Really, Barack? Rick Warren?

I like to think I'm pretty open-minded, fairly non-judgemental; but I think there are degrees of inclusiveness and I'd like to think that Rick Warren is a degree or two away from giving a benediction at the inauguration of Barack Obama on the Mall in the capital.

This isn't about raising taxes vs cutting spending to balance the budget. This isn't about free trade vs tarriffs. This isn't about states rights vs federalism. This is a man who advocates theocratic interpretations in the application of civil rights in direct opposition to the first and fourteenth amendments of the Constitution of the United States, and I cannot imagine why on earth my President-elect would give Warren a hearing, much less a pulpit on the platform at his inauguration.

This is your inauguration; think "setting the tone." I get that you intend to be the President for all Americans, but it's pretty clear that this guy hasn't got a benediction for everyone; he leaves some people out.

I read a comment somewhere today - I think it was in the Orange County Register - that you appear to be a bit challenged in your selection of clergy, and I've got to go along with that assessment.

Observing a Blogiversary

I saw a counter on Kay's blog, checked my archives, and - lo and behold - today this blog is four years old.

I have to say that keeping a blog isn't the stupidest thing I've done over the past four years... not by a long shot. I came into this with no particular expectations, with very little awareness of what I wanted to do here, and - given that - I think it's gone pretty well. I think I wrote some decent stuff over on the the other site before it crashed on me. I've 'met' some interesting people. We've lost some interesting people. (I still find myself wanting to tell Joycelyn Ward something now and then.)

I'm still trying to come to terms with blog maintenance, i.e. posting regularly. Ronni Bennett is my hero and role model, consistently turning out a top-quality product day in and day out, and I've disappeared for a month at a time. I am conscious that I don't meet the criteria to make her blog roll today, and then I get this guilt thing going. I know that I fret a bit when I check blogs and there are no entries for an extended period, and I don't want to be that guy.

I saw Ariana Huffington the other night on The Daily Show and was struck by her advice to just go with your first thought. I've had two big posts stuck in park for a year now trying to find time to do some research and develop them. I think I do better by just unloading whatever's in my consciousness and not worrying about the Pullitzers or whatever.

Four years... I had just gotten married on November 1st, 2004, so what the hell was I doing starting a blog? What if I'd discovered blogging a few months earlier?

Anyway, to my readers, thank you for your companionship.

A Reflection on University City

I remember standing out near the flight line in 1970 shortly after reporting into Attack Carrier Air Wing Two at (then) NAS Miramar. Looking to the west I noticed and asked about the construction going on past the end of the runways, and I was told they were putting in homes. I responded with, "Who the (deleted) builds homes at the end of the runway of a Naval Air Station?" (At that time I hadn't experienced Point Loma where people move under the Lindbergh Field traffic pattern and complain about the noise.)

I am mindful of PSA Flight 182 that crashed in North Park about 30 years ago, and I seem to recall a couple of mishaps out of Montgomery Field up on Kearney Mesa. I think when you live under the flight pattern (not to mention at the end of the runways) of an airport - military or civilian - you need to come to terms with the reality that - sooner or later - gravity always wins and you could be in the bulls-eye.

It's a shame, certainly, when innocent lives are lost. On the other hand, I am thankful that the crew of the F/A-18 was able to eject and will live to fly another day.

A Little About the Red Cross

I guess I haven't said much about my experience with the Red Cross, and that's kind of a shame because I know I used to only think of the Red Cross in terms of emergency leave (when I was in the Navy) and major disasters. I have been out on two national disaster responses (DRs) this year - in June and in November - and that was fulfilling work, but I've also been out on a dozen house and apartment fires and that was also - and perhaps more - fulfilling.

I spent two weeks in Columbus, Indiana, in June as a client caseworker in the aftermath of the flooding there. You may be asking yourself, as I did, "What flooding in Indiana?" Iowa and the Mississippi got all of the press, but I think we wound up helping more than 400 families in the Columbus area out of the science classrooms at the middle school.

For five days over the weekend before Thanksgiving I was deployed with an Emergency Response Vehicle (or ERV) to Sylmar. With my co-driver (pictured above) we provided snacks and beverages at the bulk distribution site near the client service center, provided meals to the volunteer staff, and drove through the Oak Ridge Mobile Home Park delivering snacks, beverages and clean-up items (rakes, shovels, gloves, etc.) to clients.

The thing is that for every DR that makes the papers there are hundreds of personal disasters, and, when we respond to those, our Disaster Action Teams are responsible for the damage assessment, assessing the clients needs, and providing for their immediate needs consistent with the Red Cross mission and values. I know we did good work in Indiana and in Sylmar, but - pound for pound - I wouldn't trade working with a family through one of the worst times of their lives.

Now, the Red Cross does a lot of other things beside disaster relief: Services to Armed Forces is another program I make time for, Community Education, Health & Safety training, Blood Services, etc. Cop Car takes disaster relief to a whole 'nother level with regional planning.

I'm new to the Red Cross, and still working into my role as a foot soldier; but, on a personal level, my work as a Disaster Assistance Team (DAT) member has been some of the most fulfilling work I've done... which won't keep me from fighting for the keys to an ERV for the next DR.

I'm Not Smart About Economics

Years ago I took the tests for a Social Sciences teaching credential and I confess that Economics was my weakness, and apparently that weakness persists into the present. I'm not as dumb as I thought I was because there is an increasing body of evidence that everyone who should have predicted our economic meltdown could have predicted our economic meltdown; apparently they just didn't feel like it.

