Dave's Window

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Michael Brown, Military Police, and Politics

When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

It only took a few hours for the shooting in Ferguson to become a political football, to those who tend to make everything political. After all, Michael Brown, a black man, was killed by Darren Wilson, a white cop. To some, cops are always right, and since he's a white, male cop, he must be Republican. The dead man was black, so obviously he was in the wrong, and of course, a Democrat.

To others, all cops tend to distrust black people. Michael Brown was black, minding his own business, not hurting anyone, an easy target. Clearly the opportunity officer Wilson had been waiting for.

Apparently the facts of the case are clear. Stop the investigation and man the torpedoes!

America's most disgusting new trend is on display here, the politicization of everything. The root of this metaphorical weed is the media. Having taken a scorched earth approach to their own industry, they are now looking for a way - any way - to gain back listeners and viewers. They utilize a cheap method that requires no effort at all: shouting and finger pointing. If you can pit people against each other, all that's left is to fan the flames and feign disgust with the results. You know who you are. You are to blame.

A local television station broadcast video of officer Wilson's home. Whoever made that decision should be fired immediately. The broadcast media has a responsibility to the public, and they've completely forgotten that. The public owns the channel on which they broadcast, and upholding community standards trumps the few extra dollars they may earn for their stockholders.

This case really breaks down into two questions: Was the death of Michael Brown necessary? And, was the military-like reaction of the police reasonable and necessary? In simple terms, there is nothing political about these questions. They are questions we should all be asking, whether Democrat or Republican, NPR or commercial radio consumer, Fox or MSNBC viewer.

This is not about the President, and not about a political party. This is about a dead man and a police officer, so we can put away the political bullshit. We can put away predetermined notions about average black people, or average police officers.

Are there deeper questions that eventually need to be asked? Of course. Will there be political implications? Yep. As a society, we should always question authority. We should always self-analyze. When the dust settles, lessons should always be learned. Do we have the facts of this case yet? No. Has the dust settled? It has not.

In the end, police officers are charged with one duty: protecting citizens. That includes Michael Brown, a citizen, and those around Mr. Brown. Decisions are sometimes made in a split second. Those decisions can sometimes be wrong. Nobody is perfect. Officer Wilson and Mr. Brown are both human.

Was Michael Brown's death avoidable? It's not a political question, it's a question about a life. Nothing else matters here. Life is the only real thing of value that we own. The rest is window dressing.

So for everyone's sake, stop the name calling, stop the finger pointing, stop the politics. Let's figure out what happened.

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Interesting background/perspective on the militarization of the police.

A perspective about black neighborhoods.

Background on the Michael Brown case.

Friday, July 25, 2014

The state of our political conversation

I can't help but think this guy knows what he's protecting and/or excluding in his position. He's being paid by the very entities who help to perpetuate the world's current economic state. I'm a bit disappointed that Mr. Moyers didn't ask about proposals beyond earned income tax credits. He mentioned several times that he had multiple ideas, I would have liked to hear them. But let's not forget that some companies are paying a living wage and still producing record profits, which flies in the face of his position that employers like Wal Mart can't make a profit and pay a living wage. That is preposterous and has been debunked myriad times.

In a perfect world, a reasonable mind understands that the government is us, and government regulation simply reflects a marketplace The People choose. Government is necessary because the desire of the desperately poor to buy the cheapest product (many times to their own demise, a la Wal Mart and other self-absorbed criminals) will trump doing the right thing almost every time.

Notice I said "in a perfect world", because in its current state, the government has become an inefficient, corrupt entity, beholden to those who fund re-election campaigns, and who can afford to grease palms in return for face time. It's evident in the lack of response to the financial meltdown of 2008. Reform has been lukewarm. The rules have changed some, but not enough to prevent greed from toppling the market again and again. Bailouts were offered with no strings attached. Common sense has taken its leave in the Capital, and the everyman is too busy worrying about his next meal to pay attention or understand.

