New Photos

I had been meaning to do this for a long time but life just gets busy and, well, you know the story. I went into DC at about 5:30 on Sunday morning so I could start my "memorial" series. Once I get the series completed, I plan on framing them and putting them in my office. It was a great experience to be down in DC that early. There were virtually no people on the Mall and I got to see the sun come up over the capital and take picture without having to worry if people were wondering into my shot. I didn't get everything I wanted and I look forward to heading back down soon to finish up the series. The rest are posted on my Flickr site.

Abdul Rahman Update

There may be new hope for Abdul Rahman. A Fox news article reports that the Afghan government is saying that Rahman may not be mentally fit for trial. It seems obvious that the Afghan government is looking for an excuse to let him go. Hey, it doesn't matter how he gets freed so long as he is freed. I can't help but wonder what kind of political backlash this will cause for the Karzai administration if the charges are dropped. You can bet that a whole host of Islamic leaders will be furious about it.

Will it be one and a half men soon?

I was just doing a Technorati search on Charlie Sheen and came across a blog that proves just what I was saying about the inevitable ratings dive. Granted this is only one person making a statement against actors who are all of a sudden "credible", but it's bound to catch on. Way to go Bodie Specter!

Why, Charlie, Why?

Charlie Sheen joins the ranks of the conspiracy theorists. I won't comment too much about it because what he said pretty much speaks for itself. Charlie did an interview with Alex Jones; who introduced him as a guy who, "really knows what's going on on the planet." Right there you know what side of the aisle Jones sits. Doesn't it seem strange that Sheen went on an ultra left-wing program to get out this extremely important, mainstream belief, on what "really" happened on 9/11? Oh, wait, that's the only place he would last more than 10 seconds without getting laughed off the air. Let's look at some quotes shall we?

""It seems to me like 19 amateurs with box cutters taking over four commercial airliners and hitting 75% of their targets, that feels like a conspiracy theory. It raises a lot of questions." [...]

"There was a feeling, it just didn't look any commercial jetliner I've flown on any time in my life and then when the buildings came down later on that day I said to my brother 'call me insane, but did it sorta look like those buildings came down in a controlled demolition'?"

"By remaining at a location [Booker Elementary] where it was publicly known the President would be before 9/11, he was not only putting his own life in danger, but the lives of hundreds of schoolchildren. That is unless the government knew for sure what the targets were beforehand and that President Bush wasn't one of them."

"It might lead you to believe that he'd [Bush] seen similar images in some type of rehearsal as it were, I don't know."

"We're not the conspiracy theorists on this particular issue.""

When I first heard this audio, I thought it was a joke. Seriously, I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I wonder if the cast and crew of Two and a Half Men will have the right to sue Sheen for tanking the show and being the sole reason they all lose their jobs when the show is cancelled due to the inevitable ratings dive. You can't make this kind of material up. Maybe National Lampoon will pick up the movie rights to this story; it would make a great screwball comedy. I wonder if Charlie will play himself.
You can listen to the interview here.

Christian on Trial

I came across a sad article today. There is a man in Afghanistan, Abdul Rahman, who is on trial for being a Christian. This is extra disappointing since America went in to Afghanistan, liberated it from the Taliban and helped install a more moderate government. However, under current law, it is illegal to be a Christian and the penalty is death. Please read this story. Perhaps this is an extreme interpretation on Islamic law by a radical group? Or is it the straightforward interpretation of Islamic law by a moderate Islamic government installed with the assitance of the United States? It's not the Taliban or another radical group. By Islamic standards this is supposed to be a moderate Islamic government. So why are people so quick to defend Islam as a peaceful religion (except, of course, for those rare radical terrorist groups)? If you read the quotes in the article from the judge and prosecutor, they seem to be acting as thought their hands are completely tied on the issue. There is nothing they can do because converting to Christianity is a crime in Islam, punishable by death. Period. Does that seem tolerant or peaceful? To who? Who could possibly think that is peaceful or tolerant? The easy response would be to call me insensitive or prejudice or intolerant or any number of names. All I ask is a simple question. Is killing a man simply for being a Christian tolerant? If you don't like the question or would rather not have to face the reality of the situation, that's fine and your choice. But don't get mad at me for simply asking it.

Michelle Malkin has been covering this closely. Check out these two articles. 1 2
John Martin has compiled some great perspectives on this issue.

