Tuesday, December 21, 2010

You can be a fool

Remember when you were a kid and your overly supportive parents said you could be anything you wanted to be? Then you struggled through high school and college, and now you're not working at your dream job.

You haven't won a Pulitzer prize, an Oscar or the Nobel. You haven't discovered a cure for cancer, started the next mega Silicon Valley business or married the person of your dreams. Discouraged?

Don't be. You can still become a fool. It's easy, and it will make you popular. Here's a couple easy steps.

First, have lots of opinions and shout them out with conviction at every opportunity. You don't have to do the careful research necessary to determine if your opinions have any basis in fact. That takes valuable time away from forming opinions and using them to make friends. Better to get your opinions from vocal opinion makers. Just choose opinions that have a strong emotional appeal and repeat them, changing the wording slightly to personalize them. People will either agree with you and be your friends, or they will disagree with you and you can have an argument. Either way, people are talking to you and acknowledging you.

Then make sure you think in black and white. Gray areas confuse people, and you will be left with only those insufferable intellectuals to talk with, and we all know how they are regarded by the public.

Once you mastered "basic fool," there are higher levels you can work on.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Ha ve a merry, secular Xmas

It’s that time of year again, the time I write a short piece to justify my enjoyment of Christmas, or my preferred “Xmas.” People assume that since I’m an atheist, I would shun this religious holiday.

On the contrary on two counts. First I welcome it, rather than shun it. Second, I’m convinced Christmas is really a secular holiday, despite what the church-goers say.

Historically, Christmas has most often been an excuse for wildness, drunkenness, and rowdy behavior of all sorts. In fact there was a period in the 1600s when the celebration of Christmas was outlawed in England, mostly because of the excesses of the party animals. It was even outlawed for a time in parts of New England, for much the same reason.

Once we shook off the Middle Ages, Christmas became a time to cut loose, with only a tip of the hat, at best, to the birth of Jesus. Times and work were hard, and in mid winter not much work could be done, so people had time to celebrate the way people always tend to, with excess.

Religion started creeping back into the holiday in the 19th century, but at the same time a different tradition was starting. Charles Dickens was one of the first and best at promoting this new attitude toward an old holiday. With the writing of A Christmas Carol, he got people thinking about the idea that Christmas was a time of unselfish acts toward others, generosity of wallet and spirit. Note that Jesus wasn’t mentioned in his delightful little book.

People now not only give over-priced gifts to family, friends and co workers, they also donate to charity, bring sacks of food to can food drives, drop money in the little pots the bell shakers have in front of stores, and generally act nicely toward people in the street.

Strangers pass me on the Boulevard and we wish each other a Merry Christmas. It makes us both feel good, and it doesn’t require a debate or conversation about the existence of God.

At the same time as A Christmas Carol, the idea of using the holiday to get together with family and rekindle ties became popular. The Christmas feast became tradition.

We send cards to friends in distant places, rekindling friendships that might otherwise fade. Some of us decorate our homes to stave off the darkness of mid winter. We have house parties, where we give our friends and families food and drink, and we don’t ask them to contribute or to reciprocate.

I have a great time doing things most of us enjoy: giving and receiving gifts, eating good food, drinking good wine and talking with good friends, and none of this comes with the requirement to talk about an itinerant Jewish preacher who was born two thousand years ago.

Educational Reform Starts with Tenure Reform

There seems to be a growing consensus about education reform in this country, at least a consensus about how we have a serious problem. Unfortunately, education is a complex affair, made up of many components. Many of the diverse small problems that make up the large one require leadership skills, buy-in from a diverse group of stakeholders and revised curriculums. There is, however, one area that isn't complex and would go a long way toward true reform, even though it would be hard to implement.

Tenure is a relic from long ago, perhaps a good idea 100 years ago, but a disaster now. Eliminate tenure and start improving education immediately.

What is gained with tenure. Excellent teachers aren't going to lose their jobs, and hiring new teachers to replace higher paid older teachers wouldn't even be an issue if teachers were paid for how well they teach, not for how many years they sat in a chair in front of a class.

In California we decided that we wouldn't even give our elected representatives a chance at tenure when we passed term limits. Do we really believe a group of people who sit around in eternal political gridlock are more deserving to be replace for poor performance than the people who make the difference between our children growing up to be successes or failures? And that is the issue, our children's futures.

Does anyone really believe that teachers are interchangeable, like those fast food workers that one day wait the counter, the next day work the fries? Do teachers who pass out work sheets deserve the same pay as someone who is actively teaching and continually checking for understanding? What about the teachers who opt for fun activities and cultural enrichment rather than teaching students to read and compute?

I have substituted in a number of classes over the years, and I can see a difference. In some classes, the teacher has provided a rich set of learning activities for the students, and the class understands the expectations. In classes like that, I've worked for my pay. I've babysat in other classes, with 1 hour, 45 minute blocks, where the assignment was a one page worksheet, something I could do in 20 minutes, the better students in 30 and the slackers in well under an hour. The rest of the interminably long block is spent chatting, texting, playing games on their phones or actually napping. These kids are bored, and it's no wonder many drop out, opting for a minimum wage job that at least give them a small monetary feedback.

The teachers who will yell the loudest about this suggestion aren't the ones who would be retained and earn a higher wage. Rather it will be the people who, without tenure to protect them, would be out on the street, looking for another job.

Eliminate poorly performing teachers, pay the good ones more money, hire support staff to do the non teaching, routine paper and phone work, and we will start turning out graduates ready to take on the demanding work of the 21st century. The alternative is stagnation.

Naturally there are other measures that must be taken, such as redesigning the make up of school boards, and having checks and balances between certificated, classified and administrative employees in order to keep one group from abusing the rights of anot

Friday, December 10, 2010

Productive and fun time

So far Dec. has been both fun and productive. I just got another article published in California Kayaker
See pages 18-20
Also took a wonderful paddle in the Watsonville slough system and filmed it.
Hope my readers enjoy these, and I'm always anxious to hear from you.

Friday, December 3, 2010

Book Review

Sam Harris' new book, The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values, provides a clear and insightful challenge to those who have conceded the moral argument to the moral relativists. He has made, sometime redundantly, the point that moral good can be derived from whatever creates human well-being, thus being a subject that can be studied scientifically, allowing us to make objective claims, at least in principle, about moral right and wrong.

Harris doesn't shy away from the label, "moral realist," and in fact he defends this position admirably. He makes excellent points about some of the cultural practices that create misery for large numbers of a population, under the moral umbrella of religious practice, and how many of our intellectuals are reluctant to condemn these practices as morally offensive and just plain mistaken.

I think this should be a must read for any open-minded intellectual who seems to think that moral issues can't be objectified and that we shouldn't impose our values on other societies. He believes, rightly so, that our political correct, multiculturalism has gone too far, and now refuses to recognize any standards of human behavior.

Harris did, in my opinion, miss some opportunities to make a good point. He quotes philosopher and neuroscientist, Joshua Greene, and then argues against Greene's points.
However, when Greene states: "And like may of our common sense abilities, our ability to make moral judgments feels to us like a perceptual ability, an ability, in this case, to discern immediately and reliably mind-independent moral facts. As a result we are naturally inclined toward a mistaken belief in moral realism."

I believe that Harris should have jumped upon this implication that because something isn't mind-independent, it can't be a real fact and subject to the idea of realism. There are many objective facts that are mind-dependent and also collective mind-dependent. One great example, used by philosopher John Searle, is that of money. There is no physical, mind-independent fact about those little green pieces of paper, and lately, those little ones and zeros in bank computers that makes them intrinsically money. They are money because we accept them as money, believe they are money and treat them as money. Money is mind-dependent, actually also collectively mind-dependent, and yet it has an objective reality. It can provide food and shelter for people, cause the building of cities, allow governments--an other mind-dependent fact--to function and finance bombs that can level cities.

Values and morals are no less objectively real than money, justice, elected leaders or other facts of society. We can't relegate mental and social process to some ambiguous concepts where objective evaluation can't proceed.

While I can look at Harris' work, one that really needed to be written and read, and in the process find some points that weren't made strongly enough for my taste, as well as some that I felt might have been overstated, that in no way takes anything away from this book. He has said something that, at this moment in history, really needed to be said.

In short, if you ever think about these issues, you need to read this book.

