TacomaGals vs the Multiverse

I Swear I Didn't Know...

2011-06-13T13:37:00.000-07:00

I just thought she was some idiot. So I wrote her a comment to this: (It's about the weiner issue)

My comment:

When I vote for someone and pay them big bucks with my taxes I want them to do the job, not spend time looking for tail and giving the company a bad name.
In the weiner case, as in the spitzer case (no capitalizations; I’ve made the choice), these guys were online for hours of taxpayer time exhibiting bad judgement and lack of restraint—not want I want in a person who’s representing me.
If you’ve made a promise and married an individual at least hang on until your term is over. You not only made a promise to a spouse and children but you have a responsibility to use your brain—the one in your head—for the people you represent. After that—go for it—I won’t respect you but at least you applied yourself to the job at hand (so it speak).

Don’t make promises to spouses and families that you know you’re not going to keep.
Stay single, fu** your brains out in your off hours and give your constituents the 8-12 hours of serious thought they elected you for.

Oh…and this:
“If only our news networks led with what matters: the three million women and girls who are currently enslaved in third world brothels — enslaved, literally, beaten, raped, drugged, not permitted to leave unless someone “buys” their freedom. The eight thousand children who died today largely of preventable diseases like malaria, and what’s working to help them. The mounting scientific evidence that climate change is shaping up to be the worst ecological and humanitarian disaster in human history." ~~L.Bloom

The money and the sex is all that matters to powerful, arrogant men, the ones who own the media.
There’s no money in third world nations, I am very sad and ashamed to say.
If the cameras are NOT on these men (the ones we can reach)—if the media does NOT pay attention, even more women and children will be sacrificed as playthings to power…as revenue and as spoils of war.
There’s really no stopping it but don’t tell us not to pay attention to the likes of weiner and spitzer et al.
Given the freedom you suggest they’d escalate to third world tactics pretty quickly.

It's Not New and it Will Never Change

2011-06-12T22:34:00.000-07:00

The male of the species just has to show it off. Women aren't impressed.

‘In the sad case of Representative Anthony Weiner’s virtual adultery, the Internet era’s defining vice has been thrown into sharp relief. It isn’t lust or smut or infidelity, though online life encourages all three. It’s a desperate, adolescent narcissism.’ R. Douthat in the NYT.

Narcissists head for the Big-time. They’re surgeons and priests and politicians. They are ubiquitous in nature and they never learn—it’s a DNA thing.

We may just have to learn how to handle the issue. When you get a photo decorate it like a Christmas tree. Use a chainsaw on it. Dress it in Vera Wang then take another photo and post it on a website still to be named.

Suggestions welcomed.

There is not going to be an end to this.

Turning the Table - Gina Barreca

2011-06-12T22:30:00.000-07:00

Imagine If a Female Politician Photographed Her Genitals
June 10, 2011, 11:36 am
By Gina Barreca
Really, take a moment: Imagine if a middle-aged female politician decided she should send to random strangers a photograph of her vagina the way Congressman Weiner sent to women a photograph of his penis.
She would not be asked to resign. She would not be the subject of witty, albeit salacious, banter on television and radio programs. She would not be subject to serious questions concerning her judgement, her ability to govern, and the state of her marriage.
She would be institutionalized. She would be grabbed in the street, put into a straightjacket, and carted off to an asylum.
She would be medicated instantly and heavily.
Her family would explain, in tears, that she been subject to catastrophic emotional trauma because otherwise there could be no excuse for such outrageous and utterly insane behavior.
But if a guy is waving his flagpole around we’re supposed to salute it as evidence of his being “just one of the boys”? If a man exposes his penis and scrotum in order to take a fuzzy picture of it (or is it “them”?) our collective response is to wonder what the implications are—culturally—of this act?
Just think: if Sarah Palin exposed her vagina rather than her ignorance, she would be thrown out of politics instantly.
Americans—male and female—still have trouble saying the word “vagina” although they have no trouble with the 23,425 words for “breasts.”
Women’s bodies, like women’s lives, have always been the subject of stupid jokes and whispered, ignorant remarks. Despite the fact that about half the world spends half a lifetime bleeding once a month, for example, we still advertise menstrual products as if we’re selling weed at a playground (“Hey, you want it ‘Because’? You want it ‘Always’? You want it ‘With Wings’?”).
But a New York politician takes a bunch of photographs of his body and mails them to powerless young women—not to Pelosi, or Clinton, or Sotomayor, mind you, which would have been GREAT because their responses would have gone down in history—and he yet still wants to be taken seriously as a leader in our government?
Sure, everybody has done something in our personal lives of which we are not proud. And sure, most everybody is willing to forgive politicians some kind of weirdness in their own personal lives because otherwise NOBODY would run for office.
But Weiner was driven, not by lust—which we can sort of find forgivable—or even by some other kind of desperate passion—but by vanity. It was plain old lousy, dumb, nerdy, unmerited, creepy vanity that made him take pictures of what he thought was his handsome virile self and send those pictures to women he didn’t know personally in order to feed his sense of unparallelled perfection.
That’s not somebody we need on our side. He’s on nobody’s side but his own.

Hospice and Palliative Care

2011-06-06T08:05:00.001-07:00

This TacomaGal is a recently retired oncology nurse.
I can tell you that there are a lot of very sick people out there who'd give their eye teeth to have someone tell them it’s ok to stop treatment so they can go home and stay home and be comfortable with their families.
The relief in someone's eyes when you ask them how they think this is all going and what they'd like to see happening is palpable--really.
Patients sometimes keep up a front because they don't want to disappoint their families or their doctors.
The atmosphere around end of life issues is much more open than it was 15-20 years ago but we still have a way to go.
Palliative care and hospice care are all around the country now but still not used optimally.

I think the death panel scare didn't go the way the Tea Party wanted because too many people have had very good care with hospice and palliation in the past few years. More and more people see the need for practical thinking as we come to the end of our lives. And, gratefully, more and more doctors are asking patients how they want to live their lives.

Euthanasia is a very personal decision and one I can understand all too well.
Hospice provides simple comfort and relief from the pain and anxiety at end of life.

For the chronically ill who are worn to a thin string and still can see years of suffering before them--that's the rock and the hard place--I would recommend to anyone who asked me about it to see a palliative care MD (if they can't talk to their own doc) and have a good long serious talk.

For those who don't know: palliative care is matching the patient's treatment to the patient's desires.
Ultimately all medical care is palliative.

Assisted Suicide

2011-06-06T07:37:00.001-07:00

Ross DoubtThat (my spelling)
Wrote this for the NYT this morning, I reproduce it here in it's entirety.
The comments it produced follow.(Selected by me)

The Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/06/opinion/06douthat.html

Dr. Kevorkian’s Victims
By ROSS DOUTHAT

The case for assisted suicide seems to depend on human sympathy — on the impulse toward mercy, the desire to ease what seems like pointless pain and suffering. Why shouldn’t the terminally ill meet death on their own terms, rather than at the end of prolonged agonies? Why shouldn’t the dying depart this earth with dignity, instead of enduring the inexorable stripping away of their physical and mental faculties?

Such are the sentiments that made Jack Kevorkian, who died last week of natural causes, a hero to many millions of Americans. Though he was tried repeatedly and finally convicted of second-degree murder, the former pathologist’s career as “Dr. Death” (he said he assisted at more than 130 suicides) was widely regarded as a form of humanitarianism rather than a criminal enterprise.

But if such sentiments are understandable, they are morally perilous as well. We do not generally praise doctors who help dispatch their terminally ill patients, as Kevorkian repeatedly and unashamedly did. Even when death is inevitable and inevitably painful, it is not considered merciful to prescribe an overdose to a cancer victim against her will, or to gently smother a sleeping Alzheimer’s patient.

The difference, of course, is that Kevorkian’s clients asked for it. That free choice is what separates assisted suicide from murder, his defenders would insist.

But this means that the moral case for assisted suicide depends much more on our respect for people’s own desire to die than on our sympathy for their devastating medical conditions. If participating in a suicide is legally and ethically acceptable, in other words, it can’t just be because cancer is brutal and dementia is dehumanizing. It can only be because there’s a right to suicide.

And once we allow that such a right exists, the arguments for confining it to the dying seem arbitrary at best. We are all dying, day by day: do the terminally ill really occupy a completely different moral category from the rest? A cancer patient’s suffering isn’t necessarily more unbearable than the more indefinite agony of someone living with multiple sclerosis or quadriplegia or manic depression. And not every unbearable agony is medical: if a man losing a battle with Parkinson’s disease can claim the relief of physician-assisted suicide, then why not a devastated widower, or a parent who has lost her only child?

This isn’t a hypothetical slippery slope. Jack Kevorkian spent his career putting this dark, expansive logic into practice. He didn’t just provide death to the dying; he helped anyone whose suffering seemed sufficient to warrant his deadly assistance. When The Detroit Free Press investigated his “practice” in 1997, it found that 60 percent of those he assisted weren’t actually terminally ill. In several cases, autopsies revealed “no anatomical evidence of disease.”

This record was ignored or glossed over by his admirers. (So were the roots of his interest in euthanasia: Kevorkian was obsessed with human experimentation, and pined for a day when both assisted suicides and executions could be accompanied by vivisection.) After his release from prison in 2007, he was treated like a civil rights revolutionary rather a killer — with fawning interviews on “60 Minutes,” $50,000 speaking engagements, and a hagiographic HBO biopic starring Al Pacino.

Fortunately, the revolution Kevorkian envisioned hasn’t yet succeeded. Despite decades of agitation, only three states allow some form of physician-assisted suicide. The Supreme Court, in a unanimous 1997 decision, declined to invent a constitutional right to die. There is no American equivalent of the kind of suicide clinics that have sprung up in Switzerland, providing painless poisons to a steady flow of people from around the globe.

Writing in The Atlantic three years ago, Bruce Falconer profiled one such clinic: Dignitas, founded by a former journalist named Ludwig Minelli, which charges around $6,000 for its ministrations. Like Kevorkian, Minelli sees himself as a crusader for what he calls “the last human right.” And like Kevorkian, he sees no reason why this right — “a marvelous possibility given to a human being,” as he describes it — should be confined to the dying. (A study in The Journal of Medical Ethics suggested that 21 percent of the people whom Dignitas helps to commit suicide are not terminally ill.)

But unlike Kevorkian, Minelli has been free to help kill the suicidal without fear of prosecution. In the last 15 years, more than 1,000 people have made their final exit under his supervision, eased into eternity by a glass of sodium pentobarbital.

Were Minelli operating in the United States, he might well have as many apologists and admirers as the late Dr. Death. But it should make us proud of our country that he would likely find himself in prison, where murderers belong.
======================================================================
Selected comments:
2.
Karen Garcia
New Paltz, NY
June 5th, 2011
11:04 pm
Have you ever noticed that conservatives and some religions are only concerned with people during their nine months in the womb and then again when they are drawing their last breaths? Those trying to deny health care to poor people in our current nihilistic political climate have no right to criticize assisted suicide when they themselves are indirectly contributing to assisted homicide through enforced medical neglect. Fifty million Americans currently lack health insurance, and with the burgeoning unemployment crisis, that number will only grow.

Ross Douthat seems to think anybody feeling the slightest physical or emotional pain will run to the suicide clinics should they ever become legalized. He sure doesn't seem to have much confidence in the resilience of human beings. To compare a terminally ill person with a bereaved person is just plain silly. Some grieving people kill themselves, but most do not. They know life goes on. For the terminally ill, life does not go on.

Maybe if we had universal health coverage, more people would stay alive and not want to kill themselves due to a disease that was never treated due to lack of money. How about it, Russ? Sounds like a humane plan to me.
==================================================================

Marie Burns
Fort Myers, Florida
June 5th, 2011
11:04 pm
Ross, probably hundreds of doctor-assisted suicides occur every day in the U.S. People like me who have living wills volunteer to let medical professionals let us go.

I have personally witnessed two such decisions within my own family. The doctors were not only aware of what was going on, they helped both the dying patient & the family through the wrenching ordeal. No, the doctors didn't -- as far as I know -- administer any drugs to shorten the patients' lives. But they honored the patients' wishes to go when they were ready. These were rational decisions made by fearless people who were fortunate to have brave, caring doctors.

Most people have heard some version of, "I don't know how she did it, but Granny stayed alive till Uncle Fred could get here." Or "After Paula died, Jim just didn't want to go on." We don't have much control over when we die, but in the normal course of dying, we do have some. People who don't want medical personnel messing up that normal course or do want doctors to help that course along should indeed have the option.

Perhaps when you are older you'll better understand the process of dying. It's a bit flip to write, "We're all dying every day." Most people your age have no idea what that means. And I'm glad of that.

The Constant Weader at www.RealityChex.com
==========================================================================
.
Susan L.
New York, NY
June 6th, 2011
12:13 am
I feel the same way about assisted suicide as I feel about abortion: If you don't like it, don't do it - but don't you dare tell me what I can (or can't) do with *my* body! If I had the horrible misfortune to have a terminal illness and I was unwilling to continue suffering needlessly, I just hope I'd have the ability to decide when I'd had enough. I also find it quite ironic that right-wingers are only too eager to tell the rest of us what we should or shouldn't do - in myriad aspects of our lives - and yet otherwise they have a totally hands-off attitude when it comes to things we desperately need (like taxes to pay for pesky little things such as police officers, firefighters, teachers, healthcare and a whole host of other critical things that are part of a First World society).

Whales Unhappy and Distressed

2011-06-06T07:07:00.000-07:00

Does it occur to anyone that whales are throwing themselves out of the water for the same reasons that people throw themselves off the Golden Gate Bridge?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/06/us/06whale.html?hpw

Flacking? They spelled that wrong.

2011-06-05T12:44:00.000-07:00

Flacking for Big Pharma

Drugmakers don’t just compromise doctors; they also undermine top medical journals and skew medical research.

http://www.theamericanscholar.org/flacking-for-big-pharma/

This from me:
It’s true. They’ll give you something that works but it will be more expensive (by at least 300%--judging by what they charge in Canada) and there’s very likely to be something that already works quite efficiently out there for you.
Do some research, people. Go buy a few medical journals and take a look at the advertising. Get someone to translate the medicalese for you.
Or just look at the regular magazines you buy, especially the ones for new mothers or for the elderly. And then ask some questions.
Clinical trials for new drugs are necessary but often they are only done to replicate some drug that’s gone generic and isn’t making enough money for them to send to the offshore financial institution.
You can check it out yourself. It just takes a little time.
Yours in poverty,
TacomaGal

Philosophy

2011-06-05T11:52:00.000-07:00

Topic: Philosophy
Blue-Collar Philosophy
________________________________________
We working-class stiffs don't hate intellectuals. We know someday we may need intelligent people around, so we like to reward and encourage that sort of behavior -- just so they don't get the idea that they're BETTER than the rest of us
________________________________________
by Richard in Japan
(conservative)
Monday, May 30, 2011

This is from me, TacomaGal:

Everyone who asks 'why?' or says 'tell me more about that.' is a philosopher.
I become overwrought when I hear someone going off about philosophers or elites or intellectuals. Most people want to know things so that they can understand and not be idiots.
True there are other people who want to just scare the pants off of you and take your money, but if you do a little research before you hand your money over you will be a philosopher, elite, intellectual as well--not so bad.

Richard from Japan whose headline I stole ends with this, for which I applaud him:

'In conclusion, we great unwashed have nothing against philosophers, or philosophy. We reject the false dichotomy of intellectuals vs. anti-intellectuals since ultimately each of us appreciates true wisdom when we hear it, and deep down each of us aspires to be the one who utters it. One can laugh at Descartes for oversleeping, but once he managed to pull himself out of bed, he contributed greatly to both mathematics and the science of rational thought. Thales, when he wasn’t falling into wells, made significant contributions to Western thought also, but falling into a well? That’s funny.'
R from J's weblink: http://www.nolanchart.com/article8707_BlueCollar_Philosophy.html

And…(this is from me and GBS)

The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it. ~GBS

I Thought He Was Dead

2011-06-04T06:30:00.000-07:00

I don't mean to be crude or unfeeling but I was surprised each time one of the Arness brothers died--It had been such a long time since I'd heard anything about them.
It brings to my mind a poem by Mr. John Updike.

Were I to die, no one would say,

“Oh, what a shame! So young, so full

Of promise — depths unplumbable!”

