Thought You'd Never Ask

A 9/11 Tribute to Shreyas Ranganath

2011-09-11T07:48:00.006-04:00

Srinivasa Shreyas Ranganath was beloved and admired by people who knew him on two continents.

He was born January 4, 1975 in the southern Indian town of Bhadravati, and grew up in the big city of Bangalore. “Shreyu” was remembered by family and friends as a sharply intelligent, fun-loving boy, with a mischievous grin, an outstanding singing voice, and a twinkle in his eye. He was the rallying central figure in the informal but intense cricket matches and hide-and-seek games that he played so passionately with neighborhood friends on warm summer nights in the streets or in the backyard of his family’s home. Even as a youngster “Shreyu” seemed to have more than a hint of the hero and the role-model about him—many of his friends sensed it, and no one looked up to him and admired him more than did his own younger brother, who knew him best.

As Shreyas grew older and attended middle school and high school with his friends, he was transformed into a serious and diligent student devoted to his education--not afraid of hard work and very willing to immerse himself in books. Yet along with his mental talents, he also had a generous spirit. At 16, while a member of the National Cadet Corp and attending a camp event, he pretended to be 18 years old so that he might, along with the adults there, donate blood to the wounded soldiers in the Indian Army. It was evident to many who knew him that Shreyas was “a great soul.”

He studied at the Dayanand Sagar College of Engineering in Bangalore, and lived in the Basavangudi area of the city. But his interest in seeing the world and “meeting people of different cultures, backgrounds and beliefs” brought him to the United States, where he enrolled in the master’s degree program in Electrical Engineering at the University of Utah. Completing only one semester (Fall 1999), he decided to return to India—either because of health problems, as one source said, or because he found the winters in Utah too cold. Friends and colleagues who knew him in Utah remember him as soft-spoken, “the sweetest person I’ve ever known,” and “a very sincere student, very quiet, not into parties.” He did, however, like eating the sandwiches at the local Subway deli.

Back in his hometown of Bangalore, Shreyas developed a new passion. Once the center of British colonial rule in South India, Bangalore is now the country’s third-largest city with a population of over 6 million, and is known as India’s “Silicon Valley,” the center of high-tech innovations. There Shreyas became an expert professional in software design. “For him, it became an addiction,” said one friend. “He had a great love for software.”

He landed a job at Wipro Technologies, a global software services company, and “the largest independent R&D services provider in the world.” He worked long 16- and 18-hour days as a code-cruncher, but loved the work. And he still found time to help others, including bright young kids from his neighborhood who needed financial help to stay in school.

At the age of 26 he, along with three other colleagues from Wipro-Bangalore, was sent abroad to work as a software consultant on a three-month project for the firm of Marsh & McLennan Companies, a global professional services firm which in 2001 had 57,000 employees and an annual revenue of $10 billion. Once again Shreyas found himself able to visit the United States, enjoying his work while seeing new places and meeting new people (with his Sony Walkman as his “constant companion,” usually playing his favorite songs by the Irish rock band U2). He was assigned to work specifically for Marsh Inc., an insurance brokerage subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan Companies, located on the 97th floor of the World Trade Center’s Tower One in Manhattan.

A longtime friend and fellow employee of Wipro offered to share his Hackensack, New Jersey home with Shreyas and one of the other three consultants on the same assignment, Shashi Kiran L. Kadaba, a young man who was engaged to be married the following year. These three men spent many congenial evenings together, cooking elaborate meals of gourmet Indian food, or watching Hindi movies. Shreyas “appreciated Hollywood movies,” said the friend, “but he had a great taste for Indian movies.” On the evening of September 10, 2001 the three consumed “a wonderful dinner” in honor of the birthday of the Hindu god Krishna.

The following morning, a clear and beautiful Tuesday, Shreyas Ranganath and his three fellow colleagues from Wipro in Bangalore (Hemanth Kamar Puttur, Deepika Kumar, and Shashi Kiran Kadaba) reported for work as usual. When they spoke by telephone with their immediate superior in Bangalore, “the four sounded cheerful, at the beginning of yet another busy day in New York.” About an hour later they were murdered along with 291 other employees and associates of the Marsh & McLennan Companies who worked on floors 93 to 100 of the North Tower, where the first airliner hit. Forty-six other Wipro employees present in New York City that day were spared.

Shreyas Ranganath touched the hearts of many people in his short life. He had a certain quiet charm, a twinkle of fun, and an easy, sweet nature that many would later remark upon. His hard-working diligence, his excellence in his chosen field, and most of all, his generous spirit were his gift and inspiration left to the world. Wipro named a hall in Bangalore in his honor; the Marsh & McLennan monument and website bear his name. But more permanent than stone are the memories of small kindnesses and the not-so-small contributions he left and still leaves in the lives of the people he personally touched as he passed.

Shreyas Ranganath is not forgotten.

I have reposted this tribute (first run on September 11th, 2006 as one of the 2,996 stories told by The 2,996 Project). I did not know Shreyas Ranganath but after having written his story, I am sorry I didn't. I will not forget him. In fact, I have sponsored an Indian girl through Children International for the last few years, who my family and I are now supporting through college in India. I would not have thought to carry on his legacy like this if I had not written this memorial and been inspired by Shreyas Ranganath.

Half-day Kindergarten Curriculum, 1959-1960

2011-07-04T16:08:00.003-04:00

BLAST FROM THE PAST...I found this handwritten, mimeographed handout among some old papers my mother recently gave to me. It is evidently the handout given to my parents from my Kindergarten teacher at the beginning of my school career. I am sharing it here as both a curiosity and a public service, as a look back to a simpler, less hurried time, when America's children mostly came from two-parent families with a mom at home and were arguably better educated in the public grade schools.

Kindergarten Curriculum
1959-1960

Kindergarten is a time for growth and adjustment. The young child must adjust to a new authority figure, the teacher, and to a new and larger number of playmates than he has been used to, and to a completely new environment. It is exciting to be away from mother and home but it is also a bit frightening at first.

A daily routine is usually established from the beginning day. This helps teach the children to follow directions, accept responsibility, plan in an orderly manner, and gives a sense of security. We hope to help them develop independence in dressing themselves and caring for their individual needs.

Each day the children have an opportunity to use a variety of materials in the room. As the child learns to share with others and appreciate their rights, social values are fostered. He learns to use his time well, to complete the tasks he begins, and to take proper care of the materials he uses. He develops self-control and reliance.

Activity time helps the children learn to take part in group activities, await their turns, share with others and help them identify with a group. Use of equipment provides an opportunity to build large muscles and develop coordination.

Good health habits are important too. This includes caring for toilet needs, cleanliness, regular rest periods, 12 hours of sleep every night and properly planned nourishment.

Nature and science are also planned for in the curriculum. We strive to make the children aware of nature and the natural processes which occur.

Creative expression is very important in the total development of the child. It gives him an opportunity to explore with various types of art media and other forms of expression. Music provides a free and natural response for growth in musical expression. We also strive to help the child enjoy rhythm and singing and develop a good singing voice.

Story time introduces new words and meanings into vocabulary. It aids in developing the ability of interpreting pictures and following a sequence of ideas and becoming a good listener.

Later in the year the children will receive Reading readiness work books. They will learn to print their first names correctly and write and understand the numbers from one to ten.

All through the year we strive to develop readiness in the children, keeping in mind the areas which will be necessary for them for first grade work.

I also found several mimeographed worksheets featuring Mother Goose rhymes--"Jack and Jill," "Little Miss Muffet," "Jack be nimble," "Mary Had a Little Lamb," "Humpty Dumpty,"Hickory Dickory Dock," "Mistress Mary quite contrary," "Little Boy Blue," "Pussycat, Pussycat, where have you been?" and "Hey Diddle Diddle." I and the other children had illustrated each rhyme with crayons and had each produced a "book" for our parents to keep. I doubt any public school children ever learn these rhymes (or this vocabulary) nowadays. Not edgy or relevant enough for today's adults, I trow.

How to find a summer job

2011-05-08T14:49:00.003-04:00

So you need or want to find a job—maybe your first job—this summer, either to earn funds for school or to burnish your skill set, or both. It’s time to tuck your Social Security card into your wallet and print out a stack of resumes. But then what do you do? I can’t speak about the new technologies like Monster.com, but I can tell you how to find a summer job the tried and true old-fashioned way, based on my past successful experience. The most important part is how you strategize and attitudinize before you hit the pavement. Then, it all comes down to how hard you work at it. Finding the job and getting hired is the first and probably the hardest part of the work you do having a summer job!

Internships—a special case

First, are you in a position to distinguish between aiming for the money, or for the experience? If you are more interested in a formal internship, perhaps even fortunate enough to be able to consider an unpaid internship in order to gain an opening and contacts in your chosen field, you must figure out the specific logistics of how to apply, how and where you will live, and what transportation, funds, and other support you will need to pull it off. Usually internship programs have very structured, competitive, formal application procedures and deadlines that you need to know and follow. Some of the other advice below may apply to your work situation nevertheless, so read on and then use your best judgment.

“I just want to make some money!”

The vast majority of summer jobs for young people are not internships—they just pay you money to get you to show up and put forth your promised time and effort in a dependable manner for the contracted time period. Ideally, a well-chosen summer job will help you acquire new skills and contacts for your specific future career, making it a more interesting learning period for you. The bottom line, though, is that you at least want to spend your summertime industriously socking away some savings. And even the least glamorous summer job can go on your developing resume to show that you are mature enough to be employable. If you succeed at your summer job, you will make new friends and have good references for future work and better jobs up the capitalist ladder. The best part, though, is the nest egg in your bank and knowing that you (unlike the sloths on the beach) have used your mind, your time, and your energy wisely to advance and enrich yourself.

Attitude is everything

First of all, you must realize that there is no job too lowly for you to take, if you are honorably and honestly paid for legal work, and you do your part to fulfill your promised contract. The great part about a summer job is that the time period you are committed to is limited. But that is also the worst part about a summer job from the viewpoint of most employers. Why should an employer go to all the trouble to hire someone, file all the paperwork and deal with the legal and personnel hassles, train that person, trust that person to show up and perform properly and honestly, and then lose that person in a few short weeks? What’s in it for the employer? The sooner you start thinking like an employer, the sooner you will understand what it is you must convey and deliver in order to land a summer job.

Are you worth it for an employer to hire you? It is a considerable outlay of money and effort for an employer to even sign you on (the paperwork and legal requirements are tremendous these days). As a worker, are you worth the Federally-mandated minimum wage? Will you steal from him? Will you show up when you’re supposed to, or will they have to be scrambling to cover your absence? Will you work as you promise to, or will you come in late, sneak out early, take long breaks, disappear for lunch, or spend too much time yakking or web-surfing instead of working?

Do you care about the quality of your work? Can you learn the skills you are being hired to provide? Are you agreeable, friendly, presentable, well-mannered and well-groomed, or will you have “attitude” or “people problems” on the job? Will you be an asset as a representative of your new company? You are asking an employer to take a risk on you, an unknown quantity, in a time of recession and high unemployment. Why should he or she hire you at all, or instead of someone else older or more experienced?

These are the questions you must ask and answer for yourself before you even put together your resume.

You are not going out as a supplicant looking for a handout. Neither are you God’s gift to the community owed the entitlement of a job. You are seeking a voluntary contract with an employer for mutual benefit at agreed-upon terms. And your first, major hurdle is that you must convince the employer that you will uphold your end of the deal and are worth the risk. You must make the employer feel as excited and satisfied to hire you as you will be excited to have landed your summer job. You must make the employer feel that you have a great work ethic, will fit in happily with your coworkers, and will understand how you can fulfill what the company needs—and are happy to have the chance to do that and more.

And then while you are working at your summer job, every day you must make your employer even more happy he hired you than ever. Project a flexibility and enthusiasm to do whatever is needed to help out. Wow them with unexpected efforts, with creative, helpful work, with a thinking mind and elbow grease applied on the company’s behalf—and you will be on your way to a stellar career in whatever field you choose. From stopping to pick up a gum wrapper on the way in to work, to offering a well-thought-out suggestion on how things might be done more efficiently—the person giving more than what’s expected, who arrives early and is okay with leaving late, who is cheerful to be called beyond the call of duty and who can rise to any occasion, is the person most likely to succeed not just in any given job, but in life. This is the attitude to take with you on the job hunt and into every job.

As a very successful self-made businessman* once said in the depth of the Great Depression:

“There is as much opportunity today for the youth with ambition as there ever was. I would advise a young man: Always do more than you are expected to do and if you see something that needs to be done, do it yourself.”

Looking for work

So how do you find summer job prospects in a down economy? Start by telling everyone you know (friends, relatives, neighbors, acquaintances, Facebook, former teachers, folks from church and clubs) that you’re looking for a summer job. Check with your school’s placement office for referrals--and tips on job-seeking, interviewing, and crafting a current resume. Do research online and even check the classified ads sections of local newspapers (don’t laugh, I landed a typist’s job through a classified ad and three weeks later was promoted to Head Copywriter in a small publishing company—it happens).

The important thing is landing an interview where you can try to impress an employer with your presence, character, and thought-process in a face-to-face meeting—called “getting your foot in the door.” Meanwhile, be prepared to be surprised and take advantage of unexpected turns of fortune—and don’t pass up a good job because you are waiting for the perfect job that won’t materialize. After all, it’s only for the summer. Every week you're looking is a week you're not earning money.

Along with following up on any leads your personal networks can give you, you’ll want to start visiting companies and businesses in person to leave your (targeted) resume, fill out applications, and hope for a face-to-face meeting with the hiring person. At this phase you’re doing field research and practicing your business interview skills. But how to tackle this big area of possibilities? Begin by deciding what kind of business you’d most like to work for (retail stores, food service, computers, an office environment, driving/delivery, teaching, medical, entertainment, outdoor work). Focus first on firms you think might be hiring summer workers. Start with those companies closest to you geographically. Then do your research, prepare your resume, suit up, jump in, and start making the rounds.

If nothing turns up, don’t let up. Start looking farther afield, both as to kinds of businesses, and location. You should be working on sending out resumes and visiting businesses every day. Think about devoting a day to hitting a mall, or a neighborhood, and visiting every storefront. If one place is not hiring, ask if they know who is. Even if nothing comes of two or three weeks of such diligence, here is a real-life education you can get no other way and as such, it’s an investment in yourself.

Be sure to research the firms you are most interested in working for, so you can visualize the interview from their side of the desk, knowing their specific business needs and goals and how you can help them. Google makes this kind of research so easy these days! And don’t forget to make early contact with businesses that rely heavily on summer seasonal hiring of young people, such as amusement and water parks, summer and day camps, tourist venues, nature centers and parks, and tutoring services—they are used to evaluating and hiring young people for limited periods, and are already geared up to process job-seekers like you.

Another option is registering at a temp work agency if there is one in your area. If you have any keyboarding, software, or certain other skills they may be able to find you temporary jobs in your area starting the following day. Manpower is one of the oldest and largest such agencies. There are also government agencies and government jobs programs you may want to look into if all else fails and you don't mind the blind, slow-grinding wheels of bureaucracy and political patronage.

The sooner you start your job hunt the better. After all, there are thousands of young people out looking for the same jobs.

Don’t forget to stay organized, keep your paperwork straight, remember names and spell them properly, have someone proofread your resume, and be sure to send your handwritten, personally directed thank-you notes immediately following any interviews you have. Don’t be stingy; send them everywhere and to anyone who takes a moment to help you. This human touch of good manners and appreciation on your part may distinguish you from the crowd and result in your getting the call back for another interview or an outright job offer.

After you have acquired the skills and spent the time to land a job, and then spent your summer weeks working hard and saving cash, you will be relieved and proud to be able to head back to school where (if you don’t have to have a job working while in school) all you have to do is please and invest in yourself for the next nine months, instead of pleasing and working for an employer. You will have a new appreciation of the dynamism of the working world—and the luxuries and freedoms of the academic world.

*Jacob P. Goettel (1861-1941), a leader in clothing merchandizing in Syracuse, New York.

Read more:

How to land a summer job

How to write a resume

Books I read in 2010

2010-12-31T22:33:00.003-05:00

Not an impressively long list--because I was busy this year doing other things besides reading as much as I might have liked.

1. Sparrowhawk Book Five: Revolution by Edward Cline

2. Please Stop Laughing at Us...One Survivor’s Extraordinary Quest to Prevent School Bullying by Jodee Blanco

3. Sparrowhawk Book Six: War by Edward Cline

4. Sparrowhawk Companion by Edward Cline

5. 300 Jahre Pfälzer in Amerika / 300 Years Palatines in America by Roland Paul, editor

6. I Passed as a Teenager by Lyn Tornabene

7. 1939: The Lost World of the Fair by David Gelernter

8. A Clueless Man’s Guide to Relationships: What Women Know Instinctively About Relationships—But Men Have to Learn by Kelly C. Fisher

9. The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy

10. Love and Limerence: The Experience of Being in Love by Dorothy Tennov

11. Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women by Harriet Reisen

12. World History Series: The Chinese Cultural Revolution by David Pietrusza

13. Coolidge: An American Enigma by Robert Sobel

14. The Secret Life of Lobsters by Trevor Corson

15. Northern Drift: Sketches on the New York Frontier by John Golden

16. Taking Back the United Methodist Church by Mark Tooley

17. Annie’s Ghosts: A Journey Into a Family Secret by Steve Luxenberg

18. World History Series: The End of the Cold War by David Pietrusza

Happy New Year!

Progressive politics and the United Methodist Chuch

2010-12-31T09:23:00.006-05:00

I found this good summary and update on the United Methodist Church's political and lobbying involvement in passing Obamacare this past year and thought I would post it: UMC Facing Health Bill Fallout.

Since then I have discussed this with my pastor and declined to sign a membership pledge card for the coming year. For now I continue to attend my local UMC, and donate only to local missions, not to any official UMC membership apportionments to the national or international bodies. I regret I can't now support the good things these bodies do, but I don't know any other way to make sure that my donations do not go to support damaging leftist political agendas or the General Board of Church and Society's partisan activities. I am wondering if the UMC will soon revoke its stand on health care as a "right" or disband the out-of-control GBCS in my lifetime.

I wonder what revelations another year will bring--and if by 2012 I will still be a Methodist. At least it is encouraging to see (from the above article and comments) that I am not alone.

My previous post on this.

Health care is NOT a right.

