Random Thinking

We spent Thanksgiving Day with Michel’s sister Eileen and her family. She lives what is normally a 2 hour drive away but it turned into a much longer drive (7 hours round trip) because of Thanksgiving traffic. The worst part of the drive there and back was Staten Island.

But it was worth it to spend the day with Eileen, Tom, their kids Brian and Patrick, and Tom’s sister’s family.

Kevin and Peter enjoying the appetizers

The gang plays Wii

Beth is having fun, fun, fun!

Mikey loves watching Wii

Michel sends Thanksgiving greetings

Your humble correspondent checking FaceBook the day after Thanksgiving

I promised pictures of the other dog and I finally have them. Here is Dr. West, our wonderful Cocker Spaniel. Dr. West, or just West, is about 10 years old. He follows Mikey around even though Mikey is always hitting him and pinching him. He barks at Mikey and then licks him.

His biggest interest seems to be eating. I think he likes Mikey because Mikey is always dropping crackers on the floor. The other night Mikey gave West his hamburger. Mikey was in hysterics while West was very happy.

Here’s a description of their relationship… Mikey was sitting in a chair in the living room and West was sleeping in the middle of the room. Suddenly Mikey jumped up and kicked the dog and then ran back to his chair. The dog barked, ran over to Mikey and licked his toes. Then the dog went back to his spot. Mikey jumped up again, kicked the dog, and ran back to his seat. The dog barked, ran over to Mikey, and licked his toes. They repeated this game for 20 minutes. The dog follows Mikey everywhere. I have to use the gate that I haven’t used in years to keep the dog out of Mikey’s room when I bring Mikey up to bed.

He is a very sweet and gentle dog. He gets along wonderfully with Dr. Cain (he apparently finds her attractive, if you know what I mean) and fairly well with the cats. The cats are working on teaching him his place in the house hierarchy.

As Jeff pointed out, today is the 45th anniversary of the funeral of John F. Kennedy. They kept us home from kindergarten that day in honor of the president. My memory of that funeral is one of my earliest memories. I remember watching the funeral on the black and white television in the living room. I remember being annoyed because it was on every channel and I wanted to watch cartoons. I get to stay home from school and there are no cartoons! I don’t think I understood exactly what was going on. My memories of Bobbie and Martin being murdered are much clearer.

John-John (JFK Jr.) gave that salute on his 3rd birthday. He probably had a much stronger memory of that day than I did even though he was younger. John-John joined his father in 1999 at the age of 38.

As is the habit of out-going presidents, George W. released his first rounds of pardons. The group is mostly made up of people who have served their terms long ago and were hoping to get their records cleared up. The pardon means they won’t have to report their crimes on job or loan applications and restores their right to vote if they live in a state that prevents convicted felons from voting.

The group includes a former Air Force Academy student who was tossed out of the service in 1985 for wrongful use and distribution of marijuana and cocaine, a man who was convicted in 1996 for unauthorized use of a pesticide in killing bald eagles, and a man who was sentenced to two years’ probation in 1983 on charges of acquiring food stamps without proper permission. He also commuted the sentence of rap artist John E. Forte, who had served 7 years of a 14 year sentence for aiding and abetting possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. He will be released just before Christmas.

No general pardons were issued for intelligence officials involved in interrogations that have been described as torture. Some administration officials are fighting against a general pardon because it would be an admission that the techniques used were criminal. Bush can not pardon himself so he could be charged with ordering torture. Also, although Bush could pardon others, since torture is an international crime, perpetrators could still be tried at the International Criminal Court in The Hague in the Netherlands. And I have to admit that the idea of Bush and Cheney spening the rest of their lives in a European prison does put a little glow in my heart.

The winners of the International Press Freedom Award were recently announced. The award is given to journalists who stand up against government repression and are punished because of their reporting. The six winners were a journalist reporting in Uganda, another imprisoned in Cuba, another who has faced threats from the government of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, and two who report at great risk from the Taliban. The sixth? His name is Bilal Hussein and he was arrested by the United States.

