Update 3/24/2012 — I’m reconsidering my concern over Pinterest. Pinterest has come out with revised terms and is working on making private pinboards available.

I’ve developed a Pinterest Policy page.  Most pages here will be open for pinning, though the front page, archives, and selected pages will have it blocked.

A Pinterest pinboard, to me, is an online, published compilation of images that someone has collected.   It’s sort of like a published scrapbook.  If ya publish it, ya need to have the rights to publish the individual items in the scrapbook (compilation).

_______

I don’t like it.

It’s a great concept – organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web.

There’s just two big sticky problems.

Copyright

The first is called copyright infringement.

Pinterest is primarily based around collecting pictures.  In collecting images and “pinning” them on their pinboards, the Pinterest user is publishing copies of other peoples’ work.

Copyright of a photograph or drawing starts as soon as an image is fixed in some sort of permanent form.  For electronic images, that occurs as soon as an image is saved as a file.

Making copies of this file, including publishing it somewhere other than where it is intended, violates the exclusive right of the creator of the image to make and/or approve copies.  The right to copy is why it’s called copyright.  If you didn’t create it and didn’t get permission, then you don’t have a right to copy, you don’t have a right to pin.

Terms of Use

The other big problem is the Pinterest terms of use.

Under the terms of  use, if you use Pinterest, then you  “represent and warrant that: (i) you either are the sole and exclusive owner of all Member Content that you make available through the Site, Application and Services or you have all rights, licenses, consents and releases that are necessary to grant to Cold Brew Labs the rights in such Member Content.”

The terms of use also says none of your Pinterest activities “will infringe, misappropriate or violate a third party’s patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, moral rights or other proprietary or intellectual property rights, or rights of publicity or privacy, or result in the violation of any applicable law or regulation.”

In other words, by the terms of use that everyone agrees to before they can use Pinterest, every user is saying they have the right or permission to use every single thing that they are putting on their pinboard.

Somehow I rather doubt that many users really understand or that they even actually read the terms of use, let alone this part.

Wikipedia has an interesting statement concerning Pinterest and the issue of copyright.

Pinterest has a notification system which allows copyright holders to request that content be removed from the site. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) safe harbor status of Pinterest has been questioned given that it actively promotes its users to copy to Pinterest, for their perpetual use, any image on the internet. Pinterest users cannot claim safe harbor status and as such are exposed to possible legal action for pinning copyrighted material. (emphasis mine – MpG)

While it’s an interesting concept, given the present state of the internet and current copyright laws and treaties, the design of Pinterest by its very nature fosters unintended abuse of the intellectual property rights of others.

I’ve spent too much time researching and learning about copyright.  I ‘m going to have to take a pass on Pinterest.

Copy Right, Copy Sense

Great accomplishments are overrated.  I prefer to “go with the flow.”

How about you?

Cartoon shared from Calamities of Nature.

A proposed $20 million New York state budget cut will likely result in closure of New York state parks.  A Saratoga Springs Saratogian report says that state parks, already hit hard by previous cuts, are in peril from further cuts.

“Every region will be impacted. It’s not just small, fringe sites. Some of the largest parks might close because they’re the most expensive to operate — Jones Beach, Niagara Falls.”

Unfortunately, possible closings come at a time when people need parks most. Last year, statewide usage increased by2 million visits — from 54 million to 56 million — as residents sought inexpensive, close-to-home vacations. This year, Moreau Lake State Park’s campgrounds are already booked most weekends.

“When times are tough, people use state parks,” said Julie Stokes of Greenfield, former deputy state commissioner for operations. “The impact would be very large. A ton of people from Troy use Grafton Lakes. They bus kids out there. That park is absolutely jammed, seven days a week.”

Read more in the Saratogian: Proposed state budget imperils state parks

We are the products of choices.

The path our lives take is the result of many, many choices.  We make choices that decide our future and impact the lives of others.   Decisions and choices by others affect us every day.

“I’m going to take every single sick day even if I don’t get sick; they’re mine.” — or — “I only take days off sick if I’m really feeling lousy.”

“I choose to have a positive attitude at work regardless of the problems or issues. ” –  or — “How can I have a positive attitude with all the mickey mouse stuff they want us to do.”

