fedoradude's commentary

What goes around, comes around.....

2012-01-30T19:01:00.000-08:00

Back during my college days, I remember my economics professor talking about how there are some things that just work better if they’re left a monopoly. He used the telephone company – there was only one of those in those days – as an example.

He compared telephone service in America in those days of the early 1980s with how it was in Mexico then. America had only had one phone company then (AT&T, not-so-affectionately known as “Ma Bell”) so there were only one company’s set of phone lines to be compatible with, connect with, regulate traffic through and be received by, so things worked much smoother. He said there were so many phone companies down there and the system so clogged up and screwed up, that it took hours to get a call placed across the street.

The more efficient and therefore effective provider of service to the public like this example is referred to as a “natural monopoly.”

And there were, he said, other things were only a few companies were enough to efficiently supply the market with goods and services and still provide effective competition between them. These were called “natural oligopolies” – and he pointed to airline service of the time as a good example of such a situation. American, Braniff, Continental, Delta, Northwest, Pan Am, TWA and United were pretty much it for trans-continental – certainly intercontinental - service via a US-flagged carrier. And, it all pretty much worked OK. You could almost set your watch by the flight schedules, you got not only free drinks but also free food to boot on most flights over an hour and, wonder of wonders, you were actually treated like a valued customer.

Then along came deregulation. In the interest of lowered government regulation and increasing market flexibility, Ma Bell was broken up and the airline routes were open to anyone and everyone who wanted to file to fly on them.

And, it was chaos.

For ten years telemarketers bugged the bejeebers out of anyone with a registered phone number trying to sell them cheaper long distance phone rates and it seemed like anyone with a twin-engine airplane was in the air carrier business.

Along came cell phones but we eventually settled on three or four main telephone companies – AT&T (didn’t’ they get “broke up?”), Verizon, T-mobile and QualComm.

Instead of improving service, the airline customer experience deteriorated. Free food is gone on flights today. Instead of feeling like valued customers, passengers are made to feel like criminals by the Transporation Security Administration at security checkpoints before boarding and like cattle once aboard. And the aviation small fry didn’t expand with deregulation – save for Southwest. Most of them went out of business. A lot of the big guys did too. Braniff went down, followed by Eastern and then Pan Am. TWA went into bankruptcy and got gobbled up by American, who just recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Continental “merged” with United and Northwest “merged” with Delta, who is now considering buying much smaller USAir.

And the beat goes on. Thirty-some years later, where we once had a natural monopoly on telephone service, we’re left with a small oligopoly that is more or less functional. Where we once had a natural oligopoly in airline routes we’ve returned to an even smaller oligopoly than we started with.

I can’t help but wonder what my professor would think, were he still alive, to have witnessed things coming more or less full circle in these markets.

We have a"state dirt?" Who knew?

2012-01-30T06:55:00.000-08:00

Kansas celebrated it’s 151st birthday yesterday, January 29.

What birthday gift do u get someone who has everything - including their very own official dirt?

That’s right. We have an official “state dirt.” Not political dirty laundry, not dirty air as in “polluted.” But dirt. The stuff ya dig in. And we have our very own official dirt.

And amazingly, it’s not gumbo. The part of the state I live in has no shortage of that stuff. Gumbo is a really hard and worthless kind of clay – kind of nature’s version of Kevlar. Certainly throughout time this gunk is the kind of texture that undoubtedly broke dinosaur teeth in prehistoric times and gives burrowing groundhogs and prairie dogs hangover scale headaches.

But, I mean seriously; the official “state dirt?” I knew we had a state capital (Topeka) an officila state bird (Western Meadowlark) and a state tree (the Cottonwood) - what state doesn't? - even a state reptile (Ornate Box Turtle. Ornate as in...the base model?).

But a "state dirt?" Really? Seriously? But, according to several sources on the web*, our state dirt is Harney Silt Loam. I mean, Who knew?

Good God all Friday. My tax dollars at work.

I just hope our illustrious state legislature didn't spend more than the 24 seconds this critical matter deserved. However, I've got faith that the Official State Dirt of Kansas was determined thru several committee meetings, a fact-finding dirt junket around to various interesting locales in the state and vigorous debate in the statehouse.

Happy birthday, Kansas. Being a state for 151 years is a milestone worthy of a gift. But, what do ya get someone who “has everything,” including their very own kinda dirt?

*http://www.statesymbolsusa.org/Kansas/Kansas_symbols.html

The common ground of the "human condition?"

2012-01-28T21:19:00.000-08:00

We went to a wine and cheese party tonight. The hosts and most of the guests were - we knew - about as far politically and theologically from us as the proverbial "east is from the west."

And knowing this, to be honest, had us a bit apprehensive about the evening. I was so afraid that the dreaded subjects of sex, politics and religion would barge into our conversation and threaten friendships, that the thought of feigning sick crossed my mind more than once in the previous few days.

But, we gutted it out and staring danger in the face, showed up anyway.

And we had a smashing good time!

And listening to the discussions amongst the guests this evening, a realization came to me tonight. Despite all our obvious polarizations, red vs blue, Christian vs. not, rich vs poor, blahblahblah, we're still all pretty much in the same common lifeboat rowing to shore. We're all trying to sock as much away for retirement as we can so we can not be a burden to society and offspring as able, we're all still trying to do our jobs to the utmost of our abilities while balancing work and life pressures as much as able and we're all still trying to just get the hell by as best as we're able and so on.

Wow! How's that for realizing the common ground of the human condition?

Good job, Mike and LeeAnn for hosting a very wonderful evening.

Hollywood political endorsements - a waste of press?

2012-01-28T12:58:00.000-08:00

Why do some Hollywood actor types seem to feel they have the need, the right, the duty, the arrogance or what to endorse some political candidate for president? Who cares what they think?

Despite their sometimes overinflated sense of self importance, they’re just actors. What, if anything, gives them anymore expertise about what makes a good president than, say a mailman or cocktail waitress? What makes an actor’s opinion about presidential candidates so much more newsworthy than that of the letter carrier or cocktail waitress?

Actors know how to memorize lines and dramatically convey concepts thru voice, body language and facial expression. Nothing more; nothing less. They’re just kids who act in school plays, really. Richer, mind you – and often with their own private jet to flutter around on, but just kids acting in school plays. So what makes the press think they’re barometers of a person’s political science, statesmanship and leadership?