Instead, a shrug and tearless eyes

Will greet my overdue demise;

The wide response will be, I know,

“I thought he died a while ago.”

For life’s a shabby subterfuge,

And death is real, and dark, and huge.

The shock of it will register

Nowhere but where it will occur.

— JOHN UPDIKE

It's going to be that way for most of us. But that doesn't make our lives smaller or of less import.
As you lift yourself through life make sure to lift the people around you too. With kind, instructive words and sincere smiles and pats on their shoulders.
And there's your immortality.

Recluse? Maybe.

2011-06-02T18:38:00.000-07:00

I may call myself a recluse but I'm not really, I have too many friends and neighbors to actually qualify.
I do however like a lot of time to myself and it seems to run in my family. After a day or so of too much input we have to run home and draw the blinds and pull the covers over our heads. We seem to gather together our scattered energies that way.
I've been this way since I was a really little kid and my mom pulled me out from under the blankets and dropped me at the bus stop.

What could she do? There were laws to be observed...

And then of course adolescence came along and I discovered men which kept me out and about, and then college and work and marriage and kids of my own--you know the drill.

And now there's retirement. Hallelujah! I'm reading all the books I missed out on and never listen to radio or TV or even go out much except for long walks, blessedly alone. I also go to the symphony, the park, the botanical garden...

There are recluses who, Kazinsky-like, just hate people and are just too busy writing manifestos to bother with socializing.
And agoraphobics who really are afraid to go out.
And older folks who subsist on so little money that they can't afford to ask anyone in for coffee. Too many of those...
And quite a few of us, as the years go by, have lost our friends and close relatives to death and as nice as young people are and neighbors newly met (say at the senior center). They are strangers to us when we long for people to 'remember' with. We're just adjusting.

I can't speak for anyone else but I've always valued my time, I'm even jealous of it and won't hand it over to just anybody except my really good friends. I have four of them and they're scattered around the USA so when I want to see them I have to take my shoes off, get scanned and get on a plane. Next spring I'm going to Europe for a month where I'm going to see all the big cities and sit in art galleries and in front of the duomo in Florence and Milano and go into a trance of appreciation and gratitude. None of my friends are trance-prone like I am and they want to be a certain place at a certain time and I don't have to deal with that so much anymore more. I can say, "Go there and I'll meet you at the Pantheon, Wednesday, 2pm--we'll have lunch."

I do miss a man's company more than I care to admit. But I can't eat my cake and have it too ( or whatever ) so aside from the occasional 'how do' I live without.

I am fortunate in my reclusiveness. I enjoy it and appreciate it and I've been longing for it since I sprang from my mother's womb.
For me it's a wonderful choice and a tremendous relief.
TacomaGal

Bigotry

2011-06-02T18:21:00.000-07:00

I'm thinking out loud here and probably being tremendously simplistic. You'll let me know, won't you?

As far as legal marriages and partnerships--does it make that much difference who marries who? Why so many rules?

When people respect/love each other enough to want to spend their lives together perhaps the only rules should be that:
First: they are over eighteen years of age and
Second: That making the promise and signing the papers in front of God or the J.P. or whoever means that everything is halfsie until that time when the marriage ends.

Man/woman, SSM, Siblings, Cousins, Capulets/Montagues...it doesn't matter. Not anymore. The way we're playing with genomes pretty soon we'll be speculating on inter-species marriage. I'm not being facetious.

If any two (or three--more than that as mentioned somewhere on this site--leads to choosing sides and wearing armbands) entities promise to take care of each other and provide for each other's needs, they should be able to engage in a full-bodied, no holds barred marriage.

Real committed love and respect for another human is a gift (and a miracle) where ever you find it. Honor it. They'll pay taxes and conspicuously consume and mow the lawn like the rest of us and if they start having whacked-out sex on the freshly mowed lawn they'll get arrested like the rest of us.

Life is hard. It would be a little easier if humans stopped being outraged at every label they didn't like. Look beyond the label.

ALL committed love and respect needs to be celebrated whether it lasts a lifetime or not.

Get To Work

2011-06-02T18:18:00.000-07:00

I can't imagine having a full time occupation that didn't spill over into my life. You'd have to be a real expert at compartmentalization. Or conversely to perform an occupation and not have your life affect it.
There may be some jobs or careers that you could separate out but would you want to?
I've always thought of work as being art anyway. You put your mark on any kind of work you do, you bring yourself to it whether you're a nurse or a teacher or a spot welder on the GM line. You make the work and the work makes you.
Is this what you mean?
Not letting one portion overwhelm the other is tricky. Engineers shouldn't make their kids inventory their toys every night and it's a bad idea to treat your co-workers like your children (or your spouse).

As for living like an artist, the art of living is work. I don't like the way that sounds but I can't think of another way to put it. It's all one thing and achieving a happy relation between the two aspects is the real art and I imagine there's a continuum for that; sometimes work and life come together in detente and sometimes not so much.

The Scary Hate Question. How do Short, Brown Americans Deal with It?

2011-06-02T18:14:00.000-07:00

I tried to reply yesterday but the subject is too big and too sad and I couldn't put fingers to keys.
When I consider how people are manipulated and tortured and terrified the world over I'm ashamed to be human. This has been the way of power since the first animal was hatched. Humans have refined it to a horrifying level.
Ignorance and helplessness lead to hate, a powerful emotion that can and is used to further agendas of governments, businesses, tribes, families...individuals...

More of us need to discuss this, I am completely confounded in the face of FOX News.

The best we can do, I think, is to refuse to hate and refuse to be afraid and to be glad there is a Daily Show to call the manipulators out and point to the lies.

Don't let them get to you. Refuse to hate and refuse to be afraid and keep on stepping.

Hermana honey, jump in here.

WHEN TO LET GO OF RELIGION

2011-06-02T18:10:00.000-07:00

Thirteen years of hard-core Catholic School right here. Catholic born and bred.
Atheist now and it wasn't a big change--I look back on all that crazy stuff and I pick out what really fascinated me. It's a really witchy and superstitious religion. Blessed mothers and saints and torture and dying for your faith--horribly--and this when you're 7 years old. What nuttiness.
My husband grew up the same way but his school years were with the priests and brothers; he did not like them at all and he was atheist before he even got out of school. No god would invent the kind of stuff Catholics do.

Anyway, I have integrated some of it into my life. May Day--hail to thee, oh beautiful mother, just lovely. Easter--eggs and new growth and all that. Christmas and the days begin to get longer, Candlemas and the light returns...
So, I guess it made a pagan out of me.
I don't have any particular resentment against them any more. I do think that religions in general are a painful scam to control people and take everything they've got--even their peace of mind--is that resentment?

Happy Summer Solstice!

THE WORK WE DO

2011-06-02T18:07:00.000-07:00

What do we do to make our livings? What are our motivations for doing it? Do we enjoy what we do or are we laboring away at something we can't stand?
Whatever it is and however we do it, joyfully, half-heartedly or resentfully, I submit that for most of us living in the States (or anywhere else) it is the individual doing the task who gives respectability and standing to the work.
My Dad was a plumber and my sister and I are nurses--up to our elbows everyday in--you know--whatever...But he was the best damn plumber and we are the best damn nurses we are capable of being. We go to our jobs prepared, we dig in and do it wholeheartedly and with dignity. We maintain the standards of the professions and we maintain the standards we hold for ourselves as human beings living in a flawed race of individuals.
No manner of employment or profession is inherently bad or good--it is the individual that makes it so.
Priests and clergymen: awe inspiring we used to think, but now, not so much.
Bankers and financiers: likewise.
Experts, in any area: are expert in getting their own paychecks first, so buyer beware.
If you don't like what you do, advance honorably, don't leave a pile of crap in the chair when you go.
Life itself is the hardest thing any of us will ever do--do it with care.

Girls may not be funny. MY ASS!

2011-06-02T18:05:00.000-07:00

I never thought about this before--male vs female humor-- this this is my first musing on the subject.
I married my husband for a lot of reasons, one of them was because he was funny. You just can't live with someone you can't have a laugh with.
I'm funny too--funnier now that I'm old and my responsibilities are lighter. It's a great way of lightening a situation up--of taking the edge off.
Maybe female humor is more calculated to deflect pain or more aware of pain--no, I don't think so.
'Pain plus time produces comedy' That's a universal truth.

Well, I just don't know, but I'll keeping thinking about it.

Re: Thinqon, look it up. ON LINE PERSONAS

2011-06-02T18:03:00.000-07:00

Online persona:

I'm old and I've come to the conclusion that caution is over-rated. Of course I don't want to be so loose that I paint a target on myself for any old serial killer so I'm going with judiciously carefree.

I found this site a couple of days ago and I'm overjoyed to make statements and ask questions and not have family and friends taking wide detours around me or just giving me blank stares--I'm the crazy old aunt/grandmother who probably has a gun in her purse ( I don't though, just an umbrella and a fork--in case I find something to eat. )

In youth we have to be cautious to a degree--we have things to protect; things we could lose. But as time passes and you find that you really can't protect anyone or anything and that loss is a direct result of living, well then you'd probably better open up to life a bit more so that it doesn't become a closed, airless room.

I'll probably think of more on this topic but for now my opinion is that you have to become less cautious as you proceed through life; 'entropy is all' --I can't remember where I read that-- but I want to steer clear of it until increasing decrement takes the choice away from me.

Writer's Block

2011-06-02T17:55:00.000-07:00

I read somewhere that if a bricklayer came home and told his wife he'd have to go to bed for six months because he had 'bricklayer's block' said wife would hit him with a brick and then throw him out. I believe it was James N Frey.

If we have writer's block we're writing about the wrong thing--or we need to paint (or some such) for a while.

If you CAN'T do something you probably need to do something else for a while.

There's a story in that.

My Sister is Writing an Actual BOOK......

2010-02-08T17:03:00.000-08:00

......so, you're stuck with me. (Her posts live on. Look for 'On the Road'.)

The picture above is of my actual desk. Nature is reclaiming it's own and, at fifty five years of age, I find a portion of comfort in that thought.

Anyway, it's not nearly as cramped as it looks. I cropped out a good square foot of bare desk space from the foreground. My husband is a good sport and only occasionally makes ominous references to 'The Day of the Triffids', or says, "FEED me, Seymour!"

In the winter, this desk is where it all takes place. This is where I pay my bills, listen to music, post comments to Reddit, maintain my websites and natter with my friends. It's my game room, my daily news, my reference library and my solace on those nights when I simply cannot sleep. What better place to keep my plants? Their quiet and exotic presence is a pleasure to me and an inspiration as I realize that these other lives, strange and unfathomable as they are, grow and bloom as happily as if they were in their native South Africa, Turkey, Central America or Asia, instead of in a dinky old Cracker Jack box of a house in Yorktown, New York. They bring the world to me as surely as the internet does.

I spoke to an old friend yesterday. It had been almost twenty years since we were last in contact. I shouldn't have been surprised that it felt like only yesterday. Tempus certainly does fugit, especially after you've hit forty.

My search for a nursing job that I can tolerate continues in frustrating fits and starts. I applied today at Ethan Allen Staffing; a very large temp agency that supplies workers to all sorts of industries. They have an application and interviewing process that would make Henry Ford drool with envy. You fill out many forms; you watch a video on 'Safety in the Workplace'. You take a test. You read a pamphlet and then you take another test. Only then are you allowed into the interview portion of the process. If you 'pass' that, you read a booklet, take another test and finally collect all your proofs of identification, certifications and licenses that were being scrutinized and photocopied while you were running the maze. They told me that I'll, "...be in the system by tomorrow". Sounds ominous, doesn't it?

This blog is actually called 'TacomaGals' and will go back to being so when my sister has polished and published her book. I read a rough draft and it's really very good. She can put together a plot, which is amazing to me. I am, and have been, an avid reader all my life. For the last ten or fifteen years, my favorite books have been mysteries. Scandinavian mysteries. (I blame 'Smila's Sense of Snow' for that.) You think I'd be able to throw together a semblance of a plot after all my exposure to Henning Mankell, Steig Larsson, Karin Fossum......but no. I am but a poor essayist. If I had the talent of S.J. Perelman or E.B. White, I could be content with that. Alas.

Time to water my plants; an exercise in concentration since most of them are sitting atop important and sensitive computer components. What's life without a little risk?

- Maggie

"Take Two Aspirin and Slit your Wrists in the Morning."

2009-12-01T04:03:00.000-08:00

When people think of New York, they envision bright lights and dark alley ways. They think of a teaming Metropolis where anything can be obtained or experienced if you have the money and the desire for it.

New York is where Jerry Orbach (His work is his monument.) played Billy Flynn on Broadway and Lenny Briscoe on 'Law & Order'. It is, and was, the capital of commerce and art; of fashion, food and great music. Busy and exciting, it's made even spicier by a hint of danger and intrigue. It's the 'Big Apple. It's the city that never, ever sleeps.

I come from no such place. "My' Town, New York slept straight through the 1930's and into the 1970's, yawning and shifting position only slightly during it's long nap. It was a place where dirt roads were common and sidewalks (when there were any) were made of wood. It was a town and a time where a nine year old child could walk into the local druggist and buy a pack of cigarettes for her mother, without a blink from either side of the counter. (And it wasn't always a lie.) It was a town that even the railroad had abandoned, yet we still all lived on the wrong side of the tracks.

If 'My' Town possessed a doctor, we children didn't know of it. When we were ill; when our cousins, aunts, uncles and probably our dogs were ill, we were put into a car and driven to Ossining. (Which is home to another monument occasionally featured on 'Law & Order'; Sing-Sing Prison.)

We were taken to one Dr. Gilbert, a quiet and genteel physician of the old school - A man who resembled 'Judge Hardy' in appearance, dress and manner. We visited him in his office which was located in his own home, a sedate brick affair tucked quietly into a well-heeled residential cul-de-sac. His waiting room looked as though it had been decorated by Jane Austen, with paintings of rosy-cheeked children smiling out from gilded frames hung on creamy walls. The carpeting was thick, (in an Oriental style, if I correctly recall) and the settees were in heavy brocade.

The good doctor, and I say that in all sincerity, had his office to one side of a long, darkened hallway, at the very end of which was the door that led to the house proper. We never saw behind that door, and I was somehow wildly curious about 'Mrs.' Gilbert and her brood of little 'Gilberts'. (Who had to have been in their thirties by then, considering Doctor Gilbert's advanced age.)

In his brightly lit office, we received our polio shots, had deeply embedded splinters removed and stood stock-still on his tall, metal scale while he measured us and told us how much we'd grown since our last visit. He was a full-service doctor, providing care from before infancy to beyond old age for generations of our family. In fact, we later discovered that he had acted as de facto marriage counselor for our parents. He kept us all well.

That was an age ago. I still live in 'My' Town, but time has visited us, and while we retain a measure of 'Podunk'ness, we are now just another bedroom community to Gotham that lies forty miles southeast.

And nobody has just one doctor anymore. Between us, my husband and I have Dr. FeelGoodEnough, a psychiatrist and all-around good fellow who tends to my bouts of melancholia and shares my interest in travel, botany and photography. We have Dr. Mailbagger, a bright young thing (under fifty) who syringes out my husband's ears and manages his asthma symptoms. And we have Dr. Longshadow, who bills himself as an internist and phlebotomist. It is Dr. Longshadow who has inspired this essay.

Dr. Orin Longshadow received his medical education from a prestigious European university at about the same time that 'My' Town was hitting the snooze button for the last time. I know little about his personal life and would like to keep it that way. On first impression, you would notice that he is a man who looks you squarely in the the elbow, the shoe, or at the wall behind you. A veritable oracle, he deduces your illness, diagnosis AND your course of treatment before you've walked through the office door. Admirably, he disregards any wild opinions from his patients. (He once advised me to have my gallbladder removed because my liver enzymes were elevated. Since I was visiting him to be treated for an acute case of Lyme Disease and had been running a temperature approaching 103 degrees, I protested that my liver enzymes had every good reason to be elevated without any assistance from my gallbladder. Fourteen years hence, my gallbladder remains well-behaved at home and my liver enzymes are perfectly within normal range, thank you very much, Dr. Longshadow.)

