keb Mo. He asked me if that was alright. I told him that it was okay, that I gave it to him because I wanted him to hear the song "A Better Man", which I thought made a perfect campaign song for him. He said that because of the CD I gave him, he did go to a Keb Mo show and enjoyed it.

When he signed my book, he pointed out that he personalized it especially for me. What did he write? I read it and was impressed. Dean flashed me that huge grin of his and I thanked him for coming to Portland. My book was signed: "To Nick, Best wishes -- Viva Keb Mo" with his signature below. Cool!

Totally made my day. As I left Powells with an extra spring in my step, I kept thinking...I've met Howard Dean three times now. Then I thought about all the famous people I've met over the years. And the thought came...why is it so easy for me to meet the famous people I admire a great deal, but I still can't manifest a better job? I have amazing experiences with famous people (from politicians to actors to musicians to authors) but I want to manifest a great job for myself. I think my ability to meet famous people only proves the Forrest Gump-like nature of my existence. I'm an unknown "nobody", yet my life is extraordinary in that I probably have met more famous people, been to more countries, and seen more things than the average American. The next famous people I want to meet are Audrey Tautou and Barack Obama. He and I have something to discuss...namely, why I would be a great person for his Administration.

The picture above was a candid shot I took of Howard Dean after I had my picture taken with him (picture at the top). In his hand is the Keb Mo CD I had given him. I think its interesting that the universe allows me to find out what happens afterwards. It might take years, but I learn. Such as when I met my favourite singer Johnny Clegg backstage at his 1996 concert during the Atlanta Olympics. I had given him one of my personalized Virginia license plates (it was personalized with "SAVUKA", the name of his band, which means "we have awakened" in Zulu). At a concert in 2004, I had another personalized license plate to give him (the specialty Utah plate that featured the natural landmark Delicate Arch, with the word--you guessed it!--"SAVUKA"). As soon as I gave it to him, he remembered me from 1996 and told me that people were impressed with the Virginia license plate I had given him. He said that his son wanted to have it.

I love how the gifts I give famous people, I eventually learn what happened to those gifts. Honestly, I could wait until the spiritual realm to learn such details, but its nice to know "the rest of the story" within this lifetime. Life and the way it works is amazing to me. Let's hope that these good vibes will carry over into a job offer to start in August. I dropped off my application and resume at another place on Friday that would be a pay raise as well as within my college major (international politics).

I also found out that the company that offered me a job two years ago (the one where I would have to travel to the north slope of Alaska for three weeks of every month) is hiring again...so you can bet I'll be applying again. Last time, they wanted me to start right away but my loyal nature of not wanting to leave my current employers without a two week notice caused some problems. I told my dad recently that I would leave my current job at the first offer I receive, with only a day or two advance notice. Management burned a bridge with me long ago and lost my loyalty (once a person or organization loses my loyalty, that's it. There is no fourth chance to make things right with me). Howard Dean isn't the only scrappy fighter with a backbone!

Flashback Friday: Dirty Dancing

Tonight, Pioneer Courthouse Square in downtown Portland is breaking out the large inflatable screen for the annual "Flicks on the Bricks" summer film festival. Since I moved here in 2006, it has become a personal tradition for my brother and I to attend a few of these Friday evening film viewings. Pioneer Square is often called "Portland's Livingroom." Its a great hangout spot in the middle of the city and a great place to meet up with people. The Starbucks on one of the corners of this square is probably the busiest one in the entire city. Good luck getting your drink during the Christmas shopping season in less than 30 minutes! For those in the know, there's a less crowded Starbucks a couple blocks away.

Two weeks ago, the Flicks on the Bricks showed Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, which they played in the summer of 2006 when I was new in town. My brother and I went to see it. I can't believe its playing again so soon. Two weeks from today, Jurassic Park will be the film, which I've seen in theaters five times (including once in Prague, Czech Republic and in Rome, Italy in Italian). However, tonight is the 22-year old classic, Dirty Dancing. I've been wanting to feature this film in my Flashback Friday series, so here it is.

In the summer of 1987, an unhyped, low-budget, independent little film opened in theaters and slowly gained an audience as word of mouth grew. It ended up becoming a phenomenal smash hit around the world. A lot of it had to do with the awesome soundtrack, which featured some classic hits from the 1950s/60s mixed with new songs. It got to the point where you didn't know if the music made the film a hit or did the movie make the soundtrack album a hit?

I was living in Germany at the time, on the U.S. Army base at Fulda. The thing I hated about living overseas (though it was only a minor thing in comparison to the privilege of living and traveling in Europe) was that it took at least six months before films made it to the AAFES-run movie theaters on the base. My penpals at home would rave about the latest movies that I had to see (Short Circuit! Top Gun! The Golden Child! Beverly Hills Cop II!), but I had to wait six months, while they were already raving about the next new movie to see. I can't remember when Dirty Dancing finally reached our theater, but I remember that it was after it was already on videotape. That's how I saw it. I don't believe that I ever saw this film in a movie theater.

When I think of my Sophomore year in high school (1987-1988), its hard to separate out the music of Dirty Dancing. I listened to the soundtrack album A LOT during that year in high school. Yes, even more than Michael Jackson's Bad, Whitney Houston's Whitney, Debbie Gibson's Out of the Blue, and George Michael's Faith. In fact, the Dirty Dancing Soundtrack became my third favourite film soundtrack of all time (behind the Footloose and Top Gun soundtracks). The movie and music that was Dirty Dancing was much talked about among my group of friends. I was surprised that even my mom liked the movie (her tastes are always hard to guage). I can still remember which parts made her laugh.

So, what was it about this little movie that captured so many people's fancy in the summer of 1987 and well into 1988? In fact, because I lived in Germany, I even had exposure to what was popular among Germans and Dirty Dancing was definitely hugely popular there too (along with the TV show ALF and the music of Michael Jackson). The movie is a pretty simple coming of age story of an idealistic young daddy's girl in the summer of 1961 (?) when Kennedy was president and his call for engagement in the world was taken up by fresh-faced American kids. "Baby" as she is called, is on vacation with her family to the Catskills in upper New York. The resort is mostly made up of older people, so Baby hangs out with the staff and soon has eyes for the rebellious "bad boy" Johnny, played by Patrick Swayze.

A plot about a botched abortion is important, not only for the film (Baby reluctantly volunteers to pinch hit for Johnny's dance partner, who undergoes the illegal operation from a back alley butcher), but also for the never-ending debate on abortion in our country. Abortion did not become a legal medical procedure until the Supreme Court ruling in 1973. Before then, there was a black market of unsavory people performing the deed, which was very dangerous for the life of the woman. Coat hangers were also used by scared women wanting to terminate the pregnancies themselves. As horrible a practice abortion is, making it "safe, legal, and rare" is preferrable to the pre-1973 alternatives.

The dance choreography is excellent, as well as the song choices. Full on movie musicals were a rare thing in the 1980s, but through the influence of MTV emerged a "new kind" of movie musical. One in which the characters don't break out into song, but the music is played in montages (Flashdance, Footloose, Top Gun, Rocky IV and Dirty Dancing exemplified the 1980s version of the movie musical). Honestly, I much prefer this type of "musical", provided that the music is good. Now, however, musical tastes have diversified and individualized to the point that it's rare for a film to capture the zeitgeist of massive popular appeal.

In my sophomore year, the girl I had a crush on (Vicki Garcia, whom I'm Facebook friends with after twenty years of not keeping in touch) loved to talk about the movie with me. I remember her laughing because she hated the way Patrick Swayze made his face when he lipsynched that song "Love is Strange" with Jennifer Grey ("Baby"). But, I knew she had a crush on him and I wonder what might have happened if she had gone to my next high school, Clarkston. My best friend in my senior year, Ben Cranor, had an uncanny resemblance to Patrick Swayze. She probably would have liked to date him.

What I love most about Dirty Dancing is how simple the story is, yet it packs an emotional punch. I would definitely put it into the category reserved for timeless classics. It never seems dated, though the last time I saw the film was perhaps five years ago. The film may have utilized standard cliches (innocent and naive daddy's girl, jealous sister, bad boy, pre-judging someone's worth) but it all comes out fresh. You're simply swept away by the characters and the relationship (and chemistry) between the two leads.

My favourite moment in the film, though, is probably when Baby's sister sings (horribly!) in a rehearsal for the closing show. She's a nut! The song and the way she sings it is downright hilarious, though. Its interesting how obvious the father shows his favoritism towards Baby. I also like when the mother watches Baby dance with Johnny and tells her husband that Baby got that talent from her.

Another thing I love about the film that I never realized until recently is that the resort reminds me of my church's reunions that we have at church-owned campgrounds around the country every summer. Its a tradition in my church that I love the most, since childhood. For one week in the summer, church members from several congregations within a given area go to their region's campgrounds to spend time in fellowship and worship with others. It gives us a glimpse of what this world could be if it was a truly spiritual place. People let their guards down. Cabins can be left unlocked and things unsecured, conversations form easily, chores are assigned and done with fun and grace. I could never find the closest approximation to the experience in any film, except for Dirty Dancing (though there wouldn't be any "dirty" dancing at church reunion!). And yes, church reunion does have a talent night (usually on Thursday evening).

I haven't gone to a church reunion since 1999. Its hard to take five days off from work when I have only 12 vacation days and try to balance them between visiting family and friends with my desire to travel somewhere new. My policy on vacation is "one trip to visit family or friends, and one trip purely for me." But my travel days are over until I get a better paying job or sell my novel.

Anyhow, I'm stoked to see Dirty Dancing at Flicks on the Bricks. There's something about watching a classic, feel-good movie with an audience that beats popping my DVD into my TV at home and watching at my leisure. I love the social aspect of watching films in a public place like Pioneer Courthouse Square on a cool summer evening. Its one of the many things that makes Portland feel more like a community than a city of strangers.

Tonight, we'll be having "The Time of Our Lives"!

Hedges Delivers a Rebuke of American Culture

On Tuesday, I went to Powell's City of Books to attend a lecture by Chris Hedges, who wrote books with the provocative titles like War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, I Don't Believe in Atheists, and American Fascists (which I want to read...its about the Christian right and their neverending dream to bring America to a full fledged theocratic police state). His latest book is Empire of Illusion, about "the dramatic and disturbing rise of a post-literate America that craves fantasy, ecstasy, and illusion."

The place was packed (another one of the more popular lectures at Powell's). I arrived too late to get a seat. Hedges spoke for over an hour, with an additional 20 minutes or so for questions. He started his lecture/speech by describing the spectacle of Michael Jackson, to illustrate how the tragic life of the recently deceased pop superstar was offered up for public consumption to distract Americans from the substantial issues of the day that have relevance to one's quality of life. It was a blistering attack on Michael Jackson and America's cult of celebrity.

Nothing he said, though, was outlandish or over the top. He was pretty right on about what's really going on in our country...namely that corporations have a vested interest to keep Americans focused and distracted on trivial issues as our standard of living and quality of life declines to developing world style poverty. However, he paints a pessimistic future of our country. He claims that he's merely a reader of history, and the patterns for previous empires seem to end the same way. Powerful nations destroy themselves from within.

Here's his non-psychic vision of our country's future: President Obama's trillion dollar bailout for American corporations will most likely not work and is merely a scheme to transfer more and more of our wealth into the few hands of the corporate executives, who already wrecked the economy by disappearing billions of dollars (most likely into private bank accounts offshore). Americans have become angrier under the Bush regime. Corporations, who backed Bush in 2000 and 2004, saw that the Bush brand was broken and no longer fooled most Americans after 2005 (Hurricane Katrina destroyed Bush's credibility; his approval ratings never recovered since that catastrophe). So, corporations have co-opted a popular new guy (Obama). Its a new brand with the same shoddy product. When Americans supposedly realize this, they will be even more angry in 2012. Hedges didn't mention Palin at all, but from blogs, comments, and online articles I've read, speculation is that Palin appears to be counting on riding a wave of anti-government anger all the way to the White House.

The problem with anger, though, is that Americans are notoriously ignorant and have the strange practice of voting as though they believe that they will be rich someday and want to pay less taxes on their "wealth". Meanwhile, they are struggling with debt and low wage jobs, seeing jobs disappear all around. So, the anger is directed towards "liberal elites" with an education and a passport full of European stamps instead of the greedy corporate executives who have stolen straight from their companies pension plans. Hedges believes that we haven't hit bottom on our economic collapse yet, so if that were to occur, our country is ripe for a reactionary "proto-fascist" group to ride populist anger all the way into power. He believes that they will be co-opted by the financial elites, who know how to exploit grievances against convenient scapegoats (always the powerless minority, such as liberals, women, homosexuals, immigrants). He believes this is how our country will become a Christian fascist police state.

His solution is to form community groups devoted to non-violence (he believes that violence does not work at all) and urged people to withdraw from the popular culture mindset and the corporate economy. He recommended buying used (except for copies of his book, of course!) and getting food from farmer's markets. I agree. I prefer buying from sites like eBay or Craigslist or thrift stores, or small businesses with a commitment to progressive values (easy to find in Portland). I rarely buy new these days.

But his pessimistic view of our country's future was depressing. Near the end, he revealed that he didn't vote for Obama. He said that he voted for Ralph Nader and supported Cynthia McKinney. He kind of lost credibility with me there. I don't understand "Nader purists" because Nader was absolutely wrong about Gore. He claimed in 2000 that there wasn't a dime's difference between Gore and Bush, but that is a lie. Had Gore become president in 2001, I am confident enough in my knowledge of him to say that he would have not done two things that got our country into the current economic mess. Gore would not have given the American people a tax cut (much less two of them) and he would not have gotten us into war against Iraq.

I'm also willing to go further in saying that if Gore became president in 2001, 9/11 would never have happened (partly because I believe that Cheney is the mastermind behind it, and partly because Gore would have continued Clinton's priority of monitoring al-Qaeda...after all, the attacks planned for the 2000 Millennium celebrations in Seattle, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. did not happen). Had Gore been president, the Clinton-era surplus would not have been squandered in a tax cut. And war is expensive. Think about it. The money you spend on weapons to destroy infrastructure in another country is money not being spent building infrastructure at home!

By mentioning his support of Cynthia McKinney, he further undermined his credibility. I don't understand why liberals love Nader, McKinney, and Kucinich. Nader comes across as a humourless egotist who was known to have a personal vendetta against Clinton and Gore for "snubbing" him from the White House in the 1990s (what, he expected to be nominated Secretary of Labor?). There's speculation that Nader wanted Bush to win in 2000 because he knew that Bush would be a disaster for our country whose policies would help swing the pendulum back towards progressive ideas. Is it worth destroying our country economically just to say "I told you so!" eight years later? As far as Nader is concerned, he's complicit in the criminality of the Bush era and deserves some of the blame for what has happened to our country in this first decade of the 21st Century.

Don't get me started on Kucinich. I dealt with him once when I was an intern and he was very rude to me just because I didn't know who he was when he called on the phone (he's just one of 435 people in the U.S. House of Representatives, and my internship dealt with the Senate side of Congress, where I only had to know about the 100 Senators). For a self-proclaimed peacenik, he seemed ego-bound. One of the stories I loved reading about John F. Kennedy, Jr. is that he always introduced himself to people by name. A man who had spent his entire life in the spotlight as the namesake son of a beloved martyred president not making the presumption that people know who he is? That's humility. Getting angry because an unpaid intern in the Vice President's office doesn't know who you are is nothing but ego vanity.

As for McKinney, she ran against the liberal university professor I had helped on his campaign in 1996. She ran a dirty, nasty race filled with lies and outrageous smears, which is normal for her in nearly every race. If you're a white candidate running for an office she happens to be running for as well, its not that you're both qualified to represent constituents and their interests. Nope...you're a racist. If you're black, then in her mind, you're an "Uncle Tom." I wish liberals could see McKinney for who she really is...an unhinged ideologue lacking the graces and decency to represent the interests of everyone. She was my Congresswoman for six years (1996-2002) and I never voted for her because of the lies she told about my candidate, Comer Yates in 1996.

Despite Hedges credibility lapses in his support of Nader and McKinney, and his trashing of President Obama and Michael Jackson, I do agree with him for the most part about the disturbing trend of our country's obsession with fame and spectacle. So many people now want to be famous and with the number of "reality shows" on television, more people have that chance to experience fame without contributing something of value to society. Its the shallowest of fame, the narcissism of our age...best represented by the likes of Paris Hilton.

Originally, my post today was going to be about Michael Jackson and Heath Ledger and the drug cocktails that they both took that led to their accidental deaths. I recently got the latest Vanity Fair issue that has a cover story on the Australian actor who died a year and a half ago. The article is sad, because Ledger was definitely among the best actors of our generation. We will never know all the roles he might have played in movies that haven't been written or dreamed about yet. As I read the article about the combination of drugs found in Ledger's toxicology report, I was only reminded of the reports about Michael Jackson's fatal drug cocktail.

What is it with these people to think its a wise decision to take multiple drugs to deal with nervousness, fatigue, depression, and sleeplessness? It would seem that some of them work against themselves (fatigue and sleeplessness?). For some reason, I've had a long aversion to any kind of drug use. In Oregon right now, a couple is on trial for not taking their infant to the doctor during an illness because they belong to a church that advocates "faith healing." The jury is having a tough time deciding whether they broke the law, particularly as it relates to freedom of religion.

I'm not that extreme, but I understand the aversion to drugs. I don't know why I never liked drugs, not even aspirin for headaches. I will take a Tylenol if a headache is just too unbearable, but only after the pain persists for several hours. When I lived in Atlanta, I had to take an allergy relief Tylenol or Claritin to deal with my miserable sinuses in the spring and summer. In Portland, I experience less "bad allergies days" (and usually don't need to take medication), so that's another reason why I love living here.

Part of my aversion might be due to my inability to swallow a pill (until I finally learned how in basic training). I had to chew it and the bitter taste always made me want to vomit it back up. I also had to read Brave New World in high school, and what I remember most about that dystopian book is that the police state in the future encouraged people to take pills all the time. The drug was called "Soma" if I remember correctly. It made people blissful in their own life, even if everything is bland around them. So, its shocking that we now live in an age where people find various drugs to be their "miracle cure" for whatever ails them about modern life.

In the early part of this century, I discovered an awesome book called Plato, Not Prozac. It was written by a psychologist, who had recommended to patients that one only needs to look at literature and philosophy to find the proper "cure" to one's "problems" in life. After all, people have lived for centuries without the medication we have today. How did they cope? Why can't we cope? Have we become such wimps?

It's slightly amusing, I think, that I share the same aversion to drugs that the Church of Scientology has. However, their sacred text Dianetics is merely a pseudo-psychology book written by a science-fiction author. L. Ron Hubbard's ideas about getting to the root core of your problem is hardly original thinking. Any psychologist worth their degrees would tell you the same thing. Drugs only treat the symptom, not the cause. It's a mask that only makes us feel good. Discovering the root of our problem is much harder work, but the payoff is greater.

I'm glad that I'm not a big advocate of any kind of drug. As a teenager, when I went to the dentist, I remember laughing gas being used. It made my nose tickle and smelled weird. I also felt funny (gee, imagine that!). I understood how people could desire to feel that way all the time, but I wouldn't want to. The same occurred when I got my wisdom teeth removed in the Navy. The doctor gave me a valium. I took it and felt blissed out. I understood why people might be addicted to it. But, neither of those drugs even comes close to the feeling I had during my spiritual enlightenment experience in August 2001...and I achieved that purely by asking the spirit world the right questions and found the answers I was seeking at that time. I haven't come close to that experience since, and I crave another one of those, but I know that I have to get to that place spiritually, through the hard work of self-improvement that leads to self-awareness.

Its sad that American culture has become such a shallow state of affairs, where celebrity gossip rags take up shelf space at pharmacies and grocery stores and where people take drugs rather than deal with the root of the issues that face them. Why should we make pharmaceutical companies richer by buying their unnecessary products? The cure remains in self-awareness and inspiration that good ideas and good literature can influence.

Viva Gidget, Viva!

Today, I was saddened to learn that Gidget the Chihuahua has left our material realm for the spiritual one. Who's Gidget, you ask? Why...one of the most successful television commercial stars around! In the late 1990s, she starred in a series of Taco Bell ads. The first one I remember seeing in 1997. Two guys are enjoying a taco in the front seat of the car. The driver looks into the rearview mirror and sees a Chihuahua in the back of the car, near the rear window. Even more freaky, the Chihuahua spoke. "Yo quiero Taco Bell!" it said.

I was in college at the time. I rarely ate at Taco Bell growing up. It was never one of my favourite fast food joints. But because of the commercials (I am a sucker for talking animals), I was hooked and sold. I did eat at Taco Bell a lot as a college student. It was cheap and filling (I especially loved when the Gordita was the new thing to eat, which is essentially a taco in pita bread). The commercials got more and more outlandish, as the ad agency was obviously trying to top its previous hilarity-inducing commercial of the Mexican-accented Chihuahua who craves tacos and gorditas. Ultimately, the commercial got to the point where the Taco Bell Chihuahua led a "revolucion", sporting a black, Che Guevara-style beret, and telling the masses of human followers "Viva Gorditas!"

After that, Taco Bell started featuring new commercials without the Chihuahua. I learned that the ad agency that created the iconic talking mascot was dumped because they wanted more money. Duh! The commercials were a hit and Taco Bell got cheap. The ads since then have sucked. Taco Bell without the Spanish-speaking Chihuahua is like AFLAC without the duck, GEICO without the British-talking Gecko, or Chick-fil-A without the cows who can't spell.

I stopped eating at Taco Bell for the most part after I moved away from Utah. Since I've lived in Portland, I've become a huge fan of Taco-del-Mar, which has a better quality of fast Mexican-style food (and the food is prepared in front of you like at Subway). The times I happen to get a burrito supreme or a gordita from Taco Bell, I've regretted it. Taco-del-Mar has spoiled me.

When those commercials with the Chihuahua played on television, I knew it was only a matter of time until a movie came out that features talking Chihuahuas. Last year, Disney released Beverly Hills Chihuahua, which became a hit (I reviewed the film on my blog when I saw it on DVD). I never liked Chihuahuas until the Taco Bell Chihuahua entertained me and taught me Spanish phrases during my college years. If I'm still living in an apartment in a couple years that doesn't allow dogs over 30 pounds, I may get a Chihuahua. I like their feisty spirit and fierce loyalty (if I were a dog, I'd most likely be a Chihuahua).

Anyhow, I can't believe Gidget is gone (at age 15). She, along with Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect, and MTV's The Real World and Road Rules are part of my college years television staples. Gidget will be missed. Rest in peace, you good girl!

Running With a Writer

This is why writer Nicholas Sparks is cool. Like John Grisham, Sparks has used the wealth he made from writing formulaic bestsellers to give back to the community. With Grisham, it was building a field full of baseball diamonds for Little League teams, which he coached, in Charlottesville, Virginia. For Sparks, the passion is track. He still holds a track record at his alma mater (University of Notre Dame).

