Bad Idea Dept.

The United States Coast Guard has been holding hearings over the past month or two, allowing citizens to express their thoughts about the USCG plans to hold live fire target practice on the Great Lakes. The New York Times has a good article from last October that explains the situation in some detail. Here's a more current report from the Detroit Free Press. And the environmental activists have made their position clear. I'm just posting this info for people who may not be aware of what's going on. If you live in a Great Lakes state, or even if you don't but are concerned about it, I suggest you contact your congressional representatives to voice your opposition. (I assume opposition... I don't really see any reason why ordinary civilians would favor this kind of pollution and misuse of one of the world's greatest natural resources.)

Holiday Weekend Wrapup

OK, it's back to work in just a few minutes but before I fly out the door to a fairly easy and relaxed day (starting with a four-hour, catered lunch Diversity Committee retreat) let me just offer a few reflections and updates from the Thanksgiving weekend.

We had two family gatherings, one on Thursday at my mom's for the big dinner, and one yesterday for my son's 17th birthday party. We moved that event up a couple of days because his birthday is actually Tuesday but Sunday worked better for the get-together. Derek is our "easy" child - straight A student, very congenial, mild-mannered, self-motivated, swift to do the right thing just because it's the right thing to do. Our three older children are also great young adults, but let's just say they are a bit more complex than Derek. But we love 'em all the same anyway, of course.

I had hoped to get our hands on one of the new Nintendo Wii systems sometime this weekend - that's what Derek and the twins are really looking forward to playing with as soon as we get one. But we are not the kind who are going to camp out in front of Best Buy at 4 a.m. waiting for the store to open in six hours to increase our chances, and the consoles are not to the point of being stacked up for casual drop-in purchases quite yet. The Wii is getting all kinds of positive press as it surprises people who have written off Nintendo in favor of the Play Station and the X-Box. I won't bother linking to the stories, you can easily find out all about the Wii yourself if you haven't heard about it from some gamer fanatic in your own family.

I did get myself a red iPod Nano though - using some birthday gift money that I had been intending to put toward a laptop computer. I decided that I need portable music more than I need a laptop, and I'm really glad I got the iPod. It has already changed my iTunes listening experience and I think it will only get better when we get a docking device so I can enjoy my vast music collection in other parts of my house than where the computers are.

Derek got a couple of board games for his birthday (as well as money and a bunch of clothes.) One is Blokus and the other is Settlers of Catan. They are both fun and engaging and give us some new "family stuff" to do together as the cold winter months and early winter nights draw ever closer.

I don't have any particular rhapsodic thoughts about thankfulness and gratitude swelling out of my soul even though the occasion seems to call for something like that. I am of course quite pleased and grateful to look back on the previous year and recognize that our family is doing well, no major stressers or challenges have confronted that I would regard as out of the ordinary, and the future looks pretty fine over the short term at least... beyond that, who can predict? I can't explain our general prosperity or overall wellness with any kind of concreteness as to "why" but I will say "thank you" to God in acknowledgment that my own theories or speculations about how things got this way in my life and my family's are insufficient to fully understand how it all fits together!

My thoughts on college football.

The USC Trojans have just decisively defeated the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, which sets things up quite nicely for the final rankings of this year's NCAA Division I football competition. Ohio State has clearly earned the overall #1 ranking, so they should get the trophy and all the revenues that competing in the Fiesta Bowl would earn, without having to be inconvenienced by actually playing the game and risking injury to their student-athletes. The game that America wants to see is clearly University of Michigan vs. USC to decide who is #2 in the country. Right? I'm sure this one is a no-brainer!

The Fountain: Postmodern Mythology

I went to see a beautiful and memorable film yesterday: The Fountain. It's a new release that has apparently been in the works for several years, delayed by financing problems, lack of studio support, casting changes and other hassles. It's been getting some of the most polarized reviews I've ever seen on a film, with some people (mostly but not always ordinary fans) exclaiming it's the best movie they've ever seen while others (mostly but not always paid critics) dismissing the film as sophomoric and pretentious. That's the risk that a director takes, I suppose, when he strives to address timeless questions using unconventional narrative strategies and invoking symbolic images from a variety of cultural contexts. I consider it a prime example of postmodern mythologizing as it samples elements from Mayan, Spanish Catholic, Buddhist, and contemporary scientific pharmacological cultures to retell an old old story for today's audiences.

Just about everyone agrees that the film has a beautiful ambience to it, and it truly does. The screen shimmers with bright golden light throughout, the soundtrack is mesmerizing and elegant and there's obviously a lot of skill and careful attention to details on display. The make or break point for most viewers who are cognizant enough to "get it" (and there are many for whom this film would just sail past their attention span) is whether or not they are willing to allow director Darren Aronofsky's conceit to go unchallenged. The critics and others who have put the film down find the characters undeveloped and the film's finale an indulgent mess of cliches and meaningless hi-tech special effects.

I don't find their arguments convincing, though I can see that if one felt dragged along for the ride or decided it was just time to get off the bus somewhere along the way, such conclusions could be drawn. Unlike a lot of people, I guess I was relatively clueless about all the hype and build-up the movie had received over the past several years, so I went into it simply thinking that the movie would be an intriguing, unusual and visually engrossing story about time, love, life and death. And I thought it was very cool and fun and rewarding! And when I say "fun," I don't mean rollicking thrill-ride amusements. I just sat in the theater admiring the willingness of those who made this film to take so many risks and put together a movie-going experience that will stick with many viewers for a long time. There are numerous images that have already established themselves in my mind as "objects of art" that I look forward to seeing again. The story has a cyclic quality to it and there is so much symmetry involved in the composition at numerous levels (narrative techniques, pictorial compositions, geometrical elements and so on) that it conveyed to me a very comfortable feeling as I watched the show unfold. I'd go see it again today if there weren't other movies I'd like to also see (and I'm not sure I'll have time for a film anyway... I have to work a Martina McBride Christmas concert at the arena tonight.)

I haven't said much about the story itself and I don't plan to here. Maybe in a comment, depending on what kind of response this write-up gets. I'm mainly intending to encourage people to go see this film in the theaters, and soon. This is unlikely to stay in the cineplexes for more than a few weeks but it really deserves to be seen on the big screen, though I know it will be gorgeous in a lot of home theaters too when the DVD comes out. Filmmakers with this kind of reach and ambition deserve support, and Darren Aronofsky is a director that has a lot of great filmmaking potential and a pleasing sense of aesthetics. I'm grateful to have these images for my contemplation.

The State of Pop Music Today

In case you don't already know this about me, for the past couple years I've been collecting mp3's of the most popular songs in the country as measured by the Billboard Hot 100 weekly music charts. I currently have every #1 song going back to 1955 in an iTunes playlist on my computer. Though I can't say I always "enjoy" listening to these pop hits, I believe that they do offer a fascinating glimpse into the American zeitgeist and, when listened to sequentially and with current events of that era in mind, provide insight into where our collective minds were at on the mass cultural level.

