We now have a three-party system

I read Frank Rich's "One night, two Americas" in today's New York Times.

He essentially writes that Clinton and McCain are of the past and Obama is of the future. From this I thought of how both the left and the right are stuck in battles and world views of the past; Obama has captured the hopes of those who look to the future. My quick diagram of this is

|| –

The vertical lines are the parties of the past, stuck in the past; the horizontal line is the party of the future moving forward. Another way to look at it is the right is the party of globalization of business but of anti-globalization of politics (we know best) and the left is the party of anti-globalization of business but of globalization of politics. They are also stuck in the polarization of ideas many Americans would rather not take a firm stand on: gun control, abortion, immigration, and so on.

I think that Obama will win in a landslide because he represents the future. He will win because he will get more people voting than ever. He will win because he has built a strong organization of average people rather than of Washington insiders. He will win because he is a better speaker and thinker. Finally, he will win because people do want change.

"Democrats Win Landslide Victory" Hoax or reality?An email supposedly from former Sen. Bill Frist is making the rounds. It is titled "Democrats Win L

An email supposedly from former Sen. Bill Frist is making the rounds. It is titled "Democrats Win Landslide Victory". It is a request for donations to the National Republican Senatorial Committee because Obama is working hard so that "new voters and record resources will produce a Democrat landslide victory this fall."

I am always suspicious when people quote an email in the hope of nailing the author and his associates. I have tried looking for a denial of this email or for a posting on a Republican website supporting the email. I have found neither using the keywords "Democrats Win Landslide Victory", frist, and nrsc.

I can only conclude for now that Frist actually sent it. Such emails and letters often go out to huge mailing lists which often include opponents and non-interested persons. Many of these non-supporters probably jumped on it with glee. Look what the Republicans have been doing with Clinton's and Franken's words. Turnabout is fair play.

As to Frist's concerns, I believe heavy voter turnout has generally favored Democrats. Remember that Bush didn't win because of Nader in Florida; he won because too many Democrats stayed home.

Just who's voting for Clinton?

It seems to me that Hillary Clinton has been "winning" more primaries since John McCain gained enough delegates to clinch the Republican nominaton.

Could it be that people who call themselves Republicans are voting for Clinton because they think she will be easier to beat than Barack Obama?

If so, will these voters be there for her in November if she does win the Democratic nomination?

How portable should customs be?

Some Muslim women have sued their employer because they were required to wear a certain uniform. They said the uniform violated their religious freedom. Would a Muslim country allow a western women to wear whatever she chose?

It has long bothered me that Americans are supposed to adopt certain customs in other countries, but non-Americans should be allowed their own customs in the U.S. We should eat in a certain way in Japan; but Japanese should feel free to slurp their noodles and soup in the U.S.

I remember learning in school that U.N. envoy Ralph Bunche graciously accepted the sheep's eye in a stew while he was in North Africa. But will a Muslim accept a ham dinner in the U.S.? If not, I should be freely able to decline a sheep's eye.

Closer to home, some people wear their shoes in their houses, and some don't. Many of the latter request that their guests take off their shoes. Some of these latter even insist on taking off their shoes when their hosts are wearing shoes, often cluttering up a hallway with their shoes.

Che paese vai, che usanze trovi! Whatever country you go to, adopt the customs that you find. Or, when in Rome do as the Romans do.

But if the Romans are throwing the Christians to the lions, should you do likewise?

Addendum 2009-07-26
As I was planning a similar entry today, I double-checked the Italian phrase above. I made two mistakes, one in word order, the second in making a word plural. The correct phrase is "Paese che vai, usanza che trovi."

A day of infamy

Today is the anniversary of the first internment of Americans of Japanese ancestry in 1942. The later Supreme Court ruling justifying the internment as a national security measure still stands. This same thinking has led to abuse of power by several succeeding presidents.

On the other hand, my German-born grandmother was never interned. If some movies are to be believed, Germans in America were more dangerous than Japanese. After all, they "looked like" everybody else.

A true response to telemarketers

While I was eating dinner, the phone rang. I thought it might be a friend calling for help on a computer problem. No, it was a recorded telemarketing call. I hung up.

As I sat back down again, I thought if a person had been on the other end, I could have responded, "I was expecting an important call." It would have been a true statement, even if I had not been waiting for a call.

As I get up, I assumed it was a friend calling. If it had been a friend calling, his or her message would most likely have been far more important than the telemarketing call, even if it was just to say hello.

So, the full "truthful" and polite response could be:

"Oh, I'm sorry. I was expecting an important call. I must hang up now." Click.

Political surveys

Both the Democrats and the Republicans think I'm one of theirs. I get surveys and requests for donations from both. They don't seem to realize that the title of my column in the Reader Weekly is "Party of One".

OK, OK, I may support with a check a candidate that I like now and then, but that doesn't mean I support the candidate's party.

Yesterday I received a survey from the Democratic National Committee. I don't plan to return it; see "Can You Believe the Polls Anymore". However, I do find this survey more meaningful than those I receive from Republicans. Recent Republican surveys have been full of leading questions; this Democratic survey has only three.

These are:
"Do you believe that John McCain's pledge to keep troops in Iraq for another 100 years will be a liability in the General Election?" McCain didn't "pledge" to stay in Iraq; he said troops would be in Iraq 100 years if necessary.

"How likely do you think it is that John McCain and his Republican allies will launch a "Swift Boat" style smear campaign against our presidential nominee?" We can be certain that allies of both parties will engage in distortion campaigns. Let's hope both presidential candidates stand above such nonsense.

"How concerned are you that Republican voter suppression schemes will disenfranchise Democrats and impact the outcome of the presidential race?" The best antidote to any " suppression schemes" is to get out the vote, massively. Remember more Democrats stayed away in Florida in 2000 than voted for Ralph Nader.

I might send in the survey anyway. Its last question is "If your could offer one piece of advice to the Democratic presidential nominee, what would it be?" I've thought of a couple over the past few weeks; if I can recall them and express one concisely, I might send the survey in.

Mark Trail did it again

As I assumed, Mark Trail used violence against a bad guy. Yesterday he kicked in the door of the bad guy's house. Today, the bad guy took a swing at Mark Trail; Trail swung back and knocked the bad guy off his feet.

Lone wolf policing and fisticuffs is not my image of a conservationist.

Mark Trail will do it again

Mark Trail is on the trail of a bad guy again; this time a dognapper. How do I know that Mark Trail will have a fist fight with this bad guy?

Creationism is hubris

Those who study evolution observe how God created life. Creationists tell God how He created life.

Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
Proverbs 16:18

Can you believe the polls anymore?

In the 1948 presidential election, many polls predicted that Thomas Dewey would beat Harry Truman. They were so wrong. The polls were made by telephone, but many Democratic voters had no telephone. So, they were not counted.

Now more people have telephones; and polls, except exit polls, are conducted by telephone. But two things make them inaccurate. Many polls are conducted by robo-dialer and a large number of people hang up when there is silence on the other end. Polls are conducted to numbers that are in some database, but many of those database are based on listed numbers. People with unlisted numbers might not be called. Cell phone numbers generally do not appear in listings. Many young people have cell phones only. So many young people will never be called by polls.

Barack Obama is attracting and energizing many young people. Will a representative number of his supporters be called? Some polls show him getting fewer votes than John McCain. Will John McCain be the 2008 version of 1948's Thomas Dewey?

A better way to elect a President

The current way of electing the President of the United States is limiting and unfair.

It is limiting in that our choices are self-selected candidates from two tired old parties. This further limits our choices in that they must appeal to the "base" of either party, even if the rest of the country sees different problems and solutions than either "base".

It is unfair in that people who have no affiliation with either party get to vote to select a party's candidates. It is also unfair that people who have leanings toward one party or are even affiliated with that party get to vote for a candidate in the other party. It is also unfair that party members are now supposed to rally behind a candidate that was not of their choosing.

If we're going to have such "grass roots" selection, let's really make the start of the process "grass roots". In the spring before the presidential election, all voters can submit the names of an eligible pair to run for a president. How wide open this part should be is open to discussion. It could be by online voting, by petition with a certain number of signatures, or by a mail-in ballot.

Order the candidates by nominations and select the candidates whose nomination totals add up to some threshold. Or take the top so many candidates. Now the entire voting population can select one candidate.

If no candidate gets more than 50% of the vote, we repeat the process until one candidate gets more than 50% of the vote. Depending on how many candidates we start with, it could take four to six cycles.

Will Americans turn out so many times to vote? Maybe, maybe not. But all the candidates, and all civic-minded citizens should stress the importance of voting. Supporters of this system should also stress the alternative of absentee voting.

This idea will meet much resistance, but if we keep doing things as we have, we are going to be stuck with more of the same old, same old.

How to end the "war on drugs" in one fell swoop

A friend wrote that her brother had a fire in his apartment. When the fire marshal investigated, he found marijuana residue. As a result the brother lost his teaching job. Would a teacher have lost his job if the fire marshal had found alcohol?

Isn't it time we end the war on drugs? It certainly hasn't succeeded, it costs lots of money for enforcement, it leads to violent crime, and it doesn't make us friends in foreign countries when we aid unpopular governments in the eradication of the plants.

