The Definitions of Power

As we are beginning to learn, what constitutes Right or Wrong in government (and this includes the White House, regardless the occupant), can be manipulated by creative definitions.

The latest example being our current President's defining of 'hostilities' in the context of the War Powers Act. It seems if we are engaged in 'hostilities', the President must obtain the approval of Congress within 90 days after the start of the action. Given this President and this House of Representatives, that would be an uneasy situation, so the Prez avoids the confrontation by declaring the action not to meet the definition of 'hostilities'.

Apparently, to be hostile according to the White House, your real troops must have their actual boots on the ground in the exact place where the action is occurring. Boots comfortably planted on US territory while their owners control guided unmanned drones and fire missiles at the 'targets' isn't considered to be engaging in 'hostilities' - even though the suddenly dead occupants of blown-up buildings might argue that point, had they been given the opportunity.

Just in case you've been sleeping and haven't noticed, this 'debate' is happening right now over our involvement in Libya.

I'd like to believe this situation will spur another, broader, debate over the meaning of what is meant by 'effective' in the context of our government ...

Friends On The Ride

If you participate in an activity that most people find dangerous and inexplicable, you make acquaintances. Often, you find Friends.

This is what has happened in my passionate pursuit of riding motorcycles.

These Friends may be other Riders, or just people who like bikes. They may be met in person, or in an online forum for enthusiasts. The Friendships may be barely more than acquaintances, or they may be deep indeed.

When non-Riders overhear our conversations, they think we're nuts. How can people talk so long and fervently about 'slipper clutches', 'helmet cams', and torque curves? Why do bikers get so excited about the scary act of flying through a twisty bend at a healthy lean angle? Just what is 'lean angle' and what's so darn 'healthy' about it?

Non-Riders will instantly browse away from any motorcycle forum they may accidentally land on. If they don't, they'll be perplexed by the threads, which carry meaning only for the initiated and truly obsessed.

Shared passions and outsider status can bond people, who might otherwise share no common ground.

Which pretty much describes us - Friends on The Ride (?FoTR?).

A Tip of The Helmet, then, to a few of my FoTR who are now gone but never forgotten: Sammy, Daniel, and Uncle Ernie. Death and the Road took you too soon. Rest in Peace, Gentlemen.

A Downside of Being Connected

These days it's possible to get to know people we would never have met in times past. People who live far away, or perhaps one town over but moving in parallel but separate universes.

The internet has made this possible. It's a Good Thing, expanding our conversations and community in very real ways.

But I have just witnessed a big Down Side: with connection comes a level of caring, and when someone you know 'virtually' dies in reality, it can hurt. Perhaps not as keenly as when a 'real' and 'local' friend passes away, but still a pain that resonates.

A person I never met, whose voice I never heard, died this week. We shared presence on a web forum, sometimes responding to each other's posts, but mostly just co-existing in a local node in the webisphere. I admired his wit and wisdom. He wrote well. But I didn't really know him. I shouldn't be so affected by his death, but I am.

It's a good thing then, that a forum can grieve almost like a brick-and-mortar community. If acquaintances can be this real, our support must be too.

WeinerGate: Are There Any Grown-Ups in Congress?

I have been patiently waiting to see how our elected representatives would manage the national 'crisis' that is 'WeinerGate' - the juvenile twittering, sexting, and banal facebook postings that the media have foist upon our attentions, with the regrettable and unpalatable participation of Representative Andrew Weiner.

My patience has been futile.

On the Republican side, there appears to be no mercy and no sense 0f irony in their lambasting of the man. On the Demos side, to which Rep Weiner has been a long-time (ahem) member, we have seen little but confusion and deer-in-headlights indecision, which has been followed recently by a distinct and inhumane move toward cutting losses by tossing Weiner onto the nearest convenient trash heap. That's something we'd expect from the Palinites, not the Pelosians.

My take on the whole sordid affair?

Simple:

A. The man's an idiot, albeit an understandably human one. He is weak-willed and easily succumbs to frat-boy ideas of silly, stupid, and digusting 'fun', when he should be a sober-minded public servant. Andrew Weiner is essentially a congressional adjunct member of the 'Jackass' crew, absent the physically dangerous stunts (although we haven't seen all the emails and facebook stuff, so who knows?).

B. Our press are mostly idiots. They drop everything else of importance to cover a story that only affects the majority of us in the most peripheral of ways. And they hang on to it like it's as golden to the 4th Estate as Watergate once was. There's an element of pandering to the public's delight in watching someone powerful self-destruct, which is sad to see in play here. Feeding our guilty pleasures this way isn't in our best interest or the media's. It may bring short term viewership through titillation, but it will reap long-term self-disgust and a backlash towards the press.

C. Sadly, our elected representatives are a pretty idiotic bunch too. All of them, not just Mr. Weiner. The course of action should be obvious, but doesn't seem to register: whether the representative should be censured or should resign is a matter between Mr Weiner and his wife, his constituents, the congressional ethics committee, and the criminal justice system. If the representative is found to have committed a felony he should resign (even before conviction, in my opinion). If his constituents decide he's too idiotic or too bold (or bad) a liar to represent them, then he will be recalled or voted out at the next election. If the House Ethics committee finds against him, he should be censured. Everything else is a personal matter for Mr Weiner and something neither we, the press, nor his fellow congressionals should be following. We all have better things to do, don't we?

At least those of us who watch The Daily Show and The Colbert Report got something out of this mess to soften our depression over it all. Jon Stewart and Colbert did a remarkable job of turning the satiric mirror on the press, our leaders, and on us, letting us laugh a bit at ourselves to keep from crying or breaking down, or dropping into a nihilistic funk.

We witnessed Jon Stewart visibly struggling with commitment to his viewers in the face of his admitted friendship with Mr. Weiner. Whether you feel he did well in that struggle or failed will largely be subjective, but the struggle itself was refreshingly non-cynical.

Which is a good thing, helping offset the rock hard cynicism with which most of us view Congress - and the Press.