Small Claims and Other Nuisances

There's a commercial for Home Depot running on television these days that suggests doing one's own tiling is so much simpler, smoother, and more cost effective than hiring a professional. Before my very first adventure with a professional general contractor, I would have scoffed, knowing full well what I know not. Now, as I watch the ad, however, I see glimpses of what I watched done over the course of a couple of days and I realize the truth of the matter, now that I have seen the deed demonstrated...

And oh what an expensive tutelage that has been!

- There was the eager estimate, followed by the startled delay.
- There was the unexpected extra work followed by the inevitable additional contracting for unanticipated services.
- There was the one day only employee who thought himself a freelancer and was therefore cut adrift, leaving a hefty portion of work unbegun, never mind unfinished.
- There was the mad scramble to find others who would fulfill the terms of the contract (should not have been my problem).
- There was the earnest and meticulous (read slow) weekend and holiday work done by lone operators.

All followed by the unexpected subpoena to small claims court, a summons that cannot be ignored.

But everyone was very nice, and several were very cute, which really should count for something, shouldn't it?

But evidently the subpoena was for show as testimony from me was deemed irrelevant and therefore not allowed - which I coulda told anyone who'd listen...

Evidently I need to work on my screening skills. See, I thought I should cut the fellow some slack cuz he's not cute, and I didn't want my innate prejudice to color my judgment... which, it turns out, was on the money... not that I ever listen to me... why should I, after all, if no one else does? ;->

Canonization

Hottest news in Hawaii today, barring the weather of course, is the canonization of Father Damien, who dedicated his life to working with the lepers of Molokai until and after he himself contracted Hansen's Disease. Today in Rome (10:00 pm HST last night) Pope Benedict the numeral conferred sainthood on the man. (Can you tell I'm not Roman Catholic?)

There have been news clips of the Hawaii contingent participating in a private mass yesterday, singing Hawaiian hymns as part of the service. One cannot help but wonder whether or not there was any discussion or fear over allowing such pagan-sounding strains to echo through the hallowed halls. Personally, I thought it was really cool, but then, I always love to hear hearty Hawaiian strains abroad. (And I don't mean the only song some folks think Brother Iz ever recorded, that froggy anthem...)

Father Damien really was a cool dude, working tirelessly and evidently without expectation or requirement of earthly reward. He even went on working among his people after he himself contracted the disease. That's dedication - though to be fair, where else was he going to go? Still, he didn't have to keep working; he could have flopped down and bellyached, as so many did and do.

What's perhaps a little more cynicism-engendering is the sudden recent flow of ads in conjunction with his canonization... Eh, sure and it's the American way...

Fearmongers

As part of the fallout and follow-up from South Carolina Representative Joe Wilson's faux pas last evening during President Barack Obama's address to the joint Congress:

Republican Minority Leader John Boehner ... suggested some Americans were terrified by the administration’s health care and budget proposals.

“I believe that people ought to be respectful, that we ought to have civil discourse in America, but don't underestimate the amount of emotion that people are feeling,” the GOP leader told reporters. “Americans are frustrated. They're angry. And most importantly, they're scared to death. They're scared to death that the country that they grew up in is not going to be the country that their kids and grandkids grew up in.”

Seriously, is the American in which we now live the country that our own grandparents inhabited? Would we even want to live in such a place ourselves?

Been reading Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series, and I have to say that there's no way this 20-21st century entity has any desire whatsoever to live in the same atmosphere and culture that my forebears endured. Personally, I like indoor plumbing, fast cars, fast food, brain-numbing network television, endless reruns on cable, 24/7 Internet access...

I have no desire to spend the bulk of my time and efforts hunting and harvesting, making and mending. I think the 7/11 concept is brilliant, and I want more immediate gratification, not less. Why on earth would I want to live in the same land that my ancestors inhabited?

More to the point, why would I wish the ills of our present society on the next generation? I grew up with the understanding that my parents worked so frigging hard so that I wouldn't have to do likewise. I studied hard in school so that my life and the lives of any offspring I might produce might have an even richer, more fulfilling range of opportunities from which to carve out their own experiences. So why on earth would a seemingly intelligent adult charged with the fashioning of said future by means of legislation desire to trap the youth who are our future in our past?

Go figure.

Really?!?!?

