RED ARC

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2010-11-09T06:31:00.001-08:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

The future of Red Arc...

2010-11-08T22:16:00.001-08:00

Android!

2010-11-08T19:26:00.001-08:00

I waited over a year to pick up an Android phone. I have waited even longer for a Leatherman tool. Armed with both, I'm pretty sure I can do anything.

The line in that song...

2008-12-08T13:48:00.000-08:00

I have this one song I've been writing for about six years. I have about three records full of stuff in the works, but it's all been stalled out for at least the past year, much of it longer than that. Anyway, this one song has this line, the only one I know is right: "I've wasted all my second chances." Hard to build a whole song around one line when the line is not something like, say, "I know a secret down at Uncle Tom's cabin," but that's the line.

So, going in tonight to find out if my new baby is going to be birthed tomorrow morning, or surgically extracted. Wish us luck. Scared and excited and happy and worried. Just a symphonic warm-up of emotions, really.

PS. Any relationship you may find between the first and second paragraphs of this post is purely coincidental.

My Stupid Neck

2008-10-27T20:29:00.000-07:00

Today I had a test done where the basic testing mechanism was for the doctor to ask, "does that hurt?" You'd think in this day-and-age the verbal response technique would be outmoded. What he did, the doc, was stick some 4-inch needles through the front of my neck, just to the side of my trachea, into the discs between C4/5, C5/6, and C6/7 vertebrae. He then pushed x-ray contrast material in to the discs to see if they would contain the fluid under pressure, and while he was doing this, I was under instructions to let him know when it hurt. Interestingly, each disc should be able to stand up to about 100 psi of pressure. Mine failed in this order:

C4/5 - 23 psi
C5/6 - 56 psi
C6/7 - 19 psi

Give or take a psi, since I was a bit sedated at the time I looked at the chart. The point is, I had contrast material leaking out of all three discs, which is bad. Right now I feel like I got rear-ended into a head-on collision earlier today. Just so you know, C6/7 hurt the worst. Felt like he'd pumped it up to that 100 psi mark, and both my arms went numb and all that manner of thing. I was fairly discouraged to see the 19 on that one.

What's next? Well, assuming my insurance plan doesn't call it experimental and refuse to cover it, I am going to have C5/6 and C6/7 discs replaced in December. Otherwise, I'm going to fight an insurance company for the next 1.5 months until they will cover the procedure, because the other option is to fuse the vertebrae together, and that doesn't sound good at all.

What's the lesson, here? Mama's don't let your babies grow up to play football. Too, if you're ever uninsured and you find yourself lying on the ground in excruciating pain after pulling a stupid downhill stunt on your mountain bike, suck it up and pay to have a real doctor treat your injury.

Can't believe I'm only 33 sometimes...

Well said.

2008-10-26T10:33:00.000-07:00

http://glenphillips.net/blog/?p=81

Sometimes you just have to remember...

2008-10-26T09:45:00.000-07:00

I was reading another blog this morning and (of course) disagreeing with the general premise of the argument the guy was making, and I decided to make sure I had the phrasing right in my response to the rationale behind the establishment of our American government. There's a reason we don't study the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence to any great detail in our public schools. It's dangerous stuff for people to have ingrained in their thinking.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness." (*emphasis added)

We forget this second part, because we hear the first part all the time as justification for getting the government the hell out of our business. It's the more important part, though, the basis for my liberal thinking. We need the government the hell IN our business. History has shown us for generations and generations (and I mean long before there was a United States) that, unchecked by the people, the powerful will eventually and always become despotic. I would submit to you that the plutocracy we have become is on the verge of despotism even now.

I still believe we can turn this around. We just need to remember: we are not a capitalist society at our core; we are a democratic republic. It is the job of capitalism to create wealth, but capitalism is a rabid beast; it is the job of a democratic republic to control the beast in such a way that ensures the safety and happiness of the people. Government regulation is a requirement to that purpose, in other words.

Forget about taxes and spending. They're all - Republican and Democrat alike - going to tax and spend. All we need to be concerned about at this point is who is going to govern in such a way to secure the safety and happiness of all the people and not just some of the people. If you're like me, a struggling middle-class citizen with children, I believe this is the most important election of your lifetime. This is the turning point where we, the people, decide its time to throw off the plutocracy we've been ruled by for the past two or three decades, or resign ourselves to their future rule and watch the American dream fade to black.

