Month: February 2007

He picked Boston instead – for the middle finger for Allah.

A reader writes:

Everything you say about being "contingent" rings true in my heart. We are born in a tiny neighborhood of earth, in a brief moment of time. The extent of all that we may become, derives from this origin, over which we have no choice, and from which we cannot escape.

It is the nature of the human psyche to see God behind the workings of the world.  Maybe in the far distant past, people thought God was a wise old man with a long beard, sitting on a Heavenly thrown  in the sky. Gradually, we all came  to realize, this could not be true. But does this mean that God does not exist? Not necessarily. Was this belief in God just a childish wish and imagining? Or might God be a little more complex and subtle? No matter what, my view on God does not come from my free choice, but is colored by all the human interpretations of God that I have encountered, together with my own conscious thinking and wondering, and then analyzed by some mysteriously autonomic analyzing process that operates in my head.

I am aware, where others may not be (perhaps most others) that my total being, personality, and beliefs are merely contingent on virtual "accidents" of the flow of events; and where I may have been on any certain day; and who may have spoken to me; whom I may have listened to; what book, movie, or television show I might have read or watched; if I glanced into the sky and saw a shape in the clouds that cheered me up or made me think of some specific thing…that the world impresses itself upon me, and forms me into all that I become, with only a very little bit of my own destiny and outcome, that I can determine by my own free will or choice.

I do not know much, but I know all of this. It may not be much, in the way of religious belief, but it is a foundation on which all else must rest. To be so sure and satisfied on this modest foundation, after all these years of extreme doubt on everything, is a relief and more than a relief, but satisfying, that I know and believe some things that make sense, and that I can put into words.

The origin of the word "contingent" comes from tangere, Latin, meaning "to touch."

(Photo: A believer reaches out to touch an apparition of the Virgin Mary located on a wall of an underpass April 18, 2005 in Chicago, Illinois. By Scott Olson/Getty Images.)

Michigan’s anti-gay-marriage amendment has been interpreted to ban all government provided benefits to gay couples, however long they have been together. Many are preparing to leave the state. Some of these couples have been together for decades. Kids are vulnerable too:

One well-publicized case involves Dennis and Tom Patrick, of neighboring Ypsilanti, who are raising four children. Because the oldest, a nine-year-old, requires special care and medical attention, Tom stopped working full-time in order to take care of him–taking health benefits through Dennis’s employer, Eastern Michigan University (EMU). As a public university, EMU has to end spousal benefits under the prevailing ruling. And while Tom could always get benefits by returning to work full-time, he’d then have to leave care of the boy to somebody else. "I don’t believe voters intended to hurt families and kids," Dennis told The Detroit News a year after the law first passed. "Our families exist, and no proposal or law is going to change [that]."

Will there be a backlash? Who knows? What I do know is that anyone under 30 has seen what the Republican party now stands for. And it isn’t the values of the next generation.

We watched "Basic Instinct" last night with a bottle of champagne and freshly-made brownies. I’d never seen it before. It was washed down by a HD Sunrise Earth special on Machu Picchu. Life is good when you’re in love and have a widescreen television.

Here’s a brutal but to my mind persuasive case for allowing Iraq’s civil war to take its course. It’s from Foreign Affairs. Money quote:

As long as the Bush administration remains absolutely committed to propping up the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki or a similarly configured successor, the U.S. government will have limited leverage with almost all of the relevant parties. By contrast, moving away from absolute commitment – for example, by beginning to shift U.S. combat troops out of the central theaters – would increase U.S. diplomatic and military leverage on almost all fronts. Doing so would not allow the current or the next U.S. administration to bring a quick end to the civil war, which most likely will last for some time. But it would allow the United States to play a balancing role between the combatants that would be more conducive to reaching, in the long run, a stable resolution in which Sunni, Shiite, and Kurdish interests are well represented in a decent Iraqi government. If the Iraqis ever manage to settle on the power-sharing agreement that is the objective of current U.S. policy, it will come only after bitter fighting in the civil war that is already under way.

Withdrawal and redeployment are far more potent tools right now than the "surge." The latter seems to me to be a way for Bush to save face. But he shouldn’t save face at the expense of increasing the long-term toll on Iraqi and American lives.

"I kind of feel like I have been hung out to dry. People say that I am responsible for everything, as if I had the full point plan for what we are going to do. In fact, I was fairly low down on the organizational chart. [Those above me] have basically decided they are not going to talk about this anymore. It is as if, if all the flak falls on this guy, well, fine. I don’t like it, but unlike them I think it is my responsibility to explain what we did and why," – John Yoo, architect and implementer of the Bush administration’s torture policy.

Two small stories today of two couples: one in England, the other in Texas. The Texas relationship is between a player on the winning NCAA basketball team in 2005 and her partner. Emily Nkosi put her love and study before her sports career and seems happier for it. In England, a rare autistic genius manages to find security and direction with the help of a loving spouse. And, yes, he’s gay too. Money quote:

On the mantelpiece of the house is a collection of cards Mr. Tammet received on his latest birthday, including one from Mr. Mitchell, signed with six kisses. "I don’t think I’d be here today if it weren’t for his love and support," he said.

If former NBA player, Tim Hardaway, could get to see the integrity of these relationships, maybe his hatred would wane. And if the Republicans could find a way to show these relationships the respect and support they deserve, they could go some way to rehabilitating themselves with many good-hearted Americans.

Cincinnati, Ohio, 9 am.

Who calls the shots in the Bush-Cheney administration? In finding a way to increase security at chemical plants, one man stood out:

To understand the workings of Philip Perry is to get a sense of the true lines of power in the executive branch. "Perry is an éminence grise," says one congressional staffer. "He’s been pretty good at getting his fingerprints off of anything, but everyone in this field knows he’s the one directing it. He is very good at the stealth move." And, as it turns out, Perry’s stealth moves have often benefited opponents of chemical regulation. One of his final pieces of handiwork included coming up with what critics have called an "industry wish list" on chemical security that ultimately became law last fall.

"Every time the industry has gotten in trouble," says the staffer, "they’ve gone running to Phil Perry." The result has been that our chemical sites remain, even five years after 9/11, stubbornly vulnerable to attack.

And who is Phillip Perry? Just Dick Cheney’s son-in-law, that’s all.

A pop quiz to test your knowledge.