Random Thoughts

I may throw up on you…

Sometimes I think we’re living in an alternate universe. Or maybe it’s like the new Star Trek movie…someone accidentally sucked the US into a black hole, and now we’re living out a reality where everything that had meaning, everything of substance, has been tweaked and twisted, and things just are wacked.

Like maybe Ronald Reagan was never President.

And Lee Iacocca never resurrected Chrysler. In the new reality Iacocca doesn’t even get to keep his company car.

And the French President and US President, having determined that Britain is irrelevant, are sucking up to one another so hard it makes my Miele vacuum look like a tired old broom.

And the US Government has decided that significant donors to the GOP can no longer own American car dealerships. Doug Ross offers an eye-opening breakdown of what dealerships are being targeted for closure.

If that’s not enough, some brilliant DC policymakers are considering implementing a nationwide VAT (value added tax). Just what we need with rising unemployment, sinking home values and the tax burden we already carry.

A VAT is a tax on the transfer of goods and services that ultimately is borne by the consumer. Highly visible, it would increase the cost of just about everything, from a carton of eggs to a visit with a lawyer. It is also hugely regressive, falling heavily on the poor. But VAT advocates say those negatives could be offset by using the proceeds to pay for health care for every American — a tangible benefit that would be highly valuable to low-income families.

…Orszag has hired a prominent VAT advocate to advise him on health care: Ezekiel Emanuel, brother of White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and author of the 2008 book “Health Care, Guaranteed.” Meanwhile, former Federal Reserve chairman Paul A. Volcker, chairman of a task force Obama assigned to study the tax system, has expressed at least tentative support for a VAT.

My head might just implode. All that’s left is to find out that the past 29 years never happened.

Meanwhile, Obama’s Energy Secretary wants us to paint our roofs white.

Speaking at the opening of the St. James’s Palace Nobel Laureate Symposium, for which The Times is media partner, Professor Chu said that this approach could have a vast impact.

By lightening paved surfaces and roofs to the color of cement, it would be possible to cut carbon emissions by as much as taking all the world’s cars off the roads for 11 years, he said.

Dude. Seriously. Feel free to come paint every single one of my roof’s bazillion concrete tiles white. And be sure to replace any you break in the process.

How the crap they’d begin to pay to repave the roads in my state–a state which is so deep in the red it’s hemorrhaging–I have no idea. Probably via some sort of Global Warming/Road Resurfacing tax.

Good luck with that.

Keeping us safe…

This is why I am not afraid to travel by air:

Because of pilots like Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger.

Capt Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger was out of options at 3000 feet on Thursday when he intentionally and calmly steered his crippled US Airways jetliner, fully loaded with passengers, toward the Hudson River.

US Airways Flight 1549, an Airbus A320 bound for Charlotte, N.C., struck a flock of birds just after takeoff minutes earlier at LaGuardia Airport, apparently disabling the engines…The plane took off at 3:26 p.m. for a flight that would last only five minutes. It was less than a minute after takeoff when the pilot reported a “double bird strike” and said he needed to return to LaGuardia, said Doug Church, a spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. He said the pilot apparently meant that birds had hit both of the plane’s jet engines.

The pilot, identified as Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger III of Danville, Calif., “was phenomenal,” passenger Joe Hart said. “He landed it — I tell you what, the impact wasn’t a whole lot more than a rear-end (collision). It threw you into the seat ahead of you.

“Both engines cut out and he actually floated it into the river,” he said.

…Another passenger, Jeff Kolodjay, said people put their heads in their laps and prayed. He said the captain instructed them to “brace for impact because we’re going down.”

“It was intense. It was intense. You’ve got to give it to the pilot. He made a hell of a landing,” Kolodjay said.

Copilot Jeff Skiles also deserves a commendation, as do the three cabin attendants on flight 1549; they deployed flotation devices and rafts, shepherding the passengers in their care off the downed aircraft. No lives were lost. No one was critically injured. Everyone got off that plane safely.

We whine and complain about the state of air travel, about flight delays, bad baggage handling, about overbooking, and especially about the TSA’s inane regulations–just Google “TSA confiscates” for the plethora of stories. What we don’t think about are the men and women who are so skilled they can bring down a disabled plane safely, without critical injury to any passengers. Captain Sullenberger had the lives of 155 people in his hands. He did not betray their trust.