Given the personal lives of some of these prima donnas from Tinseltown, I’m not sure some of them would really know good, quality behavior from bad. So, why does the press seem to think we need to look to them for counsel on who we should elect as president?

R.I.P. Crew of Apollo 1. America couldn't have made it there without you.

2012-01-27T09:24:00.000-08:00

Today, in 1967 the Race to the Moon just about got red flagged. NASA’s manned spaceflight program had been building an ever-bigger head of steam since Alan Shepard was basically catapulted like a suborbital human cannonball several hundred miles downstream as America’s first human into space.

Forty five years ago today, during a full-up manned test on the launch pad, a quick fire inside the spacecraft killed three American astronauts. Spacecraft commander Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Senior Pilot Edward White and pilot Roger B. Chaffee died in about 17 seconds.*

And it threatened to kill America’s space program. (It would have in today’s America, but that’s another story.) But, we were a stronger people of a stronger nation then. And JFK had thrown the gauntlet down in front of the country after Shepard’s suborbital lob in ’61. He challenged America to “before the decade [ws] out…of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth”* before 1970. So, the timer was running – and running out.

After the fire, NASA buckled down, figured out its causes, fixed ‘em and got the program back on track. Some astronauts and NASA employees have stated and wrote publicly that the fire was a blessing in disguise in that without exposure of all the problems, the spacecraft design or the whole manned spaceflight program probably wouldn’t have made it to the moon by 1970.

After his 1965 Gemini spaceflight, Apollo 1 Spacecraft Commander Grissom had – in a way – prepared his country for his death, saying “If we die, we want people to accept it. We are in a risky business and we hope that if anything happens to us it will not delay the program. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life.”**

Forty five years ago today, astronauts Grissom, White and Chaffee gave their lives in the conquest of space. They died in what – according to NASA insiders – ended up being the ultimate sacrifice to get the space program back on track to land a man on the moon and return him safely to earth by JFK’s deadline. Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Collins fulfilled Kennedy’s challenge in July of 1969.

Rest in peace, crew of Apollo 1. Couldn’t have done it without you.

Ed White, Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee

The Apollo 1 Command Module after the fire.

*Kennedy, J., (May, 1961), speech to joint session of Congress, as quoted by Wikipedia, Apollo Program. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_program January 27, 2012.

**Grissom, V. (March, 1965), Gemini 3 post-flight NASA press conference, as quoted by Wikipedia, Gus Grissom, Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gus_Grissom, January 27, 2012.

***Photos were taken by NASA – a U.S. Government agency - and are therefore in the public domain according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_program.

Why man should study history - Part 4 (or an MBA case study for sports management majors)

2012-01-27T03:33:00.000-08:00

A few entries back, I'd commented how great it was to see professional major league indoor soccer available again as a spectator sport. I'd commented how the league eventually folded back in the early 1990s. Official league reasons for said demise were things like "declining revenues," "fading fan interest" blahblahblah.

Unofficial but powerful forces that contributed were that the quality of refereeing just kept continually sinking to new highs in "low." I personally witnessed one player whose career was ended by being slammed into the boards so hard it ruined his knee. And as he lay there writhing in agony, the ref simply stepped over his thrashing body and gave the signal to keep playing. In other words, no foul.

I remember reading a newspaper article where it was mentioned that at a recent MISL game in Tacoma Washington, they'd had a seat cushion giveaway promotion. The first so many thousand fans thru the gates on game night won a really cool seat cushion with the Tacoma Stars logo on it. The refereeing was so bad at this game and so many fans threw their free team seat cushion out onto the pitch in protest of the bad calls, they were able to gather up enough thrown seat cushions they were able to sponsor another seat cushion giveaway night. Now, that's pretty bad.

Now let's connect the dots of the previous MISL postmortem.. As the quality of the refereeing worsened, fan interest faded because they were plunking down money to buy tickets in hopes of escaping the frustrations and stresses of everyday life only to leave games more frustrated and stressed than when they'd went in. Hence, fans stopped coming to the games in ever bigger numbers. Fewer fans buying tickets led to declining revenues, and before long MISL team owners started listening to sportscaster "Dandy Don" Meredith's advice to "Turn out the lights, the party's over."

But, when the MISL was resurrected from the cold, lonely grave and a new team placed back in my town, I was all excited. Now I'm not so sure.

At last night's game, I witnessed the worst job of refereeing it's been my displeasure to witness in decades - since the Major Indoor Soccer League(MISL) folded the LAST time around. Deja Vu all over again.
Yeah, my team lost. Yeah, their playing wasn't the best and didn't win them the game. Yeah, most of the time referees don't win or lose a game. But, it's damned hard to beat 6 opponents AND two referees.

Sure. Refs are human. Sure, they're going to miss something now and again. But, the refs on the pitch last night were living proof that "the best place to speed is in front of City Hall." They not only missed an occasional minor infraction here and there as is bound to happen, but also missed blatantly violent acts - numerous blatant pushes, punches and overall tauntingly unsportsmanlike conduct, etc committed right in front of them that they were looking straight at! And perhaps they'd whistle a minor infraction - or not. I thought they'd left their blue cards in the locker room the first half. Took a near melee to get 'em to finally pull a card and put some thug in the penalty box - once. To put it bluntly, there wasn't a pair of eyes - or kahunas - between the two officials tonight.

Then in the 2nd half one of our players gets hammered to the pitch to the point of a concussion and they red card the him out of the game. Idiocy! It's the job of the REF to control the emotions and conduct in the game and they blew it BIG time tonight! And you could just see the emotions and violent behavior escalate with each missed opportunity to crack down, gain control over the players emotions and stop the nonsense. During one of the Mayhem Moments, there were 4 players and even an assistant coach protesting and/or pleading the case in the referee's crease - a place that's supposed to be saved for only team captains and referees and only when they can behave themselves..

I think if the refs didn't even physically show up for the game tonight (God knows they weren't there mentally) these players could've done a better job of self-reffing the game than these clowns did.

Heads up, MISL; lousy refereeing is what played a big part in the demise of the league the LAST time. You had thousand dollar players, but ten cent refs. THIS time, your League has barely got off the ground again. If you start frustrating your customer fan base like happened last time, it'll crash and burn and fold up again just like last time. Just sayin'....

“Red Tails”; great acting, CG and drama. Historical accuracy? Uhh.... Not so much!

