Mary and Paul in Madrid

More on the Lawyers of Atocha

Austin, who spent a year in Spain when he was in college and later taught Spanish in high school before going to law school, read the post on Los Abogados de Atocha and did some research on his own.

He told me that a print of the Genoves painting was hanging in the Atocha law office when the assassins burst-in. The blood of the lawyers spattered on the print. The painting was already famous in labor circles, but then it became a sort of icon and the basis for Genoves sculpture.

I got the book.

"Dietary cholesterol . . . has an insignificant effect on blood cholesterol. It might elevate cholesterol levels in a small percentage of highly sensitive individuals in a small percentage of highly sensitive individuals, but for most of us, it's clinically meaningless." Taubes, Good Calories. Bad Calories at p. 19.

He also makes the point that the increase in heart disease during the twentieth century occurred because other, infectious diseases were being dealt with successfully, allowing people to live long enough to die of a heart attack. While it is true that the increase in heart disease occurred at the same time that it appeared that Americans changed their diets to more meat, eggs, etc. (an appearance that may itself be inaccurate because of the problem with getting good numbers in the early half of the century), the mere association does not mean that there is a cause and effect relationship between eating dietary cholesterol and heart disease.

Mary has a great new post up!

Over here. (It includes a mini-review of "Iron Man", and much more.)

Swim Class

As it turns out, Aidan's swim class was just him and our neighbor's son. They had the teacher, "Miss Kate". You may notice that another class is going on at the same time led by "Miss Nora" (Miss Kate's mom).

They are fantastic teachers, and Aidan has really enjoyed himself. Everyday he has been nervous to start and slow to get into the pool, but once he is in, he has a fabulous time and does a great job of following directions. He even swam underwater for the first time yesterday! YEA, AIDAN!!!! Friday was supposed to be their last class, so they got medals and lollipops. Their Monday class this week was canceled, though, so they actually will still have one more class as a make-up class this coming Monday. If any of you lurkers out there are looking for a great swim class in Austin, please check out Nora Martin's Swim School

Oh, and you have probably noticed the very cool tree house (with slide that you cannot see). This is in the front yard for siblings to play on while their brother or sister has a lesson, or it's there to play on if you get there early. VERY FUN.

"Iron Man"

The WSJ movie guy just loves this flick, coming out today.

We need a full report from the usual suspects. (Or do I have to go over to Sean's blog to get some intelligence.)

I Love This Country

I ordered from Amazon the Gary Taubes book, Good Calories. Bad Calories. It arrived today.

In the Amazon box with the book were coupons from McDonald's, one for a free southern style Chicken Sandwich and the other for a free southern style Chicken Biscuit for breakfast.

Today's "Well, Duh!" Award goes to . . .

The Florida Legislature.

"The Healing Pen"

Tim Stafford writes about Philip Yancey. (Thanks, Carol.)

A Trusting Generation

The WSJ includes a "Personal Journal" section. (It would be where the sports section of an old fashioned newspaper would be - think about that a little.) "Personal Finance" is the topic of this section each Wednesday.

There is often a techie column in the Personal Journal and one appears today. The techie column is generally entitled "The Mossberg Solution", although it's often written by an apostle of Mr. Mossberg, not the great man himself. This particular column is entitled Tracking Your Money Without Paying a Mint, by Katherine Boehret. Ms. Boehret writes about a new website, Mint.com, that will help a person track his or her wealth, and it sounds very clever and maybe even useful.

But what strikes me about this site is the amount of personal information - maybe all of one's financial information - that must be linked to it in order for the thing to "work". I am simply amazed at Ms. Boehret's trust in the integrity (and competence in terms of security matters) that she expresses in the site. Somehow the image of sheep being led to the slaughter comes to mind. On the other hand, maybe I'm just over the hill as far as our culture is concerned.

When the internet age was in its relative youth and the matter of putting information "out there" in cyberspace was under discussion, I was surprised when one of my partners, a Harvard grad about 15 years my senior, expressed a great reluctance to join the cyberspace community. It was the matter of security that worried him. He said "I don't want to put another hole in my boat" by going on line with identifying information. I thought that was an interesting metaphor, and instructive.

But by now there is so much information already "out there" about me that the Mint will probably make little difference, unless it is one hole in my boat too many.

On Doctors "Getting a Life"

Interesting article in today's WSJ.

"Good Calories Bad Calories" Redux

I had the opportunity today to view Walter's post entitled Carbs not Calories. It's unusual to have a post from Walter, so I regard them with great interest. He usually refers to something important, if often in a very brief way.

While Walter's Carbs not Calories post looks brief, it is actually a Google Video that has a lecture that lasts over an hour. I had been wanting to find time to view it, and I had the chance this afternoon. In the video, Gary Taubes, a science journalist of apparently great renown, author of Good Calories Bad Calories, challenges the basic hypothesis of weight control (weight is a direct function of calorie intake less energy expenditure) and would replace it with "Dietary carbohydrates = insulin = storage of fat."

While we have heard this before in the popular "fad diet" press (the Atkin's diet being the most famous), Taubes does a very good job of showing that the old hypothesis has not been able to explain obesity in vast numbers of people in cultural settings other than white, middle class America, but the "new" paradigm does give that explanation in all cultures and is, in fact, based on nutritional science that was pretty much settled by 1949.

As I listened to the lecture I thought about Weight Watchers, which, when I began attending, was founded on the old paradigm and, to a very important extent, continues to be so today. But over the years I have attended, I have seen a subtle shift towards the idea of "good" calories vs. "bad" calories. And within the last two or three years WW has added an alternative approach called "Core". What "Core" does is allow one to eat as many "Core" foods as he wishes, but keep a "Point" diary with regard to "non-Core" foods, that is, limit non-Core foods. The "non-Core" foods tend to be carbohydrates.

If Gary Taubes is correct, then the weight loss I have been able to achieve arises not merely because I have eaten less, but because I have also shifted my eating to "healthy foods" (a big part of WW now) and, in lowering the amount of food I eat in the first place, lowering the amount of carbohydrates. So far WW has yet to come out and expressly disavow the old paradigm, but it may get there at some point. Meanwhile, I think I know what to do.

The Lawyers of Atocha

Our "hostal" in Madrid was on Calle Atocha, just a few blocks up from el Museo del Prado. Up Atocha further is small square in the middle of which is a monument to "Los Abogados de Atocha."

These brave lawyers were murdered in connection with labor demonstrations in 1977. I love the statue: professionals dressed for work, but with overcoats because they are outside their offices, in a circle, arms over one-another's shoulders, the way team-mates on a soccer field embrace. But it is not a game they are playing. I love the joy and solidarity that the statue shows, and I was not even able to see their faces from where I stood below. But I really didn't need to.

It made me so proud to be a lawyer.




