Voting

Tuesday was election day in the United States for most voters. But my state and a growing number of others have the so called "early voting" period in which a voter can substitute election day for a more convenient time to vote from within the range of dates allowed.  The idea is to make it simple for voters to cast their ballot in order to increase the participation rate. It is a bad idea, I think.  Like most important tasks, voting should not one which is a painless process. If it is, sometimes people cast ballots who would not otherwise vote. They tend to be uninformed or apathetic who only vote because of a narrow personal gain to be obtained from voting for a particular candidate or issue.  I wonder why society wants those kinds of people to vote more often. A little inconvenience, as in taking a n hour off work to visit a polling place and casting a vote, is a good measure of interest. Those who are unwilling to do that probably don't care enough to make an informed vote.

The vote is a singularly nice, yet unappreciated gift. We can do many things with our votes and there are many motivations to vote or not vote. Some will not use it, and that can be a nice way to protest disdain or to simply show a lack of interest. Others can vote "for" a candidate or issue, and still others might vote just to be against a single candidate or issue. It is not unheard of that some people "sell" their vote to someone who gives them something in return. In a democracy voting gives everyone the right to do something stupid.

Too, voting is a way to feel both invested in and responsible for the community in which we live. If we vote for a good candidate who has governed well we can brag that "I voted for him," or  if we voted for a bad candidate who has shamed, it can shame us as well (though we may not admit voting for the bad one). It's odd how many people won't say who they voted for. This may be to save themselves shame if their candidate wins and turns out to be a dud.  But really, in free nations,  if voting changed anything it would be abolished.

Of course all of this is irrelevant in countries that have voting but that don't really have a free or honest process. Nations who pretend to have voting decide their elections tend to have a much higher voting turnout than those who have real and honest ones. It's not normal for most people to vote. Humans are not sheep who all follow the same ritual.  Any country for instance, that brags that it has a 95% turnout is most likely a dictatorship that only pretend to have a real voting process.

Hmmm, I wonder if the dictators might not be right about the folly of letting citizens vote. The great cynic Ambrose Bierce said it best when asked about voting he said, "The vote is  the instrument and symbol of a freeman's power to make a fool of himself and a wreck of his country." But then, most citizens in a democracy will cross the ocean to fight for democracy, but won't cross the street to vote in an election.

Trick Or Treat 2012

Halloween 2012 and trick or treat was marginal for the kids in the neighborhood. It rained all a day, but just before nightfall it stopped and the kids did have the opportunity to put on their costumes and trick or treat. I enjoy handing out the goodies to them because it makes me a child again and reminds me of how my mom would make a ghost outfit for me (that I sometimes tripped over when running house to house on search of the candy treats) and my dad would escort me and my friends on the trick or treat. I always thought my dad enjoyed it more than the kids and when I started taking little Jane I realized he and I both did.

I always give out good and copious amounts of candy and novelty items. The kids appreciate it and will remark year to year that "we like to come to this house because you give "good stuff". In addition to individual treat bags of candy I also handed out: glow sticks; Dracula fangs; Halloween pencils, Halloween puzzles and Halloween activity books; Halloween stickers and Halloween stamp kits.  Surely the kids met at their friend's home after ending the trick or treat walk to trade candy and toys.  I can remember Jane and her friends sitting on the living room rug, candy all about, as they traded their least favorites for something better someone else got. I also remember how I asked for a few pieces when I saw my favorites on the rug. Adults love to see the candy swap because it is an opportunity for them to get "the good stuff" too.

The costumes the kids wore this year were good and there was no single type or identity that predominated. I saw few movie or TV personalities this year and more of the traditional costumes. Also, there were an equal amount of store bought and home made costumes. The youngest of costumed kids seem most proud of their outfits, so I try to compliment them from time to time on their costumes, and even pretend to b e scared by the little Dracula or wolf man trick or treaters. Haha Thanks God there were no Lady Gaga or Honey Boo Boo costumes this year.  I am already sick of the real life versions.

Anyway, Halloween is over and in 4 weeks Thanksgiving is next on the holiday agenda.

Forced To Eavesdrop

The times not only "are a changing", they have changed when it comes to privacy. Go to any public place today and listen to the sounds of the cell phone nuts screaming the most personal information about themselves or others into their phones and  to anyone else around. Years ago we had phone booths as a matter of privacy and politeness. now we have people broadcasting their lives to uninterested others and more.

