Madelyn Rebecca

It was raining the day my daughter was buried.

I know that might seem like a fitting atmosphere for some, dreary and dismal weather to match the somber moment when you lay your first child to rest.  But as I stood there, it came to me that with a different outlook, the rain might take on an altogether different context.  Where some might see the rain as the heavens mourning with you the loss of a loved one, new perception could show that it might be that Heaven was weeping with joy at receiving such a beautiful little angel as my little girl.

Four weeks ago last Friday, on August 28th at 10:22 p.m., my wife gave birth to an adorable baby girl that we named Madelyn Rebecca.  She weighed just over 3 pounds, and she was absolutely everything I could have dreamed of.  Due to lack of amniotic fluid, the cause of which we have since learned was underdeveloped kidneys, she didn’t have sufficient lung capacity to make it out in the world.  She lived for roughly 30 minutes, and every second that I got to hold her meant the world to me.  Life is a rare gift, and a child born into this world is a wonderful thing, especially when it’s your child.  It causes an ache that can’t be dulled to know that my time with her was so short, but having her was one of the single greatest moments of my life and I don’t regret for an instant the decisions we made.

We found out months ago, back in May, in fact, that the pregnancy was high risk due to an extreme lack of fluid.  It’s hard to describe the feelings of terror a person feels when you are faced with the prospect of losing your first born child, or at best months in the NICU and possible long term physical issues for your baby.  And then, when Maddy had gotten large enough, Heather went into the hospital so that she could be monitored twenty four hours a day.  It was difficult to take in, and even though I had moments of fear, anxiety, and dismay, through it all I also felt a sense of peace that God was with us.  The last two months, with Heather at St. John’s Mercy Medical Center here in St. Louis, was not an easy time, but I regret none of it.  It enabled us to get to know our daughter a little better, and for that I’m grateful.

She was a feisty one.  The doctors, I think, were quite surprised that she made it all the way to 34 weeks without showing any difficulties whatsoever, which is rare for a baby with no fluid.  But she showed us every day that she had a fighting spirit.  She gave us so many little memories which we can cherish forever…the day she kicked the “mean nurse” who was adjusting her monitor, scampering and squirming away from the ultra-sound techs, getting the hiccups on a daily basis, her heart rate jumping up so high when Bonnie guessed “girl”….I know there are memories that I won’t have of her that I wish I could have had, but for the short time that we had her, I’ve got a lot to be thankful for.

Heather has done a pretty good job of chronicling a lot of the high’s and low’s that we have had on her blog, and I don’t want to be redundant.  I do want to say thank you to everyone who made our difficult time just a little easier with your love and kindness…my family and my friends who were there for us, thank you all so much.  It’s been a difficult journey for us, and there are still a lot of questions we want answers to (some things we will never know for certain), but Maddy’s life has made a world of difference in me, and I’ll always cherish the time I had with her.

The “S” Word

Recently, there has been a word that has been bandied about on cable news channels and written down in political columns, a word that heretofore had not been spoken or thought of in a very long time.  It’s a word that has drawn a lot of criticism, rebuke, and yet has also been used for political posturing in an effort to showcase one’s independent status from national politicians and the federal government.

That word is secession.

The word got a revival back in April during the Tea Party protests on Tax Day. Texas governor Rick Perry, who was being questioned about his support for a state resolution reaffirming the sovereignty of the state of Texas, was quoted in the Dallas Morning News, and while he didn’t use the “s” word specifically, he did allude to it.

“There’s a lot of different scenarios,” Perry said. “We’ve got a great union. There’s absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that. But Texas is a very unique place, and we’re a pretty independent lot to boot.”

Even though Perry didn’t directly say the word secession, one of the reasons he was asked about it also had to do with the fact that some in the crowd were shouting, “Secede!”  Thus, his comments.  The article went on to state:

He said when Texas entered the union in 1845 it was with the understanding it could pull out.

So it’s clear that even if Perry was paying lip service to the idea of secession (and he’s given us no reason to think otherwise) at least he acknowledges the validity of the idea.  Of course, he was met with stiff opposition from Democratic opponents, who had an immediate response.  The Associated Press had the report a day later:

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – A group of Texas Democrats says Republican Gov. Rick Perry was reckless when he suggested at an anti-tax rally that fed-up Americans may one day want to secede from the United States.

