Skunked!

Sometime in the wee hours of the morning, my brain awoke to growing alarms from shocked olfactory nerves, themselves blind-sided by airborne chemicals sucked in by my unsuspecting nose.

As the lights clicked on in my mental shed and consciousness dawned, a strong impulse to shut them all off again and lapse into a coma overwhelmed me. 

What the f... ?  Had a skunk family held relay races under, or God forbid - in - our house?  From the incredible strength of the odor I had the immediate impulse to glance beneath the sheets.  Was a skunk in bed with me?

The usual culprit in these cases is a skunk letting loose outside the house, but the smell is usually not so intense.  Still, on reflex, I opened a window and checked.  Fresh as a daisy outside! 

A quick walk around our darkened  house found the smell mind-foggingly intense in our bedroom, the living room, the dining room, and the kitchen too.  However, a chilly walk with flashlight around the outside of our house and then a glance into the basement turned up no culprits on which to pin the crime.  The basement didn't even smell!

So what then? Did a skunk, normally a non-arboreal creature, crawl up on our roof and let loose down an air vent?  Did one sneak, somehow, into our house, take a few laps, then equally stealthily slip back outside?  Was the smell coming from a parallel, skunk-dominated, dimension?  Are there skunk ghosts?

Mystery unsolved, and with windows wide open (what thief would enter with this smell),  I lapsed back into fitful sleep. 

If it happens again tonight, I am selling the house, economy be damned!

Babble-Oh 7

Really, Really, T.G.I.F.

The Arrogance of The Long Distance Runner - Is everyone else as tired of hearing about Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich as I am?  If so, skip ahead, but if you are hanging on every soap-operatic moment, then read this Associated Press article on Yahoo.  Blagojevich was out jogging when he heard of today's vote to impeach him (114-1).  He, presumably non-ironically, compared his situation to that depicted in 'The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner', stating that the impeachment will be a 'long-distance run'.  What an arrogant ass.

That Experience Thing - Critics came out in force to protest President-Elect Obama's choice of Leon Panetta as head of the CIA.  It seems that Mr. Panetta has no experience in spying.  Who did they expect Obama to choose, Valerie Plame? 

A Quantum of Craig - From the 'what the heck was his manager thinking?' department:  Daniel Craig, fresh from his triumphal role as James Bond (007) in Casino Royale, and while the sequel to that hit, Quantum of Solace is still in theaters, has appeared in a movie (Defiance), which has him acting in a distinctly non-Bond accent.  Plus it's a war movie which has him looking tattered and generally not kempt (at least it's so in the trailers).   Good luck with the sequel ... (A Quantum of Defiance? The Defiance of Solace?)

Oh, Mama! - Barack Obama has shown the first flaw in his decision making.  He has somehow agreed to let his mother-in-law live in the White House.  What the consequences of this monumental blunder may be only time will tell, but if I were Obama I'd keep open an ambassadorship to some faraway place, just in case.  Senate confirmation would be assured and swift, most likely.

The 7.2 % Solution - Slightly more potent that Sherlock Holmes's favorite recreational medication, the latest number released for percent unemployment in the US shocked the markets today.   What's worse?  About half of the jobs lost in December were in service positions.  What that means is many of us  have been laid-off from jobs we probably hated, but were all we could get (despite that MBA from UOP).  Watson! The Needle!

The Picture of Dorian Bush

Ever notice how the office of President ages its occupant?

At a press conference this morning, Barack Obama already looked older and more careworn, and he's not even taken the oath yet.

Jimmy Carter aged more in his four years of office than he has in the 30 years since.

George H. W. Bush (aka '41') exhibited the wearing effects of the responsibility of office in his four-year stint.  He started out fresh and ended up barfing all over the Japanese prime minister.

Richard Nixon did not age gracefully during his terms, but then he had extraordinary pressures.  Tracking 'enemies' and keeping his ex-CIA mafia in line took a fiendish toll.

