Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Long Time


Back in the bad old days a project was begun, then it was finished by the following generations. Cathedrals, pyramids, and other public works projects.

Click on the picture. Maybe I can do this with Windows Vista. Longer than 100 years is a LONG time.

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Sunday, December 27, 2009

Blowing Up Airliners

I am not ethnocentric or xenophobic, and I'm certainly not a racist. Having lived abroad for almost half of my adulthood I have known a lot of people from other cultures and countries. If I were to list the top 20 people I have known over the years who I like and trust the most, more than half would hold citizenship from another country, and many would have have darker colored skin.

If you look at the people who have been responsible for most of the bombings over the last 25 years, either of airliners or as suicide bombers, you see certain things. What I am about to say is not racism or intolerance; it is simply realism. Facing up to the truth.


----- Most of them were religious fanatics of one denomination or another.

----- Very few of these people are over 45 years old. Most are 30 or younger.

----- Most have dark colored skin.

----- A significant number are named Abdul or Mohamed.


Some may call this a form of racism called racial profiling. I simply call it the profiling of murderers. It is unproductive and rude, and a horrific waste of time and money, to force a courteous, 60 year old white haired grandparent to remove his/her shoes and undergo rigorous procedures like being patted down. This is what happened to me just a few weeks ago on a domestic flight when I few from El Paso, Texas in America to Amarillo, Texas. This farce pretends that nothing is known about terrorism, and that elderly Americans are as much at risk of committing an act of terrorism as a young, fanatically religious Muslim is.

The rules are currently being modified so that no one can get out of their seat during the last hour of a flight. What about all those older folks who have to pee frequently? An hour is a long time for me and many others.

The 20 something Nigerian who tried to blow up the airliner a couple of days ago not only fit the profile I have identified, he was so weird and screwed up that his own father had recently warned the American authorities about him. These incompetent American “security” jerks didn't think that the opinion of his own father was adequate cause to put his name on the database list where the security folks at the Amsterdam airport would have been warned about this young man which might have caused them to look a little closer at him.

One time I flew out of Lod airport in Israel. The security people in Israel weren't out of work minimum wage people who had been given a bit of training. They were soldiers from the Israeli military. They carried at the ready loaded sub-machine guns. Every single passenger, fully 100%, was given a thorough pat down. Then all of their luggage, both hand bags and checked bags, were completely unpacked and inspected – right there in public by the security people with you standing there watching and answering any questions they had. These people even removed the batteries from my Sony Walkman. They were professional. They were not abusive, but they were were absolutely no-nonsense. You didn't joke around with these folks. When soldiers are standing there with loaded weapons drawn, and they are not smiling, you take the whole event a little more seriously.

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Friday, December 25, 2009

Swedish Arrogance

I spent almost half of my adulthood living abroad. During these years I got to know many people from other cultures and countries: Holland, Germany, France, Belgium, Morocco, Tunisia, Afghanistan, Kurdish Iraq, Senegal, Finland, and many others.

There were a few bad apples, but in the vast majority of cases these people were all hard working, decent, and honest. One exception was the people from Sweden. For some reason this culture is well known by their fellow Scandinavians as being arrogant. I most certainly agree.

I got to know many Swedes, and almost without exception they were revoltingly dishonest and arrogant.

I see in the news today that one of the nazi groups in Sweden funded the theft of the 'Arbeit Macht Frei' sign from the gates of the Auschwitz concentration camp. There is some logic to this. -
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I have watched several of the Swedes I know swell up with national pride and arrogance when they explain that Sweden remained neutral during WWII. In other words the Swedes did not have the balls or the strength of character to oppose Hitler and his sadists. Many years later the new generation which wasn't even alive during WWII is still proud of this refusal by Sweden to oppose nazism. These people are seriously demented.

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Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Obama's Replacement

After a year in office the American people have a much better idea of who the man who is currently serving as President really is. It is clear that us liberals and progressives did not get the candidate we thought we were electing. Not at all.

Obama now claims that he did not campaign on the “public option.” He actually campaigned on the “single payer” system, which is even better than the PO. Saying that he did not campaign for the PO is actually downright dishonest and deceptive.

He kept on the top Bush people on the economy and warfare. He presided over the largest bail out of (give away to) the super rich in history. He speaks nice words, but his actions as commander in chief are those of a right-wing warmonger. He has not ended the wars, and he has not closed down all the secret jails. He did not stand up to the drug companies, the health insurance companies, the military, or the right wing. He has not achieved any meaningful reform of Wall Street and financial re-regulation.

It is now clear that Obama is a spineless coward who is perfectly happy to compromise his values and beliefs. He is a chicken; afraid of getting his hands dirty or any fight.

By the George Bush standard of intelligence and sounding articulate when reading from a teleprompter Barack Obama scores very well.

By the GB standards of candidness and honesty to the American people he scores just a little bit better than Bush.

Certainly the ambulance chaser, cheating lawyer from North Carolina would not have been better. Nor John Kerry, or the Governor of New Mexico Bill Richardson.

Does the American form of democracy weed out all the honest men long before they ever work their way up to important positions of power? The pervasive corruption of campaign finance appears to be well on its way to destroying democracy in America.

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Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Monday, December 21, 2009

Surprise Parties

I recently was invited to a surprise birthday party for one of my relatives. Surprise is the operative word here.

A Surprise Party has a lot in common with Punking someone. Maybe the person is tired, or in a bad mood, or has been out all day hiking and smells horrible. Rather than being able to properly prepare himself emotionally and otherwise for a party in his honor, it is just thrust upon him like an unexpected slap in the face. This is inconsiderate, bad mannered, and rude behavior.

Surprise parties share certain similarities with negative or put down humor.

I didn't say any of this to the host; I simply declined to participate. I didn't wish to be a participant in this sort of thing. My lack of attendance seems to have caused a wee bit of resentment.

Do I look like I'm overly concerned?

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Deceptive News Media

I'm not interested in reading the news from the perspective of the Klan or the neo nazis. Nor am I interested in the opinion of fools who belong to the Hummer Owner's Association. These and many other groupings of racists, right wingers, or just plain old clueless people do not have anything worthwhile to teach me. At the very minimum they are a waste of my time. So I do not click on news which is published by them.

I now put Fox News in this same category. I do not like their world view, and I find their reporting to be biased. So I do not click on news which is published by them.

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Sunday, December 20, 2009

Immigration Reform

I am heavily inclined towards a humanitarian approach to immigration and naturalization.

Immigration is good for America, assuming that the immigrants are the best educated and most highly motivated members of their society. Allowing uneducated fruit pickers to become American citizens simply because they haven't committed any serious crimes recently is not necessarily as good for America. But we still should try to treat these foreigners decently.

Whoever they are, whatever social class they come from, a demonstrated proficiency in speaking and reading/writing in the English language must be an absolute requirement to gaining permanent resident status or American citizenship. A country cannot continue to function properly unless all the members of the society can communicate well with each other.

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Saturday, December 19, 2009

Bobbie Fuller

Robert Gaston Fuller grew up in El Paso, Texas. He is probably most famous for his song I Fought The Law and The Law Won.

There was a teen club on Pershing St. in El Paso where I got to see him and his band play in the early 1960s.

In 1964 he and his band The Bobbie Fuller Four moved to southern California. Two years later he was found dead. He was 23 years old at the time of his death (he was six years older than me). The death was considered very suspicious since he had been badly beaten. Many people still think he was murdered.

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LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Fuller


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Copenhagen

The results were extremely poor, much like I was afraid. The developing countries actually thought this conference was about an enormous transfer of wealth from the developed countries to the largely corrupt/poor countries. But it really was about making substantial and difficult changes worldwide to greatly reduce the burning of fossil fuels.

