The beach beckons the Doc for our annual sojourn.
I know. It’s early for us, but football practice starts in early August and was a big factor in moving the calendar up.
I am looking forward to the 4th over the water. Don’t know what to expect, but the key to this vacation is keeping expectations minimal. So, I am expecting sand and hops. Oh, and clearing my head.
And, for my loyal reader, don’t worry. I’ll be back in a couple weeks.
Okay, this really made me laugh today.
The next day, according to Roll Call, “[Heath] Shuler, a former NFL quarterback [for the Redskins], was spotted towering over a seated Gohmert, wagging a finger in his face during the heated session.” The furious Shuler [D-NC] was yelling at Gohmert [R-TX] for being a “gutless chickenshit thief” and was apparently barely able to keep from stomping the little Republican’s skull
Thank you, Wonkette! I needed that today.
It’s Sunday morning, with the sun reflecting off the roofs and trees making every thing look golden Especially framed by the blue sky. Another sonatina of church bells went through it’s drill. I was wondering what was significant about 8:50 a.m. at that church.
The 15-year-old had meekly woke me up. He was pretty grumpy last night but had overslept and needed me for a ride to work. I made him some sandwiches to bring to the pool, and we jumped into the car.
I am having a hard time driving. It’s really important to be focused when you drive. I find my mind wandering and my brain admonishing me, “Pay attention. That was a stop sign. You need to look both ways. Yes, the light was RED.” Normally, I drive and it works just fine–the past few days I need reminders.
When I woke up on Friday, I didn’t know where I was. Really. I was agitated, searching the room to to find a clue to my whereabouts. I was able to verify that I was in my own bed. I don’t think that I have ever been so bewildered in the morning. Even after alot of travel, I always knew where I was. Not Friday, though.
I can do tasks. I can even do them in order. But I feel a bit disconnected. That’s the word that describes me, disconnected. I looked it up. There are two parts, one is detached and the other is incoherent. I am feeling a bit of both.
My dad was 86 when he passed on June 15th. It seems like it makes sense that old people move on. I was feeling like I had a handle on it. My sibling admonished me for my bare statement to the caterer, “My dad is dead.”
Sib: Don’t you think that’s a little too direct?
Me: That’s what he is.
I have been looking at my feelings in third person. Always analytical, I was looking at myself from the outside to see how I thought that I was feeling.
But feelings are not thoughts. I told the 12-year-old that they just are, and that you just have to accept them. You can’t judge your feelings.
I guess I am learning that I need to make way for my feelings and to experience them. They are not satisfied to be viewed clinically. Mine are organic, and like some certain force are elbowing my rational self for some room at the surface.
I guess I am more vulnerable when I drive. I better be careful.
Would it make a sound? A peep? A whimper? A winkle? (provided by 12-year old looking over my shoulder).
Me: Hey, what will we do Tuesday night now that Idol is over.
Him: I don’t miss American Idol.
Me: Hey, I don’t miss it either.
Last year, it seemed there was a void after the Tues/Wed one-two punch of Idol was over. We didn’t really like either finalist, but we had been hooked on the process. But this year, we really didn’t care.
Hmmm. Why is that? There just wasn’t much drama this year. No transplanted Southern girl with a daddy in jail learning about California cuisine. No old-looking guy who surprised us all, until we go so tired with his “whoo!” and “soul patrol” shouting. No shock when the shoo-in arrogant Rocker was booted.
This year, it was just, well, kind of dull. Dull songs. Dull contestants. The judges were dull. Paula stayed sober, Randy stayed within his SlimFast® goal, and Simon used the same, tired schtick about karaoke and a bad high-school performance (DIY British accent). The winner was so safe. Yes, she sang well, but she couldn’t move without looking completely uncomfortable. And the guy who was taking a chance, was even more calculated. A masterful chess game for him, but just not enough oomph.
Sure, there was a Daughtry-esque turn when this year’s shoo-in got booted. But it wasn’t REALLY a surprise. At least not to us.
So, we ended up watching our last TiVo’d episode of Idol. Fast forwarded to the end when the host had the two finalists on the stage. He said that there were a large number of votes and then.
Well, nothing. American Idol went on past the safety record time. So we didn’t know the winner. And instead of being upset, we laughed. Because we really didn’t care. Now THAT’s apathy.
Did you know that the President has spent 416 days (like one-sixth of his tenure) at his Ranch in Crawford (pop 705) , Texas? I know that in addition to clearing brush, biking, clearing brush, hiking and clearing brush he does alot of work. It’s not like the President of the Free World can just duck out. He really doesn’t get a “day off.”