Ronald Reagan was helped by already being old when he took office and by being an actor who knows makeup, but by the end of his eight years he was applying the pancake like Bozo the Clown.

No one deteriorated more or as quickly as Lyndon Johnson.  LBJ wore the burdens of war and domestic revolutions (political and cultural) visibly.  By the end the formerly robust Texan looked more gnarled and withered than a bristlecone pine, only without the longevity.  He didn't last long past his Presidency.

No so President George '43' Bush.  He slipped into office looking every inch the happy frat boy, and no visible care has lined his face since.  Given the horrendous events of his terms, you would think he'd look like Ross Perot by now, but not so.

Mr. Bush must have a secret.  Maybe it's simply a positive attitude, as in 'the sun will come up tomorrow', maybe it's the ability to keep short office hours and take frequent naps, maybe he is too shallow to feel the weight of responsibility, or maybe he just delegates everything to someone else and has a beer.

If the latter, I think I know who it has to be ... Dick Cheney.  

Consider this:  who has exhibited the greater physical toll of office, Bush or his VP?  Which of the two has spent more days in a hospital, or secluded in a secure and undisclosed location?  Which of the two shuns public appearances the most?

It's like a twist on 'The Picture of Dorian Grey',  Cheney is the picture to Bush's Dorian.

Whatever Bush's trick may be, I think it's fair to observe that concerned, engaged Presidents take a physical and emotional beating in office, and Bush isn't and hasn't.

Taxes are Taxing

California is in the red.  Money hemorrhaging from every bureaucratic 'poor'.

Problem:  massively decreased tax revenue due to the drop in home ownership, failed businesses, lost jobs, and reduced consumer spending, combined with a budget which swelled optimistically during the 'good' times.

Proposed solution: raise income and sales taxes, and any other taxes that might help.  

Status: the state assembly passed it, the governor is holding it up and looking for a compromise.

Reality: in the depths of recession, no government in its right mind increases the burden on already hammered families by raising their taxes.  Not without truly exhausting every other option first. 

Reality, Part 2: at current levels of state income, all services can't be maintained.  Some of these can be cut back or put on hiatus, others just simply can't.  

Possible solution: seemingly counterproductive though it may be, some tax increase is inevitable.  But it has to be reasonable and have a firm expiration date.  Increasing the state income tax is NOT a good idea at all since it is already high and there are few exemptions. Increasing business taxes isn't smart either, since businesses are failing everywhere.  Raising property taxes would be a bitterly ironic blow to frazzled homeowners scrabbling to remain homeowners.  Better a sales tax increase, only a graduated one and in the reverse of the usual pattern of such things.  Increase the sales tax by a quarter of a percent on items that cost less than $500 (as an example), but leave everything else the same.  That way, the state would be sure to get some extra money rather than just further curbing the purchases of already hard-hit big ticket items like cars.  And consumers would be saved big pain if they happen to need, say, a new car.   Any tax increase must have a concrete and unchangeable expiration date, or its expiration must be tied to a simple, easily measurable, verifiable, economic indicator.

Possible solution, Part 2: Bite the bullet and cut state spending wherever possible. Throw partisanship aside and trim, trim, trim.  Delay projects. Freeze budgets.  Whatever it takes. It's OK to prioritize so that critical safety and infrastructure functions are preserved, and ensure that cuts to education are absolutely necessary, and even then as minor as possible, but everything is open to scrutiny.  Painful, but what else should responsible people do?  And California's reps are responsible people, aren't they?

California, like most other states, have fiscal problems the like of which haven't been seen since, well, the Great Depression, or the 1970's New York City bailout crisis.  And they can't easily borrow their way out, given the worldwide credit crunch.  And, oddly, the federal government isn't rushing to grant them 'bridge' loans, bailout money, or any other kind of fiscal assistance, even though most states could get by with a few billion here or there, California included.  Chump change against the 700 billion financial bailout and the upwards of 500 billion proposed economic stimulus.  And money given to the states would arguably improve life (or at least maintain its quality) for more people than will benefit from the other giveaways, at least in the near term.