Every Thursday, I go to the Billboard.com website to see the latest updates to the chart, and yesterday was no exception despite the holiday. I was surprised to see a new #1 song. The past few weeks that spot was occupied by Justin Timberlake's "My Love." The #2 was titled "Smack That" by a singer from Senegal named Akon. Well, Akon did make the move to #1 but it wasn't "Smack That" that did it for him (even though the song did break a Hot 100 record by climbing from #94 to #7 in October, the quickest ascent up the rankings ever in the chart's history.) "Smack That" remains at #2 and the #1 song is titled "I Wanna Love You." So how about that. I don't think Akon ranks as a superstar quite yet, but that's quite an achievement to hold the top two spots in the Hot 100. I don't think it's happened very often - acts like the Beatles, the Bee Gees, Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men come to mind as possibilities of having done that. I don't imagine that Akon is going to make the kind of lasting impact on the music biz as those performers did in their heyday, but we'll have to see how he manages his career. Akon is obviously getting some major push - "Smack That" features Eminem and "I Wanna Love You" features Snoop Dogg as cameo rappers.

But here's the thing. The titles of those songs seem a lot more innocuous than the songs themselves. On Akon's album "Konvicted," "Smack That" is best understood as "Smack That Ass" (that's how it's listed on many file sharing sites, even though Akon never utters the last word) and "I Wanna Love You" is really "I Wanna Fuck You." The words are cleaned up a bit for airplay (Akon really does sing the words "I wanna love you" in the radio version) but listening to or reading the lyrics makes it clear that he's really not interested in cultivating a long-term monogamous relationship, which is what I think is more generally implied by the word "love." Or at least used to be. Although at least one commentator would disagree with my assessment - but I ain't buying it.

So it's come to that - the most popular song in the nation is just coming out and saying, in crass and blatant terms, what a lot of hit tunes over the years have coyly, cleverly and tantalizingly hinted at. It's not even so much that a song titled "I Wanna Fuck You" has been released - there have been all sorts of variations on song titles using the F-word over the past few decades. But it's remarkable to me that one of those titles has reached the pinnacle of popularity, though in a hypocritically sanitized rendition. I'm not sure what to expect next... the trend seems to be in the direction of ever-more explicit (and less imaginative) lyrics, focusing more and more on genital stimulation and gaining the upper hand in the relationship. Few popular songs today seem to deal with anything resembling courtship, yearning or the satisfying feeling of being in a reciprocal partnership - instead, the themes focus on strife, competition, put-downs and suspicion. Lots of tension in the music - very little that seems like just good fun! Even the light-hearted novelty tunes... are kids of today going to have the same fond recollection of ditties like "London Bridge" or "Hollaback Girl" that people my age have for "Afternoon Delight" or "Undercover Angel" (two songs that raised eyebrows in the 70's for what passed for "explicitness" in that free-wheeling decade)? I know I'm sounding "old" but I just felt the need to make a comment on what "kids these days" are listening to and wonder where it goes from here?

Douglas E. Sloan Memorial

Last night and this afternoon I put together a short video honoring the memory of a man I never met. Doug Sloan acheived the rank of Major in the United States Army. He earned the Bronze Star, the Ranger Tab and numerous other honors. He died in Afghanistan this past October 31, killed by a roadside bomb. He was interred at Arlington National Cemetery on November 15. The Arlington website offers more information about Maj. Sloan and the circumstances that led to his passing.

I don't know many more details about his life or his death, except that the mission that cost him his life was one that he undertook voluntarily to help out a colleague, after having survived many more dangerous situations over the past several years of service in Afghanistan. But I got to know a bit about him through assembling a sequence of pictures taken over the course of his life.

This project fell to me because my sister and brother-in-law go to church with Maj. Sloan's younger brother and they like the other similar projects I've done for them commemorating the church's 50th anniversary and a Christmas story made up of pictures of children from the congregation. The deceased was from the town of Charlevoix, northwest of here a couple hours drive on the coast of Lake Michigan. This Sunday, a brief memorial is scheduled to take place at the church and this video will be shown.

Even though Major Sloan is a stranger to me, I was pretty moved by the finished product, recognizing that his family and the Army lost a good strong man, a leader whose experience and dedication will be hard to replace. It got me thinking about the cost of these recent wars on a more personal level as I looked at each picture, thinking of the boy who grew up to be a husband, father, uncle and soldier, and how his life and story are now over. Putting all the politics aside for the moment, I find it simply sad and troubling to consider that a person's life can be so valiant and precious but also so easily wasted in the same turn of events. There's no real "making sense" of these circumstances, but my hope is that even as we acknowledge the bravery and heroism that many men and women in the military show on a daily basis, we also respect their worth and commitment enough to make sure that they are not put in needless danger or to pursue objectives unworthy of the sacrifice they are too often required to make.

Of course, Maj. Sloan is just one of so many people whose lives have been lost in the Afghan and Iraqi conflicts. Just today, over 150 people were savagely killed in Baghdad, each life holding its own poignancy and value, though harder for us to appreciate from our cultural vantage point. This happened while most of our American society observed the occasion of Thanksgiving, where we reflected on the good blessings and privileges of our lives with the people who mean the most to us, ate more food than was necessary, and watched some forgettable lop-sided football games. Kind of hard for me to put it all together in a tidy package, but I do appreciate the chance to pay my respects to a man who earned it, and to provide some small solace to a family and friends who will grieve his loss for the rest of their lives.

The video is now posted to YouTube through my own new account. The URL is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okXkQlOoEX0

BEATLES LOVE

No time for blogging tonight. I have to listen to my new BEATLES album! It's one of life's rare pleasures, the chance to listen to a new release by the best rock band ever on the same day that it's sold to the general public.

In case you don't know, "LOVE" is the soundtrack to a show that's been put on in Las Vegas since earlier this year. It's kind of an officially-sanctioned mash-up, mainly based on Beatles music that's long been familiar, but remixed with all kinds of interpolations from different songs woven in. The Beatles website offers a lot more information than I'll take the time to spell out here. But what I heard on my way home from work tonight was delightful - the sound quality is excellent and the new textures are refreshing. This isn't the Beatles via turn-tablism - not a radical splice-job juxtaposition striving for maximum wierdness or anything like that. It's just a new way of hearing the Beatles canon woven together for a new time and sensibility. A wonderful concept and of course, just what the world needs now... "Love," sweet Love!

Should Congress Impeach George W. Bush?

Some people I know in my local community have expressed dismay that the new Democratic congressional leadership has declared that impeaching President Bush is "off the table" as they set their legislative agenda for 2007. I did some googling and found a few interesting articles indicating a fair amount of advocacy for the idea. Richard Dreyfuss thinks Bush needs to be impeached on the principle of the thing, in order to reset the limits on executive power and decisively say no to torture and the erosion of the US commitment to human and legal rights. Cindy Sheehan has weighed in with her support, as is to be expected. Groups like AfterDowningStreet.org are organizing events and rallies for December. There's even a Shakespearean rumination for us to ponder - "To impeach, or not to impeach: that is the question." (There are other columns on the topic at dissidentvoice.org) I even found support for impeachment coming from the conservative side due to Bush's failure to stop the "Mexican invasion" of illegal immigrants. And most surprisingly of all, these letters from a former mayor of Grand Rapids were sent to Rep. John Conyers and Sen. Carl Levin!

