Life in General

A Story About Martian Luther King

2012-01-16T17:07:00.000-08:00

I have been reading The Help. Yesterday I came across a passage that seems very appropriate for today. This is the black maid Aibileen speaking to three year old Mae Mobley:

"Today I'm on tell you bout a man from outer space," She just loves hearing about peoples from outer space. Her favorite show on the tee-vee is My Favorite Martian. I pull out my antennae hats I shaped last night out a tinfoil. fasten em on our heads. One for her and one for me. We look like a couple a crazy people in them things.

"One day, a wise Martian came down to Earth to teach us people a thing or two," I say.

"Martian? How big?"

"Oh, about six-two."

"What's his name?"

"Martian Luther King."

She take a deep breath and lean her head down on my shoulder. I feel her three-year-old heart racing against mine, flapping like butterflies on my white uniform.

"He was a real nice Martian, Mister King. Looked just like us, nose, mouth, hair up on his head, but sometime people looked at him funny and sometime, well, I guess people was just downright mean."

i could get in a lot of trouble telling her these little stories, especially with Mister Leefolt. But Mae Mobley know these our "secret stories."

"Why Aibee? Why was they so mean to him?" she ask.

"Cause he was green."

Kathryn Stockett, The Help, pp. 349-50.

I realize that this is just fiction written in 2009 rather than an actual story about a maid teaching a child about prejudice. However, I think the image is very powerful. While a white child might not think anything about seeing black people treated poorly, she would instinctively know that it was wrong to be mean to a wise Martian just because he was green.

A Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day to everyone.

My Most Influential Books

2011-12-24T10:22:00.000-08:00

When reporters want to trip up a candidate, they ask them to name one book which has profoundly influenced them other than the Bible? Can you name one book that has influenced you? I can't name just one, but I can give a list.

Before Age 23:

1. A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch by Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand gave me a distrust of the power of big government and shaped the libertarian side of my philosophy during my teen and young adult life. Pink Floyd's The Wall feeds a similar viewpoint.

2. The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien and The Foundation trilogy by Isaac Asimov fired my imagination. The ability to see civilizations that never existed in your mind's eye is key to creative thinking.

3. My political philosophy textbook in college exposed me to the Enlightenment philosophers. They shaped my libertarian views in a less cynical way. I would say that I was influenced by The Federalist Papers but I have never made it all the way through them.

4. Candide by Voltaire and Lysistrata by Aristophanes exposed me to the power of satire. I have been a smartass ever since.

5. The Law of the Land by Charles Rembar was the start of my love affair with the law. Rembar demonstrated that writing about the law could be fun, something that influenced me many years later when I began to write a bankruptcy blog.

6. Blessed Rage for Order by Catholic Theologian David Tracy did not influence me in the least. However, I always thought it would be a good name for a Christian punk band. Dynamics of Faith by Paul Tillich was one theology book that I did understand.

After Age 23:

7. The Bible and Luther's Small Catechism made me appreciate the value of compassion more. I know that I was supposed to have read these books at a much younger age, but I did not really appreciate them until I was older. I especially like the way that Luther turns the Ten Commandments into positive commands to do good as opposed to merely negatives to be avoided.

8. Judgment at Nuremberg by Robert Conot, Letters to Freya by James Helmuth von Moltke and The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright helped me to appreciate the power of evil and the danger of fanaticism. I had read books about World War II, including William Shirer's Berliln Diary, when I was younger, but I didn't really comprehend them until I was an adult.

9, Hamlet and the works of William Shakespeare helped me develop a love of the English language and the power of words. The Story of English by Robert McCrum, William Cran and Robert MacNeil is runner-up in this category.

Do Tax Cuts Increase Employment?

2011-07-16T14:54:00.000-07:00

In the debate over raising the debt ceiling, Republicans have refused to consider tax increases of any kind. The adjective "job-kiling" is always linked to "tax increases" even if it is eliminating a tax loophole for corporate jets. That made me wonder. If tax increases kill jobs, then tax cuts must increase taxes. According to an ABC News Report, there have been five major tax cuts in recent years: JFK in 1963, Ronald Reagan in 1981 and 1986 and George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003. What was the effect of those tax cuts on employment? I used employment rates rather than unemployment, because unemployment is a fickle figure.

Looking at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, I found that for the period between 1948 and 1984, employment rates hovered between 55-59%. It didn't matter which party was in the White House, employment rates stayed within a narrow band. However, the years 1985-2008 tell a different story. During those years, encompassing three Republican and one Democratic President, employment rates exceeded 60% every year. Because these years of high employment spanned the Reagan and Bush tax cuts, there is at least some correlation between tax cuts and employment.

However, I wasn't satisfied with that. I decided that a better comparison would be to look at government revenues as a percentage of GDP compared to employment rates. During the period since 1948, government revenues as a percentage of GDP have ranged from 14.4% to 20.6%. That means that the lowest quartile of revenues as a percentage of GDP would be 14.4%-16.0% and the highest quartile would be 19.0%-20.6%. I only found four years in the bottom quartile (1949-50 and 2009-2010), while I found eleven years in the upper quartile (1952, 1969-70, 1980-82 and 1997-01).

Comparing these rates yields the following table:

Year	Revenues as % of GDP	Employment %
1950	14.4%	56.1%
1949	14.5%	55.4%
2009	14.8%	59.3%
2010	14.8%	58.5%

1952	19.0%	57.3%
1970	19.0%	57.4%
1980	19.0%	59.2%
1982	19.2%	57.8%
1997	19.2%	63.8%
2001	19.5%	63.7%
1981	19.6%	59.0%
1969	19.7%	58.0%
1999	19.8%	64.3%
1998	19.9%	64.1%
2000	20.6%	64.4%

These numbers are very counter-intuitive. The higher the percentage of GDP consumed by the government, the higher the level of employment. While I can't prove it, my hypothesis is that when the economy is good, employment is higher and tax collections are higher as well. When the economy is in the toilet, employment is lower and tax collections are lower.

I decided to perform one last test. How did government revenues and employment change in the four years after a cut? If tax cuts spur the economy, you would expect to see revenues as a percentage of GDP stay constant, constant dollar collections increase and employment increase. Here is what I found:

Year	Revenue as % of GDP	Revenue in Constant $	Employment $
1963	17.8%	$674.9	55.4%
1964	17.6%	$704.3	55.7%
1965	17.0%	$721.1	56.2%
1966	17.3%	$789.1	56.9%
1967	18.4%	$875.4	57.3%

1981	19.6%	$1,251.4	59.0%
1982	19.2%	$1,202.8	57.8%
1983	17.5%	$1,113.6	57.9%
1984	17.3%	$1,174.3	59.5%
1985	17.7%	$1,250.9	60.1%
1986	17.5%	$1,277.7	60.7%
1987	18.4%	$1,375.7	60.7%

2001	19.5%	$2,215.3	63.7%
2002	17.6%	$2,028.6	62.7%
2003	16.2%	$1,901.1	62.3%
2004	16.1%	$1,949.5	62.3%
2005	17.3%	$2,153.6	62.7%
2006	18.2%	$2,321.4	63.1%
2007	18.5%	$2,414.0	63.0%

These are a lot of numbers. Here is what I think they mean. The Kennedy tax cuts increased revenue by $200 million and increased employment by 1.9%.

The Reagan tax cuts initially resulted in both reduced revenue and reduced collection. However, by 1987, revenue was up by $100 million and employment was up by 1.7%.

The Bush tax cuts followed the same pattern with revenue and employment trending down but then increasing. However, the Bush tax cuts resulted in a net employment loss of 0.7%.

The bottom line is that it appears that depending on how you slice and dice the numbers, you can conclude that high taxes lead to high employment or conversely that tax cuts increase employment. It is beyond my abilities as an amateur economist to figure it out.

Sources: http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat1.pdf

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/presidential-tax-cuts-now/story?id=12337213

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy11/pdf/hist.pdf

Did You Know That Taxes Are Low And Spending Is High?

2011-07-15T05:09:00.000-07:00

One of the Republican mantras during the debate to increase hte debt ceiling is that we have a spending problem and not a revenue problem. As it turns out, receipts as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) are at an historic low, while spending is at an historic high. For 2009-10, government revenues were under 15% of GDP. You have to go back sixty years to 1950 to find a comparable level. Since 1940, there have only been eight years when revenue was less than 15% as a percentage of GDP (1940-43, 1949-50 and 2009-10). See Historical Tables: Budget of the U.S. Government 2011, Table 1.3, which you can find here. To be fair, the last two years are an anomaly. The same report predicts that receipts will increase to 16.8% in 2011 and 18.1% in 2012. For the post-World War II era, government receipts have traditionally been more than 15% but less than 20% of GDP. The only post World War II year in which receipts were greater than 20% was 2000.

Using the same measure, spending is historically high. In 2009-10, spending as a percentage of GDP was approximately 25% of GDP. The last time spending was that high was 1946. However, in fairness, there have been many years when spending exceeded 20% of GDP (1942-46, 1953, 1968, 1975-96, 2006, 2008-11). So which recent Presidents kept spending below 20% of GDP? President Clinton (1997-2000) and President George W. Bush (2001-05 and 2007).

So what is "normal" about receipts and expenditures? In recent years, receipts above 20% but below 25% of GDP are typical, while expenditures around 18%-22% of GDP. The past two years have been unusual in that receipts have been below historic levels and expenditures have been much higher. That has led to the history-busting deficits that I described in my prior post.

The Deficit Is REALLY BIG And That's Not Just Partisan Spin

2011-07-04T11:52:00.000-07:00

I have been listening to the current debate about the size of the federal budget and the deficit with some confusion. Republicans say that spending is too high. Democrats say that taxes are too low. I have vague recollections of budget deficits under President Reagan and both President Bushes and a surplus under President Clinton. Those facts made me a little skeptical about claims that deficits are out of control under President Obama. Since I had a little free time on this Fourth of July, I decided to do some reading. The Government Publishing Office put out a volume titled Historical Tables: Budget of the U.S. Government. You can find it here. It contains a great history of the federal budget and it confirms that current deficits have hit record levels.

Raw numbers don't tell you much over time due to the effects of inflation and the fact that the effect of the federal budget on the economy depends on the size of the economy. That is why I found table 1.3 at page 26 very instructive. It shows government receipts, government spending and the deficit in both constant FY 2005 dollars and as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

According to the Report, we have historically run deficits in times of war and depression until the 1970s when we ran continuous deficits with the exception of a few years. Deficit years from 1940 forward were 1940-46(World War II), 1950 and 1952-55 (Korean War), 1958-59, 1961-68 and 1970-73 (Vietnam War) and 1974-97 and 2002-11 (Afghanistan and Iraq). The only non-wartime years that we ran deficits since 1940 were 1958-59 under President Eisenhower and 1974-97 under Presidents Ford, Carter, Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Clinton. Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush were the most recent presidents to preside over a surplus during 1998-2001.

While deficits have been common, the size of the deficit shows striking differences. During the war years of 1943-45, we had deficits equal to 30.3%, 22.7% and 21.5% of GDP. In constant dollars, those deficits were in the $500 billion range. The first postwar year of 1946 showed a fiscal hangover with a deficit equal to 7.2% of GDP and $175.6 billion in constant dollars.

In terms of percentage of GDP, we would not see a deficit equaling 1946 until the Obama administration when the deficit was 9.9% in 2009 and 10.6% of GDP in 2010. In other words, as a percentage of the economy, the deficits under President Obama consume a greater portion of the economy than at any time since World War II. (The Tables only go back to 1940, so I can't speak to the pre-World War II era. In constant dollars, we did not exceed the $175 billion level of 1946 until 1975-76 under President Ford, 1982-88 under President Reagan, 1989-92 under President H.W. Bush, 1993-95, 1996-97 under President Clinton, 2003-2008 under President George W. Bush and 2009-2010 under President Obama. However, while these deficits were greater than 1946, none reached the $500 billion level until 2009. Under President Obama, the deficit was $1.279 trillion in 2009 and 1.386 trillion in 2010. (Since the Table was using constant 2005 dollars, the actual deficits were higher at $1.4 and $1.5 trillion respectively).

Thus, it appears that President Obama's deficits really are unprecedented. In terms of GDP, they are the most since 1945. In constant dollars, they are over double the largest in history, more than double the World War II era deficits. This doesn't tell us WHY the deficits are so large. That would take a lot more digging than I have time to do on a holiday afternoon. President Obama has several strikes against him with interest piling up on the borrowing from his predecessors, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and a population of aging Baby Boomers. However, it is a verifiable fact that they make President Reagan and both President Bushes' deficits look mild in comparison and make President Clinton's record look positively sterling.

Mel Gibson vs. C.S. Lewis: The Problem of Good Friday

2011-03-20T19:39:00.001-07:00

Some time ago, a Jewish friend told me about her discomfort at being taken to watch The Passion of the Christ. She said, “It’s just too painful to watch God being killed.” I replied, “As Christians, we are so familiar with the story that it doesn’t shock us.” If we observe Good Friday at all, it is a quiet service with somber, reverent music. Because we know the ending, we do not experience the terror or the soul-sucking despair felt by the disciples. More importantly, because we know that Good Friday will be followed shortly by chocolate bunnies and Easter dresses and shouts of “He is risen indeed,” we do not dwell overly much on the meaning of Good Friday: it is a passing inconvenience.

If, like my Jewish friend, we approach the story with fresh eyes, the story is truly shocking. Man kills God. Of course, we have a ready answer to this. Man kills God because God allows it to happen. The more disturbing question is why. We don’t like to dwell on why because there are two different why stories, both disturbing in their own way.

On the one hand, you have the Mel Gibson version of Good Friday. In the Passion of the Christ, the God man Jesus doesn’t just die, he is tortured beyond our ability to watch. It is the story of a raging, out of control God who must have satisfaction. Jesus is like the older sibling who takes a beating from the alcoholic father in order to protect the younger, vulnerable one. As Christians, we are grateful that Jesus took the beating instead of us. When He returns like a conquering superhero, we know that we will never have to fear God the Father again.

Admittedly, my analogy is exaggerated. God the Father is not an out of control monster who must be satisfied. Instead, God the Father is just. The penalty for sin is death and that price must be paid. The fact that His Son pays the price for us does not change the fact that God the Father demands that the price be paid. In the world of Mel Gibson, God the Father is very much of an eye for an eye, a life for a life kind of God.

C.S. Lewis excellently captures another answer to why in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. When Aslan, the Jesus analogue, returns from being killed by the White Witch, Susan asks what it means. Aslan replies:

It means that although the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward.

In this version, Jesus is not a pathetic victim, but a brave and loving friend, who sacrifices Himself so that we might be saved. While God the Father cedes some of his power to Death, he also provides the means to conquer Death.

In the Bible, “for God so loved the world” and “greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends” support the Jesus as Aslan view of God. What is disturbing here is that God limits Himself. He establishes rules which even He must abide. However, as a loving God, He provides an override to those rules, a “deeper magic” in the words of C.S. Lewis. This really begs the question of why God couldn’t have just invoked the deeper magic to begin with and spared us the pain of sin. If God will grant us a blissful afterlife, why couldn’t He have just skipped to the good part? I don’t know. However, I would much rather prefer a limited but loving God to one who is angry and omnipotent.

The Good Girls of Disney and Nickelodeon

2011-03-06T09:08:00.000-08:00

Lindsay Lohan is in the news again. Like so many of the alumni of the Disney and Nickelodeon starlet factory, she has failed to make the transition from teen sensation to responsible adult. However, rather than focusing on her troubles (or those of Britney, Jamie Lynn, Miley or Mary-Kate), this post will focus on some girls who are actually good role models. Unfortunately, the bar is rather low. To make this list, the actress must be at least twenty years old, have had a successful second act as an adult and not been arrested or pregnant outside of marriage.

Hilary Duff. Hilary Duff, age 23, is the queen of the good girls. As Lizzie McGuire, she played a middle school every-girl complete with a cartoon alter ego to act out her insecurities. The show concluded when she gave guy friend Gordo a chaste kiss on the cheek. Since then, she has had a successful career as a singer, actress, writer, fashion designer and philanthropist. She has recorded three albums, including the appropriately titled Dignity, appeared on the TV show Gossip Girl and has written a young adult book titled Elixir. She serves on the Board of Kids with a Cause and donated $250,000 for Hurricane Katrina Relief. She dated singer Nick Carter and Good Charlotte rocker Joel Madden without incident and is now married to Canadian hockey player Mike Comrie. She has accomplished a lot in 23 years and is a great role model.

Raven Symone. Raven Symone, age 25, began her acting career on the Cosby Show when she was only three. She appeared as the star of That's So Raven, Disney's highest rated and longest running show. Since then, she has recorded four albums, provided the voice of Tinker Bell in a Disney movie and has acted in several movies. Her ABC Family movie Revenge of the Bridesmaids attracted 2.5 million viewers in its premiere making it the number one movie on basic cable among women 18-34. She will be returning to TV with the upcoming ABC Family show The Great State of Georgia. Two additional factors qualify her for a high place on the good girls list. First, she had to dispel rumors that she was pregnant or had a child. The important thing is that the rumors were absolutely false. Second, she has been very comfortable with her size. While she has been somewhat heavy at times, she maintained a positive self image throughout and eventually lost the weight without resorting to fad diets or surgery.

Amanda Bynes. Amanda Bynes, age 24, was the star of Nickelodeon's The Amanda Show. I loved her Judge Trudy segment which always ended with "send in the dancing lobsters." She has acted in several successful movies including Big Fat Liar, She's the Man, Hairspray and Easy A. While she has appeared in Maxim, she also said, "I think I’ll go out as much as I’ve ever gone out... which is not a lot. I like to dance and stuff, but drinking isn’t good for you in every way. It’s not good for your skin; it makes you feel horrible. So, drinking-wise, no."

Alyson Michalka. Alyson Michalka, age 21, was the co-star of Disney's Phil of the Future. She played the BFF and love interest of Ricky Ullman's stranded time traveler Phil. She also has had a successful recording career with her sister in the pop duo Aly and AJ, now known as 78violet. She has successfully made the transition to adult actress with a supporting role in the movie Easy A and appears in the cheerleader series Hellcats on CW. While her pictures in men's magazine Maxim were a reminder that she does possess an adult body, they were still on the tasteful side of sexy.

Alison Scagliotti. Allison Scagliotti, age 20, had a small role in Nickelodeon's Drake & Josh as Mindy Crenshaw, an ultra competitive know it all. However, she has really blossomed as ultra cool computer hacker Claudia Donovan on Sy Fy's series Warehouse 13. The lead characters of Warehouse 13, Pete and Myka, share a similar vibe to the X-Files Scully and Mulder. However, what really makes the show work is its quirky supporting cast and no one is quirkier than Alison Scagliotti. She will also be appearing in the upcoming indie movie Losers Take All.

You may notice that except for Hilary Duff, I haven't mentioned much about their personal life. That is because they have been successful in keeping their private life private. And that's a good thing.

Half Marathon Shout Outs

2011-01-31T05:11:00.000-08:00

I ran my fifth half marathon yesterday. My time was nothing to write home about. I finished in 2:50:22. That placed me 3,992 out of 4,256 finishers, which I think puts me in the bottom 6%. Among men aged 45-49, I placed 258 out of 264, which is the bottom 2%. I was five minutes slower than last year and 16 minutes slower than my personal best from 2008. I have to remind myself that the first time I ran the race, it was to see if I could finish. For the fifth straight year, I did finish.

While the news stories in today's paper focused on the Kenyans and Ethiopians at the front of the pack, I would like to point out a few remarkable individuals who were not in this group.

The oldest man to finish the race was Joe Barger of Austin, age 85, who finished in 2:40:48. Way to go, Joe. At 85, some people have trouble walking across the room. You completed a half marathon and did it faster than me.

The oldest woman to finish the race was Vonda Lee Adorno of Austin, age 76. Her time of 2:28:23 was 22 minutes faster than mine. Way to go.

The youngest girls in the race were just 14. The fastest 14 year old was Brenna Lanford of Cameron, who flew through the course at 1:42:05.

The youngest boys in the race were 13 years old. The fastest of the youngest was Ryan Mata of Dripping Springs, whose time was 1:45:26.

The final remarkable thing about the race was that 5,750 people would get up in order to be at the starting line at 6:45 a.m. on a Sunday morning and proceed to push themselves through 13.1 miles of Austin roads. To all who ran, I salute you.

Defining Moments

2011-01-30T17:41:00.000-08:00

As I approach 50, I tend to think about the past more. Recently, there are some specific moments that have popped into my head from school days. Here they are:

1. Most Embarrassing Moment

When I was in third grade, we were reading a book about a person stranded on an island in the Pacific. The person comes across something which refers to "Dink." The teacher asked me what the significance of "Dink" was. I was horrified. The only meaning I knew for "dink" was as a synonym for penis. Was the teacher really asking me to talk about a penis in class? I sat there in crimson-faced silence. It turned out that Dink was short for Dinkum which was an Australian name and meant that someone else had been on the island. However, that meaning went straight over my head and I was mortified. I am sure that the teacher had no clue about the alternate meaning.

2. Most Disillusioning, Soul-Sucking Moment

During my sophomore year in high school, my teacher assigned the class to write an alternate ending to the story "The Monkey's Paw." To seamlessly blend the original story with my alternative, I started with the line, "I wish my son alive again." I wrote a very creative piece. However, when I got it back the grade was an F. I asked the teacher what the problem was. She had a policy that anyone using a sentence fragment would receive an F on the assignment. She said that the line I had quoted from the story was a sentence fragment and that I should have changed the language from the story! I was shocked and angry. The teacher assigned us to read this story and yet using the actual language from the story would earn me an F. To make it worse, it wasn't a sentence fragment. The verb "wish" was being used in an active sense rather than the passive "I wish my son was alive" that the teacher preferred. During this time, I was reading Ayn Rand and Alexandr Solyzhenitsyn. I became convinced that high school was a gulag designed to stifle creativity and reward mediocrity. It wasn't (at least not all of the time), but that was how I viewed it through the lens of one callous teacher.

Several years later, a friend asked me why I identified with the Pink Floyd song which had the refrain "We don't need no education/We don't need no thought control/No dark sarcasm in the classroom/Hey teacher, leave those kids alone." This moment was why.

3. Scariest Moment

This also happened my sophomore year in high school. PE was a nightmare for me. The coach would throw a ball at 30 boys and then retreat to his office for the rest of the hour. With 30 unsupervised boys, there was a lot of chest thumping, macho swagger and outright aggression. I learned that you had to push back or you would constantly be bullied. One day we were playing basketball in the gym. Someone shoved me and I shoved him back. He became enraged and shoved me down some steps. I bloodied my knee and wanted to go to the nurse to get it cleaned up. However, the coach would not let me go unless I told him who did it. Foolishly, I broke the code and told him. Later that day, I ran into the same person in the hall. He came up to me and said "I wasn't f***ing around. I'm going to finish it." Something in his eyes made me realize that this was not a garden variety threat. I went to the assistant principal almost in tears. He assured me that this person would not be hurting anyone. He was kicked out of school and I never saw him again. Later, he was arrested for murder. It turns out he had killed a freshman the year before for snitching on him.

