The original illegal immigrants

There have been many waves of illegal immigrants to this continent, but one of the most notorious arrived

Not speaking the language,
Carrying many contagious diseases,
Having few of the skills needed for the existing society, and
Quickly established a criminal record.

Who were these invaders who would not score many points as proposed in the current immigration bill? Why, the Pilgrims.

They did not speak Algonquian, the language of the Nauset whose land they occupied.
Over half of them had died from various diseases,
They knew very little about farming,
They stole grain stores from the local people, and
Eventually they murdered many of the locals.

I guess I can't complain too much about them; both my wife and son-in-law are descended from them.

We want excellence in education?

Today we had our chimney cleaned by an ex-teacher. After 15 years of teaching English, he became a chimneysweep. He has less hassle, more fun, and more pay as a chimneysweep than he did as a teacher.

This says a lot of how much value we put on education in our country. Not that we should consider chimneysweeps as unskilled or performing an unneeded service, but that without highly-valued teachers, all other work is meaningless towards a better society.

The pH factor

When I heard a couple of guys in the fitness center mention a certain celebrity this morning, my stomach became acidic over such a base discussion. Even people who think she is non-news feel compelled to mention her, for example, Mallard Fillmore or current writer.

There is a certain herd instinct in people, in and out of the media, to make news where there is none or even provide more weight to certain people or ideas and less weight to other people or ideas, regardless of their true importance.

Political campaigns highlight this problem. The media reports on front-runners in polls and voters vote for front-runners. The polls become a self-fulfilling prophecy. I wrote about this in "Reporting News or Making News", Reader Weekly, Nov. 9, 2006.

An unnecessary health care cost

I recently learned of a ridiculous health care cost driver - unnecessary paperwork!

I've worn contact lenses for over thirty years. I remember that the eye care people always want to be paid for the lenses before handing them to the patient; they never bill for them and insurance never pays for them. Such was the case when I picked up a new pair from an opthalmologist's office in a clinic.

I was therefore surprised when I received a notice from CMS (Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services) that the claim was denied and being sent to my Medigap insurer. I called the clinic billing office saying this claim should never have been sent because I had already paid it. The representative told me that it was being sent so they could have the denial. She didn't really want to hear that they should have already known the cost lenses were not covered.

This kind of legalism is adding costs to three entities: the clinic, Medicare, and my insurance company. Maybe if it only costs five dollars per claim per entitity, that adds fifteen dollars to the cost of the service. How many tens of thousands of these unnecessary transactions occur each week? Pretty soon we're talking real money!

A literalist went broke

A literalist went broke because he bought a new bottle of medicine everyday. He wouldn't use the previous day's medicine because the label said, "Do not use if seal is missing or broken."

Roadkill

How often have you seen a dead animal on the highway and thought how can people be so careless? Or, given the animal's position on the road, somebody must have deliberately hit it.

I've found out at least six times that sometimes these collisions are hard to avoid. In fact, sometime one's attempt at avoidance is counterproductive. I tried avoidance today in a small town at less than 35mph and left behind roadkill.

I have hit at least two birds, two squirrels, and two deer. And of course, thousands of insects.

The birds are the hardest to avoid. They swoop in front of one's car generally making it across or being carried by the airstream over the roof. Once, one bird clipped my car just above the windshield. Another time, a bird slammed into my radiator.

One deer walked across the highway right in front of my truck as if I weren't even there. It was dark and on a curve, and I didn't see her until she was in the opposite lane. One dead deer and $800 damage. Another kept changing its mind and would skid around to the opposite direction. I heard it click along the side of my truck. I could find no deer at the side of the road and could not even detect a scratch on the side of my truck.

Squirrels change direction more times than that deer did. I couldn't figure out how to avoid either of the two squirrels that I knowingly hit. In both cases I saw the squirrel bound across the street, and I slowed down. The squirrel would start back the way it came, change its mind and be between my tires, change its mind twice more, and then slam into or be hit by the passenger-side tires. As I looked behind, there was a gray corpse on the shoulder.

Interrupting the interrupters

Have you ever been telling a story to a group of people and have one or more interrupt you with a question, or worse have someone answer the question with your punch line?

I was in this situation this evening. I just stopped telling my story and didn't continue. Worse, nobody asked me for the rest of the story. Worse, others held forth for minutes on end with their stories.

My high school English teacher defined wit as what someone else had at the party that you have on the way home. How right she was.

