Portland in solidarity with the people of Libya

Sometimes, you're in the right place at the right time. How many Libyans, and those in solidarity with them, took to the streets today in protest of the atrocities in Libya:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cpbfromhillsboro/sets/72157626148903250/
(a public flickr set)

If Today You Hear His Voice, Harden Not Your Hearts

(as said in a Boston accent). For some reason that is one of the sermons I recall when attending Catholic church back in Lynn Mass.

I was reminded of West Wing, the part where Leo says to his assistant Margaret "Get the editor of the New York Times crossword on the line, tell him Qaddafi is spelled with 2 d's and not one, and that its not a 7-letter meaning for anything." To which she replies "Is this real or is it a joke?" To which he replies, "apparently its neither".

Thank you to POTUS for that refresher from Season 1, Episode 1.

What if God is working through Qaddafi to achieve some higher mission? Like perhaps the freedom of the Libyan people, but only by virtue of world cooperation.

Working my way through a first reading of the Bible. Its never too late for such things. Some of the passages are amazing. Others are like a magical tale. Others are impenetrable. I imagine over time, say after I've read it all once and can read it again knowing whats there, it will become clearer to me.

Exodus - Pharoh - the Lord hardened his heart 8 times (so far, still reading). Eight plagues on the land of Egypt: the river turned to blood, frogs, lice, flies, dead animals, sores on bodies, thunderous hail, and finally locusts.

Maybe Pharoh could've been a good guy without otherworldly forces working through him, ultimately so Moses and the Israelites could escape their oppression.

What if Qaddafi is being used in such a manner?

This is not Disneyland

Well I've only been there once, when I was ten years old.

But the mystique is there - Disneyland! Where you can converse with flying elephants, the streets are lined with gold, everyone, even from dysfunctional families, has a good time! We are all enamoured of Disney magic.

What is the purpose of a federal income tax? Is it to keep a standing army, ready to defend the homeland? And now by extension, to staff airports to keep out terrorists with their nasty printer toner cartridges linked to 3+ ounces of liquid and a cell phone meant to detonate on contact?

Who should pay for these services, and should some pay more than others? This is the heart of it, so pick your philosophy.

If the federal income tax is meant to be redistributive - bring the poor up a notch by giving them refundable tax credits. So even if they make so little that they aren't paying tax directly, they actually get a check from Uncle Sam. Perhaps they can claim kids as deductions, claim an earned-income tax credit, or pay tuition.

Or is the tax system meant to tax the very rich, the theory being they have more, so should pay more. I heard today, being President's Day, that in Lincoln's administration the tax rate notched up to 90% for the highest earners - to pay for the Civil War.

Taxes have historically been high during war time. It was also up to 90% to pay for WW II. As well as every citizen buying war bonds to pay down the debt, and saving up aluminum foil, stockings, tin cans - for weaponry I guess. Note to self: look into this, the 40's are an amazingly interesting era. Not to mention my mom graduated high school in 1941, right in the thick of it. Tons of photos with her boyfriends, all of them military guys.

So now we have a war - 2 wars as they say - Afghanistan, Iraq. And anti-terrorist activities to pay for. Well you would think our tax rate would be 110%. However it is 15% on capital gains, for those that claim this income from stock held more than one year.

Its Disneyland for someone. Not for me right now. I don't much like Disneyland anyhow, something fake about it.

Who benefits - every single person. Who should pay - every single person. Value-added tax is something popular in Europe, or even in Canada. A national sales tax. If I go to buy a candy bar (not that I should, oranges are the dessert of today, lets see how long I can stick with that..) that costs 99cents, it should cost $1.03, with 4 cents going to the federal coffers.

To do otherwise pits us all against each other, class warfare. One side will scream "the rich should not pay taxes - they create the jobs and reinvest in society!". The other side will scream "the poor should not pay taxes, we should give them a break, and notch them up!".

Both are Disneyland. Give me a real tax system.

A-B-C

Squirrel jumping from a black fence to a tree. No thinking, just acting. Instinctual.

Like the way I play pool. It works a lot - hitting balls hard, instinctually. Not always though. I need some new tricks - to know how to hit it slow and local sometimes.

Just like federal budget policy. There are emergencies that require immediate action. Like a massive stimulus to keep schools open and fires fought. You can't let the economy and society-as-we-know-it crater.

But then there are times for thought, to carefully plan out those slow shots.

The real problem is knowing which is which.

