There is hate and there is hate

Thomas Friedman wrote a good column on the dangerous level of divisiveness in this country - "Where Did 'We' Go?", New York Times, 2009-09-29.

He compares the situation in Israel before Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in 1995 with the situation in the United States now. He thinks the vitriol in much of the anti-Obama rhetoric is going to lead somebody to take extreme action.

He also thinks that the level of criticism leveled at all presidents since 1992 has made it difficult for them to govern. He postulates that George H. W. Bush was the last "legitimate" president.

I was going to add a comment about the need for a viable third party when there were 42 comments, but I had to be elsewhere. When I got back there were 201 comments and a note that "Comments are no longer being accepted." Now, nearly 8:30 in the evening, there are 393 comments!

I did read or skim the 201 comments. They ran from the very thoughtful to the very shallow and divisive. The worst were those that divided left and right with one being good and the other being bad, depending on the persuasion of the writer. I had less sympathy for many on the right because they didn't consider the degree of difference in criticism of presidents. There is a big difference between satirizing a president and creating lies about a president. There is a big difference between calling a president an idiot (aren't they all in one way or another?) and saying that president was not born where he was.

Interestingly, the critics on the right say that the "liberal media" don't criticize the president. Let's see, Steve Sack of the Star Tribune and Garry Trudeau of Doonesbury have drawn cartoons criticizing Obama.

The problem with "financial products"

Back in the mid 1960s, a member of our church invited us to breakfast with one of his business associates. His sole purpose was to sell us a "financial product" that they were selling. Just the name "product" raised red flags for me. A product is something you can touch.

Maybe the term "financial product" was created to give substance to services or financial documents that could be bought and sold.

Now it appears my caution of over forty years ago has shown itself to be extremely prudent. "Financial products" became more and more complicated, cut apart, resold in other arrangements, becoming more and more removed from the reality of the agreements that created them in the first place.

Bob's Bank knew Harry Homeowner and could vouch for him. Bob knew better than to lend money to Dan Deadbeat. However, Fred Fast didn't care about Dan's credit because he could sell the loan to Super Bank who would sell it to Mega Bank who would sell it to … None of these knew anything about Dan Deadbeat or that he had already missed four payments. They only had the word of the person or institution further down the sales chain.

And like the tulip bulbs with grossly inflated prices finally had no buyers, these "financial products" with grossly minimized risk suddenly had no buyers. Those who had sold their tulip bulbs and bought no more probably had their proceeds in golden guilders. I wonder where those who sold their "financial products" and bought no more have their proceeds.

I was going to write that at least one could touch the tulip bulbs, but I wouldn't be surprised that the only thing bought and sold was promise of delivery of certain kinds of tulip bulbs.

So, if someone offers to sell you a "financial product", thank them for the breakfast and go your own way.

There are sales people and there are sales people

I'm getting too stiff to crawl around in the back of a pickup with a topper and some of our yard equipment doesn't quite fit. So, I've been lusting after a cargo van to replace our truck.

A cargo van has a lower floor and thus a relative higher ceiling, plus a side access door. Problem is that new ones cost in the high 20s and used ones are as scarce as Stanley Steamers. Apparently many owners run them until they're useless.

Almost all of them come with a V-8, larger than we need, and only front-wheel drive. Both Chevrolet and Ford made smaller cargo vans but have discontinued them.

I talked to one sales representative and all he wanted to do was have me sign on the dotted line to commit to buy a cargo van that he didn't have in stock. Hey, I'd like to drive one first. Also he didn't seem to be interested in discussing any alternatives such as a minivan or an SUV, new or used. He seemed to be high-pressuring me as if his job depended on that particular sale.

So, I got on the good old Internet and found my own alternatives. I did find that the above dealer didn't have many alternatives. I found another dealer who had a couple of Chevrolet HHRs, so-called crossovers, with less than 38,000 miles for less than 14,000 dollars. I also found that the HHRs were rated about average by J.D. Powers. However, they seemed to have sufficient cargo space for us.

