Steve Fey's Live From Las Vegas!

No, not the movie. I've never seen it. And, to be honest, this is also about Scotty's Castle. Overall, I'd say this post is about Death Valley National Park. This was my second visit to the park. The first time the place had a lake that people were boating on, and there were wildflowers in profusion in many places. This time we did not visit Badwater, although we did get down at least 190 feet according to the sign at the Visitors' Center. My GPS had us at -176 feet in the parking lot of Death Valley Ranch, for what that's worth. Not much, I know.

But we wanted to see Scotty's Castle the first time we were there but frankly ran out of time in our day-trip before we could. This time we checked on routes to the park from Vegas and found a lot shorter way to go, so we had time for a tour. To be fair, the short way in was washed out the first time we visited. I must say, when it rains in the desert, it messes not around.

On the way in we passed Zabriskie Point, so we stopped.  Prior to visiting the park, I had no idea that there was such a place, really. Zabriskie was the VP and General Manager of Pacific Borax, and the original impetus behind creating Death Valley National Monument. Yes, the evil mining corporation saved the area for posterity. Think of that what you will, but do look up "irony" in a decent dictionary before you publish your opinion, if you'd be so kind. There's one of those informational plaques up on the Point that explains it all.

Then, after lunch, on to Scotty's Castle, where we learned that Scotty never owned the place. But, overall the story was really nice. It's a story of three people who all came to Death Valley looking for something (not all the same thing, by the way.) And, all three found what they were looking for, including friendship with each other. You can Google Scotty's Castle I'm sure and learn all about it, but if you have the opportunity, you really ought to visit the house and take the tour. There are three tours, actually, the house tour, the underground tour, and the tour of Scotty's actual abode, about five miles down the road.

I posted an album on Facebook that anyone can view. You don't need a Facebook account, you just need to click the title to this post and you're there. Go ahead, I promise it won't hurt a bit!

-- Steve

Labels: Info, Social Commentary

Labels: Info, Reviews, Social Commentary

The President of the United States has to be the most thankless job in the known universe. I heard someone on the radio say the other day that Obama is "destroying the very fabric of the America that we grew up in." Wow. I'll bet he wishes he had that sort of power. Actually, of course, the President can't hardly go to the bathroom without somebody following him in and keeping him safe. How the hell you're supposed to do anything at all creative when nobody will ever leave you the heck alone is beyond me. And of course, the most recent past prez, you know, Shrubby the Bush as I like to call him, was vilified far beyond what his level of incompetence called for. He did not, contrary to what I've heard, cancel the constitution or institute a police state. I bet he wished he could do some of that, but thanks to the fact that any idiot, including present company, can pretty much say whatever he wants to, nobody can do such a thing in this country. I could say similar things about Clinton and Bush the Elder (the one with a brain) but I think I've done enough damage to individual presidents for one day.

The reason I mention all that is that I'd like to propose that we amend the way we select presidents. Instead of an interminable election, how about every six years, or eight, or whatever seems fair, we draft one eligible citizen, and that poor schmuck or schmuckette is stuck with the job. I would cap eligibility for the draft at seventy, though. I'd hate to think we killed anyone outright. Just think of the benefits we'd accrue. For one thing, instead of somebody crazy enough to actually volunteer for the job, we'd get someone sane enough to avoid it. Of course, the truly sane might just emigrate to Canada. In the middle of the night. With their headlights off. But still, we'd have a president who was truly one of the people at last. Think of it: we could get a new Lincoln, or Daniel Webster, or FDR or JFK or Homer Simpson!

Really, just think it over. I'm sure you'll come around to my way of seeing things.

Steve

Labels: Humor, Politics, Social Commentary

I'm going to write this once again, since somehow people who really like Ms. Palin don't think it's fair that some people hate her. Well, I don't speak for anyone but me, but here's my issue with the woman, not that I hate her. I have to meet someone before I can feel that strongly about them.


I live in an urban area on a coast. The West Coast, to be precise. Don't believe me? No less an authority than Mark Twain, in Roughing It, called Nevada the West Coast. Certainly, in terms of attitude, we, for example, drive more like people in Los Angeles than people in Omaha or Dallas. I don't call that good or bad, it's just the way it is. Also I don't see anything at all wrong with people living in Omaha or Ft. Worth or Wasilia, Alaska, for that matter. I don't even care if somebody from Alaska wants to shoot wolves out of a helicopter. I mean, there are lots of wolves in Alaska, and even though I wouldn't do that, it's fine with me if somebody does. I don't think it makes her any less an American because she doesn't live like I do.

But, and this is the big-old but folks, she bills herself as a "typical American," which is just a gratuitous insult to the majority of the citizens of this great country who live, as I do, in an urbanized area on one coast or another. I'm less of an American because I live in a city, and have city problems to deal with, than somebody who does things that almost nobody in America does, and who lives in a place where almost no Americans live, and who has a husband who has advocated secession from the Union for Alaska? Oh, really? That's why Sarah Palin frosts my shorts. I don't give a hoot about her political positions, because I doubt that they'll get much traction with most of us, who live in, well, you know it by now. Just calling herself "typical" is a slap in the face to those of us who actually are. And for the record, insulting a majority of Americans is no way to get your point across, no matter how loudly Glen Beck shouts it out for you.

I don't go around bad-mouthing solid conservatives from Texas or Alaska or Idaho, even though they take tax money from those of us on the coasts and never give it back. A country works by people helping each other out. If Alaska needs extra help, that's okay. I do not appreciate, however, being told that I'm less of an American because I live in a "blue" state that actually pays more than its share.

There you have the reason I have an issue with Sarah Palin. Thank you.

Steve

Labels: Politics, Social Commentary

The thing about Vegas is that it's always election season. I don't remember a time in five years that I haven't seen "vote for me" signs cluttering up the available public land near intersections. And the media blitz is close to never ending.

For instance, the House just passed some sort of health care reform bill, which is now in the hands and feet of the Senate. Everybody knows that. We have a representative (well, some of us do, actually mine is somebody else) named Dina Titus, who almost beat out our Junior Senator during the last Senate race. She's controversial, possibly because she's never completely lost her Georgia accent. She was therewith accused of being from (gasp!) Texas, which to some ways of thinking is apparently like being from Hell, only not so honorable.

Immediately upon passage of that bill, ads appeared saying that we should all "thank Dina Titus" for saving civilization as we know it. Then more ads appeared saying that we should all contact Dina and tell her that she's a traitor to the Great State of Nevada. Both of these ads have been running all of the bleeding time! And, of course, we do have an influential Senator from Nevada. You may have heard of him. The one, of course, not involved in any sex scandals (that we know of,) the Majority Leader hisself, Harry Reid. More ads have appeared telling us how wonderful Harry is and what a swell job he's done for Nevada. (If he could get people to pronounce it correctly he'd get my vote for sure!) And other ads of course telling us how Harry and the other fifth-circle demons are conspiring to convert us into Soviet-style health-care addicts.

Well, that's my point. It's a free country and anybody can buy air time that has the cash. So I'm not complaining, just reporting. It's gonna be a long campaign season in Nevăda for 2010. Can't hardly wait for 2012, boy. Yee-Haw!

Steve

Labels: Info, Politics, Social Commentary

First, if you're a veteran, thanks. You've done more than I have.


Now, Crossover Utility Vehicles. I just read a review on AOL of Chevy's latest. The author loved it, which is good. I hope Chevy does really well from now on. My comment isn't on Chevy, but on the Crossover phenomenon.

You know, that CUV looks sort of familiar. You could almost give it a name like, maybe Estate Car. No, that would be too English. Let's see, something we could steal from Australia, maybe? Sure, Station Wagon is just the name for such a thing!

