Redheaded Wisdom

OPEN MIC night, week, month ...

2010-06-13T19:30:00.015-06:00

Can you guess what this image is?
My computer finally died last night.

Many of you know, because I've been bitching about it since last year, that my dying computer really reduced my blogging. But it just kept chuggling so I kept putting up with it. What finally killed it was a citywide power outage. A transformer at the local substation caught on fire and that was all she wrote. Even though our house is surge-protected out the ass and nothing else was affected, my old computer decided it was good time to go "pining for the fjords".

note: in last night's little drama, *I* would be the michael palin character, hoping that the computer was somehow still viable, while the husband would be john cleese, showing me over and over that we are dealing with an ex-computer ... at one point, he actually opened up the dead tower and yelled into it, helloooooo!

Whatever! It was not a pretty death. But I have accepted that it is time to move on.

Of course nothing this important ever happens at a good time. Houseguests arriving tomorrow so no time to go computer shopping for awhile. It'll take research and a crash course on what is currently available before any purchase decision is made. Not to mention paying a professional nerd to transfer everything from my old computer ... including finding those 5,000 photos that disappeared a few months ago.

Could be weeks or even a month before I am fully back in action.

In the meantime I'll have some limited access to the husband's new laptop, but that's gonna get old fast. He doesn't like me "clogging up" his pristine set up. Yes, it's about time I publicly confessed ... I am a desk pig ... oink oink!

I decided to post this to let you know what's going on, maybe get some feedback on what computer features I should be considering, or just give you a place to vent about any topic you want.

So, here's your OPEN MIC. Go on, say whatever you want, tell me what's on your mind! I'll be checking in often and should be able to comment if blogger recognizes me.

Have you guessed what the top image is? Here's another view:

Additional clue: his species nickname has been chantingly appropriated and abused by the tea party crowd.
But he's really quite handsome, don't 'cha think?
Maybe Mr. Drill should sue Sarah P for wrongly associating his nickname with her personal agenda?
Well that's all that's on my mind for now. What's on yours?

THE LADY AND THE TIGER and why Sue Lowden's brain cells could be mistaken for chicken manure

2010-04-22T15:18:00.026-06:00

THE LADY AND THE TIGER ... A true story from the DK memory bank.

It happened about 50-yrs ago, so that puts it within the time frame of Sue Lowden’s rustic era of chicken-bartering for healthcare. [note many insightful local LV comments in that link]

It happened in Nevada where Sue Lowden is currently trying to trade in her go-go dancing boots for Harry Reid’s Senate seat.

The story starts late one night in the parking lot of a bar outside Las Vegas. It involves a young woman and a couple of her young man friends. The fact that these three young people had probably already had a few drinks should be mentioned but not held against them. They were of (barely) legal age and not legally drunk.

From the crowded dusty parking lot of this small dive somewhere near the old Boulder Highway, the three young people could hear the bar’s loud thumping juke box music and were anticipating ordering a few beers, maybe dancing and/or playing some billiards before calling it a night.

Walking through the parked cars toward the bar, the young woman spotted movement in the back part of a station wagon. It was hard to see very clearly in the unlit parking lot but it looked like a large animal. Just like the rest of her family, the young woman was an animal lover. Not in the Rick Santorum sense or even in the Animal-Rights-Activist sense. She had grown up with a menagerie of animals (horses, cows, pigs, peacocks, chickens, parakeets, hamsters, dogs, cats and even a monkey) which had instilled in her a respect for and intense curiosity about animals. Think Ellie May Clampett.

So it was not out of character for the young woman to stop and peer into the dark station wagon where she could barely make out some kind of animal restlessly pacing around. She would later say she wanted to verify that the animal was OK, that it had water and some cracked windows for air. She was also very curious about what the animal was.

The guys tried to push her along toward the bar’s entrance. They could almost taste the beer already. They teased her, “oh it’s only some big old sheepdog, pacing around, c’mon hurry up, or we’ll go in without you, plenty of other women in there want to dance.”

But the young woman had already determined this was no sheepdog.

It was big and hairy, like a sheepdog, but she was now close enough to hear it growling, and that growl wasn’t anything like a dog would make. What could it be?

She stopped at the rear of the station wagon and saw the back window was indeed cracked about 6-inches for air. The animal was growling louder now but the woman was still not able to see what it was, so she moved closer to the cracked open back window. Did I mention she had probably already consumed a few drinks?

In the back of the station wagon was a pacing tiger. He was tame enough to be considered someone’s pet. Fifty-years ago owning this type of pet was not exactly outlawed, especially in Nevada, home of freedom-loving americans. But the tiger had been left alone in the station wagon too long tonight. The owner was so busy drinking and dancing that he forgot his tiger might be getting restless.

All night, the tiger had seen human cars with their bright headlights pulling off the Boulder Highway into the parking lot. The cars were loud and made sounds much like he did when he purred. The car sounds would then merge with crunching gravel sounds as the cars found parking places, then abruptly cease, to be replaced by loud car doors slamming and people moving around out there in the dark. The dark didn’t matter to the tiger for his eyes were like night-vision goggles.

He could see details and hear sounds and smell odors that no human could detect. He had heard people laughing, people arguing, he had seen some pushing and shoving each other, not always in a friendly way. Earlier a man had walked very close by his station wagon. The man had stopped and urinated, an act the tiger thought of as marking his territory. All this human action had upset the tiger. He could not get the human urine stench out of his nostrils. Strange men should not be marking territory so near his station wagon. Where was his owner? The tiger paced restlessly.

Now a young woman had appeared near his station wagon. The tiger paced and growled, but the woman did not understand his territorial warning. She had come so close to his open back window that she seemed to be trying to get INSIDE his territory. He could see her long light blond hair (so light blond it was almost white) and smell her human perfume mixed with beer breath. He could hear that her man friends had walked beyond the station wagon and wondered if they were trying to surround him.

The tiger now heard the woman’s voice, a high light happy voice, nothing like his human owner’s voice which is the only voice the tiger thought should be allowed into the station wagon territory.

In fact the woman had just told her companions, “Wait up a second, I want to see what this big guy is and make sure he’s OK in there”. Then she lowered her face to peer into the back window opening.

That was when the tiger struck.

He could not get his head through the 6-inch opening. The window was only cracked that much for fresh air. But he could definitely reach out a paw and take a swipe, which is what he did. His paw was powerful and his claws were intact, though not quite as sharp as they would be if the owner did not file them regularly.

If the woman’s head had not been so close to the window, the tiger’s paw would merely have swiped at air, and this story would not be germane to Sue Lowden’s hair-brained chicken-bartering for healthcare idea. If the tiger could’ve gotten his head and teeth through the opening, this story would not be a healthcare story, but would instead end at the mortuary, for his chain-saw teeth were also intact, albeit filed down.

Where the tiger’s claw connected with the woman’s face it tore a quick gash along her cheek. But the damage did not stop there. The tiger was so outraged at the violation of his territory, and further inflamed by the blood he’d drawn on the woman’s face, that he now thrust out his extended his paw to the point of hurting himself, putting a mighty effort into tearing a deep ragged line down the woman’s neck and upper chest. This was as far as he could reach through the angle of the window opening. It was enough.

The woman screamed and the big cat roared and raged.

Even though her friends were almost inside the loud bar’s entrance now, they could hear her scream mingled with what to them sounded like all hell breaking loose.

They ran back to find her laying on the ground, groaning and bleeding, with a raging tiger roaring inside the station wagon, pawing through the back window. It must have seemed as if the tiger would break the window any minute and kill them all.

Trying to avoid the tiger’s swiping paw themselves, their slightly beer-adled brains directing them to get the woman out of harm’s way and to medical help immediately, the two men did not rush back into the bar to call an ambulance. They picked her up, laid her in the back seat of their car, stuffed an old towel onto her bleeding face and chest, so much blood it soaked the towel red immediately. They drove to the emergency room of Sunrise Hospital, the closest and only hospital on that side of town, a 5-minute wild ride in the late night light traffic.

Of course an ambulance would’ve known which hospital to take her to, but an ambulance would’ve taken more time to get out to Boulder Hwy and many more minutes to transport the bleeding woman … for as it turned out, she had to be transported clear across town, a good 30-minute drive … and this is where a horrific story becomes unnecessarily nightmarish because the system of healthcare that Sue Lowden and others who oppose universal healthcare, the system that was business as usual for the era that Sue Lowden so fondly remembers as bartering for healthcare, did not in fact exist.

Picture now, the three young people arriving in the Emergency Room. The young woman is bleeding profusely from large gashes on her face, neck and chest. She is moaning and in shock. The young men are babbling about a tiger. Yeah, sure ... they all smell too beery... like they were having a little too much fun. The ER staff wheeled the young woman away on a gurney to look her over.

The young men were immediately accosted by hospital personnel:

***Hosp: Does your friend have health insurance?
***Men: No.
***Hosp: Then you will have to pay cash up front.
***Men: How much cash?
***Hosp: $200 to begin treatment.
***Men: we don’t have that much cash on us.
***Hosp: can you call a friend or relative to meet you here in the next few minutes with the cash?
***Men: not likely.
***Hosp: then we will have to transport the young woman by ambulance to the county hospital.

OK, if you don’t remember this era yourself, ask your parents or grandparents. 50-yrs ago $200 was more than most people’s paychecks. It was more than a month’s rent and utilities. People did not walk around with $200 in their pockets. Even a decade later, I remember thinking I was really flush if I had $50 cash on me. These young people did not have $50 cash between all three of them. They were just regular people who went out for a few drinks and ended up being attacked by someone's pet tiger.

So to wind up the story of the Lady and the Tiger: Sunrise Hospital, the closest and only hospital on that side of town, refused to treat the young woman. She did not have insurance or cash and they did not consider her wounds to be life threatening “at the moment”. The most they would do was apply pressure to the bleeding wounds and arrange ambulance transportation to the county hospital, which was on the other side of town, a 30-minute drive.

During the ambulance drive to the county hospital, an EMT discovered that the nasty gash on the young woman’s throat was so near her jugular vein they were afraid that the jostling of the ambulance might cause it to burst!

When she arrived at the county hospital (actually at the time it was not yet a designated county hospital, it was still Southern Nevada Memorial Hospital, but it was the only hospital that did not require proof of health insurance or a cash down payment), she was rushed for emergency treatment.

The E.R. staff there were horrified that Sunrise had not even cleansed or disinfected the wounds. Apparently Sunrise had not taken the tiger story seriously. So now So-Nev-Mem was dealing with infected deep gashes. Tiger's claws apparently harbor many nasty toxins.

After the young woman was stabilized, a kindly doctor consulted with her about stitches. He told her, "You will be scarred, there is no way to avoid it, the gashes are too deep, but if we are lucky your facial gash won’t be quite as bad as the others."

By this time, some of her humble family had arrived at the hospital. They timidly asked the doctor if in his opinion she had received immediate treatment at Sunrise, would he expect less scarring. The doctor, like most doctors, followed an unwritten code about not trashing other doctors. All he would say was he would do everything he could to make the facial scar as small as possible. The humble family did not pursue.

That young woman was my Aunt, my mother's youngest sister. Fifty years later, she still bears visible scars of her tiger experience. Neither she nor her family could afford expensive reconstructive surgery. The scars are tight and painful, even today, and much of the underlying muscle tissue never regained sensation. The ugly gash on her throat serves as a roadmap of exactly where her jugular vein is. But as the kind doctor had hoped, her facial scar is not nearly as noticeable as those on her neck and chest.

The invisible scars are harder to quantify. She was not given immediate medical attention merely because she didn’t have $200 on her person to begin what would be a long and painful recovery. That has to have affected her psyche, made her think she wasn't worthy of medical treatment ... in this land of the free and home of the brave, she should've just accepted it was her lot in life to be slashed by a tiger, sucked it up and prayed that jesus would make her better!?!

Could my Aunt have bartered for immediate healthcare, as Sue Lowden has suggested? Bartered with what? She had nothing. She was bleeding and in shock. What was she supposed to do, offer to blow the damn doctor and scrub the ER floors?

Maybe Ms Lowden formed this idea of bartering for healthcare when she was go-go boot dancing in her mini-skirt on a Bob Hope USO Tour. Certainly many of the soldiers she was entertaining had ideas along that line.

Harry Reid may not match my idea of a fire-brand US Senate Leader, but he has been a good senator for Nevada. He stopped Yucca Mtn from being developed as a national nuclear dump site and he pushed healthcare reform through the Senate.

Sue Lowden isn't qualified to lick old Harry's testicles.

Oh in case you’re wondering, the tiger and his owner were never identified. The station wagon’s owner was not known in the bar, as the young woman’s friends and family found out on their own. The family naively thought the tiger owner was probably not even aware of what had happened and might agree to reimburse the medical bills if he could be found. Naive and humble. Surely when the tiger owner finally stumbled out of the bar, he must have noticed how agitated his tiger was, probably favoring one of its forelegs, maybe he even saw all the blood around the rear of his station wagon. The bar owner theorized that he was probably just driving through, just another man with a "pet" tiger in his car, yeah, so common in Vegas. I don't think the story of this late-night tiger mauling even made the local news. Just another tiger mauling in Vegas, right? cue Siegfried and Roy ... maybe they can send some of their special tiger manure to Ms Lowden ... as a campaign donation ... in barter!

Clyde makes his morning rounds

2010-01-24T12:03:00.026-07:00

A week of rain and overnight snow produces this morning's view of our very own 10,000-ft tall laccolith :
(click pic to enlarge)

The brisk air inspires Clyde to inspect his new yard, beginning with smelling every bush:

Verified whiff of overnight rabbit, OK to proceed to next bush:

Personal fire hydrant! oops, watch out for sharp spikes:

Don't forget to sneak up on plastic bunny outside the courtyard:

Inspection complete, time to head back inside new house where it's warm:

and see if that redhead has any doggie treats for a good old dog:

The Bush Legacy, Papa's and Baby's Fingerprints

2010-01-20T18:29:00.024-07:00

As I recently told Fran-Ramblings, the heartbreak of Haiti has me wondering about the Aristide coups. I vividly recall how outraged Congressional Rep Maxene Waters was when the last one happened in 2004. She was sure it was GWBush who masterminded waking Aristide up in the middle of the night, telling him there was a coup going on & he must be flown out of Haiti immediately. They took him & his family to Africa. His replacement was apparently much more palatable to GWBush.

I've never really read much more about why that whole deal went down. I remember Maxene Waters saying how honorable Aristide was and how he was trying to help the people of Haiti. So, hmmm, now I can't help but wonder if Aristide had remained in power, would he have been able to improve Haiti enough so that recovery from this earthquake would not have been so disastrous?

And yes, when I see GWB's plastered face plastered on TV with Bill Clinton, acting all concerned about Haiti, I get more than little suspicious. Is he just doing more "legacy lying" to cover up what happened with Aristide?

Haiti was once a wealthy nation, the wealthiest in the hemisphere ... "worth more," wrote Voltaire in the 18th century, "than that rocky, cold colony known as New England."

How did it become the helpless country we see today after a major earthquake?

Perhaps some snips of recent Haitian history will reveal some clues ... and whenever recent history is mentioned, one must remember the Bush Family, both Papa and Baby.

Former Haitian President Aristide was removed from power twice, once per each US President named Bush.

Prior to Aristide's presidency, the Duvaliers and the United States government and business community worked together to make Haiti as it was when the earthquake struck last week. American planners ( including the International Republican Institute ) instructed this small, poor country to abandon its self-sustaining agricultural past and develop an export-oriented manufacturing sector utilizing cheap labor to do things like sew the leather around baseballs. What followed was forest and agricultural mismanagement and expanding poverty and slums.

In this 1/20/10 article, Democracy Now! goes beyond the overwhelming earthquake grief and tragedy to discuss some of the Haitian history of Aristide, the Duvaliers, the revolutions, the coups, the privatization of publicly-held industries which were then sold, mostly to weathly US investors. Grasping a bit of Haiti's history helps one to understand why DN! says, "in fact, this earthquake was preceded by a political and economic earthquake with an epicenter 2,000 miles north of here, in Washington, DC, over the past 24-years."
(a paraphrased taste):
After the Duvaliers were driven out, Haiti endured the standard Latin American facade election scenario of putting supposedly democratic leaders in power, leaders the US approved of, but they were purchased elections. Haiti was the first country in Latin America to foil US-engineered facade elections by electing a poor parish priest, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, to the presidency. At the time of his inauguration on February 7, 1991, he declared the second independence of Haiti, because he wanted Haiti to be free of the imperial domination of the US and France. The 1991 coup occured eight months later while Geo HW Bush was US president....

... an event which reeks of US-backed military intervention and CIA support of juntas and death squads, similar to Panama and Nicaragua deals that also involved Geo HW Bush (if I do say so myself -- and I do).

The second Aristide removal occured on Feb 29th 2004 when US special forces soldiers flew into Haiti on an unmarked jet, surrounded the palace with laser sighted rifles and machine guns, snatched him & his family out of his home, and few them to Africa. Aristide was banned from returning to this hemisphere by the reigning superpower (ahem, that would be US).

Below are other links and snips for anyone else interested in exploring this dubious chapter of Haitian history and its connection back to the US and two presidents named Bush.

For an in-depth analysis of America's fingerprints on events surrounding the second Aristide removal in 2004 while GWBush was US President, read this 2006 NYT article:
(snips):
After two centuries of foreign occupiers, dictators, generals, a self-appointed president for life and the overthrow of more than 30 governments, Haitians finally had the chance in 1990 to elect the leader they wanted. The people chose Mr. Aristide, a priest who had been expelled from his Roman Catholic order for his fiery orations of liberation theology.

"He was espousing change in Haiti, fundamental populist change," said Robert Maguire, a Haiti scholar ... "Right away, he was viewed as a threat by very powerful forces ..."

President Aristide promised not only to give voice to the poor in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, but also to raise the minimum wage and force businesses to pay taxes. He rallied supporters with heated attacks on the United States, a tacit supporter of past dictatorships and a major influence in Haitian affairs since the Marines occupied the country from 1915 to 1934.

Greg Palast, who calls Haiti, "The Right Testicle of Hell" in this article, is also wondering how ...
(paraphrased snips):
How did Haiti end up so economically weakened ... with infrastructure from hospitals to water systems busted or non-existent (there are two fire stations in the entire nation!) ... infrastructure so frail that the nation was simply waiting for "nature" to finish it off?

Don't blame Mother Nature for all this death and destruction! That dishonor goes to Papa Doc and Baby Doc, the Duvalier dictatorship, which looted the nation for 28 years. Papa and his Baby put an estimated 80% of world aid into their own pockets -- with the complicity of the US government happy to have the Duvaliers and their voodoo militia, the Tonton Macoutes death squads, as allies in the Cold War.

What Papa and Baby didn't run off with, the IMF finished off through its "austerity" plans. An austerity plan is a form of voodoo orchestrated by economists zombified by an irrational belief that cutting government services will somehow help a nation prosper.

In 1991, five years after the murderous Baby Doc fled, Haitians elected a priest, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who resisted the IMF's austerity. Within months, the military, to the applause of Papa George HW Bush, deposed him.

History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce. The farce was George W. Bush. In 2004, after the priest Aristide was re-elected President, he was kidnapped and removed again, to the applause of Baby Bush.

Finally, for a Haitian Blogger's POV, read the Zen Haitian ...
(paraphrasing her comments):
removing Aristide did not help the majority of Haitians, but it did help corporations and other big money to continue to exploit Haiti's labor, resources and further weakened Haiti's sovereignty. All this while the majority of Haitians were still living in indescribably desperate, grinding poverty and degradation. Food riots, no clean water, most areas having no electricity, no infrastructure, political kidnappings, massacres, assassinations, political detentions, a brutal UN occupation, controversial elections--that all happened after Aristide was removed.The fact that Aristide was elected with about 90% of the vote, whereas Bush Jr had two highly controversial elections, did not stop Bush people from labeling Aristide a power hungry dictator.

So what do you think? It seems to me that America's fingerprints are all over the aftermath of this devastating earthquake. Are we (yet again) looking at another Bush (Papa and Baby) engineered tragedy? Jeez, is there anything these guys touch that doesn't turn into a nightmare?

ps, a weeping Aristide wants to return to Haiti now even if only to give moral support. "As far as we are concerned, we are ready to leave today, tomorrow, at any time to join the people of Haiti, share in their suffering, help rebuild the country, moving from misery to poverty with dignity", said Aristide in Johannesburg, his wife Mildred next to him, eyes downcast, twisting a handkerchief. Why shouldn't this man, a former priest who is still wildly popular with the Haitian poor, be allowed to return and give comfort to his own country? He may have been a flawed leader (even his fans will concede that the man had a problem accounting for money), but the flip side is the incredible CIA disinformation campaign about him being some kind of satanic voodoo killer, a campaign that resulted in many people today not knowing what to believe or what really happened under his presidency. Why can't Haitians be allowed to decide whether to let him back into their country?

Oh dear, moving day is (almost) here!

2010-01-02T00:10:00.014-07:00

I HATE MOVING.

I have been sorting and boxing for the last few weeks and marveling how one house can hold so much stuff. My hands are full of papercuts, my lungs are full of dust, and my spine is being held together with box sealing tape. I am frazzled and cranky and think that bitch, the moving fairy with her magic moving wand, must be spending too much time with the tooth fairy cuz she sure as hell hasn't shown up at my house. At this point, my biggest joy comes as I finish packing another box o' worthless crap and can inhale the fumes of a magic marker for the few brief moments required to label it. BTW, the red magic markers stink so I'm sticking with blue (just like politics).

I hate moving.

Moving Day is still a few days away, but our computer will have its lifeline rudely yanked tomorrow.

I hate moving.

If our last move is any indication, I won't be back online for about a month.

I hate moving.

But I will love settling into our new home!

Hope to be back online and maybe even blogging again soon...

Yes, We Have No Tomatoes (when Sarah is in town)

2009-12-15T19:37:00.021-07:00

DK brings you Palin-in-Utah news:

If you want to buy tomatoes at Costco, you better make sure Sarah Palin is not signing books there that day!

Apparently, ever since a man in Minneapolis lobbed a few tomatoes her way last week, part of the standard preparation for any public Palin appearance includes removal of tomatoes.

A woman shopper in Salt Lake City, pleased to find empty aisles and no waiting at the check-out lines at her Costco, even though the parking lot was full, became displeased when the store manager informed her all tomatoes had been removed from the shelves because Sarah Palin was signing books there today. Well, that explains the full parking lot (Utahns being among Sarah's greatest fans)!

Upon seeing her dismay over not being able to purchase the tomatoes she had expressly braved the winter snow to buy, the Costco manager put everything right for the woman shopper by sending an employee into the warehouse storage area (where the scurrilous tomatoes had been whisked prior to Palin's arrival) to retrieve a bunch which he then gave her for free.

Way to go, Mr. Costco Manager ... Costco has gained another customer for life because not only was the woman shopper able to shop at Costco with no lines (an event never to be repeated in this or any other lifetime), she got free tomatoes without having to endure The Magical Palin Book Signing Tour (since that was obviously taking place in another part of the store). A Win-Win for all!

During this same visit to her most loyal fans in SLC Utah last week, Sarah also managed to disappoint the leaders of the UT Republican Party (who were told she didn't have time for them unless they wanted to come to her Costco Book Signing Event and buy her book which would include a signature and a wink, not necessarily any conversation) and at least one hard-working hairdresser.

The Salt Lake hairdresser was stiffed for payment and tip, and ended up having to pay for parking to boot! She was called at 8AM for an emergency hair repair of Sarah's Signature Coiffe. Even though she had scheduled her 3-yr old child for a dental filling that morning, she dropped everything in her life for Sarah (the tooth-filling appt was delegated to her husband who had to take time off work to do it).

She was instructed to leave her car with valet parking (faster than walking across a large parking lot) and quickly ushered up to Sarah's hotel room. During the elevator trip up, she was told not to talk to Sarah unless Sarah talks first (rush-rush, get that hair repaired, no chit-chat to slow things down).

As soon as the emergency hair repair was completed, Sarah's entourage quickly ran out the door for the Costco Book Signing Event (previously sanitized of all tomatoes). The hairdresser was left to pack up her hair equipment (feeling slightly used and put away wet, no doubt). That's when she realized no one had even mentioned payment or a tip!

When the valet attendant retrieved her car, the hairdresser decided enough was enough and told him since she was with the Palin party, they should take care of the $10 parking fee. That was news to him, the valet said (I bet he'd probably already been stiffed by them). So she forked over $10 plus a tip (hairdressers and waitresses always tip because, unlike Sarah, they know how important tipping is to the service industry).

She has since sent Palin an invoice for her services. So far all she has received is a Palin book and some signed photos. I hope she included her husband's lost wages in her invoice. I wonder if tomatoes might be involved in Sarah's next hair repair. I also wonder if Sarah meant for this to serve as an example of the type of fiscal conservatism she thinks will exorcise the socialism out of america.

