MEDIAmerica.US

History and Histrionics.

He’s a clown, that Charlie Brown (Newt Gingrich?)
He’s gonna get caught
Just you wait and see
(Why’s everybody always pickin’ on me?)
The Coasters

That’s a good question. Why’s everybody always pickin’ on Newt?

Better yet? Who’s doing it?

Why, it’s that nasty ol’ Northern liberal media elite!

And who they doing it to? Why, the Newster! And all those poor misunderstood good’ol’ boys and their big-haired women. Confederate crackers through and through. Moon Pies and moonshine. Rebel flag and rebel-yelling goobers who feel belittled, bedeviled and besieged. They get no respect for their “tradition.” Their way of life. Their religion. Or their region! The holy South! Where noble, free men once died so slavery might endure.

Newt Gingrich played the “media” card during last week’s South Carolina Republican debate and the attending crowd—poor besieged dears—ate it up. They rose to their feet and hooted and hollered their roaring support. Just who do those media elite think they are? You tell’um Newster!

Condescending, intolerant bigots! Why it’s a new day, in the New South! Home of the Republican Party! Exactly! Home of the Republican Party. Let’s briefly examine why that is.

The South lost the Civil War in 1865. It, the remnants of the Confederacy, instituted Jim Crow and for another 100 years the South’s black citizens were marginalized, exploited, terrorized and hung from trees like sides of beef. The Democrat Party, which ruled the South, willingly participated (led) in this violent injustice and resisted any attempts at desegregation. In 1948 Southern Democrats began exiting the party because of a civil rights platform plank adopted by the Democrat Party. The Dixiecrats were born. In the mid1960s President Lyndon Johnson, a Democrat, secured both the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. As a result, President Johnson sadly observed, “I’ve lost the South for the Democrats.”

In 1972, Republican President Richard Nixon initiated the political policy called “The Southern Strategy.” It was designed to aggressively win over disaffected Southern Democrats to the Republican Party. Disgruntled over giving civil rights (Horrors! Equal Rights!) to blacks, fearful of lawlessness, and resentful of the perceived government overreach, Southern whites flocked to the Republican Party and resurrected the holy banner of “states rights.”

On August 3, 1980, presidential candidate Ronald Reagan traveled to Philadelphia, Mississippi to give his first address after receiving the Republican nomination. There he gave his now famous “States Rights” speech. Why there?

Fast forward 32 years and you have yet another Republican presidential candidate playing the race card, pursuing the “Southern Strategy,” by characterizing President Obama as the “Food Stamp” president, a not-so-veiled slam against black Americans and our first black president. What a coincidence that Gingrich in 2011 described Obama as displaying “Kenyan, anticolonial behavior.” Here’s a breakdown for you who are “code” ignorant: Kenyan = Africa = Black = Obama = Un-American. That Newster! Such a subtle Southern dawg!

So as our South Carolinian Republicans whooped & hollered over Newt’s feigned outrage at the “elite” media for having the temerity to ask him to comment on his second wife’s assertion that he, in essence, is morally unfit for office, well, out came Newt’s “heartfelt” indignation of discrimination and bias. And all those put upon Southerners jumped from their seats and they may as well have broken into a rousing Gone With the Wind like chorus of “D-I-X-I-E!”

All I can say is, know your history and check the histrionics.

E Pluribus Unum Extinctus.

Free market capitalism has always been a government subsidized, bubble-inflating, swindlers’ game. By the exploitation of the many, a ruthless few have amassed large amounts of capital by which they dominate mainstream narratives and compromise elected and governmental officials, thereby gaming the system for their benefit. Phil Rockstroh

Ah, the American Dream. It is much in the public eye these days what with the realization that our Middle Class has been shrinking the past 30 years. That and the fact that more and more of America’s wealth is concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, um, pockets. And that much of that wealth shift is a result, not of changing global labor markets or disruptive technological innovations but of a collusion between America’s moneyed class (and their smarmy lobbyists) and Washington (and state/local) politicians. They’ve created laws, tax codes and regulations that favor the few over the many. E Pluribus Unum Extinctus.

