Starbucks Snobbery

I don't like Starbucks. I was keenly reminded of this fact today when I met Aaron for breakfast at the Starbucks in Kennett. I nervously approached the order counter knowing full well what was about to transpire. The lady taking orders asked what I wanted and "Green tea, please" was my response. She stared back at me for five seconds with the most dumbfounded expression on her face. You would have thought I was having dinner at the White House and had asked for a hot dog. "What kind of green tea?" she said with a certain smugness indicating that I clearly did not belong there among the rest of the social elite. "Ah, I don't know. Just regular green tea I guess" was the best I could muster and stammer out. She rattled something off with what an order for regular green tea should actually sound like and I happily moved down the line to fork over my $1.50 for something that was probably worth $0.25.

I may not have the sophisticated class necessary to properly formulate an order at Starbucks, but at least as Hank Jr said, "A country boy can survive."

Lamponian Enviromental Impact Survey

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Relationships and Politics

I read an important statement this evening from a relationship book that also carries over into the world of politics and public policy. After reading Jesse's blog and noticing how abrasive my own comments were about Senator Clinton, I was about to pull the plug on all things political, but this quote helped me think of a different approach: "heated arguments are not a helpful way of dealing with disagreement. The problem is that fighting turns the focus toward 'defending and winning' and away from solving the issue at hand." - Dr. John Gray as referenced in The Most Important Year In A Man's Life.

So in this wonderful democracy that we enjoy, we each have the freedom and responsibility to seek, offer, discuss and implement solutions to the issues at hand rather than merely getting swept into the political defenses of the current power brokers. So, let's try this out. I am fortunate to have friends who form a broad mix along the political spectrum so let's create our own bipartisan workshop.

Three broad issues:

1. Environment
2. Poverty
3. Crime

What positive steps can we take to address these issues here in Wilmington, Delaware? (Input is sought from those in other areas though this will serve as the lab for those ideas.)

As I write and think about this, I am left with the same questions in my mind that I had from studying Nehemiah in my small group:

Why not here?

Why not now?

Why not us?

The floor is open. It's time to share your ideas. Let's change the world.

Politicians and Legislators

To me, one of the saddest aspects of the current political landscape is that we end up choosing the best politicians rather than the most effective legislators. Pull off a snappy one-liner in the middle of a contentious and substance-less debate and you'll pull ahead in the polls. Actually work with people from both parties to forge an effective piece of legislation and you'll earn no points with the media and consequently the general public.

This is why I am so passionate about Newt. Look, he has even worked with Hilary Clinton to try to create a viable solution to our national healthcare mess. It takes some serious guts and humility to talk to someone who had been your most bitter rival in search of any positive aspects from the plan you worked to defeat.

And then there's my favorite issue: social security reform. I still feel nauseated when I recall the scene of Democratic Congressman rallying around the statue of FDR and collectively putting their heads in the sand and refusing to consider any of President Bush's proposals for desperately needed reform. If you would actually like to see a well thought out presentation on the problems of and solutions to the Social Security crisis, click on the link above.

Newt probably would not win an election. But he has some excellent legislative ideas that he is offering to anyone from any party that will listen. I hope others will follow his approach.

Hillary's Announcement

I am reluctant to even give her space on my blog. [Go Newt!]

I can't help but to meet her official announcement to run for President with a big "woop-dee-freakin-doo". {Go Newt!}

As a Republican, I'm struggling to see this as an entirely bad thing. It's going to absorb a lot of funding in what will ultimately be a losing effort. It's going to be so great to watch her lose her own primary. Just wait for the first debate when the significantly more charismatic Edwards and Obama embarass her. And even if she somehow makes it to the general election (because the way the primaries are setup are brutally unfair and need to be changed immediately), she's only going to galvanize the disenchanted conservative base. (Go Newt!)

The Saints Are Coming

This is an awesome song from U2 and Green Day. Going on the Katrina Relief trip adds extra significance.

And I'll forgive some of their politicking on the Iraq war since it's a cool song.

Wish List

This is far and away my favorite Pearl Jam song.

"I wish I was the virtue trust and never let you down."

Everything

My favorite song from my favorite band. It's even better live if you ever get to see them in concert.

This was obviously not their actual video as one of the lines is written incorrectly; it's "You won't let me fall" not "You won't let me fold." Come on people get it right.

Father Of Mine

I heard this song several times this week. It is one of my favorites but it's very sad. I always used to hear this song playing in my mind when I read Ephesians 3:14-15, "For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family on heaven and earth derives its name."

Anthem For The Year 2000

Another great Silverchair song, especially approaching a presidential election year.

