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Books I Read in 2010

2011-01-02T12:21:00.000-05:00

I didn't think I'd like an electronic book reader because I like the look and feel and smell of books. It took only a few days to change my mind.

Aside from the obvious advantages of buying books at less cost, the small size of a Kindle makes it easy to carry it everywhere. Those of us in whom dead time with nothing to read induces anxiety bordering on panic, this is an ideal security blanket.

My eyes do not like small print. In Kindle, pressing a button changes print size through a range of from tiny to huge. If light is dim, I simply enlarge the text a step.

Another advantage is, you can have that book you just read a review of, Right Now! When you remember a favorite author you haven't read in a few years, a search of the electronic bookstore at the moment you think of it brings up the author's titles. This accounts for the cluster of novels by Alan Furst near the end of the list and the first appearance of the prolific Loren Estleman after an absence on my lists of more than a year.

Because my Kindle is always with me, I get much more reading done than otherwise. I read more than one-third of last year's books on my Kindle in the last one-fifth of the year. Because of Kindle, and because I've finished reading Churchill's multi-volume account of World War II, my annual lists will probably approach or exceed the 70+ average before I retired and no longer had as much time to read.

The only disadvantage I've found is, maps are often too small. perhaps I'll delve further into the instruction manual to see if there is a zoom feature I'm not aware of.

The only paper books I read now are quarterly literary magazines. I haven't checked yet to see if subscriptions to "Granta" are available at the Kindle Store, but I will. If the cost is significantly lower than the conventional version, lack of photos in color may be acceptable. (If color is important, more money will get you a reader with color.) I'll continue receiving "Glimmer Train" as paper, regardless of electronic availability, only because I'm a charter subscriber and my set is complete.

Books Read in 2010—47
(K) is for Kindle
* means not the first reading

1. Betrayal -- John Lescroart
2. The Hinge of Fate -- Winston S Churchill
3. “Granta” 109
4. The Catcher in the Rye -- J D Salinger *
5. No Country for Old Men -- Cormac McCarthy *
6. The African Queen -- C S Forester
7. Ask the Pilot -- Patrick Smith
8. “Glimmer Train” 74
9. Split Image -- Robert B Parker
10. The Earp Brothers of Tombstone -- Frank Waters
11. Last Tales -- Isak Dinesen
12. The Girl who Played with Fire -- Stieg Larsson
13. Closing the Ring -- Winston S Churchill
14. The Last Stand -- Nathaniel Philbrick
15. The Lost Symbol -- Dan Brown
16. The Madness of Mary Lincoln -- Jason Emerson
17. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest -- Stieg Larsson
18. Supreme Justice -- Phillip Margolin
19. Where Have All the Leaders Gone? -- Lee Iacocca
20. Wo De Hombe -- W J Siemens
21. “Glimmer Train” 75
22. Shadow of Power -- Steve Martini
23. “Granta” 110
24. Chief Joseph -- Kent Nerburn
25. “Granta” 111
26. “Glimmer Train” 76
27. Triumph and Tragedy -- Winston S Churchill
28. The Professional -- Robert B Parker
29. Nine Dragons -- Michael Connelly
30. Painted Ladies -- Robert B Parker (K)
31. “Granta” 112
32. Our Kind of Traitor -- John le Carré (K)
33. The Reversal -- Michael Connelly (K)
34. Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman -- Jon Krakauer (K)
35. The Foreign Correspondent -- Alan Furst (K)
36. Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol I (K)
37. Spies of the Balkans: A Novel -- Alan Furst (K)
38. American Detective -- Loren D Estleman (K)
39. The Polish Officer -- Alan Furst (K)
40. “Granta” 113
41. Eaarth -- Bill McKibben (K)
42. “Glimmer Train” 77
43. The Archivist’s Story -- Travis Holland (K)
44. Road Dogs -- Elmore Leonard (K)
45. Finders Keepers: A Tale of Archaeological Plunder and Obsession
-- Craig Childs (K)
46. Djibouti -- Elmore Leonard (K)
47. Flyboys -- James Bradley (K)

They Myth of Jobs Creation

2010-11-21T13:36:00.000-05:00

Rich people do not wake up each morning and ask themselves how many jobs they can create today. Rich people do not "create" jobs. Jobs are the result of demand for goods and services. Goods and services are in demand when a large, confident, solvent middle class has money to spend on them.

In recent years, much of America's wealth has shifted from the middle class to the super-rich. It has shifted from those who would spend it on goods and services to those who sit on it in bad times, waiting for good times to invest it again. Good times won't return until the middle class has confidence, and confidence comes from having money in the pocket. Without jobs, or with widespread fear of losing jobs, people don't spend money on goods and services, which causes a further decrease in jobs.

Like it or not, it's government, not banks or hedge fund managers, that primes the economic pump to put money into the pockets of those who really create jobs: people who will spend it on goods and services.

For too many years, government economic policy as shifted wealth from those whose constant spending keeps them employed and the economy growing to those who don't spend it. The government needs to take some of that money back to pay its bills and to prime the economic engine.

Obesity Cure

2010-04-26T10:12:00.002-04:00

Smoking declined after tobacco advertising on TV was outlawed.

Prohibiting food advertising on TV will reduce excessive food consumption.

We get hungry when we see juicy burgers, greasy pizza, syrupy soda pop, and sweet desserts, not because we need food, but because we see it on TV and the power of suggestion makes us want to eat. Food not needed becomes fat unwanted.

Even I, at 6'1" and 160 pounds, have to resist the urge to grab an unneeded snack when succulent sandwiches appear on my TV screen. I stopped the habit of eatiing when not truly hungry 30 pounds ago.

You can do it, too, Slim.

Books I Read in 2009

2009-12-30T14:05:00.002-05:00

I started keeping a list of books I've read several years ago after reading Louis Lamour's memoir, "Yondering", which included excerpts from his reading lists over a long life.

One advantage of keeping a list is, I can check to see if I've already a book before I read it again. An unintended consequence of keeping a list is, I find it easier to let books go, to give them away or donate them to library sales.

Before I retired, I read about 75 books a year almost every year. When I was laid up recovering from shoulder surgery in 2004, I read 116. The first year I was off work or retired the entire year--2008--I read only 47. This year, it's 48.

Louis Lamour's lists include lots of history, biography, and classics. Mine run heavily to fiction, though not so much recently as in past years.

I include two quarterly magazines in my lists. "Granta" and "Glimmer Train" are book length.

I seldom re-read a book. Every book read twice is one less book I'll have time to read before I die. An asterisk following the author's name means I've read that book at least once before.

I'm working my way through a selection from my late father's shelves, mostly history, and mostly history of the development of the atom bomb during World War II and the political struggle to put atomic energy under civilian control afterward, both projects my father had a hand in.

But I'm always on the lookout for a new Robert B Parker or Michael Connelly or Loren Estleman.

This is what I read in 2009:

1. Kim -- Rudyard Kipling

2. Thinner -- Stephen King

3. Rage -- Stephen King

4. The Long Walk -- Stephen King

5. “Granta” 104

6. Roadwork -- Stephen King

7. Wagons West-- Elizabeth Page

8. The Autobiographer’s Handbook -- Jennifer Traig, ed.

9. Noon Wine -- Katherine Anne Porter

10. Pale Horse, Pale Rider -- Katherine Anne Porter

11. The Return of No. 44 -- Bob Rogers

12. “Glimmer Train” 70

13. Old Friend From Far Away -- Natalie Goldberg

14. Wild Horses and Gold -- Elizabeth Page

15. Acrylic Painting -- Wendon Blake *

16. The Fair Tax Book -- Neil Boortz and John Linder

17. Hot, Flat, and Crowded -- Thomas L Friedman

18. The Grand Alliance -- Winston Churchill

19. Notes for the Aurora Society -- Jim O’Donnell

20. Day of Deceit -- Robert B Stinnett

21. Sergeant York: An American Hero -- David D Lee

22. Scarecrow -- Michael Connelly

23. “Granta” 105

24. “Glimmer Train” 71

25. “Granta” 106

26. Bombshell -- Joseph Albright & Marcia Kunstel

27. A Peril and a Hope -- Alice Kimball Smith

28. Rain Gods -- James Lee Burke

29. A Reporter’s Life -- Walter Cronkite

30. The Last Detective -- Robert Crais

31. Journal of a Mountain Man -- James Clyman

32. “Granta” 107

33. Oh Shoot! Confessions of an Agitated Sportsman -- Rex Beach

34. Last Best Place: Montana Anthology -- William Kittredge & Annick Smitth, eds

35. The Witchfinder -- Loren D Estleman

36. The Lobster Chronicles -- Linda Greenlaw

37. “Glimmer Train” 72

38. “Granta” 108

39. Mosquitoes -- William Faulkner

40. 22 Stories -- Somerset Maugham

41. Great Short Stories of the West Vol 2 -- J Golden Taylor, ed

42. The Sea Wolf -- Jack London

43. Brighter Than a Thousand Suns -- Robert Jungk

44. Limitations -- Scott Turow

45. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo -- Stieg Larsson

46. Boulder: Evolution of a City -- Sylvia Pettem

47. NRA: An American Legend -- Jeffrey L Rodengen

48. Winter’s Tales -- Isak Dinesen

Butts and their Butts

2009-09-16T19:30:00.004-04:00

Even the cleanest campsites are usually littered with cigaret filters of varying ages, and, as I tire of picking them up, I think about the people who throw them on the ground or street or sidewalk, and I ponder what to do about it.

Juneau, Alaska, has a solution, though I don't know that the $200 fine is enforced.

People who probably don't consider themselves littering slobs toss their butts away without apparent thought. They probably don't pee on their living room carpets or spit on their dining tables, or maybe they do.

Before filtered cigarets became first popular and now almost universal, cigaret butts came apart in the first rain or after being walked on or driven over a few times. In the service, we field-stripped our butts when outdoors, scattering the tobacco and wadding the paper and, if filtered, the filter into a ball and putting it in a pocket for later disposal--in a trash can, not on the ground.

Three solutions come to mind. The easiest would be to outlaw filters on cigarets. You want to filter out and throw away most of what you just paid $40 a carton for? Get a filtered holder like the ones FDR used. Maybe they'd come back in style.

Next easiest would be perhaps to require filters to be biodegradable and soluble in water so they would disappear in the first rain.

Third, and troublesome to implement, would be to add a one-dollar filter deposit on each cigaret sold. You'd have to turn in your filters to get your money back, much as you do in states with bottle and can deposit laws.

Any one of those three options would have people howling about government restrictions, of course. So perhaps the best solution would be for smokers to refrain from being butts with their butts.

Everyone washes hands in a Mexican restaurant

2009-04-21T20:47:00.004-04:00

Frequent advice columns and newspaper features bemoan the fact that few Americans bother to wash their hands after using public toilets. We could take a lesson from Mexico.

Perhaps the guarantee of hand washing is an unintended consequence of saving money on plumbing fixtures, but it works.

I wandered into a small restaurant in Guadalajara well off the beaten tourist paths. After ordering, I went to the restroom to wash up. There were two restroom doors a few feet apart, and, between the doors in the dining area was a sink, soap dispenser, and paper towels. Inside the men's room was a toilet and nothing more. I assume the women's was the same.

All the regulars knew there were no washing facilities in the restrooms. Instead of duplicating sinks in both rooms, there was one common wash basin where everyone in the place could see it. If anyone, man or woman, came out of the restroom and did not wash hands, everyone in the restaurant would know it.

I doubt we could get away with such a system here in The Land of the Free, where we are all bound in straitjackets of rules and regulations. Health bureaucracies and building departments would never allow such a simple, inexpensive, and effective guarantee that all employees and patrons would wash their hands after using public toilets.

The Adventures of M. James

2009-03-13T17:11:00.004-04:00

Histories of wars written after the wars are won or lost lack suspense. Not only do we know the outcomes, the authors do, too, and it takes the edge off the story. But a diary of a soldier or sailor kept day by day during the war reads much differently.

Keeping a diary aboard ship was illegal in WW II, but Michael James wrote one anyway.

"Must not keep a diary. It's against navy regs, so says Adm. McCain. We'll see. During inspections I can hide it in the little safe where the weather codes are kept. That box is never opened for inspection. Weatherly's pint of gin is in there now." --October 24, 1943

The Adventures of M. James was published in 2005 by Turn of the Screw Press in Dublin, New Hampshire.

James served in the Pacific aboard the aircraft carrier USS Monterey for more than two years. His diary of daily routine and spurts of action imparts the uncertainty that histories lack. "Still no air opposition. We might just as well be off Nantucket. The shore fighting's tough though... Went to dentist today. Big cavity."

Warriors lack any concept of The Big Picture, and reading what few accounts we have of their wartime lives, written as events occurred, gives a perspective no post-war history can. "Not much opposition... I can't understand it. Either they're bluffing, or they've pulled out. Or lost interest. As I could, too, if things don't pick up... Actually, I'm not all that sorry to see no fireworks, for its absence means we're that much nearer the end of this business."

The book is a beautiful production, well illustrated with photographs and maps, a unique record written by a thoughtful young man who could, in battle, ponder that he took delight in seeing airplanes fall but would cringe to see a wren do the same.