Isn't it time we treat drugs the same as we do alcohol? People get in trouble when they pose a public risk: driving under the influence or being a public nuisance. Shouldn't we only concern ourselves with the use of drugs when the use directly impinges on us? We don't worry about people getting drunk in their own homes; should we worry about people getting high in their own homes?

A lot of money and law enforcement personnel were wasted during Prohibition. Not only was time and money wasted looking for alcohol, but even more was wasted fighting the dealers. Didn't we learn anything from this?

Now instead of wasting these resources on enforcing the unenforceable, we regulate the sale and use of alcohol at a much lower cost and also gain tax revenue from its sale. Isn't time we did the same with drugs?

We would save money in enforcement, prosecution, and incarceration. We would gain money in taxation. We could use the gain to provide many more productive public services.

How to reduce the price of gas

The quickest way to reduce the price of gasoline is to stop driving. Unfortunately, too many people would rather drive than take the bus. The next quickest way is to price gas in liters. Just think, the current $3.459/gal. in Duluth could become $0.909/liter.

This has the added benefit of making comparison with other countries easier. One would only have to convert euros or yen or whatever to dollars instead of first converting liters to gallons and then currency to dollars.

A third benefit, probably short-lived, is that gas would once again be below $1.00 per unit.

I may never fly again

Where have the friendly skies gone? Well, skies are still friendly, at least staff-wise. Counter personnel and cabin attendants do their best to be friendly to all. Even the security inspectors do their best to be friendly and helpful, even when you forget that liquid in your carry-on luggage.

But the security inspection is the middle of the hassle that flying has become. The parking and drop-off areas are more and more crowded. The lines are long at check-in. Then you have to stand in a long line at security, empty your pockets of keys, change, and other paraphernalia (you did leave your pocket knife at home, didn't you?), take off your shoes and belt, and put your cell phone, PDA, camera, and laptop in the box. Because of the long lines, you feel rushed doing all of this.

You've successfully gotten through security without forgetting anything or without having anything confiscated, and now you can relax, sort of. You still have to find a seat in the lounge, hopefully enough together for all in your group. Thank goodness that airports are now smoke-free.

Finally your plane is ready to board. There's no hurry because they won't leave the gate until everybody is buckled in. Still, it is a pain to wait for somebody with their butt in the aisle while they put their stuff in the overhead bin. Then of course you have a middle or window seat and the person in the aisle seat is already in place, You finally manage to sidle into your seat, find the seat belt ends, and buckle up. If you're lucky the plane takes off in the next fifteen minutes.

The plane finally gets to cruising altitude and you open a book to read. But suddenly the seat in front of you comes practically in your face. The person in front wants to nap and doesn't even consider how close the seat top comes to you. It's even worse if you were hoping to work on your laptop.

If the flight is more than a couple of hours of long, you start to get tense in your legs because you can't move them much. It is almost too much effort to get out, even if you have an aisle seat. If you are on a transoceanic flight, the airline will run a video about exercise. The trim young lady is shown doing all of her stretches without a seat in front of her or any other passengers by her side. If you try any of these exercises, you bump your shin against the seat in front of you or put your elbow in your neighbor's eye.

Finally, after much fidgeting and catnapping, you land at your destination airport. As soon as the plane stops, half the passengers pop up and start getting their belongings from the overhead bins. If you have other luggage it doesn't matter how fast you get off the plane. Even if you're the last person off and walk very slowly to baggage claim, your baggage won't be ready.

When you get to baggage claim, half the passengers are jammed right up the the carousel, even if their bag is nowhere in sight. You have to watch carefully between heads or arms for yours. If it comes, you bowl three or four people over as you try to right your moving bag, get a good grip on it, and heave it over the lip of the carousel. On the other hand, in some ridiculously high percentage of the time, one or more of your bags may not arrive at all. This is especially true if you had connecting flights, even on the same airline.

Matters are more complicated if your flight crosses some man-made line, referred to as an international border. You have to stand in one or two more lines, one to prove who you are and where you live, and another to prove you aren't smuggling in any prohibited material. Generally the second is perfunctory; you just walk on by. Again, the people who staff these barriers are generally friendly, or at least courteous. But the system is a great nuisance. If you live in the United States, aren't you glad each state isn't a separate country?

After our trip to Japan last year I said I never wanted to fly again. The U.S-Japan leg was bad enough, but we made it a three-day, three leg trip each way. We were accompanying my 92-year-old mother-in-law who lived outside Toronto. Our trip was Minneapolis-Toronto, Toronto-Chicago, Chicago-Tokyo and the reverse. If I couldn't drive to a place, I wouldn't travel again.

So, for Christmas, our daughter and son-in-law gave us a trip to Heavenly Valley. How could we say no? It was only a three-hour plane trip to Las Vegas and an eight-hour drive to Lake Tahoe, but still that three hours felt like eight. I renewed my vow to never fly again. And I so want to visit Europe, Iceland, and Japan again, but...

A blizzard in the internet age

A blizzard started in Duluth last night. All during the night the wind howled, the house creaked, and wet snow smacked against the windows. Every so often a snow plow would go by; its yellow light flashing through the blinds. I just snuggled under the covers more.

My wife was scheduled to be at a conference in Omaha today and planned to drive down with two others. They had originally planned to drive to the Twin Cities late in the afternoon and continue on to Omaha today.

Given the prediction of a blizzard in Duluth and a storm warning in Omaha, they weren't sure if they should leave earlier on Thursday or even go at all. We checked the National Weather Service for both cities and determined that Omaha would have rain but not snow yesterday. They opted to leave at 11 yesterday and arrived in Omaha about 9 or so. They did encounter a lot of wind and rain, but otherwise made good time.

However, just about everything has been canceled in Duluth, including the buses.

When I finally roused myself this morning, I couldn't see out a single window. See the photo "What blizzard?". I couldn't open either the front or back door very far; I had to push against 2-4 inches of wet snow. Before it got worse, I retrieved a snow shovel from the back porch. Without stepping outside, I could just barely reach the blade and bring it inside. I put it in the laundry tub where it will probably get too warm and ice up when I take it outside again. At least I'll be able to push a small path outside the front door and step outside to continue shoveling.

But not today! As of 11:10 this morning, the Duluth News Tribune reported the blizzard warning is in effect until Saturday morning. There is no point in even shoveling until tomorrow, not even to make the mail carrier's job easier or to get the newspapers at the corner.

Again, here's where the internet is such a help. I got my local news online plus I got a later update than I would with the paper addition. I know, I know, I could turn on the radio or TV, but on the internet, I can get the news when I want to, not when the stations broadcast it.

Of course, with a blizzard one can lose power or phone service. Several neighborhoods in Duluth have lost power. As soon as crews restore one area, another is knocked out.

So, with all this time on my hands because I can't go anywhere, I should be getting a lot done, right? Ha! What do I start first? Nah, I don't want to work on taxes just now. I'll practice singing later. Filing all those loose papers on the desk seems like such a chore. I could read a book, but it seems so much easier to play su do ku online then anything else, especially since I couldn't do the newspaper puzzles today. Just one more game. Oh, my time wasn't so good, I'll do another to see if I can do better. Oh, I almost got to my record time, I'll do another now that I'm on a roll. You don't believe me about the addiction, see http://www.jigsawdoku.com.

It is amazing that I even wrote this blog. Maybe now I can file some papers, but first...

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius for Obama's Vice-President?

Kathleen Sebelius, the Democratic governor of Kansas, may be the ideal V.P. for Barack Obama, both for the election and for the administration.

She is a uniter, not a divider. Her Lt. Governor was a Republican.

She is a governor, which would counterbalance Obama being a Senator.

She is more concerned with governance, that is, making Kansas work, than with ideology.

She is supporting Obama for the nomination.

Is the time ripe for a new moderate party?

After I posted the "Simple platform" entry, I read "A Case of the Blues" by Benjamin Wallace-Wells, New York Times Magazine, March 30, 2008. It centers on Tom Cole, OK-R, and chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee and the daunting task he has to get Republicans elected to Congress.

Given the shift away from some of the ideologies of the Republican Party, would a party that was seen as more practical make serious inroads on the "Two-Party System"? It is past time for a party to do what the Republicans did in 1854-1860 - forming a party and within six years winning the presidency.

Simple platform for a moderate party

Many party platforms are laundry lists of ideas and proposed legislation that members want or oppose. It is impossible for candidates to act on so many ideas or even present coherent views on all of them. The 2004 platforms were 43 pages(Democrats) and 92 pages (Republicans). In 2008 The Independence Party of Minnesota has a reasonably simple platform, but its seven-page platform contains too many gimmicks as solutions to certain problems.

I would feel more comfortable supporting a party that had a simple platform like the following:

1. A civil society needs to strive for a balance between individual freedom and the common good.
2. The U.S. Constitution should be a starting point for determining this balance.
3. A civil society will never have complete agreement as to where the balance is.
4. Today's solutions may become tomorrow's problems.
5. All else is commentary.

To Boycott or not to boycott, that is the question

Because of China's crackdown on Tibetan dissidents, some are calling for a boycott of the Olympics and others are saying that engagement is a better policy.

I think the decision should rest with the individual athletes and not governments. A boycott by hundreds of athletes would have a greater impact than a boycott by one or several governments. What purpose was served by the U.S. boycott of the Moscow Olympics?

