Global Warming Challenge

A formidable body of scientists have urged that drastic steps be taken

to reverse or at lest slow the change in global climate change which

they regard as potentially catastrophic.

In opposition to this group are the doubters, those who reject all

evidence of man-made contribution to the problem and the business

and monied interests who contend that to pursue the suggested

remedies would be ruinous, cost vast sums, damage industries and

cost jobs.

In 1660, Blaise Pascal, a French mathematician and theologian

advanced a proposition, which came to be known as "Pascal's

wager." The proposed wager was a bet - If there is a GOD and you

follow the church you will gain paradise. On the other hand if you

reject the church you will gain some minor indulgences in this life

and lose nothing if there is no GOD. However, if you choose wrongly

and there is a GOD you have gambled away an eternity in paradise

and suffer an eternity of torment, for the sake of a few minor

indulgences.

Applying this reasoning to the current global warming issue is a good

fit. If the scientists are correct then logic compels us to take

steps, drastic or not, to keep the planet habitable. If they are wrong

and we follow their advise we will have added some layers of hardship

and difficulty to our lives to no purpose. If, however, they are

correct and we ignore their suggestions, we imperil the very

survival of life on this planet.

Picture Album

Earlier today I took out my so-called picture album to look for a paper Hal sent me many years ago. I thought to send it to him - it seemed a metaphor for his current situation.

I had forgotten the disorderly disarray it had become. Years ago, many years ago, I recall sitting down with piles of snap shots, my newly acquired album and an unfortunate choice, rubber cement with which to glue the pictures. It never occurred to me that, in time, it would dry up and the pictures would fall out - producing the jumble which I an now presented.

I have thought, from time to time, to get a new album and reorganize and reassemble the pile into an orderly, proper, picture album. Somehow I have always surpressed the impulse and put the book away, sometimes for years.

Now, the random disordered piles of pictures of my loved ones as they grew up, mixed with irrelevant snaps of my life of misadventures, seemed strangely appropriate, representative of the hodgepodge of my existence in years past and a continuing endeavor to “carry water on both shoulders” - my unsuccessful attempts ito keep it all sorted out - yet to hang onto all the pieces somehow.

Most of the significant pictures of my life are fairly vivid in my memory. I have always been a poor photographer, but the bright memories I cherish are augmented by these photographs, although very few were taken by me. They serve me today as benchmarks, reference points in my sons growing up; some to record happy times, others reflect times of travail and hardship for the boys. Recorded memories.

I really should examine them more frequently and relocate the album to someplace more accessible.

Now especially, as I see occasional pictures of my grandsons, tall handsome but remote, distant, little private peeks into their lives which I have largely missed, I am a strangely drawn to the pictures of their fathers, my sons, records of a different time each attached to a memory in my heart, a reminder of a time relived.

REPUBLICANISM

Mark Rubio, speaking at CPAC, has become the new darling of the conservative movement. Displaying the appropriate set of negatives, including an anti-Obama bias, Mr. Rubio has now hitched his wagon to a star, however dim; former VP Cheney. As a senatorial hopeful, he recently announced his disbelief in global warming, a conversion based on expediency; he joins such intellectual luminaries as Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, who regards all evidence of global warming as a giant Democratic hoax.

These are the people who complain that the national debt will harm our grandchildren but deny that shrinking ice caps and rising oceans will have any consequences. The health of the market, not the health of the planet, is what they regard as most important. Truth is sacrificed to expedient advantage.

In the pursuit of regaining power, an element of recklessness has been injected into the politics of our country. The republicans have now persuaded the people that the system is “broken.” What is obfuscated is that they are the ones who broke it .

The “system” is now regarded as broken because, the minority, the party temporarily out of power, has decided to act to obstruct every action of the majority party in an effort to discredit it and thus resume power, to control. Formerly, other considerations; the benefit of the people, the health of the nation, our world position was given weight in the equation to arriving at what position, what tactics should the minority employ ? No longer, the minority is now willing to risk the utter destruction of the state, in order to achieve control. Winning or losing on a particular issue, extending cooperation where mutual advantage was perceived, are all now subsumed to destroying the majority control at all costs, at any cost.

Such is the morality of the Republican party.

Maybe It's Still Music

The half-time show at the Super bowl this year was "The Who", a group of British septuagenarian rockers, reliving their glory years in the middle of a light show which covered half of the playing field . Just why "Who" needed to be surrounded by a few acres of flashing lights, rockets, smoke bombs and torches while they whacked away at their guitars and bellowed old lyrics is part of the current ego malady infecting the music business. Similarly, a recent "U-2" concert in Tampa required the construction of a giant claw, standing several stories high, topped by something resembling an ICBM. All of this so the four of them could stand under it for their two hour concert.

I grew up in the big band era, the time of Glenn Miller, the Dorsey's, Benny Goodman and Harry James. They shared a high level of virtuosity, their music clever and memorable. Pyrotechnics were not necessary to augment their showmanship; their only concession- matching jackets for the band. The music said it all.

Beyonce, a big winner at this year's Grammy's travels with 14 truckloads of equipment recently added a trapeze to her singing performance. 14 truckloads of stuff ! The New York Philharmonic travels with less dunnage.

I recall Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, sharing a spotlight, singing hit tunes, music which became classics. No light show, no smoke bombs. They set the standard for vocalists. I'm a fan of cool jazz, Bach and Brubeck, an admirer of the Beatles. Simon and Garfunkel's lyrics and music captured the story of my life with two guitars and a boatload of brilliance. So what the hell happened to the music business ?