“There aren’t any decent jobs around here, so I guess I’ll just take what I can get.” — or — “There aren’t any decent jobs around here that I’m qualified for, so I’ll do what I need to do to be able to get a better job, even if it means leaving.”

“I’m going to deal with other people based on who they are, not what they are.”  — or — “You just can’t deal with those people; they aren’t like us.”

“I’m just here to earn my paycheck; I’m just going to do what I’m told.” — or — “I’m going to do what I need to do in order to be the very best that I can at this job.”

“I’m tired and grumpy because it’s been a long day, but I sure won’t take it out on the worker at the checkout counter when the product I’m buying doesn’t scan.” — or — “I don’t care about her; I just want to get done here so I can go home and have some beer.”

What are some other examples of choices that shape our lives?

day 68

I discovered just a little while ago that access to individual posts on this blog was unavailable and commenting was not available. This was because of something I did with some files on the server earlier today — not a web host issue. I knew that I should have checked after I was done, but didn’t.

It’s all back to normal now. It was only a 30 second fix, because it’s something that happened before and I knew where to look.

——

A couple of days ago, a park visitor from Spain was injured by a Yellowstone National Park bison (aka American buffalo).

“At approximately 11:25 a.m., the woman and her husband were using a pay phone in the Canyon lodging area with their backs to the road. According to witnesses, two bull bison walked down the road, passing within 20 feet of the couple. One of the bison left the road, walked up behind the woman and butted her into the air. The couple, who were facing away from the road, did not see the bison.”

The woman was taken to the Lake Clinic where she was treated for minor injuries and released.

This quite an unusual event. Bison are not usually aggressive unless someone has encroached upon their space. We have seen numerous instances where people have gotten way too close to these critters and nothing happened. Park regulations require that a minimum distance of 25 yard must be maintained from bison.

Bison are very, very common in the Canyon area.

We still hope to make it to Yellowstone this year. However, we may not have as much time available as we had originally thought.

——

Climate change legislation — The Waxman/Markey American Clean Energy and Security Act pass by a very slim margin today in the US House of Representatives. I actually watched some of the debate on CSPAN. I’ve got just a few comments.

• They didn’t even have a properly collated official copy of the bill in the room during the debate. Three hundred pages were revised overnight and one of the House staff was in the process of inserting pages into the correct place in the “official copy” during the closing minutes of the floor debate.
• The debate on the floor was limited to 3 hours for a bill that may be one of the largest tax bills in the history of the country.
• While virtually every American would end up with higher energy costs as a result of the bill, as I understand it, it’s requirements would have negligible impact on global warming, if anthropogenic (human caused) global warming (AGW) were a proven fact rather than an unproven hypothesis.
• The premise of the bill is predicated on the assumption that anthropogenic global warming (AGW) is a proven scientific fact. The earth has been warming up until the last ten years. Global carbon dioxide levels have been rising, at least in part due to human activities, even during the last ten years as global temperature anomalies have been stable or dropping. While it would seem obvious to blame rising temperatures on carbon dioxide produced by man, there is no proof that continued rising CO2 will result in a continued rise in global temperatures. The predictions of rising temperatures are the product of computer climate models that assume that anthropogenic global warming is a proven scientific fact rather than an unproven hypothesis.
• Our Representative, voted against it. I think I voted against him in 2008. He’s got my vote in 2010.

——

Climate change — I read material on climate change almost every day.

I am absolutely appalled at the gloom and doom, the-sky-is-falling alarmism that is in the media on a daily basis.

I’m not sure at what point I stopped simply accepting anthropogenic (human caused) global warming. I can say that for well over a year I’ve been reading a lot of climate change related material and have a much better understanding of the topic than I once had. My first blog post on climate was It’s not a hypothesis… It’s not a theory… it’s a CONSENSUS! last year.

Below is some of what I’ve come to believe and understand related to the Earth’s climate.

• Anthropogenic global warming is an unproven hypothesis.
• Even though anthropogenic global warming is an unproven hypothesis, it is likely that some warming has resulted from carbon dioxide released to the atmosphere by humans.
• There is no proof that continued rise in CO2 will result in continued rise in global temperatures.