[Disclaimer: Mike James has been my friend for more than forty years.]

The Peanut Murders

2009-02-13T14:21:00.003-05:00

If it were The Peanut Corporation of China, rather than of America, the execs and others responsible for knowingly distributing fatally tainted food would be tried and executed.

Facebook

2009-02-03T21:52:00.002-05:00

I see I've been neglecting my blog lately. I've been neglecting a lot of things lately, and it's all Facebook's fault.

I don't recall now who "invited" me to join Facebook. I thought such things as Facebook and MySpace were for very young teens and adult perverts. But, at least in the case of Facebook, I was mistaken. Damn near everyone I have known for the past half century is on there.

I keep thinking and hoping that the novelty will wear off soon so that I can return to more productive ways of wasting time. I keep thinking and hoping that.

Meanwhile, I'm reconnecting with old friends, some of whom I've not communicated with in decades. And, although I realize there are many ways to post photo albums online, Facebook provides an easy way to do that, and my "friends" know about it automatically.

So that's what I'm doing these days, for more hours each day than I care to admit, messing around with Facebook. I'll get back to serious stuff soon, I think. I hope.

Guns in Parks

2008-12-09T16:26:00.002-05:00

Senator Diane Feinstein, among others, is upset at the new federal rule effective in January that will allow those who hold permits to carry concealed weapons to carry those concealed in national parks and wildlife refuges. She says the new rule "will make our national parks more dangerous and will upset the delicate balance that exists between park visitors and wildlife."

Hunh? Does she think that gun toters will be taking potshots out their car windows at bison and bear?

The only change is invisible. The only guns affected by the change in policy are legally carried concealed guns. Concealed means you can't see them. You don't know they are there.

In most states now, many thousands of citizens carry concealed weapons every day, shopping, working, driving, walking, and eating in restaurants. Each of us comes in contact with armed citizens without realizing it. The only people harmed by this are those who make the mistake of criminally assaulting said citizens.

So go ahead and enjoy your next visit to Yellowstone or Grand Canyon, Senator. Some of those other tourists may be armed, or maybe not. You and the wildlife won't be able to tell the difference.

And if you can't tell the difference, what's the difference?

Getting the Hang of Whitetail Hunting

2008-10-18T11:29:00.002-04:00

To a transplanted westerner accustomed to hunting rather than ambushing, putting whitetail deer in the freezer looked too easy. The conventional and common method is to sit in a tree stand perched in a likely spot, and wait for a deer to come along. Why in a tree fifteen feet above the ground? Because deer don't look up, or so the books and magazines say. I think that depends on what the definition of 'up' is.

My wife usually comes with me and keeps me company in our double stand, but she stayed home last evening, nursing a sore knee from a tumble on the trail into the woods the day before. I also have a single stand a few yards from our double but on the far side of a large tree and facing a different direction with a different field of view. I haven't yet used it, primarily because my wife has been with me every day since the season opened; I didn't use it last night because the double has a better view of the place I most often see deer come out of the woods in the evening and across the fairly open grassy slough my stands are in.

I clipped a few twigs off a nearby tree that might deflect a bolt from my crossbow, then climbed into the double stand, hoised my bow with a length of parachute cord, cocked and armed it, and sat down to read for an hour or so until light began to fade and deer would begin to move.

I put down my book and stood holding the crossbow for the last fifteen minutes of legal light. In Ohio, gun hunters have to quit at published sunset, but archers can hunt until half an hour past. For my eyes, that last five minutes is usually too dark for me to shoot.

Ambient sounds included small birds flitting about and chirping, ducks quacking at the lake, a squirrel or two scampering and chattering, and leaves rustling in puffs of breeze. Farther away, the constant hum of traffic on three highways and the usual barking dogs. Underlying all else is a faint, high hum that I hear only when sitting in near silence, a hum that isn't really there but is perhaps an echo of too many years in airplanes.

A new sound from the woods got my attention, not from the left as I had expected but from my right. A hoof klonking on wood, perhaps, then crunches in the leaves too heavy for squirrels. I moved my feet silently to face the sounds as they grew nearer, nothing yet visible in the rapidly darkening woods. I eased the safety off the crossbow between thumb and finger; pushing it with thumb alone makes a sharp click. Then, for some stupid reason, I decided to turn to be sure no deer had come out of the woods directly behind me, from the direction I’ve most often seen deer in the evening. I turned very slowly, but not slowly enough.

Everything I’ve heard and read indicates deer don’t look up. Perhaps when deer are directly below or nearly so, 'up' is higher than they look, but when they are thirty yards away, as these four were, 'up' at someone five yards above the ground is a shallow angle.

If I'd not turned away, I'd certainly have seen them as they emerged from dense woods behind a thin screen of trees just in front of me and, incidentally, directly under my other stand. I’d taken the quiver off the crossbow to keep the bright plastic fletching from signaling movement, but motion betrayed me anyway. Three white tails bounced into view and vanished back into the woods. I heard at least one more that I didn’t see.

I checked my watch. Three more minutes of legal light and a minute or so past my practical deadline. The deer stayed just out of my sight and snorted as I stood motionless. I didn’t want to disturb them further, so I waited several minutes until I heard no more sounds from the deer before climbing down and walking home.

Had I not turned to look behind me but remained facing the sounds and motionless, I might be in the basement stowing venison in the freezer this morning. Next time I hear what might be deer, I'll face the sound and not move until the deer is closer to my stand, close enough it won't notice me aiming from above. Maybe. And once I've got that procedure down pat, some other error will no doubt make itself apparent.

Like salmon fishing, reading books and magazines about hunting isn’t education enough. Hunting deer from ambush is not as simple as it looks. It took me years to get the feel for catching salmon; I hope it doesn’t take that long for whitetails.

Other People's Dogs

2008-10-13T17:32:00.004-04:00

My retirement home ideal has been that it be within walking distance of a trout stream. That requirement has been superseded by a new one: I want to live where I can not hear other people's dogs.

I don't know why people bother to own dogs when they either stake them out or cage them in a small pen and, aside from feeding them, have no interaction with them.

My neighbors on one side have four dogs. One is a well-mannered Shepherd mix whose only social sins are crapping on the dogless lawn of a neighbor across the street and barking softly at me when I walk out my driveway, which begins at the property line a few feet from that dog's owner's house. This does not bother me.

The other three dogs are penned, a Beagle bitch and her two bastard offspring of undetermined paternity. The Beagle bays and barks for hours, and her kids' bark responses are set off by any motion or sound within their range of sight or hearing.

I told the man next door that it is not in my plan to spend my retirement years listening to his dogs bark 24/7, and that I have an electronic collar I will be happy to lend him. Dog barks, collar bites. Once the dog understands this, a dummy collar will suffice. I haven't taken the collar over there yet. I'm beginning to realize collaring one dog will be like turning back the tide with a pitch fork.

Former neighbors on the other side of me had a rotating assortment of dogs, chained and ignored. I sometimes went over there when no one was home to untagle some poor mutt's chain so it could get to its water bowl. I was happy when they all left, dogs and people. The house stayed vacant for many peaceful months.

The new occupants have dogs, cats, chickens, and ducks. The dogs were penned near the neighbors' house and seldom barked. I don't mind the crowing of roosters and the mutterings of ducks, but the dogs...

The neighbor decided to move their pens to the far side of their large lot, right next to the property line between our houses. He said the ground was too wet where they were. Their new Great Dane doesn't bark quite as much as the mutt in the adjoining pen, but, because they are close to my house, they bark furiously whenever we go out our door and into our side yard, or whenever our dog is within their view. Or just whenever. They think we are intruders on their turf.

We've been thinking for some time of enclosing our house and yard with a white picket fence, a decorative boundary that would keep our dog from wandering but would not be a barrier to the world. I'm thinking now of a six-foot board fence. Maybe if the damn dogs can't see me...

Skin Cancer

2008-09-29T12:35:00.002-04:00

Just because you're a hypochondriac doesn't mean there's nothing wrong with you.

I had a small, tender bump removed from my back last week. It was squamous cell carcinoma, the "good" kind of skin cancer. No cancer in the margins of the excision, which indicates it has not spread, but my doctor is setting me up with a dermatologist for more detailed examination.

I had a dark spot removed from my back a couple of years ago, and it was nothing but a dark spot. I almost canceled the appointment to have this one cut out because it was feeling better, and I have a tendency toward hypochondria about such things. But I didn't cancel, reasoning that it was feeling better because I'd quit picking at it after scheduling the excision.

I told the doctor that it may be another false alarm, but that I grew up at high altitude, had frequent childhood sunburns, and am of Scandinavian heritage, so I'm a little bit hair-trigger on weird skin things.

This thing was extremely innocuous. As I age, I get all sorts of small cysts and other lumps and bumps. Many I can rake off with a fingernail, and that's that. This one was a small bump on my back that I could barely reach and couldn't see. Unlike a pimple, it had nothing in it. It was tender, especially when I touched it or touched against it, such as a chair back. It felt like a small rose thorn. I get a lot of those mowing the lawn around our wild roses. But my wife looked in bright light with a lens and could see nothing. It was just red, tender, and a bit scabby.

Catch these early, and they're seldom a problem. Wait too long, and they may spread.

Good information here:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/squamous-cell-carcinoma/DS00924

No more sun tans for this kid.

Power is On

2008-09-22T22:46:00.002-04:00

I'm not sure which was more instrumental in geting our power back this evening, the amount of gasoline for the generator I bought today, or that I made the blog entry yesterday.

I took three five-gallon cans to town today. That's enough to run my generator for a week. I considered filling only one can, as I have an appointment in town in a couple of days and could get more then. But I filled all three, figuring that doing so would cause the power to come on before I could burn any of it.

This evening, late, a large white truck with a cherry picker cruised down our street with a spotlight following the power line. I grabbed a flashlight and ran out to the road to tell him wires were down at the very end of the road. He said a crew was down there already. He turned around and went back toward the highway. Half an hour later, the power came on.

Now that the water has had time to heat, I'm going to take a long, hot shower. And in the morning, I won't have to unplug the refrigerator to make coffee.

A Week Without Electricity

2008-09-21T17:24:00.004-04:00

It's been a week since power went out on 14 September, and we're nowhere near Galveston. The cold front, boosted by remnants of Ike's energy, whipped through southwest Ohio with hurricane-force gusts and blew down trees everywhere. Power has been restored in most areas--cities and towns--but our dead-end rural street isn't on the list of areas the power company hoped to get to this weekend and next week. So far, the weather has been mild and dry.

We're luckier than many. We are on public water and use our well only for irrigation. And we have a generator.

Rather than go to the trouble of installing an isolation panel to allow us to power house circuits with the generator without conflict with public power, we run extension cords in the basement door and up the stairs. We can power a couple of lamps, refrigerator, freezer, TV, DVR. and computer. We unplug the refrigerator to make coffee in the morning, and we cook outside on the gas grill.

I didn't use the generator until the second day when realization that power was going to be out for several days sank in. But I turned it off at night, even though it's a quiet Honda, and it wouldn't start the next day.

The generator sits on a shelf in the shed most of the year. Until this week, I never bothered to throw out old gasoline or use a stabilizer such as Sta-Bil to keep gas good. My generator had a stuck valve.

Hondas are easy to take apart, and the valve springs can be removed with fingers. I worked the valve up and down with pliers until it worked freely, put the machine back together (Success! No lefover parts!) and it started on the first pull. It's been running ever since.

This generator has a demand throttle; it runs only as fast and hard as it needs to. Fuel burn is less than three gallons a day. I fill it first thing in the morning, at four in the afternoon, and again before going to bed.

Being without public power was inconvenient at first, but we're getting used to it. The biggest inconvenience is, we have to stay near home to keep the generator running. We want to drive to Boston to visit a friend, but we can't until power is restored.

I still flip on light switches when entering dark rooms. I hope we get power back before that habit has time to fade. One nice result of no power is, we don't eat much. Too much trouble. I'd wanted to lose about fifteen pounds, and ten are gone already.

The sun is going down, so I'll go grill our supper. Steak and salad and a glass of wine.

And it's time to fill the generator again.

DHL's History of Self-destruction

2008-06-21T14:16:00.003-04:00

From the day the Germans bought DHL Worldwide Express, they have made one stupid decison after another, and now, with the company in ruins at its feet, DHL is holding a gun to its own head and putting pressure on the trigger.

I got off the Titanic a few days before DHL announced last month that it is scrapping its air operations in the United States and contracting for DHL shipments with rival UPS. My retirement date is later this month. But for 500 other pilots at ASTAR Air Cargo (formerly DHL Airways) and for several hundred more at Airborne Express Air pilots, plus several thousand DHL employees who are in mid-career, the results of DHL mismanagement are devastating.

Here is a link to a short video created by an ASTAR pilot that says it all:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HkXuLgt4ak

NRA vs Obama

2008-06-14T17:58:00.004-04:00

The fund-raising letter I received today from Chris Cox, Executive Director of the National Rifle Association's Institute for Legislative Action, hammers Barack Obama's record on firearm issues and his ill-advised, poorly worded statement to the effect that small-town Americans are bitter and, for solace, turn to guns and religion.

