Wayne T's POV

Terrors Of The North

2012-01-28T07:28:00.000-08:00

Ah, winter in the Canadian Maritimes. Two warm ( in the forties F) days followed by a freakin' blizzard. And wouldn't you know the day of my flight back to terra cognita would be the thick of the aftermath: roads half- plowed and a third salted; airlines canceling flights with a relish; hour long waits on hold for customer service. There is nothing 'Jazzy' that I can see about my carrier.

Good thing this trip was for work and not vacation...

Before the turmoil of last minute trip-rescue calls, some heated and some pleading, there were pleasures:

Moncton, New Brunswick is lovely in the snow; and there are more good restaurants and pubs than you might expect for a city of its size.

And one amusing irritation:

It seems there's a youth hockey league tournament in town this weekend; on Friday night my hotel filled with hordes of Little Gretsky's rampaging about the floors and clogging the elevator. And of course they brought their entire families with them - it's not often you see so many groggy people in pajamas at the breakfast buffet.

Still, they say travel broadens the mind. This may be so, but I think next time I need to come here, I'll drive over from Halifax or even from Montreal. There are limits to how much broadening a person can stand ...

Epilogue, Los Angeles:

Sometime during the last day or so in NB, I was exposed to a nasty gastrointestinal bug that knocked me down and out for the worst part of a week upon my return home. I remembered reading, in The Globe and Mail when I arrived in Canada, about an outbreak among Canadians returning from Mexico. Trust the snowbirds for being Patient Zero in my personal playing of Contagion.

Pissin' and Missin'

2012-01-15T23:09:00.000-08:00

It's not everyday you witness a metaphor for shameless incompetence and arrogant disregard as apropos as that splattering pool of pee arrayed at the base of every urinal in every men's restroom in every airport in the world. You'd think we were all going in the dark, half-asleep. Either that or the restrooms had been used by zombie hordes to relieve themselves after a hard night's lurch. And neither we nor the zombies gave a damn about who came later or who had to clean up.

I can't say for certain the worst offenders are natural politicians, but it wouldn't surprise me if they were. Who else are so wiener-centric but unable to hit the mark? And who wouldn't characterize the GOP primaries as a pissing contest with lots of errant spraying? (A contest also with at least a couple of zombies.)

But I believe this is the curse of our times - to be governed by inaccurate and unconcerned types, who whizz blithely into the wind, and when things get wet and smelly blame the wind.

A more disturbing image hit the news recently, in the form of a photo showing US soldiers peeing on the corpses of their slain enemies. It occurred to me, viewing the photo, that collateral human damage in our war on terror is the inevitable consequence of old men Pissin' and Missin', only the splatters are blood.

So, Welcome to 2012! (Here's hoping we acquire better aim, or a good janitor shows up.)

A Dry Year

2011-12-31T08:12:00.000-08:00

For anyone noticing the ocean scenes on this blog page: Slash, the 16-ft Great White, and Me, the Diver hoping to avoid the menu, it might surprise you to hear that I haven't set fin in water in 2011.

Not that I didn't want to, but something always seemed to pop up to stop me. Absence of my Dive Buddy, failure (or out of maintenance window) of critical equipment, or bad weather all interfered. Business travel had its effect, too, as did my other passion of motorcycling (for which 2011 was a very good year). But none of these things were sufficient excuses to go a whole year without visiting the fish.

So for 2012 my resolution will be to get Me and my SCUBA equipment in better shape, and stay as wet as I can.

May the New Year be wet, real or metaphorically, for all who need it to be.

Mitt, Newt, and other Four-Letter Words

2011-12-30T21:17:00.000-08:00

On the cusp of 2012, with an uncertain future facing our country (and much of the rest of the world), it's a pity we are provided with such poor choices for the next four years.

I read today that the GOP side of things will likely be Mitt vs Newt, a battle between the four-lettered. For the Dems the news is of a possible change-up between Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, with the current Secretary of State becoming the VP candidate. I hope (4 letters) I'm wrong, but this move seems more political than practical.

Can the President be that worried about Mitt or Newt? From what I've seen so far, there isn't a hope in hell (4 letters) of either taking the national vote (also 4). In fact, it's likely this campaign will leave the career of one or both dead (4) in the water.

Political theater aside, what do we citizens have to look forward to? Either 4 more years of DC deadlock, or rule by a Mitt or a Newt ( or Mitt and Newt, egad!)

The prospect brings to mind several four-letter words (feel free to imagine your own) ...

Riding the Gift Horse into 2012

2011-12-16T22:58:00.000-08:00

The economy has had some good news lately: 'Black Friday' sales were strong, and 'Cyber Monday' tallies were even better. There is reason to hope for a decent holiday buying season to follow. The unemployment rate is even down a notch or two. And there haven't been any recent scary reports about Europe.

The cost of gasoline, and (more importantly) diesel has eased from the hurtful highs of the summer. Things are looking up a bit, for sure.

But wait ... is this the dawn before the dark? A false spring before a renewed winter of discontent? One last breath of ease before the world ends in 2012?

Or are we really on the road to a sustainable recovery?

At this stage it's anybody's guess, but I'm not holding my breath. With an election ahead that seems to have no good end no matter which party wins, coupled with the specter of a deadlocked Congress lasting past mid-decade, who can dare to be positive about our future?

Still a little good news is welcome after all the bad that has rained down on 2011's parade. And we don't want to look too closely into the gift-horse's mouth.

A Little Clarity Please

2011-12-15T00:13:00.000-08:00

I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around recent events. After all, it's not every day you have a bill (Defense Appropriations) in Congress containing a provision threatening to take away legal due process for American citizens. Especially when that particular piece of the bill seems to be supported by the democratic administration.

Good thing for us all that the republicans have added other verbiage unpalatable enough to the demos that passage is unlikely.

I am also grappling unsuccessfully with the concept of the 'Occupy' movement opting to close down the Ports of Los Angeles, Oakland, Portland, and Seattle. True, powerful corporations profit from the Port traffic, but then so do thousands of blue collar workers. In balance, I think the workers lose more than the moneyed interests in any closures, so why do it? I guess I just don't get the 'Plan' - unless there is no plan and we are just seeing a revived anti-globalism for which Ports are seen as smuggling routes for foreign carpetbaggers and their domestic allies.

And I still don't see any cogent reasoning behind the GOP presidential candidates. When is the REAL candidate going to step forward? It CAN'T be Newt. Is there anyone behind the curtain? Can that evil wizard Karl Rove have lost his touch? Or has he been drowned in Tea and banished from Oz?

As it stands now President Obama should have it easy come the election, but easy isn't what this country needs. We need a tough dialog and comprehensive debate between two strong candidates, not something akin to a protracted SNL skit.

My wish for this Holiday would be to have some clarity arrive with the new year. Statesmanship and fruitful compromise seems unlikely, so clarity is about the best we can hope for. Fingers crossed, everyone ...

Occupy This Space

2011-11-17T09:40:00.000-08:00

I have watched with interest all the 'Occupy' gatherings around the country. As someone firmly entrenched in the 99% - albeit the upper 10% of that demographic, I completely sympathize with the catchphrase, 'Tax The Rich', depending on what you call 'Rich'.

I can't quite gel with 'Eat The Rich', though, largely because I am on a diet, and the 'Rich' may well be too fattening. The definition of who is 'Rich' is also important here, since my current pulchitrude would be too appealing if I were to be lumped in with the 'Rich'. Thankfully, a mortgage and college tuition for two will make it quite unlikely I will be mistaken for a 'Ritchie' anytime before I die.

Generally, though, I am behind the movement. And I do mean 'behind'. My generation had enough of getting clubbed and water-hosed back in the 60's and 70's. I'll hang back and defend the rear guard. I accept your thanks with great humility. You are welcome.

My favorite role in this movement would be as the 'counselor' or 'Grand Vizier' (if that's not too Islamic for political correctness). I believe I could give good advice. My first guidance would be to occupy someplace nice. For instance, why occupy downtown LA? Why not Santa Monica? It's still part of Greater LA and Santa Monica boasts the best facilities for the homeless in America - plus there's the beach for getting clean. And don't forget the stunning view.

My second bit of imparted wisdom would be to combine the protest with some practical and helpful action, like street repair. Why not fill up some potholes which marching around? Leave the place you are occupying better than you found it. Spread a little grass seed around the park while you are pounding up the soil with your protesting feet. Paint over some graffiti (faster than you create it).

Of course, the ultimate and overall goal of this movement is, as near as I can gather, to get government in this country to shift a reasonable portion of its attention from the richest of Americans to the rest of us. To get Congress to think about us, the people they have been elected to represent, at least as much as they think about the corporations who fund their campaigns and who bribe (pardon, 'lobby') them with junkets and trinkets and jobs (oh my!)

I wish the movement all success in getting this message through. At the moment, though, it seems the active 'occupiers' aren't too focused in their demands, and it will remain to be seen whether anything realistic and meaningful comes of the movement. Even if it doesn't, those in power in this government, and their corporate backers, would be remiss in dismissing this movement. As I alluded in an earlier blog post, 'occupy' may be the surface bubbling of a vaster underground volcano. Better to do something progressive to release that pressure now, than bottle it up and risk a major blow-out later.

Poetry Break: Perry Draws a Blank

2011-11-11T09:45:00.000-08:00

Governor Perry Had But Three

Agencies to Tank

Two he could remember,

On the Third he drew a Blank

Deer in headlights, Mind wiped by Fear

He couldn't dredge it up, his Brain was out of Gear

Is this the End of Perry's Charge?

Will his Campaign sink, like a torpedoed Barge?

Governor Perry Had But Three

Agencies to Tank

Two he could remember,

On the Third he drew a Blank

For this mighty lapse, Mitt has much to Thank

Lightning Judgement

2011-11-09T19:29:00.000-08:00

The Penn State child molestation case has taken ominous form: like a racing, ravenous beast it is quickly chewing up lives and reputations.

It was only a few days ago the story first broke, and now we have coach Joe Paterno and the school president both fired.

And nobody's had a single day before a judge and jury. Not the alleged perpetrator, not the school president, and not Mr. Paterno.

The trial will eventually take place, and we'll know the truth of this sordid and tragic nightmare, but the verdict will come after the de facto sentence for Coach Joe. Perhaps the information the Penn State Boad of Trustees has received is specific and convincing enough to take action, but they haven't told us a thing.

I guess in the court of public opinion, only an accusation is needed, if it's horrible enough and the people and institutions involved are newsworthy.

UPDATE:

The news now is a grand jury has produced a report which details the allegations against the alleged perpetrator. Paterno and the rest are in the hot seat for not reporting what they knew to the police as soon as they knew it. Ostensibly the reports are Paterno did nothing illegal (although others higher-up did), but failed on moral and ethical grounds.

Although the soon-to-be-defendant hasn't yet had a day in court (the alleged perp denies all charges), the consequences of his (alleged) actions continue to cascade and amplify outwards, affecting not just the victims (who have suffered enough), but dragging more and more people into the vortex. Some of the people who have been (or will be) punished for their involvement will deserve it. Certainly the defendant, if proved guilty, will. Others may to varying degrees. But a few won't. They will be crucified for peripheral sins, or by mere association, or for just being less-than-perfect humans at a time when perfection was expected (in hind sight).

UPDATE TWO:

Click here to access the ABC News link to the Grand Jury presentment

If even half of what is presented is proven in a court of law ... but I don't see where Paterno is legally cited for anything other than poor judgement. The brunt of the blame, other than to the truly sick perpetrator, goes to Paterno's bosses for apparently lying to the Grand Jury. Still, Coach Joe has retained a criminal defense lawyer as of Friday, November 11.

UPDATE THREE (Nov 17):

Penn State is circling the wagons as the lawsuit storms gather on the horizon. As some of the victims (I guess we must still say 'alleged' at this point) hire attorneys, everyone at Penn State seems to be getting lawyered up too. The Board of Trustees actions in firing the President and Coach Paterno (and others) begins to make more sense as a CYA attempt at damage control. But, a bit like putting up sandbags to hold back the Mississippi, the benefit is likely to be temporary.

Meanwhile, the principal character in all this, the alleged Perpetrator, does a phone interview with a network news program and all but damns himself while his lawyer was in the studio nodding approval. Is this the beginning of an insanity defense, as in 'May it Please the Court, my client is innocent since his mental age is less than that of the victims...'

The LAST WORD in this space regarding this travesty comes as an apology: it seems my use of the phrase 'Lightning Judgement' was completely incorrect. This mess has been simmering below the media surface for at least two years, so there is nothing 'Lightning' about it. Except perhaps the media reaction. (Where were all those reporters all the time the Grand Jury were deliberating? Why wasn't there any coverage?) And, it looks as if nobody in the chain of knowledge at Penn State is completely blameless in this. The failure of so many to do what is right may be all too human, but a huge shame nonetheless, and altogether too familiar to what we've seen and heard in the abuse cases brought against catholic priests over the past decade.

Euro Oh Oh

2011-11-08T07:19:00.000-08:00

Greece is on the lip of the abyss, and Italy is slipping towards it down the Silvio slime-trail.

Who would of thought the Euro-zone would end up like this?

Somewhat more than half of the British people, actually.

Those 'Euro-skeptics' who said 'No, mate' to their countrymen who wanted to join in the common currency, are looking much wiser today than when they dug in their heels to save the beloved Pound, irritating many and looking like obstructionists to the glowing dream of a United Europe.

Of course, the skeptics' reasoning wasn't exactly economic, it was a fight to retain British sovereignty, but that's a story for another time.

No, it's enough now to say the British pubs are probably buzzing with 'I told you sos ...'

They'd better enjoy themselves while they can, since the bill for Euro bailout will be coming soon, and I doubt they can dodge it, skeptics or not.

Shake and Quake

2011-11-06T15:07:00.000-08:00

I am not a sympathizer with the Mayan 2012 end-of-times lunacy that's been raging in popular culture the past few years, at least ... not ... yet ...

Lately I've been forced to admit it is odd that we've had two of the five largest earthquakes in recorded history occur in just the past 7 years, both followed by two of the most devastating tsunamis.

It is also weird in the extreme that we've had an earthquake hit the Eastern US, shaking both Washington DC and New York out of their tectonic complacency.

And now, even stranger, a quake hits Oklahoma, where the wind sweeps gently through the plains (when it's not sand-blasting through as tornadoes, that is).

What next, a typhoon in Des Moines?

Which is all to say I am now a bit confused. You can blame weird weather on man-made global warming, but it's much harder to blame earthquakes on carbon emissions. Unless sucking all that lubricating oil out of the crust might be causing some sticking and cracking?

Or maybe, just maybe, the Mayans had something there. Could all their kooky modern-day adherents have something too? Can we be on the run-up to the end?

I'm still a skeptic, preferring to believe these are just natural events that aren't leading to some catastrophe predicted a thousand years ago; but, hey, I've an open mind and time left to ponder (I hope).

Idiots United

2011-11-05T15:37:00.000-07:00

Anyone see the movie Idiocracy? Mike Judge may be this generation's Nostradamus ...

Scanning what passes for news this fine Saturday morning, I was seized by a sudden, unwelcome thought. Which, since misery really does love company, I have to share with you:

What if the technology which has been built for us by very smart people is acting to amplify, popularize, and entrench idiocy? What if we are started on a cultural path that will allow public and institutional stupidity to drown out intelligent thought?

Think about it. Before the computer and internet technical revolutions, smart people had plenty of avenues to share their intelligence with each other, to build on that common ground, and advance. Universities, research institutes, scholarly magazines, and symposia were there to allow the meeting of the minds.

Conversely, there weren't as many ways for idiots to unite and encourage each other's dumbness. Sure, there were the social clubs - the Moose, the Shiners, the Kiwanises (Kiwanii?), but there was always the chance their membership would include a smattering of smarties. Most idiots just sat at home and watched sports, or drank a pint down the pub with their happily stupid mates.

But things are different now. We have Facebook. We have blogging (no IQ test needed). We have Tweeting for Twits. The most idiotic among us can instantly and repeatedly share their thoughts, either solo or in combination with dimwitted compatriots. Idiocy can be amplified until it drowns out everything else.

And then we get presidential candidates who think China is just now seeking nuclear weapons (they got them in the 1960's), who believe past indiscretions won't be brought up during campaigns, and who believe that denial of already discovered truth works as a strategy.

Which is too uncomfortably close to that movie I mentioned in opening this post. Dullards, it seems, are everywhere and in all strata of society. Smart people are still out there trying to say their piece, but are increasingly out-shouted by the technologically-amplified stupidity of the idiots.

Huckabee Zen Moment

2011-10-30T17:08:00.000-07:00

The Daily Show may be off on Sundays, but I managed my 'zen moment' from watching the opening of Huckabee on Fox News.

Mike's message today was in favor of taking the high ground in politics. He stated he did not question anything personal about President Obama, only his decisions on the issues.

That would be a welcome attitude, if not for the opening sequence to the show, in which a faux Obama tries out several costume options for Halloween, finally choosing to make himself King Barack.

So much for sticking to the issues, Mike ... but thanks for the moment of zen.

Time for the Un-Silent Majority?

2011-10-22T22:02:00.000-07:00

A recent Time Magazine cover heralded the 'Return of the Silent Majority'.

My question: how do you tell when something that is 'silent' has returned? How do you know it left? Or that it ever existed?

If this majority returns, but is silent, what's the difference between that and staying gone?

It seems we identify such a group by adding up the un-silent factions and subtracting those numbers from the presumed general population. What remains is the majority, presumed to be silent.

But if they are silent, then why?

Maybe they have no opinion to voice.

Perhaps they feel that speaking out would not help. (Perhaps it might hurt?)

It could be they have outlets for their anger or frustration - like watching the Daily Show or torturing squirrels.

Maybe they agree with the extreme positions and aren't a majority of difference, just impassivity or placid acceptance.

In the end, why the majority is silent doesn't matter. It's the silence that is important. Or contra-important, because it minimizes an entire segment of the population, presuming that silent segment exists.

So Speak Up, Silent Majority! Time to groan, moan, whimper, or rage. Make any sound you want, but let us know you are out there.

Mister 999

2011-10-15T14:32:00.000-07:00

Finally, someone proposes a simple plan. Albeit a crackpot one, it's still a plan. And it is simple.

Just as simple as the plan George McGovern had in 1972. His plan was to give most people a tax credit for $1000 dollars. I could have used a grand in '72, but hey, he lost.

OK, Herman Cain's plan is a bit less simple. It's based on a revision of tax codes to allow for a 9% personal income tax, a 9% business income tax, and a 9% national sales tax, hence '9-9-9'. (I wonder if anyone on the religious right has made the connection that 999 turned upside down is '666'. Oops, did I let the cat out of the bag ?)

So why 999? Why not 10-9-9, or 10-10-10? Why not 888 or 898 or 899 or 998? ( That last would connect well with classic Ducati superbike fans). Is it entirely arbitrary? Were the numbers pulled out of a hat? Whose hat?

I am not saying the plan might not work. I don't have the economic credentials to make that prediction. I'm just pondering the toss-off nature of the numbers. And I'm a bit concerned about that last one - the 9% national sales tax.

Here in California we have a state income tax that is about 10% for the top tier of earners. The sales tax where I sit is 8.75%. Does this mean that Mr. Cain's plan will give the top tier of CA earners a total income tax of 19% (presumably no loopholes) and all sales in CA will get taxed to the tune of 17.75%? I can live with that 19% on income, but nearly 18% for sales? What will that do to sales of big-ticket items like cars? Almost a Value Added Tax (VAT), isn't it?

