clarity2009

Blog name has changed. Like you care, right?

2009-12-31T23:58:00.003-07:00

Clarity2009 is now Clarity2010.

Don't ask me why. It just seemed the thing to do.

Please change your bookmarks and Bloglists. Or not.

Click HERE (or HERE or HERE) to redirect to the new blog.

See you there.

(Note: for those of you unable to click on words, due to religious reasons or whatever, it's ok to click on the picture instead. Just click on the front guy's foot. Of course it won't take you to the new blog if you do that. Just kidding. Or maybe not. Clicking the picture might take you to Lord Likely's basement. Be brave.)

New Year, New Blog

2009-12-31T23:57:00.000-07:00

I hope you all will follow my blog into the new year. It has been a great 2009. Thank you for your support.

Clarity2010

Goodbye Hello

2009-12-31T17:33:00.005-07:00

[click on picture to humongafy]

This is the last actual post for Clarity2009, since the year is about to end.

There is a moon out tonight. A full moon. I am beginning to turn into a werewolf and all my neighbors have their guns loaded and ready to celebrate the new year at midnight. What to do, what to do.

Debbie told me tonight's moon is a blue moon. My calendar this year didn't have the moon cycles shown on it, so I didn't know that. I love blue moons. OWwwoooooooo....

It is the last full moon of the year of course, though not the last full moon of the decade like SOME of you think. I'm looking at YOU Alison... :)

I don't know if tonight's blue moon is the last blue moon of the decade. Wait here and I will go figure it out. [tap tap tap tap] Ok, I'm back. Nope, no more blue moons this decade. No more until August 31, 2012. Sigh. I love blue moons. I guess I already said that.

---------

How to count.

Ask your child to count to ten. Write down the number he says first. Remember it. See?... Easy as pie.

We start counting with one. If we count to 10, the last number is .... wait for it... TEN!

1 A.D. was the first year. 1900 was the last year of the 19th century; 1901 was the first year of the 20th century.

So we still have another year to make the first decade of the new millennium a rousing success. I hope you do. I will do my part.

Happy New Year to you all.

Contentment

2009-12-20T12:21:00.005-07:00

Americans are both blessed and cursed.

It has not always been so throughout our history, of course, but today - and for a very long time now - we have been steeped in a culture that constantly urges us to excel, to rise to the top, to be a "winner", whatever that really means.

It's not just Americans, of course. We have slowly dragged much of the rest of the Western World with us into the endless rat race of one-upmanship and conspicuous consumerism.

If you are a "normal" American, you are in debt. Sometimes scarily so. Gone are the days of the proud self-sufficiency that used to be the hallmark of Traditional America. It would have been unthinkable to Americans only 40 years ago to be heavily mortgaged to the Communist Red Chinese (as we used to call them) and to not even be able to make plastic parts ourselves, much less steel. Perhaps that's an exaggeration, but not so much: as I placed the plastic Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus figures on my front lawn this year, I couldn't help but notice the ubiquitous "Made in China" Americans are now so familiar with. I wonder what the common Chinese workers must think we are like in their minds as they make this stuff?

If it is true that contentment comes from living within yourself and your means, then we are surely the most discontented people on earth. We are especially reminded at this time of year of our rush to consume. We fight to buy things we don't need and, in truth, don't want. All around us we are constantly barraged with advertising. Buy now, pay later. Pay forever.

But we also are about to enter the new year, and with it another opportunity for personal renewal - a chance to mend our ways. It's always a good time to resolve to get one's financial house in order and begin making a plan to return to self-sufficiency.

Living within one's means and actual needs, and resisting the constant urge to consume, is not only a step towards a more sane life, it is an actual triumph in today's world. If you would know contentment, you will first learn to say no to yourself. Coming to practice deferred gratification is perhaps the best gift we can give ourselves in the new year.

This new year, resolve to "simplify". You would be in good company. Take care.

Nanoseconds can be important in the right game

2009-12-18T12:29:00.008-07:00

You probably already know - or SHOULD know - that computing and the computer you so much take for granted today owe their existence, in large part, to women. Men helped, of course, here and there, but women provided much of the brainpower it took to come up with such a complex contraption.

The first computer programmer, by definition at least, is considered to be Ada Lovelace (1802-1852), the only legitimate child of Lord Byron. She encoded an algorithm (Al Gore rhythm?) in a form to be processed by a machine. She was inspired to do so by Charles Babbage's invention of what was then known as an "Analytical Engine". She also envisioned that someday computers could become much more than simply number crunchers. Even Babbage didn't dream of that.

Women have been a part of the development of the computer and of programming it down through the years ever since. My personal favorite is a lady named Grace Hopper (pictured at the top of this post.) Grace was a rather weirdly wonderful (somewhat eccentric, I mean) brainy lady who rose to the rank of Admiral in the U.S. Navy, and who had a profound influence on early computing. She used to hand out lengths of wire, somewhat short of 12 inches in length to U.S. Naval Academy cadets at Annapolis with an admonition to "remember your nanoseconds" (The wires being the length of space an electromagnetic wave travels in a billionth of a second.) The point was to remind her computer programming students not to waste nanoseconds. Occasionally she would bring in a 1000-foot roll of wire to show them what a microsecond looked like in those terms. Well, I guess you had to be there.

Grace is credited with inventing the early computer programming language COBOL and developed the first compiler. Words and phrases like "subroutines", "formula translation", "relative addressing", linking loader", "code optimization", and "symbolic manipulation", are still fundamental to digital computing and exist in large part because of Graces pioneering in the field. If you've ever had a "bug" in your program, you owe that word to Grace as well because ever since she removed an actual dead moth from her equipment, she referred to corrective programming as "debugging" work. She once claimed she forced computers to learn English because she was too lazy to learn theirs. Not true, of course - she understood their language perfectly well- but many programmers today are thankful they can type programs in (mostly) simple English.

---------

Thank you, as usual, Wikipedia, for helping me fill in specifics.

Rolling on the ground and talking to angels

2009-12-18T08:28:00.008-07:00

There seems to be more than the average amount of religious posts and comments lately, as I travel through my short list in the blogosphere. Since most (all?) of my blogger-friends are Liberal through and through, most of theses religious posts/comments are derogative (disparaging), of course. That's ok, since I haven't caught the religion malady myself quite yet, though I consider myself spiritual (I'm just not into organization) :) Like an old violin, I like to be in tune with something.

I guess the thing that stuck out most in my traveling and reading was the conspicuous discrepancy between the Liberal line of "tolerance for all things and all people" - except those who believe in God and creationism. While I have to put myself in the "amazingly skeptical" camp with regard to creationism, I see no reason to belittle or ridicule the tens of millions of Americans who believe it wholeheartedly. To do so seems decidedly unliberal in one's thinking, or at least selectively intolerant (which in itself would seem to demote one to a Liberal Second-Class at best, I would think.)

One comment explained that, while the writer would probably like the atmosphere of living in a small town, he was worried about the religion disease in such areas. "Before you know it, people are playing with snakes and rolling on the ground and talking to angels." It was obvious the writer felt he would then probably catch the disease himself, the contamination being constantly in the air, as it were.

Another VERY articulate and well-educated Liberal personage made a fine (and very interesting) post about Rhode Island's beginnings, and especially the beautiful city of Newport, and it's surroundings. The post was, mostly, about tolerance and Rhode Island's fantastic history in that regard, and rightly so. The writer went on to remind us that Rhode Island was the home of early settlers fleeing religious persecution, and that many religions lived side by side there in harmony. Even Jews, by God, and all were immensely tolerant of each other's beliefs and everyone got along just famously. Then the writer quickly went on to exclude the Puritans from this otherwise-welcoming umbrella of religious tolerance. Ah, well. The Puritans were assholes, you see, who believed their way of doing things was the only right way and everyone else were just stupid heathens who didn't know any better. Worse, the Puritans were proselytizers who also ridiculed and marginalized anyone who didn't believe the "obvious truth" the Puritans believed. Since that's hardly tolerant, the Puritans not only wouldn't fit in in Rhode Island, but were only worth running away from. So the enlightened tolerant folks fled Massachusetts Bay to Rhode Island environs, or some such, and left the know-it-all Puritans to their own uneducated and unenlightened devices to survive in a pre-globally-warmed world as best they could.

That, believe it or not, brings us to scientists in general - and the Gospel of Selective Tolerance.

What is science? Science is more than one thing, but mostly the word is used to describe an area of knowledge which has been studied in depth and organized systematically. Cool. What is a scientist? A scientist is a person who has expert knowledge in one of these systematically organized areas. An expert. I am not sure if any person who is a true expert in any area of natural or physical science is a scientist, but I am sure a scientist is an expert.

As a seeker of truth, a scientist is surely the most unbiased and open-minded person in the world, right? And yet...

Scientists are mostly liberal in their thinking and approach to things; mostly tolerant unless someone dares to challenge their personal beliefs (which have, of course, arisen from a meticulous collection of information which has been properly studied and systematically organized and subjected to a thorough peer review.) And why not? - what dolt would dare challenge the "obvious" truths of Global Warming or Evolution? Sigh.

Indeed. What dolt would dare to intimate that perhaps all the information is not in yet on certain subjects? - that perhaps we don't REALLY know enough more than to simply formulate an educated theory? Maybe (this dolt continues) we should continue to gather facts while prudently acting to protect ourselves in case the scientists are right. After all, one doesn't have to subscribe to the (theory?) of Global Warming in order to want clean air and clean water and have a desire to make those things happen.

The fact that scientists are in the main mostly Liberals (or at least only selectively tolerant) is not their fault. Scientists are highly educated, usually, and all of our institutions of higher learning are awash in Liberal thought. So it stands to reason. (Here I hasten to exclude Bob Jones University and Oral Roberts University and Brigham Young University and one other which at present escapes my memory.) Of course any scientist worth his salt would now be on his feet protesting the pigeonholing of Liberalism; scientists are ruggedly independent free-thinkers, after all.

People, people, people. (As Chill Wills was fond of saying, may he rest in peace.)

Is there a point to this post? There may well be, if I go back and search diligently. Perhaps that point might be a caution against thinking that your way is the only right way and your truth is the only truth. Or perhaps it might mean I (much like Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction) am a messenger from God. Who knows. But I want to tell all of you that the writer of THIS post not only doesn't have all the answers, he is less and less sure of the ones he thought he knew last year. Because this is true, I am not a scientist, but I strive for an open mind.

---------

"We have been so cocksure of so many things that just were not true." So said the late Mortimer J. Adler, University of Chicago, editor of the venerable "Great Books of the Western World" from which this dolt scratched out a meager education while working nights in a factory.

Global warming and stuff

2009-12-16T21:44:00.007-07:00

They are still in Copenhagen. All of them. All in their wondrous non-carbon-emitting personal jets.

I was watching Dennis Miller tonight and he opined that if they REALLY wanted to reduce their carbon footprints, especially in this day and age, they would have just scheduled a big teleconference. I agree. But algore's ego is much too large for a measly teleconference, and the leader of the free world MUST zoom across the sea on Air Force One.

Did you know it isn't Air Force One if the president isn't aboard? Probably.

Dennis also pointed out the irony of the Copenhagen protesters today being led away by the police in those cute plastic handcuffs. Not biodegradable, those.

Also making my day was a public apology by that smartass "View" loon Joy Behar for calling one of Tiger Woods' "mistresses" a hooker. I know I was shocked at the thought.

December 8th was the 29th anniversary of John Lennon's death. He was 40.

Blogging is likely to be sparse until after the holidays when Clarity 2009 will be no more.

Peace and Zuzu's petals to you all. 2010 just HAS to be better.

Al Gore has left the melting icecaps and has. Not died.

2009-12-09T19:44:00.005-07:00

Giant Algore face with evil global warming eye spotted over Copenhagen yesterday morning.

---------

With apologies to Soubriquet for stealing the picture he stole. And apologies to those of you who think man can control the climate. I am trying ever so hard to take you seriously, though not as seriously as you take yourself. But I will do my part, just in case. (I am starting by not flying a jet to Copenhagen or living in a huge house like Algore.)

---------

Ok, you know what REALLY bothers me? I've been hiding it. What REALLY bothers me is there are a LOT more polar bears now than there were 10 years ago. Can you imagine how many there would be if they were not as endangered as brother Gore says they are? HOLY HOPPING HARRY. We would be up to our armpits in polar bears!

Peace. Happy Hanukkah.

Erotica vs. Pornography

2009-12-07T21:24:00.006-07:00

To me, erotica - whether it be writing, photographs, or illustrations - requires that the reader or viewer have an imagination. By that I mean erotica must draw the reader in and make him an active participant (mentally) in the story. The same is true if the erotic object is a photograph: the photograph should suggest something rather than explain something. The same holds true for an erotic film, or an erotic scene within a film. To be sure, a certain amount must be shown, or described, but it is that which is left to the imagination that makes the piece erotic.

Pornography, on the other hand, does not really require the viewer or reader to have an imagination. He simply has to know how to read or he has to have eyeballs. Pornography is all-inclusive; it explains and illustrates. It stands alone and doesn't require imagination to fulfill it. One doesn’t get “drawn into” pornography. It is simply a show to be watched, like an old John Wayne western on Saturday afternoon at a small town Bijou.There is no reason or need for the viewer to get involved; the viewer is simply a spectator watching a time-tested plot play out. And, like the John Wayne movie, one can probably guess the ending because they are largely all the same.

Erotica is an unfinished work until it gets lodged in the mind of the viewer or reader and becomes intertwined with the reader’s own thought processes, personal memories and secret curiosities. Even the author doesn’t know the twists and turns the fantasy is creating in the reader’s mind. He only knows what it means to himself as he writes it.

Erotica must always leave something to the imagination. That which is described or shown is important, of course, because without it there would be no fuel for the fire. But it is that which is left to the imagination that ignites the flames. Thinks Max.
---------

The word erotica comes from the Greek god of love, Eros. In Roman mythology, Eros was known as Cupid. Eros was the son of Aphrodite. Although she was very beautiful, Aphrodite became jealous of a mortal woman named Psyche, and ordered her son to go to earth and shoot her in the heart with one of his arrows and cause her to fall in love with the world's ugliest man. But when Eros saw Psyche, it was he who fell in love and he carried her away. They enjoyed great love, but only at night because Psyche was not allowed to shine light on Eros. (See... you have to leave something to the imagination, remember?) There's a lot more, but this post needs to end soon. Cesar Planck wrote an opera called Psyche et Eros. (She didn't really; et means "and" in French.)
---------

In the old Playboy magazine, there used to be a monthly feature called “Dear Playboy” or “Ask Playboy” or something like that. Readers would write in questions about sex, fashion, cars, etiquette, and the like. Mostly frat boys I think, looking back, but they seemed pretty mature compared to my high school ignorance on all social issues. I remember one letter asked what a woman’s most erroneous zone was. I mean erogenous zone. The letter author offered the Playboy Adviser (maybe THAT was the name of the column) several suggestions to choose from. Such as the ear lobe or the neck or one or two other more obvious ones. But the adviser declined all of the writers suggestions and answered simply, “Her brain.” That answer was to help me greatly in years to come.
---------

Let’s hear it for “imagination”.

Listen to Little Arrows

Professional golfer athlete

2009-12-03T08:59:00.002-07:00

Jaimee Grubbs

2009-12-02T21:48:00.005-07:00

I sure don't want anyone to think I am going out of my way to make fun of someone who is in an embarrassing situation. I would never do that. But the news reports on the ongoing saga of this billionaire's self-imposed tribulation is too funny to let go. So...

I will interpret the daily news gleaned from Google for you.
---------

Cocktail Waitress Jaimee Grubbs Claims Tiger Woods Affair

Police Close Probe of Golf Pro's Auto Mishap; Woman Tells US Weekly That She Had Affair With Woods

A Los Angeles cocktail waitress claims she had a nearly three-year fling with golf superstar Tiger Woods, according to US Weekly magazine.

Golf star paid the fine but still faces public scrutiny over a possible affair.

Jaimee Grubbs, 24, told the magazine that she began having an affair with Woods in April 2007 and has since had 20 sexual encounters with the golfer. [Yeah, right. 20.]

The article, published today on the magazine's Web site, said that Grubbs claims to have more than "300 racy texts from Woods" as well as photos. [Whoa. Racy texts. "Hi bby. Lts fk, k?"]

Voicemails allegedly left by Woods on Grubbs' cell phone will be released on the magazine's site Wednesday, according to the report. [At least she is an honorable woman.]

Grubbs recently appeared on VH1's "Tool Academy." [Fitting. She's a tool.]

Messages left for Woods' attorney, Mark NeJame, were not immediately returned. [No shit? Really? Did you tell him your name was Emily Friedman and that you blogged free-lance for Yahoo?]

Woods apparently referenced the allegations of an affair in a statement on his Web site following his one-car accident last week. ["Apparently?"]

The statement praised his wife for "acting courageously" to help him after his accident and denounced "unfounded and malicious rumors that are currently circulating about my family and me." [Not so unfounded now, eh?]

He also said: "This situation is my fault, and it's obviously embarrassing to my family and me. I'm human and I'm not perfect." [You are also an idiot, Tiger. Don't forget that part.]

Related:
WATCH: Tiger Woods Won't Show Up for His Own Golf Tourney
Tiger Won't Show His Stripes At Golf Tournament [Oh, so clever, these journalists]
Woods' Reputed Lover: 'Tiger and I Are Not Friends' [Soooo... that's why she is blabbing to all the tabloids, then?]

The Florida Highway Patrol announced today that Tiger Woods was issued a traffic citation for careless driving but will not face criminal charges stemming from last week's car crash. [I hate to be picky, but a traffic citation IS a criminal charge. Just sayin'.]

Woods was "at fault" for the car accident outside his Florida home Friday, said FHP Sgt. Cindy Williams, and faced a $164 fine and a four-point deduction from his license. [Is this the same Cindy Williams who was on LaVern and Shirley? She's cop now?]

Late Tuesday, Woods' lawyer NeJame said that the athlete had paid the fine. [I thought you said the lawyer wouldn't return phone calls. Oh. Just yours.]

"We are please with the outcome," said NeJame. "It's over." [You WISH it were over. Fat chance.]

There was "insufficient evidence" for authorities to subpoena medical records from Woods, according to FHP Sgt. Kim Montes, and so no criminal charges will be filed and the investigation has now concluded. [And I'm sure EVERYONE gets treated this way. Let me get this straight: two back windows broken out of his car and Tiger has a split lip and his wife is standing there with a five-iron in her hand, and there is "insufficient evidence"?]

Montes added that Woods' "celebrity status" did not have any impact on the investigation. [I'm sure everyone believes that. Thank you for pretending we are idiots.]

Earlier today, the lawyer for the neighbor who called 911 late last week after Woods' car crash said that the golf star's injuries appeared to be the result of the accident and not a domestic incident. [How would he know that if he were just standing there in the dark as he claims, while Tiger is lying in the street? Is the neighbor a medical doctor with zoom-vision?]

Cocktail Waitress Jaimee Grubbs Claims Tiger Woods Affair [Max has flashback and envisons the proud parents Grubb standing over their newborn daughter's crib and Dadgrubb says, "Let's name her Jaimeee, honey." "No, Oscar. Two "E"s are plenty."]

Bill Sharpe, the attorney for the family of Linda Adams and her son Jarius, who is believed to be the 911 caller, said that Woods' injuries were "consistent with a car accident" and "inconsistent with being beaten up." [Jarius? What about the golf club and the cussing Norwegian woman?]