Songs For Troubled Times

-- The Trouble With Normal --
Cockburn

30 June 1981. Toronto, Canada.

Strikes across the frontier and strikes for higher wage
Planet lurches to the right as ideologies engage
Suddenly it's repression, moratorium on rights
What did they think the politics of panic would invite?
Person in the street shrugs -- "Security comes first"
But the trouble with normal is it always gets worse

Callous men in business costume speak computerese
Play pinball with the Third World trying to keep it on its knees
Their single crop starvation plans put sugar in your tea
And the local Third World's kept on reservations you don't see
"It'll all go back to normal if we put our nation first"
But the trouble with normal is it always gets worse

Fashionable fascism dominates the scene
When ends don't meet it's easier to justify the means
Tenants get the dregs and landlords get the cream
As the grinding devolution of the democratic dream
Brings us men in gas masks dancing while the shells burst

The trouble with normal is it always gets worse

-- Worry Too Much--
Mark Heard

it's the demolition derby
it's the sport of the hunt
proud tribe in full war-dance
it's the slow smile that the bully gives the runt
it's the force of inertia
it's the lack of constraint
it's the children out playing in the rock garden
all dolled-up in black hats and war paint

sometimes it feels like bars of steel
i cannot bend with my hands
oh - i worry too much
somebody told me that i worry too much

it's these sandpaper eyes
it's the way they rub the luster from what is seen
it's the way we tell ourselves that all these things are normal
till we can't remember what we mean
it's the flicker of our flames
it's the friction born of living
it's the way we beat a hot retreat
and heave our smoking guns into the river

sometimes it feels like bars of steel
i cannot bend with my hands
oh - i worry too much
somebody told me that i worry too much

it's the quick-step march of history
the vanity of nations
it's the way there'll be no muffled drums
to mark the passage of my generation
it's the children of my children
it's the lambs born in innocence
it's wondering if the good i know
will last to be seen by the eyes of the little ones

Modest Hope In Darfur

There is moderate hope for a respite from the violence in Darfur as the President of Sudan agreed to a 60 day cease fire. This story has been overlooked amidst President Bush's tactical realignments in Iraq, but hopefully it as at least one small step in the right direction.

For more on how to be informed and get involved see http://www.savedarfur.org/content

Melancholy happiness

Spurred by memories of my goth boy days, I rediscovered one of my favorite Pumpkins songs.

Smashing Pumpkins › Stand Inside Your Love

You and me
Meant to be
Immutable
Impossible
Its destiny
Pure lunacy
Incalculable
Insufferable
But for the last time
You're everything that I want and ask for
You're all that I'd dreamed
Who wouldn't be the one you love
Who wouldn't stand inside your love
Protected and the lover of
A pure soul and beautiful you
Don't understand
Don't feel me now
I will breathe
For the both of us
Travel the world
Traverse the skies
Your home is here
Within my heart
And for the first time
I feel as though I am reborn
In my mind
Recast as child and mystic sage
Who wouldn't be the one you love
Who wouldn't stand inside your love
And for the first time
Im telling you how much I need and bleed for
Your every move and waking sound
In my time
Ill wrap my wire around your heart and your mind
You're mine forever now
Who wouldn't be the one you love and live for
Who wouldn't stand inside your love and die for
Who wouldn't be the one you love

Who Resurrected The Electric Car?

After being slammed for killing the EV1, it appears GM has leapfrogged to the front of the electric car craze. This little number gets 150 MPG!

`Car of the Year'

I am excited to find I am not alone in my assesment of GM's resurgence. At the 2007 North American International Auto Show, the Saturn Aura edged out the Toyota Camry and Honda Fit to be named Car of the Year. Go little Saturn!

The Chevy Silverado was also named Truck of the Year.

Open Fire

This is another video (from back in my goth days) that I never got out of my mind. While it seems a little strange now, the image of the woman washing her hands deeply resonated with me because of how well it represents shame. You see her washing her hands in great anguish even though they are clean but when the camera turns to what she sees in the mirror they are covered in dirt, mud and grime. She ends up washing her hands until they bleed until finally at the end she seems to find some cleansing and healing.

"Whether or not shame is identified, it leads you to feel: I am not quite good enough. Something is lacking in me. I am not like the others. They have something I do not have. I am incomplete. I am inadequate. This feeling may be outwardly invisible. You may have great poise. You may be well educated. You may be articulate. You may be successful. You may be powerful, but inside you lives a pain that will not go away. It is the pain of living a shame-based life, of feeling, I am not adequate. A shame based identity means that you want to hide who you are. Your feeling toward others is, 'If you really knew me, if you knew what I am really like, you wouldn't like me.' Your shame causes you to live in fear of being known for who you really are." - Making Peace with Your Past ~ Tim Sledge

"Do not be afraid; you will not suffer shame. Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated. You will forget the shame of your youth." Isaiah 54:4

History Starts Now

I saw this video for "World" over Christmas and found it strangely compelling. The back to back scenes of a veiled woman in black casting an election ballot and a veiled woman in black laying an American flag on a grave grabbed my heart. It was a beautiful picture to me of the cost and grief of one to give a measure of freedom and hope to another. Whatever your views of the Iraq War, I think you can appreciate the artistry of these scenes.

I could definitely see one of the Presidential candidates (Edwards?) taking this as their theme song.

What kind of world do you want? History starts now.