Changing Places

As in years past, a very Happy New Year to you all!

We are home from Tucson and Phoenix — family are all fine, and saw several friends.

The kids took great care of the pets and the house.

Darwin ate our bedroom fan remote…..

Gonna be a busy one with many many changes — hope you are all getting rested up and ready! A friend on one of my political email lists sends these quotes around tonight…

I’m off to Arizona for a few days to see family and friends - back soon!
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“It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather a vigilant and tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds.” — Samuel Adams

“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.” - Thomas Paine

“Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.” - George Washington

In the beginning, the patriot is a scarce man — brave, hated, and scorned. But when his cause succeeds, the timid join him. For then, it costs nothing to be a patriot. — Mark Twain

“The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” Edmund Burke 1729-1797

“I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do. What I can do, I should do. And what I should do, by the grace of God, I will do.” ~ Edward Everett Hale

“The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.” ~Albert Einstein

“If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.” -Samuel Adams

“If a nation or individual values anything more than freedom, it will lose it’s freedom; and the irony is that if it is comfort or money it values more, it will lose that too.” –W. Somerset Maugham

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. - Martin Luther King Jr.

“The battle for freedom is never won, and is never lost. The battle for freedom always continues. It is never too late, and it is never soon enough, to defend freedom.” -John Perna

I think this article makes some good points. But part of what makes this kind of economic deal work is simply attention. For those who focus their attention on money and wealth, this kind of “bet” on changing your behavior would work. For those who really aren’t as concerned about money it probably wouldn’t work.

Can economics make you a better person? - By Tim Harford - Slate Magazine

Economists rarely make good forecasts, but let me venture one: Most readers of this column will eat and drink heavily over the next couple of weeks (as will its writer), and many of us will, on Jan. 1, vow to do better in the future. Can economics provide a little assistance in coping with this annual ritual?

I think it can, and so do three economists at Yale who’ve been helping me out. Professors Dean Karlan and Ian Ayres (who is also a law professor and the author of Super Crunchers), along with Jordan Goldberg, a business-school student, have a check from me for $1,000.

If I do not do 200 push-ups and 200 sit-ups each week, they’ll start sending my money to a charity, $100 at a time. (I chose the hugely deserving D.C. Central Kitchen.) They will shortly offer the same dubious privilege to countless others via a new company, Stickk.com.

It’s a clever business idea and a variant on the old theme of making a bet with a friend that you can lose weight or quit smoking. But it doesn’t fit anywhere in classical economics. The odd, robotic creature that populates traditional economic models does not need an incentive to stiffen its resolve. In fact, “resolve” is not a concept that translates into the standard model of economic behavior.

My Christmas present from my son - he knows me so well!

My Associates Store - Lio: Happiness Is a Squishy Cephalopod

Drawn in the age-old style of pantomime strips, LIÓ offers a decidedly new and edgy twist to the wordless comic format. That’s right, LIÓ is so crafty it doesn’t need word balloons, dialogue boxes, or clever captions. Mark Tatulli’s cartoon also employs a unique drawing style influenced by cartooning greats Gahan Wilson, Charles Addams, and 19th-century satirist A. J. Volck.

In describing his strip, Tatulli explains he was eager “to bring something truly different to the comics pages . . . something to appeal to all ages, drawn in pictures only. To tell a story without text, while updating the pantomime concept with a modern audience in mind.”

The result is a mind-bendingly humorous and astute journey into the darkly detailed world of young Lió—where a spit wad can put a school bus out of commission faster than a spider can hamper the efforts of the U.S. Postal Service.

More of the haul:

Hope Santa leaves you everything you wanted!

Floating about the Intertubes clogging them up today:

They are already making plans for the GW Bush Library. Proposed exhibits include:

The Alberto Gonzales Room - Where you can’t remember anything.

The Hurricane Katrina Room - It’s still under construction.

The Texas Air National Guard Room - Where you don’t have to even show up.

