Opaque Lucidity

Back To The McCain Mutiny (Sorry, Mr. Wouk)

On a personal note, I'm doing better. I fell three weeks ago today and, though I'm still in a lot of pain, I can tell that I have made significant progress. The hardest part of this entire thing is being home all day with my thoughts, which brings me to today's post.

Over the past three weeks I have spent more time than is probably healthy listening to talk radio, and what I'm hearing is , to put it bluntly, pissing me off. As you know, the race for the Republican nomination for President has come down to Mitt Romney and John McCain. As I write this (pre-Super Tuesday), John McCain stands a very good chance of being the nominee. The Senator from Arizona is considered a RhINO (Republican In Name Only) by many in the party, and with good reason. I won't go into his legislative past here, except to say that he's more conservative than most people give him credit for but he has made some frightful blunders doing business with liberal Democrats.

What I find disturbing is the number of people who claim they will NOT vote for Sen. McCain if he is the Republican nominee, regardless of the consequences. Evidently, the fact that a defection from the party in this form will deliver the White House to Hillary/Obama isn't enough to convince the narrow-minded among us. To them, maintaining the conservative values of the party is more important than keeping the Presidency in the middle of a war.

Senator McCain is not on my top 10 list of men for whom I would like to vote this November. But if he is the Republican nominee, I will RUN to my polling place to vote for him. If you are a conservative and/or a Republican and you do not feel the same way, you are not only demonstrating a poor understanding of Reagan-esque conservatism, you are threatening the well-being of this nation. Period.

Over the past forty-eight hours, I've been playing a scene from The Caine Mutiny over and over in my head. At the end of the film, Lt. Barney Greenwald shows up drunk at the party the USS Caine's officers are holding to celebrate the fact that their old CO, Lt. Cmdr. Queeg, came unraveled on the witness stand and destroyed the prosecution's assertion that the ship's officers were mutinous. Greenwald was the defense attorney and, according to him, he has a guilty conscience. Why? Because he believes that while Queeg obviously had problems, the officers under his command decided early on to not support him. After all, Queeg was not one of them: he was pre-war Navy whereas the rest of the wardroom had joined up after the conflict began. After all, Greenwald pointed out, everyone knew that you couldn't make any money in the military so why the hell would anyone join up? Greenwald's argument comes down to one line, perhaps the greatest of the entire film:

You don't support your captain because you like him; you support him because he's got the job...or you're no good!

It took me a long time to understand what that really meant, and I have to admit that in my youth I did a pretty poor job of living up to it. John McCain, retired Navy captain, US senator and survivor of over five years in North Vietnam as a POW, might end up being the man at the head of my party. I'll support him, if for no other reason than he has the job. Anything else is disloyal.

Matthew

For those of you who do not know, Matt had a seizure in the parking garage on January 10th after leaving a performance of The Phantom of the Opera. As he fell to the ground he broke his scapula (shoulder blade) in three places and has a compresion fracture in his L1 (lower spine). He was admitted to Nortons Hospital and spent five days there under the care of more doctors than I could count. I was finally able to bring him home on Tuesday the 15th.

To help his recovery, he has to wear a "clam shell" brace that fits from his upper chest tohis lower waist. This brace helps stabilize his back and ease the pain. He will spend the next two to four months in the brace. Many of you have sent your prayers and well wishes for his recovery, so I would like to say "thank you". Matt & I have been very blessed in so many ways. The accident could have been so much worse. Luckily, he was not able to locate his car right away, because if he had, he may have been driving while the seizure happened. One of the first people on the scene was a nurse who knew exactly how to take care of him. There were so many blessings that day that I cannot image what could have been.

So postings here on the blog may be sparce the next week or so, but we hope Matt will be up and moving soon. So keep checking back for additional news on his recovery and hopefully his own posts soon!

God Bless,
Kelli

In the Cold Northeast

It looks as if Senator John McCain has won the Republican primary in New Hampshire; the Democrat's race is too close to call right now. McCain's victory is not a surprise, but it does a lot towards revitalizing his campaign.

One thing that worries me is what happens if Obama gets the Democratic nod and McCain carries the victory in the Republican race. Imagine a debate in which a young, energetic junior Senator faces a 72-year old McCain. I can't help but think it would be a re-hash of the Kennedy/Nixon debate of 1960. McCain is energetic, authentic and a genuine hero. But youth, looks and enthusiasm count for a lot in our 15-second attention span society.

I go back to my early call---Rudy is the only Republican who can beat Obama and/or Clinton. Mark my words.

Long and Winding Road

As of today, January 7th, I am discontinuing Matt's Today in History permanently. I enjoyed putting the show together for nearly three years, but there are several reasons why I must now shelve the project. First, doing the show was becoming less a labor of love and more another chore to be completed. I never wanted podcasting to get to that point for me, but I believe my mindset changed after I signed with Podshow. I began to see the show as a potential money-maker and, therefore, it stopped being something I could have fun with. In other words, it became a job.