America, the world's second largest polluter, agreed to lower its total emissions, just a bit. China, the largest polluter in the world, agreed to lower the rate of growth of it's emissions. In other words the air pollution coming out of China will continue to grow, just not quite as rapidly as it would have. But the Chinese wouldn't even consider any form of verification, so its all just words. Blah, blah, blah.

America can't even protect New Orleans or rebuild it after the big flood. Is it going to help by giving billions of dollars of cash to corrupt, poor countries supposedly to build sea walls, etc? All it will do is enrich the corrupt political leaders in these developing countries.

Don't just talk about humanity doing things to reduce global warming. Put your money where your mouth is. I drive a Prius, and my house has a white roof and triple pane windows.
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So was anything accomplished at COP15? At least we are well beyond the ignorant George Bush's denial of global warming. This is very welcomed.

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Friday, December 18, 2009

Mercenaries

I get tired of hearing ignorant right wingers tell us how wonderful all our troops are. I am a veteran with an honorable discharge and a couple of medals.

When you agree to join a military to fight and kill, and you do so primarily because of the money offered to you, this fits the definition of a mercenary. OK, these people have few skills and virtually no opportunity for financial success in America. That doesn't affect anything. Most did not join the military out of a sense of patriotism, rather it was from financial desperation.

Most of the people who over the years have joined the French Foreign Legion were misfits, escaped criminals, psychopaths, alcoholics and drug addicts, or other people who did not have opportunities in normal civilized society. So they became mercenaries.

It is time to begin telling the service people of the United States of America that they are expected to behave in a civilized fashion and live by the rules laid out in the U.S. Constitution.

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Obama Has Sold Out

While campaigning for his current job he said he was in favor of a single payer health care system with universal access. He is so morally weak (read such a coward) and so afraid of a fight that he has almost completely caved in to the arguments of the drug companies, the massive health insurance corporations, the right wing fanatics, and the Republicans.

The senate bill does not assure universal access and it does not implement a single payer system or a vigorous public option.

Obama has not ended the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan or closed all the secret jails. In fact he has become a complete tool of the military industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned us about.

He totally missed the opportunity to reform Wall Street. He sold out to them too.

President Obama is almost as bad as George Bush...a total sell out. This is not hyperbole. Honest. Obama is not at all what he seemed to be, any more than Tiger Woods is. What a terrible shame.

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Thursday, December 17, 2009

Windows 7

At the moment I have three computers. All are PCs. One of them has the Microsoft XP operating system, the one I am typing this on runs on Vista, and my newest machine runs under Windows 7.

My first perception is that Windows 7 is only Vista in slightly different clothing. There is one major problem with Win 7 however. Two of my most favorite programs run fine under XP and Vista but not under Win 7. One is a Nikon program which manipulates pictures and the other is a very nice World Atlas sold under the Microsoft brand.

The machine running under XP boots up faster than either the Vista or Seven machines. At this point my favorite operating system remains Windows XP.

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Racial Stereotypes

Tiger Woods has single handedly done more to harm the cause of black people (at least black men) than the most ignorant, fervent, racist, and morbidly obese drug addicted radio talk show host in existence. Tiger should be made a life member of the Klan because he sure has helped their cause. Tiger has reinforced the stereotypes of black men being obsessed with sex - especially when it comes to black guys screwing good looking white chicks.

Tiger’s wife apparently rightfully has decided that this alley cat behavior of his will not ever change, so she is planning to divorce him. She is no gold digger, she is just a lady who has been treated incredibly poorly by her arrogant philandering husband.

Tiger is wealthy and has many options open to him. The one where he is ever perceived by the public again as Mr. Clean, or a good guy, or an honest and ethical man is not one of the options.

He could become completely celibate and devote the rest of his life to some worthwhile cause like dealing with poverty. Sort of an ex-whore Mother Teresa type of life. Or he can continue with his downward spiral and his constant sluttish behavior. Or he could just go ahead and commit suicide.

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Beyond The Tipping Point

The health care reform legislation has been so emasculated and perverted in the Senate that it is now a health insurance company's dream. This in no way resembles Universal Health Care. Without a public option or at least a social security buy in this legislation really is worse than the crappy health care system that America already has.

This is not some kind of game or negotiating strategy. This legislation should be defeated. Really.

I worked in his primary and general election campaigns. I am an Obama supporter. But I can only conclude that if President Obama was half as honest and sincere as he pretends to be, he would be absolutely outraged. And unless it is substantially improved in conference committee he would be forced to veto this legislation.

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Hundreds Protest Global Warming

I have visited Copenhagen several times. It is a delightful city. A friend who is living in Europe sent me a picture this morning:

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Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Pompous & Arrogant

I was just watching an old episode of Star Trek Generations. Captain Jean Luc Picard is describing his brother and says, “So pompous and arrogant. Always had to have the last word. He mellowed a little bit in the last few years.”

Remind you of anyone you know?
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Monday, December 14, 2009

Getting Old and Beginning To Lose It?

I received a nice email from an old friend today. This note came from a guy who for years was frequently in and out of rehab for alcohol and/or drug abuse. As far as I know this guy has never done anything that didn't either earn him outrageous profits or at least a one night stand with some other guy's wife. Even so he is a close friend and I like him lots.

In the twenty years I knew him well he scoffed at tree huggers, liberals, and other similar do-gooders. I usually felt that these categories were intended to include myself. Either he is trying to appeal to chicks who like sensitive, politically aware guys; or he is getting old and is beginning to lose it a little.


His quote comes from Albert Schweitzer:

Anyone who proposes to do good must not expect people to roll stones out of his way, but must accept his lot calmly if they even roll a few more upon it.

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Sunday, December 13, 2009

Angels and Demons



Dan Brown's book Angels and Demons came out in 2000. It preceded his book The Da Vinci Code which came out in 2003. I read the book Angels and Demons not long after it was published, so I guess it was about 9 years ago. I think I bought my copy in one of the bookstores in the Amsterdam airport. Then several years later I listened to the book again on Audio DVD while I was driving around Europe.

The movie of Angels and Demons just came out in May 2009 and the DVD was issued about two weeks ago. I finished watching it last night. I had the strangest sense of déjà vu while I was watching this movie. I kept feeling like I had seen the movie previously. At one point I actually paused the DVD and checked on the internet to verify that it had just been released. I guess it is because the movie does such a good job of putting the book to film.

Most of the action in this book takes place in Rome, Italy and in the Vatican. Perhaps the reason this all felt so comfortable is because I have spent some time in Rome and also at the Vatican. The Vatican museums are among the world's very best, and visiting the Sistine chapel is certainly among the top experiences one can have.

When I was living in Europe I drove down to Rome in my Prius. I spent several days there visiting all the amazing old stuff. Rome is like Paris or London. You would need to visit it many times in order to just hit the highlights.

I give this DVD my very highest praise. It is fantastic.

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Hiking Without a GPS


The global positioning system is run by the U.S. government. It consists of 24 to 32 low orbit satellites. Each satellite broadcasts a signal slightly less powerful than a 60 watt light bulb. These satellites are about 12,000 miles away, so it takes a very sensitive receiver to reliably pick up these signals. At any one time there are usually 8 to 10 satellites which have line of sight to one’s position on earth. When a GPS receiver picks up the signals from at least 3 or 4 satellites it is able to compute it’s location and elevation above sea level.

