Family Calendar Update

I thought I'd post a shot of all the birds and at the same time a larger image of the cover page.

The images here can't begin to show the quality of the photos. All the photos are 6.5 X 9.5 and have a resolution between 200 and 300 pixels per inch and are printed on 8.5 X 11 Kodak photo paper.
The photos were shot with either the Nikon D50 or the Nikon D70s cameras. The lens was either an AF-S Nikkor 300 mm, f2.8 with Vibration Reduction or an AF-D Nikkor 80-400 mm, f4.5 - 5.6 also withVibration Reduction.

Family Calendar Cover Page

I'll be posting our 2009 family calendar in segments throughout the year. There are several people who don't get a copy so I thought this was a good way to make it more available.


The first post will be the photo for the cover page alone and near the end of December I'll post the photo for January as well as the calendar page.

The theme this year is backyard birds and this little guy is a Wilson's Warbler, Wilsonia pusilla. I can't help but think of flowers when I see the colors of the many species of warblers who stop over in our yard on their Spring migration to breeding grounds. Often, like the Wilson's, they may fly much farther north. If we are lucky they will stay a few days before continuing on.

All the photos, thirteen in all, were taken in our backyard. Hope you enjoy them.

TIME Magazine's Person of the Year

What a shocker!
Has TIME Magazine changed the definition of their "Person of the Year".
Let me see if I can locate the official (or what used to be the official) definition of their P.O.T.Y.
"TIME's Person of the Year is the man, woman, couple, group, idea, place, or machine that for better or for worse, has done the most to influence the events of the year."
Hmmm, did I miss something?...nope, it's still December 2008.
Well, how would one characterise his influence on 2008? He spent a lot of money making grand promises and he convinced more voters to believe his promises than McCain did. Can't think of anything else. Even if he had a real connection to Blago's Belly-flop it's a pathetic list of "influence (on) events".
(Insert oath), I can think of a few people who, "for better or worse", are on the top of MY list.
Richard Syron, CEO of Freddie Mac from 2003 to 2008 is near the top. As is Daniel Mudd, Fannie Mae’s CEO from 2005 to 2008. Or, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox.
Even TIME's runner-ups are weak compared to my candidates: Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Gov. Sarah Palin and Chinese director...wait, did I see Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin? Are you kidding me? I would have listed her somewhere down there near Ralph Nader. Go figure!
Oh well. Come to think of it, I stopped subscribing to TIME nearly twenty years ago when their resemblance to a news magazine fell off the charts.

Some Negative Thoughts

How did Proposition 8 manage to pass? And in California of all places!

Even though a lot of monetary support came from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, citizens of California cast the votes. What was it? Apathy?

"In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist;
And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist;
And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew;
And then . . . they came for me . . . And by that time there was no one left to speak up."

Martin Niemöller

One last thought: What would Jesus do?

Responsibility and Expectations

"The economy is going to get worse before it gets better,”


According to David Espo, AP Special Correspondent, this is a direct quote from President-Elect Obama. Maybe it’s a sign he will take the responsibility and tell the American public what they don’t want to hear. The public wants to hear that everything will go back to what it was like before the recession. Americans want their “house-of-cards” back.

I truly believe our economy was a house-of-cards. It stopped being a market driven economy when market manipulation became commonplace. An extreme example of market manipulation is the recent rapid rise and nearly instant collapse of the price of oil. I defy anyone to explain it in terms of supply and demand. Real estate “bubble”? Give me a break. Bubble is too cute a word for the government-encouraged manipulation of market demand.

The biggest line of bullshit handed the American public is that we don’t need to take responsibility for anything anymore.

You tripped on the sidewalk in front of Wal-Mart? Sue them. Not your fault you don’t know how to walk in those outrageous shoes.

The storeowner hit you over the head with a baseball bat when you were trying to hold-up her store and now you’re permanently disabled? Sue her ass for using unreasonable force.

Can’t afford to fill the tank of your Hummer, Escalade, or Denali with $4 a gallon gas? Not your fault you didn’t think of that when you bought the behemoth. Demand that the government do something! Drill more oil wells, force the Saudis to pump more, drop the gas tax…

Can’t pay the mortgage on your half-million dollar house ‘cause you only make $20 thousand a year? No one else is taking responsibility so why would you even consider it?