If this is how Sarah treats her friends (and she has no better friends than Utahns who ooze their remaining brain cells at the mere thought of meeting The Mighty Moose-Huntress), I'd hate to be that Minneapolis guy who threw the tomatoes!

What was that tomato thrower thinking? Didn't he have any shoes?

Behold, the Mighty Sarah ... hairdressers quake at receiving a call from her and retail stores must remove items that might be lobbed her way at a book signing! Sarah Palin ... bad for us and bad for business!

(personal update in comments) ...

We have met the enemy and he is us!

2009-11-01T11:05:00.009-07:00

New Milky Way Image, a panorama created by Axel Mellinger, of Central Michigan University, melded from from 3,000 individual photographs.

I still think Monty Python's 1983 "Galaxy Song" from their movie, "The Meaning of Life" says it best:

For one of many analyses of how well Eric Idle's song has withstood scientific discoveries of the last few decades, click here.

Overall the song is still correct. We live on a corner of one continent of one planet of one galaxy that contains a hundred billion other stars -- some with orbiting planets, some without. Our galaxy swims in a void that contains at least a hundred billion galaxies more or less like ours. Still think it matters if you wax or shave?

The ending line from the Galaxy Song is: "Pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space cuz there's bugger-all down here on planet earth."

That view seems at odds with optimistic Voyager I, launched in 1977, containing this message: "We step out of our solar system into the universe seeking only peace and friendship, to teach if we are called upon, to be taught if we are fortunate."

Yet a different view is held by author Jared Diamond, in The Third Chimpanzee, the chapter titled "Alone in a Crowded Universe". Mr Diamond writes that astronomers who are searching so diligently for extraterrestrial life "have never thought seriously about the most obvious question: what would happen if we found it, or if it found us .... our own experience on Earth offers useful guidance .... Humans who discover technically less advanced humans regularly respond by shooting them, decimating their populations with new diseases, and destroying or taking over their habitats. Any advanced extraterrestrials who discovered us would surely treat us the same way.

"Astronomers beaming radio signals describing Earth's location and its inhabitants ... is an act rivaling the folly of the last Inca emperor, Atahualpa, who described to his gold-crazy Spanish captors the wealth of his capital and provided them with guides for the journey. If there are any radio civilizations within listening distance of us, then for heaven's sake let's turn off our signals and try to escape detection, or we're doomed."

Fortunately for us, the silence from Outer Space has, so far, been deafening!

We Who Are About to Die Salute You!

2009-10-23T15:24:00.005-06:00

warning: this post contains grave and possibly offensive humor, but as Dada's recent post about Zombieland reminds me (even though he will think I missed his point), if you can't tolerate some morbidity around Halloween and El Dia De Los Muertos, when can you?

I admit, I have a penchant for Gallow's Humor. I suppose it was inevitable for one raised on Twilight Zones ("It's a Cookbook!"), Vincent Price ("The Conqueror Worm"), Lon Chaney ("I simply jitter to go to Java"), or perhaps more appropriately as we enter Swine Flu Season, Edgar Allan Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death".

This type of humor goes way back, for throughout history, the condemned have found ways to deal with their impending death. This post will be confined to only a few examples.

In the 1700-1800's, many criminals in England were punished for even the most minor crimes with death by hanging. As the hangings grew ever more frequent, hanging events became occasions for spirited public displays of Gallow's Humor. The condemned were often treated as a celebrities, complete with adoring cheering crowds throwing rose petals at their feet!

Here are a few of the hanging euphemisms popularized at that time:

To die upon the wooden gallows was "to ride a horse foaled by an acorn".

Being a construction of 3 posts linked by a crossbar, the gallows itself was "the wooden 3-legged mare".

Another reference to gallows wood is "the deadly nevergreen that bears fruit year 'round".

To ascend the gallows was "to go up the ladder to bed".

To hang from it was "to be in deadly suspense".

The hanging itself was referred to as "the short drop", "the long sleep", "dancing with a stranger" or "to dance upon nothing".

And here's another fun fact from hangings of that era: the legs of women who were condemned to hang were bound "for decency", but men's legs were left free to dangle and twitch. Apparently the possible glimpse of a woman's legs in an unseemly pose could not be tolerated by the crowds who gleefully cheered as they watched and listened to snapping necks!

You'll sometimes see this type of humor in american pioneer period museums, such as these signs reproduced from 1851 in our local "Iron Mission" (click images to enlarge).

Shakespeare often used deadly humor, never more effectively (in my opinion) than in Romeo & Juliet, when Mercutio, after being mortally wounded in a sword fight with Tybalt (Prince of Cats) tells Romeo, "call on me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man"!

With so many bad things happening in the world, I think our collective sense of Gallow's Humor has been "stretched" but not yet "snapped" ... it is alive and well at this time of year when the living and the dead seem so close ... if you don't believe me, just go look at your neighbor's gruesome yard displays of Halloween zombies tonight.

I apologize if this post offends you, but I hope I am always able to look death in the eye and laugh.

If you care to share any Gallow's Humor, leave comments. I read them all, even though I've been very bad in responding lately.

And remember, Tuesday is Soylent Green Day!

Sunny D

2009-10-10T21:01:00.029-06:00

You've probably noticed that Vitamin D is making the news lately. It seems that Vit D is even more important than originally thought. Long known as the Sunshine Vitamin, Vit D is necessary in maintaining calcium and magnesium levels for bone health. Recent studies have also linked Vit D deficiency to:

Osteoporosis, Cancer (esp breast, prostate and colon), Heart Disease, High Blood Pressure, Obesity, Diabetes and Insulin-Secretion Function, Autoimmune Diseases, Multiple Sclerosis, Arthritis, Bursitis, Gout, Parkinson's Disease, Depression and SAD, Alzheimer's Disease, Fatigue, Fibromyalgia, Bone-Joint-Muscle Pain-Weakness-Cramps, Psoriasis, Periodontal Disease, Restless Sleep, Poor Mental Concentration, Bladder and Intestinal Problems.

That's a lot of diseases and symptoms!

Why do I bring this up?

Because a few weeks ago, *I* was diagnosed as Vitamin D Deficient ... not just a little deficient either. My Vit D level is "17 ng/ml" which is about half of what is currently considered the lowest normal level.

I wondered how I could be deficient since I live in a very sunny area and have typical redhead pale skin (dark skin and lack of sun are two predictors of Vit D Deficiency). So I researched more about it and found out ...

Vitamin D is more like a hormone in that it is impossible to get enough Vit D from your diet. It must be produced by your body.
Sunlight exposure and Supplements are the only reliable sources for your body to generate Vitamin D.
You do not generate Vit D when sitting behind a glass window or when using Sunscreen.
(your mother was right! sunshine is good for you! go play in the sun!)
Vit D3 supplements are readily available and very cheap. D3 (cholecalciferol) is the active form of Vit D and is the only Vit D supplement you should take without a doctor's approval.

A lot of 5-yr Vit D research projects are nearing completion. From what has already been published, it looks like the current RDA will be raised in Spring 2010. This will affect your multi-vitamins and supplements. The current RDA is 200 - 600 IU/day depending on age. These values are way too low.

Research suggests the RDA should be a minimum of 2,000 IU/day for those who have normal Vit D levels ... depending on age, weight, season, skin color, time spent outdoors and where you live. In the US, if you live north of 37 degrees latitude (draw a line across the US from San Francisco to Norfolk, VA), then your winter sunlight is not sufficient for your body to generate enough Vit D -- YOU MUST SUPPLEMENT!

The maximum maintenance dose is 4,000 IU/day. Higher doses are recommended for those who are Vit D Deficient, but doses over 5,000 IU/day should be under a doctor's supervision who is rechecking your Vit D level every 3-months until it returns to normal (at which point you can lower down to a maintenance dose).

Also, what is currently considered "normal" in a Vit D blood test might be raised next year. Currently, "normal" is 30-80 ng/ml. Research suggests "normal" should be 50-80 ng/ml.

OK, now here it gets more interesting ... the reason you are seeing so many Vit D articles in the news lately (google Vitamin D and you will see a ton, or click here for one by Dr. Frank Lipman that I mined for this post), is because doctors are reporting a current epidemic of Vitamin D Deficiency!

Estimates circling around those 5-yr studies indicate 30% - 100% of Americans are Vit D Deficient. That's right, possibly every man-woman-child in America is Vit D deficient. Many doctors are currently reporting that 80% of the patients recommended for a Vit D blood check are deficient.

Doctors are quick to say that no one is exactly sure WHY this is happening, so they will continue to treat the problem with supplements, which is proper under the circumstances.

But look at the symptoms I listed in the 2nd paragraph. Considering so many people register so many of these symptoms, doesn't it make you wonder if Vit D deficiency is a real National Malaise? yes, I know those symptoms fit many other health profiles, but isn't it interesting that research studies are linking such a wide syndrome to Vit D deficiency?

Well, I think we can figure this out now! Let's start with the obvious:

We have become more indoor-oriented, even on the weekends.
When we do spend time in the sun, we are slathering up in Sunscreen.
Most of us spend at least 8-hrs a day in a workplace that is using standard Fluorescent Lighting (those 4-ft tubes suspended above your head).

Whoa ... if you read that last sentence and know that I have a background in lighting issues, you might guess where I'm going ...

The standard fluorescent lights that your employer is probably using could be dangerous to your health! Some studies suggest they are robbing your body of Vitamin D every workday! You read that right. Think about it. You are working indoors (hence not out in the sun) and you are working under the worst artifical light because standard fluorescent bulbs are cool white or warm white. They are not full spectrum.

The reason your employer uses standard fluorescent light bulbs is cost. Standard 4-ft tubes can run $1-2/ea. Full Spectrum Fluorescent Lights cost $8-10/ea. Yes, they are pricey, but then so is treating the variety of illnesses caused by Vit D Deficiency (not to mention SAD, seasonal affective disorder, that many people suffer through every winter).

I'm not really a fan of fluorescent light in general and it has nothing to do with cost. For me, it is the quality of light and the environmental hazard that fluorescent bulbs pose. They contain mercury. Even CFL's, the little twisty bulbs being promoted as energy savers, contain mercury unless specifically stated otherwise.

And let's face it, most people simply throw dead fluorescents in their normal trash, thus exposing the environment to mercury poisoning. They should be properly disposed of by a recycler or taken to a place (like Home Depot) that offers to properly dispose of them. But who really does that? Most dead fluorescents end up in the local landfill where they release deadly mercury over time.

For health reasons, employers (schools, too! Don't forget our children are spending most of their daylight hours "employed" in classrooms that are using standard fluorescent bulbs) should be encouraged to switch from standard fluorescent lighting to Full Spectrum Fluorescent Light Bulbs and to properly dispose of dead bulbs.

Even incandescent bulbs (cheapest bulbs available) are better for your health than fluorescent lighting. At least, they do not rob your body of Vit D and contain no mercury. (note: LED bulbs might be the solution for many of these problems, but so far they are even more expensive and only provide the equivalent of a 40-watt incandescent, which is not good general lighting)

D.K. Conclusion:

Humans evolved in the tropics where there is plenty of sunshine.
We spent most of our daylight hours outdoors until the Industrial Revolution.
In the last 100-yrs, electric lighting replaced candles and gaslight (light so awful people went to bed early thus maintaining a natural circadian rhythm).
Standard Fluorescent Lighting took over the workplace within the last 50-yrs.
Today, people are living more indoors and using sunscreen when they are outside.
On weekdays, most adults are working under standard fluorescent lights (and most children are in school classrooms sitting under standard fluorescent lights) ...
and now we have an epidemic of Vitamin D deficiency!

For the time being, I am remaining a light bulb dinosaur at home and staying with incandescent light bulbs in those areas I spend I lot of time in (kitchen, computer room, and reading lamps).

I am trying to spend 20-minutes every day in direct sunlight (except on my face where I've had too many actinic keratoses) ... arm and leg exposure is the safest. Yes, the sun can be my friend again!

I have also increased my daily Vit D intake (with two 1,000 IU Vit D3 supplements per day).

We shall see what my levels are when I recheck in December. But I have to say, I'm already feeling better, less achy and tired, and that's after only a couple weeks on supplements!

......................... photo of DK and Clyde getting some free Vitamin D ! (this was a week before I found out I should've been exposing my arms and/or legs for 20-minutes, even if it was freezing cold, because there was still plenty of sunshine, LOL).............................Hope you found this helpful. I would love to hear about anyone else's experience with Vitamin D and/or full spectrum vs standard fluorescent lighting...............................UPDATE: click here for a must-read about the Swine Flu connection to Vit D Deficiency...........since flu season is here, why not add Vitamin D3 to your supplements now? In fact, why not make a minimum of 2,000 IU a permanent addition to your daily supplements?

Click here for more Vitamin D info. (note: the last 2 links are having intermittent trouble handling increased web traffic, so here is another one with the same H1N1 info relating to Vit D Deficiency).

Armatrading

2009-09-17T13:51:00.001-06:00

She's Joan Armatrading and she is timeless.

"Love and Affection" went gold in 1976. Thirty-three years later, it still sends chills down my spine.

Here's her more current "In These Times":

For her 58th birthday last year, Joan ran the New York Marathon. I bow to the superior woman!

She's touring again in 2010 if you find yourself in the U.K. in March-April-May.

We're Number 37!

2009-09-10T18:21:00.002-06:00

Paul Hipp is hereby officially invited to be my first dinner guest when our new home is complete! The Fleur-de-Lis will be flying that day as I just found out a flag pole is included in the new home.

Yup, #37 in health care, but #1 in war, tanks, bombs, planes of death. Bizarro World, USA.

Welcome Back, Hubble!

2009-09-09T11:41:00.001-06:00

Hubble is back, thus saving me from thinking about anything political!

This is the Butterfly Nebula. I see Dave Bowman from Arthur C. Clarke's (and Stanley Kubrick's) 2001: A Space Odyssey! Do you see him? It's like the "star child" is looking at himself in a hubble mirror! officially ...

"The Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), a new camera aboard the Hubble Space Telescope, snapped this image of the planetary nebula, catalogued as NGC 6302, but more popularly called the Butterfly Nebula. NGC 6302 lies within the Milky Way, roughly 3,800 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius. The glowing gas is the star’s outer layers, expelled over about 2,200 years. The “butterfly” stretches for more than 2 light-years, which is about half the distance from the Sun to the nearest star, Alpha Centauri."

... hmmm, not a word about Dave Bowman, The Monolith or the Hal-9000 (who "always enjoyed working with people" even though he occasionally cut off their life support systems or set them adrift in space, thus earning the nickname "Death Panel Hal") ... what, are there no science-fiction fans at NASA?

{check out this NASA link for some phenomenal Hubble images} ...

... meanwhile, if you want to know what I've been up to, see post below ...

Egregious mail coupon brings DK back to the blog!

2009-09-09T00:48:00.001-06:00

I certainly didn't plan it this way, but it's been over 6-weeks since I last blogged. I've missed you all terribly! Many thanks to those who checked up on me and kept me in the blog loop.

It's been a busy time for me, filled with new home construction and trying to stay one step ahead of our builder's schedule. You'd be surprised how quickly a new home can be built in a bad economy. At this point, we are still enjoying walking THROUGH the walls for a few more days before the insulation is installed.

Many times during the past 6-weeks, I've wanted to blog about this or that, but most anything I've wanted to say has already been expressed (much better than I could have) by others. Blue Dogs (bah, a pox on their Houses) ... Health Scare (the townhall people shouting the loudest are the ones who have lost so many brain cells, they will soon be in desperate need of the very health care they so vigorously sought to defeat) ... Health Insurance (35% of my premiums going to line insurance CEO's pockets vs a Public Option that would provide affordable coverage for all seems like a no-brainer to me) ... We the People (an overly dramatic group who did not allow their hungry children to eat their normal socialized school lunch today if their country's President would be speaking at the same time) ... Glenn Beck and other brain-dead fox sociopaths who ooze from every public TV in my state (and who are beloved by birthers, deathers, teabaggers, and racist idiots everywhere) ... yup, certainly no lack of blog material for sure.

So if I didn't blog about any of that, what drove me here tonight?

It was this coupon in our mailbox today (click for full effect):

It came in an envelope full of coupons for various local businesses put out by the mass-mail advertiser, Valpak. Usually filled with $10 discounts from a tire store, or free dessert from a restaurant, or 20% off deals from some furniture store, these mass-mail coupons are used by local businesses trying to bump up their sales.

In the current bad economy, many of these stores are really hurting. As sales drop, they have had to lay off employees and trim costs wherever possible, including employee health care and pension benefits for those they are still able to employ. Sadly, many businesses have simply failed and are now history, leaving their former employees free to attend Town Hall Meetings.

To give customers who are increasingly reluctant to purchase non-necessities an incentive, you can understand the idea of offering a little bonus for patronizing one store over their competitor. Usually these bonuses are tied into whatever the store is selling. Free dessert from a restaurant is a logical tie-in.

But what hare-brained idiot at "Auto Trim Design", a place that apparently caters to those who wish to protect their car's front end with a "clear bra", thought that offering a "Free 9mm Hand Gun with every Clear Bra Purchase" was a good idea?

How desperate does a business have to be to give out guns to those who purchase car bras? I mean, I've heard of "targeting" customers, but this is ridiculous, not to mention dangerous! (that is a link to a good read about where all this gun infatuation leads) ...

As far as I know, those car bras are mostly used by people who can't stand the thought of insects dying and leaving bug guts on their precious multi-coated sports cars. Maybe with a "Free Gun", car owners can just shoot the little winged bastards in midair, thereby negating the need for car bras altogether!

Clearly, "Auto Trim Design" did not think through this promotion very carefully since it may just "trigger" the death of their business!

At The Zoo!

2009-07-24T12:47:00.000-06:00

Inspiration: while contacting my blue-dog congressman about health care, I noticed his website had an invitation for contituents to come visit his D.C. office and his staff will arrange a personalized tour of Washington D.C. and a free memorial U.S. flag! OMG! An invitation to the congressional zoo ... a chance to observe homo politcus in its natural habitat! caution: many links ahead ... cue music ...

Something tells me it's all happening AT THE ZOO. I do believe it; I do believe it's true ...

The monkeys stand for HONESTY

Giraffes are INSINCERE

And the elephants are kindly but they're DUMB.

Orangutans are skeptical of changes in their cages

And the ZOOKEEPER is very fond of rum.

Zebras are REACTIONARIES

Antelopes are MISSIONARIES

Pigeons PLOT IN SECRECY

And hamsters TURN ON frequently ...

WHAT A GAS!

yeah, baby ...

You gotta come and see!

AT THE ZOO ...

AT THE ZOOOOOO ...
Lest you think I'm too flippy today, I'll close with the more somber American Tune, still valid after all these years ...

We the People eat Fruit Salad ...

2009-07-10T01:18:00.000-06:00

Invitation found stuck on my front door regarding a neighborhood rally: "WE THE PEOPLE invite you to join your neighbors for an informational meeting about protecting your rights. Learn about our constitution and government. Don't miss this opportunity to get involved. Fruit salad will be served."

Suspecting this "WE THE PEOPLE" group to be a spawn of the Tea Baggers or Birthers, I had no interest in attending. The Tea Baggers held local rallies here over the 4th of July weekend featuring T-Shirts, bumper stickers and coffee mugs sporting old tired propaganda about Obama not being an american. yessiree. time warp.

But as fate would have it, tonight the D.K. family found themselves walking our dog near the neighborhood park where the "Fruit Salad" being served by WE THE PEOPLE was already in progress. We witnessed a small gathering of people rapturously listening to a lively speaker. As we drew closer, our ears began picking up isolated words like, "Hitler" and "Propaganda Machine".

Taking our time walking the dog around the perimeter of the gathering, we were able to hear more than we cared to about how Obama is worse than Hitler, about how socialism and communism are taking over america, about how it is now up to the people to revolt and take back their government. Hoping to hear HOW they intend to this, something that eluded democrats during Bush's 8-year reign of constitutional assault, we hung around long enough to understand that their insidious plans include, gasp, the compilation of an email list in order to alert fellow like-minded people of further Hitlerian activities as they occur!

Jeez, we thought, is that the weapon they intend to fight Hitler with, an email list? Needless to say we did not eat any fruit salad, which in any case had attracted more flies than people to the rally. The lack of people who showed up did not go unnoticed by the speaker who taunted, "your neighbors are AFRAID to show up because they are anti-christian." REALLY? In the most religious state in america, my neighborhood is full of christian-haters? Good to know!

I think what we witnessed is an example of the mental break-down of right-wingers who just cannot stand it anymore. It's happening in every state to those who follow the ravings of Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity, et al. I feel kind of sorry for them because they are apparently experiencing the same feelings of powerlessness that many of us felt for eight long bush-years ... not sorry enough to suppress my inner glee, but as long as they stick to verbal or email rallies, they are not violating any laws, assuming they are not promoting violence.

I didn't always feel so tolerant, but after viewing the HBO documentary, "Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech", I feel pretty good about resisting my urge to shout at my fruit salad eating neighbors ... where was their constitutional concern when Bush was suspending Habeus Corpus, extending Illegal Wiretaps, invading a Foreign Country based on a pack of lies, setting himself up as a Wartime President with unprecedented powers, using fear to enact The Patriot Act, implementing free speech zones and loyalty oaths, etc/etc/etc????

{Link to 1-minute Promo YouTube for "Shouting Fire"} ... produced by Rory Kennedy and Liz Garbus. The whole documentary is definitely worth seeing, especially the conclusion about how our first amendment rights will continue to be adversely affected for at least the next 30-years by Bush's "young" Supreme court appointments. And yes, that is Prof Ward Churchill saying 'kiss my ass' in the promo (click his name to read the "manifesto" that got him fired from Univ Colorado Boulder).

Final D.K. thought of the day: avoid the fruit salad at any neighborhood rally, especially if Hitler is being discussed! Luckily we had already eaten our dinner, which included the salad pictured, and so were able to leave the rally with our brains still intact.

Singing Dolphin Dreams

2009-07-06T01:18:00.000-06:00

George Clooney sang to me last night. His voice was not pleasant. In fact, it was so high-pitched, it hurt my ears, like dolphin chatter. Maybe that's why I couldn't get the song he sang out of my mind all day today.

Of course, I am speaking of a dream I had in which George Clooney appeared ... not in the way that a woman might wish him to appear in her dreams, but as a singer ... a very pushy singer who made sure his song sung in a dolphin-voice would not be forgotten.

Since I can't get the words of the song out of my head, I will post it. I think that's what Dolphin-Clooney was trying to tell me to do by singing it so obnoxiously. Hey, who am I to argue with either Dolphin-Clooney or my unconscious mind?

Here are the words, straight from my George Clooney dream to your eyes (blogger not responsible for bad prose imparted in dreams):

"Quiet as a blinking eyelash
Watching waiting for our time
Thirty years is now completed
Time for roaring like a lion.

"Rising like a Grand Tsunami
Riding on a Sea of Green
Thirsty for a taste of freedom
Trust us after thirty years.

"People soft and people harder
Call to heaven, hear their plea:
Cast the tyrants out of power
Trust us after thirty years."

Now, I don't often bother to analyze my dreams, but this one is obviously about Iran. Thirty years refers back to the original Islamic Revolution in 1979. The rest is easy to figure out.

There was one very odd occurance that happened yesterday evening that might have prodded my subconscious brain in this dream's direction. It happened when the D.K. family took our dog for his evening walk. Even though we waited until 9 PM, temps were still in the 90's. In one direction we could see and hear a big fireworks display. Lots of red, white and blue bombs bursting in air! In the other direction there was not much visible in the dark except for the vague outline of a 10,000-ft tall mountain about 20-miles away.

As we were walking toward the mountain, a green light appeared, floating above the barely visible mountain profile. I've never seen anything like it. It reminded me of an occulting green lighthouse light, except the ocean is about 1,000-miles away. It stayed lit, a pure green pulsating light, for about half an hour, then it disappeared.

And the whole time we were walking towards the green light, all I could think of was the Sea of Green that has become the symbol of the Iranian Protests.

The dolphin singing voice remains unexplained as does George Clooney himself (I have NEVER dreamed of him before)!

ps, the light was not borealis like this photo, but it was this color of bright green against a dark sky, which created a similar eerie effect. My mountain light was more pinpointed, more like a lighthouse light. It was not an antennae tower, which in any case, flash RED lights, not green...very odd.

July 4th, Fake and Real ...

2009-07-03T19:00:00.000-06:00

Click here for the full page NYT news you WISH was true. The whole thing is a spoof, brought to you by The Yes Men.

July 4, 2009 NYT Edition: "All the News We Hope to Print" ...

Iraq War Ends (troops to return immediately)!

Maximum Wage Law Passed (limiting top salaries to 15 times the minimum wage)!

USA Patriot Act Repealed (a shame-faced congress confesses they only just realized they had the power to do this)!

Evangelicals Open Their Homes to Refugees (limited to the first million Iraqi citizens to qualify, or one-half of the estimated number, whichever is less)!

