Mot the Blogger

I have a memory from Junior High. I was about thirteen or fourteen. My English teacher at the time...her name escapes me right now...asked as an extra curricular activity, to write an essay on which writer we thought had the most impact on our world. Any writer, any media or format. I of course had no intention of doing any activity that wasn't "required". I hated school and did as little as possible. I went home that night over dinner I picked up the newspaper. Back then the newspaper would print a quote every day right below the horoscope section in the comics, and that days caught my eye. It read:

"My own mind is my own church."
Thomas Paine

This point in my life was very turbulent, as is every thirteen/fourteen year old's life. I was really questioning God and Church. See, I wasn't a catholic or a protestant or a jew. Many of my friends WERE however and my friends were forced into CCD class and the like. I noted it was always the MOST un-christian like families that put their kids through this wringer. My parents did nothing of the kind with me. No church. Sundays were spent watching the Red Sox or Patriots with my dad, or out running around. Of course my friends loved to pontificate how I was going to hell...along with my parents...and they were all going to get to go to heaven. Me=hellfire. Them=paradise. This of course scared me. When I read that quote, something in my head just went WOW. I quickly went to the old New England Shopping Center (I think that is what it was called) which was right where the Square One mall is today. I know most kids would have went to the library, but I was delivering newspapers, bussing tables, and still scoring a weekly allowance from my parents. I spent a fortune every week at the Walden Books that was located there. This particular day I picked up The Age of Reason and I believe a American History book that had a one page biography of Thomas Paine. Now the quote as printed in the paper was simply: "My own mind is my own church."  In the book I purchased, The Age of Reason, I was able to read the entire passage. The context. It forever changed my life. It read:

 "I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.
 All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit."

My mouth was agape. I read and re read and re read that passage over and over. I began at that moment to realize that I did not need the intersession of another man or woman into my spirtual life and put God's stamp on it. I could believe what I SUSPECTED about God. Or I could not believe at all! Suddenly I had an essay to write! I proceeded to write my one and only extra curricular assignment I ever wrote for any class in Junior High School! My teacher wrote "interesting" and gave me an A. Thomas Paine however became a hero to me, not only for what he wrote about American politics, but for what he wrote about religion. I was free. Free to think and act.

Mot the Blogger

Steroids in baseball. Who would have thunk it a few years back? Wealthy people cheating? I've never heard of such a thing have you? Today's blog is about "Rocket" Roger Clemens . It's also about steroids in general. I grew up in the Boston area. Roger was the best pitcher in baseball. Roger can me named in the same breath as Cy Young, Nolan Ryan, any great who ever hurled a ball. Roger was a diva but he was great.The Red Sox as a team and the fans of Boston were willing to put up with his attitude. Roger complained about carrying his own luggage. Roger complained about the crappy facilities at Fenway. Roger complained. A lot. For many of the die hard Boston faithful it didn't matter. I'm a Toronto Blue Jay fan. When Clemens arrived in Toronto from Boston for the 1997 season I was a little torn. I had seen Roger at his worst and best. Toronto had fallen hard from its days as a world champion. I had hoped this was a sign that the team was on it's way up. I also remember reflecting to myself, "Clemens? That guy is on the downward side of baseball hill." He was going to be thirty five that August. Pitchers tend to star tailing off at this point. Roger went on to have two fantastic seasons in Toronto. In each of his two seasons with the Blue Jays Clemens won the pitching triple crown, leading the league in wins, ERA, and strikeouts. Two Cy Young Awards. It is also at this point where people have speculated that "Rocket" may have started using steroids. Clemens went on to play for The Yankees and Astros racking up impressive numbers as the birthdays came and went. There seemed to be no stopping the ageless wonder. Before 2004 MLB did not look for steroids. One could make an argument that since steroid tests weren't mandatory until 2004, any use of steroids by a player should be forgiven. If major league baseball wasn't too concerned why should the players? Potential treasure troves of money are involved. Who among us could look ourselves in the mirror and say they would let such stakes rise and fall on pure talent and chance? I have had discussions with some of my friends on Clemens and his allegeded use and one commented "if something ain't outright looked for how can you blame a guy for getting an advantage?" Everyday we see examples of people who cheat and become successful. On your ride to work or school how many of us have seen the guy who skips a long line of traffic going forward, by hitting an open right only or left only lane and cutting off everybody? How many parents reading my blog, have done a project in it's entirety for their child? How many parents have done homework for their kids?  If cheating is an everyday occurrence among us mere mortals, how can we expect the supermen above us not to cheat also? They are after all ordinary men in personality. It can be speculated that Roger's rocket arm would have crashed to earth a lot sooner than it did, and was only held in upper orbit by a "tainted" fuel.  But due to the timing of his alleged use should Roger be forgiven?


