bogen.org

Michael Perry’s book Population 485 is truly a classic.  Perry is a firefighter in a northern Wisconsin town and the books subtitle ("Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren At a Time") gives only a hint of the book’s content.  There are incredibly funny passages, some incredibly insightful passages, and some truly clear thoughts.  One of my favorite passages from the book:

"It can be argued that one of the nice things about working in the field of fire and rescue is that for the most part, things went to heck in a hand basket before you were called, and so there is nowhere to go but up."

Republican Senator Inhofe stands on the floor of the US Senate chamber and says, "Global warming is a hoax."  Should I believe someone who has a batchelor’s degree in economics from the University of Tulsa and has worked in the aviation, real eastate, and insurance industries or a worldwide cadre of climate scientists working at numerous colleges and universities including little schools like MIT, Harvard, Stanford, and Berkeley?  Hmm…

Listening to NPR this morning was an incredibly depressing way to start my day.  First, there was discussion of the bill to send 87 billion of our dollars into the monetary black hole known as Iraq.  Of course, not a single dollar of that sum would be a loan, just like El Presidente wants.  Then, NPR managed to report on a lily-livered bill to simply hold emissions steady (not reduce them) without a single trace of irony.  Republicans (minus John McCain) were lining up against the bill because they agreed with Inhofe’s statement covertly, if not overtly.  What allows a US Senator to stand on the floor of the US Senate and lie without a single person calling him to task?

The Vikings lose, Elliot Smith commits suicide, and George Bush is still President.  Tough week.

Dumbest argument I’ve heard in the debate surrounding Wisconsin’s concealed carry law.  Republicans want to make the records of who has a concealed carry permit closed to the public.  Their reasoning?  Burglers will request a list of concealed carry permit holders from the local governmental authority.  The burglers will then know whose house not to rob.  Moronic fallacies of this argument?

1. Burglers most likely do not spend much time requesting public records from governmental authorities.
2. I could legally possess seven thousand shotguns in my house without a concealed carry permit.

Of course, the "burglers will rob your house if you don’t have a concealed weapon" argument is so much cowshit designed to create fear in a generally unthinking, soundbite-addicted public.

When will people realize that a major part of conservative Republican politics is built on creating fear in the public at large?  We fear getting robbed walking the (safe) Wisconsin streets so we need a concealed weapon.  We fear that cities will raise taxes incredibly high so we need a state ban on tax increases.  We fear that terrorists might strike at our house so we need the USA PATRIOT Act.  We fear running out of oil for our gas guzzling cars so we need to drill in ANWR.  We fear not being able to watch TV at night because of a blackout so power plants have to be built (and without those pesky environmental restrictions).  If people would simply examine how many of the arguments used by conservative Republicans are specifically crafted to create fear of something in the general public, people would turn their backs on conservative Republicans because they would realize they have been used to advance a political and economic agenda that really wasn’t in their
best interests.

Last night we saw Guster at one of the local live music venues.  The show was good, but probably not as good as when we saw them at the Fillmore in San Francisco.  Both Sarah and I are a bit wary about the fact that the percussionist plays a standard drum kit on the new album.  The fact that the band has a percussionist who plays bongos, cymbals, snares, and whatnot with his hands and feet is part of the band’s charm.  If the percussionist turns into a (standard drumkit) dummer, the band is essentially two guys with guitars and a guy on drums.  Whoopee.

The (Republican controlled) Wisconsin Legislature continues its drive to ramrod a concealed weapons law in Wisconsin.  The fear-monger from Eau Claire that is pushing the bill said yesterday that "criminals are everywhere."  My first thought was, "Would that include government, including the current federal administration?"

Our mild weather came to an end yesterday.  We had a beautiful weekend followed by a gorgeous Monday.  The weather on Monday was so nice that we went for a walk after 22:00 and the temperature was still above seventy degrees.  Now we are looking at a forecast that calls for rain and high temperatures in the forties on Sunday.  Oh well, all that wonderful weather had to end sometime.

Another busy weekend for us.

• Installed track lighting in the dining room.
• Fertilize plants
• Install outdoor thermometer on side of house
• Rake leaves
• Install new door handles on closet doors.
• Cut up old trim around picture window for the trash
• Laundry
• Soak the tortoise
• House cleaning
• etc.