79 Years Ago

2008-10-25T06:08:00.000-07:00

I heard Thom Hartmann talking about a book called The Fourth Turning just a couple of weeks ago; the gist of it is that every 80 years or so we return to recession and war as part of a generational attitude towards wealth, ownership, nationalism, etc. We, meaning society, not necessarily America. So, on this almost-80th anniversary of the 1929 stock market crash, I'm wondering if we're going to be smart enough to elect the guy NOW who's most like FDR and can maybe turn this thing around for the middle class, or are we going to stubbornly stretch this thing out another few years. Because it will happen, I think: at some point there will be a guy who'll first convince us there's a need to, then unite us behind the goal of rebuilding the nation. I just hope it's bad enough for y'all now, and we don't have to let it get worse first.

Let's hope consumer confidence is high today, anyway. I'm having a garage sale.

Fox In a Tree

2008-10-25T05:00:00.000-07:00

Almost five minutes of my son at the top of his tree-climbing game. I don't think I could have filmed him doing anything else for five minutes that would have better captured his personality at this age...

Dennis Kucinich - Wake Up Call

2008-10-23T08:46:00.000-07:00

Watch, listen, vote.

Corduroy

2008-10-22T19:07:00.000-07:00

I just spent the whole week with my kids while Mom was on vacation. We had a great time. One thing about being divorced is you don't take any time you spend with your kids for granted. Anyway, yesterday Zoe brought home Corduroy the Teddy Bear from school in his own little backpack. In the backpack there was a little journal called The Adventures of Corduroy, and the whole idea was for the kids to add a page to the story. What a cool concept, I thought, so I wrote a little bit about our day, which was the most hectic of the week, and then I put a couple of little pictures of Zoe and Fox and Emily and Ellie in there cuddling on the couch, which is what we do every night before bedtime, and was the last line of the story. Just after squeezing in between my kids to watch Supernanny (you have four at once and you won't question the choice of programming), I found myself saying to Zoe, "Don't put Corduroy's ear in your mouth," and it occurred to me that a teddy bear is a lot like a stuffed bathroom-hand- towel. And this one, Corduroy, is getting passed around from one snot-nosed, poopy-handed kid to another, day after day, over and over. A thought which is quite disgusting if you dwell on it.

It's not the Democrats' fault (entirely)

2008-10-20T22:39:00.000-07:00

I got this email today:

George Bush has been in office for 7 1/2 years. The first six the economy was fine.

A little over one year ago:
1) Consumer confidence stood at a 2 1/2 year high;
2) Regular gasoline sold for $2.19 a gallon;
3) the unemployment rate was 4.5%.
4) the DOW JONES hit a record high--14,000 +
5) American's were buying new cars, taking cruises, vacations overseas, living large!... (I'm adding this: this line sounds like a prelude to The Grapes of Wrath.)

But American's wanted 'CHANGE'! So, in 2006 they voted in a Democratic Congress and yes--we got 'CHANGE' all right. In the PAST YEAR:

1) Consumer confidence has plummeted;
2) Gasoline is now over $4 a gallon & climbing!;
3) Unemployment is up to 5.5% (a 10% increase);
4) Americans have seen their home equity drop by $12 TRILLION DOLLARS and prices still dropping;
5) 1% of American homes are in foreclosure.
6) as I write, THE DOW is probing another low~~
$2.5 TRILLION DOLLARS HAS EVAPORATED FROM THEIR STOCKS, BONDS & MUTUAL FUNDS INVESTMENT PORTFOLIOS!

YES, IN 2006 AMERICA VOTED FOR CHANGE...AND WE SURE GOT IT!

REMEMBER THE PRESIDENT HAS NO CONTROL OVER ANY OF THESE ISSUES, ONLY CONGRESS. (I'm adding this: WTF? They obviously didn't read my post about how stupid this statement is.)

AND WHAT HAS CONGRESS DONE IN THE LAST TWO YEARS, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. NOW THE DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT CLAIMS HE IS GOING TO REALLY GIVE US CHANGE ALONG WITH A DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS!!!! JUST HOW MUCH MORE 'CHANGE' DO YOU THINK YOU CAN STAND?

