January Week 4, 2008

Monday  January 21 , 2008

I have never gone to sleep with a grievance against anyone. And, as far as I could, I have never let anyone go to sleep with a grievance against me.

Abba Agathon, monk (4th/5th century)

I got the tires rotated and balanced, Ken discovered that two of the tires are not round, that's why the damned things are hopping around. Ken put the bad tires on the back. I took Monica to practice and gave Valerie to work at the MMM.

I just read an amusing (to me at least), heated discourse on LUKE 14:26 between two certified 'experts' on the Bible;

"If any one comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple."

I don't get it, I really couldn't care less what words some ancient unnamed scribe chose to use to replace the original Greek/Hebrew but I am curious why grown men and women will have screaming matches about which parts of the bible need to be "Interpreted" and which parts are to be taken "Literally" I am beginning to understand that the arguments stem from which self-serving point of view will benefit from the literal reading and which from the "Let me help you interpret this passage" point of view... what a crock.

Sorry, I know, there he goes ranting about the bible again... it's just that I had not been aware of how nasty and heated these discussions can be. I'm right, your wrong because I say so arguments have no real influence over me but I am curious about what some people have invested in one side over another. Why do folks get so agitated? Yes I know, I get agitated frequently and there are many times when I can not put my finger on where the passion comes from. It seems like most of us can go blithely through life shining on 99% of the stuff that we encounter is dismissed as 'Not my business', 'To each his own', 'Live and let live'. but every one has a tender, vulnerable spot somewhere, for some it is their religious belief and for others it's sports or politics or family but everyone has a core belief that can not be threatened, some concept that they feel defines them. It's basic and primal, and I wonder if these closely held personal creeds are deemed unassailable because the precepts that established them are based on emotion or faith and not fact. Precept v. Concept. Interesting  

Tuesday  January 22 , 2008

It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so, and will follow it by suppressing opposition, subverting all education to seize early the minds of the young, and by killing, locking up, or driving underground all heretics.

Robert A. Heinlein

Christy and I worked on a budget, it's not fun and it's a good thing we have been married a long time and still like one another because budgets can be very stressful. We have enough money coming in now but the in not to distant future the income will definitely diminish and we need to be sure we can survive. At the moment it's medical bills that are clobbering us. The older you get the more expensive the procedures become...

Wednesday  January 23 , 2008

Our heads are round so that thoughts can change direction.

Francis Picabia, painter and poet (1879-1953)

Christy and I got a slow start going to Colville for Croceries. I had to get the trash out of the garage and was just about done loading the truck when Michelle from school called to say she had seen Mile at the top of the road near Box Canyon Dam with the hood up and it was really smoking bad. So I finished loading my truck and drove off to see if I could help. I got to the top of the hill by the dam but I didn't see him, I saw him further down the road at the gas station in Ione and the truck was DOA. I helped him push it to a safe place and drove him to work. The truck had apparently overheated and froze up.

Thursday  January 24 , 2008

Say nothing of my religion. It is known to God and myself alone. Its evidence before the world is to be sought in my life: if it has been honest and dutiful to society the religion which has regulated it cannot be a bad one.

Thomas Jefferson

Trent got Dish Network TV, he apparently pays for Don's TV too. The installer hooked it up and left but he never verified that the RF? #2 remote control would be able to send and receive from the box. Trent called me over to help sort it out. The signal wasn't strong enough but it took a 58 minute phone call to prove it to the TS Lady... Some weird stuff going on with one of the towns folk, he seems to be losing his cool at the drop of a hat... I like him and he could be a real asset to the town if he could only control his mind a little bit better.

Friday  January 25 , 2008

When I look back on all the worries I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which never happened.

Another girl at our doorstep crying, this was Melissa, Christian's girlfriend, apparently, according to her and her brother, she had a fight with her mother and got kicked out of the house. I have not heard many positive things about the mom and I have not had all that many positive experiences with the daughter... Oh well, We can't take any more kids in this house, especially this one. She found a room at another house, too bad so sad, I am just up to my eyeballs in stress at the moment and so is Christy.

I had a small meltdown with Christian this morning. (I wrote a lot more here but erased it... suffice to say, things can not remain status quo.

Saturday  January 26 , 2008

Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.

Buddha

...here we go again... This town is a rumor mill, I got caught up in another maelstrom of rumor and innuendo. On Thursday I heard a rumor from Calie that the daughter of a friend of mine was pregnant. I consider this guy to be a good friend but I also figured I couldn't ask him because if it was just a rumor and he hadn't heard it then he would be colossally pissed and if it was true then he would tell me in his own time, not my business. Besides, knowing him, I may need to collect some bail money to get him out of jail because he would be kicking the crap out of whoever was responsible. So, like an idiot, I went down to the good ol' MMM and waited till the store was empty and asked the same girl from last time if she had heard any rumors about a girl at the school being pregnant. Without hesitation she mentioned my friends daughter, she had heard it earlier from a friend of hers. I asked if anyone knew if it was really true or not and she said no but she would ask the mom, whom she considered to be a friend. Well the word got to the father from the mom that I was the one spreading the rumor... shit.

