Random Musings 02-28-2010

The International Olympic Committee really, Really, REALLY needs to lighten up...or better yet just shut up, and try to support athletes.

Not that I really expect them to...


It looks like my state of Georgia, and my county where I'm an educator are facing major budget cuts for next year and quite probably the next few years. All I can say is that my feelings (and those of most of my colleagues as well) is that I'd rather see pay cuts than lay offs. I'm willing to work for less money (not happy about it, but willing to "soldier on") if it means that I and my colleagues still have jobs trying to teach our students. I didn't get into this for the money to begin with, quite obviously. Having said that, everyone I work with at my school (and I'm reasonably sure this is true in most schools) does a much needed job in trying to educate our students. Any one who knows me knows I think education has been underfunded in a major way for years, and that educators as a group are vastly underpaid and unappreciated. So... since I've put up with that scenario for years, what's a couple of years more...



The next few years will be interesting, and I'm reminded of the supposed curse "may you live in interesting times" when I say that...


The NFL combine is going on this weekend, and I'm just not as excited about it as I used to be. Maybe because I seen enough football to know that how much a person can bench press is nice, even helpful...but in the end a young man will prove whether or not he can play in the NFL on the field...not in the gym...just saying...




All I have to do to realize that my problems are minor is check the news about Haiti and Chile, and then I know that I have no cause to complain...

Interesting Science article from NYT

End of 2009 musings...

It's a funny thing, in many ways I've always considered my new years and end of years to run concurrent with my school years, in other words, from August to July. This is because I've spend most of my life in schools, either as a student or an educator (and many years as both), so I don't always put the same empasis on Dec. 31st-Jan. 1st that a lot of other folks I know do. Still, this has been quite a strange and up and down calendar year - this 2009, and I can't say that I'm sorry to see it go and 2010 arrive. For that matter I"m also kind of happy to see the decade end (and yes, I know you purists consider 2001-2010 to be a decade, good for you but I'm going with 2000-2009, just like I consider 1930-1939 to be the "thirties" for instance, so there). Don't get me wrong, a lot of good things happened both in my personal life and in the world in general during the past decade and the past year, but...all things considered, I'm ready to move on.
A little retrospect is always good however, and I'm thankful for a lot - my family, my job, my co-workers, my books, my political party's electoral victories at the end of the decade. Despite some setbacks for both my family and my country, I'm fairly optimistic about the future.
On the book side I ran across some new authors (to me at least) in the previous years, some new major favorites now include fantasy wirters Neil Gaiman, and Terry Pratchett, historical fiction writer (and fellow Pulp lover) Paul Malmont, Hellboy creator Mike Mignola, sports writers Peter King, and Stewart Mandel, historical fiction writer Norah Lofts, and Pulitzer Prize winners Junot Diaz and Edward P. Jones both of whose works opened my eyes to new places and cultures. A good decade, and final year especially for reading. As the year ends I'm reading Terry Pratchett's Sourcery while trying to convert my family to become fans of the Discworld.
Physically, I'm trying to make the change from couch potato to moving being, encouragement is always welcome. I did start my wii fit profile today, at my daughter's urging, and took a short walk in the rain. We'll see how the new year goes.
The "animal whisperer" and the "teen age vegetarian moralist" are arguing, make that discussing the best strategies to use in playing Assassin's Creed II. "Shoot the flying demon!" "Here, let me do it!" "No, play it on your own dang file!" "Argghh..." Aw, the joys of being a parent. The "saint" (as I call my harried spouse) as retired to the relative quiet of our bedroom to read her Christmas present Under the Dome - I think I'll take my Discworld tale of Rincewind and his misadventures and join her. Good night all. Possibly more notes on the past year tomorrow, including my addiction to Facebook in general and Mafia Wars in particular...

Who Lincoln Was | The New Republic

Sean Wilentz has an excellent article on Lincoln. Here's the link,
Who Lincoln Was | The New Republic

Here I stand; I can do no other. God help me. Amen

Just so there's no doubt.
I love everybody, even those folks who attack, argue or do thinks to provoke ire. I have lots of friends who don't agree with me on things such as politics, religion, literature, etc. but as far as I'm concerned they are still and always will be friends.
Having said that, there are some things I probably need to post to clear any misunderstandings.

1. I'm a Christian, but I don't think you have to go to church to be saved, and I don't accept the conservative right wing litmus test (whatever it is this week, month, year, etc.) See Luke 4:18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised," summed up as "help others".
(And don't start about abortion. I'm pro-life, but we've had GOP Presidents galore since 1981 along with GOP controlled Congresses. Voting for them did nothing to lower the abortion rate. Voting for Democrats who help the poor did.

2. I voted for President Obama in 2008 and plan to do so again. I'm grateful every day to God that he is President. However I AM ASHAMED of my votes for Reagan in 80 and 84, and for Bush in 2000 and 2004. I know a bunch of my friends and former students and Facebook buddies who agree with me, and I know a bunch who don't. That's fine, but don't expect that telling me to listen to Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh or calling the President names will change my mind.

3. The Georgia Legislature should apologize for slavery and segregation. It really doesn't matter that much any more, but it would be a nice symbol and the right thing to do. Since it's the correct thing to do, I don't expect the Georgia Legislature to EVER do it, since they prefer to do the wrong thing as much as possible.

4. Our health care system is messed up and needs to be improved. It would be nice if what's left of the GOP could actually admit to this, but they won't.

5. I sometimes wish that the so called libertarians could get what they wish, and that we have no public schools, no publicly funded roads, no public police protection, no public fire departments, etc. After all, all that stuff is "Socialism" gasp, cough, gasp...I guess this would make them happy, you know, like living back in 1877 or 1859 when things were the "good ole days"...
Myself, I agree with the progressives like Theodore Roosevelt that some government is much better than the fantasy world of the Sara Palins and Joe the Plumbers...

6. I'm willing to debate anything, but what passes for debate on the web nowadays is simply name calling, usually juvenile, hateful, profane and racist (or "raciest" as a guy called me the other day).

7. I believe education is the key to a better world, and encourage everyone to read as much as possible, but read all viewpoints, not just a few. Having said that, education is not a panacea however. There will never be perfection in this world...

8. I don't believe we are anywhere near the "end times". I know loved ones who disagree, but since the world is a million times better off now than it was in, say 600 AD (CE) or 1348, or 999, or 1861 I'm just not convinced...

9. I don't think letting gay folks get married threatens my marriage in any way, shape, form or fashion. I'm a romantic at heart, and all for true love. Period.

10. If you don't agree with me on these, you can either (1) continue to be my friend and disagree with me (this is my preference) or (2) quit speaking to me or befriending me - I'm tender hearted, this will probably hurt my feelings for a minute or two, but then I'll survive. I'll still keep you in my prayers.

11. If you're a fan of Pulp magazines, adventure, fantasy, hard boiled mysteries, comedy, humor, good books, cats, dogs, movies, football, college and high school wrestling, track and field, music (especially the blues, rock, or classical), and life and other people in general, then we can probably find enough in common to continue to enjoy each other's real life and virtual (Facebook, etc.) company...

Best wishes regardless,
Steven

Flashman

I've recently started re-reading the Flashman books, in no particular order. Just finished "Flashman and the Mountain of Light" set during the First Anglo-Sikh War (1845-46). I enjoyed it, though of the twelve Flashman books I'd have to place in the bottom six as far as my favorites go. I've realized that all my favorite books have Elspeth in them, even if only for a short spell. If I had to rank the books in order of my favorites, it would probably be thus:

Flashman and the Angel of the Lord - no. 1. This is the book I'm currently re-reading, and it's just as good as I remembered, from the opening scene of Flashman playing with his great grandchildren and reminiscing with them about famed abolitionist John Brown, till the climax at Harper's Ferry, this is, imo, the best of all the Flashman books.

Flashman - no. 2. To me, the very first book in the series is still one of my favorite reads. I've lost count of how many times I've re-read it, but it has to be approaching double digits.

Flashman's Lady - no. 3 The excerpts from Elspeth's diary are priceless, and I wish Frasier had written more adventures with her in them or at least her viewpoints.

(to be continued)

Finally...Summer

Summer is finally here for the Hollywood household. The animal whisperer completed summer school, and we get to go on vacation for a few days...all I can say is "Yay!"