The letter does not mention any other candidate as being preferable, perhaps because the alternative may be closer to correct on guns, but he will be a disaster for the country on almost everything else.

Although I am a life member of the NRA, and although I realize Obama has no idea of the origins of the Second Amendment--what it meant to those who wrote the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and what it means today--he is on the right side of almost everything else, from health care and troop care to international relations and the economy.

So, I'm sorry, Chris, no money from me for the NRA-ILA on this one. All the money I can spare for causes these days goes directly to Barack Obama's campaign.

Jim Webb for VP?

2008-06-04T14:54:00.002-04:00

Given Obama's lack of military service, perhaps Senator Jim Webb would be his best choice for Vice President to offset McCain's status as a war hero primarily by virtue of his having been captured and imprisoned.

Webb is 62, older than Obama, but not too old.

Here is a quick bio of Senator Webb:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Webb

Note to Obama Campaign

2008-05-22T00:14:00.002-04:00

The same people who defeated Gore and Kerry may, in spite of all he has going for him, defeat Obama. He has no clue as to the meaning and origin of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. (Bill Richardson may be the only prominent Democrat who does.)

Rule 1: Never again mention hunting, sportsmen, or target practice in the same sentence with The Second Amendment.

The Right to Keep and Bear Arms is about DEFENSE! Self-defense, family defense, community defense, national defense, and, ultimately, defense of the People against a despotic government.

I fervently support Obama vocally and with money, but I have no argument to present to my friends who would like to vote for Democrats in general and Obama in particular, but will not because they are among those bitter folks who cling to their guns.

Hell, I'm not bitter. I'm not even religious, but I have studied the origin of The Second Amendment and I will go to the wall to defend it.

Obama's background has not given him exposure to the reality of the fact that the RIGHT to self defense implies the MEANS to self defense.

I wish someone would persuade our candidate to spend an hour or two perusing anything by Stephen Halbrook http://www.stephenhalbrook.com/, probably the quickest and most concise way to get a basic understanding of what the Right to Keep and Bear Arms means to this country's history and its future.

http://www.guncite.com/journals/haladopt.html

From the paper cited by the link above, Halbrook's

"Conclusion

"In recent years it has been suggested that the second amendment protects the 'collective' right of states to maintain militias, but not the right of 'the people' to keep and bear arms. If anyone entertained this notion in the period in which the Constitution and Bill of Rights were debated and ratified, it remains one of the most closely guarded secrets of the eighteenth century, for no known surviving writing of the 1787-1791 period states that thesis. Instead, 'the people' in the second amendment meant the same as it did in the first, fourth, ninth and tenth amendments, i.e., each and every free person. A select militia as the only privileged class entitled to keep and bear arms was considered as execrative to a free society as would be select spokesmen approved by government as the only class entitled to freedom of the press. Nor were those who adopted the Bill of Rights willing to clutter it with details such as non-political justifications for the right (e.g., self-protection and hunting) or a list of what everyone knew to be common arms, such as muskets, scatterguns, pistols and swords. In light of contemporary developments, perhaps the most striking insight made by those who originally opposed the attempt to summarize all the rights of a freeman in a bill of rights was that, no matter how it was worded, artful misconstruction would be employed to limit and destroy the very rights sought to be protected."

More on Accidental Gunshot

2008-04-02T11:08:00.005-04:00

If it's on YouTube, it's not a secret. While I agree that security information should not be in the public domain, it is, and perhaps by such exposure, stupid rules will become so obviously stupid to so many that they will be modified.

Not being privy to details, I was unaware of this trigger lock foolishness. This tends to validate my suspicion that something caught on and pulled the trigger as the gun was being stowed. As this video suggests, it may well have been the trigger lock itself.

Here is the video link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTODo6yxRWI

Accidental Gunshot in Cockpit

2008-03-26T19:42:00.004-04:00

Excuse me. "Cockpit" is out, "flight deck" is in. Sexism, you know.

The accidental discharge of the pilot's pistol was inevitable, and it's all because of the stupid government rules Federal Flight Deck Officers labor under.

As soon as I heard of the incident, I knew what had happened. I refrain from speculation normally, especially when I have no information other than news reports. (News reports are almost guaranteed to get it wrong on any story involving firearms or airplanes.) But this time, I would have bet a year's salary on what had happened.

I am not an FFDO. I considered volunteering when the program was developed, but I did not because I could not accept the restriction that let to this accident. Because I am not an FFDO, I will talk about a couple of issues that I would probably not be able to if I were an armed flight crew member.

People who do not routinely carry guns can't imagine that those who do are not conscious of the gun every second of the day. But those who carry guns are little more conscious of them than you are of your watch, your pen, your Blackberry, or your cell phone. People who put on their guns in the morning and take them off at night have accidents with their guns extremely rarely.

Guns do not go off when they are not being handled. I'll say this again:
Guns do not go off when they are not being handled.

The gun pilots carry is extremely safe mechanically. I have one, and I am impressed with it's safety and reliability. The only way this gun will fire is if the trigger is pulled a l-o-n-g distance. So what's the chance of accidental discharge? Absolutely zero, unless the gun is being handled.

Law enforcement officers do not normally put on and take off their guns several times during a duty day. When they do, accidents happen, most frequently something as simple as leaving the gun in a toilet stall. But FFDOs are not trusted by our government to have their guns on their persons all the time.

I won't go into specifics, but your armed pilot must strap his gun on and take it off several times during the course of his duty day. He or she is not allowed to carry the gun on his or her person except in extremely limited circumstances.

When I learned that the pilot's gun went off while the airplane was on approach for landing, I knew with moral certainty what had happened and emailed a pilot friend to that effect. A few minutes later, I saw the news story confirming my suspicion. The pilot, wearing the gun in a holster on his belt during the flight, was removing it from his person and stowing it in a specific piece of luggage as required by regulation. (We can't have these folks carrying a gun on their belts outside the airplane, after all.) He could have waited until after landing, but flight crews are busy after landing, especially if it's the last landing of their day.

Stowing the gun before landing is not an unreasonable thing to do. What is unreasonable, and stupid, is having to stow it at all.

Private citizens in most states, with a modicum of training (or with no training in some states), can carry a concealed weapon almost anywhere. Armed pilots, who have gone through rigorous training and who are, in effect, federal law enforcement officers, can not. Because of this restriction, they have to handle their guns far more than necessary, and, when handling guns, whether by ignorant children or by trained law enforcement officers, accidents will happen.

This required but unnecessary (and inherently unsafe) extra gun handling is one of the reasons I never applied to become an FFDO.

I hope they don't hang the guy whose gun went off. They should hang the jerks who wrote the stupid rules instead.

Mutual Endorsements: Obama and Richardson

2008-03-23T22:12:00.002-04:00

It was difficult to tell who was endorsing whom with more enthusiasm.

Governor Richardson was fervent in his testimonial for Senator Obama's candidacy, but Obama's following speech was not just thanks to Richardson, but an equally enthusiastic appraisal of the Governor's qualifications for the vice-presidency.

Obama needs someone exactly like Bill Richardson on the ticket with him. In his response to Richardson's endorsement, Obama let those who bemoan his lack of experience know that they can rest easy on that score. Richardson's experience complements Obama's vision.

Clinton/Obama Ticket? Bad Idea

2008-03-09T22:47:00.004-04:00

Regardless of who is the top and who the bottom, running those two on the same ticket would probably lose to McCain or to anybody else.

Bill Clinton and others who think the pair would be unbeatable are looking at it from the wrong angle in thinking that it would bring in all the voters who like either one.

There is a group of people who will not vote for a woman and there is another group who will not vote for a black. To some degree, the groups overlap, but the combination of both groups is larger than either one alone. If Obama and Clinton run together, they will push two groups of voters into voting Republican or staying home, not just one.

Either Clinton or Obama can probably beat a Republican this year, but if the GOP had not made itself so unpopular the past few years, it's unlikely that either one of them could overcome votes that will be lost automatically because of prejudice against sex or color.

Clinton or Obama can probably overcome McCain in November, but Clinton and Obama probably can't, not because of policy or personality, but because of numbers.

McCain/Clinton 2008?

2008-03-06T21:35:00.004-05:00

Hillary Clinton is beginning to piss me off. She sounds as though she's sucking up to become John McCain's running mate. In equating her experience with McCain's and saying Obama has none, she's feeding McCain his lines for the coming presidential campaign should Obama beat her out for the nomination. It's as though she sees it as all Hillary or nothing for the Democrats. If she has any party loyalty, she's hiding it well.

While I favor Obama, I've considered Clinton an acceptable nominee if that is the will of the people. But it appears she is so tunnel-visioned on becoming President that she doesn't care about the will of the people or anything else.

Take Michigan and Florida. The DNC's warning to the states was clear: If you have your primaries early, the votes will not count and elected delegates will not be seated at the convention.

But Florida and Michigan had their primaries early and some people voted anyway. In Michigan, she was the only one on the ballot. Guess what. She won. But that didn't matter because she didn't need those states then. She does now.

And since she does need them, she now says the Party should accept the votes and the delegates. She first said that there should be do-overs, but nobody wants to pay for them. So now she wants to change the rules after the game is over and seat the delegates that were not campaigned for. I'll be surprised if she doesn't take the issue to court.

I'm getting tired of her claiming qualification to "answer the phone at 3:00 a.m." for no other reason than she used to live in the house where the phone is. If that's experience, I'll take Obama's judgment, thank you.

And then this from Keith Olberman on MSNBC. Remember that flap just before the Ohio and Texas primaries this week about someone on Obama's staff allegedly telling some Canadian officials not to worry about Obama going after NAFTA, that that was just campaign talk? That shook confidence in Obama as a straight shooter and caught him, for once, flat footed. Well, guess what? Clarification from the Canadians: It wasn't someone from Obama's people talking about Obama. It was somebody from Clinton's campaign reassuring them about Clinton's anti-NAFTA campaign position. And, according to Olberman, Clinton flatly denied it.

The only good that will come of the nastiness of this contest is, it should guarantee that neither Clinton nor Obama will invite the other to share the ticket. Those that think this would be a winning combination overlook an important consideration: There is a group that will not vote for a black and another group that will not vote for a woman. The two groups overlap to some degree, but the sum of the groups remains greater than either one alone. In this case, two negatives do not result in a positive in November, unless you are a Republican.

I've been arguing for a long time with an old and good friend who is almost irrational in his dislike of Hillary Clinton. I still think he's off base on the subject, but not as far off as I thought he was.

I just sent the Obama campaign another hundred dollars.

Ralph Nader

2008-02-25T11:52:00.002-05:00

Ralph Nader is a delusional egomaniac.

For him to insist that the votes he received in Florida did not cause Al Gore to lose the Presidency requires twisted logic and a state of denial.

It's a bit like blaming a man who died of thirst for not drinking enough water after taking him from him the little bit of water that would have allowed him to live.

Probable Tickets Come November, Maybe

2008-02-07T16:01:00.000-05:00

Obama needs to run with Bill Richardson. Richardson has the international experience Obama lacks, he is Hispanic, and he is something rare among modern Democrats: he is not anti-gun.

McCain needs Huckabee as a peace offering to the religious wing. Also, Huckabee is not so tall as to make McCain look small. And there is no professional politician who is a stronger defender of the Second Amendment than Huckabee.

Dem Debate

2008-01-31T22:16:00.000-05:00

I'm glad the debate tonight didn't turn into a pissing contest the way McCain and Romney's did.

I think Clinton's health care plan is superior to Obama's only in that (remembering how I was as a young man) I'm not sure I would have paid out of pocket for health care if I had the option not to. Obama says all the people he's talked to say they'd buy health insurance if they could afford it. But he hasn't talked to people who don't go to political rallies. Point to Clinton.

While I understand what Clinton is saying about her vote for the Iraq resolution and her thinking that Bush abused the intent of the resolution, Obama scores in having seen it to it's possible consequence. Point to Obama.

Best line of the evening to Clinton:
It took a Clinton to clean up after the first Bush and it'll take a Clinton to clean up after this one.

As to style and potential effectiveness as President domestically, I think Obama has the edge. The Clinton name carries too much baggage. Internationally--especially in dealing with the Arab world--I think Clinton's sex would be a handicap and Obama's sex, name, and color would be assets.

As to electability, I sort of think more people combined would not vote for a woman and a Clinton than would not vote for a black man.

Given the overriding importance of defeating the GOP, I have to favor Obama for the nomination. At least for the moment.

Fantasy Convention

2008-01-22T21:49:00.000-05:00

After listening to the Dem candidates the past few days, I'm back where I was four years ago at this time. John Edwards is again my man, but with a twist.

I still think Barack Obama is the best face to meet the world and repair damage with, but I like Edwards' approach to the economy and his insistence on the importance of a healthy middle class. So here's how we get both...

Come the Nationl Convention, neither Obama nor Clinton has quite enough delegates for the nomination. The delegates Edwards has are enough to make either Clinton or Obama the presidential nominee.

So both of those worthies are doing their best to persuade the kingmaker to throw his support their way.

Obama: Give me your support, John, and I'll make you secretary of whatever you want, even vice-president if you want that.