After I got up from the table, I thought of the comeback to the interrupting question: am I telling a story or are we having a discussion.

The rights of one over the rights of the many

We are in Missouri which does not have a state-wide smoking ban. We chanced going to an Applebee's across the street from our hotel. We asked for non-smoking, but didn't see an ash tray in the place, not even at the bar.

We discussed this with our server. She said that Applebee's in general has a non-smoking policy but certain franchisees allow it, including her employer. However, she said, Monday smokers will be limited to a certain area.

My wife was enjoying a dessert when she smelled a cigarette. Shortly afterward I smelled it too. I quickly paid our bill, gulped my after-dinner drink, and we left. On our way out, we mentioned it to some staff and they were very sympathetic. They have to live with that day in and day out.

Newspapers going the way of buses?

Once upon a time, the U.S. had excellent streetcar and bus service. In many cities one rarely had to wait more than 10 minutes for a streetcar or bus. And then more people got cars. The car was more convenient and flexible. Fewer people took public transit. As few people took public transit, the service was cut back. As service was cut back, fewer people took public transit. As...

Once upon a time, the U.S. had many excellent regional and local newspapers. And then came television and the internet. The one encapsulated the news into soundbites for the lazy of mind and the other provided a treasure trove for the inquisitive of mind. Either way, fewer people subscribed to newspapers. As fewer people subscribed the newspapers cut back on services. As the newspapers cut back on services, fewer people subscribed. As...

What new Northwest Airlines?

"The New Northwest" is the headline in the business section of the Star Tribune, May 31, 2007. Is a new Northwest Airlines better? I doubt it.

My wife made a reservation for Toronto-Duluth because she would be able to stay on the same plane through Minneapolis-St. Paul. The previous time she made the trip her luggage didn't make the MSP-Duluth leg of the trip and had to be delivered the next day. So, thought she, having the same plane should solve that problem.

When she checked in at Toronto, she was told that she would have to change planes at MSP. This also meant she would have to walk to another concourse when she got there.

When she boarded the plane, the captain announced the plane would be flying through to Duluth. The crew hadn't even been told of the flight change!

When I checked for her arrival time prior to picking her up, the plane had left the gate about 25 minutes late but hadn't taken off. Just before I left the house I left the house 20 minutes later, the web site said the plane took off eight minutes after it left the gate.

When she got to Duluth I met her at baggage claim. We waited and watched for her bag to come down the chute. The baggage handlers stopped the chute and her bag wasn't there.

We are now at one hour after the original arrival time. We went to the checkin counter staffed by one person and waited our turn. The bag would probably arrive on the next flight which should arrive any minute. It was on that flight. We arrived home one hour and ten minutes after we should have.

My wife's advice for all fliers: always take a book.

Why wait for the federal government on health care?

Many people think the only solution to the "health care crisis" is a single-payer, federal system. When we think of a single solution, we often run into political roadblocks put up by others who disagree with that solution, whatever the reason.

One way around is that more and more states are coming up with their own solutions, most of them based on mandated health insurance schemes.

Let's go back to the roots of modern health care. What are the names of many hospitals? Lutheran, Methodist, Brigham and Young, St. Mary's, Our Town Community, and so on. These were local hospitals founded to provide care for people in a region, mostly the poor. The rich had care at home, with doctors sometimes on standby. As our wealth increased, more and more of us were expected to pay a larger share of our health care. By previous standards, almost all of us are wealthy. Do you think everyone had a telephone and a car and ate out at fast food restaurants one hundred years ago?

Medical technology improved dramatically over the decades. Who would have thought to give anybody with heart problems an EKG a hundred years ago? Or open heart surgery, surgery that has saved thousands of lives? Improved technology costs money.

The cost of medical care has spiraled way beyond giving the doctor a chicken for his efforts.

Maybe what we need is more structured tier service. Let's make first-line care more readily available locally. We don't need a facility with MRI and so on to treat broken bones or minor illnesses. And we don't need to rush off to Mayo because we have an easily-treated tumor.

We really need better triage care - those who can do all right with a minimum of care, those who need a high-level care, and those who are beyond care. Our first level of triage is the community clinic or hospital. We can probably make the immediate decisions at far less cost than we could at regional mega-care facilities.

We can provide this first line of medical care with local resources, be it local government, church-based, or foundation-based. These can be put in place in a small fraction of time and cost that all the squabbling over a national health care system has taken.