4. Most Fortuitous Moment

One day during my junior year, I sat down to take the PSAT. I don't think I knew what the PSAT was or its significance. It was just another standardized test. Back then, we didn't have prep classes and didn't have it drilled into our heads that these tests were the most important things in the world. My results came back and I was a national merit semi-finalist. This changed my life. I was always a good student, but I made plenty of Bs (see #2 above) which meant that I was not an academic rock star. However, with this one test, I not only got my picture in the paper, but was inspired to believe that I could do well in life (or at least in taking standardized tests).

5. Most Ironic Moment

I took journalism for three years in high school. Every year, there was a UIL contest in journalism. My teacher entered me in headline writing. I did well enough that I got to go to regionals in Lubbock. The result of that was that I earned a letter. I bought a letter jacket to put my letter on. Suddenly, I could walk the halls with the same letter jacket that the jocks wore. It was funny because, like most Texas high schools, we had a culture which focused on football. There were no pep rallies for the math club or the school newspaper. However, someone in the school decided that letters could be given for academic contests and I had one. The really funny thing was that the actual headlines that I wrote for the school newspaper never fit right and almost always had to be done over.

6. Happiest Moment

During my sophomore year in college, I asked a girl in my dorm if she would like to go to see a campus production of Godspell with me. I don't think I had exchanged more than three words with her and she was not in any of my classes. It was a shot in the dark. She said no, that she was going with her father. The day of the play, she told me that her father had cancelled and would I like to go with her. This was a first. A girl actually asked me out. That was my first date with my wife and we have been married for 26 years now.

There are probably other moments that are worth mentioning, but these are the ones that stand out.

The Return of Big Brother?

2011-01-16T10:23:00.000-08:00

Saturday's paper included a piece called "Land of the paranoid," which you can find here. It was all about how right-wing commentators have been raising the prospect of violent resistance to a government which will attempt to take away our guns, vaccinate our children or make us buy energy efficient light bulbs.

My first reaction was that it all sounded absurd. However, it did make me think back to high school. During those years, many of my favorite books were by authors such as Ayn Rand, George Orwell, Aldous Huxley and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. The idea of the brave individual fighting back against the totalitarian machine appealed to me in those years. High school struck me as a fascist system where creativity was stifled and conformity was demanded.

I outgrew those fears in college. Once I was in a more open environment, my fear of authority mellowed to a healthy skepticism. Years later, the Berlin Wall fell and it became apparent that authoritarian regimes were not all powerful.

When I listen to the current rants, I have to laugh. Their fears seem so petty. In the books of my youth, Big Brother could make you disappear for thought crimes or banish you to the Gulag Archipelago. Barack Obama, on the other hand, can make you buy health insurance. Last year, I read Letters to Freya, a story of German resistance to Hitler. That was a story of true evil and true opposition to evil. The current fears about President Obama pale in comparison. Oppressive, totalitarian regimes exist in many corners of the world today, places like Iran, Myanmar and China. Painting the current American president as a threat to liberty cheapens the suffering of those who have no freedom.

On the other hand, if you would like a smile, listen to these high school students singing about George Orwell's 1984 to the tune of Bowling for Soup's 1985.

Say It Like It Isn't: Lies, Gaffes and Misstatements

2011-01-02T08:57:00.000-08:00

I became an Independent because I wasn't inspired by Republicans or Democrats. It wasn't always that way.

I remember the excitement of the first campaigns that I worked on during the 1980s. In 1979, I was one of the founders of the College Republicans at Texas Lutheran College. I was campus coordinator for George H.W. Bush. I remember thinking of him as a decent, intelligent man with an impressive resume. I became a reluctant supporter of Ronald Reagan, but came to be impressed by him. I also remember the local candidates that I supported, people like Jim Sagebiel and Margie Reinhardt, who swept out the corrupt Democrats in Guadalupe County. I also remember working on Edmund Kuempel's first campaign for state representative.

As the years went on, I became more involved, serving two terms as a Republican Precinct Chairman in Travis County. As Precinct Chairman, I noticed that the local Republican Party spent most of its time feuding with each other and arguing over who was more ideologically pure. I initially embraced the rise of the religious right. However, I began to notice that their version of Christianity did not line up with what I read in the Bible.

Ideologically, there were four straws that broke the camel's back: bankruptcy reform, immigration, the war in Iraq and the death penalty. However, more than these particular issues, I hated cringing whenever Republicans said something disingenuous, dishonest or just plain stupid. Accuracy and logic are not how you fire up the base. Howard Dean and the Daily Kos weren't much better.

With that really long introduction, here are some statements from this year that I found to be particularly offensive, weird or wrong.

The Health Care Debate

The Health Care debate produced many statements that were either dishonest, inflammatory or just plain stupid. For example:

"We believe that the job-killing ObamaCare law will result in a government takeover of health care. That's why we have pledged to repeal it, and replace it with common-sense reforms that actually lower costs.”--Spokesman for U.S. Rep. John Boehner

"It says specifically that people can't purchase private health insurance after a date certain, which means people will ultimately go into a single-payer plan where it is government providing health care and only one single government system. That's why this is so bad, Sean. This is socialized medicine ... This is, as I said, the crown jewel of socialism. It's what Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have wanted from the very beginning."--U.S. Rep. Michelle Bachmann

"And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil."--Sarah Palin

These statements are all examples of the Big Lie. The speaker makes an outrageous, inflammatory statement. When challenged, they spin an unlikely scenario in which the statement might come to fruition. For example, when the Obama health plan included a public option, the party line was that the public option would undercut private insurance, driving private companies out of business and lead to national health insurance which could then enforce health care rationing. The only problem with this scenario is that Republicans kept mentioning it after the public option was deleted.

"The final health care legislation that will soon be passed will deliver successful reform at the local level, but we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy."--U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi

This last statement shows why many people don't put a lot of faith in the Democrats. While Nancy Pelosi no doubt meant to say that people would like the health care law once they were familiar with it, she came off as saying that Congress should pass it first and read it later.

Anti-Muslim Hysteria and the Ground Zero Mosque

Plans to build an Islamic Center on a site two blocks away from the World Trade Center site brought out a lot of hysteria.

"We can't say no to building a victory monument at Ground Zero because that's what this mosque is. They want to build a victory monument."--Rush Limbaugh

"At its essence, our position is about sensitivity. Everyone -- victims,opponents and proponents alike -- must pay attention to the sensitivities involved without giving in to appeals to, or accusations of, bigotry. Ultimately, this was not a question of rights, but a question of what is right. In our judgment, building an Islamic Center in the shadow of the World Trade Center would un-necessarily cause some victims more pain. And that wasn't right.--Abraham Foxman, Anti-Defamation League

"No matter how you try, this isn't about religious discrimination or intolerance. This is about constructing a mosque on the very spot where the landing gear of one of the hijacked planes crashed into the building on this site. Certainly you can understand the feelings of the families and victims of 9-11 - including our client - NYC firefighter and first responder Tim Brown - who survived the attack but lost nearly 100 colleagues that day. For them, the pain never ends. They consider this site hallowed ground and, like most Americans, don't believe this is the place to build a mosque. To them, it's insensitive. To them, it should be a memorial - not a mosque. It really is as simple as that."--Jay Sekulow

The Limbaugh quote is another example of the Big Lie. Because Muslims built a mosque to commemorate a victory sometime, somewhere in the world, the only reason that Muslims would want to build a mosque in lower Manhattan is to commemorate the 9/11 attacks. Of course, he completely ignores the fact that this mosque was intended to replace another mosque that had been in the same area for many years.

Abraham Foxman and Jay Sekulow are more subtle. They use the language of sensitivity. However, the fact that the landing gear from one of the planes struck the old Burlington Coat Factory does not make it hallowed ground. In fact, it was never considered hallowed ground until after the Muslims bought the property. This is a case of 1) revisionist history and 2) using sensitivity as a weapon.

Religious Crazy Talk

When it comes to religion, the words of the Bible and the words of those who speak in the name of religion often keep little company.

"And they got together and swore a pact to the Devil. They said, 'We will serve you if you'll get us free from the French.' True story. And so the Devil said, 'Okay, it's a deal.' . . . But ever since they have been cursed by one thing after another." --Pat Robertson

“I beg you, look for the words ‘social justice’ or ‘economic justice’ on your church Web site. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. Now, am I advising people to leave their church? Yes.”--Glenn Beck

"I mean, it is a perversion of the gospel. It is a perversion of the gospel. And I understand that we are dealing with — we're not dealing with — we're not dealing with powers of the Earth. We're just not. This is a perversion of the gospel. And it is such a clear perversion of the gospel, I want to show you the collective salvation remarks."--Glenn Beck

Pat Robertson used a little voodoo history in order to blame the Haitian earthquake on a so-called pact with the devil. While there is a grain of truth to the fact that during the slave uprising someone performed a voodoo rite, it doesn't hold up that the Haitian people as a whole made a pact or that God would send an earthquake nearly 200 years later to punish them.

While Robertson is laughable, Glenn Beck is more insidious. Although he is a Mormon, and therefore does not have a Christian take on the Bible, it doesn't stop him from talking about the Bible. In each of these quotes, he suggests that language which can be legitimately construed as love of neighbor really means something evil and subversive. It is true that social justice can be a code word for socialism and it is also true that collective salvation derives from liberation theology. However, the actual quotes from President Obama talked about not forgetting the less fortunate, which is a very Christian message. Beck takes the "collective salvation" soundbite and spins an entirely different meaning on it.

Obama Derangement Syndrome

There are many examples which could go here, but I will use just two.

This usurper in the office of the President of the United States has been shredding our Constitution. Washington is dominated by socialists. . . . Socialists do not believe in god. Their god is the state."--State Rep. Leo Berman

Obama "doesn't ... want to admit we're at war."--Dick Cheney

You don't have to like President Obama. However, that is not license to make things up. Last time I checked, being elected President of the United States does not make you a usurper. Also, President Obama has continued so many of his predecessor's policies on the war on terror that his liberal supporters have felt betrayed.

Lies and Texas Politics

Gov. Rick Perry coasted to victory in this year's gubernatorial race. The ease of his re-election didn't stop the Governor and his party from telling some whoppers.

"Today is day 164 of liberal trial lawyer Bill White refusing to debate. He also continues to refuse to release his taxes from his years in public service."--Press Release from the Rick Perry Campaign

Actually, it was Perry who refused to debate.

"Bill White has presided over the construction of what may be the world's largest abortion clinic."--Republican Party of Texas

That's true only if the words "presided over" mean that he happened to be mayor at the time.

Immigration

"I don't know that all of you are Latino. Some of you look a little more Asian to me. I don't know that. What we know about -- what we know about ourselves is that we are a melting pot in this country. My -- my grandchildren are evidence of that. I'm evidence of that. I've been called the third Asian legislator in our Nevada state assembly."--Sharon Angle

Bizarre.

"I don't know how anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican, OK. Do I need to say more?"--Sen Harry Reid

Patronizing

"Worst of all, Robert Rodriguez’ incendiary race film ‘Machete’ was made, in part, with help from tax incentives and location access provided by the Texas Film Commission, a division of Governor Rick Perry’s Office. A spokesperson from the organization confirmed that Rodriguez had indeed applied for funding."--Alex Jones, Infowars.com

A little anti-immigrant hysteria? Saying that the film had applied for funding is not the same as saying that it was made with tax incentives. Also, calling it an "incendiary race film" is just plain silly. It is a good guys vs. bad guys movie where some of the bad guys happen to be Anglo.

Random

Here are some random false statements from the past year.

I never considered myself a maverick."--U.S. Sen. John McCain

Is this a case of amnesia?

"We don't get a lot of calls from this White House… I have, frankly, never had a call from them."--Rick Perry

This is more amnesia, since Gov. Perry had just received a call from the White House.

As we head into 2011, I am neither Republican nor Democrat nor likely to change anytime soon.

10 Rules for Healthier Eating

2010-12-16T05:22:00.000-08:00

As I approach half a century old, I have been getting a lot of advice about how to eat healthy. Some of it is surprising, while a lot of it is common sense. I actually follow most of the rules set out below.

1. Soy is poison. I used to think that because liberals ate tofu and it was vegetarian that soy products must be healthy. After all, who would eat tofu if it wasn't good for you? It turns out that soy products cause the body to produce estrogen. It should be obvious that estrogen is not good for guys, but too much is not good for women either. You can read more about it in this article in Men's Health.

2. Refined Grains are bad. One of the first lessons my trainer taught me was to avoid refined grains. Refined grains are all around. They include white bread, white rice, most pasta and many cookies, cakes, breakfast cereals and crackers. The problem with refined grains is that the refining process eliminates the fiber and nutrients leaving starchy carbohydrates. Starchy carbohydrates are quickly processed into sugars causing blood sugar to spike and then crash. You can read about it here.

According to my trainer, starchy carbs have another more insidious effect. Going back to our hunter-gatherer days, consuming carbohydrates tells the body that food is scarce and that it should store fat, while eating protein tells the body that food is abundant and that it should burn fat. I haven't found documentation for this, but if it is true, it is a powerful reason to avoid refined grains.

Since I started avoiding refined grains, I have avoided the problem of getting sleepy immediately after lunch. It used to be very embarrassing for me to be sitting in court waiting for my case to be called and be dozing off. It just doesn't look very professional.

Related to avoiding refined grains is gluten. I didn't know what gluten was until a girl on the soccer team I coach indicated that she had coeliac disease and could not eat gluten.

Gluten (from Latin gluten "glue") is a protein composite that appears in foods processed from wheat and related species,including barley and rye. It gives elasticity to dough, helping it to rise and to keep its shape, and often giving the final product a chewy texture.

My wellness doctor has recommended avoiding foods containing gluten. There is a substantial overlap between refined grains and gluten. You can read more about a diet which excludes refined grains and gluten here.

Generally, brown rice, quinoa, oats, buckwheat, millet and sorghum are good, while barley, wheat and rye are not.

I have also been advised that sprouted grains are healthier for the body. One source of sprouted grains is Ezekiel bread. You can read more about it here.

3. Sodas and sweeteners are bad. I used to drink about ten diet cokes a day. I thought I was being healthy. It turns out that the healthiest thing is to drink an occasional Mexican Coke. Here's why. Regular soda contains little nutritional value and is high in calories leading to obesity. Most regular soda contains high fructose corn syrup as a sweetener. High fructose corn syrup has been found to have bad health consequences. You can read about it here. However, diet soda has been found to be bad for you as well as shown here. According to my trainer, the chemicals in artificial sweeteners used in diet soda are toxic. I have largely cut sodas out of my diet entirely. I will drink maybe one regular soda a month now. If I wanted to do even better, I would limit my soda intake to Mexican Coke, which is made with real sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup.

4. Green vegetables, beans and sweet potatoes are good; potatoes are bad. Green vegetables, beans and sweet potatoes are high in nutrients and relatively low on the glycemic index. However, potatoes are high on the glycemic index. That means that they turn to sugar in your body and cause you to gain weight. The glycemic index is generally a good guide to what to eat and what not to eat. Two different lists of glycemic indexes can be found here and here. On the glycemic index, 70 is high and 55 or less is low. Sucrose has a glycemic index of 65, while boiled potatoes have an index of 78. That means that potatoes have more sugar than sugar itself. Curiously, sweet potatoes are relatively high at 63. However, they are touted as a top ten food based on their cartenoids, which you can read about here.

5. Water is good. This year my doctor had me go through a two week cleanse. One part of it involved drinking ½ ounce of water for every pound weighed. For me, that meant drinking a gallon of water a day. I am still trying to do that and keep a one quart glass handy at home and at work. What I have found is that when I don’t drink enough water, my weight goes up. Here is an explanation why.

6. If you must drink, red wine and clear liquors are good, while beer and colored liquors are bad. I got this advice from my trainer. When I went to do the research to back this up, I kept running into articles that said alcohol is bad for you and got depressed. However, it does seem that red wine and clear liquors are less bad for you. The sugar in beer makes it more fattening. Clear liquors have the fewest calories. Red wine consumed in moderation is supposed to have some health benefits. Also, I think that beer and colored liquors have the same health problems as refined grains, but I can't find documentation on that. Finally, the color in colored liquors comes from impurities which make it more likely for you to get a hangover.

7. Coconut products are good. This is another tip that I got from my trainer. Apparently coconut is a wonder food with many health benefits.

Coconut is highly nutritious and rich in fiber, vitamins, and minerals. It is classified as a "functional food" because it provides many health benefits beyond its nutritional content. Coconut oil is of special interest because it possesses healing properties far beyond that of any other dietary oil and is extensively used in traditional medicine among Asian and Pacific populations. Pacific Islanders consider coconut oil to be the cure for all illness. The coconut palm is so highly valued by them as both a source of food and medicine that it is called "The Tree of Life." Only recently has modern medical science unlocked the secrets to coconut's amazing healing powers.

You can read more about it here. One thing that I have done is to substitute coconut oil for olive oil in cooking. Coconut oil has a higher burning point than olive oil, which makes it easier to use in addition to its health benefits.

8. Eggs are good. Health experts used to warn people away from eggs because of cholesterol. However, the thinking now seems to be that the health benefits from eggs outweigh the detriments. You can read about them here.

9. Blueberries are good. This is a health tip that I need to go back to. Blueberries, like coconuts, are a wonder food, rich in antioxidants and useful in reducing belly fat. You can read about them here.

10. Grass-fed meats are good. This year my daughter Stephanie read The Omnivore's Dilemma in school. She came home and told me that we should be eating grass-fed meat. I had heard the same thing from my trainer. Meat that has been fed beef instead of grain tends to have more vitamins according to this study. Cattle do not feed on grain in the wild. As a result, fattening them up on grain results in a fatter, less healthy product. Additionally, feedlot beef tends to be treated with antibiotics and hormones and other chemicals that are bad for you. You can read more here.

BONUS:

11. You don't have to buy expensive stuff from Whole Foods to eat healthy. Austin-based Whole Foods is supposedly the gold standard for organic and otherwise healthy foods. Unfortunately, they charge a premium for health. It is hard to walk out of Whole Foods without spending at least $100. Recently I have found that Sprouts and Sun Harvest carry many of the same foods but without the high price tag.

After I go running today, I am going to run over to Sun Harvest and pick up some grass-fed beef, green vegetables and blueberries.

The Most Important Album You've Never Heard About

2010-11-28T09:54:00.000-08:00

October 24 was the 15th anniversary of the release of Dead Winter Dead by Savatage. I meant to write about it then, but with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra coming to Austin this week, it is still timely to write about The Most Important Album You've Never Heard About (at least if you are a TSO fan).

Dead Winter Dead is the most influential rock opera written about the Bosnian War. That doesn't say much because as far as I know, it's the ONLY rock opera written about the Bosnian War. However, this epic tragedy led to the formation of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. TSO has become one of the biggest touring acts ever, spreading holiday cheer and bringing classical music to the masses.

A Little History

Savatage was a high concept heavy metal band from Florida which released seventeen albums from 1983 to 2001. Their most popular album Poets and Madmen debuted at #7 on the German charts. However, their highest placement on the Billboard Charts was #116 for Hall of the Mountain King. Two of their albums, Streets and Dead Winter Dead, took the form of rock operas, and there are plans to make a Broadway musical out of Gutter Ballet.

Here is what Savatage looked and sounded like in 1996.

Dead Winter Dead

Dead Winter Dead was released on October 24, 1995. It is the story of a Serb boy and a Muslim girl who fall in love during the Bosnian War. It marked Al Pitrelli's debut as lead guitarist. Pitrelli had previously been a member of Alice Cooper's touring band and is now a member of the TSO West touring company. Dead Winter Dead was not one of Savatage's most successful albums. It did not crack the Billboard Top 200 and only made it to #80 in Germany and #68 in Japan. However, I will make the case that it was much more important than its sales would suggest.

The album's thirteen tracks tell the following story:

In the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo, there is a town square surrounded by buildings that were constructed during the middle ages. The square has a beautiful stone fountain at its center and at one corner there is a thousand year old church with a gargoyle carved into its belfry. Now this gargoyle, for the last thousand years, has spent all his time trying to comprehend the human emotions of laughter and sorrow. But even after a millennium of contemplation, these most curious of human attributes remain a total mystery to our stone friend. (Sarajevo).

Our story begins in the year of 1990; the Berlin Wall has just fallen, communism has collapsed and for the first time since the Roman Empire, Yugoslavia finds itself a free nation. Serdjan Aleskovic cannot believe his good fortune to be alive and young at such a moment. The future and the happiness of all seem assured in what must surely be "the best of times". (This Is The Time).

However, even as Serdjan celebrates with his fellow countrymen, there are little men with little minds who are already busy sowing the seeds of hate between neighbors. (I Am) Young and impressionable Serdjan joins some of his friends in a Serbian Militia Unit and eventually finds himself in the hills outside of Sarajevo firing mortar shells nightly into the city. (Starlight). Meanwhile in Sarajevo itself, Katrina Brasic, a young Muslim girl, finds herself buying weapons from a group of arms merchants and then joining her comrades firing into the hills around the city. (Doesn't Matter Anyway).

The years pass by and it is now late November 1994. An old man who had left Yugoslavia many decades before, has now returned to the city of his birth, only to find it in ruins. As the season's first snowfall begins, he stands in the town square, looks toward the heavens and explains that when the Yugoslavians prayed for change, this is not what they intended. (This Isn't What We Meant).

As the old man finishes his prayer, the sun begins to set and the first shells of the evening's artillery barrage are starting to arc overhead. But instead of heading for the shelters with the rest of the civilians, he climbs atop the rubble that used to be the fountain and taking out his cello, starts to play Mozart as the shells explode around him. From this night forward he would repeat this ritual every evening. And every evening Serdjan and Katrina each find themselves listening to the thoughts of Mozart and Beethoven as the drift between the explosions across no man's land. (Mozart and Madness).

Though the winter does its best to cover the landscape with a blanket of temporary innocence, the war only escalates in violence and brutality. (Dead Winter Dead). One day in late December, Serdjan, on a patrol in Sarajevo, comes across a schoolyard where a recent exploding shell has left the ground littered with the bodies of young children. It is one thing to drop shells into a mortar and quite another to see where they land. Long after Serdjan returns to his own lines, he cannot get the faces of the children out of his mind. Realizing that what he has been participating in is not the glorious nation building that their leaders had described, but rather a path to mutual oblivion, he decides right then and there that he can no longer be a part of this, that you cannot build a future on the bodies of others. (One Child). At the first opportunity, he resolves that he will desert.

