Getting away from the sucky political state.....
In my lowly opinion the greatest choral music in the history of Music are as follows, running from the 14th century to the 20th century:
14th Century: The Mass d'Notre Dame by Guilliam d'Machaut
The Deller Consort does a great job with this Ars Nova masterpiece. Arguably the most spectacular of the surviving polyphonic works from the era, this Mass is an anomolly since Machaut is mostly known for his secular songs.
17th Century: The Te Deum by Marc Antoine Charpentier
This is the best example of the absolute melding of worldly power and faith. It is of an age when both kings and popes were almost charicaturishly silly. However if you can get passed the martial aspects of the music it is a pretty powerful work.
18th Century: The Messaih by G.F. Handel
What can be said other than it kicks ass, in a spiritual sense. Christopher Hogwood and the Academy of Ancient Music is the best at this music.
19th Century: The 9th Symphony by Mr. Beethoven
Moving and marvelous.
20th Century: The Carmina Burana by Carl Orff
Okay so this is owes a lot to the orginal manuscript of that name that dates to the 12th century but hey it is a 20th century work. Over used in movies and ripped off as much as any great work of music ever has.
Those are nice places to start. Each gives you a different experience and each takes some getting used to. For me the one that is the most removed from everyday listening is the Mass d'Notre Dame, its isorythms and early polyphonic voices make it pretty alien. Particularly if you are used to listening to Andrew Loyyd Weber or Gilbert and Sullivan. Come to think of it G&S have many good choruses too. The above works are heavy duty, but if dutifully listened to can expand ones appreciation for the marvelous nature of combined human voices and the amazing brains behind the arrangment of those voices in combination with musical instruments.
Friday, September 30, 2005
Daddy what is a fascist part II (Reality Bites)
exerpt from the now infamous White House interview "Without a Doubt"
RON SUSKIND
"The aide said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. "That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."
That was the end of the exerpt. To me this sounded like an Americanized nazi propganda. So I googled Joseph Goebbels. Who happened to be the minister for propaganda for the wonderful bunch of guys and gals of the Nazi Party. It took about 20 minutes reading through addressed and speeches until I came accrossthis little gem.
Joseph Goebbels (New Years 1939)
"This ability to believe is rather weak in some circles, above all in those with money and education. They may trust more in pure cold reason than a glowing idealistic heart. Our so-called intellectuals do not like to hear this, but it is true anyway. They know so much that in the end they do not know what to do with their wisdom. They can see the past, but not much of the present, and nothing at all of the future. Their imagination is insufficient to deal with a distant goal in a way such that one already thinks it achieved.
They were also unable to believe in the victory of National Socialism while the National Socialist movement was still fighting for power. They are as little able today to believe in the greatness of our national German future. They perceive only what they can see, but not what is happening, and what will happen."
The source: Die Zeit ohne Beispiel (Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP, 1941), a collection of Goebbels' speeches and writings from January 1939 to September 1941.
People should be affraid of people like that White House aid or Goebbels getting anywhere near the reigns of power. It is all to easy for people with latent or overt messianic tendancies to use that power based on "gut" or "faith" or "their harts", to achieve their ends without passing those disicions through the crucible of reason and analysis.
I have said it once and I will say it again, audacity without skill is mere wreaklessness. The kind of leadership that has proven successful, is that kind that can peacefully translate power from its hands to others. The current bunch in the White House and Congress, are poor leaders and will suffer the lot of poor leaders. Their candle will burn brightly for a time and then be violently extinguished. The problem with the futures laid out by people like Goebbels, Rove, or DeLay is that the horrible nature of their ends tend to travel out from them like ripples in a pond to swamp others who are unlucky enough to be living on the streets above the bunker.
I will conclude this blog with another happy (scary bit) of Goebbels talking about how Bush...er....Hitler is working with God to get the job done.
Joseph Goebbles 1938
"Bringing a miracle that was no miracle, only the result of tireless work blessed by the hand of the Almighty.
Perhaps it is also a religious act to put his whole life in the service of his people, and to work and act for the happiness of people. It is a religion without empty phrases and dogma, which nonetheless springs from the deepest depths of our soul. That is how our people understands it. We Germans are today perhaps more faithful and pious than others who, though they never tire of praising God with their lips, have hearts that are cold and empty.
It is therefore no empty phrase when all of us in our great Reich join with those beyond its borders, across seas and continents, in asking the Almighty to grant the Führer long years of health, strength, and a blessed hand. That is the deepest and holiest wish of all the children of our ethnic group and of our blood. May the ether bring through my voice this national prayer of a people to the furthest corner of the earth where Germans dwell, live, and breathe. It is a deep prayer, full of hope, faith, and national pride."
The source: Joseph Goebbels, "'Es gibt Männer, die man achtet, bewundert und verehrt — den Führer aber lieben wir.' Die Rundfunkrede des Reichsministers Dr. Goebbels am Vorabend des Geburtstages des Führers," Völkischer Beobachter, 21 April 1938
RON SUSKIND
"The aide said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. "That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."
That was the end of the exerpt. To me this sounded like an Americanized nazi propganda. So I googled Joseph Goebbels. Who happened to be the minister for propaganda for the wonderful bunch of guys and gals of the Nazi Party. It took about 20 minutes reading through addressed and speeches until I came accrossthis little gem.
Joseph Goebbels (New Years 1939)
"This ability to believe is rather weak in some circles, above all in those with money and education. They may trust more in pure cold reason than a glowing idealistic heart. Our so-called intellectuals do not like to hear this, but it is true anyway. They know so much that in the end they do not know what to do with their wisdom. They can see the past, but not much of the present, and nothing at all of the future. Their imagination is insufficient to deal with a distant goal in a way such that one already thinks it achieved.
