This Is How We Roll

Tirael gets behind the wheel of the car he is renting from us for his driving test, a 2006 Chevrolet Malibu.  Eighteen year old Tirael is wearing driving gloves which he clamps down firmly on the steering wheel of the Malibu and announces to me with his big white smile; "I've been waiting to get my driver's license my whole life!"

After we get going I ask Tirael if he has taken any formal driver's training and he tells me no but that he has spent many hours practicing driving on his video game set, including two hours just before he came today.  "You mean like Grand Thief Auto?" I respond, thinking about cars smashing other cars, hitting people, dogs, cats, trash cans, going airborne and shooting cops.  He tells me yes but that he likes to play such and such a game (I can't give you the name here because I could only understand about half of what Tirael was saying).

"You're beginning to make me worried" I tell Tirael.  "Oh, I cut da speed way down and just cruise around town, nice and easy like" he assures me.  The test goes on and we didn't hit any objects or shoot any cops and Tirael does well enough to pass so maybe he's on to something.

I had a 16 year old guy today who did take driver's training and promptly blew through a four way stop early in the test.  Just before we went through his dad said; "Sam, watch it!" and Sam responds; "Dad, quiet.  I'm taking my test!". 

Then there was another 18 year old guy who didn't take any formal instruction who drove one handed the entire way (actually one palm on the wheel which he would remove to use the turn signal, which meant a second here and there when no hands or palms were on the wheel).  That was fun. The concept of traffic checks, where to stop, actually stopping, turning into the correct lane and a bunch of other stuff was quite foreign to him.  Lucky I carry a spare pencil for my score sheet.

One twenty year old woman arrived for her test today driving an old Pontiac Grand Am which was filled with trash.  The front passenger side seat where I plop my rear end had about three dollars worth of change on it (actually didn't feel too bad).  The floor in front of me had empty pop cans, food wrappers and other crap, both center cup holders had large but empty Styrofoam cups and I had to take a bulky box out of the open glove box so we could close it (ended up somewhere in the back seat).  Periogan had a thick stack of papers that she pulled from the glove box because she was looking for her insurance and registration documents and somehow they couldn't be stuffed back in so the stack also ended up in the back seat amongst all the other garbage. 

My mom always told me not to wear underwear with holes in it because if I got into an accident she didn't want me (actually her) to end up embarrassed.  Thinking about it, Jackie thinks the same as my mom.  This has never been a big concern for me however and after a while I actually felt comfortable riding in that cluttered Pontiac.

This is how we roll. 

The Word

In the beginning was the Word
and the Word was with God
and the Word was God
He was in the beginning with God.

All things came into being through Him
and apart from Him nothing came into being
that has come into being.

In Him was life
and the life was the Light of men.

The Light shines in the darkness
and the darkness did not comprehend it.

There came a man sent from God
whose name was John.
He came as a witness to testify about the Light
so that all might believe through him.

He was not the Light
but came to testify
about the Light.

There was the true Light
which coming into the world
enlightens every man.

He was in the world
and the world was made through Him
and the world did not know Him.

He came to His own
and those who were His own
did not receive Him.

But as many as received Him
to them He gave the right
to become children of God
even those who believe in His name,

    who were born
    not of blood
    nor of the will of man
    but of God.

And the Word became flesh
and dwelt among us

and we saw His glory
glory as of the only begotten from the Father
full of grace and truth.

John testified about Him and cried out, saying
This was He of whom I said
He who comes after me has a higher rank than I
for He existed before me.

For of His fulness
we have all received
and grace upon grace. 

(John 1: 1 - 16) 

O Me! O Life.

The new commercial for Apple's iPad Air features part of a Walt Whitman poem that Robin Williams quoted in the movie Dead Poets Society and ends with the refrain:  That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse.  That the powerful play goes on and you will contribute a verse.  Apple and Williams then asks; And what will your verse be?

I think I found out today after Ben showed up for his driving test.  He was a huge 24 year old man sporting a full red beard, construction worker boots and large calloused hands.  After he squeezes himself into our rental car Ben looks me square in the eye and confides; "I suck at parallel parking".

"What a perfect title for when I compile my stories and publish a book about all of my road tests adventures" I think.  I SUCK AT PARALLEL PARKING could be my contribution to the recurring questions Whitman asks.

Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill'd with the foolish,  Those are my average customers!

Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)  I'll admit, even after doing this for 15 years I've still got a lot to work on.

Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew'd,  If this isn't referring to parallel parking then nothing is.

Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,  O Me!  O Life!  Day after day they roll through stop signs, the same stop signs, the same right turns at red lights, over and over.  Does not one mortal man understand that stop means stop!  Your car should not move, the seconds must tick like sonic booms warning of impending disaster. Be like the frozen waves off the shores of Lake Michigan in the winter of 0 14.  You stand above it all, watching, thinking, amazed that while you are suspended above the raging forces of man and nature, time has waited for you.  And you, you have contributed a verse!

Oh No! Not Global Cooling

Below is from an article by Noel Sheppard published on 7/12/12.

"A new study published in the journal Nature Sunday completely debunks all previous claims that temperatures in recent decades are in any way historic demonstrating instead that things were much hotter on this planet during Roman times:

Here, we present new evidence based on maximum latewood density data from northern Scandinavia, indicating that this cooling trend was stronger (−0.31 °C per 1,000 years, ±0.03 °C) than previously reported, and demonstrate that this signature is missing in published tree-ring proxy records. The long-term trend now revealed in maximum latewood density data is in line with coupled general circulation models indicating albedo-driven feedback mechanisms and substantial summer cooling over the past two millennia in northern boreal and Arctic latitudes. These findings, together with the missing orbital signature in published dendrochronological records, suggest that large-scale near-surface air-temperature reconstructions relying on tree-ring data may underestimate pre-instrumental temperatures including warmth during Medieval and Roman times.

Here's a nice little graph to demonstrate what's really happened in the past 2,000 years:

 

The new study indicates that . . . the current warming (is) less serious than the Romans and others since have seen - and the overall trend actually down by a noticeable 0.3°C per millennium, which the scientists believe is probably down to gradual long-term shifts in the position of the Sun and the Earth's path around it."

I remember talking in the 1970's with a good friend of mine about Lake Michigan water levels.  He lived most of his life along that lake and he explained the various cycles that affect water levels.  There are short term, intermediate term and long term cycles, each bringing with them their highs and lows.  Thinking about that is one reason I love the graph above.  It covers over 2100 years yet if you take any smaller segment of it and then try to extrapolate from that information a prediction about the future you may end up being very wrong.

'But surely climate scientist's have factored in these fluctuations into their computer models' you may say to me, and I would reply, "No, and don't call me Shirley."

Here is what I know.  Are things in general warming up around here in West Michigan from when I was a boy 60 years ago?  Maybe yes, Holland had to move her Tulip Time festival up a week to help alleviate  more "stem fests".  You can't reason with an elderly angry tourist (although most of their buses are now hitting the casino's instead).  Does that mean that the seasons are changing because of emissions of man made carbon dioxide?  Maybe no, there are a lot of other factors involved and name calling to stifle any serious debate has always been a major pet peeve of mine.

First you have to know something about scientist.  Group think is the norm not the exception.  The reason is, as I've opined before, that grant funding, the life blood of scientists, depends on agreeing with what in reality is an establishment.  They are known to eat their babies.  Gradually some group manages to upset the apple cart and new thought can arise but now our graph is firmly (though becoming transitional)  in the man made carbon dioxide is bad for us camp.

What are "other factors"?  Well, sun spot cycles for one.  There happens to be direct correlation, traceable for centuries, which show the impact of sun spot activity on the earth's temperature.  Another is volcanic activity.  An active volcano by itself can emit more CO2 than all the cars, trucks, factories and buildings in the world combined.  Man made production of carbon dioxide, depending on who you believe, is anywhere from 3 1/2 to 7% of the total.  All the emission regulations in the world will barely affect the per cent of CO2 in our climate.  It even seems that there are benefits to the presence of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere.  It makes plants grow, it shields our planet from being toasted to a crisp by the sun and here increased levels may actually be a factor in the cooling, not heating of our planet.

