Soccer crunch time

Both our boys won their district tournaments last weekend and are on to state. Pix up here, here and here, though can't imagine anyone would care...

Happiness is a warm bed ...

I listened to the Wendy Wild show last night on the way home through a downpour. Her guest was The Factman - a professor at a local university.

They covered several topics mostly dealing with economics - he's not professor of economics, of course, but he's the Factman so it's okay. One of the arguments they made was that the American Dream is essentially over. While it may have been true in the golden days of yore, now the disparity between the super rich elite and the common person is so great that if you're not already rich you may as well resign yourself to a life of serfdom.

Sorry, not buying any of it, thanks.

Obviously, not everyone can be rich. In order for the word rich to have meaning it's opposite must exist. There will always be some people who are more asset-endowed than other people and every attempt to make things otherwise has failed miserably.

They cited a report that Europe has recently passed the US in terms of economic mobility (sorry no link). This was their evidence that poor people can't become rich anymore. I can't address the report other than to quote Twain - "lies, damn lies, and statistics". If you have an agenda it's easy to find numbers to support it. I don't know if that's the case here, but I'm just sayin'...

The US as portrayed in 1950's sitcoms may be only a pleasant memory - to whatever extent it ever existed - but look around. People in the US are doing okay, today. Not just the super rich. And most of them start out at less than zero.

My wife and I are both college grads and we came out of school with a bunch of student loans. At the age of 22 I was an unmarried college grad working as a waiter with a child on the way. When my girlfriend (eventually my wife) and I moved in together we took my bed from my parents house and I think we had a card table and chairs. That was it for furniture. For our first Christmas I bought us a microwave and a television.

Money was tight for a lot of years. There was nothing easy about it. I went back to school (twice!) and worked full time. Our story together started out some 17 years ago and we've had our share of ups and downs, but today we live in a really nice house.

We're not wealthy (yet), but we're successful by most any measure, and frankly, we're happier than anyone else we know. But we're no happier now than we were when we started out with less than nothing. We just kept working and believed that things would eventually be better. And they were.

That's the American dream. You can get pretty much anything you want if you're willing to work and wait for it. It's not easy and it shouldn't be. But the dream is definitely still alive and flourishing. So the rich have gotten richer. So what. The poor have gotten richer, too.

Churchill, youth, idiot ...

We moved recently and had a lot of stuff to unload. Over the weekend I put some ads up on Craigslist and got a great response. I had heard of the site a few years ago, I guess, but never spent much time looking at it.

As I was clicking around on it last night - in between responding to emails about my big internet/garage sale - I took a look in the Rants and Raves section and there was a post (language warning) from a (presumably) college student who was offended by a group of pro-life activists on campus.

By and large I don't disagree with much of what he had to say regarding abortion. My own nutshell thought on abortion (which was similar to at least one point made by the poster) - is that whether abortion is legal or not it's going to happen. Either it happens in a clinical setting with counseling services or it happens in back alleys with coat hangers. I think the whole late-term abortion issue is something of a straw-man. It's good PR for the anti-abortion folks, but I just don't think it happens very often. My wife is actually an OB nurse and she agrees.

Anyway, my point was that I agree with his view on abortion, but I had issues with his broad generalizations about Republicans as basically evil - " because lets face it, if you’re die-hard pro-life, you’re a fucking republican."

I'm neither pro-life, nor a Republican, although I have voted primarily Republican in the last few elections. I lean more to libertarian than either of the big parties.

Here are his arguments that pro-choice=Democrats>pro-life=Republicans(=devil):
"1) The person is poor. They cannot afford to sustain themselves and a child without adversely affecting the quality of their already shitty lives. The pro-choice left seeks to offer the lower class tax breaks and transfer payments from the upper class. The left increases funding to social welfare programs and public assistance. Republicans burden the poor with taxes while passing tax cuts to the wealthy. Welfare programs are eliminated."

