A little insight into quiet resignation!

"Out of the chrysalis didst the butterfly emerge. From a rather vague, apparently functionless and motionless pupal shell, doth a butterfly eclose. Out of seeming blandness doth a magnificent creature emerge; an array of colors, all wafer-thin gossamer wings dusted in a fine powdered silk. A beautiful sight. An awe-inspiring rebirth. The most magnificent metamorphosis imaginable. 

Thus didst the artist also emerge. A previously imprisoned creature, until all of the biochemical triggers fire in sequence, the chemical information present therein being translated into changes, apparently drastic physical and phenotypic changes at that. In a more evolved and higher order organism, such as the human, naturally the brain is also heavily impacted. A neural rewiring of the network, exchanging synapses, disconnecting those neurons from these ones, and patch them in over here, why don’t you? 

Just like the newly formed butterfly exiting the pupa to new-found freedom and billowing fresh air, there is a period of “adjustment”. One could be forgiven for thinking the poor creature is in total shock at it’s new outlook on the world, but biology is rarely that unsophisticated. It is function, not folly, my friends. The butterfly needs to sit there awhile, so that its wings can harden in fresh air, to allow take off of the maiden flight. 

So it was with my good self, upon the realization that my life, my purpose, were similarly altered. I suddenly had you, Charlie Springbank, in my sights, and there was no letting go of you, this time. Upon sitting on the branch for long enough, in awe and wonder at my new challenge, my wings had sufficiently stiffened to facilitate forward movement. So it was that I conceptualized The Masterwork.

Let me be most clear, dear boy. Whilst it came to me in a vision, I had no intention of falling into the traps that others do. I never was nor ever would be or become a serial criminal. God, no. Life’s too short dear boy, and I had much work to do. But it just so happened that for a certain period you became my life’s work, and that’s all there was to it. What better way to make you pay for your sins, than to come at you where you live and work, and at your work? 

Find a method of attack that impacts your daily life in such a way that you cannot escape it. Many people walk out the door of a sunny morning, breathe a sigh of relief, because at least they have work, and a nice office to escape to each day. But what if I came up with an approach that hit you in the stomach, every day, in your chic office, at work? Hit ya hard enough, and on a regular enough basis, that coming home to quaint old Beacon Hill was but small comfort. Especially if the news was blaring on incessantly about it, and the wife would rattle on about when are y’all gonna get off your backsides and do something about it? Daddy-in-law starting to breathe down your neck, because His Highness, Lord Mayor, was starting to crack some heads of his own. The Chief of Police and The Mayor both scowling at you, when you dare to show up at some society function, when you should be at HQ, busting your ass. Irrespective of your acceptance into certain circles due to the wife’s family connections. Yes, this was the idea of The Masterwork. So it was conceived and designed, to pristine perfection. But the proof is in the execution, isn't it old fruit?

While I recognized that I might rapidly ascend my very own ladder, into stratospheric levels of stardom, I was forced to consider methodology most carefully. There wasn't any point in becoming an incarcerated star. The job only partially completed. This had to be avoided at all cost. Not least as I had zero intention of giving up even one hour of my own freedom due to the pursuit and deconstruction of yours. This was to be a win-win for me, and a lose-lose for you. Anything less than this and I would be unable to call it The Masterwork. Fast forward the tape, moron, and yes, it is today considered by one and all as The Masterwork."

[Excerpted from A QUIET RESIGNATION by Kevin Mc, out now on Amazon-Kindle]

Stop watching the clock, and check out the hourglass instead!

         

Where does the time go? It's a question we hear almost every day, particularly at this time of year! Somehow, from mid-November onward the clock just seems to go into overdrive and before we know it, we are crawling out of bed on a freezing morning in early January unable to believe that it's another year and the holidays are over. Again. 

It might have something to do with either the "time flies when you're having fun" adage or how suddenly all of our free time is taken up with dinners, parties, shopping and preparations for the festive period, or both. But in each case it seems that when we are not aware of time, either due to being buried in tasks or having a great time on holiday, the tick-tocks seem to accelerate. 

Another way of looking at it might be that time passes normally when we are productively busy or having a grand old time, but it actually  slows down when we are miserable or bored, to add insult to injury! You only have to think of how a typical day at work goes by when you are just in love with your job, compared to when you hate it. I don't mean that you love it because you are earning a great salary for doing very little - that's something else entirely. 

So when busy in one form or another, hopefully being productive, the time just flies by. When unhappy or bored out of one's mind, it passes by slower than a garden snail. Now, the question is: in terms of not feeling that life is just passing us by and barely getting to notice it flying away, is it better to be in the camp for whom it whizzes by or the one for which every day feels like a small lifetime?

In the end it all comes down to personality, I guess. Some people do not like the hole they dug for themselves, where they  never seem to get any of that "time" for themselves, and five years race by in the blink of an eye. Even though they may be superficially very successful and apparently happy, one day they hit 75-years-old and wish it could have been different. On the contrary, many people refuse early on to have life "compromised" by the over-the-top demands of a big job, settle for less, and usually earn less, but have considerably more free time. The important point of course, is what exactly do they do with that time?

That is a decision we all get to make for ourselves, and while some prefer to crash out on the sofa to watch TV for 3-4 hours, others choose to go to the gym or pursue some other interest in their life. It's often the people who apparently "have it all" or somehow manage to "do it all" that inspire us the most, even while acknowledging right away that we are not like that. But you know, the only major differences between such people and ourselves is a combination of drive and commitment.

When one is truly driven to do something or to achieve something, then that's half the battle. The commitment part requires the signing of a contract with oneself for implementation of a course of action, and then committing a portion of free time to getting a little bit of it done, and often. In fact, it seems to me that one major trait that many super-productive types have in common is a capacity to use (free) time very productively. They may agree that 5-10 pm is "free" time but would not agree that it is "dead" time. And if time does seem to race by because they are doing so many things, well, if it's borne out of passion and leads to real achievements or tangible "product" then I don't imagine that they regret it.

It is amazing how an effort of even an hour per day can begin to pile up over hundreds of days into something concrete and rewarding. It's a question of not seeing it as a loss of one's time, but rather a very satisfying use of one's time. If it's a passion, then it's use and not loss of time! In the case of writing a book, which naturally is a case that applies directly to myself, well, if I had seen struggling over the blank page as a complete loss of my time, then nothing would have ever been finished. Perhaps it might never even have been started! 

The young can be forgiven for not truly appreciating their time, because they feel (understandably) that they have so much of it ahead of them. But for mature people, the completely finite quantity of time available to us in this mortal coil begins to tick-tock louder in our ears, sooner or later. We can look back at time we may have "wasted" and regret it, but that's often simply part of growing up and growing older. It's human nature to just see today as one small unit package of time, with so many still left ahead of us t that there's no need to have a crisis over it. However, the clock is still ticking, and there will be plenty of time for the sitting around later on in life,  and less need for it now!

