Continue reading »]]>

Read this rather provocative piece in the Huffington Post today. If you don’t feel like reading the entire article, it basically discusses the guilt many have eating at Chick-Fil-A, knowing their politics skew to the Far Right, specifically on social issues.

On the one hand, I am a solid supporter of marriage equality, and I admit that I feel a bit guilty every time I order from Chick-Fil-A, knowing that they Chick-Fil-A, Inc. might fund political causes I abhor. Personally, I don’t contribute to anyone directly, or indirectly, who might fund anti-marriage or anti-choice campaigns. As The Beatles said, “But when you want money for people with minds that hate, all I can tell is brother you have to wait.”

There’s another part of me that finds boycotts foolish. Last summer, I exposed the idiocy of some Leftist Mothers who were trying to organize a boycott of Thomas the Train. In that piece, I point out the fallacy behind some of the conservative, Calvinistic boycotts of the 90′s.

So what’s an equality loving guy to do about Chick-Fil-A? Clearly, if their corporate personhood is donating to anti-marriage causes its shameful and should be widely publicized for all to know, but at what point does a boycott become warranted? I’m still conflicted.

Thankfully, I haven’t really craved Chick-Fil-A in a while, so I haven’t had to wrestle with the question.

Continue reading »]]>  

The Dallas Underground Walkway system is finally getting some signage.

Working in downtown Dallas for the past 7+ years, I’ve grown quite familiar with the city’s underground tunnel network. Until recently, I felt like this was Dallas’ best kept secret. We need to make this place more walkable, but everyone knows that can be a bitch during the summer months. The tunnels and skybridges allow us to move about the city on foot, without dealing with the heat and humidity.

For whatever reason, not all Dallas-ites share my love for the tunnels. The Dallas Observer has done a great job on chronicling the city’s discussion on what to do with the tunnels, including a ton of dissenting opinion Do yourself a favor and dig into it a bit deeper–truly fascinating stuff.

My only complaint about the tunnel system has been the lack of signage indicating where the tunnel systems are located and a lack of a proper mapping system. Well, it know appears both of those issues have been resolved.

I took the above photo this morning outside the Renaissance Tower parking garage. It’s the first official marking I’ve seen for the Dallas Underground System.

Also, I found this link to a map of the Dallas underground.

Continue reading »]]> Tonight, my office hosted a summer picnic of sorts at the Dallas Arboretum, which included passes to the “Chihuly Nights” exhibit. As someone not familiar with the work of Dale Chihuly, I had very low expectations for the exhibit, but came away, as I often do at the arboretum, very impressed. Below are just a few of the pieces on display. If you live in the Dallas area, or plan on visiting anytime between now and November 2012, I highly recommend a stop by the Dallas Arboretum for a look.

Continue reading »]]> (This is the first of ten part series exploring the “Top 100 Albums of All Time.” For more on the idea behind the series, and the formula used for developing the list, please read the introductory piece.)

100.) Use Your Illusion II

Guns N’ Roses

Geffen; 1991

Geoausch Score: 3.64

Cultural Score: 4.0

Cumulative Score: 3.76

We start the countdown in 1991, a year we will continue to visit throughout the countdown. Among the albums released that year, none were more eagerly anticipated than the Use Your Illusion combo put out by Guns N’ Roses. Of the two, Use Your Illusion II is a far superior album. “Civil War,” the almost 8 minute long epic, kicks off the album and shows a more socially conscious side of a band known for being about “sex , drugs & rock n’ roll.” The song also happens to be the last GnR song to feature the work of Steven Adler on drums. “You Could Be Mine,” the first single off the album, captures the classic GnR sound, with wailing Slash riffs and the pounding Duff McKagan bass line. However, it is the hidden jewels like “Get in the Ring” and “Yesterdays,” as well as inspiring cover of Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door,” that really make this album stand out and helped it earn a spot in the “Top 100 Albums of All Time.”