Ex-Secretary Apologizes for W.M.D. Scare (Condi, not Rummie of course, wants us to rest assured that if there had been even the slightest intelligence that Saddam had real W.M.D. to use against our troops, the Bush Administration would never have sent hundreds of thousands of them to invade Iraq)!

Nationalized Oil to Fund Climate Change Efforts (placing ExxonMobil, Chevron Texaco and other major oil companies under public stewardship, profits to go in a public trust administered by the United Nations, to be used for alternative energy research and development in order to solve the global climate crisis)!

*****DK Note: the above fake July 4th NYT was distributed on the streets of New York this morning. apparently New Yorkers realized immediately that it was a hoax and began using them to wrap day-old fish for garbage pick-up. a few of the less smelly papers have been retrieved as collector's items to be placed in the National Museum of Hope, which due to lack of urban public interest, expects to soon become another rural roadside oddity along with the 2-headed snakes and 6-legged chicken attractions tempting those few brave tourists who venture off the Disney Summer Vacation Trail.*****

And in other news that I first thought was another fake-out, but has been revealed as the ultimate Friday news dump, Sarah Palin has announced her resignation as Governor of Alaska. While I feel happy for the people in Alaska, I do confess to some fear for the caribou, wolves, polar bears and other Alaskan wildlife now that Ms Aerial Huntress will soon find herself with more free time on her hands.

What do you think she's up to? A phony Fox consultancy, or something more ambitious? BTW, that is a fake flag-bikini'd Palin photo, but it goes so perfectly with her announcement on this eve of July 4th, I couldn't resist.

Read: Paul Begala was reminded of a famous Hunter Thompson quote in his analysis of Palin's rambling and infantile mind.

Have a safe and happy July 4th, everyone!

Father's Day Science

2009-06-21T13:39:00.000-06:00

Just thought I'd pass along the biological meaning of Father's Day:

Talkin' bout Sex (containing a possible answer to the age-old question of which came first, the chicken or the rooster) ...

It was written by the science writer known as DarkSyde on DailyKos, who is now also writing science policy posts at Examiner.com under his real name, Steven Andrew.

Here's a link to more of Steven's Articles. He has a readable style and scientific ability to break down the complex into the simple, then take it back to the geeky level again. And he is Darwin's best friend!

Skirting the Storm

2009-06-20T00:32:00.000-06:00

Big thunderstorms tracked beside us all the way home from Salt Lake last week. Very forbidding sky. Lots of scary wind and lightning but we managed to miss most of the hard rain. As I looked at the dark clouds, it reminded me of Anne McCaffrey's books about The Dragonriders of Pern who fight "thread". I started reading her dragon novels in the 1970's and think she's written about 20 so far. "Thread" is what falls on the planet Pern whenever a certain rogue planet's orbit passes close by. Dragons were bred by the people of Pern to torch the "thread" in midair before it could reach the ground where it would destroy everything it touches. "Thread" falling from the sky:

After watching the protestors in Iran this week, it occurs to me that they have been skirting a storm for many years.

I pray the courageous people who have been marching non-violently can maintain their convictions in the wake of the Ayatollah's announcement today that protests will no longer be tolerated. I hope this weekend brings better news and that our media will have the courage to show us more of what is actually happening.

If the crackdown is severe, then I hope for dragons to assist the protestors in their quest for a fair and honest election -- although truthfully I think the quest has expanded far beyond that now -- I think they are getting ready to take on the ruling theocracy. If that is the case, they will need many dragons. People have the power!

For current news not on TV, keep refreshing Nico Pitney at HuffPost.

if this is tuesday, it must be 2000 or 2004

2009-06-16T17:38:00.000-06:00

Being stuck out of town, watching the news out of Iran on a little hotel TV, I couldn't help but compare their election frustration with ours in 2000 and 2004.

Iranian Mousavi supporter 2009, or disenfranchised Floridian in 2000:

Confused Iranian voter 2009, or confused butterfly balloter 2000:

Iranian protestors questioning their vote count results 2009, or U.S. Ohio demonstrators in 2004:

Yes for a brief moment I did wonder if perhaps I had timewarped back to our presidential election in 2000 or 2004 -- but then I remembered the good citizens of the United States did not take to the streets en masse when confronted with questionable election results. That's why I'm so proud of the Iranian citizens for putting their bodies on the line standing up to the police and military and other power status quo. The ability to have valid elections goes to the very core of what democracy means. My heart goes out to the brave Iranian men and women who are risking all in an effort to get their votes accurately counted.

Who's Who in Iran (a guide to the people you are seeing on TV)

Al Jazeera English (click refresh for latest news)

When the rain comes ...

2009-06-10T00:30:00.000-06:00

When the rain comes, you run and hide your head ....

Top photo is a Purple Sage plant in my backyard responding to a little summer rain storm. Then there is Clyde responding to having been bathed on a rainy day. He's usually quite frisky after a bath. Must've been the rain.

And here's my rainy day state of mind: in filling out a crossword puzzle, I come to a 4-letter word for "Optimism". I already have H_PE. What do I fill in? HYPE, of course!

Jeez, well, some days you might be looking for HOPE but HYPE is what you're gonna get no matter where you look!

ps, sorry to be so rushed ...

I'm gonna be scarce on the blogs for awhile, mostly working on a gynormous home design project which I hope to be able to hype soon.

Please don't give up on me!

Way to Go, SS and Vegas PD!

2009-06-06T21:19:00.000-06:00

Man accused of threatening president is caught in Nevada
» Secret Service and Las Vegas police arrest Daniel Murray!

The Salt Lake Tribune
By Nate Carlisle
06/06/2009 @ 6:37 PM MDT

Federal agents have arrested the man who went to a St. George bank and allegedly made threats against President Barack Obama.

Daniel James Murray was arrested at 7 p.m. PDT Friday in Laughlin, Nevada, by the U.S. Secret Service and Las Vegas police, said Malcolm Wiley, a spokesman for the Secret Service. Wiley said agents and police apprehended Murray in the parking lot of the Riverside Casino without incident.

Terry Donaho, director of security at Riverside Casino, said Murray was never inside the casino. Neither Donaho nor the Secret Service gave further details.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Utah filed a criminal complaint Thursday charging Murray with one count of threats against the president of the United States.

According to a Secret Service affidavit filed with the complaint, Murray talked about the bad state of the economy as he opened a savings account at a Zions First National Bank branch in St. George on May 19 with an $85,000 check from a credit union.

The affidavit says Murray returned May 27 to withdraw $12,698 in cash and became upset when a teller said he lacked the proper identification to complete the transaction. He allegedly said that "if I don't get this money, someone is going to die."

After a bank manager agreed to allow the transaction, Murray allegedly said, "The banking system will fail and people will die," then later, "We are on a mission to kill the president of the United States."

He returned on May 28 and withdrew the remaining money in his account, which was then closed, the complaint says.

A former neighbor of Murray's, in Rexford, N.Y., where he lived with his parents said Murray appeared to be mentally ill. Leighann Nastasia said Murray used to walk down the street waving his arms, talking to himself. "He wore a cape," she said.

****D.K. note: some of last night's commenters on Crooks and Liars (see my post below) had guessed Murray might try to disappear in Vegas even though he had last been spotted heading north and east. Good guess! He must have zipped south through Vegas and headed to that back-water bilge on the Colorado River known as Laughlin, where the down-n-outers and never-wuzzers seem to find refuge. As he parked his 8-yr old Buick in the Riverside Casino lot, probably hoping to increase his $85K by playing a little Blackjack before crossing the Colorado into the dusty Tim McVeigh white power area of Kingman AZ, Murray found out you can run but you can't hide from the combined dragnet of Vegas Metro PD and the US Secret Service! Now let's get Murray some serious psychiatric help and let him spend his days contemplating the distance from the sun to the moon as traversed by eagles. I know I feel much safer tonight!****

Bugshit Insane

2009-06-05T16:52:00.000-06:00

Even though my computer is running slower than a 3-legged turtle (hence my restricted online access), I had to post a few thoughts about this bugshit insane Daniel James Murray who is now the object of a federal manhunt.

By now, I'm sure you've seen this story and many others online yesterday and today.

Daniel James Murray lived with an elderly couple in Rexford NY until December 2008. Since then he has been traveling around CA, UT, GA, OK and TX. No one has reported on the status of the elderly couple (were they his parents/grandparents? are they alive and well or missing?), but that is only one aspect that is bothering Detective D.K.

The short story is that Murray showed up here in Southern Utah, in St George specifically, on May 19th. He closed a savings account in his name at Mountain American Credit Union (located near where I shop at Costco) and received an official bank check for $85K. He then deposited that official bank check at Zions First National Bank on St George Blvd.

Here's a Detective D.K. question, but not the one that's really bothering me: Does anyone know why on earth Murray even had bank money deposited in podunkville utah? Does he have money similarly secreted across the U.S.? Why?

Zions Bank has a strict policy about releasing newly deposited funds. They put a 2-week hold on any new funds. They list the date the funds will be available for withdrawal on the deposit receipt. They do this even if what is being deposited is a cashier's check from another bank as I learned the hard way. The only time they don't put a hold on deposit money is if you are depositing cash or if you are transferring funds from another Zions Bank account.

So on May 27th, when Murray walked into Zions Bank and tried to withdraw $13K from his newly opened account, he was refused because it had only been 8-days. His next words, "if I don't get this money, someone is going to die", led the manager to accede to his withdrawal, even agreeing to Murray's request for bills no larger than $50 and in non-sequential order. While his money was being counted out (qty 260 x $50 bills), Murray started a bugshit insane rant about how he's traveled "thousands of miles to be here", culminating with "people will die and there will be chaos in the world", but since he left peacefully, the incident went unremarked.

Murray returned to Zions the very next day, May 28th, to withdraw his remaining $72K, finally capturing the bank's attention by stating, "we are on a mission to kill the President of the United States." This kind of specific assassination threat must be and was reported to Federal Authorities. Murray was spotted later that day at another bank in Cedar City UT (about 50-miles north of St George). Did he deposit the funds he had withdrawn from St George into a Cedar City bank? That's another unknown item, one that might bring Murray back to Cedar City, but not what is really bothering me.

U.S. Magistrate Robert Braithwaite of US District Court in UT, issued a complaint against Murray on June 3rd. A Federal warrant was filed June 4th, formally charging Murray with threats against the President of the United States. Regardless of how the media is claiming that Murray's threats are "more aspirational than operational", you should know that the US Attorney's office for Utah does not file such charges unless they believe the person is capable of carrying out the threat. Note that it took them a week (from May 28 to June 3) to review everything and decide an official complaint was warranted. A week is a long time, even in Murray's 8-yr old Buick La Sabre. But that is only one other aspect bothering me.

No, what is really bothering Detective D.K. are the dates. Murray was in St George on May 27th withdrawing $13K from Zions Bank and babbling bugshit insanity about the sun and moon and eagles and how people will die and there will be chaos in the world (that's my paraphrase). What else was going on on May 27th? Oh yeah, President Obama made a widely-publicized stopover at Nellis AFB on May 27th. Nellis is a 90-minute drive from St George. I'm not kidding. I have not read any one else making that connection.

OK, so Murray then storms back into Zions Bank a day later, on May 28th, to get the rest of his money and leaves town, heading north. As he is leaving, he talks about being on a mission to kill the President.

Anyone else thinking what I'm thinking? Murray may have already tried to get close to the President on May 27th at Nellis! He failed, then returned to St George, frustrated, withdrew the rest of his money and left town "on a mission". Has anyone checked on his whereabouts in CA GA OK and TX to see if the President was known to be nearby during those times?

Murray was last seen driving a blue 2001 Buick LaSabre with NY License ERL 1445. Of course only an idiot wouldn't have already "exchanged" those plates. Is anyone reporting missing license plates from the areas Murray has been traveling?

The fact that Murray has 8 registered firearms, including semi-automatic weapons, is another concern, especially when you consider he might have access to many other non-registered weapons, no doubt acquired on his travels through GA TX OK UT CA and all points in between. Don't expect him to give up peacefully!

And finally, why weren't Murray's bank threats taken more seriously from the beginning? Is it because we have so many bugshit nuts here? A small example: recently my neighbor accused Obama of being a murderer. For enlarging the War in Afghanistan, I ask? No, he says, for supporting abortion! That conversation took place days before Dr. Tiller was murdered. So yeah, UT does tend to harbor bugshit nuts, maybe even more than the national average. And yeah, they all have guns and a direct phone connection to Mitt Romney's Varmint Lodge.

But I think even Mitt would agree, Murray is dangerous! He's got guns and money and has made assassination threats. You know what he looks like, you know what he might be driving, he'll be 37-yrs old on July 12th, he's 6'2" and he weighs 250-lbs. Call the Feds!

UPDATE ... Crooks and Liars did a good job of fleshing out some of the details today. Their commenters have great observations about bank procedures being followed for any withdrawal in excess of $10K cash, especially the odd request for an odd-amount of non-sequential small bills. That's supposed to generate a Homeland Security alert. If that had been done, they could've taken Murray into custody when he showed up the next day to withdraw the balance of his account (which may or may not have been a cash withdrawal, no one is saying, but this might be the reason he quickly drove to a Cedar City bank). And remember, he was able to close one bank account, open a new bank account, deposit $85K and start withdrawing the next week without proper ID. Did someone else put the money into the original credit union account for him? Secret Service is now saying they won't be commenting further since this case involves protective intelligence ... in fact, they are wondering how so much info was made public already (hint: bloggers were on the case cuz it sure as hell isn't making the cable tv news)...

If I get any more updates, I'll put them in the comments ...

Never ask a Canadian to do what you should do yourself ... eh?

2009-05-30T00:58:00.000-06:00

...poster seen plastered all over Toronto as Canadians welcome George W. Bush to their country!

Yes, for the second time since he officially became our former president, George W. Bush decided to venture out of the U.S. And yes, it was again to Canada that Mr Bush fled on his so-called foreign excursion tonight under the apparent delusion that Canada is not a hostile country.

In advance of his arrival, the Canadians prepared a little welcoming party, including various protests and a formal letter from "Lawyers Against War" to the Canadian PM and other members of the Canadian Parliament. In that letter of May 26th, L.A.W. argues that in view of the war crimes committed by Mr Bush, the Government of Canada has no legal option except either:

1. to bar George W. Bush's entry into Canada ... or ...
2. to arrest George W. Bush and either prosecute him for torture or extradite him to a country that will do so.

It's clear from the tone of their letter, that L.A.W. does not consider the U.S. to be a country capable of prosecuting a war criminal.

We could prove them wrong! We could arrest Mr Bush as he attempts to cross back into our country from his 50-mile cross-border jaunt! Some justice-hungry border guard could follow his conscience and start us down the sweet road toward national salvation tonight, right? Don't we, like Canada, have laws about not allowing war criminals to enter the U.S.?

Isn't this something we really have to do ourselves? Just because we relied on foreign countries to handle renditioned prisoners does not mean we can rely on them to properly prosecute our War Criminal in Chief. True, we'll never get Cheney or Rumsfeld this way because they'll never be stupid enough to travel out of the country and then try to cross back into the U.S., but ya gotta start somewhere, so why not with Mr Ivy League Brain (which we all now know is inferior thanks to Karl Rove's innuendo) himself?

However, our neighbors to the north should not think we don't appreciate the thought! Thank you, Canada, for at least trying! Thank you for always being there, perched above us and pointing the way toward sanity and justice. I know it must be hard to watch us down here always bragging about how America (which in our egocentricity only includes the U.S.) is the best country in the world because our system of law and justice are equally applied to all, but then politely coughing and looking the other way when we have a real chance to put our grand theories into practice. I know you mean well, but really, this is something we are going to have to do ourselves.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Lawrence Ferlinghetti's "unfinished flag of the united states" ...
...Here is a link to a recent Ferlinghetti poem, Totalitarian Democracy, which you might care to read sometime when you feel like thinking! Want more?

Memorial Day Music

2009-05-24T23:20:00.000-06:00

"Shelter from the Storm"
Bob Dylan, Blood on the Tracks album:

I was in another lifetime, one of toil and blood,
When blackness was a virtue and the road was full of mud.
I came in from the wilderness a creature void of form.
"Come in" she said,
"I'll give you shelter from the storm".

And if I pass this way again, you can rest assured,
I'll always do my best for her, on that I give my word.
In a world of steel-eyed death and men who're fighting to be warm,
"Come in" she said,
"I'll give you shelter from the storm".

Not a word was spoke between us, there was little risk involved.
Everything up to that point had been left unresolved.
Try imagining a place where it's always safe and warm.
"Come in" she said,
"I'll give you shelter from the storm".

I was burned out from exhaustion, buried in the hail,
Poisoned in the bushes and blown out on the trail,
Hunted like a crocodile, ravaged in the corn.
"Come in" she said,
"I'll give you shelter from the storm".

Suddenly I turned around and she was standing there
With silver bracelets on her wrists and flowers in her hair.
She walked up to me so gracefully and took my crown of thorns.
"Come in" she said,
"I'll give you shelter from the storm".

Now there's a wall between us, something there's been lost.
I took too much for granted, got my signals crossed.
Just to think that it all began on a long-forgotten morn.
"Come in" she said,
"I'll give you shelter from the storm".

Well, the deputy walks on hard nails, and the preacher rides a mount.
But nothing really matters much, it's doom alone that counts.
And the one-eyed undertaker, he blows a futile horn.
"Come in" she said,
"I'll give you shelter from the storm".

I've heard newborn babies wailing like a mourning dove.
And old men with broken teeth stranded without love.
Do I understand your question, man, is it hopeless and forlorn?
"Come in" she said,
"I'll give you shelter from the storm".

In a little hilltop village, they gambled for my clothes.
I bargained for salvation and they gave me a lethal dose.
I offered up my innocence and got repaid with scorn.
"Come in" she said,
"I'll give you shelter from the storm".

Well, I'm living in a foreign country, but I'm bound to cross the line.
Beauty walks a razor's edge, someday I'll make it mine.
If I could only turn back the clock to when God and her were born!
"Come in" she said,
"I'll give you shelter from the storm".

Sub-Tropics to Mars and back

2009-05-22T01:37:00.000-06:00

I'm baaack ... at least for awhile! Been battling some computer problems but at least it's up & running (more like limping) for now.

When my computer blew up, I began to panic about not being able to blog about anything on my mind. But the days slowly crept by and now I find I'm too disgusted with politics to blog about that. Every time I turn on the TV I see Elizabeth Edwards reminding me why I was a fool to believe in her husband, or Dickhead Cheney being a dickhead, or the congressional dems compromising (don't elections have consequences any more?), or Obama being Obama!

Besides, I've been wanting to post some photos of a fun little camping trip to Mars we took a few weeks ago, so this will be a good test post. If the computer dies on me again, it may be awhile before I can get back online, so here goes ...

The title of this post is a bit misleading. I don't live anywhere near the Tropics (sub or otherwise). Just the opposite, in fact. But during the brief spring interlude between frigid winter and broiling hot arid summer, something wonderful happens ... the desert blooms! Here are a couple pics around my yard just before we left on our camping trip to Mars ... Yellow Lady Bank's Rose vine and Purple Robed Locust tree:

Click on any pic to enlarge.

Our camping trip was actually not to Mars, but to The Valley of Fire in Southern Nevada, although the difference might not seem that great. Warning: don't attempt to camp there in the summer months! It isn't called Valley of Fire for nothing! The week we were there the temps were pushing 90, but it was overcast, so not too bad. Nights were windy & chilly. It can be 120 on summer days!

Valley of Fire contains brilliant formations of eroded red sandstone more than 150 million years old. As you'll see in my photos, these features often appear to be on fire when reflecting the sun's rays. The sandstone formations were originally huge shifting sand dunes during the age of dinosaurs and subsequently shaped by complex uplifting and faulting of the region, followed by extensive erosion. I don't pretend to understand the geology, so I'll just let the photos speak for themselves. Don't worry, I'll only post a few!

Descending into The Valley of Fire:

Approaching from the rear, do you see the tall thin-headed elephant?

How about the little chubby-trunked elephant with ears flat against his head?
Wouldn't those rock elephants be a fun accurate representation of the repub party? Old, dry and worn out!

Just a pock-marked cliff face or scrapings from John McCain's sunburnt jowls? Lots of bats live in the cliff face. What lives in McCain's jowls?
Our camp site will give you a perspective of the size of these rock formations:

Odd Shapes: an alien or a ninja turtle?

Interesting beehive formation:

Arches are always fun! This one is pretty typical of the Southwest:

Of course we made the obligatory hike to Mouse's Tank (a natural desert rainwater collector forming a cistern or pond). It's a short trek with lots of petroglyphs along the way...

Dancing with Pop Tarts?

many Big Horn Sheep to see if you click to enlarge!

This whole wall is covered with petroglyphs (worth enlarging, but don't be expecting any porn). The Native Americans etched them hundreds to thousands of years ago. They obviously liked the black patina canvas:

Now for Mouse's Tank itself. Heaven help the desperate bastard who had to survive on this yucky water! It's a 50-ft drop straight down to the slimy scummy pond. Mouse would've had to devise the world's longest straw or rapel down there, swatting away bees and scorpions and who-knows-what-other biting stinging creatures that patronize the rare and precious water:

OK, now that you've seen a bit of Mars, or Mars as it might have been before it died, here are the "tropical" blooms we came home to (tropical in comparison to Mars):

Desert Bird-of-Paradise and Red Oleander ... both are pretty, but very poisonous!

Hope you enjoyed a little flavor of our trip to Mars and back!

WHCA and Alzheimer's and Mom's Day weekend

2009-05-09T13:10:00.000-06:00

Some seemingly unconnected events occur this weekend...

The White House Correspondent's Annual Dinner will be broadcast live tonight. MSNBC is starting coverage at 9PM Eastern Time. C-Span is supposed to be covering it, but my local guide is being vague about it. It'll be shown on C-Span online beginning about 8PM ET.

Click here for the official WHCA site. Wanda Sykes is the entertainer this year which should be interesting since she "came out" last year and fought to defeat Prop 8 in California. The WHCA site has links to access C-Span's coverage of previous years. Recent past entertainers have included Craig Ferguson, Stephen Colbert, Lewis Black and Al Franken. Although Colbert was famously funny, it was the first time I'd ever seen him nervous and sweaty.

Sunday is Mother's Day! If you are not spending the day with your mother and/or your children, then I hope you celebrate the day with complete joy, focusing on good family memories. Mothers are special, no matter what your specific relationship with yours was. HAPPY MOM's DAY!!!

On Sunday night, HBO will begin The Alzheimer's Project , a 4-part documentary by Maria Kennedy Shriver. Maria's father, 93-yr old Sargent Shriver, suffers from Alzheimer's Disease. He no longer recognizes her or remembers that he was the first director of the Peace Corps. In fact, he no longer knows what the Peace Corps , established by JFK in 1961, is. In addition to Alzheimer's impact on families, the program will explore the medical and scientific aspects of the disease.

photo: mom and dad in the 1980's...
Now you might think this strange, but I think Mother's Day is the perfect day to begin watching The Alzheimer's Project! My own mother was afflicted with Alzheimer's and died 11-yrs ago at the age of 68. A once vivacious, personable and humorously gifted woman, still youthful and vigorous at the onset, she suffered excrutiatingly frustrating mental decay for years, losing every part of her personality by the time of her death.

At the beginning of her decline, my mom would say things like, "my mind, I can feel it going." At first she got angry, then she forgot to get angry. The family attempted to joke with her about her forgetfulness until one day it became obvious that she didn't even know what she had forgotten. Her once wide world contracted to her house and yard with my father and brother providing daily care. Even then, she managed to wander away late one night, wearing only a thin nightgown, after my dad had fallen asleep watching TV on the couch. He searched everywhere in the house and yard for her, walked around his neighborhood waving a flashlight calling her name and had just decided to call the police when he saw a spectral figure gliding toward him down the middle of the road. Yup, it was my mom wandering around the dark neighborhood, her thin white nightgown blowing in the breeze! She had no idea where she was or how she got there. In fact, as he guided her toward safety, she asked my dad what HE was doing out in the street! After that incident, he installed childproof doorlocks that her alzheimer-brain could never figure out.

Most of our final family get-togethers revolved around mom asking the same questions over and over (and over) for hours (and hours and hours)! We were advised to answer her as if every time she asked was the first time. This was supposed to help keep her from getting too anxious. Anxiety is a rarely-mentioned side effect of Alzheimer's. On some level, her brain was still able to worry over things. She did this with a vengeance, having panic attacks that lasted forever since she lived totally in the present moment. Her being unable to sit still or sleep normally was a real challenge to family home care. Afterall, when are the care-givers supposed to sleep or even just go shopping and take care of everyday things when the patient requires round-the-clock vigilence?

Toward the end, when she didn't recognize most of us, my mom was talking to pictures in magazines as if they were her friends. She couldn't go to the bathroom by herself because she was afraid of the "old woman in there" (glimpsing herself in the mirror). She thought my brother was her daughter. She thought her husband was her father. She thought her granddaughter was her sister. But she always recognized her tabby cat!