Someday, when I'm a successful novelist, I would like to use my wealth to convert a warehouse in NW Portland's industrial district (somewhere along Nicolai Street) into a loft condo and community center facility (an artistic live/work center). I'd love to see that dream come to fruition in the next half-decade. First, to land an agent and publisher!

Anyhow...enjoy the video.

"Nixon" versus "Frost / Nixon"

This past weekend, I finally watched Frost/Nixon. The one impression that came to my mind as I watched it was: HOW IN THE HELL DID SOMEONE AS UNLIKEABLE AS NIXON BECOME PRESIDENT?!? I was born in the Nixon years, but the first president I was consciously aware of was President Jimmy Carter. Even as a child when I first learned about Nixon, I never understood how someone like him could have been president. He reminded of the Penguin character in the Batman cartoon and 60s TV show that played in syndication. Though it's obvious the Penguin was modeled in part after FDR, Nixon does have the Penguin nose going for him and the corrupt politician reputation. What's the one phrase we remember Nixon by? "I am not a crook!" Spoken like a true criminal.


In 1995, I saw Oliver Stone's Nixon in a theater, then watched it one more time on video a couple years later. If I'm not mistaken, both Anthony Hopkins and Frank Langella have received a Best Actor nomination for playing the 37th president. Who plays him better? Its hard to say. Both actors seemed to channel Nixon's slooping, uncomfortable in his own skin, charmless paranoia. In watching both performances, I get the impression that Nixon was probably one of the most unpleasant people to be around for any length of time. He was the Dick Cheney of his day. Hmmm...message to parents: Do NOT name your son Richard or Dick. Chances are high that they'll totally become one if they get into politics.

I haven't seen Oliver Stone's take on Nixon in well over a decade. I vaguely remember it as flashbacks about his youth with his brother, his ranting jealousy of JFK, the scene at the Lincoln Memorial where he argues with anti-war protestors, and his wife yelling at him that they were tired of paying for his debts. For such an unlikeable rogue, he has been the subject of more than his fair share of films. Besides Stone's biopic, there was a comedy from the 90s called Dick (it bombed, which wasn't surprising. Can you imagine anyone going to the theater to say, "Two for Dick, please"?); Sean Penn starred in The Assassination of Richard Nixon; there was a documentary about Nixon's war against John Lennon; and of course the Watergate film All The President's Men. And then there's the unforgettable scene in Point Break where one of the robbers wears a Nixon mask (if you're going to rob a bank or store, why not wear a Nixon mask?).

With Ron Howard's Frost/Nixon, I hope this is the last of the Nixon films. Truly, the man does not deserve any more films. Yes, perhaps he was a tragic figure of Shakespearean proportions, but I'd rather see more films about Kennedy, Jefferson, and Lincoln. It is not a pleasant experience watching the socially awkward Nixon and his paranoia about enemies. It only reminds me of how moronic American voters were in 1968. Then again, between Hubert Humphrey on the Democratic side and Richard Nixon on the Republican side, with George Wallace on the Independent side, what good choices were there? After Robert F. Kennedy's assassination destroyed any hope of a restored Camelot, I suppose Americans wanted to give Nixon his chance after he was closely defeated in 1960.

Anyhow, Frost/Nixon is based on a Broadway play about a British talk show host David Frost who manages to land the interview of his life. What did disgraced former President Nixon hope to gain from the interview? Redemption. There's a reason why he preferred a person with a lightweight reputation like Frost (who interviewed the Bee Gees, for gosh sakes!) than someone like Walter Cronkite (rest in peace, good man!). Nixon hoped to use his smarts against the fluff questions he expected from Frost to return to the good graces of the chattering classes of the Eastern Establishment. That's the way our political system works, folks. Nixon always had a chip on his shoulder for his modest roots. But Ronald Reagan shared the same humble origins of Nixon, yet had the charisma that still cons the conservatives today (in the 2008 Republican Primary debates, all of the candidates tried to out-do each other in their love of Reagan). I have a feeling that Sarah Palin is in the mold of Nixon's "the media and the elite are out to get me" paranoia. That's not a model of success any ambitious politician should follow.

When I think about the pathetic nature of the Republican Party, it's baffling that they gave us some of the worst presidents in history: Both Bushes, Reagan, Ford, Nixon, Hoover, Harding, Coolidge, and McKinley. Only Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Dwight Eisenhower stand out as decent presidents (of course Abe is more than just decent...he's consistently ranked as the best).

What I love about Frost/Nixon is how the interviews between the two men are kind of played up as a verbal boxing match. There are four rounds, in which Nixon controls the dialogue and uses the interviews to rehabilitate his image as a good president, perhaps even a great one in his own mind. Then in the final interview, about Watergate, the drama boils down to the same one that made A Few Good Men such a great film. How do you get a powerful man to slip up and confess his true beliefs in a way that would shock the audience (or jury) and deliver the final conviction he so deserves? In that Marine courtroom drama, Lt. Nathan Jessep (Jack Nicholson) finally admits that he did order the code red. In Frost/Nixon, the crook admits: "when the president does it, it is not illegal."

According to the director's commentary, they took quite a few liberties with the actual events. Apparently, Nixon did not say that quote so dramatically in the final of four interviews. It was said in another interview...but for the purposes of good drama, it fit where it did. Nothing wrong with some creative licenses. Anyone who wants the factual details can just read a history book or watch a documentary (the original Frost/Nixon interviews are supposedly available on DVD).

As I stated above, I hope this film is the last we see of Mr. Richard Milhaus Nixon. I consider him our second worst president ever (he must be quite pleased that he'll no longer be ranked at the bottom because of George W. Bush). He's the only president to have resigned, and he only resigned because he did not want to become the first president to be removed from office after being impeached (President Andrew Johnson, nearly a century before him, was impeached but remained in office).

Above is Anthony Hopkin's version of Nixon in the 1995 biopic from director Oliver Stone.

The real Tricky Dick...a face only a mother could trust. The sad irony is that the great Quaker religion gave us two of the worst presidents ever: Nixon and Hoover. Hopefully someday a Quaker who lives his or her faith will become president and be known for the peace-loving person the religion is known for having as members.

So...is the Penguin modeled after Franklin Delano Roosevelt or Richard Milhaus Nixon?

Music Video Monday: Man on the Moon

In honour of the 40th anniversary of the moon landing today, I decided to go with my favourite REM song: "Man on the Moon." Unfortunately, though, their music video to this song is not available on YouTube. There are plenty of live versions but I found one that features images from space that go quite nicely with the song, making it a perfect tribute to this important anniversary date.

On Friday's post, I know that I wrote about the idea that the moon landings might have been faked. Its always a possibility for various plausible reasons. However, I believe that the landings were genuine. The U.S. made six different trips to the moon, with 24 men who have had the most awesome privilege in their lives. Why fake it that many times and with that many people?

This week's Time magazine features a cover story on the astronauts and what happened to them after their experiences on the moon (or missing the moon, as the astronauts of Apollo 13 did). I was impressed by a question raised in the article. Just what does a person do after walking on the moon at age 39? They will never accomplish anything as great as that. Wow...what an incredible burden for the 40th birthday. What do you do after an experience like that?

As for the REM song, I don't know why this song resonates so deeply with me. When I first heard the song in 1993, I knew it was their masterpiece. I liked a few of their songs before ("Stand", "Shiny Happy People", "Losing My Religion") but nothing prepared me for "Man on the Moon." It was an out of the ballpark homerun. I never get tired of hearing this song. Enjoy! "If you believe they put a man on the moon..."

Synchronicity Sunday

Lately, I've been thinking about synchronicity and those events that have occurred within my own life. I haven't had an experience with synchronicity lately, thus why I'm reading a book called The Power of Flow by Charlene Belitz and Meg Lundstrom, to learn what I need to be doing to increase the likelihood of experiencing greater synchronicity in my life. For more than 30 months, I felt like I've been in the opposite of synchronicity. There is no flow. So, I think one Sunday a month, I will write about a personal experience with synchronicity...in the hopes that just writing about it will put my mind in that space to invite more of those experiences into my life.

The best job I ever had was with Submarine Squadron 22 in La Maddalena, Italy. I got that job by pure luck. I happened to be walking the pier to check on board the USS Orion in Gaeta, Italy in September 1991. On the pier, the Command Master Chief of Submarine Squadron 22 happened to be walking towards the gate to go on liberty for the evening. He saw a group of us newbies and asked our job specialty (called "rate"). When I said "Yeoman", he seemed thrilled and mentioned that he was in need of a Yeoman for his office. He then asked for my UIC number, but was disappointed that the UIC number indicated that I was assigned to the USS Orion, not Submarine Squadron 22. But I could have told him that. I picked the USS Orion in YN "A" School.

The next day, on my first full day on board, I learned that Squadron 22 wanted me to work in their command, which had office space on the same level as the Commanding Officer's office and stateroom. Another Yeoman in the Captain's Office was already set to work in Squadron 22, but both Squadron 22 and the Captain's Office of the USS Orion decided that it wouldn't make sense to have to train two guys, so I would be going to Squadron 22 and the other guy would remain in the Captain's Office. Months and even a year later, I could tell that the Yeoman I replaced didn't like me because I had deprived him of the Squadron job. Everyone thought of Squadron as an elite command with special privileges. In fact, the Yeoman I worked with took full advantage of the special privileges while I always felt uneasy about it because I did not earn them. I was also aware how it looked when I got to ride in the Commodore's personal boat to go on liberty in foreign ports when the ship's company (E-4 and below, as I was) had to participate in working parties to bring supplies onboard before they were allowed liberty.

How did I get so lucky? That was the question that always remained in the back of my mind. It truly seemed fated. And it all boiled down to the right timing of meeting the Command Master Chief of Squadron 22 on the pier. How did that happen? To understand this synchronicity, its important to go backwards to a series of decisions and events that lined up perfectly to this one moment.

On 11 September 1991, I flew to Rome, Italy from New York City. Then I flew Meridiana to Olbia, Sardinia, where I met the duty driver who took three of us newbies to La Maddalena. Once we arrived at the ship's site on Santo Stefano, I learned that the ship was in Gaeta on the mainland and I would have to fly to Naples on the next available MAC flight. For the night, I stayed at the lonely barracks on the site, in a room by myself that had three beds. The place looked so lonely and I wondered how I would endure the next three years. The next day, I flew on a military cargo plane to Naples and met a duty driver who took us newbies to Gaeta to check aboard the ship.

Before leaving for Italy, I was assigned to temporary duty at the Norfolk Naval Base, where I had to take classes about overseas living, terrorism, fire fighting, and shipboard damage control (where I was a complete disaster). I was only supposed to be there for a total of 10 days. When I went to get my ticket at the SATO office, I learned that they had made a mistake on my ticket and had me flying into Sicily instead of Sardinia. I remember being angry about this mistake and yelling at the person's geographical ignorance after I was told that correcting the ticket meant a delay of 10 more days. That meant staying in the temporary barracks and having to do busy work like sweeping and swabbing the deck every day when I could've been in Italy. All told, I was in Norfolk for 22 days. I regret getting angry about it because that delay lined me up just perfectly for that synchronistic encounter on the pier in Gaeta.

Before those days in Norfolk, I had gone on vacation with my family to visit the grandparents in Kansas and an uncle in Chicago. I had gone on vacation between basic training and "A" school as well, so this put me in the hole on leave, which would prevent me taking vacation during my first year in Italy. However, I only took vacation after "A" school because I wanted to visit my grandparents before living in Italy for three years. I knew that I had planned to stay in Europe for three years and not visit home until I returned for my next command. If I had checked into Norfolk two weeks sooner, it would have messed up my alignment.

At "A" School, I came very close to picking Naples over La Maddalena. I consider it the wisest decision of my life to pick La Maddalena for my first duty station. Because I had taken leave between Basic Training and "A" School, I started "A" school later than scheduled. Had I not taken leave, I would've saved two weeks, which would have put me in a different YN class, with a different set of command billets to choose from.

I was originally signed up to go to Basic Training in May. However, after my vacation to visit my best friend in Omaha and grandparents in Kansas in January, I knew I was ready to go to Basic Training and did not need to wait until May. I tried to get my date changed to February, but the soonest I could go was March 20th. Had I kept the May date, I would have had a different set of billets in "A" School, thus might not even have La Maddalena as a choice (when I enlisted, I wanted to be stationed in Hawaii or Japan, but my billet sheet did not have Hawaii and I did not like the type of ship in Japan).

So, there you can see...it was a long list of actions on my part, the mistakes of others, and the guiding hand of fate that led to that moment of perfection where I ended up in Squadron 22 instead of ship's company for my first two years in La Maddalena. When I was assigned to the Palau Community Center in my final year, shipmates kept asking me how I got lucky to get those two assignments that many wanted to have. I didn't see it as anything. Yes, I was lucky to work in Squadron 22. But I hated working at the Palau Community Center. On the other hand, I didn't want to give up my barracks room, which I would have had to do if I returned to the ship (the USS Simon Lake, which replaced the decommissioning Orion in April 1993).

In Jurassic Park, the chaos theoritician Ian Malcolm talks about a butterfly flapping its wings somewhere in the world causing a hurricane in another part of the world. That idea sounds outlandish from a scientific perspective, but in a spiritual sense, it probably means that little decisions we make that we might think is inconsequential could lead us to someplace we did not plan or expect. That's what it means to live your life in a flow. When your life flows, you are on the right path your soul envisioned. Everything happens without effort. That's why Sarah Palin proved to me that she has no clue about spirituality when she said "only dead fish go with the flow." Synchronistic flow is the only way to live a life of meaning.

Happy Mandela Day!

Today, Nelson Mandela turns 91 years old.

A few weeks ago, I watched the film The Color of Freedom, which was originally titled Goodbye Bafana everywhere else. I don't recall ever hearing about it making a theatrical run when it was released in 2007. To my continual disappointment, movies about South Africa never seem to do well in the United States, even though no other nation on earth shares our similar history as South Africa does. I only learned about the movie when I watched some Johnny Clegg videos on YouTube and came across a fan-created video that used footage from this movie for a song of his that I had never heard before ("Manqoba"), which was written for the film.

The Color of Freedom is based on the memoirs of James Gregory (played by Joseph Fiennes), a white South African who works for the State prison system (considered to be the weakest option for the mandatory conscription service that all white South African men were obligated to serve upon reaching the age of manhood). Because Gregory knew how to speak Xhosa due to his childhood friendship with a boy of the Xhosa tribe, he is selected for the prestige assignment of monitoring and censoring the mail delivered to Nelson Mandela (who is from the Xhosa tribe) and the other prisoners at the notorious Robbin Island Prison near Cape Town.

Actor Dennis Haysbert joins the list of actors (Danny Glover, Sidney Poitier, and now Morgan Freeman is next) to play the legendary Nelson Mandela. The interactions between the guard and his world-famous prisoner shows just how great a person that Mandela is. When I read Mandela's memoirs, Long Walk to Freedom in 1995-1996, I was impressed by his respect towards his jailers. He treated them kindly and won many of them over, even if they viewed him as an enemy at first. It shows the spiritual power that Mandela carried with him, the kind of power that Dr. King spoke about when he said that people needed to overpower one's persecutors with their ability to return the violence inflicted upon them with nothing but love.

In Mandela's memoirs, when he found out that he was immediately released from prison (his last few years of imprisonment was actually a house with land and he was free to walk around and have guests), he needed a few days more to prepare. Its amazing that after being imprisoned for 27 years in the prime of his life, he still needed a few days before he wanted to become a free man.

James Gregory was in a difficult spot, himself, because he was born into the white world of privileges and freedom. His dream of making Lieutenant depended upon obedience to the rules of the Prison system. When caught making kind gestures such as delivering a Christmas gift of chocolate from Mandela to his visiting wife Winnie, Gregory's loyalty is questioned.

Even for whites growing up in a society in which the entire economic structure is rigged on their behalf (Mandela wrote in his memoirs that even as a black man, he had compassion for a poor white man he once came across because it was such a rare sight), South Africa under apartheid was the definition of a police state. If a person, movie, book, song, or document was banned, one could be imprisoned for visiting with the banned person or possessing the banned item. I first heard about Johnny Clegg in the late 1980s because he was banned from playing in South Africa, particularly his song "Asimbonanga" (which is about Mandela and lists names of other activists for freedom).

In the film, we see how discrete Gregory had to be just to read the banned African National Congress Freedom Charter. According to whites, the Freedom Charter advocated the complete extermination of the white race from South Africa. Many people believed it and that was the beauty of banning the document. The government can lie about its contents and not allow anyone to read it for themselves. Gregory required special permission to request access to banned documents in a special section of the library. When he fails to provide one, he is questioned by an official at the library.

In this film, we see changes in how James Gregory comes to view his society. Shockingly, his wife is a true believer, as she tells their children that it was God's will that the races be segregated. Their daughter struggles to understand the rationale for racial separation when she sees the South African Defence Force arrest a woman walking along the street carrying an infant. The baby is left on the sidewalk like the black race didn't matter. Its an image of horror for a young child to witness (since the universal fear of children everywhere is abandonment by a parent).

I really enjoyed this film, especially the scene when Gregory gets into an African stick fighting match with Mandela. It was such an awesome moment of Zen spirituality (the spiritual master and his apprentice in a friendly match). The Color of Freedom joins with the other South African films that I love: Sarafina! The Sound of Freedom, Cry Freedom, Jerusalema, Mandela and DeKlerk, and the other Mandela film that starred Danny Glover.

I can't wait to see the new Mandela film starring Morgan Freeman. The new film takes place during Mandela's presidency, when he used the 1995 Rugby World Cup to reconcile the relationship between black and white South Africans. Next year, South Africa hosts the World Cup in soccer (excuse me, football!). In 1996 during the Atlanta Olympics, I saw the South African Olympic Committee at various places with uniform shirts displaying Cape Town's 2004 Olympic bid logo. I really hope we will see the Summer Olympics in Cape Town by 2024 (I'd love to see Rio de Janeiro get the 2016 games and Paris the 2020 games).

So, in honour of the great man that Nelson Mandela is, please enjoy the cartoons I found online. He truly is a giant and its a shame that South Africa seems to lack new leaders of his calibre. Mandela served only one presidential term (1994-1999). He was pretty old when he assumed office, though. Had I been South African, I would've voted for him in 1994. However, at BYU, I had asked a white South African classmate if she voted for him and she got offended (though she refused to tell me). I was shocked. My friends in France asked me who I voted for in the 1992 elections and I had no problem telling them (or anyone else for that matter) that I voted for Bill Clinton. In 2008, I decided to photocopy my election ballot and frame it, just so I can show off my proud vote for Barack Obama. When I watched Mandela's inauguration in 1994, I wondered how long it would be when I would have the chance to vote for a black president. I would have put the date past the 2020 election, and thought we would have a woman president by 2012.

I read that Nelson Mandela had sent his regrets to the Jackson family for not being able to attend Michael Jackson's funeral. I was surprised that he wanted to, but I guess that only shows the impact of Michael Jackson's music in South Africa. As I said above, our two nations share a unique bond like no other two nations on earth. We should be closer allies and have cultural exchanges for students, businesses, and cities (Johannesburg reminds me a lot of Atlanta). But, Mandela is getting up there in age that I bet he wished that he could attend Barack Obama's inauguration earlier this year. At least he got to live to see the election of a black president in the United States. Mandela achieved fame in his country around the time Dr. Martin Luther King achieved fame in our country...both for their Civil Rights activism.

So, Happy Birthday Madiba (Mandela's African name)! May you live to see 100!

Viva Mandela Viva! Amandla!

Flashback Friday: Humanity Reaches the Moon

Monday marks the 40th anniversary of the moon landing. That's right. On 20 July 1969, Neil Armstrong supposedly took one small step for himself that represented a giant leap for mankind. Why do I say "supposedly"? Well...let's just say that I hope that it really happened. It truly was an inspiring event. For centuries, humans on earth have wondered if any creatures lived on the moon. What's even more amazing is that in the several hundreds of thousands of years that humans or our humanoid ancestors have walked the earth, all anyone could do was look up at the moon and wonder in awe. Then in the early 1900s, the Wright brothers made the first known flight in an airplane they designed. Sixty some years after the invention of the airplane, humans made it to the moon. An impressive evolutionary leap for our species.

In 1957, Americans looked up into the October sky and saw the Soviet satellite Sputnik, which panicked our leaders that we had to win the space race against the communists. A few years later, President Kennedy challenged our country to put a man on the moon by decade's end. Miraculously, in the final year of the decade, Americans had accomplished that goal. Or did we?

Growing up, I used to love looking at a special book about the moon and the Apollo missions that my dad owned (don't know what happened to the book over the years, though). I was just a kid when the moon expeditions were going on (I was born a couple years after the first moon landing). I had no reason to doubt our government's claim of the first moon landing. In fact, I once dismissed the doubters as crazy talk. Why would people question that the event actually happened?

Well, I've gotten into some recent conversational back and forth with a friend's brother and his friends on Facebook over this issue. I'm a little obnoxious about it, I admit. The guy is a veritable space guy and if I was the decider of all things, I'd definitely put him in charge of NASA. His knowledge and resume are impressive and impeccable. However, he and his friends call the people who question the veracity of the moon landing as uneducated idiots. Resorting to that is kind of childish. There's no need to go the Rush route in debating an issue.

Is the issue debatable? Well...for me, personally, I have not put a lot of stock in the naysayers about the moon landing until recently. I am all too often willing to accept the official story without further investigation of my own. Since 9/11, though, I've learned to pay more attention to the questions being asked. I guess that's my legacy of BYU. At BYU, I would objectively consider the claims of the LDS Church and found that it failed to meet my test of logic (the Intro to Logic class I took at BYU was quite helpful for me to understand how to look at information logically. There's actual mathematical formulas for each logical premise). Likewise, the official government story about the 9/11 attacks do not meet my test of logic (namely, the mysterious collapse of WTC-7 like a controlled demolition despite not being hit by any plane; the Pentagon having the magical ability to make an entire Boeing 747 disappear without a wingspan or tail as evidence; or the lack of any major plane parts in the Shanksville PA crash).

I actually like to read what the doubters of any official story have to say. The questions could be outlandish, or they could be educational. I guess I'm just open minded like that. I hold nothing sacred. Hell, I am a person after all who rejected the claims of Christianity as a teenager because it failed to meet my test of logic. So, if I'm open to examining the official claims of Christianity, the JFK assassination, the LDS religion, my own religion, the Church of Scientology, the 2000 election, the 9/11 attacks, the death of Senator Paul Wellstone, and the Iraq War...why not look at the questions skeptics have about the moon landings?