Sitting in his bunker on December 24th, he listens to the sounds of Christmas carols from the old cello player mingling with the sounds of war. Katrina, on the other side of the battlefield, is also listening. (Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24). It had just stopped snowing and the clouds had given way to reveal a beautiful star-filled sky when suddenly the cellos player's music abruptly ceases. Fearing the worst, Serdjan and Katrina both do something quite foolish and from their respective sides, start to make their way across no man's land toward the town square. Arriving at the exact same moment, they see one another. Instinctively realizing that they are both there for the same reason, they do not start to fight, but instead, together walk slowly to the fountain. There they find the old man lying dead in the snow, his face covered with blood, his cello lying smashed and broken at his side.

Then without warning, a single drop of liquid falls from out of the cloudless sky, wiping some of the blood off the old man's cheek. Serdjan looks up, but he can see nothing except the stone gargoyle high up on the church belfry. Overcome by what he has seen this night, he decides that he must leave this war immediately. Turning to the Muslim girl, he asks her to come with him, but now all she sees is his Serbian uniform. Pouring out his feelings, he explains that he is not what she thinks that he is. (Not What You See). Eventually winning her to his side, they leave the night together.

Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24 and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra

The story is a curious mix of tragedy and hope. One of the tracks, "Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24) became a breakout radio hit for Savatage. The song is a an instrumental mix of "The Carol of the Bells" and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen." Given the warlike theme of the rock opera, it takes on a very martial air. In the story, it is a real downer, ending with a dead cellist. However, in an ironic twist, it became a radio hit as a hard rocking Christmas carol.

This inspired the members of Savatage to pursue the Christmas concept further. They formed the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and released Christmas Eve and Other Stories in 1996. TSO re-recorded "Christmas Eve" and produced the following video:

While the video keeps the tone of the music, it transforms the story into one about a little girl and the wonder of Christmas.

The track "Mozart & Memories," which features the opening theme of Mozart's Symphony No. 25 was also re-recorded by TSO and included in their 2009 release Night Castle.

Lyrics

Dead Winter Dead is also memorable for its lyrics. Here are a few of my favorites:

But this is the time
And this is the place
And these are the signs
That we must embrace

The moment is now
In all history
The time has arrived
This is the one place to be

These lyrics from "This is the Time (1990)" carries a bold optimism about the future. However, that optimism is perverted by greed.

I see a little man thinking
That he might need more
And so his eyes are drifting
To the house next door
And he wonders if his neighbours
Might be leaving

So he makes a little offer
That they'll understand
There is no point in letting
Things get out of hand
For no one wants to see
Their widows grieving

These lyrics from "I Am" capture the lust of coveting that is as old as King David and as timely as the clashes between Shiites and Sunnis in Iraq. The story goes from optimism to greed to sorrow.

We dared to ask for more
But that was long before
The nights began to burn
You would have thought we'd
Learned you can't make promises
All based upon tomorrow
Happiness, security
Are words we only borrow

For is this the answer to our prayers
Is this what God has sent

The future couldn't last
We've nailed it to the past
With every word a trap
That no one can take

Back from all the architects
Who find their towers leaning
And every prayer we pray at night
Has somehow lost its meaning

For is this the answer to our prayers
Is this what God has sent

Please understand this isn't what we meant

This plaintive lament of "this isn't what we meant" fits in well with the disillusionment of the story's partisans. However, in a larger sense, it captures the cry of those whose pride has come before a fall, the realization that our schemes can take on a life beyond our control. I especially like the way the song is designed as a prayer to God that "this isn't what we meant."

Why Dead Winter Dead Matters

Dead Winter Dead is a great piece of musical story-telling and I return to it again and again. However, it's larger significance is that it paved the way for my favorite band, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

George W. Bush and Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction

2010-11-21T08:15:00.000-08:00

In his new memoir "Points of Decision," former President George W. Bush says "No one was more shocked or angry than when we didn't find the weapons (of mass destruction)." For my part, I believe him. I think that based on the evidence at the time, it was logical to believe that Saddam Hussein had chemical weapons, but that this was not a sufficient reason to invade Iraq.

What We Knew

While a lot has been made of inflated intelligence reports or even outright prevarication, there were certain facts which were undisputable in 2003:

1. The Hussein regime had used chemical weapons against the Kurds and Iran on multiple occasions the war with Iran in 1980-1988.

2. In 1991, Iraq invaded Kuwait without justification.

3. During the Gulf War, Iraq fired missiles into Israel.

4. When the U.N. forces invaded Iraq in 1991, they found and destroyed a large chemical weapons complex. In a terrible irony, Hussein did not use chemical weapons against the invading multi-national forces, but hundreds of thousands of troops were exposed to chemical agents when the Kamisihah stockpile was destroyed.

5. After U.N. weapons inspectors left Iraq in 1998, they were not allowed to return until shortly before the war. Thus, Saddam had four years in which to replenish his stocks of chemical weapons without oversight.

It seems logical to conclude that an unstable dictator with a history of unprovoked attacks on other countries and who had possessed and used chemical weapons in the past and was refusing to allow third parties to monitor his compliance with U.N. disarmament resolutions was up to no good. However, Saddam Hussein was not logical. After his capture, he stated that he had used the bluff of having weapons of mass destruction to deter Iran from attacking. However, he assumed that the U.S. intelligence had thoroughly infiltrated his government and would know that he didn't really possess the weapons. That turned out to be a bad bluff for him.

Why It Didn't Make Sense to Invade Iraq

So, if Saddam Hussein gave us every reason to believe that he had chemical weapons, why shouldn't we have invaded? The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have given us an object lesson that war is an ugly, unpredictable thing. In war, decent people are ordered to perform indecent acts. It is an inevitable consequence of war that civilians are killed and atrocities are committed, even by the good guys. In fact, this was true to a much greater extent during World War II, but was accepted due to the much greater threat that was posed.

Since war inevitably dehumanizes us, it should be pursued as an absolute last resort. It should have been apparent that war was not the last resort in 2003.

We did not have incontrovertible proof that Saddam was planning to use weapons of mass destruction. If we knew that Saddam was planning a nuclear strike on Israel, we would have had a moral imperative to stop that act by any means possible. However, we did not have absolute proof (as opposed to simply logical proof) that Saddam intended to use weapons of mass destruction. While Saddam Hussein had used chemical weapons in the past, he notably did not employ them against U.N. troops in 1991.

Further, he was not taking steps to expand during 1998-2003. Before Hitler invaded Poland in 1939, he reoccupied the Rhineland, annexed the Sudetenland and added Austria to Germany's territory. These were the points when the allies should have stepped in. However, in 2003, Saddam Hussein was not even in control of all of his country, since large portions constituted no fly zones.

Saddam Hussein was a brutal and inhuman dictator who posed a grave threat to his own populace. However, he did not pose a threat to the security of the United States. While preventing the slaughter of innocents at the hands of homicidal maniac is and was a laudable goal, an invasion was not the right means to accomplish it. As I said before, war dehumanizes us. You cannot achieve a humanitarian result by dehumanizing means, or, to put it another way, you can't save innocent human life by taking innocent human life. That's why what we did was wrong.

Do You Have a Ninth Favorite Band?

2010-11-10T17:19:00.000-08:00

“Devo is Johnny’s ninth favorite band”

--Sarah Jessica Parker from the Muffy's Bat Mitzvah episode of Square Pegs (1982)

Hulu - Square Pegs: Muffy's Bat Mitzvah - Watch the full episode now.

High school was a time when music was crucially important. It gave meaning to our lives and gave us something to talk about. I remember a friend breathlessly telling me that the Electric Light Orchestra was going to change its name to the Electric Laser Orchestra (it didn’t happen). I met my first girlfriend because she was wearing a shirt from one of my three favorite bands. High school was a time when it was possible to have a ninth favorite band and be overwhelmed about seeing them play.

During the decade from 1976-1986 (ages 15-25), I saw a lot of live music. I’m not sure if this is complete, but the bands that I remember (in alphabetical order) are: Adam Ant, the Altar Boys, the B-52s, Barren Cross, the Beach Boys, Chuck Berry, Bloodgood, Blue Oyster Cult, the Call, the Cars, Crumbacher, Fleetwood Mac, Flock of Seagulls, the Go-Gos, Amy Grant, Herman’s Hermits, Jethro Tull, Kansas, Men at Work, the Moody Blues, One Bad PIG, the Paul Q-Pek Band, Paul Revere and the Raiders, REO Speedwagon, Standing Waves, Stryper, Styx, the Turtles, Undercover, the Uranium Savages, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Wang Chung, Sheila Walsh and Rusty Wier.

You can see that it’s a strange mix. My tastes originally were limited to bands that I thought were sufficiently deep. The troika of my high school years was Kansas, Styx and the Electric Light Orchestra (two of which I actually saw). However, I came to embrace metal, new wave, Christian music and 60s revival acts.

Somewhere along the way, life caught up with me and I stopped going to a lot of shows. During the decade from 2000-2009, I can remember seeing Cheap Trick (it was a free show at South by Southwest), Hillary Duff (this was Kristen and Stephanie’s first concert), Evanescence, Lost & Found (the most influential Lutheran pop band of the last 50 years, although they may be in a category of one) and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra (although I have seen them six times). There is a big difference between five acts in ten years and 34 during a much earlier decade.

There are still a lot of bands on my ipod who I would love to see someday. However, it just seems harder to get away to a show. Weird Al was in Austin this past week for a festival. I’m not sure what I was doing but I didn’t make it. I tried to think of a top 10 list of bands who are still alive and still touring who I would like to see but I was only able to come up with nine: MxPx, Flyleaf, Linkin Park, Weird Al Yankovic, Bowling for Soup, Jimmy Eat World, the Black Eyed Peas and Nightwish. My goal is to see at least one of them during the next year.

How Much of a True Austinite Are You?

2010-11-09T18:39:00.000-08:00

Here is a quiz to see whether you are a true Austinite or not. Let me know if you have additional questions to add.

1. Have you been to ACL Fest? (1 pt.)

2. Have you been to a taping of Austin City Limits? (5 pts. or 10 pts. if Gary P. Nunn was the guest)

3. Have you swam in Barton Springs? (1 pts. or 5 pts. if you did it in December).

4. Do you remember which downtown bank building used to have gold windows? (1 pt.)

5. Did you ever go to Liberty Lunch? (5 pts)

6. Have you been to Esther's Follies? (1 pt.)

7. Did you eat at Matt's El Rancho when it was still on First Street? (5 pts.)

8. Did you ever go to the Armadillo? (5 pts. or 10 pts. if you remember who was playing).

9. Have you run on the Town Lake Hike & Bike trail? (1 pt.)

10. Did you ever see Stevie Ray Vaughn? (seeing the statue doesn't count). (1 pt.)

11. Do you lock up your daughters when the legislature is in session? (1 pt.)

12. Did you ever go to Raul's? (1 pt. or 5 pts. if you remember who was playing)

13. Have you climbed Mt. Bonnell? (1 pt.)

14. Do you know whether FM 2244 is Bee Cave or Bee Caves? (1 pt.)

15. Have you never voluntarily gone to the Domain? (1 pt.)

16. Do you remember the Trail of Lights? (1 pt.)

17. Have you ever said that Austin was a great place before all those other people got here?

(1 pt.)

18. Have you taken a picture in bluebonnets? (1 pt)

19. Have you been to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center? (1 pt.)

20. Have you been to South by Southwest? (1 pt. if it was in the last 10 years, 2 pts. if it was in the last 10 years or 3 pts. if it was 20 years ago or more).

21. Have you stayed at the Driskill? (1 pt.)

22. Do you keep Austin weird? (1 pt.)

23. Have you run in the Capitol 10,000? (1 pt. for every time)

24. Have you ever shopped at Whole Foods? (1 pt.) Did you shop at Whole Foods when it was just a hole in the wall? (10 pts.).

25. Have you eaten at Jeffreys for a special occasion? (1 pt)

26. Have you been to a play at the Zilker Hillside Theater? (1 pt.)

27. Have you seen the Uranium Savages perform live? (1 pt. Extra pt. if you can name their drummer).

28. Have you eaten at Cisco's? (1 pt.)

29. Have you ever lived in 78704? (5 pts.).

30. Have you ever lived in apartments off of Riverside? (3 pts.).

31. Do you know the original name for Sixth Street (and no, it is not Drunk College Students Throwing Up Ave.)(1 pt.).

32. Do you know how to pronounce Manchaca? (1 pt.).

33. Do you refer to Loop 1 as Mopac? (1 pt. or 2 pts. if you know why it's called Mopac).

34. Have you ever been to an all-night city council meeting (5 pts.).

35. Have you seen Slacker? (1 pt.).

36. Have you ever seen Leslie at the corner of Sixth & Congress (1 pt. or 2 pts. if you know which political office he ran for and came in second; extra point if he was wearing a tiara).

37. Have you ever drunk beer at Scholz's Biergarten (1 pt. or 2 pts. if it was Lone Star).

38. Have you ever been to a UT football game (1 pt. or 5 pts. if you tailgated).

39. Have you ever seen Sandra Bullock (and no, watching a movie doesn't count)(2 pts.).

40. Have you bongoed with Matthew McConnaghey? (10 pts.).

0-10 pts. You just arrived from California

11-25 pts. Have you thought about relocating to Houston?

25-50 pts. You are kind of a slacker but can improve

51-100 pts. You remember back when or you just lie real well

100+ You are so weird that we don't know whether to be awed or annoyed by you.

My personal score was 64. I have to admit that I missed some of the more basic questions on my own quiz.

Fictional Swedes and Easter

2010-11-08T18:49:00.000-08:00

I am reading "The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest," the second book in Stieg Larsson's trilogy about an antisocial computer hacker and a middle-aged magazine editor. Much of the first part of the book takes place between the Wednesday of Holy Week and Easter. I was struck by the fact that (in the book at least), the whole country shuts down for a four day weekend from Thursday through Sunday. However, no one goes to church. Instead, they go off to their vacation cabins. It is a bit like Christmas and Easter in the Harry Potter novels. People observe the holiday, but there is no religious significance.

The "Thoughtful" Friend

2010-11-08T18:26:00.000-08:00

My doctor put me on a two week cleansing regime because of concerns that my blood sugar was too high. The first few days weren't that bad. I was allowed to eat chicken, fish, lamb and all the vegetables I could swallow as well as a daily cleansing drink (it's not the nasty stuff you take before a colonoscopy that keeps you running to the bathroom; it's just nutrients and stuff).

As long as I could load up on chicken or salmon, I didn't mind having to give up caffeine, alcohol, red meat, nuts and dairy products (for a limited period of time). I've had some good meals: lamb and sweet potatoes, chicken and lentils, salmon and spinach. However, today I entered into a three day period where I am allowed just 3 cleansing shakes a day and all I can eat of one green vegetable. Determined to tough it out, I bought a super-sized bag of broccoli for today and several pounds of green beans for tomorrow. The good thing about broccoli is that it takes a really long time to chew it when it's raw. That way you can snack on it all day without running out.

When I arrived at work when I received a call. "Have you had breakfast?" "Yes," I said. This should not have been a surprise, since I almost always eat breakfast before work. "Can you take me to Whole Foods? I haven't eaten this morning." Willing to do a good deed, I said yes.

When we arrived, she asked, "Can you eat oatmeal on your diet?" "No," I said. "I can have the cleansing shake and one green vegetable for the next three days." (Oatmeal is forbidden anyway because it contains gluten). A few minutes later, "Do you want some nuts?" "No," I said. "I'm not allowed to eat nuts on the diet and all I am allowed today is the cleansing shake and a green vegetable." (Nuts are forbidden, although I don't really know why). A few minutes later. "Do you want to get some kale?" "No," I said. "I already have picked out broccoli for today's green vegetable."

By my count, I turned down offers of food I couldn't eat at least four times. Intellectually I realize that my friend comes from a culture where failure to offer someone food is a great shame. However, I really wanted to say, "You're a woman. Aren't you supposed to know that No means No. That applies to food also." Instead, I patiently kept saying no and went back to the office to eat my broccoli.

What is Too Much Information on Facebook?

2010-10-11T05:33:00.000-07:00

According to an article that I read, 30 billion discrete pieces of information are shared on Facebook each month. That's a lot of information. When does all that become TMI (too much information)?

You can find a lot of my basic personal information on Facebook, such as my employer, my educational background, my hometown and my latest status updates. I know that advertisers can use this to send me targeted marketing, but that doesn't bother me. Advertising is just information. You can tune it out if you want to. I also don't worry about revealing too much personal information on Facebook because so much of my personal information is already available online.

If you go to the following websites:
www.anywho.com
www.stsr.org
www.texasbar.com
www.google.com/earth

you can find my home address and phone number, my cell phone number, my photo, my state bar number, where I went to law school and even a photo of my home. You just have to know where to look. Could someone take this information and try to steal my identity? Possibly, but it would be difficult without my social security number and mother's maiden name, which are not available online.

I guard against identity theft by monitoring my bank account and credit card statements on a regular basis. The only time I have ever had my credit compromised was through conventional means; a clerk at Jack in the Box kept my card after making a purchase. Discover's fraud prevention department flagged the suspicious transactions within about a day. The only thing that I lost was the time it took to file a police report.

However, I am careful not to post anything that would come back to haunt me. There have been stories of people losing their job or even being arrested based on their Facebook posts. I don't post anything unflattering about my employer on Facebook or anywhere else (although as firm webmaster I strive to add as much positive content as I can on the firm's website). Were I to do something really stupid, I would not brag about it on Facebook.

As a general rule, I try not to post anything on Facebook that I would be embarassed for my mother to see. If you go through my photos, you may find one picture of me drinking, but it was just a glass of wine at a high school reunion. I don't use profanity. The most revealing information I post is on my blog, which feeds into Facebook. This increases my readership from about 10 to as many as 20 or 30. While I reveal a lot of my opinions, I try to write in a careful, reasoned way that is consistent with what I want my public persona to be. Sometimes I will venture out a bit and write something satirical or just plain silly (for example, yesterday I posted the German translation of "I have sauerkraut in my lederhosen," which is a line from the movie Top Secret). I use Facebook to communicate what I want to be known about me to my Facebook friends and the world at large. However, I always keep in mind that anyone could be reading what I post.

Those Gloomy Swedes

2010-10-07T04:55:00.000-07:00

My father's father's father's father came to this country from Sweden. I don't know a lot about our country of origin, except that they were neutral in World War II, that a lot of Swedish-Americans are Lutheran and Swedes make Saabs. However, I have been making up for that by soaking up some Swedish culture through fiction. This past weekend, I saw "Let Me In," which is a remake of the Swedish vampire movie "Let the Right One In" (which I also saw). I am also reading "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson. They paint a dark picture.

With "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," even the real life connection is depressing. The author turned in the manuscripts for three books in the series and then dropped dead.

One of the interesting thing about watching "Let Me In" and "Let the Right One In" was how easily the scene could be shifted from Sweden to Los Alamos, New Mexico. In many cases, the American re-make copied the Swedish original shot for shot. The middle school bullies who torture the film's protagonist translate across cultures without any need for adaptation.

However, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" poses a starker contrast. In Sweden (or at least fictional Sweden), a journalist who publishes a story which cannot be verified can be sent to jail on libel charges. An antisocial girl who refuses to conform can be labelled as mentally challenged and have her assets placed under the control of a guardian even though she is a brilliant adult. In the socialist paradise of Sweden, corporate titans play dirty tricks on each other, families are dysfunctional and women are abused with great regularity. Also, it's cold.

Both stories make for compelling fiction. If that was all I knew about Sweden, I would conclude that it is a really dreary place. However, it's just fiction. Can anyone recommend any stories about happy Swedes?

Is Facebook Big Brother?

2010-10-06T18:59:00.000-07:00

I came across an article entitled "Facebook Big Biz: Users Beware." The article’s premise was that Facebook’s business model depends on selling your personal information. You can find the article here.

A few excerpts:

If you follow the money you will quickly determine that Facebook is not some kindly charity helping us reconnect with old friends. Facebook is all about making money.

At its heart, Facebook is actually a data mining company. And once they have data, they turn around and sell it.

Facebook is no different except that the amount and type of information that people share is much more personal and detailed. We think nothing about telling people here we are traveling to and how long we will be gone. We tell about romances, post pictures of children and share some of our most intimate thoughts.

Just remember, when you do this Facebook will sell your information. It will be sorted, categorized and sold to a variety of people. Some of them just want to sell you something. Others may not be nearly as up front or honorable in their intentions.

Given the vague and alarmist tone of the article, I decided to dig deeper. First I asked the author (who happens to be my brother) what the basis was for his contention that Facebook is basically a data mining company. His reply was similar to what the article said: follow the money. He pointed out that Facebook has a market capitalization of $20 billion even though it is not publicly traded. His conclusion was that a lot of money must be changing hands to support that kind of capitalization. Fair enough, but is data mining the only explanation for a lot of money changing hands?

Next, I went to Facebook to see what it says about how your personal information can be used. When it comes to companies, I believe that they will be as honest as they have to be. If a company like Facebook says one thing on their privacy policy and does another, they are inviting a class action lawsuit and there are plenty of hungry lawyers waiting to take them down. Here is what Facebook says about how they use your personal information:

We never share your personal information with our advertisers. Facebook's ad targeting is done entirely anonymously. If advertisers select demographic targeting for their ads, Facebook automatically matches those ads to the appropriate audience. Advertisers only receive anonymous data reports.

Some select partner sites may access your information to personalize your experience as soon as you arrive, but only information that's already visible to everyone. You can turn off instant personalization for specific sites or you can turn it off completely from the Applications and Websites page. This will prevent these partners from receiving your information through instant personalization, including what's visible to everyone.

5. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to try to provide a safe, efficient, and customized experience. Here are some of the details on how we do that:

To manage the service. We use the information we collect to provide our services and features to you, to measure and improve those services and features, and to provide you with customer support. We use the information to prevent potentially illegal activities, and to enforce our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. We also use a variety of technological systems to detect and address anomalous activity and screen content to prevent abuse such as spam. These efforts may on occasion result in a temporary or permanent suspension or termination of some functions for some users.

To contact you. We may contact you with service-related announcements from time to time. You may opt out of all communications except essential updates on your account notifications page. We may include content you see on Facebook in the emails we send to you.

To serve personalized advertising to you. We don’t share your information with advertisers without your consent. (An example of consent would be if you asked us to provide your shipping address to an advertiser to receive a free sample.) We allow advertisers to choose the characteristics of users who will see their advertisements and we may use any of the non-personally identifiable attributes we have collected (including information you may have decided not to show to other users, such as your birth year or other sensitive personal information or preferences) to select the appropriate audience for those advertisements. For example, we might use your interest in soccer to show you ads for soccer equipment, but we do not tell the soccer equipment company who you are. You can see the criteria advertisers may select by visiting our advertising page. Even though we do not share your information with advertisers without your consent, when you click on or otherwise interact with an advertisement there is a possibility that the advertiser may place a cookie in your browser and note that it meets the criteria they selected.

