Twelve-stepping The West Wing

Gerri and I are addicted to The West Wing. We were late to the party - never watched it until the last six or eight months. We discovered it was on Bravo every weeknight, and now we're hooked.

It's frustrating to watch, because you want people like these running the country - principled, honest, driven to find and do the right thing even when it's not the easy thing.

In the episode I just watched, five US DEA agents have been kidnapped in Columbia and the President sends in the army to get them out rather than agree to have a drug mob leader released from prison. It was the right thing to do - you don't negotiate with terrorists.

But this show is pre-9/11 and the message ends up being that sometimes the means (negotiating with terrorists) is justified if it gets you to the ends you want (your hostages free). And while I (being a post 9/11 kind of guy) can't agree with that - I have zero tolerance for terrorists - I still can't help loving a show that has the president meeting a military transport plane at 4:00 am because it's bringing home the bodies of 9 soldiers he sent into harm's way.

Yes, it's television, and Martin Sheen is a political LOON in the real world, but damn it Josiah Bartlett is a Democrat I might actually consider voting for.

Like I said, it's television.

What this country needs ...

is compulsory national service.

Graduate from high school and give two years to your country in the military. Drop out of high school and start right away.

Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines - it's a great place to start.

What got me started down this path was Toys for Tots - the Marine Corps 50+ year-old tradition of collecting toys for poor kids. A nice warm fuzzy program that's hard to criticize.

I got the pitch today in an email at work. This was the part that caught my attention:

The Toys for Tots message of hope for the future has motivated youngsters to grow into responsible, productive, patriotic citizens and community leaders. Toys for Tots has earned the distinction as a program which plays an important role in helping youngsters emerge from a background of poverty to adulthood as assets to society. Toys for Tots is one vehicle for addressing the issue of poverty among children.

The more I thought about it, the more I decided that it was far more likely to generate resentment among many of the recipients. The only long-term benefit I could imagine was that the sight of marines in dress blues might inspire some of the kids to join the military which would probably do as much as anything to get someone out of poverty.

Full disclosure: I was never in the military. But I've often thought it would have been better for me to go into the service before going to college. I got to college with a lousy work ethic and no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I wound up with an English degree - which I don't use much in my life as a software engineer. It ended up taking me almost ten years and two more degrees to find my career.

A little esprit de corps might help us all just get along a little better. I'm concerned that if something doesn't happen to curb the income disparity that's been growing for the past few years we could be in for some hard times. Ghettos and projects could make good recruiting grounds for homegrown terrorists.

I gotta get back to work, but in a nutshell - I think compulsory military service could address poverty and give everyone a little common ground.

Synchronicity
To the best of my memory, I've never seen the term Kubrickian before in my life.
Now, I've seen it twice in one hour.
First from Lileks

But it was the dank Kubrickian fog of hopelessness that grew tiresome. The boy’s search for meaning and redemption is just another variant of the human search for the same, since we’re all machines in one form or another. He prays uselessly to a Coney Island statue, humankind prays pointlessly to various deities, and none of it matters because the world freezes over and everybody dies.

Then in a piece in the New York Times Magazine:

Making a soldier stronger and better through stress inoculation and operant conditioning seems a bit Kubrickian -- and unsettling. I wasn't sure what to think when Col. Charles King, who commands the First Special Warfare Training Group at Fort Bragg, told me that he trains his soldiers in negotiation and combat -- and that they can turn from one to the other in a split second. ''These guys have got to be able not only to work with you but to shoot you, if necessary,'' he said. We laughed awkwardly, and he quickly added that Special Forces soldiers would never shoot a journalist. We laughed again, awkwardly, and I chose not to mention that a U.S. military commander had threatened to shoot a Washington Post journalist who was trying to visit a site in Afghanistan where an American airstrike appeared to have killed civilians

That's just weird - and kinda cool.
*[Italics mine, of course]

my free host bolted on me
I'm trying to switch to Blogspot.
Ha.

Funny one
We don't get to church as much as we probably should. We're Catholic. What can I say. Anyway, we were there Sunday.
Maia (3) is understandably a little confused about the whole experience. First of all, we've told her that Bogie (our dear departed Miniature Schauzer) has gone to live with Jesus. So whenever we're at church she's pretty sure that Bogie is there somewhere.
This week we explained (in hushed tones) that Jesus was up on the cross behind the altar. And on the other wall was an image of his Mary and Joseph with him when he was a baby.
So Mass is over (finally, don't get me started...) and we're walking out past Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.
Maia says, "There's Jesus with his mommy and daddy."
And we nod happily. (Religious education proceeding)
Maia looks around and says, "Where's Bogie?"

Phidipedes and me
I ran in the Twin Cities Marathon on Sunday. First time and in all likelihood it will be the last time.