Drove your company to the brink of bankruptcy because you need to fake solvency in order to justify your king’s-ransom-size salary? You know better than to take responsibility for the mess someone else created.

Bailout! Bailout!... Bush? Paulson? Obama? Congress? Somebody? Do something, a bailout, or anything, but fix it now; just prop up that house-of-cards.

Responsibility time; I want to see bloated corporations file for bankruptcy. I want to see some egomaniacal CEO’s get what they deserve. I want to see some perp-walks. I want to see a real market driven economy functioning without bailouts and without manipulation.

Most of all I want our government to start telling the truth. I know it’s a tall order but that is where responsibility must start if we are to avoid something worse than the current depression.

What are the chances of that?

Outdoor Lights - Bah Humbug

Does anyone make outdoor lights that actually work and don't have to be replaced every year?

Didn't think so.

Best wife spent nearly 2 hours today trying to get last year's lights to work. Usually the string will work until she has them carfully attached to the 25 feet of garland. Then zilch! It was touch and go there for a while when I tried to make a little joke about the progress. I escaped with only minor injuries.

Oh Ye of Little Faith

So Martin Sheen says that Faith Must Cost Something. Well that must be true for the Magicians of Bailout. The democrats in congress must have "some" faith in the auto industry's Wunderkind Trio to put $17 billion on the table.

Wait, my crystal ball is starting to focus... yes, and I hear a voice coming from Detroit. "...if four months ago you'd given us the 25 - 'er the ah 34 billion then we wouldn't need the $100 billion now!"


Maybe they just don't have enough Faith.

Gee, Mr. Wagoner...

Thankful

I’m thankful for so much this holiday season.
Right now I’m thankful to be sitting here, coffee cup in hand, in my comfortable home, next to my wonderful wife…she orchestrated a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner yesterday.
I’m thankful for the family and friends who were with us to enjoy that dinner.
I’m thankful for the aroma of the turkey stock boiling on the stove, for the dishes to be all washed and put away…thankful…

Plenty of Blame to Go Around

I've been decrying the public's blasé acceptance of corporate corruption and Wall Street greed for years and expected a popular uprising when the situation reached a critical mass.
I would expect that we are damn close to that critical point now. But that's not what I see happening. What I see is the expectation that the same crowd that created this mess will fix it! Is the generation who understood responsibility so far in our past?
For weeks now I have been trying to find the words to express my anger and frustration. I've failed.

What I did find was a great commentary by Thomas L. Freidman in the New York Times' Op-Ed page. He points out that there were some people, honest and articulate, trying to shed light on the mismanagement on Wall Street. He mentions Michael Lewis and Meredith Whitney and I'm sure there were others.
The Permalink to All Fall Down is on the side bar as well as the link below:

All Fall Down

Highway to Hell

l l l l

I added some YouTube video links in the side-bar the other day. Still needs some tweaking I think. The best results so far appear to be from single song selections rather than artists. Most of the popular songs from the same group are available after a video ends. Listing the artist resulted in a lot of dead links.

P.S. - I've always been intrigued by the possibility that the Highway title was inspired by the Stairway title.

Windows Vista & Stuff

I hear and read so many complaints about Windows Vista. Sure, it has some mildly annoying features but the complaints seem misplaced. OK, the constant second guessing of my choices could irritate some. But it's really rather funny and I always win the argument. (I'm rather contrary: I even like to wear my VVS Wick-Dry socks on the wrong foot!) But I digress.
Misplaced!! God is it misplaced. The real monstrosity is the Office 2007 system, officially the F.U.I. Which, I believe, stands for Flummoxed User Interface. I've been teaching MS Office applications for lots of years and frequently laud some of the greatest features like forward and backward compatability and seamless user transition from one version to another. Nothing short of throwing the baby out with the bathwater comes close to the abortion performed on MS Office! There is permanent scarring on some of my brain cells as a result of the first time I tried to use 2007 Word. I merely wanted to open an existing document and print it. Imagine my surprise, no familiar toolbars. In fact no toolbars of any kind. And what's this? A menu bar that's no longer a menu bar? WTF? OK, OK relax...use Ctrl+O...good, something familiar, an Open dialog box!...damn, never been more thankful in my life to see the Open dialog box...whew...there's my document...carefully click the Open button... ? ? ? ?...I need a what?...what?...I NEED TO DOWNLOAD A FUCKING TRANSLATOR...Is this some kind of a joke?...IS THERE A GOD DAMN COMPUTER AROUND HERE THAT WORKS?
That was the end of my experience with O-bortion 2007 for several months because I uninstalled it and replaced it with Office 2003.


