LOST MY MIND
I have never considered myself an intellectual (I can’t even spell it!) and never gave concepts much thought even when I was ripping out great designs for hillside homes in Laguna Beach, until my first house was being published, the editor wanted to know what my philosophy of architecture was. I was greatly surprised to recommence I didn’t have one, I just worked on a gut level, solving the current problems as they came up. Of course I had a modus operandi, collecting all the relevant data on a project, utilizing the cantilevers in order to gain area economically, exposing structure whenever I could, using materials in a natural state and to have a low maintenance finished job. So I did sit down and invented my philosophy of design which seemed to satisfy the guy.
Since I had already solved the philosophy problem then, I currently am reviewing the likes of Socrates, Plato, Epictitus (Where’d he come from?). I’m finding that those thinkers are easier to read than the ones from the Middle Ages. A good example is Thomas Hobbes (1651), who some writer recommended I read. So I picked up his “Leviathan” , (It even sounds like Heavy reading) and tried to get into a couple of chapters, but to no avail. It didn’t take long before I was wallowing on a shipwreck of literature and had to take to the lifeboats in a short time. I retreated back to a couple of murder mysteries to salve my overburdened brain.
I DIDN’T MEAN TO DO IT!
I was just wondering the other day how many of the major religions began because the leader wanted to start one, or was it merely accidental? So I began looking at some of them.
HINDUISM - I guess you have to start here as it began about 1700 BC.
Is it even a religion? Anybody know who started it? Bob Hindi?
JEWS - Moses is blamed for it , or was it really Aaron? About 1400 BC. Of course, all the myths, stories of the Old Testament have been proved to be written several hundred years after the purported incident by many different scribes, priests, etc.
In other words, we don’t know who started it or if he wanted to be the Culprit.
BUDDHISM - Prince Siddhartha Gautama could have been an actual person, but people who experience enlightenment while sitting under a tree tend to be kind of non-organizers. (I am speaking from my own experience, here).
HISTORY OF RELIGIONS (Excerpt from my “History of Inventions” by J. Lamont Langworthy)
- 5000? Jain Lord Rishabha India
- 5000? Brahmanism ? India
- 1750 Zorasterism Zoroaster (Ahura Mazda) Persia
- 1500 Hindu ? India
- 1200 Jews (Maybe one God) Moses (Yeah, right) Israel
- 900 Greeks Lots of Gods! Greece
- 500 Confucianism Kong Fuzi China
- 500 Buddhist Prince Siddhartha Gautama India
- 200? Mayan, Aztec, Inca ? Mexico & Chile
- 150 Taoism Lau-Tzu China
Now up to this point, there were lots of Gods to blame every thing on. From here on, there was only one God. But this one God was totally different from the one God you were worshiping.
+ 300 Roman Catholic Jesus blamed for it Israel
+ 600 Islam Mohammed Saudi Arabia
+ 1000 Orthodox Catholic Jesus Constantinople
+ 1517 Lutheran Martin Luther Germany
+ 1534 Church of England King Henry VIII England
+ 1560 Presbyterian John Calvin Scotland
+ 1500? Unitarian ? Europe
+ 1600 Congregationalist from Puritanism England
+ 1650 Quakers George Fox England
+ 1607 Baptist John Smyth Amsterdam
+ 1744 Methodist Charles Wesley England
+ 1789 Episcopalian Samuel Seabury American Colonies
+ 1780 Unitarian ? England
+ 1800 Bahai Faith Bahaullah ?
+ 1830 Mormon (Latter-Day Saints) Joe Smith Palmyra, US
+ 1865 Salvation Army William Booth London
+ 1879 Christian Scientist Mary Baker Eddy Los Angeles
+ 1870 Jehovah’s Witness Charles Taze Russell Pennsylvania
+ 1901 Pentecostal ? (United States) United States
+ 1930 Foursquare Gospel Aimee Simple McPherson Los Angeles
+ 1953 Scientology L. Ron Hubbard United States
You’‘ note that I left out all the current hucksters like Graham, Falwell, etc.,
And then there are the:
Agnostics Profess uncertainty or skepticism about existence of God or Higher Being.
(Fence sitters!)
Atheists Do not believe in the existence of God or any other higher power.
Wait a minute! Not even The Laws of the Universe?
Seems the Christian Crusaders are still fighting the Muslims (Iraq and Afganistan).
We’ll teach the bastards, not to believe in our God, Oil !
Friday, May 13, 2011
IT'S THE 13TH!
MAYDAY
Let’s start with May 1, which in my very young days (I know we’re reaching way back for this) was an exciting time for us as we made up May baskets, small with flowers or treats that we left on a friends or neighbors doorstep. after ringing the bell, we ran away but if the ringee caught you, they would get a kiss. I don’t think little ones do that anymore, sounds too much like giving someone something when now we must just get stuff.
But somewhere along the way Unions decided it was a good time to make trouble. Of course, management didn’t exactly like the forming of unions in order to sort out their grieviances (The French word for strike is greve, if you travel a lot in in Europe, you’ll experience a lot of that). In Chicago, in 1886, the march resulted in a riot with bombs, anarchists and hangings. But the workers of the world didn’t let that stop them, with the result that in the worker’s paradise, Communist countries, make a really big showing of not just workers, but military arms parades to show they have more missiles than you.
We might as well get into the confusion of CINCO DE MAYO. This is not a holiday in Mexico, only with the 12 million illegal Mexicans in the US. This represents a victory over the French in a siege on Puebla in 1862. Somehow the Mexicans , with a force of 4,000 beat 8,000 French troops. The real Independence day was on Sep. 16, 1810, when they started the rebellion against Spain and didn’t get it until ten years later. Kind of like our hassle with Britain in 1776.
But the best battle of all was when the Mexicans caught a group of 62 French Foreign Legionaires at Cameron in a small inn with a fortified wall. The Mexicans had about 4,000 troop and they kept trying to get the Legionaires to surrender but they wouldn’t do it even though they had no water. Capitan D’anjou was in charge, (he had a wooden hand carved like a glove), but after he and most of the others had been killed, about five men led a bayonet charge after running out of ammunition. Two were finally overwhelmed and subdued. Fortu
nately, his hand is in the legion Museum in Aubane, France,. (Viva Le Legion Etranger Francaise!!)
POWER GENERATION
This is probably not a good time to comment on nuclear power but let’s not get all excited about a radiation spill. Up to this time, although 35,000 Japanese have been killed by the triple catastrophe, I believe only a few may have died due to the nuclear plant problems. Of course, by the time the whole thing is over, there will certainly be more deaths attributed to the plant. But let’s take a look at the big picture.
Questions:
1. How do France (80% of nation’s electricity) , Japan (30%) & Germany (20% of electricity, just like US) take care of their waste? Does anyone reprocess it yet? Yes, the French, Japanese, Russians & U.K. do it, everyone but the US. do reprocess the waste which reduces it by about 75%.
2. New designs are looking to use the nuclear waste for fuel in a design called A Fast Reactor. This is not being done in the US.
3. Maybe we should look at the dangers of electric generation in the light of deaths per watt produced. The World Health Organization has put together figures on the human costs of all different methods of electric generation and it has some surprising results. The following figures are world wide numbers in terawatts/hrs, One terawatt=one million watts). But coal kills more people than anyone as these figures include deaths from lung problems, mine disasters, etc..
COAL 454 deaths per terawatt/hrs
OIL/GAS/BIO 64 per TWh
SOLAR .44 per TWh
HYDRO 1.4 per TWh
NUCLEAR .04 per Twh What !? Not possible !
The above figures don’t include deaths from the wars we fight in middle East for oil, nor the 100,000 civilians that die from “collateral damage”. The US alone has about 1,000 deaths a year from installing Solar stuff.
Even Chernoble, 50 deaths were due directly while they figure about 4,000 may die earlier due to the explosion but cause & effect of the disaster are difficult to quantify.
Air pollution in the US may kill 30,000 per year while in China they figure about 500,000 may die early. Well, there are too many of them over there, anyway.
It’s time for us to look at EFW or Energy From Waste. In the US & UK about 80% of our waste still goes to landfills, while we generate electricity with only 7% of our waste. In contrast, Germany only puts 1% in landfills and generates 67% of waste into energy.
THE CELESTIAL DYNAMO
The sun does not stand still, it circles the galaxy in 250 million earth years, during which time our galaxy has moved thru space which gives our sun a spiral trail . Since earth and the rest of the solar system (It’s planets) circle the sun, this means the resulting trail thru space are coils resembling the windings of a generator. Where do you think all the energy comes from to run the suns?
A LOOK AT EBOLA, WHICH MAKES AIDS LOOK BENIGN
My understanding of the Ebola Virus is it originated around 1976 in a huge cave in Africa that was made by elephants tusking around the edges, maybe for salt or something, then the walls kept collapsing where they were undermined. This resulted is a huge vaulted cavern where monkeys somehow got infected with something from the caves. Since Africans and some Asians eat the brains of some monkeys (Better make mine well done, please) it was passed into the human strain. Easily transmitted thru blood, it will devastate the body in a matter of days, during which the body has a melt down with large quantities of infected blood gushing out all over the place. Anyway, the virus was transmitted throughout Africa along the Kinshasha highway, mostly be truckers who frequented the prostitutes along the way. This virus is nasty, killing the infected within 2 to 18 days, with a death of 50% to 90%. This stuff destroys the blood vessel lining resulting in hemorragic fever. Fortunately it acts so quickly that it kills it’s hosts before it can spread all over. There is no known vaccine for it.
URINE TESTS
Although this is a widespread practice in the US, I still believe it to be an invasion of privacy. For sports, you might as well make it legal as it seems athletes need steroids & blood cleaners to be in top shape. Bicyclists use a type of blood cleaner that Is not talked about much, but seems to be illegal. They take some of your blood, freeze it for several weeks, then put it back in you veins. Is that really doping? Just imagine what they’ll be doing in the future. (Hard to imagine). Or now, they inject a drug, EPO, to do the same but you can discover it by urine tests. They do this with soldiers before going on a mission if you want to have an edge.
Now testing for pot, cocaine, heroin & ecstacy is a little different. It seems to me that it is a result of religious persecution, in other words, why does someone care if I am having a couple of hours of hilarious time? I assume there must be some pretty big lobbyists to keep it illegal, like alcohol and law enforcement who get plenty of loot from the busts. Our drug habit has ruined Mexico, and eroded our freedoms even before the “Patriot Act”. There are always going to be people who will be prone to overuse of drugs, and it probably wouldn’t get much worse even if it was all legalized. If I have a bad cough in Europe, I only have to stop at a pharmcia to get a cough syrup that contains Codeine, no big deal. I don’t understand why we spend billions a year on this when it doesn’t change anything. REMEMBER! DRUG USE IS NOT DRUG ABUSE!
Random urine testing is not allowed in Canada due to their Human Rights Act. (Don’t we have one of those?). No pre-employment screening. Only alcohol testing where safety of employees is involved. Who cares what you do at home ?
To answer the question you’ve all been asking: Poppy seeds really do show positive if you have enough of them. Maybe a hundred or more?
THE TIDES QUESTION
I’ve always been confused by why certain places have huge tides and other nearly none. Ever since I’ve traveled in Brittany and Scotland to see all the boats in a harbor sitting on the ground at each low tide I finally looked it up on Wikipedia. I had assumed that the closer to the poles, the larger the tidal height was, but that is totally wrong. As there is basically no tidal flux at the North pole, yet the Bay of Fundy has a 53 foot tide. How do you tie a boat up on a dock? Yet Some islands in the middle of the pacific have none at all. There are high tides on the West coast of Panama but nearly none on the East coast. It seems to have to do more with the configuration of the land mass or something. And here I always thought the bloody moon was the culprit.
I’ve mentioned the Tidal Generation facility in Brittany before. Installed in 1966, it generates 96 megawatts a day on an average.
METRIC
One of my Quixotic quests in my life (Design of our money, our flag design) is what in hell happened to the metric system in the US. When in 1586 Flemish mathematician Simon Stevin published a pamphlet of measurement based on the circumference of the earth he declared it so important that universal use of weights, measures & coinage would only be a matter of time. Well, he didn’t know how backward & ignorant us folks in the US were going to be, did he? Just in the last couple of centuries most countries have adopted the metric system except three countries. The United Ignoramis’s of America, Liberia (Africa) and Burma (Myanmar). Why can’t we join the modern world? Are we too arrogant? How do we build automobiles, heavy machinery, aircraft if we are not using metric? Who is it that keeps us from joining the rest of the world except two other really backward countries? Can’t we take baby steps and adopt the 24 hour clock to avoid zillions of hours of confusion? To hell with all you Luddites. You can just keep your fucking inches, cubits, feet, fathoms, rods, cables miles and leagues. A metric pox on you!
Viva le metric !! On the right I have designed a schedule to get your attention.
FRIDAY THE 13TH
I thought I’d mention this today and find out where such an idiotic pastime came from. There are several theories. First, the two biblical ones are there were 13 guys at the last supper (So what?), and the crucifixion happened to be connected to 13. Not the last half of cruci-fiction is all fiction.
However, a more recent one happened in the middle ages when The Knights Templar organization became really rich & the French king and the pope got together, arrested all of them throughout Europe, tortured, killed them ,but mostly got all their money and properties.
Yet, there wasn’t much ado about before the 1900's until a novel, Friday the 13th came out, then everyone freaked out and still do. Can you believe that some high rise buildings don’t have a 13th floor, as no one will rent it? Most high rise make that the mechanical floor. This is just plain crazy!
Let’s start with May 1, which in my very young days (I know we’re reaching way back for this) was an exciting time for us as we made up May baskets, small with flowers or treats that we left on a friends or neighbors doorstep. after ringing the bell, we ran away but if the ringee caught you, they would get a kiss. I don’t think little ones do that anymore, sounds too much like giving someone something when now we must just get stuff.
But somewhere along the way Unions decided it was a good time to make trouble. Of course, management didn’t exactly like the forming of unions in order to sort out their grieviances (The French word for strike is greve, if you travel a lot in in Europe, you’ll experience a lot of that). In Chicago, in 1886, the march resulted in a riot with bombs, anarchists and hangings. But the workers of the world didn’t let that stop them, with the result that in the worker’s paradise, Communist countries, make a really big showing of not just workers, but military arms parades to show they have more missiles than you.
We might as well get into the confusion of CINCO DE MAYO. This is not a holiday in Mexico, only with the 12 million illegal Mexicans in the US. This represents a victory over the French in a siege on Puebla in 1862. Somehow the Mexicans , with a force of 4,000 beat 8,000 French troops. The real Independence day was on Sep. 16, 1810, when they started the rebellion against Spain and didn’t get it until ten years later. Kind of like our hassle with Britain in 1776.
But the best battle of all was when the Mexicans caught a group of 62 French Foreign Legionaires at Cameron in a small inn with a fortified wall. The Mexicans had about 4,000 troop and they kept trying to get the Legionaires to surrender but they wouldn’t do it even though they had no water. Capitan D’anjou was in charge, (he had a wooden hand carved like a glove), but after he and most of the others had been killed, about five men led a bayonet charge after running out of ammunition. Two were finally overwhelmed and subdued. Fortu
nately, his hand is in the legion Museum in Aubane, France,. (Viva Le Legion Etranger Francaise!!)POWER GENERATION
This is probably not a good time to comment on nuclear power but let’s not get all excited about a radiation spill. Up to this time, although 35,000 Japanese have been killed by the triple catastrophe, I believe only a few may have died due to the nuclear plant problems. Of course, by the time the whole thing is over, there will certainly be more deaths attributed to the plant. But let’s take a look at the big picture.
Questions:
1. How do France (80% of nation’s electricity) , Japan (30%) & Germany (20% of electricity, just like US) take care of their waste? Does anyone reprocess it yet? Yes, the French, Japanese, Russians & U.K. do it, everyone but the US. do reprocess the waste which reduces it by about 75%.
2. New designs are looking to use the nuclear waste for fuel in a design called A Fast Reactor. This is not being done in the US.
3. Maybe we should look at the dangers of electric generation in the light of deaths per watt produced. The World Health Organization has put together figures on the human costs of all different methods of electric generation and it has some surprising results. The following figures are world wide numbers in terawatts/hrs, One terawatt=one million watts). But coal kills more people than anyone as these figures include deaths from lung problems, mine disasters, etc..
COAL 454 deaths per terawatt/hrs
OIL/GAS/BIO 64 per TWh
SOLAR .44 per TWh
HYDRO 1.4 per TWh
NUCLEAR .04 per Twh What !? Not possible !
The above figures don’t include deaths from the wars we fight in middle East for oil, nor the 100,000 civilians that die from “collateral damage”. The US alone has about 1,000 deaths a year from installing Solar stuff.
Even Chernoble, 50 deaths were due directly while they figure about 4,000 may die earlier due to the explosion but cause & effect of the disaster are difficult to quantify.
Air pollution in the US may kill 30,000 per year while in China they figure about 500,000 may die early. Well, there are too many of them over there, anyway.
It’s time for us to look at EFW or Energy From Waste. In the US & UK about 80% of our waste still goes to landfills, while we generate electricity with only 7% of our waste. In contrast, Germany only puts 1% in landfills and generates 67% of waste into energy.
THE CELESTIAL DYNAMO
The sun does not stand still, it circles the galaxy in 250 million earth years, during which time our galaxy has moved thru space which gives our sun a spiral trail . Since earth and the rest of the solar system (It’s planets) circle the sun, this means the resulting trail thru space are coils resembling the windings of a generator. Where do you think all the energy comes from to run the suns?