It is hard for me to understand why Americans are such a complacent lot in light that so many are being hosed by so few. Complacent and confused. The confusion stems from the fact that we believe deep down in the goodness of our democratic souls that government is actually working for “all” of us. Oh, it is. But it’s working in a way that heavily favors the few over the many. Please, now apply President Reagan’s completely discredited “Trickle-Down Economics” to yourself and your family. Like what you’re left with? We are as fatted-cows complacently led to the slaughterhouse via the election booth. Moooo!

Part of the problem for many Americans is the challenge of understanding just how “rigged” our system has become. At every level of governance. And I’ve a local example that illustrates the problem.

Right now, today, the city of Orlando is planning the demolition of the old Magic basketball arena. Built with your tax dollars (contrary to the argument that they’re tourist-related tax revenue) the building was deemed obsolete and unprofitable. Regardless of the civic/aesthetic value system that constructs public buildings only to tear them down, willy-nilly, much as you would a temporary shed in your backyard, the larger question remains, why subsidize a billionaire’s private toy (a basketball team/franchise, in this instance)?

Orlando (city/county governments) felt justified constructing a $500 million new arena to replace the old. The DeVos family (said billionaires) kicked in approximately 12% of the cost with the remaining money (85%+) coming from our local tax revenues. Oh, the politicians will say, Jepson, you got it all wrong. We’re funding this half-a-billion dollar building with taxes secured from visiting tourists. It costs you (Orlando/Orange County) nothing. And, anyway tourist tax revenue can only be spent in such ways (to increase tourism).

Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! Why subsidize billionaires. Why invest public revenue for the benefit of billionaires? And why restrict tourist revenue in such ways? Man makes the laws anyway he/she sees fit. Period. End of story. To say we’re going to subsidize billionaires because our hands are tied, well, doofus, untie your hands.

Imagine if we had invested half-a-billion in local arts. Or Cops. Or teachers.

But, my critics will say, “We need a professional sports team cuz Orlando aspires to be world class!”

Tell that to our collective civic ego every time a millionaire Shaq or Dwight Howard says, “I love ya’all but trade me out of this two-bit market!”

Game On! . . . the “capitalist” way.

And the swindle continues.

Stuck In The Middle With You.

You may ask yourself, my god, what have I done?
Lyrics from “Once In A lifetime” by David Byrne

I was at a genuinely swell party last Saturday night at a stylish Baldwin Park address. The food and beverages were spread out over four rooms with drinks available by a glittering pool. I kissed the hostess and hugged the host.

I mingled. I chatted. I could not resist. While standing next to the dessert table (in the designated dessert room!)—and while eating brownies without even the good manners of placing them first on my plate—I asked the five folks who were generously piling sweets on their plates if they thought the Republican presidential debates would have the net affect of giving the election to the Democrats—so obviously asinine the GOP candidates, so infantile their beliefs, so absurdly simplistic their proposed policies.

One woman, taking my prompt, looked-up from the assorted delicacies and cautioned against any such confidence. In a quiet voice she suggested, in so many words, that the American electorate is not particularly bright, that “we” could be likened to that famous quote erroneously attributed to P.T. Barnum that “There’s a sucker born every minute.” I nodded approvingly.

A couple—whose eyes immediately averted downward—quickly loaded-up their plates with Bonbons and the like and hastily made for the exit. They were going to have none of this! Hrumpf! Who is this cad? To suggest that the Republican nominees are asinine, infantile and simplistic! We thought this was a party!! See if we RSVP next year!

Folks think that when I tear into Republicans that I’m blind to the shortcomings of the Democrats. But my gawd, not even my father (Mr. Republican) would go for these clowns. I think Rick Perry has even embarrassed Texans, which takes some doing. (Please recall George Bush.) Rick Santorum, if he ran the world, would outlaw birth control. That is the “pill!” What a joker! C’mon Ricky, not ever woman wants ten kids, whatever the number you’re working on. Amazing, isn’t it ladies, how men would ban birth control. If only. If only men were the ones getting pregnant. They might not be so cavalier in requiring women to have babies until their teeth fall out.

All of the candidates have swallowed the Grover Norquist/National Chamber of Commerce Kool Aid concerning taxes and government regulations. Taxes . . . Bad! Regulations . . . Bad! Government oversight . . . Bad!

If only the marketplace was liberated, was free to work its bountiful magic. If only Ayn Rand’s Objectivism was the prevalent economic system, all would be “right” in America. (Oh! And don’t forget! God likes a good return on investment, too!)