It's my own fault, I suppose. He's given me ample reason for finding a different (read, 'better') physician. About a decade and a half ago, I fell into a particularly dark, blue funk. And having no one else to turn to, I made an appointment with him. I sat on the examination table, weeping and unable to explain why, while he stood as far away as that hot and tiny room would allow, his back up against the door and his hand straying for the knob. I was sent away with a prescription for Zoloft (2 refills), Ativan, (no refills. This is New York.) and the admonition that if I took it into my head to commit suicide, I should first dispose of the bottles so that no one would know he had prescribed them for me. He offered me no follow-up visit and no referral to a psych therapist. His only piece of advice was that nurses (I am a nurse.) were very likely to become addicted to drugs.

Because of that visit, and because of his subsequent hunger for my gallbladder, I avoided Dr. Longshadow for many, many years. Good fortune has given me reasonably good health and I felt that my procrastination in finding a actual doctor was forgiveable. Indeed, on the eve of my 55th birthday, I remain hale and hearty, free of any physical complaint except those attendant to my age and genetic heritage.

I was recently casting about for a job. I found one quickly enough and was only mildly distressed to be told that I must supply my new employer with the results of a recent physical exam.

I did call other doctors, but they, following proper standards of care, told me that as a new patient I would have to be thoroughly tested, examined, scanned and sniffed before they would do anything like a basic work physical. In addition, since I was not ill, and since my visit would necessarily be a long one, these truly busy doctors couldn't offer me an appointment for a month or more. So, it was, "Hello, Dr. Longshadow."

I called and made my appointment for the following week. I told the office manager that I needed a pre-employment physical. I was very clear about that. Very clear.

When I arrived, I was shown into the same (possibly the only) arid and air-less matchbox of an exam room where I had defended my gallbladder so many years before. And after twenty five minutes of contemplating the wrinkled butcher's paper that covered the exam table I was re-introduced to the durable Dr. Longshadow.

Studiously avoiding my gaze, he asked me why I was there. I had assumed that the folder he held open in front of him was my chart, but apparently it was his daily horoscope or perhaps a recipe for 'Chicken Marengo', because there certainly wasn't anything written on it that told him who I was or what I needed.

I explained that I was getting a new job and needed a pre-employment physical. He took my blood pressure. Then he asked me if my new employer had given me a form for him to fill out. They hadn't. I said so.

"They should have given you a form.", he said, obviously annoyed.

"Well, they didn't, and your office didn't tell me to bring one when I called to make the appointment."

He turned his back to me and began to write. (Remember, at this point, he has only taken my blood pressure.) When he turned back he was holding a prescription slip in his hand. I took it and read it.

It said; "She can work at LPN position."

He would have brooked no protestation, even if I hadn't been too astounded to offer it. One co-payment later and I was out the door.

The supervisor at my new job must have a good sense of humor. When I handed her the 4"x4" results of my physical exam, I put on my most abashed face and told her that Dr. Longshadow had perfected the position of GP to a minimalist art. I said that his motto was, "This far and no futher." Without a form, that is. Her laugh was genuine. She told me that she would find a form for Dr. Longshadow, since what he had given me was.....ridiculous.

I left her building with form in hand, and by traveling quickly enough to make the scientists at CERN glow green with envy, I reached Dr. Longshadow's office just before they closed. (This was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.)

The doctor was not in. (More on that in a moment.) But the office manager told me to come back the day after Thanksgiving to pick up the completed form. "Not before 9:00am!", she added as a parting shot.

I went directly home and found a message on my answering machine. It seemed that the doctor (who was not in) wanted me to make an appointment for Monday in order to complete my physical. This was very annoying to me, but surprisingly conscientious of him. The trouble was that I was supposed to start work on that same Monday. Since his office was now closed and would not re-open for another two days, I had no choice but to call my supervisor and beg her to let me start the next Monday. She said, bless her, that it wasn't a problem.

So, I went to have my physical completed today. I had already filled in all that I should fill in, and some of what he should have filled in. I didn't expect much, and what I got was even less.

After a 45 minute wait spent happily listening to Stephen Fry reading short stories on my Crackberry, I was permitted into the oubliette. He appeared with the form, signed it, stamped it and handed it to me without ever getting close enough even to take my blood pressure. Another co-payment later and I was out the door.

Looking back, I can't say that I feel aggravated or chagrined about any of it. Today is my birthday. (It took me longer to write this than I thought it would.) Happy Birthday, I have my physical! And while Dr. Longshadow may never have gotten my gallbladder, he certainly has my bile.

- Maggie

The Thin White Duke - Live in Berlin. And classy as hell!

2009-11-25T13:51:00.000-08:00

Look how happy he is to be making music. What a guy!

And is this song perfect for him, or what??

Philippines Birth Control Has Enemies

2009-10-25T16:39:00.000-07:00

Luis Liwanag for The International Herald Tribune

By CARLOS H. CONDE 9:45 AM ET

"Religious figures say a bill that would expand the poor’s access to birth control is contrary to Catholic teaching."

So what? ...says this Copper-Bottomed Bitch.

Until the head of the Roman Catholic Church is a woman who's been forced to bear children and until the head of the Roman Catholic Church has to live on a very small budget; until he's been raped; until he stops covering for pedophiles; until he has to live in a neighborhood of drug addicts and alcoholics; until he has to look for work and can't find any; until he sees the children he's born sicken and die for lack of proper food or medical care--he and the Roman Catholic Church are irrelevant.

Irrelevant!

Stop being bossed around by men who live in palaces.

Ignoring Our Own

2009-10-17T09:22:00.000-07:00

While mulling the prospect of sending up to 40,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, we’ve stood idly by, mute as a stone, as school districts across the nation have bounced 40,000 teachers out of their jobs over the past year. That should tell you all you need to know about twisted national priorities.

This is from Bob Herbert's piece in the NYTimes.

I have a lot of respect for Bob. He just speaks the plain truth.
It's so easy to look at the BIG PICTURE and to forget what's under our noses. We become so blind to the little things, the everyday things that before you know it they eat away the fabric of life and kill you--or make you so weak and useless--and juiceless that you'd be better off dead.
America: beating it's chest and blowing hard and ignoring its own.

Markets

2009-10-15T09:32:00.000-07:00

I was going to post a major rant today but I've decided to simply observe-- I'm wading through the crap trying to make a few things clear to myself.

Obama's Nobel- I understand why he won--he is hope and a breath of fresh air from this side of the Pond. The powers that be on the Nobel Committee are rewarding positive behavior. Ouch. Now we have to work with that.

Health Care and Banking - both are bottom line businesses, always have been and always will be. It's counterproductive to insure the chronically ill or to refuse money from the gullible and uninformed, especially when they're just screaming to give it to you. Now we have to work with that.

The Military - has reached it's goal for enlistments for the first time since the volunteer army was instituted. No jobs. No brainer. Hmmm--what to do?

Social Security - will be out of business in 2 years?...3?
No jobs. No brainer. Grab that early retirement...and make it 1 year.

The bottom line truth is that everything is a market. Everything. It's an inescapable fact.
So it falls to the people to teach their children well--and even then human nature is going to get in the way at every turn...that's not fair, you say? What is?

Equity and mercy and trust are lies...nice concepts to be sure but in the end they're fiction, I was going to say that they were fairy tales but really, have you read the Original Brothers Grimm?

We are all gullible and we've been mass hypnotized to believe that there are experts out there who know what they're doing--no, no, the experts are expert at getting their next paycheck--that is all. And that's what we all should be doing--adapting to a changing world and moving on. We have to teach our kids to use history as a jumping off point--not something to clutch at and be nostalgic about--analyze the facts, babies, and go from there.

Respect and honor, equity, mercy and trust are things that only come from each individual and they have to be tempered with skepticism and well-timed ruthlessness.
It's a hard road to teach that, because it's not profitable to have an occasionally ruthless, always skeptical and intelligent public.

Now we have to work with that.

Timor Mortis Conturbat Me.......NOT!!!

2009-10-10T02:08:00.001-07:00

In 1992, following the death of a beloved family member, my husband and I decided to purchase a burial plot in the same cemetery in which he was buried. It's a small cemetery, and we knew that space might be getting tight, so we wanted to ensure that we had an 'in' when the time was right.

The picture above is of a circle of sod that I excavated from our plot and replanted in a Corning Ware soup mug. It's sitting next to me as I write this.

I made no changes, except for the addition of the stones. Two of the stones are from Dorset in England and the other two are from Montauk, Long Island. I think they give it a nice Stonehenge-ish look.

I'm very fond my little plot. It, like me, originated in the same town where I have remained for the last 55 years. It feels like a relative. It feels like home.

When I walk through our cemetery, I see the names of people that I knew as a child, families who lived on our street, parents of friends that I worked with. And I know that when it's time for me to get off the bus, I'll be buried under pine trees, next to long-dead Quakers (who have a reputation for being good neighbors), and I'll quietly decompose, unembalmed, encased in a large egg carton (or a wicker basket) in the town where I will have lived and died.

Who needs Heaven? I'm already home.

- Maggie

Email MADNESS!

2009-10-10T00:58:00.000-07:00

I received this in my email a few days ago. It's another one of those inaccurate rants that are mindlessly forwarded and propagated like an insane fractal pattern, eating up bandwidth and irritating me.

The original was written in a rainbow of colors, with font sizes varying from large to larger. (The screenshot at the top of this page of the email's final sentences will give you some idea.)

What I received is in red.

What I replied is in Blue.

2010 is an election year for 1/3 of the senate and all of the house of representatives.
It would be nice if congress got the message; the voting taxpayers are in charge now.

Social Security 2009

LET US SHOW OUR LEADERS IN WASHINGTON "PEOPLE POWER" AND THE POWER OF THE INTERNET. PLEASE FORWARD TO ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS. IT DOESN'T MATTER IF YOU ARE REPUBLICAN OR DEMOCRAT! KEEP IT GOING!!!! Propose this in 2009: START A MOVEMENT TO PLACE ALL POLITICIANS ON SOCIAL SECURITY ------------ --------- --------- ---- SOCIAL SECURITY:

(This is worth reading. It is short and to the point.) Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions during election years. Our Senators and Congressmen and Congresswomen do not pay into Social Security and, of course, they do not collect from it. You see, Social Security benefits were not suitable for persons of their rare elevation in society. They felt they should have a special plan for themselves

So, many years ago they voted in their own benefit plan. In more recent years, no congress person has felt the need to change it. After all, it is a great plan. For all practical purposes their plan works like this: When they retire, they continue to draw the same pay until they die. Except it may increase from time to time for cost of living adjustments. .....

For example, Senator Byrd and Congressman White and their wives may expect to draw $7, 800,000.00 (that's Seven Million, Eight-Hundred Thousand Dollars), with their wives drawing $275K during the last years of their lives. This is calculated on an average life span for each of those Dignitaries. Younger Dignitaries who retire at an early age, will receive much more during the rest of their lives. Their cost for this excellent plan to them is $0.00. NADA!! ZILCH!!! This little perk they voted for themselves is free to them. You and I pick up the tab for this plan. The funds for this fine retirement plan come directly from the General Funds; "OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK"! From our own Social Security Plan, which you and I pay (or have paid) into, every payday until we retire (which amount is matched by our employer), We can expect to get an average of $1,000 per month after retirement. Or, in other words, we would have to collect our average of $1,000 monthly benefits for 68 years and one (1) month to equal Senator Bill Bradley's benefits!

Social Security could be very good if only one small change were made. That change would be to Jerk the Golden Fleece Retirement Platform under the Senators and Congressmen. . Put them into the Social Security plan with the rest of us Then sit back..... And see how fast they would fix it! ALSO ALLOW ONLY 8 YEARS OF SERVICE FOR CONGRESS AND 12 YEARS FOR SENATE

This is my reply:

Oh, poop!

Monday, September 28, 2009 11:46 AM

From:

"maggie kampp"

To:

"Zernardo Holler"

You didn't give me anyone to reply to but you! Nevertheless.....

There are 2 (that's 'two') reasons that I wouldn't forward your attached email. First, with all it's different font sizes and colors it resembles a doctor's eye chart. Second, it doesn't appear to be accurate.

I did 1 (that's 'one') search on Google and ended up with this.....

http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/uscongress/a/congresspay.htm

.....which may be equally inaccurate, but has the benefit of not appearing to be written by a frothing maniac. (I know that you're not a frothing maniac. You're just.....forwarding the froth onward.)

I'm under no illusions. I know that people of power and influence will always cut the best deal for themselves. Those who have much, want more. And they will take more at the expense of those who have barely anything at all.

If we apply that truism to the world at large, we might see that "The US consumes 25% of the world's energy with a share of global GDP at 22% and a share of the world population at 5%." - Wikipedia

Or that "... 16 percent of the world's population is consuming some 80 percent of its natural resources. - As reported by CNN

If we did a little research, we might see that it's not just Congress that grabs more than it's share. As a nation, we are very greedy people!

"Problems in Paradise

“If the levels of consumption that...the most affluent people enjoy today were replicated across even half of the roughly 9 billion people projected to be on the planet in 2050, the impact on our water supply, air quality, forests, climate, biological diversity, and human health would be severe.”

Today’s human economies are designed with little attention to the residuals of production and consumption. Among the most visible unintended byproducts of the current economic system are environmental problems like air and water pollution and landscape degradation. Nearly all the world’s ecosystems are shrinking to make way for humans and their homes, farms, malls, and factories. WWF’s Living Planet Index, which measures the health of forests, oceans, freshwater, and other natural systems, shows a 35 percent decline in Earth’s ecological health since 1970.

Environmental Impacts of Consumption Calculations show that the planet has available 1.9 hectares of biologically productive land per person to supply resources and absorb wastes—yet the average person on Earth already uses 2.3 hectares worth. These “ecological footprints” range from the 9.7 hectares claimed by the average American to the 0.47 hectares used by the average Mozambican." - WorldWatch

However, I AM in favor of political activism, so 'screed' on. And get thee to a voting booth!

How many people will you forward this to?

I may put it on my blog. (I'm not the only author, but you'll be able to pick out my posts.) I haven't posted there in many months. As I recall, my last post concerned hot dogs combined horribly with pasta. This will make a pleasant change. - Maggie (TiaHermanaMaggie)

ps: Oh, by the way, I've never written any of my opinions anonymously. The Offices of the former and the current Presidential Administrations can tell you that. But I must reciprocate the thoughtful offer you made during our last exchange. If you want me to expunge your name from this before I post it, I will happily do so.

Since I never received permission to use this person's name, I have expunged it.

- Maggie

This is a voice you can lean against....

2009-10-09T23:07:00.000-07:00

.....and feel like you've got a sun-warmed pillar of granite at your back.

Tom Waits sings about the gritty side of life. As he says in one song, he's "across town from Easy Street". And yet there's a wry joyfulness in his words, room for hope, plenty of time to wait for a better day.

Except for two songs. One is 'Georgia Lee'. The other is this one. 'Burma Shave'.

Here's a song about getting off of 'Burma Shave' and getting on with life.

- Maggie

Music Appreciation day

2009-10-09T22:49:00.000-07:00

We haven't done one for awhile. I was going to do Tom Waits, singing 'Burma Shave', but decided on this one instead. It's a song for our times, performed by the best singer you've never heard of; Mr. Arnold McCuller!

- Maggie

Education in the USA

2009-10-09T10:59:00.000-07:00

Our business as Americans is to see that every other American is educated and healthy.
There are those who would reduce the USA to a collection of city-states, each providing (or not providing) their citizens with these necessities and each fighting the other--those are the factions who would make us weak and they are succeeding.
Every American needs to be be provided with a solid education and with solid health care.

That being said: This is the Man I Love:

PAUL KRUGMAN

follow both links.

PAUL KRUGMAN

If you had to explain America’s economic success with one word, that word would be “education.” In the 19th century, America led the way in universal basic education. Then, as other nations followed suit, the “high school revolution” of the early 20th century took us to a whole new level. And in the years after World War II, America established a commanding position in higher education.

But that was then. The rise of American education was, overwhelmingly, the rise of public education — and for the past 30 years our political scene has been dominated by the view that any and all government spending is a waste of taxpayer dollars. Education, as one of the largest components of public spending, has inevitably suffered.

Until now, the results of educational neglect have been gradual — a slow-motion erosion of America’s relative position. But things are about to get much worse, as the economic crisis — its effects exacerbated by the penny-wise, pound-foolish behavior that passes for “fiscal responsibility” in Washington — deals a severe blow to education across the board.