A LOOK AT EBOLA, WHICH MAKES AIDS LOOK BENIGN
My understanding of the Ebola Virus is it originated around 1976 in a huge cave in Africa that was made by elephants tusking around the edges, maybe for salt or something, then the walls kept collapsing where they were undermined. This resulted is a huge vaulted cavern where monkeys somehow got infected with something from the caves. Since Africans and some Asians eat the brains of some monkeys (Better make mine well done, please) it was passed into the human strain. Easily transmitted thru blood, it will devastate the body in a matter of days, during which the body has a melt down with large quantities of infected blood gushing out all over the place. Anyway, the virus was transmitted throughout Africa along the Kinshasha highway, mostly be truckers who frequented the prostitutes along the way. This virus is nasty, killing the infected within 2 to 18 days, with a death of 50% to 90%. This stuff destroys the blood vessel lining resulting in hemorragic fever. Fortunately it acts so quickly that it kills it’s hosts before it can spread all over. There is no known vaccine for it.
URINE TESTS
Although this is a widespread practice in the US, I still believe it to be an invasion of privacy. For sports, you might as well make it legal as it seems athletes need steroids & blood cleaners to be in top shape. Bicyclists use a type of blood cleaner that Is not talked about much, but seems to be illegal. They take some of your blood, freeze it for several weeks, then put it back in you veins. Is that really doping? Just imagine what they’ll be doing in the future. (Hard to imagine). Or now, they inject a drug, EPO, to do the same but you can discover it by urine tests. They do this with soldiers before going on a mission if you want to have an edge.
Now testing for pot, cocaine, heroin & ecstacy is a little different. It seems to me that it is a result of religious persecution, in other words, why does someone care if I am having a couple of hours of hilarious time? I assume there must be some pretty big lobbyists to keep it illegal, like alcohol and law enforcement who get plenty of loot from the busts. Our drug habit has ruined Mexico, and eroded our freedoms even before the “Patriot Act”. There are always going to be people who will be prone to overuse of drugs, and it probably wouldn’t get much worse even if it was all legalized. If I have a bad cough in Europe, I only have to stop at a pharmcia to get a cough syrup that contains Codeine, no big deal. I don’t understand why we spend billions a year on this when it doesn’t change anything. REMEMBER! DRUG USE IS NOT DRUG ABUSE!
Random urine testing is not allowed in Canada due to their Human Rights Act. (Don’t we have one of those?). No pre-employment screening. Only alcohol testing where safety of employees is involved. Who cares what you do at home ?
To answer the question you’ve all been asking: Poppy seeds really do show positive if you have enough of them. Maybe a hundred or more?
THE TIDES QUESTION
I’ve always been confused by why certain places have huge tides and other nearly none. Ever since I’ve traveled in Brittany and Scotland to see all the boats in a harbor sitting on the ground at each low tide I finally looked it up on Wikipedia. I had assumed that the closer to the poles, the larger the tidal height was, but that is totally wrong. As there is basically no tidal flux at the North pole, yet the Bay of Fundy has a 53 foot tide. How do you tie a boat up on a dock? Yet Some islands in the middle of the pacific have none at all. There are high tides on the West coast of Panama but nearly none on the East coast. It seems to have to do more with the configuration of the land mass or something. And here I always thought the bloody moon was the culprit.
I’ve mentioned the Tidal Generation facility in Brittany before. Installed in 1966, it generates 96 megawatts a day on an average.
METRIC
One of my Quixotic quests in my life (Design of our money, our flag design) is what in hell happened to the metric system in the US. When in 1586 Flemish mathematician Simon Stevin published a pamphlet of measurement based on the circumference of the earth he declared it so important that universal use of weights, measures & coinage would only be a matter of time. Well, he didn’t know how backward & ignorant us folks in the US were going to be, did he? Just in the last couple of centuries most countries have adopted the metric system except three countries. The United Ignoramis’s of America, Liberia (Africa) and Burma (Myanmar). Why can’t we join the modern world? Are we too arrogant? How do we build automobiles, heavy machinery, aircraft if we are not using metric? Who is it that keeps us from joining the rest of the world except two other really backward countries? Can’t we take baby steps and adopt the 24 hour clock to avoid zillions of hours of confusion? To hell with all you Luddites. You can just keep your fucking inches, cubits, feet, fathoms, rods, cables miles and leagues. A metric pox on you!
Viva le metric !! On the right I have designed a schedule to get your attention.
FRIDAY THE 13TH
I thought I’d mention this today and find out where such an idiotic pastime came from. There are several theories. First, the two biblical ones are there were 13 guys at the last supper (So what?), and the crucifixion happened to be connected to 13. Not the last half of cruci-fiction is all fiction.
However, a more recent one happened in the middle ages when The Knights Templar organization became really rich & the French king and the pope got together, arrested all of them throughout Europe, tortured, killed them ,but mostly got all their money and properties.
Yet, there wasn’t much ado about before the 1900's until a novel, Friday the 13th came out, then everyone freaked out and still do. Can you believe that some high rise buildings don’t have a 13th floor, as no one will rent it? Most high rise make that the mechanical floor. This is just plain crazy!
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
ROGUE WARRIOR
Reading about those stalwart boys of the Seal Team that inserted into Pakistan in a kind of Black Ops to kill the bad guy reminded how much we owe to Dick Marcinko, who formed Seal Team 6 back in 1980. This guy (Read some of his “Rogue Warrior” books) was an incredible fearless & motivated sailor who spent his early days in Cambodia as a Navy Seal, wearing black pajamas & barefoot to run around behind enemy lines to kill the bad guys. He latter realized we needed a Counter Terrorism group who would be ready in a few hours to go from Langley, Virginia to any spot on earth to clean up shit without a lot of bureaucratic bullshit in the way (A good example: our foiled rescue of our people in the Iranian Embassy fiasco). He led his hardened men for several years, not from a desk, but from the front. Unfortunately, he had stepped on too many toes to get things done and was blacklisted and accused of conspiracy and you name. Bottom line, he was thrown in a Federal slammer for 22 months & charged $10,000. It cost the Feds (You & me) $60 million to investigate and sue him, They just wanted to ruin his reputation.. After that, the Navy tried to eradicate much of what Marcinko had done. Obviously, enough was left to get Osama. Thank you, Marcinko!
THE ROYAL FIASCO
I see one of the princes of England (Is it still called the United Kingdom? If so why? Seems Canada & Australia are not really part of it?) Got himself a juicy morsel. This led me to ask how much all this folderal costs the poor Brits, but it was not so easy as I thought. I found that there is a L40 million per year budget for some of the things but don’t know what it covers.
It was easier to see what a comparable Royal House costs in Holland. The queen, Beatrix, gets an allowance of e813,000, The Prince another e241,000 plus e241,000 for his wife. They pay no taxes on this and do have use of several Mercedes and airplanes, if needed.
Back th England, the property of the Royal Household is worth about 6.6 Billion pounds. Seems like kind of a long term lease sort of thing, eh, what? However, they did sell Britannia, the huge Royal Yacht. I don’t know how much they got for it (It’s a museum now in Scotland) but the crew of 200+ doesn’t suck on the Royal Tit anymore. We toured the ship a couple of years ago and I was struck how small the office for The Duke of Wales was, even though his job description is probably pretty esoteric, while the Queen had a large office to carry the flag around the world to all the remaining dominions. Long Live the Queen!
ASTROLOGY
Why is it that identical twins, born under the same star do not have the same future? Pythagoras
ETHICAL DILEMMA
My first book, “Hillside Homes” I self published in 1980 and took about 10 years to sell my thousand copies at $10 each. By the time it got to Amazon I got $6 per book from them, even though I paid $8 per book to print.(That’s called “Langworthy Economics”). During the 90's, they started appearing on ebay for $240 per copy, which I thought was crazy, as I have a rare book of Louis Sullivan’s drawings that is worth just a little less. Anyway my book was out of print and is currently worth about $150. However, I do have a few books left, and once in a while someone asks to buy it but I can’t sell it for $200 to a friend, can I?
FILM FLAM
Instead of going around grousing about how much you lost on the current economic meltdown, why not view the Video “Inside Job”? This Oscar nominated documentary presents a detailed scenario of the Global economic meltdown. Featuring politicos, Journalists and academics. It paints a galling portrait of an unfettered financial system run amok, without accountability. Narrated by Matt Damon, 2010.
NO END IN SIGHT
This is a video you should buy as it’s worth viewing more than once. “No End in Sight” by the same folks who did “Inside Job”, Charles Ferguson (A former Brookings Institute Fellow) is another Oscar nominated film that examines the decisions that led to the 2003 US invasion of Iraq and the handling of the occupation by King Bush and his administration. Detailed analysis and interviews with central players, the film chronicles the twists & turns America took on the path to war. Didn’t we really know that the Shiites, Sunnis & Kurds all hate each other? We had no real plans for how to occupy Iraq, see our major faux-pais, like firing all the Republican Guard, who became the armed insurgents (Out of a job, they had the weapons), letting the Museums & Libraries to be looted (But not the Ministry of Oil), leaving most weapon stockpiles unguarded. I can’t go on.
BOOK REVIEWS
While I’m ranting about the economy, try reading “Hoodwinked” by John Perkins, a former economic Hit Man. About high finances & law ethics, someone who was deeply entrenched in our government/corporate imperialistic (Militaristic) structure has come forward to reveal our involvement with third world countries. This involves the World Bank, CIA, NAFTA, WTO and how they do business. What appears that we are helping these countries, it ends up devastating them with large corporations rake in any profits, & these poor countries owing huge sums they will never be able to repay. The results are not exactly near what the wonderful concept was.
WASHINGTON RULES
This book by Andrew Bacevich, “Washington Rules“ is about America’s path to permanent war and our so called Foreign Policy. Our politicians insist that we must invest blood and treasure in mud brick Afgan villages, while China invests in advanced technologies. We seem to be locked in a global military presence sustained by power interventionism by military Force. The Washington Rules are basically these three: 1. Global Military Presence
2. Global Power Production
3. Global Interventionalism
This is all getting pretty depressing.
THIS MIGHT HELP
“Make me one with everything” said the buddhist to the hot-dog vender. But when the Buddhist hands over a twenty dollar bill in return for the slathered bun, he waits a long time for his change. Finally asking for it, he is informed that “change comes only from within”.
Reading about those stalwart boys of the Seal Team that inserted into Pakistan in a kind of Black Ops to kill the bad guy reminded how much we owe to Dick Marcinko, who formed Seal Team 6 back in 1980. This guy (Read some of his “Rogue Warrior” books) was an incredible fearless & motivated sailor who spent his early days in Cambodia as a Navy Seal, wearing black pajamas & barefoot to run around behind enemy lines to kill the bad guys. He latter realized we needed a Counter Terrorism group who would be ready in a few hours to go from Langley, Virginia to any spot on earth to clean up shit without a lot of bureaucratic bullshit in the way (A good example: our foiled rescue of our people in the Iranian Embassy fiasco). He led his hardened men for several years, not from a desk, but from the front. Unfortunately, he had stepped on too many toes to get things done and was blacklisted and accused of conspiracy and you name. Bottom line, he was thrown in a Federal slammer for 22 months & charged $10,000. It cost the Feds (You & me) $60 million to investigate and sue him, They just wanted to ruin his reputation.. After that, the Navy tried to eradicate much of what Marcinko had done. Obviously, enough was left to get Osama. Thank you, Marcinko!
THE ROYAL FIASCO
I see one of the princes of England (Is it still called the United Kingdom? If so why? Seems Canada & Australia are not really part of it?) Got himself a juicy morsel. This led me to ask how much all this folderal costs the poor Brits, but it was not so easy as I thought. I found that there is a L40 million per year budget for some of the things but don’t know what it covers.
It was easier to see what a comparable Royal House costs in Holland. The queen, Beatrix, gets an allowance of e813,000, The Prince another e241,000 plus e241,000 for his wife. They pay no taxes on this and do have use of several Mercedes and airplanes, if needed.
Back th England, the property of the Royal Household is worth about 6.6 Billion pounds. Seems like kind of a long term lease sort of thing, eh, what? However, they did sell Britannia, the huge Royal Yacht. I don’t know how much they got for it (It’s a museum now in Scotland) but the crew of 200+ doesn’t suck on the Royal Tit anymore. We toured the ship a couple of years ago and I was struck how small the office for The Duke of Wales was, even though his job description is probably pretty esoteric, while the Queen had a large office to carry the flag around the world to all the remaining dominions. Long Live the Queen!
ASTROLOGY
Why is it that identical twins, born under the same star do not have the same future? Pythagoras
ETHICAL DILEMMA
My first book, “Hillside Homes” I self published in 1980 and took about 10 years to sell my thousand copies at $10 each. By the time it got to Amazon I got $6 per book from them, even though I paid $8 per book to print.(That’s called “Langworthy Economics”). During the 90's, they started appearing on ebay for $240 per copy, which I thought was crazy, as I have a rare book of Louis Sullivan’s drawings that is worth just a little less. Anyway my book was out of print and is currently worth about $150. However, I do have a few books left, and once in a while someone asks to buy it but I can’t sell it for $200 to a friend, can I?
FILM FLAM
Instead of going around grousing about how much you lost on the current economic meltdown, why not view the Video “Inside Job”? This Oscar nominated documentary presents a detailed scenario of the Global economic meltdown. Featuring politicos, Journalists and academics. It paints a galling portrait of an unfettered financial system run amok, without accountability. Narrated by Matt Damon, 2010.
NO END IN SIGHT
This is a video you should buy as it’s worth viewing more than once. “No End in Sight” by the same folks who did “Inside Job”, Charles Ferguson (A former Brookings Institute Fellow) is another Oscar nominated film that examines the decisions that led to the 2003 US invasion of Iraq and the handling of the occupation by King Bush and his administration. Detailed analysis and interviews with central players, the film chronicles the twists & turns America took on the path to war. Didn’t we really know that the Shiites, Sunnis & Kurds all hate each other? We had no real plans for how to occupy Iraq, see our major faux-pais, like firing all the Republican Guard, who became the armed insurgents (Out of a job, they had the weapons), letting the Museums & Libraries to be looted (But not the Ministry of Oil), leaving most weapon stockpiles unguarded. I can’t go on.
BOOK REVIEWS
While I’m ranting about the economy, try reading “Hoodwinked” by John Perkins, a former economic Hit Man. About high finances & law ethics, someone who was deeply entrenched in our government/corporate imperialistic (Militaristic) structure has come forward to reveal our involvement with third world countries. This involves the World Bank, CIA, NAFTA, WTO and how they do business. What appears that we are helping these countries, it ends up devastating them with large corporations rake in any profits, & these poor countries owing huge sums they will never be able to repay. The results are not exactly near what the wonderful concept was.
WASHINGTON RULES
This book by Andrew Bacevich, “Washington Rules“ is about America’s path to permanent war and our so called Foreign Policy. Our politicians insist that we must invest blood and treasure in mud brick Afgan villages, while China invests in advanced technologies. We seem to be locked in a global military presence sustained by power interventionism by military Force. The Washington Rules are basically these three: 1. Global Military Presence
2. Global Power Production
3. Global Interventionalism
This is all getting pretty depressing.
THIS MIGHT HELP
“Make me one with everything” said the buddhist to the hot-dog vender. But when the Buddhist hands over a twenty dollar bill in return for the slathered bun, he waits a long time for his change. Finally asking for it, he is informed that “change comes only from within”.
Monday, April 25, 2011
ARE YOU CRAZY? A DOLLAR COIN??
There are rumors that the Feds are making noises about making a one dollar coin. I was surprised to hear the Feds are looking at the status of our miserable one dollar bill. I didn’t think anyone in Washington was able to come up with a creative thought about our monetary system, anymore. Everyone understands (except of course, the paper lobbyists) that it’s time to change since the dollar has not much value left. It used to be worth quite a bit, but you can’t even buy a lolly-pop with one these days. We already have an ill conceived dollar coin which weighs a ton and is the size of our original dollar coin, which can only be used in a slot machine, if you can even find one. How
about this? Design a small coin, like the Euro, that is the size of a nickel. Is it hard to imagine using one at the laundromat, in your parking meters, in vending machines, instead of a pile of quarters? And while you’re at it, how about getting rid of the penney and the mill?While I’m rantin
g on my favorite subject (The terrible design of the American Flag is another, but that’s another story) Let’s take a quick look at the undesign of our money. A list of all our currencies looks like a review of some 18th century graphics. (Which it is!). Notice the $2 bill (When’s the last time you saw one?) And it appears the $100 bill is the largest we make, due to out War On Drugs. Also, remember we do have a very large & heavy $1 coin, which is non-existent except for slots in Vegas. What were the minters thinking? Have you ever carried ten of those coins around in your pocket?The mil, which you engage every time you purchase gas, is also non-existent. It’s called a ”coin of account” on account there isn’t any. Although some states did mint some, of which I have one somewhere. It is a tiny copper penny like object.
In beautiful contrast, look at the Euro in Wikipedia if you’re not familiar with it. There is total rationale in the sizes, colors, designs, etc. They even print a e500 bill, with all kinds of infra red anti-counterfeiting stuff. Their e1 is a coin, made of two metals and very small. Howev
er, I am flabbergasted why they mint a penny and even a 2 cent piece. The greater the value, the larger & heavier the coin is. Each one has a different edge so the blind can easily know each one. I assume that’s why the paper money is in different sizes, however subtle.Before the Euro was introduced, the French, Dutch & Belgiums had clever, beautful money. French currency featured people like Saint-Exupery (Author), The Curies (Scientists) & Victor Horta (Architect). The Belgiums did similar with the likes of Adolph Sax (Inventor of the saxaphone).
THE OIL WARS Ethnic & territorial identity
In devising means to fight terrorists, it would surely be useful to understand the forces that drive them.