Even though I would personally be satisfied to see Bush's presidency end earlier than scheduled, I am not yet convinced that this should be an automatic course of action for Democrats in Congress to pursue. There has to be a clearer indication of support from the people of this country, otherwise this will look too much like a power grab, vengeful paybacks and more of the hyper-partisan animosity that has really divided the country for the last 12 years or more. I think a lot of people are more dismayed by that than they are by Bush's poor management, and I'm not confident that the righteous principles upon which Bush could be brought to account will remain in focus during what would certainly be a bitter, protracted and exceedingly hostile impeachment process.

So I'm kind of mulling things over, thinking out loud here and holding off on making any firm decision for or against pressing this issue to my elected representatives. I am interested in reading what others have to say on the topic, so please leave a comment, whoever you are and whatever you think.

Bo Schembechler

I'll be leaving for another session of my Bal-A-Vis-X training in a few minutes, but I have to take a minute to pay tribute to Bo Schembechler, the legendary football coach of the University of Michigan Wolverines, who passed away yesterday on the eve of the biggest game ever in a storied rivalry with The Ohio State University Buckeyes. Coach Schembechler and his former mentor, OSU Coach Woody Hayes, took what was already a significant annual showdown to a whole new level in the 1970's, when they staged what's now referred to as "The Ten-Year War" - ten games full of drama and suspense, with so much on the line: trips to the Rose Bowl, Big Ten Championships and a claim of victory in games that would be recalled in detail by the faithful for years to come.

I heard the news yesterday just before going to meet my friends for my usual Friday "sports lunch," and the report imposed a sense of somberness not only on our group, but other tables full of guys who were just absorbing the facts themselves. Now I won't overstate the significance of Bo on my own life - he wasn't lionized as a role model or presented as the epitome of "real manhood" as he apparently was to a lot of radio callers who I listened to throughout the day on the Jim Rome and local sportstalk shows. And I'm not even a U of M die-hard. I'm one of those odd ducks that has no strong favorite between MSU and Michigan when they meet in their annual in-state rivalry. But I have no hesitancy in rooting for the Wolverines over Ohio State!

It remains to be seen what kind of effect, if any, Schembechler's passing will have on the Wolverines, but the timing couldn't be any more poignant. He is reported to have given a "fiery pep-talk" to the team the morning before he passed away. Those words, whatever they were, serve as a last will and testament to his life on the gridiron.

I'll be getting done with the training just as the game is getting underway. It should be a classic, whatever happens!

Bal-A-Vis-X

I'm about to head off for a training tonight (that will conclude tomorrow) in what looks to be an interesting therapeutic intervention: Bal-A-Vis-X (Balance-Auditory-Vision Exercises.) A last minute substitute was needed due to a series of events that I won't spell out here, but I had the time in my schedule and I'm always up for learning something new, especially something that looks fun like this. It involves bouncing and juggling balls in various patterns that help to reintegrate brain functioning and improve perceptual abilities. I'm still unclear on the details, I've only browsed the website... all this came up on short notice, but I'll have more to say on Saturday night after I've completed the course.

Peace Activist Nuns Subvert Judicial Intimidation

If you haven't checked in to the story of the three Dominican nuns who've been hounded over the past few years for staging a symbolic protest after breaking into a nuclear missile silo in Colorado, catch up on the details by following that link, and here's another one.

Then you can more fully appreciate this column from the Denver Post describing the latest developments in the case.

Jackie Hudson was closely affiliated with IGE in years past when she lived in Grand Rapids, and still stays in touch with us through letters and personal contacts with her friends in town. I admire the women's tenacity and imagination for creative civil disobedience.

Bob Seger's System

A great Michiganian has once again taken to the stage, representing the Great Lakes State and the ethos of the hard-working-but-just-getting-by Middle American Common Men from all over this great country of ours. I'm talking, of course, about Bob Seger, a singer and cultural icon of massive, if understated, importance to us regular guys who've managed somehow or other to navigate our way through all the trials and temptations of keeping the wolves off the door, satisfying the needs of the ladies and kids in our lives, grinding it out on the job, dealing with the regrets of "what might have been" if we'd made some different choices along the way, and basically keeping our heads on straight amidst all the pressures and frustrations that life heaps on good, solid, decent folk like ourselves.

Well, you know, that's the general gist of what Seger has been pondering and singing about for almost 40 years in the music business. Since I was born in Michigan and have lived here most of my adult life, Seger's music has been part of the ambient soundtrack to my life since the late 70's when his album Night Moves became a big national hit and locked a number of songs from his back catalog (most notably, "Turn The Page," "Katmandu" and "Beautiful Loser") into "classic" status. After Night Moves made him a star, he followed up with a couple other noteworthy albums, Stranger in Town and Against the Wind, where he continued to develop the persona of a rough-around-the-edges but yearning and sensitive soul - the guy who wouldn't back down to anyone when challenged but still remains vulnerable and aware of his limitations. Kind of in that Bruce Springsteen/John Mellencamp mold, but not quite as wordy, poetic or political as Springsteen and without some of the personal quirkiness that made it hard for some would-be fans to take Mellencamp to heart the way they have Bob Seger. Bob is regarded as the real deal, a gritty heartland survivor who's grown up himself just a step or two ahead of most of his fans and is trusted to show them the way to age gracefully without compromising too much or forgetting where they came from. Even in the hey-day of the 70's, he was one of the first rockers to consciously reflect on the aging process in songs like "Night Moves" and "Rock and Roll Never Forgets." The success of this wistful, melancholy, nostalgic indulgence established a pathway that Springsteen, Mellencamp and others like Tom Petty would follow themselves as the wrinkles and grey hairs accumulated in subsequent decades.

See, it's not just that Seger's music has resonance with his fans, it's that he himself seems to occupy a unique, even beloved, niche in the esteem of a lot of people in this part of the country. (I'm talking about the Mitten State here, folks.) Want some evidence? How about this - when Bob Seger's concert tickets went on sale a couple months ago, he sold out the first show in 6 minutes, so they immediately added a second show four nights later and that sold out within 15 minutes - a record for the Van Andel Arena, which seated nearly 13,000 people for both shows. And the buzz around the arena and the downtown was truly intense when the tour arrived (he actually chose Grand Rapids as the starting point and it wouldn't surprise me if he ended it here or made one more swing our way before it was all done.) I've been in the neighborhood of the arena for a lot of big bands, but the vibe on Opening Night was unique. Parking was almost impossible to find, the bars were filling early, the sidewalks were full of people taking pictures of his tour trailers, each bearing a huge reproduction of the album cover of his new release, Face the Promise. I spoke with other people who were there and they felt the same sensation. Bob Seger, going on tour again after an 11-year layoff, was a BIG EVENT for this city.

Though I was at the arena before the show, I wasn't able to work the opening night concert itself due to a personal schedule conflict (the IGE Annual Meeting that I facilitated) but I did work this past Sunday and it was still a very big buzz, though not quite as electrically tingly as Wednesday, probably due to the day of the week and it being the second show in town (third on the tour since he performed Friday in Saginaw... which I imagine was a BIG EVENT there too.) I actually came within hand-shaking distance of Mr. Seger a couple times as he stood near our beer stand on his way to the banquet room before the concert. We made eye contact but I didn't say anything, nor did I take a picture. He's too regular of a guy to subject to that star treatment, fans going ga-ga thing. I just gave him a smile and a nod of the head, and I suppose that at some level he appreciated not being pointed out or accosted. So I got to see him as a real person... a 61-year old guy wearing a nondescript black t-shirt, non-designer jeans, black shoes and bifocals, greying hair and beard, smoker's teeth and a slightly bow-legged gait. Later, when I saw him up on stage, it seemed to me that he hadn't changed his clothes for the performance.

