7 June 2012 Why I love my cable-ISP provider

          In the merry month of April the HD-DVR, which we rent from Comcast, began to rattle loudly when re-winding or advancing.  This suggested impending hard drive failure.  In mid-May we decided that its increasing level of undesirable noise required action.  Gloria drew the short straw and placed the call for service.  Her efforts resulted in her call being routed to Mexico.  The soonest mutually acceptable service window was 5 June. 

          Monday, 4 June, we received 3 robo-calls from Comcast.  Two of those wanted us to indicate whether or not we still needed service for internet problems.  The 3^rd wanted to know if the problem had been resolved satisfactorily. 

          Tues , 5, June, we received one robo-call asking if we still wanted service  Then, the service tech called to confirm the nature of the problem and to be sure we were available. 

          He replaced the existing DVR with an older box that made a loud rattle, even louder than the unit being swapped out did.  He ran through his diagnostics and checked the internet functions for the house.  The house is fine. 

          Tuesday PM we began to see pixilation on direct box > TV feed.  Yesterday we had the chance to watch a recorded program.  In the course of one hour, we were treated to pixilation, video dropouts, audio dropouts, and sloppy response to advance and reverse commands. 

          It took me 30 minutes to have my call for service routed to Mexico and to schedule a service call for today.  Those 330 minutes were divided between asking me to fill out customer satisfaction surveys and on-hold time.  Surprisingly, when I insisted on an appointment for today, one somehow became available. 

          There was only one robo call today, and another from the service tech.  The tech arrived on time but with an old, rebuilt, DVR.  He discovered a feedback that I can’t hear.  There may have been a bad cable connector, which he replaced.  That didn’t cure the feedback.  A of now we have another DVR that is scheduled for a Monday swap out. 

          I expect two robo-calls before day’s end to ask how satisfied I am with their customer service call center, and with their technical service.

          I love my cable company so much! 

          “How can we do better?” they always want to know. 

          Here’s the answer:

          There are millions of Americans who want jobs.  Hire them instead of off shoring to Mexican call centers.

          I don’t watch. And will never watch, shopping, sports, &/or religious channels.  Make me a package without any of those channels.

          Stop the robo-calls.  I’ll talk to a human.  I don’t care to push buttons.

          Your customer service, robotic and offshore, sucks.  Fix it.

June 2012 Day plus 68 years

D Day was one of those crucial minutes of battle that would determine the course of history for millions of people.  While we could bomb the German war industries into dust, it required infantrymen to capture and hold the contested countries of Europe.  Strip away the technology of modern warfare and what remains is what warfare has always been; men willing to put their lives in jeopardy for a cause, an ideal, or for the men who fight beside them.  On such fragile weapons, the world is changed. 

          The beaches of Normandy were killing fields, designed to resist any and all attempts to capture and hold a beachhead.  Brave men from Canada, from the UK, and from the U.S., took those beaches, scaled those cliffs, and wrote their names in the history of warfare forever. I’ve been privileged to know some of those heroes.  Nearly all of them are gone now.

5 June 2012 If England was what England seems

          The last several days have been overloaded with televised coverage of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations for Elizabeth II of Great Britain.  In an era which as seen the steady demise of monarchies, she has taken the British crown from the end of the horse – drawn, barely electrified period of her antecedent, Victoria, into the nuclear weapon possessing power that has undergone the mostly peaceful divestiture of colonies from its empire.  

          While I would not exchange our republic for England’s monarchy, there is still much of England that we should have retained, or that we should  emulate. 

          I would not have the U.S. subjects of a monarchy.  However, given the amount of interest in the British royal family, I can’t say for certain that all Americans feel as strongly as I do about monarchy as a form of government. 

          In the course of less than a century, Britain has transitioned from having the largest navy in the world to occupying the number 5 slot worldwide.  Rather than controlling an empire upon which the sun never set, Britain now heads a commonwealth containing 54 independent nations. 

          After WWII Britain took steps to nationalize many industries and many means of production.  It established a national health service the U.S. would do well to emulate.  England no longer regards military adventurism as necessary.  Despite that, they have remained staunch members of NATO and have somewhat foolishly followed the U.S. into its latest un-necessary wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

          Our legal system is largely derived from England’s common laws.  Our diplomatic service contains elements of England’s.  Our civil ceremonies, honors afforded to our elected officials, are much less steeped in pomp and pageantry than are those of England.  Our military ranks and customs are largely patterned after those of England. 

          In short, we hold a secret love for the rituals and regalia we left behind on that small but mighty island nation.  IF England did not exist, we should have to invent it.

