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Written by Rex M. Rogers

Published: 27 June 2011

I’m in Beirut as I write, my third visit to Lebanon, so I’m beginning to learn a few things about this interesting country and people. Here’s my lengthening list:

--The food is excellent. Hummus, varieties of spiced meats, sweet and to-die-for fruit, which tends to be fresher than what’s available in supermarkets in the States because most of the fruit comes from within the country.

--The children, as all children everywhere, are beautiful. But there’s something about Lebanese little ones that attract my eye every time. They look like black-haired (sometimes curly), dark-eyed, olive-skinned angels.

--Beirut fills a basin around the Mediterranean Sea and quickly climbs the mountain backdrop to the east. Four to six story residences and even larger apartment buildings dot the hillsides offering spectacular views of the city and sea to the west or valleys and mountains to the east.

--The Lebanon Mountains, or Mount Lebanon, run along the central part of the country north to south. The highest point reaches above 10,000 feet. I saw snow patches on several mountaintops during our drive over a pass yesterday. The mountains boast some good ski resorts, are populated by pines (including the ancient Cedars of Lebanon), and a tree-line that can be seen on most of the ranges, meaning the tops are bare, much like California’s southern ranges. Another range called the Anti-Lebanon Mountains runs along the eastern border with Syria.

--The BeKaa Valley is a rich agricultural plain lying between the mountain ranges, is some 75 miles long and up to 10 miles wide. The valley is beautiful and produces much of the country’s farm foods like potatoes and fruits, including grapes with associated wineries.

--Baalbek, an approximately 2100 year old Roman ruins is located to the east and north in the BeKaa Valley. It features incredibly preserved stone works, in particular the temple of Bacchus or Dionysus, the god of wine, ecstasy, and madness. Bacchus is the word from which we get the term bacchanalia, meaning wanton orgies. Add temples to Venus, the goddess of love, and Jupiter, the ruling god, and you get the picture of the activities that took place in Baalbek, which by the way gets its name from the idol Baal. But the architectural antiquity is fantastic to see.

--Lebanon is a country divided by religious sectors. Maronites, Christians, Druze, Muslims, Greek Catholics, Greek Orthodox, and more tend to live in historically defined areas. There’s a history of friction, but there’s also a history of periods of productive and peaceful interaction, like now.

--Lebanon is surrounded by politically powerful neighbors: Israel to the south, Syria to the east and north. When the big powers rattle sabers Lebanon gets caught in the middle.

--Lebanon is a geographically small nation. If you dropped it into Lake Michigan, the country would disappear.

--Lebanese people live in diaspora all over the world. About 4.3 million live in Lebanon. As many as 15 million plus people of Lebanese descent live elsewhere, many known for the business prowess, especially in restaurants.

--Lebanon may have some Bedouin peoples, but there are no deserts in Lebanon, the only Middle East country that can make this claim.

--Lebanon enjoys its French colonial heritage in that children often attend schools structured upon French educational systems and take French courses each year. Many Lebanese speak Arabic, French, and English.

There’s much more. Lebanon’s economy is growing and for now its politics are relatively stable. Lebanon is small but influential, an engaging country, people, and culture.

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2011

*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com or follow him at www.twitter.com/RexMRogers.

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Written by Rex M. Rogers

Published: 25 June 2011

Drinking too much has been around as long as, well, “drinking.” This is particularly true for young people under the legal drinking age of 21 years.

But there’s a new development afoot that’s causing more concern than too much beer on the weekend ever did. It’s called extreme drinking, which is sometimes assumed synonymous with binge drinking and sometimes presented as another notch beyond that. Extreme drinking is increasing rapidly and dangerously among high school and college age students.

Extreme drinking is often built upon drinks like Jungle Juice, a mixture of hard liquor, fruit juices, and, sometimes, high caffeine energy drinks. It makes adolescents drunk quicker and cheaper, which is part of its youthful appeal.

Researchers have demonstrated that teens don’t drink like adults, which means they don’t drink a glass over a meal or social drink at a party. Instead, 90% of all teen drinking is binge drinking. Four beers for women and five for men consumed within an hour is the standard definition of binge drinking, a both-gender issue.

Caffeine in alcoholic drinks apparently makes them more dangerous because the caffeine can keep a person awake and drinking long after the drinker might typically have fallen asleep. And hard liquor is being used more often than beer in drinking games like beer pong.

The problem with underage extreme drinking: more injuries, more fatalities, more sexual aggression by the drinker or sexual abuse of the drinker, and a 40-60% higher likelihood the underage drinker, beginning early, will become an alcoholic in later years.

I don’t consider drinking a sin, as some of my conservative Christian friends do. But I don’t drink as a matter of choice, as more and more of my Christian friends are doing—in fact, I’d say the number that don’t drink has dropped precipitously and rapidly in the past thirty years. But that’s another subject.