Analysis: Powell flap gets GOP to ask 'What kind of party ar

Colin Powell stirred up the Republican Party's very public internal debate about the direction of the party and asserted it's losing because it doesn't appeal to moderates like him.

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I think I've got it now...

I think I've finally got it now...after years of listening to talk radio and reading the right wing bloggers...

1. Everything is Obama's fault...conversely nothing is the fault of George Bush, except that he was just too damn liberal...(i.e. NOT a true conservative)...
2. Pure free market capitalism would solve everything. If you don't believe that then you must read Ayn Rand and F. A. Hayek followed by Neal Boortz...Repeat as often as necessary...
3. Affirmative Action is apparently much, Much worse racism than oh...say...the lynchings of the 20th century...
4. Huge deficits to fund foreign wars such as the one in Iraq will NOT have to be paid off by our grandchildren, but apparently any money spent now on education or infrastructure WILL have to be paid off by our grandchildren...I mention this because some are silly enough try to say that deficits run up under Republicans count, while it is obvious that ONLY deficits run up under evil Socialist Democrats count...
5. "Government" has NEVER accomplished anything...Moon landing - doesn't count; Federal Highway system - doesn't count; World War II effort - doesn't count; and so on...

And yes, for those of you who voted Republican in 2008 and think it was a good decision, I AM being sarcastic in all the above...

I could go on, but I think most folks will get my point. There is a mind set in this country that will never accept anything that doesn't square with their so called conservative beliefs. I say so called conservatives because the modern day right are not true conservatives in the sense of the word that Russell Kirk and William F. Buckley, Jr. ever were. No, today's right wingers want to undo most of the changes in this country since the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. A return to the "good old days" is what they claim will solve all our problems. For a realistic look at what America was like in the "good old days" of 1919 I suggest they (and everyone else) spend some time reading "Savage Peace: Hope and Fear in America, 1919" by Ann Hagedorn after reading the usual right wing gospels of Rand and Hayek and Limbaugh and Boortz. It might open some eyes.
My closing point, this is a great country not because it is perfect or anointed of God. It has been great to this point because of people who have loved it while still recognizing it's flaws and trying to correct them. People such as Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Frances Perkins, Ida B. Wells, and Martin Luther King, Jr. to name just a few...
As for the present cast of right wing "heroes" such as Tom Tancredo, Eric Johnson, Rush Limbaugh, Mark Sanford, and Rick Perry...I'd enjoy it if they all moved to a country more to their liking so that the remainder of us Americans can actually try to show our love for our country by trying to work to help it and to (yes) improve it. Just saying...

Another one down

Hard to believe that 2008 is almost over, and 2009 just days away. If you had predicted many of the year's events 12 months ago, I'm sure many folks (including yours truly) would have have scoffed. Barack Obama the new president elect? The Miami Dolphins division champs? The Atlanta Falcons in the playoffs, with a rookie quarterback no less? The worst economic scenario in years, possibly decades?

No, I wouldn't have predicted any of the above. Having said that though, I'm hopeful about the upcoming year. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas or Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa, and I hope all of you have a Happy New Year.

Good bye November (personal asides)

Well, the month of November is almost over, along with it comes the end of my Thanksgiving holiday. Wish I could say I had been more productive, but overall it was a good month. Mother-in-law and grandmother-in-law came to visit for a short week the first of the month, and we had a good time with them, if they do destroy me at cards whenever we get together!

A good month at work, with some positive changes at school. Most important to me is that a new Counselor co worker came on board, and she's been a blessing.

On the work out line, both the teen age moralist vegetarian and myself have fallen off the wagon so to speak. Definitely need to hit the gym. In his defense I will say that he's taken several long distance walks lately, so at least one of us hasn't been a total loss.

The animal whisperer is surviving middle school, and like her sibling turning into a pretty good writer. I'm proud of both of them, perhaps they will have the self discipline their old man lacks.

The saint survived the month, but the stress of Christmas time is fast approaching. She both loves and dreads this month, perhaps I should actually help with the Christmas decorations this year...

On the personal indulgement side, I've watched some really good college football games (last night's Oklahoma - Oklahoma State contest was particularly good - even though I was kind of rooting for the underdog). I am very disappointed to see Sylvester Croom resign from Mississippi State though. He was (and is) a class act and I think something is wrong with college athletics when a good man like him has to resign while the Bobby Petrinos and Lou Sabans thrive - nothing against them personally - but I'd rather my child be coached by Croom or someone like him if he/she was in college sports.

It has been nice to see the Atlanta Falcons return to a competitive level in pro football. I think GM Thomas Dimitroff and Head Coach Mike Smith are class acts too, and I'm happy to root for the Birds this year.

On the writing side nothing to report of any substance. November was a good month for reading however. Read my first book by Christopher Buckley with the new "Supreme Courtship" and slso my first book by David Sedaris with "Me Talk Pretty One Day". Loved the first, thought the second was ok, although I'm willing to check out more by Sedaris, and definitely looking forward to reading more Buckley.

On the Pulp Magazine era retrospective personal list I've read most of the University of Nebraska Press Bison Books Frontiers of Imagination Series re-issue of Clark Ashton Smith's "Lost Worlds". I'd forgotten how much I really really like CAS, especially his Hyperborea and Averoigne stories.

Thanksgiving 2008

I'm really thankful for a vast number of things this year, foremost my family, followed by my good friends and co-workers (two groups that overlap a great deal). My health is a little better, I still have a job, a roof over my head, food to eat, and a few good books.
On a more mundane level, I'm really thankful for some small things, like:

Facebook - I really like this social network, even though it contributes to a lot of time wasting, but I keep telling myself I could be doing worse things...

Planet Stories publishers - Any group that prints old great stuff like the works of Robert E. Howard, C. L. Moore, Leigh Brackett, Henry Kuttner, Otis Adelbert Kline, and others is alright in my book. I really really love these guys...

My bosses - both the ones at home and the ones at work - I'm serious about this...cause I've lived through other principals and significant others who were much harder to please...

The Jonesboro branch of the Clayton County, Ga. library system, along with the interlibrary loan pines system that they use. A nicer bunch of people with a better selection of free books is impossible to find out there. I know...

The Atlanta Falcons are winning again!! Who'd a thunk it??

Dishnetwork tv, along with that little thingie that allows you to pause and / or record. Oh, and for my children who know how to work it...

A Good Week

Not a bad last 7 days in all.

Debate Thoughts

Interesting that the debate of Friday night seems to have changed few minds. I thought Obama was clearly the more Presidential of the two candidates, and in my mind won the debate, although it seemed to me that McCain did get in a few zingers along the way. Of course in corresponding with some of my friends who are McCain supporters they had a completely different take on things, feeling that McCain won. Probably what matters most are two things, first, how the undecideds perceived the debate and second, how the public/media/blogger etc. buzz puts a spin on things, cause there are few things I believe in more than self fulfilling prophecies.

With those points in mind, it seems that early results are tending in Obama's favor, but I think it's still too early to tell. Like most of those in the country who are interested in politics, I can't wait for the Biden-Palin debate coming up next week. I'm planning on making a point of watching that one as well.

New Blog for Book Reviews

I've decided to put all my future book and movie reviews on a seperate blog from this one, the new blog is entitled "Coach's Reviews" and the link is
http://coachhollywood67reviews.blogspot.com/
which can also be found on my profile on this blog.

Review of "Pulsifer: A Fable" by Wm. Michael Mott

This is a really good read. The main character is a "rogue" in the model of other literary rogues such as Jack Vance's Cugel the Clever and George Macdonald Fraser's Harry Flashman. Many of his adventures and misadventures are the result of his own machinations. Despite this, I found myself caught up in the story and actually caring about what Pulsifer did or what happened to him, which to me is the mark of a good storyteller.
The fantasy world in which the action takes place is a continent surrounded and threatened by encroaching ice, where magic works, and science has been forgotten. The story is reminiscent of Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique and Jack Vance's The Dying Earth series, high class company indeed, but Mott pulls the whole thing off with his own imagination. I highly recommend this one to anyone who enjoys fantasy and adventure.