"None of his injuries looked like he was beat up with a golf club," said Sharpe. [He had a split lip and facial injuries. What do you think a face looks like after a collision with golf club? You aren't all that Sharpe if you ask me. And why are we listening to you anyway. Why don't the police just do their job?]

The Adams family "comforted Mrs. Woods," who looked "upset," said Sharpe, speaking from his Orlando, Fla., law office. [Why would she be upset? She owns half of Tiger's Billion.]

Tigers appeared "woozy" when the Adams first saw him and instructed the golfer not to move until help arrived, said Sharpe. [The kid "instructed" woozy Tiger? Puhleeze. That's why he was lying in the street? Anyone think to check the golf club for blood and hair? Or would that be too much of an intrusion by the cops?]

Sharpe added that none of the Adams reported seeing any evidence that suggested a domestic dispute and did not hear anything that would suggest otherwise. No evidence of drugs or alcohol were seen on the scene by family either, said Sharpe. [And they don't expect any money from Tiger for saying that, either.]

Related
Woman Linked to Tiger 'Very Lost' After 9/11
WATCH: Tiger Woods' Crash: A 'Private Matter'
Woods Declares Crash 'a Private Matter;' Lawyer Says He Won't Talk With Cops [Next time you find yourself in a similar situation, tell the cops you won't talk with them.]

Adams is believed to have called authorities after Woods plowed his SUV into a fire hydrant and then a tree outside his Windermere, Fla., home early last Friday morning. [You "believe" he called 911? He SAYS he did. They have the 911 tapes. Maybe you are right.]

Woods' wife, Elin Nordegren, reportedly used a golf club to smash a window of his SUV to get him out. [So why not break out the passenger side window and reach in and unlock the door? Why break out both back windows instead? Vengeance is mine, saith the lord. Lucky she just happened to have a golf club in her hand at the time.]

Sharpe said today that his clients did not see any golf clubs at the scene of the accident. [Yeah? Well his wife says she had one and there are broken windows all over. Don't be stupid.]

But in the wake of the accident, during which Woods has stayed mostly mum about what happened -- even refusing to talk with police about the incident -- rumors have swirled around the possibility that an alleged affair between the athlete and night club hostess Rachel Uchitel may have been the cause for a domestic dispute. [What happened to Jaimeee Grubbb? Can't this guy just keep it in his pants?]

In the days prior to the car accident, Woods' reputed affair with Uchitel was reported first by the National Enquirer. That report spread following the car accident. [That ain't all that spread. Tiger's afraid to go to sleep now.]

Cocktail Waitress Jaimee Grubbs Claims Tiger Woods Affair
Police Close Probe of Golf Pro's Auto Mishap; Woman Tells US Weekly That She Had Affair With Woods

But Uchitel denied any kind of affair with the golf superstar and called the rumors "ridiculous" in an interview with the New York Post today.

Related
WATCH: Questions Surround Tiger's Car Crash
WATCH: Tiger Woods 911 Call
PHOTOS: Tiger Woods Crash Scene

"Not a word of it is true," Uchitel told the Post. "It's the most ridiculous story. It's like they are asking me to comment if there are aliens on Earth."

Uchitel said Woods had been to the New York City club where she worked, and she did escort Woods and his group in and out, but that was the extent of their contact. [We'll revisit these indignant denials in a couple weeks and see if she forgot anything.]

Yesterday, Woods withdrew from the golf tournament that was scheduled to begin today and recused himself of his hosting duties, citing unspecified injuries he suffered from the mysterious crash. [Plus he still can't walk straight. I think you mean "excused". He's not a judge.]

"I am extremely disappointed that I will not be at my tournament this week," Woods said in a statement posted on his Web site. "I am certain it will be an outstanding event, and I'm very sorry I can't be there." [But I just can't bring myself to touch a golf club right now.]

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T00:07:00.003-07:00

Thanksgiving Day is an uniquely American holiday, at least the one at the end of November. American families will gather for a big meal, traditionally of Turkey, as well as thankfulness and fellowship.

The holiday commemorates the first Thanksgiving, begun by the English settlers at Plymouth, Massachusetts, to show thanks for their survival of their first winter of 1620-1621, and their first successful harvest, made possible in large part by the Native Americans. The first Thanksgiving feast, attended by the Native Americans and the Pilgrims, lasted 3 days, history tells us.

The holiday was made official during the Civil War by a proclamation by President Lincoln. The holiday is meant to remind Americans of their many blessings and to remind them also of their obligations to the less fortunate. Many Americans will spend the holiday volunteering in soup kitchens, serving up donated turkey dinners. Many restaurants will open their doors to the poor and feed them without charge. Thanksgiving is a day when no one in America need go hungry, except by his own choice.

Each year, by tradition, a turkey is donated to the President of the United States, and his family. Until President Kennedy, they ate the turkeys. Kennedy let his go. Since President Bush the Elder, the turkeys have received an official presidential pardon, and allowed to live, unlike so many millions of their brethren.

I don't want to get in the habit of posting too many videos. The one below will be the last one for a while. It shows the pardoning ceremony yesterday of a turkey named Courage, by President Obama. I hope you will watch it.

I wish all my fellow Americans a happy Thanksgiving, and blessings to our esteemed non-American readers as well.

A special Happy Thanksgiving to the wonderful South African families who are today celebrating their second Thanksgiving because of my influence. You honor me and my country. God bless each of you. Ndiya kuthanda.

And to a very special friend who is traveling again as I write this - you know who you are - Godspeed, and I hope there is enough cake left to take a picture of for you. There probably won't be, since I have already started eating it.

Speaking of measurement scales: Radioactivity is measured in units called "curies"

2009-11-25T00:10:00.006-07:00

Her likeness has appeared on a Polish banknote, a Soviet postage stamp, and on the last French 500-franc note (before conversion to the Euro.)

The element with the atomic number 96 is called "curium".

There are statues of her. Untold institutions all over the world are named after her.

Albert Einstein said she was probably the only person not corrupted by the fame she had won.

Madame Curie died in 1934. She coined the term "radioactive" and discovered two elements: palonium and radium. Her first name wasn't really Madame. Or Marie, either. Her name was really Marya Salomee Sklodowska. Actually (depending on your linguistic persuasion) Mary, Marie, Maria, and Marya are the same.

Madame Curie was the first woman buried in the Pantheon in Paris. Or her ashes, to be more precise. This is a great honor. I almost said "Parthenon" but that is in Centennial Park in Nashville. A copy of the Nashville one is also in Greece.

[Please watch this space for an upcoming post on the beautiful Pantheon of Paris.]

She named the element polanium after her native country, Polandium. She later became a French citizen. Alors.

Madame Curie earned two advanced degrees, one in physics and one in mathematics, from the Sorbonne. Sorbonne doesn't mean anything - it was just named after Robert de Sorbon. It is really many universities. Founded in, like, 1250 or thereabouts. Many of its grounds are exceedingly gorgeous, but will probably not achieve postdom from yours truly. But never say never, eh?

She (our Marya) was the first woman professor at the University of Paris. She was the first person to receive two Nobel Prizes (One for physics and later one for chemistry.) Her husband Pierre also won a Nobel Prize. So did her daughter. So did her son. (Not all at the same time.) That is also probably a first.

[Fun fact: Not all famous people are rich: The Curies reportedly used part of their Nobel Prize money to replace the wallpaper in their home, and to upgrade to modern indoor plumbing. Of course, they also gave some money to needy students as well.]

Pierre bore an uncanny resemblance to Vincent Van Gogh, except that he had two ears. If you are using this post as source material for a term paper on Pierre, perhaps you might want to omit that last part, as it is only undocumented personal opinion.

She conducted research into the treatment of Cancers with radioactive isotopes. ("She" again being Madame Curie. Sorry.)

In April, 1906, Pierre was killed in a street accident. Walking across the street in heavy rain, he was struck and run over by a horse-drawn carriage and his skull fractured. It has been speculated that he had been weakened by his long exposure to radioactivity, but this was never proven, so I won't even mention it here.

After her husband's death, the Sorbonne physics department entrusted his chair to Marie, and later she became a full professor there. She was the first woman professor at the Sorbonne. Even so, and despite her education and achievements, the French Academy of Sciences refused to admit her as a member, because she was a woman. Indeed, it would be a half-century later before a woman would be admitted (Marguerite Perey, in 1962.) Ironically, Perey had been a doctoral student under Madame Curie.

Marie and her husband Pierre discovered much about uranium and other elements and radioactive isotopes, and about their attributes and possible uses. But they were never aware of what radioactivity could do to the human body; they worked around and handled the substances for many years with no protection. She died on the Fourth of July, 1934, of aplastic anemia - almost certainly contracted from her long exposure to radiation.

Not knowing the effects of radiation, she carried test tubes of the radioactive isotopes around with her in her pockets, and kept them in her desk. It is said she remarked on the beauty of the blue-green light the material gave off in the dark. A remarkable lady.

OH BOY!

2009-11-21T18:36:00.000-07:00

United Nations, Nato, European Union, NASA

2009-11-21T00:10:00.000-07:00

Why do bagpipers always march when playing? To get away from the sound. Also, moving targets are harder to hit. What's the difference between a bagpipe and an onion? Nobody cries when you chop up a bagpipe. What's the difference between a lawnmower and a bagpipe? You can tune a lawnmower. What's a definition of a gentleman? Someone who knows how to play a bagpipe but doesn't. What's the difference between a dead snake on the road and a dead bagpiper on the road? Skid marks in front of the snake. How do you get two bagpipers to play in perfect unison? Shoot one of them.

Thanks to Descartes for the idea. And to a couple other websites for posting bagpipe jokes they stole from someone else.

Obama, Olympics, Marijuana, Search engines

2009-11-20T12:24:00.001-07:00

Please forgive me. I have decided to start giving my posts more exciting titles.
---------

Speaking of lych and lychgates.

I was re-reading a book I found when I was cleaning out my back room, about the American Civil War, Battle of Gettysburg. It was written by one of the caretakers of the battlefield, or park rangers or whatever you call them, and it is filled with facts and old pictures.

One of the pictures shows the entrance to the cemetery part of the battle ground - the old Gettysburg cemetery where much of the heavy fighting took place - called Cemetery Ridge, I think - and I note a large structure in the picture that was at the entrance to that town cemetery. The picture was taken after the battle, so the building is messed up. Remember, this was in the summer of 1863. Anyway, they refer to it as the "gatehouse" and the cemetery caretaker/sexton lived there with his family. Here is the picture (click to enlarge):Now, I can't imagine anyone using this entrance to prepare a corpse for burial, and the cemetery isn't a churchyard, but I think this might still qualify as a lychgate. My meaning is that some of these old traditions might have been carried on from England in this country too. Maybe. Although Gettysburg was "Pennsylvania Dutch" (Germans).

What do you think? A stretch?

Clarity: an attempt to return to the premise of this blog

2009-11-19T20:05:00.011-07:00

With apologies to the Travelling Spouse for butting into her business, but because I know most of you have been wondering about the word "Lychgate"...

The picture at the top of this post is a lychgate. This particular one is in Wales. A lychgate (not Lynchgate - that's a whole 'nother post, I'll bet) is a covered gate which enters into a graveyard, specifically into a church graveyard. Literally, "corpse gate".

Since several of you have asked, the word "lych" is from the Old English (actually Saxon; several of our really good words have survived from the Saxon. Ahem) and means "corpse". It is meant to be an adjective/prefix for things having to do with a corpse. Our friend Wally Wikipedia gives such examples as lych bell (a hand-held bell rung in front of a corpse during a funeral procession); lych way (the path down which a corpse is carried to its resting place); and lych-'Donald's (a place where people eat dead meat.) Perhaps this last was not on Wikipedia. I forget.

I want to quickly explain that this word only refers to the entrance to a BRITISH churchyard. In the U.S., we refer to cemetery gates as "gates"; Paths as "paths"; and hamburger places as "junk food joints". But you knew that. To my knowledge, we don't ring bells in front of corpses, being considerably more civilized than your average barbarian Brit who does that and even worse...

I'll not burden you with the Welsh translation of the Saxon-cum-English word (since it sounds filthy) though I am tempted to honor Sage by trying to come up with the Cornish equivilent. It is probably on a sign somewhere in Cornwall already, though. In Irish (yes, I know this is not British) it is called marbhan geata. (Who knew there were so many languages in the UK? And I haven't scratched the surface. Nor will I try.)

Now, wasn't that more interesting than me being unmetricated?

Next: "Different to vs. different than." Holy Huckabee.
---------
Photo of the day: Dean Vernon Wormer:

Thatcher Dead

2009-11-15T12:01:00.003-07:00

[Rewritten from various news services yesterday]

Canadian Transport Minister John Baird sent a message to phone buddies that read, "Thatcher dead." It was a reference to his 16-year-old tabby cat, named after his idol. But the message was misconstrued and Canadian Prime Minster Stephen Harper was soon told of the Iron Lady's death.

Calls were placed to 10 Downing Street and even Buckingham Palace, but neither knew what the Canadians were talking about. The BBC reported that the Canadian officials were even in the process of preparing an official statement until the British government set the record straight: The beloved Lady T. Lives on.

Horn of Plenty

2009-11-15T00:09:00.000-07:00

The guy was popular and people still enjoy his music a lot. But I had no idea playing a trumpet could be this lucrative.

[The Los Angeles Times, April 9, 2008]
"Eight-time Grammy winner and Los Angeles native Herb Alpert, who in November [2007] pledged $30 million to UCLA to establish the cross-disciplinary UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, has now given $15 million to the School of Music at the California Institute of the Arts. In recognition of the gift... the school will be renamed the Herb Alpert School of Music."

Wow, Herb! You've rode that Lonely Bull a long ways. But it couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Below: Herb and Lani Alpert

Metric tyranny: does a 10 cm. piece of toilet paper wipe your ass more precisely than a 4-inch square?

2009-11-13T05:55:00.015-07:00

I believe the Metric System is extremely valuable and accurate. I believe its discovery and implementation has been an undeniable asset and invaluable utility to the medical and scientific communities - and many others. Who could argue with that? However, I also believe it is mistaken elitism to assign a greater value or importance to a particular system of measurements than to the people who may or may not choose to use that system, and a mistake to denigrate those who choose to measure things using differing systems - or to assume or infer that those people are somehow backward and unable to think properly.

This post is not an attack on the Metric System of measurements. It is not even an attempt to say that the Metric System doesn't have unique attributes which make it superior in many ways and in many instances. This post is an attack on smug, superior-than-thou attitudes of many who think their way of doing things, their way of thinking, their politics, their interpretation of the world - their system of measuring things - is so well thought out and finely honed that it should be obvious to any intelligent person that their way is the right way. Any other way is therefore stupid, illogical, ill-informed and used or adhered to only by droolers of lesser intellect and assorted cretins.

All hail to the god of uniformity. May we all someday be the recipient of the cookie cutter award. The USA rose to greatness as a country because its citizens refused to think outside the box or dared to be different. Marginalize those who ask questions. Ostracize those who march to that different drummer. Keep in line there! Did you not wear your uniform today? Sameness and acceptance of the status quo is the mother of invention.

The leaders in both Huxley's Brave New World and Orwell's Big Brother Society both used the Metric System. It was more precise and therefore more capable of controlling things, especially thought. But to demonize the Metric System is just as stupid a prospect as demonizing the other fellow's tools just because they have different markings on them, or demonizing a language just because you choose not to speak it. Uniformity in and of itself is not the cure-all end-all.

In researching this little post, I turned to Google as usual. My goal was to find out why the Metric System was superior to other systems of measurements. I wanted to find out what the great scholars have to say that would make me want to use it and forsake all others. You can do the same thing - Google away. If you do, you will find that the reasons for using the Metric system, according to all the experts on the web, at least, are only three in number:

1. Everybody else in the world uses it.
2. Scientists like it.
3. It is easier and more accurate.

And pretty much in that order. It was rare to find an article by a college professor or other expert that didn't start out with the words, "We are the only country in the world who doesn't use it. Except Liberia and Burma. Ha ha."

I ask you: are you really going to believe a dumbass who still thinks there is a country named Burma? And it would scare you to read how many of these superior folk think the U.S. is on the "Imperial System" of measurements. (The USA isn't on the Imperial System, and never has been.)

In case you missed it, I believe only number three, above, is the only valid reason to use the Metric System. Assuming it is true. Which it's not, in all cases.

Me? Well, I know the metric system well enough to express myself when I write for technical people, and I recognize its deserved place in our world today. But, since I am inherently one of those different drummer people, round-peg-square-hole people - and since I don't believe uniformity ever produced an original idea (or even a happy soldier - even soldiers sometimes were pink boxers under their uniforms), I'll just have to continue in my cretin ways.

Yep, as for me, I'll keep measuring my apple pies in slices, thank you very much, and the apples that go in them by the bushel. I will keep paying for those apples by the pound. Furthermore, I'll take my American football by the yard, my horse races by the furlong and my ale by the pint. And if I try to cook, you may be sure it will be with a cup and a tablespoon and not with a little scale. God bless.

Rot in hell, asshole

2009-11-11T01:09:00.005-07:00

Only a few months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and Virginia, a serial killer terrified the DC area by committing random sniper killings on his fellow Americans. Innocent people doing innocent things - at gas stations, shopping mall parking lots, outside restaurants and schools, even on a golf course - were gunned down by the sniper, 10 people in all and more suspected in other areas.

It was later discovered the culprit was one John Allen Muhammad and his teen-aged accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo.

A few hours ago, the Commonwealth of Virginia executed Muhammad. Good fucking riddance.

Scientific Method

2009-11-09T11:26:00.007-07:00

The term "Scientific Method" refers to a specific procedure for acquiring knowledge. It has been around since the 17th century.

Scientific Method consists of systematic observation and measurement, and the formulation, testing and modification of hypotheses.

The above is from a dictionary. The following are my personal conclusions from the above definition.

1. There is only one reality: that which is true.

2. If we THINK something is true, but it is not REALLY true, our thinking it is true doesn't make it "our" reality; it is simply something that is untrue. Remember that it was once thought "obvious" that the sun moved around the earth each day.

3. A good scientist must not allow himself to be unduly influenced by outside opinions, even if those opinions come from well known and well-respected people; even from other scientists. A good scientist will accept as fact - as truth, as reality - only things which are provable by observation, testing, measurement or by producing an unassailable formula. Even then, a good scientist would want to continue to question his conclusions.

4. When gathering information, a good scientist will ALWAYS be skeptical of the source of the information. He will ask himself, "What is the background of the person or institution who is presenting this information? Are they scientifically neutral, or do they have a personal position to defend, or an agenda to promote? Do they have anything to gain by putting out false information?"
---------

Here are some examples of invalid sources, in my opinion.

1. In the days of widespread cigarette smoking, the tobacco industries were presenting "arguments" that smoking wasn't harmful to a smoker's health. No good scientist who was investigating the effects on the human body from smoking cigarettes would (or never should have) EVER given much weight to statements made by these obviously biased institutions and individuals. The same holds true for individuals and institutions who would obviously benefit from the reverse being true, whatever it was. Neutrality is needed for the truth to emerge.

2. In these days, much is being said about "Global Warming" or "Climate Change". A good scientist would NEVER give huge weight to statements made by oil companies or people who stand to benefit by keeping the status quo. The reverse is also true in this case as well: people who stand to realize some sort of financial or other non-altruistic benefit from proving there IS global warming, need to be suspect until their information is proven.
---------

More to follow. I stop for the sake of brevity. I am only laying foundations today.

