Film vs. Digital

I have been reading several books by Galen Rowell recently, and this reminds me that back in the bad old days lots of people (including me) took slides. Photographers who hoped to have their pictures published in magazines or in books often shot larger sized transparencies such as medium format. I shot many slides when I was out in the wilderness backpacking, and I would occasionally give a slide show presentation to our local Sierra Club group.

In this age of really nice digital cameras which are just now beginning to approach 35mm film in terms of resolution and depth of color, we have gotten a little spoiled. And it is wonderful.

Imagine that you could not crop. Not at all. In a slide you sometimes would capture on film that annoying power line which the viewfinder said was just outside of the picture. You could not use cropping as a form of enlargement either. The zoom lenses back then by and large were even worse quality than what we have available to us now. So the people who shot transparencies typically had to bring along various prime lenses, from wide angle to telephoto.

The exposure and richness of color you got depended upon the camera’s exposure settings, the lighting, and the type of film you chose. You got what you got, and that was that. So back then people tended to bring along various filters so that they would get the type of colors they were going for. And they did a fair amount of bracketing just to make sure that they got the proper exposure.

If you found that your camera was loaded with ISO 25 or 64 film, and out-of-the-blue you suddenly needed to shoot in a low light situation, you were screwed. So some photographers walked around with multiple cameras hanging off them containing films with different light sensitivities. Now your digital camera automatically changes to a higher light sensitivity setting when needed, without you even knowing it. Yes, some of us still shoot with f/1.8 or f/2.8 lenses occasionally, but our cameras are also helping out by changing to an ISO of 3200 or even ISO 6400 whenever it is needed.

For much of my career as an amateur photographer one had to manually focus the lens. Virtually all new lenses now focus automatically. This is a tremendous improvement; especially if you are using a large aperture or are shooting up really close (macro). In both situations the range of proper focus (depth of field) can get razor thin.

Longer lenses (i.e. telephoto lenses) are especially sensitive to minute shaking of the camera. So back in the film days it was not practical to shoot with a 350 mm lens unless the camera was mounted on a sturdy tripod. Now we have Vibration Reduction (VR) available to us, which helps noticeably. I routinely hand shoot with lenses of this length.

Nowadays any of us can easily crop out an annoying power line which is right on the edge of the picture. We can make the colors much richer and more vivid if we wish, adjust the brightness and contrast, and we can bring out the detail in very, very dark areas. If the color temperature of the lighting isn’t quite right we can easily adjust this. There is no requirement that we make a choice up front whether we want to shoot in black and white or color. We can easily de-saturate a color shot afterwards changing it to B&W. And we can do all of this with computer software which is often free or costs less than $100-.

Yes, film still is somewhat better if you intend to enlarge the picture to poster sized or larger. But even at a fairly large enlargement like 20” X 30” (51 cm X 76 cm) most decent digital cameras do just fine. I have printed a couple of very nice and extremely high detail 20x30s from my 6 megapixel Nikon D40.

With film there is a significant wait between taking the picture and seeing the result. On all decent DSLRs you can see your results immediately, even looking at the curves to determine if your exposure is correct if you wish. Film and processing gets a little expensive if like most photographers you normally need to take 50 - 150 pictures in order to get one truly outstanding photo. With digital it costs nothing. You just press or click delete, or even re-format the memory card. I have called this “quality through quantity” for more than 50 years now, even back during the film emulsion and chemicals era.

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Clean Coal

The scientists have been working on this for years, but the reality is that “Clean Coal” simply does not exist.

Clean Coal is nothing more than a marketing slogan which tries to make the dirtiest of fuels appear to be green and clean. Nothing could be further from the truth. Some very large companies, such as Chevron, are contributing to and participating in this deception. According to the U.S. Department of Energy burning coal is the dirtiest way we produce electricity. Then look at the mining process, whereby they knock off the tops of mountains, then strip mine the coal. This causes massive environmental damage.

After the industry having studied the idea of how to sequester the carbon dioxide emitted when coal is burned for 20 years, there still are no full sized electrical power generating facilities which use this technology. Not one. Because Clean Coal just simply is not a reality. It is nothing more than a catchphrase.

Coal is cheaper than the alternatives because of government subsidies, but it certainly is not clean.

It is sad that a massive lie like the concept of Clean Coal could be told and re-told for so many years. To some people it is like lying to yourself. If you tell yourself enough times that you are not ignorant and ugly, after a while some people actually begin to believe it. But it is still just a lie, no matter how strong your faith is.

The solution is both government encouragement of conservation, and then eliminating all the hidden government subsidies on coal and nuclear. Once this is done, both wind and solar power look very competitive.

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Heat Wave in Britain

I was reading a news article out of London, England saying that almost certainly a heat wave would be declared tomorrow. The high today there was 86 degrees F.

On my desktop I have weather bugs for El Paso, Venice Italy, and San Antonio, Texas. I see that right now a 6:12 p.m. in the evening it is 102 degrees F there in San Antonio. Click on the picture and it will enlarge.

It is tempting to say that the British are a bunch of wimps or wussies. Granted, not everyone in the UK has air conditioning. But they better realize what is up. I bought an air conditioner when I was living in Holland, and I was really glad that I did. When I first got there people kiddingly gave me a hard time because I had a good air conditioner in my car. But 15 years later most new cars were sold with an air conditioner.

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Chaplains

I read in the Los Angeles Times today that the LA Police Department (LAPD) has named its first Islamic Chaplain.

I served in the U.S. Army overseas. When the military is overseas, often in a country where the people speak a language other than English, it seems alright to me for the government to provide a “place of worship” for the troops, with a chaplain who really is completely non-denominational. These guys try to help Jews, Muslims, Christians, and intelligent secular humanists. Sometimes they even help the military maintain morale.

It has been my experience that these chaplains do not overtly try to convert people over to their particular brand of “faith.”

As long as these chaplains are really careful about this policy, and in fact atheists are just as welcome as the fanatic, true believer fundamentalists, I can sort of accept this. It is clearly getting heavily into the grey area of separation of church and state, but when handled carefully these chaplains often are kind of like shrinks rather than religious fanatics with all their obscure religious symbols and mumbo jumbo.

My first thought upon reading about the LAPD’s new chaplain, is what on earth does a domestic police department need any chaplains at all for? There are plenty of churches, synagogues, and mosques in LA with lots of their own religious fanatics already on the payroll.

This seems like a clear cut violation of the very important constitutional doctrine of separation of church and state. Especially when you shift from a non-denominational chaplain to a different one for each sect. Do the Baptist cops need a different chaplain than the Catholic policemen? What if a Jewish cop needs a chaplain? Does having some Muslim cleric on the LAPD’s payroll help him? And what about all the secular humanist (say non-religious) cops?

