What do Luke Skywalker, Adolf Hitler and Eric Draven from The Crow have in common?
Read Kevin Ecker’s responses to my five “interview me” questions over at The Eckernet and find out as we take a tour through the mind of someone who was blogging before there were blogs.
Please, no flash photography and for your own safety, stay inside the velvet ropes.
No, I didn’t live blog the St. Cloud MOB gathering at Granite City Food & Brewery because putting a computer screen in front of my face is like throwing a high, outside fastball to Torii Hunter. We both know we should resist, but we can’t help ourselves and we forget about everything else. If I was going to get sucked into anything Saturday night I wanted it to be the dynamic conversations of fellow MOBsters released from their basements. So, on a type-delay basis, here are my observations from the evening.
One, the Queen Banaian does not take a backseat to King in encylopedic knowledge or sparkling conversation. It was a delight to meet her and we enjoyed a stimulating discussion that ranged from soy cooking to the theatre, The Rules and, of course, The Mystery. My wife especially enjoyed the evening, while the Littlest Scholar and my youngest daughter found the most interesting part of the event to be the arrival of a hulking piece of Triple Chocolate cake – which they proceeded to demolish like Mitch Berg going through a Nick Coleman column. The flying forks looked like a light-saber duel from Revenge of the Sith.
Another plus of our fortuitous introduction was that Mrs. Scholar and Night Visions, poised at the twin entrances to our circular booth, were effective pickets against Kevin’s efforts to buy beer for my oldest daughter. I finally helped him see reason: whatever threat I represented paled in comparison to what the management and the thirsty people of St. Cloud might do to him if he caused GCFB to lose its liquor license. At least that kept him busy until Cathy in the Wright (aka St. Kate from the MAWB Squad) could hit him – really hard. I don’t know what that was about, but I think Cathy may sense that the Force is strong in my daughter and wants to talk to her about world domination.
Of course, the main appeal for an event like this is to meet the people behind the blogs I read, like fellow Mizzou alum Phil from Market Power, who brought me the distressing news that The Old Heidelberg – a campus tavern known in my day for its fried mushrooms and don’t ask, don’t tell approach to the 21-year-old drinking age – had burned down (and fortunately rebuilt). Phil is an economics prof at Mankata State and I thought it would be interesting to get he and King together to do an Iron Chef-type face-off on the ripple effect of a 10 cents per gallon increase in the gas tax, but no one else seemed to think this a good idea.
It was also fun to see the faces and feel the handshakes behind Heavy-Handed Politics (firm, but not crushing as you might expect) and Speed Gibson (a fellow Powerblogs user) and Martin Andrade, not to mention Flash from Centrisity.
A real highlight, however, was the chance to meet my Blog Buddy, Leo, from Pscymeistr’s Ice Palace – a guy I never would have known if not for blogging but whose writing and insights I really appreciate – but not as much as I appreciate the encouragement he’s given me.
Thanks, King, for organizing the evening and I look forward to seeing (and recognizing!) you and the other MOB members at future events!
Apparently my leverage as “Eckernet Reader of the Month” was enough to induce Kevin to volunteer for a turn in the bright lights of the “Interview Me” meme. I would have posted the questions sooner but I wanted to build traffic to my site by having Kevin check back repeatedly.
So, Kevin, here are your five questions. (Other readers may feel free to play along and post your answers to these questions in the Comments or on your own blog). I’ll look for and link to your replies!
1. You have been referred to by some as “Young Jedi.” Are you really like Luke Skywalker, or are you more Han Solo or … Boba Fett?
2. What is the first book you read that affected the way you look at the world, and how? What type of books do you seek out now for your own entertainment or self-directed education?
3. How long have you been blogging and what were your objectives when you started? Have your reasons for blogging changed since you began? What has been the most surprising thing to you about blogging?
4. If you could have been an actor in any movie you’ve seen, what movie would it be and what character would you have played?
5. Describe the best day of your life so far.
(HT to Blogizdat for launching this meme.)
