MARCH 11, 2010
ANIMAL FIGHTING
D ante stopped too soon at nine circles of Hell. We may need a few more. The latest wrinkle in human depravity was featured in USAToday's March 10, 2010, edition. The headline of the article says it all: "Animal fighters looking for smaller game turn to finches."
Finches? Those cute little birds I have been feeding for decades? Finches are now involved in animal fighting? I knew about dogs and roosters, but even leaving aside the finches, the article describes some variations on animal fighting that are too disgusting to repeat here.
What kind of pathetic loser moron would want to watch two birds fight to the death? Or dogs or roosters or any other animals? What kind of sadistic bastard mutilates and conditions animals to engage in blood sports?
How badly do you have to want to gamble that you will sit and watch two animals fight to the death? How depraved and indifferent to suffering do you have to be to methodically torture and abuse animals in order to make them ring-ready?
The Michael Vick case had the beneficial effect of putting a spotlight on the underculture of animal fighting. It is sad to think that an unintended consequence of this was to force these people even deeper under some cultural rock.
March 11, 2010
MARCH 8, 2010
JUST PASS THE DAMN BILL!
H ere's where I am on the health care reform legislation. I don't know what's in the bill. I don't care what's in the bill. It doesn't matter. Anything is better than what we have, so just pass the damn thing and have done with it.
That may sound cavalier, but we need to get this done. First off, any sort of legislation will be historic. That train doesn't pull into the station very often, so you need to jump on board it when it does.
Second, once it is passed all the bitching and moaning will go away as people see that life on the planet didn't end and in fact some things actually got a whole lot better. Remember, the Republicans fought Social Security tooth and nail and now they defend it tooth and nail.
Third, we need to move on to more pressing issues. President Obama needs to be devoting full time to the economy. Too many Americans are facing too long a future of unemployment or underemployment. Too many Americans are already living through a Depression.
Fourth, Democrats need to understand that passage of health care reform at least gives you a talking point for the upcoming elections. Failure just gives the Republicans an even bigger stick to beat you over the head with, so if nothing else vote for self-preservation.
This is a country where people need to run bake sales to finance therapy for sick children. If that isn't a system in need of reform I don't know what is. So just pass the damn bill. It's the right thing to do.
MARCH 6, 2010
SATURDAY MORNING SPECIAL
MARCH 4, 2010
SENATOR BUNNING'S CURVE BALL
L et me begin by saying that the Republican Party's position on Senator James Bunnings' one man blockade of unemployment benefits is a fraud. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio)looks all sincere and says we should pay for things before we enact them. He makes me want to puke.
I wish I could ask the Republicans whether they held themselves to the same standards when they gave President Bush a blank check to support operations in Iraq. The irony is that some of that money went to rebuild the Iraqi infrastructure.
Blank checks for the Iraqis. Bounced checks for the Americans.
Still, Senator Bunning has a point. We are amassing a frightening amount of debt. His fellow politicians know he is right. That's why they are so pissed at him. His now-ended blockade inched the other weasels one day closer to actually having to either raise taxes or cut benefits, something every politician at every level of governance is loathe to do.
I for one think the people are ahead of the politicians — as usual. We know things are out of control. We know there are major problems hurling at us at warp speed and no one is doing a damn thing about them.
The president has misread the times. The politicians have misread the people. We know what needs to be done. Give us a sensible plan, and we will swallow our medicine be it more taxes or reduced benefits.
We are that desperate.
FEBRUARY 2, 2010
CLUSTER BOMBS
P art of my tour in Vietnam was spent providing back-up to the local Vietnamese army security for a road-building operation. This was a big deal back then, part of the nascent strategy of Vietnamization: Making the Vietnamese responsible for carrying the burden of the war. Stop me if this sounds familiar.
Eventually the road was done and we were wrapping up operations. I overheard command talking about dropping CBU's (cluster bomb units) along the side of the road. The idea is a bomber drops a single bomb that opens up and deploys hundreds of little bombs that land and DON'T explode. They just sit there, growing increasingly unstable, waiting for some poor sucker to walk on one of them and detonate the explosive, maybe weeks or years after the initial drop.
I remember thinking at the time that this was a shitty thing to do. We all knew who the ultimate victims would be, the villagers who lived there. But hey, we would be long gone, so xin loi or sorry 'bout that. War is hell but combat is a mother-f*r as the saying goes.
Those cluster bomb units are a good analogy for the current geopolitical situation. The world is facing a cluster-bomb of problems. Sovereign debt. A faltering global economy. Climate change. You name it, it's getting worse.
These problems have been around for a long time. They are all becoming increasingly unstable. Each year that passes, each decade that passes, just brings the inevitable moment closer when someone steps on one of these sleeping bombs and detonates an explosion that will be heard 'round the world.
Between you and me, puppy, I would seriously be looking into buying 100 acres in Idaho and stocking up on . . . well, everything.
FEBRUARY 27, 2010
SATURDAY MORNING SPECIAL
FEBRUARY 24, 2010
WHAT'S IN A NAME?