So how was the gig? Well, I can say that I was actually surprised at how strong his voice sounded - I had some significant concerns that he wasn't going to be in his finest form, after hearing him fall a bit flat when he sang "America the Beautiful" before Game One of the World Series at Comerica Park in October. (Isn't it telling that he didn't sing the "Star Spangled Banner?" I'm sure that "the rocket's red glare" was just too far beyond his capacity these days, if he ever did have that kind of range...) My spot in the arena was at the back of the floor, directly in front of the stage, only a thin black curtain standing between me and the full concert experience, so the sound quality was great, better than when I work a food stand. And truthfully, I don't feel like I missed a whole lot on the visual end. The stage show was very minimal - just lights basically, and a pretty big band, with full horn section, multiple instrumentalists, back-up singers... all in all, plenty of insurance that big sounds will be produced should Bob's voice falter.

And the songs... pretty much the playbook that most Seger fans would expect. The opener was "Roll Me Away" which was marred by mic problems that made the song mostly an instrumental, temporarily alarming us that perhaps our worst fears about Seger's voice were coming to pass. But he got a new microphone and came roaring back before the song was over and that got the crowd even more fired up. He mixed in the new tunes as well, but this night was all about the sentimental favorites: "Main Street," "Old Time Rock and Roll," "We've Got Tonight," "Horizontal Bop," "Hollywood Nights," the other titles that I've already mentioned and more. Two songs that I wish he had performed were "Still the Same" (though it's a modest enough tune that I can understand why he passed it up) and "Like a Rock" (which was probably spoiled for him when it became a truck commercial soundtrack - still, I think that song is an anthem that a lot of us would have enjoyed hearing.)

Needless to say, the crowd was awesome, a bunch of thirty- and forty- and fifty- somethings mostly, who were very stoked and happy to be there. Our mission was just selling beer and since we were about 15 paces out from the back of the main floor, the traffic flow was pretty steady except when the band launched into another "gotta be there" classic, at which people would scurry back into the arena unless they were real close to getting their refill. And believe me, we specialize in speedy customer service!

So yeah, Bob Seger... Michigan's finest, the genuine article, a regional icon at the very least and perhaps more if you can identify with what the man has to say. It was cool to be a part of this event! I get the feeling that this just might be a real "farewell tour" that stays that way... He said that he's doing the tour and album thing in large part because his kids were bugging him about it, wanting to see for themselves what it was that made Dad so famous. So Bob's taking it on the road one more time for his family, his fans... his friends.

My G.W. Bush Library

This weekend, I picked up a copy of a book that's been sitting on my shelf for awhile. It's titled Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President, by Justin Frank. Published in the rush of Bush-themed books that came out in 2004, he aims to provide a psychoanalysis of President Bush based on what's available in the public record about his family life, his public statements and what others have written about him. I haven't gotten too far into it, but I appreciate what I've read so far, especially Frank's reflections on the impact made by the loss of Bush's younger sister Robin, who died from leukemia when she was only three and George was seven. His parents never told George that her life was in danger (they didn't want to create "too big a burden for such a little fellow") until after she was already dead. And there are other early developmental dynamics viewed from a distance that I find fascinating, since child psychology is such a big part of what I do professionally.

Anyway, I mention this because it occurred to me the other day that my modest collection of "Bush-bashing diatribes" is suddenly in danger of becoming passe'. He's just been relegated to lame duck status and no longer seems to have such a potent or ominous grip on American political life. So I realized that I should get a move on and read these volumes that I've picked up here and there over the past couple of years before they take on the feel of "artifacts" from a time gone by. The one I picked seems among the most entertaining so that's where I'm starting.

Here are the other titles that I own, with italics indicating those I've already read all or most of:

Fortunate Son (one of the most prized books in my possession, I own an original first edition from St. Martin's Press, which was forcibly recalled prior to the 2000 election and actually burned by the publisher when they faced strong pressures from Bush campaign lawyers and decided not to distribute it. Reason being that author J.H. Hatfield drew conclusions that Bush had used cocaine in the early 70's and that this may have played a role in his failure to complete his stint in the Texas Air National Guard. The book currently sells for between $120 and $190 on Amazon.com.)

Compassionate Conservatism
The Miami Herald Report: Democracy Held Hostage
The Price of Loyalty
Against All Enemies (on CD)
Bush At War
Stupid White Men
Dude, Where's My Country?
The Fahrenheit 9/11 Reader
Will They Ever Trust Us Again?
Lies and the Lying Liars that Tell Them
Bushwhacked
Bushworld
Bush Must Go
The Book on Bush (on CD)
A Pretext for War
House of Bush, House of Saud
Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib
Big Lies
Imperial America

There are a number of similar books that I've finally decided I would just pass up even though they've tugged my attention their way. Somewhere along the way, the need for further evidence to confirm my suspicions that Bush hasn't been that good of a president was satisfied. So I think I'll stop blogging now and go read some more.

"IGE Talks" Highlights

My friend Chuck has put together a sampler video of the monthly TV program "IGE Talks" that I've recently become more involved with, and posted it to the web. It's kind of lengthy, about 15 minutes or so to watch, and the sound/picture quality at times reflect the low-budget improvisational production methods employed to produce the show. But that disclaimer aside, I think it's worth checking out, just to get a feel for the topics we cover and the approach we take to the issues. Plus it showcases Chuck's idiosyncratic sense of humor.

Most of the scenes were filmed in the offices of the Institute for Global Education, where I am a board member. I only appear in one short segment toward the end, watching a boy dance to Green Day's "American Idiot" during one of the episodes I facilitated on Protest Songs back in February. And my voice is briefly heard in one portion of the "Education" clip. In case you were wondering where I'm at in the video.

Bitter Conservatives

Somehow or other, my email address got added to a distribution list for conservative political activist Richard Viguerie. I suspect it may be from some mass forwarded emails that some of my relatives send me that might give others the impression that I am interested in getting more of the same. But in any case, some of them have been interesting. This one here gets me chuckling a bit (and also agreeing,) watching the recriminations fly as Viguerie vents his spleen at leaders who I'm sure he once embraced as faithful champions of his cause. I don't really feel much pity or empathy for Viguerie... Lord knows that his agenda is still much more likely to be implemented in our country's political system than mine is. But I do understand the feeling of disappointment and futility that comes through in his molar-grinding sarcasm. I've certainly spent my share of time in that mind-frame over the past several years...

Top 10 Thank-You Notes for Nancy Pelosi to Send this Thanksgiving

By Richard A. Viguerie, Author - Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause (Bonus Books, 2006)

Nancy Pelosi, who stands to be Speaker of the House when the new Congress is sworn into office, is a smart politician, and one of the smartest things she and other Democratic leaders did this year was to step aside as much as possible and let the Bush Republicans and their backers self-destruct. She must be overflowing with gratitude to countless Bushies, so to make the transition a bit easier for her, I have come up with the Top 10 thank-you notes she should put in the mail this Thanksgiving…

Nancy Pelosi says "thank-you" to …

10. To Vice President Cheney, Bill Kristol, and their cell of “neo-conservatives,” for turning the Republicans into a Trotskyite party—just what Americans have always wanted.

