These Are My Answers

Well I've been tagged in one of these round-robin lists memes, which is an odd way to spend your time and I'm sure I'll distort it in my attempt to answer this list of four things, but like Mr. Silence who tagged me, I'll play along.

Though I would like to know why these things are called "memes". Seems a sort of high-tech-wistfulness to call a list a meme. I do remembering encountering the word for the first time in Neal Stepehenson's epic sci-fi comedy novel of the future "Snow Crash" a few years ago and his usage of it makes sense in a kind of "community-based virus of information sharing" way.

OK, fine here we go.

Four jobs you've had in your life: I've been a dishwasher, I've stacked books in a library, I once shoveled sand into a machine that mixed it with concrete and then came out a high pressure hose to form the shape of a waterslide which was in Jonesboro, and that was in summer for like 10 hours a day and I passed out the first day, so that would be Shoveler, I guess. And I've been paid cash money for writing plays and stories, which is a different kind of Shoveling. What I would really like to find is the Job that Wants To Stay WIth Me.

Four Movies You Could Watch Over and Over: Oh I suck at this. I've never been able to give anyone a list of my Ten All Time Favorites, so Four is insane. Let me try this approach - I can name Four movies I've seen more than one hundred times (I could probably name a few dozen), and that list would include "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly", "Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb", James Whale's "Frankenstein", and, oh, why not admit it - "Star Wars", which I saw in theatres over one hundred times at least. Nerd Alert!!

Four Places You've Lived: Ha! While I have lived in many towns, like Morristown or Monterey or Nashville - I have only lived in Tennessee, so that's my final answer. Check with me in a few years on this question and see if anything new has happened.

Four TV Shows You Love To Watch: I once played a game with a friend who owned a satellite system and we used to try and see how many consecutive hours of reruns of "The Simpsons" we could watch, so there's one. I have been rather glued to the new show "Lost", but man, I have grown to hate commercials and so I seldom have the TV off a movie channel these days. Ok,. two more. Well, I did watch a heap of "Monty Python" on BBC America over the weekend and never tire of those shows and the only DVD sets of a TV show I own are "Buffy The Vampire Slayer," and I've shown my nerdy affection for that show on these pages here before. So there's four.

Four Places You've Been On Vacation: I love traveling, despite my single-state residency status. Some of the best trips I've had were to New York, Miami, Jasper, Tennessee (i loved all those trips to see my dad's family and listen to them all tell stories and laugh), and Washington, D.C.

Four Websites I Visit Daily: I am always entertained and educated going to MetaFilter, and rarely a day passes where I don't go to the IMDb, the Internet Movie Database, I always enjoy Crooks and Liars, and ... oh boy ... so many ... I do stop and read thru all kinds of writers and writing via the Rocky Top Brigade more than once a day.

Four of Your Favorite Foods: Any kind of pizza, and I can chow on roast Turkey whether it's a holiday or not, I love a fresh salad, and ... is coffee a food? No? A Beverage? Yeesh! These lists. I'll mention a recent addiction - gimme that Eel Roll Sushi, baby!! (Since I'm Southern, I suppose potatoes and cornbread are obviously included).

Four Places You'd Rather Be: Sounds ominous. The first is at a job!! Where I get paid!!!! I don't much care for winter, so where it's not winter. By the ocean. Or, conversely, deep in some mountains. (Of course, I'd also like to have my own spaceship or villa or something ritzy). Is that more than four?

Four Albums You Can't Live Without: I suppose you mean CDs, right? This is worse than the movies list. Well, just about anything by the Beatles, and I can't list some without omitting others and this isn't fair. I do like several compilations I have. Oh this is impossible - I want rock and jazz and blues and some bluegrass too and some rap too, even. Is this over yet???

Sorry.

Oh I'm supposed to tag four others to do this - how about ... 10,000 Monkeys and A Camera, and also have to tag Juliepatchouli, and one of the brains at Six-Meat Buffet, who claimed once only they were supposed to do "sarcasm" on their pages and perhaps this may annoy them. and um ... oh ... I've been enjoying the pain and suffering at Atomic Tumor, so them too. And if you are not on this ridiculously short list or have no blog, then add your "memes" in the comment section.

