Texas Liberal

A few days ago I ran a post with a hazy picture I had taken of the Mississippi River from an airplane.

Not long after, I saw that my friend Nita at A Wide Angle View Of India had run a photo essay of hazy photos of Mumbai she had taken from an airplane.

Nita was nice enough to allow me use one of her pictures.

My picture was hazy because it was a hazy day.

Nita said that her pictures were hazy because the windows of the airplane were dirty.

The picture is of slums in Mumbai. This is what Nita reports in her excellent post. 

Mumbai is the former Bombay.  

Here is a history of that city along with much other information about Mumbai. 

Isn’t it something that we can fly up in the air and that we can communicate over distances such as India to Texas?

Isn’t is it excellent that we have the ability to communicate at all? It’s a gift we all have in this life. 

In Philadelphia, a number of police officers recently beat three drug suspects in an excessive manner.

Here is a story about the beating. Above is a picture.

Being a police officer is a hard job.

Yet uniformed officers must have discipline.

My feeling about police officers is that you always respect them, you call them when needed, and you avoid them otherwise.

Police officers can be very helpful. If they help you they deserve your thanks. 

We should never forget that police are human just like anybody else. 

At the same time, police officers can get away with a lot.

They can mess you up if they choose.

When confronted with the facts about bad deeds that they or other officers may have committed, they do not always tell the truth.

Police officers should be well paid and receive good benefits.

They should also be under strong civilian control and always be respectful of that civilian authority.

People with weapons and the authority of the state behind them need strong personal discipline.

The Philadelphia police officers in this case seem to have failed the public, the profession and themselves. 

Cyclone Nargis has killed at least 22,000 people in Burma. There is fear the death toll will reach 50,000.

5/9/08–The death toll is rising and aid efforts have been resisted by the Burmese government.

5/12/08—United Nations frustrated by relief obstacles and death toll climbs up.  

The country is also known as Myanmar.

(The photo is from the Agence French Presse.) 

A cyclone is the same as a hurricane. Here are many cyclone questions and answers.

The storm did the greatest damage in the Irrawaddy Delta area of Burma. Here is extensive information on that region. It is one of the most highly populated areas of Burma. 

The capital, Rangoon, has received extensive damage.

Here is video of the destruction. 

The Times of London writes about an added crisis from the storm—

The features that made the stricken area vulnerable to this disaster — its low-lying geography and proximity to water — also made it Burma’s rice bowl. The cyclone has undoubtedly wrought terrible damage on the country’s agriculture. World rice prices are at a record high already, provoking food riots in more than 30 countries. Burma is a net exporter of rice, and the destruction of crops in the Irrawaddy delta will only add to upward pressure on international prices. The country may be unable to keep its promise to sell rice to other needy countries such as Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

There is concern the repressive goverment of Burma will obstruct foriegn-based relief efforts.

This BBC article discusses what aid workers in Burma will be looking for and trying to accomplish.

Here are three Burmese bloggers on the cyclone and the repression in Burma.  

Here is Burmese Bloggers Without Borders.

Here is Burma Digest.

Here is ko hitke’s prosaic collection.

This Saturday, a so-called referendum is planned by the government to help cement their dictatorial rule.

Hopefully this vote will be canceled and the cyclone will help open Burmese society. The Chinese government could help by pressuring its Burmese allies to move towards freedom.

Here is the most recent Reporters Without Borders update on Burma. 

Here are some basic facts and recent history of Burma.

Below is a BBC map of the path of the storm.  

 

Last Thursday I took a plane trip from Houston to Cincinnati. I live in Houston. I lived in Cincinnati for 18 years.

When I woke up Thursday, I was with my wife and at home. I was in my most familiar surroundings. I could come and go as I pleased.  

On the airplane, I was with strangers and I literally had no idea where I was at any given moment. When I looked out the window, what I saw for the most part was clouds. I was trapped on the plane until it landed.

In Cincinnati, I was not at home. But I was somewhere I knew well. I was with friends and family, but also a guest rather than a resident. I was welcome, but I still had to go by other people’s rules. 

Being in Cincinnati was in-between waking up at home and flying on an airplane.

You could say I had three states of being last Thursday.  

There is a world food shortage due to high prices.

Yet the companies that supply food are making record profits.  