99.) No Need to Argue

The Cranberries

Island; 1994

Geoausch Score: 3.90

Cultural Score: 3.5

Cumulative Score: 3.77

A few years ago, No Need to Argue probably doesn’t make this list, but that’s simply because I had never given the album much of a shot outside of “Zombie” and “Ode to My Family.” In all honesty, like many, I hadn’t given The Cranberries much thought at all since the mid 90′s. But then I began digitizing our music library, I rediscovered this album when going through my wife’s CDs. Since then, songs from No Need to Argue have consistently been a part of my daily playlists. Without a doubt, Dolores O’Riordan, both as lyricist and vocalist, makes the album. She penned songs unique to her own experiences and nailed them. While the album possesses a relatively low cultural impact score–there were much more influential albums being made during this time–it has a higher Geoausch score, thanks in part to the album’s cohesive nature. Politics, history, love and literature, No Need to Argue touches all the bases, leaving this listener completely satisfied.

98.) Red Headed Stranger

Willie Nelson

Columbia; 1975

Geoausch Score: 3.67

Cultural Score:  4.00

Cumulative Score: 3.78

Nashville country is a business built on selling radio singles, not albums. It should come as no surprise then that Willie Nelson, the most famous country artist to make a career out of rebelling against the Nashville machine, gave us country music’s only contribution to my “Top 100 Albums of All Time” list,  Red Headed Stranger. Recorded in 1975, Nelson had complete creative control on Stranger, and it serves a symbolic middle-finger to what Nashville is and was–without a doubt the most important album in the country cannon. Without it, there would be no outlaw country, no “Texas music” scene, and, arguably, no Americana genre that has produced many of the great singer-songwriters over the past 30+ years. As with most great albums, Stranger is best experienced as a whole, and not in pieces, which flies in the face of the conventional Nashville wisdom. Indeed, “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain,” a cover, might be the only familiar song to the casual music fan, but it’s the story the album tells, with its eternal themes of love, heart break, loss, grief and redemption that draw the listener in and makes me question whether or not Stranger deserves to be much higher up on my list.

97.) Energy

Operation Ivy

Lookout Records; 1989

Geoausch Score: 3.67

Cultural Score: 4.00

Cumulative Score: 3.78

Operation Ivy took The Clash and added a dash of California. This resulted in a punk renaissance that began in the San Francisco Bay, moved southward down the California coast line, and then spread like wildfire across the country during the 90’s. What Op Ivy did that was so amazing, and which Energy captures so perfectly, was to take the underlying themes of punk—suspicions of government, inevitable change, resistance of rules, self-sufficiency, individual freedom, etc.—and blended together with a more harmonic, more accessible brand of music than their predecessors. Listen closely and you will hear the sound that provided the blueprint for Green Day, Sublime, Goldfinger, Blink-182 and many others. If you’ve never experienced Energy in its entirety, I highly recommend picking up a copy and doing just that. However, if you’re looking for just the highlights, download “Knowledge,” “The Crowd,” and “Unity” and give them a go on your iPod. You will not be disappointed.

96. Ride the Lightning

Metallica

Megaforce/Elektra; 1984

Geoausch Score: 3.67

Cultural Score: 4.00

Cumulative score: 3.78

Certain songs are indeed timeless. Recently, I heard “For Whom the Bell Tolls” for the first time in years. From the pounding of the double-bass drums, to the opening bass and guitar riffs, it was as if I knew every beat of the song intimately, the product of having listened to the track countless times as a teen. The fact that a metal band would be inspired by Ernest Hemingway makes it even better, but Ride the Lightning is much more than simply “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” Indeed, it’s not even the best song on the album. That honor goes to “Fade to Black.” From top to bottom, Lightning is filled with tracks that will stay within your memory forever—and that my friend is a good thing.

95. Born in the USA

Bruce Springsteen

Columbia; 1984

Geoausch Score: 3.67

Cultural Score: 4.0

Cumulative Score: 3.78

1984 was a big year for me. I turned 6 the same year L.A. hosted the Olympics, the Karate Kid and Footloose were both released in their original incarnations, and Ronald Wilson Reagan won a second term as President of the United States. It also was the year Bruce Springsteen released Born in the USA, which would get a lot of airplay in the Ellis household over the next two years. While I celebrated these events, the reelection of Reagan no doubt  upset The Boss, and if you were to ask him, I’m sure he would tell you that Born in the USA was written, in part, as a repudiation of the policies of the Reagan Administration. This doesn’t take away from the overall beauty and power of the album.

