OK. I'll give it to them. The Red Sox won the World Series. Now the world can end peacefully...except if you're a Yankee fan, like me. Could there have been a worse week? The Yankees basically fire Joe Torre, A-Rod opts out of his contract, and the Dead Sox win the World Series for the second time in my life. Obviously someone up there hates me.
My wife asked me last night why I have such an aversion to the Boston-ites. I really have no good answer except that they are the Red Sox. Do I need go any further? I grew up just outside the shadow of the Stadium. I was bred on venom for everything Boston, though later in life I grew to love the Celtics and Larry Bird. But that toxicity for the Sox is still there. I can't stand Boston. I hate the team. I LOVE to see them lose.
To see them win the World Series is tantamount to heresy for me. I find myself this morning in a real emotional fog. What do I care that thousands of people today got their furniture for free? The Red Sox won the World Series! Is there anything right with the world today? No, absolutely not! The only thing worse than this would be, well, I can't think of anything right now, but then I can't see ten feet in front of me.
When I was in New York this summer to see my beloved Yankees play, I saw a t-shirt that read something like this: "What's the difference between the Yankees and the Red Sox? It won't take the Yankees another 86 years to win another World Series." Maybe not, but it only took the Dead Sox three. Chew on that, George, while you ruminate about the missteps you've taken this week. What have you done lately to reverse YOUR curse?
Monday, October 29, 2007
Monday, October 22, 2007
Mona Lisa Smile
I read a story today about a man who has taken ultra-high pictures of DaVinci's masterpiece, The Mona Lisa. He learned therefrom that she had eyebrows at one time and is holding a blanket that has long been obliterated by time and restoration efforts. He also thinks her smile was originally more expressive and her face wider.
All this is very good, but I hear people crying that money was spent on this instead of feeding children or giving people a better way of life. Ok, I'll grant you that starving children are important. I will be one of the first to step up and help them myself. But these same people are stating that Mona Lisa is just an ugly painting that is the "biggest scam in the history of the world."
Those who dismiss Leonardo's works miss the entire point of art in general and DaVinci in particular. Mona Lisa is a masterpiece, pure and simple. She is one of DaVinci's greatest works. DaVinci was a genius beyond compare and seemingly had the world and everything in it at his very fingertips.
To me, it's one of the most intriguing paintings ever created, and not just for the smile. Learning new, long-obscured facts about her is fascinating to me. When was the last time, if ever, you took a good look at her and really noticed the background? Have you EVER looked at her face and realized that for her day she was probably very beautiful? Have you ever looked at anything DaVinci created and been awed by his amazing talent?
For the crude and unlearned television generation, Mona is just an ugly chick who couldn't smile right. But for those of us who love her and DaVinci, she is a MASTERPIECE. Unfortunately for too many today, their masterpiece comes on at 9pm on Thursdays.
All this is very good, but I hear people crying that money was spent on this instead of feeding children or giving people a better way of life. Ok, I'll grant you that starving children are important. I will be one of the first to step up and help them myself. But these same people are stating that Mona Lisa is just an ugly painting that is the "biggest scam in the history of the world."
Those who dismiss Leonardo's works miss the entire point of art in general and DaVinci in particular. Mona Lisa is a masterpiece, pure and simple. She is one of DaVinci's greatest works. DaVinci was a genius beyond compare and seemingly had the world and everything in it at his very fingertips.
To me, it's one of the most intriguing paintings ever created, and not just for the smile. Learning new, long-obscured facts about her is fascinating to me. When was the last time, if ever, you took a good look at her and really noticed the background? Have you EVER looked at her face and realized that for her day she was probably very beautiful? Have you ever looked at anything DaVinci created and been awed by his amazing talent?
For the crude and unlearned television generation, Mona is just an ugly chick who couldn't smile right. But for those of us who love her and DaVinci, she is a MASTERPIECE. Unfortunately for too many today, their masterpiece comes on at 9pm on Thursdays.
Friday, October 19, 2007
Joe Torre Deserved Better
Yesterday the New York Yankees, my favorite team since I was old enough to know what baseball was, treated a decent, wonderful man with terrible disrespect. They offered a man who has taken them to the playoffs 12 years in a row, who has helped win them four World Series titles, and who has been the face of the team for every minute of those wonderful, magical 12 years. I think it stinks to high heaven.
