Computer Troubles

Yesterday was the day from Hell. Everytime I fired up my computer at work, it would allow me to log into the system and maybe start reading my e-mail. Then, POOF, it shut down. When I tried to fire it back up, the fan would fire up and then die and nothing. If I waited a half hour, it may or may not fire up again. And then we repeat the same process. It amazes me how dependent I have become on a computer.

I was actually forced to do things manually, which is slow but it allowed me to review how I do things and realize that I need a computer. Boy could that become a broken record really fast.

I came in this morning to about 50 unread e-mails. Most of them were deleted. Some were saved and the rest well, nothing was on fire. It helps when you have a great drew working for you that manages most of the daily pain in the ass issues that pop up during a day.

At least I didn't have an HAL experience. I would have to change my name to Dave but that is a minor point. Too bad 2001 has already come and gone and we are no closer to getting to the 2001 level of technological expansion than we were when the movie was made. I wonder if we will ever get back to the moon and try to put a base up. Of course they did that in Space 1999. Oops, we are already past that too. Boy were the futurists wrong. Even 1984 was a bust. Maybe we need to keep dates out of titles and just stick to subject matters.

Well, better close up before my computer goes down. What are you doing Dave?

Icool

Cobb

Escalation

Well, I may have been premature in my posting yesterday. Today, the Yahoo headline is “Explosion Destroys Dome in Shiite Shrine.” It sounds like someone decided to turn up the heat a little and see what happens. I see it as a recipe for disaster. When you start messing with someone’s holy sites, you typically whack the hornet’s next. We’ll see if this religion of tolerance will remain so in the face of wanton destruction.

The question I have is who wins in a situation like this? It is not like the mutual deterrence between the USSR and the United States during the cold war. We both had nukes and we could both wipe the other, as well as everyone else off the face of the Earth. Blowing up buildings just makes people mad and who are they going to attack? The most likely target is the rival Sunnis. I can see their holy sites being reduced to rubble in a spiraling conflict where they will be holding revivals in tents. It will be hard to hear the prayers from the minarets when they are lying on the ground. If they are not careful, it will look like Afghanistan after the Soviets were done. Buildings that are little more than roofless hovels will be where the upper class live and the rest will be resting with the flocks of sheep to stay warm at night. Doesn’t sound very appealing to me.

Now Americans are actually expecting this. After all, the Middle East has always been presented as an area of barbarism. We have this picture of a people who herd camels, live in tents, don’t bathe and hate everyone who does not follow the teachings of Mohammed. They have not done a good job of changing their image and the riots over the cartoons, the bombing their own people and their treatment of women have done little to persuade those outside the region that they are little better that cavemen.

Unfortunately, it is only a small portion of the population that is creating all of this havoc. What they seem to forget is that market forces will eventually drive this into the direction the money is flowing. Bombs scare people and create short term blips but the flow of currency is what people eventually follow and it is hard to have any kind of economy other than a sustenance level if you do not have running water and electricity. For most of America, that is how they appear to live anyway.

Icool

Cobb

Bomb, Bomb, Everywhere A Bomb

Yesterday’s top news article on Yahoo was “Car Bomb Kill 22 at Baghdad Market.” Now I may be presuming too much but wasn’t that the top article on the Yahoo new page pretty much every day for the past 2 months. I have gotten to the point where I am just saturated with terrorists in Iraq setting off bombs to kill Iraqi citizens. I barely even notice when the article touts that “X” number of people were killed in some Iraqi city. Unless it specifically states that Americans were killed, I really don’t see it anymore. Somehow, I think that whatever the terrorists are trying to accomplish, the American people have moved back to what is important to them. That is them, of course.

I realize that there is a certain amount of ideological difference between some of the Moslem sects, but it can’t be that they are trying to kill each other off. It would end up like the Godfather, with opposing sides escalating the fight until it became an obscene bloodbath. Again, since I am not a student of the culture, I could be very mistaken. I realize that there are at least three sides to the equation. You have the Kurds in the north with the huge oil fields that just want to be left alone. You have the two opposing Moslem sects, one a minority that was ruling with Saddam Hussein and the other the majority that has gained the upper hand in the recently held elections. One questions whether they will ever learn to get along considering their long history of not getting along. It comes down to which side will get enough power to eventually oppress the other. Not a pretty picture but it is the one that America and the World are actually seeing.

