11.. 10.. 9.. 8..

My new house is filled with appliances that beep.  Sometimes it is impossible to know which one it is (usually something in the kitchen).  There is a nifty timer feature on the microwave that I use often, to time cooking things.  Since, after all, everything can be scheduled.  And its better than the oven timer which doesn't use "real time", but only time after it gets up to temperature.  Who has time for that?

But the microwave timer thing has no way of shutting it off.  I have tried pause (only a temporary thing, the countdown clock is still there), clear/off (nothing happens).  The only recourse is to watch it time down.  Kind of like those nuclear launch codes, once two people have triggered them it is unstoppable nuclear war.

I used to worry (seriously) about nuclear war back in the 80s.  But we survived.  Maybe even Reagan, enemy of the left, had a part in this.  But Russia doesn't really want to move on, though all those satellite countries are now EU or EU wanna bes.

Today the artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet, I suppose this is the most prestigious ballet on the planet, out of Russia, was brutally attacked.  He was a visionary who was not so content with doing Russian ballet the same way as it has always been done, but willing to be modern.  This was not the way to win friends and influence people.

So in the 80s we counted down the minutes to nuclear armageddon, with the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.  Today my microwave counts down unconsolably to zero.  The nuclear clock isn't even in the news anymore.  So apparently some countdowns are stoppable.

What is the green wire we can cut to stop our country from sinking into depair and recession?  I do not think it will be found by our Pres and his only style, which is community activism.  I do not thinkg it will be found by the opposing party on its own, since the Dems will never let it come to that, never willingly acquiesce to cuts in bloated social programs that keep many feeding at the trough.

Maybe this is one countdown that has to run to completion.  No easy way out, just a pause.  11.. 10.. 9.. 8..

I will not report, speculate, or ponder..

If I captured one quote a day from Mr Jay Carney, the President's press secretary, it would provide a compilation of Big Government statements devoid of content.

Pressed today by the press (hey!), he did not reply to their questions about the President's gun policies.  29 executive orders tomorrow on gun control.

Now wait, can he do that?  Well, I suppose our legislative process is broken.  And power loves a vacuum..

Which side of history this Christmas?

Things stay the same.  Things change.
The Governor has an open house at the Capitol and a tree lighting.  But, not exactly the same this year.  Gone are the open house festivities with local authors, local vendors.  The tree lighting was waiting, the choir was nice, seeing the families was nice and especially the little kids perched on mom and dad's shoulders so they could see.  With 3 kids and only 2 parents, I was tempted to pick up one of the kids without shoulders to rest on, but resisted that temptation..

The droning of boring speeches.  Hmm.  And I wonder, earlier in the day I heard on cspan the historic moments when Palestine was voted in to the UN with non-voting member state status.  Wow!  And the U.S., again, on the wrong side of history.  Reminded me of Kyoto.

Are we on the wrong side of history?  And as Lindsay Graham said later on, well now that gives Palestine the right to file charges in the International Criminal Court.  Yes well don't the Palestinian people deserve to be free?

Chinese names, Dr Who style (thank you Economist)

Calling Dr Who fans:  the Economist annual "The World in 2013" just hit my mailbox.  And in tribute to the Good Doctor, predicts the world, looking  back from 2063.  Yes Jennifer we should chose our Chinese names now, while the good ones are still to be had.

Ideology: the Loser in this Election

Everything has its time.
Grover Norquist sounds intelligent, but his "pledge" has had its time.
Unions still represent a collective voice, but perhaps they need to be a little less entrenched, a little more awake to the fiscal realities they have helped create.
Maybe even those oil companies, risking their stockholder's profits on tar sands oil, and fracking, and hiding money for those lawsuits down the road - not just from Americans with pollutants in their drinking water, but from banana harvesters and workers in Nigeria.

I do not want my government forcing Catholic charities to buy birth control for their employees.  If their employees want birth control let them buy it on their own.
I do not want union dues taken out of my salary anymore as a "fair share".  If I want to join the union, let me sign up and be union proud and pay my dues out of free choice.

Yep, everyone will be glad when this election cycle is over.  I am a bit nervous.  In Oregon we may end up with another 30:30 15:15 split Legislature.  Which means nothing will get done (boring to watch, and our PERS-induced problems do not just magically 'poof' go away when the stock market recovers, if it recovers).

Nationally, fascinating races - cspan plays many debates.  It is ideology that will be the loser when it comes to passing legislation.  No one side has a corner on The Truth.  If you force everyone on my block to buy compact fluorescent light bulbs, maybe our energy bill will go down, but the mercury that seeps through the landfill cause everyone doesn't know what to do with the spent bulbs will pollute our water.

Likewise if you force every citizen to "make a choice" on health care, or retirement investment, some of us will chose badly, and suffer for it.

Balance.  All voices.  Let 2013 see the end of ideology.  If not, we have no one but the voters (ourselves) to blame.

"Big Bird"

I heard on the radio that of the 10 million tweets about the Presidential debate, 250,000 of them were about "Big Bird".

.. back in a little apartment with gold shag carpet, a sliding door to the lawn outside the building, I lived on the same floor as Big Bird's parents.  They were old then, and that was 20+ years ago, so they are probably in their final resting places, dear Peg and Chet Spinny.

I got to meet Mr Big Bird himself in the parking lot once.  Very cool, he gave me his Big Bird voice and everything (but was dressed like a normal human - sorry kiddies).  So the fact that Big Bird got more attention than Obama's lack of teleprompter moments, or Romney's grand performance, is this a symbol of the importance of:
Public Television
innocence
childhood
?
What is the role of government in supporting these things?  And would those things (PBS, innocence, childhood) exist without government funding?  What about Big Bird?

Maybe he would exist, but maybe he wouldn't have 100 million followers.  Or is it billions if you could fans across the world.

When I listen to the classical station, I am always impressed with the "Scottish National Orchestra" and other national orchestras (since I don't think Scotland is actually an independent nation) across Europe.  And yet.  We're not Europe.  We don't even have universal health care here.

So, sorry Big Bird, you're going to have to take up a private collection.

Even on Satellite Radio

I thought Romney came through clear and uncluttered, and to the point.  And even on radio, Obama sounded defensive.  And even referred to his own health care policy as "Obamacare", which some find disparaging.

Then again, do debates sway voters?  They say the slice of undecided voters is quite thin this time around.  So Romney would have to steal votes.

Which is possible.  Can't wait for the foreign policy debate, just 2 weeks before the election.  Then again, I've already declared myself a Paul Ryan voter - with now his human running mate Mitt Romney.