A Hankering for Home

Somethings here in Texas are a bit strange...and do they get strange! This is the land of Texas...bigger than any other dadgum thing in the Lower 48. Better than anything in the Lower 48. Food? Better than the rest. And music? ...You've got it. Better than any other state. ...RIGHT...uh, huh.

So I go into the local Best Buy here (a thing I normally DON'T do simply because Best Buy is horrible at stocking decent music and is WAY overpriced). I go in with the specific goal to finish off the little remainder left on my gift card from some time ago for a CD that I would really like. So I scour their meager collection of CD's while listening to their blaring pop/rap garbage (BLAH!), and finally locate the small jazz section...and I mean SMALL. I go to ask the poor teenage smuck working the floor a question. "Do you know where your Pete Fountain is?" I ask, referring to the legendary New Orleanian clarinetist. All I get back is a blank stare. "Pete who?"

ARGH! What is with these people! I thought to myself. Pete Fountain, Al Hirt...don't you know?!

"What genre of music is he in?" he asks with a blank stare still on his face. "Jazz," I reply with heavy desperation. I wanted to add "you fool" to the end of it, but I restrained myself...just enough. Finally, he goes to search his computer terminal for this "phantom" artist. Sure enough, there's ol' Pete on the screen, but by that time I mused that it was quite alright and that he needn't worry. I would be able to find it elsewhere and at a better price. I grumbled as I found a decent (but a tad overpriced) Frank Sinatra CD, Sinatra Reprise: The Very Good Years, and walked out the store.

That's it...only Amazon.com for me!

"The Rockets' Red Glare..."

Finally, a clear day at the launch pad! The first Independence Day manned spaceflight launch, what a sight! They couldn't have picked a better day to have to scrub to. The weather appears to be perfect and the fallen-foam problem turns out, at the first cursory glance, to be not a problem. What a great day!

"If you hear a voice within you say ' You are not a Painter' then by all means PAINT...and forever silence that voice." - Vincent van Gogh

To the Edge and Back: The Space Shuttle & the Status of NASA

It is becoming apparent, as the days pass by, that NASA's prominence is waning. Gone are the glory years of the Space Race, where risks were taken and success was found, despite the heavy costs. Every time I listen to the news and their negative-to-a-fault discussion of this foam problem, that I am sickened at the entire problem. Similar to what 9-11 was to global politics, the Columbia accident was to the American awareness of the risks of space. While Challenger taught us as a nation not to take anything for granted, the Columbia accident has driven us to fear...to fear the unknown. However, this is not the best result for us as a nation. We must accept the inevitable and accept a certain amount of risk and do the best we can do to get what must be done actually done. Not because of some fanciful desire to fulfill someone's dream but to do what must be done, accepting danger and surmounting it. We mustn't step back from progress, but forward to the future. Simply because failure is not an option.

Godspeed to the Discovery crew in their important mission.

Softly Call the Muster...

In many lands and climes this April day
Proud sons of Texas A&M unite.
Our loyalty to country, school, we pay,
And seal our pact with bond of common might.

We live again those happy days of yore
On campus, field, in classroom, dorm, at drill.
Fond memory brings a sigh - but nothing more;
Now we are men and life's a greater thrill.

On Corregidor 64 years ago today
A band of galliant Aggies, led by Moore,
Held simple rites which led to us doth all to say:
The spirit shall prevail through cannon roar.

Before we part and go upon our way,
We pause to honor those we knew so well;
The old familiar faces we miss so much today
Left cherished recollections that time cannot dispel.

Softly call the Muster,
Let comrade answer, "Here!"
Their spirits hover 'round us
As if to bring us cheer!

Mark them "present" in our hearts.
We'll meet some other day
There is no death, but life eterne
For old friends such as they!

- Dr. John Ashton '06

Brian, you will always be present in the depths of our hearts here in Aggieland. No matter the distance in time, you our still present in our memory.

Good byes are such a tough thing, especially when you aren't even given the chance to say good bye.

TR's Words to the Wise...

"This country has nothing to fear from the crooked man who fails. We put him in jail. It is the crooked man who succeeds who is a threat to this country." - Theodore Roosevelt

These words are a wise observation from Teddy Roosevelt. Nothing less than a realization that this axiom applies to today's society would be something tantamount to the rejection of democracy as we know it in our country today.

