Scott Chisholm Lamont, RN.

The purpose of this blog is to post interesting, day to day tidbits that touch upon at least one of the eclectic topics of my pages, ranging from nursing to politics. I will try to avoid those traps of the blogosphere, where this becomes either part of an echo chamber or the posts are so self-involved that they aren't worth your time to read. Mainly, I am hoping to get people to think a little, maybe challenge some assumptions. I will also try to watch my spelling while I'm at it.

Comments? Thoughts? Rants about my rants? You can use the convenient comment tabs found at the top of each item, and I promise to read them and to leave them up for others to read (within reason, of course - plain old flames are boring, and I'm not going to waste server space on them). If you just want to say something to me, you can e-mail me.

December is always a stressful month, and for me, this was the worst in memory. Behind in school, under the gun to produce a couple of papers that had grown stale and required considerable energy to revive, and flat broke. Part of my attempt to improve my writing was the discipline or writing everyday, not just for school, but also this blog. Strangely enough, rather than hindering my school work by taking time away, it worked as I hoped - my writing improved, and flowed more easily. Nothing quite like a counter-intuitive solution..

Posted Wednesday, December 31, 2004 @ 2158 PST
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Happy Friggin' New Year.

As you might figure by the title, my mood isn't so hot. After a solid week of beating my brains out on the keyboard, I have only managed to finish one of two papers that are due today. I could get busted for this one. I guess I'll find out if I'm an ex-grad student next week. I'll post the news here, either way.

My mood wasn't exactly improved by this little tidbit posted December 25th on Maladjusted, who got it via Dirty Rotten. Now there's a solution: if you don't like the nursing care, shoot the nurse in the face. This is yet another reason why I don't see things the NRA way -- even if people are carrying guns for "self protection", it seems to me that most people who actually use guns are not doing so to protect themselves. It would be interesting to see what the stats are on that.

At least I can count on finding some laughs here and there. Maladjusted also had this hilarious link to the Swift Report, who were "reporting" on the White House's "Rapture Contingency Plans." And bless Sadly, No! for this funny little rant replying to Ryan Thompson at The Rant.us. Yeah, I feel better already.

On the housekeeping front, I've discovered that the 1000 character limit on the comments is pretty tight, so I've upgraded my HaloScan account. I've also joined Drawing Down The Moon, "a clique that was created for the Pagan Community". With that, I've wasted enough of the evening -- back to work.

Oh yeah . . . Happy New Year . . . really.

Posted Wednesday, December 29, 2004 @ 1935 PST
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W's popularity tanks like the dollar.

Here’s the headline I read on waking today: “Bush approval rating at historic low”. Tom Engelhardt also mentions this on his site. So this made me feel better – well, somewhat better. Coffee made me feel a lot better. My question to all those people who now disapprove of his abysmal performance: What the hell were you thinking on election day?

I read this English version of an Italian editorial on the slide of the dollar. The opinion offered? That the US has signaled to the world that there will be no intervention to protect the value of the dollar, and hence has invited investors to sell their greebacks. My favourite quote: “Each working day, America needs 2.6 billion dollars of foreign capital to offset excessive imports and internal demand” due largely to the “enormous imbalance of its trade deficit, which has now reached 5.5% of national income.” Ouch.

Posted Tuesday, December 28, 2004 @ 1425 PST
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The good, the bad, the funny, and the unfortunate.

The title just about sums up the daily flow of info and minutia from the Internet into my little laptop. Here is a sampling from this morning – see if you can figure out which category each item falls into.

I have been saved. Hallelujah! I have found the Church of Critical Thinking. Amongst the items posted there, I found this piece about a group of Wisconsin clergy who have written to school officials encouraging the teaching of evolution. My favorite quote from the letter is "We believe that among God's good gifts are human minds capable of critical thought and that the failure to fully employ this gift is a rejection of the will of our Creator. To argue that God's loving plan of salvation for humanity precludes the full employment of the God-given faculty of reason is to attempt to limit God, an act of hubris." To this I say bravo! In my not particularly humble professional opinion, this is true (yes, it is a professional opinion, I am a priest, after all). As an accompaniment to this great site, I also found Stephen Downes’ "Logical Fallacies" site. I think I will use it to hone my debating skills, not to mention keeping it handy as ammunition when posting comments.

Reading the whole “mental illness” line of crap in the gay marriage court case going on in California right now just makes me want the barf. I am deeply disappointed to see some intervention groups pull this nasty historical opinion out as part of their argument against gay marriage, but to see health professionals lend their expert status in support of personal bigotries is nauseating, especially considering that scientific thought has long since moved away from this hurtful notion. Here is an excerpt from the SF Chronicle:

Among the declarations they submitted to Judge Kramer were statements from:

-- Jeffrey Satinover, a Princeton University lecturer and psychiatrist who specializes in "reparative therapy'' for gays, saying the American Psychiatric Association was misled into removing homosexuality from its list of mental disorders in 1973.