They said Thursday that he should disavow such talk. Democratic state Rep. Jim Dunnam of Waco says talk of secession is anti-American and that some people associate it with racial division and the Civil War.

Since then, the word secession has continued to be thrown around, not just on the usual places like libertarian blogs and websites, but even in the mainstream media.  Perry was referenced in a report issued by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that “tracks trends” like militia that are mobilizing.  The report deals with the rise of militia groups since the election of Barack Obama, and predictably the report is laced with subtle accusations of racism.  Perry is referenced as an example of how elected officials and certain media are supportive of the current anti-government movement.  Fox News host Glenn Beck was also named.  I guess the lumping of these individuals with militia groups is supposed to cast some sort of pallor or tinge upon their reputations, since the claim is essentially being made that mobilization has become more frequent due to the fact that Obama is black.

Anyway, finally there was this exchange shared by Chris Matthews and faux-conservative columnist Kathleen Parker on Matthews show Hardball, which airs on MSNBC.  Parker is one of thousands of “new Republicans” that support taking the party in a more progressive direction.  By progressive, I mean that she favors making the GOP even more like the Democratic Party than it already is.    She was on Matthews’ show to discuss a column she wrote for the Washington Post in which she discusses what she sees as rampant racism in the Southern wing of the Republican Party, made manifest by their rabid support for Alaska Governor Sarah Palin in the 2008 presidential campaign.  While Parker’s article is not my point, it’s worth a read, if only to see how delusional some people can be.  In her column she mentions Harper Lee, and when she and Matthews begin discussing the column, they continue to expound on the idea of Sarah Palin as some sort of subconscious poster child for racism, and the parallel is even made between Palin and one of the main characters of To Kill A Mockingbird, Mayella Ewell.  For those unfamiliar with Harper Lee’s famous book (and if you haven’t read it, you really should), Mayella Ewell is a poor Southern white woman who claims she was raped by a black man, and even though her credibility is suspect, she is believed simply because she is white and the accused is black.  That this link is made is rather astounding, because essentially what Parker is saying is this:  Palin was brought out by the GOP because Southern Republicans are racist and would take the word of (in Parker’s view) an untrustworthy white woman against a noble black man, simply because she is white.  Maybe that’s not what Parker is saying…but by making that comparison you invite all sorts of speculation, and Parker never makes it clear that she is NOT saying these things, on the contrary, that’s precisely the impression that Matthews and fellow guest Joan Walsh seem to receive. The really shocking part is that Parker continues to have her columns posted on conservative web sites like Townhall.com…if I was a Republican, I would have to ask, with friends like that who the heck needs enemies?

Anyway, all of this is secondary to what I’m saying here.  Matthews and Parker continue to talk about the South and the perceived racial overtones to the opposition to Barack Obama.  And wouldn’t you know it, the “s” word comes up again.

MATTHEWS: A majority of them are not willing to say, yeah, he`s one of us. And the rest of the country is overwhelming. Nine out of 10 say sure, he`s one of us. So why is the South alone in this regard? Not Northeast, not Midwest, not West. But the South stands out there uniquely and regionally and racially opposed to this guy.

PARKER: One word, Chris, one word: Confederacy. I mean, you know, the South is very, I live there, okay? I want to make that clear, too, because I`m not bashing southerners. I love the South and I am a southerner. But-

MATTHEWS: But 40 percent of those states like yours are black.

PARKER: It’s part of the history.

MATTHEWS: So it`s the 60 percent that are white.

PARKER: It`s part of the culture to be secessionist.

MATTHEWS: Like Rick Perry effectively is?

PARKER: To always view the federal government as the enemy. And it`s very, yeah, yes, I can`t, I can`t-

It’s interesting, once you begin to look at all these incidents not as independent, but as a common theme, to see what emerges.  Perry alludes to secession, and Jim Dunnam notes that “some people” associate it with racism.  Perry’s comments are referenced again in the SPLC report, amongst dozens of accusations and allusions to the racial motivations of anti-government militia groups.  Then the South in general, and Perry in particular, is referenced in an exchange regarding racism in the old South, by Matthews and Parker.

It’s easy to see that federal government advocates, from Democratic congressmen like Dunnam, to “non-partisan” groups like the SPLC, to even Republican columnists like Kathleen Parker, want to do their dead level best to associate anti-government sentiment and specifically notions of secession, to racism.  Why?  Easy.  Because by linking secession to racism, they can de-legitimize it before the idea ever takes root or a logical argument can be made for it.