The Gilded Age of Excess never happened in America. Teddy Roosevelt never felt compelled to break-up monopolies. The Great Depression never occurred. America, today, is not inexorably moving to more wealth concentrated in fewer hands. And Noah loaded dinosaurs on the Ark.

Sometimes we have epiphanies. Humans are capable of change. I hope enough Republicans arise Election Day in a cold sweat and say, “My god, what have I done?” To my country. To America.

I’m not holding my breath.

Rather, let’s all hum along to these classic 1972 lyrics, “Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle with you.”

Much more apropos.

Musings on Happiness.

I recently had dinner with friends whom I hadn’t seen for quite some time. I’ve been down with cancer the past few months and hadn’t been out and about as much. There’s nothing like a little surgery to put a stagger in one’s step. I’m on-the-mend, thank you very much, but the next day I received an e-mail from one of my dinner compadres asking, “In spite of all the things going on in your/our lives, are you/we unhappy? Notice I didn’t ask if you’re happy.”

Asking whether I am unhappy or happy is a distinction I do not see but it left me wondering, “Did I appear unhappy?” Was I noticeably different in my outgoing persona? Was I unusually subdued or particularly reserved? Heaven forbid! I reflected on that possibility and determined that the question was more philosophical in its intent? Was I unhappy? Were “we” unhappy?

As context is everything to me, such questions can only be framed with “compared to what?” I actually think about the “specifics” of happiness, perhaps more than the average lad. Imagine a happy time in your life. That moment inevitably passes, what then are you? What are you when you are not happy? Are you pre-happy, post-happy or just in-between bouts of happiness? Is life about moving from distinct moments of happiness—which constitutes 34.6% or 47.3% or 58.9% or 15.1% of your life—to your next instance of elation? Is contented (moooooo!) the same as happiness?

And all this begs the question, what is the meaning of life? And where does happiness fit into that equation? Happiness, per se, didn’t move to the first tier of serious philosophical consideration until, oh, about the 18th century. It was codified in America’s Declaration of Independence when Thomas Jefferson wrote that the pursuit of happiness was a self-evident truth. Arguably Jefferson was speaking to/of a “public happiness” but regardless, his self-evident truth has become the raison d’être of modern living.

The pursuit of happiness? Hmmm? Must happiness be pursued or is it possible to achieve happiness by just being? Is that an intellectual possibility? “There’s nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so?” I particularly enjoy beauty. Flowers give me joy (happiness) strictly from their beauty (color, balance, harmony, form, etc.). No pursuit necessary. But I do tend my garden.

I am a hedonist, unapologetically so. Human beings are sensation junkies. Everything we know and are relies on our senses to convey. Yet scientifically, mere observation changes the equation. (I like to watch, Eve. Hah!) Is happiness then only a derivation of our “subjective” perceptions? Ah, the $64,000 question. And the answer is yes, unequivocally so.

Have enough food, adequate housing and sufficient “meaningful” relationships, toss in health and satisfactory intellectual/artistic pursuits and the modern individual is left, many times, to consider the meaning of it all. Which is where some of us find ourselves.

Life intrudes. Mythologist Joseph Campbell said that we must, “Participate joyfully in the sorrows of life.” On the surface that seems incongruous. For as much as happiness is a worthy pursuit, life and its accompanying sorrow always intrudes. People die. We waste away. Some expire before “their” time. Many self-destruct. We all participate in our collective idiocy/destruction (as a species).

Happiness is no more the human condition than sorrow.

But we try. Damned, if we don’t.

And I love humanity for that. Happy New Year!

Republican Values Found In A Diaper.

Republicans keep me in stitches. They’ll predictably trot out familiar old bromides like “Live Free or Die” or “It’s every man for himself.” Even I, on occasion, can be susceptible to such infantile gibberish. Yes, sometimes my latent libertarian nature reflexively embraces simplistic nonsense. “Don’t expect the government to do for you what you should do for yourself!” Republicans regularly run that one up the flagpole for REAL Americans to salute.

Republicans love all humanity until it is born. Un-huh, life is sacred! They get all warm and fuzzy inside at the thought of a zygote attaching to a woman’s uterine wall. It makes them weak in their knees and teary-eyed, however, imagining that process interrupted, aborted, if you will.