Monday, November 29, 2010

Messiah Chronicles


Let's face it. The New Testament is kind of boring, and it's filled with supernatural stuff, like raising the dead and walking on water. So where's the story? Seriously, Jesus was a man bent on reforming his religion, getting it back on track. He surrounded himself with a dozen guys who liked his message and decided to go with him to bring it to the people.
They had some adventures that later were perhaps hyped a bit too much, and they met some interesting people, such as a Roman centurion who, while being the opposite of Jesus, ended up becoming his friend.
In the end, it was a tragedy, but it was a true human interest story, a mixture of drama and comedy. That was what I was after when I wrote Messiah Chronicles: (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004DI7OFE)
This book is now available at Amazon.com for your Kindle.

spinning real life

Spinning Real Life is a satirical novel. A young idealist drops out of college to live the writer's life and to write the great American novel. He ends up at Texas Jake's Trailer Park and Harley Repair, in the woods along the Smith River in NW Calif. He starts to meet the kinds of characters who might be found in a combination trailer park and bike repair shop. He also becomes involved in a series of romances, all destined to fail due to his cluelessness about relationships, women and himself. He also finds himself in the middle of a bizarre environmental war that has kamikaze logging activists and a government war with the forest. A bumper sticker artist/ sinister mastermind, a young girl who becomes a master Harley mechanic, an ex B movie actress destined to be the first woman president, some brawling hillbillies and a parade of strong and interesting women round out this commentary on modern life, environmentalism, politics, literature and youthful idealism. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004DNWCZQ

Cosmic Coastal Chronicles

Here's another of my books, an older one from the mid 1990s. Cosmic Coastal Chronicles (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004DI7IZ0)is a love affair with the west coast from Central Calif to British Columbia. It's one man's solitary exploration of the coast and of himself, with kayaking, surfing, hiking, camping and travel adventures. It is a giddy and exuberant outpouring of one person's soul. You can get it as a print book or for your Kindle (above). You can also search Amazon.com by typing in Meade Fischer.
If you're not sure you'll like it, respond to this post with your email, and I'll send you some reviews.

Shattering the Crystal Face of God

I'd like to introduce you to one of my books. Written in Y2K, Shattering the Crystal Face of God is a leap into a new millennium and a new way of exploring one's life and environment. From the first chapter, Lucidity, to the last, Delirium, the book passes through: Big Sur after El Nino, Dreary Days of Dark Despair, Patterns of Life, Creating Wilderness, Of Snails and Immortality, California Screamin', Up with the Trees, Selling the Cosmic Coast, The Unbearable Wonder of it all, The View from a Purple Kayak, Wild Among the Mildflowers, Big Daddy Religion, Behind the Crystal Face of God and In Praise and Defense of Earth. This is a romp, an adventure, an impressionistic philosophical rant, a celebration of the natural world and a few scenes that are hard to label. You may or may not agree with what I've written, but you won't be bored.
It's now available in both print and Kindle versions on Amazon.com. Search "Meade Fischer," or to go straight to the Kindle version: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004DI7J0O

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Eliminate Tenure and improve education

There seems to be a growing consensus about education reform in this country, at least a consensus about how we have a serious problem. Unfortunately, education is a complex affair, made up of many components. Many of the diverse small problems that make up the large one require leadership skills, buy-in from a diverse group of stakeholders and revised curriculums. There is, however, one area that isn't complex and would go a long way toward true reform, even though it would be hard to implement.

Tenure is a relic from long ago, perhaps a good idea 100 years ago, but a disaster now. Eliminate tenure and start improving education immediately.

What is gained with tenure. Excellent teachers aren't going to lose their jobs, and hiring new teachers to replace higher paid older teachers wouldn't even be an issue if teachers were paid for how well they teach, not for how many years they sat in a chair in front of a class.

In California we decided that we wouldn't even give our elected representatives a chance at tenure when we passed term limits. Do we really believe a group of people who sit around in eternal political gridlock are more deserving to be replace for poor performance than the people who make the difference between our children growing up to be successes or failures? And that is the issue, our children's futures.

Does anyone really believe that teachers are interchangeable, like those fast food workers that one day wait the counter, the next day work the fries? Do teachers who pass out work sheets deserve the same pay as someone who is actively teaching and continually checking for understanding? What about the teachers who opt for fun activities and cultural enrichment rather than teaching students to read and compute?

I have substituted in a number of classes over the years, and I can see a difference. In some classes, the teacher has provided a rich set of learning activities for the students, and the class understands the expectations. In classes like that, I've worked for my pay. I've babysat in other classes, with 1 hour, 45 minute blocks, where the assignment was a one page worksheet, something I could do in 20 minutes, the better students in 30 and the slackers in well under an hour. The rest of the interminably long block is spent chatting, texting, playing games on their phones or actually napping. These kids are bored, and it's no wonder many drop out, opting for a minimum wage job that at least give them a small monetary feedback.

The teachers who will yell the loudest about this suggestion aren't the ones who would be retained and earn a higher wage. Rather it will be the people who, without tenure to protect them, would be out on the street, looking for another job.

Eliminate poorly performing teachers, pay the good ones more money, hire support staff to do the non teaching, routine paper and phone work, and we will start turning out graduates ready to take on the demanding work of the 21st century. The alternative is stagnation.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Today's idiotic news

Sometimes I really love the news. Today, Nov. 19 is a wonderful day for the absurd. First, the survivors of Jonestown want to build a memorial to the 900 people who died there 32 years ago. This will be, I assume, a memorial to the gullible nature of humans. Most of those folks willing went with a nut case to a compound in South America and willingly drank the poison drink. What the survivors should have done at the time was to get their friends and family out of there.

Next, students are protesting fee hikes at California's university system. That what they do, drink beer at night, protest by day. The folks who run the university are saying the state isn't giving them the support, which appears to be true. Students should work to change the reality on the ground, rather than protest it. Don't they realize that the same cutting of resources at the university level is also happening at K-12.

Maybe, rather than choke off our educational system gradually, we should cut to the chase and close all schools, higher and lower education, thus turning our gradual decline to a third world country into a freefall.

And when some idiot says we can't raise taxes to pay for education because it's a job killer, first spit in his eye and then explain that there's no worse job killer than an illiterate, uneducated population. Perhaps, before long I'll be able to command a six figure income simply because I'll be one of the few left who can read and write.

All that great stuff in the paper, and I didn't even get to the section with the celebrities and all of their romantic and addiction problems.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Committee finds ways to cut budget

The bipartisan commission on the budget finally reached an agreement on what can be cut to balance the budget. Many items have proved contentious, so agreement has been difficult to reach.

Democrats and union leaders objected to any cuts in Medicare and Social Security, while Republicans dismissed any idea of new taxes. There has also been a tug of war over items like the child tax credit and deductions for mortgage payments. Farm subsidies are another area so entrenched that eliminating them is a hopeless endeavor.

Every senator and representative agreed that earmarks need to be abolished, that is, except for their earmarks, which were obviously essential.

Finally, after sifting through 843,219 government programs, the committee has found something they can cut with minimal objection. So, they believe they can soon start cutting our massive deficit.

However, unwed mother, Polish immigrants will no longer get subsidized polka lessons.
Let the austerity begin.

US makes major changes to war plans

After the announcement that the US would stay in Afghanistan until 2014, the Afghans protested with a collective, "Why me?" Much of the same sentiment was heard in Iraq. As a result, the United States is planning to change its war strategy.

Starting next year, we will go on a rotating war plan. The way this works is that we acknowledge that invading, bombing and killing one group of people for over a decade could be construed as cruel, and we're not a cruel nation. Instead, we will go on a rotating war deployment.

This is how it will work. Every two years we will pull out of wherever we are waging war and move to another third world or emerging nation. To make this fair, we'll use a lottery system, and the countries we will invade will be chosen at random.

An unnamed spokesman for the government of Uruguay applauded this move, saying that his country had less than a one in thirty chance of being attacked in the next decade.

Our military personnel also received the news optimistically. Sgt. Ben Dover said he was sick of fighting in deserts and barren mountains and was looking forward to some warfare in a tropical wetland or a grassy valley.

Pentagon spokesman Captain Jonathon Ahab said that the new policy will not dilute our commitment to furthering our goals. "We will pursue the illusive vision of American style democracy across the seven seas."

Thursday, November 11, 2010

freedom of speech and responsibilities

Freedom of speech is a bedrock principle of a free people. To suppress a book, article or speech on any subject, is to potentially suppress everyone. Certain social, political and religious subjects inspire passion, often to the exclusion of reason, and these can make freedom of speech an intellectual mine field.
You have the right to stand up in front of a group and deliver a speech on any topic you like. However, I do not have the right to shout you down and drive you from the podium, no matter how passionately I disagree. That would be my free speech negating yours. I do, however, have the right to wait my turn and then offer a rebuttal to everything you've said. That's how freedom of speech should work, and I'm fairly certain it is how our country's founders meant it to work.
Also, when we move into the stormy seas of personal attack, we test the limits of free speech. If I don't have a cogent argument against your position and thus decide to attack you as a person, what are my limits? I can certainly point out your past support of organizations that oppose my position, you prior remarks denigrating my position or your past actions that might reflect on your credibility. That, however, does not give me the right to lie about you or insinuate things about your character and behavior that is speculative. This last has become an issue within the social networking sites.
In the end, all rights come with responsibilities. Civilized debate is essential to a civilized society, and a verbal mob is no different in essence that a physical mob. Freedom is a high concept, one we must continual rise to meet.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Put me on HBO

Recently someone sent me something that Dennis Miller used on his HBO show. I don't get HBO, but I recall Miller from when I could watch him for free, and I recall that he has a sarcastic, politically incorrect and sometimes abusive sense of humor. I like that because I'm the same way.

