Life or death for Saddam?

When confronted a right-to-life advocate is usually flummoxed with the assertion, “than you are against the death penalty, am I right?” This is a problem for many if not all right to life advocates, because while Terri Shivo deserves to get every opportunity to live, even after she is clinically dead, and unborn fetuses have rights even living people don’t have, convicted felons should not be allowed to live. And why do we feel we have the right to execute them? Because, they are bad people.

The problem that I have, as an anti-death penalty person, is every once in a while a really bad person comes along that my gut tells me probably should die. However, my convictions tell me there are no exceptions. If there is person that should die it is Saddam Hussein, the notorious and convicted former president of Iraq.

Let’s face it outside of the fact that he was deposed as the leader of his country by an illegal invasion and that his trial was questionable, there is not a lot to like about this guy and many people, his own people, will be happy when he stretches the rope.

I submit that this is the very reason that the death penalty is wrong. It’s wrong because its premise is that the person that is being executed is guilty of such terrible crimes that their life should be taken from them. Usually the crime is taking of someone elses life, so we get down to an eye-for-an-eye kind of logic that most people agree is senseless. What is really at work here is justice for the victim and the survivors. What we would call it, if we weren’t trying to justify it, is vengeance. The law then makes everyone in our society complicate in the execution. The question is, are we as a society becoming what we are executing, a murderer?

I’m sorry. I know Suddam and Bundy and any number of people qualify as being corrupted enough and dangerous enough that we need to make sure that they never walk free again, but killing them is just a momentary feel good solution to a problem we don’t really understand. Is it better to realize every morning you wake up that you will never be free or realize you’re going to die? Most people given that there is no hope would sooner or later chose death. And if they did not choose death, is there anyone who would trade places with them. I submit that life imprisonment without hope of freedom is probably the most deserving of punishments for a Saddam Hussein.

Let him observe the people he has tortured and the survivors of those he has murdered recover from his torment and prosper, while he lives a life of waste and hopelessness. In the mean time we do not appear to the world as the executioner.

Almost no free western society approves of the death penalty. And though we can claim that the Iraq government will execute Saddam, we will be held accountable throughout the Moslem world if he dies. We don’t need to put another sharp stick into that hornets nest. So, if for practical reasons if not moral, we should object to the execution of Saddam Hussein

Is Wisconsin a right to drive state?

I was listening to the radio this morning. It seems that the gloves are off regarding the enforcement of the child booster safety seat. State and local police are warning drivers of increased attention and rigorous enforcement. A fine of one hundred and sixty nine dollars will be assessed on anyone with children in the car that doesn’t have the child in an approved safety seat.

I think it’s a good idea to have kids in safety seats. Grace and Eli, the grandkids I see most often, know how to buckle themselves in so outside of having them in the proper car, (Mom’s v Dad’s), there is a hardly issues of time or trouble.The kids are safer. I am not one of a few people I’ve met that are convinced that even wearing seatbelts is a violation of civil liberties and seat restraint use is more dangerous than not using them. These beliefs are fueled by the never-go-away stories of people who can’t get out of cars that are upside down in a river or in flames on the side of a busy highway. To some these events seem to defy the odds and make it safer not use seat restraints and risk being launched through your windshield after a relatively low speed head on collusion, which is far more common.

On the other hand the punitive nature of enforcement again falls harder on the people who can least afford the seats in the first place. If this is a burden on poor families it is certainly one of the few regarding driving in the state of Wisconsin.

Wisconsin has the one of the lowest vehicle registration rates in the upper Midwest. We have no toll roads in our state. Our highways are essentially built and maintained by money collected through the fuel tax, which makes it a de facto user tax. If you don’t use much gas you don’t pay into the fund, but the streets and highways are there for you to use at any time.

Probably the biggest issue regarding the economy and access to the highway in Wisconsin is the lack of mandatory insurance. If you are involved in an accident with an uninsured motorist, no matter how little your actions may have contributed to the accident, you may end up paying.

You will pay in two ways. First unless you take the individual uninsured driver to civil court and sue for the amount of your deductible, you will pay it. Second, any accident will end up as an increased premium on your policy. Mr. or Mrs. Uninsured driver may end up paying for the entire damage to their car, but let me point out that people that do not insure themselves for automobile losses do not usually drive expensive vehicles and may just junk the remains and buy another low cost car rather than suffer the larger repair bill.

My wife and I have had personal experience in this type of incident. Our small truck was struck twice and broken into and vandalized in a three month period. In all three cases, the truck was legally parked. We paid the deductible in all three cases. The insurance company refused to sue the individuals for the amount even though it’s obvious we bore no responsibility for the accidents. Instead their reaction was to cancel our policy forcing us to pay higher premiums to the next company.

All in all, with our weak drunk driving laws and low cost of owning and operating a car in this state, Wisconsin comes off as being a state that would much rather see you driving than not, no matter how responsible you are. Is it that we feel that our citizens have some kind of natural right to drive?

History Boys

When we saw the History Boys on Broadway in NY we had SRO tickets. The play had run its course and was returning to London. Its popularity had not run its course however for last minute tickets just didn't materialize. Last night we saw the movie version of the play done with the same actors.

This tale of a group of middle class boys trying to qualify for entrance into Oxford University is one of those tales that set in the Unite States would have to entail the sports metaphor. There would be a player or a team that for some reason or another couldn't win the big one. There would be coach that was lost in his own life unable to coach or his methods were so controversial that he was out of the mainstream of conventional belief. All of these elements are included in this story, but its set in a preparatory school classroom.

But the Brits have a facility to understand the up from under tale without a ball being involved, Bend it like Beckham, not withstanding. We have the old school professors, one male and one female that have brought their charges to the brink of being accepted at the most prestigious university in the country, possibly the world. The headmaster, thinking of what it would mean to the school, to say nothing of his career, to get even one of his students accepted can't stand pat. He brings in a younger teacher to give these young men his tough love approach to preparing for the process of being qualified.

Each of the boys bring a slightly different angle to the challenge. Their race, intelligence, outlook, sexual orientation and appearance all work to allow you to identify with everyone of these kids as some one you might have gone to school.

The teachers also represent a broad spectrum of academic thought. The classicist, Hector, the pragmatist, Irwin and the feminist, Mrs. Lintot all form and inform their charges in their own unique and, as it turns out, useful ways. They produce young men with aggressively curious and skeptical minds.

Their is one scene that has to typify the whole film. The boys have studied, debated and rehashed every conceivable piece of information they could anticipate being part of the test and interview process. The three instructors set up a mock interview to prepare them. During the interview, Mrs Lintot rises and asks if they were prepared to be interviewed by a woman. She goes on to say that the difference is that only women know that the truth and the truth is that, history is the record of five centuries of male ineptitude and as such women might look at things a little differently. This scene shows the boys and us is that no matter what we know until we have looked at it from some elses viewpoint we will never know all we need to know.

As in all of these tales while it affirms the necessity of going forward and changing with the elevation of Irwin and the marginalization of Hector, it also shows the value of evolution rather than revolution. In this case however, right wins out when an enterprising student, who already recognizes the value of both saves Hector for another day.

While it may be interesting when we see a film about an actual event to follow up and see where the participants are today and what they are doing and this method is used commonly. I am thinking of the film about the US Hockey team that beat the Russians, Miracle, 2004. In the case of History Boys, the characters are fictional and this follow up was done to point out the possibilities. The results of their education did not necessarily fall into the cliche slots one might have expected and the death of one them was a chilling reminder that as I write intelligent, strong and good young people are dying. As it was the lot of teachers was not a happily ever after either, but than, that is how real life proceeds

As a reflection of life this play and the movie version show us that education is worth it for the whole of us not just the employable part of us that produces money and that service in the cause of education can be fulfilling even if it's not necessarily understood or appreciated.

Why should we trust W?