They were also unable to believe in the victory of National Socialism while the National Socialist movement was still fighting for power. They are as little able today to believe in the greatness of our national German future. They perceive only what they can see, but not what is happening, and what will happen."
The source: Die Zeit ohne Beispiel (Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP, 1941), a collection of Goebbels' speeches and writings from January 1939 to September 1941.
People should be affraid of people like that White House aid or Goebbels getting anywhere near the reigns of power. It is all to easy for people with latent or overt messianic tendancies to use that power based on "gut" or "faith" or "their harts", to achieve their ends without passing those disicions through the crucible of reason and analysis.
I have said it once and I will say it again, audacity without skill is mere wreaklessness. The kind of leadership that has proven successful, is that kind that can peacefully translate power from its hands to others. The current bunch in the White House and Congress, are poor leaders and will suffer the lot of poor leaders. Their candle will burn brightly for a time and then be violently extinguished. The problem with the futures laid out by people like Goebbels, Rove, or DeLay is that the horrible nature of their ends tend to travel out from them like ripples in a pond to swamp others who are unlucky enough to be living on the streets above the bunker.
I will conclude this blog with another happy (scary bit) of Goebbels talking about how Bush...er....Hitler is working with God to get the job done.
Joseph Goebbles 1938
"Bringing a miracle that was no miracle, only the result of tireless work blessed by the hand of the Almighty.
Perhaps it is also a religious act to put his whole life in the service of his people, and to work and act for the happiness of people. It is a religion without empty phrases and dogma, which nonetheless springs from the deepest depths of our soul. That is how our people understands it. We Germans are today perhaps more faithful and pious than others who, though they never tire of praising God with their lips, have hearts that are cold and empty.
It is therefore no empty phrase when all of us in our great Reich join with those beyond its borders, across seas and continents, in asking the Almighty to grant the Führer long years of health, strength, and a blessed hand. That is the deepest and holiest wish of all the children of our ethnic group and of our blood. May the ether bring through my voice this national prayer of a people to the furthest corner of the earth where Germans dwell, live, and breathe. It is a deep prayer, full of hope, faith, and national pride."
The source: Joseph Goebbels, "'Es gibt Männer, die man achtet, bewundert und verehrt — den Führer aber lieben wir.' Die Rundfunkrede des Reichsministers Dr. Goebbels am Vorabend des Geburtstages des Führers," Völkischer Beobachter, 21 April 1938
Monday, September 26, 2005
How many bodies does a war crime make?
I seldom agree whole hartedly, or even half hartedly, with Air America's "The Majority Report" I think that are a bunch of simple minded political hacks most of the time. However Sam Seeder was right on the money chewing out one neo-con who called up.
The man called up to say that he had read that only about 8,000 Iraqi civilians had been killed by US bombs and errant bullets. He said that clearly the 100,000+ figures were cooked.
Sam, to his credit and my admiration, spoke up quite elequently that even if only 8,000 civilians had been wrongly killed that was god awful enough. 8,000 people get killed not because they hated America, or were terrorists, or were in league with Sadam, but only because they happened to be in our way.
After the exchange, where the neo-con equated 8,000 dead people as being "not relavent". I did a little fact checking.
According to DOD, American Red Cross, and a host of others here is the low down. In getting Sadam out and us in, our actions resulted in the deaths of a recorded 7,340 civilian deaths. That was up until around June of 2003. Currently the Iraqi government itself says that around 30,000 civilians have lost their lives, most of that number died, not from insurgent attacks alone, but from getting caught in the crossfire between insurgents and US and Iraqi armed forces. These people would have all been alive if we did not feel it necessary to invade Iraq.
Maybe the terrorits that killed 2,900 civilians on 9/11 thought them "not relavent". What are the lives of a measily 2900 civilians, or 8000 civilians, or 29,000 compared to the struggle to rid the world of the "evil doers"?
The man called up to say that he had read that only about 8,000 Iraqi civilians had been killed by US bombs and errant bullets. He said that clearly the 100,000+ figures were cooked.
Sam, to his credit and my admiration, spoke up quite elequently that even if only 8,000 civilians had been wrongly killed that was god awful enough. 8,000 people get killed not because they hated America, or were terrorists, or were in league with Sadam, but only because they happened to be in our way.
After the exchange, where the neo-con equated 8,000 dead people as being "not relavent". I did a little fact checking.
According to DOD, American Red Cross, and a host of others here is the low down. In getting Sadam out and us in, our actions resulted in the deaths of a recorded 7,340 civilian deaths. That was up until around June of 2003. Currently the Iraqi government itself says that around 30,000 civilians have lost their lives, most of that number died, not from insurgent attacks alone, but from getting caught in the crossfire between insurgents and US and Iraqi armed forces. These people would have all been alive if we did not feel it necessary to invade Iraq.
Maybe the terrorits that killed 2,900 civilians on 9/11 thought them "not relavent". What are the lives of a measily 2900 civilians, or 8000 civilians, or 29,000 compared to the struggle to rid the world of the "evil doers"?
Friday, September 23, 2005
No good choice...political...moral or otherwise
I think I blathered on in an earlier post about windows of opportunity openning and closing in Iraq. Well they are all pretty much shut now. And we are left with no real way to end this mess. As if it were even within our power to end it. I am not just talking about occupation but the war itself. It won't simply stop if we leave. Some insurgents will raise their rifles high in triumph but it will be a short pause in an ongoing operation to break Iraq apart. It won't stop if we stay either. So what do we do?