The next day I went in and the girl at the MMM said she talked to the mom and it wasn't true and I thought that was the end of it.

I haven't had a chance to tell Calie that the rumor was untrue.

This morning I was sitting in the MMM and the father came in and I got railed at for spreading the rumor that his daughter was pregnant, he was really pissed at me and there was nothing I could say to convince him I was trying to stop a rumor not spread it.

When you hear a rumor you have three choices, try to forget it, believe it or try to find out the truth. I have always felt that trying to find out the truth was the best way to go but in seeking the truth you have to try to dig for the facts and that is not always easy. I will talk to my friend again and try to get him to understand that I was just trying to get at the truth and if it was true I would try to help, if it was a lie I would try to stop it.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch... Melissa was still here in the morning, the ride to her friends house was apparently a fiction... or something... damn

I thought that moving to a small town would let us live a simpler, less stressful life... boy was I ever wrong.

There is something to be said for the anonymity of large cities, and there is something very scary about the fragility of your reputation in a small town. All you need to do is befriend someone's enemy, allow a misunderstanding to persist. Repeat a rumor, comment on someone's life style, get interested or not get interested in someone's business ... hard to figure. Helping is an insult, not helping is a snub. All I want is to be involved and to be an asset to the town, I am feeling myself around and for the most part I think I am making the right choices but I am making mistakes too. The old Hippy theory of life was summed up as; "Life's a bitch, then you die."

Which leads me to another rumination on "What is it all about." It would be comforting to believe that we all had a purpose. That there was a plan behind the chaos. I doubt it, if there was a plan then it would be possible to always make things come out alright. Lots of people are motivated by one thing or another; Money, Power, Influence, Sex, God, Helping, Taking, Giving, Complaining, Appeasing, Love, Hate, Anger, Tranquility... we all know people who find a reason to live in one or more of those categories. They are all right in a way because they have found out what motivates them to move ahead and get on with the day, and they are all wrong to someone who needs something else. The thing about all this that bothers me is that the pursuit of one thing excluding all others is an obsession. If the thing that motivates you is money for example then anything you do to acquire more money is OK as long as you can get away with it. Perhaps my only problem is that I am envious of all those people that seem to have found their reason to live and I haven't found the thing that makes me feel worthwhile yet... I'd better hustle, time is running out.

Now, OK, I have my family and I have my wife and Autumn and the kids but there should be more... shouldn't there...?

Sunday  January 27 , 2008

Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them. There is almost no kind of outrage... torture, imprisonment without trial, assassination, the bombing of civilians... which does not change its moral color when it is committed by 'our' side. The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.

George Orwell

No football... but today is the third week of Supercross and I did manage to catch the San Francisco race, unfortunately it was a mud race, it rained like it can only rain in Frisco... a survival race.

We took Melissa home, I did not have a real warm fuzzy feeling about it but I guess it's OK. 

A friend sent me this:

2008 Democratic National Convention Schedule

2008 Republican National Convention Schedule
 
  5:00 am ~ Opening Prayers and Flag Waving Ceremony, Entire Congregation Assembly, Participation Mandatory.
  7:15 am ~ Pledge of Allegiance to Halliburton & OPEC.
  7:20 am ~ Dick Chaney sacrifices a lawyer
  7:25 am ~ Religious prayer and worship with Ted Haggard and Archbishop Earl Paulk
  7:45 am ~ Ceremonial tree burning (If one can be found)
  7:55 am ~ Larry Craig proposes a Bathroom Break
  8:00 am ~ Trickle Down Economics or “What do I do Now” by Ben Bernanke
  8:15 am ~ Lecture: Ethical Treatment of Pages – Rep Mark Foley presiding
  8:35 am ~ Larry Craig proposes a Bathroom Break
  8:40 am ~ Lecture: “Abu Ghraib” Never Happened – Donald Rumsfeld

  9.00 am ~ Memorial service for Jerry Fallwell – George Bush and John Ashworth presiding
10:00 am ~ ‘Etiquette' – Dick Cheney & John Bolton
11:00 am ~ Larry Craig proposes a Bathroom Break
11:05 am ~ Collection for the “George Bush Coloring Book Library” fund – Jeb Bush
11:15 am ~ Lecture: “Why We Must Euthanize all Non-Christians”  - Ann Coulter
11:30 am ~ Pentagon “Office of Strategic Influence”, Why It Is Still A Good Idea – Paul Wolfowitz
11:45 am ~ Larry Craig proposes a Bathroom Break
11:50 am ~ George Bush reads motivational passages from “My Pet Goat”