After Christmas

2010-12-28T16:16:00.004-05:00

I am enjoying "family time" after a lovely Christmas here at home, which included elder relatives staying with us. The urge to blog here over the last several weeks of holidays has been so far completely subsumed by my commenting on other sites and by my ability to "Share" with my Facebook Friends various things I read or see on the internet, with a simple push of a button. Yes, even I have a Facebook page. I don't know if that means I will not be blogging any more at all, but for now I don't feel the need. After five years, is it time for me to call it quits with Thought You'd Never Ask and move on to other venues? Is anyone still asking me anything at all?

Afterwords

2010-11-26T11:13:00.002-05:00

A day late (since I am finally able to sit down and surf the web), here are two excellent Thanksgiving messages:

From Robin of Berkeley: "My First Thankful Thanksgiving" -- no longer a liberal, she now recognizes she's blessed

From Mark Steyn: Americans should be thankful they have one of the last and longest functioning sovereign nation-states and "The World Should Give Thanks for America"

Hear, hear. And as a bonus, here's a concise lesson from Milton Friedman that all Americans should know and understand by heart: there is no free lunch.

All links courtesy of Maggie's Farm.

Disney's dumping princess stories

2010-11-22T07:59:00.002-05:00

according to the LA Times:

"By the time they're 5 or 6, they're not interested in being princesses," said Dafna Lemish, chairwoman of the radio and TV department at Southern Illinois University and an expert in the role of media in children's lives. "They're interested in being hot, in being cool. Clearly, they see this is what society values."
MGA Entertainment, the maker of Bratz dolls, knocked the toy industry's blond bombshell off her stilettos by recognizing how little girls' interests have morphed.
"You've got to go with the times," MGA Chief Executive Isaac Larian said. "You can't keep selling what the mothers and the fathers played with before. You've got to see life through their lens."

Well, isn't that comforting. Walt would be proud.

Kids who are interested in being hot or cool at age 5 or 6 are so sad. It makes me infuriated at their stupid parents.

We've never owned one of those obnoxious Bratz dolls, and I wouldn't give one to any little girl as a gift. I steer my kids away from that kind of merchandizing just as I steer them away from the Snoburbia glitz of Britny Spears, etc. I did spring for one of the beautiful American Girl dolls--that company seems to see things through the eyes of the little girls I know and love, and I was happy to support them.

Thankfully in lieu of whatever the forward-looking honchos at 21st-century Disney will now be animating, we can still count on our DVDs of classic-era Disney fare to entertain our kids.

Life in snoburbia

2010-11-04T14:36:00.005-04:00

That's pronounced "SNOB-burbia." As in obnoxious affluent people with an entitlement attitude, helicopter parents, and 7-year-olds playing lacrosse, learning kung fu, and chatting on their cellphones. This lady lampoons the lifestyle and culture as her hobby. Which I find pretty funny, since I too now live in a snoburbia (though I am not OF snoburbia and never will be if I can help it).

I am more of a mislocated Germanic Yankee Puritan-hillbilly-curmudgeon, a product of a very uncool rural lower-middle-class suburb of the 1950s (think "A Christmas Story") and a middle-middle-class bedroom-commuter California suburb of the 1960s (think "Poltergeist"). Consequently I am both too old and too much of an inbred perverse-reverse-snob to be a part of the flock of trendy young snobs in the well-off affluent suburbs in which we have lived since having kids. (After all, I do iron all my husband's dress shirts, do my own housework and yardwork--not "gardening"--and have never had a professional manicure!) We live in snoburbia now for the schools, of course--where my husband's hobby is counting all the BMWs and Mercedes around here under his breath, and where my kids specialize in surviving the shadows cast by snoburbian teenagerdom.

Surviving snoburbia creates character! Experiencing snoburbia is an American blessing! Reading about snoburbia makes me laugh. Too true.

Going forward through the next two years--and goodbye to California

2010-11-04T09:26:00.009-04:00

Bookwork Room gives a good wrap-up of Tuesday's historic election day. See also the series of posts at Power Line, "Wasn't That A Mighty Storm?" parts one through six. Of course I've been glued to the internet, talk radio, and Fox News since 7 p.m. on election day, digesting the results. No need (and no interest) for me to add anything to all these great thinkers, topped by George Will.

Danny Lemieux writes a good summary post about our reasons for optimism in going forward. I agree. I do have a personal sadness for the states of California and New York, however. In fact, I have lived in California, Illinois, and New York and I have people I care about living in each of these places now seemingly firmly in the clutches of liberals bent on taking them down. As Lemieux writes:

As for Illinois, California and New York: let there be justice in Democrats presiding over and taking full credit for the disasters they have created. The problems in these two states are far too deep for any change in administration to resolve – the Titanic is already butting up against the iceberg. Schwarzenegger tried and failed to change California. Chicago’s Mayor Daly, smart man that he is, decided to retire before the proverbial financial *.* hit the fan, as Chicago’s debt obligations are far too great for it to dig itself out (rumor has it that Daly is part of a consortium that is positioned to buy-out the lucrative McCormick Expo Center, when it is inevitably privatized to help pay down the debt Daly created). Jerry Brown (CA) and Pat Quinn (IL) are just the buffoons to take their bows at their states’ collapse. Andrew Cuomo (NY)…we shall see.

With Governor Moonbeam at the helm, there is no hope for California now. I fear the tipping point has been passed. If I still lived there today, I would be making plans to leave, along with the other people who flee California every day (read the comments). Not to mention the businesses.

As someone posted online, it it is now up to the heartland between the coasts to save the country. We'll do our best. And we invite all you wiser refugees from the Peoples Republics of the Right and Left Coasts to give us a hand.

See also: "A State in the Rear View Mirror" from the LA Times, December 2008. Prospects are looking much worse for California now.

In the words of the grape farmer of Selma (aka Prof. Victor Davis Hanson):

In California, there is some irony: The philosophy that led the state to the highest tax rates in the country, along with the near-worst schools, largest deficits, and most crumbling infrastructure, was reaffirmed. Now California’s state government will have to deal with the reality that if the highest-tax state in the union raises taxes still higher, it will lose even more high earners than the current 3,000 who leave each week. A Republican Congress is not likely to bail out a bankrupt California. More likely, we will see even more of the present ad hoc government-by-euphemism. More “furloughs” instead of pay cuts for unionized public employees, “temporary” larger class sizes in the schools, more “user fees” imposed by executive order in lieu of getting new taxes passed.
The state will continue to descend into a pyramidal society. On top there is the wealthy, leftist coastal elite from Napa to Hollywood, which is seemingly immune from the effects of high taxes and regulation (and wants more green laws, gay marriage, abortion, and therapeutic bromides). The top of the pyramid is in league with a growing underclass in part dependent upon a huge entitlement industry; this coalition thus favors more taxes, entitlements, unionized public employees, open borders, etc. Meanwhile, a squeezed middle-class private sector is slowly being strangled, shutting down, and leaving.

Perfect. Just the kind of society socialists want--workers at the bottom and elitists on top.

UPDATE: Here's another consequence for California from Tuesday's election day.

UPDATE: Need a relocation coach? Scroll down to see all the businesses that have left California.

UPDATE: No bailouts for California!! Let the Democrats and the people who voted for this mess stew in their own juice.

The most important election day in my life?

2010-11-02T07:08:00.006-04:00

That's what many have been saying, and I tend to agree with them. Neal Boortz calls today's election "the ultimate march on Washington."

Do you think they will hear us now? We are sending a message to Obama and all Democrats: we've heard your message and your plans. Don't worry, we understand them. We understand them better than you do. We reject them. And we reject you for calling us stupid, ungrateful, racists. Your Keynesian, progressive, Big Government ideas don't work and they are destroying our economy, our country, and our kids' future. Get out and if the door slams your behinds, we won't be crying for you.

Our work has only begun. And we will need to keep riding the Republicans in office just as much as we are riding the Democrats. Turning over the keys to public office is a powerfully corrupting force. That's why the strictly limited government envisioned and provided for by our nation's Founders was the best of all possible worlds given human nature which they knew so well.

I've been reading about Calvin Coolidge--now there was a President who understood his place in the Federal government. Not perfectly, but he most times stood back and said, "That is not my job to handle or to solve." What a breath of fresh air in these suffocating times of power-grabbing Federal dictators.

I've already voted. Last week I went on two different days to advance voting. The turnout there was tremendous, like I've never seen. The first time there were no available parking spaces and I had to leave without voting. The second time I went I found one of the last parking spaces and took it, then stood in line with my fellow citizens for 25 minutes to cast my votes. The line extended out the door of the building. The crowd was congenial and patient. In fact, lots of people seemed to be appearing there and voting with relish--or with grim determination (which was the look on the face of one man wearing a "Don't Tread on Me" Gasden flag t-shirt as he left the poll). Today, having done my duty, I can spend a few fun hours with my daughter (who is out of school today) at the art museum.

Go, my fellow Americans. Cast your sacred votes with relish and determination. Show them what a mistake happened in 2008, and that we know better now. Democrats, can you hear us yet?

Democrats = creepy

2010-10-30T08:42:00.008-04:00

Maybe it's just Halloween weekend, but does anybody else besides me feel more than usually creeped out by our President, our most recent Democrat Past President, the current Democrat administration, Democrats in office around the land, and leftists in general?

Does anybody else feel it's really icky for a sitting President to be non-stop campaigning in such a partisan fashion as Obama is doing now instead of staying home and governing Presidentially from the Oval Office where he belongs? Something about this campaigning seems so anti-Presidential and over-the-top inappropriate.

And the performance of Bill Clinton on the campaign trail is utterly shameful and without excuse. He has spit in the face of our country's tradition of past Presidents maintaining self-respecting and respectful non-partisan roles in private life following their Presidencies. But spitting in the face of tradition and what's appropriate to the office of President is Bill Clinton's schtick, after all. He lives up to it beautifully. Always surprising, that man, in how low he'll go.

But that's indicative of Democrats and leftists in general. You just can't keep up with all the creative ways they are willing to break rules, screw things up, cheat, lie, and steal. I can't imagine why anybody still wants to self-identify with that brand.

Evidently more men than women are getting that message and dropping their support for the Dems right now. Yet women are a force in driving the tea parties and the conservative branch of the GOP as well, along with minorities. I am glad to see that.

UPDATE: Not really related, but just too funny! -- Negative attack ads circa 1800 (via Ace of Spades HQ).

UPDATE: An Appeal to Black Voters!

The results are in!

2010-10-28T06:17:00.007-04:00

I took the test and I am a Social Liberal (63% permissive) and an Economic Conservative (83% permissive). I am a "LIBERTARIAN." Funny, though, I do think of myself as more of a Conservative (because I support the War on Terror beyond our borders and I am not into drugs and think children need special protections), but I suppose most Conservatives are more traditionally stodgy about the free will of the individual than I am.

Take the test yourself here. (Hat tip to Ace of Spades HQ)

I also guessed right 87% of the time on who's gay in the Gaydar Test. Where'd that skill come from??

The 1960s revisited

2010-10-25T06:23:00.013-04:00

Yesterday felt sort of empty since there was no new "Mad Men" episode to watch at the end of the day--the fourth season of 13 episodes each just ended last week. I have become a semi-reluctant, conflicted watcher of "Mad Men" after being sucked into the earlier seasons of the show on DVDs by my son and husband. I say conflicted because even while I admire the writing, the acting, and the production quality, and even though I look forward to finding out what would happen next in the plot ("Mad Men" is nothing if not a high-quality soap opera), almost all of the characters are--let's say--less than admirable people and it is hard for me to--let's say--psychologically "root for" anybody on that show. It also frequently makes me feel uncomfortable with its graphic sex scenes. It is definitely not a family or feel-good show. It is, however, a remarkable (and often startling, disturbing, and nostalgic) depiction of certain aspects of the early 1960s.

My husband and my daughter and I are also currently watching via Netflix a definitely family-friendly and feel-good show of the genuine early 1960s--"The Dick Van Dyke Show" (also available at Hulu). This comedy was a fixture in reruns of my youth, and I must have seen almost all of the episodes at one time or another, many years back. Now, watching them again as an adult, in proper sequence, is a revelation and a real pleasure. My daughter, who has not seen these episodes before, and I are frequently howling with laughter at the humorous writing and the amazing physical comedy of Dick Van Dyke (acolyte of Buster Keaton and Stan Laurel). What a talent he was! The cast worked like a well-oiled machine, the writing was stellar, and it boggles the mind to realize that Carl Reiner, Sheldon Leonard, and the rest of the company turned out over 30 weekly episodes for five years, of such consistent high quality and originality. Best of all, it is so likeable.

What a contrast in television fare--and in zeitgeist--between then and now. "The Dick Van Dyke Show" provides an antidote and a counterpoint to "Mad Men," on lots of levels--including my personal favorite: in Laura Petrie I find a very favorable and positive take on a realistic, attractive, happily traditional housewife in a loving, affectionate and successful marriage. There's a role model I can root for! Plus, I like her Sixties "flip" hairdo (the word we used back then before "hairstyle" came in with Farrah Fawcett). There wouldn't be a Peggy Olson if there hadn't been a Laura Petrie.

I also enjoy watching these early guest appearances of celebrities like Danny Thomas, Richard Dawson, Robert Vaughn, J.C. Flippen, and Jerry Van Dyke. And it's funny to realize now that in writing the character of little Richie, Carl Reiner was writing from life about his own son, the future "Meathead" (Speaking of Meathead--it's definitely not the Sixties anymore).

To top things off, I am also in the process of scanning and digitizing the snapshots from my mother's old family photo albums. For some reason I seem to be fated to steep in the Sixties right now--a time when cars had no seatbelts and little girls wore frilly dresses to slide down slides:

My memories of the early Sixties were more Rob and Laura Petrie than Don and Betty Draper. But then, we didn't live anywhere near Madison Avenue or Hollywood back then.

The late Sixties, after 1968--that's a whole n'other story, isn't it.

BONUS: My husband found this 2.5-hour interview of Dick Van Dyke at the Archive of American Television, a pretty sweet website. Poke around there and you can learn a lot of good backstories.

UPDATE: Alex Anderson, the creator of Rocky and Bullwinkle, just died. (Hat tip to the Stodgy Geezer.) Those cartoon characters I remember well were another icon of the early 1960s.

UPDATE: Is "Mad Men" TV's most feminist show? I'd call it TV's most high-quality theoretical feminist historical dream of "how it was"--perhaps a slice of life for some--but not necessarily how it really was.

15 Books in 15 Minutes (I cheated)

2010-10-15T07:59:00.005-04:00

There's been a blogger/Facebook meme going around about making a list of 15 books in 15 minutes--books you've read that have "stuck with" you over your life. Here's my list, in the order in which they occurred to me. The top four are on my all-time list of hands-down most "sticky," influential books in my own life:

1. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

2. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

3/4. Atlas Shrugged and We the Living by Ayn Rand (also her other novels and writings)

5. My Brother's Keeper by Marcia Davenport (also her other novels, her biography of Mozart, and her autobiography)

6/7. 1776 and John Adams by David McCullough

8. We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates

9/12. Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear by William Shakespeare (and his other work)

13/15. From Bauhaus to Our House, The Painted Word, and Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe (and his other work)

16/17. Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (and his other work)

18. Blue Highways by William Least Heat Moon (I liked him better than Jack Kerouac)

19. Player Piano and The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut (I'm dating myself here)

20. Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris

21. Our Town by Thornton Wilder

22. Ethnic America, a History by Thomas Sowell (also his other books and autobiography)

23. I Passed as a Teenager by Lyn Tornabene

24. Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America by David Hackett Fischer

25. Queen Victoria by Lytton Strachey

26. The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone

27. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

Quite a jumble. This exercise brings to mind very pleasant memories of years of reading binges in my long-distant past, including also the novels of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Ray Bradbury, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, James Michener, J.D. Salinger, John Steinbeck, Thomas Hardy, D.H. Lawrence, James Joyce, Theodore Dreiser, Henry James, Homer (in the Fitzgerald translation) and Dr. Seuss. In fact, there have been so many favorite authors and favorite books in my long life that I am sure I have now forgotten the bulk of the individual titles. This exercise is just a poor, momentary effort made to beat the clock. But on reflection: what a fantastic heritage I've been able to enjoy!

(The links to books above are informational only, not an endorsement of specific individual purchases at Amazon.com--although I am very keen on Amazon as a satisfied customer of several years. I have received no subsidies from anyone to say this and in fact receive no subsidies whatsoever as a blogger, not counting my husband's paying the electricity and computer bills.)

Next: 15 Films in 15 Minutes

UPDATE: I keep wondering if schools still turn out "English majors" (do they even call them that anymore?) who read works by "dead white men" as I did--or am I a dying breed? (I am sure that somewhere the ghost of a 19th-century scholar is lamenting that I didn't read enough Virgil and Cicero in the original Latin.) I just hope the California taxpayers who paid my way to college in the 1970s feel that they got their money's worth. And what, if anything, do I owe them in return?

Volunteering for the November elections

2010-09-27T10:59:00.008-04:00

"Ranting is okay. But what are we going to, concretely, DO?"

As a proud tea partier, there is no lack of ways or places I can volunteer in the next few weeks before the November 2010 mid-term elections. In fact, it is a matter of not having enough time to do all I want to do (let alone blog about it). Fortunately there are a lot of ordinary conservatives of all ages, just like me, who are stepping forward to put their principles into action, fighting AGAINST outright Marxism and creeping nanny-state socialism and fighting FOR smaller government, lower taxes, and more liberty for the American people. We the ordinary people of America will turn back the tide this November.

See the websites of Americans For Prosperity, for Freedom Works, and/or for the Tea Party Patriots for ways you can network and volunteer with your neighbors, including door-to-door visits, poll-watching, and personal calls--the "boots on the ground" campaign in the next few weeks.

There are many conservative challengers running for office who could really use a few bucks. (Here are a few more.) Help them out. I've been sending small donations nationwide for the first time in my life--the stakes warrant it. Our family's affected--and invested.

If you are so inclined (or skilled) you can also make some videos.

Next election, you can even consider running for local precinct committeeman.

There is much to be done, and much that can be done, and fortunately, no one of us has to do it all because, for the first time in history, so much of us are doing so much.

UPDATE: Get off the couch!

UPDATE: Be the wave!

UPDATE: Voter fraud watch: you can help. It's a serious problem perpetrated nationwide by Democrats.

