"Lost"

Let me see ....
Blast doors plummeted in the hatch, as OMG the computer countdown was about to expire! Leg-trapped Locke had to trust the mysterious prisoner who comes through -- then proves to be untrustworthy after all. More weird symbols appeared! A grave is discovered! Jack's good at poker! A parachute with goods falls from the sky! And looks like next week Hurley will fall off a cliff! Look out below!
.... that about covers it. Still if I had to give up 24 or Lost it would be a hard choice. In the end I think Lost is gone. But that is now. Stay tuned.

Jill Carroll

I would like to wish Jill Carroll and her family all the best after her release from captivity in Iraq. Our thoughts have been with you .....

Global Warming

I have considered myuself an environmentalest since I was young. The trend continues as my son will be going to Penn State in the fall to study Environmental Science. My belief is global warming is a fact ... not something to be debated anymore. The debate is what and how much we do to try and slow it's effects.

• "During a speech today, President Bush said “First of all, the globe is warming. The fundamental debate — is it manmade or natural?” Actually, that’s no longer a debate, at least among the overwhelming majority of scientists."
• "In a report to the United Nations, the Environmental Protection Agency says that man-made greenhouse gases in the US will increase 43 percent between 2000 and 2020. And while acknowledging some scientific uncertainties, the EPA says that the recent warming trend “is real and has been particularly strong within the past 20 years … due mostly to human activities.”

Both of the above comments are pulled from Think Progress. So doesn't the President listen to his own EPA? Maybe we should just drill for more oil in Alaska. That will solve the problem!

Think Progress - Bush Says Global Warming May Be “Natural”

• "According to Time, "the global climate seems to be crashing around us," and that "this is precisely what [scientists] have been warning would happen if we continued pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, trapping the heat that flows from the sun and raising global temperatures." Time points to heat waves, floods, storms fires and glacial melts as evidence that we've reached a "tipping point" and says "scientists have been calling this shot for decades."

This came from a good piece on TCS. The problem is at times there is no reasonable middle ground in the debate. This just seems to happen to much in America today.

TCS Daily - Something to Worry About

24

Is 24 the best show on TV right now? I think so and I am a big Lost fan! I had to watch this week's episode three times. The show just keeps getting better week after week. However that could all end next week. The previews show The Department of Homeland Security taking over the CTU. If TV is anything like real life it can only be downhill from here.

Quotes Of War

This comes from an article in The Washington Post by Todd Pitman. It just struck as rude awakening to the war zone!

AP West Africa Bureau Chief Todd Pitman is in Iraq to embed with U.S. troops in Ramadi

" ... We arrived in Ramadi around 2 a.m. Saturday. I'm picked up by a public affairs Sgt. 1st Class Richard Scaricaciottoli, known to most here as Sgt. Scary.Knowing my tent would not stand up well to a mortar attack, and knowing the base has come under attack, I ask if there are any ''Duck And Cover Bunkers'' -- small concrete shelters -- like they have in the Green Zone. ''If you don't get hit, you're good,'' he says. ''If you get hit, you'll probably never know it.''The tent I sleep in is full of soldiers. ..."

Embedded With U.S. Troops in Ramadi - WP

Thoughts Of War

On February 25, 2006, after the bombing of the Askariya Shrine, I had written:

"I have nothing but support for all the troops and the war effort. But there comes a point where I just have to think the hell with them. They don't want us there. They blame us for everything. And all they want to do is kill each other in the name of Allah. I am mad and tired of it and I say LET THEM!"

It didn't take me long to get over that feeling. I don't know if we should have ever gone into Iraq. I did support it at the time and support our being there now. I am not one for cutting and running. We should have learned that lesson in Somalia. We helped create the mess. Some would say we made the mess all on our own. Either way we have to help fix it. I don't think, as some do, that we make it worse by being there.

However after some of the articles I read over the weekend I really do wonder if we know what is going on.

• Trouble In Kurdistan - Time
• Why Iraq's Police Are a Menace - Time
• Bound, Blindfolded and Dead: The Face of Revenge in Baghdad - NYT
• In Kabul, a Test for Shariah - NYT

Books

Just some good books I have been reading.

