Shots Across the Bow

Eight years ago, our nation was attacked in a cowardly act of terrorism.

That attack continues today, but like a magician, our enemy has used the distraction of a physical attack to attempt to distract us from the real one, the attack on our culture, our ideals, and our freedom. Sadly, our enemy has been almost completely successful in this second front. What he could never achieve through military might, he is easily accomplishing using the apathy, lethergy, and weakness of the modern American citizen.

Our president stood before the nation and baldly lied to us, and we save our outrage for the one man brave enough to call him on it. A friend of mine posted all day yesterday about the consequences Wilson faces, and how much money has been donated to his opposition since the speech, yet when called on it, tries to hide behind a sense of humor. "I get amused..." It must be coincidence that all the things that strike him as funny show Joe Wilson in a negative light.

Even worse than his apparent inability to stand squarely behind his beliefs, when presented with hard facts demonstrating that Obama was lying, my fired decides, without doing any research, or looking at anything, that there's more to the story and he fabricates a hypothetical problem. He would rather make things up in his head than look at the facts.

That's why we're losing this battle for our country. Our friends and neighbors would rather believe in warm comfortable fairy tales than the cold hard truth.

I've come slowly and reluctantly to a painful realization about the nature of most people. Given the choice between citizenship with an uncertain future, and subjugation with security, all too many of them are choosing to be servants.

Or slaves.

Most people don't want freedom. It's hard work. It's risky. It's uncomfortable. Instead, they want security, and if having that security means they aren't allowed to choose for themselves, for many of them, that's a bonus. No choice means no responsibility. When things go wrong, they are free to blame somebody else. They want to be taken care of.

That's human nature and our enemy is making great use of that nature.

All of this leads to the very interesting question, "Who is our enemy?"

Without putting on my tin foil hat, Barack Obama received more money through untraceable small contributions than John Kerry spent in his entire presidential campaign. Let that sink in for a moment. Obama spent enough money to fund an entire presidential campaign without anybody knowing where that money came from. Somebody with a tremendous amount of resources, both monetarily and organizationally, may have purchased the White House. Who in the world has that kind of resources? It's a pretty small list. It gets even smaller when you add in the ideological viewpoints that would want an Obama presidency.

But what is really important here is that this tactic fails the very instant that Americans decide to be citizens and not subjects. If enough of my friends and neighbors shake off the lethergy, wean themselves from the government teat, and decide that they will stand on their own as free men, to succeed or fail by their own efforts, then the enemy's strategy fails.

Free men know that the government exists to serve them, not the reverse.
Free men know that they have no right to the labor of another man.
Free men demand honesty from their leaders.
Free men understand that diplomacy is not another word for compromise.
Free men work hard, just for the chance of success, and are willing to make sacrifices and take risks to achieve great things.
Free men stand up for themselves, and encourage those who cannot stand to accomplish all that they can.
Free men know that character is more important than success.

A man or woman who lives by these principles cannot be a tool of our enemy.

But there are too few of us. America is sinking under the weight of its own complacency. We can't reverse the process; there aren't enough of us. All we can do is stand our ground, speak the truth, and see how many of our fellow Americans we can pull to safety before the coming collapse.

I have a dual monitor system on my desktop featuring identical Viewsonic monitors (VG2230wm). The monitors are really nice and I like having the virtual real estate especially when I'm working on a website or playing with graphics. It also comes in handy with World of Warcraft as since since I can surf the web while thrashing evil doers. Unfortunately, my multitasking ability has been extremely limited for the last week because one of the monitors decided not to play anymore.

I fired up the computer to start my day off checking me email, and my primary monitor stayed dark. At first, I though the display had died, or that the graphics card might have been the culprit, but Windows recognized that the monitor wasn't working and switched the primary display to my second monitor. (That's very cool programming, by the way.) I did some basic troubleshooting, including pulling up the device manager and discovered that the computer didn't see the monitor as a plug and play compatible monitor and had loaded a generic driver for that monitor. The second monitor was still recognized as the Viewsonic monitor and it was using the right driver.