This is why since 9/11 I haven’t been afraid of terrorist attacks:

President George W. Bush has had the safety of over 305,000,000 Americans in his hands. Our lives have indeed gone back to normal; his never did. He’s lived with the memory of 9/11 and shouldered the crushing responsibility of keeping us safe from another 9/11 every single day of his presidency. He did not betray that trust.

To the military integral to our safety, President Bush said, “There has been no higher honor than serving as your Commander in Chief.”

At those words I found myself tearing up; I want my son to have that sort of Commander in Chief. As my son takes his place among the men and women of the USAF, I want him to serve under a President who truly perceives the profound honor it is to have my son, and thousands like him, under his command.

Bush is not a perfect human being. None of us are. He was not a perfect President. No one ever is. Obama will not be perfect either. What I wonder though, is at the end of his presidency, will he want to say:

There are things I would do differently if given the chance. Yet I’ve always acted with the best interests of our country in mind. I have followed my conscience and done what I felt was right.

Will he be willing to say:

As we address these challenges and others we can not foresee tonight, America must maintain our moral clarity. I’ve often spoken to you about good and evil, and this has made some uncomfortable. But good and evil are present in this world, and between the two there can be no compromise. Murdering the innocent to advance an ideology is wrong every time every where. Freeing people from oppression and despair is eternally right. This nation must continue to speak out for justice and truth. We must always be willing to act in their defense, and to advance the cause of peace.

And most importantly, will he be able to honestly say:

It has been the privilege of a lifetime to serve as your President. There have been good days and tough days, but every day I have been inspired by the greatness of our country and uplifted by the goodness of our people. I have been blessed to represent this nation we love. And I will always be honored to carry a title that means more to me than any other: Citizen of the United States of America.

Now Obama will have to face this sort of hatred. I cringed when that sort of venom was spewed at Bush, and I do not like it any better with Obama’s face on the posters. That’s an act done by the “evil” Obama’s predecessor spoke of.

I have found that Canadian and British citizens often have clearer perspectives on our elected officials than we do. They had no dog in the 2000 election fight so they have no lingering bitterness to taint their view of Bush. Consider the thoughts of this Canadian for example.

The Anchoress has a nice summary of the good we’ve been given in the past eight years.

And Gateway Pundit sums it up beautifully in photos and words.

God bless you, Mr. President. And may He bless our new President, and grant him an equal measure of humility and grace as he attempts to lead an all too often ungrateful nation.

By yonder blessed moon I vow…

If you happen to live where the evening sky is clear…

Saturday Night Special: Biggest Full Moon of 2009
Robert Roy Britt
Editorial Director
SPACE.com
Fri Jan 9, 12:56 pm ET

If skies are clear Saturday, go out at sunset and look for the giant moon rising in the east. It will be the biggest and brightest one of 2009, sure to wow even seasoned observers.

Earth, the moon and the sun are all bound together by gravity, which keeps us going around the sun and keeps the moon going around us as it goes through phases. The moon makes a trip around Earth every 29.5 days.

But the orbit is not a perfect circle. One portion is about 31,000 miles (50,000 km) closer to our planet than the farthest part, so the moon’s apparent size in the sky changes. Saturday night (Jan. 10) the moon will be at perigee, the closest point to us on this orbit.

It will appear about 14 percent bigger in our sky and 30 percent brighter than some other full moons during 2009, according to NASA. (A similar setup occurred in December, making that month’s full moon the largest of 2008.)

Tides will be higher, too. Earth’s oceans are pulled by the gravity of the moon and the sun. So when the moon is closer, tides are pulled higher. Scientists call these perigean tides, because they occur when the moon is at or near perigee. (The farthest point on the lunar orbit is called apogee.)

This month’s full moon is known as the Wolf Moon from Native American folklore. The full moon’s of each month are named. January’s is also known as the Old Moon and the Snow Moon.

Here’s a suggestion: Step outside tonight. Look up at that huge moon. That moon was there before you were born, before your great grandparents were born, before the country you live in existed, and before the continent upon which you stand had human beings on it.

And it will be there long after you and I, and everyone in Washington DC, is long gone and totally forgotten.