About that erosion: there has been a flurry of reporting recently about threats to the dominance of America’s elite universities. What hasn’t been reported to the same extent, at least as far as I’ve seen, is our relative decline in more mundane measures. America, which used to take the lead in educating its young, has been gradually falling behind other advanced countries.

Most people, I suspect, still have in their minds an image of America as the great land of college education, unique in the extent to which higher learning is offered to the population at large. That image used to correspond to reality. But these days young Americans are considerably less likely than young people in many other countries to graduate from college. In fact, we have a college graduation rate that’s slightly below the average across all advanced economies.

Even without the effects of the current crisis, there would be every reason to expect us to fall further in these rankings, if only because we make it so hard for those with limited financial means to stay in school. In America, with its weak social safety net and limited student aid, students are far more likely than their counterparts in, say, France to hold part-time jobs while still attending classes. Not surprisingly, given the financial pressures, young Americans are also less likely to stay in school and more likely to become full-time workers instead.

But the crisis has placed huge additional stress on our creaking educational system.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the United States economy lost 273,000 jobs last month. Of those lost jobs, 29,000 were in state and local education, bringing the total losses in that category over the past five months to 143,000. That may not sound like much, but education is one of those areas that should, and normally does, keep growing even during a recession. Markets may be troubled, but that’s no reason to stop teaching our children. Yet that’s exactly what we’re doing.

There’s no mystery about what’s going on: education is mainly the responsibility of state and local governments, which are in dire fiscal straits. Adequate federal aid could have made a big difference. But while some aid has been provided, it has made up only a fraction of the shortfall. In part, that’s because back in February centrist senators insisted on stripping much of that aid from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a k a the stimulus bill.

As a result, education is on the chopping block. And laid-off teachers are only part of the story. Even more important is the way that we’re shutting off opportunities.

For example, the Chronicle of Higher Education recently reported on the plight of California’s community college students. For generations, talented students from less affluent families have used those colleges as a stepping stone to the state’s public universities. But in the face of the state’s budget crisis those universities have been forced to slam the door on this year’s potential transfer students. One result, almost surely, will be lifetime damage to many students’ prospects — and a large, gratuitous waste of human potential.

So what should be done?

First of all, Congress needs to undo the sins of February, and approve another big round of aid to state governments. We don’t have to call it a stimulus, but it would be a very effective way to create or save thousands of jobs. And it would, at the same time, be an investment in our future.

Beyond that, we need to wake up and realize that one of the keys to our nation’s historic success is now a wasting asset. Education made America great; neglect of education can reverse the process.

Obama's Prize

2009-10-09T07:01:00.000-07:00

Oh no!!
They've surely put the kibosh on Obama now...
Jimmy Carter, Al Gore...

Peace prize winners just don't make it in America.

Although they are the ones who really do the work and stay in it for the long haul...

Firmly in the Mid-Range

2009-10-08T13:52:00.000-07:00

Now read this...

I read this in Arts and Letters today and I'm just enchanted by how much has been written about the lowly 'middlebrow'.
I love the statement about highbrow ectomorphs perusing the bookshelves of the new professor with 'no background'.
Is it highbrow to be rude?
Sometimes it seems that it's highbrow to be lowbrow--think of the eight GWB years when elites and intellectuals were so reviled--I'm surprised we didn't actually have a bookburning.
I'm a middlebrow seeker of truth, I think that most of us are--but we're quiet while we search, we're hopeful while we search--we're looking for the deep down whatever that resides in the human race--that thing that elevates us and makes us better and different and gives us souls...
We end up discovering that we're no different from anything else in the universe. What we are is another part of everything that exists as we know it (and what the hell is that, can I ask you?). And the only thing that's really true for humanity is death and taxation.
I don't think that's a bad thing--and I don't think that any of us should ever stop looking for truth--we should keep reading the great books and asking the same old big questions because the OTHER true thing about humanity is that to a person we're always asking 'why?'
Nobody knows why. But 'why' is the reason we evolved--we keep looking for the answer and trying new things...
(Oh, for heaven's sake, TacomaGal--what's your point?)
I'll look for an answer to that and get back to you.

Life in the Slow Lane

2009-10-07T07:39:00.000-07:00

This is from HuffPo today. It reminds me of the post about choosing your own prison so I so give you Arianna Huffington on the joys of slow living--but not yet.
Like almost everything else that happens--every trend we see--it has a lot to do with the Boomers. The Boomers are aging and looking back on their lives and saying to themselves...WTF??? Why on earth did we run like rabbits for 40 years when the best thing in the world is sitting on the sofa reading a book--or walking around the neighborhood--or being glad your kids are all grown up. Nothing changed because of all that running. So, we made some money? Any old banker can come along and steal it from you and not even go to jail! There are still wars, sickness, crime, poverty. The world is the same only more hi-tech and even faster now--everyone grouching all the time and being discontented--for heaven's sake the conservative christians in the States are re-writing the bible--it's not godly enough, I guess, altogether too much love and compassion running through it. But it takes time to re-write a bible, you have to study it and decide what parts to change, leave in, take out...oh, it's a loooong process. But as ever I have digressed: here's Arianna on slow living.
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I'm reading (actually re-reading) and would love you all to read In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed, a terrific book by Carl Honore, published by HarperOne in 2004, in which a self-professed "speedaholic" advocates the need for a more balanced existence.

"Speed can be fun, productive and powerful, and we would be poorer without it," writes Honore. "What the world needs, and what the slow movement offers, is a middle path, a recipe for marrying la dolce vita with the dynamism of the information age. The secret is balance: instead of doing everything faster, do everything at the right speed. Sometimes fast. Sometimes slow. Sometimes in between."

In the opening chapter, Honore, a Canadian-born journalist living in London, writes about the turning point that led him to become one of the godfathers of the (not so slowly) burgeoning slow movement. Nearly ten years ago, Honore was at the airport in Rome, waiting for his flight home, and talking to his editor on his cell phone. Like far too many of us, he says, at the time he was wired and harried, a "Scrooge with a stopwatch, obsessed with saving every last scrap of time, a minute here, a few seconds there."

As such, while on line and on the phone, to make his time even more "productive," he started skimming a newspaper. A headline caught his eye: "The One-Minute Bedtime Story." The article was about a volume in which classic children's books are condensed down to 60 seconds. Eureka, he thought to himself. As the father of a two-year-old, he saw the book as a great bedtime time-saver. As he started making a mental note to order the book as soon as he got home, he suddenly found himself thinking: "Have I gone completely insane?"

"Standing in that lineup," writes Honore, "I begin to grapple with the questions that lie at the heart of this book: Why are we always in such a rush? What is the cure for time-sickness? Is it possible, or even desirable, to slow down?"

Luckily for all of is, the answers are: yes it is possible, and yes it is desirable. And Honore has done a terrific job of showing the way.

I came to the book through a Eureka moment of my own. A couple of years ago, exhausted from working too much and eating and sleeping too little, I fainted, hit my head on my desk, broke my cheekbone, and ended up with five stitches over one eye. Determined to find some balance in my life, I took Honore's book with me on a trip to Greece.

The deeper I got into the book, the more I realized that I had had a towering example of the joys and benefits of slowness right in front of me for most of my life: my mother.

As I wrote in a column shortly after her death in 2000, she and I had an unspoken deal: hers would be the rhythm of a timeless world, a child's rhythm; mine was the rhythm of the modern world. While I had the sense every time I looked at my watch that it was later than I thought, she lived in a world where there were no impersonal encounters, and never a need to rush.

"The last time my mother was upset with me," I wrote, "was when she saw me talking with my children and opening my mail at the same time. She despised multi-tasking. She believed it was a way to miss life, to miss the gifts that come only when you give 100 percent of yourself to a task, a relationship, a moment."

And yet, in the years since her passing, I'd grown farther and farther away from the lesson that was her greatest gift. Reading Honore's book in Greece rekindled her spirit for me.

This is not to say that adopting slowness is easy. It's definitely not. And I recommend the book not because I've mastered it, but because I need its message reinforced. In other words, it turns out that, not surprisingly, slowness can't be mastered quickly.

One of the things I especially love about In Praise of Slowness is Honore's tone throughout. Far from a lifestyle guru who's preaching his enlightenment from on high, Honore himself is a pilgrim, trying to learn how to slow down and enjoy the journey. He takes us along for the ride while he travels the world, learning what novelist Milan Kundera called "the wisdom of slowness" and how it can enrich virtually every part of our lives.

We now have the Slow Food movement, which started in Italy and at this point boasts nearly 100,000 members. It emphasizes local food, sustainable agriculture, and taking time to enjoy not just eating meals but preparing them. We also have the Slow Sex movement, teaching Inner Slowness through meditation, the study of Slow Cities, etc, etc. And there is a lot the slow movement can teach us about how we bring up and educate our children.

Honore not only articulates the philosophical underpinnings of the slow movement, he also provides specific examples of how to incorporate it into our lives through such things as the directionless ramble, naps, and meditation.

Honore is not some easy-to-dismiss Luddite who wants you to throw your BlackBerry in the river. "This is not a declaration of war against speed," he explains. "Speed has helped remake our world in ways that are wonderful and liberating." But it can also become "a kind of idolatry."

Even though the main theme of the book is our day-to-day personal obsession with time, rereading the book this week I was struck by how much it also had to say about our financial crisis and the rethinking occasioned by the collapse of free-market fundamentalism.

"Modern capitalism generates extraordinary wealth," he writes, "but at the cost of devouring natural resources faster than Mother Nature can replace them. Capitalism is getting too fast even for its own good, as the pressure to finish first leaves too little time for quality control."

Under what Honore calls "turbo capitalism," people exist "to serve the economy, rather than the other way around."

So not only can we as individuals profit from the benefits of slowness, so, too, can our culture -- and our economy.

Please join me in reading -- or rereading -- In Praise of Slowness (And don't miss Carl Honore's blog post reacting to our picking it). And let me know what you think. Let's get the conversation going.

Get your copy of Carl Honore's In Praise of Slowness at Amazon.com.

Get Your Health Off My Body

2009-10-06T15:38:00.000-07:00

OK, It's not good for you...but there is such a thing as personal freedom.
For myself I just have to say that I wish fat and sugar and carbs had never been invented, but there you are--I'll deal with it. If I die early at least I'll have had the cheesecake.
Really...there are other things to legislate...for a starter they could take junk foods out of the public school systems. But they're making money off the vending machines, you know.

Then They Came for the Fresca

The growing ambitions of the food police.

By William Saletan
Posted Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2009, at 11:23 AM ET

A nonalcoholic sequel to the Whiskey Rebellion seems to be brewing. And Slate may be joining it. I'll call it the Fresca Rebellion, in honor of our editor, David Plotz, a hard-core addict of the citrus-flavored soft drink.

For a long time, the only discernible libertarian around here was Jack Shafer, a man unable to wean himself from speech, guns, and other annoying constitutional amendments. But lately, other folks seem to be getting a bit Ayn Randy. On Saturday, Jacob Weisberg blew the whistle on New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg for trying to ban outdoor smoking in public parks ("First They Came for the Marlboros"). Yesterday, Daniel Engber went after the hypocrisy and overreaching of soda-tax advocates. And I've become such a knee-jerk defender of burgers and fries that I'm tempted to seek funding from the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

What's going on here? Most of us used to be good liberals. Are we getting conservative in our old age?

I'd say it's the opposite. We're what we were five or 10 years ago: skeptics and fact-mongers with a bias for personal freedom. It's the left that's turning conservative. Well, not conservative, but pushy. Weisberg put his finger on the underlying trend: "Because Democrats hold power at the moment, they face the greater peril of paternalistic overreaching." Today's morality cops are less interested in your bedroom than your refrigerator. They're more likely to berate you for outdoor smoking than for outdoor necking. It isn't God who hates fags. It's Michael Bloomberg.

In Engber's case, the provocation is scientific. To justify taxes on unhealthy food, the lifestyle regulators are stretching the evidence about obesity and addiction, two subjects on which Engber is burdened with contrary knowledge. Liberals like to talk about a Republican war on science, but it turns out that they're just as willing to bend facts. In wars of piety, science has no friends.

In my case, the provocation is partly scientific and partly libertarian. But mostly, it's a shift in the slippery slope. One of my basic rules is that slippery slopes run both ways. If you've never seen it, go watch that Monty Python sketch about Dennis Moore, the Robin Hood copycat who keeps stealing from the rich and giving to the poor until he realizes he's now stealing from the poor and giving to the rich. You have to notice when the balance of power and zeal has shifted from one party to the other.

Engber points out that 40 states tax soda or junk food.* And the soda taxers are becoming ever bolder. Their latest manifesto is an article in the New England Journal of Medicine, co-authored by the health commissioner of New York City, the surgeon general of Arkansas, and several others. It declares soda fair game for government intervention on the grounds that "market failures" in this area are causing "less-than-optimal production and consumption."

What exactly are these market failures? First, the authors argue,

because many persons do not fully appreciate the links between consumption of these beverages and health consequences, they make consumption decisions with imperfect information. These decisions are likely to be further distorted by the extensive marketing campaigns that advertise the benefits of consumption.

That's true. Some people don't realize how bad soda is for them. And I trust the soft-drink companies as far as I can throw them. So let's educate people about how much sugar they're drinking and what it's doing to them. But special taxes? To justify that, we'll need more. So let's move on to the authors' next rationale. They write that

consumers do not bear the full costs of their consumption decisions. Because of the contribution of the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages to obesity, as well as the health consequences that are independent of weight, the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages generates excess health care costs. Medical costs for overweight and obesity alone are estimated to be $147 billion—or 9.1% of U.S. health care expenditures—with half these costs paid for publicly through the Medicare and Medicaid programs. … Escalating health care costs and the rising burden of diseases related to poor diet create an urgent need for solutions, thus justifying government's right to recoup costs.

If you're trying to sink health care reform, this is a good way to do it: Show everyone how subsidized health insurance will entitle other people to regulate your eating habits. But it's worth noting that the authors base their argument on programs that already exist: Medicare and Medicaid.

I'll leave the socialism question to the rest of you. My real interest is in the authors' third basis for regulation: market failure that

results from time-inconsistent preferences (i.e., decisions that provide short-term gratification but long-term harm). This problem is exacerbated in the case of children and adolescents, who place a higher value on present satisfaction while more heavily discounting future consequences.

Wow. This isn't socialism. It's sheer paternalism. It applies even if you cover every cent of your medical expenses. You buy and drink soda because you want the "short-term gratification." Later, you regret this purchase because of its "long-term harm." This, according to the authors, is a market failure that justifies taxation to alter your behavior, totally apart from its impact on public health costs.

This is what worries me about the crackdown on death sticks and edible crap. There's no end to its ambitions. We'd better start applying some brakes.

If you think I'm overreacting, I call your attention to this paragraph in the NEJM article:

No adverse health effects of noncaloric sweeteners have been consistently demonstrated, but there are concerns that diet beverages may increase calorie consumption by justifying consumption of other caloric foods or by promoting a preference for sweet tastes. At present, we do not propose taxing beverages with noncaloric sweeteners, but we recommend close tracking of studies to determine whether taxing might be justified in the future.

I'm sitting here looking at a can of Fresca. The nutrition label says it has no calories. The ingredients label lists only aspartame as a sweetener. If studies show that drinks like this one indirectly increase calorie consumption "by promoting a preference for sweet tastes," the food police are explicitly prepared to tax them. And the crusade won't end with soda. Anything sweet is a target.

I warn you people now. You can ban the Marlboros, tax the Cokes, and zone the Whoppers. But you'll get Plotz's Fresca when you pry it from his cold, dead hands.

Exactly Right

2009-10-06T02:37:00.000-07:00

October 5, 2009

Op-Ed Columnist
New York Times

The Public Imperative

By ROGER COHEN

NEW YORK — Back from another trip to Europe, this time Germany, where the same dismay as in France prevails over the U.S. health care debate. Europeans don’t get why Americans don’t agree that universal health coverage is a fundamental contract to which the citizens of any developed society have a right.

I don’t get it either. Or rather I do, but I don’t think the debate is about health. There can be no doubt that U.S. health care is expensive and wasteful. Tens of millions of people are uninsured by a system that devours a far bigger slice of national output — and that’s the sum of all Americans’ collective energies — than in any other wealthy society.

