I'm Baaaaaack.....

Funny how something that becomes a habit can just as quickly be forgotten. That's sort of what happened with this blog. I enjoyed it for a while, then slowed down, then stopped altogether. I think it's time to try getting back into the habit of writing regularly, and this was fun once, so I am going to try and see if I can get back into some sort of groove. This was, and will remain, a politcally-centered blog, with occasional digressions into my other interests. If this becomes fun again, I have an idea for a second blog, so we'll just have to see what happens.

I figured today was as good a day as any to start blathering about presidential politics. The Iowa Caucuses are going down this evening and surely by tomorrow morning the political landscape will have changed somewhat. Again. See, that's what has me less than enthused about the whole field of Republican contenders so far. Not only do none of them light any sort of fire in me, but I feel completely disconnected from the process because our primary here in North Carolina isn't until May, and things may be decided by then. Or not. I just am finding it hard to become excited. I'd love to see the White House in the hands of someone other than Barack Obama, but my gut just can't see that happening, no matter who his opponent turns out to be.

I will remain involved as much as I can and do all I can to help those I agree with, or seem to agree with,  achieve office. Locally, I am lucky to be represented by a great state representative and state senator, and I will work hard to see those two men returned to Raleigh. I have high hopes that North Carolina will have a good Republican governor next year and that some much needed changes can be made in our state. I'm a firm believer that the closer a government is to you, the more effect it has on your life, so if I can get good local and state government, I'm much less worried about what happens on the national level. That's my theory today,m anyhow, we'll see how it works out.

Believe

I heard that one word being used to promote the Polar Express movie on television and it got me to thinking. Belief is what this whole season is about. The birth of Christ, Santa Clause, keeping close to family, sharing time with friends--they all come back to believing.

Christ's birth is the "reason for the season" for sure. But what we are celebrating is really a belief in that event, and what it means for mankind. It's more often called Faith, but Christian creeds repeat the phrase "we believe." We believe in the impossible. Virgins do not give birth to children. Men do not rise from the grave three days after their death. The spirits of the departed do not talk to their friends. But we as Christians make a conscious choice to believe these things happened. We can't prove it, and that's important, because if we could we wouldn't need faith, our belief would be meaningless. And Christmas would be just another birthday.

There are those who see Santa Claus and the traditions and, yes, commercialism, that surround him as taking something away from the "true meaning" of Christmas. I disagree. Santa Claus is the personification of all that is good and charitable and joyful in the human race. No one lives at the North Pole. Sleighs don't fly and fat men don't magically transport down chimneys. But that doesn't mean Santa isn't real. As Virginia read in response to her question to The New York Sun...

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist...

We can't touch love or generosity, just as we can't prove the virgin birth, but they are real things, and made more real by our belief in them. And Santa Claus helps that along.

Christmas is also the time for family and friends. Reading a friend's facebook post about missing his dad at Christmas, and his friend's kind response to him made me realize belief plays a major role here too at Christmastime.  While I was growing up, my grandmother spent every Christmas with us. She'd come the night before and wake with us on Christmas morning and share in the opening of presents and all the fun. She passed away years ago, but that doesn't mean she's gone. I can no longer see her or hear her voice or give her a hug, but I know she's there with me and all my family as we share Christmas together. It's yet another impossibility that belief makes as real as the floor under my feet.


Our friends can also teach us about believing. I've found that some friend is always there when you need one. They often don't need to be called upon and many times have no idea that I needed help or even that anything was wrong. Twain wrote that a true friend is one who carries light into your darkness, and that we never forget these people. He's right, and I've learned to believe that they will always be there. You can't touch a frinedship, and I challenge anyone to write even a decent definition of the word, but it's real and it's part of what makes Christmas magic.


In The Polar Express the belief in Santa is represented by the sound of a bell that only those who believe can hear. Hearing that bell, being able to believe, into adulthood requires a conscious act of faith, of belief in the impossible. It requires not an ignorance of all the hate and pain and sadness in the world, but a belief that nothing bad lasts forever. Jesus really was born of a virgin and died only to rise again and show us the way to Heaven. Santa Claus is just as real as love itself. Our loved ones that have passed out of our reach will live forever in those of us they touched. Our friends will help us when we need it and fill our lives with joy. Love is stronger than hate. Forgiveness is stronger than hurt. Joy will always conquer pain.