I think it's important to remember not only that it could all end tomorrow, accidentally or due to unforeseen health issues, but moreover that the 24-hour clock of single days can be distracting to some extent. Rather than seeing time clockwise in the picture at left above, it can be enlightening to think of it as an hourglass in the image on the right. The hourglass of life. The grains of sand started tumbling down from the second we were born, and we are hurtling towards the situation pictured in the first hourglass, where the last grain has fallen. 

This imagery helps me to see time and life quite differently, but maybe that's just me?! So if I am sitting around tonight doing nothing, moaning about the TV choices, at 7:30 pm on the clock, well, that's okay, it's just another Tuesday evening. Right? However, if you stick my own individual hourglass of my time beside the TV and I have to stare at where the sands are, and how much remains in the top chamber vs. what is lying in the bottom one - well, that might be enough to get me screaming in panic off the warm sofa and even out at -20 Celsius to run up the icefall into the deathzone! And then back onto the computer once home again. 

Time is our most precious commodity, and our human nature seems to be willing to not fuss over it due to how much of it we get, but I am pretty certain that that's not how we feel towards the end. I think the pipe and slippers by the fire will be fine for the introspection probably involved in later life, but until that time arrives, we must keep an eye on that relentless hourglass as a driving force to get us out of our funk and up from our chairs, and onto doing something productive that reflects the preciousness of our time! 

As an amusing anecdote related to my own viewpoint on time, I refuse to use a classical alarm clock. There's nothing more shocking than being woken from a deep sleep by jarring bells or a digital screech on repeat, so I prefer to use my own voice. My clock comes with a mini-disc onto which I can record my own soothing, stress-free entry into the world of the living each morning - but don't worry, I haven't gone soft on myself! It usually consists of a "Boom! Come on, son, wakey wakey, shift that butt and get it out onto the deathzone, now, boy!". Even the cat jumps and runs from that one, after sniffing the clock to clarify that it's not me! ;) Kevin Mc

Snail mail, perhaps, but still smarter 70 years later!

David Martin, 74, made a fascinating discovery of something as old as himself when he recently opened an unused fireplace during renovations at his home in Surrey, England. Among what were the clear remains of what appeared to be a pigeon, there was this intriguing little red canister attached to the bird's leg. 

It became evident that the remains were of a dead carrier pigeon, of which the British forces used around 250,000 during WWII to relay important information to and from the battlegrounds. It is believed that this particular pigeon was on its way back from Normandy, probably en route to General Montgomery whose headquarters were not far away. The bird is thought to have stopped to rest on the chimney and perhaps become incapacitated by fumes, falling to it's death in the chimney. 

The message was apparently sent by an airman sergeant and was destined for "X02" which it seems was the code for British bomber command in Buckinghamshire, England. The message contains a series (27) of five letter (or number) combinations, along with some unique identifiers. It has since been forwarded to Bletchley Park's codebreaking headquarters and has also been examined by analysts at the British Intelligence Agency. 

Remarkably, even the sharpest minds of 2012 appear to be incapable of deciphering this code from 70 years ago! But it might not be that surprising because the whole idea in the first place was to effectively render such codes "unbreakable". Teasing out the actual message would require the appropriate codebooks and knowledge of the "one-time pad" encryption system, wherein only the sender and the recipient would have the key needed to read the message.

In all likelihood both the necessary codebooks and the one-time pad were destroyed after a certain period which means that we may never learn what was in this message that might shed some light onto a very historic moment in history. But it's late arrival at close to its destination serves as a reminder of earlier times and what remarkable jobs the oft-maligned pigeon did for us all (not just the British) during a very delicate time in this world. 

It also makes me smile that with all of our computers and technological advances since then, the experts and spies of Britain are today unable to decode something that was sent 70 years ago - so good luck to anyone who was trying to decode such messages back then! You can be sure the message contains something that was critical to the times in which it was sent and there is a huge desire by all involved to know what it said. 

I hope that some codebreaker, somewhere, does manage to crack it, if only to complete the incredible journey of this one faithful carrier pigeon and all the others who served so well alongside it. I daresay that I know of a certain former four star general and ex-CIA Director who might wish he had been smart enough to use such "technology" in recent communications, rather than the supposedly more efficient current version: email! ;) - Kevin Mc

Lightning did strike twice - now it's time for #3!

This shelf at home is beginning to look a lot more interesting, now that my second novel has been printed and exists in a physical sense as well as in the virtual new world of digital publishing. Without a doubt, even though we at Evergreen Umbrella are huge proponents of the brave new world of self-publishing and digital media, there is nothing quite like the feel of a crisp new book in one's hands!

It's exactly the same with recorded music. No matter how easy it becomes to just download music (that has been paid for!) onto an electronic device, nothing truly beats having the actual CD in your hands. It's the same reason why even people who could record anything they wanted onto cassettes still went out and bought prerecorded cassettes: they wanted the item as a piece for their collection. 

Times have changed and we must move with them, even if for some things we have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the modern era. There is just never going to be the same effect when someone opens up a smart TV or other device and says, "look at my DVD collection", or "here's my CD library" and you see an electronic menu on a screen to choose from. Nothing can compare with bookshelves lined floor to ceiling with books of all shapes, sizes and colors, or shelves filled with more than a thousand CD cases. 

I am the first to admit that reading a book on a device will probably never truly replace the experience of reading a story printed on paper with a cool cover package. There is something very romantic about an actual book and how it can not only transport us off into another world for various periods, or in the best cases actually change our lives. An electronic reader just can't have the same tactile experience and warmth of a real book.

But this is the digital age, and there are huge benefits that come with it in terms of keeping costs down and allowing all of us to write our own stories without having to face the silence from the gatekeepers (i.e. the dreaded literary agent) to whose attention (or lack thereof!) we used to send our manuscripts. One can now read new authors for as low as 99 cents (or in some cases, totally free) per "book" and new authors can now get their work out there and available in the marketplace without basically spending a penny. Furthermore, they don't wait around impatiently anymore for responses to queries that never come, or come with the usual generic aloof rejections.

Of course, marketing then becomes the true "rate-limiting step" for unknown authors moving forward. But that's just another hat that needs to be put on once a book is finished and is released, and people need to get busy on various social media sites and their own websites and blogs. No, it's not easy, but neither is it brain surgery! In fact, the very people who refused to listen to skeptical family/friends (You are going to write a book?! Will that last as long as your claim that you were going to renovate the basement?!) or even the little negative voice in their own heads, are the very people to roll their sleeves up and get on with it!

Many of us are individuals who have succeeded in other professional areas of our lives and careers, yet still felt driven enough to face the dreaded blank page and transform a set of ideas racing around our head into a (hopefully) coherent story on paper. It's far from an easy process, which is why so many start out full of enthusiasm yet end up putting it back down quite soon after beginning, just like a guitar.  Those who push through and accept that days of amazing progress often come alongside days of almost hopelessness are the ones who have it in them to be a writer, irrespective of what the publishing world says about them. 

