The pathetic exploitation of human suffering

My job being what it is, I've been bombarded with coverage of Katrina's aftermath all day yesterday and today. There are few things that have ever put me at a loss for words, but this is one of them. I simply cannot find the words, or maybe they don't exist, to express the utter sadness and devastation being visited upon Louisiana and Mississippi in the aftermath of the hurricane. The damage and devastation is what it is, and if you have a shred of humanity in your soul, you understand its impact...and if you don't, well, I'm sorry.

Events like these often bring out the best in human nature. Neighbors help neighbors, strangers help strangers, and ordinary citizens, who often times already come from meager means, sacrifice what little luxury they may have to help someone less fortunate. I was just checking the facebook last night, and I saw a simple gesture that was rather touching -- a link at the top of the page that provided information on donating to the Red Cross in order to aid the hurricane victims.

It's like things like that that restore my faith in humanity.

However, there are also things going on in response to Katrina that destroy all that faith and completely disgust me.

There are those looting the businesses in New Orleans. It is perhaps excusable, or at least understandable, for hurricane victims to be looting grocery stores in search of food and potable water, medical supplies, and other things directly related to their survival. But it is simply revolting to see the looting of electronics stores, stealing appliances for which there is no electricity, breaking into Casinos and stealing money for which there is no business, looting shoe stores, stealing bags full of shoes for which they have no place to store, running from clothing stores with as many clothes as they can carry, etc.

These people are shameless, selfish opportunists with no comprehension that, with every dollar lost by the business from which they steal, another person -- usually one that most desperately needs the job -- is at risk for losing that job.

There are those comparing this disaster to other disasters, such as 9/11 or the tsunami. First of all, comparing a natural disaster to a malignant attack by religious zealots strikes me as extremely poor taste. It remains to be seen if the death toll from this hurricane will be comparable to that of 9/11, and the damage and destruction is already far worse, at least in terms of scale, but it somehow seems wrong to compare an act of God to an act of terrorism.

There is also something unsettling about comparing this storm to the tsunami. For one thing, we had advanced warning of this storm, unlike the tsunami where there was none. Not only was there advanced warning, but there was a mandatory evacuation declared in New Orleans. However, thousands of people simply refused to heed this warning, and as such have placed themselves in this situation. Even worse, for every person who had the means to evacuate and chose not to, they are taking resources away from those who had no choice but to buckle down and pray.

On the subject of acts of God, I've heard it suggested that this is a sign from God, or an expression of his anger, and we should take notice and make efforts to reduce our immorality. As I've said before, I consider myself at least a moderately religious person, but I still believe this is absolutely ridiculous. This hurricane, along with the tsunami, is perhaps an example of the power of God -- but not the wrath. I believe that weather patterns are nothing more than systems put in place by God. God doesn't micro-manage, as far as I'm concerned.

Perhaps the most upsetting group of people coming out of the woodwork in this whole situation are those saying that America somehow deserved this disaster...or are even to blame for causing it.

German environmental minister Jurgen Tritten blamed President Bush for not doing enough about global warming and facilitating the conditions that caused Katrina. With similar reasoning, Robert Kennedy Jr. blamed Mississippi governor Haley Barbour for not pushing to ratify the Kyoto protocol when he was Chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Ignoring the fact that, even if it's wildly unrealistic goals are met, the Kyoto protocol will marginally affect the global temperature a century from now, and ignoring the fact that even the nations who have ratified the protocol are dismally failing to meet those goals -- the audacity of these people to interject politics into this disaster -- and to exploit the suffering of millions of people as a political opportunity -- is absolutely staggering.

Thousands of people are left with nothing but the clothes on their back, hundreds, if not thousands of people are dead, people are still looking for relatives, and most, if not all of these people have nothing to go back to once the waters recede. Can we not have the decency to let these people mourn, grieve and suffer without exploiting them as pawns in a political game? It's absolutely inexcusable.

On a personal note, I feel completely helpless. From my apartment some 1,000 miles away, I feel completely idle and useless. Not that I know what I would be able to do if I were able, or even if there is anything at all I can do. The situation seems so hopeless, and hopelessness is arguably the worst of human emotions.

Despite the ugly facets of human nature that have been on display, I have faith that the American people, as they always do in times of crisis, will come together and rally around those in need, and make whatever sacrifices that are necessary to rebuild their homes, as well as their lives.

Until then, all the rest of us can do is pray, send good thoughts, whatever it is you do...and if you've got a little to spare, maybe send it to those who could really use it right now.

Tapping into the insomniac tennis fan market

Apparently, when people think of Ben Folds, they think of me. It's kinda nice, actually. I mean, it's certainly better than them not thinking of me at all. But twice now, people have gotten in touch with me late at night in order to inform me of a Ben Folds television appearance.

A few weeks ago, I got a phone call from my dad at 11:30. First of all, my dad never calls me. Ever. We have a rather odd relationship, and 'talking' isn't really something we 'do'. So when he called me at 11:30, I figure the house in on fire, somebody died, or they're renting out my room.

But no...he just wanted to tell me that Ben Folds was going to be on Letterman. Oh. Well, cool.

A similar thing happened tonight when I got an IM from Brett at like 12:20. Judging by our previous conversations, I figure he has a question/wants a perspective on politics, religion, or has something to say about my blog -- heh...nope, Ben Folds is gonna be on the US Open highlight show after Letterman. Huh. I was not aware of that.

I must be a bad fan, 'cause I don't follow his media appearances. I had no idea he was going to be on TV either time, and just stumbled across his performance on Leno last weekend with Weird Al. But since Brett (who has a surprising amount of information about himself on Google) was cool enough to give me the heads up and ask for a review of the performance, I thought I'd oblige. So, per his request, here are my thoughts on Ben Folds' performance earlier tonight.

First of all, he did Landed, which is to be expected because that's the single he's pushing right now. But because of this, I've heard this song performed live about half a dozen times, and I'm kinda getting tired of it. It's kinda disappointing because he's got a lot of great songs that never get any airplay because the music industry runs the way it does.

There was no intro in this version, which kinda bummed me out because I think the intro rocks. For a split second I thought he was doing 'Late', but thought it would be a little weird doing a song on network television about a guy who stabbed himself. Incidentally though, 'Late' is one of my favorite songs off of Songs for Silverman.

He was rocking some pretty mean mutton chops, though. I've actually considered growing some mutton chops just because of my utter disdain for shaving. It's either mutton chops, or the Chassidic beard. Any suggestions? But I digress.

The sound in the studio sucked, so I could barely hear the bass and the drums sounded like they were under water. I could tell Ben wasn't feeling the crowd, as there was no crowd in the empty studio. So in turn he wasn't really feeling the piano solo, and it left a little something to be desired. But he's probably more tired of the song than I am. And since when do they have musical guests on tennis highlight shows anyway? Exactly what demographic are they trying to reach? Insomniac tennis lovers? Just seems like a strange market.

But it's nice to see someone of which I am such a big fan getting some air time on TV. But I don't want him to get too famous, because it seems like that inevitably changes people, and makes their music crappier. Plus there's something sort of endearing about a musician with a small cult following. I don't like it when musicians I like go mainstream. I'm just selfish like that.

On a related note, I heard that Ben Lee song 'Catch My Disease' that I was talking about after the Ben Folds show being used in a movie promo. Don't know what the movie was, but maybe Ben Lee will start getting some airplay, too. Might be good for him.

Anyway, on that note, I'm going to try to pretend that this muscle in my back isn't hurting like hell, and get some sleep.