Underground Railroad

2009-11-08T00:23:00.004-07:00

This isn't a post about abolishionists helping runaway slaves find their way north.

This past Friday (Nov. 6) another underground railroad (and a marvel of engineering) celebrated 15 and a half years of moving people under the English Channel. Congratulations. Or happy 15 and a half birthday.

North Americans are fond of calling the Channel Tunnel the "Chunnel", although Europeans are not as keen on that nickname. The French call it Le tunnel sous la Manche, meaning... ummm... Don Quixote's Tunnel. I think.

The tunnel runs from Coquelles to Folkestone, which is very close to the narrowest point of the English Channel. Why not Calais to Dover? Who knows.

Those of us on this side of the pond mostly envision a big tunnel with two lanes of traffic to drive your car through, with a toll booth greeting you before you enter. "That'll be 30 pounds, please." Or 40 Euros. Or 12,000,000 Francs. Or whatever France is using for money now. Probably Euros. Oddly, the British still weigh their money in pounds rather than kilos. Fact. A sterling practice, that.

But the truth is, vehicles (and people and freight - and animals too, I suppose) are shuttled by trains through the tunnel. Most of you are waiting for more facts, so here you go:

(I stole these from a variety of websites, including one who billed his list "Amazing Chunnel Facts").

1. "The Chunnel is one of Europe's biggest infrastructure projects ever." [Well big effing DUH.]

2. "Consists of three interconnecting tubes; one train track each way and a small service tunnel." [The word "interconnecting" was not really needed, in my opinion.]

3. "Its length is 31.4 miles, of which 23 are underwater." [Shame that the channel is 51 miles wide at that point. Kidding. JaJaJa.]

4. "The tunnel goes as deep as 150 meters under the sea." (I'm guessing that is, like, 65 feet. Maybe more. Probably more.)

5. "It takes only about 20 minutes [bet it seems like a century] to cover the length of the tunnel under the sea." [Ok, we GET that it is under the sea. You can start leaving that part out.]

6. "There are a total of 95 miles of tunnels." [Why? I thought you said 31 miles! And it only takes 20 minutes? Lying sack. Oh, wait. I get it - 3 tunnels. Okay.]

7. "The tunnel was constructed by nearly 13,000 engineers and workers." [Are you saying engineers don't work? What was the ratio - 3 to 1, something like that? With that many engineers, no wonder you ended up with 95 miles of tunnel.]

8. "The volume of rubble removed from the tunnel is 3 times greater than the Chepos Pyramid in Egypt, and increased the size of Britain by 90 acres, which is the equivalent of 65 football fields [for those who prefer to measure their rubble in football fields rather than acres] and this area has been made into a park." [I'm guessing you meant to say "Cheops", but thank you for saying "Egypt" because I was thinking of southern Indiana until you said Egypt.]

9. "They called the park Coney Island." [I just made that up to keep you reading.]

10. Okay, I'm starting to doubt this guy. Going to Wikipedia now.

A. Wikipedia says at its deepest point it is 75 meters deep. [Discrepancy in depth probably due to the excess of engineers.]

B. Wikipedia: Construction started in 1988 and completed in 1994, amazingly only 80% over budget. [Considering the French only have a 3-day work week, I mean.]

C. Fires have disrupted operation of the tunnel.

D. Illegal immigrants and asylum-seekers heading to England have been a problem. [None headed to France it seems. Or no mention.]

E. The Chunnel consist of three tunnels: two 25-foot bores 98 feet apart (the railroad tunnels), and a 16-foot diameter service tunnel in between the railroad tunnels.

F. Cost was 4650 million pounds. 10 workers were killed.

G. With additions of track and stations since the tunnel opened, one can now ride the train from London to Paris.

H. On high-speed trains traveling up to 186 miles per hour (300 kph), the trip from London to Paris takes about 2 hours 15 minutes. You can go from London to Brussels in one hour 51 minutes.

I. Eurostar carried 9,113,371 passengers beneath the channel in 2008. (This is just passengers, not autos or freight.)

J. According to the Eurostar website, a one-way ticket is about US$147. Ouch. Airfare, London to Paris is $144 (according to Expedia) and that is round trip. I don't know. I guess if you have your car the tunnel is the way to go, but not otherwise. Unless I'm missing something.

Fun (though admittedly unrelated) fact about other underground railroads: You knew that John Brown was a wild-eyed abolitionist, but did you know that Wild Bill Hickok's father's farm in Indiana was a stop on the Underground Railroad? And that the young Wild learned to shoot well defending the farm/station from... ummm... who? That's a poser. Never mind.

"Hug O' War"

2009-11-07T22:01:00.008-07:00

"Blog Blast For Peace" was a couple days ago, and as usual I am a day late and a dollar short. I didn't have anything deep to say about world peace anyway. Not really. Many other bloggers said it better than I could have. Peace is something we all wish for, but it never seems to materialize. At least not for everyone all over the world all at once.

Here is a children's poem written (and illustrated) by the late Shel Silverstein. It pretty much sums it up for me.

"Hug O' War"

I will not play at tug o' war.
I'd rather play at hug o' war,
Where everyone hugs Instead of tugs,
Where everyone giggles
And rolls on the rug,
Where everyone kisses,
And everyone grins,
And everyone cuddles,
And everyone wins.

Sweet memories: Things that go barf in the night

2009-10-31T02:39:00.004-06:00

My brother was a few years older than me (and still is) so of course he didn’t want his little 7-or 8-year-old brother tagging along with him and his friends on Halloween, but my mom made him take me.

It gets pretty cold in Michigan in late October and I can remember being all bundled up like little Randy in Christmas Story, to where I could hardly move my arms. But my cold fingers fiercely gripped the big brown grocery bag I hoped to see filled with candy before the night was over.

We set out at twilight, before it was even fully dark yet, working our own neighborhood first. My trick or treat bag was half full before we even got to the more distant neighborhoods.

I was half running to keep up with the older boys, and I soon was sweating profusely. My hot breath condensed against the inside of the cold rubber mask, making it wet against my face, and it soon slipped down so I could only see out of one eye hole and had to tilt my head back until my neck ached just to get the one eye.

Our town was small, so even the distant neighborhoods were less than a mile from our house, but as my bag got heavier and heavier, it began to be an ordeal rather than great fun. I was happy when the porch lights started to go out and we headed back home.

The first thing we used to do was dump our bags of booty out on our beds and separate the candy into piles. Candy bars in one pile, bubble gum in another, suckers in another, and so forth. Why? I don’t know. It all soon got mixed up again anyway.

I don’t know if it was the sweating in the cold night, or simply the ingestion of so much sugar over a period of a few days, but even now I associate Halloween with sickness. Or at least with throwing up.

An odd holiday, Halloween.

Something you may not have known-2

2009-10-28T12:58:00.004-06:00

9/11 wasn't the first time New York City has experienced an airplane-skyscraper disaster.

On July 28, 1945, at 9:45 a.m., a B-25 bomber struck the 78th and 79th floors of the Empire State Building, in the fog, from the 34th Street side, at 300 mph. The impact separated one of the engines, which plummeted down an elevator shaft, starting a fire in the basement. (The two women inside the elevator car survived, as automatic emergency safety brakes slowed the dropping car before impact, the flaming engine on top of the car.)

The crash sent fiery debris clear through the building, igniting another building across the street. The plane itself exploded within the building.

Though it was a Saturday, WWII had caused a shift to a 6-day work week, and the building was still occupied by many workers. The crash killed 14 people (11 office workers and the 3 crewmen.) 26 others were injured.

Oddly, the last radio transmission from LaGuardia tower to the plane's pilot was, "From where I'm sitting, I can't see the top of the Empire State Building."

A need for speed

2009-10-28T00:14:00.000-06:00

(Click to enlarge)

Ettarose emptied her piggybank a few days ago and went to satellite broadband. I have always teased her mercilessly about her dialup (she lives out in the sticks and I know her feelings were hurt when I teased her. That's mostly why I teased her.)

Anyway, now the shoe may be on the other foot. I don't think so because I am paying an arm and leg for 7mbs DSL upgrade (the above picture of my desktop a few minutes ago proves I am not getting what I am paying for, of course. The rip-off phone company says it is in my wiring, not theirs. A likely story.) and I live out in the sticks too.

Let's see what you've got Ettarose. Lay your cards on the table.

2009-10-27T21:42:00.003-06:00

I know it's pretty lazy to get blogging subjects from the daily news. So call me lazy.

On the TV behind me right now, one of Fox News' opinion shows is debating a news item that happened recently. In Florida.

This neighbor/friend of the family/whatever guy molested a little girl and the father and a friend beat him into a coma. Instead of calling the cops. So of course they are in jail right now. The thing is, according to Florida law (the Fox guys and girls are saying) the perp could have gotten five years in prison for molesting the little girl, and her father is now looking at 15 years to life for the beating. So the debate (on Fox) is that the little girl's assault is not as important in the eyes of the state of Florida.

Now, we just can't have this terrible vigilante justice being meted out, right? What say you?
---------

I am a writer (of sorts) and I collect similes. I collect interesting quotes, too, but that is another post. Similes and metaphors. You know the difference, right? Of course you do. Anyway, a simile has to have "like" or "as" in it somewhere, and a metaphor just substitutes unreal stuff to illustrate something or other. Ummm. Like "The moon was a ghostly galleon, tossed upon cloudy seas." Like that. But a simile has to have "like" or "as". Poets are the best source of both, of course, and Carl Sandburg is better than most:

1. "Mamie beat her head against the bars of a little Indiana town..." (Metaphor, see?)
2. "...a voice like a north wind blowing over corn stubble in January." (Simile, right?)

Anyway, I came across a couple from (supposedly) modern college freshmen journalism majors. Not quite Sandburg, but poetic in their own way:

1. "He was a plate of room-temperature pork, and she was growing on him like an E. Coli colony."
2. "Her vocabulary was as limited as, like, ... whatever."

Don't leave yet. This post may still be salvageable.
---------

Did you know that Persis Khambatta had died? I didn't know that. She died a long time ago, in 1998. I was sad when I finally found out about it today. She was Miss India when she was 15 years old, in 1965. I didn't know that either. I only knew about her from the Star Trek movie about Veeger (Voyager). Rest in peace Ilia.

Yearning to breathe free

2009-10-24T00:56:00.007-06:00

I don’t want to be a conservative or a traditionalist. At least not in the sense that I resist change or am even wary of change.

I don’t want to be a liberal, either, though, if that means seeking and embracing change just because it is different. Change should happen for a valid reason.

Change needs to happen whenever the old way of doing things isn’t getting us where we want to go. But we must be careful to select a correct new course, and not just a different course.

The point is to show continual progress towards goals. In that sense, I am a progressive - though not in the sense that word is often used by liberals.

The whole fuss and fight, then, is about defining goals. We can’t seem to agree on our direction. Everyone has a different idea and is convinced his way is “obviously” best.

The two primary political parties in the U.S. have been fighting and obstructing each other for a long time now. It is no longer a case of two differing sets of values struggling to rise to the surface. Instead, the only thing that is important, it seems, is to block the other party from looking good in the eyes of this or that bloc of voters.

Is this really how we want to run our country? Is it not possible to sit down and find common ground on a handful of general goals? Or have we finally become just like the Israelis and Palestinians? Surely, if the goals were general enough, we could find consensus.

The general goals we set for our country should not be different than the general goals of individual citizens, should they? If individual citizens want the same general things - life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness - then it should be their government’s goal to secure those things for the citizens. That’s simple enough.

It’s not that simple, though, is it? For, whenever you give the government such a broad mandate, you leave it up to the government to come up with its own list of specific things it believes would make your life better, things that would make you happy. Soon, the government is sculpting out a whole life, or way of life, for you - for your own good and your own happiness, of course. Why? Because what you have really done is tell the government, “Take care of me.”

I think I would be telling the truth if I boasted that I think I have cultivated some of the most thoughtful, educated and intelligent readers a blogster has ever attracted. Right about here is where you exceptional people will begin to remind me that I am not an island; I live in a society. Living in a society brings obligations and limits to personal freedom.

I know. I have no desire to live off in the woods by myself like Thoreau. Not even if me mum brought me pies and sweets and clean shirts on the weekends. I freely admit that I like and want things like paved roads and grocery stores and fire departments and schools and good health care. I also admit I want these things for others and not just for myself. I do understand that having these things, and many others, requires that I subordinate a good deal of my free spirit to the common good. “Common Good” in this case being pretty much run by the government.

Where does that leave us? It leaves us exactly where we are today: haggling over what we want the government to provide. Each of us has a list of things we want. Some of your lists are very much longer than my own list. Obama’s list is very much longer than my list.

Okay, here’s the point (you just KNEW there was going to be a point, right?): Government doesn’t provide ANYTHING. Government doesn’t SOLVE problems. Government, in and of itself, is NEVER the answer. Only PEOPLE can build roads and hospitals and schools and take compassionate care of their neighbors. Government is only a VEHICLE for getting things done. A mechanism. A tool. The actual planning is still up to us. The actual DOING is still up to us.

It is a great mistake to assign some sort of actual “life” to the government and expect “it” to get things done for us.

Stop bitching. Get involved.

Something you may not have known

2009-10-23T12:20:00.009-06:00

Part two (electricity was part one) (or maybe coffee was part one) of posts which talk about strange and wonderful things you kids may not have learned properly in elementary school. Little Canuck has left and gone away to another school (he had to be set back a grade), but there are still many of you left to abuse. :)
---------

Did you know there is a huge salt mine under the city of Detroit? Detroit is located at the western end of Lake Erie. Can you find Lake Erie, little Sage? No? Well, it's not on the map of Cornwall, dear. Let me show you. :) [click to enlarge map]

There is too! Don't be shaking your head, little Sheila!

• The mine has been operating over 100 years
• It covers 1500 acres
• There are over 100 miles of "roads" down there
• The mine shaft opening is at 12841 Sanders Street
• No more tours currently
• Provides winter rock salt for the roads in Michigan (and other places)
• Salt deposited millions of years ago

[click to enlarge image]

It is truly a city beneath a city, 1,100 feet down, though many Detroiters aren't aware it is down there. But now YOU know!

Credit where credit is due. This post was inspired by a post (partly about salt) from the eminently more interesting blog of the Travelling Spouse.

Heroes

2009-10-21T19:34:00.007-06:00

The World Series is about to begin. The October Classic would not be complete without a tribute to the sweet-natured patron saint of baseball, pictured above. Like my other pictures lately, he needs no introduction. Help me pay homage to this great man.

In other sports news, in about 24 hours, give or take a few minutes, the Yankees will again become the American League's representative to the World Series. They will play some team from the National League. This will make their 11,006th appearance in the World Series.

On this day in baseball history, October 21, 1975, a catcher by the name of Carlton "Pudge" Fisk homers in the 12th inning to hand Cincinnati a 7-6 loss and force a 7th game in the World Series. Although the Sox went on to lose the next game and the Big Red Machine would finally prevail, the 1975 series will go down as one of the most exciting. In fact, ESPN ranked it as the second greatest series of all time.

Johnny Bench
Dave Conception
George Foster
Cesar Geronimo
Ken Griffey
Joe Morgan
Tony Perez
Pete Rose
(Don Gullet)
::Sparky Anderson::

Rick Burleson
Cecil Cooper
Denny Doyle
Dwight Evans
Carlton Fisk
Fred Lynn
Rico Petrocelli
Carl Yastrzemski
(Bill Lee)
::Darrell Johnson::

Separated at birth, 3

2009-10-15T01:18:00.000-06:00

Top Ten Photo Captions

2009-10-14T00:06:00.002-06:00

Captioning unusual photos is still pretty big across the blogosphere. Two of my favorite bloggers who regularly run photo-captioning contests are Chica and Ettarose.

I am no good at humorously captioning photos. I don't know why, but I can't seem to come up with anything remotely funny for these contests. But I am a pretty good thief. I went through 2 years worth of captions - about 500 or so, and I only found 10 that I thought were funny. These were all stolen from Cracked.com and they appear below in my personal arbitrary order of funniest. The funniest is shown last, at the very bottom. I admit to changing most of the captions at least a little, because they still weren't funny enough. I am good at that - after someone else comes up with the original idea.

Since it is a top-10 list, I guess I am also stealing from David Letterman. If you care. Without further ado, here is my top 10 stolen list of reader-captioned photos.

Number 10:

"Katrina II: Obama doesn't care about white people."

Number 9:

"An awkward silence of the lambs."

Number 8:

"Charlie sensed a pyramid scheme in the making."

Number 7:

"Takethepicturetakethepicturetakethepicture."

Number 6:

"Never pop wheelies if your passenger has narcolepsy."

Number 5:

"Not thinking his 3 wishes through, Ed asked the Genie to give him a dick that reached the ground."

Number 4:

"Michael Jackson petting zoo."

Number 3:

"Ned began to suspect the auto companies were wasting their bailout money."

Number 2:

"Winner of the best costume contest: The Invisible Woman (center)."

And the number one captioned photo:

"Lesbian about to get nailed."

Why do people collect things?

2009-10-13T07:22:00.007-06:00

Stamps. Coins. Butterflies. Porcelain figurines. Old cars. Barbie dolls. Autographs. Nazi flags. You name it.

Some psychologists say it has to do with our "hunter-gatherer" instincts from our ancestors. I don't buy that. Perhaps that accounts for "pack rats" who collect everything. Or maybe that just stems from a fear of poverty. But pack-ratting is not collecting, the way I mean it here.

Whole books have been written on the subject, though. Did you know 66% of us collect something or other? That's almost half of us, right?

Here's what one expert says the reasons are:

1. Knowledge and learning
2. Relaxation and stress reduction
3. Personal pleasure (including appreciation of beauty, and pride of ownership)
4. Social interaction with fellow collectors and others (i.e. the sharing of pleasure and knowledge)
5. Competitive challenge
6. Recognition by fellow collectors and perhaps even non-collectors
7. Altruism (since many great collections are ultimately donated to museums and learning institutions)
8. The desire to control, possess and bring order to a small (or even a massive) part of the world
9. Nostalgia and/or a connection to history
10. Accumulation and diversification of wealth (which can ultimately provide a measure of security and freedom)

Very often, more than one of these apply. Or several. One, three and nine would apply to me, I think. Maybe eight as well.

I don't think I am collecting anything right now. No more coins, baseball cards, old cars.

I have a sizable library, but I don't collect books. I buy books to read. I have always been interested in photography and I have several old cameras, some are valuable. But I don't have enough old cameras to call it a collection.

The more I think about it, the less sure I am any of the above really applies to me. I collect simply to have examples which document something or other. Old souvenirs or photographs are capable of evoking memories. But is that really collecting? Probably not.

Why do YOU think people collect things?

Home is where the heart is

2009-10-10T21:57:00.012-06:00

I have a penchant for collecting odd facts - for trying to learn the inside story about people and things. Over the years I have amassed enough useless trivia to tie up a good part of my cerebral cortex which I realize could have been put to better use but which makes for rather quirky blog posts from time to time when some of that flotsam drifts to the surface. This is probably one of those posts.

One time I was curious about what musical instruments were actually played by famous classical composers. I don't know why I was curious; I should have been content to simply listen to their beautiful music.

Most of them shared the piano as the instrument they were most proficient on. That's probably no surprise to any of you. There were exceptions. And most played other keyboard instruments, too.