But the statue is not necessarily of the lawyers embracing each other. The statue is known as "El Abrazo" by Juan Genoves. He did a painting on the same subject, prior to the murders, and the painting became an icon of the anti-Franco forces in Spain. When a movement arose to remember the lawyers with a monument and Genoves was asked to cast a statue, it was the painting that supplied the image. More here about El Abrazo.

"Two Income" Tax Trap

A Glenn Reynolds post links to a discussion of the "two income trap", and the link is worth reading. The point of the writer is that income tax increases over time have made a huge difference in a family's discretionary income, and he notes that two earner families suffer a very significant tax burden, a sort of vicious cycle: the second income brings in additional taxes and expenses related to the second income, so that the marginal increase in discretionary income is far less than one would have thought without a careful analysis.

One interesting point made in the link is that housing costs increased because parents moved into school districts that had better schools, driving up prices for homes in those neighborhoods. A second income appeared to be necessary in order to afford that housing, thus raising demand and, then, raising prices further.

As we were raising our children, we saw that happening in a neighborhood called "Pinecrest" in an area south of us about 8 miles. There was an elementary school there, called Pinecrest Elementary, that had a great reputation. It drew young families to the neighborhood who did not want to send their children to private schools. The elementary school got even better, because the families who sent their children there were involved in the school: here was sort of a benign cycle at work.

We decided to stay in Miami Springs. The schools were OK, but not great, although the Middle School had a below average reputation. Carol stayed home and did not get a second job outside, and she watched what was going on in the schools our children attended like a hawk. She was also very involved in the elementary school they attended, pulling of an effective coup against the entrenched leadership of the PTA that was at war with the very gifted principal (some anti-Semitism on the part of the deposed clique I think), and was otherwise involved as a "listener" in a program that did not involve our children (She was already a careful listener at home.)

I do not know whether Miami Springs is any longer affordable for young families with one income. It may not be. I have, however, been more and more impressed with home-schooling families, and maybe that's an answer for those who must live in a less affluent neighborhood at the cost of a poor public school nearby. I am not talking about home-schooling to avoid the "godless humanism" attributed to "government schools". I am simply talking about getting a decent education for one's children.

In any event, if one of the parents is disposed to stay at home with the children, it seems to me that, before reaching for that second income, it would be worth doing a very careful analysis of the costs of the second income as compared to the alternative of intense involvement by the stay-at-home parent in the local public school or, if that seems to be impractical, actually home-schooling the children.

Despair Article

Here's a new article on Despair.

Moyers Interview of Wright

Here is a quote from a recent New York Magazine article by John Hellemann that reflects what I am reading in a number of other places as well:

And Obama isn’t merely losing godly ground among white Catholics. Whereas in Maryland and Wisconsin he outpaced Clinton by as much as 30 points among regular churchgoers of all stripes, in Pennsylvania she whipped him by double-digits among the observant, while he did best among those who never attend religious services. At the same time, whereas Obama used to routinely thump Clinton among voters describing themselves as conservative, moderate, and somewhat liberal, in Pennsylvania the only ideological cohort he carried was the self-described “very liberal.” In a flash, a candidate who once was hailed as post-partisan, post-ideological, and post-racial was looking like a typical secular lefty, with a base comprising college students, African-Americans, and upscale “progressives.” No wonder, then, that [the political writer John] Judis—but not just Judis—has started to wonder whether Obama might just be “the next McGovern.”


Helleman points, of course, to the Jeremiah Wright problem as being one of the difficulties that moved Barack into this situation. Carol and I watched the Bill Moyers interview of the Rev. Mr. Wright on PBS Friday night. It was worth watching, despite the uncritical way (to be generous to Mr. Moyers) that Moyers conducted the interview. (For example, he didn't bring up Wright's charge that AIDS is a US government conspiracy against black people.)

About the most we can say in Wright's behalf is that he seemed much more human to us during the interview than we thought of him before. However, it is patently obvious that he is profoundly outside of the mainstream of US political and religious culture and he preaches a "Black liberation theology" that appears to me to be plainly racist. He tried to explain the "sound-bites" on the basis of his theology, but that made matters worse for us. Furthermore, when Moyers asked him about Obama's remarks that sound like a repudiation of Wright's point of view (at least to me), Wright smiled gently and said something like "Barack is a politician and he has to say what he needs to say. I am a minister, and I have to say what I need to say". This sounds like we are dealing with two different worlds here, the political world, on the one hand, and the religious/cultural world, on the other, where there are two truths or, at least, there is license to say whatever is expedient to say at the time.

On the other hand, it is important to become acquainted with Wright's perspective, not simply to be able to make a decision regarding Presidential politics, but to understand what a significant part of the Black community is saying to each other, to see that there is a view of history shared by a significant group of our fellow citizens, abetted by left-wing academia and American Christianity, that holds that the US is no better than any other "empire" in history, no better, for example, than slave holding Rome or the Soviet Union. Their reading of history concedes nothing, for example, to the progress our country has made in racial justice over its history. It visits the sins of the slave-holding fathers (without qualifying that group by observing that slave holding was not universal nor universally approved) to the succeeding generations, that is, to those generations that were able to be born because their fathers were not slaughtered during the Civil War, among other American wars we could call just.

I have mentioned Clarence Thomas' memoir, My Grandfather's Son, before. He dealt with a racism that was as harsh as anything with which Wright might have dealt. He was terribly angry about it and was involved in radical groups while he was at Holy Cross. But he made his way out of that trap, as the memoir indicates, and it is a fascinating part of his story. Rev. Wright's way is not inevitable. But it may be inevitable that Obama's association with him and his church will lead to Obama's loss of the Presidency.

UPDATE: Ann Althouse has a much more thorough review of the Moyers' interview.

A 'Cane

I'm not only a 'Canes fan, I am connected to that academic community. Each year I go through the trauma of preparing for and the pleasure of teaching a one week course in the Graduate Program of Estate Planning at the University of Miami Law School. I just finished this year's class.

This link takes you to a web page at the law school's website that describes the program. At the top of the page is a photo of this year's class taken at a luncheon we had on Tuesday at Viscaya, a beautiful park in Miami with an Italian Villa that was many years ago disassembled in Italy and reconstructed on the present Biscayne Bay site about four miles south of downtwon. I went to the luncheon and am on the top row, on the extreme left. Our associate, Kim Martinez-Lejaraza, who is in the program, is on the front row, fifth from the left. (If the picture that comes up does not have me up there on the last row, then refresh the site and another photo will appear. That should have Kim and me in it.)

Buyer Beware: "Freehold Licensing"

Both the Florida House of Representatives and the Florida Senate have unanimously voted in favor of Senate Bill 464, which would, with certain limited exceptions, void "transfer fee" covenants purporting to encumber Florida real estate. Lawyers in Florida are writing Governor Crist, asking him not to veto the legislation.

According to an email I recieved from the Executive Council of the Florida Bar's Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section, the transfer fee scheme originated in Texas. Pursuant to this scheme, a property owner reserves the right to receive a percentage of the sales price for future sales of their property for many years after they sell property, including sales to remote purchasers many years in the future. The scheme is promoted on the internet by a company named "Freehold Licensing," which is seeking to patent the arrangement and charge prospective property sellers a licensing fee for use of its form documents.