I have my doubts this will fly if closely examined by those it will affect. Which means those of us already in the mid-tax brackets - the plan won't decrease our taxes much, and it might actually increase them, but it will boost the cost of purchases significantly. The folks this will help are corporations, the big income earners, and those individuals who incorporate themselves - they will have substantially lower income taxes, and sales tax won't be as burdensome to those with plenty of cash to throw about.

Which all goes to the point I firmly believe: Mr Cain's 999 plan is a devious scheme to fool the average guy and gal into thinking it is a reform of the tax code to make life simpler, when it's really just a simpler, more straightforward way for the rich to get richer and the rest of us to get soaked. It will hurt the 99 percenters more than the current system, while the one percenters get another huge break.

The joke of it all is that it's a ruse. The one percenters won't vote for it either. Because at base it is crackpot, and they know it.

Mr. Cain may have sold a ton of pizzas, but his latest 'topping' is a poisonous addition to the political discourse.

Like George McGovern in 1972, Herman Cain won't win, since simple plans only fool a few, or fool the many for only a short time.

Last Chances

2011-10-13T08:43:00.000-07:00

I am not an alarmist by nature. A bit of a worrier, sure, but I don't read apocalypse into everything Fox News reports.

But I do believe our country is reaching one of those critical moments. You know, like perched on a 50th floor ledge with slippery shoes and not a firm handhold in sight. And the wind is picking up.

Only in my vision, the ledge-dwellers are us, the 99 percenters, and we've been shut out on that slippery precipice by the ruling few. They're inside, where it is safe and warm. Having a discussion over cocktails about who's policies are best for us. Or perhaps they're not having a discussion - they could be duking it out, mud wrestling for victory. But whatever it is they are doing, they've nearly forgotten about us.

The more desperate out here on the ledge are beginning to organize and plan. If the rulers inside don't open the window, throw us a rope, place a net, or do anything to help soon, who knows what kind of chaos might result. After all, we either need to get off that ledge, or die.

People are beginning to organize and protest, folks. There is a chance the 'occupy' movements, small now, may grow in the face of political stalemate and indifference at the top (mud wrestling to a draw in DC, followed by cocktails at the club).

As one of the folks out on that ledge who are still hopeful those inside will wise up, get a plan, and let us back in (or throw us a stout rope), I'm getting nervous about the wilder crew who are simmering on the windy precipice.

Their big hope (Obama) hasn't paid off. The possible alternatives are all completely unpalatable - at least based on the way those alternatives have described themselves in their campaigns.

We may have one Last Chance for those in power to show leadership, compassion, and a shared American vision. If the one percenters mess this up, what next? The ledge is slippery, and it's getting cold out here.

The Makings of a President

2011-09-30T22:41:00.000-07:00

It will not be long now before we must choose our next President. (Are you tingling with anticipation?)

Shall we keep the one we have, or choose from that other party? (A motley assortment, but entertaining)

Well, I'm here to sort you out with a few helpful tips on what to look for in our next commander-in-chief. If you ignore these gems, don't say I didn't warn you. (And I will remind you of this if you choose badly)

Wayne's Tips On Presidential Qualifications, 2012 Edition

Know The Job - Be sure your preferred candidate knows exactly what the job entails, and what it means to take it. Have they studied the policies and decisions of every one of our former leaders (and not just Ronald Reagan)? Are they prepared to be 'alone at the top'? Have they practiced stopping the buck and are they any good at it? Most importantly, how's their constitution (their health, not the document)? We don't want them to look as if they are dying while on a jog (ala Jimmy C), or vomiting on foreign dignitaries (George B Senior).

Know About Money - It's the economy, stupid! Our next President had better know his/her stuff, and I don't just mean how to spout meaningless statistics - that's the Secretary of the Treasury's job. If they can't lecture eloquently on every major recession, dip, and depression since the Great One, and wax profound on how each and every one was fixed (if it was), they don't qualify. Boot them off the list (or move them to the VP queue).

Know Our Enemies (and our friends) - If the next President isn't thoroughly familiar with every threat this nation has ever faced, how can they possibly know who to trust on the world scene? They should know our friends well too, since many of them were - or one day will be - also our enemies.

Know War and What It's Good For (absolutely nothing?) - America has enemies, friendly enemies, and inimical friends (see above). All of whom may at one point or another attack us, appear to attack us, or just be reported on Fox News as possibly thinking about attacking us. At which point our next President must know what War is and whether to wage it (or stop watching Fox).

Know Our Country - In order to qualify for President, a candidate must be able to cite all 50 states and their capitals, as well as list our protectorates and territories (bonus points for their capitals). They should also be able to locate all of these on a map. If none of the candidates can do this - and let's face it that's a possibility, then rank them in order of number correctly chosen. Bonus points if they know what the heck the District of Columbia is.

There you have it. Five simple rules with which to test our future President's qualifications. Of course there are many more important qualifications, like being able to read and write, having a twitter account, and liking dogs, but those are beyond the scope of this humble essay ...

Keep Watching The Skies!

2011-09-30T16:39:00.000-07:00

What is up, surely must come down ...

Space Bus bust - for a minute there they had our attention, butts perched on seat edges, chewing our collective nails in nervous anticipation. Where would that damn decrepit bus-sized satellite come down? NASA wasn't entirely clear on this subject, leaving about 80% of the world's population as possible targets. But the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) plunked down with little fanfare, somewhere near Christmas Island in the remote Pacific. Nice that no humans were hurt in the process, but I'll bet a few fish had quite a surprise.

Drone Over Me (Not) - many Americans enjoy the hobby of operating radio-controlled planes. This is a good thing, since remotely controlled flying missile platforms are weapon numero uno in our anti-terrorism arsenal, it seems, and we'll need plenty more good 'pilots' in the future. Of course, now that we are using these devices against American citizens (albeit nasty bearded dual-citizenshipped American citizens), we may all have to mind our Ps and Qs, watch our backs, and keep watching the skies ...

Silence Is Not Golden

2011-09-29T22:43:00.000-07:00

Sometimes so many things of a dispiriting nature happen so quickly, we can't absorb the intensity of it, let alone manage it adequately.

This can be personal or it may be our work that throws up curves. It may also be the cares of the world at large that press in on us - delivered through the news: televised, printed, or internet-beamed.

Whatever the source, there are times when we feel an intense need for silence. Not a monkish vow of silence, but rather a keeping of opinions to ourselves, as if voicing them will remind us of just what a pickle we're (all) in. We continue to live our lives and communicate the usual daily messages of family and camaraderie, but we keep our questioning light hidden, our speculations bland, and our fears diluted to insignificance before utterance.

This may affect us all. It certainly affects writers, including those in the blogosphere. Contrary to what may be general perception, bloggers aren't typically infected with runaway cases of the verbal shits. We as a rule speak through our blogs when we feel we have something meaningful to say, even if the meaning is just for us. Maybe especially if it's just for us. And if we can't express what we are feeling meaningfully, we fall silent.

I must say events of the world of late have been of the truly silencing kind. What do you say about what's happening with our government? With other governments around the world? How do you react when the most promising developments are bloody revolutions?

It seems that each day we've awakened these past few months has held nothing but grimmer and grimmer news for us. And it breaks our hearts to think too much about it, let alone comment.

We sit back and let John Stewart or Colbert spoof our miseries away, by letting us laugh at the absurdity of our situations. This is a salve to our distress, but not a solution.

As it turns out, neither is silence. By keeping mum and laughing it out of our system, we perpetuate it all, in a cycle of increasing depression, hopelessness, and ultimately apathy. Nothing can be fixed, it's all a joke, just live your life with your head down and keep on keeping on. But that is an insidious capitulation.

Rather, now is the time for all of us - bloggers as well as folk usually less forward with their opinions, to speak up, write your thoughts down, or go out and shout them from atop a soapbox in the park.

Whatever works best for you.

I promise I'll be writing, and reading, and listening.

Labor Day

2011-09-05T10:36:00.000-07:00

Well, this is Monday, 5 September, 2011, and presumably, officially, 'Labor Day'.

This would be a good day for all of us who have jobs to give profuse thanks, and for those still seeking gainful employment to emulate the British of eons past and keep your upper lip as stiff as possible.

Speaking of 'gainful' employment, I wonder how many of us can say we have it? When does it become so? I suppose if, at the end of the month, you've earned a penny more than expenses and taxes, that could be considered a gain, although you won't build much of a nest egg or rainy day fund at that rate. Especially if you put that penny in the bank to earn a half of one percent in interest. And more especially if you charge anything on a credit card at sixteen percent interest. That fifteen and a half percent gulf will certainly discourage your borrowing to spend on anything not absolutely necessary, right?

But I have slipped off-topic ...

It's good to have a job, and today is the day to celebrate. It's also the day for employers everywhere to rejoice in the good fortune of having an enormous worker pool to fish in. It's a wondrous gift indeed to have so many to choose from. There would be even more choices if our schools could graduate more qualified people. But then, in an economy that is 90% service, what skills do graduates need?

There I go again, off-topic ...

So, to everyone out there with a job today, gainful or not, relax, take a sip of something cool and refreshing, fire up the bbq and have a laugh or two with friends and family. If you have to work today, then the rest of us will just celebrate all the harder, in your honor.

It's a Mad World

2011-08-29T15:43:00.000-07:00

In the early 1960's the makers of the film, "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" had something a little different in mind. Their 'Madness' was of a wacky, crazy, exhilarating type. It was something to be proud of - in an offhanded way.

It is my increasingly jaundiced opinion that one 'Mad' is all we would need in the title today, because that Madness would be of an entirely more evil and destructive kind.

It would be the Madness of the poorly educated, the desperate, and the brutal. It would be the Madness of the opportunists who seek to harness the unhappiness of those three.

When I think of the magnitude of the tasks inherent in combating this Madness, I quail.

When I search for signs of thoughtfulness and composure in our leaders, I despair.

When I reach out to my fellow citizens I sometimes see things I would rather I had never seen.

Hope is not all lost. There have been worse, or at least equally bad, times for this world. And our (my) views of the leaders that got us through those times is rose-colored by historical edits of what was reality. In contrast, we see the here and now in ugly clarity.

So, long after most of us are gone from this world, I hope there will be people somewhere living peacefully. People who have hope of a better future for their children and a reasoned respect for their leaders - a respect earned by action.

I can only hope in this future, since this surely is not the case now ...

Slow Ride

2011-08-22T21:09:00.000-07:00

I rode very slowly today. On a motorcycle. On one of the greatest roads for riding in America.

But slow was what I was feeling.

Maybe because the rest of life has been moving very fast: daughter off to college; increasing responsibility at work; a year's worth of "To Do's" piled up - you know ...

Sometimes the best reaction to perceived excessive speed is to slow down.

But on a ride?

Speed on two wheels is one of the better ways I've found to clear my head and re-center. Just enough speed to force away all extraneous thoughts, but not too much to introduce distracting fear.

But not today. Nothing could drive the thoughts - the worries if you will, away, and so I guess I entered a reverse feedback loop and slowed down. Speed clears the mind, a cluttered mind slows you down.

Seems like a quandary, but if the hypothesis is true, so is the cure ... ride faster next time. Twist that throttle and leave those pesky worries behind.

Cut Off Nose, Spite Face

2011-07-30T07:59:00.000-07:00

It is a very human desire to want to undermine your competition. Ruin their best-laid plans. Crush them like the creepy-crawly bugs you surely know they are.

We can see there are quite a few 'Congressmen' in Washington who are exhibiting this desire right now.

They have their supporters too, people who desperately want the party in power to fail, no matter the cost. These folks are smugly cheering as the politicians tug-o-war their way to the precipice.

But for the rest of us, this behavior makes less than no sense. Individuals may gleefully and frequently cut off their noses to 'spite their faces', but not governments. There is too much at stake and too many people that will be hurt.

Poetry Break: Super Pac Man

2011-07-12T11:35:00.001-07:00

I wanna be a Pac Man

and gather lots of monies

to spend on causes and good works

not fun or playboy bunnies

I'd sponsor legislation

that would save the human race

Not fund NASA in sending

the first Stripper into Space

So can I get a Super Pac, just like Steve Colbert?

And manage spending programs from home, in my underwear?

If Stephen C can do it, why can't I?

At least Let Me Try!

I'm not distracted by celebrity and fame

I have lots of time, since no one knows My name.

I wanna be a Pac Man;

I'll be balanced and so, so, fair,

Just like Fox News and,

Good 'ol Steve Colbert

The Definitions of Power

2011-06-24T09:24:00.000-07:00

As we are beginning to learn, what constitutes Right or Wrong in government (and this includes the White House, regardless the occupant), can be manipulated by creative definitions.

The latest example being our current President's defining of 'hostilities' in the context of the War Powers Act. It seems if we are engaged in 'hostilities', the President must obtain the approval of Congress within 90 days after the start of the action. Given this President and this House of Representatives, that would be an uneasy situation, so the Prez avoids the confrontation by declaring the action not to meet the definition of 'hostilities'.

Apparently, to be hostile according to the White House, your real troops must have their actual boots on the ground in the exact place where the action is occurring. Boots comfortably planted on US territory while their owners control guided unmanned drones and fire missiles at the 'targets' isn't considered to be engaging in 'hostilities' - even though the suddenly dead occupants of blown-up buildings might argue that point, had they been given the opportunity.

Just in case you've been sleeping and haven't noticed, this 'debate' is happening right now over our involvement in Libya.

I'd like to believe this situation will spur another, broader, debate over the meaning of what is meant by 'effective' in the context of our government ...

Friends On The Ride

2011-06-17T18:44:00.001-07:00

If you participate in an activity that most people find dangerous and inexplicable, you make acquaintances. Often, you find Friends.

This is what has happened in my passionate pursuit of riding motorcycles.

These Friends may be other Riders, or just people who like bikes. They may be met in person, or in an online forum for enthusiasts. The Friendships may be barely more than acquaintances, or they may be deep indeed.

When non-Riders overhear our conversations, they think we're nuts. How can people talk so long and fervently about 'slipper clutches', 'helmet cams', and torque curves? Why do bikers get so excited about the scary act of flying through a twisty bend at a healthy lean angle? Just what is 'lean angle' and what's so darn 'healthy' about it?

Non-Riders will instantly browse away from any motorcycle forum they may accidentally land on. If they don't, they'll be perplexed by the threads, which carry meaning only for the initiated and truly obsessed.

Shared passions and outsider status can bond people, who might otherwise share no common ground.

Which pretty much describes us - Friends on The Ride (?FoTR?).

A Tip of The Helmet, then, to a few of my FoTR who are now gone but never forgotten: Sammy, Daniel, and Uncle Ernie. Death and the Road took you too soon. Rest in Peace, Gentlemen.

A Downside of Being Connected

2011-06-16T23:02:00.000-07:00

These days it's possible to get to know people we would never have met in times past. People who live far away, or perhaps one town over but moving in parallel but separate universes.

The internet has made this possible. It's a Good Thing, expanding our conversations and community in very real ways.

But I have just witnessed a big Down Side: with connection comes a level of caring, and when someone you know 'virtually' dies in reality, it can hurt. Perhaps not as keenly as when a 'real' and 'local' friend passes away, but still a pain that resonates.

A person I never met, whose voice I never heard, died this week. We shared presence on a web forum, sometimes responding to each other's posts, but mostly just co-existing in a local node in the webisphere. I admired his wit and wisdom. He wrote well. But I didn't really know him. I shouldn't be so affected by his death, but I am.

It's a good thing then, that a forum can grieve almost like a brick-and-mortar community. If acquaintances can be this real, our support must be too.

WeinerGate: Are There Any Grown-Ups in Congress?

2011-06-11T12:53:00.000-07:00

I have been patiently waiting to see how our elected representatives would manage the national 'crisis' that is 'WeinerGate' - the juvenile twittering, sexting, and banal facebook postings that the media have foist upon our attentions, with the regrettable and unpalatable participation of Representative Andrew Weiner.

My patience has been futile.

On the Republican side, there appears to be no mercy and no sense 0f irony in their lambasting of the man. On the Demos side, to which Rep Weiner has been a long-time (ahem) member, we have seen little but confusion and deer-in-headlights indecision, which has been followed recently by a distinct and inhumane move toward cutting losses by tossing Weiner onto the nearest convenient trash heap. That's something we'd expect from the Palinites, not the Pelosians.

My take on the whole sordid affair?

Simple:

A. The man's an idiot, albeit an understandably human one. He is weak-willed and easily succumbs to frat-boy ideas of silly, stupid, and digusting 'fun', when he should be a sober-minded public servant. Andrew Weiner is essentially a congressional adjunct member of the 'Jackass' crew, absent the physically dangerous stunts (although we haven't seen all the emails and facebook stuff, so who knows?).

B. Our press are mostly idiots. They drop everything else of importance to cover a story that only affects the majority of us in the most peripheral of ways. And they hang on to it like it's as golden to the 4th Estate as Watergate once was. There's an element of pandering to the public's delight in watching someone powerful self-destruct, which is sad to see in play here. Feeding our guilty pleasures this way isn't in our best interest or the media's. It may bring short term viewership through titillation, but it will reap long-term self-disgust and a backlash towards the press.

C. Sadly, our elected representatives are a pretty idiotic bunch too. All of them, not just Mr. Weiner. The course of action should be obvious, but doesn't seem to register: whether the representative should be censured or should resign is a matter between Mr Weiner and his wife, his constituents, the congressional ethics committee, and the criminal justice system. If the representative is found to have committed a felony he should resign (even before conviction, in my opinion). If his constituents decide he's too idiotic or too bold (or bad) a liar to represent them, then he will be recalled or voted out at the next election. If the House Ethics committee finds against him, he should be censured. Everything else is a personal matter for Mr Weiner and something neither we, the press, nor his fellow congressionals should be following. We all have better things to do, don't we?

At least those of us who watch The Daily Show and The Colbert Report got something out of this mess to soften our depression over it all. Jon Stewart and Colbert did a remarkable job of turning the satiric mirror on the press, our leaders, and on us, letting us laugh a bit at ourselves to keep from crying or breaking down, or dropping into a nihilistic funk.

We witnessed Jon Stewart visibly struggling with commitment to his viewers in the face of his admitted friendship with Mr. Weiner. Whether you feel he did well in that struggle or failed will largely be subjective, but the struggle itself was refreshingly non-cynical.

Which is a good thing, helping offset the rock hard cynicism with which most of us view Congress - and the Press.

Memorial Day 2011

2011-05-27T10:43:00.000-07:00

We've come once again to that part of the year where we pause to remember those who have served and died in America's wars; from the birth of our nation in the Revolution, through the darkest days of the Civil War; from the unimaginable destruction of the World Wars of the 20th century, through the 'police actions', humanitarian interventions, and 'regime change' which still take our young men and women in the 21st.

When we visit the graves this weekend, in person or in thought, let us also remember the many millions of non-combatants who also died in armed conflicts. They were, and still are, the 'collateral damage' of war, and victims to the hunger and disease that are so often war's companions. Their graves may not be marked by rows of white crosses on some hallowed field, or even marked at all, but their lives were just as forfeit and deserving of memorial.

This year, I would ask us to remember also the journalists and human rights champions, who observe and report our wars, and too often give their lives so we may know the truth.

