We paid a premium to move our trailer to a site with electricity. It’s been cold enough here to run our propane heater often during the night, which uses expensive propane and drains batteries, so we have to run a generator much of the day to keep up. With electricity, we can run a small electric heater and keep the lights on instead of using battery lanterns, which make it feel like a cave in our trailer.
More about caves later.
The site with electricity is $36 a night, compared with $23 a night for a no-hookups site. This puts camping here at the cost of a private RV park with full hookups, not that there’s any comparison. I’m assuming the parks are having to cover their actual costs because of budget cuts, but you don’t have to multiply $36 by very few days to figure out that it adds up fast. And no WIFI.
We’ve more or less settled into a happy routine. Up about 7:30 to walk the dogs and make coffee. A few hours of reading or studying Spanish for me during the day. Mary is busy on sewing projects she’s brought along and also reading a great deal. We spend a lot of time walking the dogs, a little time with maintaining camp and cooking and eating. Every couple of days, we go for a longer hike. And evenings we listen to an hour or two of Anna Karenina, which we have on audio book.
I don’t think I would have ever read this otherwise, but as a story it’s quite engaging, and at this rate we still have a few weeks of Anna to go. I think we’ll make this a regular part of the trip with more audio books to come. We could do an all-Russian vacation but probably won’t.
Today we took an exquisite hike of about four miles to the Boundary Cave, a talus cave that connects the west and east sides of the park. The hike up was on one of the most lovely trails I’ve ever enjoyed, heavily wooded with lots of rocks covered with moss and lichen and views of the pinnacles through the canopy. I’m not exactly sure what a “glade” is, but I’m pretty sure this would be a glade.
A talus cave, I learned, is formed when earthquakes dislodge huge rocks from the peaks and pile them up in ravines. Since they don’t fit together like a puzzle, the open spaces get partially filled in but leave passages. Bats, of course, love it. We made it to the cave entrance, which was set in a magnificent rock formation, but unfortunately forgot to bring a flashlight so we couldn’t explore further. We might go up again before we leave.
Weather is still cold at night, and we’ve had a little rain, but daytimes are still generally beautifully sunny and relatively warm in the mid-50s. On a trip into town, I got online at a Starbucks and among other things checked the weather back in Klamath Falls.
Ha!
Tomorrow we’re going into Hollister to provision up again, get online, have a Mexican lunch, and explore the site of the 1950s biker takeover that inspired the movie “The Wild One.” If you don’t know the story, it was actually a rather minor incident, with a motorcycle gang buying a lot of beer and getting drunk, fighting, and breaking a few windows over the weekend. Somehow, though, Life Magazine got a reporter and photographer in. There wasn’t a lot of excitement left when they got there, so they got a few of the bikers to stage fake fights and sit drunkenly on their bikes. (Not all Harleys, btw. Brando rode a Triumph in the movie.) The article made outlaw bikers familiar and somehow fascinating to enough people to keep the myth and legends going long after Hunter S. Thompson’s The Hell’s Angles: A Wild and Terrible Saga.
The movie followed the article, and the age of outlaw bikers was born. The dark and brooding Brando didn’t make a very convincing outlaw, but Lee Marvin is actually scary.
What we’ve seen of Hollister so far suggests it’s a nice little town with great strip malls. Tomorrow we go looking for the real downtown deal.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Still at Pinnacles
I love it here, and with several days left on our reservation, I’m hoping we might decide to stay longer.
Or not.
The whole idea of this excursion is to do exactly what we feel like, and we have very few actual plans and no real commitments. If the money holds out reasonably well, we’ll be traveling for something between two and four months
Our campground sits at 1,000 feet of elevation, and it’s cooler than I expected. Daytime temperatures of about sixty degrees are perfect, but nights it drops to freezing, and there has been ice on our things outside most mornings. It warms up slowly and cools down fast, so we’re dressing warm.
In fact, on a run into town today, we stopped at the Goodwill and bought sweatshirts. Mine’s a Nike, in honor of Tiger Woods. Cost me nine bucks.
Another aspect of the cooler temperatures is that we’re going through propane quickly. We had to take the trailer with us to town, and eleven gallons cost $45. We’ve started a more serious conservation effort. I mentioned the part of the money holding out.
We’re surrounded by the steep, oak covered hills of one of California’s central ranges, beautiful in themselves, and the actual pinnacles are a few miles up the road. We’ve only been up once so far for a short but challenging hike for us, a one-mile, 1,100-foot elevation gain to a great viewpoint.
I won’t say I could have knocked this out without effort when I was younger, only that it was a slow crawl for me now. One of my big objectives of this trip is physical conditioning, so I hope to combine a vigorous walk every day with more serious hikes a few times a week.
The wildlife here is abundant. A herd of deer numbering in the dozens makes its home in the campground, not that exciting for us since deer are also common in our yard at home. But Thursday we sighted our first condors flying over the ridge above our campground. Even from a distance, the size of these birds is apparent, and there was no confusing them with the more common turkey vultures. The campground has a viewing station with high-power telescopes, and if you can lock on to one in flight, it’s easy to follow it for long periods.
Very exciting. The condor’s survival is far from certain and it’s been a treat to be able to see them in part of their natural range.
We’ve seen lots of coyote scat and heard them at night. A few nights ago we built a campfire and were enjoying the evening with our JR terriers Bandit and Nick. Nick was very nervous and kept fixing on thingsthat go bump in the night. We thought he was just being paranoid, but when I scanned the perimeter with my flashlight, there were two Wileys circling in, and they weren’t quickly scared off when I threw a few rocks at them. We’ve seen several since then. Sometimes when we’re walking the dogs to go pee at night, Nick jumps sky high at something he smells and pulls hard on the leash to get away from it. We think it’s probably coyote piss marking the location of a new fast food franchise. They’re known to quickly grab and run with little dogs left unattended for any time, so we’re extra careful.
We also saw a bobcat in camp, and I got some pictures of it at about 100 meters. Later in the afternoon, it wandered much closer, obviously hunting mice or ground squirrels (of which we have seen none) and I slowly made my way over to it taking pictures and got to within about 30 feet. I would guess its weight at about thirty pounds.
(If you’ve never heard a bobcat cry, btw, it’s about the scariest sound in all of nature. You can hear samples with a Google search, but if it doesn’t send a primal chill up your spine, you haven’t got close to the real thing.)
Shortly after the bobcat, we also sighted three feral pigs, which for all purposes are pretty much wild boar. We had seen signs of their rooting, and Mary guessed what they were before we asked a ranger, and she (the ranger) confirmed they’re common around the campground. She said that within less than a year, a domestic pig will take on all the characteristics of a wild one: a lean frame and prominent shoulder hump, plus tusks. These pigs have been wild for generations.
They are an imposing presence, and we were glad they were a hundred meters or so away and moving the other direction. The ranger also said they are shot on sight as part of an effort to eradicate them from the park, which explains two shots we heard close in yesterday.
Still, good luck with that. Wild pigs breed like rats, and I don’t know of any successful efforts to remove them.
Because the oak trees have had an abundance of acorns this year, the bird population is very high. Common are jays and magpies, quail and, not surprisingly, the acorn woodpecker. Also lots of hawks, golden eagles, and the always comely turkey vultures.
I suppose you have to be here to appreciate all this, and I’m very glad we decided on a whim to make this our first stop. We’ve been the only campers here until two other RVs came in today, but they’ll be gone after the weekend and we’ll have the park to ourselves again, save for the hikers and climbers who drive up to the trailheads early in the morning and leave late.
The rest of the time, it’s just us and the chickens.
Or not.
The whole idea of this excursion is to do exactly what we feel like, and we have very few actual plans and no real commitments. If the money holds out reasonably well, we’ll be traveling for something between two and four months
Our campground sits at 1,000 feet of elevation, and it’s cooler than I expected. Daytime temperatures of about sixty degrees are perfect, but nights it drops to freezing, and there has been ice on our things outside most mornings. It warms up slowly and cools down fast, so we’re dressing warm.
In fact, on a run into town today, we stopped at the Goodwill and bought sweatshirts. Mine’s a Nike, in honor of Tiger Woods. Cost me nine bucks.
Another aspect of the cooler temperatures is that we’re going through propane quickly. We had to take the trailer with us to town, and eleven gallons cost $45. We’ve started a more serious conservation effort. I mentioned the part of the money holding out.
We’re surrounded by the steep, oak covered hills of one of California’s central ranges, beautiful in themselves, and the actual pinnacles are a few miles up the road. We’ve only been up once so far for a short but challenging hike for us, a one-mile, 1,100-foot elevation gain to a great viewpoint.
I won’t say I could have knocked this out without effort when I was younger, only that it was a slow crawl for me now. One of my big objectives of this trip is physical conditioning, so I hope to combine a vigorous walk every day with more serious hikes a few times a week.
The wildlife here is abundant. A herd of deer numbering in the dozens makes its home in the campground, not that exciting for us since deer are also common in our yard at home. But Thursday we sighted our first condors flying over the ridge above our campground. Even from a distance, the size of these birds is apparent, and there was no confusing them with the more common turkey vultures. The campground has a viewing station with high-power telescopes, and if you can lock on to one in flight, it’s easy to follow it for long periods.
Very exciting. The condor’s survival is far from certain and it’s been a treat to be able to see them in part of their natural range.
We’ve seen lots of coyote scat and heard them at night. A few nights ago we built a campfire and were enjoying the evening with our JR terriers Bandit and Nick. Nick was very nervous and kept fixing on thingsthat go bump in the night. We thought he was just being paranoid, but when I scanned the perimeter with my flashlight, there were two Wileys circling in, and they weren’t quickly scared off when I threw a few rocks at them. We’ve seen several since then. Sometimes when we’re walking the dogs to go pee at night, Nick jumps sky high at something he smells and pulls hard on the leash to get away from it. We think it’s probably coyote piss marking the location of a new fast food franchise. They’re known to quickly grab and run with little dogs left unattended for any time, so we’re extra careful.
We also saw a bobcat in camp, and I got some pictures of it at about 100 meters. Later in the afternoon, it wandered much closer, obviously hunting mice or ground squirrels (of which we have seen none) and I slowly made my way over to it taking pictures and got to within about 30 feet. I would guess its weight at about thirty pounds.
(If you’ve never heard a bobcat cry, btw, it’s about the scariest sound in all of nature. You can hear samples with a Google search, but if it doesn’t send a primal chill up your spine, you haven’t got close to the real thing.)
Shortly after the bobcat, we also sighted three feral pigs, which for all purposes are pretty much wild boar. We had seen signs of their rooting, and Mary guessed what they were before we asked a ranger, and she (the ranger) confirmed they’re common around the campground. She said that within less than a year, a domestic pig will take on all the characteristics of a wild one: a lean frame and prominent shoulder hump, plus tusks. These pigs have been wild for generations.
They are an imposing presence, and we were glad they were a hundred meters or so away and moving the other direction. The ranger also said they are shot on sight as part of an effort to eradicate them from the park, which explains two shots we heard close in yesterday.
Still, good luck with that. Wild pigs breed like rats, and I don’t know of any successful efforts to remove them.
Because the oak trees have had an abundance of acorns this year, the bird population is very high. Common are jays and magpies, quail and, not surprisingly, the acorn woodpecker. Also lots of hawks, golden eagles, and the always comely turkey vultures.
I suppose you have to be here to appreciate all this, and I’m very glad we decided on a whim to make this our first stop. We’ve been the only campers here until two other RVs came in today, but they’ll be gone after the weekend and we’ll have the park to ourselves again, save for the hikers and climbers who drive up to the trailheads early in the morning and leave late.
The rest of the time, it’s just us and the chickens.
Thursday, 12/17, Pinnacles
Our first full day here was very enjoyable. We went for a few walks around the camp area, finished setting up the trailer, and did a lot of reading and hanging around. We practiced yoga separately, which felt wonderful with our mats in the soft leaf bed from the oak trees and the warm sun on my back. I also did about an hour of Spanish. All in all, I was surprised how quickly the day filled up without either any sense of boredom or rushing. If anything, I would have enjoyed an extra hour or two for Spanish.
We haven’t explored the park beyond the campground yet. Plenty of time for that as we’ll be here another ten days or so. In camp, though, there is an abundance of wildlife to watch: a dozen or so deer which are quick at home with us campers, plus a large variety of very numerous and active birds: we’ve identified quail, turkeys, acorn woodpeckers, scrub jays, magpies, and our old friends from home the Oregon juncos. We haven’t seen any condors yet, though a very serious birder camped here yesterday uaesaid he could pick some out in the trees on the ridgeline above us with his very serious scope mounted on a tripod.
Other than him, we’re alone in the camper section. We’ve seen one tent in the tent section. There’s a lot of activity during the daytime, though, with workers busy building new rail fences and making other repairs and improvements. Stimulus money, I’m thinking, and glad to see them at work.
Last night we built a fire and were listening to Anna Karenina on audio disc, but were startled by an animal noise, a kind of combined grunt and growl. We both thought it was a deer, but we turned the disc off the listen more closely. Didn’t hear anything more. There aren’t any bears or cougars around, so we weren’t worried about getting eaten. It was getting cold, though, so we went in shortly after. It’s been warm and sunny during the day, about 60 degrees, but down to freezing at night.
This is a good test of boondocking since we don’t have any hookups. I ran the generator for a few hours yesterday and am not worried about the batteries, but water could be a few problem. The trailer carries sixty gallons, which seems like it should be a lot, but we’re down to 1/3 according to the indicator in the trailer, despite taking showers in the park shower/restroom. We’ve been out only three days now, and I was hoping we could get a week or more if we were careful. It doesn’t look like we’ll get anything like that now, though the indicator isn’t too accurate. For here, there’s a dump station and fresh water in camp, so we’d only have to hook up and drive over to them. Out in the desert, it would be a bigger undertaking.
Today we’re going into town for a few supplies.
Overall, we’re both enjoying the trip very much so far, but then it’s only been a few days. And we wouldn’t mind if it were a little warmer, but I think this is going to be typical of the weather. Actually, it’s very nice during most of the day, and we just layer up when it’s cooler.
We haven’t explored the park beyond the campground yet. Plenty of time for that as we’ll be here another ten days or so. In camp, though, there is an abundance of wildlife to watch: a dozen or so deer which are quick at home with us campers, plus a large variety of very numerous and active birds: we’ve identified quail, turkeys, acorn woodpeckers, scrub jays, magpies, and our old friends from home the Oregon juncos. We haven’t seen any condors yet, though a very serious birder camped here yesterday uaesaid he could pick some out in the trees on the ridgeline above us with his very serious scope mounted on a tripod.
Other than him, we’re alone in the camper section. We’ve seen one tent in the tent section. There’s a lot of activity during the daytime, though, with workers busy building new rail fences and making other repairs and improvements. Stimulus money, I’m thinking, and glad to see them at work.
Last night we built a fire and were listening to Anna Karenina on audio disc, but were startled by an animal noise, a kind of combined grunt and growl. We both thought it was a deer, but we turned the disc off the listen more closely. Didn’t hear anything more. There aren’t any bears or cougars around, so we weren’t worried about getting eaten. It was getting cold, though, so we went in shortly after. It’s been warm and sunny during the day, about 60 degrees, but down to freezing at night.
This is a good test of boondocking since we don’t have any hookups. I ran the generator for a few hours yesterday and am not worried about the batteries, but water could be a few problem. The trailer carries sixty gallons, which seems like it should be a lot, but we’re down to 1/3 according to the indicator in the trailer, despite taking showers in the park shower/restroom. We’ve been out only three days now, and I was hoping we could get a week or more if we were careful. It doesn’t look like we’ll get anything like that now, though the indicator isn’t too accurate. For here, there’s a dump station and fresh water in camp, so we’d only have to hook up and drive over to them. Out in the desert, it would be a bigger undertaking.
Today we’re going into town for a few supplies.
Overall, we’re both enjoying the trip very much so far, but then it’s only been a few days. And we wouldn’t mind if it were a little warmer, but I think this is going to be typical of the weather. Actually, it’s very nice during most of the day, and we just layer up when it’s cooler.
Ross and Mary’s Voyage of Discovery: Chapter One
Mary and I left Klamath Falls on Monday, December 14th. We had the trailer up at the house for a couple of days and were hoping to get out Monday, but weather reports kept changing. After a week of sub-zero temperatures, now we had a series of storms coming in, and it was looking like the better window would be later in the week. By Sunday afternoon we had a few inches of snow on the ground, and I chained up the truck and trailer, mostly so we could be sure of just getting down our steep hill. Once we got on the highway, I was optimistic we would have good pavement. I thought we could drop the chains and drive with the truck in 4-wheel once we got on the road.
By Monday morning, though, the weather report was calling for heavy snow that night, so we decided to make a run for it. It took us until 1pm to finish packing and loading, which was something of a bigger job than usual since we’re planning to be gone somewhere between two and four months, considerably longer than we’ve been gone before.