The Executive Council unanimously voted in favor of the proposed legislation, and the Section leadership firmly believes that this scheme has no place in Florida for a number of reasons, including the following:

(1) Long-standing public policy favors the marketability of property, free of title defects and unreasonable restraints on alienation.

(2) The proponent of the "transfer fee" covenants scheme, Freehold Licensing, has a strong profit motivation for seeking the veto of the bill since it hopes to secure significant licensing fees from the scheme.

(3) The imposition of covenants which would require the payment of fees each time property is sold will adversely impact the marketability of property.

(4) Property subject to transfer fee covenants will be worth less, but prospective purchasers may be unaware of the negative impact of such covenants on the value of the property until they attempt to sell the property.

(5) The imposition of transfer fees upon the sale of property will further erode property values in an existing depressed real estate market.

(6) Other, more appropriate, approaches are available to fund infrastructure improvements, including homeowners' associations and community development districts, which are accountable for the manner in which the funds are spent.

(7) The purported imposition of "transfer fee" covenants is likely voidable as an unreasonable restraint on the alienation of property or because they fail to "touch and concern" the affected property, but, since the amount of the fee in any individual case, may not be sufficient to justify litigation to overturn the covenant, it is appropriate to address this issue via a legislative enactment.

(8) This scheme has been criticized by legal commentators.

You might want to keep an eye out for this scheme appearing in your locale, especially if you are getting ready to buy real estate. I do not know whether it is presently legal in Texas.

Carbs not Calories

San Juan de los Reyes

San Juan de los Reyes is a church in Toledo that Ferdinand and Isabella built with the intention of it being the place where they would be interred. (The architect was Juan Guas., according to Wikipedia.com) But when they conquered Granada and expelled the Moors completely from Spain, it was in Granada where they finally chose to be interred, not Toledo. The church in Toledo remains, however, and is located toward the top of the large hill on which Toledo is built. There is a is a little plaza in front of the church, and it overlooks the surrounding area. I stood there and took this video.

As I thought about these monarchs, their great victories but also their expulsions from Spain of the Jews and Moors and the installation of the Inquisition, I began to think of them not so generously. (After all, I am a Democrat.) Then we visited this church. I noticed an odd decorative feature on the outside walls, chains arranged on them hanging down. Carol read about the church from the guidebook, and we were informed that the chains were those of Christians whom Ferdinand and Isabella freed from the Moors when they took Toledo. Ideologically I moved a bit to the right at that point. Reality has a way of moving people in that direction, I think.

Intelligent Graffiti/Posters

One thing I noticed on our trip to Spain was that a good bit of the graffiti was political. Mary posted one graffiti example among the photos she put up on this post on her blog. My photo here shows a bill that I saw stuck up in several of the cities we visited. Mary's photo shows an unambiguous anti-abortion statement.



The organization that printed the bill is izquierda-unida, which means "united left". This is some sort of political party or movement that describes itself of the left. I think it curious that the post seems to include an anti-abortion statement. On the other hand, if you look at who is doing the hand holding in the second two pairs of figures, we can see that the the bill is also promoting equal rights for same sex couples. Maybe it's simply promoting the right of a same sex couple to have a baby if they want and is not anti-abortion per se.

Albayzin Entertainers

In Granada there is the "old Muslim quarter", known as the Albayzin, north of the Alhambra, up the side of a hill and across the gorge from the fortress. Mary, Carol, and I took a bus from Plaza Nueva, in the center of the small city, that wound its way up to the district. At the Plaza St. Nicolas in the Albayzin there is a mirador, a sort of overlook. Two gypsies were entertaining the tourists and behind the gypsies was the Alhambra. I put my Canon A630 into video mode and, to my amazement, it turned out!

Self-defense Upgrade?

"The Judge".

Barack, Gun Control, and Personal Happiness

Somehow I was getting the impression that, compared to Hillary, Barack was likely to be a better truth teller. Wrong.

And, generally speaking, I'm a happy person, not really bitter at all.

Hello, Miami!

We arrived to simply beautiful weather in Miami this afternoon, about 3 PM, after a smooth, 9 hour flight from Madrid. (Saw two movies, "August Rush" and "Freedom Writers", finished reading "The Shadow of the Sun", having read the Clarence Thomas memoir on the way over, "My Grandfather's Son", which was simply outstanding.)

Mary, Carol and I were up at 6 AM Madrid time this morning, ate a breakfast in our room and were at the airport via taxi before 8AM. At the airport, we had a last round of cafe con leche (with Carol having her tea and zuma), having sauntered up to the bar just like the Spanish do, ignoring the tables.

Mary's flight was to Casablanca, retracing her steps. There she would meet her friend Jill and fly to Dubai, a flight of 9 hours alone; then a long, long layover for a flight down to Nairobi, which will also be be 9 or so hours. She and Jill will essentially spend the night at the airport in Dubai. Grueling.)

But in Madrid's airport, Mary's gate was near ours, and we saw her off. We remarked how the travelers to Morocco were mostly men. The women seemed to be mainly a few tourists and Mary. It was hard to see her go. It will be so good to have her back in the States in just three months.

Back in Madrid. Whew!

This afternoon we arrived back in Madrid after two nights in Toledo (Spain, not Ohio, although I took a photo of "Calle de Toledo de Ohio." Weird.) Before that we were in Cordoba for two nights, and then two in Granada, where I last found an internet-connected computer. We have slept well, ate mostly fine, and saw a lot of sights: so many that we are ´way overloaded and may never process it all. One regret is that I didn´t take a little notebook to jot down observations and comments. On the other hand, there is the seemingly limitless opportunity to take pictures with the digital comera, although it is no substitute for the profound insights that may be lost to humanity (or at least to this blog).

Carol and I have enjoyed Mary so much. She is, of course, a superlative guide, and she never stops thinking about the issues presented by a given situation, whether it be which church it would be all right to skip and which tavernia will not clip us too badly. And it is so nice simply to be with her - we just wish the rest of the family could be with us too. (And you too, Sean.)

Beyond saying that little bit, I will just say farewell until tomorrow, God willing, when Carol and I depart Madrid for Miami and Mary for Kijabe, via Casablanca, Dubai, and Nairobi.

Snowcones!

This first photo captured one of Aidan's first experiences with "Brain Freeze."


And these other photos. . . well, they're just cute. Props to Macon for such fabulous photographic skills.


Should you ever get the chance to visit Austin, may we recommend stopping at one of our local "Sno Beach" snow cone stands? They are truly an amazing experience. They probably have around 50 flavors and you can add cream or ice cream should you so desire. Aidan orders by color (e.g., "I want green and white please"...{lime with cream}). I almost always get the pina colada with cream, and Macon varies his order almost every visit. Honor has only had two snow cones, both of them plain ice. She didn't seem to mind that there was no flavor, but shamelessly enjoyed shoving handfulls of shaved ice into her mouth in between bouts of trying very very hard to get some or any snow cone to stay on her spoon.

