Blue-Eyed Devils

The global financial crisis is “caused by white men with blue eyes,” said President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil at a press conference with UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown. He’s right, of course, and as a heterosexual, non-Hispanic white guy with blue eyes, I’m ashamed to look at myself in the mirror. President da Silva went on to say that the people who have to pay for the crisis are the poor, brown people. All this misery and suffering - I’m stricken with remorse. President Obama’s Chicago buddy, Minister Louis Farrakhan, believes we’re “blue-eyed devils” too and I guess he’s right. His other Chicago buddy, the, Reverend Wright, had nasty things to say about us like: "God damn America!" President Obama is apologizing for people like me wherever he goes lately, and I guess it’s time I joined in and helped him out. I need to purge myself of this guilt so I can at least shave in the morning without wanting to cut my throat.



In Strasbourg, our president said America has “shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive” toward France, after LaFayette helped us out so much more than two centuries ago. Arrogant Americans think that just because we left 512 American military cemeteries in France, Belgium, and Luxembourg after World War I, that it somehow made up for what the French did for us, but they didn’t allow for inflation. I mean there were far fewer people in the world when the French came over here and helped us compared to how many were around in 1917/18 when tens of thousands of Americans died in the trenches defending Europe. Even though most of those dead Americans were non-Hispanic, heterosexual white guys, it doesn’t begin to make up for the bad things others of our ilk did all throughout history.

Yes, Americans went over again in 1942 after France had again been conquered by the Germans, this time in just a few weeks. Yes, we left another 359 American military cemeteries with over 246,000 dead Americans in them, and some of us think that’s enough. But think about this when you see pictures of all those lines of white crosses: The treads of Patton’s tanks tore up the ground for hundreds of miles and nobody stopped to put up silt fence anywhere. And how much truffle habitat was forever altered by arrogant Americans digging all those graves? How many frogs with nice, fat legs could have been croaking there? How many grapes could be ripening if dead Americans weren’t taking up so much space?

Why did we think we needed to go in there and push the Germans out anyway? Lots of French people were cooperating with German rule in Vichy France. They were working it out quite well until we arrogantly interfered. The French have had a lot of practice at surrendering and they’re very good at it. They cooperated nicely with the Germans by putting French Jews on trains to the gas chambers in Poland. France cooperated with the Japanese in their their former colony in Vietnam as well. Heck, they surrendered so gracefully when the Japanese moved down the Indochina Peninsula that Japan didn’t even have to disarm them. French troops kept their weapons and cooperated until the United States forced Japan to surrender by dropping two atomic bombs on them in 1945.

Speaking of those atomic bombs, President Obama apologized for dropping them too, in Prague. “As a nuclear power – as the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon – the United States has a moral responsibility to act,” he said. He wants America to take the lead getting rid of nuclear weapons, since we so arrogantly dropped them on Japan. Heck, all the Japanese did was attack us at Pearl Harbor - and they only did that because we refused to sell them scrap metal. If we weren’t so stubborn, all that misery could have been avoided. And, it was blue-eyed white guys who invented those terrible weapons in the first place.


Finally, it was great to see President Obama bowing to the king of Saudi Arabia. What a nice way to start making up for stealing all their oil. This is the kind of hope and change the American people wanted last November. I didn’t think I’d like it, but now I see that there’s even hope for us heterosexual, non-Hispanic white guys to change too - or at least stop screwing up the world.

Easter Bunny Business

Why does the four day Easter long weekend always seem so much shorter than four days ? Its because Easter inevitably always ends up being so busy. Friends that have moved away come back to town, the relations call in to visit, and there always seems to be some kind of festival or parade or event to attend. Now that i find myself in a relationship, my Easter activities magically doubled this year. No wonder its now Monday evening and i feel like i've barely stopped all weekend!

