............The Gorse Patch....................

Actuarial Observation

2009-11-09T18:11:00.000-08:00

I just posted this comment to Common Dreams:

For a risk to be insurable, it must not be too common. The premium for your house insurance is reasonable because the chances of it burning down are slight. Car insurance costs more, relatively, since there are many more vehicle accidents than house fires, but it is still not a bad bargain, all in all.

Health care is another matter, actuarily speaking, as almost all of us incur some amount of medical expense, i.e. the risk is much too high. So the premium has to be so large that the insurance principle becomes impractical, even if the companies were willing to settle for a reasonable rate of return, as they have clearly demonstrated they are not.

That is the basic, inescapable fact of the matter, which we refuse to face. There are two remaining alternatives, single payer and private prepaid plans like Kaiser Permanente, which is single payer on a smaller scale.

I'm rapidly coming to the view that we would be better off in the long run if this current effort were to fail altogether, which might turn attention to the available real alternatives that can work.

But Who Are All These Others?

2009-10-29T21:16:00.000-07:00

It seems there are, somehow, two blogs named The Gorsepatch, which I don't understand. Or may it's just other folks posting to this one about their own interests, like birding, that don't match with mine.

It's a bit weird, as I left open the door to posting here, hoping maybe to get some dialogue started, which has not happened. Maybe I should shut that off, after all. I have nothing against birds, you understand, nor their fans and admirers, but this does feel like some kind of intrusion.

Are we stupid, or what?

2009-06-24T18:49:00.000-07:00

It has been a while, hasn't it? Well, I got involved with Yahoo Answers (YA) and it's curiously addicting, in a depressing sort of way. Folks submit questions and other folks submit answers, usually. Doesn't sound like much, but some of the questions are worth the price of admission -- it's free.

It's amazing how many young women want to know if they might be pregnant, because they kissed somebody or something. The level of ignorance is truly appaling and more than a little sad. These girls have no idea what they are doing or what is happening to them.

It's also amazing to see that there isn't a word in the English language that can't be spelled wrong by somebody or other.

As a source of information I find YA wanting. I have asked two questions and neither has been answered to date. But I have collected a lot of Best Answer points that are good for absolutely nothing. I waste entirely too much time at this, and really should kick the habit.

The Economy Crisis

2008-10-20T20:55:00.000-07:00

It just came to me in a cloud of whirling dust, spoken by an echoing voice from far away:

The trouble arose from too much Bernanke-panky!

Sociopathy 101

2008-07-03T20:56:00.000-07:00

Fearless Leader now says, with a perfectly straight face, he wants to close Guantanamo. Probably has always longed to do so, I suppose. And even if he didn't, the line is now that the recent ruling by the Supremes will make it necessary, at least for some of the inmates, so it's not going to be his fault. They made him do it, so he's blameless.

And besides, (one reason is never enough) he's asking Congress to draw up rules, so that will place blame on them if anything goes wrong. So his amazing record of never having made a mistake will remain sacrosanct. Except of course for that one time in 196x when he thought he had made a mistake but he hadn't.

Mention was made of 120 or so detainees for whom no hearings or trials are (or ever were) planned, a nice euphemism. Guys who got ratted out by someone who had a grudge against them, I guess, and in that part of the world grudges can last for centuries.
Why they were held for years was not explained, which surprised absolutely nobody.

O Wonderful!

2008-06-29T20:07:00.000-07:00

It turns out the soil on Mars is ideal for growing... asparagus.

Just what we need. $359,000 per bunch, cheese sauce extra.

See? I told you the space program is worth the expense, but you wouldn't listen.

News From The Hood

2008-05-11T14:51:00.000-07:00

The AP has joined the fun:

The Associated Press - 47 minutes agoWACO, Texas (AP) - President Bush spent months joking about being a father of the bride, but on Sunday he was downright wistful about giving his daughter Jenna away to her longtime bow.