Here we go. The talking heads are softening us up for the next great theory of the enemy and how we deal with our involvement in Iraq. Let me preface my remarks. I do not think that the real terrorists are some how romantic reincarnations of the revolutionary forefathers of our country. They are thugs out and out. They are being used by powers much bigger than themselves as mercenaries in a world wide contest for power and prestige. The United States has the big target on its back because we are the biggest game in town.

On the other hand, we now know that to defeat this kind of force we need to selectively attack them in their holes and camps, not attack whole countries. Our efforts in Iraq have done nothing but hurt us in our effort to deal with terrorists of any stripe. Than there is the definition of insanity, which is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.

In an effort to look as if we are not standing in the middle of the highway blinded to inactivity by the lights of an on coming truck, we ponder our future. This next move is being run up the pole by the pundits, columnists and self appointed experts. After years of sending a lean mean force into Iraq, we are admitting, not that we were wrong, but the situation on the ground has changed such that we need more troops in Iraq. We are being assured that these troops would be a short term run up merely to secure Baghdad and the surrounding area until the Iraq army and police forces can be brought up to speed so they can take over the security responsibility. The time frame, depending on who you listen to, is two to ten years.

We can't talk to the Syrians and Iranians about helping us because they are the problem in the area and negotiating with them would be admitting we are desperate. The linkage they would demand on other issues for their assistance would be too high a price and not in the interest of the American people.

We can't withdraw unilaterally because the Iraq's are not ready to maintain their own security, therefore and I hesitate to use this characterization, but let's face it, it is what it is, we are going to stay the course.

Election results are behind us. Baker - Hamilton is yesterdays news. We are going to do what Bush always does. We're going to keep on doing the same thing and maybe even more of it until this madman is out of office and we have complete and total change of command. And why would we expect any different? Bush has consistently said one thing and done another and the Democrats have never been able to offer an alternative. Bush the uniter, the decider, the leader will continue to lie to us as long as he is in office.

The Play was the thing

Last night Maria and I were the guests of our friends Carl and Carolyn for a Milwaukee Repertory performance of “Born Yesterday”. The Broadway play was written by the legendary Garson Kanin and opened on Broadway in 1946. The original film was done in 1950 starred Judy Holiday, William Holden and Broderick Crawford. A later remake was released with Don Johnson, Melanie Griffith, and John Goodman.

The great role in this play is the dumb blonde, Billie Dawn, girl friend of wanta-be power broker and thug Harry Brock. Billie, played by Deborah Staples, was both silly and compellingly lovable. She is a former chorus girl and the companion to the selfish, greedy and inconsiderate Harry. As Harry begins to rise in power and influence among the Washington elite, he realizes that Billie is not an asset. Her lack of grace, manners and conversation skills is a problem. He hires a young journalist to “educate” her and smooth out her edges.

The young journalist falls in love with Billie. Because of his desire to spend time with her, he takes his job seriously and perks up her limited but plucky intellect. Billie begins to see life through new eyes and realizes that she is just a tool in Harry’s box of tricks and that in fact he has put her into jeopardy but putting her name on a number of his shady business deals.

The good guys win in the end as the pugnacious Harry spends the last moments of this play sitting on the stage in a state of shock after his confrontation with the young lovers blows up in his face and Billie turns the tables on him. The play’s dialogue is dated and the outcome is pretty predictable, but the theme is timeless and everyone is happy when love conquers all

I Remember

Have patience with an old man today. I had occasion to remember back to when I was younger, much younger. There was a flash of file film showing the Beatles arrival in New York. In the back ground they were playing "Hard Days Night" and than they cut to their appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. I realize that even admitting that you were alive when the Beatles were together makes you old, remembering their first appearance in the U. S. is like admitting you are tantamount to a fossil.

I was working at The Interlachen Country Club in Edina, Minnesota. The Beatles were the rage. If you were over the age of thirty, they were the bane of the nation, the epitome of what was wrong with kids in that day and the foreshadowing of the doom of the nation. But I had heard all of that about Elvis Presley and my father had heard that about jazz and bi-bop. The world was still spinning and the sun still came up.

The Sunday evening of the Ed Sullivan appearance, I was working the main dinning room. We had a fair amount of families dinning. The television set was on in the lounge area. There was no announcement, but just before the mop headed group took the stage and the always stiff Ed Sullivan introduced them, the lounge filled with the curious, concerned and converted.

I can't even remember for sure what they played, but I'll bet "Hard Days Night" was one of them. For weeks after that evening, our Puerto Rican dishwasher would sing that song endlessly. Nobody thought of it at the time, but two things were happening. The Brits were taking over American Music. The Beatles would open the door for The Stones, Clampton, Bowie, Elton John and on and on. And that Puerto Rican kid should have told us that they might take over the world

Community Meeting

My neighborhood had a meeting last night. We filled the local church with proponents and opponents to a “master plan” for the neighborhood retail district. We live in the kind of neighborhood that is rare in most cities. In the typical American city the retail district has moved to a mall on the edge of the old city. The former neighborhood retail centers have morphed into something that provides services to the area, but not such things as groceries, hardware, drug and liquor. We still have all of that, but it is being threatened.

The story is long and sad, but the short version is we had a landlord who neglected the area. Now we have a new landlord and his cure is not going down well with everyone. And that is okay, because the community should weigh in on the decisions that affect them and be part of the solution. The representative of the developer admitted that input that they received from the community had actually effected and improved the plan as it stood last night.

I’m not going to go into the details of the plan, but here is what I observed. The plan is not a simple proposal. It involves the re-facing of many buildings. It requires the moving of a couple of business, the purchase of a city parking lot and the rezoning of a plot to allow the construction of a high rise condo building. It proposes a goal of preserving and improving the residential nature of the neighborhood while improving the environment for the local businesses. Virtually everyone at the meeting said they supported the goal, but there were factions who were opposed to facets of the developers plan.

The biggest problem is the high rise condo. I would be willing to bet that half the people at the meeting would not have felt the need to attend if that issue were not on the agenda. Another small group would have been there in any case because they appear to be opposed any change. There were a number of people that supported the plan. What was interesting about this group is that except for the guy that was willing to stand up and testify, most of them seem almost embarrassed to stand up and be counted. I think that is because to support the plan is to be on the side of the developer and no one should support the landlord.

I was proud to be part of that group of neighbors. Their attendance was inspiring. I don’t agree with all of my neighbors, but I do applaud their need to be involved. Some form of this plan will be negotiated and implemented. It will be the result of consultation and compromise. It will not be the best solution or the worst, because we never know what may have been better or worse for not having been tried. Most ideas are stuck between the nostalgia of some of the neighbors that wish things would never change and others that have no long term ties to the area that are hungry for major change. As a result no one will be satisfied.

The joy of living in the Fozen Northland

I think it was Howard Cossell, the sportscaster on the original Monday Night Football broadcast, who used the term "frozen tundra" when referring to Lambeau Field in Green Bay. We've had enough exposure nationally as a place where ice and snow reign from October through March. If it isn't the late season baseball game, the December football broadcast, it's the national weather people telling everyone what they all know, it gets cold in my neighborhood.

But let me tell you it is not getting as cold as people might think. I ride a moped. I will ride until the temperature is not getting above fifty during the day. That means that sometimes in the early morning, I will be riding in forty degree temperature. With the natural wind chill that can be bone chilling if your not protected.

I have ridden as late as mid-November and there have been days after that that I could have used the bike if I hadn't put it in to storage. This year because of a early cold snap I put it away at the end of October and as a result missed a lot of good days. Last week, they reopened four of the county golf courses. Predictably they were rushed by people that wanted to say they played gold in Wisconsin in December.

I know it's going to get cold here. We will have some below zero nights and days when the wind chill will make it tough to get a round. I love it when we get unseasonably warm weather and people will grin, enjoy it and than worry about "paying for it down the line". Every warm day in December is not an automatic credit to the warm day account that needs to be balanced by a cold day in a month when we might expect warm weather. We do not have to look this gift horse in the mouth. It's just a nice day.

