The philosophy of political science

The interaction I had below with a professor became a defining moment for me that helped influence decisions I made in what to study, what I wanted to learn, and the importance of holistic views.

Cagey quote compendium

Recently collected quotes on:  populism, political correctness in academia, Chris Dorner, language, and more. Enjoy        - Cagey


"Their acolytes depicted the surge of the Tea Party in 2009 as unprecedented fanaticism, rather than the grassroots mobilization that democracies encourage. The partisanship of congressional Republicans, not much different from the partisanship of Democrats during George W. Bush’s second term, has been recast as sore-loser bitterness (tinged with racism)."
"On a range of issues -- from entitlement reform to guns to immigration to social policy -- conventional conservatism has been branded as feverish, know-nothing extremism. Aided by a media that shares all of Obama’s sensibilities, the trick has been a cynical wonder that keeps enabling the most ideological administration in memory to claim the middle ground."
-Artur Davis
Source: http://ricochet.com/main-feed/Obama-s-Increasingly-Imperial-Presidency







“It almost seems as though we’re looking for excuses for people to not have to take their commitments seriously,” Edwards told FoxNews.com. “It’s beyond political correctness; it’s almost like an excuse to do nothing. It’s like societal nihilism, where nothing matters.”

- Tammy Edwards on the University of Missouri's guidance to faculty to not schedule major events on pagan holidays.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/02/14/university-missouri-guide-asks-professors-to-accommodate-wiccan-pagan-holidays/?test=latestnews









"L.A. Mayor Tony Villar informs us that he 'will not tolerate this reign of terror' by C. Dorner. So his answer is to have the police shoot up suspected vehicles before ascertaining who is in them. Nice solution for a Progressive who wants to disarm responsible citizens and militarize the police. The panic they are exhibiting is the same response they claim is the reason why we must be disarmed. Don't buy into the Progressive plan to make every life episode a CRISIS and an opportunity for government to rob you of your earnings and claim to be the only ones to help. As Americans, we used to do it all by ourselves.

- Angry t.American

Source:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2276671/Christopher-Dorner-1-million-reward-Killer-cop-called-victims-father-taunt-death.html#ixzz2KdTZPKyC









"Since the 1960s, New Age liberals have been attempting to overturn core American values, especially by transforming the meaning of words that have long been in use. Similar to communist revolutionaries in Eastern Europe throughout much of the twentieth century, contemporary American liberals have discovered that the best way to alter behavior is to penetrate the mind by transforming our vocabulary."
"Finally, one of the key words liberals have gleefully appropriated is 'progressive.' Liberal values are cast as forward-looking, leading to a better, brighter future. And conservative values are tainted as leading Americans toward a dark, superstitious, bigoted and medieval past. In reality, “progressivism” is a philosophy that has already been tried and rejected numerous times: In the ancient world it was called Epicureanism and had short shrift as it was supplanted by polytheism and then Christianity; in the declining years of the Roman Empire, sexual permissiveness was rejected in favor of the intellectual and spiritual brilliance of Christianity; and in the twentieth century the promise of a social utopia based on government redistribution of wealth—communism—also collapsed. Thus, “progressives” harken to past models that invariably fail; conservatives see the bright future of a world that embraces the highest form of philosophy on earth, faith in God, in tandem with the best political and economic system ever created: democracy and free markets."

"Once we recognize that the liberal revolution always begins with words, we are armed to counter it."



- Dr. Grace Vuoto, "The liberal abuse of the English language"

"If you charged somebody with 50 crimes on what looked like a fairly simple thing, judges thought you were reaching and they would throw it out. Politically it looked bad -- but the culture has devolved to the point where that's just normal now," Reynolds said.
He believes the time may be ripe for a "loser pays" system in criminal trials. If a defendant is acquitted of charges, or charges are thrown out, the prosecution should bear the court costs of those charges.
"Prosecutors have absolute immunity from civil suit, so when they misbehave, when they engage in misconduct, there's no remedy for a defendant," he said.

