Top City Survey

A survey of readers by Travel and Leisure Magazine has ranked the city of New Orleans as "dirtiest" in the annual "America’s Favorite Cities" survey. It's no surprise. We always used to joke about how the French heritage of New Orleans was to blame for every piece of trash we saw on the ground. If France is the dirty city of Europe why not blame the New Orleans' French heritage for making New Orleans the dirtiest there. Even though the city has a strong German, Spanish and Italian background, that French influence gets the blame for the dirt.

On the positive side, in the very same survey, the same readers voted New Orleans as the number 1 travel destination for nightlife" and the number 1 people watching city. It also was voted as the 7th best city in the United States or in Canada. (New York and San Francisco were one and two in that ranking)

The "Top 10 Dirtiest Cities," according to the survey:
1. New Orleans
2. Philadelphia
3. Los Angeles
4. Memphis
5. New York City
6. Baltimore
7. Las Vegas
8. Miami
9. Atlanta
10. Houston

No surprises there, but the one common factor of all those cities is that they are appealing places to see. I guess being laid back enough to be "dirty" makes them also more interesting. And given this survey is by people who visit those cities there is less bias and prejudice involved in the ratings. The number one ranking New Orleans has as a people watching place is not a surprise either. Here in Portland they keep saying "Portland is weird" . They claim their population is unconventional, but only a small part is. Truth is, Portland isn't weird at all and is like most cities. But New Orleans has a population that is distinct. New Orleanians don't behave like people in other places. They are imprinted with a local behavior pattern that most outsiders love, given it is fun, funny and friendly.

And the number one nightlife rating must be because New Orleans is always open...clubs, music, food entertainment is on-going all night. And I have read that, per capita, New Orleans has the highest density of late night entertainment in the U.S. But fro some night life isn't the ideal. I do love the sleepy and peaceful nature of Portland, but I guess there is no such rating for that quality that Travel and Leisure surveyed. Too, I remember, in contrast to dirty New Orleans, a few years ago Portland was rated as the most beautiful American city. With it's gorgeous natural environment, heavy tree cover, quaint architecture and "city of neighborhood' set up I do find Portland to be that.

Ok, after ruminating on the two cites in which I have lived, what about your own city or some other favorite city of yours. Tell me what about it is what makes you like it

Father's Day

Another father's day is gone. Did you notice? Few people in the U.S. do, for fathers are the least recognized and most under appreciated of parents. I suppose the fact that mom gives physical birth to her child gives her a lifetime pass and sanctity that dads rarely ever achieve. Surely, mom is great but when I read about Father's Day it's treated so differently than Mother's Day. On Father's Day, we get a "lecture" about what we should be doing to be a great father, about how dad's don't do enough for their kids or don't spend enough time with them.

It's Nonsense! But then the deification of mom is best achieved with the denomination of dad, at least in this society. Too, to many dads, Fathers Day seems a begrudging "well, we have a Mother's Day because mom is best , so we better have to have a Father's Day too" ritual that is not nearly as sincerely given to dad as is Mom's Day is to she.

On Mother's Day mom gets flowers, presents, a meal in a fancy restaurant and endless "I love you, Mom's" from just about everyone. On Father's Day dad gets no flowers, but instead is told "when are you going to mow the lawn"? He gets a bad necktie as a present, and usually is forced to cook his own meal outside on the barbecue pit..flies and scorching heat included. It's no wonder we dads treasure those hand made cards our little ones gave us before they turned into teenagers and sullen young adults.

Dads know about and understand the discrimination they face, but it's not always easy to be neglected, ignored or vilified. Even the legal system disrespects dad. If a man and woman divorce the dad is automatically seen as the reason for the marriages' end. Dad gets the blame and the kids are given to mom's custody because the system states that any mom is more capable and loving than any dad.

So we dads have to be content with the knowledge that our children, the ones who really matter most to us on Father's Day, know the truth that dads are every bit as loving and as good at parenting as is mom. I have nothing to say to any mom today...but Happy Father's Day to all the dads!

Columbia Gorge

Tuesday I was the chauffeur for my daughter Jane, her visiting friend from New Orleans and a local friend of hers here in Portland. They wanted to see Multnomah Falls, the largest waterfall in the western U.S., and the famed Bonnerville Dam where all the salmon and other fish that spawn here must navigate steps and fit though a tiny hole/gate in the dam in order to enter the Columbia River. This regulates the number of salmon that will enter waterways in the U.S to keep the population of them stable. It is about an hour drive, so it is close enough to make it enjoyable. Too, it is a ride through the amazingly beautiful Columbia River Gorge that divides the states or Oregon and Washington. The Columbia River, huge old growth trees, and a spectacular landscape are along the way.

At the sight of the dam viewing windows are located in an observatory where people can watch the salmon struggle to swim against current and to fit through the tiny opening that will allow them to cross into the west. Watching the fish swim until exhaustion is amazing and a lesson in determination for the humans who see it. Every salmon in the American west must fit through a tiny series of steps in order to make it into the Columbia. We also saw that huge waterfall and walked up about halfway to a viewing bridge where the cool water from the fall splashes the faces of viewers. This is located in the Columbia River Gorge forest (just 25 minutes from the Bonnerville Dam) which itself is said to be a paradise for hikers. There are quite a few hiking trails of varying degree of difficulty within that mountain forest. Yesterday, two experienced hikers were near the waterfall, got lost, and wound up stuck in the cold night forest of darkness. They managed to build a shelter for warmth that night and slept there until next morning when they were able to find the main road from which they had entered the forest for their hike.