The Middle East is a culture that refuses to move forward as technology progresses. They have an oppressive religious regime that wants to control every aspect of their citizen’s lives, whether they are practicing Moslems or not. America is so used to religious tolerance that the idea of telling someone that they cannot act according to their faith (unless it is immoral or illegal) is absurd. Our nation is based on the freedom to worship as we see fit or not to worship at all. It looks like the Middle East is more of “a worship as we see fit or look down the barrel of a gun, bomb, or rope.” Coercion has never been a great long term motivator.

I guess the best we can hope for is for the folks that want the savagery stopped will eventually get together and string up the leaders of the terrorists. It happened whenever the French got tired of their radical leaders during their multiple revolutions. And since the French are such sophisticates and good friends to the Islamic nations, it would only serve that they be emulated. Now let’s do some French aerobics. Everybody stand with your arms above your head, palms out. Okay ready begin. “I surrender.” I guess one repetition is all you need.

Icool

Cobb

You Never Know

Friends of my wife and I moved to Alabama last year. He was my Army roommate and we met them before they were married. We have stayed in touch through the years. They came out and visited us when we moved to Iowa. We got together several times a year and played cards and visited. Our children are of similar ages so they all had someone to play with during the all day get togethers. He worked for General Motors and wanted to move up in the organization but was being held back by the sheer size of the organization and his plants desire to maintain his talent where it was. That back fired and he took a job in Alabama working for a raw material processor. We got a call one Friday night on our voice mail saying they were moving and poof, we didn’t hear from them for almost nine months.

I surfed the internet until I found their number and finally called them last weekend. I heard a female voice on the end of the line and it did not have that characteristic southern accent so I knew I had the right number. It was a great feeling to have located them and talk to them again. We had been talking about them weekly and wondering where they were finally locating them was a relief.

After talking to them for a while, I found out that my friend’s wife is having a hard time adjusting and that she had tried to call us several times but was depressed and didn’t. I could hear the happiness in her voice when I talked to her that we had found them and were worried about their welfare. After not seeing or hearing from them for almost a year, we helped to soothe her worries that she was forgotten. Having moved around as much as we have, my wife knows that feeling of loss and how difficult it is to make friends in a new town. Especially where you are the Yankee outsider and your spouse is a manager at the largest local employer.

I am glad that we finally hooked up and are actually talking about a long weekend visit. It will be nice to see them again and I have never been to Alabama so I could add another state to my list in the process. And since they are not too far from Mississippi, which I have also not visited, I could make it two for one.

Icool

Cobb

Hey Zeus

With the winter Olympics currently happening, I keep hearing a smattering of the events on the radio. Since there is nothing of true interest for me at Turin, Italy, (other than maybe the shroud) I have not watched anything and am not really following the events. Somehow I feel that I am not alone. There is no Nancy Kerrigan drama unfolding on the ice or a rag tag hockey team that is scrapping its way through the tougher teams to beat the Russians. All in all, it appears to be more of the Naplimpics than an Olympics. Considering that I quit watching the Super Bowl after the Stones finished playing should also indicate my level of interest in televised sporting events.

While searching for a movie on TV this weekend, I happened to catch the third Die Hard movie, “Die Hard With A Vengeance”. It also provided my title today. It of course had Bruce Willis as the lead and one of my favorite character actors as his side kick. Samuel L. Jackson plays an innocent bystander whose character becomes intertwined in the plot. He had to work with McClane to get through some sticky situations and save the day. McClane keeps hearing the name Hey Zeus and thinks that is his name when it is actually Jesus. Actually, it is just Zeus. And who has more to do with the Olympics than Zeus. After all, without him, we would not have the pantheon of gods that gave birth to these auspicious games.

Now, I can see Samuel L. Jackson what I think is his best portrayal. He was a computer programmer in the original Jurassic Park. He sat in a chair rapidly talking about computer code with a cigarette dangling out of his mouth. As a former smoker, it was a most amazing sight on how he managed to dangle that smoke, talk, breath and see without tearing up. Is it academy award worthy, probably not but sometimes it is about the drama and not the art.