The escape from Klamath was only a little harrowing. We had bare pavement all the way, but at Weed, the junction with I-5, we hit heavy winds, which I expected. I would guess 20 mph, with gusts as high as 40. The trailer was definitely getting seriously pushed around. By this time, it was also raining hard and the temperature was only 36. We had just made it out in time.
We were thinking to stay in Redding and try something we’d heard about but never yet done ourselves, which was to camp free in a Wal-Mart parking lot. Not that I don’t hate Wal-Mart as much as the next enlightened liberal, but free overnight parking and a chance to stock-up on any last minute supplies is hard to pass up. With our Garmin GPS, I did a search and found one in Red Bluff, so we motored on down I-5 another thirty miles and Flo led us right to it.
(Flo is the voice on the GPS, and when in doubt about directions, we always go with the Flo.)
Staying at Wal-Mart was actually kind of fun and we especially appreciated the free camping. Our first real stop is Pinnacles National Monument, and we were surprised that dry camping (no hookups) is $23 a night. We’re used to paying $10 to $15 a night in Forest Service or BLM campgrounds, and some of the parks and monuments we plan to visit in the Southwest are also free, so it’s hard to understand the high prices here, especially in the off-season.
But we’re staying twelve days and are looking forward to it. Pinnacles lies in the oak foothills (some would say mountains) that separate the Salinas and Central Valleys of California. What makes the park interesting is that it’s composed of the remains of an ancient volcano, mostly eroded away now but with peaks rising to above 3,000 feet. The landscape is dramatic and beautiful. Mary and I camped here with a friend almost forty years ago, probably our first camping trip together. We’re looking forward to some hiking and caving, and if we’re lucky, we’ll also see some condors, which were successfully reintroduced here some years ago.
We’re also looking forward to being warm. Part of the reason for our trip, which we hope to repeat in coming years, is to camp and explore the desert Southwest, but we’re also here as snowbirds, fleeing the snow and freezing temperatures of the Oregon high desert. It’s not that I hate winter, it’s just that after all these years, I mostly hate winter.
So, although I was surprised that the temperature was only 28 this morning, it’s sunny today and should get up to about 60.
Yes!
We’ll have to go into Hollister once or twice for supplies while we’re here, and we already saw a Starbucks, so we’ll stop by to surf the web and check our mail and I can post this rambling first entry of our trip. There’s no WIFI here and not even any cell phone reception.
What’s the latest news on Tiger Woods? Talk about roughing it!
By Monday morning, though, the weather report was calling for heavy snow that night, so we decided to make a run for it. It took us until 1pm to finish packing and loading, which was something of a bigger job than usual since we’re planning to be gone somewhere between two and four months, considerably longer than we’ve been gone before.
The escape from Klamath was only a little harrowing. We had bare pavement all the way, but at Weed, the junction with I-5, we hit heavy winds, which I expected. I would guess 20 mph, with gusts as high as 40. The trailer was definitely getting seriously pushed around. By this time, it was also raining hard and the temperature was only 36. We had just made it out in time.
We were thinking to stay in Redding and try something we’d heard about but never yet done ourselves, which was to camp free in a Wal-Mart parking lot. Not that I don’t hate Wal-Mart as much as the next enlightened liberal, but free overnight parking and a chance to stock-up on any last minute supplies is hard to pass up. With our Garmin GPS, I did a search and found one in Red Bluff, so we motored on down I-5 another thirty miles and Flo led us right to it.
(Flo is the voice on the GPS, and when in doubt about directions, we always go with the Flo.)
Staying at Wal-Mart was actually kind of fun and we especially appreciated the free camping. Our first real stop is Pinnacles National Monument, and we were surprised that dry camping (no hookups) is $23 a night. We’re used to paying $10 to $15 a night in Forest Service or BLM campgrounds, and some of the parks and monuments we plan to visit in the Southwest are also free, so it’s hard to understand the high prices here, especially in the off-season.
But we’re staying twelve days and are looking forward to it. Pinnacles lies in the oak foothills (some would say mountains) that separate the Salinas and Central Valleys of California. What makes the park interesting is that it’s composed of the remains of an ancient volcano, mostly eroded away now but with peaks rising to above 3,000 feet. The landscape is dramatic and beautiful. Mary and I camped here with a friend almost forty years ago, probably our first camping trip together. We’re looking forward to some hiking and caving, and if we’re lucky, we’ll also see some condors, which were successfully reintroduced here some years ago.
We’re also looking forward to being warm. Part of the reason for our trip, which we hope to repeat in coming years, is to camp and explore the desert Southwest, but we’re also here as snowbirds, fleeing the snow and freezing temperatures of the Oregon high desert. It’s not that I hate winter, it’s just that after all these years, I mostly hate winter.
So, although I was surprised that the temperature was only 28 this morning, it’s sunny today and should get up to about 60.
Yes!
We’ll have to go into Hollister once or twice for supplies while we’re here, and we already saw a Starbucks, so we’ll stop by to surf the web and check our mail and I can post this rambling first entry of our trip. There’s no WIFI here and not even any cell phone reception.
What’s the latest news on Tiger Woods? Talk about roughing it!
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
Stephen and Eve
I thought Colbert went easy on tonight’s guest, Andy Schlafly, son of Phyllis The Wicked Witch of the Right, and founder of Conservapedia, an online alternative to the liberal bias of Wikipedia.
Here’s the Conservapedia definition of liberal:
“A liberal (also leftist) is someone who rejects logical and biblical standards, often for self-centered reasons. There are no coherent liberal standards; often a liberal is merely someone who craves attention, and who uses many words to say nothing. Liberalism began as a movement for individual liberties, but today is increasingly statist, and in Europe even socialistic.”
I just love a concise, unbiased definition. Stephan could have just read that and asked, “WTF?”
Still, Colbert did take his shots at Conserva earlier when “On October 7, 2009, [he] called for his viewers to incorporate him into the Conservapedia Bible as a Biblical figure and viewers responded by editing the Conservapedia Bible to include his name.” This resulted in articles on topics such as “Stephan and the Ark.”
For more on Conservapedia and other “alternative conservative sites” here’s a link to the evil Wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservapedia
[You still gotta cut and paste the links. Blogger is messing with me.]
Here’s the Conservapedia definition of liberal:
“A liberal (also leftist) is someone who rejects logical and biblical standards, often for self-centered reasons. There are no coherent liberal standards; often a liberal is merely someone who craves attention, and who uses many words to say nothing. Liberalism began as a movement for individual liberties, but today is increasingly statist, and in Europe even socialistic.”
I just love a concise, unbiased definition. Stephan could have just read that and asked, “WTF?”
Still, Colbert did take his shots at Conserva earlier when “On October 7, 2009, [he] called for his viewers to incorporate him into the Conservapedia Bible as a Biblical figure and viewers responded by editing the Conservapedia Bible to include his name.” This resulted in articles on topics such as “Stephan and the Ark.”
For more on Conservapedia and other “alternative conservative sites” here’s a link to the evil Wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservapedia
[You still gotta cut and paste the links. Blogger is messing with me.]
Thursday, December 03, 2009
Small world
Mary and I exchanged Christmas presents yesterday. Actually, we both kept the one we had bought for the other. We gifted each other (why not make another new verb? It’s all the thing to do) a pair of Kindles, and when we opened them, we found we had to register them if they came as a gift, but they were already registered to the gifter, not the giftee, so we said, well hell, let’s just keep our own.
Not very Christmasy (also written “Christmas-y”),but each year I try to move a little further away from any recognition of Christmas as a special day. Part of this has to do with not being a Christian and resenting this imposed holiday, part is a rejection of the commercialization of Christmas. Part is protecting myself from the melancholy of not being eight-years-old anymore.
But hell, I still want some presents.
I’m very enthused about the Kindle and have wanted one since I read a little about the new features, which include a dictionary that allows instant access to definitions as you read. “Bumptious” is now in my active vocabulary, and pretty soon I’ll be sounding like George Will or the recently departed William F. Buckley even. Also, by searching for a name in the current document, you can almost instantly generate an in-order list of all the references to a single character, which should come in handy when I’m reading mysteries because usually when the bad guy comes back on the stage in the last pages and has our hero at gunpoint in an isolated warehouse, I can’t remember who this bad guy is. Of course, it’s almost always a minor character from page forty-three whom I’ve completely forgotten. So now, I can search and go back to page forty-three and remind myself that he was the doorman that the crime boss whispered to as he was entering the banquet surrounded by bodyguards.
Ah ha!
I’ve already downloaded a couple of books, plus the New Yorker, which is not available here in my little town, and today’s Washington Post just to see what the Kindle version looks like.
This is a very practical tool for us as we prepare to head out on our winter travels to the Southwest:
Pioneers! O Pioneers!
COME my tan-faced children,
Follow well in order, get your weapons ready,
Have you your pistols? have you your sharp-edged axes?
Damn straight we do, and our Arctic Fox travel trailer and Dodge ¾ ton pickup with the Cummins diesel, and now two Kindles so we’ll have very expanded access to books, newspapers,and magazines as we travel mostly in the backcountry of parks and national monuments. We’ll have cell phone reception much of the time, which allows Kindle shopping and downloads, but few bookstores or WI-FI, where we can get the news online.
So I’m feeling pretty good about my new gadget and our trip coming up when I’m watching Colbert last night, and his guest is author Sherman Alexie. I’ve heard of him. Turns out he’s a Native American from the Spokane area, growing up there about the time Mary and I lived there in the late 70s. Also, the film Smoke Signals, which I’ve admired here in earlier posts, is based on one of his short stories, and he wrote the screen play. Small world, I’m thinking.
I’m pretty interested in the guy by now and ready to cue him up on my Kindle, but it turns out the whole interview is about how much he hates Kindle and how it’s destroying the relationship between authors and their readers, not to mention the independent bookstores (I’ve got some bad news here for Sherman, Kindle or not), and in fact finally destroying the printed word itself. Pretty soon, there won’t be anything left but downloads, which will offer a hugely reduced number of titles mostly falling within the bestseller category.
Again, have I got news, but still.
So Sherman won’t allow his books to be digitized, doesn’t want them getting all digit-y, and I had to go to Amazon and order the hardcopies, and I’m not sure I see such a big difference between which Amazon department I order from.
Actually, I share all these concerns but I don’t think there’s anything we can do to change much. Better maybe to try to find a way to ride the wave. Technology is now a force of nature as powerful as climate change and about as immediate as a massive meteor strike. Goodbye to the daily newspaper, the network news team, and now the local bookstore. I will miss them all if I live long enough, but actually, I think I’m about the perfect age to have enjoyed the best of everything life and human progress have had to offer, and I mostly won’t be around when the bills come due.
Meanwhile, I downloaded Anna Karenina for free to my Kindle. (It’s public domain now, so I might finally get around to reading it. Sorry, Leo.) And I have four more new books on there, plus a couple of magazines.
I’m really killing the publishing industry.
Not very Christmasy (also written “Christmas-y”),but each year I try to move a little further away from any recognition of Christmas as a special day. Part of this has to do with not being a Christian and resenting this imposed holiday, part is a rejection of the commercialization of Christmas. Part is protecting myself from the melancholy of not being eight-years-old anymore.
But hell, I still want some presents.
I’m very enthused about the Kindle and have wanted one since I read a little about the new features, which include a dictionary that allows instant access to definitions as you read. “Bumptious” is now in my active vocabulary, and pretty soon I’ll be sounding like George Will or the recently departed William F. Buckley even. Also, by searching for a name in the current document, you can almost instantly generate an in-order list of all the references to a single character, which should come in handy when I’m reading mysteries because usually when the bad guy comes back on the stage in the last pages and has our hero at gunpoint in an isolated warehouse, I can’t remember who this bad guy is. Of course, it’s almost always a minor character from page forty-three whom I’ve completely forgotten. So now, I can search and go back to page forty-three and remind myself that he was the doorman that the crime boss whispered to as he was entering the banquet surrounded by bodyguards.
Ah ha!
I’ve already downloaded a couple of books, plus the New Yorker, which is not available here in my little town, and today’s Washington Post just to see what the Kindle version looks like.
This is a very practical tool for us as we prepare to head out on our winter travels to the Southwest:
Pioneers! O Pioneers!
COME my tan-faced children,
Follow well in order, get your weapons ready,
Have you your pistols? have you your sharp-edged axes?
Damn straight we do, and our Arctic Fox travel trailer and Dodge ¾ ton pickup with the Cummins diesel, and now two Kindles so we’ll have very expanded access to books, newspapers,and magazines as we travel mostly in the backcountry of parks and national monuments. We’ll have cell phone reception much of the time, which allows Kindle shopping and downloads, but few bookstores or WI-FI, where we can get the news online.
So I’m feeling pretty good about my new gadget and our trip coming up when I’m watching Colbert last night, and his guest is author Sherman Alexie. I’ve heard of him. Turns out he’s a Native American from the Spokane area, growing up there about the time Mary and I lived there in the late 70s. Also, the film Smoke Signals, which I’ve admired here in earlier posts, is based on one of his short stories, and he wrote the screen play. Small world, I’m thinking.
I’m pretty interested in the guy by now and ready to cue him up on my Kindle, but it turns out the whole interview is about how much he hates Kindle and how it’s destroying the relationship between authors and their readers, not to mention the independent bookstores (I’ve got some bad news here for Sherman, Kindle or not), and in fact finally destroying the printed word itself. Pretty soon, there won’t be anything left but downloads, which will offer a hugely reduced number of titles mostly falling within the bestseller category.
Again, have I got news, but still.
So Sherman won’t allow his books to be digitized, doesn’t want them getting all digit-y, and I had to go to Amazon and order the hardcopies, and I’m not sure I see such a big difference between which Amazon department I order from.
Actually, I share all these concerns but I don’t think there’s anything we can do to change much. Better maybe to try to find a way to ride the wave. Technology is now a force of nature as powerful as climate change and about as immediate as a massive meteor strike. Goodbye to the daily newspaper, the network news team, and now the local bookstore. I will miss them all if I live long enough, but actually, I think I’m about the perfect age to have enjoyed the best of everything life and human progress have had to offer, and I mostly won’t be around when the bills come due.
Meanwhile, I downloaded Anna Karenina for free to my Kindle. (It’s public domain now, so I might finally get around to reading it. Sorry, Leo.) And I have four more new books on there, plus a couple of magazines.
I’m really killing the publishing industry.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
My (possibly) Irish heart
Somebody warned me off Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt because it’s depressing. I still might have started it earlier but the print in my paperback edition is small, and anymore, print size is one of the deciding factors in whether I’ll read a book or not. But I started it anyway a few weeks ago and, slow reader that I am, just finished it, and I would have missed something wonderful if I hadn’t finally picked it up.
This memoir of growing up in poverty in Ireland, “utterly heartbreaking” as one reviewer wrote, leaves me feeling far from depressed, though I admit to reaching for the Kleenex frequently as young Frank finally sails to America at age nineteen and the book comes to an end with me wanting much more. Although it’s a very personal narrative, for me it was impossible to read without a profound awareness of how truly wealthy we are to live in this country and in this time, the recession notwithstanding. At the same time, McCourt enjoyed a kind of protected youth, growing up in a brief era when poverty and violence were not so linked as they are today.
A quick look at Amazon confirms that I’ll have more to keep me busy as I try to find ways to pass the long afternoons in the deserts of Southern California and Arizona this winter. McCourt, who ended up teaching high school English and winning a Pulitzer Prize, has several other books, all of them again memoirs it seems, and his brother Malachy has a few of his own.
Angela’s Ashes was copyrighted in 1996, so as usual my “discovery” is over a decade old. It’s been a best-seller ever since, so my belated recommendation adds little to what has already been said, except perhaps to the few readers of this blog who haven’t yet come upon it.
This memoir of growing up in poverty in Ireland, “utterly heartbreaking” as one reviewer wrote, leaves me feeling far from depressed, though I admit to reaching for the Kleenex frequently as young Frank finally sails to America at age nineteen and the book comes to an end with me wanting much more. Although it’s a very personal narrative, for me it was impossible to read without a profound awareness of how truly wealthy we are to live in this country and in this time, the recession notwithstanding. At the same time, McCourt enjoyed a kind of protected youth, growing up in a brief era when poverty and violence were not so linked as they are today.
A quick look at Amazon confirms that I’ll have more to keep me busy as I try to find ways to pass the long afternoons in the deserts of Southern California and Arizona this winter. McCourt, who ended up teaching high school English and winning a Pulitzer Prize, has several other books, all of them again memoirs it seems, and his brother Malachy has a few of his own.
Angela’s Ashes was copyrighted in 1996, so as usual my “discovery” is over a decade old. It’s been a best-seller ever since, so my belated recommendation adds little to what has already been said, except perhaps to the few readers of this blog who haven’t yet come upon it.
Monday, November 09, 2009
What a difference
a day makes. . . .