This morning's casually caught news article suggests that there are those within the U.S. military who consider paying the Taliban protection money to forestall attacks a reasonable investment. Well, there is a history within this country on a civil level of such behavior... Somehow, though, it does not seem possible that such behavior will sit any better with contemporary society than it did with early and mid-twentieth century America when it became widespread knowledge. On the other hand, there are a number of films glorifying violence that suggest that it was not the many but the few, or even just one, who made the difference and ended the practice by taking a stand against acceptance of such practices. Is that what is required even now?

It is difficult to believe that today's members of the military, raised on vigilante films, would blithely turn a blind eye to such malfeasance. Of course, today's volunteers don't necessarily join for patriotic fervor, any more than volunteers of any era have...

Huh.

New Month Old News

Nothing of note comes to mind as I listen to the news: fire, abduction, abuse, war, death... Perhaps I should change the channel, try some different sources for new material. Perhaps I should be content to lose myself in unrelated writings for awhile... except that my muddy mind insists on seeing parallels with the present day, with the world in which I live and move and breathe, with everything I read, watch, hear - most irritating, and not just to those around me, either. Ah well...

Perhaps the changing of the seasons will bring new ideas. Certainly it has brought new experiences to this old house.

And Now... We're Back

Nearly a week of mourning, this time with less cynicism simply because the public figure was a politician of note from one of the most publicly tragic families in the nation. Guess it helps that Kennedy died from disease rather than drug overdose...

Still, the official media mourning is done and they're back to sensational news stories. What is wrong with these people? Granted, sensationalism sells and garners ratings, but must they be so enthusiastic in their coverage?

Wait - I know the answer to this one...

Has It Been Since Tuesday?

The news has been replete with coverage of the passing of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, youngest of the nine offspring of Joseph and Rose Kennedy of Massachusetts. The youngest and least promising of four sons and five daughters, Kennedy required nearly half a century to achieve the acclaimed stature of his older male siblings. Still, folk are quick to point out that while the elder brothers were all about promises cut short, the youngest, least promising of the brood has proven to be the most productive, if only because he has achieved the greatest longevity. Give a fellow enough time, anything can happen - and has. Good for him.

All the potential in the world is for naught without fulfillment; all an individual's flaws can be overlooked if they prove to be stepping stones to insight, maturity, greatness.

GW was an indifferent scholar whose presidency was of like tenor; Teddy, expelled from Harvard for cheating, does not seem ever to have demonstrated indifference - with the result that he has a lifetime of achievements in legislation to which people now point as the only sensible way to view reality.

(Just look at all the things Claire, Bree, & Roger take for granted, despite having departed prior to most of the youngest Kennedy's notable achievements.) ;->

Gotta Love ‘Em

Listening to political news these days is reminiscent of watching Saturday morning cartoons as a child: there’s a real need for suspension of disbelief in order to be able to follow the various stories without finding oneself persistently distracted by conflicting details and improbabilities.

Take, for instance, the primary argument for putting health care reform on hold: the cost is deemed to be prohibitive in the current economic climate. Okay, so let’s wait until there is more widespread prosperity. Meanwhile, those who cannot afford healthcare because of pre-existing conditions, unemployment, or underemployment will, like chaff, blow away, thus naturally easing the strain on the current health care system. Once that occurs, surely health care will be more affordable for the survivors, yes?

Likewise, those who recently threatened senior citizens with the now debunked notion of Death Panels, are staunch in their defense of the current system, calling it free choice. Have they somehow missed the spate of movies last decade and the news stories this decade, all about how insurance agencies have been playing a disturbing waiting game, denying coverage for the desperately ill until the claims stop because the claimants are deceased? Why, yes, surely it must be better to be ripped off and left to die by private enterprise rather than non-starting government dictates.

Am I missing something?

Probably.

I’ve always been a little light on attention to details, or so I’ve been informed, reliably or otherwise…

Noise in the News

The truth of the matter is that legal change is and always has been intentionally slow, ponderous even. That's the way the Founding Fathers set things up, precisely so that this nation would not be so susceptible to the willful capriciousness of individuals briefly holding power (elected officials), nor readily vulnerable to the wiles of self-serving lobbyists. At least, that's what I think I was taught in my tender formative years (high school Civics and Government classes).

Of course, that doesn't sit at all well with those born of the Instant Gratification era, i.e., everyone not yet eligible for an Aricept prescription...

