I’m in a gentle, good mood!

Maybe the dog does that for me!
Maybe the polls are looking a little better!
by Charlie Leck

I’m in a decent mood tonight. I think it’s the dog, Jasper. He is turning out to be a wonderful pal and we do lots together and, one thing for sure, we don’t talk politics.

We take long walks every day. In truth, I walk and he runs like a crazy one! Lordsy, how he likes to ramp it up and tear through the high grass and crash into a tree he couldn’t see because the grass was both too long and too thick. Strange game, but he likes it!

Yesterday he met Bruno, a Doberman, at the dog park. His new friend’s favorite game was ‘you lie on your back and pretend I take your slim, attractive throat in my big powerful jaws and rip it wide open!’ Strange! My new dog loved that, too! He played it for 20 minutes or so. After each round of the game they’d run through the high grass, the Doberman’s long legs lifting him up so much that he could actually see approaching trees and avoid them.

I like the feel of the Presidential campaign right now. I can’t point to any polls to support my good feeling, but I sense that reality is settling in across the land and the mass of folks are starting to see the real John McCain and the incredibly real Sarah Palin. Their claims to be the candidates of change just don’t ring true! They represent the same-old, same-old. There’s nothing hopeful about it!

One of my brothers writes and asks how I could think about turning over the nation’s foreign and domestic security to Obama? What do we want? My brother wouldn’t understand. We don’t need another bully. We need someone with a brain – someone who can talk with other nations and not at them. There is nothing wrong with electing someone with a high degree of intellect.

I think about some of these things as I walk along with my dog. I just don’t take them so seriously. The sun splashes all over us and we look out and see the lake sparkling in the distance. We hear some church bells tolling and it feels peaceful and hopeful. There’s something magical about a man and his dog. My time with him is thrilling.

He’s got me walking again. I’m not afraid to go 3 or 4 miles. I take it easy and he keeps running back to me, patiently coaxing me along. He brings a tennis ball he found in the high grass and he drops it at my feet. My knees crack as I bend down to pick it up. I throw it for him, remembering the days when I could have thrown in well over a hundred feet. Now I can’t get it out there more than 40 or 50 feet. I laugh at myself and shake my head. My arm was powerful once. I remember a lot of extraordinary power I once had and have no more – those days in Paris when my wife and I fell unalterably in love in a little loft apartment on Cité Trevisse. It happens.

When we circumnavigate the outer trail of the big park and return to our starting point, he wants to go again. My heart says ‘yes’ but my legs refuse to go on. Three miles is a good walk for me. Trying to do six or seven will lay me up for a day or two. Better to be moderate.

The dog disagrees. He bounds forward toward the owner of the Doberman. The owner calls back to me.

“Can he come along?”

“Sure! I’ll wait here.”

Off they go, like kids who have fuel tanks always on full. They bound through the high grass. The Doberman sees the tree they are approaching. My dog doesn’t. The crash is head-on and he writhes on his side, in the grass, for only seconds, and then builds himself up on all fours and chases again after the throat-slasher.

Kids! Kids? What can you expect?

In the car, on the way home, Jasper snores loudly as he stretches out on the back seat.

END that thought!

A note came in my email yesterday to read Jerry Feldman at Daily Kos [Listen Up! We Can Still Win this Thing!]. It's solid, good stuff about how to approach the campaign and how to deal with all the crap that the McCain organization is always dropping around in very slimy places. You might want to read it if you're wondering how Obama can possibly win.

A Break from the Rants!

This would read better if you spoke ‘shoe’ but it’s okay this way, too.
by Charlie Leck

A friend from Denver alerted me to the following posting on Craig’s List. I haven’t exactly figured Craig’s List out yet but I know there were lots of raves when it first opened for business. No name was included with this posting – only a posting number – and there was no way to contact the poster to ask permission to share this with you on my blog. Yet, again, how do you get hold of an old shoe and ask questions and permission? My apologies to the author if he/she is offended by being put on display here.