          Kipling notes the comparisons between England and the English.

Rudyard Kipling

The Return

“Peace is declared, and I return

To 'Ackneystadt, but not the same;

Things 'ave transpired which made me learn

The size and meanin' of the game.

I did no more than others did,

I don't know where the change began;

I started as a average kid,

I finished as a thinkin' man.

“If England was what England seems

An' not the England of our dreams,

But only putty, brass, an' paint,

'Ow quick we'd drop 'er! But she ain't!”

4 June 2012 Syria ‘bout that

http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/31/the-case-against-intervention-in-syria/?hpt=hp_bn2

“The case against intervention in Syria

In Syria, the brutal regime of Bashar Assad is testing the proposition that repression works. The massacre of civilians in Houla is only the latest example of what appears to be a strategy of making no concessions and using maximum force. To the Assad regime's way of thinking, Egypt's Hosni Mubarak and Libya's Muammar Gaddafi erred by hesitating, emboldening the opposition and sowing doubts among their supporters. So far, Assad's strategy has worked. Kofi Annan's mission, which appears to be based on the idea that Assad will negotiate his own departure, seems utterly doomed. The U.S., the Western world, indeed the civilized world, should attempt instead to dislodge the Assad regime. Is there a smart way to do it?

Watch more in the video above, read more from Fareed Zakaria at TIME andcheck out past TIME columns.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/30/world/middleeast/romney-condemns-obamas-syria-policy.html

Romney Calls for Action on Syria, but His Party Is Divided

By MARK LANDLER

Published: May 29, 2012 

WASHINGTON — The massacre of more than 100 civilians, many of them children, in Syria over the weekend has presented Mitt Romney with a new opportunity to sound a familiar theme: that President Obama’s foreign policy is feckless and lacking in courage.

Cassi Creek:         Yet another Arab country suffers under the thumb of a government, which holds power because of tribalism, religious oppression, and the remnants of the Cold War proxy system that allows its dictator to murder thousands of citizens while neither the Western powers nor the Arab nations are willing to affect a military solution. 

          The Arab states will advance religious and cultural reasons for ignoring the terminal status of another holdover from the demise of the Ottoman Empire after WWI. 

          Russia and Iran still want client states in the region and will hide behind that plan of inaction.  They will be willing to live with nearly any outcome that allows them to maintain terrorist associates in the region. 

          The Obama plan for the U.S. is to avoid intervention and the very real chance of being caught in a religion-based, tribal-driven civil war.  The rest of the Western world seems to agree. At the surface level, with the Obama plans. 

          Which brings us to the GOP/teavangelist position.  By definition, that plank in their platform must diametrically oppose whatever the Obama position becomes.  So, we find their pundits, professional politicians, and demagogues demanding full-bore military intervention in Syria.  It matters not that Syria’s “rebels” are ill defined at best, and undefined for the most.  The teavanagelists want to pump weapons into the region, into the hands of a society still best defined by religious fundamentalism and tribal loyalties.  The teavangelists will demand that the religious freedom of the Syrian opposition be protected, until they realize that they large influx of Syrian refugees that they have helped creates is going to bring their religion with them to their new home in America. 

          At that time, I predict a rapidly developing resurgence of anti-Islamic behavior spawned by the same people now screaming at Obama for not sending armed support to Syria. 

         

3 June 2012 NC to outlaw sea level changes

http://grist.org/list/north-carolina-tries-to-outlaw-sea-level-rise/

          “North Carolina is no stranger to the “if you dislike it then you should have made a law against it” model of legislation, but this is extreme: The state General Assembly’s Replacement House Bill 819 would rule that scientists are not allowed to accurately predict sea-level rise. By all legal calculations, the sea level will now rise eight inches by the end of the century. Sure, so far models have predicted an increase of more than three feet, but if they keep that shit up, they’re going to JAIL. “

Cassi Creek:   This is another wonderful example of magical thinking, widely practiced by teavangelists, who seem unable to understand  why they consistently wind up with failure.    I wonder at the quality of education that even, briefly, allows people to consider the possibility that legislators can vote to change the physical rules, which control this planet.  It is frightening to find even a small population that learned so little about science as to bring such a bill up for consideration in the 21^st century.  It is no wonder that people believe, ala Palin, that dinosaurs and humans co-existed.  The degree of intellectual damage caused by inclusion of pseudo-scientific arcane such as “intelligent design” and “creationism” in biology and other science classes in order to satisfy the demands of teavangelists is plainly demonstrated in this North Carolina effort to overrule physics with idiocy. 
            In this one incident, we see the justification for creating a national educational program encompassing all 50 states.  We don’t need any more North Carolina legislators sprinkling fairy dust on students.  We do need to ban any form of religion being taught as science.  One Mississippi is more than enough.