Edwards: Why thank you, Barack. That is a tempting offer, but I have a better idea. We all know that I can make either you or Hillary the nominee. But it's also true that either one of you can make me the nominee. So here's the deal. You give me your delegates, I become the nominee, and you become the vice-presidential nominee.

Obama: Are you crazy? You're a distant third place in this!

Edwards: Not crazy, Senator. I can give my delegates to Hillary and you get nothing, or you can give yours to me and you get something. You get more than something. You get the experience that Hillary says, and that John McCain will say, you lack. After four years of your name and face being before the country and the world, any lingering fears of electing a black man to the Presidency will dwindle. You'll be all set for a run in 2012, or, well, let's say 2016, just to be safe. You think about that overnight and let me know. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm late for a meeting with the Clintons.

Dems and Second Amendment

2008-01-16T17:37:00.000-05:00

I switched to the Nevada debate at the end of Comanche Moon last night just in time for Tim Russert's direct question to the three Dem candidates asking their thoughts on the Second Amendment.

At least Clinton and Obama realize that flogging gun control is a losing proposition and admitted as much. John Edwards still thinks the Right to Keep and Bear Arms has something to do with hunting.

Clinton would like to reinstate the "assault weapons ban", even though the guns in question are not assault weapons and the law was not a ban on the guns but a ban on further manufacture of them, and even though the US Government conceded that the ban had no measureable effect on crime and its sunsetting did not increase crime.

Illinois is one of only two states that does not allow concealed carry of handguns by civilians under any circumstances, so perhaps Obama can be given a pass on his ignorance. At least he is smart enough to know he doesn't know everything; there is hope he may eventually study the Second Amendment's context and intent and realize the error in his absence of thinking on the subject.

Governor Bill Richardson is the only prominent Democrat since Hubert Humphrey that I'm aware of who understands the what and the why of the Second Amendment. Too bad he dropped out.

That leaves the Republican candidates. Ugh.

Mike Huckabee is pro-gun rights, not because it's politically expedient but because he understands what it's about. And he's a hell of a nice guy. Too bad he's a religious fanatic who would like to reshape the Constitution to fit his own superstitions.

Rudy Guliani is little more than an opportunist, and--rare for a Republican--anti-gun rights. At least he doesn't appear to be a religious fanatic.

Mitt Romney... Well, hell. What can anyone say about Mitt the Twit? Whatever anyone says, if it's not accurate when said, it probably will be if you wait a few minutes.

That leaves John McCain, the Old Man of the entire bunch. In terms of understanding the nuts and bolts of government, he may be best qualified, if only because he's been around longer. (Put your swords back in their scabbards. I said may be.)

But, wait a minute! We don't want an experienced person this time! We want CHANGE!

So does every bum on the sidewalk.

The scary side of wanting a complete outsider is, we may get another Jimmy Carter, a good-hearted guy who tried to re-invent the wheel every day but Sunday.

What this country needs is a President with the force of will and the moral standing to change the direction of government while using the existing tools and mechanisms of government efficiently and with understanding of the day-to-day basics of how our government works.

Many of the organizations I belong to and support will be urging me to vote a straight pro-gun ticket, as usual. I can't do that. The country may not be able to afford that.

Now comes the rumored possibility that Michael Bloomberg will enter the race as a third-party candidate, inheriting the crown of thorns sported by Ralph Nader and perhaps having the same effect: siphoning enough votes from the Democratic candidate to ensure the election of another Republican incompetent. (Not that Republicans are, by definition, incompetent; it just seems to work out that way. And, this year, with the possible exception of John McCain, it is that way.)

We live in interesting times. I hope we, as a nation, can survive them.

Supporting Obama

2007-11-13T11:29:00.000-05:00

I just joined Barack Obama's campaign for president. The article "Why Obama Matters" by Andrew Sullivan in The Atlantic, Dec 07, persuaded me to support him in spite of my primary objection: Obama's flawed view of The Second Amendment.

It will take decades for this nation to repair the damage the Bush administration his inflicted on our moral and political standing in the world. Sullivan's arguments for why Obama is the best candidate to begin this process are convincing.

As for The Second Amendment, the courts are beginning to define it in terms of original intent. Soon we will know if the Supreme Court will take on D.C. vs Heller. If it does, and if the Supreme Court affirms the lower court's opinion that the right to keep and bear arms is an individual right, what any president thinks of it will be at least muted and at most irrelevant.

So please take a moment to learn more about Barack Obama. There's a place in his campaign for all of us.
http://www.BarackObama.com

Right-to-Carry Video

2007-10-13T11:56:00.000-04:00

Maybe this video will help some of those who don't understand why many rational people carry guns.

http://www.usconcealedcarry.com/public/931.cfm

Postscript to Scooter vs Cat:

I checked on the cat last week. It survived just fine, though it had to be treated for a broken pelvis.

Interesting coincidence, that. A scooter accident nearly fifty years ago broke my pelvis. A simple pelvis break isn't always as bad as it sounds; break a donut in one place and it's still in one piece.

Scooter vs Cat

2007-08-12T22:12:00.000-04:00

I had to run to town for a minor errand. It was a warm day, so I rode my 125cc scooter. It was only the third time I've been that far from home on it, including the trip to town to take my motorcycle skills test.

I didn't see the cat in the grassy ditch until it dashed out into the highway. I hit it at about 50 mph. I wobbled but stayed up and stopped. As I slowed, I recalled the small dog that had dashed out of a yard and knocked my new Vespa out from under me nearly fifty years ago.

The cat was curled on the hot pavement as if asleep. I U-turned to get back to it before the next car hit it. I parked my scooter and picked up the cat and carried it to the house it had been headed toward. I set the cat on the porch and knocked on the door and told the man who opened it that I hoped this wasn't their cat.

It belongs to the folks in the house behind theirs. It was out cold when I picked it up, but it came to sort of, pupils huge and panting with mouth wide open. It had a patch of skin peeled back along its jaw, but the jaw is straight. The cat finally focused its eyes and began yowling and hissing at anyone who got close. It jumped up and hobbled off the porch and crawled under it.

I'd hit it on the left side, but the right hind leg wasn't working well. The cat did put full weight on it at one point, so I think it's not broken. I suggested they put water where the cat could reach it and said I'd check in on my way home. The cat was still under the porch an hour later, but it looked okay to me. I hope so.

The weird thing was, the folks were impressed that I'd stopped after hitting the cat. I thought only scumbag slimeballs (I'm being polite here) would hit a cat or dog and keep going. I guess I wasn't raised right.

New, "Improved" Stihl Chainsaw

2007-08-10T20:19:00.000-04:00

After dropping a tree on my saw last year, I bought a new Stihl. Couldn't get the model I had before, of course. They don't make 'em anymore.

The old one(s) had simple, screw caps for oil and gas tanks. Any idiot could unscrew them and screw them back in. The new saws have an improvement in the caps. They now have moving parts. Plastic parts. The new caps don't screw in. To take them off, you flip up a lever, turn it, and lift the cap out. to put it back, you reverse the process. Or try to.

The saw is new. It was probably only the fourth or fight tank of gas and oil. I filled the oil, put the cap back in, turned the lever, pushed it down, and the cap came apart in my hand. Cheap plastic.

It's not the kind of hole you can plug with a cork, so I'm idle for nearly a week while the Stihl dealer orders a new cap.

I'm not picking on Stihl. Too many manufacturers make unnecessary "improvements" that aren't as good as what they replaced.

They ignore a basic rule: Never mess with good enough.

How to Stop Massacres in Schools, Part Two

2007-04-18T22:50:00.000-04:00

In light of the horrible event in Virginia, I refer you to my post of 2 October 2006: How to Stop Massacres in Schools.

This latest mass murder will bring calls for more "common sense" gun control laws. Keep in mind that it is some of those "common sense" gun control laws that ensure that all the students, faculty, and staff, of nearly all schools at all levels will be unarmed and, therefore, defenseless against crazy people.

Keep in mind, too, that the Virginia Tech killer, had he been prevented from acquiring guns, could have inflicted far more damage and death with a can of gasoline and a match.

Put this sticker on your bumper:

THE BEST DEFENSE

AGAINST A CRAZY PERSON WITH A GUN

IS A SANE PERSON

WITH A GUN.

Web Site Up Again

2007-02-28T17:06:00.000-05:00

I've completely rebuilt my web site and will post my blog on it from now on. It's a bit crude at the moment, but I'll have it better organized soon.

Click the title of this item to go to www.ericrush.com

New Blogger Pitfall

2007-02-23T11:12:00.000-05:00

I finally switched to the Google version of Blogspot and, when it asked if I'd like to change the address to a domain address, I figured, Why not?

I assumed (big mistake) the Blog would somehow be linked to my web site, but what happened was, Google tried to replace my web site content with the Blog. My web site won't come up now, and, until I switched the Blog address back to blogspot.com, I couldn't view the Blog, either.

So now www.ericrush.com gets you "This Site Under Construction" and I'm waiting for my hosting company go get back to me on how to fix it.

Thank you, Blogspot and Google for assuming we're all Internet experts.

DO NOT try to change your Blog address to your existing web site unless you know a lot more about these things than I do.

Airport Thieves

2007-01-15T19:47:00.000-05:00

At least she had the expensive things in her carry-on.

She checked two bags in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Columbus, Ohio. She had an airplane change in New York. JetBlue all the way. JetBlue and the TSA, of course.

When she got home, one of the checked suitcases had the TSA's "Notice of Baggage Inspection" flyers inside, the sheet that notifies the passenger that the bag had been opened and the contents inspected. What the suitcase didn't have in it anymore was a clear plastic bag with low-value jewelry, a pedicure kit, and an unopened package of panties.

At least she had the expensive things, including the diamonds she got for Christmas, in her carry-on.

It seems unlikely that the TSA inspector would have stolen the items and then put the inspection notification in the bag, but you never know. It could have been a baggage handler in either San Juan or New York.

I emailed JetBlue and the TSA. No response yet from either, but it's been only a weekend and a holiday since I sent my complaint.

Sure, we all know, we're not wise to put valuables in checked luggage. My own rule is: Never check anything you ever want to see again.

But underwear?

Passengers are warned to leave bags unlocked for inspection. What TSA should do is open bags with the owners present, and allow the bags to be locked immediately after inspection.

Theft aside, there is a greater problem suggested by these common thefts from baggage, and that is this. If some people with access to baggage are such sleazy bitches and sons of bitches that they'll steal trifles from passengers, it follows that they might cheerfully insert a bomb in someone's luggage for a few terrorist dollars.

Expensive Good Deed

2006-12-17T11:37:00.000-05:00

I heard a chain saw close by the house and looked outside to see where it was. It was on the back of the lot next door. My new neighbor and a friend of his were cutting a tree near the line between our properties. It appeared he was on my side of the line.

I walked up the driveway toward the corner post and sighted to the post at the back of our lots. He was cutting ten feet or more inside my woods.

The men saw me looking and shut off their saw. I told them the tree they were cutting was mine. They walked to where they could see both corner posts and agreed they were over the line. I walked down to the creek and across and the man next door apologized. They’d been about to cut a dead tree that was on his side, but they decided it was too dangerous, as it could reach his house if it fell the wrong way. They noticed another tree was dead and decided to cut it without checking again to see which side it was on.

I told them no harm was done, as I’d have cut it myself, as it was dead. Told them to finish dropping it, as it was about to go, but that I wanted the wood.

Then I looked at the larger tree they’d been afraid to cut. I told them I had a winch on my ATV, and that we could tie a rope as high as my ladder would reach and pull it down when the cuts were deep enough.

I took my extension ladder over there and one of them climbed it to tie on a long rope while I fired up the ATV and went around to the trail up the back sides of our lots. I couldn’t find my turning block, so we just used a nearby tree to angle the rope around so I wouldn’t be winching it down on top of me.

We discussed where and how deep to make cuts on the tree. I realized that I knew more about it than they did, amateur though I am. All went well, except when the tree started to go, it hung up in another tree that I’d thought it would clear enough that it would lose a few branches and go to the ground. One stout limb in the falling tree hooked around a branch of the standing tree like a drunk hanging onto a lamp post.

We changed pulling angles two or three times and still could not pull the tree down, so I suggested we put a rope at the bottom of the tree, just above the cut, and winch downhill, toward the house, to pull the bottom of the tree off the stump and out from under the hung-up top. It didn’t work. The hinge between notch and back cut wasn’t completely broken. We couldn’t leave the tree in that condition, so there was nothing to do but cut some more.

Their saw was small enough that to use it would require moving from one side of the tree to the other. I thought that would add too much danger to a dangerous undertaking, so I said I’d cut it with my saw, the bar of which was almost the diameter of the tree.

I still thought pulling the butt off the stump and downhill would be best, so I planned an escape route for myself to a large tree I could duck behind. Then I turned the back cut into a notch and then carefully cut partway through the hinge. The tree moved and I jumped back, dropped the saw, and scrambled across the slick clay slope. It didn’t fall.

I went back across the creek to the ATV and winched the line tight, and the tree still didn’t budge. The three of us tried to pull it down with the rope that was still attached high, and we got it to move a little, but it didn’t fall.

