21 March 2010 62 and looking forward
Today, I reach 62 years of age. I truly never gave much thought to obtaining such an age when I was growing up. I looked at people of this age as ancient, as did almost all my fellow young boomers. We expected to be, as Bob Dylan wished us, “forever young.” Yes, we fell into the same trap as every other generation before us.
Like most generations, mine had a war to help define it. I played my part in that definition, opposing and yet participating in it.
I am fortunate to have a mother who taught me to cook, iron clothes, replace buttons, do laundry, to appreciate music, and to appreciate learning. Those are good starting points.
I grew up with one set of siblings, a brother and a sister. In my fifties, I discovered another set of siblings, brother and sister.
Both brothers have died, one in an automobile accident, one of complications of Multiple Sclerosis. I never met the brother who succumbed to MS.
Both sisters are alive and well. One lives in Kansas City. Over the years we’ve gradually overcome the gap that 8 years between births creates. She’s a good sister, an interesting woman who works the KC board of trade, and I’m proud to be her brother. I have yet to meet my remaining sister. I’d welcome the chance.
The woman I am happily married to, Gloria arrived in my life at exactly the right time. She reminded me that music still plays, that I can laugh, and has been responsible for a series of remarkable birthday gifts.
So, to all of you, thanks for your contributions, your encouragement, your willingness to share knowledge, fun, and life. I’m looking forward to another good year.
Dinner tonight will be snow crab with cheese cake for dessert. I didn’t plan it; Gloria rustled the crab and the cheese cake.
To all of you following this on-line, I appreciate your support and interest. Watch for a return to regularly scheduled rants, tirades, and other evidence of approaching curmudgeonhood
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Saturday, March 20, 2010
20 March 2010 a look Bach as spring arrives
We’ve been mired in Iraq for seven years now’ expending a fortune for military hardware, another for logistics, and worst of all, thousands of lives sacrificed or forever damaged.
For the worst part of the cost to our nation:
http://www.defense.gov/NEWS/casualty.pdf
Thank you very much, Bush and Cheney. You and your merry band of liars, theocrats, corporate robbers, and other assorted greed-driven sponsors will go down in history as the most corrupt and dishonest administration to ever grace the White House. You planned a war against Iraq for reasons that had nothing to do with the security of the United States and much to do with enriching your corporate cronies and making up for lack of service in our armed forces when it was your turn to go.
Your malfeasance and your selection of inept advisors ruined any chance of actually capturing or killing bin Laden at Tora Bora when some of our troops actually had him cornered. Instead, your orders prevented our troops acting, even placed them under threat by Afghani forces which had no intention of capturing or killing bin Laden.
Then you opened the war in Iraq, claiming that Iraq was developing nuclear, bio, and chemical weapons. You siphoned off troops needed for a justifiable war in Afghanistan to fight for Halliburton's profits in Iraq. You farmed out military roles to a Christian mercenary corporation and paid their guns for hire far more than we pay our actual uniformed armed forces. You decided to wage two highly technical and expensive foreign wars without mobilizing the nation or increasing taxes to pay for these wars.
While doing what you could to privatize our armed forces you also did your best to gut any regulation of the financial industry. You did such a great job of deregulating that you nearly destroyed the global economy. You put millions of families out of work, out of their homes, out of access to health care.
Your theocratic power base convinced you to abolish any real science and biology education in our schools. Given that the feel-good school of educational theories was damaging, your contribution was to further decrease the level of instruction for nearly all students until we became no longer competitive with other industrialized nations. We traded excellence in math, physics, biology, and other sciences for curricula that demand teaching the myths of fundamentalist Christianity. At the same time you gave huge tax breaks to the wealthiest U. S. citizens, directed no-bid contracts to corporations that you once directed, and convinced the increasing less intellectual GOP voter base that such machinations would create jobs because the wealthy would begin to bring back jobs they had previously off-shored and out-sourced.
You left a political party so controlled by bigotry, racism, and anti-intellectualism, that your party’s VP candidate in 2008 ran a campaign based upon hatred. She is so poorly educated, so steeped in fundamentalist Christianity that she believes witch craft can be used against her. You’ve relied on the wedge issues of religious fundamentalism to obscure any real public awareness of how intrinsically malevolent your administration was.
Well done, boys! You’ve managed to obliterate a budget surplus, bankrupt the nation, deplete the armed forces, dumb down our educational system, and reduce much of America to the level of a third world nation.
And like Nixon and Reagan, you’ve hired people to weave a mix of lies, half-truths, and fairy tales to make your voter base believe you were honest, honorable men with the nation’s best interests at heart. It is truly a shame that when the opportunity to serve the nation was presented to you one last time; you weren’t too busy to turn it down as you did during the VietNam war. How much better off the nation and the world might be.
For the worst part of the cost to our nation:
http://www.defense.gov/NEWS/casualty.pdf
Thank you very much, Bush and Cheney. You and your merry band of liars, theocrats, corporate robbers, and other assorted greed-driven sponsors will go down in history as the most corrupt and dishonest administration to ever grace the White House. You planned a war against Iraq for reasons that had nothing to do with the security of the United States and much to do with enriching your corporate cronies and making up for lack of service in our armed forces when it was your turn to go.
Your malfeasance and your selection of inept advisors ruined any chance of actually capturing or killing bin Laden at Tora Bora when some of our troops actually had him cornered. Instead, your orders prevented our troops acting, even placed them under threat by Afghani forces which had no intention of capturing or killing bin Laden.
Then you opened the war in Iraq, claiming that Iraq was developing nuclear, bio, and chemical weapons. You siphoned off troops needed for a justifiable war in Afghanistan to fight for Halliburton's profits in Iraq. You farmed out military roles to a Christian mercenary corporation and paid their guns for hire far more than we pay our actual uniformed armed forces. You decided to wage two highly technical and expensive foreign wars without mobilizing the nation or increasing taxes to pay for these wars.
