Smile at Me

[ Friday, July 11, 2003 ]

Hey, buddy, could you help me out here? Kofi Annan of the United Nations has requested the U.S. to intervene in Liberia as part of a multi national peace keeping force. President Bush has advisory committees out fact checking before he decides to commit U.S. resources. He is said to be leaning away from sending ground troops. This might be a good opportunity to ask the U.N. to send a multi national peace keeping force to help the U.S. in Iraq. Maybe if they could help us there it would free up some of our ground troops for Africa. And maybe if the troops in Iraq were from several nations the occupation might be viewed as assistance rather than colonialism. If an arrangement like that could be put in place, I wonder exactly who would be helping who?

David Blaine [8:09 AM]

[ Thursday, July 10, 2003 ]

Dirt Poor I am rich. I'll gladly admit it. And I'm affluent also. There is a difference. An acquaintance once told me he liked being rich. He tried being poor once, said it sucked. He meant he liked being affluent. I don't know if he was rich. I think you know what the difference is between rich and affluent. Affluence is material blessings. A nice house, clothes, plenty of food on the table. But rich? How about close family ties? How about a satisfying job? Friends? The respect of others? How about your health? I am blessed to have these things too, so I say I'm rich. Now if you can be affluent and rich at the same time, can you be poor and rich at the same time? If the most affluent person in your town has no friends, no respect, and is sick as a dog, I'd say he hasn't got much. But if the least affluent person in your town is strong and healthy, respected and has their family and friends who love them? Well which one would you choose to trade places with if you had to? Funny thing about money, you will always find someone who has more than you, and someone else who has less than you. I'll bet there are millions of Americans who would laugh at my idea that I'm affluent. As it's said sometimes, If I had their money I'd throw my money away. I told a person once that money was my middle name. My first name was "No".
I think that in the spirit of "not having much worthwhile" few have to be poor. You may not be able to put your hands on enough money to buy supper tonight, but you can choose to be rich. You can choose to have friends or to make enemies. You can choose to enjoy the blessings of the day or curse what you can't control. I hope someone reads this today and realizes that as long as you wake up in the morning, you're better off than all the people who didn't.
If you are thinking I was inspired to blog this after listening to a bunch of whining lately, you are very astute. ,;-)

David Blaine [9:04 PM]

[ Wednesday, July 09, 2003 ]

One Week Over at Man of Heas The Mad Monk is hosting poetry week. Seven days, seven poems. Days one and two are up. Go. What are you waiting for?

David Blaine [5:00 PM]

Spam II Brenda replied to my spam post, saying the only thing worse than spam is pop ups. Well I know what to do about pop ups. You can too. Downloand and install Pop Up Stopper from Panicware. This is a totaly free version that does not require registration and never expires. Hope this makes someone's life a little brighter today!

David Blaine [3:31 PM]

[ Tuesday, July 08, 2003 ]

Live in Peace.

David Blaine [3:50 PM]

Clueless. Damn spammers. Do any of you bother to open email with misspelled words? I don't mean just a little misspelled. I just got one with this title: "tdaffic exhdation" It went right to the trash. Also anything with foreign symbols rather than alphabetic symbols gets dumped. Anything that starts out "RE:" and I didn't send it, dumped.
I also set up filters for the words refinance, finance, and a few unmentionables. I don't need a date this weekend, I don't want to meet a bride from overseas, I don't need a bigger, um, appendage. I also don't want to buy cheap generic drugs, an extended auto warranty, or learn how to play the piano. So who is responding to this stuff? I know that it's cheap to send spam, but no one would do it unless it made them money. Somewhere, someone is responding to this with their pay pal or credit cards. I would like to ask you to please, cut that out!!!

