Right Here, Right Now

The outtake.

2008-09-06T22:57:00.001-07:00

The kids.

2008-09-06T22:54:00.000-07:00

Taken yesterday, down the street from Bernardos on Capitol.

Rudy, Rudy, Rudy

2008-09-05T16:28:00.000-07:00

(via Kos)

Mr. noun-verb-911 on John McCain, when McCain was Rudy's opponent in the primaries:

...has never run a city, never run a state, never run a government. He has never been responsible as a mayor for the safety and security of millions of people...

And Rudy on Sen. Obama.

..he's never run a city, never run a state, never run a business. He's never had to lead people in crisis.

I commented a while ago that this election was interesting because it was the first since John Kennedy was elected that the winner would come out of the Senate.

The whole 'admin' experience is a red-herring. Or at best, not a reasonable predictor of future success. Clinton had been a governor for ever and by all accounts ran a very loose ship. W was all about process and we saw how that worked out.

I am, of course, happy to buy into the argument that Obama has run a very successful organization for the past 19 months, with a budget larger than Alaska's. (and unlike the socialist* state of Alaska, his funding came voluntarily).

* Like Saudia Arabia, most of Alaska's income comes from the Oil Industry. Alaska actually pays people to live there! Isn't that socialism? When you get money & services just for being there?

Sister update

2008-09-05T15:41:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday the Sister and I went to Stanford Medical Center, Cancer Division and met with Dr. Wakelee. The purpose of the visit was both to get a 2nd opinion and to see if there were any clinical trials currently underway at Stanford �that might help the Sis.

To answer the latter, no. No magic wand. But we're welcome to check back.

The good news, from my perspective is that Dr. Wakelee was on board with the treatment the sister has been receiving. She might have done things slightly differently, but not substantially.

On Wednesday we had a follow-up with the primary oncologist, a Dr. Wong, �and based on the discussions with Stanford and a previous discussion with him, decided to try Tarceva. The primary benefit of this drug is that the Sister's qualify of life goes way up. Tarceva is a pill, taken daily with much softer possible side effects.

The current lifestyle while undergoing chemo therapy is to have chemo, feel like crap for 2 weeks, start to recover, wash, rinse and repeat.

With Tarceva, the hope is that 'normal' becomes the norm. We'll see. It'll take a month or more for her body to clear the toxins from the chemo.

Jesus was a Community Organizer, and Pontius Pilate was a Governor

2008-09-04T16:01:00.000-07:00

(Sorry, it's gonna be like this for a while...)

Two different things.

First, please go read this: What a Community Organizer Does. �Sarah Palin felt compelled to mock Obama's years of community service. This article responds better than I could.�

Next, what is behind the attempt to tag Obama as an "Elite". I have no idea how a kid goes from being born to a too-young mother, raised by that mother and her parents, to earning his way into Harvard, to working for his adopted community in Chicago - and that's 'elitism'. Whereas McCain, son and grandson of Navy Admirals, marrying into wealth, is living the American dream.
So, how do you get Elite out of Obama's background? Harvard is definetly elite, but he earned it. It wasn't a legacy appointment. And he took the advantage implicit in attending Harvard and gave back to the community. (see above).

Maybe 'elite' is code for uppity.

"Just from what little I�ve seen of her and Mr. Obama, Sen. Obama, they're a member of an elitist-class individual that thinks that they're uppity," Westmoreland said.

"Westmoreland" is a U.S. Congressman! It just goes to show you, you only need a few votes to make it to the national stage.

(After first posting this, I ran across the perfect title for the post, from here)

This is my problem with the right-wing

2008-09-04T11:14:00.000-07:00

Just the inbred hypocrisy.

And, no, you don't get to say the Democrats do it too, because then your 'all about change and kick the bastards out' Republican ticket is just more of the same (and considering that the bastards they want to throw out are Republicans just makes it more recursive.)

Not that it matters

2008-09-02T19:05:00.000-07:00

from Edna St. Vincent Millay

"Not that it matters, not that my heart's cry
Is potent to deflect our common doom, "

I'm unclear on the benefit of pop stars speaking out on major issues, lord knows there are still starving children. But on Friday the 5th, there will be TV show that will be shown concurrently on the three major broadcast networks that aims to end cancer.

Here's some interesting facts about Lung Cancer:

Lung cancer will kill:

More people than breast, prostate, colon, live, kidney, and melanoma cancers... combined.
Over three times as many men as prostate cancer.
Nearly twice as many women as breast cancer.
An average of 439 people a day.