So as the Winter Olympics flows past with no real drama other than a few fancy outfits and ski moves, it is time to pop in another movie and see if I can spot Samuel L. Jackson in another film. He’s been a quite a few lately.

Icool

Cobb

A Busy Day

One of the people that works for me has had a death in the family so they will be attending the funeral and be off of work for the day. Some people you can do without for a day and not really miss what they do. Some people can be gone for a week and you wonder if their job is really necessary. Some people take a half a day vacation and you think the world is ending.

Well, this person is the “go to” person at the plant for what to do when. She knows what needs to be made and seems to have a 6th sense about how things work. I am truly envious. She normally takes a week off around Easter and I fill in for her for 5 days which seems more like a month. The days are long, primarily because I am not as adept at her job as she is. I review everything two or three times and agonize about decisions that she just appears to casually make. I know that it is just the “in the trenches” doing it every day that provides that picture and that when I am filling in, it tends to initially overwhelm my inputs. Usually, by Friday, I am getting into a groove and the anxiety associated with the major life altering decisions is reduced to blips of concern on life’s daily path.

It is still the one day trips down the path of unknown that pump up the anxiety button, like an Air Jordon being played with by a 5 year old whose Ritalin prescription has just run out. You get that electric mixer churning the stomach and the distraction caused by every little concern clouding the decision making neurons. It is not a pretty sight. Plus, you have to get up an hour earlier to get prepared which throws off the sleep routine. There has to be an easier way to do this but after almost 18 years, I have not found it. There is no substitute for getting in the trenches and just slugging it out. I now truly understand why people are so focused on Friday. Two day to recharge the battery and then back to the salt mines. Funny, this doesn’t look like Siberia.

Icool

Cobb

Any Given Sunday

I have found that I am not a fan of sermons that parrot other people’s quotes. Having spent many Sundays listening to the message, I find that the best are those spoken from the heart, not the head. Sometimes it is not even what is said so much as how it is said. Using the right visuals adds to the level of presentation. Knowing when to stop dwelling on a point is for the true masters of the pulpit. I have not been in the presence of a true master in a while.

I started writing this on Sunday in the middle of the sermon. Our minister was quoting someone from early Christian philosophy on some subject. I know it had to do with good trees making good fruit and thistles making none, but the rest of the subject was lost in the bevy of quotes and definitions instead of life experiences and observations. And he had been doing so well the previous three weeks in presenting sermons that were less scholastic and more personal. But three weeks, after months of yawning fests does not make a trend in my mind. But at least it provided a glimmer of hope.

When we lived in Iowa, we had a minister that gave every sermon off the top of his head or at least gave that appearance. He stood center aisle parallel to the pulpit and gave a solid and usually moving sermon every Sunday. The Bible quotes were given from memory and the sermon usually wrapped around itself coming full circle through the idea for that day. It was a marvel and an inspiration every Sunday. I truly felt the presence of God after he finished preaching. You knew and understood the message and appreciated what was being said.

But church is not totally about the message. It is about getting together with people and celebrating God’s love. Getting a good message really assists in that celebration but without the people to celebrate with, it would be a lonely party.

Icool

Cobb

Living On The Edge

For the sake of brevity, I am going to edit out the chorus and extraneous verbiage of this Aerosmith song. It speaks volumes to me and Steven Tyler and the boys hit the nail on the head with this. I am just amazed that the song managed to make it so mainstream.

There's somethin' wrong with the world today
I don't know what it is
Something's wrong with our eyes

We're seeing things in a different way
And God knows it ain't His
It sure ain't no surprise

We're livin' on the edge

There's somethin' wrong with the world today
The light bulb's gettin' dim
There's meltdown in the sky

If you can judge a wise man
By the color of his skin
Then mister you're a better man that I

We're livin' on the edge
You can't help yourself from fallin'
Livin' on the edge
You can't help yourself at all
Livin' on the edge
You can't stop yourself from fallin'
Livin' on the edge

Tell me what you think about your sit-u-a-tion
Complication - aggravation
Is getting to you

If chicken little tells you that the sky is fallin'
Even if it wasn't would you still come crawlin'
Back again?
I bet you would my friend
Again & again & again & again & again

There's something right with the world today
And everybody knows it's wrong
But we can tell 'em no or we could let it go
But I would rather be a hanging on

Livin' on the edge

For those who are strict KJV, here you get it right from the horse.

