Ok my goat’s in a bind here. Look, I chose to move to Arizona. WE chose to live here, and I chose to give Arizona State University too much money for my doctoral work but I am really embarrassed right now. We were stoked to here President Obama is the commencement speaker this year, and I have a few friends who will graduate. I even considered groveling for tickets. Today I hear that he is not being awarded an honorary degree from ASU! This man has an honorary degree from Notre Dame. What does ASU have that ND doesn’t have? Porn obsessed drunk Playboy junkies? Come on!

According to Sharon Keeler, ASU Media Relations Director, those awards are for “achievements of eminence”. Really? Come on, Sharon. You’re an idiot. Talk about the President of the free friggin’ world and the first black at that not achieving greatness?! What about bring the first black president of the Harvard Law Review? How about the grass roots campaign that raised millions of dollars to help OUR country?! How about writing two best sellers!? Not enough, still?

According to the ASU State Press (reported in Huffington Post), ASU President Michael Crow told the committee that “significant contributions to education and society over the course of a person’s career merit consideration for an honorary degree.” Crow, you’re an idiot, too. You’ve been screwing up ASU for too long now. When I started taking classes there, you could take a class for about a grand. You don’t even want to know how much that costs now!

Let’s talk about some of the real reasons Sharon and Mike have their heads shoved up their…. well, let’s just talk about the reasons. 1# John McCain. The crotchety old republican sucks. He’s so damn wishy-washy. I remember a decade ago that I could admit to liking the man, and then he started bending over for Bush. This is a McCain state (even though you almost lost it, you idiot.) 2# Mormons. Now don’t get me wrong, I know some cool cool Mormons. Most are students who are learning how to be realistic Americans, but there are some idiots there. When you have as much money as they do, you can buy whatever you want (e.g. Prop 102 in AZ and Prop 8 in CA. And don’t even deny it!) Obama doesn’t play that game and wouldn’t let you control him, so you don’t show him the love. 3# Because ASU is racist. How many black people have honorary degrees from there? Count them. Do it. Let me know. 4# Because Mike and Sharon SUCK. They’re idiots.

Donna and I visit the Payson/Pine/Strawberry area often (me more than her), and last summer I was excited to head up there and get out to see some nature. My friend, Coop, recommended Tonto Natural Bridge north of Payson off the Beeline, so after a wonderful weekend at Angelika’s cabin, we drove over there for an afternoon. For me, it was one of the coolest things we’d seen in Arizona, and I’ve talked about the state park to friends and students ever since. Many people have eagerly said they were going based on my recommendation alone, and I even blogged the experience here.

Tonight I was surfing through my gmail and checked today’s Flickr uploads. My friend and colleague Alan who lives near Tonto Natural Bridge posted a VERY disturbing photo on Flickr with an equally disturbing caption. I will post the entirety below, but here’s the link to the original.

“Short Sighted Government Stupidity in Action” posted to Flickr by Cogdog on March 3, 2009.

Hmmm, I’ve been waiting for a local cause and here it is. The far seeing Arizona state legislature has slashed $35 million from state parks, which are closing like falling dominoes across the state.

To me, the staggering stupidity of closing a park like this is much deeper then the grand canyon. Hopefully some of the dusty heads in Phoenix will get a clue.

This is ridiculous. Everything President Obama is fighting to fix nationally is still being screwed by local government. According to the official Tonto site, the park is closed because of maintenance which may be true but many of us question the validity of the timing. The site says it may be closed only six months so we’ll see. In the meantime the official press release states that it’s because the lodge roof leaks. I’ve been there, the lodge is NOWHERE near the bridge itself. According to Assistant Parks Director, Jay Ream, after the repairs are completed “after completion the Board will re-evaluate the budget situation for re-opening,” which means they’re being vague enough to screw the people who love this place in the end. I suggest all of you call Arizona State Parks at (602) 542-4174 (outside of the Phoenix metro area call toll-free 800-285-3703), ask for Jay Ream’s and tell him to keep our beloved parks open. While I am serious about the state government not following suit when it comes to turning around our current recession, I am not getting into what I’ve not properly researched, so I will only leave you with the beautiful video I have of the first (and what may be the last time) I am able to share such a wonderful natural wonder with my daughter.

