We are everywhere

Technorati Tags: Southland,NBC,Conspiracy Theories

The TV show, Dear Gentle Reader(s), is Southland on NBC.  The scene is between two police cars, one a cruiser on patrol, the other a vice squad sedan.  There’s a man sitting in the back of the vice car.  A disbelieving cop in the cruiser is saying, “There’re signs every two feet;” the LAPD has a park under surveillance.  How could a guy get arrested?  There are signs and warnings all over the place.  But there sits the unhappy fellow.

The penultimate scene is in a bar, and the fellow in the cruiser is saying, “I had a shitty day.  I got arrested.”  Unnoticed a few feet away, the cop who couldn’t believe someone would be stupid enough to get arrested in a park which was known to be patrolled by LAPD says, “I had a shitty day, too.”  (It was a tough patrol.)

No mention of the fellow from the park’s infringement, just a reference to the arrest.  No particular overt signs in the bar, but you’d have to be blind, DGR(s), not to know that the officer and the fellow from the park have something in common.

“We are everywhere” is a slogan du decade (or more).  Is it such a truism that there’s no longer any need to “spell out” the officer’s dating habits?  Or is NBC a participant in the “great conspiracy,” the “great agenda,” about which the fundies keep bleating?

Stay tuned.

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Dowd’s Seduction?

Technorati Tags: New York Times,Maureen Dowd,Mr Obama

It might not last long, Dear Gentle Reader(s), so you’d best hie thee over to The New York Times’ presentation of Maureen Dowd’s paean to President Obama in today’s Op-Ed section.

Dowd has made a 180 degree turn since the days of Obambi.  Doubtless she will eventually steer a more centrist course, Mr. Obama can’t help but stumble in her eyes at some point, but right now it’s “killer smile” time—that European trip has turned into a seductive coup.

Celebrate with me.

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4.2.38

Technorati Tags: Gifting,Gifts

A couple of years ago, a brother sent me a wonderful Christmas gift:  he’d made a contribution to the group which buys milk cows for distribution to the poor  in poverty stricken areas of the world.

This year a teaching colleague of mine gave me a wonderful birthday gift:  she’d made a contribution to Doctors Without Borders which will provide 250 people with antibiotics to fight bacterial infections.

Not to belittle gift-giving on special occasions, but isn’t there a time when we, as adults, would really profit more from donations to worthy charities than we would from candy or flowers or…?

Thinking good thoughts and helping the less fortunate are wonderful ways to celebrate a memorable moment.

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One (more perfect) Art

I lost a duffel bag in a dream.

What happens to an object lost in a dream?

Elizabeth Bishop’s lost city or keys

Are somewhere, really.

But that love she might one day have lost—

Where is that?

And a duffel in a dream—

Where is that?

How does one find such?

Where to look?

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Uh-Oh!

Getting closer, Dear Gentle Reader(s), to that stage.
While walking this morning, and having my usual internal review of yesterday's discussions, I noticed a certain amount of arm movement which didn't comport with the usual swing associated with a good walking pace.
What distracted me from my musing was my right hand, fisted, assailing the space directly in front of me.
What?!?
Hmmm...I'd been remembering a strong point I'd made...perhaps I was adding a little physical emphasis to the words?
OMG!
Have I become one of those seniors walking the neighborhood muttering and gesticulating?
I dunno. Maybe.
When dogs start barking and children throwing rocks, I'll stay home.

Senior Moment
Aging

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What? Another first?!? (About time!)

Technorati Tags: Mr. Obama,Jay Leno,Television,Late-night TV,Education

For the first time ever, it’s being touted, Dear Gentle Reader(s), that a sitting president will be making an appearance on a late-night television program.

President Obama visits with Jay Leno tonight and makes history.  Why this is the first time for such an appearance somewhat begs credulity.

One becomes so accustomed to seeing a sitting president on The News Hour, Mr. Obama just last week, and on the Sunday talk shows on occasion, that it beggars the mind to discover no one has visited with either Letterman or Leno, not to mention going back to Mr. Paar or Mr. J.Fred Muggs.

Visiting with the late-night crowd seems such a sure-fire way to gain some public empathy.  Mr. Nixon might have been a bit of a cold fish, but chatting with Mr. Carson might’ve helped gain a little sympathy.  And if Mr. Clinton had gone on Letterman, we might’ve had a better shot at getting health care through the Congress in 1994—Harry and Louise (and the AARP) aside.

Finally, the boob tube is being used to a significant degree as a teaching tool.

This is a first from which we will all gain.

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Double the tax

Technorati Tags: Mnemonics,Tips,Bombay Gin

There’s a danger, Dear Gentle Reader(s), in using mnemonics for math problems, especially the advanced mathematics required for affixing the proper amount of tip to a restaurant bill.

