At least there are eight European leaders who "get it".

I wanted to comment before now on the State of the Union Address, but I also wanted to gather my thoughts so that I could be concise. Now, for the sake of your attention span, I will summarize my thoughts with several points:

1. George W. Bush is not an especially eloquent speaker. Having said that, I thought that his speech was Kennedy-esque in its idealism and grand belief in this nation as both superpower and moral giant. As I have said before, we are the light that has kept the world out of tryannical darkness. We are also compassionate and caring; fighting AIDS in Africa is a perfect demonstration of this. Whether it is appreciated or not, it is the morally correct action.

2. The President reminded us that we live in a nation at war with a brutal enemy who knows no frontline, no home front, and respects nothing except its own twisted beliefs. This enemy is being supported by nations run by men who are equally brutal and regard us with the same hatred. Iraq's time in the light is no accident; they represent one of the "industrial bases" of terrorism. We must act with preemption; waiting only puts this nation in further peril. Furthermore, the people of Iraq, like the people of many nations, deserve the right of free determination.

3. The President made it clear with this speech, as he had with others, that doing the right thing in relation to our economy or the world at large has nothing to do with popular opinion. Unlike the last administration, the Bush White House does not float trial balloons or govern by opinion poll. The truth can stand alone in the light of day.

4. The President reinforced one of the tenets of American conservatism: improvement in the economy can only be acheived by returning more money to the private sector. Government spending does not bring prosperity. One only has to look at California to see that this is true.

5. National missle defense is an idea whose time has come. In fact, it is overdue. The same is true for hydrogen fuel cell technology. Those who want to lessen our dependence on foreign oil need to jump on the alternative fuel bandwagon.

6. When George W. Bush leaves the White House in January 2009, he will be viewed by those with clear vision as being on a par with Ronald Reagan, one of the greatest Presidents of the last century.

Sorry no posting the last couple days. I have been doing a lot of computer work on top of the regular career, so I have been spending all my free time sleeping. But there are very good things happening at work; more later.

Today in 1938, Rudolf Caracciola set the world record for the fastest speed on a public road (268.496 MPH). He did it on the German Autobahn and the record still stands today. However, very few people other than myself, a few people from Pennsylvania and most of Nuclear Field 'A' School Class 9027ET know that the record actually belongs to Charles Ansell (or so the story goes):

You had to know Ansell to really appreciate this story. He was from some little hick town in western Pennsylvania and had probably grown up with nothing but his name and a vivid imagination. I went through boot camp with him, but I really didn't get to know him until we became roommates during our first phrase of training. The first lie he told me concerned his membership in a band back home, despite the fact he could not play an instrument or carry a tune in a bucket. But man, did he get the chicks. He had picture after picture of women he had "pumped" (to use his phrase). For an unattractive guy with bad acne, he really got around.

Then, after about three months of school, Ansell began to talk about his car. It was not just any car: It was an AMX, a real muscle car from the late '60s. And this AMX, by all accounts, was the fastest automobile ever built by the hand of man. Initially, Ansell claimed that he had drive his car to 150MPH, not an unbelievable speed. Then, with time, the speed increased to 180----stock car speed. Finally, two weeks before our graduation, he made the fatal mistake of telling one of the guys that his car, on a straight highway, had topped out at over 260MPH.

For a group of men of above average intelligence, this was too much. My friend Peter subsribed to an auto magazine that, in one issue, had published an article on how the drag coefficient of an automobile was calculated. By rearranging the formula and solving it for horsepower, we determined that Ansell's AMX would have to have had produced nearly 8,000 HP to acheive that speed. Thus, it would have had to contain the most powerful internal combustion engine made for a road-legal vehicle.

In the end, Ansell was discredited and we all had a good laugh. But sometimes, when I read about speed records or watch a qualifying run before a NASCAR race, I wonder about Ansell. I hope he didn't kill himself with that frightful beast of a car.

And you thought the Internet was a waste of valuable time

DLP (link on the left) caught the same thing I did during the Reebok commercial last night: a company named "Felcher". If you have to ask, forget about it.

