marktintexas

The sky, bright as yesterday, is tinged with hope in its clarity.

An aura not quite perceptible permeates this fall day. 

What could not have been imagined has come to be, yet I am sad. 

The universe gives with one hand and takes with another.

The wind blows the dead leaves of yesterday toward a new tomorrow.

What will come with this new wind?

YEAH!

Here is yet another video my father has passed on to me to evaluate.  At least I know he approaches these with a little bit of skepticism..... a tiny, tiny bit.....  These attacks are a sure sign of desperation and we all know that won't work again.  Watch it and be angry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA6_k3NtXZs

I find myself daydreaming about snow skiing over and over.  I need some mountains! and snow!..... and skiing!

wondering if the Republicans are going to cause another Great Depression.......  Not very happy about the vote.  Wouldn't it be nice to stop playing politics and ideological games?  just for a little while?    please?

Dad, let’s take it issue by issue. 

 

Offshore drilling can not possibly make a long term difference in our global supply of fossil fuels.  The amount of possible fuel to be found off or near US shores is statistically tiny compared to the scope of what the world uses.  Fossil fuels also are causing global warming and has been proven through numerous studies despite Republican tactics to dissuade people from believing scientifically proven facts.  Also, we know that fossil fuels are limited so therefore are not as important to long term energy development anyway.  This is not a real solution, offshore drilling is a pandering tactic to help people think they MIGHT pay less at the pump.  It also is probably of great benefit to oil companies which have invested not nearly enough in alternative energy sources. 

 

Will appoint judges who interpret the law……   This is clearly right wing propaganda.  As an oppressed minority, I believe in protection from majority rule at times.  Sometimes judges need to intervene.   Generally judges interpret the law all the time.  Sometimes that has consequences like gay marriage now being legal in California-which is all for fairness and justice in my mind.  Thank goodness for judges like that! 

 

Served in the armed forces…. Irrelevant for being president.  Numerous presidents of the past have not been veterans.  This is not to devalue the service of veterans, but it is not a qualification nor does it enhance one’s qualification for the presidency in my mind.  There are numerous ways to serve our society and country- being in the army is not the only worthy one. 

 

Amount of time served in the Senate.  This is in some ways to McCain’s advantage and in others not.  I seek change from the governmental ways of the past.  McCain’s service is impressive, and of all Republican’s certainly the one I like the most.  However, he has been as much a part of the problem of Washington as a solution.  I think change is more likely to come from less of a government insider, but I welcome McCain general approach of reaching across party lines and being a reformer.  He has apparently abandoned many of the attributes in his quest to attract more of the right wing. 

 

Will institutionalize health care.  This is an oversimplified depiction.  At any rate, YOU and I already pay for the uninsured through astoundingly high premiums and stupefyingly large medical bills.  As a society, it is best for us to keep our entire society healthy.  I think this is a simple social contract that does not need to be “socialized medicine.”  Barack Obama favors increasing coverage for up to 95% of Americans, but utilizes a system largely like the one we have in place.  Feel free to delve into this issue in more depth if you like.  As a Christian, it should be second nature to look after your fellow man though.  This is truly one of the most odd criticisms of the religious right.  The change in your service received under Obama’s plan would be none or negligible.  With somewhere near 40 milliion Americans uninsured, someone needs a plan.   That is unacceptable in a first world country. 

 

Supports abortion throughout pregnancy.    Again propagandistic, designed to illicit the most anger and fear.  Generally, those who support reproductive rights, don’t actually support abortion per se, they support a woman’s right to choose which I am completely for.  The important fear producing detail is the “throughout a pregnancy” and I believe that Obama would allow it only up to the third trimester.  We can all agree that we would like to lower the number of unwanted pregnancies and Obama articulated this consensus building point in his acceptance speech last week.  I’m SO tired of these divisive tactics from Republicans.  At least Obama is offering “third-way” compromise strategies that might make progress on social issues in a way we can all agree on rather than sending us into separate corners of “I’m right, you’re wrong and I’m going to get my way with the other 49%  of people who agree with me.”  --- not likely

 

Would support an immediate troop pull out.   I defy you to find this in any of Obama’s writings or speeches.  Any President will remove the troops in a sensible manner.  By the way, the Iraqis WANT us to leave anyway!