Unfortunately, they only had front-wheel drive and no trailer hitches. We would want a trailer to haul yard equipment from our house or cabin to the service shop.

The best news is that the sales person that sold us our truck thirteen years ago was now at that dealer. He had given us a better trade-in than any other dealer had offered. Plus he let us try a couple of vehicles. It was one of the most pleasant auto sales experiences we had had.

Today I called him and told him that we remembered him from thirteen years ago. Of course, he didn't remember us after how many other hundreds of customers. However, he was pleased and grateful that we had remembered him.

I told him what we were interested in and our range of choices. We set up a visit with him this afternoon.

We sat and chatted for a lot. We told stories, he told stories. We raised questions and observations about various cars; he responded with answers and his own observations. It was if we had all the time in the world.

He had the keys to a few cars on his desk. He brought an 2008 HHR with less than 38,000 miles on it around to the front and gave us the keys to it. The HHR is an "ugly" thing like the Chrysler PT Cruiser; in fact, both were designed by the same man.

The best thing about it was that the back seats folded down to provide a uniformly flat, impermeable surface. Just the thing for placing almost anything on, no matter how dirty or greasy. We drove it a couple of miles and were quite comfortable with it. However, it didn't have four-wheel or all-wheel drive and no trailer hitch.

We looked at a 2008 Saturn Vue. It had mileage in the high twenties, price in the high teens, and all-wheel drive. When we folded down the seats we found the surface was all cloth. What a mess we'll make of that. We didn't even drive it.

We next looked at a 2008 Chevy Trailblazer. It had mileage in the high thirties, price in the mid-teens, four-wheel drive, and a trailer hitch. It also had a cloth cargo surface. However, the cargo surface was larger than the other two. We took it out for a spin. It was responsive and comfortable. Although it had an on-the-floor automatic shift lever, the indicator was on the instrument panel. The HHR had it on the floor, a bit of a distraction.

We decided that the Trailblazer would suit our needs best and said we would take it.

The next step was evaluating our truck. The trade-in offer was $2500, better than what I had seen after filling out an online form.

We asked some more questions, told some more stories, and filled out some preliminary papers. As we are changing our insurance company tomorrow, we didn't want to close until tomorrow afternoon. The sales person said he was busy with some other things and asked if we could wait until Wednesday. We agreed.

Although the afternoon was a pleasant experience, I came home exhausted and wanted only to sit in front of the fireplace. It was as if a great weight of expectations and conflicting concerns had been lifted off my shoulders.

I do have to conclude with a small plug. If you have a conflicting automotive wish list and are uncertain about your choices, be sure to see Dean Melbostad at Luther Family Chevrolet in Duluth (actually Hermantown). No pressure, lots of answers.

What does the acronym IKEA mean?

Jim Heffernan wrote a blog entry about problems assembling a table he bought at IKEA in the Twin Cities and plans to take it back.

He then wrote another entry on what the acronym IKEA means: I Kan't Envision Assembly!

This hit my curiosity nerve I went to the Swedish version of ikea.com but found nothing. I typed "Vad betyder IKEA" into Google ("What does IKEA mean") and got several hits. The most promising one was "IKEA specialarbete", apparently an unattributed school paper done in 1995.

IKEA stands for Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd. Ingvar Kamprad was the founder; he was born on the farm Elmtaryd in the village of Agunnaryd in Småland.

As a teenager he started out buying matchboxes for 1.5 öre and selling them for 5 öre, an öre being the smallest Swedish coin. He wanted to be as rich as Ivar Krueger, the match king. He moved up through various small items including seed packets, pens, and clocks. He was doing so well selling pens that ke decided he had better be incorporated and registered IKEA. His father had to sign for the incorporation because Ingvar was only 17!! This was in 1943.

In 1953 he bought a carpentry shop and converted it to a furniture store and by 1958 he had a warehouse.

The writer calls this a Swedish version of "The American Dream". In 1995 IKEA was worth four to five times the value of the Wallenberg fortune, the Wallenbergs being considered one of the richest families in Sweden. The IKEA fortune was created in only a generation.

