Author: William

Jerry Doyle Show

I have been indulging myself lately by watching the DVDs of Babylon 5. I have wanted the DVDs for a long time but I was unwilling to pay the $79.95 price per season. Now however, my local Sam’s Club is selling them for $40 per season. This is a much more realistic number for my budget.

So far I have made it through Season Three. I finally have many of the plotline questions resolved that I never understood before. During the original series run, I managed to see about 90 percent of the episodes but missed a few subtle story elements. (For more on Babylon 5 see the Lurker’s Guide.)

One of the main characters in the Babylon 5 series was Michael Garibaldi who was played by Jerry Doyle. Doyle looks similar to Bruce Willis during his Die Hard movie days. Doyle has an amazing resume and is currently a talk show host.

I first heard Doyle’s show as a filler on KFBK when Mark Williams was on vacation. His show format reminds me of Laura Ingraham and is carried by the same network.

I would describe him as less of a hardcore Republican than Hugh Hewitt but worth a listen. I listen to his show noon to 3 pm via the Internet.

Musing on Immigration

The hot topic in the news lately has been immigration. Some call them “undocumented” while others prefer “illegal” to describe the wave of invaders coming across the Southern Border of the United States.

This issue is full of more pitfalls for Republicans who have allowed themselves to be defined by those hoping to cultivate political support from these potential voters. Many have let themselves be falsely identified as bigots and racists for wanting to uphold current immigration laws. Other Republicans are so traumatized by this stigma hanging over them that they are running along side of the McCain express to nowhere.

On the other hand, there is a segment of this group that are regular voters for the Democrats. There is much voter fraud in our system especially by illegals; just ask B-1 Bob Dornan. Democrats control the system and have no intention of fixing a rigged system that benefits them both on Election Day and every ten years in the census.

We need a political leader to find a realistic balance between protecting our national interests of security and this mass of humanity that is already here. Unfortunately, President Bush is back to his pre-9/11 position on the issue, while the Senate Republicans and all of the Democrats are playing politics with peoples lives and the security of our nation. The goal of this current round of talk on immigration reform is just an elaborate ruse to stakeout election year territory.

Michael Savage is correct that it is about borders, language and culture but he is not the right messenger to convince the masses. Savage is good at confrontation but persuasion is not his leading attribute.

Both Huge Hewitt and Rush Limbaugh have been bringing out different and insightful comments on this issue.

Hewitt advocates building a real wall along the border and patrolling it to keep illegals out.  It would cut down on the rate of illegal immigration.

Limbaugh says make them all legal but don’t give them the right to vote if they entered illegally. If that is too hot to handle he suggested just barring illegals from voting right now. His point is that the Democrats (and some Republicans) don’t really care about fixing immigration; they are just positioning themselves to get votes from these people.

I have had dealings with the Immigration and Naturalization Service (mostly before it was taken over by the Department of Homeland Security) and the system is broke. It needs to be reinvented from scratch. It may have been state-of-the-art in the 1930’s but it is based on an unworkable and obsolete paradigm of information processing.

In addition, the artificial quotas mandated by Congress on who can come here only make the problem worse. The numbers of people allowed to enter each year are too low to make it worthwhile for people to follow our rules for getting here. Immigration policy is the only part of the government that mandates quotas on race, religion and national origin. The role of the State Department in the immigration process also adds many layers and delays to this cumbersome process.

My feeling right now is a pox on both parties.

Lastly, the strawman that gets beat-up by both Republicans and Democrats is the cry to go after employers of illegals. Anybody that says this is ignorant and has never signed the front of a paycheck.

If you apply for a job in this country and have the necessary documents required by the Form I-9 then I have to hire you. As a practical matter, it is illegal for me not to hire you ever if I suspect your documents are bogus. There is no government-authorized mechanism to verify if you are really a citizen. In fact you don’t need to show me a Social Security Card to meet the requirements on the Form I-9!

As an employer, I can get very limited information from the Social Security Administration on a pass/fail basis with no explanation why they don’t like a Social Security Number. I get a letter from them ever year telling me one fourth on our employees have bad numbers but the same letter emphasizes that it is illegal to fire someone that you think might have phony papers. Their letter makes it clear that this is a matter directly between the Social Security administration and the employee. The government reserves all power in this area for themselves.

Without the means to verify the legitimacy of potential employees, no enforcement on the hiring practices of employers is warranted. Last year, only three employers in the entire country were prosecuted for hiring illegals!

