The View From Above

As many of you already now (listen to me...I'm writing this as if thousands of people actually read this) I just returned from a week long trip to Canada, where I spent a wonderful week in Montreal. OK, it was actually 5 great days and one that really, really sucked bad...I mean, since when does it ever go from 60 and sunny to 20 and snowing on the 27th of April!!!! Global Warming my Ass...I didn't bring a coat, and I froze my tuckus off. I should lay blame for that squarely on the already square jaw of Al Gore...but I already blame him for losing the presidency in 2000. I mean come on...it was gift wrapped, AL. You had Clinton, economic prosperity, and you were running against a moron- but you had to make out with Tipper at the convention, bleech...

OK- enough of that. So anyway- Montreal!



Montreal is an amazing city. It's got old school European charm, and a modern flair. The people are friendly, and the restaurants and shops are amazing. Like everywhere else in Canada, they are nutty about hockey, and I had the good fortune of being there when "Les Habitants" were fighting for their playoff lives.

However, The best part of Montreal hands down is getting to see Susan. Susan is my friend for the last almost 20 years, and the last Prom date I ever had...she's also the only woman whose ever kept up with me doing vodka shooters...but she's got kids now, so we won't dwell on that one.

So for at least one fine evening last week, Susan left the kids with her wonderful hubby Patrick, and we found a swanky little restaurant and a fine bottle of Shiraz. The she asked me the best question I've been asked in quite sometime....

"Russ" she said "What in the hell is wrong with you Americans?"

Now from 2000-2008, I could have simply answered "Dubya" and we'd have been satisfied...but it's gone so far beyond the idiot from Texas anymore. We've gone beyond simply bullying the rest of the world to spread our own little blend of democracy (two creams and one sugar with mine, please) to ripping ourselves apart in the name of keeping our own form of rugged individualism alive and well.

You look at the news now, and I wonder..what the hell is wrong with us? We are moving from the land of the free, to the land of "papers please." We are so afraid of our own shadows and our own need for entitlements that we regularly create fearsome enemies, so those who swear to protect us can help to chip away at our rights. Just look, in the last 10 years, we've made enemies out of gays, lesbians, Hispanics, Muslims, and hell...anyone who pretty much isn't a white male follower of Jesus (and that's Jesus as in Christ, not the guy who cuts your lawn and trims the shrubs.)

What is wrong with us? Why is it so much easier to tear down, instead of build up? To hurt rather than help? To take life and happiness instead of spreading ideals and joy? What strikes me as odd, and it has for some time, is that those same folks who praise their piousness are the ones that strike out against the poor and the ones that look to build people up and out of their situations. Take the recent example of Glenn Beck railing against "social justice" and people like Jim Wallis who spend their lives worrying about the plight of the poor. Why...you might ask...because it might take a few bucks away from the wealthy.

I could go on and on...but the stuff in Arizona is still to aggravating to cover here, and i think that it might even exacerbate the point even more. I suppose if I had to answer her question...I'd point out that Canadians just seem to like one another, and have a degree of respect for positions which are not their own. They seem to get the idea that while there is an "i" in society, it's not the focal point of the word, but rather just an integral piece of making it all work for everyone.

Finally Friday

Well it's Friday, and my quest for SAP knowledge in Montreal is drawing to a close. I've gotten some good classwork in this week, and still managed to spend sometime working...OK, more time working than I wanted to have to deal with...but it's a living.

The nice thing about the SAP Basis job is that it's a lot like the work I did both at UT and The Andersons administering the Banner and Baan software systems. SAP just seems alot bigger and more imposing.

Montreal is a beautiful city, and other than freezing my buns off the other day when it went from a springy 60 to 20 and snowing in about 12 hours (that will teach me to leave my coat at home.) It's been nice to see the old city, see what the Forum has turned into (good bye hockey...hello Movie Theater) and to see some old friends and their new families.