Gerri ran it last year and I ran with her for the last 10 or so miles. more later ...

update
I'm finally getting back to this after a couple of weeks. I don't have time to blog. The real bloggers amaze me.
Anyway, about the marathon - it was an experience. I don't really consider myself a runner. Gerri's a runner. She's into it, runs all the time, gets edgy when she doesn't get to run. I run occasionally when the stars are properly aligned (warm enough outside, no kid events to attend, etc.) for exercise only.
I wish I was a runner, but I'm too Type B. I think you have to be at least a little obsessive/compulsive to really be a runner, but I could be wrong.
Despite this fact I did actually complete the marathon - an hour after Gerri, of course, but hey, give me a break. My shirt (thanks, dear) said First Marathon on the front which generated a fair number of comments and Last Marathon on the back which got a handful of laughs from people who actually noticed.
I got quite a few comments from other runners on the Last Marathon bit.(As they were passing me, obviously) Most along the lines of "Oh, sure. I say that every year."
I haven't really decided if it was really my last marathon, but it's my last for a while. I don't want to attempt it again until I have more time to train properly. What I found was that I wasn't going to get up at 5:00 a.m. to run (I wasn't too surprised) and running after work just didn't work. Our evenings are way too busy.
Maybe when the kids are older ...

Yoplait, et al and their 'philanthropic' promotions
If Yoplait is so interested in funding research for breast cancer, why do I have to send in the lid from my yogurt? If you want to impress me just donate the money - a nickel for every tub sold or whatever. Tell me about it all you want. You can have the same huge ad campaign, print the same self-congratulatory slogans on your lids, and have the same or greater impact on cancer research.
If you want to generate some mail you could even ask your customers to match your contributions. I'd be more inclined to do that than to send you back the lid from my yogurt. Yuck.

Another Falling Woman bit
I hadn't seen the sculpture - just references on Instapundit and other sites. So I finally made an effort to find an image.
The first link I found to it was blocked by our corporate filter (Websense) with the category of offensive site designated 'tasteless'.
If I were inclined to apoplexy it would have been ugly.
I understand (but don't necessarily agree with) the company's desire to keep me from visiting porn, or gambling, or hate-related sites. But I'm a little upset that my employer is now going to audit my 'taste' in the workplace.
Natch, I didn't let this stop me and had relatively little trouble finding an image I could get to. I Googled for 'falling woman statue', I think.

Ben and Foster
Foster and Ben are bonded. We just laugh. The dog tolerates the rest of us - the kids more than Gerri and me - but he just adores Ben.
Now that the kids are back in school, Foster spends most of his day looking for Ben. Gerri said she's sure if he could talk he would just repeat, "I can't find him. Have you seen him? Where is he? I can't smell him. Can you help me find him?"

Carlin
Watching George Carlin on HBO. Omigod, he's a riot. The really scary thing is a lot of times he makes perfect sense. At least to me.

His solution for ending the 'drug problem': capital punishment. Not for the dealers or the users - kill the bankers who launder the drug money.

Darndest things ...
I just got back from lunch and had the following message on my voicemail from Gerri.

"Maia told me to call and tell you that the next time she gets on your motorcycle she wants you to put her car seat on it so she doesn't fall off and get an owie. And don't laugh about it."

Looking back

I've been looking at some of the re-posts from year-ago blogs. Interesting that a couple (that I've seen) of the stars of the blogosphere(Eric S. and Instapundit (look for 'Tom Clancy')) saw immediately that the biggest danger facing our country post 9/11/01 wasn't Osama or Saddam, but our own (over)-reaction to the attack.


I don't mean the military stuff. I'm down with that. I'm talking about the way we couldn't wait to give up our freedom and privacy. Judicial review for wiretaps? We don't need no stinking judicial review. Big Brother keeps us safe. Big Brother is our friend.


Politics is opportunistic. And there's been a lot of opportunity, lately, to wreak havoc on the founding ideals of this nation.

9/11 Rant
I'm a little fed up with the tributes to the victims and heroes of 9/11.

I realize this is an unpopular position, but what irritates me is that every day in this country and around the globe people die tragically and act heroically. How many people starve to death every day? How many are tortured, maimed, abused? How many people save others from burning buildings, perform CPR, defend their homes from criminals or their countries from enemies?

The World Trade Center is gone along with several thousand people. We can do nothing for those people or those buildings or those airplanes. But there are other tragedies occurring right now that we can actually do something about.

How about instead of another tribute or memorial for the events of 9/11/2001 we do something a little more constructive.

When you say, "Have you thought about counseling?" ...
Does that really mean - "I think you're fucking up, but I'm not going to tell you why I think that. Go see a stranger."


Does counseling ever really work? I know with marriage counseling it usually seems like a last resort for two people who've already checked out of a relationship. Something to do so they can say they tried everything.
Which isn't to say they DIDN'T try everything. Maybe they did, but by the time they got to counseling at least one of them was already gone.

