First, Do No Harm

Guest post by Calandreya

I know this will offend some people and I'm sorry about that but I don't actually care what either candidate gives as a plan for their future leadership.  The plans fail.  They seldom, if ever, accomplish even a fifth of what is planned.  Obama, as just one example, intended to do a lot more than actually got done and, truthfully, it's a miracle he's even done as much as he has.  I am not voting for Obama's plan. 

I'm voting for Obama because I trust him to do his best to prevent further harm.  That's all.  It's very sad that this is all I can expect from a candidate but that's where we are, and I suppose it's better than having two candidates that would make things worse.  If he succeeds in marginally making things better, as he has done the past four years, then great.  I don't expect it.

I mentioned in a previous post that Democratic interruptions of a long term trickle down process might be responsible for derailing the plan.  Well, I think Republican interruptions will derail the process of recovery, long or short term.  They've already proven they'll put politics over people, money over ethics, and all of this worries me.  If we don't get some serious changes to our political process, we're doomed as a nation - primarily removal of the hidden money.

We are taking some huge strides backwards and have been for a long while.  We're not even getting one step forward to every two back anymore.  Maybe most people are unaware, in their day to day lives, of how politics affects them in very real dollars and cents.  I think a lot of them are just too busy trying to keep their heads above water - and that some politicians want that ignorance working for them.

There are no consequences for lying in politics.  Any normal person caught lying on a resume would be immediately fired no matter how great they were as an employee, but we can't expect that of our country's leadership.  Average Joe often has to take a drug test to work a nearly meaningless job but we don't ask our Congress - public employees - or our presidential candidates to prove they're not on something mind altering.  I think we should begin holding them to the standards expected of regular citizens, at the minimum.  If we want fair laws applied to us, maybe we have to make them see the unfairness of what they're imposing on us, men and women.

I won't see it in my lifetime but I can dream, too.

A handy guide for public figures

Here is what an apology sounds like:

"What I said was incredibly insensitive. I should never have said such a thing. I certainly do not believe it to be true, and I hope you can forgive me."

And then, IF you think you can do so without making things worse, you can try to explain what you really meant.


Here is what an apology does not sound like:

"I'm sorry if you were offended by what I said."

Because, seriously. This is the kind of thing a six-year-old does when ordered to apologize. Mom says, "Billy, you apologize to your sister for calling her stupid."

And Billy says, "I'm sorry you're stupid, sis."


Get it straight. You are in the public eye. Everything you say and do is recorded for all time. And we are watching.

BIO for 1776 (BLT)

The year: 1976. John, a freshman in high school, failing his required speech/drama/debate class. His teacher, a short, stentorian Egyptian with the unlikely name “Wedge Crouch.” The offer: a passing grade in exchange for playing George Read in 1776. Thus began an endless journey as John was inexorably drawn into the world of live theatre, never to return yet now come full circle. Or is it – perhaps – an egg?

1776 Revisited - John and Abigail

Well gang now I'm doing 1776 again - this time as Stephen Hopkins, for the Bellevue Little Theatre.

Since I started directing, I've become much more interested in background research for the plays I'm involved in. It's kind of like the changeover marks in movies - once you know that they exist, you always see them. So anyway, here's an interesting bit about John and Abigail Adams.

John catalogs Abigail's faults (she asked him to): http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/aea/cfm/doc.cfm?id=L17640507ja
And she answers: http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/aea/cfm/doc.cfm?id=L17640509aa

This kind of teasing is something that most of us would never expect from people of that time. They were not yet married - it's the kind of exchange one might see between high-school sweethearts (John was 29 and Abigail was 20) They were third cousins, but then, so were a lot of people in the colonies.

At about this time they were writing to each other daily - sometimes more often. John was being inoculated for smallpox - the method used was to expose the patient to known mild cases of the disease, under close doctor's care. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inoculation - it's kinda yucky how they did it) All his letters were smoked before being sent, and after being delivered, thinking that this killed the disease. (Parents used a similar method of inoculation, up until the time that killed-virus injections became the norm. One kid in the neighborhood got measles or chicken pox, it was sleepover time.) Once it became common knowledge that people who got cowpox were immune to smallpox, then smallpox inoculation wasn't so popular anymore and was eventually banned because it was FREAKING DANGEROUS. John got off light, but this procedure sometimes killed people - 2% as opposed to 20% of those who got it naturally.

You can also see that by now they were regularly using pet names for each other in their letters. John called Abigail "Diana" after the Roman goddess of the moon, and she called him "Lysander" after the Spartan war hero. When John was in the Continental Congress, Abigail signed her letters "Portia", the very patient wife of Roman politician Brutus. No doubt she needed patience!

I'll write more as I come across stuff that interests me.

Sing out loud...sing out strong

This is one of those posts that will get edited from time to time. I've been singing karaoke for a while now, and this will be my list of best efforts. The songs that I know I can nail.

Mister Cellophane

Robin says this is my best ever. I actually received applause before the song ended - probably for hitting the right high note toward the end. Soon as I can get the sheet music in & practice a bit, this will become my favored audition song. The karaoke version is kinda weird, it includes movie dialog between the verses. Why the hell do that?

Little Red Riding Hood

Tried this for the first time recently. It's a lot of fun to do and suits my voice.

Highwayman

I think I'd like this one best if I could find someone else to share verses with. But I think I've found my best take on it alone. It's tough, being the only person who knows some of these.