Suppose the U.S. had boycotted the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Then Jesse Owen winning a gold medal would not give lie to Hitler's Aryan supremacy.

Source of our freedom

“I believe there’s an Almighty,” President Bush said, “and I believe a gift of that Almighty to every man, woman and child is freedom.” Quoted in Maureen Dowd's column, March 18, 2008, New York Times.

Bush also said, "Since that first 4th of July, some 43 million Americans have defended our freedom in times of war." (President Bush Thanks Military on Independence Day at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, July 4, 2006)

Which is it? The Almighty gave us freedom or the military fought for our freedom?

The framers of the Constitution stated it was "We, the People".

Technological irony

Apple placed one of its cute "I'm a Mac; I'm a PC" ads in today's online New York Times. The initial banner ad was "Vista - one of the biggest blunders in technology". Unfortunately, Safari 3.0.4 would not complete loading the page; it stuck on 88 items of 89. Safari 3.0.4 is included with Mac OS 10.4.11, the latest update to the OS prior to OS X Leopard. Firefox 2.0.0.12 did load the page successfully.

I used the "Report Bugs to Apple" feature of Safari to report this situation.

The most egregious political correctness

Many of us laugh at the attempts at political or patriotic correctness. One must not disparage any ethnic group, religious group, women, people with illnesses, and on and on through a laundry list of "marginalized" groups. One must not insult the flag or question a war and must show certain outward signs of "patriotism".

These misdirected efforts pale in comparison with the demands of certain governments and segments of several religions. Government after government shuts a newspaper down for insulting the nation of the government, often because they dared to print the truth. Many individuals want papers shut down or reporters and editors killed because the paper has "insulted" their religion with blasphemy. In both cases, such calls demonstrate weakness rather than strength.

In the case of "blasphemy", cannot an omniscient, omnipotent God protect himself? He sort of did in 1 Kings 18. After nothing happened to the sacrifice to Baal by the priests of Baal, God sent fire onto Elijah's water-soaked sacrifice and it was consumed. Interestingly, God did not send fire onto the priests of Baal; Elijah cut their throats.

In the case of "insults" of government, U.S. history is filled with some really mean-spirited campaign blasts. In 1796, John Adams "called his opponent Thomas Jefferson cowardly, weak and a person who did not share Americans' values." ("Character Attacks Heat Up Presidential Campaign", America.gov, 2007-12-04.

In 1828, Andrew Jackson's supporters called John Quincy Adams a "pimp". Adams' supporters retorted that Jackson's wife was a "prostitute". They also called Jackson a "jackass" and used a picture of a donkey. That last backfired because Jackson liked it and adopted the donkey as his party's "mascot". (ibid.)

And so it continues today, "fathering a black baby", "taking bribes", "not being heroic enough", and on and on. Somehow, although we wonder that our democracy will survive, it still does.

See also "Pledge of Allegiance or Sledge of Allegiance".

Spend or pay off debt, money still goes into the economy

One of the criticisms of the stimulus package that Congress passed and the President signed is that many people will save it or use it to pay off debt. However, the money still "goes" into the economy. Those who save it will be providing capital to financial institutions; they don't put it into a lock box but lend it to others. Those who pay off debt are similarly making more money available to lend.

What the rebate does mean is that the government will have less money to either spend or pay down its debt. That means at some time more taxes will be needed to pay for needed projects or to reduce the debt. In other words, the government is doing what many people did to get us into this mess - living on tomorrow's income.

Taxes and the common good; lack of linking the two is too common

"...just when you thought it was safe to spend your own money again..."
- Andy Aplikowski, residualforces.com, quoted by Tim O'Brien, The Blog House, Star Tribune, 2008-02-28

How do you spend your own money for roads, police and fire, defense, and education?

Today's ideological conservatives just don't understand the need for a balance between individual choices and the public good.

My wife added, "They inherited the public good without any notion of how it got there."

And I added, "How can we earn our money without the investment in the public good by people in the past?" Or, as the bumper sticker says, "If you can read this, thank a teacher."

See also

Time for Republicans of integrity to bolt the party

I've long been disenchanted with both "major parties" and been unhappy that the election process locks in the choice between "excessive government" and "excessive individualism (except for what they don't like)".

Six Republican Minnesota legislatures supported an override of Gov. Tim Pawlenty's veto of a transportation bill. For this "breaking of party discipline" the minority leader has stripped them of their committee positions. Very strange considering that Republicans pride themselves on being for individual choice and responsibility.

I think this may be an excellent opportunity for these legislatures to bolt their party, especially considering that they represent districts that are voting more Democratic. However, the Democrats are not really the answer for these legislatures. Rather, I think they should either start a new moderate party or join an existing moderate party.

A new moderate party would have a relatively simple principle: the need for a balance between individual choice and the common good. Anything more could lock the party into positions that would be irrelevant or counterproductive in the future.

An existing moderate party is the Independence Party of Minnesota. You can find its principles at http://www.mnip.org/principles.shtml. This page has links to the party's platform and other information. Personally, I find the platform has too many details.

If you think that a vote for the Independence Party will be a "wasted vote", remember that third-party gubernatorial candidate Jesse Ventura, last in the polls, was elected governor in 1998. And if you keep voting for either the left or the right, you might be left right out of a bright future.

See also "Voting is not a horse race".

Campaign finance reform, a different idea

Stifle big money in politics! Don't infringe on political speech! Back, forth, up, down, and around go the arguments for and against any attempt to control the amount of money going into political campaigns. The one thing everybody appears to agree on is that it have become very expensive.

One of the ideas floated is that there should be free time on TV for political candidates. Free to who? The broadcasters would resist, rightly so, the mandating of giving away time, especially prime time. If the time was subsidized by the federal government, what rate should apply?

Why not reserve a couple of channels to be operated by the federal government? To qualify for use of the channel, candidates would need to get so many signatures, an existing requirement to be on the ballet in many states now.

The government would break the time into short, medium, and long spots randomly throughout the day. Then it would assign spots randomly each day to qualifying candidates. It would be up to the candidates to either appear live or provide a tape for their spots. The candidates could change their tapes as often as they wish. These spots would also be made available on the web.

The financing would be by the income tax checkoff as is now done to allocate public funds to candidates.

A photo not taken

A week or so ago we were on our way for a morning of skiing. As I got on the freeway, I noticed that Duluth's Aerial Lift Bridge was reflected on the ice of Lake Superior. It was two miles to the next exit, two miles back, and then probably another five minutes to find a parking place and then a good vantage point. Another photo not taken.

Last week we were returning from our cabin, often driving into the sun. There was a long and high band across the western horizon and the sun made a golden glow through it. I looked at the icy shoulder, the snow-packed road, and all the curves somebody might skid on, and so I kept driving. Another photo not taken.

Borrowing from our grandchildren or ...

Many seem to have a misconception of borrowing, especially government borrowing, calling it borrowing from our grandchildren. The latest was "Road to ruin could be a high-speed rail track" (Star Tribune, Jan. 24). "Borrowing from our grandchildren" could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on circumstances.

There are two kinds of borrowing - short term and long term. Short term is to help smooth bumps in income or is for convenience. Long term is to pay for something that you need now but will not have sufficient cash for a long time. We all use both kinds: individuals, businesses, and governments. Each can be abused, but credit is something that makes modern society work more smoothly.

We put purchases on credit cards rather than walk around with a pile of cash. Many hotels and car rental agencies will only accept credit cards. Businesses take inventory loans to have sufficient stock. Why do you think there are sales? To raise the money to pay off the inventory loans. Governments borrow to smooth the cash flow for payrolls and other day-to-day costs because tax payments come in spurts.

We buy our cars and houses with loans. Some think we should save sufficient money rather than borrow, but where is our money going? To a bank who will lend it to somebody else. Meanwhile we're paying rent for housing. Businesses take out loans to buy new equipment or build new facilities. If they waited until they had sufficient cash, they may lose many business opportunities. Likewise, governments borrow to purchase equipment and build roads and bridges. If they waited until they had saved enough cash, people would complain about the cash hoard and the lack of roads and other infrastructure.

The abuse of borrowing comes when short-term borrowing becomes long-term borrowing. If we spend more on credit this month than we can pay next month, we are pushing our borrowing to long-term. Sometime this is unavoidable. We may be laid off unexpectedly. Businesses might not have the expected sales. Tax revenue could be less than predictions. But if spending more for short-term goals gets out of control, interest alone can make matters even worse. In the case of government, this truly becomes taxing our grandchildren for our own benefit.

But we aren't necessarily taxing our grandchildren for our own benefit to build and maintain infrastructure. The infrastructure may well last long past the lifetime of many current taxpayers and be available to their grandchildren. Are any of us today paying the taxes for all the county courthouses, fire and police stations, the sewers, schools, and many other government facilities? Shouldn't we pay for them? We are benefiting from them.

We are if they have been built recently and were built with borrowed money, money that may have been borrowed before we even started paying taxes. Similarly, by borrowing today for infrastructure that our children and grandchildren will benefit from, we are asking them to foot some of the bill. If we don't, neither we nor they will have a modern society.

