Unintended Side Effects

Or, pernicious policy?

My local Street Roots vendor, on the consequences of the President's "Dream Act".  Has young people now living in fear as their names are identified on public lists.  They are currently illegal.  Obama wants to give them a shot at in-state tuition and a plan for legal status.  But meanwhile, they are publicly identified as illegal.  A positive path, or the Power of the State clamping down ?

Satellite Dust

There are more stars in my backyard now, here in the city, than when I lived in the suburbs.  How can that be?  Could be that Mt Tabor is light free (just a few blocks from here), and in the burbs we had major highways in earshot, with loud lights.

From my backyard, with our enormous patio, and new sustainable patio furniture, you can even watch satellites in the sky.  At least I think they are (and not planes), stay tuned.  When I lived in Beaverton which was a really long time ago, I can remember laying in the backyard watching the sky which was filled, absolutely filled, with satellites moving across the sky.

Could be there is more to spy on in Beaverton.  Or that satellites have gone the way of UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles).  Which for some reason fascinate me.  Could be the guy I met on a plane one time who was an Intel retread, and gone to work for the UAV manufacturer out near Hood River.  And was telling me about the peaceful uses of UAVs, like watching your fishing fleet.  Makes sense to me.

Like any technology, it can be used for peaceful purposes, or for destructive ends. Hey even language, or fire, or compilers, or uranium is like that.

So I will blame the satellite dust for the failure of my set top box to work in my kitchen.  I kept that old tiny (and heavy) portable (sort of) TV which has a manufacture date of 1982, alive, after normal TV signals bit the dust.  I kept it going with a digital set top box, and it did work.  Used to.  In the suburbs.  Here in the city, its either the brick wall in the kitchen, or that extinct volcano up in the park, or maybe just satellite dust.  It gets a picture, but no sound, no moving images.  Good bye Jim Leher news hour while I make dinner.  I am left with satellite radio, which is quite compatible with satellite dust.

Behaviours

Protests in Athens, over those harsh austerity measures that Germany wants to impose, in exchange for aid, to bail out the sinking Greece economy.  30,000 to 40,000 took to the streets.

Would you bite the hand that feeds you?  Even my cat knows better than that..

Loans from China, to prop up the sinking U.S. economy.  How does this kind of "aid" change behavior?  No protests here.  Right now.

What if the Chinese set conditions on us, a "super power".  Would we have super powers to get out of it?  I didn't watch all of that Superman flick, but somehow even after he gave up his super-humanity to marry Lois Lane (or at least shack up for a night) the poor folks on earth needed him to rescue them from the evil trio - and he was able to get his super human strength back and be victorious.

What if they set conditions, tightening that Nyssa bracelet ever tighter.  Like on the old Doctor Who episode, Nyssa from Trachon (one of Adrick's friends) was given a bracelet by the Master - to do his bidding all he had to do was tighten its hold on her, and she did as instructed.

Are we free?  What conditions could they put on us?  No more $3.99 Dove bars?  No more 99 weeks of unemployment?  No more retirement at age 62.  No more Medicare A B C D..

New bridges - financed with Chinese labor, Chinese equipment.  Like those African nations.  could we become a colony?  Are we?

The Beech Tree

Do we need a federal budget?  Maybe if they don't pass one, we can just live on Chinese yuan or something?

So Congress is, again, no surprise, down to the wire.  Two more days till they break, till after the election.  So today instead of the Senate voting on a continuing resolution, as passed by the House (a full 6 months of a budget!  well, thats half a year in any case), Senator Reid canceled the vote.

The buzz on POTUS was that Reid wanted to be sure the Massachusetts debate took place - that incumbent Scott Brown debated challenger Elizabeth Warren.  Well its nice to know he cares about airing these two in public, to give those Mass voters a chance to get the candidate of their dreams.