The thing I'm having a problem with today is the idea that the best financial minds in the world (if one believes that salaries are tied to competence) just got the bejeebers scared out of them by the "news" that we have been in a recession for over a year now. I'm just a guy, and I don't manage millions of dollars... billions of dollars in investments day in and day out, but I've got to tell you that I've suspected for awhile now that we were in a recession. I've actually been "planning" my retirement on the assumption that I wouldn't be able to get much - if anything - out of my paltry investments. Can anyone steer me to a decent explanation of why putting that out in public sent Wall Street back into the crapper?

By the way, we were talking over the holiday about Hillary Clinton accepting the nomination to be Secretary of State and decided that it was a bad idea. Hillary Clinton can stay in the Senate as long as she feels like it and possibly be the successor to Ted Kennedy as a liberal icon, or she can take on being Obama's Secretary of State subordinating her world view to his until she can't stand it anymore and then disappear into the landscape. Somebody help me here; has anyone since Jefferson gone from Secretary of State to the Presidency? (I know he didn't go directly from State to the Presidency; he served a term as VP.)

More Lame Excuses

No, not from the lame duck administration; from me.
I've been busy splitting time between work and the Red Cross and for the next few days I'm going to be exclusive to the Red Cross doing mobile mass feeding (and such other duties as may be assigned).
I'll read your blogs when I get a link-up but won't try to write (which hasn't been working very well for me in the first place).

I'm Not a Particularly Good Person

Here it is Veteran's Day and I came across this article talking about OEF/OIF veterans connecting online instead of at the more traditional watering holes of previous generations. I'm a huge fan of vets forming their own support systems around them according to their needs, and - for all of my empathy - I have never humped in a climate or terrain like they've experienced and somewhat doubt that I could have. Good for them leaning on each other just as they did throughout their active service.

Eventually I got down to the part where they write about the American Legion and the VFW losing membership, and I confess to a teensy moment of satisfaction because they weren't there for me when I could have used the help. I've written before that I left the Navy earlier than I might have because the VietNam GI Bill was set to expire at the end of 1989. I wrote to everyone I could think of and spoke to everyone I could reach, but except for the Fleet Reserve Association (which at the time still represented career and retired military members of the sea services) the veterans organizations turned a deaf ear to me.

There was a small degree of altruism to my arguments. I finished my 20 years in time to get my four years, and I was unlikely to be promoted beyond Chief if I'd stayed in for 40 years (I had some issues); however, it bugged me that a guy who came in before January, 1966, in time for seven more years of the VietNam War couldn't do his 20 and get the GI Bill. The Legion and the VFW both pointed out to me that their primary concerns were for the WW II veterans and that their membership was predominantly one-term enlistees anyway, and that was it.

So now they can't attract younger vets... imagine that. I wish them well and, in particular, I wish their members well; but you folks coming out of OEF/OIF are on the right track relying on one another for answers and support for your unique issues. At some point every organization I can think of turns its focus away from its membership and toward perpetuating itself.

Not a Good Week for Blogging

This is not going to be a great week for blogging. Thursday is California's statewide earthquake drill, and I've spent quite a bit of time so far prepping for it and have a lot more to spend participating in it.

All day Thursday I participate with the local Red Cross chapter assessing our readiness to quickly set up a shelter in the immediate aftermath of the simulated 'quake. (There are millions of residents in the LA basin and perhaps a few thousand shelter beds.)

Saturday the Red Cross has an information booth at the county fire expo.

Sunday the county is having an all-day field exercise for the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) up in Sherman Oaks.

Getting involved in earthquake recovery is one of those things I've been meaning to do, but never made time for until this year. There's supposed to be a 90-something percent probability of a major earthquake here within the next thirty years. If you sign up on USGS.gov, you can get notified of earthquakes as they occur, and it's sobering to watch them first up in the Aleutians and then down off Mexico and then back up in the Aleutians. There was a good-sized one just off the coast above San Francisco a couple of weeks ago.

California isn't supposed to "fall off into the ocean" but it is supposed to wind up several feet north which will sever power lines, pipe lines (water and fuel), and surface transportation across the San Andreas fault. It's going to be quite a ride.

How about if Obama named Colin Powell as his Secretary of State?

I know; no one was more disappointed watching him shill for George W. Bush (when he must have known better) than I was. I'm thinking he must have lost a lot of sleep over the past five years thinking about the all of the lives he had a hand in destroying, and his best shot at any redemption is a chance to be the Secretary of State we were expecting in 2001, a chance to be the George Marshall of the post-Cold War era.

I had a lot of respect for General Powell when he was in uniform. I think he's better than he ever had a chance to be in the present administration. I think he's just exactly what the Obama administration needs at State, and (coincidentally) it would give him an opportunity to clean up his karma. Richardson would be okay, but I think Powell is ideally suited for 2009.

Election Day

My connectivity issue resurfaced (Joared, the jury is out on Verizon as well as on your provider.) so I didn't run through all of the California propositions. Today is about keeping good thoughts that America will use wisdom in choosing our government and our future.

I wish I felt more confident in the outcome. It has been frustrating speaking with people I care about and generally find to be agreeable who, at the end of the conversation, turn toward the darkness of the neo-fascists. How on earth can we agree on universal healthcare and then you vote for those who oppose it?