So that is where we are. The right hates government because it traditionally places limits on rampant greed in favor of the good of The Many. The left hates government because it is failing in those duties right now, and to expect representatives to vote themselves less power, money, or influence, is like asking Albert Pujols to get base hits instead of home runs. Home runs are fun and fire up the fans, but base hits win the game.

We're fucked.

Sunday, June 01, 2014

Disgrace.

Monday, May 19, 2014

The value of a life

"May 20th marks the one-year anniversary of the Moore, OK tornado, which killed 7 children in a school building with no storm shelter. But that's OK, we can't afford storm shelters because we insist on paying the lowest tax rate among industrialized nations, and billionaires get away with paying 15% on most of their income (cap gains). Besides, those parents can just have replacement children." - Today's America

Friday, April 18, 2014

How they blew how I met your mother

I've heard a veritable cornucopia of reasons viewers were offended by the series finale of How I Met Your Mother. The mother didn't get enough screen time to get to know her. The last season drug out too long. If you were a regular viewer, you have an opinion. Some thought it was perfect. I did not.

But I was offended by something entirely different that most people overlooked. Throughout the series, the story was narrated by Bob Saget, because they felt he had a voice that would sound a lot like Ted-of-the-future. Good call, no problem, it makes perfect sense. Most voices change as they age, and there's no way to get around that.

So when the final scene arrived, and it was Ted talking directly to his kids in the same room, it wasn't Bob Saget's voice, it was Josh Radnor's. WTH?

Bullshit! I mean, c'mon. The entire life of the show, Ted has been this slightly huskier, older-sounding guy, telling his kids the story of meeting their mother. Now, at the end, they couldn't think of a way to bring it all together? This is nine years of my life here. I needed something different. Dub the voice. Wear a mask. Something.

I'm not happy. As a voice over guy, I'm just pissed, and there's nothing you can say to make it better. Oh, what's that? Modern Family is coming on soon? Never mind, later gators.

Monday, April 14, 2014

Letterman, Colbert, and Col-BEAR

The Letterman era will soon come to a close, and nobody loved that period of late night brilliance
as much as me.

In the 1980's, I recorded Letterman's show every night, then dubbed the sweetest material onto a 'best of' tape I would later use, as needed, for inspiration. There was nobody like Letterman. He was fresh, edgy, and irreverent. People loved him, people hated him, and most didn't understand that those emotions are pretty much the same. Letterman elicited passion from his audience.

For those of us who love the Letterman of the 80's and 90's, the Late Show with David Letterman is kind of sad to watch today. After 32 years, and at age 67, I'm sure Dave is tapped for ideas and getting tired, but most of his interviews show it. He has had some amazing moments, but you don't see them as often today. He's doing the right thing. Late night television is transitioning to a fresh, young crop of entertainers, and Dave isn't motivated to compete with "the Jimmies", Seth and Conan.

But what a run. I'm sure Dave never thought he'd be as legendary as Johnny Carson, but he is. The Letterman era managed to move the goal posts. It will be difficult to beat, but that's the good part, nobody has to. Like Johnny Carson, nobody will fill the shoes of Letterman. It simply cannot be done.

Stephen Colbert will move into Mr. Letterman's Ed Sullivan Theater (I assume), and will bring a new dynamic to the show. It would be tempting to maintain his right-wing character persona, since his audience has become comfortable with it, but we must remember who Colbert really is. He's not the Bill O'Reilly wanna-be he portrays on The Colbert Report. (He refers to O'Reilly as "Papa Bear".) It's a shtick, a caricature of itself. Colbert is a real guy, a fantastic talent, an incredibly creative comedian, and a very good interviewer. His show will need to follow a more traditional late-night formula, and to me, that's precisely why it doesn't have to end.

As Carson did with Carnac, and as Jimmy Fallon does with thank you notes, Colbert can keep his persona alive. On Late Show with Stephen Colbert, he can do The Colbert Report as its own segment. His monologue, interviews, other bits and performances can follow the more formulaic talk show modus operandi. But the Colbert Report needn't be lost. It can remain as funny and relevant as ever within its new format.

See? No need to fret. Colbert can still be Col-BEAR and do the re-PORE. You're welcome. Now come in from the ledge.