But the fact is, secession and racism are not inextricably linked.  In fact, they aren’t even in the same ballpark.  Some might think otherwise, since any person who’s had a grade school education can tell you that the Southern States seceded over the issue of slavery.  But less than a hundred years before the South seceded from the United States, the 13 colonies seceded from the British Government, and no one is arguing that that secession was based upon racism.  It’s clear then, that the motivation for secession does not make the act itself illegitimate, regardless of how wrong the reasons are.

In point of fact, Perry’s remarks regarding the state retaining the right to secede were on the money.  I believe that states should uphold the Constitution as long as they remain in the Union.  But the federal government long ago violated the Constitution and has stepped outside of it’s limitations.  Secession, contrary to what some have argued, isn’t based on any specific Constitutional right but rather on natural rights that were cited in the Declaration of Independence and were given to us by God.  The States retained those rights, and particularly in cases where the federal government has violated our Constitutional and natural rights the states have the natural right of secession.

To Be Continued….

Inca Gold Review

I just finished my second Clive Cussler novel, Inca Gold, and found that it was even better than the first one I read, Sahara.  The basic plot for both books is the same.  NUMA employees Dirk Pitt and Al Giordino get into some kind of sticky situation involving bad guys and life threatening, seemingly insurmountable geographic obstacles, and they survive against all odds.

I’d better back up, for those unfamiliar with the Dirk Pitt series.  Dirk Pitt is a director for the National Underwater Marine Agency, a government agency that carries out various aquatic scientific and historical explorations.  The agency is headed up by Admiral James Sandecker.  Al Giordino is Pitt’s sidekick and lifelong friend.  Pitt and Giordino have military experience and are well equipped for just about anything.  Cussler usually starts out his books by relaying some historical event that will have a later connection in the plot of the book.

Inca Gold deals with a vast Mayan treasure that was buried in Mexico in a mountain beside an underground river.  An ancient Mayan king found that his empire was threatened, so he sent his top general and a portion of his vast treasure far from the empire with the orders that it was to be buried so that it could be recovered when he had secured his throne.  The orders are carried out, and the details of the journey are put down on an ancient recording device, but the people involved are all killed before the treasure can be recovered, and so it lies buried for centuries.

Centuries later, a team of archaeologists are excavating in Peru, and a few of them get trapped in an ancient well.  NUMA, who is doing scientific research off the coast, sends Dirk Pitt and Al Giordino to rescue the archaeologists.  During the rescue operation, a group of mercenaries raids the camp and takes the excavating team (and Al) hostage.  Dirk Pitt rescues them, but it is revealed in the process that the mercenaries are connected to a worldwide smuggling operation run by the Zolar family.  They steal historical artifacts from dig sites and from museums, and sell them to private collectors around the globe.  Unbeknownst to Pitt and the archaeologists, the Zolars have found an artifact with clues that will lead them to the Mayan treasure.  Pitt, following up on certain research given to him by the archaeologist team, finds the ancient recording device and simultaneously begins searching for the Mayan treasure.  When the Zolar’s and Pitt come face to face, it becomes a battle of wills, the tough survivalist Dirk Pitt against the wealthy and ruthless Zolars.

The Dirk Pitt novels are clearly escapist adventures…Nobody could do the things Dirk Pitt does and live.  In Sahara, he treks across the Sahara desert with no water.  In this one, he swims 100 kilometers up an underground river that empties into the Bay of Cortez, with a bullet hole in his shoulder, a broken wrist and a couple of broken ribs.  He always has just enough strength to do what it is he needs to do, and he always almost single handedly saves the day.  But realism aside, you are rarely going to find adventures as entertaining as these.

For starters, I love the way Cussler incorporates history into his stories, whether it’s faux history like the Mayan treasure or real historical anecdotes which are sprinkled throughout the book.  Mingling history with adventure gives the books a kind of modern Indiana Jones feel, and it makes the books that much better.  Searching for a vast Mayan treasure in the Mexican desert…doesn’t get much more intriguing than that, and Cussler is able to bring it to life.  Plus, in spite of the fact that his characters are all pretty heroic, he’s still able to flesh them out quite well and make them interesting, not just one dimensional.  He manages to incorporate their interests in ways that advances the plot while still giving you additional information about the character beyond just what is needed.