While doing what you could to privatize our armed forces you also did your best to gut any regulation of the financial industry. You did such a great job of deregulating that you nearly destroyed the global economy. You put millions of families out of work, out of their homes, out of access to health care.
Your theocratic power base convinced you to abolish any real science and biology education in our schools. Given that the feel-good school of educational theories was damaging, your contribution was to further decrease the level of instruction for nearly all students until we became no longer competitive with other industrialized nations. We traded excellence in math, physics, biology, and other sciences for curricula that demand teaching the myths of fundamentalist Christianity. At the same time you gave huge tax breaks to the wealthiest U. S. citizens, directed no-bid contracts to corporations that you once directed, and convinced the increasing less intellectual GOP voter base that such machinations would create jobs because the wealthy would begin to bring back jobs they had previously off-shored and out-sourced.
You left a political party so controlled by bigotry, racism, and anti-intellectualism, that your party’s VP candidate in 2008 ran a campaign based upon hatred. She is so poorly educated, so steeped in fundamentalist Christianity that she believes witch craft can be used against her. You’ve relied on the wedge issues of religious fundamentalism to obscure any real public awareness of how intrinsically malevolent your administration was.
Well done, boys! You’ve managed to obliterate a budget surplus, bankrupt the nation, deplete the armed forces, dumb down our educational system, and reduce much of America to the level of a third world nation.
And like Nixon and Reagan, you’ve hired people to weave a mix of lies, half-truths, and fairy tales to make your voter base believe you were honest, honorable men with the nation’s best interests at heart. It is truly a shame that when the opportunity to serve the nation was presented to you one last time; you weren’t too busy to turn it down as you did during the VietNam war. How much better off the nation and the world might be.
Friday, March 19, 2010
19 March 2010 I never knew that the Holocaust was like that
19 March 2010 I never knew that the Holocaust was like that
Most of the industrialized world and all of the nations which claim Islam as their state religion have, once more, denied Israel’s claim to East Jerusalem. This, apparently now, includes the U.S. It fails to matter that Israel annexed East Jerusalem only after it was captured by Israeli troops in 1967. It matters not that Israel took the Old City and surrounds only after Jordan, which Israel had promised not to attack, chose to join the other Arab states and invaded Israel. And it matters not that Israel has the strongest historical and cultural ties to Jerusalem of any nation.
The question of settlements has been a continual problem since 1967. Israel has used them to secure land within the West Bank, often inappropriately or unwisely. But East Jerusalem historically belongs to Israel, culturally belongs to Israel, and is, in no manner, needed by the would-be-Palestinians to form their would-be nation.
In what appears to be yet another oil-driven policy, the Obama administration has shown itself to be much more willing to overlook long military, political, and intelligence gathering alliances with Israel in order to curry favor with the Moslem nations. They fail to recognize that no amount of appeasement will convince the Arab states or the Moslem fundamentalists to accept the existence of Israel as a permanent state in the Mid East. 62 years of history are apparently not sufficient to demonstrate that the long term goal of the Islamic world is the destruction of Israel. Obama fails to realize that there will be no negotiations in good faith by the would-be-Palestinians or the Arab states that have, to date, kept them stateless and used them as cannon fodder in order to scapegoat Israel.
As the time post WWII passes, the American populace has become less able to understand the need for the state of Israel, why it must defend its borders, and how much hatred and anti-Zionism exists in the Arab states. The lack of support for Israel among the American populace and in particular on college campuses is seriously frightening.
One reason I chose to take “History of the Holocaust” is to see how the event is presented on a small southern campus, and how the Holocaust is viewed by the students enrolled in the class. While I expected some anti-Semitism and a large amount of anti-Zionism, what I’m seeing is even more disturbing.
On a good day in this class, my fellow students sit there waiting to be spoon fed answers that can be plugged into a question on an exam. No one seems to be very interested in expanding their scope of knowledge. No one asks any questions that deal with the victims unless it has to do with money, valuables, or property. After all, we Jews are all filthy rich. On a bad day in class, if I ask a question designed to open a discussion or to bring the lecture around to the Holocaust as it actually relates to Jews, then and now; no one says a thing, no one seems to be curious about what happened to six million people who died because their families once prayed in the wrong manner.
Today left me at risk of verbally assaulting another student.
Fritz actually moved away from the German aspect and showed a segment of Schindler’s List dealing with the roundup and transportation of Jews from the Krakow ghetto. I knew it was a movie, that no one was actually being killed, and it was still difficult to watch. It hasn’t been that long ago that people related to me died in similar roundups or were sent by rail to death camps. It hasn’t been that long ago that men and women related to me wore this nation’s uniforms and stood against the evil that was the 3rd Reich. The scenes depicted in the movie are the things I’ve been trying to bring forward by means of questions.
As I looked around the room to gauge response on those faces I could see I happened upon something that infuriated me. A young woman in the next file of seats had her laptop open and was busily looking through photographs that appeared to be absolutely unrelated to anything coincident to the Krakow ghetto or anything else related to this class material. She was absolutely unconcerned about anything taking place in the movie that was the most important thing Fritz has brought up to date. She wasn’t offended, sickened, saddened, disgusted, or move in any direction. She simply did not care.
Yes, it’s not my class to teach, I’m not paying for her education (unless she has some sort of grant), and I lack any standing to upbraid her for her lack of concern. I have no desire to be dragged off campus for questioning her lack of concern for the six million in public. That must surely be unacceptable on today’s PC campuses. And of course, since I’m wishing I could demand concern for “those Jews” instead of the “would-be-Palestinians” who would like nothing better than to see what happened in Poland happen next in Israel; I would be the non-PC offender, supporting apartheid by Zionists.
I used to wonder how any college students could fail to understand Israel’s need for security, for intact borders, to prevent attacks upon its civilian population. I used to wonder how they could collectively swallow the PR put out by the Arab states and the would-be-Palestinians. I used to wonder why the U.S. government was suddenly taking a decidedly anti-Israeli vector and supporting the same groups of terrorists in Gaza and the West Bank that are killing U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Those questions still need to be answered fully. But I imagine I can provide part of the answers.