On throwing everything at defendants and hoping something sticks - re: Aaron Swartz of RSS and Reddit

Excerpted from: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/02/15/win-at-all-costs-suicide-computer-whiz-prompts-look-at-federal-prosecutors/#content#ixzz2L2LVxq3T

I have long perceived a bias in the mainstream media and have for years been frustrated with its implications for our society and nation. The political slant inherent in modern journalism is no longer unexpected and is even tolerable when social and political issues are the topic of debate. When media bias begins to affect our national security, however, the threshold of acceptability is crossed. When media takes the side of our enemies because of political differences with our president, it's time to say ''enough is enough.''



Frequent use of terms like ''enemy,'' ''foe,'' ''bad guys,'' ''Jap,'' etc., to refer to our WWII opponents contrast sharply with the ''insurgents,'' ''freedom fighters,'' ''opposition forces,'' and other benign terms used today. Instead of stories praising heroic Marines decimated by treacherous ''Japs'' who lured their prey in by flying a flag of truce or by whistling the Marine Corps hymn, modern journalists use military setbacks to suggest that the entire military campaign is wrong-headed. Rather than proudly reporting the story of allied paratroopers who killed over 200 German soldiers on a Dutch bridge when they refused to surrender, modern reporters ignore the hostile fire taken by our helicopters from an Iraqi gathering and report that American troops murdered dozens in a wedding party. Rather than reporting the military victory the U.S. Navy narrowly won vs. the Japanese at Leyte Gulf and minimizing stories of the campaign's command-and-control failures, modern journalists now, as a rule, focus on the failures and negatives and minimize the positive. Rather than celebrating our armies' victory against the fight-to-the-death Germans in the Ruhr valley and ignoring the destruction of nearly every house and factory, our reporters today decry the wall of a mosque damaged in a firefight and ignore the fact that terrorists were firing at our boys from this supposedly sacred site.



Again, I am not surprised and generally not offended by the generic liberal bias of the mainstream media - it's become your trademark. The use of this bias to denigrate, demonize, and undermine the efforts of our military forces and our Commander in Chief and his staff in a time of war, however, does offend me. Your falling subscribership and ratings should tell you that many Americans are equally offended. I call on you to examine your biases and your practices ... and start supporting our troops, our President, and our nation in a non-partisan manner. Your political differences, as during World War II, should not be forgotten, but they should be put on the back burner when reporting on our war effort or national policies.

-Dr. Ted Miller





"Why does Beyonce get a pass, but Milli Vanilli don't? Outrageous."
- Cagey, on the Beyonce lip-sync scandal at the inauguration.






"Two comfortable institutions of the liberal media establishment, the Pew Research Center and the Project for Excellence in Journalism, have discovered once again that five times as many national reporters (34 percent vs. 7 percent) identify themselves as liberal than conservative. As for that broad middle of 54 percent that declares itself to be “moderate,” just consider them liberals with an honesty problem."

- Brent Bozell





"Trust and civility are the pillars on which any well-functioning democracy and free-market economy depend."

- Ted Halstead









"First published in 1909, London's story of a young sailor striving to win love and fame as a writer is a touching portrayal of youtful idealism and its demise. A blistering ritique of the magazine trade, it's also one of the best how-to books in American literature."

- Jeremiah Creedon









True?
Why is it that none of the disturbed and evil men, who steal guns, then go and kill movie-goers and children in school, has ever been identified as a conservative?

Ft Hood ~~ Registered Democrat ~ Muslim
Columbine ~~~ Too young to vote; both families were registered Democrats and progressive liberals
Virginia Tech ~~~ Wrote hate mail to President Bush and to his staff ~ Registered Democrat
Colorado Theater ~~~ Registered Democrat; staff worker on the Obama campaign;
Occupy Wall Street participant; progressive liberal
Connecticut School Shooter --- Registered Democrat; hated Christians,
Common thread is that all of these shooters were progressive liberal Democrats."
Do you see a pattern here?