Add to the mix short speak, short attention spans, large egos, and voracious corporate appetites for ratings and profits - and you get muddy thinking, intemperate speech, and short fuses. And yet we need to be grateful that we are also guaranteed free speech, foolish though we may deem much of it.

The protection of free speech, of course, is predicated on the theory that those who actually participate in the political process are possessed of effective critical thinking skills, while those who lack such gifts also lack the wherewithall to act, effectively or otherwise. This, of course, is where the old adage, "A little knowledge is dangerous," enters the picture...

We live in an era wherein individuals are able to surf the Net and post indiscriminately, without the necessity of actually being able to think clearly. Worse, we live in a time when those who can think clearly do not necessarily share one standard of moral behavior. The results are self-evident.

So we have individuals speaking for the mass media as a whole, or at least being given credit for doing so. We have a growing assumption that Michael Jackson was murdered, that someone will have to pay, and that it is the business of the public to care. We have public personalities making rash, inflammatory pronouncements and well-funded lobbyists launching inflammatory ad campaigns, and it doesn't even matter which perspective they represent - the target audiences are buying the swill in sufficient quantities that public opinion, never a homogenous thing anyway, is becoming so polarized that nation's representatives are becoming paralyzed, more fearful of political fallout than failure to effect civic reform.

Funny thing is that everyone proposing solutions is right: private sectors need to step up already existing efforts to help out, new private efforts need leadership and initiative, government needs to intervene where private enterprise refuses to police and/or reform itself, and the flower power of legislators' youth needs to be implemented as reality, not merely nostalgia available for crass commercial exploitation.

No, no, I'm not advocating a hippy state; but the idealism of the 60s should have had sufficient time to mull and mature into useful, functional applications by now. There should be something more than sappy music and faded memories to show for all that energy and brainpower that was on display, that changed the way the whole world looks and functions. What's more, that gifted generation has had time to produce eager offspring who have produced ever more gifted offspring - so where's the new Bounce?

Why so much white noise?
Where's the pudding proof?
Not just all the poop...

Losing Touch

A friend on a multiple city business trip shares a widespread disaffection for interminably oppressive heat. Seriously, is this not less expensive than a spa membership, this indoor outdoor sauna sensation?

Still, I am troubled by the revelation that so many downtown cities evidently have sliding sidewalks encased in clear tubes that allow connectivity between buildings regardless of meteorological conditions outside. Why troubled, you may well ask. It does seem a fine sign of progress that civilization is able to provide comfort and ease even in the most inclement of weather, be it too hot and dry or too cold and wet. True, one can travel with ease and keep paperwork unblemished... still, there seems something sad in the loss of connection with something as simple as fresh air. Granted, downtown air tends not to be quite so fresh nor so enjoyable as one might reasonably expect of the great outdoors. Still, there is a sad surrender, much like the ways in which we city dwellers have lost touch with food sources and thus with the natural cycles of life death and renewal.

Think I've been reading too much Gabaldon lately...

Rambling Thru

So many famous people dying these days, regular folk too, though with far less hoopla... People arguing over whether or not the American healthcare system is in need of reform, let alone how any reform might practically be managed... Media eagerly egging on opposition voices to take umbrage that Obama has invoked "Biblical language" to make his point - how, I ask, is contemplating providing for those who are incapable of providing for themselves not a topic for "Biblical" language? Isn't social assistance all about being one's brother's keeper, about extending a loving hand to those less fortunate, those in need? How is such language out of order? How is the concept of caring for others not fundamentally Christian? Eh...

Time Keeps on Slipping

There's a song from my youth that says "Time keeps on slipping slipping slipping into the future..." Hard to argue with that.

This morning was so full of productivity. I thought I had the world on a downhill pull. Funny how quickly the day (and the caffeine fueling one) can slip away... Now as I look at the clock, I realize that I have perhaps spent more time than originally intended on some other blog sites. What's more, this, too, is extruding personal bellybutton fuzz from the ends of my erstwhile fingertips. Ah well...

So... starting up with writing again, even with CNN droning endlessly in the background, doesn't seem to be generating any interesting thoughts for me...