So many letters, so little grammar

I read a lot of stupid e-mail at work. A lot. My running tally shows that just under 23% of all the letters we receive are usable. And of the 77% of letters we get that we don't use, I'd venture a guess that at least half of those are absolute gibberish.

We got a 3,000 word letter on Friday about immigration, and seeing as how our whole letters pages runs between 800-1000 words, that's pretty impressive.

Today, I had the pleasure of reading a two page letter (actually mailed to us), about how the Holocaust was really no worse than any other example of genocide in history, and that it was mostly fabricated so as to enhance the tourism and entertainment industries for the 'Jerusalem-controlled worldwide news and entertainment media'.

He went on to say that Israel uses the Holocaust to 'con' America into fighting wars for it, like Iraq and Afghanistan, and how Israel has near-total control over the world media, and that no one has the guts to publicize that.

Well, I guess chalk me up as not having the guts to publicize it. I was so irritated after reading it that I actually had to take a break.

Upon my return, I had the pleasure of reading this gem, also an actual letter (as opposed to an e-mail,) as well as hand-written. Handwritten letters are often my favorite, because they're routinely the nuttiest. This one was certainly no let down. Just to give you an idea of some of the crap I have to put up with every day, here's that letter, in its entirety, ver batim:

Accounts of violent org.s in the papers are reminiscent of the '30=s...
"RAN FERO" could be spanish pronunciation of "VEREIN FUEHRER"
((German for Lodge or Association Leader))...
Alfred E. Neuman(n) could be "?WAS, MIR ANGST? KEIN WEG!"
(("What, me worry? No way!"))
You'll learn more German in the recent opening "THE TUNNEL"...
Some dreadful German of the '50=s from the '40=s turned out to be nearly the same as POST OFFICE labelling & categ=
=ories: "sonder behandlung": "special handling", u.s.w. (etc.)
The '30=s, '40=s & '50=s wisely kept the large amount of chemical industry info "under the table", however, it was freely shared in publications among Canada, England, U.S.A. & France! The Spanish and Italian nations were apparently not included except as factory workers in new plants...i never saw a book on chemistry IN Spanish OR Italian! Hopefully it's not a religious prohibition! : )

What? I have no idea what this person I talking about, or even who they are, as they didn't sign the letter. But I did appreciate the different color inks denoting the different paragraphs. That was a nice touch. Looks like someone got a box of magic markers for their birthday.

Liberals? Hate America? No way...

So I'm working on this lead editorial for work next week about how so-called 'rights groups' like Amnesty International and National Organization of Women aren't supporting their respective causes in Iraq, or if they are, they're using them as a backhanded attack on the Bush Administration, and by extension, America.

The idea comes from a piece Christopher Hitchens did for Slate, that more or less lambastes liberals for abandoning their purported causes in Iraq, opting instead to sit back and watch the U.S. struggle in Iraq, while getting some sort of sadistic pleasure from each setback that our military and administration suffer.

The title of Hitchens' piece is 'Losing the Iraq War - Can the left really want us to?' And as far as I can tell, the answer is yes. If it weren't for my newfound respect for Mr. Hitchens and his intellectual honesty, my answer would be more along the lines of a 'Duh.' or a 'No shit, Sherlock.' But following Mr. Hitchens' performance of the Daily Show, I believe a respectful 'yes' will suffice.

I fail to see what is so shocking about the prospect that some Americans, specifically radically liberal Americans, would want America -- let alone the Bush Administration -- to fail in Iraq.

Maybe I'm just cynical, or perhaps the two and a half months in DC have left me jaded, but to think that liberals want defeat for the Bush Administration and defeat for America strikes me as little, if anything, more than business as usual. It's about as shocking as hearing about an extremist Muslim driving a car bomb into a Baghdad police station -- yes, it's an awful tragedy, but it's really hard to be shocked by something that fits so well into conventional wisdom.

However, Htichens also offers a harsh view of reality of the situation in Iraq. But any rational person, myself included, and even those who support the action in Iraq, myself included, will admit to such a harsh reality. After all, it's a WAR.

As much as I support what we're doing in Iraq, I will readily admit that things are not going well. But contrary to movie and television depictions, when it comes to war, things never go well. If things always went well, wars would not exist. And ceding to war's existence, if things always went well, no one would die in war.

In my opinion, things in Iraq are going as well as could be expected given the circumstances, and historically, they're going better than any comparable conflict.

However, the conditions are also the most hostile they've ever been for any conflict in history. World support for this conflict is virtually non-existent, and even American support is waning to the extent that a majority of Americans polled believe that going to Iraq was a mistake.

On a side note, this pisses me off. Public opinion polls like this are always skewed toward what people think they're supposed to say, rather than what they actually believe. For example, in an election between Rudolph Guiliani and an African American, pre-election polls showed the African American 15% ahead, but when the actual election came around, it was a virtual dead-heat, and I'm pretty sure Rudy ended up winning.

Also, when Klan Member, White Supremacist, and all-around douchebag David Duke made a senatorial run in Louisiana, pre-election polls showed him 20% lower than he actually was in the election. So apparently, at any given point, at least 15% of people being polled are full of crap and just telling the pollster what they think they want to hear, or what they think makes them sound smarter. So with all the negative press regarding this war, it's really not all that surprising that more and more Americans are telling pollsters they don't like it. But I digress.

I suppose it's sad that there are those who genuinely want America to fail, but we shouldn't be surprised by it. It is what it is. But if the last few elections are any indication, the American people still don't want these people in power, so for the time being, the damage these people can actually do to America is pretty limited.

Stream of consciousness from Roberts nomination to abortion

For those of you that aren't as politically dorky as I am, you may not have heard that John Roberts was the subject of a scathing report by People for the American Way earlier today. This isn't really surprising, seeing as how People for the American Way is a flaming liberal advocacy group. Don't let the name fool you -- to them, 'the American way' means rampant moral relativism, gay marriage, illegal immigrant amnesty, and abortion on demand -- not exactly in line with middle America. But, as I often do, I digress.

In another example of wide-eyed, alarmist fanaticism, the spokesman for People for the American Way said things like John Roberts is going to 'roll back the clock' on our most private rights -- which is liberal code for 'make it so we can't have an abortion whenever we want.'

This claim against Roberts, or conservatives in general, really, is nothing new. For some reason, liberals like to go around claiming that a lone conservative politician, or even Supreme Court Justice, can single-handedly make abortion illegal. Well, I'm here to explain to you why that's never going to happen.

You've all likely heard of Roe v. Wade -- the Supreme Court decision that magically found a 'right' to abortion in the Constitution. Now, regardless of your feelings on the decision, here's what it did:

It deemed various laws in various states that outlawed or restricted abortion unconstitutional. That's it. It said that states couldn't make laws that outlaw abortion. But for whatever reason, the Roe v. Wade decision has become the Alamo for liberals every where, to the point that anyone who dares even MENTION overturning it is labeled some woman-hating, religious zealot that wants to control women's vaginas.

Well, here's the thing. The hypothetical overturning of Roe v. Wade will NOT make abortion in America illegal. ALL it would do would make it to where state laws restricting/outlawing abortion were no longer unconstitutional. In order to make abortion illegal, the state legislatures of all 50 states would have to pass a law outlawing abortion. So what are liberals so afraid of? Shouldn't they be confident enough in their beliefs that they trust the American public with them? Apparently not.