Mr Gil and I have been shuttling back and forth between his town and mine ( a trip of 30 minutes on a good day ) since Thursday night and its finally catching up with me. Starting Thursday afternoon:
* I finished work and drove out there.
* Stayed Thursday night at his sisters place, but ate dinner with his mum and dad at theirs.
* Visited his dad at his workplace Friday morning, played Wii at his mums Friday afternoon.
* I drove back Friday evening.
* Made a pitstop at my uncle's house for my baby cousins 1st birthday.
* Had a casual dinner of fish and chips with P, who was home for the weekend, and two of my other school friends AJ and Em.
* Slept at my own house that night.
* Mr Gil drove over to my town Saturday morning.
* Had a lunch scheduled with P and her husband - the first time my best friend would be meeting my new boyfriend- but P had to cancel.
* Instead, Mr Gil and I grabbed a quick takeaway lunch and drove back to his town.
* Visited with his mum and played more Wii Sports.
* Headed back to his sisters where we would be staying the night.
* Attended his ten year high school reunion. Mr Gil and I are the same age, but his school held a reunion to celebrate ten years since the 10th grade; mine will celebrate ten years from 12th grade.
* I drove Mr Gil to the local truck stop at 3:30am because he was really hungry and only something hot, greasy, and really bad for him would cure that hunger.
* Drove out to the property where Mr Gil works to feed the farm animals. As his boss is away, yes this technically means he had to work on Easter Sunday.
* Took some Easter Eggs to his mum and dad.
* Packed up my stuff and drove back, again, to my town.
* Played Easter Bunny to my little cousins who are visiting town and whom Mick was meeting for the first time. Nobody cried, so that was good.
* Had dinner with my mum, dad and sister. Received a late visit from my brother and his family on their way home from Sydney.
* Went to bed and almost immediately fell asleep. No early morning munchy trips called for.
* Woke up and got sucked into watching a few episodes of Parental Control on MTV.
* Went to have lunch a local pub only to find the bistro wasnt serving. Mr Gil and I sunk a few dollars in the poker machines instead.
* Went and saw " Monsters Vs Aliens ". Yes, its a kids movie and no we didnt take any kids with us.
* Came home to find both my parents snoozing on the lounge. Retired to my room for a quick nap of our own.
* Woke up right on schedule and said a hard goodbye for the week to Mr Gil, who had to get on back to his own town.
* Wished he was still here.

And that brings us update. I may expand on a few of those points tomorrow, but for now i've given you everything i have to give. Whats that ? Oh yea, i think i hear my pillows calling ....

One Quarter Down, The Rest Of The Year To Go

So, i thought seeing as we are one quarter of the way through 2009 ( god, already! ) that i might quickly review how my goals for the year were going. AS it turns out, i think i'm doing pretty well!

Continue the gym/health kick: Ok, to be fair, this one has slipped a little in the last month. I was away from home for two weeks so i didnt make it to the gym at all - i did go for a few walks after work, but going for a walk just doesnt make me feel the same. And i've been sick with the latest icky bug the past week and, consequently, havent have only been to the gym once in the past week. However, its not like i have stopped going because i couldnt be bothered anymore, which would mena a big fat FAIL on this goal. NO, its only been circumstance that has stopped me, so i'm going to give myself a 6/10 on this one thus far.

Spend as much time with my neices as possible: I'm going to give myself a pass mark on this one. Admittedly, since the arrival of Mr Gil to my scene i have not been as frequent a visitor to my brothers house as i once was, but all the time i do spend with H and BellaBoo is quality. BellaBoo is three months old now ( ah, how convenient for her to have been born on New Years Day ) and she is a chubby-cheeked little cherub with fluffy brown hair. She gurgles and laughs now, so you can pull funny faces and make her laugh, as opposed to pulling funny faces and just looking like an oodball. H seems to have gorwn closer to me since Bella's arrival - i think both being the oldest we have a thing going on, because i know what she's gona experience being the oldestof the brood. I've tried to pay her a little more attention than Bella sometimes to make sure she doesnt feel like the baby has " stolen " everyone away from her. That makes me a good aunty right ? 8/10 on this one.

Try saying " yes " more often than " no " : Yep, this train is definately still on the tracks. In fact, i credit how much i'm enjoying my new relationship with Mr Gil to the fact i am more open to saying " yes ". We met online, and he didnt have a picture on his profile - in the past, i wouldnt haven't struck up an email " relationship " without having seen a picture first.... but i this time i said " yes ". When he invited me to roadtrip with him to meet his nephews not soon after we'd met, i could have freaked right out..... but i said " yes ". Even the fact i ignored the so-called dating rules and went on a handful of dates with him inside of two weeks was me sayign " yes ". And look where its got me ? For the happiness i'm exeperincing right now, i give myself a resounding 10/10 ! Yay me!

So there you have it.... the three month review. At this point i would also ( appropriately ) like to wish everyone a Happy Eatser however your spending it ( catching up with family and attending Mr Gil's 10 year school reunion ). Please remember that chocolate is your friend, but even friends can turn enemies if you get too much of them. Safe eating everyone!

After the storm

I snapped this picture on the way home from church on Sunday night. It turned out really good. We had an extra pretty sunset that night since it had rain for awhile and just started clearing up when we left.
I think it's a good example of how God can make something beautiful out a dreary, cloudy, rainy, stormy mess. Which is so true.
Also it shows that not only do clouds have a sliver lining they have pink and purple ones too!
THat was a really random jump. Sorry.