One of the key challenges about being a self-published author has got much less to do with writing of the book itself, and more the writing on various social media to actually promote the book. But in some ways, who better to understand the placement of your work and how you want it presented to the world than yourself?! As people who ran the marathon of writing a novel, we are not the type to walk away from a subsequent challenge, and as we have to do it all and be a jack-of-all-trades, well, we just do it! 

It takes time, yes, especially if you are not familiar with social media use for business/marketing, but a grossly intellectual affair it isn't! Compared to writing a novel, social media is like going outside, kicking a ball around and chatting with some people. So get to your computer, set up a Facebook business page, get onto Twitter, create your own stunning website and hell, go all the way, and set up your very own blog!  A major reason we want to write a book is because we have a voice and we want that voice to be heard - so given that it's assumed that you've got something of interest to say, well, say it! Speak up! Speak out! Share it! 

Personally speaking, I am delighted to see both A QUIET RESIGNATION and THE MOLECULES on my brickwork shelf, and it's particularly enjoyable because so many probably thought I was dreaming, and it would never happen. But it did, and now that these two books are published the focus switches to what will become book #3, while remembering that I found a way to be an active scientist and writer simultaneously twice before, so now I just have to do it all again!

People have been asking already, so I will let slip what is the working title of book #3 - for now it's "IN SEARCH OF SOME SOUL". Ironically, I have a feeling that I am going to have to dig pretty deep to excavate this one out of me, and I hope that my soul remains intact afterwards! ;) - Kevin Mc

Who knew that the nose knows how to walk?!

In what is a truly heartwarming story for pet lovers and their owners alike, we have this stunning video of 10-year-old dachshund, Jasper, who went from total hindlimb paralysis to being more or less totally functional in about a year, via some groundbreaking biomedical research. 

Jasper and 33 other dogs were patients in the trial of a new cellular therapy, all of the dogs having severe spinal cord injuries due to accidents or back problems. The experimental therapy that was on trial involved the removal of primarily a certain type of cell from the canine nose, and injecting them at the site of spinal cord injury. 

More specifically, dogs were injected with either a control solution or a sample of what are termed OECs (Olfactory Ensheathing Cells) derived from the nasal passage: these are cells which promote the formation of nerve cell connections to the brain. There had been previous work studying the effect in rats which was very promising, but no study had ever been able to repair damage that had been incurred a year prior. However, the lower spinal cord is much further away from the brain than the nose, and it was unclear whether the OECs would be able to forge new connections (or repair old ones, to put it another way) in this larger animal model. 

Spectacularly, in the example shared with the world, we see the heartbreaking sight of an animal dragging his back legs, supported by a harness to allow him to slide them along, but totally unable to walk at all without that harness. Six months post-injection we see that the dog is now using his hind limbs in an incredible turn of events, and by the end of the trial we see the almost unbelievable phenomenon of Jasper walking unaided. Well, apart from some encouraging words from his "trainer" perhaps!

"Our findings are extremely exciting because they show for the first time that transplanting these types of cell into a severely damaged spinal cord can bring about significant improvement." said Professor Robin Franklin, a study leader from Cambridge University (Wellcome Trust-MRC Stem Cell Institute), in England. 

Mike and May Hay, owners of Jasper, were visibly astounded and delighted with the outcome in some other footage that I saw earlier. Jasper suffered a spinal cord injury in an accident in 2008, and was unable to walk since. Before the treatment, he was effectively an invalid and unable to play with the two other dogs in the house, and had to be helped outside.. Now they say that Jasper is whizzing around, and running into ditches and coming out of them dirty along with his two buddies, as before. And yes, he can swim now! 

Spinal cord injury is devastating to animals and humans alike because essentially it has always been an entirely irreversible injury. The fact that this new therapy achieved any apparent regrowth of damaged nerves and reestablishment of various neural pathways is almost like science fiction to this boy. Imagine many (or hopefully less than that!) years from now when this kind of approach could be applied to damaged human spinal cord and the paralysis that results from it?!

This was the first study showing such spectacular results in animals that were at least 12 months post injury, and that aspect is more likely to reflect the presentation and challenge of the typical human spinal cord injury. However, at the moment caution is necessary and experts such as Professor Geoffrey Raisman of University College London underline the fact that it is not a cure for spinal cord injury in humans, while at the same time emphasizing that it should almost certainly be a huge step forward towards that cure (which will likely involve combined therapy).

For all those who would put down stem cell research as somehow unethical, or, God forbid, even "unholy", well, all I would say is that George Bush disappeared in 2008, and Obama just got reelected for another four years - and one thing that Obama did do early on (March, 2009) was reverse the block that Bush put on funding for embryonic stem cell research. Quite right too! 

It's the next big thing in medicine, it's already here, and there will be no stopping it now. If we can repair the damage incurred in multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, spinal cord injury/paralysis, to name but a few? It would be "unholy" to not go for it, full steam ahead!

Science and medicine always go slower than we would like when it comes to curing human diseases. But for now, I will keep on smiling at the sight of this cute little four-legged beast restored to being an active canine once again, and marvel at the possibility that some two-legged beasts are going to eventually experience the magic that this result represents. Until then, keep up the incredible work, you stellar stem cell scientists! - Kevin Mc

Who can help the Today show have a brighter tomorrow?

What's going on at NBC's flagship morning news franchise, the "Today" show? We have reported on this affair before, around the time of the unceremonious exit of Ann Curry at the hands of Jim Bell (and if you believe the whsipers, with a certain Matt Lauer pulling the strings), but rather than progress the show has been on a more or less constant slide ever since. 

NBC is not known in recent times for being a great handler of talent: the Jay Leno-Conan fiasco, the Ann Curry debate/debacle and more recently their own Jenna Wolfe, instantaneously demoted from the anchor seat alongside Lester Holt on "Weekend Today", to being just the newsreader.They drafted in respected but bland Erica Hill from CBS (This Morning) and Jenna was kicked back to the news desk, which she clearly felt upset about. 

But you see? In a giant corporation like NBC Universal, it's firstly about the ratings, then it's about the ratings, and in fact, it's always about the ratings. It's got way less to do with being a respected journalist or broadcaster than it has to do with that horrible word, ratings. Why? Well, because unless you are very popular with the audience, and particular demographics of that audience, the numbers begin to slip and advertisers are not getting bang for their buck. So the execs start whispering. 

It was all very well when the competition was weak, but finally some people woke up at ABC and CBS and shook up their respective "Good Morning America" (GMA) and "This Morning" shows. The whole Ann Curry affair arose out of the fact that Today was slipping, and GMA in particular had made significant inroads. Now, let me be clear, while Ann was undoubtedly popular, I was not a huge fan because I found her gaffes too frequent and too obvious for an anchor at that level. She couldn't say "Welcome to Today" properly and in my book that alone was reason enough to replace her. Additionally, she often became too sympathetic to those she was interviewing which got in the way of journalistic intervention, and nobody wants to see a big sad face at 7:19am on a Monday morning!