For years here in California, it was easy to tip the customary 15%.  The state sales tax was 7 1/2%, so one only had to double the tax to be home free.

Then the tip rose to a new custom—20%.  Well, that’s OK, too.  One simply has to double the first single digit of a bill under $100, or double the first two digits of a bill under $1000.  (One doesn’t entertain the thought of a bill over $1000, does one?  Not this one.)

Recently a problem arose with the combination of the partial mnemonic double the and gin (Bombay martini—not Sapphire) followed by wine (house red) at dinner.  The thought process went something like this:

Let’s see.  The bill is $98.00.  Double the 9 for $18.  What?  Um, no.  I don’t need a doggie bag.  Where was I?  Tip.  Let’s see.  $18 doubled is $36.  Easy.  Tote it up.  Sign it.  There.  Ready to go.

Something dawned the next morning.  (let’s see…four fingers minus three toes plus one nostril…hmmm…uh-oh!)

Let that be a lesson to me, DGR(s). 

Pass the bill to someone else.

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Tone Deaf

Technorati Tags: A.I.G.,Bonuses,New York Times

Isn’t it a bit perplexing, Dear Gentle Reader(s), to read the story following the headline in today’s The New York Times?  After all, “A.I.G. Planning Huge Bonuses After $170 Billion Bailout” isn’t exactly what one would expect for a lede in these dire financial times.

Yet, there it is in all the spectacular tone deafness of one Edward M. Liddy, appointed by the government to run the company.

For wonderment try this for the wrong word:

Liddy wrote, “We cannot attract and retain the best and the brightest talent to lead and staff the A.I.G. businesses — which are now being operated principally on behalf of American taxpayers — if employees believe their compensation is subject to continued and arbitrary adjustment by the U.S. Treasury.”

What, one ponders, might constitute “the best and the brightest talent.”  What makes the bonuses even more problematic is this paragraph:

The bonuses will be paid to executives at A.I.G.’s financial products division, the unit that wrote trillions of dollars’ worth of credit-default swaps that protected investors from defaults on bonds backed in many cases by subprime mortgages.

In other words, DGR(s), the “best and brightest” which Liddy wishes to reward and retain are those who got us into this mess in the first place.

Then, too, there was a negotiation which resulted in some of these bonuses being paid, and that negotiation cripples the effort to reduce, much less withdraw, the bonuses.

It’s almost as though the best and brightest are the lawyers who did the negotiations for the alleged best and brightest of A.I.G.’s financial products division. 

Contracted bonuses  which have to be given to people who made the wrong decision. 

God bless America.  (And God give Mr. Liddy a better ear for language.)

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Que? What? Huh?

Technorati Tags: Maureen Dowd,David Brooks,Michelle Obama,New York Times,snark

Alas, Dear Gentle Reader(s), there is confusion in the air over at The New York Times.

Today’s issue of the NYTimes features an opinion article written by the witty Maureen Dowd titled “Should Michelle Cover Up?” and subtitled in the online email teaser, “Let's face it: The only bracing symbol of American strength right now is the image of Michelle Obama's sculpted biceps.”

Snark?  The combined email info blended into the reputation of Dowd for eviscerating the foibles of the political class could lead a reader to think, indeed, “Snap!”—if not “Snark!”

Ah, but then, DGR(s), reading the piece clarifies, perhaps, Dowd’s intent.  She quotes colleague David Brooks, ““She’s made her point.  Now she should put away Thunder and Lightning.”  (Brooks named her bicepts?!?)  And she re-tells of a Republican’s comment about Ms Obama’s dress at the recent speech to Congress, “Babe.”

Finally, Dowd further quotes Brooks, “Washington is sensually avoidant. The wonks here like brains. She should not be known for her physical presence, for one body part.”  Sometimes I think half the reason Obama ran for president is so Michelle would have a platform to show off her biceps.” 

My.  Bicepts are “sensual.”  And the inspirational presidency was spawned by a desire to show off those lusty bicepts.  Who knew?  (This information makes The Mikado’s erotic elbow seem tame.)

The question to ponder is whether Dowd was being snarky towards Ms Obama or to Mr Brooks.  Her sensuality or  his ungracious, though private—Dowd and Brooks were sharing a taxi at the time—thoughts.

Perhaps the answer could be found in the final lines of Dowd’s column:

Michelle has soared every day, expanding the job to show us what can be accomplished by a generous spirit, a confident nature and a well-disciplined body.

I also have no doubt she can talk cap-and-trade with ease and panache.

Hmmm.  Ball’s in your court, Davie boy.  (But you might start by not trusting a columnist who has a penchant for sharp wit.)