Why I blog anonymously

2010-09-24T07:27:00.006-04:00

I blog under a pseudonym because of what happened to law professor Todd Henderson, who didn't. There are indeed vile people out there.

A commenter sums up the result:

Typical of "progressives" -- attack people personally rather than debate their positions honestly and logically. Threaten their jobs and families. Give them false labels like "racist."

I've experienced similar personal attacks and threats to the safety of my family, simply for my stating personal positions on government and taxes, and I'm a nobody.
The Left is deranged. Truth can withstand debate, but their "transforming of America" requires anger, threats, and vicious attacks. If their side has great solutions, put them out there for open debate rather than shut down those who want to discuss issue.

Typical left-wing kneejerk reaction, straight out of the Alynski playbook: "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it."

I'm a nobody too. But I didn't want my family attacked, or have to hire a bodyguard. I didn't want us to have to enter the witness protection program, just because I expressed my opinion, speech protected by my country's Constitution.

Things like this make me admire all the more the brave people who shoulder the grief and speak out, like Michelle Malkin, Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, and Mark Steyn.

At the same time, I try not to take low-class advantage of my online anonymity and do or say anything online anonymously that I wouldn't do or say or stand behind as myself in "real life." Except that I am a much better writer than I am a speaker, so I tend to sound a little more articulate here than I do in "real life."

Via Instapundit.

UPDATE: Other brave Americans I venerate for their heroism: Andrew Breitbart, Pam Geller, and Robert Spencer. These people are taking the heat for expressing their opinions so all of the rest of us don't have to be on the front lines (yet) as they are.

Self-education

2010-09-14T08:36:00.003-04:00

Here's a new list of the Best Books on American Conservativism (via Betsy's Page). How many have you read? I've read The Road to Serfdom, Free to Choose, Atlas Shrugged, and Capitalism and Freedom. I can recommend them all, and do, and give away copies. I think I also read Rabbit Redux in college, but it didn't impress me then. I want to read Witness, and Democracy in America and the Federalist Papers, both of which I have started in the past but not finished. Sometimes you have to grow up first to appreciate a good book. I think I also want to read I Am Charlotte Simmons, as I am a huge Tom Wolfe fan, but I am afraid it will make me cringe. Personally I would add more Ayn Rand and some Thomas Sowell to this list--can't imagine why he's not on there, especially for A Conflict of Visions.

A 9/11 Tribute to Shreyas Ranganath

2010-09-11T07:21:00.001-04:00

Srinivasa Shreyas Ranganath was beloved and admired by people who knew him on two continents.

The following morning, a clear and beautiful Tuesday, Shreyas Ranganath and his three fellow colleagues from Wipro in Bangalore (Hemanth Kamar Putter, Deepika Kumar, and Shashi Kiran Kadaba) reported for work as usual. When they spoke by telephone with their immediate superior in Bangalore, “the four sounded cheerful, at the beginning of yet another busy day in New York.” About an hour later they were murdered along with 291 other employees and associates of the Marsh & McLennan Companies who worked on floors 93 to 100 of the North Tower. Forty-six other Wipro employees present in New York City that day were spared.

Shreyas Ranganath is not forgotten.

Good quotes

2010-09-07T03:53:00.003-04:00

Click on the links to read them all:

Instapundit:

"The real lesson of the bedbug epidemic is this: Once, the government’s primary role was protecting us from things like that. Now its primary role is stopping us from fixing them."

Power Line:

"In the end, our way of life is simply incompatible with the precepts of radical Islam. There is no way to reconcile the two. Rather than start down the road of self-censorship, our government officials, including the military, should stand up for American freedoms."

Russell Sobel, via Ricochet.com:

"Our analysis suggests not that gangs cause violence, but that violence causes gangs. In other words, gangs form in response to government's failure to protect youths against violence. . . . These findings are also consistent with the literature on mafia activities, which shows that the mafia tends to emerge when state policing power is weak or there is a lack of strong governmental enforcement of rights. They are also consistent with evidence from the "Wild West" days of the United States and from pirate activities at sea."

Does Keynesianism ever work? Answering Milton Friedman via Ricochet.com:

"The fascinating thing to me is that the widespread faith in the potency of fiscal policy…rests on no evidence whatsoever. It’s based on pure assumption. It’s based on a priori reasoning."

Bookworm:

". . . suddenly, with the Ground Zero Mosque, Islam’s spokesmen are making a big push to soften sharia law in the public eye. My problem is that I don’t see them making this push as to their fellow Muslims, which would be a genuine reformation, and high time too. Instead, I see them making this push to ill-informed Westerners, which strikes me as snake oil salesman-ship, preparatory to a deadly snake bite."

Charles Krauthammer at Gateway Pundit:

"I like the way the president announces we hear this is going to be a six-year plan. Even Lenin had the modesty to stop at five."

Obama: "You lie!"

2010-08-17T09:11:00.007-04:00

Our jaw-dropping President Obama has once again re-written history in a public forum, this time creating a utterly fantasized history of Islam in the U.S. to curry favor with Muslims. This editorial in the Washington Times fisks his recent Ramadan speech and echoes my own reaction: that's bullshit--what the hell is he talking about?

Does your average American yet understand how much this President lies? Or why? Obama does not just tell little white lies the way ordinary politicians do, to try to make potential supporters, donors, or voters feel all warm and tingly. Obama baldly rewrites history without blinking an eyelash. Why would he do this sick routine, in front of God and country? Is he counting on Americans to be so poorly educated or inattentive that they will not be able to even notice? Is he counting on Americans being so polite, deferential, or so stupid that they will accept everything he says, no matter how outrageously untrue it is?

Here's what I think is going on. Obama is not just verity-challenged. He is now the figurehead in the U.S. of the crowd set in motion years back by 'the Communist system,' talked about by ex-KGB member Uri Bezmenov, in this 1985 interview, after he had defected to the U.S. (here is Part 2 of the brief interview). If you have no time to watch any other videos today, please make time to watch these. Bezmenov is not the first or the only such person to say such things with authority, but he is concise. It is good to know what we're up against. This is not playacting, and incredible as it seems to contemplate, it is no joke.

Isn't it convenient how taqiyya and Communist subversion seem to have so many things in common? Just like the Muslim Brotherhood and the Nazis did. Wouldn't it have been interesting if Obama had talked about that at the Ramadan dinner?

These links today come from a powerful essay by Victor Davis Hanson, well worth reading, and from the trenchant comments that follow. Fortunately we can see that not everyone is uneducated or unengaged in this country. Many Americans are doing all they can to enlighten the unenlightened to the dangers we face, and to fight for the life of their country. Patriotism is not dead.

Looking back: "You lie!" Joe Wilson was rude, but right. How right he was! In dire times, against such enemies, polite reticence is no longer a primary virtue.

UPDATE: Did you know there are over 70 socialists in Congress? Interesting list.

Signs of the Age of Obama-the-Jobs-Killer

2010-08-11T19:46:00.009-04:00

This is what our unnecessary recession looks like. This is what happens when wealth drops out of the economy and the economy stalls. Toddlers trampled. Babies going into seizure. People getting sick from standing in long lines in the heat for a government handout.

This is what our resident socialists want for our country--the government in charge, handing out the basic necessities of life to people who have no recourse. Take a good look and realize how much like the old Soviet breadlines this is. This is the goal of progressives and leftists--they want to be in charge, in power over handing out pittances to the crowds of the powerless and the poor.

These thousands of people are there today because of the job-killing policies of Obama and his leftist cronies: Pelosi, Reid, and all the other leftists who want a government-welfare society, who don't understand economics, who distain the free market system and hate capitalism, who think the evil rich haven't paid enough of their fair share yet, who think they can jerk Americans around and the dollars will keep rolling in somehow to pad their fantasy slush funds. They won't be satisfied until all Americans (except themselves and their "special" friends) are in these bread lines--for food, housing, medical care. It is Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress whose long list of job-killing policies and proposals continue to prolong this recession and make these crowds of unfortunate people swell and swelter. It is Obama and the Democrats who are either clueless or purposeful in promoting high unemployment. They are literally endangering people's livelihoods and lives.

If you think I'm angry about this, you're damn right I am, me and lot of other ordinary Americans. Any thinking, feeling person would be furious at the waste and the exploitation. This is the ugly face of the Age of Obama and the leftists, and the rest of us Americans are not going to sit on our hands anymore when it comes to elections and politics.

AFTERTHOUGHT: Instead of funding outings for bigwigs at strip clubs, Michael Steele and the local Republicans should be down among these lines of people, handing out water bottles and fans and talking about how Democrat politics have eviscerated the economy and prolonged unemployment, and how Democrat politics seek to keep the serfs on the big-government plantation. The Tea Party people should be down there with voter registration forms, too, asking "How's that Hope and Change working out for you?" Because it's a good bet that the "usual suspects"--socialists, Marxists, union goons, and leftist "community activists" will already be out there among the people running their mouths.

Hat tips to Drudge and Neal Boortz.

A good day for laughing

2010-08-10T08:33:00.003-04:00

I must run out for my stint volunteering at my daughter's local public school, but I thought I'd share with you a couple of items that gave me a good laugh this morning:

Proposed Islamic men's gay bar next to Ground Zero mosque

Ace's Top 10 list of how Michelle Obama honored her friend's bereavement while on vacation in Spain

Then there's this good news about the political awareness in our country: people are starting to see the light. Freedom of speech and information is having the effect foreseen by The Founders. Even among Democrats.

Government failure, bureaucratic disfunction, and the case for laissez faire

2010-08-08T08:14:00.003-04:00

Eric Perkerson has written an online article called "The Antiregulation Case," urging that proponents of the free market step up their game when it comes to arguing against what is effectively doomed and misguided government "regulation" in cases like the Gulf oil spill and Washington's heavyhanded, ignorant, and harmful intervention in the financial system.

First of all, good luck in arguing for laissez-faire anything in this benighted, emotional age of 'we-know-what's-best-for-you/fork-over-your-wallet-and-we'll-pay-your-neighbor's-mortgage' Obama and his Democratic/socialist hench-folk. But Perkerson is yet another rational voice fighting the good fight for thinking people, and I applaud all such efforts. If there are any Americans of free will and open mind left (and I optimistically believe there are many), may they continue to read such things and learn.

I learned from reading this article and following its links the names of some concepts I am glad that economists and political scientists are aware of and studying: regulatory capture, government failure, and iron triangle.

It seems clearer to me than ever that anyone purporting to be, or studying to become, a political scientist or a politician, rather than acquiring a law degree, should be majoring or double-majoring in economics (which implies a vitally-needed ability to handle math and analytical, self-defensive statistics). Every politician and lawyer should be well-versed in public choice theory. Anything less in an aspiring office-seeker these days automatically denotes incompetence and perhaps sheer hubris.

But Perkerson's very argument is that politicians should not be regulating the marketplace at all. The free market operates efficiently and best, delivering most quickly the optimal benefits to the most, without government intervention, so long as government is there to do its job in upholding the rules of law, contract and property, and to adjudicate and punish the crimes of fraud, theft, and personal injury. In fact, the government's proper job is not to regulate economic activity, but to regulate and enforce the laws that allocate responsibility--including dealing with "externalities" in the natural (or financial) environment that harm others.

As the research of PERC has shown, there are effective free-market solutions to environmental problems, including those of common-property areas (government land, the sea, the air, outer space). Legislating and adjudicating property laws with an economic understanding of incentives (and justice) is the key.

Where I see this all breaking down, besides in our own Federal capital at the moment, is at the international level. Who can effectively and justly legislate and adjudicate the laws of the sea, of space, of international conflict when despots, murderers, and brigands are players? There is currently no international body worthy to do this. All those bright young things currently participating in Model U.N. have their work cut out for them, if they aspire to be more than parasitic poseurs. I hope they are all learning economics, math, and statistics too.

Finally, Perkerson touches on, but doesn't really examine, the moral hazard of our votinig populace here in the U.S. Milton Friedman has talked about how little cost every American voter seems to incur at the time of casting a vote for one politician over another (in fact, most Americans don't even vote, stay home if it's raining, etc.), yet the results down the road--often not on that voter, but on millions of others in our republic affected by the accumulation of such votes--are severe. We are seeing the dire results of this fatal moral hazard at the heart of our government right now. When are we going to see our legislators, judges, politicians, and the American people who supposedly run this joint tackle this problem and fix it?

While on the way to blog . . .

2010-08-08T07:48:00.006-04:00

This morning I woke up with some actual thoughts that might be blogworthy, after a long, much-needed post-vacation hiatus of no blogging. While on my way to my computer, I had to stop and spot-clean some cat vomit from the white area rug in the living room. Then I gave the cat some "hairball remedy," which she hates. Such is the life of a housewife, I thought, a life of constant interruptions of the creative urge--then realized that such is the life of any would-be writer--any creative person--any person at all. No need to be sexist or elitist about it. Such is life, period. But it seems it is always a struggle for any writer, especially, to choose whether to pursue the elusive muse or to deal with pressing other facts and obligations--or distractions--including the most mundane or distasteful. And nowadays the obligations/distractions include email and web-surfing. There is only so much time you can spend at the computer a day (and that becoming less and less as bones and muscles protest with age).

Still, I always figured Flaubert would never have been Flaubert if he'd have been a housewife. And Margaret Mitchell probably wouldn't have written Gone With the Wind if she'd had children. In fact, she got so caught up in answering her fan mail after she became famous, that she never wrote another book. You have to be ruthless with yourself and others, and selfish with your time, to be a great writer. Such ruthlessness and selfishness is not a becoming trait in a mother. I have never learned the knack of being both a good mother and a productive writer, as some women can manage. Blogging I can fit into the free corners of my life.

Which brings to mind the ponder of whether Flaubert (or Galsworthy, or Shakespeare) would've been what they were if they'd been bloggers, too. One of the facts that occurred to me while on vacation was how much of a distraction blogging itself is from real writing projects.

Still, some mornings I just wake up and want to blog, without rhyme, reason, or reader counts. What's up with that?

Welcome home

2010-07-27T08:39:00.004-04:00

We are safely back home after our long road trip of fun. Now I have been doing so many batches of laundry that I dreamed about doing laundry last night. Our cat is very happy to see us materialize. She kept us up most of our first night home, howling her delight and relief as she prowled around the house. It takes her about 24 hours to shed her restlessness and relax again whenever we return from a long absence.

We discovered that one of the huge old trees in our backyard had pulled itself out by the roots and toppled over into our neighbors' back yard (all across their entire backyard) at some point. Now those neighbors are also away, so we are wondering what to do and what's been going on.... We have a tree company rep coming out to give us an estimate on removing the thing. The root structure alone is about 15 feet high. Impressive and unsettling. Nature is formidable.

Last night after dinner a huge thunderstorm rolled through our area (not uncommon in the hottest days of summer here). Lightning struck the tall tree in front of our house and it was like a bomb went off, with a huge blast of noise and falling leaves and flying chunks of wood and bark. The tree is still standing, and we still have power, and nothing caught on fire (that's the good news). But now two of our five phones don't work, and our modem got fried (our computers seem fine, but no internet access for awhile). Our TV cable box and cable seemed to work for awhile, but then by 10 p.m. was gone. Our digital bathroom scale also no longer works! (runs on batteries). Makes you frightened to think where the electrical surge went in the house and what it did to our bodies! But we all feel fine.

So I am blogging while I have the chance of free wi-fi, here at the Honda dealership, getting our trusty minivan serviced.

Summer vacation family roadtrip: The end

2010-07-24T05:55:00.004-04:00

Two weeks together. Nine people related by blood and marriage. Three generations temporarily gathered from distant reaches of the U.S. into two small adjacent lakeshore cottages one hundred years old, more or less. The people range in age from 14 to 90, and have gathered here in our alternate summer family universe for 15 to over 70 years. Three more of our clan now lie in the cemetery up the road, and they have been missed. Another living couple couldn't make it this time, and have also been missed, though in a different, less wistful way.

We've had good weather this year, and have accomplished a lot. We sport blisters, bumped heads, bumped shins, and squashed fingers, most of the injuries incurred from wrangling boats. We also wear bug bites from mosquitos, deerflies, and spiders, but have no bad burns or sunburns this time, thank goodness. Just one little cooking burn. And we've done a lot of baking and cooking and eating--also painting, laundry, shopping, kayaking, swimming, cleaning, pruning and mowing, reading, photography, computer work, and socializing with friends on the island. We've visited the old places and told and heard the old stories again. It is briefly embracing again the things and the people you will always love, but rarely see. You miss it more than you know.

I blog this morning as the last sunrise of our summer reunion creeps up to light the sky and lake, making dark silhouettes of the trees. Through the open windows I hear the light wind in the aspens and pines, and the birds: crows, gulls, and Canada geese. They are the first to call out the start of another fine-weather Michigan summer morning in their own brief lives spent here. My husband has silently gone to the other cabin to brew the coffee. In a couple of hours everyone will be packed and dashing off to catch the ferry and then we scatter to our respective far-flung corners of the country and our ordinary, expected routines again.

We four on our own have a final thousand miles to drive today and tomorrow, then we'll be home at last, after six weeks and 9,000* miles on the American road.

*Update: Final tally--we put 9,702 miles on the van with this summer vacation family roadtrip.

Summer vacation: Michigan

2010-07-21T11:07:00.003-04:00

A perfect day for boating and sailing.

Summer vacation family roadtrip: Family cabin

2010-07-15T08:00:00.003-04:00

Since arriving at the family cabin last Saturday, I have lost all interest in blogging. Part of it was due to finally being able to unpack our suitcases after four weeks on the road, and catch up on sleep in the same bed for several nights in a row (and being able to sleep late in the morning instead of having to hit the road). A big part of it is being around other people here at the family reunion--I would rather talk and do things with them than blog.

That's about the size of it. I guess it's time to realize I am on vacation. An old-fashioned phrase meaning being purposely relaxed and out-of-touch with normal channels of communication. Hence, not much blogging for the interim.

Summer vacation family roadtrip: Michigan

2010-07-10T08:55:00.007-04:00

We spent the last two days driving due east, out of North Dakota on I-94, and on blue highways and then little U.S. 2, through Minnesota (blogging territory of James Lileks and the PowerLine boys, and the Northern Alliance), Wisconsin, and Michigan's UP (Upper Peninsula).