- UNK.







"Finally, the chickens have come home to roost for the too numerous law schools in this country. Too many law graduates, who do not go on to practice law due to a dearth of jobs, with too much student loan debt. Too many third, fourth, and fifth tier law schools, whose JD degrees are not worth much more than the paper they are printed on. Ironic, but appropriate, that this problem has spawned lawsuits aimed at law schools with over-inflated employment statistics."
"Our nation is facing a potential shortage of health care providers (primary care physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, PA's, etc...) as baby boomers are getting older, and yet, the number of law schools far outnumbers the medical schools. I don't think that the nation is facing a shortage of attorneys."
"While we all need good lawyers, the attorney glut is likely responsible for the abundance of frivolous lawsuits and our litigious mindset in this country. When my 6 year-old tells his sister "I'm going to sue you," in the midst of an argument, I realize, this has become an unfortunate part of our cultural fabric."

-UNK., quoted from multiple sources









"A couple of people mention that this lesbian has 'family values' being the mother of her son. Really? We have all kinds of males and females who have mixed up emotions and values because they have a missing father. There is no way that these women can provide the communications and teachings that a good father can provide to a son. Being a son has sexual impacts that can't be provided from a female no matter how hard they try. In this case, neither females have a good sensual relationship with a male to be able to transfer emotions and feelings that come from being male. The biggest issue in all of the liberation concepts is that we have thrown righteousness out with the bathwater and we have tried to provide justice in all relations and situations. We are a society that is on the edge of loosing consciousness as to what is right. We have taken the lowest road to allow anything to be seen as OK as long as it provides equality by allowing everyone to do whatever they want to do. The next thing will be do we allow men to have more than one wife if all the wives agree to living in a communal relationship or on the other hand, for one wife to have more than one husband. It will only be justice if we allow them to do what they want to do the same as we allow hetero or homosexual couples to do what they want to do. It is even being pushed that pedophiles should have equality to have sex with younger partners. You see when we throw righteousness out the window we have no clear foundation upon which to build society, and everyone ends up doing whatever they want without regard to others. Providing equality can also have backwards rebounds. What if all of the super rich started claiming equal rights for taxes. In other words, equality might be that everyone must pay 15 % of earned income without any kind of deductions. How would our courts handle such a trial when it is so freely giving out equality first one place and then another in all other areas, but not when it comes to taxes!"

- "oakpalms"









"Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as: - Knowing when to come in out of the rain; - Why the early bird gets the worm;... - Life isn't always fair; - And maybe it was my fault. Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies, don't spend more than you can earn and adults, not children, are in charge. His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding a...n unruly student, only worsened his condition. Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children. It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion. Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims. Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault. Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement. Common Sense was preceded in death, by his parents, Truth and Trust, by his wife Discretion, his daughter Responsibility, and his son, Reason. He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers - I Know My Rights, I Want It Now, Someone Else Is To Blame and I'm A Victim. Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone."

- UNK.









"Well look: if you're a hacker, and if you want to enhance your reputation within your peer group -- which is, let's not forget, comprised mainly of historically and geopolitically ignorant youngsters who believe that "V for Vendetta" is an accurate depiction of contemporary world affairs -- you don't go after genuine tyranny (which the educational authorities have left you ignorant about) but instead attack your own government, whose faults (but not virtues) have been drummed into you by your schools and by the media all your life. I don't blame the hackers at all. Its their parents and their teachers who are effectively guilty for what they've become."

- UNK.











ONE of the myriad ways in which the liberal mindset divides this country into "people groups" in order to destroy biblical resolve (destroying the family first, then the country).

"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." -Pres. John Adams And "United we stand divided we fall."

- So, divide us into people groups and we will fall as a nation.