Over 60% of new cases are never smokers or former smokers, many of whom quit decades ago.
One in five women and one in twelve men diagnosed with lung cancer have never smoked. (My sister never smoked. We learned today that lung cancer among non-smoking women is increasing.)

This explains it, I think....

2008-09-01T08:36:00.001-07:00

From an Op-Ed by a Hillary supporter. Money quote:

During the campaign, we scoffed at events like this, mostly because we were not capable of producing them.

"This" is Obama's acceptance speech at an outdoor stadium attended by 70-80,000 people and watched by 38 million.

I think this explains why the McCain camp has substituted 'scoffing' for political discourse. In their wildest dreams, they couldn't produce an event like this. They don't have the right candidate.�

Cat Man Do

2008-08-30T14:09:00.001-07:00

Game Over

2008-08-29T15:50:00.001-07:00

I think John McCain just lost whatever chance he had of becoming President.

On one hand, McCain has robbed the Republicans of the one hammer they had, Obama was inexperienced. Here we have someone who had been mayor of a town smaller than the subdivision I live in and then has been governor for two years of a state with a smaller�population�than the county I live in. At a similar point in life when Obama was in Harvard Law School, Palin was entering beauty�pageants.

On the other hand, the point that the Democrats have been making for the last week is that McCain has exhibited poor judgement. He was wrong about Iraq, he is wrong about Afghanistan, he is wrong about the economy and on and on. And he just made their point. If this is an example of the kinds of decisions he'll make once in office, we have been warned.

Hopefully, the voters of Alaska are outliers. The fact the Ted Stevens, who is under indictment!, just made it through the primaries indicates a wild-west approach to�politics�that provides a nice launching pad for someone like Palin.

So, the 26% of the electorate that continue to support W have been�mollified�by the selection of a right-to-life, anti-environment, creationist. The rest of us can look forward to the renewal of an American�government�worthy of pride.

Mona Lisa ('Mona' for day to day use)

2008-08-26T13:37:00.000-07:00

Lost cat gets new home. Lost home gets new cat.

Black Text, White Background, as Gutenberg intended.

2008-07-31T00:25:00.000-07:00

This is a repeat of a tip I got from BackupBrain. If you hate reading sites that use white text on who-knows-what color background, just drag this ("b/w") to your browser tool bar. Then when you visit such a site, all you have to do is click the b/w link in your toolbar and web site will give you black text on a white background.

(or, just click it now to see what happens.)

Comcast Rant

2008-07-29T17:13:00.000-07:00

Executive Summary: Comcast ~~is a tone-deaf, ham fisted, anti-customer company~~ can be responsive if you know how to reach them.

Update: I emailed a link to this post to We_Can_Help@cable.comcast.com. Within an hour I received a phone call from Paul, who explained how I had tripped the auto-alarm and he said he'd lift the block on my outgoing email. The issue turned out to be related to my VPN use. I'm no longer blocked and I know how to prevent a recurrence. Happy ending, in my book. Comcast needs to get this level of care pushed down the pipeline.

I discovered last Sunday that for the previous three days none of my outgoing email had actually gone out. After doing some testing that involved borrowing a neighbor's wifi connection I determined that something was up with my Comcast connection.

I started a 'chat' with Comcast support and that person had no idea what was up.

While I waas chatting I checked my Comcast email. This is the account you get automatically when you get service from them, but I don't use it, never check it, don't care about it. Sadly, it's the email Comcast uses to communicate with its customers. (I've subsequently set my mail client to check it on a regular basis.)

I had an email from Comcast:

Dear Comcast Subscriber:
ACTION REQUIRED: Comcast has determined that your computer(s) have been used to send unsolicited email ("spam"), which is generally an indicator of a virus. For your own protection and that of other Comcast customers, we have taken steps to prevent further transmission of spam from your computer(s).

What followed was 7 paragraphs of help that only applied to Windows users. (use IE to get back in their good graces, check for viruses, etc. For the PC readers, Macs really don't get viruses and certainly not the 'let's hijack your mail program' stuff that you have to protect against. )

But the key thing is that they had tagged me specifically as a site that sent spam. This wasn't a generic "hey we're worried" email. They shut down my ability to send email because of behavior of my computer(s).