Denying special treatment is not anti-business

Today's Duluth News Tribune had an editorial supporting a zoning change from residential to commercial ("Our view: Duluth can vote for progress with vote for change"). The editors said that if city council approved the change, "it would chip away ... at Duluth's ... anti-business reputation."

Maybe we should look at it as business's anti-Duluth attitude. An outside company comes in, buys up property knowing full well that the area is zoned residential, and then demands that the zoning be changed. This smacks of special treatment to me.

Granted that the particular parcel is not a quiet residential neighborhood. It is on a busy thoroughfare that is gradually becoming more and more commercial. It may well be in the city's best long-term interest to see this parcel become commercial. But that decision should be in the city council's hands as part of a long-term plan, not forced on it by an outside interest.

The long-term plan should also include traffic planning. How will this particular section of road handle the additional traffic of a hotel and restaurant? Who will pay for any improvements needed? The City Planning Commission and the City Council are supposed to answer these questions in two or three months?

Shortchanging education leads to big bucks health care

We too often look at parts of our society as unrelated to other parts. We link property taxes to education and do not properly support it to give our children a truly superb education. For example, we focus on reading and computation, but neglect art, music, and critical thinking, skills that promote and lead to much better thinking abilities.

As a result many of our children do not develop the skills that are in demand in our economy. For these, we spend an inordinate amount of time and money subsidizing corporations to create jobs.

But many jobs are going unfilled because there are not enough people to do them. This leads to higher demand for those who can do these skilled jobs which leads to higher wages for these employees.

A prime example of this is the shortage of doctors. Recently St. Mary's Duluth Clinic said it needed 139 doctors. You know that those doctors who are available have a long list of employment choices. To get them, SMDC is going to have to pay a lot.

Since health care organizations have to pay a lot for doctors they are going either pay others less or raise their fees, often both. As fees get higher and higher, health care premiums go higher and higher, often outstripping inflation. As premiums go higher, fewer people can afford health care.

When children don't get adequate health care they don't do as well in school. Therefore we need more money for schools to adequately educate these students. But we don't want to pay the taxes to do so because our health care premiums are so high.

Pledge of Allegiance or Sledge of Allegiance

Although I often dutifully recite the Pledge of Allegiance, I do so reluctantly and hypocritically. I do it more because of social conformity than any real attachment to the flag. To me, a pledge of allegiance, to a flag or a country, is un-American. We are a country founded on dissent; we should not have a legally or socially enforced act of conformity that serves no other purpose than to make some people feel good. Those who recite the pledge should remember that "liberty and justice for all" should include those who take the liberty of not reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

As a measure of how emotional this can get, consider the campaign smearing Barack Obama for supposedly not putting his hand over his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance. Actually, it was during the singing of "The Star Spangled Banner"; I know hardly anybody that puts his or her hand over heart during the singing of the national anthem.

To me, "The Star Spangled Banner" and the Pledge of Allegiance are more worshiping an icon than respecting the idea of a democratic republic. It became even more a public worship when "under God" was added in 1954. I find this ironic in that the Constitution states that there shall be no religious test for public office. However, if a candidate doesn't dutifully recite the whole Pledge of Allegiance, including "under God", he or she is considered unpatriotic and unsuited for public office.

What makes matters worse is that some office holders wear their flag pins, recite the Pledge of Allegiance, call unpatriotic those who do not, and then trash the Constitution. There is no requirement of a flag or a pledge of allegiance to the flag or government. There is simply the requirement that all government officials down to the state level "shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution" (Article VI). The President is required more stringently to "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution" (Article II).

For more on the Pledge of Allegiance and dissent, search on "pledge of allegiance" and "Jehovah's witness". Among the more interesting hits, you'll find "In Defense of Obama's Patriotism, A dissent on the pledge", Ron Rosenbaum, Slate, Nov. 12, 2007.

"Mac Owners Are Snobs"?

This is the title of a TheStreet.com video.

My experience is that Mac owners may be snobs but that may be because PC owners have been bullies since they still coped with line-at-a-time commands on their plow horses. PC owners told newbies at user group meetings that they should get PCs, and then they would spend a good part of the meetings complaining about their problems.

You never know when you might have influence

Today's Duluth News Tribune had an article on the city council having a retreat to get to know each other and discuss some of the issues the face.

It was interesting to note that the council president, Roger Reinert, was interested in two issues that I had published this week: "snow removal and bringing train service to Duluth."

My "Local View", "Streets are plowed, but walkers must tread on ice" was published in today's Duluth News Tribune.

My regular bi-weekly column in the Reader Weekly was titled "Can even Superman stop this speeding locomotive?"

Jeff Foxworthy is "wrong" about winter wherever

I was sent a long list of things you might do if you live in Minnesota by a graduate of my high school. You can find this same litany on several places if you search for "if you consider it a sport to gather your food by drilling through 36 inches of ice".

It is cute but the variations can be way off the mark.

I've lived in Minnesota for a total of 35 years, almost nine in Duluth. The variant that I received had many factual errors.

I know ice fishing is popular, but I think it is a lot of effort to get food.

Mille Lacs is not the coldest place in the country. Embarrass, Minnesota often is. The rest of Minnesota can be ten degrees warmer.

Some Dairy Queen's are open year around. They sell quick lunches as well as frozen custard.

Twice in 130 years has Duluth gotten over 131 inches of snow in a season (http://www.crh.noaa.gov/dlh/climate/top10snow/topten_all_wntr.php). Lots of snow might be 25 inches in a week. The Twin Cities had about 25 inches on Halloween 1991 and Duluth had 36. But on another Halloween the Twin Cities temperature was above 70.

I have seen many people underdressed in cold weather. We saw a college student walking bareheaded with the temperature just above zero. I saw a young woman walk into a coffee shop with heavy mittens, a light jacket, and a shirt unbuttoned down three buttons.

Vacation to me means going north an hour to our cabin to cut wood. It also means going to Japan or Ontario.

I measure distance both in miles and hours. Hours make sense when talking about driving time. Doesn't everybody give hours for plane, train, and bus trips?

I know few people who have hit deer more than once. I'm one of them, both times at night.

My wife does use A/C in winter to clear fog on her windshield.

Two feet of snow just about closes everything down. I've known events to be canceled when there is four inches of new snow! And we recently saw a flipped pickup truck with just a bit of glaze on the road.

Don't I wish the potholes were filled with snow.

There are only two seasons in Minnesota: winter and road construction. Actually, we do have all four seasons; spring and fall can be strikingly beautiful. See my photos on Flickr. See the Brimson and Duluth sets.

Can't we all identify many accents other than our own? I recently knew that a priest officiating at a memorial service was Irish. Sure enough, the program gave his name as O'Shea.

I don't figure I'm Down South until I get to Missouri.

Gosh, when was the last time I went to a fish fry. I am overdue for fish and chips at my favorite brew pub.

Frost on the Fourth of July? Never heard of it. But it reportedly has snowed in every month except July some year or other.

I'd have to use my snow blower in the whole precinct to put more miles on it than my car. Of course, if more people cleared their sidewalks I'd drive less.

Ten degrees is good skiing weather. Twenty degrees is good outdoor working weather. I wear a sweater indoors in our 62 degree house. However, see above about bare-skinned people.

Coincidence or campaign

Today I submitted an op-ed piece on "borrowing from our grandchildren" to the Star Tribune. This evening at dinnertime I received a call from the Star Tribune. I thought it was to verify that I sent the piece. No, it was a solicitation for home delivery of the Star Tribune.

I first said that I walked to the corner to get the papers because we were away too much for home delivery. The caller clarified that the special was for the Sunday Star Tribune. I declined saying that we had enough trying to read all the Sunday Duluth News Tribune.

Coincidence or what?

Using oil to save oil

Many are saying that plastic bags should not be used because they are made from oil and that they do not decompose readily in landfills. Some of these people either use paper bags for trash or buy bio-degradable plastic bags.

We tried bio-degradable bags years ago but they were flimsy and ripped easily. We gave them another try this week. They do seem sturdy enough for waste-basket liners. However, as I read the label I found out they were made in Norway! I wonder how much oil it takes to ship them from Norway to Minnesota. Also, the bags are corn-based; corn supposedly takes a lot of oil to raise.

Sing your heart out! To hell with having any talent!

Or dance, play an instrument, write, draw or paint, play a sport, but do not let anybody dissuade you because you "don't have any talent." You are not born with the diatonic scale in your head you are not born with the ability to write a complete sentence; you are not born with ability to draw with perspective; and you are not born with all the rules and strategy of any particular sport in your head.

I just proved this again to myself with a solo in church. I sang "Where have all the flowers gone?" and was amazed by the number of people who congratulated me after the service. I've done a couple of solos before at church but they were somewhat more tentative. I filled the room with my voice today!

I made a few mistakes in notes and timing, but the overall tone was resonant and spirited. If we look for perfection in performance, we will never do anything. A friend noticed that a violin soloist at the symphony made a few mistakes early in her performance. This soloist is a professor of music and the concert-mistress of the symphony!

Six years ago lot of people didn't want to sing near me. At one concert, the whole bass section shifted to the right as the others tried to get away from me. But with the express invitation of the church choir director and her encouragement, with the help of six years of voice lessons, and with the patience of my excellent singer wife, I've slowly improved.