Is global warming effecting our weather in Wisconsin? I think so. As I've written before, my memories are sure no scientific proof that we are getting warmer, but recent records bear out that our winters are not only warmer but dryer. I like to joke that global warming will be a net gain for Wisconsin, but I know it won't help us shake the label as the land of the Frozen Tundra.

The Play is the thing

Last night, Maria and I went to a performance of Mercy of a Storm at the Next Act Theater. Let me say that this theater is one of those theater's that in all probability is struggling to stay open, because it's selections are dramatic not musical, relatively unknown, as opposed to straight from Broadway, and fresh unlike the tried and true comfortable fare one is offered at our more successful Repertory theater.

I am not knocking the Rep. Their performances are beautifully staged and competently performed, but the criticism of their selections is well taken. Mounting Shakespeare is not necessarily the right thing to do and when you do to much classical theater, you might be accused of pandering to an aging and less adventurous audience.
Next Act has consistently amazed us with new scripts that challenge our thinking and emotions. They also tread on subjects that other companies might consider to controversial.

The bigger question is why people aren't drawn to performances that make them think and possibly feel a touch uncomfortable. I wish I could answer that question

The Passing of John Edwards

I went to a Catholic funeral today. I didn't know John Edwards. His sister, Mary is my neighbor. In addition, his parents visit Mary every summer from their home in Naples, Florida. Over the last two years, I have gotten to know Rita and Carl quite well. Mary's brother Mark has visited enough that I thought it was inevitable that sooner or later we would meet the last member of the clan, John. Unfortunately, a bout of throat cancer, the radiation and chemo treatments left John vulnerable to Pneumonia, which sealed his fate. He passed on last Thursday in relative peace with his family near by.

They always say that the quality of your life will be judged by the size of your funeral. If this is true, John Edwards lead a very successful life. Eulogies always exaggerate the positive and eliminate the negative, but even taking that in to consideration, John either fooled a lot of people or was the real thing, because a couple hundred people showed up an a dreary December weekday to console his family.

John was a religious man. I say that because it was mentioned by everyone we talked to that knew him, and the fact that five priests that knew him were on the alter to celebrate his funeral mass. But he must have been one of those fun religious guys as opposed to the stuffy broom up the butt types, because the guy had a passion for the Beatles, that became his talisman.

All in all, when we lose some one close to us we think selfishly of how are lives a reduced in quality because this person is no longer in it. I know that is the way I felt when my Dad died. We also get a scare when we realize that our own mortality is no stronger than the person we have lost. If they can die, so can we.
It's at these times that even the faintest light of religion is fanned to flame, because we all want to believe that there is something beyond this and we will meet the departed in some kind of hereafter.

I felt for the people that stood up to speak well of John Edwards. Some of them had problems with their emotions interfering with their well thought out words of praise, shared memories and condolence for his family. Maybe John is in a better place, but for his own sense of his friends and the love they feel for him, I hope he was in the church today

When my Life is Perfect.

I find that I'm asking myself one question quite a bit lately. The question takes the form of, will my life be better if ... ? What fills in the blank can be a product, such as a new laptop computer, an article of clothing or a relationship.

Do I need that jacket, when I have two or three of them at home. Yes, it will look better on me than the ones I have, but outside of that momentary feeling of satisfaction, will my life be better? Very often the answer is obvious, easy and more often than not the answer is no.

What I'm doing is resisting the impulse to make decisions based on short term gratification versus a thoughtful decision. The other trick I've heard to assist in evaluating a purchase decision is to figure out how long you have to work to earn the money to enjoy the purchase. It's one thing to spend money, it's another thing to think of having to work a number of hours to earn the money to do it.

We are all confronted with relationships that are hard to maintain because of time and distance. In relationships the thought process is more complex to be sure, but often you find that you are expending a lot of time and effort to maintain a relationship with people that aren't willing to do the same for you. There can be reasons for the unbalance, but for the most part the answer will be obvious. If to many promises to keep in touch that go broken, it can tell you that the person is well intentioned in the promise, but not sufficiently motivated to follow up. And it may be that getting together once and a great while to catch up is all you can expect and that in itself might be reason enough to hang on. Realizing the boundaries of your relationships can go a long way to relieve the stress of spinning your wheels in a situation that is never going to change regardless of your best intentions and efforts.

Will my life be better? And what is the cost? Two good questions to ask if you want to ... well, make your life better.

Hunks with Hammers

My wife has an addiction to HGTV. Specifically, she TiVo's anything that has to do with remodeling and redesigning of homes. I have a name for the whole genre of HGTV remake and remodeling shows: "Hunks with Hammer's." While watching these programs with her, I began to deconstruct them. I soon realized that they are put together like a modern film drama or sitcom. The elements are all there. They feature compelling characters with a conflict to resolve. They have sex, violence, and intrigue; although I must admit the intrigue element gets a little thin.

Every drama has something like a ticking clock: there is usually a time constraint on the rehab job. The plot goes like this: Rita and John have two weeks to remodel their home before the realtor conducts an open house. Often part of the premise of the show is that the designers are challenged to finish in a day, two days, or some such constraint. In some cases, if they don’t get the job done they won’t sell the house for the maximum amount of money and, well, they fail. Failure in the other cases is a matter of pride. But as with most movies made in Hollywood, there is always a happy ending.

The latest version of the timeline challenge goes like this: Jim has given himself six weeks to remodel his house before he flips it. Flipping is the new way to make lots of money in a short amount of time, now that IPO’s and Internet companies are out of vogue. Flippers buy a home in distress, improve it, and then sell for a profit.

What is the consequence of failure? It is not recovering the cost of remodeling in the sale, or the client being unhappy with the redo that has been accomplished in less than twenty-four hours for less than (you fill in the blank) dollars.

The cast features a client in distress. The conflict is usually the client’s inability to solve a redecoration problem because he doesn’t have the time, money, or talent to do it. So in steps the designer or knowledgeable host with the solution. Knowledgeable hosts tend to know just the person who can solve the problem, or, in one scenario, three designers compete for the right to do the job.

Once the course of remedy is planned, the hunks with hammers, as I call them, arrive to do the real work. This is also the sex element and it's not always a guy. For an element of titillation, however, men work better with their tight-fitting jeans and skin-grafted t-shirts, because I'm sure that if the avid female viewer doesn't watch exclusively to enjoy this perk, then the equally large gay audience that follows these things will. Occasionally there arrives a good-looking woman who will sew, paint, or even pick up a power tool to save the day, but this is rare. Often the women in the cast serve as the knowledgeable hosts or called-upon experts.

To up the sex angle, the workers banter flirtatiously amongst each other and with the couples they are working for. In a commonly repeated scene the wife will be paired with Mr. Buff Hunk to be instructed on the proper use of power tools or how to strip paint and varnish off a wood surface.

The violence comes about when they are tearing apart existing structures in order to rebuild. Sledgehammers fly and crowbars crank as the workers trying hard not to disguise their glee while they destroy an entire wall or rip the drywall off an interior wall.

Tick, tock, tick, tock ... Will we get the patio landscaped in time before the couple returns or the open house commences? Will Rita and John get the price they need from the sale of their current home so they can afford to trade up to the bigger home they need for their expanding family?

There are things to be learned from these shows. The general conclusion is simple. If you want your home to look as if it belongs in a magazine, do not live in it. Homes being prepared for sale are staged like a Disney theme park.

Colors are neutral and furnishings are sparse to create roominess and to suggest a lifestyle with which most people cannot identify. Just as in the sitcoms, the decor does not reflect reality but merely suggests the way we see our homes without the strum und drang of living in them day after day.

In reality if you could set your home up to look like the finished product, it wouldn't stay that way long, for as soon as you hung a family portrait or left the press pot on the kitchen countertop,, you would destroy the whole image.

