In the Portland airport, I came across a book by Michael Savage. I have listened to one or two of his radio programs and was disappointed by his vindictive and mean attitude. He seems to be one of the recent crop of entertainers who’s schick is right wing vindictive. I hate that the level of national discourse has been lowered to the level of these shows – I guess it’s a little like people disliking violence on TV because of it’s general effect on society.

Anyway, his book continues his attack on the “liberals” who are “destroying our country” by “tearing down the traditions and culture that have made America great”. One passage quoted Benjamin Franklin admonishing the early American Congress that they acted under God’s laws and they should begin each session with a prayer – a tradition that continues today.. This was to support the argument of the basic Judeo-Christian foundation of our nation that should not be tampered with.

This made me realize another reason I am unhappy with the current “Right Renaissance” – it is backward looking and not forward looking. If it’s good for our grandfathers, it’s good enough for us.

The policies are inward looking -- fulfilling inner passions and not striving. They will use the term “making America great” but we are not the leader – the space program is a joke which makes us not the nation leading to the next frontier. The business policies are designed to support established businesses rather than opening markets and ideas to change. Our unilateralism is dividing the world rather that uniting it behind our leadership. Lapses in the execution of our military actions show real problems with the depth of our moral past.

We need to be causing people to look up. To change. To grow. To become better. We need to be humble, be the best and lead by example. To use our past as a foundation to grow from. Not an anchor.

Finally home from England. It will be good to spend a night in my own bed. I put the rest of my pictures up and tomorrow I'll annotate and organize a bit. But, for the moment, I have to go to bed -- I've been travelling for near 20 hours straight with no sleep.

Some observations:

• For an American, this place is VERY expensive – the exchange rate of 1.75 dollars US to one pound makes everything from postcards to pints rather dear;
• Light switches are pushed on the top to turn off and pushed on the bottom to turn on;
• I had a dinner named “Bangers and mash”. Other fun foods are available;
• The "first floor" is the second floor of a building -- the one at street level is called the ground floor and the one above that is called the first floor;
• The light switches and power outlets are not in bathrooms -- building codes don't allow it;
• The pubs are the place to hang out. Always full and very lively.

I also have some pictures up. More to come.

I was walking across campus with someone who used to school here and we passed a field of 22 men dressed in white. Cricket! “Ok,” I said, “I can make some sense of the soccer scores in the paper but I have a lot of problems with the cricket scores. What’s going on here?” So I got my first education in cricket. A bowler is trying to knock the bale off the wicket. The batter has two jobs: protecting the wicket and hitting the ball for runs. There are fast bowlers and slow (spin) bowlers. They have to throw the ball to bounce once and then strike the wicket. The batter uses the flat bat the redirect the ball and/or hit the ball out into the field. One surprise to an American is that the batter does not have to run after hitting the ball – if he stays in his box (I forget the term) he’s safe. Actually, there are two batters – one at each wicket. Once the ball is hit away, they run, exchanging ends, and each exchange is one run. A pitcher gets 6 pitches which makes up an ‘over’.

The game is defensive in design and take hours and hours to play. A single days game would run from 11 to 1 when there’s a break for lunch, then play from 2 to 4 followed by a break for tea and then play from 5 to 6 after which you’d all have a dinner together. A great excuse to spend a day in the park with friends. Thoroughly civilized.