It is amazing to see how abruptly the country changes, from Montana on the west side of North Dakota (indisputably The West) to the "northwoods" of the east coast in Minnesota on the other side of North Dakota. North Dakota is the great plains and still has the Big Sky; Minnesota is clearly just "northwoods" and no big sky. It does, however, have thousands of big and small lakes, including Leech Lake. (No fussy, pretentious, tourist-inviting names here!). We stopped in the town of Walker for a really good lunch at the Outdoorsman Cafe on the main drag. I recommend their bacon-lettuce-tomato salad with grilled chicken, hard-boiled-eggs and blue cheese dressing from the bottle brought to your booth. These people embrace all the food groups, especially protein, and they share my avid approval of bacon. I feel right at home in the northwoods, all right.

There is no doubt that Michigan (especially in the UP) is northwoods (as well as the land of the Great Lakes). Michigan is also The Lawn Decoration State. Preferred adornments for Michiganders include flowers in various containers: wishing wells, miniature lighthouses, wheelbarrows and wagons, buckets, cauldrons, hanging baskets and pots. There are more flowers (especially the omnipresent petunias, marigolds, and geraniums) in garden plots, rock gardens, planters, and beds. You'll see a fine panoply of statuary, too: fish, dogs, seagulls, geese, ducks, deer, moose, loons, gnomes, and saints. You'll see all kinds of wind-catchers of various construction and colors. Many are the yards that sport decorative rocks (polished, whitewashed, or natural). Birdhouses, bird feeders, lawn chairs, picnic tables, rustic signs (hand-painted), and "wood art" including chainsaw creations (mostly eagles and bears) round out the picture. American flags. Basketball standards. There is a poem in there somewhere, about how Michiganders celebrate their brief but intensely-felt summer by decorating their lawns. At any rate, I feel right at home here.

Gotta go catch a ferry to our final destination, an island in Lake Huron, for our family reunion.

Summer vacation family roadtrip: North Dakota

2010-07-08T07:28:00.004-04:00

...where the sky is the major feature.

Prairie dog town at Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Also, it smells of hay.

We saw ten or twelve of these wind turbine blades heading west on I-94 yesterday.

We have now traveled over 7,000 miles on our trip.

Summer vacation family roadtrip: I-90 East

2010-07-07T08:09:00.006-04:00

I always feel vaguely depressed when I have to turn my back to the American West and travel east. Yesterday we crossed through three states, literally from "amber waves of grain" (wheat fields in Adams County, Washington) to "purple mountain majesties" (Butte to Bozeman to Billings, Montana) "above the fruited plain"--only in this part of the country the plain is not exactly fruited, but studded with green fields with crop irrigators misting or spraying crescents of white water over the furrows. It is indeed a land of "spacious skies" and also of fragrant sage and yellow and purple wildflowers and fine horses, "where the deer and the antelope play" (they really do!) among the cattle and the occasional sheep and llama.

Do schoolchildren even know the words to these American lovesongs anymore? I want to see the Rasmussen poll on that.

So we are saying goodbye to Big Sky country and the dramatic geological evidences of plate tectonics along the Pacific Rim. Its been a wonderful three weeks. The scenery is too big to capture with my camera as we speed along I-90. You have to be there. These are the most beautiful of the American states. And in Montana, there is no sales tax!

High-speed long-distance driving for me is an enjoyable job to be done with workmanlike attention. It is like sewing, or copyediting or proofreading a long technical document, or mowing a lawn--or plowing acres of land, I imagine, as I have swept by many such neatly finished acres yesterday, and admired the work. There is both art and craft to this kind of driving as you calculate the speed at which you can stay legal and take the curves and flow with and around traffic as smoothly and gracefully as possible, always signaling your moves, even when nobody's around. I keep right except to pass. It is a pleasure to follow the rules of such a road and drive a good car in Montana, where the speed limit is 75 mph and the scenery is a constantly changing reward. I seem to have been born with an affinity for the details and the satisfactions of this kind of solitary enterprise.

Summer vacation family roadtrip: Goodbye to the Pacific

2010-07-06T09:43:00.006-04:00

Yesterday we continued north up Highway 101 to complete our tour of the Oregon coast. The scenery and local culture, both overlooking the water and inland, continued to be fascinating to us oldsters (the kids in the back also enjoy it, but also watch DVDs to pass the time). One city that stood out was Lincoln City, Oregon, for being a complete bottleneck with near-gridlocked post-holiday traffic. It is also a place where you can buy Birkenstocks, tie-dyed t-shirts, and other such accouterments you might pine for. My husband said the town motto should be: "Still recovering from the Sixties." There seems to be a lot of that vibe (or commercial schtick) in coastal Oregon. In fact, it does call itself "The People's Coast," according to one brochure we saw (speaking of all the land there belonging to the government). At any rate, it's a beautiful setting. And often the cafe food is really good and comes with lots of local color. (General note to all waitresses: Not everyone wishes to be introduced up-close to the sight of your exposed bra at 8:00 in the morning.)

Outside Tillamook we saw the mother of all quonset huts housing the Tillamook Air Museum, and a high school stadium belonging to the fighting "Cheesemakers." Sweet! The air in Tillamook smells of dairy farms--no big surprise, and an honest smell, since Tillamook is surrounded by dairy farms. They are picturesque and the cattle look nice.

At 2 p.m. we turned right and started wending our way back eastward for good, having logged over 5,000 miles on this trip thus far. All safely and smoothly thanks to our Honda Odyssey.

The next few hours found us ogling the spectacular Columbia River Gorge (filled with waterfalls, river views that rival those of the Rhine, stately dams and locks, windfarms, trains, and other spectacular engineering feats (including the road itself), kitesurfers, and volcanic-formed mountains and brown furry hills of grandeur that make you want to pet their flanks with love.

We also were amazed to discover "artificial forests" of genetically engineered poplars. What will they think of next?

Summer vacation family roadtrip: 4th of July in Yachats, Oregon

2010-07-04T23:52:00.006-04:00

We did find room at the inn in a little town called Yachats on the Oregon coast. My husband and son went hiking on spectacular Cape Perpetua, while my daughter and I studied mussels and wildflowers and cute dogs near the crashing waves and outcroppings along the pebble-and-shell beach. We all celebrated our country's birthday at Yachat's "La de da Parade" (favorites were the Umbrella Drill Team, the belly dancers, the marching Tai Chi corps and the string ensemble in a wagon playing the "Star Spangled Banner"). The Yachats Ladies Club Annual Pie & Ice Cream Social fueled our enthusiasm. Dinner was supplied by the Yachats Volunteer Fire Department (grilled meat and potato salad).

Mobile band in Yachats' Fourth of July parade, 2010

Yachats Ladies' pies!

I love celebrating the Fourth in the small towns of America. You'll always see plenty of kids, dogs, humor, costumes, commercialism, boosterism, and patriotism. And a lot of moms and sometimes even apple pie.

Summer vacation family roadtrip: Oregon coast

2010-07-03T13:15:00.005-04:00

View looking south from Cape Sebastian

We have reached the Pacific (after a brief dip into California, Bookworm's territory), and are now touring north along Highway 101, enjoying the majestic (and windy) Oregon coast. Our next big adventure is to discover if we will find a place to stay tonight and tomorrow night (the Fourth of July)--or will all motels be filled for the holiday weekend?

My son was quite intellectually agitated to discover that in Oregon you can legally commit suicide but you can't legally pump your own gas. I was not surprised to discover that the latter law seems to promote dirty, yukky restrooms at the gas stations. The locals tell you to instead use the restrooms in the grocery stores. Free the free market!

UPDATE: Seen along the trail:

Oregon Dunes trail

Summer vacation family roadtrip: Crater Lake

2010-07-02T13:22:00.008-04:00

After spending the night in Eugene, Oregon near the University, we arrived at Crater Lake National Park yesterday afternoon. There was a lot of snow on the ground at the higher altitudes, and a large part of the Rim Road was still closed due to snow.

Oddly enough, the mosquitos had hatched nevertheless; the air was full of them. A stiff cold wind kept them partially at bay. The lake in the crater where the volcano's former top once was (now the deepest lake in the U.S.) is eerie and a blue color that can only be described as (according to my son) "Technicolor." It really looks like this:

We would have stayed longer except that there was no room at the Lodge and the Visitors Center closed at 5:00. So we drove down into civilization and spent the night in Medford, Oregon, which I can't think of without being reminded of Mr. Jackson from Double Indemnity ("Mr. Keyes, I'm a Medford man - Medford, Oregon. Up in Medford, we take our time making up our minds.")

On next: the Oregon coast.

Today's Question: Where, if at all, to put the apostrophe in "Visitors Center?"

Summer vacation family roadtrip: Mt. Rainier National Park

2010-07-01T00:57:00.003-04:00

View of Mt. Rainier from the Paradise Visitor Center

We've just come out of three days and two nights spent in Mt. Rainier National Park, where there was still lots of snow at the higher elevations, and no cellphone coverage or internet access.

For our first night in the Park we stayed at the historic National Park Inn at Longmire:

From the front porch the next morning we could see hikers and deer stroll by along the Trail of the Shadows. We spent that day and the next going on several hikes. The next night we stayed at the Paradise Inn, a lodge what is a lodge:

Rustic-style lobby of the Paradise Inn Lodge, Mt. Rainier National Park

I would rate this lodge in the top five of this list of 10 (all but one of which--Phantom Ranch--I have visited). The lobby came with amazing log furniture and hand-painted hanging lampshades, and a pianist in the evenings who knew all the right old Cole Porter, Gershwin, and show tunes--also some Chopin and Beethovan. In our book, he was the perfect touch. Heavenly indeed. The lobby was excellent for lounging, reading, writing postcards, resting, and people-watching (there were many fascinating foreigners and natives there). Our rooms at the Inn were spacious and serviceable. Plus the food in the lovely dining room stood up to the price: it was tasty and satisfying.

We enjoyed the visitor centers and profited from talking with the knowledgeable park rangers. We hiked along many easy trails, including Trail of the Shadows, the West Side Road (did not see any mountain goats), the Carter and Madcap Falls overlook and the Nisqually River, the Christine Falls overlook, the Box Canyon of the Cowlitz overlook, and the Grove of the Patriarchs trail, including a cool swinging bridge over the river. My daughter was finally getting cheerful and more hardy about hiking, crossing log bridges, and utilizing pit toilets. We saw countless deer, a rabbit, a weasel, a silver fox, a black bear, a pika, and a marmot. We also saw lots of mosses, wildflowers, and glaciated rock, innumerable cascades, creeks, rivers, and waterfalls and, on the bridge over the Box Canyon, a circular rainbow surrounding the sun. The scenery, from tiny wildflowers to glaciers and vast mountainous panoramas, was stellar. Mt. Rainier is an extraordinary place, and our experience there was first-rate.

Summer vacation family roadtrip: Victoria, British Columbia

2010-06-28T10:26:00.008-04:00

Victoria's Inner Harbor on a gloomy day

We took the car ferry from Port Angeles, Washington to Victoria on Vancouver Island, B.C. to show the kids (particularly my daughter, who did not remember our previous forays into Canada) another country. The experience was expensive (and the hefty Canadian taxes were a shock), but we had a good time. Once again, I find being in a city stimulating (for a change, and briefly), while some in our party have a much lower tolerance for crowds and the hassles of traffic. So our visit was purposely short, but we made the most of it.

My personal highlight was visiting the Butchart Gardens not far north of Victoria. What can I say? I took many, many photos. Almost everywhere you look is a perfectly designed and composed picture. We were told that at this season the roses were only blooming about 20-30 percent--I couldn't believe it as we strolled the Rose Garden. I can't imagine seeing them blooming at 100% (nor would I want to be shuffling through with the unimaginably increased crowds then). The Japanese Garden, Italian Garden, and Sunken Garden were even more delightful and astonishingly beautiful. And there were plenty of opportunities for good people-watching. It began to sprinkle as we reached the carousel (it was a gloomy day all day) and we caught up a few of the clear plastic umbrellas offered all over the park. But we remained fortunate--the sprinkles came, and then they went.

Burchart Gardens: The Sunken Garden Overlook

The other highlight was having found our desired "low tea" at Murchie's on Government Street in Victoria. We ordered sandwiches, pasta salad, and sweets a la carte along with our pots of tea. I had two(!) currant scones with cream and jam--remarkably delicious. So my daughter, at the moment a raving Anglophile, found her "British" tea.

We also wandered along Government Street and into the The Bay and the mall to window shop. We saw "Darth Vadar" playing the violin on a street corner, and saw a screever chalking the Mona Lisa on the sidewalk. We were turned away from peeking into the famed Empress Hotel by flunkies guarding the front entrance. My son bought a hat. My daughter bought a Chinese solar-powered bobble-head cat in Chinatown the night before, where we had dinner. That, and a utilitarian stay at the Ramada was the extent of our foreign adventure. We didn't even have to change our currency, and thankfully we didn't have to drive on the "wrong" side of the road.

We returned to Port Angeles via the same ferry, the Coho. It was a lot of fun to ride the ferry and watch the whole operation. Passing through the customs inspection was fortunately non-eventful. The Canadian officer who interviewed us just wanted to be sure we had no guns. The U.S. officer who interrogated us and looked into our car was friendly and joked with us. The beagle (led by a plain-clothes U.S. officer) who sniffed everyone's tires was diligent and cute.

I really liked the ferry experience; I sat comfortably at a table near the big windows and ate, read, and wrote to friends, while my family wandered the ship. I also liked it when we four were all reading together at the table while the sun set over the placid Strait of Juan de Fuca and big cruise and container ships passed by. After a 90-minute water passage, it's good to be back home in the United States. My flag, my people, my rights. My heritage.

Heading back home on the Coho at sunset

What we're reading:

My husband: Bayesian Econometric Methods

My son: No Country for Old Men

My daughter: The Joy Luck Club (she doesn't care for it, but she has to read it for school)

Me: 1939: The Lost World of the Fair (a most excellent book!)

The vegetarian roadtrip option

2010-06-27T10:59:00.008-04:00

When my husband and I were first married and crossing the country in 1977, it was hard to find a good salad on the road. I found that if I ordered a salad for my meal along the route we took then (I-80 from San Francisco to Chicago) I'd invariably get (along with a strange look) a small side bowl of iceberg lettuce with a tired piece or two of tomato in it: voila, salad. Dressing choices back then were Italian or Thousand Island; take your pick. There might actually be hard little factory-made cubes of so-called croutons in the iceberg if it was my lucky day.

How the times have changed. Now Taco Bell offers a vegetarian 7-Layer Burrito (and they are happy to hold the cheese and sour cream) that's pretty tasty. You can find decent, interesting entree salads pretty much everywhere, including MacDonald's (I'm partial to their grilled chicken ceasar salad with Newman's Own caesar dressing). And many places these days are now offering vegetarian sandwiches (including the ubiquitous Subway), and vegetarian or Garden burgers. Two places along our current route where I have found such delicious fare have been Three Fingered Jack's saloon in Winthrop, Washington (out in the middle of nowhere) and Rick's Place in downtown Port Angeles, Washington. The latter also offers what may be the most perfect fries I've ever had (the kind I hope to meet in Heaven), though they are admittedly on the greasy side (i.e. the fries my husband expects to meet in Hell, he said).

It's a great country with a lot of choices and a lot of wealth. It also has much more connectiveness and cohesion now than it did in the 1970's. From our motel rooms (or from wifi hotspots along the way) my son can update his Facebook page, I can blog and check email, while my husband uploads office work, pays bills, checks weather forecasts, and makes reservations online or talks with friends and family on Skype. You can't help but marvel at the progress, whether you consider it good or bad (or both).

UPDATE: In Medford, Oregon we discovered Pita Pit vegetarian falafals! Oh, man! So good we returned the next day and had the same things all over again.

Summer vacation family roadtrip: Olympic National Park

2010-06-26T09:49:00.008-04:00

In Olympic National Park yesterday we hiked at the top of the world (surrounded by deer close enough to touch)--

Hurricane Ridge

and we hiked at the bottom of a spooky fairyland forest--

Marymere Falls trail

We also drove near the very end of U.S. Highway 101, long familiar to me as a former denizen of California. Who knew that as it reaches the uppermost corner of the country it turns west? That's just weird.

Washington State is awesome. There is also no dearth of Starbucks and other brands of coffee and espresso places here.

I'm being rousted for more hiking. Gotta go.

Seen along the trail

2010-06-25T01:29:00.004-04:00

Seen on the ferry Puyallup from Edmonds to Kingston, Washington.

Summer vacation family roadtrip: North Cascades

2010-06-24T12:28:00.007-04:00

We had perfect weather for driving, hiking, and photographing yesterday. We saw a lot of this:

Ladder Creek Falls and Rock Gardens

and a lot of this:

River Loop trail, Newhalem

and a lot of this:

Cascade Loop Scenic Highway

What an amazing place. I have never seen so many kinds of moss covering so much landscape. I never knew this kind of 'spanish moss' grew from the trees in the Pacific Northwest. The kids got to play in snow, and swing on old-fashioned (comfortable) board-seat swings and climb on Engine No. 6 near the Skagit General Store. We loved the Gorge hydroelectric plant near there (started up by Calvin Coolidge pressing a gold telegraph key in the White House in 1924). We saw a big, fat rainbow. And if you want to see a cute fantasy-Western town, check out Winthrop, Washington, located along the Chewuch River. Concrete, Washington also has its charms:

Just vacationing, not asleep

2010-06-24T11:16:00.005-04:00

Time to surf the web is limited while we are on our roadtrip, but I still find moments to keep up with news and commentary (including by reading actual newspapers--now a diverting novelty!). Just wanted to post a few things that struck me (skip this is you don't want to hear about politics):

The "poisonous ideas" that Communists and Marxists seem to have successfully planted among Americans (via Maggie's Farm). We desperately need more education in history. Do schoolchildren even learn about Communism and the Cold War anymore in any meaningful depth? I can recommend this book as pretty good for that.

Speaking of history, Bookworm reminds us about Israel. Even while on vacation, you can sign a petition.

Does this guy really want to be President? Scary times.

Go back to sleep or pay attention? I think most people most of the time have already made their decisions. Just because I am on vacation does not mean I've dropped out, or ever will.

Summer vacation family roadtrip: Twin Peaks & Seattle

2010-06-23T09:42:00.019-04:00

Yesterday we started the day with a project: visiting the exterior shooting locations of David Lynch's old 1990's TV series, "Twin Peaks" and the related movie, "Fire Walk With Me." My son is an ardent fan and had found the GPS coordinates of these places online.