Belated thoughts on the US Olympic Track and Field Trials

As always, this was a great track meet. I think holding it in Eugene, Oregon was a plus, as there's probably not a town in America more supportive of Track and Field. As always happens, some favorites didn't make the team, either because of injury or having an off day. This year's prime example was probably Tyson Gay defending world champion in the 100 and 200 meter sprints. Gay is a supremely talented athlete, who apparently works hard, isn't afraid to compete against his rivals unlike some sprinters of the past, and just seems to be a class act and nice guy from the interviews I've read. He made the team in the 100 meters, but pulled up lame in a 200 race, so he won't running that event (which is arguably his best perhaps) in Beijing. This mishap has ignited what seems to be an every four years debate regarding how the U.S.A. selects it's track teams. Those who don't like our system of only taking the top three in each event, based on the trials races/events only, always point to something like this and complain that we are leaving our best people off the team. Their proposed solution is usually some way of allowing a top ranked athlete a guaranteed spot on the team in case of a mishap such as the one that affected Gay in the 200.
And they're probably right.
However, the key word here is probably.
Gay, defending world champion in the 200 is a great runner, but there is still no guarantee that he would have beaten first place finisher Walter Dix, or second place finisher Shawn Crawford, or third placer Wallace Spearmon in the 200 if he had not been injured. Indeed Spearmon said as much after the race. And if you think that Gay should have been guaranteed a spot on the team in the 200, what do you say about Crawford, who is the defending Gold Medalist from the 2004 Athens games? Or Dix, who is a rising young star and national collegiate champion and who actually won the trials race? Or Spearmon, who has medaled in the 200 in both the 2005 and 2007 World Championships, and just happens to have the fourth fastest legal time in history for the event? Which one of these athletes would you kick off the team for a guaranteed spot for Gay?
My answer would be that you don't. You go with the top three placers in the trials, just like always. That's the fairest most objective way. No one can claim politics, or favoritism, etc. that way. You're one of the top three, you're on the team and may the best person win in a similar winner take all format at the Olympics themselves. First place? You get a Gold Medal, and so on.
I wasn't alive in 1948, but there's a classic story about the 1948 games that I think pertains to this debate. Harrison Dillard was the all out favorite to win the 110 Meter High Hurdles and go to the 1948 London Olympics and win the Gold in that event. In the trials, Dillard (you guessed it) failed to place in the top three and didn't get to race in the 110 Hurdles. However, the United States still took all three medals in the event, thanks to William Porter, Clyde Scott and Craig Dixon.
As for Dillard? Well, he did make the 1948 team in his second event, the 100 Meter Dash, in which he was manifestly not the favorite, having barely made the team by placing third in that event. What happened in London? Dillard won the 100 meters, beating out the favorites. He also won another Gold medal as part of the 4 X 110 relay team. In 1952 he made the team finally as a hurdler, won the Gold and took another Gold as a member once again of the 4 X 110 relay team. The point of the story isn't that he should have been on the 1948 team as hurdler but was kept off due to a poor trials performance. The point is that the beauty of Olympic track competition like most athletic competition is that favorites don't always win, and sometimes heroics come from those from who we least expect it. I'll be rooting for Tyson Gay in the 100 if he makes the final, but I'll also be rooting for Dix, Crawford, and / or Spearmon if any of them make the 200 final, because they all deserve to be on the team.

Del Toro's golden touch illuminates 'Hellboy II'

In Hellboy II: The Golden Army (* * * out of four), the giant crimson daredevil is a snarky bad-boy superhero taunted and misunderstood by the masses. This weekend, the cigar-chomping, beer-swilling big guy faces off with another reviled superhero: Hancock.Hellboy wins pretty much hands down.

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Hellboy Heats Up the Superhero - TIME

The clamor of moviegoers to be the first to see the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight — theaters that scheduled midnight shows next Thursday have added others at 3 and 6 a.m. — proves that superheroes are plenty hot these days. But one of our favorites is downright infernal. That would be Hellboy. A demon summoned to Earth by Nazi scientists in 1944

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Love in the time of the Great Pulp Magazine era

I'm in love. With my dear wife of course. That one is a constant. I'm talking about a book here as a new found object of my affections. About once every few years I find a book or author that I just simply find amazing. As a kid it was Edgar Rice Burroughs "Tarzan of the Apes", then J. R. R. Tolkein's "The Hobbit", next Robert E. Heinlein's "Citizen of the Galaxy", and Ray Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles" - later on it was Robert E. Howard's "Conan the Conqueror". Later still it was Jack Vance's "The Dying Earth" and Karl Edward Wagner's "Death Angel's Shadow". In college it was David Morrell's "First Blood" and Raymond Chandler's "Farewell, My Lovely". Adulthood (am I an adult? opinions vary) brought the discovery of different types of authors such as Ken Kesey's "Sometimes A Great Notion", Paul Auster's "City of Glass", Ursula K. LeGuin's "A Wizard of Earthsea", Jane Austen with "Pride and Prejudice" Fredric Brown's "The Fabulous Clipjoint" and P. G. Wodehouse with the Jeeves short stories. I could go on, but probably should have stopped a bit back. If you get the feeling that I love certain books to the point of obsession, then you'd be correct. I don't know of any other way to describe the feeling of discovering a new great author though...

The point is, I've started reading a book that ranks up there with these others in terms of the effect it has had on me. I just started it recently, but it is so good I literally have to force myself to put it down and go do other things, otherwise I'd get nothing done but read it. Of course, it is summer so I guess that's ok...

The book I'm raving about is "The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril" by Paul Malmont. It's set in 1937 about the time of H. P. Lovecraft's death, and besides Lovecraft includes Walter Gibson (author of The Shadow novels), Lester Dent (author of the Doc Savage novels), L. Ron Hubbard (a pulp author before he came up with Scientology), E. E. "Doc" Smith (noted pulp science fiction author) and others. If that doesn't sound interesting to you let me assure anyone who loves a good read that you don't have to be a fan of the old pulp authors to love this book, which so far is well written and interesting. The rivalries between authors, most of whom were writing like crazy just to eat during the Depression, (a great incentive in defeating 'writer's block' one would imagine) along with Malmont's gift at storytelling and portraying various characters realistically make this a compelling story once you get into it, which for me was by page 2.

Still it does help to be interested in the days when heroes like Doc Savage and The Shadow and Conan and Sam Spade and others were the only entertainment many folks had. I'm up to episode (chapter) 7 of the book and I hope to finish in the next day or two, at which time I'll post a review. I'd probably have finished it already but the Olympic Trials track meet took up much of my attention over the weekend (more on that later), so I'm behind on promised reviews of Charles R. Saunders' "Imaro" and "Imaro II", as well as Manly Wade Wellman's "Hok the Mighty", not to mention a bit of promised housework and some minor paperwork that I told my bosses (under duress) that I'd drive in and do at school soon. Hopefully my wife and Principal Ben will understand that Walter Gibson's quest to find out what happened to his good friend H. P. Lovecraft take precedence. Meanwhile my daughter is crying for the computer, so I guess I'll just go back to "The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril"... When I last left Ron Hubbard had just called a meeting of the American Fiction Guild to order, a group including Cornell Woolrich (of Rear Window fame) whose mother attends most meetings with him...not that there's anything wrong with that...

Everything Old is New Again Again

Back in the 1960's I discovered the world of the Pulp Magazine fantasy authors. Thanks to Ace, Ballantine, Lancer, and some other paperback publishers I was introduced to the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, H. P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith, among others. Later on I would come across even more writers from the heydays of the pulp magazines, such as Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and other masters of the hard boiled detective genre. I could name drop for a long time, but anyone who has read these authors knows that they were the trailblazers for many of today's mystery, horror, science fiction, and fantasy authors.

Now it seems that the influence of the pulp masters has even gone mainstream, with the works of Michael Chabon, Paul Malmont, William F. Nolan, Walter Satterthwait, and numerous other writers even using famous pulp authors as characters in their novels. Pulp reprints of stories of famed Pulp Magazine Era characters such as Doc Savage, The Shadow, C. L. Moore's Northwest Smith and Jirel of Joiry, along with the works of authors such as Robert E. Howard, Henry Kuttner, Leigh Brackett, Jack Williamson, Edmond Hamilton and H. P. Lovecraft can be found in most bookstores and certainly online. Printing firms such as Haffner Press and Planet Stories are reprinting the works of many of the great science fiction and fantasy authors, while Crippen and Landru reprints many of the great hard boiled mystery writers from the days of Black Mask Magazine and other hard boiled pulps.