There is much consternation, if not outright (outleft?) hysteria in the MSM of late regarding America’s imminent theocracy. Indeed, in reading Maureen Dowd, Frank Rich, Paul Krugman or the rendering unto seizure that took place on the cover of Harper’s it appears that the only uncertainty is whether or not theocracy is about to take over or if it already has.
All I can say is that if that rapturous moment has occurred I must have missed it … and you might imagine my disappointment.
And if their vision of theocracy were truly upon us I don’t think you’d see such open assaults where people of faith are compared to either the Taliban or the Nazis, which is interesting bit of name calling projection. Last I looked, it wasn’t Christians who were going around trying to tear down religious monuments in front of City Hall, or acting like Brown Shirts intimidating others by throwing pies and trying to shout down opposing points of view. In fact the vilification – or demonization, if you will – through outrageous and even libelous hate speech of a particular group of people because of their religious beliefs just sounds so, oh, 1934, don’t you think?
Yet for all their cries of oppression where they see religion crossing the line into areas they think should remain secular, the Secularists have no qualms about trying to enforce the secular on what others see as sacred. They will brook no criticism of their own ideals and insist they are being persecuted while simultaneously criticizing and undermining religious leaders (e.g., deriding the Pope as being too conservative, encouraging the Rainbow Sash escapades, trying to redefine marriage). Funny – Hitler persecuted and/or arrested German theologians who opposed him on spiritual grounds such as Niemoller, Bonhoeffer, and Barth and reconstituted the German church with officials willing to replace the Father with the Fuehrer. I read somewhere that that didn’t turn out so well.
Here’s the deal: this is really an old conflict – even older than WWII. (Public service announcement: Warning – scripture reference coming. Avert your eyes if sensitive to this type of material). Romans 12:2 tells believers not be be conformed to the world, but transformed by the renewing of our minds. It is the conflict of the outside world (which touches our flesh) and the inner man or woman (which is touched by the spirit). The secular world is all about forcing people to conform to their vision; the spiritual instinct is to see people transformed by God. And if they happen to change the way they vote as a result of that transformation, well, that’s part and parcel of free will.
Secularists want the government to run things, which is why they get so concerned about who runs the government. (Even though what they really want is to be a law unto themselves). In their quest they want to run everything – schools, public square, social institutions and come against any who say they are not beholden to these or recognize a higher authority. That’s because those who obey an authority higher than the government are more likely to cherish their individual right to their own conscience – and the renewed mind resists the old and does indeed become a law unto itself.
And frankly, I don’t think that that is such a scary concept to most people, as I described here a couple of weeks ago. It certainly wasn’t a scary thought to the founding fathers, as former New York Times reporter John McCandlish Phillips noted so well in the Washington Post (When Columnists Cry “Jihad!” – HT Michelle Malkin):
The fact is that our founders did not give us a nation frightened by the apparition of the Deity lurking about in our most central places. On Sept. 25, 1789, the text of what was later adopted as the First Amendment was passed by both houses of Congress, and subsequently sent to the states for ratification. On that same day, the gentlemen in the House who had acted to give us that invaluable text took another action: They passed a resolution asking President George Washington to declare a national day of thanksgiving to no less a perceived eminence than almighty God.
That’s president , that’s national, that’s official and, alas, my doubting hearties, it’s God; all wrapped up in a federal action by those who knew what they meant by the non-establishment clause and saw their request as standing at not the slightest variance from it. It’s a pity our phalanx of columnists cannot crawl into a time machine to go back and reinstruct them.
Related posts from other sources:
Flown to the Roll: A Glittering Jewel of Ignorance.
Bogus Gold: “Dispelling the Theocracy Myth and Its Defenders” and “Sullivan, Goldberg and Theocrats, Oh My!”
Fox News: Lawmaker Hopes to Open Churches to Political Speech
Regular readers of this blog know that my wife and I have a pretty simple philosophy when it comes to our teenage daughter, Faith, dating: No. (See here and here.) Therefore you might be surprised to hear that Faith went to the prom last Saturday night. And yes, there was a boy involved from an unrelated gene pool. How did this happen? One word: conspiracy.