I wonder if my voice teacher still thinks I would embarrass myself performing at an open mike night. I know I still have a long way to go on timing and consistent pitch.

For more of my thoughts on our ability to sing, see my article Why Don't Men Sing? and an earlier blog entry Why don't men sing?

Computer idiosyncrasies and persistence

This morning I enlarged the text of an email message with Entourage of Microsoft Office for the Mac. Suddenly, everytime I moved the mouse the whole screen moved and the display was larger than the physical screen. Fortunately, the pointer moved faster than the screen, and so I could move the pointer to where I needed it. However, this was very annoying and distracting.

I tried resetting the screen size with System Preference, but each resolution gave a bigger screen than the physical display.

I checked that I still had AppleCare but it's Sunday and probably no one is available.

I talked to a friend who is a computer technician at the local university. He had heard about it but couldn't remember the fix.

I often find searching Apple's Knowledge Base a big chore, and so I just did a Google search. The first couple of phrases didn't work, but

macintosh screen bigger display

as separate words got me about 209,000 hits. I was lucky in that the answer was in the first five results. It was at

http://forums.macosxhints.com/archive/index.php/t-37588.html

Somebody had this problem with OS9 on an iBook in April 2005. The answer was to check Universal Access in System Preferences. Sure enough, Zoom was set on. I turned Zoom off and everything went back to normal. BIG SIGH OF RELIEF!

Why did this happen? How could Entourage turn this on or off? I have increased the text size before without side effects.

When I looked back at Universal Access I noticed that increase zoom in was cmd-option-= and zoom out was cmd-option-- Maybe, just maybe I had not used cmd-shift-= for Entourage text enlargement but had used cmd-option-= Nah! I'm sure that I had used the Edit menu rather than the keyboard. Curiouser and curiouser.

In any case, thanks, Dan, for your help.

Motorcycle helmets save more than lives

Many people believe that motorcycle riders shouldn't be required to wear helmets because they will only be hurting themselves. One of the latest to state this is Charles Wheelan, The Naked Economist, in "Street Smarts: Economists Take on Traffic Safety" posted on Yahoo Finance on Jan. 8, 2008.

He wrote that "motorcyclists are most likely to harm themselves" and "that helmets save lives doesn't necessarily justify laws that motorcyclists wear them." Unfortunately, the harm of a motorcycle accident isn't limited to the riders.

First, emergency responders have to come to the scene. The greater the severity of the accident, the more time they have to spend at the scene. This could mean that the responders would not be available for other emergencies. In the case of volunteer responders, they could be called from their beds in the middle of the night.

Second, any accident can cause traffic delays. The longer the responders are at the scene, the longer traffic is delayed. In many cases, this could mean less productivity for those making deliveries, an economic by-product, aka externality.

Third, the care of a severely traumatized rider costs money. This will be coming from insurance and taxes. The care for a preventable injury is also limiting the care for others.

If motorcycle riders are truly harming only themselves, should we let their injured bodies lie by the side of the road? I wouldn't want our society to be like that.

How cold is it in Duluth?

Temperature range according to AccuWeather.com: -21 to 1. Other sources: lower at higher elevations.

That's not so bad on the high side. We went skiing this morning at Spirit Mountain. However, instead of six runs then coffee then six more runs, it was 3-coffee-3.

We were also up to heading to our cabin in Brimson to split some more wood. But when we got there it was so cold that our electricity didn't work. Well, we don't know why the electricity didn't work and every neighbor we called didn't answer the phone. But since it would be -20 or lower, we didn't want to stay overnight if we couldn't keep our truck plugged in.

Meanwhile, among our supplies in the back of the truck were two bottles of beer and a bottle of wine. When we got back to Duluth, I opened one of the bottles of beer. It wouldn't pour! The beer was so slushy that it wouldn't come out very fast.

Talk about having a cold one! This really was ice-cold beer. The head was a half a glass of slush.

Nobody "won" in New Hampshire

Many reports stated that Hillary Clinton and John McCain won their respective primaries. Did they really?

Sure, they got more votes than any of their opponents, but that doesn't make them winners for three reasons.

First, Clinton had 39.44% of the votes cast on the Democrat ballot versus Obama's 36.77%. That's less than three percentage points difference. Many polls declare that they have a four percentage points margin of error. Looking at it another way, about sixty percent of the Democratic voters cast their ballots for somebody else besides Clinton.

On the Republican side, McCain had a wider margin over Romney than Clinton did over Obama, but still over sixty percent of the Republican voters voted for somebody else.

Second, the New Hampshire primary is not a "winner-take-all". Clinton and Obama both will have nine delegates each to the National Convention. That looks like a tie to me. Edwards came in third with four delegates. However, there are five superdelegates; I assume these are chosen by elected Democratic officials. I have not seen who these five are or how they'll vote in the convention.

On the Republican side, McCain did get the majority of delegates: seven to Romney's four and Huckabee's one.

Third, the turnout was 62 percent, that means 38 percent of New Hampshire's voters voted for "nobody" by not showing up. If we take this into account and include both Democrat and Republican votes in our total, then we have

38.02% - Nobody
13.24% - Clinton
12.55% - Obama
10.52% - McCain
8.95% - Romney

"Nobody" got more votes than Clinton, Obama, and McCain combined.

This is democracy?


Sources:
http://www.sos.nh.gov/presprim2008/dpressum.htm
http://www.sos.nh.gov/presprim2008/rpressum.htm
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/primaries/results/state/#val=NH

Buy online or in person, which is better?

Should I buy online and save a trip to a store? If I do so, I don't have to make a trip to a store, but then I might have to stay at home for when the purchase is delivered. If I buy online I sort of buy "sight unseen", having only word description and maybe a picture. On the other hand, online may be the only way to buy a particular product, especially if it is only available out-of-town. For example, we could not find a tree-planting bar in any local store, but found one online from a hardware store in Georgia.

Should I buy in person and support the local economy? If I go to a store I can see and handle the product. Well, not always because some products are so encased in plastic that one can only visualize how they work. If I decide I like the product, I can go home with it and use it the same day. And I don't have to pay shipping charges. This is a benefit if I stop at several stores on the same trip.

If I generally follow the rule if I can get it in town, I'll buy in town.

For example, I recently wanted to buy a particular used book. Maybe I could have gotten it in town, but I would have had to scan shelves in many stores. I went to abebooks.com and looked for it. abebooks found several available copies in various conditions and prices. I found one I liked and ordered it; it arrived in about ten days.

On the other hand, if I had gone to a used book store, I might have found some other books I didn't even know I was looking for.

Saving trees or saving other green?

I received an email today from an organization asking me if I would rather not receive paper copies of its publications. The message title included "Save a Tree". I don't think that this organization or any other is so much interested in saving trees as they are in saving money. Putting out a glossy magazine ain't cheap.

Additionally, growing trees for pulp can be a sustainable enterprise. Cut the trees down and some more grow up. Let the trees stand too long and they rot and die. Of course, trees as a group were doing fine before the saw was invented.

What reducing the demand for paper might do is to reduce the opportunity and incentive for non-sustainable practices.

Still, I think most save-a-tree campaigns are either a feel-good endeavor or a cost-cutting move.

A different approach to politics loses steam

I, like many people, am tired of the posturing of the two so-called major parties. Nor do feel comfortable with their take on many issues - they are often too ideological rather than practical.

I also don't like the current process of selecting presidents. The candidates run from state-to-state and get weeded out in the early states as much by the media as by "voters" who have no loyalty to the party whose candidates these voters are choosing.

It was a pleasure to learn of Unity08, an organization that would organize an online convention in June, registered member could discuss and select the candidates, and Unity08 would put the president/vice-president pair selected on the ballot in all 50 states.

When I went to Unity08 this weekend, I found out that they have scaled back and the only web page available is a letter announcing this scaling back. There are no links for further information or contacts. Although Google lists several pages for Unity08, they all link to a "Page not available" page.

I went to a Wikipedia page on Unity08 and found quite a few details about the organization, both pro and con. One of the most serious calls into question promises made and the legitimacy of its financing. See "Questions that Unity08 will not answer".

Like so many endeavors with great ideas and hopes, it seems to have floundered on human frailty. Let us hope that somewhere, sometime, somebody will start a new political movement that is based more on the Founders idea of "public virtue" than on power, prestige, and pecuniary rewards.

Unfortunately, such a group will have to overcome the "spoiler" label. However, this is a false attack. The real spoilers are the people who stay home and don't vote at all. In almost any election, the stay-at-homes outnumber those who voted for the so-called "winner".

Circuit City, I could have told you so

When Circuit City announced that it was firing its highest paid sales people, I thought that it would be counter-productive. The lower paid people would probably not be as knowledgeable and would thus sell less. Also, many customers would boycott Circuit City and go to other electronic retailers. This week my thoughts proved correct. Circuit City's holiday sales fell 11.4 percent and its stock is "about 80 percent below where it was the day before it made the staffing announcement" last spring.

"Cost-cutting backfires for retailer Circuit City", Duluth News Tribune, September 12, 2008, Rachel Beck, Associated Press. For an online version, try http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/13/BUFBUD4TG.DTL
If that doesn't work because of archiving, try a search for

"Circuit City" staffing "Rachel Beck"

Foolishness has no nationality

The latest reported incident in the Gulf of Hormuz has two interpretations. If either scenario is allowed to be played out militarily, it will be a disaster for all concerned, military and civilian, American and Iranian alike.

If the Gulf of Hormuz incident is another Gulf of Tonkin incident, blown out of proportion and used as an excuse for an attack on Iran, Iranian citizens will suffer through no fault of their own.

If the Gulf of Hormuz incident is a direct provocation by certain elements of the Iranian military, it is a serious miscalculation. These provocateurs may think that the U.S. is bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan and does not have the resources to attack Iran. It may be true that the Army is stretched thin in these two conflicts, but the U.S. Navy still has a lot of firepower in long-range artillery, cruise missiles, and aircraft, all of which could hit any point in Iran. Does Iran have sufficient defenses against this firepower? I think not other than world opinion. World opinion has not stopped U.S. Presidents and Congress in previous cases.

If either scenario is played out, loss of Iranian life, property, and infra-structure will be mind-boggling, American politics will be even more polarized, the U.S. economy will decline precipitously, and terrorists will be working overtime to strike American interests.

Free market is a construct, not reality

Some write that there should be no bail-out of borrowers who are defaulting on their loans. These commentators write that the borrowers willingly entered into a contract and should accept the consequences of their inability to pay. These commentators also say the lenders shouldn't get any help as the lenders also willingly entered into a contract.

Like "there ain't no such thing as a free lunch" there ain't no such thing as a free market. Those who preach about a free market also forget about the detail of externalities. Few transactions are between a willing buyer and a willing seller with no effect on anybody else. If a dealer sells a car to a buyer who knows the brakes are bad, it may be a third party who suffers damage to life, limb, or property when that car doesn't stop. If a factory belching smoke sells its products far away, it is the people who live nearby who suffer the effects of pollution.

Similarly, a large number of defaults can affect more people than the borrowers and the lenders. More conservative lenders are going to take even more care choosing their borrowers. This in turn will drive up interest rates for more solid borrowers. There are already stories about the "credit crunch".

Defaults of home mortgages are going to put more houses on the market. A larger supply of houses is going to depress prices for those who would like to willingly sell their houses. The depressed prices may be good for potential buyers, but the increased mortgage rates and decreased availability of money to lend could offset the low price benefit. This could lead to fewer buyers which would lead to even lower prices.

Low demand for houses also affects realtors and builders. The lower earnings for these two groups could also lead to less spending by them in other areas, like autos and appliances and many other goods and services.

Fewer purchases by more people leads to a slower economy. Couple this with rising fuel costs, is it any wonder the stock market is in turmoil?

The sorry state of foreign languages in the United States

I went to the UMD library today for another purpose, but before I left, I scanned the available newspapers. There were only two foreign language newspapers: Le Monde and Le Monde Diplomatique. They used to have Die Zeit, Dagens Nyheter (Swedish), and a Spanish language newspaper or two.

I knew UMD* had dropped Dagens Nyheter a few years ago. I found that surprising because they generally have at least a half dozen students from Sweden. In fact, I would often hear Swedish in the hallways.

I suppose that there was no demand. That is sad that so few people are interested in reading material in other languages.

The good news is that the Rochester Police recently hired a woman from Superior WI. Her education and experience includes a major in modern Arabic from the Defense Language Institute and five years as an Arabic translator for the Army. Click here for the story.

Why would the Rochester Police need an Arabic speaker? The Mayo Clinic draws people from all over the world, including many Arab countries.
* University of Minnesota, Duluth

Quote on religion and politics

"...when folks get to the point of voting their religion and worshiping their politics, you think there is any difference between them?"
Sheri S. Tepper, The Family Tree, p. 329

Quote on immigration

"They were welcome, for a sensible country needs the talents of a varied people in order to get all the things done that need to be done."
Sheri S. Tepper, The Family Tree, p. 53

Religion in politics

I recently read three interesting columns on religion in politics and politicians who try to show how religious they are.

Faith vs. the Faithless
David Brooks
New York Times - 2007-12-07

Brooks wrote a good analysis of Mitt Romney's speech on faith about the conflict between those who want religion to be very much part of public discourse and those who want to leave religion as a private matter.

Brooks thinks the speech was a good one, but he is not enthusiastic about it. Rather than various religious points of view competing in the public square, Romney maintains that those with "faith" are being victimized by the faithless. "Romney insisted that all religions share an equal devotion to all good things. Really? Then why not choose the one with the prettiest buildings?" "There was no hint of ... the religion most people know–the religion that imposes restraints upon the passions, appetites and sinfulness of human beings."

The Times also wrote "The Crisis of Faith", 2007-12-07

"A presidential candidate cowed into defending his way of worshiping God by a powerful minority determined to impose its religious tenets as a test for holding public office."

Steve Chapman of the Chicago Tribune wrote "The religiosity test: Doubters need not apply" about the religious test several candidates are expecting; that is, one must believe in a single god. Agnostics, atheists, and humanists need not even try. They seem to ignore the provision in the U.S. Constitution "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office".

I read Chapman's column in the 2008-01-02 Star Tribune; his latest column available on the Chicago Tribune web site was 2007-12-23. He did write several on religion in presidential politics.

A Microscopic Insurgent

Op-ed by Mark D. Drapeau
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/04/opinion/04drapeau.html

Cholera is a real danger in Iraq with at "least 30,000 Iraqis [having displayed] cholera-like symptoms"

Cholera is spread through untreated water, insurgent areas have less treated water creating poor areas, poor areas breed more insurgents, insurgents make having treated water more difficult, untreated water creates poor areas...

And it doesn't help that insurgents are using chlorine trucks as weapons.

My question is why U.S. and Iraqi authorities don't wage a bigger propaganda campaign on how insurgents are hurting Iraqis more than Americans.

Intercepting Iran's Take on America

Op-ed by Thomas Friedman
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/05/opinion/05friedman.html

A great spoof on the latest U.S. assessment of Iran - a supposed Iranian National Intelligence Estimate of America

Friedman points out all the weaknesses and misdirections of American politics with few understanding what the real problems are and few working on meaningful solutions to them.

The Dictatorship of Talent

Op-ed by David Brooks
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/04/opinion/04brooks.html?hp

According to Brooks, China is no longer a Communist society but a corpocracy ruled by an elite based on merit. The merit is based more on passing tests heavy on memorization than on creativity. Will it be able to move to an information society?

If CTRIP and others are an indication, probably. CTRIP is a successful Chinese online travel complany.

Wrong responses to a wrong action (re: Bhutto assassination)

Violence is erupting all over Pakistan in response to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. What does this prove? It may prove that people are distraught. It may prove that criminals and hooligans are using the assassination as an excuse to do mischief. It does prove that the many who had nothing to do with the assassination are going to suffer the actions of the few. The people who depended on buses are now going to have fewer buses because mobs have burned buses; these are most likely the poorer people. The middle class who had saved for a car now have lost much of their savings. People of all kinds who need the paychecks from their jobs are not going to be able to get to their jobs.

A more proper response would be vigils around the headquarters of those who preach hate.

Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif threatens to boycott the Jan. 8 election. A boycott of an election throws the result to those you oppose. A more proper response is to get out the vote. Make sure all your supporters show up. If you don't show up, you can't be counted. Make sure news outlets know your supporters are showing up. Make sure they are interviewed at polling places. Pakistan still has some media independence. See http://www.dawn.com

Hold the government's feet to the fire on the investigation. Provide all the information possible. Ask for frequent updates.

Hold the extremists' feet to the fire on their actions. If they truly believe in Islam, show how their actions are contrary to Islam.

Nuclear wolves in carbon-neutral sheeps' clothing

The January-February 2008 Utne Reader has a cover article on "The Nuclear Option, Pros, Cons, and Corporate Spin". It points out that some environmentalists are considering nuclear energy as a way to put less carbon in the atmosphere. Of course, nuclear energy proponents have pointed out the same thing.

But there are two things that keep getting downplayed. One, what happens to the waste? Two, what is the true efficiency of nuclear reactors?

First, where does the waste go? Nobody seems to have a good, safe solution. I did a web search on nuclear waste, adding the keywords Japan, France, and Sweden because these countries derive a larger percentage of their energy from nuclear plants. I didn't find anything positive. In fact, a Japanese mayor lost his job because he proposed a study of using his city as a nuclear waste storage area. It seems that nuclear waste just keeps getting palmed off on somebody else, with no guarantees for safety for thousands of years.

Second, what is the efficiency of nuclear reactors? One measure is the amount of usable energy obtained versus the amount of non-captured heat given off. I came across this question when I saw the CNET article "A personal nuclear reactor? Not so fast!"

The article discussed a proposed nuclear reactor for factories or neighborhoods. It said the 200 kilowatt electrical output gives off 5 megawatts of heat. That still sounds like global warming. Consider the size of the cooling stacks of nuclear plants. That steam coming from those stacks also means a lot of water is being dumped into the atmosphere. This also means less water for drinking and irrigation.

A Republican president proposed an interstate highway system that transformed our culture. The rationale to get it through Congress was not transportation efficiency or creation of jobs, but defense. It would greatly increase the ability of the military to move troops and equipment around the country. Unfortunately, it was counterproductive to our defense because it made us hostage to countries with oil.