And all of this is isn't even to mention new movies coming out in the Pulp tradition, such as the new Indiana Jones, Hellboy II, The Mummy:Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, and 10,000 B. C. just to name a few. The movement isn't just about reprinting old classics, or movies, or a few "mainstream" authors. There are a host of new rising writers who are contributing to the field and many of them are quite talented, such as Wm. Michael Mott, Bill Cunningham, William R. Jones, Angeline Hawkes,Peter Mark May, just to name a very few that spring to mind off hand. And these are just some of the ones I'm aware of, and having been out of the loop for a while, I'm sure there are many more.

The point is that the Pulps (and we can discuss later what that term means in a literary sense) are back and I know I'm a very happy camper about it. When I can explain to my daughter how her "Haunting Ground" game and her favorite graphic novel "Hellboy" are both full of influences from the Pulps such as Weird Tales and the "Shudder" Pulps, and that much of the background story for Haunting Ground and Resident Evil 4 (her other fave) comes right out of the Gothic tradition going back to "The Castle of Otranto" and she actually thinks it's a neat thing to discuss with nerdy old dad, then I can have hope for the younger generation.

Singular Points blog site and Manly Wade Wellman's barbarian

Fellow Blogger Charles R. Rutledge has written an excellent post on one of Manly Wade Wellman's barbarian characters Kardios. I've just discovered Charles blog site Singular Points, and I highly recommend it.

Summer Reading

My official summer vacation actually finally starts Monday, June 16. Among the plans this summer are to clean sweep the house, haul away most of our "stuff" that we really don't need. Somewhere along the way I have some ambitious reading plans. I've been in a sort of escapist mood for some reason, fantasy and pulp authors holding the interest for the time being. Here are some of the books I've got on the night stand:

Imaro, by Charles R. Saunders

Imaro 2: The Quest for Cush, by Charles R. Saunders

The Third Cry to Legba and Other Invocations : The Selected Stories of Manly Wade Wellman (Vol. 1) (Selected Stories of Manly Wade Wellman)

Echoes of Valor II, edited by Karl Edward Wagner

Frost, by Donald Wandrei

Hok the Mighty, by Manly Wade Wellman

Some of these are new reads, some are rereads of old favorites. I'll review each as I complete them, for anyone interested.

Hope everyone is having a great summer. Is it football season yet?

After slavery, servitude | ajc.com

The Journal-Constitution last week assembled a remarkable group to discuss a remarkable book: "Slavery by Another Name: The Re-enslavement of Black Americans From the Civil War to World War II."The new book documents a South unknown to many - a place in which white sheriffs, politicians and businessmen got rich by enslaving thousands of black men

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The Story of Barack Obama's Mother

Each of us lives a life of contradictory truths. We are not one thing or another. Barack Obama's mother was at least a dozen things. S. Ann Soetoro was a teen mother who later got a Ph.D. in anthropology; a white woman from the Midwest who was more comfortable in Indonesia; a natural-born mother obsessed with her work; a romantic pragmatist

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McCain's bizarre reluctance on the new GI Bill

Why McCain won't support a bipartisan bill on education benefits for veterans. He has said that he supports better educational benefits for veterans, but why won't he co-sponsor a bill that would do just that?

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Some (unsolicited) advice for the Atlanta Falcons

Draft a lineman first! Jake Long, Glenn Dorsey, Chris Long, Sedrick Ellis - the guy from Ohio State, just please please go after a lineman!

The old GOP used to include moderates-Leonard Pitts-Miami H

Good article by Leonard Pitts of the Miami Herald regarding conservative takeover of GOP and the party's failure to convince African Americans that conservative Republicans have their best interest at heart. He has an excellent quote to begin article: "This is for those who think I forgot the Civil Rights Act of 1964."

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Ron Cook: This Rooney book is a must-read

For those interested in the Pittsburgh Steelers and their history, there's an upcoming book by Art Rooney Jr. entitled "Ruanaidh" -- that's Rooney in Gaelic -- which is due out later this month. A memoir that tells all the inner workings behind the scenes of the famous football family and dynasty.

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Why I'm supporting Hillary (for right now)

I was at a counseling conference for the last two days (which I really thought was worthwhile, but I'll get to that in another post) and had a chance to interact with some colleagues that I rarely see because they work at another school. One of them used to work with me at my present school a few years ago, back when I was a Republican (or RINO - Republican in Name Only - as I was later informed by another blogger, but I digress). At any rate my friend was surprised that I had changed political allegiances, but she didn't seem upset until the subject came around to Hillary Clinton. "There's no way I could vote for her!" When told that I'm supporting Ms. Clinton for the moment, my friend burst out "What does your wife say?!"
For the record, my sainted spouse is not a Hillary fan either, nor is my teenage philosopher son. My daughter voices the possibility that she might could possibly support Hillary under certain circumstances, but as she finds politcs boring (and can't vote for Pres until the 2016 election) I find myself pretty much alone in my own household.
My support for Hilary up to this point, basically rests on her Senate career. It seems that she is a good Senator, willing to do the work needed to get legislative results and find common ground with those across the aisle. To me this indicated a pragmatism that I think our next President will need. Of course, it could also be a good argument for keeping her in the Senate and electing someone else, such as Obama...

Gimme 5: Things to know about Falcons GM Thomas Dimitroff

AJC article on New England Patriot vice President Scott Pioli interview in which he tells 5 important things to know about Falcons GM Thomas Dimitroff.

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Another 'Morehouse Man' reaching for the stars

Good article by AJC columnist on Genarlow Wilson starting his college education at Morehouse.

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Cynthia Tucker | ajc.com The myth of color blindness

The myth of color blindness: Cultural biases are embedded in us unawares - op ed article by AJC columnist Cynthia Tucker.

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Of Rants Never Written

For the longest time (or so it seems) I've been remiss in actually posting any personal thoughts to the blog. Plenty of DIGG story links, but nary a opinionated peep. Lots of reasons (excuses really) - the blues, work and home responsibilities, the trouble of having one computer in a four person household, - the list could go on.
It's not like there hasn't been a lot out there to raise my ire and blood pressure. Here are just a few that I should have spoken out on:
(1) The failure of the NCAA and division 1 colleges to consider hardly any minority candidates for head coaching positions in college football, a travesty that continues seemingly unabated.
(2) The fervent desire among a certain segment of Republicans who want to self destruct over the immigration issue, even to the point of refusing to nominate anyone remotely electable. Of course, as my son the teen age philosopher pointed out, this will probably be good for us Democrats in the next year.
(3) The chaos of the Atlanta Falcons and their search for a new head coach.
(4) Facebook vs. Myspace - what does your preference say about you?
(5) Life with cats and teenagers, also crazy dogs...
Stay tuned, perhaps the muse will return...

Players are partners in Rex Ryan's Ravens 'D'

Profile of Baltimore Ravens Defensive coach Rex Ryan.

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Commentary: Fantasy Christmas gift: Self-deporting immigran

SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- For Christmas, nearly a dozen readers sent me the same gift, an article about goings on in the Southwest: "Illegal immigrants packing up and leaving Arizona."

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John Woodruff, 92; Won A Gold in Hitler's Berlin

John Woodruff, 92, who helped refute Adolf Hitler's theories of Aryan racial supremacy with his dramatic gold-medal victory in the 800-meter run at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, died Oct. 30 at an assisted living facility in Fountain Hills, Ariz.

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George Orwell's supressed preface to Animal Farm

I know that the English intelligentsia have plenty of reason for their timidity and dishonesty, indeed I know by heart the arguments by which they justify themselves. But at least let us have no more nonsense about defending liberty against Fascism. If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.

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Mississippi State's defense, late TD beat Central Florida

Mississippi State wins Liberty Bowl, beats Central Florida 10 - 3.

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Al Oerter, Olympic Discus Champion, Is Dead at 71

Al Oerter was a discus thrower who became the first modern track and field athlete to win four consecutive Olympic titles in one event.

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John Woodruff, an Olympian, Dies at 92

John Woodruff’s halting, come-from-behind victory in the 800-meter run in the 1936 Berlin Olympics astonished the sports world and helped embarrass Adolf Hitler.

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Group hopes to find mass grave of 1905 lynching victims | ajc.com

In Watkinsville, Ga. a group hopes to find the mass grave of victims of a 1905 lynching.

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Croom has Mississippi State on track this season

Defying critics, MSU football coach Sylvester Crooms has found success for this team this season.