Farewell and Rest In Peace to Tim Hetherington, photojournalist and filmmaker, who was killed this year in Libya. To his family and close friends he will be dearly missed. Those of us who had the privilege to know him, if only briefly, were impressed by his dedication, talent, and good nature, and we share your grief.

May we all have good memories, if bittersweet, this weekend, and return resolved to make real the day when war is no more.

Newt and Arnold at The End of The World

2011-05-21T13:05:00.000-07:00

There are sometimes synergies between world events which enliven the news. And better still, there may be ironies included that lighten the otherwise heavy dudgeon - so viewers won't be bored or can skip their Zoloft. I think the week or so just past has been one of those times.

First we had the news explaining the split between Maria and Arnold; that is, we heard about Arnold's affair with his housekeeper and the 'love-child' he had with her. This was another of those fun moments when we realize that the tabloids and our paranoia can combine to be right about someone. Remember way back when Arnold was running for governor? Those stories about his groping and being generally a pig around women? They (and our gleeful gossipy hopes) were right!

And where had we seen this sort of thing before? Remember when Bill Clinton was first running for President? Remember those stories of his illicit liaisons, and the threats and bribes to keep the ladies quiet? Fast forward to Monica Lewinski and her dress: we were right!

Of course, in neither case did the rumors (or reality) cause them serious problems in their candidacies, and when we found out the truth, they were already out of office (more or less). Lucky. But not everyone is so fortunate. Take Newt Gingrich, for instance.

Mr. Gingrich is a notorious womanizer, according to the press (and the man himself). But, just as we witnessed with the two gents above, that kind of personality issue wouldn't, couldn't, hurt his candidacy. We just would never find out the worst until after he's ruled the world and retired.

No, Mr. G has been deliciously brought down, it seems, and herein lies the lovely irony, by giving a thoughtful, honest, opinion. Not a character flaw at all, unless you happen to be a power-broker in the republican party machine, or a Tea-Party fantasist. Then it seems, honesty is the flaw trumping all others.

When Newt was asked in a TV interview, what he thought of republican Paul Ryan's draconian budget plans for Medicare, he answered (and I paraphrase) that he didn't believe social engineering from either the left or the right was the proper duty of the legislature.

As Jon Stewart said on the daily show, that was a perfectly middle-of-the-road statement for a centrist republican - if only those people existed today. Newt forgot for a moment that his backers are fundamentalist in thought and fervent in their desire to dismantle government, i.e., to engineer social change as they see fit.

Now, there may be some doubt whether Mr. Gingrich really meant what he said, or was just trying to be noncommittal, as most serious politicians learn to be in the run-up to an election. It doesn't really matter, because in the eyes of his backers, he's a traitor.

So it looks to be the end of Newt's comeback from political exile to party favorite. At least he may not have to wallow in defeat for long. According to some people, the world will be ending today, May 21, 2011. As I write this it is 1:30 pm in Los Angeles, and the world is still here, but the day isn't over yet. Newt may yet be spared the long, painful journey into another exile.

What's happening to Arnold, and whether he'd welcome a remake of the End of Days I am not sure. But if he's trying to revive his movie career, he could do worse. Unless, of course, today is the End of Days, in which case ... he won't be back.

Life, as a Leaking Motorcycle

2011-05-20T14:48:00.000-07:00

Those of us who find our fun on motorcycles, riding briskly along twisty roads any given weekend (and every other day we can break free of the grind), can't imagine truly living life without the experience.

This comes as a shock to non-riders, who think we must be anti-social, suicidal, or demented. To them, the image of bikes racing through country curves only elicits images of sudden, gory death. Or maybe, even decades beyond Brando's 'The Wild Ones' and the Angel's Mayhem at Altamont, the image raises fears of beer-bellied, hairy, alcoholics wielding knives and pool cues and pillaging villages. That's not who we riders are, although we perhaps relish the risk-taking, dangerous aura the image grants us from time to time.

Even so, non-riders who dismiss us and our hobby as Huns on Iron Horses are missing other life lessons motorcycling can teach, like persistence and infinite, Zen-like patience. Outside of farming or perhaps being Prince Charles, nothing else teaches those virtues quite as well as caring for your ride.

Take a modern-era Triumph Bonneville for example. Unlike its ancient brethren (up to 1976 or so), this bike doesn't leak fluids as a normal mode of operation. It is thoroughly new millennium in its oil tightness. So when this paragon of petroleum retention begins to ooze the precious stuff out from where it belongs to where it most definitely does not belong, like hot exhaust headers or rear tires, action by the owner must commence forthwith:

You begin by dismounting the smoking machine and walking around it, as if you can stare the problem away. Then you ride it some more in case the problem was a figment of your imagination. (Did I not mention the other life lessons, hopefulness and self-delusion?).

When the smoking inevitably returns you ride home, park the bike, and walk around it some more looking for the leak. When, after an hour or so, you see one single drop of oil on the pavement, you simultaneously rejoice (Aha!) and despair (Oh, No!). Composure recovered, you ride over to your most trusted mechanic and point and whine until he agrees to work on the problem right away (lesson: the art of effective persuasion).

As you wait anxiously at his side, your trusty Wrench decides that tightening all of the case bolts that were loose (even modern Trumpets vibrate a little) will do the trick. After running the engine until it's hot enough to sublimate lead, no leak appears and you are released to run free (after a modest fee). Twenty miles later, and the smoking reappears (double lesson: you get what you pay for, and life's a bitch).

You park the bike in your garage and make plans for further leak detection and redaction, beginning as soon as you can bear to face it, like the next free weekend in June - this being May (lesson: time management).

Meanwhile, you mount your other bike - your sole remaining fully-functional two-wheeled steed, a Ducati, and roar up the canyons, carefree and feeling very Zen, contemplating the delicious irony of such a famously maintenance-intensive Italian being your reliable ride.

And that's the final and best lesson motorcycling, in the form of a leaking Triumph, can teach you: always have a backup.

The Effects of Isolation on Osama bin Laden

2011-05-15T22:36:00.000-07:00

Aside from getting shot in the eye and dumped in the ocean, the isolated life chosen by Osama bin Laden had some downsides that were less fatal, but still a bummer.

I say, 'Chosen', but OBL can't be said to have actually picked a life of solitude and reclusion for himself. It was more a life choice imposed by predator drones and snitches out for a 25 mill reward. Then again, he could have opted out of the whole jihad thing and remained a pampered, rich-as-he-wanna-be member of the Saudi semi-royalty and avoided all the fuss. So, 'Chosen' it is.

And those downsides? Man, there seem to have been many. Take a look at that beard he had to maintain. Useful for dodging facial recognition programs in a country full of bearded villains, but it had to be itchy as all get-out.

And those long hours of boredom with only his close confidants and a few wives to keep him company? Hardly entertainment enough for such a roguish blade and rugged outdoorsman. Plus, as a Muslim, he couldn't have a drink or three in compensation. Now that's isolation.

If only OBL had a friendly bar to frequent; his own local 'Cheers' to hang out and swap a few stories, and vent. About how his wives were driving him crazy; Or how he'd like to grab Al Zawahiri by the ears and bang his face in the table a few times to teach him some civility (always best to lead by example). Or how much money Pakistani protection was costing him - he couldn't afford another wife with what those crooks left him each month!

But, No. No Beers, No Cheers

Which must be the reason he turned to porn to take the pain off those lonely hours holed up in the lavish bunker that was his Abottabad Abode. For a guy who otherwise could have afforded to hole up in the penthouse suite at the Burj Khalifa with at least 72 'virgins', the porn and possibility a little Afghan poppy-based refreshment must have seemed a sad, but necessary alternative. Better than eeny-meeny-moeing among the wives for the trillionth time, or watching paint dry.

So when we remember the feared and hated Osama bin Laden, let's try not to remember him as the masturbatory, possibly opium-addled, and surely hen-pecked wreck that got tanked by Flying Seals; let's remember him instead as the Osama that might have been if he'd only avoided that Afghan vacation in 1980: debonair, dashing, degenerate millionaire of the desert; humping his way through all the 'virgins' the white slavery market could provide, but otherwise harming not a fly ... (Nah, the Masturbatory Wreck is the better image; Hollywood's gonna make hay with it for sure)

Bath Time

2011-05-14T12:18:00.000-07:00

A hot bath on a cool day can be philosophically dangerous ...

The porcelain, mere inches from the steamy water, was cool to the touch. I dipped cupped hands and splashed my face, then watched my fingers as the warmth left them through the evaporating water.

A thought pushed its way in: that we constantly fight for light and warmth in contrast to the cold and dark. That this contest is what defines us. Warmth is generated, but the generation has limits and is ephemeral. The cold everywhere waits to take the heat away and dilute it; separate it from us.

Can this struggle change our impression of the world? We fear snakes and sharks, and other life we perceive as cold-blooded, more than we fear far deadlier, but warmer creatures like tigers and bears. Perhaps the idea of being lost to cold predators is scarier than the idea of dying itself; as if the act would be doubly cold; more permanently, hopelessly, fatal.

It's true we love the feel of fresh, cold air; brisk inhalations that energize. But that is only with brief exposure, and from a place of secure warmth; offer us nothing but cold air to breath forever and watch us run away. We need fires to look out from, to return to; for their sheltering heat.

Perhaps change is a kind of perceived coldness too. It may be welcome in small, bracing, energizing doses, but feared when it threatens to tear down entirely our shelters from the cold. Add a room extension on a house in midwinter and you can embrace the change, warm in your existing rooms; tear down the house to rebuild everything and you are left exposed.

Familiarity is warmth and security; we tend to accept change only slowly and carefully - unless everything is taken away; unless nothing familiar remains. Then we may embrace the cold. Then change becomes the only thing.

The next time you are in a bath, reach out and touch the porcelain or ceramic or metal near you, and reflect on how the difference between that coolness and the heat of the water mirrors the Change in your life, or your fight against it.

Poetry Break: Mitt's In a Pickle

2011-05-13T16:36:00.000-07:00

There once was a politician named Mitt,

Who gave his Party a Fit,

Over Health Care he championed,

And Health Care he opposed ...

"Too Alike" said his fellows;

"No, they are different", said Mitt; dignified; composed.

But none could really tell,

If RomneyCare was or wasn't ObamaCare; To most, a rose was a rose was a rose, thorns included.

Meanwhile, across the aisle, smiles broadened. "Our foes have a dilemma, and on its horns they will be stuck"

"Mitt's in a Pickle, and the rest have no ideas, plans, or pluck"

But Romney rolls on, determined to win;

Good thing we Demos can always remind folks he's Mormon, again ...

Jobs for Everyone

2011-05-12T06:13:00.000-07:00

Traveling abroad as I have been recently, combined with reading as many of the news blurbs on jobs and the economy (foreign and domestic) as possible, has given me a new perspective on the Future of Jobs in America.

And it's hopeful ... but with a pretty big 'Gotcha'

The World will need us to Work - there is simply no way as large and capable a workforce as in the US can be idle without hurting the World Economy.

US workers are innovators: whether it's to make our jobs easier, or to make more money, or both, we tend to create new ways to do things rather than repeat the same process over and over. This can increase productivity which means we are valuable.

We Live to Work. Not all of us, thankfully, since that would be boring, but American culture is still immersed in Work-as-Identity-as-Life. This keeps us working all the time - not always efficiently, but all the time, and that can boost productivity, which makes boardroom work metrics presentations look good.

So American Workers will still be needed ...

But here's that Gotcha. Actually there are three:

(1) Our schools may not be capable of producing enough well-rounded, capable people equipped to be flexible in the future workplace. And flexibility will be required.

(2) There may not be enough jobs available for every willing US worker. And worse, there may not be a viable support system for those who want to work, but can't find employment (and yes, I do mean even less viable than we have now ... )

and;

(3) The jobs we do get may be harmonized over a global economy, and may not support our accustomed standard of living. (There are good aspects to this, though. Think about it.)

The Future of Jobs in America is both bright and stark. Bright because there will be a need for us in the Global Economy; stark because there won't be Jobs for Everyone, and the employed will be judged and compensated on a balanced world scale, with all the changes that implies.

Good Luck to Us All

Binned Laden

2011-05-04T02:16:00.000-07:00

Monday morning in Bangkok, the English-language version of 'The Nation' shouted the news '...World on Alert', which got my attention immediately. It only took a few moments more for the wheels to crank until I recognized why the World was so alerted - Osama bin Laden had been killed by US forces inside Pakistan. Way inside Pakistan. Killed. And his body dumped at sea. After Muslim funeral rites.

My faculties could barely stand the wave of contradictory emotions and thoughts crashing around in my noggin.

Like most people around the World, I am happy the man is no longer the leader of a deadly terrorist organization. I am also not broken up that he was killed rather than captured. But a part of me is a bit ashamed at our Country for implementing a national policy of assassination. Watching throngs of gleeful celebrators on the news later only added to the uneasiness.

Should we be celebrating anyone's death - even bin Laden's? If his death was necessary, so be it, but why make a Holiday of it? And apart from the questionable morality of the celebration, I am also leery of the precedent this may set for the future. Licensed national hit squads anyone? (OK, I hear some of you whispering this is already the case, but I'm talking overt here, not James Bond stuff). This smacks of cartel behavior, not that of a democratically elected government.

But the deed has been done, and there are many who have good reason to be happy bin Laden is no more. President Obama is happy. This will lift his credibility with the hawks ahead of the election, and more importantly, make him look like he's won something to the general public. (A feeling of 'winning' is definitely lacking in Afghanistan). I'm not too sure George W. Bush is happy; he says he is, but there must be some regret that it didn't happen on his watch. Not that he appeared to try that hard. (The bin Laden family was close with the Bushes, before 9/11 at least)

And now, just as with Saddam Hussein, bin Laden the evil terrorist will fade to vague memory (more so, since he's been hidden for so long already). But the problems of Al Qaeda and terrorism in general will persist.

And we've opened another can of worms too: what to do about our 'ally' Pakistan? Certainly someone in that country harbored bin Laden, right?

I am inclined to forgive on this issue. Pakistan is not a small country, and there are lots of factions with complicated loyalties. America has many partners within this fractious cultural soup, but enemies too. Determining who you can trust with really crucial information is difficult, but so is assigning blame. It appears the Obama administration is trying to strike the appropriate stance by shutting out the Pakistani's before and during the mission, while publicly lauding their assistance over the years with intelligence that made the assault possible. Media scrutiny is turning this stance into more of a high-wire walk over the Grand Canyon, but I admire the administration for trying it.

And we did send bin Laden off with some ceremony: a Muslim funeral at sea. Odd that we'd shoot him dead (unarmed the reports say) yet respect his religious beliefs. The burial at sea, we are told, was needed to honor the muslim requirement that the dead be buried within 24 hours. Honorable, then, what we did.

Convenient too, though, and that self-servingness takes a smidge off the honor. The actions also feed into conspiracy theories; like one that bin Laden is really alive and in custody, renditioned to some godforsaken part of the world like Newark, or Bakersfield. Being forced to listen to Lady Gaga and watch 'Married with Children' reruns until he spills his guts on every connection Al Qaeda has ever had. After all, why would you kill bin Laden when you could force him to betray every terrorist cell in his network?

But never mind any of that, our great nemesis is gone (it appears). Will the national angst return to pre-9/11 levels? Will the eternal orange terrorism alert drop to yellow, or even green? Will regular airport irradiation no longer be necessary?

I surely hope so ...

Bye-Bye bin Laden. Good Riddance to a nasty little human black hole.

Bangkok Dangerous

2011-04-30T22:56:00.000-07:00

Borrowing a title from the less successful remake of what (I hear) was a good film may seem desperate, and it is.

I just couldn't come up with anything better to describe this sprawling, vibrant, discordant city.

Bangkok is dangerous, but not for fear of personal harm - at least no more so than Mexico City, or Los Angeles even. This alternate City of Angels is dangerous by the way it changes your view on the World. It's dangerous by virtue of forcing you to experience the gulf between wealth and poverty prevalent in this part of the globe. It's the same gulf that exists in the US and Europe, but it is stealthier in those places. Here in Bangkok it's right upon you and unmissable.

Visiting Bangkok, and more especially if you venture outside the city to other regions of Thailand, you realize how central this land and it's people are to the Asian economy. And we all know by now just how important the Asian economy is to 'western' countries.

But even more than economic impact, Bangkok looks and feels like a cultural nexus; a place where problems will be met and solved, if they are to be solved at all.

And that is why this city is 'dangerous'. If events go wrong here there will be repercussions across the region, and perhaps the World.

Phonely

2011-04-18T21:21:00.000-07:00

Since the dawn of the new electronics-as-umbilical age, I have only been SWAP (Stuck Without A Phone) once. I left my mobile phone in my car at the Catalina Express dock in Long Beach and had to spend a weekend in Avalon incommunicado.

Tried to use a pay phone lately? Good Luck finding a working example.

Today my daughter called to tell me she'd left her cell phone in our car when I dropped her off at the airport. She'll be spending the next two days SWAP, and Phonely.

For those of you out there old enough to remember living the 80's as grown-ups (or at least as fully-fledged teenagers), you can appreciate both the despair and the risibility of being Phonely. Our modern model of constant communication provides a reassuring sense of safety and connectedness, so when it fails we feel more acutely alone than we ever would have felt in the 80's pre-cellular World, where disconnection was the norm and as a result not scary.

Just like, as children, we once could spend an entire summer's day playing on our own, or with kids our age, without our parents getting alarmed (until you missed dinner), we once could spend hours a day without even thinking about phones; without feeling compelled to call, or be called.

Now, with mobile phones as the crutch without which we can barely function, the loss of connectivity is as keenly felt as being stranded on a desolate highway with a broken car. More so, since if our car broke we could always use the mobile to call for help.

In a very real sense, life here is emulating art: in our cellular mobile hyper-connected World, we are becoming hive mind Borg, requiring the constant contact of other minds; abhorring the independence of even transient solitude.

And Phoneliness is the result when connectivity fails ...

(So DON'T forget and leave your phone in the car!)

Oh, Mexico

2011-04-15T20:59:00.000-07:00

Leaving my hotel, located cheek by jowl to the US Embassy, I jumped in the waiting black SUV and rolled into some of the worst traffic it's possible to experience outside of Moscow, Rome, or Sunset Blvd in Beverly Hills at 5 on a Thursday.

As my driver inched (millimetered?) us along the Place de Reforma and onwards to our ultimate destination, my mind wandered (as it will when it has an hour of forced inactivity to kill): what would it be like to live in this city? How much does one of those nice three-story townhouses in the Palanco cost? What? Too much! What about something cheap in the suburbs? A shack near the waste dump? Renting?

It's not like I'm planning to become an expat in Mexico. After all, the only Spanish I know is what's on the menu at El Torito. It's just I can't help wondering what it's like to live in places I visit.

And the sheer size and importance of Mexico City makes that wondering more intense. After all, what the Cuidad is today, Los Angeles might be tomorrow. Actually, chunks of LA are already like Mexico City, absent the beheaded corpses and interesting architecture.

Strike that next to last comment. There were no headless victims in MC. That carnage is further north, or further south, or somewhere other than the capital. It's hard to imagine anyone getting enough privacy to behead someone in Mexico City.

But the architecture is interesting. Mostly because I couldn't believe any of it was still standing is such an active earthquake zone. There it was, however, either putting the lie to the idea that 17th century building techniques were inefficient, or testifying to the patching power of cheap cement and a little stucco.