Here's a modified response:
The short version is that what you're seeing right now in the economy has everything to do with pushing the principles of trickle-down economics to their extreme over the past 30 years, not the past 7, and absolutely not in the past 2. Remember, Clinton was a centrist, and he did his fair share of pushing Reaganomics. Although Clinton did leave us with a budget surplus, a smaller deficit than we had when he took office, and a plan in place to eliminate the deficit over 20 years, he also gave us some damaging free trade policies.

The economy is not currently responding to a changing of the guard. The truth is that our Democratic congress has bent to the will of the President almost without fail for the two years they've held "power". More importantly, though, they could not stand up to the President when it really mattered, 6 years ago when we began committing resources to the Iraq war, all but eliminated corporate taxes, and thoroughly deregulated the financial and energy markets.

Nope, it's not the Democrats' fault entirely, although there are plenty of them to blame for not having any guts or integrity, or at the very least some sense. It's been a long time coming, this terrible economy. I believe it started with Reagan's policies, and King George II has pushed these policies to illogical extremes during the past 7 years with regards to deficit spending, tax cuts for the richest 1%, and total laissez-faire capitalism. I mean, come on, we're now SEVEN TRILLION dollars deeper in the hole since King George II was crowned, for a grand total deficit of TEN TRILLION by the time we actually elect a new President. Aren't we smart enough to know what happens when we rampantly spend without an appropriate tax? Haven't we learned from history what the absense of consumer protections leads to? I mean, these are the same sorts of economic policies in place throughout the 1920's (which is why they were "roaring"), and we know how that ended up, yes? Or are most of us truly candidates for an episode of Jay Walking? I'm going to post Dennis Kucinich's rant from the DNC Convention. Wake up, America, he says. I keep hoping we do, but then I keep getting these emails, and I'm wondering if sleep is really the issue...

Most importantly to rebut the below statement: this is a GLOBAL recession we're in, vato. Britain just partially nationalized some of their banks to the tune of 90 billion pounds or so, and the Tokyo stock exchange fell over 10% just a couple of weeks ago. This economy is a direct result of the corporate and individual greed, worldwide, that has been allowed to prevail for the past three decades. I'll back up my argument when I have a bit more time to do so.

More on the redistribution of wealth (aka SOCIALISM)...

2008-10-20T10:16:00.000-07:00

Prior to Reagan, there was about a 91% income tax on people making more than 3.2 million in today's dollars a year. Even during the Reagan years, the tax was still 71%. I would submit that this type of tax encourages small business owners to reinvest in their companies instead of amassing great personal wealth (as if 3.2 million per year does not qualify as great personal wealth). That reinvestment should translate as more jobs, better salaries, higher-quality health care, etc.

I'm saying it doesn't always have to be the government who decides what to do with the money.

Too, you may not realize this, but we've had nationalized and/or partially-nationalized industries for a long, long time. I've never heard anybody complaining too loudly about the Postal Service.

Why I'm Voting for Barack Obama

2008-10-13T16:53:00.000-07:00

Despite what I hear to the contrary quite often, I think I could make a pretty good case in just a couple of hours that the President has a LOT to do with what happens to the American people. Slowly, over time, the powers of the Executive have been expanded far beyond the Framers' design (there's no single President who's pulled the trigger on this). It's to the point now, that the President (as the current administration has demonstrated repeatedly), has claimed the power to fully uphold, partially uphold, or entirely ignore the law that he is charged by the Constitution to execute. We are currently spending about 10 billion dollars a month of tax-payer money (a lot of which is on loan from China and other nations) on a war that was not declared by Congress. Meanwhile, our infrastructure is crumbling, our economy is tanking, and our schools are a shambles. I am obviously opposed to the Iraq war, and I have been since day one. Regardless of your support or opposition, the point is that it was the President who took us to war, and it is the President that is keeping us there. The objectives of the Executive, in other words, define the vector of the country, and not the objectives of the American People represented by the Legislature, so it's very important who we elect to that office.

For me, government has always been merely about who pays the tax and what the tax is being spent on. I'm voting for Barack Obama, because he believes, as do I, that the richest of us should be taxed appropriately, and he believes we should spend that money on things that preserve the middle class (whose labor creates the wealth the rich enjoy). It's as simple as that.