Words

Signs Honor knows at almost 15 months:
1. milk
2. more
3. all done
4. bath
5. book
6. cat
7. bear
8. light
9. fan
10. butterfly
11. sleep
12. dog
13. duck
14. hot
15. baby
16. fish
17. sun
18. big
19. hat
20. phone
21. diaper
22. squirrel
23. eat
24. bird
25. bunny
26. elephant

(and she can sort of sign "I love you")

Words she can say (or enough for mommy and daddy to understand):
1. ma-ma
2. da-da
3. bubba
4. ball
5. hi
6. bye bye
7. out
8. up

Sentences:
1. Bye Bye, Da-da

Lately, she has been learning at least a few signs a week. She seems to really enjoy using her signs and not just to point something out. sometimes, I think she signs with me just to communicate and connect. I will walk in her room and she will point out the fan, the light, and her elephant. She will make signs for them all and as I sign them back to her and say the words out loud, she will get a huge grin on her face and then laugh. She's not pointing out anything new, she's just talking with Mommy. She seems to get great satisfaction from this connecting and I am LOVING both the connection and her evident joy from being able to do so. What precious times these are.

Saw the Alhambra

The Alhambra is why tourists come to Granada, although there are other places to see, including but not limited to a hospital that has been in existence since the Middle Ages, the Arab quarter (to which was connected a Jewish quarter - they weren´t always at war with each other, especially with fierce Christians bearing down on them) with shops in narrow alleys that reminded Mary of Morocco, a simply magnificent cathedral, adjacent to which is a chapel where Queen Isabella, her husband Fernando, her daughter "Juana la Loca", and Juana´s husband, Felipe are interred, and a university with a law school.

The Alhambra sits upon a boat shaped mountain that dominates the small city of Granada(pop. about 260,000), the prow of which is the Alcazara ("alcazar" means "fortress" in Arabic), the midsection of which are stunning palaces built by Moorish kings and a Renaissance palace built by the grandson of the Isabella and Ferdinand, the power couple who conquered Granada in 1492, and, finally, the stern of which made up of gardens and the remains of the "medina", the medieval town that developed safely within Alhambra´s protection. (The boat metaphor is not mine, but may have been first coined by Washington Irving, whose Tales from the Alhambra lead to a rediscovery of what was a nearly forgotten and neglected colossal relic.)

Connected to the Alhambra by a bridge which spans a deep gully is the Generalife, a sort of "country palace" built on a nearby ridge by one of the later Moorish kings. I found most striking about the Generalife its carefully tended gardens that even in the rain were beautiful and fragrant.

To get to the Alhambra, we got up early, had breakfast at our pension, and took a short bus ride up the mountain. We were inside the gates before 9:00 AM. We walked back down the mountain (in the rain) about 1:30 PM, having seen far more than we could digest, and had lunch in a plaza far below Alhambra's bow in a Pan & Company" shop, Spain´s version of a fast-food restaurant. (We were too tired to explore the side streets for an interesting cafe or tavern.)

Now, having taken about 90 minutes to nap and to refresh in the snug sala of our pension, we are ready to roam again.

If it´s Tuesday, then . . .

We must be in Granada. Yes, we are in Granada. We awakened this morning at about 6 AM at our ¨hostal¨ in Madrid, just a ten minute walk from the Atocha railway station, and arrived at the station in plenty of time to catch the train to Granada. It was fine just to sit in a comfortable coach for four hours, after spending three plus solid days of mainly walking.

Carol and I left Miami a little after 6 PM on Friday, and arrived in Madrid about 9:30 AM Madrid time, getting only fitful sleep on the way over. The Madrid airport terminal is less than two years old, and simply striking in its beauty and function. We took a cab to the Central District and, even though it was early, our room was ready for us, with a very gracious hostess. Mary arrived safely from N.Africa that night.

¨Hostal¨ is a term of art, I think, and means a small hotel with limited services. but a few more than a ¨pension¨. (Ours was actually a hostal residencia, because it had no restaurant.) For us it means ¨cheaper¨ and also, because Carol and Mary carefully checked the particular place out on the internet before making the reservations weeks ago, clean and very convenient to the sights - about 5 minutes to El Prado por ejemplo.

We went Reina Sofia, the national museum of modern art, on Sunday morning, and it was free that day. There we saw Picasso´s Guernica. And then that evening we went to El Prado, also free, because it was Sunday after 5 PM. El Prado had opened a new section since we were there 6 years ago, a section featuring 19th century works, and I saw a huge painting of Queen Isabella having her Last Will prepared, apparently from her death bed. My heart went out not to the Queen, but to the poor lawyer transcribing it all at her bedside, with the rest of the family apparently gathered around. Naturally, we went by the museum store on the way out and I bought a print.

As we were waiting in line for El Prado, we discovered that the middle aged lady in front of us lives in Deerfield Beach, FL, although she is a Spaniard from the Basque country and, in her retirement from Proctor and Gamble, she lives in Madrid several months a year. Her grown daughter was there in line too, but had gone off for a Starbucks (I saw three Starbucks in Madrid!) She told us that Spain´s economy is struggling with the Euro (actually, we have been struggling with the Euro) and has other economic problems, but, as to the US, I was shocked that she equated President Bush with Venezuela´s Chavez. It made me understand even more thoroughly how unsuccessful the President has been in presenting a simpatico spirit to Europe and other parts of the world. But what a grotesque comparison.

And as I looked around Madrid, and even here in Granada, I saw a lot of construction and rehabilitation under way, including the ubiquitous tall cranes of the sort that have dominated Miami´s skyline for several years. So I am not so sure that Spain is doing all that poorly, even with its present socialist government. Spain had a very long way to come from Franco´s days, and it is by now a thoroughly modern place. Downtown Madrid reminded me of nothing so much as New York.

There is so much to write about, but I need to let Mary look at her emails, so I will sign off. (We are using a computer at the bed and breakfast, actually a sort of pension, where we are staying in Granada.) Adios, familia y amigos y amigas.

Reading My Way to Spain and Back

Taking to read for the long, roundtrip flight to Spain (leaving tomorrow):

My Grandfather's Son: a Memoir, by Clarence Thomas. I read the preface and first two pages of the first chapter today and had to force myself to stop so I would have it to read on the trip; it is that well written and interesting. He wrote it himself.

Shadow of the Sun, by Ryszard Kapuscincki. This is non-fiction too, about Africa, and a recommendation from Mary. I'm about 1/4 of the way through it. It's good too.

A New Earth - Awakening to Your Life's Purpose, by Eckhart Tolle. A friend at church asked me to read this and talk to her about it. This is an Oprah Book Club selection, and the author is some sort of spiritual sensation. So, Oprah is covering the waterfront here: politics with Obama, religion or "spirituality" with Tolle. I never heard of Tolle until last Sunday, but then I read about how popular he is. I'll give you a complete report.