Punditry on the chances for health care reform now seems to be focusing on obstacles, suggesting that it’s not at all clear that Obama will have a bill to sign. This is a complete reversal of what I was hearing just a day or two ago, when is seemed like we’d moved into the realm of forgone conclusion, even before the house voted.
An excellent reason to shit-can the filibuster: Joe Lieberman pontificating on why he would, in an act of moral conscience, prevent the bill from coming to a vote. One man can do this? One man who just last week was announcing that he would vote against the public option purely because it would be bad for the insurance industry concentrated in his state?
Oh, that Soupy Sales were still alive to hit this dick in the face with a pie. How about a nice piece of dick-face pie, Joe?
POW!
So now I’m going back to my cartoons.
Punditry on the chances for health care reform now seems to be focusing on obstacles, suggesting that it’s not at all clear that Obama will have a bill to sign. This is a complete reversal of what I was hearing just a day or two ago, when is seemed like we’d moved into the realm of forgone conclusion, even before the house voted.
An excellent reason to shit-can the filibuster: Joe Lieberman pontificating on why he would, in an act of moral conscience, prevent the bill from coming to a vote. One man can do this? One man who just last week was announcing that he would vote against the public option purely because it would be bad for the insurance industry concentrated in his state?
Oh, that Soupy Sales were still alive to hit this dick in the face with a pie. How about a nice piece of dick-face pie, Joe?
POW!
So now I’m going back to my cartoons.
Our word for today. . . .
“Mumblecore is an American independent film movement that arose in the early 2000s. It is primarily characterized by ultra-low budget production (often employing digital video cameras), focus on personal relationships between twenty-somethings, improvised scripts, and non-professional actors. Filmmakers in this genre include Lynn Shelton, Andrew Bujalski, Mark Duplass, Jay Duplass, Aaron Katz, Joe Swanberg, Todd Rohal, Ry Russo-Young and Michael Harring.
“The term "mumblecore" was coined by Eric Masunaga, a sound editor who has worked with Bujalski. Masunaga coined the term one night at a bar during the 2005 South by Southwest Film Festival, but it was Bujalski who first used it in an interview with indieWIRE.[2] The directors of the films are sometimes referred to collectively as "mumblecorps," as in press corps. Film journalists have also used the terms "bedhead cinema", "postgraduate naturalism", "Myspace Neo-Realism" and "Slackavetes," a reference to independent film director John Cassavetes.”
All of this, of course, from Wikipedia, getting to be the only reference tool you’ll ever need.
I mention it because I watched the film Quiet City last night, and although I initially found it shambling and pointless, I was rather quickly won over. It’s a very pretty film with engaging characters and only a hint at the developing romance between them.
“The term "mumblecore" was coined by Eric Masunaga, a sound editor who has worked with Bujalski. Masunaga coined the term one night at a bar during the 2005 South by Southwest Film Festival, but it was Bujalski who first used it in an interview with indieWIRE.[2] The directors of the films are sometimes referred to collectively as "mumblecorps," as in press corps. Film journalists have also used the terms "bedhead cinema", "postgraduate naturalism", "Myspace Neo-Realism" and "Slackavetes," a reference to independent film director John Cassavetes.”
All of this, of course, from Wikipedia, getting to be the only reference tool you’ll ever need.
I mention it because I watched the film Quiet City last night, and although I initially found it shambling and pointless, I was rather quickly won over. It’s a very pretty film with engaging characters and only a hint at the developing romance between them.
Sunday, November 08, 2009
It's enough to make you sick, but in a good way. . . .
Around here in the Klamath Basin, it just feels like another beautiful fall day, a Sunday; not much is changing except the weather, which is mixing in more cold and wet days, and next week we should have our first real snow, though not a big one will be my guess. It's so quiet you might think you were deep in the woods and there wasn't another living person within miles.
But really, it’s quite an extraordinary Sunday since last night the house passed health-care reform legislation. Let’s call it landmark. Even one Republican crossed over to vote for it.
From the little I know, it’s not perfect. We should be moving away from employer-provided health care since it puts a burden on American companies when trying to compete with foreign companies from countries where health care isn’t connected to the workplace. Still, a lot will be worked out over the next few years. For now, history has been made which should have been made a generation ago.
Now the Senate has to pass its own version, and a lot could still go wrong there. From what I’m reading and hearing, though, Obama will have a bill on his desk to sign, maybe by Thanksgiving. How appropriate.
Wednesday on PBS, Frontline is rerunning its program “Sick Around the World,” which originally got me thinking so much about all this over a year ago. I hope all our Senators will watch it as they prepare to debate and vote on their package. And I hope even Republicans, elected and not, will watch it. They may react the same way I did, which is to be struck with how uncomplicated reform might be and with how badly we need to do it now.
They might come to understand that full-coverage healthcare with a public option and even a single payer is the moderate position. Socialized medicine means every hospital and clinic belongs to the government and every health care worker, from doctors to LPNs, is a government employee. Socialized medicine works well in some countries, though it probably wouldn’t be a good choice for us, nor is it one that would ever be considered here for a very long time to come. But look to a time in the not-too-distant-future when the teabaggers and other assorted wing-nut loonies are still railing against socialized medicine while they and their families are fully enjoying its benefits.
I wonder if this will be seen as Obama’s great achievement or if he will be seen as having been aloof from the process and mostly an observer.
But really, it’s quite an extraordinary Sunday since last night the house passed health-care reform legislation. Let’s call it landmark. Even one Republican crossed over to vote for it.
From the little I know, it’s not perfect. We should be moving away from employer-provided health care since it puts a burden on American companies when trying to compete with foreign companies from countries where health care isn’t connected to the workplace. Still, a lot will be worked out over the next few years. For now, history has been made which should have been made a generation ago.
Now the Senate has to pass its own version, and a lot could still go wrong there. From what I’m reading and hearing, though, Obama will have a bill on his desk to sign, maybe by Thanksgiving. How appropriate.
Wednesday on PBS, Frontline is rerunning its program “Sick Around the World,” which originally got me thinking so much about all this over a year ago. I hope all our Senators will watch it as they prepare to debate and vote on their package. And I hope even Republicans, elected and not, will watch it. They may react the same way I did, which is to be struck with how uncomplicated reform might be and with how badly we need to do it now.
They might come to understand that full-coverage healthcare with a public option and even a single payer is the moderate position. Socialized medicine means every hospital and clinic belongs to the government and every health care worker, from doctors to LPNs, is a government employee. Socialized medicine works well in some countries, though it probably wouldn’t be a good choice for us, nor is it one that would ever be considered here for a very long time to come. But look to a time in the not-too-distant-future when the teabaggers and other assorted wing-nut loonies are still railing against socialized medicine while they and their families are fully enjoying its benefits.
I wonder if this will be seen as Obama’s great achievement or if he will be seen as having been aloof from the process and mostly an observer.
Friday, November 06, 2009
I just can't watch. . . .
“But barring astoundingly self-defeating behavior by Democrats, a decent bill will get to Obama's desk." So said E.J. Dionne a few days ago predicting a health-care reform bill would pass, and so quoted I a few entries back. But, I added, never underestimate the ability of the Democrats to engage in astoundingly self-defeating behavior.
Which, of course, is exactly what they're doing. Republicans have completely opted out of any discussion, so if the crazies want to get heard, they have to find forty or so blue-dog Democrats who have nothing better to do than to howl at the moon and call it music. In this case, they have two demands: no federal health-care dollars can go to illegal immigrants, and no tax dollars can go toward abortion.
Simple enough. Write that into the bill, but then exactly how are you going to enforce it? The Blue Dems don’t say, except basically anything you can come up with isn’t good enough. Simply writing these restrictions into the bill doesn’t even start to cover it. How do we know Jose’ is really a citizen, even if he was born in Pasadena and went to Harvard? The looney right doesn’t even believe the President is a citizen since his father was born in Kenya and he was born in Hawaii.
This only makes him a citizen of Kenyawaii.
And it’s not enough to say any public-option plan can’t cover abortions; any private health plan that has any publicly subsidized enrollees can’t either.
Why stop there? Why not prohibit private individuals from paying for their own abortions if they are unemployed and collecting insurance, or getting disability, or in the military, or working for an agency that has a government contract? Those are tax dollars they’re spending, and if they want to spend them to kill babies, they need to give them back and start standing at the exit to Wal-Mart with a “Need abortion, Please help” sign.
Or they could just get a job at Wal-Mart, since they probably won’t ever get health coverage there either.
Despite all this craziness, the Dems still probably have the votes to pass a bill this weekend, especially if Obama will come on down to the hill and meet with some Dems who are still sitting on the fence. Which is exactly what he was going to do until the tragic shootings at Food Hood, Texas, so now he’s not.
Huh?
Huh?!
Really, I just can’t watch anymore. I’m going back to my cartoons. Let me know how it all turns out.
Which, of course, is exactly what they're doing. Republicans have completely opted out of any discussion, so if the crazies want to get heard, they have to find forty or so blue-dog Democrats who have nothing better to do than to howl at the moon and call it music. In this case, they have two demands: no federal health-care dollars can go to illegal immigrants, and no tax dollars can go toward abortion.
Simple enough. Write that into the bill, but then exactly how are you going to enforce it? The Blue Dems don’t say, except basically anything you can come up with isn’t good enough. Simply writing these restrictions into the bill doesn’t even start to cover it. How do we know Jose’ is really a citizen, even if he was born in Pasadena and went to Harvard? The looney right doesn’t even believe the President is a citizen since his father was born in Kenya and he was born in Hawaii.
This only makes him a citizen of Kenyawaii.
And it’s not enough to say any public-option plan can’t cover abortions; any private health plan that has any publicly subsidized enrollees can’t either.
Why stop there? Why not prohibit private individuals from paying for their own abortions if they are unemployed and collecting insurance, or getting disability, or in the military, or working for an agency that has a government contract? Those are tax dollars they’re spending, and if they want to spend them to kill babies, they need to give them back and start standing at the exit to Wal-Mart with a “Need abortion, Please help” sign.
Or they could just get a job at Wal-Mart, since they probably won’t ever get health coverage there either.
Despite all this craziness, the Dems still probably have the votes to pass a bill this weekend, especially if Obama will come on down to the hill and meet with some Dems who are still sitting on the fence. Which is exactly what he was going to do until the tragic shootings at Food Hood, Texas, so now he’s not.
Huh?
Huh?!
Really, I just can’t watch anymore. I’m going back to my cartoons. Let me know how it all turns out.
Bu-bu-bu-bu-bu-bu-bu
Nation,
I’m no fan of South Park, but when a cartoon show for twenty-somethings devotes an entire episode to bashing Harley riders, I have to say “Tip of the Hat.”
You can see it here:
http://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/251889/
(btw, I don't know why blogger isn't letting me paste in hot links anymore, but it's not. You can, of course, get there from here by copying the link and pasting it into your browser. Meanwhile, I'll have my crack team of tech-savvy interns get on this problem.)
I’m no fan of South Park, but when a cartoon show for twenty-somethings devotes an entire episode to bashing Harley riders, I have to say “Tip of the Hat.”
You can see it here:
http://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/251889/
(btw, I don't know why blogger isn't letting me paste in hot links anymore, but it's not. You can, of course, get there from here by copying the link and pasting it into your browser. Meanwhile, I'll have my crack team of tech-savvy interns get on this problem.)
Monday, November 02, 2009
(Next) Monday night at the movies
Here's the announcement for the next Monday Night at the Movies film at the local Ross Ragland Theater. I like the note at the end about submitting questions in advance, which at first seems rather ridiculous but then you have to consider some of the questions you get otherwise. I'll probably go.
Skye Borgman is yet another Klamath Falls native who is making it in da movies. Prior guests included directors James Ivory and Chris Eyre. There's no accounting for a jerkwater town like this producing such talent. Unless there is.
("Jerkwater": adj. Informal
1. Remote, small, and insignificant: a jerkwater town.
2. Contemptibly trivial: jerkwater notions.
From jerkwater, a branch-line train, so called because its small boiler had to be refilled often, requiring train crews to "jerk" or draw water from streams.]
**********
Monday Night at the Movies Presents Junk Dreams
With Cinematographer Skye Borgman
Monday, November 9th, at 7 p.m.
Click here to watch the film trailer!
The Ragland presents Junk Dreams, with introduction and lecture by Cinematographer Skye Borgman, Monday, November 9th, at 7 p.m., as part of the theater's Monday Night At The Movies free film series.
Junk Dreams is a documentary adventure that chronicles one magical journey of two ageless brothers. Ernie and Charlie Borgman board a 29 foot Chinese Junk and set sail for a 1,500 mile journey from Port Hadlock, Washington to Valdez, Alaska. The two and a half month adventure takes them along the Canadian and Alaskan coast and into the icy waters of the Gulf of Alaska. Through torrents of rain and raging waters, engine troubles and broken masts ... the two men come face to face with adventure, their true fountain of youth. This is a documentary about family. It is a story of passing along the passion for life for our children. It is a story of aging but never growing old.
Skye Borgman was born in Alaska, raised in Oregon and is a Klamath Union High School graduate. She moved to Los Angeles in 2000 with the intention of fusing photography, travel and momentum. She received her MFA from USC's Film Production program and has been working as a cinematographer, on both narrative and documentary films, ever since.
To help The Ragland shape and define the pre-screening lecture and post-screening question and answer session, please submit your questions and comments on the following film topics and themes to media@rrtheater.org before the screening on November 9th.
1. Family bonds
2. Passing along passion for life to our children
3. Aging but never growing old
Skye Borgman is yet another Klamath Falls native who is making it in da movies. Prior guests included directors James Ivory and Chris Eyre. There's no accounting for a jerkwater town like this producing such talent. Unless there is.
("Jerkwater": adj. Informal
1. Remote, small, and insignificant: a jerkwater town.
2. Contemptibly trivial: jerkwater notions.
From jerkwater, a branch-line train, so called because its small boiler had to be refilled often, requiring train crews to "jerk" or draw water from streams.]
**********
Monday Night at the Movies Presents Junk Dreams
With Cinematographer Skye Borgman
Monday, November 9th, at 7 p.m.
Click here to watch the film trailer!
The Ragland presents Junk Dreams, with introduction and lecture by Cinematographer Skye Borgman, Monday, November 9th, at 7 p.m., as part of the theater's Monday Night At The Movies free film series.
Junk Dreams is a documentary adventure that chronicles one magical journey of two ageless brothers. Ernie and Charlie Borgman board a 29 foot Chinese Junk and set sail for a 1,500 mile journey from Port Hadlock, Washington to Valdez, Alaska. The two and a half month adventure takes them along the Canadian and Alaskan coast and into the icy waters of the Gulf of Alaska. Through torrents of rain and raging waters, engine troubles and broken masts ... the two men come face to face with adventure, their true fountain of youth. This is a documentary about family. It is a story of passing along the passion for life for our children. It is a story of aging but never growing old.
Skye Borgman was born in Alaska, raised in Oregon and is a Klamath Union High School graduate. She moved to Los Angeles in 2000 with the intention of fusing photography, travel and momentum. She received her MFA from USC's Film Production program and has been working as a cinematographer, on both narrative and documentary films, ever since.
To help The Ragland shape and define the pre-screening lecture and post-screening question and answer session, please submit your questions and comments on the following film topics and themes to media@rrtheater.org before the screening on November 9th.
1. Family bonds
2. Passing along passion for life to our children
3. Aging but never growing old
Another thing I never thought I'd see in my lifetime, except for awhile there
Predictions about the chances for health-care reform have all been mostly off the mark for the last few months or so, which is one reason why I haven’t had anything to say about it recently. But E. J. Dionne today makes a remarkably sure prediction:
“But barring astoundingly self-defeating behavior by Democrats, a decent bill will get to Obama's desk. He and his party will then own the most sweeping reform of the American social safety net since the passage of Medicare in the 1960s and, arguably, Social Security in the 1930s.” He goes on to list all of the immediate benefits that will be implemented, as well as the more sweeping reforms that will begin in 2013.
You can read him here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/01/AR2009110101703.html?wpisrc=newsletter
You can never count out astoundingly self-defeating behavior by Democrats, but the momentum favors Dionne’s prediction, and if he’s right, my head will probably explode. Imagine: The United States might finally rise to the level of, say, Cuba, in its availability of good-quality and affordable health care for everyone.
As Ma says in the Faulkner novel As I Lay Dying, “Thy will be done. Now I can get them teeth.”
“But barring astoundingly self-defeating behavior by Democrats, a decent bill will get to Obama's desk. He and his party will then own the most sweeping reform of the American social safety net since the passage of Medicare in the 1960s and, arguably, Social Security in the 1930s.” He goes on to list all of the immediate benefits that will be implemented, as well as the more sweeping reforms that will begin in 2013.