Now, I do this blog, which doesn't bring me one red cent, and Miller, who is on TV, probably gets paid a few hundred bucks a week for saying the same kind of crap. Now, I ask you, is that fair? Oh, hell, quick thinking about it. I'll answer for you. No! It's not one damn bit fair.

I can insult your intelligence just as well as Miller, and I think I should get the same exposure, and maybe the same pay. Right now I'm only getting paid for my good looks, so you can see how desperate I've become.

Now, and this is just for those of you who are literate, if you think I'm every bit as obnoxious as Dennis Miller, take a few minutes to write to HBO or one of those other cable stations and say something like this: "Put Meade Fischer on your station. He's just as big of a loud-mouthed jerk as Dennis Miller."

That's all you have to do, and when I'm on, I promise to give whatever internet scam you're running a big plug.

Something to check out

I've recently been in contact with an old friend from college, a guy who has been trying to earn his living from the written word for better than 30 years, and if anyone has had that experience, they know that it's sort of a blissful state of Zen poverty.

Recently he's been another casualty of the recession, the one where the rich got tossed a lifeline, and the working people were sent a care, reading, "Having a nice recovery. Wish you were here."

Anyway, this guy, Scott, who also goes by Rusty and Mick, depending on which alter ego fits the occasion, has come up with a fairly novel idea. He sends out a weekly news letter, interesting bits and pieces gleaned from various media, along with his brand of commentary. http://nstar312.blogspot.com/

Anyway, he likes my blog (no accounting for taste), so I thought I'd send some of my readers his way. No obligation, so if it isn't your thing, so be it.

However, the novel idea was to put a Pay Pal button on this newsletter, so if you become a fan, and you want to keep electricity flowing to his computer, you can donate to him.

Anyway, I always assumed that Pay Pal was some big deal, and that you had to be a profitable company and spend lots of time to get into this. He said, "No; it's easy," so I added Pay Pal to my website, making it easier for my 6 or 7 loyal fans to buy my books.

I figure that if I suddenly start generating sales, I'll donate a bit of that to him, sort of a thanks for the tip kind of thing. I've come to appreciate the "You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" philosophy, rather than my former, "You Scratch my back, and I'll pick your pocket."

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Get over yourself

By nature, we humans are self-involved, self-centered and just plain selfish. Self improvement is the struggle against these other "self" oriented tendencies. Unless we stop ourselves, we tend to get mired in our own needs, wants and problems.

It's like, "Poor me, I gained 5 pounds," or "Poor me, I didn't get that raise I deserved," or "Poor me, I earned an A, and the professor gave me a B," or "Poor me, the person I'm really hot for doesn't give me a second look," or, worse yet, "Poor me, my phone isn't as new as my friend's."

Well, my friends, get the hell over it. You ain't special. Actually you are special, but no more special than any other slob shuffling down the street with foul breath and bad hair.

But, you say, "What can I do about it? I mean, the world is out to screw me, even after my mommy spent years telling me I could be anything I wanted to be." Well, you could, and you did, and this is apparently what you wanted to be. I know it sucks, but it seemed a good idea at the time.

You want some advice? Of course not, but I'm going to give it to you anyway. If you're like 99 percent of us, you're too damn self absorbed, but there's a cure for that, or at least a treatment. Pay attention; this isn't brain surgery.

Get involved in something outside yourself and bigger than yourself. The best way is to volunteer your time for some good cause, something that will help others or the environment, but will not give you money, fame or fortune. The word, and you may have never heard anyone you know say it aloud, is altruism. It's great, and it's easy. Take a bit of it externally each day, and you'll find yourself saying "I," or "me" far less often.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Protests in France and flaws in democracy

The massive strikes in France, protesting raising the retirement age from 60 to 62, have highlighted some basic problems in a democracy. The general public isn't always deeply informed about the issues, and people often do not vote their best interests.

In France, protesters are "voting" personal interests in these strikes, but they are ignoring their collective interest. Sarkozy is doing the right thing, even though it is trashing his approval rate and may see him replaced. He knows the retirement system will not sustain itself, and he's taking an unpopular position. The people striking are not thinking beyond wanting their perks.

In this country, politicians are not always as brave as Sarkozy. Often they will pander to the loud voices, even though they know it's the wrong approach. Budgets are one example. When a state or the federal government is having trouble with the budget and is bleeding red ink, the people at the helm know that something must be cut and more revenue must be brought in. However, usually nothing much gets cuts, as Americans, just like the French, raise hell if their slice of the pie gets smaller. Also, new revenue doesn't come in, because people raise hell if their taxes go up.

Americans often vote against their collective interests, and they even often vote against their personal interests. While this doesn't seem to make any sense, we need to realize that ideology often trumps common sense, and that loud sound bites are easier to digest than complex political and economic realities. Quite simply, people often don't know enough to make an informed decision.

In the interests of being continually more democratic, we have placed a burden on the average voter that he or she may not be up to carrying. After all, anyone eighteen or older can vote, even if they have dropped out of school and are functionally illiterate, have never read a newspaper, know nothing about how the government works and know nothing about the issues and people on the ballot.

The wise folks who founded this country were aware of this. They provided some checks and balances. Among those was that senators were not elected directly by the people, but rather by state legislators, people who were assumed to be both better informed and cooler heads. Even the president was not elected directly, but by a body called the electoral college. The will of the general populace was expressed most directly through the house of representatives. Our founders trusted the people, but not completely.

Now we pretty much elect everyone directly, plus we pass legislation ourselves, though ballot measures. As a result, sometimes we get it right, and other times we are sidetracked by special interests with deep pockets or by our ideologies or even by sound bites coming from every direction.

What's the answer? I would opt for some balance, rarely achieved, between top down and bottom up government. I am certainly in favor of having citizens make political decisions, but if we expect them to be conversant in politics, economics and world affairs, perhaps we should teach those things in our schools.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

High Mileage Cars: no mystery

High mileage cars: not a mystery
Meade Fischer

There are plans to mandate 62 mpg standards for the cars of the future. Currently, we have the hybrid, a bit expensive, but capable of 48mpg. This is all exciting stuff, almost rocket science. Or is it?

High mileage cars are not a high tech mystery. We've had them before and let them slip away. In 1992 I bought a new Geo Metro, one of the least expensive cars on the market. A few years later, they were renamed Chevrolet Metro, had a bigger engine, poorer performance and less mileage. But the original was a wonder.

This little car, which held four people comfortably, had a three cylinder engine, displacing 1000 cc, about the same as an average motorcycle. People who didn't own them claimed that they were too underpowered for the highway and that the small engines would wear out in a few miles.

The week after we bought the car, my wife and one of her friends took off, along with lots of luggage for a week, to Ashland Oregon. They filled the 10 gal. tank in Gilroy, and after driving 70 mph up the interstate with the air conditioner going full blast, they still had gas when the arrived in Ashland, averaging 48mpg.

We drove the car for nine trouble-free years, never getting less than 45 mpg, even with a sixteen foot kayak strapped on top. Every ten or twenty thousand miles I'd have the brakes checked, figuring it was time to have them replaced, and each time the mechanic would shake his head and say they were fine.

at 120 thousand miles, we sold the car to a friend, who moved to Nebraska with all her belongings in it. Since then she married, and now her husband uses it for a work car. We visited them recently. The car, which now sits outside summer and winter, still looks the same. The husband says that there is a minor oil leak and that he finally did have to get new brakes, as well as a new clutch. The Geo now has 220,000 miles and gets a consistent 45 miles per gallon, down slightly from when it was new. Also, it never fails to start.

So, it's possible to build a fun, peppy, high mileage car that last indefinitely and is cheap to buy. Now, what's the problem with turning out a few million more like that?

Saturday, October 2, 2010

crocidle morality

A recent news segment showed a man with a very friendly croc, which one could call either a pet or a friend, although a 17 foot, 950 lb animal doesn't really fit the definition of a pet.

While I have no doubt that should I dive into that croc's favorite river, it would have me for lunch without the slightest hesitation, it was shown nuzzling the man who had found it as an injured baby and had taken care of it. It was clear these two vastly different creatures had bonded. This is just the most extreme version of many incidents of interspecies bonding I have seen, but that's a separate issue.

There is a fundamental and probably instinctive moral code at work here, and it is best summed up as, "don't eat your friends." After all, there is plenty to eat out there, but no creature has all the friends it can use.

Humans, not being exclusively predators and having much more complex minds and social systems, have nuanced this basic moral code and have extrapolated from the fundamental. From "don't eat your friends," we've evolved "don't kill your friends," and since we're social animals, we extend it to "don't kill members of your community, your tribe, your country and even your country's friends. We also extend it to not only don't kill them but don't kill their livelihood, thus, "don't steal." With a bit of effort, we could likely extrapolate the rest of our human moral code from this starting place.

The essential thing is that crocs, like humans, seem to need and value friends. We might also suspect that we can extend not eating friends to protecting them from someone else eating them. I would not want to attack the man in question in front of his croc friend in an effort to check this theory.

