Tuesday, February 23, 2016

AT THE Y

 
Made it to the YMCA for the SECOND day in a row. Used "the bike that goes nowhere" to AGAIN pedal for 5 min. at avg. speed 10 MPH. Barely enough to power the display. :-)
 
Used the pool for the first time. Made the normal uncoordinated thrashing moves and distressing sounds I make whenever I move. The lifeguard was sufficiently alarmed that he aimed the harpoon gun at me.
 
"What's the matter," I said, "Haven't you ever seen a 300+ lb, completely sedentary, 62 year-old man with heart issues who hasn't gotten his bathing suit wet in a decade or two?"
 
Don't worry. He'll get used to it.

Monday, February 22, 2016

THE STRONGMAN TEMPTATION


It is unseemly if not downright impious (in Lent) for me to take such joy in George Will's explosion of bitterness and anger at the fruit of the Republican Party's decades long project to win elections in the short term by crafting a base that has so little interest in facts or history that they can be so successfully taken by an evil clown with the complicity of a corporate media that has devolved from the news business to the entertainment business and, apparently, now the prostitution business.

One of my arch adversaries (and friends), Adam Graham, said - quite prophetically in my opinion -- something to the effect that politicians and the media are offering us bread and circuses, with Sanders promising the bread and Trump providing the circus.

The partisan liberal in me enjoys this very much (TOO much, to be honest), but the Christian and American part of me is joining with Will and rooting for Trump's downfall.

Even - and maybe especially - though the Republicans created this penultimate apocalypse for themselves and the nation (will talk about Democratic complicity another time), the Republican Party is - ideologically - too big to fail. :-)

And, given the choice between a revival of the coalition of social conservatism, small government, and commercial interests in the Republican Party and Trumism: I may never again vote Republican again but I prefer the devil I know (and occassionally even admire in a John McCain, a Lindsay Graham, a Charlie Dent, a Peter King, and the like) than the devil's pay toy to be the possessor of the nuclear football.

For, in my opinion, it is a better outcome for the gospel of Jesus Christ as well as the well-being of American democracy and a world that is watching us closely to have a functional party in opposition to the Democrats and have that party not be, in essence, a NEW party created by Trump characterized by an ultra-nationalism, an irresponsible populism, and a personality cult that promises to undo the dictum that America is a rule of law, not men.

Tagging another conservative friend, David Oatney, in the hope he'll not be too displeased.

#DumpTrumpInTheTrumpster

Donald Trump relishes wrecking the GOP (Washington Post)

Saturday, February 13, 2016

"I'M A NURSE."

I have a friend, a retired Lehigh professor, who is 99.9 years old. :-) I drove him to a lunch he attends on Friday with plans to run errands with him a variety of places today. With the dangerously cold weather predicted, I determined it was better to take him following the lunch.
I didn't want him to miss his hundredth birthday on MY watch. :-)
The net result was a six and a half hour "event" in very cold (but not yet deadly cold) weather.
He normally can do most of the work of moving himself from his wheelchair to the passenger seat of my car or vice versa but, by our last stop, he was too weak to stand up high enough to swing his butt into the car and he was really starting to feel the cold.
He prefers making the transfer with as little help from me as necessary but, as the situation was deteriorating, I was prepared to inexpertly use what little brute force I have to expedite the move. A young man (he looked either Asian or Filipino) saw the situation and said, "Can I help?"
Not sure that the professor would want the help of a stranger, I nonetheless gratefully accepted the offer.
As the professor stood up about half as far as he needed to get, the young man used one hand to support the armpit and firmly grabbed back of the professor's pants and used the "seat" that resulting to hoist him up far enough to swing into the vehicle.
I thanked him profusely (and the professor, who leans very skeptical, surprised me with a "God bless you," such was his apparent relief at getting out of the cold) and said, "You've done this before, haven't you?"
He smiled and said, "I'm a nurse."
It says in the New Testament that one should practice hospitality with strangers because in so doing, some have - unknown to them - "entertained angels."
I think this guy was one of them.

Tuesday, February 09, 2016

DEATH


For those wishing to rid the world of poverty, war, famine... and religion, eliminate "death" as a problem. The fear of biological death and it's threat to human meaning, value, and purpose (personified as "Death" in the Bible) and our human, dysfunctional, response to Death ("Sin" in the New Testament) is the root of all religion and is part and parcel of the human condition whether religious or secular.

See Why contemplating death changes how you think (BBC)

Monday, February 01, 2016

WHY I'M DECIDING FOR HILLARY CLINTON IN IOWA


After a lively debate on my wall that was informative in a number of ways, I have decided – at least as of today – that Hillary Clinton should be the next president.

I have nothing bad to say about Bernie Sanders. He is an admirable human being and an admirable and important advocate in the Senate for the marginalized, and he is running an admirable, if not downright heroic, campaign..

And, should he wrest the nomination from Hillary, I will do everything I can do (which isn't much) to see that he becomes our next president.

But Hillary is my first choice.

I have looked at the world wide shenanigans going on here and abroad through the lens of my Christian faith. (Not, necessarily THE Christian faith, just my own.  )

What do ISIL, Shia-Sunni enmity, global climate change, disruptive technological advance, militiamen, Tea Party, Black Lives Matter, Occupy Walls Street, Anonymous, and – for that matter – the Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump candidacies - say about our current situation?

My theo-political analysis of all this is theologically grounded in the prophets of the Old Testament, Gospel of Mark and the core writings of the Apostle Paul. As far as my political perspective, I have found Thomas Friedman (despite his misguided support for the Iraq invasion) and David Brooks (with Edmund Burke peering over his shoulder  ) the most useful analysis.