Honestly, I wish people weren't so ignorant of the past, not to say flat-out gullible, to need to have a name like "Crossover Utility Vehicle" slapped on before they buy a wagon, but they are. I'm just happy that they're buying the smaller version of SUVs now. I never have liked sharing the road with those dinosaurs in the first place because they're slow as heck (as in "not quick," I guess they can keep up on a freeway) and mostly ugly. Also there's no way to see around them. Then there are the scaredy cats who drive them because they feel safer. You're not, in fact, unless you use the available safety equipment, and even then it's arguable because SUV's are in a disproportionate amount of accidents. But what I'm getting at is that those drivers have a large vehicle and no skill whatsoever in driving because they're too timid to learn. Not a safe situation for the rest of us, no matter how the driver may feel about it.

But, really, how convenient is it to drive one of those things around a city? You can't park easily, you can't keep up with the lights on city streets, you can't see out back very well. Those people pay higher insurance premiums for a reason. I like that, for entirely selfish reasons of course. I say this because there are an awful lot of people in Vegas who, for one reason or another, drive large, high-profile vehicles when they really don't need to.

But now, thanks to the miracle of modern marketing, people are switching back to what are, in reality, automobiles without trunks, with five doors, and with seating for eight or more. That's cool. One feature of the new Chevy is that it gets 32 miles per gallon. That's better than I do in my Hyundai, so you go, Chevy.

And you guys in the SUVs? At least keep to the right, will ya?

Steve

Labels: Crossover Utility Vehicles, Social Commentary

The Beatles founded Apple Records, you may recall. The label still exists. You'll remember, maybe, that Apple Records had some issues with Steve Jobs and his Apple Computer and the Itunes Music store. So, with that background, I will mention that I just happened to notice that the remastered Beatles catalog, out on CD since September, will be released in a limited edition USB stick format in December. The USB sticks will be shaped like apples, as in Apple Records. Every so often that snobby little company in Cupertino gets some proper comeuppance, and I'm always glad to see it happen.

Long live Apple (Records)!

Steve

Labels: Info, Social Commentary

So okay, I made a joke about the swine flu last time, but that was before I went to a party where a pregnant lady said she didn't want the vaccination because it was all "new technology." My my, this flu, which is benign for almost everyone else, has a good record of killing small children and pregnant women. Like my joke said, it skips people over 50, not out of any respect for the elderly, but because we've all had it years ago. It was nastier last time. I remember thinking that it was no wonder it had killed all those people in 1918. But, it's just as deadly to people like my friend at the party as it ever was to the people ravaged by war and poor nutrition and other things ninety years ago. So, just in the hope that somebody will see sense and get that vaccination who otherwise wouldn't have done so, I offer this bit of truth and wisdom. And for once I'm not kidding.

In truth there is no new technology in a flu shot. The technology was first used in the Sabin oral polio vaccine in the 1950s. It works for polio virus, and it works for any other virus. For those who say, well, what about AIDS?, I'll tell you that the trouble with the AIDS virus is that it mutates so fast that it isn't possible to make a vaccine that will work on it's new form. It actually mutates not by chance, as do most living things, but by design. As design, you've got to admire it. As a potential victim, you've got to wish it gone. But, other than AIDS, the technique used in preparing the H1N1 vaccine is totally proven technology, and it works.

Every year the seasonal flu (you remember that, right, because if you don't you will in a month or two) is a new strain or two or three, and vaccines must be prepared from scratch to prevent infection. Usually older people are more vulnerable, because there are more strains of flu than a person is likely ever to be exposed to in one lifetime, so each year brings brand-new fun, so to speak. The same technique that prepares the seasonal flu vaccine every year is used to prepare the H1N1 vaccine.

And what is that? Well, I'll tell you. First, you find someone who has the virus so that you can collect a sample. Then you inject that sample into a chicken egg that you keep nice and warm so that the virus will grow and thrive on the egg until what you have is essentially an eggshell full of virus. Then you split the contents of that egg up among a whole bunch of eggs and repeat the process. And you do that again and again until you have run the virus through twenty-one separate eggs. That takes weeks, if not months, to accomplish, which is why sometimes there isn't enough vaccine to go around. However, unless you are allergic to eggs, the vaccination will not harm you in any way. The virus, although still alive, loses its ability to make a human sick while it grows on all those eggs. That makes it a perfect way to protect yourself against the disease, because your immune system doesn't know it's harmless, and not only kills the injected virus, but any other little virus particles of that type that you come in contact with, ever.

That's how vaccinations work! No big, strange procedures. No esoteric formulae. No secrets. And nothing at all cutting edge or new. As I said, unless you're allergic to eggs, getting the vaccine injected is about the same thing as getting saline solution injected, except that the vaccine protects you against whatever virus it contains.

A bit more truth: if you get sick shortly after taking a vaccination, you were about to get sick anyway. No vaccine ever makes somebody sick. And the risks of vaccine, while present, are mostly far exceeded by the risks of not getting the vaccine. In the case of H1N1 and a pregnant woman, I'd say about a million times higher risk comes from skipping the vaccine than from getting it. Maybe more.

So, for Pete's sake, folks, please don't be such an idiot as to mistrust science in the case of H1N1 vaccine. If you're otherwise healthy, well it's just the flu. But if you're pregnant, or have small children in the house, ask yourself how badly you want a child, or yourself, to die from the flu? At all? I thought not.

S.

Labels: Info, Social Commentary

Oh, my gawd! We're all gonna die! Help! Help! He . . . . .

What? It skips old people like me? Oh, never mind. And remember kids, it's World Kiss a Stranger day!

-- Steve

Labels: Social Commentary

Guess I'm in a political mood this week. Here goes another foray, but this time it's longer. It's also into a more discrete topic: health insurance. I am reminded of the need for the debate by the fact that one of my prescriptions is not, I found out by getting a phone call from a computer yesterday, available without prior approval. Never mind that I've gotten oodles of the stuff in the past, or that several competent medical doctors have declared the medication to be necessary. We changed insurance plans, so we need prior approval. De facto, insurance companies are allowed to make medical decisions.

Okay, for the record, I know that I could simply pay for the stuff with my own money and cut them out. That's the reasoning behind letting an HMO make medical decisions without meeting the patient: that they have a right to protect their financial interest in the situation. And, you know what? They're right, that they do. My issue is with the nature of the insurer's financial interest.

Most insurance companies, outside of Minnesota at least, who provide health coverage, are common stock corporations. In Minnesota, when HMOs first appeared, they made it illegal for an HMO to be for profit. That meant that HMO Minnesota, which I had while living there, was sort of like a free clinic for members. I never saw a bill, never had a hassle, got whatever treatment the doctor said I needed and no questions asked. Try that anywhere else, I dare you. The difference is due to the nature of common stock corporations.

Do not get me wrong here: I own common stock. A couple of gaming companies, Ford Motor Company, a sub-penny stock outfit called China Nuvo that we own enough of to influence the stock price if we wanted to, and some mutual funds as well. I like common stock companies, both in principle and in practice. Spreading the risk is a great way to get people to fund ventures they'd be crazy to put money into otherwise. Now, in a common stock corporation, you, as a responsible employee or executive, are required by law and ethics to maximize the value of the stock for the stockholders. That is entirely right, and proper, and for the most part, the way things are run. (I'm going to ignore things like that Enron scandal for today.)

If you are a common stock corporation offering health insurance then you are going to hire at least one person known as an actuary. An actuary is highly skilled in statistical analysis and accounting, and extremely valuable to anyone trying to minimize risk. The actuaries are the people who analyze the various risk factors of would-be policyholders and decide which factors deserve a higher premium, and which factors indicate that you should even get coverage. It's an actuarial decision to require prior approval for a medication. Or to decide that grandma doesn't get the aggressive cancer treatment that might save her life. That sounds like what some alarmist commentators are saying government health care would be like, but in fact that is precisely what private insurance is today, at least outside of Minnesota. The reason being that, in a common stock corporation, you are always looking to maximize value (read: make a profit) for your stockholders. The stockholders are mostly faceless and unknown to you, but you cater to them because legally and ethically that's what you have to do. If it were not for the legal and ethical requirements attached to a common stock corporation, the actuarial facts could be replaced, legitimately, with an overall view of probability, and the overall risk calculated, then spread amongst all policyholders, just the way insurance company ads suggest things are done today even though they aren't.