Beethoven was very hot stuff on the piano before he went deaf - enough, when he was young, to impress the famous Mozart, who himself knew a thing or two about keyboards. Both men also played the violin of course, but did you know they were both quite proficient on the viola as well? A viola is different enough from a violin to count as a separate instrument - more different than a piano vs. an organ, for example. (A viola, a bit larger than a violin, is tuned like a cello, both using the odd C clef.)

Mozart hated the flute, loved the clarinet. Beethoven probably loved and hated things as well.

This (of course) turns one's mind to pianos in general and other people (besides Mozart and Beethoven) who did most of their composing for (and sometimes performing upon) that instrument. Brahms. Schumann. Mendelsohn (although Felix was a violin virtuoso.) And, of course, Liszt and Chopin.

This post is really about Chopin, I guess, although I don't think he played any other instruments except organ, which isn't really a stretch for a virtuoso piano player like Chopin. And I can only find where he played organ once. I digress.

Frederic Chopin was, quite simply, the greatest piano composer and piano player who ever walked the earth. Devotees of Franz Liszt will disagree, but they know nothing. Chopin was even better than Billy Joel.

Like all geniuses of the period, Chopin caught TB and died at age 39. Mozart died at 36 but not of TB. Never mind.

All of these boys were pretty quirky. I could choose any of them to write a quirky post about, but you already know about the quirks of Mozart and Beethoven. And perhaps even Liszt. But you probably didn't know how demented and off-center Chopin was. Well, perhaps "demented" is a bit much. You may have even thought him shy and polite. Should you want to continue believing this about him, you need to stop reading here.

Chopin's mother, the former Justyna Krzyżanowska, (I forgot to mention Chopin was Polish) was the aunt of a boy who would later become American Civil War General Włodzimierz Krzyżanowski. I suppose that would have made the general and the Polish composer cousins, come to think of it. Ah, well, Chopin died in 1849, so no matter - they obviously didn't hang out together. Some of you are probably amazed at my Polish spelling and diacritical abilities. It is a gift.

Chopin, it has been written, was an artistic and social snob; an impeccably dressed dandy who hated contact with the rest of the human race.

But the music transcends the social shortcomings of the man. Like no other piano music you have ever heard. Unearthly, almost. And yet...

Andras Shiff: "A very strange person, very hard to like. An anti-semite."

Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz: "A moral vampire."

Of course, Mickiewicz and another Polish exile called on Chopin and he wouldn't even answer the door, so there is that bit of resentful baggage bugging him.

"His addiction to solitude went hand-in-hand with a fanatical dandyism, but his need for exquisitely tailored waistcoats, gloves, and boots was probably dictated by something deeper and darker than mere vanity."

For musician/biographer Schiff, the freshly laundered white gloves that Chopin put on each day signaled Chopin's horror of human contact.

Chopin treated Schumann almost sadistically, ridiculing his music as "no music at all." Liszt and Chopin had shared an apartment together, but Chopin soon came to despise and envy Liszt's talents, calling them vulgar. (Liszt was a very showy and animated piano player. The ladies liked him. A lot.)

Chopin himself had more than his share of fainting females, but not much is known of his sex life before his famous affair with George Sand. The two were together 10 years and she definitely got the best of him, leaving him devastated. He was, by all accounts, devoted to her, but she dumped him when he was 37, as death was approaching.

He hated crowds, performed only in small venues, gave probably only about 30 truly public performances in his whole life. Some say his playing was so quiet and personal that a large auditorium was out of the question anyway. He was happiest performing for only a small gathering of intimate friends - and he did have friends.

His music is intricate and difficult to play (though not as hard as Franz Liszt's - who was accused of composing music only 3 or 4 people in the whole world could play) but at the same time has a captivating subtlety to it. My own favorite Chopin piano composition is his Fantasie Impromptu (he mostly only named his compositions by genre) which demonstrates both the incredible complexity of fingering, as well as the sweet simplicity of the theme. Listening to this piece makes you forget the social shortcomings of the man himself.

And the title of this post? What's up with that? A final Chopin quirk was that he was afraid of being buried alive. So, by prior arrangement, his heart was removed after his death and his body buried without the heart. (He is buried in Paris.) His heart went home to Poland and is still today entombed in a pillar in a church in Warsaw.

His heart is still trapped in his music, too. Listen to my favorite piece if you have 4 minutes and 33 seconds to spare.
---------
Astonishingly, because it was in the infancy of photography, there exists an actual photograph of Frederic Chopin from 1849, the year of his death. Here it is.

"Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art."

I am Kreativ

2009-10-08T19:39:00.007-06:00

Thank you to Sage at WiseHerb's Random Jottings for this Kreative (and very pretty) Blogger award. :)

Now I am supposed to tell you 7 things about myself that you would never suspect.

First, I nominate 7 bloggers who deserve this award more than I do, because they are more creative. Much more.

1. Alison at Beloved-Eleanor, for her Victorian collections.
2. Sheila at A postcard a day, the most Kreativ Kollector I know.
3. Ettarose at Sanity on edge, for Kreativ photos and phun.
4. Janet at Adventures in the 32-Aker Wood, for her acting and for her Kreativ fingers.
5. Angelika at Angelika, for inspiration.
6. Chica at Lady Sarcasm, because nobody makes web pages better.
7. Soubriquet at Grit in the gears, not for his logic, but for his beautiful pottery.

These are all some of the most creative bloggers I know.

Please be sure and stop by Angelika's blog and pick up your MS ribbon. Thanks.
-------
7 things you would never guess about me:

1. I write bad poetry
2. I don't really like country music
3. I am a registered Democrat
4. I have never set foot in Egypt
5. I am not really a little dog (I am a cat person)
6. I once played a Sousaphone in an NFL halftime show
7. I can name all the state capitols

"However measured and far away..."

2009-10-07T16:47:00.007-06:00

Do they still teach Henry David Thoreau in American Literature in high school?

God, I hope not. Talk about the emperor with no clothes. What a fraud. Leech. Commie. I never liked him when he was force-fed to me back then and my esteem for him over the years has only plummeted.

He did succeed in persuading a genuine writing talent, Ralph Waldo Emerson, into being his friend. Lucky for him. That meant a place to live and food and someone to pay his fines while he practiced being an unemployed free spirit.

He did come up with some sayings that are on all the "famous quotation" websites. Like marching to the beat of a different drummer (no shit, Hank) and "Simplify, simplify, simplyfy." Or was it only two simplifies? I can't remember any more.

An actual good American author by the name of Nathaniel Hawthorne had this to say about Thoreau:

"Mr. Thoreau dined with us yesterday. He is a singular character - a young man with much of wild original nature still remaining in him; and so far as he is sophisticated, it is in a way and method of his own. He is as ugly as sin, long-nosed, queer-mouthed, and with uncouth and rustic, though courteous manners, corresponding very well with such an exterior. But his ugliness is of an honest and agreeable fashion, and becomes him much better than beauty. He was educated, I believe, at Cambridge, and formerly kept school in this town; but for two or three years back, he has repudiated all regular modes of getting a living, and seems inclined to lead a sort of Indian life among civilized men - an Indian life, I mean, as respects the absence of any systematic effort for a livelihood."

He was a bum, Nat.

A Scottish writer across the pond by the name of Robert Louis Stevenson was even less kind:

"THOREAU'S thin, penetrating, big-nosed face, even in a bad woodcut, conveys some hint of the limitations of his mind and character. With his almost acid sharpness of insight, with his almost animal dexterity in act, there went none of that large, unconscious geniality of the world's heroes. He was not easy, not ample, not urbane, not even kind; his enjoyment was hardly smiling, or the smile was not broad enough to be convincing; he had no waste lands nor kitchen-midden in his nature, but was all improved and sharpened to a point. "He was bred to no profession," says Emerson; "he never married; he lived alone; he never went to church; he never voted; he refused to pay a tax to the State; he ate no flesh, he drank no wine, he never knew the use of tobacco and, though a naturalist, he used neither trap nor gun. When asked at dinner what dish he preferred, he answered, 'the nearest.' " So many negative superiorities begin to smack a little of the prig."

You tell 'em Bobbie. The only thing Thoreau and Stevenson had in common was that they both died of tuberculosis at age 44.

Thoreau did indeed go to Harvard, as Hawthorne said. As a result of all that liberal education, he became a pencil-maker like his father. And sometime surveyor with his brother. Shades of George Washington.

Before he leeched off Emerson, he leeched off his brother. Unfortunately, his brother cut himself shaving one morning and subsequently died of lockjaw in Henry's arms. How the hell does one die of lockjaw in another's arms? A weird family, all around. A moral? I don't know. "If you drop your straight razor in the toilet, wash it off?"

But he lived off the land (and Emerson's purse) at Waldon Pond for something like two years and two months, living off...what? bark and grubs?... and became a famous author for writing a book by the same name or something close to it. I refuse to look it up.

Do me a favor? If you ever find yourself reading a book of classical literature and run across a chapter by Thoreau, rip it out for me, eh? You'll be doing the next reader a favor.

No offense.
---------

"If a man loses pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured, or far away. "

(feel free to use the above at will or change it if you like - it's in the public domain and he wouldn't have known what to do with the money anyway.)

Chasing down the rabbit

2009-10-06T00:31:00.011-06:00

A lot about Roman Polanski in the news lately. Recently arrested in Switzerland after 30-something years on the lam from U.S. jurisdiction on a statutory rape charge. Jumped bail. Not returned to U.S. by Switzerland yet, but the fix was in or else why would they have bothered to arrest him after all these years of roaming free in Europe? He was born in France, is a French citizen, France doesn't do the extradition thing with the U.S. (the perfecters of the guillotine sniff at our barbaric criminal penalties.)

Hollywood seems to think the law should leave him alone. The far right media is tearing him up. Foxboy Sean Hannity has REALLY been indignant, acting as if he knows the score. Says Polanski raped and sodomized a little girl after "pumping her full of drugs." Seems to be getting out of hand. Veteran newswoman Cokie Roberts says he should be killed. Polanski, not Hannity.

Anyone interested in a little Clarity here?
---------

In 1977, Roman Polanski was a famous movie director. He became prominent with the success of his 1968 hit "Rosemary's Baby". His greatest film achievement (my opinon, of course) was Chinatown, starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway. He is still a famous movie director and has an impressive body of work over his lifetime, though not in the U.S. anymore, of course. His most recent big picture that I liked was "The Pianist" (2002) which earned its star Adrien Brody an Oscar for Best Actor. Roman Polanski won an Oscar for Best Director, but, as you might imagine, didn't show to pick it up.

August of 1969 found Polanski married to the beautiful "Valley of the Dolls" actress Sharon Tate. They had a rented home in a remote area of Beverly hills, off Beverly Glen. While Polanski was across the pond working on a film, his 9-months pregnant wife Sharon was living in the house with Polanski's Polish friend, Voytek Frykowski and Frykowski's girlfriend, coffee heiress Abigail Folger. Polanski had planned to fly home in time for the birth of the baby. Also visiting at the home the night of August 9 was famed hair salon guy Jay Sebring, a former boyfriend of Sharon's who, oddly, was condoned by Polanski as a frequent visitor. Or so the story goes.

Then the Charles Manson death fiends from hell descended on the house and killed everyone that night. The rest is history. (Coincidentally to this post, Susan Atkins, one of the Manson fiends that night who actually did the stabbing of Sharon Tate Polanski and her unborn baby, died a few days ago [September 25] in prison of brain cancer. This wouldn't have happened had Susan been imprisoned in Scotland.)

In 1977, Roman Polanski met a young (aspiring) model at actor Jack Nicholson's house, for a photo shoot, while Nicholson was away. Nicholson and Polanski were friends. During the course of the evening, he took pictures, gave her champagne and a quaalude. He became aware that she was only 13 years old but didn't stop. Her mother was aware she was there with the great director. Not sure if taking a quaalude is the same as "pumping her full of drugs", but he sure did give her one. And even if he didn't know her correct age, he knew she wasn't 18.

I'm not saying she participated, or cooperated. She didn't want it to happen. Doesn't matter. California law said she wasn't qualified from an age standpoint to give informed consent. Statutory rape. Often those things are worked out without going to prison. Money. Probation. Not this time.

Read the details of what happened yourself, if you want to know the truth instead of listening to the hysterical American press and broadcast media. You can read the girl's play by play (or blow by blow, if you wish) account in her testimony here in the grand jury transcript.

My opinion? He needs to spend some time in jail, if only for the running away part. The girl, now 30-some years older, couldn't care less. Again, doesn't matter. The victim in the eyes of the law is "The People of California," not the girl. The girl doesn't have to "press charges." Same like in any crime.

Most of the Hollywood establishment have their sensibilities pretty offended, that one of their own, of such artistic bent (who has probably suffered much already from being forced to live in France all these years) should be called to account like a common criminal.

Oh. He IS a common criminal.

Windmills of my mind

2009-10-05T00:08:00.002-06:00

[click to enlarge photo]

Keys that jingle in your pocket, words that jangle in your head;
Why did summer go so quickly? Was it something that I said?
Lovers walk along a shore and leave their footprints in the sand;
Is the sound of distant drumming just the fingers of your hand?
Pictures hanging in a hallway and the fragments of a song,
Half-remembered names and faces, but to whom do they belong?
When you knew that it was over, were you suddenly aware
That the autumn leaves were turning to the color of her hair?
Like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel,
Never ending or beginning on an ever spinning reel,
As the images unwind, like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind.

War crimes

2009-10-04T09:48:00.009-06:00

Recently Canucklehead had a post listing oxymorons. He had some good ones. I offered "Bagpipe Music". Today I offer, as my own post, "War Crimes".

Why? Because I think, deep down, ALL of war is a crime.

The dictionary:
War crime: "An action carried out during the conduct of a war that violates accepted international rules of war."

Okay.

But do you not think it rather ridiculous that something as chaotic and all-destructive as war, to say it must be conducted under certain rules? How does one order chaos? Is that in itself not simply another oxymoron?

No matter how justified, or even "necessary," war is always a crime.
---------

Warmaking doesn't stop warmaking. If it did, our problems would have stopped millennia ago. — Colman McCarthy

If we are going to stop wars on this earth, we are going to have to make war on hunger our number one priority. — David W. Brooks

When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it? — Eleanor Roosevelt

A self-respecting nation is ready for anything except for a renunciation of its option to make war. — Simone Weil

We have to face the fact that either all of us are going to die together or we are going to learn to live together and if we are to live together we have to talk. — Eleanor Roosevelt

Please don't buy Nike products or patronize the Philadelphia Eagles

2009-10-03T00:31:00.001-06:00

Michael Vick was a highly-paid football player for the Phildelphia Eagles.

Michael Vick had a lucrative celebrity endorsement deal with NIKE.

Michael Vick was sent to prison for running a dog-fighting and gambling operation.

Court documents show Vick participated in the torture and execution (by hanging with wires) of “underperforming” dogs.

Sportstalk 610 reported Vick’s gang stole family pets, knocked their teeth out with a hammer, and allowed the fight dogs to tear apart the family pets as practice.

According to this USDA report, Vick thought it was fun for his fight dogs to kill and injure family pets.

Jeffrey Lurie’s Eagles now want to make Vick a muti-millionaire within weeks of leaving federal prison as part of what they call a “second chance”. They now expect fans to cheer for Michael Vick.

In the news today it said NIKE was striking another endorsement deal with Michael Vick.
---------

Please don't go to football games involving the Philadelphia Eagles team.

If the Philadelphia Eagles are playing on TV, please change the channel and watch a different game.

PLEASE DON'T BUY NIKE SHOES OR SPORTS CLOTHING.

This last hurts me to say, for personal reasons, but I hope you don't patronize NIKE anymore.

The devil just couldn't wait

2009-10-02T00:09:00.002-06:00

Florida, 9-30-09: Convicted child killer Couey dies (of cancer) in prison; cheats the executioner.

For those of you who don't remember, here's what he did: (Excerpted from a 7-2-08 Relax Max post on Yummy Biscuits)

Jessica was 9 years old. She was a delightful 3rd grader. One night she went to sleep with her stuffed animal. During the night, a man with a long criminal record and a history of abducting and raping little girls, broke into her house and took her and her stuffed animal away. Over the next several days, in between rapings, the little girl was kept in a closet at the man's house. When her emaciated bloody little body was no longer sexually attractive to him, he put her in a garbage bag, like a piece of shit, and buried her alive. When little Jessica couldn't claw her way out of the ground, she ran out of air and died. When police found her killer, the man confessed to what he had done, and even led police to her grave so they could recover her body. Later, after he had been properly lawyered up at public expense, the long-time pedophile recanted his confession. He still couldn't explain how he knew where Jessica's body was buried. The State of Florida wants to take this man's life, and he has been sentenced to die. The sentence is currently on appeal, of course, and, if things go as usual, the appeals process will go on for another 12-19 years. This length of time is needed to insure that the man was not mistreated or wrongfully convicted on any of a long list of possible technicalities, despite his tearful confession and description of how he raped her and kept her beside him in his bed the first night.

God forbid that, during his execution, this poor man might feel a burning sensation or even outright brief pain as the chemicals flow through his veins to stop his heart. God forbid that, as he loses consciousness for the last time, he might very well experience a feeling of impending suffocation. These are the things that lawyers use to stop executions on the grounds that they are briefly painful, and therefore "cruel and unusual" and so, unconstitutional. Oddly, no one is thinking too much about Jessica's feelings during this, and whether or not SHE may have been mistreated or how she felt during her own suffocation.

Please write me your comments and tell me why you think he deserves to live. I promise to forward your comments to Jessica's parents, and I am sure they will be of great comfort to them. Thank you.

So, Couey is in hell right now as you read this. If there is a God, he is in hell right now.

And Jessica finally has her justice.

Folk Festival in Kent

2009-10-01T00:02:00.004-06:00

[Click to enlarge]

Kent is the place to be this weekend if you are in the area. Above, a group of Morris dancers gather in preparation for this weekend's festivities. Over 1,000 Morris and folk dancers/performers are expected.

Who can tell us the history of Morris dancers?

My sources didn't say exactly where, but I am guessing Tenterden, since Broadstairs is in the middle of August.

In other news of Kent (Festivals-wise) There is a big postcard and collector's fair Saturday 10 October in Canterbury. And that's the truth, too - I wouldn't be guilty of telling Canterbury tales...

And much more -- October is the time to be in Kent. If you can't be in Munich. :)

Wasted Wednesday

2009-09-30T00:06:00.003-06:00

Pros & Cons is a comic strip about a lawyer, a psychiatrist and a police officer created by Glasgow–based artist Kieran Meehan. It was known as A Lawyer, A Doctor & A Cop before July 7, 2008, when it was renamed in an effort to make the title easier to remember. However, The Toronto Star still refers to it by its old name. (c. King Features Syndicate)

Caution: very opinionated editorial

2009-09-29T00:07:00.001-06:00

Just in case any of you are sorry you quit Entrecard, this will make you giggle.

I just read where they are making those smelly paid ads mandatory. But you can "opt out" if you pay them $50 a year.

I quit long ago because they started thinking my blog was their blog. Many of you did too. Then there was a second wave of good blogs who left them. I am sure this latest will see even more good folks leave.

The latest popular blog to leave recently was Sandee at Comedy Plus. This on the heels of Lidian FINALLY telling them to kiss her grits on her two VERY popular blogs.

Why are the rest of you staying? Remember at the beginning when we all met such wonderful new friends?

If you haven't done so yet, reclaim your blog. Dump Entrecard. They've already dumped on you.

2009-09-28T00:05:00.001-06:00

Lest I leave you with the mistaken thought that I believe it is the Liberal Left who is the cause of all of America’s troubles, let me be quick to say that I firmly believe it is the Rabid Right - the Ridiculous Right - who continually paves the way for the Loony left and even makes them necessary.