The Pottery Barn analogy is more and more real. Our action has brought this mess about. If we just up and left it would not really make us less thought of in Arab nations. They already dislike us. It would be a devastating indictment of the US Administration and probably result in the downfall of Bush and perhaps another impeachment here.
The worthless prosecutors of this worthless war are too cowardly to actually take it on th chin for this big mess. They will side step it and let another President try to dig us out of it. So get ready for more fine Americans to get blown up and resign yourself to more poor Iraqi's who get not to live to see peace in their nation.
Bush is right in one way. We do owe the Iraqi's a better future, we certainly have gone out of our way to make their present miserable. We also owe the army we sent their a better future too. "Pray for me mom, so I don't end up hating these people." those are the words from a letter sent to the mother of one serviceman I know.
The Pottery Barn analogy is more and more real. Our action has brought this mess about. If we just up and left it would not really make us less thought of in Arab nations. They already dislike us. It would be a devastating indictment of the US Administration and probably result in the downfall of Bush and perhaps another impeachment here.
The worthless prosecutors of this worthless war are too cowardly to actually take it on th chin for this big mess. They will side step it and let another President try to dig us out of it. So get ready for more fine Americans to get blown up and resign yourself to more poor Iraqi's who get not to live to see peace in their nation.
Bush is right in one way. We do owe the Iraqi's a better future, we certainly have gone out of our way to make their present miserable. We also owe the army we sent their a better future too. "Pray for me mom, so I don't end up hating these people." those are the words from a letter sent to the mother of one serviceman I know.
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Poll Crunch for Mid September 2005
Approve: 40%
Disapprove: 56%
Duh I dunno: 4%
To spin this in a good direction for Bush.... oh hell you really can't spin this in a good direction. He is getting pretty close to the Nixon number of 34%. That was the number reached the week Nixon said so-long.
As per usual these numbers are a combination of 6 national polls sampling 6,099 adults, and constitutes, I think, the most accurate poll in America. If you want the low down on the numbers that make up the poll crunching I do here you go:
Ap-Ds
42-57
40-57
40-58
41-57
41-53
40-55
Disapprove: 56%
Duh I dunno: 4%
To spin this in a good direction for Bush.... oh hell you really can't spin this in a good direction. He is getting pretty close to the Nixon number of 34%. That was the number reached the week Nixon said so-long.
As per usual these numbers are a combination of 6 national polls sampling 6,099 adults, and constitutes, I think, the most accurate poll in America. If you want the low down on the numbers that make up the poll crunching I do here you go:
Ap-Ds
42-57
40-57
40-58
41-57
41-53
40-55
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Lawn mower operation part II
The patient lay on blocks, its cutting guts sprawled out over a plywood operating table. Socket wrenches, pliers, a hammer, carburator cleaners, and nuts and bolts lay about. The surgeon was finally able to remove the problematic drive shaft from teh right cutting wheel. To my horror the bearings and the stainless steal housing, had partially congealed around the shaft itself, smeared around it like metallic chewing gum. The ball-bearing, rather than looking like polished marbles, looked like musketballs dug up in some Civil War battlefield park. The exterior cap that had contained and protected the bearing had been melted and ripped into razor sharp rings.
The patient looked moribund. I could not simply buy new bearings. The shaft was toast too. I thought birefly of somehow grinding the steal chewing gum off, but the shaft looked so burnt with that bluish iridescence indicative of being over tempered, that it would probably snap under operation.
What to do? Then I looked over at the cadaver of the old riding mower. Could it's drive shafts be the same? I went over and with far less precisioin turned the thing over and pulled the set pins and quickly disembowled it. It took the part into the sunlight and compared it to the melted part. Not only did it look to be a perfect match it looked to be in far superior condition than even the "good" drive shaft that I had not removed.
The only problem was that the mounting bracket that had held the old blade was rusted onto the shaft. I tried to pound it off to no avail.
I then decided to use my dremal tool and cut it off. After much sparks and a few burnt hairs, the rusty bracket cleaved in two and I was able to hammer the other side off. The part in hand I now have to attempt to complete the operation.
The patient looked moribund. I could not simply buy new bearings. The shaft was toast too. I thought birefly of somehow grinding the steal chewing gum off, but the shaft looked so burnt with that bluish iridescence indicative of being over tempered, that it would probably snap under operation.
What to do? Then I looked over at the cadaver of the old riding mower. Could it's drive shafts be the same? I went over and with far less precisioin turned the thing over and pulled the set pins and quickly disembowled it. It took the part into the sunlight and compared it to the melted part. Not only did it look to be a perfect match it looked to be in far superior condition than even the "good" drive shaft that I had not removed.
The only problem was that the mounting bracket that had held the old blade was rusted onto the shaft. I tried to pound it off to no avail.
I then decided to use my dremal tool and cut it off. After much sparks and a few burnt hairs, the rusty bracket cleaved in two and I was able to hammer the other side off. The part in hand I now have to attempt to complete the operation.
Friday, September 16, 2005
The more things change the more they..oh you get the idea...
Oregon's Governor in 1927
"Recently the people have been informed as to the peculiarly distressing financial condition of the state. The legislature approaches its task with limited resources from which to make appropriations—resources which are now heavily burdened by necessary obligations authorized by the emergency board and resultant from an insufficient tax levy. Many much needed appropriations must fail unless your body provides for new sources of revenue or for a temporary diversion of state funds."