Carbon Dioxide Absorption Peaks

• Carbon dioxide acts as a greenhouse gas by absorbing infrared radiation in three narrow bands of frequencies, (2.7, 4.3 and 15 micrometers (µM)), meaning that most of the heat producing infrared radiation frequencies escapes absorption by CO2.  The main peak, 15 µM, is absorbed completely within about 10 meters of the ground meaning that there is no more to absorb.  Doubling the human contribution of CO2 would reduce this distance. Reducing the distance for absorption would not result in an increase in temperature.
• The science of climate change is not settled.  Science is never settled. There is always more to learn, more to add.
• Consensus on climate change is not science.  It’s politics.  Science isn’t done by consensus, as I understand it.
• For a scientist to be a skeptic on climate change is not a bad thing.  Scepticism and questioning are important aspects of science.
• The Earth appears to have been cooling overall for most of this young century — 2000 to 2009.
• The reports of the danger to polar bears are premature.  They are also recycled over and over again.
• The prediction of an Arctic free of  ice is  premature.  AMSRE-A Sea Ice Extent has 6 1/2 years of history. The sea arctic sea ice extent currently is higher than any of the other years at this point in the annual cycle. AMSRE-A (Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer – Earth Observing System).
• Antarctic sea ice extent is getting larger.
• A recent survey found Arctic ice to be thicker than expected.  (radiobremen)
• The heat content of the world’s ocean is dropping – Q = mc∆T. (The Global Warming Hypothesis and Ocean Heat)

day 22

In January, I wrote about a coworker’s suggestion that I apply for unemployment when the contract that I was on was over — even though I didn’t need the job when I took it.  Comments on the piece overwhelming supported my decision not to apply for unemployment compensation. (see Applying for Unemployment)

The contract was over at the end of August.  In the turbulent economic months since then, I’ve had a few moments where I’ve thought about the extra cushion that unemployment income could provide.  However, I’ve never had a moment where I regretted my decision.

A few weeks ago I was at one of our every-other-week retirement breakfasts when I heard some fellows talking about putting in for unemployment benefits after thay had finished a contract job.  The nature of the industry that we retired from is that there is a lot of opportunity for contract work for those with the right experience and/or credentials. It wasn’t surprising that the idea of putting in for unemployment had occurred to others.

Apparently a couple of them had actually applied.

They were turned down!

They weren’t qualified because they were making too much money from their pension!

Since I was a contract worker working as an employee and NOT an independent contractor, if I didn’t have any other income, I could have applied for unemployment payments.  However, with my pension and other income, it didn’t seem right to apply.

In the end, I was not only morally right, but legally right, as well.

I would not have been able to receive unemployment compensation.

Posted on flickr by royal_broil

On my last job, one of my coworkers asked me if I was going to put in for unemployment when my contract was finished.

“I hadn’t really thought about it,” I told him.

“You really should, ” he said.  “After all, you’ve been paying for it all these years. It’s your right. I’m going to when I do contract work after I retire.”

He went on about it a while longer, but I didn’t have much to say on the subject.

I thought about it for a while, though, and concluded that, no, I was not going to apply for unemployment.

While the extra income would be helpful, I didn’t need it and, after all, it’s supposed to be used to help those who need it bridge the gap between jobs.  I wasn’t going to be looking for another job.

For that matter, I didn’t actually need the contract job that I was working.  It was helping to pay off some debt and, while I was working, we weren’t having to use any of our investment funds.

So, since I went to work when I didn’t need to, it just didn’t seem right to me to apply for unemployment.  It felt like taking advantage of the system.  (I’ll have more on this in a later post.)

What do you think?  Should I have applied for unemployment?

Inspired Parking
Posted on Flickr by richardmasoner

I was at the building supply store the other day and that young, healthy, and spry doofus state park dude was parking his official state park vehicle in the loading zone again.

Fortunately, though, I didn’t need to pick up anything outside so he didn’t inconvenience me and he wasn’t directly in front of any of the building materials that are stored outside for easy loading for customers.

Still, he seems to regard the loading zone as a parking spot for official vehicles.

I wonder if he does the same when he uses his private vehicle.

Probably not.