Character

I was watching TV last night (okay, flipping channels) and I came across this show called American Inventor. I didn't watch too much of it, but I saw a woman who invented/created a learning product after raising her mildly retarded son (I believe some people prefer mentally challenged, but these were her words so I am using them). In the interview part she said her main concern, while raising her son, was academic achievement since he was mildly retarded. All through his school years she was focused on helping him to achieve academically. Her son graduated high school; and on graduation day he was awarded the Character Award for his senior class. Using all she had learned raising her kids she put together a video (and I believe some other materials) teaching kids the difference between right and wrong. She said that almost all instructional/teaching videos for kids are focused on improving them academically. What she did was create a product that helped teach the foundation of Character. We live in a society where kids (and adults) are taught situational ethics. There are no absolutes in this arena in today's society. This is not a unique phenomenon, nor is it new to the history of the world. This was a pervasive theme in the Roman Empire (there are some scary similarities to the America of today and the Roman Empire shortly before its fall; more on that at a later time). I tend to believe that this temptation to use situational ethics either grows or shrinks considerably depending on the company. We are either encouraged or discouraged to use this approach in all situations in our life. There were many times in my youth that I was certainly encouraged to bend the rules by those who were in my circle of friends. At the time, I don't think any harm was meant by it. We probably just wanted something we shouldn't have or we wanted something without having to work for it (as I am looking over my own writing I see an attempted rationalization of the behavior -look back a couple sentences, I won't delete it). Whether we meant harm or not, harm was done. It established a pattern of behavior for me, when it came to making decisions, that I can still struggle with today. There's a great verse in Corinthians, it's in chapter 15 verse 33, Do not be misled: "Bad company corrupts good character." It's much easier to make bad choices when you surround yourself with people who encourage those bad choices. For those people who are just growing up and think that the actions of today have no long term affects, let me assure you that they do. You set up patterns of behavior that will last your whole life.

That brings me to the second group of people. For many years now, I have surrounded myself with people who encourage a more dynamic approach to life. With this group of people, there are absolutes and there are things that are absolutely right and absolutely wrong. These people hold me accountable and I them. I also trust these people intrinsically. Trust is a very rare commodity in today's society. Friendships and relationships are often superficial and held together only as long as is mutually beneficial to the parties involved. At the first sign of adversity all parties bail out. It's difficult to find people who are willing to be honest, straightforward and loyal. But when you do find them, hold on to them. They are a blessing from the Lord. They will stand with you and help make your life a life worth living.

The end is not always more important that the means. Sometimes the journey getting to the end can teach you much more than actually getting to the end. It is this journey that builds character. Character is not developed overnight. Character is developed slowly and, many times, it is developed painfully. We are a "NOW" society. We want character and we want it now; heck we want everything and we want it now. You know, if you throw away right and wrong, you may just rack up a pretty good list of accomplishments and lots of "stuff" that you can show off to others. But while your list may be a mile long, you character will be about an inch deep. Counter to society, I would rather have a list an inch long and character a mile deep. It’s definitely not the easy route and I definitely don’t make all the right choices. But with grace, the Lord’s strength and the support of the people God has placed in my life, I will continue to move forward and dig deep.

New Photos up

I put up a couple new photos today. I spent some time in my laundry room, in the dark, trying to capture water droplets with no light but the built-in flash on my camera. I wasn't sure it would work out, but after a hundred or so photos I think I can start to put together a series. Very exciting indeed.

Lobby to a Better America

Headline: Lobbying Reform Stalls in Senate

According to an article on Fox news' website, the Senate was inches away from passing a new, tough lobbying and ethics bill. Then came the Dubai port "scandal" (don't even get me started on the hypocrisy of this one) and the bill was tabled so they could deal with this port issue. Does anybody else think the Dubai port deal came out of nowhere? Of course, we are led to believe that this was some super-secret attempt of the Bush administration to sneak this deal through. Sorry, but turning over operations of government owned ports without anyone being the wiser seems a little difficult to do; especially without attracting a little attention. Here's my take. Everybody knew about the deal. Nobody really cared about the deal. Then came the real possibility of having free luxury vacations, cash "donations", expensive meals and "earmarks" taken away and all of a sudden we have an issue so urgent that we need to table the lobby reform bill. Oops, did someone accidentally leak the UAE info to the press? Yeah, that sounds about right. The House isn't doing much better moving this thing along either. I find it odd that a bill with such wide bi-partisan support cannot seem to get pushed through both Houses with ease. All the Senators and Representatives interviewed are pledging not to let this bill die. I guess I don't see how a bill with such wide support can slip to the back of the line. Furthermore, it's crazy that we even need a bill saying that our elected "representatives" cannot accept gifts to persuade them to vote a certain way. Republican or Democrat (Harry Reid would have you think otherwise), they all do it. This thing stinks to high heaven. Not to mention, this bill takes only one step towards a problem that requires much tougher legislation.

Happy Birthday Code-man!!!

It's my nephew's B-day and I just wanted to give him a shout out. No question about it, he's an original.

Whaaaaat?!

News Bulletin: Hillary Clinton is a power hungry politician!!!