Hussein is an AP photojournalist who was reporting on terrorist activites in Iraq, specifically in Ramadi. The US military arrested him in April, 2006 and refused to either release him or charge him with a crime. Requests for information from the AP were ignored on grounds of “imperative reasons of security.” Eighteen months after his arrest, the US government said that Hussein would be charged with criminal activites. One of the charges he supposedly faced was that he had assisted in the kindapping of two Arab journalists but the journalists said they had never been contacted by the US military for their testimony and that their only contact with Hussein was after they had been freed as he loaned them money and a vehicle. In April of 2008, the Iraqi government insisted on Hussein’s release and he was finally freed.

Uganda, Cuba, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, and the United States. There is something exceedingly wrong with the United States being on a list of countries that attack the freedom of the press and prevent reporters from doing their jobs with threats of imprisonment.

Let’s hear it for the new song of the week off my iPod.

The Offspring is a popular American punk rock band from Garden Grove, California, formed in 1984. The group’s current members are Dexter Holland (lead vocals, guitar), Noodles (lead and rhythm guitars, backing vocals), Greg K. (bass, backing vocals), and Pete Parada (drums). The group has been very successful, releasing eight studio albums selling over 40 million albums worldwide. Their album Smash is the best-selling independent label album of all time. Their most recent studio album, Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace, was released in June 2008.

Americana, the group’s fifth studio album, was released in November 1998 and has sold more than 11 million copies worldwide. The album peaked at number 2 on the Billboard 200 album chart and was later certified platinum. The song “Pretty Fly” peaked at number 53 on the US charts and is arguably The Offspring’s most successful song commercially. The song makes fun of the middle-class suburban youth who listens to rap music not because he truly loves it, but because it is trendy, makes him feel tough, and makes him think he can get all the girls. The song begins with the quasi-German nonsense phrase “Gunter glieben glauchen globen” sampled from Def Leppard’s song “Rock of Ages”. The song was parodied by “Weird Al” Yankovic as “Pretty Fly for a Rabbi”.

Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)
Gunter glieben glauchen globen
Give it to me baby. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
Give it to me baby. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
Give it to me baby. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
And all the girlies say I’m pretty fly
For a white guy.
Uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, cinco, seis.

You know it’s kind of hard
Just to get along today.
Our subject isn’t cool,
But he fakes it anyway.
He may not have a clue;
And he may not have style.
But everything he lacks
Well he makes up in denial.

So don’t debate, a player straight
You know he really doesn’t get it anyway.
He’s gonna play the field, and keep it real.
For you no way, for you no way.
So if you don’t rate, just overcompensate.
At least you’ll know you can always go on Ricki Lake.
The world needs wannabe’s.
So (Hey! Hey!) do that brand new thing.

Give it to me baby. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
Give it to me baby. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
Give it to me baby. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
And all the girlies say I’m pretty fly
For a white guy.

He needs some cool tunes
Not just any will suffice.
But they didn’t have Ice Cube
So he bought Vanilla Ice.
Now cruising in his Pinto,
He sees homies as he pass.
But if he looks twice
They’re gonna kick his lily ass.

So don’t debate, a player straight
You know he really doesn’t get it anyway.
He’s gonna play the field, and keep it real.
For you no way, for you no way.
So if you don’t rate, just overcompensate.
At least you’ll know you can always go on Ricki Lake.
The world loves wannabe’s.
So (Hey! Hey!) do that brand new thing

Now he’s getting a tattoo.
Yeah he’s gettin’ ink done.
He asked for a ‘13′,
But they drew a ‘31′.
Friends say he’s trying too hard
And he’s not quite hip.
But in his own mind
He’s the, he’s the dopest trip.

Give it to me baby. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
Give it to me baby. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
Give it to me baby. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
Uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, cinco, seis.

So don’t debate, a player straight
You know he really doesn’t get it anyway.
He’s gonna play the field, and keep it real.
For you no way, for you no way.
So if you don’t rate, just overcompensate.
At least you’ll know you can always go on Ricki Lake.
The world needs wannabe’s.
Oh the world loves wannabe’s.
So let’s get some more wannabe’s.
And (Hey! Hey!) do that brand new thing.

No doubt you thought piracy was a thing of the past or perhaps pirates were only found near Somalia. But as this map shows pirates live on even in the year 2008 and can be found all around the world (although mostly around the equator). Most of the incidents seem to involve ships being boarded and robbed when no one notices rather than rows of cannons firing into merchant ships but still… according to the ICC, it’s piracy!