You can read him here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/01/AR2009110101703.html?wpisrc=newsletter
You can never count out astoundingly self-defeating behavior by Democrats, but the momentum favors Dionne’s prediction, and if he’s right, my head will probably explode. Imagine: The United States might finally rise to the level of, say, Cuba, in its availability of good-quality and affordable health care for everyone.
As Ma says in the Faulkner novel As I Lay Dying, “Thy will be done. Now I can get them teeth.”
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
About motorcycles
The November Harper’s Magazine has an interesting memoir by poet Frederick Seidel entitled “About Motorcycles.” Identified as a “Memoir,” I had trouble believing it was entirely or even mostly true. I thought it might be some kind of rider’s fantasy disguised as autobiography. Among other things, Seidel claims that two different factories, MV Agusta and Ducati, prepared one-off street legal versions of their Moto-GP race bikes for his personal collection. Completely unlikely, especially since he describes the Agusta as a shaft drive for some reason. So far as I know, only BMW ever fielded shaft drive racing motorcycles.
Also dubious is the list of who’s who in motorcycle racing that he describes as personal friends or close acquaintences, including Agusta’s and Ducati’s factory owners, top designers, and team managers. Plus a couple of the world’s most beautiful movie stars.
But it seems likely the whole thing is true. Wikipedia provides this bit of information: “Seidel is independently wealthy-- that is to say, he inherited rather than earned his personal fortune-- and is fascinated by Ducati motorcycles, of which he owns four.”
As a reminiscence about a lifelong love of motorcycles, I don’t find it to be all that compelling and would recommend instead The Perfect Vehicle: What It is about Motorcycles by Melissa Holbrook Pierson. A girl who loves her MotoGuzzi: talk about unlikely!
Still, if you’re a rider and have an extra $6.95, you should probably pick up the November Harper’s, or just stop by and borrow mine.
Also dubious is the list of who’s who in motorcycle racing that he describes as personal friends or close acquaintences, including Agusta’s and Ducati’s factory owners, top designers, and team managers. Plus a couple of the world’s most beautiful movie stars.
But it seems likely the whole thing is true. Wikipedia provides this bit of information: “Seidel is independently wealthy-- that is to say, he inherited rather than earned his personal fortune-- and is fascinated by Ducati motorcycles, of which he owns four.”
As a reminiscence about a lifelong love of motorcycles, I don’t find it to be all that compelling and would recommend instead The Perfect Vehicle: What It is about Motorcycles by Melissa Holbrook Pierson. A girl who loves her MotoGuzzi: talk about unlikely!
Still, if you’re a rider and have an extra $6.95, you should probably pick up the November Harper’s, or just stop by and borrow mine.
Funny numbers
Conservative columnist and Weekly Standard editor William Kristol (who is now going as Bill) should not be confused with comedian Billy Crystal, even though they look a lot alike.
Bill
Billy
What are these guys, twins?
Kristol (the conservative) takes comfort in some recent poll numbers: “The Gallup poll released Monday shows the public's conservatism at a high-water mark. Some 40 percent of Americans call themselves conservative, compared with 36 percent who self-describe as moderates and 20 percent as liberals.”
So you might see this as an indication that Republicans will enjoy twice the support in coming elections that Democrats will, until you think for a minute about the 36 percent who self-describe as moderate. How much room for them is there in today’s Republican party?
Not much. Maybe not any. In what would otherwise be an obscure little congressional special election in New York, a moderate Republican actually managed to win the primary, which has now resulted in a Conservative Party challenger who has the backing of Sarah Palin, among other Republican notables. Kristol seems to things that’s okay: “A liberal Republican anointed by the GOP establishment for the special congressional election in Upstate New York will probably run third, behind the conservative Republican running on the Conservative Party line, who may in fact win.”
But if I were the non-comedian Bill, I think I’d be less comfortable with my own numbers and observations. “When asked how much confidence they had in congressional Republicans to make the right decisions for the country's future, only 19 percent of respondents expressed much confidence in the GOP -- well behind the confidence levels in congressional Democrats (34 percent) and Obama (49 percent).”
And I’d be downright worried about the cast of characters serious Bill points to as the leaders and worker bees of the New Republican Party: “The center of gravity, I suspect, will instead lie with individuals such as Palin and Huckabee and Gingrich, media personalities like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, and activists at town halls and tea parties. Some will lament this -- but over the past year, as those voices have dominated, conservatism has done pretty well in the body politic, and Republicans have narrowed the gap with Democrats in test ballots.”
Expect Republicans to pick up seats in the off-year congressional elections, as the minority party always does. How many they pick up will probably depend on how far they can reach beyond their base and draw in moderate voters.
If Kristol’s observations are correct, it might not be good news for the Grand Old Party and no laughing matter for moderate Republicans.
For a good laugh, I'd recommend Billy's When Harry Met Sally and especially City Slickers.
Bill
Billy
What are these guys, twins?
Kristol (the conservative) takes comfort in some recent poll numbers: “The Gallup poll released Monday shows the public's conservatism at a high-water mark. Some 40 percent of Americans call themselves conservative, compared with 36 percent who self-describe as moderates and 20 percent as liberals.”
So you might see this as an indication that Republicans will enjoy twice the support in coming elections that Democrats will, until you think for a minute about the 36 percent who self-describe as moderate. How much room for them is there in today’s Republican party?
Not much. Maybe not any. In what would otherwise be an obscure little congressional special election in New York, a moderate Republican actually managed to win the primary, which has now resulted in a Conservative Party challenger who has the backing of Sarah Palin, among other Republican notables. Kristol seems to things that’s okay: “A liberal Republican anointed by the GOP establishment for the special congressional election in Upstate New York will probably run third, behind the conservative Republican running on the Conservative Party line, who may in fact win.”
But if I were the non-comedian Bill, I think I’d be less comfortable with my own numbers and observations. “When asked how much confidence they had in congressional Republicans to make the right decisions for the country's future, only 19 percent of respondents expressed much confidence in the GOP -- well behind the confidence levels in congressional Democrats (34 percent) and Obama (49 percent).”
And I’d be downright worried about the cast of characters serious Bill points to as the leaders and worker bees of the New Republican Party: “The center of gravity, I suspect, will instead lie with individuals such as Palin and Huckabee and Gingrich, media personalities like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, and activists at town halls and tea parties. Some will lament this -- but over the past year, as those voices have dominated, conservatism has done pretty well in the body politic, and Republicans have narrowed the gap with Democrats in test ballots.”
Expect Republicans to pick up seats in the off-year congressional elections, as the minority party always does. How many they pick up will probably depend on how far they can reach beyond their base and draw in moderate voters.
If Kristol’s observations are correct, it might not be good news for the Grand Old Party and no laughing matter for moderate Republicans.
For a good laugh, I'd recommend Billy's When Harry Met Sally and especially City Slickers.
RIP Soupy Sales
"Soupy Sales (January 8, 1926 – October 22, 2009)[2] was an American comedian, actor, radio-TV personality and host, and jazz aficionado."
(Wikipedia)
Even his Wikipedia entry is good for some laughs:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soupy_Sales
As noted, he was also a jazz aficionado and worked a lot of music into his shows.
I was a huge fan of Soupy as a kid. It saddens me to learn he's no longer with us. I'm moving this to the top of my Netflix queue:
http://www.netflix.com/Search?v1=The%20Soupy%20Sales%20Collection&lnkce=acsEnhCk
And now, a pie in the face for God.
(Wikipedia)
Even his Wikipedia entry is good for some laughs:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soupy_Sales
As noted, he was also a jazz aficionado and worked a lot of music into his shows.
I was a huge fan of Soupy as a kid. It saddens me to learn he's no longer with us. I'm moving this to the top of my Netflix queue:
http://www.netflix.com/Search?v1=The%20Soupy%20Sales%20Collection&lnkce=acsEnhCk
And now, a pie in the face for God.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Last ride
On Friday, I leave for my motorcycle club’s annual Hardy Souls campout, held outside the town of Seneca in the Northeast mountains of Oregon. Seneca has the distinction of having the lowest temperature ever recorded in Oregon, minus 54 degrees in February, 1933. This is late October, not February, and by all the old-timers’ accounts, the winters just aren’t what they used to be. Still, in past events we’ve seen morning temperatures in the low teens, and it’s one thing to stiffly crawl out of a tent when the very ground around you is frozen hard; it’s quite another to pull on freezing clothes, get on a motorcycle, and start the long ride back home, never mind the frost on the road.
Still, it’s a grand event and one I wouldn’t miss, not just yet anyway. Last year, I was only a few weeks out of prostrate surgery, so I made the concession of going by car, for which I was richly ridiculed. This year I’ll be on my new-to-me 2006 Suzuki V-Strom, a bike built more for comfort than for speed and itself a concession to age and comfort I wouldn’t have considered even a few years ago.
But temperatures are forecast to fall only into the upper twenties with daytime temperatures approaching sixty, and already I’m making a mental list of the things I’ll take along for comfort. With the increased luggage capacity of the new bike, I’ll include a small French press and a bag of Starbuck’s so I won’t have to go from tent to tent with my begging mug and rely on the kindness of friends I’ve known for over twenty years.
Fresh hot coffee and a new bike aren’t the only concessions I’ll make for comfort. You learn a lot from experience when you travel by motorcycle for twenty-five years. In cold weather, I carry two sleeping bags, and depending on temperature, I’ll nest one inside the other or use one as a comforter. It gets cold enough inside the tent for your breath to freeze on the inside, but as long as I stay covered up, I’m deliciously warm.
For years, all my bikes have had electric grips, which keep hands from going numb and even developing frostbite, if not exactly warm and comfy. Also, I wear an electric vest which plugs into the bike’s electrical system. Again, when it’s below freezing there’s no sensation of actual warmth with these, just suffienct heat to keep your core warm enough to ward off hypothermia. The not-too recent development of toe warmers, little charcoal bags that somehow react to oxygen and toe jam, provide enough heat that toes only get cold and not downright painful.
Imagine sitting on a seat hard as a board, in twenty-degree weather and with a 70 mile-per-hour wind, and you can see that the best that can be hoped for is to be able to keep riding.
So why bother going out when I know the best I can do is to somewhat mitigate my misery? That’s hard to explain to people who don’t ride, but there’s something that-much-more exciting about beating the elements and heading out on a trip long after most riders have winterized their bikes and are home watching NASCAR. And life in camp is good. Our hosts Ed and Ellen Barton bring their truck with a hefty load of firewood and the makings of Ellen’s famous freeze-ass chili. Bjorn Klingenberg brings his vintage hand-cranked Victrola and a stack of rare and wonderful 78s featuring original recordings of World War Two-era big bands. And I get to meet and joke around with this eclectic mix of friends I’ve known for over two decades, many of them at least a few years older than me and, like me, determined to scratch out one more ride in the beautiful fall colors of the Oregon high country before the snow settles in and we have to settle for spiced cider around the fire at home.
So I can’t wait for Friday morning. When the sun gets high enough and temperatures rise into the forties and even fifties, there's no better feeling than riding fast through some of the most beautiful scenery in the West.
I think a lot recently about how much longer I’ll be able to do this. I have many friends who still ride in their sixties. Only a few still ride in their seventies, so sometime over the next few years, I’ll likely reach a point where age and good sense tell me that this part of my life is over, that this pleasure belongs to younger men. Anticipatory grief, my friend John calls it. John's a psychologist and knows about these things.
For now and for as many more years as I can still throw a leg over, I plan to keep the real grief at bay.
Still, it’s a grand event and one I wouldn’t miss, not just yet anyway. Last year, I was only a few weeks out of prostrate surgery, so I made the concession of going by car, for which I was richly ridiculed. This year I’ll be on my new-to-me 2006 Suzuki V-Strom, a bike built more for comfort than for speed and itself a concession to age and comfort I wouldn’t have considered even a few years ago.
But temperatures are forecast to fall only into the upper twenties with daytime temperatures approaching sixty, and already I’m making a mental list of the things I’ll take along for comfort. With the increased luggage capacity of the new bike, I’ll include a small French press and a bag of Starbuck’s so I won’t have to go from tent to tent with my begging mug and rely on the kindness of friends I’ve known for over twenty years.
Fresh hot coffee and a new bike aren’t the only concessions I’ll make for comfort. You learn a lot from experience when you travel by motorcycle for twenty-five years. In cold weather, I carry two sleeping bags, and depending on temperature, I’ll nest one inside the other or use one as a comforter. It gets cold enough inside the tent for your breath to freeze on the inside, but as long as I stay covered up, I’m deliciously warm.
For years, all my bikes have had electric grips, which keep hands from going numb and even developing frostbite, if not exactly warm and comfy. Also, I wear an electric vest which plugs into the bike’s electrical system. Again, when it’s below freezing there’s no sensation of actual warmth with these, just suffienct heat to keep your core warm enough to ward off hypothermia. The not-too recent development of toe warmers, little charcoal bags that somehow react to oxygen and toe jam, provide enough heat that toes only get cold and not downright painful.
Imagine sitting on a seat hard as a board, in twenty-degree weather and with a 70 mile-per-hour wind, and you can see that the best that can be hoped for is to be able to keep riding.
So why bother going out when I know the best I can do is to somewhat mitigate my misery? That’s hard to explain to people who don’t ride, but there’s something that-much-more exciting about beating the elements and heading out on a trip long after most riders have winterized their bikes and are home watching NASCAR. And life in camp is good. Our hosts Ed and Ellen Barton bring their truck with a hefty load of firewood and the makings of Ellen’s famous freeze-ass chili. Bjorn Klingenberg brings his vintage hand-cranked Victrola and a stack of rare and wonderful 78s featuring original recordings of World War Two-era big bands. And I get to meet and joke around with this eclectic mix of friends I’ve known for over two decades, many of them at least a few years older than me and, like me, determined to scratch out one more ride in the beautiful fall colors of the Oregon high country before the snow settles in and we have to settle for spiced cider around the fire at home.
So I can’t wait for Friday morning. When the sun gets high enough and temperatures rise into the forties and even fifties, there's no better feeling than riding fast through some of the most beautiful scenery in the West.
I think a lot recently about how much longer I’ll be able to do this. I have many friends who still ride in their sixties. Only a few still ride in their seventies, so sometime over the next few years, I’ll likely reach a point where age and good sense tell me that this part of my life is over, that this pleasure belongs to younger men. Anticipatory grief, my friend John calls it. John's a psychologist and knows about these things.
For now and for as many more years as I can still throw a leg over, I plan to keep the real grief at bay.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
¡Fiesta más fina!
PBS just ran a two-hour special, Latin Music USA, that was very informative but pretty much doomed by the broad topic and brief run-time. In two hours, the most they could do was introduce a few leading characters and offer only the briefest clips of their music. Thus, Dizzy Gillespie gets his rightful mention but we only hear him play a few notes. His Cuban protégé Arturo Sandoval gets considerably more time talking about what a great influence Dizzy was.
Too bad. When he was on, no one could play trumpet like Diz. No one.
Still, it’s a show worth watching if you love Latin music as I do, and I’m sure it will repeat.
And now, coming up tomorrow night (Thursday) also on PBS, a broadcast of the White House concert in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, a “Fiesta Latina.” Marc Anthony headlines, with appearances by Los Lobos, Jose Feliciano, and many more.
I first saw Anthony in a Paul Simon tribute concert when he sang Simon’s Latin-infused hit “Late in the Evening”:
“Then I learned to play some lead guitar, I was underage in this funky bar
And I stepped outside to smoke myself a j.
When I come back to the room, everybody just seemed to move
And I turned my amp up loud and I began to play.
It was late in the evening, and I blew that room away.”
And did he ever. Then I saw him in El Cantante, the Hector Lavoe bio-pic where he proved that he could act as well.
A highlight from the White House concert, previewed on Youtube clips, is the First Family all dancing on stage. I guess they got the idea from Tom Delay doing the cha-cha on Dancing with the Stars. The President has the better moves and looks way less gay.
This should be a terrific concert.
Too bad. When he was on, no one could play trumpet like Diz. No one.
Still, it’s a show worth watching if you love Latin music as I do, and I’m sure it will repeat.
And now, coming up tomorrow night (Thursday) also on PBS, a broadcast of the White House concert in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, a “Fiesta Latina.” Marc Anthony headlines, with appearances by Los Lobos, Jose Feliciano, and many more.
I first saw Anthony in a Paul Simon tribute concert when he sang Simon’s Latin-infused hit “Late in the Evening”:
“Then I learned to play some lead guitar, I was underage in this funky bar
And I stepped outside to smoke myself a j.
When I come back to the room, everybody just seemed to move
And I turned my amp up loud and I began to play.
It was late in the evening, and I blew that room away.”
And did he ever. Then I saw him in El Cantante, the Hector Lavoe bio-pic where he proved that he could act as well.
A highlight from the White House concert, previewed on Youtube clips, is the First Family all dancing on stage. I guess they got the idea from Tom Delay doing the cha-cha on Dancing with the Stars. The President has the better moves and looks way less gay.
