Read an article in Time about Charlton Heston, who died last week. Most impressive part: he and his wife were married for 64 years. Now there’s a Hollywood maverick for you.
The Sanctimonious Corner
One of our churches was mentioned in an article about the use of technology in churches. The online article included three comments. Before looking at them, I figured they would be people griping about how we’ve become entertainment-driven, worldly, etc. And that was true of two comments. And yet, I found some things that made me smile.
- “I have a hard time seeing the blood drenched Christ being impressed with 7 microphones on a set of drums.” To which another person commented, “That must have been a small drum set.”
- The third person complained about how songs keep getting louder and louder, and how God must have gone deaf. He described today’s songs as “seven-eleven songs: 7 words repeated 11 times.” That was clever. Dad would agree.
My Day
Pam spotted a nail sticking in her left-front tire, so getting it fixed intruded into my schedule today. That schedule had featured three things:
- Work on a new website for work (we’re in a rebranding initiative).
- Go to the table tennis club.
- Go work out at the YMCA.
Instead, I worked on number 1, got the tire patched, and then resumed working on number 1 until about 10 p.m. Made Swedish meatballs over noodles in the crockpot, too, which was waiting when Pam got home from work around 6 p.m.
The Tire Barn repaired the tire. Said it would take about an hour. So I grabbed a New Yorker magazine and headed across the street to McDonald’s. That McD’s had some comfortable, heavily padded chairs with a big-screen TV displaying Fox News. I sat there reading Jeffry Toobin’s superb article about the mess at Guantanamo, and the Bush Administration’s lack of basic humanity, cluelessness about what it means to live in a free society, disdain for the rule of law, and apparent hidden psychological admiration for glorious totalitarianism. The article was written objectively, but I managed to inject oodles of subjectivity. Perhaps you could tell.
And that was my day. Pam went to bed 45 minutes ago. SNL starts in 15 minutes. Will I stay up to at least catch the opening bit?
Yeah, I think I will.
Obama Comes to South Bend
My brother Rick attended an Obama rally in South Bend, Ind., and wrote about it on his blog. Interesting stuff.
Great Ways to Use Duct Tape, #317
My Canadian friend, Brian, sent me this. That sounds like I only have one Canadian friend. I probably have at least a handful of Canadian friends.
Baby Steps Against Factory Farming
So I’m horrified by factory farming, which grossly abuses cows, pigs, and chickens. What should I do about it?
The other day, I bought some eggs. I noticed containers marked “Cage Free” which promised that the chickens weren’t pumped with vitamins and hormones. They were 80 cents more, but I decided to buy them. If you go on the basis of cost, then you merely support the factory farming industry, which is all about sacrificing humane treatment in return for efficiency…which means lower costs. But while hoping for the best, I remained a bit skeptical. Was I merely being fooled by the packaging?
A little. Some internet searching told me that “cage free” doesn’t mean the chickens roamed free. They might still be packed into huge sheds. They’re just not jammed into cages stacked to the ceiling, unable even to flex their wings–which accounts for 95% of U.S. eggs. The “free range” label only means the henhouse had a door that was open part of the time, enabling chickens to get outside if they wanted.
What I really want is “organic certified,” which means the hens had plenty of access to the outdoors, they ate organic feed, and weren’t injected with drugs. “Free farmed” means the operation met some rigorous standards of the American Humane Association. I didn’t see any such labels in my grocery store. There simply isn’t much demand for humane treatment. People prefer cheap eggs.
It’s so much more convenient to NOT know the abuse animals suffer to provide our meat and eggs. It would be easier if I didn’t watch those myriad videos on You Tube. But I know, and I can’t ignore it.
At the same time, I realize there are sanctimonious people eager to scoff, “If he only cared as much about lost souls as he cares about stupid chickens….”
(I wrote about factory farming on February 18 and February 19. People left comments both days, comments which just got published yesterday. As I explained yesterday.)
No Comment
Oooops. I’ve been wondering why nobody’s been commenting on my extraordinarily insightful musings, not to mention the other 99% of drivel on this site. Turns out that, in cranking up my spam filter, all comments–including comments from Yours Truly–were getting shunted into the Junk file.