He probably parks his private vehicle in handicap parking, even though he’s young, healthy and spry.

For background on this rant, read Why do people park where they’re not supposed to?

One of my favorite places in the world is 20 miles from the nearest town and seven miles from the nearest road.  Nearly treeless except for those few planted to provide breaks from the harsh winds of winter, it is a broad expanse of lush grass covering the dunes of an ancient desert — land unforgiving of those who tired to break it to the plow — land perfect for ranching.

I never knew the whole story of how the ranch came to be.  All I can remember of it is that a farmer in the days of the Great Depression, with no market for his crops and beef, was able to save his land and his herd by being able to buy a large supply of grain at extremely low prices.  As a result of taking advantage of an opportunity in an unsettled time, the family was able to make it through the hard times and, a little later, buy 21 square miles of range land where the farmer’s son and his bride settled in 1941.

The ranch hold significant positive memories for me. Experiences associated with the ranch, its owners and their family helped shape who I am.   The ranch — a result of a farmer taking advantage of an opportunity in an unsettled time.

The world again faces unsettled times — and opportunities.

What kind of new opportunities might be on your horizon?

Inspired Parking
Posted on Flickr by richardmasoner

Quick answer:  because they are lazy, don’t want to walk any further than they have to and basically don’t care if it inconveniences others.

The ones that really bother me are those who park in handicap spots when they don’t have a disability license plate or mirror hang tag.

I also get irritated when someone with a disabled tag zooms into one of these spots, gets out and goes into whatever establishment it is with no indication of a disability whatsoever.  Those spots are for people with medical conditions that make it difficult for them to get around!  If ya can get around okay, park somewhere else!

Of course there are a lot of other examples of people parking in places that they shouldn’t.

What set me off on this was the way a doofus state park dude parked his truck at the building supply store yesterday.

I had gone to Lowes to pick up twenty 80 pound bags of concrete mix.  They keep a large supply outside that customers can back right up to for loading — in a loading zone.

Guess where doofus state park dude parked.

That’s it.  Right in front of the place I was going to need to back up to — in the loading zone!

I figured it was probably be a while before he got done, that he probably had a load of something that need to be loaded onto the truck, so I took a little bit of time to walk around the store — and there he was, by the paint counter, doofus state park dude in his uniform.  Doofus state park dude was a park ranger!

By the time that I got back to the checkout area, doofus state park ranger dude was at one of the counters.  Another register was open, with no customers in line there, so I went to there.  Turned out the two ladies at that counter were doing some register magic that took both of them and took a couple of minutes, but I was still out of the building before doofus state park ranger dude.

On the way out, a skinny young fellow asked me if I was the one getting 20 bags of concrete.  I guess that he was going to be loading it for me.  As I went to get my truck, he went over and started cutting the plastic off of one of the pallets of concrete mix.  Unfortunately, it was the one furthest from where I backed the truck up to, which was the closest place I could back up to without blocking access to doofus state park ranger dude’s truck bed.  So I backed up in front of doofus state park ranger dude’s truck — and I hoped he would be done and out before my truck was loaded, not that I would have said anything.

I mentioned to the skinny young fellow that was going to be loading that I really hated it when people parked like that.  He agreed and said that sometimes they had to go into the store to get people to move because they were blocking others.

As I was pulling away from the loading zone after we had loaded all 1600 pounds of concrete mix, I looked in the mirror and saw that the skinny young fellow was talking to doofus state park ranger dude, who was looking in my direction.

Wonder if the kid said anything.

How about you?  Do you have any parking peeves or stories?

I overheard it the day before the election.

“That Obama scares me.”

I tried to believe that his fear was of the changes that are going to occur as a result of this election.

I really would like to believe that.

But I know better.

It was fear of something different, of someone different.

“HE isn’t like us.” “HE looks different.” “HE sounds different.” “HE can’t be a real American.” “HE pals around with Bill Ayers, a domestic terrorist.” “HIS preacher teaches hate.” “HE’s a Muslim.” “I can’t vote for him, HE’s…, HE’s…, not white.”

“THAT Obama scares me.”

“THAT one.”

