Roughing it, American style

Propane powered. Now that's my kind of camping. Only in America.

Cowboy Poems

Bill's in Trouble

I've got a letter, parson, from my son away out West,
An' my ol' heart is heavy as an anvil in my breast,
To think the boy whose future I had once so proudly planned
Should wander from the path of right an' come to such an end!
I told him when he left his home, not three short years ago,
He'd find himself a plowin' in a mighty crooked row—
He'd miss his father's counsel, an' his mother's prayers, too;
But he said the farm was hateful, an' he guessed he'd have to go.

I know thar's big temptation for a youngster in the West,
But I believed our Billy had the courage to resist,
An' when he left I warned him o' the ever waitin' snares
That lie like hidden sarpints in life's pathway everywheres.
But Bill he promised faithful to be keerful, an' allowed
He'd build a reputation that'd make us mighty proud;
But it seems as how my counsel sort o' faded from his mind,
An' now the boy's in trouble o' the very wustest kind!

His letters came so seldom that I somehow sort o' knowed
That Billy was a trampling on a mighty rocky road,
But never once imagined he would bow my head in shame,
An' in the dust'd waller his ol' daddy's honored name.
He writes from out in Denver, an' the story's mighty short;
I just can't tell his mother, it'll crush her poor ol' heart!
An' so I reckoned, parson, you might break the news to her—
Bill's in the legislatur', but he doesn't say what fur.

by James Barton Adams (1843-1918), from Breezy Western Verse, 1899

Understanding the Middle East

I have been reading The Devil We Know, by Robert Baer. From one review:

The reality, according to Robert Baer in his new book "The Devil We Know: Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower" (Crown Publishers, 288 pages, $25.95) is much more complicated and subtle -- and dangerous. He says we must deal with reality -- with "The Devil We Know" -- or find our access to Persian Gulf oil eliminated.

The Shia regime in Iran is halfway to winning its undeclared 30-year war with the U.S. which began with the overthrow of the Shah in 1979 by using proxies such as Hezbollah and the Kurds, forging alliances with Russia and China and exploiting the Muslim divide of Shia and Sunni factions, Baer says.

He's a former CIA operative whose character was played by George Clooney in the movie "Syriana," based on Baer's book "See No Evil." He has extensive contacts throughout the Middle East, including Israel, which he says is pursuing a realistic approach to Iran since its defeat by Hezbollah in the 34-day 2006 war in Lebanon. Baer quotes -- on Page 109 -- an assessment from the Winograd Commission Report, the official Israeli investigation into the 2006 war: "A semi-military organization of a few thousand men resisted for a few weeks, the strongest army in the Middle East, which enjoyed full air superiority and size and technological advantages."

The neocons who thought that conquering Iraq would alter the balance of power in the Middle East in Israel's favor have done precisely the opposite. The way they went about it, by destroying both the Iraqi army and the moderate Shia clerics, have handed Iraq to Iran on a platter. Iran now controls Iraq by proxy.

The context for the current Israeli invasion of Gaza is that the foes of Israel have been emboldened by Israel's defeat by Hezbollah, another Iranian proxy, in 2006. The Israelis may well think that they had to engage in the current conflict and win it to tilt the balance back towards the middle. But what if they don't win it?

Baer's book also gives me the impression that Iran would be perfectly happy to have us spend our efforts and attention on preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. Iran is well on its way to accomplishing their plans for regional empire, which do not require nuclear weapons for success.

Why do we still have our head stuck in the sand? (I confess, less charitable images for head placement come to mind.)

Baggage

We went to the airport and got Dan's bag today.

Dan arrived in Portland on December 22. His bag arrived in Portland on December 29. United Airlines refused to deliver the bag, because Ruth had not waited with Dan in the hours long line at Baggage Claim for a claim number, on the day they finally arrived.

And they charged us $15 extra for this service.

Quote du jour

The NYT quoted Dr. Michael McCullough:

“When it comes to religion, professionally, I’m a fan, but personally, I don’t get down on the field much.”

Bad Idea

Governor Kulongoski thinks that Oregonians should have mandatory GPS transponders in their vehicles so that the state can tax us based on the mileage we drive.

