Barack Obama, Jimmy Buffett and the Apocalypse

In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes mystery, Silver Blaze, the point is made that sometimes the lack of the obvious is the clue. This is often referred to as "The curious incident of the dog in the night-time," or the simpler, "The dog that did not bark in the night."

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Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Here is the conversation between police inspector Colonel Ross and Sherlock Holmes.

"Is there any point to which you wish to draw my attention?"
"To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time."
"The dog did nothing in the night-time."
"That was the curious incident," remarked Sherlock Holmes.

Today, I got a call from a good friend who happily informed me that he had a spare ticket to the Jimmy Buffett concert next week in Atlanta. Equally happily, I accepted the invitation. We talked about what time we'd leave. We talked about enjoying Buffett. We talked about how awesome his daughter is for giving him the tickets for his birthday. We talked about the seating. Then we discussed business. We did not discuss the possibility that the world will come to an end on Saturday.

There was no discussion of the prediction of the rapture occurring Saturday for a reason. I'm quite certain it never crossed our minds because we don't believe it will happen. While a religious group from North Carolina is equally convinced that it will happen. This topic is addressed sufficiently in the Bible for me to not be concerned.

While I'm not a theologian, I am familiar with Matthew 24:36, which says (NAS) "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone."

And then earlier today, President Barack Obama threw Israel to the dogs. I'm sure the followers of Harold Camping, the 89-year old who has predicted the rapture for Saturday, are now convinced that Obama's commitment to returning Israel to its old borders are a sure sign that the end is near. For the rest of us, it's a sure sign that President Obama does not understand America's feelings about Israel. He does not see the Middle East the same as most Americans. In fact, I don't think President Obama sees much the way of most Americans.

Back to Jimmy Buffett. At this point, if President Obama came out and claimed to be a Parrot Head, then I simply could not believe it. President Obama has somehow missed out seeing the world through American eyes. Could Obama be a Buffett fan? It's doubtful.

The pathos of "A Pirate Looks at Forty" or the oops-I-thought-I-was-cool-but-I'm not of "Tampico Trauma" or "Fool Button" are stories that I cannot see our President identifying with. Same thing with "The Great Filling Station Hold-Up" or "Son of a Son of a Sailor" or "The Captain and the Kid" or "Nautical Wheelers" and Heaven forbid "Banana Republics" which I'm sure sounds condescending and patronizing.

Maybe "God Don't Own a Car" might appeal to Obama, if so, perhaps there's some hope for him. Maybe, but his apparent disregard for Israel is spooky. And about that "End of the World" thing, I'm giving 100:1 odds against on FaceBook, but so far no takers. A perfect no-lose bet and all of the pigeons have taken flight. Sometimes a lack of opportunity, just like chewing a little Juicy Fruit, is good for your soul.

Why Create a New Blog?

One of the great advantages of blogging over writing a newspaper column is that a person can have a blog for all areas of interest. That's good for me because I have a nomadic mind; it wanders all over the place. Like a regular newspaper column, a blog needs some common themes to explore. The threads that I believe will bring these far-flung thoughts in this blog together are curiosity and appreciation.

Questions are wonderful things, they bring us knowledge; though sometimes that knowledge is not the knowledge we sought. Just learning to bring forth the right question is an education in itself. Attempting to understand the information our questions deliver is still more education of a different type altogether. By asking a question, we acknowledging our ignorance and begin the process of becoming wiser than we were.

Image via WikipediaIn my other regular blog, where I analyze political policies and strategies, it's not easy to slide in a post on quantum physics or baseball or Christianity or even the wonderful philosophical questions common to mankind. It's almost as hard to slide in a reference to Groucho Marx as it is to reference a question of eternity. It's a kind of structural straitjacket.

We all need an occasional escape. This is my Houdini blog - a blog where I can slip out of the necessary confines that hold my other blogs together. My restriction here is only self-discipline.

At my age, there are so many things I still want to know and I think that's a wonderful thing. To consider the alternative, that I would live a life of little or no intellectual curiosity, is more frightening to me than death. In the first instance, surely I have lost myself and in the second, I hope to find my true self. Time will eventually tell.

I think that to be sane, we have to question those things that don't make sense to us. We will never answer all of our questions and don't even have the capacity to understand some of the answers we do receive. After we get our information, we have to be prepared to discard those things which truly offend our sensibilities. To continue to tolerate things which should not be tolerated is a sure path to madness.

One additional thought on questions. If we fail to answer questions honestly, then asking the question is only an exercise in self-deception and will not yield useful answers.

In the meantime, when I want to write about some of my favorite things, I have an outlet. I hope we both enjoy this. I hope to get feedback from you that covers both the good and the bad aspects of my blog.

As always, thanks for reading.