But what did Oregon accomplish between 1902 and 1927? It built 260 new highschools. Not 2 not 26 but 260 state wide. That averages out to 10 new highschools a year for a 1/4 century. All while the average Oregonian made about $400 a year and the states population was only around 600,000.
"Recently the people have been informed as to the peculiarly distressing financial condition of the state. The legislature approaches its task with limited resources from which to make appropriations—resources which are now heavily burdened by necessary obligations authorized by the emergency board and resultant from an insufficient tax levy. Many much needed appropriations must fail unless your body provides for new sources of revenue or for a temporary diversion of state funds."
But what did Oregon accomplish between 1902 and 1927? It built 260 new highschools. Not 2 not 26 but 260 state wide. That averages out to 10 new highschools a year for a 1/4 century. All while the average Oregonian made about $400 a year and the states population was only around 600,000.
Lawn Tractor in trouble again
Thank God for my riding mower. It has been a college level course in small engine mechanics, mechanical engineering, and anger management.
Yesterday as I finished mowing the lawn for the last time this season the old beast began making a sound like bearing wearing out and burning up. It turned out to be bearings wearing out and burning up. So I drove it back to the barn and today spent three hours disassembling the centeral mowing attachment from the underside of the tractor. I have never done this before but then again I had not fixed tirods on front axles either, or any of a dozen other fixes.
Where as the other fixes were like athroscopic knee surgery today was like full blown open-hart surgery. Any time it takes three hours just to get to the spot where the problem is mean it is serious. The patina of the cutting unit is wonderful to behold, but incredibly unhelpful as far as nut and bolt removal. Years of mowing has built up, over all the metal a rich green laquer, polished glassy smooth and rock hard. It took a lot of work with a pen-knife to cut away the stuff to even get to the bolts that have never been removed.
Digging into the inards of machinery makes me really respect human beings who design such stuff. All the parts overwich I worked operate at high speed and are subjected to great and divrgent forces. There are the counter spining blades of carbon steel, the pully system that takes engergy from the engine, the suspension system that allows the mowing deck to hover at the correct elevation over the terrain, the twin wheels on the deck to conform to terrain, and all the engineering that ties the unit together to a series of levers that gives the operator the ability with littel effort to change cutting hight and kill the blades.
Upon inspection of the unit, once it sat on a makeshift table of plywood and saw horses, revealed burnt bearings, melted steel, basically a big mess. I figure the work, if I paid someone to get this far, would probably have set me back $150. On Monday I will go to United Bearing and drive to see if I can buy a new set of bearings. I think I will get 4. Change both sets on the mower and put two away just in case. There are other parts that have worn out that may be harder to come by.
The Patient is still on the table. I will let you know how it turns out.
Yesterday as I finished mowing the lawn for the last time this season the old beast began making a sound like bearing wearing out and burning up. It turned out to be bearings wearing out and burning up. So I drove it back to the barn and today spent three hours disassembling the centeral mowing attachment from the underside of the tractor. I have never done this before but then again I had not fixed tirods on front axles either, or any of a dozen other fixes.
Where as the other fixes were like athroscopic knee surgery today was like full blown open-hart surgery. Any time it takes three hours just to get to the spot where the problem is mean it is serious. The patina of the cutting unit is wonderful to behold, but incredibly unhelpful as far as nut and bolt removal. Years of mowing has built up, over all the metal a rich green laquer, polished glassy smooth and rock hard. It took a lot of work with a pen-knife to cut away the stuff to even get to the bolts that have never been removed.
Digging into the inards of machinery makes me really respect human beings who design such stuff. All the parts overwich I worked operate at high speed and are subjected to great and divrgent forces. There are the counter spining blades of carbon steel, the pully system that takes engergy from the engine, the suspension system that allows the mowing deck to hover at the correct elevation over the terrain, the twin wheels on the deck to conform to terrain, and all the engineering that ties the unit together to a series of levers that gives the operator the ability with littel effort to change cutting hight and kill the blades.
Upon inspection of the unit, once it sat on a makeshift table of plywood and saw horses, revealed burnt bearings, melted steel, basically a big mess. I figure the work, if I paid someone to get this far, would probably have set me back $150. On Monday I will go to United Bearing and drive to see if I can buy a new set of bearings. I think I will get 4. Change both sets on the mower and put two away just in case. There are other parts that have worn out that may be harder to come by.
The Patient is still on the table. I will let you know how it turns out.
Thursday, September 15, 2005
Great Speech! Now what?
When properly proctored, doctored, and primed, the President can deliver pretty good speeches. the Post-911 speech was a home run and several others have bee npassable to good. Tonights speech was a good one and one that needed to be said. Thanks for the talk George!
However this administration tends to back up these type of speeches with nothing good. We already have no-bid contracts being awarded to the same old bunchm Bechtel, Haliburton, etc. Paying for this will be our kids and grand kids. They will be stuck with the bar tab while the former President is polishing off his library. There seems to be a bottomless pit of cash for all the Presidents desires. Surely the rebuilding of New Orleans and the other effected areas of the US is of great importance. Yet we are still spending a billion a day in Iraq. At some point America, who is already vastly over extended both publicly and privately, is going to have to come to the conclusion that it cannot have it all. Choices will have to be made.
I am affraid that the choice the Congress will try to make is shoving off more costs onto the backs of the States. This will backfire on them since they have been doing that for the last 10 years and the states will not allow more of it. Congress and the President, whoever that is going to be, will learn that butter gets you more votes than guns. War unless it is a war for national survival, cannot be sustained indefinitely not even by the United States. We cannot spend 100's of billions on foregin wars of choice, cut taxes, spend 100's of billions on naitonal rebuilding projects, accept no-bid contracts, shove the costs onto the States, forever.
