Matt: Today in 1803, we bought the Midwest United States from the French. They called it the Louisiana Territory; we called it a bargain. The deal took place while Napolean was still the big cheese in France. That's kind of like buying Tibet from the Chinese. Or something like that.


Those early years of American History (1776-1830) were filled with larger-than-life types who seem to be bigger than men of our era. Of course, they weren't. They were men of their time; their time just happened to be very historically relevant. But I have come to have a pretty good grasp of those early, big men. Here's my summary of some of them, set in a high school:

George Washington: Captain of the football team and Homecoming King. Graduated and went to West Point. He's the kid that your mom wanted you to be.

Thomas Jefferson: The nerdy kid who made a fortune doing everyone's homework for them. Always broke from buying stuff at Radio Shack. Could've started Microsoft if he hadn't been too busy daydreaming.

Benjamin Franklin: The life of the party. Knew where to get beer and how to evade all types of trouble. Will write the great American novel. Chick magnet.

John Adams (Second President): The teacher's pet. Man most likely to be stoned by his neighbors. Always right and likes to tell you why.

Andrew Jackson (Sixth(?) President): The first guy to get in a fight, but always the last guy standing. Just scraped by academically. When he makes it big, he will hire all his friends.

OK....maybe I have too much time on my hands.

Matt: I just finished "History in Color" on the History Channel. Tonight's episode was about the navy in World War Two, which is sort of in my historical "wheelhouse". It made me think of an Easter story I heard a few years ago on NPR. If I have told it before, please forgive me. As many of you know, the invasion of Okinawa occured on Easter Sunday, 1945. The Navy and Marines had been invading islands since 1942; what made Okinawa different is its distance from Japan (800 miles) and the fact that the Japanese considered it part of Japan proper. Thus, it would be defended to the last man.

On board one of the transport ships on the eve of the invasion, a reporter was recording his interview with some of the young Marines. Audio recordings of interviews were still pretty rare then, so it is especially jarring to hear these young voices who, if they lived through the war, are now men in their 80's. Anyway, the reporter stopped this one Marine who was reading a letter:

"Whatcha reading, son?"
"Oh, it's a letter from my wife at home. She sent a picture of our son. I haven't seen him in almost two years."
"Good-looking lad. Maybe even a future Marine."
And then there was a pause just long enough to be uncomfortable.
"I hope not."

Matt: The CEO of American Airlines has resigned, and not a moment too soon. This whole debacle smacks of arrogance, a human trait that I abhor. It also reminds me of a book I read several years ago: “On The Firing Line: My 500 Days at Apple” by Gil Amelio. Amelio was the CEO of Apple Computer during the company’s darkest hour. Despite the fact that company was hemorrhaging money every quarter, Amelio continued to bitch about his compensation. According to him, CEOs of large companies are paid millions of dollars because there are so few people capable of running an enterprise that large. While there may be some truth in that statement, it’s a pretty giant assumption. How many people hit glass ceilings in their careers not because of ability, but because they didn’t go to an Ivy League school or don’t have good hair?

When I worked for UPS, the company was still solely owned by management. Oz Nelson, the CEO during my tenure, had started working for UPS washing trucks. He had spent his entire professional life with the company and understood package delivery like no one else. But he was not unique. Up to that point, EVERY CEO UPS had ever had was a life-long employee who had worked his way through the company. How often does that happen today? Very, very rarely. Most of the time, CEOs are glorified PR specialists brought in because they saved another company or have a good public image and will drive up stock price.

There is nothing wrong with bringing in an experienced person from another company to run yours. But to pay these few people salaries that are thousands of time higher than what the “little people” make is obscene. I am no socialist, but I do believe there is such a thing as gluttony and it’s on display right in front of us. The people who despise capitalism are being handed ammunition by the CEOs of this world and they're too blind to the realities of the workaday world to even realize it.

And one more point: have none of these people heard of pay based on performance? Did I miss something, or has American Airlines lost more money than it has ever made?