John 13:34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. I don’t read anywhere that Jesus is commanding us to hate. He says love. What part of that do the people who profess to follow Christ but rail against gays, blacks, women, or anyone who is different, not get. You do not have to like what they are doing. You do not have to support their cause or send them money. Christ did not say we had to be their friends, just to love them as people. “As he loves you.” After all, you are a sinner. Does that give everyone license to hate you? Don’t you ask for forgiveness and receive it from your heavenly Father? Are you saying that Christ’s commandment carries any less weight than “Thou shalt not kill?” A sin is a sin whether it is lying or murder. God does not gage the sin by our standards. We view the loss of life as ultimate bad but God knows that disobedience of His rules all carry equal weight.

So for all those who profess to follow Christ but have not figured out that Jesus’ commandment trumps the previous 10 (because if you follow His, the others are automatically followed) open you eyes and stop living on the edge. The next step is a doozie.

Icool

Cobb

Space Cowboy Rides Again

I talked about Edgar Rice Burroughs and his influence on my reading habits. He was the first author to grab my imagination but certainly not the last nor most influential. The next big influence on my reading habits was Isaac Asimov. I remember someone reading his Foundation trilogy my 8th grade year and recommending him as someone I would like to read. My first trip through the Foundation trilogy opened the door to a science future that I have never looked back from.

Hari Seldon became a character that symbolized the triumph of sciences. He used mathematics, sociology, history, psychology, and other disciplines to put together a pathway to the future. He allowed us to see that things could not be hidden from us if we just spent enough time studying them. At least, you felt that way after reading about his Foundations. Granted it was fiction, but to a young impressionable mind, it was the portal to the next level of consciousness. Science would triumph and be able to save mankind from his own destructive power if you just kept focused on what was of real value. Hence, we ended up with psychohistory and a way to predict the future.

This was the beginning of my questioning the existence of God. If mankind was so great, why did we need God to solve anything? We could just delve into our bag of knowledge and pull out what ever we needed to eliminate the issue. Chalk it up to the naivety of a teenager or just plain immaturity but that level of blindness is kept for the truly dense.

The story of the Foundations and the subsequent books are very well written. Asimov is great at mysteries and puts two Foundations on opposing ends of the galaxy. You know where one of them is but are challenged and misled throughout a most of the three books to discover the location of the 2nd Foundation. He does as well in the additions to the trilogy with the mystery of who was behind the rise of Hari Seldon and the discovery of psychohistory. He was actually the first author I’ve read to present a whole future through a series of books. What a pioneer. Sadly, he died from complications of AIDS. He received it through a tainted blood supply. A great loss but he left quite the legacy in his written words.

Icool

Cobb

Offensive Cartoons

It always amazes me how the rest of the world reacts to things they don’t like. For some reason, the mob mentality rises whenever there is an incident that people want to complain about. I guess it could even be when people have something to cheer about. The idiots that go ape when their team wins the big game and riot and loot and burn cars and get arrested right here in the good old US shows that it is not an indicator of locale, religion or affluence. We see the folks in the Moslem world protesting about their Prophet Mohammed being mocked and wonder what the deal is. We would not be rioting and killing people if someone drew a picture of Christ and did the same. Some people would complain and demand that it be withdrawn and an apology. I am sure that the hysteria caused by the cartoon rendering would pale in comparison to what the media is portraying in the Islamic community.

Artists have been doing things like that to the Christian religion for years. I remember a crucifix in a jar of urine and other religious symbols with excrement on them. Granted, that is not our Lord and Savior but they are symbolic of what He represents. The far right conservative groups demanded funding be withdrawn such but for the most part, market forces will drive the arts. No one wants to see poor art and drawing attention to it does not make it worth looking at. But we are not dealing with Christians.