Sure, it's a great tragedy that the Air France FLT #447 went down en route from Brazil to Paris; and yes, it's both interesting and disturbing that images and soundbites of Obama in Buchenwald are being juxtaposed with images and soundbites of Hitler addressing his followers prior to the eruption of the Third Reich on Europe in particular and the world in general, especially in the wake of Obama's speech in Cairo yesterday... and yes, I do still think that Rick Sanchez lacks substance, proud as he is of being the first to conduct a "national conversation", just because he agreed to try out the incorporation of some new technological toys that caught the eye of one of his bosses (was it only last summer?) - he's still way too defensive of perceived slights from other media personalities... Much less riveting to me are the peculiar circumstances under which the corpse of David Carradine was recently discovered hanging in his hotel room in Bangkok, Thailand... Sure, I was just slightly older than the target audience that raptly watched the tv series, Kung Fu, but regardless of age, the appropriation of Bruce Lee's brilliant idea by a haole, and such a disrespectful and talent-free one at that, has always and will forever offend me. Ah well...

So where is the deep end of the pool into which I wish to jump?

Perhaps the most engaging ideas I have encountered today come from Lois McMaster Bujold's MySpace page, wherein she has been reviewing her nonfiction readings. Clearly these are the sorts of things that have been informing her own mental meanderings and underlie her ruminations within the novels I so greatly enjoy reading and rereading. I am in need of mental refreshing, and I need new wells into which to plunge my musty muzzle. Perhaps these suggestions will help. :-)

Sotomayor, et al

In the air there is much ado these days regarding the upward mobility of the educated products of the previously impoverished generations. Rick Sanchez of CNN presents himself as a success story similar to the first Latina candidate to the Supreme Court, and indeed, he is.

What, after all, do those born to privilege expect several generations after the initial egalitarian movements in education? Was there no expectation that the brightest and best of those provided equal opportunity would in the fullness of time rise, like all cream, to "the top"?

Foremost, of course, is the recently elected president of the United States, Barack Obama. Here is a man born of a Kenyan exchange student whose American education began in Hawaii and culminated at Harvard; and a daughter of itinerant entrepreneurs originally from Kansas but whose travels took them to the Northwest and on to Hawaii, the daughter going on to Indonesia before returning to Hawaii. Is it any wonder that their son should continue the family tradition of widely traveling, from Hawaii to the White House and on around the world in search of world peace and national economic prosperity?

Not one to rest on his laurels and gloat over those still on the rise, Obama has reached out to others of the formerly and currently underrepresented to join him in leading our nation. A quick canvass of his Cabinet nominees and administrative appointees provides ample proof of this. Sotomayor is just a very high profile example of this ongoing policy.

Not to be left behind and representative of parallel success stories, Rick Sanchez is now pointing out his own ethnic background and personal professional achievements. Good for him. He is representative of the changing landscape of American leadership.

I do find it fascinating that CNN seems to have been stepping up its advancement and featuring of nonwhite reporters in key anchor positions ever since Obama's increasingly successful campaign, culminating in his election. CNN promotions seem to have coincided with his inauguration. One mustn't be too cynical in the face of warranted success. The doors have opened; may they never reclose.

What's Really Important Today

There's much ado in the news today, but do I care? The only thing that really matters today is that the final episode of Battlestar Galactica, revised for the 21st century, is airing this evening. Fortunately, I am in a time zone that does not need to wait till nightfall. Better still, I am on a schedule that does not mind. See, there can be an upside to lack of gainful employment, onerous as ungainful employment may be...

The original series aired during my first years out of college, when I was beginning my great adventure also known as independent adulthood; hence, I was able to watch what I would. As such, I chose to fritter away my time on that first series, waiting hopefully for the promise of the premise that never quite materialized. Now, on the other side of my work experiences, I find myself without quite the same ease of access to indiscriminate programming selections, even as the re-envisioned series has finally found writers worthy of its promised premise. Tonight the series will end as it should have the first time around, instead of spinning off from ponderous to ludicrous, although I did just see an ad threatening a prequel series... But I digress (as usual)

This is a most excellent time to be alive, global economy notwithstanding. After all, the first series also emerged in a time of economic recession. Coincidence? Hm... Anyway, now is a time when reruns are readily available, when cable channels regularly hold series fests preceding finales (or just to entice holiday viewing), when catching up with missed episodes can be done online, when episodes are available both on dvd and for downloading from online distributors. So coming to the series even as it is ending is not a problem, aside from trying to grasp the scope before tonight's big sendoff.

It's all good: I regularly play catch-up with series after they become popular, either midstream or just as they are about to close out their original runs. Most recently there were the collected works of Roger Zelazny, the Harry Potter series, and now this. That's the epimethean in me.