Faith has a female cousin just a few months older than her and they’ve been best pals from the playpen. They both think that boys are nice to have around, but what really makes their hearts beat fast right now are prom dresses. I think we were still taking down Christmas decorations earlier this year when they hatched a plan for the spring dance.
The boy part was easy. The cousin has a boyfriend. The boyfriend has a best friend. The best friend wasn’t doing anything the second Saturday in May. The deal was proposed and closed directly: the girls would buy the tickets, the guys would rent tuxes and buy dinner. Now – on to the Mall! It was about this point where my wife became a co-conspirator. I’m not sure how this was accomplished, exactly, but it may have involved lattes.
All I know is I was standing innocently in our kitchen a couple of months ago with my lovely wife and lovely daughter – two people I trusted implicitly – when Faith casually mentioned something about going to the prom. “Hmm,” I said, “let me think about that a minute. No.”
“I already told her she could go,” my wife said, albeit sheepishly.
“Wha-,” I said, as the floor began to open beneath me. I began to splutter: “Prom? Boys? Dark cars? Boys!”
I knew I was going down, but it didn’t mean I had to make it easy for them. It was pretty clear that fashion, not passion, was behind the conspiracy and I knew that three of the four kids involved were more than trustworthy, while the fourth was new to me but appeared as if he valued his life. Nevertheless it was worked out that my wife would be one of the volunteer parent chaperones at the event, which would require her staying up well past her bedtime. It was also arranged so that the four youngsters would come to the house for a cook-out in advance so I could get to know the new guy better.
When they arrived for the cook-out we all visited for a little while in the living room, and then I went into the kitchen to prepare the hamburger patties, which required carving them from a tube of partially frozen ground beef. I cut a couple of patties with my heavy duty 10″ chef’s knife when I realized I needed more information. Walking back into the living room, I motioned to the new guy with the slightly dripping point of the knife. Contrary to Faith’s report of the incident, the knife was nowhere near his face. I was easily three feet away. Two feet, at least. And besides, Faith can’t be a reliable witness because she hid her face behind a sofa pillow when she saw me walk into the room. Nevertheless, knowing something about teenage boys, I had to ask an important question.
“How many burgers can you eat?” I asked the kid.
“How many do you want me to eat?” he said.
“Good answer!” my wife said.
“Kill me now,” my daughter said.
Anyway, we all lived through the evening and the weeks leading up to prom seemed to fly by. On Saturday Faith went to her cousin’s around noon to begin hair and make-up preparations. At 4:30 I joined the other parents and close family at my sister-in-law’s house for the photo op. Altogether there were 11 adult paparazzi and half a dozen cameras flashing the four elegantly dressed youth. It looked like a Hollywood premiere. Faith was especially breathtaking with her hair exquisitely styled on top of her head, long sparkly earrings and an elegant dress that could have used another yard of fabric if you asked me, but no one did.
Then it was time for them to be off, and time for firm handshakes with each of the boys. “Drive wisely,” I said, and my voice didn’t crack a bit.
The evening went marvelously, and the youngsters were only a little late getting home after stopping to pick up late night tacos and wow the crowd at Taco Bell.
My wife also made it home from her chaperone assignment without falling asleep, largely due to the startling effect of watching what passes for dancing these days. You see, there’s this thing called “freak” dancing – because it “freaks” parents out, I think – that involves a young lady(?) placing her fundament against her escort’s crotch and both of them vigorously gyrating (music optional). It appears that girls have finally found a way to get the boys out on the dance floor. My wife felt as if she should get out on the floor as well, but with a bucket of water or a garden hose. She settled for prayer instead. It kind of makes the old notion of a guy hoping for a goodnight kiss seem a bit quaint, doesn’t it? I mean, after three hours of something like that with teenaged nerve endings a peck on the cheek would be – oh, shall we say – anti-climactic?
Fortunately, the little flock she was most interested in appeared to be having a very good time but at more discreet distances. She does, however, admit to being discreet herself, letting them out of her sight for long, long stretches at a time.
As for the rest of you kids, though, be warned: she’s calling your mothers.