Let's just hope he remembered to bring his arrow.

What, Now?

2008-03-16T17:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, 3/15/08, Nancy Pelosi opined that the Democractic Party should 'heed the will of the people' during the nomination process. We should all applaud her sentiment.

Now, how about that same vox populi in the matter of impeachment? A large majority of us have been in favor of that for quite some time now, but it remains off the proverbial table, right where Nancy put it.

We could use a little consistency here, Nancy.

Literacy no longer required

2008-03-03T16:24:00.000-08:00

McCain Says He Can Best Handle Crisises

AP headline today, March 3, 2008

Many of us have problems with the formation of pluralses.

Columbia, the Gem of the Hudson

2007-09-25T20:39:00.000-07:00

I could not stay out of the dogfight over President Ahmadinehad vs. President Bollinger. So I posted a comment on Information Clearing House, in a Q&A format:

Q: What's the difference between Mr. Bollinger and your 8th grade shop teacher?

A: Mr. Bollinger has all his fingers, but the shop teacher can make cool stuff and has better manners.

Is that really the same Columbia where John Dewey taught for so many years? Hard to believe.

Apologists are defending Bollinger on the grounds that he has to cover his behind vis a vis his Board of Regents. I guess we can read between the lines there. But if you want to head up a college you better be able to handle said Regents or Trustees or whatever, letting them know that they have no reponsibilities for academic matters but are expected to take care of the endowments, especially by making them bigger.

If Columbia students are to be fed a pure diet of establishment fiction they might be better off at CCNY. Based on this incident, they are no longer in a position to look down their noses at it.

Bon Mot for 2007

2007-08-29T19:56:00.000-07:00

Best candidate for bon mot of the year so far would be Andy Borowitz commenting on the resignation of Attorney General Gonzales.

"Alberto Gonzales is resigning to he can spend more time spying on his family."

This one will be hard to beat.

Gorsegrower

Which Way Did It Go?

2007-08-25T22:19:00.000-07:00

Today there's a story about astronomers finding a very large, i.e. huge "hole" in the universe. It's described as a place where there is nothing, except maybe for space -- they didn't say about that. Normal "empty" space generally contains about one molecule of stuff per cubic meter.

They hypothesize that gravity may have pulled the matter out from all sides, maybe something like a doughnut.

Maybe that's where the missing matter isn't.

Hou (hic) ston, we have a problem here

2007-07-27T14:53:00.000-07:00

Whatever happened to "24 hours from bottle to throttle?"

Never!

2007-06-28T20:36:00.000-07:00

The FDA says we mustn't eat "Veggie Bootys" because of contamination.

I wouldn't eat anything with a name like that if it guaranteed eternal youth.

Run For It

2007-06-23T16:32:00.000-07:00

The poster for Mel Gibson's "Apolyptico" features a backlighted man carrying a dagger in his left hand and looking either tired or dejected or both.

Maybe he's dismayed by the slogan under the shot: "No one can outrun their destiny." Very Grecian and equally wrong. Mel baby, 'one' is singular and 'their' is plural and never the twain shall meet, OK?

Nobody likes an ungrammatical drunk.

The Latest Buzz

2007-06-16T16:52:00.000-07:00

For what it's worth - and that may be little - the bees have returned to my back yard. Three weeks ago they were not to be found, but now the hedge on my north lot line hosts perhaps two dozen at a time, which is not bad for a distance of only 15 feet or so.

We could use a hopeful sign or two at this point.

Ciao, Bambino

2007-06-10T22:36:00.001-07:00

You mean to tell me Tony Soprano had a shrink? And for the grand finale he winds up in witness protection?

I told you it was a put-on. Now I'm sure about it.

Poor Jack

2007-06-01T22:37:00.000-07:00

Kervorkian, that is. It was only a little while ago he was sentenced, and here he's getting out after eight years. I imagine it seemed a lot longer than that to him.