Gemini and Accord - Loving Movement

A double shot of video is offered for you here on the last hours of 2005, both made (according to the makers) with zero computer effects and only human creativity. The pair offered are also advertisments and they are just plain fun to watch though I do have some thoughts about them both which I'll share first, then offer the links to the videos.

Both of these ads are celebrations of cars, those four-wheeled wonders of movement that have transformed the world and also serve as icons of individual personality. (Do you have a name for your vehicle?) The manufacturing and selling of cars and car parts and fuels and making roads and transportation routesand insuring them and taxing them consume billions of job hours and trillions of dollars, which all go to feed other jobs and services around this blue world. And as these videos show, we have a joy, an ecstacy for our transportation items. (How many car wash and wax locations are in a 3 mile radius of your home? I mean, c'mon they sell hamburgers by getting Paris Hilton to wash a car in a thong with a dripping sponge in one hand and meaty burger in the other.)

First video - which you can access here (via MetaFilter) is for the Isuzu Gemini, which I think ceased production in 1999. Drivers and cars hit the road like the dancing sprites in Disney's "Fantasia" celebrating the change of seasons in an orchestration of sheer joy, leaping through fountains and bouncing thru traffic. The video runs about 3 minutes or so and just keeps getting wilder and more inventive as it whirls its way past you - be sure to watch all of it. And remember, no computer effects.

Second video - which you can access here, is for the new Honda Accord. The video is a sort of reverse joy, a deconstructed celebration of every ball bearing, tire, wire, screw, bolt, and component of a car. The notes on the page indicate again how no computer effects were used, that it took over three months to shoot and took over 600 takes get the video you see. It's a pure Rube Goldberg machine - and aren't such deconstructions brilliant ways to show how we can complicated the simple to astonishing heights of unecessary but entertaining ways?

Some final thoughts - I still want my own personal rocket car or better, a teleporation device. I also wonder what it will take or how long before we move past the internal combustion engine as our cultural definer.

Camera Obscura - Final Friday

Here at the final Friday of 2005, we return to the topic that has had me writing non-stop for over 27 years now - movies. What they are, what they mean, what's new and what's old. Also too, since I was asked by someone, a definition and/or explanation of why I call my posts about movies Camera Obscura.

There is a pretty long history of the use of a Camera Obscura, which you can read here, starting with a reference to a Camera Obscura from the Chinese philosopher Mo-Ti in the 5th century. And there is a simple law of optics involved with this concept - rays of light pass through a small opening, with or without a lens, and an upside-down image of what's outside will appear on a surface opposite the opening. For many years, it was a tool for artists and astronomers, a way for them to trace a drawing of an image or a planet. It is part of the art world today, and likely will always be. Given the nature of human perception, it seemed to me a fine way to describe the act of viewing a movie (another optical trick) and the act of writing about what I see.

Literally, the phrase is Latin, and means Dark Chamber - and as Merriam's Dictionary defines it:
"a darkened enclosure having an aperture usually provided with a lens through which light from external objects enters to form an image of the objects on the opposite surface."

When I wrote my first movie column in the mid-1980s under the banner Camera Obscura, I had no idea there were already numerous film journals and columns that used the same title and when I found out there were, I still used it for a simple reason - I like the word and the image the concept made in the dark chambers of my own mind, a reflection of what I see.

Audiences in a movie theatre all participate in these flickering moments, as they have for years, but each person still leaves the event with deeply personal memories which makes for both shared and private encounters. Thanks to rapidly changing technologies, I can watch them endlessly now in my own home whether on dozens of movie channels or on stacks of DVDs or VHS tapes. From the first movies made up to illegal bootlegs of movies not yet released, it's all at my fingertips.