But I digress. My driver got me to my destination. I worked - in a tough situation - with some of the nicest people I have ever met, and then I was safely deposited back to my hotel.

And as I slept a sleep that only comes after eating not wisely but too well in Mexico City, I could only dream of a bright and hopeful future for that messy but easy-to-love metropolis.

And to it's inhabitants I wish good water pressure, safe commutes, freedom from corruption and gangs, and an endless supply of Zantac.

Radioactive

2011-04-05T22:27:00.000-07:00

When will I stop worrying and learn to love being ... radioactive?

Will listening to The Firm's 1980's hit by that name calm my shattered nerves?

Will cookies with a glass of iodine 131 laced milk?

If you have been tuned into the horror show that is the Fukushima Dia-ichi nuclear plant disaster, you may wonder how I can voice concern from 5000 miles away, given the far more dangerous levels of radiation exposure local to the plant. What we are getting here in California is barely noticeable in comparison, right?

Well, maybe so, but it's not my nuclear plant. Neither I nor any other of the 39 million (or so) Californians, and the millions more in Oregon, Washington, and the rest of Western North American (and Mexico), ever received a single watt of power from that facility. We got none of the good, so getting even a little of the bad is a galling proposition. And I'll bet the folks in Japan who DID receive plenty of benefit from the plant's power production still bristle at the contamination with which they now must contend.

You may well wonder if I've lost my reason, given the news releases claiming how low, low, low the levels in our Milk are. Even the Huffington Post got into the act with their rehash of the no-threat claims.

But I stand by my paranoia. In my totally non-scientific but logical assessment, even a little radiation in a form (e.g., iodine-131) that, when consumed, concentrates in a particular part of the body (thyroid), and sits there for up to 80 days frantically emitting a shower of DNA-shattering energetic particles (which might lead to cancer) is not desirable.

I wouldn't be afraid to take a bath in our contaminated milk, but drink it? No, not regularly anyway; except in coffee, which I like to believe has magical anti-radiation properties (don't disabuse me of this notion, please. I need the caffeine, and I like it with milk).

No, I won't regularly drink tainted milk other than in coffee, or the random amounts that may splash accidentally into my mouth while bathing in it - not until Dia-ichi is safely contained and the radioactive clouds stop drifting our way.

Hurry The Day ...

Poetry Break: Do-Over

2011-04-04T21:49:00.000-07:00

The Prez is out to Run Again

In 2012

For Hope and Change

(but we hope not the Mayan world-ending kind of change ...)

We praise his choice but fear it too,

since we are having some trouble with trust.

Will Obama version 2 be continuation and completion,

Do-Over, or Bust?

And if the Tweets, Pokes, Likes, and Viral Vids don't carry the day;

If Mr Obama must go away

We will miss his genial grin and earnest look;

His thoughtful mind; his open (check)book

We will miss his naive belief that change can be willed,

or if not, then bought and later billed

Will Obama version 2 be continuation and completion,

Do-Over, or Bust? (It seems a choice between dirt and dust)

Can Republicans do any better?

Not if they drink Tea at their Party

Are there Democratic competitors who may arise?

No, none visible (yet) to human eyes

So I guess we must hope to see

A Re-Do, Done Completely

Go, Go, Mr Obama, version 2

We may be tired, depressed and more than a bit disappointed, but we'll (probably) still vote for You.

Sad Guitar

2011-03-30T23:03:00.000-07:00

I have a friend I see only rarely. But that's not a bad thing, since the friend I'm talking about is a guitar, and I only visit this friend when I am anxious or sad.

I used to have ambitions to play music, but those quickly subsided to using guitar as a form of therapy - some (my wife and many previous roommates) might call it obsessive-compulsive noodling, but it's therapy to me. And when it comes to bringing me out of a funk, my guitar is an effective friend.

I said I've only seen my guitar rarely, and that's true. It's been mostly sitting in a closet, because I've mostly been happy.

It has been used though:

It came out and helped me on 9/11. I strummed it from time to time when GWB's government started some 'war' somewhere; and I held it during thankfully infrequent, if terrible, natural disasters. It also helped when the 'recession' swept away most of my retirement. (I think my fingers, absent the calluses of persistent players, bled on that one.)

But lately I find myself picking it up at least weekly, and not out of some resurgence of juvenile rock dreams. The progress (or lack of same, I guess) with the 'war' in Afghanistan, and now the new 'war' in Libya; the Japanese Quaketsunamimeltdown; and a death in the family.

And there's general anxiety too. I am not sure why I feel it, when there is so much specific to be anxious about, but I am feeling a nonspecific unease that won't let up. Maybe it's a side effect of the failure of Hope - once promised but increasingly unlikely to be delivered by President Obama.

But perhaps not. It might be that I am getting older and not feeling any wiser. Or worse, that I feel there is a decrease in wisdom in the World in general, and there is nothing I can do about it.

Except play my guitar ...

War on War

2011-03-19T17:57:00.000-07:00

Now, the politicos and the press aren't calling what we just started in Libya a 'war'. At least not yet.

And it's not a solo effort. It seems we found a couple of allies this time around, both eager to go at it. And we have the 'backing' of 'Arab nations'.

And I do believe He-Who's-Name-Is-Spelled-A-Thousand-Ways is a despot, a tyrant, a dictator, and as many other synonyms for autocratic madman as you can muster. He's also a self-proclaimed sponsor of terror, and a complete nutcase.

But I am stumped at what 'international law' (as claimed by Mrs. Clinton), Mr. Ghaddafi has violated (in the current situation). He's broken a million moral and ethical beliefs, but what law has he violated? Is what he is attempting genocide? What's the test for that?

At what point does a dictator's suppression of internal rebellion become something other countries have to stop? Why do we go and get him now, but not before when he blew up our people over Lockerbee? Why not back when we tried to assassinate him? Why this time and this moment?

I guess the answer is written somewhere in that 'international law', and our strategists must have puzzled through the labyrinthine wording to come to their conclusion.

Or maybe they are just stepping in to keep the oil flowing?

To the Libyans in the middle of all this, the reasons ultimately won't matter. In the end we will either have given them 'freedom', or we will have killed many of them with kindness, much like we have the Iraqis, Afghans, and Pakistanis. They will either end up saying 'Thanks (now please leave)", or "Thanks for nothing (and wait till we come and get you)".

To us (if not our allies), this will come as no surprise. It'll be business as usual. But I fear the broader implications.

I fear we may have entered an ironic phase in the War on Things game. In years past we have declared War on things broad, nebulous, and multi-faceted, like Poverty, Cancer, and Terror. Now we may have declared War on 'War'. What the heck - they fight fire with fire, right? And what did Ghandi know anyway - his act was so 1940's.

I'm not going to lose any sleep worrying over it, what happens happens. And it will be interesting to see who or what replaces the Old Crazy Bedouin. I just wish whoever is really running this world would put a consistent act together.

The History of Punishment: The 1600s

2011-03-13T19:47:00.002-07:00

I wonder: in the 1600s, if you were placed in a device (frequently depicted in movies and therein called a 'stock'), that locked your arms and head in place holding you captive for active public abuse and shaming; would that have been called getting 'stocked'?

If so, would a repeat offender be 're-stocked', and was there a re-stocking fee?

The Unbelievable

2011-03-13T19:47:00.001-07:00

I see it on television, and I trust what I see is not CGI, nor old footage edited to look current, but real images of a very tangible catastrophe.

But I am having great difficulty believing in what I am seeing.

For reasons I can't fully fathom, I was able to accept the 2004 Indonesian quake and tsunami as fact in a way I can't yet with Japan's horror. The same ease of acceptance was true with Haiti's nightmare. 'Connecting' with the cruel reality of those earlier disasters and empathizing with the victims came quickly, but I am struggling to believe this new one.

Maybe it's that Japan is so connected with my daily life: my wife drives her Toyota; I ride my Kawasaki; we spool up the Sony Blu-Ray for entertainment. Perhaps I'll strum my made-in-Japan Fender Telecaster, or dust off the Yamaha upright that's been lonely since the kids abandoned their lessons.

Maybe I'll tune in to the motorcycle races to see if Suzuki has anything competitive this year. Or perhaps I'll look again at the Japanese art my wife's cousin creates so well after years of study in Japan.

Japan and things Japanese permeate our lives. We are They, and They are Us. A culture apart yet entwined irrevocably. Their disaster is ours in a way that feels surreal.

But perhaps when I can bear to examine it closely, I'll find the reason I fear to absorb this reality is that I don't want to feel the anguish of empathy. What has happened in Japan is so real I want it not to be real. How else could I pull up behind a Honda in traffic and not cry?

Practicing Democracy

2011-03-10T20:33:00.000-08:00

All learned skills need regular practice to maintain. Skills we've never truly learned require a lot more.

In California's recent election, only 12% of the registered 'voters' practiced voting, which may make them rusty for the next opportunity - one they might deem more interesting.

Up in Wisconsin, the Governor is practicing his particular form of democracy, where anything goes if it leads to winning. And the Wisconsonian Democrats played their hand by leaving the table and getting locked outside when they needed to be inside. Despite their bureaucratic waltz, neither team seemed very practiced at real democracy, and their ineptitude will cause great grief for Wisconsonites.

And elsewhere, a committee has formed to investigate the radicalization of American muslims. The leader of this team says this investigation is critical to the safety of Americans, but has any Congressional committee ever accomplished anything of value, aside from being a showcase for pet and very polarizing political views? Or as a launchpad for a political career?

All of this is just to hopefully make clear we need more (and better) practice in exercising the responsibilities of citizenship. It's needed at every level, but it starts with the polling place, and that means Us.

Sorry, Charlie

2011-02-27T17:51:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it's hard to understand our favorite celebrities' behavior. Especially when there seems to be a big chunk of ingratitude flavoring it.

[Celebrity Ingrates - coming soon from TLC ?]

And it is challenging for us work-a-day folks to fathom why someone like Charlie Sheen would rock the golden canoe so long and hard.

But then, humans are capable of seeing injustice aimed at them in just about any situation. We are almost as good at that as aiming injustice.

Basically, in life but particularly show business life, being screwed is in the eye of the screwee.

In the strange case of Charlie Sheen versus Chuck Lorre and the powers-that-be at CBS, Mr Sheen definitely feels screwed. But I imagine that Mr. Lorre feels a bit used as well. What the higher-ups at the network feel I don't know, but I'll wager it's less like feeling ill-used, and more like confusion between gratitude for publicity and concern over that same publicity.

Those of us who have lived our lives glued to one TV set or another, in a real-life version of 'Dream On', know or can sense that these sorts of dust-ups between stars and producers may be a put-on. Then again, we've seen them be quite real.

If this very public conflict is real, then I must say that Charlie Sheen is wrong - sorrowfully, miserably wrong.

Chuck Lorre's mild zings at Mr. Sheen in his 'vanity cards' are funny, but not mean. They play to the irony of Sheen's real life behavior mirroring (and outdoing) the bad behavior of his character in Two and a Half Men - Charlie Harper. As for Charlie saying he's turned Lorre's work into Gold solely on his own efforts, well, he's forgetting that Jon Cryer is the funny one - the Lewis to Sheen's Martin, and without that dynamic the show would be lessened. The other members of the long-time supporting cast are important too.

It's an ensemble effort, Charlie, not a star turn. The show would not have succeeded without you, true, but it wouldn't have without Cryer (at least) either.

And try not to forget that Chuck Lorre made it all possible. The show is his creation. He gave you a career-saving opportunity, and until now you've made the most of it.

Now, it may be your problems with addiction(s) that are fueling your recent behavior, and if so I hope you find the help you need before your career completely tanks. After all, you can't count on repeating Robert Downey Jr's return from the abyss.

The Mouse That Stuttered

2011-02-27T12:33:00.000-08:00

Two blind mice and one that stuttered

Chased around the kitchen by an old lady with a carving knife

The stutterer saw the danger, but couldn't squeak out an intelligible warning to his blind companions

Two missing tails and a broken trio later, and what might we know:

Only that,

In a World of Angry Farmer's Wives with sharp knives, It's better to be a stuttering mouse than a blind one,

- and -

If you are a blind criminal mouse, don't choose a stutterer as your lookout ...

Well, OK, but what would a stuttering mouse sound like?

That happens to be a principal problem for researchers who have bred mice to stutter, according to an article in The Economist ('Speech Therapy', Jan 26, 2011).

It seems that scientists have discovered what they presume to be a genetic basis for stuttering. To test that theory, they have spliced the suspect gene into mouse DNA. Trouble is, no one knows what a stuttering mouse sounds like. The researchers, though, are sure they can use modern speech recognition software to work out the problem.

If so, there will be new hope for murine stutterers everywhere (and the blind mice who befriend them). Oh, and people who stutter may find some relief too.

No Bubbles

2011-02-17T22:28:00.000-08:00

This evening, in a fated-to-fail attempt at rescuing a botched birthday celebration, I picked up take-out food at a local eatery, a favorite of the disappointed celebree.

It just happens the restaurant lies in the same mini-mall as does a forlorn reminder of my financial gullibility. In particular an empty SCUBA dive shop, with PADI signs still in the windows.

This shop was once the pride and joy of the now former husband of a family friend. A realization of his dream. My wife and I were moved to help by providing an early investment, a seed as it were from which the business flowered.

Our friend ran his Dive Shop for nearly four years, with ups and downs, but always with one happy idea in mind- to teach as many people as he could to 'blow bubbles' with the fishes and enjoy a small piece of the 70% of mother earth we landlocked beings never see. I joined in the spirit and learned to Dive, and spent many happy hours reliving a childhood dream of being Mike Nelson in 'Sea Hunt', only without the sparring with undersea villains complication. But nothing that good lasts unchanged forever.

For several reasons, but not least the burst economic Bubble of 2008, the shop died a sudden death, leaving a hole in the tight-knit dive community, scattering the shop's own clan of divers, and ending a marriage.

The Dive Shop has remained empty since July of 2008, even located as it is on a busy section of a major thoroughfare. The two shops on either side of it are now empty too.

I still 'blow bubbles' but not nearly as often, and from what I've heard, the former owner of the shop, a serious, professional diver, hasn't been under much either. But that's the way of disappointments, they can sour things for you if you let them. And it's hard not to let them.

I imagine right now in America there are quite a few people nursing disappointments. Not all of them will have a painful reminder like an empty shop, although some might have worse. I hope not.

And I hope anyone who is disappointed on their birthday has a better time next year.

Driving Past Money

2011-02-16T20:58:00.000-08:00

In a world where not enough of us have enough money enough of the time, I get to drive by vast quantities of it every day.

You see, my commute takes me through Beverly Hills, twice a day. And if there is anything in Beverly Hills aside from a palpable sense of self-satisfaction, there is money. Which may explain the satisfaction.

Houses? Beverly Hills sports some truly fine houses. Actually, they aren't houses, they're HOUSES. A modest dwelling in BH represents a died-and-gone-to-heaven dream home for the rest of humanity. (Except those hobbit-cottage things - those are Mordorian nightmares)

Cars? Try Maseratis. And I always seem to be stuck in traffic behind one AMG Mercedes or another. Simply put, I've been cut off in traffic by vehicles worth more than my house (at least more than what it's worth now).

I'd add that Beverly Hillians deck themselves out in expensive finery, but I haven't seen many of them - outside their cars anyway. I assume there are nicely dressed people inside those HOUSES, but all I've ever seen are a few joggers (who may have jogged in from less toney Los Angeles proper) and yard trimmers who I am almost certain don't live there.

Now, before you draw the wrong conclusion, let me say that I truly admire the residents of Beverly Hills. Their streets are perfectly paved and uncannily clean. Their yards are beautifully trimmed. At least a few of them (presumably) stay in decent shape by jogging, and they drive really nice cars.

But I am having a psychic struggle viewing all that stuff every day. Especially viewing it while listening to public radio descriptions of wars, poverty, and general unhappiness. It would probably be best if I lessened my BH exposure.

Too bad then, the shortcut through the residential part of BH is a must. I'd rather slit my wrists than struggle down Santa Monica Blvd in the morning rush ...

Rubic's Pyramid

2011-02-10T19:02:00.000-08:00

The crowds in the square were calling for democracy. Their leaders said they weren't ready for democracy. The crowds weren't moved by that argument, but their leaders were largely immovable too.

Now the military is in control.

Not really much different than before, only Hosni is on permanent vacation at his Red Sea resort of last resort.

And the rest of the World is waiting to see what shakes out. Will the 'new' Egypt turn against the status quo with respect to Israel? If so, will the end result be worse, or better, than the current stalemate? It's been a long time since 1967 and people can't remain refugees forever. Or can they?

Change in political systems wields the sharpest of two-edged swords. Cuts may come from unexpected directions. And democracy is a very sharp yet particularly unwieldy weapon.

Do those crowds in Cairo and Alexandria really know what they are asking for? Do they believe proclaiming democracy will immediately result in blissful freedom and lots of cash for everyone? These things may one day come from democracy but only through the successful running of an obstacle course many may be loath to run.

But all that is easy to say, living in a country where that obstacle course was run for us generations ago. Watching it happen, or try to happen, in the here and now and in a land never ruled for long by anything other than autocracy, will be something special to see.

With collective fingers figuratively crossed we all must observe the process and observe the prime directive. Let's avoid butting in if at all possible - forgetting for a moment that our military is closely 'advising' Egypt's, let's try not to impose outside wishes and let the Egyptians do what's best for Egyptians.

If they can run that course...

Lessons Unlearned

2011-01-28T08:30:00.001-08:00

I awoke this morning to a video news bit on Yahoo, remembering the Challenger Tragedy of 25 years ago.

The authors of this video considered the central problem behind the disaster - a disconnect between 'lower level' engineers and their managers, in which the engineers feared a problem with the integrity of critical O-rings in cold weather, but were not listened to by their supervisors - as a 'lesson learned'.

And the authors claimed the learned lesson lead to changes in NASA culture which made space travel safer for all that followed.

I guess the producers of the video weren't thinking about the much more recent burnup of the Shuttle Columbia on reentry, which resulted from damage from a foam strike at launch. Lower level engineers feared a problem then too, but were not listened to by their managers.

Lesson Learned? Only for a short time, then forgotten again - at the cost of more lives.

That may be human nature, or just NASA nature. Either way, we can expect the pattern to continue as memories of disaster fade, and flawed human nature working in a rigid power structure inflicts its damage.

Cubeland

2011-01-23T22:42:00.001-08:00

As a once-upon-a-time computer geek I am no stranger to the Cube - that open box of an 'office space' in which many of us spend our productive lives. I thought I'd left that behind me though, after first moving up to an office with a door and even a window, and then moving out to a consulting life where I worked from a cozy and well-lit home office.

But, ah, these are strange times of collapsed housing nest-eggs and blunted portfolios. Some of us have been driven back to the corporate world by these uncertain times - and we're damn glad to get the job, let me tell you. No bellyaching here.

Except for that cube-thing.

I feel I have reason to complain. A Cube gives me no privacy for the business calls I have to make, and no protection from all the conversation around me. No quiet for reading or concentration. And my job involves lots of both, plus writing. Much writing on subjects so dry it takes one cup of coffee per hour to stay awake. (Why are important business subjects so often boring to write about?).

Add in the distractions of Cubeland society and sometimes it's just too much ...