One model is the Green House Project, a series of senior residences for no more than 10 residents, that was started by Bill Thomas in Tulepo, Mississippi. It is more resident-centered than staff-centered. Dr. Thomas is building Green Houses in every state with the help of the Robert Wood Foundation. See "Rethinking Old Age", Atul Gawande, New York Times, May 24, 2007.

In summary, we need a lot of small, local ideas to solve our "health crisis" rather than some super-duper, bureaucratic, one-size-fits-all solution.

An apology that won't be made

Thomas Friedman wrote an excellent article today, May 2, 2007, in the New York Times about what President Bush should say to the regional conference in Egypt about stabilizing Iraq.

Not only does he suggest that Bush apologize for starting and mismanaging the war, but that Bush should call strongly on the Arab and Muslim nations to stand-up to the nihilist terrorists who bomb civilians indiscriminately. Friedman points out that they are already trying to destabilize Muslim governments with killings.

My thoughts are that the "war on terror" cannot be waged militarily but must be waged with police and propaganda. As long as some people see Al Qaeda and its ilk as glamorous for attacking the U.S., there is no hope of eliminating terrorism. The U.S. and Muslim leaders must more actively portray these nihilists as having no plan but to destroy those who try to build a civil society.

Misdirected energy development

I keep wondering about energy being provided by large companies vs. decentralized energy. I found a couple of interesting statements about this in "A fight over the future of solar", a Perspective article published in CNET News.

Herman Scheer argues that many undeveloped areas of the world will not be able to afford large distribution networks to provide power from centralized power stations. He also mentions how power distribution networks are a terrorist target. I think it was in the 80's some disgruntled people were toppling towers. Distribution networks are also vulnerable to weather and human error.

I think the oil companies and the power companies have to recast themselves more as energy companies, providing not energy but energy solutions. This may be providing self-contained systems for a factory or a residence, especially a rural residence, or providing linked systems for small areas. Whether we bring coal hundreds of miles or string hundreds of miles of power lines, we lose energy doing so.

I would hope that energy companies first look to their own energy needs and how they could become less dependent on other sources.

Mallard Fillmore

I mentioned the "Mallard Fillmore" comic strip in my latest column, "General Ization battles truth" for the Reader Weekly. I posted it today to my website; and when I do so, I add as many links as possible, one of them being to the Mallard Fillmore strip. When I find a URL I often visit the site.

I found out that the creator, Bruce Tinsley, was fired by the paper where he created the strip. The website said it was because he "wouldn't tone down its conservative bias." I agree that it has a conservative bias and is often off the wall. But firing him just plays into the hands of those who say the media is "liberal".

I think a better solution would have been to have a "truth squad" cartoon that debunked some of Tinsley's outrageous statements. For example, when Mallard bashes the post office for damaging packages, the "truth squad" could ask, and maybe answer, how many packages UPS or FedEx damage.

Are "Wars on..." successful?

First there was the "War on Crime" which had mixed results. Many Mafia leaders were caught and prosecuted, but crime is still a problem in many cities.

Then there was the "War on Drugs" which has filled many prisons. But drugs still come into the country and find buyers.

Now we have the "War on Terror". Some think it is succeeding: "We will keep the enemy on the run." (George W. Bush, October 19, 2006) Unfortunately, he thinks the enemy is in Iraq and Afghanistan, but it is global and growing larger. In fact, the war in Iraq probably helped al Quaeda grow. See "Al Qaeda Strikes Back", Bruce Reidel, Foreign Affairs, May/June 2007.

With the military already stretched thin, Bush is giving hints that he would like to attack Iran. Riedel writes that al Qaeda would like to see Bush attack Iran. Consider that the Iranian weapons found in Iraq may have been smuggled in by al Qaeda with the hope of proking the U.S. to attack Iran.

Would the U.S. leaving Iraq strengthen the terrorists' position or weaken it? If the U.S. leaves, Iran may come in to protect the Shia majority against the Sunni insurgents and the Sunni-based al Qaeda. A good general often lets somebody else do the fighting.

National Defense includes climate and energy

The Eisenhower Administration promoted the Interstate Highway System as necessary for national defense - to be able to move men and material quickly around the country.

Some lone voices are calling for energy and climate to be considered national defense issues. Energy is obvious because petrodollars are funding terrorists and authoritarian governments. It is ironic that the fuel needed to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan is being provided by the people who supply major funding to terrorist organizations.