- UNK.







"Your reputation is only something YOU care about."

- George Noory to someone expressing that the person's ambition for growth shouldn't be curtailed by fear of another's view.









"A class in being a better communicator: What a bunch of B.S."

- My friend Meat









Laymen

"When will the courts admit that Obama is unconstitutional?"



Dejonn

"When the Nation of a whole repents and asks God for forgiveness and help."



chhelo

"Agreed we as a nation should be on our knees asking God for forgiveness. Every morning we should all find ourselves in the position. If we did can you imagine the greatness of this nation."

-From a conversation about recess appointments
Source: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jan/25/federal-court-obama-broke-law-recess-appointments/

It's like Reagan said about the Soviet Union. They're gonna implode of their own immorality. And he was right.

It eventually will happen to every communist or socialist setup. Now, some last longer than others. Even North Korea, at some point -- may not be in our lifetime -- but that's gonna blow up. Cuba's gonna blow up. The ChiComs are engaged in a shell game right now. The ChiComs wouldn't be where they are if it weren't for capitalism. They can't admit it so they're trying to keep communist control over as much of their society as they can.

The biggest fear that the ChiComs have is the people that live out in the country want to move to the cities. The ChiCom challenge, they've gotta create jobs in the countryside to keep the peasants there. If they overrun the cities looking for work, there's big trouble. But the ChiCom solution, the ChiCom route to economic power has been capitalism. So that's why I'm not going anywhere. It is gonna happen. It is gonna implode. It can't do anything other than that. As I say, it's what happens in the meantime. Just how damaged is the country going to be? And the potential for damage is great. I mean, real havoc is being wreaked here. This country is being divided purposely along racial lines and class lines.

I find it really stunning. We are going backwards in this country. We are separating people by class. We are separating people by race. We are not encouraging people to do better. We are not inspiring people to be the best they can be. We are essentially acknowledging that people are not very good and don't have much hope. Well, not "we." The Obama people are thriving by telling their voters who they ought to hate, who they ought to oppose, who they ought to try to eliminate, wipe out, in a political sense, and it's all based on race or other forms of ethnicity. It's terrible. And now the Gallup poll is out and we've lost our optimism. And I don't think it's a coincidence.

- Rush Limbaugh
Source: http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2013/01/23/obamaism_will_fail_because_socialism_always_does




''I learned a lot doing 'Vice,' but I really didn't feel I could go any further, the way they were writing for the character,'' he explains. ''I read somewhere - I think it was Ron Howard quoting Henry Fonda - that unless you do something different every 18 months, change your career, scare yourself, you're not growing. I needed to keep growing.''

- John Diehl









"Start carrying yourself like royalty - not in arrogance - in humility, be proud of what God made you to be. You are not better than anyone else, but you are not less than anyone else. Now understand your father created the whole universe. Now start thinking like royalty. talking like royalty. Dressing like royalty. Acting like royalty. "

-Joel Osteen





"You were open to options that you'd never considered. That is the exploration that awaits you."
- STTNG - "All Good Things Must Come to an End."

"It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness, that is life."
- STTNG - "Peak Performance"




















"We used to be the land of opportunity, now we're the land of opportunists."

- UNK.

"Sociologically speaking America is like a teenager that doesn't want to grow up."

- UNK.





It's not bad when liberals do it. Just get over it. Republican bad, liberal good. It's simple as that. If you have trouble with it, too bad, you're probably racist anyway.

- UNK.





"I got no problem with women and gays serving in any job they qualify for, but I do have one comment. When my mom informed me I should have no problem with gays in the field with me because they weren't interested in me because I am afflicted with teh straight. I told her to head on down to the college and shower with the football team, because hey, they aren't interested in her."

- UNK.