 

Gun ownership rights.  I don’t believe that Obama has suggested anything about repealing gun ownership rights, but there are surely way too many guns in America.  We have more gun violence per capita than any other first world country in the world.  Perhaps limiting access to guns through history checks or something else isn’t such a bad idea-  however that Is my own personal feeling and not near an important enough issue for me to have researched Obama’s position, however I doubt that you would find any statement of his regarding this issue to be anything but a reasonable analysis. 

 

Supports homosexual marriage.  Well as you can imagine, I CERTAINLY DO!  However, Obama record on this is a support for civil unions and not technically marriage.  Personally I think this is a cop out.  I don’t like being regarded as a second class citizen regardless of yours or anyone’s else’s religious upbringing and beliefs.  This is of course another hot-button issue for the Christian Right which is barely either Christian with its posturing of hate nor right as in correct.  This is of course red meat for rural voters who don’t like “different” people never realizing that they probably know or are related to a homosexual somewhere.  His record on support for gay rights in general is favorable, but this e-mail you sent is completely INACCURATE regarding his view of gay marriage as I just went to his website to review his opinions on the matter yesterday.

 

Tax increase.  Obama is claiming that his proposed tax increase will only affect 5% of Americans.  I have not investigated the details of this.  I don’t fear it however.  The economy was great under the last democrat.  We are not in the top 5% of incomes.  However I have not read in detail what is planned.  I do know that gap between rich and poor in America has grown larger than ever before with more wealth in the top 5% than in the remainder of the populace.  I don’t really mind taxing the rich people a bit more.  It seems that your e-mail goes on to detail much more about the tax issues and I simply don’t know enough to speak very intelligently about it, HOWEVER as the rest of the e-mail is either wrong or propagandistic, I tend to take all of it with a grain of salt.

 

English as official language.  I’m ambivalent about this.  As a country of immigrants, most people have had to learn English to prosper in America and this is likely to continue regardless of us making it an official language.  I have no idea what Obama’s official position is on this, but seeing as I’m personally ambivalent. I DON’T CARE.  But again, this is put here to incense white people who’ve forgotten about their ancestors coming to this country and having to learn English perhaps.  The new wave of immigrants is likely to learn English if they want to prosper anyway. 

 

Social Security benefits.  I don’t know about this in detail.  However, if immigrants illegal or not have paid into the SS system, I don’t know why they couldn’t get benefits.  However, it would be nice if we didn’t have so many illegal immigrants.  Sadly McCain has abandoned his path to citizenship plans for the “build a fence” crowd who are trying to get him elected.  If you want to know more about Obama’s position on this, try www.barackobama.com as a resource rather than these e-mails which certainly have their own fear inducing agenda.  Of course, Obama’s website will include his own point of view, but at least you might hear from the “horse’s mouth” so to speak. 

 

In general, Republicans lost my support a long time ago when they repeatedly resorted to these divisive tactics to get people to vote their way.  Fear is no way to run a country but it has won them elections time and time again.  I’m apparently one of those people who’s a threat to “traditional” values, so guess what, I’m not so interested in their values anymore.  Justice and equal opportunity sound so much more noble than let us keep our guns, keep the gays down, and put prayer back in school.  Republicans in general offer fear of what Obama might do, how the gays might marry (who by the way have a much better divorce rate that straights), how he’s gonna kill babies, decimate the military, leave us defenseless against the terrorists ( who by the way attacked us on Bush’s watch).   STOP BUYING INTO FEAR.  That’s all they’ve got to sell apparently.  That’s where my “angry white men” comments come from. 

