Went down to central Texas to pay my last respects to someone who was very dear to our family. Stopped at Buccees four different times on the trip down and back. Grabbed some brisket on the way back. Only seemed appropriate to wear the LBJ hat when going to the Hill Country.
No other philosopher or writer has had a more profound effect on my worldview than Albert Camus. This work is not a biography as such but four essays on four major formative moments in Camus's life. I enjoyed this book very much. It made the world feel somewhat larger. I can only hope to engage with the world with the type of clear, moral honesty of Camus...a man who actually earned his Nobel Prize.
Back in the saddle again. Another semester of equine therapy. This year I figured if I was spending so much time on the ranch I should get a hat appropriate for the occasion.
Talarico won the primary! Now on to November.
My rationale for voting for James Talarico is that he represents a new paradigm for engaging in politics. He engages with others, including his political rivals, with love and respect. As a man of faith he doesn't demonize those who traditionally vote for an opposing party. Instead he reaches out and engages with them. However, he isn't someone who is weak and caves in just for the sake of keeping the peace. He is firm on his convictions and willing to speak truth to power. He speaks with nuance and refrains from simplistic and performative rhetoric. He doesn't just throw meaningless red meat out into the void to excite a base.
He first came to my attention a year ago when he was the most eloquent defender of public schools in the Texas House of Representatives during the fight over private school vouchers. When I learned more about his platform and the bills he passed in the Texas House I became more and more impressed. Here was someone who believed in Direct Action. Actions over words. I was very glad when he announced he was running for U.S. Senate.
I grow weary of politicians on both sides of the aisle flinging sound bites and insults at the other side. That makes for good views on TikTok and Reels but doesn't accomplish anything but to widen the divide between us.
I have also noticed this new type of engagement in the primary race for U.S. Senate in Maine. Graham Platner, a former Marine and Army veteran who served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, has also shown the ability to engage with those on the other side of the political spectrum. He stands by his convictions but refuses to allow his supporters to demonize the "other side." He says we all have the same fears, and people have been deliberately manipulated to play upon those fears. We should show compassion in our civil discourse, not animosity.
This is a type of politics I can support.
I watched this short video over Albert Camus's principles for how to be present in this world. Obviously it's a simplified presentation of a complex theory. But I found it useful.
Finished the second of Kim Stanley Robinson's Three Californias Trilogy (my edition contains all three in one book): Gold Coast. The trilogy pictures three different alternate timelines of Orange County in the near future. The first story was post-nuclear. The second, Gold Coast shows the OC after decades of unfettered and out of control capitalism. Another book by KSR that I had to just sit still with after finishing to contemplate what I just read. I'll be contemplating Gold Coast for a while I'm sure. A great work. I liked Wild Shore (the first book) a bit more simply because I found the story more poignant. But Gold Coast was super good. Tragic but with a glimmer of hope near the end. I'm going to wait and read the final installment a bit down the road. I want to ponder things first. I'll start in on something else tomorrow.
Today is the Twentieth Anniversary of Dave's Internet Lounge.
Yeah, February 17, 2006 I threw up that photo above (Mexico, 1998) and started writing.
Everyone had a blog in those days. Now, the term blog sounds antiquated.
I look back on much of what I wrote and so much of it is nonsense. Fortunately very few people actually read my posts.
Even less read my posts today. My primary audience was made up of my Mom and Dad and Grandparents. Maybe a former student or a friend hopped on every once in awhile. Well, my grandparents and my Dad have all passed away. I'm not sure if my Mom still passes this way online or not. I might get a stray random eyeball occasionally. But honestly, I no longer write for an audience.
I post to maintain a routine. Posting forces me to stop for a moment and observe the world around me. This blog has become an online journal of sorts. So, if I'm the only reader of Dave's Internet Lounge, I think I would actually prefer that.
20 years! Man, so much has changed. It's nice to see there are still some corners of the world or internet that are still here.
My old mentor stopped by the school today. He now lives overseas and doesn't visit America much. Good to see him.
I was recently reminded of the scene in The Shawshank Redemption where Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) barricades himself in the warden's office and plays Sull'aria...che soave zeffiretto, from Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro over the prison PA system. Activity in the prison yard stops and Red (Morgan Freeman) says "I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about...I'd like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can't be expressed in words, and makes your heart ache because of it."
To be clear: I'm directing this to all you people complaining you couldn't understand the words of the Super Bowl Halftime show because it was in Spanish.