People die of worry, too. Emergency rooms were not created to be primary care providers.

Whatever may be right, something is rotten in American medicine. It should be fixed. But fixing it requires the acknowledgment that, when it comes to health, we’re all in this together. Pooling the risk between everybody is the most efficient way to forge a healthier society.

Europeans have no problem with this moral commitment. But Americans hear “pooled risk” and think, “Hey, somebody’s freeloading on my hard work.”

A reader, John Dowd, sent me this comment: “In Europe generally the populace in the various countries feels enough sense of social connectedness to enforce a social contract that benefits all, albeit at a fairly high cost. In America it is not like that. There is endless worry that one’s neighbor may be getting more than his or her “fair” share.”

Post-heroic European societies, having paid in blood for violent political movements born of inequality and class struggle, see greater risk in unfettered individualism than in social solidarity. Americans, born in revolt against Europe and so ever defining themselves against the old Continent’s models, mythologize their rugged (always rugged) individualism as the bulwark against initiative-sapping entitlements. We’re not talking about health here. We’re talking about national narratives and mythologies — as well as money. These are things not much susceptible to logic. But in matters of life and death, mythology must cede to reality, profit to wellbeing.

I can see the conservative argument that welfare undermines the work ethic and dampens moral fiber. Provide sufficient unemployment benefits and people will opt to chill rather than labor. But it’s preposterous to extend this argument to health care. Guaranteeing health coverage doesn’t incentivize anybody to get meningitis.

Yet that’s what Republicans’ cry of “socialized medicine” — American politics at its most debased — is all about. It implies that government-provided health care somehow saps Americans’ freedom-loving initiative. Some Democrats — prodded by drug and insurance companies with the cash to win favors — buy that argument, too.

I’m grateful to the wise Andrew Sullivan of The Atlantic for pointing out that Friedrich Hayek, whose suspicion of the state was visceral, had this to say in “The Road to Serfdom:”

“Where, as in the case of sickness and accident, neither the desire to avoid such calamities nor the efforts to overcome their consequences are as a rule weakened by the provision of assistance — where, in short, we deal with genuinely insurable risks — the case for the state’s helping to organize a comprehensive system of social insurance is very strong.”

That’s why, when it comes to health, every developed society but the United States has such a “comprehensive system,” almost always with state involvement. However, pooled risk does not necessarily imply a public option. It can be achieved through mandated private-insurer coverage coupled with subsidies. That, for example, is the Swiss way — and where Congress seems headed.

But it’s nonprofit insurers who provide the coverage in Switzerland because health insurance is viewed as social insurance — as it is throughout Europe — rather than a means to make money. One fundamental reason a public option — yes, “option,” not single-payer monopoly — is needed in the United States is to jump-start the idea that basic health care is a moral obligation rather than a financial opportunity.

Another is to provide competition to private insurers and so force waste, excess and cozy arrangements out of the American system. Behind all the socialized medicine babble lurks a hard-headed calculation about money — all the profits skimmed from that waste and the big doctors’ salaries that go with it.

It’s not over yet for the public option. President Barack Obama should still push it with a clear moral stand.

He’s been too deferential. The best bit of his speech to Congress on health care was the last — and even there he left the most powerful words to the late Edward Kennedy: “What we face is above all a moral issue; at stake are not just the details of policy, but fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our country.”

Obama then said he’d been pondering American character “quite a bit” and did some “self-reliance” versus government intervention musing.

He should have been clearer and punchier. A public commitment to universal coverage is not character-sapping but character-affirming. Medicare did not make America less American. Individualism is more “rugged” when housed in a healthy body.

Last Chance to See...Muskrat Love

2009-10-05T12:24:00.000-07:00

I'm kidding about the muskrats but check this out.
It's pretty good.

Pitiable

2009-10-05T11:40:00.000-07:00

SEE THE PREVIOUS POSTING

Here's what's sad.
There are people who don't know they have choices.
And there are those who are too poor to have choices--or too sick--or too uneducated. Right here in the USA.
Being able to make a choice is a luxury. It's the greatest freedom and a lot of us don't know we have it. We've been fooled into thinking that we need things that we really don't need at all.
No one can have it all--but we do have a choice about what we take along with us in life and what we just won't lug around anymore.
Make your choice a damn good one--the one that suits you--and let the rest go.

Hostages or... A Prison to Call My Own

2009-10-05T10:31:00.000-07:00

Being a hostage is really kind of dull and most of the time there's no one to bail you out so don't hold your breath waiting for Bruce.
We're all hostage to something; the thing is to remember that most of us here in the States can choose the thing that imprisons us.
McMansions: Hostage to taxes, maintenance, heating/cooling--the lawn.
Your Job: Hostage to the administration--who consider you a liability and can't wait to outsource you and your petty needs(see post of 9/30 or thereabouts).
Your Retirement: Hostage to all those companies and the gov't who are paying your retirement and who (mostly) are running out of money themselves--and all the while STILL hostage to the house and the lawn and the big-ass RV.
Your Health: Nobody needs to smoke or drink or eat pizza and Twinkies so if you're afraid that your health is going to take a header maybe you'd better open a can of spinach instead. However, your health is going to take a header anyway--sooner or later you're going to blow an appendix or get hit by a car (or by cancer) or run your Harley into a tree and failing that you're going to get old. Don't try so hard to stay alive that you don't LIVE. Don't give thousands of dollars every year to insurance companies who also consider you a liability--they take your money and hope that you'll drop dead. Really. Pretty soon they'll be hiring snipers.
OK, I understand if you have kids--we're all hostage to our kids and want to keep them healthy but after you're not a kid anymore and the kids aren't kids anymore why don't you light out on your own? You'll probably eat a lot fewer pizzas if you have to ante up for the by-pass yourself. Screw the insurance companies. If you're just going to die anyway why enrich those bastards in the process? Of course think of all the people who would lose their jobs if we weren't paying insurance premiums...(nurses. oh my god!)
There are others of us who are slaves to our passions, addictions, hatreds, resentments... Take a good look at your self and make a decision about the thing you're willing to give your time and attention and--your life to.
So what I'm saying here is name your poison--pick your prison and then live with it--if you want a six bedroom house well then, pay those taxes with a smile and close off the rooms you don't need.
If you love your job then you'd better just deal with the people who'd love nothing better than to fire your ass and save that salary. Just grin and pocket the cash, honey-pie.
If you're a slave to that thing you resent--go ahead and resent the hell out of it for the rest of your life and good luck to you!

Disclaimer

2009-10-05T04:51:00.000-07:00

We began this blog in May of 2008 not knowing where we would be going with it--we still don't know, however perhaps we should update the disclaimer:
The Original Disclaimer:

We will preface anything we have to say about an imagined person, place or thing with: THE PERSONS, PLACES AND THINGS IN THIS STORY ARE FICTITIOUS AND DON'T PERTAIN TO ANY REAL PERSONS PLACES OR THINGS AND IF THEY DO SEEM A LOT LIKE SOME ONE YOU KNOW OR EVEN YOUR SELF OR YOUR MOTHER IT IS COINCIDENTAL AND PERHAPS ALL IN YOUR HEAD--IT'S ALL ABOUT YOU, ISN'T IT?

Over the months we've been blogging we've been talking about real persons, places and things AND we've been spouting our opinions at warp speed, so while the original disclaimer still stands we should add that the opinions expressed here are merely opinions so there's no need to take them to heart if you don't agree with them.
Go to FoxNews where you'll be happier.

Love Liberally

2009-10-04T05:56:00.000-07:00

...without regard for the conventions...

Jobs for the 21st Century

2009-09-29T13:21:00.000-07:00

Outsourcing and automation put downward pressures on the demand for blue-collar labor during the best of times. However, in the wake of this historic slow-down, positions that have been absorbed by other workers or taken over by computer robotic systems are never coming back. Next time you pick up groceries, take note of how many of the supermarket cashiers have been replaced by self-checkout stations, or how, when you call your doctor's office, there's an automated message system instead of a medical secretary getting you a prescription or test results. Experts warn that when this recession ends, we will most likely see yet another jobless recovery, a term used to describe this distinctively post-industrial phenomenon of economic growth that comes without firms hiring workers.
So just what are the jobs of the 21st Century?
This is not something to be afraid of--it's something to work with. Stop being nostalgic for the jobs of yesteryear and look ahead.
Is GM going to be hiring as many people to work on the line? Hell no.
GM and big businesses like GM are gone as we knew it--they're pretending it will all work out in the end (and it will) but not the way they lead you to believe. Never like it was before.
(Is anything EVER like it was before, for heaven's sake? Learn something!)
Start thinking ahead. What should we be preparing our kids for? What kinds of work will there be once McDonald's starts selling Big Macs out of vending machines?
You know they'll do it. That's progress and that's how the profits are made.

Woman. Writing.

2009-09-29T09:54:00.000-07:00

Yes, the book I threatened everyone with is done. Now I have to get a publisher--I'll do it too.

Statement of Truth: I would love to write like John Updike or Joseph Heller or William Faulkner but I'm just a goofball with a yen to write something so don't expect anything profound from me. Just entertaining and yet written above a third grade reading level.

I went out and bought a couple of romantic suspense books to see what kind of stuff was in the stores and I'm here to say that there's a lot of crap out there. So, I think I'll add some of my own crap to the pile.

To prepare for this writing adventure, which has been and continues to be, a laugh-riot--I've taken some writing courses through Gotham Writer's.
I've learned a lot. For on-line instruction they're pretty good, lots of instructor and student participation.
People who are writing romantic suspense range far and wide--lots of vampires these days. And demons.
But there are so many categories of romantic fiction! I'm amazed.
And so many rules.
I'm old though and I say the hell with rules so finding a publisher may not be so easy.
Because I'm old and I have so much pent up aggression, I was just aching to blow somebody up!
BOOM. Ick. Gone. Fun.
And let me tell you about sex. Lots of erotic romance out there...did you know that there are books that can go on for PAGES AND PAGES of whacked out upside down sex between all combinations and numbers of men and women and yet all the women manage to remain virgins??? It's like magic.
Now I'm just as manipulative as the next writer but I like to at least lean toward the real world so you won't find any virgins in anything I write.
Lots of fantasy being written too--I will never even try it--after Alice in Wonderland and Lord of the Rings, why bother?
Historical Romance.
Hysterical Romance.
Inspirational Romance--this is good--lots of god involvement. I attach another picture because although I haven't asked any of my characters if they're believers or not none of them really care about the old voyeur. They just dig in and have at it.
I start another class next week--after all, I really would like to write good crap.
I'll keep you posted.

Goddesses...and gods

2009-09-28T17:46:00.000-07:00

There are a few goddesses (and gods) left in the world.
They are the ones who will not bow to the ramblings of the ignorant, cretinous or moronic, of which there seem to be more and more. Why is that?
Somebody tell me.
(This means you...and it has to make sense.)

All summer tantrums have been being thrown, heels have been pounding on floors and the cries of them that's been thrown out of office have been heard in the land. Are these the tantrums of children just before they realize it's time to grow up, or just before they steal Dad's cigarette lighter to torch the place?

I'm thinking the latter. Boneheads!

So, the TacomaGals from their widely scattered places of residence are dusting it off to take another wack at the wackos, the fear-mongers and the liars.

But we'll write about other stuff as well. There's a lot of good stuff happening in the world and we'll rejoice over it at frequent intervals. Come along...join in.

Just remember that it has to make sense or be funny.

Love,
TG's

Who'd a Thunk It?

2009-05-25T16:15:00.000-07:00

But here it is.

I Hear Nothing......I Hear Nothing.......

2009-05-25T15:54:00.000-07:00

I refer specifically to bowel sounds from a post-op patient I'm staying with during the evenings at Ye Olde Hospital, but also, more generally, from anyone who has recently been on a cruise.

Just in case you didn't contract norovirus, here are some mouth-watering pictures, taken by someone who has more time to spare than is good for them. I present 'Spaghetti IN Hot Dogs'. It's a challenging combination for the discerning saucier or sous-chef. (Scroll UP to see pix.)

That's the Way the Ice Cap Crumbles....

2009-04-10T11:33:00.000-07:00

Chilled by a recent posting from our good friend, Rich Simon - ScorpionBowl, I was quick to notice this recent article from ScienceDaily. It immediately caught my eye.

So, I went to YouTube. Like a tiger's attack, there can be a beauty in terrible catastrophe.

Hearts and Minds

2009-04-08T04:59:00.000-07:00

Jon Stewart serves us up some hot and fearful clips about those who have suddenly discovered the words 'tyranny', 'liberty' and 'personal freedom'. Rather, they have learned how to pronounce them, but not yet how to define them.

Oh, and Happy 'Potato Day'!

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

M - Th 11p / 10c

Baracknophobia - Obey

comedycentral.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Economic Crisis

Political Humor

Eye-O-Wayyyyy!!!!!

2009-04-03T15:19:00.000-07:00

IOWA-yeah-you go!

Boy and girls together--in whatever combinations you choose.

Praise, Jesus...!!!!!

What a Wonderful World!

2009-04-01T15:08:00.000-07:00

I'd like to go out and have a drink with this dog. A single malt whisky. And perhaps a cigar.

The Cruise Edition

2009-03-26T10:28:00.000-07:00

I'm cruising with my old college room mate again this year.
The Hatchling and I have been together in one form or another since 1967. Forty-two years.
Holy Merde, indeed. We can't believe it.

Patty (the Hatchling) does all the planning and I just follow along. This year we'll go the Grand Turk, St John and Puerto Rico.

This ship you see before you is the one we'll be on.
We will have a balcony.
Patty likes to try new stuff. Last time we cruised we swam with Manta Rays or some such creatures--(this was right after one of them stabbed Steve Irwin).
This time Patty wanted to swim with dolphins but I said NO NO NO I will not be goosed by a dolphin and Patty said
"Oh, Linda, It'll be the most fun you've had in years."
How dare she just assume that I don't have fun! At all...ever...oh please,god, just ONE dolphin.
Well anyway the dolphins are taking the year off so she's booked us a horseback ride/swim in the blue waters of Grand Turk. I think 1967 was the last time I was on a horse.
By April 26th I may be severely crippled.
Blame Patty.
Here's what I will do before the crippling event: drink martinis, sit in the sun for many,many hours, swim and repeat.
Hermana, my Will and Advance Directives are filled out (legally and completely, by an attorney, for heavens sake) Cath is my POA and DPOA unless she can't be and then it defaults to you because I know that neither one of you will hesitate to pull the damn plug. The documents are in the cooler in the trunk of my car because I can be reasonably sure that the car won't burn down (the apartment, not so much).
I will get a safe deposit box at a future date.
My Taxes are done.
Regular programming will resume tomorrow.

You Know What I Hate?

2009-03-25T19:47:00.000-07:00

I hate it when a really good post gets pushed down on the list because we keeping posting.
It's a conundrum.
So, Look At This!! Again, please.

To recap the Hitchen's talk of THREE YEARS AGO:
(I can't believe he's alive but I'm glad he is)

A lot of people who believe in
Christ and
Allah
Also believe in
Killing whoever they're afraid of.

And they are afraid. Cowards.

Fun by Duncan Quirk

2009-03-25T19:45:00.001-07:00

Holy Merde!!

2009-03-25T17:44:00.001-07:00

When did he give that talk??
Yesterday?
I'm surprised he's not dead already.
But I am solidly behind him...although not in this picture.
Go, Hitch!
Articulate radicals rock!

"Hello.", she said timidly.

2009-03-25T14:47:00.000-07:00

She will Let Christopher Hitchens do her talking for her.

Christopher Hitchens - Religion

It's Raining Planes

2009-03-25T13:27:00.001-07:00

Another plane crash today.
Pilots are getting careless.
No more drinking on the job...you can't all be as lucky as Sully.

Today in Pictures

2009-03-25T10:05:00.001-07:00

A Serenade to Paul Krugman

2009-03-23T17:53:00.001-07:00

I've loved him for so long....
It's about time someone wrote a song for him.

Pre-Election Thoughts...Are They Still Relevant?

2009-03-23T08:59:00.000-07:00

See below:

Is it time?

CBBI FIRST DRAFT 10/23/2008 [LOR1]

This first draft is very rough—just ideas.

When you get this read it over, add and subtract ideas.