2012-01-24T18:08:00.000-08:00

Eight Tuskegee Airmen in front of a P-40 fighter aircraft

Recently, I went to see the movie “Red Tails,” starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Terrance Howard. The historian in me wouldn’t let me do otherwise. This movie reminded me of "Pearl Harbor" (2000, Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett). Excellent acting, great computer graphics - historical accuracy, not so much .However, "Red Tails" was even sloppier about accuracy than PH was. In this movie:

*The Tuskegee Airmen were black fighter pilots fighting in Europe…
* The enemy was Nazi Germany…

*They did paint the tails of their aircraft red…
* As for the rest, well....

While the actors were great, the scenes captivating and the computer graphics eye-catching, the historical issues just made this little amateur historian’s skin crawl.

Military courtesy, dress and discipline took major beatings in the film - the most flagrant example of which was in the opening scenes and how white fighter pilots were said to behave and the lives that they cost as a result. Were I or any of my friends or relatives a white former fighter pilot who had escorted bombers in WW2, this movie would offend me to the core. Yeah, fighter jocks are glory hounds and love to "mix it up" but not at the expense of the mission. But, if they'd've abandoned the bombers to enemy fighters while they went gallivanting off looking for easy kills like the movie insinuated (if not outright stated) that white fighter pilots had tendency to do, they'd've been court-martialed in no time flat - especially considering how many unprotected bomber crews the movie showed were getting slaughtered after said abandonment. Such insinuation attempts to set the stage to show how brave the Tuskegee Airmen were - and they were incredibly brave to fight racism, tradition and the Nazi Luftwaffe – instead came off as a cheap and offensive Hollywood stunt. It not only offends the white pilots’ legacy but also tends to cheapen the dedication to duty and commitment to mission that all bomber escort pilots exhibited – white or black.

Aerodynamics and physics even got a little abuse too in this flick. Mere machine gun bullets do not cause battleships to blow up. They're far too armored for mere bullets - a point that was even expressed in dialogue from Lightning's wingman who was trying to talk him out of attacking the German battleship in the first place. That was just more Hollywood sensationalism, but in fairness, there was some of that in “Pearl Harbor” too. The turn-on-a-dime maneuver that was shown not only once but twice was a bunch of Hollywood hokeyism too. As was the first aerial victories against the Me-262 coming from the Tuskegee Airmen and in big numbers. The first victories were a long time coming, were few and far between and not scored by the Tuskegee Airmen. But that part of the screenplay did add some drama to the flick's final moments.

If one watches this as just a drama, it's an OK movie. But, for such a potentially tribute-paying plot, they really could've done their homework about the historical accuracy and costume, courtesy details a whole lot better.

I have no idea if a small Italian village in the 1940s would've been tolerant of an interracial relationship or not, so I'll leave that alone other than to say that subplot offered nothing to the show other than to add a love interest and possibly smack of agenda.

All in all, I think the 1990s movie "Tuskegee Airmen" (Laurence Fishburne, Malcom Jamal-Warner) was an overall better production. Far less emphasis on drama and other hoo hah and more on the story of just how tough it was for those trailblazing pilots to get where they were and their amazing combat record.

Like “Pearl Harbor” before it, “Red Tails” is good drama, CG etc. The film is very good in those areas, but nothing historically accurate. The historian in me just hopes nobody comes out of the movie thinking these inaccuracies are actually true.

Learn more about the brave men of the real Tuskegee Airmen at:

http://www.tuskegeeairmen.org/
http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=1356
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_Airmen

According to Wikipedia, where the above image was retrieved from, it “iis a work of a U.S. Air Force Airman or employee, taken or made during the course of the person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image or file is in the public domain.”

French Quarter nights....

2012-01-22T17:58:00.000-08:00

Recently, my company sent a co-worker and I to New Orleans...er...'scuse me, N' Awlins - for several days of training. The company sponsoring the training scheduled it to be conducted in a hotel in the French Quarter.

I love the French Quarter! I've been to N' Awlins 4 times in my life now and visited the Quarter each and every time. I love its culture, its history, its architecture, the music and the food! The Cajuns have a motto of Laissez les bons temps rouler which is French for "Let the good times roll!" That's not hard to do in the Quarter. But while there, we broke no laws, didn't howl at the moon and were actually back to the hotel by 10 PM or so.

After checking into the hotel where the conference was to be held, my co-worker and I immediately took off walking around in the Quarter. Our walking took us by the New Orleans Police Precinct House and down into Jackson Square. The St Louis Cathedral is on one side of the Square and...the wonderful Cafe' DuMonde' is on the other! The DuMonde' serves beignets covered in powdered sugar and hot chocolate 24-7. (Can't do N'Awlins and NOT do the DuMOnde'. Just something really wrong with skipping the DuMonde'). So we stopped there first for a beignet and HC. Check the first item off the "want to eat while in New Orleans" list.

Then we went on the prowl for some dinner!

Found a really cool more local spot just outside the Quarter called...cleverly enough..."Eat." Mmm-MMM! GOOD Cajun/French cuisine in that little place! We had some red beans and rice with Andouile sausage and chicken. Good stuff! And check another item off the "want to eat while in New Orleans" list.

Then we wandered back up Bourbon Street people watching and jamming to the tunes from the live bands in the clubs along the way. Class would begin early the next day. So we didn't stop in anywhere to listen just kinda soaked up the jazz wafting out towards us in the street as we made our way back up Bourbon Street to the hotel. Leaving Bourbon Street by 10:30 PM. God, I must be getting old.

Day 1 of training, they turned us loose for lunch and we found a great place called the Gumbo Shop. Had a triple combo - etouffee, jambalaya and gumbo and a little warm French bread. Mmm-MMM! Scratch three things off the "want to eat while in New Orleans" list. Of course, we were about to doze off and fall out of our chairs about 3 in the afternoon from all the good food. But! What a way to go!

That night, we we teamed up with another classmate and hit the Quarter for dinner! We ate at the famous Pat O'Brien's, famous for its Hurricane drinks. Tonight we actually ate there, too! Had shrimp and fried grits. Never had that before but I highly recommend it. Good stuff! Here's a link to Pat's website: http://www.patobriens.com/patobriens/neworleans/

Then we wandered around a bit and did our obligatory visit to the Pirate's Alley Cafe' and Absinthe House. http://www.piratesalleycafe.com/home.html As you can see, they play up the pirate theme pretty well and give you a big lesson in the history and chemistry of absinthe as a drink.