The hardest thing about being married, I think, is trying to remember that you and your spouse did not grow up under the same conditions. Sometimes, it's something fundamental such as religion or even the basic understanding of what the term "family" really means. Other times, it's little things like how clean the house should be or who balances the checkbook. The things we learned as children about running a household stick with us---we either become our parents or reject the things they held dear. I am in both camps: I abhor a dirty house (enough so that it causes me to become depressed), but Kelli and I handle finances completely differently from the way either of our parents do.

I overheard a conversation today during a Super Bowl Party that really, really bothered me. The state of Kentucky has begun a program that allows parents to pre-pay for college for their children. Texas and several other states have similiar programs. Anyway, the person in question was a neighbor of the party's host, so I know that the person talking was in a very, very high tax bracket. So he was saying that he wanted to start contributing to the savings program but, gosh, money is just sooooo tight for EVERYONE right now. And so, this man who had driven up in a new Cadillac was hoping that his child (who is still in grade school) would get a scholarship to "a good school". I had to walk away.

Two things: one, money is NOT tight for EVERYONE right now. Money is not tight for this household, because we are not leasing our lifestyle. Two, the payments on that car (no more than two years old) would put a HUGE dent in the cost of college. What this man, and millions of other parents in the same boat can't admit to themselves is that they are too damn selfish to sacrifice anything for their children. Of course, they don't see it that way. What you or I would see as excess they see as necessity. It's just sickening. And what made it worse were the people listening to this man were nodding in agreement, as if they completely understood. End of rant. Sorry. Now e-mail me and tell me that I don't understand because we don't have children.

Amercan Airlines inaugurated coast-to-coast jet service today in 1959 with a Boeing 707. One of my Texas friends told me a story once that, when he worked for American's Reservation Center, there was a female employee who had worked for the airline so long that she was there when purchasing an airline ticket required traveling to a ticket office and getting a HANDWRITTEN receipt. Those were the days of grand travel.


There is an interesting article in this month's Wired magazine about Sony. As you know, Sony is both an electronics and an entertainment giant. Problem is, the entertainment end doesn't want the electronics end to produce items that could lead to easy copying of pirated music. This, of course, has forced Sony to produce components that utilize proprietary formats and such, thus making their personal audio components undesirable. Why buy a mini-disc player when you can buy a 20GB iPod?

Ultimately, I believe that the five big music labels are going to collapse under their own weight and greed...and what a great day that will be. Then maybe, just maybe, we'll all have to open our ears and listen to local garage bands, world music and indy labels that are putting out truly innovative works. I am as guilty as anyone. I can count on one hand the local bands I have heard perform. I would feel much better about buying CDs from a guy at a show knowing that he and his band were going to pocket ALL the profits. I guess I am a guilty conservative: I rail against public funding of the arts, but I don't do enough to support them privately.

Today in 1972, a Japanese soldier surrendered on Guam. He was still fighting World War Two. I'm not joking. What are you made of that you would fight on alone for over 25 years, even after all your comrades had been killed? I don't think any of us are made of that stuff.

Bill Mauldin died today. Many of you don't know who he was, but every one of you have seen his work. He created the characters Willie and Joe, two hard-luck soldiers who appeared, in cartoon form, in the Army newspaper Stars and Stripes during World War Two. Mauldin won two Pulitzer Prizes, one of which was for the work he did during those dark years.

Mauldin's death reminds us that, every day, over 1,000 members of that generation are dying, leaving us with no living memories of the Depression and the Second World War. In twenty years, there will be no one alive who experienced D-Day, Midway, Okinawa or flew B-17's over Germany.

Roe V. Wade. Thirty years of death, masquerading as a right. This court ruling, now treated as a sacrament of womanhood, is perhaps the most ill-thought out ruling in the history of the United States. Unfortunately, many young women have bought the lie and believe that, somehow, abortion is a freedom that must be protected and that losing this "right" would somehow injure them. The fact is, many women who are ardent supporters of abortion-on-demand have had abortions themselves and, therefore, must support it or take a long, hard look at the life they snuffed out in the name of convienence. After all, why feel guilty about something that is just another medical procedure?

If you have had an abortion, and your life was not in danger, you have nothing but my revulsion for your abdication of responsibility. You contributed to the greatest act of genocide ever voluntarily supported by a populace, and, if there is justice in this life, I hope that murdered soul lives in your heart the rest of your days.

