Back...Somewhat

Between vacation, recovery from said vacation, work, moving into a new apartment, and having little-to-no access to a computer (outside of work, of course), blogging has somehow fallen through the cracks in terms of "stuff to do". I'll try to rectify that in the coming weeks, as I'm in the process of getting a brand new Apple computer, as well as alot of household items, like garbage cans, furniture, lights, etc. That said, a quick breakdown of news, sports, music, and other "earth-shaking minutiae":

• Sometimes it is easy to forget how deeply Christian this nation is, but on my trip back from Cincinnati, I saw roadside billboards with Bible tracts at least five to six times per 200 miles. Living in NYC kind of gives one the impression that Christianity doesn't even exist, but it is encouraging that out in the "heartland" that there's still a strong faith in God. Five years ago I wouldn't have really paid it much mind, but 9/11 has changed my perspective on a number of things, not the least of which is our shared Judeo-Christian heritage here in America, and how important it is for us to remember who we are and how we got here. Bush has remarked that there is, perhaps, a "third Great Awakening" underway in this nation. Could be. And if there is, I'd say the Islamo-terrorist threat that is upon us is a primary reason why. If you care to find out about the history of "Great Awakenings" in the history of this nation, you can read about them here and here. Without these events, this nation would've never even materialized, much less seen the abolition of slavery, which was, for the most part, prompted by people the Left now scorns (i.e. evangelicals, as well as Christians of various other Protestant demonitions). Read about it here, here, and here.

• I'm a bit late to the party on this one, but former President Clinton's performance on Fox was quite an event. Many have speculated that his flip-out was contrived. I vehemently disagree. He may be quite an actor, but that was rage on his visage. He had to have known the question was coming, and he might've been champing at the bit to disgorge his pent-up rage, but I don't think his anger wasn't genuine; after all, the interview came about a week and a half after ABC's compelling Path to 9/11 docudrama, which didn't exactly paint Clinton's administration particularly well. The problem with Clinton is that, while I'm not a hater of the man, he's just plum full of sh*t. During his presidency, his prevarications didn't really bother me, because in the end, all politicians "gild the lilly" to some extent. But what Clinton fails to understand these days is that his canards can be easily disassembled through a mere click of a computer mouse. In the old days, one would have to go through a mountain of microfiche to check a politician's statements. But we're in the internet age, and Clinton's contentions don't stand up to scrutiny. Many bloggers and pundits have deconstructed Clinton's assertions for the last few weeks, so you can take it upon yourself to shop the internet for them; I'll not bore you with them given this circumstance. But Clinton's cowardice through the 90's, and his subsequenty efforts to re-write history has really made me reassess the man's presidency. I've written in the past that history unfolds years after the actual events. Things that seemed great at the time wind up looking awful years, or even decades later. Conversely, things that seemed awful at the time wind up looking much better through the prism of history. Lefties years back were fond of saying that Clinton left the White House with the highest approval rating of any exiting executive in history. Harry Truman left with perhaps the worst approval rating. In the end, who do you think history is going to favor?

• One of the more annoying sayings that people express is that "religion is responsible for all the killing and war through history." This is one of those insipid comments that people with no historical perspective make to make themselves sound smart and sophisticated. Of course, what these people always fail to take into account is the eighty years of slaughter that occurred at the hands of communists, who were atheists. I've had discussions with defenders of communism about this, and their default position is always that atheism is only an ancillary principle to the ideology. Nonsense. It is central to their ideology. To wit: "Our ancestors left us with the two most essential heritages, which are atheism and great unity", and "If we let all Chinese people listen to God and follow God, who will obediently listen to us [i.e. the CCP] and follow us?" These quotes were uttered by Chi Haotian, Secretary of Defense for the Red Chinese, in 2003. If you need to get an idea of what atheism, vis-a-vis communism, has cost the world in terms of human carnage, look at this graph.

• Recent concerts attended: Jeff Beck and (what's left of) The Who. To my mind, Jeff Beck smoked the venue, playing all of his greatest material (Led Boots, Star Cycle, Blue Wind, etc.) and brought out a band that absolutely rocked. My take on The Who is considerably less sanguine. Though I still love 'em (I saw them on the last tour with John Entwistle in 2000...a story in itself), I have to say that I didn't sense alot of energy coming off the stage. To me, the thrill is gone. I've resisted seeing them the last few tours since the passing of the great Entwistle on bass, and after having attended their show at Madison Square Garden, I have to say that I was probably right in resisting. Worth seeing, but only as a last hurrah.

• Well, the Yanks are in the playoff, as are the Mets. We might get another Subway Series here in NYC. Not exciting for the rest of the nation, but we dig 'em. Here's to hopin'!