Shoe Tossing Near Where I Live

These shoes mark the West End of what I suspect to be a Drug Zone.


I was mystified why people in my neighborhood toss shoes on electrical lines. So, time to consult Wikipedia:

Shoe flinging or "shoefiti" is the practice of throwing shoes whose shoelaces have been tied together so that they hang from overhead wires such as power lines or telephone cables. The shoes are tied together by their laces, and the pair is then thrown at the wires as a sort of bolas. This practice plays a widespread, though mysterious, role in adolescent folklore in the United States. Shoe flinging has also been reported in many other countries.

...A number of criminal explanations have been proposed as to why this is done. ... Some also say that shoes hanging from the wires advertise a local crack house where crack cocaine is used and sold (in which case the shoes are sometimes referred to as "Crack Tennies"). It can also relate to a place where heroin is sold to symbolize the myth that once you take heroin, you can never "leave": a reference to the addictive nature of the drug. Others claim that the shoes so thrown commemorate a gang-related murder, or the death of a gang member, or as a way of marking gang turf. ... However, the practice also occurs along relatively remote stretches of rural highways that are unlikely scenes for gang murders, and have no structures at all to be crack houses.

These shoes mark the East End of what I suspect to be a Drug Zone.


I rather like the drug-sale explanation offered on Wikipedia, because these shoes bracket a location where I often see mysterious people waiting in the shadows, and where there is mysterious traffic. A decade ago, I remember a Big Raid here, where a swarm of police shut them down at gun point. My guess is either that they have returned, or it's a new group resistant to the lessons of the past.

Good for what ails you....

I Never Did Solve A Rubik's Cube

I wonder if magic ponies do Sudoku?

Nice Work, If You Can Get It

These people are nuts:

One hundred million dollars for failure. That may be the total payout to Henrique de Castro, the number two executive at Yahoo, who was brought in just 14 months ago to boost growth and digital advertising revenue. De Castro, the chief operating officer who was lured away from Google with a $62 million deal, has been fired by CEO Marissa Mayer. According to The Wall Street Journal, De Castro will depart Yahoo with “a severance package that could be worth more than an estimated $42 million.”

The turnaround effort at Yahoo has been disappointing since Mayer took over in the summer of 2012. Some Wall Street analysts turned negative on the Internet firm, as sales dropped slightly last year. Mayer, who took the helm in July 2012, has attempted to revamp Yahoo with new exclusive content on its websites, redesigned email and other innovations. De Castro was criticized for failing to convince advertisers to spend more money with Yahoo.

Single-Payer Might Not Work In This Country, Because The United States Is Too Corrupt

So, we will be stuck with Obamacare:

"I have not advocated the single payer model here," he said, "because our government is too corrupt. Medicare is a large insurance company whose board of directors (Ways and Means and Senate Finance) accept payments from vendors to the company. In the private market, that would get you into trouble."

The key to a single-payer system is that the government sets prices. Usually, it empowers boards of independent experts who set those prices low. Reinhardt's argument is that in the United States, health industry interests have so much sway over Congress that the prices would end up being set by health-care interests.

"When you go to Taiwan or Canada," Reinhardt said, "the kind of lobbying we have here is illegal there. You can’t pay money to influence the party the same way. Therefore the bureaucrats who run these systems are pretty much insulated from these pressures. Here you have basically a board of directors in the House Ways and Means Committee that gets money from lobbyists both at the regulatory writing stage and during normal operations. And they can call an administrator and demand they stop something from happening."

...Still, Reinhardt's argument is a reminder that the simple fact that a policy worked in another country does not mean it will work in this country. His point about the importance of independence is particularly crucial.

"Stand Your Ground", In Practice

The Tampa Bay Times is keeping a database of all Stand Your Ground cases in Florida, fatal and non-fatal alike. Here are the fatal ones. Looks like a lot of gang bangers are using SYG to stay out of prison. The case of Muñoz seems the most poignant.

The U.S. And Iran Have Common Interests

Time to lose the hatchet:

While the two governments quietly continue to pursue their often conflicting interests, they are being drawn together by their mutual opposition to an international movement of young Sunni fighters, who with their pickup trucks and Kalashnikovs are raising the black flag of Al Qaeda along sectarian fault lines in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen.

The United States, reluctant to intervene in bloody, inconclusive conflicts, is seeing its regional influence decline, while Iraq, which cost the Americans $1 trillion and more than 4,000 lives, is growing increasingly unstable.

At the same time, Shiite-dominated Iran, the magnetic pole for the Shiite minority in the region, has its own reasons to be nervous, with the ragtag army of Sunni militants threatening Syria and Iraq, both important allies, and the United States drawing down its troops in Afghanistan.

On Monday, Iran offered to join the United States in sending military aid to the Shiite government in Baghdad, which is embroiled in street-to-street fighting with radical Sunni militants in Anbar Province, a Sunni stronghold. On Sunday, Secretary of State John Kerry said he could envision an Iranian role in the coming peace conference on Syria, even though the meeting is supposed to plan for a Syria after the resignation of President Bashar al-Assad, an important Iranian ally.

...Yet even Iranians outside the reformist camp see the shared interests as undeniable. “It is clear we are increasingly reaching common ground with the Americans,” said one of them, Aziz Shahmohammadi, a former adviser to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. “No country should have an eternal enemy, neither we nor the United States.”

With Iran as an island of stability in a region plagued by violent protests, sectarian clashes and suicide bombers, there are not that many options left for Washington, experts here say.

“We face the same enemy, and the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” said Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, a prominent Iranian reformist journalist who closely follows the Arab world. He recalled how Iranian intelligence operatives gave reliable information to American Special Forces troops battling Iran’s enemy, the Afghan Taliban, in 2001.

I Didn't Realize San Diego Mayor Maureen O'Connor Was Laid Low By Gambling

I saw it in the AARP newsletter, but this article gives more information. One billion dollars in losses? The mind boggles:

She won about $1 billion from 2000 to 2009, according to winnings that casinos reported to the Internal Revenue Service, but lost even more. Iredale said her net gambling losses topped $13 million.

Extreme Drought Awareness Is Beginning To Settle In

2014 is going to be agonizing:

Similar high-pressure zones pop up all the time during most winters, but they usually break down, allowing rain to get through to California. This one, ominously, has anchored itself for 13 months, since December 2012, making it unprecedented in modern weather records and leaving researchers scratching their heads.

...The current high-pressure ridge is even stronger and more persistent than a similar ridge that parked over the Pacific Ocean during the 1976-77 drought, one of the driest in the 20th century.

..."I wish I had a really good answer for this," said Daniel Cayan, an oceanographer and atmospheric scientist with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla. "It's unusual for the pattern to have not broken down to allow some relatively active, vigorous winter storm systems to track across California."

...Last year was the driest calendar year in recorded history in California in most cities, with records going back 160 years. The first snowpack reading in the Sierra Nevada earlier this month found a snowpack of just 20 percent of normal.

Meanwhile, major reservoirs in Shasta and Oroville are each 36 percent full, about half of normal for this time of year. San Luis Reservoir near Los Banos is 30 percent full, 42 percent of normal. Major Bay Area water agencies haven't yet called for mandatory summer water restrictions but are expected to make the decision in the next month or two, depending largely on whether the high-pressure ridge breaks down and rain falls.

State Department of Water Resources Director Mark Cowin told members of the California State Board of Food and Agriculture in Sacramento a week ago that his agency is likely to recommend that Gov. Jerry Brown declare a drought by Feb. 1, which would make it easier for water transfers between agencies and for emergency loans and other assistance.

...Since July 1, San Francisco has received 2.1 inches of rain -- just 20 percent of normal; San Jose has received 1.57 inches, or 26 percent of normal; and Oakland has received 2.08 inches, or 22 percent of normal.

