Heading Out

Blogging will be light this week. I am heading to Detroit for a conference. See you next week.

Skin in the Game

For Joe Biden, it's personal now.

The son of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden is preparing for deployment to Iraq next year.

Capt. Beau Biden, a Judge Advocate General in the Delaware National Guard and the state's attorney general, is part of the 261st Signal Brigade that has been told to prepare for duty in Iraq in 2008. They have not been given a date of deployment yet.

"I don't want him going," Biden, D-Del., said from the campaign trail Wednesday, according to a report on Radio Iowa. "But I tell you what, I don't want my grandson or my granddaughters going back in 15 years and so how we leave makes a big difference."

I think I have a little more respect for his position on the war given the fact that he will actually have something at stake. Now, I'm not saying I am going to go out and vote for Joe Biden because of this. I'm just saying that I'm generally in agreement with him on this. Senators Clinton and Obama should pay attention:

Biden criticized Democratic rivals such as Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama who have voted against Iraq funding bills to try to pressure President Bush to end the war.

"There's no political point worth my son's life," Biden said, according to Radio Iowa. "There's no political point worth anybody's life out there. None."

Amen to that. Someone should clue the President in on that one.

The Old Ball Game

Right now (8:03 pm EST) the Detroit Tigers and the Cleveland Indians are locked in a dead heat for their division title. Their series in Detroit next week could make or break both teams. Sweep your opponent and you have the inside track to the playoffs. Get swept - well then the only thing you can do is hope the other teams in the Wild Card hunt all cool off at the same time.

So, Wednesday night, as Matt and I are luxuriating in cushy padded box seats with our own table, it should be a very exciting game. It's probably the closest I will ever get to being at a playoff game. We very nearly had a luxury box with our own waiter and access to the seafood buffet and the "Tiger Club" but someone else was quicker on the trigger on e-bay. Oh well. That's no way to watch a ball game anyway. They probably have a dress code or something. It would be nice, though, to see for just one time how the other half lives......

Passing of a Legend

Merv Griffin is dead at the age of 82. The man lived an amazing life and created some wonderful things. But it was prostate cancer that did him in.

Men, don't let Merv's advanced age fool you - cancer of the prostate or colon will kill you at any age if you are not careful and watchful. I turn 40 in April and now is the time when I really need to start getting those annual exams. If you are my age or older and you are not doing it, why the hell not?

I figure I owe it to the people who love me, not to mention that I owe it to myself. So, in the spring I am just going to make it an annual event around the time of my birthday. No, I will spare you the disgusting details. But make yourself a promise today - promise that, as a gift to someone who loves you dearly and would be lost without you (a child, a spouse, your dog) that you will get those regular exams.

Turbulance

A guy with an interesting family history is having some trouble here in Alaska.

A Kenai air charter owner who lost his aviation licenses last month says the government came after him because he's the son of the imprisoned leader of the Montana Freemen, who held U.S. marshals at bay for 81 days in 1996.

Craig Schweitzer, son of Freemen leader Leroy Schweitzer, has had legal disputes with neighbors since bringing Mavrik Aire to Alaska the same year as the Montana standoff but says he has tried to follow the rules.

He now says maybe his dad was right to buck the system.

"As much as people love America -- and I feel for it too -- I think our government has betrayed us," Schweitzer said. "There are men who fought and died for the freedoms we're supposed to have in this country."

He is accused of falsifying some documents and inflating the weight limit on one of his airplanes. This caused the pilot to inadvertantly overload the aircraft.

Overloading an aircraft is a great way to get a pilot killed. But, of course, it isn't his fault he is in trouble.

Schweitzer said Friday that Americans are foolish to think their government is on their side. He said Mavrik is busy ferrying hunters and bear viewers now, but will be crippled in winter, when it relies on the charter license to fly freight around Alaska. He said flying is all he has known since he grew up learning from his father, a Montana crop duster who first tangled with officials over taxes on equipment.

"The government can come in and squash out the little guy -- the same government that my dad was fighting for 20 years," Schweitzer said.

Schweitzer first flew in Alaska for another charter service in 1993, he said.

"Way back when my dad was fighting this battle, I said you should play by the rules. I did that for 15 years and all the sudden they said you can no longer work here."

"That's the court system that you guys have in this country," he said.

Hill, the retired FAA inspector, said Schweitzer ignored important safety rules that were developed and "written in blood" when other pilots died.

Interestingly enough, there are hundreds of other air charter businesses that manage to operate within the rules. Was he singled out because his of what his father did? Or was his inability to simply obey the law the cause of his trouble? My guess is that it is a combination of the two. I'll bet that, because of who his father is, when he breaks the law there is a very high "here-we-go-again" factor.

I have to admit that I have never understood the mentality that some of these radicals have. It looks like they feel that the laws the rest of us live by every day don't apply to them. They seem to think that they should be able to do anything they want because they want to. In this case, because he caused the plane to be overloaded, he put people's lives at risk. And yet he seems to think he should be allowed to do that. I don't get it.

If there are any Freeman types out there reading, I would love to see some sort of explanation. I'm serious - I am probably not going to subscribe to your philosophy, but I am interested in trying to understand where you are coming from.

AGT

I have been meaning to post this since Tuesday night - I loved one of the performances on America's Got Talent.

I mentioned before that Cas Haley is my favorite. But it wasn't him who moved me Tuesday. A young woman who calls herself Butterscotch mixes a very cool jazz sound with beat boxing. You have to hear her to believe it.

Tuesday she performed My Funny Valentine. It has always been one of my favorites and it has been interpreted over and over by the best artist the jazz world has ever produced. I even performed it at my own wedding (and thought I was pretty good).

Butterscotch, Baby, you made me cry. I swear I got chills up and down my spine as you performed with the soul and the passion of a much older person. I was already moved to tears by the time you finished and started crying yourself.

Thanks to the miracle of digital video recording I watched the brief performance over and over and over and over again.

Clive Davis, Quincy Jones, if y'all are out there and paying attention, first one to sign this kid wins. I promise you she is going to be big in the jazz world. If you fail to go after this one, you have got to be stupid.

Butterscotch, Baby. I would pay good money to hear you perform that song over and over again. You have an amazing talent and I could feel your heart pouring out as you performed. You took one of my very favorite songs, made it your own, and performed it better than I have ever heard it done. I loved it. It still gives me chills.

Over

Barry Bonds hit his big home run. Blah blah blah. Maybe now we can stop talking about the steroid king.

Terrific Show

A couple of years ago a good friend told me that, if I ever had the chance to see Bela Fleck and the Flecktones live, I would be a fool to miss it. So, don't you know Friday night in Anchorage I was no fool. I got the last two seats in the mezzanine.

I have to tell you that it was one of the best shows I have EVER seen. The only concert I have seen here in town that was even close was when B.B. King was here four years ago.

If you don't know who Bela Fleck is, well it may not be that surprising. He is a jazz artist and is out on the fringe even for the genre. Bela, you see, plays the banjo. You didn't know the banjo was a jazz instrument? Bela will make you believe if you hear him play.

It was a terrific show. They had tons of energy and the crowd was feeling it. Playing to a sold out house has got to be a kick in the pants. We rarely get big artists like Bela Fleck or B.B. King up here. When we do it is so great to see them just as excited to be here as we are to have them. The other Flecktones are brothers Victor and Roy Wooten (bass and percussion) and saxophonist Jeff Coffin.

So, if they come to a venue near you, it is worth every single penny you might spend to see Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. Trust me on this. Whether you like jazz or not; whether you like the banjo or not; you need to see these guys. You will enjoy the show.