But ultimately complaints will get me nowhere. Cubeland is the rule and there are no exceptions to it. Cubelife is work life, and there's no avoiding it.

So I will just have to train myself to view a Cube as a sanctuary from the unemployment line, and a symbol of fruitful labor. Seeing the Cube as half-full, as it were. I can do it. Sure I can, because:

I am Dilbert and Dilbert is Me. All hail the pointy-haired Boss!

Dog Gone

2011-01-22T12:00:00.000-08:00

R.I.P. Angus (1993? to 2011)

Stray who came to us through fortunate circumstance.

Faithful protector of our home and children.

Scarer of mailmen and UPS deliverers (except for one, who brought you biscuits), but never a biter - ever.

Tolerant benefactor to the cats, and later the two younger dogs. You cleaned their ears like a mother.

Your last few years were hampered with blindness and arthritic hobbling, but you always loved to eat, sleep, and have a good brushing.

And then came the day when you couldn't get up. The episode passed and you had an 'Indian Summer' of remarkable recovery, but then it came again.

And now our family is down by one. A reminder of the ephemerality of life.

I wish your end was natural, but we couldn't watch you suffer. Saying goodbye at the Vet's was cruelly hard, and I was too much a coward to witness your leaving.

Forgive me, old Pal, for not taking that last walk with you as far as I could go. You are off the leash, forever.

Babbleocity 37: Interesting Times

2011-01-15T22:39:00.000-08:00

I recall that telling your enemies 'may you live in interesting times' is some sort of Chinese curse. If so, I kind of doubt the effectiveness - or selectivity, given we all seem to be living in 'interesting times'.

No matter, here are a few points of interest, for friends and enemies alike:

Interesting Debt - I knew the United States runs a deficit every year, but I had no idea the total debt had reached 14 TRILLION. Not that I know what that really means, beyond 14,000 billion - a number with a lot of zeros. Big, but if we can borrow about $10,000 for each person in China, we're covered. Oh wait, we already owe China a bundle. India, then?

Interesting Weather - Has anyone ever been colder during a global warming? And what's with all this rain in California and Australia, a couple of (usually) reliably dry places? There's no doubt our weather has been 'interesting', and a proper curse in the bargain. You certainly can't call a near 'Arkstorm' in California and deadly floods in Australia anything else ...

Interesting Politics - You can call it partisan, or non-productive, or just plain bullshit, but you can't call it boring. Americans used to be jealous of those marvelous cat-fights the British call parliamentary sessions, but no longer. With those redoubtable republicans replacing filibuster with bluster and making Congress one big 'Tea Party', we are set for entertaining politic-watching. Maybe C-SPAN will finally earn some money ...

So don't threaten your enemies with interesting times - they are already living them. But if any of your friends happen to be Chinese (or from India), ask if they can spare Uncle Sam $10,000.

Guns 'N Fears

2011-01-13T09:37:00.000-08:00

I was surprised by the uptick in handgun sales reported in the wake of the tragic shootings - by handgun - in Arizona.

I can only think of two reasons for this:

People bought handguns to protect themselves from other people with handguns.

- or -

People bought handguns in the fear that handgun sales would be restricted in the aftermath of the tragedy.

Neither of these 'reasons' makes much sense to the average, non handgun owning American. But I suspect both played a role in spurring the fearful and gun-loving amongst us into action.

In opposition to this sales trend, we heard renewed calls from some quarters of government and the media for more stringent gun control and restrictions.

This juxtaposition brings one fact into clear focus: many of us don't feel safe. That is a message we ignore at society's peril.

So, if you are among those who raced out and bought guns, I hope you feel a little safer. Safe enough to leave those shiny new guns at home locked in their cases, and not brought with you when shopping, waiting on line at the DMV, commuting in trying traffic, or attending sporting events.

Razing Arizona

2011-01-08T15:43:00.000-08:00

How can we process today's news of the shootings in Tucson that left at least 5 dead and 5 critically wounded, and included a federal judge and a member of congress among the victims?

Initial reports indicate this was the work of a lone, imminently disturbed gunman. A homegrown dissident or homicidal nutjob, as the case may be.

But I have to wonder whether the hypercharged recent politics of Arizona had a role to play in triggering this outrageous and disastrous outburst. When our leaders speak so ill of each other, when political stakes in one party's plans or another's are made to seem so high, and are infused with dire urgency, can we not expect this hateful climate to affect everyone? Especially those treading the borderline of sanity?

It remains to be seen how Arizona's leaders will respond to this, beyond immediate expressions of sympathy. My guess is it will be up to the leaders of the 112th Congress and President Obama to set a better example for us all, and hope the message spreads to every state. May they do their work well ...

Where TV Shows Go To Die

2011-01-07T00:27:00.000-08:00

T.G.I.F is definitely not in the vocabulary of any producer whose TV 'baby' airs on Friday nights.

Any show that gets 'a new date and time' that just happens to be a Friday is doomed. Kiss it Goodbye. End of Story.

And there's a good reason for this: most of the people who advertisers care about are out enjoying real life on Friday evenings. The only folks left are no-longer-youngsters who are either so low on energy that the mere thought of going out sends them shuffling to their recliners, or are so jaded the thought of going out sends them to the liquor cabinet for a G&T, or both. If you are 45 or over, you likely fit into one (or both) of these categories. If you are, and you don't, then you can kiss my reclining, G&T sedated ass.

And those of us who stay in on Fridays aren't on the most-wanted list for advertisers. So the shows that show on this hated evening get watched by people who aren't buying what they are selling, and the shows fade away.

Into this purgatory CBS has shoved 'CSI:New York'. It's a sad development for what had become my favorite CSI edition, but I can understand the reasoning. The show has been wobbling lately, and got a real punch to the chin when Melina Kanakaredes left the cast, to be replaced by Sela Ward, last seen on TV as Doctor House's unpleasant ex-wife. Kanakaredes, as Stella, was the perfect centerpiece for the other cast members. She could be tough and angry, and then be soft, sweet, caring, and sexy. Especially sexy.

It's hard to see Ward meeting that job description, but we'll never know, since she won't have time to develop the character. The move to Friday means goodbye. The only question will be whether the goodbye is long and reluctant, or "we're outta here". Given CSI:NY's popularity in syndication, my guess is the latter.

But that's not all, folks ...

Another show I happen to like has been shoved to the Friday exit ramp: Fringe. And this one is inexplicable. The show is hot. It ought to appeal to young and old alike. It's ludicrous but interesting, and has characters that alternately fascinate and irritate. Perfect entertainment, in other words.

So why Friday? My guess is this series came with a predetermined sell-by date. Some of the cast have bigger and better things waiting for them. Plus Fringe has a story arc, which the producers seem intent on winding to a conclusion. If so, I hope they are prepared to conclude soon, since on Friday's the ratings may drop too fast to allow them to finish.

I am struggling here to conclude with an example of a show that has succeeded on Friday nights. Best I can come up with is 'Friday Night Fights', both the new ESPN version and the old show from the late 50's sponsored by Gillette. Hmm, I know Olivia Dunham can take a punch; can Jo Danville?

Reasonable Men

2011-01-03T18:52:00.000-08:00

The current geologic ordering of the magazines deposited in our bathroom left me - in a critical moment of reading necessity, with no choice but to reach for the Vanity Fair.

This particular issue, graced by a suspiciously youthful Cher on the cover, contained a blow-by-blow account of the Conan vs Leno match sponsored last year by NBC.

An interesting read, but I was left with just one takeaway: 'O'Brien made the wrong decision for all the right reasons'. After all, he quit the most coveted seat in late night, mainly because, as the article made clear, he thought allowing NBC to move Tonight back 30 minutes in the schedule would cheapen the franchise.

If I was advising Conan I would have urged him to take the move and see what happened. My guess is the odds were 50/50 that Leno would crack and Conan would get back to 11:30. And if the result fell the other way, NBC would have owed O'Brien another shot in the future - especially if Conan worked that detail into his agreement to move to midnight.

In any case, O'Brien would have appeared a reasonable man who's been given an undeserved kick by the network, but who also remained loyal and willing to pitch in and help. Isn't that worth pushing a principle or two aside?

Of course that didn't happen, and Conan is now on 'Basic Cable'. I'm not sure how it's going for his new show, but the lack of 'buzz' in the press is worrisome. Maybe this scribble will perk things up ...

[But what do I know? See my take on this spat when it was fresh in the news ...]

Coincidentally, I recently viewed the documentary, 'Ralph Nader: An Unreasonable Man'. A very worthy flick which I can heartily recommend, whatever your view of the man. The movie, while giving a glowing review of Nader's early career, really focuses on his decision to run for President during the 2000 (and again in 2004) elections. A decision which many democrats believe led directly to Al Gore's defeat (and John Kerry's in '04), and consequently the election and retention of George W. Bush.

'An Unreasonable Man' was released in 2006, when the enormity of Bush's follies were becoming clear to most of America, including more than a few republicans. The increasing bitterness, which would lead in two years to the election of Barack Obama, was seemingly assuaged in the democratic heart and soul only by castigating Nader. It was almost as if the dems had seen Annakin turn into Vader, or more surprising and galling, Obi-Wan become a Dark Lord of The Sith. Feathers had been ruffled and they were still painfully out of place.

My takeaway from the movie was a paraphrase of the one for Conan: 'Ralph made a completely wrong decision, based on logically sound reasoning'.

Of course, anyone who has worked for a big company (even in entertainment) where corporate power politics are at the fore, or has toiled in politics long enough to show scars, should know you can be 100% Grade-A correct in all things and still be considered completely wrong.

What's surprising with both these men is they haven't learned this painful reality. Well, maybe they have now ...

The End of '10

2010-12-30T23:07:00.000-08:00

Sitting in the quiet late night at a downtown LA hotel, surrounded above and below by Rosy Bowlers getting their beauty sleep, I can't help but reflect on The End Of 2010.

Has there been another year in living memory that so spiked bad news with worse, and provided too few good omens to sooth a rattled psyche? Not in my memory, which still lives an active sort of life between uninformed youth and the fracturing of age.

Of course, as you contrarians out there will remind me, there were some good things in 2010. That is true, but I would reply that most were canceled by equal and opposite badness, like antimatter seeking out its matter clone.

You only need look at the economy for an example; when banks flourished again, and the stock market rose with corporate profits while jobs continued to disappear. Lack of gainful employment for far too many is the 800 pound antimatter Gorilla in the room, threatening to annihilate everything.

I've wracked my brain for something unequivocally positive to say about 2010. The best I can come up with is to note it was the year that scientists managed to create antihydrogen in the CERN Hadron collider, a long-desired feat. But whether that's positive or negative in the long run, depends on your perspective. For all of us made up of matter, it might not turn out so good ...

So, cherish your matter while it's intact and non-annihilated. And greet 2011 with hope and persistence.

Poetry Break: New York Riffs

2010-12-07T20:35:00.000-08:00

New York City, in December:

Is as cold as I care to be

Is an amazing mix of grime and majesty

Is civilized, with a metal core

Would be a bad place for a wealthy alcoholic

Leaking

2010-11-30T23:14:00.001-08:00

By now we've all heard about WikiLeaks, ad nauseum, but I feel the urge to comment. I know, I know, but I just can't help myself.

I can't see what all the fuss is about. From what's been discussed in the press, the information leaking is simply embarrassing to our diplomats, not damaging to national security. What one of our ambassadors thinks about Medvedev, or Berlusconi isn't that newsworthy. Nothing in the WikiLeaks pile released so far is anything like the 'Pentagon Papers', and certainly is not a diplomatic 9/11, as some beaurocrat in Spain ( I think) commented.

And the solution is simple, don't talk dirt about foreign dignitaries behind their backs if you are going to use vulnerable means to dish the dirt. Stick to verifiable facts in written communication (or cables - whatever that term means these days) and only speak opinion in face to face meetings, or via secure media. Haven't our state department folks heard of video chat over secure VPN connections?

We should use this WikiLeaks barrage as a wake-up to improve our security. Because you know if a former hacker like Julian Assange can dredge up these 'secrets', so can the intelligence operatives of other countries.

Lag Time

2010-11-30T09:00:00.000-08:00

Remember when you've seen a trailer for a movie that got you all excited to see the flick, only to read that bad news bit at the end: 'coming Summer 20XX', where 'XX' is at least a year away?

Now what if you saw that trailer nearly every time you entered a theater, until the thing was finally released? Are you even more excited to see it?

Ok, so suppose when this film is eventually released, it's shown first somewhere in the world where you are not. The reviews flood in. You do your best to avoid them. And you avoid listening to the opinions of your friends, who somehow saw the movie while traveling in Outer Wozbekistan, or somewhere.

Eventually, and inevitably, as the days drag by, you give in to curiosity and read. And listen. Within no time at all you've learned everything, good or bad, about the film, except (hopefully) the exact script lines.

And then the fateful day comes - the showing of the film in your local bijou. Still care to see it? Perhaps, you tell yourself, you'll just wait and catch it on DVD, or better still HBO / Cinemax / Showtime / Starz/ etc, when it will be free (or seem so).

So there it is: Lag Time is bad news for box office. Which, I guess, isn't a surprise to most people - although it escapes the grasp of some movie marketers, apparently.

But it occurs to me this statement applies to other fields as well. Motorcycles, for example.

It's not been uncommon for a manufacturer to announce a new model to the press a year (or more) in advance of release to the showrooms. Then release the model everywhere BUT in the US market for another year (or more).

During all that time prospective American buyers are inundated with review after review. Eventually, the motorcycle is released into our local showrooms and we can actually buy one. Trouble is, that bike will likely be parked next to other bikes that have just been released. Ones we've only heard about for a few months.

And, by this time, the press has largely quieted when it comes to that long-delayed bike, which, when first revealed was touted as THE bike to own. Now the reviewers are all jazzed about something else.

So, when the dealer tells you the long awaited bike costs as much (if not more) than the newer models, do you plunk down your cash? Or do you tell yourself to wait and catch it on the used market?

Lag Time is a killer ...

Doing Dishes

2010-11-28T10:26:00.000-08:00

In some respects I surf the curl of modern technology, in others I lag behind the wave's crest. And, I must admit, in a few others I am still on the beach.

An example of the latter is my family's failure to adopt automatic dishwashing technology that's been around, oh, since Eisenhower. We do the dishes the old (really old) fashioned way, by hand.

Now, I am sure that 90% of the people in the world do dishes by hand, some of them possibly trekking long distances to riverbanks and ponds for the task. At least I have hot and cold running water piped right into my house, a technology that dates to the Minoans of 1500 BC. So I am not totally behind the times.

But in the US of A, I expect my family is in a distinct minority, dishwashing-wise. So, every time there is a feast of significant proportions, like the Thanksgiving just past, there follows a dishwashing chore commensurate in scale.

If I was wise I would follow behind the cooks in our family and clean whatever they dirtied as soon as they were through with it. But no, I am not that wise. Which inevitably leaves an enormous pile of pots, pans, plates, glasses, and cutlery in need of scrubbing. So many, in fact, after we've hosted a gathering of friends for Thanksgiving, that one look at the pile induces shock. I am rendered helpless and am only cheered by more turkey, stuffing, and wine.

The turkey, stuffing, and especially the wine leave me immobile but reflective. This year it occurred to me that our economic meltdown has much in common to that enormous pile of mouldering dishes in my kitchen. In that it got there by failure to clean as you go. We ignored the accumulating mess and kept on gorging at the table. Inevitably the party ended and we found ourselves with a titanic clean-up task. And a national state of shock.

My point of reflection this Thanksgiving was: are we cleaning up, or in shock/avoidance mode still? Are we immersing our hands in hot water and soap, or numbly sipping wine as the dishes marinate?

Making Music

2010-11-24T11:49:00.000-08:00

One of my many lapsed enthusiasms is music - specifically guitar music. Preferably electric, loud, and as bluesy as possible while still 'rockin'. But acoustic is good too, more accessible, and arguably less irritating to the neighbors.

Once upon a time I played a lot, and dabbled with home recording. I had big plans, inspired by the Grunge movement of the early 90's.

There were only two flies in the ointment: first, I didn't really have the time, given a growing family and a demanding job; second, and arguably more important, I had/have no talent. Zero, nada, zilch. I can strum a passable 'D', 'C', and 'G' progression, and run a few blues-rock scales, but there it ends.

My lack of persistence saved the world (or at least my family and friends) from an aural disaster of biblical proportions.

I am not alone. There are literally millions of misguided souls who think they can make good music (or at least be rock stars) playing guitar in a band. If there weren't Guitar Center would go bust overnight. Visit any of that chain's locations on a weekend afternoon and listen to the cacophony of jammin' wannabes, if you need (painful) physical proof.

But, luckily for all of us who truly love music and the guitar, there are a few talented souls out there we can live vicariously through.

One of these talented types is an LA guy named Jim Vitale. For a young gent he's been around for what seems like ages. I first met him when he was a doorman at the late, lamented Highland Grounds, where he would occasionally sit in on open mic nights. His music was rough, a bit raw, but powerful and played with conviction.

For reasons known only to Jim, though, he stopped playing at HG, and I didn't hear him play a note on stage for years. I say on stage because he would always oblige with a tasty riff played on someone else's axe, out in HGs spacious patio.

That's how it went for a few years until Jim, out of the blue, released a CD of music titled 'Echo Waiting' featuring the tune 'Aztec Garage' by his band called the 'New Vistas'. I say band, but Jim sang and played most of the instruments, including some amazing guitar. I guess he must have been off in the woodshed, ala Clapton, or maybe he visited the crossroads, I don't know, but his playing had improved amazingly.

Jim also began playing with a local band called 'With a Bible and a Gun', playing Johnny Cash covers. I am not a huge fan of all the Man in Black's hits, but Jim's telecaster playing was spot-on and made it all worth hearing.

Not long after that, Jim did me the favor of giving my son some guitar lessons. Jim's not a teacher by trade, but my son learned a great deal and something in those lessons must have inspired because my son is now a 'real' guitarist. He's even playing out at open mics now, making his Dad proud (and not a little bit green with envy).

Which brings us to the present. Jim Vitale is working on a new CD project, and he's using KickStart to fund it. If you haven't heard about KickStart, it's a site that allows you to take pledges from supporters. If you reach a certain goal, the project gets funded, if not, it doesn't. Jim's just a little past halfway there, with only 4 days to go.

I've contributed, and if any of you who might be reading this like music made on an electric guitar, check out Jim's kickstart site and see if you want to help. If you can't, then get out and support your local live music scene. At least remember to tip that busker playing Hendrix through a worn-out pignose next time you pass him on the street, OK?

Bike Addiction

2010-11-06T18:45:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the right decision is trumped by emotion. Maybe most of the time. Depending on your political bent, that may or may not have happened in the elections just past.

It seems to happen all the time when I attempt to make rational decisions on buying motorcycles.

Just now I am blessed with an abundance of goodness when it comes to two-wheeled powered machinery, owning (1) a very pleasing and powerful retro-standard Kawasaki ZRX1200R bought new in 2001; (2) a very fast and nimble Ducati S4RS bought new in 2006; and (3) an extremely usable, accessible 2004 Triumph Bonneville T100, bought used. There is no reason on this earth I need anything else.

If I want to tour on a bike, the ZRX can be pressed into reasonable service. For commuting, the Bonnie is an obvious choice. For a track day, the Ducati won't disappoint. There really is nothing else I need.

But, Oh, do I ever want something else!