The Republicans say - massive cuts now! The Democrats say - surgical piecemeal cuts and invest in infrastructure now!

I think we should take an ABC approach. Activity based costing looks at each widget produced and what costs go into it - materials, labor, also overhead of the factory - the heat, the lights, the accountants and lawyers and PR people. From widget #1 to widget #n.

So lets look at federal dollars spent - where they come from (you and me!) and what they are spent on.

Lets have intelligent policy discussions so we can keep from lurching from one extreme (massive stimulus or the sky will fall!) to the other (massive cuts or the sky will fall!). I honestly don't know if we Americans can do that, tending to be people of action. Lets pretend we are an international body like the UN, and have to hear all voices.

Lets get down to reality, ABC, and stop painting with words.
p.s. A tribute to Michael Jackson: www.absolutelyrics.com/lyrics/view/michael_jackson/abc

Freshmen: running up and down the halls, shouting..

I remember when I went to college and lived in a dorm, which was an all-girls dorm. It was all freshmen too. Life lesson: freshmen away from home for the first time will run up and down the halls, shouting. New found freedom! Drugs, sex, and rock and roll at any hour! (ok it was the 70s)

In later years, no one wanted to house with freshmen, cause they are, well, like that. They just want sheer freedom, and are so enthusiastic. Lacking perspective perhaps. Lacking any discipline to silence their strident voices, though they didn't have a clue what they were talking about.

OK, we all grow up and out of that phase. So what do we have in today's House of Representatives? A whole lot of freshmen (85 of them!) newly elected in November. Ah! Anxious to prove their freedom! The mandates that they alone are responsible for meeting the country's needs! Every single one of them the David that takes on Goliath!

Slingshots at the ready, each of them took their turn stabbing the beast that is the federal government. I have to say one thing, the extreme discipline in the House as they took on some 500 amendments to the continuing resolution to fund the balance of the FY 2011 federal budget. Many votes, even last night - limited to 2 minutes.

All time for debate had passed. The fact that they whipped through that number of amendments shows they truly have a mind for production. Quantity. Quality may be another story (get ready for field failures for some of these errant widgets)..

Here are some that passed, and are in the FY 2011 federal budget that the House will pass on up to the Senate (the upperclassmen):
* Gut the new financial regulations passed (the Dodd-Frank bill that provides stronger regulation over the financial industry - remember how we got into this Recession - all those fancy financial instruments like collateralized debt obligations, and mortgatized securities?)
* Nuke funding for Planned Parenthood
* Nuke funds to implement Obamacare, the Health Care Reform Act that passed last year
* Nuke funds for the EPA to regulate Greenhouse Gasses. I thought it was very administratively clever of Obama and his administration to use the EPA to regulate an obvious global polluter, greenhouse gasses. Hey, if the Congress can't pass strong environmental legislation..
* Nuke funding for net neutrality - sponsored by Oregon's own token Republican, Greg Walden
* Nuke funding for National Public Radio
* Nuke funding for Americorps volunteers

ok they have had their fun, instead of sex/drugs/rock & roll, they have gotten to play in The House, and slash and take stabs at the federal budget they so despise.

On Feb 28, the Senate will have their turn. Oh, look at the gift the freshmen have delivered us. Time to start over, they will sigh. The Minority Leader in the House offers a graceful out as an alternative - how about passing a continuing resolution to fund at FY 2010 levels for the rest of the fiscal year? Thank you, Ms. Pelosi, for being the grown up in the crowd.

The Senate will smile and nod and pass their own budget. Obama will not even have a chance to see what the House hath wrought (if he does, it will get vetoed). And we will have more of the same for the rest of the year.

Will this tie anyone in knots? No I don't think so. Will it result in fundamental budget reform for the federal government? Nope, not either. Maybe just maybe the House freshmen will see the results of all their running up and down the halls shouting, and, while it was fun, and they were watched on cspan for a while, nothing actually came of it. Maybe just maybe they will grow up, although I doubt they are ready to be considered sophomores just yet.

Substation 223

Back in the day, as they say (which always means the 70s) I worked for one summer in the Headquarters of AT&T. Back in the day before "Ma Bell" got split up.

My task was to deliver mail internal to a part of the building. And unjam the xerox machine when it got stuck. All for minimum wage, 8 hour days, boring yes but time to read. A chance to interact with the real world, engineers and such. And work at the glorious headquarters building, the one thing I remember was the blueberry pie in the cafeteria.

