Katie and I made a trip to Richmond this weekend to see Patrick before he goes out to sea for several months. We met at Maymont to make a stroll through the park. The scenery there is very lovely with a quite a variety. I posted the pictures from the trip on Flickr.
As we were planning to leave our car would not start because of the battery. Jake showed up and helped us jump start the car so we could get down the road. Jake was like Neal Cassady working on the side of the road as he removed the corrosion and jump started the car.
There has been a lot of dancing at the Democratic National Convention tonight.
Today was the first day of classes here at Liberty. While going through the syllabus to the large lecture group, we emphasize that students should not plagiarize. It seems John McCain could use a refresher in English 101.
If listening to McCain’s constant interjections of POW stories on Saturday night wasn’t painful enough, it appears he may have lifted his “cross in the dirt” story from Alexander Solzhenitsyn who was imprisoned in the Soviet Gulags. Solzhenitsyn’s story was published in 1973 and John McCain is even a fan of Solzhenitsyn having just published an article titled Solzhenitsyn at Work in the New York Sun.
This was on a night when when McCain more than likely violated the “Cone of Silence” when following up Barack Obama. If that was bad enough the way Warren was phrasing the questions to McCain was obviously different than the way he presented them to Obama, much more laughter and no warnings again stump speeches, though stump speeches composed most of McCain’s replies. The whole special was rather painful to watch as the crowd loved McCain even as he defined being rich at five million dollars. I was watching Rick Warren on CNN after the special and he simply dismissed the “$5 Million comment” as just an interview mistake and of course McCain didn’t mean it.
It’s horrifying to think the American people, or at least evangelicals, could fall for the same old thing in November.
Oh, I can’t believe McCain said that he would follow Osama Bin Laden to the “gates of Hell,” again! Such an awkward statement.
This weekend thousands of Christians will gather in Washington DC for The Call in an effort to pray for the end of Roe vs. Wade. The gathering is an obvious sign that abortion is still a very important issue to evangelicals. While I do think abortion is a morally reprehensible practice, I do not believe that repealing Roe vs. Wade or creating any act of legislation banning abortion is the solution to the problem and it seems that this opinion is growing among evangelicals.
The Democratic Party is taking steps toward being pro-life without repealing Roe vs. Wade. In a recent article Jim Wallis reveals that while the Democratic Party still upholds Roe vs. Wade they have now included that they “also strongly supports access to comprehensive affordable family planning services and age-appropriate sex education which empower people to make informed choices and live healthy lives. We also recognize that such health care and education help reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and thereby also reduce the need for abortions.” This is such an important stance in actually having a real chance in reducing the number of abortions in America. It is also a stance that the Bush administration has chosen to ignore. Even recently the administration has sought to label the birth control pill as an abortifacient chemical, a fact which is circulated by pro-life groups such as Dobson’s Focus on the Family even though there are not test proving this.
J. Christopher LaTondresse points out the major factor in whether a woman has an abortion is, “[a]side from age (the abortion rate is highest among girls under the age of 15) the most predictable indicator of whether or not a woman will have an abortion is her income level and ethnic background.” Evangelicals are finally recognizing this truth and speaking out on it. Steve Waldman on Beliefnet notes that “with eight years of Bush the abortion rates have not declined. Every indication is that with financial support and different forms of supporting pregnant mother and then some post birth help also we could come close to 50% reduction in abortions.” The Republican party has not produced in results in reducing the number of abortions.
John McCain is not helping the image of the Republicans as the pro-life party, just this week he insisted that Tom Ridge’s pro-choice stance does not eliminate him from the VP runnings.
It would also be nice if the promo video for The Call did not insist that thousands must die in retribution for homosexuality and porn.
We made another backpacking trip this week; this time we traveled on a loop. It was nice to return on a different route than going out. The trail led to two very nice overlooks. It was a moderate trail, but was rather comfortable as much of the climbing was over with after the beginning. The terrain was rather rocky at points, but would then open up to fields that looked like they were from a much older world.
I’m not sure when we will be going on another trip. It would certainly be nice to see the fall foliage if it’s not too cold.