So with the invaluable help of our dashboard Garmin GPS optimizing his waypoints, we drove through some gorgeous mountain scenery to the little towns of North Bend, Snoqualmie, and Fall City, Washington, beneath the benign shadow of Mount Si. We had a perfect warm, sunny day on our hands, and enjoyed every minute of the three hours of rural sightseeing and photography, including the tasty cherry pie and the "damn fine cup of coffee" at Twede's Cafe in North Bend (aka the Double R Diner in "Twin Peaks"):

We found Ronette's bridge, "Twin Peaks High School," the bend in the road where the "Welcome to Twin Peaks" sign used to be, the Mt. Si Motel, the "Great Northern Hotel" (aka the Salish Lodge and Spa near Snoqualmie Falls), the Twin Peaks Sheriff's office, the lumbermill, the Roadhouse, "Hap's Diner," etc. My son was quietly ecstatic. We also saw a doe and three baby deer crossing the road ten feet in front of our car. And those trees are really something:

Then, since most of us had never seen Seattle, we drove into the city, got lost only once (and not seriously, thanks to our Garmin), paid a fortune in parking and strolled through the throngs in the Pike Street Market. Highlight was introducing our son to the delicious crab cocktail (non-alcoholic). Our daughter wouldn't try it. Lowlight was our suburban daughter's meltdown at being hemmed in by the throng and overwhelmed by what she considered the stench of fresh fish.

We elevated her spirits by plying her with jewelry and a raspberry cupcake.

I have lived in Chicago and San Francisco, and I enjoyed our brief little foray into the urban core, especially the sight of Mt Ranier rising like Mt. Fuji behind the Seattle Seahawks stadium. Puget Sound seems lovely on a warm, sunny day. I wonder how often those come along in Seattle.

I could have stayed longer, but 90 minutes was all our gang could tolerate of the tourist trap experience.

Next: We go back to nature to hike the Cascades.

AFTERWORD: I am reminded of that quote by John Adams:

I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.

Thanks to forefathers with foresight like John Adams, my son has the liberty, leisure, and means to study "Twin Peaks." I wish I could talk to John Adams about such things.

UPDATE: We saw a bald eagle walking (actually, stalking slowly along on its thick legs) through a cultivated field in Washington State while we were driving along a "blue highway." A most amazing sight! Guess bald eagles are no longer endangered.

UPDATE: Forgot to mention that the Seattle area is home to one of my favorite blogs, American Digest.

Summer vacation family roadtrip: Montana, Idaho, Washington

2010-06-22T11:54:00.010-04:00

I only have five minutes before we pack up and leave our motel in friendly Ellensburg, Washington. Just time enough to post a few photos of our trip yesterday headed west from Bozeman:

Headwaters of the Missouri River near Three Forks, Montana

Lewis and Clark reached here and camped in July 1805. At this point, staring at the mountains ahead, they realized they weren't going to find an easy all-water route to the Pacific. Meanwhile, Sacajawea recognized the neighborhood and told them she could lead them further. So they named the other two incoming rivers after Jefferson and Madison, and pressed on.

Gotta go.

UPDATE: We drove west through mountains that reminded me of Germany's Schwarzwald, sans the cute German farmhouses. Here, it was raining, blowing, cold, and cloudy on the mountaintops, but a spectacular drive. We stopped for coffee in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, a lakeside resort town which looks like a place to revisit and have fun when it's not so wintry and damp (the locals were all dressed in dark, heavy clothing, appropriate for the weather but sad for a sunless summer solstice). At the Starbucks there we found a stash of now-rare Ethiopia Sidamo and my husband bought all of it (14 pounds) to take home and store. Can't get it where we live anymore, as it's gone the way of the Yirgacheffe--another victim of benighted African politics blamed on "greedy capitalists" trying to bring jobs.

We ended up the day driving in warmth and sunlight across Washington State, a land of incredible contrasts, much hay, sage, center-pivot irrigation (producing vibrant crops in the desert), windshield-splattered bugs, and the stunning Columbia River:

I have now at last traveled through Washington State, and can say it is quite a beautiful and impressive place, rivaling California for natural big-scale beauty. More on that to come.

Thanks to Wally for the travel tips.

Seen along the trail

2010-06-21T08:47:00.005-04:00

. . . in Bozeman, Montana yesterday. The day before we visited Music Villa on Main Street:

I would really like to live in Bozeman, Montana in the summers. Like Santa Barbara, California, it is a university town that has a vibrant and integrated downtown center that accommodates pedestrians, gorgeous surrounding mountains, and a casual, outdoor-oriented lifestyle. Unlike Santa Barbara, it is no place to winter unless you're a snowbunny.

Now we're moving on to Washington State.

UPDATE: While in Bozeman, we visited the Bozeman Hot Springs, one of my favorite places on earth in which to chill and broil courtesy of geothermal energy. Also had Father's Day dinner at The Garage--good food. Of course we also dined at Burger Bob's and cruised the shops on Main Street, including Country Bookshelf, one of my favorite independent bookstores. I love Bozeman. (And I was not paid or given free stuff to endorse these lovely businesses.)

Toy Story 3

2010-06-19T08:49:00.003-04:00

Went with family and friends to see "Toy Story 3" last night in Bozeman, Montana. The theater was seven-eighths full, and the crowd loved it. The lady sitting next to me with a 3-year-old on her lap was crying by the end of the movie. Pixar does it again (the preceding Pixar short was also clever, but didn't pack the emotional punch of the others I've seen). I found "Toy Story 3" very heartwarming and clever and funny--I was not disappointed in it except that I found the projection too dark, so that the colors seemed murky and dingy and I thought I must've missed many of the visual details that Pixar is so good at including. "Up" was brilliantly lighted and colored, so it can't be a 3-D process problem per se. I think the Bozeman theater needs to step up its game. I was too engrossed in the film to want to leave it to go complain.

Afterwards we had ice-cream at the Pickle Barrel. Lilacs are blooming in Bozeman and life is good.

Summer vacation family roadtrip: Wyoming and Montana

2010-06-18T07:37:00.006-04:00

To me, Wyoming and Montana is
some of the most beautiful country in the world

After a stop and exhilarating hike around Devil's Tower near a big prairie dog village, and a stop at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument and the Custer National Cemetery, we arrived in Shepherd, Montana, where we have been visiting my sister and her family. They have two dogs, seven cats, a pond full of catfish they feed, and 29 chickens giving us fresh eggs for breakfast (the chickens all have names and are kept as pets and like to perch on my sister's shoulders). The Yellowstone River is high and we've had some weather in the area recently (torrential rain, constant big winds and even hail in some neighborhoods). The kids still manage to get outside on the trampoline. We have thoroughly enjoyed our stay in the Billings area and today head out to Bozeman to visit friends.

My laptop still seems to be working, so I'll continue to post. Online access in motels and via wifi at my sister's place has been excellent.

Dog, chickens, and trapoline in Shepherd, Montana

Summer vacation family roadtrip: South Dakota

2010-06-15T08:53:00.007-04:00

It's a happy feeling I get, driving through states and feeling like I have a friend there--a fellow blogger. I mentally waved to Gateway Pundit as we drove past the St. Louis arch, and to Iowahawk as we stormed through Flatville (singing the "Iowa Stubborn" and the "Interstate 80 Iowa" songs), my children softly kazooing in the backseat.

Now we have been driving west through South Dakota:

Every hundred miles or so along the trail, after 70 or 80 Wall Drug billboards, you come to something vertical:

I thought we couldn't really be in the West yet because it looked too much like grasslands, making it technically still the Great Plains, not the Great West. Then we reached The Badlands:

Okay, now we're Out West, all right. We even saw real cowboys herding cattle beside the interstate. And my daughter got to pet horses next to our motel. I have to admit I do like the gift shops, visitor centers, and lodges Out West as much as I like the scenery:

Most of the above photos were taken by my son.

We thought we'd drive through North Dakota for a change (and to say we did); we thought we'd visit James Lileks' Fargo and take a look at Theodore Roosevelt National Park. I had the unreasonable desire to add North Dakota to my lifelist of U.S. states visited. But it's a helluva lot more driving out of our way, and with some festivities going on up there right now, motel rooms in and around Medora were not to be had. So we retraced our usual southern route. We skipped Mt. Rushmore this time, but if you want to hear about it, Michelle Malkin was just there.

Great American road trips--catch the fevah!

Summer vacation family roadtrip

2010-06-14T07:42:00.004-04:00

Enjoying the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways.

We've driven about 1,200 miles so far, gone from 98-degree weather to 63-degree weather (thanks to rainstorms like this). And now my laptop's screen seems to be dying. So posts may be a little scarcer than I'd planned. But our electronic toys (USB modem, GPS, cameras, computers, iPods) are keeping us on track and entertained during the long days in the miinivan covering the heartland of America.

Now the first hard days of driving are done, and we start to slow down, get out of the car, and see a few things up close (besides gas stations, rest areas, fast-food joints, and Starbucks). Life is good.

Presidential bad boys--a teaching moment for our nation's children

2010-06-11T08:51:00.008-04:00

I have to share with you this essay by James Lileks (via Instapundit) that cracked me up this morning (nothing more embarrassing than an old lady cackling over her toasted bagel at the computer screen, fluffing crumbs all over the keyboard). It's about having to confirm to his 9-year-old daughter that President Obama really did use a bad word.

It reminds me of cringing, not only as an American, but (just as painfully) as a parent, when the news about the "stained blue dress" hit the media outlets while I had children in fifth grade and Kindergarten. Presidents like Obama and Clinton never seem to think about the children unless they want them as a telegenic excuse to pass some fascist legislation. Or maybe they do--maybe Presidents like Obama and Clinton think children should be hepped to adult ways and means by our Commander in Chief--who better?--instead of being coddled and protected in a unicorn fantasy world by overanxious, irrelevant parents. After all, the Fatherland knows best, right?

Seems like all a parent can do in the face of a situation like this is to face facts, get honest with the kids, and throw the President under the bus along with the kids' leftist or incompetent teachers and school administrators, leftist librarians, leftist or corrupt politicians, leftist or corrupt religious figures, local community leaders, or leftist or sleazoid Hollywood or sports celebrities.

Lileks is in rare humorous form in this essay. Sink me, but I do love a good writer (pinky extended, monocle adjusted). I also like to see him highlight and skewer the appalling racism of Bill Maher and his ilk.

Touche, Mr. Lileks. Your child is in good hands.

A graphic indictment of teachers unions

2010-06-10T09:09:00.009-04:00

"A child's destiny should not be determined on the pull of a draw."

"The problem is a system that protects failure."

But that's exactly what the teachers' unions want. They don't want chance or choice (others' choice, not their own) or reality or facts or track records of success or failure upsetting their cushy feathered nests. And these are the people American parents are in most cases forced by circumstances to send their children to spend days on end with. Ghoulish!

It's the unions and leftists hand-in-hand who don't want competition or free choice in education, and who are willing to sacrifice anything, including the welfare of the children, to protect their own inflated paychecks. Good teachers who really love teaching and children, and who have merit enough to stand on their own as individuals without collective thuggery have nothing to fear and know they could get jobs in the private sector, especially if the unions and politicians were pried off the government monopoly of education and good schools and choice were to bloom. But as it stands now, the teachers' unions have made public education a system of tyranny by the worst (as collectivism always is).

As Neal Boortz has said time and again, parents who continue to send their children to government schools are guilty of child abuse and a dereliction of their duty to assume the responsibility of educating their children instead of ignorantly or lazily turning them over to a corrupt state system:

the teacher's unions present a greater long-term threat to this country than do Islamic fascists. The fastest way to improve the sorry quality of government education in this country would be to immediately disband the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers. Any concerns they press about the children are just paying lip-service. They are there to protect the jobs of their government employee members -- and to pursue their liberal agenda in Washington. Nothing else.

We need more parents who understand this reality to start demanding their rights as taxpayers--and we need more films like this one. It makes the forces of good and evil and the players perfectly clear.

Via Betsy's Page (she ought to know, being a charter school teacher).

Cato Institute: Why we need fewer public school jobs, not more. There is a moral hazard involved with public employee unions. The kids are the ones to suffer and all of us pay for the privilege of being fleeced and defrauded. How many more decades until we wake up? How many more decades will we allow our future and our children's lives to be stunted at the hands of the underperforming, overpoliticized public school teachers?

Hayek kicks butt: The Road to Serfdom

2010-06-09T04:30:00.004-04:00

Guess which book is the No. 1 Bestseller at Amazon.com right now?

The Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek, first published in 1944. That's right. One of the best rebuttals of collectivism, statism, and fascism ever penned. Invaluable to an understanding of socialist agitation and the slippery slope of current-day politics. I gave a copy of this to my son and my niece last year, as indispensible reading for any sentient grown-up (it makes a perfect graduation gift). Glenn Beck must've put out a cattle call, bless his heart.

I am also amused and cheered to find American Digest featuring the comic book version of The Road to Serfdom.

Ain't America great? Why yes; yes it is.

Best comment of the day and best photo of the day

2010-06-09T04:27:00.004-04:00

MOVING TO MEXICO
Dear President Obama:
I'm planning to move my family and extended family into Mexico for my health, and I would like to ask you to assist me.
We're planning to simply walk across the border from the U.S. Into Mexico, and we'll need your help to make a few arrangements.
We plan to skip all the legal stuff like visas, passports, immigration quotas and laws.
I'm sure they handle those things the same way you do here. So, would you mind telling your buddy, President Calderon, that I'm on my way over?
Please let him know that I will be expecting the following:
1. Free medical care for my entire family.
2. English-speaking government bureaucrats for all services I might need, whether I use them or not.
3. Please print all Mexican government forms in English.
4. I want my grandkids to be taught Spanish by English-speaking (bi-lingual) teachers.
5. Tell their schools they need to include classes on American culture and history.
6. I want my grandkids to see the American flag on one of the flag poles at their school.
7. Please plan to feed my grandkids at school for both breakfast and lunch.
8. I will need a local Mexican driver's license so I can get easy access to government services.
9. I do plan to get a car and drive in Mexico , but, I don't plan to purchase car insurance, and I probably won't make any special effort to learn local traffic laws.
10. In case one of the Mexican police officers does not get the memo from their president to leave me alone, please be sure that every patrol car has at least one English-speaking officer.
11. I plan to fly the U.S. Flag from my house top, put U S. Flag decals on my car, and have a gigantic celebration on July 4th. I do not want any complaints or negative comments from the locals.
12. I would also like to have a nice job without paying any taxes, or have any labor or tax laws enforced on any business I may start.
13. Please have the president tell all the Mexican people to be extremely nice and never say critical things about me or my family, or about the strain we might place on their economy.
14. I want to receive free food stamps.
15. Naturally, I'll expect free rent subsidies.
16. I'll need Income tax credits so although I don't pay Mexican Taxes, I'll receive money from the government.
17. Please arrange it so that the Mexican Gov't pays $4,500 to help me buy a new car.
18. Oh yes, I almost forgot, please enroll me free into the Mexican Social Security program so that I'll get a monthly income in retirement.
I know this is an easy request because you already do all these things for all his people who walk over to the U..S. From Mexico . I am sure that President Calderon won't mind returning the favor if you ask him nicely.
Thank you so much for your kind help. You're the man!!!

The above was a comment found at the CBS webpage poll page, "Grade Obama's First Year in Office" (yes, he is getting an F).

Via Roger L. Simon--thanks for the chuckles.

Best photo of the day comes via American Digest--showing a little glimpse of just what America needs to restore our sense of "American hawtness," as one commenter aptly quips. This little shot reminds me that the Reagan Revolution started more or less the same way--when a conservative governor, reviled, belittled, and hated by leftists and the toadying media, somehow miraculously managed to stay true to his own values and gain the trust of the American voters to land in the White House for 8 years of distinction and truly historic service to our country and the world. You just never know how life's going to work out.

Our leaders are rooting for the bad guys

2010-06-06T08:37:00.004-04:00

This is serious. Betsy lays out how Obama is willing to let Iran arm Gaza, why the flotilla was not about humanitarian aid, and how Obama is abandoning Israel to the jackals.

This sick administration does not speak for me. And I am not alone. Obama and his henchmen are setting our country up for a big fall. Not to mention what they seem willing to do to Israel. The Obama administration seems set on tearing this country apart.

Goodbye California, hello Canada

2010-06-05T07:57:00.004-04:00

The smart money in Hollywood has known for awhile that you can escape high costs and taxes and other U.S. annoyances like closed union shops, by filming in Canada, or specifically, "Hollywood North," as some of us Yankees like to call it.

Seems there are more reasons to move there now than ever: Pixar is seeing the writing on the wall. California is now officially a has-been, washed up, a done deal, living on the fumes of its memories of golden former times.

Thanks to Ace for reminding us that Canadians speak English, too. At least the ones not yet falling under the heavy boot of officially required bilingualism and so-called multicultural tolerance.

Just when I was thinking of devoting my remaining senile years to moving back to California when we retire, to do conservative-activist mission work among the looney-leftists. I'm either way too late, or before my time--or crazy.

Oh goody

2010-06-04T07:15:00.003-04:00

Now the Obama administration wants to "reinvent journalism." Who knew there was a crisis to exploit? But the Obama people find or manufacture one in every direction, in every nook and cranny. While fumbling one real crisis after another.

Worst administration ever? At least the summer's trials and investigations will be entertaining and enlightening.

Memorial Day

2010-05-31T08:02:00.003-04:00

"More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world."

Heading out to the cemetery today to leave some flowers. May have to take an umbrella.

My thoughts on Memorial Days past are here (2009), here (2007): "All residents are kindly requested to furnish flowers for the occasion" and here (2006).

Obama the incompetent

2010-05-31T06:53:00.005-04:00

Don Surber sums up how Obama has met 4 crises now and has failed at all of them (via Instapundit). This comes as no surprise to those of us who were mourning and fearing the election results in November 2008. Our country is now reaping the whirlwind we Americans ourselves elected.

America had chosen to close its eyes to what was at stake and what was voted for. Americans voted frivolously and ignorantly. Americans had checked out of thinking clearly about the international scene, ignored what our government needs, minimally, to function, and had taken Obama at his words instead of by his record and deeds. America had, instead of thinking long and hard, concentrated its fickle, short-attention-span, all-that-glitters focus on its own little interior psychodrama, electing a "clean, articulate" (in Joe Biden's words) man of color in hopes of appeasing historical guilt (or, in the case of many black voters, getting racial payback).