Joe Torre is the class of baseball. Joe Torre deserved better than to be thrown a one year contract with a 33% decrease in pay. Do the Yankees think we're stupid? Does Steinbrenner, who Yankee fans, to a man, detest, think the public is so stupid as to think we won't see through this thin veil of treachery? Give us more credit than that, George. Offering a man like Joe Torre a one year contract, at a pay cut, is tantamount to offering Ghandi a bite of beef stew...you know he's going to turn you down.
But see, there's the genious, if you will, in what the Yankees did. They KNEW he would turn it down. Now they can turn around and say that he turned them down. Yea, whatever. Cashman, you're supposed to be a Torre man. You should be ashamed of yourself with this. You should all be ashamed. Joe Torre has more class in his little finger than all of you have put together.
This whole issue has shaken my faith in the Yankees to the core. It's no longer the game I loved when I was a kid. It's a business. It's purely and simply a business. That's the tragedy of the whole thing, too. Joe Torre, the best man for this Yankee job, got screwed because of the business. It's men like Joe Torre who made this game great in the first place.
Personally, I hope he takes a job somewhere else in the AL East and I hope he kicks the Yankees butt every single time they come to town. Baltimore, maybe. Toronto. Whatever it is, I hope he whips King George's team every single time.
And it won't take much, in my opinion, since a lot of the great Yankees will now depart the Bronx. Mo will leave. A-Rod will leave. Jorge will go. It wouldn't even surprise me if, at the end of his contract, Mr. Yankee, Derek Jeter left, too. Why should they stay? The best manager in baseball has been fired. And that's what it was, too, make no mistake. They fired him and insulted him in the same action.
Joe Torre deserved better.
Joe Torre is the class of baseball. Joe Torre deserved better than to be thrown a one year contract with a 33% decrease in pay. Do the Yankees think we're stupid? Does Steinbrenner, who Yankee fans, to a man, detest, think the public is so stupid as to think we won't see through this thin veil of treachery? Give us more credit than that, George. Offering a man like Joe Torre a one year contract, at a pay cut, is tantamount to offering Ghandi a bite of beef stew...you know he's going to turn you down.
But see, there's the genious, if you will, in what the Yankees did. They KNEW he would turn it down. Now they can turn around and say that he turned them down. Yea, whatever. Cashman, you're supposed to be a Torre man. You should be ashamed of yourself with this. You should all be ashamed. Joe Torre has more class in his little finger than all of you have put together.
This whole issue has shaken my faith in the Yankees to the core. It's no longer the game I loved when I was a kid. It's a business. It's purely and simply a business. That's the tragedy of the whole thing, too. Joe Torre, the best man for this Yankee job, got screwed because of the business. It's men like Joe Torre who made this game great in the first place.
Personally, I hope he takes a job somewhere else in the AL East and I hope he kicks the Yankees butt every single time they come to town. Baltimore, maybe. Toronto. Whatever it is, I hope he whips King George's team every single time.
And it won't take much, in my opinion, since a lot of the great Yankees will now depart the Bronx. Mo will leave. A-Rod will leave. Jorge will go. It wouldn't even surprise me if, at the end of his contract, Mr. Yankee, Derek Jeter left, too. Why should they stay? The best manager in baseball has been fired. And that's what it was, too, make no mistake. They fired him and insulted him in the same action.
Joe Torre deserved better.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Voice of an Angel
I'm sitting here at my desk at the office listening to kd lang sing. The album is "Hymns of the 49th Parallel." Is there anyone else in this great big world who has a more beautiful voice? If there is, I'd sure like to know who it is. She has the most perfect voice I think I've ever heard. Yes, I know she's a lesbian, and no, I don't agree with that lifestyle. I think it's a terrible cancer on this nation and will prove to be one of the things that finally brings this wonderful country to its knees. But there is just something about her voice that I can't get over.
There are few artists in the world today for whom I actually have some kind of respect. Most of them are self-absorbed, no-talent hacks who can think of nothing but themselves. For her, I have respect. I could listen to her sing all day long. She calms me. Her voice literally makes me weep.
A few days ago I was watching a few clips from a show in England called "Britain Has Talent." It's the same show we see here in the US, called "America Has Talent" here. On it there was a young man named Paul Pots. He seemed like a very unlikely contestant, but I thought I'd give him a chance. I'm glad I did. His operatic tenor was one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard. Again, it literally made me weep. I sat here listening to that beautiful tenor voice with tears freely streaming down my cheeks.
The judges gave Paul Pots virtually no chance of winning when they first laid eyes on him. However, because of his talent, they had to look beyond the outward and look inward. Paul doesn't look like an opera singer (whatever they look like), but he sounds like nothing I've ever heard.