94.)  Meat is Murder

The Smiths

Rough Trade; 1985

Geoausch Score: 3.70

Cultural Score: 4.00

Cumulative Score: 3.80

Before I was hip, I remember seeing a Smiths’ Greatest Hits CD in Sam Goody (circa 1993) and thinking, “The Smiths? Must be the most the most generic band ever.) I was 15, give me a break. I didn’t discover Morrissey and The Smiths until college and since then, it’s been complete infatuation. Meat is Murder served as my introduction and it continues to get massive play on my iPod. It contains The Smiths’ most commercially successful song, “How Soon is Now,” but there are many other, lesser known, gems as well, including, “That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore,” “What She Said,” and “Barbarism Begins at Home.”

93.) Off the Wall

Michael Jackson

Epic; 1979

Geoausch Score: 3.70

Cultural Score: 4.00

Cumulative Score: 3.80

Off the Wall signaled Michael Jackson’s evolution from Motown legend to pop superstar. You can think Quincy Jones for that. His influence is heard throughout the album and it serves as harbinger of what was to come over the next 20+ years. No longer was Michael a little kid singing for the Jackson 5, now he was his own man, making music for adults. Ironic, I know, but still a damn good album and more than worthy of the #93 spot on our countdown.

92.) Me Against the World

2Pac

Interscope; 1995

Geoausch Score: 3.47

Cultural Score: 4.5

Cumulative Score: 3.81

2Pac–the greatest rap artist the world has ever know–PERIOD. This is where it began–at least his mass market appeal. Prior to Me Against the World, Pac was known as more of a straight up “gangsta rapper,” but with the beat he dropped in this album, he began to move more towards the G-funk sound that defined most successful West Coast acts. Pac was always known as a master lyricist, but now he had the smooth beats to accompany it, helping it become a huge crossover success among fans of other genres.

91.) Disintegration

The Cure

Fiction; 1989

Geoausch Score: 3.75

Cultural Score: 4.00

Cumulative Score: 3.83

Break out the eyeliner and tease your hair, The Cure makes an appearance at #91. As a hardcore fan of The Cure, I have a difficult relationship with Disintegration. There are some great songs on the album–”Prayers for Rain,” “Fascination Street,” “Lullaby,” and “Love Song” to name a few–but these are overshadowed by the abomination that is “Pictures of You.” That song causes true fans of the band so much pain and heartache that’s it hard sometimes to listen to the album in its entirety. Even so, the good far outweigh the bad, and it is the bands most successful album commercially (thanks in large part to “Pictures of You” ).

Continue reading »]]> I regularly mourn the loss of music on this site. Some of my friends and critics argue I am too “old fashioned” and simply need to give some contemporary music a fair listen, but I firmly believe the quality of music being generated today, on both a mass market and independent level, falls well short of any period during the recording age. I could fill a book with theories on why music is in such a bad place, but one of my less controversial theories is the death of the album.

Truly the digitalization of music has been a double-edged sword. On one hand, we can download whatever songs we want, without having to download the entire album. This has put more emphasis on the “single” and as a result, it would seem that musicians spend less time perfecting the “album.” As a result, the overall quality of music has deteriorated over the past ten or twelve years.

Entertainers record songs; artists create albums.

As such, if we have any chance of rescuing popular music from the mire, it’s prudent to take a look at those albums that have had the greatest influence on music in the past. The Internet is full of “Top Albums of All Time” lists, most notably Rolling Stones “Top 500 Albums of All-Time.” I don’t have the resources to dedicate to determining my own personal 500 top albums, but I do have a simple–somewhat scientific–formula for determining the 100 albums I feel qualify as the “greatest of all time,” and starting Monday, May 14, 2012, I will begin a 10 part series where I unveil my “Top 100 Albums of All-Time.”