Please tell me this is bullshit:


XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX TUE JAN 21, 2003 17:59:25 ET XXXXX

MAG: 25% OF NEW HIV-INFECTED GAY MEN SOUGHT OUT VIRUS

New ROLLING STONE Managing Editor Ed Needham is set to hit complete controversy with a 4-page report: "Bug Chasers: The Men Who Secretly Long To Be HIV+."

Filed by Greg Freeman, the shock story claims some men with HIV are deliberately having unprotected sex with those who want to be infected!

MORE

"The men who want the virus are called 'bug chasers,' and the men who freely give them the virus are called 'gift givers.' While the rest of the world fights the AIDS epidemic and most people fear HIV infection, this subculture celebrates the virus and eroticizes it," reports Freeman in the February 6, 2003 edition of ROLLING STONE.

At least twenty-five percent of all newly infected gay men fall into [bug-chasing] category, according to one claim in the magazine.

"In this world, the men with HIV are the most desired, and the bug chasers will do anything to get the virus."

Gay groups "aggressively encouraged" Freeman to drop the article.

One sad passage captures a young man in New York City who wants to be infected:

"His eyes light up as he says that the actual moment of transmission, the instant he gets HIV, will be 'the most erotic thing I can imagine.'"

An infector is quoted as saying: "I'm murdering him in a sense, killing him slowly, and that's sort of, as sick as it sounds, exciting to me."

Developing...

Commercial flights of the Concordes began today in 1976. If you were alive in the late 70's, you may remember how the promise of supersonic flight was going to change the world for all of us. New York to L.A., for example, would become a 3-hour sprint. However, our FAA (and most of the U.S. citizenry) didn't like the idea of hearing sonic booms day and night, so the Concordes were limited to supersonic speeds only over large bodies of water. Now, 27 years later, flying on a Concorde is still a very rare and expensive experience. It's not very comfortable, either; the interior reminds me of the small Fokkers in which I fly to Dallas.

If you were interested in aviation in the 80's, you may remember hearing about the possibility of hypersonic flight---aircraft that would fly in low-earth orbit at speeds above Mach 6 (over 4000 miles per hour). In fact, the Reagan Adminstration funded reasearch and Boeing even built a non-flying mock-up. Alas, it was not to be. While there are still plans on the drawing board, it is very unlikely that anyone other than our military wants something that is one step below the Space Shuttle in both operation and expense. It seems that the emphasis is on efficiency, comfort and turn-around time. Of course, if things continue to be the way they are in the aviation industry, we may end up with one big airline in another ten years. But that's another post.


I am trying to get a flight to the Land of God' Team for the Super Bowl, but it doesn't look like it's going to pan out. It may be one of those occasions where I buy a ticket at the airport at the last minute when prices drop. I have always liked the idea of showing up somewhere and calling someone to pick me up at the airport who had no idea I was flying in. Inconvienent, but fun.

For those of you who do your taxes with Intuit software, I heard some disturbing news today: Turbo Tax can only be installed once. For most software you buy, a one-user license exists. In other words, if you take it off your wife's computer you can install it on yours. Evidently, this is not the case with Turbo Tax. Can anyone confirm this beyond a reasonable doubt for me?

I also learned today that the newest version of Virtual PC runs very, very smoothly on a fast Mac G4. This may be the straw that broke the camel's back in my conversion to a Mac addict. The only thing I really need a PC for now is gaming, which is becoming less and less important. In fact, I have no entertainment software on my PC right now. I just wish Apple would roll out the new IBM processors sooner rather than later. We shall see.

Have you ever been unable to find your car keys when you're late for work? Do you remember the dread that came from knowing that a) your life couldn't continue without a car and b) you were going to be late for work? Well, now imagine how it would feel to lose a HYDROGEN BOMB. That's exactly what happened today in 1966 off the coast of Spain when a B-52 collided with a KC-135 tanker. Talk about a huge pucker factor. All ended well, sort of.

January 16, 1991 started out as drag. My Naval Nuclear Power School class was getting ready for a Chemistry/Metallurgy/Radiology test. I was barely passing the class and I would have to blow this test away to keep my ass out of hot water with Senior Chief John J. Cates, my "advisor". So, after class, I immediately logged into study hall with the intention of staying there most of the night. At 7pm, there was a group Q&A with our instructor, a tough-as-nails female Lieutenant whose name I can't remember but whose face I will never forget. At about 7:30, our session was interupted by the duty Chief, who told us that "the liberation of Kuwait is under way". He asked us to say a prayer for our shipmates in harm's way, and then told us to get back to work.