Before I go any farther I must admit that there are obviously some bad side effects to man made emissions (my own included) and that sensible regulations are wise.  Smog in closed environments such as LA or Mexico City is a health hazard and must be addressed.  Yet the politics involved today promoting so called global warming, with solutions such as the Kyoto Treaty and regulations that will close all of our coal production is really crazy and the purpose behind it is not the health of mankind but rather social engineering.

Consider excerpts from a speech given today by our Secretary of State, John Kerry in Indonesia (perhaps the cause of this rant).  

"Climate change may be the most fearsome weapon of mass destruction."  (Well, that and a bad Hersey bar)  

"Urgent action is needed".  (before I leave office)  

"Those who deny it are flat earthers"  (with my head proudly in the sand)

"We should not allow a tiny minority of shaky scientists and sever and extreme ideologues to compete with scientific facts". (hey, I know some of those quacks)  

"Nor should we allow any room for those who think the costs associated with doing the right thing out weigh the benefits".  (don't you love this most open of administrations)

"The science is unequivocal".  (and I've got some investments with my buddy Al in green technology)

And my favorite; "The solution is a new global energy policy".  (carbon credits, the intention of which is income redistribution but the reality is that the rich will get richer as will the ruling elite and the poor will be even more dependent on government and the middle class will suffer the lion share of the burden, at least in our country)

Hello Kitty!

One of my tests today was ZiGi who is a Chinese woman attending one of our local colleges.  When she drives up it is 15 degrees with a nice stiff wind.  I ask to see her permit as well as the registration and proof of insurance for her vehicle and she says in a high, baby girl voice, "OK sir, thank you." 

She gets out of her car, pulls out her wallet which is pink with white hearts, and manages to extract from it after about two minutes the permit.  ZiGi, who is dressed in tights covered by a very tight skirt then proceeds to walk like a geisha and takes about 50 baby steps to get to the passenger side of her auto.  She opens the door, finds the documents in her glove box and makes the 50 step journey back to where I am standing (by the driver's door), almost but not quite closing her passenger side door as she leaves.

The vehicle inspection takes awhile because I need to repeat all my requests about three times before she responds by engaging the horn or turn signals or what ever. 

All that done I begin the parking lot portion of the test by giving ZiGi  the instructions to drive forward to the forward stop line.  A teenage boy make the journey from starting line to forward stop line in about 3 seconds.  ZiGi takes three minutes.  She ends about 5 feet from where she needs to begin the next exercise.

I do what I have done for the last 15 years by saying; "Please move forward" while holding my clipboard over the proper line, placing my other hand up while moving those fingers toward me to indicate the direction and distance needed to go forward.  ZiGi moves ahead 1 inch and stops.  I keep instructing her to move forward more, she keeps traveling 1 inch and stopping.  After awhile I notice that my arm is gesturing wildly, my fingers are wiggling three times faster and that my voice has risen a bit.  None of this seems to matter to ZiGi who only will advance 1 inch at a time.

We finally get there and begin the second exercise which is akin to backing up into a driveway.  ZiGi is very deliberate, stopping, thinking, inching but manages to finally make it fine into the space.  All the time watching I am bounding up and down, trying to keep my feet warm and keeping my back to the wind. 

After instructing ZiGi on the parallel park maneuver I decide, forget this, and actually get into my car, turn the heat to high, and think that if she is anywhere close she is going to pass this part because it is still early February with no warm up in sight.  10 minutes later she has finally finished and my feet are toasty warm so I leave my car, get into hers and even though we are running way behind on my schedule we go on our driving trip.

I tell ZiGi to turn right at the next light.  "OK sir, thank you."  I ask ZiGi to turn left at the second street.  "OK sir, thank you."  As this goes on and on I notice how interesting the interior of the car is decorated.  The steering wheel cover is pink with white hearts with a pink and white bunny head sewn on.  The rear view mirror has the same covering with a bigger bunny head hanging off to the side.  My seat belt adjustment is a pink and white bunny.  There are pink and white bunnies sitting on both sides of the dash, the shifter between the seats and the emergency brake lever both are covered with pink cloth with white hearts and little bunny  heads.  Oh, and ZiGi's cell phone cover was pink with white hearts.

You have probably guessed that ZiGi passed her test.  When I tell her she replies, "OK, thank you sir" about 5 times.  I leave her car, greet my next client who is a Hispanic 18 year old male who completes all three parking exercises in a total of about 2 minutes.  It's not getting any warmer but it's getting better.

