Documenting My Audacity

But nothing seems to get me excited anymore.

I said I would write more earlier this summer, and up to this point I have been nothing but an utter failure in that regard.  I will try to make it up to all of you with a post today.

Almost always, I am proud to be an American.  The history of our great history is not without its blemishes, but no country on Earth has a spotless record.  However, every once in a while something happens in the United States which makes me hang my head.  This occurred when I heard about Guantanamo Bay prison, and what was happening there.  America’s sins often happen because of an overzealous desire for our way of life–for example, supporting dictatorships in South America in order to defeat communism.  However, Guantanamo Bay occurred DESPITE of our belief in our way of life.  One of the items which has stuck with me since I read it is this article from the Washington Post.  Read the whole thing if you want to, but the long and the short of it in my words is this: Bush’s policies with regards to the detainees at Guantanamo were more focused on interrogation rather than prosecution.  The Executive Branch owns no complete case files on these detainees, and cared little for their legal status.  The only thing which they cared about was the information which many of them didn’t even posess.  Once they couldn’t find any more information, they didn’t care any more.  In other words, my country showed nothing but disdain for the legal procedures so important to our founders–something I find absolutely awful.

I was so relieved when President Obama, back when he was still candidate Obama, promised to close Guantanamo Bay.  However, that promise has run into a severe snafu.  Republicans (with key support from conservative Democrats) in Congress shut down an attempt to close the prison, citing an incomplete plan for housing the detainees in the United States.  A recent Pew research poll states that less than half of Americans want to see the Prison shut down within a year.   How shameful.  This number was once higher–and I am not blind enough to say it is not because of some mishandling of the issue by Barack Obama’s administration, but I still am a little ashamed of my fellow countrymen for not believing more in the due process upon which this country was founded.

Finals are over, my diploma should be in the mail, and its warm outside.  Which can mean only one thing: time to book up ole DMA, where this summer I will be dispatching all the things that cross my mind with no regards or cares about anything else.  Get ready for insanity, if you want to.

I got a job this summer, because I have to pay for graduate school.  Apparently, the downturn in the economy means that there exists much less money for scholarships than in previous years.  Which kind of sucks, but thats okay.  So I’m waiting tables and making money to pay the Martin School at the University of Kentucky about $7000.  Excellent.

The most fun thing I’m going to be doing this summer, however, will be the Robert Kahne Film Festival.  I’m going to be watching one movie every day this summer.  Each of these movies shall be marked by the fact that I have not seen them, and am embarassed to say that I have not seen them.  Today starts with a Double Feature:  The Big Lewbowski and The Life Aquatic.

That’s all for now, probably more later.

The church I attend, Calvary Baptist in Lexington, participates in this program for homeless men in Lexington called Room in the Inn, which rotates between different churches each day of the week and provides shelter for about 15 men a night.  This program’s existence is necessary because of the lack of any sort of social safety net for homeless men in this city.  At any rate, tonight the College Ministry at my church set up and hosted the men for the night.  After working to put together all the mattresses and making the coffee and preparing the food and whatnot, we had a chance to sit down and talk to these guys.

I ended up eating dinner with three guys, all of whom were exceedingly friendly and nice to me.  I heard a little of their stories, and learned that one of the guys with whom I ate played basketball for Austin Peay for 4 years in the 1970s and has played basketball in Madison Square Garden and once played in the NCAA tournament.  At any rate, what I learned tonight was that the slumping economy sucks for everybody.

I don’t know why, but for some reason I thought the crappy economy wouldn’t have too much of an effect on homeless people.  I guess I thought that since they didn’t really have much to lose, they couldn’t be hit too hard.  However, I forgot one key thing–the thing which sustains almost every homeless person I have ever met is the idea of Hope.  Hope is key in homeless life because it presents the idea that they will someday get a job, or someday find an apartment they can afford, or someday be able to sustain themselves without having to depend on the handouts of others.  This hope has been badly hit by this economy.  Don’t get me wrong–these guys were nothing if not cheerful.  They loved talking about sports, history, and the places they had been.  However, they seemed downtrodden.  One man had just gotten a job and was in the process of looking for an apartment when he was laid off after less than a month on the job.  One of the guys we talked with had just recently become homeless after losing his job and was looking for work as a groundskeeper.

Life is rough for everybody–us included.  However, I think its worth our time to take a step back and realize it could be a lot worse.  Economically speaking, it doesn’t get too much worse than what I saw with these guys tonight.  However, the effect on their disposition, while existant, pales in comparison to what I’ve seen out of some people.  I learned a lot from the guys I talked to today.  I hope that in my life, I can learn to appreciate what I have.  Because really, I’ve got a lot for which to be thankful.