9. To Rush Limbaugh, for his display of “compassionate conservatism” toward Michael J. Fox a week before the election.

8. To outgoing House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Illinois), for transforming a personal scandal involving Rep. Tom Foley into a GOP scandal.

7. To Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), for creating an engineering marvel worthy of the Roman Empire—their beloved Bridge to Nowhere.

6. To Ken Mehlman, Chairman of the Republican National Committee, for taking conservative issues off the agenda, except for his direct mail fundraising letters.

5. To former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), for paring every wasteful dollar out of the federal budget, thus creating a nasty image of the Republicans as the party of Uncle Scrooge.

4. To Karl Rove, for not reading Conservatives Betrayed, which would have awakened him to the dangers of making real conservatives unhappy.

3. To “Brownie” (former FEMA director Michael Brown), for doing such a heck of a job during Katrina, letting Americans see how prepared the Bush Administration was for a scheduled natural terrorist attack.

2. To Jack Abramoff, philanthropist, for his unlimited generosity toward his Republican friends.

And,

1. To President Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, for keeping their divorce a secret until the election was over.

Richard A. Viguerie, Chairman of both ConservativeHQ.com and American Target Advertising, Inc., pioneered ideological and political direct mail and has been called “the funding father of the conservative movement” for his role in helping build dozens of conservative organizations. He is the author of 5 books including the newly released Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause (Bonus Books, 2006).

The Mars Volta (w/special guest Red Hot Chili Peppers)

It's been overdue for over a week now, but here at long last is "my" review of the Red Hot Chili Peppers concert that took place in Grand Rapids on November 2. I insert the quotes because even though it's appearing on my blog, I didn't write it. Instead, I've assigned this one to my son Brandon, who was there as a fan and a paying customer, lending much more first-person credibility for having witnessed the entirety of the event than I could offer. I'll add a few more thoughts of my own afterward, but here's Brandon's write-up...

So, last Thursday I decided to check out The Mars Volta and the Red Hot Chili Peppers at the Van Andel Arena. I'd seen The Mars Volta before, when they toured with System of a Down last autumn. They're a band pretty well known for strange live performances. When I saw them last fall, they were okay. I had expected more, but for such a ridiculously layered, studio-effect-heavy band, such as they are, a live performance that doesn't quite sound like the album should be expected. Nevertheless, they did play some of my favorite songs from their then-new album, I love that song. They also utilized a pretty neat lighting set up, and four screens which floated around in the background, fed with footage from camera-men hiding slightly offstage. Naturally, the crowd was a lot more into them than TMV, and it was understandable why. They played an entire "best-of" soundtrack, with a little extra on their new album, Frances the Mute. They opened with "Cygnus...Vismund Cygnus" - the opening track to Frances, and went on to "L'Via, L'Viaquez" (both 15 minute jams, followed by another half hour from their first album, Deloused in the Comatorium). This time around, the performance was much less familiar. I hadn't even known of the existence of their new album, Amputechture, so when they played a few of the tracks which I, at least, NOW recognize, it was a little confusing.

And the fact that their drummer quit halfway through this tour didn't help anything. The instrumentalists spent a lot of the time experimenting on stage, improvising and generally rocking out for the bigger portion of their set. Cedric Bixler-Zavala, the vocalist, romped around, singing when necessary and causing a ruckus otherwise, running around into the crowd, throwing beers, and high fiving rows of probably confused fans. Not that their performance was unexpected, out of the ordinary, or even in any sense bad, but here's the thing: I'm pretty positive the Chili Peppers are bigger fans of the Mars Volta than most Chili Peppers fans are. John Frusciante and Flea (of the Chili Peppers) have shown up throughout the Mars Volta's work, and obviously enjoy the work that's being produced. But the Chili Peppers have attracted a much wider audience, probably due to the fact that their music is so much more generally appealing. The Mars Volta's albums never stop between songs - they couldn't really have a pop single, and most songs don't even really have a definite beginning or end. It's great to listen to on a CD - it's a completely immersive hour or so of intense musical composition, but it's not going to be listened to on a pop-rock station, it's not going to make a great ring tone, and it definitely won't top the charts as a catchy little diddy that everyone's got stuck in their head all summer. But it's okay!! The Mars Volta is an aquired taste, to be sure. And if I were to say I myself had fully aquired it, I'd not only look completely egotistical and snobbsh, but I'd be lying. They're deep, intriguing, weird, and totally awesome.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers were just what one would expect. After a packed stage full of the six or so band members and the plethora of instruments which The Mars Volta brought along, a standard four-man rock band seemed strangely simplistic. They came out, started playing a one- or two-minute pump up intro, which went into "Can't Stop."Stadium Arcadium, plus one Dave Matthews Band cover. I'm admittedly not a huge fan of the Chili Peppers - I went to the concert more to see the Mars Volta, but I was extremely impressed. I don't dislike the Chili Peppers, by any stretch of the imagination, but I had no idea that I'd end up loving it so much. Any song of theirs that one would recognize from the radio was played. The band was obviously into it, and the crowd was likely more so. They were clean, energetic, and totally pumped. I was happy watching them. All in all, the concert was a total blast - not just for people who are intense fans, but for the casual listener as well; I didn't have to know the words to have a good time.

(Me again...) So that's what Brandon had to say about the gig. I have a little more to add, but not as much as I'd like. Truth is, I really didn't see much of the show myself - even though we were able to leave the food stand early, Julie and I only stuck around to see them perform "Californication" and another radio hit, maybe "By The Way" or "How Long"... my memory fails a bit here. I would've stuck around longer if I was by myself but RHCP is definitely not Julie's "bag," musically speaking. Though she doesn't mind cooking with them (real red hot chili peppers, that is.) So I was able to appreciate the "neat lighting setup" (where do these kids come up with that slang?) and sense the crowd's energy level, which were both pretty impressive.

Like Brandon said, the Chili Peppers' set was full of familiar tunes that I've heard a lot on the radio over the years without actually bothering to purchase any of their music. "Dani California," their most recent hit, was the second or third number they played. I was pretty surprised at just how immediately recognizable their program of songs turned out to be - I still think of them as something of an "alternative" band, but that just goes to show how mainstream "alternative" as a genre has become. At least these days, the band is keeping their clothes on when they perform. No more tricks with the tube socks, now that they've grown up a bit.

The other significant thing about RHCP shows in Grand Rapids is that singer Anthony Kiedis was born here, though he grew up in LA. So that little factoid always gets brought up in the local press and he inevitably makes some kind of reference on stage - this time, he rattled off a list of small towns in the area, asking who was from where... and I think some childhood friend of his might have gotten a shout-out from the stage or even been a part of the show in some way.

One more word on the Mars Volta - the crowd reaction was mostly positive for the people who stayed in the arena, but I would say they were good for business as far as concession sales were concerned! :o) A lot of people spent time wandering the concourse and consuming munchies and liquid refreshments, not really knowing what to make of an opening act that performed four songs, each lasting about 15 minutes full of crazy-time-signatured free-form improvisational jams. But I thought it was pretty cool - the Van Andel doesn't get to hear bands that intense and wild very often, but The Mars Volta have played there twice in the past year. Somehow though, I have a hard time imagining them pulling off the headline gig. But then again, I would have never imagined that the band I first saw years before my own kids were born performing "True Men Don't Kill Coyotes" covered in fluorescent body paint on MTV would one day be filling 10,000 seat arenas, with my own son sitting there and eventually writing a concert review of said performance. So what do I know? Life is funny like that...