My name is Right Shoe. I am a right shoe - Skechers circa 2003. I lost my "sole" mate on Saturday in Otay Mesa. His name was Left Shoe.

You see, my owner, Left Shoe, and I were skydiving together, and as the chute opened, Left Shoe, my partner of 5 years, went flying away. I knew this would happen... I tried to tell my owner to tie us better, but he just wouldn't listen. (My owner has been learning how to speak Shoe... but talking to him is mostly like talking to a brick wall)

Left Shoe and I have been inseparable these past few years, ever since we got identical Made In China tattoos. It's like we were made for each other; we were even the same size & color, and we enjoyed the same activities. We traveled everywhere together, and we were even planning on going to Japan together in September.

Some people say Left Shoe jumped on purpose. Sure, we weren't in our prime anymore; Left Shoe especially got a lot of comments about being tattered and over the hill. But I know Left Shoe and he wouldn't do that to me. It was a bad day for Left Shoe because in the morning he stepped in gum, and then later he stepped in an unknown substance on the port-a-potty floor. But he was fine, and was excited to go skydiving. Left Shoe was resilient like that.

I really miss Left Shoe. I've come to terms with the fact that I may never see him again. But I really just want to know what happened to Left Shoe... Did he land in a lake? or did the winds carry him out to sea? or did he leave a little crater somewhere from the impact? or maybe he burned up on re-entry in a blazing fireball of glory.

If you know anything about what happened to Left Shoe, please contact me. I know I can't hope that Left Shoe is still alive, but I just want to know what became of Left Shoe...

I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.
--Alfred Lord Tennyson

All my thoughts & prayers,
Right Shoe

[click here for the Craig’s List posting if you want to see it in the original]

There’s a little break from my rants; but I’ve a heckuva rant for you tomorrow (Radio Rage). Continue reading for more of today's posting.

Do You Laugh or Cry?

A friend’s daughter raises a significant question!
by Charlie Leck

A little friend of mine is giving it a faithful try. He wants to grow up to be a blogger. He is only in the “I think I can, I think I can” phase right now. A while longer and he’ll move into the “I know I can” mode that will allow him to really get there. If he really keeps it up this time, he is absolutely worth visiting and reading.

His most recent posting, from which he sends you to two incredible videos, will leave you with that vague, empty feeling – wondering whether you should laugh or cry. The blog is in response to a significant question raised by his daughter.

Go visit PRAIRIE PONDERINGS and see why he picks out these videos to astound you.

The Republican Bounce

Watching the Polls
by Charlie Leck

Well, now it begins! We start watching the polls to see what’s happening. One really good political observer, with whom I have an occasional lunch, told me one shouldn’t even begin watching them until, at least, 10 days after the last of the two big endorsing conventions. That means we’ve got a few more days before we start paying attention.

One significant poll yesterday shows McCain taking a lead on Obama. Here in Minnesota the two are absolutely in a dead-tie. Obama earlier had a big lead. This is not unexpected. The Republicans are going to get a bounce from their convention (RNC); and the Democrats could not take advantage of the bounce factor at their own convention (DNC) because the RNC followed it so closely – and McCain shrewdly made his VP announcement on the morning following the DNC.

So, let a few more days go by before you start watching various polls. I am going to make regular reports here whenever there is a significant movement in any of the polls and I’ll send you to the appropriate website so you can analyze for yourself what that movement means.

In a blog sometime ago, I told you about one of the most astute and accurate observers (or election predictors) in the nation (though he’s actually in Sweden) – the Stromberg Model. He’s the one I’ll watch and read the closest. It’s not easy to find Stromberg’s projections, but I’ll keep digging and finding them and reporting them here for you. If you want to read how Stromberg works, go back to that earlier blog and you’ll find a variety of links.

The CBS/New York Times Opinion Poll has shown itself to be extremely accurate. You might want to watch it.

Here are some of the other excellent polls….