Many felt that she was Matt Lauer's (among other) scapegoat at the time, and you could almost sense the relief on the couch as Ann announced her departure. It was a horrific display of discomfort on a comfy primetime sofa. But I did warn at the time, beware further falling ratings, people,  because guess what chaps? The spotlight turns firmly and squarely onto your shoulders next! 

My "men on the street" informed me that Ann Curry felt a great degree of vindication when the show failed to produce a ratings shine at the Olympics last summer - an event from which Curry was excluded. They even flew over Hoda Kotb at the last minute, from her holidays, to try to jump start some excitement over in London.  But it didn't work and by any large the event did not live up to NBC expectations. Who can blame Ann for smirking even a little?

We then moved on more squarely to the new era of Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie. Unquestionably, the two work well together and have acceptable chemistry on screen, but something is still not quite right. It almost seems as if Matt, now advancing in years with his "new boy" status decades behind him, actually needs an older woman who outranks him in experience and journalistic chops. He seems to need that challenge if only because it prevents him from being "glib" (as Tom Cruise called him) in assessing a younger host's performance rather than focusing on his own. Meredith Vieira was a total pro, and Matt had to work to keep up.

It seems that between them, "Today" show executive producer Jim Bell, NBC Universal CEO Steve Burke, NBC News President Steve Capus and talking head Lauer seem to be incapable of resolving the issue and getting it right. We now hear that Bell is out, and will be replaced with Alexandra Wallace, who is known to be an Ann Curry fan, which I hear has incensed Lauer. There are even rumors that Alexandra intends to address how Lauer is used on the show, in a fashion that our Matt is not going to like.

But you know? If Ann Curry was not the problem, which ultimately implies that neither can it be Savannah Guthrie, then where is the problem? As I predicted many months ago, people are beginning to look at Lauer. When you see old footage of Matt, you can see why he rose so rapidly. He was young, relatively handsome, competent and fun. But today many say they find him arrogant, pompous, self-satisfied and glib. I suppose that's what $25-30M a year will do to an average guy whose main task is being capable of reading a teleprompter accurately, with an earpiece giving him timing cues. Brain surgery nor even dentistry, it sure ain't!

Yes, I may be simplifying the job just a little, but only a little! It requires neither great intellect nor great physical skills, two talents that bring huge amounts of money with them in various professions. But for many types in entertainment, it's only money that dictates where you stand on the socioprofessional ladder, so I suppose he lets some of that ridiculous sum of money go to his head. But even he is not immune to scrutiny.

“This problem is not going to go away until Matt Lauer does,” an esteemed  former NBC News executive told the Daily News this week. “He’s great, but fairly or unfairly, his brand is damaged.”

This is quite a provocative statement indeed, and yet it appears to be mirrored by many. His image is unlikely to be helped by recent reports coming out of Rockefeller Plaza that unlike his more famous colleague, Jay Leno, Lauer point blank refused to take a pay cut to offset belt tightening by the studio. The result? A whole slew (as many as 500 staffers) of studio crew are at risk of being laid off before Christmas. When Leno took a hefty 50% reduction on the "Tonight" show he personally trimmed the budget by a solid 20%, singlehandedly saving dozens of jobs. Now that's something! The fact that many staffers blame Lauer directly (as well as for his role in the ouster of Ann Curry) for the ratings slump makes his refusal to take a cut to save their jobs particularly insulting. 

I have heard speculation on the similarly prevalent rise of a certain new charmer among the ranks at NBC News - we are of course talking about Willie Geist, who I personally see as the future of the "Today" show if Matt leaves or is exited, like the curry. Of course, NBC will have to shell out big bucks to get rid of Lauer because his contract is an entirely different affair from Ann Curry, but when you see what Conan got to make him go away, you realize that cash is not the determining factor for NBC. 

In fact, it is estimated that profits from advertising revenue on the "Today" show in 2011 were of the order of $500M. We are talking stupid money here, so paying severances is way less of an issue than is losing even more of the slice of the pie to GMA, who have been grabbing a bigger slice recently than in the last 15 years and more. It is a crisis for folks at NBC, and something is going to be done about it and soon.

Alexandra Wallace is an Ann Curry fan who is ten years younger than Lauer and who is very close with Steve Capus - I expect there to be fireworks, almost from the start. Matt Lauer may experience the fact that he does not reign supreme for the first time in decades, nor is he truly indispensable (anymore) with both slipping ratings and a Willie Geist snipping at his heels. Today on Today? Willie is by far the most likable of the two, while being equally professional and similarly journalistic. The future is his, if he reaches out and takes it!

Humility is something that we all probably struggle with at some point or another. When one is earning something ridiculous like $2M per month, then I guess it is rather easy to start believing the hype, and happily pointing out what the problems are with this person's performance, or that one's. All very well, until your own arrogance gets in the way of seeing what is wrong with you. In TV, maintaining audience buy-in is critical, and if you lose it, you better face it. 

"Does he still wear his Livestrong rubber wristband, I wonder?", someone asked recently when considering the black cloud that he now brings to the show. It's a very interesting question actually, for a few reasons. How great is it to "live strong" while you selfishly line your own pockets at the expense of others, and even look down upon those whom you may have ridden over and/or cheated? That's not gonna inspire anyone, nor should it. 

We can all use a wake-up call when our success goes to our heads, even a little. It is always best to remember that the adage is 100% true - no one is ever indispensable. How are Apple surviving after Steve Jobs, or how do GE make it without Jack Welch? Talking heads are way down the food chain from these heights, and they come and they go with great frequency. Ask Oprah, who got her "own" lesson in being humble after the various false starts at OWN. 

However, one thing is also true. The Evergreen Umbrella blog does need me, honestly, and if they decide to replace me with another pair of talking hands, well, I want an exit deal that is comparable to the one likely to be offered to Matt Lauer, so we can both go off sailing in the Caribbean on Monday morning! ;) - Kevin Mc

Emailed words can have a greater impact than bullets - superstar generals falling like dominoes!

I really thought my blog of yesterday would be the end of the matter vis-a-vis the Petraeus scandal but even overnight that scandal has evolved into somewhat of a debacle and warrants further comment from the EU blog. It is clearly going to be another gift (not) that keeps on giving, along the lines of the Tiger Woods or Lance Armstrong stories.

It transpires that the FBI raided the home of Petraeus biographer Paula Broadwell in Charlotte, North Carolina and exited several hours later with about 10 boxes of materials as well as what appeared to be two computers. Additionally, and somewhat astoundingly, another general on active duty has entered the fray, General John Allen, who is the current leader of allied forces in Afghanistan, having replaced Petraeus in the role. 

In what appears to be way, way too much of a coincidence to be unrelated, General Allen had come under FBI scrutiny for inappropriate email communications between him, and wait for it, the other other woman in this debacle - the heretofore so-called "victim" in the affair, Jill Kelley. She being the one targeted by threatening emails from the real other woman, Broadwell. You've got to be kidding me, right?! Wrong.