Apple Sends OS X to Boot Camp

Apple Computer has released a software patch titled “Boot Camp” that will allow an Apple with Intel processor to dual boot to either their OS X or Microsoft Windows XP. Apple won’t support the “Boot Camp” software or the XP installation on their computers.

Why Apple thinks this would encourage PC users to switch to their overpriced computers is unclear. The articles that I read also does not state whether you will need to get proprietary drivers to make Windows XP run on your Apple.

A more detailed article can be found at C-Net.

See Apple Press Release.

It is unclear whether there are architectural differences between the Intel Pentium family of processors and those being utilized by Apple that could affect the performance of Windows XP on the Apple platform.

In previous generations of Microsoft Operating Systems based on Windows NT, Microsoft supported RISC microprocessors such as MIPS,  Alpha and Apple’s Power PC. This was discontinued many years ago.

Last time, Microsoft modified their OS to run on the Apple platform and this time Apple has modified their platform to run Microsoft’s OS.

It is fun to watch the love/hate relationship that Apple has had with Microsoft over the years. If Microsoft hadn’t bailed-out Apple a few years back Apple’s music download and iPod empire would never had been possible and Windows Vista would never have been created.

Let’s Wiggle

Having grown up watching kids show like the Banana Splits and a myriad of productions from Sid and Marty Croft, I have my memories of children’s television in a more innocent age. As a father I now get to go through this phase of growing up with my seventeen month old son.

Until recently, all he wanted to do was hit every button on the TV and the assortment of remote controls that he could get his hands on. However, he has become mesmerized by an export from Down Under called The Wiggles.

The Wiggles is a fast paced show with short segments that is on the Disney Channel at 6 AM. Miraculously, it is presented commercial free. My son will sit in the rocking chair and watch every frame to the exclusion of almost all else. There are five main characters plus a few in costumes that are regulars on the show.

After watching for a few weeks, you will notice segments from various shows being reused. It is a unique mixture of silliness and mayhem with some good messages like drink water and eat vegetable soup.

I went hunting for their website and found it at http://www.thewiggles.com. Amazingly enough, they are doing four shows this month at Arco Arena on April 19 & 20. Ticket prices range from $15 to $30. If your youngster is under six then this is the show for you.

The Wiggles is a welcome upgrade from PeeWee Herman and Barney the Purple Reptile.  cool smile

Army Bans Body Armor

At a time when the Army is getting hammered by the American media for the war in Iraq, the Army has provided more ammo to its detractors. The Army in its infinite wisdom has declared that no body armor that has been privately purchased by soldiers will be allowed.

In the wake of years of reports of soldiers lacking body armor when they were sent into battle and private efforts to buy this armor for soldiers that lacked this equipment, this announcement is ill advised.

While I understand the concerns that have prompted this decision, the way it was done is a public relations disaster. Some body armor that has been commercially sold to law enforcement agencies is junk. It would not even stop a good pellet gun let alone small arms fire or a direct shot from a rifle. The Army has decided that this risk is not worth it.

I think the Army should try a different tactic. They should give the manufacturers the chance to get their body armor certified via live fire testing. It would have to meet minimum standards or be banned. Only armor that passes would be an acceptable alternative.

Blanket announcements like the one that the Army has made are the type of things that bureaucracies decree not organizations looking-out for the safety of their employees.

Abdul Rahman Highlights Afghanistan’s Darkside

Abdul Rahman is on trial for his life.  His crime is believing in Jesus. Like most Middle East countries, it is illegal to convert to Christianity. The punishment is death. This type of thing happens all the time in that part of the world. Normally, those that don’t recant their faith will be executed and have their children taken from them to be raised as Muslims.

What makes this case unique is that it is actually being covered in the mainstream media. Why? Because this is Afghanistan and the media is trying to show that President Bush is wrong for prosecuting the Global War on Terror. Their interest is embarrassing the President not advocating religious freedom.

Mr. Rahman is being offered a chance to avoid the trial if he can prove he is mentally incapacitated. It is unclear whether he actually has an opportunity for input in this decision or if the government will make such a declaration just to avoid the international embarrassment this has caused to the Afghan government.

Music Downloads #2

This is a follow-up to my previous post on music downloads.

Because my original music purchase was on a Tuesday, I was given a free download. I decided to get Petra’s Never Say Die and Washes Whiter Than. This was offered as two albums on one CD. I downloaded the songs and it looked like everything was there until I hit the play button. Oops! More malfunctions. Once again the song names did not match the tracks. This time however all the tracks were there, they were just labeled incorrectly. The song titles started with Never Say Die but the actual tracks started with Washes Whiter Than. At least they were in the correct order once you figured out what they had done.