Matt: Has anyone besides me noticed the similarities between the Shi'ite Muslims in Iraq and the Communists and Facists of an earlier era? All three groups made their grabs for power after devastating wars when the populace was at its most demoralized. Many Muslims (a majority?) in Iraq want the nation to become a theocracy like Iran. Of course, this has nothing to do with religion; like communism and facism, it is ultimately about putting power in the hands of a few. When is this nation going to admit that this war on terror (of which the invasion of Iraq was a part) is really about a clash of cultures? When are we finally going to admit that much of Islam is an enslaving power?

Matt: Our cat, Kahlua, has increasingly become the focus of my observations. She is getting old (maybe 12 or so) and is becoming more and more "retired". She sleeps about 20 hours a day, but her waking hours are spent with Kelli and I, wanting to be petted or somehow pampered. But what is most interesting is how she adapts to the patterns in our lives. When I get home from work in the morning, she is up and waiting for me, sometimes in the foyer of our home. If Kelli stays up too late at night or falls asleep on the couch, Kahlua wakes her up, reminding her that it is time for bed. If Kelli and I are both home (as on the weekends) and busy, Kahlua acts strangely, as if it is wrong for both of us to be up at the same time.

Of course, I know that she is not long for this world. It is wrong, I think, for us to love a creature with such a short lifespan. But we have no children, and I think couples need to love something outside of themselves. There will be other cats, but none like her.

Matt: There was an interesting (and somewhat frightening) program on the History Channel concerning “lost nukes”, i.e. nuclear weapons that had been lost due to airplane crashes, etc. One of the people interviewed was Robert McNamara, Defense Secretary for Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. He was, in many ways, the architect of the early stages of the Vietnam War.

When asked about nukes in general, McNamara said that, upon taking office in 1961, he didn’t think there was a difference between a conventional weapon and a nuclear device “other than the size of the explosion.” In his defense, McNamara stated that “I had just come over from running Ford Motor Company. I didn’t know any more about nuclear weapons than anyone off the street.” REALLY? You mean the man who was picking targets in Hanoi and Haiphong from the basement of the White House didn’t know beans about radiation or fallout? What else about the military did he not understand? Say what you will about Rumsfeld; at least he’s worn a uniform and knows, as G. Gordon Liddy would say, “which end of the tube the round comes out of.”

Speaking of people in uniform, journalism.org has a great guide to military ranks. I could do nothing but cringe a few weeks ago when I saw a reporter on MSNBC repeatedly call a naval Lieutenant Commander “lieutenant” (he should have been addressed as “commander”). But then, getting those little, important things correct is not something our media specializes in any more.

Matt: If you have a television and it's been on at all over the past 96 hours, you know about the Laci Peterson case. Despite the fact that there are 16,000 murders in the United States every year, this one seemed to grab the attention of the national media in a big way. Maybe it's the anger that we all feel towards a man who may have killed his pregnant wife right before Christmas while having an affair with a blonde bimbo; who could've awritten a better soap opera? And now, just as our blood lust is about to be satisfied, we hear from the gang at NOW. It seems that they disagree with Scott Peterson being charged with double-murder. In their words, it might "give ammunition to the pro-life lobby."

A caveat before my tirade: as I have stated here before, I do not believe in the death penalty. I believe that it removes a person's potential for salvation and I can imagine no worse punishment than spending the rest of my days in a cell with a large man who finds my ass attractive. So I do not want Scott Peterson to get the death penalty if he is found guilty; I want him to suffer mightily for the rest of his miserable days in some shithole where his tan, good-looking self can be repeatedly handled by scary, scary men. The thought alone makes me want to curl up in the fetal position and cry.

But what steams me about this is how pro-abortion groups oppose a stiffer punishment for a man (gasp! A MAN!!!) because it might weaken their position. Could it be, you hags, that you're afraid some young women might begin to question their position on the issue? That they might vote for what they know in their hearts is right? And, just for the record: how many women support abortion because they have had one and must support it or question their own decision? How many women see abortion as a "rights" issue and nothing more? How many women are pro-abortion by reflex?