The GPS system was originally developed and tested in 1970s at Holloman Air Force Base and White Sands Missile Range near El Paso, Texas exclusively for the military. In the 1980s it was also made available for use by civilians. Each GPS satellite weighs about 2,000 pounds (one metric ton) and is about 17 feet (5 meters) long with the solar panels extended. The individual satellites have a life span of about ten years.

I bought my first GPS almost twenty years ago. At the time they were relatively expensive and large. They had fairly poor accuracy, and were battery hogs. That has all changed.

GPSs now have become cheap, very small, much more efficient in their power consumption, and really quite accurate. They are used in a wide variety of applications: Military, automobile navigation, dog collars, cell phone locators, emergency services, astronomy, recreation, aviation, and boating.

As of late 2009 I own twelve GPSs. One is in my Nokia 5800 cell phone, my Nikon digital camera has one, and I have two USB GPSs - one for Microsoft maps and another which works with the Garmin mapping software. My iOptron Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope motor drive has a GPS as does my handheld Meade star finder. I have owned several wrist watch GPSs over the years, and now I have a Garmin Forerunner which really does work - very accurate positioning and more than adequate battery life. I have a Garmin Quest II on my Honda motor scooter, another Quest II with topographical maps for backcountry exploring, and one as a backup. In the car I have a Garmin 7200 which is wonderful - very large screen and accurate, and I have another 7200 as a backup.

Recently an experienced hiker from El Paso, Texas by the name of Robert Summerall went for a day hike in the Gila Wilderness. The Gila was the first official wilderness in America and is still one of the largest at more than 3 million acres (1.3 million hectares). He knew this area well and had done the hike many times before. A big snow storm came up, and he got lost. Almost a week later he was found 10 miles away almost dead. He is still recovering in the hospital, and his loyal Labrador Retriever named Zulu who kept him from freezing to death at night is still lost.

Hiking without a GPS has become socially irresponsible. Not only will it help you get back to your car if you were to get disoriented, if you get injured and do manage to reach the authorities by cell or satellite phone it will allow you to tell them your exact location.

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Friday, December 11, 2009

Tiger Woods

The news media this afternoon is saying that Tiger Woods has decided to take an indefinite leave from golf to try and save his marriage.

Tiger is a confused young man. The problem is not his pursuing a career, the problem is that he has been behaving like a French Whore. He doesn't need to quit playing golf, he needs to quit sleeping around.

The problem is one of arrogance. Tiger knew he could have anything or anyone he wanted. He did not have an adequate moral compass to guide him in this situation. His behavior was like an alley cat.

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Movie Theaters Suck

The DVDs Terminator Salvation and Angels and Demons arrived yesterday. This afternoon I’ve been watching Angels and Demons. I got an email from Amazon that the latest Harry Potter movie has been released on DVD and has been shipped, so it will arrive any day now.

The most recent time I went to a movie in a theater I was in Dublin. Before that I was in London. It has now been almost three years since I have moved back to America, and I haven’t stepped inside of a movie theater once.

I have a difficult time seeing why anyone would want to pay an outrageous ticket price to go into a theater to watch a movie. Movie theaters are where the person behind you lightly kicks the back of your chair throughout the movie, babies cry, people cough and sniffle all around you, and rude jerks talk and text on their cell phones. It looks like a pretty good imitation of masochism to me.

Of course I guess for many people this is the only option. But if you have a nice large screen TV with a Dolby 5.1 DVD, watching the movie in the comfort of your own home is a vastly superior experience. Plus if you need to pee you just press the pause button. If you want subtitles you press another button.

Yes, sometimes you have to wait several months before the DVD comes out…that is OK. It is well worth the wait.

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The Decline of Western Civilization

Goodness, that is one pessimistic title for a blog article. But I am convinced that is exactly what we are now witnessing.

Just drive a little way on the motorway-autoway-autobahn-expressway-freeway in almost any western country and you will be shocked at the pervasive rudeness of most drivers. Discourtesy and insolence have now become the norm in most of America, and the same is true in much of the wanna-be world.

This is not just the story of the decline and fall of the USA. A majority of the people around the world aspire to what America already has. Most seem to be perfectly happy to sacrifice their ethics and deeply held cultural values in their pursuit of wealth and materialistic goods.

This selfish and narcissistic behavior is the norm one-on-one, and it is the standard behavior for national governments as well. The chances that enough of the rich and poor countries will get together and make the incredibly difficult sacrifices which are going to be required to retard and reverse global warming are very close to zero.

There is increasing anti-intellectual behavior. The religious fundamentalists and suicide bombers are slowly gaining the upper hand.

Yes, I don’t think there is really much question about it. We are now watching the early stages of the decline of western civilization.

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Alcohol and Drugs


The BBC posted a good article today on the negative consequences of heavy drinking. Alcoholism is a real problem in lots of countries.

This chart seems to indicate that in the USA we don’t have such a big problem. But we still have our fair share of lives and families destroyed by drinking.

In America we also have millions of people who are addicted to doctor prescribed drugs. Pain killers and a variety of mood altering drugs have all taken their vicious toll.

I feel so blessed. No, lets be honest, I feel vastly superior, even condescending to these addicts. I haven’t done any alcohol or drugs, even nicotine, for seven years now. It is better this way.

Sorry but those weak, sick bastards who let addictive substances control their lives are way beneath my contempt.

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Thursday, December 10, 2009

Carbon Dioxide



Since the beginning of the industrial revolution mankind has made his work easier by burning things made of carbon. Things like coal, wood, oil, and gasoline. The chemical process is the oxygen in the air oxidizing with the carbon in the item burned. The end result is heat and carbon dioxide.

Steam, diesel, and gasoline engines have reduced our workload. At the same time we have gotten fat, and our life expectancies are now actually decreasing. We burned enough stuff that the level of carbon dioxide in the air and the ocean has increased significantly.

China is responsible for the greatest amount of this pollution - but there are a lot of Chinese people. America, Australia, Canada, and Saudi Arabia lead the pack as the most wasteful countries on earth, i.e. the highest per capita consumption.
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The poor countries (including China) are trying to turn Copenhagen into a massive transfer of wealth from rich to poor. This may be desirable, but by focusing on this they have ruined any possibility of success.

I forecast that individual selfishness and greed will win out over any sort of successful global effort to significantly deal with the problem.
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We foresaw this back in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Steadily increasing world population, massive air, water, and soil pollution. Everyone knew the day was coming. Well, its here now, and our leaders are not about to make the appropriate response. Their greedy little self centered games, and the continued denial will just continue to increase.

These two charts are courtesy of the eminent German magazine Der Spiegel.

It’s a true shame, honest. But I feel 100% certain that Copenhagen is going to end up being just a massive waste of time.

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Just Wars

President Obama is in Oslo, Norway receiving the Nobel peace prize. In his acceptance speech he spoke about justified wars, i.e. Afghanistan/Pakistan.

I like Barack. He is a thousand percent better than that cretin George Bush. But Obama is turning out to be a master of disguises.

In his latest support of the Bush foreign policy in Afghanistan he increased the American troop level to 100,000 people. He understood that this would be seen as the act of a war monger, so he stressed that the drawdown of troops would begin in just 18 months. Now less than one month later there is virtual denial of any exit strategy or some kind of commitment to bringing the troops home and genuinely ending the war. There is almost universal talk of the war going on another eight years. Said nicely Obama’s speech about bringing the troops home was only spin. Said more honestly, this was insulting dishonesty on the part of Obama.

In the arena of foreign policy it is hard to see any great difference between the policies of the Bush administration and the Obama administration. The same thing can be said about economics. In many ways the Obama administration is continuing the same pro-business, anti-worker, deregulatory, and pro-Wall Street philosophy that the Republicans pursued. He has rooted out virtually all of the liberal economists and now the president only listens to right wing advisers.