I browse the ranks of new bikes at my local dealers with a desire to own most of what I see. It's a disease, treated only by lack of funds and some remnant of responsibility.

A small, evil voice from within tells me I'm getting older and time is wasting if I want to experience all that the world of motorcycling has to offer. There's no time to stick with what you've got for years if you expect to broaden your experience. You want to KNOW, then you have to BUY.

A saving rational voice chimes in counterpoint, telling me to stop being silly and look at what I've got. If you want to buy something new, it says, you have to sell something. Can you do that, it asks ruefully.

Right now, the answer is 'No'. I am the victim of having chosen wisely - or luckily, and every bike I own is 'precious' to me. And I have run out of garage space, money, and time in the week to own/ride more than three.

So, the rational voice wins at the moment, and my addiction is held in check. I have no intellectual doubt this is the right, reasonable condition. But emotion is a strange thing. 'The Heart Wants What It Wants', according to the eminent failed rationalist Woody Allen.

How long I can hold out depends on the economy, my family responsibilities, and how much extra room I can wrest in the garage through careful reorganization.

Tea and Crumpets

2010-11-03T07:48:00.000-07:00

Ah, the morning after the election, and instead of coffee and donuts, millions are enjoying the sharp taste of tea and crumpets.

Well, maybe not crumpets.

But certainly tea, even if tea is not everyone's, uh, cup of tea.

Still sipping tea instead of guzzling coffee is very sophisticated. And a nice Earl Grey (hot) is recommended for enabling rational command decisions.

And there will be decisions to make, today and every day for the next two years.

Election Day

2010-11-02T15:03:00.000-07:00

I did my civic duty and voted. It was easy, since the polling place was nearly empty - at noon.

My fellow Angelenos may be waiting till the last minute to vote, but I have to wonder - are the ballot choices we have here too much to understand or care about? It's not like we have great options this election.

Take Senator for instance: do we keep the one who's been part and parcel of the government of the past 20 years, and who has let the democratic faithful down more than once? Or do we replace her with a corporate hack who thinks because she was a pampered CEO she knows how to represent a state in Congress? Picking the lesser of two evils, or put another way, choosing the devil you know...etc, is never an enticing proposition.

What about propositions? The only truly interesting one, one that isn't repealing something or amending the constitution in some useless way, is Prop 19, the one which would 'legalize' marijuana. Interesting yes, but hard to decide what to do about. Do you vote yes and set up a potential conflict between state and federal law enforcement that could see DEA agents swooping in and arresting California citizens for growing their 'legal' 25 square feet of weed? Or do you vote no and perpetuate the damaging drug war status quo?

I tell you, it's one unappealing set of choices. But vote we must, so if you haven't yet, get out there and give it your best shot (figuratively speaking)

A Fork in The Road

2010-10-31T21:45:00.000-07:00

The road seemed straight and sure. We made a big course correction in 2008 but we've been motoring along since. Slowly, but surely.

There have been a few potholes to trouble us, and a couple of detours along the way. And once or twice the road has been closed due to a collision of wills. But mostly we've been moving ahead, toward a destination just out of sight over the hill. When we get there the road will ease, and we can rest a while.

But now we are staring at a fork in the road. We are being told by two different groups that only one path (theirs) will get us to the desired destination. The other path (not theirs) will either lead to ruin or will loop back on our previous path and cost us in time and money.

Luckily, it's not too hard to pick a path. One of those groups had control of our direction in the past, and they had us routed over a cliff. Hence that course correction. It would be plain stupid to take direction from them again. At least not until they give us a look at their map.

The Rally: We Are Still Here

2010-10-30T15:53:00.000-07:00

I wasn't sure what I was hoping for from today's 'Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear', hosted by Jon Stewart (with assistance from Stephen Colbert), but I think I got more AND less than I expected.

Let me explain ...

Part of me was hoping Stewart would say some of the things the politicos in the Democratic party, including the President, were afraid to say about the conservatives running for (or are already in) office in this country. I was hoping he could just blurt out exactly what destructive political games they are playing - humorously, of course. The President either won't, or can't spell it out, he just beats around the bush on the subject. And it's never funny.

But no, The Rally was mostly apolitical. And that was the Less.

I was also hoping for a bit more from the stellar cast of his show, but his crew were used sparingly, though fairly effectively, including a cute bit with Jon Oliver as 'Peter Pan'.

Stewart surprised though, with his address late in the event, in which he squarely blamed the media (mostly cable news) for inflaming passions and magnifying differences out of their real proportions. It was an effective speech, and anyone hearing it had to believe afterward that we aren't so far apart after all. Stewart said the only people in America not working together were in Washington, DC and in the media, and that statement rang true.

I hadn't expected him to make such a thoughtful speech. And that was the More.

Also adding to the experience were the performances (brief though they were) of Cat Stevens (aka Yusuf Islam) and Tony Bennett. Sounding as good as ever, and looking healthier than he ever did back in the day, Stevens sang 'Peace Train' as part of a comic battle with a rusty Ozzy Osbourne, who sang 'Crazy Train'. Bennett belted out an abbreviated 'America the Beautiful' more powerfully than anyone his age should be able to. Truly good stuff.

In the end, will the thousands who showed up at the Mall in DC - estimated at anywhere from 70,000 to 250,000 (can't anybody count at these rallies) go home transformed in some meaningful way? Will the millions more who watched on TV?

Probably not. Those who made their way to DC were almost certainly all Daily Show and Colbert Report fans already. As were most of the viewers at home. Those conservatives who tuned in or turned up will probably wait to hear what their leaders say about the event, before they make up their minds to despise and ridicule it.

But the Rally did let those in power - and those trying very hard to get back into power, know that there exists a very large group of Americans who hate the nastiness of current politics and government. A group who, when aroused, can make things happen - things like the election of the nation's first african-american President, and the bench-clearing of the Republicans who steered us into War and economic distress.

We may be disenchanted with Mr. Obama, just as Jon Stewart, once a strong supporter, clearly has become, but we are still here. The Rally to Restore Sanity was just a reminder.

Demoralized in DC

2010-10-16T18:06:00.000-07:00

The news is grim and getting grimmer all the time. It seems the Democrats are set to lose the House and possibly the Senate.

That may be happy news for conservative-types and fans of Glenn Beck, but it bodes ill for those of us who suffered mightily under George The Younger.

It wouldn't be so bad if this judgement was being rendered at the end of a full four years. By then, if a light couldn't be clearly seen at the end of the tunnel, you could safely say they'd got it wrong. But just 2 years? How impatient are we as a society?

Of course, even supporters must admit the Democrats haven't run the show as well as they should have and we hoped they would. And that realization has come at great cost to the Dems. Even if their disheartened fans won't vote for Republicans or Tea-Partiers, they may not vote for Dems either. In politics, apathy among your base is fatal.

And to add insult to injury, the press seems to have lost all sense of journalistic integrity in reporting the run-up to the midterms. They are making wild statements, like 'President Obama's policies are widely unpopular'. That's just not true.

Obama's policies may be unpopular and widely-so among Republicans, Tea-Partiers, and conservatives in general, but not among the great mass of the populace that voted Obama into office in 2008. That group is merely demoralized that more couldn't be done. That Obama was not able to get the Republicans to work cooperatively to solve our nation's problems. That bipartisanship didn't work (and was scrapped as a lost cause early on).

Right now, it looks as if the conservatives who stonewalled every effort by Obama at governing this nation have achieved their goal: to energize their followers and demoralize the Democrats'.

Let us hope that the reversal isn't too extreme, and that a relatively balanced Congress results. Perhaps with neither side having a 'super-majority' more compromise might be necessary, despite political enmity.

California Vs Eric Holder?

2010-10-15T23:53:00.000-07:00

If you were visiting California from just about any other state (Oregon and parts of Colorado excepted), you'd be forgiven for believing marijuana was already legal. After all, you can get it from a plethora of 'medical' vendors, and there seems no shortage of 'doctors' who will write you a note.

But you'd be wrong. Marijuana is still most definitely illegal in the Golden State. Voters will be given a chance to change that on November 2.

I won't go into the arguments for and against the proposition (#19) that proposes legalization. I am more interested in what will happen if the measure is passed. US Attorney General Eric Holder has stated the DEA will not recognize the state law and will aggressively enforce the federal statutes.

This potential conflict will give the thoughtful among us a reason to reflect on the old question of State's Rights in a Democratic Republic. Some will come to the conclusion that California has no business passing laws that contradict federal law. Others will conclude that drug laws shouldn't be national, but should be decided at the state level.

I have no strong opinion one way or the other, except for this: I dislike laws that make a substantial portion of our otherwise law-abiding population into criminals. And I dislike the crime and violence that follows illegal drugs.

I'm not sure legalizing marijuana is the right solution, but cracking down on the kids that smoke it sure isn't.

It will be interesting to see how things play out on November 2, and in the aftermath if the proposition passes. It has the makings of an interesting legal drama ...

Bilge

2010-10-14T17:22:00.000-07:00

I don't think I am overstating when I describe politics today as 'bilge'. The campaigns for Governor and US Senator in California are particularly 'bilgey'.

I don't know whether I've ever seen another set of elections where the negative adds outnumbered the platform presentations by such a large margin. My fellow Californians and I barely know what these candidates stand for and plan to do if elected. We just know how horrible they feel our fates will be if we elect their opponents.

We hear, for instance, courtesy of Meg Whitman's campaign, that Jerry Brown would raise our taxes to the point of impoverishing us all, without blinking an eye. And we also know he represents politics as usual - albeit the 'usual' circa the early eighties, whatever that was.

We hear, from Brown's campaign, that Meg Whitman is a non-voter, a hypocrite on immigration, and possibly a criminal racketeer. Plus she's rich, and that can't be good.

On the Senatorial front, we have 'Carly' vs The Boxer. Carly paints the boxer as a demagog who spends senselessly from her imperious throne in Washington. The Boxer paints Carly as a heartless boss who tosses workers aside in the name of profit, and who'd outsource the whole economy if given half a chance.

I say it's all 'Bilge'. I get no freaking idea from any of their campaigns what these folks would really do if elected.

Wait - I take that back. I'm forgetting the little bit of 'positive' adds there have been. Let me see ...

Brown: he's experienced. Older, wiser, level-headed. Pragmatic. In other words he won't be the same old Brown who dated Linda Rondstadt. Shame, really.

Whitman: she knows how to run a business. Now if only governing were like running a business. Clueless.

Boxer: she's improved things for returning vets. What else, oh - she voted to give Bush the power to engage in war in the first place, putting all these vets at risk. Tough sell, Babs.

Carly: Hmm ... she ran HP? And she off-shored thousands of jobs? She has a haircut that reminds me of Jane Lynch's character's coif in 'Best in Show'? What the heck else is there?

Like I said, 'Bilge'. May as well close your eyes and randomly choose. May the better 'Bilge' win !

All About Banks

2010-10-13T23:21:00.000-07:00

What is a bank?

Is it a place to keep your money safe?

Is it a place to get a loan when you need money NOW but don't have enough under the mattress?

Just what is a bank?

I heard once that a bank was supposed to be a place where you put your money so it won't get stolen, or so you won't lose it, where it will be harder to spend it unwisely.

And,

While your money is sitting around in the bank, the good folks there will put it to productive use by lending some of it to others who need to buy something big, like a car, or a house, or a kidney transplant. They'll charge those needy people a goodly but fair vigorish to earn a profit, and give some of it back to you in the form of earned interest on your money.

Seems like a nice place. Good for your money. Good for others. Good for you.

But are there banks like that today? Post-Eco-Meltdown, I am not so sure.

In those institutions still called 'banks', your money seems at risk of being whittled away by service fees which overmatch the pitiful interest the bank pays (o.5% anyone?). And that's before your account gets siphoned by skimmers and identity thieves.

In 'banks' today, you have to earn practically the equivalent of TOP TOP SECRET clearance in order to be squeaky clean enough to get a loan. And even then that loan may not be as much as you really need or come with terms you can really manage.

So, what is a bank?

Right now mine seems like just a database that tracks the numbers that define my economic existence. It's a middle-'man' and a spreadsheet for my purchases and my income, taking a little off the top for its trouble.

That's useful, but not really a 'bank', it seems to me.

Give me a loan and prove me wrong ...

Whitman's World

2010-10-02T15:21:00.000-07:00

I imagine our world would appear differently, when viewed by richer, more privileged eyes than I can muster.

It certainly seems that way, given the unfolding saga of Meg Whitman's undocumented 'alien' housekeeper. Ms Whitman seems not to understand exactly why this revelation is a problem to her.

Whitman is running for governor of California, and has lived (if not voted) in the state, so she should be well aware of the true nature of undocumented workers - and most especially those who care for our homes and children. In the Golden State there's an unofficial, and largely unspoken policy on the subject: 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell', i.e., don't ask whether your domestic service provider is illegal, and they won't tell you.

To most Californians, whether Meg Whitman paid an illegal to take care of her house is immaterial. It's no big deal. Hypocrisy is. And so is the apparent abandonment of someone who was 'like family' when their illegal status became a hurdle to the governorship.

In Ms Whitman's World, it seems people are expendable to expediency. In the end, the effect on Whitman's campaign will depend on how much this incident defines her ethics and morality to the voters, not whether she used an undocumented worker in a state where that is the norm rather than the exception.

Baked & Broiled: Misery in LA

2010-09-27T14:20:00.000-07:00

Turn me over, I'm done. The temperature today hit a record high of 113 degrees in LA (that's 45 C for the rest of the world). According to an LA Times online article, there has never been a higher reading since record keeping began in 1877. And where I sit, in a non-air conditioned home office located in the hotter spaces closer to Pasadena, I am sure it's 115. Pure misery.

What did we Angelenos due to deserve this? Wasn't last years Station Fire punishment enough for our indiscretions? Isn't the prospect of being governed by Jerry Brown or Meg Whitman?

Perhaps this is payback for our gentler, cooler than usual summer. If so, couldn't payback be given on the installment plan, with a warmer than usual winter? We could handle that. But to hit us with every degree missed over the summer all in one week? That's cruel and unusual.

If anyone reading this is a practicing shaman or rainmaker, please conjure up some relief for dear old Greater Los Angeles. We'd pay you back if we could ...

Edge Grip

2010-09-26T14:49:00.001-07:00

I'd been up that road before, and I knew its twistings well. So I don't know what it was that threw me off my game that day, when I found myself blasting along on my Kawasaki and entering an uphill left too quickly. Perhaps it was the time of day, with shadows from the hillside and the trees obscuring my usual visual cues. Maybe the too-heavy lunch I'd just eaten clouded my brain.

Whatever the cause, I found myself in the corner and beyond my usual turn-in point, facing an unpleasant date with a ditch, or perhaps a tree.

Years of riding, however, have equipped me with unconscious reflexes that take over when my heart's in my throat and I'm puckered so hard when I come off the bike the seat's coming with me.

In what was probably only a moment but felt like a glacial age, I leaned the bike over on it's side, keeping just a touch of throttle (it was an uphill left), and held it there until physics worked as we all hope it does and I sailed out of the turn, accelerating uphill, slightly stunned but unscathed and happy.

Later, at a stop for gas, I looked at my tires and noticed the left side rear showed wear to the very edge, which almost never happens to me, and the front was there too, which never happens. That wear was testament to the marvels of modern rubber compounding and tire construction, which had just saved my ass from an unpleasant wilderness journey/ life flight helicopter ride.

When I leaned my bike over, the tiny strip of rubber on the edge of my tires kept about 800 lbs of bike and rider glued firmly (enough) to the road. Edge grip the racers call it. Without it, those daredevils can't run the lap times required to win, losing a tenth of a second every lap. Without it, I'd be a Christmas ornament, hanging in the Angeles National Forest.

Edge grip may be a racer's friend and fresh tires my best insurance policy, but it occurs to me the concept extends ...

Perhaps our President is suffering from a lack of political 'edge grip'. He's missing that tenth a lap he needs to reach the finish line. If so, it would be nice if his 'pit crew' slipped on a new set of grippy 'tires' and found him that extra confidence he needs to ride through the tighter twists and turns of governing.

Number 299

2010-09-24T10:41:00.000-07:00

It seems only a short while since I began to place a few notes in this space. That was back in October of 2008. But today's is the 299th.

Somehow, 299 sounds more significant to me than 300. Maybe because '300' has been overused recently, or maybe it's just a feeling of impending change, like reaching age 29 felt more significant than 30.

Anyone reading this now, and who may have dropped by from time to time to see what I was up to, might have noticed that the rate of postings here has dropped. Travel and paying work have intervened. But the reason might also be that 300 posts across nearly two years is more than enough, and reaching 299 has raised the question.

What is there left to say? Readers will know (or think they know) my politics. And that is what occupies my free time most these days - agonizing or commiserating over the political foibles of my generation.

When I do turn off politics or the economy, it's possible my musings over other subjects reach no audience at all. Does anyone out there care what I think about 'The Directions of Time'?

In the end, this process is just entertainment and a form of therapy. If after I post number 300, sometime in the next few days or so, I still find pleasure and intellectual engagement in it, and if there is possibly another 300 in the tank, then this blog will continue.

But don't be surprised if number 300 leads to only a few more, and then none at all, if the spirit isn't there. Time is increasingly precious in my life, and I have little of it to waste.

Readers may come and go, but the Writer must always be there ...

Of Mice and Ms. O'Donnell

2010-09-23T15:28:00.001-07:00

I was taking my usual anti-hypocrisy therapy - watching 'The Colbert Report', that is, when up comes this bit on how Fox News (and O'Reilly specifically) was declining to air an embarrassing appearance of Christine O'Donnell on Fox News circa 2007. Of course, Mr. Colbert aired the piece O'Reilly wouldn't, and it was a doozy. It depicted Ms. O'Donnell, then a chairperson for some watchdog group or other, claiming that scientists had genetically engineered mice with human brains.

Colbert turned it into a laugh, of course, but I must say the piece left me feeling dread - a deep and anxious dread. Can a substantial minority of people in these United States really want to elect someone with idiotic opinions? Ms. O'Donnell's comments were at best uninformed, at worse gullible and stupid. Does energy, youthful enthusiasm, and looking good on camera trump intelligence, thoughtfulness, and competence in the people we seek to lead us?

The dark night of the soul I spent pondering these questions left me wishing Ms. O'Donnell's observation was correct, and we had some viable murine candidates to choose from ...

Tea and Simplicity

2010-09-21T23:01:00.000-07:00

I don't consider myself a nuanced political thinker. In discourse about anything political I can be rated on the subtle thinking scale somewhere between Plato and Fox News. Closer to the Fox News end, really, but sadly not close enough. I am too agile a thinker to truly grasp one of the major recent developments on the political scene ...

But then not even Plato would understand the current 'Tea Party' movement.

No amount of erudite political acumen could fully explain the phenomenon. It helps to just blank your mind, go with the flow, and become a receptive receiver. (Hey, it works for Fox!)

For, you see, this Party is not about 'Tea', as in 'let's all have some nice tea and crumpets', which sounds a very constructive act - rather it's about tearing down and throwing out. Cleaning out the governmental closet, as it were, and maybe throwing out the baby with the bath water too.

My original concept of the 'Tea Party' was as a political umbrella for people who were upset with the growing national debt, and all the bad things that make it grow. With a few people added who were disaffected with the partisan shout-fest in Washington.

Partly true, no doubt, but not true enough ...