Apparently it's not enough that the George W. Bush MENSA chapter is listening to all our phone calls and reading all our e-mails.

2008 Photos

A smattering of 2008 photos can be found at this link.

Christmas Letter 2008

Christmas Eve 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

I suppose it is time to write the Christmas letter, given that it is about 12 hours until Christmas.

This Christmas may be one of the sterner tests of my rules for Christmas letters: no misery, no bragging. Christmas 2008 seems like something out of Dickens, and I don’t mean A Christmas Carol. I had A Tale of Two Cities in mind:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had ...”

It seems as if we have two sorts of Advent going on right now, as we also wait for a changing of the guard in our national leadership.

It looks like we will be having a white Christmas, as we wait for a thaw after the biggest snow storm here in 40 years. 2008 is finishing as it began, with Dan home for winter break. The trip home for this Christmas was not straightforward, as Dan and Ruth took 5 days to make what should have been a 1 day trip. I don’t know whether to compare it to Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, or to Gilligan’s Island (the “3 hour tour.”)

Dan continues in school at Heartspring, in Wichita, KS. He has figured out how to tap into computers wherever he may be, and pull up all of his favorite videos on YouTube. He and several of his classmates have perfected these techniques, to the occasional dismay of the faculty and staff at school. His PE teacher continues to cajole him into participating in the Kansas Special Olympics. He turned 14 years old in October, and celebrated as Pat took him and his G-3 housemates to Golden Corral for dinner, before returning to G-3 for pirate cake and presents.

Elizabeth is only called Elizabeth by a dwindling number of adults, her parents included. The rest of the world knows her as Liz or Lizzie. Her big interests are horses, team penning in particular, and theater. She was eligible for her learner’s permit in February after turning 15 years old, but thankfully she has never gotten around to pursuing that. As a sophomore at Lincoln HS, she generally runs lights and works as assistant stage manager for the drama productions. The drama department at Lincoln seems pretty ambitious. Sometimes the complexity of the productions, with all the cues for lighting and sound, starts to blur the line with Cirque du Soleil. She continued to build her petsitting business. She has been saving for 6 years to buy her horse, and has been eager to push that project to the finish line.

Elizabeth turns down human sitting jobs, but Ruth snaps them up. It’s awfully cute to have third graders calling to see if they can arrange playdates with Ruth. It never fails to strike fear in Pat’s heart as one of these babysitting jobs or playdates approaches, for fear that Ruth will find herself unable to fulfill the commitment and he will be pressed into service. Ruth continues with her book club. Ruth and Pat both enjoyed an invitation to ride on one of the Christmas Ships, a tradition in Portland where a fleet of boats with holiday decorations does an aquatic parade and maneuvers on the rivers in Portland. Ruth remains on track to meet her goal of being the last person on Earth to own a cell phone. She celebrated her 30th year with the Veterans Administration, and is proud that her whole resume fits on a note card.

Pat continues in magpie mode, pursuing whatever appears bright and shiny. None of the old pursuits fell out of the picture. Music, rock and jazz, continued apace. Cowboy Action Shooting received its due. Photography was added to the mix, with a membership in the Portland Photograpic Society.

As a family, we double dipped on State Fairs this year. Dan’s house got to go to the Kansas State Fair. Pat and Elizabeth had photos accepted for the Oregon State Fair.

Ruth, Pat, and Elizabeth enjoyed a lovely trip to Namibia in July. We toured first in the beach resort of Swakopmund, and saw the nearby Millionaire’s Row where Brad and Angelina stayed for their first adventure with biologic childbirth. We then went on a hunting safari at the truly marvelous Bergzicht Game Lodge. Ruth on safari. We have pictures. She fulfilled her dreams of riding a horse on the dunes, even if she did end up on a Georgia Walking Horse, and learned from experience that her dream of riding a camel on the dunes was more fun imagined than real. On the flight home Pat’s leg began to itch, and it was soon apparent to the naked eye that he had brought home a pet. With that, our trophies ran the gamut from Aardwolf to Zoonooses. It only took two rounds of the worm medicine to resolve the latter.