            We had a great afternoon yesterday.  We went to Bays Mountain Park planetarium.  While there, we had a chance to watch the rangers feed the resident wolf population.  Truly magnificent animals!

            We stopped at The Creekside in Jonesborough for  dinner.  We split a rack of ribs.  That order may well have been the best ribs I’ve ever eaten in a restaurant.  The smoke ring began at the outer edge and continued down to the periostial /bone interface.   No grease, no fat, just succulent meat that pulled easily off the bone.  To paraphrase McArthur…

2 June 2012 2nd cup of coffee no paper

Cassi Creek:         The hike out to the mailbox this morning was an exercise in futility x2. 

          Our downstream neighbor is away for a while.  He’s asked me to pick up his mail until he returns.  I’m happy to do this as it meshes with part of my morning routine anyway.

          The package I picked yesterday, to re-label and mail for him, is too large to fit into our mailbox.  The morning newspaper is missing, again. 

          The paper delivery is becoming problematic again.   When I called in the lack of paper to the circulation desk, I was told there was no way to have one delivered this morning.  Opting for credit was the best solution.  Reading a Saturday paper on Sunday is of little benefit when the features we want are time sensitive.  We’re debating dropping the paper, again. 

          I put a lead on the dog and hiked the package downstream to the appropriate mailbox.  I’ll have to hike down later to make sure it was picked up by the carrier. 

          It was enjoyable to be able to sleep in a bit longer this morning.  Both shoulders are sending notice that sleeping late will not be an option for much longer. 

          Still, there’s a lot going on that makes me happy to be here with Gloria. 

Shabbat Shalom!

1 June 2012 But the doctor said give him jug band music,

“I was down in Savannah
Eatin' Cream and Bananas
When the heat just made me faint
I began to get cross-eyed
I thought I was lost
I'd begun to see things as they ain't.
As the relatives gathered to see what's the matter
The doctor came to see was I dyin’.
But the doctor said give him jug band music,
It seems to make him feel just fine.”

Cassi Creek:         Jug Band music is feel good music, often “Po-Folks music”or “Pie-in-the-sky” music.

                It doesn’t require a lot of hardware.  It doesn’t require grammatical purity or musical purity.  Throw in an incorrect chord and a butchered verse; it doesn’t matter.  The Grateful Dead played jug band derived music for 30 years without ever getting the chords and the lyrics down pat. 

                The people playing in the jug band are playing for personal reasons.  The people listening often can’t afford to go see anyone who’s tickets cost more than the wash tub bass driven, home grown stuff.  There’s a catch to listening to such music.  It can be fun to be where it is being played.  It can be addictive.  The performers are often just like most of the audience in education, upbringing, customs, and interests. 

                That provides a hook for many political propagandists.

                If you bombard my television with country musicians telling me how evil Obama is while their music plays in the background and a slide show of national red, white, and blue images are used to block independent thought; I’m going to ignore the ad and discard its message as the BS all political ads are. 

                However, if you put John B Sebastian on the screen with his acoustic music playing, I’m going to stop my finger from pressing the kill switch and, at least, try to figure out who made this commercial and what they are trying to sell me. 

                Something put a fragment of “Jug Band Music “into my skull during the last 48 hours.  I don’t know who.  I don’t know why.  I know that the call was strong enough for me to download the entire song this morning when I should have been doing something more productive.  Music is a powerful motivator, a strong fixative for memories and associations.  I warrant that, should I hear this song at any time with a political message attached, I’m going to hope that it is being used for someone like our local Senatorial candidate, Park Overall. 

                I’m not going to let anyone sell me bull shit from the GOP/teavangelist “Liars Central” factory while using Good Ol’ Lovin’ Spoonful” or good ol’ Grateful Dead.”  I know what those bands were associated with when they were new.  I’m not going to listen to Lee Greenwood and others misappropriate national symbols while denigrating dissent.  I recall their love it or leave positions from my youth and I know that the teavangelists have become even more intolerant and unlikely to compromise in order to preserve the nation that we have built on the backs of refugees, political dissenters, unions, and others who make up the middle class.  I know that country music is being played to bring in the base that disdains education and intellect.  And unlike the GOP, I know that the teavangelists are going to make another effort to destroy this nation, making it what they want believe it was although it never was that. 

                The doctor is correct.  We need to see if we’re dyin’.  But I’m afraid it will take more than Jug Band Music to open our national eyes and make them shine this time.