I'm becoming convinced that there are deep, fundamental principles at work in nature, principles that are independent of species. Apparently "don't eat your friends" is one of these.

Thursday, September 30, 2010

New habitable planet

Good news and bad news: Astronomers have discovered the first possible
habitable planet other than earth. It's only 20 light years away, a
serious road trip, but doable in a multigenerational flight.

The good news is that some of us might escape the foolishness of the
contemporary politics, social policies and religious practices that keep
us at each other's throats. Just load the family in a space ship, and our
grand kids could have the good life.

There are downsides. For one, we'd become the illegal aliens and would
probably be unwelcome. Whoever or whatever lives there would not
appreciate us using up their resources and perhaps taking their jobs.
Another problem is that if you and I decide to go there, what's to stop
all the people we're trying to escape from? I'm guessing that in a couple
of generations every whacky ideology that plagues us on earth will be
firmly established on this new planet.

So, on second thought, moving isn't going to work. Perhaps the solution is
an advertising campaign, touting this new planet as the promised land, and
when all the "seekers" and opportunists leave, Earth will once again be
the legendary Garden of Eden .

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Sociology of beer ads

Let's take beer ads to investigate Americans' capacity for analytical thought. An ad tells you why you should buy something, so beer ads should have something to do with flavor.

The most striking example is a very popular beer that bases its ads on it being cold. Now, anyone who got through 4th grade physical science knows that the temperature of beer is the temperature of the refrigerator. One beer in that refrigerator is a cold as any other. Still these ads draw customers.

Another ad just shows people relaxing on a beach, doing nothing particularly other than sipping beer. Hello. You can relax with any beverage, alcoholic or otherwise. You can relax with a bag of peanuts or with nothing at all.

During sports seasons, beer companies advertise that they sponsor the event. Does that mean the players drink it? The coaches? It only says they paid to put their ad on TV.

By the way, what does "Where there's life, there's Bud" actually mean?
How about a beer that claims its name is the Aussie word for beer?

There is one beer ad that comes to mind that actually talks about the flavor, and that just happens to be the better beer. Funny thing.

Now, if people can be manipulated into buying something as mundane as beer by ads that say virtually nothing about the product, how are they going to react to ads that deal with political, economic, social and religious issues?

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Anti Nuke Activists and Ancient Fears

There seems to be a new chapter in the old "no nukes" story. Recent stories tell of old time activists teaming up with younger ones to oppose nuclear power plants. Regarding the demonstrations during the 70s, a 66 year old activist said, "It was just the correct, moral thing to do."

That comment leads me to think that this person equates nuclear power with bombs, which is like saying that since there are wildfires, it is morally wrong to toss a log in the fireplace of your mountain cabin.

Yes, there have been safety issues with nuclear power, and we still don't have a perfect solution to disposal of used materials. However, any way of generating energy has a downside. When you think of coal fired plants, think of fatal mining accidents, whole mountains destroyed, trainloads of coal crossing the country and millions of tons of greenhouse gasses. Oil fired plants? Well how about the BP gulf oil spill. Hydroelectric plants? Think about inundated valleys, disrupted fish spawning grounds, massively altered ecosystems and the silting up behind expensive dams. Wind farms take up huge tracks of land and kill birds, and solar simply isn't developed enough to fill our needs.

While the debate on whether we should have dropped the bombs on Japan still rages on without closure, and while few people are coming out in favor of using nuclear weapons in the future, the issue of the peaceful use of nuclear power still seems tethered to these old images of destruction.

For years I drove past the San Onofre power plant weekly, never with the slightest fear. The only two high profile nuclear accidents happened many years ago, and France gets a major part of its energy from nuclear power. Our technology gets progressively better and more reliable, and there are many safety measures in place to prevent accidents. We have a viable way of generating the energy we all use daily, and it's high time to put ancient nightmares to rest and move on.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

vote to save our parks

It's common knowledge that our state government is dysfunctional, and it's getting so that the only way to get things done is through the initiative process, which ultimately makes state government even more dysfunctional, if that's possible.

While I can't imagine what clever ballot measure will surface to save our schools from being boarded up and abandoned, we do have the chance to at least save our state parks. A yes vote on proposition 21 in November will keep our parks open and good condition for all Californians. An additional 18 bucks when you renew your auto registration will get you in anywhere, anytime, preserving a park system going on 150 years old.

I've heard weak arguments against it. There are a very few people who claim they never go to a park and feel they shouldn't have to pay. Still, there are people who don't go to school but still pay for that. Then there are the anti tax people who don't want to pay for anything, anytime, any place.

The most interesting was the person who said it would be too expensive, as he had four cars and two motorcycles. Let's see, that comes to 108 extra bucks a year. Seems anyone who can afford four cars and 6 bikes can easily come up with 108 dollars.

True, the most popular parks, like state beaches, will have a parking problem, but that can be solved with the extra money.

Don't forget, yes on 21

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

red and blue money

Our money isn't keeping up with modern trends. We have the same dull green bills we've had for, probably forever. Green doesn't get an emotional reaction or symbolize anything. Well, I guess it could symbolize the Green party, a very small segment of Americans. We need money that reflects the rest of us.

I propose our money resemble the political maps from the last elections, where we had red and blue states. We should have red and blue money. This way, people could carry the money that reflects their political persuasion. When getting change, a republican could say, "Don't give me that blue cash. I want red."

Every time someone made a purchase, he would also be making a political statement. Also, we could start tracking how people use their money. Do Democrats make better tippers? Do Republicans buy top of the line? Which party buys which beer and how much? We could even color code our ATM cards. Soon we'd have a huge data base that could be used to target the left and right. Of course, the few people in the middle would be ignored and left out.

As this moves from ridiculous to absurd, maybe people will stop and think about what they're doing and that answers to our problems don't come in the choice of black and white, or red and blue. And that if they appear that way, we are probably asking the wrong questions about the wrong problems.

Thursday, July 29, 2010

The true secret security organization

Many people have taken the recent news of the expanding security and spy system as being equal to Homeland Security. That seems true on the surface, but in reality, Homeland Security is an office in DC with a head and a couple of assistants. It's a cover, a front, a sham designed to keep people from knowing about the actual organization.

It took months of probing, but I've uncovered the real, super top secret organization, called the Department of Suspicion, Outrage and Paranoia, or SOP for short.

This organization is so secret no one knows who actually works for it. Everyone has a seventeen digit secret number. What's more, no one knows the titles of the operatives. You see, the person hiring someone picks the title and is the only one in the organization who knows who that person is and that he or she actually works there. Each person has the right and duty to hire one subordinate, thus becoming the handler or supervisor for that new person. Each person in the organization, which now has over a half million agents, only knows the identity of two other people, his subordinate and his supervisor. I use "he" because most women, once learning how the department works, want no part of it.

This will be easier to explain with an example. Say a level one agent, an L-1, files a report, which says, "Agent Albert Roberts discovered on June 27 of last year that a 57 year old Al-Qaeda agent, one Salib Maqwarh, a Moroccan national, posing as a food importer, passed vital information to three Saudi men in Fatima's coffee house in downtown Damascus." Now, his supervisor gets this information, and in the interest of secrecy, edits out the names, actual locations and exact dates, leaving something like this: "In June of last year an agent identified an Al-Qaeda agent in a business in Damascus who was passing information to three other men."

Now, the supervisor, who is an L-2, passes the information to his supervisor, an L-3, who knows who he is but not the actual name of the other L-2 who reports to him, since he only hired one subordinate. The L-3 further edits the report to make it fit with the other report, so they look like they were written by one person. The L-3 than passes it up to the L-4, where the process repeats again. This continues up to the top of the chain, the L-17, who consolidates all those reports, further editing for secrecy, so that when the final document crosses the President's desk, it says something like: "Last year in the middle east some agents discovered Al-Qaeda operatives passing information."

Now, since each person can and should hire one other person, by the time you read this the L-1s will have hired another layer, who will then become the new L-1s, moving everyone else up one number and making the top layer now L-18 and adding ten or fifteen thousand new agents, each with a unique title, to the organization.

And that, my fellow citizens, is how we keep America safe.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Bell, CA: a lesson for us all

There is a huge lesson in the recent developments in Bell, California. After the news got out on how much some people were earning, the townsfolk got the biggest earners fired and the council to take a 90 percent cut in pay. So, you can fight city hall after all, and you, the public, can prevail over the entrenched political machines. So, what's the trick?

The Bell saga points to three steps in the process. First the news of something egregious needs to get out to the public. Openness and transparency is vital to our civic life, as are the people who dig through records and bring these things to the people.

Second, you need a critical mass. People who dislike what's happening go about to the community, stirring people out of their apathy, until a number of people, all with the same issue in hand, constitute a movement.

Finally, there is the demand, not request or humble suggestion, that things change and change now. A large and vocal group confronts the power structure and says it ends right here, right now. The officials have the choice of backing down or beating a hasty retreat out the back door.