The poor don't pay taxes - at least not income taxes. I think it's the bottom 20% of earners pay $0 in taxes, and of course the highest tax rates are on the wealthy. As a society, I think we need to take care of the less fortunate, but with the provision that being lazy doesn't make you unfortunate. If there's a good reason somebody doesn't have a job then they should get help. And kids should always get help - food, medical care, education. Young mothers, too, as the caregivers of the kids should get some help - food, medical care, daycare, education.
BUT I'm pretty sure the government is not the right organization to handle all of that. There's no reason that kind of thing can't happen in the non-profit sector - churches and other organizations already do a lot of charitable work and more efficiently than the government ever could.

"2) The person is uneducated. They aren’t aware of birth-control options that are at their disposal. They are unskilled laborers and therefore have little to no potential to “make-it.” The left seeks to educate high-school students over birth control, offer birth control to teens, and make plan-B available without a prescription. The left supports education by increasing funding to schools. Republicans tend toward the opposite. Children are, with a degree of futility, taught to “wait until marriage” and are fed mis-information that claims birth control can lead to infertility. Public education programs are cut, creating more working class individuals while manufacturing jobs are exported to exploitable regions of the world. "

I have a son in high school. Last year I handed him a box of condoms and told him that his mom and I would prefer that he wait until he was older before having sex, but that we didn't expect that he would consult with us and we wanted him to be prepared. I don't expect him to wait until marriage. I'd rather he wait a year or two at least, but I know that's not realistic. If some girl wants to have sex with him, I don't see him saying, "No, thanks". I know I wouldn't have.
And as far as education funding - it's a bottomless pit. We've been throwing money at it for a lot of years and it has made no noticeable difference. Education needs help, but there's no easy answer for providing that help. School administration needs to get more efficient so that money that's spent on administration can be spent on classroom teachers.
Outsourcing is a touchy issue, but the reality is we live in a global economy and manufacturing can be done a lot cheaper in other countries than here - at least for some things. It's not about exploitation, it's about cost of living. I don't think the people who are getting the jobs are feeling too exploited. There will always be outliers and so there will always be instances of evil being done, but by and large I don't think that most US corporations are looking to exploit their foreign workers. They're just looking for cost savings.
Many on the left seem to be all for a Global Community, but not so much interested in a Global Economy. I'm not sure you can have the one without the other.

"3) The birth is unsupported by friends and family. Meaning the abortion seeker is afraid of alienating themselves from their friends and family, school and workplace, and their entire community. Leftists offer support centers and their families tend to be much more accepting. Right wing nuts threaten the woman with the wrath of god, disown her, or send her to a hospital where the child and mother are nurtured in a concealed and unfit environment. "

We seem to be talking primarily about younger mothers here - most likely teens. I think there's almost always some stigma attached to teens - especially high school or younger - becoming pregnant, no matter your position on the political spectrum. I think the number of 'right wing nuts' who behave as described is pretty small, but he seems to be applying the label to anyone who's right of left. That's just a silly generalization.

Riding report

Weather's gorgeous. The ride in this morning was even a little brisk. We
have a bike trip coming up and if we have weather like this it'll be
perfect. Can't imagine we could be that lucky, though.

Not quite a year later ...

and nothing's changed in Darfur.
But that's not important right now because Jacko got off and was found not guilty - and a few isolated incidents in Guantanamo prove that America = Fascism.
Okay.

Reply from Senator Coleman

July 22, 2004

Mr. Tom Clements
(Address removed)

Thank you for taking the time to contact me concerning the Darfur region in Sudan. I share your concern for the violence in the region and your desire to see an end to the four decades of conflict in Sudan that have claimed an estimated 2 million lives and displaced 3 million people. I applaud the intensive diplomatic efforts of the Bush Administration to find a lasting resolution to Sudan's crises, and I agree that we must press the Sudanese for more progress concerning Darfur in particular.

I recently sent a letter to the Administration urging the President to take steps to prevent the current crisis and to stop the atrocities being committed in Sudan. I followed that letter with another letter to Secretary Powell asking for additional funding for emergency assistance, an international monitoring operation and long-term aid for the affected people. My letter also urged the new U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations to pressure the U.N. Security Council to take action to prevent any further tragedy.