My only real gripes are that sometimes the dialogue is a bit stiff and stilted.  Like when Dirk or Al have their enemies cornered, they rarely dispatch them with just a witticism or two…they usually have some moral proverb to impart instead, which can get annoying.  Some of the interaction between the characters seems less than casual, and I wish that the people who inhabit the Dirk Pitt world would talk a bit more like normal people rather than English majors.  Even Dirk’s old Indian friend, Billy Yuma, can speak like a Harvard grad rather than a poor farmer.  And the other gripe is that for some reason he makes a big deal in this book out of the metric system vs. the conventional English measuring system.  Every measurement in the book is listed in both, and he even cites the fact that back in 1997 or whenever it was that the US finally joined the rest of the world by switching over to the metric system.  I just didn’t understand why this was so important, unless he’s attempting to use the book to educate people on metric conversions.

Other than that, I really enjoyed this book.  I can’t wait to dig into more of the Clive Cussler novels, and if you are looking for something to read that’s not too hefty, and is a lot of fun, I can’t recommend these books enough.  Cussler is a genius at escapist adventures, and this book definitely showcases that talent.

The Final Word On Chris Duncan

Well, as most are aware by now, the Chris Duncan drama came to an abrubt end (we hope) with the team trading Duncan on Wednesday night to the Boston Red Sox for aging middle infielder Julio Lugo.  It’s pretty much a win-win situation here…Duncan gets a fresh start with another storied franchise, and the Cardinals acquire some much needed infield depth, one of their major weaknesses.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bernie Miklasz has a great column regarding the whole situation, in which he sums everything up quite nicely.  There really isn’t much more to be said.  The only tragedy would be if Tony LaRussa and Dave Duncan simmer over this for the rest of the season and allow it to push them out of St. Louis for good.  Yes, there were a lot of fans that were overly critical of Chris Duncan, and treated him unfairly.  That doesn’t negate the fact that the last two years, his numbers have plummeted and with his limited defensive skills, he just wasn’t able to help the Cardinals much.

In many ways, I’ll miss Dunc.  He was by all accounts a great teammate, and he was, to me, a classic example of a competitor who wanted to be on the field even when he was in pain.  In the end, that might have been what hurt him, because there has been so much speculation but no confirmation that his declining numbers have been due to injury.  But it is refreshing in an era of prima donna’s, to find a guy who’s willing to play through pain.  I truly wish Duncan all the best.  I hope he revitalizes his career in Boston and starts putting up the kind of numbers we know he’s capable of.

Idiot Liberals At The Mall

Here’s another example of how badly institutions of higher learning have failed their young charges, loading them up with all kinds of idealistic tripe instead of filling their heads with facts.  News Channel 6 in Concord, NC, is reporting that the Concord Mills Mall is giving the boot to a kiosk being run by a company known as Free Market Warrior, operated by a conservative gentleman named Loren Spivack.  The reason?  Apparently, Mr. Spivack’s kiosk, which sells conservative bumper stickers and the like, was found to be offensive by recent UNC-Charlotte grad Jennifer Ibanez.  In a letter to the editor of the Charlotte Observer, Ms. Ibanez had this to say:

“Free Market Warrior, a kiosk located adjacent to Bass Pro Shops, specializes in memorabilia embellished with pro-confederacy statements as well as those opposing both the government and President Obama. In addition, these products support ideas such as racisms, sexism, and even slavery. While freedom of speech is a Constitutional right it’s difficult not to believe that something just isn’t quite right here.

“I find it appalling that Concord Mills, North Carolina’s #1 visitor attraction, would condone such a message to be portrayed by their vendors and can’t imagine how the outside visitors’ perceptions of North Carolinians have been skewed by such an establishment.

“It’s hard to stay open-minded when such uncivilized and outdated ideas are endorsed on a daily basis. It’s 2009; please, let’s at least try to put this type of bigotry to an end.”

The article goes on to say that Ms. Ibanez wrote a letter to the owner of the mall, and she, along with a friend of hers, vowed to never return until Spivack and his evil conservatism had been vanquished from the mall.  After receiving the letter, mall management decided Spivack’s goods were not neutral enough, and told him that his lease will be allowed to expire at the end of July, without an option to renew. 

