Changing the world

Dear Janet,

I read through James's letter twice and gained allot of insight from it. Yes, how proud you must be of him. Please pass along to him that I worked at the phone bank at Democratic headquarters in Laguna Beach and friend of mine worked at the office in San Juan Capistrano. I made calls to voters in Indiana and my friends made calls to California Voters (unusual) because the electorate out here was pretty much ignored. The call made in California were for NO ON PROPOSITION 8. As far as my views on the proposition, I firmly believe in the separation of church and state. I'm sure that this proposition will be declared unconstitutional. Love, Lois

Well, France just fell and the Vichy government is in effect. America is lend-leasing weapons, Chamberlain has resigned. And thus does the man who fucked up the Turkish invasion during the last war become PM of Britain.

It's kind of nice to be looking at a broader history of World War II. Alough the Holocaust remains the area I'm most inclined to study, there was so much else going on at the same time. As I recall, I think it was Dutch or Belgium royalty who sent children to Canada during the war. I don't remember the whole story, but I do remember mom telling me about beautiful tulip gardens in Ottawa(?) that were a gift for sheltering them...

It's odd that such a bloody and destructive war incites so much romanticism even now among the generations who question our motives for pretty much any military action we've taken since WW II. I mean, seriously, how many people my age and a bit younger paid money to go watch Josh Harnett's nice bubble butt fight the Japanese Empire in Pearl Harbor or get sucked into Saving Private Ryan? Schindler's List sort of counts, but lord, it, like Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, shot for the heart and hit the stomach in many places.

See, I think if Bush was half the speaker FDR or Churchill was, the current war might be more popular. I mean seriously, the WW II wartime leaders on all sides seemed to have the gift of selling the sizzle. Eventually. Chamberlain not withstanding.

My other source of amusement these days is the ongoing arguement in the local paper about Intelligent Design, thanks to Ben Stein's new movie. Now, I'm kind of at an advantage here, since my Freshman Intro to Science class included two weeks of ID as part of the quarter on Geology. My techer for the quad of Geology was psychoticallt evangelical and had a really bad tendancy to get touchy-feely with students. I still shiver at the thought of his slimy hands touching me.

Anyway, given the arguements being spewed out in the letters, I'm under the impression the "theory" hasn't changed much since 1990. Which basically to me proves AGAIN that ID isn't so much a theory as much as it is an attempt to disprove Evolution by any means necessary, with the assumption that if Evolution is disproved, ID must be correct.

Uh, yeah. Science doesn't really work like that. And I keep coming back to Einstein making some sort of comment about the Plasma discharge during the Big Bang being the separation of dark and light.

I also had someone named habhz07 add me today. Said user has one visible post (which consists of a quote), nothing for a profile, and a few friended folks, none of whom I have in common. I haven't added back, mainly because I'd like to know for sure a)it's not an internet troll (I do get them on occasion) or b)an advertisement. Given I got added with no comment at all anywhere... (Yes, I stealth add folks, but usually after dropping a comment or replying to a few.)

Any rate, think John and I are going swimming before dinner, mainly due to the heat down here.

Ok, this is the final reminder for my Ohio peeps that I'm coming back Sunday. Columbus people, 7:30ish at the stadium bandroom for coffee. Dayton peeps, plan on arriving at Flying Tiger between 6 and 6:30 PM on Tuesday. My one great hope is Tuesday dinner doesn't end up like ( this... )But if it does, I'll just move around the seating arrangements.

Anyway, headed up to John's afterwork tonight, then to St. Louis early Sunday morning, so it may be a while before I get messages.