But that isn't the same as being in a theatre - which were once palaces then became dull shoe-box shaped mall multiplexes and now are events with stadium seating in rocking chairs which may include digital sound named after a 70s sci-fi movie, THX-1138. And even though the Drive-In is disappearing, there was nothing like watching a movie outside as you sat in your car on in a lawn chair. I can usually recall the theatre and perhaps the cities where I've seen most movies, a memory that is far different from viewing a film for the first time on television.

When it was cheaper to see them, I went more often, and when I was paid to see them and review them I went even more. The sound of a projector is music, a sprocket hole is a doorway to infinity and illusion.

I am constantly amazed by old favorites and new discoveries. This week again watched two truly American classics, the first was "Two Lane Blacktop" from director Monte Hellman. James Taylor (yes, the singer) and Mike Wilson (once a Beach Boy) drive endlessly in a grey primered '55 Chevy and don't talk much. Warren Oates drives a GTO and wants to race and spins endless versions of his life story to anyone who will listen. The movie is so empty and silent in places, or sometimes is overwhelmed by roaring engine, and it also does something I like in many movies - it captures a specific time and place in history. Here, its the post-60s and early 70s mundane and morose qualities of America. Hellman's style and editing may bore most viewers but if you let the movie just run it's course, it leaves an emotional wallop.

Another oldie this week was "The Hustler" by Robert Rossen and starring Paul Newman as Fast Eddie Felsen who lives and dies in pool halls. A sequel, "The Color Of Money" is also fine, but this original story is like bebop jazz and whiskey soda - cool and biting. Here too, are little moments of time, 1960 America. The lunch counter at the bus station is a real place, and the spare but loaded pick-up dialog between Newman and Laurie Piper is as real as the forlorn bus stop.

Not everyone wants some Big Idea when they watch a movie - they just want to be entertained for a while, to laugh or to be thrilled. But even then, what we watch and how we react, its all part of the same process of perception and participation.

OK, enough of what was - what's ahead for 2006?

A vast amount of movie trailers for upcoming releases can be found here, and that's a good place to start pondering the next year of movies and good place for me to stop today. I will add however that one of the behind the scenes details on the site mentioned above is the production of Frank Miller's "300", based on his graphic novel about Spartan warriors. It nicely blends the artwork of Miller, history and the new ways technology is making movie magic.

Simplicity Defined

You have to admire a simple and great idea like this one - making nearly one million dollars with the Internet in four months. 21-year-old Alex Tew created milliondollarhomepage.com, offering anyone who wanted a chance to buy one or a dozen or however many pixels for only one dollar per pixel.

In four months, he's sold over 900,000.

A True Story

Please welcome another newish blogger, LA Barabbas. I love the title, and he has a true story to tell about his recent journey to Morristown for the holidays.

I think it's a good story, but also I think it shows how any person who arrives in what remains of the downtown area is going to be confused. Is it a business that's open? Is it a building that's collapsing? Why are there overhead sidewalks that lead nowhere? Why does the city do it's best to bulldoze and take over and zero to build up the existing businesses? Why do some places get the red carpet treatment from the city (like a spankin' new bank) and legendary and solid businesses (like Ramsey's Farm Market) which are a part of the city's history, get the short end of the every stick?

It happens, I know, in most any town - certain developers who are friends with the right planning commissioners or city appointees - get the best efforts. The rest can all go to hell. The history of the downtown is even more amazing when you consider how the former city hall (now a parking lot) used to overlook one of the most notorious centers of crime that operated blatantly in plain sight of everyone.

Whoops - this was supposed to be about LA Barabbas. Sorry. He's a fine writer and knows some of the most famous .... well, best not to say who he knows. He will reveal all. Go. Read.

TN Home to 3 of Top 25 Webcams of 2005

Little eyes are everywhere, capturing moments of the lack of moving traffic on the Endless Construction that is Knoxville to flipping light switches on and off in some guy's basement in Oklahoma to cell phone porn shots from the mall.

But this post is about achievement and status of the Widely Webbed World cam kind.