If anyone is suggesting that a public option for health insurance would be worse than what we've got, they're selling something. Probably something you don't need, in fact. A few pertinent facts include the Veteran's Administration health system, which most vets like, which is a government option from the start; plus, as others have pointed out, the simple fact that, for instance, Ohio State University has not put private colleges out of business. The private ones cost more, and maybe they provide a better education (don't get me started, please.) But my point is that Harvard and Yale and the others continue to exist, even thrive, with a great deal of "public option" education competing away with them. Just think which has more cachet: Ohio State or Yale? I can tell you that not many parents in Vegas worry about getting their kids into Ohio State. Or the University of Nevada, for that matter.

One alarmist threat about health insurance reform is that it will drive up the premiums for those who already have insurance. Sure, and it will, too. Unless we have a public option. See? So take some appropriate action, already. You have one Representative and two Senators. They need to get re-elected. You don't need to be an actuary to see where I'm going with this.

Thanks!

Steve

Labels: Politics, Social Commentary

In case you've been dead, you might not know that someone attempted to blackmail Dave Letterman because he'd had sex with staffers in the past. Yeah, and he's gap-toothed, too. His wife, the mother of his kids, is a former staffer, so that wasn't much of a revelation. He did the one thing you can do to stop a blackmail attempt: he went public with the whole story. I know, these days, it's cool to be gay, but I'm here to state, right now, for the record, that I've only ever had sex with women! I know, it's shameful, but at least nobody will be asking me for a million bucks to keep it to themselves.

I put a link to a BBC story about the incident under the post title.

Steve

Labels: Info, Social Commentary

A hairy me, I mean. I noticed this phenomenon the first time I trained for a marathon run, in 2006. This year I'm running the Las Vegas Marathon for the third time, and back on the street for many miles per week. Seventeen miles next Sunday morning is what the schedule calls for, for instance. There are weekday runs, too. That first year, just about this time of the training program, I noticed that I looked more hairy than I had. In fact, I wasn't more hairy, but the hair that I had was regaining it's color. The first thing I noticed that time was that my lower legs looked like they belonged to a chimpanzee! Well, last year I didn't run, and apparently I faded out again, because now I again notice that all the little hairs on my arms and legs have darkened up wonderfully. Eeekah, bro!

Now the odd thing is that it's not just dark again, but it's darker than it ever has been. I have no idea what is happening internally to cause such a thing. I do know that I was a tow headed little kid, so maybe it's just part of an ongoing process of darkening hair that's been interrupted by age-related bleaching. It's odd, I'll tell you that. Even my beard is back to being more grizzled than white as the dark strands are coming to dominate. Somebody told me once that exercise stimulates human growth hormone (HGH) so that may be the reason. Under the title of this post is a link to an article about a study that found that running keeps older people healthy longer. I think I read a few years ago, but can't find it just now, that intermittent heavy exercise has an effect on the signs of aging.

So, if you are a member of my age obsessed generation, how willing are you to jump up out of the recliner and pound pavement for your health? A little bit? I started running again when my doctor threatened me with another half-century of life, when I was already fifty-six. I had no intention of living so long, but I figured that I might as well stay healthy if I was stuck with being here. I mention that just to say that I had no intention of looking younger than I am, nor any idea that I would. Still, it's a nice bonus, innit? So come on, you aging, youth-obsessed boomers out there: get up and do something!

There, that's telling 'em.

Labels: Running, Social Commentary

One of the signs I see flashed at protests in the last month or so is one reading "I want my America back!" Bill Maher and others I have noted saying "America never went anywhere, what the f*** are they talking about?" (Bill Maher talks like that, unlike myself, who would never use a blue word out loud. And I sell bridges.) The thing is, Bill's America never went anywhere. For that matter, my America never went anywhere. But, in truth, a lot of people's idea of America has been blasted badly in recent years, and it isn't likely to return, ever. Rather than scorn them, I think it would be a good idea to help those poor folks through a difficult time.

This is the flip side of a post I put up last November about why the Sarah Palin conservatives lost the election. Read it here. They really are a minority, which of course they never have been before. That can't be easy. And I'd be an idiot if I didn't think there were some racist overtones to it. Some people can't be anything but upset by having a "picaninny mau mau coon nigger" (their words) in the White House. And, they can't even say those things out loud any more. Oh, the agony. Mostly, though, there is a huge complex set of unspoken assumptions about America that people took for granted for a very long time that no longer hold true.

California is an all-minority state. No ethnic or racial group constitutes a majority of Californians. Here in Southern Nevada we good old white folks have until 2020, roughly, to enjoy our majority status. After that, we join California. To me, that's just the way it is. I upgraded my Spanish skills, learned not to prejudge anybody by appearances, and I'm getting on with life. I'm a smart guy, or so the tests tell me. I'm good at languages. Not everybody is smart. In fact, the average American is simply average. Half of Americans are below Average in intelligence, and we're all below average in something. My point is that, for me, a guy who does that sort of thing relatively easily, it wasn't the easiest thing I've ever done to shift my world view to include all these strange people as being "my" people. For an average person, it must seem just about impossible. Why, if you haven't had the experience dealing with lots of different people, you could think that somebody has stolen your country! Yeah, like that.

Well, the truth is that our founding fathers set up a country that, sooner or later, will include absolutely everybody as worthy of respect. You could argue that that's a bad thing, but it's the thing we've got. The fruits of our founding fathers' labors are becoming obvious as California leads the nation in feeling the effects of an actually multi-cultural society. It isn't easy, but there's no real alternative but to get on with it. And of course, it's bad enough that the children of children of slaves can now aspire to high office, but there are all these other people, who don't even speak English sometimes, with their Spanish TV, and their Spanish newspapers, and their odd foods and all the rest. How do you cope with all that?

Well, once you get over the hump, it's easy. They're just trying to get by, like the rest of us. Previous waves of immigrants have met with the same sort of attitude from the people already here. The Italians, for example, brought all sorts of strangeness with them. The food was especially foreign to most Americans. Now, spaghetti isn't even considered an ethnic food: it's mainstream America. The Irish were roundly condemned when they first arrived. Irish? Yeah, green beer notwithstanding, people hated the damned Irish. Well, consider the taco. I remember when you couldn't buy Mexican food anywhere. Now, you ever been to Taco Bell? Del Taco? A neighborhood Mexican place? See? Already they're blending into society. Someday being Mexican will mean about what being Italian does now: good food, great times.

Well, it's easy for me to write that, but my real point is that instead of just laughing off the demonstrators as nut cases or ignorant fools (although probably some of them are) it would be better to be sympathetic and helpful. Nobody who isn't a nut case really expects things to go back to how they used to be, but everybody wants to think that they've been taken seriously. So, the best way for those who don't like the demonstrators to get them to stop and go home is by simply listening to them. You don't necessarily have to do a thing other than that, but just really take them seriously.

That's not too much to ask.

Steve

Labels: Politics, Social Commentary

A while back we visited England. Somewhere I listed my email address. I know this because I now get spam like this:

Microsoft Award Team
20 Craven Park, Harlesden
London NW10, United Kingdom.

Attention: Winner,

This is to inform you that you have won a prize money of FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND POUND (£500,000.00) for the New Edition 2009 Lottery promotion which is organized by YAHOO LOTTERY INC & WINDOWS LIVE in conjunction with a few other internet providers.