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A famed detective reaches the end

When the world first met Easy Rawlins, he was 28. It was post-World War II Los Angeles -- a city full of opportunity and without a long history -- not a bad place to be for a smart, confident black man. Fired from his job, Easy was in need of fast cash to pay his mortgage. So he agreed to find a missing blonde, and his adventures began.

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The Birth Order Predictor Test

You Are Likely a First Born

At your darkest moments, you feel guilty. At work and school, you do best when you're researching. When you love someone, you tend to agree with them often. In friendship, you are considerate and compromising. Your ideal careers are: business, research, counseling, promotion, and speaking. You will leave your mark on the world with discoveries, new information, and teaching people to dream.

The Birth Order Predictor

Some Random Thoughts

One of the main reasons I left the Republican party and eventually joined the Democratic party was that the conservative wing of the GOP just became meaner and meaner over the years. When they complained that George Bush was too liberal I knew it was time to find a new home. The same crowd is now attacking GOP Presidential contender and hopeful Mike Huckabee because he's not hateful enough for them, and because over the years when he was Governor of Arkansas he actually worked in a bipartisan way with that state's Democratic legislators to sometimes use government to help others (gasp! didn't he know government never did anything good!). Here's a good article by Roger Simon on how the rabid right wing doesn't like Huckabee because he's not conservative enough. For the record I disagree with candidate Huckabee on several issues, but he seems a decent human being who actually stands on principle, which puts him way ahead of the other GOP candidates.

Now that Missippi State University's football team is only one win away from being bowl eligible, due in no small part to Coach Sylvester Croom's coaching in the face of multiple injuries and a killer schedule, what are all those Croom haters with their "fire Coach Croom" websites going to do now?

Thank God the Georgia Supreme Court saw fit to free Genarlow Wilson, even if it was only by 4 - 3 vote. Now how about the other people unjustly in jail due to Georgia's draconian idiotic sex offender laws?

I thought I'd seen everything in a lifetime of playing, coaching and watching sports. But this play with 15 laterals used to score a last second touchdown in the Trinity - Millsaps collegiate football game is one of the most amazing things I've ever seen in sports.

In closing have a happy halloween tomorrow. I plan to give out candy and reread H. P. Lovecraft's "The Call of Cthulhu" myself.

Coaches Sylvester Croom and Rich Brooks winners both.

Both MSU Coach Sylvester Crooms and Kentucky Coach Rich Brooks have proven themselves winners.

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Genarlow Wilson is free ... but others are not | ajc.com

Georgia law still punishes teens for consensual sex, with long prison sentences and lifelong listing as a sex offender, making no distinction between teen agers and older predatory molesters. AJC op ed article asking for the Georgia legislature to start making distinctions and retroactively freeing other "Genarlow Wilsons".

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Genarlow Wilson released | ajc.com

The Georgia Supreme Court voted 4 - 3 to release Genarlow Wilson today. He was a serving a 10 year sentence and facing life as registered sex offender for having consensual sex with another teenager when he was only 17 and the other teen was 15.

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Andrea Batista Schlesinger: Don't Give Lou Dobbs a License to Kill Spitzer'

Instead of a rational debate over pros and cons of Governor Spitzer's proposals, Lou Dobbs go on his usual tirade of name calling and hate mongering. Schlesinger calls him on it with this well reasoned and written article.

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Class Act returns to Nebraska 10-20-07

My dear sister in law lives near Omaha, Nebraska with her family, and through that connection I became a Nebraska fan in the 1990's. I'd followed the Cornhuskers ever since I saw them play in the what I and many others consider the greatest college football game ever played, the Thanksgiving, 1971 classic in which Nebraska beat Oklahoma 35-31. I was actually rooting for the Sooners in that game because I was a fan of Oklahoma running back Greg Pruitt and quarterback Jack Mildren. However I remember being impressed with Nebraska great Johnny Rodgers play that day, along with the defense of Nebraska lineman Rich Glover.

My favorite memory from watching the Huskers in the 90's and rooting for them along with my wife's dear sister and her family is the Fiesta Bowl in which the 1995 Nebraska team dominated Steve Spurrier and Florida by a score of 62 - 24, and trust me, the game wasn't really even that close.

Lately though, the Huskers have fallen on hard times. I quit rooting for them when Head Coach Frank Solich was fired after going 9 - 3 in 2003. I remember that their new coach Bill Callahan didn't impress me when he took over, not so much because he wanted to change to a more modern offense, but because he seemed arrogant and dismissive of some of the people and traditions that had paved the way for Nebraska's previous success. I remember something in particular about his doing away with a time honored walk on program for Nebraksa high schoolers who didn't earn scholarships. As time went on it appeared that many die hard true Nebraska fans (not just an outside observer like myself) didn't care much for Callahan either.

Fast forward to today, Nebraska has fired Athletic Director Steve Pederson, former coach Tom Osborne has been hired as an interim AD, and Callahan's job is probably toast come the end of this season. Jason King has an excellent article on the return of class act Osborne (whom I rooted for in his unsuccessful run for Nebraska Governor back in 2006) and the scandalous way that Callahan and Pederson treated former players over the last few years. Since taking over Osborne has said all the right things and taken steps to restore the dignity and class of the Huskers public relations and football program. I wish him and the football team well, but I won't really be rooting for them again until they get a new coach.

Kentucky Stuns Top-Ranked LSU in 3 OTs

University of Kentucky football team Stuns Top-Ranked LSU in 3 OTs

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Go Wildcats!!! Special kudos and a shout out to number 17, E. J. Adams of Gwinnett County, Georgia.

Terence Moore: Tomlin

College Football still not committing to diversity in hiring of head coaches.

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Terrence Moore is one of the better sports columnists writing today. He reminds me a little of the late great Ralph Wiley, who mixed commentary on American society and race relations in his sports writings. The best sports writers, such as Jerry Izenburg , Paul Zimmerman, and Pat Jordan do that, and Moore is fast becoming one of the best writers around. You might not know it if you read some of the comments and letters sent to the Atlanta Journal Constitution though, as there is apparently a segment of the Georgia population that virulently hates Moore, even if he writes something they agree with. My own take is that Moore is a talented, courageous writer, but some folks are going to hate him for being different from themselves. Moore is totally right on in this article, but then he usually is.

Why You Should Never Give Up on a Troubled Youth

Some very powerful stuff. Will definitely resonate with anyone who has - or has been - a troubled child.

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More October Reading - The Supremes, cont.

Some more suggested readings on the Supreme Court:

Clarence Thomas has an autobiography out, entitled My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir. Thomas is probably one of the most polarizing figures of our time, loved or hated, with few people ambivalent about him. He's also probably the most famous person on the court. I haven't read his memoir yet, but have it on my list. Regardless of your political persuasion, you should probably check this one out.

For another look at Thomas, here's a recent biography, Supreme Discomfort: The Divided Soul of Clarence Thomas, by Kevin Merida and Michael Fletcher. Some other biographies include Judging Thomas: The Life and Times of Clarence Thomas, by Ken Foskett; and First Principles: The Jurisprudence of Clarence Thomas by Scott Douglas Gerber. I doubt many minds will be changed by any of these books, but I do think that Thomas is a person that more Americans need to know about, since the odds are that he will be around a long time shaping Supreme Court decisions.

There are other justices on the Supreme Court who are authors, I would recommend in particular that everyone check out Active Liberty: Interpreting Our Democratic Constitution, by Justice Stephen Breyer, along with A Matter of Interpretation: Federal Courts and the Law, by Justice Antonin Scalia. Breyer is one of the court's more liberal justices, while Scalia is arguably one of the more conservative (along with Thomas) so reading the two of these works should give you a good idea of the competing judicial philosophies of the two groups.

Former justice Sandra Day O'Connor has written several books, some dealing with the court and some not. I'd recommend The Majesty of the Law: Reflections of a Supreme Court Justice for her thoughts on the court and other legal issues. She's also written a memoir of her early life entitled Lazy B: Growing Up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest, which was cowritten with H. Alan Day.

Hopefully some of you will get a chance to check out at least one of these titles. I'd be interested to hear what you think of any of them.

First Monday in October - some assigned readings

Note, this is an updated and more extensive list than the one I originally posted on myspace.com.

