Where Have the Good Shows Gone

I try to keep my must see list of TV shows around five. Coming into summer the list of canceled shows is sad because so many of my favorites are on there! The Unit (like Jericho before it) was nixed by CBS. Terminator: SCC was terminated by FOX. The Unusuals was canned by ABC (as was Pushing Daisies). The way the seasons of Terminator and The Unit wrapped up left little doubt they were headed to pasture, but I really am bummed.

Shows I like that are still running: Lost, NCIS, Bones.

Other shows nixed all too soon: Jericho, Firefly.

Shows I won't miss: Knight Rider, Homeland Security, Wipe Out (oh, wait, they actually brought that back)

Good bye to Pontiac

The brand is synonymous with power. Apart from the inappropriate acrostic, I remember Pontiac a a great brand. The Grand Am was the car of the '80s. Then were the Firebird, Grand Prix, and so many other great power cars. We'll miss the cars from the ol' chief.

Read / Listen to a story at npr.org.

yep yep yep yep yep. uh huh.

One of my favorite Sesame Street sketches.

Earth Day Perspective

Today is Earth Day. People across the globe are celebrating our world's natural resources and raising awareness of the dangers humans pose to the environment. It is an opportunity for perspective. Environmentalism has become a strong force in politics (albeit with waning influence at times).

This morning on Morning Joe Bobby Kennedy said the "landscape is the source of our values, our virtues, and our character as a people." I think Mr. Kennedy's perspective is off. Granted we do have perspectives on nationalism that derived from westward expansion and the grandiose rivers, canyons, mountains, plains, shores and deltas. This landscape was not the "source" of our national psychology.

I am encouraged as many Christians become more aware of environmental stewardship as a value of our faith. I would like to see communities invest more in reducing waste that enters our landfills and water table. I look forward to people helping people worldwide. However, when people mistake our national heritage with any agenda I take caution.

Today is Earth Day, but we must remember we are to be stewards of the earth, not worship it.

Spring Like a Roller Coaster

I know it isn't just me. Spring brings sunny weather, but each year it catches me off guard when the temps vary so much. Seriously! Monday we had the jackets on, Wednesday was AC. I like the sun. I like warm. Going between the warm and cold still blows my mind.

Hussein, Can You See?

During the Presidential campaign and following I have expressed outrage at detractors who would use our President's middle name, Hussein, as a derogatory term. It has been embarrassing for a conservative like myself. So I was surprised and a bit miffed when I heard the President say to an Arab audience that America was special to elect a man named "Barack Hussein Obama."

I'm all for being proud of your heritage. But I've been working vigorously to convince my conservative friends he's a Christian, he is not Muslim. But here it was as if he was saying to the Islamic listeners I'm one of you. Forgive my presumptiveness, but it is unfair to guys like myself for the President to exploit his name this way when considering it bad form when opponents do the same.

My DC Trip

I just got home from a week in DC with my fiance, Dana. I say home, but if "home is where your heart is," I left it behind. Yes, as I'm looking ahead to being with my wife-to-be, Texas is officially in my rear view mirror. Last summer I was wrapping up to move to Raleigh to be near my brother and his family. That did not work out. I am so far past where I was then.

The trip was REALLY wonderful. I see us there doing life together. Fairfax County, Virginia, is wonderful and growing. It is set up ready for me to get around in a wheelchair. There is a school across the road where I could substitute part time and build some relationships with local families. The church, National Community Church, is a really cool community. We even worked on Dana's crazy overnight schedule.

Here are a few photos from my walk around town.

Cherry blossoms outside the Smithsonian

Newseum from Pennsylvania Ave.

Senate office buildings facing Union Station

Return capsule for future NASA rockets outside Air and Space Museum

The Capitol

The Embryonic Stem Cell Dilemma

Monday was a landmark in our national policy on science and ethics. President Obama reversed President Bush's freeze on NIH funding on embryonic stem cells. The freeze only affected research on stem cells from embryos and only made a restriction on federal funding. There were several other stem cell projects funded by the NIH and any project could still conduct research on embryonic stem cells, just without federal funding.

As a person with a disability I identify with people who have hope in the potential of stem cell treatment. Trials in petri dishes, lab mice, and even humans are promising. Even when I was first paralyzed in 1994, my doctors were aggressively studying stem cells (they were called Schwann cells). Hope is a potent element that can rally people in vulnerable conditions to a cause. Stem cell research has a following of vulnerable people (sometimes desperate, other times sympathetic) appalled at any limits on its use. At this point I cannot agree.