Did you know that in order for him to be able to do this we–American taxpayers–have paid for a SxSW WhiteHouse that includes:
I don’t think that the President can do without this level of technology and personnel and their costs when he is in Crawford. If he is going to be there so much, this is required.
This begs the question, though, why we have to spend the money so that he can indulge his desire to be there so much. At least that’s the question that I’m thinking.
From the Washington Post
Throughout [his 34-year career], Wolfowitz built a reputation as a foreign policy iconoclast, a mild-mannered intellectual with a steely ideological core, and an inept manager.
and
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the source voiced admiration for his intellect but said Wolfowitz “couldn’t run a two-car funeral.”
and
After Bush’s [43] election, …Wolfowitz wanted to return to the State Department, but…secretary of state, Colin L. Powell, turned him down as his deputy. They weren’t “ideologically in sync,” Powell later said, and Wolfowitz was notoriously lacking in the required administrative skills.
Is anyone else seeing a pattern here? So, okay, if Paul Wolfowitz was known to be a lousy administrator, why would he be put in charge of a multinational institution owned by more than 180 governments, with 10,000 employees, and $14.6 billion (U.S.) in loans in 2006 (World Bank, Annual Report 2006)?
Is it for the same reason that we suffered internationally with John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations? That we think we know the best? That other countries can be ignored or insulted? That international institutions should be dismantled? That America’s interest du jour trumps all?
While I strongly support George Washington’s postulate that every nation works to protect it’s own interest, we need to see those interests in 21st century terms. We are no longer bound by oceans or mountains. We are joined by instantaneous communications, rapid travel, and a global economy.
I am constantly trying to get the 12-year old and the 15-year old to look beyond the noses on their faces, to extend their vision toward the horizon, to move beyond the here and now.
It’s not us against the world. It’s us AND the world.
My recent trip to San Francisco included a morning stroll along The Embarcadero and the recently redeveloped Ferry Building at the Port of San Francisco. I walked through the market/commercial space–formerly the baggage handling area–on my way to watch the incoming catamaran ferrying commuters from across the water (I don’t really know where they came from, but they were mostly people going to work).
There were a bunch of stalls at the Port with the most incredible array of goods. Artisan cheeses, clams, high-end beef (and high-class hot dogs!), olives, wine, caviar, clams, fish, farmers’ market vegetables, fresh baked sourdough breads and rolls. All foods were super quality–and nary a chain in sight. All I could think of was, “I wish I passed through here every night on the way home.”
I am not an urban planner. But, I am a user of urban areas. I bought my cheese and olive roll and left thinking, “Why does SF have a surfeit of great shopping? What are elements of such success? City support? Income levels? Downtown access? Start-up and risk taking behavior?”
And, most importantly, “Why don’t we have a place like this in Washington, D.C.” (burned down Eastern Market notwithstanding).
Everyone in an urban neighborhood wants to have a great shopping district in walking distance. The District government pays alot of money for it. How do you jump start a great retail/restaurant row? How do you encourage people to frequent great local shops, like Dwellings, instead of the Tar-jay? What makes the local coffee shoppe–like Cafe Sureia a reincarnation of Cup o’ Dreams–viable?
I strive for the authentic–try Uncle Brutha’s hot sauce on Capitol Hill for the BEST, most flavorful hot sauce EVER.
I think, though, that authenticity can’t be manufactured. Darn!
It’s like the cool kids. The “in” crowd. The OC or Beverly Hills 90210. The ones that the high-school Alphas take into their circle. You know, like the Bushies.
Between shutting out career Justice Department lawyers, inexperienced appointees at NASA telling scientists what to say, putting political appointees in charge of all regulatory policy undercutting career staff and experts, and, overall, increasing the number of Schedule C–political appointments the wagons are circled tightly.
Today’s WashPost and others report that Monica Goodling–former Justice Department official and of the 5th Amendment fame–may have questioned applicants for career jobs about their political affiliation. I guess she was thinking, “If you’re not with us, you’re against us.” Or something.
It’s very discouraging for career civil servants to be ignored. Not invited to meetings. Not consulted or overridden in their areas of expertise by inexperienced political hacks. To be told by a senior agency official, “I don’t know you [federal worker], but I trust the political appointee to my right” really makes for a bad meeting.