As a conservative, or more accurately, as a rational human being, it might come as no surprise that I don't like abortion, and wish there was less of it. However, I'm not convinced that the wholesale outlawing of the practice is the way to go about reducing it. Abortion advocates often claim that if medical abortions are outlawed that women wanting abortions will again be resigned to dark alleys and coat hangers. And gruesome as that sounds, it's probably true. And somehow I can't resolve that scenario with my desire for fewer abortions.

Abortion by itself is not a problem. It's a symptom of a problem. It's tragic, yes, but it's mere existence is not the tragedy. The culture in this nation as well as most of the rest of the 'civilized' world that breeds the situations in which abortion is seen as a viable alternative to pregnancy, and the culture that condones, accepts, or even advocates such a practice is the real tragedy, and the real problem.

I've always been and always will be an advocate of self-reliance. And I believe that abortion provides an easy way out for those in the situation of an unwanted pregnancy. That's not to say that I want these women to have these children and raise them. However, if you're not in the position of raising a child, then you shouldn't be in the position of getting pregnant.

Various politicians and religious leaders seem to attach a stigma to birth control measures because they think it encourages sexual activity, especially among young people. There might be some truth to this, but all the abstinence education on the planet isn't going to convince every person to avoid sexual activity until marriage. And for those that don't, they should have access to other forms of birth control so as to prevent more unwanted pregnancies.

All in all, the liberal fear that a new Supreme Court justice is going to end abortion is totally blown out of proportion, as usual. And if conservatives want to make abortion in this country less common, they'd be better served going at it from the cultural and social sides, rather than the legal and medical.

Ok seriously...

Not that many of you comment very often, but I've set up that word verification thing for commenting because I've been getting 'comment spam', which I think is absolutely rediculous. It happened to me once like a week ago, but then today I got two on the same post. What the hell is that all about? I can't stand being bombarded with shady advertisements in all facets of my internet life. First it was spam, then it was pop-ups, now this crap. It's pretty infuriating.

So at any rate, to avoid that, you'll now have to type in a random gibberish word before you can post a comment to the wealth of brilliance and wisdom that is my blog. I apologize for the minor inconvenience, but if you'd like to complain, take it up with the jackass that invented comment spam.

Dead relatives don't validate opinions

I've pretty much said all that I feel like I can about Cindy Sheehan, at least without repeating myself. And since she's been out of the news for the last few days, there's nothing new to talk about anyway.

However, this is something that indirectly involves Cindy Sheehan that I've been thinking a lot about lately.

Last week, we ran a piece by Tony Snow of Fox News fame (that we aren't allowed to put on the internet due to copyright/contractual restrictions, otherwise I'd give you a link to it) that referred to Cindy Sheehan as a 'useful idiot' for the extreme left, as well as pointed out that her actions are quite a peculiar form of grieving, and that those supporting her now are likely to abandon her when her news peg fades.

In my opinion, these were all fair, accurate, and tasteful observations. There were no low blows, or mudslinging for the sake of slinging mud. But judging from the response we got in the form of Letters to the Editor, Snow's political opponents didn't agree with my assessment.

The angry, oft profanity-laden letters lambasted Tony Snow for being so heartless, and demanded to know how he dare attack a grieving mother, or discredit her political opinions. After all, since her son died in the war, doesn't that give her absolute moral authority in criticizing it? At least that's what [New York Times columnist] Maureen Dowd believes.

But does it? Seriously, does the fact that Cindy Sheehan's son died in Iraq give her 'absolute moral authority'? Certainly not.

As observed indirectly in the coverage of Cindy Sheehan, there are families of fallen soldiers that DO support the President and his policies, to the point that they want the crosses representing their children removed from the protest display near President Bush's ranch.

So, following the logic of Maureen Dowd, don't THESE parents have absolute moral authority regarding the Iraq War? But how can two polar opinions BOTH have absolute moral authority? Quite the paradox, isn't it?

Let's be reasonable. Cindy Sheehan, in all likelihood, didn't turn against the war and President Bush simply because her son died in the war. Odds are that she was against the war even before her son was killed, and would have been against the war if he was never in the military altogether.

For her supporters to say that her opinion is now somehow more valid is both inaccurate and intellectually dishonest, because they're not rallying in support of the other families who support President Bush.

For every Cindy Sheehan, there's a Deborah Johns. As far as I'm concerned, they cancel each other out. People are going to believe what they believe about this war, and using dead soldiers for political fodder or fundraising material — regardless of who does it — is pretty sad.

I also think it's sad that the media focuses on someone like Cindy Sheehan for weeks, but anyone on the other side is completely unheard of.

It hurts when you do that? Well, then don't do that...

If there's one thing that irritates me to no end, it's idle complaining. In crasser terms, it's people that bitch all the time but never do anything to fix the issue about which they're bitching.

Most recently, it has been the issue of gas prices.

"Gas prices are so high! Can you believe how high the gas prices are? They're just so high!'

Ok ok...we get it. Yes, gas prices are high, and yes it sucks. But if it bothers you that much, do something about it.

As far as I'm concerned, gas prices really aren't that bad...yet. When I got to D.C., Gas was about $2.10 a gallon, meaning it cost me $42 to get my behemoth of a gas tank from empty to full. Now, gas is about $2.50 a gallon, so it costs me about $50 to go from empty to full. A difference of $8.

Now, since I only need to fill up once every 10-14 days or so, that's really only 57-80 cents a day more than I was paying before. And to get back to my economic tendencies, the 'opportunity cost' that I would incur by driving less is more than the 80 cents a day I'm paying to continue to drive. In other words, walking/biking to work or to the store is not worth saving 80 cents. Or, I guess you could say I'm paying a tax of 80 cents a day to not have to walk/bike. And I'm fine with that. Thus, I'm not bitching about gas prices. Of course, I'd love it if gas went back to a dollar a gallon, but it's not, and the fact that it isn't doesn't mean I'm going to starve.

Despite all the wailing and gnashing of teeth about the rising price of oil and gas, we haven't altered our driving habits. In fact, demand for gas has actually gone UP. And again, simple economics tells us that as demand rises and supply falls (or remains the same), price will also rise.

So how can we affect the price of gas? Well, by affecting either supply or demand. And since we've not yet discovered how to efficiently increase the supply of oil (i.e. pull it out of thin air), it looks like we're going to have to work with the demand side of things.

How do we affect demand, you ask? Well, there are several ways, you asker of silly questions. But one of them is NOT to complain about the prices while simultaneously continuing to buy gas at the current prices. We could start by preventing China and India from industrializing. I mean, there's two and a half billion people right there driving the demand for oil through the roof. Get them to cut it out, and demand will plummet. But that doesn't look too likely, as they're just now figuring out that driving is way easier than riding a bike.

In the world of politics, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Simply complaining about something is not squeaky enough, because at the end of the day, the 'wheel' still works. In matters like this, the wheel has to stop turning or fall off completely.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and if this situation is as desperate as some make it out to be, they should take it to the streets, literally (to use yet another cliche). If you want the price of gas to come down, simply stop buying it when it goes above a certain price. Drive less, walk more, buy a hybrid car. Organize boycotts at local gas stations, and encourage others to do the same. Write your senators and representatives demanding alternatives to fossil fuel. Nuke China and India. Do anything but sit on your ass and complain.

An economics professor of mine once said something pretty profound, at least by economic standards. He said that 'anything is possible, it's just a matter of cost. If you see something as impossible, that just means the cost is too great for you.'

So for anyone who says they 'can't' drive less, and continues to complain about high gas prices — they're lying. They CAN drive less, they just choose not to — or, the cost of NOT driving is greater than the cost of gas. We can't have our cake and eat it too. If you're going to bitch about gas prices, don't turn around and buy it. It's just irritating.