Neither side of the political aisle has lived up to Mr. Roosevelt here in this case. We have crooked men (and women) abounding in today's society. It's isn't a coinidence that notable cases of corporate greed such as Enron (Ken Lay, Jefferey Skilling, Andrew Fastdow), WorldCom (Bernie Ebbers), HealthSouth (Richard Scrushy), and the like have occurred in recent years. It isn't a coincidence that backroom politics rather than citizens' votes have set policy for our country or that even our upper echelons of government are almost constantly rocked with allegations of (and, on the rare occasion, convictions for) crimes of corruption and abuse of power. Look no further than our current administration and the K Street corruption scandals. Look no further than the level of unbounded zeal at which the current administration is using its power to do domestic spying without warrants. Neither side has lived up to Americans of any color, of any creed, or of any political persuasion in the issues as of late. They have been and continue to be ruled by special interests. This MUST come to an end and quickly.

It doesn't worry me that the political party that I have supported are party to several documented cases of unethical behavior. It is the cases that are not caught, that are not reported on and that we--as a public--are not privy to that worry me the most. This is where President Roosevelt's words are so indelibly important. We must fear the crooked man who gets away with the crime.

Whether it be on either party, I want my news unbiased and uncommented upon. I want the facts checked, and I want, by any means necessary and legally available, all facts reported upon both fairly and in their entirety. It is time for both sides of the aisle to remove the partisan atmosphere that has cloaked Capitol Hill and the entire country in a debilitating moral haze that not only aids the enemy abroad but also the crooked man among us.

A Break from It All

A respite from the ordinary once in a while is a good thing. Everyone needs some downtime and everyone is in need of time to catch up on things that have gotten the best of them. In this case, I am no different. There is so much I wish to do with this week away from classes. I feel the freedom, and it feels wonderful.

However, I must reflect what the school year in its whole has brought me, certainly both sadness and joy. This year has brought me a certain gaping hole, a void of loss. In August and September we faced hurricane after hurricane along the Gulf Coast. Dennis was immediately after the Fourth of July, chasing me from Gulf Shores, AL. Katrina wrecked havoc on New Orleans like no other in the days leading up to September. Then came Rita in an uncharacteristic swipe at Texas and southwest Louisiana. Thankfully I was able to remain out of harm's way for each, while still praying for those who were in the crosshairs of Nature's fury. One can only hope that this hurricane season is less eventful and, as a result, less destructive. Then in September I remembered the loss of Brian from late spring. New friends have entered since then but sadness for the emptiness of friends long gone remains.

And so I remember Brian as I traveled down the same highway he did coming close to a year now. I think of him each time I travel that busy state highway. I can't help but think of him and his accident. I curse the undivided stretch that took his life and bless the promise of a better road design the engineers have come up with that will, in the future, stem the number of deaths attributed to that deadly stretch of payment between College Station and Houston. So I traveled that highway with the sun blazing red light in its final moments of the day, thinking not only of the sadness but also of the comfort of being on the road.

With all that was lost in memories to my home city, with all that has changed, and with all that will never be the same, I find that in that roadway things never change. In driving those stretches of highways so many times one loses the need for road maps and even the signs and the mile markers. The buildings and the scenery act as small landmarks to guide the way and of which never seem to change. It becomes almost a comforting thing on which to rely, if only life and home were that guaranteed. Granted, those in New Orleans are fortunate to have the wherewithal to still be here today, something that one couldn't count on in years past, but I still feel a sense of loss with what I remember to be gone...and something that shall never remain the same.

In all of these thoughts I have come to the conclusion that there is a time to think of the past and what was then and there is a time to look to the future and what is to be. We can only hold on to things for so long, and we can only love what you have while you have it. Turning over a new leaf is something we all must learn to do.

The Drive Home & A Waitress Named Gifty

The trip has reached its completion, all 8 hours later. We have had a wonderful time in a wonderful city and had a blast going there and coming back even though we had a number of set backs such as 10-gallon gas tanks and phantom rain storms, we made it through had a productively fun (we maximized the fun [four parades in all!] while doing actually very little) and worked our way into a week happy that we had gone.

We closed with a nice dinner at, of all places, a truck stop before heading back through Houston. No matter what one can say...New Orleans will be back and be back to stay.

