The United States, World Power?

We are told that we live in the country that is the last remaining Super Power. Politicians, pundits and patriots preach that we have the best of any society on earth. We represent the finest in health care, educational opportunities and chances better ourselves, and these benefits are there for the taking.

Not only that, we are challenged by the current administration to spreed this freedom and bounty with the rest of the world, by force if necessary. We went to war in Iraq, President Bush would have us believe, to give the middle eastern countries a model for democracy.

Let's face the facts. We have failed to rebuild Iraq and New Orleans. We neither have the will, the assets or the organization to pull off both. We have bridges falling down in Minnesota, as the recipients of our largess in Iraq blow up the oil production facilities, hospitals and schools that we built for them.

Recent revelations from Medical Journals confirms that we've fallen in the world rankings in birth rates, life expectancy and excel in category of cost of health care per capita. On top of all of this we have more people who can afford the cost of health care and are not covered by insurance. However that compression is not fair. We are being compared to other western democracies that have government sponsored health care of one sort or another.

The whole mess in education is beyond the boundaries of this commentary. But can be summarized in findings that relate our low ranking among world students in math and science.
So, we as a world power we are losing in every category that matters. How does it feel to be a Super Power?

Fall, and other myth's about Wisconsin weather

Seasons in Wisconsin seem to transition overnight. This is the state where dressing in layers became a fashion statement out of necessity. One week we were drenched in sweat as the temperatures and the humidity raced each other at new heights. The next week we were soaked with warm rain. As I write, we are experiencing a significant cooling off period with a day or two of heat that visits like an old lover, tempting us to uncover, but with the knowledge that nothing is permanent in this seductive behaviour. Let me be clear, this is normal.

When I tell my wife that I can hear the death-rattle in the throat of winter and it's only February, she derides me. Her problem is that she confuses long gray days with sloppy snow piles with winter weather. To me, this seemingly endless, suicide inducing gloom is spring.

Spring in Wisconsin isn't a dream. It happens. It just doesn't happen for very long. It may happen while your taking your afternoon nap or stopping for lunch. You wake up or you come out of the restaurant and it's over. Needless to say, enough people miss the event to the extent that a great number of people don't believe in it or if they experience the phenomenon think they were mislead by an over consumption of mind altering drugs or alcohol.

The wide extremes in our normal weather patterns lead me to believe that global warming is nature way of giving us break. if we even slowed down the pendulum to swing from only highs in the 90's and lows of minus 20 degrees to say 85 and 0, we would become a mecca for people that lust for Ireland or some other country where the artists flourish because of genuine lack of interest in going out doors and yet it's nice enough to cultivate poets that are sad but not suicidal.

City Mouse vs Country Mouse

We were having dinner with old friends this last weekend. We are in contact with these folks on a regular basis, but because of schedules and the distance between our homes, we don't get to see them as often as we would like.

The subject of conversation was about trips to New York City. We all agreed it was a great city and wonderful to visit, but there the similarities began to evaporate. It was obvious to me that we would not be good traveling companions in NYC with these folks since our tastes and interests went in wildly diverse directions. I think it was when his lip curled when we related that we likes to just walk through Greenwich Village and dream about living there that I thought to myself, he'd rather go to see "Lion King". As it turned out I was wrong, it was "Mama Mia".

Don't misinterpret here. I'm not being a theater snob. Anything that keeps the lights burning on Broadway is a good thing, but my wife and I prefer drama to Disney. We live in the city and love it. They live in the suburbs and to them it's heaven on earth. I have another good friend that thinks living in the suburbs is living in the city and if he doesn't have acres around him feels penned in.

I have difficulty thinking of why the other guy's preferences are so great, and I 'm sure the reverse is true. I like to visit the burbs and the country, but I would not like living there. They think the city is a place of pollution and crime and I think their lives are devoid of any kind of human stimulation.

They claim they come to the city for theater and culture, but on examination they don't partake nearly as often as we do. In fairness, my wife points out the very often a neighbors in the city don't either. But I know Maria and I wouldn't involve ourselves in the cultural aspects of the city nearly as much if we lived in the burbs.

The other glaring difference is the cultural diversity of the City of Milwaukee and the suburbs. Put bluntly, there isn't any diversify in the suburbs and unfortunately both the white community and the black and Hispanic community seem content with that. We are not.