David Blaine [3:06 PM]

What I'd like in a president. A strong leader, and someone with integrity. Integrity is a word that gets thrown around a lot. I'm afraid that in our nation's history, at least regarding foreign affairs, we haven't had a lot of integrity.
We have pretty much done whatever was convenient for our country at the expense of other people. If a large mid east country wants to provide us with a steady, cheap supply of oil, we will over look the fact that the king is a dictator, but if another country gives us a hard time, we will rail against their leader as un democratic. That is a lack of integrity, which to me means doing the right things because they are right. And doing them that way all of the time.
I would like a president that believes in a strong national defense, but realizes that defense is only necessary when someone is threatening us.
I would like a pragmatic president. It doesn't matter what is nice or good, we have to be able to afford it. In social costs as well as financial costs. That goes for almost every program in government.
I would like a president who took the time to understand the cultures of other nations and showed respect for them. Someone who felt diversity was a good thing and assimilation wasn't necessarily good.
I would like a president who upheld the constitution the way it was written. Who appointed justices who would do the same. I don't believe in judicial activism.
I have never felt entitlement programs were a good thing. Necessary as a safety net perhaps, but I didn't think people would work hard to get what they needed if you gave them a cheaper version for free. I'm not so sure about that anymore. I see a lot of people out of work. I see a lot of people only able to get menial jobs, and some of these are skilled and educated people. I haven't fully decided, but I think it may be time for a form of national health insurance. Something to ease the pressure on a family living on 4 part time jobs between two parents, or trying to operate a small business. It seems the long term full time job with benefits that used to be the norm is becoming the exception for too many Americans. There is one candidate running for president who supports a notion of limited national health insurance. He is former Vermont governer Howard Dean, M.D. A doctor running for president instead of a lawyer.
But that's a different subject. I have added Interesting Times back to my blogroll because they cover Dean's campaign. I don't know if I will decide to support or vote for Dean, but he seems like a man with integrity.

David Blaine [6:42 AM]

[ Monday, July 07, 2003 ]

Rights and Wrongs Brenda over at Whats Up Down South has a great piece by Mitchell Kaye, a state representative from Georgia, on all the things Americans don't have a right to. It's amusing, but it's so true. The funny thing is that some people still won't get it.

David Blaine [10:45 AM]

[ Sunday, July 06, 2003 ]

Is Today Special? It's Sunday, a day Christians set aside each week to attend church and take a rest from their week's work. It is similar to the Jewish Sabath day. So is it really special? Are there holy days and ordinary days? I have never felt so. I have never been big on ceremony. I wanted to skip my high school graduation, and only went when my parents grabbed me by the arms and said I was going. I did skip graduation from community college, they sent my diploma in the mail. My wedding? My wife and I arranged it with about two weeks notice. I wore a suit.
I didn't rent a tuxedo until my own daughter got married last year. So back to special days. If today is a holy day are the other six days unholy days? The way some people live, you'd think so. I won't get into hypocrisy here, that's not what I intended. No, perhaps it is that all days are special, all are holy days. If we live like that though, the idea of a special day gets burned out pretty fast. I look at nature. Do the lion or the gazelle have a day of rest? No. Do the homeless get a day of rest? No. Does the sun ever take a day off? No. When my wife opened our store 5 years ago, the previous owners had hours set for seven days a week, and J wanted to just keep the hours the way they were. She wanted to change as little about the business as possible because it was already doing a good trade. That meant we stopped attending weekly church services. I could have continued to go without her, but frankly I went with her mostly for her benefit all these past years, just like I went to that high school graduation for my parents benefit. Now all these years later I realize, with my own children graduating and getting married, that the ceremonies aren't just for the people involved, they are for the audience, the friends and relatives who helped the participants get ready for the special moments in their lives. But getting ready all those years, I think every day was special, at least, the opportunity for it to be special was always there. I won't be going to church again today. To celebrate the life God has given me, I will go out and run or swim, do a little housework, and when the store closes, early on Sunday, J and I will spend some time shopping together. It'll be special. If you go to church, say a prayer for me. Thanks.