I Crush Everything

Of course, I enjoy doing most Coulton songs. I love singing Code Monkey and Re: Your Brains, and I'd try Space Doggity if I could find a karaoke for it. But this one I feel best at. Unfortunately, my current favorite singing spot doesn't have any of them and won't allow personal discs. I'll have to see about getting him the song files.

Ring of Fire

It may just be personal conceit, but I'm pleased with my Johnny Cash impression.

Act Naturally

This one is just fun to do and I don't screw it up.

Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime

Whenever I try to do a crooner song, it comes out sounding like Dean Martin anyway. So he's my crooner of choice. I think my dad tried awfully hard to look like him.

Update 8/8/2012 - The Curly Shuffle

I surprised everyone with this song, and then Robin suprised me by including it among my best. I think that it would be better with a chorus of Stooges helping out, but hardly anyone knows it.


All requests, in the comments section.

Obama set the stage?

I'm hearing from quite a few on the right that Obama is to blame for the current high price of gasoline, but I can't find any evidence on which to base this accusation. Nor has anyone provided any for me.

The Federal excise tax on gasoline has not raised since 1997

US production of crude oil has risen steadily since Obama took office. Even during the six-month moratorium on deep-water drilling, US oil production was not negatively affected.

Please note, from the above chart, that US production of crude had previously fallen steadily since 1985. Even during the Bush years, 2000-2008 - production steadily fell.

This is because the moratorium did not prevent the operation of existing wells. It only prevented new exploratory drilling during the time that it was in effect.

I even heard one person, while accusing Obama for the steady rise in gas prices since he took office, give credit to Bush for the rise in oil production during the same time period. Talk about a stretch! Bush couldn't affect oil production in eight years, yet Obama could raise the price of gas within days of taking the oath? How do you wrap your brain around such contradictions?

So far, no one has satisfactorily explained exactly what it is that Obama has supposedly done to make the price of gasoline so high.

It's not as if he started two wars in the Middle East.

It's not as if he has familial connections to the oil industry.

It's not as if he chose an oil company executive for a running mate.

It's not as if he appointed an oil company executive as National Security Advisor or Secretary of State.

It's not as if he invited oil company executives to create energy policy for the US behind closed doors.

And yet I have been told that Obama has "set the stage" for higher gas prices, without anyone providing specific actions. Is it "anti-oil" to not bend over for oil companies? When pressed, people speak vaguely about the six-month moratorium in 2010 (but I've already debunked that, above), and that he did not fast-track the Keystone pipeline. I'll get to this, but first one final word about the moratorium.

Suppose your neighbor wanted to add on to his house, but the only way to get the construction equipment on-site was through your back yard. And, even though he swore that there would be no damage to your property, someone on the crew didn't set a handbrake on a truck, which then crashed through your kitchen wall.

Wouldn't you be just a little bit pissed? Wouldn't you tell this neighbor, no more construction crews through my back yard? At least, until you were satisfied that your kitchen (and grass, and begonias) were all put right and that there would be no more incidents like this?

In other words, what the hell would you have done in Obama's place? Remember, the BP disaster in the Gulf was entirely their fault. They did not have adequate safety measures in place, and what they did have was not operational. Having caused this explosion and huge spill, they then admitted that they had NO FUCKING CLUE how to fix it. So what would you have done?

Okay, now on to the Keystone. This is a clusterfuck if ever there was one, but what it boils down to is this: TransCanada wanted to build a huge pipeline, using force-pressure technology that had already caused one huge spill elsewhere. Republicans wanted to fast-track this pipeline, despite huge protest from very dissimilar groups. Environmentalists said it was a bad idea. Farmers said it was a bad idea. In November of 2011, Obama announced that he'd have a decision in a couple of years. That wasn't good enough for Congressional Republicans, who attached a two-month deadline to an unrelated extension to a payroll tax break for American workers. And for once, Obama grew a spine and said "No."

Okay, got all that? Now, go back to the steady increase in domestic oil production since Obama took office. Now, look at oil company profits during that time and try to reconcile that to the claim that the oil industry, and by association, the US economy, was somehow hurt by this action. Try to reconcile this with the claim that Obama has, somehow, set the stage for high gas prices.

You can't do it.

Here's a link to Obama's accomplishments to date. If you look you can find those specifically associated with Energy: Oil. If you're so inclined, then please feel free to point out those which set the stage for high gas prices -- and then, if you'd be so kind, TELL ME WHAT YOU'D HAVE DONE.

Anyone who can't expend this much effort to justify blaming Obama for high gas prices, is not worth my time.

Stewardship

So, Santorum espouses an anti-environmentalist view because he thinks that mankind is supposed to be the steward of the Earth?

I call bullshit.

Stewardship: the responsible overseeing and protection of something considered worth caring for and preserving.

Anyone who truly believed that Man is the appointed steward of the Earth should be the most vigilant environmentalist in existence. If nothing else, they'd be concerned about their God's reaction to any other behavior, because if you believe that you are a steward of the Earth, that means that you believe that you will have to account for your stewardship.

But the anti-environmental attitude displayed by Romney clearly shows that he truly believes he is accountable to nobody and nothing.

If you were to loan someone your car for a year, and they didn't even change the oil that whole time, wouldn't you be a little bit peeved? Now imagine if you loaned them a whole planet!