I'm reading this email while still chatting with the Comcast 'helper'. This is how my conversation with them went:

Marife > I really apologize, Lee, but we cannot address this issue. Mail servers that have sent high volumes of Spam to the comcast.net domain. Please review the error messages that you have received and the corresponding FAQ links provided within the bounce back message � this will help them to resolve their issue.
Lee_> I'm telling you there's been a mis-fire. I don't have anything to check. I send 5-10 emails a day. There is no spam.
Lee_> and the FAQ talks about how to configure my comcast.net account, which isn't the issue. I don't use that account.
Lee_> Who do I call to get this fixed, if you can't help me?
Marife > Lee, I have already reported this issue to our higher fix agency. We will do our best to resolve on this issue immediately.
Lee_> How can I track this, is there a ticket number?
Marife > May I ask for a reliable contact number that the technician can call?
Lee_> [redacted]
Marife > Thank you.
Lee_> Is there a ticket/case number for this?
Marife > The technician will call you just in case they need additional information.
Lee_> I would like the ticket number.
Marife > Yes Lee. Please give me a few moments.
Marife > Here is the ticket number CR132550367 for your reference.
Marife > Is there anything else that I can assist you with today?
Lee_> Yes, is there an estimated time for when this will be resolved?
Marife > We will do our best to resolve this issue within 24 hours, Lee.
Lee_> Thanks.
Marife > You are most welcome.
Marife > Thank you for contacting Comcast. If you need assistance in the future, please do not hesitate to contact us through Live Chat or E-mail (available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week). Simply visit www.comcast.net and select Help.
Marife > Goodbye and take care.

Ok, so Marife has escalated the case to 'our higher fix agency'.

24 hours and not able to send email. Forget that. I started poking around.

It turns out all they'd done was block port 25. A port lesson is beyond the scope of this rant, but think of it as, your house has 10,000 doors and someone wants you to keep from leaving so they lock one of the doors. There are still 9,999 options to get out, if you can get someone to meet you on the other side.

It turns out that my email provider listens for mail on port 26 as well as 25, so two hours after I realized the problem I was back in gear; everything was working.

But I have this outstanding issue with Comcast; they've tagged me as a spammer. Comcast unplugs customers without talking to them first. I'm a little worried that they might re-focus their attention on me. So, I try to follow up with Comcast support to see where things are at. On their web support form I post this question:

Is there a way to track a support ticket on-line?

I get this repsonse:

Thank you for contacting Comcast via e-mail.

I understand that you have questions regarding a support ticket.

I am sorry for the inconvenience, but this cannot be monitored online.
In reviewing your account, I am showing that there is no open ticket on your account.

a) I posted a web form, not sent an email.
b) NO OPEN TICKET?

I reply:

In an on-line chat with support I was given a ticket number of CR132550367

And just now, in the final straw, I get:

Thank you for contacting Comcast Cable.

The ticket number that you have provided has been closed. This is because you were advised to send as much information including the ip address to abuse@comcast.net.

Nowhere in any communication (including the original email sent to my Comcast account) was I advised to contact abuse@comcast.net.

I responded by asking them to tell me where I was told that, but at this point, I really don't care.

I live outside ATT's service area; I really have no credible option for high-speed internet service.

Why I like the inter-tubes

2008-07-28T18:09:00.000-07:00

Somewhere back in the mid-60s I met the Dennis family. I've not been back to Bowling Green much the last few years to keep in touch in-person, but I'm warmly greeted each time I make it back.

Via Flickr I get an update. That's Dennis Pere y Mere with their great-grandson.

Dancing Fool

2008-06-24T13:16:00.001-07:00

Ok, somehow this is a promotion for gum. Go figure. Still fun to watch.

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Doodles

2008-06-21T11:57:00.000-07:00

I know a dad is supposed to think everything his child does is sheer brilliance, but really, I think these doodles Lilah did really convey a mood with a minimum of �detail.

Your Wine is Safe From Predators

2008-06-04T19:42:00.000-07:00

I'm helping a friend who is working at the California State Fair Wine Competition. Today I had to provide my date of birth, driver's license number and zip code so they could verify I'm not a registered sex offender. To work at a wine competition.

Wow

2008-06-03T12:22:00.000-07:00

It appears that the Democratic Party is going to nominate a black man to be the next President of the United States. Win, lose or draw, that's an amazing thing.

I'm hopeful he'll win, but regardless, it'll be nice to have a President that can, unassisted, put a sentence together. The next one will also be the first President since 1960 to come to the job from the Senate.

It will be interesting to see what itch Obama tries to scratch with his VP pick. I think Jim Webb would be interesting. A real military hero. At the end of the day, that's what McCain perceives as his own strength, obviously. In his campaign bio, McCain gives more space to his military heritage than to his political life and accomplishments. And the political accomplishments he offers could be summarized as a mea culpa for his involvement in the Keating scandal.

Those Appeasers!