Not meant as a downer, merely to give a larger (literally) perspective during these troubling times.

I have a feeling I’m going to need a good long look at that celestial wonder by dinner time tomorrow. In an ongoing effort to find a Productive Purpose for my life (i.e. something that pays the bills) I will be taking the CSET tomorrow afternoon. Because I’m ambitious, or arrogant, or stupid, or all three, I’m attempting the five-hour exam in one sitting.

In retrospect, it might have been much wiser–saner–to take it in pieces, over several sessions. But where’s the fun in that? I figure it can’t be much worse than my experience taking the LSAT. Can it? If it’s worse than the LSAT was, I’m going to be rather peeved; I managed to get through that with a decent score and my brain still mostly inside my head.

Of course, attempting to be certified as a teacher at a time when my state’s governor is talking about cuts to education might not be the best timing…

Speaking of jobs, when I filled out my temp employment application last summer, I really could have used this approach. It might just have helped; giving them the hard data sure didn’t get me any work. For that gem alone, Bossy has my vote for Best Humor Blog.

Who’s running this show?

One of my favorite bloggers, the Anchoress, recently offered a sobering post wherein she likened the US government to a frat party gone bad:

I wonder if we are…waking up to the fact that a bunch of loud, exploitative so-called “friends” crashed the house, called it a party, drank all the liquor, cracked Mom’s prize crystal egg and then decided to have a tug-of-war donnybrook on the front lawn before toilet papering the trees, puking and passing out. The press? Some “friends.” Congress? Some “statesmen.”

Hungover, we’re stumbling around, and realizing that if we do not start demanding adult behavior, adult leadership, less spin and a little honesty, not only from our leadership and our “elites” but from each other, we’re not going to be around to demand much of anything, of anyone.

I’m hardly the one to question the Anchoress’ reasoning, but this particular statement gave me pause:

In our nation’s babyhood we believed and we trusted all the parent figures - the governments, the courts, the press, the churches.

I must respectfully and profoundly disagree with that assessment. There was scant trust of “parent figures” in the early days of the United States; distrust of a distant, clueless king and a distant, indifferent government directly led to the American Revolution. Arguably, our country was founded on distrust of “parent figures.”

Trust of the the courts? Disagreement over the structure and power of the courts has continued throughout our 200+ year history. One semester of law school was enough to show me just how little confidence the American public as a whole has ever had (rightfully so) in our judicial system. Of course, I live under the jurisdiction of the Ninth Circuit, which is enough to make even the most trusting person skeptical. We tend to accept that our system, flawed though it is, works more often than not but it’s difficult to build an argument on behalf of an overall abiding American “trust” in the court system.

The press? I see little evidence of any historical broad “trust” of that medium; rather the contrary. As Federalist Fisher Ames in 1807 wrote,

We are, heart and soul, friends to the freedom of the press. It is however, the prostituted companion of liberty, and somehow or other, we know not how, its efficient auxiliary. It follows the substance like its shade; but while a man walks erect, he may observe that his shadow is almost always in the dirt. It corrupts, it deceives, it inflames. It strips virtue of her honors, and lends to faction its wildfire and its poisoned arms, and in the end is its own enemy and the usurper’s ally, It would be easy to enlarge on its evils. They are in England, they are here, they are everywhere. It is a precious pest, and a necessary mischief, and there would be no liberty without it.

After 201 years, things are certainly not better in that regard!

What about “trust” in the churches? Depends on which “churches.” Catholics arguably were willing to trust their leadership in 1776 far more than they are today, Protestants perhaps not so much. Their history after all is one of questioning human authority; avoiding the opressive authority of a state endorsed religion (a la the Church of England) was the priority in those early years. Certainly Americans have long demonstrated a willingness to trust charismatic church leaders (consider the rise of Joseph Smith, for example); I don’t think this is what the Anchoress had in mind though.

As I’ve observed the vilification of George Bush–seen as a Good Thing by far too many people,

Bush hatred, however, is distinguished by the pride intellectuals have taken in their hatred, openly endorsing it as a virtue and enthusiastically proclaiming that their hatred is not only a rational response to the president and his administration but a mark of good moral hygiene.

and witnessed the deification of Barack Obama (nowhere better embodied than in this WaPo OpEd piece), and watched the circus that is the 111th US Congress, I too have felt a bit depressed and and confused over the condition of America today. I see no reason though to believe that things were better way back when, and little reason to wonder why things are the way they are today.

