What Geldof Said About Bush- And One More Thing

As I sit her at my computer I wonder why the organizers of Live8 did not include Los Angeles as one of the venues. There are only 3.8 million of us in the city and if you include LA county it about triples the size.

The other thing to mention is that in an interview that Time Mag. conducted with Bono, Bob Geldof and Richard Curtiss.

"GELDOF America doesn't have a lack of empathy; they just don't know the issues as well. Actually, today I had to defend the Bush Administration in France again. They refuse to accept, because of their political ideology, that he has actually done more than any American President for Africa. But it's empirically so."

The sad thing in that statement is that I hear people reacting based upon emotion and not upon fact and I think that this is one of the fundamental problems we face with fixing the world. Emotion, passion are good things to use to try and energize and motivate action, but you need fact and rational analysis as well.

Without them you cannot create a coherent plan to fix the problems. And along those lines one of the things that I wonder about is what the planners of Live8 intend to do about some of the fundamental problems in Africa.

It is all fine and good to forgive debt, but that doesn't address the areas or issues that created some of these problems. If you have a leaky boat, it will not matter if you bail out the water within because unless you repair the leaks the water will return and you will find yourself in the same situation again.

Redneck Games Celebrate 10th Anniversary

Just in case the Shmata Queen missed this little ditty.

"EAST DUBLIN, Ga. - In his garage, Melvin Davis keeps 230 trophies he's won racing motorcycles, go-karts and pickup trucks. But he's best known for a sport that earned him four trophies topped with crushed Bud Lite cans.

"Yeah, looking back on it I'm proud. But when I done it I felt a little silly," said Davis, 68. "People were going, `There's the bobbing-for-pigs-feet champion!'"

Bobbing for pig feet, the mudpit belly-flop, the armpit serenade — they're all part of the Redneck Games, a series of good ole'ympic events for the ain't-so-athletic celebrating their 10th year in middle Georgia.

Started as a Southern-fried spoof of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, with a propane torch lighting a ceremonial barbecue grill, the gag games draw tourists like moths to a backyard bug-zapper.

Organizers estimate 95,000 attended the July event during its first decade in East Dublin, a rural pit stop of 2,500 residents between Macon and Savannah.

What started as a gathering of about 500 during the 1996 Olympics ballooned to 10,000 by 2001 and reached an estimated 15,000 last year. More are expected when the 10th Annual Redneck Games are held next Saturday."

Coming soon, the Culture Comes to Cleveland carnival. ;)

Saturday Night Thoughts

It is almost 10:30 and I thought that now is as good a time as any to share my thoughts on a variety of things.

I'll start out by saying that Mirty deserves kudos for her job on Haveil Havalim 27. Check it out there is a lot of meat there. If you are not familiar with term you can think of it as being a round up of the Jewish blogosphere with posts covering the disengagement, sex in the yeshiva world, gay pride parades, and more.

If you are Jewish I strongly urge you to check it out and if you are not and you want to see an example of how diverse the Jewish community is go ahead and check it out.

I mentioned Live 8 in an earlier post and wanted to return to it for a moment. I watched the first one by satellite. I was in Jerusalem at a place called Champ's Pub which I believe still exists. I was drunk, or close to it, as were my companions. We were 16 and away from home and living a life that so many never do.

I'd like to say that the experience sobered me up and that it made such an impact that I went home and dedicated my life to helping people, but it would be a lie. In truth I cannot remember if it made that kind of impact upon me. Much of the world seemed to be focused on things of that nature, Live Aid, BandAid, We Are The World and then Hands Across America.

I was involved in aspects of many different efforts to help people, it was part of the daily routine of the various youth groups that I was involved in, so it is not that I was totally ignorant or unaware. I wasn't and I think that I was concerned, but it is hard to go back 20 years and see clearly.

What I know is that now it really does affect me more than ever. Now I sit here and I thank G-d that I have been given so many things and I remember that I do have many blessings. It doesn't mean that I am not going to complain or be upset about the things that impact my life. They may not be as bad or have the same impact as the suffering of people elsewhere, but it is my pain and I own it.

What this really reminds me is that one of my goals is to see that my children are raised to have empathy, to understand that sometimes we need to help people. That they know when to offer a hand and that when someone refuses because their pride does not allow them to accept handouts they can remind them it is ok to accept a handup, there is a difference.

I was happy to read about the missing girl from Idaho that they just found and sad to read that they found her with a convicted sex offender. It seems more often than not that these guys are not rehabilitated and that they are also victims of abuse. It is a vicious cycle and it makes me so very sad. You feel badly that it happened to them, but you cannot excuse their behavior.

I just will never understand how people can hurt a child. In the years that I worked with children I encountered a number that were abused and some that I suspected were. I had a fourteen year old boy sob on my shoulder because his father took out his hatred of the mother by telling his son tales of their sex life. And that is the watered down version. I don't get it.

And now for the latest dilemma in parenting, the behavior of children and the reaction of their parents. At my son's day camp there is a large boy who is relatively rough in his play. My son told me that this boy has knocked him and some of the other boys down. I asked my son what he did and have gotten several different responses.

I am not surprised, he is only 4.5 so some of this is natural.

One of the mothers of the other boys immediately had her son switched to another group. I am not a big fan of that. I don't want my son to be hurt, but I can't always be there to help him and I think that it is important for him to learn how to handle this.

I told him that if this other boy is bothering him he should ask him to stop and that if that does not work to tell a counselor.

And then I told him that if the counselor doesn't help him he is allowed and encouraged to defend himself. I was very careful and cautious in my language. I don't want him to get hurt by this boy and I don't want him to be pushed around. And frankly I would prefer that he not hurt this boy, but I cannot allow this to continue unabated.