I sent Connect another e-mail. Instead of promising to fix their mistakes they simply sent me a code to get yet another free download. I didn’t really want another download but I used it yesterday. I got a best of Jerry Reed mostly cause he’s a likeable guy and I like to collect humorous music like Ray Stevens, Gary S Paxton and Paul Shanklin. So now I Got the Gold Mine while Connect continues to give others the shaft.

Connect just impresses me as a lackadaisical subsidiary of a mega corporation. I expected more professionalism from Sony.

In summary, I have twelve of nineteen tracks from DeGarmo and Key Band’s No Turning Back, two albums (18 tracks) worth of Petra that are labeled incorrectly, twenty old songs from Jerry Reed and after a week my credit card still has not been charged.

Resources for Saint Patrick

Saint Patrick has two documents that are attributed to him which survive to this day.

The first document written by Patrick is a letter of excommunication. Patrick excommunicates a slave trader that is a member of another diocese who keeps kidnapping and murdering members of his flock.

The second document written by Patrick is a defense of false charges against him. These false charges are related to the fallout of the letter of excommunication. The document is Patrick’s testimony of his conversion to Christianity and his walk in the faith. It is called The Confession of Saint Patrick. My copy is published by Triumph Books in Liguori, Missouri.

For a good overview of these events and others in Patrick’s life you can purchase a movie called Saint Patrick: The Irish Legend. This is a great film for young and old. It stars Patrick Bergin and Luke Griffin. Believe it or not, it’s produced by the same folks that brought us the Power Rangers. How’s that for useless movie trivia.

For the best book on Patrick and his impact on the West read How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill. This book covers the period from the Fall of the Roman Empire to Medieval Europe. You can read how the movement started by Patrick brought the light to Europe that extinguished the “Dark Ages.”

The other writing that is either by Patrick or more likely his followers is commonly known as

The Breastplate of Saint Patrick or The Deer’s Cry.

I arise today through a mighty strength,
the invocation of the Trinity,
through belief in the Three-ness,
through confession of the One-ness
towards the Creator.

I arise today through the strength of Christ’s Birth with His Baptism,
through the strength of His Crucifixion with His Burial
through the strength of His Resurrection with His Ascension,
through the strength of His descent for the Judgment of Doom.

I arise today through the strength of the love of Cherubim,
in obedience of Angels,
in the service of the Archangels,
in hope of resurrection to meet with reward,
in prayers of Patriarchs,
in predictions of Prophets,
in preachings of Apostles,
in faiths of Confessors,
in innocence of Holy Virgins,
in deeds of righteous men.

I arise today, through the strength of Heaven:
light of Sun,
brilliance of Moon,
splendour of Fire,
speed of Lightning,
swiftness of Wind,
depth of Sea,
stability of Earth,
firmness of Rock.

I arise today, through God’s strength to pilot me:
God’s might to uphold me,
God’s wisdom to guide me,
God’s eye to look before me,
God’s ear to hear me,
God’s word to speak for me,
God’s hand to guard me,
God’s way to lie before me,
God’s shield to protect me,
God’s host to secure me:
against snares of devils, against temptations of vices,
against inclinations of nature, against everyone who shall
wish me ill, afar and anear, alone and in a crowd.

I summon today all these powers between me (and these evils):
against every cruel and merciless power that may oppose
my body and my soul,
against incantations of false prophets,
against black laws of heathenry,
against false laws of heretics,
against craft of idolatry,
against spells of witches, smiths, and wizards,
against every knowledge that corrupts man’s body and soul.
Christ to shield me today
against poisonings, against burnings,
against drownings, against woundings,
So there come to me an abundance of reward.

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ where I lie down, Christ where I sit down, Christ where I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

I arise today through a mighty strength,
the invocation of the Trinity,
through belief in the Three-ness,
through confession of the One-ness
towards the Creator.

Salvation is of the Lord.
Salvation is of the Lord.
Salvation is of Christ.
May Thy Salvation, O Lord, be ever with us.

I would love to hear this poem set to music.

 

Other Resources

The Celtic Page

The Celtic Saints by Courtney Davis

Music Download: DeGarmo and Key Band

DeGarmo and Key Band made a live album back in about 1981. It was called No Turning Back. It was originally released as a double LP and later as a double CD. Some songs on the album were never released on any other recordings. Needless to say the CDs are out of print.