 

When Lot's Wife

Lot loved the pace, the buzz, the lights

the place in the shade by an ancient gate

Placed in a valley, lovely, given

an easy walk to the corner bar

The others were heathen, boisterous, many

Lot was at ease with their city ways 

But he was grayer, with daughters betrothed

dreaming of grandchildren on his knee

One day like others, pleasant, quiet

there in the shade by the ancient gate

Came in two strangers, striding, handsome

who seemed to know him, so very strange

They gave a warning, urgent, frightening

gather your family and leave here right now

But laughing, teasing, disrespectful

his daughter's betrothed refused go

Evening came quickly, darkness, worries,

which frightened Lot by the ancient gate

Convinced the strangers, inside, right now

We'll leave tomorrow after packing our things

Outside were large mobs, young men, old men,

the entire town seemed crazed with lust

Send out the strangers! Do it! Quickly!

Prove old man that you're one of us

Driven by tradition, to welcome, protect

Lot went outside near the ancient gate

Please take my daughters, lovely, virgins

his desperate bargain fell on deaf ears

Out of the way! Unlock it! We'll smash it!

The strangers grabbed Lot and pulled him inside

Zap! Came a bright light, blindness, confusion

several more hours till morning would come

At dawn they were leaving, the couple and daughters

out to the mountains through the ancient gate

But Lot pleaded old bones, a village, much shorter

those strangers said hurry, don't even look back

The sky became darkness with fire and brimstone

earth became Hell in the once verdant plain

A strong wind was chasing, boiling and salty

encrusted the woman who had stopped in her tracks

Approaching a village, the father, his daughters

standing outside by its ancient gate

Would this place be next? Lot wondered, he worried

must leave for the mountains before it's too late

Onward they traveled, arriving, exhausted

set up a tent in a place by itself

Alarmed by the prospect, without men, no families

the daughters conspired and got father drunk

At this point dear children, please listen, remember

you each have a place by an ancient gate

Your cities are lovely, thriving, sweet customs

but judgment is coming, maybe sooner than late

Will dawn find you praying or anxious and running

are things all that different from Sodom, Gomore

Is your life in Jesus, reborn and different

or will you be longing and stop to look back

Vietnam Thoughts

A few weeks ago a friend and ex-neighbor of ours called and asked for prayers. She and her husband would be traveling to Vietnam with a missions group consisting of people who had served in the US military during that war. While there her husband and a few other men would be returning a Vietnamese helmet that was brought home in 1968 by one of the men as a war souvenir. Our friend wanted prayers because she was worried that there might be a negative response to their intended presentation and also because even after 46 years her husband still struggled with memories from his time in Vietnam.

A couple of weeks later I'm turning on my Yahoo mail page and notice in the news clips a photo of an Vietnamese helmet, white dove scratched onto it, with the caption that it was returned to the family of it's original owner. Clicking onto the link I see a photo of four men my age, very serious looks on their faces, dressed in blue shirts and khaki pants, walking through a rural village, towering over the crowd of people walking behind them, and each holding a corner of a small platform upon which is sitting the said helmet. The man in the right rear was my friend.

The Yahoo article gives the story of how and why the helmet was returned as well as the reaction of the 52 year old nephew of the slain soldier. “This is a very sacred moment for my extended family.” The nephew “wept as the helmet was placed in front of a family altar in his house. The Americans, along with around 100 villagers and local officials gathered for the ceremony, looked on. 'We consider this helmet as part of him and we will keep as a reminder for our family's future generations,' he said.”

The Vietnam war was going full bore in 1968, the year I graduated from high school and started college. It was not a popular conflict for several reasons, the chief of which was the inability for our government to communicate to the American public what exactly “winning” meant while being mired in a land war thousands of miles away in the jungles of Southeast Asia. I had an older brother who graduated from Notre Dame a year previous and while there shared a house with a bunch of anti-war radicals. Clear memories I have of going to bed, my brother coming home late from college and then listing to my father and brother yelling at each other about the war for a couple of hours. This happened several times.