I heard on BBC radio today that sometimes, the illegal immigrants have an easier time getting jobs than professional middle class people. Could be they have the gut instinct to get a job, any job. And in this economy there are a plethora of professional middle class - take your pick - people with MBAs, people with advanced degrees.

Hey when I had my 3 masters degrees and was hungry for work for about 3 years, I was willing to work at SushiTown. They just looked at me - an application - for you?? Well, clearly I was not SushiTown material.

So back to substation 223 at AT&T. A chance for an 18 year old to get some work experience. Now, is this kind of experience possible? Or are others, undocumented perhaps, willing to take these jobs which eventually crowds out our young people from getting early work experience?

Random Numbers

Another week, another week wasted in Congress..
This week on cspan we have the "debate" on the FY 2011 budget.

The red forces, eager to show their strength, toss out random numbers for accelerated budget cuts. The base budget they are working from already hacks $60 Billion from the federal budget, but each new Republican showing up for work needs to have his name on a House floor transcript, and on an amendment.

So not enough to cut out funding for BLM maintenance for wild horses. No - Republican XYZ wants to cut another $10 million out. Each amendment a random number tacked on to show they can help chisel down the federal budget deficit.

Meanwhile, the blue forces, eager to show their worth to their constituents, including their constituent programs, argue forcefully. I've heard of the low-income energy assistance program, I've heard of cancer research, I've heard of job training programs. The fact that they have to defend these programs in the face of random number attacks seems just another theatre show.

This weekend, going to the symphony. Each musician an expert with his or her instrument. They make it come alive. In harmony with every other musician, every other instrument. No one is an island. No one has to fight back. They practice and practice and become one.

An inspiration for Congress?

Use the Source, Luke!

In Star Wars it is really easy to identify the good forces in the universe (Luke, Hans Solo, the collective "Force", Obi-wan Kenobi) from the evil forces (Darth Vader, the Death Star). In real life it may look obvious sometimes, but check this out.

Today you can watch both the FY 2011 and FY 2012 budgets unfolding. A cspan junkie's dream. It almost looks like they are for different countries.

FY 2011. Since our current beloved federal government is funded through March 3, after that - poof! All federal operations shut down, for without the petroleum that is money (called appropriations) that funds federal operations, nothing will happen. Your favorite tax collector (maybe your cousin, in fact) will go home. No food inspectors, so time to grow your own veggies. No highway administration, so get used to potholes (a boon time for auto mechanics!)

Today we have House Resolution 1, the first bill of the New 112th Congress. Which would fund the federal govt for the rest of this fiscal year - through Sept 30, 2011. What have we got in there: cuts to many things.

Zeroes out (stop right on passage of the bill) various worker retraining funds, such as prisoner re-entry, or youth programs, or all that unspent stimulus money. That is not obligated. So quick obligate those funds now or they also disappear. Cuts to cancer research, to community oriented policing. No aid to states, so let them go broke. Cuts to drinking water upgrade programs (so, get used to bottled water). Oh, and absolutely under no way shape or form, will there be another cent spent on Stimulus signage (you know those highway signs advertising - this program funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act?)

Then there is the President's FY 2012 budget, for the fiscal year that begins on October 1. People wax eloquently about something they've never seen - the President's budget is released in February, then the various Congressional committees chop it up and debate intelligently 12 separate appropriations bills. Then they pass them over to the Senate who step up the intelligent deliberations in their wisdom. They all get passed well in advance of October 1, so when the new fiscal year starts, all stakeholders (any state, any state agency, many groups which receive federal funding - like your local food stamp caseworker, your unemployment check, your fish inspector, to name a few) have certainty about their funding. Ah how nice to have this textbook vision, one that some people who are less than 25 have never seen in their lives!

In this budget what have we got. $53 billion for high speed rail! Is it cost effective? Well it sure sounds cool and if it took me 2 hours I could get to LA in a very quick hurry. A reprieve for all those states who kept their unemployment tax rates very low, and now in this continued Great Recession, have had to borrow from the Department of Labor (who had to borrow from the Treasury, who had to borrow from China. I think thats as far as the chain goes..) No interest payments on these loans for 2 more years! And then after that, raising the amount that the employers in their state would pay unemployment tax on. But! To keep from passing any kind of tax increase on any single employer, correspondingly reduce the tax rate. Voila! No tax increase! Does this make any state's unemployment fund more stable? Or just kick the can down the road..