Mot the Blogger

Undoubtedly, the recent controversy over the proposed mosque near The World Trade Center site has ignited debate in this country. Newt Gingrich had a great sounding line this morning. Newt compared the building of the mosque near the World Trade Center site to Nazi's erecting a shrine next to Auschwitz. This was a GREAT sounding line. It got my attention and definitely gave me a moment to pause and think. If you analyze that statement, you'll find some fundamental flaws in that argument. We are not at war with all Muslims. We were at war with every single Nazi that trod the earth during WWII. Hitler did indeed use elements of a religion in his political ideology, it still remains that Nazi Germany was more of a governmental entity than a religious organization. I have a question. What about all those Iraqi Muslims who fought on the United States side during the two Gulf Wars? Would you deny them? Would you deny them a place to worship near this site? Men who fought alongside this country? If you cannot deny them then you cannot deny any. This is America. If you got the time, inkling and approval, people of any group should be able to build houses of worship wherever they want. Just look at the Irish and Italians who built Catholic churches during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in America. You will find many a editorial, public speech, or handbill from that era that depicted Catholics as conspirators against America! Sound familiar? This of course was bullshit. The descendants of those Catholics thumped a Kaiser, survived a depression, and along with our allies whooped the Germans and Japanese into submission. Now their descendants want to point at a selected demographic and yell about a religious conspiracy against our great nation? I have a question for Newt Gingrich. How far away do the Muslims have to go? Whats the optimum distance from the site Newt? Four blocks? Twelve? Canada? Please let me know. 


Mot the Blogger

I love Sundays. The days of the week have a feel and Sundays is very distinct. Sundays feel lazy. If you work your ass off on a Sunday you feel especially tired. For me Sundays always meant the newspaper. I always looked forward to my dad to arrive home with the paper. The newspaper on Sundays was always bigger and better than any other day. It was filled to the brim with everything you needed to know for that time. Newspapers were the internet before the internet.  The power they wielded was on par of what the social networking sites of the twenty first century have. I won't lament the newspapers down fall. They remind us not everything stays the same. Evolution at work is a beautiful process that is all around us. It is also sad. Your neighborhood you grew up in changes. Families move. Houses get torn down and rebuilt differently. The rhythms change. Rituals and the businesses they create are born, live and then die. When we observe these changes we feel sad. A piece of us just died. Death and loss permeate our lives. We suffer from a spiritual diabetes. Lives are built on foundations that are intrinsically diseased. Life hacks away at our physical and emotional bodies. Piece by piece the limbs that make up your life, your friends and family are stolen away. We lament our missing limbs. I'm not sure but maybe that is the difference between happy people and sad people. Sad people stare at the missing bits of their life, screaming at the doctor and cursing his scalpel. The happy people mourn their missing bits. The difference is they can grow replacements and move on with life.

Mot the Blogger

Please check out this Sunday Funny from the past: http://twitpic.com/2f0xir  It says a lot about life if you look.
Thanks to Roger Ebert for the link.

Check out: http://comics.com/

If you want to read about some of the untruths propagated in America's pick up: All the News UNFIT to Print. How things were and how they were reported. You can get it here: http://www.amazon.com/All-News-Unfit-Print-Reported/dp/0470405236

On a steamy August morning I embarked upon a journey to BJ's Wholesale in Revere, MA. My girl wanted to do some food shopping and pick herself up some chicken breasts and thighs. It was boiling hot as I tooled down Rt 107 with my girl beside me.

