Nielsen's ra(n)tings

Politics, guns, homeschooling for the gifted, scuba, hunting, farming and somewhat coherent occasional ranting from your average Buckeye State journalist/dad/farmer/actor.

Saturday, July 29, 2006

Not terrorism!?! Spare me...

So a guy walks into a Jewish center in Seattle and shoots up the place, killing one woman and wounding five.

Is anyone surprised?

The cops are quick to yell that “this is not terrorism,” presumably to forestall any response from non-Muslims seeking evens. It seems to me to be the very essence of terrorism…using attacks against non-strategic civilian populations to try to effect social change or protest governmental action. The fact that he may not be concretely allied with any well-known terrorist group is beside the point.

His action is the logical result of the fiery rhetoric that passes for religion among many of those who follow Islam. Preach “jihad,” “filthy Jews,” “stolen homeland” and “oppressed Palestinians” often enough, and from an early-enough age, and the results are predictable. Following the Bell Curve theory, some or the more radical, or unstable, practitioners of the religion are going to see their restraint be overcome by their zealousness and go ape-shit.

It was no accident that the guy walked into a JEWISH center, said “I’m a Muslim-American who’s mad,” and opened fire.

It’s no surprise. It’s predictable. It’s inevitable.

And law enforcement officials’ couching all their remarks in vague terms to spare reprisals against the Muslim community is not affecting a cure. Muslims have so far shown themselves unwilling to reign in the rhetoric by their more radical members – if self-policing is not working, perhaps real threats of reprisal from the community-at-large would be more effective?

The longer the radical talk flourishes at the more radical mosques, the higher will be the bill when it’s finally time to confront the threat of radical Islam here. It’s easier to defuse someone who’s spent a year listening to propaganda than someone whose exposure to it began in the cradle.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Update: As the turd turns

Busy, busy, busy…

We’re in rehearsals every night for Camelot at the Ashtabula Arts Center and, as usual, things could be going a lot better. We ran Act 1 last night in a little over two hours…not bad, if you overlook the fact that the lead had to call for lines nearly every time he spoke. We’ve also yet to have the full cast represented at a rehearsal and, in fact, it looks like the full cast won’t be available for the entire show run.

The director reminded everyone that there are seven scheduled rehearsals before the show opens, then commended everyone on the job they are doing in the standard “holy crap, this turd is never going to come together, but I can’t let the cast see that” speech. Tick, tick, tick…

It would be nice to see the lead give some indication that he’ll be ready come opening night.

Singing, dancing and acting at the same time has been a challenge for me. I’ll remember the song and tempo, then forget the dance…or vice versa. I’m just waiting for that golden moment when everything comes together…of course, it’s not helped by the fact that important cast members have been absent from the above singing and dancing escapades. It’s much harder to follow a song when the people assigned to sing various parts are not, in fact, singing them.

In lieu of banging her head on the floor in frustration last night, Doc-wife took to momentary outbursts of quiet, but highly imaginative, profanity. Hopefully, it was just that 24-hour viral Tourette’s Syndrome, and will vanish as the actors learn their parts (if wishes were fishes…)

The show opens Aug. 4.

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Heating up

Here it comes.

It looks like the showdown is coming in the Middle East. Israel is coming down hard on the state-sanctioned Hamas and Hezbollah whackjobs who are kidnapping Israelis and firing rockets into Israel from Lebanon. This has included attacks on the Lebanon infrastructure, including roads and bridges.

These groups have been backed, openly or not, by the governments of Syria and Iran. It looks like Israel has decided that the conflagration is inevitable…why wait until Iran has nuclear capability to bring to the table? The Europeans have been largely silent on Israel’s response to the latest kidnappings and attacks as well, foregoing the usual hand-wringing and calls for understanding. Maybe some understanding has percolated through the European consciousness, finally. Perhaps these latest actions by Hamas and Hezbollah have finally convinced members of the world-at-large that there is no negotiated peace to be had in the region.

The world and, surprisingly, the impotent United Nations have also recently shown declining patience with Iran’s rope-a-dope delaying tactics while it openly pursues the A-bomb in flagrant disregard of UN wishes.