So which is the Good Force, and which is the Evil Force? Is it right and proper and American to make large cuts to federal programs that people have come to depend on, which help the lives of many disenfranchised by our capitalist society, for the sake of a sustainable federal budget? Or is it right and proper to invest in the future and support employers along the way, even if it is not sustainable cause they all need stimulus and investment now to help our economy grow? Help me, Obi-wan Kenobi, you're my only hope!

The Darkness of Night, the Dawn of Morning

Egypt be free!

Tonight, Ambassador to the UN for the United States, Ms. Susan Rice, was in Portland.

The "welcoming committee" outside, about 3 or 4 protesters - saying no to the UN, to the IMF, to the World Bank. After listening to her talk, I wonder why they do not want world cooperation?

She framed our contribution to the UN as good payoff: for 1/10 of 1 percent of our federal budget we participate in the UN through country dues. If not for this, would we be shouldering the whole burden of UN missions on our own?

She quoted former UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold on the purpose of the UN - "not to bring humanity to heaven, but to save it from hell". Many things the UN has done - polio vaccines, bedneds for malaria, Millenium Development Goals to reduce poverty.

In credit to the open spirit of Portland, all you needed to do on entry to the church, which was packed to listen to her, was have them check your name off a list and head on in. No metal detectors or anything. And to her credit in response to questions both positive and confrontational, her tone was one of "The Obama administration believes...", or "I've answered your question". Somewhere inside of her is a Jersey girl, I sense.

Some questions - what about those Israli settlements in Palestine? There is a limit to what the UN can do. They can't force any countries to take action.

Influence is what its about. Consensus. If not for the UN where would we have a forum for world cooperation? Whatever its problems or dated structure, and she will admit its not perfect, we need the UN more than ever.

. Not a Jersey girl after all - she is a child of DC. Whose mentor was Madelaine Albright, one of the women I most respect on the planet.

21 years ago on February 11 was the day Nelson Mandela walked out of prison. And today of course will long be remembered..

Go Egypt - let us all hope and pray that they can pull it off.

The Standard Playbook

"Round up the usual suspects" -- Captain Renault ("Casablanca", 1942)

"Foreign agents are unsettling things" -- Joseph McCarthy, 1950's

"Peaceful transition of power" -- like the Bush re-election of 2000, where Florida hung in the balance and the Supreme Court decided our election (no blood was shed, however)

"Must uphold the Constitution" -- oh! Like the fact that the Census is required by the U.S. Constitution, and no other mailing can mimic that - but this is just what the Republicans tried to do with a mailing

ok - all this - Mubarak's playbook
Why did anyone expect anything less? Every single human on the news was filled with optimism. And those in Tahrir Square in Cairo too. Sigh, people have lied before, and they will lie again. Someone who has been in power for 30 years or more, do you really expect him to face reality?

53rd Ave, Hillsboro, OR USA

Here is something fun to do: stand in one place and look all around. See the texture and detail of what's in that place at that point in time.

53rd Ave, Hillsboro. At one time a grassy field. Now soccer fields with astroturf.

These kids, striving. Soccer is an international language. One time I was looking up middle east websites (before Egypt and other countries erupted) - soccer is something the rest of the world is passionate about.

Maybe we can finally play. Go Timbers!

Today our Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernake was in front of a Congressional Committee, again. I am sort of tired of hearing from him. His attitude was quite interesting. He was defending his "Quantitative Easing" strategy, also known as QE2 (which makes it sound like an oceanliner), the $600 billion he has pumped into the American economy.

Why? And where did he get the money? Um, not from taxpayers, since we're tapped out. From the Treasury, which, again, has to loan money from China. OK all that irresponsible financial stuff aside, what happens when this money is pumped into the U.S. economy?

Do banks start lending? Nope. Do companies start hiring? Nope. Not even with Obama's kind words to the business community. No, it takes more than words, and money apparently, to kickstart our economy.

So we're still in a dead stall (hmm, nice time for grad school, perhaps??). What is happening in the rest of the world? Food prices are rising. Why do I care about this more than anything else? It is so very fundamental. Thank you for the gift of a goat for Xmas! It will provide subsistence to a family in a developing country (www.heifer.com, check it out).

Mr. Bernake said that no, our QE policy was not responsible for rising food prices in the rest of the world. There are surely other factors, I believe that. But we are, indeed, a global economy. Every QE dollar put into our economy has a national security impact on the rest of the world. Do we think about this?