According to EarthCam's Best of 2005, Tennessee has not one, not two but three of the top 25. In Tennessee math, that's what, like 30 percent? (Yes, Virginia, that was a joke.) Just scroll thru their list for access to all the TN webcams honored this year.

Now one of them was surely no surprise - the GracelandCam. You get two cams really, one of the entrance, which has some li'l gold Christmas trees visible and another of a black and white cam that looks like either some kind of Nativity scene or a forgotten scene from the French New Wave, maybe Jean Luc Godard or an early Truffaut effort.

Now, of course you could just take a peek at the Eiffel Tower cam, or use the robotic cam you can control to look around Tokyo - or even the Dept. of Motor Vehicles cam in Alaska. But then you'd miss the other two Tennessee web cams on the top 25 list.

One is a "live" feed of Piranhas from somewhere in Nashville, but I could really not make much sense of that one. It has a zippy opening credits sequence and then a web page opens for a company that makes advertisements called Piranha Pictures (they claim they made a spot for TDOT and the TN Dept. of Tourism and others) But when I click on the "watch Piranhas Live cam" I get nothing. Still, they seem to be sincerely spending tax dollars and other investment funds on .... something.

Best of the bunch, hands down, however is called JailCam. Yes, live action from Clinton, TN and the Anderson County Sheriff's Department. It even has a warning that you may witness "instances of violence or inappropriate behavior by detainees ..." Now, we're talking worldwide entertainment value!!

So a salute from yer Cup of Joe goes to Graceland, the alleged Piranhas, and the Anderson County Jail, which ranks right up there with cams of the Pyramids and Arctic Exploration Vessels and even a Panda Cam. Start the new year with your plan to make Tennessee the Webcam Capital!! (Think DollyCam or MoonshineCam or DisgruntledVolCam ....well, you get the idea.)

The Latest Logitech Webcams

ET Jobless Rates Continue Climb

It isn't the news you hope to hear as 2005 winds down, but the Greeneville Sun breaks down the state jobless figures and the news isn't very good. The national rate is on the rise too, from a low of 4.6 percent to 4,8 percent, but that is far and away better than conditions in East Tennessee.

For example, the Hamblen County rate is up to 6.3 percent while the city of Morristown's unemployment rate is at 9.1 percent.

As the Sun reports:

• Cocke County, 7.4 percent, up from 7.1 percent in October;

• Hamblen County, 6.3 percent, up from 6.2 percent in October;

• Hawkins County, 6.0 percent, up from 5.2 percent in October.

• Sullivan County, 4.7 percent, up from 4.5 percent in October;

• Unicoi County, 6.2 percent, up from 5.6 percent in October;

• Washington County, 4.7 percent, up from 4.6 percent in October.

Nearby, Smaller Cities

Among nearby, smaller Tennessee cities, the following were their unemployment rates in November:

• Bristol, 5.1 percent, up from 4.9 percent in October;

• Johnson City, 5.2 percent, up from 4.9 percent in October;

• Kingsport, 7.2 percent, up from 6.9 percent in October; and

• Morristown, 9.1 percent, up from 9.0 percent in October.

Among Tennessee’s major metropolitan areas, these were their November jobless rates:

• Knox County (Knoxville), 4.4 percent, up from 4.1 percent in October;

• Hamilton County (Chattanooga), 4.8 percent, up from 4.7 percent in October;

• Davidson County (Nashville), 4.9 percent, up from 4.7 percent in October; and

• Shelby County (Memphis), 6.3 percent, up from 6.0 percent in October.

New Numbers Thanks To Technorati

Back on Oct 23 of this year I found a wee site that "calculated" the value of this or any blog based on a critieria I have no capacity to understand.

I checked today and found the value has more than doubled since then! By Odin's Beard!!! In a few huundred years, I may somehow figure out how to turn the words into income! Thanks and more thanks to all of you for ... well, making this all that much more worthwhile!!

And li'l Tiny Tim may lose his crutches and be ok after all!

