Comment on politics or maybe religion

"The only reason I would take up walking is so that I could here heavy breathing again." (E-mail.)


I haven't commented on politics or religion yet, but I feel I have to make one on the headline by AP, Saturday, Jan 17, 2009: "Obama prayer leader from group US linked to Hamas." I know Mr. Obama is trying to be all things to all people (except the rich, which he is one), but I can't understand why he would invite Ingrid Mattson, president of the Islamic Society of North America, to speak at the prayer service at Washington National Cathedral, since her organization has been linked to Hamas, a terrorist organization, even though the group says it does not condone terrorism. But the definition of "terrorism" is defined by the user. We all know now what kind of group Hamas is. What can she possibly say, and mean, that would make it a better world?

I wish all the best for Mr. Obama as he takes over the reins of government, but I just do not know why he would ask this lady to pray for us, and it has nothing to do with any religious beliefs I may hold.

I have been wondering, is the Middle East considered a Western world or Eastern? Looking at a map of Asia, it looks to me like it is located south of Germany, and Africa is also on one of the maps of Asia I looked at. Wherever it is, is all right with me, I just wondered.

Well, so much for world politics. Let's get back to the more mundane aspects of writing cowboy novels. Why does everything you do have to have a message to be liked? Any western carries a moral message, at least the ones I'm talking about, e.g., the good guy always wins. But now, they seem to want something more, it's just not enough for the good guy to be the hero, he has to be something else too, or there has to be something in the book that's different from anything ever written. Are the readers so intellectual that it no longer satisfies them, or is it, the editors and publishers? Or is it more liberal hogwash or what? Pure escapism should be enough, and there should be no need to put in a flowery-language tid-bit that carries another meaning. The good cowboy shoots the bad cowboy in the end or lends him out of service for awhile. What else is needed?