Islam: The Religion and the People
by Bernard Lewis and Buntzie Ellis Churchill

Islam is one of the world’s most important religions. With more than a billion adherents in 56 sovereign nations and growing minorities in many other countries, it is important that those of us who are not followers of Islam at least understand it. This books offers a basic look at Islam and the Muslim people throughout the world. Unfortunately, it leaves many unanswered questions and answers many questions that seem trivial at best.

A simple example should explain my point. The authors remind us that only Muslims are permitted to enter the sacred city of Mecca but they fail to answer the most basic question… how does once become a Muslim? Does Islam have a form of baptism? Does one get a certificate when one joins? Is there a quiz? How are non-Muslims prevented from entering Mecca? These most basic questions apparently never occurred to the authors. But they do devote a chapter to the clothes Muslims wear. In fact, this is a basic problem with the book. The choice of topics seems to be almost random rather than selected for importance and their lack of order makes the book feel more like a series of articles than a book.

There also seems to be an attempt to be an apologist for Islam as well. The violent overthrow of a government in the Arab world is claimed to be the moral equivalent of using money to buy influence in the West. The authors try to claim that polygamy is justified because it prevents adultery and prostitution. They make the claim that women were historically better treated in the Muslim world than the Christian world without offering any evidence to justify the claim. They make the absurd claim that a 10th century passage about the evolution of language prefigures the Darwinian theory of evolution which shows a complete lack of understanding of Darwin’s theory. They try to make the claim that suicide bombings are not acceptable in Islam by claiming historical backing but since Islam does not condemn them today, the claim has no basis other than wishful thinking.

I had hoped the book would be like an “Islam for Dummies” but it falls far short. The history is fragmented and there is more information in the definitions list at the back of the book than in the text. Overall, the book is a fair introduction to this most important topic but it falls short of being a complete introduction.

The state of Nebraska was the last state in the union to pass a safe haven law. Safe haven laws are designed to protect newborns by allowing their parents to drop them off (basically abandon them) at any hospital with no questions asked. Research has shown that the laws don’t really work (women who want to abandon their babies aren’t getting the message) but the laws probably have saved some lives. Nebraska decided to go a little further with their law, however. Rather than just cover newborns as most states do, Nebraska decided to cover all minor children, which in Nebraska goes up to age 19. The result has been at least three dozen teenagers being dropped off at hospitals across the state. Although some of the children had mental health problems that were overwhelming the parents, at least a few of the teenagers were simply being hormonal – in other words, acting like teenagers. The law doesn’t even specify who can drop the child off so in theory a neighbor watching your teenage daughter for the weekend could dump her off if she gets too annoying.

The most eye-popping case in Nebraska occurred Wednesday, when a 34-year-old father deposited nine children ages 1 to 17 at Creighton University Medical Center — and then walked away. The Omaha World-Herald reported that the man had a “history of unemployment, eviction notices and unpaid bills – and a psychologist’s determination that he lacked common sense.”

Lacked common sense? You think? Maybe that psychologist can check the Nebraska legislature for common sense too.

I mentioned in my earlier entry that we have dogs. On Thursday Michel brought home two dogs from the pound. This is the first dog. Her name is either Dr. Cane Cain or Bagles depending on who you ask. She is a pure bred beagle and is about 3 years old. Michel and Beth fell in love with her when they saw her. She is a very affectionate dog. She slept under the desk the first couple of nights but now she is sleeping on our bed.

The other dog is a 10 year old cocker spaniel. His name is either Dr. West or Fud. I don’t have any pictures of him yet. He’s at the vet overnight because he needed his eyes fixed and a couple of teeth pulled. Michel took him from the pound because she is a sap and felt sorry for him. It was pretty unlikely that anyone other than another sap would adopt him so Michel took him. He is also a very affectionate and very lazy dog.

The cats adapted to the dogs fairly quickly. China has made herself the leader of the pack as she orders the two dogs around. The other cats try to ignore the dogs and the dogs don’t bother them. The “Dr.” names, by the way, came from Beth who wanted to name the dogs after characters in the movie, “Re-Animator”. The other names came from Michel.