NIV Bible: So I can keep up with the chronological readings our men's group started on January 1.

Latest issue of World Magazine. Came in the mail today.

Tomorrow's WSJ.

iPod with the last several Mars Hill Audio programs on it.

I have some of those noise cancelling earphones too. Totally prepared.

Notice Anything?

Now, some of these photos are fabulous (in focus and great shots) while others are not, but that is not the point. Did you take note of the red scarf? We have taken note of the red scarf. She puts it around her neck almost every day, yes, that's right, folks: almost every single day! The girl just loves to accessorize!!!

How on earth did I ever birth such a girly girl?

"Deliveries to My Office"

Recent general email that I sent to my fellow travelers here at the firm, after I discovered several things on my desk that had been there since Bill Clinton's first term and that I had never noticed before among the rest of the clutter:

Please do not put things on my desk. Always put them in the in-box, unless I am in my office. In that case, you may give them to me personally, provided that you wave your hand before my eyes to be sure that I am aware that you are in the office. (I get a little pre-occupied sometimes.)

If the pile in my in-box falls over when you place your delivery in it, then please come find either Susana or me.

Thanks.

Yes, it's that bad.

Just Another Day in Paradise

Mall shopping (or, as we say it here, "chopping") in Miami-Dade.

Churches Emerging from the Hispanic Culture in Miami

Even the Miami Herald can trip over something timely and important.

The Body/Spirit Heresy

Our friend Marlene and her grown daughter Annelies visited us this past week. Marlene is, in addition to being a fine mother, a pastor's wife, a former adjunct professor at Montreat College (and soon to rejoin that faculty), a board member of important agencies and organizations in and out of the PCUSA, a Christian feminist, and a great, great friend, especially to Carol. We have known Marlene, husband Gary, and Annelies for many years. In fact, knowing them has been a signal blessing on us and our family. We have had many conversations with them, and often topics will come up again, and we will resume our discussion after an intervening time of many months or even many years.

The topic of body/mind came up again. I think I brought it up, because I have been thinking about the Incarnate Christ a good bit. It is a theme that Ken Meyer revisits often at Mars Hill Audio ("MHA"), and now that Carol has helped me figure out how to download MHA's MP3s (the secret is to hand the device to Carol and ask her to download them), I am now a regular listener again. What I have been thinking about is the question of "Where is Jesus?" For example, people say that "Jesus is in my heart", and when they do I am not sure what exactly they mean. Jesus, it seems to me, is "gone". He left. We receive him during communion, in some way, but I don't think that Presbyterian's are quite where the Roman's are. (Of course, I know we are not.) God's presence now is his Holy Spirit, at least on a daily, ongoing basis. If we have some sort of authentic sensation of the Deity, I think the Holy Spirit would be it, wouldn't it? Anyway, that's the sort of thing I have been thinking about.

So we started down that path, and somehow managed to get over to the problem of women who, once they marry a man, become the Blessed Virgin to themselves and their husbands. It wrecks God's plan for the marriage bed. Those marriages, especially when they are supported by a religious culture that forbids divorce (the same religious culture that supports this erroneous view of Mary, the mother of Jesus), is pretty horrible for all concerned. Our thesis is that "sex" and "love" have been wrongfully bifurcated in our fallen culture, and that they are intended to be a unity in the marriage relationship. From that perspective we can, for example, have a pretty good idea about how insidious is pornography.

Of course, there is nothing new about any of this.

But there is something new about this splitting of the idea of mind (or spirit or soul, I use those terms interchangably, and maybe that's not correct) and body and it is an exhibit going around the country called "Body Worlds". Wikipedia has a good article on this exhibit. It has been to Miami and I have seen advertisements for it on billboards, but I didn't really know what it was about until I heard an interview of art historian Michael J. Lewis on MHA this morning. Lewis has written an article about the exhibit in Commentary here. It's worth reading. Body Worlds is an exhibit of human corpses that have been preserved by a technique developed by a German physician and anatomist, Günther von Hagens, in which a plastic substance is injected into bodily tissue after all of the bodily fluids have been removed. As a result, decay is forever arrested and the body or body part can been studied and, now, exhibited in a commercial and colorful way.

What does that say about where we are in the mind/body (or soul/body) conversation our culture is having? Not much good, I would say.

AND ANOTHER THING: I can't let this thing die (?) without mentioning Old Man's War, by John Scalzi, a terric SciFi novel that Macon gave me. It deals with every middle aged man's fantasy of being a warrior, and deals with it very well. But there is also a sort of reanimation theme developed. Scalzi's view, as I discern it, is thoroughly materialist, and that is that the soul (or self-consciousness at least) is simply the sum of the material parts of one's body.

We are So Cute!

How Big is Honor?

Soooooooooooooo Big!!!!!!

The Money Shot

Hello on Monday

This week is Spring Holiday week for the Miami-Dade District School System, and that fact is noticeable when considering the much easier traffic. In fact, the sort of peace that has settled on the community began on Friday, when the school holiday began, and it lasted through the weekend into this morning.

And why did the holiday begin on Friday? The Spring Holiday is a sort of living fossil of Easter holidays, and so, of course, on Friday the system was closed. (Wasn't that a good Friday, now?) Will the time come when nobody will remember why the school system's Spring holidays begin on a Friday? That time, I am sure, is already here for many people.

We had some late-middle aged people visit our church Sunday for the worship service. Lynn particularly welcomed them (they were otherwise strangers), and found that they were refugees from University Baptist Church, one of the relatively few semi-mega churches that we have in Miami. They were looking for a church with traditional music, and I guess we looked as though we might be that church from the outside. Sorry. Lynn invited them to stay for the light lunch that we have after our service, but I saw them head for the parking lot right after the service. They are not interested in what our community of faith looks like; they are interested in the music. Now I would feel uncomfortable at UBC, I think, but it would be because I wouldn't know where the sub-communities are in that large assembly. But if I hung in there, I might find some real faith centers. But the canary in the coal mine must be "Just as I Am", all stanzas, at the end of the worship service. If it's not there, the bird is dead, and I'm out of here.

Not that I particularly like the Praise Music. What it must have is constant refreshing, in my humble opinion, and at our church we recycle the same songs each Sunday and have been doing so since Macon introduced such music as our worship leader the summer before his marriage to Kellsey. Now and then we get something new, but the genre itself has such a consistently low quality output, as most popular music does, that the potential classics are few and far between. I do like what is being done with some of the old hymns, and I hope we will have more of those old wine vintages in (oops) new wine skins.

The other thing about "the Contemporary Service" idea is that it needs to be upbeat with some excitement and pace. We need to "feel" the Spirit. It must be diverting and emotional, and, may I say it?, entertaining. Somehow the Holy Spirit really must come when we have just the right combination of beat, song, and caffeine, and some good looking people up there, preferably younger ones, with good voices.