From Morning to Evening... I'm Booked

This is going to have to be quick... I may not have much time for blogging for a few days... My agenda's packed, has been since the middle of last week and it's like that through Wednesday at least.

Wednesday I facilitated the 27th annual meeting of the Institute for Global Education. I highly enjoyed getting together with many of my peacenik friends in the afterglow of election results that affirmed much of what we've been saying for the past six years or so and offered a warm round of applause in recognition of the end of Donald Rumsfeld's tenure. Not everyone affiliated with IGE is sympathetic to the Democrats - we have Greens, anarchists and other non-conformists in our midst, and I'm not a full-fledged Dem booster myself - so we still have a wait-and-see attitude on where things go from here. IGE's first annual meeting took place the night that Reagan was elected in 1980. From that to this... and another speaker, a man who was present at the beginning of IGE but has invested his energies elsewhere in recent years, also noted that Daniel Ortega has resumed his role as president in Nicaragua. So who's the real survivor in all this? Or are we just stuck on a giant revolving wheel of political fortunes? These are some lessons that life is trying to teach us, I suspect.

Thursday and yesterday were just busy work days - last night I was at my mom's most of the evening setting up my mom's new computer - a little Compaq/HP "appliance" that came together pretty easily, but she is having some internet access problems that I won't begin to describe here cuz it would take too long and isn't that interesting. One nice little highlight was that I stopped by Barnes & Noble and got a copy of The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld (2-disc set) for only $4. That pretty much completes my collection of the main Orb CD's... Anyone out there listen to The Orb? (I know Juanito has...)

Julie was up late into the night doing flower arrangements for our niece's wedding which is this afternoon. She's young - only 19 or 20 - and I may have more to say about this at a later time. I wish her and her new husband all the best but it just seems like they rushed into this... A lot of us in the family hold muted mixed feelings about it but it's a-gonna happen.

Tomorrow is the usual busy Sunday morning stuff... paper route, church, getting Lys back to her dorm... then some football, then I'm off to work the Bob Seger concert at night. So that's what I've been/will be up to. OK, gotta go gas up the van and load up the flowers!

So what is Bush really thinking now?

In some way, at some level, I have to assume that he is feeling a sense of relief. With Democrats close to taking over the leadership in Congress and the elections behind him, it seems to me that he no longer has to deal with the kinds of pressures from within his own party and the ideological hard-right conservatives who were counting on him to lead the way toward establishing their vision of what America ought to be. I had a chance to listen to Rush Limbaugh this afternoon as he fulminated about the election results, same as what Sean Hannity was doing last night, unable to rationally come to grips with the fact that their positions and hyper-partisan tactics turn out to have been a failure in winning the allegiance of most voters this time around. Not that I could ever sincerely project myself into Bush's position of leadership, but boy would I hate having to be part of a movement supported by guys like those two. I would find it really hard to just smile and put up with their blustering, but that's pretty much what Bush did and I guess it served his purposes for awhile.

Nor does he have to continue pressing for so many of the greedy, destructive, self-serving and short-sighted policy initiatives that were basically his mandate from the powers-that-be who placed him in the seat of privilege. Tax cuts for the rich, degradation of environmental safeguards, pressing the limits of expansion for presidential powers, the daily grind of a relentlessly hegemonic approach to foreign policy under the guise of "establishing and defending freedom"... all this and more filled up his cue cards and served as his marching orders, surely an oppressive burden to bear for any person, but especially so for someone who has given the impression from time to time over the years that he really wasn't all that interested in the more rigorous demands of the job.

But now he doesn't really have to worry about all that. He doesn't have to maintain the same indomitable posture in the face of bad news or work so hard to reinforce the ruse that contends that everything is perfectly under control. He doesn't have to labor under the pretension that he is God's appointed man at the helm, steering the ship of state. George W. Bush has entered into a new phase of his presidency, a new chapter of his life. It might even be the case that he could develop into a more likeable and sympathetic character in the minds and hearts of some of those who despised him, now that some of his shields and armor have been stripped away.

Yeah, I imagine that there's a part of him that is taking a bit of secret satisfaction at this electoral turn of events. Maybe I'm just over-empathizing though. I've never met the guy, you know.

Election Results, Debriefing & Analysis From the Source You Can Trust

I was up until about 12:35 a.m. this morning watching the late night election returns. I woke up earlier than usual and got out of bed to see what had happened on the overnight, discovering that the Senate majority was still unclear and that the Democrats had done quite well in winning a convincing share of the seats in the House of Representatives. Since then, it looks like Republican control of the Senate won't be lasting much longer either. OK, I could live with this...

However, I'm still holding a few reservations about just how spiffy it will be to have Democrats calling more of the shots, but I have to draw a fair amount of satisfaction from knowing that George Bush and Karl Rove and the Republican Party in general don't have an unshakeable control over the electoral machinery after all. Since watching how things went in 2000, 2002 and 2004, I was beginning to wonder just how skillfully they had rigged things up to make real their dream of a "permanent majority." Now I have a bit of relief that electronic voting devices, gerrymandering, graft in the form of campaign contributions and a subservient corporately-centralized media are not all being elaborately manipulated in order to prop the GOP in power for the rest of my natural life. I can feel the angst lifting, like shaking off a heavy burden of dread that I've been carrying around for several years.

At last, it appears that a semblance of checks and balances has been re-established. But that's mostly just the media-generated metanarrative that I've absorbed. We'll see how it actually plays out in the months ahead.

As I had the chance, I've listened to a lot of radio and TV coverage and been thinking about this past six years of discouraging political and cultural developments over the course of the day. My own personal governmental representation did not change in any significant way. The people on my ballot all either remained the same (governor, senator, congressman, secretary of state, attorney general, judges) or are cut from the same basic cloth (exchanging one term-limited Republican state rep and state senator for another who are more or less indistinguishable from their predecessors.) So the only thing really interesting about the election was the change in the leadership landscape and how it might affect national and foreign policies.

My bottom line assessment then, especially now with Donald Rumsfeld moving out of the Secretary of Defense role, is that President Bush has been persuasively exposed as a figurehead and disempowered to a significant degree - he can no longer pull off the "I'm the decider" act as smugly as he did when he had a congressional cover operation in place, nor does it seem likely that he will be so tempted to push through unpopular policies or legislation, like his privatization of Social Security or more corporate/superrich tax cuts, knowing that he won't have ideological henchmen in place to do his bidding. Cheney's clout will also diminish considerably. At least, that's the sensible outcome to anticipate. I suppose it's just as likely that something weird and disheartening could still happen... I can tell I'm still recovering from some of the attitudinal trauma that events have inflicted upon me over the past several years - it's hard for me to feel simple, unqualified happiness at the outcome!