If Communism suddenly seems to be attractive to the “masses” of despairing people who see no future anymore for either themselves or their children, it is because the policies of the Right drive them to that despair.

“... the Right prepares the way for the Left — in both the United States and Russia. The Right gives the motivation and creates the sense of desperation and moral outrage that leads people to embrace utterly implausible solutions like socialism and communism.” —Jeffrey A. Tucker

Without wars, unemployment, inflation, there is no need for revolution. Without those things, there is no specter of evil capitalism with which the Loony Left can strike fear into the hearts of the desperate.

For all of Obama’s socialism and semi-brainless economic strategies, the Right have only themselves to blame. Those of us who take neither side suffer the the futility that goes on around us. We are left with the attacks and counterattacks, Left against Right, Right against left, on and on and on - when all we really want and need is progress through greater liberty.

Renaissance Poetry. More or less.

2009-09-27T15:06:00.003-06:00

Poems have been written on whatever materials were at hand, and with whatever writing instruments could be found or fashioned. I'm sure if Shakespeare have been in prison, he would have found a way to write, if only to while away the time. When it comes to prison poets, long works have been written on toilet paper.

One writing material, and writing instrument, used by prisoners of some repute were diamonds on glass. Odd.

I can think of only two instances where a prisoner (both were female) wrote on the glass window of her "cell" with the diamond ring on her finger. Both were imprisoned royalty (hence why they still were allowed to wear their diamond rings, I guess.)

Most recently we have the Empress Alexandra of Russia. She scratched her initials in the glass of the window where she and her family were confined in Tobolsk in 1917 or 1918. Not very inventive, If I do say so.

More inventive, or at least more poetic, was the couplet inscribed on her glass window at Woodstock (the manor, not the music love-in in New York) by prisoner-princess Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VIII, in 1554. The soon-to-be Elizabeth I scratched these concise (if not contrite) words:

Much suspected by me,
Nothing proved can be,
Quoth Elizabeth prisoner.

Okay, not a couplet. Turns out she was right, though.
---------

Incredibly useful Renaissance trivia tidbit:

"[In childhood], Elizabeth was well-schooled in the arts. An excellent keyboard player, and a lover of dancing even in later life, she encouraged and carefully planned music for ceremonial occasions throughout her reign."

Investigating Communism

2009-09-27T10:47:00.008-06:00

Whittaker Chambers was an American writer, Communist Party member and a spy for the Soviet Union. President Reagan awarded Chambers, posthumously, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Obviously, some things happened in between these two things. If you are interested, you may want to read more about Whittaker Chambers. However, this post is about Communism in general and why people become Communists. I learned much of this by reading about people who became Communists, like Whittaker Chambers.

Here are a few of the things I found out, or that Communists allege.

At the heart of Communism, and the very core of its appeal, is its credo: "Workers of the world unite. You have nothing to lose but your chains. You have a world to gain."

Communism makes a profound appeal to the human mind [they say.] Communism is aimed at, and appeals most to, the working man who never seems to get ahead in life; who feels, finally, that he is being oppressed by the rich elite. He is angered at that thought and bitterly frustrated at his apparent hopeless situation. Before his government is "changed" he sees his government as simply another tool of those rich oppressors.

Communism also appeals to the liberal elite whose life-passion is the liberation of these downtrodden and abused working folk. The liberal elite nest frequently in academia: educated people become communists mostly for "moral" reasons. (So Chambers wrote, anyway.)

[Moving to other writers] In addition to Academia, there are many organizations (ACORN, TIDE, APOLLO and others) that are set up ostensibly for the purpose of relieving the plight of the downtrodden, but whose agenda is primarily political [though who are apparently not above making a buck or two in the process.]

Mostly these people do not think of themselves as Communists, though their aims seem often much the same.

I then tried to "codify" what it meant to be a Communist:

What do Communists believe in? What are the earmarks of a Communist? I hadn't given this much thought until I recently started reading the recent political literature in this country and comparing it to traditional Communist literature. Here are some of the things I gleaned from reading the earlier Communist Party literature. The following appear to be the hallmarks of a good Communist.

1. Communists believe in the supremacy of the State rather than of the individual. All good things come from and are "enforced" by the State. Therefore the State must be molded to reflect the agenda of the downtrodden worker-class.

2. Communists DEFINITELY do not believe in God. That stuff is for ignorant non-thinkers.

3. Communists believe in the redistribution of wealth. This doesn't just mean high taxation of the wealthy but, rather, confiscation of money and property to "equalize" citizens.

4. Communists believe in the inherent evil of what they call the ruling class: people who have created or inherited wealth.

5. Communists believe poor people are victims of that ruling class.

6. Communists believe all people are economic and social equals. (Oddly, in all existing and previous Communist governments, there is/were still a ruling class elite who have summer homes and are driven around in limousines.)

Communists believe a lot more than the above, but those are the things that are obvious from my reading so far.

Then, I asked myself, by reading contemporary political literature, whether any of these seemed to be congruent with the statements and philosophies of some of these current organizations and supporters. It seemed that this is so, but I need to do more research because it might be terrible if that were true.

Conclusions? I don't think it is a question of Communism vs. Capitalism. I think it is a question of Communism vs. Freedom. I suppose I am hardly unique in that observation.

There seems to be a great divide between the stated ideals of Communism and what actually seems to happen.

This is a football

2009-09-26T00:11:00.001-06:00

"Bowl games" got their name for the shape of football stadiums, notably the Rose bowl in Pasadena. Bowl games come at the end of the season and are played between college conference rivals.
Except one.

In American professional football, the long season is culminated by a championship game, the last game of the season. This game is referred to as "The Super Bowl". It comes after a few pre-season games, 16 regular season games, division playoffs and conference playoffs. The two conference champions square off for the National Football League championship game in the Super Bowl and, supposedly, the result shows who the very best American professional football team on the planet is. The Pittsburgh Steelers are the current American professional football champions.

As with any championship game, a trophy is awarded. In the big games, the trophy is usually pretty old and is passed on for generations. Such as the Stanley Cup in professional Ice Hockey.

For American professional football, the "Superbowl" winner is awarded the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
For those of you not familiar, Vince Lombardi was the legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers for many years. His name was (and still is) synonymous with hard work and dedication to one's purpose.

Coach Lombardi was a hard taskmaster, and his word was not to be questioned. He was not an easy man to be around, especially for his players, since he was so single-minded.

Vince Lombardi, above all, believed in the proper - even automatic - execution of the fundamentals of football. It is said that, at the very first pre-season practice of each year, he would gather all his players around him in a circle - men who had had years of experience, usually, playing professional football at the highest levels of skill in the game - and would hold up football for them to look at. "Gentlemen," he would say, "This is a football." Vince didn't want to leave anyone behind, so he started that basically, as insulting as it probably was to many of them. But, as I said, you didn't talk back to Vince. You kept your mouth shut and listened.

The story is told of a little-used pass receiver (who probably had little to lose by mouthing off) interrupting coach Lombardi after he had just made the statement, "This is a football."

"Wait, coach! Not so fast!"

I don't know if Coach Lombardi laughed or not. Probably not.

Anyway, here are some quotes attributed to Vince Lombardi.

“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will.”

“Dictionary is the only place that success comes before work. Hard work is the price we must pay for success. I think you can accomplish anything if you're willing to pay the price.”

“I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is the moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle - victorious”

“The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.”

“It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up.”

“Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit.”

“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.”

Unusual Hollywood deaths, part 7

2009-09-25T00:59:00.007-06:00

True or False: Actress/sex symbol Jayne Mansfield was decapitated in a car crash in 1967? (False. This is a myth which trivia pursuit players insist is true to this day. She did suffer extensive head trauma when her speeding car went under the rear of a slow-moving truck that night. But she wasn't decapitated. Her boyfriend and the 20-year-old driver were also killed; her three sleeping (?) children in the back seat survived. One of those children, Marishka Hargitay, is today a popular actress in her own right.)

But another fact is worthy of being part of your store of trivia information: Her death prompted the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to require the installation of a safety bar on the rear of all tractor-trailors (and other high trucks) to prevent a car from sliding underneath it in the event of a rear-end collision, which formerly would "peel off" the tops of cars like sardine cans.

This protective bar is known as a "Mansfield Bar". Believe it or don't.

Short movie: "The Death of Jayne Mansfield"

Finally!

2009-09-24T16:12:00.002-06:00

Dear Birthers:

We are releasing President Obama's birth certificate in an effort to put your distracting nonsense to rest. I hope this will satisfy all of you Republican malcontents and allow the administration to move on to more important things.

Howard Dean, Chairman
DNC

(Click to enlarge)

Duh of the day

2009-09-24T08:39:00.002-06:00

A Yahoo! news headline this morning:

"Errors are likely to occur when doctors are overworked."

Six questions

2009-09-20T10:22:00.000-06:00

What do you love the most?

What do you hate the most?

What scares you the most?

What do you want more than anything right now?

What do you expect from life?

What does the word homeland mean to you?

Writing fiction

2009-09-19T01:17:00.004-06:00

On the southernmost fringe of the tanglewood forest, beyond the kingdoms of men, in the midst of a purgatorial wasteland blighted with perpetual winter and savaged by endless storms, there stands an inn where the battle-lines between sanity and madness meet. Here, where soul-consuming demons walk freely as men, where nightmares parade their garish hues like common whores of the street, where only the boldest or the most benighted seek to tread, our story is enacted.*
---------

See, that's why I don't write fiction. It never comes out like that. I have written fiction (not going to tell you where to find any of it) but, trust me, I am not even halfway up the mountain.

Challenged to write a short story by my very best friend recently, I succumbed, but nothing has improved with time. Oh, I have no trouble writing - the words seem to just bubble out with the least bit of priming - indeed the trouble is shutting off the flow - but those words still don't emerge as good fiction. When I see things written by Ken Armstrong or Catherine Sharp (not to mention my best friend) I tend to get intimidated and stop trying to write fiction.

Also, I don't take criticism well, so there's that. As a result, my occasional forays into the world inhabited by actual talented writers are few and far between.

Someday, maybe I'll be brave enough to let some of it see the light of day.
---------

*This fantastic piece of writing is on the blog called "Out of Ruins". The short story is Tanglewood. If you want an escape from Relax Max's amateur drivel, go read the story.

Homo milk

2009-09-19T00:21:00.006-06:00

We used to have homo milk. It was in all the weekly supermarket inserts in the newspapers. Now all of a sudden it is gone in favor of the actual word again. This has only been in the past couple of months, and I hadn't noticed it was gone until today. It was homo milk for years and now milk has gone pc all of a sudden. It is still homo milk in Canada, which is where this picture came from. You can tell because it is measured in ml only. But the below picture I took of milk in my refrigerator shows homo no more.

What is homogenized milk, anyway? I know a long time ago they just pasteurized milk. But the cream still floated to the top. Then they homogenized it so the cream was somehow emulsified or whatever until it just didn't separate anymore. Of course, there is very little cream in milk today anyway, even in "whole" milk. The government changes the definition, I guess.

Then you have "raw" milk. This is straight from your cow, even better if organically fed and not given shots or hormones, I guess. I worked on a milk farm one summer and I drank raw milk. Tasted like milk. Of course the dirt and hair and blood clots were too small to see. But it was filtered somewhat by the time it got into the cooling tank.

I don't think it was ever REALLY homo milk.

RIP Mary Travers: 1936-2009

2009-09-18T15:30:00.002-06:00

Seems like everyone is dying this year.

They used to introduce themselves at the beginning of their sold-out concerts thusly:

"Hi. I'm Peter. But I'm not an apostle."

"And I'm Paul. But I'm not an apostle."

"And I'm Mary. But I'm not a vir.."

And then the driving guitars would interrupt her.

"If I had a hammer." "Where have all the flowers gone?" "Puff the Magic Dragon." And, always, "Blowin' In The Wind."

"If I Had A Hammer" was written by Pete Seeger, but is synonymous with Peter, Paul & Mary.

The American Civil Rights Movement had a lot of friends, but it never had a better one. On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Dr. King delivered a speech that will always be remembered. "I have a dream", he said. On those sames steps that day, PP&M sang Dylan's Blowin' In The Wind." Those who have seen that old B&W video of Dr. King and the preliminaries will remember Mary defiantly punching the air with her fist as she sang. Commitment. We shall overcome.

If Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger were America's conscience, PPM were the enforcers. You couldn't shut them up. But they are silent now forever.

Mary Travers had battled leukemia for quite some time. She died in Danbury, Connecticut Wednesday, from the side-effects of chemo-therapy.

Goodbye, Mary.

Changing times: old advertising

2009-09-16T00:02:00.001-06:00

(Click to enlarge)

I like the website run by Lidian, called Kitchen Retro. She collects and posts (and writes poems about and makes outrageous fun of) old print advertising.

I doubt if she would run an old ad as controversial as this one, though, although the lady in the ad's "T" diagram for the taste-throat complex might lend herself to some of Lidian's sharp wit.

There was a time when cigarette smoking was pretty darn acceptable. And they only cost 25 cents a pack, so why the heck not, right? The only REAL dilemma was which brand to smoke. Camels, of course - the third fag in the unholy triumvirate of death to seep out of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. But who am I to judge, being an ex-camel smoker a couple hundred years ago.

Far be it for moi to try to stir up any trouble, but what do you think was the underlying premise of this ad?

And do you not long for this far away innocent time? You know, when heavy smokers died of heart attacks in their 40s and didn't burden the health care system by living long enough to develop lung cancer?

RIP Patrick Swayze: 1952-2009

2009-09-15T17:54:00.002-06:00

A two-year battle with pancreatic cancer ended last night for popular Actor Patrick Swayze. The 57-year old star was at home with his family in Los Angeles.

The Texas-born actor was voted "Sexiest Man Alive" by People Magazine in 1991. He starred in a long list of films in his 30-year career. My two personal favorites were "Roadhouse" and "Ghost".

He was a good guy who died with grace.

Johnny Cash

2009-09-14T23:55:00.003-06:00

(Click to enlarge.)

I am still recommending LIFE magazine's extensive photo archive now available for viewing on Google here.

Woodstock: 40 years later

2009-09-13T10:38:00.007-06:00

Click to enlarge.

It was billed as "An Aquarian festival: 3 days of peace and music." August 15-18, 1969. They were hip. They were cutting edge. They hated war. They had turned on, tuned in, dropped out. They would never sell out.

They still smoked heavily like their daddies and some of them became the stockbrokers of today.In the end, they did sell out, or died young. Now the ones that are left are only codgers.40 years ago. Live fast, love hard, die young. "Hope I die before I get old." A lot did.
---------

Some people who performed at Woodstock:
Joan Baez
The Band
Blood, Sweat & Tears
Canned Heat
Jo Cocker
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Crosby, Stills, &Nash
The Grateful Dead
Arlo Guthrie
Richie Havens
Jimi Hendrix
Iron Butterfly
Jefferson Airplane
Janis Joplin
Malanie
Santana
John Sebastian
Ravi Shankar
Sly & The Family Stone
The Who
Johnny Winter
Neil Young
And more

Please note that LIFE has put a large selection of its huge photo archive online. Very much worth browsing. Start here.

Answers to British quiz

2009-09-12T00:11:00.006-06:00

First I need to tell you how disappointed I was that no one said anything about my (on purpose) glaring error in the second paragraph, before the questions began. None of you apparently realized that Guinevere was Arthur's queen and not a naked lady on a horse in Coventry. For shame.

Now I want to tell you that these answers come from supposedly authoritative sources, even official sources. So I am just going to give the answers as I wrote them down before I posted this. Some of your deviations from these answers are well taken, however. But let's begin with the "correct" answers.

1. A British Home Secretary (later a famous Prime Minister, of course) by the name of Robert Peel was instrumental in introducing several reforms in British criminal law, such as reducing the number of crimes punishable by death, but most memorably the Metropolitan Police Act of 1829, establishing the Metropolitan Police Force. The police were called "Peelers" because he was the one who pushed the Act through, and, later, "Bobbies" after his first name. Police are still called Peelers in Ireland.

I still need someone to explain the police structure in Great Britain. Is it a national force with offices in each town or are they separate entities like in the U.S.?

2. The last Queen of England was Elizabeth I. Case closed. Well, not closed if you want to fight about Wales. But that's the answer.

3. The longest reigning king was America's friend George III. 60 years. Almost.

4. The longest reigning queen was Victoria. 63 years. Her birthday is a national holiday in Canada. Officially "Victoria Day" it is more commonly known simply as the "24th-of-May" holiday.

For the record, Elizabeth II will pass queen Victoria when she is 89 years old.

Needless trivia: Queen Elizabeth's middle names are Alexandra Mary. Alexandra of Denmark was the consort of Edward VII; Mary of Teck was the queen consort of George V.

5. The first heir to the English throne to be given the honorary title of Prince of Wales was the son of Edward I. He (the prince) later became Edward II. Some would do well to note that in the question, the word "Prince" was capitalized. The Prince of Wales is different than a prince of Wales. So say I. But what do I know.

6. The Tay. (Not the Spey, as many think.) :)

7. Well, I can see this mythical place is still not agreed upon, but my answer book says Cornwall, and that Arthur was born at Castle Tintagel.

8. Going to go with the "official" Arthur Legend books here and say Castle Tintgel as the official right answer.

9. Quid is slang for pound. Sort of like "buck" is slang for a dollar.

10. Public toilets used to have a slot to put an (old) penny in. Hence "to spend a penny" is a British Euphemism used if a person gets up to go to the bathroom. As in "Gotta go drain my radiator" or "Gotta go see a man about a horse" or "Gotta tap a kidney." The British have even more cute things they say about taking a leak than even Americans. I found that out a long time ago. None of them make sense.

11. Spotted dick is a medical condition. The rest are just slang for various common foods. A gift for the British test-takers, a brick wall for Americans. Spotted dick is really a suet pudding with a dried fruit. But Sage's answer is the most usual. We'll go with that. Toad in the hole: sausage in batter, usually Yorkshire Pudding batter. Marmite? Salty tractor grease. Not yum. Parson's nose: the tail of a chicken or turkey. Butt is good. Arse is wrong. It's the tail. Chip butty? A butty is a sandwich. Chips are french fries. Go figure. But they say it is good. Bangers and Mash? Bangers are sausages. Don't ask me why. Mash is mashed potatoes. Truly delicious as is much pub food. I know I know... even better with onion gravy. At least in the northeast of England. Or so I thought until Sage said it was popular that way in her neck of the woods too. Okay, onion gravy ANYWHERE then. :) Another great pub food is the Cornish Pasty. And more. Let's stop here. I love the very thought of pub food too much.

12. The northernmost settlement in England, not counting islands, is Marshall Meadows in Northumberland.

13. Harold Macmillan.

14. A red dragon. Some say Griffin. Those some are wrong. Y Ddraig Goch for you Welsh purists.

15. The Bank of England.

16. Snakes.

Incidentally, the only venomous snake in the land of the spotted dick is the Adder.

17. Salisbury.

18. Scots about English.

19. Here I admit being mistaken by using the word "sea" as in Great Britain is an island. I should have used the word "coast". If you count the Channel as being "sea" as I intended, then the correct answer is about 70 miles. If you don't call it a sea, then the answer is not 70 miles. Sigh. What I meant to convey was you can't get very far from the water if you live on an island.