• "The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell : An Accidental Soldier's Account of the War in Iraq" - Great book by a National Guard soldier sent to Iraq. Amazon
• "A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East" - Good book if you want to know why the middle east is the way it is. Amazon
• "Collapse : How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed" - environmental reasons why society's rise and fall. Amazon

Arctic Drilling Plan Won’t Solve Problem

This is just a copy of an editorial in my local paper. The Reading Eagle-Times in Reading, PA.

March 25, 2006
Arctic drilling plan won’t solve problem
The Issue: The U.S. Senate passes a budget resolution that includes a provision for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.
Our Opinion: Instead of drilling for oil in the Arctic refuge, we should be putting more effort into developing alternative en-ergy sources.
Efforts to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling have become, in the words of one opponent of the move, a recurring nightmare.
Last week, the Republican-controlled Senate, by a razor-thin margin, passed a budget resolution that includes a provision for drilling in the refuge.
Several Republicans voted against the resolution, and it passed only because Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat, agreed to vote for the resolution after being promised up to $10 billion in projected revenues from drilling in the Arctic refuge and other sources to help rebuild the Gulf Coast. Landrieu was the only Democrat to vote for the resolution.
Despite the Senate’s narrow approval of the provision, there is no guarantee it will pass the House. Last fall, moderate House Republicans succeeded in pulling a similar provision from a budget bill that had been approved by the Senate.
The moderate Republicans were upset over cuts made by the Bush administration in programs such as Medicaid, food stamps and student loans. They showed their displeasure by blocking the provision, which has been a major legislative priority for President Bush since he took office.
Things haven’t changed much since the fall. In a recent letter to the House Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle, the group of 24 moderate Republicans, calling themselves the Main Street Republican Partnership, said they still oppose drilling in the refuge and warned Nussle that the issue could split the party.
The only reason the Senate passed the provision last fall was because it was part of a budget measure, and according to Senate rules, it could not be blocked by a filibuster.
That was not the case on the five previous occasions that the matter had come before the Senate in as many years. Each time Senate Republicans failed to find the 60 votes needed to end threatened filibusters. During those years, it had been the House that had approved each drilling proposal.
This effort to put oil derricks in the refuge is a bit puzzling given Bush’s declaration in his state of the union speech that we need to break our addiction to oil.
If the GOP leadership and the Bush administration would put as much effort into encouraging the development of alternative energy sources as it does to drilling in the wildlife refuge, our chances of breaking that addiction would be a lot greater.
Even if Bush and the GOP were to succeed in getting the refuge measure passed this time, it would take as least a decade before the first drop of oil from Alaska’s coastal plane reached U.S. markets. And most experts agree there is not enough oil in the Arctic to meet America’s energy needs for a full year.
Environmentalists are concerned that the drilling would spoil one America’s most pristine natural landscapes.
The concerns are well-founded. Earlier this month a pipeline burst near Prudhoe Bay dumping more than 250,000 gallons of oil onto the tundra in what is being called on of the worst recorded spills on Alaska’s northern slope.
Eventually we’re going to have to face the reality that oil is a finite resource and that it is running out.
Exactly when it will run out no one knows for sure, but the longer we wait to develop alternate forms of energy, such as hydrogen and solar power, the more difficult the transition will be.

"Eventually we’re going to have to face the reality that oil is a finite resource and that it is running out. Exactly when it will run out no one knows for sure, but the longer we wait to develop alternate forms of energy, such as hydrogen and solar power, the more difficult the transition will be."

SO true.

Reading Eagle

Southern By The Grace Of God

I watched The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony on VH 1 Tuesday night. I have always liked Lynard Skynard. But when I talk about my favorite bands they never seem to come up. However "Freebird" is and always has been one of my favorite songs.

They started to play it Tuesday night and I thought to myself. How many times have they played this song over the years? Hundreds or thousands? As far as I am concerned they never played it better than they did Tuesday night! Except possibly the original live version from 1976's "One More For The Road".

Guitarist Rickey Medlocke, who is not an original member,, played five minutes of the most intense guitar I have ever seen. It was such a great performance I had to stay up for the replay to see it again.

