The difference between men and boys

The difference between men and boys, as the saying goes, is the price of their toys. The list of toys could include snowmobiles in the Midwest, speedboats in a state that has little water (Arizona), ATV’s, and motorcycles. Nationwide, the most common “toy” is the pickup truck, and the most popular vehicles sold in this country are (in order) the Ford F-series, the Chevy Silverado, and the Dodge Ram.

A large majority of those trucks, naturally, are actually used as work trucks, but there is a certain segment that would clearly qualify as a toy, and that would be the raised pickup trucks, especially the ones with huge chrome wheels.

I’ll get into the whys and the costs in a minute, but let’s first examine what state law permits.

Arizona apparently is still the Wild West. According to LiftLaws.com, Arizona has no restrictions on suspension lift limits, vehicle frame heights, or bumper heights.

http://www.liftlaws.com/arizona_lift_laws.htm

Arizona DOES have a “mud flap” law, which serves to protect following cars from damage caused by flying stones thrown up by the wheels of the truck in front of them. 

http://www.harperlawaz.com/blog/2013/8/14/ars-28-95801-arizonas-vehicle-mud-flap-law

According to Arizona law, the truck pictured below would be perfectly legal in Arizona, as long as it was modified to include mud flaps that covered the full width of the rear tires:

There are a variety of ways that a truck can be raised up. The link below lists the advantages and disadvantages of each type: You’ll notice that some of the options include a Superlift Suspension Lift Kit that could raise the vehicle as much as 12 inches.

https://www.onallcylinders.com/2015/10/02/top-10-truck-accessories-of-all-time-2-lift-kits/

Unless you are a skilled mechanic, you will want your lift kit to be installed professionally, so here is a rough estimate of how much it would cost to install the various types of life kits:

https://firstquarterfinance.com/how-much-does-it-cost-to-lift-a-truck/

1)   Block kits  – up to $600, plus as much as $500 for labor

2)  Body lift kits – as much as $2300, plus $100 for labor

3)  Coil spacers – Up to $1500 plus $200 for labor

4)  Leveling kits – Up to $2000, plus $500 for labor

5)  Struct extensions – up to $1700, plus $500 for labor

6)  Suspension lift kits – up to $5000, plus as much as $1500 for labor

7)  Torsion keys – up to $500, plus $200 for labor

Once you get beyond the cost of your life kit, how much do wheels and  tires cost?

https://www.ebay.com/bhp/20-inch-chrome-rims

If you bought your fancy chrome wheels on eBay, you would expect to pay somewhere between $750 to $1000 for a set of 4.

Depending on the exact tire size you chose, your tires would cost you someplace between $250 to $350 per tire . for an average of $1200 for a set of 4.

If you decided to utilize a suspension lift kit, you could spend as much as $6500 for the kit, $1000 for the chrome wheels, and roughly $1200 for tires, for a grand total of $8700 for a vehicle that is unlikely to ever go “off road”.

If your desire is to have “the coolest set of wheels in town”, then the only option you have is raise up your truck, add the fancy wheels and tires – and you can stay a boy as long as you want. And, as we learned this week, “boys will be boys’

Fiction or non-fiction ?

If you  have spent any time at all in your local library, you probably have noticed that the vast majority of the books that the building has  on the shelves would be classified as “fiction”, which brings up a valid question:

Is there value in reading fiction?

I have run into a few people in local schools who don’t read fiction because they think that it is a waste of time – but I beg to differ.

Off the top of my head, I can think of 3 reasons why it makes sense to read fiction:

1)   You can learn something. My favorite authors are Steve Berry, Clive Cussler, John Grisham, Ken Follett, and Jodi Picoult. All of them incorporate either current or historical facts that can easily be verified, and all of them primarily write fiction rather than non-fiction

2)  You can improve your vocabulary and your writing skills

3)  Fiction provides a necessary respite from the nonsense that we hear on the news literally every day.