Christians have nations (Like the US & Britain, France) while Islam has no borders, just as Jews had none until the Brits gave them part of the Arab lands recently (1947?). And how’s that working out for everyone?
In 1998 Bin Laden published his grieviances in London, which we should review about every ten years of each war..
1. Christians for seven years occupied the lands of Islam (Arabia) with bases to fight Islamic peoples.
2. New Crusaders (Jewish Alliance ) humiliate Muslims.
3. U.S. is serving Jews, Continuation of the Crusades to occupy the lands of Arabia.
This constitutes a declaration of war by the U.S. against God, the prophet & Muslims. Mecca & Medina were in Saudi Arabia, then moved to Iraq & Bagdad.
Well, shit, he missed the whole thing, didn’t he? We had to make sure we had access to the oil there as we can’t drill much in the US as it is too messy. Too bad there were some Muslim hordes spread all over the area.
Oil was discovered by US in 1930 by the US. The Wahhabi’s (House of Saud) appeared about 1700's, but have become the primary “Spokesmen” (Bombers) recently.
DESIGN OVERLOAD
With all the time I have to spend on keeping up with the handicap laws, energy codes, fire codes, and all, it does leave much time for an architect to consider such unimportant things like water intrusion, structural failure, site planning and so on. Then, on top of all that , I am informed that with the appearance of “Foodies” in the kitchen, there is a whole new level of knowledge I must research and understand. With Sub-Zero’s dual refrigeration with NASA designed air infiltration or Viking’s Plasma-cluster Ion air purifier filtration system or Liebherr’s bio-fresh technology, I’m falling behind pretty fast. Let’s not forget the the steam oven, the speed oven and the electric Mandolin, indoor grills (George Forman, you should have stayed in the ring!). the $4,000 espresso machine, blenders and juicers, the electric sub-panel for the kitchen alone will be bigger than the meter for an entire house of 1980. And where do we put all these where they will be instantly available to assuage your every whim? The cost? Why maybe you can finance your kitchen appliances separately, just as you would your new car.
Friday, March 18, 2011
FALL OUT OF LOVE
THE FALL OUT OF LOVE
I didn’t think I would use this sketch again but it once again seems pertinent to current events. This is a cartoon one of our previous tenants left & I don’t remember who it was. Have also some wonderful stuff like a Prince Phillip cut out dolls with a full line of absurd clothes. (Naturally Diana is also cleverly lampooned).
I didn’t think I would use this sketch again but it once again seems pertinent to current events. This is a cartoon one of our previous tenants left & I don’t remember who it was. Have also some wonderful stuff like a Prince Phillip cut out dolls with a full line of absurd clothes. (Naturally Diana is also cleverly lampooned).
ON THE MARKET 
In accordance with my long standing concept of Real Estate: “Buy High, Sell Low”, we have put our cabin on Donner Summit for sale for the absurd low price of $282,500.
Right now you can’t see the exterior as it is covered in snow about 15' deep. However, I can show you a shot of it during the warm, balmy summers, where we have been paddling around in our peddle boat to get to the bar at the lodge. It’s a small ‘A’ frame structure of 2.5 bedrooms, 1.5 baths. Nice big, partially covered deck to Tai Chi on or BBQ. Metal roof and all wood inside. We bought it ten years ago about this time of year and didn’t see the exterior until about June. Who cared? We only live on the inside.
In accordance with my long standing concept of Real Estate: “Buy High, Sell Low”, we have put our cabin on Donner Summit for sale for the absurd low price of $282,500.
Right now you can’t see the exterior as it is covered in snow about 15' deep. However, I can show you a shot of it during the warm, balmy summers, where we have been paddling around in our peddle boat to get to the bar at the lodge. It’s a small ‘A’ frame structure of 2.5 bedrooms, 1.5 baths. Nice big, partially covered deck to Tai Chi on or BBQ. Metal roof and all wood inside. We bought it ten years ago about this time of year and didn’t see the exterior until about June. Who cared? We only live on the inside.
Friday, March 04, 2011
DEMOCRASCLEROSIS
THE WORKINGS OF OUR GOVERNMENT
John Stewart’s book on American politics points out how we are actually governed by lobbyists, who manipulate our representatives. Well, I always thought this was a more or less covert deal until I heard our new governor, Mr Brown, say publicly that he would have to check with our politicians as well as our lobbyist regarding his tax cuts and restructuring. So, in actuality, Brown has to influence the lobbyists who in turn will influence the politician on what their vote will be on issues. It is so blatant that Brown is pictured with a lobbyist that he is lobbying! This system is basically a version of the old method of bribery used for so long in so many other countries that we purport to abhor.
SPONSORSHIP
A few short years ago, the USA had a bicycle team that was sponsored by The US Postal Service. It took me a while to wonder how they were able to sponsor a team that must cost millions of dollars each year, and more so, why did they feel they had to advertise like that? Were they trying to get Europeans to defect from France’s Le Post?
I believe it cost more that one million dollars to sponsor a team for a season, and I wonder why US Postal seems to be having money problems & raise rates about every six months 2 cents at a time. So basically, to sponsor a team is to advertise. Do you ever wonder why a business has to advertise when it is a monopoly? However, I do take offense at our armed forces sponsoring NASCAR race teams to the tune of $20 million (National Guard for Dale Earnhardt, Jr.) & US Army paying Newman $7.4 Million. I do realize that NASCAR fans is where their cannon fodder comes from, but is it the best use of my hard earned taxes?
ARCHITECTURAL CRITIQUE
Each time I see the iconic Sydney Opera House in a photo I see the roots of our current maxi-buildings that have totally deviated from the simple concept that Form follows Function. Or better yet, Form & Function are one. If you see a human body with a couple of extra arms or legs, we perceive it as a freak. Jorn Utzen, a Swedish architect who had no buildings constructed, but had won several competitions, was the winner of this competition. The budget was $7 million. This is still touted as ”one of the great buildings of the World”. However, how would you feel if you thought your building would cost 7 M when after 16 years & 10 years late the final cost would be 14 times the budget at $103 Million. Since this fledgling architect didn’t have a clue of how to build his ‘Iconic Sails’, Ove Arup , fortunately was hired to cobble it all together. Even so, Arup took nearly six years to find a structural solution that would be economical to build (Economical?). They would all be segments of the shells, which seems kind of obvious to a lay person like me. Aside from costing zillions and decades over construction time, Utzon wasn’t able to incorporate a 3,000 seat Concert Hall into his design. They ended up with a smaller one of 2600 seats. In addition, the Opera Hall is inadequate to stage large scale Opera and Ballet.
Well, Sydney, I hope you’re happy with the competition & got your money’s worth, if you have any left. Any lessons learned?
1. Competitions are very sketchy method of design. There is not enough research, information to do in depth studies.
2. An architect should have experience & background for such a large & complex project.
3. What client is naive enough to begin construction before knowing how much it would cost? 14 times a budget should have defrocked the architect.
John Stewart’s book on American politics points out how we are actually governed by lobbyists, who manipulate our representatives. Well, I always thought this was a more or less covert deal until I heard our new governor, Mr Brown, say publicly that he would have to check with our politicians as well as our lobbyist regarding his tax cuts and restructuring. So, in actuality, Brown has to influence the lobbyists who in turn will influence the politician on what their vote will be on issues. It is so blatant that Brown is pictured with a lobbyist that he is lobbying! This system is basically a version of the old method of bribery used for so long in so many other countries that we purport to abhor.
SPONSORSHIP
A few short years ago, the USA had a bicycle team that was sponsored by The US Postal Service. It took me a while to wonder how they were able to sponsor a team that must cost millions of dollars each year, and more so, why did they feel they had to advertise like that? Were they trying to get Europeans to defect from France’s Le Post?
I believe it cost more that one million dollars to sponsor a team for a season, and I wonder why US Postal seems to be having money problems & raise rates about every six months 2 cents at a time. So basically, to sponsor a team is to advertise. Do you ever wonder why a business has to advertise when it is a monopoly? However, I do take offense at our armed forces sponsoring NASCAR race teams to the tune of $20 million (National Guard for Dale Earnhardt, Jr.) & US Army paying Newman $7.4 Million. I do realize that NASCAR fans is where their cannon fodder comes from, but is it the best use of my hard earned taxes?
ARCHITECTURAL CRITIQUE
Each time I see the iconic Sydney Opera House in a photo I see the roots of our current maxi-buildings that have totally deviated from the simple concept that Form follows Function. Or better yet, Form & Function are one. If you see a human body with a couple of extra arms or legs, we perceive it as a freak. Jorn Utzen, a Swedish architect who had no buildings constructed, but had won several competitions, was the winner of this competition. The budget was $7 million. This is still touted as ”one of the great buildings of the World”. However, how would you feel if you thought your building would cost 7 M when after 16 years & 10 years late the final cost would be 14 times the budget at $103 Million. Since this fledgling architect didn’t have a clue of how to build his ‘Iconic Sails’, Ove Arup , fortunately was hired to cobble it all together. Even so, Arup took nearly six years to find a structural solution that would be economical to build (Economical?). They would all be segments of the shells, which seems kind of obvious to a lay person like me. Aside from costing zillions and decades over construction time, Utzon wasn’t able to incorporate a 3,000 seat Concert Hall into his design. They ended up with a smaller one of 2600 seats. In addition, the Opera Hall is inadequate to stage large scale Opera and Ballet.
Well, Sydney, I hope you’re happy with the competition & got your money’s worth, if you have any left. Any lessons learned?
1. Competitions are very sketchy method of design. There is not enough research, information to do in depth studies.
2. An architect should have experience & background for such a large & complex project.
3. What client is naive enough to begin construction before knowing how much it would cost? 14 times a budget should have defrocked the architect.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
THE BURNING QUESTION OF THE HOUR
DANGER! THE FOLLOWING IS A PHILOSOPHICAL DISCUSSION AND IF YOU’RE A DEVOUT ANYTHING, DO NOT READ THIS ESSAY. (This is Orange Threat warning from the Unpatriot Act)
IN LU WE TRUST
As I don’t have much architecture to do currently my thoughts have turned to the infinite. Ever since I opted out of the Catholic religion when I was 18, I have been searching for a substitute for Michelangelo’s God, like the one on the Sistine Chapel in Roma. I really never believed that the old man was able to cobble tegether the Universe, even in 7 days (or was it 6?). Christians have finally figured this out to be 4435 BC on a Sunday around 10.34 in the morning. The only other viable option I have come across is the concept that if there is not an uncaused cause,(or possible a caused uncause), then the entire Universe does really function quite well on certain laws of physics. In other words, the laws that govern the movements of atoms are the same ones that govern the creation of galaxies. (Here it gets a little fuzzy). Anyway, that seems a lot more plausible than that God, Jehova or Allah or even Zeus is conducting this symphony, down to listening to everyone’s prayers, brewing up devastating hurricanes, tsunamis & earthquakes, convincing everyone to get into his church or mosque, then destroy the entire building with all his faithful cowering in it. (Maybe by this time they may be his/her unfaithful). But I digress. I feel very comfortable considering an entity called Laws of the Universe as the creator and maintainer of the entire universe. To simplify this, I have tended to call this force (Remember the Force, Luke?) LU. I considered Universal Laws, but who wants to call the ultimate creator, maintainer & force UL?
Now aside from all this bullshit of creators & such, this has no relationship to whether we have a soul or no, since it’s mostly about religions. That’s really the burning question of the hour, (once we’ve solved the first burning question, see above). Even as far back as Socrates (see below), folks were beginning to suspect the existence of a soul, or some kind of essence or spirit that accompanied the body and left it at death as well as entering it at birth, of course. If we accept that proposition, we have to ask when a baby is born, when and where does this spirit of soul come from? The Christians have been fighting that one for years in order to ban any form of abortion. In other words, when is a human a human? They’ve probably got it back to about the fertilization of the egg, by the male sperm. Now we’re getting into sex! It won’t be long before they assume the sperm has the soul rider and to jerk off will be a federal offense.
So you can see there is a lot of murky thought to get into that end of the soul train so I am just sticking with the end of life part, as that is a lot closer for me than my origins. Now the problem here is that no one I know has come back from the dead to inform me what happened, if anything. I have a couple of books that describe many ‘Near death’ experiences collected by doctors. (Kubler-Ross, etc.) Most of these people have been in situations where they have been clinically dead for a few minutes (I’m not talking about just brain dead, like so many of our politicians and ministers of religions). There are peculiar similarities in their descriptions to each other and strangely, to descriptions of a few Masters from India . You know, a light at the end of the tunnel, friendly beings (No one saw the Devil so far). Now, the great masters don’t say they have died and come back. They attain inner states (You’ve got to meditate to do this) on several levels that culminate in the non-life area. In other words, they claim we need to ‘die’ while living and experience where it is we’re going when we die. This is not a new concept as it has been around for thousands of years but it certainly is new to us, within the last couple of centuries here in the Americas.
TRIAL OF SOCRATES
Published by I.F. Stone in the 1980's. He was the publisher of IF Stones Weekly, a muckraking independent journal. After a heart attack, he quit the journal, and decided to study freedom of thought in human history. He began by studying the English revolutions in the 1600's, which led him to the Protestant Reformation which in turn led to the Middle Ages when they had rediscovered Aristotle through the Arabic & Hebrew translations in the 12th century. That got him to study ancient Athens but he was disappointed in all the standard sources. Therefore, he had to learn Greek so he could go directly to the source and not rely on other’s commentaries. Now he was concerned about how could the trial of Socrates have happened in so free a society? His book,’The Trial of Socrates’ is about that.
In pursuing all the reports & writings in the original Greek related to Socrates and his concepts, he came to a startling conclusion. Socrates wanted to be convicted & possibly die. After all, he was seventy years old and that’s pretty old, even in our time. But more important, it becomes apparent that Socrates was a critic of democracy. Two of his students even became tyrants of Athens during a couple of rebellions that displaced democracy with Oligarchies. He was accused of corrupting the youth of Athens, not in a moral way, as the world of antiquity was pretty bi-sexual (chasing young boys around. This was the beginning of the priestly class)l, but convincing them that all should be ruled by one man, a philosopher, the ‘One Who Knows”. Of all the rulers in history, maybe Marcus Aurelius was such a one. But Socrates was an enemy of democracy, as is apparent from Plato’s Republic, a description of Socrates Utopia (or maybe distopia).
There were untold arguments that S. Could have used but didn’t. He was convicted by a very small margin of the 400 voters. He was then subjected to a sentencing trial, which due to his absurd defense, he was convicted to drink a draughft of Hemlock, not exactly a Cabernet Sauvignon. He could probably have gotten them to at least exile him, but to S., that would be worse than death. Remember, there was only one great Agora for him to strut around in and extol the intricacies of the universe to his adoring public, and that was in Athens.
IN LU WE TRUST
As I don’t have much architecture to do currently my thoughts have turned to the infinite. Ever since I opted out of the Catholic religion when I was 18, I have been searching for a substitute for Michelangelo’s God, like the one on the Sistine Chapel in Roma. I really never believed that the old man was able to cobble tegether the Universe, even in 7 days (or was it 6?). Christians have finally figured this out to be 4435 BC on a Sunday around 10.34 in the morning. The only other viable option I have come across is the concept that if there is not an uncaused cause,(or possible a caused uncause), then the entire Universe does really function quite well on certain laws of physics. In other words, the laws that govern the movements of atoms are the same ones that govern the creation of galaxies. (Here it gets a little fuzzy). Anyway, that seems a lot more plausible than that God, Jehova or Allah or even Zeus is conducting this symphony, down to listening to everyone’s prayers, brewing up devastating hurricanes, tsunamis & earthquakes, convincing everyone to get into his church or mosque, then destroy the entire building with all his faithful cowering in it. (Maybe by this time they may be his/her unfaithful). But I digress. I feel very comfortable considering an entity called Laws of the Universe as the creator and maintainer of the entire universe. To simplify this, I have tended to call this force (Remember the Force, Luke?) LU. I considered Universal Laws, but who wants to call the ultimate creator, maintainer & force UL?
Now aside from all this bullshit of creators & such, this has no relationship to whether we have a soul or no, since it’s mostly about religions. That’s really the burning question of the hour, (once we’ve solved the first burning question, see above). Even as far back as Socrates (see below), folks were beginning to suspect the existence of a soul, or some kind of essence or spirit that accompanied the body and left it at death as well as entering it at birth, of course. If we accept that proposition, we have to ask when a baby is born, when and where does this spirit of soul come from? The Christians have been fighting that one for years in order to ban any form of abortion. In other words, when is a human a human? They’ve probably got it back to about the fertilization of the egg, by the male sperm. Now we’re getting into sex! It won’t be long before they assume the sperm has the soul rider and to jerk off will be a federal offense.
So you can see there is a lot of murky thought to get into that end of the soul train so I am just sticking with the end of life part, as that is a lot closer for me than my origins. Now the problem here is that no one I know has come back from the dead to inform me what happened, if anything. I have a couple of books that describe many ‘Near death’ experiences collected by doctors. (Kubler-Ross, etc.) Most of these people have been in situations where they have been clinically dead for a few minutes (I’m not talking about just brain dead, like so many of our politicians and ministers of religions). There are peculiar similarities in their descriptions to each other and strangely, to descriptions of a few Masters from India . You know, a light at the end of the tunnel, friendly beings (No one saw the Devil so far). Now, the great masters don’t say they have died and come back. They attain inner states (You’ve got to meditate to do this) on several levels that culminate in the non-life area. In other words, they claim we need to ‘die’ while living and experience where it is we’re going when we die. This is not a new concept as it has been around for thousands of years but it certainly is new to us, within the last couple of centuries here in the Americas.