Basically, from what I read the questions surround several items, but the ones that caught my interest is the way the American flag moves despite the moon not having any atmosphere in which to have a breeze to blow the flag. As seen above, the flag was somehow created to look like it is rippling in the breeze, but there are several moments in the footage where you can see a tiny corner of the flag moving as though it was being blown by something.

The other item of interest is the lack of stars in the sky above the moon. The speculation is that those who filmed the moon landing on some sound stage (in Area 51?) weren't sure how the constellations would line up and decided to have a pitch black sky rather than risk being exposed by astrologers and astronomers.

The final item of interest is the claim that no one could survive the exposure to radiation outside of the earth's protective belt. But, I'm not scientific enough to know all the details about astro-physics. I looked on YouTube for video footage of the moon landing and saw a couple of detractors who claim that you can see a wire above the astronauts, which was used to raise them up as though they were bouncing on the moon's weak gravitational pull.

I haven't delved too deeply in this, though, because I don't know enough about science to verify if these questions are legitimate. I just found the questions interesting and worth some consideration as I search for answers that refute the questions and skepticisms.

Why do these skeptics claim that the moon landing was a hoax? The reasoning goes that the U.S. wanted to win the space race against the Soviets by being the first to land a man on the moon. There's also the idea that the government wanted to fulfill the wishes of the slain president, who had given a goal date in his vision statement. This was also around the time of the growing unpopularity of the war in Vietnam with a distrust of government starting to form. Landing a man on the moon would not only distract Americans and the world from the war in Southeast Asia, it would inspire a new generation to believe in our government. The other rationale I read was that landing a man on the moon would be too risky and they wanted a successful televised event, so faking it in a film studio would've been much easier than a trip to the moon.

I admit, though, that a hoax this elaborate would have way too many conspirators who know the truth, thus would be hard to keep a secret. The Soviet Union would have loved to expose the decadent America in concocting the biggest fraud of all time. Amazing enough, no other nation has gone to the moon. I guess the countries with a space program think the moon is not worth another trip, even if to see if the flag is really where it was planted forty years ago.

For argument's sake, I will admit that I believe that man did land on the moon on 20 July 1969. Its one of those great historical events that I hope will not be revealed to be a lie someday when I check the library in the heavenly realm. I'd hate to think that the truth we learned about Santa Claus as children is merely a preparation for all kinds of accepted events we'll learn the truth about in heaven. Some events are just too great, too fantastic, too awesome that I don't want it to be fake. The moon landing is one of them. In honour of this anniversary of the greatest moment in Baby Boomer history, I will be watching a few dvds this month about space (Apollo 13, The Right Stuff, From the Earth to the Moon, and Capricorn 1--which is about a manned mission to Mars being filmed in a studio in the desert).

The Hangover: The Movie and The Experience

Tuesday night, I finally went to the theater to see the most recommended movie of this summer: The Hangover. It wasn't on my list of movies to see this summer, but when everyone says it is downright hilarious, I'm in the mood for a good gut busting comedy. Its been awhile since I've seen one.

This film is in the tradition of the "guy comedy" which we've seen plenty of in recent years (Wedding Crashers, The 40 Year Old Virgin, I Love You, Man, and Role Models). What is a "guy comedy"? Well...it is the kind of humour that guys find funny and most women don't. Especially women who are raving feminists (I had tried to convince a feminist once that The 40 Year Old Virgin was actually a sweet movie but she refused to see it because she thought the premise was vulgar). The disagreements I had with feminists boiled down to the concept that men and women are different (they insist that all gender differences are culturally indoctrinated and that if we teach boys to play with Barbies and girls to play with GI Joe, we will live in a world free of gender differences. B.S.!).

Its no use arguing with them because they are "right"...even when I witness obvious gender differences with my own eyes (for example: in 2001, I went to see Kate and Leopold and was surprised that I was the only guy in the theater; when I saw the Lord of the Rings trilogy in theaters, it skewed 80-90% male audience). How hard is it for feminists to understand that the things many guys find funny generally are considered crude by female sensibilities. There's nothing wrong with that...for if a person finds this humour offensive, then this is the kind of movie for them to avoid. But women who watch movies like these and laugh at the funny situations are way cool and worth dating, in my esteem.

The film already proved itself a hit at the box office (while romantic comedies tend to bomb). Since I've already seen the only two movies I cared to see this summer (Star Trek and Angels and Demons), I've been catching up on films I missed in theaters last year (I hate that Hollywood releases its best movies during the last four months of the year, which always means that I can't see every film I want to see in theaters while the rest of the year offers very little that I care to see).

In case you haven't seen the movie, I won't write any major spoilers. Basically, this is a guy's wedding picture. It focuses on the bachelor party. The groom (played by Justin Bartha, the sidekick from the National Treasure movies), his best friend (Bradley Cooper, whose stock is rising into the A-list), another friend (never seen that actor before), and his future brother-in-law go on a roadtrip to the perfect city for a bachelor party weekend: Las Vegas! Someday when I get married, I'd love to spend a weekend in Vegas with a few buddies. But it wouldn't be a wild and crazy weekend like these guys had.

The film shows the guys on the rooftop of Caesar's Palace, toasting the groom to be before they begin their wild night. The next scene is the morning after and the guys (as well as the audience) have to figure out what the hell happened the night before. Their $4,000 a night villa suite is completely trashed with a tiger in the bathroom and a rooster walking around. There's also a baby in the closet (throughout the film, I couldn't tell if the baby was real or fake because it sure looked fake and creepy anytime it cried).

As the movie rolls along and the men reconstruct what happened the night before, hilarity ensues with all the cliches you've come to expect about Las Vegas...mobsters, hookers, strippers, wedding chapels, gambling, drugs, alcohol, washed up celebrities (though I must admit that Mike Tyson about near stole the film. He was hi-LAR-i-ous!!! Especially when he does his Phil Collins bit, which I have to agree. I love that part of the song as well), wild animals, and even a reference to the movie Rain Man (complete with the familiar song Iko Iko). There were plenty of laugh out loud moments and things resolve itself quite nicely in the end. Everyone's heard of the famous ad campaign that branded Las Vegas in recent years: "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." After the weekend these guys had, I'm sure that they would definitely agree with that.

The character played by the actor above (who's missing a tooth) is a kind of pushover as he can't be honest with his girlfriend about going to Las Vegas with the guys. She thinks they're in the Santa Ynez wine country (hasn't she seen Sideways, though?). She's constantly bossing him around and he goes along to get along (I know a few guys like him). I couldn't be in a relationship like that. The idea that one must control the other is not a relationship, but a two person cult. I believe you should accept the person you're in a relationship with as they are without a desire to change them to fit your ideal. By the film's end, she does get her just desserts.

I enjoyed the film and would recommend it to those who aren't easily offended by raunchy guy humour. I certainly wouldn't suggest this film to feminists because I know how they'd react. They are like the controlling girlfriend in the film, castrating men to be more like them (I believe gender differences are natural and necessary for balance).

What truly hit home for me, though, is the idea that you could wake up one morning with a painful hangover and not remember a single thing you did the night before. In fact, this has happened to me once, when I was in the Navy. So, I had a personal connection in wanting to see this film, as I experienced that kind of thing myself (though not to that level of comedic outrageousness).

The year was 1992. January or February. One weekend, I had taken a special trip to Florence and tried Spumante for the first time. It is the Italian champagne, but I did not know that. I loved the taste of it. Also in Florence, I had bought a nice pair of Italian shoes that were green suede and totally not something you'd find in any American shoe store. I loved those shoes! I thought they made me look Medieval for some reason.

A week or two later, a group of guys from Squadron 22 went out to eat at a restaurant in Gaeta, where I had a few drinks. Then we went to a bar because I had been raving about Spumante as well as the Scottish girl I met at a bar. A few of the guys came along with me...including the Chief of Staff of Squadron 22 (a Navy Commander, which is O-5, and the second in command), the Chief Petty Officer who was my direct supervisor, my co-worker, and the newly arrived Command Master Chief (who was the top enlisted guy at Squadron 22). I remember having one glass of Spumante. The next thing I remember was being brought back to the ship in a car. Then waking up in my rack and running to the head before I threw up, but not making it and throwing up on the deck of the berthing area. That episode made me enemies...because I wasn't aware enough to clean it up.

The next morning at work, I had the worst headache of my life. The guys laughed and told me everything I did the night before and I kept saying, "that's not me! I would never do something like that." The horrible thing was, I could not remember a single thing that the guys told me that I did. Not a single thing! That scared me...to have no conscious awareness of my own actions. I immediately saw the danger of it, for I was lucky to be among shipmates who brought me back to the ship.

What happened that night? Well, according to what I was told, I had drunk three BOTTLES of Spumante myself. I wouldn't let anyone else have a glass. I found that hard to believe. I told them that I would most likely be dead if I drank that much (at the time, I could get a buzz going on one glass of wine). The other thing was, I wouldn't have bought all that myself. Nope, my Chief Petty Officer actually paid for it. What the hell? He should've known I had enough to drink and refuse me to drink anymore.

They also said that I had gone outside the bar and threw up right in front of people eating outside on a restaurant patio. Great...give Italians a bad impression of Americans being drunken idiots who can't hold their liquor! I can't remember what else they said that I did, but they said that I had gone into the bathroom and I was gone for a long time, so someone checked up on me and I was passed out on the floor. Not only that, I had projectile vomited all over the walls, sink, toilet. I left a huge mess. The person who cleaned it was the newly arrived Command Master Chief. Not even one month at our command and he cleaned up after me. He earned my loyalty forever after that. He's a great guy, as I learned, but I always felt guilty and bad about what I did.

Because I was so out of it, the Chief of Staff had to call the Commodore's (head guy of Squadron 22) official vehicle to pick me up and bring me back to the ship. A first class petty officer helped me walk across the brow of the ship and in cases like that, I would automatically be taken to Medical to sleep in the drunk tank and written up. Because I was assigned to Squadron, I got special privledges and was taken to my rack, which was a bottom one (they are stacked three high on ships). The Petty Officer knew to have me sleep on my stomach and checked up on me during the night. The next morning, I noticed that I had ruined my cool looking Italian shoes by throwing up on them the night before. Never found shoes like those ever again.

One of the officers in Squadron was so angry about my behaviour that he wanted me sent back to ship's company. I don't know why I wasn't. I really got lucky, but I think the reasoning was that I had not paid for the alcohol and the other guys had wanted to see me drunk, so they were complicit in buying me drinks.

I did get sent to NADSAP (Navy Alcohol and Drug Safety Awareness Program) for a week at the Palau Community Center (where I would end up working only two years later). I hated being there because the group of guys who were assigned that program were all alcoholics. We had to talk about our feelings with the Chaplain and Drug/Alcohol Advisor. I didn't say much, except when they defined an alcoholic as being someone who craved alcohol. Even if you only drank on a special night once a year (like an anniversary), you would be considered an alcoholic because you looked forward to drinking on that one night. I always believed that alcoholism was an inability to control one's drinking. If you only drank one night each year, how is that alcoholism? How was my over-indulgence alcoholism? Especially when I don't like the taste of most alcoholic drinks and I usually am too cheap to want to spend money buying drinks.

That week made me angry about the whole thing. The Navy was full of alcoholics. If you didn't drink, guys would think you were less than a man. In fact, when I participated in the La Madd Hash House Harriers, they called the group "a drinking club with a running problem." To be initiated required drinking beer, and when I protested despite other guys insistence, a Chief intervened and said that I could drink a soda instead. So, I don't feel that I am an alcoholic. I don't crave the taste of alcohol. As a young man in the Navy, I've only been drunk five times and that was it. The last time was at the USS Orion's final Christmas Party in December 1992.

Oh, I'll have an occasional drink now and again. I surprised a co-worker a couple years ago when I went out for happy hour with her. She said, "I thought you didn't drink because of your religion." I said, "whatever gave you that idea?" This was when the rumour at work was that I was a Mormon (not sure how that rumour got started but I nipped that in the bud with my heretical talk). I told this young lady that I don't mind an occasional drink and I usually stop once I feel a buzz, but mostly, the reason why I don't drink is because I don't like a lot of the way alcohol tastes nor do I like the expense. I'd rather buy a book these days than a bottle of alcohol. On top of that, since my spiritual experience in 2001, I learned that you can have the most intense experience that no drug or alcohol can deliver. I prefer to get my "buzz" or "high" by spiritual means (meditation, mostly).

So, that marks my experience with a hangover. It took awhile for me to know my limits, as I did get drunk again in Corfu, Greece and had a bad hangover (the only stupid thing I did was lay down in the middle of a parking lot). But I've never experienced a complete blackout like I did in early 1992. That one incident scared me for life. I truly do like remembering everything I've done. Its scary to have a moment missing in your life where you can't remember a single thing you did. That's why I can relate to The Hangover. It was nice to laugh at someone else's predicament for a change.

The Politics of a Supreme Court Nomination

I've been meaning to write on President Obama's first Supreme Court nomination back when it was announced in May. I saw the selection of an Hispanic woman to be smart politics. Not only does he score points with women voters, but his decision also makes history by having selected the first Hispanic member of the nation's highest court. Her selection also practically dares the Republican Party to trash her or vote against her, because by their doing so, they are only sealing the coffin on their future as a viable party that needs to at least split the all-important Hispanic vote to win in many areas (the Republican's xenophobic stance against immigration helped push Hispanic voters into the Democratic column in the past couple election cycles).

Immediately after the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor, the opposition focused on a comment she made in a lengthy speech. Not only was the quote taken out of context, but it was also a lot of hoopla over nothing. She had said that she hoped that a Latina woman would be able to make wiser decisions than a white man because of the life experiences she has had that a white man does not. Because of that quote, insecure conservative white men have accused Sotomayor of being a...racist! Their cries of racism! is downright hilarious, as it comes from a party in which a Republican hoping to win votes to be the next Chairman of the Republican National Committee gave a gift of a compact disc to party members which included a song entitled: "Barack the Magic Negro." This from a party in which race-baiting was common at Palin rallies last fall, where an elderly white man was seen holding on to a Curious George doll wearing an Obama shirt (even more amazing, when the man noticed a camera pointed at him, he quickly tried to put the doll in a young girl's hand!).

The crocodile tears of the Republican Party crying that Sotomayor is a racist is just unbelievably moronic. After all, President Bush was such the good ole frat boy that when his chances came to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor (the first female Supreme Court Justice) and Chief Justice William Renquist, he selected two white men to add to the "diversity" of an overwhelmingly white male Supreme Court (with Justices Clarence Thomas and Ruth Bader-Ginsberg as the token racial and gender minorities). Bush's first nominee was his personal lawyer Harriet Miers, who was a farce. Even more loony than that choice was his "guarantee" to Evangelical Christian supporters who opposed the selection (a surprising break from their previous standard of approving everything he did) that Harriet Miers would not change her views once she was on the Supreme Court. How can you guarantee that someone will not change her views? Was she one of them "fembots" who took orders from him? Well, based on what we know about Harriet Miers, she did seem to have a crush on Bush. She would often say things to him like, "you're the best president ever, sir!" I'm sure that he got an erection every time she said shit like that.

Evangelicals were concerned that a Justice Miers might end up like Justice David Souter, who was appointed by President George Herbert Walker Bush but has voted with the liberal half of the Supreme Court. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was known as the swing vote, even though she was appointed by the darling of the right, President Ronald Reagan. They wanted someone more aligned with the right, thus we ended up with new Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito.

My question as these Republicans grill Judge Sotomayor is why is it okay for their nominees to have a conservative bias but not okay for a Democratic president to pick a nominee with a liberal bias? The dictionary definition of liberal is one who is open-minded. Isn't that the biggest qualifier we should want in a judge? One who will look at both arguments in a case with an open mind, without a pre-ordained viewpoint?

The reason why Evangelicals want more conservatives on the bench is because they hope to overturn Roe v. Wade someday, thus returning our country to the days when back alley butchers and coat hangers were the primary means of getting an abortion (see the movies Dirty Dancing or The Cider House Rules for an idea about what life was like in the days before Roe v. Wade made abortion a legal medical procedure). Republicans play to their base this way, but those who are politically aware know that the Republican Party will never overturn that 1973 Supreme Court decision for a couple reasons: (1) the party is run by the wealthy elite who have no moral qualms about abortion (in fact, many of them probably have paid for their own pregnant teenage daughters or mistresses to quietly get one so as to not jeopardize their social standing); and (2) overturning Roe v. Wade would take the steam out of the issue and they could possibly lose the loyalty of their rabid base who tend to obsess over this one issue year after year, election after election. Once you hand them such a victory, these one-issue voters will probably move on to other things, and possibly lose interest in politics and voting altogether.

But, getting back to the issue of racism, I just find it absurd that the Republican Party (made up of mostly crusty old white men) could accuse a woman of a minority race or ethnic group of being a racist. The thing that's important to understand about racism, or at least the institutionalized form of it is the underlying issue of power. Since our country's founding, power was held by a small minority of white male property owners. Over the decades, groups of people have sought to expand that power to a wider range of citizens...first to white male who did not own property, then to immigrants, then to former slaves, then to women, then to African Americans (again). We are always progressing towards greater inclusion. However, the Republican Party remains as the bastion of the racist and sexist ideal of the Country Club. They want a government that has the exclusive rules of a privately owned Country Club: only wealthy white people need apply.

Its not surprising that the only Hispanic members of Congress who are Republican happen to be Cuban-Americans in Florida. The rest of the Hispanic caucus is made up of Democrats from across the country. Former Grand Duke of the Ku Klux Klan David Duke was a Republican candidate for Louisiana Governor in 1991. The party has changed little in almost two decades. Their token selections (Justice Clarence Thomas, RNC Chair Michael Steele, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice) are simply cosmetic. Minorities are accepted into the Republican Party as long as they tow the line of the supremacy of the white man. This is a party that has not come to grips with the changing demographics of America or the ideal that diversity is a good thing.

Judge Sotomayor will be a welcome addition to the United States Supreme Court. If it comes down to a straight partyline vote (60-40 in favour), I have a feeling that even more Democrats will be elected to Congress in 2010. The Republican Party can pretty much kiss Hispanic voters goodbye. I'm all in favour of the Republican Party's march towards irrelevance. There are simply not enough wealthy or redneck voters to win a majority in this country. Good riddance! And Buenos Dias Sotomayor! The people welcome your voice and decisions on the Court. However, I should warn you...beware of that Clarence Thomas fella. Guard your cans of Coca-Cola!

Floating on a Cloud of Dreams

Photo above and below are of Rachel and Jarom, at their wedding last Saturday at Silver Falls State Park, just east of Salem, Oregon. The photos were taken by Michelle Versdahl, a guest and member of YAPS.

On Saturday afternoon, a lady named Chris from Vancouver, Washington area drove Christine and I down to the wedding site in Sublimity, Oregon. It was an hour and 45 minute drive. I got to see a new part of Oregon, including the Bavarian-style town of Mount Angel which is best known for holding an Octoberfest every September-October. This town and surrounding area did, in fact, remind me of Germany. The buildings not only look German (half-timbered or with painted murals on the sides) but the surrounding countryside and a hill in the distance with a monastery on top reminded me of a town I had seen in Germany as a teenager. How cool is that? I definitely want to return for Octoberfest this year.

In the drive to the wedding, we talked about travel. Chris has worked as a travel agent, selling vacation packages to Turtle Island resort in Fiji. She's been to Fiji 13 times. Ever since I first heard about Fiji (and Tahiti) in the 4th grade, I have dreamed of seeing these South Pacific islands. The travel agency is owned by an eccentric millionnaire who bought Turtle Island on a whim and created a resort. Senator John McCain supposedly vacationed there last year after losing the presidential election.

I have known Chris from church, but we haven't really had the opportunity to talk in depth until this drive. I met her two years ago when she brought her houseguest Erik from the Netherlands to attend Harvey's Comedy Club in downtown Portland. Erik set the ground rules of no talking about politics, which killed the conversation. I was additionally uneasy because Chris reminded me a little bit of the fundamentalist woman I had shared a cubicle with at the Georgia Bureau of Investigations in 2000-2001. Sometime earlier this year, Chris became Facebook friends with me and I learned more about her through her page, particularly that she had traveled to Panama and Costa Rica last December with her husband. That intrigued me, because on my travel dream list is: riding a ship through the Panama Canal and watching the sunrise in the Pacific and the sunset in the Atlantic (the only place in the world this is possible). Chris has done this!

She's also been to New Zealand twice, Berlin, and Amsterdam. Paris is next on her list. Had I known about her travel interests when we met at Harvey's Comedy Club two years ago, there would not have been the awkward silences as we waited for the show to start. The raunchy humour of the comedians, though, did help break the ice for us. But anyone who travels the world has an immediate bond with me. Its not surprising to me that the people I get along with the most at work are those who have traveled (such as the lady who traveled with a tourgroup in Northern Italy this past May) and the ones I dislike the most, don't. When I told a former co-worker about this strange "phenomenon", he wasn't surprised. He and his group of friends are the same way. In fact, he had left our workplace in May to hike the Continental Divide Trail (he's currently resting in Butte, Montana).

I was intrigued to hear about Chris' impressions of working in travel agencies (they don't pay well, but the discounts on travel are pretty good) and recommended a few places, as they tend to have high turnover rates. There's one downtown, named Avanti (Italian for "Go") that I may have to check out. They specialize in European travel and with my six years of living in Europe and travel experiences, I'd be great working at a place like that. Swapping travel stories with people is always a joy for me. I feel most alive when I'm traveling (as well as writing or reading). Maybe this is where I should be looking for a career?

Additionally to Chris' travel stories, she told me about recent travel experiences by two young ladies in her church congregation (she also belongs to the Community of Christ). Our church recently had an International Youth Forum in several locations around the world (the main one at church headquarters in Independence, Missouri; the others in Thailand, Malawi, and I think the last one was somewhere in Central America). I would have liked to have gone to the one in Thailand, just for the opportunity to see my mother's home country as an adult...but I couldn't afford it. The group that went to Malawi was small (just 8 participants) but they got to see about 11 villages / church congregations as well as go on safari and visit a Masai village in Kenya. The group in Thailand included members from five countries (India, Australia, the United States among them) and they saw the beach in southern Thailand with a shopping trip / tour day in Bangkok.

Back at work on Monday, I did a Google image search on Turtle Island and Fiji and saw so many beautiful pictures. The one above is a scene of a hotel suite at the resort. I'd love to have that kind of bed and layout in a home someday.

Even more fantastic is this underwater hotel room! Now there's an awesome honeymoon suite if I ever saw one! That would be cool to do what couples do on honeymoons while sharks and fishes swim above the window. There would be little need to leave the room...just order room service and eat while staring out of the window at the undersea world beyond.

Another picture of the resort, with its beautiful blue waters and white sandy beaches.

Or this swimming cove, with what I assume to be an outdoor bar that you have to swim up to. I thought alcohol and water don't mix!