Second, I have responsibilities at home that I am not handling very well. The Lovely Kelli would never ask me to give up podcasting, even though she is working or student teaching about 17 hours a day. But I need to be doing the home chores for which she doesn't have time, and 2-3 hours of podcasting doesn't allow me to do that.

While I am giving up Matt's Today in History for good, I am NOT leaving podcasting. At the end of May, I will introduce a new show, a weekly program dealing with a very specific historical subject. I will probably lose most of my listeners, but I hope the final product will be something useful for educators and researchers. My research and credits will be done properly this time, instead of leaving the listener wondering where the information came from.

Thanks to all of you who have stuck by the show for so long. I hope you will listen to the next show. Stay tuned!

It's Debatable

The Fox News Republican Forum begins in about five minutes. I'm finally stocked about the Republican race because I believe we are going to see the emergence of the John McCain. While I'm not wild about McCain as the nominee or as the next President, I believe he is an honorable man.

One thing about his political history stands out in my mind. On the eve of the Iraq invasion, Senator McCain made his opposition to the plan known. He wasn't against an invasion; rather, he thought we needed more soldiers on the ground. His number was something like 400,000 versus the 180,000 that eventually went. At the time, this opinion seemed crazy. But after nearly five years of fighting, I have to say that the Senator knew what he was talking about.

60 Years Later

Cauci in the Hawkeye

I'm not really sure what a caucus is. I DO know that fewer than 100,000 Iowans are about to give their opinion on who should be their respective party's nominee. This circus is not for you and me, but for the media.

Running for public office is all about attention. If you get the most attention, you stand a better chance at winning. That's why a small caucus in a flat state has taken on a level of importance way out of proportion to what it should be. But it's the first measure of how "the people" like the candidates, so in that way I guess it's important.

I predict that at least one candidate will drop out of the race by Monday.

Tech Predictions

Thanks to the folks who produce the 'Buzz Out Loud' podcast, I have been thinking about 2008 and the IT-related tech we are likely to see during the year. Some of my predictions are gleaned from others; some are my own.

1. Flash memory will begin to replace magnetic storage in almost ever portable device in a big way. This is already happening with mp3 players, but I believe most notebook computers (>50%) will have flash memory in place of a hard drive by the end of the year. The trend will eventually move to the desktop/server market, but not until prices fall dramatically.

2. Google will begin offering wireless service (and possibly fiber service to homes and businesses) during 2008. They have bought a large amount of 'dark' fiber across the country and one has to wonder what they are going to do with it.

3. More internet service providers will begin doing more deep packet analysis, leading to more restricted access. This is already happening locally with my service provider (slow or no BitTorrent), but it will become pervasive. Access will also become 'tiered' meaning that the unlimited access most of us have now will become a thing of the past unless we pay for an expensive package of services.

4. There will be a concerted effort at the federal level to filter internet content at the ISP level. Instead of making an issue of parental responsibility, both Democrats and Republicans will jump on the bandwagon of the federal government as nanny with regard to controlling what your kids see on the web. Content filtering may not become a reality (what will the ACLU do on a really important privacy issue?), but the issue will grab serious headlines.

There you go. Talk to me in 364 days.

2K8

Happy New Year! I hope this year brings you health, wealth and happiness. It sort of feels like a clean slate, doesn't it?

At the dawn of this new year, we have before us several important issues. First is the continuing war on terror. Will we be able to drawn down our presence in Iraq? What's going to happen with Iran? North Korea? Things seem to be in a strange equilibrium right now, but that will not continue indefinitely. The powers that be in Iran (not the President, but the REAL power) are hardline Muslim fundamentalists and they will not sit still while their neighbor becomes a secular democracy.

Second is the Presidential race. As of this writing, the caucus in Iowa is only 48 hours away. While the media has focused on this contest like a laser beam, it's important to remember that nothing will really be settled until the end of February. I still see the race coming down to Rudy and Hillary. Maybe that's just wishful thinking.

Third is the economy. Is it good? Bad? It depends on who you ask. I know this: too many people have way too much debt and our government has dug a hole it's not likely to get out of in our lifetimes. As I approach 40, I am finding it harder and harder to depend on someone else for my employment. I was meant to run my own business, and now I believe it is the only way I can secure a sound financial future for Kelli and I. I have a great job now, and I don't want to take anything away from my employer. But a sale of the company, which WILL happen one day, all but guarantees that my job will be outsourced. I'm in danger of becoming complacent with where I am now.

There are dozens of other issues we could (and will) discuss here. This will not be the best year for this nation, nor will it be the worst. By this time next year, we will have a new President, House and 1/3 of the Senate. Hopefully, the end of the road in Iraq for our forces will be in view. And let's all keep our jobs.