The FBI now state that they have possession of a staggering "20,000-30,000" pages of communications (mostly emails) between Allen and Kelley, dating from 2010 to 2012.  Quite what the leader of allied forces in Afghanistan would have to say inside "20,000-30,000" pages of communications to a volunteer social liaison for military families at the MacDill air force base in Tampa is hard to imagine, and is perhaps not best left to the imagination. At least not in this particular case! 

It starts to look like anything but a coincidence that the same woman targeted by Broadwell for supposedly snuggling into the arms of "her guy" would also now be potentially linked to her very own "affair with the General", albeit not "Broadwell's guy" but another general entirely! Kelley is also a wife and mother, and is now clearly close to both Generals: Petraeus and Allen. Perhaps that oneupmanship is what ticked off Broadwell, after she was exited, and she obsessively appeared to believe that Kelley was going to hit a general's happy hour and a "two-for-one"?!

Wait for it, we ain't done yet! It now also transpires that the FBI agent in Tampa, Florida, to whom Kelley went to with the threatening emails from Broadwell, has himself been discovered to have sent shirtless photos to Kelley. What the hell has been stumbled upon here? I joked rather sarcastically yesterday that Broadwell's book was hardly a "Fifty Shades of the General" thingy, but it is beginning to appear that the periphery surrounding it is filled with its own salacious back story.

General John Allen (like Petraeus) is another four star general and military star, considered to be quite an intellectual talent, and is currently in fact right on the brink of a major promotion from leader of  US forces in Afghanistan to assuming leadership of NATO's Supreme Allied Command in Europe by 2013. That move has now been put on ice by Leon Panetta, US defense secretary, pending further investigation. 

Read my lips, people, unless Allen turns out to be 100% squeaky clean, I feel that his chance may have just passed him by, already. It might have been another thing if he had already assumed that command, but he hasn't, and the military needs to move into full damage control to prevent this matter from spreading way beyond Congress and the Senate, and outside of US borders all the way over to Europe and the Middle East. They cannot afford to be further compromised. The smartest thing to do would be to announce an immediate replacement candidate for the NATO post, and get rid of this story from the international  stage (as much as one can in 2012!), like, yesterday. 

As is often the case in these scandals, we hear way, way more about both the other woman, and now the other, other woman, than we do about the woman at the heart of it all: Holly Petraeus. That's her pictured above, alongside her man. One can only imagine what all of this has done/is doing to her, and Broadwell in particular should think of her a little more and a lot less about herself, her own self-promotion and her high school level behavior over someone she dubs as "her guy" even if he clearly wants nothing to do with her anymore. 

Two generals down, two wives distraught, two husbands of the two other women in pain, and some 9 children stuck in the middle of it all - and that's just the very immediate families. Haven't we done enough damage already? Can we just leave it at that and not let Broadwell's immense lack of sophistication and maturity tear more families apart nor ruin any more careers?

You know, after no doubt being extremely proud over the gushing first biography sitting on his library shelf at home, I have a funny feeling that "All in: The education of General David Petraeus" is unlikely to be there anymore. It has either been burnt by his wife, or he ripped it to shreds himself, or both. 

One can imagine how unable he would be today to see Broadwell's name alongside his - a biographer and mistress who ultimately ended his career and (less directly perhaps) potentially that of another. He lost everything due to that biography and due to the mistakes he made during its preparation. Irrespective of where that biography gets burnt, placed or hidden from view, it is sure to haunt David Petraeus, retired civilian, for a very long time to come. - Kevin Mc

Victorious in two wars but crushed by the scorned woman?!

It was with more than a little incredulity that I heard of the stepping down of former four star general and CIA director David Petraeus, last Friday. As much as I felt that it was immediately newsworthy, I also was sure more details would emerge over the weekend to help explain what has turned out to be an extraordinary fall from grace for one of the most esteemed military figures in modern history. In the case of Paula Broadwell, the contrast couldn't be more clear - she suddenly became news, from being a relatively obscure biographer that few had any interest in. 

General Petraeus is something of a legend in the military world, often referred to (both sarcastically as well as in admiration) as "King David" in recognition for leading the surge which helped resolve the war in Iraq, and later replacing the deposed (by Obama) General Stanley McChrystal, while making the bigger impact on the war in Afghanistan.  He has been married for as long as he has been in public service, a hefty 37 years.

Quite what would drive a man of his impeachable record to take a dive onto the wild side is far from clear, but one cannot only look at such heroic figures as the clean cut and polished personas we see on our screens. You don't get to be a four star general who has been a darling of two different presidents from each side of the political divide without being driven by a forest fire of ambition. 

In many cases, that ambition is at the expense of almost anything else - such people go out and take what they want, they don't necessarily wait for someone to give it to them. There are big egos involved in military hierarchy and being a nice guy is not exactly the priority when it comes to rapidly rising through the ranks. Kicking some ass (not kissing some ass, like in Washington) and leading by ruthless example might be more accurate. Fighting wars is serious business, after all.

Then along comes the reasonably pretty Broadwell, all big eyes and in awe of this legend of a military figure, she expressing an interest in military history and education, who could learn so much from the General. They met in 2006 at Harvard where he was giving a speech, and I dare say that the moment he decided to leave her his card so that he might be able to "help in her studies"....well, they both probably knew right then that there was an affair on the cards. I don't know if there is more than coincidence in the fact that Petraeus waited until he became a civilian in 2011, to commence that affair. But it surely isn't a coincidence that he would assert nothing happened until he became a civilian, to avoid charges the military could potentially lay against him. 

Let's cut to the chase, shall we? She was appointed, as a total unknown in biography circles, to be the general's biographer. It started out that he was to be in part the subject of her dissertation but then it somehow turned into a book, and suddenly she had an unusual level of access to the man for someone who had few credentials to warrant it. Don't get me wrong, she seems to be a tough cookie, apparently wears the pants at home, and has academic credentials as well as being a reserve counter-intelligence specialist, but would never have been the obvious choice to have the access and security clearance as official biographer of a four star general on active duty. 

What broke the story open, and remains a focal point for intelligence committees in both Congress and the Senate, is what were the FBI doing spying on the CIA Director in the first place?! How come Obama did not know of it? When did Obama become aware of it? Was it kept quiet until after Obama got reelected, a move that would surprise few? At first glance, the FBI interest was  reportedly due to incriminating emails that had been detected between the CIA Director and Broadwell, but sadly the story got even seedier as the weekend progressed. It appears that the affair, in and of itself, was not what brought Petraeus down, but rather it was the almost incomprehensible actions of his mistress after he broke it off. 

It transpired that Broadwell sent threatening emails to another woman, Jill Kelley, who is a civilian that organizes military parties and who had become (along with her husband) friends with the Petraeus clan. In a staggeringly unsophisticated move, Broadwell apparently warned Kelley to "stay away from my guy" and included "I know what you did......back off!" and so on. Kelley, a shocked mother of three, went to the FBI who began an investigation of the situation. It was not long after that when the whole affair became stage center and the house of cards came crashing down. 