The Walter Reed Hospital Room - Where they don’t let you in.

The Guantanamo Bay Room - Where they don’t let you out.

The Weapons of Mass Destruction Room - Nobody has been able to find it.

The War in Iraq Room - After you complete your first tour, they can force you to go back for your second and third and fourth and fifth tours.

The Dick Cheney Room - In an undisclosed location, but reports are if you find it, it contains a unique shooting gallery.

Plans also include:

The K-Street Project Gift Shop - Where you can buy an election, or, if no one cares, steal one.

The Men’s Room - Where you can meet a Republican Senator (or two).

Last, but not least, there will also be an entire floor devoted to a 7/8 scale model of the President’s ego.

To be fair, the President has done some good things, and so the museum will have an electron microscope to help you locate them.

When asked, President Bush said that he didn’t care so much about the individual exhibits as long as his museum was better than his father’s.

Got your pole and grievances ready?

Exactly. I’m so damned sick of the anecdotes of selfishness.

First Draft

There’s got to be a point where we stop, as a country, looking for reasons not to give a damn, looking for an anecdote to invalidate all our desire to fix things. There’s got to be a point where we just call bullshit on it, on this thing where somebody’s cousin heard from somebody else that a woman crossed the border down in Texas just to give birth here and take our jobs, and start talking about the deliberate devaluation of the American manufacturing base and the abandonment of the city working class to chase more and more profits, not to mention the profound economic imbalances in North America, instead of bitching directionlessly that it’s all the immigrants’ fault.

There’s got to be a point where, sure, if we give everybody health care some diabetic fatass six-pack-a-day smoker is gonna get care on my tax dollar, and there’s got to be a point where we say, “Oh well, tough shit for me, then” because the benefits to us all so wildly outweigh our whack-a-do certainty that we’re the only virtuous creatures God ever made and everybody else is selling something.

There’s got to be a point where we hear some Katrina victim bought bling at Wal-Mart with his FEMA money once, and we just fucking move on instead of using that one little story to shake our heads at the whole Gulf Coast and give up, figuring fuck them, they don’t need our help anymore.

(Incidentally, I think this is why we get so crazy about stories about abused kids and animals. It’s hard to rationalize that a cat got itself set on fire on purpose in order to curry sympathy with the liberal welfare crowd.)

We have to stop this selfish crap. We have to stop picking apart everybody else’s details in an effort to make sure we’re not getting taken, because if we spent a fraction of the amount of attention we give over to examining the lives of immigrants and the poor to make sure they’re properly deserving of our largesse to actually eradicating poverty and other social ills, we could cure illiteracy, cancer, the bubonic plague and death. We have to stop getting distracted by the personal, distracted by the anecdote, distracted by the exception, because otherwise we’re entirely missing the rule, and the rule’s so much worse than the exception.

Happy Solstice…

May you find peace in quiet reflection today… (hint: avoid the malls)

Hecate has a beautiful post on the yule season here.

Feed Article | Business |

Between railroad tracks and beneath the roar of departing planes sits “tent city,” a terminus for homeless people. It is not, as might be expected, in a blighted city center, but in the once-booming suburbia of Southern California.
The noisy, dusty camp sprang up in July with 20 residents and now numbers 200 people, including several children, growing as this region east of Los Angeles has been hit by the U.S. housing crisis.
The unraveling of the region known as the Inland Empire reads like a 21st century version of “The Grapes of Wrath,” John Steinbeck’s novel about families driven from their lands by the Great Depression.
As more families throw in the towel and head to foreclosure here and across the nation, the social costs of collapse are adding up in the form of higher rates of homelessness, crime and even disease.

More here.

Hope the family wins their lawsuit against the heartless bastards. Can we PLEASE have single payer coverage and end the madness in this country?

Sadly this denial of coverage happens every day for hundreds of people. And that’s for those of us lucky enough to even have insurance. All so these asshat CEOs can make their millions.