With my support, the Senate recently passed a concurrent resolution (S. Con. Res. 99) introduced by Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) condemning the Government of Sudan for its participation and complicity in the attacks against innocent civilians in the impoverished Darfur region of western Sudan. I also supported an amendment to the fiscal year 2005 Defense Appropriations bill to provide an additional $70 million in humanitarian aid to the Darfur region.

President Bush has called on the government of Sudan to "immediately stop local militias from committing atrocities against the local population and [to] provide unrestricted access to humanitarian aid agencies." U.S. officials have stressed that there will be no normalizing of relations between the U.S. and Sudan until the government addresses the humanitarian and security needs in Darfur.

I was pleased that on June 28, Secretary of State Colin Powell made a trip to Sudan to pressure the Sudanese government to stop the violence perpetuated by the militias. He received assurances from the Sudanese government that they will ease all restrictions on visas for humanitarian workers and make sure there is no interruption of humanitarian supplies or relief convoys. He received a specific commitment from the Sudanese government that they will use their police and military forces to disarm the militias and to provide security for the people. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan also made a visit to the Sudan to increase international pressure on Sudan to stop the crisis.

Because of Sudan's sponsorship of terrorism and violation of human rights, a range of sanctions are in place against Sudan. The U.S. has threatened to seek U.N. sanctions against Sudan if it does not cooperate with the international relief effort geared to the Darfur region. Further, the U.S. has called for a special session of the Commission on Human Rights to deal with Sudan, as well as, a strong resolution condemning the ongoing atrocities in Darfur.

Please know that as a member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, I will continue to work toward lasting peace in Sudan and a halt to the crisis in Darfur.

Thank you once again for taking the time to contact me. I value your advice. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future if I can be of further assistance to you.

Because of Sudan's sponsorship of terrorism and violation of human rights, a range of sanctions are in place against Sudan. The U.S. has threatened to seek U.N. sanctions against Sudan if it does not cooperate with the international relief effort geared to the Darfur region. Further, the U.S. has called for a special session of the Commission on Human Rights to deal with Sudan, as well as, a strong resolution condemning the ongoing atrocities in Darfur.

Please know that as a member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, I will continue to work toward lasting peace in Sudan and a halt to the crisis in Darfur.

Thank you once again for taking the time to contact me. I value your advice. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future if I can be of further assistance to you.

Reply from Senator Dayton

Thank you for taking the time to contact me in Washington. I appreciate
your message. However, due to the large volume of e-mails I receive daily
and the variety of issues they address, it may take some time to respond
to your concerns. I regret any such delay, and I assure you that you will
receive a response in the near future.

Thank you again for taking the time to be in touch with me.

My best regards.

Sincerely,

Mark Dayton
United States Senator

home improving

I'm in the middle of laying slate in our mudroom. Kind of a longish story -


Gerri's sister built a new house. After they moved in, they decided they wanted a black washer and dryer, not the white one they picked out initially. This led to Gerri deciding we should buy their white set to replace ours.


Since we were going to have the washer and dryer out anyway, she figured we might as well go ahead and replace the vinyl. It's a project that's been on our list for a few years, but never near the top. Until now.


It's going okay, but none too quickly. Last night I made all the straight cuts. Most of the whole tiles are down. Hopefully tonight I can finish up the tiles I cut last night. Then all I should have left are a handful of fitted cuts to do to go around corners, the gas pipe, and the central air vent.

France - appeasers even at the micro level

A 23-year-old mother is attacked by 6 young men on a commuter train and 20 witnesses stand by and watch. Supposedly she was "mistaken for a Jew."

The woman told police that the men, described as North Africans and blacks, then cut off locks of her hair, opened her shirt with their knives and used markers to draw three swastikas on her stomach.

There's something ironic about that.

Darfur

My letter to my congressman:

Mr. Kline

Please do not allow our great nation to stand by and watch genocide
take place yet again in Africa. We should do whatever we can -
including the use of force - to stop the wholesale murder of innocent
people.