This Wall Street Journal story discusses high profits among companies that process grain. 

Here is a series of BBC stories and videos about rising world food prices.

Prices of rice, corn, wheat, soy and grain are way up over recent years. 

This issue has not been addressed in any meaningful way by either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.

Here is a link to the United Nations World Food Program.

Below is a portion of a BBC report on the issue—

A silent tsunami which knows no borders sweeping the world”. That is how the head of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) summed up the global food shortages. It is certainly a storm that has hit with little warning and has plunged an extra 100 million people into poverty. The crisis has triggered riots in Haiti, Cameroon, Indonesia and Egypt and is deemed a dangerous threat to stability. It is not so much famine that is the worry, it is widespread misery and malnutrition. The WFP’s biggest concern is for the people living on 50 cents a day who have nothing to fall back on.

This ongoing issue merits the attention of our political leaders and of all citizens.

I was at first very open to Pastor Jeremiah Wright. 

I felt some of the clips playing over and over on TV made sense.   

I felt in some respects Pastor Wright was mirroring Martin Luther King in asking if America was in many ways a wicked nation that possibly merited judgement.

(Please click here for a Martin Luther King reading list.)

Beyond the public issues, Pastor Wright also reached me on a personal level.

At least according to family lore, I’m descended from people who were on the Mayflower.

People on the Mayflower were not at home with the society they were born into.   

In my late teens and and early 20’s, I was a 1980’s Midwestern hardcore punk rocker.

Without exaggerating the bent of people who—for the most part—lived as others do, this was a crowd that had little affection for the tone and temper of American society.

There was definitely a Puritan tendency among punk rockers—A rejection of what was taking place around them. 

I have a measure of sympathy for homeschoolers and Black Muslims. 

They look around and are repulsed. Why wouldn’t they be?

So I welcomed Pastor Wright. I thought he might be a new voice. I thought he might have the discipline and personal austerity to reject the culture and add a new and needed dimension to the public discussion.

Nope.

Jeremiah Wright is just another Andy Warhol ( photo below) 15 minutes-of-fame media hog. He says he hates the culture, but really he loves it. He found himself in the glare of lights cast by the bigots and idiotic cable channels, and he could not resist the starring role.  

Not only that, he acted out of anger at Barack Obama instead of simply making his case for good or ill in a calm and disciplined way.  

Pastor Wright has no obligation to help Barack Obama. But it is hard to see how he is serving his God or anybody else with his current conduct.

Please see the picture of Pastor Wright at the top of this post with another man who lacks discipline and self-respect.

Below is Jeremiah Wright’s secular idol along with Jimmy Carter. After a rough Presidency and rejection at the polls, Jimmy Carter made a patient step-by-step case that he was in fact a man of decency and vision.   

Pastor Wright could still follow that better course–final judgement is not up to me–but he sure does not seem like a prophet or a leader of any kind at this point. 

Senator Hillary Clinton wants to repeal the federal gas tax for the summer.

This is a bad idea.

(Senator John McCain also supports this idea. But I expect nothing from Mr. McCain.)

I’ve advocated a Fonz-like cool as we select between Senator Clinton and Barack Obama. The bottom line is winning in November.

But this is a policy difference and a fair topic for discussion.  

The money collected from this tax goes into repairing roads and bridges.

Here is a story about last year’s Minneapolis bridge collapse. 

Senator Clinton says a windfall profits tax on oil companies could make up the lost revenue.

Do you see that idea getting 60 votes in the Senate?

Senator Obama correctly opposes this tax “holiday.”

This NPR blog post discussing the issue suggests this proposal might even increase gas prices.

If lower prices make for more summer driving, than supply will be restricted and prices will go up.

Here is a Portland Oregonian editorial against this proposal.

Paying taxes isn’t a penalty or even a burden. It’s the price we pay for living in a society.

With support of this gas tax holiday notion, Senator Clinton undermines the principles of the Democratic Party and, one supposes, her own principles.

Also, she risks taking away money for needed infrastructure programs.  

Barack Obama is the candidate showing leadership on this issue. 

I recently read a quote by Charlayne Hunter-Gault that goes as follows—

“If people are informed they will do the right thing. It’s when they are not informed that they become hostages to prejudice.”

I don’t believe this is correct. I wish I did, but I don’t.

