The Dads Edition

Well I've effectively taken the last few weeks off from most things internet related. We have been getting ready for a garage sale (which we had this past Saturday) and that took up a great deal of my free time. Sunday was Fathers Day, and it wouldn't be right to let the time pass without talking about a couple of fathers that are important to me. My father-in-law, Gerry, has meant a lot more to me than just a father. He's been my friend, advisor, and softball and golfing companion (though not enough of the latter sadly). At Shell and my "Canadian" wedding (we of course have to define our American and Canadian weddings for scoring purposes), I told the story about the first time Gerry and I met. How he picked us up from the airport in Toronto and drove us the hour plus back to their house in Waterloo. After flying across country from San Francisco we were dead tired, but he was so happy to be seeing his daughter for the first time in a year, he wanted to take us around to look at the Christmas lights. The punch line I used was that I was sure he was just looking for a place to dump my body. But seriously, I could tell right away how much he loved Shell and I knew that if I ever had a shot in her family, his was the respect I had to earn ultimately. I'm still not sure that I have fully, but we've at least reached a point I think where he knows enough about me that he has a good idea of who I am...and at least to this point...he hasn't shot me. So there's that. If I have to live far away from my own biological father, I'm glad I have him to call when I need a Dad. Number two on the hit parade, but number one in our hearts of course, is my own Dad, the good Reverend Lloyd. Growing up in a military household, and then as a preacher's kid...you can say I know a little bit about discipline. As most kids, especially PKs, I chafed a great deal at the strictness, and at times the spotlight of having strangers talking to me as if they knew me, looking at me as if I'm some sort of reflection of my Dad. Now, much older and a *tad* wiser, I understand just how true that perception (and reality) can be. I'm sure at times I disappointed my Dad, but I never meant to. Unfortunately when I was really young, he was away at sea quite a bit. I'm sure he missed being away from us as kids- but then again knowing how ornery I could be, maybe being on a ship saved his sanity! I guess looking back now I realize that when it comes right down to it, I got really lucky. First I got lucky to have parents who cared enough to be firm, pay attention, and want me to walk the straight and narrow. Second, I got lucky enough to fall into a group of close friends, especially Andrews and Hartraft, who were decent, good people on their own right. They have both been fathers now for quite a number of years, as has my little brother Dave and my brother-in-law, Tim. When you grow up with people from childhood, seeing them at their best, and sometimes at a little less than their best, it is hard to imagine them as fathers. Yet each of them is an amazing father, and I've watched them over time and learned from them. You really are a product of your environment and those people, my parents and my friends, helped to shape who I am- though they probably wouldn't want to take the blame for the less than perfect episodes of my life...and in fairness the blame is only mine. So those six men, fathers all, have in their own ways taught me and continue to teach me, what it means to be a father. I hope that as my journey of fatherhood begins I can at least come close to the template they have shown me. To them all, and the other fathers out there, Happy Father's Day. Not only was this past Sunday Fathers Day but it was also my niece Christina's 1st birthday. She came into the world very early and we were so scared last summer, but she's so big and strong now. I talked to her on the phone the other day and my mom told me she was kissing the phone :) What a cutie!!! I miss seeing her :( Speaking of cuties and babies...Shelley is approaching 30 weeks here's a shot of her in one of the rare moments she's not green with nausea I've taken a few new pictures of the gardens...Shell hasn't been able to do much in the yard lately but some of the flowers popped in the last few weeks In other birthday news... tomorrow is Willow's 2nd birthday!!! Things are coming along well in the house. We've done a lot to start getting the baby's room ready, though there's still lots to do. I'm also working on some political stuff for those interested and I'll post them to the archives as I finish them- I'm still working on a long-ish essay about Deep Throat/Watergate etc. Finishing The Da Vinci Code and Duel: Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr as we await the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Until next time Cheers

The One Who Makes It All Go 'Round Edition

In lieu of a large post this week you all get to share in the very special surprise I (along with others) have been cooking up this week... Today is my beautiful bride's birthday and here's a little tribute to her Click Here I love you my sweet Baboo!!!!!! If any of you weren't able to participate and you want to drop her a line today you can just leave a comment at the bottom of this page, just click the comments link below and make sure you sign your name so she knows who it is from. Until next week Cheers

Deep Throat and the Partisan Echo Chamber

My brother chided me after a recrnt post that I'm long-winded and only occasionally amusing- like this is *any* news to me or anyone else for that matter. Well strap yourselves in because this will probably take a while as well. There is of course only one story that I could possibly write about this week and that is the revelation of Mark Felt as Deep Throat, the deep background source for Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's reporting during the Watergate investigation. There are many obvious reasons why the story interests me: my love of presidential history, my childhood desire to be a journalist, and the strange affinity I have for all things Nixonian. I was born Sunday morning November 3, 1968 in San Diego (about 100 miles south of Nixon's birthplace of Yorba Linda) only 48 hours before Nixon was elected president. One of my first memories was watching Nixon resign on television (I was only 6, but precocious). One glance at my bookcases will tell you that I find Nixon most compelling (I have about a dozen books on Nixon/Watergate/or Nixon related matters.) And for good reason. Richard Nixon is one, if not the most, powerful figures in politics in the US in the second half of the 20th century. His successes and failures, from his days in Congress to the Vice Presidency to the Presidency to his post administration years, are virtually unparalleled. As I was growing up and getting increasingly political, my father and I had many clashes of political ideology, but one thing we seemed to be able to agree on was our mutual loathing of John Dean. Though we never discussed too deeply the crimes and misdemeanors of Nixon, I knew we both thought Dean to be a "rat". What bothered me wasn't so much Dean's squealing, but the fact that he was obviously very involved in the criminal activity underneath Watergate and yet like a rat, jumped ship and sold out everyone else. Felt's situation was much different. He was not a part of the criminal activity in Watergate, and sensing the corruption all around and unable to determine who was clean, he went to the only other outlet he had- the press. Did he have other motives as well? Probably. But they don't mitigate the fact that he had no other place to go. Is he a hero? Perhaps, perhaps not. I'm still undecided. However he most certainly is NOT the villain that Nixon apologists and conservative demagogues in the right-wing media would have you to believe. To hear G. Gordon Liddy and Chuck Colson, villify Felt as a criminal, etc is absurd. Liddy and Colson (and others) did time for their criminal activity, most of which was exposed in part due to Felt's activity, therefore they have little to no credibility in my opinion. History's greatest challenge is the constantly guard against its rewriting for partisan agenda. True, history should judge President Nixon not just for the sins of Watergate, but for the victories of a great deal of his foreign policy (including detente and opening the door to China), yet the sins must exist in the record not be whitewashed by a partisan echo chamber.