(I must apologize for all that. Moving on.)

This is a busy week, as Carol and I are trying to get things fastened down so we can go to Spain on Friday and be able to forget the office for awhile.

You should see Macon's photos on his Facebook page, especially of Honor and her doll. Macon, would you put that one up over here? (I don't know if you can access Macon's Facebook page - that entire site is still something of a mystery to me.)

Short takes: The Davidson-Kansas game was exciting, but bittersweet at the end. I finally saw The Bourne Ultimatum. I'm sure the small screen diminished it's impact, but my reaction was "ho-hum", especially to the third act. I'm reading a terrific piece of non-fiction, Marine Sniper: 93 Confirmed Kills, the story of Carlos N. Hathcock II, a Viet-Nam era scout/sniper. He makes Jason Bourne look like a school-child, a cardboard school-child. (But would Jesus read that book? Or is that question impertinent?)

Energy Independence?

Not likely.

The Hon. Clarence Thomas

Mr. Constitution.

Culture Makes All the Difference

Glenn Reynolds points to this disturbing article written by Emily Yoffe in Slate on out-of-wedlock children.

In her article Yoffe refers to Mitt Romney's campaign withdrawal speech. It's a very good speech and well worth reading. Here is the excerpt from the speech to which Yoffe refers:

Over the years, my business has taken me to many countries. I have been struck by the enormous differences in the wealth and well-being of people of different nations. I have read a number of scholarly explanations for the disparities. I found the most convincing was that written by David Landes, a professor emeritus from Harvard University. I presume he’s a liberal–I guess that’s redundant. His work traces the coming and going of great civilizations throughout history. After hundreds of pages of analysis, he concludes with this: If we learn anything from the history of economic development, it is that culture makes all the difference. Culture makes all the difference.

What is it about American culture that has led us to become the most powerful nation in the history of the world? We believe in hard work and education. We love opportunity: almost all of us are immigrants or descendants of immigrants who came here for opportunity—opportunity is in our DNA. Americans love God, and those who don’t have faith, typically believe in something greater than themselves—a “Purpose Driven Life.” And we sacrifice everything we have, even our lives, for our families, our freedoms and our country. The values and beliefs of the free American people are the source of our nation’s strength and they always will be!

The threat to our culture comes from within. The 1960’s welfare programs created a culture of poverty. Some think we won that battle when we reformed welfare, but the liberals haven’t given up. At every turn, they try to substitute government largesse for individual responsibility. They fight to strip work requirements from welfare, to put more people on Medicaid, and to remove more and more people from having to pay any income tax whatsoever. Dependency is death to initiative, risk-taking and opportunity. Dependency is a culture-killing drug—we have got to fight it like the poison it is!

The attack on faith and religion is no less relentless. And tolerance for pornography—even celebration of it—and sexual promiscuity, combined with the twisted incentives of government welfare programs have led to today’s grim realities: 68% of African American children are born out-of-wedlock, 45% of Hispanic children, and 25% of White children. How much harder it is for these children to succeed in school—and in life. A nation built on the principles of the founding fathers cannot long stand when its children are raised without fathers in the home.

The development of a child is enhanced by having a mother and father. Such a family is the ideal for the future of the child and for the strength of a nation. I wonder how it is that unelected judges, like some in my state of Massachusetts, are so unaware of this reality, so oblivious to the millennia of recorded history. It is time for the people of America to fortify marriage through constitutional amendment, so that liberal judges cannot continue to attack it!

Europe is facing a demographic disaster. That is the inevitable product of weakened faith in the Creator, failed families, disrespect for the sanctity of human life and eroded morality. Some reason that culture is merely an accessory to America’s vitality; we know that it is the source of our strength. And we are not dissuaded by the snickers and knowing glances when we stand up for family values, and morality, and culture. We will always be honored to stand on principle and to stand for principle.


I believe that the book by David Landes to which Romney refers is The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some Are So Poor.

Why Thank You, Dave Barry!

A way out of the Florida Democratic Party primary mess.

"OK . . . ,"

"Let me get this straight.

"You are a Christian. You are a lawyer. Your kids are out of the house.

"But you still provide legal services for rich people.

"And this is happening."

. . . .

"Ok, just checking."

More on Short-Term Missions

"Robert J. Priest (MDiv '82), PhD, is professor of mission and intercultural studies and director of the Doctor of Philosophy/Intercultural Studies Program at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, where he has served since 1999. Previously, he served as a professor at Columbia Biblical Seminary and School of Missions and as a pastor. Born to career missionaries, Dr. Priest was raised in Bolivia and eventually returned to South America to conduct anthropological field research."

Dr. Priest wrote this positive article in the Trinity Magazine on short-term missions, using as a case study two summer mission trips of North American Christians to Peru. (The biographical paragraph quoted above is from the magazine.)

He concludes his article as follows:

The center of Christianity today, in terms of both numbers and vitality, has shifted south into Africa and Latin America. But the center of material wealth and power remains in North America, Europe, and parts of Asia. Short-term mission groups play a key role in bringing Christians from resource-rich portions of the world into collaborative projects of ministry and service with Christians living faithfully under conditions of great economic and social constraint. When short-term mission trips are underpinned by humble service, sacrificial stewardship, and wise leadership, they potentially make important contributions to the global church.


(The Trinity website can get you to some scholarly studies on this subject. I read a reference to Dr. Priest elsewhere, and I did a search on the website with "short-term mission priest" and found a trove.)

Christian Development Trip

On a subject we discussed on the blog recently, I received this email from a friend:

MISSION INJUSTICE 3
"CARING FOR THOSE WHO HAVE SUFFERED UNDESERVING HURTS"
July 10-July 23rd, 2008

Hi,

Hope everything is well with you and your family! I'm
writing this letter to inform you of an opportunity
for you to be a part of an awesome mission trip this
summer. This summer the Miami Vineyard Community
Church will be focusing on serving three different
communities: Rwanda, Africa/ Laos/ and Juarez, Mexico.

I will be a participant on the Laos Team. I am very
excited about this opportunity to go and be the hands
and feet of Jesus Christ by serving the people of
Laos.

Laos: Working in partnership with the Missionary
Family, The Berry's, we will be focusing on building a
long term relationship with the local ministries in
Laos. This will be a mission's experience that will
mobilize members of the Miami Vineyard to help with
the practical needs of the Berry Family and
neighboring villages. Ministries will include: light
building construction, and encouragement and prayer
for local ministry workers and residents.

Estimated cost: $3,000 per person

I want to challenge you in two ways to partner with me
in going to the Laos mission trip.

1. Prayer Partner
Partnering with me in prayer is one of the most
important ways someone can show their support for me
on this trip. So if you are a person of prayer, please
consider being a prayer partner for me.

2. Financial Partner
Another important way to partner with me is through
your financial support for this trip. My total cost
will be $3,000, with a deposit due by February 06th
and the balance due in the following increments: $500
due on 3/5/08, $875 due on 4/16/08, $825 due on
5/7/08, and $750 due on 6/4/08.
I am hoping to get 10-20 people to support this effort
with $50 in support by each deadline date.