When I was in university, the new and improved new left followed the lead of the socialists and communists in Europe, elevating the supposed refugees to hero status for their continuing murders of Jews in Israel. The Israelis had demonstrated their willingness and ability to defend their soil, and thus were no longer political underdogs. As the Arab states became Soviet clients, receiving Soviet armaments to proof against Israel, they and the Soviets launched a campaign to label Israel an apartheid state. The UN, voting largely in Catholic, Moslem, and Soviet blocs, hung slanderous labels on Israel which were picked up by the remaining leftists on university campuses. As political correctness grew in force, as Israel refused to pull back its borders or to give up Jerusalem, and as the religious right gained more political power in this nation, the sympathy for Israel among the young began to vanish.
Most people in my class, if not all, have no Jewish relatives; have never heard eyewitness accounts of Holocaust survivors, liberators, or even righteous gentiles. Most of them, if not all, have never talked with a Jew who recalls the days before Israel was reborn. If they’ve been to Israel at all, it has been with a Christian tour group. Israel and the Holocaust that preceded its rebirth are of no concern to them. WWII for most is as distant as the American Revolution and of as less consequence than the next basketball game.
They are almost all Christians, many fundamentalist &/or evangelicals. Jews will not convert so it must be that they are being “punished by God” once again.
The really frightening truth that I saw in her face today is an utter lack of concern for the people and nation of Israel, for the Jews here and there. It’s the same lack of concern that my family members saw on the faces of their neighbors on 1 Sept 1941 at Polonnoye as they were rounded up and marched out to be shot in the mass graves by the railroad forest.
That may seem a far reach or paranoid reasoning to you. I believe that it is true. We saw the re-emergence of anti-intellectual, anti- anyone not Christian politics in 2008. We can see it in the uglier tea party mob signs. One only has to look.
Most of the industrialized world and all of the nations which claim Islam as their state religion have, once more, denied Israel’s claim to East Jerusalem. This, apparently now, includes the U.S. It fails to matter that Israel annexed East Jerusalem only after it was captured by Israeli troops in 1967. It matters not that Israel took the Old City and surrounds only after Jordan, which Israel had promised not to attack, chose to join the other Arab states and invaded Israel. And it matters not that Israel has the strongest historical and cultural ties to Jerusalem of any nation.
The question of settlements has been a continual problem since 1967. Israel has used them to secure land within the West Bank, often inappropriately or unwisely. But East Jerusalem historically belongs to Israel, culturally belongs to Israel, and is, in no manner, needed by the would-be-Palestinians to form their would-be nation.
In what appears to be yet another oil-driven policy, the Obama administration has shown itself to be much more willing to overlook long military, political, and intelligence gathering alliances with Israel in order to curry favor with the Moslem nations. They fail to recognize that no amount of appeasement will convince the Arab states or the Moslem fundamentalists to accept the existence of Israel as a permanent state in the Mid East. 62 years of history are apparently not sufficient to demonstrate that the long term goal of the Islamic world is the destruction of Israel. Obama fails to realize that there will be no negotiations in good faith by the would-be-Palestinians or the Arab states that have, to date, kept them stateless and used them as cannon fodder in order to scapegoat Israel.
As the time post WWII passes, the American populace has become less able to understand the need for the state of Israel, why it must defend its borders, and how much hatred and anti-Zionism exists in the Arab states. The lack of support for Israel among the American populace and in particular on college campuses is seriously frightening.
One reason I chose to take “History of the Holocaust” is to see how the event is presented on a small southern campus, and how the Holocaust is viewed by the students enrolled in the class. While I expected some anti-Semitism and a large amount of anti-Zionism, what I’m seeing is even more disturbing.
On a good day in this class, my fellow students sit there waiting to be spoon fed answers that can be plugged into a question on an exam. No one seems to be very interested in expanding their scope of knowledge. No one asks any questions that deal with the victims unless it has to do with money, valuables, or property. After all, we Jews are all filthy rich. On a bad day in class, if I ask a question designed to open a discussion or to bring the lecture around to the Holocaust as it actually relates to Jews, then and now; no one says a thing, no one seems to be curious about what happened to six million people who died because their families once prayed in the wrong manner.
Today left me at risk of verbally assaulting another student.
Fritz actually moved away from the German aspect and showed a segment of Schindler’s List dealing with the roundup and transportation of Jews from the Krakow ghetto. I knew it was a movie, that no one was actually being killed, and it was still difficult to watch. It hasn’t been that long ago that people related to me died in similar roundups or were sent by rail to death camps. It hasn’t been that long ago that men and women related to me wore this nation’s uniforms and stood against the evil that was the 3rd Reich. The scenes depicted in the movie are the things I’ve been trying to bring forward by means of questions.
As I looked around the room to gauge response on those faces I could see I happened upon something that infuriated me. A young woman in the next file of seats had her laptop open and was busily looking through photographs that appeared to be absolutely unrelated to anything coincident to the Krakow ghetto or anything else related to this class material. She was absolutely unconcerned about anything taking place in the movie that was the most important thing Fritz has brought up to date. She wasn’t offended, sickened, saddened, disgusted, or move in any direction. She simply did not care.
Yes, it’s not my class to teach, I’m not paying for her education (unless she has some sort of grant), and I lack any standing to upbraid her for her lack of concern. I have no desire to be dragged off campus for questioning her lack of concern for the six million in public. That must surely be unacceptable on today’s PC campuses. And of course, since I’m wishing I could demand concern for “those Jews” instead of the “would-be-Palestinians” who would like nothing better than to see what happened in Poland happen next in Israel; I would be the non-PC offender, supporting apartheid by Zionists.
I used to wonder how any college students could fail to understand Israel’s need for security, for intact borders, to prevent attacks upon its civilian population. I used to wonder how they could collectively swallow the PR put out by the Arab states and the would-be-Palestinians. I used to wonder why the U.S. government was suddenly taking a decidedly anti-Israeli vector and supporting the same groups of terrorists in Gaza and the West Bank that are killing U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Those questions still need to be answered fully. But I imagine I can provide part of the answers.