Beyond differences people might have on what the “right thing” might be, I feel that some intentionally choose an evil course.

Others know that things such as racial prejudice, or not assisting the vulnerable, or on a more minor note, driving in a rude manner, are seen by many as bad actions. 

Yet these behaviors and many other bad behaviors show no sign of ending.

Progress is always possible in society. But it will be initiated by just some people instead of by all people. 

And the lessons of progress will be practiced only by some and not by all.

The information needed about decency to others is always out there for all to learn and act upon.  

Some, because they are evil, or selfish, or lazy, are never going to listen.

So while I believe that decent people working together can make life better, I do not believe that information or education will lead the many people committed to bad acts to reform themselves. 

Charlayne Hunter-Gault was one of the first two black students at the University of Georgia and is a former reporter for the New York Times and the McNeil/Lehrer Report. She had to sue for entrance to the Univ. of Georgia. Ms. Hunter-Gault currently is a reporter in South Africa. 

Here is more information on Charlayne Hunter-Gault. 

What is America?

I believe America is the rule of law, the acceptance of the results of free and fair elections, and the inclusion of people of all kinds in the national life.

What America is not is any specific religion, skin color or language.

This does not mean people should not learn English. It does mean that if America is a majority Spanish-speaking nation in 100 years, that it could still be an America of laws, democracy and inclusion.

America is both a political state and a product of the imagination.

This is my view of America.    

I had a dream last night that Howard Dean had become President.

In my dream, Governor Dean became President after Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama could not end their campaign.

John McCain was never in the dream. Mr. Dean simply became President when the Democratic race got log jammed.  

In this dream I had last night Republican don’t even exist. 

It was a pretty good dream.

Though I wish it had gone on longer to the point where the first President from Vermont ordered that all citizens should receive free maple syrup.  

I once had a dream that Mary Tyler Moore had become President.

This was a disappointing dream because it turned out that she was a Republican.

Though in reality—not to suggest that my dreams are not reality—I’m pretty sure Mary Tyler Moore is a Democrat.

Below is what a Mary Tyler Moore administration would look like.

President Moore is in the center and is surrounded by her cabinet.

Passover begins tonight. There will be a Seder in my home tonight.

Above you see a Passover Seder plate with the traditional foods.

Please click here for an explanation of these foods.  

Here is the Passover story.

Here are some basic facts about Judaism.

Below is an image of the Passover story being read in 14th century Spain.

Here is a BBC article about sea levels rising in the 21st century and the impact this could have on low-lying nations such as Bangladesh.  

New information on this topic comes from a British/Finnish research team and was discussed at a conference in Vienna.  Sea levels seem likely to rise in way not seen in the last 2000 years.

Here is an article about the causes of sea level increases and how such things are measured.  

This is a very interesting tour of Bangladesh by way of its rivers. The theme of the tour is the impact of climate change on Bangladesh. 

This issue should be a big part of the American Presidential campaign. But Senator McCain’s electoral base does not care and Senator’s Obama and Clinton have often lacked the personal discipline and maturity to discuss real issues instead of silliness.  

I got home from work yesterday around 5:15 PM. 

I signed on to my computer to see if Texas Liberal had 50,000 views for the day.

(I was 49,200 short as it would later turn out.)

I found I could not sign in online.

I called A T & T. They said there had been an outage and that service would be restored by 8 PM.

That did not happen.

This morning I still had no connection. I called again.

I was told it was not about an outage but about some sort of connection issue either specific to my computer or just outside my home.

It was fixed by 5 PM today.

Okay–Good enough.

I was off from work today.

Though I have plenty I could do and a million books to read, I was at a loss this morning without the ability to go online. 

They say people become addicted to being on the internet.

I think this is true.

What I did today instead of blogging, was buy a huge burrito and take it home. Then I found a DVD of The Taming of the Shrew with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.

I’d bought this DVD at the supermarket at least a year ago. Today was my day to watch it.      

I ate my big burrito and watched The Taming of the Shrew.  This was a good way to spend an afternoon.  

Below is the poster for the movie.

Here is information on the play as Shakespeare wrote it. 

Below is a picture of a burrito. Here is some information on the history of the burrito.  

I’d say my day was okay without the internet.

