The Greatest Generation & the latest generation

I'll be updating this one shortly. I have a lot to say.
For now, take a look at nearly 1,000 representatives of the "Greatest Generation" - World War 2 veterans from Cambria County, Pennsylvania.

From WWII Vets Hon...

From WWII Vets Hon...

Quote of the day

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."

John Stuart Mill (1806 - 1873)

h/t The Quotations Page

So, did you miss me?

Having wrapped up another major writing assignment at work (and it seems with another one looming in the next couple of days,) this seems as good a time as any to offer some words of wisdom.
There's no meter or rhyme to this post, but let's get started.

The presidential campaign remains a hot topic on the intraweb tubes. One thing that keeps nagging at the back of my mind is the huge concern that the Democratic party have decided on a candidate before the convention. The convention system was established in the first place as the method of selection, but in recent decades it has devolved to little more than a formality. I'm showing my age here, but I distinctly recall watching the 1964 Democratic and Republican conventions on TV. Back then coverage was nearly gavel to gavel. That year the Republican nomination was still an open question. The biggest question in my 12-year-old mind was, why did San Francisco have a Cow Palace, and why did the GOP select that site for their convention?

Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater was the presumptive nominee, but many moderate and liberal-leaning Republicans (we would call them RINOs today) opposed his conservative views. His main opposition had come from New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, whose candidacy was scuttled by an ill-timed divorce. Pennsylvania Governor Bill Scranton came on as a reluctant replacement for Happy Rockefeller. Scranton's half-hearted campaign reminds me today of the effort Fred Thompson gave in his brief run for the White House. In any event, it was too little, too late and Senator Goldwater won the nomination. The Democrats had no such political intrigue at there convention, coming less than a year after President Kennedy's assassination. Lyndon Johnson as the incumbent faced no serious opposition, and he went on to easily defeat Goldwater in November.

My point here is not that the GOP had a contentious convention and lost the election. There was little that would have prevented LBJ's election. The importance of the contested convention was that it gave both the left and right wings of the party an opportunity to duke it out and to decided whether the GOP would remain anchored in conservative values, or would become Democrat-lite under RINO leadership. It was democracy in action, and live on TV. (Okay, the real action happened behind the scenes, but still...)

Now the MSM pundits are so concerned that delegates at this year's Democratic convention might actually have to think and make actual decisions about the future of their party. If that is such a bad idea, then why not just do away with the conventions, schedule a national primary and be done with it?

On another note, it's beginning to look as though vice presidential candidates may play a larger than usual role in this year's election. Elephantman of the Draft Sarah Palin site obviously has a dog in this fight, but he points us to an interesting veepstakes polll at Congressional Quarterly. It's an exercise in bracketology. Check it out.

That's all for now. Keep those comments coming.

John Adams

He was a one term president - the first U.S. President who failed in a reelection bid. But then John Adams was only the second American chief executive. The just concluded HBO miniseries offered a reasonably fair and balanced look at this often controversial public figure. I for one found the theme music (clicky below) haunting. It was also instructional to see how politics has not really changed all that much from the turn of the 19th Century.





Photo courtesy: The Harvard University Collection

3,000 miles from home

This week finds me in sunny (yeah, it's true) Seattle. I'm attending a conference along with several colleagues from my organization.
It was all going pretty well until I stepped across the street to use an ATM. I needed some extra cash because the taxis and shuttles in this otherwise modern city "know not of this 'plastic' you speak of." Anyway, I pop in my card, punch in the PIN and out spits a receipt telling me the card has been confiscated. It would appear my card # has been hacked/stolen. But I can't find out until tomorrow since the bank back in Pennsylvania is closed for the night. I have a backup credit card so it's not the end of the world, just a huge hassle in the midst of a busy road trip.

Hiatus

Wow, things sure have been quiet here.
I began this blog, in part, as therapy to break a lengthy case of writer's block that was directly impacting my ability to do my job (I am a writer after all.)
I continue to read other blogs, and leave comments when the muse strikes, but since I'm back to writing for pay, this site has faced some neglect.
I'm not giving up the blog experience, but do expect little activity here for the time being.

Here's a little music that applies to technical writers as much as commercial music lyricists.


If anybody would care to drop a word of encouragement (or suggest I find something else other than further polluting the Internet with my ravings), it would be appreciated.
God bless.