There are so many natural wonders in Portland area within a few hours drive. I still have seen only a few of them and vow to take the whale boat tour in the Pacific Ocean (about 3 hours from here) in which one can actually boat within a few meters of huge whales that spawn along the coat. It is said the smell of the whale is powerful when they approach the tourist whale observation boats. Whales are incredibly interesting creatures.

Ok..below are some photos of me, the kids and the water fall.

Following Like Sheep

So you think that the internet is the greatest advancement in technology of the age? Hmmm, maybe so. But if you asked a 16 year old German girl named Thessa she would not only say NO, but might slap you for asking. It seems that Thessa forgot to mark her birthday party invitation as private when posting it as an event on Face book and after more than 1,500 guests showed up and around 100 police officers, some on horses, were needed to keep the crowd under control, Thessa ran for her life.

15,000 people confirmed online they would come to the party even though they did not even even know the girl. They must be party starved in Germany. When Thessa's parents found out about this faux pas disaster, they made their daughter cancel the party, then informed police and hired a private security service to protect their home on Friday night. The partiers showed up with cakes, presents and lots of alcohol as they drank themselves silly, canceled party or not.

I wonder if I post an invitation to have my property landscaped, might a few show up to do that free work for me. What power Face book has, or rather, is it that we are all just so estranged from each other because of our addiction to technology that we'll show up for parties for strangers, just to have something "real" to do. Has the ease with which our technology made it possible to contact and relate to others instantly actually had the ironic side affect of making us lonelier and more estranged than before we had the technology?

15,000 people showing up for a strangers birthday party after it was canceled (15,000 initially messaged they were coming before the party was canceled) is like those armies of ants following the trail to sugar. They don't know why they are going to it, but they are wired to do it anyway. Might humans today be the ants themselves, blindly using their technology without interruption because they are addicted to it and can not do anything else?

Put That Cell Phone Down

I'm amused by the latest hoax to come from the World Health organization. This time it's the declaration that the International Agency for Research on Cancer, one of the subgroups that is WHO, concluded that cell phones are "possible carcinogens" that could kill the brains of already brain dead cell phone addicts. This hysterical conclusion flies in the face of almost every study done on the effects of cell phones. Those say that though cell phones do emit low levels radiation (in between radio waves and microwaves) like almost every technology in use today, those waves have never been shown to cause or be associated with an increased incidence of cancer.

As a natural and devoted cell phone hater I find it hilarious because WHO is the same group that gave the typical trendy cell addict his or her belief that the world is being heated by humans and that ' we're all going to die from global warming". I am curious about the reaction of cell fiends to the WHO report. They who accept every bizarre global warming claim as truth, seem far more skeptical about the equally opinionated truth that their phones being too hot to handle. It seems when their personal pleasures are banned they become global warmed cell cancer deniers.

Remember the WHO claim a few years ago that 90 million people would die from the 'Bird Flu' epidemic (no humans died, because the disease was confined to birds)? Or what about those stupid Swine Flu shots they tried to persuade us to take a couple of years ago.? The list of bogus science wrapped in an official organization is endless. This latest example, the "you're gonna get brain cancer if you use that cell phone", should jolt people to think more about the so called science that is propagandized to them these days...err....yes...the global warming theory being the biggest example of it.

The great irony of this age of technological and scientific advancement is that some of the alleged scientific conclusions are more a perversion than a product of the scientific method. I don't know what the agenda of the WHO conclusion is, but it certainly isn't science. And as much as I hate cell phones, or rather the common abuse of humans by those who use them coarsely and even dangerously, I think that the only cancer your cell will give you is the figurative kind.... the abuse in use of them that is killing civility.

Funniest Nations

The results are in. In a just released survey by Badoo of 30,000 people in 15 countries conducted on line people from the USA were overwhelmingly voted the world's "funniest nationality ... best at making people laugh". Does this mean I have to make you laugh here? Never mind.

Take a look at the top ten list and the three least funny nations that I have below. In looking at the top ten, it's pretty much as I would expect it to be, absent Britain from being higher up (maybe even number one) on the list. No Asian nations appear at all because they are so literal in orientation that humor doesn't come through as often. Making one laugh means non literal conversation or gestures and most Asians are more interested in the facts rather than the subliminal absurdities in life. And no African nations appear because no one can laugh when being chased by lions all day.

Why is France listed as the 5th funniest? They are humorless....but then, France as a nation is one big joke anyway. Maybe that's why they got so many votes, as a figurative gesture. Numbers one two and three seem appropriate, but Brazil as number four??? Have you heard any good Brazilian jokes lately? Neither have I.

The least funny list seems right on too. Germans are to busy invading countries and drinking too much beer to be funny. The Russians are just weird and always want to spend time figuring out how to attack your computer and steal your identity and credit card number. No room for jokes there. The only thing funny about Turkey is that they name their country after a bird we Americans eat on Thanksgiving.

Hmmm Come to think of it, this list and my comments about it are probably "for the birds" anyway. Keep smiling out there

Most funny
1. American
2. Spanish
3. Italian
4. Brazilian
5. French
6. Mexican
7. British
8. 9. Tie: Dutch, Russian
10. Belgian

Top three Least Funny of those receiving votes
1. German
2. Russian
3. Turkish

Places Not For Me

The other day someone asked me how long has it been since I moved from New Orleans to Portland. It's been about 10 months now. this makes me reflect, not about the move I made, but about moves I surely wouldn't make. There are some cities , regions or countries I want no part of, and I am sure you are of the same mindset.