Binge or extreme drinking is something else again. The attraction is anyone’s guess, though youth who participate talk about getting drunk without having to taste the drink—an odd thought to me—and about their perception of fun, which they indicate can’t happen without senses-deadening, ear-splitting noise and getting hammered. Psychologists talk about a sense of belonging for which people search during youth or a sense of alienation from the world with its concomitant desire for escape, even if for just a few hours.

I think recent increases in extreme drinking are not about kids just being kids or young ones sowing wild oats. This is a danger sign and a warning. For all their lack of innocence, youth today are still naïve about the long-term consequences of what in 2008 candidate Barack Obama called “youthful indiscretions.”

Youth have always been youth, meaning they get into trouble experimenting their way to adulthood. But the trouble they can get into today is exponentially more dangerous than it used to be. Indiscretions used to give youth hangovers and from time to time a pregnancy. Now indiscretions can leave youth with lifetime addictions or serious maladies like STDs. Or worse still, indiscretions can kill them outright. Extreme drinking brings all these probabilities with it.

Drinking education programs in schools can help but aren’t the real answer. We need something more powerful and we have it.

For all their presumed and postured rebellion against adults, youth still largely take their cues from adults. It seems youth want adult supervision, that’s part of the "belonging," even when they reject it. Until youth see adults sharing different attitudes about alcohol use and abuse and until adults use alcohol more wisely, I don’t think much will change in youth drinking patterns. So what the kids need are grownups in the group, adults who are mature in attitudes and behaviors.

It’s a tough world out there. Time for grownups to grow up, take charge, model good behavior, and don’t be afraid to set boundaries, stay engaged, and tough love kids into adulthood, especially in terms of alcohol abuse. The risks and rewards are high. Not doing this could mean youth never see adulthood. Adults getting involved with kids in terms of extreme drinking can mean kids live long and prosper.

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2011

*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com or follow him at www.twitter.com/RexMRogers.

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Written by Rex M. Rogers

Published: 24 June 2011

International airlines, in my experience, continue to outdo airlines based in America in customer relations—and services.

I don’t mean you can’t find nice or professional American airline flight attendants or agents. Of course you can. What I mean is that overall, international lines work harder at the little things to make flying more pleasant, or at least make it less onerous.

Here are a few examples:

--International airlines serve better and more food, hands down, especially Air France.

--International airlines offer more choices of free newspapers.

--International airline staff, in my experience, less often invoke the trump word “security” to keep you from doing something they don’t want to deal with—like using a nearby restroom where no one is waiting as opposed to the restroom in your section where six are waiting.

This happened to me today on Delta. I’m a Platinum mileage traveler, was sitting 10 feet from a restroom between sections and the flight attendant jumped me with “Sir, where is your seat?” Never mind no one was waiting there while several waited for the “appropriate” restroom. She still said I couldn’t use the restroom in front of me: why? Because of “security.” Did you get that? If I'd used this restroom it would have constituted a security risk. Right.

--International airlines suffer these things too--but American airlines in particular charge exorbitant bag fees, set up innumerable disqualifiers to discourage people from redeeming earned miles, and present mileage clubs that really don’t offer much in the first place.

--The kicker for me was a 4.5-hour delay in Memphis last Saturday with Delta. OK, it happens. But for this one—no explanation, no apology, no amenities, nothing. Later this week I received an email apology and feedback form. Maybe I’ll send them this blog.

One last thing that doesn’t matter much in the scheme of things but it’s interesting. International airline staff members are better dressed, actually, often dressed-up with sport jackets, ties, and a polished attitude to go with it.

I think American airlines could learn a few things from their international peers.

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2011

*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com or follow him at www.twitter.com/RexMRogers.

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Written by Rex M. Rogers

Published: 24 June 2011

I’ve been learning about eBooks. Not what they are or how to read them, that’s easy. But how to create and market them.

An eBook, if you happen not to know, is an “electronic book,” i.e., a manuscript, whether previously published in print or whether ever scheduled to be print published, that is put into a read-only file and posted online. eBooks can be made available for free or for fee.

eBooks have taken the publishing world by storm. No, make that by tsunami. Amazon.com introduced the Kindle in 2007, a portable eBook reading tablet similar to Barnes & Noble’s Nook (2009) and Apple’s iPad (2010). Barnes & Noble is selling three times as many eBooks as print books and since introducing the Apple, iPads have captured 22% of the eBook market.