So far the Neo-Con congress has been given a problem to test their ideology. That ideology is getting a failing grade. Disasters will strike, wars happen, and 100's of billions will need to get spent. So far this bunch, with a few exceptions, is still in election mode. Do what it takes to win. What they are doing is simply spending money they don't have.
The nation will gain far more in the long run from the money that will be spent in the South than all the billions flushed down the toilet of Iraq. It is better to go into debt putting a new roof on your house than buying a big screen TV.
However this administration tends to back up these type of speeches with nothing good. We already have no-bid contracts being awarded to the same old bunchm Bechtel, Haliburton, etc. Paying for this will be our kids and grand kids. They will be stuck with the bar tab while the former President is polishing off his library. There seems to be a bottomless pit of cash for all the Presidents desires. Surely the rebuilding of New Orleans and the other effected areas of the US is of great importance. Yet we are still spending a billion a day in Iraq. At some point America, who is already vastly over extended both publicly and privately, is going to have to come to the conclusion that it cannot have it all. Choices will have to be made.
I am affraid that the choice the Congress will try to make is shoving off more costs onto the backs of the States. This will backfire on them since they have been doing that for the last 10 years and the states will not allow more of it. Congress and the President, whoever that is going to be, will learn that butter gets you more votes than guns. War unless it is a war for national survival, cannot be sustained indefinitely not even by the United States. We cannot spend 100's of billions on foregin wars of choice, cut taxes, spend 100's of billions on naitonal rebuilding projects, accept no-bid contracts, shove the costs onto the States, forever.
So far the Neo-Con congress has been given a problem to test their ideology. That ideology is getting a failing grade. Disasters will strike, wars happen, and 100's of billions will need to get spent. So far this bunch, with a few exceptions, is still in election mode. Do what it takes to win. What they are doing is simply spending money they don't have.
The nation will gain far more in the long run from the money that will be spent in the South than all the billions flushed down the toilet of Iraq. It is better to go into debt putting a new roof on your house than buying a big screen TV.
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Okay so if I was to climb up stuff again here is a partial list of gear upgreades
Old Boots: Currently I own a pair of Lowa Denali's. They are high altitude boots for really cold places, colder than Mt Hood. They are also 5.7 lbs.
New Boots: La Sportiva Trango S Evo GTX. These babies would piss their pants in the Karakorum but on Mt Hood et all they should be fine. And they only weigh 2.1 pouonds
Old Crampons: Footfangs. For technical ice and really steep, well hmmm, technical ice. Lousy for mainstream mountaineering and mixed route climbing. They are totally rigid and narrow. In short they suck.
New Crampons: Grivel Air Tech Light Crampon with Antibott Device & Flex Bars. They only weigh 795 grams however they are not step in style. You have to actually strap them on. It sort of sucks but it is probably 1/2 weight of the old set.
All the old technical gear should probably be retired.
New Boots: La Sportiva Trango S Evo GTX. These babies would piss their pants in the Karakorum but on Mt Hood et all they should be fine. And they only weigh 2.1 pouonds
Old Crampons: Footfangs. For technical ice and really steep, well hmmm, technical ice. Lousy for mainstream mountaineering and mixed route climbing. They are totally rigid and narrow. In short they suck.
New Crampons: Grivel Air Tech Light Crampon with Antibott Device & Flex Bars. They only weigh 795 grams however they are not step in style. You have to actually strap them on. It sort of sucks but it is probably 1/2 weight of the old set.
All the old technical gear should probably be retired.
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Ed Viesturs
I went to go see Ed Viesturs. You do not know who he is but anyone who has climbed knows, or should know, who he is. He is the first American to scale all 14 8000m peaks (26,000+ft) He put on slide show and did a great talk on his life.
I don't climb up stuff anymore and have not done so since 1994. But listening to him, his enthusiams for life, his reverence for nature and peaks, brings back great memories of panting, and sweating, and being scared, and being in locations that most people never go.
I makes me want to hike more, not scale Annapurna, just get out into that part of the canvas that is beautiful to behold and hard to get to.
I don't climb up stuff anymore and have not done so since 1994. But listening to him, his enthusiams for life, his reverence for nature and peaks, brings back great memories of panting, and sweating, and being scared, and being in locations that most people never go.
I makes me want to hike more, not scale Annapurna, just get out into that part of the canvas that is beautiful to behold and hard to get to.
Monday, September 12, 2005
Review of Final Cut and Kung Fu Hussle
Final Cut:
What in the name of all that is holy is wrong with Robin Wiliams? Is he on prozac? This dude needs a career enema. The movie blows large chunks from the get go. What a bunch bland, watery boredom wrapped in a tasteless tortilla of ho-hum, cinematic nonsense. Do not see this movie unless a: you want to be bored to death, or b: you have nothing else to do with your life. To spend more time on telling you all why you should not rent this junk would also be a waste of time. I would give this film a -42 but I can't go less thatn the dreaded 1.
Kung Fu Hussle:
I am not sure why this movie was called Kung Fu Hussle? It had lots of Kung Fu in it and it had characters you ended up caring for I guess. To my tastes I found Shoalin Soccer way more fun. Hussle was more predictable and not as "holy crap that was amazinigly over done" as Shoalin Soccer. They would both be a good DVD set to have. This little film gets a solid 7.
What in the name of all that is holy is wrong with Robin Wiliams? Is he on prozac? This dude needs a career enema. The movie blows large chunks from the get go. What a bunch bland, watery boredom wrapped in a tasteless tortilla of ho-hum, cinematic nonsense. Do not see this movie unless a: you want to be bored to death, or b: you have nothing else to do with your life. To spend more time on telling you all why you should not rent this junk would also be a waste of time. I would give this film a -42 but I can't go less thatn the dreaded 1.