I swapped the monitors between ports on the graphics card, and the problem moved with the monitors. I swapped the primary with the secondary monitor using the Windows controlpanel, and then using the nVidia control panel and the problem stayed with the same monitor. At this point, it was clear to me that the problem was with the monitor so I called tech support.

Wow.

First there was the communication gap. I speak English as a first language. The nice young man on the other end of the call did not.
Second, I understand basic troubleshooting. The nice young man on the other end did not.

He tried to tell me that the problem was probably with the driver and wanted me to download the most current one. I explained to him that I had two identical monitors on the computer. Both monitors were using the same driver. One monitor worked; the other didn't. Obviously, it wasn't a driver issue. Following his script, he insisted that I download and install the latest driver.

I did.

No change.

I called back and got another tech support rep. This time she was a nice young woman who had trouble with the English language. I explained the situation to her, including the fact that I had updated the drivers, swapped monitors and cables and that the problem followed the monitor. Her suggestion was to try the monitor on another computer. I explained to her that I had already accomplished that step of trouble shooting by placing the monitor on another port of the video card. She insisted that I had to try the monitor on another computer to verify that it was a monitor problem.

Fine.

I did it.

The monitor still didn't work.

I called tech support again and got the young lady again. I explained what I had done, and said I needed to return the monitor for service since I had proven beyond all reasonable doubt that the monitor was defective. Apparently, I hadn't done enough. She wanted me to get another cable and see if that fixed the problem.

Seriously? A cable?

I explained that I had already changed cables when I changed computers, and again when I had changed ports on the graphics card earlier, but the cable must have been the next thing in her script because she wouldn't move off of it. I finally asked her to escalate the call because it as clear that she had no understanding of the situation, and relatively little knowledge about how a computer works. She agreed to escalate the call and promised that I would hear from Viewsonic within 48 hours.

Two days later, and nothing.

So I called tech support once again, and told the person, who spoke American English very well, that I wanted a return authorization number so they could fix the monitor, and asked him why I hadn't heard from them within 48 hours as promised. He read through my file, agreed that I should have gotten a call back, issued the RA, and asked me a serious of specific,detailed questions about the symptoms and my system configuration. I gave him the operating system, the CPU, the graphics card,and the monitor model. I told him I was running two identical monitors on the system, the one worked, and the other didn't. I told him that I had moved the monitor between ports on the graphics card, and onto another computer running a different operating system. I told him that I had downloaded the most current driver and installed it. Through all of this, the problem stayed consistently with one monitor.

He listened carefully, took good notes, and said he was going to put this problem to the senior tech support guys, because it was something very unusual. He promised an email within a day or two to let me know what they came up with. That was on Sunday. Wednesday, I got the following email:

Dear Mr. Hailey,

Thank you for contacting ViewSonic Customer Support.

In regards to your current case number C987318, we have heard back from our technicians about the issue of your monitor not being identified as a plug and play monitor. What they suggested is to uninstall all the monitor drivers on your computer and restart the system to install the actual drivers for this monitor.

If this does not correct the issue please contact us again so that we can further assist on this issue.

Thank you for allowing us to assist you.

Sincerely,
John ViewSonic Customer Support.

This from the best guys they have. Once again, for the slow students in the room, I have two identical monitors running on this system. One works no matter where it is plugged in; the other won't work no matter where it is plugged in. This cannot be a driver issue. Period.

I'm shipping the monitor back tomorrow.

Now here's the best part. My other monitor? It did the same thing about 8 months ago. I called Viewsonic tech support and the guy I talked to recognized the problem instantly, said it had happened on a lot of monitors of that model, and gave me an RA instantly.

I guess he left the company and took all the brains with him.

So, when it comes time to replace my monitors, it's a fair bet that they won't come from Viewsonic.

I have two friends.