On issues like poverty, taxation of the wealthy, energy conservation, and universal health care Barack’s behavior towards liberal issues has been lukewarm at best. He has shown very little strength of character, genuine enthusiasm or passion.

Barack Obama is eloquent. He is a master speaker. But it is becoming clear that he is also a deeply dishonest man. As a senator and during the presidential campaign he pretended to be a liberal. It is now becoming clear that his actual policies (rather than his words) are just one little baby step away from what the Republicans believe in.

Actions speak much louder than words Mr. Obama. You have turned out to be a true disappointment Barack.

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Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Evil Republicans

In today's news there are reports that the right-wingers have exempted car dealers from the new consumer protection legislation, and that once again they are pulling out all the stops in their latest effort to kill the public option in health care.

These sick, ignorant right-wing bastards ought to be sent back to Afghanistan to live with their buddies the Taliban.

The political system in America is slowly grinding to a halt thanks to the ever present corruption. Democracy where only the super wealthy have a meaningful voice in the legislative process is not democracy. Remember the phrase “By the people, for the people?” Unless true campaign finance reform is achieved, the USA is certainly doomed.

And I am not the slightest bit optimistic about this subject.

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Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Throwing Tomatoes

There is a long tradition in America of throwing pies and ripe tomatoes at politicians. Now tomatoes have been thrown at the cretin of Alaska, their loser former governor and ex-beauty queen.

I wonder if it is against the law to advocate tomato throwing? Just in case, I certainly am not advocating it. Even against these sicko right wing lunatics.

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Airplane Crashes

I happened upon an interesting website today entitled Celebrity Crashes. Here are a few of the people listed: http://www.check-six.com/lib/Famous_Missing/Celebrity_Plane_Crashes.htm



October 25, 2002: U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone (58) of the Democratic party, along with his wife Sheila, (58), daughter Marcia and five others in a snowy northern Minnesota plane crash that injected uncertainty into congressional elections only 11 days away. They had been on their way to a funeral for the father of a state lawmaker from the town of Virginia at the time of the accident, and had been scheduled to continue on for a debate in Duluth later in the day.

The NTSB concluded the likely cause of the crash was, "the flight crew's failure to maintain adequate airspeed, which led to an aerodynamic stall from which they did not recover."



October 16, 2000: Missouri governor and Senate candidate Mel Carnahan (66) was killed along with his son Roger (44) and the governor's campaign adviser Chris Sifford when the Cessna 335 they were in crashed. The three had been en route to a rally for Carnahan's U.S. Senate campaign when the plane went down about 25 miles south of St. Louis in a hilly, wooded area.
The NTSB concluded the likely cause of the crash was, "the pilot's failure to control the airplane while maneuvering because of spatial disorientation. Contributing to the accident were the failure of the airplane's primary attitude indicator and the adverse weather conditions, including turbulence."



16, 1999: John F. Kennedy Jr. (38), his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy (35), and her elder sister Lauren Bessette (37) were killed when their Piper Saratoga II HP crashed into the ocean off Martha's Vineyard. Their crash may have been caused by John's inexperience in flying with only instruments in a twilight haze over the ocean. They had been on their way to a family wedding.




October 12, 1997: Singer John Denver (53) died when his experimental single-engine Rutan Long EZ plane crashed near Monterey, California. At first, rescuers could not identify the body because the face was damaged beyond recognition, but authorities were later able to identify Denver by his fingerprints. Denver was famous for writing and performing “Leaving on a Jet Plane,” “Country Roads,” and other songs.

The crash occurred when Denver inadvertently pressed down on the plane's right rudder pedal while trying to switch fuel tanks by reaching for the fuel selector switch behind him. The plane had been modified to place the fuel selector switch behind the pilot rather than between his legs.



March 16, 1991: Seven band members of singer Reba McEntire, and her manager died in the crash of their Hawker Siddeley DH.125-1A/522 near San Diego, Calif. A rushed flight schedule, combined with improper flight planning resulting in a controlled impact into mountainous terrain, killing all ten aboard. This mishap was the imprimis for her following album, For My Broken Heart.

Members of the band aboard the plane were: Chris Austin, Kirk Cappello, Joey Cigainero, Paula Kaye Evans, Terry Jackson, Michael Thomas, and Tony Saputo.



December 31, 1985: Rock & roll singer Rick Nelson (45), five members of his Stone Canyon band, and his fiancée were killed when a fire broke out on board a DC-3 taking them to a New Year's Eve performance in Dallas, Texas. Two people survived the crash landing near DeKalb, Texas. The fire was caused by a malfunctioning heater.

Nelson was first known as the son of Ozzie and Harriet in their TV show of the late 1950s. He later became famous as the singer of such hits as “Travelin' Man” and “Garden Party.”



August 2, 1979: Baseball player Thurman Munson (32) died when his twin-engine Cessna Citation jet fell 1000 feet short of the runway while practicing touch-and-go landings at the Akron-Canton airfield and tragically burst into flames. Two others were injured. Munson, the catcher for the New York Yankees, was a seven-time All-Star, the 1976 MVP, and the 1970 rookie of the year




June 28, 1979: Philippe Cousteau (35), son of Jacques Cousteau, was killed when his Catalina PBY-6A airplane crashed as he was landing. His plane had just been repaired when he took it out for a flight. As he landed, one of the plane's propellers sheared off, cut through the cockpit, and killed Cousteau.




October 20, 1977: The Lynyrd Skynyrd plane crash. Killed lead singer and song writer Ronnie VanZant, guitarist Steve Gaines, vocalist Cassie Gaines, assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick. Also killed were pilot Walter McCreary and co-pilot William Gray.

According to the NTSB report, the pilots miscalculated the amount of fuel provided in Lakeland, Florida on October 18, 1977. When they refueled in Greenville, South Carolina on the 20th, they compounded this error by believing they had more fuel than they really did. The airplane was also experiencing some mechanical difficulties which required the pilots to operate the right engine in the "auto-rich" position which burned fuel at an excessive rate. The combination of these problems resulted in nearly complete fuel exhaustion.



September 20, 1973: Rock singer Jim Croce (30), members of his company (accompanist Maurice Muehleisen, manager Dennis Rast, and comedian George Stevens), and the pilot died when their chartered Beechcraft E18S crashed while taking off from the Natchitoches, Louisiana airport. The plane hit a tree when it failed to gain enough altitude on takeoff. Croce was famous for his rock hit, “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown.”




December 31, 1972: Baseball great Roberto Clemente (38) and three others were killed when their overloaded Douglas DC-7CF plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off San Juan, Puerto Rico, on its way to providing relief supplies to the victims of a Nicaraguan earthquake.



October 16, 1972: Hale Boggs, the House Majority Leader, along with Alaska congressman Nick Begich, and two others disappeared in their Cessna 310 flying through the Chugach Mountain range in southeast Alaska.



August 31, 1969: Rocky Marciano (45), the former heavyweight champion boxer, and two others died in the crash of a Cessna 172H airplane near Newton, Iowa. It had been a dark and stormy night. He was one day short of celebrating his 46th birthday.




December 10, 1967: Rock 'n roll singer Otis Redding (26) and four members of his Bar-Kays band were killed when their Beechcraft H18 plane crashed in icy Lake Monoma near Madison, Wisconsin, on a foggy night. Redding is best known for his hit, “Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay,” which was released after his death. Redding had recorded the song just three days earlier.




