Billboards and TV Ads and Causes Not Lost

Within the last few days I've seen a billboard and a television ad for a specific project that I design and pushed through to become reality a decade ago. It was both highly gratifying and sad. For this particular program to succeed it had to be turned over to others to run and credit had to be shifted to the egos in another structure so that it could be institutionalized and live on.

So far there are just four such programs and systems that were designed and integrated well enough to out live my ego's presence and still function and provide for the welfare of those for which they were intended. They are like my children in a professional sense.

Sad is that there are a dozen or more programs that did not lived over the years. Many I killed off myself to obtain their resources to use elsewhere. But most were simply murdered by arrogance, stupidity, ignorance, or willfulness of others. Long ago I started a garden in my backyard called the Saint Jude Garden Of Lost Causes. Here I buried each project, program, or system in turn as it was destroyed. In fact many of those who are buried there acted as preparation for those not there at all.

My joy is that there are so many NOT buried there. Long may they function.

Sutton Center Bald Eagle Cam In Oklahoma

Want to see a live feed of an eagle's nest?

"This nest is on OG&E property at Sooner Lake near Stillwater, Oklahoma. The original dead nest tree used by this pair of eagles fell down. OG&E, with technical assistance from the Sutton Center and financial assistance from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, erected an artificial tower which these eagles have adopted successfully."

Check it out.

http://www.suttoncenter.org/eaglecam.html

Is this a great time to be alive or what?

Depression or Recession, This Too Shall Pass, A Testimony

In March 1974 I became a father of a "bouncing baby girl". Actually this one did bounce because

she loved a contraption called the "Johnny Jump Up" that hung in a door frame and let the baby jump up and down in a swing like apparatus with springs. Then in May I graduated with a Masters degree in Geography. At that point in time I was 29 years old. I had spent four years in the Army Security Agency (now defunct), serving in Africa, Vietnam, Washington D.C., the hills of Virginia, and short short stints (TDY and transits) in Lebanon and Yemen.

My last year of college had many distractions. For those of you born after 1968 or so, let's review the fall of 1973 through the Spring of 1974:

The Yom Kipper War and the Arab Oil Embargo

October 6—Egypt and Syria attack Israel on Yom Kippur, starting the fourth Arab-Israeli War.
October 8–October 10—OPEC negotiations with oil companies to revise the 1971 Tehran price agreement fail.
October 12— The United States initiates Operation Nickel Grass, an overt strategic airlift operation to provide weapons and supplies to Israel during the Yom Kippur War.
October 16—Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, and Qatar unilaterally raise posted prices by 17% to $3.65 per barrel and announce production cuts.
October 17—OPEC oil ministers agree to use oil as a weapon to punish the West for its support of Israel in the Arab-Israeli war. They recommend an embargo against unfriendly states and mandate a cut in exports.
October 19—US President Richard Nixon requests Congress to appropriate $2.2billion in emergency aid to Israel, including $1.5 billion in out-right grants.[10] Saudi Arabia, Libya and other Arab states proclaim an embargo on oil exports to the United States.
October 26—The Yom Kippur War ends.
October 23–October 28—The Arab oil embargo is extended to the Netherlands.
November 5—Arab producers announce a 25% output cut. A further 5% cut is threatened.
November 23—The Arab embargo is extended to Portugal, Rhodesia, and South Africa.
November 27—U.S. President Richard Nixon signs the Emergency Petroleum Allocation Act authorizing price, production, allocation and marketing controls.
December 9—Arab oil ministers agree to another five percent cut for non-friendly countries for January 1974.
December 25—Arab oil ministers cancel the five percent output cut for January. Saudi oil minister Yamani promises a ten percent OPEC production rise.
January 7–January 9, 1974—OPEC decides to freeze prices until April 1.
February 11—United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger unveils the Project Independence plan to make U.S. energy independent.
February 12–February 14—Progress in Arab-Israeli disengagement brings discussion of oil strategy among the heads of state of Algeria, Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia.
March 17—Arab oil ministers, with the exception of Libya, announce the end of the embargo against the United States.

Nixon resigned the presidency in disgrace Aug. 9, 1974

The 1973–1974 stock market crash was a stock market crash that lasted between January 1973 and December 1974. Affecting all the major stock markets in the world, particularly the United Kingdom,[1] it was one of the worst stock market downturns in modern history.[2] The crash came after the collapse of the Bretton Woods system over the previous two years, with the associated 'Nixon Shock' and United States dollar devaluation under the Smithsonian Agreement. It was compounded by the outbreak of the 1973 oil crisis in October of that year.
In the 694 days between 11 January 1973 and 6 December 1974, the New York Stock Exchange's Dow Jones Industrial Average benchmark lost over 45% of its value, making it the seventh-worst bear market in the history of the index.[2] 1972 had been a good year for the DJIA, with gains of 15% in the twelve months. 1973 had been expected to be even better, with Time magazine reporting, just 3 days before the crash began, that it was 'shaping up as a gilt-edged year'.[3] In the two years from 1972 to 1974, the American economy slowed from 7.2% real GDP growth to -2.1% contraction, while inflation (by CPI) jumped from 3.4% in 1972 to 12.3% in 1974.[1]