I haven't written about the book lately. Progress has been slow and not so steady, but progress there is. One of the advantages of having been an editor for many years is that I have the discipline to write even when I don't feel like it. And believe me, that happens a lot. Hence the stereotypical image of the writer staring at the blank page.
The other advantage I bring to this from my editing days is a certain ruthlessness in evaluating my writing. It is easy to get attached to certain characters, certain passages, certain plot twists. But not every brilliant idea has staying power.
Just last week I changed the name of my main character from Joesph Ciurco to Daniel Roark. Over time I came to feel that Ciurco was just too odd a name for most mainstream readers. Instead of telling me something about the character it just raises questions. How is it pronounced? What nationality is it? Why such an ungainly name.
Finally the nagging little doubts reached a tipping point of sorts, and I jettisoned it in favor of Roark, a name I came across at work. It had a certain heft to it that I liked. Daniel seemed to fit snugly into the opening left by Joseph, so there you have it.
Still, breaking up is always hard to do, whether in real life or in fiction. When the moment of truth comes, you have to be firm enough with yourself to do what needs to be done. As my old mentor don Juan Matus said, "In a world where death is the hunter, there is no time for regrets or doubts. There is only time for decision."
FEBRUARY 22, 2010
MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACKING
We, alas, in too many ways, have been what the writer Kurt Andersen called “The Grasshopper Generation,” eating through the prosperity that was bequeathed us like hungry locusts. Now we and our kids together need to be “The Regeneration” — the generation that renews, refreshes, re-energizes and rebuilds America for the 21st century.
On top of that, the Republican Party has never been more irresponsible. Having helped run the deficit to new heights during the recent Bush years, the G.O.P. is now unwilling to take any responsibility for dealing with it if it involves raising taxes. At the same time, the rise of cable TV has transformed politics in our country generally into just another spectator sport, like all-star wrestling. C-Span is just ESPN with only two teams. We watch it for entertainment, not solutions.
Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times
FEBRUARY 21, 2010
LOST
I recently saw a photo taken by the Hubble Telescope. The image was filled with smudges and blurs, each one a distant galaxy from the oldest part of the universe seen to date.
I got to thinking about how big and vast the universe is. Astronomers tell us that there are maybe 100 thousand million stars just in the Milky Way, which is but one of MILLIONS of galaxies.
Out of all those millions upon billions of stars, the number of planets that could support life of any kind has got to make up a very small percent of the total universe even under the most optimistic of scenarios.
That's a lot of real estate to keep track of, even for a God. Maybe it is too much. I know we are taught to believe that God knows all and sees all, but whose word do we have for that besides . . . well, us?
Suppose that for just a mini-milli-microsecond of time God lost track of us. And now He is trying to find us, a single teardrop in an incomprehensibly vast ocean. I am haunted by this image of God stepping out of eternity to search for his lost children.
Or maybe the search has been called off. Maybe God has moved on, found closure. Where does that leave us?
FEBRUARY 20, 2010
SATURDAY MORNING SPECIAL
FEBRUARY 17, 2010
THE POWER OF SMALL
W herever you look there is gridlock in the political decision process. My generation simply could not find the will or the way to do the hard things needed to fix what just about everyone agrees needs to be fixed, be it health care, the deficit, the economy, the climate.
And now we find ourselves rapidly approaching a point of no return on some pretty big problems: sovereign default in Greece and Japan, the erosion of Social Security and Medicare, the never-ending accumulation of debt, and yes, anthropogenic global warming.
Our children are convinced that they will never have it as good as we did, and they have every reason to believe that. I have been looking for some piece of knowledge, some piece of advice that I could pass onto my grandchildren. And over the last few months a few themes seem to resonate more than others. So here goes.
First and foremost do your homework. Make up your own mind about these issues. There is plenty of information out there, maybe too much. Dig deep. Come up with your own ideas about what to do.
Then get passionate about it. You are in a fight for your future. No one else can or will do it for you. There are plenty of folks who have a vested interest in keeping things just the way they are. If that is good for you, great. But if you want change, it won't just happen. We certainly have over-learned that lesson.
Most importantly, quit waiting around for the government to bring you the answer. Top down ain't working any more. The only hope is to grow your own solutions in your own backyard, whether it is a home garden, a more fuel-efficient car, a better way to collect the garbage.
All of these little things matter. You matter. You can make a difference in your individual choices, in the things you talk your neighbors and co-workers into trying, in the things you demand from your local and state governments.
Commit to the power of small acts. That would be the one single thing I would like to pass on to anyone who might be listening.
FEBRUARY 15, 2010
THE STRANGE CASE OF AMY BISHOP
O n February 12, 2010, Amy Bishop, PhD., walked into a faculty meeting at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and opened fire with a 9mm handgun, killing three professors and wounding three other persons. She was reportedly distraught over being denied tenure in the biology department and may have been facing dismissal from the school.