God bless and have a great week.

Blogging from the Frontlines: Vieux Carré and The Ducks of Tucks

Day two has reached its completion, out of our three-day weekend excursion to New Orleans with much fanfare, revelry, and a little bit of prayer. Thankfully the rains withstood for most of the afternoon, and even when they did come it wasn't a total wash. We made our way out to Napoleon Ave. in Uptown to catch two early afternoon parades so that we would be able to see a few parades in case Endymion postponed their parade. It turns out that they did for a potential downpour condition that never truly materialized.

So I bolted out the door this morning to join the parade-going bunch, less the umbrella I packed especially for the day. No big worries there. We managed to circle De la Salle a few times before getting to a suitable parking spot. We got to the Iris parade about a third of the way in progress and joined the fray for the beads. Surprisingly the marching bands were non-existent in the parade so it flew by in about 20 minutes (about half the usual time). The Krewe of Tucks followed next, without a dark cloud threatening overhead. I enjoyed their float titles, many of which were witty backhand (but justified) swipes at everyone from FEMA, to the Corps of Engineers, to the Mayor (of the "Chocolate City"). The picture above was after the second parade of our motley group, once Endymion made their decision to cancel the parade for the day (note the sunny skies above).

So, since Endymion was out the reach of our viewing eyes now for the year, we decided to meander down to the French Quarter for the afternoon. After much lengthy discussion, we managed to weave our way through several deserted neighborhoods around Claiborne, including a number of vacant (but still unsightly as ever) housing projects. We had made a sightseeing trip through the Ghetto of New Orleans. Then we managed to do more sightseeing in Mid-City, noting the still visible waterlines from August on many of the buildings). Circling around the foot of Elysian Fields, we made it back to City Hall and parked, walking back down Canal to the Quarter.

We had a nice (but crowded) visit to Café du Monde for a plate of beignets and hot chocolate; after all we are in the CHOCOLATE city after all! We viewed St. Louis Cathedral and the vista of Mississippi River from the "Moon Walk," named after the 1970 mayor of New Orleans, Moon Landrieu. Beads still in tote, most of the group went to the Saturday vigil mass at St. Louis, which is still as glorious and stately of a church it has ever been. It was nice way to cap our brief visit to the Quarter before ambling down a rather deserted Bourbon Street, finally heading to our cars back at City Hall. I remember now why I avoided Bourbon Street every year before with all of its drunken out-of-towners being a bunch of disgusting (and drunk) fools.

Thankfully we left the dreary wet weather of the Quarter for warmer and more spacious accommodations of a local eatery for some seafood and more visiting. It was an all around great day.

Second Lining to New Orelans...

Finally the week is over and done. No more tests, no more exams, no more assignments to worry about...for an entire weekend. I am free at last to have fun, to have a great time, to be with friends and family for the Carnival is here for me. It's off to New Orleans for me, and I wish all the best. Happy Mardi Gras!

Laissez les bon temps roulez, y'all!

Mardi Gras 2006: Relief, Rebuild, Renew

I cannot stand those who say Mardi Gras should not roll on. I pity those who think it is not important enough to roll on that the cost is "too great." I'll argue until cannot argue any more that it is imperative that New Orleans holds this year's Carnival season, in spite of all of the adversities—past, present, and future—to overcome the loss and to overcome the pain wrought because of Katrina. This year's celebrations are to spite the storm that dared to try to take away "the city care forgot." No storm can take away a community, nor can it take way the Spirit of a community. It always remains, in one form or another. Mardi Gras belongs in New Orleans, and New Orleans belongs to us all.

We all must be supportive; we all must be a part of the celebration. One of New Orleans’ notorious nicknames, "the city that care forgot," mustn't gain a new nickname as the city the Nation forgot. The city mustn't go quietly off into the night. This year’s Mardi Gras is not a swan song for the Crescent City. This is the party to start all parties. This is the party that renews the New Orleans to the one we all knew and that will rebuild to the city it ought to be.

Laissez les bon temps roulez, y'all!

