I'm a Republican and want to see them win. I'm not a Rep. who rationalizes the relative disadvantage of the Republicans this year by seeing all manner of advantages to a loss, but it wouldn't be the end of the world if Dems. take office. For one thing, the president would feel at ease to veto the tax and spending raises sure to follow a Dem. victory. If the Dems. fail to control themselves, it may help return a Republican to the White House.

It's a comfort that the Dems. have absalutely no issues on which to run. None. Do you think the 98.5% of American citizens who don't get the minimum wage care about raising it and seeing their relative wages drop? Health care? Homosexual marriage? Iraq surrender? Why don't they just come out and say it if that's what the people want? A Dem. victory should not be interpreted as an endoresement of their policies.

In fact, if the Reps. lose, one can say it's because they weren't conservative enough as evidenced by Rep. base's grumbling over increased spending and the failure to control the border with Mexico.

The only thing that does concern me is the war. The fact that millions of Iraqis who held out hope for some kind of freedom will be handed over to the most evil people on Earth bothers me. It reminds me of similar US moves in Vietnam and Cuba-not exactly our shining moments. The lesson for the enemy: Americans can't tough out a difficult war. Their view of the West as spiritually hollow and morally weak would have been confirmed.

My second favorite female Cuban singer is Celina who, along with her husband Reutilio, defined a kind of afro-guajiro mix that was unique in Cuban music. Their music combined the guitar dominant guajiros with the sparse but very African conjunto style. The themes in their music ranged from the guajiro-romantic with its idealized depictions of Cuban peasnats to the praise of African saints found in Santeria ceremonies.

Caridad del Cobre is an apparition of the Virgin Mary and is venerated in Cuba much like the Virgen de Guadalupe is venerated in Mexico. This song features Celina in strong voice over an equally powerful rhythm. I love when Celina encourages her husband's guitar playing in the bridge. The lyrics deal with a young guajira who went to town with her love only to be dissappointed. She prays for protection from Caridad del Cobre as she returns to her country mountain seeking refuge.

Listen


Cantos de Cuba

Article

Schroeder says Bush's religious talk worried him
Gulf News Berlin: Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has written in a new book that George W. Bush's frequent references to God in their meetings before the Iraq war had made him wary of the US president's political...

I wonder how much is just the normal secular reaction to any mention of God.

Here is a story where the French are facing increasing violence from its Muslim minority. The key passage is this:

"First, it was a rock here or there. Then it was rocks by the dozen. Now, they're leading operations of an almost military sort to trap us," said Loic Lecouplier, a police union official in the Seine-Saint-Denis region north of Paris. "These are acts of war."

I noticed something in the Army which I later applied to my teaching and, eventually, dealings with adults. During basic training, I always tried to do my best with the nicer drill sergeants, rewarding their good treatment with greater effort. There were others who only did their best for the meaner drill sergeants. “By only giving your best to people who treat you poorly, you're asking for more poor treatment,” I would tell my Army mates. From that experience, I began to divide people into two categories: Those who see a weak person, say like an older person on a wheelchair, and want to help them across the street and those who can see the same person and want to rob them, figuring they won't find much opposition. In other words, some people only react positively to punishment.

How does this apply to France? I remember, during their riots, the French decided to have a peace march while their suburbs were ablaze from Muslim youth violence. The rioters, being mostly composed of the second type of person, saw the French peace marches for what they were-demonstrations of weakness- and thus began to do even worse, to the point now where they brazenly attack police officers. The French rioters are asking for poor treatment. When the rioters get that treatment, they will begin to respect Europeans. Unfortunately, it looks like things in France are going to have to get much worse before the French muster the courage for the proper response.

During church this Sunday, I began to notice something unusual. Why couldn't I hear my children, I asked? Where were the complaints of "he touched me" or "he called me short?" Wondering, I looked down and focused on something amazing: My nine year old son was hugging his younger sister! This sure to be temporary truce held all the way home as well, causing me to ponder the effect that Church can have on children and, for that matter, on adults.

To me the argument isn't whether religious people can be bad or secular people good, for only the most extreme would argue against such an obvious conclusion; the issue is whether people are made better by Church. Is a normal person who begins to attend Church more likely to give charity, love their neighbor, or risk harm to help others? Would the people who killed Matthew Sheppard been less likely to commit the murder had they attended Church regularly? Would Aldrich Ames have been less likely to sell spy secrets had he not been a member of Opus Dei? I think the Sheppard murderers would have been far less likely to kill had they just left Church while I don't see how being secular would have prevented Ames from spying.

I've heard arguments by atheists that the opposite is true. One attempt is based on the fact that most people in prison believe in God while few are secular-concluding, therefore that religious people commit more crime. Now, the question shouldn't be whether they believe in God, for belief in God is a default position; people believe in God unless they make a conscious decision not to. The question should be whether they ever thought about religion. In other words, did the criminals regularly attend Church before they committed crime? Did the people in the criminal's community who went to Church commit as much crime as those who did? It's only appropriate to compare people who actively practice their faith with people who consciously don't. Another day, I will try to reconcile the declining murder rate in Europe over 500 years with the decline in faith as expressed in the book Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

Anyways, I hope whatever effected my children spreads.

Let me know about your experience with people who have converted. Did they become better or worse?

This is one of the best sci-fi episodes I've ever seen. After two weeks of plot complicating, we finally get a climactic battle scene. And it was spectacular; only surpassed, perhaps, by the space battles in the Star Wars movies. There's a big difference between BG battles and Star Wars, however. BG aims for a kind of mock-realism achieved mostly by shaky camera work and unusual, sometimes confusing camera angles. The result looks reminds one of WWII fighter pilot footage.

The drama in the story gets mixed reviews. The Starbuck-Cassie relationship didn't overwhelm the story. The Ty and his wife scene was surprising and genuinely moving while adding a lot to Ty's character. The Adama-Apollo mellodrama we've seen before and is now forgetable. Overall, the action makes 304 a great episode.

This is the sequel to "In search of Eagle One," a fine "B" movie. The writers came up with a good solid plot wherin the terrorists (or Islamofascists, if you prefer) steal a device that can control commercial aircraft in the air. It's actually better than the 4 "Bond" movies with this exact plot because the origen of the device is actually plausible; it's used to control planes that have been taken over by Islamic fascists. The acting is serviceable and the pace is brisk. What really sets this movie apart, however, are the excellent fight scenes, with tremendous, video game style gun battles and a convincing hand to hand fight. This movie should be successful because it fills a niche: It is a pro-American, pro-military, very anti-Islamic-extremist movie. It is the patriot's "Blood in Blood out."

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