The worst place for me to move would be a Muslim country. I would only visit there (and make sure I didn't lose my passport while on vacation), but would have a great time observing the 14th century lifestyle. Those mullahs would flog me every day if I lived in one of them. It's just too intolerant a mentality for a loudmouth like me.

Those Muslim countries remind me of France. France is also mostly an intolerant place, but they aren't fanatics about it. You can keep your head if you offend the French. Instead of cutting it off, they will only act snooty and say snide things behind your back if you don't worship their 19th century culture (see, they are about five centuries ahead of the Muslim run nations). I imagine it's hard to act pretentious 24 hours a day as the French do.

In the U.S there are quite a few places I am not interested in moving to. Kansas is one. I drove through Kansas when I drove my car from New Orleans to Portland last year, and the only thing I saw was farm land...flat....monotonous farm land with temperatures below zero in winter and above 45 C in summer. To give you some idea of the appeal of Kansas, I should mention that the cows and sheep have more personality than the people of Kansas. For fun, in Kansas they dodge tornadoes and clean out the barn.

I also am not moving to any of those Totalitarian nations (Ok, maybe exclude China from this because the women are so beautiful). I refuse to salute to the gigantic picture of the dictator staring at me from the places that allegedly "belongs to the people's republic) but that is inhabited by those rich dictators and their pals. There's a lot more about those places I don't like, the never ending military parades, the substandard housing, calling the lead dictator "father", and having to wear those funny and drab looking outfits they hand out to the citizens.

Oh, one more I refuse to go to is those tropical island paradise places everyone talks about. They aren't a paradise to me. They are hot, insect filled, and exist only because tourists think the beaches on which they relax (bake their skin to the point of skin cancer in the sun) are good places to relax or meet people for romance (sex). The tropical isles remind me of movie sets. They are all a mirage, a front with nothing of substance behind the front view.

I have more places I could mention, but I have already angered enough of the world with my remarks, so I will shut up before they grab me and drop me on a mountain top somewhere where I have no internet access

TV In The Car

It's getting more and more dangerous to be in a car these days. The technology addicts keep adding distractions to their driving that imperil themselves and anyone else they could hurt, maim or kill in an accident caused by a technology distraction. The latest proposal lawmakers are considering to help distracted drivers kill us all comes from my former state of Louisiana. A bill for lawmakers to vote on in the legislature there aims to let front seat passengers watch video screens in vehicles in Louisiana if the driver can't see it. That's right, they want to make it legal to put TV sets in the front seat area.

Should that foolishness be legalized? Forget the idea that the driver can't actually see the screen. The distraction for the noise of people watching, from the driver overhearing comments about it...it's insane. What exactly is the benefit of having a dashboard TV screen in your vehicle? How does this help anyone and how can it not be considered dangerous?That bill to legalize television screens on car and truck dashboards moved within one step of final approval yesterday on the same day that a proposed ban on hand-held cell phones while driving died. Odd, huh? Do they want us to chat on cell phones and watch TV while driving? Do you have the feeling that when the porno channel is on, the driver may bend his neck to take a peek?

The surprise to all this is that in most states in the U.S. it's already legal to have TV's in automobiles. Hmmmm Maybe they are right and we should go even further in finding ways to make driving more dangerous, and therefore, more fun. How about some new laws to allow even more distraction for the driver.

- mini car microwaves to use while driving so our coffee or hamburgers don't get cold.
- lanes for texting while driving (of course there will be "warnings" posted for those who accidentally find themselves in the manic text lanes).
- mini bars in cars (bartenders optional)
- make legal all lap dancing performed while the car is in motion

Further suggestions on your end are appreciated. Let's have more fun on the road.

Religion In Sport

Do you also notice that more and more athletes are "thanking God" when they do well or win a sports competition? Quite a few of them think that God is on their side in the games, and they believe that they wouldn't do well without his/her (let's make God bisexual since he seems to play for both the girls and boys) manipulation. If it were true that God picks sides in football games, and it isn't, it would be cheating and the athlete and his or her team would be disqualified.

Yes! That's what I want to see one day. After the big game when the star is interviewed by TV for the God fearing fans and claims that "I want to thank the almighty Jesus for helping me win today", after that admission, I want to see the referee disqualify his team for having "outside help". Maybe that would stop the crazy, mindless attributions those athletes give to God and keep religion off the playing fields and in the (empty) churches where it belongs. As if God has time to choose a winner in a track and field event, when God can't even stop real life versions of sporting events, wars, from perpetrating injustice all over the world. I say to God (I doubt God takes my advice, but I talk a lot and am delusional that a Supreme Being has a minute to listen to a lunatic like me), forget about helping at the Australian Open this year and instead intervene in those crazy Muslim religious fanatic holy wars.

I think most of the athletes we see praising the lord for help in the game really believe that God plays on their side. And that may have a placebo effect on the player, making him focus better and play well. It's similar to the Islamic terrorists telling themselves that they don't mind blowing themselves up with their suicide bombs because Allah is on their side and wants them to do it. If you delude yourself enough to think God is defending your goal with you, you probably will block more of those goal attempts by the other soccer team.