Sunday, March 16, 2014

The Waffle Matrix?

Let me preface this by saying I've never made waffles using Krusteaz. By virtue of the name, I trusted that it would be, you know, eaz-y. In hindsight, my mistake may have been changing the recipe. Instead of 'just adding water', I added milk. I can only assume that was the cause of the explosion.

As I poured the milky batter into the waffle iron, I was careful to fill all of the gaps. You know, the gaps that, when unfilled, cause the final product to be misshapen instead of square. I once ended up with a waffle shaped like Hitler, but that's a story for another time.

As I poured, I noticed that the batter was rising quickly, so I hastened my efforts and snapped the iron closed. Immediately, the batter began oozing out of the sides, which wasn't troubling at all, considering it happens every time I make waffles. The sheer volume of batter-ooze was my only hint that something could be awry. Unshaken and unsuspecting, I returned my attention to the bacon, which was nearing the perfect crispiness. It's a crying shame to allow bacon to overcook.

About 2 minutes later, when 'it' happened, the sound was unique, and it was more surprising than loud. Nobody was looking directly at the waffle iron when it went off. Following the 'boom', we heard the sound of a ricocheting plastic latch-turned-projectile, and an odd sounding thud. It all happened so quickly, none of the witnesses - my wife, daughter, son, Cooper the Dog and me - were able to tell which direction things were flying. As we turned to face the waffle iron, this is what we saw:

The latch, under immense pressure, had given way, and the appliance had blown open. One of the waffles had been violently expelled (the 'thud'), and the lid was hyper-extended. The remaining waffles were smoking like Kirsty Alley's Mini Cooper.

But here's the troubling part. At the time of this writing, our hunt for the missing waffle remains fruitless.

The breakfast pastry is, for lack of a better word, gone. It's not under the table, on the counter, above the cabinets, or on top of the fridge. It's not on the floor. It's not in anything. It's not stuck to the wall somewhere. For all intents and purposes, it has completely disappeared.

Perhaps the waffle is now with the socks. Maybe it shot through a time vortex and now exists sometime in the future. I suppose it could have burst into individual molecules, which are now floating about the house, propelled by ceiling fans. Or, maybe it is now feeding the passengers on flight MH370, the Malaysian Airlines jet that mysteriously disappeared into thin air recently.

Other things we can't find include the blown latch, and anything on the Internet that says milk is combustible, except this one article.

The good news is, we can toss the waffle iron, instead of going through the trouble of washing it. So there's that. Maybe the cleaning lady will find the waffle when she comes Tuesday. Until then, the story is that, on this date, in this house, a perfectly aimed breakfast appliance exploded, at the same moment a waffle-sized slit formed in the fabric of the universe.

I hope whoever is on the other side has syrup.

Sunday, January 05, 2014

Anatomy of a St. Louis snowstorm

A blow-by-blow account, as the snow piles up.

1 inch - TV stations broadcasting at 50 locations. File video of tires spinning. Reporters sporting Alaska-style parkas. Morris opens a bottle of scotch, while his neighbor considers putting a shirt on.

2 inches – Ada posts picture of stocked beer fridge, opens bottle of Drambuie, wishing he was a real scotch drinker.

3 inches – Morris opens second bottle of scotch. Dr. Mike considers calling Smuda to shovel his driveway.

4 inches – Fox 2's Dave Murray has mini stroke, slurs words like ‘apocalyptic’ and ‘polar vortex’.

5 inches – Morris wishes he had the hot tub heater fixed. Wishes he was a real Drambuie drinker.

6 inches – STL’s Channel 4 reports “KMOV has learned that ice chemicals are only effective above a certain temperature.” (Yes, they actually said that. Duh?) Channel 5 news director pissed that they got scooped again.

7 inches – Morris considers leaving couch to watch Emily shovel the driveway. Opens third bottle of scotch instead.

8 inches – Morris neighbor actually puts his shirt on, continues mowing grass. TV stations’ snow bunnies are now out in full force in tight ski suits, recommending military rations.