The wedding of Rachel and Jarom (both members of MAYAs) was really nice. They had an outdoor picnic pavilion and field area that afforded some privacy for the ceremony and reception. Other people used the park for their own group gatherings, but despite the public nature of the park, there were no wedding party crashers.

The ceremony was simple and short. No souvenir programs, unfortunately. The food was a make your own cold cuts sandwich with pasta salad and a huge bowl of blueberries (I only tried blueberries for the first time last year and I LOVE them!). I was pleased to see Erik (the leader of YAPS) with his wife and 3 year old daughter, who loved to tell everyone about a huge anthill next to a tree (I checked it out and it was enormous! We're talking the New York City of anthills here! Gave me the creeps as I thought about the scene in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull). It was good to catch up with Erik and get the latest "YAPS haps."

I enjoyed visiting with folks from church and see other MAYAs and YAPS members attending. As we waited for the couple to cut the cake and feed each other a piece, one elderly lady I know from Portland congregation turned to me and asked, "when's your wedding?" I was taken aback, so I said, "But I'm not even dating anyone!" She then asked, "when are you going to start?" I responded, "I can't even find a career first!" She must have sensed my annoyance and gave up at that point. Naomi (a MAYAs member) was behind me and heard the whole thing. She said, "you're very honest!" I whispered in her ear, "I invested in the wrong person for two years, hoping it would lead somewhere." Yes, I am heartbroken about that person's engagement to someone else, but also, I want her to be happy and I know that I am simply not in the financial shape or mood to have a relationship with anyone at the moment. I want a well-paying and satisfying career before I resume dating again.

I pondered later about my response to that lady. She meant well and I probably came across rudely. If I ever wake up early enough to attend church, I will have to apologize to her about my comments. I'm touched, really, that she was asking about my marriage plans. She probably does not know that I had fallen for the only single female my age at that congregation. Everyone is simply happy for that young lady's engagement to someone else. At any rate, I would love to get married in October 2012. I just don't see marriage happening before that date. After December 21, 2012, it might be a moot point anyway. I figure I have a good three years to find a career, get out of debt, and publish my novel(s).

The wedding wound down after the cake, bouquet toss (no one caught it), and garter toss (a boy about 6 years old caught it). The guests had to line the sidewalk to wait for the couple to change into their travel gear and walk the gauntlet as we threw jasmine at them (there's an idea!). There were off on their honeymoon (to the Oregon coast). The father of the bride told everyone to help themselves to the ferns and candles (in a glass container with rocks) at each table. I took one of each and the three of us (Chris, Christine and I) walked down to see one of the thirteen waterfalls at this park. It was beautiful. I'm definitely going to have to come back and hike the trails to see more waterfalls. I had never heard about this place until Saturday. Oregon is such a cool state. My dad calls it the most diverse state in America (though I think California is) because of the different types of landscapes (coast, river valley, wine country, mountains, lakes, forests, waterfalls, canyons, desert).

On the drive back, Chris' car died just south of Wilsonville. We could see the bustling I-5, which we were heading towards to get back to Portland. All three of us called people we knew to possibly come pick us up. Christine's cellphone battery died after her phonecall. Mine threatened to die. Chris didn't know her own cellphone number for someone to call her back. In the end, she was able to get a lady from church to pick us up. This lady, Susan, is a favourite of mine since I met her at the MAYAs sponsored Young Adult Retreat at Lewis River Campgrounds in March 2008. She worked in the Portland City government until she retired (and she informed me about various personalities she worked with, particularly the person who became Mayor, which she told me last year that he was not a nice guy). I love her personality and spiritual beliefs. She attends the Garden Grove congregation in Vancouver, unfortunately (it would be great to see her at the Portland congregation).

Anyhow, she was working on her sermon for Sunday and drove down to find us. When she called, she was afraid of missing us because she had taken the wrong exit. I directed her to where we were before my cellphone battery finally shut down the phone. It was dark out and the blinkers were on and boy were we glad to see her! She's a true angel and Good Samaritan!

From the moment the car died until the moment Susan picked us up, I think we were in the car for two hours. So many cars passed us by and not a single one stopped. Chris kept apologizing and thought we might never ride in the car with her again. However, none of us panicked or got upset. We just laughed about the whole thing and shared personal stories (including a funny one Chris told us about a man who had gone to a drive-thru safari park in eastern Oregon and honked his car horn at an elephant blocking the road, which caused the elephant to come over and sit on the hood of his car. The story went on from there in a comedy of errors that had us laughing like hyenas).

I actually didn't mind the breakdown because it answered a prayer for me. I'm continually frustrated with my church for its lack of young adult participants and the seeming indifference the older generation has towards young adults. Part of this frustration is probably contains as well the residue of disappointment in not being selected for the church jobs I had applied to recently (the one in Portland as well as the one in Santa Cruz). Recently, I thought of attending a Quaker church, the Unitarian Church downtown, a Buddhist temple or even a spiritualist church in eastern Portland...just to meet people my age with a similar spiritual view. This doesn't mean I'm giving up membership in the church I love, because that won't ever happen as I can see it. I'm definitely a heritage baby all the way 'til my dying day.

However, last week, I had a strange dream where I was in a museum in Astoria, Oregon. The museum was in an old warehouse, made in a loft style. I was on the second floor and stopped at the small gift shop where I saw the name of the church imprinted on the front of baseball caps. I was surprised to see that this was being sold in the gift shop. For some reason, Pastor Brad was in the dream (I'm not fond of him because he has never been friendly towards me and seems actually uncomfortable around me, which makes me uncomfortable).

In the dream, he seemed upset to see this baseball cap with our church name on it and he wanted them removed from the racks and to find out who made them so he could tell them that it was a copyright infringement and to cease doing it. I disagreed with him and wanted to find out who made them so I could thank that person and have them be more involved in church. I have no idea what this dream means. But with the car breakdown and how a fellow churchmember stopped working on her sermon to make the inconvenient drive out from Gresham to pick us up, the incident showed me that this is exactly what I love about our church. It was not an imposition at all, as she was concerned about our safety. This, to me, is the essence of being Christian.

I arrived home at 10:22 p.m. on the dot. What do I do for the rest of the evening after a day like that?

I decided to watch a DVD I had borrowed from my brother since April but could never get in the mood of watching: Stranger Than Fiction. I am NOT a Will Farrell fan at all. Though I like his Bush impersonation on Saturday Night Live (better than Will Forte's impersonation, though I like Forte much better than Farrell overall), I do not like his movies. If he is in a movie, I generally will not see it (Jack Black is the other actor I refuse to watch because I find him crudely unfunny). However, I had a reason to see this one. According to my sister, it was the movie that she saw on her first date with David, the man she married.

Two summers ago, she had responded to his ad on Craigslist about meeting to watch this film on an outdoor screen in the park. Their wedding included elements from the movie (such as their colour scheme of light green and lavender). The wedding cake featured fake green apples (a memorable prop from the film) and their party favours included green and purple candy (gummi apple rings, green taffy, chocolate balls wrapped in purple foil, purple rock candy) and a heart-shaped cookie cutter. I had planned to watch the film before going off to the wedding this past May but didn't get around to it.

Finally, I decided to force myself to watch it...and WOW! What a movie! I LOVED IT!!! I was shocked. Will Farrell actually did a great job (he wasn't his normal obnoxious manchild self). There were a few "Farrell moments" but it was minimal, as the story itself was a fascinating draw and definitely up my alley. I wish I had seen this one in theaters (it came out in November 2006). Emma Thompson plays a writer who is ten years overdue on her novel. Queen Latifah is the "closer" sent by her publishing company to help her finish her book. Will Farrell stars as a lonely IRS agent with the obsessive-compulsive personality of counting tiles, brush strokes, and other quirks (he lives precisely by the clock and established routines). Maggie Gyllenhaal is the bakery owner who is audited for failing to pay all of her taxes. Dustin Hoffman's turn as the literary professor helps Will find his way through a crisis.

What is his crisis?

He discovers that he's a character in novelist Karen Eiffel's latest, Death and Taxes, and learns that she plans to kill him off. Yeah, its quirky like that and they don't really explain how its possible, but you really don't need the explanations. The film simply works on many levels. I generally see movies about writers and had they cast another actor (Greg Kinnear? Tom Hanks?), I definitely would have seen this one in theaters. My aversion to Farrell, however, kept me from wanting to see it but I'm pleasantly surprised. This film is flawless to me. I love everything about it. The cast is simply fantastic (I've always been a fan of Queen Latifah, Emma Thompson, and especially Maggie Gyllenhaal).

In fact, let me expound on Maggie Gyllenhaal. In a couple films I've seen her in (Donnie Darko, 40 Days and 40 Nights), I love her sense of humour. Her humour type is the most appealing to me (she has a serious demeanor matched with witty sarcasm), which makes her really attractive in my eyes. Anyone who can get me to laugh that easily wins my heart and loyalty. In Stranger Than Fiction, I loved it when she told Farrell's IRS Agent that she paid the portion of taxes that funded the part of government that she agrees with, but refused to pay the part that supported the bloated military budget and wars. My kind of girl! And I also loved when she forced Farrell to eat one of her cookies. I especially liked the story she tells Farrell (whose character name is Harold Crick) about how she was in Harvard Law School and fell into baking as a hobby that she would bring to study sessions. Its the whole "do what you love and your career finds you" sort of thing.

This film has spiritual depth, careers not normally seen in films, humour, romance, and known literary devices of irony (my favourite). I don't recall ever seeing a film about writing that is as entertaining as this one. For me, I loved the writing process of the novel I wrote from 2000-2004, as well as the editing process. I really long to get started on my next writing project, but until I find a new job, that goal is on the backburner. Had I found a better paying job when I first moved to Portland in 2006, I probably would have had novel number two under my belt by now and working on my third one.

So, if God is reading my blog...how about it God? Can I find a job that involves traveling, where I can work on writing in my free time, and to meet a woman with the kind of humour that Maggie Gyllenhaal possesses? Those are the three things I would love to have in my life most right now.

After the film, I went to bed feeling strangely, blissfully happy. It was great to see the images in the film that was incorporated into my sister's wedding and to be pleasantly surprised by a film I had avoided seeing all because I didn't like one actor's general typecast roles that he usually plays. Saturday was truly a day for my soul and I felt extremely grateful for all of it. Simply a great day. May it lead to more.

Music Video Monday: Antonello Venditti

With the recent G-8 Conference in Italy last week, I decided to showcase an Italian song that was a huge hit in Italy in 1992. The song is called "Benvenuti in Paradiso" (which translates as "Welcome to Paradise") by Antonello Venditti, who I would call "the Italian Phil Collins." I only know bits and pieces of the lyrics, but the one word everyone should know well is "amore", which is Italian for love. When I first arrived in Italy, a sailor asked me why Roma was "the romance capital of the world." I thought it was Paris, but he replied, "because Roma is amor spelled backwards."

This song has special relevance to me because the barracks I lived in during my three years in La Maddalena was called Paradiso. Actually...the barracks portion was called "Calabro Hall" and the entire complex (which included a restaurant / bar that had country music night once a week; a swimming pool, library, chapel, gym, and some residential housing) was called Paradiso. It was a great place to live. We had central air conditioning in the summer (which Italians considered an expensive luxury, as most residents left their windows open in the summer) and central heating in the winter (most Italians considered that a luxury as well, since bombola heaters were the primary means of heating homes, which required a window to be open lest you die of carbon monoxide). The American military does spoil its servicemembers, but I have no complaints about that!

Anyhow, when I first heard this song, I loved it but I didn't know the name or the singer. All I knew was the word I kept hearing over and over: "amore." This is where the intelligent and beautiful Italian ladies who worked the front desk of the barracks came in handy. They loved to answer any question we may have had about their country and its customs. Based on that one word, one of the ladies knew the song after saying the word over and over. So, I went out and bought the cassette tape (which was expensive in Italy. A 20,000 Lire cassette could be anywhere from $15 to $20 based on the exchange rate). Not only did I get the right one, but I liked most of the songs on there (very reminiscent of a mid-80s Phil Collins album). Antonello Venditti even used a new American-style for a song called "sampling" (which is taking a familiar tune from an old song and creating a new song). His "Alta Marea" (meaning "High Tide") used the melody of Crowded House's "Don't Dream Its Over."

As it turned out, "Benvenuti in Paradiso" became my favourite song of 1992 as well as what I would call my "theme song" for the three years I lived in La Maddalena. To this day, I can't listen to the song without being magically transported back to those carefree days of my young adulthood, living the dream in Italy. At least, magically transported in my mind's eye. Each time I went out with my ship to a different port (Naples, Gaeta, Nice, Toulon, Ibiza, Gibraltar, Cartagena, Corfu, Alexandria, Augusta Bay) and returned, I always felt welcomed back to my little piece of Paradiso (I was fortunate enough to have my own room for most of my three years, due to my well-behaved and quiet personality in comparison to the mostly alcoholic party animals who lived there). As I said in yesterday's post, the Italian ladies at the front desk seemed to love having conversations with me because I think I knew enough about the world and was different from the other sailors that I was more like a college student than a sailor.

I couldn't find a music video of the song, but what I found on YouTube will have to do (a fan based creation). Just listen to the music and enjoy.

La Maddalena Almost Hosted a President

On Friday, I checked my statistical counter and noticed that someone had come across a blogpost I wrote about La Maddalena, Sardinia last year. The person had Google-searched "Obama in La Maddalena." I was shocked but deliriously happy to hear that. I had no idea. It made my afternoon. The president was walking my old stomping grounds, where I lived from 1991-1994 as a young sailor in the U.S. Navy. And I thought, man...he should've hired me as a personal aide so I could tell him some of the best places to get a pizza or calzone, and to pay a visit to the old barracks I used to live in (my bet is that it is now a four-star hotel).

But, I did a Google search of my own to find articles or photos of President Obama in La Maddalena. To my sad disappointment, I learned that the G-8 Conference was moved to L'Aquila, the town that was hit by an earthquake in April this year. I also read that the Italian government had earmarked 300 million Euros to build an architecturally distinct conference center in La Maddalena, as well as other projects on the island for the conference.

While I understand the need the Italian government might have to showcase L'Aquila and to help boost its economy with the conference, I'm naturally disappointed for the people of La Maddalena. Out of all the places I've lived, La Maddalena ranks second (only to Fulda, Germany, where I lived as a teenager). Its a town that deserves the international spotlight, though those happen to be rare occasions (let's face it...its not big enough to host the Summer Olympics). After spending that many Euros to build a nice conference center (what the heck does La Maddalena need a conference center for, anyway?), Italy should have still held the G-8 Conference there. The leaders of the eight largest economies in the world (the U.S., Canada, the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Russia) would have enjoyed the emerald-coloured waters of the Mediterranean, the breezy Italian villas, and the beautiful views (on a clear day, you can see Corsica...just 12 miles away, if I'm not mistaken).

But, it's just not to be. President Obama has no idea what he missed out on. Italy won't host another G-8 Conference during his administration (it rotates each year to one of the eight member countries). Perhaps the United Nations could hold a conference there on something. Spending 300 million Euros on a Conference Center the town doesn't really need is the ultimate boondoggle. I've often wondered how that town's economy is doing after the Americans moved out in January 2008. The U.S. had a population of about 2,000 American Naval personnel. This presence included a Submarine Tender and military facility on the island of Santo Stefano; a Navy Exchange, Naval Support Office, Naval Clinic, enlisted barracks / chapel / gym / swimming pool / library at the Paradiso complex (where I lived), and Trinita housing for officers and chief petty officers and their families as well as a K-8 grade school at various locations on the island of La Maddalena; and the notorious Palau Community Center (where I worked my last 10 months in Italy and was the job I hated the most until my current job surpassed it), which was located on the mainland of Sardinia.

Remove 2,000 Americans from a small community of 13,000 Italian residents and you bet that there's an impact on the local economy. La Maddalena is known in Italy as a resort town that swells to over 70,000 people in the summer months. From October to April, though, the town depended on the income Americans had (those who rented apartments or houses on the economy, people eating at restaurants, shopping in the stores, hanging out at the bars, staying in the hotels).

I definitely want to return there in the next few years to see how much of the town has changed, what has remained the same, and most of all...to see what became of the Palau Community Center, Paradiso complex, and Naval Support Office (where the movie theater and administrative offices were). And yes, even after all these years, I still crave the calzone I used to eat from a particular restaurant in Cala Cavetta (in the top photo, it is the part of La Maddalena that has the upside down V shaped bay), or the Mozzarella alla Caprese from my favourite restaurant L'Aragosta (translates as "The Lobster"). Ah...I miss that town!

The photo of President Obama and French President Sarkozy is an exercise in not passing judgment without knowing the full facts. Conservatives see it as proof of Obama's wandering eye (hoping, probably, that he turns out to be another Clinton so that they can impeach him too, I'll bet). I admit, that was my first impression upon seeing the photo. Hey, why not? Italian women are some of the sexiest women in the world (I regret not making a point to find one to marry, though my life would have been much different today, as I wouldn't have had the freedom to make some of the choices I have made). Turns out, according to video footage, Obama was looking at the ground to help a lady step down without falling. Hilariously, though, Sarkozy was seen definitely checking that Italian lady out as Obama played the gentleman in holding a young lady's hand as she steps down. I would love to see what might happen if Sarkozy met Sarah Palin. But, she'd probably think she was being pranked and insult him as an imposter.

The photo above is one that I took when I lived in La Maddalena. It is the view from my barracks window. In the foreground is the chapel/gym. The building in the middle of the picture that is being constructed was a project that lasted my entire three years. The groundbreaking had begun before I arrived, but not much was done on it until 1994 when they finally rushed to complete it. I can't remember if it was a hotel or an apartment complex. The water you see is the Mediterranean, with the island of Santo Stefano. The land you see farther out is the mainland of Sardinia. Because the richest resident of La Maddalena happened to own the Saremar Ferry System, its probably the reason why no bridge was ever built to connect the island of La Maddalena with Sardinia (could easily be done).

When I worked at the Palau Community Center, I had to use the ferry everyday. It was a 30 minute trip. I actually enjoyed it. I'd drink a cappucino sometimes and read a book, or sometimes bump into shipmates and had interesting conversations. I remember on one ferry ride, a female sailor asked me what religion I was. When I told her, she said, "I thought so!" (she obviously didn't hear the "Reorganized" part of my church's name and assumed I was Mormon). When I asked her why she thought so, she said one of the best compliments I've ever gotten. "It's how you carry yourself. You're not like most other sailors. You're very well behaved and live your values."

Another time on the ferry, a Boatswain's Mate chief I happened to know my first two years in La Madd was back for a visit with his Italian wife. He was drunk and kept telling me that I needed to become an officer and if I wasn't going to do that for myself, then he was going to make me become one, damnit! I was actually amused, flattered and disturbed all at the same time (imagine feeling that mix of emotions!). His wife was sweet. She kept telling him to leave me alone because I already knew what I wanted to do with my life (I believe it was near the time I was set to transfer back to the U.S. and knew that I would be getting out of the Navy when my enlistment was up).

The above photo I found online, but I don't recognize any of it. It's supposed to be downtown La Maddalena, but to me, it doesn't look like it at all. The waterfront area just doesn't match the town I used to live in, but perhaps a lot of changes were made. More reason for me to go back, I suppose.

I used to think that I wanted to Honeymoon in Tahiti someday, but a part of me would like to go back to La Maddalena and the Costa Smeralda with a lady and experience the town anew with someone else. But, that's a long way off. One of my best friends, Nathan, is living in Sicily for the next three years and he wants me to visit. I'd love to do that in the next few years, but I won't visit Sicily without visiting Sardinia. In terms of island preferences, Corsica is my favourite of the three, followed by Sardinia, with Sicily last (it is still dominated by the mafia, unfortunately). The reason why I love Corsica more than Sardinia is because it has more trees, is greener, it belongs to France, its the birthplace of Napoleon, and the air has the sweetest fragrance of all the places I've ever been. I love Sardinia, as well, and I'm glad that it remained mostly rural and thus not big on mafia activity. Their prime industries are agriculture and tourism (they even combined the two in what is called "agriturismo") and it is perhaps the best kept vacation secret ever. Those who've been there understand...but we don't want the whole world to find out.

Too bad President Obama and the traveling American delegation couldn't have seen the island. I'm sure everyone would wonder how some Americans got so lucky in having been stationed there during the years the military operated a Naval base. I am one of the lucky ones, and for that, I'm grateful. As I told Nathan..."Sicily's better than Naples, but too bad you missed out on La Maddalena!"

When I was in YN "A" School, we got our first duty station by selection process that was determined by our test averages on the first two exams. Since I had the second highest average, I had second choice. There were three billets for Italy: the NATO base in Naples; the USS Orion in La Maddalena, Sardinia; and a Flight Squadron in Signonella, Sicily. I was leaning heavily for Naples, but another guy in class really wanted it and my parents urged me to take Sardinia. I also figured that being on a ship meant that I would get to travel the Mediterranean more than the other two assignments, so I picked Sardinia. It turned out to be the wisest decision of my life. I was even lucky enough to visit the guys who picked the other two Italy duty stations and both were disappointed in theirs and seemed to envy my assignment. Neither of them made it to my duty station for a visit. I think that's significant...I picked Sardinia, but was able to get a glimpse of the two others I could have chosen and learn that I definitely made the best choice. Wish that I still had that ability when I stupidly accepted the job offer at the place I've worked for almost three years now. Maybe I'm not getting wiser with age.

I love it, though, when I hear places I've lived before make the news in a good way. Probably my favourite moment of life in La Maddalena was when I became "the talk of the town." A woman who worked in my barracks at the front desk (they always had beautiful and intelligent Italian ladies) asked if it was me who had bought a trip to South Africa from an Italian travel agency. I was shocked when she asked me. She said that she had overheard some ladies downtown talking about a young American who walked into a travel agency and plucked down nearly 2 million Italian lire for a one week vacation in South Africa. When she heard that, she said that she knew it was me. I was stunned that she could deduce that, but she was pretty smart and most people who knew me in La Madd knew that I wasn't what you would call a "typical sailor."

Ah...I need to stop this reminiscing about life in La Madd. Those might have been the best days of my life. I'm glad I enjoyed my life to the fullest while I lived there. Its funny to hear from former shipmates who tell me that they wished that they traveled more while they lived there. Duh! I told many shipmates during my three years there not to waste their 30 days vacation each year going back to the States for vacation. They made fun of me for spending my leave days traveling Europe and South Africa. What, you don't love your family? Well...my family understood. My dad would've loved another three years in Europe if he could've had that chance. I guess that's what La Maddalena taught me the most...living life to the fullest and to enjoy the present moment, always. Per sempre.