The belief that God plays sports, manipulates the outcomes and picks winners only because they are his Godly believers and buddies seems unfair to the atheists who also play sports. But then, the atheists can thank Satan after they win. Yes, I would love to hear an interview with a guy who has just won the game and announced that, "Satan was on my side. With him all things are possible." Every time one of those God fearing sports stars gives the sign or the cross or prays before the game starts, the Satanist could pull ut his or her red cape and horns and star at the Godly athlete. That would shake him from his spiritual cheating.

Maybe sports should ban all religious references during games, as they do in our public schools where prayer in school is not allowed. So why not also ban prayer on the fields of play. Maybe then, those Godly athletes would take responsibility for the outcomes of their games and believe in their own human abilities as the cause and effect of game outcomes, rather than seeing themselves as a tool used by a creator. Until then, I am just going to root for some of the more enlightened sports teams out there. You know, like the Tampa Bay Devil Rays....

D Day Anniversary

Another anniversary of D Day, when 156,000 mostly American, British and some Canadian and Australian/New Zealand forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of France’s Normandy region, in order to rescue France (France seems to constantly need to be rescued from itself, but then when you are busy being arrogant, as the French are, it's a hard to stand up for yourself) from German occupation in W.W. II. I'll skip waxing about the enormity of that event and the tragic loss of life in it and look at it from another angle- it was and will be the last massive infantry combat invasion by the world's nations and was the first extensively film world war.

That such massive conflicts in which human infantry soldiers are slaughtered are over is a good thing about being alive in this age. As the technology of war changes so do the tactics of war. The new technology tends to make war a riskier process, and hence, reduces the probability of it. If World War I was as claimed at the time, "The Great War" and "The War to End all Wars", W.W. II was the last conventional large scale war. With modern military technology, any "world war" today would end the world itself, making the likelihood of having one of those again less probable.

World War II and D Day were among the best photographed (particularly with the relatively new video cameras) of them all. the world has extensive and spectacular film of it. Extensive video was used for the first time in a global conflict, and armies of every persuasion that fought in the war sent cameras into combat then too. Most of the soldiers who fought in D Day or those who were adults at the time are now deceased. The D Day celebration now is more of a historical retrospective than a personal remembrance of the D Day invasion.

New Orleans has the world's largest D Day museum (an esteemed professor of history from New Orleans campaigned for it to be in New Orleans, the fact that New Orleans has ties to D Day because a shipbuilding company in the city designed and built the famous "Higgins boats' that were used in the invasion of Normandy, made putting the museum in New Orleans possible). The museum has been designated by the U.S. Congress as America's 'National World War II Museum'. When walking through the the museum one is aware of the way in which war was to be reported has changed dramatically since W.W. II was fought. Then war was more of a personal horror story, now the video and pictures of war seem more like a Hollywood film or reality TV show, less real to the observer. It's now something that "is over there' and does not affect the ordinary citizen directly.

Wars today are more like political conflicts that are confined to single spots and that require little or no sacrifice by the general populations outside the conflict area. Looking at D Day or at any W.W. II footage or reading about them makes one realize the art and nature of war is far different today than it was in the Second World War.
At any rate, if you are curious about D Day, here is a link for the New Orleans based D Day museum. http://www.nationalww2museum.org/

Creating An Identity Crisis

Some people are crazy and others are just "different". But some defy understanding. Did you read or hear of the Toronto couple, Kathy Witterick and David Stocker, who decided, after the birth or their child, to "hide the gender of him/her Or is it correct to say "it" if they refuse to acknowledge the sex of the child?)? They named the new born "Storm"( maybe because what they are doing to that kid is a disaster?) and dress Storm in androgynous clothes to prevent anyone from guessing whether it is a he or a she. Hmmmmm I see a big identity crises coming for little Storm. And with parents like the ones he/she has the crisis may come fast and be life long.

And why are the parents making a guinea pig out of their little newborn human being? Well, they claim that placing a sex identity on the child limits and sometimes interferes with natural urges that are counter to either the male or female role. They wouldn't want a boy who has a feminine side to feel like he can't wear a dress, have dolls, and eventually ovulate. Nor do they want a girl who has a masculine side to feel denied her opportunity to break stuff, play with guns...maybe shoot a few people to show he is manly. So.....why not use a baby in a social experiment to find out? Ouch!

Of course , seeking publicity and reaping economic gain from this near Nazi experiment on a baby is one factor for their pulling this stunt. They even released a press statement (and have eagerly chatted in various TV shows about the "Storm Experiment") saying exactly why they are doing this. "We've decided not to share Storm's sex for now, a tribute to freedom and choice in place of limitation, a stand up to what the world could become in Storm's lifetime."

Huh?? Well, in one of his press interview the dad, Charles, stated it more succinctly. "If you really want to get to know someone, you don't ask what's between their legs." Hmmm But that's not the case with people like Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton and a good portion of our esteemed celebrities today who define themselves solely by sex. Adds the mom about their decision to give Storm the freedom to choose who he or she wants to be..... "What we noticed is that parents make so many choices for their children. It's obnoxious," The mom is a teacher at an alternative school. Haha I think the parents of her students must already be lining up to withdraw their kids from that school.

This brings to mind the terrible irony that in almost every place in the world one needs to have a license to own a dog or other pet, but any moron can have a child and psychologically abuse the baby without much challenge by child protection agencies or other legal bodies who should prevent such abuses as the Storm Experiment.

