Happy Leap Year Day!

Don't know what happened to yesterday's blog.  It was here yesterday and is gone today.  Must be the leap year.  At any rate, I wrote a bit about the research I'd done on John McCain to date.  I'm starting with him and then moving on to the Dems since my brother, Dale, asked me my opinions...and I realized I didn't know enough to respond.

Yesterday's research centered on McCain's biographical information.  His history as a war veteran, politician and family man are well known.  I was interested to learn that he had an affair with wife #2 while married to wife #1.  (Apparently, it wasn't his first extra-marital foray, either.)

He's admitted to the affair and accepted full responsibility for the break-up of the marriage...so I guess that partly negates his questionable judgement and lack of integrity at the time.  He and his current wife, Cindy, have been married about 8 months longer than Dan and I.  So that longevity says something too.  All of which leads me to a neutral rating for McCain on the whole (relatively minor) divorce issue.

Today's research was on McCain's position on taxes.  He seems to be typically Republican in his approach.  Specifically, he wants to cut taxes on the middle class by eliminating the Alternative Minimum Tax. (And replacing it with nothing.)  He wants to keep the Bush "Tax Relief for the Wealthy" plan in place (meaning he wants to keep the lower capital gains and dividends taxes in place, along with other Bush cuts).  And he's for lowering business tax rates by 10% across the board.

The one proposal he had that made sense to me was a tax credit for businesses who invest an equivalent of 10% of their wage budget in Research and Development.  I'd support that instead of the across the board cut in a heartbeat.

So how's he going to afford these cuts given that we're in a huge deficit and spending away like mad on a war he'd like to stay in? 

He's playing on his reputation as a reformer to say that he'd balance the budget by reforming government.  More on that next McCain instalment.  There's digging to be done to see if that's air or has some potential to offset the cuts he's selling.

So far on taxes?  I'd give him a -1 on a scale of -5 to +5.  He seems happy to cut taxes (and retain tax cuts skewed toward the wealthy) at a time where more tax cuts just increases the bleeding.

Not sure why my blog has been fading in and out of being lately, but I'll check with the good folks at Weebly.  Maybe it's just imitating me, as I flicker in and out of life with this bothersome sinus infection.

I was counting on today being the day that I was back in the world of the living but it looks like it might be tomorrow.  I was so ansty yesterday I shudder to think about today!  I may send Dan to buy me a movie while he's out.

I did finish Confessor yesterday.  *Spoiler Alert*

I was more pleased with this final novel in the series than I've been with the last three or four.  The issue I've taken with the past four novels is that the author, Terry Goodkind, pretty much gave up all pretense of illustrating his philosophy through his characters.  Instead, he gave them long speeches in which we were treated to Goodkind's convictions on the nature of life and religion without the messy trappings of plot or character.

This novel was still quite preachy but I was prepared for that.  He wrapped up all of the series' plot lines in a reasonable, workman-like fashion.  Nothing startling.  Not even J.K. Rowlings-level startling.  The good guys win.  The guy gets the girl.  Various cute semi-dangerous animals are heard from and go off to live their magical lives.

I was struck by two things in the novel that made the sort of predictable wrap-up worth reading the 603 pages worthwhile, if only for ruminative value.

The first comes from the heroine of the series, Kahlan.  A man who has attempted to have his way with her (among other bad deeds in other novels) asks her for mercy.  She denies him mercy and says, "Mercy is a contingency plan devised by the guilty in the eventuality that they are caught.  Justice is the domain of the just.  This is about justice."

Words like that could only ever be spoken by a person who has lived a perfect life.  I came to a different conclusion than Kahlan's years ago when wishing for justice to come to someone else.  The words of the Lord's prayer flashed in my mind--"Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us."  And it occured to me that we all want justice for the other guy.  For ourselves?  We prefer mercy.

The second tidbit of the novel that got me thinking was the way the hero of the novel dispatches the bad guys in the end.  He sends them off to a world of their own where they will live without magic and in a corrupt system without access to their prior world.  He seals up his own world as well, retaining magic and proclaiming free will to be the highest good.

(It's ironic that by giving the bad guys their own world, Richard showed mercy, eh?)

Goodkind holds that free will and faith are opposites.  On the "good" side of free will we have action, self-determination, responsibility and reason.  On the "bad" side of faith we have unreasoning belief, self-sacrifice and futile hope for an afterlife and mercy.

I've thought that what Goodkind never sold me on was the idea that free will is the ultimate good.  But I realized in writing this that what doesn't hold is his assumption about oppositional truths.

I know people who value reason and still have deep faith.  I know others who value reason and free will, yet use them both as a bludgeon for self-interest.  As I have come to see time and time again, the Truth is not an "either/or" proposition but a paradox.

Free will.  Faith.  Sacrifice.  Reason.  Responsibility.  Hope.  We need all of these qualities.  Even, and perhaps especially, Mercy.