President Bush's limit was initiated because there is a genuine belief by many that the destruction of an embryo is the destruction of a potential human. There are many arguments for taking advantage of embryos in fertilization clinics and even creating embryos for the purpose of destruction to harvest stem cells.

There is so much opportunity without these embryonic cell lines. There are opportunities to continue in the current direction. This research takes years to develop into reliable treatment. I stand behind the funding limit on the destruction of embryos. I admonish other to step back and consider the larger argument: whether the creation and destruction of a potential person is justified by the relief of people today.

Ecological Awareness

I was asked to present my policy if I were to be President for protecting endangered species. My response follows:

My fellow Americans,

President Theodore Roosevelt once said, "We have fallen heirs to the most glorious heritage a people ever received, and each one must do his part if we wish to show that the nation is worthy of its good fortune." It was Roosevelt who also said upon seeing the destruction of the herds of wild buffalo, "The extermination of the buffalo has been a veritable tragedy of the animal world."

In the spirit of President Roosevelt I commit the resources of this government to the preservation and protection of endangered species and their habitat. Furthermore, I commit these resources to the restoration of lost habitat and reintroduction of endangered species into these their rightful homes.

Our agenda has been long tested and hard fought. Through previous administrations the regard for the sanctity of these precious national resources has fallen to the wayside. In the hands of the Federal agencies established to protect national lands companies have been allowed and even enticed to destroy precious habitat that had developed undisturbed by human hands for thousands of years. The immediate benefits toward economies or promise of conveniences have clouded the better judgment of our agency administrators.

Recognizing this struggle between progress and preservation, I am happy to announce the development of what this administration will call the Roosevelt Ecological Preservation Doctrine. This document will lay out this administration's commitment to the aggressive preservation of endangered species and their habitats. It is a comprehensive framework that affects every cabinet-level position.

No longer will environmental protection be in the hands of an agency, nor the forestry service, nor any other singular entity acting on its own, or, at times, in contradiction to other agencies. The Roosevelt Doctrine will influence conversations within the State Department regarding our adoption of treaties and interactions with countries around the world with their own ecological policies. It will affect the Department of the Interior in guiding how we distribute and manage our natural resources. It will affect how the Department of Agriculture regulates farming and harvesting of resources on public and private lands. It will affect how the Department of Housing and Urban Development prescribes projects and awards its grants. It will hold the Department of Defense accountable for the ecological impact of weaponry and technology. It will guide the Department of the Treasury to initiate efficient and ecologically-sound practices for introducing currency. It will provide the Department of Education criteria for incorporating ecological stewardship into its standards and development. It will initiate the Department of Transportation in developing and sustaining ecologically responsible options for interstate transportation. It will authorize the Department of Justice to act in the interest of endangered species and habitats in litigation. It will guide the Department of Energy to finally adopting truly sustainable forms of energy production.

I look forward to working with members of congress to craft legislation that gives teeth to existing environmental regulation by rewarding entities that act responsibly and penalizing those who disregard ecological safeguards. However, this administration will not stand idly by waiting for congressional politics and obstructionists while we already have such powerful discretion at our disposal.

President Roosevelt also admonished, "I do not believe that any man can adequately appreciate the world of to-day unless he has some knowledge of -- a little more than a slight knowledge, some feeling for and of -- the history of the world of the past." With an eye toward the past and future, may we follow in the spirit of Yellowstone to preserve a heritage for the generations of all species everywhere who follow in our footsteps.

Mr. Brown Goes to Washington

As I work his morning I am listening to CSAPN. Yes, I actually am that much of a politics government junkie. Among the recent archives was the address of Gordon Brown (the prime minister of Great Britain) to the U.S. Congress.

In his address Mr. Brown graciously paid homage to the service our country has provided his country and Europe over the years. He acknowledged Mr. Obama's historic position as President and the way nations around the world are buoyed by his leadership. He encouraged our nation to be a leader among nations in bringing about recovery from our current economic crisis.

Throughout his address the Prime Minister surprised me with biblical analogies. He alluded most poignantly to Jesus' term "a city on a hill" and to the parable of the good Samaritan who did not just walk on the other side of the road when he saw a man beaten up on the side of the road.

There was something quite inspirational in Mr. Brown's speech on action and faith. It was also something rather curious. Mr. Brown lauded "faith in the future", in education, and even in America. What he did not mention was faith in God. Now, he is no pastor, but with all of these biblical allusions and in a desperate time I had thought he might be the one to take that bold step.

Yellow Juicy Fruit

This Sunday I received a package of my favorite chewing gum, Wrigley's Juicy Fruit. I was opening my second piece when I realized it is YELLOW!

It's a nice change.

For fun, check out this YouTube Juicy Fruit Video.