Welcome to 2008, Dear Readers, I hope this
is a healthy, revitalizing year for all of
you, as George Bush enters his final full year of
torturing us and the world…….Whatever the evolution [if I may use
such a word] of the current politics…

There are many seconds in a day, and many minutes.
You can’t worry about the way civilization wends its
way along the timescale that you live on your own
roads, behind whatever houses you pass as the sun is
coming up, feeling good about something, enjoying it,
breathing in the inspiration and the vigor that
strengthens you, body and soul.

Winter running, if I may focus on one very
invigorating activity, is very different, because, especially on
a cold day, the animals don’t expect you to
be out there, running out of nowhere into their space.
A few decades ago, I had the experience of running along and
this deer was coming across the field to my right, approaching an
intersection in our projected paths. Woods were behind
him [or ?her?] on his [?her?] right. Suddenly he [?she?]
saw me and scronked “ACK!” with a cracking sound, shocked at
me there, running on the road in the direction he [?she?] was
heading.

Today, it was the ice on the water in the bay, Shinnecock Bay.
Many people not being on the beach today, with the cold and the
freezing wind off the water, with early particles of ice forming on it.
It was interesting to watch the water in the channel under this stuff,
that did move, in the stiff breeze coming out of the southwest, into
the mini-channel. Rippling from the wind, and the push of the bay water.
And no one was there. Human. Just me and the ducks.

Last time this fella had set up some decoys, that I didn’t notice at first
were not real ducks. As I saw him pick up a few and carry them to his
big bag, then I caught on. But today it was way colder and the flock of decoys
I saw were true for-real ducks. They turned their heads. They
swam out and around away from the pack. No chunky rubber-wadered hunter
hiding amidst the weeds on the bonechilling beach.

Around the corner a couple of miles away, I came on one solo duck swimming out
and turning to continue a course along the shore, out about forty feet. He was
a bit concerned about me, but not very much. He didn’t fly away from me, not
on a day when the air was very heavy with frio, and the noise of the breeze
damped any sounds I made. A pair of swans suddenly appeared on me, just as I came
around a next curve, very close to shore. They too must have felt I was no threat,
that I was no bother to them. They did drift out a bit, but no panic was shown,
as I passed further on the beach, leaving them to slowly return back in toward
the rocky beach, by one of the piers that had no boat or anything man-related
attached to it.

When I reached the canal and ran along it, the sun had gone down, but it was still
quite light. The winter water was darker than summer water, even evening summer
water, as the blue and red and white lights of a canalside bar reflected on the water.
Quite cozy. Then back along the northshore beach from the canal. Different shells
present. Not the purple-edged thicker kine as on the southern facing beach I had
just been on, that Shinnecock Bay had thrown onto the sand. Maybe harboring what we
could eat as clams between its twin shelled existence.

The shells on the northside were thinner, whiter, not robust and colorful. Different species
in just a few miles of environment. How all of the world is. Each place
harboring/breeding some unique kinds of creatures, plant or animal. Only in that form
in that place. Maybe some different forms of the creatures around another peninsula…

Winter running. Feeling very strong. And blessed to be able to chug through this cold,
to see something those who sit in their heated living rooms miss, watching their tv, sipping
on their tea, ready for some nice hearty beefy stew.

More to come. Other things seen with other runs on the same route. On previous runs.

And goodbye to Bobby Fischer. A genius, who went over the deep end. Heard his
diatribe on 9/11. A lot of hate. For America. For Jews. For himself. Kidney
failure, they said, on ESPN. He looked pretty cool when he was 15, even when he beat
Spasky [?sp] over the two month span in Iceland, where they took him in when no one
else would at the end of his life. Looks like he lacked in love, and appreciation. Sad story.

And, I finally saw ‘The Illusionist’ in DVD form, wherefrom, after you watch the movie
straight through, you can then watch the entire same film in commentary. And it was a
doozy to figure out. The commentary helped, but even the director/screenplay writer
kept everything dual in meaning. Now I have to read the short story on which the
movie was based, to better figure it out. Norton and Biel were the beautiful pair of
fine actor and actress that captivated the screen. Castle in
which much of the film was shot very interesting and unique. Czech Republic one very
magical place. If you ever get a chance to see ‘Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders,’ see it
and remember I told you about it. Another Czech masterpiece.