9 inches – White guys snicker and do that cocky sniff. Radio stations finally reporting snow is in the forecast. Dave Murray requires defibrillator but continues broadcasting.

10 inches – Is it time to buy another Hummer? Yes.

11 inches – Ada realizes his hot tub is also out of commission, does closest thing, farting in lukewarm bubble bath.

12 inches – Black guys snicker and do that cocky sniff. TV stations start fading. Is it snow on the satellite dish, or is Morris passing out?

13 inches – Dave Murray dies, is reanimated via a weird stew of stem cells and Irish cream, continues reporting that O’Fallon MO has 14 inches. Morris snickers and does that cocky sniff.

14+ - Emily and Mike make snow angels in swimwear. Now a frozen ball, Earth slips out of orbit and begins drifting aimlessly through the cosmos. Dave Murray still doesn’t know how much snow we’ll get Wednesday night.

Monday, December 30, 2013

A final, grand tour

A touching story. It was penned by author Kent Nerburn, in his 1999 book Make Me An Instrument Of Your Peace, and it really happened.

I arrived at the address and honked the horn. After waiting a few minutes I honked again. Since this was going to be my last ride of my shift I thought about just driving away, but instead I put the car in park and walked up to the door and knocked.. 'Just a minute', answered a frail, elderly voice. I could hear something being dragged across the floor.

After a long pause, the door opened. A small woman in her 90's stood before me. She was wearing a print dress and a pillbox hat with a veil pinned on it, like somebody out of a 1940's movie.

By her side was a small nylon suitcase. The apartment looked as if no one had lived in it for years. All the furniture was covered with sheets.

There were no clocks on the walls, no knickknacks or utensils on the counters. In the corner was a cardboard
box filled with photos and glassware.

'Would you carry my bag out to the car?' she said. I took the suitcase to the cab, then returned to assist the woman.

She took my arm and we walked slowly toward the curb.

She kept thanking me for my kindness. 'It's nothing', I told her.. 'I just try to treat my passengers the way I would want my mother to be treated.'

'Oh, you're such a good boy, she said. When we got in the cab, she gave me an address and then asked, 'Could you drive
through downtown?'

'It's not the shortest way,' I answered quickly..

'Oh, I don't mind,' she said. 'I'm in no hurry. I'm on my way to a hospice.

I looked in the rear-view mirror. Her eyes were glistening. 'I don't have any family left,' she continued in a soft voice..'The doctor says I don't have very long.' I quietly reached over and shut off the meter.

'What route would you like me to take?' I asked.

For the next two hours, we drove through the city. She showed me the building where she had once worked as an elevator operator.

We drove through the neighborhood where she and her husband had lived when they were newlyweds She had me pull up in front of a furniture warehouse that had once been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a girl.

Sometimes she'd ask me to slow in front of a particular building or corner and would sit staring into the darkness, saying nothing.

As the first hint of sun was creasing the horizon, she suddenly said, 'I'm tired. Let's go now'.
We drove in silence to the address she had given me. It was a low building, like a small convalescent home, with a driveway that passed under a portico.

Two orderlies came out to the cab as soon as we pulled up. They were solicitous and intent, watching her every move.
They must have been expecting her.

I opened the trunk and took the small suitcase to the door. The woman was already seated in a wheelchair.

'How much do I owe you?' She asked, reaching into her purse.

'Nothing,' I said

'You have to make a living,' she answered.

'There are other passengers,' I responded.

Almost without thinking, I bent and gave her a hug. She held onto me tightly.

'You gave an old woman a little moment of joy,' she said. 'Thank you.'

I squeezed her hand, and then walked into the dim morning light.. Behind me, a door shut. It was the sound of the closing of a life..

I didn't pick up any more passengers that shift. I drove aimlessly lost in thought. For the rest of that day, I could hardly talk. What if that woman had gotten an angry driver, or one who was impatient to end his shift? What if I had refused to take the run, or had honked once, then driven away?

On a quick review, I don't think that I have done anything more important in my life.

We're conditioned to think that our lives revolve around great moments.

But great moments often catch us unaware-beautifully wrapped in what others may consider a small one.