I read that in the NY Times web version, where he is referred to as Mr. or just Jack Kervorkian, pathologist. So I wrote to the Times and asked about that, since after all he was awarded a Doctor of Medicine degree. He may no longer have a license to practice, but the degree is historical fact, so my opinion holds he is still an M.D. and should be addressed as such.

We'll see what the Times has to say, if anything.

How To Fix It All

2007-05-31T20:32:00.000-07:00

We now have a fair-sized chorus of opinion that one of these days we really should see about getting the money out of politics. If nothing else, and that may describe it, this administration has made the illicit influences so obvious that many are seeing them for the first time, and so odious that even those for whom this is not a novel notion are getting seriously worried.

So maybe I should try again; this time we might be more receptive to a sort of modest proposal. The first time was in 1964, a long time ago in one's personal life but not when seen in the context of social change. Veblen was right, you know; cultural lag still slows the pace. Perhaps more than other societies, this one seems to harbor a lot of people who wish things were different but dislike change. Leon Festinger was right, too.

In 1964 I was working as a programmer for the ill-fated computer division of Honeywell. They assigned me to a customer in southern California who had accepted the idea of sending payroll data from a plant in Arizone via telephone line, instead of putting punch cards on the Greyhound bus. They had our foxy new unit that could do this trick - which was really state of the art in those days - but were refusing to pay rent on it because there was no software for the thing. I was to write the package, which took a couple of weeks.

There was a presidential election coming up. On the way home one evening it occurred to me that the data being transmitted could represent votes. "What do we need the Congress for?" I found myself shouting.

That led to an inquiry the upshot of which - to spare the tedious history - is we don't need the Congress for anything and would be better off without it. That in turn led to an urge to share my findings with everybody, which led to the office of Pacifica Radio in Berkeley and Elsa Knight Thompson, the resident grande dame and director of programming.

I told her I wanted some air time for a series of small lectures. She asked what about. I said direct democracy using electronics to vote from home. "You mean just anybody?" she asked, incredulously. I told her yes. "Heaven forbid," she exclaimed, "How much time do you want?"

There were six installments in the series entitled "Bits and Ballots." They ran on KPFA first, then were picked up by the other two stations in Los Angeles and New York City, prompting a flood of letters from all over the country, three in all. They were boring beyond belief.

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) were prominent in those days, so I approached Jerry Rubin about addressing a meeting of the Berkeley chapter, since their motto was "Let the people decide." I told him I knew how they actually could, as they now cannot. He agreed that I could speak briefly at the next meeting. But thirty seconds into my remarks some fellow shouted "Do we have to listen to this?" I said no, certainly not, and stepped down. It appeared that they were interested only in planning for a demonstration the next morning on the Sproul Hall steps, which they seemed to think would one day appear in the history books alongside Concord Bridge and the Old North Church.

When I mentioned the notion to my friends and acquaintances in the computer field the reception was not much warmer. Told that we would use computer technology to count votes cast from home via a "Voxbox" even they would immediately invoke Big Brother, their eyes would glaze over and I could see that further argument was useless. In the coming years I met perhaps two people who thought it was a great idea, one of whom I married. The other was a hairdresser lady who died from liver cancer, cutting my adherents by 50%. I settled down to wait for a more propitious moment in history to raise the suggestion again.

Well, from the looks of things, the time may have arrived. I cannot recall a time when so many were so fed up with the Congress. According to the theory of representative government (RG), such as it is, those to whom we must delegate our political authority are supposed to weigh our collective opinions pretty heavily, and unless there is some major consideration we don't know about, act according to our wishes.

In the present case that is simply not happening. They know full well what we want, but they are ignoring us and attending to special interests such as the military-industrial complex (MIC) or Big Pharma, to name only two out of many.