IKEA franchises now span the globe; see http://www.ikea.com/ for a list of locations.

What's this about socialist Sweden?

BTW we and our adult children still have furniture that we bought in Sweden in the early 1970s.

People come and go, the woods endures, Chapter 3

Somewhere we have a summary of the titles issued for our property since the first homestead, and so I can't give a complete history in that respect.

I do remember that the Kero family bought the property sometime in the 1920s or 1930s. Kero is a shorter version of the original Finnish name. They tried their hand at fox farming. We don't know if they succeeded, but we still haven't succeeded in pulling up all of the tangle of grass, chicken wire, and wood frames.

Eventually they moved to Michigan, presumably to work in the auto industry. Their daughter Nora Holm inherited the property and later sold it to us.

Once there was a co-operative grocery in the big clearing on the north side of Little Creek Road. Supposedly people would walk to it on the path that runs to the SSE from our cabin. We don't know if that was before or after the Keros occupancy. Now that clearing is the Rack Shack, a small cabin and garage owned by a group of hunters. They are a friendly bunch, but neither of us takes the time to walk across the road and visit.

After the Keros moved the property was rented several times. I met one woman who said her first child was born in the house on the property in the same year I was born. A couple who we later met rented it in the seventies. Somebody else rented it after them. At the time our friends rented it, there was no well and they had to haul water in. I would guess that they got their water from the Rack Shack well; it is excellent water.

The satellite picture was taken in the morning; the shadows are the west of many objects. So, some details get lost, like exactly where is our drive to the road. One feature that does show is the path to west of the northernmost large field. Along much of that segment, Ernie Nelmark planted red pines decades ago. Ernie lived in a cabin to the west of where the Rack Shack is. Those red pines are now dozens of feet tall and a foot or more in diameter.

Kevin Hellman used that same path as a logging road twenty or so years ago. He widened and leveled it for his equipment and continued it into the Forest Service land. To level the road, Kevin dug "borrow holes" on each side. Most of these still remain; many covered by overgrowth. Kevin cut mostly aspen both on Nora Holm's property and Forest Service land. When we bought the property, the regenerated aspen was only 10-12 feet tall and less than an inch in diameter.

See http://magree.blogspot.com/2009/09/people-come-and-go-woods-endures.html and http://magree.blogspot.com/2009/09/people-come-and-go-woods-endures_23.html for the previous chapters.

Political parties and never-never land

In the United States we have a party that promises a future that will never be and a party that promises a past that never was.

How can we expect so-called bipartisanship of such polar unreasonableness?

People come and go correction

I had assumed that people would see a satellite view of Brimson in my previous post. I should have included the following:

Before you go any further, make sure you have a satellite view by clicking on the button in the upper right hand corner of the map.

I have corrected that post and will delete this post after a few days.

People come and go, the woods endures, Chapter 2

For this chapter, you might want to see a satellite view of our Brimson property. Go to Google Maps and enter

Little Creek Rd, Brimson, MN

You'll see a little red balloon and a big white balloon for Giving Ground Farm, a herbal products company run by a friend of ours.

Before you go any further, make sure you have a satellite view by clicking on the button in the upper right hand corner of the map.

Zoom in towards the red balloon until you can see the roads. Giving Ground Farm's balloon is just east of a bend in the road. If you move west to where the road heads directly west again, that is just past the east boundary of our property. The middle of the road is our northern boundary; the next intersection is our northwest corner. The clearcut to the South is Forest Service land and is our approximate southern boundary.

In the upper middle there are three clearings. The northernmost is where we built our cabin; the easternmost is where the old house and well were, and the westernmost is what we call "Jan's field".

The little line going southwest is what we call our Park Path; the line going SSE we call our Raspberry Path; and the line wiggling between them just north of the clear cut is our Path of Least Resistance. The first two existed before we bought the place and I'll write about them another day.