My blog is worth $15,242.58.
How much is your blog worth?

Kelvis Has Entered the Building

Please add one more must read to the world o' bloggers, known as Kelvis. Her blog is titled Valley Grrrl. Go, read, enjoy and add comments. You'll feel better jes' fer doing it.

This is not a suggesstion, It is a blatant plug.

Two Christmas Stories

Of all the various presentations of the Christmas story, in movies and books, and elsewhere, I always thought the version as presented by Linus in the Charlie Brown Christmas Special as about the best.

Still, I searched for a story or two to share here today.

Then, reading through some of the links included here on this page, I read a two-part Christmas story at, of all places, The Stinkhorn Rodeo. So please take a read at Johnny Rawhide's "Makiin' Christmas At The Ranch" Parts One and Two.

And much Joy and Peace to all.

Camera Obscura - Write The Caption Contest

Here's a few things for you on this non-normal Friday movie post.

First -- feel free to make up your own caption for the following photograph. And no, it is not from the movie "King Kong". (And thanks too go to the Rodeo Monkey for showing me the national value of monkeys in general.)

Also, I have to hand out just a few lumps of coal for some folks who have made this Christmas season a time of greed, hatred and lies.

First Fox News in general and also Fox host John Gibson, who used falsehoods and fear about the holiday to increase his book sales with a dubious example of writing (and also it gave him airtime to screechingly whine in a feeble attempt to "prove" his ridiculous viewpoint and more importantly to sell a few hundred thousand copies of his Book of Lies, called "The War On Christmas: How The Liberal Plot to Ban Christmas Is Worse Than You Thought."

Another title could be "Please Buy My Book Or I'll Shoot This Dog" (apologies to the National Lampoon for use of their headline.) What a twisted excuse for journalism.

So, just for fun, make up any caption you wish for the photo here and add it in the comment section.

And you can also find a whole heap of great monkey stories over the last few weeks at Rex L. Camino's Blog of Doom. That story about Paris Hilton's pet monkey attacking her is my favorite story of the year. (See "Paris Monkey Attacks" Nov. 16th post for the first of many stories.)

Oh and one more question you may or may not want to answer - Why do I title my Friday posts "Camera Obscura"? My answer will appear next week.

Feliz Navidad, Merry Ho-Ho, Happy Holidays and don't monkey with my Christmas again.

10,000 Plus for Christmas

I just wanted to say a giant-sized thank you to all the many readers and bloggers and subscribers and the curious who have been making this page a stopping-off point. Sometime on Wednesday, the statistic counter on this page noted I had passed 10,000 page views. I know some sites get many many more, but I still say THANKS!!!

I have just started to dip into this new form of media and communication since August 2005, and to have so many readers in such a short time, I feel I have offered enough of worth and note here to encourage you to return and others to seek this page out. Many fine writers - see all those links over on the left - have added greatly to the number of visitors here and I thank them with all my heart. And I hope you visit them as well, since they have given me many hours of excellent reading and information.

I know I am hardly a constant source of news, but the opportunity to write and share that writing with any and everyone who has some kind of computer access means more than I can express. It is truly liberating to bypass all the typical boundaries of publishing and find there are readers who care to spend time here. While the banks and stores I try and do business with never ask if I want to trade some blog time for their services, the worth of this project is priceless to me.

All in all, it makes me want to work a little harder to provide information and stories and oddities i encounter as I shuffle my way forward. There have been so many excellent rewards in terms of friendship alone, I can only consider myself a wealthy and fortunate man indeed.

So Merry Christmas to all of you and thanks for a gift I will diligently return with as much good writing as possible.

Dancing In The Streets

You've likely heard it before here in the South -- Dancing leads to corruption, sin, decadence, sex and maybe even tobacco. Thanks to a short but deeply enjoyable visit with my mother and two of her sisters yesterday, I remembered my first attempt into getting busy on the dance floor when I was still a wee lad. It was thanks to another set of sisters, Edna and Rita, my aunt's kids, that I hit the floor to twist the night away waaaaaaay back when in - well, I think it was 1965.