 

With regard to the detailed listing of tax increases, it certainly does seem scary, but that’s what Republican do.  I will investigate further and get back to you.

 

Sincerely,

 

Mark

Here is a sample of the kind of e-mail that frequents my father's e-mail circles.  Unfortunately for me, I taught him how to BCC so that I couldn't see his contact list, lol. 

2008 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE COMPARISON TALKING POINTS ISSUE JOHN McCAIN BARAK OBAMA Favors new drilling offshore US Yes No Will appoint judges who interpret the law not make it Yes No < /font> Served in the US Armed Forces Yes No Amount of time served in the US Senate 22 YEARS 173 DAYS < /font> Will institute a socialized national health care plan No Yes Supports abortion throughout the pregnancy No Yes Would pull troops out of Iraq immediately No Yes Supports gun ownership rights Yes No Supports homosexual marriage No Yes Proposed programs will mean a huge tax increase No Yes < /tr> Voted against making English the official language No Yes Voted to give Social Security benefits to illegals No Yes CAPITAL GAINS TAX MCCAIN 0% on home sales up to $500,000 per home (couples). McCain does not propose any change in existing home sales income tax. OBAMA 28% on profit from ALL home sales. (How does this affect you? If you sell your home and make a profit, you will pay 28% of your gain on taxes. If you are heading toward retirement and would like to down-size your home or move into a retirement community, 28% of the money you make from your home will go to taxes. This proposal will adversely affect the elderly who are counting on the income from their homes as part of their retirement income.) DIVIDEND TAX MCCAIN 15% (no change) OBAMA 39.6% - (How will this affect you? If you have any money invested in stock market, IRA, mutual funds, college funds, life insurance, retirement accounts, or anything that pays or reinvests dividends, you will now be paying nearly 40% of the money earned on taxes if Obama becomes president. The experts predict that 'Higher tax rates on dividends and capital gains would crash the stock market, yet do absolutely nothing to cut the deficit.') INCOME TAX MCCAIN (no changes) Single making 30K - tax $4,500 Single making 50K - tax $12,500 Single ma king 75K - tax $18,750 Married making 60K- tax $9,000 Married making 75K - tax $18,750 Married making 125K - tax $31,250 OBAMA (reversion to pre-Bush tax cuts) Single making 30K - tax $8,400 Single making 50K - tax $14,000 Single making 75K - tax $23,250 Married making 60K - tax $16,800 Married making 75K - tax $21,000 Married making 125K - tax $38,750 Under Obama, your taxes could almost double! INHERITANCE TAX MCCAIN         OBAMA Restore the inheritance tax Many families have lost businesses, farms, ranches, and homes that have been in their families for generations because they could not afford the inheritance tax. Those willing their assets to loved ones will only lose them to these taxes. NEW TAXES PROPOSED BY OBAMA           You can verify the above at the following web sites: http://money.cnn.com/news/specials/election/2008/index.html http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/issues/issues.taxes.html http://elections.foxnews.com/?s=proposed+taxes http://bulletin.aarp.org/yourworld/politics/articles/mccain_obama_offer_different_visions_on_taxes.html http://blog.washingtonpostcom/fact-checker/candidates/barack_obama/ http://blog.washingtonpostcom/fact-checker/candidates/john_mccain/

 

To me by a t-shirt vendor "Hola Senor Whiskers!  I have shirt Harley!"

I need some suggestions for current love songs (top 40/adult contemporary).

before my "Zoom" treatment

After my "Zoom" treatment

 

Ami and I decided to host a pool party in the early part of the summer this year.  Normally we just wake up on Saturday morning and call a few people for a "get-together."  For whatever reason, we decided to put a little thought and planning into this one and actually put out an evite well in advance of the actual event planning to just have friends and cook some burgers.  I guess over the years of living in Dallas, we've come to meet and know a rather large group of people.  About 150 people said they were coming and it sure seemed like it!  So odd for a shy boy like me!  Anyway here are some pics.