Oh, and then the wailing begins just like in Maurice Sendak’s “Where The Wild Things Are.” THEY ROARED THEIR TERRIBLE ROARS! AND GNASHED THEIR TERRIBLE TEETH! AND ROLLED THEIR TERRIBLE EYES! AND SHOWED THEIR TERRIBLE CLAWS! Republicans do exactly that at the thought of coitus interruptus or rather, Zygotus Abortus.

What is it about women and their uteruses that gets Republican men all atwitter and flummoxed? They cannot keep their minds (or laws) off of a woman’s body. Ironically, they applaud corporations as having the same rights as people but think little of eviscerating a woman’s right to reproductive choice. What is it about women? Are women too stupid to manage their own affairs (their own bodies)? Why is it that Republicans are for the government getting the hell out of regulating business yet they are perfectly okay regulating a woman’s fertility, her sexuality? What’s up with that?

Guys, this might be tough for you. Imagine a scenario where it is you who actually becomes pregnant. You’re still the independent operating, functioning individual you’ve always been but you find yourself pregnant. As a man, how well would you cotton to the government telling you what to do with your body?

According to Republicans, you don’t even own your body; it’s the government’s to regulate. Does that scenario sit well with you as a man? Then why should our sisters, daughters, wives or lovers put-up with such intrusions in their personal lives? No self-respecting man would ever countenance such invasive, intrusive oversight. So, why should America’s women?

Oh, it is argued because Republicans “wuv” all life, particularly the unborn. That’s an interesting time in which to be all for life yet, once born, that life is virtually on its own. Irony, hypocrisy, anyone?

Crack whores. Impoverished, destitute homeless women. Raped sisters. Poor women. Third-year medical students. Graduate students. Mothers already nurturing five children. Older women. Unhealthy women. The mentally disturbed. 16-year-olds. Any woman, no matter her circumstances, no matter her wishes or desires, no matter her rights as a free individual—all pregnant, all menstruating women will be regulated by the federal or state government. A woman will give up her independence, she will forfeit her freedom, she will willingly subject herself to the authority of the state.

I once served on the Orlando Planned Parenthood Board of Directors. At that time there was an alternative facility next door purporting to assist pregnant women. They’d persuade “some” to take the fetus to term with the assurance of long-term help. The long-term help consisted of two dozen Pampers. Oh, and a “Good luck, girl!” She’s going to need it.

Real Republican values, folks. Found in two dozen diapers.

Living Religiously Free.

A reader recently commented on me by observing, “Oh, Jepson, he’s an atheist but I like him anyway.” I took “like him” to mean that she agreed, more times than not, with my overall worldview. That in spite of my disbelief in a personal god, I still appeared/seemed a moral person.

Religion, per se, intrigues me, primarily, at an historical level. I read books, for example, on the Catholic papacy not for the arcane disputes over dogma and/or ritual (although interesting and humorous) but to learn more on the longest running, most successful corporate bureaucracy in history. If one were looking for consistent moral authority, Rome would not be one’s destination. Anymore than Salt Lake City is a repository of latter day righteousness.

That makes me laugh out loud, that religion or more specifically, that a belief in a Muslim or Mormon or Mennonite God somehow imbues you with “the” correct morality. Arguably, and the case is strong, religious dogma (doctrine) achieves just the opposite effect.

Take, as one example, the recent political advertisement of Rick Perry, Republican presidential aspirant. In it he clearly affirms his Christianity and that it is okay to discriminate against Gays (in the military) and that, if elected, he’ll restore Christmas and Christianity to the public square. Perry is a comical caricature of religious ignorance/intolerance. He articulates a religious doctrine that says it is okay to marginalize human beings because they are different from you. Why? Cuz the Bible says it’s so.

And that, Gentle Reader, is the problem with religion. It too often requires its adherents to think neither critically or creatively. Or, to not think in a rational or enlightened manner. Not only that but it frequently encourages just the opposite. See much of the Republican Party platform for examples.

Religious doctrine fosters static cultures. Contrary to evangelical thinking, a genuinely unfortunate development for America would be the full-throated embrace of Christianity; that the United States would in perpetuity operate under Biblical law with conformity of the population to canonical principles both expected and required. See: 17th century Puritan colony of Massachusetts. See witch trials.

Why is much of the Islamic world seemingly trapped in the 12th century? Because religion has created monolithic, static cultures. Because dogma, doctrine and conformity trump creativity and originality.