Admittedly, it's easier in a small town, a bit harder at the state level and harder still in DC. However, it has been done before, and it can be done again. Get informed; get up and get involved.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Looking at the Obama Administration

Looks like President Obama has gone from a very approval rating after taking office, to a low rating a year and a half later. In fact, there is talk now that he may be a one term president and that republicans may retake the house. How, as the saying goes, did he squander his political capital?

For openers, somehow he didn't get the nature of his mandate. People voted for an untried junior senator due to his vague message of hope and the perception that he was the anti Bush. People, most democrats and independents and even some republicans were fed up with Bush politics and the jaded attitude of an oilman-run, war-obsessed, corporation-loving administration. Obama, many people naively believed, would fix all that and bring us back to the America we wanted to see. Didn't happen.

The first clue was that we were sick and tired of Bush's war, his paranoia about terrorists and the trillions of our money he was pouring into middle east countries that were never going to become clones of us, no matter how many bucks and troops we sent. He missed the clue, and Bush's wars became Obama's wars, made even worse by the financial melt down that left Americans jobless and homeless. Get a clue, Mr Obama, we are hurting, your policies are spewing out new terrorist, and the people over there think we're A-holes.

Companies start out small, and like people, if they are healthy and adaptable, the survive and grow. And, like people, they lose vitality, age and die. But Obama kept many of these financial institutions alive (think transplants) beyond their normal life span. Worst of all he bailed them out when they were weak and could have signed anything. Now, they are strong again, on our money, and the financial reform will likely not fully reform anything to any great degree.

Health care reform is complicated, watered down and possibly filled with pitfalls, but what the hell, he promised it, and if we keep our collective fingers crossed, it might just work.

fixing the mineral management agency should have been done prior to a major disaster. Posturing after the fact does little good for those people who have lost their incomes along the gulf.

I'm tired of hope which, like dope makes you feel things are good when they are not. Just recently changed my voter registration from democrat to none of the above.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

changing my voter reg.

Republicans and Democrats are bashing each other at every level: candidates for office, members of every legislature, media pundits and people on the street. Amid all the finger pointing and name calling, nothing worthwhile is getting done. Well, some lobbyists are getting their special favors, but nothing for the rest of us.

I was a democrat, thinking that they were a bit better, more on my side. However, I now have trouble telling the difference, as our debt mounts, wars drag on, the economy continues to falter, a few corporations get rich or bailed out or both and our once great education system crumbles.

I'm going down to city hall in the morning and change my voter registration. I'll look at the current assortment of third parties and either choose one or register as an independent.

I think we all should do that. Perhaps if the two major parties saw their numbers drop down to single digit, they might just get the idea, cut the pointless games and start working together to get something worthwhile done. And, if they didn't perhaps some third parties would become major parties, and the Republicans and Democrats would go the way of the Whigs.

There is nothing written in stone that says these two parties are all we get for now and for all time. They've served their purpose, and now it's time for us to walk away from them, leaving the remaining vocal few to shout endless invectives at each other, while the rest of the country gets on with it.

Homeless sleeping ban

Attorney Ed Frey's commentary (Santa Cruz Sentinel 7/11) insists that the sleep-in is a protest for freedom and justice, two overused words. However, looking closely at his comments yields different fruit.

Frey states: "When he (Mr. Facer) arrived in Santa Cruz a few years ago, he tried many times to obtain shelter space." This apparently indicates that Facer came here years ago as a homeless person seeking shelter, not someone seeking employment and affordable rent. Also, for whatever number of years, Facer has continued to be a homeless camper. Frey doesn't say where Facer came from, why he came or how he occupied himself at his former home.

Again: "The accused must run three separate errands." How many errands do those of us who are not homeless run? We run to work. We make trips to stores to buy materials to maintain our shelters, such as paint, lumber, plumbing supplies, and when we wish to replace a crumbling fence, we must run to city hall to pay for a permit. Our lives are filled with errands that accompany being a member of the community.

In reality, we have a pool, known as the common good, and most of us both contribute to this pool and draw from it. Frey's client apparently enjoys drawing from it but has no interest in contributing to it.

I'm having trouble feeling sorry for him.

Friday, July 9, 2010

World belongs to salesmen

I think the world belongs to the salesmen. After all, no matter what you have, it's useless unless you can sell lots of it to lots of people.

I just completed my, I think, seventh book. I'm losing count. Writing it was the easy part. Selling it is another matter. I'm simply no good at sales and marketing, which I discovered when I've taken sales jobs in the past, only to earn zip.

I know of a number of excellent writers who languish in obscurity because they don't know how to catch the attention of a publisher. I also know a number of artists who are at least as good as Tom Kincade, but who live on the edge of starvation. The difference is obvious. Kincade is a marketing wiz. As a painter, he's probably a bit above average, but as a salesman of his paintings, he's a genius.

During the summer, I travel to Big Sur each week for the international short film festival, where I see the greatest films by people you and I have never heard of. However, I'll bet everyone knows the names of the directors of all the summer formula blockbusters.

Then factor in the great bands that only get to play the local clubs for beer money.

Would I opt for being a formula writer in exchange for fame and fortune? That I even ask the question dooms me and proves I'll never be a salesman.

Friday, June 25, 2010

trying to understand anarchy

Anarchy, like solipsism, is not something you can organize like minded people around.

Solipsism is the position that yours is the only conscious mind and that all others are somehow robotic projections. Anarchy, with it's fundamental ideas of total individual responsibility and no organized government, also refutes, by definition, the idea of an organization. Yet we have a group in Santa Cruz that is actively trying to put that square peg in the proverbial round hole.

In a recent news article about an anarchist info meeting, one member was quoted as saying: "Collectively, we have power to design how our lives look." Collectively, to me, means some organization and governance. You can't have it both ways. A true anarchist isn't going to respect a group vote that he doesn't agree with.

But, even if we could wiggle past these deep inconsistencies, could anything even resembling anarchy actually work in the real world?

Without a government and all that entails, we would have no common money--only barter--, no schools, no roads and no police or military. While no police or military rings nicely with anarchists, think about no one to stop someone from robbing you or some teen from driving drunk at 100 miles per hour. Any country could attack us with impunity.

Like most of us, I kind of like anarchy applied to myself, but I'm not comfortable with it for every questionable character I pass on the street.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

How about assigning our taxes?

My long distance provider, CREDO, has customers vote each year on which environmental and social organizations the company profits are donated to. We can vote by organization, by percent.

Wouldn't it be a great idea if we could do the same with our taxes? There could be an additional page at the end of our tax form, listing the various things our government spends money on, and each of us could assign our money by percentage.

I could see a list that includes: transportation, education, infrastructure, public safety, consumer protection, environmental protection, parks, forests and beaches, and war.

When faced with the choices, seeing things like the gulf oil spill, the Wall Street meltdown and our seemingly endless involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, where might each of us put our check marks?

I suspect that many of us, myself included, would opt for spending the money to make things better at home: create jobs, clean up our water supplies, fix our roads, educate our kids and keep up our national parks.

When forced to think about it, we see that there is only so much money and that something is going to get short changed. We'd have to vote our priorities.

Then, how many people would vote to send the lion's share of our national wealth to the middle east to try to, well, what exactly are we trying to do?

I'm guessing that the military's share would be much smaller.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Israel/Palestine and a thought-provoking short film

The Israel/Palestine issue has polarized our communities, and the emotions run high and usually in black and white. I saw a short film recently that shed some light on the people behind the headlines.

On the Road To Tel Aviv opens with a bunch of ordinary folks on a bus. A suicide bomber boards and blows the bus up. Next, a playful scene with a young couple in bed. She has to get back to the university, and her boyfriend is driving her to the bus.

She boards a small shuttle bus, and as the boyfriend starts to leave, he sees a young Muslim woman in thick layers of clothes and carrying a big carpet bag get on the bus. He's concerned and tries go get the girl to disembark. At the same time, a middle aged mother with two daughters catches what's going on, and she panics. Soon everyone gets off the bus except the Muslim woman, who is sitting, silently staring straight ahead.

An argument ensues, and the middle aged woman becomes hysterical, demanding the driver search the Muslim. He refuses, and one of the passengers is a soldier with a rifle. There is a scuffle over the rifle, and finally the driver says he isn't searching anyone, and he is an Arab and has been driving for 30 years, has a family and doesn't want to die either. He assures everyone that there is no terrorist on board, and slowly, reluctantly, they all board again.

As the bus is about to leave, a pregnant woman wants on the full bus, so the girlfriend gives up her seat and walks away with the boyfriend. The bus pulls away, and the film ends with the young couple walking up to a regular city bus.

We expect something to blow up, but it doesn't. Maybe one of the busses will, maybe not. Maybe the mother was just hysterical, maybe just reacting to the recent bombings. Maybe the young Muslim woman was an innocent girl feeling intimidated, or perhaps she had explosives in her bag. We don't know what's behind the exterior of these people, and the point is that neither do each other.

How do ordinary people go about the ordinary things of daily life with all the fear, uncertainty and inability to trust the person sitting next to them? Do we become hysterical or stoic, brash or frightened?