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Theology—When Logic and Clarity Lose

Technorati Tags: Religions,Theology,Usury,Interest,Logic

There is, Dear Gentle Reader(s), in The New York Times today, a wonderful example of how, when need runs up against religious mythology, logic and clarity get lost in the conflict.

In an article about the success of a bank in Michigan to serve Moslem customers, appears this paragraph:

To distill and simplify some complicated theological and financial concepts, the basis of Islamic finance is Shariah’s forbidding of “riba,” which can be variously translated as usury or interest. Mortgage alternatives, which are the most popular financial product for Islamic consumers in the United States, essentially add what would have been the monthly interest into the purchase price of a home.

So, essentially, in order to “comply” with the stricture against usury/interest, the bank’s president needed

On the religious side…to appoint a board of Shariah scholars to certify the mortgage alternatives as “halal,” or religiously permissible. On the secular flank, he put months into persuading both state banking officials and his own board of the new products’ legitimacy.

The “interest” doesn’t appear, one must conclude, in the monthly statement, but it exists in the payment.  As long as it isn’t called interest, it isn’t interest—except it is—and it’s OK to make the payment. 

One looks askance.

If mere humans aren’t fooled by this word-legerdemain, how much doubt can there be that an all-knowing Being would be fooled?

Alas.  Logic?  Clarity?  Victims of theology.

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Un mot

Technorati Tags: Upton Sinclair,Republican Fiscal Policies,Ronald Reagan

Here, Dear Gentle Reader(s), is a little mental health break: 

Thus speaketh Upton Sinclair:

it is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it

Just a little extrapolation and we have the rationale behind the past 28 years of middle class support for the Republican Party’s trickle up financial strategy.

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A Tale of Ruth

Technorati Tags: Bernie Madoff,Ruth Madoff,Los Angeles Times,Ponzi Scheme,ruth

No, Dear Gentle Reader(s), this is not a tale from the Bible.  Unless, of course, you might be an avid fan of the Los Angeles Times.

Test your credulity with this lead-in: 

Ruth Madoff, wife of accused Ponzi scheme operator Bernie Madoff, is trying to persuade a judge that more than $62 million of her assets are "unrelated" to her husband's alleged $50-billion fraud.

How’d you do?

Yeah.  I, also.  Especially when one remembers that ruth means, compassion for the misery of someone else, and remorse.

Sure.

Lotsa ruth in this story.

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Giving Credit

Technorati Tags: Townhall.com,Paul Jacobs,Maginot Line,Snark,Kevin McCullough

Remember the snarkiness, Dear Gentle Reader(s), of the recent election cycle?  If you want a reminder, simply zip over to the Townhall muckroom.  Snarky is de rigueur, but occasionally someone slips up and writes a pithy headline.

Today the headline for Paul Jacob’s column is worth contemplating.  Remember the Maginot -- or, don't shoot the dog is worth remembering and applying to just about every situation in life.  The Maginot Line was supposed to prevent a German invasion into France.  It stretched all along the French-German border.  It might’ve worked, but we’ll never know.  German troops invaded France through Belgium.  They went around the northern end of the Line.  (For an interesting step into the history of the Maginot Line, go here, DGR(s).)

The lesson of the Maginot Line is not to let a single factor act as a barrier against a perceived threat.  And the lesson of Jacob’s title is we all have to have some sort of barking dog to alert us to danger.  Constant vigilance is necessary.

Of course the Muckroom doesn’t stray too far from its chosen path of snark.  There’s always some bit of inanity to counter the wisdom.  Kevin McCullough’s column carries the title Obama as Hitler.

What a nice, thoughtful bunch.  On occasion.

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Ad Hominem? (Ad Nauseam!)

Technorati Tags: KCRW,Left,Right,and Center,Tony Blankley,Matt Miller,Moonies,Washington Times

Today, Dear Gentle Reader(s), on KCRW’s “Left, Right & Center,” Tony Blankley held forth that arguing ad hominem meant “…using humans rather than ideas…”  (At 11:37)

Really? 

I thought it meant arguing against the person’s character rather than the person’s contention.  Since none of the other panelists corrected him, one wonders.  (Of course, there might be the possibility the other panelists didn’t want to embarrass Blankley.  After all, he did work for Gingrich, and does work for the Moonie newspaper, Washington Times.  Why embarrass him any further, eh?)

Have a nit or two?

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Brachytherapy 2.15.09 Dreamscape

Technorati Tags: Brachytherapy,Dreams,Language,Libido

There are a couple of physical side effects, Dear Gentle Reader(s), of Brachytherapy, which are rather indelicate, and which will not be addressed here.

A psychological side effect, among which there might be many, but hard to recognize in the general give and take of daily living in the human psyche, manifested itself last night in a dream.