Childhood's End

Another one of the giants of science fiction's golden age is no longer among us. Arthur C. Clarke was 90 when he died today at his home in Sri Lanka. News accounts here, here, and here.
Clarke was a prolific writer of fiction and nonfiction. He's probably best known as author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, but he also developed the concept behind the constellation of communications satellites that ring our planet 23,000 miles above the equator. His idea of a space elevator in Fountains of Paradise has always been one of my favorites, and with the development of carbon nanotubes is now within the realm of possibility.

(Photo from BoingBoing showing Clarke and friends on his 90th birthday.)

DOOM! – details at 11

It appears more people are beginning to consider that Al Gore's Theory of Global Warming and Carbon Credits to Assuage your Liberal/Green Guilt scam lunacy may, after all, be an inconvenient untruth. Christopher Taylor offers up a very interesting post on the reportage of climate change over more than a century that proves the point that the news media's cry of "Doom!" every time the temperatures goes up/down/sideways is nothing new; it's what they do.

The truth is, climate change has always been with us, because the only thing we can predict about the weather is that it will change. That's what makes it weather: it's different from time to time. Over the long term, it can vary from warm to cool, dry to wet, and so on. We'll get more storms a while, then fewer, that's how it works. What we cannot conclude is that we're all going to die in some tremendous climate catastrophe unless we all stop driving SUVs and buy Al Gore's carbon credits.

Are we on this Good Earth going through climate change? Of course we are; variability is a basic ingredient to climate. The larger question is how much does mankind's presence impact climate. When one volcanic eruption dwarf's the entire "carbon footprint" of mankind since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, one has to consider that we are not that significant in the grand scheme. It seems to me solar cycles and tectonic activity are far more important drivers of Earth's climate.

And while we're on the subject of debunking that Oscar-winning Wingnut, Al Gore, my favorite gun-totin', goat ropin' blogger, Stacy makes Weather Channel founder John Coleman her Manly Man for this week, for having the stones to call out Al Gore and his Carbon Offsets for the fraud they are. So says Stacy:

Mr. Coleman however, has been tossed aside by the MSM (sarcastic gasp goes here). They refuse to listen to this man who was actually educated in meteorology, and instead, worship at the feet of a politician. Mr. Coleman’s desire to continue this fight, and force an intellectual debate has him contemplating legal action.

Mr. Coleman's views have not been exactly embraced at the Weather Channel either. A shame that what should be a lively intellectual exercise into real scientific research is instead deigned to be dogma.

What say you?

Remember them as they fight for you!

My niece, who is stationed at a hospital in Iraq, passes this story along:

For those who are unaware, the National Anthem is played before every movie in military theatres in the U.S. and abroad.

This is attributed to Chaplain Jim Higgins, who offers this example of why our service men and women serving in Iraq are among the best America has to offer:

He writes, "I recently attended a showing of Superman 3 here at LSA Anaconda. We have a large auditorium we use for movies, as well as for memorial services and other large gatherings. As is the custom back in the States, we stood and snapped to attention when the National Anthem began before the main feature.”
The chaplain’s story continues, “All was going as planned until about three-quarters of the way
through The National Anthem the music stopped. Now, what would happen if this occurred with 1,000 18-22 year-olds back in the States? I imagine there would be hoots, catcalls, laughter, a few rude comments; and everyone would sit down and call for a movie. Of course, that is, if they had stood for the National Anthem in the first place.”
“Here, the 1,000 Soldiers continued to stand at attention, eyes fixed forward. The music began again. The Soldiers continued to quietly stand at attention. And again, at the same point, the music stopped.”
“What would you expect to happen? Even here, I would imagine laughter, as everyone finally sat down and expected the movie to start.”
“But you could have heard a pin drop. Every Soldier continued to stand at attention. Suddenly there was a lone voice, then a dozen, and quickly the room was filled with the voices of a thousand soldiers, finishing where the recording left off:
"And the rockets red glare,
The bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night
That our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free
And the home of the brave?"

The chaplain concludes, “It was the most inspiring moment I have had here in Iraq . I
just wanted you to know what kind of soldiers are serving you here. Remember them as they fight for you!”

Let us remember to be ever in prayer for all our soldiers serving us here at home and abroad.

The above photo shows Airman First Class Deborah Korenoski briefing Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne on the work of medical staff at the USAF Hospital in Balad, Iraq.

Troops in Iraq starved for entertainment?

A strange congruence of events has led me to change the topic of today's post. Originally, I had planned to discuss the issues surrounding the soon to be former Governor of New York.
But then I received an email from my niece, a member of the U.S. Air Force, who is deployed to a hospital in Balad, Iraq.
It seems she and some of her fellow service members have managed to find entertainment of an adult nature - a peep show. Here's the photographic evidence:














It's okay to laugh.