Over the last 50 years, these are the 10 most popular books sold in the world:

1)   The Bible – 3.9 billion copies

2)  Quotations from Chairman Mao – 820 million

3)  Harry Potter – 400 million

4)  The lord of the rings – 103 million

5)  The Alchemist – 65 million

6)  The DaVinci Code – 57 million

7)  The twilight saga – 43 million

8)  Gone With The Wind – 33 million

9)  Thing and Grow Rich

10)       The Diary of Anne Frank

https://www.businessinsider.com/the-top-10-most-read-books-in-the-world-infographic-2012-12

Six of the books listed above would be considered to be fiction, but the most popular book on the list (which most people would consider to be non-fiction) raises some interesting questions. Although 30% of our population considers the Bible to be inerrantly true, it is full of contradictions. If you don’t believe me, take the Bible quiz at the link below:

http://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2010/09/bible-told-me-so.html

In addition to that, 60% of our population believe that Noah’s ark actually existed, but I’m  reasonably sure that it is nothing more than a great fiction:

http://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2013/04/noahs-ark-and-othe-rfairy-tales.html

Although I am confident that my reasons for reading fiction are valid, I wondered if there were other advantages that I had missed, so I Googled “what are the advantages of reading fiction”, and found a website that listed NINE advantages.

  

https://open.buffer.com/reading-fiction/

1)   Empathy :Imagining creates understanding. Multiple studies have shown that imagining stories helps activate the regions of your brain responsible for better understanding others and seeing the world from a new perspective.

2)  Disengagement: Reading is most effective for stress. Your brain can’t operate at maximum capacity 24/7—far from it. We all need periods of disengagement to rest our cognitive capabilities and get back to peak functionality. Reading is far more effective in releasing stress than listening to music, drinking a cup of tea, going for a walk, or playing a video game.

3)  Sleep: regular readers sleep better.

4)  Improved relationships: books are a reality simulator. Fiction is a particularly useful simulation because negotiating the social world effectively is extremely tricky, requiring us to weigh up myriad interacting instances of cause and effect. Just as computer simulations can help us get to grips with complex problems such as flying a plane or forecasting the weather, so novels, stories and dramas can help us understand the complexities of social life.

5)  Memory: readers have less mental decline in later life

6)  Inclusivity: stories open your mind – one study shows that reading Harry Potter can make us more tolerant and open-minded

7)  Vocabulary: fiction readers build more language – people that read a lot, and especially people that read a lot of fiction, have a larger vocabulary than just about everyone else

8)  Creativity: fiction allows for uncertainty, where creativity thrives

9)  Pleasure: reading makes us happier

73% of the American population attempted to read at least one book last year, but 25% of our population did not read ANY books. If you combine these two statistics, you’ll find that the AVERAGE Americana only read 4 books last year, but the TYPICAL American (the ones who at least attempted to read a book), that number jumps to 12.

https://www.bustle.com/articles/182106-do-you-read-more-books-than-the-average-american

I’ll have to admit that our household reads a lot more than average (about 150 between the tow of us) but I also understand that not everybody has as much free time as we do.

So, if you are one of the people who tries to read at least one book a year, why not make it a book of fiction?

Should English be America’s official language?

58 countries have English as their official language. 18 of them are in Africa, and one of those countries is Barack Obama’s birthplace, Kenya. (That’s Barack Obama SENIOR, not our 44^th president.)

There are only 7 countries that do not have an official language. Two of them are America and England.

English has become the world's lingua franca, or second language, but it is not the 'official' language of its birthplace. The de facto official language of the United Kingdom is English, which is spoken by approximately 59.8 million residents, or 98% of the population, over the age of three. An estimated 700,000 people speak Welsh in the UK, an official language in Wales, and the only de jure official language in any part of the UK. Approximately 1.5 million people in the UK speak Scots—although there is debate as to whether this is a distinct language, or a variety of English.

https://medium.com/@eslreading/which-countries-do-not-have-an-official-language-1d2385633f8f

In America, the Founding Fathers didn't see a need to have an official language. English was pretty much the dominant language of the United States at the time so there really wasn't a need to protect it, and they didn't want to offend their fellow Americans who helped fight for independence.