The other conflict element is the money issue. While I would never accuse these people of cheating (if it makes you feel better, you ignore all of the product-placement opportunities, but be reassured that they won't.), the one big thing they ignore is labor cost. The program features trades people who are versatile and talented. They can plumb, wire, and do finished carpentry, but their time and charges are never included in the money that the project is allotted. I'm sure that the show’s featured couple or client never pays a dime, but if you tried to duplicate the effort, you certainly would be required to pay for the labor.

I am always suspicious of some of the deals they get from yard sales, distressed-merchandise retailers, and found scratch-and-dent items. Items seem to be rather conveniently found at the right price when needed.

One show that features a redesign for almost no money relies on finding things the client already owns. While I can believe that almost anyone who owns his own home has scrap lumber in the garage, this designer seems to find bolt upon bolt of just the right fabric for window treatments and reupholstery projects.

What’s the bottom line? If you want your house to have “top dollar” value, first move out and than have a professional interior designer stage it. It needs to have an up-to-date kitchen and bathroom and typically most of the money will go in these areas. Common cheap fixes are window treatments, wall paint, and accessories. Your best bet is to have your own hunk with a hammer, but not every wife is so blessed. Mine certainly isn’t. She tells me that the best tools I have in my toolbox are a checkbook and a pen.

How cold was it?

I suppose I can now put on the badge as an official old coot. To paraphrase Jeff Foxworthy, you know your an old coot when the words "back in the day" start everyone of your stories. But, in addition to that the stories have to some how point out how much things have changed. The snow piles were higher. The temperatures were more extreme. The teachers were stricter. The cars were better. The women were prettier. You get the idea.

I personally do think that winters were colder when I was a kid and I also think if you compared the records you would find out I am correct, but this is a a blog not a newspaper article, so I'm not going to make the effort this morning.

I do remember one winter. It was going to the University of Minnesota, married to my first wife and working full time. That is not bragging. I was stupid to tackle all of that and as a result I didn't do any of them right.
But stupid as it might have been, it was my life. We had an extended cold spell in Minnesota. As I remember it the temperature did not go above 32 for about a month. I had a little Italian car that held two people. The battery was the size of riding lawn mower battery. When the cold moved in I couldn't get the car to start because the battery wasn't strong enough for the cold weather. I would get on my heavy winter clothing, go out to the car, take the battery out of the car and bring it in so it would hold full charge until morning.

Cars in general were not easy to start in those days. People had all kinds of devices to make their cars easier to start. We installed engine block heaters to keep the engine warm over night. Some people would place a light bulb on an extension cord near their battery to keep int warm. Others would throw a rug over the engine the night before when the engine was still warm in an attempt to keep it that way.

Non-the less on extremely cold winter days, tow trucks from every gas station in town would be out helping people get their cars started either by using battery jumper cables or push starting them. (Quite frankly I don't know if you can push start the cars we drive today.)

Push starting involved getting the car into the road, shifting into first or second gear and depressing the clutch. When the tow truck either pulled you or pushed you up to speed you would pop the clutch and usually the car would start.

Of course you would be bundled up to your eyeteeth with winter outer wear. The car would take forever to heat up and when it did all of the snow you tracked into the car would melt and the cabin smelled like wet wool all the way to school or work.

When the cold wave first moved in, I would garb up to get my battery out of the car the night before and to re-install it the next morning. That year demonstrates how we and our cars could acclimate to the weather, because when the extreme cold spell started to break about a month later I was running out to the car in my pajamas with a sweater pulled on and bare headed. The car started easier and sometimes I didn't even have to take the battery in.

Cars with their computerized systems are so much better these days. I haven't seen any body getting a push start in years and the only ones getting battery jump starts are people that probably should get new batteries.
Is it warmer these days compared to when I was younger. I think it is and I might even get up the energy to look it up.

Reading in the Winter

I'm not positive, but I think I read more in the colder months of the year than I do when the weather outside is more pleasant. It would make sense. When it's warmer and the daylight lasts longer there are many other options for my free time. When it's cold, today it is 10 degrees, the temptation to skip the morning walk and cocoon with a novel is often overwhelming. When the tundra is frozen, so to speak, we don't seem to take day trips and go on those excursions that we tend to do when the weather is better.

I have been reading mysteries that are written by authors who are not American. The stories set in Italy are intriguing me at the moment. I just finished a Michael Dibdin. Dibdin has a reoccurring character Aurelio Zen. Zen is cast as the rogue detective who sees his job as the avenging angel. In his personally appointed position of administrator of justice, the law is merely a set of guidelines to be interpreted and tested on a case by case basis. He is comparable to the magnificent Harry Bosch in the Michael Connelly series, Kinsey Milhone in Sue Grafton's excellent Alphabet series or long running champ Spencer from Robert B. Parker's genius mind.

I can't pry myself away from non-fiction, so I usually have one of each going. The political commentary is churning through the system faster than the authors can make the rounds of the talk shows. Yesterdays best seller, have to read is today's old news.

Some things are seemingly forever. I note that one of my early favorites, What Color Is My Parachute, is updated and reissued every year. I used it not to get a new job or to plan my career strategy, but to prospect sales leads and possibilities.

Tom Friedman's, The World I Flat, is been revised for the second time and never seems to leave the best seller list. He may have a franchise.

Everybody wants me to read, Marley and Me, but as long as I have my dog Sadie, I don't need to read a heart warming tale about a man and his dog.

This winter I am looking for new authors. I want to find a new Kite Runner. I want to keep my eye out for fresh talent that keeps getting better with each new book instead of churning out the same old same old with new characters.

It's not how the gift is wrapped

Am I the only one who has no idea what to buy his family for Christmas this year? My older kids are married or in settled relationships, working at well paying jobs, and getting pretty settled. In other words, whatever they want they go out and buy for themselves. The two youngest need everything. For them I could blindfold myself, throw a dart into a Target Store and as long as I missed the kids and women's departments I would have a winner.

The indecision created by to many choices isn't much better than the total lack of choices. The one thing I know is that I can't buy clothes for anybody else. Buying clothes is almost as difficult as ordering for someone else in a restaurant.

Thank God men don't wear ties anymore. It was the default gift for any man over the age of twenty five. Usually, they were, let's just say, not to the taste of the recipient. The tie was usually somebodies idea of getting the guy to free up his spirit and show some color. While they were at it they decided to show all of the colors on one tie.

Women's idea's of what men should wear is an interesting thing to study. My observations and experience is that opposites attract and no where does it express itself better than a women picking out clothes for her man. Now one fact we know and have to face up front. Women dress for other women no matter what phase of the mating cycle they are in. To women clothes are the costume phase of their life drama

Men dress to express their belief in what they are. Guys that live in jeans are guys that regardless of what they do for a living think of themselves as one of the guys who are men's men. They are not "Dockers" guys. Dockers guys believe they are socially and intellectually in a different league. Than there are the guys who wear Lauren and Polo. Well, we know what they think of themselves

It seems to me that way to often women are trying to get a man to dress to satisfy their image of what he should be. Let's look at it as costuming him as the right co-star in her life drama. In the recently popular "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" the make over was most often inspired by the need to impress some women in the guy's life. While I always was amazed and delighted by what they could do to redecorate the guy's apartment, what they did to his wardrobe was scary.

Make-overs for men always include duding him up in almost the opposite style as he was wearing. While the guy would good naturedly accept the new style and the gal would gush over the "New Look", you could tell he would be back in his sweats before the TV lights cooled.

Yes, I know men can be pigs. I do not condone slovenly behavior. But let's face it, a guy who showers, shaves and blows his nose into tissue is fit to live with some woman. I guy who wears a thousand dollar suit and cheats on his mate isn't a bargain no matter how he's wrapped.

Miracles?

There it was on my television screen. A concerned grandparent voicing the opinion that her grandsons, who were co-joined at birth, had been separated by surgery were the embodiment of a miracle. We hear this all of the time. We hear it to the point of the claim becoming nonsensical.