• The Rasmussen Report
• Pew Research
• TIPP (a service to which one needs to subscribe – I’ll pick them up from news services and bring them to you)
• Newsweek Opinion Poll (then click on ‘politics’ and off you go)
• This particular site give you a good graphic look at what’s going on state-by-state with a very attractive map of the USA and then a summary of the totals.
  ELECTORAL VOTE.COM

Happy poll watching!

Blog Junkie

There are good, bad and awful, but I love checking out the blogs!
by Charlie Leck

In absolute truth, I’m a blog junkie. I find more truth on the blogs than I do in the newspapers, which, in this day and age, are owned and controlled by massive, profit-seeking corporations. The Alternative News supplied by blogs get much closer to the truth. Here’s a little report on my morning reading of the blogs today (Friday, 12 September 2008).

David Letterman, in an opening monologue this week pretty much set to rest the question about whether Sarah Palin is ready to be President, revealing to us again that comedy often strikes deep at the heart of truth.

“I don’t think we need to worry about that because Bush has
lowered the bar so tremendously, I mean, I’m ready to be President.”

Now, in truth, that’s not funny! It’s a tragic truth.

David Zetland was a guest blogger on Freakonomics, one of my favorite blogs, writing about water and its future and the future shortages of water we can expect – in a nation that treats water so casually that “we water our sidewalk.” I urge you to read both of these blogs if you care. Part I. And, Part II.

A few days ago, I republished one of my blogs here at the request of a friend. The blog displays the incredible embassy that the U.S. is soon to move into in Iraq. The compound pretty much indicated the U.S. has very long term plans in Iraq. Now comes an Amy Goodman report about a “recently leaked draft of an Iraqui-U.S. agreement that outlines the long-term status of U.S. forces in Iraq.”

If you don’t read (or listen to) Amy Goodman regularly at Democracy Now, you’re missing one of the most important, insightful news writers in America.

A long time ago I wrote in disgust about the hundreds of millions of dollars that William McGuire made as the head of United Health Group. Need I emphasize the word health? While we wonder why health care and health insurance is so expensive in America, fat-assed executives skim nearly a billion dollars right off the top to pad their personal wealth. Now, legal settlements between McGuire and a host of government entities sound like it will cost the ex-executive nearly a billion dollars. [Here’s a story in our local paper about the settlement!]

Good! But, believe me, this is only the tip of the iceberg in the industry and it’s the American public that gets screwed!

Rachel Maddow has just launched a new show on MSNBC. That’s great. She’s wonderful and I enjoy her commentary. The problem is, just as it is in the case of Keith Olbermann, the only people who listen to them are the people who agree with them. Oh well, maybe the two of them can make us angry enough that we’ll get up off our lazy butts and join the fight to get rid of the right-wing, religious freaks who are taking control of our nation.

If you are a person of faith, but can’t stand the religious puke the right-wingers throw around – and you want something more rational and thoughtful, you really ought to spend some time every few days catching up with things at God’s Politics with Jim Wallis. You read some sensible and thoughtful commentary on the place of faith in our nation’s political struggles.

I also go to a blog called Healing Iraq regularly. I find it a pretty balanced read. They try to look at Iraq and what’s happening there in a very fair and accurate way. The state of the nation (Iraq) was a recent subject. It has been placed at the bottom of the scale in almost every category. Only Sudan is rated in more desperate condition.

“The height of the U.S. military surge in Iraq was a key factor in this year’s analysis of that country. And though Iraq’s score improved slightly, the gains that one might hope for—those that reflect fundamental, long-term changes—did not occur. The desperate predicament of nearly 4 million people driven from their homes, the abysmal state of public services, and the discord among sectarian factions have shown no real improvement. The incremental security and economic progress that has occurred are dependent on tenuous, short-term factors that could unravel at any time. Eager to cobble together a fragile peace, the U.S. military has armed dozens of new Sunni militia groups that could later turn their guns on the Iraqi government, their Shiite rivals, or the Americans many still regard as occupiers. Similarly, Iraq’s economy has improved only moderately, thanks largely to the spike in global oil prices, not Iraqi production. In short, progress in Iraq last year was negligible at best and deeply susceptible to reversal should the country suffer the kind of shock—a food shortage, a high-level assassination, an attack that unleashes ethnic hatreds—that has exposed so many states’ deep vulnerabilities in recent months.”