The process began with me formulating a list of approximately 300 albums I felt should be considered (live albums and anthologies excluded from consideration) and then sifting through each one, ranking every song, on every album, using the iTunes 1-5 star ranking system. An average ranking was determined for each album, which became the album’s “Geoausch score.” Additionally, a “cultural score” of 1 to 5 was assigned to each album based on the albums cultural impact. Since this is my list, the “Geoausch score” is weighted more heavily, accounting for 2/3 of the albums final average score, while the “cultural score” accounts for only a 1/3 of the final average. As such, my personal music tastes will bleed through from time to time, but you’ll find than in any list.

Feedback is encouraged, so come back on Monday when I unveil #100-91.

Continue reading »]]>  

I love realty TV.

No, not the philistine talent shows or voyeuristic dating and lifestyle shows that are synonymous with American culture, but rather those “scripted” shows that seek to capture a segment of American life.

During its tragically short run on TV, I constantly praised the show Friday Night Lights for taking the risk of portraying small-town Texas life accurately, resisting the temptation to resurrect the typical Texas stereotypes (see GCB). When I watch FNL, I see a true-to-life depiction of a life I knew intimately. Ironically, the show appealed more to the high-brow, coastal elites, than middle America, where people were presumably too busy watching Fox News.

I feel very much the same way about NBC’s Parenthood, which employs many of the same writers, producers & actors as FNL, but sets its stories in Berkeley. It is the “blue state” answer to FNL. While I certainly understand that life in the San Franciso Bay area might be different than life in Texas, I can still relate to the characters because, like the characters of FNL, they are mature, multi-dimensional individuals.

Then there’s Girls, HBO’s latest critically acclaimed show that gives us a peek at life for a group of bohemian, liberal arts grads slumming it in Brooklyn. Just as FNL, captured the world I grew up in, Girls captured my life in college, to a certain extent.

I would lie awake at night asking the million dollar question, what do you do with a B.A. in English?  The answer was rather obvious, you write the “Great American novel”, move to New York City and your life becomes the stuff of Woody Allen movies.

Since I wrote for an on-line publication and was involved with both Internet and terrestrial radio programs, I figured I could support myself with journalism until I signed the big book deal. Immediately, I began a search for positions in both New York and Los Angeles.  I responded to an ad from a “business journal” that was looking to start an Internet version of their print material, starting salary of $80,000.00.

Intrigued, I submitted my resume and immediately received a telephone call. They wanted to conduct a phone interview, at which point they told me they were a business journal for companies involved in the adult entertainment industry-a Wall Street Journal of porn and adult novelty items if you will.  While this adventure could have probably led to the HBO series, Guys, I decided it would be difficult to explain my job to my family, so I politely declined. moved to Dallas and grew up.

This is where the comparisons to the show and my life end.

In addition to never growing up, the girls in Girls have never experienced life outside their own bubble, which seems to be a case of art imitating life.

The four actresses that play the main characters in this series consist of daugthers of a rock star (Jemima Kirke, the daughter of Simon Kirke, drummer of Free), arguably America’s greatest living playwright (Zosia Mamet is the daughter of David Mamet), a famous anchorman (Allison Williams is the daughter of Brian Williams), and two New York City artists (show creator, writer and actress Lena Dunham). These girls have spent their entire lives segregated from real America, behind the guarded walls of exclusive private schools and colleges. Clearly, these are girls of “the 1%.”

To say they posses a myopic view of the world would be an extreme understatement, and much of the criticism levied against the show focuses on this very issue.

Earlier this week, Dunham made an appearance on NPR’s Fresh Air, where host Terry Gross asked her about the  show’s lack of diversity.

“I take the criticism very seriously,” Dunham said, “this show isn’t supposed to feel exclusionary. It’s supposed to feel honest, and it’s supposed to feel true to many aspects of my experience.”