Now, many members of society are not just unconcerned about overheard phone calls, they purposely broadcast their personal business to large groups of "friends" and "followers" on Face book or Twitter. Just a century ago, when the first home phones were "party lines" shared by neighbors, "worrying you were being listened in on was a common feature of American culture. Now, privacy seems unimportant as the addiction to communication technology has such a hold on society that it is erasing what little is left of public manners and consideration for others.

I wonder if we are we're fast becoming a nation of casual eavesdroppers because, unwillingly or not, we hear more and more private maters  All this "sharing" (annoying , in my view) may be feeding a tendency toward exhibitionism, and devaluing the very privacy that earlier generations so desired. Ergo Reality TV that humiliate humans for the sole purpose of their getting a few minutes of attention on television.

Cell phone cameras photograph us, grocery shoppers chatter loudly on phones while shopping, often telling anyone who is nearby intimate financial or personal or information the cell addict would feel indignant of "sharing" if by any other way. And this leads to more than eavesdropping. Eventually those who hear inadvertently may want to hear other ways as well. they may spy on others, intercept and read E mail, bend over to eye the screen of a cell addict or computer user, looking in an opened window or door...

But wait!  The real "victim" is no longer the person being eavesdropped on, it's those who overhear them and can't escape the exhibitionists who assault them with their phones and use other mediums from which the victims can't get away. What had once been private behavior has now become public and is being shoved in our faces and we can not escape.

In reality, I think the end of privacy has as much to do with people wanting attention at any price. The unimportant are trying to make themselves feel important, and technology makes that not so hard to do. Perhaps the only remedy is for society to just tire of it all, ending both the eavesdropping and the ego gratification of broadcasting. At that point we will realize that chattering loudly about ourselves on a phone or a web site doesn't make us important. It only makes us look self absorbed and appear loud.

Hurricane Sandy

That big east coast storm is surely wrecking havoc there. It actually was a minimal hurricane due to the fact that tropical systems lose strength as they hot colder air and water. The upper Atlantic is much colder than the tropical conditions in Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico. I think Louisiana receives storms that size almost yearly. They do much less damage because the Gulf Coast infrastructure and the people there are built to withstand those storms and are used to storms.

The East Coast infrastructure is not built for such storms. Levees are lower, the electrical grids are not prepared for water or wind, buildings are not built to a "hurricane code" standard of strength, etc. No wonder that storm has devastated the east coast. I feel for the people there. But if the same one would have hit Louisiana, the damage would have been much much smaller. I think the recovery will be much slower there too. That area has had little experience in hurricane recovery and will need support (as in electrical crews and equipment from other states) from areas that are experienced in it, particularly in fixing the electrical grids. I think those areas will face recovery tasks they have never had to before.

To be cynical, I am waiting for the Obama and Romney campaigns to politicize the recovery. No doubt they will make the grand tours of the devastation and make piteous speeches about the victims, but they also will probably cast aspersions against each other and "dance on the graves" of the victims in the process. I suspect it won't matter. Obama has a clear lead in the electoral college and should be re elected.

I find that a sad commentary on our voters, who are choosing demagoguery, incompetence and entitlements over the welfare of the nation. Another four years of Obama may be as destructive as was Hurricane Sandy.

Handing Out Morning-After Pills To Children

How badly has the public education system in the U.S. strayed?  That is, why do kids today get to little educational instruction and too many social services? Well, one example is in New York. The New York City Department of Education is making the morning-after-pill available to high school girls at 13 public schools. Yep, for kids as young as 14 they hand them out, no questions asked and no parent consulted. That system already hands out condoms to the kids.

There is something fundamentally wrong with handing out condoms and morning after pills to kids. It, uh, kind of says to them that we expect them to be immoral and irresponsible in their behavior. Maybe handing out math tests instead of condoms might work better, for an educated child will more often behave responsibly sexually and otherwise. Schools now not only act as the surrogate parent, but also as the child's physician, dietitian, social director, and it seems also... but rarely... as educators. Note I out education last on that list.

In the vast majority of cases the parent is more interested in the welfare of his or her child than is the school. So let parents make those other decisions, and let schools educate the child. The handing to educators by society of responsibilities unrelated to academic matters is a reflection of the society's failure to carry out the roles of those things at their former source. I have often felt that is teachers were allowed to teach and not be asked to parent, the children they educate would be far better off academically as a result.

Too, the lesson of free and easily available morning after pills for children is a lesson that teaches personal responsibility means sex for kids is ok as long as their is morning after to prevent pregnancy afterward.  The real lesson is that there is not need for personal responsibility for reckless actions. While unwanted teen pregnancies may end with the free birth control for all teens, the emotional, relational, and other physical issues of being sexually active, particularly at such a young age, will remain. And that may prove to be the most damaging thing our society fails to teach to its children..