When an idea doesn’t appeal to you and you think it should be deleted or revised put it in parenthesis or a different font so we can always refer back to our original stuff.

On 10/7/2008 I mentioned to Jean that we (meaning the USA) needed to do something BIG to emphasize the necessity for governmental change in America. Not just a new President but change in every way, foundational and from the ground up. Jean said ‘Yes!’ and before I knew it we had dreamed up a walk across the USA and even Googled a route to take.

We left it there because neither one of us are smart enough to carry such a thing off but we figured that since I was going back East to a wedding I’d put the idea

to M while we were vacationing on LI.

I did that and in three days we came up with the following:

COPPER BOTTOMED BITCHES INTERNATIONAL

(Henceforth to be CBBI)

By the way, I think the bitches part may be too strong, however I also want to get it across to the general public that while we are not militant in any way—we are also not polite and we won’t be glossing anything over or omitting anything that may be uncomfortable. We will be making a BIG DEAL out of the current state of this USA.

AND we will give it all we’ve got.

Also by the way—this enterprise may turn up anywhere on the success/failure continuum—we have to think about how we’ll handle whatever it comes to…or if we can really handle it at all

Ideas raised with great hilarity 10/14 thru17, 2008:

*CBBI

Born to Blog

Cut the Crap Insurrection of

2009

Reclaiming the USA for

Truth

Respect

Responsibility

Accountability

*CBBI

Sea to Shining Sea

Stroll Across America for

Truth

Respect

Responsibility

Accountability

In representative gov’t

2009

“Remember, you work for US”

NOTE (3/23/2009): Perhaps Stroll is not a good word—bringing to mind children in large, wheeled, mother-propelled carts—too vulnerable.

Think meander or promenade

Not Funny; Serious in the Extreme:

Our Basic Principle: The Constitution of the USA

Ideas raised that same time period without much hilarity at all:

We need a manifesto or declaration of some sort to inform the public and the gov’t what our aims are:

We the people are presenting the essential changes that must take place in the governing of the USA.

These changes will be put forth on a new and separate website for the CBBI.

The manifesto must be simple, foundational & functional. Short sentences (we’re playing to the entire USA).

*Truth in Government

*Respect for all

*Responsibility

*Accountability[LOR2]

We regard these 4 items (above) as essential in every citizen of the USA

No buzzwords

No invoking of gods or religion

No provocative songs or music[LOR3]

The CBBI’s are peaceable, strong, intelligent and adamant.

CBBI Strollers are NOT legislators—CBBI Strollers are the general citizenry who vote for their representatives[LOR4] …

Strollers expect the Stroll to impress upon our legislators, current and future, that Truth, Respect, Responsibility and Accountability are non-negotiable as pertains to all Governmental actions.

There are faults and inconsistencies inherent in human ~~nature which, although distasteful, are~~natures which, although distasteful, are private matters.

No signs, banners or any accoutrement that may be perceived as a weapon will be carried during the Stroll.

Once the Stroll begins it carries on to the end.

________________________________________________________________

If the CBBI Stroll grows into what we hope it will we will need:

Things You Find Out ABout Yourself That You Never Knew Until You Started Writing a Book

2009-03-22T11:38:00.001-07:00

Hi.
The Pool Shark is here just because it made me laugh this morning.
Anxiety and Thought are what I'm actually doing but keep in mind that I'm much better at anxiety.
Here's what you learn when you begin to write a book.
1. That you really can't spell.
2. That you really don't know the correct meaning of a lot of words.
3. That the world has changed since you last took a geography class--(1958, I'm thinking).
4. That if you're going to write mystery/romance these days (or ANY days) you can't skip the sex.
4A. If you're going to write sex you're going to have to:
1. Have a panic attack.
2. Try to remember some.
3. Get the thesaurus back out because there MUST be more than one way to say THAT.
5. That there really is more than one person living inside your head.
1. Some of them are male.
2. Writing biographies for them is the only way to go--it works. But...
3. Some of them just jump into your head fully blown and take over--damn them!
a. these are your best characters.
b. talk to them.
c. they will tell you things.
d. some things will be helpful.
e. don't believe everything you hear.
OK, that's enough bizarre for now.
More tomorrow.

100 pages ... and other items

2009-03-21T18:17:00.000-07:00

I'm writing that book I've been talking about and thinking about for so long. I love books and I always thought I'd like to build one myself but as with quite a few other things---I'm a much better appreciator of books, writers, literature, art, music...yada yada yada...than I am a maker of those things...its kind of sad, especially when you're getting on a bit and visibly drying up and out.
Anyway I thought what the hell...if I don't write the damn thing...I'll never have written the damn thing and that would be sadder than all the drying up I'm doing.
So, it's mostly writ.
100 pages today. 53,658 words so far. Its cheap trash chick lit--old chick lit. But with a couple of thoughts and a bit of world travel and I'm seriously considering an assassination--but maybe nothing as classy as that. Maybe someone will just get clobbered with an old Bakelite telephone--you could die from that.
In Other News: The hospital I work at is going all telemetry so in my declining years I'm having to buy a real stethoscope and EKG calipers. I'm the kind of nurse that ignores the numbers--if you're pink and eating your sandwich I call it good but if you're blue and gasping for breath I clap you in the side of the head and call a code. Now I have to run my own codes...and look for my own P waves.
From now on every night when I get to work I'm putting leads on my own chest.

The Springtime Birds arrived in Tacoma a few weeks ago--they are a joy to hear.
Daffies are blooming and camellias and heather--I planted primroses and then we had a hailstorm. Ah well, that's Spring for you.

The photo of the sunny dirt road and the picket fence is mine. I took it up at Fort Worden on the Olympic Peninsula--on the other side of the picket fence is an old Coast Guard Station and a Lighthouse.

The kid with the thesaurus represents the Thesaurus I've had to consult soooo many times while writing the book. AND I read a book by Ammon Shea who read the entire OED in a year and took notes--read the book its fantastic for a lover of words, books, alphabets, libraries--you'll recognize yourself and be heartened to know that you're not the only one who thinks those crazy thoughts.
Tune in tomorrow.

The Woman of the Hour

2009-02-15T08:51:00.000-08:00

Here's a photo of the inimitable Mrs. Gouker who turns 30 today. We celebrated the birthday last evening with a cake and a potful of Chicken and Dumplings from the kitchens of Mother O'Reilly.

Catherine is the trunk of our family tree--the rest of us are just hangers-on. She dances along and we just follow behind taking orders and trying to keep up. She was born bossy...and funny...and smart, which is the dangerous portion of the child.
Two of her recent watercolors are included here and a photo of the Port of Tacoma just because I like it(the port of tacoma, that is.).

Happy Birthday, little girl.
Your mother loves you.

Cats Can't Spit

2009-02-13T17:26:00.000-08:00

I remember the day that Maggie wrote and told me that Shadow's backside had had to be reconstructed...
Ha! I thought, that will never happen my very intelligent Snuggs O'Reilly--he's too smart to put his ass in a sling.
Another instance of me being wrong about something...
Snugg's fuzzy butt is in a sling--and naked as well.
Like everyone that goes to any sort of hospital he's had his last shred of dignity removed.
And twice each day I get to jam a pill down his throat--so I'm glad that cats can't spit.

philosophy

2009-02-11T07:50:00.001-08:00

the lesson of the moth

Don Marquis 1927

i was talking to a moth
the other evening
he was trying to break into
an electric light bulb and fry himself on the wires

why do you fellows
pull this stunt i asked him
because it is the conventional
thing for moths or why
if that had been an uncovered
candle instead of an electric
light bulb you would
now be a small unsightly cinder
have you no sense

plenty of it he answered
but at times we get tired
of using it
we get bored with the routine
and crave beauty
and excitement
fire is beautiful
and we know that if we get
too close it will kill us
but what does that matter
it is better to be happy
for a moment
and be burned up with beauty
than to live a long time
and be bored all the while
so we wad all our life up
into one little roll
and then we shoot the roll
that is what life is for
it is better to be a part of beauty
for one instant and then cease to
exist than to exist forever
and never be a part of beauty
our attitude toward life
is come easy go easy
we are like human beings
used to be before they became
too civilized to enjoy themselves

and before I could argue him
out of his philosophy
he went and immolated himself
on a patent cigar lighter
i do not agree with him
myself i would rather have
half the happiness and twice
the longevity

but at the same time i wish
there was something i wanted
as badly as he wanted to fry himself

archy

Catholics: cooking the books

2009-02-09T13:05:00.000-08:00

You know, I remember indulgences...little prayers and assignments to do that would get you time out of Purgatory. I thought it was stupid then--its like plea-bargaining with God.
And now its back!
Oh, for God's sake...

...and don't get all over me about that.

Satriani Review

2009-02-08T10:54:00.000-08:00

If Joe Satriani had been born into a world without guitars he would've had to invent one.
I stand in awe of the people who just HAVE to make music--they can't help it.
Many long years ago (but not before Les Paul--who I think is still alive) there was a concert--I think it was called the Black and White concert--with Roy Orbison and Bruce Springsteen and KD Lang and Bonnie Raitt and god knows who all else--lots of people.
I'll find some video...
They ended the show, I believe, with CandyMan--and it went on forever. You could just lie back and soak it up.
Joe puts me in mind of that--
Thank you for that, Mi Hermana.
As long as we can listen to good music played by people who love it--its a good old world.

The End of the Road or getting close, anyway.

2009-02-08T10:26:00.000-08:00

...And I couldn't be happier

See the old Portuguese girl...heading down the last lap to retirement.

I'm working one or two shifts a week--sometimes.
It's heaven.
Follow the link to an article about 'Plan B'.

Well, I always knew I wouldn't die rich and I'm right on target--they've even made it easier for me.

The medical system where I am employed has decided to get rid of the travel nurses because they're too expensive--they're hiring 'older' nurses who are coming back to work because all their money is gone.
Ha! I beat them to it.
No benefits, crummy hours, can't see, have arthritis but we're out there doing it.
As long as I can make a couple of extra bucks now and then, I'm happy. And it'll be a few years yet before the nursing ranks increase enough so that the young, healthy (and less expensive) gals and guys muscle us out.
It's a laugh riot at work--I just can't handle the 600 pounders any more. Or the 6' 4" 300 pound men who come in whining that their knees need to be replaced.
I walk into the room and they look at the stubby, gray-haired RN and say: "You'll need help"
Well, there is no help, Bubala. It's me and you, so marshal your resources.
That's motivation to make those new knees work. And maybe motivation to ease off on the beer and chips.
You know when they say 'It's nice to be needed'? In this day and age it is.

Music Appreciation Day!

2009-02-06T13:03:00.000-08:00

In honor of my niece (who still has days and days before she turns thirty) and my nephew (who helped me wake up).

Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, and Yngwie Malmsteen, together on a 'Starry Night'.

As Water Droplets Erode Stones.....

2009-02-06T10:33:00.000-08:00

.....so do small efforts create very significant results.

My husband and I are a slightly odd pair. He's a devout Lutheran, I am a contented non-believer. He's a staunch conservative Republican whilst I am an increasingly progressive liberal, with no party affiliation.

And yet we have loved one another for 29 years, love that's like the Rock of Ages, because we are kind to one another and in complete agreement on what's really important; Home and hearth, family and friends.

In the year 2000, I voted for Gore and Kurt voted for Bush. But I was frankly more enthralled in the machinations and the insanities of that fabulously hilarious election than I was of it's eventual outcome.

By 2002, Mr. Bush was making me a little hot under the collar. By 2003, I was hopping MAD! (I still gag a little when I see that picture of him, resplendent in flight suit and codpiece, posing on the deck of a ship where there would hang the sign "Mission Accomplished" to commemorate a victory in a war that is ongoing almost six years later.)

My fingers began to fly! I wrote to every politician, publication and suitable institution to voice my protest. I issued strongly worded rebuttals to all those lunk-headed, hoo-rah, bigoted emailers who had the balls to clog up my inbox. And I made connections (Rich Simon, Sandy Randall...) that I never would have made otherwise. My like-minded sister started this blog, and I sent blog links like a cyber blizzard throughout the ether of the Net.

Kurt noticed my activity but didn't comment on it too much, except to smile wanly when I ran into the bedroom yelling, "Hey, I got a REAL reply from the Congressman", or, "Look! They published my letter in the New York Times!" As it happens, his Lutheran pastor is my political ally, so he was kind of getting it from both sides. But Kurt loves us both and has never been snide.

Now it's February of 2009 and President Obama is pushing a nearly one trillion dollar economic stimulus package to jump-start the economy. (Which is why you should always drive a standard transmission, by the way.) While my husband is not against a bill that would support housing and improved infrastructure, he's convinced that we are rushing in a blind panic, that there is too much 'pork' in the bill and that we should discard it and start anew. He may be right. I haven't studied the bill.

Last night he said to me, "Back when you were so busy on the computer, trying to get Obama elected, who were you writing to?" I realized that he had come to believe that I, and all my subversive family and friends, had actually made a difference! (As I firmly believe we did.)

So, I told him. I said that he should write to our Congressman and Senators, to the NY Times, to the Washington Post and to the White House. He didn't think those were good ideas at first, because he thought it would be a waste of time to write to Democrats. I told him that it would be a real waste of time if he was just going to write to people who already agreed with him. Our Democratic Congressman, John Hall, might ignore a letter written by one dissident Republican, but he can't ignore letters written by 3,000 dissident Republicans! I told him that he has to participate in government every day, to some degree or another, and not just consider his duty done by walking into an election booth every four years. He may not have voted for the present administration, but they are his representatives as surely as they are mine, and he has the right and the responsibility to voice his opinion. Because that's what America is all about.

- Maggie (Finally!)

I Love Paul

2009-02-02T12:01:00.000-08:00

...he usually says just the right thing.

Re: Bailouts

Bailout/Stimulus text per OpenCongress

2009-02-02T09:41:00.001-08:00

Here's the text of the Bill.
Thank Croesus, I have an appointment with the ophthalmologist next week...and I still have health insurance.

Getting busy....

Tantrum--I'll Keep it Brief

2009-02-02T08:54:00.001-08:00

HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF TAXPAYER DOLLARS
Let the banks go!! Cut them loose. Millstones...Albatrosses...Balls and Chains.

Take the hundreds of billions--subtract the number of multimillionaire taxpayers of the USA and then divide by the number of US taxpayers who have a million or less and divide it evenly amongst them--the million or less people, that is.
No one will need credit for awhile, anyway.

BUT: Where is this $$ coming from? Are we borrowing it from China? Give it back to China--it's NOT OUR MONEY.

America is running on empty.

Time to cut the crap.

Where is the text of this bailout, anyway? I'm going to read it and pull out the stupid parts--I'll post them here.

Gran Torino

2009-01-31T19:02:00.001-08:00

See it.

empathy

2009-01-31T07:07:00.000-08:00

Women Alone
I have an understanding of these women, but not having the good fortune to be a lesbian myself I'll always be an outsider.
I think it would be heaven to have a month's retreat each year at a place like Alapine and for the rest of the year just to know that it was there.

You'd suppose that a solitary person wouldn't have the urge for engagement with the world--it certainly seems odd to me.
But for myself, on the odd occasion, I just have to jump in and participate in the wild and woolly world.
It's kind of glorious--in an I-can't-wait-to-get-out-of-here-way.
Full engagement carries a lot of snap and crackle--a lot of life.

But to be with Women Alone for a while-- and to be accepted-- would be life too.

I hope that as the lesbians of today come to wisdom and age they continue these communities; letting straight women participate if only for the temporary comfort.

Proving it to the World...

2009-01-29T12:58:00.000-08:00

Promoting democracy
I have some issues with the linked article.
How do we promote Democracy?
Like we have for the past 8 years?
It hasn't seemed to make us any friends.

First we'll need to set an excellent example of Democracy and illustrate how it can work.
That means encouraging everyone to vote--it worked this time and it can work again. The occasional wackiness will happen, a la California and the gay marriage ban, but you've got to expect wackiness where humans are concerned.
If everyone is not at the polls the majority can't rule.
Democracy means that the supreme authority of a nation is invested in the people--so everyone who's a person needs to vote. Ok, People?
Aside from the major miracle we've recently experienced, the USA has been largely run, since the late 70's, by those who believe the world should operate like a John Wayne movie--which were fiction.
The value system a democracy runs on needs to be defined per the Constitution of the USA and printed LARGE on every banknote, worthless though they are, and on the side of every government building.
The word Values is thrown around like the new baby at the family reunion but values must be defined, which means to specify distinctly and to state the precise meaning of each individual value of a Democracy. There's real work behind it.
Who am I to dispute the values of a serial killer? They're true for him or her.
Every pederast has a value system but it might not work for you.
So, get to work.
Participate in the democracy you want to see.