Ray Nagin and the "Chocolate City"

I've listened to the Martin Luther King Day comments and remarks made by Ray Nagin, current mayor of New Orleans, and his Democrat counterpart, Hillary Clinton, Senator from New York. Nagin has recently apologized for certain parts of his comments (which can be viewed here from the New Orleans' WDSU or read from transcript here). However, those parts of the speech were merely concerning the mentioning of God sending the Hurricanes, nothing more. His comments about a "Chocolate City" and how New Orleans will be "one again" has raised a serious uproar both in the city and across the Nation. As being from the area, born there and raised nearby, I find it to be rather disparaging for the kind of frenzy he worked himself into that day. Dr. King would not be proud.

Neither would Dr. King be proud of Senator Clinton's remarks comparing the House of Representatives to that of a plantation. It is just not right. It is a spit in the face to what Dr. King worked towards, that of equality. When remarks like that are accepted by a community at large when they are not the case (and clearly the House is NOT run like a plantation), then you actually take a step back for what Dr. King had accomplished in his life. What the African-American community must realize is that neither party is looking out for their interests and neither party is truly looking for equality. There must be eracism before racism can be wiped from the Earth. We not only should we be not racist but we should also be color-blind to race all together. Morgan Freeman put it best in a 60 Minutes interview about a month ago when posed the question, "How are we going to get rid of racism?" from Mike Wallace, and he responded by saying, "Stop talking about it."

All of these thoughts led me to write in to a specific PBS show, Washington Week, which I have been watching rather regularly as of late. They had a "What were they thinking?" segment that called for viewer comments, and well, I couldn't resist writing in. Apparently they had a shortage of comments this week because mine got in! So without further ado, my ten seconds of fame courtesy of who other than Hillary Clinton and Ray Nagin...

My comment read on on-air...

In response to Ms. Ifill's January 20, 2006 request for comment on her "What were they thinking?" segment:

As a native New Orleanian currently out-of-state, I was stunned to listen to Nagin's remarks. I thought he went off the deep end. However, Nagin and Clinton were doing the same thing. They were both playing to the crowd, which that day was predominantly African-Americans. They were caught up in the moment.

Saying the House is run like a plantation is a degrading statement. It's a far cry from being as repressive as the antebellum plantation system and thus is a slap in the face of the ancestors of many African-Americans these days, the slaves that were oppressed.

For all the talk of New Orleans as a melting pot, what it is and still has been a socio-economically divided city. What Nagin did was evoke a racial tone to an already brewing pot of trouble. From any other mouth such words would make many cry foul. What would have saved him face was not to call for the city to be a "chocolate" city but instead for it to be a "Neapolitan" city again. The city is a rich mix of cultures, and to include one race without the other is completely and utterly racist.

Both set of remarks, from Clinton and Nagin, were uncalled for and cheap allegories that have no place in today's society where we must get past race in order to actually defeat racism.

John Book
College Station, TX

Yurttasisms to Live By...

Rare is the case that a Texas A&M computer science undergraduate doesn't have the privilege to take a course from the esteemed senior lecturer, Dr. Salih Yurttas. He is famous among the computer science student body for his quotes and sayings that are often peppered amid his lectures on topics of the design of programming languages, database systems, or distributed objects programming, among others. He is programming language maven with extensible educational programming examples on everything from smalltalk and simula to java, c, c++, c#, perl and python among others. His booming (and I mean booming) Turkish accent is a memorable and sometimes unnerving sound that has been described as a mix between Count Chocula and the "IKEA Guy." I had the pleasure of taking his programming languages design class last semester and have yet to regret it since.

Some of the memorable quotes, the Yurttasisms that have come to be priceless:

In Latin, they write left to right. Arabic writes right to left. Chinese write top to bottom. No one has thought of writing bottom to top.

Our angel on the fourth floor has taken care of this for us. -Speaking of Bjarne Stroustrup

Don't tell me 'I know these things.' I know you know these things but the problem is you never do.

You know what I always say, kill three birds with two stones.

You will learn this both properly and fully.

You will never do this; that is the 1950's way of programming.

Some may argue that his teaching style can be unorthodox at times, but I will fervently argue the opposite: that we in fact need more to teach in his style of teaching by example and sometimes lofty assignments. For when one keeps an open mind, one will always learn more than by keeping one's mind closed to instruction.

Oddly enough...

I don't know how much stock to take in this, but it seems fun enough...

You scored as English. You should be an English major! Your passion lies in writing and expressing yourself creatively, and you hate it when you are inhibited from doing so. Pursue that interest of yours!