Thanks to Mike who took and sent me these pics!

    For those of you from the Dallas area, you may well remember the shooting near the ATM near Throckmorton and Cedar Springs on April 16, 2007 or at least hearing or reading about it. I served as a juror on this case just last week and it was a fascinating look at the criminal justice system as well as the gayborhood of Dallas which I thought I knew so well.  One of our questions from the lawyers trying to select the jury was that this case involved people of "alternative lifestyle" and "homosexuals, also known as gays" and did any of us have a problem with that? Of course I did not, but there were a couple of people who objected with statements like "I try to keep away from those people as much as possible." She and all the others who had expressed biases against life imprisonment, or guns, or police, etc were not selected. Little did the complainer know that she was seated within 10 feet of at least one of those people.  I have to admit I was very pleased that so few people related having a problem dealing with a case that involved homosexuals. 
     During our questioning time, I certainly did not recall the defendant, but one or two of the people involved did ring a bell once the trial did begin.  Certainly they were not even acquaintances but rather people I think I may have seen at the clubs at one point of my 18 years of living in Dallas. The prosecution brought out a poster board with pictures, legal names, and street names of various people involved with the defendant in some way.  It was amazing to hear about these young people living on the street in abandoned apartment complexes so close to where I had parked my car and walked to Cedar Springs with little trepidation in years past.  How did they acquire these street names?  They had names like 19, Midnight, Black Jesus or BJ (the defendant), ATL, Smokey, Bam Bam, Co Co,  and Amaya.  I still wonder about the purpose of a street name.  Why discard a name you have grown-up with like a shed skin?  Now the three transgendered individualsI had complete understanding to their alternate names, but the others were still a puzzle to me.  These street people lived primarily staying at abandoned apartment buildings going in and out of "apartment 219" near Shelby for their drugs (mostly crack, apparently) and some of them hustling for extra money in the streets behind the clubs.  I have on rare occassions seen hustlers on some of these streets, but never knew it was a daily, regular occurence or to what lengths the need for drugs could drive people to.  Where are these people's biological families?  What is the city doing to control this?  To this day, as I was told by the prosecuting attorney, "apartment 219" is still there. 
    I was possibly the only juror who was gay, but you never know.  The jury consisted of 6 men and 6 women, 11 whites, and one African-American, and people from all walks of life- a office executive assistant, an electrician, an industrial supervisor, another office worker moonlighting as a bartender, myself- a musician, a nurse, a landscape architect, a salemen, a computer IT professional, etc.  We lived from all over Dallas county including Coppell, Carrollton, Valley Ranch, Richardson, Dallas, Grand Prairie, etc. 
    We were told by the prosecuting attorney from the beginning that there would be no physical evidence, yet the story told by the different witnesses proved compelling in the end. More on the case later.