12:15 pm ~ 'Truth in Broadcasting Award' - Presented Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage
12:25 pm ~ Larry Craig proposes a Bathroom Break
12:30 pm ~ Satellite address by King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud
12:45 pm ~ Nomination of ‘Jesus’ as Mike Huckabee’s Running Mate by Representative from the First Southern Baptist Church of Arkansas
 1:00 pm ~ Larry Craig proposes a Bathroom Break
 1:05 pm ~ Sainthood of Ronnie Reagan announced by the Vatican
 1:30 pm ~ Larry Craig proposes a Bathroom Break
 1:35 pm ~ Lecture “I speak for God and I know what’s best for you” George Bush
 4:00 pm ~ Dick Cheney sacrifices another lawyer, meeting adjourned 

The Clinton twofer:

Hillary and Bill are playing a dangerous game

By Rosa Brooks

Special to the Los Angeles Times Article Last Updated: 01/24/2008 06:59:52 PM MST

Whether you loved them or hated them, Bill and Hillary Clinton were always a twofer. On the campaign trail in 1992, Bill used to joke about it. Vote for me and get "two for the price of one,"
he chuckled. Plenty of Americans thought this wasn't such a bad idea. A bumper sticker popular at the time proclaimed: "I'm voting for Hillary's husband."
The Clintons seem to want that bumper sticker resuscitated. Bill's back on the campaign trail, waxing eloquent about his White House days, pummeling Hillary's rivals and promising more good times if Hillary becomes the Democrat nominee: You liked Clinton I? You're gonna love Clinton II!
In contrast to 1992, though, the Clintons now officially pretend that they're not a twofer. When critics Barack Obama among them complain that it's hard to figure out which Clinton is actually running for president this year, Hillary responds with wide-eyed incomprehension: Goodness, what's this fuss about Bill? "This campaign is not about our spouses, it's about us,"
she explained demurely to a South Carolina debate audience. "Michelle (Obama) and Elizabeth (Edwards) are strong and staunch advocates for their husbands, and I respect that." Isn't Hillary allowed to have a supportive spouse too?
Butter wouldn't melt in her mouth.
The problem for Hillary Clinton is that, as usual, she wants it both ways. She wants to be judged on her own merits and not be treated as Bill's Mini-Me. But she also wants to reap the benefits of Bill's popularity, and offers voters the reassuring suggestion that if there's a crisis while she's in the White House, there will be someone around who really does have executive branch experience namely, Bill to lend a hand.
But the Clintons are playing a dangerous game. The more they remind us of what we liked about Act I of the Bill and Hillary Show, the more they also remind us of what we hated.
It's true that the Bush administration is enough to make anyone nostalgic for the Clinton era. Compared with the catastrophes that President Bush unleashed, Bill Clinton's misdeeds seem like minor peccadilloes. Under Clinton, the United States didn't fall into a potentially devastating economic crisis, didn't rack up record-breaking debts and budget deficits, didn't adopt a policy of torturing people, didn't seek to gut international human rights standards, didn't get bogged down in any major, pointless and unwinnable wars and didn't actively alienate huge swathes of the global population. On the other hand and where the Clintons are concerned, it's always wise to wonder what the hand you can't see is up to once you stop comparing the Clinton presidency with the Bush presidency, it no longer looks so great. On the whole, the Clinton era was a time of culture war and scandal, "triangulation" and botched reforms (healthcare anyone?), vacillation and paralysis.
On foreign policy in particular, Clinton's presidency was an era of missed opportunities. In Somalia, Bosnia, Haiti, Rwanda and Kosovo, U.S. policy was marred by hesitation and lack of commitment. Despite impressive rhetoric on the emerging challenges posed by globalization, nuclear proliferation, WMD and the rise of transnational terrorism and nonstate actors, Clinton developed few innovative ways to address these challenges; his approach to conflict and crisis was piecemeal. His early defeat on gays in the military left him so scarred that he steered clear of the military for most of his presidency, passively letting uniformed personnel dictate the terms of too many foreign policy decisions and ignoring hard questions about how to reshape the military to face post-Cold War threats.
Today, if Obama's mere existence at times seems to make Bill Clinton apoplectic, it's not just because Obama (whose foreign policy judgment has so far been significantly better than Hillary's on Iraq, Iran and Pakistan) is the main Democratic barrier to a third Clinton term. It's also that Obama's promise of a politics that's not just bipartisan but beyond partisan is an implicit rejection of the Clintons' all-politics-all-the-time ethos, of their willingness to let crucial national decisions be driven by petty political considerations, of their lack of interest in dealing with big questions when they could coast along with a compromise here, a favor there and some tinkering over here.
Before Sept. 11, 2001, tinkering kept us afloat. But it's no longer enough.
Obama offers something transformative and new, and this frightens some voters, who wonder if he can live up to his undeniable potential. The Clintons, meanwhile, offer something old and familiar. But will a trip down memory lane with Billary reassure voters or end up frightening them even more?
--- ROSA BROOKS is a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. E-mail: rbrooks@latimescolumnists.com