From what I’ve heard, the Islamic faith prohibits any pictures of the founder(s) of their faith. So, creating a cartoon picture of Mohammed is a violation a religious tenant. Now, Christians do not have such prohibitions about pictures. They are okay as long as they are not worshipped. Reference the 1st two commandments. I think that is where the issue comes into play. Followers of Islam seem to want to remove the opportunity to sin instead of being tempted. That is why their women are covered from head to toe so they cannot be a temptation to other men. Of course that opens a completely different can of worms that I will not be dealing with today. By not having religious renderings, they appear to be removing the temptation to worship them. Great in theory but this is a cartoon rendering of their founder with a bomb on his head, not a holy icon that is bowed to and worshipped. It was done in poor taste but it represents how many Christians view of the Moslem world. They are a bunch of bomb carrying terrorists that are bent on forcing their views on the rest of the world instead of realizing that they are being passed by. The lack of religious tolerance dove tails right into their not wanting to sin. If everyone worships as they do then there is no opportunity for worshipping the wrong God. Sounds like fanatics to me.

We sin. That is what happened when Adam and Eve ignored what God commanded and ate from the tree of knowledge. We will spend our entire existence trying to get past sin but it is there and must be dealt with. A religion imposing what can and can’t be done is not doing to eliminate sin. We have the Ten Commandments plus the one Jesus added about “Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself” and we still break them every day. It sounds like it is more a measure of control rather than an actual worship of God. It just creates the ability to manipulate people’s lives. That is power. To quote the British historian Lord Acton, “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Sounds like a form of government to me. Riots anyone? Now get out there and yell and burn the flag of any foreign country in protest, preferable American.

Icool

Cobb

Space Cowboy

I am a big fan of science fiction novels. I started reading science fiction as a teenager and have strayed from time to time into historical fiction or horror but I always come back to the history of the future. I think my first glimpses into sci-fi were from Edgar Rice Burroughs and the Pellucidar novels. I loved the idea of a world inside of our world filled with dinosaurs and cavemen and reptiles as the overlords for human slaves. The technology at the time (we are talking mid 70’s) was not too far removed from Burroughs ideas. Today they look childish but the stories are still good.

It was always a hero thrust into a situation by bad men. He was almost always motivated by a beautiful woman who he was attracted to but unsure that the attraction was mutual. Due to his heroic endeavors, he always wins the heart of the girl and they live happily ever after or until the next time she is kidnapped. There was never a real romantic element to the stories and the bad men were always saving the women for something. None of them were ever molested or hurt, just imprisoned, it would seem, just waiting to be rescued. This was my early vision of how relationships were supposed to be. Wow, was I off.

About the same time, you had Tarzan on the television with Ron Ely and Doug McClure (Google him) starring in “The Land That Time Forgot”. Burroughs wrote a three book series about a lost continent in the South Pacific called Kaspak. The series was The Land That Time Forgot, The People That Time Forgot, and Out of Time’s Abyss. It was about a WWI German submarine that took on American survivors of a torpedoing and ended up becoming marooned on the Kaspak. Same plot as Pellucidar with the dinosaurs and cavemen but with the complication of Germans thrown in. Boy meets girl, girl gets kidnapped, boy finds girl and rescues her. There is a long chase and finally they are free and declare their undying love. Burroughs takes a bizarre twist on evolution with this series in that Homo sapiens are the end result of evolution with all life on the continent evolving toward becoming man. Horribly illogical, but for the 1920’s, it made for interesting reading. I guess sci-fi is about exploring science and showing what could be.

The book that stuck most in my mind was Beyond the Farthest Star. It was about a WWII pilot that gets shot down and is miraculously transported, naked to a far away world. This world is at war just like Earth but they had sky scrapers that would sink into the ground when an air attack occurred to avoid damage. The sides closely resembled the US and Germany and of course, there was the naïve and beautiful heroine that gets abducted and needs rescued.

This has been Space Cowboy reporting.