In reality, or so it seems to me, the Party of the Tea is about über-libertarianism and constitutional absolutism, the latter concept something I thought abandoned after Burr shot Hamilton. To the Tea Partiers, the Constitution is carved in stone, like the 'Ten Commandments', and largely by the same Author. To them, there is no room for interpretation or logical expansion in the language of the Document. What it says it says, and how it was first interpreted is what it means.

To those Tea-ers, their fundamentalistic interpretation of the Constitution leaves many modern governmental functions without basis or reason for existence. Goodbye Medicare, Goodbye Social Security. Neither are in the original mandate. Ditto the Federal Reserve. Supreme Court? Only if it's not 'activist'. Space Program? There will be no 'Right Stuff' unless it's for common defense.

About all that would be left the federal government is to provide for the national defense, build some roads, and levy a few taxes.

But wouldn't that leave a lot of gaps in our society's safety net? What about caring for the elderly, the disabled, or the impoverished sick? The Tea Partiers will tell you that is up to the individual States to implement, if they really think it necessary. No matter this was tried back in the Confederation experiment, post-Revolution but pre-Constitution, and found not to work very well at all.

I guess the Partiers just want to be able to have somewhere to go if the State they live in decides to pass a law they don't like. The more those hated laws are made at the state level the more options the Partiers have to move and still stay in the US. Slick, especially if you own your own U-haul.

As I said, though, I may have this all wrong. I may be figuring in too much complexity in my analysis, when it's really utterly simple. And I don't own a U-haul.

How to Gain Weight

2010-09-06T12:18:00.000-07:00

We have a family friend who lately has taken to exclaiming she can't gain weight, no matter how hard she tries.

I've offered to be her 'weight-gain' coach, but she is skeptical. Needlessly so, since, Dr. Nick from the Simpsons aside, I am perhaps the foremost expert in adding pounds quickly.

I will reserve an exhaustive list of helpful tips for paying clients, but for those of you with a taste (ahem) for building flab DIY, I can provide a little guidance:

Exercise - don't do any. Period. When getting out of bed in the morning, don't jump up, roll slowly onto the floor. Never walk when you can get a ride. Sit. Sit. Sit. Never leave your bed or sofa on weekends, except for emergencies, or to buy smoothies.

Eating - do it constantly. Always have candy handy between major meals - preferably candy containing peanuts or peanut butter, but any nuts will do when embedded in the right chocolate. Speaking of PB, try peanut butter and cheese sandwiches (good on Rye) for a snack. They pack a powerful caloric punch and tend not to rot easily, so you can carry a spare wherever you go. [Warning: better have some full-fat milk available to wash it down, since a gob full of cheese and PB on Rye can be a choking hazard.]

Drinking - read the labels. Some popular drinks can be ridiculously devoid of useable calories. If you are old enough, don't plan to be driving anywhere, and aren't in danger of addictive behavior, go with some alcohol. Typically very high in calories, especially those thick, 'heady', imported beers, it's just the sort of thing for those long sofa-bound weekends. If you are a teetotaler, then run (scratch that ... drive) to your nearest smoothie vendor and get whatever is on the menu with 500 calories or more. They'll have plenty of options, and you can eat one of your spare PB and Cheese on Ryes while you drink, to enhance the bloat.

And remember the one ingredient in every successful weight gain program: Ice Cream. No other foodstuff gives you so much fat per bite, except, well ... fat.

With these pearls of wisdom, can you believe our friend refuses to take me seriously?

Happy Eating!

Lead Balloons and Hot Air

2010-09-03T19:47:00.000-07:00

When listening to Newt Gingrich, or just about any other conservative talking head, I am reminded of the physical contradiction they personify: they produce a lot of hot air, but nothing rises.

Not a single constructive word comes from their mouths, at least while in front of the cameras, though they say they have answers to all our problems. Of course, the answers they most often give are 'dump the current administration', and 'start over - with us'.

But what, you should ask of them, will you do when you are back in power? What miracles will you work to save us?

So far, I haven't heard an answer from any conservative pundit or politician interviewed on TV, in the print, or on the web. Nothing except the usual talking points, dumbed down to provide no detail: Cut spending, Cut taxes, Keep America Strong, Save the Family. Ok, but please tell us: Where, For Whom, How Will We Pay For It, and Whose Family?

Their words are just pumping Hot Air into Lead Balloons, with the hope those blunt and heavy objects will roll over enough Democrats to get the Job Done in the midterm elections.

To be brutally fair, there's been an excess of heated air escaping from a few liberal pundits too, but they get less TV exposure, so have a far weaker physical impact: a limpid wind furling cardboard sails.

But two wrongs don't make a Right, my mother always told me, and I'll bet two wrongs don't make a decent Left, either. In the end, nothing rises ...

Babbleocity 36: Dive! Ride!

2010-08-31T18:28:00.001-07:00

You mustn't neglect your therapy ...

Dive! Dive! - Spend more than a few months away from salt water and SCUBA skills begin, perversely, to rust. Getting back in the drink takes equal amounts of cautious preparation and 'damn the torpedoes' charging ahead. But it's worth it, when you find the gear going on as smoothly as you remember - even the makeshift fix to your dive knife sheath is still holding strong. The regulator still regulates and the computers compute, and down you go, ear-popping your way to the bottom. Blowing bubbles among your friends the calico bass, the kelpfish, the sheepshead, and, of course, the garrulous garibaldi. There's not much better a way of spending a summer day ... unless ...

Ride! Ride! - A motorcycle is a living thing. No, really. A bike will mechanically sadden if left alone. It's true, I swear. You can tell by how absolutely thrilled the machine feels when lit up and roaring you along your favorite back roads after too long silent in a darkened garage. Or, maybe, that's just an impression that comes from your own spirit flaring into light when reunited with your two-wheeled partner after too long a separation. But don't think about it, just let the engine sing and the tires read you the story of the road. Dance your way along twisting ribbons the designers must have made just for moments like this. As close to nirvana as you are likely to get (above water) ...

Therapy is easy, when it's this much fun ...

Iran, Iraq, and a Very Hard Place

2010-08-31T17:36:00.000-07:00

Tonight President Obama declared the 'war' in Iraq over (sort of ... mostly). Our combat troops are coming home.

Well, not quite home, not all of them. There's still Afghanistan - and the 'good' battle against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Quite a few will be heading east to the inhabited rubble of Kabul or Kandahar.

A lot of people who helped vote Mr. Obama into office are wondering why we are still fighting anywhere in that part of the world. They are wondering why the President is so adamant and intent about steering the course entered by George W. Bush. I'd wondered too, until I glanced at a world map, where the answer was obvious ...

And the answer has little to do with Afghanistan, or Iraq, but everything to do with what lies between them - Iran. Once an ally of the West, a Persian bulwark against a semi-cohesive Arab Union, Iran then moved through revolution to become our strident enemy, eventually morphing again during the first Gulf War to inhabit the uncomfortable dual role of our enemy and erstwhile friend-in-arms against Saddam. Now, despite the cooperation required to calm the Shiite extremists in post-invasion Iraq, Iran is largely just an avowed enemy. More accurately the government is, through President-by-decree Ahmadinejad and his theocratic handlers.

And our enemy Iran is rushing to build 'peaceful' nuclear capacity that could also give them the 'bomb'. And the thought of a fundamentalist Shia Iran unleashing its own genie from the atomic bottle is unthinkable to most countries, but especially so for Israel, Turkey, and also the Sunni led Arab nations we call our 'friends' in the region.

That's why Afghanistan remains a battlefied. The powers-that-be want a sympathetic government in firm control there, to serve as a friendly bookend to a firmly-controlled and friendly Iraq.

To use a groan-worthy cliché/metaphor, we want Iran to be caught between 'Iraq and a Hard Place'. Afghanistan is a very hard place, indeed.

Live Long ... and Prosper?

2010-08-28T23:22:00.000-07:00

How would you like to live to be 500, perhaps celebrate a millennium?

Silly question, right? Nuts really, because no one, biblically famous forefathers aside, lives much beyond that famous three score and ten, do they?

The good folks behind 'Life Extended', as seen on the Documentary Channel, beg to differ. They feel we might be able to live essentially forever. One day we will figure out how to stop aging in it's tracks, and then it will be just a matter of avoiding accidents and violence, and we can each be a modern day Methuselah. A span of a million years was mentioned, and not in jest. (At least I think not in jest. The film is Swedish and I can't detect Swedish humor. Are there Swedish comedians? But I digress ..)

The show did reveal a few downsides to life extension, the main one being overpopulation. After all, if no one is dying, then we'd better not have too many being born or else - disaster.

Another worry is worry itself. If we lick aging, and control disease, leaving only accident and violent attacks to fear, won't we become a bunch of paranoid shut-ins? The show's writers seem to believe we will become adept at avoiding mayhem, but it seems all too likely we will avoid it by just not getting out of bed.

One the documentary didn't mention, but comes readily to mind is - boredom. Will there be anything on TV 1000 years from now? And will we immortals even care? What will excite us after even a piddling 200 years of life? And if a smidgeon of interest is still left by then, how about when we reach 5oo? It's hard to imagine being surprised, interested, pleased, or moved by anything after 1000 years, and impossible after a million.

Of course, one thing bored people do to pass the time is have sex. Which will make solving overpopulation more difficult. Unless after 1000 years even sex is boring. (Nah ...)

And there's another problem: living forever means living with yourself forever - with how you look, how smart you are, how talented (or talentless) - you get the drift. What if you aren't really your cup of tea? Will body remodeling and genetic re-jiggering become an essential part of life? If so, will we all become homogenized and boring? One thing for sure - there's no way I want to spend a million years as Me. (A couple hundred, maybe ...)

Luckily, science moves too slowly for me to ever face the problem of immortality. From what the documentary insinuates, though, our grandchildren might lead active lives into their mid-100's, and their grandchildren just might make the double-century.

Will they be happy with their long lives? Or will they be miserable, self-loathing, agoraphobics, living in mirror-less houses and playing endless games of solitaire; surprised by nothing, moved by nothing?

The folks behind 'Life Extended' harbor no real fears. They - or rather the characters they introduce to us, believe we will make it. And we'll all be better off with an end to the scourge of aging.

On the off-chance they are right, maybe I'll have myself frozen. Spend a few hundred years head down in a vat of liquid nitrogen, until the methuselah technology is perfected. Then they will thaw me out, fix me up, and off to a thousand years of motorcycle rides and scuba dives I'll go.

Wait, that's risky stuff. An immortal could die doing those things.

Better stay in and do something less dangerous: Maybe they'll have surrogates by then, or at least some really cool video games...

Retrogression Blues

2010-08-24T15:18:00.000-07:00

'One step forward, Two steps back', is a familiar cliche of complaint. I'd say it was apropos of our political leaders, except it's too mild to apply. Our guys and gals in Washington appear to live by 'One step forward, Two steps back, and while we're at it, let's take another Two backward.'

How does this manifest itself in our lives? Figuring out the labyrinthian processes in Washington are beyond me, but I can hazard a guess, and here it goes:

A bill gets passed - say one that will allow stem cell research to move forward, benefiting throngs of victims to a sadly wide and expanding menu of afflictions. Let's postulate this bill has been opposed by a certain segment of the population on some grounds or other - in this case we can posit fundamentalist religious beliefs as the motivating factor.

The opposition organizes successfully enough to pay for legal challenges to the new rule. They achieve an injunction against implementation of the rule. That will give them time to twist the arms (figuratively speaking) of vulnerable politicians(included elected judges) and build support for overturning, or drastically modifying the rule.

Now, faced with this opposition, what do the originators of the bill do? They compromise. In addition to the compromises already made in the passing of the bill. This is done through the process of mapping out how the rule will be administered. Rest assured by the time they are done, stem cells will only be available under circumstances that are rare at best.

What's worse, during this process of tinkering and 'tweaking', measures may be introduced through legal action that weren't even there in the first place. New interpretations of general passages that will now be refined into legal action. This may be taken so far that the bill will now allow less research into stem cells than before the bill was even passed. The modified rule may actually prohibit actions that weren't specifically prohibited before.

So, here's what we have: as far as the general voting public is aware, they have approved a bill that will stimulate stem cell research, ultimately benefitting the health and welfare of all citizens. But what they actually get is a bill that does very little, or at worse, undermines the whole concept.

Voters may never know until they see another bill up for a vote which does the same thing the old bill was supposed to do. They may wonder why another rule was needed. After all, isn't this fixed already?

Then again, given the persistence of voter memory in this country, they may never notice. Sort of a national, political, Alzheimer's. The kind of disease that no amount of stem cell research will ever solve ...

Flight of the Doh-Dohs

2010-08-16T19:20:00.000-07:00

I know I've been flying too much when I begin to expect people to behave intelligently on a plane. Maybe it's the millionth hearing of those pre-flight instructions that makes me so sure others have heard them and understand too.

I couldn't be more deluded.

On both legs of my flight today, my fellow denizens of the air shoved bulging bags plus every other personal item they were carting into the overheard, despite the attendants' repeated instructions to put the smaller items UNDER THEIR SEATS.

While bag-stuffing, my aerial compatriots plugged up the aisles in exactly the way the crew were saying fervently not to.

Then, getting comfortable, they reclined their seat backs and dropped their tray tables. Some began furiously texting as if their lives depended on it. Maybe they did.

The obviously experienced (and borderline exasperated) crew were savvy and persistent enough to clean up the mess and button us up for takeoff, but the going was tough. As the wheels left the ground I reflected on what it must be like to repeat the same instructions, and witness the same acts of misunderstanding, obliviousness, or rebellion, time and again.

I had time enough to appreciate the lot of the attendant before the first Doh-Dohs got up from their seats in a beeline for the toilet, and my reverie was broken by the loudspeaker refrain, "the Captain has not turned off the seat-belt sign - please remain in your seats ..."

I guess I can understand why one of the crew might grab a beer and slide away from the mess, from time to time ...

Inerttainment

2010-08-11T23:00:00.000-07:00

There may be a reason why the economy is in the doldrums. We are just passing MidSummer, a time historically known for doldrums, economic or otherwise.

This time of year, whenever I am not working, I tend to sit and watch. It's not that I don't enjoy active hobbies, I just seem to have less energy to devote to them, so sitting seems the best option.

And today's technology makes it easy. The world of news and entertainment comes to your TV, your computer, or your smart phone (aka 'mobile personal media center'). You can get shows and movies that aren't currently running through direct internet streams. If all else fails you can browse You Tube.

If you miss someone, there's no need to actually walk, drive, or fly to meet them, just adjust the scenery and lighting to best effect and engage Skype or video iChat. If your someone isn't living in the dark ages (i.e., the 1990s), they can engage too and it will be just like being there. Mostly.

In fact, there are very few activities you can't do, or wants and desires you can't fill, by just staying at home and texting, emailing, channeling, chatting, or browsing.

And maybe that's what modern Big Corporate wants: when we are not working, we should be browsing and ordering, or at least noticing the adds and banners blinking and sliding on the periphery of our internet lives. That may be the strategy to fill their coffers.

But I feel I must rebel against this impulse to sit.

After all, movement has its own pleasures, and much of our local economies depend on us getting out and shopping in physically-real stores, eating at restaurants not run by screaming megalomaniacs, and seeing movies, plays, and musical performances in local venues.

I would add 'attending sporting events', and this may be true where you live, but MidSummer heat can be cruel in Los Angeles, if the event is inland and outdoors. In which case, watching the event on TV is an acceptable option and no penalties will be accrued.

Yes, the webs of economic and social life that are our communities depend on us getting up and getting out and about. But man, the doldrums are tough, and I have the entire original 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' BBC TV series queued up on Netflix, ready to stream to my living room at the touch of a button.

Maybe I'll rebel tomorrow ...

Car on Mars, Revisited

2010-08-10T22:35:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, I likened attempts to 'fix' our economy to 'driving a car on Mars'. Every input has a delayed reaction, so you must be careful not to give it too much 'gas' (read: 'stimulus') too quickly, and you'd better be ready with the 'brakes' (read:'the Fed raising interest rates') if the pace gets too hot.

What was I thinking? If our leaders are to be believed, we've shot so much fuel into that car on Mars that it ought to be ricocheting between the frozen carbon dioxide drenched poles. Yet the reality seems the car is stuck in the Martian dust, and if it's moving, we can't see it from here.

Perhaps the economy isn't like a car on Mars but like a car sunk to the bottom of the ocean. Giving it gas just moves it around the bottom, but it'll never reach the surface and see the sun, no matter how fast it goes.

Or maybe it IS like that car on Mars, but the fuel hasn't been getting to it. We've been madly pumping it in, but there's a leak, maybe a blow-out, and the fuel has never reached our stranded car.

Or it could be the people we've hired to control the car and get the fuel to it just don't know what they are doing.

I do hope we can recover that car someday, don't you?

Ringing the (Money) Bell

2010-07-31T22:56:00.000-07:00

By now we are all inured to the outrageous salaries of corporate executives. From Enron to BP we've long since ceased to be surprised with the kingly fortunes handed over to other humans, who presumably just like us, put their pants on one leg at a time and drool in their sleep. Except, of course, these folks can afford custom tailored pants and personal drool-wiping attendants, if so desired.

But what are we to make of the salaries paid to run-of-the-mill public servants in the City of Bell, California, a metropolis of 40,000 mostly working class souls nestled in the sprawl of greater Los Angeles? It seems they managed to pull a fast one on their citizens by giving themselves paydays that, while not quite reaching corporate fat-cattiness levels, nonetheless boggle the brain.

Actually, now that I contemplate it, given the low incomes of most of their citizens, the compensation these folks gave themselves may be worse than anything in the corporate overlordship. Almost Bernie Madoff unethical - by which I mean criminal.

You have to ask yourself how such a small municipality could afford to pay its city manager nearly $800,000 a year, or pay their police chief more than the leader of Los Angeles' much larger force.

This news came along in time to remind us, just when we might have been looking down our noses at 'third world' countries and tsk-tsking about their rampant corruption, that we can compete with anyone when it comes to greed.

When it comes to lining their pockets at the expense of their citizens, no one has done it much better than the city leaders of Bell. They may be fleecing a small town, but they are doing it with world class skills.

Fast Friends

2010-07-30T23:09:00.000-07:00

It's striking how travel affects us. Mentally. When at home, I would never read a USA Today, yet on the road, reading one brings on the same feeling of comfort and reassurance conversation with a good friend might. Go Figure.

On a recent trip, that paper featured an article about how social media outlets were eroding the depth and meaning of personal friendships. In short, people today may have many more 'friends', in the internet sense of the word, yet have few if any close, personal friendships. This, the piece says, is not good for us, and will have damaging effects on individuals and society going forward.

I couldn't help but contrast this with elements of the movie 'Up in the Air' - the one starring George Clooney, not the animated thing featuring Ed Asner's voice and a house suspended by balloons.

At one point Clooney's character reassures us that his life isn't a lonely one. He is constantly surrounded by people in airports, hotels, even city streets. At another he mentions how he sometimes engages in enjoyable conversation with airplane seatmates, sharing personal histories, jokes, and dreams. Even the inevitable parting at flight's end didn't seem to blunt his pleasure with that sort of friendship.

And how different is that from the internet sort? For one, I suppose talking in person with someone on a plane is more intense and immediate than anything you could get from the internet. Not even video chat would provide the full physical presence - the body language, ability to see nuances in facial expressions, etc., you get with speaking with someone totally new to you on a plane.