Teen dies after transplant funds nixed - Yahoo! News

- A 17-year old died just hours after her health insurance company reversed its decision not to pay for a liver transplant that doctors said the girl needed.

Nataline Sarkisyan died Thursday night at about 6 p.m. at University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center. She had been in a vegetative state for weeks, said her mother, Hilda.

“She passed away, and the insurance (company) is responsible for this,” she said.

Nataline had been battling leukemia and received a bone marrow transplant from her brother. She developed a complication, however, that caused her liver to fail.

Doctors at UCLA determined she needed a transplant and sent a letter to CIGNA Healthcare on Dec. 11. The Philadelphia-based health insurance company denied payment for the transplant.

On Thursday, about 150 teenagers and nurses protested outside CIGNA’s office in Glendale. As the protesters rallied, the company reversed its decision and said it would approve the transplant.

Despite the reversal, CIGNA said in an e-mail statement before she died that there was a lack of medical evidence showing the procedure would work in Nataline’s case.

“Our hearts go out to Nataline and her family, as they endure this terrible ordeal,” the company said. ” … CIGNA HealthCare has decided to make an exception in this rare and unusual case and we will provide coverage should she proceed with the requested liver transplant.”

Officials with CIGNA could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday night.

Karen has a great post today on how to help out your local animal rescue group or shelter. Karen lists 101 suggestions - I ‘ll just get you started here and you can read the rest of the post at her place…

Author Mom with Dogs

Having found two wonderful dogs through rescue, and having acquired several dear human friends in the process, I’ve become very familiar with not only how hard these people work, but what they accomplish with so little. So, especially, during this time of year, I try to do what I can to pitch in. It doesn’t take much to make a difference. Here are a list of ideas to help inspire you. (Your local shelter can use many of the same items.)

Can you…

1. Transport a dog?
2. Donate a dog bed or towels or other *bedding* type items?
3. Donate MONEY?
4. Donate a Kong? A Nylabone? A hercules?
5. Donate a crate?
6. Donate an x-pen or baby gates?
7. Donate a food dish or a stainless bucket for a crate?
8. Donate a leash?
9. Donate a collar?
10 .Donate some treats or a bag of food?

…

Love, Darwin and Donna

Thanks for reading!

Oh, and we got you some rabbits from Heifer.org!

UPDATE:

Darwin and I did our therapy work this morning and everyone thought hw was so cute in his hat! He’s really starting to enjoy his work and is not at all nervous about it anymore. And I have to say Darwin is certainly the best therapy I’ve had all year!

I wondered if they would call in their ownership of our debt in shares of companies or go after something they’ve wanted for a while, like Taiwan.

Looks like the Chinese are going to choose the buyout option. Welcome to our new Chinese overlords!

Morgan Stanley to Sell Stake to China Amid Loss - New York Times

Morgan Stanley posted its first quarterly loss ever on Wednesday after taking an additional $5.7 billion write-down related to subprime mortgages. The investment bank said it would sell a $5 billion stake to the China Investment Corporation, that country’s sovereign wealth fund, to shore up its capital.

The sale, which would give China about a 9.9 percent stake in one of Wall Street’s biggest investment banks, is the latest example of a foreign investor shoring up a Western financial firm in the wake of the housing meltdown.

Morgan Stanley’s $3.59 billion loss for the fourth quarter, or $3.61 a share, was a sharp drop from the $1.98 billion, or $1.87 a share, it earned in the period a year earlier. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News had expected a loss of 39 cents a share.

With the second write-down, Morgan Stanley has now lowered the value of its subprime holdings by $9.4 billion, one of the largest devaluations on Wall Street. In a statement, the bank’s chief executive, John J. Mack, said he took full responsibility and would forgo a bonus for 2007.

Sigh. The last of my mom’s siblings. And I just found out today from my cousin’s Christmas card.
Well, we were never close, so I’m not too surprised.