The Amish believe that the less they have to do with government, the better. While I personally have trouble with what seems, to me, to be their extremely isolationist perspective, I think they’ve got a solid point about government.

When we expect government to fix things, to solve our financial–much less moral–failures, we’re basically screwed. The government can’t solve anything. It was never designed to do that. It was intended primarily to keep us safe from other governments hostile to us. That we’ve permitted it to become something massive, intrusive, and incompetent is the real problem. That we expect the politicians within it to be leaders in any real sense of the word, well, history should show us how foolishly naive that is.

All that being said, something within the hearts of most Americans wants an authority figure to lead us, to fix whatever needs fixing nationally, and to tell us what to do, even how to think. In the 1980s, we wanted a Ronald Reagan, who was as comfortable (and appropos) at a state dinner as on a horse, and who told us America’s best days were ahead.

Now we apparently want a Barrack Obama, who gets great press for appearing shirtless, and tells us things will get worse, much worse, but we can put our “hope” in him.

We had a Ronald Reagan, and twenty some years later, here we are. Now we’ve got a Barack Obama; I do not believe his presidency will save us from our future, whatever that future might be. Government, no matter who leads it, will not save us from ourselves.

In an 1824 letter to William Ludlow, Thomas Jefferson wrote:

I think, myself, that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious. I believe it might be much simplified to the relief of those who maintain it.

I can’t imagine what he’d make of today’s Washington DC.

As I watch how Princess Caroline is being led to a Senate coronation, I think back on the beginnings of this country, and our founders’ refusal to implement a peerage system. Article 1, Section 9, Clause 8 of the United States Constitution states, “No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States.”

If we have made the Kennedy family into modern royalty, we have only ourselves to blame when we get this kind of vapid “leadership”:

Somehow, I doubt that trying to repackage her as a stay-at-home mom returning to work is going to sell the idea of her as a Senator any better.

Maybe what all Americans really need right now is a massive history lesson, and not just in US history either. Then again, I’ve studied a bit of Roman and some European history, and read both the book of Revelation and the novels of Joel Rosenberg. I don’t think the future of human existence is wrapped up in how goes the United States of America. I’m fiercely proud of and fond of my country, but I also believe there’s Someone far more powerful than any US President in charge of things around here.

That alone gives me great comfort, no matter who is in Washington DC.

It doesn’t mean I don’t care what happens to our government and our society as a whole, however; I do. I very much do. It also doesn’t mean that I don’t want better from the people for whom I’ve voted–and from those for whom I didn’t vote. I just don’t expect all that much from them.

UPDATE: Be Not Idle explains the Mortality Rant. Makes perfect sense to me.

Shopping in the New Year

The challenge for me in 2009 will be to hold firm to my not-made-in-China vow. That’s harder than you think.  Last weekend, to ring in the New Year I accompanied Husband to Macy’s for their 75% off post-holiday Christmas stuff sale. Every single item–I am not exaggerating, everything in Macy’s holiday department–was made in China. Christmas tree skirts, Santa tree ornaments, angel tree toppers, stockings, everything, all of it, made in China. Even the Lenox Holiday dinnerware on sale was made in China.

The idea of scores of Chinese factories mass producing all that Christmas merchandise sucked what joy there is out of post-holiday shopping for me.

Contrary to gender stereotypes, I don’t enjoy shopping very much in the first place. Online shopping I find tolerable, because I’m in total control of the experience, and it occurs at my own pace, at my own convenience, and sometimes in my pajamas (always a plus). However, I make exceptions to bricks and mortar shops when Husband is involved. He’s all about finding bargains, and this is one of his favorite places:

Home Goods is the equivalent of a garage sale at Macy’s. Loads of weird junk interspersed with a few treasures. Yesterday I spotted this piece (and they only had one):

It’s a Lladro “Romantic Clown,” retailing for $480. It was priced at $240, and it was perfect, not a flaw on it. I have no idea how it ended up at Home Goods, but that’s typical. I’ve seen pieces of Beleek Irish porcelain, and managed to score a Waterford crystal vase last spring. I didn’t buy the clown (I’m not in the market for high end decorative collectibles) but I’ll bet someone snatched it up in short order.