What’s even more alarming than the fact this show represents “many aspects of [her] experience,” is that it represents the only world many “girls” (and presumably many “boys” as well) know. The 1%–those Northeastern elites raised by prep schools and nannies, fed through the Ivy League system and then spit out into their lily white world.

Indeed, some of the interview’s most awkward moments were when Dunham tried to expound upon this issue. “And this is a hard issue to speak to because all I want to do is sound sensitive and not say anything that will horrify anyone or make them feel isolated,” she said, “but I did write something that was super-specific to my experience, and I always want to avoid rendering an experience I can’t speak to accurately.”

She expounds:

Something I wanted to avoid was tokenism in casting. If I had one of the four girls, if for example, she was African-American, I feel like–not that the experience of an African-American girl and a white girl are drastically different, but there has to be specificity to that experience [that] I wasn’t able to speak to. I really wrote the show from a gut-level place, and each character was a piece of me or based on someone close to me.

In other words, the show has no minorities, because Dunham hasn’t spent much time around minorities. Instead, she’s spent her time with “the 1%,” talking through problems “in seminars at Oberlin,” critiquing the world, but never really experiencing it.

Perhaps that’s why she creates such shallow characters, especially when compared to FNL or Parenthood, where characters live for something greater than themselves. It’s hard to realize there’s something greater than one’s self, when one has such a limited worldview as Dunham, who up until this point in her career, seems to have avoided life’s rich pageant.

When viewed as a cautionary tale of millenials gone bad, Girls comes off as witty, sophisticated and groundbreaking TV. Unfortunately, I don’t think Dunham intends for Girls to be a cautionary tale–the critics don’t treat it as such–and instead it’s construed as a blueprint for the modern woman, which I find disheartening. Eventually, Dunham and her brood have to realize, Bleeker Street does not lead to Neverland.

Continue reading »]]> At first glance, you might not think my hometown–the tiny East Texas hamlet of Atlanta (pop. 5,745)–and my adopted hometown, the affluent Dallas enclave University Park, would have much in common, but believe it or not, living in the Park Cities affords residents many of the treats of small-town living.

I lived in the heart of downtown Atlanta (Texas), on the corner of Main and Louise Streets, for the first 18 years of my life. Even so, I enjoyed the comforts of tree-lined neighborhoods, in which my parents felt safe allowing my older sister and I to ride our bikes, rollerblade or generally roam about as we pleased.

In spite of being located directly in the center of one of the largest cities in America, Park Cities parents also feel safe letting their kids roam their tree-lined streets, which is extremely rare in this age of “Amber Alerts” and child GPS tracking units.

As the town’s only high school, Atlanta High School shaped the identity of Atlanta, the town, in ways most “city folks” wouldn’t understand. Walk into any business in Atlanta on a Friday in the fall and you’re bound to see employees sporting the school colors. Later that night, the entire town will converge of whatever venue might be hosting the Rabbit football team.

Not to mention,there are only two reasons someone outside of East Texas might know there is an “Atlanta” in Texas: 1.) they’re huge Ellen Degeneres fans and have heard her talk about her alma mater, or 2.) there familiar with the exploits of the school’s athletic department.

Similarly, the Highland Park School District plays a large roll in shaping the community identity of the Park Cities. Sure, the school has a high-profile athletic department–the Scots football team has recorded more victories in their history than any other school in the state (this is Texas) and has produced such names as Bobby Layne, Doak Walker, and Matt Stafford–but the school is also well known for being one of the top public high schools in the nation.

Needless, to say this generates a lot of pride in the community. Visit any business in the Park Cities and you will see posters lionizing HP students, whether they are on the football team, field hockey team, ultimate frisbee team, or even in the school chorale.

The Citizens Journal, Atlanta’s bi-weekly newspaper, serves as another source of great pride in the community. Hard to believe, but Atlanta (Texas) was once a 2 paper town, but the Atlanta Times folded long before even the Dallas Times Herald, and several other niche publications tried to enter the Cass County market, but the power of the Journal beat them all back into submission. The Journal will never win a Pulitzer and the Coastal Elites would no doubt scoff at the paper’s content, but then again, its greatness is much more esoteric, understood by any small town American whose community still supports a local paper.