Icool

Cobb

Surprise, Surprise

Boy wouldn’t Gomer be proud. We were channel surfing pre-prime time last week and an episode of Gomer Pyle USMC just happened to be on the television. Wanting to annoy my children, I stayed on the channel long enough to get the gist of what was happening. By that time, my children were asking when is the funny part? It was Sarge and Gomer going back and forth about something with Sarge getting angry and Gomer getting apologetic. Their crisp Marine uniforms and high and tight haircuts were the symbol of everything the country was against at the time. I think the only reason it stayed on as long as it did was it was shown overseas to the troops.

That era of television was much simpler then. All of the shows were of a wholesome nature with no profanity, pecks instead of kisses, and separate beds for the adults. I remember trying to figure out the Dick Van Dyke Show with the twin beds in the bedroom. I knew that my parents and my friend’s parents didn’t have twin beds but maybe other households did. That level of denial about relationships confused quite a few children at the time. The attempt to keep television “clean” also added a level of naivety to my generation. It did however explode with the advent of the free love generation and the subversive “Archie Bunker.”

It was great how the liberal agenda was pushed along by a bigot. Archie Bunker was everyone’s father. All of my friends would say that their dad talked just like him or acted just like him. He was a great vehicle for flying under the radar of our parents to show how insensitive they were to social issues. My dad, who was by my standards a very conservative man, thought Archie could do no wrong. Looking at All In The Family now, you can see just what the show was trying to accomplish. It was very funny. The writing was great and we all made fun of Meat Head. It also opened the door to the trash that is currently residing on the airwaves. Where would great shows like Dallas or Melrose Place have started if shows like All In The Family had not paved the way.

So the next time you watch Gomer Pyle USMC, think about the long dead days of television and how much our morals have changed. When parents used to sleep in twin beds and the only profanity you heard was Dang. The genie is out of the bottle and there is no way to go back, not that I want to. I enjoy seeing things are they really are. Just maybe not so much of those things.

Icool

Cobb

Master of Horror

I want to preface this by saying, I wrote this a week ago and have been delaying posting because it is awful. But since I hate to waste material and have edited this several times, it is much better than the original. That however, is not saying much.

I used to be a real big Stephen King fan. I remember reading Salem’s Lot for the first time and thankful that I had a crucifix hanging on the wall of my bedroom. I dreamt of vampires for weeks. The way King wrote made you care about the characters and what they were going through. His first book, Carrie, ended up a little confusing for me the first time through but I think I was rushing to get to the end on that one. The Shining was a real treat. REDRUM was all I thought about for a week and how that poor little boy was so tortured by that house.

I loved The Stand. It really made a statement to me. The end of the world and how all of the characters interacted was fascinating. I remember struggling with my faith before reading The Stand and how I felt the presence of God afterwards. I am sure that was not King’s intention on writing the book but that was where it left me. Since that publication, it has been hit or miss for the master of horror.

I am currently reading a collection of novellas. It is Four Past Midnight. I finished the first of the four novellas, The Langoliers and have struggled to pick the book back up. I remember watching the made for TV movie and thinking what a concept. The second story is a kind of repeat of his novel The Dark Half and I was not overly pleased with that. He has great characters but I find that I do not care as much for the ones in his later books.

I guess you can get too much of a good thing. I truly enjoy reading Stephen King and think that he puts a great deal of thought into his characters. You can really feel their pains and victories. I cannot say that about too many authors. Maybe it is just that “running over the same old ground” feel to his later works that makes them more difficult to wade through. I guess if I wrote for that long, it would be an exercise in repetition. I hope I haven’t started into that realm yet. I don’t remember talking about Stephen King yet but then again, my memory ain’t what it used to be.

Icool

Cobb

Do You Hear What I Hear?

You know you have reached the status of boring parent when you flip on the radio and the talk radio station is still playing. I find that I am much more interested in getting my daily dose of adult entertainment/news from the radio than papers or television. I love to read but the local newspaper is always slanting toward the communist point of view. I realize that this is a union town but please, anything but communism. Getting my news visually has lost the luster in this megabyte mentality news era and the socialist slant.

Now I listen to two variations of talk radio. My morning routine is with the Bob and Tom show on our very own WIOT. Bob and Tom is a group of four radio personalities who, through the use of off color humor and on air antics, manage to entertain their listeners. Some mornings are funnier than others but they normally have comedians on several times a week with fresh material and have even spawned tours of comics who travel the country in groups performing. It is definitely a great way to get the morning started with a good helping of humor.