The situation is widely recognized and deplored by the media thinkers, including some of the so-called conservatives. All kinds of remedies are being proposed. Very soon an elite group will convene in New York City to hear papers on several reforms, under the rubric of limiting the influence of large corporations. But the very organization of their ideas betrays the obvious shortcomings of this piecemeal approach.

Limiting the influence of corporations is not the topic of any single presentation. Nothing in their literature shows any awareness that the general topic could be addressed directly as such or that we face a single problem with many components, or that a solution at the general level would automatically resolve the components.

Next time we will take up the general solution, starting with the basic concept of political structure.

Another premature emission

2007-05-31T20:02:00.000-07:00

Fearless mindless leader now proposes talks about setting targets for starting to think about conferences that might set dates for something or other by the year 2050.

At this rate by 2050 Washington D.C. will be under six feet of salt water.

More 9/11 and Flight 93

2007-05-27T20:46:00.000-07:00

The Global Research website has a piece by Prof Michel Chossudovsky on the question of whether Flight 93, the Pennsyvania plane, was shot down. It reveals different versions by VP Cheney and ex-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. First a transcript of part of a PBS broadcast:

SIEGEL: One other thing that Secretary Rumsfeld said in Baghdad today was in all likelihood a slip of the tongue, but one that may prove fodder for conspiracy theorists. The Defense secretary said this while speaking about a number of terrorist acts and the people who've committed them.

Sec. RUMSFELD: The people who bombed the mess hall in Mosul are the people who did the bombing in Spain or the people who attacked the United States in New York and shot down the plane over Pennsylvania and attacked the Pentagon. (This snippet was abridged. See the site. Ed.)

SIEGEL: `The people who shot down the plane over Pennsylvania.' He was presumably speaking of United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on 9/11. No US official has ever credited theories that the plane was shot down. We've been unable to get clarification from the Pentagon.

We have this transcript of Mr. Rumsfeld's remarks:

"And I think all of us have a sense if we imagine the kind of world we would face if the people who bombed the mess hall in Mosul, or the people who did the bombing in Spain, or the people who attacked the United States in New York, shot down the plane over Pennsylvania and attacked the Pentagon, the people who cut off peoples' heads on television to intimidate, to frighten -- indeed the word "terrorized" is just that. Its purpose is to terrorize, to alter behavior, to make people be something other than that which they want to be."

Rumsfeld alleges that it was the enemy, "the people who...." etc. who shot down Flight 93.

But Cheney talks as if we shot down Flight 93 but does not actually allege that. Instead, he talks about Bush making the decision to do so, which is not the same thing. In another portion quoted on the website Cheney seems to say that he either suggested or approved, but that Bush made the decision, which looks like a technicality.

He also implies but does not actually say that the decision was taken during the morning of 9/11. I've not seen anything about that elsewhere.

At the next opportunity the press should ask Cheney directly: Did we shoot down 93, or did somebody else? If we did, who? If not, who?

I'm coming to the view that Bush was taken out of the loop by being sent off to Florida so that Cheney could run the show that morning. There is also talk of Cheney and Israel doing an "end run" around Bush to attack Iran. Maybe they did one on 9/11.

That might explain the vacant stare after Andy Card told Bush a second plane had hit a WTC tower; he could well have been surprised out of his mind. Perhaps his intransigence about Al Qaida and his war on terror shows that he actually believes what he has been saying, having been duped.

Ask yourself, "If I were conspiring to pull off something like 9/11 would I let George Bush in on it ahead of time?"

Barack and Roll

2007-05-25T22:18:00.000-07:00

Senator Obama was on TV a couple of days ago. Seems like a nice guy and all, but he said "My wife is smarter than me ... and a lot better looking than me."

Than I (am), Senator. After all these years with a Prez who mangles the language, can't we have one who gets it right? Is that asking so much?

Jane

2007-05-12T16:51:00.000-07:00

Jane Fonda's interview with Stephen Colbert is not to be missed. She rather discombobulated the master of ad lib by sitting on his lap the whole time. Wotta woman.