Any random, medically normal man is going to be stronger than and capable of physically mistreating 95% of the female population.
Ladies? Listen carefully. The reason men are supposed to hold the door for you and carry your books at school and generally carry on with that "chivalrous" stuff that is nowadays called "patronizing" is to civilize them. It's to teach men how to behave around women, how to properly treat them and restrain themselves around women.
Now, ladies, if you're unhappy about the way you are treated - just beginning with the failure to hold the door - you can blame this feminist mentality. The perverse result of this barbaric ruling is going to be an increase of violence against women.

- UNK.,  on women in direct action/combat missions



Whatever happened to the notion of men defending women and children? We have turned reality on it's head. Women are not men, and men are not women. There "really" are differences between us! Yet, we continue to castrate men (figuratively), and try to force women into some kind of non-womanhood. We have lost our collective minds! We are not only living in a post-constitutional America, but in an insane and reprobate America.

- UNK., on women in direct action/combat missions






“I love you Los Angeles, I love each and every one of you. And don’t let the stupid fucking media tell you otherwise.”

- Justin Timberlake
"Maybe the anger is coming from the fact that the media really is f-ing stupid. The shallow, self-promoting, do-anything-to-get-the-story/picture mentality of the entertainment media is beyond nauseating. Timberlake got it right, and EVERYONE knows it." -Lightray9a
Source: http://www.showbiz411.com/2013/02/11/justin-timberlake-sizzles-in-high-energy-show-but-insults-the-media-in-comeback

DR. BENJAMIN CARSON: There are a group of people who would like to silence everybody and have everybody go along to get along, but that's not going to be very helpful for us in the long run, in terms of solving our problems. And somebody has to be courageous enough to actually stand up to, you know, the bullies.

DR. CARSON: One of the things I also said during the speech is there will be some people who will say, 'but you’re a doctor and you’re a surgeon, you should be sticking to that.' And I mentioned the fact that five physicians signed the Declaration of Independence and were involved in the framing of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and several other things.
There’s absolutely no reason at all that physicians, scientists, shouldn’t be involved in things that affect all of us. We’re people who've learned how to make decisions based on facts, empirical data, rather than on ideology, and one of the geniuses, one of the real things that made us a great nation, is that we brought people from all backgrounds into the legislative process. So that all of us would be able to place our interests there and we've gone significantly away from that.
And no one goes up to a lawyer and says why are you getting involved in this, that and the other thing. I don't see why they would say it to a physician, who has more education than anyone else in society.

DR. CARSON: There’s no question that [President Obama] has advocated, you know, basically a policy of tax the rich. And I have advocated a policy that comes from the Bible, which is a very fair policy of proportional taxation. If it was good enough for God, why wouldn’t it be good enough for us? The minute you deviate away from that, you begin to get into all kinds of biases. And one could legitimately make the argument that the rich pays too many taxes. The top 1% pays 37% of the taxes, the top 5% [pays] 59% of the taxes, but they don't make that much of the income. One could make that argument.
DR. CARSON: I'm very focused on education and getting the populace back to where it used to be -- like back in 1831 when Alexis de Tocqueville was so impressed -- because an uneducated populace will fall for anything.
And if you and you talk to most people, they mean well but they don't have much of a breadth of education, of knowledge, of understanding of what the real issues are and, therefore, they listen to pundits on television who tell them what they're supposed to think and they keep repeating that and pretty soon they say, 'Oh, well that must be true.'

- Your World, February 11, 2013





"...Words are power. If you can change the way people refer to anything, you change the perception. Like the difference between "illegal alien" and "undocumented worker", for instance. From a psychometric perspective, the first term is comprised of two highly negative terms, while the second contains one term with neutral loading, and one with positive loading. All part of "doublespeak", or any other form of propaganda. When you allow any group control of both language and information, then you can expect to see 'fundamental transformation'."

