A Herati family makes their way about town.
I took this photo while downtown the other day. I was inside the police headquarters looking out of the gate.
Archive for November, 2008
Cats pull down first win of the Season
In UK Basketball on November 22, 2008 at 11:56 pm
The Kentucky Wildcats defeat the Delaware State Hornets 71-42 bringing them to a 1-2 record.
Yes, that’s right.
UK starts off the 2008-2009 Season 1 W and 2 Ls. Losses coming against UNC and………VMI. Yep. The Virginia Military Institute out of Lexington, Virginia. The Keydets defeated the cats in the home opener at Rupp Arena 111 to 103. I know. The Cats score 103 points and lose. Doesn’t seem possible.
Billy Gillispie isn’t starting off the season with much promise. Even so, if this team gets it’s PG problems sorted out. If Liggins matures fast enough. Porter develops into a bit more than a moderately skilled role player or the Harris Point Forward experiment pans out. Who knows. It might be a good season.
The talking heads at ESPN and Sports Illustrated are saying that this is a down year in the SEC. The UK OOC schedule is pretty light. The Cats will have plenty of cupcakes to use as a learning curve. The question. Will UK have enough OOMPF to the schedule to make the NCAA Tournament at seasons end? Gillispie will not make any friends if UK misses the NCAA tournament.
I’m hoping that UK turns it around. Patterson gets in the Game and starts scoring as he did in his pre-injury Frosh days. Meeks learns about shot selection. Liggins and Miller can bring it and not let being Freshman get in the way of valuable contributions. Harrelson and Galloway can translate some of those numbers from the JUCO ranks to the DIV 1 side of the house. Harris matches intensity with offensive output and brings that fabled summer game to the season with him.
This can be a good year. I’m hoping for the best. It will only get better from here. I hope.
Conversations with God
In Literature, culture on November 17, 2008 at 9:54 amThis is an excerpt from Conversations with God by Neale Donald Walsh.
GOD: “If you believe that God is someone omnipotent being who hears all prayers, says “yes” to some, “no” to others, and “maybe, but not now” to the rest, you are mistaken. By what rule of thumb would God decide?
If you believe that God is the creator and decider of all things in your life, you are mistaken.
God is the observer, not the creator. And God stands ready to assist you in living your life, but not in the way you might expect.
It is not God’s function to create, or uncreate, the circumstances and conditions of your life. God created you, in the image and likeness of God. You have created the rest, through the power God has given you. God created the process of life and life itself as you know it. Yet God gave you free choice, to do with life as you will.
In this sense, your will for you is God’s will for you.
You are living your life the way you are living your life and I have no preference in the matter
This is the grand illusion in which you have engaged: that God cares one way or the other what you do.
I do not care what you do, and that is hard for you to hear. Yet do you care what your children do when you send them out to play? Is it a matter of consequence to you whether they play tag, or hide and seek, or pretend? No, it is not, because you know they are perfectly safe. You have placed them in an environment which you consider friendly and very okay.
Of course, you will always hope that they do not hurt themself. And if they do, you will be right there to help them, heal them, allow them to feel safe again, to be happy again, to go and play again another day. But whether they choose hide and seek or pretend will not matter to you the next day, either.
You will tell them, of course, which games are dangerous to play. But you cannot stop your children from doing dangerous things. Not always. Not forever. Not in every moment from now until death. It is the wise parent who knows this. yet the parent never stops caring about the outcome. It is this dichotomy – not caring deeply about the process, but caring deeply about the result – that comes close to describing the dichotomy of God.
Yet God, in a sense does not even care about the outcome. Not the ultimate outcome. This is because the ultimate outcome is assured.
And this is the second greatest illusion of man: that the outcome of life is in doubt.
It is this doubt about ultimate outcome that has created your greatest enemy, which is fear. For if you doubt outcome, then you must doubt Creator – you must doubt God. And if you doubt God, you must live in fear and guilt all your life.
If you doubt God’s intentions – and God’s ability to produce this ultimate result – then how can you ever relax? How can you ever truly find peace?
Yet God has full power to match intentions with results. You cannot and will not believe in this (even though you claim that God is all-powerful), and so you have to create in your imagination a power equal to God, in order that you may find a way for God’s will to be thwarted. And so you have created in your mythology the being you call “devil”. You have even imagined a God at war with this being (thinking that God solves problems the way you do). Finally, you have actually imagined that God could lose this war.
All of this violates everything you say you know about God, but this doesn’t matter. You live your illusion, and thus feel your fear, all out of your decision to doubt God.
But what if you made a new decision? What then would be the result?
I tell you this: you would live as the Buddha did. As Jesus did. As did every saint you have ever idolized.
Yet, as with most of those saints, people would not understand you. And when you tried to explain your sense of peace, your joy in life, your inner ecstasy, they would listen to your words, but not hear them. They would try to repeat your words, but would add to them.
They would wonder how you could have what they cannot find. And then they would grow jealous. Soon jealousy would turn to rage, and in their anger they would try to convince you that it is you who do not understand God.
