Category: Current Affairs

Senator Obama, It’s Time to Come Clean

It was a crisp, fall evening in October, 2000. My U-10 soccer team, The Blue Vipers, were up against the perennial city champs, the Boys Club Hardrollers. They were a juggernaut–I swear some of their players had stubble and drove themselves to the match. I could go on and on about how they illegally recruited by grabbing up the best players from across the city, but that would make me seem small and petty. After all, it’s only a game, right? Right.

We took it to them, though, and at the half, we were leading 2-1. The lads were a little shocked at their success and so was I.… Read the rest

Anytime Is Tornado Time In The South

It’s only February, but it’s already tornado time in The South. I had a feeling it was going to get rough yesterday when I saw all the signs–overcast skies, sticky humidity and temps in the 70s. There were numerous deaths and much damage in Tennessee and Arkansas last night, and early this morning, the bad weather came calling to North Alabama.

I’ve been awake since about 3:00 AM when the sirens went off. There was no damage here in south Huntsville, but areas north and west of the city were apparently hit hard and there may have been some fatalities.… Read the rest

When Life Imitates Art

The phone rang, per usual, at the start of dinner. Probably just another solicitor, I thought.

But then I saw the caller ID: “Walker, Texas Ranger.” It was a solicitor all right, but it occurred to me that this was one that I had better talk to. Or else.

“Howdy. This is Walker, Texas Ranger. No really, it’s Chuck Norris, just calling to put in a word for my good friend, Mike Huckabee. When you go to the polls on Tuesday, remember, Huck is the only true conservative in the field. So, if you want to protect our country from another Soviet invasion, remember–Vote Mike Huckabee!”… Read the rest

Feeling the Heat

Team Clinton is feeling the heat of Operation Obama Bumper.

Apparently my frequent trips from home to Starbucks to work to Panera Bread to work to Little Rosie’s Taqueria and then back home (with a quick stop at Target to pick up some prescriptions and get a gallon of milk) have found their mark.

Co-President Bill Clinton has been dispatched to Huntsville in a desperate attempt to stop the bleeding.

At first, he had plans to attend a $1000 a plate fundraiser at the home of a prominent local attorney. I know where that house is, and I had thought about stopping by yesterday in my “fired up” sedan and taking a picture of The Sticker with the house in the background.… Read the rest

Mental Stretching

It’s one thing for an independent, mushy-headed moderate like me to reach to the left and support a candidate who just might have the gifts to make a good president for times such as these. But it’s quite another for a conservative to the right of Senator McCain to do the same thing.

Yet, that’s what happens here and here.

Here’s a money quote:

My first choice for President in 2008 is Mitt Romney and my second choice is Barack Obama. And that would not be an anti-McCain vote. Like Romney, Obama is a man of vision and character and electing the first black president would ultimately do more to pry away black and other minority voters from a decadent American liberalism, than would anything else.

… Read the rest

The Great Need of the Moment

Move over Caroline. Step aside Ted. In what will likely have little to no discernible impact on the 2008 Presidential race whatsoever, it’s time for me to announce my endorsement for President. Operation Obama Bumper is underway:

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Ah, come on, you can’t say you didn’t see it coming, can you? If in two and a half years of blogging I’ve ever given any of you the impression I was a lockstep conservative who always voted Republican, then I apologize for I have completely failed you as a writer. As I’ve indicated before, here and here for instance, I start thinking in the middle and work my way toward the edges pro re nata–as needed.… Read the rest

If Barack Obama Were a Republican, Would He Win?

With his trademark eloquence and depth, Gnade once again taps into and confronts the zeitgeist.

Obama as a Republican–now there’s an interesting thought. In fact, one wonders, really, how much different his views would be from a moderate Republican like, say, Colin Powell. I shook Colin Powell’s hand in 1994 and I thought, Hopefully, I just shook the hand of the next President of the United States. Sadly, I had not.

If Obama were to somehow survive the gauntlet of the conservative elements of the party and become the Republican nominee, would evangelicals stay home on election day? And if they did, would he still be elected anyway?… Read the rest

Grassroots Gab

As the polls closed and the pundits pontificated Tuesday evening, the grassroots gab was flying fast and furious in the cramped study of a modest, lily-white, suburban ranch home somewhere in the Deep South:

Fourteen-year-old son: So Dad, what’s the deal with these primaries?

Pater Familias: They’re the process that each party uses to select its nominee for the general election. In most cases, the candidates are competing for that state’s delegates who would then have to promise to vote for the winner at the convention next summer.

Son: Okaaay…so Pops, if Hillary wins, are we going to move?

PF: Move where?… Read the rest

Fly Over

It was a most unusual request to make at the end of a funeral: Please exit the building, walk to the parking lot, and look toward the sky.

Out the mourning masses went, the gravity of their grief pressing down on their shoulders like some kind of inviolable physical law. They knew what was coming, but the poetry of the moment still startled and stirred their souls. Two jets, one trailing a colorful, smoky ribbon of tribute, streaked past and were gone an instant later, reminding the mourners of the brevity of it all, of the “need for speed” in making things right in the time that we have.… Read the rest

Hooah, Captain Gales

I’ve had the privilege of teaching many interns and residents over the years, and it’s always a joy to see them sally forth and take on the world. Although some have made me nervous (are you sure you’re ready for this?), others, such as Dr. Curt Gales, were obviously destined to accomplish great things.

I was Curt’s preceptor during his residency at Fox Army Hospital in 1996-97. He was, without a doubt, one of the best students I ever had. Emboldened with the kind of confidence and independent spirit that can only come from driving a combine on a Kansas wheat farm at the age of twelve, Curt never flinched at any difficult case or task that we assigned him.… Read the rest

Night Vision

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“There’s a world in front of me I can’t predict or envision because I haven’t been there yet. I haven’t lived this yet. I haven’t lived blind,” he says. “All I ask is to stay in the Army and finish out my years … I want to feel productive.”

The only good news for now is when he sleeps, Castro says.

“I’ve had dreams where I know I’m blind and, guess what? I’ve regained my vision,” he says. Reality floods back each morning.

“There’s not a night that I don’t pray and ask God, when I wake up, that I wake up seeing.”

… Read the rest