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Carl

I'm not sure how I missed his birthday this year, but November 9 came and went unnoticed, until tonight.

As the preeminent scientist, astronomer and philosopher of our time, Carl Sagan has written many thought provoking pieces, none more so than this, The Pale Blue Dot. It was his idea to turn the Voyager cameras around one last time and capture a parting glimpse of her home, Earth. This brilliantly produced video includes the piece he wrote, and the photo.

Happy birthday Carl.

Video produced by The Thinking Atheist.

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Economic Disparity

Since the 1980's and even before, if you were to ask a presidential candidate what the campaign's primary issue was, they'd tell you that far above any social issue, any security issue, (even post 9/11) the economy has been the biggest concern for Americans. Economy means inflation, income, housing, international trade, Wall Street and more, so it's a very complex issue.

So let's examine the economy. Today, more than at any time in American history, the stock market is vibrant. Breaking new records almost daily, the DJIA closed last week above 16,000 for the first time in history. As I'm writing this, it's standing at almost 16,100.

Yet today, unemployment is above 7 percent overall, and far higher in key demographics. Average income in the US is down precipitously since before 2007's Great Recession. Historically high numbers of Americans are on some sort of government assistance. Student loan defaults are at historic highs. And as a country, our debt continues to increase, as we pour trillions into programs that have no chance or intention of changing the economic trajectory of the average American.

Today's presidential candidate might say their primary campaign issue would be economic inequality. Today, the share of income flowing to the top 1 percent is over 20 percent - the highest level since right before the Great Depression. Since 1993, the top 1 percent has benefitted from over two thirds of US economic growth, per family, real income. Since the 'recovery' of the 2007 Great Recession, 95 percent of the total increase in income went to the top 1 percent. Staggering.

In terms of wealth, the top 5 percent of Americans now control 72 percent of the wealth. The other 95 percent control only 28.

So how can Wall Street be so vibrant, while Main Street is barely getting by? The truth behind the numbers is telling. The current market cap of the stock market is bigger than the Gross National Product of the US. That doesn't happen often - only three times in history, two of which were right before the crash of the economy in 2007. All the while, the Fed is providing economic stimulus to the tune of billions per month to help prop it all up.

Let me provide some insight behind the sharp contrast between Wall Street and Main Street.

The first reason market indices no longer reflect conditions on the ground is, they are based on productivity gains, not employment. Corporations are investing in technology instead of workers. The tax code is fertile with tax deductions for equipment and technology, not so much for investment in employees. Higher productivity + lower payroll = higher profits.

Another reason - workers have no bargaining power when unemployment is high. Wages stay low because those who are employed feel fortunate to have a job. While governmental support systems, such as tax breaks for hiring the unemployed, may have helped in a different place and time, government is operating under very austere conditions as we chip away at deficit spending and try to at least reduce the rate of growth of the National Debt. The result of a powerless work force is lower wages for workers and higher short-term profits for corporations.

American corporations are beholden first to stockholders, so they go searching globally for cheap workers. That usually means moving much of their manufacturing and production off-shore. That results in lower taxes, and again, less investment in employees. Wall Street looks positively on all of this.

I mentioned the Fed. The easy money they provide plays a huge role, pushing investors toward Wall Street, because bond yields are at historic lows. Stocks, while riskier, produce far higher returns.

One final reason that doesn't get much play, but is a concern of mine: The methodology of the stock market. At one time, investors looked for companies they felt were 'doing it right'. They invested in ideologies and strategies. Today, much or most of the trading on Wall Street is done by computer algorithms, and a share of stock might be bought and sold within 1/10th of one second, for a profit of less than a penny. That's not much, but do it a billion times a day, and the results are staggering. More important than corporate ideologies and philosophies in today's stock market, is the speed of your Internet connection.

The result: Wall Street is healthy, Main Street is not.

Adding insult to working-class injury, sequestration has eliminated or reduced the DOE's Title 1 Program, Head Start, and WIC, which provides nutritional education and assistance. Rent subsidies are disappearing. Cuts to the Department of Agriculture have eliminated or reduced food stamp benefits for many who need them. Those who are suffering as a result of the productivity gains of corporations, the unemployed, are finding their long-term benefits are disappearing because of government sequestration.