As everybody who took my steet law class knows (or should remember) the "First Monday in October" is when each yearly session of the Supreme Court of the United States starts. As that date is almost upon us, the old history teacher has some assigned reading (optional, of course - but the content will be on the test!) regarding our nation's highest court:

"The Dissenter" New York Times Article written by Jeffrey Rosen on the court's oldest justice John Paul Stevens.

"The Brethren" First published in the 1970's, still an excellent look at the inner workings of the court, and a good history lesson behind current issues still in the news, such as abortion and executive priviledge. Written by Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong.

"The Supreme Court: The Personalities and Rivalries That Defined America" As the title says, this is a history that shows how the personalities and relationships between justices has had an effect on law (and therefore our lives) since the founding days of the court. Written by Jeffrey Rosen, along with Thirteen/WNET.

"The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court" A look at the court and the men and women who have served on it over the past two decades. Written by Jeffrey Toobin.

"The Supremes' Greatest Hits: The 34 Supreme Court Cases That Most Directly Affect Your Life" A quick study of some of the major decisions of the court their practical relevance to you and me. Written by Michael G. Trachtman.

"A People's History of the Supreme Court: The Men and Women Whose Cases and Decisions Have Shaped Our Constitution (Revised Edition)" Written by Peter Irons. A populist look at how the court has dealt with the rights of minorities over its history.

"The Courage of Their Convictions: Sixteen Americans Who Fought Their Way to the Supreme Court" Also by Irons, a look at some individual court cases and the real life people behind the events that led to the SC's decisions.

"Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme Court" This book covers the Harriet Miers nomination and subsequent nomination and confirmation of Samuel Alito and the resulting changes for the Supreme Court. A very good book (as are all of the above) written by Jan Crawford Greenburg.

I could go on, but I'll stop here for now, though I'll probably have another list later in October. If you're not a reader (for heaven's sake, why not???!!) then you might at least want to rent a good little movie called "First Monday in October" and watch it. It gives a humorous look at court, but it came out in 1981 and basically predicted Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's elevation to the court (and it wasn't too far off on how her views subtly changed over time once she got on the court either). At any rate, a good movie, but try to read one of the books if you can. For those who are financially impaired like myself, try the local library, although I'm sure the authors would appreciate your buying a copy.

Best wishes, later,

Upset no. 3!!! Go Duke football! Duke 20 Northwestern 14 !!!

Being as how I always root for the underdog ( I once had a statue of Saint Jude, patron saint for lost causes on my desk) I've been quietly rooting for the Duke Blue Devils football team and their head coach Ted Roof to get a win or two under their belt. I was impressed with Roof back when he was with Georgia Tech.
When I woke up this morning scanning the college football scores on line, there it was!! Duke 20, Northwestern 14! Way to go Blue Devils!!! The only thing that could have made this weekend better would have been if Arkansas had beaten Lou Saban...oh, well, I guess you can't have everything.
Seriously, congratulations to Coach Roof and the football Blue Devils.

Go Wildcats!!! Upset no. 2 - Kentucky 40, 9th ranked Louisville 34

Another college team I'm following and supporting this year is the Kentucky Wildcats. I've actually been a closet Wildcats football fan ever since the time years ago when my hometown guy Bill Curry was their head coach and his wife was a history teacher at the school. I've liked present coach Rich Brooks ever since the days when he was with the Atlanta Falcons, and there's the personal connection as well. One of the defensive backs is the son of a good friend who used to work at my school with me.
Anyway, it was great to see the Wildcats beat 9th ranked Louisville in a barn burner last night 40 - 34. Way to go Kentucky Wildcats!

Go Bulldogs!!! (of the Mississippi State variety)

One of the collegiate football teams that I'm rooting for this year is Mississippi State. Two reasons, first I'm a big fan of Bulldog Head Coach Sylvester Crooms, whom I think is a real class act. Second, one of the defensive linemen for the team is the son of one of my best friends, a lady who teaches at my school. She's also a class act, as is her family.

Anyway, Mississippi State beat Auburn (at Auburn!) today 19-14 for their second win in a row. Here's a link:

Mississippi State 19, Auburn 14

Go Bulldogs! Of the Mississippi State variety, that is

A Bad Idea

It was a bad idea in 1980 for the United States. Ditto for the Soviet Union in 1984. Likewise for many of the African nations in 1976. I'm talking about boycotting the Olympic games of course. The idea of an Olympic boycott is spreading again due to China's human rights abuses at home and its support of oppresive regimes in Sudan, Myanmar and North Korea.
Some U.S. legislators are calling for a boycott, as are some Canadians . This has stirred some voices against the idea of a boycott as well, most notably in Germany.

My take is that boycotts never work. In fact, I think they are counterproductive. I remember watching the 1976 Montreal Olympics. My heroes from those games are John Walker, Lasse Viren, and Ivo van Damme, but they could just as easily have been Mike Boit, Miruts Yifter, and Filbert Bayi; all great African athletes who lost a chance to bring world attention to their respective countries and the plight of black South Africans suffering under apartheid by their NOT competing at Montreal. Likewise I thought the U. S. made a major mistake by not sending a team to the Moscow Olympics in 1980. Instead of changing Soviet policy at the time we simply gave them a propaganda coup by allowing them to claim that we were afraid to send a team.

And of course our past and present economic boycotts against countries such as Iraq, Cuba, North Korea and other countries have worked so well, right? No, actually in most cases, trade and interaction work more towards changing regimes than adopting boycotts and sanctions. I'm not saying that we shouldn't speak out against China's human rights policies - we should, but staying home from the 2008 Bejing Olympics won't help anyone in China or Sudan, while engaging in constructive engagement and reaching out through competing in events such as the Olympics (even as commercial and bloated as the Games have become) just might be of help in the long run.

Class Acts

This morning Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia won the New York City Half Marathon (thats 13.1 miles for the non track fans out there) in a time of 59 minutes and 24 seconds, easily beating American 10,000 meter national champ Abdi Abdirahman by more than a minute. I've always admired Gebrselassie, ever since he won the Olympic 10,000 meter race in the Atlanta Olympics back in 1996. He's a great runner, on a par with all time greats like Paavo Nurmi, Emil Zatopek, Vladimir Kuts, and Lasse Viren as far as career accomplishments go, but that's not the main reason I like him. Throughout the years he's been a fierce competitor on the track, but also a graceful and giving champion off it. Brian Cazeneuve of Sports Illustrated has written a good article that shows both sides of the man, the runner and the person who wants to help his countrymen accomplish things of more lasting import than simply running. I recommend it to those of you who realize that success can be found as much in helping others as in your own individual accomplishments.

Post July 4th thoughts

The nation's birthday has come and gone, Major League Baseball's All Star game has happened, the immigration bill died in congress, and two former Presidents are briefly in the news. Regarding the July 4th holiday, we had a subdued celebration this year. I had planned on marching with the local Democratic party organization in the local parade, but was unable to make it. The teen moralist vegetarian has started working, the pre teen animal whisperer is trying to find a veterinarians office that will let someone her age volunteer, and the saint is looking for work in her field (computer networking).

I'm officially "off" for the "summer" (basically the latter half of June and the first half of July) but have been going in to school anyway to make sure that records, schedules, and reports are caught up before school starts up again in early August. Have had time to read a few good books though, among them Departing Glory: Theodore Roosevelt as ex-President, by Joseph L. Gardner (a 1973 book that still holds up very well), and 1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft and Debs -The Election that Changed the Country, by James Chace, whose previous books include a biography of Truman's Secretary of State Dean Acheson. I enjoyed both books, interesting to see how progressive Theodore Roosevelt became after he left the White House, among other things. Next up is a more recent (2005) biography of TR's post Presidential life and activities, When Trumpets Call: Theodore Roosevelt After the White House, by Patricia O'Toole to see how it compares with the other two books.

As I mentioned earlier, two brief news notes of past Presidencies, "Lady Bird" Johnson, President Lyndon Johnson's wife passed away. She was a proponent of conservation causes, and was a dignified First Lady and had lived to the age of 94. My prayers go out to her family.

In another news item I noticed that the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library and birthplace is now under Federal control and the new director, Timothy Naftali is promising that the Library will attempt to portray a more objective view of the Nixon Presidency and Watergate than the Library had when it was privately run.

In closing, I wish I could say that I was disappointed that the Immigration Reform Bill didn't pass, but any finished product was going to be so far right wing and bigoted that the country is better off. Interesting how some folks claim "amnesty" includes fines, back taxes, and other legal penalties when applied to hard working people who came to this country for a better life, but then blithely support a convicted individual like "Scooter" Libby not having to serve any time. Guess there's "amnesty" and then amnesty.