One of them is very upbeat and supportive. He tells me that I can meet any challenge that comes my way, that I have the capacity to succeed, and to excel, as long s I'm willing to work hard to overcome the obstacles in my path. He tells me that no matter what comes, I have the ability to survive it, and to prosper. He tells me that I am strong, and that I can stand on my own. I know he has my back, because he's been there when I've needed a hand, but he always let's me make my own way. Sometimes I get tired, and I complain that other people don't seem to have to work as hard, and he tells me that it doesn't matter what other people do or have; I can make my own fortune regardless of their wealth.

My other friend always tells me how much he cares about me, and how much he wants to help me succeed. He doesn't say it out loud, but the way he acts shows me that he doesn't think I can do it on my own. He "helps" me before I ask, and sometimes in ways that aren't really helpful at all. He insists that I do things his way because he knows what works best for people like me, and he can get very angry when I try to go my own way. He tells me that he's here to help me because I need his help, that the obstacles in my path are too big for me to overcome on my own. Sometimes, he tells me that I have to forget what I want and do what he wants, so that somebody else can get what they want. I'm never exactly sure how that's supposed to work, but he talks really fast and it's usually easier to go along than to argue. Other times he tells me not to work so hard, that other people have it much easier than I do, so they owe me something. He says I have value and worth,. so I shouldn't have to prove that value or worth by producing anything. In fact, because I have value, I should have my needs met without any labor on my part. He tells me I'm entitled to everything I need, and I should stand up and demand my rights.

The first friend makes me feel strong, independent, and capable. The second friend makes me feel weak, envious, and afraid.

Tell me why I should keep hanging out with the second guy. He's kind of a downer.

Dying isn't the worst thing that can happen to you in an accident.

You might live through it.

I am not the man I pretend to be.

I am less than I want to be and more than I seem to be.

May God grant me the grace and strength to be the man she sees when she looks at me, instead of the man I see when I look into the mirror.

Amen.

I am sickened by the constant whining of some people who claim that they are poor. It's really getting grotesque hearing people living in the suburbs complain about their poverty.

Let me give you a little clue.
TOP TEN SIGNS YOU MIGHT NOT REALLY BE POOR.

10. If you have a roof over your head that you own, you aren't poor.
9. If you have a car to drive, and gas to put in it, you aren't poor.
8. If you have a TV, a DVD player, cable, and/or internet access, you aren't poor.
7. If there's food on the table and more in the fridge, you aren't poor.
6. If you can afford takeout dinner once a week, you aren't poor.
5. If your kids have clothes that belong to them only, you aren't poor.
4. If you have a family doctor, you aren't poor.
3. If you go out to dinner once a month, you aren't poor
2. If your children sleep through the night because their bellies are full of food, then you aren't poor.
1. If your household income is above the US median ($50,233 in 2007), you most certainly are not poor.

If the above conditions describe you, then you aren't poor. You just want more than you've got, a feeling that afflicts many of us regardless of our income.

So stop whining about it.

You want to talk about poverty? Let's talk about the folks living in Sevier County who know about real poverty. Let's talk about a little boy who had to wear his older sister's dresses because hand me downs were the only clothes the family could afford. Let's talk about the kids going to school without proper supplies because there was no money for books, or paper, or a freaking $1.00 ruler from Walmart. Let's talk about the kids in Cocke County and Union County and Greene County that go to bed hungry each night; who can't wait for school to start so they know they'll get at least one good meal a day. Let's talk about the illegal immigrants who brave the desert, the Border Patrol, and racist fools in order to perform backbreaking labor for money most of us would laugh at, just so they can send it home, so their kids can eat.

You want to cry about how poor you are because you can't afford a new purse? Tell it to the lady who can't afford to take her little girl to the doctor to correct a cleft palate.

Let's talk about real poverty. Let's talk about Africa, where kids grow up without parents, because they were taken by disease or violence. Let's talk about kids going to bed every night, hungry, helpless, and hopeless. Let's talk about these kids growing up trapped in an unbreakable cycle of poverty, doomed to miss out on an education because their family needs them to work. Doomed to miss out on job training because they are too busy hauling water to their homes.