The film gave the audience a taste of the range of feelings of these people, and the uncertainty, but it couldn't bring it all the way home to a country where no one thinks twice about getting on a bus.

There is no black and white here. There are many shades of grey, and it is very complicated.

Monday, June 7, 2010

The campaigns from hell

I'm tempted not to vote. Admittedly, mud slinging political campaigns are nothing new, but, and maybe I'm just getting more sensitive to it, it seems that it has become nastier and more continual. I don't know what annoys me the most, the primary campaign for the Republican nomination for Governor or out local Democratic campaign for assembly.

The Republican contest seems to be about who is not far right enough. Any detour from the unthinking Fox News position is seen as degenerate, and the two front runners slam each other hourly.

At our local assembly race, it seems the only things these people haven't accused each other of is poisoning pigeons in the park and having sex with small animals.

The rest of the races and issues are just as bad, and quite frankly, I'm sick of the whole lot of them. No real problems are going to be fixed because they aren't even being discussed. Perhaps it is because these candidates haven't a clue about the nature of the real problems or their possible solutions.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Protesters and the need for personal meaning

The confrontation between Israel and the activists attempting to bring supplies to Gaza is, at least, a complex mix of international diplomacy, national security and public relations. It certainly isn't a black and white, simplistic issue, in spite of the sign-carrying protesters that have sprung up almost everywhere.

I'm not against activists gathering with marches and signs. It works well to stop pesticide spraying near the local school, getting your local polluted stream cleaned up, getting the state to provide funds for education or fire protection and even, although much less effective, to protest a nine-year-long war, where the decision makers are thousands of miles away.

People who are passionate about the Israel/Palestine issue, people who probably have never been there nor personally know anyone living in those areas, and yet turn out for every protest march, are a different group, and I have to reconsider their motivations.

One idea I've come up with, and it may only be one of several factors, is that everyone has a need to find meaning in his or her life. Some find it in religion, their careers or their families. I suspect that some people, lacking other sources of meaning, find it by becoming passionate protesters, whether their moral and ethical high has much to do with the realities of the situation or not.

Monday, May 10, 2010

amanita poisoning and natural selection

An antidote for amanita mushroom (death cap) poisoning, known for some time in Europe, is now being tried successfully by Dominican Hospital. On the surface, this is a good thing, but things are not always how they appear.

People actually pick these mushrooms, confusing them with editable types. This is rather like confusing a redwood tree with a manzanita. Since almost everyone knows that there are toxic mushrooms, particularly anyone who goes mushroom picking, you might think they would avoid anything they were suspicious of. Apparently not. Then, they don't just nibble, but make a meal of these before finding out if there are bad effects.

Now, remember Darwin's natural selection, the process by which individuals most fit survive to pass on their genes. “Most fit” for an antelope means being able to run fast, for a hawk, having good eye sight and for a human, being intelligent. So, people who do really stupid things don't survive, thus they don't pass on genes for stupidity. However, if we take idiots, cure them of the idiotic things they do to themselves, well, there goes the gene pool.

People who climb mountains in a snow storm, do skateboard tricks without a helmet, drive too fast on narrow, dirt, mountain roads, play Russian Roulette, pick fights with heavily armed toughs in a bar or pick unknown mushrooms are saying loud and clear, “I'm too damn dumb to live.”

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Drilling and environmental protection: the pendulum swings.

The pendulum swings, always back and forth, never stopping in the center, and so the ramifications of the Gulf oil spill will play out.

Environmental damage has led to restrictions on drilling, off our coasts, north, west and east. Then, with the middle east situation, a new push for energy independence and more competition for petroleum products, the "drill baby, drill" mantra is again being heard.

Now, with this horrible spill, the voices for more drilling will be all but silenced for a time. However, with demand for oil rising even faster than the world's population, prices will go up while supplies become limited. The oil producing countries of the middle east, growing less enamored of the US due to our policy of making friends with them by making war on them, will be happy to sell to growing Asian economies, hungry to develop and to put their newly affluent people behind the wheel of autos.

So, in a very few years, collective memory being all too short, Americans will forget this spill and the call for drilling will again be loud and clear. And since the pendulum keeps swinging, another spill will start the cycle over again.

The reality is that until we develop alternative sources of energy well enough to end our dependence of fossil fuels, the pressure to drill will continue. Given a choice between drilling in ecologically sensitive areas and taking millions of cars off the roads, Americans will conveniently forget what is happening in the Gulf.

So, what can we do? Accountability is the key. When we allow an oil company to drill, there must be stipulations, rigid controls. We need further research into safety, with our government and the oil companies engaged in the best engineering and science. Once best practices are codified, these would be the law of the land regarding any new drilling, constantly updated as new knowledge is gained.

Would this be 100% effective? Nothing is 100%, but done right, we could raise the bar to very nearly 100%. When our river levies that are built to 25 or 50 year flood standards fail, we usually upgrade to 100 year protection, which all but prevents any further failure. The same type of thinking should apply to drilling, even though this would be done by a public and private mandated team effort.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

immigraton and perception

The new Arizona immigration law, along with the protests against it, has just increased the polarization of the immigration issue. Concerns about the negative effects of illegal immigration on one side, and about immigrants' rights on the other are adding fuel to this growing fire. What is the reality of the situation?

From a societal perspective, perception is reality, literally, not metaphorically. Unlike observer independent reality, such as rocks, trees, elements and stars, things that would still exist even without humans, social reality is observer dependent, but is none the less real, as in national borders, elected offices, corporations, marriage and money.

Does illegal immigration pose a serious threat, a mild threat or none at all? That's a matter of perception. Does Arizona's law constitute a major assault on the rights of Latinos, a minor assault or none at all? That's also a matter of perception, and who and where you are influences your perception. The non-Latino in a border community has a different experience than a recent immigrant.

The central problem is that immigration has become something that is perceived to be an important issue, an emotional issue, an area of concern to many people. Areas of deep concern need to be addressed, and solutions offered, before they grow deeper and more polarized. Frustrated, angry people tend to make bad decisions. Think of the Bolsheviks in Russia and the Nazis in Germany. Our constitution probably prevents something that radical from happening here, but even lesser reactions can be disastrous.

There is no shortage of talking heads who will agitate for anger and retaliation on both sides. If reasonable people don't solve this problem, unreasonable people will step forward to do so. A vocal candidate will undoubtedly come forward with immigrant bashing a central plank in his or her platform. We've had our war on terror, war on drugs and war on poverty. Perhaps we'll have our war on immigrants. Some people are already advocating that.

I imagine that most people see some immigration as non threatening, even, I suspect, a small amount of illegal immigration. At some point many see it as a cultural or economic threat. One person crossing the border has a face, is an impoverished, desperate person seeking a better life for himself and his family. A half million of these are a faceless invasion. And that is the reality of perception.

Recent events have raised a red flag, and if these issues aren't addressed, more people, currently neutral on this issue will start to become polarized. The end result will be a protracted conflict and is not going to be pretty.

Monday, April 26, 2010

my favorite campground

I've camped all over northern California, preferring the quiet, out of the way places to the crowded RV and boom box camp cities. While I've had many nights alone, near a stream in some scenic spot, one place stands out, for several reasons, as my favorite.

The first time I visited was on impulse. Taking a very leisurely trip up the coast, I decided to explore the Mattole River, turning off the 101 near Garberville, on the road to Shelter Cove. Then, turning off on a side road, I drove through Ettersburg, a very small community. Just outside of town, in the mid afternoon warmth, I opted for a swim in the Mattole, a wonderful little river in an almost unspoiled part of Northern California.

I continued on to Honeydew, a store and a wide spot in the road, and then on to Petrolia.
It was there that my map and curiosity led me, as a side road runs five miles down to the beach, a section of the coast rarely visited. At the end of the road, paved part of the way, dirt the rest, I found a lovely BLM campground, twenty sites, right on the beach. Only two other sites were taken, so I took my pick.

The first thing that impressed me and actually brought tears to my eyes was the sign, indicating that this beach was adopted by the second and third graders at Petrolia school. There were wonderful paintings of beach and sea creatures and a caption: We love our beach; please take care of it." I wiped away the tears and took a photo before exploring.

There is another parking lot, just south of the campground, the jumping off point for the 25 mile backpack along the lost coast to Shelter Cove. So, within a few yards walk, I'd left civilization behind, along with the normal trash one expects to find on the beach. I walked a couple of miles in total solitude, accompanied only by the sound of breaking waves and the cries of sea birds.

The mouth of the Mattole is a mile to the north, and just south of the campground is Punta Gorda, slightly east of Cape Mendocino, the westernmost place in the lower 48, just a dozen miles north.

After spending one of the most quiet nights I can remember, I drove back to Petrolia and started north, along the private lands along Cape Mendocino, which I wish was open to the public. And the road twisted steeply up and away from the beach. After miles of narrow road winding through the hills, I came back once again to civilization at Ferndale, the little Victorian town south of Eureka.