People in this country have been speaking languages other than English since before the founding of the republic. In fact, common languages spoken throughout the 13 colonies included Dutch, French and German, not to mention the many languages spoken by Native Americans (roughly 300). In the early part of the 18^th century, there were at least 18  languages spoken in New York City.

In June of this year, a New York lawyer berated staff members of a restaurant for speaking Spanish to customers. He also threatened to call ICE because he assumed they were undocumented. By threatening to call ICE, he equated speaking Spanish with illegal immigration.

Although the United States, as a country, does not make English the official language the majority of the states in our country do. At last count, there were 31 states that did exactly that.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/08/12/states-where-english-is-the-official-language/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.87b2903f29ed

Folks living in other countries are often REQUIRED to learn at least one other  language. The people living in Switzerland need to be able to speak FIVE languages by the time they graduate from college. Since we live in a town that is only 60 miles from Mexico, many of the employees at local stores can easily switch from English to Spanish and back again.

It’s been more than 50 years since I studied Spanish, but I know enough to be able to say, “Yo hablo un poquito espanol”. If you wanted to learn Spanish, there are LOTS of ways to do so, including the online course called babble.com. Since our grandson will be bi-lingual (due to the fact that his mom is) learning to speak at least a little Spanish will be very useful in the future.

https://www.babbel.com/

Do I think that English should be the official language of the United States?

At last count, there were 350 languages spoken in our country, so making English the official language seems like a really dumb idea.

https://www.cnbc.com/2015/11/04/at-least-350-languages-spoken-in-us-homes-new-report.html

I am my own grandpa

In the year that I was born, the singing duo of Dwight Latham and Moe Jaffe released a song titled, “I am my own grandpa”. A later version was recorded by Ray Stevens (one of many people, including Guy Lombardo, who also released versions), which you can listen to at the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYlJH81dSiw

If you follow the diagram in the video, you can see that it IS possible for a man to be his own grandpa, even though it is highly unlikely.

Obviously, I am NOT my own grandpa, but (as of last week) I AM someone’s grandpa, due to the arrival of a little boy named Alexander, who was born on the morning of September 13.

My wife and I had long resigned ourselves to the fact that the only grandchild we would ever have was our daughter’s dog, Cody, who officially was our grand dog.

However, nature sometimes has a way of throwing us a curve, so the Brennan surname will live on for a lot more years.

Being a parent, of course, has its rewards, as well as its challenges, but being a grandparent is even better because you don’t have to worry about the 3 a.m. feedings and the dirty diapers.

When Brian was born in 1976, he had a touch of jaundice, so the hospital kept him and his mother in the hospital for about a week, several days longer than the normal stay in the early 1970’s.

Brian and Kim had decided that the birth of their child would be as natural as possible, so they made plans to take delivery at a birthing center in Tucson. On the morning of September 13, they DID make it to the birthing center, but little Alexander got impatient, and Kim gave birth before she had aa chance to get into “the birthing tub”. Kim was in labor a total of 2 hours, and all three of them were able to go home a mere 4 hours later. That’s not quite a “drive through” delivery, but it is pretty darn close.

So far, our grandbaby seems to be a very relaxed individual, as evidenced by the picture show below:

Welcome to the family, Alexander !

The mosque at Ground Zero - the update

Prior to the destruction of the twin towers on 9/11, there were two mosques located close to the site that would eventually be named the World Trade Center. The New York Times profiled two mosques that have been in existence for years not far from ground zero. Masjid Manhattan, founded in 1970, is four blocks away from the World Trade Center site, on Warren Street, and Masjid al-Farah, which used to be on Mercer Street, is 12 blocks away on West Broadway. Prayer services have actually been held at the 45 Park Place location since the latter part of 2009. According to the Park51 website, one of the main reasons for including a mosque in the new center is that the previously existing ones aren’t large enough. These mosques, of course, were in addition to the prayer rooms that were in each of the towers when they were completed in 1970.