No wonder California is bankrupt.
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Fuel Economy

The first really popular car for the masses was the Ford Model T. It first hit the roads 100 years ago in 1908. It soon became most influential car of the twentieth century. Henry Ford produced it in Detroit, Michigan, Manchester, United Kingdom, Berlin, Germany, Copenhagen, Denmark, Sao Bernardo do Campo, Brazil, and in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

I recently heard that the Model T got about 25 miles per gallon which is a good bit higher than the average fuel economy today in America. This is certainly true if pickup trucks and SUVs are included in the average.

The Toyota Prius is a whole lot faster and more comfortable. It averages 50 mpg with the cruise control on, while running the air conditioner, and listening to some good music on the CD player.

It really is inexcusable that so many people drive around in vehicles which 10 - 12 mpg on a good day.
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Sewing Machines

My Mother started me in the first grade a year early. Mostly I think she was hoping that I would get a head start on the other kids.

Before I began school she bought herself a new Pfaff sewing machine. Included in the deal was a several week course on how to sew with your new Pfaff sewing machine. Since she didn’t have a baby sitter, I went along to these classes. To her surprise I learned much more than she did. I was fascinated by the machinery, and after the class was finished I would need to show her how to sew things like button holes.

Since I was about 20 years old I have always had my own sewing machine. At first they were used machines, but as my career advanced I owned new ones. I have never made myself any clothes, but I have made covers for sleeping bags, goose down comforters, and several camping tents of my own design. My specialty is repairing clothing, sewing on new buttons, patches, Velcro, and taking clothes in when necessary.

Over the last 60 years I have been married and divorced three times. Every single time my ex-wife stole my sewing machine. After the third divorce I was not even bitter about it. I just considered this as an opportunity to go get a new sewing machine.

Typically I only need to bring out the sewing machine 3 or 4 times per year. One of the problems in not sewing very often is that one tends to forget how to do really simple things like refill a bobbin.

This morning I was over at Wal-Mart buying a 20” X 30” picture frame. As I passed the sewing section I had to pause and browse a bit. I saw (and I bought) the most interesting thing. They had on sale a packet of 12 bobbins which were pre-filled, 6 with white thread and 6 black. In the bad old days this would have seemed extremely wasteful, but here is the kicker: Twelve bobbins already pre-filled with thread cost only $2.50! This many bobbins will absolutely outlive me, so to me it is a terrific bargain.
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The Minutemen

I read today that many of the people involved in the paramilitary volunteer movement to try and stop people from entering America along the southern border are just lonely people who are looking for a larger cause to be a part of.

Instead of playing make-believe games, pretending to be soldiers or law enforcement personnel, it is a genuine shame that their energy can’t be channeled towards reducing the rampant corruption among America’s elected officials. What the politicians disingenuously call “Campaign Contributions” is certainly a form of bribery which is steadily destroying Democracy in America. This pervasive corruption is a virulent form of malignant cancer which is eating away the voter’s faith in the entire political process.
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Kathy Griffin

Kathy Griffin is one of the funniest stand up comedians in America today.

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She is completely incorrect politically, and belly laugh funny in doing it. Her new DVD entitled Allegedy is first class!

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James May

I really like James May. Of the three guys on the BBC’s Top Gear, I like Captain Slow the best. Jeremy Clarkson is a disaster. Clarkson is a rude, overbearing cretin, to be kind and gentle about it. Richard Hammond is fantastic, and I love him.

But James just seems to fit so well. He is like a comfortable old shoe. Plus he is a pilot, so he and I share a variety of common interests.

On BBC2 in the UK James May has been hosting a series called Big Ideas. It was just released on DVD on 22 Jun 2009, and is available from Amazon.co.uk I received mine a few days ago from England.

Unfortunately these DVDs will not play on an American DVD player, only on one set up to play European DVDs. These are available from Amazon.com and are well worth owning. Frequently I find movies and TV shows on DVD which are available on European format DVDs, but not yet on American format DVDs. Search Amazon.com for ‘all region DVD players.’ They currently have several well under $100-

The synopsis from Amazon.co.uk for this series says it much better than I can, “James May explores astonishing innovations in energy, transport and robotics, in this follow-up to the series JAMES MAY'S 20TH CENTURY. May travels across the UK, US, Spain, Germany, Holland, Japan, Russia, and Ireland, to find cutting-edge science such as flying cars and 'petrol' made from air.”

I recommend this James May DVD series highly!

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The Minutemen, Thieves and Killers?

Apparently there are several different groups which use the word “Minutemen” in their name. These volunteer groups are made up largely of people who oppose people from Mexico immigrating into America, especially as undocumented workers (illegal aliens).

Some of these groups only observe and report their findings to the authorities. It seems that others are now beginning to take a far more violent approach which in some cases involves robbery and murder.

What these various Minutemen groups seem to have in common is that they are xenophobic, ethnocentric, and racist. They don’t like (or maybe even strongly hate) all people with dark skin who speak Spanish. They also claim that they are strongly opposed to drug trafficking. In general these groups are made up of people who feel comfortable wearing camouflage clothing and carrying firearms. Many drive pickup trucks, 4 wheel drive vehicles, and ATVs. Sort of vigilante or paramilitary types.

With the recent arrest of Shawna Forde and her fellow Minutemen the whole situation has moved to a new plane. These people dressed up as law enforcement officers, and in the middle of the night demanded entry into a house about 50 miles south of Tucson, Arizona. They claimed that they were cops looking for fugitives, but in reality they thought that the homeowners were drug dealers. Their intention was to rob them. They shot and killed the husband, the young daughter, and the mother was very seriously wounded.

This is distressing for several reasons. If the bad guys now start dressing up like law enforcement officers or members of the military (like is a common practice in Mexico), how can you be sure that the “policeman” who tries to stop you or enter your home is real? What if he is a thief, rapist, or a paid killer rather than a legitimate cop?

The strength of these people’s hate appears to be similar to what the Nazis felt towards the Jewish people, the Gypsies, and homosexuals.

My favorite aunt, now deceased, was a German medical student when WWII broke out. She was smart, open minded, and a very kind person. She certainly was not a racist or a xenophobe. But clear up to the time of her death she maintained that the normal people of Germany had no idea that the Nazis were doing such terrible things. This of course is a total load of hogwash, but for her own self dignity she was determined to believe it.

What if us well educated, open-minded Americans are now going through the same sort of self delusion? The U.S. Government is maintaining detention centers where large numbers of Mexicans are being held without proper access to the courts or lawyers. Without the benefit of true transparency, how can we be certain that these people are being treated properly?