Gee, Another Conspiracy

2007-04-29T16:44:00.000-07:00

Last night a tanker hit a guard rail, burst into flames, and caused a section of freeway near Oakland to collapse? Are you kidding? Everbody knows that fire has no effect on concrete, especially if it's reinforced with steel, which is very strong.

No freeway has ever collapsed from fire before. Also note that the driver (?) got out with only second degree burns and was able to walk to a phone and call a cab, which just happened to be available, and which ostensibly took him to a hospital that hasn't been identified. Neither has the driver, for that matter.

Clearly, there is more to this story than we've been told. But of course the MSM will peddle the official version 24/7 so as to distract us from the really important news, like the fact that Rudy Guliani's new wife is a registered nurse, which suggests that he may not be as healthy as a presidential candidate ought to be.

I could go on, but you see the point, don't you?

Good for Phil

2007-04-28T19:25:00.000-07:00

My helpful neighbor Phil across the street yesterday made good on his offer of heavy lifting by moving my keyboard from the shop into the living room. This helps. So I bought him lunch at Joe's Place.

The pore ole thang was all dusty and scruffy but it cleaned up pretty well. Two keys got sticky but WD-40 took care of that. Sounds nice after thirty-some years.

I still can't play the bridge to Body and Soul but I'll work it out eventually.

Really, now.

2007-04-23T20:22:00.001-07:00

The head writers are having a great time (Don McLeod style) with Sheryl Crow's suggestion we should all ration ourselves to one square of TP per visit to the loo in the interests of pollution reduction. So far nobody has suggested that all loos should be required to have a bidet, perhaps because that would mean trying to describe one to Americans.

Who was Don McLeod? Thought you'd never ask. He was the legendary reporter for the old Portland Oregonian, the only guy there who looked like Hollywood's version of a reporter. While he was serving a sentence on the copy desk there came an election in which one Martin T. Pratt was chosen as the next Sheriff of Multnomah County. Inevitably, Don headed it "Pratt Fills County Seat."

See how it all comes together?

More Wolfie

2007-04-14T16:39:00.000-07:00

Maureen Dowd of the NYT today wrote of Wolfie and used the word "batrachian" so I looked it up. Has to do with amphibia, like frogs, lizards, newts, and presumably even Skilton's Skink, which has evolved a clever trick; grab his tail and that's all you get because it's detachable, so he can run off and hide. Then he grows a new one.

It has also been reported that when frogs mate, (always dorso-ventrally) they often remain intimately coupled but virtually motionless for as long as 24 hours. I e-mailed Dowd to say that this suggests either a pitiful lack of sensitivity where it matters or some kind of erotic monomania.

Parallels are where you find them.

"Don't do it" doesn't do it.

2007-04-14T16:30:00.000-07:00

Four separate studies have indicated that abstinence education does not affect the age of onset of sexual activity among young people. Did we really need research to tell us that? Well, maybe for the 30 percenters, but they won't believe anything as weak as mere evidence.

Inevitably

2007-04-14T15:22:00.000-07:00

CBS will produce a new show entitled "Who Do You Trust?"

NBC can counter with "Whom Trusts You?"

Sopranos Bow Out

2007-04-13T19:19:00.000-07:00

It seems only yesterday that The Sopranos series began, doesn't it? The last season is getting a lot of press, of course, having gained such popularity over the four years of its run. One columnist went so far as to proclaim it the "greatest TV series ever." He must be too young to have watched Dream On.

When I first heard of the title I immediately assumed it must be a put-on, probably a satire of The Godfather. Sopranos??? People with high voices? These are the tough guys? What's the sequel, I Castrati?

We're now bemoaning the coarsening of America, vide the Imus affair, among others. Sure, we're coarse. But even worse, millions of us watched this show for four long years and failed to realize our legs were being pulled.