Where does morality originate? What makes an individual operate in a moral manner? How is “religion” a factor in moral behavior? To the degree that religious dogma and a belief in a personal god are factors, well, possibly, any connections are merely incidental and/or coincidental. But that is grist for another column.

Is belief in a personal god required when organizing a nation, at any level? Politically, morally or otherwise. No. The answer is no. Japan is a highly successful, moral nation. It venerates ancestors as opposed to a god. If one were to dispassionately evaluate the success of Japan, from the perspective of history, you’d have to say Japan has succeeded – without any belief in a personal god that is actively involved in the lives of the Japanese.

Some Christians assume that atheists operate without a moral compass. Or, worse, they are immoral. When in reality the many atheists I know joyfully construct their “moral” worldview without needlessly embracing superstition or antiquated dogma.

You know what? Who cares what you or I practice (believe). We live in America. Home of the free! Let’s all live that way.

Merry Christmas. Indeed.

Give Art.

Cars as Christmas gifts? What recession? A couple of different automobile companies have advertisements running where one spouse surprises the other with a new car in the driveway neatly wrapped in a bright red bow. Cue the music and the “Aw-shucks Dear, you didn’t” look of surprise.

Why run such an advertisement? How many of us have the cash sitting around to make such an acquisition and/or how many of us (as couples) would undertake such a substantial purchase (loan or lease) without first consulting our partners? “Here’s your present, Dear! Oh, and here’s our 60 month payment book. Merry Christmas!” Some gift. Yet, definitely a surprise.

Well, I have a few “modest” ideas for gifts that will not break the bank. Give art. Give ideas. Give music. Give experiences.

Experiences first. Say you have a couple (relatives or friends) who, like many of us, have enough. What do you give them that they don’t already have three of, two of which are boxed away in the garage? An experience. Give two tickets to a play of their choice at the Mad Cow Theater or the Orlando Shakespeare Theater. Give them a morning in Winter Park including tickets to The Morse Museum, the scenic boat tour leaving 312 East Morse Street and lunch at an avenue eatery. Giv’um a hot air balloon ride. (No, not tickets to a Republican debate!) You get the idea. Consider what they “might” enjoy and provide that experience. Package it for them.

Ideas. Books! I recommend the following (all released in 2011): The Swerve by Stephen Greenblatt; All Things Shining by Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Kelly; Absolute Monarchs by John Norwich; The Greater Journey – Americans in Paris by David McCullough; 1493 by Charles Mann; The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch and Cleopatra – A life by Stacy Schiff. One piece of fiction by Jim Harrison titled The Great Leader (an example of male-centered silliness but fun nonetheless). Finally pick-up (a gift for yourself, perhaps?) Christopher Hitchens’ Arguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchens. All good. For the mind.

Music. Tickets to an Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra performance, of course. Or, the Winter Park Bach Festival. Culture/pleasure for the ears. Here are several jazz recording recommendations: Go by Dexter Gordon; Jazz: Red Hot & Cool by Dave Brubeck Quartet; Music for Loving by Ben Webster; Swiss Movement by Les McCann & Eddie Harris; Lady in Satin by Billy Holiday; Waltz for Debby by Bill Evans Trio and Sketches of Spain by Miles Davis. Two more delights: Songbird by Eva Cassidy and Court and Spark by Joni Mitchell. All classics rated certifiably “Far Superior” by CRJ. Give a yearend contribution to WUCF, 89.9 FM. Great Jazz station!

Art: what separates the wheat from the chaff? Art, you Philistine. Art is often expensive, as well it should be. But it needn’t be. I purchased two original paintings off a 20-year-old Sanford street vendor several years back for $50 a pop, framed’um and they’re gorgeous. Look for local art of quality. Be selective. It’s ubiquitous.

Three local shops to recommend: Timothy’s on Park Avenue in Winter Park. Consistently good—year-in/year-out—artistic “stuff.” Great selection of unique jewelry, ladies! And, for gentlemen who buy for ladies. I recommend The Jeanine Taylor Art Gallery on First Street in Sanford as it has unique, one-of-a-kind objects. And The Artistic Hand in Oviedo. You will find something there to like.

Give art. Support artists. Make your giving distinctive. Be memorable.

Halfway To A Place I Don’t Wanna Be.