To the east is a very dark area; this is a stand of black spruce which is only partly on our property. I don't know much about the dark line running through it other than it once was wide enough to drive through, but that would have been decades ago.

The darker area to the west of the cabin are mostly balsam fir; the less dark areas to the south are mostly aspen with some birch, willow, and way too much alder. The lighter area to the east of the cabin once had lots of aspen but they were blown down in the mid 90s.

I had cut loops to the east and the west of the main loop, but I haven't kept them open for three years or more.

For some ground views of our place in the woods, see my Brimson pictures on Flickr.

Next time I'll get back to the history of our place.

For Chapter 1, see
http://magree.blogspot.com/2009/09/people-come-and-go-woods-endures.html

The importance of creativity in education

When I started working for Univac in the 1960s, I met a few musicians who had become computer programmers. I think I thought of it as the ability to manipulate symbols.

Decades later, I codified it as mathematics is the science of relationships and music is the art of relationships.

I was delighted to read the following in Ed Raymond's column in the Reader Weekly last week:

"Some day we will even find out why musicians make the best mathematicians."

He was decrying how arts and music have been cut from too many schools because of budget cuts. If you missed his column in the Reader Weekly, you can find it online in the High Plains Reader, "Cherry Wood and the Golden Gopher Jockstrap".

People come and go, the woods endures

Sunday as I hauled brush from where I had cut it at the side of a trail to where I would chip it, I reflected on how transitory my work was. I would take two cartloads and then rest by reading a book. Two more cartloads, rest with a book.

About five years ago it wasn't this way. Sure, I'd work about an hour then read an hour, but that was to enjoy our cabin and its surroundings rather than work, work, work.

Once my skin allergy got worse, I went to our cabin less and less and of course did less and less. All the trails that I had kept open or cut grew over. My little loading dock that I used as a work bench fell apart. I haven't changed the oil on the chipper for two years or more; it is black, black, black. It was a big deal to cut the grass and clear some fallen trees this year on our main loop.

My allergy is not so bad, maybe it was a high dose of zinc tablets, but I'm starting to catch up a bit. But, oh there is still so much to do. And soon it will be wood cutting season and I haven't even split all of the wood I cut last year.

In this context, I thought of all the people who came before me who changed the woods and then the woods hid much of their work.

Sometime in the 19th century I'm sure that loggers came through and cut the great white pines. The only untouched stand I know of is "The Pinery" somewhere off Lake County 2, probably a half hour east and north of us. It has a few trees that were growing in George Washington's time.

We are now left with mostly balsam and aspen, lots of alder, some birch and red maple, a very few sugar maples, and a large variety of other shrubs and small trees.

In the first decade of the twentieth century a man named Bond homesteaded what is now our 80 acres. He probably cleared some portion of the land for farming. Maybe he built the rock wall that is now covered with brush and left some of the fence wire that we constantly pull up. Probably he dug the well that has now collapsed and has a large balsam growing at the side of hole. I don't know if he or somebody later built the house that we found in decrepit condition.

To be continued.

Some people get hyperbolic about hyperbolic humor

My wife was on the phone with our daughter and mentioned her wisdom teeth surgery tomorrow. I blurted out, "She's going to lose what little brains she has."

My wife laughed and repeated it. She knew I didn't mean it because she knows I know it's not true. In fact, in some ways she's "smarter" than I am, and in other ways I'm "smarter" than she is. Vive la difference!

Unfortunately, there are people who take way too much way too seriously. I remember in graduate school when three of us who worked in the computer lab were discussing something or other with the assistant director about access to each other's desk. I remarked that one fellow kept his desk locked. I blurted out as a joke, "I don't know why he locks his desk, none of his programs work."

Later on, he berated me about insulting him in front of our boss. He just couldn't see that it was hyperbole about his locking his desk. It took me decades later to realize that I should have asked him, "You mean your programs really don't work?"

Plural humor

I've long mused that the only languages that I know that add an 's' to indicate a plural noun are English, French, and Spanish. Other languages that I've encountered use other final sounds or inflection. Inflection is the changing of a vowel sound, like one alumnus or many alumni.