Despite the misinformation campaigns, the hate ads, the robocalls, and racial bias, the American electorate overwhelming elected THAT one — the SENSIBLE one — the RIGHT one.

Yes, WE can!

Yes, WE did!

The change is started.  It’s going to take some time.

Some people aren’t going to like it.

It’s not going to benefit everyone.

I’m not going to like everything about it.

But the nation was off course.

The nation needed a new heading and there will be a new hand on the tiller.

Yes, we can!

I’m not afraid of Barack Obama — Never was.

Note: This commentary is not intended to imply that all who voted for McCain and against Obama were racist.  In my view, race was not an issue for the majority of those who voted for the Republican candidate, but there were many voters who were influenced by race and/or the campaign ads and speeches that were designed to foster fear — and that is what this post is addressing.

“I’m not prejudiced, but…” or “I’m not racist, but…”

The “but” says it all to me…, regardless of what comes after the “but.”

Everyone has prejudice to some degree.  When I was a teen in the 60s and very early 70s, I often said, “The only thing I’m prejudiced against is prejudice.”  Older now, I acknowledge that I’ve had my share of prejudices, some of which I still struggle with.

When someone says, “I’m not prejudiced,” I’m skeptical.

I was watching a video online the other day when a guy actually said, “I’m not prejudiced or a racist, but there ain’t any way that I’m going to vote for a black man.”

The best I can say about that is that it’s partially honest. Because of his prejudice, he is unable to vote for a black person.  It’s too bad that he can’t get past that and vote on the issues rather than the color of a man’s skin.

On an individual basis, I do not care who anyone else is voting for. That’s their personal choice — and, unless they tell me otherwise, I choose to believe that their choices are for reasons other than race or ethnicity.

Hopefully, more people than normal will be able to answer, “Yes,” if someone says, “I voted! Did You?” — and , hopefully, the result will not be significantly influenced by prejudice.

What comes to your mind when you hear someone say, “I’m not prejudiced, but…?”

Image shared on Flickr by allison chase

Whether we like it or not, race is an issue in 21st century America.

If it wasn’t an issue, no one would have said anything in the current election about who played the race card first — because there wouldn’t be a race card.

If race wasn’t an issue, pollsters wouldn’t be asking questions to determine what percentage of whites have negative perceptions about blacks.

If it wasn’t an issue, no one would be saying anything about Barack Obama being black. He would just be a relatively young politician trying to become president. Being the first black man nominated by a major political party as its candidate for president of the United States of America would not be such a big deal.

And Barack is just as much white as he is black — and it really shouldn’t make a difference.

Image shared on Flickr by jurvetson

If race didn’t matter it would be just as correct to call him white as it is to call him black.

Yet, even today, 143 years after the end of the American Civil War, a person with any black ancestry is black — regardless of the percentage of their non-black ancestry…, and it really, really shouldn’t matter — but it does.

Barack Obama being black will not win him the race for the presidency.  However, if he loses, being black will be part of the reason he lost.

Imagine — just for a moment — where the polls would be if Obama was not black.

There are many, many white Americans who will not — cannot — vote for Obama because of his race and who will vote for McCain because McCain is not black.  Many of them will find other reasons to use.  Though they won’t admit it, many will be voting the way they do because race matters to them.  Unfortunately, I know a few people — just a few — that are making such rationalizations over this election — however, I am surprised at some people I know who are leaning towards voting Democrat.

One friend from long ago refuses to vote for a black man, even though she has legal custody of grandchildren who are of mixed parentage.  I can’t understand it.

Race matters to me in a different way.  I am absolutely enthused that we have progressed to the point where a black man is a very serious contender for the presidency of the United States. However, my vote will not be based on race, but rather on the policies and abilities of the candidates.

Race, as a topic, though, matters to me now because, despite the fact that it may make a difference today, I can see that we are moving to a place and time where, perhaps, it may not matter so much after all — as it shouldn’t!

———————–

just a few thoughts from a retired, somewhat overweight, white guy from Arkansas

]]> http://exit78.com/race-matters/feed/ 14 http://exit78.com/what-does-gay-new-york-mean-to-you/ http://exit78.com/what-does-gay-new-york-mean-to-you/#comments Wed, 20 Aug 2008 04:12:00 +0000 Mike Goad http://exit78.com/weblog/what-does-gay-new-york-mean-to-you/

1907 Theater Poster

Library of Congress

Over time, the meanings of words can change drastically. In my lifetime, one word whose meaning has changed more than just about any other is gay.