Spent the morning at the doctor yesterday, thinking I had strep throat but he said, "I'm not worried about your throat but you do have a sinus infection."  I told him I'd been fighting one off for a few weeks and he thought that was pretty amusing.  Apparently, I've just flat had a low-grade sinus infection for a few weeks.  Silly me.

At any rate, count on a few down days of intermittent blogging as I try to kick this in the patootie.  At least it's a low grade infection.  I'm not changing or cancelling big plans (visits with friends or a golf game tomorrow) but I am taking two weeks of anti-biotics and trying to get lots of rest and fluids.

The good news is my down time yesterday allowed me to plow through most of the latest Goodkind novel, Confessor.  It's better than the last two or three have been.  Less preachy.  More action.  And I am looking forward to how he ties up all the loose ends.

What are you reading these days?

Okay, it was clear after I woke up with a HUGE headache on Tuesday (down to a dull roar on Wednesday and gone today) that I needed/wanted a little me time before hopping back into the saddle.

So, that's what I've been doing.  Yesterday, Dan and I ran around doing chores together (one of my favorite things to do in the world).  Today, I played golf at the 9-hole course I play and shot my record round (a six over 35).  Two pars on the par 4 holes.  Woohoo!

Then I came home and gardened for two hours.  Started the laundry.  Ate lunch.  Now I'm going to finish the laundry, cross stitch and be "lazy."

So...now ruminitave blogs today.  No political hay to be made (by me).  Just downtime.  Feels good, don't it?

We're back in Orange County and have already unpacked, done laundry, been to the gym and the grocery store.  I am getting ready to go prep dinner but wanted to say a quick hello by way of today's blog entry.

I did a bit of writing and editing today on the novel.  The editing was prompted by the fact that I lost a chapter somehow.  I wrote it in Hawaii and thought I saved it to my thumb drive.  Then to my home pc.  But either I didn't save it to the thumb drive or didn't transfer it to my home pc because what I had was missing a chapter.

So I took the opportunity to tidy up the previous chapter and make it more closely resemble historical fact.  Then I wrote about the day where Lenn creates a baseball league at Manzanar.  Since Lenn's fictional, I figure the genesis of the league can be fictional as well.

Feels great to be home and looking forward to being here for at least a few months.  On task and focused.  Yaay!

We spend most of yesterday at the hospital with Kevin.  He continues to heal while being in a great deal of pain.  The hospital he's in is a training hospital, so there are more than the usual number of folks poking heads into his room.  There are people doing medical studies, others who are med students, interns doing rounds.  And then there are the doctors and nurses.

Having spent quite a bit of time with relatives in hospitals over the past several years, I've been thinking a lot about the qualities it takes to be an excellent nurse.  First and foremost is a desire to help people get better, I suppose.  But nursing is about so much more than desire.

There are the practicalities of juggling patients.  Juggling paperwork.  Juggling priorities.  Advocating for patients with their doctors.  Advocating for doctors with patients.  Being nice to family members.  Being nice to anyone after eight hours on your feet confronting people in pain, people who are scared, people who would rather be anywhere, with anyone than in the hospital with you.

So I think selflessness is a good ingredient for a nurse.  The ability to prioritize.  The ability to be compassionate in action and in attitude.  Stamina.  The ability to shrug off the drek (real and psychic) that comes with the job.  The aplomb not to take things personally while being personable.

There are excellent nurses in every hospital on every floor.  I'd just like to take a moment this morning to salute them.  To say thanks for an impossible job, done impossibly well.

I read a scary article in the LA Times this morning about hypoxic (oxygen-starve) zones in the ocean.  The phenomenon started within the last fifty years, at least in zones that used to be rich with fish and other forms of sea life.  These dead zones, while making up only 1% of the world's oceans are found in sections of the ocean containint 20% of the earth's fisheries.  The article is worth reading from the standpoint of being informed about the perils of global warming/global climate change.

However, it frustrates me that there are no proposals about global or individual behavior changes that would help alleviate the situation.  So we read a scary article.  Half of the population (those folks listening to Rush Limbaugh) say, "Oh, there's no such thing as global warming and even if there is, it's a good thing."

The other half, like me, say "Oh my God, this is scary and horrible."  But because the problem is so big, so global, so like badly written sci-fi--our response is not qualitatively different from the ditto-heads.

My personal response is this:  I cannot individually change the dead zones to living zones.  But I can do the following things:

1.  I can live responsibly within my environment by following basic green principles.

2.  I can continue to engage this overwhelming blob known as "global climate change" and learn about causes and effects.

3.  I can vote green at the ballot box and with my pocket book.

4.  I can challenge the thinking of ditto-heads wherever I run into them.

Is it enough?  Not on my own.  But it's certainly something.  And something, as they say, is better than nothing.

No, the title of this blog is not an address...it's the end of the quote that begins with "From the sublime..."  But before I get into my ridiculousness, let me give a status report for all of you holding Kevin in thought and prayer.  He is doing well.  Surgery went as planned and he is scheduled to move from ICU to the step-down cardiac care today.  This is all good news!  I hope to see him later today.