Many times we have to look beyond to see the inner. God looks on the inner man. I do think that God cares about homosexuality, but I also think He loves them the same as He loves me. To be truly like His Son, shouldn't I do the same?
There are few artists in the world today for whom I actually have some kind of respect. Most of them are self-absorbed, no-talent hacks who can think of nothing but themselves. For her, I have respect. I could listen to her sing all day long. She calms me. Her voice literally makes me weep.
A few days ago I was watching a few clips from a show in England called "Britain Has Talent." It's the same show we see here in the US, called "America Has Talent" here. On it there was a young man named Paul Pots. He seemed like a very unlikely contestant, but I thought I'd give him a chance. I'm glad I did. His operatic tenor was one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard. Again, it literally made me weep. I sat here listening to that beautiful tenor voice with tears freely streaming down my cheeks.
The judges gave Paul Pots virtually no chance of winning when they first laid eyes on him. However, because of his talent, they had to look beyond the outward and look inward. Paul doesn't look like an opera singer (whatever they look like), but he sounds like nothing I've ever heard.
Many times we have to look beyond to see the inner. God looks on the inner man. I do think that God cares about homosexuality, but I also think He loves them the same as He loves me. To be truly like His Son, shouldn't I do the same?
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
The price of silence
I've been reading a lot over the last few months about how Americans are bowing to the will of the minority. Foot baths have been installed in a Midwestern airport so the Muslim cab drivers can wash their feet. A young Muslim woman was not allowed to play in a soccer game because she was wearing a headdress, as required by her religion. Ramadan is talked about in public schools, but Christmas is a dirty word. The list goes on and on.
I've also read recently about a man who owned some large estates and businesses in Germany before the Nazis came to power. He ended up in a concentration camp and Allies forces destroyed his factories. When asked about the power that gripped that country in the 1940's, his answer spoke volumes about fanaticism.
"Very few people were true Nazis "he said," but many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen. " Before he knew it, the Nazis owned the country and its citizens and the "end of the world had come."
Today's world isn't that much different. We're told by CAIR and other Islamic representatives that Muslims are a peaceful, loving people. Sure, I believe that's true, but for all of CAIR's pomp and bravado concerning the matter, the fact still remains that it is irrelevant. The relevant fact in his world is now that hot-blooded fanatics now rule Islam.
Take a look in your own view of history. Who marches with picket signs? Fanatics, right? Who demonstrates? Fanatics. Who wages war on innocent people? Fanatics.
Look at the genocide that's gone on in the world. Who carried it out? Fanatics. Who stones rape victims and homosexuals? Fanatics.
I don't agree with a lot of the things that go on in this world. I think homosexuality is a cancer that will eventually kill us as it did the people in Sodom and Gomorrah. But I will not stone those who practice it.
You know what happened in Germany? Everyone wanted to live in peace and so no one stirred up the bucket when the Nazis started to take over. You know what happened in Russia before the Communists took over? Everyone wanted to live in peace and so no one rocked the boat when the Communists started to kill their opponents.
Do you want more examples? Do you know what happened in China before the Chinese Communists killed 70 million people? The silent majority sat and did nothing. The average Japanese citizen just wanted to live in peace just before World War II. Certainly none of them suspected that their government would kill an estimated 12 million Chinese civilians. Would they have remained silent had they suspected? I'm certain they would not.
All of these people, the vast majorities of their population, were silent. In being silent, they were made irrelevant by the tyrannical movements that overtook their countries.
Today, peace-loving Islam is becoming irrelevant, too. It's not the majority of Islam, which in my opinion is peace-loving, that is butchering innocent people in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and other countries around the world. It's not the people at CAIR who are waging war against the West. It's the fanatics who are doing all of this. But the fact remains that peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence.
It's time for those peace-loving yet silent Muslims to speak up. If they don't, they will become our enemy, just like the fanatics. We will all wake up one day and find that the fanatics own them, just like the Germans did, just like the Russians did, just like the Chinese and Japanese did.
It's time for organizations like CAIR to condemn the atrocities being perpetrated by their so-called brothers. When that happens, I'll rest a little easier. But for now, the silent majority is still just that, silent.
I've also read recently about a man who owned some large estates and businesses in Germany before the Nazis came to power. He ended up in a concentration camp and Allies forces destroyed his factories. When asked about the power that gripped that country in the 1940's, his answer spoke volumes about fanaticism.