Meanwhile, the Sacramento area is beginning to respond:

Faced with historically low water levels on the American River and a long-range forecast providing little relief, the Sacramento City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to enact severe water rationing on residents and businesses, while also boosting enforcement efforts against water scofflaws.

The council approved what city officials described as a “stage 2 water shortage plan,” requiring those who live and work in Sacramento to reduce their water use by between 20 percent and 30 percent.

...“We’re the river city and yet here we are having to make very difficult decisions,” said Councilman Allen Warren.

...The American River’s flow out of Folsom Dam is at its lowest point since 1993, putting it in “crisis mode,” Brent said. Folsom Lake is so depleted, remnants of a Gold Rush-era mining town buried by water for years have emerged in the barren lakebed.

Air Pollution Impacts From Wildfire Impacts

What is curious here is not how high the pollution levels were - pollution levels can be much, much higher in places like Fairbanks - or how long a period - they can last much, much longer in places like Fairbanks - but how they seem to detect an effect with such a small sample size. Disturbing, if the study can be taken at face value:

The research, conducted by UC Davis and the California Air Resources Board, found that rhesus macaque monkeys born at the university’s Primate Research Center in the summer of 2008 – an unusually intense fire season – had depressed immune systems compared with those born a year later.

...During late June 2008, PM 2.5 levels spiked at ARB measuring stations in Davis and Woodland, not far from the primate research center, said Lisa Miller, professor of veterinary medicine at UC Davis and a researcher at the primate center. Smoke had drifted into the Central Valley from more than 2,000 fires ignited by lightning strikes. More than 1.2 million acres burned.

“In 2008, monitoring locations had readings of 75 micrograms per cubic meter for a 24-hour period,” said Miller. “That is extremely high.”

The current national standard for safety is less than half that amount. Additionally, wildfire smoke also causes higher ozone levels, which are linked to asthma, lower birth weights and heart problems.

The effect of that particulate matter was measured on 50 monkeys – 25 that were born in 2008 and 25 in the mostly quiet fire season of 2009. Use of the primates is seen as a crucial model for establishing the effects of toxins and environmental effects on humans.

The young monkeys, which live outdoors at the primate center, were between 1 and 3 months old when they were examined. Researchers took blood samples and did lung function studies. “The idea behind this is that if we detected any changes in the animals this information might translate as a biomarker that can be used for kids,” said Miller, whose specialty is childhood respiratory diseases.

The outcome proved surprising, Miller said. Conventional medical wisdom says that smoke and other irritants cause immune systems to kick into high gear. This study, however, found the opposite.

“When we took blood samples and put them in a tissue culture dish and treated that culture with a mimic of an infectious organism, we found that the blood from animals exposed to wildfire smoke responded in a reduced manner when compared to the control group from 2009,” said Miller. “That means the ability of the animals to respond to a real pathogen was reduced.”

The Relentless Rise Of Lake Enriquillo

Calamity in the Dominican Republic:

Theories abound, but a conclusive answer remains elusive as to why the lake — as well as its nearby sibling in Haiti, Lac Azuei, which now spills over the border between the two on the island of Hispaniola — has risen so much. Researchers say the surge may have few if any precedents worldwide.

The Future Is Jellyfish

Jellyfish everywhere!:

How could jellyfish take over the ocean? “One bite at a time” Gershwin says. And there may be no way back. A new balance may be struck, one in which jellyfish rule:

We are creating a world more like the late Precambrian than the late 1800s—a world where jellyfish ruled the seas and organisms with shells didn’t exist. We are creating a world where we humans may soon be unable to survive, or want to.

So Now It's New Mexico's Turn

Irresponsible gun owners everywhere. So many that we'll never be safe with guns around:

Just before 8 a.m., authorities say, a boy some described as an outcast opened fire in the crowded gym. Seconds later, a teacher coaxed him to lay down the weapon and he was taken into custody. But two students lay gravely wounded.

A 12-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl were flown to a hospital in Lubbock, Texas. The boy was in critical condition and the girl was in serious condition, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez said at an afternoon news conference at the isolated middle school, which sits atop a bluff at the northern edge of this town of 50,000 people.

By nightfall, officials had released their names: Nathaniel Tavarez, who remained in critical condition after two surgeries, and Kendal Sanders, whose condition had been upgraded from serious to satisfactory after surgery.

Here Comes The Cocci!

Valley Fever is a big deal in Arizona, but it's also a big deal in California:

In 1977, the San Joaquin Valley—the swath of agricultural land that runs through central California—was designated a disaster area. Record-low runoff and scant rainfall had created drought conditions. At the beginning of Christmas week, the weather was normal in Bakersfield, the city at the Valley’s southern end, but in the early hours of December 20th a strong wind began to blow from the Great Basin through the Tehachapi Mountains. Hitting the ground on the downslope, it lofted a cloud of loose topsoil and mustard-colored dust into the sky.

...The Tempest from Tehachapi, as one researcher called it, spread dirt over an area the size of Maine. Twenty hours afterward, the dust reached Sacramento, four hundred miles north of Bakersfield, in the form of a murky haze that hung in the air for another day, stinging the eyes and noses of the residents. On the twenty-first, it started raining in Sacramento, which turned the dust to mud, coating the cars and sidewalks, and marked the end of the drought.

Over the next several weeks, Sacramento County recorded more than a hundred cases of coccidioidomycosis, otherwise known as valley fever, or cocci, a disease caused by inhaling the microscopic spores of Coccidioides immitis, a soil-dwelling fungus found in Bakersfield. (In the previous twenty years, there had never been more than half a dozen cases a year.) Six of the victims died.

'Stand Your Ground' Defense In The Theater Texting Shooting

Charming! An ever-elastic, get-out-jail card that can used for any conceivable purpose.

"Nebraska" Serendipity

The trailer is more interesting with German subtitles.


Monday evening, I picked Joe the Plumber up (on obscure Del Paso Heights street corner) and he bought me dinner at the Mongolian Barbeque place off Truxel. Then, it was off to watch 30 minutes of previews before "Nebraska" (starring Bruce Dern, and featuring Bob Odenkirk of "Breaking Bad" fame) at Arden & Ethan.

Just before showtime, guess who showed up? Jetta and Lela! Apparently we independently settled on exactly the same plan. This is the first time that Jetta has met Joe the Plumber (she had refused meetings before this, because my stories painted Joe as dodgier than she would tolerate).

"Nebraska" is a fine film. "Extremely mellow," according to Jetta. I liked the cinematography of this black-and-white film. Reminiscent of "Breaking Bad", but with a different look, just because the northern plains of Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, and Nebraska are different than New Mexico.

Bruce Dern is a marvel!

Sympathy For Kim And Kanye

Troubles never end:

Kim was at a Beverly Hills medical building when she was swarmed by photogs. We're told the guy allegedly tried to help Kim get in the building, as he started screaming, "F**k these fa**ot-ass n****rs"" -- referring to the paparazzi. Kim then told him it was not appropriate to use the N-word. We're told he then screamed at her, "F**k you bitch. Just trying to help you. Shut up n****r lover, stupid slut."

Apparently that got Kim hot as fish grease ... she watched the guy walk into an office. As they were walking we're told the guy continued berating Kim. She dialed Kanye on his cell, and when the guy realized Kanye was on the phone he allegedly said, "F**k you N****r." Kanye -- who had just arrived at the building -- then met up with Kim.

Sources say Kanye and Kim rushed into the waiting room of chiropractor Richard Hill and found the 18-year-old sitting there. Witnesses say Kanye punched the guy and Kim screamed, "We have it all on tape."

If I was Kanye West, I'd have done the same thing.