March 5, 1963: Patsy Cline (30), Cowboy Copas, Hawkshaw Hawkins, and Cline's manager were killed when their Piper PA-24 Comanche plane crashed near Camden, Tennessee, in adverse weather conditions. Cline was famous for her country hit, “Crazy.” Copas and Hawkins were Grand Ole Opry stars.



February 3, 1959: The Day The Music Died. Rock Hall of Famers Buddy Holly (22), the Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson) (29), and Ritchie Valens (18) as well as the pilot Roger Peterson died when their Beechcraft Bonanza plane crashed just outside Clear Lake, Iowa, during a stormy winter night. Holly was famous for many hits including “Peggy Sue.” The Big Bopper had one big hit, “Chantilly Lace,” and Valens was best known for his hit, “La Bamba.”



July 2, 1937: Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, disappeared aboard her Lockheed 10E "Electra" on one of the final legs of her 'around-the-world' flight. While flying to Howland Island in the south Pacific, the aircraft became lost, and believed to be lost at sea, despite the largest search in naval history.




August 15, 1935: On a flight to the Orient, humorist Will Rogers (56) and aviator Wiley Post (37) died when their Lockheed Orion-Explorer plane crashed near Point Barrow, Alaska, after taking off in bad weather.



Also of note: At least 18 U.S. senators and members of Congress have died in plane crashes. Among them were Senator John Heinz, R-Pa., and former Senator John Tower, R-Texas, who died in unrelated plane accidents within a day of each other in April 1991.

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Sunday, December 06, 2009

Racial Prejudice in America

What a shame. We get our first Black president. He is the U.S. Senator with the very most liberal voting record of any of them.

Almost immediately President Obama starts following Bush policies in both economics and foreign policy. On many important social issues he is completely passive. Liberals are almost totally excluded from his inner group of advisors. What part of landslide does Barack not get?

Now it is revealed that Tiger Woods has had extramarital affairs with at least six different women. Mr. Clean.

Oh no. It seemed like things were really improving for a little while…

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Xenophobia

A dislike of foreigners and racial intolerance is quite common among us humans. The Germans don’t like the Turks, the Dutch don’t like the Germans, the Americans don’t like the Mexicans, Mexicans with light skin don't like Mexicans with dark skin, and ignorant people with white skin in Georgia and Mississippi don’t like the people who have darker colored skin even if they have a vastly superior education compared to the white red necks.

A well rounded liberal education and plenty of foreign travel helps dispel this hatred of foreigners and these ignorant stereotypes. Living and working abroad is even better.

If I think about the thousands of people I have know over the years, the top ten list of decent, honest people includes very few white skinned Americans. Most of the people who I really liked and trusted were foreigners or people with darker skin. I’m thinking about many of these people now, but there is no real value to naming names.

When the postman or the UPS guys comes to the front door, most domestic dogs will start barking vigorously, and some will go totally ballistic with a desire to injure and kill. My little black furry friend wags his tail when the door bell rings because he understands that almost always when someone comes to our front door they mean us well and are bearing gifts. And many times he gets to run out front without a leash on and make friends with them. One time he even jumped right up into the UPS guy’s truck.

If a person of mixed race brutally killed a white girl in Louisiana or Mississippi the trial would proceed fairly rapidly, and the “darkie” would probably be found guilty and eventually put to death. This happens in America pretty often even when there are no witnesses and fairly marginal forensic evidence.

When a white American girl and her Italian boyfriend brutally kill a foreigner of mixed race while living in Italy, the trial takes nine months. Some things are admissible as evidence which would not be in the American courts. At the end of the process the American girl who is found guilty automatically gets an appeal under the Italian system of jurisprudence. There is no death penalty in Italy. The Italian courts are overseen by the European court of human rights.

Getting up on one's high horse over this issue is a clear cut case of misdirected moral outrage. One only has a limited quantity of moral outage, and it should be used wisely.

Of my sixty years total (call it 40 years as an adult), almost twenty years (call it half) were spent living abroad. First in Germany and then in the Netherlands. I have travelled widely to other countries. My experience is that there are many different ways to skin a cat. Things work somewhat differently in foreign countries, but often achieve the same result - or sometimes even better results. A great many things actually are far better abroad. The police are better educated and trained in Holland than in the USA. No one goes bankrupt or loses their house because they come down with cancer. In France one’s education is paid for by the government. All the way through a university education.

The “American Way” is that young people are forced deeply into debt if they choose to go to college, and the “American Way” is that you soon lose your job if you get really sick. Without a job one’s marriage frequently fails. You soon lose your health insurance and access to modern medical care, and before you die you are forced into bankruptcy and may even lose your house. If one feels like being morally outraged then one should think about the million dollar bonsuses paid to the Wall Street traders at the companies which were bailed out by the tax payers; or maybe the murders and extortion taking place in Juarez, Mexico.

Save your moral outrage for those times and issues where it may actually do some good.

I am amazed at how much intolerance and ignorance this conviction in Italy is bringing out in my fellow Americans. We usually hide our hatred of foreigners better than this. This redirection of moral outrage is being used by the right wing to take peoples' eyes off the ball. There are really imortant issues happening right now like health care reform, financial regulatory reform, and unpaid-for-wars which are leading the country towards bankruptcy. It is sad to see people wasting their moral outrage on this issue.

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Friday, December 04, 2009

The Cat Who Walks Through Walls


Wikipedia says it best: The Cat Who Walks Through Walls is regarded by many to be the Heinlein novel for Heinlein fans.

I just finished this book which was written in 1985. I give it the maximum 5 star rating. The plot of this great novel explores being true to your own personal values and individuality. If you are a Heinlein fan, you will surely enjoy this one.

LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cat_Who_Walks_Through_Walls


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Thursday, December 03, 2009

Margaret Cho


Margaret Cho is a heavily tattooed, mildly overweight female Korean-American comedian who describes herself as a Queer.

If you are a devout Christian or you are offended by homosexuality or you consider words like pussy and dick to be crude, you certainly won’t enjoy this DVD.

But if you are a bit open minded, you will discover that watching this DVD you fall down and grab at your stomach because you are laughing so hard.

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Star Trek Movie 2009

Space. The final frontier. To boldly go where no man has gone before. This movie is about the young James Tiberius Kirk; from his childhood to being the commander of the starship Enterprise.

(NOTE: Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus, born Tiberius Claudius Nero, was the second Roman emperor. He was one of Rome’s greatest generals. His reign as emperor was from September 18, 14 AD - March 16, 37 AD.)

Although I don’t own a Star Trek uniform or any other Trekkie memorabilia I suppose it would be accurate to describe me as one. I have been a fan of Star Trek going back to the late 1960s. The guy who originated it, Gene Roddenberry, was born in my home town of El Paso, Texas. He grew up in Los Angeles though, so I guess the El Paso connection is pretty weak.

I especially liked Jean Luc Picard. Make it so! I still drink Earl Grey tea because of him.

This latest iteration is advertised as, “Not the Star Trek of your parents.” It would probably be more accurate to change this to grandparents. I just finished watching the movie on DVD. It really was quite good. Not perfect, and not quite up to the standards established by Patrick Stewart in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation and the feature films Star Trek Generations, Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: Insurrection, and Star Trek Nemesis or the pilot episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

But still really enjoyable to watch and well worth your time.




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Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Actions Speak Louder Than Words

President Barack Obama has now officially become a war monger. After sending in these new troops America will have as many soldiers in Afghanistan as Russia did at it’s peak.

He says that he will probably maybe START bringing these troops home 18 months in the future. But he also said that he would close all secret jails (he has not), and that he would close down Guantanamo. I see this as very little more than empty words. I hate to say it, but more accurately I would call it dishonest and deceptive empty words.