To serve social ads. We occasionally pair advertisements we serve with relevant information we have about you and your friends to make advertisements more interesting and more tailored to you and your friends. For example, if you connect with your favorite band’s page, we may display your name and profile photo next to an advertisement for that page that is displayed to your friends. We only share the personally identifiable information visible in the social ad with the friend who can see the ad. You can opt out of having your information used in social ads on this help page.

To supplement your profile. We may use information about you that we collect from other Facebook users to supplement your profile (such as when you are tagged in a photo or mentioned in a status update). In such cases we generally give you the ability to remove the content (such as allowing you to remove a photo tag of you) or limit its visibility on your profile.

To make suggestions. We use your profile information, the addresses you import through our contact importers, and other relevant information, to help you connect with your friends, including making suggestions to you and other users that you connect with on Facebook. For example, if another user imports the same email address as you do, we may suggest that you connect with each other. If you want to limit your visibility in suggestions we make to other people, you can adjust your search visibility privacy setting, as you will only be visible in our suggestions to the extent you choose to be visible in public search listings. You may also block specific individual users from being suggested to you and you from being suggested to them.

To help your friends find you. We allow other users to use contact information they have about you, such as your email address, to find you, including through contact importers and search. You can prevent other users from using your email address to find you using the search section of your privacy settings.

Downloadable Software. Certain downloadable software applications and applets that we offer, such as our browser toolbars and photo uploaders, transmit data to us. We may not make a formal disclosure if we believe our collection of and use of the information is the obvious purpose of the application, such as the fact that we receive photos when you use our photo uploader. If we believe it is not obvious that we are collecting or using such information, we will make a disclosure to you the first time you provide the information to us so that you can decide whether you want to use that feature.

Memorializing Accounts. If we are notified that a user is deceased, we may memorialize the user’s account. In such cases we restrict profile access to confirmed friends, and allow friends and family to write on the user’s Wall in remembrance. We may close an account if we receive a formal request from the user’s next of kin or other proper legal request to do so.

I realize that this is a lot to digest. The volume of the privacy policy cuts both ways. On the one hand, Facebook has gone out of their way to tell you the limits on how they will use your information. On the other hand, the length of policy shows that they have spent a lot of time thinking about how to use your information.

Here is my take away from all this. Facebook acts as a buffer between its users and its advertisers. It collects data on its members and sells the general characteristics of the data to its advertisers without disclosing the specific aspects of its members. In the example given, if an advertiser wanted to direct an ad to soccer enthusiasts, Facebook could route that ad to people who have identified soccer as an interest, but the advertiser would not know who the soccer enthusiasts were.

There are two ways that outsiders can get the personal information. One is technology failure. If an unethical employee copies personal information and sells it or if a hacker exploits a hole in the security, a third party could take advantage of the mountains of private information within Facebook. The second way is if an advertiser or an app requests permission to access the user's profile and the user clicks yes without thinking of the implications. So, you can have your information stolen or you can voluntarily disclose your information. How is that any different than in the real world? A private detective sifting through your trash can obtain a lot of personal information. That is similar to the data breach scenario. Also, people give out lots of personal information about themselves offline, especially if alcohol is involved.

I think that the bottom line is that the privacy issues are essentially the same whether in Facebook or the real world. If you would not deposit documents with your bank account number and social security number in the garbage, you should not post similar information online. Just as you would not tell a new friend that you met at the bar that you were embezzling from your employer, you should not post that information on Facebook. If you do, you deserve what you get.

While Facebook allows you to post vast amounts of information, it allows you to control how much of that information is available to the public. The following information is available to anyone:

Your Name
Profile Picture
Networks

However, the seriously private can avoid these limitations by registering under a pseudonym, using a profile picture that is not personal to them and not signing up for any networks. For example, I am friends with Bishop Barbie. Bishop Barbie is not a real person. She is a satire on the Evangelical Lutheran Church and her profile picture is a Barbie doll dressed in bishop’s robes. This particular user hides behind complete privacy because he/she does not use his/her own name or photo.

Anything else on Facebook is subject to privacy settings, which can be set to: everyone, friends of friends and friends. For me, I allow everyone to see my status, posts, bios and favorite quotations. I don’t post anything to these areas that I don’t want the world to see. Everything else is set to friends only.

Photos are a touchy area. If photos are of family members only, I restrict those albums to designated family members. If someone requests that I not tag their photos with their identity, I respect this. However, if I were to tag someone’s photo in spite of their request, Facebook gives them the right to delete the tag.

Based on all this, I don’t buy the argument that Facebook is an insidious data mining operation selling your personal information to people who want to invade your privacy. I think there are other answers for its value. When you create a platform with as many users as Facebook has, there is tremendous value there. I think that a lot of Facebook’s theoretical market capitalization is based on its potential rather than its current operations. Facebook is expanding the sale of credits which can be used to play games on its site with the hope of creating its own mini-banking system much like Paypal. Facebook has been very succesful in attracting large numbers of users. Where there are a large number of eyes on the screen, there is the potential for making money.

I want to return to the article’s conclusion:

So the next time you think about posting something on Facebook, remember that you are being watched by the world.

I think this is a valid point and my next post will be when you cross the line of TMI (too much information).

Peace, Love and Palestinian Beer

2010-10-05T19:48:00.000-07:00

This post was going to be titled "Is Everyone Insane?" However, I came across a story of hope in the Middle East which makes me believe that all is not lost.

First the insanity. I have written about why the people who want to block the Manhattan mosque are not good Americans. I did not write about the idiot in Florida who wanted to burn the Quran, mostly because I thought he was getting way too much attention as it was.

However, just when you want to get on your high horse and accuse Americans of being hypocrites who hate the First Amendment and anyone who does not look exactly like them, you come across a story (or in this case, a whole bunch of them), which makes you appreciate that a group of peacefully demonstrating hypocrites is much better than really angry fanatics.

For me, the proposed Quran burning was a non-story. An insignificant pastor got a lot of press by threatening to burn the Quran, but backed down after God, President Obama and a bunch of generals told him not to.

However, the reaction in the Muslim world was much less begnign. Despite the fact that the Quran burning never occurred, we have the following stories from Afghanistan, Pakistan and India:

--In Afghanistan, crowds shouted "Death to America" and injured eleven
--In India, two Christian schools and a Christian church were burned and two other Christian schools were attacked
--In Pakistan, a grenade exploded in a Lutheran church.

If this is how radical Islamists react to a proposed desecration of their holy book, image what the reaction would be to a real provocation?

However, the news is not all bad. In a Christian town within the Palestinian West Bank under Israeli occupation, Christians, Jews and Muslims came together to celebrate Oktoberfest and drink Palestinian beer. You can read about it here. The following quote really sums it up for me:

"Normally I go to demonstrations. It's nice to drink beer instead," said Ms. Natasha Dudinski, a 43-year-old Israeli from Jerusalem who, as a pro-Palestinian peace activist has attended weekly protests for years.

The basic tenor of the story is that enough security has returned to the area to where the different groups can gather in peace. The local Palestinian authorities were sensitive enough to their own constituencies to highlight the event as a celebration of Palestinian crafts and honey with a few thousand gallons of beer thrown in for good measure.

It is nice to see that somewhere in the world, actually in one of the most unstable areas in the world, people came together and acted sensibly. If it would help world peace, I would give up my own abstention from beer (based entirely on its carb content) and down a Palestinian Taybeh.

Is It Sinful to Laugh at Your Denomination?

2010-10-04T05:39:00.000-07:00

I have recently discovered Garrison Keillor's Prarie Home Companion. His tales of life among the Lutherans give me a smile. I didn't grow up in a predominantly Lutheran community, so that his tales of small-town Minnesota life are just familiar enough to provoke nostalgia. Keillor's cultural Lutheranism is far more begnign than the schisms which are rocking the Evangelical Lutheran Church at this time. The controversy has roused Lutherans to do those things which are within our nature: we have formed committees, issued statements of principle and written thoughtfully worded open letters. Since this is the 21st Century, we have even put up websites where you can read the statements of principle and thoughtfully worded open letters.

However, recently I have come across a guilty pleasure which is a bit more hard-edged. Bishop Barbie is a smartly written blog(www.bishopbarbie00.blogspot.com) which parodies the goings on at Higgins Road in Chicago (home to the national church office). Bishop Barbie is the Stephen Colbert of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, which is to say, she plays the character of a faux liberal to mock the sillier strains within the church. And you have to admit that sometimes the church gives her some pretty good material. The very first post that I read, which you can find here featured Bishop Mark Hanson giving a long-winded explanation of why Lutherans distinguish themselves from other denominations by not distinguishing themselves from other denominations.

Some of her postings get a bit pretentious as she gets carried away by her character, but others are wickedly funny. Am I going to go to Hell for laughing at my denomination? Good thing the ELCA doesn't believe in Hell.

Trying to Explain Soccer

2010-10-03T07:49:00.000-07:00

I have a running debate with a colleague about whether I spend too much time away from the office on soccer. Twice a week I have to leave at the ridiculously early hour of 5:30pm for practice and I am not able to work Saturdays like a good lawyer should. In the course of a week, I am likely to get bit by mosquitos, get my face sunburned and get my legs scratched crawling through the brush looking for errant soccer balls. My colleague has intimated (although he/she has not come right out and said it), that soccer is a sport for rich suburban kids and that I should find a real cause to support, preferably one that involves attending luncheons to raise money for programs for inner city kids.

I will admit that soccer is not on a par with feeding the hungry. However, here are a few reasons why I would justify the time (aside from the more obvious reason that I just feel like it).

1. Childhood obesity is an epidemic in this country. If you look at the girls on my team, many of them have gazelle-like builds without an ounce of fat. Is this because of discipline and hard work or is it just high metabolism? I don't know. Then there are the girls who have more solid, muscular builds. Playing soccer vs. playing video games is the difference between being fit and strong or being flabby.

2. I once had a mom tell me that she was glad her daughter was playing soccer because she knew that for that hour and a half, she was not getting into trouble. The suburbs are not the innocent place they might appear to be from the outside. I did a voir dire demonstration at the high school where most of the girls on my team attend. It was a case about a teen busted for drug possession so I asked the question whether anyone had a friend or family member who had been arrested for drugs. Nearly every hand in the room went up.

3. Soccer is the world's sport and soccer exposes kids to people from different backgrounds. On my team, I have girls who were either born in or have a parent who was born in Scotland, France, Spain and the Phillipines. During check-in each week, I have to help the referees pronounce names like Maeve and Shonagh. On a soccer team, you have girls from many different backgrounds who must learn to work together for a common goal.

4. Soccer teaches assertiveness. Soccer is a contact sport played with minimal padding. You will not get the ball by being ladylike and demure. I pity the guy who messes with one of the girls on my team. If he is lucky, a dislocated shoulder is the least he will walk away with.

5. Soccer teaches leadership. Soccer, unlike football, is a player driven sport. Once you move to the full-sized field (which happens at age 12), there is a limit to how much instruction the coach can give from the sideline for the simple reason that a player on the far side of the field can't hear you. A successful team is one where the girls communicate with each other. It is also one where there are girls willing to take a leadership role. I will be the first to admit that there are girls on the team who know much more about how to play soccer than I do. It is a beautiful thing when they are willing to step up and be the teachers instead of just participants.

6. Finally, it is a chance to spend time with my daughter. In four years, she will be leaving for college and my role as a dad will be much less. I am glad to have the quality time while I can.

As a parent of daughters, I want to see my girls (and the extended family of the girls on the team) grow up to be healthy, responsible and productive adults. I see soccer as more than a sport for spoiled suburban kids. It teaches important life lessons. I am willing to participate in my own fumbling way because I hope that it will do some good for the girls who participate. It also gets me away from the computer in the office and into the outdoors, which is probably a good thing for me as well.

Living in a Facebook World

2010-09-26T07:36:00.000-07:00

Every morning when I wake up, there are three things that I check when I have time:

1. My email
2. My bank balance
3. Facebook

Within my family, there are a wide variety of attitudes toward Facebook ranging from suspicion to apathy to constant use. I never really expected that I would use it as much as I have. Here is my story.

I first signed up for Facebook to interact with my kids. OK, really to spy on them. I had heard that lots of bad stuff goes on online and I wanted to make sure that I wasn't an oblivious parent. It wasn't that I wanted to dig into their personal lives, I just wanted to be on the lookout for invitations to parties with sex and drugs or soliciations from guys named Snake who had just gotten out of prison. (My trainer who likes to stoke my paranoia is constantly warning me about Snake).

That has never happened. However, it has helped our communications. I learned of my daughters' first boyfriends when they changed their Facebook status to "in a relationship." They will also post on their status when they are sad, feeling sick or concerned. Facebook has opened the door to some good off-line conversations which might not have happened otherwise.

The other thing that I found interesting about Facebook is not it is not just high school kids who use it. Many of my Facebook friends are people who I know from soccer. It is nice to be able to stay in touch with them even after their daughters stop playing. This summer I learned that a girl who Stephanie had previously played soccer with was going to Japan. Stephanie is obsessed with all things Japanese, so I passed it on to her. I don't know whether they ever followed up, but it would have been an interesting conversation. I also learned that one of the soccer dads that Iknow was in Kuala Lumpur this week for business. While this is nothing earthshaking, it is just interesting to know.

Sometimes Facebook will turn up some of the most random connections you might expect. From Facebook, I found out that one of the soccer moms I knew was a lawyer. Not only that, but we had had the same bankruptcy professor. What made that interesting was that Prof. Hillinger had been a visiting professor at the University of Texas when I took her class and that my friend had studied with her in Connecticut. Small world.

I really expanded my friend list in anticipation of my 30th high school reunion. I had a graduating class of over 800. I hadn't heard from many of them since high school. Facebook was a good way to try to jog my memory to remember who were all these people I went to school with. I have also added many of my Texas Lutheran classmates as Facebook friends as well.

Finally, I use Facebook to keep up with candidates and causes that I like. I follow both Ed Shirley, the St. Eds theology professor and Bishop Barbie, who is the Stephen Colbert of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.

I have to admit that most of my Facebook friends are more like Facebook acquaintances. However, it is so rare that we have time to organize a dinner party or interact with another person on something that doesn't involve school, soccer or church that it is nice to have that contact with other adults even if it is on a superficial level.

Memories of Birthday Parties Past and Present

2010-09-12T08:22:00.000-07:00

"Be excellent to one another and party on dudes!"--Abraham Lincoln in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

One thing about growing up is re-living memories you had when you were a kid with your children. I have taken my girls to Colonial Williamsburg, Washington, D.C. and White Sands, New Mexico, all places that I visited with my parents when I was growing up. I have also taken them to a baseball game, albeit a minor league one. However, one of the fondest memories that I have is of backyard birthday parties. When we lived in Massachusetts, we would invite everyone in the neighborhood and my dad would cook hotdogs and hamburgers and then we would go down to the ballfield and play baseball. At some point in the proceedings, I would usually throw up.

When I had kids, I wanted to recreate the experience. We set up tables in the backyard and put up streamers and balloons. We invited the neighbor kids. There would be birthday cake and games. At some point, Kristen would throw up or fall asleep. It was all good times. It was all completely orchestrated by the parents. We sent out the invitations, put up the decorations, baked the cake, organized the games and wrote out the name tags.

Kristen's Seventh Birthday Party

My birthday parties stopped after we moved to Texas. We didn't have the same close-knit neighborhood and at 13, I was really too old for such things. However, Kristen has kept the birthday party tradition alive all the way up to her 18th Birthday Party, which was yesterday.

Opening Presents in the Present Day

One thing which has changed is the level of adult involvement. We open our home to Kristen's friends, but really have no idea how many people are coming until they arrive. This year, Kristen warned me to expect 18 guests. I think I counted 28 at one point. My role was limited to buying and cooking the food and keeping a watchful eye on the festivities. Everything else was organized by Kristen and her friends.

Teenagers Caught on Video

This year's birthday party had a murder mystery theme. They found a script online and assigned parts. Despite having a large number of teenage boys and girls in close quarters, the result was organized chaos. And what do 17 and 18 year olds like? The most popular beverage was chocolate milk. The most popular food was Frito pie. This time the party went late into the night. However, I was the one who fell asleep.

A Scene From Murder at the Dunmore Lodge

It's hard to believe that I have an 18 year old. My little girl of birthday parties past is now old enough to get married or join the army (neither one of which I hope she does anytime soon). One thing that has changed is that birthday parties have gone from parent-driven events to communal gatherings. There is something gratifying about seeing a diverse group of kids organize a positive event where the strongest drink served was chocolate milk. The Who was right. The Kids are All Right.

Thoughts on To Kill A Mockingbird

2010-08-31T16:37:00.000-07:00

This year is the 50th Anniversary of the publication of To Kill A Mockingbird. There was an entire program devoted to it at the State Bar Convention this summer and my daughter was assigned the book for her summer reading project. I decided to give the book another look. I was struck by the following passage. To me, it captures the ideal of what it means to be a lawyer and man of honor.

“Do you defend *******, Atticus?” I asked him that evening.

“Of course I do. Don’t say ******, Scout. That’s common.”

“’s what everybody at school says.”

“From now on it’ll be everybody less one—“

“Well if you don’t want me to grow up talkin’ that way, why do you send me to school?”

My father looked at me mildly, amusement in his eyes. Despite our compromise, my campaign to avoid school had continued in one form or another since my first day’s dose of it. . . .

But I was worrying another bone. “Do all lawyers defend n-Negroes, Atticus?”

“Of course they do, Scout.”

“Then why did Cecil say you defended ******? He made it sound like you were runnin’ a still.”

Atticus sighed. “I’m simply defending a Negro—his name’s Tom Robinson. He lives in that little settlement beyond the town dump. He’s a member of Calpurnia’s church, and Cal knows his family well. She say’s they’re clean-living folks. Scout, you aren’t old enough to understand some things yet, but there’s been some high talk around town to the effect that I shouldn’t do much about defending this man. It’s a peculiar case—it won’t come to trial until summer session. John Taylor was kind enough to give us a postponement. .. .”

“If you shouldn’t be defendin’ him, they why are you don’ it?”

“For a number of reasons,” said Atticus. “The main one is, if I didn’t, I couldn’t hold up my head in town, I couldn’t represent this county in the legislature, I couldn’t even tell you or Jem not to do something again.”

“You mean if you didn’t defend that man, Jem and me wouldn’t have to mind you any more?”

“That’s about right.”

“Why?”

“Because I could never ask you to mind me again. Scout, simply by the nature of the work, every lawyer gets at least one case in his lifetime that affects him personally. This one’s mine, I guess. You might hear some ugly talk about it at school, but do one thing for me if you will; you just hold your head high and keep those fists down. No matter what anybody says to you, don’t let ‘em get your goat. Try fighting with your head for a change …. it’s a good one, even if it does resist learning.”

“Atticus, are we going to win it?”

“No, honey.”

Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird, pp. 99-101.

There is so much in this passage. I agree that every lawyer gets one case in his lifetime that affects him personally. For me, it was the case of a little girl who was in foster care and whose grandmother and uncle would not give up on her. I also like the idea that a person’s right to respect depends upon doing the right thing, even when it’s hard. Finally, I like the idea of fighting with your head. This is a book worth reading and re-reading.

Being Vigilant for Extremist Infiltration

2010-08-26T07:55:00.000-07:00

Lately Americans have been especially vigilant about the threat from radical Islamists. Nearly 20% of all Americans now recognize that Barack Hussein Obama is a Muslim. However, we must be vigilant for all dangerous influences. Consider this:

After 9/11, President George W. Bush gave a speech in which he stated that we were not in a war against Islam. Really? There are some Americans who would beg to differ. Recently there have been some Americans who have opposed building mosques anywhere in the United States and have suggested that they all go back to the Middle East. Why was our former President so soft on the Islamists?

And what about Sarah Palin? While she was governor of Alaska, an Islamic Community Center in Anchorage purchased land to build a mosque. Coincidence? I think not.

And what about Glenn Beck? How do we know that he didn't anglicize his name from Jihad al-Beckyi to better blend in with patriotic Americans? Has he produced his birth certificate? If he has, I haven't seen it.

And finally, what about Frank Zappa? How many Americans still remember his 1979 release Sheik Yerbouti? Is the Obama Justice Department monitoring his movements? If not, why not?

It is time that we increase our vigilance. Everyone could be and probably is an Islamist threat to America. And that includes you and me.

First Day of School

2010-08-23T08:37:00.000-07:00

Another first day of school has come. Actually I got to see three different ones today. When I was out jogging this morning, I saw the elementary school kids waiting for the bus while their parents stood around drinking coffee. The elementary school kids looked so small compared to their backpacks. On the way back from my run, I saw the middle school kids. They did not need parents to wait for the bus with them. However, you could really see why they call it middle school. Some of the kids looked like they should be going to first grade rather than sixth grade, while one of the guys I saw looked like he could start for the Dallas Cowboys.

Finally it was time to take Stephanie for her first day of high school. She had spent the morning texting friends to make sure she knew where to go. We also gathered up her schedule and bus information. Stephanie was a bit jittery because she didn't know what to expect from the seniors. Kristen spent all summer telling her about what they did to "fish" on the first day of school.

Kristen spent the night at a friend's house so that she could get to school by 7:30. In order to discourage the seniors from engaging in mayhem, the school throws a party for them on the first day of school. Starting at 7:30, they could get senior shirts and breakfast tacos. They also gave them a junked car to smash (or at least I hope that's what happened). It will no doubt be the last day that Kristen makes it to school so early.

As we approached Austin High School, there was a traffic jam which could probably be seen from space. It did not help Stephanie's nerves to see cars with "Die Fish" soaped on the windows as well as an ambulance parked by the school. I agreed to drive her around to the front of the school so she could avoid the seniors congregated at the back, even though that meant a longer drive. I had to cut through the student parking in order to get close enough for Stephanie to be able to see the theater where the freshman were to meet. She summoned up her courage, smiled and was off to start high school.

Remembering Christian Victims of Hitler

2010-08-19T05:41:00.000-07:00

Adolph Hitler became Fuhrer of Germany on this day, August 19, 1934. He had previously been Chancellor. However, on this date, the positions of Chancellor and President were combined into a single position. His thousand year reich lasted only eleven years, but was responsible for the deaths of tens of millions.

It is fitting on this day to remember some of his victims. While Hitler was a vicious anti-Semite, he was also anti-Christian, rejecting the notion of a Jewish Jesus who preached love of neighbor. He attempted to co-opt the church into something pagan and nationalistic. While many Lutheran and Catholic Germans went along with the regime, some had the courage to oppose it and paid with their lives. Christians in occupied territories felt the vengeance of the Nazi machine even more intensely. This post recognizes ten Christian martyrs of the Nazi regime in order of their deaths.

I chose Christians even though other groups suffered more severely because I am part of this group. By looking through this lens, the atrocities of the Nazi regime are no longer something which happened to someone else, but something personal, which could have happened to my family if they had remained in Germany or Norway during this time.