I have never had the honor if seeing Skynard in concert. But Tuesday it was an honor just to hear them play.

Classic lineup
Ronnie Van Zant, lead vocals & primary songwriter (from 1964 until death in 1977)
Allen Collins, guitar (from 1964 to 1977)
Gary Rossington, guitar (from 1964 to present)
Bob Burns, drums (from 1964 until 1974) Larry Junstrom, bass (from 1964 to 1972)
Leon Wilkeson, bass (from 1972 until death in 2001)
Ed King, guitar (from 1973 to 1975 and again from 1987-1995) (also, bass on first album)
Steve Gaines, guitar (from 1976 until death in 1977)
Billy Powell, keyboard (from 1973 to present)
Artimus Pyle, drums (from 1975-1992)
Cassie Gaines, JoJo Billingsley and Leslie Hawkins, background vocals
Present lineup
Johnny Van Zant, lead vocals
Gary Rossington, guitars
Billy Powell, keyboard
Ean Evans, bass
Rickey Medlocke, guitar (also played drums briefly in 1971)
Michael Cartellone, drums
Dale Krantz Rossington and Carol Chase, background vocals

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum
Lynard Skynard Official Site

Rambling Thoughts

Call this the Global Warming and Ignorance edition.

I was at a birthday party for my cousin's son Sunday night. We had 60 Minutes on the TV after Villanova b-ball game. Well there was a piece on about the Bush administration's censoring of scientific reports on global warming. Well I got into an argument with my uncle, cousin, and another cousin's husband. I was outnumbered. They don't believe in global warming or anything like it. Which brings me to the quote of the night.

Cousin's husband - "I think it's just arrogant to think we can change the environment."
Other gems - "Science is just political ... The administration can't put out reports it doesn't believe in" - as if science were, well, political.

Come on now. I just wished my son was in the room. He will be going to Penn State in the fall to study environmental science. Very into it. He would have argued them into the ground ... Me I gave up.

Simple Thoughts On Life

This is a copy of a posting by Sandy a friend of mine on MySpace. I don't think truer words have ever been written I don't need to add a thing.

Date: Mar 19, 2006 4:36 PM
Today has been one of those days for me where you have commitments - things you really don't want to do on your 'Sunday' but things that you must do as a friend.
To make it short and sweet, I attended a memorial service for a dear friend's brother this morning and a wake this evening for one of my daughter's best friends dad's who unexpectedly passed on very short notice.
Today has placed me in a very retrospective state of mind - has made me think about what one has and sometimes never even realizes until it is no longer there. With that said, I have only a few things to say.
Live every day to it's fullest - enjoy the sunshine, breathe the air, if it's raining - listen to the sounds it brings.
Always tell anyone and everyone in your life that you love them - either on the phone, walking out the door or in an e-mail you never know if you will have that opportunity again. Never go away from a loved one angry with words of love unsaid.
Don't wallow in sorrow for yourself and what you may not have or may have missed out on, but rejoice in everything you do have - health - family, loved ones - a place keep you warm.
Treasure every moment that you have on this earth - treasure every relationship that you have - they are so precious and one doesn't know from one day to the next if you will have that opportunity.
Smile, smile, smile - share yourself with others in a positive manner - so they will remember you with fond thoughts.
So much for the rambling.....simply said - live, love, laugh - you may not have tomorrow to enjoy that opportunity.

"American Theocracy"

I just read to articles, one in the March 17, 2006 New York Times and the other in the January 24, 2006 Rolling Stone, that taken together show a scary trend in our country. I am not a religious man although my family always has been. I did grow up in church and do believe in a higher being. I tell you this because I don't want to seem like someone who has no faith and doesn't want you to have it either. I just don't think it has a place in our government or politics.

We are a nation of many peoples and many religions. All good and all right in their own way. The relegious right has way too much power in this country and it needs to stop. How I don't know. I am just a guy trying to enjoy my and my family's life in this great nation. My son can vote for the first time this year. I think his first couple of elections could be some of the most important ever.

I ramble - hear are the articles:

From the NYT "'American Theocracy,' by Kevin Phillips - Tying Religion and Politics to an Impending U.S. Decline . It is a book review of Kevin Phillips' book.