The President believes that guns, drone missiles, and killing people will help solve the problem. But he is seriously underplaying how corrupt and incompetent Karsai and his government are.

Obama and his team do not have the strength of character to admit that we have to figure out how to pay for this ever growing and now completely insane “Defense Department.” The President tried to explain the importance of all this killing, saying that the people who committed the atrocity on 911 were from Afghanistan. In fact they mostly were living in Germany and were from lots of different places including Saudi Arabia.

Either the military has totally bamboozled Obama, or seriously threatened him and his family, or has received the big payoff. There is no way I accept that Barack is in fact this incredibly stupid and immoral.

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Evil Rude Dog Catcher

This is a true story.

Paint a mental picture of this. Large public park, not one person in the park, about 4 or 5 inches of fresh snow on the ground. I let my doggie off the leash to enjoy running around and playing in the snow. He is in heaven.

Arrogant, rude dog catcher is stalking the park. She suddenly appears. I put my dog back on the leash and walk over to her. When I get right to her she yells at me in a very abusive voice, “Why are you walking your dog off the leash? He could bite someone!!!!!!”

I direct her to look around the park and point out to her that there are no children, no disabled elderly ladies, in fact no one at all in the park. She yells at me again telling me that she doesn’t have to look around if she doesn’t want to. I tell her that it appears far more likely she will bite someone than that my dog will bite someone. I look her right in the eye and tell her that she is a rude minimum wage clerk who is wearing a shiny badge and is on one major power trip.

She checks my dog’s rabies tag, which is of course up to date. She harshly demands my ID so that she can call me in to see if I am a bad guy with lots of warrants outstanding. After waiting for 10 minutes in the cold wind she is disappointed to find out that I am not a criminal.

So she issues me three citations: Dog off the leash, performing the forgoing heinous crime in a public park, dog taking an enormous dump.

I admit that he was off the leash, but with plastic bag in hand I ask her to show me the evidence that he did actually have a bowel movement. This causes her to yell abusive remarks at me again. Naturally she refuses to show me the dog crap. I look all around but can’t find any feces, either old and cold, or nice and new and warm.

I ask her if she knows how much the fine is for letting your dog shit in the park. She claims ignorance. In fact she is indeed a rather ignorant person, but she knows very well how much the fine is going to be.

In parting I wish her “Good luck in your dog killing.”

Twenty minutes later I am at the police station paying the ticket. Various other hardened criminals like myself are waiting in line to pay. Total fine is $305-. I pay the ticket with hundred dollar bills.

Rude, poorly paid government employees like this who are permitted to exercise their insulting power trips are part of what makes the right wingers say that government is the problem.

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Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Getting Old Is So Nice


This morning there is a little snow on the ground. So before I took the dog out for our morning walk, I put on a warm goose down parka and a pair of wool long johns (long underwear). I realized that these long johns were Army issue. They were issued to me in late 1971 - roughly 37 years ago, after I got my degree and had to go into the Army. And they are still really in very good shape. Honest. A few small moth holes, but nothing substantial. And the sweater I put on I remember buying quite well at a Dutch sporting goods store in Brunssum, Holland about 15 years ago. It was really cold that day.

I’m so glad I’m not young any more. Really.

All the torturing self doubt one has to go through. Finding a mate and getting married/raising children. Doing well in your education and your career. Along the way it seems like there are so many people who want to kick you in the ass - your wife, your boss, your parents, your colleagues, and sometimes even your own kids.

Yes, I am very satisfied with the life I have led, and I am so truly thankful that I am through with all the above games. Now I only have to please myself and my little pudgy doggie, Oso Negro.

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Monday, November 30, 2009

Poverty In America

I see in today's news that 25% of the children in America now receive government assistance – food stamps. These families are suffering so badly that the kids don't have enough to eat.

Just to set the record straight: We have enough money in America to bail out the Wall Street crooks, and we have have sufficient resources to fight wars without asking the taxpayers to chip in and help pay for the warfare, but our people don't have enough money to feed themselves. Many people don't have health insurance, are behind on their mortgage payments, and yet President Obama is talking about sending more soldiers into war overseas?



http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/us/29foodstamps.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&hp

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Friday, November 27, 2009

Obama's Big Sellout

The latest issue of Rolling Stone magazine arrived today. It has an official date of December 10, 2009. It contains a very good and in-depth article entitled “Obama’s Big Sellout.”

The article argues that “the president has packed his economic team with Wall Street insiders intent on turning the bailout into an all-out giveaway.” It says that “the Rubin-centric appointments may well represent the most sweeping influence by a single Wall Street insider in history” and further argues that “while Obama gave Rubin’s acolytes all the important jobs, progressives got banished to semi-meaningless, even comical roles.”

I worked to get Barack Obama elected, both the primary and general elections. Even at worst he certainly is better than any of his opponents, both Republican and Democrat. But my support is beginning to wear thin.

Obama has no balls. He has not ended the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and he has not brought the troops home. Guantanamo has not been closed. Even if the so called health care reform eventually gets passed, it is clearly not anything close to universal health care. Nor will it stop the vast chicanery going on inside of the health insurance companies.

Maybe he is completely ignorant of economics. He at least should have all sides of the argument at the table. But he doesn’t. Only the right wing capitalists are there. Wall Street and the super rich should love Obama. But he hasn’t done much for the middle class in America.

All in all I give him a pretty poor report card so far. I guess he gets a few points for style, and he is indeed far superior to Cheney-Bush. But by his behavior and results he is behaving more and more like a Republican in Democrat’s clothing.

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Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Terabyte Hard Drive

When I first began using personal computers your programs and data were stored on cassette tapes. Then 5-1/4” floppy discs. I had 16k of RAM, and when my brother upgraded to 64k of RAM I was horribly envious.

I remember getting a tour of the regional air traffic control center here in El Paso, Texas. The tour guide proudly pointed out their Winchester hard drive. It sat of the floor and looked like a tall end table. It had a capacity of 256k. Yes, 256 thousand!

My brother Michael Dwight Garland got his degree in electric engineering. He was an honor graduate of UT El Paso, and he worked as a computer programmer for Texas Instruments in Dallas before becoming an owner of a high tech start up firm in the DFW area.

When my brother told me that one of his friends had a hard drive with a capacity of 1 gigabyte I seriously thought it might be possible that Mike was lying to me. One gigabyte is 1,000,000,000 bytes or 1,000 megabytes.

Today for just over $100- I bought a 1-1/2 terabyte external hard drive. A terabyte is 1,000,000,000,000 bytes or 1,000 gigabytes. Even though I do a lot of digital photography, I don’t really need a hard drive quite that big…I sort of bought it in honor of my brother.

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Desecration Of The Dead

El Paso, Texas has 700,000 people, and if our sister city of Juarez is included we have well over two million inhabitants. In a metropolitan area this large there are many cemeteries including a national military cemetery. Almost without exception the dead buried in these cemeteries are provided with all appropriate respect and decorum.

There is one notable exception: Concordia Cemetery. By American standards it is fairly old. Many graves there date to the mid-1800s. On their web site the group which is trying to preserve the cemetery says:

“Buried here are over 60,000 people including gunfighter John Wesley Hardin, Buffalo Soldiers, Texas Rangers, Civil War Veterans, early Mormon pioneers, Florida (Lady Flo) Wolf, Lawman John Selman and was formerly the first burial site for Mexican Revolution President Victoriano Huerta and numerous other civic leaders, pioneers, and war veterans.”