Brilliant, Without a Doubt

On Tuesday, I went to McDonalds to rent a Redbox DVD because I was in the mood to watch Frost/Nixon and didn't want to wait several days for Netflix, especially when I don't have a single DVD ready to be mailed back yet. Redbox didn't have any copies available, so I looked through the selections and wasn't in the mood for anything else, until I saw Doubt and remembered that I had wanted to see that since it was released late last year. With Anderson Cooper on CNN recapping the Michael Jackson Memorial service, I decided to stay and watch the service highlights and returned home when Larry King came on. He was devoting his show to Michael Jackson, but I wanted to see the film I had selected.

I didn't realize until later how uncanny it was that I had decided to watch a film like Doubt on the day of Michael Jackson's Memorial service. The film is about an overzealous nun who suspects the priest might have acted inappropriately with one of the students. The film is based on a stage play that was performed on Broadway in 2004, if I'm not mistaken. The title of the play is Doubt: A Parable. The movie version drops the "Parable" part. The play had a cast of four, but the movie shows actual students and other teachers at St. Nicholas' school.

The film is set in 1964. Philip Seymour Hoffman is outstanding as the priest. He gives two really awesome sermons, which are definitely unforgettable with a take home lesson worth taking to heart. He sees promise in the kind of changes Vatican II proposed...a kind of loosening up of church to appeal to more people. He criticizes the principal of the school, played wonderfully by the always great Meryl Streep (I'm now convinced that she's the best actress of her generation). He believes the nuns are far too strict and punitive, scaring the students into a kind of authoritarian fear of behaving normally. Streep plays her role like a true school marm, always quick to pass judgment and hand out punishments. In a lot of ways, her character reminds me of my school marmish co-worker. I've been wondering when I would find a right character comparison to make with this difficult co-worker, and now I've found it. Though its not a 100% fit between the two, the excessive judgments and know-it-all attitudes are there.

The two other main characters include Amy Adams playing a young nun who has her suspicions about the priest and reports her impressions to the principal. Viola Davis plays the mother of the boy in question, the minority student in an Irish and Italian Catholic school. Those two ethnic groups tend to be the most hardcore Catholics you can think of. The priest takes a special interest in the boy, for sure, as a means to protect him from the possible hazing of others.

What I love about this film is how ambiguous it is. Did he or didn't he? Its the question you keep asking yourself as you watch the drama unfold. I could see both his points and the accusations by the principal. Its truly a tough bind to be in, especially for a school administrator. She wants to protect her student from a possible pedophile priest, but at the same time, are the snap judgments about him a reflection of a personal (non-related) dislike? Making a false accusation against someone is one of the worst things you can do to a person. Once you destroy another's reputation, it truly is hard to restore innocence. People will always have the question in their mind. This is so true, especially regarding Michael Jackson. We will never know for sure if he was a victim of an extortion through false allegations, or did he truly prey on children because of his own sexual dysfunctions?

As I watched Doubt, I was impressed by the back and forth drama as you learn more and more about the situation that is central to the film's plot. The acting is top-notch and now I understand why Viola Davis' small part was nominated for Best Supporting Actress. She really packed a big punch in her short performance. The piece of information her character gives truly throws you for a loop as you have to rethink the situation in a new light. By the time the film resolves itself, the ending was amazing and perfect. Simply put, this film is without a doubt brilliant and thought provoking.

The playwright who also wrote the screenplay and directed the film said in an interview that he wanted to write a play about doubt. The idea came after his initially vague idea of writing about that topic. Because he called his play "a parable", I wonder if this was somehow inspired by President Bush. The point of the play and movie is that sometimes certainty is not a good thing. Doubts are okay, too. Certainty can led us into making decisions that harm other people's lives. The more I think about it, the more it does seem to be a subtle dig at Bush's well-known "certainty" (Bush thought he made decisions based on his gut instinct and seems to be very uncomfortable with doubt, nuance, or complexity).

This is film is definitely worth seeing as well as discussing afterwards. To reveal anymore of the film is to give away its power to make an impression on you. Religious people, especially, need to see this film. There is way too much "certainty" in religion, especially in regards to unproven myths and claims. People who want a cut-and-dried movie will probably not like this one because of the inconclusive conclusion. But that's what gives this film its power.

Flashback Friday: Evita

I admit that I was inspired to feature the 1996 motion picture musical Evita for this week's Flashback Friday due to three recent events: Governor Mark Sanford's confession that he had spent five days crying in the arms of his Argentine lover in Buenos Aires, Governor Sarah Palin's resignation speech, and the death of Michael Jackson.

Okay, you're probably wondering...you can see the first connection, but not the last two. Well, of course, the first one is quite obvious. Who would've thought Governor Sanford would sing "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina"? Not that he did, but its funny to imagine it.

The second one (Palin) is more a comparison between Sarah and Eva, the First Lady of Argentina. When Palin first appeared on the national scene last August, the more we learned about her, the more she made me think of Eva Peron. I know that Madonna wants everyone to associate Eva Peron with her (a possible past life thing?), but the similarities between Palin and Peron are striking. Both used their looks to climb the social ladder into positions of power. Both had long-standing grievances against slights experienced at a developmental stage. With Eva, it was being born an illegitimate daughter to a man who had a wife (Eva's mother was his mistress). She was looked down upon, not only for her illegitimacy but also her poverty. She carried this grudge all the way to the balcony of the Casa Rosada. In fact, she practically looted the Argentine treasury to live a lavish lifestyle as well as bribe her "descamisados" (shirtless workers) with tokens (food, wine, soccer balls, bicycles, whatever works) for their votes and support. Nothing she did impressed the upper classes. They simply looked down their noses at her. She was little more than a slut who slithered her way to power by the men she slept with.

My favourite line in the musical is when Eva leaves the balcony to tell the snobby people that the masses of people outside love her. The retort comes, "Statesmenship is more than entertaining peasants." Gosh, I love that line!

So, what about Palin? Ever since her public debut, she faced the scorn and ridicule of the media elites in sophisticated New York. You can hear it in her speeches, the way she talks about "real Americans" versus the fake ones, or blames the media and liberal bloggers for making fun of her. Her rallies last fall were scary in a way that even seemed to creep out John McCain. She appealed to the worst and basest instincts of her followers...those people who are also fed up with being looked down upon for their choice to remain ig'nant. She'll show those snotty literati types! But, didn't she know..."statesmenship is more than entertaining peasants"?

Both Eva and Sarah spent gobs of other people's money on clothes. It was all about fashion and making sure both women looked good for the people who supported them. Peron understood that the poor class saw her as one of their own, so they bought into her dramas as she fought "the oligarchs" for their wealth, power and prestige. Same with Palin. She is the embodiment of the hopes and dreams of many an uneducated redneck woman with an unwed pregnancy. Palin was proof that you don't need to waste time learning in fancy universities. You could increase your societal standing by looking good and winking and flirting with powerful men who will open doors for you. Hinting at sexual availability is just one way to the top.

Finally, the connection with Michael Jackson. Well, Michael changed the format of music videos from a pretty bland and unimaginative visual for a song (as most videos were before 1983) into a mini-movie with bigger budgets and a storyline with some mesmerizing visual effects and dance sequences. After stunning MTV with "Billie Jean" and "Beat It", he moved into short film territory with his 14-minute "Thriller." Since then, there have been many artists who have copied his style and made essentially mini-movies (Madonna, Duran Duran, Janet Jackson, George Michael, Paula Abdul, Britney Spears, Mariah Carey to name only a few).

Well...the motion picture Evita is essentially a two hour long music video. The film has very few moments of actual dialogue. The brilliance of the film is the ability to tell the story completely through a diverse range of songs. The lyrics are important, and each song sounds unique.

I'm generally not a fan of musicals, but because I liked the majority of the songs in Evita, I prepped myself into seeing this film by thinking of it as a superlong music video, which it most certainly is. Since I've had it on DVD, I usually only watch the scenes of the songs I like. The film is great for the first 2/3rds of it. When the story finally crests as Eva's health problems causes her to slow down and ultimately die an untimely death, the movie really loses steam. Can't really complain, though, because the film arcs quite nicely that way.

My favourite songs are: "Oh What a Circus!", "Eva Beware of the City", "Buenos Aires" (would've made a great single), "Another Suitcase in Another Hall", "I'd Be Surprisingly Good For You" (I love when both Eva and Juan sing to each other simultaneously), "Peron's Latest Flame", "High Flying Adored" (great melody, especially. Madonna looks radiant in this scene), "Rainbow High", "Rainbow Tour", "Santa Evita" (love the children's choir), and "The Money Kept Rolling In." The famous song, "Don't Cry For Me, Argentina" is the show-stopper (though I like her dance remake of the song much better). There's no other way to describe this music style other than "rock opera."

My favourite musical remains Les Miserables and I would love to see that make it to theaters (I saw the Broadway road production of it in Atlanta in the mid-1990s). And my all-time favourite film is none other than The Sound of Music, the classic I never get tired of (the music can always put me in my happy place). Finally, there's only one other musical I like and that would be Sarafina! The Sound of Freedom.

When Evita came out in late 1996, I thought it was interesting that Madonna was starring with Antonio Banderas, who played the all-purpose narrator Che. Just five years earlier, in Madonna's notorious Truth or Dare documentary, there is one scene when her Blond Ambition Tour is in Spain and she makes a play for Antonio Banderas in full view of his wife. She loved him from watching Pedro Almodovar movies (the Spanish director who made Penelope Cruz famous). There's a scene in which Madonna is in the bathroom after having faced the scorn of Banderas' wife and she laughs nervously with one of her female dancers about how embarrassed she was to discover that Antonio was married. Its a hilarious scene as she tries to think of a way to re-enter the party (who should she flirt with next?) with some "dignity", but then she belittles Antonio to her friend by saying that she doesn't think he's such a great actor after all, as well as speculating on the size of his manhood. Shameless, that Madonna.

Anyhow, when I watched Evita, I couldn't help but wonder if Antonio Banderas had seen Madonna's documentary and what he thought of her comments about him and his wife. His marriage didn't last, though, as he fell for another American lady: actress Melanie "Working Girl" Griffith, who was married to Don Johnson of Miami Vice fame. If there was any friction between Madonna and Antonio Banderas, I didn't notice it in the film.

I consider the film to be Madonna's best acting performance because she truly does capture the essence of Eva Peron, based on what I've seen in videos and an Argentine biopic about their controversial First Lady from the 1950s. The film had long been in pre-production with actresses Meryl Streep and Patti Lupone (who played the role on Broadway) attached at one time or another until Madonna sent a personal letter to the director stating that only she could play Eva Peron (I'm sensing that there might be a past life connection between Madonna and Evita). I'm glad that the role went to her, even though Argentine Peronistas were livid. Many hate the film because of how it portrays their beloved Evita.

After seeing the film, I read a few biographies about Eva Peron just to get a more factual account because I couldn't tell if I actually liked Eva or if I was liking Madonna as Eva (big difference!).

This is a photo of the actual Eva Peron. She was pretty in her day and its hard to imagine that she rose to become the First Lady of Argentina by age 26. I can't recall offhand, but she might've died before she turned 40. She had cancer, which prevented her from running for president.

The photo on the right shows a rather stylish Eva Peron, who was not only a Peronista, but also a fashionista (and an outright fascist).

In college, I wrote a paper (in verse) about Eva Peron. The assignment was to write about a political leader or historical figure and compare their qualities with what Machiavelli wrote in The Prince. For me, it was easy. Eva automatically came to mind due to a line in the song "Rainbow High": "It's vital you sell me, so Machiavell me!" Basically, the Perons, like other right-wing dictatorships, looted the national treasury and left Argentina (once a growing economic power) in financial ruin. Their economic policies did not make sense. For example, Eva required everyone to give up one day's pay each month to go into her Foundation. She would draw a lottery to give prizes to people, so they feel like they won something from her. And you know she skimmed money off the top.

To this day, Eva Peron has fans and detractors. Is she a villainess or a working class heroine? Its the same question I wonder about Sarah Palin. Is she using her base of redneck idiots to propel her into higher realms of power, or does she genuinely want to improve their lives?

So, if you want to see a highly visually attractive film with some great music, as well as learn about politics in another country, watch Evita. It's simply a classic film that has even more relevance today than it did more than a decade ago when it hit movie theaters and a decade before that when it played on Broadway.

Funeral of the Millennium

Okay, so I called it wrong. Michael Jackson's funeral was bigger than the funeral service for Lady Diana Spencer, the Princess of Wales. After all, the King of Pop had his memorial service at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, where over a million people put their names in a lottery for eight thousand some pairs of tickets.

The Staples Center! Site of the 2000 Democratic National Convention, where Gore gave his wife Tipper a passionate and lengthy kiss. It was also the site of Michael Jackson's last rehearsal in preparation for his London concerts. In fact, he was doing high dance routines and showing the younger dancers how its done the evening before his death. So much for reports that he was frail and weak! Video footage (of some 1,000 hours available) proves that he's not some bed-ridden skeleton as some people would have it. So, what was the purpose for the drug cocktails he was taking?

But, this post is not going to be about speculations on the cause of his death. Nope. I wasn't even sure I was going to write yet another post about Michael Jackson, but a recent disagreement with another blogger over the spotlight Michael Jackson has commanded since his death kind of compels me to do it. Mostly because I think a lot of people who complain about the media's excessive amount of airtime devoted to this death JUST DON'T GET IT. I heard all these complaints before, most memorably when Princess Diana died, followed almost immediately by Mother Teresa's death. Comments I heard others make was that Diana received more coverage than "the more deserving" Mother Teresa. Then when John F. Kennedy, Jr. died, again there were these critics who complained about the amount of media attention on Kennedy's death. Like I said...they argue but THEY JUST DON'T GET IT.

These individuals touched a lot of lives around the world. Whether you like them or not, many people have a strong emotional reaction to the deaths of these popular people, and the outpouring of grief is worldwide and universal. In fact, in 1963 when President Kennedy was assassinated, the grief truly did go around the world. My mother was a teenager in Thailand and she heard about it and remembers the sadness her fellow Thai people in a town like Ubon felt upon hearing the news. She even remembers that it had rained that day, and that Thais thought of it as the tears of God! Did any of these Thai people meet President Kennedy? What is it about certain people that capture our imaginations? I'm talking universally. Because let's be honest...the day someone like George W. Bush dies, there won't be an outpouring of grief in most of the world the way there was for someone like Kennedy.

These critics remind me of the cool kids in school, who disliked anything that had popular appeal. If a student or singer was extremely popular, they'd naturally "hate" or trash talk that person. They want others to think that they are above the tastes of what they view "the mediocre minds" liking. They're simply "too cool" for that. Its fine if they feel that way. But its hard to ignore that some individuals do indeed affect the lives of millions of people. The grief over Jackson's death shows that. To ask if Paul McCartney will receive such attention on his passing, or Sting, or Neil Armstrong, or William Shatner, or even Bill Clinton on theirs is to miss the point. Michael Jackson's impact on popular culture is far more reaching than any of those named individuals. It is not "hyperbole, sensational vulgarity, or pathological vanity" to recognize the impact someone like Michael Jackson had on our culture. Are there more who deserve the honour? Perhaps, but their sphere of influence is smaller. Remember, thousands of black Americans marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and went to jail with him, but he gets the fame, attention, holiday, and monuments in his honour. There were many who refused to give up their seats on segregated buses, but Rosa Parks caught the media's attention.

Spiritual guru Wayne Dyer often says in his talks: "nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come." Some people achieve glory where others serve anonymously. Is there anything wrong with that? Is it hero worship to honour the contributions of a man who was not a "so-so talent"? In the two weeks since his death, I've tried to come up with another "icon of popular culture" that is of the same level as Michael Jackson, and I simply cannot think of one. In music, only U2 and Madonna come close, but even then, the gap is still pretty wide. Maybe its because I lived in Europe as a teenager and bought German and French music magazines. Michael's songs reached the top of the singles and albums charts throughout mostly white Europe. Everywhere he went, he had the same reaction. Japan, China, throughout Africa, Australia, South America. What is it about him that achieved such stratospheric success?

I know the blogger whose post I have quoted above in his critique of Michael Jackson would disagree with me strongly, but this is what I believe about Michael Jackson...

He was a definite child prodigy, which is an indication that his musical talent was developed in a previous lifetime or lifetimes. One author who wrote "Return of the Revolutionaries" even theorized that Michael might have been the reincarnation of one of Sally Hemings' children with Thomas Jefferson, who was known for being a singer, dancer, and entertainer. There's no way to prove or know if that theory is true, of course, but when you analyze talent, there's no mistaking that Michael Jackson had a singing and dancing talent that surpasses many superstars. Part of his appeal, as well, is rooted in the mythology of the American dream...the Horatio Alger story of a person born into poverty and achieving wealth and success through a combination of hard work and talent. In comparison to today's Reality Televised world of entertainment, people can be famous just for being talentless idiots.

I also believe that Michael Jackson is part of the spiritual generation that is born to transform our world. The world of spirit is a world where race, gender, age, nationality, or religion doesn't matter. Through some odd operations, Michael's physical evolution seems to indicate that. We don't think of him as a typical man like his brothers became. He wanted to live in this fantasy world of Peter Pan, refusing to grow up. For all Michael's laments about his abusive father, a question he should have asked himself was about the tradeoff. His father might've been a hard-assed stage parent, but if he wasn't, would the world have ever heard of Michael Jackson? The music and videos he created, the wealth that followed, the opportunities money gave him to recreate a childhood in adulthood...I wonder if Michael ever stopped to think that maybe his father was doing the best that he could to get the family out of poverty. What a success!

In my spiritual beliefs, I can very well see the possibility of the soul who was Michael Jackson choosing to be born into a low-key family that allows children plenty of playtime in some future lifetime. He achieved success beyond anyone's wild imaginations, and perhaps even his own. Of course, with the life review comes the areas in life where you affected other people for the worst. If he did molest those boys, the life review will be a painful experience for him as he experiences the situation from their perspective. However, if he did not molest those boys (and if they were in fact after his money), then society as a whole has failed him. That's probably one of the worst things you could ever be accused of being (supposedly, child molesters in prison have to be in isolated cells due to endangerment to their lives by other prisoners). If he's innocent, the people who made the false accusation truly deserve to go to hell for what they did.

The other blogger commented "it is impossible to measure degree of influence anyway, so why bother?" I think the proof is apparent in the worldwide outpouring of grief in the past two weeks and with the memorial service on Tuesday. Did Adolf Hitler garner this much grief when he committed suicide? Did Jerry Falwell have this many mourners when he passed away? Will Nelson Mandela have as many people at his funeral some day (his funeral will most likely be another huge one)? How can one man bring together such a diverse group of people in celebration of his life, music, and legacy? To dismiss his influence on changing our culture is to not understand the power of popular culture in our world. In fact, before the Iraq War, there have been reports that recruitment for suicide bombers was tough because of the popularity of American popular culture in the Middle East. Mullahs in Iran call America "The Great Satan" in part because they know that our popular culture is irresistible and would undermine their traditional values. Hell, evangelical Christians in our society knock popular culture all the time and have even tried to counter it by offering up Christian versions of it.

Baby boomers fought the frontlines of racial integration, but it was our generation that grew up on MTV and Michael Jackson videos. I remember in sixth and seventh grades when classmates in lily white Nebraska wore one sequined glove or Thriller or Beat It jackets to school. Our generation and the one right after saw white kids buying rap albums and trying to act black, whereas a generation earlier to be called a "nigger-lover" was an epithet most wanted to avoid. So, yes, I credit Michael Jackson as the prime force who broke down the cultural wall between black people and white people. Dr. King might have done it politically, but it took someone like Michael Jackson to transform our culture even further, to bring America closer to the Dream that King envisioned. When Obama got elected, I saw a quote that said: Rosa sat so Martin could walk. Martin walked so Barack could run. Barack ran so that we could fly. I would amend that to: Rosa sat so Martin could walk. Martin walked so Michael could dance. Michael danced so Barack could run. Barack ran so we could fly.

It's not hyperbole to recognize the genius of Michael Jackson's music and legacy. If one has doubts, there's this question to pose. Is our world better because this person had lived? To that, I have to say YES. Absolutely YES. A million times YES! Fortunately for us, his music will live on for eternity. I never tire of listening to many of his songs. They simply make you feel good. What's the point of human existence if we had to be serious all the time? Why not indulge in the feeling offered by a classic pop song? We are at our best when we are inspired and act from that level of being. For that, I will always appreciate the bright shining star in the cosmos that was Michael Jackson. Rest in peace!

Tuesday evening, I went over to McDonalds to rent a DVD and ended up staying for an hour because of Anderson Cooper's recap of Michael Jackson's memorial service on CNN that I didn't get to watch due to my being at work when the event occurred live. I was very impressed. Now that's a funeral! Perhaps the best damn funeral, ever! Maybe for an entire millennium (how's that for hyperbole?). No other artist deserves it more, though, because I doubt that our planet will ever experience another individual like Michael Jackson. The music industry is too fractured now for any singer or group to reach such a wide-range of fans across the world with numbers in the tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions. Its the same reason why the final episode of MASH remains the highest viewed show in history. We have more choices in our entertainment now that a show or artist simply isn't going to get the numbers that Michael Jackson enjoyed. In fact, U2's latest album still hasn't sold 1 million copies in the U.S., yet in 2001, Jackson's last album was panned by critics and still managed to sell 10 million copies. It was his worst selling album, but even his worst is better than the best of other singing superstars (Madonna, for example can't seem to break beyond 2 or 3 million albums sold since the early 1990s).

Above is Brooke Shields and Magic Johnson. It was great to hear Brooke's remarks about her friend Michael. They've been friends since childhood, as both bonded over their shared experience of being childhood stars. I was stunned how gorgeous Brooke still looks now. I don't think I've seen her picture since the media spat with Tom Cruise over her taking medication to combat post-partum depression. If I'm not mistaken, she was Michael's "date" to the 1984 Grammys, where he collected 8 awards. She had joked about not wanting to hold his gloved hand because the sequins pressed into her skin. She also compared him to Le Petit Prince, which I had read in French for a college French class. I remember thinking that book was weird, but in the context of Michael Jackson, it makes perfect sense now.

The finale to the memorial service, where people got onstage to sing "We Are the World" which featured a cool effect on the overhead screen (various religious symbols would form letters to the words in the lyrics being sung).

A golden casket befitting the King of Pop. I wasn't shocked by that gaudiness. It was kind of expected, really. A person who lived in the extravagence of Neverland couldn't very well have his corpse in a humble wooden coffin, could he?

The brothers all paying tribute to their most talented younger brother. All of them wore a single sequined glove. Its a tribute to a person's personal power that he or she could start a fad just based on an idiosyncracy (illustrated perfectly in Patrick Dempsey's 80s film Can't Buy Me Love). I often wondered if the single white glove was accidental. As in, Michael was about to go on stage and he couldn't find one of this gloves, but rather than taking the other one off, he decided to go with the flow...and voila! Instant fad.