Nothing to do but cut some more.

Because the tree branch was hung on one side of the tree, when the tree finally did fall, it would roll away from the hung-up branches, but I didn’t take that into account. I again checked my escape route to be sure it was clear. Being right-handed, I am more comfortable cutting from left to right, so I did that.

When the last of the hinge snapped, the tree began to fall, immediately rolling to the side of the stump toward me. I dropped the saw and again ducked behind my protective tree. The cut tree pirouetted out of the hang-up and crashed to the ground. The butt of the tree, when it rolled off the stump, smashed my chain saw beyond repair. I guess I’ll get myself a new Stihl for Christmas.

Who was it who said, “No good deed goes unpunished.”?

A-hunting we will go...?

2006-11-27T00:13:00.000-05:00

Hadn't planned on being home from a vacation trip in time for the Ohio firearm deer season, but we got back early, just in time for the deer hunt.

I haven't even finished unloading the camper and trailer from our trip, but we went to Dick's Sporting Goods and bought a two-person ladder stand Saturday. I spent Sunday afternoon putting it together, and Sunday evening dragging the 100-pound contraption down the road, through the woods, and across the creek to a public hunting area.

I set it up by the light of my headlamp, sweating in shirtsleeves. Damn global warming anyway.

Then I came home and began sorting through hunting gear and piling everything I'd need for departure in the morning darkness. When all my clothes and gear were in an orderly heap in the living room, and after I'd changed my shotgun barrel from smoothbore to rifled, I naturally checked to be sure my license and deer tag were in my waist pack where I always carry such things. No deer tag.

I looked again, looked other places. Hunting and fishing licenses, but no deer tag. After several minutes of thought, I realized I hadn't misplaced it. I hadn't bought it when I bought the licenses last spring. I don't remember whether I didn't bother with it because I was in a hurry, or whether the young clerk at the hardware had misunderstood me and hadn't issued it. Either way, I had months to take care of it. Except I forgot.

Too late on a Sunday evening to buy one at any of the stores I know that sell them, so I'll miss opening morning. But I'll be down at the nearest bait shop when it opens. And I feel lucky this year. I think I'll buy two tags instead of waiting to see if I fill the first one. I feel lucky, but also a little stupid.

Liberty Takes Another Hit in the Land of the Free (amended)

2006-10-30T23:44:00.000-05:00

It's just one more indication we don't live in the Land of the Free anymore, but in the land of Big Brother Knows Best. Big Brother being our all-wise government, of course, dominated at present (but not for long) by Republicans. Republicans shout loud and often about their committment to Liberty, but they are lying sons-of-bitches just as much as Democrats are in this regard.

It's not a big thing in the overall scheme of the Universe, but wise men have noted that we will lose our freedoms, not in one big landslide, but in gradual erosion.

It is now illegal to play poker online in the USA. This new federal law is an amendment to some Port Security bill. (It angers me that it's legal and acceptable to add amendments to bills that have nothing to do with the bills being amended, but that's another rant.)

What business is it of the government whether any of us wants to play games of chance or games of skill for money? What business is it of the government to meddle with any private or public affairs that do no harm to others?

It is definitely the business of government to protect citizens from the misconduct of each other. Do-gooders may argue that they are protecting the families of online gamblers from financial ruin caused by the activities of the head of the household. That was one of the arguments of the Prohibitionists when they outlawed drinking in this country, and we all know what a great success that experiment in Big Brotherhood brought down on our society. The only thing that compares with Prohibition of Alcohol in unintended damage to society is the present and continuing Prohibition of Unregulated Drugs, but that, too, is another rant.

Nobody says you or anyone in government has to like poker, like gambling, or like anything at all. But nothing in the Constitution says you as a citizen or you as a legislator have a duty, a right, or an obligation to impose your views of how the rest of us should conduct our lives.

Click the title of this post to go to Poker Players Alliance.

Note to Morons...

2006-10-16T12:23:00.000-04:00

You do not get extra points for being the last driver on the road to turn on headlights in the evening!

Side note: Those little lights that come on at the first position of the switch are called 'parking lights'. 'Park', as in 'motionless'. They are not 'driving' lights.

Driving with parking lights is worse than driving with no lights. Most parking lights are too small (assuming the bulbs aren't burned out. I already assume you never check them) to show up against a bright morning or evening sky. Dashboard lights come on, though, and now you can see the gauges (assuming you ever look at them), and you don't realize your big lights aren't on until it's really dark.

One more thing, obvious to anyone who pays attention (which is why I'm explaining it to you): You need headlights on most when you can see best. That's because you have the sun at your back, shining directly on everything you're looking at, including those oncoming drivers with sun shades down and sun glasses on. You can see them just fine, but they can not see you in the glare of the sun through dirty windshields--especially if cars ahead of and behind you do have headlights on.

Ever wonder why more accidents happen in morning and evening? I didn't think so.

How to Stop Massacres in Schools

2006-10-02T15:31:00.000-04:00

The reason school shootings occur in clusters is television coverage. Every murderous misfit who sees the physical and emotional impact such things have figures, "Hey, I can do that!"

TV is here to stay, though. So, like it or not, are guns.

The minds of people who aspire to slaughter are not so twisted that they don't realize that schools are perfect places to commit mass murder. Schools are gun-free zones. There will be no opposition.

Don't waste your breath and my time arguing that more gun control would solve the problem. We can all see how effective banning guns in and near schools is.

The best defense against a crazy person with a gun is a sane person with a gun.

The best practical way to reduce school shootings is to allow and encourage all school staff--administrators, teachers, and custodians--to take formal firearms training courses and to carry guns on their persons all the time at school.

Don't tell me guns in the hands of responsible people would increase the danger to the children. The only way to put them more at risk than they are right now would be to paint targets on their heads.

If a high percentage of adults in schools were trained and armed, all but the most detatched and demented would think twice about looking for headlines at the expense of children, and those who might try a school massacre anyway would not get as far with their projects as they do so easily now.

Dog Poison?

2006-10-01T13:37:00.000-04:00

I happened to mention to our dog's vet that we'd discovered an easy and cheap way to feed daily medication. Sprout likes raisins, so we just put the little pills in raisins and he gobbles them up.

The vet look stunned. Grapes and raisins are bad for dogs. Liver and kidney damage, I think it was. No matter which; raisins are off Sprout's snack table.

I told the vet that we'd taken raisins instead of expensive pet treats to the kennel the last time Sprout was staying there for a few days, and the kennel people hadn't said anything about raisins and dogs being incompatible. The vet was surprised that they didn't know.

I read in today's paper that Xylitol, a common sweetener in sugar-free gum and other things is deadly to dogs.

I think maybe Sprout's diet will be restricted to dog food and meat scraps from now on. Plus whatever he scavenges in the neighborhood and woods, of course.

Achoo, Part Two

2006-09-22T04:44:00.000-04:00

The wildlife agent sounded skeptical when I asked if I could legally trap or kill the fisher that probably killed Achoo the kitten. A fisher? I told him I'd take pictures to show him if I catch it.

Because it's a fur-bearing game animal, it can only be trapped in season and with a license. But I could live-trap it on my property and release it elsewhere with permission of the property owner.

Tractor Supply was having a closeout on live traps, a two-for-one deal. So far, I've caught four raccoons, a beagle, and the neighbor's cat. No sign of the fisher, or whatever it is. I don't know whether they're territorial or nomadic; maybe it's run out of cats it can catch in the neighborhood and moved on.

The Short and Happy Life of Achoo

2006-08-29T09:53:00.000-04:00

Achoo the kitten has been gone for nearly a week, and our hearts are broken as we realize she is undoubtedly dead. She and Sprout the dog went outside to play one day when I was at work. Achoo wouldn’t come in from the yard when Nereida had to go to town. We’d left the kitten out before because she knows where home is and always stays close. But she didn’t come in after Nereida came home, and it was an evening of thunderstorms and rain. I suggested she leave the front door open a little and Achoo would come in to eat, or, more likely, would come in to use the litter box. But she didn’t come in.

Achoo didn't come home on Friday, either. I thought perhaps she'd taken refuge at a nearby vacant house where other neighborhood cats hang out, or had climbed a tree and couldn't get down, or had followed Sprout out of the yard and had become lost in the woods, unable to keep up with the dog.

I had to fly to New York early Saturday morning, and Achoo was still missing. I was home Sunday for a few hours and hiked the woods around the house listening for Achoo’s weak meows. No Achoo.

Later in the day, Nereida thought she saw Achoo in the driveway. I looked through the window and saw an animal on its belly in a slight depression, but it wasn’t our cat. It stood and ran downhill through the tall grass and weeds toward the creek. It looked a little like a large muskrat or small beaver, but the tail was long and furry and it didn’t waddle but ran.

Nereida, Sprout, and I, were all aware of some small animal living across the street in the woods and brush. We’d never seen it, but we could hear it rustling around when we went to the road for the papers and mail. It occurred to me that the animal might have killed Achoo, if it was a carnivore of some kind.

When I got back to New York, I checked on the Internet for an animal fitting the impression I had of this animal’s appearance. Nothing fit. It was too large to be any kind of weasel I was familiar with.

Thinking of Achoo and her probable fate, it was and is hard to hold back tears. She was the sweetest, happiest cat I’ve ever known, and seeing Nereida’s delight in the fuzzy creature warmed my heart immensely. I could imagine Achoo running up to the strange animal, thinking it another friendly dog to play with.

I asked the crew I was flying with if they knew of any animal in this part of the country that might fit what I saw. They suggested a badger but weren't sure what its tail looks like. Size seemed about right, though, so I looked up badgers on the Internet when I got home early this morning. Nope, too much color variation in the animal, and the tail is short. So I looked up weasels. All are too small except the fisher.

Fishers fit what we saw in the drivewy. I didn’t get a clear look at the animal’s head because the tail was distinctive and grabbed my attention, but a fisher’s ears are small enough that they could have gone unnoticed while I was looking at the tail during the one or two seconds I had the animal in view.

Brushy woods across the street are ideal habitat for fishers, and they eat animals their size and smaller. So I think it is a fisher that killed Achoo and returned to the scene of the kill, perhaps hoping there were more such tasty morsels around.

A fisher in the neighborhood might explain the scarcity of young raccoons this year and the dwindling numbers of half-grown, semi-wild kittens in the neighborhood.

I will call the wildlife department to ask if it’s legal to trap or kill game- or fur-bearing animals out of season on my property to protect my pets. I’ll try to kill this thing anyway, but I’d like to know if I have to be sneaky in doing it.

We’ll want another kitten soon, but we don’t want to lose another one, especially this way.

If I Were Osama bin Laden...

2006-08-12T14:35:00.000-04:00

Osama wins even when his plots are thwarted. His victories are in our over-reactions.

After 9/11, when terrorists took command of airplanes with a few box cutters and the then-prevailing "go along to get along" response to hijackers, TSA stripped all passengers (and flight crews) of everything sharp, no matter how small or useless as a weapon. (Well, not everything. We all got to keep pens and shoelaces.) Stories abound of people having belts and other items of clothing confiscated because they had pictures or other representations of a weapons on them.

Then came the bumbling Richard Reid and his shoe bomb. Since then, we've had to remove our shoes to get through airport Security.

Now we have a thwarted plot to slip innocuous-appearing liquids through Security and mix them aboard the airplanes to make explosives and incendiaries, and our over-reaction is to strip all passengers of all products in liquid, gel, or paste form. (At least flight crews are exempt from this one. I think the TSA folks finally realize we already have control of the airplanes.)

If I were Osama bin Laden, I'd have noticed by now that just one clown with a fuse in his shoe can cause huge disruption to the normal course of transportation and commerce. I'd be thinking, "Hmmm..."

I'd not tell any of my underlings that this next plot is not designed to bring down an airplane, that it doesn't need to cause an explosion. All it needs to do is be discovered.

Here is the plan: Mold plastic explosives to look like human feces complete with miniature timers and igniters. Put them where the sun doesn't shine and board the airplanes.

Here's the REAL plan: Word of the turd plot will leak to police and security forces, just as the latest plan did. Now, imagine our response!

To prevent people from sneaking explosives aboard in this crude fashion, all passengers will be required to take a dump at security checkpoints and wait while the result is tested to be sure that it is shit and not Shinola.

Passenger air travel will instantly drop to absolute zero.

Osama wins without firing a shi- I mean, shot.

Have a nice flight.

Tobacco to Kill a Billion? Not Good Enough.

2006-07-14T18:54:00.000-04:00

Recent news stories make large of estimates that perhaps a billion people will be killed by tobacco in this century. So what? By the end of the century, all but a few of the youngest of us will be dead of something.

All tobacco does is reduce the average age at which its users and addicts die. Death at 70 rather than 90 has little effect on population.

Good-hearted but short-sighted people wail and gnash teeth because not everyone born lives three score and ten or better. Famine, AIDS, flood, earthquake, war, and bicycle accidents kill many well short of old age, and it's a good thing that's the case.

At six billion plus, the planet is overpopulated by a factor of eight or ten. Those events and circumstances that kill substantial numbers of us help push back the day of reckoning, but death by tobacco does the cause of population reduction only a little good.