Later that night, after I had gone back to my barracks room, some of the guys in the class stopped by to tell me that some students from the University of Central Florida were setting up a protest outside the main gate. We were under orders not to provoke these spoiled punks (our chain of command had forseen this), but we couldn't resist. Five of us piled into my Honda Civic and took off out the gate, telling all of them that they were, indeed,number one. After two days, the protestors seemed to lose their momentum, probably due to the fact that the war was beginning to look not like Vietnam, but like a pummeling for Iraq.

Just memories.

I forgot to mention that January 16th is the anniversary of the beginning of the 1991 Gulf War. That date was also the one-year anniversary of my entry into the navy. More on all this later.

Dennis Prager on why so many Arab countries are anti-American.

In case you're wondering, Kelli and I now have 13 nieces and nephews, all from my siblings. This does not include two nieces in Dallas who, while not biologically related to us, bring the total to 15.

The Corvette was introduced today in 1953. For those of you who many not know, the term "corvette" actually refers to a class of warship smaller than a frigate. In the old American navy, corvettes were referred to as sloops of war. Historically, corvettes were not front-line ships and were often civilian vessels that were pressed into service. Thus, I don't know why the car wasn't named something like "Destroyer" or, better yet, "Dreadnought". Just a thought.

We received news this afternoon that my brother Ken and his wife, Jeanne, are the proud parents of a 7.5lb. girl named Sophia. She is a red-head like her mother. They live near Washington, D.C., so we will probably not see her for a while. It kind of saddens me at times like this that two of my brothers and their families live a thousand miles away.

The donkey as a symbol of the Democratic Party made its first appearance today in 1870. It was shown in a political cartoon in Harper's Weekly with the caption "A Live Jackass". Well, there you go.

Over the weekend I finished reading "Ghost Soldiers" by Hampton Sides. The book concerns the liberation of a POW camp during the Allied advance across the Philippines during World War Two. The story is gripping for many reasons, and I'll try to briefly summarize it. By early 1945, the Japanese were on the run everywhere in Asia. In the Philippines, the Allies had landed on Luzon, the "big island" in the group. Filipino resistance fighters contacted the American Sixth Army and let them know that the Japanese had killed nearly two hundred American POWs and were preparing to possibly kill as many as five hundred in a camp thirty miles behind the lines. In the course of 96 hours, a plan was devised and carried out in which nearly all the POWs (two died due to unrelated causes after their rescue) were saved from what may have been a bloodbath. I won't go into any more detail here so as to not ruin the story. Suffice it to say that it is a shame this story is not told to every schoolchild in this nation in the same way they are told about D-Day or Gettysburg (if they are still told these things at all).

What makes the story so touching (it left me in tears many times) was how the men in the prison camp, most of whom were survivors of the Bataan Death March, managed to preserve what made them Americans. Anyone who doubts there is a distinctive American culture should give this work a read. It is both heart-breaking and heart-warming. It is also unflinching in its depiction of Japanese brutality, something that is being slowly covered up by revisionists.

I'm worried about Iraq. Let me begin by saying that I believe Hussein needs to go. He is a threat to the region and his own people. A war in Iraq would be short with a minimum of Allied casualties. What worries me is two things: one, that the White House is not going to show it's hand to the American people in regard to what it REALLY knows about Iraq's nuclear program before an invasion, thus weakening the Presidents' position in this country and in the eyes of the world and two, that we are going to have to leave a very large (100,000 troops or more) occupation force in a post-Saddam Iraq for a very long time. Either scenario is not going to play well, even among conservatives. We do not, under any circumstance I can imagine, want to have thousands of Americans camped out in an Arab nation any longer than is absolutely necessary.

This is not to say I do not have faith in the White House's ability to wage an effective campaign. What I worry about is "mission-creep"---that bug that infected us in Somalia and so many other places. Often, it is the State Department that tread on the Pentagon and begins to add stipulations to the mission for which our military is not trained (long-term peace-keeping, for example). It is my hope that Colin Powell, a former soldier, will fight against this tendancy.