Lots of the Politicals are terrific public servants. But if the main qualification for critical jobs, like rebuilding Iraq, is ties to the Bush-Cheney campaign, something is amiss. If leaders in political jobs do not trust career staff, if career staff are seen as lazy bureaucrats, if career staff are outside of the decision making process we have government by the seat of our pants and government being pulled out of a youthful buttocks. Oh, and wasting a bunch of resource$$.
Ultimately, the important work of governing suffers. The Bushie A-Team is long gone, and many agencies are being led by the 5th stringers or vacancies. Yet there is work to be done–in education, health care, terrorism response, information sharing, the environment, poverty eradication, immigration reform, international relations, support for returning and especially injured veterans and much more.
But it looks like we might have to wait for the remaining Bushies to vacate their posts. What a shame when there are so many good people–many of them career civil servants who are also Democrats, Republicans, Independents or Other –who are so ready to do real work.
High school is over! The OC and Beverly Hills 90210 have been cancelled.
We are excited to announce that Bono (!!??!) will be making an appearance Wednesday night on American Idol. –email from Susan McCue of ONE.org
Now there is a sentence I never expected to read. You know, one with Bono and American Idol. As in Bono making appearance on the kitschy-est show on TV. Bono appearing with Simon, Paula, Randy and Ryan? Must be a joke. But it’s real.
Thinking on it, I am amazed by Bono’s comitment to fighting poverty. American Idol is not a shine on his personal brand, and Bono is very protective of his rock-star brand. He describes himself a rock-star. He likes being a rock star.
Bono is stepping out in a way that would make other brands squirm, or even retch. Stepping out because he knows that this is a huge stage from which he can bring his message to millions of AI viewers. Millions of young people and not such young people. He is committed to raising awareness and raising money. And if American Idol is a good venue, then let’s go.
Now, though, this is my PROOF that the fix was in to get rid of Sanjaya. I was very suspicious as his final performance was no worse than the weeks before when he wasn’t even in the bottom three.
But I bet that no matter how much Bono is committed to raising money to fight poverty and aids in Africa, standing on a stage with Sanjaya was probably too much. Crap, I bet he would even have done that. Bono shows us how to make ourselves better.
Check out the ONE Blog
Disbelief, shock, sadness, horror, grief mix together in thinking about the murders at Virginia Tech. And the 32 victims who family, friends and strangers mourn, 32 innocents.
The people identified by Va Tech to date are Ross Abdallah Alameddine, Christopher James Bishop, Brian Roy Bluhm, Ryan Christopher Clark, Austin Michelle Cloyd, Jocelyne Couture-Nowak, Kevin P. Granata, Matthew Gregory Gwaltney, Caitlin Millar Hammaren, Jeremy Michael Herbstritt, Emily Jane Hilscher, Jarrett Lee Lane, Matthew Joseph La Porte, Henry J. Lee, Liviu Librescu, Partahi Mamora Halomoan Lumbantoruan, Lauren Ashley McCain, Daniel Patrick O’Neil, J. Ortiz-Ortiz, Minal Hiralal Panchal, Daniel Alejandro Perez, Erin Nicole Peterson, Michael Steven Pohle, Jr., Julia Kathleen Pryde, Mary Karen Read, Reema Joseph Samaha, Waleed Mohamed Shaalan, Leslie Geraldine Sherman, Maxine Shelly Turner, and Nicole White.
These are the people that will be remembered by their loved ones. But the rest of us, those who don’t know them, will forget their names. They will become, for most of us, “the victims” or the “people who were shot.”
I don’t know if there is anything that we can do about that. But there is one thing that I have decided to do. I refuse to learn the name of the man who took their lives. I won’t let him become part of my memory. I won’t let him be like murderers before him–people who ruthlessly killed hundreds in Oklahoma City, boys and young men in Chicago, or our brothers and sisters in New York, D.C., and Shanksville Penn., on September 11, 2003. I don’t care if they are “infamous“–they have more of our brain space than they deserve.
I am very angry that NBC–followed rapidly by their disrespectful media siblings–have given the wicked shooter time. I can’t stand that they promoted his pathetic tapes, pictures, ravings. I am not going to be an accomplice to his narcissistic desires for people to know who he is.
I don’t care about him. I don’t care to know about him. I don’t want to aggrandize this shooter. We don’t have to give him what he wanted. Leave him a place in the history books, but just call him the shooter.
The names, the histories, the hopes of the victims are what we need to remember. Google them. Find their Face Books. Learn about them. Leave the shooter in ignominy.
You can leave your condolences here. My thoughts and prayers to the entire and extended Virginia Tech community.
Doctor of Thinkology 