And if they were unsuccessful at tearing you from your joy, they would seek to harm you, so enormous would be their rage. And when you told them it does not matter, that even death cannot interrupt your joy, nor change your truth, they would surely kill you. then when they saw the peace with which you accepted death, they would call you saint, and love you again.
For it is the nature of people to love, then destroy, then love again that which they value most.”
I have not read this book. This piece simply struck me as truth.
Prayer and Peace in Afghanistan
In Afghanistan, culture on November 16, 2008 at 6:04 pmRiding out the gate recently.
The gunners are locking and loading. The vehicle commanders are making sure that all of the combat checks are good to go.
I’m sitting back in my seat buckled in and getting my radio and Ipod adjusted so that I can hear my music and the other guys in the vehicle. Gotta have those comms. Never know what might happen.
We are all geared up and ready for the enemy. I’m thinking about what I’m going to say to my Afghan counterparts and the training that I have planned for my ANP counterparts.
I just happen to glance out my window as we are passing one of the checkpoints.
There is an Afghan soldier praying. He’s standing with hands folded in front of him. Head facing down. Prayer beads dangling from his hand. His prayer carpet is laid out in front of him. His eyes are closed and I can tell that he is silently reciting his prayers. Lo illaha illala Mohammad rasulallah…Rahman, Bismullah, Rahim…Allahu Akhbar…
It’s such a peaceful scene. Such contrast to all of the events taking place around him.
It’s bizarrely serene amidst all the unrest and disorder that is this country. A bit of peace in the chaos and ravages of war that is Afghanistan in this era.
It was heartening. As if God was saying; “This too shall pass. In time, all will be well.”
It may. All may be well in time.
Insha’allah…
The War on Terror is not the War on Islam
In Afghanistan, Middle East, Politics, culture on November 14, 2008 at 9:09 am
How can it be when scenes like this are common place? This is the casket of one of our fallen Soldiers. Mohsin Naqvi. He gave his life fighting against the monsters who have co-opted Islam into their insidious aims to crush freedom in the lands of Muslim peoples and ultimately all peoples across the globe. The kid on the floor mourning is Hassan Naqvi. Is there someone who has the nerve to tell this kid that Islam killed his brother.
Islam is not the enemy. Wahhabism is the enemy. Extremism is the enemy. Extemism in any form. Political, civil, religious, cultural. It matters not.
The Pedge of Allegiance and Red Skelton
In Politics, culture on November 14, 2008 at 7:22 amRed Skelton explains the Pledge of Allegiance and asks the obvious question.
Red Skelton was right. There is now a group of self-destructive madmen who are against the Pledge. I find these folks to be despicable. Something like 80% of America believes in God or a God. Most of the 80% identify themselves as Christian. How can a small group of folks who probably comprise less than 5% of Ameria demand that the majority of Americans respect their petty beliefs when they do not themselves respect any beleif system save their own. These folks are bigots and bullies in my opinion. Loud mouthed fools who expect the rest of the country to observe and respect their rights. Yet, they respect no other. This is not America.
I am of the opinion that people need to believe in something greater than themselves. Otherwise, we become individuals bent on self-preservation and/or self-glorification only. I don’t think that we should become a post-Soviet megalith wherein the State is the God and the means and end all in one. People need to believe. There is no purpose to our existence if we do not have something.
I am not a Christian. That said, I do not begrudge the Christian their beliefs or their majority. I share some beliefs in common with the Christians. I simply do not believe that they have all of the answers or in some cases the correct answers.
I feel the same about Islam.
I identify more closely with Buddhism. Though, I claim neither the right nor the need to call myself a Buddhist.
Why the problem with the pledge or the words “under God.” Those words affirm ones allegiance to the collective group of individuals who claim to be Americans. “Under God” merely affirms our belief that we are a special Nation. I find nothing offensive in that. How else to explain our rise as a nation and the manner in which millions seek to become members of our nation.
We are a special. We were formed under the watchful eye of providence. We will continue to be special so long as we believe ourselves to be such. We cannot as a nation fall away from the belief that the United States of America is a nation with a destiny. We must believe.
In light of our election of Barack Obama, this destiny continues. We have elected a minority to head the most powerful nation on the planet. This once racist nation has risen above the old pettiness and divisiveness to elect one who belongs to a race which was at one time not allowed to make eye contact with it’s “masters.” America has thrown off racism with this move. We still have petty racist in America. Surely, we do. But they have lost in their destructive cause. This election does irreparable harm to them. And rightly so. It also proves that America can super her own worst defects and weaknesses as a people and drive to a more perfect union of her citizens.
If we can rise above this, we can rise above all else. America must believe in herself.
We must believe.
We must.
Michelle Obama was Angry — “Whitey is still holding us down…” or was “he” (Re-visited)
In Politics, culture on November 9, 2008 at 2:14 amI posted the original article and commentary about Michelle and Whitey almost a year ago. It’s garnered quite a bit of interest.
Barack Obama is the man of the hour in US and World Politics. He is the President-elect. How does Michelle feel about her comments now about bars being set and raised now. She was wrong then and she is wrong now. The bar was set high on purpose. No one should be handed the office of President of the United States of America. Not Barack Obama. Not anyone else. (Not even George W. Bush for all of you who will zone in on Dubya.) Barack Obama has won the election. The American people have won this election.