2/19/37: Dr. Friedrich Weissler

Nationality: German
Religion: Evangelical Church

Dr. Weissler was a Geman lawyer. He was dismissed from his position as a judge in March 1933 due to his opposition to the Nazis. He worked with the Confessing Church, which was the Protestant opposition to the German state church. At Pentecost 1936, the Confessing Church issued a memorandum to Hitler condemning anti-Semitism, concentration camps and state terrorism. The memorandum was read from the pulpits on August 23, 1936. It stated:

If blood, race, nationhood and honour are given the rank of eternal values, so the Evangelical Christian is compelled by the First Commandment, to oppose that judgement. If the Aryan human is glorified, so it is God's word, which testifies the sinfulness of all human beings. If - in the scope of the National Socialist weltanschauung - an anti-Semitism, obliging to hatred of the Jews, is imposed on the individual Christian, so for him the Christian virtue of charity is standing against that.

The Gestapo blamed Weissler for leaking the memorandum to the foreign media, an erroneous charge. However, because he was a Protestant of Jewish descent, he was sent to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp without a trial. He was tortured to death from February 13 to 19, 1937. He became the first lethal victim of the German campaign against the churches on the Protestant side.

7/18/39: Paul Schneider

Nationality: German
Religion: Evangelical Church

Paul Schneider was a German pastor who spoke out against the Nazis from an early date. He was arrested for the first time in June 1934 when he rebuked a Nazi official for invoking Horst Wessel during a Christian funeral ceremony. By the spring of 1937, he had begun the process of excommunicating parishioners who swore allegiance to the Nazi party. He was arrested for two months and forbidden to return to his parish. He returned to preach and was arrested once again. This time, he was sent to Buchenwald Concentration Camp. While in the Concentration Camp, he earned the wrath of the authorities for continuing to preach against the Nazi regime and for refusing to remove his beret in honor of Hitler’s birthday.

On July 18, 1939, he was executed by lethal injection.

8/14/41: Maximilian Kolbe

Nationality: Polish
Religion: Catholic

Maximilian Kolbe was a Catholic friar who founded and supervised a monastery near Warsaw, a radio station and several publications. He also founded a monastery on the outskirts of Nagasaki which survived the nuclear blast there.

After his area was occupied by the Germans, he was briefly arrested. When he returned, he and his fellow friars began to organize a shelter for 3,000 Polish refugees, including 2,000 Jews. He spoke out against the Nazi atrocities by amateur radio and in his publications. Early in 1941, he wrote:

No one in the world can change Truth. What we can do and should do is to seek truth and to serve it when we have found it. The real conflict is the inner conflict. Beyond armies of occupation and the hecatombs of extermination camps, there are two irreconcilable enemies in the depth of every soul: good and evil, sin and love. And what use are the victories on the battlefield if we ourselves are defeated in our innermost personal selves?

On February 17, 1941, he was arrested and sent to the Pawiak prison near Warsaw. On May 28, 1941, he was deported from Pawiak to Auschwitz. In the summer of 1941, there was an escape from the camp. Ten prisoners were selected for execution in reprisal. One of those chosen cried out that he had a family. Father Kolbe volunteered to take his place. The prisoners were taken to underground cells where they were deprived of food and water. After two weeks, Father Kolbe still had not died, so he was killed with an injection of carbolic acid.

He was canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church on October 10, 1982.

7/26/42: Titus Brandsma

Nationality: Dutch
Religion: Catholic

Father Brandsma was ordained in 1905 and earned a Ph.D. in 1909. When the Germans invaded Holland, the church instructed that sacraments not be given to Catholics who supported the Nazi regime. Father Brandsma incurred the wrath of the Nazis when he delivered a letter from the Catholic bishops to Catholic editors enjoining them from printing Nazi publications.

Father Brandsma was arrested on January 19, 1942 and sent to Dachau. When his health began to fail, the Nazis used him for biological experiments. He was executed by lethal injection on July 26, 1942.

He was declared Blessed, a preliminary step to sainthood in November 1985.

8/9/42: Edith Stein

Nationality: German
Religion: Catholic

Edith Stein was born to a Jewish family and earned a Ph.D. in philosophy. In 1922, she converted to the Catholic faith. She was a teacher until 1933, when she was forced to resign because of anti-Semitic legislation. At that point, she entered a monastery. Her order transferred her to the Netherlands to avoid Nazi persecution. On July 26, 1942, the Reichskomissar ordered the arrest of all Jewish converts in the Netherlands. Edith and her sister Rosa were arrested and sent to Auschwitz. She was gassed on August 9, 1942. She was canonized by the Catholic Church on May 1, 1987.

11/15/43: Bernhard Lichtenberg

Nationality: German
Religion: Catholic

Father Lichtenberg was a Catholic priest. As early as 1933, he encouraged the church to intervene against Anti-Semitic legislation being passed. When he was placed in charge of the Relief Office of the German episcopate, he assisted many Catholics of Jewish descent in emigrating away from Germany.

After Kristallnacht on November 9-10, 1938, Father Lichtenberg began to pray daily from his pulpit in the St. Hedwig Cathedral for both Jews and Jewish Christians. He was denounced by two women students who heard him praying for the Jews and was arrested on October 23, 1941. When they searched his home, they found a proclamation which he planned to deliver on the upcoming Sunday. It stated,

An anonymous slanderous sheet against the Jews is being distributed to Berlin houses. This leaflet states that every German who supports Jews with an ostensibly false sentimentality, be it only through friendly kindness, commits treason against his people. Let us not be misled by this un-Christian way of thinking but follow the strict command of Jesus Christ: ‘You shall love you neighbor as you love yourself’.

In 1942, he wrote a letter to the chief physician of the Reich protesting the euthanasia program, stating,

I, as a human being, a Christian, a priest, and a German demand of you, Chief Physician of the Reich, that you answer for the crimes that have been perpetrated at your bidding, and with your consent, and which will call forth the vengeance of the Lord on the heads of the German people.

In May 1942, he was sentenced to two years imprisonment on account of abuse of the pulpit and insidious activity. Toward the end of his sentence, he was given the option to be released if he would refrain from preaching. Instead, he asked to be allowed to accompany the deported Jews and Jewish Christians to Lodz, Poland to serve there as a pastoral minister. He was ordered interred at Dachau Concentration Camp, but died while waiting to be deported.

On June 23, 1996, he was awarded the title of Blessed, a preliminary step to sainthood.

On July 7, 2004, he was recognized as a Righteous among the Nations by Yad Vashem.

2/17/44: Franz Kauffman

Nationality: German
Religion: Protestant

Franz Kaufmann was born to Jewish parents but was baptized a protestant. In 1936, he was dismissed from his post with the German government based on his Jewish origins.

He was protected from deportation because he was married to an Aryan woman and had raised his daughter as a Christian.

Beginning in 1940, he was active in the Confessing Church, the protestant opposition to the German state church. He joined an underground group which provided false identity papers to fugitive Jews.

He was arrested in October 1943. On February 17, 1944, he was taken to Sachenhausen Concentration Camp and shot. Before he died, he was asked why he did what he did. He replied:

My deep roots in a Christian standpoint, and my mature years, have no doubt given me a heightened awareness of the need and suffering that can afflict the individual more or less through no fault of his own. That made me, unintentionally, a focus and meeting point for Jewish fugitives. I could not disappoint their trust and their hope that I could give them, including giving emotional support. I offered my help not because they were Jews, but because they were people, in need and afraid.

1/23/45: James Helmuth von Moltke

Nationality: German
Religion: Lutheran

James Helmuth von Moltke was a German aristocrat and lawyer. He was a great nephew of a famous von Moltke who was a general for Bismark. He married a woman from South Africa and had friends in England, France and elsewhere. Prior to the war, he practiced as an attorney in London for a time.

As war approached, he was a legal advisor in the Abwehr, the German military intelligence. After he was arrested, he wrote, “Ever since National Socialism came to power, I have done my best to mitigate the consequences for its victims and prepare for a change.”

He used his legal skills to engage in bureaucratic infighting to avert the worst abuses of the Nazi regime. He intervened on behalf of prisoners of war and to oppose the killing of civilian hostages in occupied territories.

By 1941, he was convinced of two things: that the Nazi regime was violating international law and basic human rights and that it would be defeated. Among other things, he was aware that the deportation of the Jews was not simply a re-location at an early date. He raged against members of his family who collaborated with the Nazis.

While continuing to work at his government job, he met with leaders of the opposition. While he opposed the assassination of Hitler, he and his group, known as the Kreisau Circle, made plans for a post-defeat Germany. He also used his diplomatic connections to attempt to make communication with the West.

In January 1944, he warned a friend that he was under surveillance by the Gestapo. For this, he was taken into protective custody. The failed attempt to assassinate Adolph Hitler on July 20, 1944 brought Moltke under suspicion. He was tried for treason in January 1945.

Among the charges brought against him were that he had discussed matters of state without having a member of the National Socialist Party present and that he had a defeatist attitude.

During his trial, the judge stated, “one thing Christianity and we National Socialists have in common, and only one: we demand the whole man.”

He was executed on January 23, 1945.

One legacy which von Moltke left the world was his extensive correspondence with his wife. His letters provide an inside view of what it meant to be an opponent of the Third Reich, as well as what the war looked like from the German side. One terrible irony is that the anti-Hitler plotters faced death not only from the German regime but from allied bombing raids. While they sought the defeat of the Nazi regime, the very attacks which would bring about that end placed them in peril as well.

2/2/45: Alfred Delp

Nationality: German
Religion: Catholic

Alfred Delp was a Catholic priest who was a member of the Kreisau Circle with James Helmuth von Moltke. His role was to teach Catholic social teaching to the group. Father Delp was arrested on July 28, 1944. He was offered release if he would leave the Jesuits, but he refused. He was sentenced to death for treason and hanged on February 2, 1945. The judge who condemned him was killed in an air raid the next day.

His last words, spoken to the prison chaplain were “In half an hour, I’ll know more than you do.”

4/9/45: Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Nationality: German
Religion: Lutheran

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a young pastor when the Nazis came to power in 1933. Two days after Hitler was installed as Chancellor, Bonhoeffer gave a radio address warning that Germany was slipping into an idolatrous cult of the Fuhrer. He was cut off in mid-sentence. Bonhoeffer was one of the founders of the Confessing Church in March 1934. The Barmen Declaration adopted by the Confessing Church proclaimed that Christ and not the Fuhrer was the head of the church.

After his authorization to teach was revoked in August 1936, he founded an underground seminary. He began meeting with members of the German resistance in February 1938. Although he briefly taught in the United States during 1939, he returned to Germany on the last scheduled steamer before the start of the war.

Back in Germany, he was forbidden to speak in public and required to report to the police. Through his contacts with German military intelligence (the Abwehr), he became convinced that Hitler should be assassinated. Bonhoeffer and his brother in law, Hans von Dohanyi, were involved in an Abwehr operation to help German Jews escape to Switzerland. He traveled abroad to rally support for the opposition under the cover of the Abwehr.

On April 6, 1943, Bonhoeffer and Dohanyi were arrested in a turf war between the SS and the Abwehr. After the failure of July 20, 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler failed, his connection to the conspirators was discovered. He was tried by the SS on April 8, 1945 and was executed by hanging on April 9, 1945.

The camp doctor who witnessed the execution wrote:

I saw Pastor Bonhoeffer ... kneeling on the floor praying fervently to God. I was most deeply moved by the way this lovable man prayed, so devout and so certain that God heard his prayer. At the place of execution, he again said a short prayer and then climbed the few steps to the gallows, brave and composed. His death ensued after a few seconds. In the almost fifty years that I worked as a doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God.

Sensitivity and the Ground Zero Mosque

2010-08-16T06:24:00.000-07:00

After the initial criticism of plans to build an Islamic center two blocks from Ground Zero raised questions of bigotry and hypocrisy, opponents have taken a new tack. Yes, Muslims have freedom of religion and the right to private property. However, it just wouldn't be sensitive to build a mosque so close to Ground Zero.

Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League said:

At its essence, our position is about sensitivity. Everyone -- victims,opponents and proponents alike -- must pay attention to the sensitivities involved without giving in to appeals to, or accusations of, bigotry. Ultimately, this was not a question of rights, but a question of what is right. In our judgment, building an Islamic Center in the shadow of the World Trade Center would un-necessarily cause some victims more pain. And that wasn't right.

When you frame the debate in terms of sensitivity, it all seems so reasonable, but is it? Sensitivity is such a subjective standard that it can used to disguise almost any motivation, whether noble or crass.

A few examples.

In the 1950s, the University of Texas fought a rear guard action to limit entry of African Americans into the school. One of the ways they did this was to only allow black students into classes which were predominately male, such as engineering. That way, white girls would be spared the insensitivity of having to attend classes with the "coloreds." What passed for sensitivity in the 1950s appears as plain old bigotry today.

Much of the international community (by which I mean Europe) considers Israel's treatment of the Palestinians to be insensitive. Should Israel forsake its security because some Belgians have had their sensitivities offended?

I have a real problem with someone saying yes you have the legal right to do something, but we think you shouldn't because it is insensitive. In this case, the proposed Islamic center is intended to replace a Manhattan mosque which has outgrown its space. The existing mosque has been there for 30 years and is twelve blocks from Ground Zero. There is no indication that the existing mosque has any ties to radicals.

If it is insensitive to build a mosque two blocks from Ground Zero, would it have been insensitive to build one on the existing site, which is twelve blocks away? If it would be insensitive to allow a new mosque to be built within twelve blocks of Ground Zero, would it be insensitive to allow an existing one to remain in place? If the families of the victims of 9/11 said that it would be insensitive to allow mosques in the home towns of any of the victims, would we be required to honor their wishes? Where does it end?

Fareed Zakharia has an excellent piece in Newsweek. He points out that after 9/11, it became the policy of the United States government to provide support to the non-radical elements of the Muslim community. He points out that if this mosque were in a foreign country, the U.S. would probably be paying for it. This brings up two points. First, isn't it insensitive to tell Muslims who have had a mosque in Manhattan for 30 years that they are not welcome in their own country? Second, if we drive out the non-radical elements of the Muslim community, who will be left? Would our insensitivity give rise to the very thing we fear?

To me, it comes down to rights, not sensitivities. This is about freedom of religion and freedom of private property. Denying those fundamental American rights would be insensitive.

Post-script: When I went off to college, I noticed that there were some people who were always getting upset and demanding apologies. In time, I came to believe that some people just enjoy being upset. There wasn't much of a point in placating them, because they would find something else to be offended by. I think there is a parallel here. If you cave in to the most easily offended, you will be doing a lot of caving in.

Why I Will Not Be Voting for Rick Perry

2010-08-15T09:00:00.000-07:00

Rick Perry will probably elected to yet another term this November. However, he will have to do so without my vote. At one time, I respected Perry as a conservative leader. No more. Here is why.

1. Rick Perry has become a professional politician. He has served as Agriculture Commissioner, Lieutenant Governor and Governor for the past twenty years. He has spent more time in the Governor's office than anyone else. One reason that many conservatives favor term limits is that life-tenure politicians tend to forget what it is like to have to make a living in the private sector. The longer the time in office, the greater the temptation toward corruption and arrogance. That seems to be the case with Rick Perry. During his tenure, he has grown wealthy on sweetheart land deals. After the Governor's mansion burned down, he rented a $10,000 a month home at the taxpayer's expense. Governor Rick is living high off the hog while I am struggling to pay my bills.

2. Rick Perry never saw an execution he didn't like. As a Christian, I have qualms about the death penalty. I am realistic enough to believe that death penalty and guilt don't always go together. Rick Perry had a rare chance to commute a death sentence recently. Under the law of parties, an accomplice to a murderer is treated the same as if he had pulled the trigger himself. In one case, the accomplice received the death penalty while the actual murderer received life in prison. The Board of Pardons and Paroles, which is usually a rubber stamp for prosecutors, recommended that the death sentence be commuted. Rick Perry said no. In another case, it appears that the State wrongfully executed an innocent man based on junk forensic science. Rick Perry still insists on the dead man's guilt and shuffled the Forensic Science Commission just as it was about to release a report on the case.

3. Rick Perry is not a very truthful person. PolitiFact Texas tracks statements by and about public figures. Rick Perry has had eight statements rated true or mostly true and twelve statements rated false or pants on fire, a category for ridiculous lies. He accused Bill White of profiteering from Hurricane Rita but couldn't back up the statement. Perry accused Bill White of race-baiting when White said that he wanted to be a servant rather than a master. Of course, Bill White, the former Sunday School teacher, was merely using Christian imagery. Finally, he accused White of presiding over the construction of a large abortion clinic, when the truth was that White did nothing other than be mayor at the time that Planned Parenthood was building its clinic. I realize that politics is a contact sport. However, someone who claims to be a Christian could run a more positive campaign and try to get his facts right. To me, this goes back to point number one. Once you are addicted to government power, you will say or do anything to hang onto it.

I don't think I'll be running out to join the Democrat Party anytime soon. There are too many issues that we don't see eye to eye on. However, Rick Perry is one Republican that I will not be voting for again, whether it is in the 2010 election or the 2022 election when he is running for Governor for Life.

Enjoying Warehouse 13

2010-07-28T06:52:00.000-07:00

I know that it makes me a hopeless nerd, but one of the highlights of my week is watching Warehouse 13 on Tuesday nights and then re-watching the episodes over the course of the week to see what I missed the first go-round.

Warehouse 13 is a show that airs on the SyFy channel during the summer. It is about government agents whose job is to track down artifacts with unusual powers and bring them back to the warehouse for safekeeping. While the artifacts can be used for good or evil, they all have unintended side effects. For example, in one episode, a mild-mannered coffee shop clerk picks up a pair of trunks at a yard sale which turn him into a superhero. The problem is that they work by altering the density of his body and will eventually cause him to become so dense that he collapses in upon himself and becomes a black hole. Oops.

I enjoy the show because of the cast and the stories.

The ensemble cast has six main characters. Myka Bering (Joanne Kelly) and Pete Lattimer (Eddie McClintock) are Secret Service agents recruited to work for the warehouse. Pete is a carefree go with your gut kind of guy who enjoys comic books and B-movies. Myka is more of an uptight read the manual type whose tastes run to Shakespeare. The chemistry between the two of them is great. They bicker constantly but have a fierce loyalty to each other as partners. Their contrasting attributes help them to solve problems. In Season Two, Pete's knowledge of B-movies helps him figure out that their town is being overrun by scenes from a Raymond St. James movie marathon, while Myka's photographic memory of a manual she read allows them to fix a camera which allows them to change the programming and avert destruction.

Artie Nielsen (Saul Rubinek) is the keeper of the warehouse. He sends Pete and Myka on their missions and tries to keep them from destroying the warehouse. He is a fussy type who is constantly telling his young charges "don't touch that" but gets in trouble with his superiors for bending the rules. Artie's character is haunted by a former partner turned rogue agent.

Claudia Donovan (Allison Scagliotti)is a teenage computer geek who hacked into the warehouse computer system in order to kidnap Artie and force him to rescue her brother who was trapped in another dimension by an artifact. Because she knows too much, she is willingly banished to the warehouse as a junior agent. She says dude a lot and the streak in her hair changes color every episode. She is a foil to Artie just as Pete is to Myka. She is constantly trying to improve the warehouse's gadgets without permission.

Mrs. Frederic (CCH Pounder) is the link between the warehouse and the shadowy regents who oversee it. Played with stone-faced gravitas (think of a female James Earl Jones), she is the responsible adult who chastises the warehouse agents, particularly Artie, and protects them as well.

Leena (Genelle Williams) is the new age-y proprietor of the bed and breakfast where the agents live. She also helps out at the warehouse.

The cast is an interesting mix of young (Pete, Myka and Leena), younger (Claudia) and older (Artie and Mrs. Frederic) characters. It is interesting that four out of six of the main characters are female and two are black. However, the show does not pander to political correctness. While a black authority figure could be seen as a nod to Barack Obama, there is no mistaking the tightlipped Mrs. Frederic for the wordy president.

The stories are a mixture of whimsy and seriousness. The most recent show was a cross between Miss Congeniality and the Portrait of Dorian Gray. Myka must go undercover in a fashion show to find out why teenage supermodels are dying of old age. Despite her trim, athletic figure, Myka is ridiculed as "the fat girl" and is offered diet pills to "lose that last five pounds." The pants-wearing jockette must parade down the catwalk in six inch stiletto heals and not much of a dress. These parts are humorous. However, the story becomes deadly grim when Myka collapses in Pete's arms and rapidly ages 60 years. Fortunately, the artifact (a sinister camera) is found and Myka is saved. Other episodes are more tongue in cheek. When the agents are called to Detroit to investigate a vigilante, Pete instantly recognizes the do-gooder as The Iron Shadow, a cartoon character. Myka must don a form-fitting suit which looks suspiciously like leather to battle the superhero. (Pete wanted to wear the mysterious material until he learned that it induced sterility in men). Myka defeats the superhero by pulling down his superpowerful trunks.

While most of the episodes are self-contained, there is usually an over-arching story line. During season one, it was James McPherson, Artie's former partner turned rogue agent who wants to sell warehouse artifacts for profit. He nearly destroys the warehouse and Artie in the cliff-hanger ending to season one. In season two, the new super-villain is Helena G. Welles (who knew that H.G. Welles was an attractive woman who was bronzed and stored in the warehouse). In the first episode of season two, she offs her one-time partner McPherson and escapes with something taken from a super-secret section of the warehouse.

I have to admit that I love this stuff. It probably doesn't count as serious science fiction. However, it is fun to watch.

Same Song, Second and Third Verses

2010-07-17T14:12:00.000-07:00

Earlier today, I wrote about a Christian lawyer who wanted to prevent Muslims from exercising their freedom of religion on property they own in Manhattan. However, the attraction of trying to stifle people we disagree with is hardly limited to Christians or right wingers. If there is an idea or a person who we can dislike, there will be someone trying to silence them. Verses two and three of this song concern a Catholic teacher fired for teaching Catholic doctrine in a class on Catholic doctrine and an outrageous preacher hit with a monumental judgment for offensive protests at military funerals.

Dr. Ken and the Catholic Class

Dr. Kenneth Howell was an adjunct professor at the University of Illinois. One of the classes that he taught was Introduction to Catholicism. In that class, he discussed the Catholic Church's teachings on moral issues, specifically on homosexuality. In his words:

Every semester in that “Introduction” class, I gave two lectures dealing with Catholic Moral positions. One was an explanation of Natural Moral Law as affirmed by the Church. The second was designed as an application of Natural Law Theory to a disputed issue in our society. Most of those semesters, my chosen topic was the moral status of homosexual acts. I would happy to explain more fully the Catholic Church’s position on this matter but, for the sake of brevity, I can summarize it as follows. A homosexual orientation is not morally wrong just as no moral guilt can be assigned to any inclination that a person has. However, based on natural moral law, the Church believes that homosexual acts are contrary to human nature and therefore morally wrong. This is what I taught in my class.