This is the mess that yet needs cleaning up. The cost to the U.S. is going to be staggering – even while we leave our own infrastructure and educational system without attention. Is this really the political party you want to vote for – to give them another 4 years to mess us up?

Andrew Sullivan, who blogs at The Atlantic, is another very balanced blogger. One can't accuse him of being to the left or to the right. He wrote yesterday about an Obama speech in which the Senator raised one of the issues that interests me most in these awful days – habeus corpus!

If you really have a strong theological bent, or want to, Our of Ur (by Christianity Today) might be a blog you’d like to visit and read. This thought comes from an essay posted there by Brandon O’Brien. It’s something we ought to really keep in mind.

“If we find our authenticity and identity in Christ, we’ll have to be prepared to stop judging our effectiveness by how people respond to us. We’ll no doubt be misunderstood by some. But we won’t, as some people fear, be disregarded or discredited for speaking or acting in each given situation according to the need. That doesn’t make us hypocrites. In fact, people are more likely to question your motives if you’re always affirming, always in-your-face, always cool and groovy.”

I’ll let you put your own interpretations on that and I won’t comment further.

For pure entertainment and reading pleasure I always find my way to Dick Cavett and The Talk Show. He posts about once a week and the reading is just wonderful. In his most recent blog he muses about how he would like time to ask Sarah Palin a question or two -- one being:

"I’d love to have the chance to ask her how being able to see Russia from parts of her state apparently qualifies her to deal with that vastly complex country more effectively than those scholars and diplomats who find themselves less proximate to its shores."

Enough! I hope you enjoyed this little tour around the blogs!

A Tip of the Hat to Her and an Apology!

She was a fine ball player and the best all-around athlete I have ever seen!
by Charlie Leck

As a kid in the 1950s, I was a good baseball player – maybe even a little better than good. I hit over 600 in my last year of Little League, always over 400 in Babe Ruth League and 421 in a tough conference in my last year of high school; however, this blog is not about me, but about her. She was better than I and would have been a wonderful teammate, but we all resisted because she was, after all, a girl.

When it was mentioned that she might join our little league team, there was a mass insurrection. All kinds of players, including me, threatened to quit. What little shits we were!

Had our manager had any guts he would have said, “Take a walk!” However, this was in 1952 and no kids or men had any interest in feminine rights. She was kept out and not allowed to play because she was a girl and our team went on to a nearly unbeaten year. Near the end of the season, we lost one game to a team we had beaten by over 30 runs in our first game of the year. Then in the playdowns, to go to the Little League World Series, we lost to a big city team and got sent home. Had she been on our team, it is possible we would have gone all the way.

She was the best ball player I’ve ever seen – better than Toby Barkman and better than Ronnie Post. Better even than Johnny Sullivan. She could run faster than I. She could dig a ball out of the dirt, and handle it neatly, better than Toby could. Her swing was sweeter than Ronny’s and her bat was faster than Johnny’s. Nothing intimidated her – not a ball up around her chin or a barrel-chested runner coming head-on at her.

I was about 30 when I began to think about the unfairness of what we did to her – what I did to her. I had the highest batting average on that little league team and I led it in homeruns too. I didn’t want to give up that status to a girl. My god, how could I have been such a stupid little kid?

Now I know it would have been fun. She loved playing more than any of us. She had the widest, prettiest smile I’d ever seen. She laughed constantly. She could clap and holler just like a guy. In short, she would have been a great teammate.