Might those two just be cases of parents drawing attention to themselves by using their child to do so? Denying the sex of a child in order to allow the child to find his or her own sexual identity is like denying an education to a child so he or she can find his own intellectual level,. In a word, it's "abuse"

Updated Ten Commandments

All those crazy preachers who predict the end of the world should change their strategy and take on a new kind of prophesy. I get the feeling if there is a God above who can destroy the world, he isn't ready to do it (maybe he likes Reality TV too much to kill us all?),. despite preacher created hysteria that he wants to end it all. I think it is evident that God 1) wants the world to continue with humans on it and 2) that he needs to update the ten commandments to make them more realistic so we can at least have a chance to obey them. If Microsoft can update us to death, God should update us too, with a new set of commandments to replace the un realistically difficult and too general ones humans are just incapable of upholding.

Look at the original 10 Commandments and you can see they are outdated. Take the one that says " thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife". Is he kidding? I think also in that commandment is says to not covet thy neighbor's ox and goat. No one breaks that commandment anymore. I never even see any goats to covet. It's time to update that list.

But what man doesn't covet a hot neighborly wife once in awhile? If we men stopped coveting them people would say we are gay, and that breaks another of God's commandments. The not covet commandment is a can't win proposition. God needs to alter them to relieve our burden and make it possible to live a moral life, thereby ridding us of nutty preachers who predict we will all be destroyed because we are too "sinful". As an example of one of the commandments that needs replacement (are you reading this God?), how about changing the "thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife to "thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's cell phone"?

Hmmm If God is everywhere and sees everything then he is reading this too (though I admit his reality TV is probably more interesting to him than are my remarks). God must be able notice how people love their phones and technology too much, and that the adoration of them as false idols needs to be addressed with updated commandments. I say, long live coveted wives and death to cell phone mania!

If God needs a new Moses to deliver the new commandments to mankind I am up to the challenge. I already have a beard like Moses, and I have outdated views that fit more the time of the original Moses than of today. Make me Moses for the day, God. Instead of dropping that heavy tablet with the chiseled commandments, maybe you could just put them on a Kindle book and they can be uploaded from there.

I think God can figure out the rest of the new ten commandment list without any more of my suggestions, so I will shut up . Oh, just one more thing to consider, God....just for me and the rest of the male population of the world. Can you make donuts sacred?

In The Black

Remember the rise in the music world of that annoying little twerp with the mop of hair, Justin Bieber? I'm still trying to forget that kid, and have no idea what shred of talent he has to warrant attention, even by little girls. But Justin's success all began with a crudely done self produced music video on Yu Tube. The preteen girls like Justin so much they even imagine he can sing, and that his music is tolerable. Fueled by the mainstream media which seems to love creating false idols, Justin became an international star.

Well, now a 13 year old named Rebecca Black has decided to take the same approach as Justin. Her mom spent $4000 to make a music single and accompanying video sung by Rebecca and posted on line, all so that Rebecca could become the next just barely teen star of little talent to dazzle us all. But it hasn't worked as well for Rebecca. The song, called "Friday", has has received more than 154 million views and was eventually released as a single on Billboard's Hot 100. But it has also drawn some vicious criticisms that no 13 year old little girl should see about herself.

While almost 400,000 listeners of the Yu Tube video say they like the song, over 3 million have said it is awful. Some have made vulgar and threatening comments against Rebecca. By this past February, Rebecca began to receive death threats from jealous (or knowledgeable) music critics who saw the video but who perhaps forgot it's not appropriate to excoriate children in public. The majority of the threats have come via the phone and email (As of yet, no enterprising critic has yet put a music video on line that specifically attacks Rebecca, though some amusing parodies of the song have been done).

Ok, I know you are wondering about the song and want to see the video. Grab your favorite sedative and some ear plugs (just in case), turn the volume low and see it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD2LRROpph0

I warned you! But it's about what a13 year old should produce, and remember, Rebecca is just a little girl. The problem with the attitude of Rebecca's parents in this enterprise, the "Let's make a star of my kid" idea, is that 13 year olds shouldn't be artificially promoted, particularly when they lack any sense of talent. And worse, one wonders if it is not a form of child abuse to subject a 13 year old to the horrid comments, criticisms, and over all venom of those watching the video. What were her parents thinking? (they probably don't think much). Would any parent want their small child to go through this?

Rebecca is learning many things from this, but the most impacting one may be that we can't always fulfill our dreams simply because we want them to happen, and that to be mocked publicly at the sweet and innocent age of 13 is a far worse outcome than the artificial success of being noticed on line and the few minutes of fame that follows. That adults would put Rebecca in this situation, and that many adults relish assassinating a little girl's character is an abomination of a terrible sort. Adults, including celebrities in the music business, comics, and public figures have made fun of Rebecca and her song. I wonder if they are clue less as to Rebecca's age, or perhaps even though they see the song is not worthy of attention, they are tone deaf about about abusing a child in public.

Oh music Gods above... spare us from any more Justin Beiber's or Rebecca Black's, for our sake and theirs.

Double Speak

While reading my newspaper this morning I got stuck on page three, not because there was anything of particularly interest on that page. Rather, I was hit in the face with doublespeak. Double speak is saying something , uh, "differently". It is language which pretends to communicate but doesn't, language which makes the bad seem good, the negative seem positive, the unpleasant seem unattractive, or at least tolerable. It's a very common form of language these days because we aren't supposed to upset anyone with normal language. Political correctness requires that humans do that. When George Bush used to say the "Iraqi War is about peace", he was double speaking. When the media writes that a person is an "undocumented alien" it is double speaking about people illegal in a country. You get the idea.