During her final death coma, mom became verbal for a moment and announced, "I don't want it!" -- I have no idea if she meant Death or Pain or what. She then looked right at me and asked, "Are you real?" ... Those were her last clear words. Such metaphysical questions from a person whose mind has turned to mush!

Although she technically died of ovarian cancer (without realizing she was even ill), my mom's mind was already dead. If it hadn't been for the cancer, she was otherwise so physically healthy, she would've shortly reached the total vegetable stage. For families who don't have the resources of Maria Kennedy Shriver or Nancy Reagan, that stage brings heartwrenching problems for which there are no real solutions. I do hope The Alzheimer's Project program on HBO will be addressing these.

Many baby boomers have been in denial about Alzheimer's for decades. Until you go through it with a family member or close friend, it's hard to imagine how awful it is. It is NOT just a case of cute forgetfulness. As the baby boomers age, we are looking at 1 in 8 of us being affected. While we all hope for a medical break-through, until then, we live with the real possibility that we or our loved ones will become prey to this mind-destroying disease. I wonder if many people have the same attitude as I do ... that once you've seen what Alzheimer's does and without any real way to combat it, it reinforces why we as a society need to provide more meaningful end-of-life alternatives ?!?

And so it is, on Mother's Day I find myself thinking about her a lot ... sometimes it's like my mom is still here when she isn't here ... which is fitting because for her last years it was like she wasn't here even though she was. I can still visualize and hear her laughing -- she always laughed with her whole body. Maybe that's why I'm so looking forward the White House Correspondent's Annual Dinner tonight! I want to hear people laughing ...

****OMG, big PS ... I just realized in that pic, my mom is the same age I am now! Yet she was still vibrant and happy, totally oblivious of the mental deterioration that would take hold of her brain in a couple more years. If you click to enlarge the pic, you'll see what I mean. Scarier than my dad's leisure suit?****

HONESTLY!!!

2009-05-05T18:14:00.000-06:00

The very humble D.K. has been given this prestigious blog award by the lovely Annette whose blog, "Just My Little Piece of the World", has become a regular reading habit. These blog award things always come with rules about which I am giving immediate notice I will eff-up. I'm so sorry, Annette. I'll try it my way and see how it goes.

For the record, here are the award rules:

1.You must brag about the award.
2.You must include the name of the blogger who bestowed the award on you and link back to the blogger.
3.You must choose a minimum of seven (7) blogs that you find brilliant in content or design.
4.Show their names and links and leave a comment informing them that they were prized with Honest Weblog Award.
5.List at least ten (10) honest things about yourself.
Then pass it on with the instructions!

I'm not complying with Rules #3 and #4 mainly because I waited so long that by now everyone I would bestow the award on has already received it. I realize that's not in the spirit of the award so I will completely understand if Annette decides to take it back and whack me on the head with it. Ouch, that hammer looks like it could do some damage! The way I'd like to do it is to say that anyone who reads this can automatically consider themselves awarded and proceed accordingly.

But, what does "Honest Scrap" mean? "Honest" is easy ... anything revealed must be truthful. "Scrap" is another matter. To me, "scrap" is leftovers, this & that, odds & ends, bits & pieces. It's what's leftover after everything with obvious value has been removed. It still has value, but not much. The key to "scrap" is that it is non-essential but still useful in some form or another. With that in mind, I don't know how useful any of this will be, but here goes my list of 10 non-essential truthful bits & pieces about me (in no particular order):

1. Coming from a large family of FDR-democrats, I still managed to end up with one sibling who is the complete opposite (i.e., a ditto-head repuke), which naturally causes me to wonder WHO is the Black Sheep? See, even when the odds are long, I assume it must be ME.

2. When Bush was handed the Presidency, I honestly thought, well what's the worst he can do? I had NO idea how far he could exceed my expectations in the "worst" department. If I ever visit his $300million non-historical library, I will write that comment in the guest log.

3. Not prone to many phobias, I am amused that driving over long high bridges causes me such distress. I still get butterflies thinking about Coronado Bridge in San Diego. I can walk or bike ride over them just fine. I have the same reaction when driving UP steep mountains with no shoulder or guard-rails. I have to hide my face to fool my brain, which is nonetheless unfooled, thus causing me to yell at the driver the whole way UPHILL to keep their damn eyes on the road and let me know when it's over! If the driver is me, we are all in deep trouble as I feverishly hunt for a safe place to pull out and relinquish the steering wheel to anyone with a driver's license; otherwise we go back down and find another route. Driving DOWNHILL provokes no similar reaction. What's up with that?

4. After an episode of Atypical Meuneire's (you do not know how typical it is that I would get the atypical form) a few years ago, I can no longer endure loud noise. Opening up a soda can sounds like a shotgun blast. As a result, I've had to start listening to more acoustic type music. I just spent the entire weekend listening to Coffee House-Acoustic on Sirius FM which brought back great memories of all the rock concerts I went to back in the 60's, even though I don't think songs like "Smoke on the Water" or "Black Dog" should ever EVER be performed acoustically!

5. I absolutely positively undeniably HATE to be cold. I don't understand people who say it's refreshing or bracing. If it's cold enough to snow, it is far too cold for me. I also hate humidity. That's why I live in a desert where the dry summers regularly reach 115 ... and yet even then I still have to wear socks and sweaters to go shopping or eat in a restaurant because of the damn near freezing air conditioning which is downright ree-effin-diculous! In the summer, I will flip the temp up on every thermostat I can get my hands on, even public ones with signs that say please do not adjust temperature. I tell myself I am helping the environment by reducing air conditioning use!

6. Before he was a rich and famous Las Vegas casino/hotel mogul, control-freak Steve Wynn once fooled me into eating raw steak (what can I say, it was dark and I was hungry). I can still taste the blood 30-yrs later even though I no longer eat cow ever since I found myself parked next to a cattle car in some desolate two-bit Texas hellhole. Gaahhh ... I can still hear their plaintive cries of distress! I also have to say the Palin Turkey-whacking incident permanently turned me off to eating turkey. Recent stories of the horrendous factory hog farming conditions have turned me off to pork. But I do still eat chicken and fish, especially in taco-form. I am not perfect.

7. I'm a baby boomer so my school years were most notable for overcrowded classrooms and frazzled teachers. Integration was forced on my high school through mandatory busing. I found it was a good thing to be exposed to such diversity ... it saved me from absorbing the distorted narrow worldview of too many other middle-class white kids. This was an example of "activist judging" that accomplished much good by forcing society to move forward, kicking and screaming all the way! The empathy-impaired should take note.

8. My mom was a good seamstress who made most of my clothes as a kid so I never had to confront ill-fitting store-bought clothes. In high school, I started sewing my own clothes since nothing on the rack ever fit properly. Mini-skirts, empire dresses and what might be described as pre-goth-style were my metier. We still had a dress code in my high school. I can't tell you how many times I was hauled into the school administration office and given the "ruler test", but it was a lot! The "ruler test" required kneeling on the floor while some faculty member held a ruler up your legs. If your dress or skirt exceeded the height of the ruler (12") off the floor, you were in trouble. I got to be an expert in kneeling forward and stretching fabric so it met the "ruler test". The dress code was abolished the year after I graduated. I no longer sew, but that's alright because my current clothing taste is, shall we say, less rigorously stylish.

9. As a former broomstick, I am totally amazed seeing what menopause has done to my body. Is that really me in the mirror? I look so ... matronly ... so at odds with how I feel. The facial changes are more endurable, but I can clearly see it now ... I am slowly becoming ... my mother! AIEEEEEEEEH !!!!!

10. Last but by no means least, I feel that most family pets I've met are far better than their "owners" ... including my own!

OK, I think that all qualifies as non-essential "SCRAP". Whether it has any residual value remains to be seen. I only hope it wasn't too painful to read. And please, if you want to participate in this meme, consider yourself awarded and have some fun with it!

ps, as I re-read this, I am detecting a distinct lack of respect for rules. Sorry, Annette, it seems to be a theme in my life.

Vanguard spoils my post-vacation bliss

2009-05-03T11:26:00.000-06:00

Yes, I'm back from the vaca (more on that later)! My post-vacation bliss was spoiled while sorting through my backlog of accumulated mail and finding an interesting proposal included in a Vanguard Notice of a Special Shareholder Meeting. Usually I just throw away these Proxy-Vote things because my vote doesn't matter and I don't care about the arcane things mutual fund shareholders are normally asked to vote on.

Vanguard is probably the largest of the no-load mutual fund companies and is a common choice of many individual, corporate and institutional pension plans. If you are a Vanguard customer you will be getting the same notice asking you to vote. I urge you not to just throw it away this time, or worse check the box that casts your vote "in accordance with the Board recommendations". Please carefully read Proposal #3:

3. "Shareholder Proposal that the board institute procedures to prevent holding investments in companies that, in the judgment of the board, sustantially contribute to genocide or crimes against humanity, the most egregious violations of human rights."

No brainer, right? Vote Yes, which is to say, FOR this proposal!

But the Vanguard Board does not agree. If you cast your proxy-vote to follow their recommendations, you will be voting AGAINST this proposal. If you don't vote at all (my usual procedure, but not this time), you will be enabling the Vanguard Board to implement its desire to defeat this proposal.

note: this is the first time in 7-yrs Vanguard shareholders are being allowed to vote ... hmmm ... 7-yrs ... has to be related to all the deregulation that was going on because we used to get these vote-by-proxy things every year.

That this proposal is even on the ballot is thanks to certain shareholders who are concerned that Vanguard is making investment decisions based soley on financial and legal considerations, even in the face of the most egregious violations of human rights, such as genocide. Thus, ordinary individuals like you and me may be inadvertently investing in companies funding genocide. The problem is not theoretical since many mutual funds hold shares of PetroChina and/or China National Petroleum Company, which is providing funding that the Govt of Sudan uses to conduct genocide in Darfur.

Given a choice, investors would probably not want their pensions and family savings connected to genocide. Reasonable people may disagree about what constitutes socially responsible investing, but few people want their savings to be complicit in genocide.

The Vanguard Board does not agree, stating that Vanguard's goals are "to maximize returns in order to help shareholders meet their financial goals". They believe "mutual funds are not the optimal agents to address social change". However, they do "acknowledge that there may be instances when it is appropriate to assess such issues", and are therefore directing Vanguard to implement a procedure for reporting to the Board about such investments that might warrant disinvestment.

Prior to this proposal, Vanguard's oversight was limited to "considering important social issues". Those considerations have never been publically revealed. Do you trust the Board to suddenly adequately review and "disinvest" in companies that are earning profit for the shareholders if they happen to be involved in crimes against humanity? In this current investment climate of lost shareholder equity, I think that is highly unlikely.

Per the Proxy Notice, Vanguard® funds will hold a Special Meeting of Shareholders on July 2, 2009, at Vanguard’s offices in Scottsdale, Arizona, to vote on shareholder issues.

Vanguard's Scottsdale office address is 14321 N. Northsight Blvd, Scottsdale AZ 85260. The meeting commences at 8:30 AM local AZ time. It is open to all Vanguard customers.

Proposal #3 will be presented and voted upon at this meeting. Part of the discussion is expected to involve future vs existing investments because Proposal #3 calls for corrective action. If the threat of Vanguard's "disinvestment" does not effectively influence the violating company's practices, then the security should be dumped.

If you don't attend in person (Scottsdale in July? could they have picked a more hellish venue?), cast your proxy-vote by mail, by phone, or online. Instructions are in the Information Packet sent with your ballot. I just cast my vote FOR Proposal #3, and if you are a Vanguard customer, I hope you will, too.

To read what Investors Against Genocide has to say about Vanguard's lack of transparency on such an important issue, click here.

For a personal piece by IAG's Susan Morgan about Darfur and why Vanguard customers need to exercise their voting rights, click here.

If you want some info about the connection between the Darfur Genocide, Oil and China, click here.

I need a vacation

2009-04-20T01:04:00.000-06:00

Animal Fun: which photo is natural and which is photoshopped?
Hyena ...

Ostrich...

Which of those animals is most closely to related to the cat family and which to the dinosaur family? Am I likely to see either of them on my camping trip this week into the wilds of Nevada?

Animal Art Fun: which of these pieces is by Andy Warhol and which by Jeff Ham?

And now for something REALLY scary:
Sometime ago, I used an artistic website (long since forgotten) to alter a photo of myself sitting in an empty cafe into a "Modigliani" style. The above is what they came up with. Yes I guess the horse-face features are Modigliani, but where is the beauty so evident in the following Modig clip? (warning: female nudity)...

If you just can't enough Modigliani, here's a longer clip (at apprx 4:35, I swear Shirley McClaine's ancestral twin is posing, or maybe she really has lived previous lives?) ... Why did he elongate faces, why is his perspective of the nose and neck so odd? Why are the eyes so dead and/or sad? Why are the mouths so squinched up? Maybe someone with an art background has a clue. I certainly don't.

I have not forgotten about my MMM series. After we return from this week's camping trip, I hope to get back into it. Sometimes you just have to walk/run/hike away from it all for awhile.

Easter Hare

2009-04-11T17:45:00.001-06:00

jackrabbit image credit: painting by artist Jeff Ham

Since I can't seem to get back into MMM right now (MMM is hardly Easter material at any rate), and since I tend to stay away from traditional Easter bunnies (here's my last year's easter animal), I thought I'd "share the hare" ... the Easter Hare, that is!

There are many folklore tales about hares. Instead of a human face, some see a Hare in the Moon. The hare is often associated with female dieties. There's a legend about a bow hunter shooting a hare in the leg with his arrow and following it as it disappears into the woods. He never finds the wounded hare, but does find a beautiful woman sitting on a fallen tree pulling an arrow out of her leg! The ancient Celts considered hares to be so close to the spirit world, they would not eat them. In Ireland they said they would not eat a hare for fear of eating their own grandmother! For some very interesting rabbit and hare symbolism, click here.

As a symbol of springtime and fertility, I think the Hare is as good a symbol for Easter as the bunny rabbit.

A Hare is different from a bunny rabbit in many ways. Hares live in the open, not in warrens or burrows. Hares are born furred and with their eyes wide open. A fully grown Hare is about 2-ft tall, even taller if the legs are fully extended and the ears are fully erect. They are longer-legged and have much longer ears than bunny rabbits. Bugs Bunny looks more like a hare than a wascally wabbit to me!

Desert Jackrabbits are actually hares. They have intelligent long faces. For a photo by Laura Hughes that really captures a jackrabbit's face, click here (it won't blog load).

Relying on speed and leaping ability to evade predators, you won't normally see a hare until you get too close.

On desert hikes, I've been surprised by hares springing straight up out of a bush and leaping away in 15-ft bounds. That'll start your heart, for sure! After a few quick leaps, the hare will jump ever higher as it gains momentum to sail over the desert brush.

Since hares are primarily nocturnal and mostly hiding during the day, seeing one in the daytime like the above photo is quite a treat.

Hares can be very social, too. I've seen large groups of 25-50 congregating out in the desert, their long ears especially visible on a full moon night as they busily nibble sagebrush.

In a happy coincidence for 2009, the moon will still be pretty full on Easter Sunday. Many cultures have names for each month's full moon (for the few months with two full moons, the second one is the Blue Moon). Some of the names for April's full moon are The Pink Moon, The Seed Moon, The Planting Moon, and in some places, yes ... The Hare Moon ...

So, I will be looking for Easter Hares under the mostly-full moon tonight and tomorrow night. If I see any, it will truly be an Easter Hare Moon. Wish I had a night-vision camera!

Happy Easter, everyone!

Deseret Territory, MMM Part 4

2009-03-30T16:49:00.000-06:00

The State of Deseret proposed by the Mormons in 1849 was enormous (solid dark line on map). If approved as a state, it's 265,000 square miles would've comprised 20% of the Union as it existed in 1849. The U.S. approved it as a smaller territory (see dotted line on map), known as Utah Territory, with the provision to be able to divide it into future smaller states. Of course, it was not allowed to retain its original size. By the time Utah was accepted into the Union as a state in 1896, its size had shrunk considerably.

In order to better understand the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre, a little knowledge of some of the things going on in the State of Deseret is necessary.

Salt Lake Valley was part of Mexico when the first Mormon pioneers trickled in in 1847. Of course the Mormons knew this. In fact, it was one of the main reasons they wanted to settle there. They wanted to be free of the persecution they had encountered for practicing their religious beliefs in the U.S. Mormons had been killed, their settlements burned out, their rights legislated against, and intimidated and chased out by violent mobs everywhere they tried to live among the U.S. citizens in Ohio, Illinois, Missouri and Iowa. They hoped for political independence by leaving the U.S. territory for a desolate and sparsely peopled area of Mexico.

The Mexican-American War was raging at that time. It culminated with the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo in 1848, giving the U.S. more than a million square miles of territory (all of present day AZ, CA, NV, NM, TX, UT & part of CO & WY). But of course, that isn't the whole story. It never is. Mormon leadership played both sides of the war game. U.S. President Polk was agreeable to a proposal of Brigham Young (the Leader and Prophet of the Mormons after founder Joseph Smith was killed in Illinois) that mormon troops be sent to fight in the Mexican-American War. By providing and outfitting a Mormon Battalion for the war effort, Brigham Young helped to prepare the territory for the upcoming mass migration of mormons into the newly conquered area.

The result was the "Territory of Utah" (still called Deseret by the Mormons) with Brigham Young named as territorial governor. Federal officials were provided and overseen by the U.S. Government.

Throughout the 1850's the likehood of Utah becoming a state had no national political support because:

1. In August 1852, the Mormon Church made a public announcement of the Doctrine of Plural Marriage, which caused a huge amount of anti-mormon feelings across the U.S. (side note: it was also a shock to many foreign converts who had been recruited overseas into giving up everything they owned to live in Deseret; polygamy had been downplayed during recruitment).

2. There had been a 10-yr deterioration in Federal and Mormon relations fueled by many conflicts. Famous Mountain Man Jim Bridger persistently lobbied Washington DC against Utah. Federal appointees found it impossible to function with prosecutors and federal marshals unable to challenge mormon vigilante tactics. In what became known as THE UTAH WAR of 1857-1858, Federal Troops were sent into Utah. Mormons felt like they were under seige and worried that the persecution they thought they had escaped was beginning all over again.

3. A discovery of major gold and silver in Western Utah Territory (now Virginia City, NV) known as the Comstock Lode brought dreams of the wealth of a second Gold Rush to many U.S. citizens. However, Mormons were anti-mining due to a prophesy about retaining the wealth underground for future generations and were thus seen as an obstacle in the path of glittering riches.

These 3 issues inflamed the national perception of Utah's Mormons and its Leaders as immoral, un-American, disloyal, possibly dangerous, and certainly not mainstream citizens.

However, it may have been a 4th issue, Theocracy, that led to outrage and repeated calls for carving up and parceling out of the Utah Territory. Afterall, no other state came under such intense pressure for obliteration as a geopolitcal entity -- not even the post-civil war states of the Confederacy.

The theocratic melding of church leadership and governance was unique in Deseret. Brigham Young and other powerful mormon leaders were completely disdainful and disrespectful of Federal officials. Their form of territorial government was violent. They ruled with absolute power and authority over the even the most mundane aspects of everyday life.

And here is a little-discussed fact: A state of rebellion existed WITHIN Utah during this time. Many Utahns were not happy with the daily realities of theocracy. They wanted to escape the cruelties of mormon society. Escape, however, was almost impossible because the Mormon Leadership had a bloody method of dealing with mormon defections...

This method was the infamous "Blood Atonement". Originally introduced by Joseph Smith, but never published or openly acknowledged, it was restored by Brigham Young during this period, leading to a reign of terror. Blood Atonement means cutting off the head, slitting the throat from ear to ear, which was somehow supposed to provide a means of grace, an atonement for sins committed, that would allow the apostate or deviant a chance to redeem himself or herself in heaven.

Those who dared to flee Deseret were hunted down and blood atoned. Rumors of slayings pervaded the area, yet none were ever reported in the Deseret News, nor was anyone brought to justice. Those who wished to flee found themselves with only one real opportunity ... trying to hook up with one of the Emigrant Trains passing through the territory and hoping they were well beyond Utah's borders before their escape was discovered.

In this pre-civil war period of heightened sensitivity regarding secession, the New York Times published reports of prominent Mormons purchasing young girls for polygamous marriages (which sounded a lot like slavery to abolitionists), along with vague rumors that Brigham Young and the Mormon Leadership were guilty of personal deeds of murder and crime. This news culminated in a bill introduced in Congress to make polgyamy illegal. Presidential candidate Stephen A. Douglas became a most articulate enemy of the Mormons, calling the religion a "loathsome ulcer ... gnawing at the very vitals of the body politic ... (needing to) be cut out by the roots and served over a red hot iron of stern and unfliching law."

Brigham Young alledgedly celebrated the victory of James Buchanan over Stephen Douglas by hauling lead ore from Las Vegas to Salt Lake to manufacture weapons. In an act as seditious as anything happening in the Southern states, Utah announced it would decide which American laws were to be obeyed in Utah. Setting the stage for Federal intervention, newly-elected President Buchanan initiated a forlorn search for a new territorial governor. He ordered troops to mass at Fort Leavenworth and prepare to "invade" Utah.

Brigham Young sent letters to the far-flung outposts of Mormonism, ordering them to sell their property and return home to Deseret. "Bring all the powder, lead and caps you possibly can", Young wrote to the Brethren. Young also ordered loyal Indian Agents, like Jacob Hamblin who lived at Mountain Meadows, to rouse up the normally complacent Indians, "for they must learn that they have either got to help us or the United States will kill us both." He wanted to enlist them as mutual enemies of the detested 'Mericats (local Indian slang for Americans).

At the same time, Young tried to give the impression that bloodthirsty natives would murder outsiders if not for his efforts to restrain them. In reality, nearly all reports of "Indian" massacres in Utah Territory carried with them tales of white-faced natives who used mormon slang words. The Utes (northern utah) were unwilling allies, having been mistreated by Mormons since their arrival among them. The Paiutes (southern utah) were known as a generally peaceful group. President Buchanan presented documents to the 1857 Congress that Brigham Young was "tampering with the Indian Tribes and exciting their hostile feelings against the United States."

Much of Young's posturing was just that, for he fully expected a political solution before Spring of 1858, the earliest the troops from Ft Leavenworth could make it into Utah. Still, he continued preaching war and rebellion, vengeance and blood atonement redemption. On August 5, 1857, as the Fancher Train lodged in the nearby Jordan campsite, Young issued a proclamation to the citizens of Utah declaring, "we are invaded by a hostile force who are evidently assailing us to accomplish our overthrow and destruction."

Young then ordered the mormon settlements along the Emmigrant Path through Utah to hoard their grain and provisions, and to make plans to burn their towns and farms and to flee to the mountains with their families if they were overcome. The result of this proclamation was to fuel the mormon's fanaticism and fear of annihilation and to incite people to revenge and bloodshed.

At this moment of high tension and exhortations to violence, Brigham Young sent Mormon Militia Colonel and Apostle George A. Smith to the southern communties (including Mountain Meadows) to deliver orders to church leaders along the emigrant route to California. "I have been sent by Brigham Young", Smith said to John Doyle Lee, "to find out what you think the brethren would do with any emigrant train passing through this country ... would they be permitted to go their way?" Lee told Smith in no uncertain terms that any emigrant train that passed would be "used up" -- mormon slang for slaughtered. "I believe any train of emigrants that may come through here will be attacked and used up", Lee said. Smith was reportedly "much pleased with this, laughing heartily". Lee said he told Smith "You must inform Governor Young that if he wants emigrants to pass without being molested, he must send orders to that effect", thus making it clear that any desired outcome other than complete destruction should be specifically ordered by the church hierarchy. Lee would later write that he never doubted that his instructions were "to prepare the people for bloody work ... for George A. Smith was one of the twelve apostles of the church ... his orders to me were sacred commands which I considered my duty to obey without question or hesitation." Lee felt Smith's mission from Brigham Young was to order the extermination of the approaching Fancher Train. In fact, Lee believed wholeheartedly that he was under "the direct command of Brigham Young".

...my next post will explore what transpired as The Fancher Train made its way south out of Salt Lake Valley... sorry this saga taking me so long ... if you missed them, scroll down for MMM Parts 1, 2, and 3...

A Restless Wind, MMM Part 3

2009-03-23T23:30:00.000-06:00

There are many places to begin the story of the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre. Google it and you will see thousands of entries on this subject. Living not far from where the massacre happened and having ancestors who may have been actively or passively involved, I wanted to explore the subject. But to try to understand what happened requires a bit of background.

For my purposes, let us begin in Arkansas, drawing extensively on Sally Denton's book American Massacre ...

These are some of the choices of possible trails west in the 1800's laid over a modern map of the states.

The aridity of the southern-most trail through NM & AZ and its fierce Apache warriors made it an especially hard route for those driving cattle.