I believe these things because I chose to believe them. For me, they are real and they make Christmas perfect, because I BELIEVE.

Believe.

Merry Christmas.

Understanding What Tomorrow Is Really About, From A Brit

Janet Daley, of Britain's Telegraph newspaper, visited the United States recently and brought back a better understanding of the Tea Party movement, and what it means to the future of the country and the Republican party, than I've read in any American press. Here's her take what she learned from her GOP friends...

My Republican friends, perhaps surprisingly, were not gloating. They were too furious. But contrary to the superficial British assumption (heavily promoted by the BBC), they were not devoting their excoriation exclusively to the Obama Administration – or even to its clique of Congressional henchmen, led by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. That they were opposed to the Big State, European social democratic model of government which Obama had imported to Washington went almost without saying. But they were at least as angry with the leadership of their own party for having conceded far too much of the argument. 

Miss Daley hits the nail on the head. Tomorrow's elections are not about Democrats versus Republicans, they aren't even about what we have come to think of recently as liberal versus conservative. Tomorrow's elections are about restoring the principles that made the United States of America unique among the nations of the world. It's more about the state versus the individual than anything else.

Again, the Brit gets it...

What the grassroots rebellion is really about is an attempt to pull the Republican party back to its basic philosophy of low-tax, low-spend, small government: the great Jeffersonian principle that the best government is that which governs least.

Jeffersonian ideals, and a return to Jeffersonian democracy, are inspiring more of the Tea Partiers than perhaps even they know. And Thomas Jefferson was a Democrat.

Operation Salsa Drop

Flamin' Amy's Burrito Barn, clearly the awesomest restaurant in all of southeastern North Carolina, is offering some of their salsas for sale. The proceeds go towards sending jars of salsa to our troops overseas. You buy a jar, a soldier gets a jar. It's a total win-win.

Please check them out.


Operation Salsa Drop

A Good Use of Government Money, Finally

With the assistance of a $2 million grant, the University of Virginia is putting the entire papers of several founders online in a searchable database. I can't wait for 2012!

The Definition of Irony, or Idiocy

The io9 blog has a list of ten great sci-fi novels that have been banned, in honor of Banned Books Week last week. They were either banned or challenged in schools and libraries or on curricula for the usual reasons, including language, sex, religious viewpoint and generally subversive ideas. Those who fight to keep books they find objectionable out of other peoples' hands generally just wind up making themselves look like fools and bringing attention to the books they are protesting, thereby making them more appealing to more people.

But this list provides us with even more amusement than usual. In a case of so-ironic-one-couldn't-even-make-this-up, people have tried to suppress George Orwell's 1984 and Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. One hopes they didn't read the books. 1984 was actually accused of being "pro-communist."

Big Brother would be proud!

Mike McIntyre Finally Faces a Challenge -- Ilario Pantano

Many of us have known this to be the case for months now, but even the Wilmington Star-News has had to admit that this could be the first year since Ulysses Grant was President that the Republicans could win the 7th North Carolina Congressional District seat. An article in yesterday's Star-News not only mentioned Ilario Pantano by name, something that paper has been loathe to do, but quoted numerous sources, including Mike McIntyre himself, confirming that this will be the toughest race yet for the seven term Democrat.

From the Star-News...

In recent weeks, as Pantano's campaign has gained momentum and raised money, others outside of Southeastern North Carolina are questioning whether an upset is possible in the district McIntyre has easily held since 1996, when he defeated longtime New Hanover County Commissioner Bill Caster. Most political observers believe that the final numbers on Election Day will be much tighter than the Lumberton Democrat has seen in the past.

In a phone interview from Washington Thursday, McIntyre acknowledged that 2010 is his “most intense race” for re-election.

The signs that others are viewing the district as competitive seem to be multiplying.

The article sites several signs that Ilario Pantano's campaign is  gaining the support, both locally and nationally, that he will need to unseat a long serving and still popular representative. Pantano has raised enough money to catch the eye of the national Republican party and the National Republican Campaign Committee has begun running ads on his behalf. McIntyre has agreed to debate Pantano several times, the first time he's ever faced a challenger in that way during a campaign, and has begun running attack ads distorting the Fair Tax, a total overhaul of federal taxation that Pantano supports. 