YAHOO & MICROSOFT WINDOWS, collects all the email addresses of the people that are active online, among the millions that subscribed to Yahoo and Hotmail we only select five people every Month as our winners through electronic balloting System without the winner applying, we congratulate you for being one of the people selected.

you are required to contact our fudiciary agent with the below contact details:

CONTACT PERSON: SIR. Chris McCormick
Email: chris_mccormick@w.cn
Tel :+447045763429


Wowzers, huh? Five-hundred thousand pounds! That's almost a lot, innit? What's interesting is the way that the scammers don't bother to edit their lists. And why should they? For one thing, the domain w.cn is not anywhere in the United Kingdom. The UK uses, well what do you think they'd use? .uk. .cn is from China, but, and this is also interesting, anybody can buy a .cn domain extension because China likes making money off of stuff (for supposed Communists they're pretty money grubbing.) So, it could be anywhere, but one thing for sure, it ain't Microsoft or Yahoo, both of which have domains in the UK ending with .uk.

If you'd like, feel free to call the number above. Let me know who answers if you do. In North America the + represents 011, by the way. I have no idea what other places use as an international code. But do go for it. Say you're me. You can have one hundred percent of the profits from the prize.

Ain't I the generous one?

Steve

Labels: England, Info, Social Commentary

I've been reading that our President has taken America straight into Socialism. Wow. That's bad, huh? Of course, I doubt that anyone saying that has ever read a socialist document, like maybe The Communist Manifesto. I have read the thing. It's long, tedious, and pedantic. Also Utopian. That's all well and good, but no Utopia ever seems to work out, not even Marx's one.

For the record, Communism, per Marx, is when the workers own the means of production. Eventually the State will wither away. There has never, so far as I know, been a Communist country in the world. Ever. The Soviet Union was just State-owned Capitalism. A perfect monopoly, if you will. Companies that offer stock option plans are closer to being Communist than the Soviet Union ever dreamed of being. I wouldn't worry about Communism if I were you because I really don't think it will ever happen. Honest.

Socialism, per Marx, is a transitional stage toward the Utopia of Communism. The workers, in the form of the State, which they have come to control, own increasingly large shares of the means of production. That's "means of production" as in automobile plants and such. So I see where the alarmists are coming from. But, here's the thing. We, the People own less than a tenth of one percent of the means of production in this country, and we're trying to get out of that ownership share as soon as possible. Less than a tenth of one percent is not socialism (although one can argue that it's misguided, but that's another story.)

We have had Socialism in this country, though, and big time. When the railroads needed to build a way to California, the government gave them not only the land for the tracks, but also a lot of other land that they then sold to settlers who would be their customers. That, friends, is government handouts on a grand scale. Then there are the homesteaders who got their forty acres by setting up camp on the land. And let's not forget the miners who got the rights to incredible fortunes for the princely sum of $3.50 per year per claim. And the grazing rights for the ranchers all over the American West, well they're worth billions, and they cost $2.50 a cow/calf. I'm not making this up. It's government handouts all over the place, folks!

Back East it was even simpler. All you had to do is run off the local population, nasty things really, and set up your town. The government didn't even require homesteading. Just be the first one to set up, and you were in! The entire country, from Ohio (State #17) on has been subdivided into township and range just so people could take advantage of government largess. Socialism? It pales beside what Americans have gotten for free from their government over the centuries.

So really, folks, taking over a couple of car companies that have, apparently, been run by Daffy Duck for the last few decades, and providing health care added on, are a drop in the bucket compared to the Socialist paradise America has been from the beginning. I'm really surprised that more people don't see it.

Steve

Labels: Politics, Social Commentary

First, this, from "America's Best Christian," which is funny as all get out.


Now, for my story. I can't be a Christian because Jesus said to give everything you own to the poor. Everything I own? What, my Blackberry Storm? My Hundai? This computer? I think not, sir. Then there's that turn the other cheek nonsense. If you smite me on the cheek, brother, you'd better be prepared for some smiting right back. Turn the other cheek? In a pig's eye, is what! In fact, I can't believe anyone even tries to keep up with being Christian, what with all that poverty and helping the poor and sick and imprisoned and all. It just ain't American, the way I see it. Still, if you insist, it's nice to know there's folks like Betty around to keep you on the right track, isn't it?

Steve

Labels: Social Commentary

I don't always recommend Wikipedia as a source of all knowledge. However, the definition I found there of empathy is as good as any I've seen. (Hey, I was a Sociology minor once.) It is:

Empathy is the capability to share your feelings and understand another's emotion and feelings. It is often characterized as the ability to "put oneself into another's shoes," or in some way experience what the other person is feeling. Empathy does not necessarily imply compassion, sympathy, or empathic concern because this capacity can be present in context of compassionate or cruel behavior.

I read a columnist recently claiming that current conservatives don't have any empathy. Maybe that's so. The thing is, and you could ask Patton if he were still alive and he'd agree, you must have empathy with your enemy in order to defeat him. Without empathy, you are alone, which is just about the worst position for a human being. I honestly don't know about the current conservative voices. Certainly, some of them lack empathy, but tarring all conservatives seems a mite harsh. I have empathy for conservatives, and liberals, and even guys like Hitler, who got better than he deserved. Still, I understand his position.

One thing the current administration has been stressing is empathy. Empathy not just in court, but empathy with the poor suckers who get sucked into being suicide bombers and terrorists working against America. Unless we honestly understand them, we can never defeat them. That's all empathy means, after all. I think maybe some people are confusing empathy with sympathy, which is feeling the same as another person. It ain't that at all, bubba. For the record, those radical muslims don't "hate us for our freedom." They live terribly oppressed lives, usually due to the policies of their own leaders, who manage to convince them to blame us for their problems. It's that oppression we should be going after. Their leaders, maybe, many of whom are our allies one way or another (the sell us petroleum, so how could they be bad?)

Want to hear the advice from a different quarter? Well, Jesus did say to love thine enemy, didn't he?

Steve

Labels: Politics, Social Commentary

I went to a high school Senior Honors Assembly the other day. The ceremony was touching in many ways, but the thing that struck me the hardest about things was the makeup of the students receiving the awards. No, not how the girls did their eyeliner, which is often bad enough in high school. I mean the ethnic mix of the students.

Not to sound like Chris Rock (too much) but the Asians really did have a lot of representation. But, and this is more important to what I'm writing about, so did the Latinos, the Phillipinos, the African-Americans (who call themselves black, by the way,) and even a few kids that mom and pop might have called "regular." Las Vegas has no majority ethnic group. We're like Southern California that way, and like the entire country is going to be in twenty years. If you find that vexing, well, there isn't much I can say to make you feel better. And, unfortunately for some theorists, nobody is accusing Ms. Wong or Mr. Aquino of being here illegally.

My students are Sophomores and Freshmen, but the mix is similar. Here are descriptions of a few of them. There is the boy from Central America who's Spanish, English and French are all pretty good. There's the girl from Samoa, who hopes to go back home after graduation (it's still in America, by the way.) I have the kid from Cambodia who is not that hot at English, but who is even worse at Spanish, except for the bad words. I have a Mexican boy who warns me never to trust a Mexican. A real joker, that one. I have the tall blond kid who only wants to study guitar but who will probably pass out of the ninth-grade science course anyway. I have quite a few kids of Mexican heritage who insist that I use their Anglicized names. And I have about a hundred and fifty more just like those, boys and girls alike.

So, to get to the point about politics, maybe you think it odd that a vital looking black dude names Obama beat out a stiff old white guy named McCain, but I don't. The mix of the rising generation is just about the same as the mix of my students. Even the white kids (that's what the students call them, so don't write me about it) prefer a guy like Obama to old gray white dudes. And, unlike the current crop of people moving into middle age, young folks like to vote. For the record, people in my cohort, the older Boomers, like to vote, too. For those younger than me but older than Obama's base, your failure to participate is largely responsible for the sorry state of our government. So screw you, okay?