This should be a terrific concert.
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
Curious George
George Will today heaps scorn on Michelle and Barack Obama, not for going to Copenhagen to promote Chicago for the Olympics, but for talking too much about themselves and for using cliches. He counts the number of personal pronouns in each speech, gives an example or two of a tired chestnut, and declares, "Their separate speeches to the International Olympic Committee were so dreadful, and in such a characteristic way, that they might be symptomatic of something that has serious implications for American governance." His stunning conclusion: The president is vain.
In his short speech, Obama begins with a little personal narrative about how he came to Chicago. He continues:
"Chicago is a place where we strive to celebrate what makes us different just as we celebrate what we have in common. It's a place where our unity is on colorful display at so many festivals and parades, and especially sporting events, where perfect strangers become fast friends just because they're wearing the same jersey. It's a city that works -- from its first World's Fair more than a century ago to the World Cup we hosted in the nineties, we know how to put on big events. And scores of visitors and spectators will tell you that we do it well.
"Chicago is a city where the practical and the inspirational exist in harmony; where visionaries who made no small plans rebuilt after a great fire and taught the world to reach new heights. It's a bustling metropolis with the warmth of a small town; where the world already comes together every day to live and work and reach for a dream -- a dream that no matter who we are, where we come from; no matter what we look like or what hand life has dealt us; with hard work, and discipline, and dedication, we can make it if we try.
"That's not just the American Dream. That is the Olympic spirit. It's the essence of the Olympic spirit. That's why we see so much of ourselves in these Games. That's why we want them in Chicago. That's why we want them in America."
Not a bad pitch, I'd say. Not a single personal pronoun for three paragraphs. But what about the cliche's? Obama, Will says, makes use of "the foggy sentimentalism of standard Olympics blather." Best to stay clear of any mention of the Olympic spirit or the character-building properties of sport.
So Will's two charges are that the president is vain and uses cliches. The horror! When can we get back to the humble presidents who have led and defined America, and who invariably spoke in strikingly original language about our values, destiny, and national character?
Will has an extended list of just those very presidents, let's see, around here somewhere, but he doesn't happen to mention any just now. And failing to give credit where credit's due, he doesn't even mention that the president was not wearing blue jeans.
Anyway, I'm on the Olympic Committee and I'm looking at Chicago/Rio... Chicago/ Rio... Chicago/Rio...
Hmmmm. . .
Ya know, I think we're going to Rio!
In his short speech, Obama begins with a little personal narrative about how he came to Chicago. He continues:
"Chicago is a place where we strive to celebrate what makes us different just as we celebrate what we have in common. It's a place where our unity is on colorful display at so many festivals and parades, and especially sporting events, where perfect strangers become fast friends just because they're wearing the same jersey. It's a city that works -- from its first World's Fair more than a century ago to the World Cup we hosted in the nineties, we know how to put on big events. And scores of visitors and spectators will tell you that we do it well.
"Chicago is a city where the practical and the inspirational exist in harmony; where visionaries who made no small plans rebuilt after a great fire and taught the world to reach new heights. It's a bustling metropolis with the warmth of a small town; where the world already comes together every day to live and work and reach for a dream -- a dream that no matter who we are, where we come from; no matter what we look like or what hand life has dealt us; with hard work, and discipline, and dedication, we can make it if we try.
"That's not just the American Dream. That is the Olympic spirit. It's the essence of the Olympic spirit. That's why we see so much of ourselves in these Games. That's why we want them in Chicago. That's why we want them in America."
Not a bad pitch, I'd say. Not a single personal pronoun for three paragraphs. But what about the cliche's? Obama, Will says, makes use of "the foggy sentimentalism of standard Olympics blather." Best to stay clear of any mention of the Olympic spirit or the character-building properties of sport.
So Will's two charges are that the president is vain and uses cliches. The horror! When can we get back to the humble presidents who have led and defined America, and who invariably spoke in strikingly original language about our values, destiny, and national character?
Will has an extended list of just those very presidents, let's see, around here somewhere, but he doesn't happen to mention any just now. And failing to give credit where credit's due, he doesn't even mention that the president was not wearing blue jeans.
Anyway, I'm on the Olympic Committee and I'm looking at Chicago/Rio... Chicago/ Rio... Chicago/Rio...
Hmmmm. . .
Ya know, I think we're going to Rio!
Friday, September 25, 2009
Our word for today
unc·tu·ous
adj.
1. Characterized by affected, exaggerated, or insincere earnestness: "the unctuous, complacent court composer who is consumed with envy and self-loathing" (Rhoda Koenig).
2. Having the quality or characteristics of oil or ointment; slippery.
3. Containing or composed of oil or fat.
4. Abundant in organic materials; soft and rich: unctuous soil.
5. Diane Sawyer, television news personality, who is about to take over as anchor of the ABC Nightly News upon the retirement of Charles Gibson at the end of this year.
This leaves only one network news program, NBC and its host Brian Williams, which hasn’t gone over completely to a soft-news orientation. Props (what the hell does that mean, anyway?) to Katie Couric for what passed as tough questions in her interview with Sarah Palin when other networks were playing paddy cake, but that was the exception for Couric. Asking Palin to "name one" newspaper or magazine she read regularly (she couldn't) earned Couric the enmity of the right, but didn't qualify her as a great journalist.
Sawyer seems to want to conclude every interview with a nice big hug, and her choice to anchor at ABC signals the near death of television news in favor of info-tainment. Along with the near death of daily newspapers, it all seems to signal the end of responsible journalism. The thought of Fox News and the the internet as our only remaining sources of information is truly frightening.
Of interest is today’s column by Michael Gerson, available here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/24/AR2009092403932.html?wpisrc=newsletter
adj.
1. Characterized by affected, exaggerated, or insincere earnestness: "the unctuous, complacent court composer who is consumed with envy and self-loathing" (Rhoda Koenig).
2. Having the quality or characteristics of oil or ointment; slippery.
3. Containing or composed of oil or fat.
4. Abundant in organic materials; soft and rich: unctuous soil.
5. Diane Sawyer, television news personality, who is about to take over as anchor of the ABC Nightly News upon the retirement of Charles Gibson at the end of this year.
This leaves only one network news program, NBC and its host Brian Williams, which hasn’t gone over completely to a soft-news orientation. Props (what the hell does that mean, anyway?) to Katie Couric for what passed as tough questions in her interview with Sarah Palin when other networks were playing paddy cake, but that was the exception for Couric. Asking Palin to "name one" newspaper or magazine she read regularly (she couldn't) earned Couric the enmity of the right, but didn't qualify her as a great journalist.
Sawyer seems to want to conclude every interview with a nice big hug, and her choice to anchor at ABC signals the near death of television news in favor of info-tainment. Along with the near death of daily newspapers, it all seems to signal the end of responsible journalism. The thought of Fox News and the the internet as our only remaining sources of information is truly frightening.
Of interest is today’s column by Michael Gerson, available here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/24/AR2009092403932.html?wpisrc=newsletter
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Essential viewing
Since we reconnected to cable TV last winter, I haven’t been watching much PBS, which we used to get off of our antennae. Too bad. I just got in the mail the PBS Home Video catalogue, and it reminded me that Ken Burns’ series The National Parks: America’s Best Idea begins this Sunday. I’ve set my DVR to record the series.
The catalogue also reminded me of the Frontline documentary "Sick Around the World," in which journalist J.R. Reid “visits six capitalist democracies—France, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom—for their ideas about medicine and its delivery to the public. . . .” I watched this program some time ago, well before the election and Obama’s health care initiative, and it made a profound impression on me, convincing me that designing a universal health care system that would best serve American needs really isn’t all that complicated. A well-chosen Blue Ribbon Panel, with a modest budget and competent staff, could do it in a year, as I’ve argued here earlier.
I’d like to order the video and make Congress all watch it together, with no Blackberries, twittering or naps allowed, and then vote yes on the panel’s recommendation within one year or lose their own health insurance. Since I can’t do that, I’ll only say here that I strongly recommend seeing it, and you can order it for $25 from shopPBS.org. I’m going to order the companion "Sick Around America," which I haven’t seen yet and which I expect will be less encouraging.
Btw, I’ve just noticed that my spell check in the new version of Word wants to change Obama to Osama. NOW I understand why people are getting so confused.
The catalogue also reminded me of the Frontline documentary "Sick Around the World," in which journalist J.R. Reid “visits six capitalist democracies—France, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom—for their ideas about medicine and its delivery to the public. . . .” I watched this program some time ago, well before the election and Obama’s health care initiative, and it made a profound impression on me, convincing me that designing a universal health care system that would best serve American needs really isn’t all that complicated. A well-chosen Blue Ribbon Panel, with a modest budget and competent staff, could do it in a year, as I’ve argued here earlier.
I’d like to order the video and make Congress all watch it together, with no Blackberries, twittering or naps allowed, and then vote yes on the panel’s recommendation within one year or lose their own health insurance. Since I can’t do that, I’ll only say here that I strongly recommend seeing it, and you can order it for $25 from shopPBS.org. I’m going to order the companion "Sick Around America," which I haven’t seen yet and which I expect will be less encouraging.
Btw, I’ve just noticed that my spell check in the new version of Word wants to change Obama to Osama. NOW I understand why people are getting so confused.
Eh?
My friend Michael Broschat has a very interesting post on his recent Canadian vacation. All I could come up with about ours was "we seen a bear."
I’ve long thought Canada was a much more reasonable country than ours because it lacks our inflated sense of ourselves and our role and responsibilities in the world. Broschat and I were discussing Graham Greene’s The Quiet American recently, a very fine narrative of just the kind of thing I’m talking about. American history might be understood at least in part as the unintended and mostly negative consequences of our sense of our moral selves.
Also greed, but still.
I’ve long thought the world would be a better place if the North had simply allowed the South to secede. I wonder if there was ever any serious discussion of that option. In fact, it may not be too late. At no time since the civil war have we been so divided into red and blue states, and the best solution could be the two-state solution: The red states can realize their dream of small government and legalized discrimination, and the blue states can quickly evolve toward a European-style social democracy. Those who find themselves geographically and ideologically misplaced could just move.
Anyway, Broschat's post is much more interesting and thoughtful than mine, and you can read it here: http://www.michaelbroschat.com/MontlakeBlog/DisplayBlog.aspx
I’ve long thought Canada was a much more reasonable country than ours because it lacks our inflated sense of ourselves and our role and responsibilities in the world. Broschat and I were discussing Graham Greene’s The Quiet American recently, a very fine narrative of just the kind of thing I’m talking about. American history might be understood at least in part as the unintended and mostly negative consequences of our sense of our moral selves.
Also greed, but still.
I’ve long thought the world would be a better place if the North had simply allowed the South to secede. I wonder if there was ever any serious discussion of that option. In fact, it may not be too late. At no time since the civil war have we been so divided into red and blue states, and the best solution could be the two-state solution: The red states can realize their dream of small government and legalized discrimination, and the blue states can quickly evolve toward a European-style social democracy. Those who find themselves geographically and ideologically misplaced could just move.
Anyway, Broschat's post is much more interesting and thoughtful than mine, and you can read it here: http://www.michaelbroschat.com/MontlakeBlog/DisplayBlog.aspx
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Stoopid hurts
I knew these were Harley riders despite the misleading club name.
2 dozen motorcycles crash on I-5 in Ore.(AP) – 15 hours ago
“WILSONVILLE, Ore. — Oregon State Police say more than two dozen motorcycles, most of them belonging to the Brother Speed motorcycle club, crashed on Interstate 5 on Friday afternoon, blocking freeway traffic for hours.Police say the bikers were behind a car when traffic slowed in the northbound lanes near Wilsonville, south of Portland.They say the bikers and car tried to slow but collided, scattering bikes across the pavement.
The Oregonian in Portland reports that two bikers with critical injuries were flown to Portland hospitals by helicopter. Rescue personnel say seven others were treated for shoulder and hip injuries and broken bones.The freeway reopened about 6 p.m., nearly four hours after the accident.”
Want some pictures? http://www.kptv.com/slideshow/traffic/20997318/detail.html
Want to see a video from the club’s website?
http://www.brotherspeedmcoregon.com/content/brothers-speed-videos
Here's more. I'm following this story via an online motorcycle forum, where 9 out of 10 posts are conspicuously lacking in any kind of sympathy for the "victims."
From the Oregon Department of Justice
Brother Speed MCEstablished: May 1969 in Boise, Idaho, United StatesYears active: 1969-present
Territory: Northwestern United States
Ethnicity: WhiteMembership: 150 full-patch members
Criminal activities: Drug trafficking, arms dealing, extortion and money laundering
Allies: Free Souls, Gypsy Jokers and Outsiders
Rivals: Mongols and Vagos
2 dozen motorcycles crash on I-5 in Ore.(AP) – 15 hours ago
“WILSONVILLE, Ore. — Oregon State Police say more than two dozen motorcycles, most of them belonging to the Brother Speed motorcycle club, crashed on Interstate 5 on Friday afternoon, blocking freeway traffic for hours.Police say the bikers were behind a car when traffic slowed in the northbound lanes near Wilsonville, south of Portland.They say the bikers and car tried to slow but collided, scattering bikes across the pavement.
The Oregonian in Portland reports that two bikers with critical injuries were flown to Portland hospitals by helicopter. Rescue personnel say seven others were treated for shoulder and hip injuries and broken bones.The freeway reopened about 6 p.m., nearly four hours after the accident.”
Want some pictures? http://www.kptv.com/slideshow/traffic/20997318/detail.html
Want to see a video from the club’s website?
http://www.brotherspeedmcoregon.com/content/brothers-speed-videos
Here's more. I'm following this story via an online motorcycle forum, where 9 out of 10 posts are conspicuously lacking in any kind of sympathy for the "victims."
From the Oregon Department of Justice
Brother Speed MCEstablished: May 1969 in Boise, Idaho, United StatesYears active: 1969-present
Territory: Northwestern United States
Ethnicity: WhiteMembership: 150 full-patch members
Criminal activities: Drug trafficking, arms dealing, extortion and money laundering
Allies: Free Souls, Gypsy Jokers and Outsiders
Rivals: Mongols and Vagos
Monday, September 21, 2009
Suppost you had to go to the DMV for a flu shot. . . .
I’m so glad Mary and I have private insurance and don’t have some government bureaucrat standing between us and our doctors, telling us which procedures and medicines we can have and which we can’t. (And here I swore off sarcasm for the rest of the year and lasted less than a day.)
A few days ago we each got a letter from our insurance company explaining to us that a number of medications have been placed on a list of meds to be reviewed, and before we can renew the next time, our prescribing physicians have to contact the insurance company and justify why we need this med, why we should continue this med, why a cheaper alternative wouldn’t work just as well, and what would happen if all of a sudden we stopped taking it. The list of meds for review numbers in the hundreds according to the company’s website.
This already happened just a year ago, and our family doctor almost had a stroke he was so angry and frustrated. He had scores of patients (four score and seven, to be exact) who got the letters, and he had to cancel all appointments for a month while he wrote letters to the insurance company arguing that he got it right the first time when he prescribed a specific med for a specific condition. He also had to cut back on his golf games.
This year, I am informed the insurance company is going to review a med I’ve been on for about five years now, one that, let’s say, has substantially improved my quality of life. Without revealing a lot of personal information, let’s also say that without this medicine I turn into a vampire, and stopping it or substituting a cheaper alternative would not be in my best interests or those of society. Mary’s target med prevents certain plagues and back hair. It might be considered cosmetic.
The thing is, despite all the hassle for our doctors, I support this kind of periodic cost/benefit review. It’s an important component of keeping medical costs down, and it ensures that I still need all these prescriptions I take. Maybe chocolate pudding no longer triggers my hallucinations. Maybe you don't need that codein that the doctor prescribed six years ago for your toothache.
The problem is that the four score and twenty separate insurance companies in Oregon each have their own list of meds for review, and rather than being a once annual, or bi-annual or semi-annual, routine chore, it’s a never-ending process in the doctor’s office. Novak might have to give up not only golf but also martini lunches.
Of course, if this were a requirement in a public-option health plan, Republican lawmakers and their lunatic fringe town-hall bashing unwashed psycho mobs would be screaming about the evils of socialized medicine. But since it’s my private insurance company, all this will pass without comment or discussion in the media.
Because America still has the best health care system in the world. (There I go again.)
And btw, I almost never have to go to the DMV anymore since almost all their business can now be done online. This is not necessarily a good thing, since at my age, it's important to determine that I can at least still find the DMV and drive there without running over a child. Be that as it may, the few times I've actually had to stop by in recent years, I took a number, waited a few minutes, and was helped by a courteous and efficient staff member.
I don't know what all the fuss is about the DMV as a bad example of what would happen to virtually all services once Obama has his way and we turn into a Nazi/Socialist/Communist nation. The DMV has been more or less a pleasure to visit, way more pleasant than a visit to my family medical clinic, where taking a number might be considered to imply I might actually get back to see the doctor that day and where, literally, sooner or later, they will have me by the balls.