TRIAL OF SOCRATES
Published by I.F. Stone in the 1980's. He was the publisher of IF Stones Weekly, a muckraking independent journal. After a heart attack, he quit the journal, and decided to study freedom of thought in human history. He began by studying the English revolutions in the 1600's, which led him to the Protestant Reformation which in turn led to the Middle Ages when they had rediscovered Aristotle through the Arabic & Hebrew translations in the 12th century. That got him to study ancient Athens but he was disappointed in all the standard sources. Therefore, he had to learn Greek so he could go directly to the source and not rely on other’s commentaries. Now he was concerned about how could the trial of Socrates have happened in so free a society? His book,’The Trial of Socrates’ is about that.
In pursuing all the reports & writings in the original Greek related to Socrates and his concepts, he came to a startling conclusion. Socrates wanted to be convicted & possibly die. After all, he was seventy years old and that’s pretty old, even in our time. But more important, it becomes apparent that Socrates was a critic of democracy. Two of his students even became tyrants of Athens during a couple of rebellions that displaced democracy with Oligarchies. He was accused of corrupting the youth of Athens, not in a moral way, as the world of antiquity was pretty bi-sexual (chasing young boys around. This was the beginning of the priestly class)l, but convincing them that all should be ruled by one man, a philosopher, the ‘One Who Knows”. Of all the rulers in history, maybe Marcus Aurelius was such a one. But Socrates was an enemy of democracy, as is apparent from Plato’s Republic, a description of Socrates Utopia (or maybe distopia).
There were untold arguments that S. Could have used but didn’t. He was convicted by a very small margin of the 400 voters. He was then subjected to a sentencing trial, which due to his absurd defense, he was convicted to drink a draughft of Hemlock, not exactly a Cabernet Sauvignon. He could probably have gotten them to at least exile him, but to S., that would be worse than death. Remember, there was only one great Agora for him to strut around in and extol the intricacies of the universe to his adoring public, and that was in Athens.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
UTOPIA
UTOPIAS
I’ve just finished The Faber Book of Utopias, edited by John Carey. It consists of descriptions of Utopias from ancient Egyptian to present day.
Beginning with an Egyptian Tale from about 1700 BC, when fictional narrative emerged after 1938 BC. In “A Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor” a retainer tries to comfort his master who is sailing home from a failed mission of some kind. On a paradise island, a devine snake can suffer misfortune and overcome it. E.i., stoic endurance and self control will win the day. It was only translated in 1820!
The Greek Poet Hesiod wrote “Works & Days” about 700 BC. He describes the Four Golden Ages, where life was perfect, food falling off trees, etc. Probably from an earlier Zorostrian myth.
Plato’s “Republic” is more renowned. About 360 BC, he described Socrates’ version of a perfect world. However, it comes out as a totalitarian world of compulsion & authority, with three classes - Rulers, Auxillories (Police, etc.) and workers (us!). The masses needed to believe “A convenient Fiction” or “ Noble Lie” (Brainwashing?) Favored censorship as well as controlled breeding. (I’m outa here!).
Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’ 1667, shows what a great life Adam & Eve had in the Garden. Not exactly like the bible, these two had lots of sex and fun!
Louis Antoine, Comte de Bougainville, 1771 described Tahiti, a real Utopia we all still want to go to. However, the are always mosquitos in paradise as his crew ended up with venereal disease from screwing all the beautiful young girls there. (Life’s not fair!).
Oscar Wilde’s ‘ The Soul of Man under Socialism’ of 1891, really advocated Anarchy more than Socialism. His aim was to shock people into thinking, an exercise, he believed, they seldom undertook.
Karl Marx wrote ‘Critique’ in 1875.
Samuel Butler’s ‘Erewhon’ most people will remember.
Hilton’s ‘Lost Horizon’, at least we saw the movie.
Hitler’s ‘Mien Kampf’ of 1924 was always a best seller.
Orwell’s ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’, 1949, has come and gone, except some of it came true.
The last one of the book is Lee Silver’s ‘Rembering Eden’, written in 1998
Utopia means nowhere or no-place. Distopia a not so nice place. But all try punishing criminals, not punishing criminals, and exterminating them are all methods of turning people into Utopians. We all have our own personal Utopias. What’s yours?
FUNNIES
When I was a kid (1935), almost all the funnies were written for young people like me. There were a few exceptions, even in those days, like ‘Krazy Cat,Pogo, etc. I just realized the other day that almost all our funny papers are made for adults. What do the kids, see? Just cartoons on TV? Maybe Peanuts is still for kids, although Shultz’s humor has been that little tykes think like adults. Do little folks understand that?
THE NOOZ
It’s a funny world, though. Look at how I get my news of world events. Jon Stewart’s The Dailey Show. The Colbert Report and now the Onion News ( “News Before it’s Made”). I tried to watch the supposedly real news shows the other evening to justify my curiosity that it was absurd and could only spend about half an hour of my getting more precious hourly time before I had to abort. Let me tell you young wippersnappers (Whatever that means) how we used to get our news other than from the radio. Everyone would usually get to the movies at least once a week. The main feature (Casablanca) would be preceded by a cartoon (Mr Magoo, Roadrunner) as well as a short ‘Pathe News ‘ reel of about five minutes. It would strickly show actual events that happened the previous week usually, but only accompanied by a narrator describing the scenes. Talking heads were unknown. Of course, it was all in Black & White color.
WORD FOR THE DAY (Just in from the Gulf)
Petrochemigull
SHOPPING HINTS
Toilet paper - You can tell a lot about a country by their toilet paper. When I first got to England, I was appalled by their TP. It was kind of like thinner wax paper! What the hell! Didn’t they know it was supposed to be kind of absorbing the stuff you were trying to wipe off? The French, they use a pink paper in a pile of small individual sheets that disintegrate when you try to use it. The Italians? They don’t give you any. I always carry a roll of TP whenever I travel to Europe, as God knows, you’re going to need it. Don’t forget to take a small flashlight into the loo with you as the light switch will invariably turn
off before you are finished and leave you floundering around in a unfamiliar toilet trying to finish up in pitch dark.
Back home here, your choices are unlimited. In my search for the true grail of TP, I have tried them all. The long & short of it is...The more they advertise, the crystal worthless the product. I finally settled on the cheapest one, Ultra-somthing from Safeway. It has all the right stuff. Easy to start unrolling without ripping half the roll apart trying to get thru the glue part, sheets tear easily and where you want them to, double sheets, strong enough not to fall apart easily, etc..
While we’re on paper products, why did it take a hundred years for Paper
Towel people to come up with “Select-a-size’ rolls? I suppose the executive who thought that up is now basking in Bermuda in his condo, enjoying the rest of his rich life on the beach. Even now, it seems there is only one company making it. And just try to find rolls that are not printed with some inane bullshit pattern that I wouldn’t have in the house in the first place. Life is soo hard!
DEATH & TAXES
Since I’m getting too close to the first part, we’ll skip that & talk about income tax for the Feds. I am beginning to think that exempting religions from paying taxes is not a rational decision. I know, we have determined that they are supposedly a ‘Non profit’ entity, but can you imagine how much money that must cost the US? If they’re so non-profit, how can they build Crystal Cathedrals costing millions in Anaheim? Fortunately, Billy Graham is just about dead so he won’t be giving all our presidents advice on how to run our country. Maybe Obama will be able to turn a deaf ear to the Christians anyway, as long as he doesn’t give to much to the Muslims. Most good Xians , Jews & Muslims give 10% of income to their churches, allowing all the priests, rabbis & mullas to lay around all day in luxury. Just imagine if all those zillions went to the Feds we could have continuing wars all over the Middle East. (As if we don’t already). Do you think we could look at our Health Care and maybe get it as good as Holland or France?
FOR THE FOODIES
Being a history buff and having lived in the Islands for a year as a kiamana beach boy I recently got curious about where pineapple came from. Well, here’s the skinny - The Pineapple originated in Paraguay (That’s in South America) and somehow got to the Carribes at the time of Columbus (This area is kind of sketchy). By the 1600's the plant had gotten to the Phillipines and not until 1813 did it finally arrive in Hawaii. The rest is the history of Dole.
Now sugar cane originated in India before 600 AD. By 770 it had gotten to Bagdad and Egypt. The Sabres of Paradise brought it over to Spain thru North Africa around 1400. It wasn’t long before it got to the West Indies and on to Phillipines and later to Hawaii. Unfortunately, it soon became apparent that sugar beets in Europe were cheaper and the market went to hell.
I’ve just finished The Faber Book of Utopias, edited by John Carey. It consists of descriptions of Utopias from ancient Egyptian to present day.
Beginning with an Egyptian Tale from about 1700 BC, when fictional narrative emerged after 1938 BC. In “A Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor” a retainer tries to comfort his master who is sailing home from a failed mission of some kind. On a paradise island, a devine snake can suffer misfortune and overcome it. E.i., stoic endurance and self control will win the day. It was only translated in 1820!
The Greek Poet Hesiod wrote “Works & Days” about 700 BC. He describes the Four Golden Ages, where life was perfect, food falling off trees, etc. Probably from an earlier Zorostrian myth.
Plato’s “Republic” is more renowned. About 360 BC, he described Socrates’ version of a perfect world. However, it comes out as a totalitarian world of compulsion & authority, with three classes - Rulers, Auxillories (Police, etc.) and workers (us!). The masses needed to believe “A convenient Fiction” or “ Noble Lie” (Brainwashing?) Favored censorship as well as controlled breeding. (I’m outa here!).
Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’ 1667, shows what a great life Adam & Eve had in the Garden. Not exactly like the bible, these two had lots of sex and fun!
Louis Antoine, Comte de Bougainville, 1771 described Tahiti, a real Utopia we all still want to go to. However, the are always mosquitos in paradise as his crew ended up with venereal disease from screwing all the beautiful young girls there. (Life’s not fair!).
Oscar Wilde’s ‘ The Soul of Man under Socialism’ of 1891, really advocated Anarchy more than Socialism. His aim was to shock people into thinking, an exercise, he believed, they seldom undertook.
Karl Marx wrote ‘Critique’ in 1875.
Samuel Butler’s ‘Erewhon’ most people will remember.
Hilton’s ‘Lost Horizon’, at least we saw the movie.
Hitler’s ‘Mien Kampf’ of 1924 was always a best seller.
Orwell’s ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’, 1949, has come and gone, except some of it came true.
The last one of the book is Lee Silver’s ‘Rembering Eden’, written in 1998
Utopia means nowhere or no-place. Distopia a not so nice place. But all try punishing criminals, not punishing criminals, and exterminating them are all methods of turning people into Utopians. We all have our own personal Utopias. What’s yours?
FUNNIES
When I was a kid (1935), almost all the funnies were written for young people like me. There were a few exceptions, even in those days, like ‘Krazy Cat,Pogo, etc. I just realized the other day that almost all our funny papers are made for adults. What do the kids, see? Just cartoons on TV? Maybe Peanuts is still for kids, although Shultz’s humor has been that little tykes think like adults. Do little folks understand that?
THE NOOZ
It’s a funny world, though. Look at how I get my news of world events. Jon Stewart’s The Dailey Show. The Colbert Report and now the Onion News ( “News Before it’s Made”). I tried to watch the supposedly real news shows the other evening to justify my curiosity that it was absurd and could only spend about half an hour of my getting more precious hourly time before I had to abort. Let me tell you young wippersnappers (Whatever that means) how we used to get our news other than from the radio. Everyone would usually get to the movies at least once a week. The main feature (Casablanca) would be preceded by a cartoon (Mr Magoo, Roadrunner) as well as a short ‘Pathe News ‘ reel of about five minutes. It would strickly show actual events that happened the previous week usually, but only accompanied by a narrator describing the scenes. Talking heads were unknown. Of course, it was all in Black & White color.
WORD FOR THE DAY (Just in from the Gulf)
Petrochemigull
SHOPPING HINTS
Toilet paper - You can tell a lot about a country by their toilet paper. When I first got to England, I was appalled by their TP. It was kind of like thinner wax paper! What the hell! Didn’t they know it was supposed to be kind of absorbing the stuff you were trying to wipe off? The French, they use a pink paper in a pile of small individual sheets that disintegrate when you try to use it. The Italians? They don’t give you any. I always carry a roll of TP whenever I travel to Europe, as God knows, you’re going to need it. Don’t forget to take a small flashlight into the loo with you as the light switch will invariably turn
off before you are finished and leave you floundering around in a unfamiliar toilet trying to finish up in pitch dark.
Back home here, your choices are unlimited. In my search for the true grail of TP, I have tried them all. The long & short of it is...The more they advertise, the crystal worthless the product. I finally settled on the cheapest one, Ultra-somthing from Safeway. It has all the right stuff. Easy to start unrolling without ripping half the roll apart trying to get thru the glue part, sheets tear easily and where you want them to, double sheets, strong enough not to fall apart easily, etc..
While we’re on paper products, why did it take a hundred years for Paper
Towel people to come up with “Select-a-size’ rolls? I suppose the executive who thought that up is now basking in Bermuda in his condo, enjoying the rest of his rich life on the beach. Even now, it seems there is only one company making it. And just try to find rolls that are not printed with some inane bullshit pattern that I wouldn’t have in the house in the first place. Life is soo hard!
DEATH & TAXES
Since I’m getting too close to the first part, we’ll skip that & talk about income tax for the Feds. I am beginning to think that exempting religions from paying taxes is not a rational decision. I know, we have determined that they are supposedly a ‘Non profit’ entity, but can you imagine how much money that must cost the US? If they’re so non-profit, how can they build Crystal Cathedrals costing millions in Anaheim? Fortunately, Billy Graham is just about dead so he won’t be giving all our presidents advice on how to run our country. Maybe Obama will be able to turn a deaf ear to the Christians anyway, as long as he doesn’t give to much to the Muslims. Most good Xians , Jews & Muslims give 10% of income to their churches, allowing all the priests, rabbis & mullas to lay around all day in luxury. Just imagine if all those zillions went to the Feds we could have continuing wars all over the Middle East. (As if we don’t already). Do you think we could look at our Health Care and maybe get it as good as Holland or France?
FOR THE FOODIES
Being a history buff and having lived in the Islands for a year as a kiamana beach boy I recently got curious about where pineapple came from. Well, here’s the skinny - The Pineapple originated in Paraguay (That’s in South America) and somehow got to the Carribes at the time of Columbus (This area is kind of sketchy). By the 1600's the plant had gotten to the Phillipines and not until 1813 did it finally arrive in Hawaii. The rest is the history of Dole.
Now sugar cane originated in India before 600 AD. By 770 it had gotten to Bagdad and Egypt. The Sabres of Paradise brought it over to Spain thru North Africa around 1400. It wasn’t long before it got to the West Indies and on to Phillipines and later to Hawaii. Unfortunately, it soon became apparent that sugar beets in Europe were cheaper and the market went to hell.
Friday, January 14, 2011
WINTER SALE!
BOOK REPORT
The Gate, the true Story by John Van der Zee is one of the best book about the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge. You have to overlook the poor quality of inaugurated reproductions of drawings & photos but you really get the incredible problems that Joseph Strauss had to overcome. Aside from about ten years of political bull shit he waded thru, and the surprising innovations of the bridge, and given that all this happened in the middle of the Depression, we are fortunate it all turned out so well. Other than the fact the bridge was paid off a long time ago and the district subsidized the ferries and the bus system in order to burden us with ever increasing fares.
Strauss, the purported engineer of the bridge, was actually the promoter of the whole thing, he fortunately hired the best engineers in the US (Ahman, Moiser, etc.) but especially Charles Ellis, a brilliant man in the wings who really made it feasible. Fortunately, Strauss’s first design, a combination cantilever/suspension structure (Ugly!) was replaced by the all suspension type, which was a thousand feet longer than any built to that date. A span of 4,200 feet was really stretching the envelope at the time. It was only recently spans were built longer. Roebling Company, (Brooklyn Bridge) spun the cables and inaugerated safety measures on the bridge, even using hard hats made of leather.
In those days, you figured on one death for every million dollars of construction cost.
As the bridge cost 33 million, that no one was killed during the initial stages was a miracle. However, when the deck was nearly completed, a large platform used for stripping forms of the concrete roadway collapsed, sending twelve souls to the water. Two survived the fall, broken up a bit.
The color? Originally to be silver, like the Bay bridge, the architect (Riding in on his white horse!) Convinced all that International Orange would be perfect. Praise the Lord!
COFFEE SHOP BLUES
For the past few years, after I have my morning porridge & coffee & read the newspaper, I escape to one of several coffee emporiums to read a book. I could do this at home but my wife chatters all the time, even though I have my nose in a book. I have about four places I can go to have a second cup and read in peace for about an hour. As the old saying goes: ‘There are mosquitos in Paradise’. A couple of problems have emerged to squelch my early morning tranquility. One is music over the loud speaker system. The Village Bakery, was run for years by an attractive Scandinavian lady who had wonderful classical music softly on the background. Recently, she retired and sold to a young jitterbug who took over, although he didn’t change the food (Fortunately!) He blasts your auditory system with the usual banl pop music that really is disconcerting. The same thing happened to my Forestville shop, except it was louder there. Asking the teen-bopper working there to tone it down only gets reprisals with worse music louder.
But wait, there’s more! Inevitibally, after I’ve become a regular, people begin to act friendly, interrupting my concentration on “The trial of Socrates” or my current tome. My only hope is the Union Hotel Bakery in Occidental, where They still make a fabulous Italian turnover. However, I do bitch about that as years ago, some younger member of the clan decided to change from white flower to whole wheat which made the turnover tend to fall apart more easily. Oh, the horror of it all!