When I was in university, the new and improved new left followed the lead of the socialists and communists in Europe, elevating the supposed refugees to hero status for their continuing murders of Jews in Israel. The Israelis had demonstrated their willingness and ability to defend their soil, and thus were no longer political underdogs. As the Arab states became Soviet clients, receiving Soviet armaments to proof against Israel, they and the Soviets launched a campaign to label Israel an apartheid state. The UN, voting largely in Catholic, Moslem, and Soviet blocs, hung slanderous labels on Israel which were picked up by the remaining leftists on university campuses. As political correctness grew in force, as Israel refused to pull back its borders or to give up Jerusalem, and as the religious right gained more political power in this nation, the sympathy for Israel among the young began to vanish.
Most people in my class, if not all, have no Jewish relatives; have never heard eyewitness accounts of Holocaust survivors, liberators, or even righteous gentiles. Most of them, if not all, have never talked with a Jew who recalls the days before Israel was reborn. If they’ve been to Israel at all, it has been with a Christian tour group. Israel and the Holocaust that preceded its rebirth are of no concern to them. WWII for most is as distant as the American Revolution and of as less consequence than the next basketball game.
They are almost all Christians, many fundamentalist &/or evangelicals. Jews will not convert so it must be that they are being “punished by God” once again.
The really frightening truth that I saw in her face today is an utter lack of concern for the people and nation of Israel, for the Jews here and there. It’s the same lack of concern that my family members saw on the faces of their neighbors on 1 Sept 1941 at Polonnoye as they were rounded up and marched out to be shot in the mass graves by the railroad forest.
That may seem a far reach or paranoid reasoning to you. I believe that it is true. We saw the re-emergence of anti-intellectual, anti- anyone not Christian politics in 2008. We can see it in the uglier tea party mob signs. One only has to look.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
18 March 2010 Let’s make it OK for NASCAR wannabee’s to run red lights during race week
18 March 2010 Let’s make it OK for NASCAR wannabee’s to run red lights during race week
http://www.timesnews.net/article.php?id=9021450
“Sullivan official wants Kingsport, Bluff City to shut cameras off for race week”
By J.H. Osborne and Matthew Lane
Published March 17th, 2010
28 Comments
“BLOUNTVILLE — Sullivan County Commissioner Moe Brotherton wants the city of Kingsport to turn off red light cameras on Fort Henry Drive this week to prevent race fans from having a bad experience.
Brotherton, at the Sullivan County Commission’s meeting earlier this week, said he’d like for County Mayor Steve Godsey to ask the city to turn the cameras off for race week.
“I think we need to make every effort to offer the race fans a good time in this area,” Brotherton said. “I don’t think they need to be paying $70 or $100 (traffic) tickets on a four-lane road when it’s not necessary.”
Brotherton also requested Godsey approach Bluff City about “cutting off” the town’s speed cameras on Highway 11-E this week — and the city of Bristol, Tenn., about “fees for parking permits for campers and stuff.”
“I’m sure these places can do without that revenue for a week to get the race fans to have a good time,” Brotherton said.
The two major NASCAR race weeks for events at Bristol Motor Speedway each year generate over $1 billion in economic impact for the region, Brotherton said, and BMS is “trying every way in the world to sell out” this weekend’s events.”
This, in case you might happen to wonder, is race week in N.E. TN. The Bristol Motor Speedway will be packed with fans who think that sitting in open-air bleacher seating, drinking gallons of beer, while their ability to hear is compromised by the noise produced by cars being driven in an oval pattern, is the height of fun. Don’t think that beer will be the only beverage available on-site. There will be lots of sugar-laden liquid available for those who want it. And even more importantly, there will be an ocean of “sugar-free” liquid consumed by thousands of people who think that drinking those toxic blends will somehow offset the 5000 calorie snacks they will inhale between meals.
There exists a population of sorts that follows the NASCAR tour about like Dead Heads followed The Grateful Dead from venue to venue. Local news reports seem to indicate that fewer people are following their favorite driver around the country these days. But there are enough still touring to fill up local campgrounds, overload local roads, and help local lodging and dining concerns remain busy in a season normally not known for tourism.
Which brings us to the article above. Apparently the good commissioner is more concerned that nothing bothers the NASCAR tourists than he is that those who run red lights be caught on camera and fined. Left out of the equation is the safety of those who drive the local roads.
As red light cameras are put into service in local towns and cities, there is a loud and poorly informed group of people certain to claim their “constitutional rights” are being abridged or “stolen” from them in the interest of raising revenue for local municipalities. The conspiracy theorists are eager to claim that local leaders have sold out by allowing out of town companies to install and service the red light cameras for a portion of the fines collected.
I know of nothing in the U.S. Constitution which grants the right to drive a motor vehicle, to exceed posted speed limits in said vehicle, or to violate traffic laws and regulations by refusing to stop for red lights or other traffic control devices. I don’t work for any agency or corporation involved with such cameras and fines but I have no objection to an out of town corporation installing, servicing, and profiting from cameras.
The Constitution does contain the 5th Amendment, allowing us to refuse to incriminate ourselves in testimony. So while driving through a camera-monitored intersection might conceivably be regarded as self-incrimination; no one is required to violate traffic laws, no one is required to visit those intersections that are posted as camera-controlled, and no one is required to drive a motor vehicle. While a photo documenting illegal behavior can be considered incriminating, no one was forced to engage in self-incrimination. All self-incrimination was voluntary. I don’t see the courts supporting the claims that such cameras are self incriminating.
I don’t believe that municipalities shorten the yellow light period in order to create more violations by light runners. But the conspiracy theorists are all willing to swallow that rumor too. It wouldn’t matter if the yellow light period were lengthened, something the objectors often suggest. That wouldn’t deter those idiots who have no plan to stop anyway.