Doomed.

And you want to cry because your car needs tires and you'll have to give up your dinner out this month to pay for them?

Grow up! All of you!

Let me clue you in to something. If you live in the United States, chances are you've never experienced true poverty. There are isolated pockets of true poverty in America, but most people never see them, much less live in them. I went from being single with no dependents to married with 4 small children and one on the way, and I made less than $24,000 a year as an E-5 in the Navy. By every US standard, I was poor. I qualified for food stamps, assisted housing, WIC, ADFC, and any other welfare program you care to name. I never took a single dime. Not out of pride; if I needed help, I took it, but I didn't need it. I had a car, a TV, a computer, a stereo, furniture, and all the other material things I needed. None of it was new; none of it was particularly nice, but it did the job. My wife was a smart shopper and we operated on a very tight budget. Since I got out of the Navy, I've had some good years and some very lean years. One year, I made almost $60,000 working on a small island in the Pacific ocean, cleaning up a plutonium site; three years later, I made less than $18,000, managing a fast food restaurant while trying to start my first business. I ran up a tremendous amount of debt, and worked for several years to pay it off. I'm not telling you all this to blow my own horn, only to point out the truth. There were many times when I didn't have all the money I wanted, and more than a few times when I didn't have all the money I needed.

I may have been broke, but I was never poor.

You see, while I was in the Navy, I saw real poverty. We pulled into port in Rio de Janeiro. We spent a lot of time on the beaches, partying with the local ladies, but one day, while on a bus ride to Ipanema, I looked out the window and saw a mountainside covered with cardboard shanties. A few of them had corrugated metal roofs, but most of them were just cardboard, held together by faith and duck tape. There was nothing green on the hillside; everything was mud and filth. No bathrooms, no running water, no sanitation whatsoever, no electricity, no food.

Nothing, except kids standing ankle deep in human waste.

I wish I could say I did something, asked some questions, or got involved somehow, but I didn't. It was just too big to deal with; there was no way for me, an upper middle class American, to comprehend poverty on such a large scale. Besides, I was a sailor, and I was there to have a good time. If I worried about the kids I saw in that cardboard hell, I wouldn't enjoy my liberty. So I turned my head, pretended I didn't see it, and rode the bus down to the beach.

I'm not really good at pretending sometimes.

I hesitate to talk about this, because I don't want to be accused of being prideful, but I recently committed to giving 10% of my gross income to God, and I usually choose to do this through charities that minister to the truly poor. I tell you this not to sing my own praises, or even to inspire you to do the same, although that would be wonderful, but to explain why my stomach churns whenever I hear somebody crying about how poor they are while blogging from a desktop computer in their air conditioned home. My anger is not directed solely at their whining, as much as I would like to believe that's the truth.

My anger springs from remembering a callous young man, who saw children struggling in true poverty, and spent his money on food and fun instead of immediately using it to help however he could.

Look, I know times are tough right now, and they're only going to get tougher, and I know some of us have it harder than others. But the honest truth is that nobody reading these words, unless you're homeless and in a library escaping the rain/heat/cold for a few hours, has experienced real poverty. None of us are poor.

We're just spoiled.

There was a time in this country when the people wanted to stand on their own, without a paternalistic government to tell them what to do, where to go, or how to believe. These people wanted that independence so much that they were willing to leave everything they knew behind, friends, families, jobs, and all the securities that come with life in a well regimented society. They left behind health care, educational systems, social services, sanitation systems, police protections, art and cultural support, even the defense of a well trained and equipped military all because they believed that independence of thought, belief, and action was more important than these physical securities.

To be sure, there were many who did not leave voluntarily, but were exiled because of their inability to accept the status quo in a decadent and decaying society, characterized by a rigid class system that decreed a man should not rise above his station.