-- Katherine Young, professor of religion at McGill University in Montreal, saying that "children need a parent of each sex'' because of inherent differences between men and women.

-- George Rekers, a psychologist and professor at the University of South Carolina, saying studies show children do better with heterosexual than with homosexual parents.

Deputy City Attorney Kathleen Morris said the declarations were largely based on stereotypes and "contradicted by science.''

I think that this demonstrates the contempt that the anti-gay marriage lobby has for the basic humanity of the queer community, that they have to disparage queers as somehow flawed (and therefore less than - and deserving less than - the rest of the population). I would include Ralph Klein in this category of homophobe. To paraphrase him: “I have a lot of gay friends, I just think it’s immoral for them to have committed, legally recognized life-long relationships”.

However, the holiday cheer continues to trickle in. My good friend and colleague Dennis Key sent me a great link. Like me, he used to fly with Lifeguard back in New Mexico. I posted the info here in my nursing pages.

Mark Morford’s latest great rant is on political donations. I had no idea about Amazon. Guess I’ll be running my book list through Barnes & Noble. My only question is: How the hell does he find this stuff out? Hmmmm – I actually have another question: How the hell does he keep hammering out these amazing stream of consciousness pieces? Some of them would take me all bloody week to write!

Finally, a great intellect has been lost to us. Susan Sontag has died at the age of 71. Love her or hate her, she was a true polemic and was not afraid to say it as she saw it. My favourite quote: “For me the primary obligation is human solidarity.” I’ll echo that. Blessings on your journey, Susan.

Posted Monday, December 27, 2004 @ 2315 PST
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Finding humour in a dangerous game.

I'm still pretty convinced that Bush & Co. are deliberately letting the US dollar slide to offset the size of the deficit with the lower value of the currency. As I've noted previously (here and here), this is a dangerous game, particularly if the rest of the world loses confidence in the currency as an investment. But at least someone can find humour in the rise of the Euro. Atrios over at Eschaton posted this funny snippet. The comments have been flying fast and furious ever since. Personally, I think that the best part is the pun potential in 'rise'.

Meanwhile, back on my little island, it has rained all night, all day, and looks like it will go all night again. I've been cooped up in the office, alternating between my paper (I'm going to get this to bed tonight if it KILLS me!) and playing with the HaloScan comments. I think that I've figured it out, and have made it functional for all my most recent posts. Once I've got my papers in to my profs and can breath again, I'll fix the archived stuff, and then start adding comment capability to other areas, like my poetry section. So much coding to do, so little time.

Posted Sunday, December 26, 2004 @ 2125 PST
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Stuck in the office this gloomy day.

So it's a grey Boxing Day morning here in the Bay, with the wind picking up and the temperature hovering around 51°F (10°C). The forecast is calling for showers today, sinking towards real rain this evening. Shara has taken Micaela of for a walk while it's still just blustering. The girl loves to be outside pretty much regardless of weather, and it does reduce the distraction factor in the house while I'm writing. Yeah, I'm locked in my office again, trying to hammer out the strategic management paper that's been overdue for more than a week now. I thought it would be done before last weekend, and that I would have my family theory paper done by this weekend so that I could spend the rest of my winter break working on a couple of articles I wanted to write and the care plans I had agreed to write for the upcoming seventh edition of Ackley & Ladwig's "Nursing Diagnosis Handbook" (I was a contributor in the sixth edition). No such luck. Writer's block is a terrible thing. I'm using all sorts of tricks to try to get through this process, including breaking each part down to the smallest size possible, and using a timer to limit time spent on other activities (like checking my e-mail and blogging).

So in light of my limited time to post anything on my blog, you might not be surprised to note the sudden burping of entries. This is because I've had several days of entries that I had written or mostly written and then haven't had time to actually post. What little time I've spent in Dreamweaver has been spent working on the Silver Moon site, trying to clean up a couple of problems. So sorry, mea culpa. Well, not too sorry - as I see it, I have the right to screw up on getting my posts out on my own site. This revelation has come to me thanks to Luna Nina's piece on "My Blogging Rights As I See Them". I agree with her list, pretty much. Like her, I will avoid slamming other bloggers. By that I mean that I will stick to commenting on ideas or actions, and avoid questioning the basic worth or integrity of people. I've seem several sites that seem to be oriented towards bashing people (take Laugh at Liberals, for example), and find them to be very discouraging. How can you have a meaningful conversation if you are being called a moron and told to "shut up"? Unlike Luna Nina, I will probably not be pushing the "goofy envelope" very much, and tend to eschew emoticons and hearts. I've also noticed that her site (and others) have nice touches like disclaimers and credits. I suppose I should get around to posting similar items on my site. That's not going to happen until after I get HaloScan up and running so that people can actually make comments on my posts. No chance that is going to happen today, maybe tomorrow or the day after if I get enough school work done in the meantime.

