Comprehension

This morning, I wrote a letter, on behalf of The Easter Bunny, from her regional office in Goldbar, WA. It was an Easter greeting to my younger two with instructions on where to find the chocolate. One day I'll get around to Ukrainian eggs, but for now, Cadbury is this thing. The letter gave clues on where to find large bunnies, creme eggs, and the elusive caramel eggs.

Mary complained, "This is like the WASL!" After a third reading, she followed directions and found everything. The Bunny forgot to inventory the mini eggs, so she counted them, divided by two, and re-hid her sister's eggs. Then she began micromanaging her sister's search.

They've arrived at a settlement. Mary keeps the mini eggs. Her sister will give her chocolate bunny to dad and keep the creme eggs, making Mary "the caramel cartel of Locust Way."

This is much better than the WASL or MAPS.

Bumpit saves the day

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/26/palin-mccain-rally-in-ari_n_515026.html

The Quitter is campaigning with Hanoi Hilton in Arizona.

"John McCain helped Sarah Palin launch her national political career two years ago. Now, she's trying to help McCain save his. The former running mates campaigned together Friday for the first time since losing the presidential race in 2008."

Someone's ham is on the line.

I don't know how the old man is polling, but the irony of the situation is that Palin and J.D. Hayworth have a lot in common. Both started their political careers by way of broadcasting. They have problems with brown people and a mistrust of government. A paradox, given their mutual desire to control the thing they hate. Arrogant and Christian, they can spar over who is more observantly Jewish, and he's sure to win a snort of approval after telling her about the man who married his horse. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if, after one too many hard lemonades, they toss the incumbent off the stage and joined forces in a GOP TEA revolt.

Meghan?

Scurvy

Hey Rob,

Interesting website. Lots of information about vitamin C, Linus Pauling's research (he won multiple Nobels, one of them in chemistry), the best sources, etc.

http://www.vitamincfoundation.org/powder.shtml

Neither of us have been in the best of health. We keep getting sick. I think lots of people are in the same boat. Last week, I contacted a company about their vitamin C products, asking for the source of their ascorbate. They were nice enough to reply, and said that 80 % of the vitamin C we consume is made in China. Deal with it. I later found that it's actually 90 %. China has a near monopoly on vitamin C in the form of ascorbic acid, and the factories producing it were temporarily closed right before the Beijing Olympics. Pollution problems. China's only competitor is DSM in Scotland, the manufacturer the Vitamin C Foundation recommends.

Pauling drank ascorbic acid with bicarb. He drank a lot of it, sometimes 18 grams a day, so buffering was important, although he failed to balance his intake with trace minerals, especially copper. (Yes, I'll dig into that one later.) I can easily buy buffered ascorbate, but it's made in China. I know, I'm old, fishbait in social and actuarial terms, but my gums are failing. I can't afford dental repairs or serious problems right now, so which is it going to be, vitamin C therapy or another trip to the dental school?

I want to test out their Euro C. You can blind fold me and I will always pick the most expensive thing, but this one kicks ass:
http://www.vitamincfoundation.org/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id=3

This contains everything needed to bring a person back from the dead. Aminos, 4 grams of C, B vitamins.

It has everything except the L.

Pillar of Lavender

That's how my daughter described a tall glass of blueberries and milk that I blended up for breakfast. When she describes mundane things which such elegance, I worry less about her report card. (She still won't tell me why she makes fun of DARPA.)

Upitty Bottom

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/03/05/rove-cheney-squirmed-when-offered-vp-spot/?fbid=dDZES6gHvYy

"Some people have suggested that Cheney engineered his own selection. This is far-fetched. I saw the man squirm as Bush pressed him to accept."

What took Karl Rove so long to publish this fan fiction? After Scott McClellan had the temerity to tell all, you knew Karl Rove would fight back. I'm guessing his lawyer dictated the timeline. Wait out the clock on prosecution over lying about Valerie Plame; divorce beard. Now he's a free man and ready to sell more books than Scotty and Sarah.

The irony is that is was Scooter Libby, Cheney's chief hatchet, who complained that he'd been shanked by Team Bush in order to save Rove from prosecution. What's with the posthumous team building?

How does Rove expect to refute the Pulitzer-winning work of Bart Gellman and Jo Becker, who documented Bush and Cheney's agreement? Cheney was already on the ticket when he played charades with the vice presidential selection process. After making GOP hopefuls submit to background checks, he never returned their calls.

The power differential between Cheney and Junior remains a subject of ongoing debate. Either Junior was played or he knew what he was getting, but during their administration, Cheney never squirmed.

Not that Dick or Karl care, but Meghan McCain called it last year: "They had their eight years. Now go away."

Happy Sunday

Sperm counts falling. Unhappiness increasing. We're all dead.

Sunday causes more anxiety for me than any other day of the week. I don't know why. This morning, I woke up and started reading a book about Three Mile Island.

Books don't belong in bed. They generate unhappiness.

The nuclear energy industry has rebranded itself. It's carbon free, versus coal fired, which is sometimes clean. Carbon neutrality is the latest excuse for restarting Unit One at Brown's Ferry and offering federal loan guarantees for new plants. The Bush/Obama Department of Energy is full of excuses. The price point of natural gas is too volatile, and solar is too expensive. Solar development is blamed for unemployment in Spain, and yet they just surpassed Germany and China in new development. Despite a substantial initial investment, Spain proves that solar can pay for itself within five years, a claim that nukes can't to make.

Solar is bad. Reprocessed reactor waste is good.

(Brown's Ferry burns and leaks. Next to Three Mile Island, it's our greatest contribution to nuclear plant mismanagement and cover up. Chernobyl has them beat, but we're still in medal contention.)

While we're at it, why not rebuild the CP-1, Enrico Fermi's stadium pile? The President is from Chicago. He'll back that.

Dickensian in scope?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/feb/01/supermarket-fridges-pollution

"Fridges are not sexy," said Fionnuala Walravens. "The environmental impact of supermarket refrigeration is a big issue but little understood … it is a hell of a lot bigger than free plastic bags."

How can you deny someone with a name like that? It's as beautiful as Pleasant Riderwood, as ominous as Lady Dedlock.

CFCs were bad news. The Kool-Aid ads in early '90s told us so. Many industries switched over to gases like HFC, which proved to be just as bad, but in a different way. Users like Coke and McDo have switched to safer refrigerants, so anyone who freezes food for a living ought to do the same. Then again, the deniers can always throw in the towel and go back to sulfur dioxide. At least you'll know when you have a leak. The dead store clerk in aisle 5 will provide your first clue. Maybe just in Oklahoma, where Senator Inhofe and Grandfather Smallweed shop.

Pass the crowbar, please.

http://www.americablog.com/2010/03/dallas-fed-president-calling-for.html
Dallas Fed president calling for breakup of 'too big to fail' banks

Oh hell yes. Can I help?

I love my credit union. Unlike Satan's Bank of America, my CU has never intentionally over drafted my checking account by placing a seven day hold on a rent check (mine), as a pretext for collecting fees (in this case, from my landlord's account.) My checks always clear within one or two business days, so there's no justification for doing this. Is this what helps them profit in spite of Fannie and Freddie returning all that phony paper?

If O wants to stop the Teabaggers in their tracks (not the Samantha Jones loyalists, just the nutters), he should smash the bigs to bits. This will leave them hanging without a valid complaint.

All the king's horses and all the king's men...

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61M0GM20100223

"Former Vice President Cheney is in George Washington Hospital after experiencing chest pains."

Wasn't he hospitalized for the same thing last year?

"Cheney has had four heart attacks, the most recent one shortly after the November 2000 election...shortly thereafter he had the defibrillator implanted."

"The device was replaced in 2007 because its battery was wearing down."

How much anger does it take to destroy a heart before the age of 40?

Like so many in his cohort, the killers of Kennedy, the promoters of Pinochet, he is almost inhuman in his grasp for power.

Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld were Gerald Ford's Glimmer Twins. Life must have been interesting, mopping up Nixon's mess, serving the rump presidency of a clumsy man. Were he and Antonin Scalia friends? They had at least one thing in common, the unitary executive, and their post-Watergate labors bore fruit.

Dick gave great face. His drunken outbursts and public aggression didn't surface until his latter years, but the axe does take its toll.

He was 37 when he had his first heart attack, the year he was elected to Congress. His fourth heart attack came after the 2000 decision. He seems to have endured the fight, even in the face of meaningless plunder. He worked behind the scenes and the country went mad. For what?

With his Valentine's Day TV appearance, he turned a Sunday interview into Grand Guignol, defending his torture policies while attacking his replacement. Most vice presidents disappear. Cheney refuses to shut up. He can't say enough about waterboarding. He wants it to stay "on the table."

His media appearances have become a rolling psychotic break.

He couldn't be president, so he appointed himself vice president. Was his vice presidency really a presidency? George W has made few appearances since the Bank Job of 2009. A speaking appearance in Canada, another in Austin for a motivational seminar? It could've been a boat show for all the attention he was paid, but Cheney won't quit. He thinks he's still in charge.

It's widely assumed that he was drunk the day he shot a hunting buddy. He couldn't empty both barrels at the same time. Shooting his friend in the face at close range (within 10 to 15 feet), was no accident, so why did his target apologize?

(To be continued.)

Ripton, Vermont

Dear Kurt,

Thanks for the Valentine. Do you remember Marge Gunderson, the detective in the film Fargo?

"So, you were havin' sex with the little fellow, then?"

"Oh, for Pete's Sake, he's leaving the interview! He's leaving the interview!"

"You betcha!"

On February 14th, the Quitter (rhymes with chipper) enjoyed race day in Florida:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/os-nascar-daytona-500-sarah-palin-0215-20100214,0,596430.story

“Haven’t thought a darn thing about the politics of this. I’m thinking about this good, active, speed-loving event that a lot of Alaskans, too, are really into. We’ve got our snow-machine races up there, and this is, of course, on a much greater scale, same type of sport though, same type of breath-taking, speed-loving, All-American event that we like to see up north." (Todd was back home, preparing for the Iron Dog race.)

Whatcha think?

Last week, I had a nightmare. A rip current was pulling me into the sound. The slither of water and gravel is still in my head. It was low tide but I could see waves surging. This was transition time, when the tide floods back to shore. I woke up and did some checking. Rip currents are different from rip tides, and then there's the undertow.

I told Ian about my dream. He’s a surfer. Certainly he’s aware of these things, but I had to make sure.

On February 13th, large sneaker waves (not rogues) broke bones at a surfing competition in Half Moon Bay. The following day, an Oregon man was swept out to sea trying to rescue his dog from a rip. The day after that I went to Golden Gardens, looking for glass hearts. I found a confetti heart half-buried in the silt of Meadow Point. My nightmare beach.

Dog-eating waves and mini tsunamis, all generated in the Gulf of Alaska.

Shifting patterns and big waves were predicted in climate change models. Buffalo, NY, is normally buried by blizzards, but this year they fell further south.

Alaskans don’t have to truck in powder this winter. There was enough to kill another snowmobile fan, an oil executive who rode into an avalanche on the Kenai Peninsula.

For rogues like Sarah, climate change studies are “snake oil science.”

Bill McKibben’s Valentine’s race was cancelled for lack of snow. If I was a prayer warrior, I'd think that God was punishing Vermont for harboring a climate change enthusiast. I don’t pray, but the climber who fell into the crater of Mt. St. Helen’s died on a mountain he probably loved.

The interconnectedness of it all.

"Prowler needs a jump."

I am not a Socialist.

Wherein the president sounds strangely Nixonian:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aKGZkktzkAlA&pos=1

“I, like most of the American people, don’t begrudge people success or wealth. That is part of the free-market system.”

"I know both those guys; they are very savvy businessmen."

He knows - of - them, but he hasn't had a beer with them.

George W. Bush left two legacies for his base: a stacked Supreme Court and a looted Treasury.

So far, President Obama is a spectator who has done nothing to alter this legacy.