I wonder if the final episode will give it away so blatantly that even the 30 percenters will get it. It may not be the greatest series ever, but it looks like the greatest joke ever. On us, naturally. We've been taken for so many rides the last half-century we've started to enjoy them.

Wolfowitz Pulls a Howler

2007-04-13T19:12:00.000-07:00

Just saw a photo of Wolfie's $190,000 girl friend. It appears to me that his taste in women is no better than his ideas about foreign policy or how to help the third world.

More Like It

2007-03-21T15:16:00.001-07:00

Democrats may have stumbled upon an issue they can actually use. The apparent politicization of the Department of Justice, evidenced by the firing of some eight district DA's, may lack the emotional intensity of the urge to surge in Iraq, but it doesn't hand the GOP the "support the troops" weapon that scares the Dems so badly.

Most of us would probably agree that ideally the DOJ ought to be politically neutral. So this one could be a winner. Maybe the Democratic hopefuls will hit on the notion of competing for the nomination in '08 in terms of which one is the toughest on Bush and corruption.

It helps that courage is not required.

Book Review

2007-03-21T15:11:00.000-07:00

George Saunders
Short Stories
Reviewed by Stanley Poss
* * *
Though some are in a straightforwardly realist mode the majority of the twelve stories of In Persuasion Nation present a blackly comic surrealist yet deeply and disturbingly familiar dystopian vision of an America in thrall to an increasingly sophisticated technofuture.

* * *

The point of view of nine of the stories is first-person. Many of the narrators are unreliable in the extreme. They explain and justify themselves, believing that they have been telling Story A while the dark reality of Story B, which they withhold or are unconscious of, lurks offstage. The narrators range from oldsters to ten-year-olds, from solemn humorless hustler salesmen to PR flaks for environmental crimes of military bases to wacky homophobic writers of letters to editors to regular guys to outright psychotics who set ablaze a neighbor's house to avenge a slight.

The America these stories reveal is in large part a bizarre and distressing picture of a population prisoned in the banalities of pop culture, TV, brand names, bureaucratic clusters of initials, and blue-collar religiosity, a consumer nightmare presented deadpan. Surrealist extravagance--monstrosities in middle-class backyards--contributes to these blackly comic send-ups of a dystopian future. In this America almost no one lives an unmediated life. One character asks about TV news of atrocities: "Why we haveta see this stuff? Let's have something cheerful." An ignorant indifferent America can only take in the world as it's mediated by the products to whose consumption we're directed by sophisticated high-tech devices that measure and evaluate and control. Pervasive brand names increasingly define our reality ("TM" and the small circled R pop up throughout).

For all the darkness of Saunders's vision his boundless inventiveness and unflagging imagination and energy are reasons for optimism of a sort. In addition the conclusion of the last story moves into an unexpected metaphysical-religious dimension, in spite of the fact that "this stupid system causes suffering whever you look," this mad comic Armageddon.

(Riverhead Books, 2006, 228 pp., $23.95, ISBN l-59448-902-X)

This Clears Up Everything

2007-03-14T20:34:00.000-07:00

Today we learn that Khalid Sheikh Muhammed, hitherto the 'suspected' mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, has confessed that yes, he was in charge of that atrocity and a lot of others as well, having planned some 29 such incidents, some of which never took place. He said he was in charge of the whole show, even including financing and the details.

He said he was tortured but his confession was not coerced, a nice example of the kind of metaphysical nuance of which the Eastern mind has long been thought capable. Or perhaps it means only that he was not being tortured during the hearing but if he said the wrong thing he might face more torture when he got back to his cell.

We can now expect the Bushies to proclaim that there is no need now for any further investigations by anyone, especially Democrats, and see we told you that Bush is protecting us all from these terrible terrorists like this one right here. Us, complicit? This guy could be even more useful to the Bushies than bin Laden and his imitators.