God Bless, till next post.

Immigration debate shows true colors of right wing

I've been busy for the last few months with both my real life job and my graduate studies in history, but I can't put off weighing in on the Immigration bill debate any longer. The right wing groups in the Republican party (and a few right wing Democrats) remind me of the anti-integration groups of the 1950's and the 1960's. Back then the same rhetoric was used against liberals who wanted the laws changed so that a minority of our society could be allowed to take full advantage of American citizenship. The George Wallaces and the Marvin Griffins and the Strom Thurmonds of that era sounded very similar to the Tom Tancredos and the John Cornyns and the Tom Coburns our own era. Lest anyone thinks that I'm oversimplifying or unjustly demonizing those who don't support President Bush and the majority of the Senate on this bill, I offer as evidence the following article from the New York Times "President’s Push on Immigration Tests G.O.P. Base" (NYT Registration required).

My favorite quote from the article? Senator Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma). "We are not all that stupid." Oh, yes you are Senator, don't underrate yourself. Here's a nice website on the good senator.

This date in history

Perusing the New York Times this date in history web site page for February 23rd I came across some interesting tidbits. Today's the 52nd anniversary of the first mass inoculation of children against polio with the Salk vaccine. Growing up my father always told me that Jonas Salk was one of the true heroes of the modern age, and I agree with that assessment. Like all historic figures there is some controversy over some of Salk's actions, but the bottom line is that he led the effort to give the world a workable polio vaccine and refused to patent it. His memory deserves the thanks of millions for that act alone.

Also, American educator, writer, and civil rights leader W. E. B. DuBois was born on this date in 1868. DuBois was another truly great American who fought against racism his entire life. The fact that he left this country at the end of his life, discouraged by racism and soured by what he considered our system's failure to bestow true economic, social, and political equality on all our citizens is a stain on our country's history, not a blemish on DuBois himself. Historian David Levering Lewis wrote a magnificent two volume biography of DuBois. W.E.B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race, 1868-1919 won the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Biography as well as the Bancroft and Parkman prizes. W.E.B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century 1919-1963 won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Biography. I highly recommend both volumes for a clear look at this complex man and the times he lived through.

Random Thoughts 02-11-07

1. The whole Anna Nicole Smith saga is kind of sad to me. Not making any judgments about her lifestyle or what may have caused her death, but it's still a sad story. That's all. I think when she lost her son was the part that really struck me. For a parent to outlive their child is about the worst thing I could imagine.

2. Along that line, I was rooting for Tony Dungy and the Indianapolis Colts to win the Super Bowl, and I was quite happy to see them victorious, but as I was watching the award ceremony I couldn't help but think that Dungy would probably trade it all just to get his older son that died last year back. The thing about Dungy, though, is that he's a Christian man who "walks the walk" and lives out his faith. I'm sure that has sustained him, in fact he has said as much. Still, it made the Super Bowl victory a little bittersweet to me. Dungy has been a role model of mine ever since I read a Sports Illustrated story about him and his measured calm leadership style back in the early 1990's. He's a class act.

3. I've always been one who was basically ambiguous about the Pro Bowl. I hardly ever watch it, but I thought it was a good way for the league to celebrate it's stars and treat them to a Hawaiian vacation and week long get together. However I'm starting to think it may be time to jettison the game, just like the league did the "runner up championship game" decades ago. The risk of injury may be too much. Drew Brees injuring his elbow yesterday and the memory of the Robert Edwards injury years ago all make me wonder what the owners and coaches are thinking about it. Of course Edwards injury happened while just playing touch football in the sand in the week running up to the game, and Brees should be well in a couple of months, but it seems that anything that lessens the chance of injury is what would be best for the players. And along that line, is Ben Roethlisberger still riding a motorcycle?

4. I recently saw one of the best films I've seen in a long time, "Pan's Labrynth" directed by Guillermo del Toro. It's a mix of horror, fantasy, and a realistic (sometimes graphically so) war story, but to even try to describe it that way is an oversimplification in my mind. Basically it's the story of a young girl named Ofelia who is thrust into the horrors of 1944 post civil war Spain when her mother marries a cruel Army Captain who is stationed in a wilderness area in the north of Spain trying to subdue a local band of rebels. Ofelia is a bookish young girl who loses herself in a fantasy world. Whether or not the world is true is ambiguous, but the twin plots of Ofelia's adventures and the conflict between the Captain and his men with the rebels and their sympathizers make for a riveting story. I saw it about a week ago and still can't get it out of my mind. I highly recommend it, but a warning it's rated R for graphic violence and adult language. It's a film for adults and teenagers, not young children.

5. I'm back in graduate school after a decade long hiatus, so my blogs will probably be infrequent for a time. This time I'm working on an M.A. in American History and the course I'm in right now is History of the American South since 1865. Great course, great teacher. I'm really enjoying it, but since I'm a little behind on my reading I'm cutting this piece short. Perhaps later I'll comment on the 2008 Presidential race and the Iran and Iraq situation. A lot is going on, but my main focus for now is American post civil war Reconstruction and the advent of Jim Crow in the southern states.

Random thoughs 01-07-07

Just a few random thoughts on a rainy Sunday morning:

1) Is the world better off with Sadam Hussain hung? My gut reaction is no. I'm becoming more and more anti-death penalty. In this case, we have one thug hung by other thugs, the better for the original thug to become a martyr. In the meantime more of our troops die defending the Iraqui government, a group that seems unable to control itself. I say it's time to let these guys fight it out for themselves, since they seem so determined to continue in civil war.

2) Harriet Miers is quietly resigning to go back to private life. It was my support of Ms. Miers for the Supreme Court that earned me the appelation of "worst blog on the web" from another reviewer blogger. I still think she would have made a good Supreme Court Justice. Anyone who has studied the Court's history knows that many of the "best-prepared" nominees turned out to be mediocre Justices while some of the "least-prepared" turned out to be great. In Ms. Miers case we didn't get to find out, mainly due to her moderate politics rather than any thing else.

http://www.omgn.com/nexus/?p=634/

Hastings deserved better

DeWayne Wickham of USA Today has a good take on why Alcee Hastings should have been the choice as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee despite his betrayal by his Democratic leadership and colleagues. In an op ed piece entitled "Hastings paid penance and deserved better" Wickham summarizes Hastings service on the committee since 1999 and shows that Hastings did indeed deserve better treatment.

Civility

A recent encounter between President George Bush and newly elected Senator from Virginia Jim Webb has made the news. Apparently the exchange took place while at a White House reception for newly elected members of congress. To make a long story short, the President asked Webb how his son (who is serving in the military in Iraq) was doing. Webb replied that he'd "like to get them out of Iraq". At this point Bush is supposed to have replied "that's not what I asked you", followed by Webb's reply that "that's between me and my boy". Later on Webb is supposed to have said that he felt the urge to punch the President.

In a partisan dichotomy of responses to the encounter, most Democrats are taking Webb's side while most Republicans are taking Bush's. George Will immediately pronounced Webb a "pompous poseur" while Eleanor Clift lauded him for not "sucking up to power". However, as I often explain to my son ( a.ka. "the teenage moralist pacifist leftist vegetarian" at our house) you can't always label or categorize people or their responses to different stimuli. Peggy Noonan had a really good article in the Wall Street Journal basically poiniting out that President Bush was the one out of line. No one has ever been able to accuse Ms. Noonan, a former speech writer for President Reagan, of being either a liberal or a Democrat. One point I particularly liked that was made by Noonan was when she asked if one could visualize Abraham Lincoln responding the way Bush did. In case I need to spell this out, one could not. They'll probably start calling Noonan a RINO too now, and cast her to the outer circle along with me and the other apostates. Oh well, she's a parent as well as a great writer, so she's proven she can take the tough stuff that life throws at you.

Just for the record, I basically still like President Bush personally. Even though I no longer consider myself a Republican, I'm not one of those folks who get their kicks out of personally attacking the man. I believe he's sincere about "compassionate conservatism", I think his motives for attacking Iraq were just what he says they were, and I think he's the only Republican besides South Carolina Senator Lindsay Graham who "gets it" on immigration. Having said all that, he was wrong in this contretemps with Senator elect Webb, just like he's wrong about Iraq and the rest of the middle east. I'm afraid I agree with Noonan and Clift on this one.