I think about all of those people, willing to sacrifice so much, all in order to take a chance, and with no guarantee of success. If they failed, there was no government safety net to catch them. They had to rely on the kindness of their fellow man, or they died. And many of them did die. Hostile natives, disease, famine, war; these all killed many of the men and women who took that magnificent leap of faith. And they knew going into it that death and failure were strong possibilities, but they chose to go anyway, because independence was more important to them than life itself.

These strong, brave men and women crossed the ocean and carved out a new life for themselves, and a new nation for their children. And when the old world tried to restrain them, they threw off the shackles of the past and embraced an uncertain destiny. They rebelled against the government that tried to control them from across the ocean. They defied the mightiest military force in the world. Again, there were no guarantees of success. In fact, the most probable outcome was humiliating, crushing defeat. Just like in the previous generation, when the majority elected to stay home in comfort and security, while a brave few chose to risk everything to stand as free men, limited only by their own abilities and their own character, in the new colonies, most of the people wanted to cling to the government, to accept the indignities and insults offered by a mad tyrant rather than to risk their prosperity and their security in a bid for freedom. Yet a few brave patriots stood against the tyrant and boldly proclaimed that they were free men, citizens, not subjects. On July 4th, they signed a document that pledged their Lives, their Fortunes, and their sacred Honor in the cause of freedom. They were willing to give up everything in order to win the one thing that truly matters.

Just over two centuries later, men and women who feel the same way are not just mocked and scorned, but are called dangerous, and potential terrorists. The government of the United States published an article that said that carrying a copy of the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence is a sign of a potential terrorist. A man who believes in the exact same ideals as the men who founded this nation is considered a potential criminal by that same nation.

How far we have fallen!

We've gone from a nation of men who fought and died for the right to succeed or fail based solely on our own merits to a nation of children who look to the government to ensure that all of our most basic needs are met. The prosperity that was earned by our ancestors' willingness to risk failure has turned us into cowards who seek security over freedom, welfare over opportunity, and dependence over independence. The people of the United States are now demanding that their state and local governments take bailout money from the federal government, no matter what strings may be attached. They are willingly surrendering their basic rights and freedoms in order to accept handouts from the federal government. They would rather be taken care of than take care of themselves.

The United States were a noble experiment in maximizing independence and individual liberty, but after a promising start, the experiment failed. The people have voted to give up everything their ancestors struggles, fought, and died for. We've come full circle, from giving up the comforts of being a subject in favor of independence to giving up that independence in favor of being subjects. Our history has demonstrated that the majority of people are not equipped to handle freedom, that they need and want to be taken care of, to be told what to do. Independence has always been the dream of a minority of people. Only a hardy few chose to leave Europe to find that freedom, and a generation later, only a few stood for independence from tyranny. Today, there are only a few who still believe that opportunity and independence are more important that safety and security, and those few risk arrest and retribution. We've come full circle, from rejecting a paternalistic tyrant in order to gain the freedom to excel, to rejecting freedom in favor of a maternalistic tyrant.

You can have freedom, or you can have security.

You can't have both. The freedom to achieve is also the freedom to fail, and bear the consequences of that failure. If you attempt to limit one side of the equation, you automatically limit the other side as well. As a nation, we;ve chosen security.

Our ancestors would be ashamed.

ADHD version: If you don't have the courage to stand for your convictions, then sit down and shut up.

There's a kerfluffle in the blogosphere right now concerning when it is ok to "out" an anonymous blogger. Apparently one righty blogger got mad at a pseudonymous lefty blogger and outed him. Now there's quite a bit of blowback coming at the exposer for exposing the exposee, leading to the question, should bloggers who blog anonymously be subject to outing and when?

First of all, as my buddy SayUncle would say, there's a huge difference between blogging under a pseudonym and blogging anonymously. Those who use a consistent pseudonym create an identity that is recognizable, and to a certain extent accountable. Total anonymity, on the other hand, has no accountability at all, as you can easily verify be reading the comments section of your favorite newspaper website. Cowards hide beneath the blanket of anonymity and say things that they wouldn't have the nerve to say to your face.