Of course some of us trouble-makers will want to hear Kalid's explanation of how he got Bush to go to that school in Florida on the morning of 9/11, and how he arranged for all those military exercises at the same time, and while he's at it precisely who piloted the airplanes and why they agreed to fly these suicide missions.

The military tribunal will allow his confession, coerced or not, so it will be very interesting to see the civilian courts will approve on appeal. I wonder what he has been told to expect.

Ten Albums, Two Sons

2007-02-19T21:00:00.000-08:00

Diana Krall and husband Elvis Costello have announced the birth of twins Dexter and Frank. All are doing well. The boys were born December 6 and already play better than I do.

Gorsegrower

Le mot chic du jour

2007-02-17T19:34:00.000-08:00

My old buddy Stan the English professor (retired) wrote the other day to say I gotta read The Lay of the Land by Richard Ford, because I would find a frisson on page 434. A bookstore in Seattle had it used for $13.50 so I ordered it.

Two days later Arianna Huffington ran a column about the Strange Bedfellows series she did with Al Franken when they covered a political convention, in which they were shown in bed together. She hopes it won't damage his career as a politician now that he's running for office, and in passing said that being on camera added to the frisson.

After about fifty years of not seeing frisson anywhere, it appears twice in three days. What's going on here? Is this a fad, like epiphany? Apparently; Google news has pages of results. Some think Joseph Campbell started the epiphany thing. You may nominate a suspect for frisson.

But now that I've looked it up I doubt that it's going to be worth the price. Your average frisson (n. masc.) just isn't that big a thrill. (In French, it's a 'shudder' and I sure wouldn't pay much for one of those.) After all, around here you can have a pretty good time on $13.50 plus shipping.

For example, Sarah over at Joe's Place makes Eggs Saratoga: She scrambles them with pieces of green onion and cream cheese, or you can have a huge blueberry pancake, or a breakfast deal for $5 including coffee.

I've been trying to push soi-disant but it has yet to take off.

Feb. 22:

The mailman lady delivered the book today. It's in nice condition and signed by the author. The frisson is there's a character in the novel who went to Reed. Big deal, so did Barbara Ehrenreich and Ry Cooder. It also turns out that Richard Ford writes up a storm. His work is chock full of the little existential details that only novelists and cameras notice but that the rest of us recognize. Dense, but worth the effort.

Gorsegrower

How Elegant

2007-02-17T16:03:00.000-08:00

Mr. Thomas Gimble, acting Inspector General at the Pentagon, has produced a jewel of elegant understatement. He recently reported that information supplied by Douglas Feith in the run-up to Iraq was "...not fully supported by the available intelligence." Mr. Gimble still works at the Pentagon, and apparently would like to stay there.

His remark ought to be put in a gallery of such beauties, along with the letter to William Shockley by Lincoln Moses, who chaired the curriculum committee at Stanford. You may recall that Mr. Shockley volunteered a number of idiosyncratic opinions about genetics, not his area of specialization, and proposed to teach a course in the subject at Stanford.

Professor Moses sent a polite rejection that said in part, "Your qualifications to teach this course remain to be demonstrated."

Perfect.

Gorsegrower

Click for Cultcha

2007-02-16T21:11:00.000-08:00

You probably already know about it, but I just discovered that Google has a nice collection of videos that do not deal with motorcycles, kick boxing, or animals having sex. Amazing.

After you select Videos, you can search for categories like ballet, opera, or modern dance as well as individual artists, e.g. Twyla Tharpe, Kathleen Battle, or Merce Cunningham.

The Chinese are doing wonderfully inventive ballet these days. Hu Nu?

Gorsegrower

More on Virgin

2007-02-14T14:36:00.000-08:00

Kelpie Wilson has a new piece on Truthout today:

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021407J.shtml

She too has reservations about the Virgin prize, expressed thoughtfully and eloquently as usual.