Never before have governmental policy, and the need to feed the beast that is Wall Street, so inopportunely coincided to so radically help America's most fortunate, and hurt the least among us.

The icing on the cake is, nothing will likely be done about it. Lax campaign finance laws mean those with the most money will get the most attention. One individual can, through various means, contribute an unlimited amount of money to a Congressperson. The Supreme Court says corporations are people, and money is free speech, a constitutional guarantee. As bargaining power of employees is slowly whittled away, and the power of unions is reduced or removed, the rich hold not only the trump card, but virtually all of the cards.

Gerrymandering, and an apathetic (or worse, blindly partisan) electorate, ensure that those in power will remain, and little will change in the near future.

I'm not saying nothing will ever change. History is a great tool, and easily reveals what happens to top-heavy economies. Pyramids crumble when turned on their heads. But our continued blindness to signs is discouraging. Capitalism, in its orderly and regulated form, is an absolutely amazing system. Capitalism unbridled and unregulated, is no better than Marxism or Communism, and is as dangerous a scourge as exists anywhere.

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Spare me the tired slogans or accusations of class envy, I've lived through extremes, both high and low. I'm a vibrant supporter of Capitalism. I'm stating facts, feel free to check them. We live in interesting times.

Thursday, November 07, 2013

Vive la Francis

I've come to be agnostic the hard way - via the life of a born-again Christian.

In 1977 we lived in the basement of the subject of an early crush, Cindy Lewis. One day, she introduced me to a bus pastor named Louis O'Neal, who attended Waldo Avenue Baptist Church in Independence, MO.

Long story short, I became a rabid Christian, attending church on Wednesday nights, Saturdays (for pastor
training and 'recruitment'), and of course Sunday mornings and evenings. Mr. O'Neal took me, a poor 13-year-old urchin kid, under his wing. He and his wife were amazing, and were like family to me. People like Lou don't exist anymore.

At any rate, after witnessing the financial vehicle that is an organized church, and watching them spend a fortune on a building, the pastor, and the property, I realized that priorities were all wrong. And being the science-based individual I am, I knew religion wasn't for me.

So as I watch a man like Pope Francis lead by example, in a way no person in any church has in a very long time, I am at least heartened. It won't change my mind about the existence of a 'God', or that I perceive as wholly antithetical the practices of most church entities as they relate to Christian teachings. But, as a Humanist, I'm glad to see a man who displays the best traits of the human race from perhaps the loftiest perch on the planet.

Monday, October 28, 2013

Chin up, Mr. Wong

Lesson for Kolten Wong: The way the game ends is not the way the game is lost.

The St. Louis Cardinals lost World Series Game 4 last night in a most deflating fashion. In the bottom of the 9th. Two outs. Tying run at the plate, and a man on first - a rookie named Kolten Wong, who was pinch running for the injured but bat-happy Allen Craig.

What happened next wouldn't have been predicted by even the most ardent of baseball aficionados. Wong was picked off leaning. Boston's crafty closer, Koji Uehara, has a move to first you wouldn't believe, and the game was over.

At first, Cardinals fans were aghast. Then confused. Then angry. Then numb. But perspective is everything, isn't it?

(via stltoday.com)

Kolten Wong, however you may feel right now, your teammates lost the game way before you came in. They lost it when they left men on base against a burned out pitcher making his last start.

Your teammate Randy Choate might have made short work of Mr. Gomes. Shoot, the team is paying him millions. Instead, your manager brought in Seth Maness, a double play-producing pitcher, when you didn’t need a double play. You needed one lights-out strikeout. That’s Choate, not Maness.

Matt Holliday stranded two runs. Jon Jay and David Freese? Don’t get me started.

The game was in the bottom of the 9^th with the tying run at the plate, the birds' biggest bat, Carlos Beltran. Kolten, as a pinch runner, maybe you misunderstood. The Cards didn’t need a stolen base. They needed a body because Craig was hurt. They needed two runs. You got picked off. Hard lesson, no doubt. I’m glad you felt bad about it. It was a rookie mistake.