    So during the past week in addition to preparing for my DMA (Doctor of Musical Arts) Recital at UNT, having a house guest, dress rehearsal at 9 pm until 11 pm, I also went to jury duty in Dallas County.  Though I have been called to jury duty once before in Denton County, I had not ever actually served before.  Since my only work obligations this past week were preparing for the recital and performing it, I actually was looking forward to seeing the legal system up close and personal. 
    I arrived at the courthouse in downtown Dallas after the long 40 minute drive in rush hour traffic from my home.  I had noticed the courthouse many times before, but had never been in.  Driving by the building , it seems pretty unimpressive- a relative stark building with a few large windows overlooking downtown and some large curved windows near the top that remind me of buildings from the 1980's though I have no idea when it was actually built.  Walking up the many, many steps left me with a different impression.  Here was a building made in historical reference to temples of the ancient world where the temples where set on hills above a city like the Acropolis of Athens.  The courthouse is physically separated from the main downtown of Dallas by a highway so no tall buildings are actually next to it. Though in physical terms the courthouse is dwarfed by the skyscrapers of downtown, the impression of rising to a higher place of importance is unmistakable to an individual rising these stairs to the courthouse. 
    After going in the building,  I was shuffled through a security station, then approached the Central Jury Room where all people who have been called convene.  It took some time, but eventually the courthouse staff started calling people by juror number to move to an individual court for screening and ultimate selection.  My group was the third to be called and there were about 60 or so of us.  Once there we had more waiting to do and some paperwork to fill out about our feelings about lawyers, past connections to law enforcement, and such.  I was juror number 28 in the pool and eventually we went in to the court for the lawyers to discuss legal and bias issues with us and sort out who might have biases that would prevent them from being a fair juror. 
    Perhaps at some point I bought into the idea of Libras being fair minded and I've always been fascinated by the law, judges, attorneys, and the whole justice system so I actually wanted to serve.  Many of my fellow jurors had legitimate biases, but it was obvious to me that some were saying they had a problem of fairness with this issue or that simply because they wanted to get out of jury duty.  The lawyers warned us that the quiet ones always get picked, and sure enough I think all of the 12 who were picked for the actual jury said nothing to the lawyers during the questioning period other than something like "I think I can be fair."  It was not until the next day that I found out that this case that I had been selected as a juror for was one I was familiar with.  The case involved the shooting of Jose Landa near the corner of Cedar Springs and Throckmorton  behind the ATM in the parking lot of Zini's pizza in the gayborhood of Dallas which is an area of town I'm quite familiar with.  Turned out to be a fascinating case, stay tuned for more. 

I am getting ready this week for my third recital for my doctorate in music degree.  I hope some people will come!  I thought I would post here as a shameless attempt to get at least some of Ami's LJ buddies to attend, lol.  The concert is Wednesday, June 4th at 8 pm in the Concert Hall at the University of North Texas.  The music is all for flute (my instrument) and bassoon or flute, bassoon, and piano.  I'm performing with friends I made while teaching at West Texas A&M this past year- Tina on bassoon and Choong-ha on piano.  The recital is an hour in length with music by Villa-Lobos, Gabaye, and Mendelssohn.  They are all very different pieces and interesting in their own ways, but my favorite is the Mendelssohn Trio in D minor that we've adapted for Flute, Bassoon, and Piano from its original instrumentation of Violin, Cello, and Piano.  If you live in the Dallas or DFW metroplex area and would like to attend let me or Ami know and we'll get you more information.  The concert is free.  

So a few weeks ago Ami and Kevin and I traveled to Seattle to see the city and visit some friends we had made at TBRU- Matt, Mo, and Rafi.  We had a great time and we're getting ready to travel again to Chicago for Bear Pride and we will be meeting those Seattle boys again.  What's funny is that on our way back from Seattle we arrived at the airport all ready to check-in and depart, BUT the check-in attendant couldn't seem to find mine and Ami's confirmation number or reservation.  Now I LOVE to travel, but don't always want to sort out the nitty-gritty details of what hotel or which flight, etc., so often I let Ami just take care of this..... and normally he's pretty competent at it........ normally.  It turns out that Ami reserved us a flight for one day later!  Luckily the lady helping us gave us a moment and found room for us on the flight that Kevin had properly booked for a $100 changing fee each.  Not too bad as American Airlines nightmares can be.  Now I get to the part-deux!  So we leave tomorrow for Chicago and I had until a couple of hours ago been oblivious to the details.  I DO like to know when to be ready to go though, so I've been bugging Ami to tell me when our flight leaves on Friday.  So Kevin , Ami, and I get to a restaurant after working out tonight and the topic comes up again.  This time we sort of need to figure it out because we're carpooling to the airport.  Turns out Ami and I are AGAIN on a different flight than Kevin!  Luckily it's on the same day though!  We gonna try to go standby and be on the same flight or at least one close to Kevin's flight.  Looks like I'll be making the travel arrangements in the future. Keep tuned to find out how it all turns out!