The Concordia Heritage Association has recently been fostering a carnival atmosphere at the cemetery. Dressing up as 1800’s prostitutes and murderers (gun fighters) they stage simulated gun fights. As a fund raising project they have formed a close alliance with a rather peculiar group of paranormal ghost hunters. Together they have been exploiting the dead by encouraging late night tours, where people are encouraged to believe that they see ghosts, and where paranormal phenomena are treated as reasonable and normal.

These activities taking place at Concordia Cemetery are disrespectful of the dead. This is a genuine sacrilege. Their irreverence by dressing up for the TV camera as whores and murderers demonstrates clear-cut disrespect for the dead. Allowing the paranormal phreaks to use this sacred burial site in order to promote their strange and offensive ideas is a mockery of the civilized way that western civilization has treated its dead for thousands of years.

My grandmother is buried in the Evergreen Cemetery which lies about 400 yards south of Concordia. If some group of people were trying to defile the cemetery she is buried in with the same carnival atmosphere that is happening at Concordia I would be at the front of the angry crowd demonstrating against this sacrilegious despoliation.

The Concordia Heritage group means well. But they have lost their way. Fund raising and continued growth of the group has overcome all sense of respect for the dead.

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The War in Afghanistan

America has now been at war in Afghanistan for eight years. Before us the Russians fought and lost a bloody war there.

Our country is spending in excess of $40 billion each year on warfare. President Obama is falling under the hypnotic spell of the military that destroyed Lyndon Johnson and resulted in the death of many thousands of people.

If Barack Obama were half as smart as we thought he was, he would make the decision to not send any additional troops to Afghanistan. He would then set a timeline/deadline for the withdrawal of all U.S. troops.

The fight against governmental corruption in Afghanistan needs to be taken seriously. The people of that country need real help; the kind that civilians and non governmental aid organizations can provide.

The military is good at waging wars and killing. They are not the correct group of people to be advising the President on this foreign policy issue. They don’t have the skills needed to help the people of Afghanistan either.

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Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Learning To See Through Photography

Dorothea Lange is credited with saying that learning to be a good photographer also teaches one “how to see without a camera.” Ansel Adams and many of the other masters have said something similar.

In the end the subject matter and the composition is far more important than the technical details about pixels, sensor size, the lens, ISO, exposure, and aperture.

What I find especially powerful about Dorothea Lange is that she understood how much more interesting a photograph is when it also contains a person with great strength of character.

According to Wikipedia “Lange's best-known picture is titled "Migrant Mother". The woman in the photo is Florence Owens Thompson.

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In 1960, Lange spoke about her experience taking the photograph:
I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet. I do not remember how I explained my presence or my camera to her, but I do remember she asked me no questions. I made five exposures, working closer and closer from the same direction. I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, that she was thirty-two. She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, and birds that the children killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food. There she sat in that lean-to tent with her children huddled around her, and seemed to know that my pictures might help her, and so she helped me. There was a sort of equality about it.

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According to Thompson's son, Lange got some details of this story wrong, but the impact of the picture was based on the image showing the strength and need of migrant workers.”


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Thanksgiving Turkey


This year I have been hearing increasing amounts of “chatter” regarding cruelty to the birds we eat in order to give thanks for our good fortune.
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I have never been a vegetarian, and I am convinced that our species is omnivorous. Complete, total avoidance of all animal products can easily result in serious nutritional deficiencies and long term health problems. But so can obesity and eating lots of meat and cheese.
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I think it is time to shine the light of honesty on factory farming of animals. The way they are treated; their diet of antibiotics and growth hormones.
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This is a link to a rabble rousing pamphlet about the evils of factory farming and animal cruelty. It is short and well worth reading:

--------------------------- http://tinyurl.com/yda5z58

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Sunday, November 22, 2009

Green to Blue

Green to Blue from Elizabeth on Vimeo.


Stop Global Warming.
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Camera Straps

Until recently I believed that the Op/Tech camera strap was the best one to use with a heavy SLR type camera. In fact I still have one on my Nikon D300, and I still do really like it. But I have recently become aware of a strap which I like even more.
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The R-Strap by Black Rapid is a wonderful product. It allows you to carry and use a heavy SLR camera without all the problems associated with a neck strap. It is what I am now using on my Nikon D300s which has a dual battery and a GPS.


R-Strap - How To from Matteo Bava on Vimeo.



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There Has Been An Event

It is now 11:40 p.m. on Saturday 21 November 2009. I am 60 years old; almost 61. In about six weeks I’ll be 61…if I make it.

In the last ten days I have had three different events, always at night, which seem to be getting more intense. Each time I was sound asleep then awakened to a sensation of absolute crushing weight upon my chest. Then comes the sweats. Within an hour I have to urgently have one or more bowel movements. My left arm isn't especially painful, but the entire top part of my torso is.

Each time, the way to survive the event has been to get up and go take an aspirin. Tonight I did so, then an hour later I took another one. I lay in bed very quietly and try to breathe deeply - In then Out. Over and over again. It seems to help. Maybe just a little.

Tonight I got to thinking about talking with my father about two hours before he died (at age 62). He said to me, “I almost died last night.” At the time and over the years since then I have wondered, how did he know? Well the chest pain is so intense that it is clear this is something well out of the ordinary. Tonight at one point I even began thinking, “If this gets much worse I just won’t be able to take it.” The thought of putting the barrel of my .44 magnum in my mouth and pulling the trigger kept coming to mind.

I even prayed. I prayed to God. I told him what a hypocrite I felt like, that I thought Christianity and prayer was a total bunch of crap, etc. But I did it anyway. Heavenly Father, blah, blah, etc. I tried to think of some/many of the worst things I have ever done, and ask God for his forgiveness.

Are these events precursor heart attacks? Maybe. Probably.

If I had health insurance would I be in the hospital tonight? Almost certainly. And no doubt the cardiologist would find a major blockage to the blood flow to my heart muscle, and within a day or so I would be in surgery getting a multiple bypass.

But this is America where we do things The American Way. You work your ass off for many years, forfeit your family life, etc. to help the company you are working for to prosper.

Over the years the marriages seemed to come and go, but I kept getting promoted and working my way up the career ladder. I suppose this is because I was loyal, worked such long hours, and gave so much of myself to the company.

You end up being one of the very top managers, in fact my last job title was General Manager, and you find that you are at least partially responsible for the company having made many, many millions of dollars of profit. Then one day the greedy owners of the company decide to bail out; they sell the company and sell you out too. You find yourself suddenly old and unwanted. Out of work. And because you have lost your job you lose your health insurance too. So you die, even though modern medicine could have provided you with several more years of good life.

But the American Way is: No job, no health insurance. No insurance; too bad old man. Screw you, just die; and quit all that nauseating complaining too.


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NOTE: It is now the next morning - I made it through the night. This was the first time that this sort of thing has occurred more than once during one night; and in fact I survived three fairly intense bouts of it last night. Each one lasted about 1 to 1-1/2 hours.

Last night at one point I was surfing the internet, learning about heart attacks. It seems that the plaque which gets deposited on the inner walls of your blood vessels is largely made up of lipids (oils and fats) and a type of white blood cells called macrophages.

I quit smoking 8 years ago, 7-1/2 years ago gave up all alcohol, and then 7 years ago I was diagnosed with a cancer affecting the white blood cells which is called chronic lymphocytic leukemia. I just checked my old blood tests. Although my level of total defective white blood cells was indeed quite high, and 7 years later my lymph nodes are now incredibly swollen, the macrophages weren’t at all high when I had to stop getting blood tests. So I guess that maybe lipids are playing a bigger part in the problem. In a way that is good news, because it is possible to lower one’s intake of foods containing lipids, thus it might be possible to take some corrective action.