To give another word of advice to the Republicans, they're going to have to come to grips with a new, multi ethnic America. In fact, one of my black students told me that "Obama isn't black." She's right. He calls himself a "mutt." Well, most of us are, and most of the country is going to come out of the "mutt" closet in the near future. If the Grand Old Party will stop arguing amongst it's few remaining stalwarts and take a look at reality, it may yet regain its strength. If not, somebody else will have to do it, because the old, "white" America just isn't around any more. Sorry about that, old cracker!

Steve

Labels: Politics, Social Commentary

It's popular amongst the libertarian whiner crowd in Nevada to point to California and mention the fiscal mess that state is in, and to blame said mess on greed head California politicians, who in their entrenched positions of glory and power have decided to buy support by supplying the citizens of California with every possible "nanny state" endowment, and who now wish to pay for all that largess with heavy taxes. Whew.

It's true that California does a lot of things (on paper) that other states do not attempt. There are special programs for the poor displaced moss lost on the South side of a tree in the forest, or so it seems. But, the thing that the critics in Nevada are missing is that these special programs are all mandated, or nearly all at least, by citizen approved initiative-produced laws. That is, the citizens of the great state of California have, in their wisdom, insisted that California provide extra protection for blue-headed boobies on Alcatraz island (there aren't any, I'm making that example up) but have failed utterly to provide for any means of funding the effort. So when the legislature tries to raise taxes to balance the state budget, they are simply trying to comply with the laws enacted by the people of California in an open example of direct democracy called the initiative process.

Nevada has initiative, too. Special interest groups simply hire a bunch of otherwise apparently unemployable people to accost citizens outside of grocery stores and get them to sign a petition for whatever law the special interest group is trying to get passed. Perhaps the legislature, having as they do to come up with money to fund all these things, might decline to enact one or more laws that some group or other (and that's a "special interest" by definition, incidentally) wants to see enacted. Sending those petition gatherers out circumvents the reluctance of the legislature to "make government serve the people" by making laws without bothering the people elected to do just that. It's an example of democracy in action, and a tribute to the people of America.

Or, as I prefer to call it, it's pure bullshit.

California is in the mess it's in directly as a result of the initiative process. The state of Colorado was in a similar mess a few years back for the same reason. There, the people had mandated ever increasing spending on education, hamstrung the property tax collection process, and forbidden the legislature from doing anything about it, which resulted in the state being unable to function at all. The folks in Colorado suspended their mandates for five years to let the state get back on its feet. Better they should have ditched initiative all together.

The initiative process reflects the will of "the people." Groups that have done a lot of talking about the will of the people include the Bolsheviks, who in nineteen-seventeen overthrew an elected government in Russia because "the people" demanded it. Communists have always talked about the will of "the people," and in fact North Korea is known legally as "The People's Democratic Republic of Korea." Not sure what people that name is talking about, but that's the way it is: "The people" is an easily manipulated idiot. That's why the people who wrote the government of the United States made sure we had a republican form of government, not a democracy. Another guy who appealed very broadly to "the people" was Julius Caesar. You know, the guy who brought down the Republic of Rome? Brought down the republic by appealing to and delivering on the will of the people. Caesar knew where to turn to destroy a country. I imagine it would still work today.

Frankly, the only initiative I'm willing to sign would be one to forbid all future initiative efforts. Of course, to pass the law, you'd have to convince "the people" to agree that it's an idiot, which could be a tough sell. But I think we ought to try. We have nothing to lose, and sane government to gain.

There, the person has spoken!

Steve

Labels: Politics, Social Commentary

I'm not a Democrat, whatever it may look like if you follow my posts from the past four years. I just knew before W. Bush got elected that he was dumb as a post, and I was so frustrated that I finally gave in to the urge to badmouth the man. Normally I don't badmouth a sitting President, because it's not a job you could give me. I think I'd move to Nepal before I took it, and I'm not kidding. So forgive me if I've seemed to lean Democrat the last few years. The attraction was that they weren't Bush. I swear, almost anyone would have been better than Kerry, but I voted for him because Bush isn't almost anyone, is he?

So anyhow, I'm amused to see that the Democrats, particularly Pelosi, are getting into hot water so deeply. Yee-haw, it goes on. But I'm more concerned about the Republicans, because there is almost nothing left of them. Idiots like Limbaugh talk about ideological purity or some such claptrap (and regular readers know what I think of high ideals.) Idealogical purity? What happened to the "party of the big tent?" You don't want anyone who disagrees with your little world view? That's pretty much what's wrong with idealism, in a nutshell. Unfortunately for the party, but fortunately for the rest of us, the inevitable destruction that rises from a position of pure idealism has been falling entirely on the Republicans. There are, I believe, two moderate Republicans left in Congress. And the core of the party wishes they'd convert like Specter did, or so they say.

Day was that I always split my ticket. Oh, sure, my first election I went Democrat because my parents were hard-core Republican, but that's no way to decide an election. I voted for Nixon, even, in my first Presidential election. I doubt that Nixon passes the purity test of the Ann Coulter wing either, by the way. Any more, though, I vote for Democrats because I can't stomach the holier than thou attitude of the group that took over, and seemingly destroyed, the Republican party beginning in the seventies. No, that's wrong. Those people are leaving as well, leaving the field to the, er, racist, homophobic, xenophobic, scaredy-cat, elbows who used to like to go to Klan meetings for fun. Maybe still do, even. That, I am sure, is not what the Republican party is all about.

Conservativism in America means liberalism applied in a corporate way. That's the way it's always been, from Hamilton and Adams right up to, and I do mean this, W. Bush. The "base" of the Republicans finally turned on W. because he was, well, being too Republican for them. Liberalism in America means liberalism applied to individuals, as in trying for equality and fairness. Those are the poles that America rotates on. To the rest of the world, we're all a bunch of raving liberals. I'm not kidding, we really are. To most people we are arguing over what it means to be liberal. To ourselves, of course, we are simply arguing.

The former cross-burning Dixiecrats who snuck into the party with the evangelicals now have the place to themselves, apparently. They surely don't like American Liberalism, because it has empowered a guy like Obama to be (gasp!) President. But they don't like traditional Conservativism either because business, and the Republicans, are after all the group that won the Civil War. Ouch, huh? That leaves those benighted souls with themselves. I guess they deserve it.

I hope that the Republican party survives, even thrives again. But honestly this time. It's not illegal to be a racist bigot on your own time, but those people are growing very tiresome and not worth the electricity to listen to.

They're worse than Democrats, and that's saying a whole lot.

Steve

Labels: Politics, Social Commentary

Yeah, this is social commentary, but the information is true, so you'd do well to read and heed. I teach Biology, so I'm not making any of this up. Honest.

The swine flu has not a thing to do with pigs. Flu is what we in the bio biz call a "retrovirus." It's made, that is, out of RNA, not DNA. RNA mutates all the darned time. Flu passes between species all the time. A few weeks, maybe a few months ago, this one moved from pigs to humans. Scientists have been worrying about the "bird flu" doing the same, but so far it's stayed in birds.

If you believe what you see on TV, particularly on Fox, you probably think that the four horsemen of the apocalypse are about to ride into town. Here's the real scoop.

First, it's the flu. You ever had the flu? This is not even a particularly vicious strain of the flu. It's "virulent," which means that it spreads easily, not that it's more deadly than others.

Second, people die from the flu all the time. A very small percentage of those who get it, in fact. If you are elderly, an infant, or have a compromised immune system, it might do you in. For the vast majority that is the rest of us, it will make us sick for a while, then we'll get over it. If you've ever had the flu then you know what I mean. It is nothing like "The Plague" that ravaged Europe. The last time Americans got upset over a flu epidemic, more people were made ill by the hastily concocted vaccine than by the flu. It was 1976, and you can look it up. That was a "swine flu" also, interestingly enough.