Today is about keeping good thoughts that - this time - enough Americans in the right states will use wisdom in choosing our future.

It's Frustrating

Seemingly rational people will natter for hours about our dependence on foreign oil as the root of (nearly) all evil while Exxon Mobil breaks another earnings record in the third quarter just ended. The problem isn't the nationality of the oil, it's that Big Oil doesn't give a rat's ass about America or any other country and we all just line up for it: "Please, sir, might I have another."

It's Not That There Aren't Any Appropriate Bond Issues

Proposition 12 on the California ballot is to fund the CalVet home loan program, and it appears about every other year if memory serves. According to the legislative analyst, since 1921 "the CalVet program has been totally supported by the participating veterans at no direct cost to the taxpayer." I'm willing to bet on the vets.

Proposition 3 is a little bit trickier, but not a lot. Prop 3 asks for $280 Million to fund children's hospitals throughout the state. 20% of the money would go to the five hospitals within the University of California system while 80% would be made available to as many as eight hospitals such as Children's Hospital Los Angeles and Children's Hospital of Orange County. Purists argue that using bond money to support non-government hospitals is wrong and I understand that argument while disagreeing with it. These are California public-benefit corporations such as the Lucille Salter Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford doing cutting-edge work and, to the extent that their legitimate funding needs cannot be met by payments from patients and insurers, they are worthy of our support.

We need to keep faith with our children's hospitals and our veterans. They've earned that.

What Happens When People Like Me Get Pissed and Write Laws

Have you ever wondered what draws a person to becoming a sheriff or district attorney? I understand someone wanting to get into law enforcement, wanting to serve and protect their community from criminals, but at what point does one start to see it as a stepping stone to power? And crime victims; who can't empathize with what they must be going through, but some people just get through it and try to get on with their lives while others become crusaders like John Walsh and some become crusaders for some really bad laws. Hook a crime victims group up with a DA and a sheriff and you get things like Propositions 6 and 9.

Bear in mind that California already has an unfunded deficit (this year) of $15 Billion. Without identifying any source of funding, Proposition 6 calls for a billion dollars of additional funding for criminal justice programs, increased jail time for certain offenses, and increased parole costs. Did I mention that California is already under a federal court order to expand its prison system, because the funding for that isn't in here. No new street cops either.

Proposition 9 calls for... well, basically it calls for enforcement and expansion of Proposition 8, "Victims' Bill of Rights" from the 1982 election, restricts early release of inmates, and changes the rules for granting and revoking parole. It prioritizes restitution to victims above any other fines or obligations a criminal might owe, and that's pretty straightforward. It also expands notification to victims of the release of persons prior to trial and, although suspects are presumed innocent until they are convicted, I can see the sense of that. I'm reasonably sure that exempting the victim from providing material for discovery is a Constitutional problem, but it's 2008 and I could be wrong about that.

Prop 9 requires that the Legislature and counties fully fund prisons and jails so that prisoners don't have to be released early to comply with the Federal Court orders. It would also require lifer convicts to wait at least 3 years between parole hearings and give victims' families 90 days notice instead of 30 days notice and a rehearing every year. Once again wading into Constitutional issues, it also seeks to extend the length of time (mandated by federal court order) we can keep a parolee locked up on a parole violation before giving him a probable cause hearing and a revocation hearing.

Prop 6 does address the craziness of releasing undocumented aliens on low bail or their own recognizance. If you don't see the hole in that theory then we should talk about a multi-level marketing opportunity I know of.

There are good reasons why people like me aren't encouraged to write laws - and I'm not under the stress of being a victim of a violent crime. DAs and sheriffs should know better than to take advantage of them, but then they are what they are.

We're $15 Billion in the hole this year and things ain't looking good on the horizon for an early recovery. We're already under court orders to deal with prison and jail overcrowding and health care for prisoners, and then there are those pesky street cops and firefighters and health care providers and educators and... Do you get where I'm going with this? When you factor in the inevitable legal challenges, I think we should just work toward real enforcement of existing law and see how that works for a year or two.

Just This Once I Hope Lindsey Graham is Right

Senator Graham is supposed to have said that Gen. Powell "was never truly a Republican." I, of course, have been a more than a little pissed at the general since he participated in fabricating and selling the pretext for the war in Iraq, but if he truly did not give his soul over to the forces of darkness that would be reassuring that he was ever a good person.

I always marvel at the convoluted logic of the neo-fascist. We have a trillion dollar debt on the year, and Graham accuses Obama (and, by extension, Powell) of supporting "increased spending." We are ten digits into negative numbers! How delusional are these people?

Questions of Rights and Wrongs

There are three propositions on the California ballot that, to my mind, deal with what is right and what is wrong.

Proposition 2 deals with (institutional) cruelty to animals, and whether or not economic expediency justifies it. It's interesting to me that the argument in opposition to it centers on egg production and I suspect that's (at least partly) because (almost) everybody likes eggs and (almost) nobody likes chickens, but it includes calves raised for veal, and pregnant pigs as well as egg-laying hens. The prospective standard is that these animals must be confined only in ways that allow them to lie down, stand up, stretch their limbs and turn around. Exceptions are made for transportation, rodeos (!?!), fairs (although the pens at county fairs I've been to exceed these standards), 4H programs (!?!), slaughter, research and veterinary purposes.
The poultry industry argues that if this passes then all eggs will have to be trucked in from Mexico because this is an impossible standard for them to meet, and then we'll all die from salmonella (Mexican salmonella in contrast to the California salmonella that affected the folks around here early this month). They contend that California birds are much healthier and happier in their 8 inch by 8 inch cages (only slightly less plausible than the "happy cows" ad campaign).