To try to help his students understand the difference between utilitarianism and natural law, he sent them an email. This caused problems. Again in his own words:

To help students understand better how this issue might be decided within competing moral systems, I sent them an email contrasting utilitarianism (in the populist sense) and natural moral law. If we take utilitarianism to be a kind of cost-benefit analysis, I tried to show them that under utilitarianism, homosexual acts would not be considered immoral whereas under natural moral law they would. This is because natural moral law, unlike utilitarianism, judges morality on the basis of the acts themselves.

After the email was forwarded to the University's Office of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Concerns, his Department head told him that he would no longer be allowed to teach at the University. In response to the backlash, the President of the University has stated that the matter is under review. In his words:

I think it important to reserve judgment until all facts are in and the review is complete and I hope you agree. I also believe it is important to correct misinformation being reported by many media outlets and Internet web sites. Prof. Howell has not been dismissed from the University, as misreported on the Internet and by several media outlets. He continues to hold his appointment as an adjunct professor. No decision has been made regarding the appointment of an instructor for the course Prof. Howell previously taught in the Fall semester; and no decision will be made until the review is complete.

Thus, he was told that he could not teach any more, but has not been dismissed and no decision has been made about who will teach his class in the fall. It may be that the University will back down and give him his position back or perhaps he will just remain in a state of limbo where the review remains under review indefinitely. However, it seems pretty clear that the controversy arose because someone didn't like the fact that he discussed Catholic moral teachings in an Introduction to Catholicism class.

You can read more about it on the Save Dr. Ken Facebook page.

The Protesting Preacher and Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress

I have to admit that I am much less sympathetic about this next case. Fred Phelps is the Pastor of Wesboro Baptist Church, a church consisting mostly of his family members. Rev. Phelps believes that God is punishing America for tolerating homosexuality. To express that view, his church protests at military funerals. In the case of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, the Phelpsians:

carried signs which expressed general messages such as "God Hates the USA," "America is doomed," "Pope in hell," and "Fag troops." The signs also carried more specific messages, to wit: "You’re going to hell," "God hates you," "Semper fi fags," and "Thank God for dead soldiers."

Snyder v. Phelps, No. 08-1026, (4th Cir. 9/24/09), slip op., p. 5. The protest was held in compliance with local ordinances and was not seen by the parents until they saw news coverage of it.

They then ran an "epic" on their website www.godhatesfags.com in which they claimed that Lance Cpl. Snyder's parents "'taught Matthew to defy his creator,''raised him for the devil,' and 'taught him that God was a liar.'" The Phelpsians had never met Lance Cpl. Snyder or his parents.

The Snyders sued. The jury returned a damage award of $10.1 million (which the judge reduced to $5 million). In its charge to the jury, the court told the jurors that:

Speech that is vulgar, offensive, and shocking . . . is not entitled to absolute constitutional protection under all circumstances.

The Court of Appeals reversed, finding that the First Amendment does not allow persons to be sued for speech, even if it is "vulgar, offensive and shocking."

The case is now pending before the Supreme Court.

It is hard not to sympathize with parents who fought back after some strange people claimed that we should "Thank God for Dead Soldiers" and claimed that they raised their son to defy God. The problem here is that once you allow people to sue for speech that is "vulgar, offensive and shocking," where do you stop? A law professor whose blog I follow has filed a friend of the court brief in which he suggests that allowing suits based on speech which is "vulgar, offensive and shocking" would encourage college speech codes. You can read the brief here. This leads right back to Dr. Ken's non-firing. If the First Amendment allows free speech unless the speech is vulgar, offensive or shocking, then any controversial speech can be censored and punished, since if it's controversial, someone will find it vulgar, offensive or shocking. At that point, free speech is gone.

What does it all mean? If you believe in the First Amendment, you have to go for it all the way. That means allowing Muslims to build mosques in Manhattan and allowing crazy preachers to picket funerals. We may not like it, but if we protect freedom at the margins, we protect it at the core as well.

More Crazy Talk On The Radio,

2010-07-17T11:40:00.000-07:00

The other day I was surfing across the radio dial while driving back from Waco when I came across a ranting preacher talking about the Ground Zero mosque. Then I realized it was Jay Sekulow, someone I used to respect. A little explanation. Jay Sekulow is a constitutional lawyer who specializes in representing Christians in freedom of religion cases. His American Center for Law and Justice is a Christian version of the ACLU.

However, on the day that I tuned in, Jay was not advocating freedom of religion and he was not demonstrating the logic that I would expect from a constitutional scholar. Instead, he was ranting about plans to build a mosque at Ground Zero. He claimed that the muslims wanted to build a mosque overlooking Ground Zero to celebrate their victory over America, just as the Dome of the Rock was built over the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. He compared it to removing the USS Arizona from Pearl Harbor and building a monument to the Japanese Kamikazis who died in the attack.

I had already begun to sour on Sekulow and the ACLJ based on their persistent phone calls asking for money. However, this rant caused me to lose all respect. Here's why:

1. He got his facts wrong. By stating that the mosque was being built on Ground Zero and that it would overlook Ground Zero, he made it seem that the government was incorporating a mosque into its plans for developing the site. You could understand why people would find that insensitive. However, the fact is that a muslim group bought a building two blocks away from Ground Zero. As another blogger pointed out, the mosque would not overlook Ground Zero because there is another building in the way. The mosque would actually overlook an Amish Market. You can read about it here.

2. He was using demagoguery rather than logic. In his call to action, he equated the group proposing to build the mosque with the 9/11 terrorists. However, you can't say that all muslims are terrorists. Most muslims in the United States reject extremism and embrace American values. Both the victims and the first responders at Ground Zero included muslims.

3. Finally, and most importantly, he rejected fundamental America values. What two values do American conservatives hold most valuable? Most would say freedom of religion and freedom of property. However, Mr. Sekulow, who made a career out of defending Christians' right of freedom of religion would deny that same freedom to another religion. That is hypocrisy and it is un-American. Our freedoms mean nothing unless we grant them to people we don't like.

4. I know that some people will say that Muslims can build a mosque in Manhattan when Christians can build a church in Saudi Arabia. It's true that muslim countries are radically intolerant of other faiths. However, that's what makes America a better country. Our founders believed that we had certain inalienable rights. Some of those rights are included in the First Amendment which guarantees freedom of speech, freedom of petitiion, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, freedom of religion and freedom from a state-sponsored church. We allow those freedoms because we believe that they are inherent rights. We also allow them because not afraid of what people will do with them. In Venezuela, Hugo Chavez recently demanded to know why the owner of the largest opposition media outlet was not in jail so he had to flee the country. In Tehran, thousands were arrested for protesting a stolen election. Weak countries suppress freedom, while strong ones allow it.

5. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said:

"46If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?"

Matthew 5:46-47.

I think the same principle applies here. If we grant rights only to those who agree with us, how are we better than any tinpot dictatorship? I would like to see the US of A held to a higher standard than Cuba or Iran. It's a shame that Jay Sekulow doesn't.

New Online Scam

2010-07-13T05:25:00.000-07:00

Lately I have been getting a lot of offers to receive a free gift card if I would just fill out a survey. I counted fourteen of these emails in the past two days. However, if you look carefully they all say "Participation Required." After you take the survey, you find out that you have to purchase a certain number of gold and silver offers before you become eligible to receive the gift card. The email addresses are also suspect. Why would an offer for a Kohl's giftcard come from the email address info@captainbivalve.com? If you receive an offer for a free gift card that says "Participation Required" just hit delete.

Finally Getting Lost

2010-06-20T15:46:00.001-07:00

Guys usually get lost because they won't ask for directions. However, now I am finding out that I really get Lost because I did listen to someone's directions. I don't watch much network television. As a result, I totally missed the TV series Lost, which recently wrapped up. A friend suggested that I watch it from the beginning and I have to admit that I am blown away.

The first shot of the pilot episode really sets the scene. There is an eye without any context, then there is an eye in a face lying in the jungle without any explanation. A man in a suit wakes up and walks out of the jungle to the scene of a plane crash. Linear story telling would have started with the crash or even the back stories of the characters. However, Lost starts with an eye attached to a person in the jungle, leaving the viewer wondering what could possibly be going on.

Having watched the entire first season, I find myself thoroughly addicted. The things that I like are the characters, the combination of survival and alternate reality and the use of flashbacks to build the story.

The characters are just incredible. So far, my favorites are John Locke and Hurley. I like them because they are filled with contradictions. Locke is introduced as the take charge hunter figure. He can hunt boar and track with the best of them. However, we learn that he arrived on the island in a wheelchair and remarkably had his legs restored because of the crash. He is always the voice of common sense and reason, but becomes obsessed with the belief that the island is testing him. Hurley is an obese, happy go lucky dude who is always ready to help out. However, his backstory is that after he won the lottery, he became a jinx bringing bad luck to all around him. His cheerful good nature is balanced by a frightening fatalism.

The story maintains a good balance between Robinson Carusoe and the Twilight Zone. Stranded on a tropical island, the characters must organize their survival and avoid a Lord of the Flies scenario. However, weird things keep happening. A polar bear appears on a tropical island. The pilot of the plane is snatched by a mysterious something. There are "others" on the island. The story dishes out its weirdness in a measured way. You can tell that it's going to get weirder as it goes. However, the weirdness unfolds in an almost rational way.

In the first season at least, the story alternates between present and past. Each episode reveals a little bit more about the unusual, or perhaps damned, survivors of the plane crash. Everyone has a story. There is the pregnant girl who scared the living daylights out of a psychic. There is the sweet, beautiful girl who was brought onto the flight in handcuffs by a U.S. Marshall. There is the son sent to retrieve the body of his father. There is the Iraqi who betrayed a friend to try to re-establish contact with a woman. It goes on and on. Every character who gets the benefit of a flashback has a story. It is an unusual group that winds up on the island.

I have finished season one. I look forward to continuing to watch the series unfold over the summer.

Don't Know Much About History?

2010-05-16T10:19:00.000-07:00

The Texas State Board of Education has been in the news a lot since March when they held hearings on revising the social studies curriculum standards. Now that the standards are up for final adoption, I was curious to see what was really in them. After wading through 87 pages of standards, they are a curious mix of micro-managing, bad grammar and anti-political correctedness. While the influence of the conservatives on the board is apparent, it strikes me that the liberals and conservatives have reduced history to a long list of names that must be taught. Teachers are also placed in the unique position of being required to teach history which is still occurring.

Names, Names and More Names

Students frequently complain that history is nothing more than a list of dates and places. Under the State Board of Education standards, there are endless lists of names to be taught. Included in the proposed standards for American History since 1877 (formerly known as American History Since Reconstruction) are:

Benjamin Rush, John Hancock, John Jay, John Witherspoon, John Peter Muhlenberg, Charles Carroll, and Jonathan Trumbull (examples of Founding Fathers), Henry Cabot Lodge, Alfred Thayer Mahan, Theodore Roosevelt and Samuel Dole (persons involved in American expansionism, formerly known as Imperialism), General John J. Pershing, Woodrow Wilson, Upton Sinclair, Susan B. Anthony, Ida B. Wells, and W. E. B. DuBois (reformers and muckrakers), Clarence Darrow, William Jennings Bryan, Henry Ford,
Glenn Curtiss, Marcus Garvey,and Charles A. Lindbergh (significant individuals from the 1920s), Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Omar Bradley, Dwight Eisenhower, Douglas MacArthur, Chester A. Nimitz, George Marshall, and George Patton (military leaders during World War II), John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., César Chavez, Rosa Parks, and Betty Friedan (civil rights leaders), George Wallace, Orval Faubus, and Lester Maddox (advocates for the status quo), Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Phyllis Schlafly, Bill Gates, Sam Walton, Estée Lauder, Robert Johnson and Lionel Sosa (examples of American entrepeneurs, but Mary Kay Ash didn't make the final cut), Andrew Carnegie, Hector P. Garcia, Thurgood Marshall, Billy Graham, Barry Goldwater, Phyllis Schlafly, and Hillary Clinton (examples of social leaders), Frances Willard, Jane Addams, Eleanor Roosevelt, Dolores Huerta, and Oprah Winfrey (women who made contributions to society), Vernon J. Baker, Alvin York, and Roy Benavides (Congressional Medal of Honor winners).

These are just the names contained in the standards for one course. There is a curious parity here. Conservatives get Phyllis Schlafly (who is mentioned twice) and Barry Goldwater, while liberals get Hillary Clinton and Oprah Winfrey. African Americans get Thurgood Marshall, Martin Luther King and Marcus Garvey, while Hispanics get Lionel Sosa, Cesear Chavez and Roy Benavides. It looks like the State Board tried to be evenhanded by letting every group get someone in the standards. Some of the lists seem pretty random.

History or Current Events?

I once had a history professor who said that anything after the Seventeenth Century wasn't history, it was current events. Under that definition, the standards contain a lot of VERY current events. For example, a section on dates as turning points includes "2001 (terrorist attacks on World Trade Center and the Pentagon) and 2008 (election of first black president)."

In another standard, students are required to:

describe the causes, key organizations, and individuals of the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s, including Phyllis Schlafly, the Contract with America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority, and the National Rifle Association.

Students are also required to learn about the presidential election of 2000, the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Do we really know the significance of these events well enough to mandate that textbook publishers include them in history books? Since when does last year qualify as history?

Anti-Political Correctness

The attempt to re-write history in a more conservative manner has already received plenty of attention, so I won't dwell on it. However, here are a few points that I haven't seen emphasized elsewhere:

In the standards for World History Studies, all of the references to "BCE" as a dating measure have gone back to "B.C.," so that history is measured in relation to Christ.

American imperialism is changed to American expansionism, while Soviet expansion is changed to Soviet aggression.

The Standard dealing with McCarthyism as a factor which heated up the Cold War has received an addenda about "how the later release of the Venona Papers confirmed suspicions of communist infiltration in U.S. government."

The standards now refer to the "leadership" of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan as opposed to their "role."

More Randomness

Some of the other interesting things that students will be asked to do are:

* analyze the function of the U.S. Office of War Information (during World War II).

* understand the effects of governmental actions on individuals, industries, and communities, including the impact of Fifth Amendment property rights.

* describe the emergence of monetary policy in the United States, including the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 and the shifting trend from a gold standard to fiat money.

* analyze causes of economic growth and prosperity in the 1920s Economics, including Warren Harding’s Return to Normalcy, reduced taxes, and increased production efficiencies

* analyze the effects of 20th-century landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions, including Brown v. Board of Education and other U.S. Supreme Court decisions such as Hernandez v. Texas, Delgado v. Bastrop I. S. D.and Tinker v. Des Moines.

* evaluate constitutional change in terms of strict construction versus judicial interpretation.

* describe how American values are different and unique from those of other nations.

Final Thoughts

Inevitably, the telling of history is a process of sorting through what is worth mentioning and what can be left out. However, in reading the standards, it is easy to get the impression that the State Board of Education went tripping casually through history grabbing items to include without regard to their big picture importance. While some of these items are clearly influenced by a conservative philosophy, others are just random. The result is an incoherent mass of detail that will be difficult to put into a textbook and harder still to teach. I have one daughter who is already taking American History under the current standards. I can't wait till it is time to help daughter #2 with her homework under the new ones.

A Lawyer's Voice From Nazi Germany: October 1941 to June 1942

2010-05-08T08:02:00.001-07:00

my last installment of this series, I wrote about the increasing frustration of Helmuth James von Moltke, a German lawyer with the OKW, as he watched helplessly as Germany entered into war with the West. There is so much that I could have written about in the intervening months. However, I am going to skip ahead to October 1941. The letter of October 21 1941 is very significant because von Moltke recognizes the atrocieties being committed on the German side and is witness to the first stages of the Final Solution. Although Germany is at the height of its power, he believes that German defeat is imminent. This impels him to convene a series of meetings at his country estate to plan for governance of post-defeat Germany.

21 October 1941

The day is so full of gruesome news that I cannot write in peace, although I retired at 5 and have just had some tea. But my head aches all the same. What affects me most at the moment is the inadequacy of the reactions of the military. Falkenhausen and Stupnagel have returned to their posts instead of resigning after the latest incidents, dreadful new orders are being issued, and nobody seems to see anything wrong in it all? How is one to bear the burden of complicity?

In one area in Serbia, two villages hve been reduced to ashes. 1,700 men and 240 women among the inhabitants have been executed. That is the "punishment" for an attack on three German soldiers. In Greece, 220 men of one village have been shot. The village was burnt down, women and children were left there to weep for their husbands and fathers and homes. In France there are extensive shootings while I write. Certainly more than a thousand people are murdered this way every day and another thousand German men are habituated to murder. And all this is child's play compared to what is happening in Poland and Russia. May I know this and yet sit at my table in my heated flat and have tea? Don't I thereby become guilty too? What shall I say when I am asked: And what did you do during that time?

Since Saturday, the Berlin Jews are being rounded up. They are picked up at 9.15 in the evening and locked into the synagogue overnight. Then they are sent off with what they can carry, to Litzmannstadt (Lodz) and Smolensk. We are to be spared the sight of them being simply left to perish in hunger and cold, and that is why it is done in Litzmannstadt and Smolensk. A women Kiep knows saw a Jew collapse in the street; when she wanted to help him up, a policeman stepped in, stopped her, and kicked the body to the ground so that it rolled into the gutter; then he turned to the lady with a vestige of shame and said: "These are our orders?"

How can anyone know these things and still walk around free? With what right? Is it not inevitable that his turn will come too one day, and that he too will be rolled into the gutter?--If only I could get rid of the terrible feeling that I have let myself be corrupted, that I do not react keenly enough to such things, that they torment me without producing a spontaneous reaction. I have mistrained myself, for in such thing, too, I react with my head. I think about a possible reaction instead of acting.

From here, I am going to change up the narrative. Instead of going strictly by date, I am going to break it down by topic, since there are some interesting threads here.

Jewish Persecution

5 November 1941

Later we held our group meeting with some poppyseed cake, which was received with universal applause; it really was especially good. I packed up what was left over and shall give it to Unger today. I asked Steinke yesterday whether I might give Unger some food because he has so visibly lost weight, and he thought U. would not refuse it. He is, after all, the last Jew I know, and I somehow regard this as the purchase of indulgences and am convinced that you approve. I shall take him what is left of the cake today and some bacon, and in a few days 3 or 5 eggs and apples.

9 November 1941

I spent the day with some Jewish people whose affairs had to be settled before their deportation. During the last 3 days another 10,000 have been notified to hold themselves in readiness. The bearing of these people was good to see, and I can only hope that ours will be no worse when our time comes.

11 November 1941

The day was strenuous. In fighting the latest decree against Jews I have, however, succeeded in getting the 3 most important generals of the OKW to write to the 4th that he must immediately withdraw the approval he gave on behalf of the chief of the OKW. The next stage is therefore to see whether he does so. Only after that will the real battle be joined. Wouldn't it be splendid to be thrown out of this club on such an issue?

13 November 1941

Well, what actually happened? I find it hard to remember these two days. Russian prisoners, evacuated Jews, evacuated Jews, Russian prisoners, hostages shot, gradual encroachment in the Reich itself of measures "tried and proved" in occupied territories, again evacuated Jews, Russian prisoners, a Mental Home for SS men who broke down "executing" women and children. That was the world of these two days. Yesterday I said goodbye to a once famous Jewish lawyer who has the Iron Cross First Class and Second Class, the Order of the House of Hohenzollern, the Golden Badge for the Wounded, and who will kill himself with his wife today because he is to be picked up tonight. He has a nice daughter of about 19 who wants to live and is determined to endure what is ahead. I gave her my "permanent" address, in case we and she survive the deluge and our address is still the same. It does not seem likely to any of us.

And yet I was actually able to throw a spanner in the works, obstructing a bit, at least, of the persecution of the Jews. My self-appointed representation of the interests of the Wehrmacht has been endorsed by Canaris and by Thomas. I dictated letters and both were visibly pleased when they signed them. Which proves the general rule that as soon as one man takes a stand, a surprising number of others will stand too. But there always has to be one to go first; otherwise it does not work. And apart from the unpleasantness and strain of going first; how rarely do I have the opportunity to do it. I am pleased, of course, if I succeed. Thus it was nice to see an old colonel suddenly get red in the face, a visible sign of his joy that something was being done for once.

17 November 1941

Meanwhile, hunger, disease and fear are spreading under our rule. Nobody knows what the consequences will be or how soon they will set in. But one thing is quite certain: the Apocalyptic Horsemen are beginners compared with what is ahead of us: certus an, incertus quando. Every day brings new insights into the depths to which human beings can sink. But in many respects the bottom has been reached: the lunatic asylums are slowly filling with men who broke down during or after the executions they were told to carry out.

18 November 1941

I would like to give Unger something, and I'd much rather take it with me next time, for he certainly will not live to Christmas, and there is no knowing how much longer he's got. But a chicken would be very nice for him too, though a duck would be nicer.

1 June 1942

The problems began in Derfflingerstrasse because I had no house key--we'd stupidly forgotten about that. I woke up Frau Cohn, who came looking pale as death because she thought her husband was being taken to be shot--500 Jews are said to have been shot yesterday and the day before--and was very relieved when she saw me.

Accomplices to Evil

6 November 1941

On Carl Viggo's attitude I have to say the following: it is characterized by fear of responsibility for anything beyond the vision of his own two eyes. The whole question of physical courage, which seems to be connected with it, is nothing but camouflage. No doubt it is more comfortable to feel responsible only for a few people only and deliberately wear blinkers that prevent one from seeing the evil done in the discharge of this responsibility--to be unwilling to see that one is defending murder and robbery. In reality it is these people who are the crux of this evil, not the criminals. There are and have been criminals everywhere; but it is the inescapable duty of all the righteous to keep crime within bounds, and whoever evades this task is more guilty than the criminal himself.

This is the first of several letters expressing frustration with his uncle, Carl Viggo von Moltke, for going along blindly with the regime. This letter provides an important insight into how something as monstrous as the Holocaust could have taken place. If good men look only to their own actions, they become accomplices to evil.

8 November 1941

Let me return to the subject of C.V. once more. I am so bitter, not to say ready to explode about this type, because nobody causes me so many difficulties as do these lazy men. It is this kind of man who gets us the reputation in the world of not being able even to govern ourselves, let alone others. These people have a restricted horizon, they do not see that every action takes its place in the universe, that all things are interrelated, that a murder in Warsaw has repercussions in Calcutta and Sydney, at the North Pole, and in Kurdistan, not political but moral repercussions. I only accept the argument of self-surrender to a very limited extent. It is a form of self-gratification, a cloak put on after the event. Fredchen's saying is nonsense, because one does not fight for but against something. Hatred, not love, is the dominant element of war. War breeds cowardice, servility and mass-psychosis. Take this example: yesterday I was at a meeting in the Foreign Ministry about the persecution of the Jews. It was my first official contact with this question. Against 24 men and quite inflexibly I attacked a decree which already had the approval of all ministers and the Chief of the OKW, and for the moment have halted its course. And when I returned, the OKW official in whose competence it really fell asked me: Why did you do it? You can't change a thing, although of course these measures are catastrophic. He was a typical C.V. H.A. is another. I quite appreciate the charm and the qualities of these men, but their actions are dictated by expediency and have no moral basis. They are like chameleons: in a healthy society, they look healthy, in a sick one, like ours, they look sick. And really they are neither one nor the other. They are mere filler. There has to be filler too. Bit it is intolerable for the filler that extends the diseased part to pretend to a moral raison d'etre. I know I am being dreadfully severe. But it is necessary because otherwise, without being aware of it, one falls into dubious company.