It's all very calculated and cynical too. (Verse 2 of Britney Spears' "Piece of Me"):

I'm Mrs. 'You want a piece of me?'
Tryin' and pissin' me off
Well get in line with the paparazzi
Who's flippin' me off
Hopin' I'll resort to startin' havoc
And end up settlin' in court
Now are you sure you want a piece of me?

The Bimbo Jones Remix showcases Britney at her brilliant, humorous best!

Erik Flags "Terrible PR Pictures from the Theater of the United States"

This almost looks local.

Water Meter Going In, And An Era In Sacramento Ends

When my house guest left the house this morning for the airport, I could hear jackhammering down the alley.

In a few minutes, the jackhammering was right behind my house. I went out in my pajamas to challenge the workers.

Turns out, it's a new water meter. They've been installing these things all over Sacramento for years now. I had thought they had forgotten about me.

Sacramento is located at the confluence of the American and Sacramento Rivers. There was a time in Sacramento where we could defy the rest of the state and waste water with abandon, even in the toughest of droughts. No more.  And era has ended.

Concrete box and metal plate, cleverly hidden behind a plywood board so no Homeless Recycler will ever discover them.

The Enemy Of My Enemy Is My Friend

Let's be realistic here. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. If the choice is between the Sinaloa Cartel and the Gulf Cartel (including psychotic Los Zetas), as it seems to be, then it's better that the U.S. work with the Sinaloa Cartel. We don't have to like the Sinaloa folks to do business with them:

An investigation by El Universal has found that between the years 2000 and 2012, the U.S. government had an arrangement with Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel that allowed the organization to smuggle billions of dollars of drugs in exchange for information on rival cartels.

...There have long been allegations that Guzman, considered to be "the world’s most powerful drug trafficker," coordinates with American authorities.

..."The DEA agents met with members of the cartel in Mexico to obtain information about their rivals and simultaneously built a network of informants who sign drug cooperation agreements, subject to results, to enable them to obtain future benefits, including cancellation of charges in the U.S.," reports El Universal, which also interviewed more than one hundred active and retired police officers as well as prisoners and experts.

...El Universal said that the coordination between the U.S. and Sinaloa peaked between 2006 and 2012, which is when drug cartels consolidated their grip on Mexico. The report ends by saying that it is unclear whether the arrangements continue.

I make the point in Comments here, but I'm not sure people understand.

More Questions Than Answers

Who are these Chosen People? What is this Promised Land? And why do we have to switch the Golden Calf for Blue Crystals?

This Bridge Scandal Is Just Starting!

Apparently it's about money - Big Money - but the exact connections are still murky. For reasons that are still unclear, Christie was trying to - and is still trying very hard to! - hold hostage the billion-dollar Hudson Lights project:

The Hudson Lights project is a billion dollar project because it offers unparalleled access to the George Washington Bridge. But take away that access and it’s no longer a billion dollar project.

...We know that because of its location, the long-term viability of this project could be threatened by any permanent changes to the GWB toll lanes that negatively impacted the on-ramp adjacent to the site.

...In other words, even though the permits were in place, the zoning approvals were done, the designs were finished, there was one last thing to lock down: the money.

...Moreover, the most crucial weeks that would decide whether this project would be capitalized are coincident with the weeks between when the traffic shut-down was ordered and when the traffic shut-down was lifted. It was only after Port Authority Executive Director Patrick Foye learned of Baroni and Wildstein’s shenanigans that the financing was finally sewn up. In fact, it was the very first business day after the lanes were re-opened that the developers announced they’d raised $218 million.

...I find it hard to believe that would-be investors in this project weren’t alarmed by the prospect that Port Authority officials had decided, without warning, to begin running experiments to see what would happen if local access to the GWB was temporarily, and then permanently, restricted. And in light of Mayor Sokolich’s first question to Chris Christie during their face-to-face meeting in Fort Lee this past week, asking the governor to promise not to exact revenge on Fort Lee for the trouble this scandal is causing, it seems even more significant that the governor was musing about making permanent changes in public during his December 2 press conference in Trenton. The cat was completely out of the bag on whether there had been a legitimate “traffic study,” and yet the governor persisted in characterizing the allocation of toll lanes as something that gave an unfair benefit to Fort Lee at the expense of the rest of the human race. Even in December, it seemed, Fort Lee and this project still faced a threat.

...I think that begins to get at what was going on here. We now know that a major redevelopment project, one that depends on Port Authority assets and relationships, was put in jeopardy at a vulnerable financial moment, and in a way that put the viability of the entire project at risk.

But we still don’t know why.

"Breaking Bad" Wins Big At The Golden Globes

That was to be expected, since "Breaking Bad" is the Best TV Series Ever.

This was unexpected, though: Jennifer Lawrence apparently not wanting to intrude into Taylor Swift's interview, yet capturing the attention anyway.

Similar to many people, I like Taylor Swift, but love Jennifer Lawrence.

Dinner With the Ettensohns

A good time catching up with the fambly.

Time To Repair Relations With Iran

Bad relations with Iran never made much geopolitical sense. We have too many interests in common. It's time to reboot.

Amber - If You Could Read My Mind

I like Amber's cover of Gordon Lightfoot's song. She had been part of the Starz 54 trio. Here, she is at a fashion show.




These guys lip sync over her solo studio recording (from 2000, or so). Disconcerting, but one can always choose not to look, and listen instead.

How "Breaking Bad" Broke All Of Biggie Small's Crack Commandments

Follow these rules, you’ll have mad bread to break up
If not, twenty-four years on the wake up

Sixty Years Without A Bath

No one knows why he lives like this.

Impressive! Since the California rainy season has utterly failed this winter, and with water use restrictions a dead certainty, I might look like this by next November.

Likes to smoke a pipe filled with animal dung.

Damn, this guy is a role model!

I Want To Believe

From Breaking Bad Friends.

From a 2011 review in Salon by Matt Zoller Seitz:

"Breaking Bad" is, in its heart, the story of the supposedly respectable, white, upper-middle class becoming the Other. I don't think it's an accident that those quasi-mythic drawings of Walt in the guise of his porkpie-hatted alter ego, Heisenberg, resemble old Project Bluebook sketches of extraterrestrial visitors. Walt is becoming as much an alien -- an undesirable Other -- as the illegals who have periodically sneaked across the border throughout the show's run.

Which reminds me of the only time I ever reported a UFO sighting.

Why Lavell Crawford's Fans Were Upset With 'Breaking Bad' Finale

Jeff Brofsky Will Be At Albuquerque Comic Con

It's time for Albuquerque Comic Con, and that means it's time for Jeff Brofsky! Here is brand-new profile of Jeff:

Brofsky's love for comic books goes back to his days as a youngster, growing up in Far Rockaway, N.Y. He still remembers his father, a lieutenant with the NYPD, giving him a buck and telling him to select 10 comic books.

Although his dad seemed to prefer that he pick out favorites like Superman and Batman, the youngster "wanted Marvel (brand) X-Men, Spider Man ("the first hero of the Silver Age of comics," Brofsky says), Fantastic Four." He wouldn't let his father read his new comics because he didn't like the way his dad bent the covers back when he read them, almost as if Jeff Brofsky anticipated a price guide coming out sometime in the future, with incredibly high prices for those in "mint" condition.

Some of those old titles are still some of his favorites.

"I still have a lot of stuff," he said. He keeps his best comics, including some top-dollar items, in a safe deposit box, and keeps his prized comics in mint condition by not reading them. Many of his old favorites have been reprinted in volumes of hardback books.

...Brofsky's parents moved the family, apparently part of that great Empire State migration, to Rio Rancho in 1972, right after Brofsky graduated high school. Brofsky said some Rio Ranchoans may remember his name in the Observer several decades ago, when he donned a costume to be "Chicken Man" at New Mexico Six Guns' hockey games at Tingley Coliseum.