Proposition 4 is on the ballot again to require notification of a pregnant unemancipated minor's parents 48 hours before an abortion. I write about this before every election because it gets put on the ballot for every election. To soften the blow this time, they don't seek parental consent - only notification; but it's interesting to me that the measure speaks of a pregnant unemancipated minor. I'm not a lawyer, but I'm reasonably sure that California law still recognizes pregnant minors as emancipated with respect to their pregnancies which would leave California physicians liable for their breach of the doctor-patient privilege in complying.

Proposition 8, of course, is the measure seeking to override the equal protection clause of the California Constitution and ban same-sex couples from marrying. I've written about this enough, and there have been plenty of rulings against "separate but equal" to bolster the argument against it. Someone give me an argument that doesn't begin with "It says in the Bible..." and we can talk.

You Want $10 Billion for a What!?!

A high speed rail system to connect Sacramento/San Francisco to Los Angeles. No, seriously.

California has a $15 Billion budget deficit, and Proposition 1 on the November 4th ballot asks for the credit card to make a down payment on a $40 Billion high-speed rail system. I don't know very much about very much, but when I first heard this without numbers the first thing that popped into my head was "how many people are queuing up for a better way to commute from San Francisco to LA... apart from the Governor?" People in Northern Califonria and people in Southern California don't even like each other, much less visit that much.

I've seen the traffic in San Francisco and I live with the traffic in the LA metroplex, and if we're going to borrow $10 Billion to improve the commute I think we can do better than giving some guy $10 Billion in walking-around money so he can try to raise the other $30 Billion from the Feds and private investors to try to put in a bullet train between here to there. In fact, this might not be the best year ever for trying to raise $30 Billion from the Feds and private investors because, you know, the global economy is in the tank.

Proposition 10 almost seems rational by comparison. Proposition 10 only asks to borrow $5 Billion; $3.5 Billion to help businesses convert their gasoline powered vehicle fleets to vehicles powered by natural gas, and the rest for research into other alternative energy sources.

Why has T. Boone Pickens picked up the check for this campaign? It might have nothing to do with the fact that he sells natural gas for vehicles, but that's not what got my goat in the first place; what got my goat in the first place was the idea of paying people with borrowed money to make good business decisions. Oil is more expensive than natural gas; how much more incentive do they need to find alternatives? How many of these commercial fleets are even going to be in business next year?

Proposition 10 is only half as expensive as Proposition 1 and it is entirely possible that additional natural gas powered vehicles would get onto California roads in my lifetime (unlike that bullet train), but why in the hell are we thinking about borrowing $15 Billion (another $15 Billion) for either of these projects? Aside from the (lack of) merits of either proposition, $10 Billion isn't going to get that train in, and Pickens already has $3.5 Billion - let him pay incentives.

Connectivity or the lack thereof

Campaign season and I haven't been able to post... but it looks like I might have put that issue to rest for the moment, and I hope to be able to run through the California ballot propositions. Of course, I'm primarily interested in seeing Obama elected, but California politics has this surreal quality that, after 38 years here, still makes absolutely no sense to me.

How did the global economy get into this condition? Well, in California we're running huge deficits, but there are still things we need (and even more things we want) so we've put up a bunch of pork barrel projects to be funded with bond issues because by the time the bonds mature we'll have the money to pay them, right? Right?

More Thoughts on the Bailout

I've been thinking about this bailout thing quite a bit and, although I'm probably no smarter than I was when I started, I'm pretty sure I'm against it.

For one thing, I admit it, I seriously don't like ultimatums. I've always felt that once the ultimatums started then sooner or later we were going to get to "or else" and so we might as well get on with it.

For another thing, I don't believe the doomsayers. Bankers bank. I don't believe for a second that the finance industry is suddenly going to start burying their billions in their back yards; they're going to invest it - perhaps more wisely but that's not a bad thing. Life will go on and the economy will rebuild on a sound fiscal footing instead of the Potemkin villages we've been putting our savings into.

The finance industry might very well wind up having to write off a trillion dollars in bad loans they never should have made in the first place, but that's what happens when you make bad loans. My 401 may turn into Monopoly money until stocks recover, but that's what I get for letting boneheads hold my retirement nest egg with no oversight. If we give these people, for instance the former CEO of Goldman Sachs who didn't see a trillion dollar loss coming while he was there up until a few months ago, $700 Billion to cover their current bad debt ceteris paribus why are they not going to just run up another $700 Billion in bad debt?

Threats irritate the crap out of me, and I don't want to embark on the rest of my life waiting for the other shoe to drop. Let's call in the markers and get this over with once and for all; and let's do what's necessary to prevent this from happening in the future.

Things I Guess I Don't Understand: Economics

Okay, is this whole bailout thing one last big grasp for the money before the elections? I ask this because otherwise I don't understand it.

I understand why people want to stay in their homes, including people who financed their homes with loans they had no realistic expectation of repaying. I get that.

I understand why the people who packaged and made those loans, and then bundled and sold and resold those loans don't want to get left holding the sack. I get that.