"Very few people were true Nazis "he said," but many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen. " Before he knew it, the Nazis owned the country and its citizens and the "end of the world had come."
Today's world isn't that much different. We're told by CAIR and other Islamic representatives that Muslims are a peaceful, loving people. Sure, I believe that's true, but for all of CAIR's pomp and bravado concerning the matter, the fact still remains that it is irrelevant. The relevant fact in his world is now that hot-blooded fanatics now rule Islam.
Take a look in your own view of history. Who marches with picket signs? Fanatics, right? Who demonstrates? Fanatics. Who wages war on innocent people? Fanatics.
Look at the genocide that's gone on in the world. Who carried it out? Fanatics. Who stones rape victims and homosexuals? Fanatics.
I don't agree with a lot of the things that go on in this world. I think homosexuality is a cancer that will eventually kill us as it did the people in Sodom and Gomorrah. But I will not stone those who practice it.
You know what happened in Germany? Everyone wanted to live in peace and so no one stirred up the bucket when the Nazis started to take over. You know what happened in Russia before the Communists took over? Everyone wanted to live in peace and so no one rocked the boat when the Communists started to kill their opponents.
Do you want more examples? Do you know what happened in China before the Chinese Communists killed 70 million people? The silent majority sat and did nothing. The average Japanese citizen just wanted to live in peace just before World War II. Certainly none of them suspected that their government would kill an estimated 12 million Chinese civilians. Would they have remained silent had they suspected? I'm certain they would not.
All of these people, the vast majorities of their population, were silent. In being silent, they were made irrelevant by the tyrannical movements that overtook their countries.
Today, peace-loving Islam is becoming irrelevant, too. It's not the majority of Islam, which in my opinion is peace-loving, that is butchering innocent people in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and other countries around the world. It's not the people at CAIR who are waging war against the West. It's the fanatics who are doing all of this. But the fact remains that peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence.
It's time for those peace-loving yet silent Muslims to speak up. If they don't, they will become our enemy, just like the fanatics. We will all wake up one day and find that the fanatics own them, just like the Germans did, just like the Russians did, just like the Chinese and Japanese did.
It's time for organizations like CAIR to condemn the atrocities being perpetrated by their so-called brothers. When that happens, I'll rest a little easier. But for now, the silent majority is still just that, silent.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Big Bang
You know, I'm so tired of people being so close-minded. The other day I was reading an article on the USAToday site about the Big Bang Theory. So many people wrote in saying it was blasphemy to say that the universe started in that manner. Too many people today think that it's their way or the highway, and that's just not right. So many of the supposed conservatives think like that. I am a conservative and I don't think that way.
What's wrong with the Big Bang Theory? I believe in Creationism, but I also believe that God had to create the universe somehow. The Bible tells us that He took some materials and made an earth. It doesn't really specify HOW it was created, right? So what if God did use a big bang to create the universe? He worked by natural laws and an eruption or explosion is certainly a natural occurrence. Would it shake your faith to learn that God used a big bang to do some of the work for Him?
One of these days we'll all find out about many wonderful and exciting things. We'll learn what happened on that grassy knoll in Dallas in '63, we'll learn where the center of the universe really is and we'll finally understand cold fusion. I'm not saying the Big Bang is absolutely true, because I don't know. But will it be so terrible if, when you get to the other side, you find out that Oswalkd acted alone, that Kolob is the center of the universe, and that cold fusion really is possible? Will it shake your faith to know that the Big Bang really did happen? Prepare yourselves, kids. There are a lot of things you're going to learn and it ain't all going to agree with your biased point of view.
What's wrong with the Big Bang Theory? I believe in Creationism, but I also believe that God had to create the universe somehow. The Bible tells us that He took some materials and made an earth. It doesn't really specify HOW it was created, right? So what if God did use a big bang to create the universe? He worked by natural laws and an eruption or explosion is certainly a natural occurrence. Would it shake your faith to learn that God used a big bang to do some of the work for Him?
One of these days we'll all find out about many wonderful and exciting things. We'll learn what happened on that grassy knoll in Dallas in '63, we'll learn where the center of the universe really is and we'll finally understand cold fusion. I'm not saying the Big Bang is absolutely true, because I don't know. But will it be so terrible if, when you get to the other side, you find out that Oswalkd acted alone, that Kolob is the center of the universe, and that cold fusion really is possible? Will it shake your faith to know that the Big Bang really did happen? Prepare yourselves, kids. There are a lot of things you're going to learn and it ain't all going to agree with your biased point of view.
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