SELLING OUT
Joy and I have a small, older (1975) cabin on Donner Summit that we have owned for ten rears, but with the economy in the toilet, and real estate selling at it’s lowest in years, we are putting it up for sale. We would like to keep it for another couple of years, but look, I’m not getting any younger and we’ve got to get to Europe soon before the dollar gets better over there. Anyway, if you’re interested, we are expecting about $380,000 for it. It’s really great if you like shoveling out of ten foot snowdrifts every time you go up to do a little skiing. But mostly, I’m telling you this to pitch all the furniture, and accouterments that we will have to get rid of. What to do with our 6 Breuer dining chairs, the oak dining table that easily breaks down for moving (My famous Nomad Furniture), a Breuer lounge chair, plus a couple of original Eames ply chairs.
CIAO GRAPEMAN
Recently, my favorite grape grower, Dominic Canale, died. When my friend, Dodson and I were making wine, we loved the experience of buying our grapes from Dominic. He had 75 acres of zinfandel and Cabernet that bill and I mined. Dominic was one of those characters one is fortunate to run into, He came to the US when he was five to escape Mussolini’s influence. While fighting in Italy in WW2 he was a valuable asset to the Allies as he could speak Italian and French. His father sang opera, which Dominic did also, and when Dominic got to Monte Cassino , the monks taught him the Stradella, based on the life of a 17th century Italian composer. After the war, who else would use the GI Bill to study at La Scala in Milan for six years?
It was always a memorable experience buying our grapes from Dominic. We would arrainge to meet at his farm in Dry Creek Valley and he would have all the grapes picked, usually about one half ton. He would dump them in his crusher and then fill our 33 gal containers with the must. Of course, during this whole process, we would be drinking his wine , as well as his port, eating a selection of cheeses and bread until everyone was pretty loopy and really shouldn’t be operating any machinery at all. But that’s one of the hazards of making wine and one just has to live with it. Anyway, we all had just a terrific time and managed to get over to my place in Graton to innoculate the grapes with the proper yeast in order to begin fermentation.
Monday, December 20, 2010
CURBS
CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM
Twenty years ago California passed a laws to make our total environment accessible to wheelchairs and other disabilities. This included all apartments and commercial buildings. Money was no object. The Feds followed soon after following California’s pioneering efforts. The concept of “Cost Benefit Ratio” is an unknown concept with our government entities. These laws are always easily passed, as no politician would vote no on such a controversial law. I’m not bitching about the fact that such laws are passed, but how such laws are written and interpreted as a zero tolerance concept. Such laws as the ADA (Americans with Disability Act) , are so complicated and fuzzy the spawned groups who made a good living off it.
Initially no one knew who was in charge of enforcing these laws. Building officials didn’t know much about the law, but it soon became prevalent in all aspects of our lives, buses, trains, streetcars had to retrofit in a hurry to avoid huge penalties from individuals & groups who had their rights violated.. There is virtually no way to win such a lawsuit for a small business but cities & large corporations scrambled to conform.
The concept of the ADA is that all people, regardless of their infirmity, must be able to use all facilities like the rest of humanity. They make absurd claims that 40 million Americans are handicapped. This means partial blind, deaf or just a broken leg from your skiing accident.
Let’s take a look at the area that really upsets me, the replacement of all curb ramps in all intersections in all the cities and towns of the U.S. I’m not complaining about a curb ramp has to be installed where there is none. My problem rests where I see a ramp being jack-hammered out after five years in order to install the newer, upgraded design. You’ve seen these replaced with a slightly different slope, a nice bright yellow feely pad, plus a level area at the bottom fills up with water when it rains.
The costs of the upgrades add up to an astronomical amount. I’ve checked with various cities and I’m told each one costs about $5,000, if there are no problems or infrastructure to change. Does anyone not believe that a powerful lobby pushed thru these new versions that require the yellow pads, which cost about $350 each. Just do the math, Sebastopol has about 100 intersections times four ramps equals a couple of million dollars. Meanwhile our roads are falling apart due to lack of funds.
Nobody seems to be upset by these costs, as they say, well, the Feds pay for all this. But I see that my taxes pay for all this. I don’t mind doing it once, but changing ramps every 5 - 10 years is plain crazy. Zero tolerance is also part of the problem, 1/4" tolerance in most cases. Well, the world is not made that way. If not, the Department of Injustice will see to it that you are punished.
POLITICAL DICTIONARY
Democracy People meet & exercise the government in person
(For small areas only)
Republic People assemble & administer it by their representatives & agents
(Large areas only)
Senate Two reps/State
House of Representatives By population. About 30,000 per rep.?
So you see, we don’t want to impress Democracy on the world, we want to get everyone to form a republic. Let’s get with it, Talibans!
But Sparta, Athens, Rome & Carthage were Republics, although they didn’t let the riff- Raff vote, only landholders.
NOT EXACTLY A NOVEL
Recently, I finished reading THE FEDERALIST, 85 essays written by Madison, Jefferson and Jay (Who’s he?), in about three months just prior to the ratification of the Constitution in 1888. It has become the classical interpretation of the Constitution. I had always wanted to read it and lo & behold, there it appeared at the Graton Post Office where we leave and pick up books.
I had always thought the Federlists were people who wanted too much power for a Federal government, but it turns out they were just rational , intelligent beings who wanted to have a government of all 13 colonies. There’s all kind of interesting shit in there, like, some states wanted to break up into 3 nations, or two nations instead of just one United States. (North and South, for instance).
These gents gave detailed arguments pro and con for all the issues of our proposed Constitution. For instance, if the House of Representatives consisted of one rep for 30,000 people of a state, how do you figure in the slaves, as they represented about 20% of the population? Well, they finally considered that they weren’t exactly chattel or all human so they figured each slave was about 3/5th of a person.
These short essays appeared about every two days for months, considering such things as how long should a president serve? Two years? Four may be best. How long for Senators? For Representatives? For Judges? Interestingly, the president was not voted by the popular vote, but by the Electorial College, who were representatives of the people, maybe they still do, I can’t tell. Also, the State Legislatures woere to elect the Senators. What happened to that? A lot of stuff came from the structure of some states legislatures and governors. But our division of power into thirds: Executive, Legislative & Judicial was unique in all of history. Adams seemed to be the heavy when it came to researching the history of republics, including Greece and such.
They spent lot of time on how to pay for a Federal Gov., and the thought of a personal Income tax didn’t enter their minds. A Bill of Rights was defeated but finally added in 1791 as the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution..
What is really amazing is the Constitution is only seven pages long.
Think about that.
LUCKY DOGS
We’ve lost it. Culture doom. Pets with Disabilities Act. It has come to my attention that when your pet has a major health problem, we have unlimited options for assisted living. Owners (Only in America) will go to any extreme to facilitate their pet’s mobility and health. In lieu of “putting them down” or “euthanizing” , no matter how painful it is for us, we can’t call it “killing the little sucker”. Old dog become paralyzed in his hind legs? His spine has collapsed? You can choose between a vet bill of several thousand dollars or buy a canine Cart from Eddie’s Wheels. They will ship out a wheeled gismo for your cat, dog, bunny, goat, sheep or alpaca for only a couple of thousand bucks. Who in hell in his right mind would buy a pet from “Pets with Disabilities”? Independent Animal Rescue in North Carolina paid $2300 for surgery on a CAT that had a broken leg! We spend $48 BILLION on pet products per year! That may be more than we spend on our kids! The pet food aisles in our markets are larger than some European stores!
Even worse! ‘Three Dog Bakery’ franchise will prepare a “Feast fit for the Beast” of Lamb Wellington, Kibble, spinach dip & pumpkin pie all for $20! I’m not even going to get into Pet psychiatrists, Massues & chiropractors. Does anyone here think we are pampering our pets too much?
After all that, I have a confession to make. My first wife, Joyce came with a male red cat named “Red”. While living in Malibu he got run over on the Coast Highway, which resulted in his two back legs broken to smithereens. We didn’t have much income at the time but Joyce, who probably would have thought twice before paying for my hospital bill of broken legs, paid hundreds of dollars to her vet to fix up old Red. I have to admit, he faired pretty well during a long convalescent period with his entire hind end wrapped up in a cast with the tail sticking out of it. It wasn’t long before he mastered the art of walking on his front legs, his rear end up in the air. He even was able to hop up on chairs with his balancing act. After he got out of his cast he walked with hardly a limp. Of course, he only lived another couple of years so Joyce really didn’t get her money’s worth.
Twenty years ago California passed a laws to make our total environment accessible to wheelchairs and other disabilities. This included all apartments and commercial buildings. Money was no object. The Feds followed soon after following California’s pioneering efforts. The concept of “Cost Benefit Ratio” is an unknown concept with our government entities. These laws are always easily passed, as no politician would vote no on such a controversial law. I’m not bitching about the fact that such laws are passed, but how such laws are written and interpreted as a zero tolerance concept. Such laws as the ADA (Americans with Disability Act) , are so complicated and fuzzy the spawned groups who made a good living off it.
Initially no one knew who was in charge of enforcing these laws. Building officials didn’t know much about the law, but it soon became prevalent in all aspects of our lives, buses, trains, streetcars had to retrofit in a hurry to avoid huge penalties from individuals & groups who had their rights violated.. There is virtually no way to win such a lawsuit for a small business but cities & large corporations scrambled to conform.
The concept of the ADA is that all people, regardless of their infirmity, must be able to use all facilities like the rest of humanity. They make absurd claims that 40 million Americans are handicapped. This means partial blind, deaf or just a broken leg from your skiing accident.
Let’s take a look at the area that really upsets me, the replacement of all curb ramps in all intersections in all the cities and towns of the U.S. I’m not complaining about a curb ramp has to be installed where there is none. My problem rests where I see a ramp being jack-hammered out after five years in order to install the newer, upgraded design. You’ve seen these replaced with a slightly different slope, a nice bright yellow feely pad, plus a level area at the bottom fills up with water when it rains.
The costs of the upgrades add up to an astronomical amount. I’ve checked with various cities and I’m told each one costs about $5,000, if there are no problems or infrastructure to change. Does anyone not believe that a powerful lobby pushed thru these new versions that require the yellow pads, which cost about $350 each. Just do the math, Sebastopol has about 100 intersections times four ramps equals a couple of million dollars. Meanwhile our roads are falling apart due to lack of funds.
Nobody seems to be upset by these costs, as they say, well, the Feds pay for all this. But I see that my taxes pay for all this. I don’t mind doing it once, but changing ramps every 5 - 10 years is plain crazy. Zero tolerance is also part of the problem, 1/4" tolerance in most cases. Well, the world is not made that way. If not, the Department of Injustice will see to it that you are punished.
POLITICAL DICTIONARY
Democracy People meet & exercise the government in person
(For small areas only)
Republic People assemble & administer it by their representatives & agents
(Large areas only)
Senate Two reps/State
House of Representatives By population. About 30,000 per rep.?
So you see, we don’t want to impress Democracy on the world, we want to get everyone to form a republic. Let’s get with it, Talibans!
But Sparta, Athens, Rome & Carthage were Republics, although they didn’t let the riff- Raff vote, only landholders.
NOT EXACTLY A NOVEL
Recently, I finished reading THE FEDERALIST, 85 essays written by Madison, Jefferson and Jay (Who’s he?), in about three months just prior to the ratification of the Constitution in 1888. It has become the classical interpretation of the Constitution. I had always wanted to read it and lo & behold, there it appeared at the Graton Post Office where we leave and pick up books.
I had always thought the Federlists were people who wanted too much power for a Federal government, but it turns out they were just rational , intelligent beings who wanted to have a government of all 13 colonies. There’s all kind of interesting shit in there, like, some states wanted to break up into 3 nations, or two nations instead of just one United States. (North and South, for instance).
These gents gave detailed arguments pro and con for all the issues of our proposed Constitution. For instance, if the House of Representatives consisted of one rep for 30,000 people of a state, how do you figure in the slaves, as they represented about 20% of the population? Well, they finally considered that they weren’t exactly chattel or all human so they figured each slave was about 3/5th of a person.
These short essays appeared about every two days for months, considering such things as how long should a president serve? Two years? Four may be best. How long for Senators? For Representatives? For Judges? Interestingly, the president was not voted by the popular vote, but by the Electorial College, who were representatives of the people, maybe they still do, I can’t tell. Also, the State Legislatures woere to elect the Senators. What happened to that? A lot of stuff came from the structure of some states legislatures and governors. But our division of power into thirds: Executive, Legislative & Judicial was unique in all of history. Adams seemed to be the heavy when it came to researching the history of republics, including Greece and such.
They spent lot of time on how to pay for a Federal Gov., and the thought of a personal Income tax didn’t enter their minds. A Bill of Rights was defeated but finally added in 1791 as the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution..
What is really amazing is the Constitution is only seven pages long.
Think about that.
LUCKY DOGS
We’ve lost it. Culture doom. Pets with Disabilities Act. It has come to my attention that when your pet has a major health problem, we have unlimited options for assisted living. Owners (Only in America) will go to any extreme to facilitate their pet’s mobility and health. In lieu of “putting them down” or “euthanizing” , no matter how painful it is for us, we can’t call it “killing the little sucker”. Old dog become paralyzed in his hind legs? His spine has collapsed? You can choose between a vet bill of several thousand dollars or buy a canine Cart from Eddie’s Wheels. They will ship out a wheeled gismo for your cat, dog, bunny, goat, sheep or alpaca for only a couple of thousand bucks. Who in hell in his right mind would buy a pet from “Pets with Disabilities”? Independent Animal Rescue in North Carolina paid $2300 for surgery on a CAT that had a broken leg! We spend $48 BILLION on pet products per year! That may be more than we spend on our kids! The pet food aisles in our markets are larger than some European stores!
Even worse! ‘Three Dog Bakery’ franchise will prepare a “Feast fit for the Beast” of Lamb Wellington, Kibble, spinach dip & pumpkin pie all for $20! I’m not even going to get into Pet psychiatrists, Massues & chiropractors. Does anyone here think we are pampering our pets too much?
After all that, I have a confession to make. My first wife, Joyce came with a male red cat named “Red”. While living in Malibu he got run over on the Coast Highway, which resulted in his two back legs broken to smithereens. We didn’t have much income at the time but Joyce, who probably would have thought twice before paying for my hospital bill of broken legs, paid hundreds of dollars to her vet to fix up old Red. I have to admit, he faired pretty well during a long convalescent period with his entire hind end wrapped up in a cast with the tail sticking out of it. It wasn’t long before he mastered the art of walking on his front legs, his rear end up in the air. He even was able to hop up on chairs with his balancing act. After he got out of his cast he walked with hardly a limp. Of course, he only lived another couple of years so Joyce really didn’t get her money’s worth.
Monday, November 29, 2010
IMMAGRUNTS
THE REVISED “COLLOSSUS”
It appears time to update Emma Lazarus’s sonnet on the Statue of Liberty as we have
certainly revised our concept about immigration.
Let’s just take the last part of the poem:
....”“Bring, ancient lands, your storied pomp for our Empire” cries she with silent lips
“Give me your fired-up, your super rich, (Keep your fucking poor) your educated
masses yearning to earn more and usurp our scientists, their white collar criminals of
your teeming shore. Send these, the world travelers, luxury laden to me, I lift my lamp
beside the golden door!”
KLEENEX
As the old saw goes; We can land a man on the fucking Moon, but can’t get a box of
Kleenex to give up a sheet of tissue without ripping it all to shreds! Maybe we can give
NASA a contract to see if they can overcome this incredible problem. Now an engineer
would know enough about the tensile stresses in paper to align the fibers in the proper
direction that would give the strongest tissues and not disintegrate when you pull it out
of the box.
FAKE TREES
Why do we Americans have such an antipathy to innovation and science? If we allow
cell phone towers at all (Bodega Bay has no service) we have to disguise them into a
fake tree or something . A tower in itself is just a clean artifact that is pretty innocuous,
but these trees, they must cost a fortune, which of course, we will pay for in our service.
They do not appear to be anything like the nearby trees, they are the wrong color, the
wrong shape, and a totally wrong idea!
We have become the keeper of the flame of fake shit, e.i. every local tourist bus is a
terrible reproduction of a SF cable car, every little tourist train is a crappy little white
replica of a choo choo train. (Although I have to admit, they have the same damn train
in Marsielle).
DICTIONARY
Bourgeoise = Commercial Class, a Capitalist, that’s us, folks!
Bolsheviks = The majority who seized power (Bush II)
Proletarian = Workers of the World, Unite!
THE SACRED DEFENSE (OFFENSE) BUDGET
There are rumblings from the White House that to reduce spending we may even
take a look at our Defense Budget of 700 Billion a year. What? Reduce our hundreds of
bases around the world? Stop building our Posh Palaces of Embassies around the
world? What madness is this? How are we to keep our Empire together if we reduce
the massive spending? What kind of crazy ideas would we use the money for? A health
care system similar to most of the other developed countries? Maybe we could increase
THE WAR ON DRUGS, or THE WAR ON POVERTY! (But never a WAR on WAR!).
But let’s be real, we are so embedded in a Military-Industrial Complex our citizens
would never go for it. Why? Because we have too many citizen workers who make a
good living off military spending. Why are we still building zillion dollar aircraft carriers,
zillion dollar nuclear submarines? How is it that these giant machines help in door to
door guerrilla fighting which is the closest thing we get to fighting these days. I know
why we build super fighter jets, so we can sell them to other countries so everyone can
stay on a war mentality. I believe we don’t count the money it takes to care for our
wounded, amputees for the rest of their lives, which may be 50 years as most wounded
are about 20 years old. Bush didn’t include the costs of his two wars in the budget, at
least Obama includes it. How do we justify we spend nearly 50% of the entire world’s
defense spending? That’s a pretty big stick, isn’t it? And if you believe we can impose
a republican government on a middle eastern country that has been killing each other’s
clans and tribes for thousands of years, you’ve been smoking the good stuff.