Third, if you do what you really ought to be doing all the time anyway, which is washing your hands frequently (that's why you've been told to wash after you use the restroom, by the way, not because you peed on your hands,) only touch your eyes immediately after washing your hands, and in a dry climate maybe use some saline spray to keep your sinuses moist, you most likely won't get the flu from any source in the first place.

The flu doesn't just float through the air and land in you and make you sick. Most likely, when it spreads, it goes from hand to hand, or from hand to desk or book or other surface and then to another hand, which then touches the eye or nose and the virus rides along. If your mucus membranes are moist (see above) then most likely the virus will not find a home even then. Otherwise, you'll know firsthand what swine flu feels like. Lucky you.

Some suspect that the President of Mexico is using this outbreak to consolidate power. Maybe so. Certainly there's a lot of unwarranted hyperbole. The truth is, even if it does go around the world, only a very small percentage of those stricken will receive any permanent damage. And it would do wonders for stock in Kleenex, eh?

Steve

Labels: Info, Social Commentary

Earth Hour is on March 28th this year, at 8:30 PM PST. If you'll click on the title of this post, you'll be taken to a page explaining how Las Vegas is planning to celebrate. My editor over at Living Las Vegas wants a post from everyone about it, but I don't think I can provide one. Not that I don't think it's a good idea if we stay aware of how we impact the environments on this planet. In fact, I teach Biology, and I've been aware of such things since the late sixties. The reason I probably can't is that LLV tries to always put a positive spin on things, and frankly, this event seems to me to represent all of the things I dislike most about "everybody" doing something.

In short, if "everybody" is doing something, it makes me extremely suspicious.

Maybe Earth Hour will spur more people to be conscious of the possibility of using renewable energy sources, in which case it's a good thing. Maybe I should not complain about it, but I just have this inherent suspicion that people will enjoy the moment and go back to watering their over-fertilized lawn by the light of security lights at 500 watts a pop. Okay, I'm cynical. So sue me.

All of the talk about environmentalism, from both staunch advocates as well as from conservative poo-pooers, is mostly hooey. As a biology teacher, I do know a few things that maybe might bring some perspective into the room, except of course nobody ever reads a little blog like this one. Okay, I didn't mean that the three (maybe four) of you are nobodies. Sorry. Now, here are a few things that are true about biology that maybe you wouldn't learn from listening to the debates on global warming.

First, global warming was first reported in the scientific literature in 1854. That is one-hundred fifty-five years ago. Anybody who tells you that there is controversy over global warming amongst scientists is lying. There isn't. I learned about it in college. So, if he had gone to college, would have my grandfather. It's a fact, pure and simple.

Second, a lot of information gets made up by columnists, particularly those vehemently opposed to the idea of global warming. Think John Stossel. John exemplifies the tendency we all have to study until we find something that reinforces our prejudices, then to stop and study no more. John notes (correctly) that CO2 levels increase following an increase in global temperature. He uses this as an argument that the idea that our putting more carbon into the atmosphere raises global temperatures is false. What John doesn't say is that, while higher average temperatures do tend to increase carbon in the air, due to more life expelling CO2 at higher latitudes, CO2, along with Methane and other gasses, really do contribute to a "greenhouse effect" that raises average global temperatures. The effect can be a viscious cycle.

No less than the folks on Mythbusters, a series about science that's on Discovery Channel, have tested whether CO2 and Methane cause atmosphere to warm more rapidly. Guess what, both gasses do. You can hate Al Gore (because you listen to guys on Fox, I suppose) but he wasn't wrong when he noted that the amount of carbon in the atmosphere is higher than it's been in about a billion years. The record high levels started developing right at the start of the Industrial Revolution. That could all be a coincidence, but it stretches credulity a bit to think so. We are, as a group of scientists reported not too long ago, about ninety percent certain to be the cause of the recent acceleration in the rate of global warming.

Then there's the cold winters. Yes, some places have gotten colder lately. The key word is average. The average is what weather guys like to call normal, which it may not be. But what it is is what you get if you add up all of the temperatures all over the planet and divide that sum by the number of temperature readings you just added up. That's an average. It can be colder than heck in one spot, but the average temperature could be rising steadily. In fact, a warmer planet tends to make more snow in the winter, because the extra heat evaporates more ocean water. Not that one season means anything, on average. (A little statistical humor there.)

It is a fact that the ice on Greenland is melting faster in summer than it refreezes in the winter. Eventually, if that keeps up, the arctic ocean will be open in the summer, and Greenland might be, well, green. To the south, it is true that some ice sheets on the continent of Antarctica have gotten thicker, but in general the amount of ice in the surrounding sea has thinned out considerably. Again, the reports you hear are the result of incomplete research.

It is a fact that sea levels will rise eighteen inches to three feet or more if all of the ice on the poles melts. Simple arithmetic can do that calculation.

Now, since I've been beating those who would deny global warming, let me turn my attention to the doomsayers. You know, those predicting the end of life as we know it if global warming isn't reversed.

Mostly global warming is a problem if it happens too fast. Already some parts of the world support cities and agriculture in areas that are below sea level and coastal. If the sea level rises slowly, we can deal with it. If it goes up two feet over next weekend, we'll have a disaster on a global scale.

Too much fresh water in the North Atlantic at one time moves the gulf stream far to the south. That shuts off a lot of the heat transfer from the equator to the polar regions, and when it has happened in the past, it has set off an ice age. No kidding. It's true that global warming could result in an ice age. And, if the ocean currents cut off completely, tremendously violent weather would result, because that energy would still want to get from the equator to the poles. It's the first law of thermodynamics that energy travels from hot places to cold ones.

However, again this is only a problem if the ice melts really fast. If it takes it's time, we can deal with it. Climate will change, but globally speaking, we can deal with it. It is highly unlikely that the ocean currents will be stopped by melting ice. The last time it happened was when an ice dam let a huge freshwater lake in central Canada drain into the ocean all at once. That would take probably more melting than is even possible on the Greenland ice sheet. While doomsday could come as a result of global warming, that scenario really isn't very likely. But, it wouldn't hurt to slow down the amount of carbon building up in the atmosphere, just in case.

Which brings us back to the Earth Hour. I suppose getting Americans, who are the best there is in putting carbon into the air, to slow it down a tad is a good thing. For the record, I hope it works. I remain, however, skeptical as always.

So, good luck to us all. Until next time,

Steve

Labels: Reviews, Social Commentary

Most of what I try to teach in science class is critical thinking. The rest is just results. I just found a site dedicated to critical thinking. Check it out at What's the Harm.net.

Labels: Social Commentary

Vegas voted for our President big time, and look how he thanks us! You can't go to Las Vegas on taxpayer money? Why, you'd think this was a den of iniquity rather than the premier convention site in the country! How on earth could anyone have gotten that idea?

In fact, Las Vegas is the premier convention site in the country. More conventions here than anywhere except maybe New York, and I do mean maybe. One reason Vegas went for Obama is because Bush's Homeland Security took a look at Las Vegas and said that there were "no significant convention facilities" here. Crackheads, I guess.

But, hey, could it have anything to do with that "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" campaign? Nah, nobody's stupid enough to believe a line like that!

Steve

Labels: Politics, Social Commentary

I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels the way I do. When you finish with this article, click on the title to be taken to an article from a Chicago Sun-Times columnist that says pretty much the same thing, only maybe better.

So, Micheal Phelps smoked a bit of pot? Oh, gasp! The only thing that bothers me about the incident is the way he caved. Folks, everybody in their twenties either smokes pot, or ends up a loser. I can't for the life of me figure out why you can go out and get as drunk as you want, a provably dangerous thing for yourself and the rest of us, but it's highly illegal to smoke a bit of weed, even if your doctor says it can help your medical condition.