I've still managed to waste a little time today. I was checking out the sungoddess's web site and found a link to the "Obscure Tolkien Filibuster" offered at Quizilla.com. Of course, I had to take it. My score was "expert", which is pretty cool, considering that there were questions on it I really wasn't sure I could answer. Needless to say, I've trumpeted my accomplishment here on my site by posting a button. And I've managed to find another "Wingnut Site of the Week".

Shara came home with this picture of the city skyline: you can see what a grey day it is. I'm going to take a break, find some food, and spend a few minutes meditating in our ritual room. It's a full moon tonight, so I'll light a candle for one of my friends who lost a member of his "fur family" to old age yesterday and is feeling down, and another for all those people bereaved by the recent tsunami. Then it's back to work.

Posted Wednesday, December 22, 2004 @ 2333 PST
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Is there a point when a fetus becomes an unborn child?

Leif Knutsen posted a piece on his site on December 20 entitled "'Fetus' or 'unborn' child", prompted by an NPR discussion about the power of terminology in political discourse. Part of the issue was about the choice of words used in coverage of the Scott Peterson trial (which, though a local issue, I've avoided like the plague). It raised interesting questions though, ones that I've struggled with myself in trying to really understand all of the issues regarding both abortion and the power of language. Here is my reply to his post:

Insofar as I can remember, there have been cases in several countries (Canada, the US, Britain) where [pregnant] women have been charged with child endangerment or similarly compelled to take physical care of themselves. These cases are usually pretty extreme, but have always caused controversy (interfering with the mother's right to self-determination, the "nanny-state", conferring inappropriate rights on the fetus). This may muddy the water, but the fact that an unborn human is defined as a fetus once it is old enough to have basic organ structures (like a heart) doesn't necessarily tell us how ethical comportment towards it should be defined. Perhaps the parents' intention to have a child should be factored in. Perhaps viability outside the womb is a dividing line. The latter has upset those who wish to see no rights or status conferred upon the fetus, as they fear it will be the slippery slope, which will deprive women of the right to chose to terminate a pregnancy as interventions advance to the point that almost anything post-conception is viable. I think that that possibility is very unlikely. Despite our best efforts, the 24 week gestation seems to be a pretty practical limit. I would suggest that a fetus begins to enter "personhood" and therefore have standing as a being who deserves ethical consideration at the intersecting point where both viability is likely (it's never really guaranteed, believe me) and the parents' expectation of having a child has reached the point that to them, the fetus is a baby - that is to say, a person waiting to be born. Not an easy juncture to define in the legal sense, but I offer it as a thought.

What are your thoughts on this?

Posted Tuesday, December 21, 2004 @ 2045 PST
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AAARRGH!?! (part 2)

So, having spent the day working on a paper that just won't go to bed (and trying to convince the faculty involved not to toss my butt out the door), I've finally pegged a few minutes to post a note.

I have gotten some more poems posted, and have updated my spiritual homepage slightly - a poem and profile are up. I have some rituals to post, but don't have time now for the whole cut & paste thing. Maybe tomorrow.

And it's official, election fans! If you think the US in November is fun, just wait for January in Iraq. The Globe and Mail reports that "Canada will lead a multinational mission designed to ensure that elections in strife-torn Iraq are conducted fairly and freely, the chief electoral officer announced Monday". Needless to say, most of the people involved in the monitoring effort do not dare set foot in the country. Good luck to them.

Posted Monday, December 20, 2004 @ 1723 PST
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AAARRGH!?!

Bad writing day! I have to get this strategic management paper out of my hair or I will go postal. Wish me luck - no time to blog.

On the plus side, I've finally gotten all the templates set up, so site doesn't look like a big white field of glaring photons anymore. Let me know if you like the look. I'm trying out different backgrounds in the main content areas - hopefully they are pleasing to the eye and don't clash with the border colours. Do you know how hard it is to find backgrounds that go with black text and purple and green edges?

Also, I got an e-mail from my friend and fellow poet Cortney Davis, advising her list of nurse-poets that she has recently updated her website (yes, there are more than a few of us out there, check out the American Journal of Nursing - they have an art section that often includes poetry). Cortney is an excellent poet, and her website is very nice - go have a look! I've posted three of my published nursing poems, including two that were part of a nursing anthology that Cortney co-edited.

Oh, and my advise on writer's block? Don't get it.

Posted Sunday, December 19, 2004 @ 2202 PST
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Visitors, visitors ... I think I will go visit.