A few days ago we each got a letter from our insurance company explaining to us that a number of medications have been placed on a list of meds to be reviewed, and before we can renew the next time, our prescribing physicians have to contact the insurance company and justify why we need this med, why we should continue this med, why a cheaper alternative wouldn’t work just as well, and what would happen if all of a sudden we stopped taking it. The list of meds for review numbers in the hundreds according to the company’s website.
This already happened just a year ago, and our family doctor almost had a stroke he was so angry and frustrated. He had scores of patients (four score and seven, to be exact) who got the letters, and he had to cancel all appointments for a month while he wrote letters to the insurance company arguing that he got it right the first time when he prescribed a specific med for a specific condition. He also had to cut back on his golf games.
This year, I am informed the insurance company is going to review a med I’ve been on for about five years now, one that, let’s say, has substantially improved my quality of life. Without revealing a lot of personal information, let’s also say that without this medicine I turn into a vampire, and stopping it or substituting a cheaper alternative would not be in my best interests or those of society. Mary’s target med prevents certain plagues and back hair. It might be considered cosmetic.
The thing is, despite all the hassle for our doctors, I support this kind of periodic cost/benefit review. It’s an important component of keeping medical costs down, and it ensures that I still need all these prescriptions I take. Maybe chocolate pudding no longer triggers my hallucinations. Maybe you don't need that codein that the doctor prescribed six years ago for your toothache.
The problem is that the four score and twenty separate insurance companies in Oregon each have their own list of meds for review, and rather than being a once annual, or bi-annual or semi-annual, routine chore, it’s a never-ending process in the doctor’s office. Novak might have to give up not only golf but also martini lunches.
Of course, if this were a requirement in a public-option health plan, Republican lawmakers and their lunatic fringe town-hall bashing unwashed psycho mobs would be screaming about the evils of socialized medicine. But since it’s my private insurance company, all this will pass without comment or discussion in the media.
Because America still has the best health care system in the world. (There I go again.)
And btw, I almost never have to go to the DMV anymore since almost all their business can now be done online. This is not necessarily a good thing, since at my age, it's important to determine that I can at least still find the DMV and drive there without running over a child. Be that as it may, the few times I've actually had to stop by in recent years, I took a number, waited a few minutes, and was helped by a courteous and efficient staff member.
I don't know what all the fuss is about the DMV as a bad example of what would happen to virtually all services once Obama has his way and we turn into a Nazi/Socialist/Communist nation. The DMV has been more or less a pleasure to visit, way more pleasant than a visit to my family medical clinic, where taking a number might be considered to imply I might actually get back to see the doctor that day and where, literally, sooner or later, they will have me by the balls.
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
Let's also add. . . .
Matt Miller, who said: "Liberals should make peace with the notion that a regulated market of competing private health plans can be the vehicle for getting everyone covered. Yes, it means that unlike some other advanced countries, we'll have billions of "health" dollars siphoned off by middlemen and marketers. But if liberals think of it as a jobs program, they'll learn to love it. If everyone's covered and insurer "cherry-picking" is dead, health insurance will come to look more like a regulated utility. "
He said that and more here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/07/AR2009090702070.html?wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter
Neither of these writers, whose columns just happen to appear on the same day, fully represent my thinking on health care reform. They do, though, make me think about other ways to achieve what are our commonly held goals and values, and they have every appearance of being the kind of rational, results-oriented thinkers who can move a plan forward.
See, the thing is, the Republican party has forfeited its right and responsibility to participate in this debate. What we need now is not a good compromise plan but a great new plan, and one that we can sell to the Blue Dog Democrats. The Blue Dogs need to understand that if they want the Democratic Party help they'll need to get reelected, they need to get on board with what will become the President's endorsement of the Blue Ribbon plan.
I, by the way, have no binding commitments over the next year or so and I'm very good on committees.
He said that and more here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/07/AR2009090702070.html?wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter
Neither of these writers, whose columns just happen to appear on the same day, fully represent my thinking on health care reform. They do, though, make me think about other ways to achieve what are our commonly held goals and values, and they have every appearance of being the kind of rational, results-oriented thinkers who can move a plan forward.
See, the thing is, the Republican party has forfeited its right and responsibility to participate in this debate. What we need now is not a good compromise plan but a great new plan, and one that we can sell to the Blue Dog Democrats. The Blue Dogs need to understand that if they want the Democratic Party help they'll need to get reelected, they need to get on board with what will become the President's endorsement of the Blue Ribbon plan.
I, by the way, have no binding commitments over the next year or so and I'm very good on committees.
Pabst
The only thing worse than a horse designed by a committee might be a horse designed by a Congressional committee.
A few days ago, I suggested a “Blue Ribbon Panel” of experts to design, more or less from the ground up, a new system of paying for health care with the goals of “preserving quality, controlling costs, and covering everybody.” I now nominate Dr. Arthur Feldman, who has a column in today’s Washington Post, to serve on that committee. You can read his column here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/04/AR2009090402274.html?wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter&sid=ST2009090702562
Feldman might not have it all right, but he represents an essential point of view in the debate, and sitting together at a table with a dozen or so other experts with different perspectives, I’m confident such a panel could devise and design an excellent new health care system in one year.
The report and recommendations that come from such a committee would then become the President’s proposal for health care reform, and I’m convinced Obama could bring enormous pressure on Congress to pass it. In this way, the initial bill that goes before Congress for debate is designed not by politicians whose agendas are tied up in party politics and the need to get reelected, but by representatives of true stake-holders whose agenda is to design a health care system that might truly be called “the best in the world.”
A few days ago, I suggested a “Blue Ribbon Panel” of experts to design, more or less from the ground up, a new system of paying for health care with the goals of “preserving quality, controlling costs, and covering everybody.” I now nominate Dr. Arthur Feldman, who has a column in today’s Washington Post, to serve on that committee. You can read his column here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/04/AR2009090402274.html?wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter&sid=ST2009090702562
Feldman might not have it all right, but he represents an essential point of view in the debate, and sitting together at a table with a dozen or so other experts with different perspectives, I’m confident such a panel could devise and design an excellent new health care system in one year.
The report and recommendations that come from such a committee would then become the President’s proposal for health care reform, and I’m convinced Obama could bring enormous pressure on Congress to pass it. In this way, the initial bill that goes before Congress for debate is designed not by politicians whose agendas are tied up in party politics and the need to get reelected, but by representatives of true stake-holders whose agenda is to design a health care system that might truly be called “the best in the world.”
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
Roy Rogers; no Trigger
Saturday I went to the second annual K-Falls blues festival. I missed the first. It seems that every town bigger than a breadbox has to have a blues festival these days. But the lineup of West Coast blues bands sounded promising, even though I'd never heard of any of them before. In fact, it was an enjoyable afternoon, and all the performers were worth turning out for, if not exactly world-class.
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Except the final act, slide guitarist Roy Rogers and his band The Delta Rhythm Kings. Actually, three white guys from California, but Rogers, who in fact was named for America's Singing Cowboy, turns out to be maybe the best blues guitarist I've ever heard. I sat electrified for an hour or so and would have happily stayed another hour, even though the sun had dropped behind the hills and I was getting cold.
Roger's playing features blinding speed on the fret board, frequent dramatic changes in tempo and rhythm, and an endless stream of melodic surprises. He's tourning again after a number of years in semi-retirement. If you get a chance to see him, don't pass it up.
US Out of Afghanistan?
Another writer I almost never agree with is George Will. In fact, Will fairly recently made my list of "I don't read him anymore" columnists when he pontificated about bluejeans as the cause and symbol of the decline of civilization. Really, it came down to "I don't like bluejeans," this from a guy who always wears bow ties. Big surprise.
But in his column today, Will argues that the war in Afghanistan is unwinable, that there's nothing to be gained there, and that Af-stan is no more dangerous to the US than other failed states such as Somalia and Yemen:
"So, instead, forces should be substantially reduced to serve a comprehensively revised policy: America should do only what can be done from offshore, using intelligence, drones, cruise missiles, airstrikes and small, potent Special Forces units, concentrating on the porous 1,500-mile border with Pakistan, a nation that actually matters. " He doesn't mention that a majority of Americans now feel the same way and support withdrawal of US troops.
My crystal ball doesn't show a drawdown before the start of an Obama second term, but it will happen sooner or later and it will look a lot as Will describes. We just need to watch out for Afghans wearing bluejeans.
But in his column today, Will argues that the war in Afghanistan is unwinable, that there's nothing to be gained there, and that Af-stan is no more dangerous to the US than other failed states such as Somalia and Yemen:
"So, instead, forces should be substantially reduced to serve a comprehensively revised policy: America should do only what can be done from offshore, using intelligence, drones, cruise missiles, airstrikes and small, potent Special Forces units, concentrating on the porous 1,500-mile border with Pakistan, a nation that actually matters. " He doesn't mention that a majority of Americans now feel the same way and support withdrawal of US troops.
My crystal ball doesn't show a drawdown before the start of an Obama second term, but it will happen sooner or later and it will look a lot as Will describes. We just need to watch out for Afghans wearing bluejeans.
Friday, August 28, 2009
A few more thoughts on health care
Wow. Charles Krauthammer has an excellent column today on health care reform, proposing a system which he argues will lead to universal coverage and which can pass Congress. You can and should read it here: (Doctor’s orders!)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/27/AR2009082703262.html?wpisrc=newsletter
This is amazing since I absolutely never agree with Krauthammer, and I have to wonder if he even agrees with himself in this instance since his proposal, he says, will inevitably lead to health-care rationing and, (shudder), end-of-life counseling, also known as Death Panels.
My question is what’s so bad about rationing? It’s the only way to significantly control costs, something everybody agrees we have to do.
Take a typical case as an example: A 75-year-old man has advanced lung cancer. He has a 95 percent chance of dying within two months. With aggressive and expensive treatment, there’s a good chance he could live for six months, though with serious side effects to the treatments. Or, he could accept palliative treatment for his remaining two months—hospice care which includes pain control, assistance to stay at home, and support for the family—which would cost a fraction of what the aggressive treatment would cost.
Why would anyone suggest the government has a moral obligation to pay for the aggressive and expensive treatment? The free market should be at play here. Anyone who wants additional coverage beyond what the government would offer should buy private policies, exactly like they already do with Medicare supplements. This is also how it works in Canada, our socialist neighbor to the north.
Krauthammer suggests that counseling about options at this point would constitute subtle pressure to check out early, but in my view it would amount to an opportunity to explain clearly what the patient’s options are. These panels are optional in the current proposals, by the way; I think they should be mandatory, even though that makes me not pro-life.
Also by the way, and as another example, Mary and I convened our own Death Panels with a local attorney several years ago. We now have end-of-life directives on file that make clear that if we’re brain dead with no chance of recovery—barring direct intervention by the Baby Jesus, which can always happen but isn’t likely in our case—we don’t want any extraordinary measures to keep us alive. This would include things like tube feeding, breathing machines, or deep tissue foot massage by a sexy nurse of the opposite gender.
On second thought, I’ll take the foot massage.
Of course we put subtle pressure on each other since our pension benefits continue to the survivor, but still, we think we made the right decisions. Of course, we might have chosen the tube feeding on the chance the Baby Jesus would change his mind and not hold a grudge, but I wouldn’t expect the government to keep paying to keep me alive indefinitely.
So I would buy into the Krauthammer policy in a K-Falls minute (roughly twelve minutes, actually), which means there still has to be room for compromise in the Congressionaal negotiations.
Maybe health-care reform isn’t dead after all. It just needs a foot massage.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/27/AR2009082703262.html?wpisrc=newsletter
This is amazing since I absolutely never agree with Krauthammer, and I have to wonder if he even agrees with himself in this instance since his proposal, he says, will inevitably lead to health-care rationing and, (shudder), end-of-life counseling, also known as Death Panels.
My question is what’s so bad about rationing? It’s the only way to significantly control costs, something everybody agrees we have to do.
Take a typical case as an example: A 75-year-old man has advanced lung cancer. He has a 95 percent chance of dying within two months. With aggressive and expensive treatment, there’s a good chance he could live for six months, though with serious side effects to the treatments. Or, he could accept palliative treatment for his remaining two months—hospice care which includes pain control, assistance to stay at home, and support for the family—which would cost a fraction of what the aggressive treatment would cost.
Why would anyone suggest the government has a moral obligation to pay for the aggressive and expensive treatment? The free market should be at play here. Anyone who wants additional coverage beyond what the government would offer should buy private policies, exactly like they already do with Medicare supplements. This is also how it works in Canada, our socialist neighbor to the north.
Krauthammer suggests that counseling about options at this point would constitute subtle pressure to check out early, but in my view it would amount to an opportunity to explain clearly what the patient’s options are. These panels are optional in the current proposals, by the way; I think they should be mandatory, even though that makes me not pro-life.
Also by the way, and as another example, Mary and I convened our own Death Panels with a local attorney several years ago. We now have end-of-life directives on file that make clear that if we’re brain dead with no chance of recovery—barring direct intervention by the Baby Jesus, which can always happen but isn’t likely in our case—we don’t want any extraordinary measures to keep us alive. This would include things like tube feeding, breathing machines, or deep tissue foot massage by a sexy nurse of the opposite gender.
On second thought, I’ll take the foot massage.
Of course we put subtle pressure on each other since our pension benefits continue to the survivor, but still, we think we made the right decisions. Of course, we might have chosen the tube feeding on the chance the Baby Jesus would change his mind and not hold a grudge, but I wouldn’t expect the government to keep paying to keep me alive indefinitely.
So I would buy into the Krauthammer policy in a K-Falls minute (roughly twelve minutes, actually), which means there still has to be room for compromise in the Congressionaal negotiations.
Maybe health-care reform isn’t dead after all. It just needs a foot massage.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
For Teddy. . . .
For the last several weeks I’ve been busy not-writing about health care. This explains the relative paucity of my blog entries recently. It’s been painful enough just watching the death spiral of health care reform, and writing about it is harder than trying to ignore it. But writing about anything else is actively not-writing about health care, so, sooner or later, I have to try to come to terms with my feelings about this and put something down in writing and up on the blog.
Welcome to later.
Columnist Michael Gerson today has a somewhat charitable view of why things haven’t gone better, presenting some more-or-less rational reasons why most people have never been on board with reform efforts. In part, the problem lies with the majority of Americans who do have health insurance and are risk-averse to changes which might reduce their coverage. In part, it lies in the general mistrust of big government and its ability to deliver on big programs to solve social problems. And in part, it lies in the almost universal concerns that we’re running massive deficits and are still in the middle of the worst recession since the great depression.
(The projected deficit was just revised upwards yesterday from $7 trillion to $9 trillion. I have no idea how much money a trillion dollars is, but I know it’s enough to buy billions of Happy Meals and have enough left over to buy a few million minivans, so from that perspective you could see how the average family would be concerned.)
And part of the pain that makes it hard to write about this is in watching the rapid decline in the public’s confidence in Obama and the inevitable decline in popularity as confidence goes down. I’m not even sure the average American still thinks his kids are cute anymore.
But despite all the rational reasons Americans might be concerned about health care reform, the biggest obstacle still has to be Republican determination to crush Obama. "If we're able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him," said South Carolina Republican Jim DeMint. And let’s not underestimate the power of The Big Lie, no matter how stupid. The best argument I can imagine for Death Panels is Sarah Palin herself. We could send her down here to Oregon for a nice cup of assisted suicide.
It seems now that all is lost, that once again we’re going to say, “No healthcare for you!” 45 million times. But if we really can’t find a way to extend coverage to these unfortunates, I suggest we at least spread the pain around a little more fairly. We could have an annual lottery in which 45 million people are selected at random to not have health insurance for a year. Maybe Congress could help out by donating their healthcare coverage to the needy. If everybody was at equal risk of medical bankruptcy or death by no coverage, I think we’d find a way to extend coverage to everyone rather quickly.
Other good ideas: Anyone who says, “America has the best health care system in the world” will immediately lose all coverage and have one year to write an essay entitled “America Has the Best Health Care System in the World.” I’ll be grading these essays. You can contact me directly for a handout on this assignment.
Idea two, more seriously: Health cooperatives are a promising idea. They might bring on board the blue-dog Democrats, which is vital to any legislation since no Republican save maybe Olympia Snow will ever vote for a reform bill backed by this President. The trick then will be to find a way to get all uninsured Americans into the new National Health Insurance Cooperative by establishing a sliding scale of enrollment fees. Jim DeMint will say this is just socialized medicine in disguise, and he’ll be right, but he might not be able to do anything about it. He’ll have to stay home in South Carolina and drink a deMint Julep.