Goin' Back to Athens Town

For the record, the title of this post is actually the title of a song that's supposed to be an 'alumni favorite,' but truth be told I don't know any of the words, aside from 'Goin' back to Athens town,' and the only reason I know the song at all is because we played it every year for homecoming. I dunno...maybe I'm a bad alum (alumnus? Alumni? Dunno...wasn't an English major...). But I digress.

So I'm in Athens now. It's pretty surreal...but that might just be the 9 hour drive talking. Yeah, I drove straight through from DC to Georgia today, by myself, 590 miles. So 9 hours isn't really bad considering I stopped once for gas and once because of a nasty storm. I don't mind rain and lighting, but I draw the line at wind making me fishtail out of my lane.

I was also the most punctual I think I've ever been, or will ever be again. I'm not exactly known for my punctuality. I'm either really early or really late, and it seems that my arriving early is inversely proportional to the importance of the event. I'll be an hour early for work and not have anything to do, but if I'm supposed to meet a friend or have an actual meeting for work, one of the following things will happen: Multi-car pileup that backs up traffic for two miles; giant hole in the road because the D.O.T. doesn't get the concept of NOT working on the road in the middle of a weekday, again, backing up traffic for two miles; getting on the wrong Metro train; or simply sorely underestimating the amount of time it takes to get wherever I'm going. That latter probably occurs more than I'll ever admit. But again, I digress.

I sent my friend Amanda at 7:00, as I was just crossing from North Carolina into South Carolina, saying that I hoped to be there by 9:30. And I literally walked through the door of her apartment at exactly 9:30. Not bad for two and a half hours in advance, and 170 something miles away. I realize that none of you care about this, but I was proud. Ok...digression number 3.

I've come to the conclusion that, were I ever in the situation (God forbid), I could handle being tortured reasonably well. I just have this thing about dealing with unpleasantries (not a word, but sounds like one). I literally just put my mind somewhere else, do whatever it is I have to do. Maybe it’s all the years doing marching band in the Georgia summer, or working landscape in the Georgia summer, the coach flights to Europe, or the long road trips as a kid when my dad refused to stop, but it takes a lot to make me seriously uncomfortable. Even though I sat in my car for 9 hours today, it doesn’t feel like I sat in my car for 9 hours today. I literally just phased out for most of it...to the point that I seriously have no recollection of removing the gas nozzle, putting my gas cap back on, closing my gas tank, and putting the nozzle back. But I obviously did, because I ended up with gas, and didn’t drive off with the nozzle still in my car. Unless I did so without realizing, in which case I apologize to the Shell station of exit 160 in North Carolina. My bad...hopefully your insurance covers things like that. I guess every paragraph is going to be a digression, because here’s another one.

So anyway...here I am in Athens, and it’s quite a weird feeling. I was expecting to be all nostalgic and depressed and wishing I was still in school, but in many ways I’m not. I’m certainly nostalgic and maybe slightly depressed, but I learned tonight that I in no way wish I was still in school.

Over my four years here, I developed at least one memory for every nook and cranny of this town. And coming back after what seems like a long time (but in reality is only all of 2 and a half months), naturally they all came flooding back one at a time as I passed their respective landmarks. This of course was a quite nostalgic, as I remembered them as all happy memories. But all memories tend to seem happy if you hold onto them for long enough, I suppose. Naturally, there was a shade of depression behind this nostalgia as I realized that it was from a chapter in my life that is, in all reasonable likelihood, closed.

But once I arrived at Amanda’s place and there was talk of registering for classes, research papers, buying books, annoying professors, and the general school routine, I realized that I miss none of it.

My entire scholastic career I suppose was marked with a sense of apathy. Not that I didn’t care about learning, because I absolutely thrive on acquiring new knowledge...but I always had a hard time seeing the point of what I was being taught. Perhaps it was just my tendency toward rebellion, but I saw most of my assignments as a waste of time, and I have a hard time following through on things that I see as such.

In kindergarten, it was nap time. I had no use for a nap. I wanted to build things, draw pictures, anything but sleep. In first grade, it was gluing pasta onto construction paper. I’d rather be reading about snakes or something. In second through fifth grades, it was the entire gifted program. Don’t get me wrong...I totally dug getting to go to a different school a couple of days a week and being seen as a ‘smart kid,’ but to this day, I still can’t remember anything we actually did...aside from putting on stupid plays, science fairs, and random projects. I don’t recall any books, paper work, or grades, for that matter...

Through middle school, it was math. Which is a bit strange because I’m a very logical person -- I guess I just never saw the numbers the way everyone else seemed to. But neither did Einstein, and everyone cuts him slack.

Then in high school, it was English. My teachers consistently despised my writing, generally because it didn't fit the format they were teaching. I told them I didn't like their format and wanted to write however I wanted to write -- one teacher told me 'well, once you become a published author you can do that, but for now, you have to write the way I tell you...' Well, guess I win that one.

But if there's one thing I do miss, it's the people. The camaraderie of knowing that my friends are going through the same thing I am; going downtown on a whim; running into each other on campus; tailgating; pregaming; laughing at the Tate Preacher.

And it’s not that I’ll never see them again...I certainly will. Later today, in fact. But it will never be quite like it was. Yet somehow I know that’s ok. It’s like there was a ‘perfect storm’ of conditions that made things like they were, and without those same conditions, it can never be recreated. But the fact that I’m not devastated by this is pretty reassuring that I’m doing the right thing, and that uprooting myself and moving 600 miles away wasn’t a total mistake. It’s always good to have closure.

Whore: (hôr, hor) n. a person considered as having compromised principles for personal gain. Synonyms: Cindy Sheehan

My post about Cindy Sheehan yesterday was a little harsh, but I meant every word of it. I thought I would get it out of my system and be done with it. And for a while, I had. But then I learned that she keeps a blog of her experiences down in Texas.

Ah yes, the tragic 5th stage of grief — the stage where you post asinine ramblings onto a website for the whole world to see. I guess that comes sometime after the ‘denial’ and ‘anger’ stages, but sometime before the ‘acceptance’ stage. Grieving mother, indeed.

Here are some of my ‘favorite’ narcissistic passages from her latest entry, followed by my snide remarks:

“…one of our neighbors fired off a shot gun. He said he was shooting at birds, but he is tired of us being there and he wants us to leave. I didn't get to talk to him, but I told the media that if he wanted us to leave so badly, why doesn't he tell his other neighbor, George, to talk to me.”

It’s Texas. People shoot off guns for no reason. They also do it to scare birds away. Dirty, annoying, sandal-wearing, irrational, whiny birds. Oh, and in case you forgot, his ‘neighbor George’ DID meet with you.

“By the way, in case I forgot to blog it last night…”

Yes, in the event that you were so overcome with grief that you forgot to post something to your website…holy crap…

“I couldn't walk through Camp Casey or the Crawford Peace House today without hugging people and getting my picture taken. Now I know how Mickey Mouse feels at Disneyland.”

How appropriate…you feel like a goofy caricature of a rodent that dawdles around for the amusement of others.

“I just wish George had as much courage in his entire body as Casey had in his little pinky, then he would meet with me.”

He already HAS you dreadful wench…

“If George or anybody else thinks I am leaving before my mission is "accomplished" they have another think coming. I will stay the course. I will finish the mission. I will take no prisoners.”