From there we crossed Jackson Square and paid our homage to the Cafe' DuMonde' for some Begniets! Gots to do the DuMonde anytime I get close! While there a local was telling us that we needed to somewhere in the Quarter have a charbroiled oyster cooked in butter and garlic sauce and covered with 3 kinds of Parmesan cheese. He recommended some place called Dragos down by the casino and the river. I'm not much into oysters, but we may have a mission planned for dinner tomorrow night thanks to this bit of information.

From there we called it a night and walked the 6 blocks or so back amongst all the street musicians to our hotel. Again, in by 10 PM or so. Again, I'm convinced getting old just plain sucks.

Each day's training was in a conference room on the 16th floor of the hotel. A big series of windows in the room look down on the Big Muddy (Mississippi River) only about 3 blocks away. We could see merchant ships, freighters and barge pushers steaming up and downriver all day long each day. Amazingly didn't distract anyone except for on breaks. Guess that's a testimony to the quality of the instruction going on.

After the second day of training, we set out for Dragos the oyster place we'd been told about. We're only a block away from Canal Street. It was maybe 8 blocks down Canal Street (at the end of) by the Mississippi. I'd never in my life have thought I'd intentionally eat oysters. But, they let us sample the charb roiled oysters cooked in garlic, butter and 3 different Parmesan cheeses. After the sample we ordered a plate of 6 to accompany our entrees. Hard to see me type this, but oysters done THAT way are very good!

After that we pretty much called it a night - again around 10 PM. Our training days were very full, saturating our brains with good info. Our nights were fun, informative and delicious - even if they were brought to an end a little earlier each night than my ego would've liked to admit. (Maybe I can just tell myself that our curfew time was based on London time (4 AM) and that we really didn't come in at 10 PM.)

Good food, good music, good fun and good times - the usual rule when it comes to the French Quarter. No wonder I love the place. And lots of history, old world architecture and culture to boot! Doesn't get any better than that!

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

The Wichita Wings fly again! Go Wings!

2012-01-21T21:59:00.000-08:00

Back in the 1980s, indoor soccer was very popular in many American cities. The Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) had teams in cities across the country from coast to coast - L.A., San Diego, Tacoma, Washington, New York, Memphis, Minneapolis, Dallas. And our very own Wichita Wings had quite the following, too.

Many's the time the Orange Army as the Wings fans were known in those days packed the Kansas Coliseum to cheer their beloved Wings on to victory over one of the other teams. Often the fan noise inside the Coliseum was deafening and the tension so thick you could almost feel it dripping from the air in there.

And then, in the 1990s, the soccer fad faded, the Wings folded and the MISL seemed to all but disappear. And, in Wichita at least, indoor soccer was all but forgotten.

But now, a fledgling indoor soccer league is on the rise and has planted a seed in Wichita. And the Wichita Wings fly again! Though in their inaugural resurrection season, and the crowds are smaller and quieter. But the excitement and the soccer action are back and equally as exciting as it used to be.

Here's hoping the Wings - and the new Major Indoor Soccer League - will fly higher and higher providing a new generation of fans this same level of excitement in the great game of indoor soccer. Go, Wings!

Why I think the GOP WANTS to lose the 2012 Presidential election.

2012-01-21T21:12:00.000-08:00

Back during the 2008 presidential election, the GOP candidate was Arizona Senator John McCain. His opponent was a little-known former community activist from Chicago and a Senator from Illinois named Barak Hussein Obama. Obama was a less-than-one-term senator who had merely voted “present” on every issue he was present in the Senate to vote on. His only campaign speeches were so non-committal as to promise “hope,” “change you can believe in” and “yes, we can.” Not only did Obama have next to no record to campaign on, his very citizenship was – and still is – in question.

John McCain wasn’t a conservative. He wasn’t really a moderate either. In fact, an examination of his voting and speaking record shows that John McCain’s only cause in his entire political career has been John McCain.

Fast forward to 2012; Barak Hussein Obama is up for re-election.

Obama’s four-year record as president shows him to stand AGAINST everything that America – to date – has stood on and for. He has bowed to foreign kings, went on a public apology tour condemning past U.S. behaviors around the world and demonstrated a complete disregard – nay, disrespect – for the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. He has disregarded, some say, or violated say others, the Executive Powers Clause with his appointment of Czars, the hiring and firing of corporate CEOs from the Oval Office and skyrocketed the U.S. National Debt so far out of sight with his “stimulus” package that not only are we as a population so far in debt we have no hope of anything but national insolvency but also so do our grandchildren and their grandchildren.And when his "stimulus" plan failed miserably to prevent double-digit unemployment, he's told us to just consider high unemployment "the new norm."

Additionally he, along with his fellow Socialist cronies then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and current Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid rammed socialized medicine down the throats of the American people very much against the will of the people. This was evidenced by the haste in which they passed it before the mid-term congressional elections claiming that “"[Congress has] to pass the bill so you can find out what's in it….”*[See above video clip.]

All this and yet to say nothing of the demonstratively elitist behaviors he has shown in the umpteen hugely expensive vacations he and his family have taken at taxpayer expense the past four years.

With such a record, the 2012 election should be an election that is truly up to the GOP to win or lose.

But in the face of such a dismal record as President of the United States, who does it look like the GOP will run against Barak Hussein Obama and his abominable record as POTUS? So far, it looks like they’re going to be running former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney a “country club Republican” and a RINO** if there ever was one. His own state’s health care legislation known as “RomneyCare”*** since Romney sponsored its early form and signed the version modified by Massachusetts legislature into law while governor, looks like a smaller-sized version of ObamaCare. And his record otherwise shows him to be anything but a conservative. RINO masks candidates with such liberal tendencies by calling them “moderates.” Make no mistake; in this most-critical presidential election in 2012, there’s no difference between a moderate and a liberal.

And this moderate is what the GOP thinks will defeat such an obvious liberal as Barak Hussein Obama, another liberal just packaged in a GOP wrapping? Did they learn nothing from their loss against a candidate without much record to stand against? Yet now that they’ve got an enormous record that just begs to be criticized by anything and everything American, this is what we get for a choice? Mitt Frickin’ Romney?

Tell me the GOP doesn’t really want to lose the election that is truly theirs to lose. And if the GOP can't beat Barak Hussein Obama and his abominable record, then who can they beat?

Pelosi, N, Address to the 2010 Legislative Conference for the National Association of Counties, as quoted by Roff, P. March 9, 2010 in U.S. News Politics, Pelosi: Pass Health Reform So You Can Find Out What’s In It,* Retrieved from http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/peter-roff/2010/03/09/pelosi-pass-health-reform-so-you-can-find-out-whats-in-it

**Republican In Name Only

*** Chapter 58 of the Acts of 2006 of the Massachusetts General Court, An Act Providing Access to Affordable, Quality, Accountable Health Care

Talk about your titles....