-Eva Landry
Source: http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/inside-politics/2013/feb/13/illegal-immigrant-tells-congress-not-call-him-ille/

Loyalty

   How does this sound to you? Two months ago, you plan a winter camping/fishing trip that will take place one week from today. You invite your friend who hasn't gone out in over two years because he is occupied with two businesses he runs from his home. You arrange to get a canoe and other gear for him. You and your friend are really excited for the chance to go test your mettle against the elements and do man stuff. Then, your friend's wife suddenly decides ... yesterday, that she wants to take a whirlwind trip that weekend to - let's say - Florida, and buys tickets for that exact weekend. Oh, and that leaves nobody to watch the kids. So... ...

Pizza ethics

  At issue is poor customer service in a pizza restaurant.  I was weaned from pizza; I have always enjoyed it, even through the great sledgehammer incident of the early 1980s when I saw my precious smashed before my very eyes.  I rank my restaurants; I'm active in rating them online, and I duly realize the predilection of folks to opine on the negatives more frequently than dishing out a, "Hey, good job."  I am neither too quick to become defensive nor overcritical, realizing some battles aren't worth the effort.

  On New Year's Day a pal and I feasted on sumptuous hangover pizza. Mine had prosciutto (yes, prosciutto), peppers, and gouda cheese reminiscent of the great Provel of St. Louis. Leftovers packed, we left. The waitress was friendly enough, but when we got home, they had packed us the wrong pizza (the overpowering Greek one with entire cloves of roasted garlic and mounds of feta aboard - yick).

  I have a slightly different opinion on this than she in that as a hybrid Christian-Buddhist, I feel we should be humble and excuse the oversight; she believes we should have made a stink about it. Other peoples' germs, etc. etc.  The compelling argument of hers was that, "It should be a core competency of servicepeople to not screw that up, it is not too much to ask."  Something clicked inside me that set my pizza-rage aflame:  I was reminded of the expectant hamburger gourmand Wimpy, set to feast on a delicious burger of lettuce, onion, pickle, kumquat, and not getting his prized slider that fateful day, he entered "Hamburger Heaven." Due to his habitual nonpayment ("I shall gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today!"), he was ultimately denied by the irascible burger chef and fell apopleptic.  I was in Pizza Heaven.

  Demanding satisfaction in this instance was not my style, but I at least wanted to call this to the attention of management because it *was* disappointing and I want to test the Buddhist way.  I have about 30% confidence that we will be treated to a replacement.

 
The moral of this story:  Pie-p up when you don't get your hot-za, or forever hold your piece.

Endurance

Compassion

From Buddhism: Introducing the Buddhist Experience, by Donald Mitchell. 
For educational purposes only.

Initiative

   I'm on blog lockdown until I cook up some more material for my classes. Friends, the light at the end of the tunnel (or 'L.A.T.E.O.T.T.') is flight from Mudville. Keep my eyes on the prize. Anyway, oh yes, initiative. I am wearing my workout gloves more often around the house, trying to bring back Jud Nelson's trend from The Breakfast Club (1985), that greatest of '80s movies from what arguably was the greatest year of the decade. Why did people do that? Were they weighted for combat? Besides keeping my hands warm and comfortable, if I need to lift heavy things, they're already on, and I just seem to have more power in everything, as with similar totems (G.I. Joe in my pocket, ring, crucifix, a tidy desk, etc.) I feel about 77% more effective. You know what I like about the change in seasons? More pockets. Brain's warmed up now. See you in a few days, feel free to drop a line.

Strength

The most difficult thing I ever had to do? Being the guy who never won in "tag", I used to think it was making the soccer team, and wanting to quit everyday after practice but not following through. Never having had the pleasure of having to run very far, we did these brutal things called "120s" in which we'd sprint to one end of the field (120 yds.) and then jog back, rest a few seconds, and do it again. Exhausted and dehydrated, we'd go to 7-11 after and load up on Snapples, Gatorades, and chug-a-lug. --- However, no, I think one of the tough things was listening to a tape of my late pa, who with me presumably on his knee at the time said, "We'll never abandon you." That tape sat on my desk for months since the first time I tried to listen to it, the second wasn't so bad. I guess I have never had a good sense for time, how it heals and restores. History has always seemed so abstract to me outside of the moment. Five years ago, ten years ago, the 200+ years of the U.S. I read about in books (just finished reading about President Hamilton's and Vice President Burr's pistol duel - Good Heavens, how does time obscure these things?) and the 2,000+ years A.D. Abstract, but all very real, the sum of those events ending in today. Just some half-finished thoughts, but I promised myself I'd get this put down, and what I set out to say is buried somewhere in the middle.