English however uses inflection also. Is this a holdover from its Germanic origin?

For example, we have goose and geese, mouse and mice. Does this last mean that the plural of spouse is spice? When I mentioned this to my wife, I added I really think the plural of spouse is trouble.

Shouting past each other

Last Friday I read a post on Huffington Post titled:
"Tea Party" Leader Melts Down On CNN: Obama Is An "Indonesian Muslim Turned Welfare Thug".

I also watched the accompanying video snippet.

The text implies that "Tea Party" leader Mark Williams misrepresented himself by denouncing those who carry "blatantly racist signs" on one hand and by calling Obama "an Indonesian Muslim turned welfare thug…" on the other Williams justified his name calling with "He's certainly acting like it. Until he embraces the whole country what else can I conclude."

As distasteful and off-the-wall as Williams remarks are, I don't think he had a melt down or misrepresented himself.

About the only sensible statement was by panel member David Gergen, advisor to Reagan, Ford, and George H.W. Bush. Something like people are just shouting past one another.

A reasonable conservative speaks out

Today's Star Tribune had an op-ed piece titled "My fellow conservatives: Can we think?" written by Rod Dreher of the Dallas Morning News. It was originally published 2009-09-11 as "Zombie conservatives at the schoolhouse door". If you read the original, be sure to read some of the thoughtful comments that follow.

Dreher is really not happy about the words and actions of many who claim to be conservatives. He laments that thoughtful conservatives have no place to go. I suggest that people who think as he does should start shopping the various moderate parties. As one said who was in on the ground floor of a new party said, "As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew."

True patriots celebrate today more than any other day

Did you know today is Constitution Day? On this day 222 years ago, 12 state delegations approved the Constitution of the United States.

Unfortunately more people give respect to the flag than the Constitution. Presidents of both parties have given speeches justifying their usurpation of power against a backdrop of flags.

For one site respecting the Constitution, see http://www.constitutionday.cc/.
See also http://www.constitutionfacts.com/content/funZone/files/Recent_Visitors.pdf for a list of countries from which people have visited this site.

Seeking healthcare around the world

Abigail Zuger, M.D., wrote an interesting review of "The Healing of America" by T. R. Reid. He had a chronic shoulder problem for which he sought medical advice around the world. The advice ranged from thousands of dollars for shoulder replacement in the U.S., outright refusal in Britain because it was not serious enough, and relief in India for $42.85 out of pocket per night.

The book is on order at the Duluth Public Library and already has four reserves.

ACORN and other nuts

In the age of attack politics, if you want some balance you have to look deeper into many allegations. Two actors have posted on YouTube videos purportedly showing how corrupt ACORN employees are. They have succeeded in getting otherwise thoughtful people to jump on a bandwagon cutting all government ties to ACORN.

What is not highlighted or even mentioned in many news stories is that the pair had to spend months visiting ACORN offices in several cities before they found people who behaved as they wanted them to behave.

"In a statement over the weekend, Bertha Lewis, the chief organizer for Acorn, said the bogus prostitute and pimp had spent months visiting numerous Acorn offices, including those in San Diego, Los Angeles, Miami and Philadelphia, before getting the responses they were looking for." - "Conservatives Draw Blood From Acorn", Scott Shane, New York Times, 2009-09-15

What I would like to know is why Republican politicians aren't cutting their ties to the Republican Party because some Republican politicians had extramarital affairs. What I would like to know is why politicians who are Catholic aren't cutting their ties to the Catholic Church because some Catholic priests are pedophiles.

Actually I know why. There are two reasons. First, these two organizations are favored organizations; in general, they can do no wrong in the eyes of their members. Second, most people recognize that the actions of a few don't reflect on the many in the organization or even the organization itself.

However, in the age of attack politics, a disfavored organization must be doing something wrong, no matter how much good it may be doing. In the age of attack politics, when something wrong is found, no matter how few are doing wrong, then the whole organization is "proven" to be corrupt.

