The television news today is full of horrible news about this stupid war. It is also full of talking heads – talking about the same events but you would not know it. Once again, politics is more important than human lives.

To repeat a story I heard from a television comentator, a frog and a scorpion on the banks of the Jordan River. The scorpion asks the frog for a ride across. Of course, the frog says “You will just sting me when we reach the other side.” The scorpion replies that he promises not to. So they start across. In the middle of the stream, the scorpion stings the frog and they both start to drown. The frog asks “Why?”. The scorpion replies, “Because this is the Middle East.”

Back in the Arafat – Sharon era, I thought that the solution to the problem then would be to erect an impenetrable steel wall with no doors around the whole area. They could solve their own problems and we could come back in ten years to see if anyone was still alive. If the gunfire and bombing had stopped, they could be admitted to the rest of the world. It still sounds like a great idea. It would just take a bigger wall. There must be something in the water over there that makes idiots out of regular folks.

There are a lot of things that cause me to doubt the sanity of some humans. This conflict is definitely one of them. The Prime Minister of Lebanon was on a show, blaming everyone else. Lebanon's own wishy-washyness puts their army and government right in the middle of the blame. And, of course, Israel's slaughter of Lebanese folks is unconscionable. And then, the radicals on both sides. Maybe there are a bunch of things I just do not understand. Or am I the one who is stupid?

If there are any words in the Bible that can be proven, it is those first ten words. Following the Stephen Hawking proof of the existence of God as Copernicus' Artisan, Galileo's Author, Kepler's Founder, in the beginning God did create the Heavens and the Earth. Not that the rest of the Bible is not believable nor that I do not believe, But belief and proof are not the same.

Now the question is, did He do it in six days? The general order of God's creation of things is not the question, it is the time – six days or fifteen billion years? Those who understand “time” also understand that time defies understanding. Relativity! What we measure with our watches is very valuable but it is not really time. Is God a slow poke or a speed demon? How much gravity is there in Heaven? Time is dependent on those measurements. And of course, God is above and beyond time. He was there before time was even invented – by Him! Six days? Whose days? Measured in whose time?

The bottom line is that time is a variable, God's creation of the Universe fifteen billion years ago is not. And why are we arguing about the time it took Him to do it? Why not just revel in the miracle of it. And the bestest miracle of them all, evolution.

Blogging is enjoyable. Both the writing and surfing through blogs posted. People are interesting. Surfing through my four blog sources (http://sinannblog.blogspot.com/, http://sinannblog.blogstream.com/, http://scdiv.spaces.msn.com/, and http://360.yahoo.com/sidaugherty) has brought up some major differences. The easiest to surf are Blogger and Blogstream. They offer a random or next button that lets the surfer just plain surf. They are the oldest and have a wealth of members from all over the world. I found that every so often, however, one of their blogs contains a virus. There are also some that are obvious ads. The ads I can understand. Viruses on blogs, however, cross over the morality line. My AVG virus checker (great free program) picks them up no sweat, but it is still basically in the realm of lying, cheating, and stealing. I do not enjoy going where there are viruses waiting. The MSN and Yahoo ones are newer and probably better managed. Which brings up the concept of whether corporate giants should be policing this kind of thing. All in all, experiencing a couple of virus encroachments makes me think the policing needs to be done. There seems to be cruds everywhere these days.

I was just listening to Charlotte Church sing Weber's “Requiem” on Sirius via my computer. A couple of my favorites – Weber's “Requiem” and Charlotte Church' s youthful voice. I particularly like the fine voices – like Pavarotti's (One of my birthday presents is to see him when he comes to Washington. Another is to see Asleep at the Wheel in their Bob Wills opera at the Kennedy Center) – on Sirius (another present) and VivalaVoce and XM (which comes with our satellite TV). Then there is Lily Pons, Maria Callas, so many. And so much music is moving. La Boheme's first act and then the final crashing chords. Butterfly's duet and ending. George Jones “He Stopped Loving Her Today”. Johnny Cash's “Hurt”. Carousel and Show Boat.

Why is it that music is so important to most of us? We spend so much money on it. So much time. So much emotion. Does it go back to our mother's voice? To hearing music in our homes growing up? Does music sooth the savage breast? Is it our inheritance from our insect and bird forefathers? Our wolf and elk forefathers? Is it pure and unadulterated sexual attraction for us as it is for them? Who knows the answer to those questions?

In a dirty, West Texas street, stand two men, ten yards apart. On one end is Dirty Di.., let's call him Filthy Richard. Facing him is The Virginian. Filthy Richard wears a black hat, tobacco stained beard, manure covered boots, dirty long johns. Shifty-eyed and stooped. The Virginian has a white hat, clear eyes that look right through you. Trimmed moustache, erect and proud.

There are a lot of things that The Virginian stands for. He will not lie nor cheat nor steal nor tolerate those that do. He respects and protects women and children. Someone to ride the river with. The drunk who cleans out the spitoons at the saloon has his protection, as does the cripple who tends the stable.

And, he will never be the first to “slap leather”. He may clear his iron first, shoot first, hit the target first, but he will not initiate the draw. Good guys do not do that. The good guy wins because truth and justice and God are on his side.

This is the ideal so many of us grew up with. It is why Japan and Germany were doomed to lose. It is why I do not understand why we attacked Iraq. Some issues have a lot of shades of grey, but some are black and white. There are some things a man just does not do.