As memorable as the image of dancing may be, the music that was played is just as vivid and it marked my first encounter with the soulful R&B sounds of Motown. (Be sure to check out the video at the bottom of this post, in all it's black and white glory.)

Here's the scene - a high school room, in the late spring I think, in Crossville. I have no idea how I ended up in the charge of my cousins that day, but there I was. It was getting close to the end of the day and some agreement had been made by teachers and students that music and dancing would be allowed for a short time. I imagine today the teacher would be fired and the students the victims of national media scrutiny for such hedonistic, extra curricular actions.

The students were allowed to bring in their 45s (no, not guns), though my aunt wondered if each kid brought in 45 recordings each to be played -- no, these were tiny vinyl discs played at 45rpm on a belt-driven turntable fitted with these stubby metal adapters and the sound came out of a single mono speaker. Sounds ancient today - it was back when rock and roll was in its infancy, though in a skyrocketing move to the top of the pop culture, when singles were still a mostly new way for records to be sold. You didn't download it - you bought these li'l discs in paper sleeves in grocery stores and drug stores since record stores were something only major metropolitan cities possessed.

So, there I was, a newbie to the dance and rock world, watching as these older kids (who all seemed like adults to my five-year old mind) hurled their desks and chairs to the sides of the room. The record player was plugged in to the wall outlet, the stack of 45s jammed onto the spindle of the player, and shoes went flying - it was easier to find a groove and move just wearing socks. Seems there was even a kind of Soul Train solo dance show, as kids lined up on either side of the room and we all took turns showing off our painfully white-people dance moves.

A lifetime of technology has been developed and taken hold since then. Today, music is downloaded onto your portable phone, and many high school or younger kids can videotape themselves with that same phone, dancing or singing along to the music and then post those videos in dozens of places on a Webly Wired World. Saw one the other day of some kid dancing along to a revamped hip hop mix of the old 60s tune "If You're Going To San Francisco" -- a weird mix to be sure. And there they are, performing solo like a superstar for all the world to watch.

And Crossville is mighty different too - home to Espresso Bars and Chinese diners. I recall when the big event was to hit the A&W Drive-In and get root beer. Dear God, I'm old.

But it is the music of that day I remember most - the Supremes, the Four Tops, the Temptations, Marvin Gaye, the Miracles. How could anyone stay still hearing those hits? Simple lyrics, yes, mostly about love or the loss of it and some more songs just about dancing itself. Looking back at what the Top 40 hits were that year, the tunes ranged from Buck Owen's "Tiger By The Tail" to Edwin Starr's "Agent Double-O Soul" to the Beatles, the Stones, Otis Redding, The Beach Boys, Sam Cooke and on and on.

Thankfully, even then, most dance steps were all improvised by everyone. So anyone could dance and we sure did. Joyous and unself-conscious, loose and free, I had no idea we were part of a cultural jump that was on the verge of changing the world. For us, it was just good music and laughter and fun and gave even the wee east Tennessee folks like myself a chance to get funky and find soul. We helped make cool a way of life.

That said, here's a sample of the music and the performances, this one from The Temptations (and consider this one a long-distance dedication for her.) Please feel free to dance.

My Way via the President and Paul Anka

Since TN Jed mentioned it in his comment on the last post, I did some wading thru the Web and found that yes, "the I-Word" or Impeachment, is beginning to stir and raise itself up. When hard-core convervatives like former congressman Bob Barr start calling for it, the ominous clouds of a failed presidency begin to gather.

In the popular phrasing, it's just "wingnuts" and unpatriotic insanity. What actions can the president legally take concerning wiretaps? Is it, as the president claimed, justified to achieve a speedier result rather than slog thru courts seeking approval?