What's most interesting to me about Canada though is the Canadians...such a reasonable group of people. Now I see on the news that there is a group of lawmakers and activists who are following the Lee Atwater/Karl Rove handbook to a Tee, and trying to divide and conquer anyone who doesn't look or sound like them. However, most of the people I've seen up here seem to legitimately want to look out for one another. They care about rights and how the world might visualize their actions- in fact, it seems that the only disagreement i've seen up here has been the occasional arguments about how far "Les Habitants" will advance in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

So thank you Canada..it's been nice to visit a place which still seems to have it's wits about it. It's nice to see a sane country without the need for shouting over tea.It's been nice, but now it's time to go home and hear stories about Chelsie's junior prom.

Random Idiots Speed My Day Along

Spencer Pratt is an idiot....

But OK, he's a harmless idiot, with no apparent following other than 16 year old viewers of "The Hills" but apparently that gives him license to become a social critic...take the example of the new video from M.I.A called "Born Free."





Now I'll caution all of you with weak stomachs...it's a rough video to watch, and it's taking on a brutal set of topics in it's treatment of racism, genocide, and the tactics of the police state. No, it's not set in modern day Arizona, but the scary thing is that it could be. We are so dense anymore to the erosion of the basic right that make up our cherished freedoms that we are all to willing to give them away to the first carnival barker or tea salesman that comes along and frightens us with a story about people who are different.

Now in my neighborhood, the police haven't come busting down the doors looking for redheads....but they didn't do that in Germany in the early 1930's. It took some time before "papers please" became a yellow star affixed to your chest, and the seizure of your property because you were different.

In many ways, I assume this video mimics M.I.A's own experience growing up in Sri Lanka, where the government oppressed her family and the Tamil people for most of her life. I would think that these types of things are very real to her, and should serve as a modern day warning to those who think it's ok to discriminate and round up people who are different. Even if it's politically expedient, it's never right to legislate hate and discrimination...and yes, that one was for Arizona.

Anyway, that brings me back to my buddy and noted social critic Spencer Pratt...apparently Spence was a little bored sitting in the waiting room for his wife's latest plastic surgery adventure and he tweeted this little gem about MIA:

"The music artist MIA should be kicked out of America today for using the US flag on her Nazi like hit squad in her new music video!"

Are you kidding me?

So if you make a statement which offends Spencer-look out, you'll be joining the people who the police think might be illegal in Arizona and be run out on a rail.

Spence...buddy, stick to what you know best (whatever the hell that is) and leave the thinking that involves the firing on more than one synapse to the rest of us.

The way to open debate on something that offends you, is to talk about it, to rally against it and move public opinion using the ways of the pen and the lectern...not to simply escort the offensive ideas out of the nation....or as MIA shows us...out to the desert. If you think that there isn't a very short correlation between what MIA artistically presents and what is going on in the world today...please, turn off "The Hills" and turn on the real world.

Back for More

As you can probably tell, I originally posted to this blog as a means of passing my educational Technology Class back in "Ought Eight" but then class ended...life got fun with the kids getting older, and the job at UT getting tougher, and with things in general getting a lot busier.

So in some ways, I got away from doing what I like to do- writing. I've done the Facebook thing, and I've posted to other blogs...but it's never really been the same. Essentially, I put my curiosity and thoughts on hold- and with the current state of American Politics (still my passion) that's been really tough for me to work through.

I've had a lot of thoughts in the past year or so, but little inspiration to write them down. I've had little inspiration to explore what is going on inside my head and the thoughts on what our system is devolving into have basically just staid in my head. I've watched the group of friends that I went into my PhD program finish their degrees, or move on to other adventures...but i'm still here, and i'm still full of ideas. I think it's time to ignore the writers block of the last 16 months or so and start sharing my thoughts again.

Look out world...I feel inspired again.

So what should anyone who has the misfortune of stumbling across this going to see...well just what the title implies...Rambling Meddlings and Endless Banter from the liberal mind. I try not to close off discussion from any point of view, I mean in the grand scheme of things...it's not the point if you want a free flow of ideas and a way for ideas to be shared. Everyone, as one of my professors signs his email responses "is entitled to their own wrong opinion."

There's lots to discuss...i'll be back with some first steps soon.