Al Franken on The Truth

About 16 years ago, there was a book kicking around (so to speak) the green room at the theatre about the Reagan years. I refused to read it, having lived through those years and having no desire to be reminded of anything to do with the man.

However, I just read Al Franken's "The Truth (with jokes)", published in 2005. There were moments of painful memories, but I wanted to extract this one extended quote. Here he is referring to Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, and the rest of the gang of miscreants that made up the Bush (mis)administration:

   Let's face it. You can't count on them to give you straight information. You can't count on them to tell us straight why we're going to war. You can't count on them to tell us what's happening over there.
   You can't count on them to do their homework. To keep track of our money. You can't count on them to punish war profiteers. You can't count on them to protect our troops.
   You can't rely on them for much of anything. Armor. Veterans' benefits. You can't count on them for the true story of how Jessica Lynch was captured, or how Pat Tillman died. Even for how the "Mission Accomplished" sign went up on the USS Abraham Lincoln. They actually lied about that.
   You can't count on them to count terrorist attacks. You can't count on them to count civilian victims. You can't count on them to listen to military commanders and send in enough troops, or to listen to Colin Powell and not torture people, or to not lie about whether the torture policies started at the tip.
   You can't trust them to care. About Iraqis. About Americans.
   You can't trust them to do the work of actually signing killed-in-action letters. You can't trust them no to lie about not signing killed-in-action letters.
   You can't count on them to acknowledge any mistakes whatsoever. You can't trust them not to lie when confronted with those mistakes.
   You can't trust them no to believe their own propaganda.
   You can't trust them. Period.

Bike Ride

Took a bike ride today. I've been able to get out once a week for a few weeks now. It's not much, but it's much more than last year or for many years!

There are parts of this when viewed on satellite image appear to be cross-country, but it's all pretty much paved bike path now. There's a nice little park by the lake where there were fields of black-eyed susans.

I was out just under two hours, travelling at a leisurely pace.

Giddy

When I was a child, I became quite giddy with excitement when I won a shiny fifty cent piece on the Midway at the Blue Hill Fair. Today at an estate sale I experienced the same giddiness when I found a deal I couldn't pass up - $25 for a 2.93 gigahertz eMachines computer box and $15 for an old 15" flat panel screen. I even bargained $5 off the price.

But I neglected to grab the power supply for the monitor, and I neglected to consider that the box might not work. It doesn't. The CPU fan is broken, and the 80gig hard drive was held in with duct tape. I'm not sure the motherboard is even the original - it googles as a Gateway board.

So my giddyness is ashes.

Oh, and the shiny fifty cent piece? After showing mom and dad, I went right back and squandered it on more games of chance.

Don't Be Afraid of Socialized Medicine

Look, we have socialized health care now. I'm not referring to Medicare or the VA, although they certainly qualify.

 

I'm referring to every health insurance plan, public or private. They all socialize the costs across a pool of contributors, through payments called premiums (private) or taxes (public).

 

The difference between private and public socialized health care is that the private systems skim off some portion of the contributions to the owners or shareholders of the system, while the public systems do not. Because of this, in the private systems there is motivation to limit - ration - the health care that is supported or paid for.

 

So you see people denied enrollment because of "pre-existing" conditions - real or not - or booted out of the system through rescission, or simply denied the care their doctor determines they need.

Portmanteau of the Day

You may have heard the portmanteau term stay-cation.  I'll be working on the house next week, so I'll be on reno-cation.

Is it ok with you?

I have lived my life craving approval. 

 

Or have I been trying to avoid disapproval?

Doing the splits at work

I have at least two distinct areas of responsibility at work.  When I'm working on one, the part of me responsible for the other is resentful for the lack of attention ...

That would be a terrific band name

Erratic Attitude

 

Plume of Stink

Work Environment

Chemical smells and products of combustion - smokers or exhaust - distract me from my work.  I value my health and it drives me crazy .. er.

Compact Fluorescents

I wrote this for a CIDU thread, and thought I'd drop it here, too.

I’ve been using CFLs for 23 years, since I read about the Philips “Earth Light” in Whole Earth Review (probably). It had an improved mix of phosphors to give a better color of light than the standard tube fluorescents available at the time. It did not last as long as promised, but it was a start. CFLs have improved tremendously over the years. Early on they were too big to fit in most lamps, took a long time to come up to full brightness, and had a generally awful color temperature.

But they lasted a long time (unlike the Earth Light) and saved electricity, and once they invented the twisted tube and miniaturized the electronic ballasts, they are small enough to fit even in my green “banker’s” desk lamp.

I now use them in almost every socket, except those on dimmers - they don’t quite have that right yet. I even have them in both outside porch lights, and they turn on even when it’s 5º F or colder.

The full-spectrum Verilux are expensive, but have a bright white light. The standard-issue CFLs are for utility use only - the recessed light in the bathroom, for example. I find the Bright White CFLs with a color temperature of about 3500K are good for reading at the dining table. The Daylight color temp (6500K) are a little too harsh for my taste.

Over the years I can remember only a few that burned out a ballast and let the smoke out of the case. Usually the lamp itself goes bad, like all fluorescents. The only other drawback I have found is that until they reach full brightness, CFLs emit a flood of infra-red, which overwhelms the TV remote control.