What do the legislators and the President mean when they use the words Immigration Reform? I suspect that to some this concept means a complete opening up of the borders, like was done in Western Europe about a decade ago. This would mean that Mexican citizens could live, work, and vote in America. There would no longer even be any agents at the border and one could just drive across without even slowing down. To others I think that the words Immigration Reform mean “either send all those brown skinned bastards back to where they came from or put them in jail.”

One thing is clear to me. If someone claims to me to be a law enforcement agent, and demands that I stop and exit my car or allow him entry to my home, I am going to think twice about it. Especially if it is late at night or I am in some remote location. This is especially true of people dressed in civilian clothes, but now also apparently of uniformed law enforcement personnel as well.

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LINK: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/27/us/27arizona.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Political Cartoons

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In today's New York Times the Pat Oliphant cartoon is outstanding.

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Refilling Your Own Inkjet Cartridge

I just finished refilling my ink jet cartridge. All alone, by myself. The first time. And it works great. I didn’t even make a big mess.

Lets face it, selling the printer ink cartridges is a real profit center for hp and the other manufacturers of ink jet printers.

You can take your cartridges over to Walgreens, and they will refill them for $12- or so, but if you do it yourself it is so cheap it is almost free. The refill kit I got came from Amazon.com and cost far less than buying one print cartridge.

I do recommend that you look at one of the short instructional videos on You Tube before you do it the first time. There are several which are all similar to this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayschOFzwP4

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Michael Cannon in China

---------------------------------------------------- CLICK ON THE PICTURES AND THEY WILL ENLARGE

My good friend (and brother-in-law) Michael Cannon is travelling in China at the moment.

Most days he able to hook up his laptop to the internet and report back to friends and family on his travels.

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This truly is progress. In the bad old days, long after the trip was completed one got to sit through a slide show or maybe some glossy snapshots. This particular use of the internet is indeed much better than the old system.

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American Republican Politicians

In the New York Times, Nobel prize winning economist and college professor Dr. Paul Krugman said today:
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“The Republicans, with a few possible exceptions, have decided to do all they can to make the Obama administration a failure. Their role in the health care debate is purely that of spoilers who keep shouting the old slogans — Government-run health care! Socialism! Europe! — hoping that someone still cares.
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The polls suggest that hardly anyone does. Voters, it seems, strongly favor a universal guarantee of coverage, and they mostly accept the idea that higher taxes may be needed to achieve that guarantee. What’s more, they overwhelmingly favor precisely the feature of Democratic plans that Republicans denounce most fiercely as “socialized medicine” — the creation of a public health insurance option that competes with private insurers.”

The Republicans are looking more than stupid and irrelevant. They are looking dishonest, maybe even disloyal enough that it should be called treachery.

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LINK: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/22/opinion/22krugman.html?scp=1&sq=krugman%20health%20care&st=cse

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Is Europe Irrelevant to America?

A leading news magazine in German called Der Spiegel recently said in an article that in the new world order Europe is looking increasingly irrelevant to the USA.

The article has a picture of the German Chancellor Angela Merkel looking distinctly frustrated.

I think this perspective is a bit twisted. The European Union is becoming increasingly irrelevant to everyone, including the citizens of Europe. But America more than ever cares what Britain, France, Germany, and the others think. Just now America is approaching the relationship more like intelligent grown ups would, rather than as poorly educated little bad boys would (read George Bush).

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The American Way

I see in today’s news that, “Reports that Apple CEO Steve Jobs traveled to an unnamed hospital in Tennessee for a liver transplant this March have sparked a debate over whether the wealthy are able to use their resources to game the national organ donation system.”

Whoever is questioning this is seriously naïve. Of course the wealthy receive better health care than the poor in America. No comparison. Get real.

Here is the way it works in America. Many people who work full time do not have any health insurance. Even if they do have insurance, the insurance companies pay large bonuses to the doctors on their staff who reject the most claims.

If you are working in America but get real sick, in many cases you eventually lose your job. When you do get canned you pretty much always lose your health insurance coverage. Even if you are offered to keep it, no longer working there is no way that you can afford it.

And then once you are really sick with something serious like leukemia, and try to buy individual coverage, the insurance companies consider you to be uninsurable due to your pre-existing condition.

This is the American Way. More for the rich people, screw the poor and those who are down-on-their-luck. As my Belgian friend Axel Emmerman once told me, "There has always been shomething a little brutal about the American culture."
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Symbiotic Relationships

I suppose the following pearls of wisdom are intended to be mildly humorous, but not really. Mostly this is just a picture of reality.

Over the last half a century I have had relationships with several wonderful women. I was married to three intelligent, beautiful, and high energy ladies. Sequentially of course, not concurrently. I was always completely faithful to each of my wives.

At first these relationships were great. Good sex, the woman being kind, supportive, and polite, and me protecting and defending them, and providing a decent income. But the good part where both of us were happy never seemed to last more than a year or two. My longest marriage lasted seven years, but we were not ever really happy except in the beginning.

The way that our marriages and relationships evolved over time there seemed to be a lot of competition involved. The ladies were always trying to prove that they were smarter or somehow better than me. I did my best to foster a cooperative relationship in a variety of ways including doing my own laundry. But each of my wives just couldn’t seem to accept the irrefutable fact that I was the prime provider for the family. They couldn’t ever find a role that was comfortable and fulfilling for themselves.

When they tried working they detested the fact that there were demanding men who were their supervisors. These bosses actually behaved like they were better than them. How dare they! They found earning a living and having to go to work each and every day rather distressing. Yet when they tried staying at home taking on the very important roles of Mother and General Manager of the Household they also found this to be stultifying.

They just couldn’t seem to be happy living in the present, they were always looking towards the future or the past. I guess that is a problem that people in general have.

For the last few years I have enjoyed the pleasure of being retired and living with a dog. My little doggie is very empathetic and sensitive towards me. If I am not feeling well he tries to comfort me. I feed him, take him for walks out in the desert, and throw the tennis ball for him to fetch. We genuinely have a symbiotic relationship. Each of us gives to the other, trying to make his life nicer than it would have been otherwise. And in return what we receive is a friendship which is far better than we would have had.

This symbiotic relationship between domesticated canines and semi-domesticated homo sapiens goes back thousands of years. So it has had ample time to work out the kinks. The relationship between a man and woman goes back even further, but the inherent aggressiveness of human beings of both genders still makes these relationships a bit testy. The prime purpose of a man and a woman getting together is to perpetuate the species. This is hard wired in. Once the sex act is over, and the child is born and raised, the marital relationship seems to be a waste of time.