For a very honest, but highly amusing, look at the race, follow this link to the Robeson County Republican Party's list of the "Top Ten Reasons You Know Your Democratic Campaign Is In Trouble" . 

Ilario Pantano impressed me from the first time I met him and had a chance to talk with him privately outside a Brunswick County GOP meeting back at the beginning of this year. He is intense and passionate, but still came off to me as a real down to earth guy. I've had the chance to speak with him and to hear him speak publicly in a variety of situations and have been impressed that he doesn't have a "stump speech" or a collection of "talking points" that he constantly goes back to. He speaks from the head and the heart, he answers any question I've seen put to him without evasion. He seems to have really thought about the intellectual and spiritual sources of his principles, and that makes him comfortable speaking to any subject. That alone is rare in any politician, and has won him my wholehearted support.

The Church of Body Modification?

A zero-tolerance policy has run up against freedom of religion in a high school in Clayton, North Carolina. It seems a 14-year-old girl was suspended for refusing to take out a nose stud. The school forbids jewelery of the eyebrows, lips and nose, but the girl and her mother are members of the Church of Body Modification and find spiritual peace through piercings.

From the Raleigh News & Observer...

Ariana Iacono, 14, was suspended from Clayton High for one day Wednesday when she refused to remove the small peridot stud in her nose. Ariana returned to school with the jewelry Thursday, then was suspended for three additional days.

Ariana and her mother, Nikki Iacono, take part in the Church of Body Modification, a small group with members across the nation. The church embraces spiritual growth through practices such as piercing.

"It's a spiritual thing," Ariana said of her piercing. "I feel whole."

The knee-jerk reaction to this may be to laugh at a "church" dedicated to body piercings. But if a hole in her nostril makes Ariana feel "whole," who am I to argue? The Church of Body Modification has a website, complete with a link to an application to be a minister. In this day and age, what better sign of legitimacy can one have? Religion is in the eye of the beholder, and has to be in a free society.

The real problem here isn't a strange church, it's the lack of common sense in school zero-tolerance policies. For whatever reason, and I'm sure it comes down to lawyers, we've taken all logic out of the hands of teachers and administrators and replaced it with hard and fast rules that lead to problems like this. A principal or teacher should be able to decide what is disruptive to the school. There is a difference between a small jewel stud in one nostril and a collection of metal hoops all over a kid's face. We should allow, and expect, educators to make those judgment calls, just as they should be able to treat aspirin and heroin differently and punish possession of a hand gun differently from possession of a nail file.

Mission Accomplished

We can now officially declare victory in Iraq. Not only are there privately owned television stations, and not only are those stations offering something more than religious or political programming, but they have stumbled upon what may be the best "reality show" premise in the world. Punked, Iraqi style.

The show “Put Him in [Camp] Bucca” has drawn numerous protests but has stayed on air throughout the fasting month, broadcasting its “stings” on well-known Iraqi personalities.

All of them were ensnared by being invited to the headquarters of the private television station Al Baghdadia to be interviewed, but en route to the station a fake bomb would be planted in their car while they were being searched by Iraqi soldiers, who were in on the deception.

The unwitting celebrities are then secretly filmed, Candid-Camera-style, as they reacted with shock, disbelief and anger as fake checkpoint guards shout abuse at them: “Why do you want to blow us up?” “You are a terrorist.” “How much did they pay you to do it? You will be executed.”

Yep, we've won.

Gotta Love Soccer Fans

The 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa will be fun to watch, soccer fan or not. The festivities have already begun. From a Yahoo soccer blog...

The tournament hasn't even started yet and already World Cup fever has taken hold, driving a group of sufferers to run through Cape Town in their underpants as part of an organized streak to somehow show support for the South African National Team on Thursday.

Once the matches actually begin, these tortured souls will continue their descent into madness, subsisting entirely on edible body paint and miniature flags. Their condition is incurable. You will likely be next.

I'd tell them that it's not really streaking if your wearing your drawers, but that might cause trouble.

And there's already been trampling of fans! This is gonna be great.