Husband’s other bargain favorite is

This would be more like a garage sale at Sears, and about as well organized. Still, one can find a few gems amidst the rhinestones.

This, for example:

It’s a Baumalu copper sauceboat, retails for $120. Husband bought it for me at Tuesday Morning for $39.99. Yes, it was in absolutely perfect condition, and it cooks like a dream. Baumalu is making serious inroads on my determination to be more frugal and less materialistic; I would so enjoy their 20 cm copper pot with lid.

With the economy the way it is, I expect to be doing considerable gift shopping in 2009 at Home Goods and Tuesday Morning. Thankfully both stores do carry a surprising array of items that are not made in China; one just has to look carefully.  At both shops items you’d never expect to be made in China are just that. Paring knives at Tuesday Morning… Kitchenaid? Made in China. Chicago Cutlery? Made in the USA. Christmas greeting cards (I always buy them after Christmas for next year) at Home Goods… Amidst the stacked boxes of Printed in China Christmas cards, I managed to find a box of very lovely cards made in the USA from Sunshine Art Studios. Best of all, they retailed at $18 per box, and were marked down to (*gasp*) $1.00 per box. I would gladly have paid considerably more. Talk about a steal.

My blog has thus far been free from advertising, and I intend to keep it that way. I pay for my own server space, I don’t need ads unless I genuinely want to promote a product or merchant. To that end, I’m going to include these links in my sidebar:

If you’re at all interested in avoiding China-made products when you shop, these reference sites are a good place to start your search. Obviously I’m a fan of many European-made items; I referenced Spanish porcelain and French copper in this blog post, and I’ll gladly spend US dollars on a piece of Italian Deruta pottery or a bottle of Spanish Arbequina olive oil. These are things unique to their sources (though Eldest Daughter’s employer recently tipped me on a California source of the oil). I’m not ethnocentric nor am I an isolationist. What I am trying to avoid is support of a corrupt massive industrial machine polluting the globe, exploiting its workers, and producing toxic products.

Given the state of our economy, perhaps its time more people thought about where their money actually goes, and what companies (and which workers) actually benefit from their purchase dollars.

Speaking of Made in America, the Anchoress has been tempting us all with Mystic Monk Coffee for quite some time now (yes, I know the beans are grown elsewhere; they’re roasted here and that’s what counts). Would it be a sin if I became addicted to Hermit’s blend?

Setting the bar for 2009…

Not much into New Year’s resolutions here, though I do make an effort to pick one thing I can realistically accomplish. In 2007 my resolution was to finally keep my bank accounts balanced; thanks to Quicken software (when it’s not being a total pain in the backside) I managed to keep that resolution.

This year, I’m adopting the following attitude (H/T to Confederate Yankee):

In keeping with this theme, the 111th Congress convenes Monday.

Tom Lindmark of Seeking Alpha tells us,

This is one of those moments in time when politics and resultant policies will have an immediate and substantial impact on the fabric of society.

The new Democratic Congress is set to begin framing their program for the reconstitution of the American economy. While President-elect Obama and the members of his administration will have input, the edge in time clearly belongs to the legislative branch, where some of the most senior members have waited a political lifetime for this opportunity.

Can the bar be set any lower?

Between the clown show involving Roland Burris, Al Franken, and the possibility of Bill Clinton joining in the Senate fun (at least his qualifications beat those of Caroline Kennedy), all this Congress needs is a canvas big top.

Facing the future: From the sublime to the silly

My family is enjoying the post-Christmas, pre-New Years lull, where nothing more important than sending thank you notes remains to be done, and most cooking involves leftovers. It’s an easy time, perhaps the easiest of the year. Few errands to run, no chasing back and forth to drop off and pick up offspring, no pressing appointments, nothing urgent remaining to accomplish in the waning days of 2008.

As is my nature though, I’m having a bit of trouble living in the now. I’m thinking ahead, thinking of what needs to be done next week–next year. In two weeks I’ll be taking a major exam. In four weeks I’ll be starting a series of evening college classes. And then there are all the things I’m peripherally involved in; Eldest Daughter searching for a new apartment, Eldest Son’s discrepancy between his ROTC scholarship and his university tuition bill, Younger Daughter’s need for textbooks for Spring Semester, Younger Son’s upcoming Science Fair project.