So a few months back the state of Texas passed a law stating that if someone donated posters of the Ten Commandments to a school district, then teachers were required to post them in their classrooms.
Of course several school districts filed suit stating the obvious violation of separation of church and state. So a judge placed an injunction on districts that filed suit allowing them to pause putting these posters up until the matter was resolved in the courts. My school district was not one of these.
Our local state representative, a man who has proven to be no friend of public education, donated Ten Commandment posters to our school district. Then, our district stated they were going to put the posters up without our input and after hours.
This is wrong on so many levels. It's simply performative, a play to the ignorant MAGA base. Anyone who thinks a poster is actually going to change the behavior of students is ignorant at best. Shoving religion down someone's throat violates all what public education stands for. If you want a Christian education, go to a private school. If you can't afford it, use the private school vouchers this same rep voted for to pay for it.
I have students of many religions, creeds and backgrounds. It is insulting to force one's views on them. Not only is it unethical it also doesn't even work!
And to have this forced by a state Attorney General who violates many of the ten commandments on a regular basis is even more infuriating.
So, I was ready. I made posters that showed the basic tenets of the five major world religions. I also printed out the First Amendment of the Constitution. Then I surrounded the new poster, once maintenance put it up, with my religion posters.
I have no problem with the Ten Commandments. I am a Christian. But this is public education for all. And if we're going to put up the tenets of one religion, I'm going to put up the tenet of all the major world religions.
The whole thing is so dumb.
I did not watch the super bowl last night. But I did tune in for the halftime show. I may not have understood Bad Bunny's lyrics (even with a 400 day streak attained yesterday my Spanish still needs work!) I understood the message. Really a nice show. Surprisingly I enjoyed it. Many thoughtful touches. An interesting take I saw last night: the same people who needed a separate halftime show are the same type of people who once needed separate water fountains.
One of the earliest posts on this blog was about the 2006 Winter Olympics. I used to really get into the Olympics, especially the Winter edition. But with the Games starting tonight I'm meh about the whole thing. I just don't have much interest. I'm sure there are many factors on my declining Olympic enthusiasm. But I honestly don't have the interest to spend time delving into it. Truly meh on an Olympic level.
TPUSA has announced they are presenting an alternate halftime show during the Super Bowl. Their headline performer is Kid Rock.
They have said they want to present a family friendly show that presents American values. They have betrayed their true motives.
Some MAGAs decried having a non-citizen performing at the SB Halftime ignorant of the fact that Bad Bunny is from Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico has been a territory of the United States since the Spanish American War. Puerto Ricans are American citizens. Can you hear the dog whistles? They didn't seem to have a problem with Paul McCartney and Bono and many others performing at the Super Bowl.
Now, I have never heard a Bad Bunny song. I am not familiar with him as a performer. I have never seen any of his lyrics. For all I know his lyrics could be super "clean." They could also be obscene. I don't know.
But I have seen and heard Kid Rock songs. I have heard him sing songs glorifying and celebrating the pursuit of underage girls. I have heard him sing songs downplaying statutory laws that protect girls from predators. I have heard him use language that is far from "family friendly."
But Kid Rock is white. TPUSA has long revealed who they are. Remember, the Ku Kux Klan also claimed they were protecting Christian values. TPUSA believes in Christian values, as long they are white Christian values. And that is not Christian at all.
The map above is often startling to a lot of people. The little blue dot is the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Some estimates believe there are now eight million people living in DFW. This is twice the population of the entire state of Oklahoma. Wyoming's population is around 600,000. The eight states with the smallest populations have a smaller population combined than Dallas-Fort Worth.
This, of course, always calls into question the equability of our representative system of Democracy. Because each of those states have the same representation in the United States Senate as a metropolitan area far larger in population. Why does a senate vote from North Dakota, a state with a population of less than 800,000 carry the same weight as a vote from Texas with a population of nearly 30 million? We are seriously basing our democratic system on a compromise made in 1787 under circumstances much different than those today?
And yet, I'm not so sure I would want to abolish the U.S. Senate. It is usually (not always!) in the Senate that cooler heads prevail. This is because Senators have to represent an entire state and not a smaller district. It's in the House of Representatives where you find the more clownish of our politicians. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of clowns in the Senate (Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz to name a few) but the Senate usually is a much more stable body than the House.
So, what's the solution? Surely there's a compromise, designed for modern times, out there that can bring equity to our representative system? I'm going to have to think on this.