I don’t worry about the yellow light length. I watch the intersection and try to adjust my speed to the traffic flow while looking at the traffic building up on cross streets as I approach. If there’s someone tailgating me I make a point of slowing down. Of course, it annoys the tailgater but makes it less likely they’ll hit me from behind. These are all things that I’ve learned decades ago in driver’s Ed, or from road experience since then. No arcane or secret information involved.
Nor do I have any real worries about out-of-town companies profiting from fines levied against people violating traffic laws. I’ve spent long hours pouring scarce blood into innocent people injured by idiots who thought they had every right to run red lights and/or stop signs. I’ve watched people lose life and limb, seen families ripped apart, all because some idiot thought that traffic laws were for others but not him/her. A fine for being caught on camera running a light? Works for me.
In fact, most of the people objecting to having their transgressions captured by an out of town or out of state company might just as often turn up a political rallies demanding health insurance companies be allowed to sell policies across state lines. It seems they don’t care as much for “free enterprise” when the cross-border transactions are flowing into someone else’s pockets. Rather funny how that works out.
I normally trust governments very little, and corporations not at all, to look out for the good of the common citizen. But in this case, I’m quite willing to trust the combination of government and private industry to augment law enforcement. I’m not worried about being caught on camera. I’m not worried about government invading my private life via cameras in this instance. The people who would be most likely to use cameras to invade my personal life are the ones objecting most to the use of traffic cameras. I doubt they’ve learned anything from this but I hope they will.
I won’t be attending the races this weekend. I don’t care for crowds. I don’t care for crowds with beer. I want to save what hearing I have left for music, not for motor noises. I’ve seen cars driven in oval and circular patterns. Don’t need the t-shirt and there won’t be a book.
From the comments addressed to the paper (link above) most people who took the time to comment opted for public safety over removing the cameras lest race fans be upset by being fined. Even this close to the race track there is hope.
http://www.timesnews.net/article.php?id=9021450
“Sullivan official wants Kingsport, Bluff City to shut cameras off for race week”
By J.H. Osborne and Matthew Lane
Published March 17th, 2010
28 Comments
“BLOUNTVILLE — Sullivan County Commissioner Moe Brotherton wants the city of Kingsport to turn off red light cameras on Fort Henry Drive this week to prevent race fans from having a bad experience.
Brotherton, at the Sullivan County Commission’s meeting earlier this week, said he’d like for County Mayor Steve Godsey to ask the city to turn the cameras off for race week.
“I think we need to make every effort to offer the race fans a good time in this area,” Brotherton said. “I don’t think they need to be paying $70 or $100 (traffic) tickets on a four-lane road when it’s not necessary.”
Brotherton also requested Godsey approach Bluff City about “cutting off” the town’s speed cameras on Highway 11-E this week — and the city of Bristol, Tenn., about “fees for parking permits for campers and stuff.”
“I’m sure these places can do without that revenue for a week to get the race fans to have a good time,” Brotherton said.
The two major NASCAR race weeks for events at Bristol Motor Speedway each year generate over $1 billion in economic impact for the region, Brotherton said, and BMS is “trying every way in the world to sell out” this weekend’s events.”
This, in case you might happen to wonder, is race week in N.E. TN. The Bristol Motor Speedway will be packed with fans who think that sitting in open-air bleacher seating, drinking gallons of beer, while their ability to hear is compromised by the noise produced by cars being driven in an oval pattern, is the height of fun. Don’t think that beer will be the only beverage available on-site. There will be lots of sugar-laden liquid available for those who want it. And even more importantly, there will be an ocean of “sugar-free” liquid consumed by thousands of people who think that drinking those toxic blends will somehow offset the 5000 calorie snacks they will inhale between meals.
There exists a population of sorts that follows the NASCAR tour about like Dead Heads followed The Grateful Dead from venue to venue. Local news reports seem to indicate that fewer people are following their favorite driver around the country these days. But there are enough still touring to fill up local campgrounds, overload local roads, and help local lodging and dining concerns remain busy in a season normally not known for tourism.
Which brings us to the article above. Apparently the good commissioner is more concerned that nothing bothers the NASCAR tourists than he is that those who run red lights be caught on camera and fined. Left out of the equation is the safety of those who drive the local roads.
As red light cameras are put into service in local towns and cities, there is a loud and poorly informed group of people certain to claim their “constitutional rights” are being abridged or “stolen” from them in the interest of raising revenue for local municipalities. The conspiracy theorists are eager to claim that local leaders have sold out by allowing out of town companies to install and service the red light cameras for a portion of the fines collected.
I know of nothing in the U.S. Constitution which grants the right to drive a motor vehicle, to exceed posted speed limits in said vehicle, or to violate traffic laws and regulations by refusing to stop for red lights or other traffic control devices. I don’t work for any agency or corporation involved with such cameras and fines but I have no objection to an out of town corporation installing, servicing, and profiting from cameras.
The Constitution does contain the 5th Amendment, allowing us to refuse to incriminate ourselves in testimony. So while driving through a camera-monitored intersection might conceivably be regarded as self-incrimination; no one is required to violate traffic laws, no one is required to visit those intersections that are posted as camera-controlled, and no one is required to drive a motor vehicle. While a photo documenting illegal behavior can be considered incriminating, no one was forced to engage in self-incrimination. All self-incrimination was voluntary. I don’t see the courts supporting the claims that such cameras are self incriminating.
I don’t believe that municipalities shorten the yellow light period in order to create more violations by light runners. But the conspiracy theorists are all willing to swallow that rumor too. It wouldn’t matter if the yellow light period were lengthened, something the objectors often suggest. That wouldn’t deter those idiots who have no plan to stop anyway.
I don’t worry about the yellow light length. I watch the intersection and try to adjust my speed to the traffic flow while looking at the traffic building up on cross streets as I approach. If there’s someone tailgating me I make a point of slowing down. Of course, it annoys the tailgater but makes it less likely they’ll hit me from behind. These are all things that I’ve learned decades ago in driver’s Ed, or from road experience since then. No arcane or secret information involved.