Janet Jackson with Michael's three children: Prince Michael Jackson I, Paris Michael Katherine Jackson, and Prince Michael Jackson II ("Blanket"). Paris gave a short, heartfelt statement in the end, saying that her father was the best dad in the world. She teared up, so I think she really meant it. I wonder how his children might view him. They will be interesting to watch, because perhaps some day, they'll want to know who their biological parents are (if for nothing else than genetic inheritence issues).

At work, I had mentioned that there is no way that any of the three are Michael's children. My know-it-all School Marm co-worker jumped into the conversation I was having with someone else to let me know that she knows a black person who had white kids. I'm well aware of the Punnett Square, thank you very much...but I think its not out of the box to suggest that these children do not carry any of Michael Jackson's DNA. Its believed that Michael changed his face to look less like his father and more like Diana Ross. The last thing he might want is children bearing his father's DNA or maybe even for his children to inherit his talent. I read a comment somewhere that said: "isn't it funny that Madonna ended up with black kids and Michael Jackson ended up with white kids?" (*Madonna does have two biological children of her own, though and there's no mistaking that Lourdes physically resembles her mother).

As for Janet, I really hope that she records a deeply personal and awesome album in the aftermath of this sorrowful event. Her last great album was 1989's Rhythm Nation 1814. Ever since the mid-1990s, she has recorded one hoochie mama album after another, to dwindling record sales. Note to Janet (and Britney Spears): overkill on sexual innuendo is not helping your careers. Take a page from Santana, who revived his career in the late 1990s with Supernatural and Shaman. He went spiritual and deep to find new success. A spiritual and deep album from Janet might bring her career back to the heights she enjoyed in the late 1980s. Doesn't hurt. She is, after all, the family's most talented member now.

Now that the funeral is over, I hope they release this service on DVD as well as Moonwalker finally. Heck, why not put Captain EO out on DVD as well? Three of his albums are the top sellers of the week according to Billboard magazine. As a cynic once said: death is a great career move. Elvis sold more records dead than during his lifetime, so there's no reason to suspect why Michael won't as well.

Happy Seven Eight Nine Day!

My brother told me this joke a few years ago...and he wondered why I didn't laugh. Um...because I heard it in elementary school! But, I give him credit. He tries hard to make me laugh. Unfortunately, my humour is more satirical, snarky, and ironic. I love laughing at absurdities. For example, I'm still laughing my ass off about the joke McCain unleashed on the American public. Didn't Republican voters know that the joke was on them? Get a clue, people! Sarah Palin is a never-ending joke and you still take her seriously!

In fact, a USA Today poll found that 7 out of 10 Republicans would vote for her in 2012. I've read liberal comments and blogs in which many want her to run and win the nomination, so that President Obama can have an easy reelection. However, given our history (Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush), I've learned not to laugh too hard. Those three politicians were deemed "unelectable" by the arrogantly elite and sophisticated people...yet we ended up having all three for president. All three won reelection, too (two of them in the biggest landslides, one by the closest margin ever by a sitting president). I know from personal experience of having lived in Europe for six years that Americans don't value intelligence as much as Europeans do. Proof of that can be found in the 2000 election. Gore was viewed as a condescending, intellectual snob, while Bush was the charming and folksy guy voters would love to have a beer with.

What scares me even more is the possibility of Democrats crossing over to vote in the Republican primaries just to help Sarah Palin win the nomination. If some scenario occurred where she became the President by fluke or fraud, would these liberal Democrats still be laughing? All I can say is that if someone as moronic as Palin could end up as president, I'm getting the hell out of the country. I love America, but the Bush years were painful and my impression is that Palin is so intellectually vapid that she makes Bush look downright genius. In fact, I'd rather have Bush for president again than Palin.

I read an article which claims that Palin allies are blaming Mitt Romney for digging up dirt on Palin's background. I've thought that myself, when he was passed over as McCain's running mate in favour of this unknown neophyte in Alaska. However, Romney should be thankful that his political fortune was not tied to McCain's defeat. The history of Vice Presidential candidates on losing campaigns don't bode very well (they never get the nomination the next round: 2004 - John Edwards, 2000 - Joseph Lieberman, 1996 - Jack Kemp, 1992 - Dan Quayle, 1988 - Lloyd Bentsen, 1984 - Geraldine Ferraro, 1980 - Walter Mondale, 1976 - Bob Dole, 1972 - Sargent Shriver).

Another history in Romney's favour is that Republicans have the tradition of backing the candidate who ran in a previous primary cycle: John McCain ran in 2000, Bob Dole in 1980 and 1988, George Herbert Walker Bush in 1980, Ronald Reagan in 1976, Richard Nixon in 1960. In 2000, George Walker Bush bucked the trend, but only because he was the son of the previous Republican president and not only bore the same name, but looked a lot like him and had qualities that some thought were better than his father (extroverted personality and more conservative). So, with that in mind, Mitt Romney's biggest challenge for the 2012 Republican nomination appears to be Jeb Bush.

So...you hear me liberal Democrats who think supporting Palin for the Republican nomination will help Obama to reelection victory...don't even go there! We simply cannot afford to take that chance. Too many previous liberals laughed at the possibility that America would elect someone as paranoid as Nixon, an actor like Reagan or a buffoon like Bush. The end result is that the Republicans always had the last laugh, and our country has suffered greatly for it (remember Watergate, Iran-Contra, and everything about Bush's reign of errors?). We simply cannot afford even the remotest possibility of Palin being on the general election ballot in 2012.

I will be doing my part to help Mitt Romney secure the nomination in 2012, though I'm hoping Florida Governor Charlie Crist will run just to make that race interesting. Crist seems like a reasonable guy and not morals obsessed like most of his party. Then again, he supposedly has a reason not to be.

The photo below is from a recent issue of Runner's World magazine, where Governor Palin does her beauty pageantry poses and claims that she could beat Obama in an actual race because she has endurance. The magazine issue could not be more timely! That's like the funniest thing I heard. Miss Quitter is talking about endurance and thinking she has more than Obama, who truly did not wilt under pressure during his two year run for the White House. I think Billy Ocean should remake his hit song and dedicate it to Sarah Palin: "When the Going Gets Tough, Sarah Palin Gets Going."

Happy 7 (Ate) 9 Day, everyone! Tell a good joke and save the bad ones for the Republican Party.

Sue Me, Baby, Sue Me!

Last weekend, after Governor Palin's resignation bombshell, there were news reports that she plans to sue bloggers and journalists who have "unfairly" gone after her and wrote "false" rumours about her life. This, coming from a woman who has called Obama a "socialist" and accused him of "palling around with domestic terrorists" and referred to David Letterman as a "pedophile." The lady can dish, but like Rush, can't stand the heat when its on her.

The more I learn about her, the dumber she appears. She's a public figure, so libel laws are harder to prove. Hillary Clinton has been subjected to far worse accusations than Palin could ever dream of enduring. Remember...Hillary has been called a lesbian and a murderer. What could be worse than that? To the Secretary of State's credit, I don't recall ever hearing Hillary dignify those rightwing accusations with any kind of response. Palin, on the other hand, too easily gets into a tizzy when she feels unfairly mocked or has taken satirical jokes to be serious accusations. Late night comedians use politicians as punching bags all the time! Both Clinton and Bush had far worse jokes said about them than Palin.

Okay, so maybe Letterman went a little too far joking about her daughter being a slut, but Palin was the one who put her children on public display and continually uses her children as props (such as her resignation speech when she had them standing up front by her and mentioning that she had polled her children about her decision to leave the governor's office). I believe it falls under the "fair game" category. If a politician is going to use their children for a political agenda, then they waived their right to complain how their children might be perceived in the public sphere.

After the election, news came out that Palin had criticized liberal bloggers, blaming us for wrecking her carefully crafted public image. She seems to have a real chip on her shoulder about people questioning her intellect. I suppose its her biggest insecurity. Its the fear of being perceived as an empty-headed beauty queen (a stereotype enhanced further by the notorious Miss South Carolina--"US American" and Miss California--"opposite marriage"). Palin thought Katie Couric was mean to her because the newscaster dared asked her a "gotcha question" about what magazines and newspapers she read. Palin is someone who doesn't like being revealed for who she really is: ignorant and way in over her head. If she can't answer simple questions posed to her, how can she answer the complex questions to show some kind of depth? The biggest sign of her insecurity about being perceived as ignorant was her response after she learned that she had not been talking with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, but that the phonecall was a radio prank. She sounded like she was about to cry as she handed the phone to her assistant.

It's apparent to me that she got a free ride to where she's at, and she probably got by on her winks and charm. When I watched her first interview, with Charles Gibson, I was shocked by her flirtatious manner of speaking with him. She winked, licked her lips suggestively, touched him, and giggled. Her entire demeanor wasn't one that demanded you take her seriously and listen to what she had to say. She truly came across as a big come on, playing like she's available if the chemistry's right...so long as you give her what she wants. In the debate with Joe Biden, she winked and flirted with the camera, for all those red-blooded All-American rednecks out there who love their "broads" dumb and sexy.

In my last job in Atlanta, I knew a lady like her. One lady I worked closely with had retired. I was sad to see her leave, as I knew that she was good at her job and I enjoyed working with her. When they announced her replacement, I was shocked. The young lady was clueless about the programs and difficult to work with. She was nowhere near the best person for that position. However, there was a rumour circulating that she had an affair with the head guy. Some claimed that they didn't think there was an affair, but there was something going on. This young lady was pretty cute and whenever she wanted something from me, she knew how to flirt and act sweet and helpless. I fell for it a couple times before I learned her true nature. She would barely talk to me unless she wanted something. I supposed that she was this way with the head guy. There are women out there like that, as well as men in powerful positions who fall for it. While I don't know if an actual affair took place or not, I do know that she was promoted into a job she was not qualified for and she even admitted to a guy I worked with that she felt way in over her head and couldn't believe that management thought she qualified for that position.

To me, that's the only thing that explains Sarah Palin's quick rise in the Republican Party. If the only thing we changed about her was her looks, there is simply no way she would have made it as far as she did. She had the telegenic looks, conservative background, and family life that fit all the points of the Republican dream candidate sheet. The only thing lacking was a brain.

There is speculation on some blogs and websites that Republican Party operatives might have been the ones to have presented her with damaging information that would be released unless she resigned. They know that she's not good for the future viability of the party, which would show that they learned from the disaster that was Bush. Its fun to speculate on what the real reason behind her resignation is, because it could be any number of factors. Knowing the truth would help us to understand not only her, but the Republican Party, and various interests within that party. I've read some people's comments thinking that McCain might be the culprit to get revenge for the way she cost him the election. However, I don't buy that rationale, because I have a feeling that he didn't really want to be president (his behaviour last year was oddly out of character). Had he won in 2000, though, I have no doubt that our country would be much better off today.

The reasons for the speculation on why Palin resigned are deciphered through facts that we know for sure: husband Todd was called back from a fishing trip to attend that press conference; Palin's press secretary was on vacation in New York at that time; Palin's rambling speech and demeanor seemed nervous and afraid. She spoke at length about how defending herself from lawsuits have cost the Alaska taxpayer over 2 million dollars (which was far above what the real cost was: $300,000 to investigate Troopergate). Perhaps any day now, the truth will be revealed. Unless its a blackmail situation where someone told her that they had information on her that would be released to the public unless she resigned. As much as I dislike her, I hope its not a blackmail scenario. She should finish out her term of office like the voters elected her to do.

I know a few Palin fans. My supervisor at work always defends her whenever I criticize the Alaska Governor's experience or intelligence. The lady from church that I had a falling out with earlier this year was a Palin supporter (because Palin's just like her and the people she knows!). I don't understand why people who don't give a rat's ass about politics and governing think its a good thing to elect equally ignorant and disinterested people to public office. I guess I have a personal motive for this view, as I studied hard in college in my focus on international politics and my neverending goal is to get a government job. I've done my homework and I care about our government and want it to be the best in the world.

That's why I see as a threat these anti-government types who want ignorant people just like them in power. Most of these people probably never been out of the country, so they have no idea just how bad our education system is. Europeans are pretty highly educated and their news broadcasts are very substantive, so how is it doing our country any favours if we elect the village idiot to dialogue with highly educated sophisticates? Don't these ignoramuses understand that our Founding Fathers were some of the most intelligent people of their era? Now, they want to be led by morons like Bush and Palin, all because they don't want an intelligent president to remind them of their own ignorance?

So, Sarah, if you happen to be reading this or any other post I've done on you for the past ten months...yeah, I don't like you. I think you're a shallow, phony, ignorant, petty woman with nothing going for you except your looks. You might have been able to charm your way to power with a bunch of horny old men opening doors for you that have been denied to more worthy individuals, but you've been found out. There's no chance you'll ever be president because liberals and independents don't like you and neither do the financial backers of the Republican Party. All you got is your ignorant base of rednecks, where the men dream about sleeping with you and the women wish they could be like you. If you don't like what I have to say, then you can sue me, baby. Sue me! I welcome a good debate with you in the Courts. If what I say is libelous, you're going to have to prove that you're not an ignorant phony.

Remember this photo, Sarah? You put your hand on the Bible *((THE BIBLE!))* and swore to uphold the duties of the office you were elected to in November 2006. How can you go back on your word now? You swore it to God, of all people! Does that not mean anything to you, Miss Pentacostal Apocalypse? Good riddance, Governor Palin. Your Warhol mandated fifteen minutes are officially up. Exit stage right and don't make a scene.

Music Video Monday: George Michael

In honour of our just completed Independence Day weekend, today's music video is by none other than George Michael and his song "Freedom '90," featuring supermodels Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell, and a few others I don't remember at the moment. This song and video was an act of rebellion by George Michael who was attempting to be taken more seriously as an artist (it came from his album Listen Without Prejudice, Volume 1, which was the follow-up to his mega-successful Faith, that made him a sex icon to millions of teenage girls everywhere).

I guess George Michael got tired of being a musical gigolo, shaking his ass and acting like a male sex fantasy for teenage girls (I still remember which girls in high school were lustily dreaming about him instead of doing their class assignments). He wanted us to believe that he had no control over his image during his Faith days. However, his career proves that "sex sells" (to a point, I'd add) in our culture. Girls loved him when he sang sexually explicit songs and had provocative videos, but as soon as he got serious with his follow-up albums, he essentially killed his career until he got outed in a public bathroom in the late 1990s (doing the Senator Craig thing way before Senator Craig was caught doing it himself).

Back in the 10th grade, a friend of mine and I made fun of the songs titles on the Faith album. The girl who loved George Michael had argued that most of his songs weren't sexual in nature. My friend and I refuted her claims as we went song by song. Even "Monkey" wasn't immune ("why can't you do it, why can't you set your monkey free? Do you love the monkey or do you love me?"). This was the guy, after all, who recorded a song called "I Want Your Sex." Not only that, he had three different versions of the song (Rhythm 1 was called "Lust", rhythm 3 was called "A last request"). Other suggestive songs include "Father Figure", "One More Try", and "Kissing a Fool." Even the video to "Faith" was suggestive. The most popular girl in the class raved that watching the video made her want to "eat his ass." This was a tenth grade girl we're talking about! When it was revealed in the mid-1990s that George Michael was gay, it made me wonder what all these teenage girls I knew in high school who swooned over him thought. Back in high school, the boys were calling him gay to the girls denials.

Record companies might have some controlling demand over an artist's image, but I never bought George Michael's complaints about being sold as a sex symbol. He didn't seem to mind it much when the money kept rolling in as his debut solo album became the biggest selling album of 1988. His problem was that he got way too serious with a more mellow sound and his fan base grew up.

I consider "Freedom '90" to be his best video...because he's not in it. I did have a thing for Linda Evangelista for awhile because of this video...and I generally am not attracted to supermodels. Like him or not, his best songs always had a dirty funk to them ("Everything She Wants", "I Want Your Sex", "Happy", and "Fastlove"). His jazzy tunes like "Kissing a Fool" or mellow "Praying for Time" simply put you to sleep. But, he wanted his freedom and he got it.

**Sorry...the video is out of sync with the music. The other versions on YouTube are unable to be embedded to my blog, so this will have to do.

Dead Fish Don't Flow

I had originally planned to devote Sunday's posts on a new theme: Synchronicity. So, in keeping with my alliteration for Music Video Monday and Flashback Friday, we shall now have Synchronicity Sunday. Deal with it.

However, in Sarah Palin's resignation speech on Friday, she said a curious thing that only reiterated her complete ignorance to me. She said: "Only dead fish go with the flow." In her mind, she sees herself as swimming against the current. She's such a mavericky politician that way. Always going against the current, fighting every stroke of the way. Boy, does she have it totally wrong!

In many spiritual books I've read, the same theme presents itself (from various writers). Its the idea that when your life is on track and you are flowing with the current, that's when you feel like you are living the life you are meant to live. If everything is off track and you're always struggling or fighting, it means you are wasting your energy and not living the life you are meant to be living.

As one who has experienced the best and worst of that idea in this decade, I can attest to the truthfulness of that idea. For me, the best four months of my life were the four months I was a BYU Intern in D.C. Everything flowed! I was living my wildest dreams and loving it. I had many strange little coincidences and met interesting people. I had the ability to "manifest" many of the things I had wanted for years. No one had to tell me what "flow" was. Things just happened without any effort on my part.

Since then, I've had ups and downs. Most recently, I've been in the opposite feeling. I feel like I'm fighting against the current. My desires aren't manifesting so much. I still have no idea why it was so easy for me to meet Bill Clinton and Chelsea Clinton last year during their visits to Portland, but I am as yet unable to manifest a job that is more in line with my value system, passions, and capabilities. Why am I stuck with a bunch of miserable Mormon women who have major control or emotional issues, thus making the office environment a living hell for their dysfunctional dramas? Did I ask for this? Life is so not flowing right now.

Thus, I have been reading a few spiritual books. One is about how to increase flow and synchronicity in my life. The other is about finding what my soul's assignment is. In fact, in this second book (by Chris Michaels), I was shocked when I came across the following passage:

"For whatever reasons, some people would rather be right than be happy! People, who have been diminished or devalued excessively in life, perhaps through constant criticism from an authority figure in childhood, have a strong need to be right. They've been condemned so much that they just can't stand it one more time! They can't stand to make an error or be made to feel wrong again. So they absolutely insist on being right!

"...They're tormented souls who can't bear the slightest imperfection. They see each admitted mistake as a personal attack on their own integrity. And if this condition is left unhealed, the victims will create a life that spins in a vicious cycle of trying to be perfect and never feeling like they've done anything good enough. It is a life of self-torment and internalized hatred."

When I read that passage, an alarm bell rang in my head: DING DING DING DING!!! It totally described my troubled co-worker (the school marm, Helpful Hannah, tattle tale). She does have an obsession with being right and thinking she's right. She has never apologized after falsely accusing me of missing paperwork that was found on her desk or of using her locker at work and other such ridiculous accusations. Anyone who meets her can see how unhappy she is. She hasn't made the connection that her need to be right all the time has isolated her from the entire office and contributes to her misery.

My friendship with Nathan taught me the importance of friendship over ego. He and I have had some intense disagreements about politics and religion. There were times when I didn't even want to be friends with him anymore, but I always let that feeling pass because his friendship was more important than our differences in how we see the world. He wouldn't have been one of my best friends all these years if I let my need to be right interfere with my desire to be happy. A life without good friendships is not a happy life. I see that quite clearly in this co-worker, who does not appear to have any friends at all. She only talks about her sister and her sister's children. Its obvious that her young nephew might be her only true friend in this world. Just wait until he's a teenager and too embarrassed to be seen in public with his unpleasant aunt!

Anyhow, moving on from that...On Wednesday, I went to Powell's City of Books to browse the bookshelves for anything interesting. I had the most amazing experience of pure delight when I saw a book I had never heard of by an author I had never heard of. Yet it was a book that I have been looking many years to find. The book is called A Chant to Soothe Wild Elephants by Jaed Coffin. The writer has a Thai mother who married a white American during the Vietnam War and moved to live in the USA. For years, I've been seeking a book written by a person who shares my growing up experience of having a Thai mother and white father. I have a few books by writers who are half Vietnamese and half Caucasian American. I thought maybe I might one day write such a book, but someone beat me to it. I'm reading the book now (its only 200 pages) and have laughed each time he relates an experience from his youth that completely describes mine.

The writer, Jaed Coffin, decided as a young man that he wanted to experience life in his mother's country for awhile...as a Buddhist monk. So, he joined a Temple in his mother's hometown to learn Buddhism and what it means to be Thai. Like him, I grew up in America and was immersed in my father's Midwestern, white culture. Even the church I was raised in is predominately white. I remember when we lived in Utah when I was 8 and attended the congregation in Ogden, a teenage boy called my brother and me "Cheech and Chong." I didn't know who they were but just their names clued me in that this was not a compliment. Other times, kids would approach me with fingers stretching the corners of their eyes and speak in a sing-song gibberish that was meant to sound Chinese. I never understood the hostility. I've been told to "Go back to...", with the name of whatever country they heard of: Vietnam, China, Japan, Cambodia, the Philippines, Korea, Mexico, and even Jordan. Truth is, like this writer, I always thought of myself as a white person. I don't know my mother's language, culture, or customs. Last time I was in Thailand was when I was 3 or 4 and I only remember bits and pieces.

Lately, I've been feeling like I need to do something major with my life before I turn 40. Spending three months in Thailand on my church's WoRLDService Corps is something I'd love to do, but I have too many debts I want to pay off first. However, if there is a will and a way to do it, I would love for God to show me that direction. I truly feel like I need some experience in Thailand as a man to understand my mother's heritage. A heritage I had denied for so long because of the shame involved. I don't know where the shame came from. The bitterness Americans had with the defeat of the Vietnam War? This shame is apparent in the fact that I see many Asian women dating white men, and even half-Asian women (with half-Caucasian mixed in) preferring to date white men. I've heard some Asian or half-Asian women say that they would not date a man who was half-Asian or Asian. There was another book I discovered a few years ago that mentioned this strange "phenomenon." Men with Asian heritage end up feeling like they are not desireable to women at all. Maybe that's my problem. I don't know. Its just frustrating, the whole dating game.

The other day, I saw a lady on the Streetcar that I found attractive. I assumed that she was Vietnamese. She was with a talkative friend, so I didn't approach her. But our eyes caught each other a few times. I have dated an Asian lady in the Navy (half Thai, half Vietnamese) and got angry when guys accused me of having an Oedipus thing for my mother because of that. So, does that mean white men who marry white women have an Oedipus thing for their mothers? Her personality was so Americanized and extroverted, she reminded me nothing of my mother.

In high school, there were a few Vietnamese girls I found attractive, but because of the shame and denial I felt for my Asian heritage, I did not ask any of them out. I wanted a perky white woman that all the guys wanted! Now, I'm open to any and all races. Any relationship with a woman who shares my spiritual interests is what I desire.