Gorsegrower

Poor Kid

2007-02-13T15:12:00.000-08:00

Wayne the barber says Anna Nicole's baby is going to need all that money for psychiatric care.

Gorsegrower

Culinary Tidbit

2007-02-11T17:57:00.000-08:00

A close friend showed me how good pork chops can be when seasoned with nutmeg, and I've been using it ever since.

Gorsegrower

The How of Iraq

2007-02-11T17:36:00.001-08:00

For a definitive study of how we were led into the Iraq mess and why, see the excellent article by R. W. Behan that appeared on AlterNet. Visit their site and click on Archives; then scroll down to February 5, 2007.

It really was and is about the oil.

Sadly, the implication is that we will stay there, no matter the costs, until the Iraqis agree to Production Sharing Agreements highly advantageous to the favored oil companies, whom Behan identifies.

As for Afghanistan, it turns out to be the best route for a certain pipeline.

So much for promoting democracy.

Gorsegrower

Douglas Feith, Innovator

2007-02-10T18:18:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we heard from Douglas Feith, who ran the Pentagon's very own intelligence channel, which stands accused of sending to the Executive branch doctored intelligence that supported their plan to go into Iraq.

Mr. Feith is a very creative fellow. He met the accusations head on, maintaining that his operation did not lie, deceive, mislead, or anything bad like that. Oh no, he provided "alternative" intelligence to correct and balance the erroneous information provided by the duly established agencies like the CIA.

Mr. Feith broke new ground even for the Bushies, who do verbal gymnastics better than anybody. With this approach there is no more financial fraud, only "alternative accountancy," no wife beating, just "alternative conversational modalities," jumping off the Golden Gate bridge becomes "alternative aerobics," and strychnine in the chowder is an "alternative seasoning."

I hope Mr. Feith and his friends will understand if such shenanigans someday lead to an alternative form of political expression.

Gorsegrower

Removing pollution?

2007-02-09T20:06:00.000-08:00

There's ballyhoo today about a prize offer of a nominal $25 million, called the Virgin Challenge, by Sir Richard wotsisname with an assist from Al Gore. Sir Richard runs Virgin Airlines and is not only wealthy and well-intentioned and generous, but also has a keen sense of promotion.

Said prize is to be awarded -- not all at once -- for a feasible way to get carbon dioxide and such out of our atmosphere in large amounts for a long time. On its face that sounds like a good idea and worthy goal, doesn't it?

But wait a minute. Isn't that treating the symptoms rather than the disease? Wouldn't it be better not to put pollutants up there in the first place?

I think it was Professor Herbert Muller, in Uses of the Past, who observed that our ambitions are also our limitations. It is a form of error to set goals that are too low; this proffer looks like a good example.

More accurately, what we really need is a cheap, simple way to produce energy where and when needed without oxidation. We need a successor to Fire. While we're at it, it would also be nice to supercede The Wheel.

Fire and The Wheel, after all, date from the Stone Age, which was quite a while ago. They're due. Yet we still rely on them, which is absurd if you stop to think about it. We put men on the Moon and can send words and pictures all over the place, quickly and cheaply, but most electricity comes from burning something, and if you want to go somewhere you still must either walk or bump along on the ground most of the time. Even if you fly it's on clumsy, expensive craft that still do bird imitations.

I do admire Sir Richard, but not his approach. He may be willing to plunk down a lot of cash as a prize for some fait accompli, but just try to find a comparatively tiny amount to develop the needed technology. No can do; you have to fund and fabricate such things by yourself.

Do you suppose that's one of the reasons we still have one foot stuck in the Stone Age?

Gorsegrower

A. N. Smith RIP

2007-02-09T20:01:00.000-08:00

I wonder if we now face lengthy litigation over her implants.
Gorsegrower

So we decided

2006-11-11T19:14:00.000-08:00

not to stay the curse after all. Congratulations, fellow citizens, for seeing through the fog.

Keep it up; we're not out of the woods yet.