I had my first fist-fight at 5.5. I still remember and I remember those that came afterwards. I didn't have all that many disagreements, certainly not as many as some others I know, but I did the dance. I was never one to take much guff, but age has taught me many lessons including how to walk away and I am thankful for that.

When people say that there is no harder job than being a parent they weren't kidding. So many questions and no manual. I just make it up as I go along, but I kind of suspect most of us do.

Live 8

I have been watching/listening to the global feed. It really is an amazing thing. I still remember watching LiveAid from Champs pub in Jerusalem. Hard to believe that 20 years have passed.

So many memories.

What Is Up With The Cat Blogs/Pictures

I make no secret of my distaste for cats, filthy, obnoxious animals. I don't like them and they don't like me and that is just fine with me.

But I must protest, I must, I must, I must.

People what the hell is up with the posting of pictures and stories about your cats. Haven't you anything better to blog about. Can't you come up with something more interesting than "look at Mr. Whiskers, he is so cute."

Screw Mr. Whiskers, I'd like to see him stuffed and hung on a wall somewhere. I have had enough, feh!

Saying Goodbye- I don't like it

One of the things that I find so interesting about being a father is discovering how many of my traits/characteristics are picked up by my children.

On a daily basis I notice that my son does so many little things that I can take credit for, some good and some not so good. I am not surprised that this is happening because I can see a lot of my father in me, as well as bits and pieces of my grandfather.

There are times when the three of us sit around and I notice that we react the same way to this or that or what have you.

Some of the things that my son has picked up on do make my eyes open a little bit wider because they are not as obvious. The hand gestures, facial expressions, and the way that we structure sentences are gimmes, just too obvious.

But it is other stuff, such as realizing that he hates goodbyes as much as I do that I find striking because they do not seem obvious to me, it feels more like it must have been written into his DNA.

Goodbye can be a very difficult thing for me, so it is not all that uncommon for me not to say it. Sometimes I'll just disappear. Old friends have stories about me going ninja at a party. One moment I am there and the next Old Jack has vanished into thin air.

And as I have learned the little guy prefers this too. Often he refuses to say goodbye and will substitute "see you later." He can get a little cranky over goodbyes and it is not unusual to see a fight start, because it is always easier to say goodbye when you are angry.

Right now I am sorry to see that a couple of the bloggers I enjoy reading have decided to pull up their stakes and are leaving for parts unknown. I am not going to mention names because they know who they are and I am not going to say goodbye. For now I'll stick with "see you later" whenever that may be.

An Opening on the Supreme Court

Long time readers of this blog know that although I am a registered Democrat at this stage in my life I am really much more of an independent. My politics cross party lines and I try to look at things on an issue by issue basis.

That being said I am concerned about the impending retirement of Justice O'Connor because I do not want the court to be stacked in one direction or another and I am expecting Bush to try and push a very conservative justice to replace her.

A Supreme Court Justice has a hell of a task to work upon. Their understanding and interpetation of law based upon the Constitution has potential to impact society in a very large way. And since it is basically an appointment for life it is even more important to be careful who gets to wear the robe.

But as anyone who remembers Earl Warren knows a justice may fool you from time to time on how they are going to vote.

Here is a very brief rundown about her.

"The enormity of the reaction to O'Connor's appointment had surprised her. She received more than 60,000 letters in her first year, more than any one member in the court's history.

"I had no idea when I was appointed how much it would mean to many people around the country," she once said. "It affected them in a very personal way. People saw it as a signal that there are virtually unlimited opportunities for women. It's important to parents for their daughters, and to daughters for themselves."

At times, the constant publicity was almost unbearable. "I had never expected or aspired to be a Supreme Court justice. My first year on the court made me long at times for obscurity," she once said.

On the court, O'Connor generally favored states in disputes with the federal government and for enhanced police powers challenged as violative of asserted individual rights.

In 1985, she wrote for the court as it ruled that the confession of a criminal suspect first warned about his rights may be used as trial evidence even if police violated a suspect's rights in obtaining an earlier confession.

O'Connor wrote the 1989 decision that struck down as an unconstitutional form of affirmative action a minority set-aside program for construction projects in Richmond, Va.

In 1991, she led the court as it ruled in its first-ever decision on rape-shield laws that states may under some circumstances bar evidence that a defendant and his alleged victim previously had consensual sex.

O'Connor once described herself and her eight fellow justices as nine fire fighters.

"When (someone) lights a fire, we invariably are asked to attend to the blaze. We may arrive at the scene a few years later," she said.

O'Connor was 51 when she joined the court to replace the retired Potter Stewart. A virtual unknown on the national scene until her appointment, she had served as an Arizona state judge, and before that as a member of her state's Legislature.

A fourth-generation Arizonan, she had grown up on a sprawling family ranch.

The woman who climbed higher in the legal profession than had any other member of her sex did not begin her career auspiciously. As a top-ranked graduate of Stanford's prestigious law school, class of 1952, O'Connor discovered that most large law firms did not hire women.

One offered her a job as a secretary. Perhaps it was that early experience that shaped O'Connor's professional tenacity. She once recalled a comment by an Arizona colleague: "With Sandra O'Connor, there ain't no Miller time."

"I think that's true," confessed the justice whose work week most often extended beyond 60 hours.

But she played tennis and golf well, danced expertly with her husband, John, and made frequent appearances on the Washington party circuit.

O'Connor was embarrassed in 1989 after conservative Republicans in Arizona used a letter she had sent to support their claim that the United States is a "Christian nation."

The 1988 letter, which prompted some harsh criticism of O'Connor by legal scholars, cited three Supreme Court rulings in which the nation's Christian heritage was discussed.

O'Connor said she regretted the letter's use in a political debate. "It was not my intention to express a personal view on the subject of the inquiry," she said."

Influence. That is the word that comes to mind, influence.