Again, I don't want to sound righteous and indignant. These likes and dislikes, and the differences in our comfort zones are what make us human. All bigots don't live in the burbs and many people from the burbs regularly take advantage of what the city has to offer. My point here is that there are differences and these folks are still friends and we can relate in areas where we are comfortable.

Because of our interaction we learn from each others experiences what is going on in their world and they in ours. We find that their world is not as sterile and lonely as we might think, and they find that we are not awaken to the sounds of gunfire every night. All in all, it's a good thing to have some contact with your opposite mouse

If you've been reading this regulary...

please forgive my unannounced absence. My time to write has been overtaken by life and the unexpected things it can throw in our path to make the journey interesting although bumpy.
I will resume today with a small piece. I've got to exercise my muscles before I try and run a race.

The Futility of Faith

I was discussing my personal philosophy of religion with a friend recently. This is not a regular occurrence in my daily conversations. Somewhere along the line I learned that in polite company one did not discuss religion and politics.

I got over the political prohibition when my personal beliefs were in vogue. Than came the tough years, when liberals replaced communists in the major bogyman category and we went into hiatus only to emerge recently as progressives. (Actually we were always more progressive, but when you let the other guy define and label you, you have to take what they give you.) At any rate, I've been speaking out on my politics more recently because if I don't relieve the pressure of living in this age of conservatism, I will implode. Sometimes it feels like these snotty smug conservative bastards are here just to make my life living hell, and then there's the God factor.

So many conservatives are draping the flag around their shoulders and holding a bible that you'd think they owned them both. They, like so many despotic movements, use religion as a method of control. God said this,and that, and that is why we must do whatever I say because I need you to fulfil the agenda, which usually results in you giving them money or power or both. And let's face it if you care enough to vote, and trust me no politician cares about anyone who doesn't vote, you probably think of yourself as a patriotic American. So the flag thing works pretty well also.

I was raised Catholic. As an organized religion, Catholicism is no better and no worse than any of the major religions. Throughout history they have had their high points and their low. Religion is a human invention so it's inherently going to have flaws. The crusades, the Inquisition, ignoring the Holocaust and politicizing the church come to mind when I think of the Catholic church. But the one that they are good at and have performed well for hundreds of years is the holding out of false hope in order to mollify and comfort people who are normally without hope. Telling an women trapped in poverty, who is trying to hold together a family with no husband, that God loves her and has a special place in heaven for her as long as she doesn't practice birth control and gives weekly to her church, is holding out false hope. Sadly the desperate grab at scraps like this.

The reason I don't like to discuss religion is that my views are very far out of the mainstream. I do believe in a God like spirit. This belief may be categorized as faith, but there is an increment of logic also. I have a tough time believing that throughout the history of man that it consistently reflects a need to believe in God, that there wouldn't be a reason for it.

My God does not publish books. He did not instruct anyone to publish his rules for him. He doesn't appear to people and he doesn't intervene in human activity. Pray to him all you want the dog will still die if it gets hit by a car. If your cancer goes in remission there is a medical and scientific reason, even if we can't explain it. We don't know everything there is to know about the human body. God is not a Packer fan nor does he curse the Chicago Cubs. He is not Catholic, Jewish or Muslim. He does not feel that women are inferior to men, nor does he necessarily believe in monogamy.

My belief is simple. I believe this benevolent spirit did set into motion the possibility of a super species that could do all of the marvelous things that mankind has shown the ability to do. I believe that man has the potential to do even more. What God said essence was, 'Look what I've created for you, look and recognize it's potential. Nurture and grow it for the good of man and all of my other creations. But whatever you do, don't fuck it up". In my mind there are no other corollaries or codicils. Any thing else you've heard that God said was dreamed up by some guy with an agenda. Follow this guy if you choose to, but keep your hand on your wallet and watch your back.

Nice Celebrity, Not So Nice Celebrity

There is no denying it, we are addicted to celebrities. Some of these people deserve our attention. Let's face it many politicians, Barak Obama for one, are, at this point, little more than celebrities. However while Obama has demonstrated the ability to excite our imagination n positive ways and possible become a great leader, Paris Hilton, has demonstrated the ability to be, and I quote some forgotten pundit, famous for being famous. She is talentless and boorish, but she has the ability to garner headlines, because of the ability of her publicity people.