Several years before my wife and I were married, we were visiting with a friend from out-of-town. Over the course of the evening, abortion reared its ugly head. When my future wife stated that she was pro-life, my friend was shocked. "As a woman, how can you be against abortion?" he asked, as if the position was only for fundamentalist Christians with 12 children who opposed any form of birth control. I think about that conversation often, and I realize now that his question was actually the question asked by feminists the world over---"If you are not with us, you must be nuts, for if you are sane and against us, the problem COULD be on our end." Imagine that.

Matt: Ten years ago today, the father of a childhood (and current) friend of mine killed himself. It was Easter Sunday, and my entire family was at our house when the news came. Much later, when I found out the details of the act, I came to realize how angry the man must've been to do the deed in the manner he did. I won't go into it here out of respect for his family, but everything connected with his death was symbolic: place, method, etc. Ten years.

Matt: April 19th is a pretty dubious day in history. The American Revolution began today in 1775 in Lexington, MA. In 1993 the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas burned to the ground. The Feds say the cultists started the blaze; the survivors blame incendiaries used by the ill-named FBI Hostage Rescue Team. Either way, Timothy McVay used this date in 1995 to blow up the federal building in Oklahoma City in memory of the events at Waco two years earlier.

I had been living in Dallas about two weeks when the Ok. City bombing occured. I remember being so shocked that I thought I was dreaming----how could someone blow up a building full of innocent people? How could it happen here, less than three hours' drive from where I was standing? Little did I know.

Matt: Benjamin Franklin died today (Thursday) in 1790. He was 84. Franklin easily accomplished more than I could list here; needless to say, he is one of our greatest citizens. If I could live one man’s life over my own, it would be Franklin’s. My favorite quote of his is one that he put in a letter to a much younger friend: “In the dark, all cats are gray.” Think about it.


Today in William Holden’s birthday. He was the star of ‘The Bridges of Toko-Ri”, one of the best war films (and the best film about the Korean War) ever made. It’s worth a rent.


I should be writing science fiction. I keep pushing this thought out of my head, but it keeps coming back to me like a stray cat. I have tried writing no less than three novels in the past year, just to have every one turn into shit. But I have one complete science fiction storyline fleshed out that I have yet to put on paper. It just all seems so damned nerdy. Do you know how many science fiction books I have ever bought? 0. Do you know how many I have read? Maybe 6, and all of them were treatments of screenplays. Yet, when I go to Barnes and Noble or Hawley-Cooke, there is a large Sci-Fi section. Who reads this stuff?

Matt: Today (Wednesday) in 1943, Dr. Albert Hoffman accidentally discovered the hallucinogenic effects of LSD. The drug didn’t come to the attention of The Man until 1965, when it was made illegal in the United States.

I tried LSD once (it was more than 7 years ago, pig, so go back to the donut shop). It was one of the most harrowing experiences of my life. I saw something that will be described in detail in my upcoming novel ‘Driving the Circle’, a fictionalization of my non-fiction work of the same title. For some reason (I can’t imagine why), no publishing house would touch it. End shameless self-promotion here.


I listen to ‘Loveline’ every night at work. I know that I’m outside of the target demographic, but there is nothing else of substance on any of the four channels I can pick up. In case you have never heard of the show, it goes something like this: Dr. Drew (real doctor) and Adam Carolla (real smartass) take calls from angst-filled teenagers with sexual/relationship problems. The 20-somethings who call don’t surprise me; the teens are another story. Where were these people when I was in high school? More specifically, where were these girls when I was in high school? When did oral sex become part of making out? I know I’ve been out of high school for almost 15 years, but have things really changed that much?