More corporate inefficiencies

Yesterday's blog on bureaucracy, "Government has no corner on bureaucracy", was getting rather long, and so I stopped before I thought of too many more. Here are three of those.

Very early on, before downsizing became a big buzzword, I counted 21 levels of management above me - supervisor, x manager, manager of a, y group manager, group manager of b, z director, director of c, and so on. If every manager had five people reporting to him, then they could organize the whole world and beyond.

At one location it was a standing joke that if you wanted to mail something outside the building you should take it to the public mail box outside. It would get there at least a day faster than if it went through the company mail room.

Years later in another location an accountant wondered why so many companies leasing equipment weren't making payments. He discovered that our company wasn't sending out invoices.

No spam!!

Yesterday I had not a single piece of spam to my main mail account. Unbelievable! Maybe word got out that I report bank spoofs to the banks and to the FTC. Maybe my name has been taken off the spammers' lists.

But like one cold day doesn't disprove global warming, one spam-free day doesn't prove spam has disappeared. As of this posting I had received one spam today.

Government has no corner on bureaucracy

I ordered some ink cartridges from Hewlett-Packard and selected 5-7 business days for shipping. Here is the FedEx tracking log for the package.


Since this is ground delivery, for Sep 8 to Sep 11 the periods at each stop and the time between stops are to be expected. The package waits for the next truck to go from one distribution center to another and it takes time to drive from one center to the next.

The mystery is why the package took three and a half days to go the 150 miles between Brooklyn Park and Duluth. Part is that the package was put in a truck Brooklyn Park on Friday night. Did the truck stay in Brooklyn Park until Monday? Did the truck arrive in Duluth late Friday and then was parked without unloading? Where was it parked? At a FedEx or a USPS facility? In either case, why is the next login for the package at 4:11 Tuesday morning? Is that when it arrived at the Post Office, or when somebody in the Post Office got around to logging it into FedEx's system?

Whatever the case, the last stage, from the Post Office to our door was done as fast as possible. It was left at our door around 9:00 this morning, the time we usually get our mail.

Now some will jump on the Friday-Tuesday delay as an example of government inefficiency. Others will say the Tuesday morning arrival and delivery shows how efficient the government can be. We just don't know the full situation. What we can say is that the whole chain is an example of public-private co-operation.

It's a toss-up on who is more efficient on interstate and intercity delivery – the Post Office or the package companies. However, the Post Office is more efficient with its house by house delivery over the package companies block by block delivery.

We have also had a recent situation that would have the believers that government is inefficient feeling vindicated. We had some mandatory sewer work done that cost us more than we would have liked to have spent. After we had paid our bill to the contractor, a grant was made to the city to reimburse home-owners for a part of the cost.

We made a beeline to the Public Works department and left all the papers we thought would be relevant. Nothing happened. We called the Public Works and were told it would checked on. Somebody came to our house to get signatures on some papers we thought we had filed and about some other possible loose ends. No check. My wife called again and was told it should have been mailed. No check. I called today and was told that it was found in the office and we should have it within a week.

Given that there are several steps that are required to process payment in any large organization, it easy to see how something can get stacked up on somebody's desk and even put in a wrong pile. See "One of the many hidden costs of health care" http://magree.blogspot.com/2009/08/one-of-many-hidden-costs-of-healthcare.html on how long it takes to bill me for a non-covered expense.

However, unnecessary steps or misdirected activities are not a monopoly of government organizations. I've seen many in large corporations. I was working in a regional headquarters for Univac in Rome, when a call came on behalf of the president of the company that somebody should go to Switzerland to see the executives of a customer; there apparently was some serious problem that needed immediate attention.

When the high-level manager arrived at the customer site, he was asked why he was there. He replied that the president of our company had said there was a problem. They pondered a bit and said that they had mentioned the problem to the president at a conference some months ago. The problem had long since been resolved!!

Another high-level manager loved to tell about the executive request he received while visiting a customer in South Africa; "While you're in the neighborhood, would you go to Australia?"