However, there's still a problem with blogging under a pseudonym. At least there is for me. There are two reasons that I blog under my own name. First off, I want to be held accountable for everything I write, good or bad. As anybody who has read me for any length of time knows, I can get intense from time to time. Knowing that my mother will read whatever I write, along with future employers, keeps a check on me whenever I start to go a little bit too far. There are some who believe that I haven't held back enough, that I've crossed the line a time or twelve, and I'm sure I have. But when I'm called on it, if I agree that I've gone to far, I apologize. If I disagree, I explain why, and politely confirm my original opinion. The point is that I am constantly aware that what I put up on this blog, or what I write in comments on other blogs gives people a reflection of my character, and I want it to be as true a reflection as I can manage.

There are other bloggers who prefer to do the opposite. They create a character when they blog, and use that character to say or do things they aren't willing to do in the real world. They fear repercussions from work or family, or from society in general and so they hide their blogging behind a pseudonym. In some cases, it's because they are acting out, adopting language and attitudes that they know are unacceptable in polite society. In others, it's because they are acting out adolescent fantasies of "sticking it to the man," or "speaking truth to power" when in real life, they may or may not believe the rhetoric they spew; they just like causing a ruckus. And others hold opinions that they suspect, and usually accurately, would get them into trouble, whether at work or with family/friends and while they want to follow the cardinal rule of never discussing politics, sex, or religion, they simply can't. They have to express their opinion, and blogging under a pseudonym allows them to do so without suffering the usual social repercussions. The final category is the true revolutionary. He holds views that he knows would get him singled out for repercussions and he must communicate anonymously or he could be killed, jailed, or audited by the IRS.

I hate to break it to you, but no US blogger falls into the last category. At least, not yet.

And that's the second reason I blog under my own name. I believe that if you're going to climb up on a soapbox and start sounding off, you should have the courage to do so under your own name, regardless of the potential repercussions. I know other bloggers feel differently about it, and that's cool; they have to look at themselves in the mirror everyday. For me, it just isn't an option. I hold beliefs that some people are reprehensible. They look down on me for them, but that's cool too. My beliefs are what make me who I am and I have no intention of changing who I am for anybody, and I'm not going to hide who I am in order to get along with anybody.

I'm a Biblical Christian. I believe in the God of the Bible, not some kindly grandfather in the sky who will love us no matter what we do to Him. His name is God, not Santa Claus. Islam is not the religion of peace, no matter how many heads they cut off trying to prove it. Islam has as its goal the submission of every human being on the planet, through proselytization if possible, but by force if necessary. Read the Qu'ran if you don't believe me. I believe President Obama is the culmination of a decades long effort to turn American citizens into American subjects. I'm Pro-Life and anti-death penalty. I'm for ending welfare as a life choice and for ending the war on drugs. I believe in a small government that needs to get its nose out of my business and its hand out of my pocket. I believe gays have every right to a state marriage and that homosexual activity is a sin. I strongly support the US Constitution as written, not as interpreted, and that includes the Bill of Rights, particularly the 2nd. I believe that the wall of separation is not a one way wall, but that it protects religion from the state even more than it does the state from religion. I believe men and women are not the same, that their biology makes each excel in different areas, and that sometimes, the best man for the job is a man. I believe that no matter what surgery you've had, a man is a man and a woman is a woman. I believe that evolution as a scientific theory has some major holes that need filling, but Intelligent Design is even worse. Global Warming, or "Climate Change" as we're supposed to call it now, is one of the most overly hyped con jobs ever played on a gullible populace, and that the majority of warming we've experienced is due to solar activity, not greenhouse gas emissions. If Al Gore, the patron saint of global warming, really believed the crap he was peddling, don't you think he might turn off a light or two at home? Or maybe take the bus instead of the Gulfstream? The guy is the biggest hypocrite on the planet right now, and that's the really inconvenient truth. Energy independence is vital to our nation's survival, which means it's way too important to trust to fairy tales like "the hydrogen economy," fuel cells, or any of the other alternative energy sources that are years if not decades away from being practical. We need nuke plants to power the grid, distributed solar, passive and PV, for our homes to reduce the load on the grid, and to develop domestic oil supplies, even the hard to get at ones. I'm first a Christian, then a father and husband, then a Tennessean, and only then an American.