When I was growing up, the word had nothing at all, as far as I knew, with sexual preferences. There were other words that were used for that, words that could be — and were — used as verbal weapons. Gay, on the other hand, implied joy, happiness, pleasantness — in other words, it had positive and pleasant connotations.

Today, when someone refers to another individual as gay, they are not implying anything about positive emotions, but neither are they, necessarily, saying anything negative. In many ways, the transformed word has supplanted other words that, in their own way and the way they were used, were twisted and nasty.

And that’s generally a good thing.

But the old words are still there, along with the hate and bigotry. And that’s unfortunate.

Definitions of gay on the Web:

• cheery: bright and pleasant; promoting a feeling of cheer; “a cheery hello”; “a gay sunny room”; “a sunny smile”
• full of or showing high-spirited merriment; “when hearts were young and gay”; “a poet could not but be gay, in such a jocund company”- Wordsworth; “the jolly crowd at the reunion”; “jolly old Saint Nick”; “a jovial old gentleman”; “have a merry Christmas”; “peals of merry laughter”; “a mirthful …
• given to social pleasures often including dissipation; “led a gay Bohemian life”; “a gay old rogue with an eye for the ladies”
• brave: brightly colored and showy; “girls decked out in brave new dresses”; “brave banners flying”; “`braw’ is a Scottish word”; “a dress a bit too gay for her years”; “birds with gay plumage”
• offering fun and gaiety; “a festive (or festal) occasion”; “gay and exciting night life”; “a merry evening”
• homosexual or arousing homosexual desires
• homosexual: someone who practices homosexuality; having a sexual attraction to persons of the same sex
  wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

Years ago, I read a book called Black Like Me, and, as I recall, it had quite an impact on me.

In 1959, the author of the book, John Howard Griffin, a white man, undertook a project on his own to darken his skin and go into the American South to see what life was really like for the blacks there.

Recently, I was questioned by a black lady about my interest in her blog and part of my explanation included that I had read Black Like Me as a young man and that it had made an impression on me.  She is an older lady and what she is doing with her life today as well as her her reflections on the past is fascinating.  I don’t know if I was able to explain satisfactorily why a middle aged white guy with a science and technology background would be interested in the blogging of an old black lady grounded in the humanities.

While in Little Rock last Sunday, I found and purchased a copy of the book and read it from cover to cover over the next couple of evenings. This is the third time that I have read it, and, once again, it has made an impression.

The South that Griffin visited as a black man in 1959 for the most part no longer exists outside of the history books and memories. Segregated schools and separate facilities — or lack of facilities — for non-whites have been left in the past.

However, hatred, racism, and bigotry have not been been left behind. Prejudice, unfortunately, is still alive and well.

“But,” the reader asks, “What does that have to do with your changes, with your moving out of your comfort zone.”

The answer is that I have not fully addressed my own prejudices and I carefully stay away from anything that has anything to do with race, homosexuality, gender bias, profiling, immigration and anything else that is related to the prejudices of others.

Lorelle VanFossen has a blog challenge for readers to “blog about where you find your inspiration to blog.”

Going forward, and in moving out of my comfort zone of only writing about things that are safe, I will be looking for and writing about things that challenge my perceptions and the perceptions of others.    I’m going to be diplomatic and still try to use reason, logic, and persuasion in presenting things that might be a little uncomfortable for me, and , perhaps, for some readers.  But, I won’t be avoiding all of the hard topics that I steered clear of in the past.

I’ll still be doing many of the things that I did before on the blog, of course, including photography and travel.

I plan to re-read Black Like Me again soon.

…blowing in the wind.

For some reason the title of this post reminded me of a classic song from my youth.

I didn’t intend the previous post asking about who I am voting for to be a trick.  Rather, I was presenting a stereotypical representation of what I could be like.  The regular visitors who responded, though, saw through it.

All of my statements were true.  They just weren’t the complete truth.

