You may or may not have already heard that long-time ABC Anchor Peter Jennings died on Sunday, succumbing finally to the lung cancer that he recently announced he was battling.

I read about it on CNN’s website.

Here’s a screen-shot. Tell me what’s wrong with this picture…

From time to time I talk about matters of faith, belief, religion, fundamentalism, and evangelism here.

I can’t NOT do it. I’m a Sunday School teacher. I’m the Financial Secretary for a congregation of over 200 people. I spend three hours every Sunday and eight hours every Wednesday in religious observances and duties. I am, for want of a better term, a “believer.”

I’m also a science fiction writer, a cartoonist, a father, a humorist, a disc golfer, a new Beetle owner, and any number of other more or less mundane things.

I could talk at length about the technical aspects of a good RH Sidearm, and how I’ve come to rely on that for my putting. Some of you would have an opinion on the matter, and we could probably have quite a profound discussion from which each of our disc-golf games could possibly improve. Others of you would be curious as to the attraction of this game, and might decide to play. Still others would be inclined to announce that disc golf is for losers who can’t afford to play REAL golf. The vast majority of you would skim the post and move on. Some of you might decide to unsubscribe because my opinions on the sport of disc golf, and how it relates to sports in general, are just outright offensive, and there’s no point reading the further ramblings of a person who is obviously stupid.

Hopefully the similarity between Disc Golf and “Mormonism” isn’t lost on you. Hopefully when I talk about my beliefs, when I discuss the little miracles of my own life, when I pop a quick religious-angle opinion on the news of the day, you’ll understand that there is a universe of context missing from what I say, and that none of us have the luxury of assuming its content as we post.

It just turned into “Sunday” here. I need to go to bed so I can be refreshed at Church tomorrow. I really love going to church. I could spend days writing about why, and that’s just part of that “universe of context” that is missing.

And as much as I complain about how little you know about my religious beliefs, it’s safe to say that I know even less about yours. If we really get into it, we’ll be typing all month. So… when I say it’s inherently difficult discussing religion here, I mean it.

Ignorance isn’t bliss, and it’s not a very good excuse, but if we confess it up front, we’re more likely forgive and be forgiven for ignorant trespasses in the future. Thanks for reading, thanks for posting, and thanks for putting up with me.

–Howard

The NCAA is requiring the complete removal of Native American imagery from teams that participate in NCAA events. Hey, that’s fine. They voted on it, and so they can make the rules.

Interestingly, the Seminole tribe in Florida and the Ute tribe in Utah have both approved the current usage of their names and symbols by the teams using them (The Florida State University Seminoles and the Utah State University Utes). The NCAA didn’t ask THEM, though. They just had their vote, and decided that Native American team names and mascots were insensitive and racist and had to be phased out.

I wonder… how long will it be before the states of Utah, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Kansas, and Iowa are asked to change their names? And then there’s the cities of Omaha, Sioux Falls, and Minnetonka (off the top of my head) that will need to be renamed. And poor Dakota Fanning… by the time she’s a budding starlet with an ID that will get her into bars, she’ll have to prove not only that she’s 21, but that she has actual Dakota ancestry if she wants to use that name.

You want irony? The NCAA met in Indianapolis to make this decision (the word “Indian” has been decried as racist when applied to Native Americans, so obviously “City of the Indians” would have to go), and they lauded the University of Iowa as a model example for not using ANY Native American mascots, names, or imagery (except, of course, for the name “Iowa.”)

If we play our cards right, we can completely erase any and all linguistic and cultural evidence that somebody lived here in North America before the european folk moved in. And then we wouldn’t have to worry about racism at all, right? How much momentum does this stupid PC pendulum have left in it, anyway?

–Howard

Last night I slammed two Lortab and a Soma at 11:30pm. At 11:45 I turned on my sleepy-time music (Vangelis Oceanic) and climbed into bed. I looked at the clock and thought “it’s been almost twenty minutes… where’s the brick?”

You know, the brick that is supposed to hit me, letting me know the drugs are starting to work? THAT brick.

11:46pm — I look back at the clock, still no brick.

6:45am — I wake up wondering what time I got hit by the brick. I never even saw it coming.

And now, the good news: Sandra said at one point I rolled over onto my right side. Since I don’t remember waking up screaming, I must have slept through it.