He attended the University of New Mexico, where he ultimately obtained his bachelor's degree in psychology.

"I use it every day," he says of that degree, although a marketing degree might have suited him better for his Tall Tales Comics venture. Although his passion had once been stamps and coins - he remembered organizing his own show for those hobbies in New York - comic books remained a passion when he was an adult.

I went on two Vegas weekends. Since what happens in Vegas ends up on my blog, here is that report.

I Have A House Guest!

I've been in my house for nearly nineteen years. I've never had a house guest before! Shake things up a bit!

He went on a walk this morning. Who does that?

Curious if E. has met him by now:

M.: Say hello when he returns from his walk.

E.: I'll hide in my bedroom when mokum comes back.

M.: No, be sure to say hello! He's a nice guy!

Parking Violation In Midtown

Scofflaw on left; cop car on right.

Busiest Week Of My Pathetic Life

I hope it's enough....

A Roadkill Opportunity?

Sheryl Crow - "No One Said It Would Be Easy"

Really like this song.

So, Chris Christie's Got Himself A Scandal

It figures a bully like him would do something like this:

“What I've seen today for the first time is unacceptable," Christie said. "I am outraged and deeply saddened to learn that not only was I misled by a member of my staff, but this completely inappropriate and unsanctioned conduct was made without my knowledge."

I like a tweet posted at Daily Kos:

If you think Gov. Christie wasn't involved in closing the lanes to the bridge, then I have a bridge to sell you.
— @zachbraff

Rush Limbaugh, Meteorologist

He's an ass, but he makes me laugh, sometimes.

The trouble is that Meteorologist speak is slowly bleeding into common English usage. Weather guys talk like this all the time. At least the 'polar vortex' crisis of 2014 isn't as severe as the 'haboob' crisis of 2011 and 2012, when Arizona was hit unusually hard by these dust storms, and people all over the state freaked out about lurid-edged Arabic words contaminating the pristine way they speak out in the 602:

We are having a record-breaking cold snap in many parts of the country. And right on schedule the media have to come up with a way to make it sound like it’s completely unprecedented. Because they’ve got to find a way to attach this to the global warming agenda, and they have. It’s called the “polar vortex.” The dreaded polar vortex.

Do you know what the polar vortex is? Have you ever heard of it? Well, they just created it for this week…They’re in the middle of a hoax, they’re perpetrating a hoax, but they’re relying on their total dominance of the media to lie to you each and every day about climate change and global warming.

Made Buzzworthy!

Dave Layman noticed this Buzzworthy article that appeared last October regarding the descanso my sister and myself made. Somehow, I missed it, but it's cute:

"This Might Be The Sweetest Walter White Tribute Yet"

Clickworthy

Not:

For as little as a half cent each click, websites hawk everything from LinkedIn connections to make members appear more employable to Soundcloud plays to influence record label interest.

...Italian security researchers and bloggers Andrea Stroppa and Carla De Micheli estimated in 2013 that sales of fake Twitter followers have the potential to bring in $40 million to $360 million to date, and that fake Facebook activities bring in $200 million a year.

...Dhaka, Bangladesh, a city of 7 million in South Asia, is an international hub for click farms.

The CEO of Dhaka-based social media promotion firm Unique IT World said he has paid workers to manually click on clients' social media pages, making it harder for Facebook, Google and others to catch them. "Those accounts are not fake, they were genuine," Shaiful Islam said.

...In 2013, the State Department, which has more than 400,000 likes and was recently most popular in Cairo, said it would stop buying Facebook fans after its inspector general criticized the agency for spending $630,000 to boost the numbers.

...In Indonesia, a social media-obsessed country with some of the largest number of Facebook pages and Twitter users, click farms proliferate.

Ali Hanafiah, 40, offers 1,000 Twitter followers for $10 and 1 million for $600. He owns his own server, and pays $1 per month per Internet Protocol address, which he uses to generate thousands of social media accounts.

...David Burch, at TubeMogul, a video marketing firm based in Emeryville, Calif., said that buying clicks to promote clients is a grave error. "It's bad business," he said, "and if an advertiser ever found out you did that, they'd never do business with you again."

Charity As A Form Of Kickback

Pharmaceutical prices are way too high:

As drug prices have soared in recent years and insurers have increased co-payments, a new type of charity has blossomed to fill a vital niche — helping patients pay the steep out-of-pocket costs for their medicines.

But the largest of these co-payment assistance charities, the Chronic Disease Fund, is now in turmoil after questions have arisen about its relationship with a pharmaceutical company that is itself under investigation for its marketing practices.

The practice is casting light on what has long been an open secret: The bulk of the contributions to these charities come from the pharmaceutical companies. The foundations not only help hundreds of thousands of patients a year, they also raise drug company sales and profits.

After all, if a patient cannot afford out-of-pocket costs of $5,000 for a $100,000-a-year drug, the drug company gets nothing. But if the manufacturer or the charity pays the $5,000, the patient gets the drug and the company receives $95,000 from the patient’s insurance company or Medicare.

...Critics say co-pay assistance helps keep drug prices high and circumvents efforts by insurers to control drug spending by making consumers bear part of the cost.

“These subsidies are unfortunately used to promote the overutilization of expensive brand-name drugs,” said Wells Wilkinson, a lawyer at Community Catalyst, a consumer advocacy organization.

The charities counter that any benefit to the drug companies is secondary to helping patients.

“Look at the alternative,” said Dana Kuhn, founder and president of Patient Services, one of the charities. “If they didn’t donate their dollars, people would die.”

Drug companies often directly subsidize the co-payments for privately insured patients. But they cannot do so for patients covered by federal programs like Medicare’s Part D drug benefit, because that would be considered a kickback, an illegal inducement to use a drug.

Wonder How Pamela Trokanski's Plans Will Affect DMTC?

Synergy? Competition? Trouble? Success?:

Trokanski is fixing to build an 18,000-square-foot, two-story building next to her current studio that will introduce what she calls “Life in 11 Dimensions,” which will bring together a spa, healthy meals, dancing, art, theatrical productions and a community meeting space.

...According to a professionally drawn site plan for the project, a full 3,438 square feet can be devoted to meeting places for community groups, business conferences and the community, with a dedicated nearby space for the healthy food vendor Stone Soup to provide on-site catering. Produce could come from an on-site organic garden. A theater will have 115 to 200 seats depending on the production.

“It’s kind of a gift to Davis,” Trokanski said. “Living a healthy, creative life in a healthy, creative community in a healthy, creative world.”

Collaboration is the name of the game. Acme Theatre Company, a longtime troupe for high school-aged actors, is just one of several groups looking to benefit from “11D,” as the project is being called.

“We’ve been thinking of a collaborative space, so when Pamela talked about 11D it seemed just like a dream,” said Emily Henderson, artistic director of Acme. Henderson first met Trokanski as her student at a dance class at Davis High School, an example of the roots Trokanski has in the community.

Oak Park Heads Balletward

They are onto something good:

Denver Russell has the chance of a lifetime. She will star in what’s believed to be Oak Park’s first rendition of the classic ballet “The Nutcracker.”

“It means a lot to me,” the bashful 10-year-old said last week.

Denver is one of 40 girls in the Girls Self-Esteem Program Academy who are practicing their dance moves around the clock and honing their pointe technique by balancing on their toes.

...Girls in the program, ages 4 to 18, practice ballet three times a week and pay between $25 and $50 a month to participate. Most of the girls are black and hail from underprivileged families from across the Sacramento region, said Kandice Kelly, the program’s director.

“I’m of the belief that every girl in the world should take ballet once,” said Kelly, a former ballerina. “It helps with poise. It helps with grace.”

Kelly founded the program five years ago after volunteering at the Fathers Resource Center, a nonprofit for single fathers that she discovered while working as a television news reporter.