Don’t get me wrong; at sainted Providence, that bastion of high-class uppity morality, there was plenty of hein’ and shein’ going on in the 80’s. But, most of the time, it was between people who were in “long-term” relationships. Everyone understood: Joe and Mary were a couple, so you assumed that the normal teenaged fumblings were bound to occur. People did “hook-up” at parties and the like, but it was almost never for full-blown sex and, overall, it was pretty rare. Or, now that I think about it, was it? For three of my four years of high school, I was in exclusive relationships (don’t get crazy; it was only three girls, all of whom are now married, one twice). So maybe I didn’t know what the hell was going on with the singles set. Jumpin’ Jesus on a pogo stick!!! Did I miss it? Is this how mid-life crises get started? Just kidding, really. But the times have changed, and it’s scary when I think that I’m actually a little bothered by what is now considered “normal and healthy.”


I had a conversation with a friend today that left me feeling both sad and joyous. My friend is going through a very hard time right now, partly because his actions are misunderstood and he has very few people in his life who take the time to listen. He thanked me today for being one of the people who helped him make order of his life. I can do nothing to lighten his burden; only time can do that. But I guess I never really thought that, by just giving him time, I was helping him deal with his world. When I look back at all the times I could have been more supportive, more loyal and an ear instead of a mouth, I am joyful that I can still get it right when it counts.

Matt: The History Channel (yes, I can’t stay away) ran a great special last night entitled “April, 1865” about the end of the Civil War. In the 140 years since the end of the bloodiest war in American history, we have come to see the Civil War as a thing of honor: both sides were Americans fighting for a cause they saw as just and when the end came, it came with a surprising lack of reprisals that had marked the end of every other civil war in the history of man. But it could have been very, very different. We know now that some of the men on General Lee’s staff wanted to continue the war as a guerilla conflict; even Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederacy, had called on southern citizens to continue the fight. It was only through Lee’s force of personality that the peace we have come to know held.

And there is still more. In March, 1865, President Lincoln was inaugurated to his second term. His second address, panned at the time by his own party as being too lenient on the Confederacy, went along way towards securing a true sense of unity at the war’s end. One can only wonder what would have happened had anyone less gifted been elected in 1860. He didn’t do bad for a dirt farmer’s son from Kentucky.

Matt: A NY Post Page Six column discussing RADAR Magazine's first issue mentions my favorite fellow fat guy, Michael Moore. And I quote:

No hate list would be complete without pompous filmmaker Michael Moore, who acts out the shtick of a blue-collar everyman from the luxury of his $1.27 million Upper West Side apartment and sends his daughter to private school. He also "fabricated a scene in 'Bowling for Columbine' " and "unsuccessfully pressured the writing staff of his 'TV Nation' not to join the Writer's Guild."


Oh, and for those of you who are Dave Eggers fan (speaking of self-absorption):


"Thin-skinned exhibitionist is so paranoid about his image, will communicate with press only via e-mail. Claims to loathe big imprints, yet is published by Penguin in the U.K."

Fight The Man, dude.

Matt: For some reason, I can't listen to my test audio post. I think Quicktime has subverted my embedded audio options, and I can't seem to reclaim them. I have to save the link and then listen. I have never liked the sound of my own voice (although I am told it has a certain resonance), so it really doesn't matter, I suppose.


As I watched the air show yesterday (we didn't have nearly as good a view this year; I spent a lot of time looking for aircraft I couldn't see), a thought that has been circulating in my psyche finally bore fruit: life can be lived two ways. Up to now, I have lived a life that can be best described as "thrill-based": almost everything I have done has been done in preparation for the next thing: the next vacation, the next thing I can buy, the next promotion. When that thing comes and goes, I move on, looking forward to the next "big thing". The present now never seems to hold any fascination for me, except that it is necessary for it to pass and lead to the next thing. My job is a good example: I neither like it nor hate it. It simply is something I have to do in order to help pay the bills. I will soon be promoted, and while I am looking forward to the excitement of that moment, it will lead again to drudgery. So I will fill my life with more meaningless crap that I must strive towards in order to make life seem worthwhile.