Well, if your ‘mission’ is to meet with the President, you accomplished that more than a year ago. If your ‘mission’ is to be an intolerable, attention-craving embarrassment, then that too has been accomplished. So pretty much either way, you can go home now. It’s probably about time you had a shower, anyway.

And uh…I appreciate the hyperbole and all, but exactly what prisoners aren’t you taking? And for the record, a ‘k’ is not a ‘g’. But I suppose I understand your typo, being so overcome with grief and all.

“By the way, we had about 7 counter protesters today and hundreds at Camp Casey...don't let the mainstream media say differently.”

That very well may be, but I would venture a guess that most ‘counter-protesters’, i.e. people like me, oh I dunno, have jobs that they have to go to during the day. Just a hunch. So don’t go getting all high and mighty because a couple hundred hippies didn’t have anything better to do. Woodstock had like 300,000. Your little gathering isn’t all that impressive. And the ‘mainstream media’ is what’s keeping your face on the news every day, so I wouldn’t go around mocking it.

Cindy Sheehan has been reduced to a child purposefully irritating her parents. No matter how many times she’s scolded, she gives a sheepish grin and says ‘What? I’m not doing anything. I’m just minding my own business…’ But she knows good and well what she’s doing. She knows George W. Bush isn’t going to meet with her again, but she’s certainly going to take the opportunity to throw a tantrum for the whole nation to see. And like any other 9 year old, the more people that enable her, the more theatrical she’s going to get. So I guess we have that to look forward to...

The nerve of some people...

There have been two things going on in the news lately that have really raised my blood pressure...literally infuriated me. The first is the Israeli disengagement/evacuation from Gaza, and the second is the Cindy Sheehan woman camping outside the President's ranch demanding a meeting with him because her son died.

Well, since the latter of the two better fits my time constraints at the moment, I'll start with that one. I'll get to Israel later.

Just to get everyone up to speed, Cindy Sheehan's son Casey was killed in Iraq on April 4th, 2004. Cindy has been camped outside the President's ranch for a little over a week now, demanding to meet with President Bush so he can explain to her, face to face, why her son 'died for oil' and 'died to make [President Bush's] friends rich.'

A grieving mother expressing her anger about her son's death. Perfectly reasonable, right? Well, maybe not.

See, it turns out that she already met with President Bush in June of 2004. And here's what she had to say after that meeting: 'I now know [President Bush is] sincere about wanting freedom for the Iraqis. I know he's sorry and feels some pain for our loss. And I know he's a man of faith.' She also said that for the first time in 11 weeks, they felt whole again, and 'that was the gift the president gave us, the gift of happiness, of being together.'

Not exactly the blathering tirade she apparently wishes she'd unleashed, is it?

So now Sheehan is demanding a SECOND meeting with the President? On what grounds? On the grounds that she wasn't as harsh and hysterical as she would've liked the first time around? Sorry, but I don't think the President gives mulligans.

But even her apparent two-facedness isn't what really irks me about Cindy Sheehan. What really pisses me off is how she's turned herself into a political pawn -- or political whore, if you prefer -- for groups like MoveOn.org and people like Michael Moore.

They've all been rallying to her side in 'support'. B.S. What about all the other grieving mothers who AREN'T camping outside President Bush's ranch? You think MoveOn.org and Michael Moore have expressed their condolences/support for them? Not a chance. They're only exploiting Cindy Sheehan in their effort to bash President Bush. They don't give a rat's ass about Cindy Sheehan or her son. They're just convenient faces for a political agenda.

This can be evidenced by a commercial recently released 'starring' Cindy Sheehan that sounded SUSPICIOUSLY like a commercial released by MoveOn.org during the Presidential Campaign. It simply parroted the 'Bush lied, kids died' rhetoric talking points of the extreme left -- which are short-sighted, self-serving, and above all, inconsistent with the facts. It's absolutely shameful.

Even Sheehan's family has released statement saying that they don't agree with her, that they support the President, and that they wish Cindy would come home. A plea that is obviously being ignored.

To top it all off, Cindy Sheehan is now playing Foreign Policy expert by saying that if we withdraw from Iraq and Israel withdraws from Palestine, that terrorism will stop. Hey, good call, seeing as how there was terrorism before we were in Iraq, and that there IS no 'Palestine' from which Israel can withdraw (more on this later).

She's also refusing to pay taxes. Which normally I'd be all for, but in this case, no. Simply on the basis of her being a political tool.

Ms. Sheehan, with all DUE respect -- which, granted, currently isn't much, and the remainder of which is dwindling by the second -- just who the hell do you think you are? You're an embarrassment to your family, and you've lost every shred of your credibility you once had by associating with political hacks like MoveOn and Moore. Your behavior dishonors both your son's death and the death of everyone one of his comrades, and serves as a completely atrocious means of remembering his sacrifice.

If I was your son, which thankfully I am not, I would be hard-pressed to forgive you for turning my death and sacrifice into a political football.

You should be ashamed of yourself.

A pleasant Friday exchange

(2:37 p.m.)
My boss Patrick: Hey you wanna leave early today?
Me: Sure, like when?
Patrick: Like, now.
Me: Hell yes.
Patrick: Yeah, I'm the best boss ever.

In other news...

Here's sort of a refreshing article about steps towards freedom, moderation and modernity in Saudi Arabia...where they could really use it.

It's only a matter of time before there's another Islamic Revolution, and this time it'll be going in the other direction. More on this later.

A product of boredom

I don't really have anything to say, I'm just bored and screwing around with pictures on Blogger. So here's a painting I did for my mom before I left town. Not bad for my first oil painting, I suppose. It's a bit bigger than it looks. It's 12 square feet (3 x 4), and took me about 3 months with only working on it every other weekend or so. We hung it in the 'sun room'.

Because we can

One of my favorite anecdotes from WWII (if there can be such a thing) involves an American cargo plane being shot down in Germany. The incident went roughly like this:

After seeing an American cargo plane being shot down, a German platoon leader orders his men to inspect the wreckage and salvage anything that could be of use to them in battle.

After inspecting the crash site, a rather perplexed soldier approaches his captain and says 'Sir, there wasn't much of use in the plane. Just a bunch of cakes and cookies...'

Upon hearing this news, the Captain is devastated and visibly shaken. Not quite understanding what could be so upsetting about a bunch of cakes and cookies, the young soldier asks his captain why he's so rattled by the discovery.

The captain composes himself, looks the soldier in the eye, and says in a dazed voice 'Don't you see? We can never hope to win a war against a people who can afford to send cakes and cookies to their soldiers on the front lines...'

This little anecdote, I believe, summarizes America in general. There is no question that the United States is the wealthiest country in the history of civilization. So much so, that even in times of trial and sacrifice, we're able to still enjoy luxuries many nations don't have during their best days.

Recently there's been a great deal of discussion about our space program, whether it's worth the money we spend on it, whether the money spent on going to space would better be spent elsewhere, etc.

To me, the answer of whether the program is worth the money we spend on it is a resounding yes. It's a testament to our progress as a nation that we're the only country to put people on the moon, and remote controlled robots on Mars. When I'm feeling particularly philosophical, I like to look at the moon and have my mind blown at the thought that a human being, much less an American, has not only explored that place, but safely returned home to tell about it.

There's a friend of my family who's actually a pretty well accomplished amateur astronomer, and he'll occasionally bring his telescope to our house (as we live in the middle of no where, away from significant light pollution) and we'll spend the night looking at various galaxies, stars, planets, etc.