The problem with tobacco is, it kills old people who have already produced their progeny. Car crashes are a better brake on future population; they tend to kill people young, before they breed.

However, as age of pregnancy drops, the effect of car crashes lessens. Maybe we should reduce the driving age to twelve. For the greater good of humanity, of course.

Smoke 'em if you've got 'em.

Word Errors: jury-rigged, jerry-built

2006-07-05T12:15:00.000-04:00

The most common screwup on these terms is mixing them: 'jerry-rigged' or sometimes 'jury-built'. I saw 'jerry-rigged' recently in The New Yorker and in an interview in the literary magazine, The Sun.

Jury-rigged means temporarily repaired with materials not intended for their new use. Break the mast of your small sailboat, and you could jury-rig a mast with an oar.

Jerry-built means slapped together with materials at hand, or poorly constructed from substandard materials.

Worst Steak Ever

2006-06-09T15:02:00.000-04:00

I had the worst steak of my life this week at the Arrow Café on US 30 in Lowden, Iowa.

We’d had lunch with friends in Colorado a couple of days earlier and the discussion touched on road food. Along the Interstates, everything is franchises and chains. You know what you’re going to get every time. It used to be that, to get good food along the nation’s highways, you ate where the truckers ate. That’s the way we like to remember it, anyway.

I like to stay off the Interstates unless I’m in a hurry. Scenery is closer, traffic is lighter, and the roads are more interesting. Food is sometimes an adventure.

We’d had steak dinners in a bar and grill in the small town of Burwell in almost the center of Nebraska. Good meat, cooked as we’d ordered, and the bill came to less than fifteen bucks for both.

We pulled in at the Arrow Café in Lowden the next evening and ordered essentially the same dinners: rib eye steaks, one medium and one rare, choice of potato unless you chose baked (we settled for mashed), and salad for me and soup for my wife.

The coffee wasn’t very good, but it almost never is in the Heartland, so we weren’t disappointed.

The “steaks” when they came were tough, tasteless, and identically cooked. Each had a trace of pink, but they appeared to have been boiled, or perhaps microwaved and then kept in hot water until served.

I asked the waitress what would happen if someone ordered a steak well done, as I showed her a cross section of mine. Would it come out shoe leather?

She was a young and didn‘t know how to respond to the customer’s lack of enthusiasm.

Neither of us could struggle through more than a few bites.

The tab was well under twenty bucks, not bad at all for two steak dinners, providing they’re edible. When I went to the cash register to pay the check, I set a napkin down on the counter with the heap of fat and meat for Sprout, a far bigger scrap feast than the dog is accustomed to. When I paid the check, the young man—I think he may have been the cook—automatically asked how everything was.

I told him that it was the worst steak I’d ever had, hands down, and I described them to him as I have to you. I said I thought they were boiled. He said they weren’t. I won’t call him a liar, but I’d sure like to see the cooking operation.

The credit card slip didn’t have a place to add the tip. The young man seemed surprised. “You want to leave a tip?”

“Sure,” I said. “It wasn’t the waitress’s fault.”

Word Errors Revisited

2006-05-23T12:47:00.000-04:00

I got an email from a friend and mental sparring partner objecting to my quibbling over fine distinctions between words. His argument is, language must evolve, and evolution implies change. (Implies, not infers.)

He cited Webster's 9th Collegiate dictionary.

There was a lot of controversy when Webster's 9th came out. Traditionalists thought it too permissive. I am one of those. I regard Webster's 9th not as a dictionary but as a door stop.

I have Webster's 7th and four or five others, but my favorite is Oxford American Dictionary published in 1980. It not only preserves distinctions between such pairs as flaunt/flout, imply/infer, and persuade/convince, it gives examples of correct usage and warns of pitfalls.

Oxford's entry: flaunt (flawnt) v. 1. to display proudly or ostentatiously. 2. (of a flag, etc.) to wave proudly >Do not confuse flaunt with flout. We flaunt our ignorance if we flout established grammatical principles.

Evolution of language is inevitable and good. Allowing language to lose precision is bad.

As in biological evolution, variations from the norm survive if they confer some advantage over the norm. If variations are not advantageous, they die.

Those of us old fogies who resist change do the language a service. We tend to defeat bad changes while good changes overpower the establishment and improve the language.

The Ivy in Poison Ivy

2006-05-19T15:21:00.000-04:00

As hard as poison ivy hits me, you'd think I'd have known better.

I was under two years old when I first contracted poison ivy, and I remember it. It was here in Ohio where I lived as an infant. It was a few blisters on one ankle.

The second time was worse, and I wouldn't admit for many years what had happened, though my parents and the doctor figured it out. I was about 8 or 9 years old and, while playing with friends in the foothills near my home in Boulder, Colorado, I responded to a call of nature and used the nearest suitable vegetation. Charmin it was not.

Not long after that, I got poison ivy on one forearm and spent several miserable days in front of the old Philco radio listening to Our Gal Sunday, Young Doctor Malone, and other soaps of the pre-TV era and trying not to scratch the blisters.

Susceptibility to poison ivy varies between individuals and within individuals over time. I didn't contract it again until recently, partly because there was little of it where I lived half of my life, and partly because the shiny leaves jump out of the background like a neon Beer sign in a funeral home. Over time, awareness of the leaves lessened.

All the poison ivy I'd ever seen was on the ground, knee high or less, so when I decided I didn't like a fast-growing vine with shiny leaves--three to a stem--on a shoulder-high tree stump in my yard, I simply yanked the tendrils off the stump and wrestled the roots out of the ground. It was only afterward that I considered it might be some other poisonous plant, maybe oak or sumac. I don't know what either of those looks like, but this vine had the tell-tale tri-leaves, and they were shiny. So I thought it wise to wash my hands thoroughly.

I can tell what I did with my hands before I washed them, and I can tell that I didn't wash my arms. By the swelling, blisters, and itching, I know that I scratched my left ear, rubbed the left side of my face and nose, and rubbed my chin. I also... Well, never mind.

The spray I bought to suppress the itch is white, so I look almost as bad as I feel, but funnier. It's supposed to dry up this affliction in a couple of days.

Meanwhile, after 60 years of dealing with the weed off an on, I finally made the connection between the name and this plant that I'd always noticed only on the ground. Only this morning did the obvious penetrate my fossilizing brain: Poison ivy. Ivy. Poison ivy. Ivy, a plant that climbs things! That's why they call it poison ivy!

Duh, as they say.

Word Errors: flaunt/flout

2006-04-18T15:43:00.000-04:00

One of the word errors that even educated people commonly make is to use 'flaunt' when they mean 'flout', as in "Jaywalkers flaunt traffic rules," and "Illegal immigrants flaunt border restrictions."

To flout means to show contempt for something such as a law or a social convention.

To flaunt is to display ostentatiously. People who wear gobs of jewelry and build huge new mansions flaunt their wealth.

And that's jew-ell-ree not jew-luh-ree, by the way.

Car Dealer Ripoff

2006-03-23T18:05:00.000-05:00

I've been happy with the dealer I bought my Dodge truck from ten years ago. Always had it serviced there (Murray Motors, Port Angeles WA) and never felt I'd been screwed over in any way. So when I moved away from there, I'd forgotten to be suspicious of car dealers as a breed.

I won't get into the $2400.00 brake job a dealer performed on that same Dodge truck here in Ohio. That one isn't resolved yet, but I'll post all the gory details here soon.

No, this was a simple starter problem, and in a Toyota, of all things. Toyota is one of the most reliable cars on the road. I'd never replaced anything on a Toyota, other than oil filters, as best I remember.

My Camry needed a new starter. The original one sometimes took several turns of the ignition switch to get past Click, and finally it stuck engaged and would not retract. The only way to shut off the starter was to disconnect the battery cable.

I pulled the starter, cleaned it up, and put it back in, but it wouldn't get past Click. Time for a replacement.

I stopped in at a NAPA parts store about thirty miles from home while on another errand (dropping off a Toshiba computer at a repair station because the power button works about as well as the Toyota's starter) to see if they had a starter on the shelf. They did not, of course, as Toyota starters are not a high-movement item, and to order a rebuilt there (well under $200 with exchange) would take a few days. I thanked them and said I'd try closer to home.

I needed to have the car working in the next couple of days, so I drove to the nearest Toyota dealer for the part. Didn't call first because the place is outside the range of my phone book, and I knew they'd have a starter in stock. They did. $357 plus tax!

(I noticed signs on the doors saying no guns were allowed inside. Now I know why.)

I told the man that the NAPA store could order one for under $200, but that I didn't have time to wait. He said, yeah, but this is a new one, and guaranteed for a full year and unlimited miles (or maybe it was ten thousand miles).

I'd have laughed in his face had I not been in shock. A full year, indeed! In nearly half a century of driving, this is the first time I've ever had to replace a starter in anything. What did I care about a one-year warranty versus 90 days for the rebuilt? And miles? Starters don't care about miles; they care about starts.

I considered walking out, but I did need to have the car running now, so I bought the damn thing and put it in. Good thing it works.

Foreign Management of US Ports

2006-03-13T15:36:00.000-05:00

I was as surprised as anyone at the announcement that a foreign company was to be given a contract to manage United States seaports. The furor was mostly over the fact that we appeared to be giving foxes a contract to guard our chickens.

I don't object to this now-dead contract because the recipients are Arabs. (I suspect that, if it had been common knowledge that a British company most recently held the contract, the objections would have also been loud.)

I object because I see no reason why the United States should farm out such a contract to any foreign entity. Why the hell aren't we taking care of our own ports?

Rush's Law: Why You Can't Get Pepper Out of Pepper Shakers

2006-02-26T19:57:00.000-05:00

One of my minor hobbies is swapping the caps on salt-and-pepper shakers in restaurants. Convention places the small holes on pepper shakers and the large on salt. This is backwards, of course.

Salt crystals are all about the same size. If any will fit through the holes, they all will. Ground pepper particles range from dust to chunks. If any of the particles of pepper are larger than the holes in the cap, the shaker will eventually be filled with particles to large for the holes.

Each time the restaurant workers fill the pepper shakers, the percentage of too-large particles increases. Eventually that percentage approaches 100. When it does, no one bothers to fill the shakers because they are always full. This is Rush's Law.

Letter to Cincinnati Enquirer

2006-02-22T20:48:00.000-05:00

Cincinnati Enquirer asked readers to respond to questions relating to the rights of citizens with concealed weapons permits. One question was, "Should employers be allowed to prohibit employees from having guns locked in their vehicles in company parking lots?"

My response, as published on 16 February:

To allow employers to prohibit employees from keeping guns locked in vehicles on company parking lots is to allow employers to deny employees the right to carry. Employees would have to leave their guns at home. Prohibition against guns in parking lots does worse than nothing to protect the workplace from an employee bent on murder. It guarantees all other employees will not have ready access to defense. The best defense against a crazy person with a gun is a sane person with a gun.

--Eric Rush

Wilmington

WCPO in Cincinnati gives TV a worse name, if possible

2006-02-09T19:35:00.000-05:00

Breaking news. Police arrest a man for a couple of rapes. Whoop-de-do. Hot news like that sure can't wait 'til 11 p.m. Hell no. WCPO has to break into Wheel of Fortune, the one and only TV program I like to watch, and present a live, rambling news conference of an officer giving all the boring details of the arrest.

But all was not lost! WCPO broke away from this really important news item and returned to Wheel just in time for the Bonus Round, and broke away from the program again a few seconds later, before the contestants had time to try to solve the bonus puzzle...Why, you ask? What was so important they couldn't have held off another ten seconds? They had to run all the commercials the didn't run in the normal spot because they were informing us of this hugely important arrest!

I fired up the computer to go to the WCPO web site to register my complaint, but the web site is even slower than the brains in the station management's collective skull.

Jerks.

DHL Custom Bike

2006-01-24T15:09:00.000-05:00

REBEL WITH A CAUSE: DHL HELPS CUSTOM BIKE ENTHUSIASTS HIT THE OPEN ROAD

PLANTATION, FL -- March 16, 2005

Tennessee-based Krooners to Present New Shipping Partner with
One-of-a-Kind Customized DHL Motorcycle

DHL, the world's leading express and logistics company, announced today
that Krooners, the motorcycle parts and accessories shop based in
Lebanon, Tennessee has chosen DHL as its exclusive provider of domestic
and international shipping services, and is encouraging all of its bike
enthusiast and retail customers to do the same.

In fact, Harry Tinsley and the folks at Krooners are so pleased with DHL
they decided to say thank you to DHL - biker-style! Harry and his team
just put the finishing touches to a one-of-a-kind, nine and a half foot
long, 120 horsepower custom DHL motorcycle in the company's distinct
yellow and red colors, which Harry plans to present to the company this
month.

34 Years Without a Cigaret

2005-11-09T23:36:00.000-05:00

Today, 10 November 2005, marks my completion of 34 years without a cigaret.

Happy Birthday, Katrina.

Love,
Dad

Stuck on a Toilet Seat?