Taking the northern routes presented the traveler with choices in Fort Bridger Wyoming and again in Salt Lake City Utah. Those whose goal was to end up in California could take the California Trail across the vast void of the Great Plains of present day Nevada, eventually traversing the treacherous Sierra Nevada Mtn Range (this is what the Donner Party did).

Another option was to follow the Mormon Trail through the high country of Utah. Although more primitive, this route afforded good grazing and supply towns along the rivers & valleys before the long dry run from Las Vegas to San Bernardino. The local Indians were driven by extreme poverty to be opportunistic raiders of unguarded goods, but were otherwise considered peaceful and cooperative.

The California Gold Rush was drawing many people west. In the summer of 1849, Arkansas cattle rancher John Fancher asked his younger brother Alexander, "Are you as tired of looking at the damn double-shovel plow as I am?" The two brothers were also best friends who, along with other family members, had assembled one of the finest breeding stock operations in the southern U.S. Their longhorns were prospering in the Ozark Mountain area of Arkansas, but the idea of year-round grazing, ideal weather conditions for growing hay, and high prices for beef paid by miners had much appeal.

Their first trip west in 1850 was a preliminary exploration. They planned to drive a hardy herd of cattle overland on the Oregon Trail, then drop down into California seeking the most enticing ranch property they could find within a reasonable distance of the gold mining area. For unknown reasons, their original plans changed en route. Some accounts say they went across the Great Plains of northern Nevada. Other accounts claim the Fanchers departed from the California Trail in Salt Lake City and took the more primitive wagon trail through central Utah, possibly camping at Mountain Meadows. This only becomes significant 7 years later when Alexander Fancher decides to take this very same route on his final trip.

On this first trip, the Fancher brothers explored California before deciding to settle near the tiny town of Visalia. They staked out a ranch site along a creek and registered their livestock brand in Tulare County in 1852. In Visalia, cattle could graze year-round since it had snow-free winters. The brothers built basic facilities for their enterprise in the then sparsely populated county, including a house, corrals, outbuildings and fences. John's immediate family traveled by steamer from New Orleans to Panama, rode mules across the isthmus, caught a ship to San Diego, then rode north to Visalia.

Alexander returned to Arkansas and amassed some 400 cattle for a 2nd trip west. He led them and a wagon train of 13 families in April 1854, following the trail from Fort Bridger across northern Nevada and south along the Sierra Nevada range to Visalia. As he passed through the California gold fields, he sold many of his steers, making an astronomical profit, while keeping the females to replenish the herd in Visalia. Things were looking good.

Alexander then returned to Arkansas for the third/final trip west, which involved gathering a tremendous herd and bringing his family and others for the permanent move to California. He immediately began putting together one of the largest wagon trains in America's westward expansion.

On this final trip, Alexander would share command of the "Fancher Train" (as it came to be known) with John "Captain Jack" Baker, a successful landholder, farmer and cattleman. For the next 2 years, Fancher and Baker oversaw the organization of the entourage. Because these people would mostly become their neighbors in California, they were very selective in who they recruited. They wanted only solid and responsible persons whose abilities had been honed in the military, whose horsemanship was superior, and whose tenacity for driving cattle on the trail would enable them to successfully lead such a large wagon train across the country with their families.

In addition to the Fanchers, the original families were the Bakers, Mitchells, Millers, Dunlaps, and Camerons. For more than a year, the wives organized domestic items like clothing, camp stoves, sewing machines, water buckets, dishes, and bulk provisions of flour, rice, sugar, beans, butter, etc. Their husbands outfitted the wagons, collected livestock, ammunition, tools and forges. Eventually as many as 200 men, women and children would join The Fancher Train journeying toward the better life they envisioned in California. Most of them were related by blood or marriage in some way or another.

Alexander convinced his cousins, James and Robert Fancher, to join by promising them "wage in cattle" to begin their own ranches in California. Captain Jack Baker's sons, George and Abel, agreed to go, though Jack's wife of 22-yrs refused saying, "Arkansas is plenty good enough for me". In addition to cattle, Captain Baker took along oxen, mules and a mare. He owned 8 slaves, but it is unknown if they accompanied him. More likely, he sold them for gold before leaving Arkansas. George Baker brought considerable cash and personal property including rifles and double-barreled shotguns. He was also said to have brought 2 hired hands, though their names are unknown.

The Camerons were the wealthiest family in the group, carrying a large amount of gold coin (as much as $100,000 by some estimates, and this was when the annual salary of the president of the United States was $25K) for purchasing land in California. Most of the gold was secreted in specially built wagon compartments. The Camerons brought choice dairy cows and a racing mare named One-Eyed Blaze who was descended from famous bloodstock and was indisputably the fastest mount in the party. She was worth an untold fortune. You will hear more of One-Eyed Blaze later.

The interrelated Dunlap and Mitchell families comprised about 30 people in wagons with 21 yoke of oxen, 92 cattle, many guns, pistols, bowie knives and cash, according to an inventory. As the Fancher Train neared departure, the 15-member Jones and Tackitt families joined, bringing 60 more cattle and heavily-loaded wagons brimming with household belongings.

History has forgotten the names of many others participating in the trek. For example, an unknown number of single men and teenagers signed on at the last minute, mostly as riflemen, wranglers and drovers. They must have eagerly anticipated prosperous futures in California. Others may have joined up along the route (more about that later), but we may never know all the names of those associated with the caravan before they met death in Utah.

The cattle herd now numbered about 1,000 rare longhorn cattle, healthy heifers and beef steers, pampered dairy cows and agile horses. Alexander Fancher rode his Egyptian Arabian Stallion, called Ebony King, who rivaled One-Eyed Blaze in value and speed. There were some 200 other horses of varying pedigrees. They carried an inventory of quality weaponry and a stockpile of expensive ammunition. Three uniquely elegant carriages, their panels emblazoned with stag's heads, transported some of the wealthier women (you will hear more about one of these carriages later).

The Arkansans began gathering in April 1857. It took 15 days to assemble the company, organize the leadership, practice defensive maneuvers, and assign wagon placement, chores and responsibilties. On May 7, 1857, the Fancher Train began their western migration following the Arkansas River. The men rode horses in the lead; the women and children rode in wagons or walked alongside. They had converted their life savings into gold and were transporting it along with their most precious possessions and children. It was publically noted as the wealthiest wagon train to ever cross the continent.

One of the largest wagon trains to travel that summer, the Fancher Train ambled along at 10-12 miles a day, slowed by their immense herd. This gave the men plenty of time to waste ammunition on target practice games, something that would have catastrophic ramifications later.

The purple dots represent the Fancher Train route (click to enlarge):

The travelers anticipated a good rest in Salt Lake City where according to long-standing Mormon advertisments, they could fatten their livestock and replenish their supplies. The Mormons had prospered so greatly from this type of commerce, the Deseret News eagerly reported the arrival of emigrant trains so local merchants could stock up on supplies they knew the trains would be purchasing.

But as the Fancher Train passed from Fort Bridger down toward Salt Lake City, they could not know they were entering a territory that had recently undergone some radical changes. Mormons were experiencing a rising tide of religious fanaticism coupled with persecution paranoia. The Deseret News uncharacteristically failed to note the Fancher Train's arrival, a bad omen in hindsight.

On August 3, 1857, Alexander Fancher led the wagons to Utah's Jordan River, a favorite campsite in the Salt Lake Valley he knew from his previous cross-country treks. The emigrants and their livestock were in remarkable health considering the distance and terrain they had traveled from Arkansas. Baker and the cattlemen drove the impressive herd to the nearby Wasatch foothills to graze on public domain land while the rest of the train looked forward to purchasing fresh supplies.

From that day on, as one historian puts it, the Arkansas party appeared to be a marked train...

Red River Valley, MMM Part 2

2009-03-22T20:53:00.000-06:00

There's a subject I want to write more about but can't figure out the angle. The subject is historical and readily available online. I just need to figure out how to make it personal.

Maybe this song will help get me in the mood. One of my grandfathers used to sing it to the grandkids after he'd had a coupla two three. He was the grandson of someone who was involved in the subject I want to write about.

My grandpa would always call two or three grandkids up onto his lap to sing along. The cue was "come and sit by my side if you love me, do not hasten to bid me adieu" ...

That was the old Eddy Arnold version. Lots of singers have covered it over the years (baritone Tex Ritter, CW-style Marty Robbins, lonesome ethereal Jimmy Rodgers, twangy redheaded stranger Willie Nelson), but Arnold's downhome voice sounds most like my grandpa.

I don't ever remember telling my grandpa that I loved him, except during the singing of Red River Valley. His first wife died during the terrible 1918 Flu Pandemic (which was unique in causing greatest morbidity among healthy young adults, age 15-34).

He floundered for awhile, then met & married my grandma and they managed to raise 7 kids during The Great Depression. He died of a broken heart after my grandma preceded him to the grave. I always thought he was singing Red River Valley for both his wives. One was a dark-haired beauty and the other a freckled redhead. Guess which one was my grandma.

I may need to noodle this around some more. Have patience...

Spring Mysteries, MMM Part 1

2009-03-21T01:04:00.000-06:00

Spring Comes to my Desert Garden:

click any image to enlarge: Lilacs, Tulips, Blooming Rosemary, Yellow Gopher Plants

Spring Also Comes to Mountain Meadows:

But what is this strange "crop" growing in the once lush meadow?

Who placed these rocks here and why? What strange roots grow under these rock "formations"? The archeologist in me wants to know if there are bodies buried under the rocks.

Stay tuned .... it is quite a sad story ...

Just in time for St Paddy's Day

2009-03-16T13:12:00.000-06:00

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Here is another fun St Paddy's item that might be necessary to wear after imbibing a few of those Alchohol Gun Shots: Taken at a StP parade in Vegas, any resemblance to me, one of my sisters and nephew is purely coincidental ... though it must be said, I'd certainly prefer looking at the world through green-colored glasses than rose-colored ones!

EK will be playing in a local St Patrick's Tennis Tournament. The only dress rules are to wear something green. Here is what I suggested:

An Irish-ish thought for the day:
As you can tell, I think St Patrick's Day is for fun. Good thing, too, because what we will be doing the rest of week is not so fun. We will be attending a seminar series by the authors of "Massacre at Mountain Meadows". We live near where this heinous crime took place in Sept 1857, and like many locals I want to know if this book is yet another cover-up by the LDS church. The authors had unprecedented access to all documents in the church archives and were supposedly allowed to publish their own conclusions. For me there is a personal aspect I'd like to pursue and that is the extent of involvement by at least one of my ancestors. Maybe he wasn't involved in the actual slaughter, at least that is the family story, but there are historical accounts of his involvement afterwards including tracking of 2 massacre escapees. Many local residents would like the truth, not only about the massacre itself, but also to what extent the church gagged local witnesses and/or participants, some of whom eventually escaped from Utah Territory altogether rather than face blood executions and other reprisals. There is much family evidence that has never been made public. 150+years after the fact, it's beyond time to heal this bloody wound.

What's wrong with Nevada's Governor?

2009-03-15T02:09:00.000-06:00

Zion Raven painting by Jeff Ham.

You might think that the Governor of a state that is as far down on its luck as Nevada would be eager to take advantage of Stim funds, but you'd be wrong. Governor Jim Gibbons is seriously considering taking a pass.

As my neighboring state, the place I grew up and the state where most of my family still resides, I am very worried about Nevada.

Nevada’s economy has been more than just rocked by the current recession. It leads the nation in many areas of economic depression. Home foreclosures have never been higher, home sales have never been lower, the budget for the state is indicating a shortfall of more than $1 billion, job losses continue to pile up, hunger and homelessness rates are surging, crime is skyrocketing, while sales and gaming tax receipts have collapsed.

Nevada could expect to receive about $1.5 billion from The Stim if Governor Gibbons agrees to accept it. While $1.5 Billion amounts to less Stim spending per person in Nevada than any other state except Utah, it will be very welcome to the hard-hit Nevada residents. The money would be distributed to Medicaid and transportation, education and unemployment, and various energy projects.

Similar to Governor Jindal of LA, Gibbons' big problem with accepting Stim money comes down to unemployment (not his own, but the unemployment benefits afforded to the 9.1% of Nevada's workers who are currently unemployed). The Stim increases the scope of benefits for the unemployed through 2011. Once the federal money stops, the state would either have to provide benefits itself at the higher level OR cut benefits back to their pre-stimulus level. Both Jindal and Gibbons say accepting Stim money for unemployment benefits will jeopardize their state's sovereignty ... but The Stim doesn't require the states to spend any money in the current budget or to commit to spend money after 2011 ... so I think they are full of BS.

If Gibbons makes good on his threat to refuse The Stim, he may become the man formerly known as governor. (note: while that is a link to a short fun article in The Las Vegas Sun, if you care to know more details about why Jim Gibbons may just be America's Worst Governor, here is a link to a witty blog full of insider info on The Gub ... though you really need to view that Las Vegas Sun article to understand why Gibbon's nickname is Dr. Null.)

Perhaps the Governors who are threatening to refuse The Stim might consider that people who are suffering do not easily suffer fools. Maybe if those Governors were facing unemployment themselves, they might not be so quick to refuse federal aid.

If you're interested in seeing how your state is planning to spend Stim money, click here for the recovery.gov site.

Enflamed Inferno

2009-03-13T01:02:00.000-06:00

OK, you can blame Border Explorer for this!

She posted a fun link to The Hero Factory that allows you to create a superhero version of yourself.

The minute I saw all the options, I was hooked. How many times do you get a chance to re-invent your looks? Try it and you'll see what I mean. Go on, you deserve a killer bod.

I have no idea what kind of hero an "Enflamed Inferno" is, but it sounds like something out of "The Divine Comedy" (abandon all hope, ye who enter).

I'm gonna print out a copy and hang it over the treadmill for inspiration. If it doesn't work, I can always point the flamethrower at it. Hah!

* * * * * * * *
UNRELATED RECOMMENDATION, BEST 30-MINUTES ON TV THIS WEEK: Jon Stewart ripped Jim Cramer apart Thursday night on The Daily Show. It was the culmination of about a week's worth of Daily Show analysis of CNBC financial acumen. The whole Daily Show was devoted to interviewing a subdued & contrite Cramer, but even so, they had to edit about 8-minutes. They promised to post the complete unedited version Friday on http://www.thedailyshow.com/

This was the only piece of the show I could find posted tonight:

Class Warfare ... in two years

2009-03-12T01:20:00.000-06:00

America's wealthy class is whining about returning to the pre-Bush tax rates in 2011. They even have the nerve to call it class warfare. The same epithet was hurled at FDR, but it's not class warfare to ask the wealthiest 5% of Americans to pay more. Here's 3 reasons why:

First of all, they are getting 2-yrs notice. Bush tax rates will still be in effect for the 2009 and 2010 tax years. That is waaaay more notice than any of our unemployed workers are getting. So they've got 2 years to strategize with their accountants, plotting out ways to push as much income and dividends and capital gains into 2009 & 2010 as possible. Get busy, you whiners.

Second, the oooh-so-scary soak-the-rich rates that are causing them to piss all over themselves amounts to a mere 4% hike in ordinary income tax rates! Regular people are facing 20% inflation or more for groceries and necessities.

Now it's true the dividend and capital gains tax rates will go up more than 4%. They will probably rise by 13% ... in 2011. If anyone still has any dividends or capital gains to pay tax on by then, they should count themselves fortunate.

Third, the wealthy can afford to pay more. Yes they can! Those with enough discretionary income to buy a yacht can afford to pay a higher tax rate than those who can barely afford to feed, clothe and shelter their families. It doesn't matter if they inherited their wealth or worked their balls off to earn it; if they have it, they can afford to pay a higher tax rate.

The way I see it, the wealthy class of this country got a free ride for the last 8-yrs. In two more years, they will be required to start paying some of it back. In the meantime, they earned unprecedented profits, especially if they were invested in "defense" companies that earned "offensive" profits from the neocon plan for permanent war.

Those profits didn't just materialize out of thin air, either. They came from an extensive war waged on the middle class by the wealthy class, for which the middle class are presenting a bill that starts becoming due in 2-yrs. While the middle class whined about what was happening during the last 8-yrs, it was not too loudly, and in the end, they shut up and accepted their decreased purchasing power. They did not, for instance, follow the route of The Jacquerie who staged a Peasant's Revolt in 1358.

image: Jacquerie by Henri Louvet, click to enlarge
If the wealthy class wants to know what real class warfare looks like, they should consider the following I synthesized from Barbara Tuchman's "A Distant Mirror":

In 1358, a group of peasants who became known as The Jacquerie, tired of their own families going hungry & dying from illness while they labored unceasingly for the upper classes, held an indignation meeting. They blamed the nobles for their miseries. No plan of revolution, but simple hate ignited The Jacquerie. They began burning down manors and killing the nobles. Some of the nobles were burned at the stake. The revolt gathered force as more peasants joined, armed with the weaponry of agriculture, scythes, pitchforks, hatchets and other farming implements. They pursued fleeing nobles, slicing off heads of those captured. Froissart writes of "a knight who was killed and roasted on a spit before the eyes of his wife and children. Then after 10 or 12 of The Jacquerie violated the lady they forced her and her children to eat some of her dead husband's flesh and then they killed them." When asked why they did all these things, The Jacquerie replied that they wished "to rid the world of nobles and then there would be none any more". This theme would recur with renewed vengance in the French Revolution.

Consider that and then consider whining about a lousy 4% tax hike!

When the wealthy wage class warfare against the lower classes, it usually takes the form of the lower classes being heavily taxed, overworked, underpaid, and carrying a disproportionate burden of supporting society.

When the lower classes wage class warfare against the wealthy, it can be a peaceful realignment of shared responsibility ... or it can result in a bloodbath ... in two years.

Lovely Luna

2009-03-11T00:41:00.000-06:00

Beautiful full moon tonight, March 10th!

The Vernal Equinox occurs in 10 days, March 20th. I guess winter is officially over. For me, that means maybe 2 months before the temps shoot past 100 ... even at midnight! Better get my spring gardening done quickly.

Today also marks 50 days since Obama was inaugurated. Tired of hearing about his "failure to control the depression" and "attempting to bring (gasp) socialism to America"?

Well it's true, Obama may not have changed the Oval Office decor, but here are a few reminders of things he has accomplished in his first 50 days:

Drafted an executive order to close down Gitmo within 1-yr
Mandated all U.S. interrogators in all agencies adhere to the Army Field Manual
Called for CIA detention centers around the world to be shut down
Lifted the ban on photographing the flag-draped caskets of our war dead
Ordered planned drawdown of combat troops in Iraq ("our combat mission in Iraq will end by August 31, 2010")
Committed 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan, "the forgotten front" (please let these troops rebuild more than destroy)
Invited Iran and other muslim nations to participate in a scheduled March conference about Afghanistan
Rolled back Bush's ban on federal funding of Stem Cell Research
Removed restrictions on aid to international family planning groups that might include abortion services
Revoked Bush's "Provider Conscience Rule" so that patients may now obtain health care their doctors have prescribed
Authorized full scientific reviews of endangered wildlife and plants regulation
Directed that stricter fuel efficiency standards, tougher regulations on mercury and other toxins, be finalized and implemented
Asked the EPA to re-allow California and other states the right to set their own stricter automobile emissions and fuel efficiency standards
Proposed more comprehensive global climate change initiatives requiring companies to adhere to emissions caps
Signed executive orders designed to make it easier for unions to organize
Signed the Equal Pay for Equal Work Bill into law
Announced the govt withdrawal of oil and gas leases offered on 103,225 acres of public land for drilling near national parks in Utah that Bush rammed through in Nov-Dec 2008
Scrapped leases for oil shale development on federal land in Colorado and Wyoming
Rejected Bush's plan for coastal oil drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific shores
Signaled that presidential signing statements will no longer be used in the Bush manner to ignore portions of legislation
Signed into law a $787Billion Economic Stimulus Plan that aims to create or save over 3 million jobs
Proposed a $3.5Trillion budget that funds Democratic priorities for social programs
Launched an effort to overhaul the U.S. Healthcare system with the goal of reaching bipartisan agreement this year
Signed final version of SCHIP expansion which requires states to provide health care for about 11 million low-income children, including children of illegal immigrants (thanks to Annette for pointing this out!)
continues to fulfill his promise to We The People to keep us informed, and in an intelligent and meaningful way to make us part of the governing process

Not bad for 50-days! Even the Moon is inspired ...

Rikki Tikki Tavi

2009-03-10T00:36:00.000-06:00

Twenty-five years ago, I started my own business. It was the best of times and worst of times. There were good years and lean years, but even the worst years gave me the satisfaction of succeeding or failing all by myself.

We formally dissolved the company last year. This weekend I completed and filed its final tax returns. While I've got mixed emotions over the company's demise, I'm not sorry to leave all the legal rigamarole behind. Let's just say the tax bureaucracy is alive and well. It thrives on mind-numbing detail. In that sense, it was a fair fight. No one can out-detail me!

The final tax battle consumed me for the last few months, but now that it's behind me, I find myself feeling a bit like Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. I fought the snakes, and now I can finally live at peace in my garden (and maybe even blog a little more)! You remember Rikki Tikki, don't you? The mongoose in Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Book"?

While I loved the many characters in The Jungle Book, it was Rikki Tikki who most captured my childhood fancies. Kipling must've named him for the high-pitched chittering sound mongooses are known for. He was described as both cat-like and weasel-like. Rikki Tikki was agile, cunning and fearless in defeating and killing snakes.

Kipling's Rikki-Tikki-Tavi story centers on a great war Rikki fought all by himself. He killed three venomous snakes before they could murder Rikki's adoptive family. Two of the snakes were deadly cobras, named Nag and Nagaina. At one point, Rikki has to enter the snake's dark burrow to finish his red-eyed dance of death.

Kipling's frightening descriptive poem of that underground battle is burned in my brain (the only poem in the story):

At the hole where he went in
Red-Eye called to Wrinkle-Skin.
Hear what little Red-Eye saith:
"Nag, come up and dance with death!"
Eye to eye and head to head, (Keep the measure, Nag.)
This shall end when one is dead, (At thy pleasure, Nag.)
Turn for turn and twist for twist, (Run and hide thee, Nag.)
Hah! The hooded Death has missed! (Woe betide thee, Nag!)

If you're interested in reading Rikki's epic story, click here. Warning: it only pretends to be a children's tale.

OK, so much for bloodlust. As the great Joseph Campbell might say, Rikki Tikki Tavi's story is a standard hero mythology. While I may feel a bit heroic after slogging through this year's tax mess, I certainly don't pretend to heroism on any scale. Kipling says that cobras actually fear mongooses. Is it possible that the IRS fears the taxpayer? Now wouldn't that be funny?

Donovan (remember him?) sang about Rikki-Tikki-Tavi :

Just a song from the past ... Nothing to see in the vid ... Gotta look inside-a yourself ... No one will kill-a your snakes for you!

As I finished conquering the IRS snakes this weekend, I could barely suppress a little Rikki Tikki chitter. I may have done a modified mongoose red-eyed dance at the post office today (extending my long neck and bouncing my head as I stuffed the tax returns into the narrow mail slot). If I did, I'm sure the postal workers understood. If they didn't, they should re-read The Jungle Book (that's a link to the entire book published online).

Mindless Fun

2009-03-03T20:00:00.000-07:00

Have you ever suspected you're the only intelligent person on the planet? If only there were some way of proving it so that you can get the adulation and free pale ale you deserve ...(3.5 minutes)...

ps, the "Instant Intelligence Test" at the end of the vid test proves it! I am A+ smart! ... hmmmm, something doesn't feel quite right about that ... kinda like the polluters that were regulating themselves under Bush ... maybe that's why it's so important that we finally have real SCIENCE back in the WHITE HOUSE ... then again, maybe we are all just along for the ride ...

Rare Cosmic Visitor, Lulin

2009-02-26T01:07:00.000-07:00

We had a special visitor from space on Tuesday night, Feb 24th.

Spotted in 2007 by a student at China's Sun Yat-Sen University, "Lulin" is a green-colored two-tailed comet that made its closest approach to Earth (38million miles) on Tuesday night. Because the student used data provided by the Lulin Observatory in Taiwan, the Chinese are calling it The Comet Of Cooperation.

What else happened Tuesday Night? Oh yeah, President Obama addressed the Congress, Supreme Court Justices, Joint Chiefs of Staff and We the People. It was a pretty impressive speech. ... but I doubt Lulin traveled all that way to hear a speech.

Maybe Lulin swung in from the far outer reaches of our solar system just to have a closer look at us? We might look pretty strange from her perspective. I wonder if she was impressed that our warm little blue planet is getting warmer every year now. I wonder if she noticed the missing chunks of protective ozone and oceanic dead zones. Did she associate the dominant primate species with that odd assortment of space junk orbiting our orb? Could she sense the Singularity rumored to live in Earth's core? Did we seem terribly beautiful or beautifully terrible?