We can't be the world's police force, trying to stop every crime and attacking every government we don't agree with. But we should not let the fear of this perception stop us from doing the right thing when so many people are being slaughtered.

Thank you,

tom clements

I sent something similar to the president.

soccer dad

Both boys' soccer teams had districts over the weekend. No. 1 son lost, No. 2 son won. They were good games, but it was a lot of driving.
The U14 team are a lot of fun to watch. They're have talent at every position, but they have a tendancy to get down and quit when things aren't going their way. In Saturday's game we went up 1-0 at the start of the second half and held the lead for a while before the opponents snuck one in (we snuck ours in, too :-)).

That was okay, we were still playing well.

Then the game got a little physical - not out of control, but more physical - and my son wound up getting a yellow card for a slide tackle from behind. He definitely deserved the penalty. I thought the card was maybe a little much, only because one of the players on the other team was called for three separate dangerous plays without a card. Actually, I don't mean to complain about the ref - I really thought he did well. I would have liked for his assistants to be a little more helpful, but all in all the game was well officiated.

The problem was with our team. As soon as my son got the card, the wind was completely out of our sails. We just quit trying. The other team scored two goals in quick succession and won 3-1. We need to learn to continue playing hard even when everything breaks against us.

The U11 games were less frustrating - but then winning usually is. My boy was in goal for both games and did well. He had played in the field for the last few games, so he was a little rusty in the first game on Saturday. They scored one on him early, but that was all.

The championship game on Sunday was very exciting. The other team scored first. The field was soaked and there was puddle in the box that made it hard to play the ball - it would be heading in at a good pace, my boy would head out to pick it up and it would hit the puddle and stop well before he expected. That left him out of position and allowed the opposing player to get to the ball first and tap it in.

We scored one to tie it and that's how the game ended. My son had a couple of diving saves in the second half to hold them and we managed to win in the second overtime period on a corner kick that one of our players bent into the goal. Very exciting stuff - at least for a soccer dad.

Gifted and talented

Got a form letter yesterday that eventually told me that No. 2 son was being dropped from the local Gifted and Talented program. There's a phone number listed to contact the school director for the program. It's the main school number, not a direct line. And of course there's no one in the office until August.

I'm sure it's a coincidence, the letters coming out in early July.

In the first place, I'm not a big fan of Gifted and Talented programs and would probably just let it go except that No. 1 son is still one of the select few.

I think enrichment activities are beneficial for all kids - not just the ones who score better on standardized tests or meet some subjective criteria of the staff. I don't think that G&T kids get anymore out of it than others. I don't like the idea of institutionalizing an intellectual elitism at the elementary school level. Everyone already knows who the smart kids are, they don't need the schools to tell them.

The same day we got that letter, we got the letter saying the No.1 son was still in the program (level 1 - the higher level) and listing the 'criteria' for both levels. Level 1 is supposed to be the top 5% and Level 2 is the top 10%. A number of qualifying factors are listed - test scores being one. From what I remember, No. 2 son scored well on his standardized tests - 97th percentile, I think, in at least one area,and I think above 90th in all areas. Pretty similar to No. 1 son, actually, although they definitely have different personalities and intellectual strengths.

So I'm going to track down the powers that be and have them explain their decision to me. Even though I'd rather just see the program trashed and the money go toward enrichment activities for everyone.

I knew it!!

Coffee: the new health drink. (registration required)
I can finally thumb my nose at all those green tea snobs and their antioxidants - "coffee may contain even more--specifically polyphenols."
I have to observe that some (at least) of the research is funded by coffee-producing countries.
I can live with that.
And - Finland turns out to be the coffee-drinkingest country on earth.

War Doves in the Press

Reading this from Instapundit I'm just appalled at the shameless, arrogant stupidity of some of our MAJOR news outlets. I don't know if the idea of the objective journalist has always been a myth, if the reality has always been that reporters (and probably more so publishers and editors) try to shape public opinion with what they report. I know some papers are well known to be more liberal than others, but haven't they taken their bias to a new level in the last couple of years?