So today was the Super Bowl and everything.  The game was really exciting, which is good (a good development in recent years: good Super Bowls).  I was rooting for the Cardinals, mostly because I hate every team in the AFC North except the Bengals (which is a sad, sad life).

Anyway, the thing which has been foremost in my mind politically in recent days has been the stimulus package put together by The President (Barack Obama….glory).   In the early days when this thing was being put together, President Obama made a plea for bi-partisanship.  This set off a small firestorm amongst some of my more strident friends and a few of the more pragmatic writers whom I read.  Their beef: they felt that the President should have made an attempt to pass the “best bill possible” without attempting to compromise in any way.

Honestly, they have quite a point.  Elections have consequences, and the American people elected the Democratic Party to lead it out of the wilderness in which it finds itself.  However, I think it is worth noting that one of the main reasons which the American people elected the Democrats was because of our promise to seek bipartisanship and and inclusive program.

The attempt at bi-partisanship did not go very far.  John McCain (who during the campaign said he didn’t know anything about the economy anyway) and John Boehner complained bitterly about the stimulus plan to the press.  During a meeting with the President, some Republican’s twittered their chagrin.  When the rubber met the road, in the House, 0 Republicans voted with the President.  So disheartening.  Some attempts were made to assist them–stripping out family planning for the poor, for example.  Some of the more progressive provisions which I had hoped to see didn’t come to fruition (see stuff from Rep. DeFazio from Oregon for good examples).

The bill still passed, even without any Republican support.  This will probably happen often in the House.  Now, the stimulus package awaits the Senate, where a totally different political game shall be played.  The Senate has 59 Democrats (or will, once Al Franken is seated).  Therefore, one more vote is needed to suppress a filibuster.  We’ll see if that happens.  Hopefully, all the Democrats will be whipped correctly.  Ben Nelson (D-NE) has already expressed that he’s not so sure if he wants to vote for it.  I suspect it will pass without too much hassle.

Which, if you were still wondering, I consider a good thing.  Paul Krugman (who just won the Nobel Prize) articulates pretty effectively why in this video, but if you don’t want to sit through this, here is a quick synopsis for you: monetary policy is the way to go to stimulate the economy, but we’ve run out of policy options since interest rates are mostly zero.  Fiscal policy is our only weapon left, and we have to come out swinging.  So we need a huge stimulus package.   I would have like to have seen more internal investment, but whatever.  It’s pretty good.  I just hope it works.

This post isn’t about politics in the slightest.  It’s about the Bible.  If you need to, you can stop reading now.

I started class this week.  One of the classes I’m taking this semester is “Old Testament as Literature,” which required me to buy the JPS translation of the Old Testament.  This brings me to the total of 5 study Bibles, an amount which I still feel is, if anything, inadequate.

JPS stands for Jewish Publication Society.  They publish the standard Bible for Jewish audiences, and there are substantial differences between this Bible and the Old Testament translations of my other Bibles.  Some of the articles I’ve read for my class state that viewing the Jewish scriptures without the influence of the New Testament creates a translation which differs from Christian Bibles.  I’m not really sure if I buy the fact that this encompasses the whole difference between these two Bibles.  I’m looking forward to identifying the differences and seeing if this fact is indeed the whole reason they are different or if there are more cultural reasons for the differences.

The other 4 study Bibles I own all serve a specific function.  My main Bible is the HarperCollins NRSV Study Bible.  This, in the opinion of many folks teaching in divinity schools and universities, is the most academic of all Bibles.  I really like using it because it is mostly void of spiritual advice, opting instead to let me make up my own mind.  However, this Bible still posesses an ample amount of footnotes, revealing hidden meaning of the text without presuming any particular view point.  In addition, I really enjoy the New Revised Standard Version translation.  This translation is gender neutral, taking into account the nuance of meaning in Greek and Hebrew words–which the words can be gender neutral, they are.  Most translations in the past opted for using male pronouns, which I think takes away a lot from the meaning of the text.

Another study Bible I use serves the function of a reference.  It is the KeyWord NASB Study Bible.  This translation, the New American Standard Bible, is the tranlation thought to be the most word-accurate Bible in the eyes many Bible publishers.  This Bible includes a Greek and Hebrew dictionary, plus lexical aids in its references and most of the words are underlined with their Strong’s Number referenced.  I really love this Bible because it allows me to look up individual words giving me problems and find what they meant in their original language and finding what different meanings of those words might be in different passages.