As for another development in my life, I have felt a need to meditate more. On Thursday evening, I went to the Unitarian Church to participate with a group meditation for ninety minutes. Its a good start that I intend to make a habit. Every Thursday now, that'll be my thing. I was going to go the previous Thursday, but Michael Jackson had died that day and I wanted to hook up my digital converter box to catch any news about it. Hopefully, once this group meditation becomes a habit, I will find it easier to meditate on my own each evening. These small steps I'm taking will hopefully lead to a major change in my life before the summer ends. I'm so ready for a change.

I'm ready to be the fish that flows with the current. Those fish aren't necessarily dead. Proof that Palin is clueless about spirituality. You have to go with the flow for your life to experience synchronicity.

Palin Chooses an Abortion of Her Political Career

On Friday, I was off from work and didn't do much (but sleep and read). In the evening, I went to check my email and got a cryptic one from a friend who sent me a link with a question if I somehow "caused" this. Caused what? So, I clicked on the link and voila, another political shocker in a summer of political shockers (what the heck is going on in our world?): The hottest governor of the coldest state had a press conference on the Friday before a holiday weekend that she would not seek reelection in 2012 with the addendum that she would also abort her term as governor since "lame ducks" abuse the last year or two of their term to pad their coffers or enhance their profile for new career options, or go on boondoggle foreign travel.

Yikes! I know its flattering to think that bloggers drove her to this decision, but one thing we should always know and understand about politics...nothing (and I mean NOTHING) is ever what it seems. There's more to this story than even Palin is letting on. For now, we'll just have to wait until "the other Manolo Blahnik drops." After the 2008 election, Palin did complain about "liberal bloggers" who write from their parents basement in pajamas about every little mishap or facet of her life. If only we had so much power. Oh, and for the record Ms. Palin...I am liberal and I do have a blog, but I'm also employed and live in my own apartment. I blog fully dressed. And I know more about international politics than you do, yet I have the self awareness to know that I would not be ready to serve as president or vice president or even as Senator.

In the speech, she complained about how the ethics complaints were costing the Alaskan taxpayers a lot of money (two million dollars, which is untrue according to journalists). So, in an effort to appear more noble than she really is, she is spinning her tale of cutting and running to be this grand gesture of saving taxpayer money by avoiding the investigation of ethics violations. Rumour has it, something big is about to hit the newswires and a panicky Palin decided now was the best time to bail (and hide?) before the scandal embarrasses her. What could it be? An affair with a Russian commie in Siberia? Undisclosed money, bribery, or other such financial malfeasance?

In some articles I read, writers have pinpointed something that did not receive a lot of traction last fall during the presidential race. That would be the story of a construction firm that built her house around the same time that they were building the new sports complex for the tiny town of Wasilly. It's possible that promises were made for statewide contracts on condition if they built the house for her family. Or it could be a new bombshell that surpasses any we've heard about this lady thus far. Whatever it is, I hope it truly is of the magnitude that explains this inexplicable resignation, rather than something lame like she's pregnant again.

With the photo above, we can breathe a sigh of relief that Palin's resignation will mean no possibility of higher office for this queen of ignorance. If she still harbours the belief that she can become president after serving only half a term as governor of a low-population state on the margins of American culture and political life, she truly is more delusional than I previously gave credit for. 2012 is safe from the likes of Palin.

Not that I gave Palin much chance of winning even the Republican nomination in 2012. It would have been an exciting contest, as I believe that Mitt Romney will rip her to shreds. He's hungry to be president and has the backing of the financial elite and the neo-conservatives within the party. His only problem is that the evangelical Christian and redneck trailer trash factions of the Republican party hate his Mormon religion. Mike Huckabee continues to be his main competitor for this faction of the party. But, as we know all too well about how the Republicans operate, the financial backers simply will not allow an uncontrollable or unpredictable person like Palin to have the presidency. She may be as incurious and ignorant as Bush, but Bush (like Reagan) proved himself the true puppet he was capable of being. Palin's too brash and flaky.

Her entire resume shows an inability to stick with a career for very long. Hell, she couldn't even stick with a college (five colleges to attain one degree?). Her major was broadcast journalism, so I suspect that she has an offer from the Fox News Propaganda Channel that she couldn't refuse. Since Fox is the propaganda arm of the Republican Party, it would be simply standard operating procedure to get Palin out of the way in 2012 with a lucrative and high paying offer she could not refuse. She's telegenic and her whacked out views fit in with the rest of the channel's personalities.

Anyone who is hoping that she will still run for president in 2012 simply don't understand the magnitude of this decision. In 2008, McCain made experience the central theme of his campaign. Even after picking neophyte Palin as a running mate, he still questioned Obama's experience to lead our country. Palin, showing a lack of self-awareness, was all too eager to pick up on this theme and run with it. She mocked Obama's early career as a community organizer. She claimed her years as mayor and two years as governor as executive experience that qualified her to assume the presidency in case McCain did not live to see the end of his first term.

So, assuming that Palin did manage to get the GOP nomination and face President Obama in the general election, how would that look? She quit two and a half years into her first term as governor while Obama had four years in office as president. A president's reelection is more a referendum on them rather than a choice between two candidates. A challenger has a tough case to make for replacing the sitting president. A poor economy, national disaster, major scandal, or foreign policy fiasco are generally the biggest reasons why a president doesn't win reelection. If the economy hasn't recovered by 2012, Mitt Romney's reputation as an experienced executive who turns around failing companies (not to mention the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics in the wake of the bribery scandal) will look like a very good alternative to President Obama.

Palin, on the other hand, would be seen as a quitter. Its difficult for quitters to win because Americans need to be certain that the leader is tough enough to withstand adversity. Its the reason why Abraham Lincoln remains our most admired presidents. Some might want to give a lady candidate some leeway for quitting, but even then, it only hurts her candidacy. She would especially pale in comparison to Hillary Clinton, who never quit no matter how heated the criticism in the press got. Hillary is plenty tough and if things go well for her as Secretary of State (and a possible V.P. slot in 2012), she could still become president in 2016 if she wanted another run. By contrast, can people really trust that Palin wouldn't bail on the American people if the going got too tough for her in the White House?

My first impression of Sarah Palin after she was announced as John McCains VP pick last August was that she knew she wasn't ready for the job but accepted it anyway because she wanted to become famous and possibly go down in history as the first female Vice President. Articles I've read on her paint a picture of a petty girl who people didn't take seriously in high school because she was a beauty queen. She spent the rest of her life trying to prove people wrong and fame was her dream. The whole, "look at me now! I showed you!" You can hear it in her tone during speeches. She harbours a disdain for "elite" intellectuals who look down on her. In many ways, she resembles Eva Peron of Argentina (a woman who sought revenge against the middle and upper classes for excluding her from her father's funeral because her mother was his mistress and she grew up in poverty). That's not a good reason for political office. Personal vendettas aren't what you seek power for.

She has a history of quitting. Not only from college after college until she finally got her degree at the University of Idaho. She was appointed to a post in Alaska for oil and gas, but ended up resigning because she apparently didn't like the corruption she saw. Now, she won't even serve a full term as governor. If she doesn't want to run for reelection, that's fine. Between 2010 and 2012, she can raise money, give speeches, and build her support network. But what about the next year and a half? She claims that lame ducks are ineffective, but she could still accomplish quite a bit in the time she would have left. Bailing out now only raises skepticism and cynicism among people that something big is about to hit the news regarding Sarah Palin. News alert: Palin is really a Fembot manufactured in a Chinese lab to destroy our government once and for all! Couldn't be as outlandish as that, could it? Maybe she, too, has a Latin lover somewhere. Or maybe Bush and Palin had an affair.

Her resignation speech was odd. Besides talking about the costs of the investigations into possible ethical violations, she mentioned that her kids did not like seeing Trig made fun of in the media. She then said: "Um, by the way, sure wish folks could ever, ever understand that we all could learn so much from someone like Trig -- I know he needs me, but I need him even more... what a child can offer to set priorities right -- that time is precious... the world needs more 'Trigs', not fewer."

A few things about that. Trig was only a few months old when McCain made the VP offer to Palin. She didn't let his infancy and dependence on her keep her from joining a highly stressful and time consuming presidential campaign. She's not being honest here. It only proves to me that she was hungry for the fame that the national campaign offered. Once she got what she wanted, the real work of elective office was boring compared to the adrenaline rush of a national campaign. Ever wonder why we don't hear much about politicians who lose a presidential race? Since the 2004 election, how often does John Kerry's name come up in the press? He's practically invisible. Even John McCain doesn't get the press he used to get, even by mid-1990s standards.

Secondly, "the world needs more Trigs"?!? Is she for real? I don't mean to knock people with Downs Syndrome. They are special and do have much to teach us about humanity, not judging, and having patience. But let's be real, too. Life is hard for them and for their parents. They have learning disabilities and does anyone really believe that a world populated with more of them would change things? Would Sarah Palin have married a man with Downs Syndrome? I have a brother with a disability (not Downs Syndrome). Though he is more functional than most people with Downs Syndrome, he does endure a lot of prejudice, cruelty, and general difficulties with our superficial society. Whatever complaints I have about life and my current place of employment, all of it pales in comparison to the tough life my brother has lived. I've been far more blessed than him and if anything, he wishes to be a normal human being without disabilities.

I'm not advocating that people abort their pregnancies if they learn about the fetus' impending disability. I'm just simply stating the fact that Palin can't be serious when she wishes the world had more Trigs. If anything, we should fund scientific studies to cure Down Syndrome in the fetal developmental stage. I've read articles where a parent first experiences shock and grief when they learn that their unborn baby will have Downs Syndrome. Most come to accept the challenges, a few might have an abortion. But I have yet to meet anyone who says that they hope to have a Downs Syndrome baby. It is a difficult life for both child and parents, made even more difficult by the cruelty of others. Sarah Palin strikes me as the kind of person who probably made fun of "retards" in high school. If I know anything about beautiful people in high school, they were snobby about anyone who didn't look as beautiful as them. Perhaps Trig was a gift from God to teach Palin that beauty isn't everything. It might take a soul like Trig to bring depth to the flaky, petty beauty queen.

If she is leaving political office to devote time to being a mother, I applaud her. Its what she should have done last year, by declining McCain's offer of the Vice Presidency. On the other hand, she helped contribute to the amazing political season that was the 2008 elections. I doubt that we will ever see an election cycle more exciting and diverse than that one. Now that she has national fame, it'll be interesting to see what she does with it. Political office is not her calling. Since she got her degree in broadcast journalism, it looks like she might finally get her shot if she ends up as a political commentator on Fox. She owes it to her looks that she got as far as she did in life. If she had Downs Syndrome, we would've never heard of her.

I love this seal because it reflects what the Republican Party has become...a bunch of crybabies. They can't handle criticism from bloggers and the media, but they can sure give it to liberals in their speeches, rallies, and radio talkshows. People who can dish but can't stand the heat don't get my respect. Maybe Obama can give them a one way ticket to Crybabystan. Wahhhhhhhhh!!!

Flashback Friday: Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson has been gone a week and there's still no word on a funeral service. I don't think it will be Princess Diana big, but it'll be big enough.

Anyhow, I don't want to overkill on this global superstar, but I felt that he deserved a special Flashback Friday post. In this post, I'll chart my Top Ten favourite songs and music videos, as well as my four favourite albums of his.

Before I get to that, I looked in a couple more stores for a copy of his Dangerous cd and I'm just amazed that you can't find a single CD of his anywhere. Who knew that his death would cause a buying craze among fans? I'm probably like most of his fans who had moved on to other music and haven't really listened to his classics in years.

However, I am shocked that some fans are so distraught by his death that they have taken their own lives because they couldn't imagine a world without Michael Jackson. Scary! But, I remember hearing about the same thing when Kurt Cobain committed suicide in 1994. MTV VJs had to tell viewers not to harm themselves. With Michael, none other than Civil Rights activist Jesse Jackson (no relation) has come out with a special message to fans who might be thinking of harming themselves.

I was just thinking the other day that there was one five year period where Michael could do no wrong. With his family, he really dominated the music scene from 1983 through 1988. To recap...Thriller was released in late 1982. "Billie Jean," "Beat It," and "Thriller" charted as singles and stunning videos in 1983. In 1984, he swept the Grammy Awards by collecting no less than eight wins. One of them was for voicework he did for the audio book of Spielberg's classic film E.T. (sad that nearly two decades later, he supposedly hired a voodoo practitioner to put a curse on Spielberg for making a Peter Pan film without him in the starring role).

Also in 1984 came the Pepsi commercial and the Victory album and tour with his brothers (which spawned three hits: "State of Shock," "Torture," and "Body"). He sang backup on Rockwell's only hit song "Somebody's Watching Me." Around this time, his brother Jermaine had three hit songs of his own ("Dynamite," "Tell Me I'm Not Dreaming," and "Do What You Do"). Sister Rebbie scored her only (marginal) hit song, "Centipede." In 1985, Michael was instrumental in writing and gathering the great group of American recording artists to record "We Are the World" for charity, with proceeds going to help the famine relief efforts in Ethiopia. His next album was due in 1986, but it was possible that he delayed it until the following year because he wanted his baby sister Janet to finally achieve success of her own with her third album Control. Like her brother, she had a string of hits from a single album, all matched with clever videos.

In 1987 came Bad and the parade of hit singles well into 1988, when he went on tour. Finally in 1988, he also released the fantasy film Moonwalker (in theaters around the world, straight to video in the U.S. It's still not available on DVD) and an autobiography, Moonwalk (no relation to the film he released), that included a forward by none other than Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (who worked as a New York book editor in the 1980s).

What an amazing five year run of success. As I get older, five years goes by much quicker than it did when lived as a kid (I was in the 5th grade when Thriller was unleashed and the 11th grade when Moonwalker landed on video).

As for his music videos, let's have the countdown...

10. "You Are Not Alone"

9. "Earth Song"

8. "They Don't Care About Us"

7. "Smooth Criminal"

6. "In the Closet" (guest starring supermodel Naomi Campbell)

5. "Black or White" (features the Home Alone kid, Macauley Culkin. I loved the diverse costumed people he dances with...particularly the Thai dancers, and the morphing scene at the end. The panther scene and destructive dance sequences at the end was a waste).

4. "Beat It"

3. "Billie Jean"

2. "Remember the Time" (Great ancient Egyptian backdrop, with Eddie Murphy as the Pharoah Ramses and supermodel Iman as Queen Nefertiti. Magic Johnson shows up as well).

And my #1 favourite Michael Jackson music video goes to...





















Duh! "Thriller" brought music video concepts to a whole new level. Before this expensive short film, music videos tended to be poorly thought out, cheaply made advertisements for the song. Its always amusing to watch music videos from the early 1980s. It was part of Michael's genius to see where music videos could go and he really transformed the medium. The Zombie dance sequence is simply classic. I'd love to do that dance in a group someday. It has spawned many imitators, but there's only one who did it first.

Now for my favourite songs by Michael Jackson (I've excluded group collaborations and duets)...

10. "Stranger in Moscow"

9. "Remember the Time"

8. "Will You Be There?" (great Gospel-tinged chorus!)

7. "In the Closet" (this song has a nasty funk to it and also features Madonna's whispered vocals)

6. "You Rock My World" (when this single was released in 2001, I thought Michael was on the verge of a comeback. The melody is simply groovalicious. Too bad the rest of the CD this came from, Invincible, was such a dud)

5. "Human Nature" ("why? why?")

4. "Billie Jean"

3. "Thriller"

2. "Beat It" (Eddie Van Halen does the guitar honours)

And my all time favourite Michael Jackson song is...

1. "Man in the Mirror" -- Take a look in the mirror and make that change! Michael took the lyrics way too seriously!

Now for the Michael Jackson albums. I never heard his Off the Wall album aside from the released singles ("Off the Wall", "Rock With You", and "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough"). I stopped buying his CDs after 1995, so I didn't get the remix album Blood on the Dance Floor (1997) or Invincible (2001), though I did borrow that one for a listen and only liked a couple songs.

Here's my list of the remaining ones...

4. HIStory: Past, Present, and Future. Disc One featured 15 of his classic hits. Disc Two featured 15 new songs. The album cover suggests major narcissitic vanity (he's imitating countries where "the cult of personality" exists by making a huge statue of himself looming larger than life). His long-awaited duet with sister Janet ("Scream") was a disappointing noise and the video (which surpassed the spending record for both "Torture" and "Thriller") was a complete waste. I liked his videos to "They Don't Care About Us" (filmed in Brazil), "You Are Not Alone" (features a naked Lisa Marie Presley as they pretend to be lovers in bed even though they were married at the time), and "Earth Song" (his "Heal The World" of this album). To really understand the mind of Michael Jackson, watch the video to his lullaby-esque "Childhood." I liked his song "History" and its use of historical clips. "Stranger in Moscow" is a cool sounding song, but I was surprised by the title when I first heard it. I'd never connect Michael Jackson to a place like Moscow. But I love songs that use geographical names in the title: "One Night in Bangkok", "Snow on the Sahara," "London Calling," "Leaving Las Vegas," etc.

When this album came out, I knew that his career would be history. I noticed it with other artists. Once you put out a greatest hits album, its like the listening public views it as a musical obituary. Only few seem to transcend it. Already with HIStory, we started seeing the angry Jackson that was only hinted at in 1988's "Leave Me Alone" single. "D.S." is a thinly veiled rant against the prosecutor in the 1993 molestation case. "Money" is about the greedy people who are after his wealth. Listening to some of the songs, you really feel his paranoia coming through and it made you miss the fun loving Jackson of his Thriller days.

3. Bad. It was the most anticipated album in 1987. People had fun with the title, thinking it was truly "bad" (in the original meaning of the world). However, the album sold over 30 million copies and spawned 5 #1 hit singles (a record still unbroken). I listened to it a lot as a teenager, so it hasn't worn well over the years. Its good, but not great. Especially after I hadn't listened to his music in years and started re-listening to his CDs that I have. "Bad" was supposedly a "sequel" to his single "Beat It" but it doesn't carry the same weight. I never get tired of listening to "Beat It." It is a true classic. "Bad," however was tired after a few listens.

On this album, my favourites include "Man in the Mirror" (obviously), "Liberian Girl," "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" (I first heard this song during my family's 3 week vacation through Great Britain in August 1987), "Smooth Criminal" and "Another Part of Me." When Jackson performed a concert in London during his Bad Tour, he supposedly hesitated to sing "Dirty Diana" because Princess Diana was in attendance. However, she apparently loved that song. Its his hardest rock sound (Janet Jackson's "Black Cat" appeared to be a copycat of that song, as it was her hardest rock sound).

2. Dangerous. Probably one of the gaudiest and worst album covers I had ever seen. Its simply "too busy" for me to feel comfortable looking at (I prefer simple album covers, like Sinead O'Connor's I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got or Johnny Clegg and Savuka's Cruel, Crazy, Beautiful World). Released in November 1991, but I didn't buy it because I was in the Navy then and didn't want to look uncool buying a Michael Jackson album. Especially not after I saw a CNN segment that showed crazy fans who weren't afraid to show how excited they were to get this album. Sailors made fun of these fans. Besides, I was more into Johnny Clegg and Savuka, Steel Pulse, Wilson Phillips, and Garth Brooks at this time. And I had endured teasing by my fellow company mates in Basic Training when I bought Huey Lewis and the News latest release, Hard at Play at the Navy Exchange. I wasn't about to endure all that again!

It wasn't until the three days I spent on a submarine in April 1992 on my way to Naples, Italy from La Maddalena, Sardinia that I heard Dangerous for the first time. The yeoman on the submarine would play the CD in the office and jam to it. I had to admit, the beats were pretty fresh. I liked most of the songs. "In the Closet" offers his nastiest funk ever. Its something you'd expect from Prince, not Michael. I really liked the gospel flavour of "Will You Be There?" but I have no idea why that song was picked to be the "theme song" to the movie Free Willy. The song doesn't really fit the movie. Nor did his "Childhood" single fit the sequel Free Willy 2.

"Gone Too Soon" was written for his friend Ryan White, the boy who contracted HIV from a blood transfusion and faced the ignorant hatred of people in the early days of the AIDS scare. The lyrics of the song, though, fit someone like Michael Jackson ("like a comet blazing across the evening sky, gone too soon..."), so it will most likely be played at his funeral service. "Heal the World" was essentially a retread of "We Are the World" but not as good.

I haven't heard this album in years, though, and am thus dismayed that I can't find a copy of it anywhere. Before his death, they had copies available at the used CD and DVD store that I go to occasionally. If record companies are smart, they are pressing more copies of his CDs and DVDs right now to ship to stores. The shortage, apparently, is nation-wide.

1. Thriller. Surprised? Shouldn't be. This is far and away his best album. Even the album cover is classic (not to mention simple). Back in 1983 when my dad went TDY to South Korea for a few months, he brought back "illegal" copies of the Thriller cassette and Culture Club's Colour By Numbers cassette. He gave my brother the Thriller album and I ended up with Culture Club. But since we shared a bedroom, I listened to it as well. I was surprised by how many songs were released as singles and played on the radio. The first time I heard his song "The Girl is Mine" with Paul McCartney, I thought he was a woman (Diana Ross, I supposed) and when I listened to the lyrics, I couldn't understand why the lady was fighting over a girl with a guy. I thought it was about divorce. When I learned that it was Michael Jackson and that he was once part of the Jackson 5, I vaguely remembered watching the cartoon show as a kid as well as hearing their disco song "Shake Your Body Down to the Ground" a few years earlier.

On Facebook, I have a quiz about me where most people marked the wrong answer for "First Album I Really Loved." A lot of people suspected Thriller, which would have been true if I hadn't been completely crazy about Blondie's Autoamerican album in 1980. That was the first album that I really loved and couldn't stop listening to. Thriller was second. Besides the singles "Billie Jean", "Beat It", and "Thriller", I really love "Human Nature" and was glad to see it sampled in a 1994 song by female vocal trio SWV. At the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, at one venue, they played "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'," which is a testament to the timeless appeal of the songs on this album. It quickly became the best selling album of all time within a year or two of release and has only maintained that distinction as it continues to sell.

So, there you have it, folks. A list of my favourites by Michael Jackson. May his music continue to play on earth forever. Those who don't realize how big he is, there was a guy in my company in Basic Training named Jackson. We didn't know first names, so when we heard them for the first time, its always a surprise. Usually, it happened during mailcall in the evening. Well, once the Mail petty officer called out "Michael Jackson" and the whole company laughed. The guy who had the name (a good ole southern boy) was embarrassed, but he was born when the star wasn't so big. In 1985, the last of my cousins was born and his parents wanted to name him Michael. They had talked about giving Grandpa's name (Jackson) as his middle name, but nixed the idea because they figured that people would think that they named their son after the famous singer. They were very wise about that decision!