While this all seems a little depressing, I realize that most people live this way. Our American lives are filled with the next house that will be the envy of our family, the next SUV that makes us feel alive, the faster computer that doesn't make our day go by faster, the next drug that will make us feel invincible or forget that we're on the treadmill in the first place, or the next baby to carry our hopes for an NBA star or a neurosurgeon. And it's all CRAP.

But here's the thing: this life is new and is almost exclusively limited to the last two generations. Our grandparents lived what I'll call a "goal-based" life, and it was much simpler: have kids (or lots of kids) and leave the world better for them. To some, that meant better living through science and other areas of progress. For others, it was much less esoteric: work hard, don't expect to enjoy every moment, and leave something for the offspring.

Or am I wrong? Did my grandfather hate his life? Did he feel like he was missing his calling, like I do every night when I sit in front of that IBM terminal? I really couldn't talk to my grandpa mano-a-mano until he was in his 80's. His regrets seemed to be all about stuff he didn't have, mainly a bigger boat. But maybe, maybe, that's all he talked about because that was easy. Maybe he wanted to tell me that he wanted to see the South Pacific on a tramp steamer or write the great American novel or have a hot affair with a silent film actress. Maybe he lived with his real regrets in silence, with that sense of "quiet desperation" that society expects of the old. He was just as smart as any man I have ever known; why did he settle for mediocrity? Or was mediocrity enough? Will it be enough for me when I'm 80?

It would seem my capacity for self-absorption knows no bounds.

audblog audio post

Matt: CNN covered up news in order to remain on good terms with Iraqi regime. Is anyone surprised here?

Matt: I was just woken up by the sound of an F-15 practicing for the air show tomorrow. Thunder over Louisville is scaled down from last year, since something like 3/4 of the aircraft involved then are now deployed overseas. No F-14s, F-18s, B-2, F-117 or A-10s this year; instead, we shall have to make do with a smattering of F-15s, C-130s and probably a handful of choppers, refuelers and the ever-present UPS behemoths. My favorite has always been the F-14s. They don't make an appearance every year, but when they do, you know it: haze grey, big, obnoxious and fast. I still get as excited about air shows now as I did when I was a kid. I wanted to be a naval aviator when I was little, but by the fourth grade my eyesight would no longer cooperate. I keep telling myself that I will get my pilot's license one day, although that day keeps getting pushed off into the future by other, more pressing monetary needs. Oh well.

Our Revolutionary War ended officially today in 1783. The colonies' victory over England was so shocking to the world as to be unbelievable. When the British Army surrendered to the American forces at Yorktown in 1781, the British military band played a then-popular children's song, "The World Turned Upside Down." And yes, we couldn't have done it without the French. But it's been all downhill ever since.

Matt: Today in 2003, military forces from the United States liberated the capital city of Iraq, ending nearly 25 years of oppression and tyranny. Despite this nation's faults, never in the history of man has one country done more to advance the cause of freedom and self-determination on this planet. The men and women of our armed forces, volunteers all, do not fight for conquest or riches, but to preserve an ideal that so many before them have died to defend. Those who say this war was about oil or some other, lesser cause do this nation a great disservice in their ignorance. Once again, of course, it is a weak attempt by the cynics to disparage the efforts of better men. And yet, their opinion will be defended by those whom they criticize.


Robert E. Lee surrendered what remained of the Confederate Army today in 1865, ending the Civil War. General Grant, signing for the Union, allowed the Southern soldiers to keep their sidearms and horses because they had a long walk home (they would need to hunt for food) and it was planting season (the horses would be needed for plowing). It's amazing to think that the conflict that had killed so many would end with the losing army being told to take their guns and go home. Such was the honor of the day.

Matt: In the name of friendship, all I will say about Steve's "Gaytona" find is that it is definitely a different take on stock car racing. Homophobes need not apply.