Tonto Natural Bridge from Devon Adams on Vimeo.

See politics are a funny thing. Worse than religion to talk about in several circles. I know what I think religiously and God’s not here to screw it up or encourage me. That’s all about faith, but politics are about men and women just like you and me. It’s about people trying to do something or maintain control of something. It can separate friends and colleagues on opposite sides of party lines. I don’t talk politics at work, but people know me so they know what I think. I definitely don’t talk politics to students at all. They know me so they know what I think, too. I definitely don’t talk politics with my extended family. My parents aren’t political at all (in 2004 my brother had to physically take my mother to vote), and my brother and sister agree with me most of the time. My wife & I agree, but the issues that affect one of us affects the other. My in-laws and I don’t agree at all. Politics isn’t a topic for us to really discuss. Maybe it’s because they don’t have the experiences I have as an educator, or maybe because they live in a more traditional east than we do. Maybe it’s because my father-in-law has always seemed to vote a certain way, and his son follows in his ways. I don’t know. No matter what or who anyone picks depends on the information they have, the information they’re given, and, you know what, probably not much else. I’ve seen heard the McCain bashing about him being a crotchedy old man and picking a right wing conservative brand new female politician. I’ve heard about Obama’s supposed Muslim ties. I know McCain’s record’s correlation to Bush’s. I’ve seen the quotes from Obama’s books. Propaganda pushes people and scare tactics succeed. Some people will vote purely to get the republics out of office and try something new (and my father-in-law has agreed with me when I say Bush has really screwed the pooch the last couple of years). While others will just never vote for a black man. There are all kinds of reasons to vote, and if you’re ambivalent about the politic world around you, then stay home today. Don’t vote. Wake up tomorrow and ask a friend who won. They will tell you that we don’t know yet. Or they can tell you it was a landslide like it’s not been for decades. But if you do care. If you do have an opinion, and if you have done your research then get your butt out there and stand in line. Spend 4 1/2 hours reading books, writing reports, blogging your experiences at polling centers, etc… because this is one of the biggest elections of the year.

Ok I can’t not say anything about this anymore. It’s crazy! A few weeks ago we were at the Payless store at the mall, which is like a light to my wife’s moth. So in we go. She’s looking at shoes, and I don’t really care so I take Claire to the kid shoe aisle. A few minutes later, when Donna’s finished, she sees some Hannah Montana paraphernalia and proceeds to show it to my three year old. I immediately become incensed and pull her from the situation. I tell my wife in no uncertain terms will my own daughter be associating with anything that deals with underage girls posing naked (yeah year she probably had on panties, but the male gaze is suppose to block that fact from their voyeuristic minds when drooling) with or without her father’s permission (look who he is anyway, achy breaky facey if more fathers out there cared to show him what we think!) and with or without the pictures taken by the most famous living photographer in contemporary society. You don’t do that. It’s not right.

My high school students always tell me I would like High School Musical (at last count the third one’s coming out this summer), and I always said I’d get around to it sometime. Well, not now! A few months ago the being hoo-hah was lead Vanessa Hudgens posed naked (yes, full frontal) and leaked the pictures online. Why? Wasn’t the movies making enough money? Weren’t they already filming a sequel? Sure sure Vanessa and Hannah are a little different. Vanessa is 18 (barely!) but she sure doesn’t look it.

Now I am sitting here in a hotel in California where I like to watch CNN while I pack to fly back to hell (read: Phoenix from mid-June to mid-July) and they’ve got a news story on about a group (more than a dozen) teens who suddenly got pregnant at a high school in Gloucester, MA. Turns out they made a "pregnancy pact" and wanted to raise the kids together. (Awwww how nice….. buy a damn puppy!). The very next story is about Jamie Lynn Spears giving birth. CNN reported that she’s still with the father (now don’t get me wrong, people can raise kids alone all they want, but gimme a break!), well how special is that? (Don’t even get me started on her older sister!). The boy should be in jail for statutory rape.