Commitment

This photograph documents the sad end to my golf shoes.  I had these shoes tucked away in my golf bag, a pair of freebies I never realized came with a great set of clubs I bought from a friend.  When I made my discovery early this summer, I was proud: no longer would I have to be seen around the country club wearing a pair of New Balance cross-trainers.  I was finally part of society. 

They'd been sitting for years inside a zippered pocket on the golf bag, a kind of void space forming the structure of the bag in which you'd never think to look.  The last recesses of original hull construction they look on a ship before calling off a man overboard search.  So, for years these shoes sat in the garage, from Maryland to San Diego, from San Diego to Mudville, waiting for someone to need them.  When I found them, I was delighted to give them new life.  I lovingly polished them with a bit of white polish, covering the scuff marks, going around and around the toes with that perfect measure of pressure, and treating them as well as I did my favorite dress shoes.  "Wow, Nikes.  Probably at one time $150."  I thought of the story of the The Velveteen Rabbit, or How Toys Become Real, by Marjorie Williams.  So many allegories... 

They'd seen the course once or twice before with their previous owner, maybe they were a bit neglected.  After a game or two, I noticed the sole on the right shoe was coming loose.  "Nothing I couldn't patch up back at home with a good gob of fabric glue," I muttered. 

Good as new.  They went around another game or two, enjoying their newfound life and covering a lot of ground.  But the years in the heat had taken their toll on them, as I found on hole number three at the Metro Golf Course on a soggy early afternoon, the swankiest place in town (one of Mudville's neighbors where you're actually expected to wear a belt and tuck in your shirt).  "Bernie, these shoes are falling apart, I might have to call it quits early."  Every step I took, the top of the right sole would smack up to the bottom of the stitching (or whatever that correlates to in the anatomy of a shoe) making a loud "CLOP CLOP" report.  "Keep playing, when it falls off you can go home."  So every step walking to my ball from the cart path was "CLOP ped CLOP ped CLOP ped CLOP ped."  Boy, it was soggy out there.  Then, the bottom of the left sole did the same, so it was, "CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP."  No reactions from anyone, oh well, keep playing. 

When the right sole was almost done, I showed it to Bernie again, who helped me by taking a firm grip on it and ripping it off.  My shoe didn't seem in any pain.  So I played like that for a little while, and then the left sole - just fell off on its own.  Now I was just playing with the leather and cloth and stitches on the bottom of each shoe, kind of in the manner of construction of rock-climbing shoes.  I was happy because I could now run to the ball without worry, it was kind of "combat golf" that day: I would make a crappy shot and then run to the ball to keep a good pace with the more experienced guys.  A good workout nonetheless; we weren't allowed to drive onto the fairways because of the rain so I logged a good couple hundred yards of jog/sprints that day. 

Without warning, on the right foot, I could see my toes sticking out, but I stuck with it (them?).  We were nearing the end of the last hole, and this was no time to throw in the towel. Finally, I ended up taking off the right shoe, and playing with only one shoe and a sock.  Then in my socks.  But I didn't give up, and my shoes didn't give up on me.  A little apprehensive about disapproving snorts from anyone who might see us in this state, I still felt good about not quitting.  Nonetheless barefoot , I realized that maybe there should be more dignity involved.  "Come on shoes, this place isn't good enough for us.  I'm taking you home."