Nor do I have any real worries about out-of-town companies profiting from fines levied against people violating traffic laws. I’ve spent long hours pouring scarce blood into innocent people injured by idiots who thought they had every right to run red lights and/or stop signs. I’ve watched people lose life and limb, seen families ripped apart, all because some idiot thought that traffic laws were for others but not him/her. A fine for being caught on camera running a light? Works for me.
In fact, most of the people objecting to having their transgressions captured by an out of town or out of state company might just as often turn up a political rallies demanding health insurance companies be allowed to sell policies across state lines. It seems they don’t care as much for “free enterprise” when the cross-border transactions are flowing into someone else’s pockets. Rather funny how that works out.
I normally trust governments very little, and corporations not at all, to look out for the good of the common citizen. But in this case, I’m quite willing to trust the combination of government and private industry to augment law enforcement. I’m not worried about being caught on camera. I’m not worried about government invading my private life via cameras in this instance. The people who would be most likely to use cameras to invade my personal life are the ones objecting most to the use of traffic cameras. I doubt they’ve learned anything from this but I hope they will.
I won’t be attending the races this weekend. I don’t care for crowds. I don’t care for crowds with beer. I want to save what hearing I have left for music, not for motor noises. I’ve seen cars driven in oval and circular patterns. Don’t need the t-shirt and there won’t be a book.
From the comments addressed to the paper (link above) most people who took the time to comment opted for public safety over removing the cameras lest race fans be upset by being fined. Even this close to the race track there is hope.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
17 March 2010 Let’s drink to ol’ Jim Bridger
17 March 2010 Let’s drink to ol’ Jim Bridger
One of the true heroes of westward expansion, Jim Bridger was remembered primarily for his tall tales rather than for his many contributions to the discovery and mapping of the American West.
Born in Virginia, he was apprenticed to a blacksmith in Illinois after his family moved. At the age of 17 he signed on with the Ashley-Henry fur trading expedition with intent of becoming a fur trapper. Henry had other things in mind and Bridger was relegated to smithy work. He was tasked to look after Hugh Glass and bury Glass’s body after Glass wound up in second place in an encounter with a grizzly bear in present day Nebraska. John Fitzgerald, also left to care for Glass, persuaded Bridger to leave before Glass actually died. They took all his remaining equipment, as they would have if he had already died, and left him to die. Glass survived in an epic adventure of his own. He managed to confront and supposedly forgive Bridger. Bridger spent the rest of his life trying to live down that one blemish on his character committed at 17.
Trapping with William Sublette, Jedediah Smith, Thomas Fitzpatrick, Bridger was involved in the discovery of South Pass, the primary immigrant wagon pass over the Rockies. He took a dare in camp, rode a bull boat down the Bear River and discovered Great Salt Lake. He was instrumental in pioneering the Oregon Trail, the route used by the transcontinental railroad, a better alternative to the Bozeman trail.
After working for the Ashley-Henry Company and Smith, Jackson, & Sublette, working up from trapper to Brigade leader, Bridger bought into the Rocky Mountain Fur Company just in time to see the fur trade collapse and to see Vanderbilt’s American Fur Company become the sole major fur trading company in the US.
When Bridger quit the fur trade and founded Fort Bridger on the Oregon/California trail, the days of the mountain men were over. Bridger was later forced to leave his fort by the Mormons during their war with the U.s. The fort was re-captured by the U.S. Army but never returned to its original owner. Nor was he compensated for it.
Rather than offer an array of opinions and facts, I suggest anyone curious to learn more about Bridger begin here: http://wyoshpo.state.wy.us/btrail/jimbridger.html
My midterm exam for History of the Holocaust found its way back to me this morning. I racked up 93/100 points for completing three essays. Someone pulled down a 95/100. I don’t know who they are or which combination of questions they answered. There were three sets of two questions. We were to select one from each set. I’d like to have set the bar but for the first exam involving this type of output on my part since 1972, I’m not displeased. Still, that I should rank 2nd out of 40 students is somewhat disturbing. I didn’t feel the exam was terribly difficult. It just took time to lay out the answers carefully. I don’t believe that grades are posted by name on bulletin boards anymore as they once were. I’m sure that political correctness must have halted that practice. I can still recall one of my clinical rotation classmates scratching my name from an exam grade list after I outranked her.
Gloria and I managed to meet for lunch today. It was a very nice break in the day. I always enjoy sitting across the table from her and watching her smile.
One of the true heroes of westward expansion, Jim Bridger was remembered primarily for his tall tales rather than for his many contributions to the discovery and mapping of the American West.
Born in Virginia, he was apprenticed to a blacksmith in Illinois after his family moved. At the age of 17 he signed on with the Ashley-Henry fur trading expedition with intent of becoming a fur trapper. Henry had other things in mind and Bridger was relegated to smithy work. He was tasked to look after Hugh Glass and bury Glass’s body after Glass wound up in second place in an encounter with a grizzly bear in present day Nebraska. John Fitzgerald, also left to care for Glass, persuaded Bridger to leave before Glass actually died. They took all his remaining equipment, as they would have if he had already died, and left him to die. Glass survived in an epic adventure of his own. He managed to confront and supposedly forgive Bridger. Bridger spent the rest of his life trying to live down that one blemish on his character committed at 17.
Trapping with William Sublette, Jedediah Smith, Thomas Fitzpatrick, Bridger was involved in the discovery of South Pass, the primary immigrant wagon pass over the Rockies. He took a dare in camp, rode a bull boat down the Bear River and discovered Great Salt Lake. He was instrumental in pioneering the Oregon Trail, the route used by the transcontinental railroad, a better alternative to the Bozeman trail.
After working for the Ashley-Henry Company and Smith, Jackson, & Sublette, working up from trapper to Brigade leader, Bridger bought into the Rocky Mountain Fur Company just in time to see the fur trade collapse and to see Vanderbilt’s American Fur Company become the sole major fur trading company in the US.