Newsweek columnist Johnathon Alter notes:

"What is especially perplexing about this story is that the 1978 law set up a special court to approve eavesdropping in hours, even minutes, if necessary. In fact, the law allows the government to eavesdrop on its own, then retroactively justify it to the court, essentially obtaining a warrant after the fact. Since 1979, the FISA court has approved tens of thousands of eavesdropping requests and rejected only four. There was no indication the existing system was slow—as the president seemed to claim in his press conference—or in any way required extra-constitutional action."

Uh-oh. Which law applies to who for what? What may appear to be real trouble may just be so confusing for the average American that all this uproar is merely to be another funky story for the fringes of BlogLand. Still, the calls for investigations of impeachment are underway.

Is it just me, or can you hear the strains of Paul Anka's "My Way" playing behind the president as he speaks?

And now, the end is near;
And so I face the final curtain.
My friend, I’ll say it clear,
I’ll state my case, of which I’m certain.

I’ve lived a life that’s full.
I’ve traveled each and ev’ry highway;
And more, much more than this,
I did it my way.

Regrets, I’ve had a few;
But then again, too few to mention.
I did what I had to do
And saw it through without exemption.

I planned each charted course;
Each careful step along the byway,
But more, much more than this,
I did it my way.

Yes, there were times, I’m sure you knew
When I bit off more than I could chew.
But through it all, when there was doubt,
I ate it up and spit it out.
I faced it all and I stood tall;
And did it my way.

I’ve loved, I’ve laughed and cried.
I’ve had my fill; my share of losing.
And now, as tears subside,
I find it all so amusing.

To think I did all that;
And may I say - not in a shy way,
No, oh no not me,
I did it my way.

For what is a man, what has he got?
If not himself, then he has naught.
To say the things he truly feels;
And not the words of one who kneels.
The record shows I took the blows -
And did it my way!

Giving In To Despair

Christmas, 2005.

Just a few days shy of the arrival of the rotund man in red with a bellylaugh and a sleigh crammed with gifts, the national mood is slipping into despair according to the President's speech on Sunday evening. His comment referred to the growing attitude that America's war in Iraq had brought more problems than resolutions and he urged reflection on the concept that positive changes are underway, that we are winning the war. But who said the attitude was "despair"?

It isn't easy to accept the responsibility for mistakes made, regardless of whether you are a president or a waiter. Yet the nation is seeing more and more information which questions how and why we have taken the course of action in the current war. And America loves to second guess, to wonder and to imagine if we are on the best path and if not, then where do we go and how do we get there.

Yet in all the complaints and protests here in this nation, I had not encountered the idea of "despair" mentioned by the president.

So I wonder, who feels despair?

"I don't expect you to support everything I do, but tonight I have a request: Do not give in to despair, and do not give up on this fight for freedom."

TV and Christmas Past

Put on those traveling shoes and go backwards in Time for a look at Christmas and Television the way it used to be. While I have never been part of the "it-was-better-years-ago" crowd, it is interesting to see how American culture has been so vividly and drastically changed with the arrival of half a billion TV channels to choose from compared to the handful of networks and independent channels that existed pre-1980s.

TV Party.com has a peek at what was, including the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special (yes, even then the evil secularists had used the word Holiday), plus a look at how the Rudolph special was made and those shows where old Hollywood crooners like Bing or Hope kept the family around the television. Check out the page here. I seem to remember it all changed the year Bing Crosby had David Bowie on his Christmas show.

They have loads of forgotten TV moments. You can rundown the schedule for a Saturday morning cartoon round-up in 1978 which included the Bay City Rollers cartoon, the sixth season of Fat Albert, and lots of superheroes and American Bandstand.

It all looks like ancient history today.

The Snake-Oil Standard

"Persuasive guessing has been at the core of leadership for so long—for all of human experience so far—that it is wholly unsurprising that most of the leaders of this planet, in spite of all the information that is suddenly ours, want the guessing to go on, because now it is their turn to guess and be listened to.

Some of the loudest, most proudly ignorant guessing in the world is going on in Washington today. Our leaders are sick of all the solid information that has been dumped on humanity by research and scholarship and investigative reporting.