Emergency Food Supplies

Vending machines failing me today, at work, at the I-5 rest area. Darkened and not able to accept my money freely given. Sigh, how to stay awake on the way home - oh yes! My emergency food supplies!

Tucked into the glove box of my car, at the bottom, chocolate graham crackers. OK so they've been in there for lets see, my car is almost paid off... So nearly 6 years. Hmm, subject to the extremes of heat (baking in the summer sun all day), of cold (freezing in the dark every winter night), of rain (mist, pseudo mist, hard rain, drizzly rain, horizontal rain, rain-soaked-clouds-which-are-so-humid-your-hair-frizzes). OK so I'm no eskimo, I don't know 200 words for "snow". But I am working on my Oregon rain vocabulary.

Well the grahams were chocolate-stuck together. How desparate was I? I hate to say that if it were me or the grahams, then they won. But I didn't throw them out, nope - put the rest back in the glove box. Some day it may *really* be time for emergency graham crackers. Not today though.

What other things lurk, hidden away, years at a time. But are still there when you need them.. I thought once I could revive my Jersey girl. Someone at work, I felt, deserved me to be in their face (Jersey girl style). On thinking about it and the advice of friends, I realized this was not my way of operating. I think I may have even met them halfway. But tangle with me the wrong way, and my emergency supplies of in-your-face are still under there.

Hey, today Huffington Post was bought by AOL-Time-Warner for $315 million. Now I guess they can be called AOL-Time-Warner-Huffington-Post. Someone on the news called their site a glorified blog. So the offer is out there, all you readers! If you want to buy me out for $315 million, make me an offer I can't refuse!

Before Government Statistics

Part 1 - Life expectancies
The Economist magazine publishes this handy little guide "Pocket World in Figures", hey if you like numbers this gives you all kinds of neat data to compare across countries of the world. Like life expectancy:
Egypt: 69.3 years (men), 73.0 years (women)
South Africa: 51.8 years (men), 53.8 years (women)
U.S.: 77.2 years (men), 82.1 years (women)

I hear that South Africa is the great power economy of Africa, but their life expectancy is even lower than Egypt's, which is shocking. I think their leader for a long time denied that AIDS was a problem - just wash your hands, or some stupid response like that. Now if they can come to terms with AIDS as a reality maybe their lifespan can increase.

The percent over age 60:
Egypt: 7.5%, South Africa: 7.3%, U.S. 18.2%
Lately I don't hear politicians who are concerned about the economy railing about social security, or even Medicaid, though both have their sustainable-economic problems. I hear about Medicare. hmm, the baby boomers (us) are hitting retirement age, and this statistic of the percent of the U.S. population over age 60 is going to grow, grow.

Medicare is called an entitlement. So even if you are filthy rich, you get Medicare. When Bill Gates retires, he will get free health care via Medicare. How nice. Why is that. Sounds like socialism to me..

Part 2 - the Bible
The best selling book of all time, 2 billion copies and still available, has been on the shelves of bookstores for 2000 years. So I am starting out on this popular best seller.

In Genesis, during the Noah era (which is pre-Facebook) documented cases tell how people routinely lived into their 800s. That is not a typo but eight-hundred-years.

Maybe the world didn't change as much back then and you could live a happy life into your 800s. After the flood (Noah's flood), well our life expectancy went way downhill.. 100 or so, not much longer.

Part 3 - Someone close to me
When people immigrated here from the "old country" they kept some things. Like their healthy Mediterranean stock.

My dear sweet aunt passed away this past week. Into her 90's, just like my grandma. Well, women in my family have generally lived long lives, not so the men.

She was named after her mother, Carmella, though I knew her as Aunt Cam. I cannot imagine a more optimistic cheery loving and sensible person than her. She will truly be missed.

When East Meets West

If you live in Chicago for 10 years you will lose your sense of direction. Or rather, gain a unique sense of direction. The lake is always east, so head east into the city. Always.

Just like it took me a decade to realize the beaches in Oregon weren't sand-so-hot-it-makes-your-feet-burn type beaches, nope don't need an umbrella, and yes it is freezing, usually. Almost always. Forget about shorts (turn up the heat and wear them at home, not at the beach).

So East means the lake, downtown. It has taken 20 years in the Portland area but I think I have finally overcome this geographic challenge. When coming from the airport do Not head east, unless you are going to the Gorge. I finally get it.