2005-11-09T23:19:00.000-05:00

AP story last week about some guy suing Home Depot because, when using the toilet in a store in Kentucky, he found his ass glued to the seat. He's not suing because of the glue; he's suing because employees wouldn't take his cries for help seriously and the poor guy had to stay on the throne for a full fifteen minutes.

A couple of things scream BOGUS! in this story.

First is, who in his right mind would sit on a toilet seat in a public restroom without wiping the seat first?

You women might not know this--yeah, I guess you would--but rare is the man who, when pissing in a public toilet, will raise the seat. ALL public toilet seats in men's rooms are ALWAYS splattered with piss. Therefore, when forced to sit on one, what person would not wipe the seat first? And, if there were glue on the seat, he'd notice.

The next thing is, what kind of glue was it? Most quick-drying glues dry quickly. Most slow-drying glues dry slowly enough that it's hard to imagine someone sitting in it long enough to be glued to the seat.

I suppose the guy's story could be true. Perhaps the timing was perfect. Perhaps someone spread Crazy Glue of some kind on the seat immediately before this guy comes in, doesn't look at the seat, and sits down.

Perhaps the guy is from another planet and doesn't notice some clear, slimy looking gel on the seat.

But, even in Kentucky, I just can't imagine any man sitting on a public toilet seat without wiping it first.

Note to Home Depot lawyers: Even if the guy sticks (sorry) to his story, you can humiliate him sufficiently to make him want to forget the whole thing.

Supreme Court Qualifications

2005-10-03T13:55:00.000-04:00

What a nominee for the Supreme Court thinks of specific issues is not relevant.

What a nominee thinks of abortion, prayer in school, and capital punishment should not be an issue. We are not electing a city councilman or a senator, someone who we would expect to represent our positions on issues.

The only consideration when selecting Justices for the Supreme Court is: How does this nominee view the Constitution and its role in modern American life?

Does the nominee view the Constitution as laws or guidelines? Will the nominee make decisions based on what the Constitution says, or does he/she think that it's permissible to interpret the document the way he/she thinks the authors would have written it today? Does the nominee have the kind of mind that can separate personal beliefs and feelings from a logical interpretation of the Constitution?

We might not like some of the things the Constitution says, but the nation depends on courts that interpret it properly. If some aspect is outdated or, from the modern perspective, unworkable, we have the means to amend it. That it is difficult to amend the Constitution is a necessary protection against the document being changed to reflect the popular whims of the day.

Airport Insecurity: "Opus" Has It Right

2005-09-16T17:28:00.000-04:00

I hope you saw "Opus" in the comics last Sunday, September 11. It's a perfect illustration of how absolutely assinine passenger screening at airports is.

http://www.berkeleybreathed.com/images/thisweekstrip.jpg

A real-world illustration is what a uniformed airline pilot being positioned to another airport on a last-minute, one-way ticket goes through.

Because of a schedule change, after we landed at LAX and parked our airplane, we had to fly as passengers on another airline to SFO. Our company bought us e-tickets and gave us the access code over the phone.

We stood in line, got our boarding passes from the magic machines, checked our bags, and headed for the gate.

Because we were in uniform, the screeners assumed we were working and waved us to the head of the line where we stripped ourselves of metal down to our dental fillings, removed our shoes, and proceeded through the metal detector. The First Officer (copilot) went first, the Captain second, and I was last. Unfortunately, my boarding pass was visible, sticking out of my shirt pocket.

The FO had already put his shoes back on, gathered his bags, and left the screening area. The Captain and I were trapped. Because our tickets were coded for secondary screening--wanding, pat-down, detailed bag search--we had to undergo that farce while other passengers looked on with disbelief at a uniformed flight crew treated like vagrants being rousted by beat cops.

The screeners sort of apologized for the charade and said that, if they hadn't done this there, the airline folks would have had to do it at the gate when they saw the code on the boarding passes and noted that they hadn't been stamped by the screeners. They told us that, when we're traveling on a ticket to be sure to tell the screeners. I don't think so. Next time, it'll be folded in my pants pocket and out of sight.

But what of the FO? He'd escaped!

The Captain wanted us to tell the screeners that one of us had already gone through. I urged him to keep quiet, thinking they might shut down the entire section of the terminal while they searched the place for whatever bombs the FO might have planted. The Captain reasoned that, if the FO wasn't searched until we were boarding, he might miss the flight. I told him I didn't think the ticket-taker would even notice. We see what we expect to see.

The FO was waiting for us just beyond the screening area. We told him what had happened and he pointed out that it is illegal to return to the area after passing through it.

Our flight was boarding when we got to the gate. Each of us handed our boarding pass to the gate agent and went aboard. The agent didn't even blink.

The flight arrived safely. The FO didn't attempt to hijack the airplane, even though he'd not received the more thorough, secondary screening designed to further scrutinize the most suspicious passengers and make sure our manicure scissors have blunt points, not sharp ones.

No go back and read "Opus" again and tell me how safe you feel.

Halted Gun Sales in Louisiana

2005-09-11T11:31:00.000-04:00

From the Boston Globe:

"Baton Rouge, La.--As fearful residents rush to stock up on guns, Wal-Mart, one of the region's biggest suppliers, abruptly stopped selling them at 40 stores throughout the Gulf Coast."

I can't blame Wal-Mart for stopping sales, though I don't agree with that decision. People buying guns for protection who have never owned or used guns is asking for accidents and, this being the USA, guaranteeing lawsuits.

The problem of not being able to get a gun at the moment someone feels the need for one is a problem of failure to plan. People who think they might someday need a gun should not wait for a crisis. They should buy guns when their lives are normal and learn how to use them safely when they are calm and rational.

Expecting to buy a gun after the gunfight begins is like expecting to buy fire insurance after the house catches fire. It's like scrambling to fasten a seat belt after the oncoming car crosses the centerline. It's like wanting to buy cheap life insurance after being diagnosed with cancer. It's like trying to get a life jacket on after the canoe capsizes in rapids. It's like...

More from the Globe:

"One mother came in [to a gun store] to buy her first gun after she and her two children [...] witnessed a slaying on the streets of New Orleans. [...] 'I was a card-carrying, antigun liberal--not anymore. [...] I'm going back home, and I am not going back unarmed.'"

Great line, bad situation. A frightened, agitated citizen with a gun she is not familiar with.

By the way, it's okay to be a liberal and own guns.

Toyota Echo Headlight Adjustment?

2005-08-30T15:07:00.000-04:00

While driving my 2000 Toyota Echo across the country on an interstate highway with the trunk and back seat heavily laden, the headlights pointed much too high. One trucker I was behind in Montana put his wheels off the pavement so they'd throw rocks at me, and when I finally got around him, he got on my bumper with high beams and stayed there until I outran him at nearly 90 mph.

Thereafter, I overtook and passed traffic with headlights off, until I came to a lighted area at which I'd adjust the lights. The only problem was, I could not find any means of adjustment. The owner's manual was no help.

Being an ingenious fellow, I discovered that I could push down on the exposed back ends of the headlight bulbs. That raised the bulbs within the headlight, and that directed the beams downward. I cut a couple of sticks about four inches long and wedged them between the backs of the bulbs and some sheetmetal above them. For the load in the back of the car, the beams were exactly right. I left the sticks in for the rest of the trip.

In leisure time, I checked in daylight for some means of adjustment. No luck. I posted a query on the Car Talk forum and got one response that didn't seem to address the problem. Then today, in a moment of inspiration and desperation, I asked at the service department of a Toyota dealer: There is no adjustment, he said. The lights are set at the factory and that's that.

No wonder Toyota discontinued the car, I said. Too many Echo drivers killed by irate truckers.

Now, where did I toss those headlight adjustment sticks...

CheapTickets.com smells scammy

2005-08-29T23:06:00.000-04:00

I checked Travelocity and Cheap Tickets online and found much better prices for the trip I was planning on Cheap Tickets. More than a dozen flight choices at $329.

But! Every time I selected one, it came back with, "Sorry, that flight is now $800" or thereabouts.

After wasting time with this bait-and-switch game, I called Cheap Tickets on the phone. The voice said the inaccuracies occur when airlines don't update their prices.

I went back to the Comment page on Cheap Tickets and expressed my displeasure in what I consider a civil manner. Suggested they insist the airlines post accurate prices or dump the airlines from the service.

Now, back to Travelocity...

ABC and the end of the LLWS Championship Game

2005-08-28T19:32:00.000-04:00

People who run the TV industry are sometimes stupider than the people who watch the crap.

Tonight, what will probably be the most exciting baseball game of the year went into extra innings for the Little Leage World Series Championship. After the regulation six innings, after Hawaii came back to tie last year's champion Curacao in the bottom of the sixth, ABC shunted the extra innings over to ESPN2. Nothing wrong with that, unless you don't happen to receive ESPN2, which I don't.

And why did ABC bail out of the game except on the west coast and in Hawaii? So it could do what every other network and all the news channels were doing at the same time--telling us about the hurricane that isn't doing anything to anybody yet!

I was steamed. I don't watch TV enough to know if this sort of thing is common, but I enjoyed the LLWS far more than major league games. The kids spit less and don't scratch their balls on camera.

I tried to call ABC, but--surprise--the phone was busy. So I fired off an email that probably should have waited for revision after I'd cooled off. But, as I said in my email... Well, never mind what I said in my email.

Hawaii won, though, which was a good thing if only because the home plate umpire had earlier called a Curacao runner safe at home when he'd clearly been tagged out. Had the umpire had a better view of the tag, Hawaii would have won in regulation and the finish would have fit into its alloted slot on ABC's scheduling clipboard.

Rick Epting

2005-08-14T15:07:00.000-04:00

Two good friends exactly my young age have died in the past year. The first was from cancer and the second, Rick Epting, was from heart attack.

Rick and I were friends since grade school. In the second half of our lives, we lived only fifty road miles and a short ferry ride apart. We managed to visit each other maybe three times in those 30+ years. What the hell, there's always tomorrow.

No, there isn't always tomorrow.

http://www.skagitvalleyherald.com/articles/2005/08/13/obituaries/obits04.txt

License Plates in Ohio

2005-06-07T23:25:00.000-04:00

I laughed so hard I could hardly sign my name. I still haven't figured this one out.

I went to the govt building to change the title on my car from WA to OH so I could get OH license plates for it. No problem, said the license plates man. Just go down the hall to get an OH title and come back.

Did that. Clerk asked my "Social" and I rattled off the digits. $3.50 please.

Went back to Plates with the new title. Plate man asked for something with my Social Security number on it. I told him the number. Not good enough. He had to see paper.

Searched my wallet. Nothing in there had the number. My pilot license has it, but it's in my flight bag, not in my wallet. Haven't seen my SS card in years, though I think I have it somewhere.

But there was an out! All I had to do is get someone to accept power of attorney from me, and I could get the plates and registration. Anyone at all would do, and the person doing that didn't even have to show a Social Security number!

Any photo ID would do.

I could have grabbed anyone in sight to do the deed, but my fiancee was there with me, and she signed the form and showed her driver's license to the Plates man, and he wrote the registration and gave me my license plates.

Wait a minute, I said. I can't get plates without showing you something with my SS # on it, but I can grab any bum off the street with a photo ID to sign this pink piece of paper, and not show an SS #, and then you can give me my plates?

Yep.

Welcome to Ohio.

Jury Rigged/Jerry Built

2005-06-03T09:21:00.000-04:00

Novelists and other writers screw these terms up all the time. This week, I heard an NPR feature writer get it wrong: "jerry rigged", or maybe she said "jury built".

Jury rigged (not built) began as a nautical term referring to a temporary repair or replacement. It implies use of materials not designed for the purpose.

Jerry built (not rigged) means something slapped together, "built badly and with poor materials" (Oxford American Dictionary).

There will be a quiz later.

No-Fly List Diversions

2005-05-19T09:54:00.000-04:00

Why do the Homeland Security people divert arriving international flights from their scheduled destinations to Bangor, Maine?

It happens every few weeks. A flight leaves Europe for, say New York. When it's halfway across the ocean, the people checking the passenger list notice a name matches one on the No-Fly list. So they order the flight diverted to Bangor at great inconvenience to all those people headed for New York so they can talk to the person whose name matches one on the list.

So why can't they talk to that passenger at the original destination?

Is it a manifestation of the same desire to demonstrate power that causes some police agencies to block an entire freeway for several hours while they investigate a two-car accident in one lane?

2005-04-19T22:21:00.000-04:00

18-wheeler-1, Pickup-0

2005-04-19T22:18:00.000-04:00

Reverse Angle, as the football broadcasters say...

