Through the Eyes of a Daydreamer's Daughter

Everyone asks what everyone else thinks about Wisconsin but nobody really wants to hear anything but an echo of their own opinion--and that's part of the reason that there are no winners in Wisconsin and never could be. What I learned in more than 35 years of software development is that you can't solve a problem until you can produce an accurate and complete definition of what the problem is--once you can define the problem accurately, at least one solution is always obvious--but you can't define a problem accurately if you insist that the problem illustrate some other pattern or theory that you've attached your heart to for other reasons. Here's a thought, maybe Wisconsin is like a Roman circus that Right and Left Wingnuts created to obfuscate the fact that they don't know what the real nature of our society's problems are--like Rome's leaders they want to hold on to their own power by diverting the populace from awareness of the real threats on s...

Near as I can tell, the pastor who wants to burn Korans and the Imam who wants to build a "Cordoba House" on the edge of the hole in the ground created by his coreligionists are kind of the same man. Two different religions and slightly different beards--but in all the ways that count they are identical twins and identically repulsive. Too bad we can't join them at the hip, force them to live with each other, and the rest of us not have to deal with either of them. I have to say, I can never approve of burning books. History makes book burning just too uggy for words. By the same token, I'm tired of those who would control the American people and government by throwing temper tantrums and threatening violence. And in the meantime, even if we appease those who threaten, their folks commit violence anyway. If we just stopped trying to appease them--if our government declared that we would no longer attempt to appease them--if only their threats and violence didn...

Terrorists constitute only a small percentage of the Muslim population just as Nazis originally constituted only a small percentage of the German population. But in both cases the small percentage of evil individuals are adept at silencing any opposition from the majority population using fear tactics. Then, given time, the evil minority attracts the admiration and approbation of growing numbers of the silent majority because that evil minority are evil in ways that flatter the silent majority. Given enough time, the silent majority is willing to give lip service to evil even if they are not willing to participate in evil actions. Every society has some tiny percentage of evil people. If the majority are not willing to rise up against evil, the society itself is lost and the silent majority inevitably pays a steep price for the actions of the evil few. That is not unfair. If you do not stand up against evil, you are as guilty of the deeds of the evil as t...

The Chinese are suing us in the WTO because we don't import Chinese chickens. They want to force us to let them kill off yet another American industry using their usual unfair trade practices. I happen to know a lot of people whose dogs and cats died as a result of contaminated Chinese components in pet food sold in America. I don't for a moment believe that we could import Chinese chicken without Americans eventually dying from contaminated and unsanitary chicken. Even if they just feed their chickens antibiotics--as they feed the shrimp they sell here--that would be enough to produce new health risks for Americans.  Eating food containing antibiotics encourages the development of antibiotic resistant bugs We have enough of a problem with American farmers using antibiotics in livestock feed. We can't hope to control farmers in China and we can't expect the Chinese government to try to deal with the problem. As for the WTO, it makes me ...

Once again we are under threat of nuclear attack--this time from North Korea. We've lived under the threat of nuclear annihilation since I was a child and I'm having increasing trouble taking it seriously or caring. Of course, I'm too old now to die young should North Korea or someone else carry out this threat. (And I have enough food for at least a week in my basement.) When I was in grade school in Chicago, we were taught to hide under our desks if the Bomb hit our city. Later we moved to Clayton Missouri where children were given dogtags that we were required to wear to school every day; each morning the teachers checked that we had indeed worn them. My father, who did not deal well with his own anxieties, enjoyed telling us that if we were dead the dogtags would be shoved between our front teeth to identify us. The Missouri plan for nuclear attack was to send children home to evacuate with their parents.  My par...

I have to begin by confessing that my mother made clear to all three of her daughters that love was earned as a reward for accomplishment--not given out simply for being alive.  Wait-For-Me and I bought mother's teaching without question, I fear. Both of us have worked hard for assorted certificates and to get "A"s on anything in life that could be interpreted even remotely as an exam. Our-Baby (yes, she's in her fifties but she'll always be Our-Baby to us) rejected mother's teachings and spent her entire life insisting on her right to be without accomplishment even if/when failure to accomplish cut off her nose to spite her own face. The world rewards aspiration and achievement and grades of "A" as a general rule. Less obvious is the reward inherent in living in active war zones and other situations that allow you to have adrenaline addiction. The element in common is that you get to feel alive. If you aspire, you are alive as long as you haven...

I feel better to know that the Queen of England has to pinch pennies, too. Most of my adult life I earned a comfortable living. I was never rich but I didn't have to skimp on anything I really wanted. I wasn't a spendthrift exactly, but I spent freely and saved, too.  Unemployed since 2003, I've been on my private austerity plan for the last seven years. I've tried to treat it like a game. I give me points for skimping and doing without. Just surviving makes me a winner in this game. I give me points for doing better at skimping every day in every way. Still, it makes me feel better to know that the Queen is in this with me, minding her utility bills and not redecorating as she'd like. Pity that nice ladies like us have to live on the tight edge in the final years of our lives, but clever of us to manage it. And at least I can feel that I'm in good company. Misery does love company....