2008-05-15T13:59:00.000-07:00

Compare and contrast this:

The United States is open to bilateral talks with Iran or Syria at a conference in Baghdad this weekend if either country approaches U.S. officials to discuss stabilizing Iraq, a top State Department official said Thursday.

"If we are approached over orange juice by the Syrians or the Iranians to discuss an Iraq-related issue that is germane to this topic -- stable, secure, peaceful, democratic Iraq -- we are not going to turn and walk away," David Satterfield, the State Department's Iraq coordinator, told reporters.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/03/08/us.iran.iraq/index.html

With this:

Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: "Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided." We have an obligation to call this what it is -- the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history. (Applause.)

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/05/20080515-1.html

I guess it wouldn't have been appeasement if the unnamed senator from 70 years ago had been approached by Hitler over orange juice. In the Bush world view, if the bad guys call, we can talk. But the US can't call and talk. Got it.

And, Lord help me, in this speech, Bush refers to "suiciders." Apparently not for the first time."

Oh Hell

2008-05-15T01:00:00.000-07:00

The sister started a 2nd chemo about six weeks ago, maybe nine. The first round of chemo seemed to be doing the job on the cancer, but the cure was worse than the disease. She was exhausted; her blood counts were wack. Not good. So, the 2nd regime was started.

She had a Pet scan last Monday and we got the results yesterday. Not good. Some of the disease which had been stalled or shrinking were growing again.

Next Monday, if all the doctors concur and the insurance company is ok with it, she'll start on her third chemo cocktail.

The sister remains optimistic and determined. She is more patient under this duress than I am in mid-day traffic. I am taking notes.

Through it all I have been extraordinarily impressed with the outpouring of love and support from her friends. Drawn from her church, a central part of her life, other parents from her kid's school, former neighbors and co-workers, these people have stepped up and maintained a high level of support since last November. Meals delivered - multiple times a week, trips to the clinic for treatment, trips to the hospital, a housecleaning service, and, of course, just being a friend.

It is kind, and no less laudatory, to help someone over a few weeks. It is astonishing and redemptive to watch her friends support her over these seven months.

With no end in sight.

It's about the leadership, stupid.

2008-05-04T12:12:00.000-07:00

From Robert Reich

Even though the summer gas tax holiday is pure hokum, it polls well, which is why HRC and John McCain are pushing it. That Barack Obama is not in favor of it despite its positive polling numbers speaks volumes about the kind of president he�ll be � and the kind of president we�d otherwise get from McCain and HRC.

Interesting overview of press coverage of Muslim issues

2008-05-03T12:42:00.000-07:00

Starting at the 32 minute mark. I really like all of On The Media; but this article is particularly good..

Listen directly:

Or download it.

TV as the modern Gin.

2008-04-30T10:31:00.000-07:00

40 Years On

2008-04-03T14:15:00.000-07:00

Of course, I processed the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. But as a sixth grader it didn't really register as something other than 'news'. This was the late 60s when you'd listen to Uncle Walter every night and learn that 49 more soldiers had died in Vietnam. Death was common.

On the other hand, Bobby Kennedy's killing, two months later was surprisingly unsettling to someone too young to be worried about such things. It took me right out of the class picnic.

In honor of Dr. King's life, some links that might not come up in the top 10 in a Google search:

A Miami Herald article on the garbage worker's strike that brought King to Memphis in the first place.

A column by the same writer on Robert Kennedy's response to King's death. I�especially like:

Robert Kennedy was, in many ways, not the first person you'd choose for the job of racial reconciler. He was rich and white and born of privilege, his upper crust roots audible in every exhalation of that Brahmin accent that pronounced ''chance'' as ''chawnce'' and turned ''whether'' into ''whethah.'' Nor had he always been a devotee of the civil rights movement. To the contrary, he had regarded it warily, concerned over its potential to embarrass his brother John, the president. Indeed, it was Robert Kennedy, as attorney general, who loosed J. Edgar Hoover's FBI to spy upon and harass King.

But Kennedy was also that rarity, a man with the capacity to change. It is hard to say when that change occurred in him. Maybe it was somewhere in his dealings with intransigent, stand-in-the-doorway Southern potentates who refused to protect the rights of peaceful demonstrators or abide by the Constitution of the United States. Maybe it was that night King and his followers were trapped in a church by a howling, riotous mob of whites, and Kennedy had to send federal marshals to rescue them.

And to connect it a bit (and it's all connected) are there any modern presidential candidates that would quote Aeschylus in an extemporaneous speech?

Home Again, Rose

2008-03-25T18:39:00.000-07:00

The sister is going home. Phew.