And now, those of us who criticize his policies and actions by pointing out the obvious are targeted as racists.

I still can't help but remember that even Sarah Palin had more executive experience than Obama did, and would probably know better what to do and how to manage people and resources in a crisis. And she was only running for Vice-President.

Obama's empty campaign slogan of "Hope" becomes more and more evidently ironic as his presidency ensues.

This is what you get when you elect someone knowing and hoping he will "learn on the job."

I hope American learn not to do this again, and will take their sacred privilege and honor of voting, in all elections, more seriously from now on.

P.S. The high standards for governing now set by our media.

P.P.S. How that campaign slogan of "Change!" is working out--in food stamps.

It's an outrage

2010-05-26T15:06:00.006-04:00

The outrages continue to rain down fast and furious in this Age of Obama:

Obama sends a token force of National Guard to the southern border and then files a lawsuit against Arizona trying to stem the flow of illegal aliens. Claims the Arizona law "impedes" federal law. Oh, and the soldiers are there to help the Mexican President, not to stem illegal immigration. And other border states get no help. Oh, my sainted aunt (as Katharine Hepburn once delicately put it). UPDATE: The many dangers of porous borders during wartime. Our elected leaders are fools who will cost us Americans our lives. UPDATE: Americans fleeing Arizona--this is heartbreaking. I blame our government. We should give notice that at a certain date and time we will start defending our border and will shoot to kill anyone crashing the gates.

"Cordoba House" (icon of Islam's conquest) gets the green light from the New York City community board to be built on the unmarked graves of 3,000 New Yorkers. As far as cultural sensitivity goes, this Muslim project stinks. So do such tone-deaf New Yorkers. But the fix was in. And who's paying for this monstrosity--the usual Wahhabi suspects?

Obama tells Republicans a whopper--that Obamacare will reduce the national debt. How did such an idiot get into the White House? Thanks, you-know-who-you-are. Meanwhile, the U.S. debt is now at $13 Trillion and counting.

Did the White House try to bribe an office-seeker? That would be standard operating procedure for a Chicago politician, many of which are currently wandering the White House halls. I want someone to get to the truth of this.

It is fatiguing, the rate at which this crap keeps coming. I would not call this good or stable leadership. I'm ready for another Calvin Coolidge.

Obama to bow out of Memorial Day tradition: creates vacuum for Republicans to rush in

2010-05-25T16:55:00.005-04:00

With President Obama conceding ground at Arlington National Cemetery this weekend, I expect the entire assembly of red-blooded Republican leadership in Washington to be there to commemorate what the day is all about. That is, if Michael Steele doesn't have other plans.

Snark.

Ace asks: How did we lose to this guy? Easy--if Republicans still continue not to wake up and step up to the plate, the answer to that question continues to stare us in the face daily.

"Shut up. You're stupid. We're cool."

2010-05-25T08:59:00.003-04:00

I didn't like that deluded attitude displayed by the bullies/my supposed "betters" in junior high school. I didn't like it from certain faculty members and other intellectuals I've encountered in my longish life. And I still don't cotton to it from anybody as a freeborn American adult. That's why I like this essay by the Anchoress so much: she really puts the finger right on liberals who want dictators over all of us. Mere words aren't good enough to describe such worms. But the Anchoress takes a crack at explaining it:

Every murderous totalitarian government of the 20th century began with some insulated group of faux-intellectuals congratulating each other on how smart they are, and fantasizing about how, if they could just install a dictatorship-for-a-day, they could right all the wrongs in the world.
It is the ultimate fantasy of the narcissist. And we’ve got whole generations of them, in control of our media and our government, all intent on “remaking America.”

Thank God George Washington showed us the way. No kings for Americans, thank you. There was a reason why the Founders created a limited government. It was meant to limit power-hungry would-be kings and dictators, even those with the "best of intentions.". And there's a reason why republican-minded Americans venerate and emulate them. Some idiots still haven't gotten the message 200+ years later. Idiots supposedly "educated" enough to know better.

Teach your children the lessons our Founders and George Washington taught us.

Via Roger L. Simon, who says the leftists in the Cultural Wars are on the run. But Arthur C. Brooks says there is a new Cultural War (via Maggie's Farm).

Mexican President's speech in Congress and what the Dems applauded

2010-05-23T09:43:00.008-04:00

This seems to be the most jaw-dropping story of the past week. Many of you were already aware of this, but for those who weren't, I am posting it here. I can't believe these Democrats were so stupid as to stand up and applaud this.

And here, thankfully, is the Republican response.

And here is what Rush Limbaugh had to say (my 82-year-old mother called me and exclaimed, "Are you listening to Rush!?" --I am now.)

Krauthammer: Obama Refuses to Stand Up for His Own Country

ICE declares war on Arizonans (open insurrection now).

Go, Arizona! Add Brewer to Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann as strong conservative women I really admire. And Go, ARKANSAS, IDAHO, INDIANA, MARYLAND, MICHIGAN, MINNESOTA, MISSOURI, NEBRASKA, NEVADA, NEW JERSEY, OHIO, OKLAHOMA, PENNSYLVANIA, RHODE ISLAND, SOUTH CAROLINA, TEXAS, UTAH!

UPDATE: Here's my question for the Mexican President: What are you doing to help us put people like this behind bars?

AFTERWORD at American Thinker. I agree; I think the Republicans in Congress attending that speech should have walked out, along with any Democrats who actually love their country and have read the Arizona law.

Everybody Draw Mohammed Day

2010-05-23T09:01:00.004-04:00

I've been so busy I entirely missed this important new holiday celebrating our precious freedom of speech here in the U.S. No problem--other bloggers had it well covered, including Bookworm, who posted a positively incendiary view of Mohammed, along with her eloquent thoughts.

Here's another post from Ace.

The illustration above comes from Zombie's Mohammed Image Archives.

I love you guys.

UPDATE: Contest winners!

Mid-week roundup

2010-05-12T04:29:00.008-04:00

Today's quote: “I am a Republican, a black, dyed in the wool Republican, and I never intend to belong to any other party than the party of freedom and progress.” Who said that? Frederick Douglass.

America--love it or leave it? Here are some complaints from those who've left. And some advice ("Love it or leave it" is a coward's slogan. That's what I think. I think a more honorable slogan is "Love it and stay," "Love it and get it right," "Love it and never shut up.") from one who returned.

Some awful stuff coming out of public schools this week: a teacher violently beating a 6th grader, a little girl told by her art teacher that her patriotic drawing of the U.S. flag was "offensive" and a third-grader given a week of detention for having a Jolly Rancher candy at lunch (breaking the state's "minimal nutrition" foods guidelines). All of these incidents come hard on the heels of the principal's punishment of the teens who wore patriotic t-shirts on Cinco de Mayo. Good lord, Happy Mother's Day. It's harder to be a parent these days when you can no longer trust your local public school staff to do the right thing by, for, or to your kids.

I agree with Bird Dog: "Speaking of santimonious cranks, White House: Stop Marketing Unhealthy Foods to Kids. Hey, Washington: Shut the heck up and leave us alone. You can eat what you want, and we will eat what we like: Philly Cheese Steaks, and barbecued short ribs with corn bread, and stuff like that. Bread Pudding for dessert, with a Port or a single malt on the side. Then a cigar." I have my own favorite menus (they don't include booze or cigars), but we agree, the government has no right to dictate what my family and I eat or don't eat.

UPDATE: "How about fixing our deportation system instead of fixing our junk-food diets?" And by the way, what's Michelle Obama's BMI?

Finally, the best comment I've read in a while (for being thought-provoking and reality-based):

I am a recently retired senior high school Social Studies teacher who spent 40 years in the classroom.
The complete seizure of public education by the loony [left] began in the schools of education at colleges and universities circa 25 years ago as the WW II generation retired from teaching and administrative positions.
Huge numbers of war babies and the first few birth years of the baby boom generation flooded into teaching in the 1960s and early 70s. I was one of them and as we retired we have been replaced by an ever increasingly female wave of younger teachers, a sizeable % of them of the Janet Reno Elena Kagan stripe.
In California usurpation of the teacher corp by the left has been accelerated by the state’s insanely overpriced housing costs. When I started teaching in 1966 I could buy a 1500 sq, ft. 3 bedroom, 2 bath house in the middle-middle class suburb where I reside for three times my starting salary of $7400 (I had a master’s degree). Today that same house sells for 15X a fully credentialed teacher’s starting salary. As a result of salaries that failed to keep up with the cost of a middle class standard of living males who in 1966 were over 60% of senior high teachers have come to spurn teaching as an occupation that would preclude them from supporting a family and a middle class lifestyle.
Intellectually bright women have ditched teaching as well and turned to more remunerative fields such as law, medicine, dentistry, and business leaving only the easily indoctrinated academic dregs available for teaching jobs.
In the last ten years I was teaching I frequently had to field the question from students 'why are the young teachers so dumb?' The answer, one conservatives do not want to hear, is the low salaries relative to California’s & other high cost of living state’s housing prices.
The reality for the last 20 years is that a college graduate with a brain and a meaningful real major can earn much more in a field other than teaching. I never quit drumming into my son and nephews the financial folly of becoming a teacher.
The reality is that only the mentally limited and those with useless waste of time faux majors such as psychology, communications, and ethnic and gender studies have been going into teaching for the last two decades. Have you checked to see how many of the nation's "under 55" math/science, and even English classes are taught by majors or minors in those fields? Damned few I can assure you. The elementary and middle schools are complete disasters nationwide as per teacher quality. Research the falling scores of elementary & to a lesser degree middle schools teachers and candidates on the National Teacher’s Test.
The public at least in California with its sky-high cost of living and current salary level are getting what they pay for and it’s the clueless and easily indoctrinated.
Within 2 years of his graduation my civil engineer son was earning more per year than I was with a masters degree plus 70 semester units of graduate work and 40 years of experience.
About those much trumpeted $100,000 a year pensions for teachers are non- existent. Those retirement payoffs are going to retired educrats who are a part of the teachers' retirement system. I just received the annual report from the California Teachers Retirement System and learned the average retiree had 30+ years of service and for classroom teachers the average benefit was a bit over $3,600 a month.
I am a lifelong conservative republican voter and activist but when I hear conservatives go off on their ill-informed rants about teachers' high salaries and retirements I can understand why a majority of teachers who are competent and not moonbats are repulsed by conservatives and republicans.

I cleaned up the many typos in what was obviously a quickly and passionately written rant (by a baby-boomer, not an old-schooler who understands how to wield a hyphen). But talking substance: I would sure like to see conservatives talk to the nation about how more choice in school options could create a better and more remunerative and competitive market for the best teachers while better educating the students. I would also like to see conservatives better explain how the inflated cost of living in California or any other big-government/social welfare, high-regulation state drives out the best and subsidizes the worst--to the detriment of all.

Anybody in Washington with the hubris to think he or she can successfully centrally plan our educational system, let alone our economy, should be shown the door. Government should be nothing but a severely limited last resort, and none more so than the Federal government.

UPDATE: We need more of this.

Conclusion reached: George Bush kept us safer than Barack Obama does

2010-05-07T09:08:00.006-04:00

I know George Bush was a hard act to follow. But I think we can now draw this conclusion without meaningful contradition: we were safer from terrorism and jihadists under George Bush than we are under Barack Obama. Since Obama took over, we've now had three widely publicized (and so, to a large extent, successful) attacks on homeland soil: the Fort Hood massacre, the Christmas day underpants bomber plot, and now the Times Square SUV bomb.

Luck and leaks (and more leaks) and spin do not constitute a viable homeland defense strategy among grownups. Relaxing security measures to please Muslims does not seem to be helping. The TSA ("thousands standing around") is a very unfunny joke. I'd say it's time for Napolitano to resign. Three strikes and you're out, honey. (Note to Congress: get off your windbag duffs and do your Job One, oversight of the protection of American citizens.)

Add this conclusion to the growing list of revealed systemic incompetencies and corruptions of the Obama administration.

"If you see something, say something - except in Arizona"

2010 Census snafu

2010-05-06T07:49:00.003-04:00

Michelle Malkin highlights the latest 2010 census boondoggle in a long list. Has the census always been such a big FAIL, or is it just this one, ever since the Obama administration took over and tried to hijack the census organization into the White House?

Talk about gross incompetence with our money. Americans have very little confidence that the census process has not now been politicized. On a personal note, two households in my own family, one in Georgia and one in Texas, did not receive any census form at all. That's a pretty high percentage of FAIL, given that there are only 9 households in my extended family. I can't help but wonder if this failure rate is localized among the Southern (more conservative) states, or if it applies all over the U.S.

Random thoughts

2010-05-04T07:00:00.007-04:00

This gives one serious pause: a Christian street preacher is arrested in England by a homosexual cop when he tells someone in public that the Bible calls homosexuality a sin. Where is George Orwell now when his countrymen need him more than ever? Something's bad wrong in England. And "no question it's coming" here to America too, according to Franklin Graham. I think what he says is right.

Power Line wonders if the Obama administration's response to the Gulf oil spill has been adequate or inadequate. You know what I wonder? Who's supposed to clean up the mess if a Chinese or other country's well off our American shores blows up? We'd better get our act together better than this. I'm not sure Obama and his people are up to it.

"Best idea ever: This way to San Francisco!" billboards for illegal aliens by Doug Ross (via American Digest).

Why you can't have a conversation with a progressive leftist: because their idea of argumentation seems to consist of straw man and ad hominen arguments and their ideas of right and wrong don't tally with the norms or the classic standards. Getting even more basic than that, it's because their ideas of the truth do not tally with reality. In their minds, they wish it, therefore it is. This explains in part why so many kids in my daughter's middle school are such big and persistent liars these days. I am constantly amazed at how kids this old are still living in fantasy worlds and habitually tell huge, patently false, self-justifying whoppers--but it reflects their parents' views, I suppose. Sort of like the so-called "scientists" willing to fudge data to bolster their agenda. Sad for them, serious for our country and our world. We have a crisis in education on our hands of the most basic sort--too many people don't even know how to think clearly or judge correctly.

UPDATE: I have just one word about the President's recent standup comedy routine: Tacky. The Jonas Brothers, by the way, are the perfect boys any dad who doesn't want his daughters "punished with a baby" would want to hang out with his daughters: Kevin Jonas is a newlywed and Nick and Joe wear purity rings. The question is, why in the world would these men want to date the little Obama girls? I know it was meant to be funny, but jeez. Tacky.

Happy May Day

2010-05-01T08:33:00.009-04:00

I would prefer that May Day still be celebrated as a day to glorify the natural and spiritual beauties of spring--a day reminiscent of maypoles, picnics, warm-weather frolicks, and the imminent end of the school year, as I wrote in 2006.

I say again that it is a sad day in America when May Day becomes a day most known for illegal aliens, Marxists, Communists and socialists to protest in our streets in favor of disregarding our immigration laws and our border security.

Michelle Malkin helpfully publicizes when and where the illegal aliens and their enablers will be massing. It also helpfully gives you a good list of places to avoid moving to, living in, or visiting if you are a conservative. On the other hand, if you want to take your camera and do some citizen journalism today, have at it.

I would just like to remind everyone of what Glenn Reynolds wrote in 2006:

People are talking about backlash, and how these [pro-illegal immigrant] rallies are counterproductive. That's probably right, but I think that's what the A.N.S.W.E.R. folks are hoping for. Right now you have lots of immigrants who want to be part of America. The A.N.S.W.E.R. people have been stoking these demonstrations not because they want to help illegal immigrants, but because they hope to provoke a backlash that will make them angry at America instead. They don't have short-term ameliorative political goals -- they want shock troops for the revolution.

True, and they are still hard at it.

As Ronald Reagan once said (hat tip to Mudville Gazette):

How do you tell a Communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin.

Happy May Day, however you choose to celebrate.

UPDATE: A most excellent afterword and roundup by Power Line.

UPDATE: Michelle Malkin collects images of mob violence and communist agitation. Meanwhile, the Democrats make political hay by stirring up anger and fear.

Next year: let's make May 1st Victims of Communism Day. I hadn't heard about this until too late, this year. A great idea. I'll start now, with a little preview of some victims in Santa Cruz.

Tea party grannies face SWAT team

2010-04-29T06:45:00.004-04:00

These ladies are my buds!

Doing the work that Progressives and other violent rioters are too messed up to do.

You're welcome!

UPDATE: Take cookies (via Instapundit).

White coral bells

2010-04-25T14:16:00.004-04:00

White coral bells
upon a slender stalk
Lilies of the Valley
deck my garden walk.
Oh, don't you wish
that you could hear them ring?
That will happen only when
the fairies sing.

I still remember this song I learned in grade school back in the mid-1960's. Why they call Lilies of the Valley "white coral" bells, I can't figure out at this late date. They sure smell sublime, though. I love the scents of spring, especially hyacinth, lilies of the valley, and lilacs.

Guess children are still singing this song!

Making illegal aliens illegal (in Arizona)

2010-04-24T10:17:00.006-04:00

It's ridiculously redundant, but long overdue: the state of Arizona, in the face of the Federal government's failure to act, has now ruled it illegal to be an illegal alien in Arizona.

The usual idiots (and some surprising compadres) are of course crying about the coming 'civil rights violations' lawsuits and "unfairness." Seems to me that the non-criminals in Arizona would be more than happy to cooperate with and assist the local police in enforcing the laws and securing the borders. That's called working together as a community for the good of the community--which used to be what we called an American value.

It's not like the police pull people over and start bashing them with nightsticks before determining if they are illegal immigrants or not. It's not like being pulled over and questioned in and of itself is inherently offensive, intrusive, or illegal (contrary to the inflated beliefs of some). Even if you are an illegal alien, the police will not bash you (unless you threaten them or resist arrest)--they will now fine or jail you or deport you from Arizona, that's all. With your health, welfare, and human dignity as a U.S. law-breaker still intact. Go home and take unfair advantage of the U.S. citizens no more.

Yay for Arizona. I'm glad to see a state stepping up to the plate like this, and I'm glad to see Arizona doing its part to finally stem the flood of illegals and violent criminals and cheats over their border who end up in their own backyard and in the other 49 states. Don't wait for the Feds to do it, do it on your own (to paraphrase Mother Theresa). I wish my state would also outlaw the outlaws.

UPDATE: Good question: Why is it okay in Obama's mind to require proof of insurance of legal citizens but not proof of citizenship of illegal aliens? This dude has one twisted idea of 'fairness.'

