Memorial Day 07

Memorial Day is one of those holidays that its easy to lose sight of the meaning of. As everyone is eating and drinking and travelling to and fro, we often don't remember the men and women who have sacrificed their lifes and limbs for this country. This is a holiday that was born out of the horrible fratricide of the Civil War, and now hundreds of years later, we are still seeing young people dying in large numbers. Needless deaths for a failed foreign policy idea aside, it is still vital for us to honor the people who have fallen, and it is still vital that we try to give them a government and a nation that is very much worth fighting for.

Why I Still Love Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter is getting all kinds of flak for saying that W's the worst President from a foreign policy standpoint ever. Now I won't argue that James Earl was a great President, but he is certainly a good person. He's also right about W, no Chief Executive has ever done more lasting harm to our national security than W. History will bear that one out. I disagree with some of Carter's recent statements about the Palestinian -Israeli conflict, I think he is a bit unfair towards Israel who is after all the only democracy in the Middle East, but on this point he is dead on. Carter has more integrity and honesty in his little finger than W has in his whole body.

Death Of A Hillbilly Huckster

Here in the South we have an aversion to speaking ill of the dead, but other than having sympathy for his family I can't think of anything good to say about Jerry Falwell. Falwell and his ilk wrap themselves in the Bible to promote their bigotry and intolerance. This was a guy who was a segragationist, supported apartheid, and called a true man of God, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a "phony." This man was a huckster who scammed money from poor elderly folks in order to build his "university," and his numerous business endeavers. Falwell was quick to swoop down and buy the PTL ministry after Jim and Tammy Faye went down, he was an opportunist who claimed way too much credit for Reagan's win, and his influence on the GOP was always exaggerated in my view. We have something in the water here in Virginia that grows this type of person, the other titan of televangelism, Pat Robertson has his hq and "university" in Va Beach. Falwell to me was anti-american and anti-constitution to the core. He was against free speech, (remember the trial with Larry Flynt?) against the separation of church and state, and blamed gays, feminists, and the ACLU for 9-11. What a class-A asshole. May his empire built on lies and bigotry crumble.

Northern California Rocks

I just got back from a work trip to the Napa Valley and the Sonoma Coast as well as a few days in San Francisco and all I can say is wow. I'm not a big fan of SoCal, but I have to say San Francisco and wine country especially the Sonoma Coast are stunning. I love being in a city where my liberal ass is considered "conservative." Solar panels on every other house, great mass transit, good baseball, amazing restaurants, and plenty of freaks, I was in heaven. One thing that really impressed me was when we visited two of the wineries that we represent, one of them is on the grid but is generating enough solar energy to sell some back to the power company each month, no small feat, especially when you consider the fact that they produce 30,000 cases of wine a year. The other winery in Mendocino is totally off the grid and is a biodynamic farm. My 1500 square foot house uses more energy from nonrenewable sources than these two wineries that produce over 60,000 cases of wine a year, absolutely amazing.