My father hated war. He served as a fighter pilot in WWII, had his planes shot up a bunch of times and the last time needed to bail out over the Mediterranean. His unit suffered 170% casualties. As fast as the new guys would come in they would be shot down. When he came back to the US the people in charge wanted him to tour to promote to young men “the glories of war.” to get them to enlist. The idea disgusted my dad. He fully supported the cause and yet saw too much blood and suffering to call it glorious.

But when young men with radical ideas, taught by professors that actually support Communist theory (ignoring the history of 30 million dead in Russia and 60 million dead in China), come at a proud vet and financially successful self made man with the argument that our military/industrial machine who is actually running our government is engaging in war for financial reasons for the benefit of small group of capitalist fat cats, well . . . you think there wouldn't be yelling? Eventually though my father got really mad at the bombing campaign in Cambodia. He sent a nasty telegram to President Nixon and got rewarded a few months later by being audited for the first time.

My brother became a conscientious objector and did alternate service after college. He did not believe that Vietnam was what his Catholic professors would call a "just war."   I am proud of him for that. On the other hand I had high school classmates that enlisted, two who gave their lives in Vietnam, but I went on to college in the fall of 1968. If called I would have gone, I believed the cause was both just and necessary, but honestly for me and for most people I knew there was no great desire to volunteer to go off and fight in the jungles of Asia.

While I was in college the government instituted a draft in December of 1969 and had a lottery to assign draft priorities for men born from the years 1944 to 1950. We had a deferment for the time we were in college but there was still a lot of anxiety for the guys in my class to find out the draft order of our birthdays. I remember the guy who got number 1. He walked around in a daze for about a week. Perhaps part of that was the party we held for him. My number was 140. By the time the draft ended in 1973 a year after I graduated from college the selection number was up to 120.

You are not going to get a straight story from the press about our efforts and the after effects of the Communist take over of South Vietnam. Liberals like socialism and dislike what they consider the inequalities created by capitalism. They love the idea of pure Communism and so ignore the overwhelming weight of Communist disasters in history. Ninety per cent of college professors consider themselves liberal. They teach and help form the young minds that become the Eastern media and that media reports what it believes is truth without imagining they are in any way biased.  For example, the Yahoo article with my friend saw fit to remark that “a bust of Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam's victorious war time leader was also in the room” and that “up to 3 million Vietnamese were killed in the war which the United States undertook to stop the spread of Communism in Southeast Asia.” You would think South Vietnam didn't exist and we were the invaders.

I have met a lot of people from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Many needed to leave their countries because to stay would be to die. A lot of them lived many years in refugee camps before coming to America. I met a Vietnamese guy last week whose father worked for the CIA and who had also been employed by the CIA. He was in the same prison camp as John McCain for two years. Although a lot of the people I know have been able to return to visit, this man and his family are not welcome. He says he doesn't care, this is his country, he and his family are Americans and he is thrilled that he doesn't have to live under Communism.

Things have changed quite a bit in Vietnam since the war. Like China they are now open for business and the quality of goods for the common person are gradually improving, although I am told that the good stuff all goes for export. After the killing fields of Pol Pot in Cambodia the Communism dominoes did stop falling, although many countries still struggle with insurgencies.  The halt of the spread of world wide Communism has a lot to do with the collapse of state controlled and planned economies that could not compete in the global market. They had to change to survive or become like North Korea, but there is further revolution coming. Communist countries are run by a cadre of elites whose families benefit the greatest from the system. In the past most people could be kept in the dark about life in the rest of the world but not anymore.

There is politics involved in all foreign policy decisions.  It would be great if we could trust that our leaders were strong morally and always have in mind the best interests both of the United States and the other countries we interact with.  But times are changing and right and wrong are being redefined.  Some think it would be better if our country was weak.  They despise our past, want to change our traditions and work to determine our future.  The moral glue that has held us together from our countries founding is coming undone, replaced by love of self and hate of absolutes. 

Yet men and women are still called to serve, to risk leg and limb, mind and body for something that is bigger than them.  They will do this with good leaders and with bad and they do not get to debate while they serve, apart from clear moral boundaries, the wisdom of every order.  My friend came back from the horrors of war to a country that was divided over the conflict he served in and he and his generation were not embraced.  Yet he still suffers for you and me, for the cause of freedom, for the hope that others will be blessed with what we take as our birthright.