Today's newspaper doublespeak came from the U.S. government in the form of a story about "The Patriot Act" and from an advertiser who had a newspaper ad promoting its desire to sell "pre-owned vehicles". In the case of the Patriot Act, a law George Bush rammed through the U.S. Congress in 2001 immediately after the 911 attack on the U.S. by the late Osama and company, we have a law that is anything but patriotic. It lets the government check citizen's mail, wiretap phones and intercept e mail, enables spying techniques that utilize what would ordinarily be unconstitutional etc.....all because it is supposed to "protect" Americans from terrorism. I hardly think that pushing aside basic constitutional rights is patriotic, but one might not know that if just hearing the name of that awful law (which may be voided this year).

The second example I found on page three, "preowned vehicle sale" is a euphemism for what most people call "used car sales". I guess the advertiser thinks that by calling a used car a preowned one, he or she an more easily convince the buyer to purchase it. But putting a dress on a gorilla doesn't make her a debutante.

As I read those two examples of double speak It reminded me of quite a few common ones I have read in the newspaper the past few days. I think one of the sad side effects of the electronic communication boom is the ease with which bad usage appears in what y used to be protected sources- professional writings. For you and I to use double speak is nothing new or harmful to society. but when trusted mediums use it, the double speak tends to propagandize us, often unknowingly (because people today, sedated by a barrage of nonsense in media, often don't think about what they hear and read as former generations once did).

Here are a few doublespeak remarks (with translations) I have read or seen in media this past week.

* Diversity- taking away what the haves have earned and giving it to the have nots because "everyone is entitled to share in wealth"
* Death tax- the tax on the estate one inheritance, once called "The Estate Tax"
* Freedom fighter- Americans call their soldiers this when they invade (as in Afghanistan), yet Americans call nations from other countries who invade "terrorists"
* Vertically deployed anti personal device action- dropping bombs on people
* Regime change necessity- advocating kicking out of office the current head (usually a dictator who has become unpopular) of state of the country by protest or violent action
* Creation science- a phony doctrine that religion uses and promotes as being science.
* New and improved- a commercial product that is smaller in size but is more expensive.

Ok that's enough. You can find more double speak speak in your own communication medium. Hmmmm I think maybe even in my babble here. But don't use a
"vertically deployed anti personal device action" against me for writing this junk. If you do I only give you "new and improved" nonsense to read.

Memorial Day Deaths

Monday, May 30th was Memorial Day in the U.S., but The National World War II Museum in New Orleans says Memorial Day is losing its identity as a day to honor those who died defending the U.S. This is interesting because I have also noticed how Memorial Day has almost become another one of those forgotten holidays that litter every calendar. It's like one of those that honor a long dead political figure or a national hero no one remembers. People love having to not go to work or school, but they sometimes don't even care enough about why they have the holiday to take the time to understand what it is about.

A study commissioned by that World War II museum found that 80 percent of people surveyed did not understand what Memorial Day was for. And I can understand why. This is an age of anti war and anti militarism. It would be difficult to restore the patriotic fervor that once surrounded the holiday in this age, because we are so occupied with daily life that remembering unpleasantness like war is not too often on the agenda.. Many people just don't connect emotionally with the day anymore.

I think it is not so tragic that Memorial Day is losing its appeal. Such days, when kept in perspective, are good for a society. They remind us of sacrifices humans make for others, even in the form of the death of citizens in defense of the country or its principals. But the opposite extreme of that mentality is the kind of maddening patriotism that the world saw in Nazi Germany before and during World War II, where a blind "patriotism" for the nation was in fact a diseased expression.

It seems that in the industrial world the events that honor war are now seen more as relics. They are often only major holidays and celebrations in dictatorships or in societies that use propaganda to motivate the population to obey the will of the dictatorship that exists in the nation. By defining a country based on past military struggles, the state can identify and validate its present existence as an extension of the past sacrifices made in war. Dictators love to tell their people of the "glories of the nation's wars" because doing that helps to legitimize their own presence with the citizens. And leaders who wish to hide their failings (as in George Bush) use Memorial Day or "patriotic" rallies to distract the voters from the reality of the nation's deficits.

So, I think a lessened Memorial Day may not be so bad after all. Keeping patriotism in check is a far, far better way to honor those who died in protecting us.

Too Much Study

The question that all societies ask themselves about the methods and goals of a student education is a bigger on to tackle in South Korea. Academic pressures at the most prestigious university in Korea, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (also known as 'KAIST', a kind of copy of the U.S. famed MIT university) is so bad that this semester four students and one of the more popular professors there all have committed suicide. The professor killed himself because he was being audited for accusations of misuse of funds and the four students did it because they had trouble keeping up with course work. "Saving face", ah, that awful cultural mantra in many Asian countries is out of control in Korea.

Young people in South Korea are said to be a mostly unhappy group as they are pushed to try to reach a materialistic future dependent on study, study, and more study. A recent survey found them to be, for the third year in a row, the unhappiest group among countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development nations. The Education Ministry in Seoul said 146 students committed suicide last year, including 53 in junior high, 90 on high school and 3 in elementary school.