Mil-blogger joatmoaf at I Love Jet Noise found the following on the bottom of his flight boot the other day. It’s from a blog called Forsake the Troops (joatmoaf’s comments in plain text):
This website is proudly dedicated to the notion that our nation’s military is grossly overcompensated, at the expense of the American taxpayers. Even as the evil, overspending Pentagon seeks to raise benefits for these scumbags, Forsake The Troops believes that these pukes get pay and benefits tax free when in a combat zone.”
Verbatim prolog. I kid you not.
Here’s more:
“Our problem is this: the military is a lifestyle these morons chose. What idiot risks their life for a country? It’s what they chose. Forsake our Troops! They must think that if they go to war, they don’t need to pay taxes just like the rest of us. Let ’em die in combat– we don’t need their ilk! “
I’m not going to give this deluded, anti-troop bowl of dog vomit any more direct links from this blog, or even build his Google index by mentioning the name again, but if you have to see what is there for yourself the URL is http://www.forsakethetroops.info/index.shtml. If you want more information, I’d rather any traffic go first to I Love Jet Noise, an excellent blog who’s post on this subject includes Dog Vomit’s supposed name and contact number. My reluctance to link to the offensive site, and to include the name and phone number here, is based on a strong hunch that this vomitous mass would love the attention. I probably should just let this pass without comment altogether and not even bother calling more attention to it – but if it’s reaction he’s after, then reaction is what he’ll get.
The content of the blog is so bizarre and so far out beyond where even the bad taste buses run that I initially suspected some kind of Kaufman-esque attempt at humor, even though the sidebar claims the blogger is serious (perhaps a tip-off on its own account). Even if that’s the case, he’s gone so far that the only punchline I’m interested in at this point is the one that’s forming outside his front door. Here are a couple more examples:
NINE MORE MARINES’ CAREERS BLOW UP IN THEIR FACES
Don’t military pukes learn anything? Nine more Marines bite the big one in combat. Stupid is as stupid does!
Number of US soldiers killed in the Iraq War, of their own doing, because they CHOSE to be leeches: 1,583. These scumbags deserved what they got.
Dog Vomit (and if there happens to be a blog out there that really is called “Dog Vomit” then I profusely apologize for putting your name in proximity with this bulging sphincter of a blog) also promotes a new blog under construction called “Forsake the Police” and includes wording that “this blog is sponsored by The Constitution and Free Speech.” No hat tip, however, to the Armed Forces that have helped keep these – and Dog Vomit – living in the style to which they’ve become accustomed.
The twins are two years old on the 14th!
Click to enlarge photo.
Rose (left) and Camille are twin blessings for my sister and her husband, and for our entire family.
Early in my sister’s pregnancy the girls were identified as monoamniotic monochorionic twins, or “MoMos”. This means they shared one amniotic sac, one chorionic sac and a single placenta. It is a very rare condition also very high risk with mortality as high as 50 percent. (You can find out more at this site.)
With God, all things are possible and a strong prayer chain also helps!
They are an active and charming pair and appear to have their own system of language and signals for communicating with each other. They’re also very good at getting their points across with regular folk as well!
Happy Birthday, my dears!
The always very funny Varifrank once again takes a firm grip on the obvious and then flips it over to look at what is underneath. Today he took a look at the criticism of John Bolton, the nominee for US ambassador to the UN.
John Bolton. To hear some talk about him you’d think President Bush appointed Satan’s representative here on earth to be the UN Ambassador. Apparently the charges go something like this:
He’s a bully.
He’s got a funny mustache.
He doesnt like the UN.
He doesnt talk diplomatically.
Since these are serious charges, Varifrank took a look at the qualifications of some other ambassadors from other countries. For example:
Cuba
Ambassador FELIPE PEREZ ROQUE
Apparently he’s a critic of the UN Too! But he’s a good Marxist-Leninist, so I guess it’s ok … Well, when a Cuban thug criticizes you of not being a legitimate force for human rights, you just know you’re screwed, don’t you?