Our problem is – and always has been – alienation.

First and foremost, alienation from God in Christ.

That's a whole 'nuther discussion but, as it relates to the topic at hand, that can be practically considered as alienation from others, alienation from nature, and alienation from ourselves. (Anyone other than me feel, at least occasionally, the burden of tolerating themselves? :-) )

My belief, informed by Thomas Friedman, is that our technology allows people to be super-empowered. An impoverished community in a third world nation, with access to the internet and sufficient basic infrastructure, can have access to education or can start a business. Other people can buy goods from all over the world as a result of globalization.

The dark side of this is the super-empowered, alienated individual or community or nation (think ISIL or North Korea) can use a single agent equipped with the firepower, explosives, and technical expertise to shoot up a shopping mall, an elementary school, a football stadium or, on the other hand, shut down a city's power grid.

SUPER-EMPOWERED, PISSED OFF PEOPLE ARE SIMPLY A LUXURY THE HUMAN COMMUNITY CAN NO LONGER AFFORD.

If the core problem is alienation, the core solution is reconciliation.

My strategic analysis finds the core solution in the good news of God in Christ. Again, I'll not divert to address that beyond saying if someone is telling you something that lays FURTHER burdens on you besides the ones of which you are already aware, IT IS NOT THE GOOD NEWS they are giving you.

On a more mundane level (and here I am inspired by what I've heard from David Brooks and Edmund Burke), reconciliation takes the form of forgiveness IN THE CONTEXT OF JUSTICE and the re-building of community, whether within our families, our neighborhoods, our cities, our states, our nation, and our world.

My role models here are more Bonheoffer, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King rather than Che Guevara or Robespierre.

I am no pacifist. There may come a time for a Che Guevara, Robespierre (or, for that matter, John Adams and George Washington), or Bonhoeffer who, despite his pacifist leanings, became involved in the bomb plot against Adolf Hitler.

But that time, at least in America, has not yet come and may arguably never come if we can all maintain our collective sanity for at least a while longer.

So, tactically, the goal is to RESIST both individual and systemic injustice AND to PUT ONESELF AT RISK by an attempt to build community and reconcile with those with the very people whose injustice we resist.

This makes me an incrementalist rather than a revolutionary. 

I believe in making the system work, in moving the ball down the field, rather than blowing the system up a la Ted Cruz, Donald Trump, militiamen, ISIL sympathizers, and even Bernie Sanders.

Though, believe me, if the forces of revolution win this one, I would damn well rather have Bernie Sanders leading me to the barricades rather than Cruz or Trump.

Regarding the Iraq war, yeah, she blew it. So did John Kerry, decorated Vietnam War veteran and subsequent leader in Vietnam Vets Against the War.

Sometimes good people make bad decisions which often are not apparent until AFTER it's too late.

In defense of BOTH of them on this, THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION WAS FEEDING THEM MANIPULATED INTELLIGENCE to over-determine Congress's vote to authorize force.


Both of them believe in projecting American power around the world, through the military and through soft power, because of our vital security and economic interests, and I am CONSERVATIVE ENOUGH to accept the legitimacy of that WHILE SHARING OBAMA, KERRY'S, AND HILLARY'S RELUCTANCE TO USE FORCE, until all the soft power options have been given a chance to work and only for the most critical situations.

ALL THAT BEING SAID…

Hillary Clinton is, as the New York Times said in their endorsement, "one of of the most broadly and deeply qualified presidential candidates in modern history."

Her CHARACTER, her lifelong ACTIVISM on behalf of the marginalized, her EXPERIENCE in foreign and domestic policy, her RESILIENCE in the face of TWENTY YEARS of unceasing smears to her character on the right and, sadly, now, on the more extreme left, her DEMONSTRATED BIPARTISANSHIP in working across party lines in the Senate to INCREMENTALLY create change, make her my candidate of choice.

After a day long back-and-forth on my Facebook page, I am convinced that the NEGATIVE ARGUMENTS against her character, her commitment to the rule of law, her associations with Wall Street, and her poor judgment in decisions regarding her email server – TO THE EXTENT THEY MATTER AT ALL – are not decisive.

Would I revisit this decision later?

Yes. The Pennsylvania Primary isn't until April 26th and the fat lady may have sung by then.

I will look, in particular, at electability. I WILL NOT RISK a wing-nut in the White House. (One Republican sticker in Iowa says, "I'm voting for the crazy one." Who says Republicans don't have a sense of humor. :-) )

I will be VERY DISAPPOINTED with even a QUALIFIED Republican in the White House, but a Trump or Cruz in the White House is a very, scary, thought.

Should Hillary be indicted, I would support Bernie but – honestly – that is not going to happen. She will be hammered on this politically until the general election and, no doubt, beyond but so far as I know there is no evidence supporting charges against her.

The other thing I will look for is the amount of political power behind Bernie Sanders.

It will be VERY, VERY, DIFFICULT for Bernie Sanders to win the nomination, and IMPOSSIBLE for him to be elected president, unless he can capture Hillary-sized margins of minorities.

Those minorities are not dominant in Iowa (or New Hampshire) so, if Bernie can not only win the Iowa caucus but win it decisively, then I'll keep an eye on him. And then we'll see what happens in South Carolina where the voter demographics are definitely out of Sander's base support.

But, frankly, if he loses or barely gets a win in Iowa, I think he's toast come South Carolina unless he can turn it around in the newly-added debates.

BUT, AS OF TODAY, IT'S HILLARY CLINTON FOR PRESIDENT

My liberal friends are all cordially invited to start hating me and maligning my character and intelligence – my conservative friends are already on-board with that so, by all means, pile on. :-)

Hillary Clinton (Wikipedia)

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