Happy New Year one and all. Ever notice that there is no dispute about what to say for this holiday? Here's a list of what I read this year:

This Year's Book List (2006)

Jan. 1st Reading "The Beatles" by Bob Spitz (on page 133) Still have hopes of finishing "The Story of Britain", started last summer

Finished "The Beatles" about the end of January

Finished "The Story of Britain" by Rebecca Fraser in February

Read "It's Not About the Bike" by Lance Armstrong with Sally Jenkins next

Mar. 4th Am reading "First In His Class", a biography of Bill Clinton, by David Maraniss (just started)

Still reading the Clinton book (April 10) but finished "Who Killed Sarah", by Sheila and Doug Berry a few nights ago.

Finished Clinton Bio about the end of April, also read "Game of Shadows", finishing in April

25May, 4:48 a.m. Finished "The K Street Gang", by Matthew Continetti

June 10 "1973 Nervous Breakdown" by Andreas Hiller

"Clemente" by David Maraniss on 24 June

"10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America" by Steven M. Gillon, on July 3rd

"A People's History of the United States" by Howard Zinn, finished in the early hours of 29 August

"Atheism: The Case Against God" by George Smith, finished at 3:30 a.m. on 23 Nov

American Government: Power and Purpose, by Theodore J. Lowi, Benjamin Ginsberg and Kenneth A. Shepsle on 13 Dec.

4:45 a.m., 15 Dec, The Enduring Debate: Classic and Contemporary Readings in American Politics
edited by David T. Canon, John J. Coleman and Kenneth R. Mayer
These last two were my textbooks for my political science class.

Currently I'm reading "American Bee", by James Maguire, the "Bee" of the title is of the spelling variety. It's not bad.

Saddam Hussein is dead; how do I feel? ('cause that's what's really important) Well, I don't have any emotions regarding it. I am anti- death penalty but since I'm in the minority and we do have it, this case seems as good as any to employ it. It sounds like they even did a good clean job of it too, though hanging is a bit barbaric. When Hussein was running things hanging was probably preferred to some of the other possibilities.

Will his death change anything? Not really, right? Some morons will probably try to use it to justify some bad action on their part but it won't be something they wouldn't have done anyway so this has nothing to do with it, really.

Is this some sort of victory for the Bush administration? Some sort, certainly. They did actually have this as a goal, at least the idea of Hussein being "brought to justice", not necessarily dead (no, not necessarily; happily, how 'bout?). I would even agree that it's a good thing, in the abstract at least, myself. In present day reality, however, this has come at an enormous price. Coming up on 3,000 dead US military personnel, many thousands more wounded or casualties in some way and how many indigenous folk? 50,000? 100,000? Nevertheless, is it possible that somehow this whole thing could wind up being " a success"?

First we would have to define "success". I don't think there's much hope for the Bush admin's stated goals, a stable, democratic Iraq that can defend itself and be an ally in the "war on terror" any time soon. I'm thinking something along the lines of our people home and Iraq in better shape than under Hussein would be viewed as a success by most Americans.

Is this the right way to look at it? I don't know. It's the way that we all see it though, right? From our own perspective. From my perspective, from your perspective, do we have a National perspective? I think yes. But I'm sure there's some disagreement as to what it is. And I guess we hope that some people over there are "better off" or happier or live longer or live freer or something. Anyway, bye bye Hussein. (If he's really most sincerely dead)

A Janesville (WI) man decided to go to Iraq to see first hand what's really happening over there. Read his story here http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/local/index.php?ntid=111557&ntpid=3
(if you want)

The following is from the new SECDEF, Mr. Robert Gates:

"Failure in Iraq at this juncture would be a calamity that would haunt our nation, impair our credibility, and endanger Americans for decades to come."

Mr Gates warned that progress made in Afghanistan, where the US military has been involved for the past five years, "is at risk".

"The United States and its Nato allies have made a commitment to the Afghan people and we intend to keep it," he said.

"Afghanistan cannot be allowed to become a sanctuary for extremists again."

Does anybody else hear "stay the course" in all that? So much for the new ideas theory.

Aikido is a non-aggressive martial art, Japanese in origin and derived from kendo, judo and jiu-jutsu in the Twentieth century. I think it should be part of our public school curriculum starting in kindergarten. This would no doubt be difficult to effect due to the numbers involved, (the ratio of qualified instructors to students would make implementation practically impossible) but we could try for something attainable and maybe continuously improve as we go (Us?, yeah right).

The benefits would be many. The purpose of Aikido training is to train the student to be able to keep himself safe (or herself, this is an excellent art for girls/women as size is not important) in, ideally, any situation. Beginning students learn how to control their bodies and how to manage the energy that is presented to them in various situations, such as an "attack", by blending with the energy rather than standing opposed to it. Typically a forward or back roll is the result so rolling is practiced (and practiced, and practiced) from the first day on.

As students progress the training becomes more advanced but always remains safe, in large part because one of the principles of Aikido is that protection of one's partner is important in addition to protecting oneself. This may seem contradictory but really can be practiced, but only if one is consciously attempting to do so. This is not to say that it is impossible to hurt someone while practicing Aikido, either in the dojo or in the world, just that it is not the intent and in fact the intent is to protect oneself with out injuring. There is a hierarchy here. If necessary, pain can be used in an attempt to gain compliance; inflict pain before causing injury. It may be necessary to injure and if so, injure without maiming. If maiming is necessary it is done without killing and if killing needs to be done it is done efficiently and guiltlessly and so, without remorse. (We don't go beyond the first level in the dojo, in fact gaining compliance through pain is shown but not promoted)

It's applications in every day life would be many. Just practicing the philosophy when interacting with the world and one's fellow human beings, the idea of blending or harmonizing instead of thinking about trying to "win" in every situation, will bring greater peace to one's existence.

In situations in which he must defend himself (or somebody else) the student has learned how to blend with the energy being presented by the attacker and how to turn that energy back into the attacker, or at least away from himself, thereby eliminating any need to "fight" the attacker.

Last night's Knicks/Nuggets NBA game presented a perfect, graphic example of a situation that grew worse as time passed because of the actions of the players. There were some players attempting to help restore order at the onset of hostilities but they had not the tools to effectively deal with the combatants. Many of the players gave in to their anger and acted violently and some, I believe, acted violently in the belief that they were "standing up" for their teammates.

Aikido practitioners seek order and harmony. The very idea of fighting is antithetical to them. If some of the players were trained Aikidoka they would have been much better equipped than the players last night were to have restored order in that situation. If all players (and referees and fans, everybody) were trained, something like that could not happen. Also, if something did "start up" it would be a beautiful thing to watch (Aikido being practiced by experienced Aikidoka) rather than the ugliness that we saw last night.

Think about it.