But you are a rookie. And remember, this loss was a team effort, (or lack thereof) and it was lost far earlier than the 9^th. This was the first World Series game in history to end with a first base pick-off. The night before was the first World Series game in history to end with an obstruction call. Boston didn’t lose that game in the 9^th, either. They lost it earlier when they failed to advance their runners.

Mr. Wong, history will remember you, like it or not. Own it. One day we will all laugh at the memory. But whatever the social media meme-of-the-day is about the hated St. Louis Cardinals and their haughty fans, remember this. Cardinals fans are the best fans in baseball, and the most forgiving, because next time you hit the field, you’ll get a standing ovation.

That wouldn’t happen in Boston, trust me.

Wednesday, October 02, 2013

On health care

"People who feel safer with a gun than with guaranteed medical insurance don't yet have a fully adult concept of scary. Most of the scariest things that are liable to try to get you, as an adult, you can't shoot 'em. At all."

-- William Gibson

Thursday, September 26, 2013

The blink of an eye

Sir Richard Dawkins is my kind of thinker. Not that I am capable of carrying on more than a glancing, half-assed conversation with such a person, but I know enough to understand that he is hyper-aware.

Deep thinkers always conjure deep thoughts in my mind. One of the oldest philosophical questions we've asked as a species is, are we alone?

The easy answer is, of course not, I don't know of a scientist of any repute who believes we are. Then why do we feel so alone? Maybe the answer lies in a theory or concept we haven't yet considered. And it's not a comfortable one, so maybe you should sit down.

I share Dawkins' theory about the evolution of intelligence. It goes something like this: Given the limitless nature of time, the vastness of this (and perhaps more than just this one) universe, and the relative short scale upon which evolution works, there have been ample opportunities throughout history for intelligent beings to evolve to a point where they would be capable of tackling the challenges of time travel, or distance travel, or simply devising a method of communication that even the youngest fledgling civilizations (such as us) could perceive.

After all, our own high technology era is hardly more than a century old, yet already we know that in the universe, particles can be 'connected' over limitless distances. In fact, we are learning things that may render distance irrelevant to exploration. (Distance and time only really matter to us as a point of reference - but that's a subject for another discussion.) Given more time, say thousands or millions of years, intelligent, self-aware beings would surely find ways to communicate, and would likely do so in a way that we, even with our comparatively rudimentary technology, could see, hear, or sense.

So where are they? Why haven't we heard from these neighbors? Considering the known age of the universe, they've presumably had billions of years, and in that time, tens of trillions of opportunities to appear and develop. What's the deal?

Perhaps, Dawkins says, the reason we haven't heard from another intelligent civilization in the universe is that there is a very limited time that a being can be self-aware, and possess intelligence, before it inevitably extinguishes itself. Either by accident, or on purpose. We have only been aware of our surroundings, our own intelligence, and had the ability to really do something with it, for the blink of an eye. Of the approximately 4.6 billion years the earth has existed, only for the last fraction of a fraction of a fraction of that time have we even known what an 'earth' really is. Yet already, we possess the technology to eliminate ourselves from existence.

Think of it. It has been predicted by British Astronomer Royal Sir Martin Rees that humans have only a 50/50 chance of surviving the 21st century. Common sense dictates that if we are capable of doing something, given time, we will eventually do it.

We will inevitably kill ourselves.

Perhaps that is part of the nature of being self-aware. Intelligence may be a fleeting and deadly thing. And perhaps that is a universal truth.

Maybe that's why our 'neighbors' haven't dropped by with cookies.

Monday, September 23, 2013

"My gun right is more important than your dead."

Aaron Weiss, thank you for your service.

In the same breath, I mourn how common sense has left the building. The ability of a growing segment to see beyond rigid black and white seems to be gone. We apparently no longer understand how "my (gun) right is more important than your dead" is apples/oranges because we don't exist to own guns. We exist to survive. All we really have is our skin, bones, organs and brain, and when they no longer function, we’re finished. A gun is just a lifeless piece of metal, no more, no less.