For example, Wednesdays are the most anticipated day of the week in Atlanta (Texas), and not just because it’s prayer meeting night for the Baptists. No, Atlantians wait with bated breath for the Wednesday edition of the Citizens Journal, where you will find the Cass County Sheriff’s blotter and see how many people you know have been arrested.

This is in addition to the usual stories you can find in either the Wednesday or Saturday edition–stories about the latest fender benders in “the Loop,” see what’s shaking in the Cornett community or, if lucky, read about the heroic exploits of local law enforcement dealing with nuisance wildlife (the tale of a state trooper, three sheriff’s deputies, and a couple of city cops trying to get an unruly alligator off the highway come to mind).

Believe it or not, I believe most Parkies can appreciate the beauty of a small town newspaper like the Journal, because we have our own version in the Park Cities People. Recently I was surfing the PCP website and came across this screenshot of the latest print edition of the publication.

I can’t help but to think that if the good folks at Indian Hills Country Club (emphasis on country) in Atlanta were to stage a fireworks show on a Wednesday night in April, the good folks in the Indian Hills subdivision would be scared as well and a similar article would appear in the Citizens Journal.

Continue reading »]]> “War confounds me!”

That simple sentence begins the first piece ever posted to this blog, an essay I wrote in ENGL 3314 a few weeks after 9/11. I posted it here, and other blogs I ran prior to Geoausch, to remind me why I do this. For the first time in my life, I began to question many of my long-held political assumptions.This led me on quite the philosophical journey that continues to this day. Almost everything you read on Geoausch is a direct result of the careful introspection that occurred while writing that essay.

As far as I know, I was the only one in the ENGL 3314 class to take this position, and one of only a handful of students on the entire UT-Tyler campus to oppose military action as a response to the terrorist attacks. In laying out my opposition, I cited three points: “war will not prevent future attacks, this war is an attempt at an Eastern battle with a Western mindset, and the hypocrisy of returning violence for violence.”

Eleven years later, we could debate the semantics of my first point, but obviously the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan did not stop Al Qaeda from launching terrorist attacks in London, Madrid and other foreign ports-of-call. As a borderline pacifist, my third point still holds up as well, at least for me personally, but it’s the second point–the disastrous ramifications of trying to fight “an Eastern battle with a Western mindset”–I feel was the most prophetic.

I wrote,

Western civilizations recognize certain shared values. When a coalition enforces these values by might they become the standard, not so in the East. Extreme Muslims stand firm on their beliefs. They realize inevitable opposition threatens their survival and believe that the award of Allah awaits them if they die protecting the sacredness of their faith. Such devotion creates a stubborn warrior unyielding to reason. Resolution depends on reason. Thus, attacking Afghan people unleashes a vicious cycle of incessant violence.

Our brave soldiers overthrew the Taliban government years ago and U.S. special forces have taken out Osama bin Laden and other key figures in terrorist networks, yet the Taliban is poised to take back control in Afghanistan and it won’t be long until the few progressive reforms that have been made there are reversed. Indeed, radical forms of religions are impervious to bullets and bombs.

Look at Iraq.

One of the major selling points the Bush Administration used for military action in Iraq was the removal of Sadam Hussein, a move they said would free the oppressed Iraqi people. Instead, it appears we have forced the Iraqi people out of the frying pan and into the fire.

You see, in spite of being one the most evil, tyrannical dictators in modern history, Hussein did manage to control religious radicals within Iraq. His was a secular reign of terror born out of philistine lusts, not out of a fear of a divine mandate.

Iraq is now free from Hussein, but home to a much more common threat for the region.

Last month, the story of Iraqi “emo kids” and homosexuals, executed because of their lifestyles, began to surface in the mainstream press. I don’t doubt that Sadam was guilty of equally egregious offenses, but I thought we went into Iraq to end this sort of injustice.