I don't get why (or how) those of us minding our own business trying to live responsible lives are supposed to give the people who created this cluster-fuck at least three quarters of a trillion dollars that we don't have to get them off the hook. I know that I'm not very smart, but I'm pretty sure that's stupid. We didn't have the money we used to buy an 80% interest in AIG, and now we're going to borrow $700 Billion (from our enemies) to try to cover the current crop of mistakes made by the very same institutions we want to prop up?

Listen, I wouldn't give anyone appointed to anything by George W. Bush change for a parking meter, much less co-sign for $700 Billion.

A Word for HM3 Eichmann A. Strickland

Hospital Corpsman Third Class Eichmann A. Strickland, 23, of Arlington, WA, died September 9 of injuries suffered when his vehicle hit an IED in Afghanya Valley, Afghanistan.
Doc Strickland was assigned to Combat Service Support Detachment 36, Iwakuni, Japan. He was deployed with an embedded Marine Training Team to Afghan Regional Security Integration Command Central. Part of his job was training Afghani soldiers how to treat wounds.
After his service, Doc Strickland wanted to become a physician assistant and become a medical missionary to Africa.
Semper Fi

It Can't be September Already

Things have been a little hectic lately. For awhile on Friday I didn't know if I was taking my younger sister to my baby sister's for Labor Day or driving a Red Cross Emergency Response Vehicle to Texas. (I wound up going to my baby sister's, but I got so flustered that I left her birthday card and present behind - her birthday was Friday.

This Wednesday I was supposed to drive a van with five other Red Cross people to San Jose for a Disaster Readiness Conference but we're down to four people in a car now. Happily for us and for the people along the Gulf Coast it doesn't look like the conference will be affected by Gustav. Anyway, this will likely be my post for the week.

The Thing About Oil

Here's the thing: we're running out of oil. For the near-term new drilling isn't going to help; it's going to take years to bring in the first new oil. For the long-term new drilling is just grasping at straws because we're running out of oil. My advice? Get over the oil and get busy on alternatives.

Up in Santa Barbara, which led the charge against off-shore drilling after a nasty spill years ago, the Supervisors want to allow drilling now. The Government (Minerals Management Service of the Dept. of the Interior) estimates there are perhaps 5.7 billion barrels of oil to be had between Point Conception and Mexico, and the folks in Santa Barbara are having Jed Clampett dreams.

The problem is that, according to World Watch, global demand for oil was almost 86 million barrels a day in 2007, over 20 million a day for the U.S. Assuming that it all comes in with no hitches whatever, we're talking about 66 days worth of oil... 275 days if we don't have to share it with anyone else. What are you willing to destroy for nine months of oil? How hard will you fight to keep from sharing it? What will you do next?

Sadly we've become such passive consumers that we're willing to believe that the oil companies know best about oil... like the insurance companies know about health care. They're in the oil business and they know about making money. Remember a few months ago when they found the leaks in the pipeline coming out of Prudhoe Bay? Pipelines need maintenance? Who knew? Supervisor Brooks Firestone thinks technology will prevent a replay of the 1969 spill because he has blinders on.

There are people running for office who are willing to stand watch while international oil sucks the last bit of blood out of every square inch they can get to and then two things are going to happen: that oil is going to get sold to the highest bidder on the world market, and then the biggest shareholders will sell their shares at the top of the market and move on to the next market leaving you on your bicycles with a scorched earth.

Deal with it.

"Armed Men Were No Threat to Obama"

I mean to write a few words about off-shore drilling, but first I have to ask what in the hell is going on in Colorado. Here's a suggestion if we're going to continue the trend away from "nominating conventions" toward coronations: have it in a safe place.

These three knot-heads... meth-heads actually... get busted with rifles, ammunition, body armor, disguise materials... oh, and they're white supremacists... and they confess to a "crude" plan to take advantage of Obama's planned Thursday night acceptance speech at Invesco Field to kill him. What do you think happens? Nope, not in Colorado!

The U.S. Attorney there, a guy named Troy Eid out of Jack Abramoff's old law firm appointed in 2005, says their plan wasn't good enough to succeed so he's just going to file weapons charges. "We're absolutely confident there was no credible threat..."

We live in an environment where if you sit in an airport discussing why "comb" is pronounced one way, "tomb" another way, and "bomb" yet another... yeah, your butt's in the slammer for awhile. Three skinheads blow into Denver with weapons and a dream, and that's just three crazy guys on meth in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Seriously people... no more neo-fascists for a while, okay?

People With Challenged Judgment Running for President

Suddenly there are at least a half dozen things I want to vent about here, but first I think I need to talk about Senator John S. McCain, III. I've given John McCain a pass for the last 35 years because of his experiences as a POW. I think we're past that. John McCain questions Barack Obama's judgment, and it occurs to me that peope in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

I'm not sure what it is about the way McCain dismissed his first wife, Carol, that pisses me off. I'm not a particularly nice person at times, and I've done things I'm not proud of certainly. I can easily see how his life sucked from October, 1967, into March, 1973; but she held up her end keeping a house and raising three kids by herself not knowing if she'd ever see him again. If that's the way he treats a woman like that then how on earth can anyone trust him?

Five Senators were exposed in the Lincoln S&L scandal in 1989; one of them was my Senator, Alan Cranston. Two of them, John McCain and John Glenn, were bulletproof while the other three ended their Senate careers at the end of their terms. Senator McCain was criticized by the Senate Ethics Committee for poor judgment (as was Senator Glenn).

