bierkergaard

From the Bazooka Joe Comic Aphorism School of World Diplomacy , "When two dogs get in a fight, the third should keep his distance." Bazooka Joe gum is not very good, neither are the actual comic strips coming with the wrapped gum. However, the sayings on the bottom of the comic were and maybe still are unusually prescient. For years, I chewed Bazooka Joe. After the first initial download of sugar, it just turned into a wad of putty. No flavor and hard on the jaws to chew. So, I quit chewing it. But I still recall reading that "third dog" quote. Both dogs in the fight in Syria have foul and rabid natures. Extreme Sunnis and extreme Shiites once again going for each others' jugular, just a different country. There are innocents in the middle but damned if we are going to be able to protect them from either side. We have to stay the hell out of there or become part of the hell in there. The best that all the outside powers can try to do is staun...

There has been a lot of discussion about Miley Cyrus's performance at the MTV Awards (I think that was it). I didn't watch the show but I have heard the echo chamber reverberations in the evangelical community about what it means. Here is what it means: Miley Cyrus is a lost girl. Another child star who grew up in the light of lights, camera, action. All the discussion and pondering about what it means and how we should understand who she is because it gives us clues into teen culture I think is not a very useful exercise. It is like going outside to the local road where small creatures have been flattened like pancakes by four wheel vehicles. How much studying does one have to do to figure out what killed the critter? How much examining do we have to do to figure out what killed the culture? If anyone should be studying teen culture, its media and music, it should be me as a school counselor. But, I don't as a rule unless it is something like Harry Potter which w...