Oh, What Fun It Is...

In case you were wondering, suburban Detroit is not America's most scenic Christmas vacation spot.

And while the refurbished terminal now housing American Airlines at Detroit's Metro Airport is brighter than the old terminal, it is woefully less efficient. I think we walked half the way from Dallas to Detroit in that interminable terminal.

On Christmas day, some idiot Nigerian tried to blow up a plane preparing to land at the same airport, but the explosives packed between his legs malfunctioned. Meanwhile, the Fort Worth - Dallas area enjoyed its first white Christmas since the 1920's.

A strange way to spend the Christmas holidays. Fortunately for us, our family time pretty much revolved around everything else. Funny, isn't it - how five kids can draw the focus from your own world onto their antics?

Upon returning home, I started checking out FaceBook, and discovered an obscure presidential order that was signed under the cloak of darkness (the darkness being the current healthcare debate) on December 16. You won't find this on any news site; you'll have to read about it on your favorite blogger's site. Just Google "amending executive order 12425". I'll wait while you check it out.

Hadn't heard about "amending executive order 12425", had you? That Obama has granted INTERPOL exclusive privilege to ignore standard law enforcement procedures regarding the rights of American citizens, our privacy, and due process? Depending on the website you researched for this topic, the vitriol against Obama ranges from "maybe we don't know the full story" to calls for impeachment. I would agree with one friend on FaceBook who wondered when Obama is going to prove he's on our side.

Not that Obama is as atrocious a president as Rush and his cronies claim him to be. If George W. Bush was a Democrat, right-wing pontificators would have had similar ammunition with which to blast him (think government spending, immigration, bailouts). From where I stand, the last good president - despite his flaws - was Ronald Reagan. Reagan had the Iran-Contra scandal and a wife who consulted mystics, but he was in the right place at the right time to help push open the Iron Curtain, along with the much-maligned Iron Lady of England, Margaret Thatcher. Maybe anybody who was president at that time could have done the same things Reagan did, but it was Reagan who sat in the Oval Office then, and I don't mind giving him credit for the role he played in the historic stand-down from the Cold War.

Flash forward to December 16, and we have President Obama amending the original amendment signed by President Reagan actually certifying INTERPOL in the USA to begin with. Except Obama went someplace Reagan would never have gone: on behalf of the citizens of the United States, Obama signed away our rights to due process so that INTERPOL can operate virtually without impunity despite our national sovereignty. That, my friends, is not the mark of a good president, whether they be Democrat or Republican.

So, with all of the weird goings-on this Christmas season, from the warped, sleazy healthcare mess to an impotent suicide bomber, we add the sly bit of sovereignty-busting by our very own president.

Oh yes, add the sloppy, poorly-thought-out missive from the Department of Homeland Security - after the Detroit incident - that airplane passengers couldn't go to the restrooms during the last half-hour of their flight. As if that's the only time during the flight in which an explosive can be detonated!

With the Year of Our Lord 2010 looming in the windshield, you'll understand if I'm not terribly optimistic.

The Problem With Blogs

Of what benefit to the human race is the addition of another blog to the Internet? Before yesterday, my primary opinion of blogs was that they are a dangerous new world where people of questionable qualifications and integrity can say just about anything they want. It's like giving used car salesmen free space in the New York Times (which some conservatives might say would be an improvement).

To create this blog, all I had to do was go to blogspot.com and Google guided me through the easy steps to creating my own mouthpiece on the web. I didn't have to certify any educational achievemments, I didn't have to promise that everything I write will be true and accurate, I didn't submit myself to any governing authority other than the website's policy police.

So how do we know that Osama bin Laden doesn't have his own blog? How do we know that somebody writing under a Rush Limbaugh alias isn't really a covert Taliban operative? How do you know that any blogger you read really knows what they're talking about?

How do we know that Google isn't a secret arm of the CIA, quietly monitoring every blog for subversive content that will be forwarded to a clandestine White House department compiling new McCarthy-esque un-American activities (whatever those are)?

The only guarantee which I can offer readers of this blog - to let you know that I'm an honest, thinking person who is willing to consider alternative viewpoints and use logic to reason away fallacy - is this: if I ever sing the praises of Hillary's Vast Right Wing Conspiracy and/or the late Ted "glug glug" Kennedy, you'll know an imposter has commandeered this blog.

Introduction

Keeping my opinions to myself has proven to be one of the hardest things in my life. For years, I've considered it an obligation of mine to share my logic, insights, conclusions, expertise, and lack of expertise with any poor unfortunates within earshot.

It hasn't helped that people within my sphere of influence keep telling me that I write well. I write a letter to my city councilperson and she comments on my writing ability. I take a journalism class and the professor overlooks typos because my overall style impresses her. I write copy for a new workbook, and my boss barely checks it, assuming he'll be as pleased with it as he always has been.

The problem is, of course, that there are a lot of people who write well. And I fear that sometimes the reason it looks like I'm one of those people is because there are so many people who can't write a simple sentence.

So my apologies to readers of this blog who are looking for great literature. If I can convey what I want to say in a manner you understand, I hope you'll overlook the fact that my writing may not read like Tolstoy or Shakespeare. At the very least, I hope my writing doesn't get in the way of what I want to say, because I really want my readers to think about the concepts, ideas, and logic I plan on writing about.

Believe it or not, there are some writers who I think are so good, there are times when I'm reading their work and I get lost in the beauty of their prose, and the topic they're writing about almost becomes secondary. Perhaps it's best that I can't write THAT well - I wouldn't want you to lose track of my opinion by getting lost in my mastery of the English language. Thankfully, this editing pane has a spellcheck feature, so hopefully I'll remember to use it.

Why 'States of Mind'?

My blog is called "States of Mind" for a couple of reasons. First, my blog's URL is "nymetx", representing three states in North America in which I have obtained the bulk of my life experiences. I'm proud to be a native New Yorker - Brooklyn, in fact. My mother is from Maine, and my family has spent several wonderful summers in coastal Hancock County. Currently, I live in Texas, which while not a beautiful state, certainly offers a surprising variety of events and personalities to observe.

Second, I would like to work off of the phrase "state of mind" as I explore themes of logic and thinking. A lot of what I see happening around us today wouldn't happen if people thought logically about their actions and the ramifications of those actions. While to an extent logic can be tought, the ability to think logically is a tool most normal human beings come equipped with if they'd just avail themselves of that tool.

Ready... Get Set

Maybe this will be a blog that runs out of steam. Maybe people will read it once and be so nonplussed that they never return. Maybe my friends will read it more out of obligation than interest. Maybe some big company will want to pay me big money to advertise on it. Maybe Google doesn't allow that...

Like most everything else in my life, I'm not sure where this blog will go. Maybe its best use will be to help me learn to write better. Maybe some people will be confronted with another side to an issue and consider re-thinking their position. Maybe I'll be able to convey my faith so effectively that the lives of other people are touched through this blog.

As long as you stick with me, we'll see where this thing goes together! Thank you for joining me.