My guess is that this is not a surprise to most people. I will give her (and Bill) credit for being masters of manipulation. We haven't heard much from Hillary in a while; I wonder why. Perhaps she is trying to whitewash her image to appeal to a majority of Americans. Perhaps she wants to show America that she is just like them and has their very interests close to her heart. Or...perhaps she is like many other politicians bent on power and will do anything to get it. In a recent article from Fox News, Hillary appears to be distancing herself from Wal-mart. Why is that such a big deal for a radical liberal? Because she was once on the Board of Directors and has said some pretty nice things about Wal-mart in the not too distant past. The problem is that Wal-Mart has come under some scrutiny recently for it's business practices; none of which have changed much since the company started but it is their turn again in the constantly revolving door of "big business" bashing. Trust me, if Wal-mart were to announce that they were giving away free Morning After pills and stopping the sale of all Christian literature and Bibles, Hillary's new campaign office would be located inside a Wal-mart store. Before you go and start thinking this is a big liberal bashing post, let me clarify. All I want is for people to know what they are dealing with. Are you more on the liberal side of aisle? Fine, but don't be a fool. You are being played. Hillary doesn't give a crap about the "average American" voter. She has the same tunnel vision that she has had her entire life - POWER. She used her 8 years behind dopey, loveable hubby Bill to position herself for her future. You think she was surprised and upset about the Monica Lewinsky incident? Why? Bill had been doing it for years with countless others women. But to her it was political gold. All she needed to do was play the contrite wife; the victim who chose to stand by her man. And most everybody bought it. In a way, I hope she does get elected president. Then we will see the true evil that she is capable of. Marxism here we come. For those of you who are Christians, take comfort if she becomes President. She will, most likely, push U.N. treaties through that bring us closer to a "world government". Sound familiar? You may want to peruse Revelations again. We may be going home soon!

Flickr Switch

I have decided to move most of my photos to Flickr. It's a more enhanced site and draws a more artsy crowd. Plus I get to tag my photos and join groups and get creative comments from people who know way more about digital (and film) photography than I do. Please take some time and check it out. There are multiple links to get there.

Field Trip

So this is pretty much where I was today. Don't recognize it? This isn't the most popular view of it, but one that we got to see a lot of after 9/11. This is the Pentagon. Being a supervisor, I don't get out in the field very much anymore, but today I scheduled a check ride that took me down to the Pentagon and Pentagon City. I was up before the crack of dawn since I was going to metro in and link up with one of my field staff in Pentagon City. I got dressed in my "agent" garb, which really consists of nothing more than a suit, and headed out. Now normally I work out of my "field" office (home) so my typical outfit tends to be a bit less formal. I also don't get out into the field very often anymore so I was looking forward to it. As I boarded the metro, I pulled out my book (Jawbreaker, see previous post) and started reading. I had to transfer in Roslyn and grab another train to my destination. I hopped on the train and before you know it we emerged briefly from the dark tunnel as the train comes above ground for a short distance. To my left I see the Washington Monument and to my right is Arlington Cemetery and I catch a glimpse of the Pentagon before we return under ground. And wouldn't you know it, it hits me. I'm living in Washington D.C. and I am on my way to the Pentagon. Now I've had to go there before and I used to work at the State Department and I have actually been on a security detail for Colin Powel and President Bush, but it's been awhile and I guess I tend to forget all that goes on in this area. A boyhood tingle of adrenaline kind of ran through me as I felt the inside pocket of my suit coat for my badge and creds. He I am, a guy from a town of about 3,500 in MN and I am on my way to the Pentagon with credentials and a badge from a federal agency - damn that's cool! Before I let this go any further, let me say that my job is not all that exciting, and I am not some super agent or anything, but why crush that feeling right away. As I got off the train, I looked around at the men and woman who accompanied me off the train and I looked at them in awe. You see, I know my job but I don't know theirs...they could be super agents! And that was good enough for me. I met some cool people today, with cool jobs (at least to me) at cool places. It made me realize something else. September 11th had a profound effect on me and it was a strong contributing factor for moving out the DC and getting involved in this kind of work. The overall purpose of what I do often gets lost in the mundane details of the everyday part of the job; I'm sure that even happens to super agents. We are trying to get set to move back to the Midwest and that has been my sole focus. But today reminded me that I have seen and experienced more cool stuff than I ever could have imagined growing up in a little midwestern town. For a second, I was almost thought of reconsidering the transfer back to the Midwest. Then I remembered the 24 hours a day 7 days a week gridlock traffic and came to my senses. I am going to miss it here, though.

Picture of the Day

I know this picture has been on the web for quite some time, but it still makes me laugh. Enjoy!