“There were a lot of girls who didn’t have mothers. And the little girls started following me on the weekends because I was the only female,” Kelly said.

Obnoxious Bureaucrats

Al Qaeda is apparently very meticulous:

This transaction in northern Mali shows what might seem an unusual preoccupation for a terror group: Al-Qaida is obsessed with documenting the most minute expenses.

In more than 100 receipts left in a building occupied by al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb in Timbuktu earlier this year, the extremists assiduously tracked their cash flow, recording purchases as small as a single light bulb. The often tiny amounts are carefully written out in pencil and colored pen on scraps of paper and Post-it notes: The equivalent of $1.80 for a bar of soap; $8 for a packet of macaroni; $14 for a tube of super glue. All the documents were authenticated by experts.

Nice Article On Liorah Singerman

Theater busy:

“My mother was a teacher in the Sacramento school district,” says Singerman, “so I knew how much performing arts were suffering in the schools. It was just horrible.” That first season, she spent 90 minutes a week for 10 weeks with students at Caroline Wenzel Elementary School in Greenhaven. They produced a review that was a huge success.

Five years later, Singerman is juggling shows at five schools—Didion, Crocker Riverside, Sutterville, Holy Spirit, and Shalom School—as well as a production of “The Wizard of Oz” at Sierra 2 Center for the Arts and Community in Curtis Park. That production will be taken to the participating schools, which simplifies the logistics of sets, lighting, costumes and choreography. Singerman—relying on her husband’s skills—has introduced the use of film to project the stage sets. “We rearranged our living room and set up a green screen, just like they use for weather reports,” says Plaza. “The kids came over and we shot footage.”

Singerman choreographs, directs and produces every show, with help from husband and assistant director Michelle Petro. Parents do everything from selling tickets and refreshments at the shows to ensuring that Young Actors Stage has a home at their children’s schools.

We Can Neutron Dance: Hollywood Movie Dance Tribute - Part 2

Kate writes:

Posted on Sullivan’s site as mental health break – very fun (especially if you like/remember the song), and very well done.

Say What You Think

Good point:

Following reports that the Iraqi city of Fallujah had fallen into the control of an al Qaida-affiliated group over the weekend, Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) wasted little time in putting out a statement blaming the tumult on the Obama administration's decision to withdraw U.S. forces from the country in 2011.

...White House press secretary Jay Carney said Monday that the likes of McCain and Graham ought to be transparent about what exactly they're proposing.

"I've heard members of Congress suggest this, but if members were suggesting that there should be American troops fighting and dying in Fallujah today, they should say so," Carney said during his daily press briefing.

Thrown Under The Bus

In the end, everyone abandoned Liz Cheney. And it's a good thing!:

Cheney’s early 2014 struggles had a lot to do with the flaws of her own campaign, and now she says family concerns ultimately doomed her bid. But I think her already-flailing debacle of a campaign (before the family news came out) tells us something about the fizzling of the Tea Party as an oppositional force, especially when it comes to serious, entrenched conservatives like Wyoming’s Mike Enzi. It bodes well for 2014 that she flamed out quickly. Nepotistic sister-betraying Cheneys and other Tea Party opportunists just may not find Republican primaries as easy as they were in 2010. And that’s good for both parties, and for the country.

A Happy Ending!

Amanda sends a happy note:

UPDATE: Alex is found! Thank you! Thank you to all who helped. He had located a river and was found following it. Stayed in the woods 2 nights. He is tired, hungry, and disoriented but otherwise well. Sooo many people came out for the search. Wouldn't have found him without you and the shares

Search Starting For Alex Salyers

Search starting early tomorrow morning for Amanda's brother, in the Sierra foothills vicinity of Cool, CA.

My dear mountain friends: My brother Alex has been missing since last night. He may have just wandered off, but no one knows where he is and we'd like to know he is safe. Last seen walking towards Auburn Lake Trails. Please let me know if you have any info.

Money, Success, Fame, Glamour

Michael Flowers, of "Breaking Bad" Set Dressing fame, continues to make challenging and interesting video mashups.

I am puzzled. Where is the moral? But it's five minutes till curtain, so must run....

First Weekend Of "Cabaret" Done

Was this just the most-endless Tech Week, or what? A performance or rehearsal on ten of the last eleven days! Endurance was useful for Stage Managing this show, but with a lingering cold, it was hard to find, at times. I'd fall into coughing jags, and had other issues.

New Year's Eve went pretty well. The cast was motivated!

Friday night, there were some glitches - people missing set changes, usually. Twice, I snagged the line leading from my head set to the radio transmitter while moving furniture, which disconnected me from the headset and delayed relaying 'Lights!' to Jenna in the Light Booth.

Saturday night was nearly-perfect for set changes. Just some prop problems (Letter to England, etc.). Dalton told a few tales - about how he and Katherine inadvertently spat into each other's faces, and the like. There was a distraction too. Katherine came onstage in her fur coat towards the end of Act I. She took off the fur coat and laid it down. Just then, a highly-visible moth came out of the fur coat, and started buzzing about on stage. Strange!

Sunday afternoon, a few set change issues returned. At the end of the first Train scene, Hugo exited stage right again, instead of stage left. With him delayed, that set change turned into a massive clusterfrack stage left. Richard and I nearly collided while changing the set just before 'Sitting Pretty', which definitely slowed things down. Katherine noticed the last egg remaining for the weekend was very-strangely puckered and distorted. We wanted to make Dalton eat it on stage, or at least see if there was a bat inside of it, or something, but thought better of it, and sent Rebecca out to get more eggs instead.

Feeling A Bit Nostalgic

First, for 1985....




Then for 2004.

John Wesley Powell Suggested These State Boundaries In The West

The idea was to mitigate struggles over water. Didn't happen, though.

Blake's Is Opening Their First Restaurant Outside New Mexico

Sixty-one years! 'bout time!:

The popular Albuquerque-based hamburger chain will open its new El Paso restaurant the first week of January, according to a company executive.

It will be the only Blake’s Lotaburger located outside of New Mexico — at least for now. A second El Paso location is planned for the spring.

I've been surprised Blake's hasn't expanded beyond the state boundaries, till now. El Paso is a natural target for an expanding operation. Besides, according to K., El Paso restaurant choices suck, so anything that can be done to help.

2014 - Year Of Troubles

Lt. Commander Rebecca Jordan, hero of Smog Town troops in the Battle of Interstate 5.

Well, the forecasts are beginning to weaken the small potential storm next Thursday to nothingness, and strengthening the eastern Pacific ridge again. 2014 is going to be a year of locusts in California. And that's really bad, because my entire life-plan is based on the Grasshopper, not the Ant. Time to revisit "The Great War of the Californias".

Among the holdings at the Di Rosa Art Museum near Napa, they actually have the immense canvas of "The Battle of San Francisco". Amazing panorama!

Here's a trailer.

Ice Box

Kathleen in Calgary notes this:

This week, in Southern Manitoba, the temperature reached a blisteringly frigid -31 degrees Celsius, or nearly -24 Fahrenheit. (Wind chill values in Winnipeg—in case you were curious and/or in need of some meteorological schadenfreude—dipped to -58 Fahrenheit.) Which is crazy, and which makes for, as Yahoo's Geekquinox blog puts it, "the coldest afternoon temperatures the area has seen in several years."

...And over the past month, Yahoo notes, REMS has been reporting daily high temperatures on Mars that range from -25 to -31 degrees Celsius. (Mars seems to be having its own cold spell: The -31 degrees Celsius temperature is the coldest daily high the rover has recorded since it landed on the planet in August 2012.)

Internal Siamese Twin

(Standing in the sandwich line at Subway. IST observes me looking at my iPhone while holding it just inches in front of my left eye)

IST: You shouldn't hold the iPhone so close to your eye. It will damage your retina. Like a TV. Instead, you should use a magnifying glass while holding the iPhone at arm's length.