Recently, Amazon announced: “By July 2010, Kindle book sales had surpassed hardcover book sales, and six months later, Kindle books overtook paperback books to become the most popular format on Amazon.com. Today, less than four years after introducing Kindle books, Amazon.com customers are now purchasing more Kindle books than all print books - hardcover and paperback - combined.” This is a pretty amazing change in consumer behavior, a genuine phenomenon.

I’ve been learning how to turn a manuscript into eBook format so I can place more of my writing online and so we can tap into this materials distribution method with SAT-7 USA. What I’ve learned is that it’s not difficult, but like anything worthwhile there’s a time investment and a learning curve required. I’ve given it enough to know that new eBook software is available—that’s what formats the text and makes those cool turn-the-page-on-the-screen eBook functions. And through one of my sons I found a gentleman who does this for a living, so I can talk to him, send my material, pay him an appropriate though modest amount, and get my eBook set up more quickly and more professionally than I could do it myself.

I’ve learned that each book, including each eBook even if it’s simply the electronic version in toto of a printed book, must have it’s own title and a unique ISBN. The ISBN or international standard book number is governed and recorded in the United States by the Library of Congress. They outsource the task, currently to Bowker, and you go to this website, set up an account, and purchase an ISBN for $25 or so. Or you can order ISBNs in blocks of ten or higher if you’re a publisher. Once you receive a new ISBN, you register it on the same site together with the title of your book and, Voila, you have an eBook.

If you haven’t seen an eBook function, ask a friend to give you a demo with an ereader like the ones listed above. Then I encourage you to take the plunge and buy your first eBook for your laptop or for the new ereader you acquire. If the growing number of Kindles, Nooks, and iPads I see on planes is any indication they’ll soon be everywhere.

And oh by the way, you can get my eBooks when they’re released ever so soon. Watch this space.

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2011

*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com or follow him at www.twitter.com/RexMRogers.

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Written by Rex M. Rogers

Published: 21 June 2011

Unless Congress acts to raise the debt ceiling by August 2, the U.S. could default on its bills for the first time in history. The debt ceiling is an oddly named term meaning the amount the US can borrow to pay its bills.

This is not a conspiracy theory. It’s not doom and gloom and howl at the moon film noir. It’s not Dooms Day. This isn’t “Repent, For the End Is Near,” though a case might be made for this point of view. This is real economics, real politics, and real morality all in one.

The United States holds a $14.4 Trillion debt, which climbs by the moment. In fact, if I wrote the number to the last dollar it would be out of date before I finished this paragraph, let alone posted text or checked my website tomorrow morning for comments. It increases, meaning deepens, at mind-boggling speed.

The U.S. Treasury borrows $4 Billion, that’s with a B, per day to pay American debts. This in a country with the world’s largest economy yielding an annual GDP of $14.7 Trillion (2010). Yet we’re also enduring a 9.1% unemployment rate.

Since 1981, the national debt has gone from $1 Trillion to $14.4 Trillion, most under Republican Presidents. The debt ceiling has been raised 78 times in the past fifty years, 10 times since 2001. Almost one-half of American public debt is held by China and Japan. The US pays $225 Billion per year in interest.

To say that the US economy, perhaps even culture or country, is in trouble understates the problem. There’s nothing about America’s economics or its political culture that suggests we cannot experience the violence recently witnessed in Greece in response to so-called “austerity measures” and resulting lower standards of living—all traceable to Greece’s own profligate spending, economic denial, live for today culture.

The issue at hand is not simply the need for Congress to act to raise the debt ceiling by August 2 so the country will not default on its bill payments. That comes first, but the real issue is whether congressional leaders and the President can work together, which is to say can Republicans and Democrats work together, to identify the hard decisions and solutions to bring the country’s budget into line, reduce the national debt, and reinvest in our children’s future. To date no political party has risen to the task.

The Republicans do poorly or do irrationally. The Democrats do nothing at all. President Barack Obama’s record on the budget deficit and national debt is simply to add to both—through extending the Bush tax cuts, tiptoeing around Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, fighting not two, as Bush did, but three foreign wars, and offering Stimulus bailouts that put the country ever more deeply in arrears—all while talking about “bumps” in the road.

Neither party is impressive, nor are its leaders. So we keep going deeper in debt. Meanwhile, we put up with the likes of Rep. Anthony Weiner.

Don’t let partisan pundits fool you. Neither side of the aisle is in league with the Devil. Neither party has God on its side. Don’t believe politicians or pundits who opine there is no solution.

Economics may be the dismal science, but it’s not rocket science. There are solutions to the national debt crisis.

The question remains: do we have leaders with enough creativity and courage to identify solutions, help the American public understand them, and resolve to see them through to enactment and outcome? Canada did in the 1990s. But at the moment, I have my doubts we have leaders who can rise to the level of statesmanship required.

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2011

*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com or follow him at www.twitter.com/RexMRogers.