Quite what made Broadwell return to her high school days and act like a jealous, scorned 14-year-old schoolgirl rather than a mature woman, wife and mother of two is beyond me. Especially given her knowledge of intelligence matters, she simply had to know that such threatening emails to do with the Director of the CIA had to lead to trouble - primarily for him. He ended the affair, so she would put an end to him?

It's a story as old as us all. Public, powerful man has affair with unknown woman in awe of him or his stature or his money, or all three, then when he has to go back to reality, he flushes her, she is furious, and at the very least wants the world to know that she had him, in this case apparently out of pure ego and jealousy. What do you mean? You get to stay on as a famous person with a great reputation, and I go back to deeper obscurity?!  No!!!

"What? I won't be ignored, Dan!". Err, sorry, I mean David. Think I was channeling a little Fatal Attraction there, but you get my drift! It's all lovey dovey and hunky dory, until your ties to CIA Director level glamour and secrecy are cut, presumably unceremoniously. 

It's truly ironic that nothing in the rough and tough world of climbing military command hierarchy, nor during fighting two vicious wars, could tumble the force that was General David Petraeus. It was an extramarital affair that did it. Or more accurately, it was the reaction of the (now) clearly unstable mistress upon being exited that did it. Had she never sent the threatening emails to Jill Kelley, the FBI would probably never have stumbled upon what appeared at first to be some kind of love triangle involving the Director of the CIA.

Even more ironically but perhaps not totally undesirably, Broadwell's (and Loeb's) book "All in: The education of General David Petraeus" was not even in the top 100,000 books on Amazon's best seller list last Thursday. Today? Inside the top 100! So she even gets to financially benefit from the affair and her ultimate exposure of it. Sex sells, and it seems human nature cannot avoid either the pursuit of it or reading about another's pursuit of it, even if in this case, the book is the total opposite of a "Fifty Shades of the General" affair! Well, in the actual text it's not, at least. But now people get to read something entirely different and way more titillating between the lines!

I don't believe that his "resignation" is some kind of move to avoid testifying at the inquiry into events in Benghazi that resulted in the death of four Americans. It was the last trip that Petraeus took in fact, to look into what happened over there, and he is much too honorable a man to not show up if asked, especially as he is the only man who can really answer certain questions to do with CIA knowledge/strategy at that time. It is pretty certain that DNI James Clapper forced his hand and his exit, as sources reported.  

I can't think of a more outrageous fall from grace for a man who is still widely respected and admired by many in Washington and beyond. The crash is reminiscent of another recent story involving a certain Lance Armstrong.  I guess the message is rather clear in both cases - cheating just doesn't pay, in the long term! - Kevin Mc

A SEAL team at sixes and sevens?!

What's the deal with SEAL Team 6? The normally uber-secretive and ultra-elite unit has been making a lot of news of late, and not for what was their most recent claim to fame - the elimination of a certain terrorist nemesis of the USA. As impressed as we all were with the sophistication with which they carry out the most dangerous of missions, we totally expected them to slip back under the cloak of secrecy following the big result in Pakistan. 

However, it's beginning to appear that the individuals themselves have begun to hanker for some of the Hollywood-style heroics that their Commander-in-Chief has had much more access to, freely mingling with the big names amidst the cameras in a blaze of glory that some clearly feel is more theirs, than his. 

In fact, several currently-serving and former US Navy SEALs spoke out during the lengthy Obama campaign expressing their desire that the President stopped taking credit for killing bin Laden thereby using them as a tool for his reelection. I was quite astounded by this, given the normally gung-ho sentiment and cloak of silence as modus operandi which surrounds special forces in general. Speaking out against a sitting President would usually be seen as something on the edge of treason. Look what happened to McChrystal for doing so, for example!

Next we had a former member of SEAL Team 6 who served on the raid that got bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan wanting his moment in the spotlight via the almost unthinkable action of publishing a book on the subject.  "No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama bin Laden" got the author (written by a "Mark Owen" but otherwise known as Matt Bissonette) into some hot water for not letting the government vet the book, even though he took legal advice before accepting a publishing deal. 

The thing that shocked me was that the author was a veteran hardline Navy SEAL who had earned five Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart during a stellar career - these are not the types who usually break tradition and want to reveal anything about their operations, never  mind release something that can be considered as classified and/or in any way jeopardize the safety of any current SEAL Team member. 

I suppose that the rather unique target that SEAL Team 6 was after in Pakistan that night makes for a story with much greater appeal than normal, but even then the SEALs are bound by such a code of silence that one would not have expected to see a SEAL author the story so soon after the raid. You can be sure that neither did the Commander-in-Chief nor the government itself for that matter. 

I don't know whether the book was a factor in the newer scandal surrounding SEAL Team 6 or if it would have happened anyway, but it sure begins to feel that other members began to feel that Bissonette was perhaps going to get all the glory, after Obama got all the glory. So then someone else must have decided to get a piece of the pie before it was all eaten up. 

We hear now that seven other members of SEAL Team 6 (one of whom was involved in the bin Laden raid) have been disciplined by the Navy for further releasing classified information to aid, unbelievably, in the making of a video game! This takes the pervasion of video games-as-real life a whole lot further and just seems totally incongruous with SEAL philosophy and principle.

The seven SEALs involved (and four others still under investigation) are charged with having divulged classified information in the making of "Medal of Honor: Warfighter", the name of which basically tells you all you need to know about the content. It's not just that doing so violates a code of conduct, but in both this case as well as that of author Matt Bissonette, there is a non-disclosure agreement that SEALs must sign as part and parcel of their jobs. All such disclosures are subject to American law, as well as team ethos.

Given the true heroism of what these SEALs did and what other elite forces are expected to do, I am pretty sure that there is little desire to forward the individuals to judicial process whereby they could actually end up in jail, but I don't expect the tolerance to extend much further. Future transgressions are likely to be met with more serious repercussions. I still cannot believe that they were willing to trivialize what they do for something as banal as a video game, one which could be seen to put SEAL operations at risk.

Maybe they all knew that Obama was likely to be forgiving following a successful return to the White House, so they could milk the opportunity for a little extra cash and attention? Or perhaps it's an aspect of modern American life in that celebrity and fame and Hollywood are more dominant than ever, not least due to their example being a President who spends more time in Hollywood among Hollywood types than any President in history? 

I would suggest that it is time for the Commander-in-Chief to go back to living like one, and put Hollywood and celebrity back on the back-burner; there will be plenty of time for Hollywood later, it will be waiting for him in the years when he is no longer supposed to be a Commander-in-Chief. Hell, there could even be a new video game where he is SEAL Team Six leader, and he is the one who gets to nail bin Laden personally. He sure would get a kick out of that, it seems!

Given their own new-found desire for the spotlight though, I somehow imagine that there would be outcry, if not a lawsuit from a bunch of ex-SEALs, if the faces involved in the raid belonged to Obama, Biden, Clinton and the rest of that gang! ;) 
Kevin Mc

Irish legends, vampires and Google doodles!

