Off to Cuba

I'm off to Cuba tomorrow for the second time this year, and will return the following Friday. You'll understand why I cannot tell you much about the trip.

I'm glad the so-called "non-aligned" nations summit is finished. That would have made immigration and customs a very long process.

Please pray for me, and thanks in advance.

iPredict

My dad brought home a Toyota Corona one weekend in 1968 on a "tryout." (Having moonlighted as a car salesman, he was on good terms with the dealer.) I drove the little Corona from Baltimore to Springfield, Virginia and was an instant convert to Japanese automobiles. The boxy, light blue compact, smaller even than today's Yaris, struck me as a miniature grown-up's sedan. It was automatic, neatly styled, and every bit as equipped as any Chevy behemoth. More…

A few months ago, 39 years after my weekend fling, Toyota passed Ford to become America's number 2 automaker in new car sales. And all that leads me to my favorite techno-love: Apple Computer.

It is clear to me that Apple has become the Toyota (or Honda if you prefer) to Microsoft's Ford. Already this year the company's Macbook and Macbook Pro have burst out of their supposed "niche" and doubled market share from 6 to 12 percent, thanks largely to very happy iPod owners who have figured out that Jobs and Co.'s computers and operating system are as superior to Windows machines as the iPod is to its own humiliated competition.

Of course, the iPod's success has upped the quality bar in portable media players, and lately there have been some decent, truly competitive machines released. But they're probably too little too late: The iPod has become a cultural brand icon.

Tomorrow Apple is holding a special media event, and Steve Jobs will announce that the company is getting into the downloadable movie rental business. I think he will also announce a sixth generation, widescreen video iPod with wireless capabilities (even if only a wireless dock). It's also possible that he will announce the production of an iPhone (or iTalk), complete with service plans. If that announcement doesn't come tomorrow, it certainly will by early 2007.

Want to stay with your Windows machine? Fine. And keep driving that old Taurus too. But sooner or later you'll make the switch, and then spend awhile kicking yourself for not doing it sooner. Resistance is futile.

I'm Baack

This has been the first true hiatus I've taken from blogging since I started a year and a half ago. I've also been on a "news fast," trying to come to grips with just how much information my sense of civic responsibility rightly demands. The answer, I think, is a lot less.

If news is information that holds meaning and consequences for our lives—and I think that's a pretty accurate definition—then so much of what we accept as "news" is not. USAToday.com's front page, for example, includes stories about Castro dropping 41 pounds and the winning recipes for the State Fair of Texas.

Of course politics and civil government should not play anywhere near their current daily role in our lives, and that fact makes a lot of so-called news sadly more relevant than it ought to be. But politics is religion for the Left, which necessitates involvement on the Right, if only for sheer protection's sake. Thus we are all drawn in.

Enough about the news. (Hey, I actually said it!) I've learned a couple of interesting facts about my own blog this past month. First, even without new articles, it has drawn 15-40 page views per day anyway. That's been a surprise. Second—and this is probably related—the biggest draws to my blog have been the search terms "General Georges Sada," "Ann Coulter skinny legs," and "Christians golf."

General Sada appears fairly regularly on Fox News, so those hits aren't surprising. And for my readers in Gainesville, General Sada will be here, along with my mentor and writing partner, Dr. Terry Law, on October 19, at the Alachua County Republican Party's annual "Black Tie and Blue Jeans" dinner. (Politics again!)

The golf reference is not surprising either, since my article on How Christians Play Golf was cited on several other, more widely read blogs last year.

The Ann Coulter reference amuses me to no end. It's not enough that someone searches for her name, but the words "skinny legs" are always included. I shudder to think of what that search term is intended to find, but I'm glad it brings them here!

Of course, now that I've loaded this post with all three references, my traffic should spike. I suppose working in references to Paris Hilton and the Bush family's "links" to the Saudi royal family would help too. But I would never stoop that low.

Later…