Saturday in Michigan

As I noted earlier, last Sat AM, Up North, it was 15 degrees below zero at 8 AM.  Today, we are headed up to 65; it's already 60 degrees at noon.

Running with my blind buddy this AM reminded me of my good fortune.  Not only do I have my sight, but also am lucky to be inspired by him.  He was talking a bit about training, in years past, for his marathon(s).  And he noted how difficult it is for a blind runner to train.  He was right!  Not only did Michael have to put in the miles and miles and miles of training, up to 22 or 23 or more, with all of the time; he also had to have guide runners who could and were willing to run that far.  With one of his training periods, I put in the miles, so I decided I might as well try another marathon, too.  But with his others (two or three?), I just did the long runs with him.  I didn't want to run another marathon.  It's one thing to run with a blind man, say, for 5 or 6 miles on the city streets.  It's quite a different matter to run 22 or 23 the streets.  We had to find a bit more secluded spot.  He also reminded me of a race he did in Chicago, a stair-climbing event.  It went up a skyscraper, 42 stories he said.  Michael climbed the stairs "two at a time."  Wow!  My quads are hurting just think about that.

I heard this AM that the U of Connecticut is building a dorm for black males only.  That isn't true, at least not completely so.  The new dorm will have a wing that will house only black males, by their choice.  Still, that seems to ring hollow to me in light of all US universities' insistence on "diversity."  Isn't this segregation, even if by black choice?  The rational might be noble; UConn claims it is merely seeking a way to help improve black retention and graduation rates.  But imagine if there was a "white male only" section of a dorm?  And how does this measure up to past efforts to, say, bus school children to white and black schools?  I don't know about this one.

I keep hearing on the radio ads for "substitute school teachers."  (Whoever came up with the silly name "guest teachers?"  Maybe it's the same folks who changed "junior high" to "middle school."  The reasoning behind that, I was once told, was to give the "junior high/middle school" an identity of its own, instead of being in the shadow of the (senior) high school.  But can anything be any more nebulous than "middle school?")

Why has the Republican Party become another party of Big Government?  Are, in general, the predictions of Barry Goldwater from the '60s coming true?  They sure seem like it.  Why have the Establishment Republicans abandoned Republican principles?  Is it that that really do believe in Big Government?  If so, why didn't they just become Democrats?  Is it that they are afraid, of what I'm not sure?  The Establishment has stabbed conservatives in the back, time and time again.  So now it's not just the methods (unethical and otherwise) that make the two parties similar, but their goals, although the degree is somewhat different.  But wait a while.  Soon it will be just like the pigs'/mens' rapprochement in Animal Farm.

I'm trying to think of another country, besides the US, in which its citizens, or at least a significant number of them, continually rip on themselves and their homeland.  This includes many of our leaders.  I don't know all of the nations in the world, but of those I can name, I can't think of any who are always sniping at their own.  Do the Germans and Japanese still criticize themselves for WW2 and all the evils associated with that?  Why do so many Americans hate themselves, as citizens of the US that is?

Here's a question.  Thomas Jefferson, I think, once opined that the end of democracy would come with uninformed voters.  Hmmm......  Is that what is happening now?  But here's my question:  are Americans uninformed or misinformed?  If it's the latter, is that misinformation deliberate?  I believe that there are quite a few in government/politics who deliberately misinform, obfuscate, lie.  In fact, I think much of our government and its leaders are based on a foundation of deception and dishonesty, from the local school boards to DC.  But my real concern is the media, whose responsibilities the Founders held so dear that they were protected in the very First Amendment.  The LameStream media, no doubt, doesn't tell us the truth or, at least, the whole truth.  It obfuscates, at the very least, through commission and omission.  Even the alternative media, esp the Internet, I think isn't balanced.  In many ways, it is so jaundiced (thanks to the LameStreams) that it bends too far the other way.  It is hard to believe anything these days.