John McCain is supposed to have written "I would very much like to think that I have never been a man whose favor can be bought." Well, he can think anything he wants, but dumping a good woman for an heiress whose father is connected and enjoying the favors of lobbyists and fundraising from them while ostensibly campaigning to limit their access has the taint of corruption.

Senator McCain, I've come to terms with who and what you are. I don't even care anymore whether or not you've boinked Vicki Iseman because it doesn't matter; that's your wife's problem. I question your judgment. Moreover, I question your character.

Happy Birthday, Millie!

Sending my best wishes to Millie Garfield of My Mom's Blog for a fantastic birthday today, and for many more years of good health and great happiness!
Many thanks for sharing your life with us... and for teaching us a little Yiddish!

Millie, I have enjoyed your efforts.

A Word About the Trial at Gitmo

I've said before that the way we treat others, even our enemies, says more about us than about them; we do what we do because of who we are, not because of who they are. The issues of citizenship and territorial boundaries are not mentioned in the Bill of Rights; it's about people and how we, as Americans, treat them.

Yesterday Senator McCain reportedly said, "The fact that the jury did not find Hamdan guilty of all of the charges brought against him demonstrates that the jury weighed the evidence carefully," That's enough? I'm sorry, Senator, but isn't that a little like saying that, because they didn't kill you, the North Vietnamese didn't do so bad?

We're supposed to be the good guys in this picture. I'm not sure that lip service to the Constitution and violation of the Geneva Conventions is the way to go.

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

I haven't been having that much fun, but time has gotten away from me.
I did renew my lease here once again, and I've been trying to find a comfortable, productive niche for myself. I've been more active in the local community and training for CERT. I have more Red Cross training on the calendar in the coming weeks.
I've been tinkering with a piece on health care financing issues (I'm certain that the figures being tossed around for Universal Health Care are hugely inflated by corporate interests) but I haven't made the time to put it together.
The 2008 presidential election leaves me wishing for better choices, and California politics... why is it that in this blue state there are no standout Democrats? Is it simply that, with their gerrymandered districts, they don't need to do anything?
Welcome home, Sean at Doc in the Box!

Sentient Beings and Their Sacred Cows

I'm having a moment of frustration with the way corporate media and politics can totally bury the lead and change the conversation. General Clark didn't say that Senator McCain wasn't a military hero; he said that a fighter pilot, however great he was as a tactician or heroic in combat and in captivity, isn't necessarily any better or more knowledgeable in global strategic planning than someone who sat out the war entirely. (Witness the lack of military backgrounds in Department of Defense civilians.)

In a country in which W. gets elected to the presidency twice, and Arnold gets elected governor of California twice, one wonders when or if people will ever wake up and appreciate the mess we're in. What will finally be their inducement to recapture the patriotism of their forefathers, or will they finally just submit.

We're talking about the future of mankind and we're talking about it like we're in junior high school... a poorly performing junior high school.

Reflection on Mortality

My baby sister's mother-in-law's birth anniversary was June 19th. Gemma was a real spitfire, blind as a bat from her diabetes but she hardly ever missed a thing going on around her. Despite her diabetes and complications from it, she was totally aware and engaged and retained a keen mind. She was plain-spoken, totally without guile, and if she liked you she was fiercely loyal. This was the first birthday that her family had to observe without her.

On Wednesday I got a call from my step-brother telling me that his mother had passed away. I only met her in 2004, but everything about her was warm and genuine. She and my step-siblings opened their homes, shared family history with me freely, and I left the next morning with the strong sense that I had just spent the previous day with family. Bernice, in particular, just radiated compassion and, although I have no doubt she had a temper, it has been that loving compassion that I remember every time I think of her.

Today I finally had time to catch up on some blog reading and I learned that Joycelyn Ward, Maya's Granny, has passed as well. I never met her in person, but her writing was so clear and engaging that you have to imagine that she spoke just as she wrote. Of course, she was a Berkley liberal which was initially intimidating to an Iowa farm boy, but she was so articulate and clear in her thinking and writing that I always enjoyed what she had to say, even on the rare occasion when I couldn't agree with it.

Finally, I've been reflecting on mortality. Of course children must expect to lose their parents one day, but these three women were so full of life that it seems impossible that their lives have been lost to us.

I am reminded of a conversation I had with a friend a few years ago regarding her grandmother, and she told me that her grandmother had promised that she'd live forever. Her grandmother passed away, of course, as we must, but her legacy remains very much alive in the way my friend relates to her daughter and her daughter to her friends. Gemma's influence has been imprinted on her son and on my sister, and Bernice obviously gets a lot of the credit for how her children and grandchildren have turned out so far.

It occurs to me that what dies is the body. The love that emanated from each of them does live on, if not forever then at least indefinitely, in the lives of those they touched and in the lives we, in our turn, touch. I think people like Gemma and Bernice and MG don't die unless we let them die, unless we turn away from the gifts they left in us.

There are people I've forgotten, and perhaps I'll be forgotten (that's not for me to say), but there is a piece of Joycelyn Ward in me that I hope I never lose touch with.

Update: Winston Rand... He was a pretty good guy.

A Word for Hospitalman Dustin Kelby Burnett

Hospitalman Dustin Kelby Burnett, 19, of Fort Mohave, Arizona, was assigned to First Marine Division Detachment, Twentynine Palms, California.

Doc Burnett died June 20, 2008, when an IED exploded near his vehicle in Farah, Afghanistan. There's more about him in this article.