The final two Bibles I use are more typical, spiritual application study Bibles.  While not as blatantly self-centered as the Life Application Bible, these two Bibles very blatantly come from a point of view and give footnotes which obviously come from that point of view.  They are the TNIV Study Bible and the ESV Study Bible.  I read these two at the same time.  Many see the ESV and the TNIV as foils of one another.  The TNIV comes from a considerably more liberal viewpoint–it is, like the NRSV, a gender-neutral translation and opts for simpler, more approachable language rather than keeping old English around (”right before dawn” rather than “the fourth watch of the night” or “foreigner” rather than “alien”).  The ESV stays directly in line with the older translations, and many see it as born out of angst against Zondervan and their NIV/TNIV translations.  The notes in these Bibles come from those standpoints.  The ESV Bible, in my opinion, tells me exactly how to think.  There are many times I will highlight a note in that Bible and make some snide comment about it in the margin because it allows no room for thought or consideration from any viewpoint other than theirs.  The TNIV is not so blatant, but it is obviously written from a more liberal point of view, presenting a lot of viewpoints that would be considered heretical by ESV readers.  I like to read both of these Bibles in conjunction with one another because they present the text in sometimes opposing ways.  I like to take into account both viewpoints and make my own decision.

The translation of the Bible into English’s history is a long one, maybe for another post.  But this is how I read the Bible.  It’s a hard thing to do, and I have many leather bound books to show for it, but to me, discovering what the Bible really means is the most important thing I can do.  So, if anything, I don’t do enough.

Something caught my eye a few days ago–a post on Tom Eblen’s blog.  Eblen writes for the Herald-Leader and uses his space to tell of exciting, new, and cool ideas about Lexington and beyond.  Two days ago, he wrote a piece about revitalizing the Tennessee Valley Association.  I really enjoyed this piece, and apparently, I wasn’t the only one.

I hope everybody has heard about the atrocities that occurred in Tennessee when a TVA coal-fired power plant dropped about 1 billion gallons of coal ash into surrounding communities, perhaps causing permanent damage to their water supply.  Taylor Shelton points out the fact that the TVA has become one of the biggest cheerleaders for Mountaintop Removal coal mining, but the piece by Eblen shows that the TVA was once the country’s leader in conservation education.

Eblen’s piece does a great job of showing a possible future.  I think its worth noting that the former chairman from Eblen’s piece was nominated by Jimmy Carter–the last Democratic President who had any sort of progressive energy/environmental policy.  Hopefully President Obama will pick up on the possibility of returning the TVA to its roots.  Doing so would create jobs, make farming a more sustainable lifestyle choice, and help the environment.

So, lets hope it happens.

Blogging, to me, is like Linux.  Its an awesome idea, I really enjoy it, its a lot of fun to learn and use; but it is really hard to use and sometimes I just don’t have the time to do it.  This semester has been really awful on this blog.  I took 18 hours, two of my friends died, and I was taking a computer class that I didn’t understand at all.  I’ve been taking a winter class over the break which has taken a lot of my time.  There are other things too, but they are even worse excuses than the one’s I’ve already listed.  Anyway, I hope to write a lot more this semester because I’m taking 15 hours, 12 of which are pass/fail.  So maybe I’ll have some free time.

Anyway, on to important stuff.  Kentucky elected a new Speaker of the House recently–Greg Stumbo.  This development surprised a lot of people.  I think Jody Richards was a better Speaker than Stumbo will be, but only time will tell.  The early developments are not promising, however.  Jim Gooch is the chairman of the House Natural Resources committee.  This man is a disgrace to Kentucky (peep this video).  Richards promised to oust Gooch from his chairmanship but when Gooch supported Stumbo’s election as Speaker, Stumbo allowed him to stay on.  This is too bad for Kentucky’s environment.  Nothing environmentally progressive can make it out of Gooch’s committee, and unfortunately, just about all environmental legislation goes to Gooch’s committee.  So, things like the Stream Saver Bill will never get to the floor without legislative finagling.

Anyway, I’ll probably write stuff like that every so often, but I’ll also write about other stuff too.  Only if its important.  I figure since Ralph Long is back in the game, I should get back in too.

So the last time I wrote here, I was talking about how the election was going to be awesome and talking about music and stuff.  Life has occurred substantially since then.  A few days after that it was my birthday, and of course, Barack Obama was elected President and the Democratic Party managed to take hold of the Congress by greater margins on election day.  However, also since then, I was dumped, two of my friends died in a tragic car accident, and UK lost to VMI in a basketball game.  So, all things considered, not the best two weeks of my life.

I’d never really been touched so closely by death during my life.  My grandmother died when I was in high school, and both of the great grandparents I knew died in the past five years.  However, nothing can quite compare to losing a peer or friend.  I counted both Brad and Tom as friends.  I’d just met Brad a few months previous to his death.  He was a big, quiet guy who seemed very introverted and closed in.   However, as time passed, we learned that while Brad may have been introverted, he loved being around people and having fun.  He was always with a group of people enjoying life and having fun with all of us.