Angry Pc Man(remix) - The most popular videos are a click away

Alternate method:

http://www.dansdata.com/sbs3.htm

Or would you rather have BAILOUT month?

?

November is RESPONSIBILITY Month!

Time we took some responsibility for our "Recession" bubble.
Responsibility and her sister, Honesty, have been banished from our daily lives for far too long.
Now we sit here. Stewing and waiting for OUR bailout. What is this type of economy called again? A Market economy? No that can't be right.

To be continued...

Another two-fer Week

Both in Alaska this week:

Which one looks happier?

1. Ted Stevens is convicted on all seven counts of making false statements on Senate financial documents concerning gifts received from contractor Bill Allen and oil services company VECO among others.

Story on Associated Press Article here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081027/ap_on_go_co/stevens_charges_1





2. The federal government declared the Beluga whales in Alaska's Cook Inlet endangered and protected under the Endangered Species Act.

Story on KTVA News http://www.ktva.com/news/ci_10767837


There is bound to be a lot of resistance from the Bush Administration because it will have some level of economic impact. Critical habitat will have to be designated and a recovery plan created. Alaska governor Palin has been fighting this listing and her Attorney General Colberg has already hinted at a legal challenge to the listing.

A Two-fer Week!

Our lame-duck (quack - quack) president's approval rating seems to be a boon for our environment.

Three cheers!

Alaska Senator Ted Stevens is indicted on seven felony counts. Most stem from his cosy-oily connections with VECO Corporation, a oil services contractor.

Ted claims he is innocent.

Prosecutors from the Justice Department had a lot to choose from:
L.A. Times, in 2003 published accusations of influence peddling and insider trading.
He has been accused of doing favors for companies who employed his son.
His son had options to buy a share of a seafood company while Ted was working to supply millions of dollars of fish for the company.
The list goes on.
Source: SourceWatch - http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Ted_Stevens#Alaska_pork

Too bad he couldn't be indicted for his pro-logging work. He proposed clear-cutting more than 2 million acres of old-growth forest and building thousands of miles of logging roads at taxpayer expense.
Or indicted for his pertinacious efforts to allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

A lot will depend on the U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan.
One can only hope he doesn't follow the example set by District Judge William J. Martini. More on that another time.

Finally - A Victory for the Florida Everglades

A long fought battle - four years of litigation against the EPA and the State of Florida. I know there will probably be appeals, if for no other reason than to delay, delay, delay. But I'll celebrate anyway with a Smuttynose IPA and thumb my nose at the Bush administration's Environmental Prevention Agency.

Federal Judge Alan Gold today found against the EPA and Florida's Legislature in their attempt to again delay compliance with the Clean Water Act to reduce phosphorus pollution levels. A 1994 Florida law pushed out the deadline of 2002 to 2006. Then in 2003 Florida got approval from EPA to push the deadline out to 2016!

"Federal law does not authorize anything like a twenty-two year compliance schedule..."

Congratulations to the Miccosukee Tribe and the Friends of the Everglades!

Press release on their website here: http://www.everglades.org/pressrelease.html

Piteous Pathetic Phony Phishing Proposal

This is as real as it gets!!

In my email inbox this morning was this entry in the Pathetic Phishing Award of 2008

Ta-da...

Message From Shell Petroleum Development Company
Subject: Congratulation You Have Won Our Grand Price (One Million Unite States Of America Dollas)
thank you, bob.Lxxxxx@murraystate.edu

I suppose that Bob of Murray State figured that if I can read I'm probably not a good phish.

Actually the scam is more interesting than it appears on the surface. You see the real Bob is Dr. Robert Lxxxxx Chair, Department of Journalism and Mass Communications at Murray State University.

Talk to your daughter...Before the beauty industry does!!