Now, it should be clear that malls are private places of business that should be able to decide who sells and what is sold in their stores.  So if the mall decides that it does not want to renew Spivack’s lease, it is within its rights to do so.  It does seem rather foolish that the mall would choose NOT to renew the lease based on two customer complaints…especially now that this story has made national news, and you can bet that more than two people will decide they don’t want to do their shopping at the Concord Mills Mall because it’s unfriendly to those of the conservative persuasion.  Nevertheless, the mall is not obligated to give a place for conservative viewpoints.

The real problem is with the ignorance of Jennifer Ibanez.  I went to the website of the Charlotte Observer and found a condensed version of her comments here.  Nowhere, either on the Observer or the subsequent stories, have I seen where she actually specifies items that are “Pro-Confederacy, pro-racism, pro-sexism, or pro-slavery.”  She just asserts that they are there.  The next logical thing to do is to find the website for Free Market Warrior, and examine the items that they have for sale.  It stands to reason if they are selling them in a mall, that the same items would be listed on their website, right?  The link can be found at the top of the page, and they have several pages of items like coffee mugs, bumper stickers, and posters that can be purchased, all with conservative slogans.  I searched diligently to find one item that was pro-Confederacy, racist, sexist, or pro-slavery, and nary a one was to be found.

In fact, I scratched my head when I went to the page that contained items for sale, because there, at the very top of the list, was a bust of Abraham Lincoln for sale.  Now, my history might be a little shaky, but the last time I checked, Abraham Lincoln was very much against the Confederacy, and he was personally opposed to slavery (even if he did feel it was Constitutionally protected in the southern states).  It seems odd to suggest that Spivack’s kiosk contains pro-Confederacy material when online, he’s selling a bust of the man universally hated by every advocate of the Confederacy in the last 150 years.  Nowhere did I see Confederate flags, busts of Jefferson Davis, or any other pro-Confederacy or pro-slavery material.  In fact, I saw nothing even connected with slavery at all, save for the bust of Lincoln.   Neither did I find any sexist or racist material.  Most of the items there were critical of Barack Obama, but they had nothing to do with his skin tone and everything to do with his policies.

And this, I suspect, is where Ibanez’s problem truly lies.  For she says in her letter: 

“Free Market Warrior, a kiosk located adjacent to Bass Pro Shops, specializes in memorabilia…opposing both the government and President Obama.”

*GASP*  SAY IT ISN’T SO, JENNIFER!  NOT MEMORABILIA THAT OPPOSES THE GOVERNMENT OR PRESIDENT OBAMA!

This is why I have such a low regard for liberals.  It’s because most of the time, they are educated fools.  Nothing against a college education…I believe it is important.  But sadly, the world of academia has failed people like Ms. Ibanez, who believes that a kiosk with material opposing the government is uncivilized and outdated.  Unswerving fealty to the state…that’s the new motto of the day.  Bow at the altar of government, and anyone who opposes it must be shut down.  I wonder if Ms. Ibanez opposed the kiosk selling the “Don’t Tread On Me” flag, which is also for sale on the Free Market Warrior site.  The flag has its roots in the American Revolution, which essentially boiled down to citizens who got sick of being taxed to death and abused by their government, and so therefore decided to oppose it…with GUNS!  *GASP* 

It is sheep like Ibanez who are too stupid to realize when they’ve been had.  She was probably one of the same liberal activists who during the Bush years screamed that dissent was the highest form of patriotism.  Sadly, then it was the Republicans who wanted to shut up free speech by calling everyone who opposed the Bush administration traitors.  Of course, the actions of people like Ibanez prove that it is not the government that these “freedom lovers” oppose…it’s just the opposite party.  Now that the Democrats are in power, Ibanez and her ilk can’t give away their freedoms fast enough.  And of course, Republicans have suddenly woken up and realized, “Hey!  The government is a corrupt institution that is trampling on the Constitution.”  Sadly, it’s hard to take them seriously when they spent the last eight years helping the government grow at it’s fastest rate since the New Deal.  And there are many voices in the Republican Party crying to take it further to “the center,” even though this last election has shown it to be morphing into a milder version of the Democratic Party.  But I digress.

Jennifer, let me tell you something they apparently don’t teach in college.  Opposition to abusive government is one of the founding principles of this country.  Perhaps instead of reading Chomsky and Marx, you should try reading Washington and Jefferson.  Liberty is an idea that is neither uncivilized nor outdated.  And until it returns to it’s Constitutional moorings, the government needs to be opposed, even if “the Chosen One” is at the wheel.