I happen to own a copy of the CDs. However my disc 2 is defective. There was a period of time shortly after CDs first came out that defective media was mass-produced and sold. The media layers inside the CD will breakdown and render the CD useless. This is apparently what happened to my disc.

I have been watching E-Bay for copies of the CD but to going rate is close to $100. There are two albums by DeGarmo and Key that are not widely available as downloads on places like I-Tunes. This recording is one; the other is their album This Ain’t Hollywood.

I found a link at Sparrow Records that had said that the following titles were available for download. One of the albums listed was No Turning Back. Wow! I might be able to replace my bad disc via a music download. Fantastic!

I checked the four websites referenced at the Sparrow site. This is rather cumbersome because several require proprietary software to be downloaded to even view their sites. As it turns out, only one site actually had the elusive album for download. That site was Connect which is affiliated with Sony. I hesitated somewhat at the name of Sony. Why? Because of their recent reputation of installing spyware as part of their music licensing agreement.

My desire for this music outweighed my concern that this corporation is watching me. My other concern is the proprietary format that you must purchase the music in. (I’ll have more to say about this shortly.)

Once the software was downloaded, installed and my computer did the obligatory restart, I went to the site and created my account and purchased the music; 19 tracks for 9.99. I downloaded the songs to my computer and then said to myself, “hello old friends.” I hit the play button to enjoy some songs that I hadn’t heard in ten or more years and then it hit me: these aren’t right! Songs 1-7 were actually duplicates of 13-19. Tracks 1-7 were the correct names but wrong data files. Look at the time duration of the songs. The song order of the actual download is different from the album. Hey guys this is a live album. The order matters too.

The good news for me is that I did get all the tracks to rebuild my disc 2. Unfortunately, I didn’t get what I thought I was paying to download. I sent an e-mail to the company. I’m curious what type of response that I get from a large corporation about a rather obscure download on their site.

In addition to the tracks being hosed-up, one of the tracks that I downloaded that was labeled correctly has audio gaps about two-thirds of the way through the song. I tried downloading the track again on a different computer and have the same error at the same spot. Therefore their master is bad. I wonder if they ripped the song from the CD release and had a defective disc 2.

I was concerned about using music that was in a proprietary format. I created a CD from the software that I had download for the Connect music site and then ripped the CD in Windows Media format on my home computer. I labeled the tracks and now can use the files like any other music files on my computer. There does not appear to be any copy protection on the files in Windows Media format.

Mitt Romney: Spanking McCain and Challenging Evangelicals

The Southern Republican Leadership Conference held in Nashville over the weekend took a much-publicized “straw poll” of potential presidential contenders. Senate Majority Leader, Bill Frist, who bussed in many supporters, won the poll, but to the surprise of many, Mitt Romney, the governor of Massachusetts can in second.

Media darling and Republican Brutus of the Senate, John McCain had a poor showing. This so-called “Maverick” (apologies to James Garner) got spanked by the Republican base in this symbolic vote. The Senator—who is a legend only in his own mind—has no chance of winning anything nationally.

As a result of his strong showing, the issue that has again been raised is Romney’s religion. Romney is a member in good standing in the Salt Lake branch of the Mormons (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints). Eric Hogue spent much of his program today on this topic.

Hogue’s basic question is will the Evangelical Base of the Republican Party support a candidate that is active in a non-Christian cult? No, he didn’t word his question this way but this is what he was looking to explore with his callers.

Other than to stipulate that I agree that the Mormons are not Christian because they deny the historic tenants of the Christian faith, Hogue asks a question worthy of analysis.

I think that much of Romney’s presidential effort will depend on what candidates are competitive in the early going and also on what baggage can be found during his time as governor of Massachusetts. Abortion and gay marriage will be high profile issues when people look at Romney.

If the traditional Republican Platform on social issues, Romney’s faith and his actions as governor are in agreement then he should be ok. However, if he could have stopped gay marriage from becoming implemented in Massachusetts or has any hypocrisy on the Life issue he will not get the support from the base that he needs to survive the primaries.

There are two practical questions that must be asked about any candidate but especially Romney; first, how would his policies as President compare to Ronald Reagan and George W Bush? Second, what type of people would Romney appoint if he is elected?

I would expect Romney to spend lots of time courting James Dobson and other evangelical leaders to either stay neutral in the primaries or support him because he is in agreement with them on issues like gay marriage, abortion and the Supreme Court justices. If Romney can make a case that he would be like an evangelical on social issues and act as a fiscal conservative then he just might pull this off.