Any weekend now we should be able to have a nice, relaxed weekend.

Dalla has a mild case of conjunctivitis.  We took her to the vet on Saturday after we noticed one of her eyes was red and discharging a small amount of matter.  Of course, in the time between making the appointment and going to the appointment, she ate a screw(!) that was part of the track lighting we were installing.  The vet prescribed two pieces of bread for screw consumption and a triple anti-biotic for the puppy pink eye.

The following is a brief window into the experiences Sarah and I have as dog owners:

I took Dalla out to go to the bathroom as Sarah was leaving. When we came back in, I made a peanut butter and dog biscuit sandwich. I thought about putting her in her kennel, then and there, but decided she could roam the house a bit more while I surveyed the kingdom. I pushed the peanut butter treat to the back of the counter to prevent treat poaching by a certain furry member of the family and head for the throne.

I sat there, reading my magazine, as I heard all these high-pitched yips coming from the other end of the house. My first thought was that she was looking out the back door at a squirrel on the patio. So, I called to her (with the door closed). I could hear her tags come trotting down the hall. Apparently, the closed door was boring because she quickly turned and trotted away.

A short time passed.

More high-pitched yips could be heard from the other end of the house. I started to worry that Dalla had damaged herself in some way, but not so much that she wasn’t still mobile. So, I called to her again. Again, trotting and tag jingling. I stood up and cracked open the door to visually inspect her. She took this as an invitation to come in, so I tell her “No.” while I eyeballed her body. No blood. No dangling body parts. Nose still plenty wet and cold. Hmm. All appeared well. Shut the door and go back to my kingdom.

Another short time passes.

High-pitched yipping could again be heard from the other end of the house. I finished my survey, so I opened the door while I brushed my teeth. I hoped that she would hear the door open and come to make sure that I was okay (her usual routine). Nothing. Finished brushing my teeth and proceeded to the other end of the house to determine dog’s source of distress.

Dalla was lying on the floor of the kitchen between the refrigerator and the cabinets on the east side of the kitchen. Her tail was wagging madly. Her mouth was slightly open. She was staring intently at the counter-top where her peanut butter treat was located. She yipped because she hadn’t gotten her treat yet! I took the treat off the counter, and she ran to the basement door. I opened the basement door and she took the steps to the basement in one big jump. Into her kennel she ran, tail wagging the whole time.

I placed the treat in the dog’s kennel and shut the door.  She happily starts licking and chewing the treat, all thoughts of yipping forgotten.

I think our dog is addicted to peanut butter.

We saw the movie Better Luck Tomorrow the other night.  It was a really interesting movie with deeper characters than most and a very surprising, morally ambiguous ending.

You can only imagine my joy at Rush Limbaugh’s admission that he abused drugs.  Now, let’s hoist him on his own petard.  It’s always interesting how the "law and order types" that generally want to send everyone up-river for various reasons suddenly want understanding and treatment for their problems, rather than the incarceration that they prescribe for everyone else.  Thanks for playing the game, Rush, you hypocrite.

For the record, it was the National Enquirer that broke the "Rush Limbaugh is a drug addict" story.  Perhaps all the people who (gently) ridicule me for having a subscription to the National Enquirer when I was young will remember that fact.

This weekend we worked hard on our house again.  We put up curtains in the bathroom, did some sanding, painting, and staining in the living room, painted a mirror frame and put up the mirror, taped, stained, and pained the ceiling and skylight well in the dining room, did laundry, and cleaned out the gutters and the downspouts.  I’m looking forward to winter when I can take a weekend off.

Sarah’s message to her father after the Wisconsin/Ohio State game on Sunday night:  "Go Badgers!"

My message to Sarah’s father:  "Don’t bother asking her about any part of the game after the first quarter because she was sleeping." 

Tonight I’m going to see Paul Krugman speak at a local bookstore.  Having read his column in the New York Times, I’m interested to see him in person.

Sarah got us season tickets to Badgers Mens Hockey again this year.  Last year we bought one of the two season ticket packages.  This year we bought them both.  That means we can see hockey on both Friday and Saturday night some weekends.

Curling season is rapidly approaching.  My first match is November 6th.

You can imagine my joy as I watched the Packers lose to the Chiefs last weekend.  Heh, heh, heh.