Read the above list. There's something there to offend just about everyone on the planet. Which part should I hide?

This is who I am folks, and if I feel like I have to hide behind a false identity to say what I believe, then what I'm really saying is that I'm ashamed who I am. That means that I'm more concerned over how I will look to people than whether I'm right or not, and that's backwards. I'd rather be honest than fashionable.

But too annoying to leave in the main block

The Blue Man Group show rocks, but La Nouba will blow you away!

Of the 4 Disney parks, I rank them as follows:

Magic Kingdom
Animal Kingdom
Disney Hollywood
Epcot

This surprised me, because I have some very good memories of Epcot Center 25 years ago. Then it was informative and fun. Now it's preachy and less fun. The Animal Kingdom and Hollywood both get star marks for their attention to detail and execution of their themes. It was fun just walking around in those two parks; the rides were almost a bonus.

I'll have more details later, but now its time to return to the honeymoon.

PS: If pictures of me in mouse ears appear on the internet, do not believe them. They are poorly photoshopped fakes.

Nope.

It's all in how you look at things.

We had a couple of family crises today; nobody is sick or in any danger, just family members going through difficult circumstances. But it is times like these when you find out just how blessed you really are.

My family and my friends came through for me in every way that I could have wished for and then some. Without question, without condition, they answered my call for help.

That is a true blessing, and one that I thank God for every day.

I love music of all types so when I heard through Frank Murphy that the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra was conducting their second annual blogger's night, I quickly signed up.

Now I already have a bit of a reputation as a know-it-all, so I'm not going to make it worse by going into detail about the pieces played and comparing the Baroque period to the Romantic or any of that stuff. I'm much simpler in my approach to music. It has to have a melody, and harmony. I can appreciate the technical merits of some of the more modern works, but they really don't do anything for me emotionally. That's why I was very happy that last night's program included J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concerto #3.

One of the first albums I ever bought was Wendy Carlos' Switched on Bach, where she played several Bach compositions on a Moog synthesizer. Now for all you youngsters, playing a synth back then was a much different process than it is today. The Moog synthesizer was an analog machine, not digital, so while it was much more versatile, it was also much more difficult to use. Sounds were created by physically connecting modules together that worked to modify a base tone. Each module could be tuned to vary its effect on the base tone, and it could take hours of connecting and tuning modules to develop the correct sound. Once the artist created the sound, she recorded that track, and then had to start all over for the next one. Carlos built up her performances one track at a time, but the result was astounding. Each and every note was crystal clear, existing in its own space, yet blending together to form a coherent whole.

I was hooked.

I next went out and got a Berlin Philharmonic recording of the Brandenburgs and my record collection began to grow.

Last night I got to hear the 3rd Brandenburg performed live for the first time and it was amazing. 11 musicians playing 11 instruments, sometimes all playing different notes and lines, other times playing almost entirely in unison, yet always playing together.

And that was just the start of the concert.

Navah Perlman played next, performing the Mozart Piano Concerto #24. Ms. Perlman played beautifully and expressively, and it was easy to forget how demanding the piece was to play.

There was a reception after the concert, and Lissa and I got a chance to talk to Ms. Perlman and it was amazing to see just how normal she was. I know, that sounds kind of silly, but I've always thought of classical musicians as just a little bit different than the rest of us. After all, they have something special inside of them, something that allows them to focus their talents to an extent most of us could never understand, much less achieve, and using that talent, they produce art. So when you meet an accomplished person like Ms. Perlman, and you wind up talking about grocery stores and the perils of raising twins, it's a bit surreal.

And quite nice, actually.