I took a peek into the Junk area and discovered about 30 legitimate comments lurking among the 4000+ comments since the beginning of the year (lots and lots of frustrating spam). All of the non-spam comments have now been published. I hereby grovel at your cyber-feet in apology. I will accept contributions of dust and ashes.
Those comments include a bunch from my September 2006 post about Ann Kiemel. We’re up to 43 comments now. Type “Ann Kiemel” into Google, and that post is at the very top. Amazing.
Seeing the Eye Doctor (Get It? Ha Ha.)
Visited the eye doctor this morning. Three years since the last exam. I’ve had to squint to read the wall menus at Starbucks and Panera Bread; the lettering keeps getting lighter and lighter. So it was time. Or past time. I’ve been intending to set up an appointment since November.
Every time I get a checkup, I feel like I’ve waited too long. And yet, every time, the doctor tells me, “Well, you have a little change, but not much.” That irks me. I KNOW there’s a big change. They are MY eyes. I can TELL. (I will now stop shouting at you. I apologize. You didn’t do anything to me.)
I don’t trust that machine, the one where you play the game, “Which is better, A or B?” Well, it’s not always that easy. I’m sure that I gave the wrong answers, thereby resulting in his diagnosis of only minor change. He wants an A or B answer, and I keep wanting to qualify it–B is lighter/darker, a bit blurry, I’m seeing double, that might be an E or an H, but I think it’s an E. The doctor doesn’t want to hear stuff like that. He wants a definitive answer, so he can go on to slides C and D (which are not much different).
I believe the doctor, who is nearing retirement age, just makes assumptions about what I need based on having done such exams thousands of times. So we play the game for a while, he writes out a prescription, and he tells me to come back in a couple of years. And I’m left thinking, “I know I should have told him A. I’m so STUPID!”
As I write, I’m having trouble focusing on the computer screen, thanks to those dastardly drops he puts in my eyes.
Table Tennis Battles
I had a good night at the Three Rivers Table Tennis Club. Only lost once, that to Mike, whom I’ve never beaten in four years, and I at least won a game off him, losing 3-1. Jenning, an Asian player, and I go at it every week. We’re very even. Sometimes he wins, sometimes I win, and it always goes down to the wire. Tonight I won, 3 games to 2, and it was 11-9 in the last game. Had two other matches that went to five games, and I won both of them. So it was a good night.
Got the big St. Joseph Valley tournament coming up the first weekend in May in South Bend. Plan to play in three categories, all the same day, so really need to prepare these next few weeks. I want to get my rating up to 1200 this year. That’s a 90-point increase, and I only have three tournaments to do it (South Bend, Indy, and Highland).
My Political Dilemma
Barack was in town last week. No, I didn’t go hear him. I do have a dilemma, though. I like John McCain. However, the issues I care most about right now are not Republican issues. They include:
- Instituting a national health care plan. I believe it’s scandalous to have 47 million people without any medical insurance, when nearly all other industrialized nations provide universal health care for their citizens. Too many people live on the brink of financial ruin, or just neglect their health out of financial necessity. Shouldn’t happen in 2008 USA.
- Getting out of Iraq. It’s a matter of national security for me. Our military is so depleted equipment-wise and over-stretchd, that we couldn’t handle a new crisis that might arise (something NOT of our own choosing, like Iraq was). Get out wisely, but do get out and restore the military.
- Combatting global warming. This is a very real threat to our planet. It’s true, Rush.
- Relief for the poor. Republicans tend to cut stuff that Jesus cares deeply about. The gap between poor and rich always widens under Republicans.
So, who will I vote for? Vote for McCain, and see none of my own priorities cared for? Or vote for Obama, who is terribly inexperienced but sure talks swell? Right now, it’s probably the latter. But November is a long way away.
A new national survey of 2000 doctors showed that 59% favored a national health insurance program, up from 49% in 2002. Said one doctor, “As doctors, we find that our patients suffer because of increasing deductibles, co-payments, and restrictions on patient care. More and more, physicians are turning to national health insurance as a solution to this problem.”
