The Tao of Me

Steve McQueen and I have yet another thing in common.

I was in San Francisco this weekend and, much to my pleasure, was able to upgrade my rental car to a Mustang convertible.

So, there I am, cruising around the streets of San Francisco in a Mustang and I find myself at the top of Taylor street. Knowing that Taylor Street is one of the more famous streets from the chase scene from Bullitt, I gunned it.

Quite quickly, I became increasingly aware of the fact that my brakes, and the friction generated by rubber hitting road, was quite insufficient to stop my car as I barreled down the hill. I caught air. Real air, not "my shocks are not as compressed as they usually are" air.

I just managed to get my car to a halt at the bottom of the hill when a nurse on a bicycle flew right in front of me. If I had been ONE BIT less able to bring my car to a halt, she would have been hamburger. My wife was screaming the whole time.

It was awesome.

Sad

Pope Benedict XVI drew ire from Muslim leaders, Islamic communities, and others for remarks at Regensburg University in Germany.

Stop for a minute.

Did you bother to follow the link? If you did, did you actually read the speech? If so, did you read more than one or two paragraphs? If you did, good for you, you and I are, apparently, in the extreme minority in this world. If not, I am not going to paraphrase it, quote it or summarize it for you. Go and read it.

However, before I come across as too harsh, if you answered "no" to any of the above questions, I am not sure you are entirely to blame. First and foremost, do you know how hard it was to find a link to the actual text of the speech? So hard that I actually had to go to the Vatican website to get a copy of it. Every news source in the world is covering this story and, yet, not one provides a link to the actual text of the speech. How can this be?

I refuse to put a tin foil hat on. However, I think this "debate" is evidence that the modern news media does not afford the opportunity for an informed, intelligent and rational discussion on topics. Rather, it tends to make the easy play for "gotcha" journalism, emphasizing the "sexy" aspects of a story in the hopes of getting a story that people want to read. This really does a disservice to us all. However, I read a story this morning which was truly saddening and a grave result of this type of journalism.

Apparently, someone shot a nun to death and there is reason to believe that it might be in "retaliation" for the Pope's speech. Read the article. Whoever did it shot a nun three (or four) times in the back while she was at a children's hospital. You know, I'm trying to think of a less manly and heroic act than shooting a nun in the back three times in a children hospital. Help me out here, there must be something? You know what? I am coming up blank.

Look people, the Pope quoted Manuel II, the Emperor of the Byzantine Empire. While STILL refusing to quote or paraphrase what Manual II was saying, or what the Pope's speech was about (go and read it!) let me say this, Manuel II said what he said when Constantinople was under siege by the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I from 1394 to 1402. So, the Pope quotes a guy who made a statement when that guy's city was under siege by Muslims and people get so outraged that a leader of Turkey's ruling party said Benedict is "going down in history in the same category as leaders such as Hitler and Mussolini" and someone shoots a nun in the back three times while she is at a children's hospital?

Have we all gone mad?

I am still pondering this...let me get this straight. The Pope says something that Muslims believe states that Muslims are violent. Muslims, angered by this, riot, destroy property, injure, and kill people.

Huh?

OK, I am going to go back on my word a TINY little bit. Hey, if you are reading this far, you deserve a bone. The Pope was talking about how, under the Christian way of thinking, even God himself is subject to the laws of reason. Thus, God can not command one day that "thou shalt not worship idols" and, the next day command that "thou shall worship idols". The bit about Manual II was put in because, from that particular conversation Manuel II had with a Persian scholar, the widely held Muslim belief that the Will of Allah is transcendent of "ration" and, as a result, can change from day to day was articulated. And, for this, the Pope gets to be called "Hitler" and a nun gets shot in the back while she was at a children's hospital. This is truly sad.

Who thinks up this stuff?

Aside from the primary, albeit "baser", responsibility for a parent to provide for the material well-being of their child, the biggest responsibility given a parent is instilling in a child a sound moral framework which brings the child the greatest potential for fulfillment, joy, and understanding of the many facets of a well lived life. Pause for a moment. Notice how I did not espouse any particular view, mindset or predisposition. That is because I am a firm believer of the concept that one should "lead from the front" or, in the case of children, "lead by example." If you show them how to be an upstanding person, by your actions, deeds and demeanor, they will learn it without you having to tell them. Conversely, probably the greatest harm a parent can do is lead a child astray in this regard.