(Oh, I forgot, science doesn't matter according to our most recently departed president. Good riddance.)

Empathy aside, smoking pot may make you go to sleep, or endanger your Doritos, but it never made anyone do anything nearly as stupid as the stuff alcohol makes people do every day. I live in Vegas, so believe me I see the results of alcohol overuse all the time. Mostly on the news about car crashes, but also in the slack faces of tourists staggering from casino to casino. (No, not most of them, but some people figure you can't do Vegas if you remember it when you get home.)

Pot was made illegal to help W.R. Hearst control his Mexican laborers. The campaign was stirred on by such things as the (really funny) movie Reefer Madness, which pretty much demonstrated everything that smoking pot won't do to the user. Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating smoking pot. It's a waste of time, in the end. But, like somebody once said, no time is wasted if you enjoyed wasting it. If you're an adult, and smoking a little pot helps you feel better and get by, then it harms nobody but you (and that's just the lung damage -- you could bake it or drink it in tea to avoid that.)

Really, folks, some drugs really are evil, but marijuana? Give me a break!

Steve

Labels: Politics, Social Commentary

So, we can't help people being foreclosed upon, we can't keep up freeway bridges so people don't plunge to their deaths, we can't even make sure sick people aren't dying on our streets, but we can accommodate those too stupid to realize that they need a digital converter box by delaying the switch for four months? As if television were some sort of necessity, even? Boy, ain't we cool, huh?

Steve

Labels: Religion, Social Commentary

I've never shared publicly how I got to like the sort of humor that I like. Well, why not, I say? It's not like I could hurt my readership numbers much or anything.

It's all Nick's fault. Nick, Nicholas that is, was my grandfather. Grandpa, as I knew him, lived across the river, in the house where my father grew up. The house was really cool to a little kid because it had very unusual features. For instance, there was an old iron pump on the back porch. The water that came out when you pumped the handle tasted like iron, too. For help if you drank too much of the water, out in the back garden was an outhouse. Sort of like the ones in National Forests, only not so clean and nice smelling. Now, to a little kid, these two items were fascinating. You could pump all the water you wanted, for instance, and my mother, who never believed in paying for water apparently, wouldn't accuse you of wasting anything. And it was fun, for a four-year-old, to use the outhouse. Sure, the house had regular plumbing that worked fine, but hey, I've never seen a wasps' nest in an indoor bathroom!

Grandpa kept sweet rolls on top of his refrigerator. The kind you can still buy, with cinnamon or fruit rolled into them and confectioner's glaze on top. Lots of confectioner's glaze, and you can take my word for it. Believe it or not, I liked those things. So, I'd ask grandpa for a roll. He's say, in return, "Sure, go on, roll," as he gestured at the floor and made rolling motions with his hand. So I'd roll on the floor. After we'd laugh at that, I'd get the sweet roll.

See? All grandpa's fault! Classic conditioning, and wouldn't Pavlov be proud? I can't help it, I like cheap puns and stupid humor. Don't like my jokes? Tell Nick Fey. He's resting in Seneca County, Ohio. Should be easy to find, right?

Steve

Labels: Info, Social Commentary

It's my wife's fault that I was at Sapphire, the World's Largest Gentleman's Club. She represented the owner is an involved case a while back, and he wanted to show his appreciation. So, free admission and a bottle of vodka. Six of us from Living Las Vegas attended. There is, or shortly will be, a composite review of the club on that site. Please check it out. Meanwhile, here is a more complete version of my take on the venue.

First off, it isn't a seedy place like I was expecting. My only experience with a place of this nature had been in Saint Paul, where the dancers are behind glass for the protection of, well, the glass I guess because I really don't know. It makes it seem much more seedy, smarmy and shameful when they do it that way. The Saint Paul girls did get completely naked, which you can't do in Nevada if you serve alcohol, but somehow that didn't make it any more enjoyable. Rather than seedy old bar decor, the main entrance hallway at Sapphire is decorated in tasteful artwork and the main room is spacious.

We didn't buy the bottle, thanks to the owner, but we did pay a service fee to have the mixers kept up at our table. We also spent a bunch on tips for the limo driver who delivered us to and took us away from the club. We were there for about three hours, long enough to get a good feel for what the place is like.

There are nubile young women everywhere, not just on the stages. The club features two stages downstairs plus a VIP stage upstairs, as well as a separate room where male dancers perform for the ladies. Speaking of whom, there were a lot of women customers in the club, including three of our party. The nubile young women were, for the most part, just as friendly toward the ladies as they were toward the gentlemen.

The friendliness is all aimed at getting a customer to buy a table dance, of course. They were exactly the sort of dances you'd expect from a gentleman's club, particularly if you watch HBO. You're not allowed to touch the girls, but they can do whatever they want with your hands. It was an interesting experience. On the stages the dancers didn't exactly do striptease. What they did was come out with some sort of top on, which they removed half way through their routine. There was a great variation in how good the dancers were, both from an artistic and from a teasing perspective. For what it's worth I once saw an HBO special about strippers, which featured re-enactments of acts from famous women. The best, so far as arousing male interest went, was a woman who recreated the routine of Little Egypt, a famous stripper of about a century ago. At the end, she was street legal. There is more to sexual attraction than nudity, is what I'm saying. The most conventionally "sexy" dancers were not necessarily the best ones to watch. Again, an interesting experience as well as a curiosity to observe.

Another entertaining aspect of the evening was watching the outrageous table dances going on around us. A couple of customers apparently were, as they say, made out of money. The girl would stop every five minutes to stuff some more money in her purse, then remove her top again and go back at it. It got to be plain old funny for me after a while.

I can't speak about the male revue, although all three women in our party took it in. Their reviews were mixed.

If you're from out of town and want to see the biggest Gentleman's Club in the world, then you need to check out Sapphire. If you're local and want a different sort of an evening out, ditto. If you're prudish, I'd say check out Cirque du Soliel.

For more information, check out the club's website. Remember, this is an adult entertainment venue and the site reflects that. If that's okay with you, then click here.

Later,

Steve

Labels: Reviews, Social Commentary

To begin with, you can blame George W. Bush on Lyndon B. Johnson. They’re both from Texas, so maybe there’s some connection from that direction. I doubt it, though. Still, odder things have happened. George W. Bush, for instance, is a descendant of Franklin Pierce, who got to be president due to the efforts of an old college buddy. Go figure.

It isn’t that LBJ worked on W’s behalf, of course. He’s too dead to do such a thing. But LBJ is the guy who so pissed off the Southern wing of the Democratic party, then known as “Dixiecrats” for lack of a better term (and there probably is no better term.) The Dixiecrats were represented by people such as George Wallace (not the Vegas comedian, the other one) who blocked the schoolhouse door and shouted “Segregation Forever!” Wallace changed his mind before he died, but a lot of people stayed true to their segregationist principles for all of their lives. And those folks felt betrayed beyond belief by the Southerner who pushed through the Voting Rights Act and other bits of law they found dangerous to their way of life.

Well, if the Democrats were through with them, and at that time nobody wanted to actually admit that they were racist enough to support the good-old Dixiecrat constituency, then they knew that they had to get sneaky. You remember the “Moral Majority” back in the day? Well, they may or may not have been either moral or in the majority, but they presented the old segregation forever crowd with an opportunity. By linking with religious conservatives who were bothered by what they saw as the moral decay of American society, the folks who brought you back of the bus segregation could hide their anger, and their true agenda, while getting influence back in Washington. It worked, as can be seen by the political scene since Reagan.

Reagan was a great speaker who was recruited because, well darn it, people liked him. He certainly wasn’t one to support overt racism, but he did like to talk about smaller government (which was, in fact, not what he gave us.) Smaller government meant a government that would allow a public school to open the day with a prayer, or so hoped the religious Reagan backers. To the Dixiecrats it might mean a chance to get back to keeping some people in their place. Particularly Washington people, who had no business telling honest, hard-working Southern people how to run their state.