Forgiveness

I must be too forgiving a person. As usual I find myself in the minority opinion regarding a couple of prominent people in the news who've messed up in the public eye, one recently, the other years ago. To whit, Atlanta Falcon QB Michael Vick and Democratic Congressman Alcee Hastings.

Vick of course, lost his cool after Sunday's Falcon's loss to the New Orleans Saints, giving fans "the finger" as he left the field. He released an apology fairly soon after, but he's been raked over the coals by letter writers to the local Atlanta paper and by sports writers across the board. Hastings apparently can't outrun his past impeachment as a federal judge, since Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has found it the better part of political expediency to deny Hastings in his bid to become chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, despite his having the seniority for the post.

The conventional wisdom on these two gentlemen seems to be that (1) Vick is a spoiled brat who should take being heckled and booed and insulted and like it, because after all, he's paid a lot of money as a pro athlete, and (2) that Hastings is a an impeached former judge who should never be allowed any post of power because of his same impeachment from years ago. As usual, I find myself at odds with the almighty CW.

In Michael Vick's case, he's human and he's still very young. Football is an emotional game, and from what I saw last Sunday, Vick may have been one of the few Falcons playing with any amount of courage and heart. He also seemed to be one of the few who was actually upset by the loss. That doesn't seem spoiled to me. I'd WANT my quarterback to be upset when we lose. To castigate him for doing something I was tempted to do last week to the redneck Newnan truck driver who honked his horn at me (after tailgating me for several miles) simply because I was going the posted speed limit seems a little much to me. Simply put, Vick shouldn't have given the obnoxious fan the finger. He did, he aplogized, and he didn't hide from the media later on. Give the young man a break (and some decent receivers and linemen while you're at it.)

In Alcee Hasting's case, I'm reminded of the time when congress tried to keep Adam Clayton Powell out of office, or the time when the Georgia legislature tried to do the same thing to Julian Bond. Hastings is a duly and legally elected member of Congress since 1993. He was never found guilty in a court of law for any actions as a judge. By all accounts he's served on the Intelligence committee faithfully and honorably during his tenure in Washington. His impeachment in the House of Represetatives was overturned in Federal Court only to lose on appeal when the Supreme Court said Federal Courts had no jurisdiction in the case. It's a travesty that he was bypassed for the Chairmanship of the Intelligence Committee. If I didn't know better I'd swear it's because he's of African-American descent.

Let me make a point here before I get castigated for the previous remark. I'm just a fat old white guy starting to lose his hair, but I've been around long to see this kind of thing for years now. Examples? Plenty, just off the top of my head. Maynard Jackson doesn't get the Democratic National Committee Chairmanship in 2001. Herman Cain can't win the Georgia Republican primary for Senator in 2004. Andrew Young can't win the Georgian Democratic primary for Governor in 1990. Sylvester Crooms can't get the coaching job at Alabama in 2003 (just for fun, ask Alabama if they'd take him now?). Kweisi Mfume can't get win the Maryland Democratic primary for Senator this year. Republican Michael Steele can't win the general election for same. Harold Ford, Jr. can't win the election for Senator from Tennessee in 2006. The list goes on and on. In every case I've mentioned one can make a logical case why race had nothing to do with the outcome. Maybe so, but it sure does seem that the law of averages would fall a different way just once in a while. In the case of Hastings, he deserved the Chairmanship, pure and simple. He didn't get it. Maybe next time, but if I were a member of Congressional Black Caucus I'd be mad about this one.

Not that they should give the House Democratic leadership the finger or anything though...

What Would Jesus Do?

Apparently the Christian Coalition of America, a conservative Political Advocacy Group, has a different answer to the "WWJD" question than the Rev. Joel Hunter. Hunter is a pastor of a nondenominational megachurch in Longwood, Fla., and had been the choice for CCA President until the group's Board of Directors decided that Hunter's ideas about expanding the group's mission to deal with such issues as poverty, AIDS, global warming, and the death penalty were just way out of line for a group with Christian in their name.

In a Washington Post story "Second New Leader Resigns from the Christian Coalition" dated for Nov. 29, 2006, it was reported that several CCA state organizations, Georgia's among them, had broken away from the national organization because of differences with Rev. Hunter's planned agenda of broadening the group's focus to actually deal with some real world problems in a Christian compassionate way.

While there may have been more to the story than that, since the article indicates that some of the problem may have been a resistance on the part of Roberta Combs, chairman of the coalition's four-member board, to part with control of the organization, I still think it's sad that the dichotomy between liberal and conservative has gone to such lengths in this country that a person such as Hunter is "radicalized" for his beliefs. Some of his apparently "far out" ideas include items such as a consideration of raising the minimum wage and an opposition to the death penalty. I guess that the CCA now has posited their own answer to the proverbial WWJD and apparently it doesn't include ministering to those with AIDS or on death row, among others. The good folks of the CCA might want to go back and read Matthew 9:9-13 and see what it says about reaching out those in need. Just my opinion.

Post Election Thoughts

It's taken me this long after the election to get onto our home computer, between the "bogarting" of it by the teen age moralist and the sainted spouse and the pre teen cat whisperer. Maybe it's time for us to get more than one of the "infernal machines"? Incidentally, do I show my age by using the term "bogart" to mean monopolization? Guess I listened too much to my "Easy Rider" soundtrack album back in my youth.

I was happily surprised by the Democratic pick up of both Houses of Congress Tuesday. As I wrote right before the election I was pessimistic about us picking up the Senate and also about the chances of some statewide Democratic incumbents in Georgia. Thankfully Thurbert Baker and Michael Thurmond were both re-elected, although Thurmond's race was much closer than it should have been. As I've often said and wrote, Michael Thurmond has done an excellent job of running the Georgia Department of Labor, and for him win by anything less than a landslide speaks ill of Georgia voters. Instead of 54 plus percent he should have won with 60 or 65 percent. Still, I was quite happy to see this deserving intellectual leader returned to office for 4 more years. In Thurbert Baker's case, he won with 57 percent of the vote. One interesting fact I noted about Baker's re-election was that he had a majority in most of Georgia's counties. The fact that my home Coweta county gave 57 percent of it's vote to Baker's opponent told me all I need to know about how Republican and "red" Coweta county is at this point in it's history. Hopefully that will change over time. It seems kind of sad that the birth place of one of Georgia's most progressive Democratic Governors would be so conservatively Republican. I'm speaking of Ellis Arnold of course, who as Governor from 1943-1947 was far ahead of his time. Of course Arnold's reward for being so progressive and liberal was that he was never again to win an election in a long lifetime after 1947. Sometimes I despair of my home state and it's politics. Stil in all, a good night to be a Democrat nationally, and a better night than I had hoped to be a Georgia Democrat, with at least some Dems winning statewide races.

Odds and Ends - Election Countdown

A little over a week ago, the teen age vegetarian moralist and I went to hear a University of Georgia history professor speak about the south. Dr. James C. Cobb is quite an interesting speaker and historian. Seems like a nice guy too. I've added his blog

Cobbloviate

to the list of my favorite net voices. My advice to the 2 or 3 fans I have who read this blog is that you should check out Cobb's thoughts on the body politic. His take is that next Tuesday's election will be about average or below average historically for out of power party gains during 6th year mid-term elections. He also posts a link to op-ed writer Charles Krauthammer's recent piece documenting why that probably will be the case. Sadly, I think both men are correct. I don't see major gains for the Democrats, probably winning the House, but not by any landslide, while I'm afraid they'll fall short in the Senate. I already figure my lone vote against the tide of Georgia Repulicanism won't make a major difference as the GOP takes over more statewide offices. I'm hopeful Michael Thurmond can survive, but I won't be surprised if he's voted out. Sad, but not surprised. The man's only done the best job ever as the state's labor commissioner and his reward will probably be to be booted out for Republican Brent Brown, but I guess we'll see whether or not that's the case come Tuesday evening. I sincerely hope I'm wrong on this one, kinda like I am weekly on my pro football picks.

Speaking of football, there was some poetic justice in the collegiate gridiron world this weekend, with Mississippi State defeating Alabama. Sylvester Crooms is the man the Tide should have hired as their head coach years ago, and I enjoyed seeing his team stick it to his former school.