And now on to North Korea. In my opinion, this little den of theives is a much bigger potential problem than Iraq. The rulers of North Korea have no qualms about selling anything destructive to anyone if the price is right. They have no agenda (other than taking over South Korea), no larger ideaology (the "Juche" idea is a joke perpetuated to keep the Kims in power), and no master in Moscow to answer to. I believe we are dealing with N. Korea the way we are for three reasons: one, Seoul is within artillery range of the DMZ dividing the two Koreas and the North would pound the capital in any war; two, American casualties would be high if we went into the North and three, despite what the Pentagon says, I don't believe we can fight two "hot" wars at the same time AND keep out commitments elsewhere in the world.

"Pace Cars" to help curb vehicular deaths in Dallas. This is the dumbest idea I've heard since Joe Lieberman announced his run for the White House. Speed doesn't kill people; differential speed and idiot drivers (of which Dallas is full) kill people. Of course, none of this really has to do with safety. It's actually about increasing the revenue stream for the city, county and state. Those of you in California know that of which of I speak.


The Pentagon released a report today that is at odds with some liberal Congressmen's assertion that we need a draft because a disproportionate number of minorities serve in combat roles. Once again, being a liberal doesn't require facts or even a love of the truth; if you "care" more, you're in.


Today in 1966, David Jones changed his last name to Bowie to avoid confusion with Davey Jones of the Monkees. Hmmm...it makes one wonder what might have been. Hey, Hey, we're Ziggy Stardust.

Sean Penn, master of words explains it all to Larry King, himself a genius for the ages. Where would we be without the wit and wisdom of Mr. Penn? Where do we get such men? When will they go away? Can I send someone a check to speed up the process? What have we done to deserve this? Does God have no mercy?


When I left work yesterday (Saturday) morning, I went driving. I haven't done that for a long while and the weather was just right: cold and clear. It was still dark, so I took the drive to Floyd Knobs so I could scare myself with the radio and TV transmission towers. Some of you know the deal about this, but most of you don't: towers and smokestacks scare the hell out of me. I don't know why. From a distance, they are merely menacing. Up close, they are terrifying. Yes, I realize that there is something vaguely Freudian at work here---no, I wasn't molested as a child and no, I am not a closeted gay man whose is burying his secret desires. But you drive past them on Skyline Drive up there and they are CLOSE, like fifty yards away. And those red lights, blinking at me because they don't care, silent, warning me to stay away. It reminded me of the time SS took Kelli and I up Mount Wilson to look at the towers up there. One of them was so large and so close that I couldn't see it's tip---it faded off into the night above us. I was consoled by the fact that I had companions that night, but the Knobs alone before sunrise is creepy as hell.

I had not been in that part of Floyd County since I got out of high school. There are more new developments than I could count. Back in the day (mid-to-late eighties), the whole area was country, with only a smattering of homes along the major roads. Plum Hill, the first of the big, pricey neighborhoods, was being built during our Junior year in high school. Now, it's been there fifteen years.

I have to drop this in: the scariest smoke stack/tower in this area is next to the Water Tower at the foot of Zorn Avenue. I'm not talking about the Water Tower itself: it's lit up at night and is a pretty cool piece of architecture. But next to it, in the dark, is a very old smokestack. It is thick at the base like an old tree and tapers to a uniform circumference towards the top. It reminds me of what an Ent would be like if it were a smokestack. But I digress.

Here's a thought: besides Israel, how many democracies are there in the Middle East? C'mon, show us you can do something other than mutilate female genitalia and live like its 1387.


Apple introduced the Newton today in 1993. For those of you who have never heard of the Newton, know that it was a PDA before the word was coined. It was laughed at, maligned for poor handwriting recognition and did not sell well. I was thinking about that today while I drooled over the new Apple laptops (12" compact and the 17" desktop replacement). If Apple would embrace mediocrity and seek to take over the world, they would undoubtedly increase market share.