It is interesting that von Moltke now refers to collaborators with the Nazis as "C.V."s in reference to his uncle Carl Viggo von Moltke. Hans Adolph von Moltke, who is referred to here is his father's cousin. Hans Adolph later changed his attitude and came to agree with Helmuth James.

13 November 1941

To return to C.V. once more. My patience with these people is totally at an end and yet I must not show it; it is hardly bearable. For instance Hans Adolph yesterday; he is a C.V. in a somewhat more advanced stage. He was quite broken. But do you think he now feels any obligation to do something to clean up the mess that has been accumulated with his help? Far from it! I only had to say that one must write off a lot in good time for him to reply with obvious indignation: Never can this be written off. And in 12 months he will give his blessing once more to a Free Corps operation against the enemy occupation forces trying to maintain order. And if I were by any chance to remind him that what he now sees is precisely what I predicted in the first months of the war and before the outbreak of the war, and that he retorted: "Then you must stimulate a more optimistic outlook in your circles," he would still regard my diagnosis as something no patriotic man might think, let alone say. I'll say nothing more. I've written off these people, don't want anything of them any more, and only want to beware of getting their backs up against me before it is necessary. But you will, I expect, understand that in my heart there is no patience left for them and no patience for their defence. Their motto is the hope to save themselves:

if together we cling
singing God save the King
and throw men overboard to the sharks.

Religion and Religious Figures

5 November 1941

The saying of grace at the Gramsches' prompts me to raise the question with you whether we should not reintroduce it via the children. It has become increasingly clear to me in these past years that the existence of each and every one of us depends on maintaining the fundamental moral laws laid down in the 10 Commandments: freedom and preservation from bodily harm, but also food and drink, housing, clothing and heating. But because one cannot think of this connection when entering one's home, firing the stove, etc., or express this awareness then, the common meal is the only remaining occasion to draw atention to it. And that seems to me to be, apart from any religious basis, the primary function of saying grace.

What a curiously German reaction! Saying grace at mealtime is important not just for any religous significance, but as a reminder of fundamental moral laws essential to survival. Von Moltke's synopsis of the 10 Commandments, as being affirmative commands to do good as opposed to merely refraining from evil, echoes Luther's Small Cathechism.

14 November 1941

The afternoon with Preysing (a Catholic bishop) was very nice. Peters had written an opus on the church question which satisfied neither of us altogether. That was the one subject of discussion, the complaint about St. Clements (a church that was confiscated)the second, the persecution of the Jews the third. In the morning he had just been confirming Jews who were to be transported to Litzmannstadt in the evening. He said it was possibly his most beautiful confirmation. Once arrived there, they get 1/4 of our food ration. The Dean of his cathedral has been indicted for malicious defamation, because he prayed for the Jews, and the news of his interrogation came through while I was there:

"What is your attitude to the racial question?" "The only distinction I make is between Christians and non-Christians, the former I include as brothers in my prayers, for the latter I pray for illumination."

"What is your attitude to the state?" "Be subject to the higher powers put over you says the Apostle Paul."

"What is your attitude to the Fuhrer?" "He is not my Fuhrer, for that he is only for Party members in his capacity as head of the Party. But I am not a member and know only one leader, Jesus Christ. My attitude to Hitler as head of state is based on my attitude to the state."

"If you don't change your attitude, we shall send you to join your dear Jews in Litzmannstadt." "That was the very thing I was going to ask: for what more beautiful task could there be for an old clergyman than to assist these Jewish Christians who are destined to die."

The clergyman being interrogated was Bernhard Lichtenberg. He was sentenced to two years for misuse of the pulpit and malicious defamation of the government. He was to be taken to Dachau after serving his sentence, but died on the way there.

4 February 1942

The funeral (for his brother Carl Bernd von Moltke who was killed in action) was quite awful. A man in a gown, at the very most a "German Christian," spoke in a little cemetary chapel. There wasn't a single word from the Bible, instead poems of all kinds and German sayings, also proverbs. The word "Christ" didn't occur, the word "God" in a subordinate clause at the end; to make up for it there was a reference to "The Horst Wessel Regiment in Valhalla"; no hymn was sung. At the graveside the Lord's prayer was said, with a few changes in wording: in the chapel a "prayer" was said, a meaningless series of fragments of thought based on the notion of "Death as a Source of New Life," i.e., nothing related to something above man, everything related back to other human beings and therefore abandoning the principle that every man is a thought of the Creator's mind. I could have been sick on the floor. . . . The "parson" saluted the coffin on all suitable and unsuitable occasions by raising his right arm. Not one sign of the cross.

von Moltke worked closely with the German Bishops in his opposition to the Nazis. His letters show the religious resistance to the Nazis, as well as the Nazis attempts to replace the Christian religion with a pagan one.

The War Effort

18 November 1941

The war looks bad. There is a joke going round here: "Eastern campaign extended by a month owing to great success." A bitter remark. . . . The unfortunate millions of troops who now freeze out there, are wet, and die! A comparison with the World War '14/'18 is impossible, for then fewer people were involved, and could be better looked after, and there were houses in which they could stay. The present situation is different in both respects. What will the army that we meet in March be like? With no leave worth mentioning, insufficient supplies, no quarters, no adequate clothing, no military success?

And the domestic situation is far worse than I had imagined. The persecution of the Jews and the attack on the churches have caused intense disquiet. The promises of military successes, of leave for soliders or their return are not being kept and cannot be kept. Everyone can see hunger approaching, and there is nothing else to buy either, there is nobody for the most necessary work.

10 December 1941

Then Tuesday's main theme began, namely, whether and how one could prevent a German declaration of war on the U.S.A. In my opinion this offered a quite unique opportunity to achieve a compromise with the Anglo-Saxons with a change of crew, and to leave the Japanese to their fate, and thereby extend our hand to the Anglo-Saxons. Unfortunately all the people who ought to have gone into action quite automatically on this question failed to function, and when I got into the affair it was already too late. Today the declaration of war will be proclaimed.

6 January 1942

The coming months will be unimaginably terrible. I think the military situation can only be restored by a miracle. A.H. has issued an order forbidding all withdrawals and so we enable the Russians to smash our front by degrees without incurring the supply difficulties they would have if we retreated. The result will be that the Russians, without making any real territorial gains, will simply annihilate our Eastern army where it stands. And the soldiers still fail to see that. That's because they aren't commanders, but technicians, military technicians, and the whole thing is a gigantic crime.

11 January 1942

I cannot shake off the question: how can the German people be told what is happening now and what will be happening in the coming weeks, and how will people react to it? Failing a miracle, even the Cassandra cries that I have uttered since the beginning of the war will be far surpassed by reality. Will there be anyone then who can master the chaos? Will each individual recognize his own guilt? Will Eastern Germany, that is to say Prussia, then suddenly be missionized and Christianized? Or will everything sink in the maelstrom of pagan materialism? For better or for worse, the battle that began at Christmas has opened a new epoch, an epoch that means a bigger change than the Cannonade of Valmy. Perhaps this is the final end of the Holy Roman Empire, perhaps it is its resurrection.

Candidate Forgets Eleventh Commandment of Ronald Reagan and Tramples on Eighth Commandment of the Bible in the Process

2010-04-05T16:57:00.000-07:00

Usually, political ads go straight into the trash. However, today I received one which caught my eye. I live in House District 47, where the primary runoff features contractor Paul Workman vs. lawyer Holly Turner. Ms. Turner is young, photogenic and touts her Hill Country Values and conservatism. However, the ad which I received today makes some pretty outrageous claims about her Republican primary opponent.

In bold letters, it proclaims:

TEXAS IS Now America's Magnet for ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

While conservatives in other states have passed tough laws to stop illegal immigration by requiring companies to verify the immigration status of their workers, construction company owner Paul Workman has been fighting reform here in Texas. Texas is now the "go-to" state in the country for illegal immigrants looking for a job. Paul Workman wants to keep it that way.

Illegal immigration costs Texas taxpayers $4.7 billion per year.

Paul Workman is making the problem even worse . . .

Illegal immigration is bankrupting Texas. An estimated one million people are here illegally with more on the way. Paul Workman has joined the liberals and is fighting reform. He has funded the campaigns of politicians and PACs that oppose making it harder for illegal immigrants to find jobs in Texas. Workman even funded liberal pro-abortion Democrats in races to defeat Republicans to "benefit [his] business" he said. Workman has made millions off government construction contracts. And he has openly admitted that he does not verify the immigration status of his own construction company workers. It's time for taxpayers to take a stand against people like Paul Workman who have been taking advantage of us.

The mailer makes four claims about Paul Workman.

1. Paul Workman wants to keep Texas as the "go-to" state for illegal immigrants looking for a job.
2. Paul Workman is fighting reform.
3. Paul Workman does not verify the immigration status of his own workers.
4. Paul Workman has been "taking advantage of us."

Ronald Reagan used to say that the Eleventh Commandment was "Thou Shalt Not Speak Ill of a Fellow Republican." However, another commandment which comes to mind is the Eighth Commandment which says "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor."

According to Luther's Small Catechism, this means:

We should fear and love God so that we do not tell lies about our neighbour, betray him, slander him, or hurt his reputation, but defend him, speak well of him,and explain everything in the kindest way.

So how do Ms. Turner's statements hold up to this standard? Her mailer cites the following sources for her statements:

1. Southwest Republican Club, February 3, 2010.
2. American Federation on Immigration Reform, April 2005.
3. Texas Ethics Commission records reveal Workman campaign contributions to Democrats Kirk Watson, Dawna Dukes, Johyn Sharp, Patrick Rose.
4. February 26, 2010 Candidate Forum at Veritas Academy.

The "sourcing" gives the attacks an air of authenticity. However, what do they really show? The sourcing doesn't really say much. However, going behind the sources shows two facts:

1. According to the Texas Ethics Commission, Paul Workman made 70 political contributions in the past ten years, ranging from $5.00 to $1,000.00. Of these 70 contributions, seven were made to Democrats, including:

a. John Sharp $200.00
b. Mina Brees $100.00
c. Dawna Dukes $100.00
d. Kirk Watson $600.00 (three contributions)
e. Patrick Rose $250.00

He also made contributions to Rick Perry, Susan Combs, Jerry Patterson, Terry Keel, Todd Baxter and many pro-business PACs.

So, over ten years, Paul Workman contributed $1,250.00 to a handful of Democrats, while making many more contributions to Republicans. It is hard to see how these few contributions translate to opposing immigration reform.

2. At a candidate forum, Paul Workman said, "I'm not in the documents business" when asked if he checks the citizenship of his workers. See Arnold Garcia, "In politics we may not get substance, but we can always count on a show," Austin American Statesman, April 2, 2010. This statement is a bit ambiguous, but hardly shows that he admittedly does not check the immigration status of his employees. In fact, according to the same American Statesman article, his companies require two forms of identification and check them for signs of fraud.

Is there any truth to this alarming mailer? It's hard to see it. The funny thing about all this is that Holly Turner has condemned Paul Workman for making far-fetched claims about her (including calling her a carpetbagger and suggesting that she doesn't really live in the district). The lesson she seems to have learned is the best response to mudslinging is hyper-mudslinging. I may be out of touch, but I believe that honesty is a conservative value. Under this standard, the mailer was not very conservative at all. I rate Holly Turner as liberal with the truth.

Obamacare Is A Big Deal, But What Is It?

2010-04-02T06:58:00.000-07:00

When President Obama signed the new health care bill, Vice-President Biden was overheard saying, "This is a big f***ing deal." It may be a big deal, but after all of the drama, I still don't know much about what is in it or how it would help someone like me. As a middle-class taxpayer who pays over $1,000 per month for health care, I would certainly like some relief from the cost. However, I don't think it's going to happen.

For a bill which is thousands of pages long, it is hard to get any definite information on what is in it. Here is a link to one of the better summaries I was able to find on the bill. Based on this summary and others I have seen, I have been able to piece together a few specifics on what the bill does and most of them are not that exciting.

1. Everyone will be required to have health insurance. This doesn't affect me directly since I already have health insurance. However, the notion that we are going to achieve full coverage by requiring people who don't want to be insured to buy insurance strikes me as a bit cynical. Presumably the thought is that young healthy people will buy insurance they won't use, which will subsidize the cost for everyone else. On the other hand, if people are forced to buy insurance, they may actually use it. More demand for a product usually leads to higher prices. Therefore, I see this as either a neutral factor or a negative.

2. Insurance companies cannot deny coverage for pre-existing conditions starting in 2014. This strikes me as fair. However, it does mean that the added cost will be passed on to everyone else. That means that my health care costs will go up.

3. More people will be eligible for medicaid. This is one way to get more people covered. However, any increase in government benefits will have to be paid for from increased taxes. The bill taxes really rich people and people with really good coverage. I don't fall into either category so this shouldn't concern me. However, I do have some concern that rich people won't want to be taxed and will find ways around the tax increase, so that the cost will ultimately be passed on to the middle class.

4. The government will spend $940 billion for something. While the price tag of the bill is well known, what it will be spent on is less clear. Is this all for the increase in medicaid? What are we getting for nearly a trillion dollars?

5. There will not be a public option, but there will be state insurance exchanges. There will also be subsidies for lower income tax payers. Also, government may be able to block some increases in rates by insurance companies (not sure if this made it into the final bill). These provisions could help me. While my employer provides me with insurance, I have to pay for insurance for the family. That cost has increased by 50% over the past few years. Thus, getting a more affordable plan for my family would be welcome. However, since many of the features of the bill don't kick in until 2014, it's hard to know when or if this will help.

6. At one point, there was talk about limiting the amount you can put into a flex plan to $2,500 per year. I have no idea whether this made it into the final bill. If it did, this means that I will pay more in taxes, since I currently contribute more than $2,500 into my flex plan.

Joe Biden may be right. The health care bill may be a "big f***ing deal." But it won't be for me or my family. We will continue to pay too much for health care for the foreseeable future.

The Generation of the Great-Grandparents Pt. 3

2010-03-07T08:05:00.000-08:00

The Generation of the Great-Grandparents: James and Hope Newhouse

This installment is very meaningful to me because it concerns my grandparents who have been gone for twelve years now. They both passed away within a few weeks of each other in 1997. I made the trip to Rochester, Minnesota twice that winter. It was the first time that I had been back there since I was a child. I delivered eulogies at both of their funerals which are set out with very few changes below. For me, writing the eulogies was a chance for me to learn more about my grandparents while recalling my own memories.

James "Jim" Ernest Newhouse: February 10, 1904-November 15, 1997

Jim was:
Kristen and Stephanie's Great-Grandfather
Stephen's Grandfather
Nancy's Father

Eulogy for James Newhouse: November 19, 1997

We are here today to remember James Newhouse, my grandfather. Jim lived a full life starting at one end of the century and ending up at the other. He left behind a legacy of a marriage of 64 years, a daughter, three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. And he lives on in our memories. On behalf of the family, I would like to share some of those memories. They are not all my memories. One of the things that I enjoyed about this project was talking to other people, especially my Mom, about their memories of Jim Newhouse.

Jim was born in Spring Grove, Minnesota in 1904. He was confirmed in 1919 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Spring Grove. You can see his confirmation certificate there in Norwegian. Jim grew up back when the various Lutheran churches still held to the old language. Jim was proud of his Norwegian heritage.

Jim had five brothers and two sisters. He was an active child. When he was around eight years old, he broke his arm three times in one year. By the third time, he was embarrassed to tell his father and they didn't figure it out until they noticed he was eating with his left hand.

He married Hope Streuble in 1933. They had a daughter, Nancy. Jim worked for the Minnesota Department of Highways. That required him to travel around a lot. However, he was still a devoted family man. My mom remembers that when he came home on Friday, the weekend was a special time for the family. They always attended church. My mom remembers going for walks around the park after church with her dad and sometimes she would get a treat. She remembers big family dinners on Sunday afternoon with my grandma's fresh-baked pies.

Just to show how dedicated a father Jim was, when my mom was at Macalester, he would stop by on Fridays to pick up my mom's laundry. My mom admits that she might have been a little bit spoiled.

I remember Jim Newhouse as my grandfather. He was there for Christmases, high school graduations, family vacations and my wedding. Even though we lived in Massachusetts and later in Texas, we still saw my grandparents. One memory our family has--and my grandma wanted me to mention this--is of a vacation to Cape Cod in Massachusetts. My dad had a sailboat he built. One of the things about a sailboat is that sometimes you tip over. That happened to my grandfather and he got soaked down to his wallet. My grandma said that eventually he got the money dried out--after all, he knew the value of a dollar. I remember my grandparents coming down for my wedding in 1984. All three of us remember our grandparents coming down for our high school graduations in 1979, 1985 and 1989.

Jim was very active in his retirement. The active life he led working for the Highway Department kept him vigorous. In his retirement, he did a lot of walking. He continued to shovel the snow and mow the lawn into his 90s until they persuaded him to let a younger man take over. Recently someone asked Jim if he smoked and he said no, then he thought about it for a moment and said that he used to but he quit 70 years ago. That's the type of healthy person he was. Jim enjoyed reunions and get-togethers with his extended family.

One memory my family has is that Jim loved to watch wrestling on TV. Just as my kids like to watch cartoons, Jim liked his wrestling. Even as his sight and hearing were failing, he would sit with his favorite aqua arm-chair pulled up to the TV with the sound turned up all the way.

Even though things were difficult toward the end, my mother and my grandmother's memories are filled with examples of his kindness. This summer when my grandma was in the hospital, my parents were staying at the house. My mom was washing dishes. Even though my grandfather was nearly blind, he got up, grabbed a dishtowel and began drying the dishes and putting them away. He didn't have to do that. That was just the way he was. When my grandma was in the hospital, Jim was there for her, always wanting to go and visit her.

When my grandparents went into the home this August, everyone was impressed by their devotion to one another. Jim would get up in the middle of the night to check on Hope and hold her hand. As his condition worsened, the roles changed and my grandmother was the one holding his hand. Finally, it was time for the end. Last Thursday night, Jim lost consciousness and they took him to the hospital. The difficult decision was made not to take any extraordinary measures and he was returned to the home to be near his wife.

Jim had one last surprise in store. Friday morning he woke up, shaved, got dressed and ate breakfast. He had lots of visitors and ate popcorn. God gave Jim the gift of one last day with his wife and friends. Then on Saturday he was gone.

Jim lived a full life and passed on a legacy to his daughter and his grand-children and great-grandchildren. My mother remembers that she learned by her parents' example that there are some true values in life. Work hard. Take pride in what you do. Don't expect anyone to give you anything, but always be there for others. These are the values of his Norwegian heritage and the generation that grew up in the Depression.

My brother David couldn't be here today but he wrote some words that he wanted to share with you and they follow on the same theme. David wrote:

Grandpa was a simple man and some people might think that he didn't do that much with his life, and yet out of the things that really matter in life, he probably accomplished more things than most people dream of. I think it's unfortunate that people who are growing up today are not more like grandpa's generation. People of grandpa's generation are people of great honor, people who kept their word, people who are genuinely interested in others and finished each day knowing that a full day's work had been done.

These words exemplify the values that my grandparents passed down to their daughter and grandchildren and that I would like to pass down to my children.

I'd like to close with the words of Revelation 21: "God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. And death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away." Jim's earthly body has passed away, but our memories of him remain. And we can remember Jim as he looked in this picture from 1945: a strong man with clear eyes and keen hearing. For that is a small reminder of how he must look in heaven.

Hope Streuble August 27, 1908-December 4, 1997

Hope was:

Nancy's Mother
Stephen's Grandmother
Kristen and Stephanie's Great-Grandmother

Eulogy for Hope Newhouse: December 10, 1997

We are here to remember Hope Newhouse. On behalf of the family, we are pleased that so many of you could be here with us to share our memories and our grief. I know many of you were here a few short weeks ago to remember James Newhouse. I really didn't expect to be here again so soon. It is so hard to accept that the vibrant woman who was my grandmother is now the box of ashes you see in front of you. It is a stark reminder that, as we hear on Ash Wednesday, ashes you are and to ashes you will return. However, Hope Newhouse lives on in the lives that she touched, those of her daughter and son-in-law, Wayne and Nancy, her three grandchildren, her two great-grandchildren and so many of you who are with us today. This morning we are going to share just a few of those memories with you.

Earlier you heard the reading of the obituary. Hope Streuble was born in Mora, Minnesota in 1908. Her background included French, Irish and Pennsylvania Dutch. One of her French ancestors, Jacques Lareau, stowed away on a ship and fought in the American Revolution. Hope was the youngest of six children. She had three brothers and two sisters. Growing up in Mora, she lived in a big white-framed house. Down the hill was Lake Mora, one of your 10,000 lakes. Grandma used to go for picnics on an island in the lake and went swimming in the Snake River. I don't think there were really any snakes, though. Hope took violin lessons in high school and I'm told that she practiced very faithfully. My mother found that violin at Grandma's house when we were getting ready for the service today. Because Hope was the youngest of six children, she stayed in Mora to support her father, who was crippled.

Hope married Jim Newhouse on July 9, 1933. They moved to Spring Grove, where they had a daughter, Nancy Ann. My grandmother liked to cook. Her husband, Jim, was Norwegian, so she learned to bake Norwegian treats, such as leftsa, krumkake and spritz cookies. Her baked beans were a favorite of family reunions and picnics. She also cooked things which were less popular, like the oatmeal my mom dumped in the trash when she was three.

In 1943, Hope returned to Mora to go to work. With the war going on, there was a shortage of men to fill the jobs. My grandmother was invited to take a job in the Insurance Department of the Kanabec State Bank. She worked there for 16 years and developed a keen business sense. In recent years, she like to watch Louis Rukeyser's Wall Street Week which she used to discuss with my dad.

My mom remembers that Hope was a devoted mother. She helped my mom with her home economics projects in junior high, even though my mom's baking soda biscuits were a disaster and she needed help sewing pajamas.

Hope liked animals. When my mom was in first grade, she brought home a stray cat that Hope let her keep. That was Blackie. Blackie had a kitten named Thomas that my mom used to dress up in doll clothes. In later years, Hope never wanted a Christmas present for herself, except that she was always happy to receive a cat calendar. While she was at Maple Manor, someone brought her a kitten to hold and that meant a lot to her.