PS- I'm still a little short for 3/5!

There are two ways you can unite with me in realizing
this God-given desire:
1. If you would like to specifically help support my
costs in going to Laos, please write "my name" and
"Laos" in the memo line of the check and mail to :

Miami Vineyard Community Church
14301 SW 119th Ave.
Miami, Fl. 33186

Your support contributions may be tax deductible.
Please consult with your tax advisor.

2. If you would like to support the general Mission
Injustice Laos Fund with your tax-deductible donation,
please write, "Misssion Injustice Laos" on the check
and mail to the name and address listed above.

I am so very grateful for your consideration in
partnering with me on this mission trip. I pray you
will hear God's voice on how to best collaborate with
me in this challenging and inspiring mission.

My friend is a layperson.

I certainly like the "encouragement and prayer" aspect. Do you think, then, that this is more than mere Christian tourism? What about the cost? $3000 could buy a lot of school lunches in Steve Peifer's program, not to mention in the programs that the Berrys, the missionaries in Laos, are probabaly conducting. Would you feel more comfortable if the writer added something like, "I know that my participation in this trip will not change the world, and that it is likely more to change me. But I need changing, as we all do, and God is far more than merely capable of taking the mixed offering of my time and your money and making it effective for his kingdom."

Melissa's Wedding Cake

Krispy-Kreme. Really.

(More wedding photos here.)

It's OK, I'm a doctor, and the dead don't come back to life

The exception.

"Development Tourism"

Ouch!

Mary sent me this post on a third-party's blog, for discussion purposes only. She added this comment on the post:

He [the blogger] doesn't factor in the value that the experience has on the short term tourists, in terms of their education or their future impact. But if it's about the tourist, then, and not what they'll give, then they should change their ideas from the start.

John Barry is a fellow teacher here this year--he's on a furlough year from his ministry in Lesotho (yes, furlough working at RVA; he's from Zimbabwe, so I guess you don't want to be going back there these days. :) Anyway, he's great, as is his family, and he mentioned that he would love to see "short termers" come with an agenda to witness and pray--that, he says, is valuable work that can be reasonably accomplished in a short time.

UPDATE: The third-party who posted the negative comments on "development tourism" somewhat moderated his views, and Mary brought that to our attention in her comment. Here is the blogger's "revisit" to the subject.

Sean's Boss Bursts a Bombshell

The WSJ Journal reports this morning on the resignation of Admiral Fallon, the head of the Central Command, which runs the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and would be involved in a war with Iran. The WSJ article quotes Adm. Fallon's resignation letter in part as follows:

"Recent press reports suggesting a disconnect between my view [about a war on Iran and the long-term usefulness of the "surge"] and the President's policy objectives have become a distraction at a critical time . . . "

The WSJ article goes on to report that the precipitating "press report" was an article by Thomas P. M. Barnett in the April issue of Esquire. Mr. Barnett, according to the WSJ, wrote that a premature departure by the Admiral could be a sign "that [quoting Barnett's article] the president and vice-president intend to take military action against Iran before the end of this year and don't want a commander standing in their way." Read Barnett's article here.

The WSJ writes that "the resignation makes Adm. Fallon one of the few high-ranking military officers to leave active duty amid tensions with the White House since President Harry Truman fired Gen. Douglas MacArthur during the height of the Korean War."

None of this is good.

UPDATE: On it editorial page yesterday, the WSJ editors seemed not to think it was all bad, either.

Church and State and Southern Baptists

The Southern Baptist Church in which I grew up, studied the Bible, memorized scripture and came to Christ venerated the idea of the separation of Church and State. Roger Williams was our most famous non-Biblical, historical figure. Part of our budget went to support Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Not that politicians were absent from our congregation. The most famous of our members (at least locally) was the Hon. Claude Pepper. But perhaps the most respected politician I saw at our church was Brooks Hays, a member of the House of Representatives from Arkansas, who put his political career on the line when he attempted to mediate the controversy between Governer Faubus and President Eisenhower, over the President's threat (finally carried out) to send troops to Little Rock to integrate the public schools. Hays lost re-election because of that reasonable posture, and visited our church soon after that. Later he was elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

So the Baptists knew politics, no doubt about that. But that's not what you heard from the pulpit. You heard about how Jesus lived, how he treated others, and from whom he came, why he came, was crucified, and rose on the third day, and how that gave all of us the opportunity for a new life. Somehow the clergy trusted the laity to make the connection between the call to model Jesus and how to deal with political and social issues as they arose.

The Presbyterians looked at the matter differently, as I learned in the 70's as Carol and I became active at FPC in Miami Springs. When Anita Bryant led the Christian charge against a proposed county ordinance to make discrimination on account of one's sexual preference as unlawful as discrimination on account of race or gender, our minister at the time not only preached against the ordinance from the pulpit but also organized transportation to the polling places from the church office. (The minister later left our church on account of sexual misconduct himself.) I have never been comfortable with outright politicking from the pulpit. It simply does not belong there. (Sorry Mr. Olansky, Dr. Dobson, etc,)

The WSJ has a fine article today on the IRS investigations into churches that take political positions. The article features Sen. Obama's minister, but the issue is much larger than that particular case. I think the IRS has it right, and I hope the agency continues with its efforts vigorously.

As I read the WSJ article, I thought about Islam's view that politics and religion are, by necessity, conflated, that they are or should be one and the same. How are American Muslims to understand that particular error if the Christians are not scrupulous about the separation of Church and State?

And so I read with astonishment that a group of Southern Baptist "leaders" have signed a declaration on climate change.

Has the Gospel been spread so thoroughly, have the needs of widows and orphans been sufficiently addressed, are the needy no longer with us, have church members reached such maturity that these clergy can spend their time getting involved in a politicized scientific controversy? What in the world happened to the Southern Baptists?

Kith and Kin Band Photo

Cupcakes, Austin Style

Walter, Morgan, Kellsey, Aidan, Honor, and I had cupcakes today on South Congress (pronounced, "So-Co" if you're hip and so new to Austin that you have no idea how dumb you sound when you say it). The establishment is called "Hey Cupcake!", and the delectables are sold out of a shiny Airstream trailer sitting next to the sidewalk


Note location of restrooms.


Even the napkins are fun!


Guess which one didn't get a cupcake!


At least I was kind enough not to eat mine right in front of her.

Not as Much Fun at Parties???!!!

Night owls are more creative, more flexible and more caffeinated, studies have found. Morning people are healthier, more conscientious and more emotionally stable. They're not as much fun at parties, but morning people run the world . . .

-Melinda Beck in today's WSJ.

Eee!

What do you think?

Melissa Got Married

We had a fun-filled weekend when Melissa Dewhurst got married in our church, returning to Miami Springs from New York City for the wedding, groom in tow. Friday night was the rehearsal dinner at La Carreta. The wedding was at 4:30 PM on Saturday and the dinner followed at the Miami Springs Country Club.