I know that Grandma is happy for her grandsons, daughter and son-in-law. I am sure that the outcome was a long shot from a medical standpoint. The decision to even attempt the surgery must have been fraught with fear and uncertainty. People can believe, if they wish, that the prayers of everyone enlisted by the constant TV coverage and publicity surrounding the young boys surgical separation was a factor in the success. Faith of that kind is a powerful thing.

However, calling every close scrape with death a miracle is just silly. Branding events such as this a miracle is flagrantly ignorant of the facts and the true events. I have to be honest it's beginning to make me unreasonably angry to have the efforts of fine doctors and medical workers brushed aside so cavalierly. It demeans the sacrifice made by all of the patients that didn't survive in the natural acquisition of knowledge that medical science requires. It minimizes the dedication and skill of all of the talented people that contributed to this successful operation.

When something happens we can't explain or understand, we pull out the miracle rationalization. Why do some live and others die? We often don't know for sure, but blaming every success on a miracle is a two sided coin. As a society, we are more than willing to blame the doctors, hospitals and medical industry for their failures by suing them. Maybe the next time a surgery doesn't turn out the way that we hope it should we should just pat the doctor on the back, tell him he tried his best and admit that the miracle wasn't in the cards for this patient.

After the Party

We have carried on the tradition of the "Christmas Tree Cutting Chili Party @ Maria's House". However, we don't cut the fresh Christmas Tree on the day of the party anymore. We actually cut that the week before, because it has to up and decorated for the new "Open House @ Maria and Jeff's" Party.

We no longer serve chili. The menu has morphed into a menu that is more holiday traditional with the inclusion of shrimp, cold cuts and raw vegetable and dips.

The consumption of alcohol has changed. I can't remember the last person who over indulged, although a discrete mate may have saved us from the spectacle. We serve far more soda and wine and noticeably less beer than we did in the beginning. More to the point we serve less of everything

People used to show up dressed for the weather because we were supposedly tramping through the woods in search of the "perfect tree". Now, folks show up in one version of their holiday finniest.

The tradition started in Appleton and featured our friends and neighbors. It became such a fixture on Woodstone Drive that some neighbors thought that our daughter and son-in-law, who bought our house, should continue the tradition in our absence. In our second run in Milwaukee only one of the neighbors showed up and a collection of friends that could only be defined as diverse. These wonderful people are representative of the new people we have met in our various jobs and social contacts in our new home. Booksellers, retailers, board members from Historic Milwaukee, museum workers from Discovery World, Villa Terrace - Charles Allis and our one relative in Milwaukee Terry and Donna, all gathered to met each other and have intelligent conversation. Alright, lets just say the the Packers and fortunes of the deer hunt are of less concern in the city than they were in Appleton.

This tradition is now part of the fabric of this new social cloth we weave in our new home. It helps to make that nostalgic transition from the old one.

Precious Moments

I had about an hour with my daughter this week. She was enroute from a visit with her mother to Montreal where she lives. We met at the airport before her flight.

We didn't talk about anything that profound. We exchange e-mail and phone calls on an eradic schedule. We ddn't talk about many things we don't cover in our other exchanges, but we were together for the first time in years.

I have always been proud and a little bit envious of Mary. She has done much of which she
has wanted to do in life by applying her intelligence and courage to her life plan. She is still youthful in her appearance and outlook on life. This has given her a lot of latitude. If there is a price she's paid for globetrotting and seemingly rootless life it escapes me. She has choosen not to have children, but that is a personal decision that I support and she seems not to regret.

She has a partner that is as dedicated to her as she is to him. She has the family backing her up and she has a glamorous career. Mary has acquired enough life experience and adventure that I find I can learn quite a bit from her, so our relationship has become more reciprocal.

As I wrote her this morning, the only thing wrong with a short meeting, like we had this week, is that it makes me miss not having more of them

Snow Day

We are in the midst of one of those old fashioned blizzards that make our area of the country notorious. We could accumulate in excess of twelve inches of snow by this afternoon. For the record I am writing this a 07:15 CST on December 1, 2006. We had zero snow n the ground when I went to bed at 10:30 last night.

As kids the first thing we would do is turn on the radio or television to find out if the schools were closed. If they were did we go back to bed? Hardly! Parents who have short memories often marvel at the child who can't be convinced to get up and get ready until they can hear the bus pulling up to the stop, suddenly are on the phone at seven thirty planning their day with their friends. These plans don't involve staying home out of harms way, by the way. You can be assured that the snow day that closes schools is a good day for the mall.

For parents the closed school is a huge problem unless they are excused from working. It is not secret that the school serves as educational increment and babysitter for the parents of young children. Child care issues abound when the school is closed. As parents you don't even want to think of the house hold with you at work and you teenagers at home by themselves. Depending on the age and the attitude of the kids, the scene could be a replay of "Animal House".

For adults the snow day can be one of those gifts from nature. Unexpected time to catch up on reading, household chores or who knows maybe writing to your blog, suddenly is laid at your feet. Problem is the reason you're getting this boon is also laying at your feet and someone has to shovel it.

Good way to sell Magazines

I haven't read the article yet, but this months The Atlantic provides us with a list of The 100 Most Influential Americans. Magazines have gotten into this habit of hipping sales with their notorious top ten lists. The ten best restaurants in your city. The ten best places to have a romantic weekend. The idea's go on and on, but one of the reason they cause so much attention is that no one agrees with the rankings except the people that publish them.

Readers will deluge the publication with the kind of letter that starts out."How could you leave (My favorite candidate) off of your list? Or, anybody that would rank so and so ahead of what's his name on a list of the ten best whatever has got to be nuts. This controversy helps circulation and I would bet that magazine covers that announce an article ranking almost anything of topical interest sells better than most.

We Americans are enthralled with the ranking of number one. We agonize over ways to define and prove who is the number one, basketball team, football team, Chinese restaurant, vacation destination, airline, make of car ... . Why we care I do not know for sure, but part of it might be validation. If we own, can identify with or have used the services of the number one ranked entity, does it makes us part of it's success and somehow more worthy?

That is why the other kind of letter that the publications get after they have published their "best" list is the how could you have left off my selection plea. The concern that my favorite restaurant is not even on list, much less not number one, is too much to bear. How can these people be so stupid? Or is it the internal feeling that somehow I am not hip and up on what is happening now?

Than there are the conspiracy theory's. Aren't there always conspiracy theory's? The people that make up the list are only dealing with the possibilities that advertise in the magazine. Or in the case where they poll the readership, that the ballot box was stuffed by the staff and employees of the winner. Or in the case of important personages, the ten most influential people of the 1990's, that political belief's or other prejudice exists.

All of this means little in our everyday lives. It's like reading the box score of the ball game. For a moment you feel good or bad depending on how your team did the night before, but it doesn't ruin your day. It merely gives you something to talk about with your friends. If the list of the top ten places to purchase bar snacks gets you any more excited than that, you either own a bar that's not on the list or you need to get a life.

City Life

Maria and I went to a fund raiser for our alderman last night. Mike is a hard working and strangely humble man considering his chosen profession. His success in this area is evident in the rebirth and re-gentrification of the neighborhoods in his ward. Yet he defers the success of this rebirth to the developers and citizens of the area. This is only right in that it is true they take the risks while Mike's job is to see that "the city stays out of the way." He is right in the idea that buildings and business don't make a community, people do. On the other hand without the business that provide the jobs and services, the community is hallow and stale, just ask people who have realized the sterility and sameness of the suburbs. In and attempt to provide a comfortable and secure environment many "new" communities have become Disneyfied and boring. What many people find they really need to stimulate them are the choices and a diversity of a cosmopolitan life.

City life is different from living in even a midsized city like Appleton. There is much more diversity. And I mean that in the sense of life styles and viewpoints as well as the obvious racial and ethnic diversity. We need to respect each other and allow for these differences in our everyday lives. We have to wear the talisman of our diversity with the idea that not everyone wants the differences shoved in their face. We learn to understand what is real and what is some ones use of diversity to get an advantage they neither deserve or need. We have to think more about the actions we take and the decisions we make.