We wouldn't be Evergreen Umbrella if we were not ready to celebrate the 165th birthday of a famous Irish writer, now would we?! Google seems to feel the same way, with the introduction today of a new doodle dedicated to the legendary Bram Stoker. 

Mr. Stoker (1847-1912) is more in vogue than ever, given the proliferation of the vampire genre that has been a massive success for a variety of writers and filmmakers. Many are still surprised to hear that the author of "Dracula" was in fact an Irishman, and not himself a native of dark and gothic Transylvania!  In fact he never did visit that part of the world and had to use his imagination, research and more traveled colleagues to gain the insight needed to create the atmosphere and background in the story. 

Stoker was a contemporary of another Irish legend called Oscar Wilde and in fact snatched Wilde's childhood sweetheart, Florence, out from under his nose. They were married later and remained so until Stoker's death in 1912. Wilde had a less, shall we say, converntional life after he departed Ireland for England following those times!

Although he is primarily known for his work on the dark side, it is much less well known that his main other genre when not focused on creatures of the night, was, wait for it, Victorian romance! During his life, he was primarily occupied by being a theatre critic, which led him to become the assistant to the actor Henry Irving, who owned the Lyceum on The Strand in London, where Stoker became the stage manager and did so for a full 27 years.

It's highly titillating to me that I saw the last live music show at the famous Lyceum around 1986 when it closed its doors, and if I recall correctly it was either The Smiths or The Sisters of Mercy who were playing. Quite a leap from Bram Stoker! The Lyceum was a gorgeous old place, and was I think the first theatre in London to have gaslights which along with the ornate styling of the place made it a very unique place to see contemporary music. But it's also true that the gothic look and sound of The Sisters of Mercy and Andrew Eldritch's booming bass voice were totally in line with the ghost of Bram Stoker standing side stage in the wings. 

But Bram Stoker will forever be remembered for Dracula, which was the piece of work that today has captivated millions and which continues to inspire a whole new generation of adolescent (and their parents!) vampire romance lovers. Stoker was cremated and after his only son's (Irving Noel) death in 1961, the ashes of the two men were combined and are currently protected and displayed at the Golders Green Crematorium in London. 

Happy 165th to yet another Irish legend! The only thing that worries me is that perhaps to become a real writing legend myself, I am going to have to wait until I die, before one of Kevin Mc's books is seen to be a work of art or genius, or preferably both! Holy moly, I better get back to the drawing board, and fast! ;)
Kevin Mc 

Out of the mouths of babes....

Well, it's early morning on Wednesday, November 7, 2012, so that can mean only one thing - it's over! At last! As the polls suggested, the country is split right down the middle in terms of the popular vote, with essentially half of the electorate happy and the other half about to wake up disappointed, as I stated in my last blog. But perhaps mirroring many who feel the same way, we know there is one little girl who will be smiling simply due to the fact that it's all finally over! 

Of course, we are only at the beginning, again, and some might might say we are right back to square one, given the reality of what just transpired. So Mr. Obama keeps his job as leader of a totally divided country where half of the population voted for the other guy - at this point the breakdown in popular vote appears to be 50% Obama - 49% Romney. I don't care how pundits want to spin that, it is half and half. 

This cannot be seen as some huge endorsement of a dysfunctional Washington or what happened there during a first term where Obama's hands got tied since the mid-terms in 2010. Neither can it be seen as any kind of real endorsement of what has been done for the economy given that the record-breaking unbroken unemployment highs over years speak for themselves. He got lucky, again, is all. Once more, he asked people to "believe" and vote not for what he did, but for what he will (that usually translates as "might" in Obamaspeak) do. Given his record, and its broken promises, it takes some pretty big ones to ask that in 2012, but he is a master of campaign rhetoric and hyperbole so he got the extra voter fraction needed to believe, again. If he had been up against a Chris Christie, or even a Condi Rice, he would be packing today!

So, he better realize and quick, that the second four is not going to go any slower than the first. Now that he asked the populus to believe once more, he better do a better job of actually delivering. If he has eight years under his belt with things still a mess, he could damage his legacy more than it has been already, and end up almost regretting that he had eight years to (dis)prove himself - no doubt delivering sermons on the subject of "If only I had been given four more (i.e. twelve years) I could have gotten it done, folks!". That is a totally imaginable scenario for this guy.

Go ahead and have a great night, and one or two big celebrity-laden celebratory parties, Mr. President, but by Monday morning get the staff to clear out Air Force One, and tell George, and JayBey, and Bruce, et al.,, that they have no future in the White House and that they have to go back to work, too. Off you go now, people, y'all are stars, you ain't got nothing to do with daily politics and clearing the mess that the country is in. In fact, you are the types who got richer under the previous regime, while the middle class got eroded!

The country is in a mess, in great part, due to the mess that is the House. This election reinforces the status quo that has existed for the last two years, and that is unlikely to change in the short term. Nothing much changes: the Republicans retain a solid majority in the House, and the Democrats added a little to their majority in the Senate. So politics in Washington are set for the same chaos that has rifled the country recently, and has led to an approval rating of Congress that is so low as to be unthinkable - a tiny 6%. That is truly shocking!

Mr. Obama better get to work on correcting the dysfunction in Congress or this second term could turn out to be meaningless. Not only do Republicans have to stand up and start doing the job they are being paid to do, but Obama also has to do a truckload more to actually lead and "turn this thing around". The only true thing this time is that "listen, if we can't turn this thing around in three years, well, we are looking at a retirement proposition". No one is going to argue with that. 

But it's not even as simple as just partisan politics: there are Democrats in Washington who have been sidelined by the White House elite, and who don't get invited to the party. Imagine that! Never mind the whole Dems-Reps vitriol that fills the House on a daily basis - there are Dems who apparently get no better treatment from their own leader and are not involved in "the conversation"! These are symptoms of fundamental problems at the very top that have got to be worked on and worked out for the sake of the country that pays their hefty salaries and for whom they all theoretically (only) actually work! 

The test of leadership is ahead of Obama now, and the world is watching. Are you the figurative head of a dysfunctional government for which you must take some responsibility, or are you the man who can lead that government properly and evolve it from that dysfunction into something that is at least workable, if not actually succeeding at what it is trying to achieve? For sure the first term record says a firm "no!" to the latter, but now you have a second term to try again, so let's see if you can do what you say you can do, and actually lead!

Mitt Romney has got nothing to feel upset about - he turned what was initially looking like a whitewash into a  real presidential race, full of fire and brimstone and adrenaline, and kept the momentum going right up until election night itself. The breakdown of the popular vote shows that he produced amazing numbers against an extremely popular incumbent, always an uphill battle, and even professional athletes smile and shake hands when the football game got won by a score of 50-49. No one was embarrassed.

But old school old guard Republican problems (otherwise called Akin and Mourdock) in Missouri and Indiana cost Romney precious electoral votes, and further distanced women voters in particular from the party. This combined with a burgeoning need to appeal to the Hispanic vote in various southern Republican strongholds (until recently) means that the party is out of touch with key demographics that are needed to win. In 2012, the Republican party has become a dinosaur to which old school white men can relate, but basically nobody else. This is a massive roadblock for them, and you can be sure much analysis of that situation will be taking place shortly. 