Yes, this campground is an hour and a half off the main road, so if you are in a hurry to get somewhere, it's not for you. But, if you want peace and quiet and an unspoiled beach to wander, and you don't mind slow, winding roads, you will be rewarded.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Rethinking Nuclear disarmament

Intellectually, I know what President Obama is doing about reducing nuclear arms is a good thing. Yes I know that nukes are bad, cause lots of destruction and radioactive fallout and all that. But...

You see, there's a part of me that feels that once I've bought something, spent good money on it, I should use it, like the electric blanket that feels like I'm sleeping in a waffle iron. But, what the hell, I can't return it, so suffer with it for a short time before dumping it.

Well, I spent good money on nukes, as did my parents. In fact anyone who paid taxes from the 1940s through the 1980s paid something toward developing and building nukes. I hope you can see where I'm going with this.

Who knows how many millions or even billions were spent building enough bombs to blow the earth half way to Uranus. And now we have them stacked up, in ICBMs, in silos, perhaps even under our downtowns. In all these years, we've only used two of them. Two out of how many thousand? We proved in WW2 how effective these babies are. Put an instant end to the war in the Pacific. And that beautiful mushroom cloud. Remember the final scenes of Dr. Strangelove? Awesome.

But I digress. Now, before we toss all these potent reminders of what a bad ass America really is, we should remind the world again. Our government has identified a number of international bad guys, nasty dictators, genocidal maniacs, political leaders without a sense of humor. Why not, and take a moment to consider this before reacting, drop a few on some really nasty folk?

Perhaps a half dozen of these big 100 megaton fusion bombs, not those wimpy fission firecrackers we used on Japan, would get people's attention, reminding them to behave or else.

After that, when our state department sends the message, "Don't slaughter your own people," they will undoubtedly listen.

So, if I've convinced you, write our President and tell him to bomb someone. After all, that's what made this country great.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Frames and definitions make all the difference

Any argument, theory or line of thought will be indelibly shaped by how you frame it and define terms. Therefore two people can cite the same idea, using the same words and mean something totally different, perhaps even opposite meanings.

A illustrative example of this is the once highly popular "behaviorism." Starting with Pavlov and his classical conditioning and through Watson and Skinner, the theory was framed to depict the subject as a passive reactor, rather than an active actor. Pavlov's dogs were conditioned to salivate when a bell was rung, the bell having been associated with giving the dogs food. Skinner went so far as to claim that linguistic acts are conditioned responses to stimuli, and his definitional ambiguity earned a critical rebuke in 1957 from linguist, Noam Chomsky.

In behaviorism, the subject simply responds to stimuli and can be conditioned to respond to secondary stimuli, such as the bell. This makes the subjects, dogs in Pavlov's case, passive agents, responding but not initiating. This theory rejected something we all are personally aware of, the inner condition of our consciousness, yet, in spite of that, many philosophers and psychologists were enamored of it for a long time.

Pavlov could have framed his experiment another way. By ringing the bell in conjunction with food, he allowed the dogs to construct a chain of expectations, where they first expected him to feed them, and then learned to expect the bell to indicate that food was shortly to follow. Then when the bell no longer was paired with food, the dogs would have started to suspect that the bell wasn't a reliable indicator of food and eventually that the bell was irrelevant. The same kinds of reframing could have been applied to Skinner's boxes, with his rats and pigeons.

At the purely observational level, both frames would look exactly the same: Man rings a bell, dog salivates, then food arrives. However, looking at the dogs as either active or passive agents creates opposite psychological scenarios. Had this been framed the other way, whatever psychological theory would have arisen, it would not be what we now think of as behaviorism.

Now substitute any political or social theory for behaviorism and you can see the foundation of much current misunderstanding.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

custom conspiracy theories for nut case fringe grp.

Filling imaginary needs has been the key to the Eclectic Press business plan. Recently we've identified a definite psuedo-need in our society, and we are rushing eagerly in to fill it. In addition to our other questionable services, we're introducing something new, something your organization could profit from.

Are you a member of a nut case fringe group? If so, is your group small and unsuccessful? It's probably because you don't have a good conspiracy theory. Every highly respected nut case fringe group has a conspiracy theory that captures the imagination and brings in those nut cases who are desperate to belong. And remember, more members mean more dues, so the money you invest will be returned many times over.

Eclectic Press will custom-make a conspiracy theory that fits your group's unique brand of paranoia. Here's a brief outline of a scenario we put together for one successful client. "The American Dental Association has been taken over by aliens from outer space, who have snatched the bodies of member dentists. Now, the amalgam they put into your teeth contain miniature transceivers, controlled by the aliens. After everyone has a filling, the aliens will turn humanity into robot worker who will

assemble useless merchandise for the galactic black market. "

The organization that purchased this conspiracy theory increased their membership from 7 to over 100. We can do the same for you. All you need to do is provide us with some basic information on your group and give us cash. We don't take checks from nut case fringe groups.

Now, we can't promise to make you as successful as America's two biggest nut case groups, the Democratic and the Republican parties. These groups attained mainstream status without losing their quirky, nutty roots through decades of constructing complex and convoluted conspiracy theories. While this level of sophistication takes generations, one of our basic theories should be enough to let you become at least a minor religion.

Just log on to www.baymoon.com/~eclecticpress. Remember that if you're nutty enough to think you need a conspiracy theory, you're nutty enough to pay us money for it.

Henry 8th and a lesson in war

In 1523, Henry 8th, one of England's more despotic kings, decided to go to war with France. To pay for this adventure, and in the wake of his wasteful spending, he sent Cardinal Wolsey to scare up 800,000 pounds in taxes. Wolsey met with much resistance, not unlike the reception new tax plans get today. Henry relented on the taxes and cancelled his war.
So, almost 500 years later, why do we care?
Even Henry, who was used to getting his way, when advised that he didn't have the money to pay for a war, abandoned the idea. He certainly didn't borrow an amount of money that would be billions in today's dollars. Wars, like other governmental activities, have budgetary constraints. Well, at least they once did.
Presidents Bush and Obama probably regard Henry as a political wuss. Over the last nine years, these two presidents have spent hundreds of billions in two countries, fighting... defending... creating... doing high cost military stuff. Unlike Henry, they didn't send a modern Wolsey out to collect taxes for it. In fact, they both seem to claim that we can have bigger, better, more expensive wars and still cut taxes.
These two presidents will be footnotes in the history books before these wars are paid for, if ever.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Scott Roeder and Venn diagrams

I was trying to understand Scott Roeder, the man who murdered the abortion doctor and is still defiant even though sentenced to life in prison. To me, this is a totally alien mindset. Then I started thinking about those Venn diagrams we used to work with in jr. high math, and that gave me some insights.

There is between a large or very large, depending on your point of view, group of nut cases in this country. While these people aren't technically psychotic, they are at the least quite reality challenged, often having trouble distinguishing between the voices in their heads and their telephone answer machines. So, make a dot for every 10,000 of these folks and draw a circle around them.

Then, there is a group as large, if not larger, in this country that, and there is no suitable euphemism, are assholes. They seem to have no problem with reality, just with people who interpret that reality any differently than themselves. So, again, a dot for every 10,000 and circle those.

Now, like in any good Venn diagram, there is an area where both circles overlap. This area represents people who are both nut cases and assholes, exhibiting the worst characteristics of both groups.

Finally, I'm beginning to understand Scott Roeder.

Monday, March 29, 2010

First few paragraphs of my new book

Jesus passed the wine skin to Judas, who took a long drink before speaking. “Why not just settle down, get married, and have a family? This is not hard, Jesus. Men in love do it every day.” Pleased with his own eloquence, Judas slapped his friend on the back and laughed, a big grin taking over his wide face. Jesus retrieved the wine before answering.

The two men sat on a high grassy hill east of Nazareth, looking out through the haze toward the Sea of Galilee. A soft breeze from the distant Mediterranean was at their backs.

“Judas, don’t you see, I can’t love her.” The sea breeze wrapped his long black hair around his eyes, and he pushed in back with his right hand.

“But you do, and why can’t you? Is it your damned holy calling?” While Judas believed in his friend's calling and followed him, he always maintained that Jesus needed some balance in his life, that God expected a man to be a man.

“You know it is. I’m on a mission from God. I have to put the people back on the path.” Jesus was becoming agitated, waving his arms, his long, narrow face looking almost pained.

Judas was implacable. The burly man sat like a stone statue. “How long have I known you? Forever, it seems. You, me, Mary. I should have gone after her. Magdalene is a good woman; she loves you, and she’d make a good mother. A married man can still preach.”

“Judas, we’ve been through this. I’ve been called. I can feel it in my heart, my soul. There is only room for God’s work.” He looked up through the hazy sky as if trying to catch God's eye.

Judas laughed, a big robust and innocent laugh. “I have found that there is room enough in a man’s heart for many things, both serious and fun.”

Judas stood up and stretched is large frame. He reached for his friend’s hand and effortlessly pulled him up. He slipped a cap over his wavy, dark chestnut hair and announced, “I’m hungry. My mother will feed us if we hurry.” He slipped the wine skin over his shoulder, and the two men started down the hill. “I listen to your good advice on how to be right with God, but you never listen to my advice, or anyone’s, about how to be right with yourself.” He added, before he could start in again, "Let's skip down the hill?"