If I have learned anything thus far in my life, it is that there are many, many things I am better off not knowing. I don't want to know the route my food took on the way to the grocery store; I don't want to know how much money people make and I don't want to know about the sex lives of my married friends (if you are my friend and you are a single male, I want to know every last detail, you bastard). I can now add something else to the list: I do not want to know how many people read my blog. Several months ago, I mentioned the possibility of installing a counter on this page. And so, when I discovered a counter on DLP's (link on left) blog, I had to join the crowd. I now know, daily, how many of you visit here. And that, my friends is something into which I never should have delved. In the back of my mind, I knew that I was only writing for a few of you. But seeing it presented as a cold, hard statistic is rather depressing. I will continue the counter because my need for constant affirmation and ego-boosting will not let me stop. At least I'm honest.


I was thinking tonight about the jobs that, for me, have held the greatest amount of satisfaction. When I was in high school, I worked on the Ohio River during the summer at a place called Marine Builders on a gas barge named Rubaiyat after the original name of the place. The job was easy, but didn't do a very good job of filling me with a sense of accomplishment. It mainly gave me an excuse to screw off and try to get in the pants of the neighbor girl, Rachel, whose life would have made Jerry Springer feel uneasy. Socially satisfying, but grated against my puritanical self.

Then there was the navy. The navy was such a huge machine that it was impossible to wrap my mind around. I did my job, followed orders, and did nothing of note. The problem was that I had created this vision of the navy that turned out to be a complete fantasy. Once I began to see the seamy underbelly of the beast, my morale began to plummet and so did my career.

After a short temporary job came UPS. Like the navy, UPS was a giant behemoth that introduced me to the concept of politically-correct corporate speech. I also learned how to be a leader and not just the person in charge. UPS was a school for me and, as such, I eventually reached a point when it was time to graduate.

On-Time Enterprises---freight delivery in Dallas. This whole experience was marred by the fact that I was having serious money trouble the whole time. I loved the idea of driving a delivery truck: I was on my own all day and when I finished my deliveries I was done for the day. It had its downsides, too: little pay, traffic stress, shitty equipment. But there was a sense of accomplishment that came from being, for the first time in my life, a nearly-unreplaceable part of something. If I could've paid my bills and talked Kelli into moving down, I would still be there.

Then there was Diesel Injection Service. This marked the first time in my life that I was thrown into a job for which I had no experience and had to figure it out almost overnight. For the first two years, I loved it. I became a turbocharger "expert", the guy who received calls from other shops when they had problems they couldn't solve. But I made one huge, huge mistake: I accepted promotion. Had I stayed at my bench and just kept my nose to the grind stone, everything would've been alright. But I talked a little too much and pushed ideas a little too far.

So here I am, almost three years into a job that is becoming increasingly boring. I am almost 32 with very few marketable skills and I know that, within two years, I will be doing something else. When I stop to consider this, I realize that the jobs that have been the most fulfilling for me have been those in which I either did something with my hands (such as rebuilding turbos) or provided a service to people face-to-face (such as deliveries). Neither of these jobs paid very well and that's always something to consider. But I can't escape the feeling that I am paid what I'm paid now because of what I can do when things go wrong---kind of like a fire extinguisher you use as a doorstop until the room catches on fire.

Today in 1945, American forces invaded Luzon in the Phillipines. Luzon is the "big" island of the group that contains the capital, Manila. Ironically, I am reading a book about this campaign entitled "Ghost Soldiers". I'll delve more into it later, because it gives a great view of how the essence of what it means to be an American survives even under the worst of circumstances.


The History Channel is getting ready to debut a mini-series about Theordore Roosevelt. TR was the first American president whose voice was recorded by the new technology of the day. The recordings that survive show us a man who could never be elected today. He gestures were angry and large, but his voice was somewhat weak and tinny. Part of that is the recording equipment of the day; however, he was not the eloquent speaker we have come to think of him as.


Some Democrats are talking about wanting to reinstitute the draft. Whatever. This is political wrangling of the worst sort: trifling with concepts of national security in the name of gaining political favor. Sound and fury signifying nothing. Dennis Prager had an excellent thought on his radio show (which I listen to at night sometimes): "It's easy to be liberal. It requires no great thought, just feelings." I couldn't have put it any better myself.

I got back from Dallas last night, just in time to turn around and go to work. I had a good time, as usual, and made much better use of my time than I have on previous visits. Things seem to be settling down in Big D; what is is and what will be or could be doesn't exist yet. My morale (and, I suppose, my ego) is always bolstered by the red carpet that is laid out for me on each visit.