Oscar Time

Well tonight is Oscar night. Probably a little late to post a blog about it, but such is life. I guess some terms that may describe my mood towards the Oscars this year are cynical, disappointed, angry, fed up, and so on. I know Hollywood has been Hollywood for many, many years, but at least they would throw you a bone and nominate some worthy stuff mixed in with the art house garbage that nobody ever saw. There are 3 movies produced by the former president of EBay, Jeffrey Skoll (2 involve George Clooney. Which side of the political spectrum does he fall on again?). No surprise all of them are political, all of them are anti-anything resembling middle of the road and all three have some pretty hefty nominations. The films are Syriana, Good Night & Good Luck and North Country. First off, the best box office grab of the three was Syriana which made $49 million; that ranks 58th on the list of box office receipts for 2005. North Country only made $18 million; it didn't even make the top 100 of 2005. If you saw Norma Rae you can skip North Country; and it looks like that’s what a lot of people did since Norma Rae grossed $22 million in 1979. Lastly Good Night & Good Luck made only $30 million; 90th place for 2005. Now I know that very few true blockbusters have taken home the coveted Best Picture or Best Director nod, but that's because a lot of the time they are crap. This year, however, there were some pretty spectacular movies that were ignored. No Best Picture or Best Director nod for either The Chronicles of Narnia or Walk the Line. Allow me to draw a couple of obvious conclusions. First, the three Skoll films as well as Brokeback Mountain, Munich and The Constant Gardener have a political agenda. What are they? Well, Syrianna is trying to "expose" big oil, big business. North Country portrays men as knuckle dragging fools in an attempt to further neuter America’s male population. Good Night & Good Luck discusses the, admittedly, slightly paranoid efforts of Senator McCarthy's to root out communist sympathizers. The downfall of this movie is that, as a "historical" movie, it fails to adequately address the real dangers America faced at the time. It refuses to look at the fact that America was dealing with one of the most brutal dictators in Stalin. It also tells the tale of the heroic, ever struggling journalist just trying to tell the truth - right. One other note on this film is that, when casting this film, George Clooney said they couldn't find an actor in Hollywood that could play a character so despicable as Senator McCarthy; that's why, he says, they used the real footage. Of course, Brokeback Mountain portrays all conservative Americans as dreadful bigots and that those actually living a heterosexual lifestyle are fooling themselves. Okay that might be a stretch, but it's the next step, trust me. I don't force my lifestyle on anyone else, don't force yours on me. Munich uses moral relativism to put terrorists on the same plane as those who try and stop terrorists. Spielberg had no trouble showing Nazi Germany as barbarians. Why not Palestinian terrorists? I think you know the answer. Finally, the Constant Gardener takes aim at the pharmaceutical industry. While, I agree that is wrong to use humans as a large scale lab without their knowledge, it's really just more liberal rhetoric against big business. So what about the two films that got snubbed? Get ready to roll your eyes if you are anti-Christian or anti Conservative. God. Johnny Cash ended his life as a man chasing after God and we all know that the Chronicles of Narnia is the Gospel. Go ahead and keep rolling them and I will too when I look at the winners tomorrow morning. Didn't I mention it? Yeah, I won't be watching the Oscars this year. It must be bad if a college graduate with a Theatre degree and jobs in acting, scenic design and lighting won't even watch the Oscars anymore. I'll turn them back on again when it is truly about the art of making movies and less about forwarding an agenda.

Current Book

This is the book I am currently reading. It's a very interesting look at the CIA's hunt for Osama bin Laden. Of course, at the root of all of the problems are political agendas that bogs down the operation from the get go. Not to mention the massive reduction of the CIA personnel assets during the 8 years of the Clinton Administration (I'm not trying to be too political here, that information is well known as well as being stated explicitly by the author in the book). It's a pretty good read so far; there are a quite a few passages that have been blacked out by CIA censors, but it still flows pretty well. It's definitely a good look at the many different resources and partnerships (some with rather shady characters) needed to run a clandestine operation. The extreme dedication it takes to be a clandestine agent for the CIA (or any other paramilitary operative or agency) is quite amazing. The author has a tendency to be a bit narcissistic, but I guess that could be expected of a person who can function for many years in a position like that. While their job may not be the most attractive or palatable in some cases, it's necessary to protect the U.S. I'm just glad they're out there.

Walk

We went on our usual walk today after work, but this time I took my camera and we decided to get off the beaten path a little. We got to explore! It was just like I remember when I was a little kid. There were streams and fallen trees and mud and all sorts of good stuff. Here in the midst of the nonstop development of northern VA, we found some woods that were as of yet untouched by "progress". I loved exploring as a kid and today I was back at it like I hadn't missed a day; jumping from rock to rock to get across a stream, getting tangled in vines, crunching through leaves and twigs. Sometimes I don't even realize how hectic life can get until I take a moment and step outside of it. It was a rough day at work with lots of issues and a few fires to put out; I was grumpy and mentally exhausted. But a 45 minute walk through those woods and I was refreshed. I got my spirit back.

-a couple more photos from the walk here.