[Nat Geo photo of Comet Lulin as it passed overhead on Tuesday, framed by trees in Virginia's Shenandoah National Park]

Some Comet Facts: Scientists think Lulin is on its first pass by our sun and don't expect it to ever come back our way, which makes it a very rare visitor indeed. New comets still have the ices they were born with. Once a comet has been around the sun a few times (such as Halley's), it has lost much of its original ice. A pristine comet like Lulin is still full of ices that have been largely unchanged since the solar system formed some 4.5 billion years ago.

As she exits our neighborhood of space on her route back towards her cold dark home, Lulin will be much thinner, having dropped about 800-gallons of melted ice per second as she swung by our sun. Sounds like a weight loss program I might be interested in!

ps, click here for info on seeing Lulin yourself over the next few nights. Or here is just one of many pages of Lulin photos people are submitting from all over the world. Here is an easy vid of how to find it; all you need is a clear sky and good pair of binoculars.

Walrus Wisdom? (see special update: Gift for You)

2009-02-24T19:50:00.000-07:00

Lennon image credit: painting by artist Jeff Ham.

I tend to think that somewhere in my life I certainly must've seen or heard every possible thing The Beatles ever sang or wrote or said. Obviously that is not true, for I've never heard this interview with John and his classic observations of war and peace (5-minutes):

"In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan, armed with a reel-to-reel tape deck, snuck into John Lennon's hotel room in Toronto and convinced John to do an interview about peace. Using the original interview recording as the soundtrack, director Josh Raskin has woven a visual narrative which tenderly romances Lennon's every word in a cascading flood of multipronged animation. Raskin marries the terrifyingly genius pen work of James Braithwaite with digital illustration by Alex Kurina, resulting in a spell-binding vessel for Lennon's boundless wit, and timeless message."

I love that John always took the time to talk seriously with the many earnest young people who found him and asked questions!

Why don't short films like this get nominated for Oscars?

ps, I don't know if it was meant as an inside joke, but I think the vid is misnamed. There's a Beatles song where John says, "here's another clue for you all -- the walrus was Paul." Oh well, it's still a great interview vid.

*****Walrus Update: Spadoman explains the Walrus reference in comments!

*****SPECIAL UPDATE: If you liked the interview vid above, you'll want to see "U.S. versus John Lennon", a 2006 documentary focusing on the time in Lennon's life when he transformed from a musician into an antiwar activist. Watch this short YouTube trailer (2-minutes). If you liked that ...

*****SPECIAL UPDATE #2: click here to watch the whole 100-minute documentary. If you're a Lennon/Peace Fan, this is my gift to you!

Time is not on our side

2009-02-20T09:04:00.000-07:00

Did TIME's 25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis have you tearing your hair out? ***

Not enough emphasis on some people, too much emphasis on others, and too many obscure ringers?

Well then, read David Fiderer's excellent analysis of TIME's "muddle-headed narrative" and see where and how they got it wrong!

And if that doesn't make you question the prevailing mantra that it's really all OUR fault (yes, according to Time, WE THE PEOPLE are in the Top 5, with no mention of Republican Tax Cuts or the Republican Congress), then I hope you watched PBS Frontline "Inside the Meltdown" this week.

If you missed it, click here to watch it online (you have to scroll down to their TV box to start it; if you don't have an hour, just mouse over the meltdown timeline below the TV box for quickie summaries).

Frontline kind of answered a question I've been wondering for some time about why Bear Stearns was bailed out but Lehman Brothers was allowed to fail thus bringing down the whole house of cards. As I suspected, the top people at Lehman Brothers were not favored by the Bush Administration. In particular, Henry Paulson had a longtime antagonsim for Lehman CEO Richard Fuld.

So, ummm .... could it possibly be that Hank's hard-on for Dick F. brought down the world's economy? We are so screwed ...

*** image is Cassandra who was gifted with prophesy. The gift carried a curse that she could only foresee bad things which she was doomed to reveal but no one believed her. ***

We are all salmon now

2009-02-18T01:36:00.000-07:00

So, Wall Street doesn't like THE STIM? I guess they think we should all be good little salmons, swimming upstream, fighting a life-or-death battle against the elements just to keep feeding their greed. It's so rich to hear rich people complaining that too much government money will be spent on things other than them! Tax cuts for the wealthy and riskfree corporate welfare weren't enough?

And what's all this FOX GOP noise that the impending deficit spike is a "generational theft"? They certainly weren't concerned about mortgaging our grandchildren's future to pay for unecessary wars (wars ostensibly fought against terrorism that actually increased the breeding grounds of terrorism)! Do we have to remind them that Mr Ex-VP Cheney said in 2001 that "Reagan proved deficits don't matter"? Most economists, like Paul Krugman, worry that THE STIM is too small.

Why do they keep flapping their lips about Hoover having the right idea, like it would be preferable to do nothing, to sit and watch people suffer and starve (they should know we only do that in regards to African nations)? George Will and other members of the Greedy Old Prick club say that the FDR depression-era programs did not solve The Great Depression, that WWII did. My parents and grandparents would beg to differ!

As the chart below shows, unemployment was decreasing during FDR's first term when he scared the pants off the establishment by instituting such radical programs as Social Security (which earned him the moniker of "class traitor" by his fellow Have-Mores). As unemployment dropped back to 15% (from a high of 25%), FDR's big mistake was to listen to conservatives telling him it was time to slack off big government spending after he won reelection in 1936. The result was unemployment spiking back up again. And what was WWII anyway, if not another massive government spending program .... another STIMULUS, if you will?
Another question that's bothering me is who is fooling whom by calling this economic meltdown "Obama's Depression"? Maybe it's the same people who blamed 911 on Bill Clinton?

Well, those are just some of my questions, as I plow through a busy week. ps, the artist of the bear/salmon painting at the top of this post is Jeff Ham. Some of the homes I'm touring this week are featuring his work.

Saturday Night Valentine Music

2009-02-14T21:49:00.000-07:00

Robbie Robertson "Somewhere Down the Crazy River" (4.5 minutes):

via videosift.com
Lyrics & Vocal: Robbie Robertson, 1987
Background vocal: Sammy BoDean
Omnichord: Daniel Lanois (I'll save him for another saturday night)
Guitar: Bill Dillon; Bass: Tony Levin; Drums: Manu Katche'

My favorite line: "HANG THE RICH" .....
also, "That VooDoo stuff don't do nothing for me"

Suggested improvement: make the girl a redhead.

Chuck and Abe (and Sam)

2009-02-11T23:35:00.000-07:00

image credit: Freedom from Religion Foundation

On February 12, 1809, two great men were born, Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln. Each would shape the world, challenging accepted wisdom of the day and influencing generations to follow.

But what do they really have in common, other than a shared birthday 200-years ago? ..... Neither man was religious!

Charles Darwin came to reject religious dogma late in his life, after writing On The Origin of Species (1859). By the time his Descent of Man was published in 1871, he could say ....

"For my part, I would as soon be descended from a baboon as from a savage who delights to torture his enemies, treats his wives like slaves, and is haunted by the grossest superstitions."

Darwin's memoirs were published posthumously in 1887 with his controversial views on religion carefully excised. Only in 1958 did Darwin's granddaughter finally agree to publish the original omissions which include this excerpt:

"I can hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true; for if so, the plain language of the text seems to show that those who do not believe, and this would include my Father, Brother and almost all my best friends, will be everlastingly punished. This is a most damnable doctrine."

The same thing happened with Mark Twain's Letters from the Earth (link to full 55-pg novella of Satan trying to make sense of The Creator's Pet, Man). It was precluded from publication until some 50-years after his death due to his family's wishes to preserve The Great American Author's lofty perch in the minds of the somewhat less lofty American Public's Belief Structure. Letters from the Earth is usually paired with Twain's The Damned Human Race (link to a short but excellent excerpt) in which he noodles the idea that far from being the Highest Animal or Pinnacle of Creation, humans are in fact the Lowest Animal, and certainly undeserving of any special importance!

Abraham Lincoln was never religious, it seems. Oh sure, he liked to toss around references to "the Almighty" or "Divine Providence", but his closest friends all knew he was strongly rationalist and no fan of conventional religion.

Lincoln's first law partner, John Stuart, observed, "He went further against Christian beliefs and doctrines and principles than any man I ever heard; he shocked me." Colonel James Matheny, Lincoln's one-time political manager, said, "I knew he was an infidel. He attacked the Bible and the New Testament on their inherent contradictions. Sometimes Lincoln bordered on Atheism." David Davis, who rode with Lincoln on the court circuit and later became a Supreme Court Justice said, "He had no faith, in the Christian sense of the term."

Colonel Ward Lamon, author of Life of Abraham Lincoln in 1872, wrote: "Mr Lincoln was never a member of any church ... He showed no sign of that piety which his many biographers ascribe to him. When he went to church at all, he went to mock and came away to mimic ... He consorted with Freethinkers, joined with them in deriding the gospel ... and read Volney and Paine." A lifetime friend of Lincoln who was put in charge of Lincoln's funeral train, Colonel Lamon was a profoundly religious man himself who said he just wanted the historical record to be accurate.

* * * * * * * * * *

All of which makes me admire Lincoln all the more! Considering the rough times he presided over, he resisted the temptation to frame the Civil War as a mandate from God like many Abolitionists of his day were busily urging. Instead, Lincoln saw it as a moral issue, and his attitude showed that morality is not the sole provence of religion.

I credit Darwin with providing the theory a girl would stumble upon in her 14th year. Once she embraced evolution, everything else made sense, and she was thus given the power and inner strength to remove herself from the arms of the church.

That 14-yr old girl was me! However, the years since then have made me somewhat more tolerant. I now see that my way is not everyone's way. And so I respect other people's belief systems as long as they do not impinge on my or anyone else's rights or freedoms.

HAPPY 200th, CHUCK and ABE!

As for Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), I maintain a lifelong affair of the heart, separated only by time. Who could not love the man who wrote in 1902: "What is the difference between a taxidermist and a tax collector? The taxidermist takes only your skin."

Yes folks, I am in still in the throes of tax season woes!

Clyde's religious experience

2009-02-03T22:23:00.000-07:00

CLYDE is about 13-yrs old. Don't know for sure because he was a shelter rescue dog. We do know he was well beyond his adolescent years when we adopted him over 5 yrs ago. Two knee surgeries, two tooth removals, and two tumor excisions later, we can say he has definitely NOT been a low-maintenance dog ... but a sweet lovable 60-lb oaf nonetheless.

His deafness probably began about a year ago. He hid it for a long time, but nowadays the only sound he can reliably hear is very loud hand-clapping. If he is not looking at you and you want his attention, you must clap your hands as loud as you can!

It's been ages since Clyde heard the doorbell. He used to go nuts whenever it rang. We had to install a security screen on the front door just so we could answer the door without Clyde charging out from behind, barking, ready to defend the house from potential troublemakers like the UPS man.

That's why what happened this morning has me wondering if Clyde experienced a little miracle.

I was washing breakfast dishes and running the garbage disposal. EK was reading on the couch, still in his PJ's. DING-DONG, the doorbell rang! Not expecting company, I rolled my eyes at EK, giving him the "you can answer it or not, it's your choice" look. So PJ-clad, he reluctantly opened the door to a couple of earnest young people who asked him if he would like to share an encouraging passage of the bible. Oh man, would I have loved to see his face at that moment!

No thanks, says EK as he firmly closes the front door. I give him a sudsy thumbs-up. He resumes reading on the couch. Neither of us were thinking about Clyde.

The next sound we hear is Clyde barreling out of "his" laundry room, dog toenails clacking on the tile floor. It's "his" laundry room because that's where his food and water is. It's a little cave-like room off to the side of the kitchen ... no windows and definitely no view of the front door. He must've been in there drinking water because he'd already eaten his breakfast.

He was huffing ... the sound he makes before barking. He ran right by me at the kitchen sink without even a glance and then straight out through his doggie door ... his exit to the back yard. What's up with Clyde, I wonder. EK, who can see him in the back yard, says he's out there growling and obviously agitated.

So I go outside to satisfy my curiosity. His hackles are up, his fur standing as high as I've ever seen it. He's huffing and puffing, growling and patrolling the back yard, looking for something amiss. Finally he charges over to the wrought-iron gate and begins barking like a maniac. I walk over and observe the bible-readers have found our neighbor. They are standing together in a little clump on the front sidewalk. I cannot hear what they're saying but imagine it is the recitation of that encouraging bible passage they were denied the sharing of at our house.

Good job Clyde, I say. He continues barking. C'mon let's go in, I say. Clyde barks louder, putting his whole body into each bark now. He is not giving up so easily. His fur is still sky-high and he is obviously in guard-dog mode. I decide to let him get it out of his system and walk back into the house. If I strain my neck, I can just see him through the window. He looks like he's attacking the gate, oh no!

I take a closer look. Nope, it seems barking wasn't good enough, and so he has decided to pee through the iron bars of the gate! Now, Clyde is a champion urinator, but even his forceful stream could not reach all the way out to the front sidewalk. Nevertheless, he is quite satisfied with himself because the bible-readers have moved on. Yard guarding is such fun!

He immediately came back in the house, prancing, like he'd done something really important. No more huffing and puffing, no more barking, fur back in place, and looking quite handsome, too. I gave him a big thumb's up! He wagged his tail & smiled in response.

So my question is, why did an old deaf dog suddenly react as if he knew there were strangers outside? He didn't react to the doorbell. He didn't react to EK's brief conversation at the front door. He couldn't have seen, or even smelled, anyone from "his" laundry room. But he somehow got the idea that there were people outside that needed to be taught a lesson about Clyde's territory. Could he have had a temporary miraculous audio event?

Perhaps Clyde is an atheist like EK, or an agnostic like DK, or perhaps he was just not in the mood for an encouraging biblical passage. Knowing how badly dogs are treated in the bible (when mentioned at all, it is usually in "pariah dog" context), perhaps he knew the encouragement would not be to his liking.

For a dog, he's pretty non-dogmatic!

the Blind leading the Blind

2009-01-31T17:09:00.000-07:00

image credit: Bushwater, an expose' of Geo W. Bush's pre-blind trust financial connections. click image to enlarge.

On January 13th, Bush told Larry King that he doesn't know if our economic decline has eroded his wealth. Because his assets are in a Blind Trust, he said he would not know until January 21st (the day after inauguration).

My ears pricked up at this comment because how Bush's Blind Trust money has fared is something I've been waiting to hear about for 8-yrs. I thought this would be made public very quickly. I was wrong.

I waited all day Wednesday, January 21st. Nothing. Then I thought for sure it would be included in the Friday news dump, January 23rd. Nope. This past week, I was too involved in my own dramas to take much notice, but thought once again, surely Bush's Blind Trust would make the Friday news dump of January 30th.

Well (sigh), I guess it's up to me. I just can't let January end without a stab at it, as best as I can piece it together...

First let me note: a blind trust is a financial arrangement utilized by many public officials. The official decides which of his assets to put into the blind trust. He meets with the blind trust fiduciaries to review, among other things, what investment risk level he is comfortable with. The blind trust takes that information to heart as their directive of how to invest the official's assets. At the point that the assets are invested in the blind trust, the official becomes a client of the blind trust. While the client receives no information on exactly what their assets are invested in and cannot direct the management of their blind trust assets, they do receive quarterly reports on the total value of their investment. The wise client monitors these reports because he is not a prisoner of the blind trust. He can always cash his assets out or move them into another blind trust. So I guess Bush was just joshing about having no idea of the value of his blind trust until January 21st because he would've received a report of the total value as late as December 31, 2008 (gee, what a surprise that he would lie).

In 2000, when Bush decided he would become President, he entered into a blind trust arrangement with Northern Trust Co. (his daddy had used Bessemer Trust, a blueblood firm, but their avg account is $22million and Georgie may not have wanted to admit he was that rich). At that time, Bush put $5million into the blind trust. His other assets, including Crawford Ranch, were excluded from trust investment management. What were those "other assets"? ....

At the trust inception in 2000, Bush reportedly held at least $15million outside the blind trust, for a total of at least $20million in assets. This amount was mostly accumulated through his investments in Harken Energy, Texas Rangers, and Carlyle Group connections.

The $20million is probably a gross underestimate, because like most GOP bigwigs, Bush subscribes to "corporate socialism". He helped himself to public-sector capital while lecturing the rest of us on the virtues of hard work and self-reliance. The plundering of public assets (like the University of Texas) for private gain was and is his business model.

As those links imply, there is really no telling exactly what the value of Bush's "other assets" were in 2000. That is important, because the question of what his blind trust is worth now does not even take into consideration all the assets NOT placed in the blind trust ... assets that could've directly profited from his presidency, like investments in defense war stocks, etc.

But let us, for the sake of conservative estimate, consider that Bush's total assets at the beginning of his presidency were the $20million reported ($5million in a blind trust and $15million held outside the blind trust). What might those assets be worth now, after engineering the Iraq War?

To get at that answer requires knowlege of what Bush has been investing his assets in during the past 8-yrs. Does anyone believe that his blind trust assets as well as his non-blind assets were not heavily invested in Halliburton, ExxonMobil, and Blackwater suppliers? These three are the most notorious of the no-bid war profiteers, earning billions from captive US taxpayers, not to mention the blood of US soldiers. And don't forget, these firms also profited from Katrina, so add the misery of that drowned city into their profits.

Finally, the problem of trying to put a dollar amount on Bush's total investment value requires knowing when his financial advisors advised he get out of the market. Halliburton peaked in June 2008; ExxonMobil in Sept 2008; Blackwater figures are not available as it is a close corporation, but can be extrapolated from these other two.

If Bush's investments were competently handled, with the benefit of a little inside information (nod, nudge, wink), the estimated profit over 8-yrs might be a whopping 3,281%!!!

Yes, while your personal investments may have lost 30-40% over the last 8-yrs, Bush could've been earning 3,281%!

So, Bush's original $20million could be worth as much as $676million by now, if he played his cards right. Does anyone think he would not haved scrupled to personally benefit from his "Iraq War-by-Design"?

And let's not forget Cheney! He makes Bush look positively bush-league. Ignoring all his other assets, Cheney's Halliburton stock holdings alone could be worth $1.2billion today. Yup, those Bushes and Cheneys, they sure know how to bleed a country dry!

And where are their assets? Swiss bank accounts? Offshore shell banks? Convoluted diversionary holding companies? Billions are missing from Iraq. Did some of that missing money end up with Bush? Will we ever really know, or are we doomed to blindness?

DAY ONE, there's a new game in town!

2009-01-21T23:48:00.000-07:00

Yes, there's a new game in town : it's called "competence". This is what a competent president can accomplish, especially when he has a competent team. I like competence. So refreshing!

Item One: trash that stupid Jacket Required Rule imposed by Bush in the Oval Office.

Day One Team Obama Accomplishments:

New WhiteHouse.gov website up with all policy proposals… and a blog.

Ordered federal agencies to halt all pending regulations from the Bush administration.

Suspended special military tribunals for Guantanamo detainees.

Ordered new ethics rules for “a clean break from business as usual.”

Announced a change in policy that will require each federal agency and department to give full attention to Freedom of Information requests, potentially revealing secrets hidden by the Bush administration.

“Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this administration,” Obama said in a statement to reporters.

Circulated a draft executive order to close extra-legal prison at Guantanamo Bay within a year.

Made phone calls to Mahmoud Abbas and other Middle East leaders.

Met with economic advisers in the Roosevelt Room.

Held a meeting to discuss Iraq withdrawal plans with the National Security Advisor, Secretary of Defense, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and top commanders in the Situation Room.

Decided to appoint George Mitchell as a special Middle East envoy.

Set White House pay freeze and lobbying rules.

Retook the Oath of Office because Chief Justice Roberts garbled it.

Oh, and the President also attended a nice White House Open House.

Now MY question is: should Obama keep the Bush Sun-King Rug in the Oval Office?

Bush was quite fixated on this rug, never failing to tell visitors all about how Lady Laura commissioned it to reflect his optimism (cough, obliviousness).

What do you think? Send it and the magnolia china down to Dallas?

DAY "O" = OBAMA!!!

2009-01-20T01:06:00.000-07:00

This is the face of our new president. It is also the official face of America as of noon today, EST (about 9-hrs from now). I'm all goose-bumpy just thinking about it. Here comes the sun! Yes, we are finally on that mountaintop The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr spoke of.

Of course, the Bush Cheney Crime Lords are scuttling back to their secret ratholes and undisclosed burrows ... evil scam artists taking America down a very dark path right to the bitter end and beyond. The half-life of their kind of poison will be long indeed. But as we bid their TV images goodbye today (with a carefully lobbed pair of soft slippers), there is one more thing I'd like to acknowledge:

I thought for sure my patriotism had died in 1968 with the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy. I ridiculed the my-country-right-or-wrong crowd, despising their knee-jerk mentality. My feelings had been so sublimated that when Bush came along and told me I was unpatriotic if I didn't accept his Forever Wars, illegal wiretapping, trashing of the constitution, concentrating our wealth in the hands of a few, religifying of politics, etc/etc, I believed him. I thought I must be unpatriotic because I hated all those things he was shoving down our throats.

Well, as I find myself responding so emotionally to the national symbols of this Obama Inauguration, everything from the flags to the music, I realize I AM PATRIOTIC! I do believe in America! Seeing the wonderfully diverse throngs of people celebrating in D.C., I am finally proud of my country! And damn the Bush crowd for ever making me feel otherwise.

The DK Family will be spending today watching it all unfold before our eyes. Kleenex boxes have been placed in all accessible locations. It's finally happening! Barack Hussein Obama is our 44th President!

And just think, in addition to the millions of people who are witnessing history in person in D.C. today, there are hundreds of millions more watching it on TV or online here and around the world! What a beautiful day for all ....

Countdown: One Day until Inauguration

2009-01-19T01:05:00.000-07:00

Before Deke slinks away, she notes that as of the time of this post, we are 33-hrs away from the swearing-in oath of Barack Hussein Obama. The newly elected president's term officially begins at Noon EST on Tuesday, January 20th. To learn more about this inauguration ceremony, guests, balls, and many interesting facts about previous inauguration events, click: Guide to the Inauguration of our 44th President, a multi-page PDF-file.

One factoid Deke read is that during George W. Bush's 2001 inauguration, even though signs & placards had been banned, two people managed to display messages painted on their bodies by ripping off their shirts in the freezing weather. One read "No Mandate" and the other "Hail to the Thief". For his 2004 inaugural, angry protestors cried, "Warmonger" and "Impeach Bush" as they scuffled with 13,000 police and soldiers. These scenes were carefully edited from our network news coverage. Of course!

But to finish her countdown list, since it is now one day until inauguration, here is one final thing Deke is pretty sure she won't have to endure in an Obama administration:

1. DICK CHENEY! Yes, how relieved Deke will be that Dick is no longer on the case. From secret energy meetings to secret 911 testimony, from stove-piping of intelligence to setting up his own little fiefdom of thieves, Cheney made sure the wheels were well-greased for Calamity Dub. His impact was felt far and wide, but nowhere more fouly than in the performance of his cabal members, like Condoleeza Rice (worst NSA and Sec State EVER), Donald Rumsfeld (former Cheney mentor whose offer to resign over Abu Gharib was countered by Cheney's insistence that they "all stand together"), Scooter Libby (traitor), John Ashcroft (Dept of No Justice), David Addington (devising the language of signing statements for "the unitary executive", John Yoo (secret author of the Torture Memo), Alberto Gonzales (whose sole concern was to provide legal cover for the bush/cheney agenda), and Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Paul Wolfowitz and every other PNAC neocon whose agenda for the new century of Forever War was embraced, sanctioned, and promoted by Cheney. This cabal's actions personally enriched their corporate friends while failing in their most basic duty of giving good advice and impartial counsel to their president, thus enabling Dub's feckless gutting of the U.S. Constitution, the very constitution he swore an oath (twice) to protect and defend. Cheney's insistence to this day on a connection between Iraq and 911 reeks of lawyer-client-advice (i.e., never admit guilt). Deke does not like to think about war in phallic terms, but notes that Cheney & Tenet's WMD fixation allowed Dub to ram into the Middle East like a horny teenage boy finally finding a willing partner. Their biggest regret is not "entering" Iran, especially after hearing that she "puts out". So of this last thing Deke is more than pretty sure: neither Dick Cheney nor his undisclosed shadow will be involved in the Obama Administration.

Well, that wraps up the Final Day of Deke's Countdown! It may not have been a complete list, but considering the vast menu available, it made Deke feel better to present a few things she is happy to say goodbye and good riddence to. Now she can truly enjoy the Obama Inauguration. Maybe she can even stop talking in Third Person!

Scroll down for details of Deke's Countdown of things she is pretty sure she won't have to endure in a Obama Administration ... or ... here is the brief summary: The Crawford Ranch; Texas Cowboys; Christmas Barney Cam; Idunt,Dudunt,Cudunt,Wudent; New-Kyoo-Lure; Referring to the U.S. Constituion as a "god damned piece of paper"; Tax Cuts for the Wealthy; Scienceless Science; Non-Alcoholic Drinks; Secret Meetings and Lost Emails; Katrina Excuses; Media Confrontation; Clear Skies,Healthy Forests,Wilderness Protection; Thinking our President wakes up every morning with one goal, "How to fuck up the world today"; Dick Cheney (and his whole cabal)!