This allows for a much more stimulating environment. To witness the different life styles and to understand that they are no threat to you or your standing in the community is to become a broader thinker and more tolerant human. The experience widens your world view and might, I say might, change your mind about people you previously didn't understand. Mostly, it debunks the myth and mystery surrounding people and practices that you previously had little exposure. It strengthens the idea that while we are all somewhat different, we have much more in common than we might realize.

This type of thinking allows for a higher density of population to live shoulder to shoulder and develop a sense of community and belonging for all of the people living within the city. Dose Milwaukee have a long way to go? You'd have to be a rabid Pollyanna not to see the gap between our poorer black citizens and the broader community, but I prefer the optimistic view that as long as we address the problems and they are being worked on there is hope. Moving to the suburbs to get away from them does not work.

Passing note

My entry will be short today. A friend of mine passed away yesterday. We always have good things to say about people who die. The reason is simple, the things they may have done wrong become less important than what they did once there is no chance to change things.

Jack's family and we will never now why, suffered it seemed crisis after crisis. Kids with drug problems. Marriages that didn't work out. He and his wife had significant career setbacks. And than there were problems in the immediate family that many of us don't have to deal with including the early deaths of siblings

Pat and Jack ended up in Orlando Florida, which when you consider they started out in Upper Michigan, they really couldn't have gotten any further from home. While it seemed like a fitting reward after a life of dealing with midwestern winters, the last few years of his life he fought cancer and of course the cancer finally won.

To me Jack was a rock in the river. He was the guy that you turned to when you thought that life proffered you a problem you couldn't handle. Jack handled problems with a quiet dignity and ferocious loyalty to those he loved. He will be missed and remembered for his friendship and his strength

It's what they do that counts.

It doesn't make any difference if it's your parents, your boss or a public official, they all say things that they might even mean at the time they say it, but it's what they do that counts.

How many times have you heard the old story of the father telling his kids not to smoke as he puffs away on his ever present cigarette. Parents are aware of their own short comings. Nicotine habits, over eating, not getting enough education are all regrets that many parents have about their own lives. They try to impress on their kids that own choices were wrong. They should have put off having sex. They wish they hadn't married so young. The problem is the family is the reality and the kids don't really visualize the alternative. What would life be like without Dad standing in the garage puffing on his weed? How would life be if mom had received her degree and we belonged to the country club?

My favorite corporate fantasy is the tried and true mission statement with the mandatory part that states, "the company recognizes that it's most important assets are its employees." Of course, and that is exactly why the first quarter that the company isn't going to make its numbers (the expectations of the board of directors for profits), the managers lay-off or terminate large numbers of those very important assets so that the company looks successful.

Politicians! Oh this is an area that is so ripe for cynicism that it's hardly fair, but let me just mention a few. I want to be a uniter not a divider. Compassionate conservatism. I represent the average guy. We need to investigate this matter more closely.

No one is perfect and few people are knowingly dishonest. The situation of being the parent, corporate boss or elected official is not an easy thing. We who are effected have a tendency to lower our expectations of these people. Parents do the best job they can. The boss has to worry about his job. The politician has to get reelected. What we should do is learn that it's not what they say that counts but what they do.

My good wife

I don't want to come off as being patronizing or mushy. Neither of those adjectives is fitting when talking about my relationship with my wife. I love her dearly and she kind of likes me every other day or so depending on how clean the house is and did I do my share of the chores.

(My chores being closely defined as anything that needs doing that she doesn't want to do. By the way, she reserves the right to judge the value of my efforts at any time.)

But there is one thing she knows in her heart and that as a man I have that basic instinct to care for my mate. For instance, she will let me hold doors for her. I can hold the car door for her, but she drives. Evidently my skills as a motorist are insufficient as to engender a feeling of safety.

She allows me to carry heavy things for her, take for instance paint and decorating supplies. She will, of course, select everything we buy because my taste in colors and styles is considered below the standard.

She accepts, grudginly my compliments on her looks and clothing selections. My compliments mean nothing, because of the aforementioned problem of a lack of taste and judgement in such matters, but the effort can get me a pat on the head, not unlike the one the dog gets when it behaves.

She recognizes and permits me the feeling that I am protecting and caring for my mate, by making sure that I don't drive, pick out paint colors and buy her clothing.

I can protect her from me.

Is education the hope of the future?

If we believe, as I so often hear said by politicians, public official and social critic's, that education is the hope of the future, than why are we so loath to provide it. I see three things wrong with our education system. It's underfunded, over managed and expected outcomes are not clear.

Take a look at many school districts and you will find schools that are not providing the basic tools that their students need to learn the skills they need to compete. Hopefully we're past the stage where we feel that if we throw enough computers at a school somehow we've done the job. In almost all of the schools were we did that in the early eighties and nineties, the teachers didn't know what to do with them. Currently the kids in the medium to higher income school have better computers at home than the schools do, but at least in the area of technology the schools are catching up as far as teaching the skills needed. But just like most of the infrastructure in the United States physical plants, the school buildings themselves are falling short of the needs and requirements. A book could be written on the era where we built cheap disposable buildings and put in temporary class rooms that we are paying for today.

If you look at the budget for your local school separate, if you can, the money spent for actually teaching the children vs. the money spent for managing the schools. It is true that a lot of the management time is spent on mandated programs that have little to do with reading, writing and arithmetic, but the sad fact it can be up to 40-45% of the school budget. The value of these programs and this over management is doubtful. It may surprise you how many educators will agree.

Outcomes in public education are all over the place. The public school is not a simple place were children go to learn anymore and maybe it never was. We learn to socialize in school. We learn how to work together in school. We learn how to identify our strengths and weakness's in school. Now we learn diversity, safe sex, anger management and any number of other things that we may have learned at home in the past, but today mom and dad are both working, so we expect that the school will fill that void.

The problem today is if the school fills that void with something we don't like, if it goes against our personal beliefs, religious practice or morals, we reserve the right to complain about it. This is good except when the alternative is to teach our personal beliefs, religious practices or morals at the expense of someone else's interpretation of these matters.

The school today seems to me to be a microcosm of a community. All of the problems and all of the strengths are reflected there. Schools are a mythical place in the minds of parents. They are the place of either fond or painful memories. But most assuredly they are not the reality that their kids face on a day to day basis

Losing the War

I think that we have to face facts. We are losing the war. It isn't the Bush Administration's fault. In fact there is so much blame to go around. We will not know when we've won this war. The rules of engagement have changed constantly. There is graft and corruption in the enforcement component. We hear a lot of rhetoric about the need to continue the fight (think stay the course), yet the latest strategy is not showing any more success than efforts of the past. Most of all, there is no plan for disengagement.

I've written in the past about my distaste for attempting to rally the public to a problem by calling it a war. The war I am talking about above could be the war on poverty, drugs or terrorism. Make no mistake, the "War in Iraq" is not a strategy or good choice for a field of engagement for the war on terrorism. Bush's folly has neither made the US safer from terrorist nor has it made terrorists any less effective in their ability to attack innocent people all over the world. What they haven't done and what has played into the sense of false hope, is to attack again the United States directly.

We fling about the macho word war as if we can rally a consensus on the righteousness of an issue such as the eradication of poverty or the use of illegal drugs. The problem is there is no consensus as to how to eliminate these problems. The latest effort to affect poverty is to redefine the problem to make is seem as if it has been affected. But the truth is that the throngs of working poor, people with part-time or full employment that rise above the federally designated poverty income threshold, has grown. The insecurity of living from paycheck to paycheck and the fear of being one serious illness away from bankruptcy has spread in the face of government inaction to this population and their needs.