I simply can't relate to those who prioritize an inanimate object over a life.  Any society that fosters such priorities will soon be represented by an epitaph. I can't help but think that if Jesus were alive today, he'd blow a gasket.  Guns just weren't his thing.

If the first minute or so of this speech weren't enough to lose me, that moment came when he compared the imprisonment of an entire race of Americans to a state law that can be changed at the ballot box.  Such a jagged break from reality is hard to fathom.

Mr. Weiss' dramatic suggestion that legislators be forced to enter a crime scene before law enforcement officers leads me to believe he isn't even really a cop. Legislators don’t enforce laws. Further, police don’t have the luxury of enforcing only the laws they agree with.

Aaron Weiss is being paraded as a hero for 'telling it like it is.'  I believe he's probably more like a decent guy who is wildly misled. The Constitution protects our right to bear arms, but common sense dictates that we qualify that protection the same way we qualify many other rights. I believe our Forefathers had no clue what kind of firearms we would eventually invent.

If someone said “my right to freedom from religion in schools and government buildings is more important than your dead family”, I suspect that those who gobble up this gun rights candy would bring out the pitchforks. But remember, both rights are enumerated in the Bill of Rights.

Lately it seems my blog has become a repository for essays about our lack of social conscience and the ignorance of many who are charged with the responsibility of voting. Count Mr. Weiss as another example. Meanwhile, it would serve all Americans to remember that there is a word that comes before “liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”.

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As I was writing this, my mother-in-law was staring down the business end of a shotgun in her own neighborhood, at the hands of a psycho who lost his mind over a group of pranking kids. When she tried to escape, he shot. He's now in jail and she's trying to regain her sanity and get the damage to her car fixed. She's very lucky his aim was off.

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Dr. Sagan would be proud.

Saturday, August 31, 2013

"God is Good"

As I paged through social media today, I came across a post with the accompanying photo, and the caption "God is good". Of course such a statement could be debated to a stalemate for any number of reasons. According to the Bible, God has quite a temper. He killed every human on earth, save a few family members of Noah. Yet, supposedly he created us, and is somehow responsible for every good thing that happens in our lives. And apparently he answers prayers. Sometimes.

Forget good or bad. I'd rather debate such an existence at all.

Millions are starving and dying every year, in rich and poor countries. That fact alone flies in the face of such an existence, to say nothing of disease. To assign credit for the before/after difference in the lives of the humans in the photo, one would also need to ascribe blame for the starvation of tens of millions, both in the past and today.

It's all hard to imagine for those of us who depend on evidence for guidance.

On the other hand, it requires no imagination at all to believe that our species has evolved a very unique and special feature - a conscience. We are social. Communal. We care about each other in a way few other species have shown to be capable of. We even live in cities, just to make it easier to help each other and to be helped. We invent and create for the many, not the few.

Today, we are making great strides toward feeding the hungry. Transporting food is becoming cheaper and easier. Advances in agriculture have given us the ability to grow more food on the same acreage.

Further, more people are exposed to the atrocities of starvation and disease today than ever before, via the prolific Internet. Today, those who care enough to act are exposed regularly to the information they need to motivate them. And they act.

God isn't good. Humans are.

What a great thing. Finally, people are starting to realize that the message "let go and let God" is an excuse to do nothing. "Praise God" robs credit from those who are due. Our advancement has nothing to do with a God. It has everything to do with the proliferation of Humanism. It's all on us.

Friday, August 16, 2013

Meet... Sally.

A video I wrote, voiced and coordinated for TMS Audio Productions, with the help of Whiteboard Animators at WizMotions. It came out well.

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Cervidae overkill

Country singer Jason Aldean.

That must be one smart, wily deer. Heck, my daughter got one with the bumper of her car, and she hadn't been driving longer than a week. And she was wearing shorts and a tee-shirt.

Truth be known, I don't think he was hunting the four-legged kind, considering the comments he got when he posted this on Facebook: