Archive for March, 2005

2005.03.15

Once Upon a Time in America Part Four

Once upon a time in America our government looked at its people and noticed many of them were living in poverty. “How is it,” they asked themselves, “That so many of us live so wretchedly? What can we do about poverty?” Despite many programs like the establishment of a minimum wage, it was clear more needed doing.

The rhetoric was sincere and loud. A War on Poverty was declared in the 1960s in an attempt to fix this glaring spot on America’s record. Programs were initiated to get kids out of trouble with the law and involved in productive activities and education. The Civil Rights movement took off. Head Start, Job Corps, community health centers and more were born in the effort to fight this great social disease.

Yet, as President Reagan noted, “We fought the War on Poverty and Poverty won.” More accurately we fought, but not enough. In a country that produces most of the world’s wealth, how is it we have still homeless people on the streets? Who is strong enough to continue fighting the War and not give in to the cynicism that President Reagan exhibited?

2005.03.14

Once Upon a Time in America Part Three

Once upon a time in America the Stock Market crashed horribly. Our country went into an economic depression so bad it is simply called the Great Depression. Few people could get a job to take care of their families. Even the rich, though protected by the vast amounts of wealth they had acquired, realized that unless the situation was fixed America could fall apart. We had fought a war in Europe that was dirty and nasty. The American Midwest was swirling in dirt called the Dust Bowl. Times were bad and American moral was in the pits.

Washington stepped in to take control. Sweeping reforms were set in place and many programs started to help Americans recover and be prosperous again. Eventually we had Social Security, which insured that what ever happened you would be able to retire with something, which was better than nothing, and the Tennessee Valley Authority, which put people to work so they could send money home to feed families and make improvements on our American infrastructure.

America was beginning to see that together we could accomplish almost anything. As proof of this President Kennedy declared that within a decade an American would be walking on the moon, and we did just that. No matter how bad things might be, as long as we trust in each other and have broad trust in our government, we can accomplish what is best. For everyone.

2005.03.14

Hairism in America

…the dream remains the same: a society free of hairism in our lifetimes.Why does America insist on calling our fellow citizens, who happen to have dark skin likely from their African ancestry, Afro-Americans? Is that like call white Americans, likely with European ancestry, Mullet-Americans? Is America that obsessed with our hair? Do we really distinguish ourselves along lines of what kind of hair we have from birth?

I call on all Americans, regardless of your skin color, to reject this blatant hairism. It is discriminatory and irrelevant in our modern society where hair can be straightened, colored, cut, shaped and shaved. Some people even wear wigs. Blatant hairists would have you think that this is important, that the hair makes the person and some hair styles are better than others. Yet some hairists out there might themselves be in the closet, wearing product or getting hairdos that hide their true origins.

The Founding Brothers all wore wigs. Perhaps they thought it would hide their origins or prevent hairists from their days from raising a stink. Wigs went out of style a long time ago, but I think the dream remains the same: a society free of hairism in our lifetimes.

2005.03.13

Once Upon a Time in America Part Two

Once upon a time in America there were some who were so rich it could make your head swim. These wealthy families owned some of the essential services in America like the trains, the newspapers, and the steel industries. They had little concern for the people who worked for them. From their point of view their workers were lucky they had a job at all.

Unfortunately many of the workers agreed with this idea, so they shut up when they were not paid enough to feed their families well or when they were required to do very dangerous work. Many workers hoped that they could someday be as rich as them little realizing how little the wealthy cared to share. The rich men who owned the companies cared nothing about the workers as long as they made money for themselves and their investors. If they could find a way to bring back slavery, they probably would have.

American workers formed unions. They knew that the rich wouldn’t change their ways and the workers did not have the power and influence to change the way things were on their own. Only together could they stand up and be heard. They struggled to stop some of the more abusive tactics of the employers and get a little more money out of the greedy hands of their employers.

Of course not all of the unions were on the up and up. Like any organization there were individuals who were really more interested in themselves than in others. They stole money from the workers they were representing, and sometimes worse.

Still, the unions fought hard to get the workers in America a fair shake at earning enough money that they could raise their families and live comfortably. The Unions knew that standing together life could get better for everyone, just like America is a better place because we all stand up as Americans. Together we can almost always get more done, better and more efficiently than if we do things alone.

2005.03.12

Once Upon a Time in America Part One

Once upon a time in America things were very different than they are today. The freshly minted country was an amalgamation of many cultures and ideas and people. The Founding Fathers knew this and created the Constitution in a way that would include all of these points of view, all of these religions, all of these people. Regardless of anything, you would be an American.

Except if you were Black. Slavery was an important part of the American economy back then. Still, it didn’t sit well with many in the North, who thought you should be able to do your own work. If you needed people to work for you, they thought, you should pay them, not pay for them. Many in the South did not view the situation this way. They knew that they would not be able to profitably run their farms and businesses if they had to pay folks for helping out. Some of these people were more concerned with making as much money as possible, even at the expense of their fellow human beings.

For a long time the American ideal of tolerance toward others prevailed, despite this little slavery issue. Eventually, though, you know it had to get nasty and it did. The result was a bloody, brutal war in which a Republican President did everything in his power to maintain the American Union. Lincoln declared that slavery was wrong and needed to end, that slavery went against the basic human rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

You see, America is not about limiting freedoms for any human. It is for giving them as much freedom as is possible in a complex society and then never taking those freedoms away. This is one of the reasons the Constitutional Amendment abolishing alcohol use was repealed; it took away freedoms, even if that freedom wasn’t necessarily in a person’s best interest.

Slavery was a denial of freedom. It could not be tolerated any more, even in a tolerant society. Even though the Civil War ended slavery, the issue of race was to be trouble even up to today. The American government believed in our freedoms and the American people sacrificed much to keep them and to give them to others who could not help themselves.

2005.03.08

Return of iBook

I’ve got my iBook back (see this for why) so look for a spate of entries here, on the UNBLUG and OOKEE.com. I’m impressed with Apple’s turn around time; I just sent it off on Thursday and have it back today, Monday. Essentially they had it one business day.

It’s a great relief to have this back!

2005.03.05

Social Security and Syria

It doesn’t look like President Bush is going anywhere too fast with his plans for Social Security. Good. Somehow the rich guy forgot that Social Security isn’t about making money on the stock market, it’s about insurance for American citizens for their retirement. The stock market, regardless of its consistent growth, is a risk. Just ask anyone who has lost money investing.

401K programs have the potential to help alot with retirement. Carefully managed they could grow and you could retire rich. This is not a guarunteed event, however. 401Ks invest money in the stock market. Risk is involved.

The issue I have with President Bush’s proposals are twofold. The first is what I’ve just discussed, combined with the fact that it would cost so much to implement. These are practical issues. The second is that because the money is now in the stock market some people, but not all, are going to get rich. An influx of billions of dollars in the stock market will inevitably flush corporations with cash. Truly, some of this money would go into better services, greater hires, and maybe some original innovation. However, in a corporate culture wracked with serious ethical issues already, much money would go into the paychecks, retirements, etc of Boardmembers, CEOs, CFOs, etc. Ironically these are also the people that are immune from paying in to Social Security in the first place because of caps.

This is not the way to insure the future of Social Security.

On a separate note, has anyone noticed how as soon as Syria decides to pull out of Lebanon, Bush then decides to be a bully and tell them, “Yeah, you better get out, and I mean it! You have until May to comply, bitch.” Good job, Mr. President. I have no love at all for Syria. However they are already the stupid kid at the table of international relations and you aren’t helping them feel like they belong. You could argue that they don’t belong but if that’s the case don’t talk to them at all.

It must take a lot of guts to tell someone to do something he’s already doing. C’mon, Mr. President, you’re not encouraging them but you might be making them at least resentful. If they are harboring terrorists and insurgents as you’ve suggested in the past, being the bully isn’t going to make them love America anymore than they already do.

2005.03.04

Shoot Me an Email

OK, my iBook is off and being repaired. I am discovering that I don’t have a few email addresses I need in the web version of this “email” thing so if a few of you could shoot me one so I can write back that’d be, you know, great.

It’s very weird not having the laptop, my constant companion. One great benefit is that I am reading… Currently the Watchmen again, since I couldn’t find the book I was reading in my room. I suspect it’s been psychicly hijacked by NHK, who chastised me for reading it.

Write! Thanks.

2005.03.03

iBook Curse Revisited

Almost exactly a year ago I was visited by the ever dangerous Curse of the iBook which, translated, means a faulty logic board for which there was a recall. Last night my computer froze up cold on me before going out to a movie. I thought it was strange, but restarted and everything worked fine for the rest of the night.

This afternoon it did it again. “???” I thought to myself. Rebooting this time didn’t have the desired effect at first. When the computer did come up I ran utilities (nothing found) and was just about to start using it when the screen lit up like a psychedelic xmas tree. This, at least, was familar. Bummer. I called Apple and they are having me send it in. Hopefully I can boot it up in Target Mode (hold Command-T while booting up and your computer becomes a very expensive Firewire drive) and get some of the files I need to work with.

Hey, Uncle Roger, it looks like your idea for a March Challenge (see his comments at the link) might just well be bloody worth my time!

2005.03.02

Ann Plays Chess

This last weekend Ann and I went to the Albatross, a bar on San Pablo in Berkeley. The Albatross is known for having all kinds of board games that you can borrow and play while you’re hanging out and filling their coffers while filling your gullet with swill. Ann wanted to relearn how to play chess so we played a game to reacquaint her with the basic moves and strategies.

On Sunday we were at it again, this time at a cafe along Divisidero in San Francisco. This time I pulled out one of my boards. We played two games. Ann is quite good for a novice, and is picking up the game fast. I was kind of surprised at her interest; for some reason I seem to imagine only geeky guys like me wanting to play the game.

Then on Monday night we played again, and this time Ann won. Not exactly by skill or strategy, but win she did. It definitely caught me off guard. I guess I’m going to have to play a bit harder from here on…

Of course my ultimate goal is to convince her to play Go. I haven’t played another person at the game since Todd and I played online. I love the game but for whatever reason most people here in America don’t know the game, or at least aren’t very interested. I’m hoping that if Ann gets in to chess she’ll give Go a chance. I’m sure she’ll love it as much as I do.