The War on Drugs has effectively been a boon to the prison's both public and private across the nation. We incarcerate low level dealers and users while the real captains of this government created industry drive are driving the streets in Escalades. We have not impacted the use of drugs in our society, despite the best efforts of a lot of dedicated and well meaning law enforcement efforts. We could impact this problem immediately if we would face the fact that drug use is a problem, but it is not a law enforcement problem. We made it a law enforcement problem by making drug use illegal and, to make matters worse, required mandatory sentencing. A policy of treatment and decriminalisation of drug use would collapse the illegal drug trade and focus the society on the real problem, people who can not use drugs without abusing them.

If we are going to war, we owe to ourselves omething more than chest thumping rightousness. We need to have sober dialog in order to define the problem. To look without compassion instead of pure passion at problems that delve deep into our society and our conduct as humans. After all, drug problems cross all boundaries of class, race and income in our society and poverty can be inflicted on any one of us, given the right conditions. Many of these problems have no obvious solution, but they all involve our fellow human beings. If we want to be something other than another footnote in history, we must quit fighting wars and start addressing our problems rationally.

Two Ingrediants for Geat Thanksgiving

For me, Thanksgiving was family, food and football in that order. ( I saw the Flutie to Phalen miracle pass on instant replay. I was in the kitchen when it happened.)

But things have changed over the years. It isn't a matter of what we do now is so much different as much as the emphasis and practice. When you commit to a blended family you have to be open to new traditions. We now go to a movie instead of watching football all day. The football we do watch is decidedly professional instead of BC versus the Caine's or Cornhusker's versus Sooner's. Somehow this seems more Rockwellian than The Boys versus The Lions.

And the food has changed a little. I have to make my dressing without meat. We cook more recipes with sweet potato's. I cook the turkey upside down for the first two thirds of the cycle. Brad and I found out that this makes the breast meat more moist and tender.

The things that never seem to change are we never have enough leftovers to satisfy everyone and the green beans in mushroom soup with canned french onion topping has been there forever. Talk about tradition, I slipped some toasted almonds in one year and I will never hear the end of it.

Two things you must have for Thanksgiving are family and food. You can even serve bad food, lumpy potato's, dry turkey and soupy pumpkin pie and get by, but you have to have family. There are so many jokes and horror stories about family holiday gatherings that you might think that I am wrong about that, but you have to have one holiday without your family to know how important it is.

Comedy or Tradgedy?

Great Actors can play any role that is given them. Kevin Kline, Robbin Williams and William Hurt come to mind, as I contemplate men who have played hero's and villains in comedic or tragic circumstances. Than there is the feeble attempts of those who try hard and often for moments are successful at breaking out of the strait jackets we, the viewing public, have placed them in and they ... well, let's just say come up short. In this category Adam Sandler and Chevey Chase are memorable in their failure to connect.

Will Ferrel's recent attempt at black comedy is a film called "Stranger than Fiction". In it he plays Harold Crick a dull IRS agent, who lives his life by counting the brushstrokes as he cleans his teeth each morning and counting the steps he takes to the bus stop on his way to work. When he starts hearing a voice in his head he naturally becomes upset.

The voice is the that of Kay Eiffel, played fantastically by Emma Thompson, who is an author. Kay's books, we discover are considered literary fiction of the highest order and feature ordinary people who die. Harold is her next protagonist. Kay is in deep depression over the fact that while she knows the story of Harold's life, she is blocked on how she wants to kill him.

When the voice tells Harold that he is going to die, Harold becomes upset and goes on a mission to find the voice before it kills him. After consulting with doctors and friends about his condition, Harold winds up on the doorstep of Jules Hilbert, Doctor of Literature, wonderfully played by Dustin Hoffman. Hilbert sets out to figure out who belongs to the voice in Harold's head by analyzing the style and voice of the writer.

While the script is fascinating in it's structure and the supporting roles played by Thompson and Hoffman are done well, Ferrel has trouble breaking out of his slap stick "I can't believe that just happened to me" persona that has made him a star in so many of those junior high school fart joke movies he's made.

I will give him and A for effort. In some of the scenes he shows promise, but over all I not convinced this guy can carry the load of a fully dramatic role. He either has to work harder on his acting skills or go back to falling on his ass and getting the girl in the kind of comedy's he's been so successful at making.

The Value of Learning

I'm often struck by the predominance of belief the education should further us financially. I don't dispute the value of technical or professional education. Practitioners of accounting, law and medicine do need directed training and a background of knowledge and skills. But that isn't all they need.

Many Doctors, for instance, are accused of having a poor bedside manner, which is just another way of saying they don't relate well with people. This can be a personality trait, but it can also be that the training of doctors dose not allow for a widening of their knowledge base or understanding of the world around them. The same can be said for many professions were the participant tends to be focused in to a tunnel vision world view and that would include without any doubt college professors.

A broad, interdisciplinary education may not produce scientists, mathematicians and legal experts as quickly as we might like, but it might produce citizens with a expanded vision of the world around them and a mind set that allows for solutions outside of their narrow view.

I recognize that some people gravitate to professions that might suit their personality and that the stereotype absent minded professor or cold calculating accountant may be over done, but when you talk to some of these people your realize that the life experiences, training and professional environment often leave them incapable of comprehending the reality in the world around them.

The successful business man that thinks that the only thing wrong with government services is that they don't think more like business maybe correct in some facets of operations and attitude, but what he fails to realize is that the thing that is wrong with his business is that it doesn't think like a well run government program. (Take my previous example of private medicine versus the Veterans Administration.) The reason he fails is an inability to think broadly and creatively in any situation that isn't commercial or profit driven.

Education should teach a broad array of things to people particularly in the early years. I believe that the first two years of college should be Major declaration free. How do you know what you want to eat at the buffet table until you've sampled a little bit of many things. If you sample in moderation you will soon know and have room for the things you enjoy and that motivate you.

We are in such a hurry to get going with life. Parents complain that their sons and daughters can't finish their degrees in four years. A four year college degree has been a standard for how many years? How much more knowledge and specialization has occurred since the four year college degree became a benchmark? What is the student leaving behind in educational opportunities and knowledge acquisition by trying to accomplish this unrealistic standard.

(Don't talk to me about the cost, because that illogical way we finance education is a joke that no one is laughing at. The solution is too far outside the cliched "box" that business grads are always talking about.)

We know now that we are going to be involved in a life time of learning of not only informal life experience or street smarts as we used to say, but also formal learning in order to keep or information fresh and our knowledge base evolving.

If we don't establish a base of broad knowledge, creative thinking outlets and critical thinking skills, we are handicapping the people we expect to lead us. Education isn't just about making money. It's about equipping human beings to live in their own world.

The Holiday Season is Upon Us Already?

Forget that Thanksgiving isn't until next week, the Seasonal lights in the downtown city parks were lite in Milwaukee last night. Wal-Mart has announced the kind of sale prices usually seen in the last week of the shopping season, when they are desperate to make their numbers. But excuse me, we haven't seen the first real snow fall and most people aren't even thinking about Holiday Shopping yet. What is going on here?

Obviously, the merchandisers think they can get us in the mood to shop if they create the holiday atmosphere. It is a little tough, as my wife commented last night, to look at all of the lights and decorations and not think they would look better with even a light covering of snow on the ground. With day time high temperatures in the forties and nighttime lows barely in the lower thirties, that isn't going to happen soon.

I realize, having worked in retail, how important this season is to most retailers, but like the basketball, baseball and hockey season only the die-hard "Christmas is my favorite time of the year" kind of people enjoy this artificial extension. As it is companies and organizations are forced to hold their holiday parties for their members and employees in January because they have a tough time booking parties. The busiest shopping day might be the day after Christmas because people are returning unwanted gifts and there are those famous sales of seasonal items like decorations and gift wrap. How long can the season get?

I guess it's up to retailers and how they feel about Halloween, because if they want to they can start it anytime they choose to start displaying and promoting the theme. It's seems like an arms race. If one retailer starts the others feel as if they could also and if they get people to shop than who do we blame?