Absent any federal help, though, the states are on their own.  California must solve it's problem in the most rational and reasoned way possible.  All petty politics must be put completely aside in an effort to spread the burden as fairly as possible when increasing taxes and cutting budgets.

Whatever the state assembly and the governor ultimately work out, California's voters need to watch closely and take notes and names.

Morning Babble 6

The first Monday of 2009.   This may be a long year...

Blast!

An article appeared on Yahoo recently, reporting an unusual increase in the numbers of earthquakes in and around Yellowstone National Monument.  Now, I watch a lot of 'science' TV, so the news immediately re-ran the 'Supervolcano' programming on my mental monitor.

Yellowstone is apparently one, enormous, 'super' volcano, with an unimaginable amount of molten magma percolating beneath it, just waiting to burst forth and ruin our day. That knowledge puts 'Old Faithful' geyser, and those picturesque springs, weeps, and bubbling sulfur ponds, in a different sort of perspective.

The kind of blast we are talking about would take out my home port, Los Angeles, and much of the western US.  The gloomiest of doomsayers predict the affects of all that ash from the volcano (and burning cities!) would screw up the world weather so badly that much of life on earth would be whacked.  

One of the last programs mentioning this Yellowstone Supervolcano story said scientists believe Yellowstone has entered the 'Red Zone'.  One of the tell-tales of an impending blow-up is an unusual increase in earthquake activity.  

Hmm, remember that Yahoo story  I mentioned?  

More Muddlier Than Ever

Back to 'The Muddle East' again, and the US still can't make the right moves.  

Sure, Israel had good reason to retaliate against Hamas rocket attacks, which had increased in number to several hundred in the month of December alone (according to an article in 'The Economist'), but is Israel's response acceptable?   I suppose that depends on whether you believe Israel can do no wrong and the Palestinians are all evil, or have some less black or white take on the situation.  

What is certain, is that whoever is really in charge in Israel and in Hamas can't play nice, don't want to play nice, and wish we'd all stop looking at them and spoiling their game. And the current US administration obliges.  

Meanwhile, men, women, and children who wish nothing more than to work, be with their families, practice their religion, and enjoy life are getting hurt everyday, in Gaza and in Israel.  

The Lunacy

There have already been musings in the press about the legacy of George W. Bush, and there will only be more as January the 20th approaches.

It's natural to wonder how the future citizens of this country and the world will view our departing President, but now is not really the best time to ponder this subject.  We are still too close to the disappointment, the memories of lost opportunities and wrong paths taken, to make sound judgement.

As an illustration, my current view on Bush's legacy is negative.  Actually, calling it negative is like calling a black hole dark, a vacuum airless, or Wall Street a black hole.

Perhaps I will think differently in the future.  Perhaps time and a restoring democracy (and economy) will soften my view.

Perhaps. 

But right now, to my mind, the legacy of these past eight years might best be called a 'lunacy'.

And In With The New ... Welcome 2009!

For a while there I thought 2008 was going to be the year without end. 

Not that it was a completely terrible year.  We did have (finally) an election outcome that was not only hoped for by the majority, but which the majority actually won.  Eight miserable years of pain and diminishing world respect ended, and replaced by hope.  We hope.

But I won't be missing 2008.  There was pain enough that needs forgetting.  So much and so raw still that I don't need to make a list. 

As the clock tipped past 11:59, December 31st, 2008, I personally twisted the key in my memory lock on the year, tossed the key in the messy drawer of time, and turned to face ought-nine.  The beginning of the last year of the oughties.  

Not the 'naughty-oughties', they haven't been fun enough.  We have one year to turn this blank hole of a decade into a time worth remembering for more than 9/11 and the Bush hegemony.  One year to turn this from the 'Survivor' decade of 'the Lost' into, maybe, the beginning of a golden age.

Hello and welcome,  '09