I read the following in E.L Doctorow’s novel World’s Fair, which is an account of growing up in New York City in years just before American entrance into W.W. II —

” …Major Bowes’ Original Amateur Hour, a radio program. Aspiring musicians were contestants on the program, and if they were no good, Major Bowes would ( bang a gong) to stop their performance. It made you laugh even though it could not have been funny to whoever it was who might have been rehearsing for weeks to be heard on the radio and hoping to win a professional contract from the appearance.”

While this is from a novel, the show did in fact exist.

This is pretty much the same as The Gong Show that ran in the late 70’s. I enjoyed the Gong Show as a kid. Today I’m sure I would find it very mean as I find many so-called reality shows. Though I think I might still watch the Gong Show because it was absurd. I think I would watch it but not admit that I do.

I’m sure plenty of people knew the Gong Show was an imitation of another show. But I never knew. 

Here is what is says in the Bible—What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun.

Here is a link to the Major Bowes’ Amateur Hour.    

Here is information about Edward Bowes.

Here is information about The Gong Show.

Here is information about Gong Show host Chuck Barris.

Here is a review of World’s Fair.

A few days ago I was at the automated teller machine.

A man was standing about 5 feet behind me waiting to use the machine.

While I was getting my money, I thought about a one-liner I could use to get a laugh from the guy behind me.

When I was done, I turned around and said–”Hey man, this machine just gives you money!”

My timing in delivering the line was not perfect—But it was okay enough. 

He looked at me in surprise for a moment, and then, to his credit, seemed to get that I was joking around.

He said, with a laugh that suggested only a bit of fear about this strange person talking to him –”Yeah, right.”

I thought the exchange went basically well. 

You can tip the person who helps you at the Dunkin’ Donuts.

( Above is my local Dunkin’ Donuts. I think it is an older store. )

You can tip at any place you feel you’ve received good service and you figure the staff is not paid very much.

Take this morning for example.

I ordered one dozen doughnuts, two cups of coffee, and a cup of tea from the Dunkin’ Donuts. ( I was hungry and thirsty.) 

The young lady who helped me was on the ball so I tipped her.

There you have it.

Here is a history of doughnuts. 

Much rudeness comes from the inability to quickly process any mildly unusual or stressful situation. People often lack the self-assurance to devise quick replies to the unexpected. Rudeness seems a better option than appearing silly or feeling awkward.  

Here is a photo of wild turkeys taken by my Cousin Kim in Plainfield, Vermont.

She was taking a walk and came across these turkeys.

Here are facts about wild turkeys.

Here are facts about snow.

Here are facts about Vermont. 

Here is a history of Plainfield, Vermont.

My polling place this morning for the Texas primary was in a black church near my home.

Last time I voted it was in a Catholic church.   

Voting is the only thing that gets me into a church.

As I voted today, I was watched over by a black Jesus.

The image above was the picture in the church.

Was Jesus black?  

This article discusses the topic. 

The painting is by a man named Wolfgang Otto.

A possible autobiography of who I am. 

1967—Born.

1970’s— First realizations

1. Other kids are not always nice.

2. While it may seem counter-intuitive, humor does not make friends, but it does earn respect.

3. Intellect gets you noticed and has a deeper value as well.

Though it was not yet clear what that deeper value would be.    

1980’s—More realizations

1. Women, gays, blacks, and self-defined punk rockers make reliable friends. At least they did for the person I was becoming.

People on the outside, if they are not too angry to connect, can be of great help to each other.  

2. Knowledge is not inherently power. It depends on whether what you know can be applied.

Knowledge, however, does allow you to navigate life easier. It provides the context needed to understand everyday life. 

This is how I came to a more generalized approach to thinking, instead of a detail-orientated type of thinking.   

A general approach to life must be found. You won’t most often find specific answers.

1990’s—Questions

1. How do I balance a strong personality with an ideological commitment to collective action? How I do communicate that personal independence and collective action do not conflict?

2. How do I be as inclusive and open to others as possible, while still holding strong views? 

1994—Met future wife.

2000’s — Always more to consider

How do I best communicate my values? What is the widest definition of communication I can use to assert my values?

Just as knowing history helps you understand the present, longstanding friendships provide your own life with context and meaning        

Effective communication and good realtionships require much self-discipline.

( Note–This is a revised version of a recent post. I think this effort is a little more clear.)