Family News

Well, it's been a busy January, which is why there hasn't been any posting on this blog for the last month.

Lots of energy has been taken up with Rocky, who is doing well and continuing to grow, but is also growing teeth, which is a bit of an issue. However, he has coped with the transition to sleeping in his own room remarkably and he is starting to experiment with a bottle. At the moment, his feet are the most fascinating thing in the world. He likes to be talked to more than he likes to play with toys and he likes it when adverts come on tv (oh dear!)

Church life has been busy for Simon as the vision for the next 5 years has been launched. Alex is getting out and about more and we even manage an adult conversation from time to time.

Latest cute picture of Rocky.

US Primaries and the West Wing

American politics have become a big deal again in this household as we have started to follow the US primaries closely and as we bought the entire West Wing series as a present for Christmas. We have watched 52 episodes in 3 weeks, which might be too many, but really there is nothing else on tv.

I was introduced to the US politics by my Politics A level in 1992-4 and got hooked. Maybe it was because I won a bill clinton key fob for my uncannily accurate predictions of the 1992 general election. Whatever, we are into it and loving the race.

Key points we have learned so far...

• The democrat race is all about demographics, change is coming, but it's generational change as the baby boomers make way for a more generation x leadership. Same thing is happening with British politics as we are post-Blair but probably pre-Cameron. Only question is, can Obama motivate the youth of America enough to vote for him? If he can, he wins.
• The republican race is much more interesting because it's deeper. The republican coalition of military voters, low-tax economic voters and values voters is fragile. As the West Wing correctly analysed 2 years ago, the problem facing any Republican candidate is that it is virtually impossible to appeal to both the base of the party and to the wider public. Bush's incompetence has shrunk the base so that you can't win with just them, you have to reach out and it becomes a catch 22. Especially as McCain, Romney and Huckabee all represent different sections of the coalition and are virtually guaranteed to be a disappointment to at least a third of republican voters, whoever wins the primary.

To follow the race, the best statistical coverage is on the CNN politics site and the funniest commentary is on the Daily Show. Bring on Super Tuesday next week.

Heroes wall 1: Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Recently at work, i have added a 'heroes wall' to my workspace, a bunch of 9 pictures of people who inspire me or mean something to me. I'd like to share a bit about them on the blog.

The man here is Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the man we named Rocky's middle name after. The reason he is so important to us is that he was so very clever and yet in the end, it was his heart that defined him, not his head.

Arguably one of the greatest theologians of the 20th century, we haven't actually read much of his work. What we have read are the letters that he sent to his fiancee from a German prison, in the excellent book Love letters from cell 49. Dietrich was put in prison for his part in a plot to try and assasinate Hitler. While most of the German church was equivocal at best about the Nazis, partly because of Martin Luther's unfortunate outbursts about Jews in the 16th Century, partly because of they got schmoozed, Bonhoeffer recognised what Hitler was and chose to put himself in harms way to try and stop him. Eventually, this cost him his life as he was executed.