A moment in time...

I had to be down in Highlands today for a family function. Since I wasn't at all sure that the Parkway would anything more than a parking lot, I left early to make sure I had enough time to get there. Consequently, since there wasn't nearly as much traffic as I expected, I arrived about an hour early. Now, the Sandy Hook National Recreation area charges to get in between Memorial Day and Labor Day, and, since I only had about 40 minutes to kill, I thought that was excessive. However, as I had made my way down Route 36, I had passed something called the Mount Mitchell Scenic Overlook, which hadn't mentioned anything about fees, so I thought I'd give it a whirl.

Boy, am I glad I did.

First of all, and pay attention 'cause there will be a test afterwards, Mt. Mitchell is the highest point on the Atlantic Seaboard between Maine and the Yucatan. I thought that was pretty cool in and of itself, but when we pulled into the parking area, I could see that it really had a view to offer. From Manhatten on the North (left) to Kennedy Airport on the right (east-distant: close was Sandy Hook itself) a panorama presented itself. I spent about 10 minutes drinking it all in and then I turned to the statue/monument that stood just behind the actual scenic viewing area.

Rather than fumble around, I'm just going to send you here for a description of the memorial. It was for the residents of Monmouth county who had died in the World Trade Center on 9/11/2001. Click the link...you'll see that it is both tasteful yet strangely powerful. As I walked up the timeline walkway, I could see in my mind's eye what had transpired that day. And I want to tell you that I got angry.

I got angry first at the incredibly evil men who had done this heinous, infamous thing. And then I got even more angry at the man who has totally fucked up our response to this crime against humanity and God. In the days that followed the attack on the World Trade Center, 90+percent of the world's population was with us in our grief and anger. When we went after Bin Laden et al in Afghanistan, the world was with us. But then we began to change our message. It wasn't just al-Qaeda that we were fighting--no, somehow an Axis of evil had emerged and Saddam Hussein was one of its principle members. Our government became arrogant and, in many ways, insulting towards anybody who dared question our actions. And, gradually, we began to lose the international support we once enjoyed. Now we are mired in a no-win war in Iraq which we will ultimately find impossible to disengage from with any semblance of honor. Ultimately, we will find ourselves worse off, not better off, for our involvement in this bit of cowboy foriegn relations.

Note: I started this almost a month ago. Since then at least two things have changed: First, the passion ignited by the visit has receded a bit. And, two, I am typing this part sitting on the patio after having had a couply of largish vodka-on-the-rocks, so I am probably not as coherent as I could be. In fact, I'm actually posting this in main to clear my "pending drafts" out of my workspace.

Jersey Boy

Well, according to this

You Are 86% New Jersey!

Wow, you're totally Jersey. There's no doubt about it. Congratulations, and always be proud to be Jersey--it's a great thing to be!

How New Jersey Are You?

I’m a Jersey boy. Ah well…since I am the son of a Jersey boy and since I spent my first 25 years and last 16 years here, I guess that’s not much of a stretch. In fact, I am so Jersey I spent the day down at the shore today. On a nice Saturday in June, you can't get much more Jersey that that...

Make her go away...

So, Ann Coulter’s newest assault on all that is right and good in this world has made it to the top of the B&N best seller list after about a week on the shelves. This is more than disgusting, it is scary. I am not, by nature, a particularly religious man; more specifically, I have a great deal of trouble getting my mind around the concept of Satan as promulgated by religious fundamentalists of at least two of the world’s major religions. However, upon consideration of the vileness which spews from this woman’s mind, I am strongly tempted to believe that there is such a being as Satan and that it speaks to us through selected minions like the Coulter woman.

I will say no more about Ann: I’ll let Henry Rollins do it for me. This is a pretty good clip:

If for no other reason than to give people like Ann a shot to the solar plexus, the Dems truly need to put aside all internecine squabbles and work like Trojans to get as many candidates elected as possible this fall. If we can take back control of Congress, we will have taken the first step in repudiating a noxious detour in the American experiment.