My feeling on this issue is that many American Blacks do not see and experience America as it is today. Too many experience their lives through the past. They see America through the prism of America 20 and 30 years ago. Many Black Americans are living with the racist history and past of America as if it is a friend or a childhood blanket that they can’t quite let go. Before anyone starts, I realize that racism, discrimination and prejudice exist today. Yet, it is nowhere near as common as it was 30, 20 even 10 years ago.
Also, those problems exist on all sides of the racial/color divide. I’ve witnessed Black racism towards Whites, Asians and Hispanics. I’ve witnessed White racism towards the same. I’ve witnessed Asian racism towards Blacks, Whites and Hispanics. I’ve seen these people all practice racism in one form or another against Arabs and others as well.
So what? It exists. You live your life and work around it. It will always exists.
There are extreme liberal prejudices against Christians. There are extreme conservative prejudices against Homosexuals. Many folks are prejudiced against Muslims due to the dangers posed by Islamic Extremism.
It’s there. It will always be there. Tough.
Growing up. I was discriminated against because I was poor. When I was 19 and in Germany in the Army, I was jumped by 8 Black guys for the sole reason of the color of my skin. I’ve not spent my life being resentful for this treatment. I don’t spend my days and nights talking about “the Man” and his desire to “get me” and “hold me down.” I go out and live and try to improve my lot in life. In spite of the Challenges and sometimes because of the Challenges that have come my way.
Obama will become the 44th President of the United State of America on January 20th, 2009. This would not have been possible without the vote of White Americans. This seems to be a fact that many Black Americans overlook. The election of Barack Obama is a victory for all Americans. Not Black Americans or racially mixed Americans. All Americans. It plainly illustrates that much of White America has moved past the old racist notions that held us back as a Nation.
My question is this:
HAVE BLACK AMERICANS MOVED PAST RACISM?
Are they willing to do so? Will they? Or will we still have to hear about “Whitey” or “those damn Crackers” or the “evil White man.” Will White America get credit in the Black Community for looking past color in this election?
This is one of the roles that Michelle Obama must take on as First Lady. The role of healer of a nation. Will she aid in healing the racial divide or will she exacerbate the divide? This nation needs a healer. I hope she steps up. We have a chance in this nation to move past pettiness and prejudice. We have been afforded a unique opportunity. Let us hope that a leader will step forth and carry us forward to that day about which Doctor King and so many others have dreamed for so long. May we free ourselves of these chains which have held us down as a people for so long. May people put down their hates and prejudices and look instead to the individual heart and character of a person. This is a possibility.
I so tire of racism. The conversation itself is wearying.
Let’s move past this America. Let us finally free our national soul of this disease of the mind and spirit.
Michelle Obama. Lead us on to the future.
Iraq insists on a fixed withdrawal date.
In Middle East, Politics on November 8, 2008 at 7:03 am
Iraq Repeats Insistence On Fixed Withdrawal Date
(Washington Post, November 7, 2008, Pg. 1)
Two days after the election of Barack Obama, Iraq’s chief spokesman said with unusual forcefulness that his government will continue to insist on a firm withdrawal date for U.S. troops, despite American demands that any pullout be subject to prevailing security conditions. Iraqi officials, who see President-elect Obama’s views on the timing of a U.S. withdrawal as consonant with their own, appear to be leveraging his election to pressure the Bush administration to make last-minute concessions. The spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, said negotiations to reach a status-of-forces agreement, which would sanction the U.S. military presence in Iraq beyond 2008, would collapse if no deal is reached by the end of this month.
Easy solution. Pull out now!
McCain Concession Speech
In Politics on November 6, 2008 at 7:04 pm
It was an excellent speech. McCain is definitely motivated by a love for his country. I respect that about him.
President Obama
In Politics on November 4, 2008 at 2:11 pmOr President Obambi…or is that President Jimmy Carter II.
Today is the day that the people of America vote in the man who will ensure a Republican landslide in 2012. Good Job America. Reactive politics at it’s best. No plan. No real goal in mind. Just get rid of the last guy. The one good thing that will come of this is the race barrier has been broken. May it forever be laid aside.
Thus far, this hasn’t unified our nation but divided it more. I’ve heard the complaint that Black people are only voting or Obama because he’s black at least a thousand times. I’ve heard Black people say that White people are racist and won’t vote for Obama even though the fact is that without White voters Obama could not be elected. None of it makes any sense to me.
Both sides of the racial divide are stuck in the past and need to move on.
Obama will become President. He’ll raise taxes. He’ll attempt to pass a national Health Care plan. The Democrats will hold a majority in both houses. It will last until 2010. The excesses of the Democrats will ensure that.
Will Obama leave Iraq prematurely?
Will he “surge” in Afghanistan?
Will he hold Pakistan to their word?
Will he solve the Iran problem or exacerbate it in his naivite?
Will he strengthen the military and add Divisions or will he destroy it by maintaining a high optempo and downsizing simultaneously?
Will he raise taxes and push business out of the US?
Will the stock market crash further or will it start to mend and rise?
We shall see.