2012-01-11T18:13:00.000-08:00

A coworker and I were researching something for work this afternoon. Along the way, we encountered an internet hit that somehow led us to the Wikipedia site for Nicolas Steno* - who was, apparently a Roman Catholic bishop, an amateur scientist and, I kid you not, the Titular Bishop of Titopolis.

The Titular Bishop of Titopolis…. I don’t know what that posting was, exactly. But, man, I think I want that title on my business card. Talk about your conversation starters or lead-ins to an “elevator speech. "Why, uh, yes…. Currently I’m the Titular Bishop of Titopolis….” And that just naturally leads into…wait for it… “But, you can call me the uh…Big Tit.” Of course, what springs to mind when I hear the “Titular” head of “Titopolis” is maybe the owner of a very large strip club. So, on second thought…maybe it’s better I not be known by such a monicker.

Now, you’re probably asking yourself, how on earth our Google search for an image of an air traffic control radar scope led us to the Titular Bishop of Titopolis? Chock it up to the miracle of the internet’s search engine technology, I guess. But…the Titular Bishop of Titopolis? Really? Seriously? I mean try saying that three or four times real fast without mucking it up and possibly modifying it into some other mild profanity. (I know this from experience. We tried and we did.)

Now, before anyone starts to light me up for bashing on Catholic hierarchy, I assure you I’m not. Nor do I mean to make fun of the good bishop’s contributions not only to the Church (enough that he was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1988) but also to science (geology and anatomy)* and apparently they are many. But, I’m sorry; a title like that just begs a little chuckle.

Wikipedia; Nicolas Steno.* (2012, Janu 11). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Steno, January 11, 2012.

** According to Wikipedia, the above image of Nicolas Steno is in the public domain because its copyright has expired.

A way for "college" to become more affordable, competitive and more "in the real world?"

2012-01-07T11:08:00.000-08:00

Looking for something else, I came across this piece that I'd written for an assignment in a grad school class a couple of summers ago. I just think it's so damned brilliant that I can't help sharing it on here. :)

The assignment:

Imagine you are making a presentation to a high school’s school board or University’s Board of Regents. Write a persuasive argument to present to the board. Make a case either FOR or AGAINST the use of “life experience” as substituting or counting for course credit (include recommended limitations if you believe they are necessary).

Reference the chapter (ch. 7) as appropriate in your argument and include outside reference(s) if necessary. If you use outside reference(s) be sure to include a reference list and cite within your paper in APA format.

My submission:

Honored Members of the Board of Regents,

As you well know, today’s economic climate is not a thriving one. Multiple thousands of workers are unemployed and exhausting their unemployment benefits before locating new positions. Amongst the unemployed are thousands of people who may be considering beginning pursuing a college education, returning to finish an undergraduate degree, earning another degree in a different major to re-qualify for a new career and even some who would like to begin or complete a post-graduate degree. With so much available free time they would love to pursue such education and would gladly do so save one enormous barrier – the cost of pursuing such education. They have no income, they have no hope of tuition reimbursement from their now-former employer and many before their layoff made too much money to qualify for financial aid.

This presents the state’s university community with a tremendous opportunity. This could be a real win-win situation as it provides the state’s universities an opportunity to swell its student body ranks and give the state’s universities more visibility (in-state and out-of-state), more revenue and some great publicity. To capture this opportunity, the academic community has to “give a little to gain a lot.” If the Board of Regents would consider awarding academic credit for experiential learning (life and work experiences) which could be counted towards the required hours in residence of a given bachelor’s degree or master’s degree, the prospective student could reduce the number of hours required to attain their educational goals.

How does a reduction in those hours lead to more revenue? By reducing the barriers that might otherwise turn prospective students away. Facing such a large number of required credit hours, prospective students who have no income or a drastically reduced income and no financial aid may choose not to pursue additional education at all. In such a scenario, the state’s universities lose out on that income. Rather, if such reductions are strategically pursued, not only would the state’s universities gain enrollment from in-state furloughed workers, but also stands to attract similar students from out-of-state – all of which translate into revenue.

How do these proposed reductions lead to more visibility and positive publicity for the state’s universities? By seeming to reach out a helping hand to those furloughed workers – prospective students who are experiencing tougher times. Such compassionate gestures look good for the state, its universities and can create tremendous good will with these same students, citizens, companies, the media and many other entities observing and/or benefiting from these gestures.

How do these proposed reductions attract students out-of-state? People gravitate towards opportunity. If there’s more educational opportunity for them in our state at our universities than at other universities in other states, our state’s universities suddenly become much more attractive. If these prospective students are attracted to our state’s universities because they realize we offer them much more opportunity and enable them to pursue those educational goals more readily at our state’s universities - online at least and should they move here to attend, all the better!

Bottom line; we stand at the precipice of a great opportunity to benefit both our state’s universities and the customer student public they serve. All we need to do is act on that opportunity.

Respectfully submitted,

"Mama, don't take my Kodachrome away...."

2012-01-06T10:43:00.000-08:00

Simon and Garfunkle had a hit song by that same title back in the 'Seventies. Their song is named after the – then quite leading edge - Kodak 35mm Kodachrome film camera. I know, I know; in the 21^st Century talking about breakthrough color film cameras and 1970s songs sounds…so last Century - especially with film giant Kodak teetering on bankruptcy.

But, be that as it may, that song has always resonated with me. Because I love to take pictures. Ask anyone who knows me or has traveled with me. They’ll tell you. I snap pics of anything and everything interesting. Shoot now and worry later about worthiness of the shot.

My old photojournalism instructor –a local working photojournalist – drummed into us that “Ya can’t go back out and re-burn the building or re-wreck the cars because you overlooked a shot. Shoot all you can of the event from any which angle, lighting, camera setting etc while you’re out there and sort it all later.” Of course this is all the easier with digital cameras. And I long ago made the leap from film to digital.

Once, a local TV station showed a photo of a tornado on the ground near our city. When it came on the screen, I criticized it for having an ugly, distracting telephone guy wire slashing diagonally thru the field of view. “Aw, man!” I exclaimed. “They should’ve ran toward the tornado 10 feet and gotten past the guy wire then took the picture!”

