Miscellaneous: February 2007 Archives

“First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the baby in the baby carriage.” - Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney told a crowd of about 175 people gathered at a private club.

Nursery rhymes? I guess this is a first for a presidential candidate to include in a speech. So, the married people who never have a baby are somehow dysfunctional? Or wait, you have to be married to have a baby?

The Army mobilized. Painters were deployed to cover the offending wall with a fresh coat of white semigloss. And television crews were invited in to inspect the result.

“Some of the paint is still wet against that wall, so be careful,” Walter Reed public affairs officer Donald Vandrey, standing on the bed in his socks, advised the film crews. “They just finished repainting it about 10 minutes ago.”

Mission accomplished?

Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley thought so. After the media tour of Building 18, the Army’s surgeon general gave a news conference. “I do not consider Building 18 to be substandard....” (source)

Sometimes I wonder about people. Maybe it’s America in general. I’m not sure. Some things really are just common sense I believe. Take the renovations going on at Walter Reed Medical Center, for example. When we heard about the sub-standard conditions solders were living in last week, it hit the fan big time. It was a huge embarrassment to the military and to President Bush who has stated that we will do whatever is needed for our soldiers who come home wounded and shell shocked from being in war.

Well, the repairs happening at Walter Reed Medical Center have all the brilliance of the war plan that took us to Iraq in the first place. And I have to ask myself, what the hell is going on here? I’m not a construction-type person, so I have no idea what needs to be done. But common sense tells me that if you are standing in your shower and can see the bottom of a bathtub from the floor above you, simply by looking up through a hole (from rot), that it’s going to take a little more than paint to do the job. Wouldn’t you think that if it were your own home?

If it were me doing the repairs, I would deem the entire building unfit for human housing, and condemn it until repairs are made, and I’m not talking about paint here. I’m talking about taking the rot away, the mold, putting in new walls, floors, and ceilings, if necessary. It all has to go. This of course, if the building is even worth saving. Sometimes, you save money by starting from scratch.

See, I understand these things. Why they are applying paint to this building to hide mold is beyond me. It’s just going to come back. You have to fix the source of the problem. What a waste of time and money (OUR money), and a major disrespect to the soldiers.

Why is it that I have a feeling that in a couple of weeks, after the paint has dried, that President Bush will be standing out in front of Walter Reed, in front of a big banner that reads, “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!”?

It’s time for the military to stop glossing over this issue, now that it’s out in the open, and get the job done. The men and women who put their lives on the line for this country deserve that!

I’m sitting in the TV room with Mimi, my cat, watching the snow fall. It’s a lazy Sunday afternoon.

This morning was different. We got up early and were going to go out for breakfast. But on our way to our usual Sunday spot, decided to drive into Hartford to go to Mo’s Midtown. It’s a place that does New Orleans-type cooling (spicy). When we lived in Hartford, we used to go there practically every weekend. We didn’t even know if it existed anymore because we haven’t been there for years. The staff that we knew are all gone and replaced by other people. Yet, the food was still great. We both had the “Rajin Cajun” omelet - very very spicy filled with their own jambalaya. And, I suppose I will be tasting it all day. Tonight, I’m thinking of making chicken marsala. Something simple.

We were watching Bill Maher last night. We enjoy him. He’s funny and most often has a very stimulating panel of guests. He had John Amaechi as a guest. He’s a former pro basketball player who came out of the closet awhile back and now has a new book, The Man in the Middle.

This has been met with some people who respect Amaechi as a person.

“We all have our little secrets. He had a big secret. And I can’t blame him. You can only imagine how he felt. He was terrified that his private life would become public, and it would cost him the job he loved. It doesn’t bother me that he kept it a secret. You never know how people are going to react. That’s the scary part about it.” - former teammate Ben Wallace

And then there were others who had utter disdain for Amaechi.

“You know, I hate gay people, so I let it be known. I don’t like gay people and I don’t like to be around gay people. I am homophobic. I don’t like it. It shouldn’t be in the world or in the United States.” - Tim Hardaway

The cool thing is, most people are condemning such comments in this day and age. Perhaps this is progress? But back to Bill Maher’s show. Bill pointed out to Amaechi that he was amused at what Amaechi said about the locker room. In the book, Amaechi said that the locker room was one of the “gayest” places around. He said that it was like a bunch of peacocks showing off and preening themselves -- making mention of one guy painting his toe nails (in season), and another guy plucking his eyebrows. And during all of this, Amaechi asks himself, “...and I’m the gay one?” (laughter) Point taken!

The only thing that I don’t care for so much with Bill Maher, is that at times, I feel he carries a joke too far, or jokes about something that simply should never be used in the context of a joke, or to garner laughter. For example, he made a joke about young Russian men recruited into the Russian army. This is what this issue is really about, and it’s not something to joke about.