Most of Israel’s neighbors (Egypt perhaps excepted) seek the country’s demise, and any pretense toward discussion of peace has proven to be a tactic to tie Israel’s arms while the guerillas regroup and attack. Israel’s military might is the only thing that has protected it to this point from open military confrontation with Iran and its puppet state, Syria.

So Israel has pulled off the gloves. Good. It’s about time.

It’s been a military principle predating Sun Tzu that you can’t allow your enemy to choose the time and place of the battle…to do so is to fight under a large handicap. If Israel thinks it has the advantage in terms of preparedness or capability, perhaps now is the best time for this confrontation to take place – particularly with a lot of American firepower sitting next door in Iraq and in the gulf, handcuffing Iran’s potential to enter the engagement.

So it’s put-up or shut-up time for Hamas, Hezbollah and their supporting governments. The Rantmeister is betting emotion wins out over prudence on the part of the guerilla groups and they push this engagement to the hilt, giving Israel the chance and justification to deliver a well-deserved smachdown.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Someone needs a timeout

I’ve been following the recent antics of Debbie Frisch, PhD, a University of Arizona psychology instructor (of all things) and her meltdown in the comments section of the Protein Wisdom blog.

For anyone who doesn’t know, the very-liberal and very-emotive Frisch became unhinged and started making bizarre and hugely inappropriate comments about blog owner Jeff Goldstein and his family members, including his child. She subsequently offered a semi-apology, resigned her teaching post at Arizona and is residing in Oregon while doctors attempt the laborious task of removing her head from her ass.

She appears to have suffered the blog-equivalent of road rage…becoming so obsessed with her perceived battle of wits with Goldstein that she lost her perspective on the verbal joust’s place in the larger scheme of things. She escalated and had a temper tantrum.

My prescription: Take a chill pill, lady. I think they have over-the-counter sales of those in your neighboring state to the south. Use your head and reason instead of venting your emotion. Join the society of rational adults and leave behind the comforting fallacies of your liberal cocoon.

High on hay...and life!


High on hay

The Rantmeister's kids sitting atop the most recent hay trailer pulled into the barn for unloading. It's another rainy day here in Ruralville, USA, so we're cleaning and catching up on those tasks we've been putting off in lieu of our theater endeavors. Currently rehearsing every night for Camelot at the Ashtabula Arts Center - complete with singing and dancing (something at which the Rantmeister excells - not!) We're also expecting many more visitors over the next couple weeks including 7-8 from South Carolina and 4 from Germany - Camp Rantmeister is a hot ticket, I tell you.

Sunday, July 09, 2006

Enchanting


I've seen us there, Rose

Lottie Wilton (played by doc-wife) tries to convince Rose Arnott (Caitlin Sandham) to run away to Italy during the just-completed Rabbit Run Theater production of "Enchanted April." A review of the show is here. The show's first act was completed in front of a black curtain with minimal set pieces. The second act opened on a lush Italian villa, San Salvatore, which drew spontaneous applause from the audience every night when it was revealed (a first for me...the set getting applause every night.)

Hay is in the barn...time to blog

We've got most of this year's first cutting of hay in the barn, our exchange student on the road with his mom and two of our three summer theater productions completed...hey Rantmeister, what are you gonna do with all your free time?

"I'm gonna do some bloggin'"

My abject apologies for the dearth of posting so far this summer...there's just so much time and energy to go around and mine was exhausted around the middle of June. It's time now to recharge the batteries and stretch those creative muscles again...more writing and photos to follow.

"Enchanted April" finished it's tenure at Rabbit Run Theater in fine fashion...three straight sold out houses and a very good review in one of the local papers (even if they did spell doc-wife's name incorrectly...tsk! tsk!) The second Friday performance of the play was the best of the run...they audience was stoked, we were rocking and there was even a death-defying stunt by one of the techies to save a special effect at the end of the show - when doc-wife is showered in white petals during her closing monologue.)

The play reminded me why I like to do community theater in the first place...some of the recent plays I've done have made me question that.

More archery hunting for groundhogs is on tap this morning...maybe I'll video and try some clips. Some pictures from "Enchanted April" will be posted this afternoon. It'll be a blog smorgasbord with something for everyone.

More later...the woodchucks are waiting!