I am telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth when I say that after all these years of trying both types of friendship, I’ll take the companionship of a dog far over the relationship with any human female. And no doubt most of these women feel just about the same way about men.

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Bert Saldaña

I was visiting the Mission Trail arts fair at the San Elizario mission this morning, and I ran into an old friend of mine. I have known Bert Saldaña since high school, but we had not seen each other for almost 40 years. Bert is a truly outstanding painter and artist. I agree with one website which says that “His art candidly captures the strength and beauty of everyday life of the indigenous people of the Southwestern and Mexican cultures.”

Reading his biography I see that in his spare time he works as “the Senior Museum Exhibit Designer/Artist for the U.S. Army and conducts training seminars in Museum Exhibit Design Techniques for the Center of Military's sixty six Army Museums.”

It was really nice to catch up on what our old friends have been up to. Bert looks almost exactly the same as he did many years ago. Alas I am afraid that I have aged far more than he has.

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LINKS:
http://www.sunlandartgallery.com/artists/saldanab/bertsaldana.htm

http://www.9900gallery.com/

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Light Pollution

If you have ever been distressed by how few stars you can see in the sky at night due to light pollution, then you should look at the following article.
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LINK: http://www.universetoday.com/2009/06/19/prescription-for-light-pollution/

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The Gray Panters

I used to belong to AARP, but it did not take me long to figure out that it is a total waste of time. I want to be a part of a group of people who are 60+ and who agree with James Ridgeway that “Getting old does not mean getting dumb, getting conservative, getting complacent, or getting used to spending your days driving a golf cart to early bird dinner specials.”

My latest hope is the Gray Panthers. I like the name. Like the Black Panthers, but gray since we are all in the last chapter.



Gray Panthers: Guaranteed Health Care

WHEREAS, health care is a basic human need and a right that everyone is entitled to receive, regardless of ability to pay; and

WHEREAS, it is a disgrace that the United States is the only industrialized country in the world which doesn’t provide comprehensive health care to all residents and visitors with funding equity gaps in mental health services, patient counseling services, alcohol and chemical dependency treatment services among other critical services needed; and

WHEREAS, the U.S. spends a higher portion of its gross domestic product on health care than any country, a World Health Organization study (in 2000) ranked our health system a shameful 37 out of 191 countries and revealed it ranked 20th in longevity and 18th in infant mortality; and

WHEREAS, 46 million Americans have no health care insurance at all and 42 million or more are significantly underinsured; and

WHEREAS, the American health care system is in crisis, and with the most advanced health care technology in the world, only a few can afford it; and

WHEREAS, the current U.S. health care system is excessively costly because it does not make preventative care a priority, treats symptoms instead of the whole person, uses disjointed and antiquated information systems and fails to eliminate excess profits and administrative waste; and

WHEREAS, the private insurance industry fails to provide affordable, adequate coverage, while profiteering to its own advantage and state initiatives for “universal healthcare” through private insurance companies have proven unsuccessful.

BE IT RESOLVED, that Gray Panthers supports a single payer, nonprofit, publicly funded and universal health care system that covers all health care needs, including preventative care, dental care, mental health, alcohol/chemical dependency services, patient counseling, prescription drugs, and long-term care, as examples; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that Gray Panthers' Networks in each state pursue the development of a single-payer system in each state, as well as working for passage of national single payer legislation; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that Gray Panthers calls on all civic organizations, communities of faith, health care providers and institutions in America to collaborate for a universal health care system that guarantees comprehensive, quality, affordable health care for every person in the United States; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that Gray Panthers supports a Patients' Bill of Rights at the state and federal levels.

LINK: http://www.graypanthers.org/


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Sexual Abuse

The same types of sexual abuse by teachers, religious clergy, and others in a position of authority are taking place all over the world. This is what RNW news has to say about the situation in the Netherlands:




* 400 cases of sexual abuse by Dutch clergy

More than 400 cases of sexual abuse by clergy have been reported in the Netherlands since 1995. The allegations were made on Friday night by the Dutch television program Zembla. Among the victims are people who sought council from both Catholic priests and Protestant ministers. The offenders include clergy holding a variety of functions and ranks.

So far only 200 complaints have been filed, 95 of which were deemed to be closed. Zembla says churches have been keen to hush up all the cases. The program found that the independent committee handling the complains of Catholic victims last year resigned en bloc. The committee members felt that, rather than helping the victims, they were being pressured to protect the church against any claims.
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Juarez Killings

There were 9 murders in Juarez, Mexico yesterday. As of 19 June 2009 the total for June is 136. This is the same as the number for the whole month ofJune 2008. The total for the year is now 807. At the end of June 2008 the total was 542, so as of the summer solstice 2009 there is apparently an increase in the number of killings in Juarez of about 48%.
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The month of June 2009 has been especially deadly for women. As of yesterday 39 women had been killed during the month. Adolescents have also been hit hard this month. Four teenagers were killed just between Thursday and Friday.

As if it would in some way help, the officials of the Mexican Joint Chihuahua Operation met yesterday to address the situation...

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Health Care Cost

Suddenly everyone is freaking out about the potential cost of health care reform, i.e., universal health care.

So why is it that countries which are much poorer than America can afford it? Like Canada, England, Germany, the Netherlands, and France. In these other advanced democratic countries the insatiable greed of the pharmaceutical companies and the doctors is brought more into line with something resembling reality. These countries spend far less per person than is spent in America on health care, and at the same time they also have lower infant mortality rates and longer life spans. These countries also don't waste so much money on what President Eisenhower warned us about: The military-industrial-complex.

The American way of doing business is turning out to not be the most efficient. Not by a long shot. The American style of free market capitalism is just the greediest. We are simply dealing with another manifestation of greed, and the self centered American phenomenon of “I want it all for me!”

Italy was once a great country, the same with Greece, Egypt, and also the Aztecs in Mexico. They each blew it and now are second tier countries. This is the direction America has been heading for almost 20 years. Reversing this downward slide is now probably close to impossible. Just like the rise and fall of other great civilizations.

I recommend that your kids or grandkids take Chinese language classes in school.

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Is North Korea Going To Attack Hawaii?

The top leadership of North Korea is a bit loony. This is what happens when leaders are chosen based upon nepotism. Leaders who are chosen solely based upon who their father is, rather than based upon their talents and skills as demonstrated by putting up with a whole lot of crap while they are working their way up the ladder.

Yes, I’ve worked in organizations like that. It can actually benefit a non-family member. If you take it as your role to clean up the messes of the incompetent sons and grandsons. With modesty. Always trying to keep your head down. Never ever criticizing the family. Blood is thicker than water, or friendship, or even profitability in many cases.