Like Paris, some celebrities want headlines. I remember when I was stocking magazines at the bookstore. Cover after cover featured Angelina, Brad and Jennifer. "Oh, " one customer remarked, "It must be terrible to have your life splashed across the headlines like that." I assured her that Jennifer was probably paying someone serious money to make sure she stayed in the headlines, regardless of the personal tragedy. Bad publicity being better than no publicity, celebrities often take what they can get.

Which brings us to today's celebrity, Barry Bonds. Last night in San Francisco Bonds broke Hank Aron's home run record. The Giants lost the game but they got what they really came to see. Their man, Barry "I didn't take Steroid's" Bonds smacked a home run to the deepest part of the park to break the record and cement a place for himself in 'baseball history. Now what that place is we don't know yet because Barry is under investigation for Steroid use.

The question is, what happens if he is charged and found guilty of using illegal drugs to enhance his ability. Would this knowledge nullify his record, starting the inevitable O.J. type controversy. He did it, He didn't do it. White people hate him because he's black, yaddah, yaddah... Or will baseball push this to the back burner, "for the good of the game"

I've met Bud Selig and he seems like a nice enough guy, but don't look for him to be courageous on this or any other controversial decision. He's well aware that's what's good for baseball is what's good for the Television networks and their sponsors. They don't care about fans who, after all pay to sit out in the rain, cold or scolding sun to watch these young men compete.

But Bud may have a problem. The credibility of his sport is vital to it's existence and a few politicians can make real trouble for him and professional baseball. Baseball is the only legal monopoly in our society, if you look past utilities and political parties. If some enterprising politician, with his or her finger to the winds of public opinion decided to make the event an issue, the headlines would follow and we could be in for another round of culture wars.

I can see the headlines, "Presidential Candidate (fill in the blank) takes on Baseball Over Bonds Scandal". That would be the headline from he Murdoch Press. Don't expect the New York Times or The Washington Post to be much kinder.

The point here is that nothing seems to be up or down when it involves a celebrity because of one factor. Some of us identify so closely with these people that any attack on them is taken personally. The idiots that surrounded the stage... sorry... courtroom during the Michael Jackson trials, show us that anyone or anything can become an attraction for lost and lonely people seeking a community that they can latch onto. These unfortunates become attractive to the press and as a result become media surrogates for all of us. They are on the front page and fodder for the "twenty four hour crisis of the moment" media. As the rest of us watch and comment, we begin a tsunami of attention that seems to have a life cycle that some media, not unlike leech's, need for life support.

I think the low point for me was CBS newsman, Bob Schieffer making a tongue in cheek apology for not bidding on the exclusive first interview with one of our media diva's after her release from jail(name excluded on purpose). He had to realize that by even commenting on it he gave the incident credibility it didn't deserve.

This is the kind of air pollution that is hard to stop and I'm not suggesting anything formal be done about it. But I do ask you, who gives this kind of media engine velocity? It's us. It's the reading, watching, blogging public. And I am almost ashamed I even commented on it, because we are the one's that push the accelerator. At no peril to yourselves or your loved ones, Ignore these idiots, please.

Passing of A Close Friend

When you lose someone you've spent the better part of ten years with, it's a profound loss. She saw me at my best. She saw me at my worst. Hell, she saw me naked and was often curious about my elimination processes. I'm sure she wondered why I didn't have to go out in the yard like she did.

Sadie, our "Golden" was ten years old, but acted like a puppy pretty much until the cancer in her stomach exhibited itself. She was frisky and immature right up until the day she stopped eating. Which except for the not eating part is pretty much a mirror of my activity level. Maybe that is why we got along so well, kindred spirits.

It seems like just a short time ago, Maria told me that she and the kids went out to a home west of Appleton to pick her out. Maria knew she wanted a female. The lady told her that she best bring a collar so they could assure Maria that we got the dog she and the boys would pick out, because the pups were to young to leave "mom" at that point, but the puppies were being spoken for quickly.

Some people like puppies but tire of raising a dog. Sadie would be perfect. She was off the wall hyper from the day we brought her home. She loved Maria, me and the boys equally. Later she spread her affection to Dan, Stacy, Grace and Eli. When we moved to Milwaukee, she embraced everyone in our building.

I know everyone speaks well of the dead, but in this case Sadie earned our sorrow at her departure. I will particularly miss her when I complain about the redheaded bitch. Everyone will now know I'm not referring to the dog