December 2007 archive

Overcovered in a shameless play to the cheap seats for at least the past three days has been the fatal attack Christmas Day on 17-year-old Carlos Susa and two others who were injured by Tatiana, a Siberian tiger at the San Francisco zoo.

Not to discount Carlos’ family’s tragedy, just pointing out how this has gotten to be a real media circus with media whores coming out of the woodwork to use it as a way to get their Warholian 15 minutes of fame.

Curling. Not this is not about the styling of hair.

A few words about Canada’s second favorite sport and also a hit in northern states where winter is long and there is ice around. If you live in a climate with endless winter you need to have a winter sport or activity. Your other option is not to go outside for several months, sit around, brood, and drink. Some people chose that option. They end up shooting somebody or needing a stint on a psych ward.

I favored hockey and cross country skiing. When I went to university our institution sat on several acres of undeveloped land owned by said institution. Several of us used to leave our gear in a near by student lounge. My cousin Chris who hails from  the gateway of northern Ontario, likes ice fishing and the ski-doo.

I am only a casual curling fan. I watch the big events and know a few of the top names.

Canadians love curling and they do pretty well at it at international events.

The biggest event tend to be the Brier Cup which is for the men, although women’s curling also gets good attendance and TV ratings. Curling events in Canada get huge television audiences.

It can resemble “bowling on ice” or tiddlywinks and is highly strategic.

Here are some instructions on how to deliver a rock….

Apparently about 2.5% of Canadians are actively involved in curling and a majority of them live in rural prairie areas. If you had ever been to a rural prairie area in the winter you would gain great understanding as to why it has appeal. There is fuck all else to do. Another interesting fact 20 percent of those in curling have a bachelors degree. Curling likely originated in Scotland and was made popular in Canada by immigrants.

A team is composed of four players and the captain is the “skip”, generally the skip is a good strategist. The first throws a stone down the ice. There are multiple strategies, generally the first few stones thrown act as guards. The first will sweep for the second, the second and first will sweep for the third and so on. The skip will advise his/her teammates on how to sweep and when to back off. Teams will compete by both trying to set up good blocking stones and to knock out an opposition stone while laying their own closest to the center of what looks like a target. So, you can’t win just by throwing hard. A game consists of eight “ends”, essentially each team has eight “turns.”

I have made it seem far less complicated than it actually is.

Another thing about curling. Although it has some colorful figures. Russ Howard was known for serious enthusiasm, shouting jumping, talking loudly, poor sportsmanship just doesn’t exist. It is considered embarrassing and tacky. Crowds don’t boo or hiss.

The Canadian Curling Association has a pretty extensive website if you want to know more.

So what is your winter-chase-the blues-away activity? Remember don’t rec pony party, hang out chit chat, and then go read some excellent offerings from our recent and rec’d list.

which I am offering only here.  I was invited when this site was being organized, but could not make a commitment to be a regular contributor. Nor can I make such a commitment now.  But many of those here and as part of the offlist group have meant a lot to me, both their own writing and by the support they have given mine.  I am actually quite insecure about many things, including my writing.  Thus the willingness of others to read what I offer, to comment, to criticize constructively and challenge where appropriate, has helped me improve both my thinking and my writing.

Today is our wedding anniversary, #22, about which I have diaried in a number of places.  And as await for Leaves on the Current to return home from NJ (she is now in transit), rather than doing school work, I am being reflective in a somewhat different way.

Each milestone we can mark on our live’s paths provides an opportunity for saying “now what?”   It is not that we cannot appreciate what we have managed despite all odds to achieve, nor is it necessary that we bemoan where we have missed the mark (and I will win no medals for my own accuracy this past year).  

I have always been shy but an extravert, a dangerous combination, because in most social situations I have trouble maintaining balance.  I find as I age I become increasingly introverted, even as my caring for other people deepens.  I am far less likely to attend purely social functions.  For the first time in 9 years at my school I did not attend my dpeartmental holiday celebration.  I could have –  I had had to make an emergnecy trip north for an issue involving the athletics at my alma mater, but I was back in the DC area in time to have stopped, picked up some food, and arrived basically on time.  But I found myself relieved to have a legitimate reason not to attend, perhaps because at the school-wide celebration I found myself wanting to withdraw somewhat.

And perhaps the change in the nature of the subjects about which I find myself drawn to write are a further indicator of this.   I do want my words read – I am insecure that way, which is why so often I tell other people when I have posted, hoping that they will at least glance at my words.  But today I realize that it doesn’t matter.  My task is to wrestle with what I perceive and think, to express it in a fashion that MIGHT be of use to others, but then to let go – of ownership, of concern.  Or as the words of Paul and Ringo said sime 4 decades ago,  “Let it be.’

Thank you all for putting up with my insecurity.  For being willing to share your time with me, even if only by occasionally reading.