So acording to my web counters, I am actually getting visitors. The Witches' Voice seems to be a common referal, but others are in the mix. It's kind of nice I'm not just talking to myself in the dark cave of the Internet (gollum!).

So visitors lead to visiting - or at least the season leads to visiting. My classmate Deb Priest threw a nice little party for us nursing grad students, in part as an effort to get our cohort from the PhD program back together for a catch-up session. When you are in a program like ous, you don't get to see your cohort much after the first year, and I've seen even less of them, since Micaela's arrival changed all my course work. We just got back from the party and put the girl to bed. It was a nice break from the stress of trying to deal with incomplete papers. I will try to get a photo or two up soon - I'll put them on my family page.

Posted Wednesday, December 15, 2004 @ 1133 PST
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What is wealth?

Here is a question that we seriously need to ask ourselves. What does it mean to be wealthy? What is it to have enough, indeed, more than enough? How do we spread wealth without bankrupting the environment upon which the economy is wholly dependent?

Why is the question important? It's pretty simple, really. We are not going to have peace until real wealth is spread broadly around the planet. The reason for that is that wealth is security, and strife arises from a lack of security, and through that, hope. Reading the economic items I have over the past week or so, I'm struck by how fragile it all is. Our carefully constructed system can be thrown off by so many things. Much of what passes for wealth creation in our modern economic sense is just exploitation - very few benefit, but they do so very greatly. That has to change. Am I advocating a "spread the wealth" policy? In a manner of speaking, yes I am. But it is not the kind of wealth that most people reflexively think of: liquid cash and the assets that it buys. I am thinking of the ability of people to produce food, shelter, education, community, and recreation through meaningful work on their part, and to produce enough of it to feel secure now and into the future.

This concept is crucial to the anti-consumerism movement, the steady-state economy movement, the alternative energy movement, and the Green political movement. I'm going to bend some thought to this topic, and post an essay when I have it fleshed out. Your comments are most welcome - stay tuned.

Oh, yes. I almost forgot. My 'happy message' site of the day is this op-ed posted by Robin Van Ausdall called "Adopt an Alternative Lifestyle, my policy of non-compliance". It is indeed how we are going to make positive progress, not only in the US, but everywhere; not only for the next four years, but for the future. You rock, Robin!

Posted Tuesday, December 14, 2004 @ 2101 PST
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Satan wants to take over your government (but probably won't fund his bid with greenbacks).

Cruising the web today, I had an epiphany. Not exactly what you'd expect, sitting in front of your computer. It actually flashed by so fast that I didn't copy the link - I'll see if I can find it in my history later. But here it is: many Red state Americans of the fundamentalist ilk don't like the UN because it might be (or become) a global government, which they perceive as satanic. Now, you have to understand that I never understood what the big deal was about a world government, which seemed to me to be potentially reasonable and logical. It was one of those mystifying American cultural things that I was missing some crucial but subtle piece of information which would make the whole concept clear. My previous supposition was that it was about sovereignty. What with all the state's rights stuff I've heard about, and a global hegemony to maintain, that seemed the likely culprit. It never occurred to me that there was a Biblical underpinning to this bit of foreign policy.

Then again, there's a lot of Biblical stuff I don't get. For example, I had no idea that the EU was run by the "Beast Government", and was actively recruiting the Anti-Christ as its new President. Nor was I aware that liberalism would signal the end of the world (ironic, isn't it, that America as a country is literally a triumph of liberal thought, yet so many Americans disdain liberalism whilst waving their flag). Yet, I've found all this and more at the Rapture Index, which advertises itself as "The prophetic speedometer of end-time activity", all consolidated into one easy reference page. I'm so relieved.

Relieved about the US dollar, I'm not. The current state of the greenback makes it hard for me to pay off my student loan back home, and has the potential to wound the world economy. See this compilation of international thoughts on the subject, including an intelligent editorial from The Economist. The interesting thing is, the current state of overspending by America (and Americans domestically) will give the world more leverage over them than they want. Who needs World Government to limit your options when you have investors? Ernest Partridge, Co-Editor of "The Crisis Papers" posted a piece called "The Vulnerable Giant" on May 25, 2004, and it is just as valid today, if not more so.

However, with the rising Euro, I'm sure that Satan will be able to finance his takeover of the UN with an excellent ROI.

On the homepage front, I've managed to incorporate a couple of the site meters that I wanted to try out, and the link button back to Blogwise. However, I'm sure you've noticed that the comments function is not yet functional (sorry, busy weekend, guests and such), so comments will have to be e-mailed until I deal with that. Still don't have a nice template settled on, but am closer. Not enough hours in the day.

Posted Monday, December 13, 2004 @ 1109 PST
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A Snowbird falls.