Does anyone know if NPR is covering the same war as the rest of the news media? I listened today for the first time since the war started, and I was beginning to think I was listening to something from January, 1968 in Hue. NPR reporters quote Al-Jazeera news reports as if they are gospel, but any comment coming from CENTCOM in Qatar is treated with old-school hippie suspicion.

One thing missing in most leftist coverage of the war is a true understanding of the motivations of many in the Arab world. To an Arab male, honor (both family and national) is held above all else: truth, justice or honesty. The phony, macho arrogance of Arabs has completely seperated the concept of honor from anything that is actually honorable. Thus, Iraq's Information Minister can claim victory while American artillery is heard just blocks from his office; as long as he defends his nation's honor, the truth can be a casualty. Of course, the fellow travelers on NPR, CNN and in the European press judge everyone from an amoral base---my word means no more than the word of a convicted child molester or Iraqi Republican Guard officer. Once again, there is no evil, just the misunderstood. Sickening.

By the way, has anyone else noticed that most Arab nations' armies are real tough guys when dealing with unarmed civilians but crap on themselves when faced with well-trained men from America or Israel? Just go home and go back to belittleing your wife and worrying about your daughter's virginity, you freakin' punk.


My RAID experiment failed miserably. One of the drives was bad out of the box (it was a freebie, so I can't complain), so I had to go back to the setup I had before. All I gained was a fresh install of Windows, which is a joy only a true geek can appreciate.


Today in 1946, the League of Nations assembled for the last time in Geneva. I didn't realize that fiasco lasted as long as it did. A result of World War One, the League was an early attempt at a United Nations. However, our Congress wisely kept us out, dooming the entire thing to an early death. If they had only been so wise about the UN, we wouldn't have a divided Korea, genocide in the former Yugoslavia and other atrocities too numerous to mention.

Ponce de Leon claimed Florida for Spain today in 1513. I am in favor of giving it back now.

Matt: I am going to try to set up a RAID array on my PC (striping, not mirroring; I live dangerously), so I may not be posting for a couple days. If the previous sentence made no sense to you, here's the translation: "Matt, not happy with leaving things alone, is about to tinker with his PC. His chances of success are about 50/50."

Matt: For the sake of my sanity, I am going to stop using the History Channel's website as a source of historical information. Every time I look up a date or specfic event, their bias (or lack of coverage) sends me into a tailspin. It scares me to think of all the kids in this nation taking history classes taught be professors with similiar agendas. If you only used the History Channel's website as your guide (admittedly, a foolish thing to do), here's some of the things you would come away thinking about our nation and the last 200 years:

1) The Civil War was fought over slavery. (Slavery was an incidental issue in the Civil War; that's why the Emancipation Proclamation was not signed until 1863, TWO YEARS after the war started)

2) The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor as a defensive action because we had placed an embargo on steel and oil, damaging their industrial economy. No explanation is given as to why they had invaded China in 1937, four years before Pearl Harbor.

3) Everyone who opposses abortion (about 50% of the population) is an extremist.

4) The atomic bombs used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were unnecessary. No mention is made of the fact that, after the bombing of Hiroshima, the Japanese Imperial Command decided to fight on---thus the second bombing.

I could go on and on. It is troubling that the history I know (mainly self-taught) is being lost to revisionism of the worst kind, and the young kids in colleges across our nation don't know any better.

Speaking of relevant history, 5,000 radio stations played "We are the World" simultaneously today in 1985. As a fourteen-year old that spring, I can honestly say that I heard the song no less than 12,789 times. There was even a version in which a voice-over guy gave the name of each singer. Hell, they even played it in Church once (thanks, Fr. Mike, for trying to be one of the kiddies yet again).

Matt: Final victory for Kentucky fans: a lady called into a local radio station and opinined that we need to go pick on "someone our own size like China" instead of Iraq. One day, when she grows up, she will realize that war is not a sporting event; the idea is to meet the enemy with overwhelming force that leaves him debilitated and demoralized. But for her to understand that, she would actually have to watch the news, stay informed, turn off the WWE and basketball, etc., etc.