From a report about the impact of the USA PATRIOT Act written by the Center for Consitutional Rights:

"The Bush Administration’s war against terrorism, without boundary or clear end-point, has led to serious abrogation of the rights of the people and the obligations of the federal government. Abuses, of Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights in particular, have been rampant, but more disturbing is the attempt to codify into law practices that erode privacy, free speech, and the separation of powers that is the hallmark of our democracy."

Lest anyone think that only the Bush Administration is behind this erosion of Constitutional rights, Congress has generally allowed itself to be led along by the nose by the Bush Administration.  A few more stout-hearted Senators like Russ Feingold and maybe we wouldn’t be talking about the USA PATRIOT Act today.

Crazily enough, Republican challengers to Feingold in Wisconsin are trying to bash Feingold over the fact that he was the only US Senator to vote against the USA PATRIOT Act.  What is the strategy behind such a maneuver?  "Hi.  Vote for me.  I’m against individual rights and free speech, unlike Russ Feingold."  "Vote for Republican challenger Blah!  He wants the government to monitor your speech and reading habits!  He believes the FBI has a right to search your home without a warrant!"  Stupid.  Of course, even dumber are the people who will vote for such a guy just because he carries the Republican label without even pausing to think about what they are voting to support.

Our skylight and window projects are lurching towards completion.  The guy we hired as something of a general contractor for the skylight project is cool.  The guy to whom he subcontracted the drywall mudding is a flake.  The window guys finally reached some semblance of completion on Thursday last week.  We still need to stain and paint a couple of things, however, to cover up some of their errors.  It will be nice to finally get all of this housework done so that we can start enjoying our house without always having some sort of major remodeling either in progress or right around the corner.

So, if you can belive what they say (which is always a very big if), the Bush administration found strains of the "bioweapon" botulinum in Iraq.  Were we–the skeptical American public–supposed to be impressed by this fact?  Were we supposed to overlook the fact that badly canned pickles, cole slaw, carrots, tomatoes, and the like are breeding grounds for botulinum?  Does that mean that if I have canned tomatoes in my cabinet with a broken seal, that I’m secretly harboring a weapons of mass destruction program?  We went to war because Iraq has a food storage and preparation problem?

The Twins are now out of the baseball playoffs.  They had a good run this year, but, to be frank, they weren’t as good this year as last year.  Their starting pitching wasn’t very solid as it was last year, and they weren’t producing many runs at times.  As much as I would have liked to see them beat the Yankees (and I would really have liked to see them eliminate the Yankees), I’m not surprised that they failed to do so.

If you missed Dave Barry’s most recent column about telemarketing, you missed a classic.  An excerpt follows:

"Tim Searcy of the ATA was quoted in The Los Angeles Times as saying that the impact of the Do Not Call Registry would be (I did not make this quote up) ‘like an asteroid hitting the earth.’ Yes. An asteroid!

"As I write these words, lawyers and politicians and lobbyists and judges are swarming all over the telemarketing issue, so I don’t know what the legal status of the Do Not Call registry will be when you read this column. But it appears that the telemarketers plan to continue their efforts to save the planet by fighting for the right to call people who do not want to be called."

We finally had to pull the garden out of the ground this weekend.  We got a hard frost last week that killed off the tomatoes and whatnot.  So, out of the ground they came, just in time for the ash trees to start coating our lawn in leaves.

Now is the time to get on the Minnesota Vikings bandwagon.  Now that they are 5-0, bandwagon jumping will really accelerate.

We saw Josh Ritter play at The Annex last week.  Talk about the wrong person playing the wrong venue.  We last saw Josh Ritter play at The Freight and Salvage in Berkeley, CA.  That was a great, one man, one guitar show in a classy venue.  This was a four-man, multiple instrument, blare-a-thon in a concrete-brick box.  The venue itself is terrible.  The walls are all concrete-bricks.  The only soft objects in the room are the acoustic tiles in the drop ceiling and the audience.  Everything else is just one big reflective surface.  Ritter also strayed from the formula that makes him good.  He is a great entertainer with just a guitar in front of a small crowd.  In front of a moderate crowd in a dimly lit box, with a backing band and an incompetent behind the sound board, he leaves plenty to be desired.