M.: I had retinal surgery in 1994. They put a band around my eye, so it's even more near-sighted than it used to be.

IST: You should have a doctor look at that. It's better to be safe than sorry. Not that I want to intrude. You should have a doctor look at that. It's better to be safe than sorry. Not that I want to intrude. You should have a doctor look at that. It's better to be safe than sorry. Not that I want to intrude......

M.: (Observing his three foot-long sandwiches being made) That's a lot of food. It's not just for yourself, is it?

IST: Yes, it is. I have two stomachs. In the womb, I started to divide into a Siamese twin, but the process didn't complete. I'm an Internal Siamese Twin.

M.: So, do you have a split personality?

IST: No, although I have mood swings. The process didn't complete. I should have a doctor look at that.

M.: So, you're going to eat all those sandwiches?

IST: Yes. It's really something when the stomach on the left starts growling, and the stomach on the right starts growling too. I need the nutrition. It's part of being an Internal Siamese Twin. The process didn't complete, so I have just one heart, just behind the breast bone, almost in the center of the chest.

M.: My breast bone is messed up, maybe from a lack of nutrition when I was three years old.

IST: You should have a doctor look at that. It's better to be safe than sorry. Particularly the Vitamin C. You can get the scurvies from that.

M.: They used to get that on sailing ships.

IST: They'd lose two thirds of the crew to the scurvies. Your hair falls out and you get yellow eye balls. Your membranes basically fall apart. It's so important what women eat when they are pregnant, especially in the first three weeks. That's when the cell division occurs, and when Siamese twins get made. (To the 'sandwich artist') Can you add more pickles?

Small Storm Over The Horizon

Extended weather forecasts are beginning to show a possible small storm in northern California in about a week - next Thursday. I certainly hope so. The drought situation has never been so desperate in California! 2014 is setting up as a real ugly year for water, and we need as much as possible, as often as possible, and right the hell now.

Mr. Doesn't-Like-Confrontation Confronts

Mr. Doesn't-Like-Confrontation confronted homeless bicyclist with dog leaning against my garage door at 5 a.m. "I had to poop. I'll clean it up." Um, OK.

Spied on him a few times. What is with this dude? Now he's counting out money.

Fellow lingered under the driveway light for about an hour. I finally called Sac PD, but just then he pushed on. Not eager to check on situation downstairs. Fellow was at least apologetic: no Marcy-Darcy crap.

In the morning, went down to check. Looks like homeless guy tried to break into the garage, and smeared shit on the outside wall. Charming!

Can't find his shit. I wonder where he put it? Doesn't seem to be in the garbage cans.

So, who is this guy? A new nutter in the 'hood....

Sorry For Lack Of Posting

With crazy work schedule, opening of 'Cabaret', holiday visits, and feeling sick, I just haven't had the time. Fell behind too. The world is moving on at light speed....

Magical Butter Oil

I watch YouTube videos: this is the advertisement.

Isn't this like ... illegal?

Snowboarding Crow

Crows and jays are way smart!

Breaking Bad - Cinematography

"Breaking Bad" placed heavy emphasis on point-of-view (POV) shots and stunning time-lapse panoramas, and it's fun to watch them together.

Interactive Property Taxes Map

Full of interesting surprises here.

Nearly Got Side-Swiped On The Freeway Last Night

I was slowly passing a car on the left, and was momentarily in the driver's blind spot, just when the driver decided to make a lane change. We almost collided.

Scary!

Northern New Mexican Accent

Students from Las Vegas give examples of the accent. The funniest part is the accented disembodied voice who takes the fast food order.

JP Brought The Final Breaking Bad DVD

Binge-watched it in two sittings. Need to look at the Commentaries too. Lots of information there.

If Bolivia Has A Satellite In Orbit, Why Don't You?

The Chinese had their recent lunar triumph, and now they help Bolivia into space:

A Chinese Long March 3B rocket on Dec. 21 inaugurated the Bolivian space program by successfully placing Bolivia’s Tupac Katari (TKSat)-1 telecommunications satellite into geostationary transfer orbit, Chinese and Bolivian officials said.

Bolivian President Evo Morales traveled to China to witness the launch, from China’s Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China’s Sichuan Province, indicating the project’s political importance in Bolivia.

...The satellite will operate at 87.5 degrees west longitude to provide Internet and telecommunications connectivity to the estimated 3.3 million Bolivians in rural areas that are currently not connected to the telecommunications grid, according to the Bolivian Space Agency (ABE), which was created to manage the TKSat-1 project.

ABE said the entire program cost $295.4 million, of which $251.1 million was financed with a loan from the China Development Bank. ABE said the loan is payable over 15 years, with no principal payments due until the fourth year after an initial payment of 0.75 percent of the loan.

The annual interest payment is the London Interbank Offered Rate plus 2.7 percent.

The remaining $44.3 million in project funding came from Bolivia’s general treasury, ABE said.

ABE said TKSat-1 services will generate sufficient revenue to fully cover the project’s cost, which includes the satellite’s construction and launch, insurance and a satellite ground station in Bolivia that Morales recently inaugurated.

Hari Kari With Kashkari

The very essence of our dilemmas. The manager of TARP (which I reluctantly supported, but which many people, especially the Tea-Partiers, did not). But, hey, if the GOP wants him for Governor, who am I to complain?:

“Oh, give me a break,” said Kashkari, a former Goldman Sachs executive and U.S. Treasury Department official. “You’re comparing this to Meg? Give me a break.”

Kashkari, 40, is expected to join a small field of Republicans bidding to unseat Brown next year. ... Kashkari, who ran the $700 billion bank bailout known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program during former President George W. Bush's administration, has not yet said if he will run for governor. But he has been laying the foundation for such an effort for nearly a year. He left his job at Newport Beach-based Pacific Investment Management Co. in January, assembled a team of advisers and started visiting food banks, schools and businesses throughout the state.

Kashkari said these experiences, which he has promoted on Twitter and, most recently, a series of newspaper interviews, have both inspired him and aided his understanding of poverty and education. His emphasis on poverty isn’t typical for a Republican candidate, but he said he wants to make it the focus of his campaign.

“I genuinely want to learn what people are facing,” Kashkari said. “I would want to be the candidate fighting for the poor.”

I Hate It When Arts Projects Suffer Setbacks

(From earlier this month.) I don't want Sacramento Ballet to be thrown under the bus:

The California Musical Theatre notified city officials it would not take part in the Studio for the Performing Arts, leaving 25 percent of the project’s ongoing budget unaccounted for. The theater group did not provide an explanation for its sudden departure from the project.

The City Council has pledged $5 million to help renovate the former Fremont School for Adults on N Street into a space for the California Musical Theatre, the Sacramento Ballet and the Sacramento Region Performing Arts Alliance, a combination of the Sacramento Opera and Sacramento Philharmonic. The city’s contribution would come from the $2.5 million it generates for maintaining the Cal-EPA building next to City Hall and another $2.5 million in future loan repayments by the Crocker Art Museum.

...Without the California Musical Theatre’s role in the project, city officials are scrambling to find $67,000 in annual operating income to keep the 49,000-square-foot facility going.

...Still, the city and the arts groups are up against a tight timeline to find a replacement. The Sacramento Ballet’s lease at its current space on K Street expires in August. “We need to be open next fall,” Rich said.

...However, Ron Cunningham, the co-artistic director of the Sacramento Ballet, said he was confident his group could make up the difference. He said the new space will provide the ballet with at least two more studios, allowing the group to expand its class facilities and generate thousands of dollars more each year in tuition.