Ditching Dollars

Getting a straight answer from an economist is like nailing jello to a wall. “I'm tired of economists who say, ‘On the one hand ... and then on the other hand.’ Send me a one-armed economist,” said President Harry Truman about his Council of Economic Advisors sixty years ago. It isn’t called “the dismal science” for nothing.

In an old western I saw as a boy, two cowboys who didn’t trust each other negotiated a deal. One gave a coin to the other who looked at it, bit on it, looked at it again, then put it in his pocket, satisfied. It didn’t matter whose picture was on the coin or what was stamped there. He was satisfied that it was made of silver or gold. Ridges are stamped on the edge of dimes and quarters because they used to be made of silver. If there were no ridges, people would suspect someone had been shaved off. The cowboy trusted the metal in his pocket more than he trusted the other cowboy.

The value of gold or silver depends on how much is in circulation. If there were a fixed amount and no more were being mined, the value - or the price if you will - wouldn’t change, right? Like the cowboy in the movie, most of us can understand that much. There’s always a possibility of a big discovery somewhere increasing supply and reducing the value of the coin in his pocket, but such things are relatively rare. The law of supply and demand applies, like it or not. It can no more be repealed than the law of gravity can.

When our government printed paper dollars, we had to trust that it maintained enough gold and silver in Fort Knox to back up dollars it printed, just as we have to trust that someone writes a paper check, he has enough in his account to cover it. Absent trust, paper is no good. In 1971, however, President Nixon announced that the US dollar would not longer be backed by gold. It would float freely. I don’t understand how he had the authority to do that since our Constitution gives Congress power to coin money (or print it) in Article I Section 8, but Nixon did it anyway. The dollar would instead be backed by the full faith and credit of government. Nixon also said he would control wages and prices to keep down inflation, but it didn’t work. Inflation soared - as it will whenever government prints money recklessly.

Though I’m a history teacher, my teaching license says “Social Studies.” I’m charged with teaching current events, geography, civics, and economics as well. That’s daunting at times - especially when I’m having difficulty making sense of what’s going on. Things are happening so fast, it’s hard to keep up. Last November, Americans elected leftists to run the country. I knew it was going to be bad, but I didn’t expect it to be this bad, this soon. I’m not sure voters understood what they would actually do, but we’re all finding out now and we’re getting nervous. I’ve been gritting my teeth wondering what it’s going to be like after four years. The President and his congressional allies are using the banking crisis to take control of our economy in a hurry. The president is taking over banks, firing auto company executives, guaranteeing transmissions, and will soon take over the entire health care industry. A recent Saturday Night Live skit in which the president micro-manages the lawn mower, air conditioner and blue jean industries, isn’t far from reality.

Congress is so rushed, it voted for almost $800 billion - the biggest money bill in history - without even reading it. Yet it insists it’s “rescuing” our economy and legions of two-armed economists applaud with both hands. We’d already been bailing out banks, auto companies, insurance companies, and God knows who else with $700 billion in TARP money, and the treasury won’t tell us who-all is getting it. A Democrat congress and a Republican president hurried TARP through last fall with few people anywhere understanding where the money would come from, how it would be spent, or whether it would do any good. We know it increased our debt to over $10 trillion and China started signaling it wouldn’t lend us any more. China and Russia want to start a new world currency to replace the dollar. The old commies bit the coin and didn’t like what they saw. They’re concerned that we’re moving too far left. Europe too. Who would ever have imagined this a year ago? Not me.

Then, two weeks ago, $1.2 trillion appeared out of nowhere. The Federal Reserve snapped its fingers and there it was. Worried? It’s all backed by the full faith and credit of our federal government. And what’s that worth? Not much in the opinion of an increasing number of American taxpayers who are turning out all over the country on April 15th for a Tax Day Tea Party.

Sorry, But My Dog Ate My Blog Posts...

Well holy guacamole boys and girls - it feels like i havent posted on here for months! It hasnt been quite that long of course, but even a break of a week or two feels like an age in the blogosphere. Barely anybody is reading me anymore - or at least, they arent commenting - and i cant blame them.... why would they bother coming back when there is nothing new to come back to ?