Enter this book.

Just in the sample pages the reader is presented with the pithy core of socialist philosophy: confiscatory wealth-transfer mechanisms, impossible and irresponsible promises ("always safe"), and lies concerning free market philosophy (suggesting that, without the "mommy" (i.e. state), every child will be not be afforded an education). Listen, if you honestly believe and hold as true the ideals set forth in this book, then I say to you, model those choices consistently in your disposition, mannerisms, deeds and actions. However, please do so outside of politics. Simply let your child develop his or her own political philosophy from examination of their own life. A child can't do this at 4, or even 14. I am always leery of children who are pro-Democrat or pro-Republican. How could they possibly come to the conclusions they are claiming to have without living their own lives life long enough, with specific dilemmas presented them, to even entertain political solutions? They can not. They are simply parroting things their parents have said. This is just wrong.

Listen, there is no questions that children like group behavior. How about getting them involved in sports, music, and social organizations? Leave the politics for when they enter adulthood and are faced with questions that they are equipped to answer, on their own, and can appropriately have a political answer. Otherwise, you are robbing your children of the one thing you should be providing them, the opportunity to make those decisions on their own.

P.S. To any people actually reading this book to their children, I have one name for you: Alex P. Keaton.

Today..on a very special news broadcast...

"Be ye angry and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath" Ephesians 4:26

I know... I am being opportunistic with my quotation of St. Paul in this regard. However, I am only human.

The last couple of days have brought about an upcropping of various 9/11 "remembrance" TV shows. They all have the same commercial, using the same voice actor they use for "...a very special Will & Grace..." The tenor of all of these shows is of sorrow, sadness, wreath laying, somber reflection and a dash of closure.

I am sorry. I am not buying it.

I remember 9/11 like it was yesterday. I saw the second plane hit with my own eyes and remember standing on a sea wall in Sea Bright, NJ with my skin rising up in gooseflesh in the morning air. You know what I don't remember? I do not remember feeling sorrow or sadness. I do not remember wanting to lay a wreath. I sure as hell do not remember any feelings of somber reflection and I know for sure that I would never feel closure. But, here we are, only five years later, and the media is telling us, in a velvet gloved way, to "get over it".

No thank you. I have a right to my anger, and I don't want anybody telling me I shouldn't be angry, that it's not nice to be angry, and that something's wrong with me because I get angry. I will never stop being angry about that day, no matter how many heart-felt movies are made about it or how many times that "very special Will & Grace" voice actor tells me that it is a day to "remember" and to "grieve".

Happy Birthday Rose McGowan

Can't begin to tell the ways in which this woman is hot.

Don't get me wrong. I am not one of the weirdos who make "unofficial" websites dedicated to celebrities. That is just, well, weird.

However, i'll be damned if this woman doesn't make me feel all tingly in my nether region.

Oh, and if my wife is reading this, it is not really me (i.e. John) typing this, I am a hacker pretending to be John who likes to call you "my wife".

Reason One: Her parents were members of the Children of God and her father ran the Italian chapter of the group. At the age of fifteen, she had the good sense to officially emancipate herself from her parents.

In other words, she has daddy issues. Girls with daddy issues are crazy in the sack.

Reason Two: During an interview, she admitted to the following: "Well, I was out at a restaurant with a guy and his parents in Ohio, and this meathead, the only other customer there, was yelling nasty stuff at us. After dinner, we figured out which car was his and I smashed one of its windows with a rock. Then I called the police, gave them his coordinates, and told them he was extremely drunk and unwilling to relinquish his keys."

In other words, this girl will break a dude's car window with a rock and send him to jail because he said something untoward to you. She demonstrates the type of vicious loyalty that only true men, like myself, can really appreciate.

Reason Three: Quote: "I was up watching Meet Joe Black at four AM. I was hoping Brad Pitt would die, and he was still alive at seven forty in the morning! I actually felt sorry for once, for critics. "

'nuff said.

Reasons Four and Five: Favorite Movie? Sixteen Candles. Favorite Authors? Philip K. Dick and Edgar Allen Poe.

You know what? It is a little creepy how much information there is about movie stars on the web.

With that, I guess I will stop.