Kung Fu Hussle:
I am not sure why this movie was called Kung Fu Hussle? It had lots of Kung Fu in it and it had characters you ended up caring for I guess. To my tastes I found Shoalin Soccer way more fun. Hussle was more predictable and not as "holy crap that was amazinigly over done" as Shoalin Soccer. They would both be a good DVD set to have. This little film gets a solid 7.
Miles Davis and my old brain
Last week I, through a series of events that I will not go into, came into posession of a 3 valve sliderless, bass trombone. It is an old instrument that used to belong to my neighbor who played it in a navy band at Pearl Harbor. Any how in researching the instrument company that made the big horn, I discovered that Miles Davis and a host of other upper-mucky-mucks of jazz, big band, and classical performers also got their instruments from the Martin Band Instrument Company of Elkhorn Indiana.
A couple of days past and I decided to regail my mom with what I had found out about my new aquisition. Well as I came to talk about the high quality of the company and some of the people who also used various instruments from that company my mind drew a blank on Miles Davis. I could not remember his name. I could remember him and Quincy Jones, I could recall albums, his face on the cover of his last CD Doo-Bop, but as for his name it was a complete blank slate.
I had to go online to jog my memory.
We all forget stuff all the time. But it is kind of disconcerting to forget something or someone that is significant. I have recognized in myself and others of my age that their is a tendancy to retell the same story to the same people as if we have not already told the story. The the conversations also are either about the present or the past and the future is talked of less and less.
All the more reason to ride the tube, or jump off the bridge, or do other things new and dangerously life affirming. Because it would be easy, too easy, to draw a line at the high-water mark of our lives and say "well we did do that back then but couldn't do it now."
I want to jump off the bridge when I am sixty and seventy and as long as I possibly can.
It may not help me from forgetting Miles Davis, but it might give me a larger database of stories to retell.
A couple of days past and I decided to regail my mom with what I had found out about my new aquisition. Well as I came to talk about the high quality of the company and some of the people who also used various instruments from that company my mind drew a blank on Miles Davis. I could not remember his name. I could remember him and Quincy Jones, I could recall albums, his face on the cover of his last CD Doo-Bop, but as for his name it was a complete blank slate.
I had to go online to jog my memory.
We all forget stuff all the time. But it is kind of disconcerting to forget something or someone that is significant. I have recognized in myself and others of my age that their is a tendancy to retell the same story to the same people as if we have not already told the story. The the conversations also are either about the present or the past and the future is talked of less and less.
All the more reason to ride the tube, or jump off the bridge, or do other things new and dangerously life affirming. Because it would be easy, too easy, to draw a line at the high-water mark of our lives and say "well we did do that back then but couldn't do it now."
I want to jump off the bridge when I am sixty and seventy and as long as I possibly can.
It may not help me from forgetting Miles Davis, but it might give me a larger database of stories to retell.
Thursday, September 08, 2005
Definition Time
ref-u-gee:
Person involuntarily displaced from his or her homeland.
(Encylopedia Britannica)
Katrina refugee:
Poor American citizen, predominently african-American, told to leave their homes and go to large public arenas only to be abandoned, then riducled by the head of FEMA for not evacuating prior to Katrina.
FEMA:
Under funded Federal agency responsible for disaster planning and relief headed by an incompitent political hack who got fired from his last job for being a poor manager.
President:
White, male, millionaire and or son of millionaire. Also see Prick, Scumbag, Idiot, and Lying-Sack-of-Shit
American Citizen:
Baffled human who is over worked, over extended, and addicted to consumption.
Blogger:
Preachy bastard that only tell you the obvious
Person involuntarily displaced from his or her homeland.
(Encylopedia Britannica)
Katrina refugee:
Poor American citizen, predominently african-American, told to leave their homes and go to large public arenas only to be abandoned, then riducled by the head of FEMA for not evacuating prior to Katrina.
FEMA:
Under funded Federal agency responsible for disaster planning and relief headed by an incompitent political hack who got fired from his last job for being a poor manager.
President:
White, male, millionaire and or son of millionaire. Also see Prick, Scumbag, Idiot, and Lying-Sack-of-Shit
American Citizen:
Baffled human who is over worked, over extended, and addicted to consumption.
Blogger:
Preachy bastard that only tell you the obvious
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Leadership in modern America
What do you get when you put a failed businessman, cable company executive, and failed horse association administrator together? A big mess.
In an earlier blog I said that I thought that the current leaders in the response to Katrina were retarded. This would be true if they had public policy experience. However only the failed businessman has that.
Big cities, nations and agencies, need people who know whatthey are doing. It is great the we live in a nation where any millionaire and campaing contributor can grow up to be President, or mayor, or FEMA head, but it is not helpful to the citizenry that millionaires tend not to understand the reality of America. It is easy for the millionaire to discount problems of poverty because they have no idea what poverty really is. To them it is all academic.
At the very least these so called leaders should get down into the real life of people for a glimpse. Robert Kennedy touring the utterly impoverished Apalachian communities in the 60's gave that millionaire a better view of the real America.
Being so removed from the real America it is easy for them to put off plans to improve the lives of the average person. The division has turned this country from a nation that looked at a problem and said, "Yes we can do that."; into a nation that says, "We can't possibly do that."