Even when I have the perfect chance to slow down, I never seem to be able to avail myself of the opportunity.

In a completely serendipitous post, The Anchoress recently discussed the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Not being Catholic myself, I am not able to avail myself of that particular experience. Without getting into the doctrinal differences between Protestants and Catholics when it comes to Communion and the Eucharist, I think that Adoration is an area where Protestants are particularly deprived; as much as anyone else we need a context within which we can be still before God and contemplate His mystery and majesty. Lacking such a context, when we attempt to focus our thoughts on the divine, we invariably tend to exhibit exactly what the Anchoress describes:

Too much quiet; aren’t we supposed to be “doing” something at all times? People don’t know how to sit and simply be, anymore. We are so deeply attached to our iPods, cell phones, blackberries, radios, televisions - we don’t know how to shut it all down - perhaps because we are afraid to discover what we will hear in the quiet.

At first, what you hear in the silence is the endless monkey chatter of the brain: what to do, what needs doing, where to be - “I must do this, I hate doing that, oh, I forgot to set my TIVO, what to make for supper. I like that blouse she’s wearing…” If we can sit still long enough to get past that, we hear “I’m sad. I’m mad. I’m scared,” and sometimes, “I’m glad.”

That’s when Adoration becomes uncomfortable for many, when - in facing the Lord - you must also face yourself. As we heard from Chesterton, “the self is more distant than any star” - and most prefer to keep it that way. Silence forces a confrontation, for most of us an uncomfortable one. Adoration places the encounter in the physical Presence of the Lord, which just makes it all the more honest and thus thorough and grueling.

The old saying about Adoration is: “I look at the Lord, and the Lord looks at me.” True. But further, “I look at me through the eyes of the Lord.”

Now that is a concept powerful in its simplicity: To see myself through the eyes of the Lord. I do not think it’s possible except through the sort of meditative process the Adoration exemplifies.

As I have, in my own fumbling way, sought the peace which passes understanding, I have tried not to dwell on the financial or the political during this holiday season. I agree with James Lewis’ perspective articulated in The American Thinker,

Even with all the bad news, the country remains resilient. Our Constitution is older and more enduring than any other. Yes, the Left will do its best to undermine freedom, the way they already have in our universities and news media. They will try to turn us into an engine of internationalist Eurosocialism. They want another forty years of untrammeled power. They will use Green politics to impose a heavy regulatory state, and drive wedges by gender, class and race to split our people.
Our job is to be ourselves, and not be intimidated.

And what better way to deal with the financial and political chaos of the past year than with humor, a la Dave Barry’s Year in Review, which contains such spot-on gems as…

…the economic news continues to worsen with the discovery that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have sent $87 billion to a Nigerian businessman with a compelling e-mail story.

Also troubling is the news from Iran, which test-fires some long-range missiles, although Iranian President Wackjob Lunatic insists that Iran intends to use these missiles “for stump removal.”

In keeping with a humorous slant to the all-too-grim news, H/T to Fausta who shares a gem from the Wall Street Journal, wherein a wackjob lunatic former KGB analyst declares the US is about one year away from a civil war which will result in this scenario:

According to the WSJ article,

[Panarin] predicts that economic, financial and demographic trends will provoke a political and social crisis in the U.S. When the going gets tough, he says, wealthier states will withhold funds from the federal government and effectively secede from the union. Social unrest up to and including a civil war will follow. The U.S. will then split along ethnic lines, and foreign powers will move in.

California will form the nucleus of what he calls “The Californian Republic,” and will be part of China or under Chinese influence. Texas will be the heart of “The Texas Republic,” a cluster of states that will go to Mexico or fall under Mexican influence. Washington, D.C., and New York will be part of an “Atlantic America” that may join the European Union. Canada will grab a group of Northern states Prof. Panarin calls “The Central North American Republic.” Hawaii, he suggests, will be a protectorate of Japan or China, and Alaska will be subsumed into Russia.

If I didn’t know better, I’d think that was Dave Barry’s work; ’cause really…