BOOK REPORT
I’ve just finished (for the second time) THE SABRES OF PARADISE by L. Blanch. It’s
the story of Shamyl, an incredible warrior and leader of the fight against the Russians
in about 1850 who wanted to wrest the Caucasus from the mountain people. I guess
we never learn as the fight is reminiscent of our current wars in Iraq & Afghanistan. The
Russians had unlimited fighters with all the latest technology (Cannons, guns, etc.)
while the Tchechins had only sabres & old rifles but an indomitable spirit to defend their
towns in nearly inaccessible mountain country. Of course, the biggest help was they
were driven by a fanatic religion called Islam. This incredible war went on for 25 years,
during which hundreds of thousands died on both sides, (some very painfully) including
women and children. This was called collateral damage. Sound familiar?
I also learned the word “Bistro” came from the Russian officers who were in a hurry
when stopping at a small café and hollering “Bistro” which means “hurry!”. This should
get me a free glass of wine from Mathew of Underwood bar & Bistro here in Graton.
It appears time to update Emma Lazarus’s sonnet on the Statue of Liberty as we have
certainly revised our concept about immigration.
Let’s just take the last part of the poem:
....”“Bring, ancient lands, your storied pomp for our Empire” cries she with silent lips
“Give me your fired-up, your super rich, (Keep your fucking poor) your educated
masses yearning to earn more and usurp our scientists, their white collar criminals of
your teeming shore. Send these, the world travelers, luxury laden to me, I lift my lamp
beside the golden door!”
KLEENEX
As the old saw goes; We can land a man on the fucking Moon, but can’t get a box of
Kleenex to give up a sheet of tissue without ripping it all to shreds! Maybe we can give
NASA a contract to see if they can overcome this incredible problem. Now an engineer
would know enough about the tensile stresses in paper to align the fibers in the proper
direction that would give the strongest tissues and not disintegrate when you pull it out
of the box.
FAKE TREES
Why do we Americans have such an antipathy to innovation and science? If we allow
cell phone towers at all (Bodega Bay has no service) we have to disguise them into a
fake tree or something . A tower in itself is just a clean artifact that is pretty innocuous,
but these trees, they must cost a fortune, which of course, we will pay for in our service.
They do not appear to be anything like the nearby trees, they are the wrong color, the
wrong shape, and a totally wrong idea!
We have become the keeper of the flame of fake shit, e.i. every local tourist bus is a
terrible reproduction of a SF cable car, every little tourist train is a crappy little white
replica of a choo choo train. (Although I have to admit, they have the same damn train
in Marsielle).
DICTIONARY
Bourgeoise = Commercial Class, a Capitalist, that’s us, folks!
Bolsheviks = The majority who seized power (Bush II)
Proletarian = Workers of the World, Unite!
THE SACRED DEFENSE (OFFENSE) BUDGET
There are rumblings from the White House that to reduce spending we may even
take a look at our Defense Budget of 700 Billion a year. What? Reduce our hundreds of
bases around the world? Stop building our Posh Palaces of Embassies around the
world? What madness is this? How are we to keep our Empire together if we reduce
the massive spending? What kind of crazy ideas would we use the money for? A health
care system similar to most of the other developed countries? Maybe we could increase
THE WAR ON DRUGS, or THE WAR ON POVERTY! (But never a WAR on WAR!).
But let’s be real, we are so embedded in a Military-Industrial Complex our citizens
would never go for it. Why? Because we have too many citizen workers who make a
good living off military spending. Why are we still building zillion dollar aircraft carriers,
zillion dollar nuclear submarines? How is it that these giant machines help in door to
door guerrilla fighting which is the closest thing we get to fighting these days. I know
why we build super fighter jets, so we can sell them to other countries so everyone can
stay on a war mentality. I believe we don’t count the money it takes to care for our
wounded, amputees for the rest of their lives, which may be 50 years as most wounded
are about 20 years old. Bush didn’t include the costs of his two wars in the budget, at
least Obama includes it. How do we justify we spend nearly 50% of the entire world’s
defense spending? That’s a pretty big stick, isn’t it? And if you believe we can impose
a republican government on a middle eastern country that has been killing each other’s
clans and tribes for thousands of years, you’ve been smoking the good stuff.
BOOK REPORT
I’ve just finished (for the second time) THE SABRES OF PARADISE by L. Blanch. It’s
the story of Shamyl, an incredible warrior and leader of the fight against the Russians
in about 1850 who wanted to wrest the Caucasus from the mountain people. I guess
we never learn as the fight is reminiscent of our current wars in Iraq & Afghanistan. The
Russians had unlimited fighters with all the latest technology (Cannons, guns, etc.)
while the Tchechins had only sabres & old rifles but an indomitable spirit to defend their
towns in nearly inaccessible mountain country. Of course, the biggest help was they
were driven by a fanatic religion called Islam. This incredible war went on for 25 years,
during which hundreds of thousands died on both sides, (some very painfully) including
women and children. This was called collateral damage. Sound familiar?
I also learned the word “Bistro” came from the Russian officers who were in a hurry
when stopping at a small café and hollering “Bistro” which means “hurry!”. This should
get me a free glass of wine from Mathew of Underwood bar & Bistro here in Graton.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME
HOW TO GET MARRIED THE HARD WAY
In 1988, bereft any reason, I made a deal with Joy to get us to Greece if I agreed to marriage. Joy was keeping a pretty tight leash on me and after her divorce we decided for some insane reason to find out how difficult it would be to get married in Greece. Being a fan of Socrates and Plato, I really needed to walk on the same stones they did in the Agora so many thousand years ago. We prepared months ahead before embarking for Greece by visiting the Greek Embassy in San Francisco, filling out several long forms. When we did arrive in Athens for only two weeks, we began a long round of searching out various public buildings, then the American Embassy, waiting in lines, buying small postage like stamps that had a perforated corner that certain officials would tear off and keep. Never did know what that was all about. At one point we had to find the Athens newspaper, place an ad about our impending fiasco, then wait a couple of days to search thru the paper where the want ads and notices all look alike to try and find our notice. They don’t use the same alphabet as it looks similar to Russian, but we finally spotted the name of my father, Harry, kind of written mostly in English. That tipped us off and we cut it out and ran (well, took a bus) back to the official who told us we would have to wait a month as they only marry folks once a month. This was not becoming fun anymore, why didn’t we just go to Tijuana Mexico where we could do the whole thing in an hour? During our panic period (We were scheduled to get to France) we were told by someone that one of the suburban towns might be able to do it. A friend called around and found that the town of Palio Pasihiko would be able to do the deed.
We found the town, a suburb of Athens, where the town hall was in an older mansion. Fortunately a Brit expat worked there as a secretary and she really got excited about the whole affair as she didn’t think they had ever had a wedding there. Bully! However, the Mayor could do it but wouldn’t be back for a week .That would work, as we wanted to stay on the idyllic island of Santorini anyway. We’ll be back in a week.
We trained to Piraeus, the ancient port nearby and caught a huge ferry to the island, checked into the Atlantis Hotel, the largest there. It didn’t take us but a few hours to realize there was an idyllic small Hotel Fira, cascading over the edge of the caldera for the same price. We bailed out of the Atlantis, hired a donkey to carry our bags down to our new fabulous digs. Here we stayed for a week sipping Ouzo, watching the tiny cruise ships a thousand feet straight down in the caldera.
During this time all was not bliss as we had to fill out more papers, where we ran into a couple of snags. Number one, you can’t get married more than three times and there was some concern of how many times I was. This would be my third. The next problem, in this Catholic nation, Joy and I had written Atheist and agnostic under religion. We quickly changed our status and although this would be my third, it was barely OK. Fortunately, we had spent a lot of time in a local cantina and befriended the owner, Papadakulas, who had the hots for Joy,(Shirley Valentine?) whose wife worked in the American Embassy in Athens. She managed to straighten the mess out and by the time we got back to Athens, everything was cool.
The mayor duly wed us, although he spoke no English, with the secretary spouting “Bully!” every few minutes. A short ceremony, I signed the document after Mr. Mayor, and Joy stepped up to the desk to sign but was rebuffed, the mayor looking at her as if she was crazy and informed us the wife does not participate to that extent. Oh well, at least we did the whole thing, Joy will just have to learn to walk ten feet behind me. Time to get out of Dodge as our boat to Brindisi, Italy is due to shove off that evening. We ran to the nearest taxi stand, a couple of blocks, where there stood several Mercedes. However, today was a smog day in Athens and only even numbered taxis were allowed in the city, and all these at this stand were odd numbered. We were frothing at the mouth by the time they found out we were newlyweds, made some calls, and got one to come by and directly pick up our bags at the hotel and drive the hundred kilometers to the port of Patras. It’s really hot in summer Greece and our driver kept falling asleep at the wheel. I had to constantly holler at him, punch him on the arm, to keep him awake long enough to get us to the port.
We arrived just in time to find out that the ship company was on strike . It would be hours before they got that resolved and were admitted to a small, Spartan stateroom with a couple of small bunks. We sailed off into the sunset, stopping at Corfu where Joy tossed her flower tiara onto the waters of the harbor. That was just too romantic!
However, the worst was over, and the happy couple pretty much lived happily ever after, bickering majestically.
In 1988, bereft any reason, I made a deal with Joy to get us to Greece if I agreed to marriage. Joy was keeping a pretty tight leash on me and after her divorce we decided for some insane reason to find out how difficult it would be to get married in Greece. Being a fan of Socrates and Plato, I really needed to walk on the same stones they did in the Agora so many thousand years ago. We prepared months ahead before embarking for Greece by visiting the Greek Embassy in San Francisco, filling out several long forms. When we did arrive in Athens for only two weeks, we began a long round of searching out various public buildings, then the American Embassy, waiting in lines, buying small postage like stamps that had a perforated corner that certain officials would tear off and keep. Never did know what that was all about. At one point we had to find the Athens newspaper, place an ad about our impending fiasco, then wait a couple of days to search thru the paper where the want ads and notices all look alike to try and find our notice. They don’t use the same alphabet as it looks similar to Russian, but we finally spotted the name of my father, Harry, kind of written mostly in English. That tipped us off and we cut it out and ran (well, took a bus) back to the official who told us we would have to wait a month as they only marry folks once a month. This was not becoming fun anymore, why didn’t we just go to Tijuana Mexico where we could do the whole thing in an hour? During our panic period (We were scheduled to get to France) we were told by someone that one of the suburban towns might be able to do it. A friend called around and found that the town of Palio Pasihiko would be able to do the deed.
We found the town, a suburb of Athens, where the town hall was in an older mansion. Fortunately a Brit expat worked there as a secretary and she really got excited about the whole affair as she didn’t think they had ever had a wedding there. Bully! However, the Mayor could do it but wouldn’t be back for a week .That would work, as we wanted to stay on the idyllic island of Santorini anyway. We’ll be back in a week.
We trained to Piraeus, the ancient port nearby and caught a huge ferry to the island, checked into the Atlantis Hotel, the largest there. It didn’t take us but a few hours to realize there was an idyllic small Hotel Fira, cascading over the edge of the caldera for the same price. We bailed out of the Atlantis, hired a donkey to carry our bags down to our new fabulous digs. Here we stayed for a week sipping Ouzo, watching the tiny cruise ships a thousand feet straight down in the caldera.
During this time all was not bliss as we had to fill out more papers, where we ran into a couple of snags. Number one, you can’t get married more than three times and there was some concern of how many times I was. This would be my third. The next problem, in this Catholic nation, Joy and I had written Atheist and agnostic under religion. We quickly changed our status and although this would be my third, it was barely OK. Fortunately, we had spent a lot of time in a local cantina and befriended the owner, Papadakulas, who had the hots for Joy,(Shirley Valentine?) whose wife worked in the American Embassy in Athens. She managed to straighten the mess out and by the time we got back to Athens, everything was cool.
The mayor duly wed us, although he spoke no English, with the secretary spouting “Bully!” every few minutes. A short ceremony, I signed the document after Mr. Mayor, and Joy stepped up to the desk to sign but was rebuffed, the mayor looking at her as if she was crazy and informed us the wife does not participate to that extent. Oh well, at least we did the whole thing, Joy will just have to learn to walk ten feet behind me. Time to get out of Dodge as our boat to Brindisi, Italy is due to shove off that evening. We ran to the nearest taxi stand, a couple of blocks, where there stood several Mercedes. However, today was a smog day in Athens and only even numbered taxis were allowed in the city, and all these at this stand were odd numbered. We were frothing at the mouth by the time they found out we were newlyweds, made some calls, and got one to come by and directly pick up our bags at the hotel and drive the hundred kilometers to the port of Patras. It’s really hot in summer Greece and our driver kept falling asleep at the wheel. I had to constantly holler at him, punch him on the arm, to keep him awake long enough to get us to the port.
We arrived just in time to find out that the ship company was on strike . It would be hours before they got that resolved and were admitted to a small, Spartan stateroom with a couple of small bunks. We sailed off into the sunset, stopping at Corfu where Joy tossed her flower tiara onto the waters of the harbor. That was just too romantic!
However, the worst was over, and the happy couple pretty much lived happily ever after, bickering majestically.
Tuesday, November 02, 2010
WORLD CHUMPS
ALLAH
Einstien believes in -Spinoza’s God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists (laws), not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings.
JUDGE JUDY
I’ve always wondered how she worked. Well, here’s the skinny from my humorous friend Judge Beds. First of all, she is not a judge. Her parties agree to take their case out of the court system & have them heard by Judy. This is all small claims stuff. This is like how a mediation or arbitrations works, except in her case, the show pays all the claims (small claims is what now? $5,000 max.?),. Naturally, there is no shortage of “contestants” as they can’t loose, even if they lose. And I guess there are lots of shows that emulate hers. The California Commission on Judicial Performance gets more complaints about Ms Judy than all the other judges in the state combined, but she’s not under their jurisdiction. She probably makes more money than all of the combined judges also in the state.
HERE’S GOOD NEWS (Belatedly)
The struggle for our minds is not only here in the U.S. The Christians and Muslims are just as active over there.
On October, 2007, the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly approved a resolution recommending that it’s member governments oppose the teaching of creationism as science. The creationist movements possess real political power, especially here in US. The fact of the matter is that some advocates of strict creationsm are out to replace democracy by a theocracy. We must remain vigilant! (God willing?).
BELATED SURPRISE
I was apprenticing with architect DK Taylor during 1958 in Scottsdale, AZ and did work on the drawings of the O’Conner house,( mostly the details). As far as I remember, this was the only project Don was able to get built, except for the concrete deck panels for the Westward Ho Hotel in Scottsdale. Also, I built the model for their house (An earlier version) which FLL Wright saw in the window of Don’s office and commended me on my work, which pretty much stoked me.
This is all pretty trippy as just last week I started reading “CLOSED CHAMBERS” an insider’s view of the workings of the Supreme Court as I wanted to know more about how it Worked and the part Sandra Day O’Conner had in it.
Also thought you’d get a kick out of the house I worked on for Paolo, surrounded with his future. I was paid a dollar an hour from Paolo, then paid it back to Taylor so I could work for him due to some complicated work laws we were doing. Of course, this was the economic model I used for the rest of my career.
I’m interested to know why & how they moved the entire house, adobe blocks and all to another location at the Arizona Historical Society. At the time, I didn’t know Sandra Day O’Conner was the wife of the client, John Jay.
MUSLIM DICTIONARY (From Allah, the beneficient and most merciful)
I’ve learned a couple of new words while reviewing the Koran.
Lapidation Stoning her to death
Imurred House arrest for life.
PALIN?
A politician is one who promises you a bridge, when there is no river.
JUSTICE FROM THE SLUMS OF BOMBAY
Justice is a judgement that is both fair and forgiving. Justice is not done until everyone is satisfied, even those who offend us and must be punished by us. Justice is not only the way we punish those who do wrong. It is also the way we try to save them.
SCULPTOR’S DILEMMA
Have you ever tried to capture the essence of flame in a solid material ? Bertoli did a pretty good job of the flame held in the Statue of Liberty’s torch, a replica which stands in a small square in Paris. (Just the cold leafed flame. I spent endless hours stoned in Big Sur before attempting a 6 foot high concrete flame. It stood in front of Deetjin’s Big Sur Inn for many years.
FOUCAULT’S PENDULUM
Like the one at the SF Academy of Sciences. I observed his original one at the Musee des Arts & Mietiers in Paris a couple of years ago. . He built this in the old Pantheon church dome with a 67 meter wire and a 28 kg bob in 1851. This was the first proof that the earth was round and rotated every 24 hours. I never was able to figure out why this was the proof until today (Eureka!) . All I had to do was Google ”About Foucault’s Pendulum” to find the answer. Essentially, the pendulum ball does not move in a circle but the floor (And the tutelage, ergo, process earth, of course) rotates! in San Francisco, it rotates 220 degrees in 24 hours. At the poles it rotates 360 degrees in 24 hours, while at the equator, there is no rotation. The real trick was at the top where Foucault put a magnetic ring that keeps it going (It switches on & off each swing) to overcome air resistance as it is not in a vacuum .
COOKIN’
Anthony Bourdan, the chef, is promoting the idea that every boy and girl should be taught basic cooking skills in high school. He feels it should be one of our fundamental skills, like crossing the street or being trusted with money. As I’m learning some of these skills late in life, I realize what a wonderful asset that would have been in my life. During my high school days, girls were taught “Home Ec” or how to open cans and stuff. Until it became a glaring illustration of everything wrong with gender politics, and finally rejected. Now, no one cooks. At college, knowing how to cook would be a real method for impressing your classmate to get them in bed. (Foreplay!) And what better way, in the morning, to make a simple, beautiful omelet for her.