 Park51 (originally named Cordoba House) is a development that was originally envisioned as a 13-story Islamic community center and mosque in Lower Manhattan. The developers hoped to promote an interfaith dialogue within the greater community. Due to its proposed location two blocks from the World Trade Center site, it was widely and controversially referred to as the "Ground Zero mosque" . 

That title, obvious, attracted a lot of negative publicity, which you can read about at the link below:

http://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2010/09/mosque-at-ground-zero.html

The project would replace an existing 1850s building of Italianate style that was damaged in the September 11 attacks. The original design was by Michel Abboud, principal of SOMA Architects, who wrestled for months with the challenge of making the building fit naturally into its lower Manhattan surroundings: on the one hand, it should have a contemporary design, and, at the same time, it should look Islamic. His design included a 500-seat auditorium, theater, performing arts center, fitness center, swimming pool, basketball court, childcare area, bookstore, culinary school, art studio, food court, and memorial to the victims of the September 11 attacks. It also included a prayer space for the Muslim community, which would accommodate 1,000–2,000 people.

In late September 2011, a temporary 4,000-square-foot (370 m²) Islamic center opened in renovated space at the Park51 location. In summer 2014, it was announced that there would instead be a 3-story museum with a prayer space, as well as condos, at 49-51 Park Place. The plans were changed again in September 2015, when the owner announced a 667-foot (203 m), 70-story luxury condominium building at the site. In May 2016, financing was secured for a 43-story condominium building with room for an Islamic cultural museum.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park51

One of the primary opponents to the Park 51 development was a woman named Pam Geller, who felt victorious when plans for the original site were changed. Her column, on the less than reputable site called Breitbart, is shown below:

https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/09/26/its-official-ground-zero-mosque-defeated/

Pamela Geller (born 1957/1958) is an American political activist and commentator. She is known for her anti-Islamic writings, opposition to the proposed construction of an Islamic community center near the former site of the World Trade Center, and sponsorship of the "Draw the Prophet" cartoon contest in Garland, Texas. She describes her blogging and campaigns in the United States are against what she terms "creeping Sharia" in the country. The Southern Poverty Law Center have described Geller as "Islamophobic".

Pamela Geller has been targeted by Islamic fundamentalists, including most notably a plot inspired by an ISIS supporter as retaliation for her "Draw the Prophet" cartoon contest. She is currently the president of the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) which she co-founded with Robert Spencer. The American Freedom Defense Initiative (also known as Stop Islamization of America) has been designated an anti-Muslim hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The British government barred Geller's entry into the UK in 2013 saying her presence would "not be conducive to the public good."^[ She and Spencer co-authored the book The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America in 2010. Multiple media outlets have called her "far right", while others, such as the BBC, contrast her right-wing support for small government with her culturally liberal positions on abortion and same sex marriage.

Not surprisingly, Donald Trump also tried to take credit for the change of plans at the Islamic Center at Park 51. An article titled, “How Donald Trump Stopped the Building of a Mosque at Ground Zero” turned up on a website titled “stumpinfortrump.com”. When I tried to open it up, tough, the computer I was on said that it was blocked due to the strong possibility that it contained a virus. Again, I am not surprised.

One of the prayer rooms in the World Trade Center was in a stairwell just outside the restaurant known as Windows On The World. To my knowledge, there is no restaurant planned for the new Liberty Center, but there are PLENTY of dining options close by. For a trip down memory lane, though, here’s a magical view from a place that no longer exists:

Although Pam Geller will likely be pleased that there will be no mosque at Ground Zero, the rest of us can rejoice in the fact that the Muslim community is finally becoming an accepted group in American society.

Allah be praised.