On the plane ride back, I was thinking about "The Caine Mutiny". If you have not seen this movie or read the Herman Wouk novel, you owe it to yourself to do so. Yes, it's a war movie. But that's not the point. The film, as I see it, is really about what it means to be in management and what it means to be loyal in the face of adversity. Early on, we meet Commander Queeg (Humphrey Bogart), an "old navy" officer who has had an unremarkable career. The USS Caine, his first command, is an old bucket left over from the First World War. The ship and most of her crew has been involved in nearly every naval action against the Japanese. Queeg is unrelenting in his desire for perfection and attention to "the book", much to the consternation of the other officers on the ship. The story is told through the eyes of Ensign Keith, the newest officer on board and a young man who confuses loyalty for affection. Lieutenant Maryk, the executive officer (second-in-command), enforces the captain's orders despite his own reservations. Then there is Lieutenant Keefer, the ship's Communications Officer. Keefer is the poker and the prodder. He is easily the smartest man on the ship, having been a writer before the war. He takes no action himself on any issue; he only plants ideas and then walks away to observe the results.

The movie shows several incidents which makes the viewer question Commander Queeg's bravery and compentence. As time goes on, we realize that he is under a tremendous amount of stress, which he does not handle well. The officers slowly pull away from him, even after he gives them a pep talk about how they all need each other. Things come to a head during a typhoon, when Queeg begins behaving erratically and Maryk relieves him of duty. This is an automatic court-martial offense, and is deadly serious during wartime. So the second half of the film takes place in a courtroom as the navy tries the piece together they events leading up to Queeg being relieved of duty by one of his officers.

This all seems cut-and-dry (and probably boring to most of you). However, as the movie ends, you realize that things are not as one-sided as they seem. Eventually, it is the defense lawyer, in a drunken stupor, who explains the truth of the situation---if the officers and men had been a little more loyal, a little more supportive and given their captain a little more time to adjust to the situation, the "mutiny" would have been unnecessary. Ultimately, he blames Keefer, the sh*t-stir, for planting the seeds for the mutiny.

In case you haven't noticed, this is one of my favorite films. If I owned a mid-sized company, every person in management would be required to watch it. But it always makes me think of my own life and the times I could've helped someone be a better human being with a smile, a kind word, a bit of advice or just a pat on the back and I didn't because it was easier to sit back and criticize than to stick my neck out in a display of public loyalty. I have fallen victim many times to wanting to vote with the majority, even when I knew their position was morally or ethically wrong. The people who need us most, who need our love and our counsel and our loyalty, are often the people who frustrate and anger us most. It's easy to praise the people who praise you.

I need to talk about the past weekend but, for now, check out this conversation with an ICP fan. If you read it, read it all. It's worth the time.

Before I go, I have to make some predictions. Since this blog is archived, you can check up on me at the end of the year:



-We will invade Iraq, probably in February. It will not really be "Desert Storm 2", but more of an incursion-in-force. By the end of the year, there will be some kind of interim government in Baghdad.

-The whole "cloned" baby thing will turn out to be a giant hoax. I think that's a good thing.

-As much as I hate to say it, I don't believe that Pope John Paul will live to see 2004. I believe he is much sicker than any of us know.

-The confrontation with North Korea will come to nothing. The North needs a bargaining chip, the South isn't going to fight a war over nukes, and we'll end up cutting a check.

-The economy will see a rebound of sorts in 2003, but not to pre-9/11 levels. Things will continue to be hard in the tech sector for quite some time. We have "irrational exuberance" to thank for that.

-There will be no domestic terrorist attacks in 2003. However, I believe there will be many attacks on Americans overseas, especially in Asia.

-President Bush will end the year with an approval rating over 60%.

Happy New Year! I hope that 2003 brings you what 2002 didn't, and I hope we leave 2003 with a more peaceful world.


We will be out of town this weekend, so I probably won't be posting anything until Tuesday. Tommorrow (Thursday), I need to reinstall Windows on my machine due to an unfortunate incident with Novell Groupwise that left many strange glitches. I do a reinstall about 3 times a year anyway, so I might as well start the new year off with a bang.