Countdown: Two Days until Inauguration

2009-01-18T01:04:00.000-07:00

DEKE BLINKS! Why? Because she just had an outrageous thought, the same one that is probably keeping many republicans awake at night ... what if Obama kept that whole Unitary Executive idea alive for just a little while longer? Just long enough to use the provision Dub set up that allows the president to detain, arrest, imprison & seize assets of anybody he wants, on his say-so, if he and he alone deems them to be a national security problem or other risk, during wartime. Obama could then use this Unitary Exec Power to send Dub, Dick and their whole cabal off to limboland. Deke does not recall and is too lazy to research which signing statement expanded the presidency into a dictatorship, but that's not surprising considering virtually every piece of legislation Dub signed carried a caveat about not being construed as impinging on the Unitary Executive. Obama's team has signaled they want to renounce signing statements. It sure must be tempting to keep this particular one around ... just for this one purpose!

But to continue with her list, since we are now 2 days away from inauguration, here are 2 things Deke is pretty sure she won't have to endure in an Obama administration:

1. Clear Skies, Healthy Forests, Wilderness Protection. Dub's definition of these nice sounding environmental protections are the exact opposite. Deke thinks he actually thought the american public was so dumb, we would just nod our heads like good little citizens over such blatent attempts to turn the environmental clock back to the good old days of unregulated auto & industry emissions, clear cut logging replanted with trash pine, and unlimited resource drilling in or near our national parks (where we can no longer escape the loud roar of off-road vehicles ripping up pristine wilderness & destroying wildlife havens). Such a pattern of thought-control would probably send Orwell screaming back to The Animal Farm. Two of many more examples: No Child Left Behind and Free-Speech Zones. Obama should drop this Dub habit and adopt non-misleading names.

2. Thinking our president wakes up every morning with one goal, "How to fuck up the world today" .... whether Dub actually had that daily thought, or through worldclass incompetence just managed to conduct his presidency as if that thought were always uppermost in his mind, Deke does not know. However, rather than Deke listing Dub's bugfuckery, here is Keith Olbermann's excellent summary of the batshit insanity of the last "8-Years in 8-Minutes":

After 8-yrs of Dub, the mere thought of a president who actually cares about the world is enough to make Deke get all misty-eyed. Throw in some economic recovery, industry regulation, fair trade, and national health care, and she is apt to break down completely.

That wraps up Two Days until Inauguration. Scroll down or click links to read Deke's Countdown:Five Days, Countdown:Four Days, and Countdown:Three Days.

Deke's little series has about run its course. Boohoo. Any guesses as to who or what will be Deke's Last Thing she is pretty sure she won't have to endure in an Obama Administration?

Countdown: Three Days until Inauguration

2009-01-17T01:03:00.000-07:00

DEKE SPEAKS thrice! Yup, still talkin' trash 'bout Dub. And why not? If Deke was any good at math, she might be able to apply Euclidian principles to her Bush Time Dilation Theory. Alas, Deke's mouth often gives voice to theories she has no formal knowledge of. All she knows is the last 8-yrs have been the slowest she's ever experienced. Perhaps our whole planet was trapped in an Einstein Relativity experiment?

Since we are now 3 days away from inauguration, Deke is continuing her countdown list with 3 more things she is pretty sure she won't have to endure in an Obama administration:

1. Secret meetings and lost emails. A hallmark of Dub's administration was secrecy. From Cheney's secret energy meetings, to the Dub-Cheney secret 911 Commission testimony, right up to the current secret disbursal and undisclosed use of TARP money, and everything in between, the american people have been excluded from Dub's considerations. We were only good for funding his empirical neocon wetdreams, it seems. Does anyone doubt the disappeared emails, when and if they are ever produced, will have been carefully scrubbed to reinforce whatever BS has been done in our names over the last 8-yrs? It is with great relief that Deke notes Obama's often stated obligation to include we-the-people, to make information available to us, to make transparency and accountability into business-as-usual, not some aberration in government. That is something we never heard from Dub, ever.

2. Katrina excuses. There is NO EXCUSE for what happened in New Orleans. NONE! Only Dub apologists trying to write legacy history attempt the twisted mental path that requires suspension of everything you saw with your own eyes and heard with your own ears. But that's Dub & his incoherent weevil-eaten brain for you. Deke has never even heard him apologize. The most he will say is there were disappointments. So, one colossally incompetent man's disappointment results in another few thousand lives lost. Not to mention a lost city. Not to mention neighboring countries who were so aghast that the U.S. couldn't even bring water or food or medicine to the trapped NOLA citizens that they offered to bring in supplies by boat and air across the Gulf of Mexico but were refused, because to accept foreign aid would mean we were no longer the superest of superpowers (if we ever were). Deke is pretty sure an Obama administration would move heaven and earth to immediately mitigate such a disaster should one occur on its watch, or better yet, anticipate and prepare. It would not be an afterthought to playing air-guitar & sharing birthday cake with McCain. Obama's Secretary of State will not be penciling in viewing hurricane damage while purchasing some kinky prada heels. And Biden will not be greeted with "Why don't you go fuck yourself, Mr. Vice-President", unless it takes him a week to emerge from an undisclosed location.

3. Media confrontation. The occasional Dub media contacts were always a study in pathological psycho behavior. Chin jutting, smirky smirk, winky wink, driving the podium, manfully flipping each page of his prepared remarks as if to finish a page was a huge accomplishment, challenging or purposefully misunderstanding of legitimate questions, castigating the questioner, the constant implication that god was at the podium with Dub, that screwed up painfully pinched look Dub displayed when it hurt his head to think ... say goodbye to all that! Obama loves to think .... and you could hardly find two more dissimilar speaking styles. Say hello to reasoned thoughtful answers to press questions. Say hello to appreciating the mission of the fourth estate. No more speaking-from-the-gut-bypassing-the-brain ... except from FOX newswhores, of course.

That's it for today, Three Days until Inauguration! Scroll down or click links to read Deke's Countdown:Five Days and Countdown:Four Days.

Deke is also happy to share the news that even here in Bush-lover-land (Utah), Bush's approval rating has sunk, and in a place full of W'04 pick-up trucks, that is really saying something! We'll even be having some local inaugural events, incl toss-a-shoe-at-bush.

Could Deke be any shallower? Tune in tomorrow. But don't be expecting anything earthshaking like world peace or prosperity. Deke leaves those deep subjects to the Beauty Queens. Until then, remember you can Obamiconize yourself at pastemagazine

Countdown: Four Days until Inauguration

2009-01-16T01:02:00.000-07:00

DEKE SPEAKS again! She may not have much to say, but she is determined to keep saying it. Besides, after listening to President Terra give a nationally televised fear speech tonight, Deke feels, as strongly as she has ever felt about anything, that Dub crawling away from the White House will be his finest presidential moment. Tonight's list of accomplishments, delivered directly into your living room by Dub himself, rang as hollow as his promise to smoke Bin Laden out "dead or alive". Dub is oblivious to the dripping irony of everything he says. "Afghanistan is a young democracy and Iraq is an Arab democracy" ... right, democracies with no freedom to exercise democratic rights. "When people live in freedom, they do not choose leaders who engage in terrorist violence" ... yeah Dub, that's why Hamas was elected. "We must reject protectionism" ... code for free trade because the looming depression/financial meltdown has not dampened Dub's friedman fanaticism. He is proud of "faith based programs for the addicted and hopeless" ... Deke confesses confusion about this statement but notes it was strongly delivered with typical Dub bravado, challenging us to prove him wrong. He is also proud of appointing "wise leaders like Justices Alito and Roberts" ... OK, by that point in his farewell speech, Dub was just rubbing it in, gleeful about leaving a sulphurous imprint on justice that we will all be enduring over the next few decades. He then bid us farewell as "a citizen of the United States of America". Deke is wondering under what circumstances his citizenship could be revoked.

Since we are now 4 days away from inauguration. Deke will continue her list, with 4 things she is pretty sure she won't have to endure in an Obama administration:

1. Referring to the U.S. Constitution as a "god damned piece of paper". Yes, the man who used his thesaurus at Andover to come up with a description of the "lacerations running down my face" upon learning of the death of his sister .... that same man thinks the document that forms the basis of our country, a constitution admired and emulated the world over, is just a "god damned piece of paper". Deke cannot imagine Obama, as a former Professor of Constitutional Law, EVER making such a reference.

2. Tax Cuts for the Wealthy .... or as Deke likes to put it, Warfare on the Middle Class. Tired of being used as the milk-cow for the whole country, the once vast middle class of america is drying up. Time for the top 5% to get back in the game. They've had such a free ride under Dub, they seem to have forgotten the middle class is all that stands between them and mere anarchy. Deke may be dumb about money, but she knows when her purse is empty and is pretty sure Obamanomics will be sunseting that vicious Bush voodoo.

3. Scienceless Science. Can we please keep "Intelligent Design" and "Creation Science" at home on the bookshelf with other myths and legends? This type of bad science is no science at all. There really is such a thing as scientific theory, with hypotheses that are constantly tested and revised as new data is analyzed. Something that has to be taken on faith does not belong in science class. Deke believes scienceless science is what makes people so reluctant to recognize important issues, such as global warming. It is a real disservice to use the FOX method of science, i.e., to line up one member of the lunatic pseudo science fringe against one member of the 99% of other scientists, and act like both views deserve equal time. What a relief to see REAL SCIENTISTS on Obama's team!

4. Non-Alcoholic Drinks. Have you ever tasted one of these things? The fact that we've had a dry drunk in the White House for 8-years has made these bottled carbonated urine drinks, like O'Doul's, unavoidable. Seeing Dub clinking his O'Doul's against other heads of state's legitimate alcohol drinks looks like someone who makes a solemn promise, on their so-help-me-heart, while secretly crossing their fingers behind their back. Deke is looking forward to seeing the Obamas cheerfully toasting with real wine in a real wine glass!

So that's today's list. Deke's first 5 items were posted yesterday ( Countdown: Five Days until Inauguration ). You might notice a bent toward listing Dub's personal quirks. Well, you've been warned not to expect brillance from Deke. She does note that you can Obamiconize yourself at pastemagazine.

Countdown: Five Days until Inauguration

2009-01-15T01:01:00.000-07:00

DEKE SPEAKS! Since the ever vigilent D.K. is so pre-occupied with her damn revenooer stuff, it's time to let Deke do some bloggin'. Deke doesn't know a 1040 from a dog's ass and she's not afraid to to show her ignorance.

Deke's been thinkin' 'bout REDHEADS for OBAMA, so she decided to Obamiconize her redheaded self for blogmortality. If this bleeding red-eyed image doesn't scare the hair off your heinie, you can obamiconize yourself by clicking: pastemagazine.

During the Countdown to Inauguration, Deke's only other thoughts (she's not really very complicated) are about all the things she will no longer be enduring once Dub crawls away from the White House.

Since we are now 5 days away from inauguration, here are 5 things Deke is pretty sure she won't have to endure in an Obama administration:

1. The Crawford Ranch. No more photo ops of Dub strappin' on a spankin' new pair o' LL Bean workgloves, rollin' up his Abercrombie & Fitch plaid shirtsleeves, and crankin' up the chainsaw. Watchin' him administer the final blow to some pre-cut mesquite limb is an insult to all serious brush-clearin' Texas cowboys.

2. Texas Cowboys. No matter how interested in horses he might be, Deke cannot see Obama ridin' fences on Ol' Paint. Deke has no idea if Obama has a horse interest, but she is sure Dub does not. As his bestest furrin' frien', Vicente Fox, once said, Whorehay Boosh is the only cowboy he ever met who is skeered a' hosses. His spotless cowboy boots are a dead giveaway that Dub and horsehit are only compatible in the verbal sense.

3. Christmas Barney Cam. Actually Deke likes Barney, but hates the way Dub and Pickles manufacture hokey words from his canine mouth every holiday season. Deke thinks Barney should make himself available to the Obamas as their dog adoptee, but realizes he is not hypo-allergenic enough. Deke is sure if Barney was her doggie, he would not be bitin' anyone but Miz Beezley.

4. Idunt, Dudunt, Cudunt, Wudent .... listening to Dub speak Bushlish has caused temporary ear damage around the world. At least Deke hopes it's temporary. When does a Yale History Major and Harvard Business School graduate talk like an illiterate thickwit? When he is a carpetbaggin' fake texan! Idunt Dub sumpthin? America dudunt torture! Cudunt y'all bring me a barf bucket? Wudent ya luv ta send Prez Cabbagehead to the International Criminal Court?!!

5. NEW-KYOOO-LURE .... this was pure stubborness on Dub's part. Due to his insistence on new-kyoo-lure threats being included in most of his speeches, Deke has seen "noo-kyoo-lar" in a few online dictionaries as "an alternate acceptable pronunciation"! In fact, Deke has never heard one person say new-kyoo-lure that wasn't jonesing for armageddon, have you? (note: you might think this word belongs up above with the many other words Dub mispronounces, but it so singularly pissed Deke off, every single time she heard it, it had to be listed separately) ...

Well, there you have today's list. Over the next few Countdown Days, Deke plans to post more things she's pretty sure she won't have to endure during an Obama administration. Some of them might extend beyond Dub's personal quirks. Then again, maybe not. Deke is really very shallow. She can't spell for shit and she talks like a ditz.

ps, since she is far too stupid to figure out how to completely take over, Deke will be forced to use D.K.'s avatar in comments. She is semi-crafty, though, so she may be able to fool you once, but but but a fool fool-me can't get fooled aggin!

Medal of Freedom, or THE STING ... you decide

2009-01-13T13:30:00.000-07:00

Apologies and a slight blog lapse explanation: those who know me, know that this is my busy season, from now through April 15th. Yes, I'm afraid I have disappeared into my tax dungeon again.

Today I needed a break, so I started watching Hillary Clinton being grilled in the Senate. Quickly tiring of that charade, which I'm sure you'll be seeing snips of on a variety of TV channels, I browsed up to C-Span2 to catch today's Medal of Freedom ceremony. See, I watch these things so you don't have to!

You can watch it on C-Span yourself, or read my *cough* report:

Bush charged down the aisle and took the stage, nodding to Blair, Howard and Uribe who are seated to his right. A voice-over tells us the Medal of Freedom was created by Executive Order in 1963.

Bush says it's the highest civilian award, conveying utmost esteem of the people and president of the united states for exemplary achievement. Given to eminent citizens of the U.S. and some foreign countries, of which past examples include Vaclav Havel and Nelson Mandela, for statesmanship at home and abroad. [notice he does not mention MoFer George Tenant as an example of exemplary achievement at home or abroad]

Now it's time for Bush to cite a few reasons why these three are receiving the MoF today...

He calls Blair his "gallant friend" as he fondly remembers finding out they both use Colgate Toothpaste [I'm not kidding, that was his Blair personal story moment]. He says Blair understands the stakes of the War on Terror, says he is dedicated to democratic values and cites his position as Quartet Envoy for Peace in the Middle East [yo! Tone! how's that working out for ya?] ....

Bush then turns to former Australian P.M. Howard, calling him a "sturdy friend" [nicer phrase than "that bald guy" which Bush has called Howard in the past]. He explains that Howard has spent a lot of years in politics [oh, so an MoF criterion is longevity?], making a comeback 2 decades ago "like Lazarus with a triple by-pass" to eventually serve longer than all other Australian P.M.s but one [where's THAT guy's MoF?]. He cites Howard's commitment to the free market [give me a break], readiness to repel those who would take our freedoms away, and braveness in defence of freedom, as stated by Howard himself on September 10, 2001, a fact that much impresses Bush. He says the two of them enjoy a close relationship of honesty and moral clarity [okay, getting weird now]. He likes that Howard stands his ground [said wistfully, as if we should all be recognizing that Bush, too, stands his ground and is, therefore, worthy of our respect, maybe even some kind of medal]. Bush fails to mention how Howard stood with him to prevent the Obamas from settling into some of the 119-rooms at Blair House during transition, even though both Blair and Uribe had agreed to stay elsewhere. Yup, Howard is a real team player!

On to Uribe ... Bush attempts an accurate latin pronunciation of Alvaro Uribe's name, managing to provoke a small audience chuckle. Calling him "mi amigo", Bush lists some of Uribe's accomplishments as Presidente of Colombia, a failed narco state. Bush cites Uribe's campaign themes of: Strong Hand! Big Heart! Resolute! Uncompromising! [once again it is like he is asking us to see these things in himself, forget Uribe]. Thanks to Uribe, according to Bush, the people of Colombia are reclaiming their country from forces of violence. Bush then launches into what he calls one of the most memorable events of his presidency: a phone call from Uribe saying a group of hostages, including 3 americans, were rescued. [hmmm, I guess this would be a highlight of an otherwise dismal 8 years]. Bush closes with how Uribe has refused to allow his country to be destroyed by an enemy from within [once again, this feels like Bush's view of himself] and how Uribe opposes terror, blah blah ....

[anyone else notice Tony Blair got the shortest review by Bush?] ...

OK! Part I is over, on to Part II, wherein a Military Aide formally reads the citations [Bush does not speak again until the very end; his part here is to hang the friggin medal around ea recipient's neck] ...

TONY BLAIR [stands up looking at audience, but before they can acknowledge him, Bush calls him over to his side with a hand gesture strongly reminiscent of how a master calls his faithful dog ... audience laughs heartily]: The Medal of Freedom is awarded to Tony Blair for helping to secure freedom for the people in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo, and Sierra Leone [I'm sure they'll all be relieved to know who "helped" them], for establishing a new peace in Northern Ireland [ditto], and promoting peace around the globe, especially in Africa and as Quartet Representative to the Middle East. [Bush then tries to hang the Medal of Freedom around Blair's neck, working from the front side, face to face. Blair bends forward a little to make it easier, so it looks like a man-kiss moment. Tony does a quick nodding bow and walks back to his seat having the decency to look slightly embarrassed] ...

JOHN WINSTON HOWARD [jackrabbits out of his seat, straightens tie, stands up tall, striving hard, but failing, to reach Bush's height. Howard is sweating, obviously nervous]: The Medal of Freedom is awarded to John Howard for unwavering dedication to democracy and freedom. As P.M. of Australia, Howard helped deliver unparalleled prosperity to his people through free market principles [wait, aren't these the same free market principles that have resulted in the current global economic meldown?]. He combats terrorism, promotes democracy and rule of law [that must be the arcane "Heywood Jablome Rule of Law"], and lifelong efforts to spread hope & freedom throughout the world. [Bush approaches from the rear this time, apparently not wanting a Howard man-kiss, but fumbles and ties the MoF a little too tight, causing Howard to laugh & pretend to choke. Bush then claps Howard on the back, a reverse Heimlich, and sends him scurrying back to his seat] ...

ALVARO URIBE [looking very serious, Uribe slowly walks over to Bush's side. Bush stiff-arm punches him, provoking a small smile & audience chuckle]: The Medal of Freedom is awarded to Uribe for championing the Rule of Law [gag], deep commitment to prosperity and peace, being a courageous partner of the U.S. [probably a reference to Colombia not joining the International Criminal Court], and being a model for his country, seeking reconciliation and respect for human dignity. [Bush fastens the MoF around Uribe's neck, from the rear, finally getting this act down on the 3rd try. Both Uribe and Bush display phony forced smiles. Uribe walks over to shake hands with Blair & Howard while Bush stands to the side, stiff ape arms akimbo; audience gives polite applause, Cheney in the front row] ....

Part III: Bush grabs the podium to announce, "Laura and I invite you all to stay for a RECEPTION!" [yes, emphasized, all caps, he yelled out & carefully enunciated the word, R.E.C.E.P.T.I.O.N., obviously a highlight for the Bushes, a chance to use that gaudy china!]...

[everyone wanders offstage ... while the "President's Own" Marine Corp Band plays music vaguely reminiscent of THE STING ... again, I'm not kidding ... someone in the band has a great sense of humor]

Meanwhile on Capitol Hill ... Hillary Clinton is still being grilled by the Senate, and Obama is signaling he wants the 2nd TARP tranche released, hopefully with greater oversight this time.

OK, back to the tax dungeon!

will life find a way?

2009-01-02T10:11:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to share these amazingly beautiful flowering rockplants ... Calceolaria Uniflora, growing in the high-altitude harsh environment of Torres Del Paine, Chile ... they look even more amazing when you click the pic to enlarge:
It seems no matter how hard we try to kill off plants and animals (and we humans do seem to excel at this sort of thing), new species are being (re)discovered all the time. Here's a one-minute view of some of the 1,000 New Species Discovered in the Greater Mekong River Region over the last decade ...

... including a spider as big as a dinner plate, a cyanide-laced shocking pink millipede, and the re-discovery of the Laotian Rock Rat, thought to have gone extinct 11 million years ago, being offered for consumption at a local food market. No, these were not sightings of Dick Cheney!

Worldwildlife.org has an extensive website for anyone interested in this subject. One of many of Bush's parting "gifts" is an attempt to gut endangered species protection. How long before we homo saps become endangered species?

New Year - New President - New World

2009-01-01T11:36:00.000-07:00

Before we begin 2009, listen to a quick 1.5 minute vid of Geo W Bush one more time, as David Letterman reviews his presidency:

Why should W's presidency be any different than his real life (i.e., failure at everything)? But at least when he was personally failing, only he & his family suffered. He used his presidency to eff up the world. Nice going, George! He's like the football player who got the ball and ran it into the wrong end zone. I'm trying hard to think of one thing that is better after 8-yrs of Bush. And puh-leez, no more revisionist rhetoric about no terra attacks in the US since 911. His whole presidency has been one long terra attack against the US (and everywhere else)!

If we're lucky, this will be the last we see or hear from him and his whole family. I won't voluntarily endure him anywhere in the future except in a criminal court. If he shows up anywhere else, he should expect shoes. Let him become the UFO Ex-President (vague rumors of sightings in faraway places).

Hey Bristol, where's your baby?

2008-12-28T16:18:00.000-07:00

When Bristol Palin's impending glorious event was revealed, her due date was estimated to be December 18-23. Ever since the Repub Natl Convention, she has pretty much been out of sight.

Amid all the controversy surrounding her teen pregnancy, I submit the following Top Ten Reasons Why Bristol's Baby is Purposefully Delaying His World Debut:

10. To give his daddy Levi Johnston time to earn more money working on the North Slope. Levi dropped out of high school in his senior year to earn some baby-having dough. Might as well let him earn the price of his forfeited high school diploma, too.

9. Before he knew he'd be a daddy, the non-condom-using Levi said he "didn't want babies", so why not gestate a little longer? A more fully mature infant might bypass the "baby" stage. Afterall, they grow up pretty fast in Wasilla. You bet'cha!

8. To give his mama Bristol a hard time. The baby's birth in December was supposed to clear her of any suspicion of secretly being Trig's mom. If the birth is in January/February, that issue will remain unresolved. *wink*

7. To make his birthday coincide with Bristol and Levi's wedding date, set for March 2009. Over the long run, combo celebrations will be much less expensive for his teen parents.

6. Grandmothers -- both of them! From what the fetus has overheard, they are both going to be lousy grandmas. Drugs versus aerial animal kills ... which is worse for the unblemished baby's soul?

5. He does not relish being born in the middle of an alaskan ice blizzard to a 17-yr old mom, 18-yr old dad, high school drop-out parents. What's the hurry? Talk about a Bridge to Nowhere!

4. The womb looks much safer than a collapsing world. He's in no hurry to confront global warming (climate change), species decline, economic disaster, and an earth where the Taliban and Darfur and Robert Mugabe are standard operating procedure.

3. To give Uncle Joe, the tax-cheating unlicensed plumber, a chance to earn some money selling his memoir book so he can pay his tax liens and buy the business license that is preventing him from testing Obama's tax plan. Did you get one for xmas, or have you ordered yours yet? Joe wants to contribute to Bristol's baby's college fund!

2. The thought that dead moose and elk antlers will form his crib.

1. John McCain will be his Godfather?!? 'Nuff Said!

Oh heck, Bristol is probably in the midst of giving birth as I post this. Hope it's an easy labor for her. She's got enough trouble ahead of her as it is. Gotta find an odd name for him, too. Maybe ... Pelt?

ps, feel free to add your own reasons or name choices. I'll leave this open until the baby appears! I mean, it's has to be any day now, right? So, she's 10-days overdue. No one would purposefully lie about the due date, would they? hmmm...

oh, pooh, see update in comments 12.29.08: tonight, Rachel Maddow reported Bristol had baby TRIPP yesterday. Tripp (7-lbs, 4-oz) and Bristol are reportedly doing well. No mention of Levi. The news is confirmed by People Magazine and the Anchorage Daily News, both stating the baby was born Sunday, but further news won't be released until Tuesday. So I guess she really WAS in labor when I posted this!