But back to Kim Jong Mentally Ill. As strange as this guy is, he is not completely suicidal. Even if he were completely off his rocker, his top lieutenants got there not through nepotism, but by skill and hard work. The Glorious Leader is a typical bully, always arrogantly pushing. But shove him back vigorously, and he will back off real quickly.

The leadership of North Korea is not stupid. They understand the concept of mutually assured destruction (MAD). And they know enough history to remember how seriously America took it the last time that Hawaii was bombed by foreigners from the Orient. America got so pissed off at the Japanese that we destroyed two of their cities with nuclear bombs.

These aggressive tactics have always been successful for the North Koreans in the past. Threaten to do something really aggressive and stupid, then act a bit crazy and unstable, and the USA, South Korea, and China will all buckle and come rushing through with some new financial aid. Plenty of food and oil too.

Don’t take it all too seriously. Kim Jong Ill is just a sick little rich kid with an out of control Napoleon complex. It is time now to stop falling for these bullying tactics. If this brutal dictatorship is going to be brought down, it will only happen internally. Let them starve and freeze. Keep the rich elites from travelling abroad, and search all ships that dock in North Korea.

The common people and the political elites surrounding these sick family members will finally develop some balls and bring down these lunatics.

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Another Downside of All The Newspapers Going Belly Up

For the last 15 years before I retired I worked as the General Manager of the European Division of a multinational food processing company. When I retired I chose to move back to America.

A good friend and close colleague of mine retired shortly after I did. He chose to remain in Europe. He maintains houses in both Amsterdam and Venice.

This morning I emailed him a link to the following blog entry where I spout my pearls of wisdom regarding the Obama administration’s approach to financial reform. I just got the following response from him:

“I will have to open this when I get back to Venice. I am in the Paris airport lounge and they block blogs. This is the big downside to newspapers closing down. governments everywhere can shut down broad band and block and censor content at their will for both phones and email.”

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Reform of Financial Regulations

When I bought my first house almost 40 years ago, getting a mortgage loan was a very serious matter. Plenty of people were turned down. It was like going before a Judge. The bankers knew that they were lending their own money, and that if you defaulted on the loan as a minimum it would be a real pain in the ass for them, and that in the worst case scenario the bank could actually lose money. In the current street lingo they had what is called “skin in the game.” The same was true when you applied for a credit card.

Over the years various greedy con artists realized that they could bundle lots of home mortgages and/or credit card debt, call these securities, and sell them off to investors. It goes without saying that the banks and consultants both earned big fees in these transactions. It worked especially well when the ratings companies like Moody's and Standard & Poor's gave their blessings and said that the securities were safe for the risk adverse investor to buy. If the home buyer eventually defaulted, all of the risk had been shifted to the investors who purchased the loans, so the lending standards by the mortgage bankers went down. Way, way extremely far down.

Eventually at the peak of the bubble borrowers could quickly get a $400,000 mortgage loan and buy a brand new house with a zero down payment loan and do so without providing any proof of income or even claiming that they had a job or some source of income. Of course lots of these borrowers couldn’t pay back their loans. The banks knew full well that the income many of these borrowers were earning was terribly insufficient to pay their normal living expenses and also make the payments on their mortgage loan. The lenders really did know this full well. Really. It was a clear cut case of dishonesty which should openly be called fraud or a con game.

When this change to securitization of mortgage and credit card debt took place the bankers started to look less like rock solid, stable members of the community elite and more like used car salesmen. Or maybe unrepentant ex-cons.

With the bubble bursting the American people gradually began to see how crazy the economic policies of the Republicans had been. Constantly lower taxes on the wealthy, and spend spend spend on warfare and wasteful military technology that in some cases even the military didn’t want. All the while the Republicans were disingenuously accusing the Democrats of spending too freely. Some of the very worst budget deficits in the nation’s history took place while Republicans like Reagan and Bush were at the helm.

So the American voters decided to change course and elect as President the Senator who had the very most liberal/left-wing voting record of any of U.S. Senator. Even though he had a strange name, his middle name was Hussein, he smoked cigarettes in the closet, and he was half white-half black he easily got elected to the unenviable job of President of the United States.

And then almost magically within just a few months, Mr. Obama began behaving more and more conservatively. Even though the Democrats had a solid majority in the House of Representatives and a thin majority in the Senate, he did not go for the bold solutions which were necessary and appropriate. It became clear that he did not have the balls for a fight. His penchant for compromise and reaching across the aisle became a sad, sick joke.

In the early 1600’s when Galileo Galilei came out of the closet and stated publicly that the earth revolved around the sun rather than the egotistical view that the entire universe revolved around the Earth, this was a controversial and extremely dangerous thing to do. The rich and powerful members of the community considered this idea to be enormously threatening. People’s reputations and lives were ruined by standing up for controversial ideas like this.

The analogy goes this way: There is no middle ground here, no possibility of compromise. One side is 100% wrong and the other view is 100% right. One could make a similar analogy when discussing the controversial subject of ending slavery. It would have been wrong to try and find a middle ground where slavery was legal and ethically appropriate in certain well defined sets of circumstances. No, just like with Galileo, the concept of slavery had to be opposed in all cases. Period. No compromise appropriate.

So now the Obama administration is proposing some new and badly needed rules and regulations for the country’s financial players. This comes after years and years of the pro-business, pro-greed dismantling of vital regulations which the right wingers worshiped and called Deregulation. Of course all these greed driven bankers, MBAs, and Wall Street types are now screaming like stuck pigs. We all would like to live in a world where laws and rules applied to others but not to us.

Obama’s team should have come out and openly admitted that securitization of mortgage and credit card debt encourages excessive risk taking, is bad for the stability of the economy, and that it has to cease entirely. But of course this would have been mildly controversial and might have resulted in a bit of a conflict, so the Great Compromiser Obama (read weak and sadly almost pathetic) made this proposal: Banks could only securitize and sell off 95% of their loans.
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They could securitize and sell off 95% of their loans, which contained 100% of their risky or shaky loans, but now after these new “reforms” they would be required to keep 5% of the very most rock solid loans. Smoke and mirrors, nothing more. It reminds me of the illusions by the Wizard of Oz.

The Obama administration is smart and politically savvy. They know that before any proposal is passed and becomes a law it will normally get watered down quite a bit.

The Obama approach is absurd. They should have started out by taking the position that all securitization and selling off of loans would be flatly prohibited, with full knowledge going in to the discussions that during the process of negotiation they would probably have to back off somewhat to something like: Banks can only sell off 50% of the loans they make. But to initially go into the negotiations demanding that banks only keep 5% “skin in the game” is indicative of the weakness and the sad need for approval by this administration. It is so incredibly distressing.