But I'm glad to be at this point in the process, where Bush is pretty much a lame duck and the status quo has been tweaked a bit. I actually found myself at a point of agreeing with him and wishing him the best when I got to hear a bit of his press conference at 1:00 p.m. this afternoon - the opening portion where he acknowledged the Democratic gains and expressed his willingness to work in a bipartisan manner with the new leaders of Congress. I know that's just saying what he's supposed to... but it's nice to listen to the guy speak with just a touch of humble chastisement in his voice, saying things that don't just leave me shaking my head in dismay and disbelief.

So that's that. I will be able to, for awhile at least, observe the American political process through a lens of eager curiousity rather than anticipatory dread. It'll be kind of odd, and who knows how long it will last? I will be sure to let you know when the afterglow begins to fade...

Meanwhile, besides Ted Haggard, there's also politics to keep my brain buzzing...

Yeah. There's this election gonna take place tomorrow and it's guaranteed to set off a whole slew of controversies and finger-pointing and spin and ridicule and outrage and jaded, world-weary sighs as the results will be tallied, disputed and dissected for days and weeks to come. I haven't really had much to say about it over the past several months but I am going to be interested in whatever happens. I'm hoping that some kind of tilt toward the Democrats will take place only because I think anything that obstructs Bush's ability to pursue his agenda is a net positive, but I'm really not expecting anything magnificent and wonderful to come about just because the congressional subcommittees get new chairpersons. However it turns out, I think that two years of bitterly partisan gridlock is about as good as it's going to get and for all that, the USA could soon be dealing with even bigger calamities than the country has had to face over the past six years. We'll see.

But as far as politics in my neck of the woods is concerned, it's been pretty dull, really. I'm reasonably confident that Dick DeVos won't be elected governor, which is fine by me, even though he and his family have been generous supporters of the agency that I work for. I don't see any compelling reason to replace our current governor, Jennifer Granholm, who I at least enjoy listening to and watching on TV, which is more than I can say about any other political figure who claims to represent me on account of where I live. Vern Ehlers, my congressman, is kind of getting to that doddering stage of life (his analogies and arguments alternate between corny, predictably bland and non sequiters, kind of like late-career "Peanuts" comics when Charles M. Schultz would have done better to simply retire, to be honest) and my local/state representatives are humdrum bureaucrats who do and say just what is expected of them to appeal to the prevailing conservative mindset in this region. My senators could certainly be worse - Debbie Stabenow, who's up for re-election, isn't all that distinguished or inspiring, casting one mushily moderate vote after another, always careful as a one-term senator to not say or do anything that could be used to make voters mad at her. She's going to do fine tomorrow because the Republicans wound up nominating a doofus that doesn't appear to have connected with too many voters beyond the GOP loyalists who'd vote for any non-Democrat. Carl Levin is interesting in many ways - he has clout and a prominent role on the Armed Services Senate subcommittee, and he's taken the Bush admin. to task numerous times over the past several years. But I still feel I have to compromise quite a bit to vote for the guy because of his militaristic stance. Having said all that, oh there are so many worse senators that I could be stuck with than those two!

One congressional district over, Pete Hoekstra appears headed to another term, which is really too bad because his opponent, Kimon Kotos, would be an excellent guy to send to Washington D.C. I met him at the Iraq Invasion 3rd anniversary protest we held this past spring. Hoekstra thoroughly deserves to be run out of office but his district is quite safe and there are a lot of people who live there who I'm sure get a big ego boost from knowing that he heads the House Intelligence Committee. Hoekstra has been a most faithful apologist and water-carrier for whatever points the White House wants to circulate regarding their version of national security. Here is a video of Hoekstra in action from today's CNN "Situation Room" broadcast. Wolf Blitzer basically deflated Hoekstra's bogus analysis of the Iraqi documents that had to be pulled off the internet last week after the New York Times reported that they contained highly detailed information, in Arabic, on how to build atomic weapons.

I was so offended by my local newspapers timidity in covering this story that I wrote the following letter to the editor. I wound up having to shave 35 words off in order to meet the Press' guidelines, but I'll let you read the full version:

Why is the Press treading so lightly in its coverage of Rep. Pete
Hoekstra's crucial involvement in a dreadful security breach that could
help terrorists, Iran or other groups construct atomic weapons?
According to numerous reports, Hoekstra played a central role in posting
an archive of Iraqi documents captured in 2003 to the internet. For five
months, detailed charts and diagrams on how to build nuclear bombs,
written in Arabic, were available on the web, until just this week. An
abbreviated AP wire report in Friday’s edition of the Press acknowledges
Hoekstra's involvement and his apparently partisan motivation to
"unleash the power of the blogosphere" to find previously undiscovered
evidence of Saddam's supposed weapons of mass destruction that would
offer retroactive justification for the invasion of Iraq. Saturday’s
paper had nothing more to say about the matter. Apparently now that the
website is down, should we consider the situation settled?

Unfortunately for Hoekstra, and for our national security, this hasty
and ill-conceived experiment has had potentially catastrophic results...
much like the Iraq invasion itself. I'm embarrassed to see how our local
mainstream media has downplayed this critical gaffe by a very powerful
Congressman in our region, while at the same time offering two days
worth of front section coverage to the mild controversy surrounding Dick
DeVos' anecdote about a high school football game that took place 35
years ago. Indeed, it’s the blogosphere that Hoekstra hoped to harness
that is offering the most in-depth coverage of the role that he and
other politicians had in creating this mess. What exactly does it take
to make this a “big story“ to the editors of the Press? It seems like
this one has all the necessary ingredients.

OK, those are just a few of my political thoughts on the night before Election Day. As it turned out, I never wound up contributing any money to any candidates, nor did I work any phone banks, nor did I participate in any GOTV efforts, despite numerous personal exhortations that I received via email from my good friends Howard Dean, John Kerry, Barbara Boxer, John Conyers, Harry Reid, the Rev. Timothy Simpson, John Edwards, Michael Moore, Al Gore or the fine folks over at MoveOn.org. But I will vote tomorrow and I encourage you to do the same. But only vote for the candidates and issues that you really believe are worth supporting. There's no reason to cast a ballot on issues you don't understand or candidates you know nothing about. Most importantly, have fun with it, and hope/pray that something good comes out of it all.

God bless us, everyone!

Haggard Tossed Under the Bus

Despite some earlier statements of personal support and concern for Ted Haggard, a few prominent evangelical and political leaders are now coming forward with dismissive and minimizing comments about Haggard's influence and the significance of his moral failures. It's really so discouraging to see this - even though I don't consider myself an ally of Mr. Haggard or his particular style of Christianity, I'd like to think that his colleagues would be more willing to stand by him in his time of need. Instead, it looks like they're taking a much more utilitarian approach - Haggard is no longer useful in advancing their agenda so he becomes persona non grata and "never really was all that important to us" after all. I wonder how soon it will be before evidence of Haggard's White House visits will be removed from web sites, photos will be withdrawn from circulation, books and recordings of Haggard's preaching and teaching will go out of print and all traces of his formerly authoritative presence within the church will be expunged from the record?

"Jesus Camp" preview clip

I found this clip interesting and relevant to the Haggard story, even though it was produced prior to this week's collapse of his ministry. It features some excerpts from the documentary "Jesus Camp" and additional comments from the two women who produced the film.

More Ruminations on Ted Haggard...

I wrote the following as a comment on my friend Julie's blog last night. I'm putting it up here as well to capture more of what's on my mind regarding this story. And I have some further thoughts that I'm going to post later today...