My afternoons are geared more to the traditional talk radio. I sometimes catch the tail end of Glenn Beck and cruise into Rush Limbaugh. I try to catch the first hour of Rush because you get the big issue of the day and some discussion on it. It also helps me to get informed on what the politicians are doing to make my life more difficult. What I have found is if they are squabbling over the stupid things that normally occupy their time, they are not raising taxes or making more laws we don’t need. If they would just review the laws they have and take the ones that we don’t need off the books, they would at least be doing something constructive.

Now these two formats may appear to be miles apart. One is based on off-color humor and one is based on expanding the conservative view point. The thing they both have in common is that I know that they are entertainment. Neither Bob and Tom or Rush Limbaugh takes themselves serious enough to think they are the final word. Rush wants you to think he is, but knows that for all his influence, he is still human and subject to the same temptations as we all are. He wouldn’t have checked into drug rehab if that was not the case.

I guess it is just the phase of life I am in. I spend an hour and a half per day in the car getting back and forth to work. The radio has become a friend but the best part is the on/ off button.

Icool

Cobb

Bowling for Supers

Today is the day that most American men will spend the entire day in front of the TV screen watching highlights in anticipation of the Pittsburg Steelers and Seattle Seahawks clash in the "Superbowl." The only reason I can even tell you who is in the superbowl is because it was blasted over the radio for the last week. I could really care less.

I have not watched a Superbowl since 1996 and am proud of that. That one I spent more time playing euchre than I did in front of the TV. I can't remember the last time I actually saw a complete one. I am just not interested. Of course I am rooting for the Steelers.

So for those of you who are lounging in front of the idiot box all day, enjoy the brainless activity and may the best team win.

Icool

Cobb

What Would Goliath Say?

Most of us are familiar with the story of David and Goliath. How the Philistines had put together this fighting force that was pretty much powered by one man, their unbeatable giant. They were camped out waiting to attack and as they taunted the Israelites, a boy stepped out and championed the day. That boy was David, later to become the King of Israel and to be the line from which the King of the Jews is descended. This fight between David and Goliath was the defining moment in David’s life. He stepped up and slew the unstoppable force from the opposing Philistines, with a sling and a rock. Talk about bringing a knife to a gun fight.

Well, it is well documented what went on to happen to David and Israel after Goliath was slain. David went on to be a notorious sinner that found favor with God. He did some awful things but always repented his sins and was so favored by God that his line was chosen to produce God’s Son. For all of the horrible things that David had done to fulfill his needs and desires, he was forgiven.

Goliath on the other hand is remembered as a giant who was a great fighter and the weapon that powered an army. Here was one man whom the Philistines sent into battle as a symbol that they could not be beaten. This giant, who had been victorious against all other foes due to his size and skill and was there to intimidate the Israelites into an easy defeat. As David walked out, he must have thought that this boy was crazy. A boy sent out because the men of Israel were afraid of him. How crazy David must have looked with a slingshot swirling around his head. Goliath starting his charge as David let the stone fly. The surprised look on Goliath’s face as the stone hurled toward his head and the solid thud as it connected between his eyes. Down went the giant and up went David’s fortunes. He was one boy, soon to be a man, firm in his convictions and willing to risk everything for what he believed in. With the faith that his God was with him, he took down the giant.

David rose to the top and ruled the day. Goliath fell to the round and provides a great visual for how the might have fallen. What Goliath thought was an easy victory over teenager, ended up building first a nation and then the Christian faith.

When David stepped out to challenge the mighty warrior, Goliath’s pivotal role in history assured, I am sure that an easy victory was what he had pictured. That he would be the spark that so much history was based was not even a glimmer of a thought.

Icool

Cobb

We're All Clones

About three weeks ago, I was radio surfing on my way to pick up one of my kids from one of their evening engagements. Thee was nothing interesting on the local radio so I went to WRIF in Detroit. They normally have something good playing. Although their morning show is awful. Those two are morons but I digress. The song that was playing was very catchy and it sounded vaguely familiar. Finally, Alice Cooper did his famous growling vocal intonation and I recognized the song as "Clone" from his 1980 album Flush the Fashion.