I don't think I'm too naive, but this kind of thing pushes me closer to cynical than I'd like to be.

gMail

I signed up for my new gmail account last week when I rediscovered Blogger. They asked if I wanted one, and I said, 'yes. OH yes.'

so far, so good. I like the conversational organization, the labels, and the keyboard shortcuts. I look forward to a few more features -

more filter options - like being able to forward messages to another email address
pop access - this will be huge. I've been pissed at Yahoo ever since they dropped this service. I hope google doesn't get greedy and try to make it a premium service.
contacts - it's awesome that it automatically adds people to the contacts list, but I would like to be able to organize all my contact info here. Import and export options would be nice. In fact why not integrate search functionality to try to look up addresses for people. That would be hard to do well, but google is the search company.

Now I just have to decide at what point do I tell people I have a new email address. I hate that. That's one of the main reasons I use yahoo as my primary email - no matter who my ISP is my email stays the same.

Latest jones

I'm getting an itch for a new bike. Okay, the itch is in full swing.

We went to Arizona a couple of months ago to rent Harleys and ride around for three days. We went with 5 other people and had a great time - better by far than we even expected.

We stayed in Belmont, an exit about 10 miles west of Flagstaff. We expected that all of Arizona would be hot in May. It never occurred to us - until all our reservations were made, at least - to check the usual temps. It was a little chillier than we anticipated.

Day one we picked up the bikes - in the snow, of course - and then rode down to Sedona. It was beautiful and considerably warmer. One of the most interesting aspects of the trip was the way temperature, vegetation, and general appearance changed so dramatically in an hour's ride out from Flagstaff - temperate forest in the canyon on the way to Sedona giving way to desert, pine forests around Flagstaff, chaparral to the northwest on the way to the Grand Canyon.

Day two - no snow - we headed east out of Flagstaff stopping first at Walnut Canyon. We hiked the tourist trail through the park and looked at the handiwork of the Sinagua people who built their homes in the cliffs of the canyon. Our next stop was the Meteor Crator made famous in the movie Starman. It was interesting, but hardly worth the US$10 per person to see the big hole in the ground.

Continuing east we stopped for lunch at the The Brown Mug in Winslow Arizona, such a fine sight to see. Winslow is a sad little town. Truly the only clean, well-kempt part was the corner where they had created an homage to the Eagle's song Take it Easy. There was a mural on the side of a building and a statue of a guy with a guitar standing on the corner. The food was really good, though. At both our previous stops that day a stranger had recommended that we go there for lunch. That was too compelling to pass on. It was Mexican fare, and really, really good. Couldn't tell you what I ate, but it was tasty.

After lunch we continued east (less trepid travelers would have turned for home, but that wasn't us) to the north entrance of The Petrified Forest\Painted Desert National Park. The park has two entrances with 26 miles of blacktop between them. We rode through stopping at every scenic turn out and took many pictures. It was truly stunning and we enjoyed it a lot.

The bad news was that we came out of the park 90 miles from Flagstaff and it was getting dark. Flagstaff, for those of you as igorant of Arizona topography as we were, sits at an elevation of about 7000 feet - pretty well up the shoulder of a mountain. It was a long cold ride home. We made decent time - averaging a little over 80 mph all the way.

Day three we spent at the Grand Canyon. Wow. 'Nuf said.

It was an awesome trip. Gerri said she enjoyed it more than our last cruise, and I had to agree. We're already planning for another trip.

Meanwhile, since riding that Softail around for three days I've been looking at bigger bikes and trying to decide what I want. I don't want a Harley. I just feel like they're way overpriced - even the used ones. Someone was explaining to me that they were an investment. I didn't contradict them, but I don't agree. I keep surfing through CarSoup and CycleTrader.

Gerri likes the cruiser style, but I'm leaning more toward a sport touring look. I think I just need to go for a few test rides to see what feels best. I was pretty comfortable on that Harley, I have to admit. I just think I'd like a bigger fairing and more storage up front. For now, I'll just keep dreaming...