My wife looked at me like I’d grown horns or a second head or something. Sometimes she just doesn’t understand….

But, I’m proud of the pictures I take. And I don’t want to miss anything photogenic, if possible. I’d rather travel naked than travel without my camera at my side. To me, those same experiences make me feel equally exposed. (To use a photography term.)

*Images shown are PowerPoint clipart.

Vegas street entertainment.....

2012-01-05T16:40:00.000-08:00

Recently my wife and I were in Las Vegas for a few days. We had some time off so we flew out there and met up with some other friends there who now live out of state. And we all had a blast.

Vegas has always had a particularly seedy side from its mafia-sponsored boom times to its current advertising slogan that “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” Of course, we didn’t have anything “happen in Vegas” that we minded following us home and making the front page of the local paper. (We’re pretty straight-laced, boring people – pretty much by any measure, but for sure by Vegas standards.)

But, with such a shady heritage, Vegas is always a people watching experience. Like a Noah’s Ark of humanity and other creatures allegedly humanoid. There’s at least two of every kind of creature imaginable in that place. Wandering around town we saw Batman, Darth Vader and umpteen Elvis’s (Elvi?). We saw prostitutes cheap and expensive, transvestites, and dozens of homeless people. We were hit on by show barkers, timeshare hucksters, and even some half toothless scammer who wanted to have us takeover his $225 per person show tickets at the Bellagio in exchange for cab fare to the airport. (Ya, right.)

We saw creative but in-your-face direct advertising for just about anything and everything risqué from the drive around sign truck advertising prostitutes sent direct to your room by calling some phone #, to another truck advertising that “What happens in Vegas…spreads rapidly” and encouraged people to be checked for sexually transmitted diseases if having partaken of a particularly seedy “Happenings” while in Vegas. And then there was my all-time favorite “no subtlety” thing I saw in print – a tip jar at a local stripside bar with a label encouraging people to insert a cash tip in “Support your local bartender; helping ugly people get laid.” There’s pretty much no room for confusion in that one, for sure.

The whole Vegas entertainment scene is like a 3-ring circus - even the street stuff. We saw bartenders flinging multiple bottles of booze in the air like a juggler with bowling pins and never spilling any during the glass acrobatics. There were even really beautiful girls in short shorts and tight tops and knee high leather boots (like I said, we’re boring people) who would stand on the stripside bar dancing to the music of a nearby band while taking your drink order. That even beats our local Hooters. There was even another sidewalk bar that had a bartender pour me a shot of whiskey from a bottle resting on his fedora hat. (Good booze from a guy doing a trick and wearing a fedora hat – that’s a guaranteed attention getter for me.)

There were normal people and normal musicians etc around too, of course. But what makes Vegas an ultimate people watching experience is the prevalence of the other kooky kind of stuff.

Boeing, going, gone?

2012-01-04T15:32:00.000-08:00

Even beginning investors know the phrase, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” Of course, the thinking behind this metaphor being that one shouldn’t risk everything on a single venture. Rather, the far smarter play is to spread your risk over several ventures.

Well, everywhere except Wichita, Kansas apparently. For whatever reason, Wichita seems absolutely married economically to the aircraft manufacturing business in this town. Other industries of any size in town exist to support the lives and lifestyles of that labor market. Because of this narrow focus on the aircraft market, we live and die by the economy’s affects on it. To twist another metaphor, when the aircraft business catches a cold, Wichita gets pneumonia. Over the years, Wichita’s made feeble attempts to diversify, but our heart’s not really been in it.

It’s time for that to change and a far more diverse economy become our #1 priority, if you ask me.

Today, Boeing Military Airplane Company announced it’s leaving a community – Wichita – it’s been a part of for 80 years.* When announcing Boeing was awarded the new 767 Tanker contract, “[Boeing] spokesman Bill Barksdale said [in 2010] that 7,500 of those jobs would be in Kansas. That includes existing and new jobs at Boeing and its suppliers, and other jobs created in the community. Boeing Wichita will be the finishing center to convert the jets into tankers.”** Many promises were made to area politicians resulting in statements from their offices that 7,500 Kansas jobs.***

Despite those promises to put 7,500 jobs in the Wichita area, “Boeing said it will move all remaining work from its Wichita facility to other sites, officials told employees this morning. The move will affect 2,100 workers in Wichita, and provide a huge economic blow to the city, surrounding communities and the state.” “The Wichita closure will mean a loss of $1.5 billion in wages over 10 years, Jeremy Hill, director of Wichita State University’s Center for Economic Development and Business Research, has said.”****

How sad and how unethical to renege on these promises after so many people went to the mat for Boeing.*** But, as I’ve always said, corporate ethics programs are symbolic of a prostitute getting married in a white wedding gown. Actions define, not mere words.

As if it’s not sad enough Boeing’s going, it’s the why behind their departure that escapes me most. They’re going to consolidate the Wichita operation into their facility at Tinker AFB in Oklahoma City. Where’s the benefit? Both the Wichita and the OKC facility are housed on a secure Air Force Base. The labor markets in both cities function in a right-to-work state environment, so union pressures won’t be anymore or any less. And the costs of living are about the same in both cities. These last two points making the hourly wages of the labor force about the same in both cities. So…where’s the gain in moving?

What this most recent development should demonstrate to Wichita is that it desperately needs more baskets to keep its eggs in. We need to diversify off our dependency on the aviation business. We don't need to run off the aviation industry, mind you, but we need to lure in health care, technology or whatever else firms and workers as much as humanly possible. In other words, we don’t need to run off the aircraft businesses, but we certainly need to spread the risk over several other different industries.

Time will tell whether or not we learn this long overdue lesson or not. If not, then will the last person leaving Wichita please turn out the lights?

*McMillin, M., January 4, 2012, The Wichita Eagle, Boeing to close Wichita plant by end of 2013, Retrieved from http://www.kansas.com/2012/01/04/2162092/boeing-to-close-wichita-plant.html, January 4, 2012.

**KWCH 12 Eyewitness News, January 4, 2012, Boeing to close its Wichita facility by 2013, Retrieved from http://www.kwch.com/news/kwch-news-kah-boeing-tells-employees-its-closing-wichita-facility-20120104,0,4196078.story, January 4, 2012.

**McMillin , M., Feb. 25, 2011, The Wichita Eagle, Air Force Awards Boeing Tanker Contract ,
Retrieved from http://www.kansas.com/2011/02/25/1734764/boeing-wins-air-force-tanker-contract.html#storylink=cpy, January 4, 2012.