One conscript, who had raised the alarm, told Russia’s Gazeta newspaper yesterday that older soldiers humiliated the others. “Sometimes they made us mop the floors all night ... The officers would beat us on the arms and legs. We were sent out to the park to earn money ... I was tortured with electric shocks.” Another conscript added: “At least 10 out of 35 of us would not spend the nights at the military base.”

The allegations involving St Petersburg’s unit of 3,727 personnel follow cases of abuse of conscripts. Last year there was national outrage at the gruesome fate of Andrei Sychev, 19, a tank academy conscript so badly tortured by his superiors his genitals and legs had to be amputated. (source)

Yet, here we are in America, making a joke about it. I wonder if it is something that Andrei Sychev will ever be able to laugh about. Sometimes, we forget our own humanity, all for a joke. Not everything is made to laugh at. I kind of wish Bill Maher would realize that. I’m not a prude or anything, but I think it is extremely distasteful to find humor at the expense of some human being’s suffering. That's all.

It’s still snowing, but tomorrow is supposed to bring sunshine! Actually, it’s kind of pretty. Next weekend, we are planning on going to Vermont snow shoeing. It’s a compromise for me. I suck at cross country skiing (which Kent loves), but I think I can do this. So, we will be able to do this together, which will be nice.

Life has been putting the screws to me of late. I seem to be going through some issues with depression AGAIN. What the hell is wrong with this year? Geeez. Well, I’m holding my own with it. I’m working like hell, and actually, despite it all, getting a lot done. I’m splitting my time up from working at home, and occasional meetings at warehouses (for the company I work for), to make certain operations more efficient.

Monday was the worse. It was hard to put two thoughts together and I had zero motivation. I believe it started from Kent being down about something. Then, being in a vulnerable place for the depression to take off, it did, big time. That was Sunday. By Sunday night I was not in a good place. I got tired of it, and popped two Xanax that I occasionally take for anxiety. But another thing Xanax will do is to turn off depression. It does nothing to treat the depression, but it turns off what fuels it - your brain. And before I knew it, I was in dream land in the most peaceful sleep.

Monday morning... depression is back in full swing. I try to work. I have to get out of the house. I go to the warehouse to work with other people on specific problems. I leave with a new knowledge of those problems and come home to work through them. By 2:00, I give up. I lie down to sleep. I’m so tired. Depression is very exhausting.

Tuesday morning... a bit better today. I’m working more on the problem and making much better progress, but still fighting to keep depression at bay. It’s there. I can feel it. It wants to blossom out and take over. I’m thinking that I have to go out to UCONN to a concert that Joshua Bell is giving at the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts. The “Jorgensen Auditorium” would be more accurate. I hate the place. It’s basically a big box, with chairs in it. It looks as if it used to be an auditorium for basketball, and they converted it to a “center for the performing arts”. It has the worst acoustics ever.

Beyond all of that, beyond venturing out in the cold weather, which you know I love with all my heart, the concert was nice. Joshua Bell is a fine artist. There are a few things with his technique that I don’t much care for, but I would lose most of you if I analyzed what they are, and, who really cares anyway about violin technique. But the whole experience gave me a renewed interest in playing again. So, I’m actively taking the first step; finding someone who has the credentials to work on a violin made in 1750 from the Cremona School. A bit about it and the violin in my possession, which is a Gagliano...

The Gagliano masters were one of the most famous Italian dynasties. In the period of 1640 to the early 20th century, 20 Gagliano masters created their violins. Alessandro Gagliano was the founder of the dynasty. He came from Naples. In Cremona, he joined the violin-making class of Nicolo Amati where Antonio Stradivari was studying at the time too. When he returned to his hometown thirty years later, he founded the Naples school whose violins are known for their perfect tone. Experts say that some Gagliano violins even outstrip those of Stradivari. (source)

I won’t give more specifics about the violin I own, except to say, it’s wonderful to be privileged to have been part of it’s life. I will die, and it will go on, if I entrust it to someone who is worthy. But before that happens, I think I would like a few more years to share myself with it and to see what music the two of us can make together.

Wednesday morning... Feeling much better today. I went to the warehouse and spent more time working through problems, and made some wonderful progress. I’m energized again. The depression is not gone, but I’m back in control. I got a lot done on Wednesday.

Today, things are decent. I’m looking at the next phase of enhancing productivity for operations at the warehouses around the state. I have one final thing to do, and then I’m going to let this issue rest a bit and give people involved a chance to get used to the changes I have made. I also will need a mental rest from it.

I haven’t done much with photography lately. I’m reading more about RAW image changes and learning a lot. But, I haven’t applied the techniques to my own photos. It takes time to learn technique. I know that from my violin studies. One has to be patient. It will come in time.