I did vote for Reagan for president and for George Herbert Walker Bush in his first election for the presidency.  I voted against Bush in his second term because he wasn’t doing what I thought he needed to do on the economy.  I never voted for his son.

While I can trace many of my ancestors to colonial America, my grandmother was 100% Moravian, her parents coming to America in the early 1900s…, and they were Catholic, which I didn’t know until recently.  Her husband, my grandfather, was an ardent denier of his Native American ancestry, which was actually pretty diluted as far as I can tell.  I grew up believing my heritage was entirely white, anglo, and protestant.

While I believe abortion to be a very bad thing, I don’t oppose it and I certainly don’t want things to go back to the way it was before Roe v. Wade.

I am uncomfortable with gay marriage.  That’s not the same thing as being against it.  I’m not and that is a recent change, within the last week, for me.  I voted against it when it came up for a vote in a state constitutional ammendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman.  I would not vote the same today.

In some small degree my vote is going to be about race and age. Barack Obama is a relatively young man of mixed ancestry who has taken much of the best of both cultures and is moving beyond it.  Electing Barack Obama would show to our young people and the world that the great potential of the American Dream is still alive and well, despite everything that is going on.

In general, I like John McCain.  If McCain had been the nominee in 2000, he would have had my vote.  However, today, John McCain is not the best choice for me — though he was the best out of all the Republicans, in my view — and part of that is because he is just too old.

The most important thing, though, for me in this election, is that we have a good turnout for this election, no matter who people are voting for.

If you aren’t registered to vote, do it soon!

If you are registered, please make sure you vote for the candidates of your choice!

I’ve made up my mind on who I’ll be voting for in less than three months.

I’d be interested in visitor comments on who they think I will be voting for.  Here’s some more information that might help:

I haven’t always voted, but in previous presidential elections where I did, I voted for Ronald Reagan and George Bush.

Before I went in the navy, I lived in the older George Bush’s congressional district in Texas and for some reason I paid atttention to what he was doing over the years.  I knew when he was ambassador to China and head of the CIA.

I can trace my ancestry back to the 1600s in Virgina, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Jersey — WASP all the way (White Anglo Saxon Protestant) — and if I ain’t, I’m not tellin’.

As a couple, we are better off than we were 4 years ago and 8 years ago.  I have benefited personally and professionally from the policies of the current administration.

I served in the United States Navy for just short of nine years and was honorably discharged at the end of my last enlistment.  I got most of my college education under the G.I. Bill.

I own a rifle and a shotgun and have fired the shotgun from my front yard.

We live in the south along a country highway and I drive a big red pickup truck.  We’re into camping and RVing.

I graduated from high school in 1970 from a southern school that was not yet integrated.  Our kids graduated from an all white southern high school in the 1990s.

When I was in high school, we were poor “white trash.”

I supported the invasion of “Iraq,” though I wasn’t sure we were doing the right thing.

I support controlled and responsible drilling for oil offshore and in areas like ANWR.  The technology is there to do it with minimal impact to the environment.

I believe that we need, as a country, to invest heavily in new nuclear power plants.  Nuclear power has a proven track record and we are going to need a lot of new electrical power capability if we are going to really move away from foreign oil.

I am a small investor in oil and natural gas production.  I’m not a speculator.  My investments are at the well-head.

I’ve been retired for over a year and a half.  When I was working, I didn’t talk about politics because most of the people I worked with had very different views.  I’m back contracting in the same office I retired from and, surprisingly, we are in much more agreement than we used to be.

A very small part of my reasons for voting the way I will be voting is based on the racial heritage of the candidates.

I think an abortion is a very bad thing.

I’m uncomfortable with gays getting married.

A very small part of my reasons for voting the way I will be voting is based on the ages of the candidates.

Please make a guess about who you think I’m going to be voting for.  After a reasonable period of time, I will let ya’ll know in a post who I will be voting for.

Over the last several days, I’ve been evaluating parts of my own beliefs and values.

For the most part, I was pleased with what I discovered.  I also came to a few new perspectives on our culture and way of life.

And I discovered that I need to make some personal changes.

I’m going to make those changes.  I’m not just going to work on them.  For me, the changes are going to be real — and along with those changes will be some changes on what I blog about.