Semper Fi

A Word for Hospitalman Marc Retmier

Before I get too invested in talking about my "summer vacation," I have two other posts to do.


Hospitalman Marc A. Retier, 19, of Hemet, California, died June 19, 2008, of wounds suffered in a Taliban rocket attack on his unit while caring for Afghan civilians in northern Paktika, Afghanistan.

Doc Metmier was stationed at National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland, and was assigned to Provincial Reconstruction Team Sharana in Afghanistan. There's more background on him in this article.

Semper Fi

Thoughts About Retirement

Ronni Bennett posed a series of questions about retirment at Time Goes By this morning, and it happens that retirement - whatever that means - has been almost constantly on my mind for the past few years.

Actually, I've been telling people for years that I'm a retired Navy Chief Hospital Corpsman because it's true and because it's preferable to admitting that I've spent the third quarter of this life shuffling papers for a medical management company. It's not like working for the IRS and it's paid the bills, but there is not much fulfillment from it. In the past four years I have made choices that have kept me from leaving this job and California, but almost certainly in 2009...

You'd have no reason to remember that back when Ronni was choosing between Portland, ME, and Portland, OR, I was trying to use logic to decide where I wanted to land when I retired (because I really have no roots anywhere). I drew a little circle around the area between Asheville, NC, and Great Smoky Mountain National Park, but it turns out that thousands of other retirees were drawing similar circles on their maps at about the same time, many of whom have already moved there. The idea of getting a Class C motorhome and living a more nomadic life has suffered a critical $4/gallon setback.

I've thought a lot about how I want to live the fourth quarter of this life. (It amuses me to refer to this time as the fourth quarter of my life although no male Babb has celebrated his 70th birthday since my great-great-grandfather.) When I leave here I'll have sufficient means to subsist which I recognize as a blessing; so my goal is to do work that is fulfilling... work that matters. I miss that from the second quarter. Toward that end, I've been volunteering with Red Cross Disaster Services for the past several months, and I have to say that is really working for me so far: I'm going out on local disaster calls (house and apartment fires so far), I can drive the ERV (Emergency Response Vehicle), and they're letting me train other volunteers in Disaster Services. That's like a fulfillment trifecta.

If I could find paying work that is at least as worthwhile as what I'm doing with the Red Cross, I'd sure consider it. My dream job would be to go back to school to become a Physician Assistant because I miss patient care a lot, but at this point I'd have to start from scratch. I'm up for that, but who gives student loans to guys in their 60s? Advocating for returning military wounded sings to me, but I'm not sure that working with the Veterans Administration bureaucracy does. We'll see.

Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each. - Henry David Thoreau

Happy Birthday, Maya's Granny

It was good to read a post typed by Joycelyn Ward's hands this morning (Maya's Granny); and just in time for her birthday, too.
Best wishes for a great day, for your full and early recovery, and for many healthy and happy years to come.

Belated Birthday Wishes for Kay!

Belated best wishes to my friend and fellow elder blogger, Kay Dennison (Kay's Thinking Cap)! Her birthday was yesterday.
If you got here without having visited there a) what are you doing here; and b) swing over there when you get a chance. She's a good read.
Sorry, Kay!

Happy Birthday, Ronni!

I want to wish my blogger hero and role model, Ronni Bennett of Time Goes By, a very happy birthday today. Ronni is one of the hardest working bloggers I'm aware of, with a new blog offering almost every day and almost every one is informative and/or meaningful.
Thank you, Ronni; and Happy Birthday!

Getting Back to the Blog

I have to say that losing John Edwards has taken a lot of the wind out of my sails. I know I have historically been sporadic in posting, but it's 2008 and I have nothing left to write about in February. John McCain promises not to change anything, Hillary Clinton hasn't changed anything but says she wants to start, and I seriously doubt that Barack Obama has the political chops to change anything.
John McCain hurts my heart because (despite the Keating scandal) he's been someone I respected, and now it's painful for me to watch him. I'm reminded of how I felt when Admiral Stockdale stumbled so badly through the VP candidate debates several years ago.
I have a couple of posts working and I hope to get at least one of them out within a couple of days. It won't be anything like Kay's series over at the Thinking Cap... as I've said before, I am not comfortable sharing the fruits of my introspective efforts (and, yes, that has been a topic of discussion with more than one of my exes). I respect folks who are willing and able to do that, and it might be healthy if I did it, but... seriously... no. With me you get superficiality.
Keeping good thoughts, for Maya's Granny. Update here.
Namaste

Thank you, John.

John Edwards has suspended his campaign.
My first reaction was of disappointment; I really thought this might be when we start to turn things back around in America... and maybe it will be, but it's less likely now. I don't know what precipitated his decision to withdraw today, six days before Super Tuesday with absentee ballots already in the mail, but I give him the benefit of the doubt; I owe him that.
The watchword of his campaign is "Tomorrow Begins Today," and that resonated with me; we don't have to, nor should we, wait until January, 2009, to change America. Since my association with his One Corps organization I've stirred myself to spend a hot day on a Habitat for Humanity build site, I've started getting out on Sunday mornings and helping to set up the Arlington West site in Santa Monica, and I've become a Red Cross Disaster Services volunteer. Having been inertially challenged all my life, I owe John and Elizabeth Edwards a huge debt of gratitude.
I'm not going to campaign for Barack Obama... I still don't know how much of him is sizzle and how much is steak... but I wish him well and I hope there's something to him. For John and Elizabeth, fair winds and following seas.