Hope liked to sew. She made my mom's clothes, including her wedding dress. She sewed quilts which our family still uses today. As a matter of fact, my brother Mark slept under one of them last night.

Education was important to Hope. She was too poor to go to college herself. She was very proud that my mom received a scholarship to Macalester. One interesting thing is that Great-Grandma Streuble, Hope and my mother were each the salutatorian of their high school graduating class.

In 1959, Hope and Jim moved here to Rochester. Hope worked for Knopf Insurance Agency until her retirement. In her retirement Hope liked simple things. She liked to watch The Young and the Restless on TV. She enjoyed listening to the Minneapolis Symphony on the radio. She enjoyed reading and would always return from the bookmobile with an armload of books. When she was diagnosed with borderline diabetes, she was told she could keep it under control with diet and exercise. She would walk 3-5 miles twice a day rain or shine.

Hope was also a dedicated letter writer. Although we were separated by thousands of miles, I felt like I was with her through her letters. She was very interestedin her great-grandchildren and she always kept track of what the weather was like in Texas. It was a real treat for me to receive her letters and see that precise penmanship that was always there.

The last years were difficult. Just as she had cared for her father, Hope cared for her husband, Jim. It was difficult when Hope got sick this summer and she and Jim had to move out of their house and into Maple Manor. However, even at the end there are good memories. On behalf of the family, I would like to thank everyone who was so kind to Hope during her stay at Maple Manor, especially Lynn who took Hope home with her for Thanksgiving dinner, and Howard Ralston and many others. When we were here just a few weeks ago, I was surprised at how frail Hope had become, but when she spoke, there was that spark in her voice and I know my grandmother was in there.

My mother's final memory of Hope was a phone conversation they had one week ago, the night before she passed away. Hope was upbeat and her voice was strong. She talked about the good home-cooked meal she had for Thanksgiving. After half an hour, she said, "I'm a little tired now." My mom said, "I love you a lot. Good bye."

Hope's death came more suddenly than we were prepared for and touched us deeply. Death leaves us with unfinished business. On the morning that Hope died, I was preparing to mail her photos of her great-grandchildren, a promise that I made to her on our last visit. I never got the chance to. And I'm sure that there are many things that we the family and you her friends wish that we had found time for. However. in our regrets, we can take comfort that Hope and Jim will spend Christmas together just as they have for the past 64 years. I'd like to leave you with Job 11:18, which I found on a plaque exemplifying grandma's name: "And thou shall be secure, because there is hope. . . ." And we are secure in knowing that we shall see Jim and Hope again together.

So What Is This Tenth Amendment We've Been Hearing About?

2010-03-05T05:52:00.000-08:00

There has been a lot of talk about the Tenth Amendment lately. During the recent Republican primary, I received mailers from candidates for Justice of the Peace and State Representative pledging to uphold the 10th Amendment. During the final days of the campaign, Gov. Rick Perry ran an ad in which he stated, "As Governor, I will always champion the Consitution's Tenth Amendment which is supposed to keep Washington from messin' with Texas."

So, what is the 10th Amendment and how does it keep Washington from messing with Texas? The 10th Amendment states:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

So, basically, the Constitution says that the federal government must stay within its enumerated powers. So far, so good. However, when you look at the powers delegated to the federal government by the Constitution and its amendments, they can be interpreted pretty broadly. Here are some of the powers granted to the federal government:

Section. 8. The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

To establish Post Offices and post Roads;

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

To provide and maintain a Navy;

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings; — And

To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

U.S. Const. Art. I, Sec. 8

Section. 4. The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened), against domestic Violence.

U.S. Const. Art. IV, Sec. 4.

Section. 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Section. 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

Section. 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Section. 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Section. 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

U.S. Const. Amend. XIV.

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

U.S. Const. Amend. XVI.

Here are some of the powers granted to the federal government:

1. The government may collect taxes to provide for the general welfare.
2. The government may borrow money on the credit of the United States.
3. The government may regulate commerce with foreign nations and between states.
4. To pass all laws necessary and proper to carry out the powers granted to the government.
5. To levy a federal income tax.
6. To protect the states from invasion or domestic violence.
7. To enact laws to protect civil rights.

When you start talking about terms such as providing for the general welfare, passing laws necessary and proper and regulating interstate commerce, you can encompass a lot of power. The U.S. Constitution (unlike the Texas Constition) is relatively brief and speaks in terms of generalities.

So, can the Governor of Texas keep Washington from messing with Texas? According to the Constition:

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

U.S. Const. Art. VI.

Laws of the United States are the Supreme Law of the Law according to the Consitution. Therefore, a state cannot just ignore a law it doesn't like. So what can a state do?

* It can refuse to accept federal funds which come with strings attached (as Gov. Perry has done);
* It can file suit in federal court to block laws which it believes are unconstitutional (which Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has done); and
* It can urge Congress to reject laws which impose upon the states.

However, the notion that the States can pick and choose which laws they want to obey was put to the test when state started seceding in the 1860s. A Republican president established the precedent that the United States is not just a voluntary association of sovereign states, but is a unified nation. That is not going to change.

Controversy Over "Al Qaeda Seven" Shows Disrespect for Lawyers and Rule of Law

2010-03-05T05:33:00.000-08:00

Have you heard about the Al Qaeda Seven? An ad put out by a group called Keeping America Safe implores the public to "Tell Eric Holder that the American public has the right to know the identity of the Al Qaeda Seven." From the name, you might think that this is some dangerous terrorist cell threatening our national security. However, they are something much more sinister--lawyers.

The so-called "Al Qaeda Seven" are seven lawyers who once represented Guantanamo Bay detainees and now work at the Justice Department. They are a subset of the Gitmo Nine. Why are these lawyers so sinister? They represented detainees at Guantanamo Bay prior to going to work for the government. When Sen. Charles Grassley learned that two former detainee lawyers were now working for the government, he demanded to know how many other of these suspicious characters were lurking around the halls of the Department of Justice. Attorney General Eric Holder acknowledged that there were seven more, but refused to divulge their identity at first. This prompted Keeping America Safe (a group associated with Dick Cheney's daughter) to run their Al Qaeda Seven ad. Now the names of these lawyers have been made public in response to pressure from Fox News.

So, what is the big deal? Keeping America Safe equates advocating legal rights for accused terrorists with being a terrorist sympathiser. Look at the name they were given: Al Qaeda Seven. Were any of these lawyers members of Al Qaeda? Of course not. Were their clients members of Al Qaeda? Maybe. We don't know because in most cases, the government has not been required to prove its cases.

However, even if the lawyers represented hard core Al Qaeda sympathisers, does that make them dangerous? Liz Cheney thinks so. She is afraid that they will infiltrate the Justice Department and cause it to examine terrorism suspects as criminals rather than really bad dudes who don't deserve any rights.

Let's have a little perspective here. The War on Terror is breaking new legal ground. In the past, we could justify different rules for enemy combatants on the basis that they fought for another country and that once the war ended, they could be repatriated to their own country or tried for war crimes. However, what do you do with an enemy that is not a nation state and a war that has no end? This gives rise to some serious legal issues, as shown by the fact that cases involving terrorism detainees have been up to the Supreme Court five or six times (I have lost count).

For a lawyer, the chance to litigate serious constitutional issues in an undeveloped area is a major challenge. This is important stuff. In order to get it right, there have to be good lawyers on both sides. That means that someone has to represent the people we don't like, the bad guys, the accused terrorists, not because they like terrorism, but because they passionately believe that America is a country bound to the rule of law rather than men.

Consider this example. An occupying army fires into a crowd of civilians. The soldiers are prosecuted for murder. A local lawyer dares to defend the soldiers despite the unpopularity of the cause. He later enters government service. However, he considered his defense of the soldiers who fired upon civilians "one of the best pieces of service I have ever rendered my country." The lawyer was John Adams. He defended the Redcoats who participated in the Boston Massacre. He went on to become president of the United States.

As with so many examples these days, the ad about the Al Qaeda Seven is about manipulating the appearance of things without regard to their substance. It turns out that the Bush administration also hired lawyers who had represented detainees. Rudy Guiliani's firm Bracewell Giuliani represented detainees. Many of the fiercest advocates for the detainees have been military officers from the Judge Advocate General Corps.

Lawyers are not an extension of their clients. In the ordinary, humdrum world of litigation, lawyers may seem like mouthpieces for their clients. However, when serious principles are at stake, when we are trying to find our way through uncharted ground, lawyers represent their clients, but also represent the rule of law, one of the principles that defines this country. Now that the Al Qaeda Seven have been outed, I hope that Americans will respect them as lawyers worthy to represent their country and its dearest principles, not as fifth columnists seeking to undermine the nation.

For a really good discussion of this issue which pre-dated the latest nonsense, read "We Want Tough Arguments" by Theodore Olsen and Neal Katyal. Theodore Olsen was Solicitor General under George W. Bush and argued the government's position before the Supreme Court. He has a personal stake in the issue because his wife died in the 9/11 attacks. Neal Katyal is one of the Al Qaeda Seven and argued for a detainee before the Supreme Court.

The Generation of the Great-Grandparents Pt. 2

2010-02-28T16:29:00.001-08:00

The Generation of the Great-Grandparents: Edward and Alma Froelich

This is a branch of the family that I have very little information on. I will update later if I find more.

Edward W. Froelich: 7-19-1907 to 2-1-1971

Alma Roemisch: 1907 or 1908 to ?

Edward W. Froelich and Alma Roemisch lived in Comal County. Edward was descended from German ancestors, while Alma's ancestry was German and Austrian. They had two children, Valeska R. Froelich, born ca. 1930, and Leroy Melvin Froelich, born August 4, 1931. Valeska R. Froelich died of a rattlesnake bite when she was 7 or 8. On Leroy Froelich's birth certificate, his father is listed as "Eddie Froelich."

Edward and Alma were divorced on 12-15-69. Alma married Edwin J. Glatzert on April 24, 1975.

The Generation of the Great-Grandparents Pt. 1

2010-02-28T09:07:00.000-08:00

The Generation of the Great-Grandparents: Olaf and Tomena Johnson

It has been a while since my last posting on family history. This generation represents a big jump. This is the first generation I have profiled who are no longer with us. Their stories go back a century to a time much different than today. Two-thirds of Americans lived on farms or small towns when they were born. New technologies such as the airplane and the automobile would change their world. They would live through two World Wars and the Great Depression, suffering hardship difficult to imagine. Here are their stories, beginning with Olaf and Tomena Johnson.

Olaf Johnson: August 19, 1905-July 4, 1966

Olaf was:
Kristen and Stephanie’s Great-Grandfather
Valeska’s Grandfather
Jackie’s Father

Olaf Johnson was born on August 19, 1905 in Norse, Texas in Bosque County. He was the son of Norwegian immigrants. He married Tomena Sigrid Knudson on May 31, 1927. They had two children, Jacqueline Charlotte Johnson and Derwood Johnson. Olaf moved to Waco in 1943, where he was a builder and developer. He built the Viking Hills development in Waco, which includes Valeska Drive, which he named after his grand-daughter. He died on July 4, 1966 in Waco, Texas.

Tomena Sigrid Knudson: March 18, 1905-September 25, 1973

Tomena was:
Kristen and Stephanie’s Great-Grandmother
Valeska’s Grandmother
Jackie’s Mother

Tomena was born on March 18, 1905 in Mustang, Bosque County, Texas. She married Olaf Johnson on May 31, 1927. They had two children, Jacqueline Charlotte Johnson and Gene Derwood Johnson. They moved to Waco in 1943. She died in Waco on September 25, 1973. Her first name “Tomena” is Valeska’s middle name.

The following family history of Olaf and Tomena was prepared by Matthew Eric Johnson, who is now a District Judge in Waco, Texas.

Olaf Johnson was born on August 19, 1905 in the Norse Community in Bosque County. He was the son of Matthias Johnson (1867-1952) and wife, Marthe Hanson (1865-1940). He was baptized in Our Savior’s Lutheran Church at Norse on Oct. 15, 1905. While he was still a child, his parents moved to Cranfills Gap and transferred their membership to St. Olaf Lutheran Church, where he was confirmed on Sept. 4, 1921.

After graduating from the Cranfills Gap public schools, Olaf attended Draughon’s Business College in Abilene. He and Sigrid Tomena Knudson were married on May 31, 1927 in Clifton by Rev. O.T. Boe, pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church. Their lifelong friends, William B. Bertelson and Johanna “Jennie” Christensen, were witnesses to the ceremony.

Tomena was born in the Mustang community on March 18, 1905. She was the daughter of George Andrew Knudson (1869-1957) and wife, Oline Hanson (1875-1909). When Tomena was baptized at St. Olaf Lutheran Church on May 21, 1905, she was named after her aunt and baptismal sponsor, Mrs. Ole O. Jermstad nee Asborg Tomena Knudson. She was confirmed in the same congregation on June 6, 1920.

When Tomena was four years old, her mother died and Tomena lived near Clifton for a short time with her uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. John Christenson. Tomena attended and completed the Mustang public school and Clifton Junior College. She was employed as a teacher in the Live Oak public school prior to her marriage.

After their marriage, Olaf and Tomena made their home in Cranfills Gap, were two children were born to them, Gene Derwood on July 22, 1929 and Jacqueline Charlotte on May 10, 1932. Olaf was self-employed first as a café operator and later as a grocer in Cranfills Gap.

In the Spring of 1943, the Johnson family moved to Waco and became members of First Lutheran Church. Olaf was first engaged in the small loan business in Waco, and later became a home builder and real estate developer. He built hundreds of homes in Waco and developed several subdivisions including Viking Hills and Sharondale. He was associated with William B. Bertelson and J.L. Broadway in many of his business activities.

Olaf died July 4, 1966 and Tomena died Sept. 25, 1973. They were buried in Waco Memorial Park.

Didn't See That Coming

2010-02-26T17:48:00.000-08:00

Today I was having lunch at Rudy's Barbecue in Northwest Austin up near the Williamson County line. You have to realize that Williamson County is pretty conservative. As a matter of fact, if Central Texas was a family, Travis County would be the long-haired brother who staggered in bleary-eyed in the early hours of Sunday morning to find his straight-laced brother Williamson County shining his shoes for church.

As I was refilling my glass of tea, I noticed a young woman who worked there squealing in delight. I remarked to her that she seemed very happy. She explained to me that she had been talking to one of her co-workers about religion. I was pretty sure that I knew what was coming next. I expected to hear that her friend had made a decision for the Lord. No, that wasn't it.

The reason this young lady was--I kid you not--squealing for delight was that her co-worker had brought her Hamantaschen. Fortunately, I am partially bi-lingual. I speak Christian and a bit of Jewish, so I caught the reference. Hamantaschen are three-cornered pastries served in connection with the Jewish holiday of Purim. Purim celebrates the victory of Jewish Queen Esther who prevented the evil Haman, vizier to the Persian emperor, from killing the Jews. The Hamantaschen represent Haman's three-cornered hat.

I had to smile because I really didn't see that coming. In a barbecue joint in the land of the Baptists, a young girl was publicly gleeful over Jewish pastries. Now there is nothing wrong with Baptists or people making a decision for the Lord. However, there is something priceless about being caught by surprise.

Appalling Spectacle of Victim Suing Victim

2010-02-24T19:46:00.000-08:00

Tragedies bring out the best in people. When an angry man crashed a plane into the offices of the Internal Revenue Service in Northwest Austin, many people responded heroically, such as the glass company employee who used his ladder to rescue people and the county fire departments who were first on the scene. However, tragedy can also bring out the worst in people, as evidenced by the lawsuit brought by Valerie Hunter against Sheryl Mann Stack, Case No. D-1-GN-10-000559 in the District Court of Travis County, Texas.

You would think that Valerie Hunter and Sheryl Stack would have a lot in common. Both lost their husbands on February 18, 2010. On that day, Andrew Joseph Stack, III burned down his own house and then crashed his plane into the offices of the Internal Revenue Service. His grievances were somewhere between borderline and ridiculous. Both women were directly affected by the misguided acts of Andrew Joseph Stack, III. However, in the bizarre world of insurance coverage and litigation, Sheryl Stack now finds herself being sued for failure to prevent an insane act.

According to the allegations of the Original Petition filed on February 22, 2010, some four days after the tragedy:

Defendant Stack was threatened enough by Joseph Stack that she took her daughter and stayed at a hotel the night before the plane crash. Defendant Stack owed a duty to exercise reasonable care to avoid a foreseeable risk of injury to others including the decedent. Defendant Stack breached that duty resulting in the death of Vernon Hunter. As a result, Plaintiffs are entitled to actual damages, exemplary damages, interest and court costs.

Let's summarize here. The lawsuit claims that just because a woman had enough sense to take her daughter away from a threatening situation but did not stop him from carrying out his ultimate plan, she is just as responsible as the crazed pilot.

This is insane on two levels. On a strictly legal level, the law of negligence is based on the existence of a duty and the foreseeability of harm. If you drive a car, you have a duty to exercise reasonable care not to crash into someone else. If you drive drunk, it is foreseeable that your judgment might be impaired to the point where you injured someone. Applying that standard to the present case, if you are fearful for the safety of yourself and your child, does that mean that you have a duty to prevent your husband from committing an act of terrorism against someeone you have never met? It seems a stretch. If you are afraid that your husband might hurt you or your child, should you be expected to know that he would take off in an airplane and attack a governmental office? Again, it seems a mighty stretch.

This is troubling on a moral level as well. Sheryl Stack is being sued for failure to prevent an insane act. Why? Insurance policies do not provide coverage for intentional, criminal acts. However, they often cover negligent acts. Thus, by accusing the widow of negligently failing to stop her husband, Valerie Hunter has a possibility of making an insurance company pay for her loss. Of course, to do that, she must accuse a fellow widow of culpability. Putting it bluntly, Valerie Hunter is seeking to blame Sheryl Stack so that she can get a payoff from an insurance company. That is just wrong.

The loss that Valerie Hunter suffered cannot be calculated. Her husband was a good man. He died a hero. However, heroes, or the families of heroes, shouldn't beat up on other victims. By seeking to profit from her husband's death, Valerie Hunter cheapens his sacrifice. She also seeks to punish a woman who did the right thing. Sheryl Stack got her daughter and herself out of harm's way. Sheryl Stack should be commended for recognizing a clear and present danger. However, she should not be punished for failing to anticipate an unthinkable act against someone she had never met. This lawsuit is disturbing in its cold pursuit of insurance company dollars despite the human cost. Two women who should be united in a common tragedy are now cast as adversaries. That is wrong.

Taylor Swift Continues Passive Trend, But This Is a Healthier Outlook

2010-02-23T08:37:00.000-08:00

Taylor Swift is America's sweetheart. The 19 year old country crossover singer has gathered a lot of attention from being upstaged by Kanye West to dating the Werewolf from Twilight (also named Taylor) to hosting Saturday Night Live. Her songs are really catchy and hard not to love. However, her first single, "Love Story," really bothered me. It was about a girl who passively waits to be rescued like a Disney princess, while the men in her life sort things out.

Her latest song, "You Belong With Me" also features a girl who passively pines away about her situation. However, this is a passivity born of wisdom rather than weakness. "You Belong With Me" is about a girl who wants to move up from being the best friend to the girlfriend. Unfortunately, her buddy has a flashy cheerleader girlfriend and she's not sure that she can compete. Taylor sings, "She wears short skirts/I wear tshirts/She's cheer captain/And I'm on the bleachers."

However, this is not merely a case of jealousy. The best friend has to sit back and watch as the other girl rips into her guy about everything from his sense of humor to his choice of music. So what's a girl to do? She could go confront the cheerleader and have a cat fight. She could tell her guy friend why this girl is poison. Or she could retire to her room and sing, "Why can't you see-e-e?/You belong with me-e-e."

However, I think the message of this song is markedly different from "Love Story." In this song, the girl dutifully plays the role of best friend, being there to support her guy even when he makes poor choices. Rather than force a confrontation and risk losing the friendship, she continues to hang out with the guy and be supportive. Being a friend is hard when you hope to be more. However, in this case, it is what the guy needs. So, in a passive sort of a way, Taylor's character is the one doing the saving instead of being saved this time around.

You Can't Hurt the Government Without Hurting Real People

2010-02-21T17:13:00.001-08:00

We had a real scare this week when an angry person crashed a plane into an IRS office in Northwest Austin. I was out of town when I heard about it. My wife works for the IRS, but it was not her office that was hit. As a result of heroics by first responders and volunteers, good training and a well-designed building, only two people died.

The perpetrator had a list of grievances against the IRS that went back 20 years. He was upset that he couldn't deduct his home as a church, that a change in the tax laws allowed him to be treated as an independent contractor and that he had to pay taxes and penalties on funds prematurely withdrawn from a retirement account. There was also something about his wife's undeclared income. He finally decided that "nothing changes unless there is a body count" according to his final statement.

While Andrew Joseph Stack III only managed to create a body count of two, it is important to remember his victim. Vernon Hunter was a 68 year old African American man. He served 20 years in the military and had worked at the IRS for 20 years. After his second retirement, he planned to work with children with learning disabilities. He was active in his church. He had three children, three step-children and seven grand-children. In short, Vernon Hunter was a good man. Joe Stack tried to strike a blow against the government. Instead, he killed a good man.

There has been angry rhetoric against the government for as long as I can remember. We have had the militia movement and tax protestors. More recently we have the Tea Party activists who refer to the "usurper" in the White House and rail about how we are being turned into an unconsitutional, totalitarian, socialist state. On the left we had protestors who brought Molotov cocktails to the Republican National Convention.

To those who are angry, I say this: Use your First Amendment freedoms to protest, organize and demonstrate. Rail against injustice. Speak out. However, when you cross the line into violence, be aware that you are hurting real people with real faces and real families. If the plane had struck a different IRS office at a different time of day, my wife could have been a victim. If doesn't do any good to rail against Andrew Joseph Stack, III because he is gone. I just hope that other angry souls will realize that you can't hurt the government without hurting real people, people like Vernon Hunter.

The Rancid Smell

2010-02-03T05:40:00.001-08:00

This is the time of year that strains my sanity. Valeska works nights at the IRS from February through April. That means that I get to leave work early to ferry kids to religious ed and math tutoring, fix dinner and help with homework.

Last night I was trying less than successfully to multitask, simultaneously helping Stephanie with her math, working on a brief and fixing dinner when I noticed a strange smell in the kitchen. Actually I had noticed it earlier as I was running out the door to take Kristen to math tutoring. It was a strange rancid smell. I sniffed around the kitchen and determined that it was not coming with the stack of dishes in the sink. I thought I identified the smell as coming from the grease drippings we had stored in a can, but the smell continued. Finally, I tracked it down to the steamer. Last week I had steamed some brocolli for dinner. I forgot to pour out the water from the steamer. After a few days the leftover brocolli water had taken on the consistency and smell of a fetid marsh. Who would have guessed that brocolli water could go rancid?