I think, and this is not from "official" sources, that the farthest you can get from the waters that surround the island of Great Britain is a point near Coton in the Elms (Derbyshire). At least that is what appears in one of my several reference books, but looking at a map I don't know if I believe it.

20. Cornwall. And how. Yum.

21. True. (Not counting the channel islands - which wouldn't matter if you did because the distance would be even more - the big stretch is from St. Agnes to Unst.)

22. A very old Welsh festival of literature, music and performance - dating back to at least the 12th century.

23. Greenwich Mean Time. (0 degrees longitude, or "the prime meridian" goes through the town of Greenwich. Probably the British are the ones who decided where 0 degrees was going to be on the map, too.)

24. Off into the Irish Sea to the east of NI. "Giants" after folklore stories. The Irish had a giant named McCool, much like our Paul Bunyan. I can't remember who the Scottish Giant was that he chased back to Scotland. Anyway, McCool was throwing huge rocks at the Scot and supposedly formed the spectacular causeway as they bounced off that fleeing giant. Some say one large rock that missed became the Isle of Man. I don't know. Maybe. But I do know the coast of Scotland there is also full of basalt columns (remember Fingal's cave?) so that lends credence to the land bridge theory. I say.

25. Windsor. Prince Harry, when in the army was called Cornet Windsor. Couldn't very well call him Harry in the army. His grandmother the queen, then princess Elizabeth, was known as Subaltern Windsor when she was in the Army (she was a heavy truck operator). The royal family, since at least George I, and maybe even further back, is largely of German ancestry, and the family wanted to sound more British during WWI, so they changed the name then (which was getting quite cumbersome by then anyway) to Windsor. Cornet and Subaltern are military ranks. George III, the American favorite, at least spoke English as his native language and was born there, unlike his two predecessors. Unfortunately, he stuttered so badly few could understand him anyway, so his English was largely wasted. He did have reproduction figured out though. What was the question? Oh. Windsor.

Did you hear the one about... ?

2009-09-11T00:30:00.001-06:00

An elderly man in Louisiana had owned a large farm for several years. He had a large pond in the back. It was properly shaped for swimming, so he fixed it up nice with picnic tables, horseshoe courts, some apple and peach trees.

One evening the old farmer decided to go down to the pond, as he hadn't been there for a while, and look it over. He grabbed a five-gallon bucket to bring back some fruit. As he neared the pond, he heard voices shouting and laughing with glee.

As he came closer, he saw it was a bunch of young women skinny-dipping in his pond. He made the women aware of his presence and they all went to the deep end. One of the women shouted to him, "We're not coming out until you leave!"

The old man frowned. "I didn't come down here to watch you ladies swim naked or make you get out of the pond naked." Holding the bucket up he said, "I'm just here to feed the alligator."
---------

Making tracks...

Three blondes are on a nature hike.
The first says "Look, rabbit tracks!"
The second replies "No... no... those are bear tracks."
The third one got hit by the train.
---------

That's a croc!

An Aussie drover walks into a bar with a pet crocodile by his side.

He puts the crocodile up on the bar, and turns to the astonished patrons.

"I'll make you a deal," he says. "I'll open this crocodile's mouth and place my manhood inside. Then the croc will close his mouth for one minute. Then he'll open his mouth and I'll remove my unit unscathed.

"In return for witnessing this spectacle, each of you will buy me a drink."

The crowd murmured their approval.

The man stood up on the bar, dropped his trousers, and placed his Johnson and related parts in the crocodile's open mouth. The the croc closed his mouth as the crowd gasped.

After a minute, the man grabbed a beer bottle and smacked the crocodile hard on the top of its head. The croc opened his mouth and the man removed his jewels unscathed as promised.

The crowd cheered, and the first of his free drinks were delivered.

After a while, the man stood up again and made another offer. "I'll pay anyone $100 who's willing to give it a try."

A hush fell over the crowd. They looked at each other nervously. After a while, a hand went up in the back of the bar. A blonde woman timidly spoke up...

"I'll try it - just don't hit me so hard with the beer bottle!"

Second Quiz; for the other half

2009-09-10T00:03:00.005-06:00

To my British readers: I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but you did pretty crappy on the American part of this quiz. Just sayin'. If I can learn, YOU can learn. A lot of those were the same questions from before. Oh, well.

Here is the British part of the quiz. I'm betting the American readers do much better about you than you did about us. How could they not? This is more fun than Lady Guinevere riding naked through the streets of Coventry.

There are a few gifts for non-Americans, just so Americans can get a few. All are pretty hard for Americans.

1. After all my studying and researching the United Kingdom, I find I still don’t know squat about their police. I do know that Northern Ireland has its own police, and that the London area has at least three police forces - The Met(ropolitan) police, of New Scotland Yard; the City of London Police, who police the Square Mile; and the queen has her own police. Called the Royal Police, probably. I don’t have a clue if police in Scotland are the same as England's: I don’t know if it is a national (Great Britain) police force or not. But I DO know why Met police are called Bobbies. Do you? Let me rephrase the question - otherwise Soubriquet and A. will simply say “yes.” Ahem. WHY are the police called Bobbies?

2. We call her the Queen of England, but she isn’t really - she’s the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. And probably more. But at one time there were kings and queens of England. Who was the last real Queen of (only) England?

3. Who was the longest reigning king?

4. Who was the longest reigning queen?

5. Anyone know who the first Prince of Wales was? I thought not.

6. What is the longest river in Scotland?

7. In what county was King Arthur’s legendary Camelot located?

8. Extra points if you can tell where King Arthur was (supposedly) born.

9. (A gift) What’s a quid?

10. (A gift) What does it mean to spend a penny?

11. (More gifts) What is a spotted dick? A toad in the hole? Marmite? Parson's nose? A chip butty? Bangers and mash?

12. The southernmost settlement in England, not counting islands, is Lizard. What is the northernmost point? (Again, not counting islands)

13. The "Profumo Affair" starring Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies, discredited the government of what conservative PM in 1963?

14. What creature is on the flag of Wales?

15. What is the national landmark affectionately known as The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street?

16. St. Patrick, according to legend, banished what from Ireland?

17. On what cathedral is England's tallest spire? (Actually in all the UK)

18. Sassenach is a word used by what part of the UK about what other part of the UK?

19. What is the greatest distance you can get from the sea in the UK?

20. What county is famous for it's pasties?

21. The Southernmost point in the UK to the Northernmost point is over a thousand miles. True or false?

22. What is Eisteddfod?

23. What does GMT stand for?

24. Where is the Giant's Causeway?

25. What is the royal family's surname?

Part one answers

2009-09-09T19:07:00.005-06:00

1. Reconstruction. The 12-year period following the American Civil War during which the states formerly in rebellion against the government of the United States were controlled by the federal government. Much social legislation was introduced, especially that of a remedial nature to southern African-Americans.

That's the official line, and I'm stickin' to it.

2. At the outbreak of the Civil War, 8 days after the attack on Ft. Sumter, the president offered command of the Union Armies to Robert E. Lee, then an officer in the Union Army, at the recommendation of General Winfield Scott, Lee's commanding officer in the Mexican War. Lee was a top West Point graduate (graduated 2nd in his class) and a distinguished career officer in the U.S. Army, the son of Revolutionary War hero "Light Horse" Harry Lee. He was also related to Meriwether Lewis. He was a captain in the Corps of Engineers and was valuable to General Scott in the conquest of Mexico City, which ended the Mexican war.

Lee was against fighting his own country, but was a Virginian first and foremost. (A concept not understood by many Americans today who support a strong federal government at the expense of the founding constitutional rights of the states.) When it became obvious that Virginia was going to secede from the Union, Lee declined and instead took command of the Army of Northern Virginia. It was Lee who was to later surrender the armies of the Confederate States of America, ending the war.

Lee was a brilliant military officer and man of honor; Lincoln did the right thing by offering Lee the Union command.

3. Prohibition of alcoholic beverages was the 18th amendment. Women gained suffrage by the 19th amendment.

4. Jim Crow wasn't a person but rather a derisive name given to a repressive system of laws designed as a whole to re-subjugate African-Americans as a race following the Civil War. These laws were enacted in the South following Reconstruction and ending in 1965.

5. James Calley is what Relax Max thought William Calley's name was without looking it up. He should have looked it up. Despite my friend Soubriquet's sermon, the real culprit was, in my opinion Lyndon Johnson, whose personal war required cannon fodder in excess of American youths' willingness to volunteer, and forced the drafting into the army of every 18-year-old not in University. Their training eventually consisted of little more than fitting them for a uniform and handing them a rifle and shipping them to Vietnam. The lowered mentality as a whole of these conscripts made a joke of the standards of the American military, and gave Calley a group of soldiers stupid enough to obey his unlawful orders. I also blame the American University system for giving a degree to a cretin like Calley, enabling him to become a military officer who found himself in Vietnam in charge of people, but with no brains, where only months before he was on campus drooling in class.

My opinion.

6. Denali is the Alaskan Native name for North America's largest mountain, also known as Mt. McKinley. It is located in Alaska.

7. How quickly we forget. Dole challenged Clinton's second term. Dole's would-be vice-president was the great football quarterback, Jack Kemp, then a U.S. Congressman. Jack passed away this past May.

8. The first U.S. Capital was New York City.

9. There are currently 15 cabinet positions. There are an additional 7 "cabinet-level" officers who also sit in on cabinet meetings. One of those "extras" is the Vice-President of the United States. One of Obama's main requirements to be a cabinet member, apparently, is that you have to owe back taxes. The top five in rank are:

a. Secretary of State (Clinton)
b. Secretary of the Treasury (Geithner)
c. Secretary of Defense (Gates)
d. Attorney General (Holder)
e. Secretary of the Interior (Salazar)

10. "Sooner" was the name given to people who entered Oklahoma early to stake claims on choice land before the official entry date. It is no longer a derogatory word.

11. Indiana's nickname is the Hoosier state. People who live there are called Hoosiers. The origin is speculative, really unknown.

12. Tennessee. A schoolteacher by the name of Scopes was accused of breaking state law (The Butler Act) with regard to allowable curriculum. The case was a challenge to the law, financed by the American Civil Liberties Union. Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan were the attorneys. Scopes was found guilty and fined $100, but was reversed on appeal on a technicality, a defect in the original trial. He was never punished.

13. His Vice-President, Calvin Cooldge.

14. True. Although the Constitution was changed during his tenure, it did not apply to the sitting president.

15. Captain.

16. Eisenhower.

17. Truman.

18. Georgia promotes itself as the largest, but Michigan, at 96,810 square miles, is by far the largest state east of the Mississippi River. It is trailed by Florida (65,758 square miles), Wisconsin (65,503 square miles), and Georgia (59,441 square miles). The catch, of course, is that much of this is water. Michigan's land area is "only" 56,804 square miles, compared to Georgia's land area of 57,906 square miles. Not much difference but, in my opinion, that makes Georgia number one. Unless you count simple gross area within state boundaries. Sigh. Georgia.

19. Jefferson was president. Lewis and Clark were their first names. Lewis Jones and Clark Palowski. Meriwether was Lewis' first name. Can you imagine his proud parents looking down at their newborn son lying in his crib and saying, "Say, Eunice, let's call him Meriwether!"

William Clark.

20. Truman's most recent occupation was vice-president. The two people who became president directly out of the Senate were Barack Obama and John Kennedy.

Short ones and essay questions (USA)

2009-09-09T03:01:00.002-06:00

What was the “Reconstruction”?

At the outbreak of the Civil War, President Lincoln offered command of the Union Army first to what General?

Which amendment came first - Prohibition or Woman’s Suffrage?

Who was Jim Crow?

Who was James Calley?

Where is Denali?

Who was Bob Dole’s running mate when he ran for president?

What city was the U.S. Capital when George Washington was sworn in?

How many cabinet positions are there now? Can you name five of them? Can you name two cabinet secretaries besides Hillary Clinton?

What was a “Sooner”?

What was a “Forty-Niner”?

Where do Hoosiers live?

In what state did the “Monkey Trial” take place? What was the issue? Who were the opposing lawyers?

Who succeeded Warren G. Harding as president when he died?

True or false: Harry Truman could have run for as many terms as president as he wanted to.

A full colonel in the U.S. Army is the same rank as what in the U.S. Navy?

Who was the most recent general to become U.S. President?

Who was the most recent U.S. President without a University degree?

What is the largest state in area east of the Mississippi River?

What president ordered the Lewis and Clark expedition? What was Lewis' first name?

Bonus question: Almost all modern U.S. Presidents had most recently been state governors, with a general or two. In fact, only two people have been elected president directly out of the Senate (or Congress) since the end of the 19th century. Can you name both of them?

Loving yourself

2009-09-08T00:07:00.004-06:00

Joycelyn Elders is best known for her brief outspoken tenure as Surgeon General of the United States under President Clinton. She was forced to resign after 15 months for suggesting that information about masturbation be included in sex education programs in schools.

"Always remember, masturbation never caused anybody to go crazy, never caused anybody to go blind, never caused hair to grow on your hands, and at least you know you're having sex with somebody you love."

Medicare

2009-09-08T00:04:00.000-06:00

Sometimes we in the U.S. don't think about, or don't remember, that we already have the beginnings of a national health care program here. Perhaps - and this is just a thought - we should consider taking what we have now and expanding it gradually until it either serves all of us or it at least serves all of those who no have no health insurance (or no eligibility for free health insurance.)

I'm speaking of Medicare, of course. Right now, Medicare is pretty restricted as to whom it covers and what it covers, but the bureaucracy is already in place and it seems to me perhaps we might consider expanding this government medical insurance to cover more and more people and more and more situations rather than starting completely from scratch.

What is Medicare? From the government website:

"The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) administers Medicare, the nation's largest health insurance program, which covers nearly 40 million Americans. Medicare is a Health Insurance Program for people age 65 or older, some disabled people under age 65, and people of all ages with End-Stage Renal Disease (permanent kidney failure treated with dialysis or a transplant)."

From this we can glean that Medicare is already the nation's largest health insurance program.

This is a complicated subject, and I want to only present it in little chunks, so I am going to stop here for now. But consider that Medicare is

1. Already in place, with its own self-contained bureaucracy of paper-pushers

2. Already serving many people

3. Paying more or less promptly

4. Keeping records in a uniform manner

5. Using uniform forms.

Personality

2009-09-07T03:10:00.003-06:00

Most of us who blog do a fair amount of visiting other blogs, reading and commenting on the blogs of the nice people who follow us.

I can't help but notice, as I travel around, that there are a heck of a lot of different personalities out there. The blogs I visit are mostly people I know and whom I already know what their personality is like. (Their personality in the blogging world, at least.) But you really come across some genuine characters if you read the other people (that you don't really know) who are commenting on those blogs along with you.

Here is the personality profile of the day: The guy who always makes smart comments and tries to stand out from the rest of the herd by being outrageous. (Ok hosers, before you jump to conclusions, I'm not talking about myself.)

Remember the class clown in high school? Every class has one. He is always making smart remarks to things the teacher says. Everything he does screams, "NOTICE ME!" And we all laugh at him and salve his insecurities.

Okay, picture that guy. Then picture him 30 years later making a comment on a blog. His attention-getting outrageousness has worn pretty thin. He isn't quite so funny anymore and not nearly as cutting edge as you once thought he was. In fact, he is very irritating because he often ignores the point of the post and just tries to be outrageous. (I swear to God I am NOT talking about myself. Stop nodding and pointing.)

There's this guy (who does not comment on this blog, but who comments a lot on the blog of a person who DOES comment on this blog, and so I get to read some of his comments) who is always trying to seem "special" by making off the wall comments. I'm sure he thinks they are clever, witty, and outrageous in a hip, non-conformist antisocial way. The word "tedious" always pops into my mind, for some reason, when I read his (ummm, or "her") comments on my reader's blog, but I'm sure that word would never enter his mind when he is making his (often insulting, I think) comments.

I have a mind (honest I do!) that automatically translates bullshit into English. Today, he said something like "That is why I have decided never to reproduce." Only he said it in a much more clever and disdainful way than merely that. And I automatically go (in my mind, I mean), "Right. What you are saying is no woman has ever gone out with you because of your idiot mouth. And now you are in your fifties or whatever and never WILL get a woman to go out with you." He is right that he will never reproduce, he just has the wrong reason.

Everything the blogger says in his/her post will be put down or somehow ridiculed by this person. He prides himself in being a "contrarian" no matter what. If you say the sky is blue he will say it's pink, and he will expect you to laugh at his wit. Whatever the subject of the post or the opinion of the blogger, it will be scorned and belittled. It's not a matter of genuine disagreement, only trying to be contrary.

I don't personally have trouble with this kind of commentator. Occasionally, they come around but I berate them and their parents so mercilessly that they soon leave. I don't believe you should say nice things to hecklers (and, really, that's what they are.) If these people hang around your blog very long, it's your own fault.

One time I read with glee as my good friend Soubriquet upbraided a spammer on his blog. A work of art! That's what I am talking about! Why let them hang around?

There are a lot of personalities out there, and a lot of them are really fun. Meeting the fun people is a big reason why I blog. I only let the very best ones stay. That says a lot about YOU. :)

"1,000 villagers wait for a dentist after just one NHS practice opens"

2009-09-07T00:07:00.011-06:00

—Daily Mail (UK) March 10, 2009

The parlous state of NHS dentistry under Labour was exposed last night after it was revealed 1,000 people in a village ended up on a waiting list for a dentist.

Nearly one in ten of the 11,500-strong population of Tadley were forced to wait after a single NHS practice opened in the Hampshire village.

Their alternatives were paying privately, travelling miles to another NHS dentist - or going without treatment.

Local councillor Nigel Quelch said: 'When I phoned, they said they had a waiting list of 1,000. It shows what a huge demand there is for Health Service dentistry.

'But we're very grateful to the dentist for opening in Tadley.'

In 1999, Tony Blair promised that within two years everyone would have access to an NHS dentist.

Eight years later he admitted failure. A new contract, introduced three years ago to increase numbers of NHS dentists, has also been judged to have made the situation worse - with 1,000 dentists fleeing the NHS.

It means the remaining NHS dentists are overwhelmed and can't take new patients - as the Tadley case shows.

LibDem health spokesman Norman Lamb said: 'We cannot continue with a postcode lottery where people like the Tadley residents can't have access to NHS dentistry.'

Hampshire primary care trust confirmed the list had hit 1,000 in December but has since been cleared.

It said the practice now has 7,000 patients and can't take more - meaning over 4,000 have no dentist in the village.

*********

Okay, what does the above story prove?

That health care in the United Kingdom is a failure? That a RAM expedition to Rural England is needed?

This American thinks that all it means is that a very good health care system still isn't perfect and still has room for improvement. Nothing more.

In the U.S., opponents of a national health care program point to faults in Canada's vaunted system, wring their hands that people up there suffer health care rationing and wait extra weeks for things like cancer chemotherapy, resulting in an extraordinarily high cancer rate for a developed country - much, much higher than in the U.S. with its "private" health care.

I think one can find isolated incidents of bad things happening in all countries. For example, if you look hard enough, you will find the story of a poor man in Tennessee who drove 200 miles (one assumes 400 miles round trip) to have a very painful tooth pulled by an American charity called RAM. This rather than pay a local dentist in his hometown (plentiful, btw) $50 or so to do the same job. He didn't have the money for that but did have the money to buy maybe 25 gallons of gasoline to drive 400 miles. Who believes this? Worse, who believes this is the norm? I don't believe it is commonplace for a thousand people in the UK to wait for months to see a dentist, either.