Also, South Korea as a whole ranks first among O.E.C.D. nations in suicide and is routinely among the leaders in developed nations. Subway stations in Seoul have barriers to prevent people from jumping in front of arriving trains, and eight bridges in the capital have installed closed-circuit suicide watch cameras. Suicides of singers, models, beloved actors, athletes, millionaire heiresses and other prominent figures have become almost routine in South Korea.

Why so, one might ask? It probably starts with their obsession with academic success, those awful dehumanizing cram schools and private tutoring, and the endless hours of study Korean students must endure. Strangely, as in most Asian educational systems, students are brutalized with excessive study and demands until being admitted to a University, where in most cases, it's then a 4 year vacation from any study at all. The reward for being brutalized in elementary and high school is a free ride of play in college...except at KAIST, which instituted reform and demands to study as in pre college years that the students that may be too much for some of them to handle.

Too, what is the point in trying to achieve "face" if day to day life is unfulfilling and unhappy? Trying to live up top an image created by a study obsessed society is causing South Koreans great anguish. Yet the economic gains from that very system have been astounding in South Korea. It's something to think about as to how it translates in other nations and how they structure their educational systems. The educational trend world wide seems to be more movement toward the South Korean model of education, a high pressure, high stakes one.

But does that system neglect the human element too much, the part of the equation that says humans are a sum of many individual parts, and are not defined by a single criteria (educational attainment)? You tell me what system is the ideal one.

No Priests Allowed

The owner of a forest in Stir wants to ban priests from passing through his estate as they pilgrim to a world-famous church. Josef Rothwangl, who must be either very bitter or have an offbeat sense of humor, erected signs which warn hikers that his forest was a "children protection area," The restrictions on his land would only come into effect when clergymen/priests plan to walk through it with a group of children. He said groups including parents of hiking kids were allowed to enter. A picture of his NO PRIESTS ALLOWED sign speaks 1000 words. Haha I love the sign's graphic of the priest in closed robe (thank God it isn't open and showing his clerical "jewels"!) chasing after the little ones.

So now the Styrian parish priests can not take the short route through Josef's estate on their way to Mariazell. The town’s church is Austria’s most important pilgrimage site. He, uh claims to have been molested by priests when a child and says that he isn't trying to punch the Catholic Church in the nose, but instead, just wants to make the innocent kids make aware of the high number of sexual and physical abuse cases at Catholic boarding schools and other clerical institutions in Austria.

Well, Austria is a democratic nation with laws against discrimination, so Joseph may have to let the molesters walk across his forest. But his one man protest branding the church as a potential group molestation agency is a clever way of focusing on the issue of past and potentially future clergy molestation. And yes.....it has given me additional ideas of signs to post against the dangerous of our societal members . How about these other warning signs?

* Before every Reality TV show we might post- "Caution, this program may be injurious to the brain and the ability to reason".
* Islamic extremists terrorist groups should post this on all its letterheads- "We want to give barbarism a second chance."
* In every car of cell phone driver/users- " Beware passengers, I'm Hi Tech, Hi Speed, and Low IQ"
* When the whole family gets Alzheimer's disease, post this one-" We're just wondering who we all are"
* Under the embossed seal of 'The People's Democratic Republic of North Korea'- "Ok, we're not democratic, but neither is The People's Republic of China."
* In any prison- "We're swear that we are all innocent"
* For a street panhandling bum- " I actually need your money for wine"
* At a health club I'd like to see truth in advertising with this sign- " We eat well, exercise, stay fit and die anyway"
* If an honest politician ran a good campaign sign would read- " I only care about your money, not you."

Never mind...I should blame Josef for my sign thoughts.........

Fashion

As one who knows nothing about fashion and dresses in the "if it's comfortable, I'll wear it" style I think I have figured out that women's fashion here in Portland is more in accord with my own. In Portland more look like fashion slobs than fashion snobs. I see plenty of raggedy outfits on both sexes, but the women here are especially unconcerned about their look. The trendy fashion fashion look here is hard to find.

I think the preponderance of young, unemployed or "not yet financially stable" population has plenty to do with it. Too, this is a city of bikers, hikers and outdoor types. That crowd isn't interested in high fashion. This may explain the fewer number of high end fashion shops in Portland. It's good for me, (as I sit at my computer in shorts and a T Shirt that says- "I Smile Because I have No Idea What's Going On". Sad, huh, but I consider that almost formal wear. Women who expect men to dress well ( uncomfortably) too often are not my type of women. Just because they are uncomfortable in their layers of make-up, smelly perfume, bra, high heels and too tight dresses doesn't mean I have to be uncomfortable too.

Often a woman who can't afford a $1000 dress is the first to buy one. Other women put pressure on them to dress well. Let's face it, women dress more to outdo other women than to impress men. We men would be happier if you wore cheap clothes, since we often have to pay for it anyway. And why do so many women have so many extra pairs of shoes? I have only two pairs of shoes that I wear and one or tow to match an outfit when I must dress more formally than my message T shirt mode of fashion.

But I dare any man to look in a women's closets and count the shoes. Yep I dare them! It might take hours to get an accurate total of how many are in there. Yet the woman who owns the shoes knows all of the (and probably has given names to each pair).
Because women have so many shoes and outfits to wear, it takes them forever to get dressed. I challenge any women to dress faster than I. Slipping on a T short and shirts is easier for me than the ritual women undergo when dressing. Even when shopping for clothes, a male has the advantage. Go into any clothing store and you will find the section for women's clothes is at least twice the size as is the men's department.