To go or not to go

Yesterday, I had a conversation with one of my younger co-workers about travel. He was conflicted about his girlfriends desire to stick close to home, family and friends versus his wanting to travel and see the world.

I didn't tell him to drop the girl friend, who may have good reason to want to stick close to home, but I suspect her timidity may have more to do with a lack of a sense of adventure than common sense and a need to settle down. I did tell him to go. You will never regret going to Europe, the far East or where ever your wanderlust takes you.

He mentioned that some one told him he could always travel after he retired. I told him that there was no guarantee that he would have the time, health or the money to travel after he retired. Besides there is one important element to travel that he would miss and that is the education about other people and the way they live. I know from first hand experience that he will see more easily that while we live in the greatest society in the world, others do have good idea's about how to live and we can learn from them. If he waits until he retires, he may learn those things, but he won't be able to apply that knowledge to his entire life.

Damn the cost man. Wait for that cheap airfare, buy your rail pass and go. You will always have time for work and you'll be a better person for the experience.

Short and Sweet

Boys and girls, I have an assignment for you today. If you like to read, as I know many of you do. You have to pick up a copy of the New Yorker Magazine (November 13, 2006 ). Turn to page 52 and read the tongue-in-cheek article on how and why to save money by controlling your desire to buy books.
The new issue is out, so if you can't find this at your dentists office or laying in a pile on your own coffee table try the library. If none of that works I will e-mail you a copy. I know it sounds like a lot of trouble, but it is great satire.

Best Health Care In the World

You often hear that the United States has the best health care system in the world. Anyone that uses the system realizes that claim is pretty shaky at best. With the exception of the Veterans Administration, which is very efficient and has an enviable record of cost containment, the US health care delivery system is costly and comparatively unsuccessful when you look at mortality rates and other measures of success.

Some critics blame the high cost of insurance because of the litigious nature of the society in general. Others say that Americans have too much access to health care and over use the system. Some will blame the Insurance Companies for elevating transaction costs by bouncing back claims in the hope that the providers will quit trying to collect. In addition, there are claims that delivery is uneven, with some areas having plenty of doctors nurses, hospitals and clinics and others having none.

I suspect that these claims and others are true. This morning I heard a doctor commenting on NPR that ER clinics all over the country are overburdened and unable to handle any kind of a terrorist attack. Terrorists being the "new bad guys" about whom we can justify anything, may draw attention to this weakness in our health delivery system. However the real problem with the overload in the ER is that the ER has become the regional triage center for hospitals. If you don't have health insurance, if the doctor doesn't want to come to your home or see you in his office, if you are victim of an accident or if you are a visitor to a community, there is no option other than the ER. ER care is some of the most expensive care we can provide and yet there it is, the only option for millions of potential patients.

This I know first hand about health care. It isn't the best in the world. We don't have too many doctors, nurses and medical practitioners. Transaction costs and middle man insertion into the system is not improving health care delivery nor is it lowering the cost.

The big question of building a national consensus invloves a basic question. As a society, do we believe that heath care is business that should function in the free market system, in other words, available to those who can afford it? Or, is health care a human right that society should provide to everyone that needs it?

You may notice

If this is your first visit to my blog, you will see that there are a number of articles. It's not as if you missed something that you might have known about. I have been writing to the blog for a couple of weeks, but I have not promoted the address. so no one has visited the site, unless for some reason beyond belief, google guided a surfer to the site.
I wanted to start a blog as an alternative to posting my rants on my writing site www.nclover.com. I wanted that site to feature my fiction. The work I place on that site work I want to eventually publish or I think is good enough to share with broader audience.
My blog is going to work as a place for me to do what it seems everyone does with these things. It serves as journal and a venue to let people know what is on my mind on an almost daily basis. Who cares? I don't know, but I'm going to give it a shot.

Bringing the War Home

Yesterday, one of my co-workers told us that, as Member of the US Marine corp, he will be deployed to Iraq in December of 2007. Tom is a thoughtful man and in view of the changing tide opinion on the reasons and justification for our involvement, he is wondering if he should be asked to put his life on the line.

Excellent question, I'd say. I have never served, so my comments are those of a civilian and a person who generally opposes violence as a solution to any problem.

Yes, Tom you have received pay and training to follow orders and do what your commanding officers feel is the right thing to do to defend the American People and it's borders. It may be, as some feel, that you should keep your concerns to yourself and do as your told, but than again, we only get one life to live and what we give it up for has to mean something.

I don't know how to answer Tom when he asks me, "What are we doing in Iraq?" My opinion is a highly cynical politically motivated conclusion about the corruption of ideals perpetrated by the Bush Administration. I certainly don't believe that America is safer because we are occupying Iraq and it's pretty obvious that the people of Iraq are not a lot better off because of our sacrifice. I know a lot of people made a lot of money. I know that a lot of people feel that they are building a base for democracy in Iraq. I also know that we have not stopped the terrorists in any significant way by fighting in Iraq. Any work we have done in stopping terrorists has occured by working with our allies on a country by country basis. These are often times the same allies who told us not to invade Iraq.

And what about Tom's original question? If Tom does go to Iraq and is killed or permanently disabled, how do we justify that loss. I need help here. I can't think of one good reason to lose Tom like that, but than it might be because I know him and like him. Most Americans don't actually know anyone who is putting their life on the line for us. It's a lot easier to be cavalier when not only the enemy has no face, but also the people who defend are and abstraction.

In the Aftermath

Joy runs through the streets like children on a new playground. It's hard to focus on the accomplishment of retaining the Statehouse in Madison and the gains in the state legislature, when we look at the national implications of the control of the House and Senate falling into the hands of the Democrats.

The expressions of relief and hope is well founded, but caution is also appropriate. We have no assurance that the Democrats have any better sense of solution to the number one problem, an end to the conflict in Iraq. Make no mistake, this election was a plebiscite on the war and the electorate voted for change, but we were not offered specific solutions. What we were promised is change in the approach to "winning" the war in Iraq by a Democratic Leadership that has not showed a particular ability for leadership.

We need to have some patience. This new leadership has to get their feet underneath them. They have the right to some honeymoon time, but they blew a lot of smoke about the need to change and one would hope they have a plan to back that up.

I should be happy, but..

Today, November 8, 2006, candidates that support positions I support have won in our national election. From my old Wisconsin Eighth Congressional District to the Governorship of Wisconsin, we witness victory for people who have pledged to turn the business of government in a direction that favors the people and forces special interests to the background.

Nationally the people have said no to the backward looking politics of the far right and will force national politics to look to the future. Health care, the economy and the "War"* on terrorism will be looked at differently and hopefully more creatively.

But in Wisconsin, the state I have come to dearly love, we have voted for the gay bashing marriage amendment and the death penalty. Wisconsin law does not even allow Gay marriage and we've had constitutional Prohibition against the death penalty for over 150 years. Today, this day of the dawn of the rebirth of progressive thinking in our country my state chooses to move backwards. It saddens me.

*(I've am suspicious of efforts that get classified as war. We are losing the War on Drugs and the War on Poverty.)

Aging Parents

I visited my mom on Sunday. Mary Jane is a resident of the Franciscan Care & Rehabilitation in Appleton Wisconsin. She lives with extreme dementia. Mom knows who I am. She recognizes other relatives, however it depends how often she sees them and when she knew them.
Mom's world is a foggy one. In it she can be in the past so far that I look more like my dad to her because I'm too old to be her son in the time she imagines she is living in. To her, she is in the hospital and trying to get better so she can move back to her apartment in St Louis Park, Minnesota. The reality is that there is no apartment and she is not ill. In fact she may be in better health than she has been in years. Her weight is good because her diet is controlled. She can't experience more than sniffle without getting excellent attention. Her care is necessitated by her immobility, mental confusion and lack of control of her body functions.
She enjoys socializing with her fellow residents and loves to read. While I am happy that she is well taken care of and she is as happy as she can be, I live with fear for the day when she dosen't know who I am.