Not long after the rovers landed on Mars, he brought his telescope down, and we took a look at the Red Planet. And for me, to think that on that little speck in the middle of the eye piece, there were two American robots being controlled from Earth, taking pictures and sending them back to us -- all from millions of miles away -- was absolutely mind-boggling.

There's a certain sense of pride in knowing that humanity, and more specifically Americans, have had the dreams, the ambition, and of course the ability to accomplish such amazing feats.

Could we be spending NASA's budget on other things? Certainly. But what? I would argue that the funds already exist for any sort of project the government could want to do, it's just a matter of spending it efficiently and effectively, which is always the achilles heel of government.

At the peak of the space race, when NASA was a source of innovation, pride, and prestige in America, our space budget was around 3-4% of our national budget. Today it's less than 1%. So in reality, we could actually stand to increase space funding, even triple it.

Maybe it's arrogant, but when people ask why we spend so much money on space exploration, the answer is very similar to the reason we sent cakes and cookies to our soldiers on the front lines of WWII -- because we can.

So what if kids drown? So long as they don't get shot.

Reading letters to the Editor all day, I feel like it's a pretty good barometer of the current trends in public opinion, or at least a pretty good indicator of what gets people all riled up.

Sometimes it's a little confusing though, because it seems like a lot of the issues that I think SHOULD get people all riled up don't, and vice versa. I've always had a fascination with psychology, or whatever you would call the study of why people do what they do, so I'd be pretty interested to find out what makes certain issues strike a nerve with people, while others just go essentially unnoticed.

For example, the federal government deficit. Every year, our government spends billions and billions of dollars that it doesn't have, fueling its own inefficiency and dragging down our economy. How many letters have come in about that? None.

But some politicians in northern Virginia propose a hiring center (essentially like a temp agency) for 'day laborers' (illegal immigrants), and our mailbox gets flooded by people saying that our lax immigration laws are shameful and undermine our national security, and just as many people saying that those people are bigots.

Also, roughly 500 children die every year by drowning in one of the 3.3 million backyard swimming pools in America. How many e-mails do you think we've gotten supporting 'pool control' or making pools illegal?

Whereas less than 300 children die from gun accidents every year, despite the fact that there are more than 200 million guns in America, making the odds that a child will die in a gun accident literally almost one in a million, or about 100 times LESS likely than drowning in a pool. But how many e-mails do you think we get advocating gun control or all out gun bans? Too many, in my opinion.

Our public school system is in shambles. We're churning out some of the dumbest kids, literally, in the world. Some schools in the DC area literally have geese making nests in the (non-functioning) toilets, and a shortage of lightbulbs. The budgeting of school funds is absolutely atrocious, so much so that some schools (like my mother's) have 8 office administrators, but too few teachers to prevent class sizes from approaching 30 students. How many people were outraged enough to write in about that? I don't know exactly, but it was in the single digits.

But then the President makes the statement that students should learn about Intelligent Design along with Evolution, and people start flooding our mailbox with claims that people who believe in Intelligent Design are a bunch of right-winged, fundamentalist, uneducated religious zealots, and that people who believe in evolution are a bunch of Godless, religion-hating, hell-bound Atheists.

Personally, I wouldn't worry about kids learning much of anything when they're chasing geese out of the bathroom and don't have enough lightbulbs to go around, but that's just me.

So what's the deal? Why do some people get so riled up about certain issues, but seem to be unconcerned with others? I don't claim to know, but I'm sure I could formulate a theory if I had enough time to sit down and think of one. Thoughts, anyone?

Who would've thought...

You know, if I keep being ahead of the curve like this, I'm going to start asking for royalties. Also, one of the news shows I was watching yesterday had the headline 'Death of a NEWSman' instead of 'ANCHORman,' so I guess I can't sue them. And neither of us can be sued by Arthur Miller, so we've got that going for us.

Death of an Anchorman

For those of you who haven't turned on a TV or looked at any news source of any kind in the last 12 hours, ABC News Anchor Peter Jennings died sometime last night.

I first read about it on the Drudge Report at about 3 am, when I wasn't sleeping, as usual, and it kinda bummed me out -- if I may be so unsophisticated.

I'm not going to lie and pretend that Peter Jennings was my hero and that I'm devastated by his death, because he wasn't and I'm not. But there was some sort of bond I felt with him if for no other reason than he's the only national news anchor I remember watching as a child.

For whatever reason, World News Tonight with Peter Jennings was the evening news of choice in the Repine home. So every night, usually over dinner, my parents, brother, and I would sit at the table and do a little 'family bonding' over the current events of the day. I later came to appreciate the experience because one, it was quality time with the family, and two, it was subtly educational and provided a good supplement to my in-school learning. In a lot of ways I feel like that gave me some sort of on advantage, because I later learned that a good many of my peers at the time did neither.

I likely didn't agree with many of Peter Jennings opinions, but that was fine because rarely did I get the sense that he was incorporating his beliefs into his reporting. The only time I lost respect for him was following Al Gore's concession speech in 2000, when he was visibly emotional and misty-eyed. But he couldn't help it...he was Canadian.

He also brought to the news a certain class and intelligibility. For my taste, Tom Brokaw doesn't articulate well enough, and Dan Rather was too insistent on incorporating quirky Southern phrases into his reporting. But Peter Jennings was always understandable -- and let's be honest, he had a pretty sweet voice.

All in all, Peter Jennings just seemed like a good person. Even though he was probably a flaming liberal in his private life, I felt like I could always trust his reporting. He just didn't seem like the kind of guy that would, oh I dunno, use forged documents to try to bash the President a few weeks before the election, for example.

The news media could use more people like Peter Jennings. It could really help their credibility. Peter Jennings was part of a rare and dying breed (pardon the pun), and his passing is another set back in the mainstream media's attempt to salvage some semblance of its former influence and relevance.

Better late than never

Ok, so the Ben Folds concert was like 4 days ago, but I haven't had a chance to blog about it because I've had company, and somehow it seems rude to blog when you have company.

First of all, the concert was held at Wolf Trap, which is a pretty nice place. It's a nice open-air venue out in Bumble-fudge Virginia. Kinda like Lakewood/Hi-Fi Buys, minus the ghetto. There were lawn seats, but for like 9 dollars more you could get actual seats under the covering, which are quite a bit closer to the stage, and substantially less itchy than sitting in the grass. So I sprung for the actual seats.

My high school friend/former-fellow-band-nerd Jessica was cool enough to fly out from California for the show, so that was cool. I probably wouldn't have gone alone. I'm just not cool like that. I was also supposed to go with my boss Patrick, but when we got to the Metro, he realized he'd left his tickets at the office, so he went back and got them and I went ahead and got on the train. And the concert was such that finding anyone who you weren't already with proved pretty difficult, so I never saw him at the show. Bummer.

The opening act was a guy named Ben Lee. He's from Sydney, Australia, so he had that cool accent when he was talking between songs. I'd heard of him previously only because I knew he'd worked with Ben Folds on a few projects, but I'd never heard his work. Not bad, really.

As he came out, he said he'd been lucky enough to play our 'filing in music'. At least he came by it honest. as he went through his set, he periodically asked if everyone was filing in well. I thought that was pretty funny. I like musicians that don't take themselves too seriously. My favorite song from his set was a tune called 'Catch my Disease.' It's pretty catchy. I checked out some more of his music online after I got home...seems pretty good. I recommend it.