At various points in my life I seriously considered becoming a monk.  But my spiritual father on Mount Athos told me back in 1983 that while I might make a good monk, my calling was elsewhere – he told me to go back into the world and marry Leaves.  He also told me things about our nature, even though he never met Leaves – somehow he knew.  And I have struggled for more than 2 decades to live up to the insight he offered me then.

I will be 62 in May.  My mother died before she was 50. my father lived on until his 84th birthday.  I do not know how much longer I might live.   But in that time I am drawn increasingly to simpler truths.  I ask then when I do write you be unafraid of challenging me.  My words should not be for my benefit, and if they do not speak to others there is no point in offering them.

I am sorry I cannot now offer more clarity, but I am slowly coming to an understanding of how I must live and what I must do.  It will require me still to grow, of course, to change in some ways small (which is often far more difficult) and in others on a lrger scale.

Again, thanks for your friendship, your tolerance, your patience.

Peace.

We were going to go to Alabama, but the weather looks to be rainy and my MIL won’t appreciate muddy dogs. Now I am forced to confront the horrors of neglected housework.

But here is a little something to contemplate to get your day started…

Remember, don’t rec pony party…. hang out chit chat and then go read some of the excellent offerings on our recent and rec’d list.

MANCHESTER, N.H., Dec. 28 PRNewswire-USNewswire — The assassination of Pakistani opposition leader and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto not only underscores the dangerous and heightening political volatility throughout the entire Middle East, it should also send a message to U.S. voters about the importance of electing leaders whose foreign policy records and pronouncements reflect sound judgment in mitigating hostilities, not contributing to them.

From PR Newswire

This an Open Thread: Where the Truth Does Not Hide

Headlines For Saturday December 29: In Bush’s Final Year, The Agenda Gets Greener : Crisis Overseas Is Sudden Test for Candidates: Defense bill stalls at president’s desk: Bhutto aide says bathed body, saw bullet wound: Australian Guantanamo man freed: Shame of Imported Labor in Kurdish North of Iraq

Robert Fisk: They don’t blame al-Qa’ida. They blame Musharraf

Published: 29 December 2007

Weird, isn’t it, how swiftly the narrative is laid down for us. Benazir Bhutto, the courageous leader of the Pakistan People’s Party, is assassinated in Rawalpindi – attached to the very capital of Islamabad wherein ex-General Pervez Musharraf lives – and we are told by George Bush that her murderers were “extremists” and “terrorists”. Well, you can’t dispute that.

But the implication of the Bush comment was that Islamists were behind the assassination. It was the Taliban madmen again, the al-Qa’ida spider who struck at this lone and brave woman who had dared to call for democracy in her country.

Of course, given the childish coverage of this appalling tragedy – and however corrupt Ms Bhutto may have been, let us be under no illusions that this brave lady is indeed a true martyr – it’s not surprising that the “good-versus-evil” donkey can be trotted out to explain the carnage in Rawalpindi.

USA

In Bush’s Final Year, The Agenda Gets Greener

People find all sorts of ways to lobby President Bush. Sometimes it comes in the form of a handwritten note slipped into his palm during a bill-signing ceremony.

Sen. Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.) tried that last week when Bush signed energy legislation that will curb greenhouse gases. “Congratulations and good work,” Carper recalled writing. “By the way, Joe Lieberman and John Warner have a very good global warming bill that needs your support and you ought to support it.”

Bush tucked the note into his pocket and promised to read it later. Carper hoped he would find it at the end of the day when he slipped his suit off. No one knows what effect such a note might have, but it was just one more small foray in a battle for Bush’s attention that has been raging for years, one in which European leaders, American governors, corporate executives, evangelical preachers and key lawmakers have pressed him to lead what they see as a bid to save the planet.

George Bush’s concern for the environment extends as far as corporate greed.

Crisis Overseas Is Sudden Test for Candidates

WEBSTER CITY, Iowa – For the presidential candidates, the assassination of Benazir Bhutto has emerged as a ghoulish sort of test: a chance to project leadership and competence – or not – on a fast-moving and nuanced foreign policy issue.

Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware and Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, Democrats who have struggled to attract voters’ attention, edged into the spotlight on Friday after talking about Pakistan for weeks.

Mr. Biden tried to sound presidential as he expressed concern about loose nuclear weapons in Pakistan, and he also emphasized his foresight by noting that he had long called Pakistan “the most dangerous nation on the planet.”

Mr. Richardson, a former diplomat, made an effort to cast himself as a man of action, meanwhile, calling for President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan to step down.

Christmas is the time for forgiving; and it is in the spirit of Christmas that I had, well before I read his exemplary obituary of Ms. Bhutto, decided to grant Christopher a reprieve for his earlier sins as Bush cheer-leader and restore him to the ranks of scribes of wit, if not reliable common-sense.

Hitch does not disappoint. He is fulsome in his praise of Ms. Bhutto, citing her undeniable courage, before quickly moving in for the kill.

How prettily she lied to me, I remember, and with such a level gaze from those topaz eyes, about how exclusively peaceful and civilian Pakistan’s nuclear program was.

More meat below the fold…