As long as I’ve been blogging, I’ve pretty much just blogged on things that were comfortable for me to talk about.  I stayed in my blogging comfort zone.

I’m going to be moving out of that comfort zone.

Stay tuned to this blog for more information.

I’m not much for watching television, nor for watching professional sports, least of all proffesional wrestling.

Given that I haven’t paid any attention what soever to proffesional wrestling, I should be surprised at least a little bit that it ranks so high in popularity for internet searches, but I’m not.

The last time I watched any was several years ago and several states north of here, visiting my family back home. There out on the prarie in a little house in a small town I sat with professional wrestling in front of me in all of its glory on a big screen TV and my dad and brother sat there and watched hour after hour. Not me.

As a teen in the seventies, I actually went to several professional wrestling matches. (I guess they’re called matches, or are they shows?) It was fun at the time, but it was also obviously just entertainment…. and I don’t see the fun in make believe fights.

But there’s money in it, and lots of fans. Here’s some links:

World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)
WWE on Yahoo Finance
Shows on UPN
WWE Shop.com
WWE Corporate Website

Post from one of my abandoned blogs – North Farnham Freeholder – recovered from Internet Archive WayBackMachine 2/27/2011 – page

Don’t get me wrong, I understand how to play poker — and several of the variations.

What I don’t understand is it’s popularity. It’s not like it’s something new. I was playing poker over a quarter of a century ago — and quit when it put my young family in financial difficulty.

It was in the 1970s—cold war time period—and I was on a missile submarine in the North Atlantic. It was a three month patrol, 90 days without any way for the individual sailor to communicate with anyone not on the ship. We could receive five family grams during the patrol — 20 words, and censored to ensure there was nothing upsetting.

There wasn’t a lot of entertainment available to us for distraction. We didn’t have video games, DVDs or even VCRs. We had movies after the evening meal, but if you were on watch or asleep you didn’t get that. Most guys brought some books and there was a tiny library with a few more.

A lot of the time, for some, was filled with games, mostly card games like pinochle, spades, hearts, and cribbage. Some guys played backgammon. And then there was the weekly poker game and — in the middle of patrol — casino night. I’m not sure what the legality of it was, but as an enlisted man, I have sat next to the commanding officer of the ship at a black-jack table while at 400 feet below the surface of the ocean — and, yes, we were gambling for money. A percentage went to the “welfare and rec. committee.” Funds from it, I suppose were available to help guys and their families who might, at times, be struggling to make ends meet. The only benefit personally I saw from it was the ships party held each year when we were the crew off of the ship. (The missile subs had two crews — the blue crew and the gold crew. I was on the blue crew.) As I recall it, there was only one casino night each patrol, and I always came out ahead from it.

The weekly poker night, though, is what brought me down. It wasn’t high stakes, but over a period of the several weeks, one could lose quite a bit of money. A percentage of the proceeds from it also went to the “welfare and rec.” fund. Since most of the guys didn’t have much money with them, the winnings and the losses were kept track of in a notebook. I never really did terribly bad, but I seldom came out a winner — and, for a time, I couldn’t stay away. When what I owed was somewhere over $200, I stopped. It wasn’t more that we would be able to handle. However, I still had to tell my wife that we were going to have to get by with less money for a while and that I had lost it by playing poker.

I never played poker after that. I really enjoyed playing the game, by I also recognized in myself that it was something that I could enjoy too much, that I could easily get very engaged in it and lose a lot more than I lost on that submarine and that I lost that when there wasn’t a drop of alcohol to be had anywhere. I hate to think how much I would have lost if American ships allowed liquor on board.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not against gambling. I gamble on occasion, generally the slots — and the lottery, when I get somewhere that has one —, but I don’t let my enjoyment of it overwhelm me, like I know it could. I keep in mind that I’m not going to win big and that I will likely take home less money than I came with, but I won’t lose more money than I planned.

Some card related links:
Rules of Card Games – Alphabetical Index
Poker.com
Card game – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Poker- the free encyclopedia

Post from one of my abandoned blogs – North Farnham Freeholder – recovered from Internet Archive WayBackMachine and edited slightly 2/27/2011 – page