Darndest things

Maia: "Mommy are you missing your mom today?"

Mommy: "Sweetie, I miss her everyday."

Maia: "I think you're just sad because you can't see her. But she's
not sad because she's in heaven and she can still see you anytime."

Grief

My wife's mother died about a month ago. She was golfing with her friends and a blood vessel in her brain essentially blew up. For her part it was in all likelihood a nice way to go. No pain - just a little confusion and then fade to black.

For the rest of the family it has been horrible. My wife has a brother and a sister. Everyone was together for the 4 or 5 days she was on life support and for 3 days after she died - planning and then living through the wake and funeral.

Then everyone went back to their lives.

Now it's been just over a month and many people expect the grieving to be winding down. And that makes it even harder, because it's not. People who've lived through it know better. It takes at least a year before you START to feel normal again - before the grief is not sitting right there on your shoulder waiting to blind side you when you aren't looking.

The first year is the hardest because it's the year of firsts - everyone has their first birthday without their mom (or wife or sister ...), the first Thanksgiving, the first Christmas. And as hard as those are, sometimes it's the other days that are worse. My wife talked to her mom about twice a day every day. Close doesn't begin to describe how they were. The impulse to call her is deeply ingrained. That's the part many people don't get.

At least a year before you BEGIN to feel normal, and several more years before you really feel normal.
Of course, you never get over it. You learn to live with it as people have always done, but you don't get over it.

Twelve-stepping The West Wing

Gerri and I are addicted to The West Wing. We were late to the party - never watched it until the last six or eight months. We discovered it was on Bravo every weeknight, and now we're hooked.

It's frustrating to watch, because you want people like these running the country - principled, honest, driven to find and do the right thing even when it's not the easy thing.

In the episode I just watched, five US DEA agents have been kidnapped in Columbia and the President sends in the army to get them out rather than agree to have a drug mob leader released from prison. It was the right thing to do - you don't negotiate with terrorists.

But this show is pre-9/11 and the message ends up being that sometimes the means (negotiating with terrorists) is justified if it gets you to the ends you want (your hostages free). And while I (being a post 9/11 kind of guy) can't agree with that - I have zero tolerance for terrorists - I still can't help loving a show that has the president meeting a military transport plane at 4:00 am because it's bringing home the bodies of 9 soldiers he sent into harm's way.

Yes, it's television, and Martin Sheen is a political LOON in the real world, but damn it Josiah Bartlett is a Democrat I might actually consider voting for.

Like I said, it's television.

What this country needs ...

is compulsory national service.

Graduate from high school and give two years to your country in the military. Drop out of high school and start right away.

Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines - it's a great place to start.

What got me started down this path was Toys for Tots - the Marine Corps 50+ year-old tradition of collecting toys for poor kids. A nice warm fuzzy program that's hard to criticize.

I got the pitch today in an email at work. This was the part that caught my attention:

The Toys for Tots message of hope for the future has motivated youngsters to grow into responsible, productive, patriotic citizens and community leaders. Toys for Tots has earned the distinction as a program which plays an important role in helping youngsters emerge from a background of poverty to adulthood as assets to society. Toys for Tots is one vehicle for addressing the issue of poverty among children.

The more I thought about it, the more I decided that it was far more likely to generate resentment among many of the recipients. The only long-term benefit I could imagine was that the sight of marines in dress blues might inspire some of the kids to join the military which would probably do as much as anything to get someone out of poverty.

Full disclosure: I was never in the military. But I've often thought it would have been better for me to go into the service before going to college. I got to college with a lousy work ethic and no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I wound up with an English degree - which I don't use much in my life as a software engineer. It ended up taking me almost ten years and two more degrees to find my career.

A little esprit de corps might help us all just get along a little better. I'm concerned that if something doesn't happen to curb the income disparity that's been growing for the past few years we could be in for some hard times. Ghettos and projects could make good recruiting grounds for homegrown terrorists.

I gotta get back to work, but in a nutshell - I think compulsory military service could address poverty and give everyone a little common ground.