Making It Up As They Go Along

Do Americans really take themselves seriously? Does anyone believe that the unmitigated stream of lunatic issues that go on in this country are of any value on any level to any society for any reason. I have never observed nor even heard of so much bullshit and arrogant stupidity passing for ligitimate debate, while all we accomplish is to avoid resolving the real issues while we waste what appears to be an inexhaustible amount of time and resources.

I am convinced that these men who conceived, drafted and wrote the constitution by which America manages itself would be struck with disbelief and outright fear to see how their masterpiece of governance has been twisted and bastardized by thieves, hoodlums, charlatans and just plain idiots and yes, that includes the Supreme Court. It just may be time to overthrow this government. America needs to be in the hands of the US military. The subversives, freaks and malcontents need to be jailed or executed and the country needs to be returned to basic simplicity.

America has essentially become the world's shopping center and along with that status, a magnet for every creep and misfit that nobody else in the world wants. Whatever material goods the world wants can be found, bought, sold, or traded in the United States. Just about the only absolute value left in this country is cash, everything else can be compromised through the amazing ambiguity of the law, something again available to those with cash.

Slobs and psueda-intellectuals like Michael Moore become cultural heros. I can't go on any more. I about to be sick.

Podcasting, Blogging and Vox Populi

While I've had a sense of Blogging for a while now, I have recently started to become acquainted with Podcasting. Both mediums seem to offer outlets for communicating just about anything one might wish to share with others or even just externalize without having a particular interest in the receiver. Such is the case with my interest in these mediums. While it is intriguing to think that another person may read my Blog or listen to my Podcast when I finally produce one, the main interest for me at present is to become familiar with these communication vehicles and use them as a means of expression for my own benefit. Writing has always helped me to sort my thoughts out on a particular topic or general subject area. I've started countless journals, written scores of letters and even tried my hand at short stories for a while. All of these forms of communication have had an organizing yet liberating sense about them and have helped me to understand my thinking better. I can't imagine that Blogging and Podcasting wouldn't provide a similar sense of liberation and empowerment for others as well.

I need to learn more about Blogging and about Podcasting. I do hit the internet for long periods of time looking for blogs and reading them. I want to learn from others who have journeyed this way already. There are some really good Blogs out there based on their ability to attract and hold my attention, but I still would have trouble articulating just what makes a good Blog or a good Podcast. I'm sure there is criteria for either or both I just haven't found it yet.

Funny thing, I have become lax in my faith over the last few years. Catholicism has been my conduit to a system of logic and rationale about the world we live in. Any number of real world events have disturbed that system which worked so well prior to 1969. I have never stopped trying to find that order, but unfortunately for me it has remained elusive. Now what does this have to do with Blogging and Podcasting? Well simply enough, I have found several Blogs and Podcast subscription sites that have had a truly interesting effect on my thinking. The Blog of note is by a fellow named John Willcott and he is a tour guide in the North of Ireland. One Podcast I like is by a Dutch priest and another is by a husband and his crazy wife. The first is called Catholic Insider and the later the Rosary Army. These are not high gloss, polished professional broadcasts. They are however quality shows and the content is well organized, but they are the insights and thoughts of the people who might live next door or work with you. Listening to these shows amongst a few others has done more in a short time to set me on the right path to my grail than anything offered by the Catholic Church in over 35 years.

Subscribe to Catholic Insider by clicking on http://www.sqpn.com/scripts/index_sqpn.php . Father Roderick is the kind of person that I would like to know. He is fun to listen to and he has such an appetite for life that it is contagious. There are really two Podcasts of interest to me by Father Roderick. The first is the Catholic Insider which presents shows largely centered on Father's travels. One show of note is his tour of the Cliffs of Moher. I love the Cliffs and feel like I am seeing them for the first time each time I visit. Father's Podcast allowed me to tour the Cliffs from my office chair in Florida and I felt like I was walking beside him. His second Podcast is called the Daily Breakfast. This is a morning oriented show that covers a myriad of topics, but is always interesting and always presented with enthusiasm. I find myself looking forward to these Podcasts because they make me feel good about my day and Father throws in just enough Catholicism so that I am sensitized without being saturated. I can't think of one commercial broadcaster that I would rather listen to over and above Father Roderick. Give his Podcasts a try. You won't be disappointed.

The other Podcast I like is called the Rosary Army and you can link there by going to their website at http://www.rosaryarmy.com/ . If you like the site you can also subscribe to Greg and Jennifer's Podcast right from the website. These are people who have just woven Catholicism into their daily lives, which is what it is all about really. I've taken a small except from their website as a sample of what these folks are about:

"Since Rosary Army was founded in 2003, thousands of free, all-twine, knotted Rosaries have been distributed around the world to anyone who requests one from our website.