I’m not much of a fan of modern Country Western music. It just doesn’t resonate. Much of it sounds like 70s bubblegum music with a twang. Big-thighed, thirtish, balding white boys in black hats singing of love, for all I know, about their customized Ford F-150’s. I prefer Patsy Cline and Johnny Cash. They sang of love and loss and sorrow and you sensed they felt it because they actually lived it.

Sometimes I write a line and I think, “Damn, that’d make a great Country Western song!” I thought I heard an individual once describe himself as “halfway married” when, in reality, he was actually claiming to be “happily married.” Haha! Quite a difference and what a great opening line for a song of regret. “She thought we were happily married but I was only half-way married and . . .”

Invariably over the course of a day my mind will wander, depending on the prompt, from the state of the nation to America’s political leadership, environmental issues, reproductive choice, healthcare access, poverty, Republican simpletons, Tea Party yahoos, spineless liberals, the perverse Israeli/American relationship, the nation’s many wars, American imperialism, our economy, elections in Russia or Congressional ineptitude.

During a recent particularly bleak day privately assessing America’s current position and prospects, I wrote, “I’m about halfway to a place I don’t wanna be.” I immediately scribbled underneath “Country Western Song.” It’s a good line and a valid determination of where a lot of Americans find themselves. If you have half a load on intellectually you cannot help but be alarmed at where the United States finds itself today.

I have a relative who recently participated in a surgery in a Western U.S. hospital. A number of physicians were involved and over the course of the operation the conversation between the doctors turned to whether bullets or gold would be more valuable (and tradable) if, heaven forbid, the center didn’t hold and America’s government collapsed. I’ve a call in to see what was the consensus of that esteemed, educated assemblage.

Any student of history clearly understands that what is or what was is no guarantee for what will be. No nation has sustained itself at its “peak” indefinitely. Historically, simply persevering as a national entity has been success enough. Many nations, many empires that once were, simply do not exist today – in any form. Let alone in a reduced state such as Great Britain or Russia.

It is hard not to consider that America is inexorably moving to an Orwellian oligarchy predicated on (necessitating) a gullible electorate skillfully manipulated to voting against its own interests. There is a despair setting in, a growing feeling, a realization that the game is rigged—that those who have the most will inevitably get the rest.

Yes, that is a simplification but how long before such perception erodes what confidence remains in our American “system.”

American Exceptionalism is best summed-up in two modern advertising slogans, “Be all that you can be,” and “Just do it!”

That is so American and seemingly, so yesterday.

We desperately need a new vision. A new order. A new song.

As Walt Whitman commemorated in his poetic vision of the United States, “I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear . . .”

It’s about work. Life. America. It’s about happiness and hope.

All in short supply these days.

Were You Really Appalled Mrs. Gingrich?

Michelle Obama and Jill Biden were recently booed at the season ending NASCAR race in Homestead, Florida. I thought it interesting that patrons of that Cracker Nation USA event would single out to boo the wives of liberal politicians they disapprove. Perhaps the First Lady’s attempts at slimming down America—but, then Cheetos and Tater Tots are Cracker Nation food groups don’t-cha see—that her promoting exercise and nutrition just might warrant a crowd boo or two.

But I’ve been thinking of late about the current Anybody-But-Mitt Republican Presidential flavor of the month, Newt Gingrich and his current wife, Callista Bisek Gingrich. It’s Mrs. Gingrich, as a potential First Lady, who most intrigues me.

Ah, Newt. At age 16 or so he announced he was going to marry his then high school math teacher. He carried on a hot, torrid teacher-passion-thing for Jackie Battley, actually marrying her June 19, 1962. But things eventually didn’t add-up—Haha, yuck, yuck—and he divorces her in February, 1981 (recall infamous hospital scene with cancerous wife).

Seven months later The Newtster married Marriane Ginther. In 1993, The Newster began an affair with Callista Bisek, age 27. Bisek was an assistant to the House Agricultural Committee. Ol’randy Newtster was 50 years old.

Okay, now it gets interesting. During this period, The Newtster became Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. Also there was the Starr investigation of President Clinton. Recall that it took a special prosecutor six years and $40 million dollars to determine that a President will lie about having illicit oral sex in the White House. Yes, folks, presidents will, from time to time, forget, overlook, ignore, neglect to mention, disregard, muddy, misdirect, obfuscate, disguise, conceal, confuse and lie. They will do it about war, public policy intentions and even illicit oral sex. Among other things.

