A Life Unfinished.

We all will experience death. But sometimes death is not what kills us. Case in point: I had an ex-brother-in-law. He had a twin brother and I was married to his older sister. During the time that I was married to his sister, I observed him graduating from high school as an athlete, starring in basketball and football. He was awarded a scholarship to play football in college. He was handsome, smart, gregarious, funny and had many friends. After he started to attend college, he began to change. He was always a little forgetful and bad with directions but only enough to make him human. When this type of behavior began to increase and other problems arose, some of us thought it was just part of his quirky personality. Then, he began to have hallucinations and be belligerent. This was totally unlike him. He had become schizophrenic. Science knows that there was nothing in his family situation or his environment that caused this. It was the unfortunate malfunctioning of his chemicals and electrical impulses. In spite of his problems, he managed to graduate from college and get into law school. During law school his problems intensified as the disease continued to ravage him. I tried to help him by assisting him in withdrawing from law school for a time and then helping him get re-entered. His parents struggled with much more complex problems with his care and treatment. He perservered in the face of long odds and managed to graduate from law school, although his concentration was impaired to the extent that he could not complete the rigors of the bar exam.

I had my own set of problems and after I was no longer married to his sister and by extension not very well connected with his family, I would get periodic reports from my children about their uncle. Advances in medications enabled him to experience some modicum of normality and gave his some relief from his torments but not nearly to the extent that his early promise had indicated. Then recently I received the phone call from one of my children. Their uncle had been found dead in his car from a heart attack experienced while attempting to get to a doctor's appointment to investigate lung problems brought on by the extensive smoking that was exacerbated by his mental illness.

He was in his mid-fifties. The promising young man that I had known and was fond of had been gone for more than 30 years. That man died many years ago, his body just did.

I wish him peace in his rest. He had experienced enough of the other.

Dr. King Would Approve

Beware Clear Mountain Lakes

Great News!

The spousal unit and I have 5 children total, all from former marriages. None are married as

yet, presumably because they didn't want to emulate our bad examples. However, recently two sons have announced that they are engaged and will be married this year. They are engaged to intelligent, beautiful women with just the right amount of lack of good taste in men.

We are very happy.

A Call For Sacrifice At This Point Is Just A Call For Further Human Sacrifice

Bush, the elder, provided Bush, the lesser, with a semi face saving opportunity with the Iraq Study Group. Bush, the lesser, desparate to try to rescue the legacy his handlers told him he would have when they told him to go to war, is now apparently going to call for "sacrifice" and completely ignore the recommendations of the Study Group. In conjunction with this he is going to ask for a "surge" of 20,000 more troops and an additional billion dollars to throw after the billions already embezzled in the supposed rebuilding of Iraq's infrastructure. This is the "new way forward" that he is supposedly going to propose after having a "listening tour". I wish I were articulate enough and had a sufficient command of the English language to adequately express how truly corrupt and amoral I believe this is. I just don't have the words.

This can not be truly viewed as anything other than a ill conceived and desparate smoke screen to delay the inevitable until after his term expires. Bush has not seen fit to call for any sacrifice by the American people in his war so far, other than the sacrifice of their sons and daughters and the sacrifice of the future economic viability of the United States.

The throwing of further troops into this horribly designed meat grinder can not help but result in increased deaths of both U.S. troops and Iraqis. 3,000 dead troops, tens of thousands of other troops injured and maimed, over 600,000 Iraqis killed and nobody knows how many others injured, rendered homeless or without family.

Bush did this.

Comparatively, Saddam was a pussy.

Here Lies American Democracy

Things I Dislike About Sports and Sporting Events

Even though one of my New Year's resolutions was to watch less television, I have spent most of today watching football bowl games. After some thought, not always coherent, I have the following lists of things that I don't like about sports and sporting events (again, in no particular order):

• When athletes wave their hands and exhort the crowd to cheer more. Do something good, Dude, and I'll yell my head off. Concentrate on your job: playing. I'll decide when to cheer.
• When a football player, whose team is trailing by multiple touchdowns, picks up 6 or 8 yards for a first down and then bounces up and gesticulates like he just scored the go-ahead points. You must be competitive in order to deserve to celebrate like that. Do your job and when the score gets tighter you might be entitled to celebrate some. Same thing for a basketball player that dunks and pulls his team within 20 and then snarls and yells. Really, not cool.
• Athletes talking in cliches. Actually, just athletes talking.
• Sideline announcers talking in cliches. Actually, just sideline announcers.
• Any event that has any commentary from Chris Berman, Dick Vitale or Paul Maguire. Doesn't anyone have the balls to remove these guys from the media sphere? They render any event, however otherwise enjoyable, almost completely unwatchable for me. Am I the only one that feels like this? Apparently, since they show up everywhere.
• Referring to the Rose Bowl always as "The Rose Bowl, the Grandaddy of Them All". It seems as if the name is trademarked and the announcers can't say the Rose Bowl without adding the trailer. After the 60th or 70th time, it really gets trite.
• Athletes gesturing toward the sky after a home run, touchdown or other happening; giving "God all the glory" for their win, record, first down, etc.; or making some other religious gesture (e.g. crossing themselves before a turn at bat or a free throw) to try to get God on their side in an athletic contest. Does anyone actually believe that the forces that put this universe together give even the slightest shit about what happens in something as unimportant as an athletic event?

And the thing I really dislike is other people criticizing athletic events. I am the only one qualified to do that.

New Year's Resolutions

My resolutions for 2007, in no particular order, are:

• Watch less TV and read more
• Blog more regularly, even though I'm the only one reading it
• Reinstitute regular exercise rituals and work on physical health
• Travel more
• Update estate plans and other records
• Take some risks
• Ignore resolutions if needed. I am almost 61, after all, and you should be able to ignore most rules, even your own, at that age.