After Ben Lee's set, I figured it'd be a few minutes before Rufus Wainright came out, so I decided to get some nachos. We took our sweet time in line, and even looked for Patrick some more before we went back to our seats. We were standing on the mezzanine behind our seats when I heard people start clapping and some guy saying ‘Hi’ into the microphone. The cheering was surprisingly loud, but I just figured that Rufus Wainright has a big following in Virginia. I peaked around the railing and saw someone sitting at the piano that looked suspiciously like...Ben Folds?

At first I thought he was just doing a duet with Rufus Wainright (Careless Whisper, perhaps?) but no, he broke right into ‘Bastard’ -- so I figured he actually was going second. What the hell? But whatever. It was still a sweet concert.

He didn’t do too terribly much from the new album. Just ‘Bastard’, ’You to Thank’, ‘Jesusland’ and ‘Landed’. And that was fine. I liked hearing his old(er) stuff like ‘Zak and Sara’, ‘Still Fighting It’, ‘Gone’ (which he never did solo because he said he needed more instrumentation). I find it curious now that he’s ‘solo’, he has he exact same set up as Ben Folds Five with only a drummer and bass player. But it’s cool.

I was pleasantly surprised to hear some of his lesser known stuff like ‘All U Can Eat’, and of course ‘Bitches ain’t Shit’ with a sign language interpreter was one of the highlights of the evening. I totally dig white guys making fun of rap music by covering it.

The only Ben Folds Five song they played was ‘Philosophy’, and as usual, it was mind-blowing. Anyone who’s heard it played live knows that he likes to incorporate both the cool lick from ‘Theme from Dr. Pyser’ and well as Dick Dale’s ‘Miserlou’, a.k.a. the Pulp Fiction song. Seeing a guy imitate tremolo guitar on a piano is something that music dorks and casual fans alike can appreciate.

He ended with ‘Not the Same’, which included some audience participation, i.e. having us sing the 3 part harmony. Toward the end, he stopped playing the piano all together, and just played the audience. It’s hard to explain, but it was really cool.

There were some songs I was hoping to hear but didn’t -- One Angry Dwarf, Emaline, Lullabye, Army, etc. But I can’t really complain. It was still a great show. Better than the second time I saw him, but not even close to the first. I was so spoiled by my first Ben Folds concert that every other one I ever go to will pale in comparison. I was on the front row, touching the stage at the Roxy, literally within arms reach of the piano. He also played for like 3 hours and talked to the audience (of less than 1000) the entire time. Hands down best concert I’ve ever seen. Anyway.

I half contemplated leaving after Ben Folds, as I didn’t really care for Rufus Wainright, but Jessica is apparently kind of a fan, so I thought I’d give him a shot. Eh...I wasn’t impressed. I wasn’t a fan before his set, and I’m still not. His music is entirely too slow and depressing. And something that’s kinda quirky is that, while he has this deep, vibrato singing voice...once he stops singing, he becomes a total flaming, flamboyant, stereotypical gay guy. Lisp and all.

He did have one song I kinda got into, though. ‘Hallelujah’, which was apparently on the Shrek soundtrack, was pretty cool. Otherwise, I could’ve left right after Ben Folds’ set and not regretted it at all.

Depressing music notwithstanding, I was completely fine with Rufus Wainright until the introduction to his last song. He made the point that ‘America is pretty much at war with itself...’ and I agreed with that. He then said ‘we gotta take it to the streets, y’all...’ Which, I knew he wasn’t talking to me, because I highly doubt that he would consider me part of ‘we’. But even that’s fine. I’m all for political debate in the public forum. That’s great. But then he went on to make some disparaging remarks about Republicans, and how gays, blacks, and women need to be careful and protect their rights, etc. And that’s where I felt he crossed the line into ‘totally unnecessary’ territory.

Despite the fact that, to my knowledge, it’s still legal to be gay, and that blacks, women, black women, and every other American citizen are afforded the same rights, there are still people like this guy out there being all alarmist and saying that Republicans are going to make it illegal to be gay, take away women’s right to vote, reinstate slavery and force everyone to go to church.

And personally, a music concert is not the place for such a rant. When I turn on the news, I don’t want to hear the anchors try to sing karaoke or play an instrument. Likewise, I don’t want to hear musicians talk about the news. That’s not their job. I deal with politics all day at work. I don’t want to hear about it when I’m trying to relax. And judging by the reaction of the crowd, neither do they. It just put a damper on what was otherwise a very good show, and I thought it was a shame that he had to go there.

Once a music dork, always a music dork

Seeing Ben Folds play, I felt a way I haven't in a long time. And as with most other intangible, non-political feelings I have, it's actually quite difficult to explain. But I'll try.

Those of you that know me personally, i.e., the vast majority of people that read this blog, know that I have a slight obsession with music. Being who I am, music has become a source of emotional expression for me, both in performance and experience. I literally get anxious and fidgety if I go too long without playing some sort of musical instrument, and I can't stand to drive my car without my stereo blasting my eclectic mix of MP3's.

As far as music performance goes, I've been in some sort of musical ensemble since I was roughly eight. There's something fulfilling about being a part of an entity working together to produce something bigger than its individual members. Yeah, I know it sounds cheesy, but I've had few experiences that can compare with the rush I get after finishing a performance and being met with genuine applause and admiration.

However, this feeling does not translate to many solo performances I've ever done. As you may or may not know, I spent my last few years of high school playing classical piano, going to recitals, competitions, etc. and for the most part, I absolutely despised it. Not to inflate my own ego, but as good as people would tell me I was, and as many awards/scholarships I won/was offered, I was absolutely loathe to do it. I felt dirty and bastardized playing in front of judges sitting there with notepads and pens, making marks for every wrong note I played or time I didn't use the pedal correctly, or used the wrong fingering sequence. They weren't listening to me for their enjoyment, they were listening to me so as to point out differences between my playing and what they saw as 'correct' playing. Something about that struck me as uncomfortable, and it wasn't for me. So I gave it up...much to the chagrin of my parents and piano teacher.

Along those lines, the only time I would feel worse than playing in front of judges would be when my parents would attempt to get me to play for company. Again, they weren't listening for the enjoyment of the song. They were listening so as to be able to show me off, much like when they offer our Jack Russell pieces of food in order to sit, speak, and roll over.

They had no comprehension of the effort involved in playing the music I played. They had no understanding of the brilliance of the people that wrote the music, or what drove me to want to learn it. All in all, it made me feel cheap.

However, I absolutely love playing for/with my friends, and hearing them play. There's a certain camaraderie, pride, and in some cases envy associated with it. But mostly it's just a sense of intense enjoyment.

There are very few people that understand getting goosebumps when a certain song plays, or laughing during a particularly virtuosic performance because the person is literally so good that it's comical, or the uncontrollable desire to air drum (or maybe that's just me). And personally, I tend to feel most at home around these people.

Like I said before, music is quite an emotional outlet for me, and it's much more pronounced during live performances. There's something about a musician that I admire performing his music with his band, with harmonies, good musicianship, and passion, along with an audience enjoying every note of it. It's an emotional rush for me. Not any particular emotion -- it's less refined than that. It's a feeling that makes me want to laugh, cry, scream, and smile all at the same time. I know that's not a very good explanation, but that's the good thing about this. If you get a similar feeling, I don't have to explain it to you. If you don't, you're probably not concerned enough about it to want it to be explained.

I’m sure I’ll get around to talking about the actual concert eventually, but I had to get that out of my system.

Ben Folds is my hero

I saw Ben Folds last night, it was amazing as usual. I also saw Ben Lee and Rufuswainwright. Ben Lee was cool, Rufus Wainwright was a total downer. Anyway...I'll go into greater detail later, but right now I actually have work to do.