I am bummed to see this headline in today's Globe and Mail: "Aging planes not to blame for crash, pilot says". Reading, I found out that on December 10, two of the Snowbirds, Canada's elite demonstration squadron (431 Air Demonstration Squadron, based at 15 Wing in Saskatchewan) were involved in a collision during a routine training flight. According to a DND press release, Captain Chuck Mallett was injured but already released from hospital, however, "Captain Miles Selby, age 31 from Tsawassen, BC, is the sixth Snowbirds pilot killed in the performance of his duties in the 35 year history of the team." The team flies single-engine Canadair CT-114 Tutors in a 9 plane formation, which is rare amongst demonstration groups. I presume that both planes were destroyed in the collision - they don't have many left (22 at last count). I first saw them perform as a boy while visiting my grandparents in Kelowna, BC. More recently, I have seen them perform at Fleet Week here in the Bay for the past two years. I'm not a military kind of guy, but I love flying, and the air show is quite exciting. The Snowbirds are as good as they get, and their large formations take incredible precision to fly. I have long admired them.

My sincere condolences to Capt. Selby's family and to his team mates. May you find comfort and peace in this difficult time.

Posted Monday, December 13, 2004 @ 0819 PST
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Gay marriage will not go to Canadian referendum.

At least the Liberals are showing some backbone and refusing to seek a national referendum on the upcoming gay marriage legislation, as are the three leaders of the other major parties in the House of Commons. Following the 9-0 Supreme Court opinion supporting the proposed marriage legislation, Alberta Premier Ralph Klein has predictably called for a national referendum on the matter. This quote is from the Globe and Mail:

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper, whose caucus includes some MPs who favour a referendum, has opposed the idea — and sharply swatted back Mr. Klein's proposal yesterday.

"We haven't been demanding a referendum," he said.

"The only thing maybe I could add is I gather Premier Klein has suggested a plebiscite or referendum. If Premier Klein is committed to that, he can always do that in the province of Alberta."

The idea met even stronger opposition from Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe and NDP Leader Jack Layton. Both argued it is wrong to subject minority rights to a majority vote in a referendum.

"We are speaking of rights. These must not be submitted to referenda," Mr. Duceppe said. "A society has to be excessively vigilant of the rights of its minorities."

That was exactly the point behind the ruling, and behind the previous provincial rulings that have found the current definition of marriage to be in contravention of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. To have the majority dictate what rights a minority has or does not have, based on their beliefs and feelings rather than the rule of law, is not a democracy, it is a tyranny of the majority.

Now I will sit back and watch to see if two things happen: 1) if Klein shows how intolerant and inflexible he can be by invoking the notwithstanding clause in the Constitution to avoid having Alberta follow the federal marriage definition, and 2) if my American friends notice that the world doesn't end, and so extend equal rights to queer couples south of the 49th. I am actually hopeful on both counts.

Posted Tuesday, December 8, 2004 @ 2144 PST
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It is time to talk seriously about values.

OK, Molly Ivins has led me to write a rant on “values”. I think that she has hit the nail on the head. My essay is posted here.

We must speak our values, and not just to the “converted”. Check out George Lakoff’s thoughts on this.

So, I’m doing something about it. For example, I found the NRA blacklist through the LEFT is RIGHT blog and so went, signed the petition, then followed the link to the actual list on the NRA website, and posted this polite note under “contact us”. I’ll let you know if they put me on the list.

Blame Canada!

So, my brother sent me the following link, where Ann Coulter and Tucker Carlson bash and vilify Canada as only they can. Sigh – friendships are so fleeting. I guess you can’t have your own opinion, and tell your friend, and still have a friend. No wonder the armed camp mentality is getting worse – it’s all becoming “them” and “us”.

Actually, my brother sent a link to a blog in Iceland, I back tracked and found the one in English at Media Matters.org (I have no idea how he found it, and he still hasn’t told me). But it’s nice to know that they are paying attention to our neighbourly spat over in Iceland. I couldn’t read the caption, but I suspect that they are shaking their heads.

It didn’t take long for a Canadian response, both from the media and this blog.

Speaking of Canada and its current issues with the US, Peter Brown of the Jewish World Review had a few things to say about the inevitability of the relationship between the two countries. I don’t exactly disagree with him, but when he said: “Canada has a European-style, nation-to-grave [sp.], government-run health-care system that is almost as inefficient as those on the Continent.” I had to fire a question back, namely: “where do you get this impression from?” Canada spends just over 2/3 of what the US spends as a proportion of GDP or per capita spending, covers the entire population (although drug and dental coverage are still big issues, as is vision care and home care, depending on where you live), and has better health outcomes in all categories except some sub-populations (like micro-premies). Most of its comparative efficiencies are administrative – Canadian health care facilities and professionals don’t have to deal with hundreds of different payors, all with their own rules and paperwork. It is an unbelievable drain of both time and resources on the system here in the US. Take it from someone who has been in the trenches.