One final thought about Michael Jackson. I really hope that they turn his Neverland Ranch into a museum like Elvis Presley's Graceland or William Randolph Hearst's Hearst Castle. I'd love to see it someday. A former co-worker of mine went to Neverland Ranch when he was 10 years old as part of an elementary school trip when he lived in the Santa Ynez area. When he first told me that a couple years ago, I joked about his drinking "Jesus Juice" with Michael Jackson, but he swears that he never met the guy. Turning Neverland into a museum/amusement park is a guaranteed money maker. Fans around the world will make their pilgrimage.

Best wishes, King of Pop. Thanks for the memories, the music, and the magic. There will never be another one like you. You really started somethin'.

Random Opinions on Current Controversies

One of these weeks, I swear that I will get back to my serial satire Salmonella Springs. In the meantime, today's post will be scattershot as I write about several issues. Each is worth a separate blog post, but considering how many celebrities seem to be dying this summer (Karl Malden? I keep expecting to hear Patrick Swayze's name next) and other weird events (the sex lives of politicians being exposed for public consumption), I better leave the next week open for possible major news stories to write about.

First item is a blog I've come to read nearly every day (http://www.dogwalkmusings.blogspot.com/) by a writer in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho (where I hope to have a summer home some day when I'm a successful novelist). I agree with her views on most things, but there was one blog post she wrote where people's comments irritated me, so I left a couple comments myself. She had written on a member of Congress who asked for a minute of silence to honour Michael Jackson. Of course, people debated whether he was "worthy" of such distinction, with someone piping in that we should honour the troops who die every day with a minute of silence.

The problem I had with that view is a problem I have with a lot of views of people who don't know the day to day details of Congress. Since I interned in the U.S. Capitol building for four months in 2000, I saw a lot of the things most Americans are clueless about. But, its to be expected. You can't really know things unless you've experienced or seen it for yourself. I've been blessed to have had that opportunity as a young man. So essentially, I said that it was not out of the norm for a member of Congress to honour a distinct constituent in his or her district. It happens all the time on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. Honour is given for any number of events...from the winners of the Little League World Series to the National Spelling Bee Champion, etc. Besides, if Evel Knieval, Dale Earnhardt, and Pat Tillman could get a mention by a member of Congress with a minute of silence, why shouldn't Michael Jackson? Whether you love him, hate him or are indifferent, you cannot deny that he was the biggest global superstar of our lifetime. He truly transcended race, gender, nationality, religion, ethnicity. He's what you would call a global citizen, where every nation wanted to claim him as one of their own.

The above photograph shows a front page of a book that is published and distributed every day on Capitol Hill. It is called The Congressional Record. It is basically a transcript of everything that is spoken on the House and Senate floor for that day. When I interned on Capitol Hill, I was shocked by the speed and volume (so much paper!) of this document. The print is a bit small and there are two columns on a page (like a newspaper). Its not the kind of publication that you would read cover to cover. Its mainly for the historical record and to use as a reference. I think I have a copy saved in one of my boxes for souvenir's sake. Not only does it include elaborate speeches on any given issue by members of Congress, it includes little tributes to various people you never even heard about (the above sample is about a barbecue restaurant, for pete's sake!). I see these tributes as a nice gesture. I wish people would understand that Congress isn't always debating the controversial issues of the day or voting. Its also giving speeches and recognizing various Americans (famous and not) for their deeds.

When I interned in D.C., there was one member of Congress (James Traficant of eastern Ohio) who gave loony one minute speeches every day that he included on his webpage (before he was indicted for bribery and other financial racketeering charges, if I'm not mistaken. The rumour was that he had mob ties). He would pick some strange things to talk about (for example, in one, he criticized CBS for canceling the popular TV show Touched By An Angel). His one minute speeches were basically rants about stupid stuff and he always used the expression: "Beam me up!" and would end it by saying something like, "I yield the violence and profanity back to the immoral Hollywood producers." And yes...his one minute speeches are part of The Congressional Record. Congress considers this daily publication to be a historical document. It is the reason why Congressman Dennis Kucinich read his articles of impeachment against President Bush and Vice President Cheney on the House floor a few years ago. He knew that Congress put impeachment off the table, but he wanted it in The Congressional Record for the sake of history. It is one thing he did that I am quite pleased about.

So, please, people. Let some member of Congress ask for a minute of silence on behalf of her famous constituent Michael Jackson. It truly is not a big deal. Anyone who makes it such does not understand our Congress.

This past week, the news reported that former aide to John Edwards, Andrew Young (not the Civil Rights leader) has sent a book proposal to literary agents and publishers. So much for loyalty. He supposedly received some money from the campaign which doesn't take a genius to figure out was "hush money" to go along with the "cover story" that he (and not Edwards) was the father of Rielle Hunter's baby. Despite being married, Young agreed to have Edwards' New Age mistress move in with them for awhile. When money changes hands, you know something is up. Even more suspicious was when Hunter refused to get a paternity test for her baby. Why would a woman NOT want to know who the father of her baby is? It was so obvious that she was trying to protect Edwards, because according to Young, Edwards had led Hunter to believe that he would marry her after his wife died. What a callow asshole Edwards turned out to be!

That's not all. Another bombshell in Young's book proposal is that he had discovered a sex tape in a box of videos from the campaign. Unbelievable, but not really surprising. I still can't get the image of Edwards looking into the mirror and preening his hair like a Breck girl (which you can find on YouTube. The background music is "I Feel Pretty"). I'm not really shocked that Edwards would make a sex tape with Hunter because he seems like the narcissitic type who loves watching himself. I bet he even has a mirror over his bed. According to Young, Hunter was shocked that Edwards didn't mind making a sex tape and it told her how reckless he was with his personal life. Duh! The guy was running for president and he knew damn well that Clinton's sexcapades with an intern cost Gore the presidency (without the scandal, I have no doubt that the election would have been won by a larger margin in Gore's favour).

As one who still dreams of being a political aide someday to a politician I admire, I can tell you that I am a pretty loyal person but I won't go to jail for the politician. I would see as part of my duties to be the Jiminy Cricket voice of conscience if the politician ever attempted to do something that violated his best interest. More people should be that way. Or more politicians should seek out a conscientious aide like me. I am glad that Andrew Young has decided to write about the part he played in the campaign and cover-up. Edwards might cry foul for being betrayed...but who's he kidding? He betrayed his family, his marriage vows, himself, his career ambitions in public office. The last person he should be angry at is a former aide who decides to spill the beans.

A voyeuristic part of me hopes this video will be available online. John Edwards, porn star! His New Age girlfriend is probably screaming like a banshee: "you're so hot! you're so hot!" Honestly, Elizabeth should dump him and take him for all he's worth.

In other news, the above photo is of the Sanford family that I found online. Governor Mark Sanford gets my vote for "Republican Father of the Year Award." He has four young sons. What did he do for Father's Day this year? Well, while his wife took the boys to the beaches of South Carolina, he was down in Buenos Aires ("I want to be a part of B.A. Buenos Aires. Big Apple," Madonna sang in Evita) crying in the arms of his Argentine lover. How do you explain that one to the kids? Gee dad, I want to be just like you when I grow up!

Since he's been back, news has come out that his spiritual counselor spoke about the Sanfords participating in an intensive couples group (a form of retreat therapy with several couples that is big in some evangelical circles). He's also being compared to King David in the Bible (of course!) and talking about how to redeem himself from this kind of sin. Governor Sanford has so far resisted calls to resign, making speeches with religious overtones about how God supposedly wants him to work through his personal crisis by remaining as Governor since resigning to devote time to himself would be considered the easy way out. What a loser. I hate when people use God that way. It only fosters cynicism about spirituality.

But its common in the South and one of the things I hated about living down there. People tend to prefer candidates who are open about their faith, even though their religious views should have no bearing on the office they hold. However, if someone was private about his or her faith, Southern voters would less likely vote for that person. They prefer someone who is talky about their faith (even if their actions are the complete opposite) than one who is private about faith (but whose actions show an admirable ethical background).

The other thing I hate is that evangelical Christians give Republican politicians a pass at adultery, even as they demand that courthouses around the country display the Ten Commandments or accuse Democrats of not having "family values." Its hypocritical. Even worse, conservatives claim to be against gay marriage because they believe that allowing gay people to marry would undermine heterosexual marriages. Um, I think hot Argentine women have a greater chance of undermining heterosexual marriages than two men (or two women) marrying one another. Seriously...does Melissa Ethridge's marriage to her girlfriend cause Governor Sanford's marriage to fail?

Fortunately, though, Governor Sanford's name can effectively be eliminated from the 2012 pool of Republican sacrificial lambs who will face President Obama's reelection campaign. Its interesting how so many Republicans lately have sabotaged their own presidential ambitions. A few years before 2008, there was talk that Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee would make a run in 2008. Then he lost credibility with the whole Terri Schiavo situation (as a doctor, he watched a video of the comatose woman and made a diagnosis that argued for prolonging her life after nearly 20 years of being in a vegetative state). After he left Congress (in 2006?), he devoted time towards offering medical care in the developing world. I was actually impressed when I heard about his new calling in life. He was a conservative ideologue in the Senate, but is now doing truly important work for people who most need help in our world. That's all I ask of conservative politicians...enough with the mudslinging and holier than thou attitudes despite skeletons in your closet. Just stop calling Democrats immoral and live your values for once.

The other person who got a lot of mention for a possible 2008 run was Senator George Allen of Virginia. He was running for reelection to the Senate in 2006 when someone caught him on video calling an Indian-American (that means heritage from India, not Native American) "macaca." The video went viral and in the magic of today's YouTube / Myspace / Facebook (and now Twitter) world, it was a case of a single word ending a distinguished career. If he couldn't win reelection, what was the point in running for president?

Which brings me to the sore loser, Senator Norm Coleman. On Tuesday, the Minnesota Supreme Court followed the precedent made by local courts and election board that certified Al Franken as the winner of the 2008 Senate race. Earlier, Coleman had vowed to go to the Supreme Court of the United States if he had to, but after Minnesota's Supreme Court ruled, he finally conceded defeat. I'm surprised that he went this long and wasn't embarrassed about it. I hope people everywhere will make a baby wahhhhhing sound anytime they see him. He deserves to be remembered as a crybaby and a sore loser. The irony is that Republicans seemed to encourage his fight through the courts, yet just eight years ago, they were calling Gore a "Sore Loserman."

There is a reason, however. I've read speculation online that Rush Limbaugh was the person behind Coleman's refusal to concede defeat. The rightwing hate Al Franken with a passion. Its not surprising. In his book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, Franken gives point by point facts against claims made by Limbaugh, Coulter, and his biggest nemesis Bill O'Reilly. In fact, O'Reilly seems to go apoplectic anytime Franken's name comes up.

This defeat for Coleman, though, is karmic retribution. In 2002, the most liberal member of the Senate died in a suspicious plane crash just weeks before the election. This was deja vu to another Senate campaign in Missouri two years earlier (Mel Carnahan was killed in a plane accident just weeks before the election. His dead body still managed to defeat incumbent Senator John Ashcroft. Yes, that Ashcroft!). There is speculation online that the plane might have been sabotaged so that it would crash because Senator Wellstone was the biggest opponent of Bush's push for an Iraq War vote and he was expected to run for president in 2004. His funeral was criticized for being too political, but according to Franken, who was a personal friend of the Wellstones and spoke at the funeral, he said that the soul of Wellstone would have loved the political debate his funeral inspired. Wellstone was in my Top Five of favourite Senators. I loved his brutal honesty, which was matched by his fiery passion and personal integrity. He's probably the opposite personality of Senator Harry Reid (the epitome of a wimp).

In the aftermath, the DFL Party (Democrats Farming and Labor) of Minnesota trotted out former Vice President Mondale to run for Wellstone's seat, but he lost to Coleman, who was a friend of Bush. I remember reading jokes about how pathetic it was for Democrats to humiliate poor Mondale with another political loss. It was a bad thing to do to him, but the people of Minnesota were the ones who gave Wellstone's Senate seat to a guy like Coleman. Now, Franken gets to assume Wellstone's seat in the Senate. Whoo-hoo! Celebration time! Gosh darn it, you're good enough and people like you!

What's to come of Norm Coleman? Well, what can you say about a guy who lost the 1998 Governor's race to a feather boa-wearing professional wrestler (Jesse "The Body" Ventura) and the 2008 Senate race to a former Saturday Night Live comedian? Maybe he should try stand-up!

Crazy week. Politics rarely gets this good on a monthly basis...but we get all this in one week? Beam me up! I yield these lying, hypocritical, sex addicted adulterers and cry babies back to the Republican Party where they belong (and Edwards, too!). Put that in The Congressional Record.

BYU Made the Huffington Post

This past weekend, I was shocked to see an article on the Huffington Post about BYU. The Administration of the conservative university that is owned and operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has finally allowed students to access YouTube on the school's Internet service and computers. They had blocked it to "protect" students from content that might run the risk of violating the notorious Honour Code (which all students have to sign and agree to abide by as a condition of attending the school). Professors had another view. Many of them apparently told the Administration that YouTube offers many video clips that are used or referenced in their lectures. Its simply one more learning tool to engage these students who grew up on technology. What's the harm?

I attended BYU a decade ago (1997-2000) and back then, while we had Internet and chatrooms, there wasn't YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, or Friendster. Google existed but wasn't well known yet. I knew at the time that the school computers were monitored and someone told me that typing certain profane words would trigger a call to the Honour Code office. I was skeptical about that but didn't test it out. I'm good about following the rules.

What was most interesting about the Huffington Post article, though, were the comments! Particularly the knee-jerk anti-Mormon people who haven't a clue about Mormon culture or what BYU was like. Their responses were hilarious. They ranged from accusing the Mormons of being a police state, of being as antiquated as the Amish, that Scientology made more sense than Mormon beliefs, that they are polygamists who hate black people, and that Joseph Smith took orders from a talking rock in a hat.

I wanted to comment on the website but I kept logging in to add my opinions and correct some strange claims, but for some reason the Huffington Post wouldn't register me as a new person. There was one person who thought BYU was not an accredited university. Trust me, it is. No one would've gotten school loans if it wasn't. BYU does teach evolution in science class (my biggest concern when I decided to go there was that they would not teach it but rather some form of "intelligent design" which is faulty science). That's a requirement of universities wanting accreditation with the higher education system. I believe schools like Bob Jones University and Regents University, both fundamentalist Christian universities are not accredited because of their refusal to teach evolution in science classes.

Anyhow, since I could not comment on the Huffington Post about my experience at BYU, I decided to write about it on my blog. I think I offer a unique perspective because I'm not a member of the LDS Church or ever was. Though I belong to a splinter group that shares the same heritage, my views are pretty mixed to the point where I can understand how non-religious people and evangelical Christians view Mormons while also having a deep understanding of how Mormons view their own church and others.

Yes, BYU is a conservative university. The Honour Code we had to sign each school year reminded us of our commitment to abstain from alcohol, tobacco, caffeinated drinks, drugs, and sexual activity. Men also had grooming standards (not military strict, but more business professional) and shorts could not be higher than knee level. It was pretty straight forward and nothing I objected to. I was only there for a few years to get an education so I appreciated no distractions. I did not want to go to a party school, so I really liked that BYU did not have the Greek system of fraternities and sororities. I did see people acting crazy, though. I guess you don't need alcohol to be immature.

There were varying degrees of strictness, though. For me, R-rated films weren't a big deal nor was shopping on Sundays. To many students, they swore that it was a God-given commandment and thus a sin to do such things. In my opinion, a personal choice. I loved shopping on Sundays because the stores were less crowded. I remember going to a party once and one guy bragged that he had the edited version of A Few Good Men (it was taped from a network television broadcast). That wasn't what shocked me, though. It was the oohing and ahhing of the other people at the party, like he had a hard to find personal home video of U2 or something.

The biggest controversies while I was there included BYU's Art Museum censorship of the traveling Auguste Rodin sculpture exhibit because of the famous "The Kiss" statue, which BYU officials deemed "pornographic." I remember the absurdity of that argument. I told someone, "yeah, staring at a cold statue is really a turn-on." There was a small protest that I wanted to attend, but I slept in and missed out. Had I made it, I might have become friends with Matt Baker in my first semester, rather than my last semester (in D.C., he was my favourite roommate).

Another controversy was BYU's student run theater editing movies without film studio approval. My first semester, I made the mistake of going to see Batman and Robin at the student theater. They basically silenced everything Poison Ivy said in the film (too much sexual innuendo). The whole Titanic craze got BYU's practice of illegal editing noticed in Hollywood. Mormons didn't want to watch the film unless the sex scenes were cut out. Somehow, Steven Spielberg took offense and sent a cease and desist letter. It wasn't even his movie, but I guess there was a solidarity among film industry types. That killed the theater, which briefly closed, and possibly sparked the now thriving Mormon film industry (I have many Mormon made movies on DVD. I'm a fan, what can I say?). The strange thing is that the International Cinema did not edit the films and not many people seemed to mind. I became a huge fan of foreign films because of the International Cinema at BYU. Truly a great institution!

When MTV came to Provo looking for a Mormon to be on the next installment of The Real World (in New Orleans), that also raised some controversy. I heard many students complain about the "immorality" of MTV. Yet, my apartment had cable and my roommates and I loved to watch The Real World and Road Rules. We even watched the late night Loveline with Dr. Drew, Adam Corolla, and that gorgeous lady (I forget her name). I was finished with college and back in Atlanta when The Real World: New Orleans aired. The result was that the Mormon girl was kicked out of BYU because she lived in a co-ed housing arrangement (another violation of the Honour Code). She seems to have made a career out of MTV Real World vs. Road Rules challenges, though. Lame.

The other controversy I remember is that some guy who owned an adult store in Utah County (often called the most conservative county in the most conservative state in America) was brought up on indecency charges. The judge made the jury (most of whom were Mormon) watch some of the films that were seized (I found that hilarious) and they ended up acquitting him because of his argument that the movies he sold were some of the same movies that hotel guests could order in room service at the Marriott Hotel (owned by a Mormon). Let's not be hypocritical, eh?

I must admit that there were times when I wanted to quit. The bland conformity sometimes got to me. Mormons are so wholesome and "all-American" that I sometimes wanted to barf. I often sought out the most diverse students...a guy from Kenya, a lady from Jamaica, a guy from India, and I fell for ladies from Russia, Tahiti, France, Japan, and the Dominican Republic. I got involved with the BYU Democrats, which was a pathetically small group and we ended up not doing much more than sharing our funniest stories of dealing with the rest of the BYU crowd who thought Mormonism and the Republican Party were one and the same. I found amusement in the knowledge that it was the Republican Party that forced the Mormon Church to rescind polygamy, which Brigham Young swore would be a sign that the church was in apostasy. They deserve each other.

Despite the overwhelming conformity of the student body, there were a few oddities on campus. One guy in my English class wore a Cow costume on Halloween and he raved about shopping at the Pottery Barn. Call me a snob, but I think Pottery Barn is stupid. If I don't like the name, I won't set foot in the place. One girl I worked with was so sheltered that she claimed that everytime the LDS Prophet gave a speech or sermon, the whole world stopped to listen to what he had to say. Most people who aren't LDS have no idea who the Mormon prophet is and besides, even the U.S. president didn't have that ability to get people to stop what they were doing to hear what he had to say. But, this was a girl who got offended by Carol Burnett's character in the child's film Annie. I found that hilarious...offended by Annie!

The religious differences were tougher to deal with than I thought. I even joined a Students of Other Faiths group but was dismayed when these students learned that my church shared the same heritage as the LDS Church. I didn't find them welcoming either. I was truly between a rock and a hard place. Not Mormon enough for Mormons, too Mormon for the non-Mormon students. Give me a break! In fact, at the start of each semester, I would get a call from the Mormon Missionaries. Someone had placed my name in the referral box. I went through the motions, mostly to practice my debating skills. They were so on script, I found it creepy. For instance, in the spring of 1999, I met with Missionaries even though I knew how it would end up (discussions always broke down after the second lesson). I told them that I believed in reincarnation and it was like they didn't even hear me. They continued with their practiced script. They should have known that I was unconvertable at that point. Though I share with Mormons the belief of "the eternal progression of the soul", we differ on how this is achieved. Reincarnation would never be accepted in LDS theology because they believe that they are the One True Church and that souls live just one lifetime on earth. Basically, the only way I'll ever be a Mormon is in a future lifetime, if my soul chooses to be born into a Mormon family.

The conservative nature of the university didn't bother me, though. I believe that's because in my core, I'm pretty conservative. I felt comfortable at BYU. The rules and Honour Code did not bother me at all. I agree that people who have a problem abiding by the Honour Code should not even attend. However, my friend Matt Baker (a temple-worthy priesthood holder) wrote an article for the school paper that was not published which was titled "Why the Honour Code is Unchristian." He majored in print journalism. I knew several journalism students and all of them wanted to write a story about me for the school paper but they all claimed the same thing. Someone higher up nixed that idea. I have my hunches why. Come on, I was the only member of my church to attend BYU in a decade. I was so worthy of a story but I believe that they were afraid of bringing up my church or highlighting it in the life of a student.

Because I generally didn't reveal my church membership right away, I could blend in and I would often hear interesting comments about my church. I never knew what Mormons really thought of the RLDS Church until I went to BYU. To my shock, most of them view the church as a "cult" devoted to the Joseph Smith family. The irony is that Mormons talk about Joseph Smith more than members in my church. That illustrates one of the major differences between our churches. Mormons are encouraged to be obedient to their leaders. In the Community of Christ (RLDS), dissension and disagreement is considered healthy and natural. Its just the nature of conservative mindset (which prefers authoritarian leadership) versus the liberal one (more democratic and tolerant of diversity).

What can I say but that it was an experience. Evangelicals who knock Mormons for being a cult really ought to look in the mirror first before they judge. If people are curious about this religion, they should talk to both members and those who have left the faith. However, Mormons who left the faith to become evangelical Christians might have credibility problems. At least to me. Hearing two conservative religious people argue is absolutely hilarious to me because I can see both sides and understand each person, but also view them both as wrong. I'm tired of the Your God versus My God argument. It's all one God. Human ego gets in the way.

Mormons are good people. I have enough disagreements that I could never be a member unless I was indoctrinated since birth. But I'm glad I went to BYU and experienced it for myself. It was a very good education. And I even got the best compliment ever when my D.C. roommate wrote in the Memory book I put together that I was the person he admired the most because (and I quote) "he kept his faith intact at BYU." When I read that, I nearly cried. I said to him, "you realize what this means?" He said, "no." I looked at him and said, "You won't ever baptize me as a member!" That was the best compliment a Mormon could ever give me. My one wish at BYU was to find just one Mormon who would not make an issue of my religious membership and he was that person.