In the meantime, however, I encourage you to check out this review of the concert, mainly because of the video attached with it. See, seeing Ben Folds do a cover of Dr. Dre's 'Bitches ain't shit' is quite entertaining enough. But seeing it done with a sign language interpreter so as to meet the requirements of the Persons with Disabilities Act for the venue is absolutely one of the funniest things I've ever seen. You can check that out here.

In other ego-boosting news...

Apparently, the President has been reading my blog. It feels pretty good to be ahead of the curve, and pretty much have the President come out like he's using my stuff as talking points.

One step closer to world domination

Well I’ll be damned. Monday, we ran a little blurb I wrote ripping on Helen Thomas for saying that she’d kill herself if Dick Cheney ran for President. For a little perspective, I brought up the whole Jeff Gannon uproar when it was revealed that a guy was getting a press pass and asking softball questions. Everyone was all upset about the lack of journalistic integrity. But when a journalist, more or less a media institution, threatens to kill herself if someone runs for president…does anyone hear about it? No. So that bugged me. (They edited out my punchline about Dick Cheney not being swayed by Helen Thomas threatening to kill herself, but that’s ok…)

Anyway…here’s the kicker. The guy I talk about, Jeff Gannon, links to my article on his website, saying that it puts the whole thing in perspective. Probably doesn’t mean much to anyone who doesn’t follow news about the news, but it made me feel pretty good.

Oh, boo-friggin’ hoo

Democrats and liberals everywhere have been doing quite a bit of whining, soothsaying, and doomsday-ing ever since the prospect arose that President Bush might use a recess appointment to make John Bolton the Ambassador to the U.N. The funny thing, to me anyway, is that it was never a question of whether or not he could do the job…it just always came back to a variation of one point — he isn’t nice.

Oh God, help us. Everyone repent your sins, this is the 666th sign of the apocalypse. (It’s time like this I wish I had a way to make my blog auditory so you could hear the Ben Stein-like sarcasm that was supposed to have. Oh well.)

So the main argument against Bolton is that he doesn’t mince words, and thinks that the U.N. is a lot of fluff with very little substance. Sounds like my kind of guy. I was doing some research on what people have said about him, and I came across this news article that said something along the lines of ‘one of the reasons that North Korea refused to participate in 6-party talks is because John Bolton referred to Kim Jong Il as a tyrant.’

Oh, I’m sorry, I was under the impression that someone who rules a government with an iron first, forbids his citizens from leaving the country, or even talking to people outside of the country, lets his people starve to death and executes political dissidents WAS a tyrant. No? Oh, honest mistake. I can see why John Bolton would come to the same conclusion.

I find it rather interesting that John Bolton gets blamed for North Korea not participating in talks, but yet no one seems to understand that — hey, if Kim Jong Il wasn’t being a narcissistic, maniacal douchebag bent on acquiring nuclear weapons and committing egregious human rights violations, there’d be no reason for the talks in the first place.

All John Bolton did was call a spade a spade. Kim Jong Il IS a tyrant. The fact that he got upset about being called such is his own fault. What, we have to be nice to tyrants now? I guess we better be careful, or they’ll pull out of the Non-proliferation Treaty, start developing nuclear weapons, and create an international crisis. Oh wait…

What’s everyone so afraid of with this Bolton appointment? That he’ll go to New York and not play the bullshit diplomatic game or pretend he likes everyone? We’ve been making nice with these people for 50 years and what has it gotten us? Well, it's one of the most anti-Semitic, anti-American, intellectually bankrupt and dishonest institutions in the history of mankind. The United Nations is an institution that refuses to condemn suicide bombers in Israel, while at the same time repeatedly condemns Israel for its operations against terrorist organizations. It's an organization that refuses to use the term 'genocide' in the condemnation of the actions in Darfur, Sudan, where Muslim militias slaughter Christian minorities. They allow countries like Libya to chair the friggin' Human Rights Commission. Hello? Integrity? Where are you?

Heaven forbid someone would go to the United Nations and point out its absurdity. Alcoholics don't like being called alcoholics either. But they're still alcoholics. Sometimes the truth hurts, especially when it's the flagship organization of the liberal/progressive ideology. But that doesn't mean it shouldn't be said.

People are also concerned about what kind of representation John Bolton will be of America. Personally, I'd rather American be represented by someone who doesn't coddle tyrants, doesn't pretend to like intellectually bankrupt, socialist regimes, and actually tells the truth. Suffering fools happily is not a virtue.

Hello insomnia, haven't seen you in a while.

There's a line in the Filter song 'Picture' that goes 'I feel like a newborn, kicking and screaming,' and for some reason that reminds me of the scene in Look Who's Talking where Kristy Alley (in her pre-Fat Actress days) has the baby, and the kid's all like 'Put me back in! Put me back in!' as he's being...ahem...taken out.

The gross, physically unpleasant aspect of such an idea notwithstanding, there's been a twinge of that feeling floating around in the back of my mind lately. Maybe it's the home-sickness talking, but the last few nights I've laid awake sort of pining for times in life that were much simpler, and along with that has come the feeling of 'well this has been fun, when do I get to go home?'.

In my two months in Washington, I've come to appreciate my life up until now much more. Living at home was so much easier. I was quite fortunate (some might say spoiled) in that I didn't have to worry about things like preparing food, doing laundry, paying bills, or much else, really, aside from doing the occasional dishes, mowing the grass every so often, and keeping my room clean. The other things just got done however they got done, with little, if any, input or effort on my part. And I was fine with that.

My first year of college was only slightly different in that I started having to handle my own laundry, save for the weekends when there wasn't a football game and I got to go home with a duffle bag full of dirty clothes. But thanks to the meal plan, my effort in obtaining food consisted of walking across the quad from Myers to Snelling, or on weekends, across Lumpkin Street to O-House.

Even after moving off campus and I had to purchase and prepare my own food, do my own laundry and pay the occasional bill, I was fortunate enough to come from a family that was financially able to bear that burden without me having to detract from school by having a job (which is probably the main reason I was able to graduate in four years flat even after changing my major my junior year.)

Well, needless to say things are slightly different now. I've taken a violent shove into the 'real world.' And as much as I like my job and the money that I get paid for doing it, there are certainly some aspects to being on my own that...well, pretty much suck. When I come home from work exhausted and hungry, who has to make dinner? Oh right...me. When I'm out of dress clothes for work, who has to do the laundry in my tiny-ass-takes-forever-to-wash-and-doesn't-dry-for-crap-and-makes-everything-all-wrinkly-combo-washer-dryer? Oh yeah...me again. Who has to do the dishes when I run out of silverware? What do you mean I can't buy that book AND get a desk this month? You get the point.

I've certainly gained more respect for my parents in knowing that they did all of this and managed to raise two children at the same time, and can now easily understand why it wasn't always rays of sunshine when they came home from work.

There's a Ben Folds song called 'Still Fighting It' that goes 'Everybody knows it sucks to grow up, but everybody does, the years go on and we're still fighting it...' And I suppose that could very well be what this is...just a guy growing up that doesn't necessarily want to, but doesn't have much of a choice at this point.

But there's another line in that Filter song that is perhaps even more applicable... 'Hey dad, what do you think about your son now?' Living in the Nation's capitol, two miles down the street from the President, managing not to starve to death, get shot, or end up evicted, and finance it all for at least two months...not bad for having never done it before, I suppose. And certainly not bad for a stuttering college kid from a small town in Georgia.