Limited or unlimited?

2010-04-20T10:36:00.000-04:00

Make up your mind.

Republicans I'll say no to

2010-04-17T10:20:00.007-04:00

Found some cogent essays today expressing my own thoughts about a few Republicans I can't support:

Mitt Romney (for these very reasons, tho he seems a nice guy with a modicum of economic literacy). Via Power Line. UPDATE: "Not the clear-cut anti-Obama we need."

Lindsay Graham (puleeze! South Carolina, elect somebody better than this loose cannon that insists on shooting us in the back from time to time! He's the dictionary definition of a guy who just doesn't get it.)

Ron Paul (I have nothing against libertarians, but I just can't follow him into his personal swamps of isolationism, monetary medievalism, and especially racism).

I hope the Republican National Committee is listening. The ground is shifting under their feet and most of the time they seem to be falling down instead of adapting.

UPDATE: Here are two more candidates I vote thumbs-down on: the affable would-be diet dictator Mike Huckabee (I do not favor him for many reasons, but most recently for sounding totally tone-deaf on protecting Americans from porous borders and stemming illegal immigration) and Newt Gingrich (he had his chance with the Contract With America and blew it big time). Stay on the sidelines and keep feeding us those visionary ideas, Professor, but give someone new a chance in the 21st century.

UPDATE: Betsy agrees with me about nixing Newt.

Tax Day Tea Parties 2010

2010-04-16T08:52:00.010-04:00

This week I attended the same two Tax Day tea party rallies I attended last year. It is so great to see grassroots democracy going so strongly:

First, the town square noontime rally on Wednesday, April 14th, where several hundred people turned out, including a big flock of veterans who helped lead the Pledge of Allegiance:

Mid-American small-town Tax Day Tea Party, April 14, 2010

I bought a Tea Party t-shirt and spoke to several people. The overall mood was friendly but subdued and deadly-determined. These folks have spent the last year wide-awake and not only enduring what the Democrat Party has wreaked upon us (including charges of racism) and our country, but fighting it day by day at the grassroots level. Several ordinary people, including a retired military veteran, a nurse and a Russian immigrant, went to the mike during the "open democracy minutes" and warned about the direction the country is going in. Several attendees were first-time tea party visitors, but we saw no disruptive infiltrators. Just lots of passing drivers honking in agreement with our signs.

I am glad his Royal highness the President finds me and my neighbors so amusing.

Then yesterday I attended a big city Tax Day Tea Party with friends. We arrived early and had nearly-front-row seats. When we squeezed our way in and out of the venue, it seemed that the crowd was a little smaller than last year, but still thousands attended (beneath circling helicopters) and they were just as intent and enthused as last year's participants. This year's event seemed very well organized. The Tea Party movement here has grown and matured. We saw no infiltrators or party "crashers" in our part of the crowd. Local politicians with conservative bona fides were warmly applauded. The speakers were great, as were the singers. The politicians and the orators in costumes should take a hint from the Gettysburg address and keep it pithy. But you couldn't have asked for a more appreciative and supportive crowd of ordinary concerned Americans glad to get together and express themselves:

Today I am proud of my fellow Americans. And proud of my country.

We'll keep up the good work. Preserving freedom one politician at a time.

And as they say, we can see November from our house.

UPDATE: Remember November.

Those quotable founders

2010-04-14T14:35:00.006-04:00

"When the people find that they can vote themselves money that will herald the end of the republic."
— Benjamin Franklin

"I am for doing good to the poor, but...I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. I observed...that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer."
— Benjamin Franklin

"Americans have the right and advantage of being armed - unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms."
James Madison

"Do not separate text from historical background. If you do, you will have perverted and subverted the Constitution, which can only end in a distorted, bastardized form of illegitimate government."
James Madison

"I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."
James Madison

"It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood."
James Madison

"What prudent merchant will hazard his fortunes in any new branch of commerce when he knows not that his plans may be rendered unlawful before they can be executed?"
James Madison

"There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty."
John Adams

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

"Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable - a most sacred right - a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world."
Abraham Lincoln

"I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it."
Abraham Lincoln

Seen along the trail

2010-04-10T11:54:00.003-04:00

I'm marching in the online tax revolt

2010-04-10T09:23:00.003-04:00

I just checked my avatar, and I see I'm now marching through historic Fauquier County, Virginia, on my way to Washington, D.C. for the big April 15th Tax Day rally. I can see many other patriots near me in the woods and along the roads (no doubt enjoying the redbuds, dogwoods, and wisteria). Although we can't make it to Washington D.C. for real next Thursday, we are adding our voices and our "virtual bodies" -- plus our real names and our real contributions -- to the swelling crowds about to tell Washington that our tax system is broken and the imposition of more taxes has to stop:

"The Online Tax Revolt is open to every American who believes taxes and spending are out of control, harmful to our country and a threat to our nation's future. Join other Americans as we march online from across the country to Washington, DC and rally together on April 15!"

You can view the march here. Over 255,000 Americans have already begun, and it is not too late for you and your friends to join, too. You can also be a sponsor of the largest tax protest in history by donating a few bucks.

I would really love to be in Washington for real next Thursday. I am so grateful to those who will be putting aside their personal business for a day and attending and representing me there. I am really proud of my fellow Americans.

Instead of being in Washington, I will be attending a couple of tea parties on my home turf. I'm still musing about how my protest sign will be worded. You may see it, and me, on TV next week. I'll be the one looking happy in enjoying my God-given freedoms but determined to protect them from greedy, power-hungry politicians. I'll be the one surrounded by a few of my friends.

Purple in the woods

2010-04-09T15:08:00.009-04:00

Today when I stepped outside I heard a sound I haven't heard for months: the wind rustling through the leaves. The leaves have returned to the winter-bared trees. Plus, the passing parade of blooms that is spring has now changed to purple:

All across the southeastern United States right now, from Ohio, West Virginia, and Virginia, down through the Carolinas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Alabama, and Georgia, the wisteria and redbuds are turning the woods shades of purple. Since purple is my favorite color, I'm liking it.

Wisteria is the closest thing the Southerners have to lilacs (my favorite flower). Seeing it reminds me of the beautifully cultivated wisteria in Cambridge, England. But around here it grows wild over the trees and woods, as kudzu does later in the summer. The purple and pink flowering trees are at their height now, too. I'm a sucker for blooming redbud trees:

And you can't beat cherry blossoms:

Next to come: dogwoods and azaleas.

Things you can do to bring about change

2010-03-29T06:55:00.005-04:00

Instapundit's readers have some great suggestions--besides joining your local Tea Party organization, which I have done (they are active and on top of these things and so much more, including Constitutional education).

To find a local tea party group, check with:

Americans for Prosperity

Tea Party Express (which incidentally, pulled off a pretty big event this weekend) UPDATE: More photos of the tea party in Searchlight, Nevada (via Instapundit)

"But will Republican politicians keep their promises once back in power?" We must make sure they do, which means our work is not done after November 2010.

PLUS THIS (also from Instapundit): Pirate radio. Is this the future of Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, if Net Neutrality and the Fairness Doctrine ever take hold? "Just giving a voice to the community..." When tyranny and regulation become overpowering, freedom breaks out in the form of lawbreaking. Or, as Ayn Rand said,

"There's no way to rule innocent men.
The only power government has is the power to crack down on criminals.
Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them.
One declares so many things to be a crime
that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws."

A letter to my United Methodist Church

2010-03-28T08:17:00.004-04:00

So I thought about it all. And here is what I'm dropping in the collection plate later this morning:

To My Church:

Last Sunday evening while watching Congress pass the health care reform bill on C-Span, I saw Speaker Nancy Pelosi thank the United Methodist Church for being especially instrumental in supporting the Democrats’ efforts and in helping to pass the bill. I was shocked and appalled that my Church would 1) be so inappropriately politically involved in this divisive, partisan legislation, and 2) be singled out as actively supporting policies, processes, and goals I believe are not only immoral, but which will prove to be destructive to the health, wealth, and safety of our nation and all our fellow citizens, including the poor, the young, the old, the powerless, and the unborn. Since then, I have educated myself as to the role the United Methodist Church has played in this and in other political matters.

Today I regret I must rescind the balance of my annual pledge to my United Methodist home church, since there seems to be no mechanism in place to assure me that my financial support will not end up in the hands of our denomination’s leadership determined to promote damaging socialist and even Marxist aims in the name of Christ, God, and Methodism. I regret that because of our leadership’s actions I am no longer able to support the good work that the United Methodist Church has done around the country and around the world.

I will continue to support my home church's building fund, the pastor’s discretionary fund, and other local charities I hope will do what’s best for needy people in the name of God, as Christ taught us. And of course I will continue to pray for our church and our nation.

In the mail: Taking Back the United Methodist Church by Mark Tooley.

Laughing in the storm

2010-03-25T13:44:00.007-04:00

Here are three things that made me laugh out loud in the past two days:

1. This book and its great title: Obama Zombies: How the Liberal Machine Brainwashed My Generation by Jason Mattera

2. This book and its equally felicitous title: That's No Angry Mob, That's My Mom: Team Obama's Assault on Tea-Party, Talk Radio Americans by Michael Graham

3. The inscription on this tombstone of a Civil War veteran. It looks Photoshopped, but hell, you can Photoshop that on my tombstone, too.

Hat tips to whoever mentioned these things, I can't remember. Ace, Insty, American Digest, PowerLine...

BONUS: Another antidote to gathering darkness in these degenerate times is provided by some fine musical artists reminiscent of the Weimar and 1930's Hollywood: Max Raabe and the Palast Orchester and The Comedian Harmonists. Try this.

Obamacare and the United Methodist Church

2010-03-25T06:29:00.020-04:00

I am one of many Methodists who were shocked, appalled, and incensed to hear Nancy Pelosi thank the United Methodist Church for helping pass Obamacare last Sunday night. I knew the top leadership of my denomination was left-leaning (fortunately my home church stays admirably silent on overt politicizing). But this current issue hits too close to home for me to remain complacent and compliant. These politics will hurt too many innocent Americans--i.e. the 85% who are taking care of business and satisfied with their health care, including me and my family. (" I am one of the many millions who are outraged at the Left's attempt to destroy the private health care system that has served my family so well..." as John Hinderaker says.) It is clear that this particular bill will have a LOT of bad and hurtful consequences, not to mention continuing to polarize and inflame our country instead of unite it in common cause to reform and heal.

It is not a question of good guys who want to help people vs. bad guys who do not. All sides have good intentions and want the best for the country. But not all sides have the best solutions, and Obamacare is a dismal plague headed our way, a slow-motion trainwreck about to consume our country. I have to stand up and protest, and say that the leadership of my church does not speak for me. And I am furious that it would purport to do so in this.

Mark Tooley has said:

Traditional Christians and Jews have understood that Providence has a vital vocation for families, religious institutions, private business, independent charities, and a whole range of non-government actors. Traditionally, they have believed that the government only does, to paraphrase Lincoln, what the people cannot do for themselves. But the old Religious Left, joined increasingly by Evangelical Left wannabes, leaves almost no civic space for the private sphere. In their almost totalitarian perspective, the state is an endless cornucopia of goods and services providing for every human need. Families, churches, businesses and charities become almost inconsequential, or are, at best, mere compliant hand maidens to an all powerful government. Most religious people would find this fantasy nightmarish. But this nightmare animates nearly all the social justice activism of religious leftists....

Signers of this “Call for Political Courage, Vision, Leadership, and Faith” include officials of the Episcopal, Presbyterian USA, Evangelical Lutheran, United Church of Christ, and United Methodist denominations, along with Jim Wallis’ Sojourners, Evangelicals for Social Action, the National Council of Churches, Quakers, Mennonites, left-wing Catholic orders like the Maryknollers, a couple Muslim groups and several Jewish organizations. Some of these groups, or at least their elites, have very little theology any more. But they are increasingly unified behind a single unifying spiritual principle: worshipping at the altar of the state.

Anthony G. Martin writes:

Syndicated columnist Walter E. Williams, professor of economics at George Mason University, said it best when he opined, 'For me to voluntarily open my pockets to help the poor and needy is a worthy and honorable act of human compassion. But for you to reach inside my pockets and take my money to do so is stealing for which somebody should go to jail.'
Yesterday we were treated to the news that some of the nation's religious leaders had been recruited by Obama to promote his plan for a government takeover of healthcare.
And they gladly jumped on board like giddy sailors ready for another voyage into the exciting seas of political activism.
Although many are quick to condemn rightwing, evangelical groups for 'taking their faith into the political marketplace,' Leftwing religious groups are given a pass in the mainstream media when they engage in overt political activity.
After all, when they do it, it is 'a moral obligation,' or so they would have us believe....

By sitting in my church pew each Sunday and contributing to the collection plate, am I helping to further these totalitarian visions--in my name?

Here is a round-up of some of the news I have discovered:

"Health care bill's passage called 'huge step' toward affirming United Methodist social principles" (more like socialist principles, if you ask me).

"How did the UMC come to define health care as a 'right'?" (not a pretty process--and not unlike the machinations of Congress)

"Pelosi hails church agency on health reform" (congratulatory pats on the back all around. I don't recall us Methodists being asked to weigh in on this. Meanwhile, more Methodists in Congress voted NO than voted Yes)

The Congressman who was allegedly spat upon is a United Methodist Minister (allegedly) UPDATE: Tempest in a tea party teapot. It was a set-up.

The UMC had a history of vilifying George Bush (a Methodist) for his policies:

Despite his Christian example, his reliance upon the United Methodist Church's preferred political body to enforce its own resolutions with regard to Iraq, and his unwillingness as the leader of state to repeat the mistakes of Munich in appeasing those who openly threaten and the mistakes of his predecessor in ignoring the clear warnings and acts of war upon the United States by Islamic jihad, the United Methodist Church chose to single out one man for the world's ills: George W. Bush, United Methodist.

The UMC has been against Stupak and supportive of abortion for a long time (they think 'health care is a right,' and that publicly-funded abortions are more health care than eugenics or murder, evidently)

Obamacare: A Social Justice Nightmare for the Whole World: "Killing opportunities for charity may fit perfectly with the Marxist-oriented Kumbayah Fallacy, but it proves a diabolical mockery of the doctrines on genuine Social Justice." (If even my 14-year-old can see this, why can't the bishops?)

Maybe it's time to become Amish. Seriously, many commenters are advocating that Methodists seek out non-denominational churches more suitable for Christians who are not statists, leftists, or Marxists and who no longer wish to lend their unwilling support to those unworkable and immoral ideas.

I have traditionally been proud that my denomination, the United Methodist Church, did so much good for so many people around the world. Now, feeling I have no control over exactly what the ruling philosophy and ultimate aim of its do-goodism is, and knowing that it is often actually bent toward what I am diametrically opposed to for its immoral nature, I don't feel I can lend my unqualified support any more. In fact, I feel duty-bound to protest and speak out.

Incidentally, if my church is now politicking in Washington alongside Nancy Pelosi, shouldn't it lose its religious tax-exempt status?

UPDATE: An antidote to leftwing hijackers of my religious denomination? -- The Institute on Religion & Democracy is on the case. I will find out more about this.

UPDATE: Nancy Pelosi's triumphant Palm Sunday message to Glide UMC in San Francisco.

UPDATE: MethodistThinker.com is a great website that keeps up with all of these developments and more within the United Methodist Church. Here is there summary and update on the health care bill debacle. Many Methodists are steaming--and leaving the church.

Making the case for the Fair Tax

2010-03-24T17:18:00.004-04:00

Here is another rebuttal to a recent critique in National Review of the Fair Tax. It is still a viable alternative to the horrific income tax situation we have now. I like this passage especially:

The current tax code is, in fact, so complicated that just filling out the legally required paperwork cost Americans more than $300 billion last year. The complexity is the main reason the government comes up more than $350 billion short of what is owed every year. This truth is again unfairly missing when the writer speculates on the potential losses through cheating a national consumption tax.

When it comes to the income tax, everyone agrees that “something must be done,” and yet “something” never gets done.

The reason for this also goes unmentioned and conspicuously ignored by Mr. Ponnuru. The code has been corrupted by years of congressional manipulation driven by both profit and power. There is little inclination to fundamentally change an unfair system that is so beneficial to so many lobbyists, tax experts, and members of Congress, including some quoted by Mr. Ponnuru. This unmentioned nest-feathering now lives at the heart of our national tax system and results in harm to both the overall economy and individual taxpayers.

If we can just get over the idea that nothing can ever be done to reform our bloated, corrupt tax system, which benefits so many corruptocrats, lobbyists, and social engineers in Washington, and throw our intelligence and will behind the Fair Tax (as so many seem willing and able to do), we might really experience some Hope and Change.

By the way, you can join the Online Tax Revolt here and virtually march to Washington for Tax Day, April 15th.

What to tell our kids about Obamacare

2010-03-24T05:45:00.002-04:00

Bookworm has an excellent dialog with her middle-school-aged daughter about Obamacare (inspired by a teacher talking about it at school). I'm sharing this with my daughter, too. Although my daughter already figured out by herself that if you dump millions of new people into a health system without proper incentives your are rapidly going to find yourself with fewer doctors and higher costs. Since my daughter hears about economics fairly frequently, she already understands supply and demand.

"Honey," I told her. "At 14 you are already smarter than Obama."

I suggest all parents print out Bookworm's "little talk" and not only share it with your children, but send it to your school's PTA newsletter, or drop a copy off with your principal.

Forced to buy "insurance"--the individual mandate

2010-03-22T21:08:00.005-04:00

"More important than the details of this bill, the mandate destroys one of the last bastions of individual autonomy in this society....

"It truly amazes me that the left-wing of the Democratic Party, which foams at the mouth at the thought that the NSA might intercept a phone call from someone in the U.S. to a known al-Qaeda operative in Pakistan, is so willing to hand over to the government the power to control the most personal aspect of our lives."

I agree with Professor Jacobson about the individual mandate. The fact that Obamacare will now force every American to purchase government-approved health insurance (at the point of a gun, basically) is the most unAmerican provision in this dismally appalling monstrosity of a freedom-killing, debt-spiraling bill. Of course President Obama will proudly sign it tomorrow.