They think that the whole country is sick of it, and they want standards, and it isn’t the gold standard. They want to put us back on the snake-oil standard."

That's from "A Man Without A Country" by Kurt Vonnegut Jr and featured at In These Times. The full excerpt is here.

Five Years After Bush v. Gore

It was Dec. 12, 2000 when the race for president went to George W. Bush instead of Al Gore. Sizing up the last five years is a current fad and ongoing debate.

"George Bush is talking again, and I don't have a clue what he's saying. It's not that he's mangling his syntax. That's par for the course. And while it's as amusing as it is disconcerting, I usually think I know what he's trying to say (though I do confess to being stumped by "more and more of our imports are coming from overseas").

Bush is talking about Iraq, which is always confusing for those of us who like our words and facts to match. He's saying he'll "settle for nothing less than total victory". And I'm wondering: what in the world is total victory? Does it mean large numbers of American troops will stay until Iraq is a fully functioning democracy with a vibrant economy and the political will to help spread freedom across the Middle East? That could take, like, 100 years. Or does it mean that we'll stay until we stand up enough Iraqi police officers and soldiers to claim with a straight face that they can handle their own security? That could mean substantial troop reductions in time to prevent total defeat in next year's mid-term elections. I just don't know."

That's one viewpoint among many, which you can read here.

It's All About The Coffee

I can recall my very first cup of coffee - and I can recall the most recent. Coffee stains more than the countertop and the cup.

Since this blog is, after all, about having a Cup of Joe, isn't it time I included some coffee links? Then read on, read on.

Sure, the French and Coca-Cola have their own unique offering, called Coca-Cola Blak. Its part of the new marketing idea of "fusion". Drinks are now something that gets "fused" in the 21st Century.

Coffee has been a part of the development of our modern civilization, and now you can find web logs dedicated to the drink itself, its history, and the various forms coffee can take. I can't imagine a World War Two movie without it or a cowboy campfire. Starbuck's even put a store in the tourist land of Pigeon Forge.

The Links?

Here is one. And another. And another. Or if you are searhing for something in depth, here is a whole list of coffee links. Tennessee of course has an entire Coffee County.

I like the old joke, "I like my coffee like I like my women - dark and murky." Then there's my favorite line from "Twin Peaks" - "Black as coffee on a moonless night." Or from "Ren and Stimpy" - "Mmmmm, my coffee, God Bless you Stimpy, I don't know why I'm all the time mean to you."

Maybe a T-shirt with the caffeine molecule is what you're after. Think Geek has more.

Ahhhhh, coffee.

UPDATE: As mentioned by Julie, there are more coffee issues to consider. One is the campaign to provide Fair Trade Coffee. And a link for Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee. Thanks, Julie!

County Ranks Tops In Health Risks From Pollution

For about 10 years I have been learning how badly polluted the air, water and land in Hamblen County and East Tennessee have become after decades of constant industrialization. The result of the release of deadly toxic pollution have put Hamblen County among the most polluted counties in the nation, not just in the state.

For example:

"In 2002, this county ranked among the dirtiest/worst 10% of all counties in the U.S. in terms of total environmental releases."

"Based on EPA's most current data, this county ranked among the dirtiest/worst 20% of all counties in the US in terms of an average individual's added cancer risk from hazardous air pollutants."


This information is compiled here, where you can submit your own area code and find out details about how much toxic pollution is released, what illnesses are likely to occur and which industrial sites release the most as well as what toxic elements are released.

The chemicals tracked pose serious risks for Developmental Health and Reproductive Health for every resident. In fact, the county is ranked Number One in toxic air releases that could damage Developmental Health, with almost 18 million pounds of toxic releases in the air alone. The same is true when it comes to toxic releases that could damage Reproductive Health.

Cardiovascular or blood toxicants also leave the county ranked as the worst in the state.

The information is staggering and while it might take you some time to review the information here, it may shed much light on the poor health conditions that exist, the potential damage you risk by breathing the air or drinking the water and which industrial entities are to blame.