I'll let you know what his answer is when I get it.

BTW - I'm playing with a sans-serif font to see how it looks and if it makes for easier reading. Let me know what you think, and have patience while I play with the "final" look of the pages. This weekend I will be setting up HaloScan comments and tracking with Site Meter, putting a button in to link back to Blogwise, as well as setting up a proper archive for the older entries, so this page doesn't keep spreading down the screen. It also means that there will be permanent links for all the entries, and they will be titled. Keywords will come later.

OK, that last part was pretty self-involved. Sigh.

Posted Monday, December 6, 2004 @ 0910 PST ----- 0 comments

Ummm….Skipper, we’re sinking....

So, as promised, a quick tale about sailing this fine Sunday. Since arriving in San Francisco, I've been crewing aboard a small sloop, mainly in the South Beach Winter Series. I'm navigator and occasional bow man for the S/V Gig, a stripped-down Humbolt Bay 30. When I arrived at her slip yesterday, our skipper, Gil Sloan, had the seven horse BMW diesel idling to warm up as we prepared to put out into the estuary and head for the South Bay for spinnaker practice with two new crew members. I heaved my sea bag over the safety line, climbed on board, grabbed my stuff and headed below -- where I promptly discovered 2 inches of water sloshing about. Now, this wasn't particularly distressing, since Gig is about 20 years old and leaks a little bit, particularly from her topsides if it's been raining. We scoop out the water, run a sponge around the sole of bit, and think nothing of it. At least, not usually. Today, however, I noticed immediately that the water was pulsing into the boat from under the engine cover.

Nothing gets attention quite like leaning out the companionway and stating nonchalantly: “Um, Skipper, we are actively taking on water”. Pretty quickly, everyone was trying to look through the companionway into the cabin. The observation that it seemed to be coming from the engine compartment led to the logical step of turning off the diesel. The skipper came below and we pulled back the engine cover but couldn't see any active source of water entering with the engine off. We put the bilge pump hose into the deepest part of the sole and one of our crew began to pump. But the water didn't go down very fast, and the report came back the pump was putting out hardly any water and was hard to pump. So either we had a clogged pump or broken pump and the cabin full of water. So we began bailing by hand. Five or six 5-gallon buckets later, we were down to sponging the water off the floor. Once it was dry enough to see what was going on, we turned over the engine and the exhaust hose began to spray water right where it entered the muffler box (engines on a boat are cooled with water drawn from the outside and that water is pump back out with the exhaust). So - one easy problem to solve, one more ago. After completely disassembling the bilge pump, it was obvious that the problem was not the pump. We pulled the line apart until at one connection we found the stopper for the ice chest. How it got into the bilge hose, no one knows. What was clear is that we would've never been able to pump out water if we had been in serious trouble, so the discovery of both the exhaust hose leak and the bilge pump blockage were fortuitous, since they occurred while were still tied up. The skipper observed that “it's always better to be sinking at the dock than the middle the Bay”.

We went to the local chandlery to buy a new length of exhaust hose and an extra clamp to keep it snugger. The folks there apologetically stated that the exhaust hose was almost $10 a foot. I asked the skipper if this was the point at which we were better off standing in a cold shower ripping up dollar bills in the comfort of our own home. Everyone got a laugh from that. An hour later we had a happy engine, a functional bilge pump, and were tacking out the estuary with an ebbing tide. A couple of hours of nice sailing followed, including a cruise home under the chute. Not too shabby, all things considered.

Finally, from the New York Times this morning, I have to share a funny link. Here is an image of the evolution warning labels for it evolution found in textbooks.

Posted Sunday, December 5, 2004 @ 2145 PST
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Blogging with my eyes closed.

Oh, my gods, am I tired! I have been up past midnight almost every night this week working on papers for grad school. Since I have a toddler who’s more effective than an alarm clock, I haven’t been getting much sleep. The good news is that I’ve completed all of my papers for this quarter (even though the last two were both turned in a day late). The better news is that I went sailing today, if only briefly - I'll post the amusing parts in the morning. The bad news is that I still have two overdue papers still get in – guess what I’m doing next week.

In the remaining 10 minutes that I can keep my eyes open, let me pound out a couple of things. Senator Dianne Feinstein, who some have called a hawkish Democrat, has recently returned from a tour of Baghdad and reportedly challenged Bush tell the American public “the truth” about how long troops are going to be needed in Iraq. Meanwhile, the UN envoy to Iraq has called the situation in Iraq “a mess”. Well now, that’s hardly a friggin’ surprise for anyone who hasn’t been watching Fox news lately. Needless to say, they’re increasing troop numbers – by extending deployments (again) of some troops who were expecting to go home in January.