Have I convinced you that you are a slave to the fashion police, and that you should cast off our bras and run to T Shirt bliss! Hehe Gee, its fun to be a slob...

Time Capsules

One of my favorite cities in Louisiana, just about an hour's drive outside of New Orleans is the 'Strawberry Capital of the U.S.', Ponchatoula, Louisiana. Ponchatoula (Named after an Indian tribe there with the same name) is is bucolic and a typical sleepy small town. There is a nice and large university there, The University of Southeastern Louisiana, that I have suggested to Jane as a place she might want to attend college. I read today on-line that Poncthatoula is celebrating it's 150 year anniversary and in accordance has unearthed and opened a time capsule in downtown Ponchatoula buried in 1961. It contains some treasures from the city's past in the form of newspapers (including a copy of a Pontchatoula Examiner newspaper from 1902), old photographs and memorabilia from the 1961 centennial celebration.

This has me thinking (Oh, no! Not that...) about time capsules. They used to be popular but with today's age of electronic recording seem quaint and impractical to many. I don't believe many cities or organizations bury them anymore. It is a shame because time capsules are selective memories rather than a general catalogue. They better help the future understand the past because they contain items the past feels are important to remember. No judgment is needed as to what memorabilia was important to those of the past, because it is in the capsule itself. Yet most historians say that when a time capsule is better it is usually filled with useless junk, perhaps for their own purposes, but I find them revealing.

If you had to make a time capsule for your city, country or the world, what would you put in it? We have so many video and electronic product mediums today that maybe we don't need those capsules anymore. Society's ordinary documentation leaves many trials already. And does a time capsule hold up after 100's of years? I think, for example, if we placed our modern electronic mediums inside may deteriorate or perhaps be unable to be used in the more updated electronic devices of the future. So putting too many of those kinds of things inside might be a mistake. The simple and less degradable photograph would be better.

How would you represent society today with what you put in the capsule? Surely, it would be affected by your prejudices, biases, experiences, belief etc. Time capsules are just a slice of life from one viewpoint so they reveal far different orientations. For example, one person may put inside something about Mother Theresa while another might substitute an Osama bin Laden memory, a good versus evil look at our present future could use to draw far different conclusions about life in the early 21st century.

There are so many types of time capsules, as in the selective ones in which objects about one specific subject are placed inside. There are businesses that sell those cylindrical metal canisters that people can place their items for their own personal Time capsule. But again, what to put inside? If one places purely personal items they tend to be less interesting and revealing to the person who opens the capsule if they have no family or personal tie to the one who buried the capsule. Yet items of "the world' can be to general to be appealing.

There is even a web site http://dmarie.com/timecap/ that can give you a time capsule page of information for any date you place at the site's search engine. Try a date or two in it. It is interesting. When I went back 100 years from today I found that the price of a new car then was only $100, that one could get 20 loves of bread for one dollar, and that every one oe the top songs of that year listed is unknown to me. Anyway, I think you can omit one thing in your time capsule. That would be any of the stupidity I write to you here.

End of The World Again

Well, I guess we should all be a little disappointed. Another end of the world prophesy passed and we are all still here. Sigh...no world ending earthquakes or raptures as predicted by crazy Christians. I guess we have to count on Hollywood for that scenario to come to life. (Please don't make Leo Di Caprio God in the film...I have already had enough of that guy). It's a let down to me even though I know that I would not have been among the faithful that would have ascended into heaven.

Wacky religions are only fun when they are so preposterous they make us believe their nonsense. This latest Christian far out sect didn't even give a plausible way that God would end the world. Instead they claimed an earthquake in New Zealand would do it. Even those biblical pestilence episodes from the bible make more sense than that. It's just not possible for an earthquake to cause the world to end. Give me a storm of locusts or something creative and I might believe the end is near.

And the crazy leader of the religious group that predicted the end of the world is named 'Harold Camping'. How can a preacher named Harold be taken seriously? He should change his name to Moses or Abraham, something more in the line with a serious preacher name. And Harold is a retired engineer. How can an engineer know about God 's return to earth to scoop up believers and holy types and leave the rest of us to perish on earth? Engineers build bridges. They don't predict world ending earthquakes.

Worse than Harold and his crazy prophesy are those who follow his ideas. Some of his believers (I'd like to test the IQ's of that group) shut themselves inside their homes to pray as they waited for the world's end. Others met with their children for tearful last lunches, and preparing to leave behind pets and be swept up to heaven. Uh, they must have forgotten that this is Harold's second end of the world prediction. He says his earlier apocalyptic prediction in 1994 didn't come true because of a mathematical error. With excuses like that, Harold sounds more like a politician than a preacher.

I am also disappointed that the world didn't end because it would have removed all those nutty doomsday Christians like Harold from our presence. I think that the world would be better off without Christians like Harold. Maybe God canceled the end and decided he didn't want to scope them up into heaven after all because he also can't endure Harold. Heaven would not be heavenly if Harold and his minions were up there making predictions and annoying God. Still, it's really not nice of God to leave us with Harold and his followers. Maybe as a compromise, God could just shut Harold up.

Oh, wait...I feel some shaking now. The earth is trembling! I should repent. Oops! Never mind, the earth is still here. I think I just passed a little gas while writing about this nonsense. Than God I can resume my heathen existence on earth.