The rich simply do not have a clue as to the level of struggle the average American is going through. I am not talking about the poorest. Those people have it even worse. The more removed you are from a person in need the easier it is to ignore him/her. We freakout when Americans are refugees but tend to get bored after a week or two when 200,000 people get wasted in a Tsunami.
The insulation needs to be stripped away from the rich or there needs to be more average people in positions of power.
In an earlier blog I said that I thought that the current leaders in the response to Katrina were retarded. This would be true if they had public policy experience. However only the failed businessman has that.
Big cities, nations and agencies, need people who know whatthey are doing. It is great the we live in a nation where any millionaire and campaing contributor can grow up to be President, or mayor, or FEMA head, but it is not helpful to the citizenry that millionaires tend not to understand the reality of America. It is easy for the millionaire to discount problems of poverty because they have no idea what poverty really is. To them it is all academic.
At the very least these so called leaders should get down into the real life of people for a glimpse. Robert Kennedy touring the utterly impoverished Apalachian communities in the 60's gave that millionaire a better view of the real America.
Being so removed from the real America it is easy for them to put off plans to improve the lives of the average person. The division has turned this country from a nation that looked at a problem and said, "Yes we can do that."; into a nation that says, "We can't possibly do that."
The rich simply do not have a clue as to the level of struggle the average American is going through. I am not talking about the poorest. Those people have it even worse. The more removed you are from a person in need the easier it is to ignore him/her. We freakout when Americans are refugees but tend to get bored after a week or two when 200,000 people get wasted in a Tsunami.
The insulation needs to be stripped away from the rich or there needs to be more average people in positions of power.
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Poll Crunch for Early September
Approve: 43%
Disapprove: 53%
Duh I dunno: 10%
From Gallup Polling:
"President Bush's job approval rating is now at 40%, the lowest of his administration. Bush has averaged 43% across three Gallup Polls conducted in August, marking a slow but steady decline since the beginning of the year. Bush's approval rating has dropped among independents, and has also dropped modestly among Republicans. Bush's August average rating is the lowest for any re-elected president since World War II at a similar point after their re-election, with the exception of Richard Nixon. Only 34% of Americans are satisfied with the way things are going in the United States today"
These numbers are current as of the morning after Katrina. No numbers are in for the week following.
Pew Research puts Bush's approval rating
in the West at: 38%
in the South at: 44%
in the Midwest at: 39%
in the Northeast at: 36%
I am not really sure what to say other than to quote Bush "Who cares? we'll all be dead!"
I think the President must think that everybody thinks the same way he does.
Exmaples:
Iraqi's on Post Sadam Iraq: Who cares? we'll all be dead!
Poor folks in New Orleans on disaster planning: Who cares? we'll all be dead!
American workers on keeping jobs in the US for their kids: Who cares? we'll all be dead!
The world on what to do about global warming and environmental destruction: Who cares? we'll all be dead!
Man oh man what an easy, life affirming, mantra! No prob dude!
Na_na na-na-na-na Live for today!
Na_na na-na-na-na Live for today!
Boy sounds kind liberal to me. Oh yeah the liberals don't live for today. They try to pay attention to how they are living today so that other people can live tommorrow. That sounds kinda conservative. Hmmm?
Disapprove: 53%
Duh I dunno: 10%
From Gallup Polling:
"President Bush's job approval rating is now at 40%, the lowest of his administration. Bush has averaged 43% across three Gallup Polls conducted in August, marking a slow but steady decline since the beginning of the year. Bush's approval rating has dropped among independents, and has also dropped modestly among Republicans. Bush's August average rating is the lowest for any re-elected president since World War II at a similar point after their re-election, with the exception of Richard Nixon. Only 34% of Americans are satisfied with the way things are going in the United States today"
These numbers are current as of the morning after Katrina. No numbers are in for the week following.
Pew Research puts Bush's approval rating
in the West at: 38%
in the South at: 44%
in the Midwest at: 39%
in the Northeast at: 36%
I am not really sure what to say other than to quote Bush "Who cares? we'll all be dead!"
I think the President must think that everybody thinks the same way he does.
Exmaples:
Iraqi's on Post Sadam Iraq: Who cares? we'll all be dead!
Poor folks in New Orleans on disaster planning: Who cares? we'll all be dead!
American workers on keeping jobs in the US for their kids: Who cares? we'll all be dead!
The world on what to do about global warming and environmental destruction: Who cares? we'll all be dead!
Man oh man what an easy, life affirming, mantra! No prob dude!
Na_na na-na-na-na Live for today!
Na_na na-na-na-na Live for today!
Boy sounds kind liberal to me. Oh yeah the liberals don't live for today. They try to pay attention to how they are living today so that other people can live tommorrow. That sounds kinda conservative. Hmmm?
Another reason to be disgusted with DC
Last Week: "We unanimously passed a 10 billion dollar emergency spending bill to help the poor huricaine victems."
This Week: "We are going to cut Medicade by 10 billion dollars."
The argument is that it is a program whos costs keep going up. No shit! With more poor people now than in 2000 there are more people taking advantage of the program. Instead of reprioritising the budget to take care of Americans the pathetic millionaires in Washington want to slash the program. More guns less butter. More misadventures in foreign lands, and another poke in the eye to the average joe. The poor get poorer and the rich get richer and America better wake up and start to care or we are for the bone yard.
This Week: "We are going to cut Medicade by 10 billion dollars."
The argument is that it is a program whos costs keep going up. No shit! With more poor people now than in 2000 there are more people taking advantage of the program. Instead of reprioritising the budget to take care of Americans the pathetic millionaires in Washington want to slash the program. More guns less butter. More misadventures in foreign lands, and another poke in the eye to the average joe. The poor get poorer and the rich get richer and America better wake up and start to care or we are for the bone yard.