The Drought That Has Seized Central California Scares Me Like No Other

And today is no different - a record high:

Unseasonably warm weather has made this a Christmas for the record books, pushing the temperature at Sacramento Executive Airport to an unprecedented 64 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

That broke the previous Christmas day high-mercury mark of 63 degrees, set in 1965, as a trend of clear and dry weather continued across the state.

The record high for downtown Sacramento on Christmas Day is 64 degrees, reached three times: 1892, 1955 and 1967.

While the weather downtown fell just short of that record on Wednesday, topping out at 63 degrees, that temperature still exceeds the historical average for the day, which is 51.8 degrees based on records dating back to 1877.

Tiny Beads

I use facial products with zillions of these tiny beads. Target has useful, environmentally-friendly substitutes at a tenth the cost, but like many consumers, I tend to get the sexier products that smell better:

Tiny plastic beads used in hundreds of toiletries like facial scrubs and toothpastes are slipping through water treatment plants and turning up by the tens of millions in the Great Lakes. There, fish and other aquatic life eat them along with the pollutants they carry — which scientists fear could be working their way back up the food chain to humans.

Scientists have worried about plastic debris in the oceans for decades, but focused on enormous accumulations of floating junk. More recently, the question of smaller bits has gained attention, because plastics degrade so slowly and become coated with poisons in the water like the cancer-causing chemicals known as PCBs.

“Unfortunately, they look like fish food,” said Marcus Eriksen, executive director of the 5 Gyres organization, speaking of the beads found in the oceans and, now, the lakes. His group works to eliminate plastic pollution.

Legs & Co. 1977 Christmas Special

"And They Never Did Find The Other Shoe"

If it was December 23rd, it was time to take E. to Arden Fair Mall. Adding to the urgency was a huge waft of skunk: somewhere nearby.

I was so addled from insomnia that the experience was strangely pleasant. Like being on some sort of drug. I had an unusual amount of patience this year, which was useful. Endless meandering through the aisles, as usual.

As she gets older, and poorer, E. gets pickier and pickier about what she likes. She wanted to be at Sunrise Mall, but who has time to drive over there? I didn't. Besides, was Arden Fair so bad? Yet, an entire mall full of ensembles and there didn't seem to be any suitable clothes in the entire place. Find a more appealing selection over at Goodwill, apparently. Finally, she settled on a dress on sale, but then we had to fight with her long-standing desire to never, ever try on clothes in the stores. She insists on trying clothes on at home, and returning them if they are unsuitable, but then the odds of making a correct initial choice are low, of course. Plus, no returns for these dresses. Store policy. Still, we made a purchase.

Then it was time to find appropriate shoes. At Macy's, we found one suitable shoe, but its match was nowhere to be found in the entire store, and so a purchase was not made.

Ate at the Food Court.

All said, I really like malls. Too bad people buy so much on the Internet these days.

Getting Energized To Stage Manage 'Cabaret' At DMTC

Queen - Somebody To Love

This song made a big impression on me in 1976, during the days I lived in Englewood, Denver's southern suburb. I remember it running through my head on an endless loop, during a long, interminable walk from the end of the bus line, in vicinity of Southglenn shopping center, along Arapahoe Road, to a birthday party held at a restaurant near Interstate 25, near today's Arapahoe Marketplace shopping center. I wonder if the buses go all the way out there these days?

Approaching Penury, But At Least The Car Is Running

Took my car in for yet more repair. In the last two months, I've slammed $3,000 onto the credit card trying to improve auto function. I think it is running better and smoother, with a new radiator, motor mounts, and coil. And not car repair alone: $540 to purchase a used, roto-rooter-type mechanical snake for the chronic, ever-disgorging sewer issue. I can't keep this pace up. I could peg the credit card if I'm not careful.

And I haven't even started Christmas shopping yet....

Politics Is Not Charity

Politics is a civic responsibility we all have, as citizens. Donations to politics, and the "spreading of ideas" should never, ever be tax deductible. To do so establishes a formal privilege to those who politic, and sets them aside in a special, tax-free class. The amorphousness of the 501(c)4 regulations is so unfortunate, because it encourages political hacks and their 'think tanks' to hide among the birdwatchers, community theaters, disease-preventers, and other fine folks whom we do set aside for special treatment with 501(c)3 regulations.

The best to those who want better policing here. The hell with tax deductibility for any and all think tanks. The waters are real toxic.  This Ben Boychuk is a real tool:

Without a doubt, Americans are the most generous people on earth. Even in a sluggish economy, people are willing to dig deep for a good cause – or just about any cause, come to think of it. Americans’ charitable giving underscores a truth as old as the republic: Government cannot, and should not, do everything. There are a whole host of social functions in this relatively free, mostly open, more or less self-governing society simply better left to private associations – or put more simply, you and me.

Government encourages people to be charitable by letting them deduct their contributions from their taxes. Here’s where things get unpleasantly political, because some nonprofit groups engage not so much in feeding the poor or curing disease, but spreading ideas. And ideas are nothing if not controversial.

...Some self-styled liberals would do away with such nonprofits altogether. Robert Reich, Bill Clinton’s former secretary of labor, groused recently how America’s wealthiest 20 percent benefited from $33 billion of nearly $40 billion in charitable deductions last year. Those rich folks aren’t just giving to think tanks. They’re also underwriting colleges and universities, hospitals, and the arts.

...Oh, but it gets worse. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat who has set progressive populists’ hearts aflutter, would very much like to intimidate businesses into cutting back their contributions to think tanks whose work she dislikes. Warren earlier this month sent a letter to six of the largest banks in the country, suggesting they “disclose” their contributions voluntarily – or else.

...In the face of charitable persuasion, coercion seems to be all they have left.

Giorgio Moroder Interview And "I Feel Love"

Public radio had a CBC interview with Giorgio Moroder on Thursday night. This is a different interview, a BBC interview, but he discusses the same topic, how he came about making the music of the future. He felt the 'Star Wars' Cantina example was inadequate, so he tried something different, specifically "I Feel Love", which was, in many ways, the point of detonation of Electronica.




The amazing Donna Summer:




And like the best of Electronica, the song is infinitely elastic and adaptable:

Flamenco Arts Studio Burns Down

Very disturbing news from Albuquerque. Plus, it's so close to several Breaking Bad locations:

"Shortly after firefighters pulled out ... the roof did collapse on the flamenco business," said Albuquerque Fire Department spokeswoman Melissa Romero.

Firefighters were able to get a handle on the blaze and prevented it from spreading to nearby businesses.

Excerpts From Fun Review Of Sarah Palin's Book

Yelling back at a book rather than a TV set:

Who holds Christmas in contempt? Who? Where are these people? I'm a secular humanist—there's an award from the Freedom from Religion Foundation on my mantel just inches from my Christmas tree—and here I am, at home on a Saturday morning, baking Christmas cookies for my family. Not holiday cookies. Christmas cookies. I'll be taking some across the street to share with my Jewish neighbors later today. They love Christmas. And no one is trying to "save" Christmas from its heritage.

...I was never a "happy holidays" guy. Christmas was a big deal in my home growing up, and it's a big deal in the home I share with Terry. December is Christmas. I've always wished people "merry Christmas" without really giving it a thought. Ho-ho-ho.

But that's over now.

Sarah Palin and Bill O'Reilly and Fox News and the Family Research Council and the woman who allegedly punched another woman outside Walmart earlier this week for saying "happy holidays" instead of "merry Christmas" managed to break me of the "merry Christmas" habit. I suspect I'm not alone. This constant bitching from the right about "happy holidays"—a perfectly lovely expression that embraces Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, Pancha Ganapati, New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, Hanukkah, the Epiphany, Saint Nicholas's Day, Hogmanay, Twelfth Night, and Kwanzaa—has made one thing clear. Not that there is now, or ever was, a war on Christmas. But that saying "merry Christmas" is an asshole move. Just as conservatives made patriotism toxic during the Vietnam War by conflating it with blind obedience to authority ("My country, right or wrong!"), modern conservatives have made "merry Christmas" toxic by associating it with Christian fundamentalism, religious intolerance, and the politics of imagined persecution.