Just before logging on here, I was running through the TV channels and saw a few televangelist guys doing their thing, preaching from various Bible passages, talking about prophecies yet to be fulfilled and using many of the theological phrases and images that take on the characteristics of cliches when I hear them with this Ted Haggard story in mind. I am not personally familiar with Haggard's preaching or teaching, so I don't have a strong impression of what his major themes or message would be - I think of him more as a "face" (and quite a memorable one at that) - probably the most I ever heard him speak was on that Barbara Walters special about heaven and the afterlife a year or two back... Even then, with somewhat limited exposure, I wondered about the guy - he seemed so slick, so canned, and just a bit odd. More recently, I saw a brief clip from the "Jesus Camp" documentary that showed him preaching and mugging for the camera - his routine there reminded me of Paul Lynde! So I wonder just what it is that made Haggard such a superstar in his genre.

But I can't see how Haggard's fall won't have a devastating impact on the faith and conscience of many people, maybe in the millions...? I don't know, really, how this is all going to shake down. But how can it not reflect poorly on the credibility of organizations like Focus on the Family and all the affiliated groups, writers, media ventures, etc. who are so closely connected with the cause that Haggard represents? To me, this is much worse than the Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart scandals of the 80's. Both of those men could be seen as aberrations from "mainstream" evangelicals. Even though Haggard seems to have had his own "cult of personality" around him, he hadn't gone so far out on that limb of making himself the clear star of the show. His ministry had all the marks of legitimacy and seriousness that Bakker, with his theme parks and time shares, and Swaggart, as the epitome of the vainglorious holy roller, didn't bother to spend time cultivating. And it does make a difference in the minds of many that Swaggart and Bakker got involved with women rather than men. Add the meth thing too... just incredible!

You make the point about the people who ought to be the most capable of maintaining their moral and ethical commitments failing so badly. It does make me wonder how much longer groups like Focus on the Family will be able to sustain their image as "the experts" on moral and ethical issues. I haven't seen them in this way for many years now... in fact, I've regarded Dobson as a flim-flam guy for a long time, just on account of his regressive views of child development and how to be an effective parent.

The video clips of Haggard that have been released over the past few days are chilling because they demonstrate just how accomplished he's become at using techniques to phrase and sell his version of truth to audiences to suit whatever purposes he has for each occasion. I suppose that he is as caught up in the twists and turns of his own deceptions as anyone in all of this and it may take quite an extensive unraveling process before he is able to lay everything out plainly enough to figure out where he's really at.

Susan's comment is much more concise than mine, but the question is worth pondering - does all this God-talk and pious exhortation of others and ourselves have any discernible impact at all in shaping our character? Would we all do things along the lines of what Haggard did if we convinced ourselves that we could get away with it?

Ted Haggard Loses His Prestige

On Halloween, my wife Julie and youngest son Derek went to see a movie. Our family has never "done" Halloween, mostly because Julie was raised in a family that didn't believe in participating in the festivities for religious reasons. Even though I have some fun and happy childhood memories of dressing up in costumes and roaming the neighborhoods in pursuit of candy, I never felt the need to overrule Julie's objections. So our tradition has been to get out of the house and do something else before the trick-or-treaters arrive on our doorstep. In all these years, we've never had our house egged or otherwise been given reason to regret our withdrawal from this particular American ritual.

The movie we chose was "The Prestige," an interesting tale of magic, rivalry and revenge that takes place in the Victorian era. A good portion of the film is set in the town of Colorado Springs, which interestingly enough is the location of a real-life illusion that has just recently been brought out into the light. Of course, I'm referring to the revelations that came out yesterday about the Rev. Ted Haggard, pastor of New Life Community Church and president of the National Association of Evangelicals. Colorado Springs has changed quite a bit from how it was depicted in "The Prestige" (and I'm not going to give any spoilers away about why the plot takes viewers to what was at that time a fairly isolated mountain village.) Colorado Springs is a major hub in the network of evangelical church and parachurch ministries, such as Focus on the Family, Compassion International, Young Life, the Navigators and the International Bible Society. It's also home to the United States Air Force Academy. In short, Colorado Springs is a significant place and a highly symbolic location where big-time religion, money and power come together quite prominently on the American landscape. (This article from Harpers.org, written last year, offers some fascinating insight into Haggard, his church and their impact on the Colorado Springs area.)

Tonight, it looks like many if not all of the rumors have received enough confirmation to lead the church's board to dismiss Rev. Haggard outright, rather than just grant the leave of absence that made headlines yesterday. It remains to be seen just how hard of a fall he'll take, or what his long-term response to this crisis will be. Will he seek restoration to some degree, or will this rupture in his public image lead to a fuller breakdown and change of direction in his life? Will he come out as a gay man, leave his wife or in some other way revise his theological and cultural beliefs and pronouncements? These and other questions immediately spring up as the reality that a highly influential, visible and charismatic leader in the church has conducted himself in ways that leave millions of people wondering just what was and is going on in the lives of people they've trusted and respected so deeply.

The "prestige" spoken of in the film of the same name has nothing to do with "glamor" or "high status" or most of the other definitions that we commonly attach to that word. In every magic act, there are three components (this is explained at the very beginning of the movie.) First there is the "pledge," showing the audience something quite ordinary. Next comes the "turn," in which the ordinary thing disappears. The trick is made complete by the "prestige," when the ordinary thing amazingly and mystifyingly returns.

So Ted Haggard has lost his prestige, in both senses of the word. His ability to perform convincing preacherly sleight-of-hand has been lost (at least temporarily,) and he is no longer so highly esteemed in Christian circles, needless to say, having conducted a colossal act of betrayal, as his most loyal followers hardly have any choice but to interpret it. Infidelity to his wife is one thing, but to go down as an internationally famous pastor purchasing meth-fueled gay sex in a hotel room, perhaps over a period of several years... wow, that is just an amazingly sleazy way to lose it! Sorry to come off so judgmental, but I have to wonder how this guy expected to pull off that kind of a trick over the long haul without expecting to get exposed sooner or later.

The interpersonal psychology of all this makes for fascinating speculation, to say the least. And I am not entirely without sympathy for the man, knowing that I have endured my own struggles with living completely within the boundaries set for me by the evangelical subculture. I'm happy to have worked through what I think were the most difficult parts of my journey and still have a life and marriage that are healthily intact! But I can identify to some extent with some of the pressures that might have pushed Ted Haggard in the direction that ultimately led to this personal calamity.

What I don't doubt, and actually live in constant amazement of, is my confidence that in all of this, God is able to provide opportunities for redemption, growth and healing for the people whose lives have been affected by such turns of events. Once again, it's just not going to happen according to the patterns that conventional wisdom would lead us to expect or predict.

All's Quiet on the Blogging Front

I'm just dropping a short note in here to let people who stop by regularly know that I'm doing fine but I'm busy with other projects at this time and haven't felt like I had much to say here. I will be working a Red Hot Chili Peppers and Mars Volta concert on Thursday night so if nothing else, that ought to generate another music review. Maybe I'll start feeling more reflective and philosophical this weekend, but for now I'm just taking care of practical, mundane business in my own life and job which doesn't make for very fascinating reading... so I'll spare you the trouble!