Once upon a time I didn't have health insurance. After earning a scholarship and working summers and holidays, I had enough money saved up to attend college on my "own" dime (I thought of it that way then, living on the scholarships and stipends given to me by the State of California that I had "earned") and I asked my parents to remove me as a dependent from their tax return, to improve my own financial standing as a "poor" student, self-supported. I don't remember if I had health insurance while I attended college and lived off the State, but I think I didn't. Or maybe I had cheap, subsidized insurance for medical emergencies as a UC student. Somehow the private insurance market seemed to produce such things, even before the beneficence of Obamacare came along to save us.

But once I graduated and the student subsidies stopped, I moved to San Francisco and I know I did not have health insurance then because I just could not afford it. I was barely earning enough money to live--to buy food and pay my rent, and pay back my Mom $50 a month for loaning me my first and last months' rent deposit, while I was working temp secretarial jobs, and looking for an entry-level job in the publishing industry. (Such are the prospects of Honors English majors).

Not having health insurance then did not really bother me. Can you believe it? I was young, healthy, immortal, free, and over 21. When I needed medical care, I went to the "free" clinic and paid the bill (subsidized by somebody's charity or municipal goodwill; I never pondered it). I was fortunate I wasn't hit by a trolley car, I suppose. But if I had needed serious emergency help, my parents would've helped me. The point was, I was willing and able to forgo health insurance during that period in order to reach a point on my own where I could get ahead in what I wanted to do. It was my decision and I was happy with it. There were plenty of resources to help me along the way.

Now, thanks to Obamacare, young people won't have that kind of experience of relative autonomy any more, the way previous generations did. They won't be able to know the kind of joy and pride I found in living on my own for the first time in my life, and making my own way, apart from parents and the nanny-state hovering over me. Now young people will have to certify to the government that they have purchased government-approved health "insurance" (the term has now been perverted by Obamacare) that should cost at a minimum $750 per year (a sum I flat-out could not have spared when I was starting out). And if they are so poor as to qualify for a subsidy from Uncle Sam, imagine the questions, the time wasted having to stand in line at bureaucratic offices, taking a number and waiting to be processed by some government functionary who can't possibly know what is best for them. Bend over and fill it out in triplicate. Bow down before your compassionate overlords. The government will know and monitor you, your finances, and your health.

To me, the loss of freedom of choice, the necessity to be infantilized against one's will, and loss of the freedom to be on one's own in the world is one of the worst parts of Obamacare. If some people want or need to choose a nanny-monitor, that's okay with me. But now the people who don't want it won't have a choice.

If you don't think that's a significant loss, you don't know what you're talking about.

A dark day for Americans

2010-03-22T06:30:00.009-04:00

You know how I feel about things. You will excuse me if I express a bit how glum I am this morning in light of the Democrats having passed their power-grab government expansion bill last night in the House. Although I have been listening for years to people like Neal Boortz predict the tipping-point to the end-days of the country when nationalized health care would be passed, I never thought my fellow Americans would really be stupid enough to let that happen. I saw Obama elected last November, the most inexperienced, undereducated, far-leftist, socialist President ever to disgrace the honor of the White House, and all I could do was HOPE he would not be as bad for the country as I dreaded--and as he promised.

This morning I am wondering which of my loved ones, or myself, will be the first to be killed off by the new policies set in motion last night by the gleeful Democrats and their radical Leader. I am wondering how long it will be before I will try to make an appointment with one of our doctors and will be told: "Sorry, no appointments available." I am wondering how many days before we hear from our insurance provider that our benefits are cut and our premiums have skyrocketed--for the duration (before we are dumped and private insurance companies go out of business). I am wondering how long before the economy goes belly-up, our income evaporates, and we or my other loved ones will be the ones waiting in long, long lines and on wait-lists for "access" to inadequate, rationed government "care."

The only "good" thing I can think in visualizing these scenarios is that the Democrats will be rightfully blamed and eternally harassed for all the unintended and horrible consequences they have now brought us. Maybe they will soon be tossed out of power, and the Republicans may try to roll some provisions back. But pointing fingers, and hoping for salvation from politicians, while sometimes emotionally satisfying, doesn't help put bread on the table.

The Republicans (and non-political conservatives, libertarians, independents, Objectivists, etc. including me) must accept--and really internalize--the blame for not having worked hard enough in the past. The Republican Party, backed by more and vocal voters, should have done more to detect and appropriately accommodate the will of the American people by putting Medicare (and Social Security) on a stable, fiscally-sound footing, and dealing with the problem of patients with pre-existing conditions, etc., points that the Democrats have demagogued so well. You have to hand it to the Democrats--they worked hard. In the last year, seemingly only in response to the Democrat leadership, the Republicans came up with much better alternatives for health care and health insurance reform to offer the American people. Their performance when they had power was in retrospect pathetic for its lost opportunities. Is this a lesson they can learn? Do they have the backing of enough Americans to give them political will and effectiveness now?

In the recent few months Republicans have acted splendidly in standing together in adultlike, rational, and principled opposition to the Democrats' insane and childlike, reckless meglomania for government-run healthcare. I have been impressed with them, especially in their speeches last night. But Republicans could have dealt with the health care issues that have plagued Americans long before this--while they had control of Congress and the Presidency. For whatever reasons (and I do remember Bush trying and failing in the face of Democrat opposition to put the Social Security entitlement onto a stable footing), they ultimately failed--as they failed in cleaning up Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. They gave up, gave in, were distracted and unfocused and uninterested in taking this country where it needed to be. Their (and our) failure to act effectively in the past has helped bring about this dark day when Democrats now cram this bitter poison down the throat of my country, with 16,000+ new IRS agents to enforce that we swallow.

There may be silver linings I can think of as time goes on. I am grateful the bill does not yet go as far as the more socialist Democrats want. I am grateful there are so many Americans now committed to conservative activism, as am I. I can only hope that while Americans may not be as farsighted or as morally or economically literate as I would desire, when they finally see a big problem looming in front of them, they can and will tackle it like nobody's business. I hope it is not too late and I hope we have not just had our hands too firmly tied to get out of this jam.

Unfortunately when leaders want to spread the wealth, they end up spreading the pain, suffering, and death. We need to wake more people up to that stark truth.

P.S. I am also dismayed and incensed to learn that my church, the United Methodist Church, has been lobbying in support of the Democrats' health care proposals and against the Stupak Amendment. So this is another huge disappointment to me and another area in which I (and others) will have to apply pressure and protest, and work harder. Evidently the "Religious Left" has taken firm control of my own church, just as the left has seemingly taken control of our schools and a great deal of our media. Maybe it is no longer my church. I'll have to see.

UPDATE: Citizens stepping forward--this man is running against Stupak. Send him a donation. (Via Ace)

UPDATE: Things We Were Told We Couldn't Do (and did).

Get to work.

UPDATE: Dear GOP: Fight (a brilliant pep talk) and FirePelosi

Today they vote to dismantle our health care system

2010-03-21T09:07:00.012-04:00

The House will vote today in Washington on whether to pass the Senate's version of Obamacare. Here is the general schedule of what will happen, and you can watch it on C-Span. At this time nobody knows if the Democrats have enough votes to pass this partisan power grab (no Republicans are stupid enough to vote "Yes"). The bipartisan coalition is on the "No" side, along with the majority of the American people and the states.

Who's the real winner in this scheme? The IRS, for one:

*IRS agents verify if you have “acceptable” health care coverage;
* IRS has the authority to fine you up to $2,250 or 2 percent of your income (whichever is greater) for failure to prove that you have purchased “minimum essential coverage;”

* IRS can confiscate your tax refund;

* IRS audits are likely to increase;

* IRS will need up to $10 billion to administer the new health care program this decade;

* IRS may need to hire as many as 16,500 additional auditors, agents and other employees to investigate and collect billions in new taxes from Americans; and

* Nearly half of all these new individual mandate taxes will be paid by Americans earning less than 300 percent of poverty ($66,150 for a family of four.)

That's just SOME of the New Order and Hope and Change that lurks in this 2,000+ page abomination that they have to pass "so that you can find out what's in it." (Here are a few more provisions.) Of course, some people see clearly what will happen: "By its built-in logic, Obamacare will cause the health care industry to go bankrupt within months."

Thank goodness there are some Democrats not willing to doom our country and commit political suicide just to spit-polish Obama's already tainted (and fast-sinking) Presidency. I hope there are enough of them to ensure this abortion of a legislation does not pass.

Today's meditation: on Two Americas. I think this came about because Americans were complacent, fat, and happy with post-WWII wealth and ususpectingly let the Marxists take over the government-run education system.

Resisting the government takeover

2010-03-20T13:30:00.011-04:00

In Washington, D.C., a lot of people showed up today to protest the Federal government's unseemly, insane, and reckless dismantling of our current healthcare system and the private insurance industry. Others turned out elsewhere around the nation--Boston, San Diego, St. Louis, Salt Lake City...

Americans are continuing to call Congress and say "KILL THE BILL."

At the state level, Americans are starting to protect themselves from Federal government encroachment on liberties.

Lawsuits will be filed against the unConstitutional process, the illegal procedures, and the unConstitutional provisions.

We will not give up without a fight, and the fight is far from over. Our country is too precious to turn it over to the unprincipled scum bumbling around the halls of Congress and the White House right now.

UPDATE: Report from the San Diego protest via Gateway Pundit; also the St. Louis protest and the ones in Nashville and Boston. Also here an update on the allegations of racist slurs from tea partiers. From The Corner, photos from the Washington rally (impressive, no matter what the crowd count was). These are my fellow Americans and I am proud to stand with them in defending our liberties and our country's future.

Insurance industry employees out of work

2010-03-20T09:08:00.003-04:00

There are more (and will be even more) people like Ingrid Martin, put out of work by Obama's policies.

Meanwhile, look at the sleazy policies Democrats are using to pass Obamacare (explained in 90 seconds). Share this quick video as an easy way to catch up your oblivious, short-attention-span friends on what's going on this weekend in Washington.

What's also going on in Washington this weekend: protests by taxpayers, anti-statists, and anti-war Marxists.

Yes, Obama is the most transformative President ever, bringing the American people together at last. How audacious is that?

"They have health coverage but can't find a doctor."

2010-03-19T09:13:00.002-04:00

It's pretty clear that this will be the conclusion of the story in our country if Obamacare passes.

How can the Democrats ignore this evidence? And why do they? Think, Americans.

"Do you know what it takes to perform a brain operation? Do you know the kind of skill it demands, and the years of passionate, merciless, excruciating devotion that go to acquire that skill? That was what I would not place at the disposal of men whose sole qualification to rule me was their capacity to spout the fraudulent generalities that got them elected to the privilege of enforcing their wishes at the point of a gun. I would not let them dictate the purpose for which my years of study had been spent, or the conditions of my work, or my choice of patients, or the amount of my reward. I observed that in all the discussions that preceded the enslavement of medicine, men discussed everything--except the desires of the doctors. Men considered only the 'welfare' of the patients, with no thought for those who were to provide it. That a doctor should have any right, desire or choice in the matter, was regarded as irrelevant selfishness; his is not to choose, they said, only 'to serve.' . . .

"I have often wondered at the smugness with which people assert their right to enslave me, to control my work, to force my will, to violate my conscience, to stifle my mind—yet what is it they expect to depend on when they lie on an operating table under my hands? Their moral code has taught them to believe that it is safe to rely on the virtue of the victims. Well, that is the virtue I have withdrawn. Let them discover the kind of doctors their system will now produce. Let them discover, in their operating rooms and hospital wards, that it is not safe to place their lives in the hands of a man whose life they have throttled. It is not safe, if he is the sort of man who resents it—and still less safe, if he is the sort who doesn’t.”

-- From Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

America Our Heritage

2010-03-18T10:51:00.006-04:00

Part of what the American Dream means to me personally is the freedom to travel and enjoy my homeland. Because my parents and my husband’s parents, and their parents before them, were avid automobile road-trippers from way back, my husband and I were lucky enough to travel cross-country along the now-legendary Route 66 during our childhoods. It was an indelible and life-shaping experience for both of us.

I grew up in a small-town "Lilacville" in Upstate New York, and I will never forget my first big roadtrip and especially my first look at The West: waking up in the backseat of my Dad’s DeSoto and blinking out at the sunrise-lit, cactus-studded Texas oilfields. That summer I saw for the first time the Grand Canyon, the Painted Desert, the Petrified Forest, the Pacific Ocean, and countless other exotic yet quintessentially American landmarks. Since then my husband and I have continued the tradition of traveling by car with our children and introducing them to these United States, in all of their diverse and supersized glory. I have now visited 47 states, all the Great Lakes (except for Lake St. Clair), and have been in probably over 100 national parks, national forests, and national recreational or historic areas. It is a fabulous heritage to enjoy.

As I travel this country I love so much, one song keeps playing in my head. I learned it back in Lilacville, as I was taught it in public elementary school and sang it (in harmony) with my sister in a performance by our elementary school chorus. The words seem to sum up all I feel, even at this late date, about our country:

High towering mountains, fields gold with grain,
Rich, fertile farmlands, flocks on the plain,
Homes blessed with peace, with love, without fears;
This is the heritage we’ve kept through the years.

Wide rolling prairies, lakes deep and broad,
Canyons majestic, fashioned by God,
Life lived in peace, contented and free:
This is the heritage forever to be.

STOP. “This is the heritage forever to be?”

Sad to say, this is no longer a line I can sing or think with any assurance.

In this 21st century and especially in this Age of Obama and Democrats focused on “transforming” the America I grew up in, it is no longer clear that we will be able to enjoy the freedoms we have known and that our forefathers and our military fought to preserve: The freedom of a life of prosperity for ourselves and our children, fueled by a robust free market with lots of choices and opportunities and minimal Federal oversight, red tape, or debt. The freedom not to fear the taking of our property by a perverse government run amok (as in the Kelo case) or by excessive and/or hidden taxation. The freedom to choose our own doctors, our own medical care, our own insurance. The freedom to own the car of our choice, and be able to afford the fuel to go where and when we like with our families. Heck, we don’t even have the freedom to buy incandescent light bulbs (after 2014) or to sing such a song mentioning God anymore in our public schools. Next to go: the freedom to boat or fish in recreational waters? The freedom to live in a home that’s not “green” (as certified by the EPA)? How much of the American Dream are our Washington overlords going to chip away, overtly or covertly, whether we stand with them or stand against them?

I am more worried by what the leftist Democrats and complicit Republicans in Washington D.C. are doing to our country than I ever worried about the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The land I loved may not be the heritage we end up with.

In any event, we need to rededicate ourselves to the final verse of my song:

Stout hearts and true hold fast what is ours
God give us courage through darkest hours.
God give us strength and guide with thy hand
America, our heritage, our homeland.

It remains to be seen if enough people are still interested in singing this song, or maintaining our American heritage. Sometimes it seems like too many people are happy singing "Mmmm, mmm, mmm!"

Calling Congress--will they listen?

2010-03-16T13:09:00.009-04:00

Today Americans from all over the U.S. have traveled to Washington (yet again) to protest the Democrats' takeover of the U.S. health care system and the dismantling of our private health insurance industry.

I wish I could be there, but I live too far away to do that right now. Instead I am calling Congressmen and Congresswomen. I have never spoken to or called any Congresspeople before this week. Now I have contacted not only my own representatives, but am in the process of telephoning representatives from other states. Why? Certainly I don't enjoy doing it, and there are many things I would rather be doing, but nothing as important this week needs to be done as calling Congresspeople and saying, "Vote NO."

Here's my message:

I am calling to ask you to vote NO on the current health care legislation before Congress. I represent myself, my husband, and my mother, who agree with me, and I also am calling on behalf of my children. We feel our future well-being is at stake and lies within your hands. We do not want to see our country's health care delivery system or our private insurance endangered by the current mess of a bill that the Democrat leadership is trying to cram through Congress without any bipartisan support and without the support of the majority of Americans. We want reform of our health care system, but this bill is a mess and this process is just plain wrong.

Please start over and craft a bill that offers real solutions that everyone can recognize--including Republicans, Democrats, independents, and the majority of the American people. This bill is not it. This bill will harm us all. It will end up reflecting badly on the Democratic Party for years to come. Here are just a few of the reasons why:

--We can't pay for it. You know the books are cooked on this bill and we know it too.

--The bill is probably unconstitutional and will be challenged in the courts and resisted by states and citizens every step of the way. Why put our country through that? For what?

--The bill won't help Americans for years, but it will start taxing and hurting Americans immediately.

--The bill won't stimulate the economy, it will hurt the economy. It will disincentivize doctors and innovative research and technology and make health care more expensive and harder to get.

--The bill has all kinds of kickbacks, dirty deals, and unsuspected landmines in it that you know yourself you are ashamed to admit or be associated with.

--Contrary to law, the bill funds abortions with taxpayer dollars, even though our President has lied and said it doesn't. We are not stupid--do you expect us to be?

It seems absurd that I, who live a thousand or more miles away from your office and your home district, must call you and beg and plead that you not vote to take away my family's choices in freemarket health care. Yet this is the position you have put me, and my fellow Americans in. We are not happy about this. We will be even less happy if this abominable mess of a bill passes.

Please resist the mad rush to some short-sighted political legacy that seems to be blindly driving President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and Senator Reid. You do not have to be their lackey and do their bidding or submit to their arm-twisting or dirty deals if your constituents and the American people have your back. Stand up for what is right and insist that the whole country agree with you when you tackle reforming our health care. THAT is the American way.

I hope Congress will listen and find some sense before it's too late. I have a feeling that if this terrible bill passes and becomes law, Democrats will not long be able to be proud of what they've wrought.

UPDATE: Heh.

UPDATE: Keep trying!

What Al Gore really wants

2010-03-14T10:04:00.003-04:00

By Ed Cline, a most brilliant explanation of what drives Al Gore when he says that "wishing" about "climate change" won't make it go away. There are so many good paragraphs in this piece, too many to quote, but this one gets to the heart of things:

One can write the most eloquent defense of laissez-faire, free markets, market efficiency, fiscal responsibility, and so on -- but the creatures who inhabit government now do not really care how sound and unanswerable such proofs are. Destruction is their sole aim, and destruction they mean to bring about -- with no goal beyond that, except, perhaps, the sadistic pleasure of seeing vanquished Americans inhabit the desolate ruins of their country.

Don't believe that of your fellow Americans? Read Ed's piece.

How to fill out your Census Form

2010-03-12T17:54:00.000-05:00

"So for next week, remember: Question 9 on your census form — check "Some other race" and write in "American." You're doing nothing wrong. And you may help set something right."

Brilliant!