Brad’s the tall guy to my left.

I’d known Tom for 2 and a half years.  I met him for the first time before school even started his Freshman year at UK.  He and I were at a back-to-school party and he needed a ride home.  I let him ride home with me, and thought he was a terribly odd fellow.  He came around to the BCM a lot, and as time passed, although he was still a strange fellow, it became a weirdness which I appreciated.  He was always willing to help with even the most menial and degrading tasks.  He was a great guy, who always loved to preform:

Tom is the guy singing into the broom.

Tom left an indelible impact on me, as somebody who could be heard without having to be loud.  A lesson from which I could definitely learn.

So, it’s been rough.  I’m so sorry for their families, but I think they, like all of us at the BCM, are adjusting to this tragedy in productive ways.  At the BCM, we’ve all grown closer.  From what I knew about these two guys, that’s something they would have wanted.  Both of them truly valued fellowship.

As for me, I’ve learned about how I react to death.  After my inital shock, I have been surprisingly normal.  Death, I guess, is a normal part of life.  I know for a fact that both of these guys are in a better place than I am.  Life is short, no matter if it is 100 years or 20–in perspective, neither is all that long.  Our time on this earth is to be spent committed to a cause higher than our own, and I know that both of these guys lived their lives in that way.  What I take away from this experience is a need to redouble my efforts to live life in such a way.

Plus, deaths of friends really help but losses to VMI in basketball in quite a bit of perspective.

The election is less than 10 days away, and I feel like I have done less political work this year than I have for any election since I got involved in politics.  Granted, that’s all of 3 elections (plus the election we were supposed to have in 2005 to buy the water company).  However, I kind of feel good about this.  I think as an individual, I have transitioned from being about politicians, people, and cults of personality to being about issues and initiatives.  I totally realize that the issues that I care about will be more easily attained when there is a 60+ seat majority in the US Senate and when there is a Democratic President, and because of that I will continue to advocate for the Democratic Party and will continue to do some things to help them out.  Also, once I get out of college, I think that canvassing and phone banking will more readily fit into my schedule.  It’s been rough this year–on Saturdays (the days most likely to include canvassing), my girlfriend runs a kids day camp in North Lexington, something in which I have tried to be active.  I think that’s just as important as canvassing, I guess.

Enough musing about me.  I know nobody really cares.  However, that doesn’t really matter since this is my blog and I can write whatever I want to.  I’m going to start writing more, because I think I can without freaking out about school and whatnot.  I’m going to broaden the scope, and I guess I’ll write some about music right now.

I’ve been digging on a few albums in the past few weeks–firstly, Girl Talk’s Feed The Animals. I’ve always had a great appreciation for the mash-up track.  I was introduced to it through the 10,000 Black Album mash-ups, but Girl Talk takes the genre to a new level by including literally hundreds of songs throughout his 14 track album.  It’s awesome to listen to all the way through.  Even more fun, however, is listening through the whole thing trying to find every reference.  It’s literally impossible, but great fun.

Ben Folds latest effort, Way To Normal is good, but too short.  Clocking in at 12 tracks and 40 minutes, it reminds me of The Force Unleashed for Wii–a ton of fun to play, but done before it was worth it.  Nevertheless, there are at least four or five tracks which are vintage Ben, and by vintage Ben, I mean awesome.

Kala, from M.I.A. has been out for more than a year, but I just discovered it after Paper Planes became a huge hit.  I remember M.I.A. from high school when Arular came out and all my indie/hipster friends went nuts.  Kala is probably the best album I’ve been listening to from a musical standpoint–it incorporates folk music from all over the globe as backbeat and her flow is pretty excellent.  The lyrics are poignant to the point of being hard to listen to, but the album is totally worth it.

Finally, the album I’ve been digging on the most over the past few month has been Fight With Tools from Flobots. This album is everything I’ve ever looked for in a band–their sound is excellent, incorporating great beats from a live band + a really cool classical sound via a viola and a trumpet, and two emcees whose flow is above average.  The white rapper has shades of Eminem (or, in a generalized sense, he sounds like every white rapper ever), but his lyrics are bitingly political and include shades of religion.  Flobots have started their own non-profit which is made up of local street teams aimed at making social change in their own communities.  It’s pretty awesome.  This band is great because unlike RATM, System of a Down, Dead Prez, or Mos Def, their political message is not hateful or angry–it is full of disappointment, but also full of hope.  One of their main sayings is “America Will Be,” which, to me at least, shows a ton of love and hope for the idea of America while knowing that it’s not great right now.  But, I love the album, you should check it out.

So that’s the music I’ve been listening to (mostly while recycling for my job), instead of working on political campaigns.  You should listen to it too.