"Skip? What's the matter with you?"

"Nothing. Come on; lighten up." He started to skip away, his size making the action look humorous.

"Judas," he shouted after his friend, "Don't be childish." But the big man was already too far down the hill to hear. Jesus shook his head. "Oh, what the hell." And he took off, skipping down the hill, into the setting sun.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Watch out for wing nuts

Most of the current problems in America can be traced to wing nuts. I'm not talking about the little metal things that you can tighten by hand. I'm talking about the vocal, political wing nuts.

These come in two types, depending on which way they spin. We have right wing nuts and left wing nuts. They both have very fixed patterns of behavior and they are mutually exclusive. You can't substitute one for the other.

Both move only in one direction, so their application is limited, and they both only function properly when twisted up tightly, making them almost impossible to budge. Yet, when you let them loose, they have no discernable function at all.

They do have the same basic function, which is to bind any action, making it unmovable and thus stopping it cold. They also are incapable of conceiving any middle ground. It's all or nothing for them.

When anything is proposed that could be considered a sensible solution, both types spin violently to their respective locked tight position, thus grinding everything to an abrupt halt. In this way, any reasonable tool for change is kept from working properly.

Oddly enough, they seem to be proud of their limited responses, often broadcasting great amounts of skewed information, pointing to the undeniable logic of their direction of spin. However, if you delete the key terms relating to these fixed directions of spin, they both sound exactly the same.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Park Advocacy Day at the State Capitol

On Monday, March 8, the California State Parks Foundation held its eighth annual Park Advocacy Day at the state capitol. Over 150 volunteers and park activists gathered to call attention to the plight of our state park system and to lobby for solutions.

This gathering, organized by Foundation president Elizabeth Goldstein and Traci Verardo-Torres, Vice President of Government Affairs, started with a general meeting to discuss the days events. After that the group, armed with posters stating, "I'm Saving Our State Parks For," plus a photo taken by an attendee, held a press conference on the steps of the Capitol. Several legislators spoke in favor of the parks, including local assembly member Bill Monning. One of the speakers, a nine-year-old named Adam, was the hit of the morning.

Then some of the group delivered bags of state park petitions to the Governor's office (another photo op), while the rest started the round of meetings with members of the senate and assembly.

After the meetings, where small groups had appointments with various law makers or their staffs, everyone gathered again for a wrap up and two rousing, pro state parks speeches by assembly members Hector De La Torre and Mary Salas. A reception followed, after which attendees departed for the long trips back home.

The groups found most law makers supportive of our state parks, which have been threatened with closure recently, and which now have one billion dollars in deferred maintenance. Unfortunately budgetary problems and the inability to get the two thirds necessary to raise revenues, have tied the hands of even the parks' most vocal supporters.

Among the issues the lobbyists brought to law makers were the Governor's proposal to tied state parks funding to very uncertain revenues from a yet unapproved off shore oil deal, several bills currently being considered that would help our parks, including one to make part of east Andrew Molera Park a state wilderness and also the state parks ballot initiative. Currently state parks supporters all over the state are gathering signatures to get a measure on the ballot that would fully fund state parks, along with ocean and water conservation programs, return the current 130 million parks funding to the general fund and allow every California license plated auto into any state park or beach at any time, for no charge. All this would be accomplished by a once a year $18 additional charge on license renewals for autos, RVs and motorcycles. Most law makers indicated that they supported this measure.

It was a very upbeat day, with the small army of activists encouraged by the responses they received. Even though the day of lobbying is over, the volunteers intend to follow up with their assembly and senate members and continue to gather signatures for the State Parks Initiative.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Voluntary educational protests

I'm glad to see people finally standing up for education. Walking out, by teachers and students, sends a message and costs money, which also sends a message. I only wish more K-12 teachers and students had stayed out last Thursday. A voluntary walk out by all or most would get our elected officials to change course.

However, the word "voluntary" is a word of caution to university student activists, who tend to see things in black and white and forget there are shades of gray. Blocking people from entering campus is coercion, something the students would not tolerate from others.
This casts doubts on both the protesters credibility and the actual number of people who stayed away on purpose.

This kind of fighting coercion with coercion takes you down that dark road to Orwell's Animal Farm, a book that should be a must read for student activists.

Monday, February 22, 2010

The Hiker

Perhaps whoever this hiker is or was should not be the issue, for this could either be recent or some past event, occurring before the onset of respectability and community standing.

However, it was a spring day with a light, warm rain, but otherwise a lovely day. Restless, the hiker imagined a lovely walk in the woods. Once out among the trees, the hiker was alone, most people unable to make a connection between rain and hiking.

Pulling on a cap and a nylon shell over shorts and shirt, the hiker started down the trail, enjoying the musty smell of rich soil and emerging mushrooms, watching the steady drip from the overhanging leaves and from the bill of the cap. In the calm silence, the time simply slipped away, until there was a bright spot ahead.

The hiker quickened the pace, soon arriving in a small clearing, finding that the sky was just slightly clearing also. Through the breaks in the clouds, shafts of sunlight lit patches of the damp leaves strewn on the ground. The rain drops, like pearls, sparkled in the shifting sunbeams.

After a look around, the hiker, sure of the perfect solitude, sat on a fallen log, quickly disrobed, and then started dancing naked between the beams of light, feeling the gentle rain, just another animal in the woods, thinking only in images, feeling only joy.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

What's with the Tiger Woods media hype

The other day I turned on the evening news, actually hoping for some news. Instead, I was subjected to something close to ten minutes of Tiger Woods. He plays golf; he had affairs, so what. Then the next day there's an almost full page editorial in the Sentinel about this guy. Needless to say, I didn't read it.

Don't most of us have too much going on in our personal lives, too many local, regional, national and international issues to think about, too many interesting things to arouse our curiosity to bother about some golfer and his promiscuity.

I'm sure there are people who are addicted to the tabloids who will read every word, listen to every commentary about any celebrity who does anything, at any time, for any reason. However, I don't think there are a majority of those people in the Monterey Bay area. The people I know are interesting and have interests in their own right.

Watching golf, which until recently was dominated by portly, middle aged men, is one step above watching paint dry, so what's the big deal about a guy who can tap a ball into a little hole on a patch of lawn. I guess other golfers can admire his skill, but how does that translate to his personal life, and how does that personal life affect the lives of countless Americans? Are we collectively so far adrift?

A neighborhood middle school girl is the best hop scotch player in town, and I hear she was kissing some boy behind the gym last week. I think the national media should get down here and cover it.
The other day I turned on the evening news, actually hoping for some news. Instead, I was subjected to something close to ten minutes of Tiger Woods. He plays golf; he had affairs, so what. Then the next day there's an almost full page editorial in the Sentinel about this guy. Needless to say, I didn't read it.

Don't most of us have too much going on in our personal lives, too many local, regional, national and international issues to think about, too many interesting things to arouse our curiosity to bother about some golfer and his promiscuity.

I'm sure there are people who are addicted to the tabloids who will read every word, listen to every commentary about any celebrity who does anything, at any time, for any reason. However, I don't think there are a majority of those people in the Monterey Bay area. The people I know are interesting and have interests in their own right.

Watching golf, which until recently was dominated by portly, middle aged men, is one step above watching paint dry, so what's the big deal about a guy who can tap a ball into a little hole on a patch of lawn. I guess other golfers can admire his skill, but how does that translate to his personal life, and how does that personal life affect the lives of countless Americans? Are we collectively so far adrift?

A neighborhood middle school girl is the best hop scotch player in town, and I hear she was kissing some boy behind the gym last week. I think the national media should get down here and cover it.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

The Decision

Perhaps you've been faced with this decision, and although you had no way of knowing the outcome of your choice, you had a gut feeling of how it might play out, and you knew it would be life changing.

It's never expected, but suddenly you find yourself staring deeply into another's eyes; your world shudders, and you know you have only moments to make the decision of your life.

You so much want to abandon all caution, throw your fate to the unpredictable winds, turn your back on all your plans, your comforts, your security and follow blindly. And deep inside you sense how it will unwind, the period, far too short and tumultuous, of ecstasy and unimaginable highs, followed by the shattering of your life, leaving you to sort the emotional, mental, spiritual and likely physical and financial wreckage, sensing that it will take a least a decade to gather up the scattered pieces, and that the scars will last a life time.

The other choice is to break the spell, turn and walk away. But then, each day as you wake to a familiar alarm and go through the routine of starting a familiar day, as you emotionally sleepwalk through comfortable and secure days that become years, you always pause in that surreal moment of first awakening to think of how it might have been, of all you could have had.

Or you might be the lucky one in a million who both said yes and then had it all, a life-long intoxicating roller coaster ride.

You may even have faced this decision more than once and survived to tell about it.

Or you may have been spared the decision, and, if so, it's hard to say whether you should be envied or pitied.