What’s this world coming to? I have a three year old daughter  who I am trying to raise in this world of underage, in-your-face, smut accepted by the mainstream media. (Yes, accepted. If it’s not, then do NOT write or report about it! Pull a Toohey and cut ‘em off!). I can no longer sit passively aside and roll my eyes at all of this. I took my kid to Disneyworld two weeks ago, and I was reminded that Hannah Montana (read: Miley Cyrus) was a Disney "product". I’ve always been reminded of my study of Henry A. Giroux that there’s definitely concerns of the patterns of Disney and their affects on children everywhere, especially girls (read The Mouse That Roared if you want to know more). How do I shield Claire from the sexualization of girls in our society, which I think are even more prevalent today? It use to be like the Calvin Klein ad in ‘95 that depicted 18+ models as younger than such sexual beings, but now the beings themselves are actually underage and ?today’s media seems to make it look ok.

Well, it’s not ok for this dad.

Democrats Won! Praise GOD!

This afternoon my friend reminded me that we’d be out of town Tuesday and could not vote. Since this election in Arizona is very important, I wanted to make sure I voted. We discovered that we could  go to the local community college to early vote. I figured it wouldn’t be too busy on a Thursday at 4PM. I thought wrong.

I had Claire with me and we entered the library where they were voting at about 4:25PM. My friend was actually a few people in front of me in line, and there was a nice sign that said "Voters, please use your library voices." I don’t think that 19 month olds have library voices! At first, Claire just wanted to run around in circles by me, and then she wanted to run off. I was ok as long as I could see her, but then she was getting upset. The nice lady in front of me told me I could chase her all I wanted, and she would keep my spot in line. So eventually I got Claire to sit at a table and draw on a piece of paper from my pocket. This lasted probably 20 minutes and in the meantime I realized they only had ONE ballot printer and the wait was over an hour –from a spot far up in line!

In the next hour she drew, ran, screamed "bye bye!", and kept losing her shoes. We eventually got past the pillars in the library and I held her and got back in line. My friend, Christy, kept trying to talk to Claire, but then Claire got upset. She began crying and wouldn’t stop for about half an hour. Finally a lady who had just voted asked if she could go to the vending machine to get Claire some pretzels. It was a welcome gesture, and I readily agreed. Claire had been very loud up until the time she brought back the pretzels.

About the same time she got food, the older man near the front of the line told the voting worker to let me go next. When they told me, I was very relieved and moved up. After I got to the front of the line, I still had to wait another half an hour for them to print my actual ballot. In the meantime Christy and I kept Claire busy with pretzels and flowers drawn on a scrap of paper.

I was able to finally vote (go JANET!) and then we left TWO HOURS AFTER WE ARRIVED!

Sitting in Starbuck’s with a colleague last night I had that feeling you get when someone is staring a hole through you. You know the one, where you’ve got a "Kick Me" sign on your back or a stringy booger grasping to the tip of your nose without you knowing. Looking across the room a skinny man with a bike messenger cap, orange shirt and short shorts was staring at my laptop. At one point he even hunched over since it was angled open. At this point I could just imagine him running over and slamming the lid closed and shouting obscenities at me and my opinions.

My laptop lid is covered in stickers. Maybe because the damn thing got scratched to hell and back over the years or maybe because I want to subtly tell people what I think. Now stickers like "It will be a great day when schools get the money they need and the air force needs to hold a Bake Sale to buy a Bomber" tell you a little about what I think of the military and politics, without jumping down your throat with my opinions. Or the other about television, parents and babysitters. Sometimes I fear telling people my opinions because their opinions may differ. I get tired, and I often think I write better than I can verbalize. Therefore, I’d rather write about my feelings, opinions, and desires. And sometimes I don’t even do that. Sometimes I just don’t. I keep them elsewhere and push them aside. But other times I go out and buy one of Those Stickers to just see who peers over their Venti-Iced-Fat-Free-No-Whip-White-Mocha-Add-a-Shot at my computer lid.

"Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it."

~Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), American humorist and lecturer, 1835 – 1910 

Apparently George Bush was caught on tape swearing to Tony Blair recently.  Read more about "Good Shit" here.