Understand that The Newtster was constantly ripping into President Clinton for his immoral, reprehensible behavior. The House of Representatives began impeachment proceedings against the President on December 19, 1998. The Newtster said of Clinton’s conduct that it depicted, “a level of disrespect and decadence that should appall every American.” Appall every American?! Was Callista appalled? By illicit sex? Really?

That is what intrigues me. Was Callista appalled? Newt Gingrich is running for President of the United States. Should he win Callista will be First Lady. Was Callista appalled that Her Newtster was casting stones at Bill Clinton for illicit, adulterous sex when she was then herself concurrently starring in, ironically enough, the equivalent Republican role of Monica Lewinsky?

All the while President Clinton is being excoriated in the press The Newtster and Callista are chauffeured around Washington in tinted-windowed limousines, drinking champagne, laughing and giggling in the backseat as his zipper and her inhibitions are lowered. Did they ever break out in guffaws and bend over in laughter with tears streaming down their cheeks over how The Newtster was sticking it, yet again, to the President, how Bill’s behavior “should appall every American?”

Did Callista not see or understand the profound hypocrisy in her position let alone The Newster’s “APPALLING” double standard?

Our Lovable Newtster divorced wife number two in 1999 and in May, 2002 he asked the Catholic Diocese of Atlanta to annul his 18 year marriage to Marriane Ginther (Ol’#2).

Yes, it seems Callista is a devout Catholic and desires a moral life (marriage).

You cannot make this stuff up.

“Beam Me up, Scotty!”

I understand that Earth’s population, in all probability, will reach 9 billion (from our current 7 billion) inhabitants by the year 2050. 40 years in the future. By 2050 most of the world’s Christians will be living in sub-Sahara Africa. The center of Islam will have shifted there, too. More Muslims will be living in sub-Sahara Africa than in Asia and far more than live in the Middle East. Sub-Sahara Africa’s population will grow from 800 million to 1.7 billion.

During this period America’s population will grow nearly 50% to 440 million people. These sorts of projections for America, for the planet give me the willies. I feel sorrowful, particularly for the environment, for the inevitable loss of specie diversity and for humanity. I do not see the over all quality of life for/of humanity measurably improving. How can it when so many more of us will be saddling up to the bar wanting exactly what we have. I do not intellectually understand (at any level of comprehension) those who oppose birth control as population control.

NPR recently offered an interesting, fascinating figure. If the earth’s population were concentrated at density levels comparable to New York City’s, the entire population of the planet would fit in Texas. Imagine that. Maybe one future scenario has the powers-that-be doing just that. Move the masses and the rest of planet becomes a vast garden enclave (playground) for the elite. Why not? Arguably it would be “healthier” for the planet.

I fluctuate between despair for our species (and the planet) and unbridled hope (optimism). Regardless if we were able to intelligently change course today, so much of the diversity that makes Mother Earth so bountiful and beautiful will inevitably die because of mankind. Probably all the coral in the world’s oceans will die, maybe during my lifetime. The Amazon forests will be lumbered (and the life contained therein lost). We are the first generation of human beings to so clearly and unequivocally understand how lethal we are to the health of our planet.

That is one side of the coin. Regardless of our ability to alter the human ecological footprint on Mother Earth, going forward (for the foreseeable future), our planet is going to be a less beautiful, less hospitable environment for humanity. The other side of the coin is that we will survive as a species and I believe we will someday be living on other planets, perhaps, crossing over, even, to other dimensions. Star Trek is in our cards.

The human mind, our creativity is the only way out of our problems. Science, rational thinking, problem solving will get us there, given enough time.

I have a wonderful book to recommend that will absolutely buoy your spirits. It will give you hope that humans are more than, to use my sister’s analogy, “nasty little monkeys.”

The title is The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch (professor of physics at Oxford University). He explains, among other things, why flowers and faces are beautiful. He persuasively makes the case that we (as a species) are just getting started. Our problems are the catalysts for change. And that if we have no idea today what the solutions will be, well, that is to be expected. But, let’s git’er done! Done? It’s never done. Never. No! Let’s keep-on, keepin’-on!

This book is “Thanksgiving” enough. Enjoy. Your meal, too!