Really important: Build in real cost controls. Health care costs have to come down or they will grow from being a drag on the economy to being an anchor that pulls us all down. At the current rate of growth, health care premiums are an economic black hole which somewhere between three and twenty years will consume all of our GNP, at which point everyone will work in the health care industry and everyone’s pay will go entirely for health care, a kind of mobius strip of unnecessary procedures using the best equipment money can buy.
A final good idea: Blue Ribbon Panel. Appoint a Blue Ribbon Panel of experts on heath care and tell them to come back in a year with a report and recommendations. Despite the political near-impossibility of reform right now, it’s actually not that hard to come up with a plan that will meet the goals of preserving quality, controlling costs, and covering everybody. Then forget about bipartisanship and ram the plan through Congress. A generation later, they’ll be asking what took us so long.
So there it is. I broke my blog-writer’s block and wrote something about the health care debacle. Now I can get back to the important things in life, like I have to wash my car.
And how sad it is that Teddy Kennedy didn’t live to see it, but I’ll be even sadder if I don’t live to see it.
Welcome to later.
Columnist Michael Gerson today has a somewhat charitable view of why things haven’t gone better, presenting some more-or-less rational reasons why most people have never been on board with reform efforts. In part, the problem lies with the majority of Americans who do have health insurance and are risk-averse to changes which might reduce their coverage. In part, it lies in the general mistrust of big government and its ability to deliver on big programs to solve social problems. And in part, it lies in the almost universal concerns that we’re running massive deficits and are still in the middle of the worst recession since the great depression.
(The projected deficit was just revised upwards yesterday from $7 trillion to $9 trillion. I have no idea how much money a trillion dollars is, but I know it’s enough to buy billions of Happy Meals and have enough left over to buy a few million minivans, so from that perspective you could see how the average family would be concerned.)
And part of the pain that makes it hard to write about this is in watching the rapid decline in the public’s confidence in Obama and the inevitable decline in popularity as confidence goes down. I’m not even sure the average American still thinks his kids are cute anymore.
But despite all the rational reasons Americans might be concerned about health care reform, the biggest obstacle still has to be Republican determination to crush Obama. "If we're able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him," said South Carolina Republican Jim DeMint. And let’s not underestimate the power of The Big Lie, no matter how stupid. The best argument I can imagine for Death Panels is Sarah Palin herself. We could send her down here to Oregon for a nice cup of assisted suicide.
It seems now that all is lost, that once again we’re going to say, “No healthcare for you!” 45 million times. But if we really can’t find a way to extend coverage to these unfortunates, I suggest we at least spread the pain around a little more fairly. We could have an annual lottery in which 45 million people are selected at random to not have health insurance for a year. Maybe Congress could help out by donating their healthcare coverage to the needy. If everybody was at equal risk of medical bankruptcy or death by no coverage, I think we’d find a way to extend coverage to everyone rather quickly.
Other good ideas: Anyone who says, “America has the best health care system in the world” will immediately lose all coverage and have one year to write an essay entitled “America Has the Best Health Care System in the World.” I’ll be grading these essays. You can contact me directly for a handout on this assignment.
Idea two, more seriously: Health cooperatives are a promising idea. They might bring on board the blue-dog Democrats, which is vital to any legislation since no Republican save maybe Olympia Snow will ever vote for a reform bill backed by this President. The trick then will be to find a way to get all uninsured Americans into the new National Health Insurance Cooperative by establishing a sliding scale of enrollment fees. Jim DeMint will say this is just socialized medicine in disguise, and he’ll be right, but he might not be able to do anything about it. He’ll have to stay home in South Carolina and drink a deMint Julep.
Really important: Build in real cost controls. Health care costs have to come down or they will grow from being a drag on the economy to being an anchor that pulls us all down. At the current rate of growth, health care premiums are an economic black hole which somewhere between three and twenty years will consume all of our GNP, at which point everyone will work in the health care industry and everyone’s pay will go entirely for health care, a kind of mobius strip of unnecessary procedures using the best equipment money can buy.
A final good idea: Blue Ribbon Panel. Appoint a Blue Ribbon Panel of experts on heath care and tell them to come back in a year with a report and recommendations. Despite the political near-impossibility of reform right now, it’s actually not that hard to come up with a plan that will meet the goals of preserving quality, controlling costs, and covering everybody. Then forget about bipartisanship and ram the plan through Congress. A generation later, they’ll be asking what took us so long.
So there it is. I broke my blog-writer’s block and wrote something about the health care debacle. Now I can get back to the important things in life, like I have to wash my car.
And how sad it is that Teddy Kennedy didn’t live to see it, but I’ll be even sadder if I don’t live to see it.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Our summer vacation
Mary and I are just back from a month-long vacation in our trailer. We visited family and friends from Yellowstone (Mary’s brother Paul and sister-in-law Karen) to Nordegg, Alberta (old friend Nancy and her family. Nordegg is a small town on the eastern slope of the Canadian Rockies where Nancy and her husband Dennis are finishing their retirement home.) We had great visits with everyone and a chance once again to spend time in some of the most spectacular mountain settings on earth.
Plus, we saw a bear, our first grizzly in the wild. Mary picked it out from our speeding truck, eating berries about 300 meters away and across a river. Perfect circumstances for extended grizzly viewing through binoculars, so we stopped and watched for some time. Surprisingly, only one other car pulled over. I guess grizzlies are about as routine up there as deer are here. No one stops to look at deer in deer country, unless you just hit one in your car. On a motorcycle, you will definitely stop.
Of course, bear photos taken with our pocket digi-cam only show a brown dot in the bushes, so you’ll have to take our word for it. Here’s what the bear looks like in our photos:
.
This trip was something of a trial run for a planned excursion this winter when we hope to head to the southwest for two or three months. Mary’s thinking two, I’m thinking three. I guess this will make us snowbirds, a label I don’t particularly like because it evokes pictures of elderly couples pulling trailers or driving motorhomes the size of an army barracks and staying in “parks” which are actually little parking lots with personal sewer hookups. Said elderly couples rarely leave their trailers since they can now automatically level themselves from inside and deploy their satellite dishes so the TV can go on even before their canopy automatically rolls out.
I think of us as more akin to the Lewis and Clark expedition if Lewis and Clark had a Dodge ¾- ton with a Cummins Diesel to pull their chuck wagon.
But then I don’t really have a better name than "snow birds" to describe us since “explorers” is an obvious stretch. Besides, birds have known for millions of years that when it gets really cold and the nights are long, you can just go south. They deserve respect for that, though I consider myself smarter that the average bird, so we’re going to see if it works for us.
We wanted on this last trip to see how well we could get along in the confined space of our trailer and in a setting where we spend almost all our time together for weeks at a stretch. This has never been the case in our marriage, and I think we discovered that the curmudgeon in me comes out in direct proportion to the time I do not spend alone. I need time alone to think my Deep Thoughts, like how long have birds been flying south for the winter?
Millions of years!
Also, we need to work on team trailer-backing since we still do a crappy job of me backing up the trailer as Mary shouts instructions. “NO! Your other left! Turn the wheel this way.” She yells this while inscribing a large circle in the air with her arm, which of course looks backwards to me in my mirror. Meanwhile, neither of us notices that I’m crushing small trees and driving through log fences with the outside, neglected front tire of the truck.
We’re better at this when we’re less tired from driving all day. Too bad we only have to back up the trailer after we’ve been driving all day. Quoth Mary, delivered in a calm but forceful manner: “You need to know that I will walk every fucking mile home if you don’t stop yelling at me like that.” I think that took care of that one problem of mine, anyway. How was I supposed to know I was yelling?
So for our coming winter hajj, we know that we have to drive less and stay longer in one location, and I have to take frequent walks into the desert to think my Deep Thoughts. Also, we have to remember that Scrabble is just a game.
For now, we’re back home where Mary is enjoying not getting ready to go back to work next Monday. This is the best part of early-stage retirement. It hits you about twelve times a day and by itself is enough to overcome any background existential angst, chronic depression, or even a toothache, which Mary has; thank God she got an emergency appointment to see the dentist today.
I’m watching all the motorcycle races I taped while I was gone and thinking about making a little bike trip sometime in about a month. It’s good to be home, but after two or three days I start to feel a little restless, and fall is the perfect time of year for a motorcycle tour.
Plus, I vant to be alone.
Plus, we saw a bear, our first grizzly in the wild. Mary picked it out from our speeding truck, eating berries about 300 meters away and across a river. Perfect circumstances for extended grizzly viewing through binoculars, so we stopped and watched for some time. Surprisingly, only one other car pulled over. I guess grizzlies are about as routine up there as deer are here. No one stops to look at deer in deer country, unless you just hit one in your car. On a motorcycle, you will definitely stop.
Of course, bear photos taken with our pocket digi-cam only show a brown dot in the bushes, so you’ll have to take our word for it. Here’s what the bear looks like in our photos:
.
This trip was something of a trial run for a planned excursion this winter when we hope to head to the southwest for two or three months. Mary’s thinking two, I’m thinking three. I guess this will make us snowbirds, a label I don’t particularly like because it evokes pictures of elderly couples pulling trailers or driving motorhomes the size of an army barracks and staying in “parks” which are actually little parking lots with personal sewer hookups. Said elderly couples rarely leave their trailers since they can now automatically level themselves from inside and deploy their satellite dishes so the TV can go on even before their canopy automatically rolls out.
I think of us as more akin to the Lewis and Clark expedition if Lewis and Clark had a Dodge ¾- ton with a Cummins Diesel to pull their chuck wagon.
But then I don’t really have a better name than "snow birds" to describe us since “explorers” is an obvious stretch. Besides, birds have known for millions of years that when it gets really cold and the nights are long, you can just go south. They deserve respect for that, though I consider myself smarter that the average bird, so we’re going to see if it works for us.
We wanted on this last trip to see how well we could get along in the confined space of our trailer and in a setting where we spend almost all our time together for weeks at a stretch. This has never been the case in our marriage, and I think we discovered that the curmudgeon in me comes out in direct proportion to the time I do not spend alone. I need time alone to think my Deep Thoughts, like how long have birds been flying south for the winter?
Millions of years!
Also, we need to work on team trailer-backing since we still do a crappy job of me backing up the trailer as Mary shouts instructions. “NO! Your other left! Turn the wheel this way.” She yells this while inscribing a large circle in the air with her arm, which of course looks backwards to me in my mirror. Meanwhile, neither of us notices that I’m crushing small trees and driving through log fences with the outside, neglected front tire of the truck.
We’re better at this when we’re less tired from driving all day. Too bad we only have to back up the trailer after we’ve been driving all day. Quoth Mary, delivered in a calm but forceful manner: “You need to know that I will walk every fucking mile home if you don’t stop yelling at me like that.” I think that took care of that one problem of mine, anyway. How was I supposed to know I was yelling?
So for our coming winter hajj, we know that we have to drive less and stay longer in one location, and I have to take frequent walks into the desert to think my Deep Thoughts. Also, we have to remember that Scrabble is just a game.
For now, we’re back home where Mary is enjoying not getting ready to go back to work next Monday. This is the best part of early-stage retirement. It hits you about twelve times a day and by itself is enough to overcome any background existential angst, chronic depression, or even a toothache, which Mary has; thank God she got an emergency appointment to see the dentist today.
I’m watching all the motorcycle races I taped while I was gone and thinking about making a little bike trip sometime in about a month. It’s good to be home, but after two or three days I start to feel a little restless, and fall is the perfect time of year for a motorcycle tour.
Plus, I vant to be alone.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Discrimination, and life's true pleasures
Here’s an interesting perspective in a column today by Michael Kinsley: (You can read the whole thing at )
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/17/AR2009061702801.html?wpisrc=newsletter
“By now you probably know the story. President Obama's first Supreme Court nominee is a member of an all-women's club called the Belizean Grove. Its main activity is an annual retreat, usually in Belize, where a self-described "constellation of influential women" gathers to practice the folk rituals of 21st-century big shots and wannabes of both genders, such as bonding and mentoring. This club is a response to the Bohemian Grove, a similar annual gathering in Northern California. The Bohemian Grove has struggled against the tide of history for years in its attempt to remain all male, and so far it has succeeded with only a few concessions. One famous argument was that the presence of women would prevent members from urinating on trees -- another treasured folk ritual in those circles, apparently. . . .
And later: “The true answer is that we tolerate discrimination in favor of traditionally oppressed groups more than we tolerate discrimination against them. It's not symmetrical. And, if you believe in affirmative action -- as Sotomayor proudly does, as I do -- it can't be. An all-women's club is okay even though an all-men's club is not. A corporation's minority recruitment program or a university's minority scholarships are considered admirable, while similar programs reserved for white people would be regarded as horrific.”
I agree with Kinsley’s reasoning as much as I’m impressed by his willingness to tell the truth: We (the enlightened we) tolerate a certain level of discrimination in favor of minorities to begin to reduce the effects of centuries of discrimination against them. Kinsley argues that the Belizean Grove is still discriminating, this time against poor women, but he misses the obvious point about the coattail effect. We need to allow powerful women to meet, mentor, and network so that more less-privileged women will have a chance to move into these circles of power.
But for me, I still recognize the legitimacy of all-male groups where men can feel comfortable urinating on trees. My monthly poker group from time to time discusses inviting a woman to join and always decides against it. We need to feel comfortable using vile language and making grossly sexual jokes. We need to be able to urinate on trees.
Whatever the female equivelents may be to this jackass behavior, I say “more power to them.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/17/AR2009061702801.html?wpisrc=newsletter
“By now you probably know the story. President Obama's first Supreme Court nominee is a member of an all-women's club called the Belizean Grove. Its main activity is an annual retreat, usually in Belize, where a self-described "constellation of influential women" gathers to practice the folk rituals of 21st-century big shots and wannabes of both genders, such as bonding and mentoring. This club is a response to the Bohemian Grove, a similar annual gathering in Northern California. The Bohemian Grove has struggled against the tide of history for years in its attempt to remain all male, and so far it has succeeded with only a few concessions. One famous argument was that the presence of women would prevent members from urinating on trees -- another treasured folk ritual in those circles, apparently. . . .
And later: “The true answer is that we tolerate discrimination in favor of traditionally oppressed groups more than we tolerate discrimination against them. It's not symmetrical. And, if you believe in affirmative action -- as Sotomayor proudly does, as I do -- it can't be. An all-women's club is okay even though an all-men's club is not. A corporation's minority recruitment program or a university's minority scholarships are considered admirable, while similar programs reserved for white people would be regarded as horrific.”
I agree with Kinsley’s reasoning as much as I’m impressed by his willingness to tell the truth: We (the enlightened we) tolerate a certain level of discrimination in favor of minorities to begin to reduce the effects of centuries of discrimination against them. Kinsley argues that the Belizean Grove is still discriminating, this time against poor women, but he misses the obvious point about the coattail effect. We need to allow powerful women to meet, mentor, and network so that more less-privileged women will have a chance to move into these circles of power.
But for me, I still recognize the legitimacy of all-male groups where men can feel comfortable urinating on trees. My monthly poker group from time to time discusses inviting a woman to join and always decides against it. We need to feel comfortable using vile language and making grossly sexual jokes. We need to be able to urinate on trees.
Whatever the female equivelents may be to this jackass behavior, I say “more power to them.”
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
¡Qué romántico!
Last Saturday, June 13th, was Mary’s birthday, and since we were also celebrating her retirement, I organized a surprise party for her at the local Thai restaurant. Somehow, I managed to keep it a secret, though I almost said something about “your party” a couple of times in the days before.
About twenty friends and colleagues joined us, bringing thoughtful gifts and cards, sweet or silly. (Who knew there is a whole line of naked cowgirl cards?) My surprise gift was a trip to Hawaii, Kauai to be specific, so I made her close her eyes while I put a lei around her neck and on her head.
It was made of real flowers and was cold, so it probably felt like a snake until she got to open her eyes.
We leave next Monday for a five-day vacation, a bit of a second honeymoon for us. In fact, our first honeymoon didn’t happen for close to a year after we were married and consisted of a camping trip to Oregon where it rained most of the time, so really this is more like a first honeymoon.
¡Qué romántico!
About twenty friends and colleagues joined us, bringing thoughtful gifts and cards, sweet or silly. (Who knew there is a whole line of naked cowgirl cards?) My surprise gift was a trip to Hawaii, Kauai to be specific, so I made her close her eyes while I put a lei around her neck and on her head.
It was made of real flowers and was cold, so it probably felt like a snake until she got to open her eyes.
We leave next Monday for a five-day vacation, a bit of a second honeymoon for us. In fact, our first honeymoon didn’t happen for close to a year after we were married and consisted of a camping trip to Oregon where it rained most of the time, so really this is more like a first honeymoon.
¡Qué romántico!
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Saying goodbye to an old friend
I'm riding up to Salem today to look at and probably buy a used Suzuki V-Strom 650. It's three years old and has 18,000 miles. I found it on Craig's List, and it looks like it's in great shape and has most of the accessories I want.
