A Sign of the Times?

Last night, I finally put out my Bush-Cheney yard sign, and this morning, it was gone. Considering that the area has lots of Bush signs it was rather disheartening to see that mine had been stolen and a nearby Kerry-Edwards sign had been left untouched.

Undeterred, I went back to the Bush-Cheney HQ and got a replacement. Oddly enough, shortly after putting up the new sign, I went to answer the door and my neighbor was there asking why I had a Bush-Cheney sign laying in front of the door. When it was returned is beyond me — I had not been out that door today, but apparently the sign thief brought back the sign. I'm curious if it was a guilty conscience or a desire to avoid getting caught and charged with theft and trespassing, but at least the sign is back in my care.

The new sign's frame remains up tonight, but the actual sign is in the great indoors until tomorrow morning when I will put it back up again. The local campaign volunteer suggested this measure as a good way to avoid having it damaged or stolen. Apparently a lot of Bush signs have been slashed and otherwise vandalized in the last few days (including one owned by a gentleman who was ahead of me in the line to pickup a sign). It seems to be another case of the vitriolic Bush haters that have been raiding Bush-Cheney offices and stealing signs across the country.

The Writing in the Shadows

I often set goals that I'd like to accomplish that I know I likely will not. Other goals are long lasting and may not be reached for some time, but hopefully will be reached sometime over the course of months and years. I've written somewhat about this before, but one of those goals is to accomplish a few things with the written word that would be far more meaningful than small articles and commentaries. I mentioned these writings in passing in the last post, but what kind was I referring to? I am glad you asked.

In particular:

• A novel — yes, I'd like to write a great American novel. I've actually started on one, but never had time to take it very far. I have three chapters written as it stands — the first and second chapters of the story are in place, so the basic framework that sets everything in motion is done. I also have one chapter that might be toward the middle of the book, right before the climax of the story.
• A play — I've started one of these too (can you see I have a hard time sticking to one project at a time?). I'd like to write a good tragedy in the tradition of those of past times. A tragedy has a unique and powerful emotional impact and I have some ideas on how I'd like to harness that impact.
• A non-fiction book — I like fiction, although my speciality has been and continues to be non-fiction. I'm just not sure what I'd write here. I know I'm a bit odd for wanting to write a non-fiction book but not knowing what it would be about… but, hey, you already knew I was odd, did you not?
• A collection of sonnets — this is something that needs to accumulate over time, not be done quickly. So, I've started writing them when something occurs that seems like it could be captured well in this form. The sonnet form is challenging, yet its iambic pentameter seems to flow quite naturally for many thoughts. What will I do with these sonnets? I don't know. Maybe they will stay on my hard disk forever, maybe I'll post them online… who knows.

As I said, these are long term goals I cannot begin to complete anytime soon, but inch by inch I come closer to eventually realizing them and I think the process — almost as much as the end result — will make it worthwhile.

Why the title? Well, for one thing, the play and the novel both have a dark tone to them, so they are most definitely on the shadowy side (that also explains why the events I've been whining about this week would be helpful). Also, as I noted, I'm not sure any of these things will ever come off my hard disk, so they are, indeed, in the shadows. If you want to know plots… well, you are just going to have to live with a cliffhanger here — I don't want to spoil the plots!

Moving Forward

The bad day that I cannot really talk about continued on through the rest of the week. One component of that day has to do with a problem that I talked about earlier this year (but won't bring up specifically here because there will be nothing gained by it), which has grown and a new set of back stabbing — as Ed perceptively picked up — has ensued.

The far worse part, the one I was directly referring to in the other post is totally unrelated and doesn't have anything to do with backstabbing or the like. The impact of it will reverberate for sometime, although I have come much more to terms with it over the past few days. God will have His timing to wind things back up for me, and I am confident that He will. That is sometimes hard to tell one's self, but I believe it to be true. In the mean time, I'm attempting to use some of the resulting meloncholy as a “muse” for writing — so far, it has helped, albeit not on any writing of any real use at this time.

Go Crazy!

Yes, the Cards trounced the Astros and St. Louis has become flooded in red. It was a nervous night even for those of us who happen to be people who usually do not follow sports. The team did great and the town, as always, showed itself to be a truly good sports town: we don't wreck our town when our team wins. Even people from Houston had to admit our city is a friendly one.

Watch out Boston, you are going down next!

Bad Day

Nothing serious… I'm sure in a few weeks it will seem trivial. But today, it seemed bad — its one of those aching, raw, in the pit of your stomach feelings that just moves in for awhile. Unusual for me — I'm usually the kind that bounces back from undesirable occurrences pretty quickly. But for now, I'll just have to deal with it without even being able to post on what led to it. sigh You know, it strikes me how important blogging has become to me — now I feel lost when I run into something important I can't “chew on” by writing a posting about.

Sorry to be depressing. It was a mostly good day, in actuality, just overridden by one disappointing event. I was going to go back on the blog-based campaign trail tonight, but I just don't feel up to it.

Oh, in happier news, GO CARDS! I was worried when it got into the twelfth inning tonight — we couldn't be defeated by those “nasty Texans.” I may not be a sports guy, but even I can't help but root for the home team.