My point? Let's both sides stop searching for proof of what we all know already without needing additional proof:

1. The national health care systems of the UK, France, Canada, and others is not perfect.

2. Health care in the USA is in dire need of major reform.

*********
I have never not advocated a new and workable, responsive, comprehensive, cost-effective, uniform health care system for the United States. (Even though my heart of hearts - and our constitution - tells me this is a matter for the individual states to handle for their citizens. But with today's mobility between states, I suppose I can stretch my principles. As long as Europe's EU agrees to get its own big health care system which is uniform for all member countries. Never mind.)

Nor, even, do I dread government bureaucrats running such a program - as long as you mean civil service employees and not politicians when you say "bureaucrats".

I repeat my objection: our congress does not have the brains to write a good plan nor the personal honor not to keep their financial benefactors in business - nor even the character to put aside personal gain for the sake of their country and for their fellow Americans. Does anyone doubt the above statements?

Raise your hand if you think Congress has the brains to write such a complicated bill or the lack of ego to allow experts to write it without porkbarrel changes if it IS written by experts.

Raise your hand if you think Congress will turn a deaf ear to the health industry lobbyists who have poured so much money into their campaign war chests over the years.

Raise your hand if you think Congress will have the guts to stand up to the lawyer associations who want to keep adding untold billions to our health care system costs through their out-of-control lawsuits - especially since Congress itself is infested with lawyers.

Those who raised your hands, go check yourself in to the nearest loony bin.
*********

This needs to be done - cries out to be done - but it needs to be done right! Just because it was on Obama's list of campaign promises doesn't mean we need to rush into this thing with the mentality that any sort of bill is better than no bill at all.

It needs to be done one piece at a time, over a few years.

If you change the whole thing all at once and later find out you were wrong, you are dead. We all are dead. But if you change one section (and find a way to pay for that section) and find out we did it wrong, we can live to try another day and learn from our mistakes.

The first things that need attention are:

1. Coverage for people who don't have access to health care right now.

2. Better (some, at least!) regulation of the health insurance companies.

3. Tort reform.

How many people are going unserved right now? I don't know. I don't think ANYBODY knows. There are so many definitions. Some say more than 60 million people are without health insurance, or enough health insurance. I hope they are wrong. 60 million people! People! Do you realize there are only 60 million people living in all of the UK? Do you? Even if we suddenly found a pot of gold, where are all those new doctors going to come from tomorrow to serve all these instant new clients? Do you really think we could just "materialize" all the doctors there are in the UK right now?

Stop. Think about this. Put a master plan into place. Don't come up with something wild just for the sake of doing it all NOW! Put that master plan into place step by step. Don't demand all or nothing. Reform the present waste. Kill all the lawyers. Start covering the most needy. It doesn't have to be baby steps, but don't sink the whole country in one fell swoop, either.

Here is something I found in a radical right (my judgment) website that is against government health care, I guess:

"Great Britain's National Health Service (NHS) was created on July 5, 1948. As with all government programs, bureaucrats underestimated initial cost projections. First-year operating costs of NHS were 52 million pounds higher than original estimates as Britons saturated the so-called free system.

Many decades of shortages, misery and suffering followed until 1989, when some market-based health care competition was reintroduced to the British citizens."

Then they go on to list example after example of how that system has failed its citizens.

Well, I know very well that the UK system has NOT failed its citizens. I don't know this from personal experience, or by reading newspapers, but I know it by British users telling me they like their current system. I also know Parliament is just about as crazy and inept as Congress. But somehow they (the British, if not Parliament at first) got it through and working, and so can we.

Swaziland

2009-09-06T08:22:00.008-06:00

Swaziland became independent of the United Kingdom on this day in history, September 6, 1968.

Swaziland is a landlocked country in the south of Africa, surrounded by South Africa and Mozambique.

Swaziland is a kingdom. It's king is Umbuso weSwatini.

Swaziland's economy is tied heavily to its neighbor South Africa, with 90% of its incoming goods coming from that country and about 70% of its exports going there. It's money is pegged to the SA Rand as well.

Swaziland has about 1.1 million people, 38.8% of whom are HIV positive or have AIDS, the highest percentage in the world. 60% of the population live on less than US$1.25 per day.

---------
Also on this day in history, in 1620, the Pilgrims left Plymouth in the Mayflower for America.

Because you have all been mean to me lately...

2009-09-04T22:05:00.006-06:00

...it occurs to me that I haven't yet inflicted any of my recent Michigan vacation pictures on you and that none of you deserve not to be so uninflicted. I have made up very cute descriptive names for all of them. I took about 600 and here are some of the very worst. Just for you.

You can click on any of these pictures to look at them bigger if you think you have the stomach for it.

This one I call "Detroit Metro Through A Dirty Window But With Spirit". Get it? Get it?
The one below I call "Moses Parting the Corn". I'm forgot why I called it that.Okay, this one below I named "Driving Through My Brother's Woods On His Golf Cart That I Stole One Time". I do remember why I named it that.
This one below is probably obvious, but: "The Long and Winding Road, Except It Is Straight, Where I Saw All Those Deer In A Field Feeding Which You Can't See Because The Field Is On The Left Not In The Picture".
Below: "Some Vines Growing On Some Posts By Where You Start To Walk Across The Covered Bridge Over The River I Used To Water Ski On When I Was A Kid But You Can't Do That Anymore I Don't Think."
Below: "A Picture Of That Lake Down The Highway A Mile Or So From My Brother's Grocery Store I Think Or Maybe Some Other One". (There are 11,037 lakes in Michigan and it is often hard to keep them sorted.) This one I thought was a pretty damn good picture considering it was me that took it, though.
Below: A Flower By That Lake Down The Highway A Mile Or So From My Brother's Grocery Store". This one you should click on and look at it when it is bigger.
Below: "A Heart Attack Waiting To Happen At TGY Friday's At The Dallas Airport Which Isn't Really In Michigan." Damn right I ate it.
If you want to see more, you can see more of them here but I didn't bother naming all of them because I got tired of naming pictures. You can name them if you want, though.
---------
Michigan Vacation August 2009

Canadian health care system poster boy

2009-09-03T21:31:00.004-06:00

This man is an actual client of Canadian health care. Or whatever they call it. So far he has had to wait 9 weeks for treatment for his chronic constipation. Nothing is slipping through the crack here.

Another editorial about the health insurance debate

2009-09-02T01:19:00.005-06:00

It seems the hot topic around the U.S. Blogosphere lately is health care. I have done a post or two about it myself. There is a large commotion about it around the country, with protests and so forth. A common reason many bloggers and others give for wanting to go with a government-run health program is that they paint private insurance companies as big bad ogres who band together to overcharge and underpay.

As a person who seeks clarity so he can make logical, non-emotional decisions, I wonder how many out there actually stop to remind themselves just what insurance is? Or what the benefits of free enterprise are? Or what the proper function of government is?

Before one even considers what insurance is, or is supposed to be, one needs to remind himself of the basic differences between capitalism and socialism, and which is better at what. On the same subject is reminding ourselves the difference between a for-profit enterprise, and a non-profit enterprise. Armed with a clear definition of these things, we are better equipped to make unemotional choices.
---------

1. Capitalism and socialism. Just a reminder: capitalism is simply when things are mostly run by private people, or by private people who form groups, whose primary motivation is profit rather than altruism. Government’s job is to watch and to regulate. Always, the government's main job is to watch out for the people who must do business with these private people or groups of people. Socialism is where the government itself acts as the “business” and the money to run the "business" comes from the people, like it or not. Socialism is often necessary for very large undertakings, or when there is a need for something but little or no financial incentive for the private (profit-driven) sector to do the thing. It does not follow that government-run operations are more frugal or responsive to consumer needs than are privately-run operations.

2. Non-profit enterprises. Some people are under the impression that “not-profits” don’t turn a profit. This is because the name is somewhat misleading. People also assume that non-profit organizations are simply altruistic and working for the public good. This is also not always 100% true. The misconception is from the names, and from a tax standpoint. (This paragraph is only referring to non-profits in the USA - other countries have their own definitions and systems.) When a for-profit company makes a profit, those profits are taken by the owner or divided by the shareholders. Taxes are paid on those profits by the individuals or by the corporations. A non-profit doesn't call its profits by the name of “profit”. It refers to profits, instead, as “surplus funds.” These surplus funds are sunk back into the core operation - for example to double their executives' salaries - and make sure, in the end, all funds that have been collected have been properly “spent” so there is no “profit” to pay taxes on. You have to get permission from the government to be a non-profit and you have to abide by their special regulations. With regard to health care, many health care organizations are non-profit from a tax standpoint. Although many health organizations are charitable or otherwise altruistic, It doesn’t always follow that non-profits are more frugal (or even more public-minded) than are profit organizations. Some are, but it is not an automatic assumption.

3. Insurance is one of the oldest businesses ever conceived, begun, probably, with the Chinese shipping businessmen in ancient times banding together to spread the cost of a disaster over many people. That basic concept and purpose of insurance hasn’t changed. Today, groups of people band together and put money in a pot periodically, for the purpose of reducing the impact of occasional losses. Those who have a loss, take money out of the pot. It doesn’t matter if the potential loss is your car, your home, your life (your family’s loss of income) or your health, or the threat of a liability lawsuit that would ruin you financially. It’s all the same principle. Insurance companies exist because it is inconvenient and not economical for individual persons to search out other people in like situations, and determine how much to put in the pot. It is also inconvenient and uneconomical for individual persons to take time from their regular jobs to investigate and pay claims to people in their group who have losses during the insurance contract period (the period for which premiums - the money in the pot - are covering.) It does not follow that having one big company with no competition, in the form of the government, will mean you will put less money in the pot, or that your claims will be processed more fairly and more promptly.
---------

In summary, I believe the government better serves the people by watching and regulating (governing) than it does by running enterprises directly. Other people disagree with this thought very much. I believe greed is inherent in capitalism, and that collusion and corruption take place when government doesn’t do its job of oversight. I believe this lack of the government doing its duty tends to allow the marketplace to become perverted and individual citizens suffer from the resulting unfairness. BUT I believe the problem lies more with the government’s lack of doing its job of regulation (governing) than with many private companies competing for your business.

I believe that many big enterprises, like universal health insurance, are STILL not big enough to warrant the government taking over the enterprise directly. Let the government run big things like courts and armies. Let the other big things be run still by private enterprise, many private enterprises competing with one another, but acting under the same government rules as all the others.

I believe if the government is unable to properly regulate the private marketplace, it is unreasonable to expect the government to properly regulate itself in the same operation.

Without competition, there is no incentive for either good service or price competition - or an incentive to save money in daily operations. The government has never proven it’s ability or desire to control costs, and it never will.

Instead of criticizing greedy and uncaring insurance companies, we might be better served by insisting, forcefully, that our government do its job of governing them. That way we still have the benefits of competition that we would lose if government were to simply take over.
---------

A few further words about insurance companies.

If you are a person who has just suffered a loss, for example you've had your home catch on fire or you have a major sickness, your main concern is payment. The only thing you care about is that the insurance company act promptly and treat you fairly.

On the other other hand, if you are a person who has insurance and has NOT suffered a loss, your only concern is keeping your premiums as low as possible.

This creates a continuing dilemma for insurance companies at both ends of the spectrum.

First, how does the insurance company decide how much money each member has to place in the pot each premium period?

Insurance is a business of predicting the future and of hedging bets. This is true whether it is run by a private insurance company or by the government acting as an insurance company. The main difference is that the government is not accountable for cost containment and has an unlimited supply of captive premium-payers. It cannot be run out of business if it is imprudent or incompetent.

Insurance, like all other businesses who survive in the long-term, must also be in the business of controlling expenses.

Predicting the future is largely a matter of keeping records of what has happened in the past and properly interpreting those records. This is what your tv weatherman does. In the insurance industry, these records are called actuarial records, and are gathered and interpreted by people called actuaries. Based on the interpretation of these predictive records, certain rules arise. For example, it soon becomes obvious that not all risks are the same and therefore not everyone can be charged the same price.

These rules are enforced by people called underwriters. They make sure that people who apply for insurance are properly investigated and placed in the proper rate categories so the risk can be determined and fairly rated. That is why your teenage son doesn't pay the same for his car insurance as a 45 year old rural couple who live on a farm. Insurance prices (premiums) are based on perceived risk. It is a numbers game, pure and simple.

Also, if an insurance company is prudent and fiscally competent (and lucky), they will not have huge losses that have to be made up by increasing your premiums after the fact.

There are many ways an insurance company can control their costs at the other end, and thereby offer cheaper rates to ALL of its customers. Like other businesses, they can keep an eye on business operation costs such as utilities and employees. Insurance companies also invest the premium dollars (short-term for casualty insurance, long-term for life insurance) and use the investment profits to help keep premiums lower. Another way that insurance companies strive to keep costs down is by the prudent investigation of claims and the wise disbursement of claim dollars. This they owe both to their business and to the premium-paying public. However, this last is a sore point with the current government health insurance crowd. They assume the government would somehow treat them better when it comes to paying claims.

A more humane approach to paying health-care claims is needed, whoever does the paying, rather than the current cut and dried rigid insurance company rules. Again, this is an opportunity for government, and for government to do what it does best - regulate and govern: Use public input to make up rules, and then enforce those rules. The function of government would seem simple on the surface.

I am resisting the temptation to talk about industry lobbyists, which are another method businesses (including insurance companies) use to keep costs down and thwart rule-enforcement, so I will stop here.

On corpses, body parts, and poets

2009-08-28T16:59:00.010-06:00

Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin was born in London in 1797, the child of writer William Godwin and the well-known feminist educator and writer Mary Wollstonecraft.

In 1814, Mary Godwin began a romantic relationship with the very dashing (and very married) Percy Shelley, a poet of the Romantic persuasion. They married in 1816 following the suicide of Shelley's wife.

That same year, the couple spent the summer with the poet Lord Byron in Geneva, along with John Willim Polidori and Mary's older half-sister Claire Clairmont. Claire was pregnant at the time with Byron's child.

Though she and Shelley would not marry until later in the year, Mary was already calling herself Mrs. Shelley. The friends spent their time writing, boating on Lake Geneva, and talking late into the night.

It rained a lot that summer and they found themselves confined inside, mostly at Byron's villa. During this time, the writers talked about many things, but one night the conversation turned to the supernatural. They talked of the poet Erasmus Darwin, who was said to have animated dead matter. They talked of "galvanism" and debated the feasibility of returning a corpse or assembled body parts to life. OoooooooEEEEEooooooo....

They began to amuse themselves by reading German ghost stories. Then Byron suggested they each write their own supernatural story, as a sort of competition. And so they did just that.

Later, Mary said the concept for her short story came to her in a kind of "waking dream":

"I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half vital motion. Frightful must it be; for supremely frightful would be the effect of any human endeavour to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creator of the world."

Mary's story won the friendly competition. In fact, Percy thought it was so good he encouraged her to develop the short story into a full novel, which she did.

Thus, in the summer of 1816, conjured up in the mind of an 18-year-old girl, the story of Frankenstein was born. Or shall we say "re-animated."

So, the many movies that scared us as children in theaters and on television over the years of the dreadful monster Frankenstein (actually the monster had no name) turns out to be classic literature.

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. The monster is closing in on 200 years old this summer.

[Thank you to Stephanie B for the sort of idea for this post. At least for making me think of Lord Byron.]
---------
I recommend you the the dark gothic art of New Zealand artist Sarah Dolby.

Fun facts!

2009-08-26T23:22:00.006-06:00

People who live in Liverpool are Liverpudlians. People who live on the Isle of Mann are called Manx. They are not British and have no tails. People who live in Manchester are Mancunians. People who live in Phoenix are Phonicians.

New York is called the Big Apple. Philadelphia is called the City of Brotherly Love and has bombed its citizens. Chicago is called the Windy City. Vichy is a water and a city. Vichyssoise is neither.

Mozart was 35 when he died. Edgar Allen Poe died at 40. Marilyn Monroe died at age 36. Dylan Thomas died at age 39. Virginia Woolf drowned. Natalie Wood drowned. Dennis Wilson Drowned.

The state of New Hampshire is 1.2% African American. The city of Detroit is 81.6% African American. The largest city in Africa is Cairo. The population density of New York City is 27,440 people per square mile.

New York City citizens are the highest users of mass transit in the USA. As a result, NYC's gasoline usage is only what the USA's average usage was in the 1920s. NYC saves the equivalent of 1.8 billion gallons of oil each year because of its high use of mass transit. New York City is one of only 4 major U.S. Cities with drinking water so pure it doesn't require processing by water treatment plants (the water comes from the pristine Catskills and is naturally filtered on the way.)

The largest city in the Western Hemisphere is Sao Paulo, Brazil. Great Britain is the 9th largest island on earth. Iceland was called that to discourage possible invaders from trying to settle there in that beautiful land. Greenland was named for the opposite reason. Nobody was fooled.

The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, contains thousands and thousands of items on display: among them are the limousine President Kennedy was assassinated in; the chair Abraham Lincoln was sitting in when he was assassinated; a stoppered test tube containing the last breath of Thomas Edison (a best friend of Henry Ford.)

The mansion house of Robert E. Lee is still standing - in what is now Arlington National Cemetery. The Union took his house during the Civil War for back taxes -- they passed a law requiring the owner to pay the taxes in person. He didn't.

Edward M. Kennedy 1932 - 2009

2009-08-26T20:03:00.008-06:00

The last of the 4 Kennedy brothers died late Tuesday night at his home in Hyannis, MA. Senator Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy (D-MA) was 77. His sister Jean is the last survivor of Joseph and Rose Kennedy's nine children. He will be buried near his brothers in Arlington National Cemetery on Saturday.

Senator Kennedy was the third-longest serving Senator in U.S. History. His constant cause through his political career was Universal Heath Care. He died just before the measure was again about to come to a Senate vote.

U.S. President Barack Obama, vacationing in nearby Martha's Vineyard, was awakened at 2 am and informed of Kennedy's death, and spoke to Kennedy's widow shortly thereafter.

This blogger would find it hard to enumerate even one area of political agreement with Sen. Kennedy, but he respects that the Senator never wavered in his beliefs and personal causes.

Like two of his brothers before him, Kennedy ran for president (in 1980.) He was unsuccessful in his bid to unseat fellow Democrat Jimmy Carter. In the party disunity that followed, Ronald Reagan was elected that year.

Senator Kennedy's older brother Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles in 1968 during his own bid for the U.S. Presidency. His second older brother, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in Dallas in 1963. His oldest brother, Joseph Kennedy, an aviator in WWII, was killed in action in that war.

Thus does the final curtain ring down on Camelot.

Finding your purpose in life

2009-08-25T07:53:00.005-06:00

I have always thought it a shame that we are often asked to decide what we want to do with the rest of our lives when we are 18 years old and have just finished high school. Looking back, what does an 18-year-old know yet of himself to make such a life decision? One is expected to enter college, and the college will expect one to declare a major before long.

Some people are lucky in that they are born knowing what they want to do with their lives; they know what they are. For many of the rest of us, it is only through years of trial and error that we discover where we fit in and what we should be doing. This type of life-experience comes long after college is over.

I'm guessing Mozart knew what he was as soon as he could think properly. Probably Picasso knew early on, too. I doubt if either considered going to college to learn how to be lawyers. These sort of people don't agonize over what they should be doing with their lives. They begin doing it naturally at an early age and simply never stop doing it. This is not to say training and practice are not required still.

I spent years, just like a lot of people do, researching the question of what I should be doing with my life - what it is that I was "meant" to do, what I do naturally, what I love to do. Although I eventually became able to articulate what that something was, the answer didn't come easily. Certainly I had no clue when I finished high school.