Pumpkin, A Favored Fruit

Since I have nothing much to write about today I thought I would ramble on about one of my favorite seasonal fruits, the pumpkin. If you take the pumpkin away there would be no Halloween, sort of like removing your pancreas. It is necessary to have it.  But so many people (most haven't given tasting pumpkin enough of a chance) say they don't like the flavor of pumpkin. I consider those to be like the ones who refuse to run under a hose and play because "adults don't do that". Someone should force feed them a pumpkin muffin to introduce the delight of eating pumpkin.

In addition to decorating and carving them at Halloween, pumpkins are eaten all around the world in various forms (The pumpkin is type of squash). Antarctica is the only place they don't grow. To show there versatility, try sampling pumpkin when you travel abroad. The variety from far away is likely to not look or taste like the one you know best from home. Pumpkins are native to the western hemisphere but were completely unknown in Europe when Christopher Columbus landed in America. Scientists say that pumpkins have been grown in America for more than 5000 years.

The Halloween variety, that big orange blob with the green handle is a great substitute for what the Irish first carved at Halloween, They used to carve white turnips. The pumpkin is more shapely, colorful and comes with accessory parts. Take the tendrils, for example.  Sometimes attached to the stem are thin, hair like "tendrils"  During the growing season, tendrils on the vine are green. They twist around objects on the ground to help anchor the vine and protect it from the wind. After harvesting, there are sometimes dried, brown tendrils on the stem.  Too bad they aren't left on pumpkins when they are sold at Halloween.

One year in New Orleans, I planted some old pumpkin seeds in my garden and a pumpkin bush grew, and bore several pumpkins (all of which I removed early-on so the remaining healthy one would get all the nourishment on the vine). It is easy to grow pumpkin but hard to keep rot and pests from eating the final products. Fortunately, I read that a board should be placed underneath then early finished pumpkin to prevent it from rotting. I did that and saved my pumpkin's life.

If you want to murder your grown pumpkin there are plenty of easy ways to cook it. Here is a good site with some nice recipes using pumpkin. http://www.pumpkinnook.com/cookbook.htm#recipe

But I leave you with one of my own favorite  recipes for a very nutritious drink, the pumpkin shake.
Pumpkin Protein Shake
4 oz plain nonfat Greek yogurt
1/3 cup canned pumpkin or fresh pumpkin puree
2-3  teaspoons  raw sugar
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (or 1/4 tsp. cinnamon, 1/8 tsp. cloves, 1/8 tsp. ginger)
1/2 cup ice
1 cup milk
Place all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth.
Enjoy pumpkin today!

Old Fasioned People

I have become what I used to call my parents when I was a kid, "old fashioned". In those days being old fashioned was not a good thing. It meant a person was out of touch with changes that everyone else wanted in their lives.  It seems the younger a person is them more they need to change in order to feel secure. No wonder the young struggle so much.  My childhood perception of my mom and dad was they were missing something by being old fashioned. Little did I know then that when one is old fashioned they may miss on the new, but they also happily embrace the old.

I wonder how many people who live their lives to a full age never become old fashioned. There must be a few, but they are rarely noticed and when they do show themselves people don't exclaim that "He's a man of fashion and style". Instead. they say things like, "He's just and old fool". No wonder that as we get older and older we feel more comfortable being old fashioned.

I can list a lot of ways I am old fashioned, but here are a few that prove it.
1) I have never used nor ever will use an ATM machine.
2) The only phones I acknowledge as useful are land line phones.
3) I get upset when I see other people behaving rudely or inappropriately in public, and it is important to me to always act ethically.
4) I think people today are more selfish and dishonest than in earlier generations.
5) I would rather die than have a tattoo, piercing or wear a baseball cap backwards.
6) When I either give or receive a promise I expect it to be honored.
7)  Being respectful to even those I dislike is important. if not, I taint my own character.
8)  I think that too many people today want a handout, not a job.
9) When something bad happens to me I accept it as part of life and say to myself, "I will overcome this setback". Yet today I think  too many in the world see their misfortune as someone else's fault and that someone else should "fix it".
10) I think special effects and other technological advances have ruined movies that are made today.

You get the idea. For me being old fashioned is no longer an undesirable trait. It means I have planted roots in life and that those the roots feel good. Yep! Just call me an Old Fashioned Man.