We enjoyed lovely visits from family and friends. Peter and Stephanie Levins came by on a college tour. Roger Bertholf and his family joined us for Prinestock 2008. We also enjoyed visiting family and friends back East.

To complete this, we need to collect a series of pictures from the year, to accompany this letter. Easier said than done, as Dan has commandeered many of the computers for his multimedia viewing pleasure.

Here is hoping that Christmas finds you and yours happy, safe, and warm.

Ruth, Pat, Elizabeth, Dan, Allie, and Star


A smattering of 2008 photos can be found at this link:

Today's photos

Where's that path I shoveled yesterday?

Wonder where the Sunday paper is?

This is the view out my front door this morning. There is a lot of shoveling to do just to get the dog out for a bit, let alone so that Ruth and Dan can make it to the door.

Witness Dies

Karl Rove's IT expert, Mike Connell, the guy who scrubbed and moved all the e-mails out of the White House system, was getting ready to testify in an Ohio electronic vote fraud case. He was receiving threats.

But now he has died in a crash of his small plane.

What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been

Ruth left Thursday, to bring Dan home from Heartspring for winter break. She would fly into the Wichita airport, and the Heartspring staff would bring Dan to the airport for their flight to Portland.

However, the pilot of the little plane going into Wichita decided that he couldn't land there because of fog. I don't know if the problem was the plane's capabilities, or the pilot's certification for that level of complexity.

So Ruth ends up in ... Omaha. For the night. The next day they load up the little plane with the stranded passengers and push on to Wichita, where Ruth found she was unable to book flights to Portland until today.

It is snowing here, and it is supposed to snow a lot here in the next day or so. As long as they let the planes land, that is OK with me. I am eager for Dan's overdue winter break to commence.

Take The Money And Run

AIG and Goldman Sachs are paying their executives bonuses with the the taxpayer bailout money.

At the same time, Goldman Sachs reports that while it paid $6 billion in taxes in 2007, it will pay only $14 million in 2008. How was this accomplished?

Goldman Sachs, which today reported its first quarterly loss since going public in 1999, lowered its rate with more tax credits as a percentage of earnings and because of “changes in geographic earnings mix,” the company said.

That "changes in geographic earning mix" means that they are taking taxpayer money and hiding it offshore.

They have gone well past just eating our lunch.

Great Questions

I want to hear the answers to these 10 questions. The Treasury and the investment banks can't just blow off these questions, but they will doubtless try.

Let it snow!

It's been snowing for 6 hours, and is still going strong.

The Current Reading Stack

Dan's School Photo

I Photoshopped out the two big spots on his shirt. This pleased his mother.

Geez, we're gonna miss him

George W. Bush on Good Morning America today:

"When you have the Secretary of the Treasury and the Chairman of the Fed say, 'If we don't act boldly, we could be in a depression greater than the Great Depression,' that's an 'uh-oh' moment," he said.

Accidental Movie Review - Twilight

Through a Lemony Snicket set of circumstances, Bill Wood and I found ourselves watching Twilight.

We meant to see Quantum of Solace, but when we got there, it was sold out. We stood there looking at times, and the next showing of anything was Twilight. In retrospect, this was one of our mistakes. A minor mistake compared to some of the others, but a mistake nonetheless.

If you are not a teenage girl, this movie is not made for you. The wildly popular Stephenie Meyer books are crafted to push every teen female emotional button. My resident teen female was seeing this movie with her friends at roughly the same time. Of course, they were in a different theater across town, and managed to manipulate the parent chauffeur, Skip, into changing his plans and not watching the movie with them. How horrible would that have been, having a parent next to you while you savor one of the movie's themes, The Boyfriend Your Parents Would Never Approve?

Bill said that this movie was like a soap opera that wouldn't end after 30 minutes. The most interesting aspect of viewing this film, much of which was shot in Portland and the nearby Pacific Northwest, was to try and recognize where the various scenes were filmed.

My resident teen/Stephenie Meyer expert found the movie disappointing. She said that the movie plot oversimplified the book, left out scenes which she thought were critical to the story, and presented story elements out of sequence. Without her help, I never would have known that in one of the diner scenes, the woman at the counter typing on a laptop was Stephenie Meyer.