Sigh.

Vorhees Funeral Home, Ridgefield Park, NJ 07660

Garner, Charles Ray age 83 on November 15, 2007 of Ridgefield Park.

He retired as a Marine Personnel Manager for Sealand Co. in Elizabeth and was a member of the American Legion and parishioner of St. Francis RC Church.

Beloved husband to Eileen T. (nee Maher). Devoted father to Michelle Graves, Sheila Smith and Judi Murry. Loving grandfather to eight grandchildren. Dear brother to the late Marie Anderson, Alma Woodka and Helen Bergland.

A Funeral Mass will be offered at St. Francis RC Church, Ridgefield Park on Monday at 11am. Cremation will be private. If desired donations may be made to: Holy Name Hospice Homecare 725 Teaneck Rd. Teaneck, NJ 07666 in his memory.

I did make a donation to the Hospice. Mom would have wanted me to do that…

Paper people in a raging fire
Trying to keep the cold away
Talking tangled in a thorny briar
Lost with nothing left to say
Always racing for the night to hide us
Never listening to the love inside us
No one ever told us we were wrong
No one said when love is weak
It may be getting strong
She searched for a shoulder
And mine was gone…

Drawing pictures in the sand
Trying to tease the time to stay
Wishing water never met the land
To wash the dreams away
Taking turns at being friends and lovers
Hearing what we both believe from others
No one ever told us we were wrong
No one said when love is weak
It may be getting strong
She searched for a shoulder
And mine was gone…

– Dan Fogelberg, Full Circle

My new name for a blog….

Eschaton

One of my pet peeves has long been a certain strain of defeatism. Understandably we all feel defeated at times, but there’s a certain kind of defeatist out there on the internets, people who spend most of their time chastising others for thinking it’s possible to have any influence and attacking the “stupidity” of those who even bother to try. Maybe those people are right. Maybe there never is anything to be done. But if that’s the case, get a new goddamn hobby. It’s rather odd to spend all your time following political news and blogs if the only reason to do it is to provide justification for your view that All Is Lost. Just go out and have some fun instead.

Except I disagree with the go have fun instead line. I think Americans are entirely too addicted to going and having fun at the expense of the country and the rest of the world. We all need to start giving a shit about what’s going on around us and becoming aware. The American habit of sleep-walking through life is really beginning to bother me. A lot.

But there is no point to being defeatist. What we say and do does make a difference. It does influence the people around us, even if they just tell us to shut up already, or decide not to read our blogs anymore or whatever. It plants the seed for more critical thinking of the world around them, even as they cover their ears and shout, “I’m not listening! La la la!” If nothing else, they’ve become aware of their own denial. And that is an important step to changing hearts and minds.

Never be afraid to say what you’re thinking. You may think better of it and decide not to say it, but you shouldn’t be “afraid” to say it. And you shouldn’t be afraid that what you think and say has no influence - it does.

One of my favorites.

Sigh….

Singer Dan Fogelberg, 56, Dies of Cancer

Dan Fogelberg, the singer and songwriter whose hits “Leader of the Band” and “Same Old Lang Syne” helped define the soft-rock era, died Sunday at his home in Maine after battling prostate cancer. He was 56.

His death was announced in a statement released by his family through the firm Scoop Marketing, and it was also posted on the singer’s Web site.

“Dan left us this morning at 6:00 a.m. He fought a brave battle with cancer and died peacefully at home in Maine with his wife Jean at his side,” it read. “His strength, dignity and grace in the face of the daunting challenges of this disease were an inspiration to all who knew him.”

Fogelberg discovered he had advanced prostate cancer in 2004. In a statement then, he thanked fans for their support.

“It is truly overwhelming and humbling to realize how many lives my music has touched so deeply all these years,” he said.

Through the years as the fire
starts to mellow
Burning lines in the book of our lives
Though the binding cracks and the
pages start to yellow
I’ll be in love with you….