Shock of shocks, a Republican congressman from Texas, no less, has actually gone on record giving a list of reasons why pro-life conservative Christians should not be supporting the war in Iraq. Check out this post on the I-tach blog site. I had the shake my head at the only comment returned on this at the time that I had read the post. It seems unfortunately typical of the level of discourse these days when discussing politics in the US. Anytime the fellow who replied couldn’t come up with some kind of reasoned argument against the points the congressman made, he would simply stick in some nasty comment. Spewing vitriol, as I believe it is called. It seems the terms of debate are focused on ripping you a new one, rather than listening to anything that you have to say – even if you’re on the same “side”. Sigh.

Last but not least, following up on my previous post about the impending state of the economy (and not being an economist) I found an interesting post on the About web site regarding the economic costs of war. Perhaps I’m not just tilting at windmills. I’ll have to cruise the site a bit more to brush up on current economic theory. Not to say that I still don’t think it’s a lot of bunk with conceptual holes you could drive the semi through. If you would like to read some interesting things about tying the economy to the realities of the environment, check out this site on steady-state economics.

Oh, yes. I almost forgot - my blog is now listed on Blogwise! Thanks to the good folks there, an all-volunteer effort. They promised a reply in 3 days (they have an actual human check out all sites that submit to be listed), and they delivered. I'll get a link button up ASAP.

Posted Friday, December 3, 2004 @ 1019 PST
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A new blogger spreads his wings, and the economy gasps.

So, I have a confession to make. Despite having some geeky elements to my nature (for example, I can identify the Star Trek even to odd rule), and even a verifiably geeky history (for example, I played with computer punch cards as a child, had a home computer before 1980 -- it was an Atari 400, and learned how to write programs in Basic before I was 14), I am not up-to-date on the finer aspects of crafting web pages or setting up a proper blog. I've only learned HTML in the last few months, starting with the Composer function of Netscape Navigator 7.2. Based on recommendations from a couple of friends who actually do this for a living, including my sweetie, I just moved over to Macromedia’s Dreamweaver MX 6.0. So now I'm struggling to learn how to create templates so that I don't have to hand update all by pages at the same time, and trying to find examples of code that will let me put those charming "add a comment" buttons on my blog so that people can actually respond in a convenient way and I can post those comments automatically. Hopefully, anyone reading the site will be patient in the meantime, since the way I have constructed my homepage (where my current blog entries appear) in a very labor-intensive manner. On the plus side, I think I have finally sorted out my problem with some of my archived blog entries and will be able to post an actual archived page going back for the few months that I have entries for. Look for it to appear soon.

Listening to NPR again this morning, there was a piece by Jim Zarroli about the steady decline of the value of the US dollar and the potential risk to the economy. This could present an interesting situation for any of us living here in America. As I understand it, if the dollar drops too far the Fed will respond by raising interest rates to control inflation and to make purchasing bonds (to fund the deficit) more attractive. The danger lies in the massive deficit that the current administration is running up, coupled with the trade imbalance the US has been experiencing for some time. It is, as one commentator put it, “simply unsustainable”. America’s economic strength has become based on spending more than is earned – by the country and by individuals. It just can’t last.

It seems to me, when you get right down to it, the value of the dollar is really a matter of faith -- and there's a good chance that faith may be waning. The administration has been theorized to possibly want the dollar to be devalued in an attempt to leaver a more favorable trade balance. Conspiracy theorists have also proposed that the war in Iraq was really about forestalling the potential for Iraq and other OPEC countries to switch from the dollar to the euro as the currency for trading oil, which could have potentially had disastrous effects on the value of the dollar, or so the theory goes. Not been an economist, I have no idea, but I do understand the idea that how people respond to the dollar is really as much a matter of belief as anything else. Imagine this "perfect trifecta" occurring: the dollar starts to lose ground, and predictably foreign central banks start to shy away from it, moving to the euro or other currencies; at the same time, oil prices continue to skyrocket due to the situation in Iraq and deepening concern about Peak Oil, forcing up inflation despite the Fed increasing interest rates; the real estate market bubble, particularly in the California and Florida, collapses even as mortgage rates climb. Wound the economy? This scenario would leave it as smashed pulp on the side of the road. Let's hope it doesn't happen.

Finally, I got an e-mail from my friend Kat, who closed with the following quote by Howard Zinn: "The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory." Thinking back to my post on November 24, I think it ties nicely to what I said about history being an interconnected web of events, since you can look at the future as history that hasn't happened to us yet. I like this quote because it strikes such hopeful note, and speaks to the power of what we can do now.

Posted Thursday, December 2, 2004 @ 1048 PST ----- 0 comments

Health savings accounts, and other things that go "boom!"