How not to leave your wife
Don't tell her you haven't loved her for X years. She doesn't need to know this.
Don't tell her you're not attracted to her body type. Bad enough you're leaving her - why destroy her self-esteem.
Don't tell her you're scrogging a 21-year-old co-ed. Yeah, she'll find out eventually, but she doesn't need to hear it now.
I'm sure there are more, but those are the mistakes one of my old high school friends recently made. At least IMO.
Divorce is no big deal when there aren't any kids or they're older. When you have small kids it should be an absolute last resort. Suck it up!

UPDATE:
Okay, just looking back over my posts and I'm laughing at my contradictory statements. In this post I'm dogging my buddy for leaving his kids. In a previous post (July 3) I stated that I thought my wife's friend should divorce her husband.

To try to clarify - I DO think divorce should be a last resort and a certain amount of sucking-it-up is sometimes necessary. But I also don't think you do your kids much of a favor if you continue in a marriage where you can't stand your spouse - where you come to despise them.

My high school buddy was probably at that point, and so it may well be for the best. And my wife’s friend has been separated for two years – her kids are already used to it.

What to do with people who abuse kids
I was just reading about the rape and murder of 5-year-old Samantha Runnion. I don't understand. How can anyone do such a thing?
It doesn't help that I have a 5-year-old daughter. I can't help imagining how I would feel if it happened to her. I don't think that's something you can ever get over. It would consume your whole life. To know that the last hours of her life were spent in terror and confusion.
I don't support state-sanctioned capital punishment. ONLY because I think that one innocent person put to death by the state is unacceptable.
However.
If anyone were to rape and murder my daughter, I would certainly kill them if I could. If I were absolutely sure that they did it. Certainly if I caught them in the act.
Some people do deserve to die. Absolutely, they do.

Monogamy
We were philosophizing last night after our softball extravaganza. (We won one, lost one - a good outing for us) Gerri and I were the oldest folks - at 40 and 36 - at the table and the only couple. Z was giving us a bit of a hard time and she said, "You're so OLD, and you act like a couple of 18 year olds."
Someone else said, "That's why you're still together."
Thinking about that the next morning (now) I think there's certainly some truth there. We are the happiest couple I know. We like each other. We like to be together. Not to say it's paradise, we have spats. We get crabby with each other, sometimes. But on balance I can't imagine being happy without her.
So how does that happen?
A lot of our friends are divorced or in not-so-happy marriages. One of Gerri's friends is just divorced (or almost divorced, I don't remember) and it was a torturous decision for her. Gerri and I had many conversations about her situation and what we thought she should do.
She's not in love with him anymore. But she's afraid of divorcing him and then suddenly finding herself in love with him again.
I just don't think that happens. So my thought is that divorce is the right thing for her. They have two small kids, but they've been separated for the last 20 months. Their kids are used to them not being together and I think divorce is actually easier on younger kids. (Guess I could do some research on that theory ...)
I'm rambling a little. What I was trying to get at was how do you know when you've found a soulmate. And I guess you just know. I never had any real doubts about Gerri and me, and we had quite a few obstacles thrown in our way. We just knew that we had to be together.

The New Patriotism
I'm not sure what bugs me so much about the new patriotism that's sprung from the ashes of the WTC. I haven't added any new flags to my wardrobe. I haven't taped a paper copy of Old Glory to any windows on my house or car. I don't think this makes me any less a patriot than the masses who have made such displays.

In the weeks following the attacks I felt a heightened sense of community with my country-mates. Though I have to confess, one of the first things I did on the day of the attacks was to look up the number of people killed when we A-bombed Japan. I wanted to put this event in some sort of context.

That initial communal instinct was a natural one, I think. Sometime after that first month or so, though, I felt like it began to feel different. The entrepreneurs and marketing firms were in full stride to find the most profitable angles. The government was blowing the trumpets of the War on Terrorism. It just began to feel too managed, too contrived, too spun.

There was a lot of posturing. Threats were made. Tears were shed. And in the end - or should I say to date - not a whole Hell of a lot has really been done. We took over the weakest Muslim country we could find where - so it was said - U/Osama bin Ladin was holed up.

Much like the heralded War on [some] Drugs, we've declared War on [some] Terrorists [who most of the world agrees suck and don't control any oil]. Part of the problem, see, is that sometimes it's hard to tell the terrorists from the freedom fighters. I would think England considered the colonials who dumped tea in Boston harbor to be terrorists.

There's a big difference between the Boston Tea Party and the terrorists of today, but there are some parallels.

Later, a different day ...
Okay...haven't been here for a while.


We got a new dog. An Australian Shepherd (a red merle if that means anything to you) He's great with kids, but isn't too fond of adults. I'm hoping he outgrows that. Makes me wonder if the people we got him from weren't so nice to him ...


In other news, we're mostly going to soccer games. With both boys on travelling teams we have a game or practice Monday through Thursday for sure. Sometimes they have something on Friday and if they have a tournament that pretty much is our weekend. It's fun to watch, but ... a lot.

Goodbye, Bogie
We had our dog put to sleep today. Bogie was about eleven years old, and really doing poorly. That doesn't help much. We loved that dog. He was older than all but one of our kids....

I'm very sad.