And the same thing is happening with universal single payer health care. If anything at all passes, it will only be teeny, tiny so called reform. It certainly won’t make sure that ALL Americans have access to the health care system, even the poor or sick Americans. Basically the Obama team seems to have given up even before the real fighting begins.

Barack we love you. Come on, Get Some Balls Man!!!

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Compulsory Voting

I have always been of the opinion that in a Democracy it was not wise to force totally ignorant and uneducated people to vote. Of course I am strongly opposed to restricting the voting to process to just males, or whites, or wealthy land owners, etc. Voting is a basic civil right, and all citizens should be allowed to vote if they choose to. I felt that it was wiser if only those people who cared a little bit or those who had the least little bit of understanding of which candidate or position they favored should vote.

But because of some email correspondence I have been having with a very intelligent friend of mine in Belgium, I am starting to reevaluate my thoughts on this issue.

Thanks to the wonders of the internet people are now able to increasingly associate themselves only with others who have the exact same thoughts and beliefs as we do. I don’t enjoy listening to ignorant racists, so in my internet browser I filter out Fox News and their fellow right wing travelers. The same applies to the pro business and Wall Street types of self-centered, greedy, arrogant, crooks. I don’t find it pleasant to listen to their dishonesty and their pseudo capitalist propaganda, so I tend to use modern technology to filter it out.

This move away from really listening to others, and an enthusiastic acceptance of societal multiculturalism is causing greater polarization and radicalization, rather than compromise or reaching across the aisle.

There are several democratic countries which have tried compulsory voting but then have eventually have rescinded it, including the Netherlands, Austria, Venezuela, and Spain. There are other well functioning democracies which have some form of compulsory voting, either enforced or unenforced. Belgium and Australia are among those countries requiring you to participate in the electoral process by performing your civic duty and voting.

There are some who say that when voting is mandatory politicians tend to adopt more centrist and less extreme policies so that they can appeal to the group of undecided swing voters in the middle, rather than just their core base constituencies. In America at the moment one sees the Republican party increasingly shouting really loudly and adopting extreme/radical positions which makes their core supporters happy, but also means that the Republican party is losing more-and-more of the reasonable and somewhat conservative middle of the road voters who try to talk and behave fairly and responsibly. One sees the same sort of narrowing of the focus and target marketing among religious fanatics and the anti-abortion crowd that loud mouthed, closed minded weirdoes like Bill O’Reilly and Rush Limbaugh target.

Almost 50 years ago, way back in the 1960’s, we knew that narrow mindedness was bad and that being open minded was good. Being open minded was good for you as an individual and also good for society as a whole. But American society seems to be moving away from this idea in the twenty first century. Perhaps some form of mandatory voting in America would help move politicians back towards the center.

Probably far more important to making democracy function properly in the United States of America would be to end the constant bribery and corruption of elected officials.

What I call bribery is what their spin doctors disingenuously call campaign contributions. It is clear that many (perhaps most) elected officials in America often vote either for or against legislation not because it is good for the people or the country at large, but because it is good for those individuals who make the big contributions to their political campaigns. Without any doubt the current system is one founded upon rampant bribery and corruption. Yes, I am certain that this dishonesty and the "greed factor" is far more important to an improperly functioning democracy than whether one is required to vote or not.

Just look at the Supreme Court case of Bush vs. Gore. In the vote for the president of the United States, the clear will of the voters was blithely ignored by the courts. Corruption in the electoral process is alive and well in Iran, but unfortunately it is also thriving in the land of the free and the brave.

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Improved Communication Makes You More Open Minded

The conventional wisdom has been that with increased education and travel, you are exposed to a variety of different ideas and cultures. This makes one more open minded, and more tolerant and accepting of new ideas.

It has been an item of faith that this is what the tremendous improvement in communication brought about through cell phones and the internet would do. With better communication it was thought that compromise, tolerance, and understanding would increase, gradually leading mankind more in the direction of world peace.

Recent research suggests strongly that the exact opposite is what is happening. With the modern wonders of the internet people can easily search out other people with ideas which are very similar to their own. What seems to be happening is rather than learning about the ideas of cultures different than their own, and thus becoming more open-minded, people are closing themselves off to other viewpoints. Through social networking sites like Facebook and others, they are surrounding themselves with people who have ideas very much like their own.

The resulting feedback loop is not moderating us, or making us more tolerant and open minded. Rather we are all becoming more narrow minded, intolerant, and radical. The political center is vanishing.

In the bad old days you read the newspaper, and it forced you to view a variety of different ideas. Now thanks to the magic of cyberspace I can tailor my news so that I normally read intellectual and liberal news like the New York Times, and I block what I view as racist or right-wing propaganda.

And with the internet people who have ideas which have very shaky intellectual backing are being viewed as normal. Look weirdoes like at Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reiley.

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Guns

On June 15, 2009 The Times of London said: “At El Paso, Texas where one can own a gun, the crime rate is very small. Across the border in Mexico, where you cannot own a gun the crime rate is horrendous. I find it interesting that in Europe, the state has a right to armed self-defense, while the citizens do not.”

I was born and raised in Texas, and I am well educated and well travelled. Much of what I believe in regarding politics is so liberal that a few of my really close friends lovingly call me a pinko. One would think that I would be heavily opposed to guns.

I think most of the right-wing NRA types are raving lunatics. Nonetheless I have a permit to carry a concealed & loaded hand gun, and virtually all of the time I am armed. This is for self defense. If some drugged up lunatic wants to threaten me with physical harm, at my age I need a little help to defend myself.

Guns don’t cause crimes. Really. The bad guys have guns whatever the law says. What matters is culture, and a respect for the concept of rule-of-law. Mexico is completely missing the latter.

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Barren Hot Desert

To the casual observer who is walking in the month of June, out in the Chihuahuan Desert during the heat of the day, it can look like a pretty bleak place. They see some very hardy drought resistant plants and lots of stickery things that look pretty nasty and aggressive. Some pretty rocks and sand dunes, but not much else.

But looks can be very deceiving. If you get out there not long after sunrise you will see an immense number of tracks in the sand. If you keep your eyes open you may well even see some pottery shards left by the stone age native Americans who were living here a long time ago.

There are many kinds of birds, rodents, hares, rabbits, lizards, snakes, and insects many of which are primarily nocturnal. If you walk around a bit you may smell the odor of a skunk. Just after sunset I once had a dog return with his mouth full of porcupine quills. There are big horn sheep, pronghorn antelope, and coyotes. Once at night while driving slowly down a poorly maintained dirt road, I saw a swarm of what seemed at the time to be thousands of tarantulas, and one time I witnessed an enormous swarm of millions of desert locusts, Schistocerca gregaria which took hours to pass by.