As for the politics at the beginning of the primary season
our ex-Governor of Arkansas is not another Clinton. No,
Mr. Huckabee, who plays the bass [can’t be all bad], garnered
8 out of 10 of his voters in the Iowa caucus as ‘evangelicals,’
as reported by the NY Times. With 108,000 Republican caucusers turning out,
and Huckabee getting about 34% of the vote, that means
about 30,000 evangelicals voted for the ex-preacher and
ex-Governor. With 239,000 Democrats
turning out to vote, and Obama WINNING with 37.6 %
that might make you wonder. Can an Afro-American man
win the nomination after all? and can Obama then
win the overall election? How many pointblank racists
exist out there that would never vote for him? What percent
would be expected to vote for a guy like Huckabee?
‘Racists for Huckabee?’ Racists and Evangelicals? How
many could be one in the same? Is it time yet for
a black man to become President? Remember that John Hanson
was the third President of the Continental Congress, but was the first
to use the title ‘President of the United States in Congress Assembled,’
when dealing with foreign governments, diplomats, or treaties which could
have led us into our independence from the British colonialists
back in the 18th century. Some might consider him to have been our
first President, and there is a controversy about him being a
‘Moor’ or a black man.

Back in 1781, during his one year term, these things
occurred: Legislation was passed for the Bank of North America, the first central bank;
a Secretary of the United States was appointed to assist in correspondence and
record-keeping; General George Washington was granted broad powers to
negotiate prisoner exchanges with Britain; Washington immediately worked out a
trade of Gen. Cornwallis for Henry Laurens, the first president of the Continental
Congress; the United States Mint was established; as was the predecessor agency of
the State Department; the first national Thanksgiving holiday was proclaimed;
the position of Chairman of Congress was created, a predecessor of the vice-presidency;
a peace treaty with Britain was negotiated; a dispute between Connecticut and
Pennsylvania was settled, with Hanson acting as an equivalent of Chief Justice;
the first national census was called for. Quite an important collection of
accomplishments during Hanson’s one year in office. If you look on the back
of the $2 dollar bill today, you will see a black man depicted amidst the
other leaders. Is that Hanson? Was he really of Swedish background? History
is a muck to wade through and sweep the truth out of, especially when you have
to go back a couple of centuries….

Vote count in Iowa, for Obama would be 90,000 to 30,000 for Huckabee,
the Republican winner, via my calculations.

What can you extrapolate from this?
Numbers are not so big, not big enough to project for the
entire country. Plenty of evangelicals turning out in
Iowa, compared to Romney-ites – remember, Romney is the guy
who wants to double the size of Guantanamo Bay, so we can
torture more people and engender more hate for us, help
the Muslim world recruit more Al Qaedas, make the average
person hate us, the longer we let the torture go on. Every
day we let it occur, we are ruining our souls, and poisoning
our image [and reality] that the rest of the world has to
accept and perceive of us Americans. It is a national shame
and embarrassment, that we are torturing people, sending people to other
countries to suffer ‘extraordinary rendition’ – which means
torture/interrogation. And even moreso, when the next election
after the embarrassment of George Bush being our President, not
once, but re-elected for a second term, still has bobos who
dare to fervidly proclaim they want more torture. What happens when
this fellow’s son gets captured? With the Geneva conventions, detainees
are not supposed to be treated as criminals, but as prisoners of war,
to be treated humanely, as they are fellow human beings. Otherwise,
after any conflict, there will have been no quarter given, and will
combatants then hate each other incorrigibly because no mercy was given?
‘Do unto others as you would have do unto you.’ Haven’t these men
ever heard this phrase before? Where is their wisdom? Or don’t they
have any? And then Romney wins in Michigan. Well, his father had been
Governor of that state. George Romney was his name.

Footnote on Huckabee: they say his funds are running out somewhere
around South Carolina. Gotta get those corporations to love you and
support you, otherwise where would we be in this Wendy-ized, Burger King-ed,
Lockheed-Martin-weaponized world of today?

Enjoy the winter.
Love and Health to All Of YOU!
Conrad Miller M.D.

C Jan 22 2008 Conrad Miller MD