Climate change as it affects food supplies will cause major instability in many countries, leading to worse governments and more stress among nations. See Terror in the Weather Forecast by Thomas Homer-Dixon, New York Times, April 24, 2007.

Whither Iraq?

In 1808, Napoleon thought he "decided" the campaign in Spain by "dispersing the formal Spanish armies," but "had inadvertently encouraged the local populace to resort to guerrilla warfare". He still didn't solve the problem in 1810-1811 sending 300,000 troops into Spain. Spain's population was over 11 million.

"Mission accomplished" was the banner in 2003, Iraq's army was vanquished. Four years later about 150,000 troops are trying to quell guerrilla warfare in a country of over 27 million.

And George W. Bush isn't as good a commander-in-chief as Napoleon was. Unfortunately, they both share the characteristic of hubris, thinking they knew better than anyone else.

For a hopeful outlook, see "How to Win in Iraq, and How to Lose", by Arthur Herman, Commentary, April 2007, http://www.commentarymagazine.com/cm/main/viewArticle.aip?id=10856&page=all
Will George W. Bush put in the necessary diplomacy to make it work? Or will his strategy be lots of high-tech bang-bang?

Astute analysis or lucky guess?

As the fiasco of the fired District Attorney unfolds and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales comes under increasing criticism from Republican Senators, I wonder if I was making a good prediction in my April Fool's column for the Reader Weekly, "Tomorrow's news you can use today" or just a lucky guess.

I started with the premise that Gonzales would resign rather than face a lot of questioning from the Senate or possible impeachment from the House. From there, the President's house of cards would collapse, leading to a surprise replacement for Bush.

I will say that the fruits of giving more allegiance to party than to the Constitution are starting to ripen.

Flawed science understanding

A letter writer in today's Star Tribune claims that the global warming predictions are based on the same science that can be "incapable of accurately predicting local conditions just hours into the future." The Strib titled his letter "Global warming, Flawed science".

I think his understanding of science is what is flawed. First, what is accuracy in weather forecasting? Does he want the exact temperature to the nearest degree and the exact amount of precipitation to the tenth of an inch? Even if he wants the temperature within five degrees and definite precipitation if predicted, it might not happen. Weather does not behave with such precision; there are just too many unknown quantities. We are dealing with chaos.

Consider dust devils. Walking down the street, one may see a small whirlwind of snow or dust, no more than a foot in diameter and three feet high, that comes and goes in an instant. What happens if the sun shines through a hole in the clouds on a large parking lot? Isn't there going to be a big temperature difference between the parking lot and a park or lake nearby? Weather is filled with these little anomalies that can affect local weather.

However, if one looks at weather prediction as giving the general trend for a given area, then I think most forecasters do a darn good job. Rarely do we have a forecast of a clear, sunny day and get a rainstorm. On the other hand, we may get a forecast of precipitation and get none, the weather having been blown in a different direction by some of the chaos that can't be measured.

In other words, weather forecasters and climatologists can make reasonable predictions about trends, but they cannot give precision for a very specific locale or time. For example, in global warming, Europe may get colder. Why? If melting Greenland glaciers dump enough fresh water into the Atlantic, the Gulf Stream could be disrupted by either the decreased salinity or the cooler water. If the Gulf Stream is disrupted, Europe will get less warm air.

Logging can be dangerous

This past weekend we went to our cabin to gather firewood, mostly for next year. We were considering taking small trees from a path we were widening, but we discovered two recently broken trees close to the cabin.

We first delimbed and cut in fireplace lengths the former top of the larger tree, about nine inches in diameter. After we had moved all that away, I started to cut the trunk at about two chain saw bar lengths from the ground. I cut about half-way through on the west side of the tree, the direction I wanted it to fall. Then I started cutting on the east side of the tree an inch or two above the other cut. The saw jammed!

I pushed the tree to the west and got the saw out, but the tree didn't fall. I cut a bit more and the tree started to fall, but to the south. I was not in the way or had gotten out of the way, and it crashed down.

Omigosh! My wife had been working about 30 feet away to the southwest of the tree. I looked in panic for her and didn't see her. She had gone inside for some reason. Whew!

Moral: always have lots of clear space when cutting down trees and keep others well away.

My accuracy is one reason we're asking a professional logger to fell some trees near things that could be damaged, like our cabin or the solar panel for the sauna.