I guess many things in life are this way. At first glance things often look much simpler than they really are.
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The Dirt Detective

More than 15 years ago (as is apparent from seeing how much younger he was) the Scottish Conan guy Craig Ferguson hosted an archaeological TV show in Scotland.

This six part series just recently came out on DVD in American format. It is really fun to watch. It is interesting from the standpoint of seeing things like the best preserved 5,000 year old Neolithic settlement in Europe. Even back then Craig Ferguson marched to the beat of a different drummer, and he is funny to watch.

These DVDs do not have subtitles. Even though Craig Ferguson and all the people he interviews are speaking the Queen’s English, I do miss some of the words. And this is coming from a guy who owns (and wears) a real honest Scottish kilt which I bought in Scotland. And not at some tourist shop either. I have travelled widely in Scotland on several different occasions. Even so, my DVD player remote control is getting a good workout, rewinding a little and listening to a phrase or sentence again.

I recommend this set of DVDs to anyone who likes archaeology, likes Scotland, or is a fan of Craig Ferguson.

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Rain In The Chihuahuan Desert

In the Chihuahuan desert near El Paso, Texas the average annual rainfall is 9.4 inches (24 cm). Some years it is much drier, and other years it gets much more rainfall. Any way you look at it, that is pretty dry.

It makes me wonder how many years this nail has been laying here to get this rusty.



LINK: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/epz/climat/rain/elpmonthlyprecip.shtml
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The Unsilent Generation

James Ridgeway is an interesting man. He has been a prominent American investigative journalist for many years.

His blog called Unsilent Generation says that it “is a site for people who don’t believe that getting old means getting dumb, getting conservative, getting complacent, or getting used to spending your days driving a golf cart to early bird dinner specials. It’s a site for people who know that old age doesn’t have to be a slow shuffle toward the grave.”

Recently he wrote an excellent article on why the composite materials construction techniques used by the European manufacturer of the Airbus may be responsible for the recent in-flight break up and crash of Air France flight 447. He notes that “To some observers, this bears a striking resemblance to the loss of the tail in the devastating American Airlines 587 crash in New York in November 2001. That plane was an Airbus 300” which has a tail construction very similar to the A330 which broke up mid-air over the middle of the Atlantic Ocean in Air France flight 447.

He also has written good articles on the Obama administration’s efforts at so called health care reform, as opposed to the issue which most people call universal health care.



Link: http://unsilentgeneration.com/

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Pictures of President Obama

The New York Daily News has published a series of photographs by the official White House photographer Pete Souza which are excellent.

Most of these pictures are fun to look at. It goes without saying that they are all really good technically.

Pete Souza is a fantastic photographer, and he uses great equipment. Normally he shoots with a digital SLR which uses a full frame 21.1-megapixel CMOS sensor which is roughly the same size as a 35 mm film negative. His choice of cameras is the Canon EOS 5D Mark II.

This $2,700- Canon camera is thought of by most people as a much better value than the full frame $7,999- Nikon D3X camera. Many reviewers think that the 24.5-megapixel Nikon D3X is indeed a somewhat better camera, but not nearly enough better to justify the enormous price differential that Nikon is trying to get. In fact many long time Nikon users are boycotting this camera because of what they see as price gouging.

This particular picture of the Boeing 747 Air Force One caught my attention because there has been so much attention recently paid to pitot tubes, after the in flight breakup of the fly-by-wire Airbus flight 447 Air France airliner over the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. These pitot tubes allow an airplane to accurately monitor its air speed.

In Paris at the Gare Nord train station I found it fascinating that the Thalys high speed 300 km/hr train which I had just arrived on from Germany also uses pitot tubes. I have ridden on this train many times, and once I finally got my Garmin GPS to capture enough satellites to measure the speed. It indicated an exact speed of 186 mpg which equals 300 kilometers per hour. Please forgive the terrible quality of this photo...I took it using an old cellphone under low light conditions.





Pito Tube Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitot_tube

Nikon D3X Link: http://www.nikonusa.com/Find-Your-Nikon/Product/Digital-SLR/25442/D3X.html

Canon EOS 5D Mark II Link: http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=139&modelid=17662

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Link to Pete Souza’s Pictures: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/galleries/obamas_travels_a_behindthescenes_look/obamas_travels_a_behindthescenes_look.html


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Brightly Colored Houses

In the Southwestern part of the United States it is common to see houses which have been painted extremely bright colors. This is especially common in the moderate income part of towns, whereas in the more affluent communities most houses are more conservative desert-like earth tones.

This tradition of painting houses bright blue and pink comes from Mexico. Many people assume that it is somehow associated with the Catholic religion. It is actually based upon a pagan belief that these bright colors will ward off evil spirits.

The Spanish brought the tradition to Mexico, and it originally came into Spain when they were invaded by the Arabic Moors from north Africa.

So rather than this being a Catholic or Christian tradition, it may have been an Arabic or Muslim tradition.
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Hate Crimes

In America we value free speech. Unless you are a late night TV host on over the air television, then there are many words which you are prohibited from saying.

But it appears that it is perfectly OK for ignorant, loud mouth, right wing fanatics like Bill O’Reilly to incite violence by constantly shouting hate speech. These people shout fanatical statements, but refuse to listen to any other point of view. Watching them reminds me of watching old news reels of the Nazis when they were trying to work up the people into some kind of a hate filled frenzy.

These hate mongers and their constant frenzy trying to incite action against the more moderate parts of society are directly responsible for the killing of Dr. George Tiller and the murder by the holocaust denier and white supremacist in the Holocaust Museum.

The incessant shouting by fanatics like this represents the dying tremors of the Republican political party. Moderate, sensible sounding people like David Brooks have become a small minority in the Republican party. Right wing extremists like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly are ruining any hope of a comeback by conservatives. This is mostly because many of these famous people are not at all conservative. They are radical extremists.

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And Republican presidents like Reagan and Bush have presided over massive increases in the national debt. In actual practice the Republicans are the ones who have proven themselves to be fiscally irresponsible.
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Facebook

There are a number of popular “social networking” websites on the internet. I have read that Facebook is now the largest, after having overtaken MySpace early in 2009.

I enjoy Facebook mostly because it does not try to only attract one very young, ignorant, and supposedly “hip” age group. Lots of teenagers apparently use Facebook, as do many middle aged people in their 30’s and 40’s. What I find intriguing is that there are also an increasing number of old geezers in their 50s and 60s who are very computer literate and feel just as comfortable using the internet as any 20 year old does. I see some of these old farts in Starbucks with their laptops taking advantage of the free wifi internet.