Classes start on Monday. I’m nervous about the parking situation on campus.
We made a backpacking trip to the James River Face Wilderness on the Appalachian Trail last Friday, which Katie writes about on her blog. I try not to be too repetitive between the two blogs.
The woods do that to you, they always look familiar, long lost, like the face of a long-dead relative, like an old dream, like a piece of forgotten song drifting across the water, most of all like golden eternities of past childhood or past manhood and all the living and the dying and the heartbreak that went on a million years ago and the clouds as they pass overhead seem to testify (by their own lonesome familiarity) to this feeling.
– Jack Kerouac, Dharma Bums (61-2)
Katie and I were able to escape to the mountains for a quick backpacking excursion on the Appalachian Trail on Sunday. It was a nice conclusion to two weeks of working overtime. J-Crew has been offering incentives for the past couple of weeks–I believe in response to the disaster with the upgrade–for any time beyond your normal hours. Some of the incentives are gimmicky, like tickets to Kings Dominion–that is, if you take a bus chartered by them–to more enticing ones, such as $40 gas cards for every extra eight hours, which caught our attention. Not to mention time and half for all hours above your normal hours.
We set off Sunday morning to journey into St. Mary’s Wilderness, but decided that was a bad idea about mid-way down the fire/service road that led to the trail head. I guess the Golf just isn’t made for rough terrain no matter how much VW portrays their customers as being more adventurous than the rest. The random scraping of rocks beneath us just seemed too hazardous.
We turned around and retraced our steps on the Blue Ridge Parkway, stopping to take pictures on the side of the road overlooking a Christmas tree farm. We parked in an AT parking lot and started up the trail into the Priest Wilderness. The trail was mostly a climb with a lot of switchbacks, but provided a nice, remote feeling. It was nice to not hear the roar of cars as we slept, instead the almost deafening sound of insects, frogs, and a mystery animal that sounded like a moose. I think it’s a very good thing to get away from society by going into the wilderness. I’ve recently felt inspired by Kerouac in Dharma Bums as he emphasizes this necessity and I then found affirmation even more as I recalled in scripture that Jesus went into the wilderness alone for reflection.
I’ve spent most of the summer feeling anxious about my thesis topic, which I will need to start compiling by October. My topic is the influence of the Blues on Beat literature. I just kind of pulled the topic out of thin air because I was enjoying reading Kerouac at the time and was writing a paper on signifying in the Blues for African American Lit. I was beginning to worry that there was no influence or only a scarce connection, but then I finally started reading some of the many books I’ve had from interlibrary loan. There seems to be tons of connections, such as the fact that Kerouac was mentored by a one-eyed jazz musician while he was at sea. Kerouac and Ginsberg are constantly referencing Charlie Parker to explain their thoughts on art. Norman Mailer even wrote a book titled The White Negro, in which he says that the hipster should adopt the customs of African Americans.
I really enjoy watching Anthony Bourdain, especially tonights episode. I had no idea that Uruguay was so amazing. I feel like stuffing my backpack full of belongings and traveling. I want to travel to the land of Martin Fierro the gaucho and have a good time. Uruguay reminds of the rural South, but a touch more exotic. I had a professor at TCC for Span 201 who was from Uruguay. She ended up spending most of the semester in Uruguay because her father was ill. It was the only Spanish class that I received a B in. She was a really nice lady.
I finally found these things at Target. I think it has been at least a year since I last saw them in a store. They for some reason are way better than the actual Morning Star Corn Dogs, which are quite ubiquitous.
I’m so sick of hearing about the media’s bias toward Barack Obama. I just don’t get it when at the very same moment NBC is caught splicing McCain’s answers so that he responds with a scathing attack on Obama’s patriotism and Fox News is caught showing footage from McCain’s 2000 campaign events to make him look younger.
Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison endorses Barack Obama.
Who did the mysterious voice belong to that aided Romney in the Republican debate? The Angel Moroni?
Last.fm offers free music. They were able to make a deal with EMI, Sony BMG, Universal and Warner to allow free streaming of entire albums by paying them. More details on their blog