(sources Wikki)

So here I was. Twenty nine years old, with a brand new baby, aging parents that needed attention, in a world with no gasoline, a deep recession and no jobs. Moving back to Oklahoma City we found a place devastated by the effects of Racism. A very large chunk of the city proper had moved out to the sub-burbs in order to avoid school integration that had been court order in 1973. Some neighborhoods were ghost towns. Being a oil processing State as well as a producer the Embargo had hit had.

I spent the next 18 months being a house husband and primary care giver to my daughter. I got my wife off each morning crying as she went to her teaching job in a miserable school that she hated. I applied for 35+ jobs, with only a hand full of interviews granted. Most never bother to even acknowledge my application. Even Jack-In-Box didn't want me.

The savings we had (which had lost a large part of its value due to inflation) dwindled each month and my father-in-law subsidized his daughter and grand-daughter to a large extent. By Fall 1975 I attained an internship at a State Board based on my Geography education and put my daughter in day care and went to work at a dime on the dollar job. By July 1976 I had a real job with benefits and such. May 1974 to August 1976.

That was 18 months with no income at all for me, and 26 months without a "real" job.

That made me real cautious as to money, work, and all things economic. Now that baby girl is 35 years old and has two brothers. That woman that cried every morning as she left her baby and broke my heart is still married to me after almost 43 years. When I retired in 2001 I invested in a contractually guaranteed fix annuity and put any extra money in old fashion safe places.

We survived that recession, that inflation, that joblessness, the emotion wrenching. You can too. That's my message to the people under the gun today. You will survive. It will hurt. You will be different on the other side, but you will survive and things will get better.

Hell in 1973 to 76 we had President's Nixon and Ford and we still survived. Obama can do no worse and will actually do much much better.

Friends, neighbors , strangers, this too shall pass, yes it will.

Happy Birthday to My CR

I'm checking back in long enough to say Happy Birthday to my Baby Girl C.R..

She is 35 this week.

Man having a baby sure put a turn in my plans for my future.

Then her brother came and then her other brother came and I was... harnessed and put to the field.

I had told my wife before we were married that all I want to do was travel and be a bum.

I was well on my way when CR came along. Sure I wanted a baby. But....

Well I am just now getting back to the bum thing.

Despite some small problems along the way, I sure am glad she came along when she did.

Now she is a grown woman. I don't see her as much as I would like, but then what parent does see their kids enough after they grow up?

Happy birthday kid.

Love you, Dad.

Sabbatical with Junior The Bear.

Junior The Bear, a close family friend stopped by recently. It seems he has been sad about just bearly being able to write. I tried to cheer him up talking about the Bear market and such, but it didn't seem to do much good.

In the discussions he talked me into a trip of sorts, a Sabbatical if you please. Not sure where he will take me or how long he intends to be gone. I'm sure that he intends to come back sometime though. Meanwhile.....

Toodles,
DLBJ and JTB

The Reign of Oobleck and the Prosecution of Glurch

Who could have known?


For the past eight years the United States has had a secret dictator. The memorandums from the Office of Legal Council show that was the case without reservation. At first I was appalled when I heard this, and we should be. But as I was reading one of Okie Book Woman's blogs I ran across a much better metaphor for the Bush/Cheney/Rove administration. It is the Oobleck.

"Oobleck is a fictional green precipitation invented by children's author Dr. Seuss in the book Bartholomew and the Oobleck. The word has since been used to describe a mixture of corn starch and water used to demonstrate the dilatant property of non-Newtonian fluids. Oobleck is also known in the United Kingdom as "goop" or "gloop" in many primary and nursery schools."

"The word has since been used to describe a substance that is used as a science aid to teach children about liquids and solids. This oobleck is created from cornstarch and water in a ratio between 2:1 and 3:2. Though initially it acts like a viscous liquid, applying pressure quickly will make it appear to be a solid for a short time. The oobleck also behaves unlike conventional solids or liquid when thrown in the air, molded, heated, or vibrated.
Oobleck readily demonstrates the dilatant effect, which means it becomes more viscous when agitated or compressed. Oobleck contains polymers (a form of pseudoplastic)."