This was basically the end of the Alice Cooper era. He had been very successful during the 70's with his painted face and his shocking lyrics. He had settled from his early 70 metal into more soft and mellow songs. 1980 represented his forray into the New Wave of music. Alice the chameleon of rock and roll had changed his styles to what was current on the music scene but he missed this train by a few years. The Cars and Devo had already mined that vein and either moved on or broke up.

Clones is a catchy tune. It is very synthesized with New Wave keyboarding and heavy bass. The vocals are typical Alice with their witty observations and growly intonation. It was put out at a time when the word clone had some shock value to it. People were afraid of waking up and finding an exact duplicate replacing them. One that had no free will and would basically be a slave. So much for scare tactics. Check out the lyrics.

I'm a clone
I know it and I'm fine
I'm one and more are on the way
I'm two, doctor
Three's on the line
He'll take incubation another day

I'm all alone, so are we all
We're all clones
All are one and one are all
All are one and one are all

We destroyed the government
We're destroying time
No more problems on the way
I'm through doctor
We don't need your kind
The other ones
Ugly ones
Stupid boys
Wrong ones

I'm all alone, so are we all
We're all clones
All are one and one are all
All are one and one are all

Six is having problems
Adjusting to his clone status
Have to put him on a shelf
All day long we hear him crying so loud
I just wanna be myself
I just wanna be myself
I just wanna be myself
Be myself, Be myself

I'm all alone, so are we all
We destroyed the government
We're destroyed time
No more problems on the way
I'm through doctor
We don't need your kind
The other ones
Ugly ones
Stupid boys
Wrong ones

I'm all alone, so are we all
We're all clones
All are one and one are all
All are one and one are all
I'm all alone, so are we all
We're all clones
All are one and one are all
All are one and one are all

I love to stroll down memory lane. Of course, I went right to ebay and bought the CD. I know I could have bought it on line and not paid the extra cost but I have not gotten that savvy yet. I'll continue to do it old school.

Icool

Cobb

At the Pump

I have been waiting to see if gasoline will go under $2.00. It got down to $2.14 last week but on my way home last night it shot back up to almost $2.50. I know that there have been some issues with Iran threatening to shut off their oil if we don’t back off trying to stop their nuclear program but to my knowledge they are still pumping. I also read a little blurb on Exxon reporting astronomical profits last quarter on higher gasoline and oil prices. Welcome to capitalism, the land where money talks and when it becomes too expensive, you find a cheaper alternative.

Well, my carpool has broken up. I have been driving solo for about four months now partially because gas prices had become less painful and partially due to family schedules. If it goes up and stays up, carpooling looks like it may become the reality again. I realize that I chose to live 35 miles from where I work and that the commute and the associated costs are part of that choice. It does not make them any less painful. I guess I do have options in that I can carpool or look for a position that is closer to where I live. Both have their own drawbacks but when it comes right down to it, you have to be aware of your options.

What is even more painful is that my wife drives further to get to her work. It is 50 miles and since she is in sales, there are visits to customers that add to the mileage. Of course we can write some of those miles off on our taxes but the up front, out of pocket costs are the immediate concern.

I guess the bigger concern it when does this cause the economy to start to turn? Since wages have not gone up to compensate for the increase in oil prices and oil is in almost everything we buy, it will eventually have to start affecting the pocketbook in additional ways. The automotive companies are already feeling the pinch of higher oil prices in the cost of their resins and transportation costs. It will start the wave of price increases that will work its way to the consumer. For the American car companies, this would spell disaster. They barely have products that people want so if they have to raise prices, it will get ugly. And if the price of oil goes any higher, no one will be buying a vehicle that gets less than 20 miles to the gallon. Scratch every vehicle that they actually make money on (SUV’s). Prices will go up on everything, not just cars. People will have to start managing their money instead of spending it like drunken sailors. Wake up America. If you are not prepared, you will not like path you are traveling. Oh stop here, I need to fill up.

Icool

Cobb