Our car, sadly, has no working air conditioner so we were uncomfortable. Entering the parking lot, I pulled into the gas station that is attached to the store. One of the best advantages of my membership is that gas station, which always has the lowest price around. I take advantage of it almost every time I shop here. I filled up and proceeded into the BJ's Wholesale Club. We wandered the aisles and finally came upon the bakery/produce/deli section of the store. BJ's has one kick ass bakery! They have EVERYTHING and it is yummy. I have never been disappointed. Their bread selection, especially the artesian style, is outstanding. Right next to the bakery is the deli with a foods to go that you see at all the supermarkets, with rotisserie chicken's etc.etc. Then you hit the meat section next to that. This is where our membership pays off. I challenge anybody to find a supermarket with a better value or selection. She bought two packages of individually wrapped chicken breast and two packs of thighs. Off to the checkout!  As you may discover if you use the self checkout register like the gal and I do, it can go haywire when it comes to the part when you have to scan the bar code on meats/deli/produce items. Very often when you place the item on the conveyor belt, it's rejected and rolled back to you. Try again. Then the beacon on the register begins the "help this stooge" s.o.s pulse. An employee swoops in an bails you out within a minute or two. Beep,boop,beep boop their fingers punch codes and boom your through-thank-you I-will-have-a nice day. Off we go. However, unbeknown to us, the one pack of chicken thighs that had needed the extra effort, did NOT register at the sale price of $5.36 but $10.21! We of course didn't catch the error until we trekked all the way back to our apartment. Upon discovering the error we debated going back. $4.85 cents isn't a lot of money but...that's a lot of money to be overcharged! When one is owed money one always rounds up. As far as I was concerned BJ's owed us an Abe Lincoln! However this would require another hot excursion, and since bad tempers settled in we decided screw it we'll take them back another time. When I settled in front of my computer in our steaming hot apartment, I was stewing. Hot, sweaty, disgruntled and mad I hit my Twitter account up and tattled like a little schoolboy on the class bully who took his lunch money!  My 140 character rant tweeted our rage into Twitter nation. The next day I got an unexpected message back on my Twitter timeline.  It was BJ's twittering me an apology! Not only that but I got an offer of a refund, a handwritten apology letter from Rich Capone, manager of the store and some coupons! This all from one tweet sent from my computer! The response was unreal! I conclude some companies are going to do very well in this social network age, BJ's Wholesale Club is one. If you yourself have this situation don't hesitate to use the power of social networks to get satisfaction. In the meantime hit BJ's Wholesale Club's link www.bjs.com/ and get yourself a membership. You'll be glad you did.


Mot the Blogger

I think I'll grab some Ha-Lin tonight. One of the better places in Lynn to get food.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Living in Lynn has it's perks and advantages. Commuting is relatively easy. There are lots of great places to eat. The beach is beautiful and there is a real effort underway to make Lynn a place where people can enjoy living. Of course as with any city, there are drawbacks. There is a side of Lynn that seems to attract tragedy especially for those who should be in the prime of life. Rene Valdez's recent murder is an example of that. To his friends and family, who now only have memories instead of living breathing moments of fun & joy, he will forever and eternally be a young fifteen year old kid. His alleged murderer, Javon Walczak, was a marijuana dealer who had dealt with and dealt to Rene Valdez before. According to todays Daily Item newspaper, in a story by Thor Jourgensen, Valdez and a friend, Darren Colucci, conspired to rob Walczak. Valdez was killed at the arraigned meeting, which according to the Boston Herald, was witnessed by a 12 year old boy. The witness stated the group of men met up in the street. Some shouts and slashes later, Valdez suffered a fatal wound to his neck. Colucci took off, as did Walczak. Valdez died. At fifteen. Dead. And for what? A green plant that gets you slightly giddy and helps relax you a bit. But because of it's illegality, the value of this plant is astronomical. People make a living from it on both sides of the law. My heart and sympathy goes out to the Valdez family who by all accounts tried hard to keep young Rene on the straight and narrow. However, one
must think of the Walczak family too. Should Javon have just surrendered his stash? If he did, would he be the one who wound up with a fatal neck wound? Was it self defense? Should he walk away with minimum punishment. What should happen to young Walcazak? Is he a murderer? Or a survivor?

Mot the Blogger