Shortly after her arrest it came out that she had killed her brother in 1986 under disputed circumstances. The initial report had her shooting her brother in an argument. The amended report states that she was trying to unload the shotgun when it accidentally discharged three times, killing her brother; an account corroborated by her mother. Bishop was released into the custody of her mother, who was then head of the Braintree, MA, police personnel board. The incident was ruled an "accidental" death. The official case file has been missing since 1988.
In 1993, Amy Bishop was questioned in connection with the attempting pipe bombing of a Harvard professor with whom she had been having a dispute over an evaluation of her work. The investigation moved on, and she was never charged. During a search of her residence, police turned up a draft of a novel about a scientist who shot her brother and hoped to atone for it by doing great things.
By all accounts Amy Bishop was a shy, homely loner who was liked by some, avoided by most. The husband of one of the victims said that his wife described Bishop as "not being able to deal with reality." When Alabama police took Bishop into custody for the shootings, her reaction was "It didn't happen. There's no way. ... They are still alive."
What stings in this case is the taint of official corruption. The signs of a cover-up based on favoritism and self-interest were clear at the time. Amy Bishop was allowed to go on with her life. Had the Braintree authorities done the right thing, three people would still be alive today. It's that simple and that complicated.
William Faulkner wrote: "The past is not dead. It is not even past." The folks up in Massachusetts who let Amy Bishop slide by are about to find that out.
SNARED IN AN EVIL TIME
T he parts of the Bible that deal with religion hold no great interest to me. Some of this is a reaction to the contentiousness that has marked religious expression during my lifetime. It is hard to get fired up about religion when so many people do and say so many hurtful things in the name of God.
There is more to it than that. I think I was born with my religious gene suppressed. As far back as I can remember I have been a skeptic when it comes to things religious. I do believe in a Creator, but I don't think I will ever understand the creation or the thinking behind our role in it.
Parts of the Bible do rise to the level of literature, passages that speak to the universality of the human condition. Those passages do offer the comfort of at least knowing that I'm not the first one to wonder about the "accidental malice of the universe," to quote Herman Melville.
So here is today's reading from the Bible, Ecclesiastes 9:11-12
I returned, and saw under the sun,
that the race is not to the swift,
nor the battle to the strong,
neither yet bread to the wise,
nor yet riches to men of understanding,
nor yet favor to men of skill;
but time and chance happeneth to them all.
For man also knoweth not his time:
as the fishes that are taken in an evil net,
and as the birds that are caught in the snare;
so are the sons of men snared in an evil time,
when it falleth suddenly upon them.
FEBRUARY 10, 2010
WINTER'S GIFT
I 've been reading a book entitled "The Raven's Gift" by Jon Turk. It tells of the years he spent traveling through the tundra in Siberia, sometimes on skis hauling a sled on a sling strapped to his shoulders. Clearly this guy is pretty hard core.
The subject matter is especially fitting given the weather we are having right now. The view from my living room window is obscured by sheets of snow being whipped down the street by blizzard strength winds. The drifts are slowly climbing up to the top of my 6 foot high fence. My back yard looks like a big bowl of whipped cream.
This is our second major storm in a week, a foot plus of new snow on top of the nearly 30 inches we already had. The reindeer herders of the frozen tundra may feel right at home in this kind of weather but for us surburbanites this is big news and a big mess.
Tomorrow begins the process of digging out — again. The mounds are so high it is hard to find place to put the new snow. The one good thing to come out of this is the homemade beef stew and split pea soup that fuels our shoveling and the chocolate chip cookies that reward our efforts.
Life this week has been hard, even a bit risky. But with those risks comes the satisfaction of getting through it, the knowledge that we may be getting older but we can still carry our share of the load.
This is what winter does. It puts nature right in your face and lets you find out for yourself where you stand. Sooner or later we may get thinned from the herd, but not this season, at least not yet. That's about all you can ask for.
FEBRUARY 7, 2010
THE NEW GOLEM
T hanks to O.J. and the CSIS series we all know that DNA is used to solve crimes. We can do this because each person’s DNA is a unique blend of four compounds called nucleotides: adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and thymine (T). The A compound always pairs with the T compound; C with G. Put them all together and you have a genome.
A-T...G-C: Four letters in two pairs that taken together can and do represent every single life form that has ever existed. Or more importantly, that ever will exist.
The human genome consists of 3 billion base pairs. The blueprints for the human genome and that of many other species have been read. The DNA sequence for the human genome was completed in 2000, perhaps the single most important scientific advance in our lifetime in terms of knowledge that will literally change our lives.
Genomics is the science and practice of controlling DNA. Today, DNA researchers are on the verge of creating new life, starting at the microorganism level but ending who knows where. Expect breaking news on this sooner than you could ever imagine, and when you hear it, ponder the following.
Jewish tradition speaks of a magical creature called a golem. This was a creature that was fashioned out of clay and brought to life by reciting a specific combination of words and letters or by inscribing a specific word on its forehead.
Golems were usually created to do the heavy lifting since they were physically very strong. Inevitably it would begin well and end badly. The golem would get out of control and have to be destroyed.
Something to think about as we venture forth into our brave new genetic world.