A book I read (mostly, lets see the number of books I have actually finished might be able to occupy all my fingers..) recently was about how the "West" is winning, for now. As in West (US and Europe as the industrialized West), and the East has caught up and at points in history over the past millenia or three just hasn't kept pace. The East as in China mainly.

Past performance is not an indicator of future results. This is the first thing you read in any stock portfolio. So who says the West will always rule?

I did not believe Mr. Bush (remember, our former President) had sincere objectives about "freedom" and "democracy". I mean he used the term "free trade" to mean whatever the heck he wanted it to mean, and kept all the ag subsidies, exploitative labor in countries we would purchase goods from, etc. It wasn't free trade, and still isn't. So, why should I believe anything he said about freedom and democracy.

Three days later it is no longer favored US policy to stick close to "allies" just because they are safe and secure, if their people are oppressed. Maybe Bush was right.. Or maybe it is the north/south thing and it is the south's turn at the table. To be heard. To live free lives.

When East meets West. Well in Chicago I guess if you kept heading East, I mean kept at it, swim across Lake Michigan, travel across the Midwest, across the Atlantic, across Europe, Asia, and back on land in California, across the plains, across the farm states, well eventually, you would end up on the West side of Chicago.

Where East meets West. Where North meets South. Its a very long way, but they eventually do meet up.

Montego Bay and Other Weather Reports..

While I don't live in Chicago, I can remember the "snowstorm of 1978". Not sure if that was one of the big ones or not, but it was the biggest snowstorm I've ever seen - tunnels built around campus making you feel like you were an elf in some middle kingdom.. I think we had 77 inches of snow in one weekend, or maybe that is the story today...

Living there in the winter does get old, and February is the time it gets the oldest. New snow is fun, but old dirty snow and the 32nd day in a row of wind chill reports below zero gets old. Hey I used to be able to differentiate between 20 below and 50 below (WCF). Now probably either would kill me. Unless the sun was shining, then I think I could endure anything.

In the depths of a small company where I worked which was very dingy and very dirty and literally housed a manufacturing sign company in the basement, I had my own private office door. Those were the days (bars on the windows however, and car breakins, oh those Nine West boots I lost, I will never forget those..)

But I found a virtual way to survive. The Chicago Tribune posted (not on the internet, but in the real live newspaper, which I still believe in) temperatures for places near and far. I picked Montego Bay, Jamaica to be my alter-weather-ego place to track. Every day I would post the temperature clipped from the paper on my door. Ah, a virtual escape. Today it is 70 degrees. Look, today it is... 70 degrees! Later in the week I was able to proudly display - look! It is 70 degrees. Something warm and comforting about that.

Cairo, Egypt: 64 degrees (Fahrenheit)
Beirut, Lebanon: 54 degrees, with rain
Sana'a, Yemen: 55 degrees
Tunis, Tunisia: 50 degrees

One by one, these are the places to virtually visit this winter. My heart goes out to the people in Egypt. Why did the world think only 3 days ago this was some sort of peaceful protest, and that it would be met openly by the ruling regime? Why were there no suspicious voices wondering if things might take a different turn?

Or maybe we all like to be optimists till events prove otherwise. I know I like to be an optimist. But lets face reality. Journalists are getting beaten up and attacked. Anderson Cooper, either brave or a completely stupid guy, is broadcasting from an 'undisclosed location' which looks like a utility trailer.

News from where? What happened to the twitter revolution? Oh, when the government controls the means of communication they can "shut down the internet". Sounds phenomenol. OK all you open source hackers (excuse me, software engineers) out there who are so empassioned about Linux. Challenge: develop competing open source technology, get someone rich like Richard Branson to sponsor an 'open source, open world' satellite. So you can keep broadcasting even in the face of government oppression.

Some people think their right to own guns means they can protect themselves from the government. But all guns do is kill people errantly, like that 13 year old in Oregon whose dad left a loaded shotgun in the living room after duck hunting. Tragedy strikes and I'm sorry but we aren't in militia days.

The true path to freedom of the population seems to be information, communication. Maybe it always has been.

Hillsboro: 42 degrees
Worcester, Mass: 13 degrees
Troy, NY: 5 degrees (you win!)
Redmond, OR: 39 degrees
Roswell, NM: 0 degrees (you really win!)
Chicago: 9 degrees