"All I know is what I read in the funny papers."

I want to mention "A Town Called Dobson" to whomever might be passing through here. January 22nd's post sang to me, of course, but it's usually right on the money from my point of view.
Go see what you think of it.

None of My Damn Business

Today, of course, is the 35th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade. My comment here will be brief:
I believe that a woman's body is her own; it is not for me or for anyone other than that woman to decide whether or not she may terminate a pregnancy. There is a line, I think, between abortion and infanticide later in a pregnancy, but I don't think it's for me to say that conception defines a woman and her available choices regarding her person. I am eternally thankful that my daughter made the choice that she did, but I am also thankful that she had the choice.
Check out this post by Maya's Granny.

When I Was Young

It's been a long time since I've consciously dredged up memories from my 26th year, but both Ronni Bennett and Kay Dennison have posted a meme to list five things we never thought, at age 25, that we would become. It took me back.
I don't remember June, 1972, although I'm reasonably sure drinking was involved. (If I've ever been a role model, it was not in my 26th year.) I was assigned to the air wing about to deploy again in USS Ranger, so there would have been significant predeployment activity as well as working in the medical records room at the Branch Clinic. I did get married for the first time in August... don't ask... and then in September we were embarked and underway for nine months.
Deployments at that time were broken up between time in Subic Bay for refitting and time in the Tonkin Gulf... primariy in the north... incentivizing the Vietnamese to negotiate with us. To make a long story short, we appeared to have been effective because by the end of January the Paris Peace Accords had been signed. I have to say that standing out in the middle of the flight deck during flight operations with a small first aid kit seemed a little nuts, but after the cease-fire I was able to play a little. One night I helped change out a CSD and generator in a F-4J Phantom II, and the damn thing just flew and flew; but we did some good medicine out there, too.
In February, 1973, we visited Hong Kong and, on the last day there, I was to take the Advancement Exam for Chief for the first time. Basically all I had to do was show up on time and sober and I had a shot at making Chief in eight years; but I didn't do that, of course. Later that spring we visited Singapore and crossed the Equator, and finally stopped in Yokosuka on the way home.
1. I never imagined that I would be married three more times or end up alone. I was not surprised that X-1 and I didn't remain married, but I retained the illusion that I could commit and settle down. (I just wasn't ready yet.)
2. I never thought I would wind up as an administrator. If someone had told me that I would argue myself out of a PA school seat in 1981 to take an admin slot in San Diego, I'd have said they were nuts. I never thought I wouldn't be able to find a job doing what I loved.
3. I never thought I would live in L.A. county. Honestly, the future was not a huge priority with me, but San Diego people don't move to Los Angeles. It did not occur to me until much later that finding a job in San Diego might prove to be a challenge. By 1972, going back to Iowa was just out of the question.
4. I never thought I would clean up. I never thought I would run, and I sure never thought I would run a marathon, but I wound up finishing four before I broke my leg in 2005. I smoked like a chimney and drank like a fish at 25; but I was pretty skinny. When I thought about it at all, I thought I might be the guy wandering around the Gaslamp early on Sunday mornings.
5. Of course, I never imagined the internet in 1972. I never thought I'd have conversations with people on four continents; this has been an extraordinary gift. In the same vein, I never imagined most of the technologic advances in medicine... fiberoptics, laparoscopic procedures, nano-technology... and now that we can do some of these things, we still tend to avoid the larger question: Should we?
That's all for now. I'm not comfortable looking back; it's enough to know that I screwed up without dwelling on it.

A Word for HM3 Mark R. Cannon

Petty Officer Third Class Mark R. Cannon, 31, of Lubbock, Texas died Oct. 2, 2007, from a gunshot wound to the chest while conducting combat operations in Kunar Province, Afghanistan.
Doc Cannon was a hospital corpsman assigned to 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, Marine Corps Base Hawaii.
Semper Fi.

In Memory of HM2 Charles Luke Milam

Petty Officer Second Class Charles Luke Milam, 26, of Littleton, Colo., died September 25, 2007, while conducting combat operations in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.
Doc Milam was a hospital corpsman assigned to 2nd Marine Special Operations Battalion, Camp Lejeune, N.C. He graduated from Columbine High School in Littleton in 1999, the year of the shootings, and enlisted that summer. He had served three tours in Iraq before deploying to Afghanistan this time.
Semper Fi.

I Can't See from Where I Sat

I know I said I was going to blog over there from then on; however, stuff happens.

I don't know whether it's WordPress or Globat, but "The View From Where I Sit" is offline at least for the time being. As I think about it, I'm probably okay with that because I'm okay with Blogger, but I hope I can at least recover some of the posts and the non-spam comments.

A Little Perspective on the War in Iraq

A hat-tip to Sean Dustman at Doc in the Box for pointing me to the blog post that Andy Olmsted left behind.

Andy died of wounds from small arms fire in As Sadiyah, Iraq, on January 3, 2008. He left behind his wife and his parents.

I think he spoke for a lot of men and women when he wrote:

I'm a soldier and I know that sometimes you have to fight if you're to hold onto what you hold dear. But in making that decision, I believe we understate the costs of war; when we make the decision to fight, we make the decision to kill, and that means lives and families destroyed. Mine now falls into that category; the next time the question of war or peace comes up, if you knew me at least you can understand a bit more just what it is you're deciding to do, and whether or not those costs are worth it.

Semper Fi, Andy.