For another, there's the time factor. Internet interactions are mostly brief and choppy, with conversations carried on like chess games, move by move, over hours, days perhaps. The expectation of continuance is always there. On a plane you may spend hours in deep and varied conversation, but then it's over, likely never to continue.

Still, both types of friendships miss the mark - neither are the sort of deep and close interactions USA Today says we need most.

By the end of 'Up in the Air', the director wants us to believe that Clooney's frequent traveler has realized the error of his shallow ways, made painfully aware by seeing himself reflected in the similar behavior of a woman he wants to settle down with. But he doesn't really look that much happier than he did before, and if you've seen the movie you know what ultimately befalls him. For the rest of you, I won't spoil it - see the film.

All of which leads me to believe that USA Today got it half-wrong, and so did 'Up in the Air'. Surely we should all desire deep and meaningful relationships with other people. But we can enjoy life with nothing but remote internet friendships, spiced with the occasional brief but more personal meetings.

We humans are a sociable lot, and we'll take whatever we can get, or as Woody Allen has posited, 'Whatever Works'. Fast Friends can work, at least until something better comes along.

Middling America

2010-07-24T23:30:00.000-07:00

Just when I was beginning to feel slightly better about the economy - probably because I had been avoiding reading anything about it, my attention was caught by a post on Yahoo News, concerning the vanishing Middle Class. And now I am depressed again.

The picture painted is bleak, but the main piece of ill news was this little factoid: "... the bottom 50 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth."

Now, if there's one thing we don't imagine when we think of America and the 'American Dream', it's a country where so much is owned by so few, and the 'have-nots' make up perhaps the majority of the population.

The article places much of the blame on globalism, and I can see the point. How CAN someone living in America compete with someone living in, say, India, who is willing to do the same work for several times less? The only advantage a local worker would have seems to be proximity. If your job can be done remotely, you are basically screwed.

The article also blames excessive government regulation, making it more likely for businesses to go outside the US, which I can also see, even if the logic is murkier.

But I think the article missed an important point, once which I believe to be the main reason the middle class has begun to disappear: the wonderful buying engine that was the American Middle Class Consumer is no longer viewed as indispensable to the world economy. Now there's the emerging Chinese middle class to take up our slack, and then some.

Who needs an increasingly poorer bunch of Americans to buy your goods, when there are perhaps ten times as many increasingly richer Chinese to do the same? As businesses world-wide focus more on this emerging Asian consumer engine, they care less and less about what becomes of us.

Still, we aren't down and out just yet. There is still a lot of potential buying power in what's left of the Middle Class, and, if we can only get the credit markets lending again, the working poor can once again buy like they are Middle Class.

In the meantime, there are a couple of things I think might help slow the decline:

We can all try to make conscious decisions to buy products and services from companies that employ workers living in America, and who are being paid reasonable American wages. This may be hard to discern, but if you can, do it.

Also, buy local whenever possible. The more local the company, the more likely the money you spend gets recycled right back into your local economy, which helps you and your neighbors have a better quality of life. So at least you'll think you are Middle Class.

There are probably many other ways to help, but I am not savvy enough to know them. I am happiest when I don't think too much about the economy, which is either a survival strategy or a sure-fire way to be doomed to that poor 50%.

Schorr Leave

2010-07-23T12:31:00.001-07:00

It was with real regret that I learned of veteran reporter Daniel Schorr's passing today at age 93.

Yes, 93 is a ripe old age and not many people knew who Mr. Schorr was anymore, but I am still saddened by his death. After all, he was a prominent figure in the Watergate drama and its aftermath - arguably the biggest political upheaval of my lifetime.

For those of you too young to remember, or too old to remember for that matter, here's a brief recap: Daniel Schorr was a correspondent for CBS, covering the White House, and subsequently the Watergate Break-In. At one point in the unfolding drama, he came into possession of Nixon's 'Enemies List', which Mr. Schorr read on-air. When he got to number 17 on the list, there was his name.

Whether or not Daniel Schorr posed any real threat to Richard M. Nixon's presidency, the inclusion of his name on that list made him a reportorial superstar, almost as anointed as Woodward and Bernstein.

Sadly, the Schorr reality never quite lived up to that superstardom. Although he was an extremely experienced reporter, especially on foreign affairs, he could never again recover his Watergate limelight. But that didn't make him any different than Woodward and Bernstein, both of whom have done other things of note that I can't for the life of me remember. The same is true of many of the congressional standouts in Watergate - if remembered by general posterity at all they will always be remembered for those hearings, and not much else. So Mr. Schorr was in good company.

If Daniel Schorr's movement into relative PBS and NPR obscurity was inexorable, so was his impact on televised journalism. He remained one of the most admirable yet inscrutable, and somewhat insufferable, reporters of the televised era. A pattern exaggerated with some of today's cable news figures.

Personally, I always stopped what I was doing and listened when he was on, even while disagreeing increasingly with what he said, and understanding increasingly less of it. Come to think of it, that's also a pattern exaggerated with some of today's cable news figures.

One thing's for sure, he was talented and unique (unlike today's cable news figures), and therefore will be missed.

Inertial Misguidance

2010-07-11T16:55:00.000-07:00

Did we really expect miracles?

Barack Obama began his Presidency with the two major pluses of making history and providing a nice counterpoint to George W. Bush. His momentum was huge. The inertia represented by that momentum looked hard to counter, especially by the Republicans, seemingly powerless in their defeat and humiliation.

All this was good news to those of us who consider ourselves Democrats. Who have waited for some true progression towards a more equitable society. One where the rich don't ride through wretched mobs in blacked-out limousines, or retreat in lofty boardrooms or behind securely gated communities.

After all, the formula is an old one, tried and true: Democrats favor wage workers who do the vast majority of the jobs needing done, but individually are powerless; Republicans favor those who have the power and the money. Of course, it's historically not been such a clear distinction - except during Shrub Bush's reign, when the extremes became polarized.

During GWB's time in office, the rich did very well indeed, and the rest just kept on keeping on. The jobless recovery of the 2000-2001 recession never gave the working class what they needed - enough good paying jobs (read: union jobs). Lucky for them the housing boom gave them paper wealth that made life seem equitable. Let the rich get richer, the house is worth three times what I paid for it, so I don't care. But by the end of Bush's second term those houses had begun to shrink in value catastrophically, and the discrepancy that had grown between the rich and connected and the now-jobless workers was painfully clear.

Into that gap stepped Mr. Obama. Educated, erudite, and - we all hoped - fervently Democratic. He spoke inspiringly about ending damaging and wasteful wars, closing Guantanamo, fixing the banking system and health care, and addressing the Big Recession by boosting spending on public infrastructure projects. Relief was in sight.

One and a half years later though, and where are we? Guantanamo is still there. The 9/11 planners whose trials the President and his Attorney General can't find a place for, are there. Conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are on-going, and look unlikely to end for years, maybe decades. There is no peace in the Middle East - not even the remotest restarting of the Clinton era negotiations ignored by Bush during his years in office.

And the Recession looks more like a Depression all the time.

Yes, we do have a health care bill, but it's horribly flawed, weak, and no positive effect will be seen from it by most Americans for years, if ever. And it's still in the process of legal challenges that may eviscerate it further.

George Bush mangled the relief efforts for Hurricane Katrina, to the country's everlasting shame. But Barack Obama has hardly faired better with the BP Oil Spill.

We keep looking to see evidence of his intelligence and leadership, but it's just not materializing.

But maybe it can't, and never could. Perhaps the mechanisms of national politics and bureaucracy are too complex and entrenched for anyone to change. Or, maybe the system breeds leaders who support the system and don't really desire it to change.

In any event, President Obama now finds himself with inertia of a different kind. Rather than the inertia of unstoppable momentum, his now is the kind of the resting object that tends to remain in place. There's no more 'Big Mo', and it's 'All Stop' with seemingly no where to go. The administration's announcement today that it's likely the Republicans will re-take the House in the midterm elections, was a tacit acknowledgment their time as thought leaders was up. They'll be running a defensive strategy from now on. Get re-elected for a second term, no matter what it takes. Not unlike Bill Clinton did after his health care disaster and Democrat losses in the midterm elections of his era.

In the end all we can hope for is that at least a few of the promises our leaders make to us are kept, and that some good comes of them. Whether those leaders are Republicans or Democrats, or some other party.

What did we expect, miracles?

Contemplating Competence

2010-07-08T14:43:00.000-07:00

Does cynicism increase with wisdom, or just with experience? I'd say it's with experience, and that even geniuses can be horribly gullible, but then I'm just being cynical.

Of course, cynicism is easy to come by these days, no matter your experience or IQ. All you need do is read the news in print or on the net, listen to it on the radio, or watch it on TV. Almost nothing you will come across will inspire pride, faith, trust, or any other positive emotion in those who govern us, or in those who report their governing.

We seem to be a nation run by incompetents, chronicled by idiots.

Ask yourself, when was the last time anything was done by our government that turned out well, and had lasting positive results? Hard exercise, isn't it?

The best I can come up with seem to be results that can't easily be tied to discrete actions, but are the results of long-term policy. Like the ending of the Soviet Union and the reunification of Germany. Many feel that result could be linked to Ronald Reagan's aggressive spending on defense, but I'm not so sure that was the only factor, and maybe not even the critical one. And even this desirable event may have a few negative results in tow to spoil the glow. Like the vulnerability of the former USSR's nuclear stockpile.

And the fall of Lenin's Lads was a long time ago now, with most college kids barely toddlers or not yet born. What competent act has happened since then?

Don't say 'The First Gulf War', because I won't accept that answer. Daddy Bush may have orchestrated a successful military campaign, and showed admirable (if ultimately unwise) restraint in not pushing into Baghdad, but he and his advisors completely missed the point that leaving foreign (read, 'Western') troops permanently stationed on hallowed Muslim soil would have decidedly non-positive consequences. Like giving Bin Laden all the motivating PR he needed to recruit his suicidal terrorists.

And don't say the 90's economic boom. At best that was a collection of events that resulted in a flood of money that floated a lot of boats, but not all boats. And there's really no one person or administration to credit for that boom, certainly not Bill Clinton, nor either bracketing Bush.

And what has happened in the new millennium that is unabashedly positive and can be traced to enlightened or intelligent leadership? Well, the new era didn't have long to develop before 9/11 came along and left us with a table run of demoralizing failures.

Many of us hoped the tide would turn with the obviously intelligent, erudite, Barack Obama taking our lead, but that doesn't seem to be happening. You can't always judge a book by it's cover, sometimes competence may be only superficial.

So what are we good at? We can't run the country, report the news, or manufacture anything. We can't get an oil company to plug it's leaking well. We can't build levees that won't fail.

I guess we are good at comedy, and satire, and just plain laughing at everyone and everything. Jon Stewart, Colbert, that's what we do well.

Or maybe I'm just not being cynical enough, expecting competence to manifest in success. Maybe competence doesn't guarantee success, and it's all down to dumb luck.

In which case all of our past leaders may have actually been competent, but unlucky.

Not the press, though, they are still idiots.

Lovely Weather

2010-07-07T13:44:00.000-07:00

It's not nice to kick people when they are down and suffering, but when it comes to the weather woes of my east coast brothers and sisters, I can't help myself.

For the great majority of my life, transpiring as it has after a strategic relocation to the West Coast, east coasters (especially bitter relatives) have constantly bragged to me about their 'Four Seasons'. They can barely restrain themselves with glee when my region is battered by drought and wilting under dry, hot, winds. When it's 80 degrees in LA on Christmas, they are condescendingly sympathetic.

Now, thanks to crazy meteorological swings, perhaps traceable (or perhaps not) to global warming, it's my turn to gloat.

Morning fog, burning off by noon(ish) to reveal a pleasant sunny day in the 70s, while the east coast sweats and simmers under triple digits and hellish humidity.

Lovely Weather ...

Big Planes, Big Plans

2010-07-05T10:40:00.000-07:00

The 4th of July has always meant a get-together with family and friends. For the past 5 years or so, this has meant our family has joined a larger gathering at a friend's well-situated hilltop house. Good food, conversation, beer and wine (to aid the conversation), and a front row seat to distant official fireworks, and a grand view of the local unofficial pyrotechnics that light up the neighborhood. Good fun, with only the slightest hint of law-flaunting rebellion to remind us what Independence Day is all about.

This year, due to a confluence of events things were quite different: our children, both firmly into their teenage years, vanished to spend the 4th with their friends, and our friend decided that hosting the 4th was too much this year, the energy budget being largely expended on other events (the financial budget a bit weakened too).

So my wife and I spent the day mostly alone, which once upon a time would have meant together and engaging in activities best done with just the two of us on the premises. Time and circumstance have ways of warping events and best-laid plans, however, so we found ourselves on separate (but spatially collocated) tracks this 4th.

After all, we had the dogs to deal with, one of whom demands more attention than both kids together on Christmas morning. We also had our separate hobbies: my wife a good book and an addiction to iPhone solitaire; me watching motorcycles race halfway around the world (in my defense - there were Americans involved).

Somehow, the self-involvement of the day didn't bother me too much (I can't vouch for the wife who still hasn't really surfaced from the book). After all, I had just returned from most of two weeks spent in Canada. A lovely country with great people but one which nevertheless reminds me how fortunate I am to live in the USA. There's just something about a place that looks so similar but is actually so foreign that will make you reflect on your country and culture. So, relaxing into the day and not trying too hard to celebrate seemed natural enough.

Until the whole house began to shake and vibrate like the 'Big One' was on the way. Shattering our cones of silence, the wife and I merged at the back door in shared concern. A step out and a look up revealed the largest plane I'd seen since, well, since I'd last seen that type of plane at an air show 20 years before. This was a military cargo jet, probably a C-17, one of the largest planes to ever fly (I won't say 'grace the skies', because nothing that large and noisy can ever be said to 'grace' anything).

With the assurance that the 'Big One' (earthquake, that is) was not happening, my wife returned to her recreation. Airplanes are only necessary travel devices to her, and hold no other significance or joy. Loving planes myself, I watched as the 'Big One' (plane, that is) disappeared into the distance, but with my inner smile reflex stifled by reflection on the absurdity of the fly-over:

Why do we always celebrate our independence, which was won by a rebel mob over an organized military superpower, by displaying evidence that we are an organized military superpower?

Do we celebrate the 4th in memory of those ragged recruits who risked everything for a chance at freedom? Or out of fear, and a need for reassurance?

It's my hope the day holds at least an element of remembering our long-ago heroes, and isn't just a thumping of spears against shields.

Maybe next year our friend will be up to hosting the party again. A touch of rebelliousness will be welcome.

Bye Bye Byrdie

2010-07-02T16:12:00.000-07:00

One of Jon Stewart's rare miscues came recently when he essentially turned the death of Senator Robert Byrd into a joke.

Sure, Senator Byrd started out his career on rocky footing, campaigning against the Civil Rights Act and for the Vietnam War, but you have to give him props for spending most of the rest of his career making amends.

Unlike Mr. Stewart, I remember distinctly that Senator Byrd was one of a handful in Congress who voted 'No' to allowing George W. Bush the power to initiate war in Iraq. That took courage, when even the most liberal Democrats around had succumbed to Bush scare tactics and were falling over themselves to vote 'Yes', out of fear doing otherwise would make them look 'unpatriotic' or worse yet sympathetic to the terrorists.

That was one of those times when standing up for what you truly believed was fraught with consequences, yet Senator Byrd and a few others (Maxine Waters also comes to mind) had the 'right stuff' to do so.

So Jon Stewart riffs on how the Senator's passing was no surprise, seeing he was '92'. Which may be true, but overlooked how important the man had been to preserving what was left of our liberties under Bush, and how much help, despite his age, he was likely still giving us.

I wonder if there are any conservative rapscallions out there now, who may right their ways and become beacons of honesty and justice, ala Senator Byrd, in some distant future? It looks bleak, but you never know ...

The Canadian Connection

2010-07-01T18:21:00.000-07:00

There must be something about the Canadian immigration service, or social service, that makes getting there legally from other countries easier than getting to the United States - or Uruguay, even.

Once ensconced up North, it appears the easiest path to becoming a US naturalized citizen is to assume some deceased Canadian's identity and cross the border. A few years later and - Boom - citizen!

This seems to be the path chosen by those recently unveiled as 'Russian Spies' masquerading as Canadian-cum-Americans.

This is embarrassing on multiple levels: It puts red on our faces since we didn't catch on for a long time. It makes the Russians look bad for spying on their erstwhile allies - Us. And it makes the Canadians look sorely-used and a bit pathetic.

There is a solution, at least in part. Test everyone claiming to be from Canada, and who are seeking US permanent residency or citizenship, on their facility with the French language. Those who score well and claim to hail from anywhere other than Quebec are spies. If they score well and are from Quebec, they are probably spies too. No native French-speaking Quebecois wants to leave Quebec - especially not to become a US citizen.

You might say 'Hold on a minute! This will exclude anyone who speaks French well from immigrating from Canada to the US.'

That may be. C'est la Vie!

Babble-On 35: Balderdash and Deflation

2010-06-30T07:10:00.000-07:00

When in Toronto, read the Globe and Mail. As far as I can tell, it's NOT owned by Rupert Murdoch ...

Deflating all Balloons! - According to the G&M, some financial experts believe we are all doomed. Because we are saving too much and not spending. And because the world governments, most particularly the US, Japan, and China, are slowing or stopping their stimulus incentives, which were the only things apparently prying open our wallets. I say 'Balderdash!' A little deflation means no inflation, right? And the fear of inflation is the main reason governments don't want to 'over-stimulate' the economy. With deflation nicely canceling inflation, governments can print all the money required to bring us back to prosperity. I'll take $5 million in twenties, please.

Justice Deflated - Toronto has had its long, dark, night of the soul, with the recent G20 protests and subsequent police action. Anywhere else, it might be time to internalize the lesson and move on, but not here. The printed press (and even more the televised news) will not let go, and seem intent on wallowing in every worrying detail. I say 'Balderdash!' Is there nothing else to do in Canada? It's summer! Go outside and play. But don't protest anything when you're out there (except, see below) or we'll never hear the end of it ...

Deflating Expectations - As if it was not enough to scare us into worries of an economic version of the 'Incredible Shrinking Man' (or Woman, if you are a Lily Tomlin fan), the G&M this morning also contained a cautionary tale to lower expectations for those seeking jobs in this collapsing universe. It seems hirers are in such a catbird seat they can afford to ignore applicants, or string them out as long as they care to after interviews, before finally telling them 'thanks but no thanks'. Or they can simply send their coldly brutal message of rejection through complete and utter silence. The article in the G&M decries this practice, but just the mention of it deflates the egos and expectations of many out there, who are expectantly waiting by their phone, computer, or blackberry for that call. The G&M blurb goes on to lay out a plan of action, involving well-timed follow-up emails, with a limit of three attempts. I say 'Balderdash!' If a company is so rude as to string you along for weeks after an interview with no contact, set up a robo-mail to bombard them with queries. This may be a particularly effective addition to your resume if the company in question is tech-related. If that doesn't work, protest. Perhaps you can recruit a few of the G20 folks - it's a while before the next summit, isn't it?

Finally, remember the only good deflation is the deflation of ignorance. Read The Globe and Mail, the Star, The London Observer, The Guardian, The New York Times - even the LA Times. But Read!