We now need a president of any party to cast energy conservation and energy independence as important to our defense. There are plenty of journalists pointing this out, but very few politicians seem to be reading them.

NAFTA, CAFTA, and HAFTA

Many people rail against NAFTA and CAFTA, equating "free trade" with large corporations running roughshod over poor people. Free trade means it is free for all participants. That is, all participants are free to enter and exit the market, they have free access to all the information they need, and they do not cause harm or cost to non-participants in the transaction.

If so-called "free-trade" agreements do not meet these criteria, then they should be rewritten to do so.

If NAFTA and CAFTA are free-trade agreements for North America and Central America, is HAFTA a free-trade agreement for Hemisphere of the Americas?

No, HAFTA is a free-trade agreement we make with ourselves concerning our own "free-time". We freely choose to do something and then we get sucked into it so much that we hafta do it. Our WANNAs become our HAFTAs.

A few personal cases.

This blog has become a HAFTA. I like to write and I like to share what I write. If I wanna have people read what I write, I hafta to keep writing so they come back. This is true with my Reader Weekly column, print and online, and with my Flickr photos.

I wanna improve my singing ability, and so I take voice lessons. So, now I hafta practice regularly so I show some improvement, no matter how small, when I show up for the next lesson.

We wanna heat with wood to reduce our need for fuel oil. So we hafta cut and haul wood, hafta build a fire in the fireplace insert, and hafta regularly clean the glass and empty the ashes. Oh, for the days of cheap gas or oil when one just set the thermostat and paid the bills. Oh well, we have dropped our monthly budget payment for oil by $26/month, and maybe more now that we are using better wood (dryer, not better species).

Now I'm stuck in another wanna that became a hafta. In rebelliion against all these other haftas, I decided to read and watch Harry Potter as much as I wanna. Once I take a book out of the library or rent a DVD, hafta read or watch.

I wanna do nothing. Oh, oh! Then I'll hafta! How am I going to eat?

Two lessons from Harry Potter

As I work my way through Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, I notice two particular themes.

The first is the abuse of power. Dolores Rose Umbridge (she who gives sorrow and umbrage?) is the prime example in Book 5. She delights in lording it over others giving sorrow and pain as often as she can. Although her power may be in order to serve the Dark Lord, she seems to delight in using it for its own sake.

Draco Malfoy (Dragon->Snake Bad-Faith) has been intimidating others from Book 1, just for the sake of showing he is superior to them as a "pure-blood" wizard.

Snape uses power to avenge the ill-treatment of those who abused power when he was in school. But so far, we aren't aware of his turning on his abusers, just passing the abuse on to others. Do unto the new generation as the old generation did unto you.

The giving and taking points to and from a "house" in general is arbitrary power. The many gain or suffer from the actions of a few. This power seems to be exercised by whim, whether a teacher wants to give praise or wants to punish, punish, and punish.

The second theme is that power is not all-powerful. Despite all the miraculous, wondrous things the wizards and witches can do, they don't seem able to make the plumbing work and a whole lot of other ordinary things. Carpets are threadbare, ghosts pull pranks on the students, and buses don 't even have fixed seats.

I may be bringing my own bias in, but I think J.K. Rowling is calling for society at large to spend more time on governance than posturing. Rather than showing we are a superpower or that we are not going to knuckle under to the developed countries or that we have to be sure our group gets a bigger "slice of pie" we should just make things work for as many people as possible.

Voluntary compliance works?

George W. Bush has made a big thing of getting voluntary compliance from large corporations to foster the public good.

I wonder if these same corporations will depend on volunteer compliance from their cashiers in making sure their registers balance at the end of the day.

More on "You can't sell cake without frosting"

I sent "You can't sell cake without frosting" to Russ Stewart with a copy to Councilors Greg Gilbert and Don Ness, the latter mayor-elect. Councilor Stewart responded with:

Melvyn,

Nice analogy. I like frosting on my cake. I also like the arts.

My question to you is what would you cut? I'm not trying to be snotty, but rather to get ideas from people. There's no limit to the good that can be done with money. But there is a limit to the money.

Thanks in advance for your ideas,

Russ

I took up his challenge and responded with:

Hi, Russ,

Thanks for your fast and reasoned response.

As to what to cut, it is very, very hard to find something that is not really essential to having a great city. Maybe the amount of paper used by the city? Given the heavy use of electronic communication, there could be significant savings in paper and postage.

For example, extend Comfort Systems EasyPay to online statements and letting customers pay online. We don’t like automatic transfers, preferring to know how much we owe before we pay.

An aside, don’t have studies for naming. I was in a focus group for “Comfort Systems”. Few of us really liked the name but were browbeat into selecting something among the choices. Thanks for the $50 cash:)

Maybe examine how many city-paid cell phones there are and how much private use is made of them. Do all users of cell phones have to be constantly available. I know that people who have to change schedules at the drop of a hat need to contacted, but would a private radio network be sufficient? If cell phones are issued, would pay-as-you-go be more cost-effective? Maybe not issue cell phones at all because so many people have them anyway. Did the city ever pay for line telephones for people who needed to be reached at home?

Encourage telecommuting for employees who need not show at office or counter.

Here’s a biggie: reduce heat and air-conditioning. It may already have been done, but set thermostats at 68 or less for heating or 77 or more for air-conditioning

Have city employees take the bus instead of using cars. Some will need more flexibility, but many will be going to and from destinations on bus lines. This also has the benefit of increasing bus ridership which could increase service which could increase ridership which...

Now, my “snotty” answer. The best thing to cut is the Taxpayers League and its ilk. Seriously, anti-tax people have created a climate for minimalist government turning Minnesota in Ed Raymond’s Missisota. [Ed Raymond is a columnist for Duluth's Reader Weekly and Fargo-Moorhead's High Plains Reader.]

A kinder answer but just as difficult to implement is reverse the system of taxation. The Federal government taxes too much and the local governments tax too little. Duluth should not have had to get Federal funding for the Ninth Street Bridge. That is a local project which should have been paid with local dollars. I think local governments are going to be strapped to make their places good places to live as long as they have to beg states and the Federal government for so much of their funds. These entities are stealing our frosting! No, they’re stealing our bread and making us beg for it back.

I hope there is something in this ramble that you can use practically.

- Mel

My portal to my writings and photos is
http://mdmagree.googlepages.com

Russ Stewart responded with:

Mel,

Thanks for taking my request seriously. These are some good ideas! I will pass them on to the administration for consideration, including Mayor Elect Ness, who I am CCing on this email. My time remaining on the council is limited, but I'm hopeful that some of your suggestions
can be implemented by the new council and administration.

Russ Stewart

PS I have to admit that I have turned into a bit of an anti-tax kind of guy. I've seen too many abuses to remain sympathetic even though some taxes go to do some good things. I certainly agree that the Feds are the most egregious offenders.

Oh, the advantages in living in a small city. You can engage in a dialog with politicians without getting boiler plate responses.

You can't sell cake without frosting

The Duluth City Council is considering a proposal to reduce the funding of the Public Arts Commission. Councilor Russ Stewart, who proposed this, said, "It seems like if the council is serious about cutting funding, let's find things that are nonessential to running a city."

I find this counterproductive for a city that is trying to attract tourists and get young people to stay. We already have too many blah areas that could use some art, like many parts of the skyway system.

This just in. The Duluth Bakery Council, in the interest of cutting costs, has decided that's its members will no longer frost cakes. Considering the high cost of sugar and butter, bakers will be able to provide more cakes to more people at a lower cost.

This just in. The Duluth Bakery Council reports that sales at its member bakeries is down 30%. Cake sales are almost nonexistent and bread sales have dropped 10%.

This just in. The Duluth Bakery Council reports that three of its members have closed their doors. Lots of Dough, one of the largest of these three, said that it has been giving much of its daily production to local food shelves because so few people visit its shop. Lots of Dough owner, Chuck Boyd, said that people used to come in for a cake for a party and also buy several loaves of bread. Since Lots of Dough stopped putting frosting on its cakes, the shop has sold only one or two cakes a day and only a couple dozen loaves of bread a day.

This just in. The mayor of Hinckley, Minnesota reports a dramatic increase in housing construction. He was at a loss to explain it until he visited Tobie's, a popular half-way point for the drive between Duluth and the Twin Cities. He couldn't believe the lines at Tobie's bakery counter. People weren't asking for Tobie's signature cinnamon rolls but frosted cakes of all kinds. When the mayor asked John Fuss, a former resident of Duluth, why he would move from a city with such great lake views to a city surrounded by farms and casino parking lots, Mr. Fuss replied, "I'd rather eat my cake than have a lake view."

I spend too much time on my computer, or not enough?

I spend too much time on my computer, or not enough?

My son recently said I could stay away from my computer for a day or two, meaning doing without Internet access. Others have said that many people spend too much time on their computers.

But do they? Do we spend too much time in our houses or at our desks? Do we spend too much time with pencil and paper doing our accounting and bill paying? Do we spend too much time in an easy chair reading a book or magazine or newspaper? Do we write too many letters on paper to friends, politicians, or newspapers? Do we spend too much time getting our pictures developed and organized into scrapbooks? Do we spend too much time learning a piece of music for voice or instrument?