Steven is holding up extremely well and seems much relieved that the surgical portion of the ordeal is over.  Now the healing.

As to the ridiculous?  Yesterday, I was sitting with Dan in the circular hallway of Duke Hospital's 3rd Floor surgical waiting area.  It's a gorgeous space in terms of windows, lighting, seating.  And it grows subtly eerie as the hospital empties after 7:00 shift change.  I made the comment to Dan that it would be an excellent setting for a zombie movie.

I love zombie movies.  I have zombie dreams, too (although last night it was rather complex dreams about vampires and road trips--a sort of post-apocalyptic vision in which the only way to vanquish the head vampira was to become a vampire.  Then I held them to their own rules--an open fountain becomes a vampire holding zone, apparently--I left them there to starve forever).  I purchased the Zombie Survival Guide.  I've seen almost every Zombie movie known to man.  My current favorite?  It's a tie between Dawn of the Dead and I am Legend.

So imagine my joy when I found in this morning's LA Times an article about George Romero (zombie movie producer of some reknown) and his latest zombie movie--"Diary of the Dead."  I can hardly wait to see it.

In the meantime, I'll be content with vampire dreams and hospital vigils.  Maybe I'll write up a treatment of my dream...given the state of vampire movies these days, it could sell.

We'll be spending the bulk of the day at the hospital, awaiting news of the surgical outcome for Dan's brother-in-law.  I call Kevin Dan's brother-in-law today (and from here on out) for two reasons.  1) His union with Dan's brother should be, imho, legally recognized by the State.  Enough with this half-assed, shadow-life for gay unions!  2) It's easier for people to understand the person being mentioned.

We had a lovely dinner last night, pre-surgery, at a Durham restaurant called Anotherthyme.  It was good to sit together, enjoy each other's company, reminisce and nosh.  They had an amazing appetizer of fried camembert, jam and apple that was definitely NOT on my everyday eating plan.  But worth every delicious calorie.

I'm taking along a few books, magazines, Ipod and a journal to the hospital.  We should be waiting about 3-4 hours after we get back from lunch.  It seems a bit macabre, going out for lunch while your loved one is under the knife, but it's a bit of a tradition in my family.

Sally's brain surgery?  We went for Italian while she was in recovery.  Dad's heart attack?  A nice steak dinner.  Mom's 1st knee replacement?  Sally took me to breakfast.  And assorted other surgeries at Kaiser in San Diego?  We always go to the burger joint across the parking lot.

Today we're headed to Wimpy's Grill where we are under instructions from the patient to have a burger in his honor.  Maybe raise a french fry or two.  Then it's back on the eating plan for me.  Thus hoping to avoid someone going to lunch while I'm under the knife some years hence.

Good thoughts and prayers appreciated!

I received an email from my friend, Todd Truffin, this morning.  He has been published in a series of Lenten meditations by the Episcopalian diocese in Ohio.  His first meditation contrasts the story of Christ and the "woman caught in sin" (John 8:1-20) with the book of Susanna (an apocryphal book that this protestant-backgrounded heretic has never read).

Todd considerately explained the book of Susanna so those of us who were unfamiliar with the book would know the story.  In a nutshell, Susanna is a beautiful, devout, Jewish woman who finds herself entrapped by two evil men in her garden. They give her what seems to be an impossible choice--she must either have sex with them or they will tell everyone that they caught her with a lover. 

Susanna tells them to take a hike.  She won't give in.  And so they accuse her.  Enter Daniel, who knows that something's not quite kosher.  He questions the men, discovers huge discrepancies in their stories, and she is freed while the evil men are stoned.

Todd drew on the parallel New Testament story of the men who were poised to stone a woman "caught in sin" when Jesus stopped them with his admonishment, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."

But I was struck by a different parallel--the story of Shakepeare's Measure for Measure.  In another nutshell, a virtuous woman (Isabella) is pressured by a government official to give up her virginity in order to save her brother from execution.  She refuses and, as is typical in Shakespeare, all ends well.

In college, I was one of two people who argued strenuously that Isabella should have given in and saved her brother.  She had no way of knowing that someone else would save him and I viewed it as a sacrifice worth making.

Needless to say, my friend Clay and I horrified the idealistic young Christians in our class who held that she would be sacrificing not only her virginity but her immortal soul to save her brother.  We saw it differently, believing that God would forgive her and her brother would be saved from death by her sacrifice.

I'm still torn as to what I would do.  I suppose scripture urges me to hold fast to the spiritual ideal of purity and let the chips fall where they may for my "brother."  But the example of Christ tells me that to sacrifice my self for my brother is a good thing. 

Though it's an abstract question, I think it's worth pondering.  What would you do?  Hold fast and leave the saving up to someone else?  Or sacrifice those ideals to redeem your brother's life?