***Frank, C., KAKE TV, Boeing Wins Tanker Contract, Retrieved from http://www.kake.com/home/headlines/Tanker_Decision_Expected_Thursday_116758334.html, January 4, 2011

****McMillin , M., January 4, 2012, The Wichita Eagle, Boeing To Move All Work From Wichita Plant, Retrieved from http://www.kansas.com/2012/01/04/2162092/boeing-to-close-wichita-plant.html, January 4, 2012.

Maybe not so much high-tech, but more a labor of love.....

2012-01-03T16:58:00.000-08:00

While off for the Christmas holiday, I did something that may seem a little odd to younger, more digitally-inclined people. I invested in older technology. I did so by fixing up something very old fashioned rather than buying a new digital version of it. As a matter of fact, though they exist, I didn’t even buy a newer, but still non-digital version of it.

What did I do? Even though e-reader sales are forecast to triple by 2016* and US consumers make up ¾ of the global market for e-readers,** I sunk a few bucks into helping preserve my old, faded pages, torn dustjacket copies of a few great old books. Rather than just throw the hard copies out and purchase digitized ones, I ran them down to a local art supply company and had the torn dustjackets lovingly smoothed out as much as possible (though there were holes in them or even a few places where the edges were torn off or gone completely) and then laminated on both sides.

Why? Because these books are near-classics (at least to me). I’m just not ready to pitch these cherished copies into the fire and replace with even newer copies costing $15-$30 even in trade paperback, let alone the hard binding of the ones I currently own.

But, if anything you say, laminating the dustjackets just futher destroyed their antique value. True, but these probably don't have much of any kind of value beyond sentimental.

You see, I love books. And those that contain certain key information, intriguing plots, great phraseology and the like have a special place on my bookshelf. These three certainly fit that bill. And for the mere nine bucks or so it cost me total to have all three dustjackets preserved in plastic, and therefore hopefully preserve these copies a little longer, it seemed well worth it.

* Tofel, K., November, 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek, Five Reasons E-Reader Sales Will Nearly Triple by 2016, Retrieved from http://www.businessweek.com/technology/five-reasons-ereader-sales-will-nearly-triple-by-2016-11152011.html, January 3, 2012.

**Nawotka, E., January, 2011, Publishing Perspectives, No Surprise: US is 75% of Global E-Reader Market, Apple & Amazon Dominate, Says IDC Study, Retrieved from http://publishingperspectives.com/2011/01/us-is-75-of-global-e-reader-market/, January 3, 2012.

Happy New Year 2012. Is this the end of the line?

2011-12-31T21:37:00.000-08:00

There's 29 more minutes left in 2011 as I write this. Another New Year's Eve about to turn into a New Year's Day.

This New Year's, in addition to considering resolutions, wondering how long it'll be before I start putting the correct new year in the appropriate blank and dreading having to get out of "holiday" mode and back into "work" mode, I'm wondering if 2012 will be the end of the line for good ol' Planet Earth and her inhabitants. The ancient Mayan calendar ended after 2012. Did they know something we should?

Heaven knows the end of the world has been inaccurately predicted gazillions of times throughout history. However, the Mayan calendar end is the only official timekeeping "prediction" I'm aware of. Certainly it's the one the talking heads on TV and the digital pundits of the internet are giving it the maximum possible credence.

Will this year is our last as a planetoid population? I guess only time will tell. But I'm going to keep on keeping on as if our planet and the human race will be doing so as well.

Happy New Year 2012.

Rest In Peace, Dr. Harvey D. Ellis. A gentle man of faith and medicine.

2011-12-31T19:36:00.000-08:00

Dr. Harvey Ellis passed away this past week. He was 87. Dr. Ellis was my family physician for my family from my middle school years until I was out of college probably.

Though I only knew him as my family doctor, I knew him enough to be able to say he was a gentleman in every sense of the word. His very gentle mannerisms - the way he would look over his half-glasses with his easy smile and softly asking his diagnostic questions - always left me wishing that my medical symptoms were a little harder to figure out. That way he would spend longer in the exam room talking to me. Dr. Ellis was one of those people whose company you can never get enough of.

And he was a person well worth looking up to.

As I grew older and developed an interest in flying, Dr. Ellis began sharing that he had been an army air corps pilot in World War 2. That gave us a few more things in common than just medical conditions and remedies to talk about.

Though he wasn't the least bit pushy about it, his faith in God was obvious in his every move. And he would every now and then mention God's marvelous works in the creation of the human body or His intended maintenance plan for said creation.

It was a sad day (for me, happy for him) when Dr. Ellis retired and we had to change family doctors. And it's a sad day to learn he passed from this life. Unfortunately, I was out of town when he passed thru the date of his funeral. It would have been the least I could do to have attended and paid my respects to such a great person. Someone wrote in his online obituary guest book that "God will embrace him in heaven." It's easy to imagine Dr Ellis entering the gates of heaven as the Lord gives him a hug and says, as told in Matthew 25:19-30, "Well done, my good and faithful servant." Welcome home.

Thanks for the great care and conversation, Dr. Ellis. Rest in peace.

Harvey D. Ellis Obituary: View Harvey Ellis's Obituary by Wichita Eagle

A simulator ride...in the "BUFF." (Ooo la la?)

2011-12-31T19:07:00.000-08:00

I tried to resist it, I really did. But then, what kind of self-respecting amateur historian and former pilot could resist?

This past week, the Kansas Aviation Museum was host to the only public access B-52 Simulator in existence. The B-52* has been the mainstay of the US Air Force’s bomber fleet since 1955. It has served as both a high-altitude and a low-level penetration bomber with both conventional and nuclear weaponry using both overhead and standoff delivery methods, an air-launched missile platform and even as a “mother ship” launcher for high-altitude experimental aircraft like the X-15. And it’s a veteran of four wars.*** And here – 56 years later - it’s still in active service.

Given that history, who wouldn’t want to take a crack at flying the flight simulator for this historic aircraft?

Spec wise,the B-52 has eight jet engines, 4 on each of its 92 foot wings. Spanning 156 feet in length and wingspan of roughly 185 feet and a max takeoff weight of 488,000 lb, this thing is a monster. In addition to its internal fuel capacity, there was capability to have 3,000 US gallon** fuel tanks mounted externally underneath the end of each wing. (This causes the wingtip of B-52 deflects up to 26ft (8m) from its drooping position to a full deflection at a maximum-g pull-up. **** And it makes for one helluva pendulum effect swinging that much weight around at the end of a 92 foot wing which makes for some interesting roll control forces in turns.