Like Mozart and Picasso, I believe that most of us - if not all of us - are truly born to be doing a particular thing. I don't mean you were necessarily born to be a machinist, but happy machinists were probably born loving to craft things with their hands. Generally.

Just as happy analysts love to clarify things.

Back again

2009-08-19T00:30:00.003-06:00

I am back home after a long weeked away visiting in Michigan. I'm sorry you had to read those silly posts.

Just a side note, though. My sister tells me that Jim Bakker has been resurrected and has taken his new show to Branson, Missouri. True. Stranger than fiction. He even has a new woman to replace the late Tammy Faye. He has, I think, started up a new 700 club or the like.

He already has the startings of a new flock.

He must have liked prison.

The long and short of it

2009-08-17T00:24:00.002-06:00

William Henry Harrison was president of the U.S. for the shortest time, but he delivered the longest inaugural address at 105 minutes. Unfortunately, he spoke so long he contracted pneumonia and died a month later.

He was president from March 4 to April 4, 1841. Nothing notable happened during his presidency (except that he died.)

His Vice-President John Tyler served out his term and then was defeated when he ran on his own. Tyler was the youngest president up to that point whereas Harrison had been the oldest.

Harrison may have been related to Count Dracula. Or Bob Crachit.

Whackjobs for Jesus

2009-08-15T00:18:00.002-06:00

[above] Ummm... No, he's not the next Billy Graham. He wears spats and ties made out of the same materials as his suits. He is the next Benny Hill.

[above] Clockwise from top left: Benny Hinn (NOT Benny Hill - that's T.J. Jakes, above), some black guy, Joyce something - the one with all the property, and then the other obnoxious woman; then Rev. Crafty Dollar (or something like that) and, finally, of course! - Kenneth Copland who owns 5 planes and half of Texas. God is really blessing him.

[above] The inestimable Pat Robertson, digitally signaling his IQ.

[above] An Oral grouping. One time Oral clumb up in one of the towers at his University in Tulsa and refused to eat or come down until his flock mailed in a few million dollars. But I think he really ate. Oral has been around since the 1940s and is well-respected by insane folk. Here's an old joke for you: "Why can't anyone play Oral Robert's records?" (and then you are supposed to say, "I don't know. Why...) and then I say, "Because the hole in the middle keeps healing up."
Ah, yes. You have to be an Oralite to get that one. In the picture above, his son Richard (the guy in back with his hand up in the air whose skunk streaked hair has finally turned one color), Kenneth (jet lag) Copeland, and some other old preacher, and various miscellaneous women are praying for the elder Oral's healing. I think. Either that or Kenny is trying to rip Oral's ear off. And at this stage in life, Oral's ears are monstously big. Notice how God heals all their hair so it is bright red when they get old.

Was it Oral who started his preaching-leaching career preaching from the top of the concession stand at drive in movies on Sunday mornings in the 1940s? Or was that the other guy - the one who looks like Bugs Bunny that owns the Crystal Cathedral? Maybe both. Drive in theaters must be pretty cheap to rent on Sunday mornings.

[above] Jimmy Swaggert.

I almost said "Jimmy Swaggert, 'nough said" but can anybody REALLY say enough about Jimmy Swaggert? Cousin of Jerry Lee Lewis and Mickey Gilly and a better piano player than either one of them, Jimmy - in his heyday - was a better showman than PT Barnum. I used to stay home from church on Sunday mornings just to watch him do his act. This guy could fill up any stadium ever made. His philanderings over the years have reduced his flock considerably, but the forgiveness crowd still earns Jimmy a tidy mail-in pension.
It was so cool how he got caught with that whore in the motel room that night. One of his rival evangelists was stalking him, and spied Jimmy's shiny Lincoln Town Car parked outside the motel and went over an let the air out of the tires and then called the tv station. So cool.
But Jimmy is a survivor. His wife is still with him and he has passed on the family business to his son Donny now. You may recall that his cousin Jerry Lee, at the peak of his rock and roll success in the 1950s decided it would be fine to marry his 14 year old first cousin and crash his stardom and lose all his money at his peak. That goes to show you the level of the gene pool in that family.

[above] Here's pastor John Hagee. John McCain lost quite a bit of the last election sucking up to Hagee and getting endorsed by him.

[above] I can't remember the above guy's name. Let's just call him "The Idiot" since he threw away thousands of prayer requests and letters from old ladies after taking out the checks. The IRS found them in a dumpster behind his office. Did I say "Idiot?" Well, I can't think of anything dumber right now, so we will leave it at idiot. Can you say f-r-a-u-d?

[above] A healer and his catcher go to work on a smiling dope. I think the healer is Ernest Angely unless that is Robin Williams trying to pick up a few extra bucks on the side.

[above] Don't laugh. HuyukHuyuk. This Porter Waggoner look-alike is one of the richest scammers in the religion business today. Multi-Multi millionaire. Together with his lavender-haired scary wife Jan, they own the Trinity Broadcasting Network. Worldwide calls for money, 24 hours a day.

[above] This here is the infamous Pakistani Poker, Bennie hinn. Him and Donald Trump's got the same hairdresser.

Baby. Baby. Baby.Bayyyy bee.

2009-08-13T13:12:00.001-06:00

Ernest Angley Ministries spreads the Gospel into all nations by way of crusades, television, radio, and the printed page. Ernest Angley's Grace Cathedral, in Cuyahoga Falls, is their home base. All seats are free and everyone is welcome.
[For those few of you who are not an Ernest Angley afficionado, Ernest used to scream "Baby! Baby! Bayyyy Beeee!" into deaf people's ears right after he had double-popped them with his cupped hands. He would stand behind them to make sure they weren't reading his lips. Sigh.]

But if you weren't paying close enough attention as a person on the stage awaiting God's healing, Ernest would also cold-cock you ::smak:: in the forehead too, and just lay you out on your back, twitching in the name of Jesus. And of course your odd wheelchair-bound miracle.

Bye Bye Y'all. Jesus and Earnest are taking off in Ernest's jet now.

Remembering

2009-08-12T01:36:00.000-06:00

Kennedy Sister Passes

2009-08-11T22:38:00.003-06:00

Eunice Kennedy Shriver, sister of President John F. Kennedy died Tuesday morning. She was the wife of Sargent Shriver, driving force of the Peace Corps during the Kennedy administration. She was the mother of Maria Shriver, wife of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Mrs. Shriver was the founder of the Special Olympics, doing so in honor of her older sister Rosemary, who was mentally disabled and was institutionalized after a failed lobotomy. Eunice Kennedy Shriver died at Cape Cod hospital in Hyanis. She was 88. Her younger siblings Jean Kennedy Smith and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy are the last surviving of the 9 children of Joe and Rose Kennedy.

Mrs. Shriver is survived by her husband, 5 children and 19 grandchildren.

2009-08-10T16:21:00.006-06:00

I always seem to do fine if I just make a general list of my ideas instead of going into detail about how to do things.

So here is a list of general things I believe in about government, taxes, and like that.
---------

I believe the the USA is a republic.

I believe republic means that the ultimate power rests with the people and not the government.

I believe the government exists to serve the people and not the other way around.

I believe the people have representatives for the purpose of telling government what the people want done and what the people's vision for the country is.

I believe it is the duty of the executive branch of our government to execute the will of the people and to work diligently to secure the people's vision.

I belief the people exercise their power through representatives they send to congress.

I believe it is the duty of Congress to pass laws which protect the interests their employers, the people, and which work to secure the vision the people have for their country.

I believe the House of Representatives represent the people directly and that the Senate represent the interest of entire states. States are made up of people, of course, but the Senate represents a larger concensus.
---------

I believe everyone in the world is entitled to at least the basic necessities of life and that the people do not have to do anything to "deserve" these basic life necessities. The necessities of life should include clean water to drink, wholesome and adequate food to eat, clothing to wear, and a place to live to protect them from the elements and ensure a congruent family life. I believe all the people in the world should have access to a regular uninterrupted education. I believe all people are entitled to live unmolested by outside aggressors.

I believe everyone in the USA is entitled to sufficient food, clean water, adequate housing, access to a quality education, a place to live, access to medical care.

I believe all men and women are born to equal opportunity to make their way in life and to excel beyond that initial equality to achieve whatever personal or material success that is within their abilities to achieve.

I believe the governments of the United States exist to protect the rights and well-being of the citizens, and to facilitate the citizens' pursuit of happiness and prosperity.

I believe in the right of individual law-abiding citizens to be left alone by their government.

I believe the government is best that governs least.

I believe in compassion for our fellow brothers and sisters. I believe in charity and in good works. I believe in neighbors helping neighbors and, when possible, not abdicating that responsibility to governments.

I believe taxes are necessary to support our society and its protections and needs. I believe those with money should contribute money, and in proportion to the blessings of their individual prosperity.

I believe those not blessed with material wealth should contribute to their society by doing public works, that they may not feel left of that society, or suffer the humiliation of being supported by their neighbors.

I believe those who are sick, disabled, handicapped or otherwise not able to work, should be supported by their fellow citizens to the extent that they cannot support themselves, up to and including total support.

I believe all people are entitled to the dignity of honest work, the dignity of education, and the dignity and benefits of equal citizenship.
---------

I believe in the right of society to protect itself and to establish rules to effect a peaceful existence.

I believe that society has the right to punish citizens who do not abide by the laws it has put in place to protect its citizens, including the absolute right to put citizens to death after due process of law.

I believe there should be levels of citizenship, and that the highest levels of citizenship, such as voting and the enjoyment of all freedoms specified in the U.S. Constitution, should be extended only to honest, productive, law-abiding citizens. I believe the rights of criminals and other troublemakers, including repetitive scofflaws, should enjoy only limited rights and privileges of citizenship until their reform has been honestly and truly effected.
---------

(to be continued)

All is well

2009-08-10T11:06:00.005-06:00

All is well in Chicaland. Her eyes and hair have returned to normal. Or normal for her, anyway. She has escaped harassment for the time being. You may go about your business.

Chica can't count the ways

2009-08-10T00:07:00.002-06:00

Chica just said she was unable to count the ways she hated Relax Max.

I think it is time for a "character" assassination. If you know what I mean.

I wonder if she remembers Karen Price. I'll bet she doesn't.

Separated at birth

2009-08-09T20:54:00.010-06:00

I found this site today and now I can't find it again. It isn't called separated at birth. It was something about New York City. Anyway, this is more fun that even 6 degrees of separation. You get two pictures you think look alike and then say they were separated at birth. Is this cool, or what? Here's an example.
How about this one?
No?
This one is better:

He means "locale"

2009-08-08T16:12:00.002-06:00

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

Here I am in downtown Havana: no more picture postcards for Americans

2009-08-07T23:48:00.004-06:00

A lot of you have probably been wondering about the Spanish-American War. I understand this curiosity, and I understand the main thing you are curious about is Cuba. Cuba and communism. The Spanish-American War, Cuba, and communism. That shouldn't take too much time or space, so don't worry that this post is going to be long.

Spain had always been a world power from even before the New World exploration and colonization. Spain REALLY colonized the Americas, except for what is now Canada. Spain fought a famous naval battle with Great Britain during the reign of Elizabeth I, and lost. As a result of her explorations and colonizations, Spain had many territories all around the world by the 19th century. By the end of the Century, Spain's star was fading. Her fling had flung.

The Spanish-American War took place in 1898 and lasted perhaps 4 or 5 months. The U.S. picked the war with Spain for no particular reason that I can see. Cuba was fighting for independence and Spain wouldn't give it to them and so we used that as an excuse. I know, I know. Then someone blew up a U.S. battleship, the Maine, in Havana harbor and that was the last straw. I don't think it was Spain that blew it up, though. Probably some of the Cuban revolutionaries trying to get the U.S. to kick Spain's ass so they could be independent. Or not. Who knows.

After the "war," the U.S. was the proud owner of places like Puerto Rico and Cuba and, on the other side of the world, the Philippines and Guam. Guam, U.S.A. Where the sun first rises on America. Like that. And like we needed Puerto Rico, but that is 'nother story.

A sharp student of history might notice that all these places spoke mostly Spanish and the U.S. didn't speak any at all, but no matter, right? Our culture can become YOUR culture. And so we began to culturize Cuba as best we could without being able to speak Spanish, which was the only place we really wanted to take from Spain anyway.

Let me hurry. I still have to cover communism.

As usual, we plundered Cuba and supported fat-cat dictators who did what we wanted them to do and Cuba became a vacation backyard for the American wealthy. And gangsters. And people who liked to gamble and party with prostitutes. Las Vegas south. You get the picture. The last tin-horn dictator was a guy named Batista. A real sweetheart. The Cuban people adored him. Not.

Anyway, shortly after the war, in 1902, because Rough Rider Teddy R. thought they were plucky, the U.S. gave Cuba the independence they had wanted so much, except they had to put in their constitution that the U.S. could interfere/intervene in Cubas affairs pretty much at will. Oh, and they agreed to lease us a Naval Base at a place called Guantanamo Bay forever. But that was all, and in return Cuba got to rake in a lot of tourist dollars and all the common people had to do was bring the fat Americans drinks on the beach and smile a lot. And Batista took most of the money. Of course.

Communism didn't happen until 1958, and you are probably asking yourself why it took so long for the people to get pissed off enough to off Batista and throw out the gambling and prostitution and humiliation. And the Americans.

So Papa Fidel was welcomed by the compesinos as a hero, and rightly so. Fidel had started growing a beard during his time of hiding in the hills and swore he wouldn't shave it until the revolution was over. Citation needed. I just made that up. Although I think it is true. He still hasn't shaved, though. Fidel wasn't always a loco revolutionary, being a star baseball pitcher and a U.S. educated lawyer who speaks one hell of a lot more English than you think he does.

Where was I? Hurry, hurry.

But communism being what it is, the people it was supposed to save got the short end of the stick as usual and are still driving 1954 Chevrolets with hand machined replacement parts. To paraphrase my blogging friend Descartes about the Romans, Fidel just killed everyone who wanted to fight and then put everyone else to cutting sugar cane. And that was the name of that game. Yo.

I may have left out a piece here and there, but I am trying to be leaner and meaner with my blogging. I failed again with the leaner part.

Government is not necessarily the problem?

2009-08-06T08:05:00.000-06:00

I have heard that as much as one-third of health care costs are for administration. Paperwork.

I don't know now where I heard that or if it is even true, but I saw a doctor being interviewed on TV last night (can't remember his name, but he used to be Obama's physician) and he said that he had two full-time employees whose job was just to fill out paperwork for the insurance companies.

Another thing he said, which I found very interesting, was that the time-consuming part was not really the government Medicare stuff, as one might think, but the private insurance forms. He also said the government/medicare pretty much left him alone, and that the harassment and pressuring to lower his standards of patient care were coming from private insurance companies too, and not the government.

Well, if true, that is an eye-opener because I had always assumed that any nightmarish paperwork and regulations would be coming from the government. Not so, this doctor says, and he also says (because of that fact) he has no fears of a national health care program run by the government.

I am still digesting that, and, of course, one of my digestive enzymes is that he was formerly Obama's doctor, so I'm guessing the good doctor was born loving big government. Still, it is food for thought. I may be won over to this national health care thing yet. Still many questions to be answered.

The "L" word

2009-08-05T00:06:00.002-06:00

The word "liberal" originally was used to describe a person who espoused the political philosophy that championed individual rights and freedoms. It comes from the Latin "Liber" meaning free, or "liberty".

Honest. That's true. I just looked it up.

Much has changed.

The mark of a liberal thinker today is one who believes in the government taking care of the individual.

The mark of the liberal in olden days (like before the 1970s) was, according to the dictionary-encyclopedia that came with my computer, a willingness to think new thoughts and a willingness to question the old ways things had been done in the past. The word "progressive" was often used for such a liberal thinker, meaning such person was in favor of "progress" and betterment - defined as progressively more and more individual freedom and personal independence.

The idea was that the liberal was not afraid of change, as the old stuck-in-the-mud conservatives were. The goal of the liberal was ever more individual liberty (from the government, one assumes) through progressive new ideas. The thought of the individual citizen being subjugated by a government, or TO a government, was unthinkable to a liberal.

What used to be a quest for equal opportunity for all men as supported by liberals of old, has today "evolved" into a quest for equal access to material things. Before, the desire was for equal access to a good education, equal access to jobs. To a liberal, equality meant opening doors of opportunity.

When did that change? When did liberalism (which I would have been proud to have been a part of) change to material "things" being given to certain citizens (whom the liberals of today label "disadvantaged") instead of teaching them to fish and making sure they had equal access to the big lake?

I'm not talking about the sick and people with disabilities. I'm talking about people who just don't have a high income.

Today, the liberal no longer fights for equal opportunity and equal access. Rather he is concerned with finding ways to get "stuff" for people who don't have as much "stuff" as other people have. This "stuff" is taken, of course, from people who HAVE "stuff". Sorta like Robin Hood, don't you know.

Am I the only one in the world who thinks this is wrong?

From each according to his ability, to each according to his need

2009-08-04T00:18:00.005-06:00

According the author of this blog title, Karl Marx, every person should contribute to the society they live in to the best of his ability. Everyone should consume FROM that society only what he needs (not in proportion to his contribution.)

That doesn't sound bad. Communism is deceptively attractive to the people in any society who feel "left out"; who feel they never seem to be getting a piece of the pie. It is easy to look for quick fixes. It is easy to blame others for your own failures or for where you are in your life.

The French communist Morelly wrote 'way back in 1755:

"I. Nothing in society will belong to anyone, either as a personal possession or as capital goods, except the things for which the person has immediate use, for either his needs, his pleasures, or his daily work.
II. Every citizen will be a public man, sustained by, supported by, and occupied at the public expense.
III. Every citizen will make his particular contribution to the activities of the community according to his capacity, his talent and his age; it is on this basis that his duties will be determined, in conformity with the distributive laws."

Even the New Testament seems to teach the validity of the above concept.

"32. And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.
33. And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.
34. Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold,
35. And laid them down at the apostles' feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need."

The above is, of course, at the heart and soul of socialism, or, more specifically, Communism. The title to this post, in fact, is probably the most famous quote that ever came out of Karl Marx' mouth.

And yet, through the years, we have seen there is something lacking in this seemingly utopian prospect of how people should live and interact with one another.

If you understand what that ingredient is that is missing from the communist credo, then you at the same time will understand why the United States of America, until recent history, has been a consistent producer of excellence rather than mediocrity throughout its relatively short history. Western Europe, Notably England and Germany, too.

Have you ever noticed how some theories look very good and reasonable on paper and sound very good in speeches, but when they are tried out in real life they just don't produce the expected end result? This is because something has been overlooked in the formula.

I ask you to take a look at two neighbors: North Korea and China. The one has a history of determined text book communism and the other has had a recent epiphany and no longer follows the road of intransigent subjugation of the personal spirit. I never thought I would say that of "Communist Red China" but it is true today.

China has discovered what the USA discovered in its early beginnings. But China has the advantage of knowing the mistakes the USA made along the way.

At the same time China is going through the birth pangs of a vibrant new future - surely within just a few generations from being the new leader of the world - at the same time we see the USA forgetting the thing that caused its own greatness.

Also ironically, the fall of the USA is due to its abandonment of what it once knew and practiced so well, and its not-so-slow conversion to the silly, always-failed, past forays into socialism. The USA is a little behind its European counterparts in this foolish slide into socialism, but catching up fast.