We've made custom Rosaries for disabled people, sent bundles of Rosaries free of charge to Catholic college students making missions to foreign countries, and provided Rosaries for soldiers, patients, religious orders, and lay people. Our Rosaries have been sent to all fifty of the United States as well as Malaysia, Africa, South America, Europe, India, Haiti, Iraq, and elsewhere.

More importantly, we’ve taught others how to do the same thing. Our Rosary-making workshops, online videos and instructions have taught hundreds of people how easy it is to make these types of Rosaries to freely give away to others.

Our goal is to remove every obstacle a person may have to praying the Rosary, including giving them a free Rosary of their own. We do this by living by our motto: Make Them. Pray Them. Give Them Away. "

So to close this latest Blogthought, Podcasting and Blogs offer people of standard means the opportunity to share their thoughts and provide unpolished insight to a wide variety of subjects. I for one hope to take advantage of this technology and concurrently leran more about myself.

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam

A Long Way Down The Road

Hard to believe how much time has passed since the last time I've been out here to write something. I could have sworn its only been a few weeks. Actually I knew it was a bit longer than that but honestly not much longer. It has been five months. A lot of life happens in five months. I'm back from Ireland, taken several trips for business to New York, Washington DC and Indianapolis, had Christmas with my family and celebrated another New Year. I've come to really love Christmas and appreciate it for all its meanings and its vast potential to bring the best out in people. In January I was able to get together with a couple of my brothers and off we went to Oklahoma to relax and do a little fishing. Well sometime in between fishing and day dreaming we bought a cabin. It is beautiful. I would like to just pack everything in and move there now to spend the rest of my life, but alas...that is simply not possible right now. Never-the-less...what a great adventure. Take a look at this cabin. How beautiful is this? My brother Greg and I have talked on and off for years about having a cabin that we could get away to and just enjoy ourselves. Not pressure, no rules. Well now it's ours. My wife is very excited too...in a good way. I was very happy and also very surprised that she was so supportive. It is probably never a good idea to go out and make such a big purchase without really talking it over with your loved ones...but what the heck, it all worked out and now we all have a place to call get-a-away.

Oklahoma is an interesting story, at least for me it is. While growing up in New York the few thoughts I had of Oklahoma were incredibly unflattering. My visual was taken from a Steinbeck novel and everything I ever heard about Oklahoma in later years seemed to support this drab perception of the 46th State of the Union that I had propagated. I had pictured dry arrid flatland checkered with dirty little towns and populated predominately by toothless rednecks and drunken Indians. Well indeed there is some of that, but it is certainly the exception and not the rule. I am blown away at what a very cool place Oklahoma appears to be. This State has an abundance of interesting attractions and if I wasn't so ignorant, a little research would have shown me that some of America's most notable people are from the Sooner State. To name a few:

Johnny Bench; Garth Brooks; Gordon Cooper; Ralph Ellison; James Garner; Vince Gill; Woodrow Wilson; Woody Guthrie; Paul Harvey;Van Heflin; Ron Howard; Ben Johnson Jennifer Jones; Jeane Kirkpatrick; Mickey Mantle; Reba McEntire; Bill Moyers; Daniel Patrick Moynihan; Patti Page; Brad Pitt; Tony Randall; Oral Roberts; Dale Robertson; Will Rogers; Dan Rowan; Jim Thorpe; Jeanne Tripplehorn; and Ted Shackleford.

I am very pleased to now own a little piece of this State and I look forward to becoming more familar with the places and people of Oklahoma. Dennis, the man who we bought the cabin from introduced us to his wife who was a very interesting and lively person. She, along with several of her friends, is starting up a new business named "Girls Gone Wine". If you like wine, appreciate enterprising entrepreneurs and are interested in learning more about their ventue you can go out to their website at: http://www.thegirlsgonewine.com/ .

We had a great time while we were out there in Oklahoma. Grown men outdoors, running through the woods, fishing all day long then heading in at night pleasantly exhausted. Still enough energy to throw together a dinner of bar-b-qued franks, burgers and beans. The evenings would come to a close by all freely drinking good strong Irish Whisky and telling Irish Ghost stories by the light of a wood burning stove. Does life get any better I ask you? The photo at the left should capture that atmosphere. It does for me at any rate. Greg took this picture with an Olympus Digital Camera. He is just getting into the camera and, I think, discovering what a good piece of equipment it is. I love these moments. We are building a relationshiop in our adult lives that we necessarily put on hold to raise our families. Our kids are all pretty well grown up and it is our time again. We are now and will always be there for our kids when they need us. We did a good job raising them. They are pretty independent, self sufficient for the most part, and just plain good, decent people. I'm as proud of my nephews and nieces as I am of my own kids. This is all good, but I for one, love just being "the brothers" again.

It is my hope that future months will bring opportunities to spend more and more time with my brothers, spend more time at the cabin until eventually I can spend all my time at the cabin with them nearby.