Haunted

2008-12-26T12:19:00.000-07:00

The last week of the year sometimes seems haunted.

Here is a very sweet Sinead O'Connor and bad boy Shane MacGowan of the Pogues, in 1995, before Shane went off the deep end, 4-mins:

I still love The Pogues. Click here for Waltzing Mathilda (8-minutes), a favorite ballad. Be sure to read the narrative in the "more info" section on the right. Shane has a gift for trainwreck delivery of haunting words. Around Christmas, you can't escape Fairytale of New York (Shane singing with Kirsty MacColl about a relationship gone bad; RIP Kirsty). note: that link is to a clean music vid because I was tired of seeing so many commenters fixating on Shane's downhill slide. As one of my grandpas would say, his troubles are his own.

The Pogues' Thousands are Sailing (5.5 minutes) is a story familiar to many of you with irish ancestors. One of mine, whose transport ship from Liverpool was refused landing in New York, came in through Canada, eventually making his way across that country before dropping down into the western U.S. Without reliable records, I rely on family tales of a man whose inner toughness and physical hardiness enabled him to survive almost unimaginable conditions. By the time their ship was finally allowed to dock in Canada, the "human cargo" was mostly dead or dying. He was so weak that he supposedly had to be carried off the ship, but insisted on being put down to walk the final step ashore on his own two feet. He promptly keeled over and landed face down in the dirt. The family story is that he bit into the soil, pushing a handful into his mouth, and declaring that american soil was "sweet but a bit dry" ... this was a plea for a drink ... whether water or alcohol is unclear ...

List of Failed Banks

2008-12-26T11:00:00.000-07:00

News you can use (but hope you don't have to):

FDIC's official list of Failed Banks.

If anyone knows how to find out when a bank begins to experience large withdrawals (because insiders always know what is happening, they get their money out BEFORE a bank fails), this might be an important clue that a bank is about to fail. So far, the failed banks I've done business with have both been taken over by larger banks, so FDIC insurance was not a factor, but the day is coming, folks. The increased FDIC-coverage (part of TARP) expires next year, so CDs that mature beyond then, are not covered. With the Fed rate effectively lowered to 0%, the next batch of treasuries may yield less than the purchase price. Treasuries are considered a "safe place" to park your money. Methinks a cheney-man-size safe might be a better investment.

Scary times, hunh?

kind of like watching a patient slowly bleed to death...

and aren't you glad that I waited until after xmas for that image?

Final Christmas Santa, laughs and good cheer to all

2008-12-24T01:39:00.000-07:00

My final christmas laugh is from Cheech and Chong, 6.5 minutes:

"Recession, repression, it's all the same thing."

May you all have a peaceful and enjoyable Christmas filled with love and good cheer! Hug everyone you care about (and even a few you could do without) and give special treats to all your beloved pets!

I have especially enjoyed the wonderful beautiful people I have met through the blogs ... I promise, I will be back blogging on the other side of this holiday!

Santaland Diaries

2008-12-22T18:29:00.000-07:00

If you're looking for something hilariously irreverent to do this time of year, I hope the stage play of "Santaland Diaries" by David Sedaris is being performed in your area.

If you can't attend a live play, you can read the comic essay in David Sedaris' "Barrel Fever" and also "Holidays on Ice" books.

Santaland Diaries is the story of Crumpet the Elf. It meshes Christmas capitalism and woes of unglamorous work strife as it tells the true tale of Sedaris’ employment as a santa elf in the Santaland display at Macy’s in New York City. It’s a world that places him amongst a cast of out-of-work actor coworkers, schizophrenic Santas and a varied waiting line of obnoxious children and parents. Among those who like a non-traditional seasonal tale, Santaland Diaries has become as much of a holiday tradition as A Christmas Carol or It's a Wonderful Life.

To listen to Mr Sedaris read a 7-minute excerpt on NPR in Windows Media: click here

Or, if you prefer Real Media: click here

Or, here is a 1-minute youtube teaser:

It has become a family tradition in my house to read Santaland Diaries aloud every christmas. This christmas may be especially poignant as so many people find themselves out of work and considering temporary christmas employment as a stop-gap measure to stave off the wolves at the door. Might as well go to the poor house laughing!

Another annual D.K. xmas tradition is to watch "Bad Santa". This hilarious Coen Brothers gem lives up to their skewed worldview. Billy Bob Thornton as Santa is your first clue this is not a normal xmas movie. His Santa is a bad-tempered washed-up alcoholic criminal who seems beyond redemption until he meets a very sad little boy. It was also John Ritter's last movie appearance. I believe he died as it was being filmed, and rather than try to rework his part, his odd character just disappeared. Only later do you realize, hey what happened to John Ritter? The x-rated DVD version is Badder Santa.

More Snow

2008-12-19T00:44:00.000-07:00

In case anyone is wondering WHY I keep posting snow photos, it's because snow is pretty rare down here. Most winters, although we see snow in the higher elevation mountains around us, we only get snow in town a few times, and it melts as soon as the sun comes out, usually that same day or next day. This is the first time I've seen snow stay on the ground for this many days in a row. Does that mean we are in for a rough winter? Hope not.

We got dusted with another 3 - 4" overnight, so here's what I woke up to this morning.

At the far end of our backyard is a rough stone waterfall and pond which might be visible if it wasn't all snowed in and frozen over.

People have asked us why we don't keep Koi Fish in the pond. I cannot imagine subjecting them to this in the winter, followed by baking hot 110-115 degrees all summer. Besides, the pond is pretty small, just big enough for me to worry that Clyde might fall in if he slips in this snow. {click to enlarge any photo}

The sun finally came out late today which made for a nice walk.

Here's Clyde's and my snow outfits. I probably overdid it with my big double-thick Eddie Bauer stadium coat, but if I don't wear it now, when will I ever?

Why does Clyde look so unhappy? Because he hates wearing clothes! For half of the walk, he shakes his head around trying to fling them off. Eventually he gives up and resigns himself to being humilated for the balance of the walk.

According to blogger count, this is my 150th post! I never thought I'd make it this far. But it is really Enigma of Watergate Summer who deserves many thanks for setting up this blog in the first place. She even named it! She must've thought I had something to say ....

So, for Enigma and anyone else who sees a resemblance between Geo W Bush and Richard Nixon, and is glad one is already gone and the other leaving soon, here is a vintage, but very timely, Phil Ochs singing "The Land you've Torn out the Heart of" ...

Click here if you want to know more about Phil Ochs.
For a real heartbreaker, listen to his When I'm Gone.
Joan Baez' cover of There But for Fortune is probably the biggest commercial success of a Phil Ochs song. If you search YouTube, you'll be amazed at his body of work and how many people have covered his music over the years.

Snow on the Mountains

2008-12-17T13:03:00.000-07:00

With temps expected to reach 40 today (wooo-hooo, a day above the 30's), the clouds lifted enough to get a few pics of the view from my backyard. More snow is expected tonight, temps dropping to 25. No sun, the sky is white.

Here is what the little red hills in back of us looked like yesterday. Because of the snow cloud cover, you wouldn't know there was a 10,000-ft tall mountain directly in back of them:

Here's how it looks today (see I told you there was a huge mountain in back of those little red hills). This is Pine Valley Mountain. The highest point is Signal Peak Summit (10,365-ft):

Pine Valley Mountain is a large rock outcrop surrounded by desert. It is part of the Pine Valley Laccolith, one of the largest laccoliths in the United States. Since Pine Valley Mountain is isolated from other mountain ranges, it is an interesting geological anomaly.

Here are some snowy Las Vegas palm trees :

Hey, if this snow keeps up,

maybe we can build a snowcat!

(with catnip whiskers)

yummm...

VIVA ZAPATOS!

2008-12-15T20:58:00.000-07:00

VIVA ZAPATOS!

No, not Emiliano Zapata (at least not in this case, though I think Zapata and his Army of Liberation would approve of this shoe revolution).

Zapatos are Shoes, as anyone who has taken a first-year Spanish course can tell you. (P: Donde estan mis zapatos? R: Los zapatos estan a sus pies.)

Hundreds of Iraqis joined in anti-US demonstrations to protest at Bush's farewell visit to Iraq on Sunday. In the aftermath of the 2003 U.S. invasion, Iraq was plunged into a deadly insurgency and near civil war.
Throwing shoes at Bush was the best goodbye kiss ever ... it expresses hatred of all things Bush. It was the least thing for an Iraqi to do to Bush, an unrepentent war criminal who has killed two million people in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I have a feeling Bush has not seen the last of shoe throwing.
To learn more ...

NYT writes of the Shoe-Hurling Hero:
"Calling someone the 'son of a shoe' is one of the worst insults in Iraq. But the lowly shoe and the Iraqi who threw both of his at President Bush, with widely admired aim, were embraced around the Arab world on Monday as symbols of rage at a still unpopular war." The article says he is being hailed as a hero and may receive some kind of Medal of Courage.

Or read The Rude Pundit:
"Someone should be there every day of Bush's life to throw shoes at him. Hell, someone should market a fuckin' game that includes a Bush face mounted with velcro with tiny shoes that'll stick to his puss." He also says he is mailing old shoes to Bush today with a note inside, "this is a farewell kiss from the American people, you dog" ... He visualizes "giant sacks of shoes heading to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC, 20500"... just in time for Xmas!

Snow Wimp

2008-12-15T11:37:00.000-07:00

Yes it's true. I am a snow wimp. To me, this looks like a lot of snow! Temps dropped to 22 overnight. The high for today is predicted to be 33. At least the wind has died down. Glad I am not driving anywhere.

Here is the scene from my courtyard (front porch to you easterners). I think snow looks prettiest with red rocks poking up through it:

Palm Trees look out of place when dusted with snow ... like something is wrong with the universe.

This is about as White Christmasy as we will get.

I hope.

Too many years of California sunshine has turned me into a snow wimp.

**********

Clyde is worried about his daily walk. Very worried. There are still many neighborhood inflatable santas and reindeer that need to be peed on. Here he is standing under a protective deck cover considering his dwindling options of where he might pee and not get any of that floating white stuff in his eyes. Maybe if he is very quick about his business, the redhead will let him back into the warm house. She's pretty strict about outdoor bathroom facilities for dogs, although she promised to truss him into his fleece coat for the walk. Clyde is not sure which is worse, snow or wearing that coat, but it is better to stay on her good side because it is freezing ass cold out here!

**********

We just heard Andrea Mitchell telling us that the shoe incident yesterday (see post below) is being celebrated in Iraq today. Citizens are marching through the streets of Baghdad with shoes on poles. I bet they have signs, too, but she declined to show us any photos. She interpreted the shoe incident as Iraq saying to Bush, you are worth less than the dirt beneath our shoes. I just hope Blackwater can keep their guns in their pockets. Does anyone remember how our own revolution started? The shoe heard 'round the world!

Early Holiday Gift

2008-12-14T21:12:00.000-07:00

In some countries, the children leave their shoes outside the front door so Santa can fill them with goodies.

In other countries, the shoes themselves are the holiday gift.

Instead of spending this weekend working on his ideas for an auto industry loan, like he promised would be done this weekend in order to have something concrete to present on Monday, President Bush staged a surprise visit to Iraq.

Surprise, surprise! Santa doesn't like it when promises are broken. He knows when you've been bad or good, and when you've been very bad, beyond lump-of-coal bad, he arranges for one of his elves to throw shoes at you.

"This is a goodbye kiss, you dog!" said the shoe-throwing journalist. The shoe heard 'round the world!

For the background story with short video and slide show, click here (Huffington Post).

For the full C-Span coverage, all 38-minutes, Click here.
FFWD to Minute 17 to watch the shoes fly. C-Span cameras caught a different perspective. You can see blood on the carpet and hear the reporter screaming as he is drug away. I don't know why all the reporters are shhhushing. I couldn't see where Dana Perino was in order to get injured. Keep watching for Bush's press conference afterwards. The reporter's screams can still be heard coming from outside the room. You can skip everything after the presser ends.

ps, nice dodge, mr bush. nimbleness may become an important skill in your future. today it's shoes, tomorrow maybe subpoenas.

Sinterklaas

2008-12-09T13:23:00.000-07:00

This is a David Sedaris audio essay about St Nick. He is not exactly the Jolly Old Saint Nicholas we enjoy in the United States. Our St Nick is an obese compulsive cookie and milk eater who falls down your chimney with wrapped presents to disburse under a dying decorated fire hazard tree. The decidedly unique St Nick of The Netherlands, who travels with 6 to 8 black men, is known to mete out harsher punishment than a lump of coal to naughty children. The scenes in this 6-minute version seem to be from the annual St Nicholas Parade in Amsterdam (warning, there are no similar parades in the US):

That was a truncated somewhat sanitized version of the fuller-bodied hilarious Sedaris story which you can read by clicking on: "Six to Eight Black Men". One of Sedaris' many non-writing jobs was as a Macy's Elf which may explain why he was personally insulted to learn that Saint Nicholas would consider elves to be silly and unrealistic (more about that in a future post).

David Sedaris' offbeat observations about Christmas celebrations meshes perfectly with my less than Christmasy feelings this year.

50 of the 533,000

2008-12-06T17:08:00.000-07:00

533,000 U.S. jobs were lost in November. This is the story of 50 of those jobs...

Employees Shocked to See Famous Dave's Closed November 23rd:

The local Famous Dave's Legendary Pit BBQ restaurant closed its doors Sunday, with management citing sluggish sales figures. The news came as a shock to restaurant employees when they arrived Sunday to begin their work shifts. None of the employees were notified of the impending close, including those working the late shift Saturday night. After the Saturday night shift ended, moving trailers arrived to remove the interior furnishings and equipment.

"I came into work as usual, but everything was getting packed up and moved onto trailers," said Dan B, a former server at the restaurant. "Nobody knew what was going on. They could have at least told us." Dan's fiancee, Ashlee, who waited tables at the restaurant, said she was devastated to see her job vanish overnight. "I would've appreciated any type of notice," she said, "in order to have time to find another job". Dan and Ashlee now face the grim reality of unemployment as they struggle to provide for their 3 children in the midst of a nationwide economic crisis.

Scott Morton, the area director for Famous Dave's franchise locations in Utah, said he was notified last Friday of the decision to close this location by the parent company, William Tell, Inc. He said the employees were not given prior notice in order to prevent them from skipping the last few days of work and/or from stealing valuable items during the final days.

Some employees, including Dan, were offered compensation for Sunday if they helped load the moving trucks. "Some work is better than no work," Dan said of his decision to spend the day hollowing out the contents of his former employer.

Famous Dave's is a franchise operation. While the local restaurant originally employed 100 people when it opened here in 2004, it had reduced employees down to 50 over the last year as revenue dropped due to poor sales. Famous Dave's has over 100 franchise locations in 40 states. The local Famous Dave's is part of the William Tell Inc regional group of franchises, which includes Applebee's Restaurants. The owner/president of William Tell Inc is John Prince who has, to date, expressed no regret over the way the employees were treated.

***********

DK's remarks: The people who live in my isolated smallish town are generally courteous and quite mannerly. Rudeness is not normal behavior. That's why I find this story particularly egregious. It was like an early bird combo Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas eff-yew to Famous Dave's local employees and their families! I can't help but wonder if the woman with the carload of kids who withdrew her last $2 from the bank just prior to Thanksgiving was one of their employees (see post below).

If the store manager or franchise management were so afraid of employee theft, why not just have laid them off Friday morning and given them 3-days pay (Fri-Sat-Sun) while they moved out? It's not like they were making any money by having them work those days. From what I understand, the local Famous Dave's was losing money every day it stayed open. I bet it would've cost them less to pay those employees for 3-days of hourly wages than it did to keep the doors open and attempt to sneak out in the middle of the night.

It is quite a personal slap in the face for employees to show up for their work shift and find that their job is no longer there. It's also a slap in the community's face to brazenly betray so many workers and leave them with nothing. They will now have to start from scratch in a tough job market. I understand the labor laws here did not require any notice to hourly workers, but what about the employer's personal code of conduct or sense of fair play?

Yes, the employees will be able to claim unemployment compensation, but that is cold comfort when what they really need are jobs. No doubt some of them will end up enlisting in the military as an employer of last resort. Ashlee and her 3 kids may reside in some ramshackle base housing unit while Dan goes abroad to explain democracy to Afghanistan or Pakistan!

I will no longer be eating at any Famous Dave's. I'm also boycotting Applebee's since they are part of the William Tell regional group of franchises that owns Famous Dave's. In fact, the other night we ate at a locally owned restaurant, Scaldoni's. The prices were higher than a franchise, but it was worth the splurge for our anniversary (33-yrs!). Besides, I was happy to realize that the money spent in a local business stays here, rather going to line the pockets of a slimeball like John Prince.

To paraphrase an old TV series, "There are 533,000 stories in The Naked City, and this has been 50 of them"!

The tranche trance, and other thoughts today

2008-12-03T13:57:00.000-07:00

TRANCHE (of french derivation, so swallow the "n" & say something like "twrawhsh"): I first heard it from Secretary Paulson, then Congress, next the Obama economic team, and now even TV newsreaders are using it to spice up their repertoire. It sounded so exotic, I figured I should look up how it pertains to treasury matters ...

Tranche: Certain securities, such as collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs), are made up of a number of classes, called tranches, that differ from each other because they pay different interest rates, mature on different dates, carry different levels of risk, or differ in some other way. When the security is offered for sale, each of these tranches is sold separately.

Wow, I feel so tranchy now (remember to swallow the "n")!

Other Thoughts Today ... A, A, B, B, B and V ...

A = Auto Industry: The Big Three upped their "bridge loan" request to $34 Billion today. It was $25 Billion last week before Congress asked them to submit a business plan. Well, preparation of business plans cost a lot ... $9 Billion in this case.

A = Auto Workers: The UAW says the Big 3 CEOs can agree to work for $1/yr and every union worker could agree to work for free, and it still won't save the american auto industry! This really floored me because it's pretty much an admission, by the guys representing the 3 million workers who are facing unemployment, that the Big 3 are going down no matter how much we throw at them. I hate to agree that Mitt Romney may have a point that perhaps the best solution for them is to reorganize under bankruptcy. Tough Love!

B = Bush (remember him?): Listening to "W" try to weasel his way out of analyzing his failures is such fun. Analysis would require introspection and we all know he doesn't do "do-overs"! So, he thinks the big failure of the Iraq War was that he fed himself bad intelligence?!? Cooked intelligence must taste like depleted uranium. He reminds me of Frank Sinatra singing, "Regrets, I've had a few, but then again, too few to mention".

B = Bill Richardson was formally named as Secretary of Commerce today. This cabinet post is ready for some vast expansion due to Obama's sweeping economic plan for job creation. If Congress confirms Richardson, it puts him in the cabinet and ready to move into another cabinet slot should things not work out with anyone already there (like Hillary or Gates). It's no secret he was very interested in Secretary of State. I congratulate him for not pitching a fit and for being ready to help wherever needed. I, too, liked Richardson's beard and was sorry to see it removed. So sue me.

B = Bank Story (a sad little story of how bad things are): I had banking business that had to be conducted INSIDE the bank last week. While sitting at the bank officer's desk, waiting and waiting for them to process my request, I notice that from my position, I can hear every conversation that the drive-up teller has with a drive-up customer. I hear a woman asking the teller to check the available balance in her account. The teller says "$2.48". I can hear a carload of kids screaming in the background. The woman then says, "how much can I withdraw and still keep the account open?" ... the teller says "$2.00" ... the woman is silent for a few moments (kids still screaming in background). The woman then sighs and says, "OK, then can I please get $2.00 cash now?" ... the teller processes her request and the woman & carload of kids drives away. This was right before Thanksgiving.

V (click to read) ... "What would happen to the Chevy Volt if GM failed?" ... The Chevy Volt is supposed to be available in 2010. It has been promoted as a revolutionary break-through in plug-in electric cars. This was all announced well before such technology was available for production at an affordable price, but apparently GM figured they would somehow be able to get the price down. Earlier this year, GM started making noises about problems being encountered in the plug-in concept. In October, Congress approved a $7500 rebate for purchasers of the first 250,000 Volts if they are plug-ins. Limited numbers of Hybrids like Prius already get smaller rebates. Toyota has said that they COULD produce a pricey plug-in, but why should they when their hybrids are so popular?

Would you personally be interested in a Chevy Volt at $35K? How about $25K? We are talking a 40-mile gas-free range between charges, no gas, no emissions. There will be a 400-mile overall range provided by a small gas engine whose only purpose is to recharge the batteries. The state of Hawaii is already considering setting up plug-in recharging stations, like in Wal-Mart parking lots. Would this affect your decision? The way I see it is if no one is interested or can afford The Volt, then there is no hope for the american auto industry.

Is This News?

2008-12-01T11:43:00.000-07:00

The National Bureau of Economic Research confirmed today that the U.S. has been in a recession since December 2007.

The NBER is a private group of leading economists whose mission is to officially date the start and end of economic downturns. A recession is defined by 2 consecutive quarters of negative GDP. An official depression occurs when real GDP declines by 10% or more.

Does anyone else feel they've been purposely lied to? Remember all the assurances we were hearing all year about how sound our fundamental economy was? Turns out we were already in a recession, but up and down the line, most govermental spokespersons kept blabbing about temporary real estate market problems, soft landing corrections, short term small hike in inflation, how the 2nd Qtr GDP was not a loss, etc. Of course, all this came crashing down in September, with only Senator McCain failing to get the memo: ix-nay on the ound-say undamental-fays!

How long will the recession last? Here are the historical figures:

....(click to enlarge this table) ....
and note it does not even include Depressions, as in The Great Depression (which drug on for 10+ YEARS)!

So now it's official, wooo hooo! And all those who had been feeding so furiously at the Free Market Deregulation Table are loudly screaming for a share of federal bailout rescue money. They know $700 billion is only the tip of what will be required, and as usual, they are first in line for any free money. They know we will do whatever it takes to turn things around. It's up to us to make sure it is NOT free, that the strings attached to the money will ensure that it accomplishes the purpose of economic recovery.

Paul Krugman recently wrote, "anything that has to be rescued during a financial crisis, because it plays an essential role in the financial mechanism, should be regulated when there isn't a crisis so that it doesn't take excessive risks".

It's up to us to make sure the regulations that were so cravenly discarded, regulations that were put in place after the Great Depression to prevent it from ever happening again, are reinstated AND redesigned so that we can better understand how the system works to prevent future malfunctioning. It's my opinion that all the overly complicated financial products introduced as a sort of shadow banking system in the last 20-yrs were very disruptive. They weren't boring, but no one really understood them. By design?

Here's a brief recap of how billions of rescue dollars have been spent so far in 2008:

WALL STREET BANKERS:
$1.6 trillion in loans to banks in exchange for unwanted collateral (the Fed raised its monthly auction limit to $300billion in Oct '08).
$70 billion PER DAY "lent" to investment banks, since March '08.
$92 billion PER DAY "lent" to commercial banks.
$250 billion out of $700 billion allocated to banks in exchange for equity shares (no word on who got what or how they are using it).
Fed rates cut down to unbelieveable 1% in October 2008.
Unlimited Dollars to 13 foreign central banks (the cap was $24 billion in December '07, raised to $620 billion in October '08, but now it will be "unlimited" because apparently $620billion is not enough american dollars for foreign banks).

CORPORATE GOODIES:
$200 billion to bail out Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac (The Fed also took control of these firms & their $5 TRILLION in home mortgage loans).
$29 billion to Bear Stearns.
$152.5 billion to AIG.
$345 billion to prevent Citigroup from failing.
$25 billion in the works for automakers.
$270 billion in corporate debt commercial paper purchases ($1.4 TRILLION has been allocated for this program).
Business stimulus of $68 billion in tax breaks.

MAIN STREET: Stimulus checks totalling $100 billion earlier this yr.
$8 billion to expand unemployment benefits.
$15.5 billion drawn down from FDIC reserves after 22 bank failures in 2008 (I believe this brings the total reserve down to $40 billion).
$50 billion to insure money market funds, followed by $69 billion in direct money market debt guarantees. Then in October, the Fed said it will loan up to $600 billion directly to money market funds over the next six months (anyone smell another bailout on the way?).
$300 billion approved for at-risk home mortgages (but lenders aren't cooperating because they weren't mandated to, only encouraged to).
$100 billion more to underwrite cheaper home loan rates through Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac.
$800 billion approved for consumer loan products, incl credit cards & car loans (once again, lenders are not cooperating).
FDIC coverage increased to $250K per depositor through 2009.

This adds up to a staggering and unprecedented $7 TRILLION. Since some of this money is investment, it's not a total loss. However, "a lot of it will be lost" said Dean Baker, co-director of the center for Economic and Policy Research. Comforting?!?

I don't know about you, but after seeing how much has already been thrown at this beast and how little it has accomplished, Recession is starting to look a whole lot like Depression to me:

Debtor's Prison, or Detention Dungeon?