The final piece of the night was Mendelssohn's Symphony #4, with its instantly recognizable first movement. Conductor Lucas Richman and the symphony got to play for a bit on the first movement, while the bass musicians had their turn in the second, playing a walking bass line that will be familiar to any blues lovers in the crowd.

It was a great evening of music, and reminds me of how much better music is when performed live. No recording can capture the energy of a live performance.

For all of you that don't think you'd like classical music, you should give it a shot. The KSO has a number of concert series that include something for every taste. The Masterworks Series presents major pieces, including some commissioned specifically for the KSO. The Pops Series usually feature the KSO along with a guest artist performing more popular music. If you're looking for a gentle introduction to orchestral music, this may be the way to go. And if you're into chamber music and smaller orchestra, like I am, then the Chamber Classics Series is right up your alley.

And if you're worried about how to conduct yourself properly while at the symphony, don't be. Just be polite, don't snore, and wait for somebody else to start the applause.

Easy.

As a final thought, you may have noticed that I've included a ton of links to the KSO website. That's because they have a very active website which is informative and easy to access. You can see who is coming, what they will be playing, and even preview some of the pieces. There's also a blog, and conductor Lucas Richman posts shortly before each concert to let people know what to expect, and give a little background into the pieces and why he selected them.

Finally, I'd like to thank Stephanie Burdette, who organized this whole thing and made sure we all felt welcome. It was a fantastic evening, and I look forward to the next one.

Let's talk about "Merry Christmas."

I'm not going to rant about the war on Christmas because it doesn't touch me. If shopkeepers want to go with the generic "Happy Holidays" to avoid charges of political incorrectness, or to avoid offending the habitually offended, that doesn't change my response to them, which is and always will be "Merry Christmas." Not because I'm trying to prove a point, but because that is the holiday that I am celebrating, and my wish is that they too will celebrate with me.

That's a very key point that I wish more of my brothers would remember and practice.

Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, God Among Us, who became flesh for us so that we could be reconciled with God. That's Christmas in a nutshell, and there's nothing that anybody can say or do that will change that, so why should I worry about it? Besides, the world has a long history of rejecting Christ; why should things be any different today? Just about everybody knows the words to John 3:16, even non Christians.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

But how many are familiar with John 3:19?

And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.

We are to walk in the world but we are not of the world. Saying "Merry Christmas," but meaning "I'm going to say this just because it's my right to say it, and you can't stop me, and I like to see that annoyed look on your face," is of the world. It's a lie because we aren't wishing them a Merry Christmas at all, and they are right to be offended. You should apologize for giving offense.

But if you can say Merry Christmas from the heart, truly wishing that the person you are addressing will enjoy the blessings of Christ, then if they are offended, all you need say is "I am sorry that you are offended," and move on. Their unbelief has no power to affect your belief.

So to all of my brothers and sisters, I wish you all the blessings of Christmas.

Well, it is Christmas, you know!

And to be perfectly frank, I see no reason to add to the Blagojevich fracas, Obama is still cementing his place in mediocrity, the housing and credit markets will continue to crash, the Fed will continue to print money like it's going out of style, because, well, it is.

In short, now is a perfect time to take a breath, catch up on chores, and spend some time with family and friends.

Don't worry, I still have pieces working, including finishing up my Bible discussion with Part 3, and an in depth look at the whole analog/digital divide as expressed in computers, along with a few other posts that I'm working on. But my style has always been to put together longer, well thought out posts, and it's difficult to just throw those together. They take time in large chunks, and all I get are splinters right now. While that works wonderfully for guys like Say Uncle and Instapundit, if I start writing when I have five free minutes, I look up an hour and a half later, which means I've lost 85 minutes of billable time that I have to make up somewhere else, usually at 2AM or something like that.

Starting January 1, I will begin posting daily again.

By the way, if any of you knows somebody looking for a freelance know it all, direct them here. I'd love to get paid for doing this, and if I can bill hours for writing like this, I can do more of it.