The Redoubtable Mr. G

2009-01-29T12:39:00.001-08:00

...And all the Multiverse's children say...
Happy Birthday!

These are Big Times in the Gouker/O'Reilly connection, first the holidays and now the birthdays. Someone to celebrate in January, February and March.
Last night we went to The Outback SteakHouse and ate the biggest steaks we could find in honor of Mr. January's 33rd
birthday.
This is what my daughter brought home to me about 10 years ago and in her sweet childish voice said 'This is my man, Mom.'
Like any good mother from New York, deep in my heart I muttered 'Oy Vey.' But time has told its story and another in a long line of strong, gentle men was added to the family.
May your beard grow ever longer, Mr.G.

Yay, Bluenorthwest: Smart Person

2009-01-28T08:27:00.001-08:00

Bluenorthwest (1000+ posts)
Wed Jan-28-09 08:50 AMResponse to Original message
15. If Johanna was an American
She would have no marriage, and would not be allowed by religionists to rise to any level of power, much less PM. She'd have lived a life based on one fact: politics is closed to you as an avenue of making change. She'd be a social worker or an artist.And that's fine, because the USA is doing so great, and we can fully afford to reject large populations of talented people. We have far too many good ideas, far too much money being made, and a future too fantastic to bother seeking the best and brightest. Everything is perfect here, and why mess with that?

Yay, Iceland. Poor but Sensible

2009-01-28T07:55:00.000-08:00

Gay PM in Iceland

God bless all the dottirs and sons in Iceland.
Geothermal heat.
Private sex lives.
120 proof alcohol.
Ahhh, island living....

If Iceland were bigger and I were younger I'd move there and become a citizen.

The USA is too big
Too stupid and
...can you believe that John Updike lived here at all?

Portugal!

2009-01-22T06:56:00.000-08:00

Portugal has offered safe haven to prisoners of Guantanamo who can't be repatriated because of fears of mistreatment/death in their own countries. While the prisoners were indeed found at training sites for terrorism a lot of them were planning to terrorize other countries. Not the USA. So, the USA should not be prosecuting them.
I say, hats off to Portugal. They are a small country but they jump up and do something really great and/or startling from time to time. They colonized large portions of Africa and South America beginning in the 1400's and consequently many of the Portuguese carry native blood from both continents in their veins--whether they know it or not. They brought Christianity as well, decimating the native peoples through religion and slavery.
In addition to that, the Portuguese were the first to use lobotomies--a first class means of controlling certain subsets of the population.
And their cuisine is First Rate.
I am not putting the Portuguese down--the blood runs strongly in my own veins--just pointing out that if you really are a great people you've worked both sides of the divide--don't deny it. And don't judge.

Rev. Joseph Lowry

2009-01-20T15:55:00.000-08:00

Wow, let's hear it for the Rev.
It doesn't matter if there's a god or not--this man can spin a fine sermon.
He comes in second only to Obama's address today.
I'll post the text if I can find it--so far no luck.

FOUND IT:

Transcript courtesy Federal News Service

God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, thou who has brought us thus far along the way, thou who has by thy might led us into the light, keep us forever in the path, we pray, lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met thee, lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee. Shadowed beneath thy hand may we forever stand -- true to thee, O God, and true to our native land.

We truly give thanks for the glorious experience we've shared this day. We pray now, O Lord, for your blessing upon thy servant, Barack Obama, the 44th president of these United States, his family and his administration. He has come to this high office at a low moment in the national and, indeed, the global fiscal climate. But because we know you got the whole world in your hand, we pray for not only our nation, but for the community of nations. Our faith does not shrink, though pressed by the flood of mortal ills.

For we know that, Lord, you're able and you're willing to work through faithful leadership to restore stability, mend our brokenness, heal our wounds and deliver us from the exploitation of the poor or the least of these and from favoritism toward the rich, the elite of these.

We thank you for the empowering of thy servant, our 44th president, to inspire our nation to believe that, yes, we can work together to achieve a more perfect union. And while we have sown the seeds of greed -- the wind of greed and corruption, and even as we reap the whirlwind of social and economic disruption, we seek forgiveness and we come in a spirit of unity and solidarity to commit our support to our president by our willingness to make sacrifices, to respect your creation, to turn to each other and not on each other.

And now, Lord, in the complex arena of human relations, help us to make choices on the side of love, not hate; on the side of inclusion, not exclusion; tolerance, not intolerance.

And as we leave this mountaintop, help us to hold on to the spirit of fellowship and the oneness of our family. Let us take that power back to our homes, our workplaces, our churches, our temples, our mosques, or wherever we seek your will.

Bless President Barack, First Lady Michelle. Look over our little, angelic Sasha and Malia.

We go now to walk together, children, pledging that we won't get weary in the difficult days ahead. We know you will not leave us alone, with your hands of power and your heart of love.

Help us then, now, Lord, to work for that day when nation shall not lift up sword against nation, when tanks will be beaten into tractors, when every man and every woman shall sit under his or her own vine and fig tree, and none shall be afraid; when justice will roll down like waters and righteousness as a mighty stream.

Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around -- (laughter) -- when yellow will be mellow -- (laughter) -- when the red man can get ahead, man -- (laughter) -- and when white will embrace what is right.

Let all those who do justice and love mercy say amen.

AUDIENCE: Amen!

REV. LOWERY: Say amen --

AUDIENCE: Amen!

REV. LOWERY: -- and amen.

AUDIENCE: Amen! (Cheers, applause.)

END.

Rick Warren--what on earth was all that hype...?

2009-01-20T15:50:00.000-08:00

DULL

Once more for fun....and thanks to Katherine Nixon for the photo

2009-01-20T15:39:00.000-08:00

HAIL TO THE CHIEF

If I Ever had a Prayer...

2009-01-20T07:49:00.000-08:00

A long time ago I prayed that my husband wouldn't die.
Since then I've left off praying simply because people are finite and really have to depend on themselves.
Today however, I find myself in a curious state of hope and terror.
Barack Obama is being compared to Dr. King, Mr. Lincoln and even to JFK--you can't help but see the comparisons.
Intelligence, compassion, charisma.
So, hope and joy and fear, once again walking hand in hand.
Let's all protect this man and help him to help America.

Hope: Read Maureen Dowd in the NYT today

2009-01-18T09:56:00.000-08:00

Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune without the words, And never stops at all, And sweetest in the gale is heard; And sore must be the storm That could abash the little bird That kept so many warm. I've heard it in the chilliest land And on the strangest sea; Yet, never, in extremity, It asked a crumb of me.
--Emily Dickinson

See Maureen Dowd in the NYT today--the computer is not letting me add links for some reason

I hate being cliched and trite but, you know, there's usually a good point to a cliche. There are just not a vast number of words to convey a truth, so we end up with a tiresome line about stitching in time or spilling milk or all the stuff that glitters.

But Hope--wow, these past weeks since election day have been fraught with hope.
Hope that the sad little weenie leaving the office of the Presidency will will melt like the WWof the North or fall into the ZaZu Pitts like Gollum's doppelganger in the Harvard Lampoon's Bored of the Rings.(circa 1970--find it)
Hope that the ENORMOUS majority if brass-balled jackasses in Washington D.C. won't turn Obama's head as time goes by.
Hope that Obama won't lose heart surrounded by all those brass-balled jackasses.
Hope that we can join the global community as a proud and participating member of the world at large.
Hope that we can embrace our own population here in the USA and provide all of them with good health and good education and jobs that pay a living wage.
Hope that we can stop nattering at each other over pork and trifles.
Hope that America, of all nations, can stop using the bestial, grotesque and barbarous weapon of torture.
Well, you know, we could all go on forever with our hopes for the future Think of what your hope is.
Is it big enough? It's time for giant steps here in this USA.
We've been small and petty and self-indulgent for too long.
Let's be cock-eyed optimists for a while and make something happen that has never happened before.
Let's move up a notch on the evolutionary scale and actually be our brothers' and sisters' protector--and let us have the good grace to let them respond in kind.
Let us have the guts to say no to people and companies, public and private who ravage and despoil this beautiful green Earth we live on.
Let's just go a little beyond hope--and make it happen.

LORontheroad

Misunderestimation by Nora Ephron

2009-01-16T22:28:00.000-08:00

It's true what he said: we misunderestimated him.
George Bush came into his presidency with a huge wave of goodwill. Not from me, but from the others. An amazing number of people who should have known better thought of him as a charming guy whose intellectual limitations would somehow be as benign as Ronald Reagan's, whose promise of a fairly passive presidency would be as survivable as Dwight Eisenhower's. So he couldn't seem to get a sentence out straight, so what? And as for his religious rigidity, that was simply his way of dealing with an alcohol problem without the sloppy conventions of AA.
He was misunderestimated in every way. It was hard to imagine that this feckless leader could do so much damage. But even as the worst emerged, he was given the benefit of the doubt because of the ongoing mysteries of his administration -- mysteries that have remained unsolved in spite of the skills of hundreds of gifted journalists who have attempted to uncover them:
Who exactly was running the country these last eight years?
What did the President know, if anything, and when did he know it, if ever?
Was he capable in any way of even one sleepless night, much less the ongoing insomnia that any sentient person would suffer after so many wrong decisions and pointless deaths?
Did he mispronounce the word "nuclear" 1) on purpose, in order to make himself seem folksy 2) because he actually thought he was pronouncing it correctly or 3) just to piss us off?
The exit appearances that Bush has made in recent weeks will be something future presidents will refer to as often as Lincoln's Second Inaugural, although for different reasons. Here's what he said:
We did the best we could under the circumstances.
It's not easy being President.
It wasn't completely my fault.
Everyone makes mistakes.
I kept America safe, except for this one time.
After that one time I worked really really hard almost every day and had to read a lot of stuff about foreign countries.
This is Bush's legacy -- a stunning series of alibis. This is what he will crawl off to Texas with, hoping that it will fool a publisher into giving him a substantial book advance and contributors into giving him money for a library full of pilfered papers.
On Monday, we will have to get used to a different thing entirely, a president who's in the loop, who reads history, who speaks decent English. He will rob of us of something -- of the burning anger that has sustained us the last eight years, and that will take some adjusting to. But we're up for it; after all these years in the dark, we're ready for a little overestimation. Which is, unlike misunderestimation, an actual word. But come to think of it, misunderestimation ought to be a word. I certainly know what it means.
Nora Ephron

Safe Haven--For Heaven's Sake

2009-01-16T22:25:00.001-08:00

ALL TAKE AND NO GIVE--
per Huffington Post

All the billions are neatly tucked away in off shore tax havens.
They're not called banks for nothing.

He's Leaving

2009-01-15T12:44:00.000-08:00

Read this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/opinion/15collins.html?hp

by Gail Collins

It's Great.

Love, Linda

Duplicity

2009-01-13T11:01:00.001-08:00

In the Huffington Post this morning the word 'duplicitous' occurs at least a couple of times--both times referring to lies and the 'lying liars that tell them'
You need two people to tell a really good lie. For a really fantastic lie one person will do as long as that person really believes all versions of the truth/lie complex. This is not as rare as you might think.

However, my point is that we are all duplicitous out of necessity. Consider Barack Obama: Seemingly, a paragon of the term well-rounded, in personality, intelligence, education--a poster boy for family values and inter-racial harmony. Yet Mr. Obama successfully ran for President of the USA, where lies must be told and secrets must be kept. He is willingly exposing his beloved family to the vicissitudes of political life (ask Chelsea--I can't wait until that girl writes a book).
So, on the one hand...and yet...
In God we trust...wait, where is the retirement money I saved for 35 years?
But she's your mother...wait, didn't she beat the shit out of me for twelve solid years?
Member of the financial super-intelligentsia: Alan Greenspan...I never saw it coming.
Fr. Mike...come here, little boy.

Duplicity is the nature of the universe that we live in. Without it there would be no LIFE.
So, as sad and as painful as it is, the art of living requires that we exist in duplicity and contradiction---just read the Bible or Shakespeare or...look around you.
The Art of Living is trying to reach a balance; not slipping too far into fear or greed--especially fear.
The Art of Living is to participate honorably and thoughtfully with the world around you. Don't deny the ugly parts--steer away from them if you can, deal with them when you must.
Remember that when you reach to save someone or something that you love--you are passing over an equally beloved thing of yours or someone else's.

Snow, anyone?

2009-01-06T07:16:00.000-08:00

This is Jake in his snow plow. It is a photo from the Seattle PI website where they did a story on the pass being closed due to avalanche.

Mom, going out with two different colored shoes isn't as bad as the bleach thing. My old manager at the Bead Factory came to work with two different colored knee-high boots on once. It is bright in that store! I thought about not telling her just because I knew she would be behind the counter all day, but I ended up telling her anyway. She went home to change. unlike some people. I also sat behind a girl at UWT that was wearing two different shoes completely. One had a round heel and the other was square. I stared at it all class. I was in a class at TCC where a woman forgot to take one single curler out of her hair. I stared at that all class too. As you can tell from these stories, I always pay attention to the teacher.

Bill Moyers Journal

2009-01-04T10:23:00.001-08:00

I chanced upon Bill Moyers Journal this morning and watched the episode he did recently with John Lithgow. Really, the two of them together--what a show.
Anyway, Lithgow was expounding on poetry and read that poem of Dylan Thomas' about raging against the dying of the light and I thought about yesterday's post.
That piece of Thomas' always irked me, I thought how ungraceful it was to kick and scream your way out of this life the way some do.
Time to rethink the issue:
Raging doesn't necessarily mean the frenzy that I was seeing. Maybe what I should take it to mean is paring down to the clear, thin, blue flame of heat--putting everything you've got left into what you love, not wildly but intensely.
Everybody knows this but me.
So, there you are, another quantum of light for Linda.
I was very careful about my shoes this morning.

Shoes and the Properties of Light

2009-01-03T16:31:00.000-08:00

I went out today feeling great. The sun was shining for a couple of hours and I went to Barnes and Noble and then to Safeway for some cat food.

I was stepping back into the car after leaving Barnes and Noble and I noticed an unbelievable thing--I was wearing one brown shoe and one black shoe. Damn, I'd been in a public place with people who could see!! I thought everybody was just extra friendly today.
So, was I going to drive all the way back home to change my shoe? No. I went to Safeway and everyone there was friendly too. And smiling. Do that many people usually look at your feet?
Anyhow, when you become old always put your shoes on in a good light.
This wouldn't have rocked my world as bad as it did if Catherine 927 hadn't been here yesterday and found my small bottle of Clorox in the refrigerator. I could SEE the Clorox I was just thinking of something else--it belongs in the bathroom.
The kids already want me to wear one of 'those buttons' around my neck.

Waiting for Obama and meandering in a heartfelt way...

2009-01-02T15:19:00.000-08:00

It's time consuming. Nothing is getting done. Obama is the only sensible guy in the house--he went on vacation because there was nothing he could do.
The cabinet is full.
The columnists are getting tired of writing pointed advice for him hoping that he'll notice.
Here's what I think: There's too much to do. So, he'd better focus and after he's picked his big targets he's got to really go after them and not take any crap.
First target: The USA, we've got to be big and strong and smart.
Define Big and Strong and Smart, Linda.
OK, I will.
Big as an IDEA-What we represent to the global community. We should be big enough to say OK, we've been dumbed down for a while but those days are over. Watch us now. Making our people strong in body and mind. Making our infrastructure strong and ready for the future.
Saying: NO, to oil, auto makers, banks and ANY kind of irresponsible behavior in the people we are supposed to trust----senators, congressmen,representatives....et al
Clean up the Gulf Coast--oooo, but its too expensive, you say? Well, can we at least get the cars out of the trees? Americans live there.
The rules need to change--they need to be short and clear and loud.
Strong-in body and in mind (as previous). ALL of us make up America. Not just the ones you think should be here. Everyone who is here. Now. Grow up.
Smart--Bring out the big guns for heaven's sake. We have great minds in America--people who are too smart to run for government office. Listen to them. Do you suppose that because you haven't had a bright idea nobody has?
Read some new books, read what the other side has to say---it's not ALL crap... although admittedly...there's a lot ...
BUT you should always know what the other side is thinking anyway---pick out the good stuff.
None of us on the earth are ever going to be anything but human and that means trouble-- but its time to start leaning away from our baser instincts.
So, pick one.
Of your baser instincts, that is.
And let'em have it.