And the “Number 2” man at the Cuban UN Embassy was apparently recalled from his previous post as ambassador to Mexico after he broke into their embassy, how gauche…Palestine
Ambassador to the UN – Dr. Nasser Al-Kidwa
And who’s he? Oh he’s the late Yasser Arafat’s nephew. Oh, and since he’s a doctor, he should know if the Israelis poisoned Chairman Arafat, but since he absconded with the medical records, who can tell?Zimbabwe
Ambassador B.G.CHIDYAUSIKU
He’s on record as calling the US “Imperialist”. Well thats not very “diplomatic” now is it? … Yeah. Let’s be nice to him. Oh by the way, he’s one of the architects of the internationally legal and multilateral boycott on genetically modified food which is keeping food from reaching people in Zimbabwe and thus keeping them compliant and under the control of their murdering dictatorship of a government, lead by the thug Robert Mugabe.Russia
Ambassador ANDREY I. DENISOV (photo)
Get a load of this goon. And people bitch about Bolton’s mustache? Jeez, this guy could scare the paint off the walls! KGB? He damn well better be with a face like that.France
Ambassador Jean-Marc de LA SABLIERE
…Now check this out. Apparently the French UN ambassador is an anti-catholic secularist bigot! I think that outdoes anything that John Bolton has been accused of by a good country mile.“The French government attacked the Holy See delegation at a Wednesday meeting of the United Nations committee that considers official UN status for nongovernmental organizations. After the Holy See delegation made an argument for the UN to protect unborn children, France accused the Holy See of injecting ‘moral’ and ‘religious criteria’ into the debate.”
Canada
Yvon Charbonneau, Former Canadian Ambassador to the UN, was removed by Canadian PM Paul martin in 2004 and sent to france and to UNESCO.And just who is Yvon Charbonneau?
Yvon Charbonneau, former Marxist president of the Province of Quebec’s second largest union, has been vociferously outspoken against Jews, both on the homefront and abroad … During his years as union president, Mr. Charbonneau once “accused a prominent Montreal Jewish businessman of being an ‘economic terrorist’.
Bolton sounds like just the guy to kick some ambassador.
As much as we might try to live our lives to the (hopefully high) standards we set for ourselves, it is perhaps our weak moments that expose and define us. In one such weak moment I succumbed to Sandy’s MAWB Squad “interview me” invitation. I may have done this thinking it’s a good idea to ingratiate one’s self to the future rulers of the planet, but in the interim I rather hoped this indiscretion might fade away unnoticed. Not only was this hope in vain, I see now that the first three questions are not in the vein of “What is your name? What is your quest? What is your favorite color?”
Well nothing to it now but to do it, and realize that some people pay a lot of money to talk about their inner secrets, and this is free. If you, dear reader, would like to take a similar challenge, see the information at the end of this post and help keep this meme going.
1. Pick a country, any country, to emigrate to for a year. What country did you pick and why? Given the opportunity would you make the move? Could you convince your family to do it?
Someplace in the tropics sounds good on this rainy, 30-degree day in May, but then I really don’t care for humidity and insects. I have long had a romantic notion, however, of having a smallish croft in Scotland, located on a promontory over the North Sea. I see myself tramping through the heather wearing a tweed coat or wooly sweater with a shawl collar and with a black dog romping nearby, then retiring to a snug stone cottage (complete with broadband and satellite tv so I can pick up ESPN) to read, write, meditate and see what the four seasons are like in this place. This fantasy usually involves someone sending me to this place for a year to write, just to see what may come out, so if this opportunity were offered I may have to take it.
Unfortunately, I’d probably have to do this alone since my Minnesota born and bred wife, who struggles daily to keep warm, has said she wants to spend the last half of her life in a warm climate (a challenge that is also starting to take on an actuarial aspect), and coastal Scotland doesn’t fit that requirement. As for my daughters, the giftings in their lives would make such isolation an injustice to them and to the world. Still, if only for a year, ….
2. What do you fear and why do you fear it? What helps you to cope with your fear?
Onterrio Smith Caught With Kit to Foil Drug Tests
Smith acknowledged to airport police that he was carrying dried urine, along with a device called “The Original Whizzinator” and a bottle of pills labeled “Cleansing Formula.” He told police the kit was “for making a clean urine test,” according to the police report, and said he was taking the materials to his cousin.
