Happy Holidays

Well, I haven't blogged much lately, been to busy dealing with life, but I will get back on this more often after the holidays I am sure. For now, let me just rap about a few general things I have been thinking about.

I just received a great Christmas gift, Ron Paul's The Revolution, A Manifesto. Amazingly, although I have been a Ron Paul fan for awhile, I haven't gotten around to reading it, so it was a great gift. I can't wait to find some time to read it.

Speaking of books, another on my to-read list is a ten year old book by Virginia Postrel, The Future and It's Enemies. I heard her speak on CSPAN a few years ago. She calls herself a Dynamist. I am a Dynamist, too.


I have also been diggin' a Canadian Band called the Stills. Check out their song, Being Here.

(This is the ONLY place you will find Ron Paul's Revolution and The Stills IN THE SAME BLOG POST!)

And finally, a Top Ten Video worth knowing...

Well, if I don't get another chance, have a Merry Christmas...

Small Town Life

So, as reported in today’s Brainerd Dispatch (my local newspaper), three law enforcement officials were honored for their actions with regard to a hostage standoff at the Morrison County (Little Falls, MN) courthouse in June 2008.

In a very small nutshell, Gordon Wheeler went into the county commissioners meeting with a loaded weapon and threatened to kill some of the commissioners and county attorney. He had a longstanding feud with the County over his businesses, which included pornography, exotic dancing, and prostitution, located near the Camp Ripley military base. Wheeler contended that the County commissioners, Sheriff’s department, and County attorney had taken away his livelihood, thereby preventing him from paying his creditors, etc. Financially, he was at the end of his rope. He obviously had come to the end of his emotional rope, also.

The June 2008 meeting had been videotaped. It is on-line and I watched it this morning. It showed the entire standoff except for the actual shooting. Wheeler gave long-winded diatribes about how the County had wronged him, his businesses, and his family. You could obviously tell from the video that Wheeler did not intend to come out of the meeting room alive, and Wheeler’s family had said after the fact that this was, in essence, suicide by law enforcement.

Immediately prior to the shooting, the room was cleared and, at that point, no person was in harms way, except Wheeler and the officers. Wheeler squatted down behind a table and pointed the gun at the doorway where the officers were standing. Then the tape ends.

There was a lot of news and rumors shortly after the incident, but little thereafter - until I saw the article in the Brainerd Dispatch today. That article triggered my search for the aftermath, and I was troubled by what I read.

Now, don’t get me wrong. When anyone walks into a room with a loaded weapon and says that they are, in fact, going to kill people, you have a serious issue at hand. After watching the videotape, I certainly don’t find any fault with the fact that the officers had to fire their weapons at Wheeler to bring the incident to a conclusion. It was obvious that they had to fire at him.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension’s report said that Wheeler was shot 7 times out of 20 shots that were fired at him by the officers. Wheeler’s gun had not been fired. The Minnesota Attorney General’s office (AG) investigated the claim that excessive force had been used against Wheeler, and they found that the officers acted appropriately under the circumstances.

Here is the statement in the AG’s letter that troubles me and this is verbatim from the letter.

“Mr. Wheeler was struck by seven bullets. One bullet penetrated his hat and grazed the left side of his head with a front to back trajectory. Another bullet grazed the right side of his head and also had a front to back trajectory. The other five bullets hit him in the back of his torso. The shooting by law enforcement lasted only three seconds. Twenty rounds were fired in that short time. Law enforcement immediately summoned medical assistance for Mr. Wheeler and paramedics arrived shortly thereafter.”

Twenty bullets fired in a very small conference room? Five bullets in the back? Considering the totality of the history between Wheeler and the County, heroism isn't necessarily the first thing that comes to mind.

Dane's Music from 2008

I am trying to put together my list of favorite music that I’ve stumbled upon this year. As many of you know, this has been a pretty dramatic year in the craziness that is my life, so this year’s soundtrack will be a memorable one. I am being particularly picky on my song selection because I know in the years ahead, some of these songs will bring back floods of memories, good and bad, happy and sad. I gotta get ‘em right this year.

I haven’t finalized my list yet, in part, because I am still stumbling on new stuff. There are a couple weeks left in the year, after all. In fact, just this morning, I downloaded Jackson Browne’s latest album, Time The Conqueror and immediately fell in love with the song “Just Say Yeah”. It will make the list...

Anyway, if your interested in getting “my 2008 list”, email me your mailing address. Of course, if you don’t have my email address, you are out of luck. Then again, that probably just means that you don’t know me well enough to care about what songs I have found anyway.

I will be snail mailing my list to all that respond to me sometime between Christmas and New Years.

The End of America

"Working the dark side" means you have to become part of the dark side....

End of America-The Movie

The War on Terror is becoming a War on Democracy...

Jessica Sonner

So, most of you know I love music, but rarely am I on the cutting edge of music. I usually hear about a band or a singer long after others do. And, that might be the case in this instance, too.