2009 - What, what, what will happen this year??

2009-01-01T13:57:00.001-08:00

Who knows, but could anything be worse than Sarah Palin? There are people to want to be her neighbor!(there was a poll) Well, be my guest!! ... more room for us in the contiguous 48.
Here are some celebratory pix. Please note the extremely handsome Snuggs O'Reilly who refuses to go outside since the BIG SNOW of '08. The other photos are just nice, that's all.
In the news today are terrible things. Things that our paltry recession can't hold a candle to. Nick Kristof's column in the NYT, Israel, Iraq, Africa. We are killing, defiling and humiliating each other in every possible way and this is NOT bizzare, this is business as usual. People stink!

My resolution:
To keep climbing over contradiction and paradox, enigma and oxymoron; they are underfoot like used condoms and hypodermic needles(and don't you find that disgusting?).
To fight for the right to blog my brains out(nobody cares anyway) and invite scrutiny by nefarious persons in Langley and Alexandria.
Hermana, I noticed today that a solitary hit came from Hawaii this week--the Secret Service is worried that Obama is a secret fan of ours. They are watching.
As I climb over the imponderables I'll be looking for the little joys in life.
e.g. New Years Day-nobody expects anything of you. What could be better??
Not working this weekend.
Layin' about.
Watching movies while layin' about.
Daniel Craig--Wait, while I add a picture. Isn't that nice? I watched Layer Cake, a movie about bakers, but no! It was strange and wonderful and kind of depressing but true (philosophically) and spoiler alert:
He gets killed in the end. Because of the suit. He was dressed like an angel until the very end and then he needed to be shot.
AND, you will be pleased to know, that I'm starting work on my long-awaited novel. Mystery, suspense, drama, ROMANCE.
Advice and suggestions are appreciated--just throw them at me, if I work anything in you'll be a footnote.
I'm going to try to have it together by January 1st, 2010--not published or anything but a complete story and maybe some punctuation.
See you tomorrow.

Frank Rich vs Melissa Etheridge Re: Rick Warren

2008-12-28T18:36:00.000-08:00

Face it, people, we can't split the world down the middle. We can't exclude everyone we are not in lockstep with. We're not talking about Charles Manson here. If humans are going to move forward as a race we have to rub off on each other a bit. I know, it's risky--no,its not risky--its smart. We are up to this. We have to take the chances that may bring us a little closer.
Rick Warren may turn out to be another Hitler (but wouldn't that be giving him rather too much credit?). He may be another smooth talking snake oil salesman (its not like they aren't under every rock in D.C.).
I don't think that Obama's move in bringing him in is another airy-fairy attempt at reaching out--I think its a calculated move to start being involved with each other on a serious level.
We can't continue the cowardly luxury of the black-white thinking, red-blue politics or theist-nontheist drivel we've been indulging in because we're afraid of the slippery slope factor.
We can't continue to participate in the debasing trivialities of political maneuvering--at least not all the time.
It may be a disaster and it may not.
The risk here is that we will continue the red-faced pointing and blaming of the other and miss completely the opportunity to quit our infantile self-importance and step out of timidity and fear and stupidity.
We are intelligent grownups; we are capable of hazarding the hope of possibility and of dealing with the consequences in a responsible manner.
I give you Frank Rich and Melissa Etheridge .

Different and edifying.

43 Degrees

2008-12-27T08:05:00.000-08:00

Yes, finally the snow and ice has turned to rain. We're having some flooding and power outages but that's OK.Here in the lowlands around Puget Sound it rarely snows and because of that communities don't spend a lot of money on snow removal equipment.I would rant about that for a while but I'm so happy to step outside and see some pavement that I'll just shut up and be grateful.

The News:

*Israel is bombing Hamas targets after an unfortunate bout of rocket fire. I defer to Catherine 927 to expound on this--I'm too giddy today to be serious or down-hearted. It is the little things, isn't it?

*Pakistani troops are moving on the Indian border.

*Bernard Madoff has stolen Everyone's money.

*Rush Limbaugh is promoting a song about Barack the Magic Negro--when you can't think of anything intelligent to say (or if your listeners aren't intelligent). Regress!

*And zeppelins are making a comeback.Click on the links below for some very solid basic information regarding: 1.technology and 2. human nature. I'm going out to play in the rain.
Local politics?
Responsible living

Tea to the rescue!

2008-12-22T22:45:00.000-08:00

Hello. I am cold and still a little sick from my sinus issue. I fell asleep for the brief window of time that my husband was home and awake. Now he is asleep and I am mourning the fact that I barely even said hello to him. He does look comfortable though.

A lot of the snow has melted but there is still several inches out there. It does look like we'll make it to the store tomorrow, Mom.

My friend's baby is sick and in the hospital with a heart issue. I just read their blog updating us all on her progress. It looks good for her but I feel all negative today. Babies are sick. My other friend has lung cancer. I've got green stuff coming out of my head. At least I have always got tea to cheer me up.

I did not listen to the news at all today or read any email either. I'm over the news for a little while. Except for sports, of course. I cleaned my house a little bit. I paid the bills and realized I missed the due date on my second bill this month. That is so unlike me. I chalk it all up to the illness and the feeling of unreality this month has carried. I mean, all this damn snow and the freezing temps. It's like living in a square state.

I need to go buy one last Christmas present for someone who shall remain nameless. Then I need to do some wrapping and I'm all ready for the family gathering. I'm keeping the dinner itself pretty simple but I did decide on a new potato recipe. You get some Yukon Gold potatoes and heat up a skillet really good with oil in it. Then you lay the potatoes in there whole, browning on both sides. After they have a good color you pour in chicken stock half way up the taters. You then let them cook until soft and give them a little squish so they crack open and soak up some of the thickened chicken stock. Sounds good, huh? Saw it on Rachel Ray, whom I usually don't watch. She said she got it from Jacques Pepin.

Love, Catherine.

Cabin Fever

2008-12-21T18:45:00.000-08:00

69 Rabbits Discovered

In One-bedroom Apartment

During Recent Eviction In Illinois.

Welsh Rabbit (WB). Binge-eater, Emerson Llewellyn, 56, says he can't eat another bite of pizza or birthday cake (he loves the butter cream frosting). His mother, in Wales, had recently sent him her traditional recipe for WB and Mr. Llewellyn developed a craving for the delicacy.
What disturbed his neighbors was the smell from the burned sauce bechamel. "Just never could make a proper sauce" Mr Emerson told reporters "but I don't think it was the sauce that smelled so bad though--I think it might've been the 50 pounds of cheddar cheese--I couldn't fit it in the refrigerator."
Illinois Hazmat said that the clean up was a piece of cake seeing how the ingredients were natural and biodegradable. The Fire Dept and its crack hazmat team were relieved at the relative ease of the job. They'd recently spent time at the Governor's Mansion. "That's going to stink for a long time." said their spokesperson.

For more information see the writings of Ambrose Bierce.

I Got You Beat.

2008-12-20T12:48:00.001-08:00

That's me in my front yard. In the words of Clyde Bruckmann (I think that was his name.), "I'm not smiling; I'm wincing." Oh, and the sun isn't shining either.

But you did a good thing. Your post of 'Snuggs' actually made me laugh.

I feel bad for you guys out there. 16 degrees, huh? That's going to be tough on the plants. It'll be a bad year for camellias.

We're languishing around 30 degrees. That cold, gray, mucky eight-inches-of-wet-snow-that's-glued-to-all-the-tree-branches-and-power-lines kind of 30 degrees. I'm just waiting for the lights to go out.

I haven't been reading the news. I haven't been reading my email. (Well, I read a few. Yours, of of course.) I woke up to 102 unread emails today. Hardly any of them were spam. I think I'll be declaring email bankruptcy - just deleting everything and starting anew.

I have been reading mysteries. A book a day for the last three days. Too bad the only mysteries I ever buy are set in Edinburgh or North Yorkshire. Or Reyjavik. I should order some books where the murders take place on tropical islands or in hot, humid jungles. I know I have a Carl Hiaasen around here that I haven't read yet. I'd even read a Kathy Reichs, as long as it wasn't one of the ones set in Montreal or Nunavut.

This isn't a proper blog post. It's just a letter. I'll go onto the NY Times site and see if I can come up with something real. By the way, your post about John McCain was spot on! I always knew that he had at least two or three people wandering around inside his head. It's nice to see that the good one has come back for a bit. I hope that one sticks around awhile.

- Nanook

Good Morning from Frozen Tacoma, Wa

2008-12-20T08:02:00.000-08:00

This is a photo of Snuggs the Cat standing in the street outside my apartment. Every thing's changed here. 16 degrees. NOAA is reporting the Big One for us--we could get 4 inches of snow.
Really, the PNW has no clue. The last time it went to zero degrees here was in 1949--they still talk about it!!
Well, we'll see what happens. I'm bringing extra underwear to work tonight just in case something really happens.
And now the news of the day:
The Beautiful Spanish Dancer was here the other day and pointed out that since the Madoff Incident there are a lot more people in the middle class. We're back to the 3-tiered system, haves, havenots and have-somes. Good news.
She also pointed out that with all these billions of dollars rolling around no one has actually seen any. It's all in cyberspace, unbacked by any precious metals or even green stamps for those of you who remember. And since it's all imaginary anyway why can't we reshuffle it to the schools and the hospitals and the shelters. We knew this already but isn't it crazy that you can buy a chateau in France or starve to death in Rawanda all using imaginary money? What is the Euro based on? Is it actually backed by something? It must be because it's the global standard now isn't it? This is the news and I'm asking you the questions! It's a wacky world.
In other news the NYT has this:
"A hydra-headed system of oversight currently finds the Department of Homeland Security answerable to 16 committees and 40 subcommittees in the House, and 14 committees and 18 subcommittees in the Senate."
Well no wonder we've had no major attacks of terrorism since 9/11. We're terrorizing ourselves financially--Al Queda knows this and as far as the USA goes they just have to sit back and wait.

In science news PE Obama has selected his team of advisers for science and technology: He says:
"Because the truth is that promoting science isn't just about providing resources - its about protecting free and open inquiry. Its about ensuring that facts and evidence are never twisted or obscured by politics or ideology. Its about listening to what our scientists have to say, even when its inconvenient - especially when its inconvenient. Because the highest purpose of science is the search for knowledge, truth and a greater understanding of the world around us. That will be my goal as President of the United States - and I could not have a better team to guide me in this work." He said a lot more than that and it was all very sensible --you can probably see it on You Tube. It will be a great thing if we can learn to use real science not just responsibly--but AT ALL. Right now, as I mentioned in a previous post, we use sci/tech for toys and one upmanship. Like fire and like water, sci/tech can be a really bad thing or a really good thing depending on how we apply it. It will probably stay that way but let's try to lean toward the constructive shall we? This is a tremendous opportunity. And...
It will also be a vast relief to many of us when the USA stops looking backwards. Lately I keep hearing comparisons to 1930, 1968, 1974. STOP THE PRESSES: It's always good to be aware of your history but it is imperative to look hard at the present--it's where we ARE. We're like kids running with scissors or jumping off the garage roof. What you choose not to look at---what you don't understand, will cripple you.
On a lighter note its -3 degrees in North Bend--about 12 miles east of Seattle. The weather people on the radio are going insane. (run,run for your lives!) Bread and beer are selling well (stocks are up).
GWB just said he was going to shield the American people from a terrible economic blow (?)
Well, keep thinking America.
I'm going out for beer.

The Truth about John McCain

2008-12-18T08:26:00.000-08:00

This is the truth about John McCain as I see it. There can be no other explantion for what happened to the McCain campaign in the last several months before the election.

McCain struck everyone--even Obama supporters --as a decent, sensible, hard working politician who kept the people in mind. The man knew hard times, even though he has Cindy now and more homes than he can count at his advanced age. He also had a sense of humor that even we democrats appreciated.

Then came August 2008: What happened to John? He started telling the most amazing whoppers. He began wandering--in his speeches and while he was waiting to speak--moseying around the stage checking the drapes and the chairs--ignoring what was actually going on. We were all waiting for him to take a header off the dais a la Dole. And then there was the Palin incident--come on, John McCain, in another scenario, might make a pass at the tart-like valley-girl but intellectually they were in different dimensions. At that point--although the campaign became more colorful and lively--kind of like a freak show, it was over.

Most of us in the USA, although we see things very differently, at least have a crumb or two of brains in our heads, and we could see that the whole Republican process was FUBR.

THEN, Obama won the election and poof! Abracadabra, the old John threw off his clown outfit and emerged the statesman we once knew.

It's my opinion that John McCain looked at his republican party and thought to himself--'how can I bring these turkeys down?' As he saw it he had to be crazier than the craziest among them-- and he did a stellar job.

John McCain won. He was alone in that voting booth...and

...John McCain voted for Obama.

Melancholy

2008-12-17T18:48:00.000-08:00

I know that there are men out there who get depressed and I feel for them but the fact is that women pretty much have the market cornered. I always wondered--and still do--why is there a depression gene? What good does it do?

I have the gene as does my sister and daughter and son--my mom had it as well and goodness knows how many others in the family. We all fight to stay on the safe side of the half empty glass. I've been told that it's the sadder but wiser syndrome, if you can see life too clearly, well, of course, you feel like crap.

There's some truth in that. It's also true that humans have had the fun bred out of them. We're happy until we're born and then we're stuck with people who have no idea how to raise a child, have no money, don't love each other or there's a war on or a depression (ha!). We're like birds tied to the earth--there's something else we should be doing. We've been sold a bill of goods at the molecular level.
God as Joker: 'See that beautiful tree with all the fruit? You can't have any.' See? Right from the start it's all been a practical joke. Well, we depressed people are mad as hell and as soon as we can get up the energy we won't be taking it anymore!

From the Oubliette

2008-12-17T13:03:00.001-08:00

I haven't written anything in too long. Just can't seem to find the impetus. I suppose I'm depressed, but when I went to look for an image to illustrate this post, and typed 'Depression' into Google Images, all I came up with were pictures of people crying.

That wouldn't be accurate. I don't feel sad. I'm not all teary and weepy. I almost wish that I could cry. I just feel like....nothing. I have mental paralysis.

At times like this, my whole physical nature changes. Instead of being made of flesh and bone, I'm made of guilt and regret. ( With a little apathy and irritation thrown into the mix. ) And I can't see color. I mean, I can tell whether a pepper is red or green, but the color doesn't reach me. In fact, that's how I can tell when I'm about to ascend from the pit. It usually happens when I'm driving. Suddenly, I'll notice a shimmer of light off the water or the flash of a bluejay's wing or a cardinal in flight, and because of the way the color jumps out at me, I know I'm getting better.

These pale, blue funks usually only last less than a week, and I've been dwelling here for at least three days now. No color excites my eye, no music catches my ear. No book interests me enough that I don't put it down after the first few pages. It's nearly impossible to get out of the house, except to go and sit with Louise, who, I suspect, is in a deeper blue funk than I am, poor old girl.

I wrote a letter to all the people I know at the German Club, telling them that, for personal reasons (none of them serious or amusing) I would be unavailable for the next few days. I know that a few of them do read this blog, so now they know why.

It's like I'm homesick for a place I've never been, or lonely for a person I've never known. It's like I'm waiting for something to happen, but without much hope that it will happen.I feel like that old toy, Mr. Machine, and that my wind-up mechanism is winding down.

Kurt is so good. Any other person wouldn't put up with this. They'd nag at me to stop being such a baby. And they'd be right. But Kurt just asks, "Is there anything I can do for you, Hon?", and looks worried.

Maybe I should take a Vivarin. That would make me nervous. It would start up that internal vibration that makes me think a hive of bees has taken up residence in my thorax. It might 'jump start' me into action.

Me, me, me. What a schlump.

- Me, poopy.

EDIT: Two hours later: The Vivarin did NOTHING!