When Bridger quit the fur trade and founded Fort Bridger on the Oregon/California trail, the days of the mountain men were over. Bridger was later forced to leave his fort by the Mormons during their war with the U.s. The fort was re-captured by the U.S. Army but never returned to its original owner. Nor was he compensated for it.
Rather than offer an array of opinions and facts, I suggest anyone curious to learn more about Bridger begin here: http://wyoshpo.state.wy.us/btrail/jimbridger.html
My midterm exam for History of the Holocaust found its way back to me this morning. I racked up 93/100 points for completing three essays. Someone pulled down a 95/100. I don’t know who they are or which combination of questions they answered. There were three sets of two questions. We were to select one from each set. I’d like to have set the bar but for the first exam involving this type of output on my part since 1972, I’m not displeased. Still, that I should rank 2nd out of 40 students is somewhat disturbing. I didn’t feel the exam was terribly difficult. It just took time to lay out the answers carefully. I don’t believe that grades are posted by name on bulletin boards anymore as they once were. I’m sure that political correctness must have halted that practice. I can still recall one of my clinical rotation classmates scratching my name from an exam grade list after I outranked her.
Gloria and I managed to meet for lunch today. It was a very nice break in the day. I always enjoy sitting across the table from her and watching her smile.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
16 March 2010 Who cares what Texas wants
16 March 2010
It is time to establish national standards, time to establish national ID’s, time to establish national professional licensure.
The current practice of professional licensure requirements for Dr’s, RN’s Clinical Lab Scientists, other health care professionals, attorney’s, and a host of other professions that demand high degrees of education and/or instruction being left to the individual states should be done away with. The knowledge base for a properly educated RN does not change from state to state. Anatomy and physiology, pharmacology, biochemical analysis, medical microbiology, and other core and special knowledge and skill sets remain the same regardless of what state a practitioner is standing in.
Driving skills necessary to drive a vehicle safely are the same in all states.
The basics of hand gun and long gun ownership and use are constant even though the regulations controlling who may buy and use firearms differ widely as one crosses state lines and even zip codes.
As the amount of information about individuals by means of instant on-line data base access grows, so does the rationality for national licensure whenever possible. Such standardization of licensure makes a great deal of sense but is guaranteed to anger the “states’ rights” crowd.
While the concept of “states’ rights” was necessary to convince some of our original states to become members of the new nation, most of the reasons for states acting as semi-autonomous agencies no longer remain valid except in hold-over capacities from the foundation days of the nation. What remains has allowed the wide disparity of educational requirements that regulate education in today’s U.S. We have created a system that allows local school boards to determine curricula, resulting in huge knowledge gaps from location to location. Schools in the northern U.S. generally provide a better basic education than those in the south. This was true during the years I was involved with my children’s education. I can’t voice personal experience now but listening to the products of various local schools I see no reason to change my assessment.
We need to establish national curricula for all grade levels designed to bring all local schools into compliance with the standards required to graduate from the top schools in the nation’s public school systems. We need to demand all students be provided with education in sciences and mathematics; and that they develop and maintain fluency in English. All high school graduates who can handle the academic challenge should be provided with a university level scholarship, to be available after 2-3 years of national service.
We need to realize and act upon the fact that not all students are going to be academically capable and most certainly not academically equal. There is no reason to place students who cannot master math and English skills into classrooms with those students who can. While “mainstreaming” and pretending that all students are equal may have made many parents with less capable children feel better, it does a disservice to the students and to the school systems. We need to return to older practices, college prep tracking for the academically capable and vocational schools for those who can’t or who don’t want to master university level work.
The current efforts by Texas school board members to revise history as taught in Texas so as to reflect the political views of the board’s majority, point out the very real need for both national standards and the necessity of having those standards developed by people who are recognized experts in sciences, mathematics, and particularly history. There must be no opportunity for anyone to apply a political overlay to our national or world history as taught in this nation. A lot of our history is less than enviable. The same is true of any nation. But we must block attempts to alter what we teach for reasons of political correctness just as we must maintain accuracy despite political opportunism or political advantage. Texas can serve as a warning beacon.
The concept of individual states licensing professions, trades, and privileges serves only to keep us mired in the past. We are one nation comprised of 50 states. We need to present a unified set of trade rules and regulations to other nations. A high school graduate should have the same capabilities and skills whether he graduated from a wealthy Massachusetts town or a dirt poor Arkansas rural district. We have the chance to mend some of the mistakes we’ve allowed to happen as we have tried to make this a nation to be proud of in all ways. I can only hope we are smart enough to realize that we need to demand the best of all students and ignore those who want to retain a status quo that clearly has not worked.
It is time to establish national standards, time to establish national ID’s, time to establish national professional licensure.
The current practice of professional licensure requirements for Dr’s, RN’s Clinical Lab Scientists, other health care professionals, attorney’s, and a host of other professions that demand high degrees of education and/or instruction being left to the individual states should be done away with. The knowledge base for a properly educated RN does not change from state to state. Anatomy and physiology, pharmacology, biochemical analysis, medical microbiology, and other core and special knowledge and skill sets remain the same regardless of what state a practitioner is standing in.
Driving skills necessary to drive a vehicle safely are the same in all states.
The basics of hand gun and long gun ownership and use are constant even though the regulations controlling who may buy and use firearms differ widely as one crosses state lines and even zip codes.
As the amount of information about individuals by means of instant on-line data base access grows, so does the rationality for national licensure whenever possible. Such standardization of licensure makes a great deal of sense but is guaranteed to anger the “states’ rights” crowd.
While the concept of “states’ rights” was necessary to convince some of our original states to become members of the new nation, most of the reasons for states acting as semi-autonomous agencies no longer remain valid except in hold-over capacities from the foundation days of the nation. What remains has allowed the wide disparity of educational requirements that regulate education in today’s U.S. We have created a system that allows local school boards to determine curricula, resulting in huge knowledge gaps from location to location. Schools in the northern U.S. generally provide a better basic education than those in the south. This was true during the years I was involved with my children’s education. I can’t voice personal experience now but listening to the products of various local schools I see no reason to change my assessment.
