An article exploring the historic myths and realities in the conflict between Islamic and Christian civilizations. Read, return, and comment.

I was working out this morning and the time came for the ski machine to register my heart beat. For a moment the number was “zero”, not a good thing for a guy from a family with heart problems. Of course it was a glitch in the machine, I’m writing this aren’t I, but it’s always worth a pause.

I think about it from time to time, the idea of having a ticking machine in my chest with a propensity to one day just give up on the spot. I try to exercise, eat right, do good things, but the odds are the odds and with a brother who passed at 44 and a father who died at just barely 60 I’m aware of any bump in my chest in a way that others are not.

Now the tests show everything is okay. I’ve had pictures taken, wires attached, treadmills under me, and scanners over me. Every once in a while my heart throws in an extra beat or pauses between them but that’s normal and so, for my age, is my heart. But its still there, the sense that time could be short, a kind of presence lurking in the background.

The interesting thing is that I’m not particularly afraid. I’m not crazy about the idea of dying mostly because I think of all the stuff I’ll miss. I’m that way about sleeping, too, for the same reason. But the whole thing has been clarifying and rejuvenating for me. Knowing I might have a deadline, and not just an imaginary one but one that could be close, has made me better. I try not to idle away the time. I make sure that I give myself to good things. I plan on laughing more, sweating the small stuff less, and enjoying each day. Am I perfect about this? No, sometimes I still just flop in front of the TV and mindlessly scan the channels, but I also went outside yesterday and read excerpts from St. Basil’s “On the Holy Spirit” and then just let the evening sun wash over me whenever I felt like it.

I’ve got as long way to go on all of this, or maybe not, but it’s at least a start.

1 in 4 New Yorkers have genital herpes…

Since I travel a lot I pay attention to cars. This one is interesting…

Some folks in the Church of England are developing a backbone…

The Aptera 230 mpg, $30,000, available only, for now, in California but production starts in fall of 2008. The folks who designed this are going to be very wealthy. Buy your stock now.

I’ve had a number of postings about Sen. Barack Obama over the months and the presumption probably is that I’m a Republican of some sort.

Actually I’m not. I’ve voted for Republican candidates in the past but largely as a “This one will hurt me less…” vote then “Wow, I’m inspired” vote. Whatever else President Bush is he has appointed judges who are less likely to meddle with my life then others and that, for example, is a plus. Of the two major party candidates running neither sends chills up my spine.

Among the books I’ve been reading lately is “The Revolution: A Manifesto” by Rep. Ron Paul. The mainstream media have widely dismissed him as a crank but I appreciate his, unfortunately radical in these times, idea that we should govern the country by sticking as closely to the actual constitution as possible. That for those ideas he has been publicly marginalized, although he’s a huge “underground” success, says something about the state of things these days. Not many Americans have read the Constitution and I suspect if they did they’d look at it and the current state of things and say “Something’s wrong here.” I suppose that makes me, in general, a “constitutionalist” because I think as a matter of politics the American experiment has abandoned its origins to its own detriment.

My interest in Sen. Obama, though, is largely as a cultural phenomena. His politics of change is hardly that and by the way neither is Sen. McCain’s. Sen. Obama’s programs represent nothing new, just a different packaging of decades old leftist ideas but the kind of ‘rock star” quality around him intrigues me. Some of this is the media, many of whom see him as the “next big thing” and instead of doing their jobs want to get in on the action. Some of it is his personal style. Sen. Obama has mastered the art of African American preaching and even if don’t agree with or understand what he is saying his oratorical skills are lightyears above Sen. McCain’s, a man who always appears in speeches with the look of someone at the dentist. Some of it is our American desire for something new in politics and even if his ideas are leftovers his face is not and I suspect some of his support is a way for some Americans to “pay back” for the horror of slavery and segregation.

Yet its a long way to November and we’ll see what happens. The greatest political act of all is your own conversion because as it progresses it touches the whole world with truth and light. In four years there will be another set of folks on the television pitching ideas but that truth will remain.

Elect Sen. Obama and the planet will heal? What job is he exactly running for?

I think it’s already been taken.