With 8 engines represented on the throttle quadrant with one throttle each, this would make some interesting pilot technique for advancing power. I’d heard that one doesn’t really ever rotate the nose up in takeoff – rather it flies itself off the ground tail first. (And, if you’ve ever watched one takeoff, you notice there’s a negative deck angle - in other words, she takes off nose down). Landings are reputed to be equally interesting in that one doesn’t ever really round out and flare, but rather just flies it on at a constant deck angle and airspeed.

In my “former life” as a pilot and training center sim instructor, I’ve seen all the insides of flight simulators I ever care to see – from the pilot seats in front or from the instructor station in the back. But, given those quirky flight characteristics, what former pilot wouldn’t want to take a crack at flying the flight simulator for this intriguing aircraft?

So, like I said, I couldn’t resist. I “logged a half hour in this historic B-52G sim this afternoon. I had to experience pushing up eight throttles at once for takeoff. I wondered what it looked and felt like to climbout nose low after takeoff. I wanted to feel the roll rate with 1000 gallons of fuel weight swinging at the end of a 92 foot wing.

The sim had a visual system set up for daylight in the Las Vegas area. The famous Las Vegas Strip was meticulously recreated – The MGM Grand, The Luxor, The Stratosphere and the Manolay Bay casinos were all represented very accurately. (I was just there the first half of this week). I did one low pass over the strip, a touch and go and a fullstop landing. There was even another “BUFF”***** on the runway at Nellis AFB when I did my touch and go landing and commercial airliners in line on the taxiway waiting for us to land when I did my last landing – a perfect onspeed, on glidepath approach to a gentle touchdown, if I do say so myself.

I haven’t flown in so long and nothing with the girth of a BUFF that I was just pleased not to have created a simulated fireball and smokin’ hole in the simulated runway.

The half hour just flew by and – as a historian – am thankful to have briefly and in such a minor way connected to such a key component of American aviation history.

Congratulations to the Kansas Aviation Museum for having hosted such a great attraction.

Blue skies.

All pictures are my own photographs taken today while at the Museum. If unable to view the pictures, go to http://fedoradudescommentary.blogspot.com/

References:

Wikipedia, December 29, 2011, Boeing B-52 Stratofortress*, Taken December 31, 2011 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-52_Stratofortress.

** Goebel, G., The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, Taken December 31, 2011 from http://www.qxrmyy.com/variants.html.

***The Cold War, Vietnam, Gulf War 1 and Gulf War 2

****AviatorH, Dec. 2010, Do B-52s have small wheels mounted towards the ends of the wings?, Taken December 31, 2011 from http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20101022231942AAPnec6.

*****Acronym for Big Ugly Fat…er…Fellow(?), a nickname for the B-52 bomber.

The powerful people of 2011....

2011-12-30T15:15:00.000-08:00

As the year 2011 draws to a close, perhaps it is fitting to examine some of the powerful people of 2011:

Catholic Pope Benedict XVI, leader of the over a billion members of the Roman Catholic Church.
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who has 1) made continuing efforts to obtain nuclear weapons* and 2) made statements to the effect of he’d like to wipe Israel off the map.** While this, unfortunately, makes him a force to be reckoned with, Israel may up and solve everyone’s problem proactively. Time will tell.
American president Barak Hussein Obama, president of the United States, still titular “leader of the free world” and carrier of the nuclear football*. While this makes him a force to be reckoned with, maybe the 2012 elections next fall will solve this problem as well. Time will tell.

And, equally appropriate perhaps, we examine the no-longer-so-powerful people of 2011:

Congressman Anthony Weiner, the guy with “weiner” in his name and tweeted a picture of his wiener. Oh, brother. This incident is the kind of stuff late-night comedy writers live for.
Libyan dictator and terrorist mastermind Muammar Gaddafi who was killed by his own people in an uprising arising from the Arab Spring - the latest version of instability in the Middle East.
Al-Qaeda leader and evil 9/11/01 mastermind Osama bin Laden, may he rot in hell. Killed by US Navy Seal Team 6.
Psychotic North Korean dictator and nuclear power wannabe Kim Jong-il. who passed away this past weekend of an alleged heart attack, leaving one less unstable tinhorn dictator in the world.

This is probably not all the "movers and shakers" past or present this year, but the ones that immediately came to mind.

*Briefcase of nuclear launch codes, procedures to use etc in case of a nuclear attack.

CNN Wire Staff, December 16, 2011, “Russia seizes radioactive objects from flight to Iran,”* Retrieved from http://articles.cnn.com/2011-12-16/world/world_europe_russia-radioactive-luggage_1_iran-and-russia-nuclear-program-nuclear-reactor?_s=PM:EUROPE, December 21, 2011

** Wikipedia, December 18, 2011, “Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Israel; ‘Wiped off the map" controversy’”, Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad_and_Israel, December 21, 2011

Do you have a Christmas tradition?

2011-12-24T22:04:00.000-08:00

During tonite's Christmas Eve candlelight service, the pastor shared a fave family Christmas tradition from his childhood. This seemed to evoke many a warm memory in quite a few in the congregation.

Christmas is a wonderful time for traditions - many to be honored, new ones to be begun.

The pastor's story brought back a memory of my own. Back in my first family, we had a VHS tape of the Christmas Nativity story. It was a cheapie probably transcribed from film onto videotape. Bought it at WalMart for a whopping $3 around 1991 or so. It had the virture of depicting the nativity story with live characters in a quick-enough fashion to hold a child's attention throughout.

But, each year (until "the balloon went up"anyway and the stepsons went away with my first wife) we would build a fire in the fireplace, sit us all down in front of the TV, pop in the tape and watch the familiar story. Once the short video was over, we'd open the Bible and read the traditional wording of the story of the Christ child from the Gospel of Luke.

Only the Christ child himself knows if that attempt to build a family tradition ended up meaning anything to anybody but me. But, I always considered it my privilege to work on building it into one.

Christmas is a great time for traditions. When they stick - and we may not even know they have until reflecting back upon them many years later when we realize the warm glow spreading over us was triggered by their memory - they are a priceless Christmas gift that lasts forever in our hearts and minds.

If you grew up with such family Christmas traditions &/or are a blessing now by leading your family &/or friends in such a tradition, then - if you don't mind me saying - you are truly blessed. Merry Christmas!