The side effect manifested itself thus:  The dreamer is reading a letter to an advice column which included the fact that the letter writer was having trouble “sustaining genitalia.”

Now the libido of the brachytherapy patient is adversely affected by 1) radiation seeds killing off the bad, as well, presumably, some good, cells; 2) Flowmax and Finasteride contribute to this libidinous deterioration because of a particular major physical side effect.

What a surprise to discover that the sub consciousness is affected to the degree that diction—choice of word—is also thrown into some disarray. 

After all, how can one not sustain genitalia?  Even if you lop it off or plug it up, it’s there.  Isn’t it?  At least in the genetic make-up?

Such ponderous thoughts which visit in the wee hours of the morning.  

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Um…since we’re brainstorming…

Technorati Tags: Economy,Credit Card Interest,Federal taxes

Way back when, Dear Gentle Reader(s), U.S. taxpayers were allowed to deduct some of the interest on our credit card debt from our Federal taxes.

Once many of us discovered that deduction had been repealed, we began to pay off the charges monthly.  Some of us haven’t paid more than five or ten dollars in interest on those debts since. 

Perhaps we might be able to see our way to running up a credit card bill a couple of times a year if we were once again able to deduct at least part of the interest charges.  That might assist in stopping the downward spiral of sales in the U.S.

Or not.

Just sayin’.

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Brachytherapy 2.11.09

Technorati Tags: Brachytherapy

One year anniversary of the procedure.  Cooking on simmer and fading.  Changed from flomax to finasteride.  Libido 99% gone.

So far so good.  Still breathing.

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Preaching to the choir

Technorati Tags: Economy,Tax Cuts,Spending Measures,Blinkered viewpoint

Doubtless, Dear Gentle Reader(s), we are of a similar political bent.  That being established, you might wonder why there is so much of a political nature here.  Perhaps it’s because there’s a hope that a comment or a phrase will enlighten or might be useful in a discussion with someone who holds a differing view.

Ergo:

It’s a wonder that some people who are opposed to the current stimulus/spending bills currently under discussion in Washington, D.C., keep repeating phrases like, “This program doesn’t stimulate,” especially when discussing educational stimuli.

Spending stimulates.  Of course it does.  When education funding is increased the money flows into the economy in many ways—teachers’ salaries, aides’ salaries, increased supplies, which gives us more--much more spending.

For instance, just consider the number of workers it takes to get a single Ticonderoga pencil into the hands of a 3rd grader:  The miner who retrieved the mineral (not to mention the prospector who found the lode), the truck driver who drive the graphite to the factory, the woodsman who harvested the tree; the electrician who strung the power wire to the factory, the factory worker who ran the machine which crimped the metal which holds the rubber eraser, the box manufacturer who produced the container in which the pencils were shipped (more truckers) to the warehouse (forklift operator), and you get the drift.

If money is put into a tangible product, there is spending.

Tax cuts may or may not end up “spent.”  Much of it goes into savings, which eventually will go into the production economy, but not as quickly as will money spent on tangibles.

Sometimes the opponents of the President’s plan just don’t exhibit an encompassing view. 

You, DGR(s), on the other hand, are enlightened.  Go forth.  Spread the good word.

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Salty Dog Courage

Technorati Tags: Phelps,Marijuana,Gateway Drug

Dear Gentle Reader(s), this posting probably wouldn’t be happening without the courage supplied by a salty dog.

The Phelps bong picture brouhaha is silly.

Smoking marijuana is a rite of passage observed by many and disregarded by many. 

One thing for sure, it is a font for hypocrisy.  The marijuana laws are silly and totally ineffective except for an excuse to jail some troublemakers.

Smoking marijuana is not a “gateway” to harsher drugs except for, possibly, people who are predisposed to harsher drugs anyway.

My experience with marijuana was that it made me far more cautious, and it slowed my reflexes down.  If driving, I’d stop for a stop sign a half block before I reached the corner.  I drove at 1/2 the speed limit.  I giggled a lot.  I had severe happenings of Attention Deficit Disorder—in the middle of passionate “making out,” I’d turn aside and snooze for a few minutes.  I ate cookies as if there were no tomorrow.

I grew out of the phase.

Peace.

Wow.

Yea, NOML!

(See what alcohol does to your logic?)

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TWCable Lost Money?

Technorati Tags: TimeWarnerCable,Economy

The New York Times reports this afternoon that Time Warner Cable announced it “lost $8.2 billion in the fourth quarter and would lay off 1,200 people.”

Maybe.

But, Dear Gentle Reader(s), TWC charges a lot of money for its services.  I have the stripped down digital card version (NO HBO, etc.), and my bill is $66.06. 

Remember those stories of creative accounting used in movie studios?

Just musin’.

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