Monday, September 05, 2005
Death is no big deal, at least not to time
180 seconds of Presidential time was spent announcing the next Cheif Justice of the Supreme Court. It could have been a talk about grain harvesting or pork belly futures or any one of a thousand million other things. A man fights thyroid cancer for years and then dies and the world does not stop even for an instant, not even for the passing of a Supreme Court Justice. Time didn't stop when John Kennedy was killed either; it kept on chewing away the days, weeks, months and years, while the assasinaiton went from volumes of books, to magazine articles, to tv history shows, to a small 6pt type footnote, and in the future only historians will know about it. And in a thousand years the vast majority of humans will not even know the name at all. They won't know who Bush was either. The great eraser continues its inexorable march across all our blackboards. All the people who died last week in the Hurricane or died in the floods that followed go the same way. The memory of all of them will fade away until nothing of them exists on planet Earth but their descendants who won't even know them or how they died.
So what is the big eraser? Death? No death gets to meet the same fate as those it claims. Time destroys death too. It takes away it's sting for those left behind. Time eradicates its stench, smooths over the melodrama. We all tend to put too much ephasis on defeating death when Time is the real nemisis. For even if we did eventually, at long last, rid ourselves of the scurge of death we are faced with what? An eternity of time for us to contemplate how to escape it monstrous grind away at civilizations, and lives, and planets, and galaxies. Would we then try to reinvent death so we could escape the mad house? Or would we try to kill Time off? But that would lead to a single frozen moment, with no thought, or feeling, or manner to percieve existance. So we would all, though frozen in the instant, be for all intents and purposes dead.
Clearly we are, like Candide, in the best of all possible worlds. We get to exist for how ever long we get to exist. Death gets to clear off earth to make room for more of us. Time gets to take the sting of death from the harts of those left behind. All is as it should be.
So what is the big eraser? Death? No death gets to meet the same fate as those it claims. Time destroys death too. It takes away it's sting for those left behind. Time eradicates its stench, smooths over the melodrama. We all tend to put too much ephasis on defeating death when Time is the real nemisis. For even if we did eventually, at long last, rid ourselves of the scurge of death we are faced with what? An eternity of time for us to contemplate how to escape it monstrous grind away at civilizations, and lives, and planets, and galaxies. Would we then try to reinvent death so we could escape the mad house? Or would we try to kill Time off? But that would lead to a single frozen moment, with no thought, or feeling, or manner to percieve existance. So we would all, though frozen in the instant, be for all intents and purposes dead.
Clearly we are, like Candide, in the best of all possible worlds. We get to exist for how ever long we get to exist. Death gets to clear off earth to make room for more of us. Time gets to take the sting of death from the harts of those left behind. All is as it should be.
Thursday, September 01, 2005
Calm down!
Okay we can all, most of us, agree that Bush is not FDR or Lincoln. But we all need to stick together on the relief effort and not start the blame game right now. The high level of open and angry criticism of Bush and FEMA and Homeland Security by CNN, NPR, and almost every othere news organization world wide is right on the the mark, but un helpful. Millions of people are in trouble and we need to calm down and help out. Not bitch at Bush since that administration, when faced with such times, tends to react by closing itself off even further from reality. Pat Bush on the head and simply go around him.
Now my rant!
It is amazing how after 4 years of post 911 disaster planning we, as a nation, have fumbled so miserably, even after getting a weeks advance warning that we were going to be hit. How much more notice do we need? Listening to the leadership, both republican and democrat, makes me wonder of the endemic mental retardation of Governors and Presidents. When they trott out into TV all they do is act like CNN reporters telling us what we already know but offering no sage advice, or courageous crys for calm and unity. From the weepy and incoherent Governor of Louisianna to the incomprehensibly southern accented Governor of Mississippi, to the President who spends more time talking about pipe lines than people, I am left disgusted with the level of grotesque incompitence and criminal neglegance of men and women whos job it is to formulate policy for the first responders to march to. God save those over worked cops, nurses, doctors, GI's, and journalists who seem to be the only ones to actually give a damn. Maybe if the faces in those mobs of homless people were sunny white folks in polo shirts and knee-length shiffon skirts there would be a little more action? As usual in the richest nation in the world the poor are getting shafted again.
It is not only that we have too many cheifs and not enough indians, the cheifs we do have are all suffering from mercury poisoned minds, or is it cash-poisoned?
Now my rant!
It is amazing how after 4 years of post 911 disaster planning we, as a nation, have fumbled so miserably, even after getting a weeks advance warning that we were going to be hit. How much more notice do we need? Listening to the leadership, both republican and democrat, makes me wonder of the endemic mental retardation of Governors and Presidents. When they trott out into TV all they do is act like CNN reporters telling us what we already know but offering no sage advice, or courageous crys for calm and unity. From the weepy and incoherent Governor of Louisianna to the incomprehensibly southern accented Governor of Mississippi, to the President who spends more time talking about pipe lines than people, I am left disgusted with the level of grotesque incompitence and criminal neglegance of men and women whos job it is to formulate policy for the first responders to march to. God save those over worked cops, nurses, doctors, GI's, and journalists who seem to be the only ones to actually give a damn. Maybe if the faces in those mobs of homless people were sunny white folks in polo shirts and knee-length shiffon skirts there would be a little more action? As usual in the richest nation in the world the poor are getting shafted again.
It is not only that we have too many cheifs and not enough indians, the cheifs we do have are all suffering from mercury poisoned minds, or is it cash-poisoned?
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