And this happened yesterday...

Two years after Connecticut approved civil unions for same-sex couples, two leading state lawmakers said Wednesday they will introduce a bill to allow gay marriage.

Sen. Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford, and Rep. Michael Lawlor, D-East Haven, co-chairmen of the legislature’s Judiciary Committee, said they will introduce the bill before a Feb. 14 deadline for new legislation.

The proposal would make Connecticut only the second state to allow same-sex couples to marry. Massachusetts began allowing gay marriages in 2004, while Connecticut and Vermont allow civil unions. A New Jersey law allowing civil unions takes effect Feb. 22.

A spokesman for Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell, who signed the civil unions law, said Wednesday that she would veto a gay marriage bill. (source)

Yes, it seems that Connecticut is going to go for full marriage for people like Kent and myself, AGAIN. We’ve lived with “civil unions” for two years now. Well, not us. We didn’t get one. But the state has. And now, the same lawmakers who brought us “civil unions” feel that we should have full marriage.

I’ll help to every extent possible. I’ve already given money to the cause. But this probably will not pass this year. Actually, it was exactly the same way with the gay and lesbian civil rights law. We tried for years to get a law passed in Connecticut making it illegal to fire a person for being gay, and giving them equal access to public accommodations, etc.. It passed the legislature, only to be vetoed by the governor. Eventually, that governor left, and when the bill hit the new governor, Lowell Weicker, he signed it into law.

So, will we have to keep trying until Governor Rell leaves office? Possibly. The legislature could override her veto, but in the spirit of being politicians, they won’t do that. I’ll help as I can, but I can’t mentally afford to get too caught up with this issue. Basically, this nation is run by religious creeps who care very little about those of us they don’t like. But I’m not going to give them the satisfaction any longer of having much control over me. If the bill fails, I’ve lost nothing because we have no protections now. Nothing has changed.

I was saddened to hear of the death of Molly Ivins. I loved her writing. And, I admired her gift. She had the gift of looking at issues, some of which were really not very pleasant to talk about, and turning them on their head. You ended up laughing about her humor in it all. Later, you started to think about the points that she was making about the issue in a very serious way. Her gift, which I lack, was to look down upon it, without letting it become personal. I can’t seem to do that, and I envy her for that.

Molly Ivins, the liberal newspaper columnist who delighted in skewering politicians and interpreting, and mocking, her Texas culture, died yesterday in Austin. She was 62.

Ms. Ivins waged a public battle against breast cancer after her diagnosis in 1999. Betsy Moon, her personal assistant, confirmed her death last night. Ms. Ivins died at her home surrounded by family and friends.

In her syndicated column, which appeared in about 350 newspapers, Ms. Ivins cultivated the voice of a folksy populist who derided those who she thought acted too big for their britches. She was rowdy and profane, but she could filet her opponents with droll precision.

After Patrick J. Buchanan, as a conservative candidate for president, declared at the 1992 Republican National Convention that the United States was engaged in a cultural war, she said his speech “probably sounded better in the original German.”

“There are two kinds of humor,” she told People magazine. One was the kind “that makes us chuckle about our foibles and our shared humanity,” she said. “The other kind holds people up to public contempt and ridicule. That’s what I do.” (source)

One of her writings deals with “activist judges”. I’m copying a bit of it. Molly, you were truly one of a kind.

Another bee-you-ti-ful example of the right-wing media getting it all wrong. Here they are having the nerve to mutter in public about “activist judges” because Judge Anna Diggs Taylor has pointed out that spying without a warrant is illegal in this country -- so warrantless telephone tapping is illegal in this country.

Improbably enough, the first complaint of many of these soi-disant legal scholars is that Taylor’s decision is not well written. No judicial masterpiece, they sneer. Nevertheless, warrantless spying is illegal.

Did it ever occur to these literary critics that Taylor has a lay-down hand? The National Security Agency program is flat unconstitutional, and for those who insist this means Osama bin Laden wins, it’s also ridiculously easy to fix so that it is constitutional. Conservatives in this country have been yipping in chorus for years about “activist judges,” and frankly, like fools, many of you bought into the phony political rhetoric about those terrible jurists.

Somehow, activist judges are held responsible for gay marriage, Roe v. Wade and everything else Americans disagree about, as though Americans would never disagree without their encouragement.

Conservatives have been mad at the Supreme Court since it decided to desegregate the schools in 1954 and seen fit to blame the federal bench for everything that has happened since then that they don’t like.

As any liberal could have told you, the conservatives didn’t want a right-wing shift on the nation’s courts because of “social issues” -- that’s just a handy political ploy.

Honestly, people, haven’t you figured out what this is all about yet? Money. The conservatives are in a snit about “liberal courts” because of money. (source)