"But just as intriguing is a parallel material called : Glurch. Glurch is the nickname given to a polymer substance created in many middle school science courses. It consists of starch, glue and food coloring. It is used to show the process of polymerization. "

source : Wikipedia

After thinking about this for a bit, I think Ooblick describes the Bush usurping of the Constitution best, but I prefer Glurch as the most accurate descriptor of Karl Rove. Glurch has an added component, the glue. Because Karl has been dumb to "stick" around after the apostasy is over, he should be the Glurch. Now if I could just get Rachel Maddow to use the term for Rove we would be doing the world a favor.

Indeed as the criminal prosecution of the Ooblick (Bush era) criminals takes place the Seuss book will help parents explain what is happening to their children. Indeed it may even help explain it to themselves.

We tend to gorget that before he went off to war and came back to write children's books Seuss was a political cartoonist. I think he would appreciate my reference to the Ooblick/Glurch.

Dr. Seuss was a genius on many levels, we morn his passing and praise his permanent contribution to our vocabulary, literature, and political concepts.

Check these out:

http://okiebookwoman.blogspot.com/2009/03/its-birthday-party.html

http://www.sarameade.blogspot.com/

http://www.susanameyers.blogspot.com/

DD452009 Should be Renamed "McCain's Folley""

John McCain Senator from Arizona:

"My constituints are really angry at the corruption in this appropriations bill."
“I ask the senator from Hawaii [Sen. Daniel Inouye (D), who chairs the Appropriations Committee]: Why do we need to spend $2 million to promote astronomy in Hawaii when unemployment is going up and the stock market is tanking? Do we really need to continue this wasteful process?” McCain asked his colleague.

Maybe John McCain should have read yesterdays Yahoo News:

"While most of the world nonchalantly went about its business on Monday, March 02, a few twitchy stargazers were intently following the path of a near-Earth asteroid carrying the potential to create significant damage to the planet’s surface..... Although the snappily named DD45 2009 narrowly avoided a collision with Earth, passing by harmlessly at a distance of around 40,000 miles, space rock experts believe the 200ft asteroid was a significant event and something of a fanfare-free near miss.....That being said, there are only a select amount of experts with their eyes trained to the heavens and many other potentially dangerous space objects could yet take the planet by surprise. Case in point, DD45 2009 was only discovered and tracked on February 27."

Now the observatory in Hawaii may not be in the forefront of asteroid tracking. But I betcha for the last five nights at least one of it telescopes was watching DD452009.

I Nominate Phoenix, Arizona for the Next Asteroid Hit!

Of course I don't want Phoenix to be destroyed by an asteroid. But given McCain's stupidity in throwing the baby out with the bath watter maybe when the next asteroid stikes when can move the refugees from the disaster into McCain's state to be resettled.

Limbaugh: I Want Him To Fail

By now you have heard that Rush Limbaugh wants the President to fail. At first I just wrote that off as a typical Limbaugh stupidity. But I just ran across another quote by Rush Limbaugh that make his statement about President Obama somewhat more sinister,

"You know who deserves a posthumous Medal of Honor? James Earl Ray [the confessed assassin of Martin Luther King]. We miss you, James. Godspeed."

---Russ Limbaugh

This quote is found in the book: "101 People Who Are Really Screwing America" by Jack Huberman

Wow! Did he really say that? If so, that is scary.

There are 474 references in Google that claim he did it. Did he?

Lick My Boots

"Lick my boots!"

---Rush "Boss" Limbaugh

"Dang, I wish I had said that!"

--- Sean Hannity

I'm Sorry:

1: Two days after calling Rush Limbaugh a mere "entertainer" with an "incendiary" talk show, Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele apologized and acknowledged the radio commentator as a "national conservative leader."
"To the extent that my remarks helped the Democrats in Washington to take the focus, even for one minute, off of their irresponsible expansion of government, I truly apologize," Steele said late Monday.

2: U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey spent today apologizing to the loudest voices of the Republican right — to radio talk show hosts Rush Limbaugh .... Gingrey said:
“I clearly ended up putting my foot in my mouth on some of those comments, and I just wanted to tell you, Rush — and all our conservative giants, who help us so much to maintain our base and grow it to get back this majority — that I regret those stupid comments.”

"We Need To Have This Debate..."

In the last few days I have heard from Governor Jindal, several Republican Congressmen and Senators, and even the vaunted Karl Rove, the following phrase when they talk about "Obama's Economic Policies": "We need to have this debate!" A mandated Republican mantra?

What I would like to do is to whisper in each of their ears , "Listen you M....F... stupid scripted automatons we have had this debate. We had it, and then voted on it the first Tuesday in November 2008! It is over, the debate is over, You Lost it. You failed. It is over." Then in about six months I would like to put each of them up on a flat bed truck in each of the towns they represent and hand out flowers and rotten eggs to the audience and let directly vote on their Representative's/Senator's position.

As for Karl Rove I would love to be there when they finally haul Karl off to the Poky.