Congrats to both men on what was an exhausting (for them and us) and exciting campaign/election. It was a (more or less) fair fight, albeit a nasty, dirty one, but isn't that politics in 2012?! Spend billions, and focus not on real political issues or what you haven't achieved, focus rather on sleazy, negative attacks on the other guy. Why? Because it works! Who cares if it's dishonest or uncharitable or unethical, we want to win! 

That is the kind of nonsense that we all were sick of in the end, and not least our little girl in the video above! Let's hope that she can wake up smiling this morning and feel as relieved as everyone else that this particular roadshow is over, for, ooh, at least another two years! ;) - Kevin Mc

Red and blue have never been further apart on the spectrum!

 

So here we are, finally, two years and two billion later, about to be done with the never-ending rollercoaster that has been the campaigning and run-in to the presidential election taking place tomorrow, November 6th. It will be an historic day given how divided the country clearly is, how reminiscent of Bush-Gore it could possibly become, and because almost certainly, roughly half of the country is going to wake up on Wednesday morning depressed and disappointed.  

The saddest thing about the choice facing people is that it almost certainly has to be a vote for the lesser of two evils, or rather the best of the worst. I don't get the feeling that either side is going to catch the decisive votes for either the incumbent or the candidate in a positive fashion; on the contrary I feel that those votes will be placed simply to help prevent the other guy from winning. 

There is a degree of fear and loathing (not just in Las Vegas) on both sides of the table, and each side has legitimate arguments for why it could be a very bad thing for the nation if they vote this way or that. Not just due to the ridiculous level of negative attacks from both sides, this election is going to be an election based on perceived fear - it's quite literally a million bloody miles away from the now laughable term "hope and change". How quaintly old-fashioned and out of touch those words sound today.

A vote for Obama is nothing more than a vote for the status quo, and a vote for the ongoing partisan politics that have frozen Washington since the mid-terms of 2010. The fact that Obama has effectively been campaigning since 2010 (hell, make that early 2009!) in many ways underlines the fact that reelection has basically always been priority #1, with the issues in second place. I would rather he had spent considerably less time in the airspace above the Hollywood hills, and more time brainstorming on Air Force One in peace and quiet, coming up with plans to solve the unemployment crisis, or fulfilling some of the broken promises of 2008. 

Romney is the unknown who strikes cold-blooded fear in many as a potential financial robber baron dictator who will unleash a full Republican agenda on the world once he takes up residence in the big old white house. Once again, the rich will become even richer, the middle class destroyed under Obama's watch will remain on ice, on hold, until all the powerful money men have been brought back to prominence and prosperity. Watch out world, as a non-apologetic military-minded Republican power base begins to reassert some of the global cocky bullying that disappeared after removal of Bush and his henchmen.

The two men have such different opinions on what needs to be done for the economy, how people can be put back to work, healthcare issues, military funding, women's rights (to some extent), foreign policy and even on how much time should be spent gassing on daytime/nighttime TV. The Obamas have broken all records on that one (no surprise for Hollywood-huggin' celebrity-hangin' types) and Romney has barely been seen on anything resembling a talk show. 

Foreign policy is a biggie, and you can bet that Israel, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Yemen and Saudi Arabia (to name but a few) are watching this election as closely as Americans are. Obama and Romney are basically polar opposites when it comes to almost all of these nations, with relations and what to do about Israel now front and center. If Israel decides to strike at Iran, who is sitting in the White House is going to make a massive difference, one that could be a global difference in a very short period of time. 

Now that all the hoopla and hype is done with, it is simply time to vote. People will effectively vote for four more, very much of the same - a dysfunctional Washington with nothing very much changing, and a continuance of the current mess, or they will vote for "change" - meaning a change is as good as a rest, even if the risk might be very high. The world will likely be a safer place under Obama, but y'all sure can't expect any new jobs anytime soon. It could be a scarier place under Romney, but he might have enough fire in him to kickstart the economy in the short term.

It's effectively a crapshoot, a real gamble, and neither option is what is truly needed to repair and rebuild a once great nation. That's the state of play on the eve of this historic vote on the state of the union. The one thing that is crystal clear, is that as much as ever before in history, the people must exert their democratic right to vote and pick one side or the other - apathy is not an option! The stakes are too high and with the polls showing that even today it is neck-and-neck and too close to call, well, every single person needs to get out and express their vote. 

When one recalls that what got the USA into this mess in the first place was the mere FEW HUNDRED votes separating Bush from Gore in Florida in 2000, it is abundantly clear that EVERY vote does indeed count and must be submitted. Tomorrow is going to be one hell of an interesting day, and I will be glued to the screen as history unfolds. A stiff drink might be necessary to get through this one!  ;) - Kevin Mc

Evergreen Umbrella - turning the page to a brand new chapter!

We don't often blow our own trumpet, so once in a while we think it's not a bad thing to draw some attention to new developments here at Evergreen Umbrella! After quite a bit of work, our new website is up and running and we think it looks great - it is colorful and informative and people seem to feel as "at home" as they were on our previous (and first) website.

Given that Kevin Mc is now a fully self-published author in that both of his books are available on Kindle at Amazon.com we felt that we no longer needed to have our own online store, and if you click on any book cover on our site then you will be taken directly to Amazon where you can get purchase information directly, as well as read some free samples of the work.  Amazon is an amazing resource for self-publishers such as EU, and we feel that people also prefer the security of purchase transactions done with a major supplier and we understand that completely. 

The new site retains our "green theme" which was very popular the first time around, but as you will notice we have incorporated some very cool new color transitions in the background to add ever-changing ambiance to the user experience. There is also now some cool atmosphere provided via background music chosen by Kevin Mc, and this will be changing fairly regularly. If it is bothersome to anyone, all you have to do is hit your "mute" button, or click the "play/plause" button on the pillar at the right of any page, and it will stop. 

There is more background on the founders of EU, as well as more information on both "A QUIET RESIGNATION" and "THE MOLECULES" accompanied by a selected few reader commentaries, and thanks to those who took the time to write in with them. It wouldn't be Kevin Mc, nor EU, without some music and Kevin has insisted on continuing to provide three tracks at any given time which will be updated at least on a monthly basis. 

We only got up and running around February of this year, and already we have had two websites, two Facebook biz/fan pages, this very active and colorful blog (since mid-April) and now two novels out there in the marketplace! There is no question that things have rolled along very nicely indeed and we might even be ahead of schedule, which is a very rare and cool thing. If we got all of this done during less than a year in 2012, then we can only imagine how dynamic 2013 is going to be!

That's the news for this Sunday, and we would like to end by thanking everyone who has supported us thus far, we are enormously grateful, and we intend to get bigger and better as we move along. Kevin Mc has working ideas for his third book, but is not quite ready to put "pen to paper" just yet, though given that he gave us two books in 2012 alone, well, we can't exactly complain! - Cristina Ciurli