Things kids need to know are such basic skills as chopping an onion (Although most of our young Chicanos are pretty proficient at this). Rudimentary knife handling, sharpening,
THE GRATON DECAPITATION SOCIETY
When I discovered my client, Harry, had a plethora of bottles of champagne of questionable pedigree, and simultaneously that my friend Dodson knew how to break into a bottle of champagne, just like the Lieutenants of Napoleon’s Grand Armee, I got a small group together to observe the process. Under the expert tutelage of Bill, each of us wacked off the head of a bottle of old champagne, about half of which were drinkable. From now on, I think I’ll use that method instead of agonizingly trying to extricate the cork, to get at the bubbly.
BIG FROG IN SMALL POND
What do you mean, WORLD CHAMPIONS? Are we Americans so out of touch with reality that we believe our Empire is the world? These left over from high school games, these ball games (Base, Foot, Basket, etc,) are only played here in the US, which is a tiny portion of the America’s and a smaller portion of the world. Your Giants are not World Champs, but merely National Champs as this game is basically not taken seriously anywhere else on the Globe. Now the Soccer World games are exactly that, they have teams from all over the planet, (Actually even a bunch of losers from the US). The winner of those games are truly WORLD CHAMPIONS.
Einstien believes in -Spinoza’s God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists (laws), not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings.
JUDGE JUDY
I’ve always wondered how she worked. Well, here’s the skinny from my humorous friend Judge Beds. First of all, she is not a judge. Her parties agree to take their case out of the court system & have them heard by Judy. This is all small claims stuff. This is like how a mediation or arbitrations works, except in her case, the show pays all the claims (small claims is what now? $5,000 max.?),. Naturally, there is no shortage of “contestants” as they can’t loose, even if they lose. And I guess there are lots of shows that emulate hers. The California Commission on Judicial Performance gets more complaints about Ms Judy than all the other judges in the state combined, but she’s not under their jurisdiction. She probably makes more money than all of the combined judges also in the state.
HERE’S GOOD NEWS (Belatedly)
The struggle for our minds is not only here in the U.S. The Christians and Muslims are just as active over there.
On October, 2007, the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly approved a resolution recommending that it’s member governments oppose the teaching of creationism as science. The creationist movements possess real political power, especially here in US. The fact of the matter is that some advocates of strict creationsm are out to replace democracy by a theocracy. We must remain vigilant! (God willing?).
BELATED SURPRISE
I was apprenticing with architect DK Taylor during 1958 in Scottsdale, AZ and did work on the drawings of the O’Conner house,( mostly the details). As far as I remember, this was the only project Don was able to get built, except for the concrete deck panels for the Westward Ho Hotel in Scottsdale. Also, I built the model for their house (An earlier version) which FLL Wright saw in the window of Don’s office and commended me on my work, which pretty much stoked me.
This is all pretty trippy as just last week I started reading “CLOSED CHAMBERS” an insider’s view of the workings of the Supreme Court as I wanted to know more about how it Worked and the part Sandra Day O’Conner had in it.
Also thought you’d get a kick out of the house I worked on for Paolo, surrounded with his future. I was paid a dollar an hour from Paolo, then paid it back to Taylor so I could work for him due to some complicated work laws we were doing. Of course, this was the economic model I used for the rest of my career.
I’m interested to know why & how they moved the entire house, adobe blocks and all to another location at the Arizona Historical Society. At the time, I didn’t know Sandra Day O’Conner was the wife of the client, John Jay.
MUSLIM DICTIONARY (From Allah, the beneficient and most merciful)
I’ve learned a couple of new words while reviewing the Koran.
Lapidation Stoning her to death
Imurred House arrest for life.
PALIN?
A politician is one who promises you a bridge, when there is no river.
JUSTICE FROM THE SLUMS OF BOMBAY
Justice is a judgement that is both fair and forgiving. Justice is not done until everyone is satisfied, even those who offend us and must be punished by us. Justice is not only the way we punish those who do wrong. It is also the way we try to save them.
SCULPTOR’S DILEMMA
Have you ever tried to capture the essence of flame in a solid material ? Bertoli did a pretty good job of the flame held in the Statue of Liberty’s torch, a replica which stands in a small square in Paris. (Just the cold leafed flame. I spent endless hours stoned in Big Sur before attempting a 6 foot high concrete flame. It stood in front of Deetjin’s Big Sur Inn for many years.
FOUCAULT’S PENDULUM
Like the one at the SF Academy of Sciences. I observed his original one at the Musee des Arts & Mietiers in Paris a couple of years ago. . He built this in the old Pantheon church dome with a 67 meter wire and a 28 kg bob in 1851. This was the first proof that the earth was round and rotated every 24 hours. I never was able to figure out why this was the proof until today (Eureka!) . All I had to do was Google ”About Foucault’s Pendulum” to find the answer. Essentially, the pendulum ball does not move in a circle but the floor (And the tutelage, ergo, process earth, of course) rotates! in San Francisco, it rotates 220 degrees in 24 hours. At the poles it rotates 360 degrees in 24 hours, while at the equator, there is no rotation. The real trick was at the top where Foucault put a magnetic ring that keeps it going (It switches on & off each swing) to overcome air resistance as it is not in a vacuum .
COOKIN’
Anthony Bourdan, the chef, is promoting the idea that every boy and girl should be taught basic cooking skills in high school. He feels it should be one of our fundamental skills, like crossing the street or being trusted with money. As I’m learning some of these skills late in life, I realize what a wonderful asset that would have been in my life. During my high school days, girls were taught “Home Ec” or how to open cans and stuff. Until it became a glaring illustration of everything wrong with gender politics, and finally rejected. Now, no one cooks. At college, knowing how to cook would be a real method for impressing your classmate to get them in bed. (Foreplay!) And what better way, in the morning, to make a simple, beautiful omelet for her.
Things kids need to know are such basic skills as chopping an onion (Although most of our young Chicanos are pretty proficient at this). Rudimentary knife handling, sharpening,
THE GRATON DECAPITATION SOCIETY
When I discovered my client, Harry, had a plethora of bottles of champagne of questionable pedigree, and simultaneously that my friend Dodson knew how to break into a bottle of champagne, just like the Lieutenants of Napoleon’s Grand Armee, I got a small group together to observe the process. Under the expert tutelage of Bill, each of us wacked off the head of a bottle of old champagne, about half of which were drinkable. From now on, I think I’ll use that method instead of agonizingly trying to extricate the cork, to get at the bubbly.
BIG FROG IN SMALL POND
What do you mean, WORLD CHAMPIONS? Are we Americans so out of touch with reality that we believe our Empire is the world? These left over from high school games, these ball games (Base, Foot, Basket, etc,) are only played here in the US, which is a tiny portion of the America’s and a smaller portion of the world. Your Giants are not World Champs, but merely National Champs as this game is basically not taken seriously anywhere else on the Globe. Now the Soccer World games are exactly that, they have teams from all over the planet, (Actually even a bunch of losers from the US). The winner of those games are truly WORLD CHAMPIONS.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
INVENTIONS
INVENTIONS
Architect’s have to be very inventive as so many of the details of a building are unique and basically have to be invented.
I’ve compiled a comprehensive list of inventions that were pretty important way before the year one (Before my time). This kind of stuff is really interesting to me and I don’t know if anyone else is interested, but I do offer a small segment of it to whet your appetite.
CHRONOLOGY OF INVENTIONS by J.L. Langworthy
-1,000,000+ Control of Fire (a biggie)- Europe
-30,000 Axe head - Europe
Maniac squeezer - South America
Boomerang - Australia
Toggle-Joint Harpoon - Eskimo
Axe handle
-8000 Agriculture
Blow-gun
Tobacco Pipe - Sumer
You’ll have to get the rest from me if you want to know what happens next.
WHAT I’VE BEEN UP TO
In between my Blogging I try to keep busy doing architecture. I seem to be able to keep most of it a secret, inadvertently, but it’s time to come out of the Design Closet. The following are some of the work I’ve been doing recently.
PALM SPRINGS RESIDENCE 4,600 SF About $2.500,000
This was a preliminary design for a couple for a lot adjacent to a golf course. The garages for cars and golf cart is set in a driveway court (With a Moroccan color scheme) as it also offers extra parking for guests. A small casita is a separate building for guests. Exterior finish is EIFS over plywood base to fend off stray golf balls. Also large doors and windows off the patios are protected with a sun-screen with adjustable baffles for sun control in the blistering summers. The entry walk bridges a lap pool with a glass floor. Ceiling heights reflect the importance of each area, from 8' to 20'.
DRIFTWOOD RD. SALMON CREEK, Addition & renovations 495 SF+ 246 SF addition $300,000 budget
An old 1970's structure with no real bedroom and only a 5' galley kitchen and minimal bath but in a prime location next to a state park and beach. We added a small bedroom with laundry, inserted a new kitchen in the odd bay and under the existing stairs, also expanding the tiny bash into the old kitchen area. New roofing, insulation, cedar siding inside and out, all new fenestration and mechanical systems, a small gas stove as the only heat, copper gutters, black slate floors throughout except for the bedroom. New septic system.
MIWOK RD.. SALMON CREEK Bodega Bay Addition & renovation 800 SF+ 450 SF addition $280,000
An expanding family living in a 1980's house needs to add bedrooms and baths to accommodate the couple and two young girls. In an area of strict zoning and septic restraints, 480 SF is the maximum allowed addition of conditioned area. We have proposed a new carport (Cantilevered roof) a garage for a boat and small workshop as well as the bedroom & bath additions. As the existing roof is termite infested, we will replace it with an undulating roof that will continue over the new work. Light tan colored rock will emulate the nearby sand dunes at the beach. A new septic system has been installed, and Coastal Commission approval is being sought, which will take about three months.
GRANNY UNIT Graton , Renovation 384 SF $22,000
Legalizing a non-conforming very small studio granny unit. Upgrade this old ‘70's hippy shack to current code required a foundation, new bath & kitchen, interior finishes, new windows & doors.
LYSTER RESIDENCE Laguna Beach, CA 4,700 SF $3,000,000 estimate
A steep angled uphill lot for a couple and their teen age daughter has severe building envelope restrictions but is finally under construction after two and a half years it took to obtain Design Review approval from an anal city review process. Based upon a triangular grid, all exposed framing is cris-crossed on the grid. On four levels, beginning with a four car underground garage, the second level has the entry for walk up from the street plus a studio and guest room above the garage. The third level contains the two bedrooms and a music room, while the fourth level contains the living, dining and kitchen areas, which have a fine view of downtown Main Beach of Laguna. Low pitched roofs are within one inch of the “Building Envelope”. A large percentage of the roof area is planted to conform to strict run-off rules. Exposed steel, re-sawn timbers, glass and rough finished stucco are the main materials. Originally an inclined lift was proposed to get from garage to the kitchen, but had to be abandoned due to too many code restrictions. (I had used inclinators extensively in Laguna). Instead, we had to use two elevators in a stepped mode in order to keep within the height limit imposed on the site.
Architect’s have to be very inventive as so many of the details of a building are unique and basically have to be invented.
I’ve compiled a comprehensive list of inventions that were pretty important way before the year one (Before my time). This kind of stuff is really interesting to me and I don’t know if anyone else is interested, but I do offer a small segment of it to whet your appetite.
CHRONOLOGY OF INVENTIONS by J.L. Langworthy
-1,000,000+ Control of Fire (a biggie)- Europe
-30,000 Axe head - Europe
Maniac squeezer - South America
Boomerang - Australia
Toggle-Joint Harpoon - Eskimo
Axe handle
-8000 Agriculture
Blow-gun
Tobacco Pipe - Sumer
You’ll have to get the rest from me if you want to know what happens next.
WHAT I’VE BEEN UP TO
In between my Blogging I try to keep busy doing architecture. I seem to be able to keep most of it a secret, inadvertently, but it’s time to come out of the Design Closet. The following are some of the work I’ve been doing recently.
PALM SPRINGS RESIDENCE 4,600 SF About $2.500,000
This was a preliminary design for a couple for a lot adjacent to a golf course. The garages for cars and golf cart is set in a driveway court (With a Moroccan color scheme) as it also offers extra parking for guests. A small casita is a separate building for guests. Exterior finish is EIFS over plywood base to fend off stray golf balls. Also large doors and windows off the patios are protected with a sun-screen with adjustable baffles for sun control in the blistering summers. The entry walk bridges a lap pool with a glass floor. Ceiling heights reflect the importance of each area, from 8' to 20'.
DRIFTWOOD RD. SALMON CREEK, Addition & renovations 495 SF+ 246 SF addition $300,000 budget
An old 1970's structure with no real bedroom and only a 5' galley kitchen and minimal bath but in a prime location next to a state park and beach. We added a small bedroom with laundry, inserted a new kitchen in the odd bay and under the existing stairs, also expanding the tiny bash into the old kitchen area. New roofing, insulation, cedar siding inside and out, all new fenestration and mechanical systems, a small gas stove as the only heat, copper gutters, black slate floors throughout except for the bedroom. New septic system.
MIWOK RD.. SALMON CREEK Bodega Bay Addition & renovation 800 SF+ 450 SF addition $280,000
An expanding family living in a 1980's house needs to add bedrooms and baths to accommodate the couple and two young girls. In an area of strict zoning and septic restraints, 480 SF is the maximum allowed addition of conditioned area. We have proposed a new carport (Cantilevered roof) a garage for a boat and small workshop as well as the bedroom & bath additions. As the existing roof is termite infested, we will replace it with an undulating roof that will continue over the new work. Light tan colored rock will emulate the nearby sand dunes at the beach. A new septic system has been installed, and Coastal Commission approval is being sought, which will take about three months.
GRANNY UNIT Graton , Renovation 384 SF $22,000
Legalizing a non-conforming very small studio granny unit. Upgrade this old ‘70's hippy shack to current code required a foundation, new bath & kitchen, interior finishes, new windows & doors.
LYSTER RESIDENCE Laguna Beach, CA 4,700 SF $3,000,000 estimate
A steep angled uphill lot for a couple and their teen age daughter has severe building envelope restrictions but is finally under construction after two and a half years it took to obtain Design Review approval from an anal city review process. Based upon a triangular grid, all exposed framing is cris-crossed on the grid. On four levels, beginning with a four car underground garage, the second level has the entry for walk up from the street plus a studio and guest room above the garage. The third level contains the two bedrooms and a music room, while the fourth level contains the living, dining and kitchen areas, which have a fine view of downtown Main Beach of Laguna. Low pitched roofs are within one inch of the “Building Envelope”. A large percentage of the roof area is planted to conform to strict run-off rules. Exposed steel, re-sawn timbers, glass and rough finished stucco are the main materials. Originally an inclined lift was proposed to get from garage to the kitchen, but had to be abandoned due to too many code restrictions. (I had used inclinators extensively in Laguna). Instead, we had to use two elevators in a stepped mode in order to keep within the height limit imposed on the site.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
ZERO TOLERANCE
ZERO TOLERANCE & the Secret War
The concept of zero tolerance seems to be a result of writing laws that cannot predict all the ramifications of a particular area. Take for instance, HC accessability, an area where I am an unwilling participant, as most architects and builders are.
I am always amazed when I see taxpayer’s money (mine) squandered mostly due to a few greedy people (parasites) feeding on our fear of being sued due to some minor infractions of handicap accessability issues.
But, there is always someone to interpret our poorly written laws to line their pockets, and unfortunately they have the backing of the Department of Justice of the United States. Try fighting that battle.
The thing that really bugs me is all this stuff seems to be secret. What do they want other than money? We all want to conform to the ADA laws, but not to do unreasonable, expensive and unnecessary work due to ambiguous laws. Is it true that the state has recently adopted new HC laws that will result in the Justice Dept. Will lean on the Dept. Of Transportation who will lean on the county public works, etc...to build a $40,000 parking space in Graton when in reality, there was only a few inches out of conformance (Might as well be 20 feet). All the sidewalk ramps in the state (or all 52 states) are to be replaced due to a small redesign? I realize our government does not understand or care about such mundane concepts as “Cost benefit ratios” which means that the costs of something should be related to the benefits derived , not so open ended that the results will cost untold, yes, un-calculated, not even considered, millions and billions. Meanwhile, our roads are falling apart and we can’t afford to repair them.
I’ve already watched, as you have, cities jack hammer up lots of curb ramps to replace those that are not in conformance with the new regulations. And probably, will have to torn up in the near future, to conform to some ever changing guidelines. It is a pretty blatant how some lobbyists working for the folks who make the yellow knobby pads that are now required on all intersections got to our lawmakers to change the handicap laws so they had to use the pads. This means tearing up all the old curb ramps and replacing them with new ones.
How much does it really cost to replace each ramp? City engineers won’t tell me but I’m hearing about $5,000 per ramp. Who pays for all this? We do! Does anyone care? Am I the only one?
PEDESTRIANS
So many young people are getting hurt and killed in crosswalks, I began to wonder why. But then, I began to observe how youths go about crossing a street. I’ve been surprised how some get into a crosswalk and feel as if they’d entered a force shield as they totally ignore the machines around them. They are so complacent they believe no vehicle can penetrate the sacred zone where they tread. Allow me to offer a suggestion. Send all teenagers to Rome for a week, let them walk around the city and if they survive the no holds barred traffic streams in the crazy Italian method, then upon their return you can bet they will look upon any vehicle in sight to be a potential threat to their very life and limb to maybe pay a little more attention and to drivers who are paying even less attention.
COPING IN HARD TIMES
Please revisit my recipe for Depression Dinner in my Blog “Misery Revisited”.