"As he's done in so many of his earlier books, Mr. Phillips draws a lot of detailed analogies in these pages, using demographics, economic statistics and broader cultural trends to map macropatterns throughout history. In analyzing the fates of Rome, Hapsburg Spain, the Dutch Republic, Britain and the United States, he comes up with five symptoms of "a power already at its peak and starting to decline": 1) "widespread public concern over cultural and economic decay," along with social polarization and a widening gap between rich and poor; 2) "growing religious fervor" manifested in a close state-church relationship and escalating missionary zeal; 3) "a rising commitment to faith as opposed to reason and a corollary downplaying of science"; 4) "considerable popular anticipation of a millennial time frame" and 5) "hubris-driven national strategic and military overreach" in pursuit of "abstract international missions that the nation can no longer afford, economically or politically." Added to these symptoms, he writes, is a sixth one, almost too obvious to state: high debt, which can become "crippling in its own right."

New York Times - American Theocracy
New York Time - American Theocracy - Clear And Present Dangers

From Rolling Stone "God's Senator - Who would Jesus vote for? Meet Sam Brownback" is just what it seems. An article about Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas.

"They were striving, ultimately, for what Coe calls "Jesus plus nothing" -- a government led by Christ's will alone. In the future envisioned by Coe, everything -- sex and taxes, war and the price of oil -- will be decided upon not according to democracy or the church or even Scripture. The Bible itself is for the masses; in the Fellowship, Christ reveals a higher set of commands to the anointed few. It's a good old boy's club blessed by God. Brownback even lived with other cell members in a million-dollar, red-brick former convent at 133 C Street that was subsidized and operated by the Fellowship. Monthly rent was $600 per man -- enough of a deal by Hill standards that some said it bordered on an ethical violation, but no charges were ever brought."

Rolling Stone - God's Senator

".... an economy based on moving and managing money, a trend encouraged, Phillips argues persuasively, by the preoccupation with oil and (somewhat less persuasively) with evangelical belief in the imminent rapture, which makes planning for the future unnecessary. " - American Theocacy.

In the end scary stuff all.

Thoughts Update (March 6, 2006)

I had written about something I read concerning demographics. It concerned mostly Europe and Islam. I got a comment from k t cat where he stated he had blogged the idea too. I read the piece and thought it was very good so I wanted to thank him and post a link here.

The Scratching Post: Mi nombre es K T Gato
The Scratching Post

The Old Record Store

I just read an article I had saved from the January 21, 2006 edition of the LA Times called "It has bins; don't call it a has-been". Written by Robert Lloyd it is a commentary about the death of the independent record store in our modern age. Being a lover of music, with a collection of 800 vinyl LPs, it hit a soft spot.

I can remember visiting LA when I was 14 and spending a lot time in a record store because we didn't have one back home in small town PA. As I got older and went to college I found myself searching them out. I still go to flea markets today looking for someone who has old LPs I can hold.

"Some say that in the future, the near future, there will be no records, and so no record stores of any kind to sell them. All your music will arrive sucked through a cable or beamed from a satellite or by some means not yet imagined. (Pill form, possibly.) You will never need to leave the house. In fact, that pretty much has already happened".

Nothing wrong with the change .... Changing world and all. It's not necessarily worse. Just different. My son is seventeen. He likes to pick the box up and read it, look at the back, and read the notes. Thing is chances are he is holding a PC or video game in the local BestBuy store.

"I know that for some, and not only of the X, Y and Z generations, cyberspace is as authentic a marketplace as any other, but I am old-fashioned enough to want to get out of the house once in a while, into real three-dimensional spaces stocked with things you can see and smell and pick up and turn over to see what they look like on the other side".

I myself like to "cruise" through Amazon looking for music I never would check out anywhere else. And a few times a year I head to Renninger's (a local antique and flea market) where I know there are a couple of sellers of good old vinyl.

"Proust had his madeleine, but nothing unlocks the seven volumes of my memory so much as handling some LP I bought when I was 13 or 14 years old. There are those of us for whom music is a fetishistic activity, in the primary meaning of fetish: "an object that is believed to have magical or spiritual powers." Can one fetishize an MP3 file? I haven't been able to yet. (You can fetishize the player, as Apple accountants can attest, but that is a different thing.)"