Matt: Seen on 3rd Division howitzer barrel: "$ Shot". NIIIIIICE.

Matt: Some very disparate thoughts today. While in Texas last weekend, a friend gave me a copy of her grandfather’s memoirs. He was a radio operator on a B-17 during World War Two and the center third of the manuscript was a detailed account of his service during the war taken from a diary he kept. The writing is short, concise and does a good job of conveying emotion without being overly sentimental. I was struck by two things: how terrible it was for those crews to have time off (it allowed them to think) and how desensitized human beings can become towards death and destruction when faced with no other options.

When I read the book ‘Band of Brothers’ and other books about the infantry during World War Two, there is always a section where the author relates how the guys on the ground, almost without exception, admired the guys in the planes above them. They couldn’t understand how people could fly around in metal tubes and get shot at day after day. After all, the rifleman reasoned, at least I get to stay on the ground while people shoot at me. My friend’s grandfather, on the other hand, admired the guys on the ground and saw their job as much more difficult. When his mission was done, he got to go back to a warm barracks and a hot meal while the guys in the trenches lived with constant fear of snipers, artillery and aerial bombardment. As he put it, “the guys on the ground were the real heroes of the war.” Of course, history teaches us that one would not have been victorious without the other.


More on today's thoughts later.

Matt: Today in 1982, Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, a British colony in the South Atlantic. The British assembled a naval flotilla and took back the islands in May, but not before losing 5 ships in the process. The British Navy, never known for being timid, sailed right into the channel between the two islands of the group, dropped anchor and made some tea. The Argentines, who had a then-new anti-ship missle called the Exocet (bought from the French), flew in and blew up a destroyer before the Brits knew what hit them. Modern naval warfare had arrived.

There are two salient points here: one, every naval power in the world was woken up to the fact that small planes with missles could ruin your whole day and two, the French suck. To quote a friend in Texas: "With everything that's happening in the world today, isn't it time we got back to hating France?"


There's a great column by Thomas Sowell in the Courier-Journal about being "pro-war". As soon as I find an online link, I'll pass it on. As I have said here before, Thomas Sowell and Justice Antonin Scalia are the only two living humans with whom I would swap brains.

Matt: France, that bastion of culture, has once again shown how culturally superior they are. It's my sincere hope that France will be overrun the next time Germany can't get a good tee time.

Matt: test. Where my stuff at?

Matt: I’m back from Dallas, tired but happy. The race was phenomenal, with Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. sparring for second place and Earnhardt securing the position by less than a fender’s length. The only thing I don’t like about the Texas Motor Speedway is the size of the track; when the cars are on the backstretch and you are near the start/finish line, the cars are something like ¾ of a mile away. Tracks like Bristol (which I have never been to) are much more “cozy” with a little more than ½ mile of track. However, it seems that 1.5 mile tracks are in vogue right now since, thanks to restrictor plates at Daytona and Talladaga , they offer near-superspeedway speeds without the feeling that the backstretch is in another state. Hopefully, track builders in the future will introduce some smaller tracks into the mix.

I was thinking on Sunday about my personal history with NASCAR. I first got into Winston Cup racing during the summer of 1992. I was stationed in Charleston, SC and my job was an easy Monday-Friday gig. On Sunday afternoons when I had nothing to do, I would read in my barracks room while listening to the radio. I began listening to the races because they were quintessentially Southern: Goody’s Headache Powder and local auto dealerships seemed to dominate the ads. The drivers were unknown to me, but it was exciting and fun nonetheless.

Now, with stock car racing becoming popular nationwide, that Southern flavor is beginning to wear off. Many of the cars in the parking lot in Fort Worth were European imports, not pickup trucks with shotgun racks. While it is good for the “sport” to diversify its fan base, I fear that it will become like the NBA or NFL: super-rich guys who have nothing in common with the people who come to watch the competition. Oh, well.