My Turn for Cynicism

The news is abuzz today with talk of righteous indignation over the awarding of incentive rewards, a.k.a. unmerited bonuses, to AIG, the insurance company that was allowed to grow too big for anyone's britches, anti-monopoly laws well circumvented (as they weren't the only kids on the block screwing every available pooch in the increasingly complicated global financial neighborhood). Truly we are long overdue for an overhaul of regulations, legislations, and governance last updated before too many of us were even a glimmer in anyone's eye.

But I digress (as usual)...

My cynicism today comes at the "breaking news" that the Obama administration knew about the awarding of the protested incentive payments last week, at least a weekend before Monday's official protestations of outrage. Some news anchors were almost wetting their pants with excitement as field reporters eagerly sought the source of the disavowed clause that provides the loophole by which AIG was able to cut the checks that distributed the disputed "bonuses" in the first place. One of my hypotheses was that some ambitious clerk had slipped the clause into the formal write-up of the legislation after the final draft was submitted for preparation of publication. Then came word that the Executive branch had foreknowledge. This, of course, supports my faith that someone there actually read the final copy before signing, just as several earnest reporters did in feverish preparation for the official signing following a three-day weekend.

Now, however, I have another theory, one that I don't really believe but which makes for interesting speculation and possible fodder for post-term publication: what if the Administration knowingly let AIG cut the checks precisely because it anticipated the public outrage? The checks had to be distributed in order to fulfill the letter of the law and prevent potential civil suits. Now, however, public opinion is available to coerce the return of at least some of those funds, while the financial giant that has dipped so irksomely into public resources is offered up as a cautionary scapegoat for all others in the financial world who have been sitting on funds and toying with creatively self-serving ideas. And who has wielded the sword of public opinion as effectively in the last half century as our very own fearless leader? Or is someone else hoping to wield him? Hm...

I gotta get a life...

Just No Pleasing Some Folks

Listening to the news incessantly can be irritating. Yes, stating the obvious does seem foolish, but there you have it.

When Obama was running for office, critics said he was inexperienced and naive. When he took office, nay sayers continued to criticize both what he hadn't gotten to yet and what he proposed; that continues. Evidently the courtship was so intense that they've no desire to await any sort of honeymoon period.

Then there are those in Congress for whom no concessions will suffice. Cooperation is a word they understand they need to use, but matching action seems beyond their reach, and always will be, much like fruit and drink to the Greek Tantalus. They prefer to offer themselves up as impediments, their only proffered resolutions to be the lack thereof...

Then there's the afternoon tv critic who simply refuses to be pleased. Evidently the government is not tough enough on criminals and illegal aliens, not adequately staffed or supplied, too involved in job creation, too bureaucratic. The economy is recovering too slowly because investors don't trust what they're hearing and seeing, yet when investors step forward, interested in the creation of energy alternatives, they are unwelcome because they are not American - you know, those sitting on the fence, feeling the pinch, wiped out by recent events...

Nothing's ever right, no one's good enough, nothing's gonna get better...

Okay, Pollyanna isn't what I'm advocating here, but would a little more even-handedness be so terrible? Probably, for such critics' ratings, anyway...

Who's cynical?

Big Brother for Sale

Who among us hasn't read George Orwell's 1984, either in high school or in college? One of my earliest recollections of the text is of wondering how the government managed to install so many devices in so many private locales and at what cost. Well, now I have my answer.

Just saw a commercial advertising the increasingly ubiquitous home security equipment now available for purchase and installation by concerned families. There is a distinct sense that we live in an embattled society wherein one's abode is, indeed, a fortress, or should be. What right-thinking parent would dare to leave their loved ones and valuables unprotected for even an instant? The need for 24-hour surveillance equipment should be self-evident, or should it?

Am I, in fact, as naive as Cheney believes the newly elected President to be? Is the threat of physical danger so imminent and all-pervasive that failure to take preemptive measures dooms those still foolish enough to trust in common decency as the rule rather than the exception? Is only might able to make right, and not vice versa? After all, King Arthur and his Round Table not only fell, they have disappeared into the mists of legend...

And yet, as much as I love cool tech toys, I cannot bring myself to actively participate in this widespread paranoia. I cannot and will not actually pay to invite Big Brother into my personal living spaces. Like Underdog, he's far too truly everywhere these days as it is (and I liked Underdog; BB not so much).