Meanwhile, I’ll pass on a few more tips on how to survive this second depression (for me anyway).
1. I like a glass of Port after dinner like the next gentleman, but the good Spanish stuff is over $20 a bottle and my favorite Australian Tawny Ports are over $12 a bottle. Biting the bullet, I buy a local Fairbanks Port (from Modesto) in a 1.5 litre bottle for $7. I decant this into a saved good empty bottle of Morgado Porto or Presidential Porto, as it is easier to pour out of a small .75 litre bottle. Then I don’t think any more of it and pour myself a small glass of my “vintage” port (and for my guests).
2. Keeping my office expenses down is a big part of my life since I virtually have no work during these hard times. With two printers, one fax, a big copier and a large plotter, ink cartridges are a big expense. Fortunately, my local Ace Hardware store and our local Whole Food Market are able to supply me with refilled cartridges for one third to one half the price of a new one. You have to plan a head a little as it may take a few days to get you ink jets back.
3. Lunch - In the good old days (About two years ago) I used to get out to the local cafe, (Underwood Bistro) and have a wonderful salad with a couple of glasses of wine almost every day. I even had a tab there! Well, those halcyon days are long gone and I’ve managed to come up with an alternate solution to the problem. The inspiration was when one of my artist tenants, Becker, gave me a case of really good wine, mostly Pinot Noir. I would tell a friend that if he brought over a couple of sandwiches, I would have a couple of fabulous wines for us (Fabulous in my book means $40/bottle). When the wine gave out I changed my tactics to ask them to bring over a bottle of red and I would have a fabulous sandwich for us. This system is working smoothly and sometimes I add a quick visit to France or Italy via my snapshot of architectural wonders on a big screen during our repast, since we can’t get to Europe right now..
ROADSIDE MEMORIALS
A recent invention, leaving plastic flowers, balloons, and other trash where someone has been killed. Who is supposed to clean up all this shit? Similar to “Outpouring of grief” for celebrities whom one had never met of known the person. A prime example was Di’s over reacting was the humongous pile of rotting flowers and debris left by all the “grieving” citizens. Her only accomplishment was divorcing Charlie (Good move) and shacking up with an Arab zillionaire (Good move #2).
WAITERS - who say “No problem”. Does that mean they anticipate one as a usual event? There better not be a problem. Also waiters who have to tell me their names. Yeah, well, I’m Lamont and I’ll be you very small tipper if you keep up this buddy bullshit!
WINE TANK IMPLOSION!
Pictured is a 40,000 gal wine tank that recently was crushed by that unknown force, vacuum in our neighborhood. Seems a tanker truck got too close and scraped off the valve and access port. As all the wine gushed out it created a vacuum so strong it crushed the stainless steel tank like a dixie cup. About three million for the wine and several thousand for the tank. Winemakers have to be careful even when transferring wine out of the tanks as they have to remember to open a vent valve on top to alleviate any vacuum. This actually does happen occasionally. Workers were able to contain the wine and keep it from getting into a nearby creek and get all the fish drunk. That’s one thing I like about living in this area, when I see a tanker truck drive by, it more than likely will be full of wine instead of gasoline
MERCHANT OF DEATH CAPTURED!
Back in June I noted Viktor Bout was the “Merchant of Death” and was selling weapons in competition with the US (We are the world’s largest purveyor). I read this morning he has been captured and the US wants to extradite him for trial here. This could get interesting as he was transporting equipment for the United States in Afghanistan as well as buying fuel from our armed forces for his old Russian planes so he could supply the Taliban. Oh, what a tangled web we weave.
U.S. SUPER BASES
More post-war help for the Iraqis due to the massive post-war building program we have ongoing in Irag. Take for instance, the new US Iraq Embassy - 21 buildings, 104 Acres - Bigger than Vatican, and of course, the cost is kind of secret but probably in the billions. This whole thing is supposed to be secret, but things leak out. Like it’s the largest in the world,, One billion and only 1/3 complete - For staff of 8,000 workers!
ALSO!
We are building Four Super bases in Iraq - $230 mill. Each for 55,000 soldiers
Biggest base = 15 square miles “Country Club” status, with pools, golf links, movie theaters, etc.
SERIOUS THOUGHT
One has to have a soul in order to suffer in Hell, Purgatory, or be happy in Heaven.
So at some point in our evolution we invented our “soul” in order to be threatened with one or the other. (Oh, no!, Don’t let me go to Heaven!).
If we knew where we came from before we were born, we would know where we were going when we die in the afterlife. I mean before crawling out of mom.
Inequalities of life - All men (women, too) are not created equal as we are led to believe. We may be sort of equal under the law, but that’s about it. Some are born slaves, idiots, genius, prodigies. Some with monumental talent, some just morons and vegetables. Some are lawyers or polititions. Some cultures threw them back (like the AmerIndians).
If animals don’t have a “soul”, when did man get one as he evolved from the chimpanzee?
Soul - The essence (not material) of a being that continues after one ’s body dies. From low to high? Stone to man? Anything higher than Man? To re-incarnate?
RELIGION DICTIONARY
Since most of the world’s wars are religion based, we should keep up on our daffynitions.
Omnipresent - Present in all places at all times
Omniscient - Infinite awareness, understanding
Omnipotent - Unlimited influence,
Ecumenical - World wide influence, Christian unity
Theist - Believes in a God.
Deist- Advocates natural religion based on human reason rather than revelation.
Atheist - Denies the existence of a supreme being.
Agnostic - A person who does not deny the possible existence of a God but holds that his existence and the origin of the universe are not known and probably cannot be known.
Gentile - A non-Jew or non-Mormon
Circumcision - From Egyptian tombs, Jews came from Egypt, ergo, brought it to the lucky Arabs and the rest of the world. 30% of all males got it. (Not me!). This was an obvious method to keep Jewish girls to know if they were having sex with a Jewish boy. (Until the Catholic boys started getting cut also). This is so cruel, how about just tattooing a symbol on our dicks?
Soul - The spiritual part of man believed to give life to his body and in many religions regarded as immortal.
MISCELLANEOUS
Miracles - Blind to see, Talking snakes, Garden of Eden, Dead to life, virgin birth,
Most are taken from previous myths of older and out of style Gods.
DOUBLE SPEAK
Prison - Correctional Facility
Prison Hospital - Correctional Facility Hospital
Dump - Refuse Disposal Site
Sebastopol Police Services - Police
Patriot’s Act - Orwell couldn’t have done better
Freedom Tower’s - Let Freedom Ring! We are so frustrated because we weren’t attacked by a country, just some freaky religionist fundamentalists. But we found a couple of countries that needed to be destroyed, nevertheless. (And the had Oil!).
POLITICAL DICTIONARY
Republic - Representative Democracy, as opposed to Direct Democracy.
Republic - Head of State (President, Prime Minister) appointed by elections.
Constitutional Law put limits on power (Sometimes).
Problem of corruption (Always).
Hegemony - Dominance over another
GOALS FOR TOTAL WORLD CONTROL (This’ll be for your own good). The following groups make it pretty evident what their ultimate goal is:
Communism
Islam
Christianity
Atheism (My choice!, but I’m not going to kill anyone over it.)
POST WWII Most countries needed small, cheap cars, here are some that appeared.
Japan - Subaru 360 (Copied Fiat)
East Germany(Russia) - Trabant (A piece of shit)
Germany - VW bug (It’ll never sell in US)
France - Citroen 2CV (My choice!)
Italy - Fiat 500 (Joy’s dream car)
US - Cadillac (We don’t need no steenking small cars)
EARTH LIFE
Planet Earth has only about 5.43 billion years left. About 10,000 years until next Ice Age.
The concept of zero tolerance seems to be a result of writing laws that cannot predict all the ramifications of a particular area. Take for instance, HC accessability, an area where I am an unwilling participant, as most architects and builders are.
I am always amazed when I see taxpayer’s money (mine) squandered mostly due to a few greedy people (parasites) feeding on our fear of being sued due to some minor infractions of handicap accessability issues.
But, there is always someone to interpret our poorly written laws to line their pockets, and unfortunately they have the backing of the Department of Justice of the United States. Try fighting that battle.
The thing that really bugs me is all this stuff seems to be secret. What do they want other than money? We all want to conform to the ADA laws, but not to do unreasonable, expensive and unnecessary work due to ambiguous laws. Is it true that the state has recently adopted new HC laws that will result in the Justice Dept. Will lean on the Dept. Of Transportation who will lean on the county public works, etc...to build a $40,000 parking space in Graton when in reality, there was only a few inches out of conformance (Might as well be 20 feet). All the sidewalk ramps in the state (or all 52 states) are to be replaced due to a small redesign? I realize our government does not understand or care about such mundane concepts as “Cost benefit ratios” which means that the costs of something should be related to the benefits derived , not so open ended that the results will cost untold, yes, un-calculated, not even considered, millions and billions. Meanwhile, our roads are falling apart and we can’t afford to repair them.
I’ve already watched, as you have, cities jack hammer up lots of curb ramps to replace those that are not in conformance with the new regulations. And probably, will have to torn up in the near future, to conform to some ever changing guidelines. It is a pretty blatant how some lobbyists working for the folks who make the yellow knobby pads that are now required on all intersections got to our lawmakers to change the handicap laws so they had to use the pads. This means tearing up all the old curb ramps and replacing them with new ones.
How much does it really cost to replace each ramp? City engineers won’t tell me but I’m hearing about $5,000 per ramp. Who pays for all this? We do! Does anyone care? Am I the only one?
PEDESTRIANS
So many young people are getting hurt and killed in crosswalks, I began to wonder why. But then, I began to observe how youths go about crossing a street. I’ve been surprised how some get into a crosswalk and feel as if they’d entered a force shield as they totally ignore the machines around them. They are so complacent they believe no vehicle can penetrate the sacred zone where they tread. Allow me to offer a suggestion. Send all teenagers to Rome for a week, let them walk around the city and if they survive the no holds barred traffic streams in the crazy Italian method, then upon their return you can bet they will look upon any vehicle in sight to be a potential threat to their very life and limb to maybe pay a little more attention and to drivers who are paying even less attention.
COPING IN HARD TIMES
Please revisit my recipe for Depression Dinner in my Blog “Misery Revisited”.
Meanwhile, I’ll pass on a few more tips on how to survive this second depression (for me anyway).
1. I like a glass of Port after dinner like the next gentleman, but the good Spanish stuff is over $20 a bottle and my favorite Australian Tawny Ports are over $12 a bottle. Biting the bullet, I buy a local Fairbanks Port (from Modesto) in a 1.5 litre bottle for $7. I decant this into a saved good empty bottle of Morgado Porto or Presidential Porto, as it is easier to pour out of a small .75 litre bottle. Then I don’t think any more of it and pour myself a small glass of my “vintage” port (and for my guests).
2. Keeping my office expenses down is a big part of my life since I virtually have no work during these hard times. With two printers, one fax, a big copier and a large plotter, ink cartridges are a big expense. Fortunately, my local Ace Hardware store and our local Whole Food Market are able to supply me with refilled cartridges for one third to one half the price of a new one. You have to plan a head a little as it may take a few days to get you ink jets back.
3. Lunch - In the good old days (About two years ago) I used to get out to the local cafe, (Underwood Bistro) and have a wonderful salad with a couple of glasses of wine almost every day. I even had a tab there! Well, those halcyon days are long gone and I’ve managed to come up with an alternate solution to the problem. The inspiration was when one of my artist tenants, Becker, gave me a case of really good wine, mostly Pinot Noir. I would tell a friend that if he brought over a couple of sandwiches, I would have a couple of fabulous wines for us (Fabulous in my book means $40/bottle). When the wine gave out I changed my tactics to ask them to bring over a bottle of red and I would have a fabulous sandwich for us. This system is working smoothly and sometimes I add a quick visit to France or Italy via my snapshot of architectural wonders on a big screen during our repast, since we can’t get to Europe right now..
ROADSIDE MEMORIALS
A recent invention, leaving plastic flowers, balloons, and other trash where someone has been killed. Who is supposed to clean up all this shit? Similar to “Outpouring of grief” for celebrities whom one had never met of known the person. A prime example was Di’s over reacting was the humongous pile of rotting flowers and debris left by all the “grieving” citizens. Her only accomplishment was divorcing Charlie (Good move) and shacking up with an Arab zillionaire (Good move #2).
WAITERS - who say “No problem”. Does that mean they anticipate one as a usual event? There better not be a problem. Also waiters who have to tell me their names. Yeah, well, I’m Lamont and I’ll be you very small tipper if you keep up this buddy bullshit!
WINE TANK IMPLOSION!
Pictured is a 40,000 gal wine tank that recently was crushed by that unknown force, vacuum in our neighborhood. Seems a tanker truck got too close and scraped off the valve and access port. As all the wine gushed out it created a vacuum so strong it crushed the stainless steel tank like a dixie cup. About three million for the wine and several thousand for the tank. Winemakers have to be careful even when transferring wine out of the tanks as they have to remember to open a vent valve on top to alleviate any vacuum. This actually does happen occasionally. Workers were able to contain the wine and keep it from getting into a nearby creek and get all the fish drunk. That’s one thing I like about living in this area, when I see a tanker truck drive by, it more than likely will be full of wine instead of gasoline
MERCHANT OF DEATH CAPTURED!
Back in June I noted Viktor Bout was the “Merchant of Death” and was selling weapons in competition with the US (We are the world’s largest purveyor). I read this morning he has been captured and the US wants to extradite him for trial here. This could get interesting as he was transporting equipment for the United States in Afghanistan as well as buying fuel from our armed forces for his old Russian planes so he could supply the Taliban. Oh, what a tangled web we weave.
U.S. SUPER BASES
More post-war help for the Iraqis due to the massive post-war building program we have ongoing in Irag. Take for instance, the new US Iraq Embassy - 21 buildings, 104 Acres - Bigger than Vatican, and of course, the cost is kind of secret but probably in the billions. This whole thing is supposed to be secret, but things leak out. Like it’s the largest in the world,, One billion and only 1/3 complete - For staff of 8,000 workers!
ALSO!
We are building Four Super bases in Iraq - $230 mill. Each for 55,000 soldiers
Biggest base = 15 square miles “Country Club” status, with pools, golf links, movie theaters, etc.
SERIOUS THOUGHT
One has to have a soul in order to suffer in Hell, Purgatory, or be happy in Heaven.
So at some point in our evolution we invented our “soul” in order to be threatened with one or the other. (Oh, no!, Don’t let me go to Heaven!).
If we knew where we came from before we were born, we would know where we were going when we die in the afterlife. I mean before crawling out of mom.
Inequalities of life - All men (women, too) are not created equal as we are led to believe. We may be sort of equal under the law, but that’s about it. Some are born slaves, idiots, genius, prodigies. Some with monumental talent, some just morons and vegetables. Some are lawyers or polititions. Some cultures threw them back (like the AmerIndians).
If animals don’t have a “soul”, when did man get one as he evolved from the chimpanzee?
Soul - The essence (not material) of a being that continues after one ’s body dies. From low to high? Stone to man? Anything higher than Man? To re-incarnate?
RELIGION DICTIONARY
Since most of the world’s wars are religion based, we should keep up on our daffynitions.
Omnipresent - Present in all places at all times
Omniscient - Infinite awareness, understanding
Omnipotent - Unlimited influence,
Ecumenical - World wide influence, Christian unity
Theist - Believes in a God.
Deist- Advocates natural religion based on human reason rather than revelation.
Atheist - Denies the existence of a supreme being.
Agnostic - A person who does not deny the possible existence of a God but holds that his existence and the origin of the universe are not known and probably cannot be known.
Gentile - A non-Jew or non-Mormon
Circumcision - From Egyptian tombs, Jews came from Egypt, ergo, brought it to the lucky Arabs and the rest of the world. 30% of all males got it. (Not me!). This was an obvious method to keep Jewish girls to know if they were having sex with a Jewish boy. (Until the Catholic boys started getting cut also). This is so cruel, how about just tattooing a symbol on our dicks?
Soul - The spiritual part of man believed to give life to his body and in many religions regarded as immortal.
MISCELLANEOUS
Miracles - Blind to see, Talking snakes, Garden of Eden, Dead to life, virgin birth,
Most are taken from previous myths of older and out of style Gods.
DOUBLE SPEAK
Prison - Correctional Facility
Prison Hospital - Correctional Facility Hospital
Dump - Refuse Disposal Site
Sebastopol Police Services - Police
Patriot’s Act - Orwell couldn’t have done better
Freedom Tower’s - Let Freedom Ring! We are so frustrated because we weren’t attacked by a country, just some freaky religionist fundamentalists. But we found a couple of countries that needed to be destroyed, nevertheless. (And the had Oil!).
POLITICAL DICTIONARY
Republic - Representative Democracy, as opposed to Direct Democracy.
Republic - Head of State (President, Prime Minister) appointed by elections.
Constitutional Law put limits on power (Sometimes).
Problem of corruption (Always).
Hegemony - Dominance over another
GOALS FOR TOTAL WORLD CONTROL (This’ll be for your own good). The following groups make it pretty evident what their ultimate goal is:
Communism
Islam
Christianity
Atheism (My choice!, but I’m not going to kill anyone over it.)
POST WWII Most countries needed small, cheap cars, here are some that appeared.
Japan - Subaru 360 (Copied Fiat)
East Germany(Russia) - Trabant (A piece of shit)
Germany - VW bug (It’ll never sell in US)
France - Citroen 2CV (My choice!)
Italy - Fiat 500 (Joy’s dream car)
US - Cadillac (We don’t need no steenking small cars)
EARTH LIFE
Planet Earth has only about 5.43 billion years left. About 10,000 years until next Ice Age.
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