So lets see. In the last month i have:
* Met an absolutely gorgeous, sweet man who is making me incredibly happy - Mr Gil is his (code)name
* Been sent to another state to work for two weeks
* Ridden on the back of a Harley for the first time
* Spent ridiculous amounts of money on magazines to keep me amused in my motel room ( Madison, Marie Clare, Glamour, NW .... )
* Eaten far too many chicken and tzatziki foccacias ( so damn good! )
* Bookended the month with two great weekends spent entirely in Mr Gils company
* Discovered the charm of Taylor Swift
* And have witnessed the deifnate change of seasons here in DubVegas

So, all in all, not such a bad month. You would have thought that with all that time on my hands spent on my own in my motel room i would have blogged a little more.... but aside from what was going on in my temporary place of employment ( boring! ) all i would have had to blog about would have been my extended phoen conversations with Mr Gil ( private! ).

So there you have it - my reasons/excuses for my absenteeism the past month. If you are still reading firstly, thankyou, and secondly please keep checking back. I promise to make myself more available in the future, as i fall ever deeper in love ( the way things are going, thats almost a given ), take more roadtrips ( semi-planned already ) and win the lottery ( what? That'll happen! )....

Trees and Tears

It was as if the tree were crying. Watery beads oozed out of small branches and dropped to the stone wall below. I’d never seen that before and wouldn’t have noticed if it were not back-lit by a setting sun. The prismatic twinkling caught my eye through the window. Drops fell sparkling in the amber light. I thought it was melting ice because it had been a very cold morning, warming up after noon. Then I realized it was a maple tree and those conditions were perfect for running sap. Plumes of wood smoke rose up around town as people boiled it down. Untapped, that old maple surged with too much to hold in. So the teardrops fell, making tiny splashes on the gray stones.

“You don’t have to tell a tree how to be a tree,” someone told me, and thank God for that. It’s difficult enough trying to figure out how to be a man in early 21st century America. At long last, I’m learning its best to leave other living things alone whenever possible and concentrate on myself. Life can freeze a man, but he must thaw when sun shines. Tears can form, and fall, when things surge and pressure builds. As Robert Frost said, “Poems begin as a lump in the throat.” If it can’t escape, that lump will grow and freeze a man hard.

Once allowed to flow, it gets harder for men to hold them back. Not all tears are sad though. They can surge in happiness, as women allow but men resist. Men prefer release in private and that’s all right, as long as they do it. My wife, the therapist, says: “If you can let it flow, you can let it go.”

When my house was finished twenty years ago, I began cutting trees around that maple to see the mountains behind. I split them up and warmed my family with them through several winters. I spared that tree because it’s on the edge of a panorama I was opening, but I cut some of the limbs that intruded, saving one lower limb to look out over. It was that limb upon which the sparkling droplets formed to focus my attention. Soon thereafter, buds emerged. I thought of women giving birth in pain and joy, and with tears accompanying both.

Many kinds of maple trees grow on my lot - reds, whites, swamp maples, sugar maples - and they present different colors come fall. Some, however, have been wounded and go soft inside. Scars and punky wood are obvious sometimes, sometimes not. With other trees, a black stain on the bark indicates a crack beneath. I’m careful dropping wounded trees because I need solid wood in the hinge to guide them when they fall. Some trees show no scarring, but the wood inside has gone soft anyway. My saw feels it first, revving higher and cutting faster, and I realize I won’t get as much good firewood out of that tree. But I work it up anyway.

I’ve wondered why perfect-looking trees rotted inside. Now I consider: Have they hidden their wounds to present a flawless exterior? Has their sap congealed to rot them in their cores instead of nourishing growth in their limbs? Some maples are like this. Some people too.

Another tree nearby tortures itself. It forks twelve feet up and one side sent out a limb that chafes the other. The wounded side grows scar tissue as it rubs painfully during a wind. I hear it groan in a gentle breeze. In a strong gust, it screams. A tree can be its own enemy, as a person can.

Some of my favorite trees are the old, gnarled ones whose scars are open to the world. Some scars are cavernous holes, offering shelter to animals, even children. Old trees live with their wounds over many human lifetimes and send out fresh leaves anyway. They grow bark over and around their scars without hiding them, and the resulting forms charm me. They grow in the open sunlight, and send massive limbs out laterally - unlike trees that grow in dense groves and burn out in competition to shoot upward.

They have strong branches good for swings - not good for lumber and difficult to split into firewood. Maybe that’s why they survive so long. By their very form, they show how to enjoy sun and endure storms. They display endurance. “The artist in me cries out for design,” said Frost, and old, gnarled trees show design by circumstance - what has happened around them and to them - how they’ve withstood it - has shaped them.

A tree doesn’t move. It observes. We stand under it but can’t understand it. Not all of it. Although I have a notion the tree does.