I have friends all over the world who I have met in person and who I know really well on a personal basis that I keep up with via the internet. Some of them have their own website or blog, and others use Facebook or maybe even just email.

Like my retired doctor friend in the south of England who has a fascinating blog, my American friend who has now retired to Venice, Italy who uses Facebook, my good friend in Belgium who is the European representative for the fluorescent minerals society and has a great website, and many friends who live in France, Holland, Germany, Canada, and all over America.

When someone who you have known for 30 or more years sends you a message via Facebook asking to become your Facebook friend, for you to not approve their request is a serious form of bridge burning. I think I have only said no to one Facebook friend request, and this was some weird person who I really had never even heard of.

My sister has not responded to my request to be her Facebook friend, but she is retired and sometimes goes weeks without opening her emails. So I don’t view this as a slap in the face, just simple inefficiency. There is only one other person who I have asked to be my Facebook friend who has not responded favorably. I won’t mention any names, but you know who you are. Use caution. This sort of a put-down is serious stuff to a grumpy old bastard.

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Lunatic Religious True Believers

I saw this today from the BBC:

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Palestinian boy 'hanged for collaboration'

Palestinian police say a 15-year-old boy has been found hanged near the town of Qalqilya in the West Bank.

They said several family members had confessed to involvement in the killing, accusing the boy of collaborating with the Israeli army.

Collaboration is viewed as a serious offence in Palestinian society. Suspects are often summarily killed.

However, police said it was unlikely that such a young boy would have been recruited as an informer.

He has been named in the Palestinian press as Raed Sawalha.

Palestinian police spokesman Adnan Damiri said those responsible for the boy's death would be brought to justice.

He said the boy's father, uncle and cousin confessed to the killing, but that police were also investigating other motives for the killing, the Associated Press reported.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/8096742.stm

Published: 2009/06/12 09:21:16 GMT

© BBC MMIX

Concrete

Two thousand years ago the Romans knew how to make cement for concrete and mortar. I have seen many different Roman villas and structures which used this limestone cement. Then not long afterwards, so many people died during the pandemics and plagues of the dark ages that the knowledge of how to make cement largely died out.

Today Portland cement is made almost exactly the same way it was in Roman times. One of the primary ingredients is limestone. It got its name from the Isle of Portland in Dorset, England. Open up Google Earth and goto latitude N50.547841 and longitude W-2.427719. You will see that the limestone quarries on the island of Portland are exactly the color of most sidewalks.

There are thousands of minor variations to the formulation for cement depending upon the properties desired, such as ultimate strength, or rapid curing, or being more waterproof, etc. But put simply concrete is made from gravel (the larger the pieces, the stronger the concrete), sharp sand, Portland cement, and some water. You should use sharp sand, not the rounded, eroded sand typically found at the beach or in the wind blown desert. The less water is used the harder the wet concrete will be to work, but the stronger it will ultimately set up. To greatly increase the strength of the concrete, metal like rebar is included.

Wet concrete does not dry. What happens is a chemical reaction called curing. This chemical reaction generates significant amounts of heat. The curing process takes place on an exponential basis compared with time, so within a day or two it can safely be walked upon. But it should not be driven on for at least 2 or 3 weeks. After about 21 days the concrete will have cured to 90% of its eventual strength and is considered fully cured.
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LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland_cement
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Chasing Reptiles

My doggie Inu is a pretty good little athlete. He is sort of like a quarter horse, except that genetically he is a predator, not a prey animal. He can accelerate very rapidly, and for short distances his speed is remarkable.

One of his great passions is chasing tennis balls in the back yard. But even better is chasing small sentient beings like cotton tailed bunny rabbits and lizards. Being small and a good athlete, my doggie can zig and zag rapidly. So chasing live animals, which are utilizing all their strengths, talents, and intelligence in evasion, is a wonderful intellectual and physical challenge for him.

This morning we were getting a little exercise out walking in the Chihuahuan desert near El Paso, Texas. We were not on a dirt road, rather we were bush-wacking across the sand dunes. I was occasionally stopping to take photographs, and Inu was exploring. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him take off at full acceleration after a lizard. Except I immediately realized that this reptile was not a lizard, it was a snake. A fast snake.

Even in it’s S serpentine shape it was at least twice as long as my dog, and it was really moving along trying to avoid any sort of confrontation. But it was clear to me that my dog was right on the verge of making the capture.

Fortunately we have a good partnership, and he is normally well attuned to my verbal calls. I think he could probably sense the concern (actually it was more like horror or terror) in my voice when I called, and as soon as I hollered at him he immediately discontinued the chase. Whew!

Then a few minutes later Inu found a really fast, fat lizard and had a great little chase. Naturally the lizard won, but my dog got the early morning predator hormones worked out of his system.

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Political Asylum in America

I feel tremendous compassion for all the people living in Mexico who are being terrorized by the drug cartels and the general disregard for the concept of rule-of-law.

If America were to allow Mexican Nationals to routinely get political asylum based upon their genuine fear of either the narcos or the government, the numbers of people would massive. It may be both fair and proper, but thinking that it is going to happen is unfortunately wildly unrealistic.

The Mexican people need to stand up against corruption, bribery, nepotism, and governmental favoritism. For too many years everyone has just taken the easy way out and gone along with this rampant dishonesty. Now we all are seeing where this pathway eventually leads.

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Inciting Racism and Violence

The New York Times has an excellent article today by the Nobel Prize winning economist Dr. Paul Krugman. In this article he explores how the “mainstream” right wing news media like Fox are right on the very edge of inciting violence.

This is a quick short little article which carries a lot of weight.
LINK: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/12/opinion/12krugman.html?em

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Pay and Price Controls

I read today that the Obama administration is going to issue new regulations which attempt to limit obscene executive pay.

The concept is good, but the way they are trying to achieve it will only meet with limited success. A good analogy is the now defunct 55 mph (88.5 km/hr) speed limit which was instituted to try and encourage conservation of fossil fuels. A much more effective tactic would have been to impose a $4- per gallon federal tax on gasoline and diesel. And then mandate that ALL of this tax go to fund mass transit.

The same goes with excessive compensation rates. These people are smart and agressive. They are not beyond using all sorts of exotic and legally questionable tactics to get around these rules. So just make the income tax rate much more progressive. If one’s annual income is above $600,000- then the marginal tax rate should go way up. Not just a point of two, but a LOT. This should be at the end, after all the tax shelters, deductions, exemptions, etc., just like the alternative minimum income tax.

The government can use this revenue to fund health insurance for the poor and other socially worthwhile goals like reducing the national debt.

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