Just In Case You Were Wondering...

…the case I am using now for my iPod is a the WaterField Designs Super Dooper ipod case. I'll be reviewing it in more detail once I've tried it out awhile longer, but overall, it seems really nice. It fits nice and snug around the iPod and provides easy access to all the stuff you need to be able to get to. It also doesn't leave any part of the iPod, that is likely to bump into things, open and able to be scratched.

I got an iPod Case today...

…I'll tell you about it tomorrow.

I'm a Republican, or My Serious Look at Peroutka

When both John Kerry and the debate moderator challenged Mr. Bush to say if he is for or against Roe v. Wade, Mr. Bush was silent, saying only that he would have no litmus test for judges which means, of course, he would have no pro-life, anti-abortion litmus test. In other words, Mr. Bush is saying that the abortion issue is so unimportant that he would not, in any way, make it a qualification for any judges he would appoint.

I think most people know President Bush would likely select pro-life judges. What the president has always insisted on, though, is that he should not have a litmus test on judges. We should not re-legislate from the bench. If a perfectly impartial judge would find that nothing in the constitution bans abortion (I'd be surprised about that!), then the proper solution would be to pass legislation in Congress not to appoint judges who are biased and legislate from the bench — even if that legislating from the bench going “our way.”

This is important. Judges should not rule based on their personal opinions, but on the constitution. President Bush's one qualification for judges is that they be strict constructionists. If we are confident that the constitution is on our side, then a strict constructionist would support the pro-life cause. The key is that he should support the cause because of his strict interpretation of the constitution, not because he reinterprets the constitution as a partisan just like the liberal activist judges.

II. On Free Trade
Peroutka advocates the dangerous policy of withdrawing from the WTO and NAFTA (and, if you didn't guess, he does not support the Free Trade Zone of the Americas). Here's the problem with that: free trade is the only economically sensible position, in my estimation (backed up by most economists that I know of).

In the global market, it is necessary, for instance, that I can get computer components as affordably possible from Japan, Taiwan, etc. (Note, I do have problems with not restricting trade with China, but I'm talking as a whole here.) Moreover, free trade works both ways: if countries can freely export to us, we can freely export to them. Placing tariffs and other restrictions on imports from countries with normalized relations just causes problems: take, for instance, the recent retaliatory tariff war between the U.S. and the E.U. that hurt Florida produce growers.

Isolationism is not an option.

Moreover, even though keeping jobs in the U.S. is a noble cause, first you are going to have to show me the American workers who want those jobs. The country seems to be no longer interested in manufacturing jobs, so if you try to stop imports, what do you do? You cause a government induced shortage. We should instead let the invisible hand of the market guide itself. Here's where I'll tip my hand towards libertarianism. We ought to keep the government out of trade as much as possible by making trade as free as possible.

III. On Civil Rights and the Defunct Confederacy
I'm of the mindset that completely equal rights between those of different skin colors is part of the inalienable right to freedom given to us by our Creator. That does not mean I support affirmative action and other reverse discrimination policies, instead, I think the government should just stay out of the issue as much as possible (albeit, I'd keep equal opportunity requirements that prohibit racist policies by employers, etc.). In other words, I support the “colorblind” policies advocated by the Republican Party.

So far I have not found any direct remarks by Mr. Peroutka on the issue, but having a Confederate Flag on a link to “Southerners for Peroutka,” which itself links to a page with a Confederate Flag on a capitol building speaks volumes. Delving into that (apparently) official site then takes one to a set of books on topics such as “Why Jefferson Davis was Right.” Is Peroutka running for president of the Union or the Confederacy? Moreover, the “We Have a Dream” captioned picture of the capitol with a confederate flag seems to strongly indicate a backlash against Martin Luther King, Jr.'s “I Have a Dream Speech,” based on the allusion made by the quote juxtaposed with the picture.

Is this the kind of stuff we would want in a president of the United States?

Old Spaghetti Factory

I tried the Old Spaghetti Factory for the first time last night. I was a bit concerned about it, since I'm not really one for spaghetti, but it turned out very good. I got the Breast of Chicken Fettuccine with a side of sausage — both excellent choices! The nice thing about this restaurant is that the meal is a complete meal. For eight bucks, I got the chicken and pasta main course, a salad, bread, iced tea and a scoop of very good ice cream.

I had heard about the Factory location downtown, but that was a bit out of the way. This location, in Chesterfield Commons, is much more convenient. Better yet, I have a reason to go back — after filling out the survey on the receipt, I received a coupon for free garlic cheese bread.

Blog Spam

For the first time, my blog is being hit by blog spam. Since my blog requires a confirmation to post, I think it is fairly unfriendly to the average stupid spam bot, but someone has been on here posting generic posts of anti-Bush quotes over the last few days. If that person reads this, I do consider “boiler plate” comments — those written to go anywhere and everywhere and not specifically in response to this blog — a form of spam, and I will take the necessary measures with your ISP to put an end to this if you do not cease immediately (yes, I have logged you).

Don't play games with me.