While Sadam’s motives were purely secular, the motives for these latest killings appear to be born of religious fervor. According to this story on Gawker, “it all started last month when Iraq’s interior ministry declared “emo” to be “Satanism,” and demanded that a community police force end the trend for good.” Militants in the country heeded this call to arms and distributed literature demanding that the kids change their ways or else the “punishment of God will descend upon you.”

Nothing good is happening in Afghanistan either. We have way too many soldiers still on the ground and the frustration of a contracted war with no end game is beginning to take it’s toll on our service members, as evidenced by last month’s murder of 17 Afghan civilians by an American soldier.

During World War I and World War II, we engaged in conventional warfare against a defined enemy. While Mussolini, Hitler and Tojo exhibited a madness similar to that of religious extremists, their following was nothing more than a cult of personality, easily disposed of by simply cutting the head off the snake. The enemy we fight now cannot be defeated in the same manner.

More and more Americans are beginning to realize the mistakes made in the “war on terror.” A recent Washington Post/ABC News poll found that 66 % of Americans feel that the war in Afghanistan has not been worth fighting , and for the first time found a majority of Republicans joining this chorus.

Today, the United States, Iraq and Afghanistan are all arguably worse off than they were on September 10, 2011. yet the source of the problem has yet to be eradicated. Religious radicals continue to live on and threaten the freedoms of people in all corners of the globe. It doesn’t matter if we keep troops in Afghanistan for the next 100 years, it will not prevent this way of thought from surviving.

Hate to say I told you so, but until we try and deal with the source of the problem, something that will require us to pick up a book and put down our guns, the war on terror will continue to be an epic failure for all involved.

Continue reading »]]> For the first time in nearly fifteen years, I decided to observe Lent this season by engaging in a fast. I didn’t give up meat, sugar or caffeine, and I didn’t up give up TV, the Internet or anything designed to make me more holy or healthy. Instead, I wanted to see if I could go 40 days without commenting on any political issue, either through this blog, Facebook, Twitter, or other means.

Now for most, this might sound like a relatively easy task, but for me, someone who been politically active literally their entire life (I was kicked out of my first political rally in the 4th Grade), it proved to be one of the toughest tests of my life.

Complicating matters was the fact that this seemed to be one of the most politically charged 40 day periods since the late 60′s. Not only did it fall in the heart of primary season, but huge stories seemed to develop almost on a daily basis.

Rush Limbaugh went nuclear, the Supreme Court heard challenges to Affordable Care Act, and the “war on terrorism” continued to crumble. This does not even take into consideration the Trayvon Martin case, which turned political when conservatives rallied around the Florida law that allowed George Zimmerman to shoot Martin in cold-blood. Yet I remained silent on the politics of these and other matters.

There were many times when I typed a tweet fully out, had my finger on the “Post” button, but at the last second remembered my fast. There were several times when I read outlandish statements on Twitter and Facebook, from both the Left and the Right, and felt compelled to send a snarky response, but I refrained.

Oddly enough, my greatest temptation came last week, as our city fell in the cross-hairs of several destructive tornadoes. The producer of a local, now defunct, conservative radio show, and Rick Santorum supporter, posted on her Twitter feed that as destructive as the tornadoes were, they were nothing compared to what Romney would do if elected President. As shallow as it may sound, I understood the temptation Jesus felt while in the wilderness.

What did this whole experience teach me? For one, refraining from impulsive political commentary can be as tricky of a habit to break as smoking cigarettes. I tried quitting smoking three times unsuccessfully, before it finally stuck the fourth time. As you can tell from posts like this, I’ve tried unsuccessfully in the past to be a more disciplined political observer. Obviously, these attempts failed, but I hope to do a better job now that I’ve had 40 days of practice.

As such, I feel it prudent to launch a three-part, post-Lenten series, analyzing three of the big political events that played out during my 40 days of silence. We’ll begin by taking a look at the “war on terror” and just where we stand 10 years later.

Next, “Let’s Talk About Sex.” Our unwillingness to have an open dialogue about one of the most basic human needs and desires has reignited the culture wars in this country.

Finally, I’ll size up the 2012 Election.

I hope you’ll come back for each segment and join in the discussion. All feedback is welcome here.