But is that a reason to stop a federal budget vote in its tracks?  I had (past tense) respect for Harry Reid.  Could be I shouldn't believe everything I hear (seems I just said that to someone else the other day..) and that maybe he had valid reasons for not voting today.

The Beech Tree at WPI, the most beautiful tree you've ever seen.  In historical political lore as the rallying location for students to amass, the progressive Republicans at the WPI campus in Worcester, Mass, who rallied for Scott Brown when he visited their town.  I hope they were all watching the debate from their dorms tonight.

The Middle Class

Everyone (well, every politician) seems to be talking about the middle class these days..

At the Democratic National Convention, they had pre-made signs for the middle class.  I know VP Biden has been touting the middle class for some time - and may even lead up one of those blue ribbon commissions that is out to "save the middle class".

Now save the whales I could get behind.  But something about this strikes me as pandering to voters.  What about the lower class?  The wealthy class?  The used-to-be-middle-class?

That is how I feel about it, either that or my general universal tendencies thinking - a president or a politician should be out there to represent *all* of us, right?  Not just those with campaign contributions to kick in.  Or bundlers who can raise piles of money to raise still more piles of money.

I used to think of myself as middle class I suppose.  Dual income, no kids - then we even had dual kids and maid service too once upon a time.  Till she ran off with a check without cleaning, well, we clean our own homes since that time thank you.  But give someone used to car payments and maid service several years on the dole as they say in Britain.  It reorients your thinking.

Still think of myself as one step away from the kindness of strangers that always seems to get me by.  So this pandering to the middle class - nope, not falling for it.  But I suppose you can read tax policy, the i-ching of everything today it would seem, into this:
* keep those mortgage interest deductions, so we can write off $2000 of the $4000 per month mortgage we can't afford, and actually never could!

* keep my company eligible for those health care deductions!

But none of this is much of a rallying cry.  Not like "save the middle class".  hmm.  I am reminded of new subdivisions named after trees they have felled.  Like Cedar Crest, which felled a forest across the street from my own house - county commissioners promised the citizens they would keep several trees per lot!  In reality, they kept one lone cedar at the top of the hill, till that had to make way for a cul-de-sac.  So now in honor of the stately cedars that used to grace the property, all that is left is some root structure down there someplace.

Is save the middle class like that?  A vanishing species?  Maybe, but you know what, it means nothing to me.  How about "save our freedom"  "save upward mobility".  Any more, it seems the Republicans have a lock on progressive stands - things like education reform.  While the Democrats have lost any progressive edge, looking to hang onto the status quo.

Consumerville

I always say, if you knew everything about your consumer purchase -where it comes from, the conditions of the people who made it, where the source components come from - then you could make an intelligent consumer choice.  Save the world!  Encourage healthy and safe working conditions!

So faced with a choice of patio furniture - most of which is very ugly, to my surprise we found some sustainably harvested Ipe wood furniture.  The wood is grown in Bolivia and certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, and manufactured by Jensen Leisure Furniture.

In the store (Fishels in Beaverton) they even have an entire book about their community, where the wood is grown, how it is harvested, how it has helped the community with jobs, income for education, housing.

And it is the most beautiful wood furniture, and way prettier than any other patio furniture out there.  So maybe the consumer choice is political.  rah.

Which Tent?

Since when did the Republican Party become the party of the immigrant work ethic?  Catching up on cspan videos (see www.cspan.org/rnc for updates on all those convention videos you missed).

Marco Rubio taps into the essential immigrant work ethic, while his dad worked as a bartender, and his mom the night shift at K-Mart, he is now speaking as Senator, introducing the party's nominee.  Inspiring.  Looking at all the other boxes on the R page, Chris Christie, Paul Ryan - they all tap into this second generation immigrant experience.

Kind of hard to turn that down. I suppose both sides offer this up, and offer to accept us into their tent.

While the Dems bash the Rs as representing the party of the rich, lets take a closer look.  Which party will lead your great-grandchildren into serfdom due to massive debt?