The fact is that a personal computer is an enabler of all these activities.

I once spent half an evening developing and printing a roll of film. Now I can have a hundred pictures ready for viewing in 15-30 minutes. I can print a copy of one in less than five minutes. Or I can distribute copies to the world in minutes.

Sure, I can dash off a note on paper in five minutes, but my recipient might not see it for two or three days. I also must add another five minutes for addressing, sealing, and stamping the envelope. With email I can send a quick note in one minute or a couple of paragraphs in five. If I make a mistake, I can correct it in a few seconds, if I see it. But we don't always see are errors on paper either.

Anyone who has used a computer to balance a checkbook knows, that even if it can be frustrating, a spreadsheet can be much more accurate than 10 pieces of scratch paper.

Once upon a time, some people subscribed to three newspapers a day and two magazines a week. Now too many people sit glued to a screen following somebody else's priorities and waiting minutes for what they are really interested in. On the other hand, one can scan hundreds of newspapers and magazines on the Internet from around the world or even search for a particular item of interest.

There is much more that we can access or do with our computers than I can write about in these few words. The real problem is that we can do so much that it is difficult to focus on what we should be doing now. It is like a 1,000 item smörgåsbord. What do we eat first?

Honor the veterans but...

We should honor those who fought in our government's wars. Unfortunately, such honor rubs off on those who initiated the wars, often initiated by means of false or misleading statements. These same government officials further justify their actions as "defending our freedoms", even as they themselves stifle freedom in the name of national security.

With this in mind, how do we honor the warriors without honoring the war?

Education: structured and formal or free-form and creative?

Syl Jones wrote an interesting op-ed piece for the Star Tribune about education, "Education, the quality thereof".

His basic advice was to throw out the outline, encourage creativity, and meet a living example.

He said that he refused to do outlines and most of his teachers punished him. In the eighth grade a teacher told him, "Outlines are for people who didn't know what they wanted to write."

I too have disliked outlines. I gave up an A in American History at West High School in Cleveland because I wouldn’t follow the school’s pattern for producing the term paper required for an A. First, one had to prepare and submit a set of index cards. Then an outline. Once that was approved, one could write the actual paper.

It didn’t hurt me that much because I went on to get a Masters in Mathematics and late in life became a regular columnist for the Reader Weekly of Duluth. As a writer I give Word fits. See sentence fragment above. But it is with such breaking out of the mold that one has more effect.

Although I had many inspiring teachers in almost every school year, I wish I had more like Syl Jones described and Frank McCourt, Teacher Man. I think I might have arrived much earlier at the point in writing and singing then I am now at as I approach 70, not really that great, but definitely satisfying.

Click here for a list of some of my writings on learning and education.

Solar is great, but...

Business Week, Oct. 15, "Solar's Day in the Sun" gives an optimistic picture of solar collectors in the desert turning water to steam to drive generators. Supposedly there is enough sunlight in the deserts of the U.S. Southwest to provide electricity many times over.

Since a desert by definition has little water, where is the water for these plants going to come from?

If generation is concentrated in one section of the country, there will be a huge need for high-voltage power lines to get the power to other parts of the company. The line losses could be very great, possibly offsetting some of the promised cost savings.

Concentrating any resource increases risk of disruption, by criminal intent, by natural disasters, or by Murphy's Law ("if anything can go wrong, it will").

I think we should be looking for as much distributed, local power generation as we can with as many different systems as are feasible. I do not mean that each house or building should be completely energy, self-sufficient. We should start with very local energy with backup levels all the way up to a regional generation and distribution. It used to be that way, but over time centralized generation became cheaper. However, pollution and other problems have created costs that are not accounted for in centralized distribution.

Whose entitlement?

Business Week, Oct. 15, has a feedback section on a previous article on overtime.

Several of the respondents complain of a litiginous society with an entitlement mentality. One thing often overlooked in these kind of arguments is that more suits are filed company against company than individual against company. On entitlements, who are those feeling entitled: employees requesting just payment for their time or employers demanding more time than they are willing to pay for?

One business administration professor wrote about letting the "market work". She forgets that a truly free market consists of willing buyers and sellers with complete information on the transaction, the ability to quickly enter and leave the market, and no consequences affecting other than the buyer and seller. Employment is not easily entered or left, especially quickly.

The real winner in the elections was a loser

Duluth, Minnesota had local elections on Nov. 6, 2007 like many communities across the nation. The winners are congratulating themselves and the losers are licking their wounds.

However, the winners shouldn't be so smug. They all really came in second. Minnesota is a high voter turnout state and Duluth is generally one of the highest in the states. Sadly, in this election, Duluth turnout was 50.19% That means "I don't care" got more votes than any candidate, including the winners.

Given the generally positive campaigns this year in Duluth, especially in the mayor's race, I hope the new officials can get more people engaged in the next elections, above the historically higher figures for national and state elections.

Good news among the bad from Pakistan

Pakistan seems to be going out of control as a democracy back to a military dictatorship. Besides the demonstrations by lawyers and others, the good news is that Dawn is still being published online and is still acting independently.

"THE suspension of the Constitution has stripped away the democratic façade from General Musharraf’s military rule." - Fight against militancy by Kaiser Bengali

"GENERAL Musharraf would know as well as anybody else that access to information is every citizen’s right. So there is no question about him, or his government, ‘giving’ the country a free media as he believes. It is not for him to take this freedom away either. The government’s arbitrary blocking of all television news channels — including the foreign ones — and putting curbs on the press can thus not be justified." - Unjust denial of information, unsigned editorial

U.S. Out How?

The latest issue of Mother Jones has a feature on the Iraq War, "U.S. Out How: the Moral Dilemma of Leaving Iraq". It offers quite a wide range of opinions on staying in Iraq or leaving Iraq, and if the U.S. should leave, when and how.

The key point is that it may have been Bush's war, but through the actions of Congress and the people, we all now own it.

I think you'll come away with your head swirling with all the possibilities and pitfalls of almost all plans and ideas.

See http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2007/11/iraq-war-index.html

Don't read Harry Potter on the bus

I thought it was time to read fiction for awhile and borrowed Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix from the library. I started reading it while waiting for the bus and kept reading it on the bus. Every so often I noticed a landmark or two on the way home. As I finished the first chapter I realized the bus was going up a long hill that I wasn't accustomed to seeing. Oh no! I missed my stop. Fortunately I had less than a ten minute walk home.

Iran will bring about World War III?

President George W. Bush thinks that Iran possessing nuclear weapons will bring about World War III. He may be right but have the circumstances all wrong.

If the U.S. attacks Iran, the world could turn against the U.S. The rest of the world would not attack the U.S., but the world population probably would prevent any democratic (and even some autocratic) governments from joining any "coalition of the willing." Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Many of the people of the world would probably make Americans and American companies very unwelcome. Remember, in WWI many American schools forbade the teaching of German and the U.S. Government confiscated the assets of the Bayer Company.

The antipathy towards things American and the stretching of resources to fight three wars at once would continue the relative decline of the American economy. Sure, the American economy is still growing, but others, like India and China, are growing even faster. Without an economy commensurate with the need to for a strong military, going to war will only accelerate the relative decline of the economy. History has many examples. See The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers by Paul Kennedy.

Who should be president? Difficult choices for us

Actually, the choices aren't so much ours as they are the choices of editors and popular bloggers. See Making news or reporting news? They are the ones who choose the so-called front-runners and give more coverage to them.

So, being a not-so-popular blogger, I'll give my own list of front-runners. However, later I will give you an alternative for choosing a presidential candidate, by-passing all of us media know-it-alls.

My order does not reflect my current preferences. It's just as they pop into my mind.

Hillary Clinton has some good ideas and some bad ideas. From what I've read, she is the one coming up with concrete proposals for many domestic issues, like health care. On the other hand, she has cast votes in the Senate that have led us into the current mess in Iraq. I have not seen any concrete proposals for a smooth extrication from Iraq.

Bill Richardson, Governor of New Mexico, has experience in governance. That is, making government work to the benefit of most of the people. I favor this qualification for President over any other, including "foreign policy experience". The Current Occupant certainly didn't have any of that and still doesn't after seven years on the job. I would have to examine Richardson's record more to see how well he governed. It would be nice if the major newspapers gave him as much coverage as Clinton and Obama.

All the Republicans are more of the same Goofy Old Party that has gotten us into many of our current problems. The only Republican I might consider voting for is Ron Paul, but I have only two reasons. As a libertarian, he has an independent streak that is refreshing in the current "The President's way or the highway" mindset. He did vote against the Iraq War, my second reason for favoring him. However, libertarians minimize common good, something in short supply among Republicans.

What alternatives to we have, outside of getting involved in a party or an individual campaign? There is a group called Unity08 that will hold an online nominating convention in June 2008. Once the convention selects a candidate pair, Unity08 will endeavor to put them on the ballot in every state. Visit Unity08 for more details on participating in the convention.

My own quirky choices: Kathleen Sebelius, David Brooks, Thomas Friedman, or Olympia Snowe. The thinking of any of these is better than many who are currently more prominent in presidential politics. Any pairing from this selection of politician-politician or politician-journalist would give us a more serious discussion of the issues than is currently available.