Listening to Morning Edition on NPR this morning, an interesting piece came up regarding the new health savings accounts that have recently been offered by several major insurance carriers, such as Blue Cross/Blue Shield and Kaiser Permanente. Like HMOs, these accounts are touted as the latest and greatest method to reduce health care inflation. According to the report, the essential points of the plans are that they are high deductible (minimum and $1000 deduction for individuals and $2000 for families), coupled with a low premium insurance plan (theoretically, as little as half of current premium rates), and have the ability to roll over each year, remaining tax-free while in the account. The last point is substantially different than the currently available medical savings accounts such as my wife and I participate in through the University of California benefits plan. These accounts are "use it or lose it" accounts, so you have to assess your expenses for the year carefully, and then try to match your payroll deductions to them. If you set aside more than you spend in the year, you lose the portion unclaimed.

These new savings accounts are going to prompt an essay in the nursing section of these pages, as they are founded on several unreasonable principles, and will ultimately fail to address both the escalating cost of health care in the US and the most pressing problem (in my opinion), which is the number of un-insured and underinsured. I can tell you up front that one of the things that this essay will take to task is the free market promoters hope that individuals will use their new spending power (in the form of their spending the high deductible portion our of their accounts before the insurance portion of the plan kicks him) to bargain for lower prices from various kinds of health care providers. This is a foolish, wholly ideologically driven expectation. While consumers of health care can certainly behave in rational and carefully planned ways, which is an underpinning assumption of the free market cheerleaders, such an event is most likely to take place when well educated and healthy individuals are seeking routine health care such as physician visits. Even the most savvy, educated person is vulnerable when they perceive themselves as possibly seriously ill or injured. In that vulnerable moment they have less inclination and opportunity to bargain. Imagine if there is also a language barrier, or a perceived power imbalance due to differences in education between the consumer and the provider. This concern is completely separate from the fact that individuals in our society are unused to the idea of haggling over the price of a clinic visit or diagnostic procedure. It is simply not part of the cultural norm, and changing that norm would take time and educational effort that we can quite frankly ill afford at this point in time. I will post a note when I have the essay up, in the meantime, you can listen to Julie Rovener's report by clicking here.

While you're at the NPR site, you may also want to listen to Larry Abramson's report on the ACLU's fight to use the Freedom of Information Act to access police files on investigations that may be targeting legitimate political activity in the US. Since the establishment of the police state in the form of the "Patriot Act", those of us involved in various social change and activist organizations have been legitimately concerned that the FBI, local police, and related agencies would use the vague threat of “domestic terrorism” to harass, intimidate, and otherwise suppress free speech and political action that questions the current administration and its ill-advised policies. You can listen to the report by clicking here.

Finally, the Globe and Mail has a short report on African nations requesting that land mine producing countries join the 1997 Ottawa Convention to ban anti-personnel mines. It quotes Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika as saying that “If the major landmine-producing countries joined, the treaty's goal of a mine-free world could be achieved.”

The report notes that the International Campaign to Ban Landmines 2004 annual report states that “China, Russia and the United States are among 15 countries that produce or still have the capacity to produce landmines”. These three countries have not signed the treaty.

I find it ironic that the three major military powers which sit on the "Security Council" of the UN as permanent, veto-bearing members have failed to sign a treaty ridding the world of a terrorizing, non-targeting weapon which often persist far beyond the conflicts in which they are lain, repeatedly killing and maiming innocent civilians long after a war is over. Like so many other tools of war, these devices levy their highest price from civilian populations, and there is absolutely no further justification for their production or deployment. The US government has made a commitment to fight (assumedly to diminish) terror experienced by civilians. I urge you to call your elected representatives, and urge them to push this administration to sign the treaty, as a blow to an insidious type of terrorism.

Posted Wednesday, December 1, 2004 @ 1719 PST ----- 0 comments

With friends like these...

I have been reading the news today (almost always a mistake!), and have to say that I am even more appalled by Donald Rumsfeld than I was before. That says alot, since I find both his behaviour and his beliefs despicable, as they seem to be underpinned by an unrelentingly de-humanizing attitude. Not only has he been personally responsible for an ideologically driven unnecessary war (although I could argue that all wars are just that) which has cost tens of thousands of lives and brutalized countless more, but now he has the gall to attempt to hold the US and its citizens and soldiers above international law. Furthermore, he is doing so by threatening to withhold funds from US "allies" - namely, NATO. You can read about it yourself at Mother Jones Daily: War Watch.

This is strikingly like the current US administration's refusal to join the international court which had been created to deal with crimes against humanity. As a democracy, the administration represents the American people. I cannot believe that Americans, who's own constitution promises "justice for all", support this effort to place their country beyond the law. If I am wrong, then ideologically, the US has become a rogue state.