I watch HDNet quite a bit on my cable channels. It is a great channel with no commercials. Therefore, if I'm watching "Smart Travels With Rudi Maxa", it doesn't fill the full half hour time slot as it was created for about 55 minutes of time - leaving space for commercials. They fill the time with notices of upcoming shows or small videos depicting beautiful scenery and/or people of differing cultures, generally put to music.

One of these videos presents the song, "Still Be Here" by a singer named Jessica Sonner. The words to this song really struck a cord with me and what is going on in my life and the lives of those I love. It isn't necessarily deep or philosophic, but it intrigued me enough to find her music on iTunes. She is worth checking out.

http://www.jessicasonner.com/

http://www.myspace.com/jessicasonner

Like I said, you guys have likely heard of her before. If so, chalk it up to me, again, being a day late and a dollar short!

Here's to Kevin!

Someone recently passed away that I used to know quite well – Kevin Nelson. He died in his home in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota on November 25, 2008.

I met Kevin because he used to attend summer Vacation Bible School classes at Bethesda Lutheran Church in Strandquist, Minnesota (the church I attended) when I was young. Kevin attended the St. Edward’s Catholic Church, also in Strandquist, and he loved to attend our VBS classes. Kevin was born in 1964, as I was, and was a heavier set kid. He was always happy and had a great sense of humor. He was extremely artistic. Kevin was blessed with a beautiful voice and was a very talented guitar player. He would sing at our church quite often. His relationship with the Lord was very important to him, and that continued throughout his life.

Tragically, Kevin suffered a spinal cord injury from a diving accident in 1978. I remember it very clearly because I was at summer Bible camp with my cousin, Carolyn. He was swimming and diving into the State ditch outside of Strandquist, as was common at that time. It was just a little too shallow, and he broke his neck and became paralyzed from the neck down for the rest of his life. I know the guys who were swimming with him that day and they did what they could to get him to safety. That day left a lasting scar on those who were with him and considered him a friend.

I was very shocked to hear the news when I returned from camp.

He lived as independent a life as one can in his condition, and he always lived his life as fully as possible. I remember Leslie Kuhlman driving Kevin’s special van to Meadowbrook Ballroom by Middle River, full of kids, and Kevin dancing the night away in his chair. It was a lot of fun!

I remember the article in the Karlstad newspaper accompanying the photo of Kevin skydiving on the 20th anniversary of his tragic accident. In his short 44 years on this earth, he likely lived a fuller life than many of us. He never let his disability become one.

So, here’s to you, Kevin! Although, as often happens, time and distance separates people, I’ll never forget you and am thankful that I knew you. Your life was an example to all who knew you!

What Happens in India . . .

So, anyone who was breathing this past weekend heard about the terrorist situation in India. What a absolute tragedy! But, if you keep up on the political unrest in this area, it wasn't totally unexpected. The timing might have been unknown, but the act occurring was not a surprise to me.

Americans and Westerners were supposedly the targets, which could be true. However, the terrorists seemed to target anyone who moved. No one or nationality appeared to be sacred.

There are a few countries in this world we refer to as are our ‘allies’ who seem to be less of an ally, and actually fall more under the old saying, “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” Pakistan, India, and, the big one, Saudi Arabia are some examples.

As I was watching the on-going situation on CNN this weekend, I told my Mom that, in my opinion, Saudi Arabia is behind much of the Islamic terrorism in this world. Yet, they are considered one of our allies, mostly based upon our reliance on their oil. Shortly after I said that to my Mom, CNN interviewed one of their employees who was born in India, and he mentioned that Saudi Arabia should be investigated with regard to this terrorist attack.

I kind of laughed because the news media rarely says or reports anything negative about Saudi Arabia. There is, for the most part, a deafening silence and a tremendous overall ignorance about this country. Is this on purpose? Maybe so. Funny thing about that, since most Islamic terrorists have close, binding ties with this country. And, the Saudis appear to be very, very good at distancing themselves from it all. They have had a lot of practice.

The U.S. has a history of making pacts with countries of questionable character in order to accomplish short-term goals. Many, many examples can be given. It seems that little regard is given to the long-term consequences of such actions until it is way too late. And, then, in the aftermath of a tragic attack, it is such a surprise that it happened. Yeahhhh, right.

The ‘chatter’ from the terrorists indicates that they are concerned about Obama’s presidency. They are afraid that if Obama actually sits down at a table and talks to the leaders of the terrorist countries, public support of the terrorists will wane and they will become vilified by the citizens. I’m sure that is a scary thought for someone who has dedicated his or her life to terrorism. It is all that they know.

Which leads me to another question that I ask quite often. What does a professional terrorist do when terrorism is no longer relevant, necessary, or wanted? Are they unionized? Is there a retirement plan for them? Hmmmmm.