The Return of Big Brother?

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

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

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

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

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?

“Devo is Johnny’s ninth favorite band”

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

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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.