Agains?

Before I totally lose it, I want to wish my son a happy third birthday. So hard to believe and yet so exciting to see where he is developmentally and personally. He loves Cars, especially Sally, the Beatles, the Muppets, Thomas the Tank Engine and Barney. He loves to sing and kiss his brother and sister. Thanks, pal, for making the last three years so rewarding.

Bruce's latest single and the first from October's "Magic" is "Radio Nowhere", a song I have yet to figure out. Sounding terribly similar to "Jenny Jenny" aka 867-5309, the song is an upbeat rocker with arpeggiated guitar lines, soulful saxophone melodies and a driving melody that makes one forget that all rock music must deliver a clear message. Just rock!!! Lefty and I are "going", and I'm willing to give up my school's homecoming for the Boss's return to the Bay Area.

Here we go again. Wrapped in patriotic, almost-fully focussed and convincing rhetoric and yet so off the mark is Dr. Victor Davis Hanson's latest op-ed piece found in today's SF Chron. I don't hate the guy but yet I feel such disdain for someone whose sole premise for ANYTHING is a simple and yet glaring mistake or fault in logic. Or, in another word, like the last one in Hanson's piece, HUBRIS.
Hanson reminds us, as if we need such nagging, of next Tuesday's dreadful anniversary. How Americans need to remain vigilant and steadfast against an enemy that hates us and willingly risks life and limb in order to harm or destroy us. Here Hanson is right; we as dignified human beings must not allow hate nor religious ideology or political demagoguery distract us from keeping our children safe and happy. And yet, Hanson can't even make it past his own second paragraph before his entire argument derails itself on not just tautological but downright idiotic thinking:

But this six-year calm, unfortunately, has allowed some Americans to believe
that “our war on terror” remedy is worse than the original Islamic terrorist disease.

What Hanson is either oblivious or dishonest about is what the "war on terror" has been in the wake of that dreadful Tuesday morning. The invasion of Afghanistan with the goal of toppling the Taliban was not only necessary but morally right; that this action was supported by the vast majority of Americans left and right as well as the entire world gives creedence to the nation's stated intent of denying a second 9/11. However, the manipulation of a nation into a war of choice with no connection to the above-stated geopolitical tragedy is, in fact, exactly what the nation's leadership has focussed upon over the last six years. For Hanson to claim that those who have decried the Bush War as illegal have "ignored the courage" of our soldiers is blatently misleading. Firstly, are we to praise those who simply follow orders, even when those orders are founded upon a foreign policy of bungling and lying? Are we to praise our soldiers for doing something we don't support? Or are we to simply praise our soldiers for selflessly committing their lives to something other than their own self-interest regardless of the end result? Hanson attempts to scare his readers by reminding us that apparently one in four Muslim-Americans support suicide bombings to defend Islam. Yet he fails to remind his readers that even a year after this nation's illegal invasion of a sovereign nation, more than SEVENTY percent of Americans were fully convinced that Iraq had masterminded the 9/11 attacks. Hanson also decries "liberals" who seek to halt the Bush Administration's efforts to stop future terrorist attacks but again fails to mention the number of times federal judges have ruled so much of Bush's policies as unconstitutional. Hanson also fails to consider how unsuccessful Bush's entire two-term foreign policies and its devisors have held up to international scrutiny, legal limitations and constitutional roadblocks. Heaven forbid if anything like the old and quaint Geneva Conventions, or, for that matter, the Constitution get in the way of Bush accomplishing his mission of bungling the Iraq occupation. Only in the second-to-last paragraph does Hanson mention sarcastically how critics "wonder...who fouled up postwar Iraq?" and yet fails or conveniently chooses to not include prewar Iraq's "War on Terror" status. Enemies exist for all people and institutions but often times those people and things need to create their enemies in order to define themselves. Bush needed to define an enemy and he sloppily did so out of a bogey man; that Bush chased either the biggest windmill or red herring instead of this nation's greatest contemporary enemy is no one liberal's fault nor any single critic's responsibility: those such as Victor Davis Hanson who continue to spit in the wind of history, fact and logic are the ones who themselves reflect their own massive hubris. Stick to your ancients, Vic, and leave the present to others who don't believe in partisan and ideological ghosts.

On another note, Al Gonzales will be leaving in just a week and a half. Actually, the day Bruce tickets go on sale. That Monday's gonna rock!!! And what's up with this Larry Craig clown from the great state of Idaho? Gay or not, that's none of our business; seeking the down low in public places, however, is, if what he does violates the law. Is Craig's guilty plea (which didn't appear coerced at the time the cop caught him motioning for the goodies in the stall) an admission of guilt? Or the fact that he didn't tell his wife? Or constituents? Or Senate colleagues? Or the press? Or his family? So, he's chosen to fight his case. Or not. Maybe he's resigning. Or not. Maybe he's going to fight to overturn his guilty plea and rescind his resignation. Or maybe not. Maybe what we have is a man whose righteous indignation is based on delusional self pity or victimization. Or maybe not. What we really have is a man caught up in a scandal not of a homosexual nature but one of two-facedness. Larry, you can't have everything both ways and expect everyone else to be forced to accept one.

Eagerly anticipating my arrival of The Miles Davis Quintet's "Cooking With..." and "Steamin' With...", Sonny Rollins' "SR+4' and some cool records by Benny Green, Joe Lovano, Sonny Clark and of course, the John Coltrane Quartet. Smokin' stuff. Should I pick up the latest Patti Scialfa disc simply because Bruce plays on half of it? I'm torn on that one...
Off to bed. Why am I awake at 12:30?