We need to establish national curricula for all grade levels designed to bring all local schools into compliance with the standards required to graduate from the top schools in the nation’s public school systems. We need to demand all students be provided with education in sciences and mathematics; and that they develop and maintain fluency in English. All high school graduates who can handle the academic challenge should be provided with a university level scholarship, to be available after 2-3 years of national service.
We need to realize and act upon the fact that not all students are going to be academically capable and most certainly not academically equal. There is no reason to place students who cannot master math and English skills into classrooms with those students who can. While “mainstreaming” and pretending that all students are equal may have made many parents with less capable children feel better, it does a disservice to the students and to the school systems. We need to return to older practices, college prep tracking for the academically capable and vocational schools for those who can’t or who don’t want to master university level work.
The current efforts by Texas school board members to revise history as taught in Texas so as to reflect the political views of the board’s majority, point out the very real need for both national standards and the necessity of having those standards developed by people who are recognized experts in sciences, mathematics, and particularly history. There must be no opportunity for anyone to apply a political overlay to our national or world history as taught in this nation. A lot of our history is less than enviable. The same is true of any nation. But we must block attempts to alter what we teach for reasons of political correctness just as we must maintain accuracy despite political opportunism or political advantage. Texas can serve as a warning beacon.
The concept of individual states licensing professions, trades, and privileges serves only to keep us mired in the past. We are one nation comprised of 50 states. We need to present a unified set of trade rules and regulations to other nations. A high school graduate should have the same capabilities and skills whether he graduated from a wealthy Massachusetts town or a dirt poor Arkansas rural district. We have the chance to mend some of the mistakes we’ve allowed to happen as we have tried to make this a nation to be proud of in all ways. I can only hope we are smart enough to realize that we need to demand the best of all students and ignore those who want to retain a status quo that clearly has not worked.
Monday, March 15, 2010
15 March 2010 Ide Ide Ide I Ide Ide Ide O!
15 March 2010 Ide Ide Ide I Ide Ide Ide O!
We returned to class today. I asked a series of questions concerning the behavior of Jews from Shtetls and the more urban areas of the Pale. I mentioned levels of resistance and reasons why there was some resistance but no broad scale self-defense or revolt in Ukraine. I was hoping to shake loose questions from other students but no such luck. Fritz took off on another tangent and we spent another day hearing about the internal struggles within the Nazi party and government. He knows modern German history but so far there has been little Jewish history brought to light in this course. I think I’m going to ask “how the Jews wound up in the Pale, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, and the Balkans.” There must be something that will raise some curiosity in these students. There must be something that will cause Fritz to actually talk about the Jewish aspects of the Holocaust. He put the Polonnoe material I gave him onto his on-line syllabus. But I seriously doubt any of the undergrads will bother to look at it.
This class is turning out to be a source of real frustration.
Supposedly, Julius Caesar met his end on the 15th of March at the hands of the Roman Senate. The Senate apparently feared Caesar was intent upon seizing control of the Roman government and proclaiming himself Emperor. Whether from fear of his lust for power or because of their own lust for power, a committee of his friends and acquaintances decided to remove him from the chain of command. The various daggers and swords carried to the Senate that day made a short, brutal, and bloody end to any plans he might have had to seize power.
The assassination is immortalized in literature and in song:
“I was present when they mopped up Caesar’s gore,
When the Senators were skating round the floor.
It was I, who swiped the crown that he foolishly turned down,
And I hocked it with a Jew in Baltimore.”
This verse from the “Bragger’s Song” may contain some kernel of truth. There were Jews in Rome at the time of Caesar’s demise. Baltimore was some centuries distant. But Jews also can be found in Baltimore.
With all apologies to Cab Calloway and William Shakespeare, some perversions of the language and literature are simply too much fun to ignore.
For those too young to recall, Cab Calloway is famous for, among other things, a song named “Minnie the Moocher.” It’s been covered by many people but his version remains the best. Danny Kaye’s comes in second, and the rest really aren’t worth ranking.
We returned to class today. I asked a series of questions concerning the behavior of Jews from Shtetls and the more urban areas of the Pale. I mentioned levels of resistance and reasons why there was some resistance but no broad scale self-defense or revolt in Ukraine. I was hoping to shake loose questions from other students but no such luck. Fritz took off on another tangent and we spent another day hearing about the internal struggles within the Nazi party and government. He knows modern German history but so far there has been little Jewish history brought to light in this course. I think I’m going to ask “how the Jews wound up in the Pale, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, and the Balkans.” There must be something that will raise some curiosity in these students. There must be something that will cause Fritz to actually talk about the Jewish aspects of the Holocaust. He put the Polonnoe material I gave him onto his on-line syllabus. But I seriously doubt any of the undergrads will bother to look at it.
This class is turning out to be a source of real frustration.
Supposedly, Julius Caesar met his end on the 15th of March at the hands of the Roman Senate. The Senate apparently feared Caesar was intent upon seizing control of the Roman government and proclaiming himself Emperor. Whether from fear of his lust for power or because of their own lust for power, a committee of his friends and acquaintances decided to remove him from the chain of command. The various daggers and swords carried to the Senate that day made a short, brutal, and bloody end to any plans he might have had to seize power.
The assassination is immortalized in literature and in song:
“I was present when they mopped up Caesar’s gore,
When the Senators were skating round the floor.
It was I, who swiped the crown that he foolishly turned down,
And I hocked it with a Jew in Baltimore.”
This verse from the “Bragger’s Song” may contain some kernel of truth. There were Jews in Rome at the time of Caesar’s demise. Baltimore was some centuries distant. But Jews also can be found in Baltimore.
With all apologies to Cab Calloway and William Shakespeare, some perversions of the language and literature are simply too much fun to ignore.
For those too young to recall, Cab Calloway is famous for, among other things, a song named “Minnie the Moocher.” It’s been covered by many people but his version remains the best. Danny Kaye’s comes in second, and the rest really aren’t worth ranking.
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