Unfortunately, the war on Christmas is a game Palin and O'Reilly and Fox News and the Family Research Council can't lose. The more they complain about people saying "happy holidays" instead of "merry Christmas," the fewer people will say "merry Christmas." This will be held up as proof that the war on Christmas is real. But people like me aren't replacing "merry Christmas" with "happy holidays" to be "politically correct," as Palin insists in the introduction to her stupid book, we're doing it because we don't want people to think we're assholes.

Breaking Bad - Jingle Bells

Doing His Damndest To Make A Martyr

I tuned in briefly to conservative talk radio's Mike Gallagher, talking about the perils of illegal immigration, as exemplified by Officer Brian Jackson of the Dallas Police Department, who was killed in the line of duty by an illegal alien.

Eight years ago.

Yes, eight years ago. I can understand Officer Jackson's friends and family burning candles to his memory, and arguing that we must not forget him, but why is Gallagher trying so hard to expand that circle? To make Officer Jackson a martyr to immigration issues? Or did Gallagher run out of material today for outrage? Reaching back eight years is a stretch....

Conservatives like Gallagher I'm sure would find no connection between the weaponry sold at Texas gun shows and the mass slaughters across the river in northern Mexico. Not their department, I'd gather. No sense of connection or responsibility. Yet, for every slain Officer Jackson there are one hundred anonymous Mexicans who have lost their lives.

Silent martyrs stacked like firewood. Their families don't want us to forget them either.

The Folks At B3ta Didn't Know What To Make Of My Story

So they put it on the 'Best' page anyway.

Politics Is All About Making Bridges

Plus, the enemy of my enemy is my friend:

Kilgore, who legally changed his middle name to SECEDE last year, hopes that gay voters will support him and his bid to make Texas its own country to avoid what he says are the US Federal Government’s oppressive taxes and promises that he won’t try to introduce anything like the death penalty until Texas is independent.

...‘I am a Christian, and I have lots of Christian beliefs. However, I am trying to build a coalition of all different types of people. I look at the lesbians and the homosexual folks and I say, “Hey, DC is stealing my money just like they’re stealing your money.” After we get our freedom, then we can decide all that stuff — hopefully at a county level.

‘Right now, lesbians and homosexuals and Christians may have differences with each other, but we’ve got a bigger enemy.’

In 2007 in the lead up to a bid for the US Senate Kilgore told the Houston Chronicle that he supported the death penalty for adultery with a married woman and flogging for people who used profanity in public - while transvestites should be flogged even more severely.

However he told Lone Star Q that flogging transvestites was no longer part of his platform.

...‘I would very much approve of a biblical law that prevented homosexual behavior in the new nation,’ Kilgore said.

‘According to the Bible, it should be execution, if anyone participates in that activity.’

However Kilgore said he was open to the idea of different areas of Texas having different laws on homosexuality and would support candidates who were gay as long as they wanted to make Texas its own country.

...Kilgore last ran for governor of Texas in 2006 where he received nearly 8% of the vote - coming second behind Texas Governor Rick Perry.

Ancient Mesa Verde Pottery Of Unknown Purpose

It's all rather mysterious:

The vessel dates back to the Pueblo III period, an era from about 1150 to 1300 CE when ancestral puebloans began to establish big, sophisticated multi-family communities. This was when Mesa Verde was built, for example, and when Pueblo populations peaked in southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah, before people moved south to settle what’s now Arizona and New Mexico.

Those who know their artifacts can tell all that just by looking at this mug: Its pattern of repeating triangles and horizontal lines are known as Mesa Verde Black-on-White, a style preferred around Sand Canyon in the 13th century.

Holiday Video - Davis Vocal Art Ensemble

Featuring the talented Barbieri family! Go Ashlyn!

Interesting Speculation About Cultural Conservatism, As Expressed By Pottery

So, the Jornada Mogollon peoples moved to Gran Quivira from the south and adopted the Puebloan ways among the Jumanos living there, but appear to have resisted new innovations from their crazy Puebloan cousins in the Rio Grande Valley. Or so I understand.

Now, what are the differences between Chupadero and Socorro Black-on-White pottery, and all other Black-on-White styles? I bet they are subtle things:

But the mingling of diverse elements does not necessarily produce a virile strain. From a cultural background similar to that of other Tanoan speakers in the Rio Grande valley, the Jumano had developed a direction, a "slant," or cultural personality that was akin to that of the Rio Grande up to 1300. During this same period the people of the northern Jornada had become increasingly Puebloan in some aspects. The mingling of these two groups resulted in stagnation of the Jumano. The Jumano were henceforth Pueblo in material culture and architecture and largely Pueblo in the socioreligious use of the kiva. On the other hand, they contained regressive factors—traits that had limited the Mogollon to transmitters of culture, however important these may have been; traits that led them to adopt an increasingly Pueblo aspect and which finally permitted their disappearance as a cultural entity.

After the development of Chupadero Black-on-white, a fairly widespread and long-lived local pottery type, the Jumano failed to participate in further ceramic developments spreading from the Rio Grande. At about the time Chupadero Black-on-white came into vogue, a widespread change from mineral paints to carbon paint—a change that had slowly diffused eastward from the San Juan region of the Pueblo area—reached the Rio Grande drainage. The new paint type was adopted there in all but the extreme north and east sections in the vicinity of Taos, and along the tributaries of the Canadian (Wendorf and Reed, 1955: 144). The use of carbon paint, however, was not adopted by the Jumano, nor was it adopted in the Saline area farther north or on the east side of the Manzano Mountains. Also neglected in this general region was the slightly later influence of Mesa Verde decorative style—the employment of heavier design, less use of hatched elements, a tendency toward panel layout, and ticked rims.

By 1300 early glaze paint pottery was making its appearance in the Rio Grande, and while its use spread to the Jumano area, it was not made there; the actual source of Glaze I Red was probably the Rio Grande, and of Glaze I Yellow, the Galisteo region (Shepard, 1942). We cannot date the point at which glaze-paint ware was first made locally in the Jumano area, but it was probably not until the advent of what Shepard calls the Late Group—typical Glaze IV and later, from about 1550. The Jumano were not only slow to adopt glaze-paint ware, but, more important, they also clung to the production of black-on-white pottery as long as they existed as a group. This is in marked contrast to the Rio Grande, where black-on-whites were abandoned with the advent of glaze paint in all areas except Jemez on the western frontier, and among the Tewa north of Santa Fe, where Biscuit Ware was followed by a matte-paint polychrome in historic times.

Here's a cool Chupadero Black-on-White olla. One of the potsherds whose picture I posted has a pattern that looks like this:

California Is In Real Trouble

It's going to be one of those years....

Water's Phase Changes Are Powerful!

Skyler As Godzilla

Breaking Bad fan video, using an animated view of the actual Albuquerque skyline (Hyatt Hotel) too! Spoilers galore. Don't view unless you have seen Season 4.

Nadia - Its Gonna Take Time

Nostalgic for 2005 today. What a great year for hurricanes that was! The best ever!

Here's a nice Trance tune from 2005.

Today's Hip Hop Workshop

Woodland Man Chooses The Bagpipes

Mural Going Up Next To Railroad

"A Charlie Brown Christmas" - Storybook Theater - DMTC

A completely surprising show! Ana and Dave Chan for music; roller skates, a somersault. Rather brief show, but fun! I saw the hearing-impaired signed show on Saturday.

Ana and her Papa on keyboard and drums. Jazz music is a perfect complement to Charlie Brown!