But I think I can read the tea leaves pretty well here. I don’t want to be pessimistic about this, especially since this is such an important matter, but it seems pretty clear that we are nearing the end of this little one act play. Well, it has sure been a good ride! No complaints. I would like to thank everyone who was involved along the way in helping this life of mine turn out so surprisingly wide-ranging and wonderful.
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November 24, 2009
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It just happened again. This time it was not at night but just before noon. I chewed an aspirin and breathed deeply for 30 minutes. Big time sweats. Great bowel movement. Thank goodness I survived it again.


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It is November 27 now. I've made it through two more "events." The longer I am off all cheese and lipids, it seems to be getting a little bit better. But it is still pretty bad.

At least I am getting good at the routine of chewing up an aspirin tablet. Then soon the sweats come and the inexorable bowel movement(s).

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Saturday, November 21, 2009

Good Evening New York

At age 67 Paul McCartney has still got it.

I saw him and Linda McCartney perform in 1972 in Germany right after the Beatles broke up. They were with Wings and were plalying in a small club. I must have been standing about 10 or 15 feet away from them.


Good Evening New York City

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Standing Side-by-Side with Al Gore

In today’s news from the Netherlands I read that:


* Central America wants billions for climate damages

Seven Central American countries are going to demand $100 billion from industrialised nations in compensation for damage caused by global warming.

Belize, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama will raise the issue next month at the Copenhagen climate summit. Guatemala's Environment Minister Luis Ferrate says Central America is facing food shortages due to drought and flooding, whose scope is unprecedented.


This is really just the very beginning. I have been involved with various tree hugging causes for more than 40 years. I drove a second generation Prius when I was living in Europe, and now that I have moved to the high desert of America I am driving a third generation Prius. My house has a white roof, and all the light bulbs are compact fluorescents. I’ve even been central to one genuine success in the environmental movement - the Guadalupe Mountains National Park Wilderness area.

But these poor countries are taking the wrong approach by demanding compensation from the more polluting countries. First off, long before these guys get up on their high horses and begin preaching to the big polluters these little tin pot banana republics need to stop cutting down their own rain forests, put an end to corruption, impose genuine environmental restrictions on their mining industry, and stop eating bush meat.

America, China, India, and the other big polluters are mostly just talking a good game, if that. There may even be many people in power in these countries who are sincere and concerned about the impending global environmental problems. But when it comes right down to it they aren’t about to reduce their carbon footprints significantly, if at all. They certainly aren’t going to accept restrictions imposed by anyone outside their countries. No way Jose’.

And as much as I wish it were otherwise, I don’t think the polluters will be willing to force their people to consume less energy if that also means their people having to undergo any meaningful reduction in the standard of living. Mankind has been successful by being competitive, and very often warlike and blatantly brutal. This aggression has now suddenly become a detriment to the future survival of our species.

I will stand shoulder to shoulder with Al Gore as we go down, but in my heart I know this is a lost cause.
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Friday, November 20, 2009

Computer Virus Protection

I was writing computer programs in the late 1960s, and by the 1970s I had my first personal computer.

The internet has become very useful (some would say essential) within the last 5 or 10 years. The internet has exposed a real dark side of humanity. Why are there so many hackers, and so many people trying to cause random pain and destruction to people who have done noting to harm them? Not to mention all the crooks and scam artists who are constantly trying to get their hands on your money or steal your identity.

Over the years I have had experience with several different software packages which attempt to protect one’s computer from these depredations. I currently have Norton installed on one of my machines and McCafee on another. For a few years I used Norman. As far as I can tell they each do a good job of stopping viruses from infecting your computer.

Both of my current suppliers of virus protection charge around $50- per year to provide “protection.” And both are engaged in a practice which I consider highly questionable ethically. Once you buy into their “protection” you are automatically renewed each year. You are not easily allowed to opt-out of this automatic renewal by either of these large providers. I am sure that there are lots of dead computers laying in the trash heap or stored away in the back of people’s closets that have up to date virus protection which is automatically being charged to their credit cards each year.

Visualize a small business owner in New York City who has to pay the mafia for “protection.” This is a racket.

On the PC which uses McCafee I have shut off their child protection feature. I am an adult, I do not have children, and I have no desire to allow someone to censor my web surfing. This is the kind of stuff they do in China. But because I have shut off the child protection feature, McCafee puts a very prominent red X on the screen and continues to warn me that I am not adequately protected. This is like condoms. I no longer carry a rubber in my wallet. I have reached that age where I no longer have sex with other people. Since I do not own a condom some would say that I am not properly protected, but to them I would say Hogwash.

The government authorities should provide citizens with protection from criminals and bad guys automatically. That is their job. Thanks to years of deregulation and the constantly reiterated lie that government is the problem, not the solution, the authorities do not have the resources to provide this type of “protection” so they now just shut their eyes to it.
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Thursday, November 19, 2009

Supporting The Troops

I periodically get e-mails from my comfortable middle aged colleagues. They sit in the their nice suburban homes and drive their big SUVs back and forth to work or the store. On the back of the SUV there is a self adhesive ribbon which claims to indicate their support for our brave troops.

There are several ways to really show support for our troops, but self adhesive stickers are not one of them.

Political action is foremost:

1. Do everything you can to get the government to quickly end these senseless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

2. Support an immediate 25% reduction in the defense department's budget. Then another 25% next year.

3. Support a tax increase to pay for the wars; especially among taxpayers with an annual income over $200,000-. We have been paying for all this warlike behavior by borrowing money from the Arabs and the Chinese.

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Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Universal Health Care

There have been many compromises made to get the House bill passed. No doubt it will be watered down even further by the Senate.
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"The health insurance companies are going to make an extra 70 billion dollars as a result of Americans being forced to buy their health insurance. What company wouldn't love this bill?" – Michael Moore in Toronto Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
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Even if the House bill were to pass undiluted 13,000,000 Americans would still be excluded from the health care system. Only in America does one have to choose between death due to lack of medical care and bankruptcy/losing your house. I still support President Obama. He is a far better alternative than the lunatic right wingers. But he is too afraid of a fight over this or any other issue. I guess it has to do with him having being raised as a white man with black skin.
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Mr. Obama: You need to just veto this legislation. It has gotten so far off track that it is worse than nothing.
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Leonids

The meteor shower which appears to come out of the constellation Leo is called the Leonids. It is a prolific meteor shower which is associated with the comet Tempel-Tuttle.

It is now 3:30 a.m., and the dog and I have been outside in the back yard for the last 20 minutes. Since it is in the 30s F I wore an arctic parka, some ski gloves, and a watch cap that I bought one very cold morning in northern England. I brought a folding chair out there so I could sit and watch.

Even though I did not see any shooting stars it was really pleasant being out there. My little black doggie has a very thick coat, so he thrives in this cooler weather. He loved it.
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LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonids
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Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Constructive Debate

"Last week the Environment and Public Works committee, under the able leadership of Senator Barbara Boxer, passed the most comprehensive piece of climate legislation in a generation. The vote was 11-1. Not a single Republican on the committee showed up.

This is a serious issue that requires our full attention. Republican Senators have decided that the better tactic is to ignore and stall and delay. After not showing up for the vote, they now complain about not being part of the process.

There is room for bipartisanship on this issue, as Senator Lindsay Graham has demonstrated. It is my hope that other Republicans begin to take their cues from him."
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The above is from Al Gore's blog. Former vice president Gore is much more diplomatic than I am. I say these Republicans are unpatriotic and this is absolute proof. They should all be thrown out of office. Corrupt bastards!
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LINK: http://blog.algore.com/2009/11/a_constructive_debate.html
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