Melissa, Scott Fleming, and Melissa's parents, Jack and Lynn Dewhurst



Jack's brother, Don Dewhurst, was in the balcony of our church, taking pictures.



The Dewhursts economized by using local talent to do the singing.

(We posted on Melissa's engagement party here.)

UPDATE: For more photos of the wedding, go here.

A Muslim Doing God's Work

Muhammad Yunus.

Cable, Uverse, and AppleTV

So, I have recently been going through the process of attempting to save money and rethinking how much money we spend on TV. When we moved here, we set up our house with Internet, Phone (unlimited local and long-distance calls), and cable (digital with a DVR that we rented from Time Warner monthly). It cost us about $150 a month. This is A LOT, but we thought that it would be nice to be able to call anyone anywhere (in this country at least) without any added cost. We liked the internet service as it was usually quite fast, and though we did not really want digital cable with all of its 275 or more channels, we did want the DVR and you have to get digital cable to rent the DVR. We LOVED having the DVR. It was fantastic to watch tv when we wanted to instead of planning a night around when something would be showing. We ended up watching much less TV that way since we weren't surfing for something to watch, but only sat down to watch when we had something already recorded (not to mention that it took less time to watch a show since we could fast-forward through the commercials).

As this next year approached, we began to wonder if we could afford to send both kids to preschool or if it would be too much of a stretch for our budget. So, I began researching ways to save money. Lo and behold, I got something in the mail from AT&T about how you could bundle their phone, internet, and TV services and I would not have to pay for 275+ channels. I could pay for uverse100 which only had 100 channels. I could buy a refurbished Tivo for only $50 with the rebate and could then pay for a lifetime of the product tivo subscription. All this and we would save $480 a year. This seemed substantial to me and worth the loss of unlimited long distance calls (especially since we use our iphones for most long distance calls anyway).

My experience with AT&T has been less than stellar. To begin with, they messed up my order from the very beginning and I had to go through all of their call holding while waiting a second time to go through their verification by a third party process. I think it must have taken me 2 hours just to get the order in. They scheduled me for Feb. 12. That day came and so did the TV and internet guy. Unfortunately, the phone guy did not come. After calling in 4 or 5 times and spending (no joke) about 3 hours of talking with several different representatives and waiting on hold, I finally got it straightened out and had to go through the third party verification process AGAIN. They said they would come the 22nd. About the 18th I get a call saying they cannot come then. Can they come the 27th? No, I have to take my son to preschool. Can they come the 28th? yes. (ARGGGGG!!!!!!!!). Will they remunerate me for the days I have had to pay for service with TIme Warner even though I was no longer using them? (I was told not to cancel with TW until my phone was switched so I wouldn't lose my phone number. HOwever, when the TV and internet guy came, he had to pull out the TW router in order to install the AT&T one, hence the loss of my ability to access my phone line or set my home security alarm.) Yes, they would make a note to the adjuster's office that I was to be reimbursed.

So, on the 12th my tv and internet were working. I decided to try setting up the Tivo. No go. You have to have a working phone line to set up your Tivo. So, I have to wait until the 28th.

On the afternoon of the 27th, the AT&T people show up. They are a day early and I was not expecting them, but I tell them to by all means go ahead and connect the phone. They do.

So, I set up my TIvo. After MANY hours of much internet research and time on the phone with Tivo helpers, I finally get the Tivo to control uverse on my TV. Unfortunately, for some reason my Uverse is no longer working. I disconnect it from the Tivo to see if that is the problem. not the problem. Uverse simply will not work. It will show a program for 10 to 30 seconds and then freeze. No matter what channel you put it on, it is the same.

Macon says he is ready for Apple TV.

I research it. We can get the biggest Apple TV for less than the subscription service we paid to Tivo (which they refunded to us very kindly). We can buy all the episodes to all the shows we watch (which are not that many) for $350 a year (which is less at least $150 less than we would have paid for uverse). So, we make the switch.

We hooked up the Apple TV in less than 15 minutes. We had no problems doing it once we told the TV the right source to look for. We immediately rented "3:10 to Yuma" and watched it that night after putting the kids to bed. Good movie.

The only show I cannot get that I want to watch is "Smallville". It is beyond me why they will sell you episodes of now canceled "Veronica Mars" but will not sell you episodes of currently running "Smallville". Ah, well, I can live without the show. All of our other favorites are available via itunes.

So, my conclusion is that dropping cable and picking up Apple TV is a FABULOUS and very EASY way to go! We still watch TV when we want to and do not have to plan our lives around when something crops up on TV. We don't even have to fast forward through commercials because there aren't any! woo-hoo!

I think the only thing I will miss is being able to click over to the weather channel. But then, I do have www.weather.com.

The State of the Union, Viewed on a Saturday Morning

Mary and I have been exchanging emails about a US General who is an RVA grad and a friend and supporter of Obama. She told me that this general was against the war in Iraq and that he thinks that Obama's position has been right-on from the beginning. Here is a copy of my email back to her, for whatever it's worth:

I remember arguing with Austin Carr about going into Iraq before we started that war. He was absolutely for it, and I was not sure at all. But I thought Bush was a good man (and still do) and competent. I don't now think he is competent. By "competent", I don't mean that he is stupid. I simply think that he was not competent to be President, that is, to make those big decisions, to know when to rely on advisers and when not to. I don't know that anyone is competent to be President. Senator Smathers said that Reagan "had a good gut", and told me that before Reagan was President, but was then running for the Republican nomination the second time. Reagan didn't seem to make such bad decisions, although he did make some big mistakes.

I fault Bush with not controlling the Republican Congress, with going along with the "it's our turn" mentality with regard to pork barrel spending, with thinking that we could make tax cuts and still maintain or increase spending. I fault him with not going to the mat on Social Security and Medicare. Frankly, I think he lacked the strength of his convictions, tried to please to many people. In trying to avoid making enemies, I think he made even more than he would have made otherwise. I think that the best he can hope for from history is a verdict that he was "average".

This is not saying that Obama has "the gut" or will be competent. In the first place, there is a serious question of whether the federal government is beyond being governed, regardless of who is President. And in the second, his apparent political philosophy is that big government is capable of being fixed and of being the main solution and maybe is the only solution. I think he is wrong there. In fact, I think those are dangerous ideas. I also think that there will be the same sort of "it's our turn" approach to the people who have been out of power for the last 8 years (or past 200 years, if you consider the expressed grievances of people of color) and that he won't be any stronger than Bush on this issue.

But what troubles me are not Obama, Hillary, McCain, Bush. What troubles me are what is happening in the local public schools, what I see in the media: the decline in American creativity, the moral anarchy, the heedless accumulation of debt, the dissolution of families, the terrible health and eating habits, and the inwardly, selfishly focused and Gnostic tendencies of American Christianity.Other than that, I'm fine.