I wasn't in the market a week ago, but rode my VFR to the World Superbike races in Salt Lake last weekend, about 600 miles each way, and both I and the bike had problems. Every year it gets a little harder to ride comfortably in the relatively sporty position of the VFR. My back and neck start to cramp, and after a couple of hours, it gets almost unbearable. I broke the trip into two days each way, and even 300 miles was mostly uncomfortable to downright painful.
Then too, the VFR started having problems. First the speedometer started to fail. By the time I got home, it was completely dead. I had a turn signal working intermittently. Most serious, on the way back outside of Winnemucca, the fuel injection light came on. I expected the bike to die anytime soon, but it kept running fine all the way. Very nervous-making, though. There’s mostly nothing but desert between here and Winnemucca, and the roads don’t even have shoulders. If the bike had died, I would have had to push it off into the sagebrush and lay it down, then try to hitchhike somewhere. It could have been a mess.
The VFR is due for a major service, plus I need to get these other things fixed. Since VFRs are known for electrical problems, I'll probably replace the battery and regulator/rectifier as well, then put it up for sale. I'll ask a reasonable price, but truth is it might be hard to sell, even though I consider it a great bike. At 50,000 miles, it has a lot of life left in it, but I'll probably have to spend a thousand or more to get all these things taken care of.
I decided on the V-Strom because I think it will be a more comfortable riding position and it's still a sporty, fun bike to ride. I know a few people who have them, and they all love them. And I'm getting it at a good price, so if I don't like it, I can probably ride it for this season then try to sell it. It's hard to sell bikes here in K Falls because it's a long drive for most people and they can usually find the same bike closer to home. I may end up with both bikes for some time. Only problem with that is I don't have room in my garage for two bikes and my scooter, but I think I can rearrange a lot of junk and make it work.
So now I have a bike to ride to the BMW rally in John Day in a couple of weeks and Laguna Seca next month. The shops here and in Medford are booked out to mid-July, so I'll miss two of my favorite trips if I don't buy something else. The VFR is confined to the garage until I can get it fixed.
All in all, I'm happy with the choice. Can't afford a new bike or even a used, say, FJR. I even thought about a Gold Wing, but those are WAY too expensive. And I think I'll be happy with the V-Strom. They get good reviews for comfort and handling, and the v-twin 650 is a snappy little engine.
btw, Superbike at Miller Motor Sports wasn't a great weekend. The track is very visitor friendly, with lots of grandstands, bathrooms and food. But it seems to lack character somehow. Laguna Seca is always a grand festival. Miller felt like a theme park built by Mormons: well-planned, wholesome, and boring. And let me mention women. I assume they have some in Utah, but “I wish they all could be California girls.”
Even the races weren't very exciting. The leaders almost immediately fell into their positions with comfortable spaces between everyone. Round and round they rode for 21 laps with no real drama. The most exciting part was the thunder storms rolling through the area and all of us sitting in metal bleachers. One strike could have taken out a thousand people or so, including me, so that was kind of fun to watch. I had to decide if the lightning was close enough that I should get out of the covered grandstand and into the rain, or stick it out where it was dry but increasingly dangerous.
It was interesting to watch everybody around me. No one seemed too concerned that we could all get fried and we wouldn’t even know what hit us. Part of riding motorcycles is having a baseless confidence that the worst that could happen never will. It’s the other grandstands that will get it, not mine.
I wasn't in the market a week ago, but rode my VFR to the World Superbike races in Salt Lake last weekend, about 600 miles each way, and both I and the bike had problems. Every year it gets a little harder to ride comfortably in the relatively sporty position of the VFR. My back and neck start to cramp, and after a couple of hours, it gets almost unbearable. I broke the trip into two days each way, and even 300 miles was mostly uncomfortable to downright painful.
Then too, the VFR started having problems. First the speedometer started to fail. By the time I got home, it was completely dead. I had a turn signal working intermittently. Most serious, on the way back outside of Winnemucca, the fuel injection light came on. I expected the bike to die anytime soon, but it kept running fine all the way. Very nervous-making, though. There’s mostly nothing but desert between here and Winnemucca, and the roads don’t even have shoulders. If the bike had died, I would have had to push it off into the sagebrush and lay it down, then try to hitchhike somewhere. It could have been a mess.
The VFR is due for a major service, plus I need to get these other things fixed. Since VFRs are known for electrical problems, I'll probably replace the battery and regulator/rectifier as well, then put it up for sale. I'll ask a reasonable price, but truth is it might be hard to sell, even though I consider it a great bike. At 50,000 miles, it has a lot of life left in it, but I'll probably have to spend a thousand or more to get all these things taken care of.
I decided on the V-Strom because I think it will be a more comfortable riding position and it's still a sporty, fun bike to ride. I know a few people who have them, and they all love them. And I'm getting it at a good price, so if I don't like it, I can probably ride it for this season then try to sell it. It's hard to sell bikes here in K Falls because it's a long drive for most people and they can usually find the same bike closer to home. I may end up with both bikes for some time. Only problem with that is I don't have room in my garage for two bikes and my scooter, but I think I can rearrange a lot of junk and make it work.
So now I have a bike to ride to the BMW rally in John Day in a couple of weeks and Laguna Seca next month. The shops here and in Medford are booked out to mid-July, so I'll miss two of my favorite trips if I don't buy something else. The VFR is confined to the garage until I can get it fixed.
All in all, I'm happy with the choice. Can't afford a new bike or even a used, say, FJR. I even thought about a Gold Wing, but those are WAY too expensive. And I think I'll be happy with the V-Strom. They get good reviews for comfort and handling, and the v-twin 650 is a snappy little engine.
btw, Superbike at Miller Motor Sports wasn't a great weekend. The track is very visitor friendly, with lots of grandstands, bathrooms and food. But it seems to lack character somehow. Laguna Seca is always a grand festival. Miller felt like a theme park built by Mormons: well-planned, wholesome, and boring. And let me mention women. I assume they have some in Utah, but “I wish they all could be California girls.”
Even the races weren't very exciting. The leaders almost immediately fell into their positions with comfortable spaces between everyone. Round and round they rode for 21 laps with no real drama. The most exciting part was the thunder storms rolling through the area and all of us sitting in metal bleachers. One strike could have taken out a thousand people or so, including me, so that was kind of fun to watch. I had to decide if the lightning was close enough that I should get out of the covered grandstand and into the rain, or stick it out where it was dry but increasingly dangerous.
It was interesting to watch everybody around me. No one seemed too concerned that we could all get fried and we wouldn’t even know what hit us. Part of riding motorcycles is having a baseless confidence that the worst that could happen never will. It’s the other grandstands that will get it, not mine.
All done
This just in by email from Mary:
"I just excused my very last class of my career. They left smiling and happy and proud of themselves, with promises to do their best next year.
love you, honey"
I'm very proud of Mary's career in education. She modeled for her students a genuine enthusiasm for science, a respect and caring for one another, and a professional demeanor that allowed her to control the wild and scenic hormones of junior high school students without being heavy handed about discipline. And she always dressed nice.
So now, we both look forward to many years of retirement fun together. We're a lucky couple.
Mary Sunshine, indeed.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Smoke Signals
Chris Eyre isn’t as famous as our other homegrown Klamath Falls director, James Ivory, but he has a distinguished list of film credits and awards and has also directed excellent programs for PBS, including the first three episodes of the series We Shall Remain, “a ground breaking mini-series that establishes Native history as an essential part of American history from PBS's acclaimed history series American Experience.”
Tonight his first film, Smoke Signals, is being shown at the Ross Ragland Theater, with Eyre back in town to introduce and take questions. I think Smoke Signals is a terrific film and look forward to seeing it again. It’s the story of an atypical Native American kid growing up on the reservation. He goes off to find his father, whom he knows was a hero and saved him from a fire when he was a baby but who later abandoned the family. When he finds him, he learns that there’s a lot more to the story than he had known. Rather than just being another tragedy about a defeated and failed culture, Smoke Signals has a lot of humor in it.
There’s much more on Eyre at Wikipedia here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_eyre
and at IMDB here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_eyre
I’m surprised to see that Smoke Signals is only ten years old. It seems longer ago that I first saw it.
Tonight his first film, Smoke Signals, is being shown at the Ross Ragland Theater, with Eyre back in town to introduce and take questions. I think Smoke Signals is a terrific film and look forward to seeing it again. It’s the story of an atypical Native American kid growing up on the reservation. He goes off to find his father, whom he knows was a hero and saved him from a fire when he was a baby but who later abandoned the family. When he finds him, he learns that there’s a lot more to the story than he had known. Rather than just being another tragedy about a defeated and failed culture, Smoke Signals has a lot of humor in it.
There’s much more on Eyre at Wikipedia here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_eyre
and at IMDB here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_eyre
I’m surprised to see that Smoke Signals is only ten years old. It seems longer ago that I first saw it.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Tortured logic
What would we do if we suddenly caught Osama bin Laden and somehow found out that he just happened to know that some bad guys were about to explode a bunch of atomic bombs in American cities?
This patently false dilemma is brought to us by Michael Scheuer, the chief of the CIA's Osama bin Laden unit from 1996 to 1999, in a column in today’s Washington Post:
“In surprisingly good English, the captive quietly answers: 'Yes, all thanks to God, I do know when the mujaheddin will, with God's permission, detonate a nuclear weapon in the United States, and I also know how many and in which cities.’ Startled, the CIA interrogators quickly demand more detail. Smiling his trademark shy smile, the captive says nothing. Reporting the interrogation's results to the White House, the CIA director can only shrug when the president asks: ‘What can we do to make Osama bin Laden talk?’"
As a college writing teacher for twenty-five years, I was frequently reminded that most people don’t know what a dilemma is. Students would often use the word to mean a simple problem: “The dilemma of illegal immigration,” for example. They didn’t understand that a dilemma is a choice between two options to solve a problem, each of them bad. The expression “horns of a dilemma” comes from the image of facing a charging bull; you can dodge left or you can dodge right, but unfortunately bulls have horns on both sides and you’re about to be impaled on one of them.
Still, choose fast.
A false dilemma is a scenario that overly simplifies or distorts one or both of the choices. What we want here is a bull with more or less only one horn. Scheuer’s dilemma is false in several ways, which is actually characteristic of most false dilemmas, but Scheuer raises what is generally considered to be a logical fallacy to a logical absurdity. It’s not a bull’s horns we’re facing here, it’s bullshit. Watch your step.
First, Scheuer ignores history. If torture will give us the answers we want, why is Bin Laden still free? We’ve been torturing Afghani, Pakistani and Iraqi prisoners since shortly after 9/11, and we still can’t find one guy hiding in a cave somewhere? If torture is one of the horns, it’s a really puny horn because of its proven ineffectiveness.
Another indication it’s a false horn is the perfectly contrived circumstance of the dilemma: It’s not just some terrorist, it’s Osama. It’s not just one attack, it’s multiple atomic bombs. We don’t have weeks or months to break up the plot, we’ve got hours. Who wouldn’t torture one guy to save millions of lives? I know I would. I’d poke out his eyes with a hot poker, I’d let savage dogs chew off his balls, I’d make him watch while I ripped off his wives’ burkas and laughed at their bad teeth.
The problem, of course, is any garden variety terrorist could hold out for a few hours and would happily give out false information, sending our highly trained and well-positioned atomic bomb squads out to get the bomb at Disneyland when it’s really ticking away at Knotts Berry Farm.
Ka-boom!
And this false dilemma has no downside on the torture horn. We never torture the wrong guy. We never torture several thousand wrong guys and piss off all their brothers and sisters still out there, hanging around Baghdad cafes putting the finishing touches on their atomic bomb plans. Or maybe just suicide belts. We never have to complain because their guys, (the fucking animals!), are torturing our guys.
But I’m missing the other horn, which for Scheuer is the overly delicate sensibilities of Poor Old Barack: “Or asked another way, is it moral for the president of the United States to abandon intelligence tools that have saved the lives and property of Americans and their allies in favor of his own ideological beliefs?”
So now renouncing torture is just one guy’s “ideological beliefs.” Again, I know what I’d do because Scheuer’s dilemma admits of only one possible response. If I’m facing a charging bull, I’m going to dodge right and bring out the thumbscrews. Who could possibly decide to take their chances with somebody else’s namby-pamby “ideological beliefs” and ignore the atomic bombs? Oh, yeah, and one of the atomic bombs is hidden under your mother’s bed.
(But wait a minute: The bull’s right or my right? Think fast! We only have seconds to decide! I just hate these needless complications when it really should be a simple choice.)
Some dilemmas actually are quite easy to resolve, which means they’re not really a dilemma to begin with. Shoot the pirates. Shoot my neighbor Walter. Shoot the bull, for that matter.
Me, I’d opt to torture Michael Scheuer until he admits that his torture-Osama dilemma is bullshit.
Then I’d head for the basement where I’ve stockpiled food, water, and guns and ammunition. It’s best to take cover until we impale all these wild bulls running around out there.
This patently false dilemma is brought to us by Michael Scheuer, the chief of the CIA's Osama bin Laden unit from 1996 to 1999, in a column in today’s Washington Post:
“In surprisingly good English, the captive quietly answers: 'Yes, all thanks to God, I do know when the mujaheddin will, with God's permission, detonate a nuclear weapon in the United States, and I also know how many and in which cities.’ Startled, the CIA interrogators quickly demand more detail. Smiling his trademark shy smile, the captive says nothing. Reporting the interrogation's results to the White House, the CIA director can only shrug when the president asks: ‘What can we do to make Osama bin Laden talk?’"
As a college writing teacher for twenty-five years, I was frequently reminded that most people don’t know what a dilemma is. Students would often use the word to mean a simple problem: “The dilemma of illegal immigration,” for example. They didn’t understand that a dilemma is a choice between two options to solve a problem, each of them bad. The expression “horns of a dilemma” comes from the image of facing a charging bull; you can dodge left or you can dodge right, but unfortunately bulls have horns on both sides and you’re about to be impaled on one of them.
Still, choose fast.
A false dilemma is a scenario that overly simplifies or distorts one or both of the choices. What we want here is a bull with more or less only one horn. Scheuer’s dilemma is false in several ways, which is actually characteristic of most false dilemmas, but Scheuer raises what is generally considered to be a logical fallacy to a logical absurdity. It’s not a bull’s horns we’re facing here, it’s bullshit. Watch your step.
First, Scheuer ignores history. If torture will give us the answers we want, why is Bin Laden still free? We’ve been torturing Afghani, Pakistani and Iraqi prisoners since shortly after 9/11, and we still can’t find one guy hiding in a cave somewhere? If torture is one of the horns, it’s a really puny horn because of its proven ineffectiveness.
Another indication it’s a false horn is the perfectly contrived circumstance of the dilemma: It’s not just some terrorist, it’s Osama. It’s not just one attack, it’s multiple atomic bombs. We don’t have weeks or months to break up the plot, we’ve got hours. Who wouldn’t torture one guy to save millions of lives? I know I would. I’d poke out his eyes with a hot poker, I’d let savage dogs chew off his balls, I’d make him watch while I ripped off his wives’ burkas and laughed at their bad teeth.
The problem, of course, is any garden variety terrorist could hold out for a few hours and would happily give out false information, sending our highly trained and well-positioned atomic bomb squads out to get the bomb at Disneyland when it’s really ticking away at Knotts Berry Farm.
Ka-boom!
And this false dilemma has no downside on the torture horn. We never torture the wrong guy. We never torture several thousand wrong guys and piss off all their brothers and sisters still out there, hanging around Baghdad cafes putting the finishing touches on their atomic bomb plans. Or maybe just suicide belts. We never have to complain because their guys, (the fucking animals!), are torturing our guys.
But I’m missing the other horn, which for Scheuer is the overly delicate sensibilities of Poor Old Barack: “Or asked another way, is it moral for the president of the United States to abandon intelligence tools that have saved the lives and property of Americans and their allies in favor of his own ideological beliefs?”
So now renouncing torture is just one guy’s “ideological beliefs.” Again, I know what I’d do because Scheuer’s dilemma admits of only one possible response. If I’m facing a charging bull, I’m going to dodge right and bring out the thumbscrews. Who could possibly decide to take their chances with somebody else’s namby-pamby “ideological beliefs” and ignore the atomic bombs? Oh, yeah, and one of the atomic bombs is hidden under your mother’s bed.
(But wait a minute: The bull’s right or my right? Think fast! We only have seconds to decide! I just hate these needless complications when it really should be a simple choice.)
Some dilemmas actually are quite easy to resolve, which means they’re not really a dilemma to begin with. Shoot the pirates. Shoot my neighbor Walter. Shoot the bull, for that matter.
Me, I’d opt to torture Michael Scheuer until he admits that his torture-Osama dilemma is bullshit.
Then I’d head for the basement where I’ve stockpiled food, water, and guns and ammunition. It’s best to take cover until we impale all these wild bulls running around out there.
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