Tangle with an 18-wheeler

2005-04-19T21:41:00.000-04:00

While driving to turn in a U-haul trailer, I was stopped at the red light on South South Street at Sugartree in Wilmington, Ohio, in the left turn lane. Streets are narrow, so left turn hold lines are set back several feet to make room for turning trucks.
An 18-wheeler coming from my right swung wide to turn left across my bow. He hit the horn once as he wheeled around the turn, and I, realizing it was going to be tight, checked my mirrors to see if I could back up and give him more room. A car appeared snug behind the U‑haul, but I couldn’t tell how much room I had, if any. No matter. The truck was zipping along, and the trailer rode over the brush guard and into my left front fender amidships the trailer as the trucker finally hit the brakes.
I slammed the truck into Park and got out swearing, just as the trucker climbed down swearing. We were both swearing at the situation, not at each other, which is generally a good thing in that sort of meeting.
Meanwhile, the car behind me backed up a little and pulled around. I got back in and backed out from under the trailer and pulled around the corner to the right to clear the intersection, and the trucker finished his turn and pulled to the curb.
We went to a radio station on the corner to get the police department number and I stored it in my phone and called it and told the person of a minor, non‑injury accident at Sugartree and South South. She said a car was on the way.
The trucker called his boss and got chewed out for moving the truck. All we were thinking of was not shutting down that busy intersection for a bent fender.
It took the police officer about half an hour to fill out the report and the exchange of insurance information sheets for both of us. I was glad I had a current Proof of Insurance card with me. I explained that I didn't live at my license address anymore and was, at the moment, technically homeless. Gave him the address of the house I hope to buy.
The trucker got the ticket for improper turn. He protested that I was over the stop line. I was aware of the line but could not have said I knew I was behind it, or how much over it. Trucker said it was about a foot and a half. I checked where on his trailer my paint was and said he’d have got me anyway, but probably with the rear trailer wheels.
The only damage is to my fender panel. Hood and grill and lights are untouched, though the headlight points a little high.
The last two times I’ve damaged other vehicles in the past 30 years or so were both while backing without being able to see clearly what was behind me. Both were minor, my fault, and expensive. Had I backed into the car behind me and allowed the truck to clear, he’d have been out of the picture and I’d have had the ticket and probably damage to the trailer I’d declined insurance on. Far better to be stopped and hit in a minor skirmish than to hit something while trying to evade what's coming.

Another Look at Toilet Seats

2005-04-17T21:28:00.000-04:00

A friend who spends his life on the oceans of the world with his wife in a small sailboat offers this perspective on toilet seats.

A toilet is not a urinal! Sit on it! If you want to stand up to piss, install a urinal in your bathroom!

Good point. Any man who takes a leak in a toilet while standing in bare legs is aware that, regardless of aiming skill and target location, piss splatters.

I routinely sit on the toilet to pee in the middle of the night, but that's only because I don't want to turn on a light. The only times I stand are when I have clothes on, and it is too much trouble to partially disrobe just to pee.

However, whether my habits change or not, I'll never again be able to piss in a toilet while standing without thinking of my wise, seafaring friend.

It ain't the "Fast Lane"

2005-03-27T18:00:00.000-05:00

The far left lane, if not a designated car pool lane, is not the "fast lane". It is the PASSING LANE! If you are not actively passing slower traffic, and if there is a vehicle behind you, MOVE OVER!

Speed limit is not relevant. If you are doing 90 in a 55 zone, and the guy behind you wants to do 91, MOVE OVER!

This is hot on my mind because I just drove my Toyota Echo from Sequim WA to Wilmington OH, 2840 miles in 46.5 hours total elapsed time. Out west in the 75mph states (once you clear Seattle, which is not really part of the West but is a poor cousin of urban California), traffic moves fast and efficiently, and people tend to yield the left lane to overtaking traffic, regardless of speed limit and regardless of what speed traffic is moving at. Things change when you hit Sioux Falls SD.

East of Sioux Falls, traffic slows and there is more of it. This would not be a problem if drivers showed the same awareness and courtesy that Montana drivers do.

Until recently, Montana had no numeric speed limit. Safe and prudent, or something like that. In those days, even if you were doing 120 or so, you couldn't cruise the passing lane with complacency. Somebody doing 140 would run up your tail if you didn't pay attention. But Montana drivers learned how to manage traffic in those days, and they haven't forgotten.

I averaged 55.55 mph on this trip, miles into total time. That includes sleep stops. I drove no more than 5 mph over posted speeds, until I reached Iowa, which still has Interstates with 55 posted in many areas. I held it down to 70 most of the time in Iowa, though when traffic was sparse, my Echo seemed to drift up to 80 on its own. (No cruise control.)

On this cross-country trip, as I've observed on others, traffic moved fast and efficiently when drivers used the left lane as a PASSING LANE and not as Speed Limit lane or a Fast Lane.

If traffic enforcement folks routinely hanged drivers who cruise the fast lane alongside a truck when a dozen cars are on their bumpers, or who "pass" slower traffic on cruise control doing 0.1 mph faster than the passed traffic, we could save billions of dollars on highway expansion. Two lanes each direction are usually enough if all the drivers are paying attention and using the left lane to pass quickly and then move to the right. Six lanes each direction will never be enough if people don't use them properly.

Airport Insecurity Strikes Again

2005-02-22T12:43:00.000-05:00

All airline passengers can feel safer now. The Guardians of Air Safety just confiscated a small screwdriver bit I've carried for thirty years.

The rules, according to the screener in Cincinnati yesterday, prohibit tools except for those little screwdrivers that come with eyeglasses repair kits. So they took my unsharp, handleless screwdriver bit and left me the miniature stiletto in my glasses kit.

The screwdriver bit they took is less than two inches long, a quarter inch in cross section, with a slot screwdriver on one end and a Phillips on the other. It's the one that comes as part of a small-airplane fuel tank sampler. Years ago, when I no longer had need of the sampler, I bored a hole through the center of the bit and put it on a key ring with my fingernail clipper, and I've carried it in my toilet kit ever since. It's been through security many dozens of times since 9/11.

I explained why I carry it. I used to be a plumber, and loose fixture knobs in hotel rooms drive me nuts. I use the screwdriver bit to tighten them when I check in.

The Guardian of Air Safety was apologetic. He told me I could go back out of the insecurity check area, go upstairs to a US Mail station, mail it to myself for $3.85, and come back to go through insecurity again. I declined.

After I tied my shoes and picked up my bags, I told the Guardian of Air Safety that I was very glad that Richard Reid carried his bomb in his shoe and not up his ass.

Anybody know where I can get a carbon fiber screwdriver?

Void in Washington

2005-02-14T23:34:00.000-05:00

Next time you see an advertisement in a magazine for a raffle, look at the fine print at the bottom of the page. Often you'll see "Void in Washington and where prohibited by law."

Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, among others, sponsers drawings for such things as new trucks and hunting trips. The money spent on tickets supports RMEF programs. So why are we Washington residents not allowed to participate?

Washington law prohibits raffles in which the prize comes from out of state! After all, we can't have Washingtonians sending a few bucks out of state if the state isn't going to get a direct benefit from those dollars.

I'm writing to my state legislator today, asking him to change this stupid law.

Social Security Ain't the "Crisis"

2005-02-07T11:15:00.000-05:00

The President is worried because Social Security will go into the red some years down the road, and he wants to fix it right now. Meanwhile, his fiscal policies have put the entire nation deeply in the red with no foreseeable turnaround.

If our President had been the captain of the Titanic, he'd be urging the crew to fix a leaky faucet in a passenger's cabin right after he ran the ship into the iceberg.

Toilet Seat Problem--Solved!

2005-01-15T13:30:00.000-05:00

Men and women argue about whether the seat should be left up or down.

Women think men should put it down so they don't have to touch it Eewww! and so that they won't fall in when they go to the bathroom in the night and don't turn on a light.

Men think they should leave it up, if they bother to put it up, and if they think about it at all, so that women will know it was up and not pissed on when the man last used it.

Advice columnists, take note: Simple solution is for everyone to put both the seat and the lid down every time. Advantages are many. Everyone has to touch the toilet the same amount--no special privilege for squeamish folks. Pets can't drink out of it. Combs, toothbrushes, and electric shavers don't fall in. Babies can't fall in and drown. And, most important, when you are pulling up your pants and your cell phone falls off your belt... (No, not I. Friend of mine.)

That's Sequim, pronounced Skwim

2005-01-07T01:23:00.000-05:00

We can always tell when the person on the phone is not from here. "...and you live in, uh, SEE-quim Washington?" It's Skwim, folks. One syllable. Rhymes with 'swim'.

Sequim is an English approximation of an Indian word that means, "Land of old people who drive very slowly and use turn signals to indicate what they just did with the steering wheel."

Eric

Simple Election Ballots

2005-01-02T00:43:00.000-05:00

Washington had the closest election for state governor in the nation's history. Election and first recounts gave a narrow victory to one candidate, and the final count reversed the election and gave us a governor with a 129 vote margin.

At issue is the accuracy of counts by machines, scanners, and the like. Each recount found more votes lying in the bottoms of machines and otherwise not counted the first time or two. The whole thing reminds us of Landslide Lyndon's 87 vote victory for Congress in Texas a couple of lifetimes ago.

Marking ballots in pencil with a big X seems simple enough. No need to try to decipher "voter intent", no need to count the number of corners of chads that broke. But it takes forever to count the damn things.

The owner of a supermarket I worked in as a kid did not count the coins when filling out deposit slips for the bank. He weighed each denomination of coin and calculated the amount based on weight. It was far more accurate than counting coins.

A solution for Florida and now Washington election problems: For each race, issue a standard size, standard weight paper ballot. Voter marks an X for the preferred candidate. Vote counters pile the ballots in separate piles for each Xed candidate, and then weigh them. Vote count could be extrapolated extremely accurately from the weights. If weights are too close to call, then count them manually. That shouldn't happen often, and, if it does, one manual count settles it.

Words to Die By

2004-12-24T21:30:00.000-05:00

"The national government will maintain and defend the foundations on which the power of our nation rests. It will offer strong protection to Christianity as the very basis of our collective morality. Today Christians stand at the head of our country. We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit. We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in the theatre, and in the press -- in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of Liberal excess during the past years."

-- Adolph Hitler; Taken from The Speeches of Adolph Hitler, 1922-1939,Vol. 1, Michael Hakeem, Ph.D. (London, Oxford University Press, 1942),pp. 871-872.

Merry Christmas?

"Mouse" Electric Sanders

2004-12-19T21:30:00.000-05:00

Mouse sanders (Sears, Black & Decker, etc.) are very handy, all right, but anything beyond light duty ruins them. Heat buildup melts the Velcro-style hooks on the plastic bases, and then they will not hold the sandpaper.

So what I have is a functional sander, a box of Mouse-specific sandpaper, and two plastic bases that are useless.

I haven't checked yet, but I'd bet it's cheaper to buy an entire new Mouse and accessories than to replace the plastic bases.

They should make a heavy-duty Mouse model. Call it Rat.

In Defense of John Ashcroft

2004-12-17T21:50:00.000-05:00

I realize a lot of people, especially other Liberals, consider Attorney General John Ashcroft's interpretation of the Second Amendment as an individual right to keep and bear arms as one more reason to dislike him, but it's about the only thing the AG said that I agree with.

Here is a link to a DOJ memo with a concise analysis of the research supporting Ashcroft's opinion.

http://www.usdoj.gov/olc/secondamendment2.htm

Keep your powder dry.

Oops, Wrong Mail Box

2004-12-16T02:44:00.000-05:00

Our new rural mail carrier often puts neighbors' mail in my box and mine in the neighbors', but this one...

It's obviously a Christmas card. It's from a woman in Lafayette, Colorado, sent to an address in Boulder, Colorado, a distance of, if I remember correctly, about fifteen miles.

The address is printed correctly, though in red ink, and the Zip is correct for that part of Boulder--80304. But the Zip+4 the post office's machine prints and bar-codes at the bottom of the envelope is correct for my mail box--98382-8414--more than a thousand miles away.

I wrote short letters to the sender and intended receiver. I'll take the lost card to the post office and ask the postmaster how this card ended up in my box.

So, don't worry, Dr and Mrs Ham. Mary Ann's card is on its roundabout way.

Odd coincidence, but I grew up in Boulder, and some lifelong friends live only a block from where this card was supposed to go.

Damn, just realized I'm talking about a Christmas card. It's the 15th already. Of December! Guess I'd better think about Christmas shopping.

Now, where's that ten-spot I was saving just for this...

Selling the House

2004-12-09T01:06:00.000-05:00

These days, when you sell your house, it's a good idea to have a consultant come in and tell you what cost-effective things you can do to increase sales appeal.

Some things are obvious, but it would not have occurred to me to take my elk head off the wall and put it in storage to keep from turning off some rich city folks who think all animals should die of old age and out of sight.

But, it makes sense. People who'd appreciate how well the antlers go with the cedar walls won't think less of the house because it isn't there, but seeing it would drive other folks right back out the door.

It would not have occurred to me to have the moss removed from the roof, either. I like moss, and the roof will outlast me, moss or not. The moss comes off.

Then there is the hardwood floor. Yep, gotta get that sanded and refinished...

DeLay Debacle

2004-11-27T16:05:00.000-05:00

For information on Tom DeLay and the rule change to allow him to keep his position should he be indicted, here is the place to go: http://dailydelay.blogspot.com/

Greetings

2004-11-17T18:52:00.000-05:00

I dunno about this blogging business, but I'll give it a try. Maybe it'll cut down on the time I spend emailing.

I'm too busy right now to post much, but, if you have time on your hands (which you do, or you wouldn't be here), you can get a sense of who I am and what I think at http://www.ericrush.com