There is still nothing like going thru the bins of LPs. Big envelopes with big pictures and lots of liner notes. Maybe the change is for the worse after all!

"You can still find me there among them, going through the bins, still trying to work out my future."

LA Times - It has bins; don't call it a has-been
LA Times
Musicstack.com Vinyl Records

Post Oscar Part III

Ok so here is a pic of my winners . Left to right - Jessica Alba, Keira Knightley, and Nicole Kidmann.

Post Oscar II

(Written Monday March 6, 2006)

After a good night s sleep and some careful thought I bring you my winners from last night's 78th Academy Awards.

• Big Winner Of The Night goes to Jon Stewart. I thought he did an outstanding job. He was funny and pushed it as close to the edge as he could. I really hope to see him do the show again.
• Favorite Line again goes to Jon Stewart. When he said "Walk the Line" is just "Ray" with white people.
• Best Montage The clips that showed how "gay" the old western movies were. Especially the last one with Gregory Peck and Carlton Heston. Maybe John Wayne did roll over in his grave Sunday nite (see below).
• Best Post Award Show Interveiw goes to George Clooney. Man makes history being nominated for supporting actor for one movie and director for another, He wins the supporting actor one. So what is the first question he is asked? Are you dating Terri Hatcher. Answer - "I don't talk about my personal life. Next".
• Best Dresses (otherwise known as the hotties of the night) Uma Thurman (can't have a hottie list without her on it!), Jessica Alba, Nicole Kidmann, Keira Knightley, and Hillary Swank.
• OK Loser Dress of the Night goes to the beautiful Charlene Theron. What was she thinking. Loved the dress itself but the pillow on her shoulder had to go.

Post Oscar

The Duke is safe in his grave tonight. Brokeback mountain didn't win the best picture oscar. So Big John doesn't have to roll over!

Thoughts For Today - Part II

I was just read a great essay from Opinion Journal. "It's the Demography, Stupid
The real reason the West is in danger of extinction". Written by Mark Steyn. In it he argues how the west will lose to radical Islam not because of war. They will lose simply because of demographics. A scary thought.


"Most people reading this have strong stomachs, so let me lay it out as baldly as I can: Much of what we loosely call the Western world will not survive this century, and much of it will effectively disappear within our lifetimes, including many if not most Western European countries. There'll probably still be a geographical area on the map marked as Italy or the Netherlands--probably--just as in Istanbul there's still a building called St. Sophia's Cathedral. But it's not a cathedral; it's merely a designation for a piece of real estate. Likewise, Italy and the Netherlands will merely be designations for real estate. The challenge for those who reckon Western civilization is on balance better than the alternatives is to figure out a way to save at least some parts of the West".

Opinion Journal - It's the Demography, Stupid

Thoughts For Today

"Civilizations die from suicide, not murder" Arnold Toynbee.

Arnold Joseph Toynbee was a British historian whose twelve-volume analysis of the rise and fall of civilizations, A Study Of History, 1934-1961, was a global history based on rhythms of rise, flowering and decline.
Wikipedia - Arnold J. Toynbee

"The fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural." Samuel P. Huntington

The Clash of Civilizations is a theory in international relations popularized by Samuel P. Huntington. The basis of Huntington's thesis is that people's cultural/religious identity will be the primary agent of conflict in the post Cold War world.
Wikipidia - The Clash Of civilizations

The Reunited Caliphate - Has this become a problem?

Just some links to a interesting, or just plain arresting, idea.

• TCSDaily (1/18/2006) - How Many Divisions Has the Caliph?
• TCSDaily (3/2/2006) - The Caliphate's Rebirth?
• Washington Post (1/14/2006) - Reunified Islam: Unlikely but Not Entirely Radical

And a good book on the history involved - A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East - by David Fromkin.

Quote from the WP article - “Why do you keep invading Muslim countries?” The man continued, “I won’t live to see it, and my children won’t, but one day maybe my children’s children will see someone declare himself the caliph, like the pope, and have an impact.”

Washington Post

TCS Daily