English 100% Philosophy 100% Journalism 100% Engineering 83% Dance 75% Mathematics 75% Theater 75% Linguistics 75% Psychology 67% Anthropology 50% Art 42% Sociology 42% Chemistry 33% Biology 33% What is your Perfect Major?

Roberts Confirmation and Anti-Catholicism in the United States

I've meant to comment for quite some time on this article since mid-September but due because of my schedule I have waited until now. However, the topic is still fresh in noteworthiness here in America, as it has been since the United States' founding over 200 years ago. What are the place of Catholics, especially active Catholics in tune with their moral conscience based in a foriegn state? As Catholics we believed in this day in age that we have forever banished the question: "As practicing Catholic, is a person fit to hold office?"

With the media these days, much of it filled with anti-Catholic sentiment, I guess we cannot. Entertainment is set on bashing traditional Catholicism even more than the media in their pathetic satire, so much so that Viacom (parent company of Comedy Central) recently banished one South Park episode titled "Blood Mary" that first aired on the eve of the Immaculate Conception, the Catholic feast day honoring the Virgin Mary. This kind of tasteless satire is both demeaning and rude. Not mention, it's happened countless times in one form or another throughout recent years from the Pope picture-tearing on live television during on Saturday Night Live by Sinéad O'Connor, which has since also been bannished from public viewing altogether like the one South Park episode, to being the butt of jokes on the priesthood scandals—something that should not be joked lightly about.

However, this is not what I came to comment about today. I wanted to comment on the Christopher Hitchens opinion article Catholic Justice: Quit tiptoeing around John Roberts' faith from Slate.com. The curt words of Hitchens in his labasting of good Catholics, stating simply:

If Roberts is confirmed there will be quite a bloc of Catholics on the court. Scalia, Kennedy, and Thomas are strong in the faith. Is it kosher to mention these things? The Constitution rightly forbids any religious test for public office, but what happens when a religious affiliation conflicts with a judge's oath to uphold the Constitution?

Now that John Roberts has been confirmed and Samuel Alito has been nominated to replace Sandra Day O'Connor, must we hear this nonsensical ideological garbage again? Hitchens continues to insinuate later in his piece that through the actions of the Catholic Church in the child abuse scandals and the Church's teachings on abortion and evolution (which he both clearly and fervrantly disagrees with) that Church (and its members) is solely political in nature. Hitchens must realize that moral teachings WILL collide with political issues from time to time and that does not mean there will be any resulting double allegiance issues, which worried the WASP's during the 1960 election of John F. Kennedy, our first Catholic president. This new round of insuations in merely more anti-Catholic sentiment popping up in Supreme Court issues.

Hitchens even goes so far to equate Opus Dei, an organization that Supreme Court Antonin Scalia (a Catholic) is a member of, to that of the Ku Klux Klan, a totally outrageous notion that should not be given the time of day in consideration. What does it then? Because it is "cool" to bash Catholicism.

Well, I think Scalia put it best when he addressed a group of the Knights of Columbus (which protected the Church in the South decades ago from Klan anti-Catholic violence) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana: "Have the courage to have your wisdom regarded as stupidity. Be fools for Christ. And have the courage to suffer the contempt of the sophisticated world." Amen. Give me Scalia any day over a bucketful of contemptable liberals.

Hope for a New Year

I've read news I've been waiting to hear for four months now. Benson has said the Saints will return to New Orleans again next season. To practice at their Metairie facility and play games in Louisiana. Thank Heavens!

There's even talk of having the Superdome ready for mid-September 2006. So Christmas Miracles do happen, I suppose. There is always hope at the start of a new year. WWL-TV's Jim Henderson had it right when he described the Benson-New Orleans as a marriage of sorts in his December 30th Commentary:

And so it wasn't a divorce after all, just a separation these last four months between Tom Benson and the New Orleans fans.

In [sic] behalf of those fans, I would say this:
As in any separation we both probably said and did some things during it we regret.

[...]

You without us and us without you wouldn't ever be the same.

You have wants and needs. We have wants and needs.

We can only hope that these last four months have given both of us greater wisdom to recognize the difference.

God willing, New Orleans will return to the great city it was and become even better in the days and years to come. For Auld Lang Syne and the new days to come. Cheers to New Orleans and 2006. Happy New Year!