Apologizing now is kind of silly; yet, that’s what I need to do. Mary Metzger, I’m sorry. I’m sorry we didn’t stick a bat in your hands and let you lead us to glory. Nothing will make up for what we did. I understand that, but I still offer this weak and far too late apology for what we did.

You were the best athlete I ever saw. You got robbed!

Do You Think the War in Iraq is God’s War?

My goodness… my God… we can’t let this team get elected, so do something to stop it! by Charlie Leck

You’ve heard of the patients running the insane asylum haven’t you? Well, get ready for it in reality.

“In June, when Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin addressed the graduating class of commission students at her one-time church, Wasilla Assembly of God, she painted the current war in Iraq as a messianic affair in which the United States could act out the will of the Lord. ‘Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God,’ said Palin. In a statement to the New York Sun yesterday, McCain campaign spokesman Michael Goldfarb endorsed Palin’s comments 100%" [from an AlterNet Story of 10 September 2008]

Here are the comments by Michael Goldfarb about the original Palin statement…

"This is an incredibly humble statement, a statement that this campaign stands by 100%, and a sentiment that any religious American will share -- the hope that our country’s actions are indeed righteous,…"

I get very nervous about people who go running around, claiming they know what God’s plan or will for the world is. I get very nervous about people claiming the God in whom I believe is a promoter of war and violence, death and destruction, murder and mayhem or hatred and bigotry. This war is all those things! God bless the poor troops who are over there fighting for their lives in a war that did not need to happen. It did not! It is blind foolishness to think otherwise. Trillions of dollars have been poured down that rat hole! Trillions!

This is an election that demands you do not sit on the sideline. We may lose, but let’s not lose without a fight. Get in there and mix it up. Talk to your neighbors. Convince them! Correct them when they develop misperceptions. Don’t allow this lying crap on the Internet to go unanswered. Condemn hateful email by sending your remarks on to everyone who received it.

Give money – everything you legally may and can reasonably afford to the Obama campaign.

Have you been listening to the craziness of this Sarah Palin? Do you realize there is better than a 50 percent chance she will become your President if John McCain is elected?

Saying the war in Iraq is God’s war is reason enough to defeat McCain/Palin. They both think it is. They both must be crazy!

Don’t sit back or you’ll have the crazies leading the country!

Here’s something I wrote to a friend quite a long time ago…

“Though I didn’t put my theological education to a sustained, long term practical use, it has still served me well and given me a way of thinking about events that is enormously helpful. I remember one of my better professors, an Old Testament scholar, warning me (actually us) about prescribing to God and His will events that take place around us and around the globe. ‘We are not capable of reading accurately the intention of God in the matters of human beings. We should do so rarely and only then with great, great caution.’ Of course, he was and is correct. The American religious fundamentalists believe they have some special insight into the will of God. They are not cautious at all about proclaiming so. It is, in a fustian manner, being disloyal to their Ultimate Source of Being.”

The religious right in America somehow thinks God is the special preserve of them alone. They are confounded when confronted with the reality that this is the God of humanity in every portion of the globe. When they claim that the War in Iraq is the “will of God,” the very devout and religious person in Sweden, Germany, South Korea, Columbia, and all the corners of the world, thinks that is an absolutely obtuse assertion.

Significant Minnesota Business Leaders Support Obama

Will more business leaders come out for Obama?
by Charlie Leck

This week, four well-know community business leaders came out with endorsements of Barack Obama’s efforts to become President. I think there are others who will soon follow. They are aware that Obama will raise taxes on businesses, but they also know Obama will stimulate the economy, get people working again, reduce the national debt and generally benefit business.

Robert Pohlad, Chairman and CEO of PepiAmericas, Inc. and President of Pohlad Cos.
Ed Phillips, Chairman and CEO of Phillips Beverage Company
Robert Ryan, retired vice president and CFO of Medtronic
Lois Quam, Managing Director of Alternative Investments at Piper Jaffray

The endorsements were announced at a press conference at the Minnesota State Capitol on 9 September 2008. Read the full story in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.