Reagan begat George HW Bush, a far better President than I gave him credit for at the time. George HW got elected by promising famously not to raise taxes. Finding the government broke, however, meant that he had to propose, and sign, a tax increase. So in came the man from Hope, William Jefferson Clinton.

Clinton angered people in a way that no other president I’ve lived with ever has. Something about the story of the poor trailer boy from Hope who made it all the way to the White House really frosts some people’s shorts. I think it might have been due to his refusal to cater to the good-old-Dixiecrat crowd that started the rumors that led him to be so publicly reviled. To bad for them, all they could catch him at was cheating on his wife with one of his employees. A sad and sordid tale, but hardly criminal. They did, however, manage to get him impeached.

That is because the alliance of religious conservatives and old-time Southerners united in using morality as an issue. Plenty of Presidents have done worse things to their marriage than Clinton, but the Moral Majority wasn’t backing the opposition at the time. The Republican Party found itself, maybe not for the first time, proclaiming itself as the protector of public morality in the United States. That is questionable, but not as questionable as the supposed history of the Republican party as a champion of smaller government and states’ rights. Egads, has no one ever heard of Lincoln, the poster boy if there ever was one for large, central government at the expense of the states? Six percent of the men of military age in the country died in a war to ensure that the big-government party, the Republicans, prevailed in their effort to save the union.

The states’ rights plank was tacked on by the old Southern contingent, with the backing of the religious conservatives, for the reasons listed above. Less government meant less interference, right? Well, not to hear the complaints about W. Bush that have been sounding out in the past couple of years. The amusing part, for someone who knows some history, is that the complainers are actually surprised that the Republican party has expanded, not shrunk, the Federal government. Folks, I hate to burst your bubble, but that’s what Republicans have always done. It’s not bad, it’s debatable, but it’s Republican and that’s all there is to it.

So how did all this misinformation get spread around? By faith, of course. Faith is, so they say, a wonderful thing. It can move mountains. Well, horse hockey I say, but that’s just about the moving mountains part. The trouble with true belief is that the believer’s view of the world is distorted by the belief until the poor sod doesn’t know reality any more. In the mind of a true believer, a fundamental Christian world view is the majority view, and no amount of objective statistics will convince the true believer otherwise. Former President W. Bush has returned to Texas with his “values intact.” Great. So long as you’re not deciding the fate of the world, you go. But when belief rather than objective reality influences national policy both foreign and domestic, you end up with some very stupid things getting done. Like invading a country at a time when we really needed to be catching a terrorist, or like abstinence-only sex education, which results in more, not less, promiscuous and unprotected sex amongst teenagers. Faith may be wonderful, but not as the basis for national policy.

So that’s what happened: LBJ pissed off some segregationists who then used some religious folks in a successful effort to temporarily hijack the government. This resulted in record debt, economic doldrums, and thousands of dead soldiers. Somebody may like that, but not I. All the faith in the world doesn’t change reality one little bit. And lying to another constituency in order to sneak your way back into power is about as low as American politics gets. I feel sorry for the religious conservatives, I feel sorry for George HW Bush. I feel sorry for the Republican party, and I feel sorry for Ronald Reagan, even. And most of all, I feel sorry for the country I love so much.

Please, old Dixiecrat guys, just dry up, okay?

Steve

Labels: Politics, Religion, Social Commentary

Nevada is faced with a nasty budget crisis. The governor’s proposals don’t include any obvious tax increases to deal with the situation, except the one voters in Clark County approved recently. He said no new taxes and he meant it. Probably he’s remembering Bush the First’s change of mind and the consequences that had for the presidency. Not to mention Monica Lewinsky. But really, when he says he wants to knock 38 percent off of the budget for higher education in Nevada, while also saying that he wants us to be a leader in alternative energy, he apparently found an old stash of Maui Wowie from his college days.

Without any college graduates in the state, who does he think is going to develop alternative energy sources? Why does he think any company would relocate to a state full of ignorant fools? Low taxes are fine up to a point, but there are about a gazillion high tech companies in California, in spite of what the rightie-tighties like to call California’s “tax and spend” mentality. Some of what the people of California spend on, of course, is facilities to train people to do things like design high tech equipment and software. The state is very friendly to people with more brains than an artichoke. Not that California artichokes aren’t perfectly fine as well, of course. Maybe it’s the seventy-year history of getting money simply by vacuuming it out of visitors’ pockets that makes it impossible for some people in Nevada to see an obvious point. That is, you get what you pay for.

What the governor wants to pay for is, well, nothing. And that’s just what he’ll get. If you cut salaries to save money, then those workers will spend less. Money is worthless if it isn’t spent, after all, so by simply cutting government expenditures all we’d be doing is choking off the economy even more. There are some things that government really can do better than private enterprise, whether or not the R-J’s chief pundit likes it. One of those things is education. UCLA has been the source of great amounts of talent for California business over the years. It’s publicly funded. Same with the entire University of California system, for that matter. We could use the higher education system of Nevada to produce people who can build the infrastructure, diversify the economy, and revitalize the state’s economy. Or we can do what the governor wants and just lock the door behind us as we leave.

Come to think of it, we don’t even have enough roads, and the Gov wants to ensure that there’s nobody around that knows how to build one. Yep, great idea, Governor. You’re the man!

Labels: Politics, Social Commentary

There are two things about Sarah Palin complaining that Caroline Kennedy is being treated better than her in the media. First is, that's an example of why Sarah Palin hurt McCain more than she helped him. As I said in an earlier post, most of us actually are urbanites and have an urban perspective on life, so insulting urbanites is probably not the way to win elections. It just makes her sound like a whiner, which was a funny skit on SNL a long time ago, but not much else.

The second thing is that she's right. Just as I don't think it's fair for rural people to bad mouth urbanites, I also don't think that being an urbanite makes you necessarily better. In fact, it only puts you in the majority, and I have trouble with the majority often enough. The fact is, Kennedy ought to be fair game for some jokes about her effort to replace Clinton. How about, "Why, her husband's never even been caught cheating on her!" for starters? Or, "Kennedy? I thought he was dead!" Nothing untrue, just a few things that might be considered unkind. But, Kennedy is an urbanite, and that means that most of the country, including most reporting media, won't be as eager to make jokes about her. Sorry, Sarah, that's just the way it is. Even when you win, you lose.

But, to be fair to the media, running for national office and questioning the other side's patriotism when your husband's been advocating secession is, well, a bit over the top, don't you think?

Looking forward to 2012, I remain,

Steve

Labels: Politics, Social Commentary

Ralph Bellamy wrote a book published in the 1890s about the year 2000. He foresaw people ordering items from a central store using pneumatic tubes to convey their orders. The store would then deliver right to your door. If only he'd known how close he came, huh?

Well, I'm not talking about 2100; I'm talking about 2008. A wonderful year all around. Since I want to make one last post this (that) year, here it is, my look at 2008 in review.

The year began early in January when people watched things explode and yelled out their encouragement. Away from Iraq we watched fireworks and oohed and aahed a lot. People were glad that this was going to be almost the last year where we say "two-thousand-and." One more to go, then it's "twenty-ten" and good for it!

By a little later in January we were all oohing and aahing at the political situation. Hillary was obviously going to win the nomination for the democrats. On the Republican side of things, it wasn't as clear. There was some guy that wasn't from Utah but polled well there, along with a couple of other guys, but most people knew that McCain, nice as it would be, was just too darned old to run. Most people can't be wrong, right?

The economy was slipping a bit early in the year, but it wasn't anything to worry about because the fundamentals of our economy were strong. Of course, the fundamentals of Pompeii were made of solid rock, but that's another story. Much like Pompeii, the nation was swamped with hot economic news later in the year. We're looking forward to drawing and quartering the executives at GM after they fail to repay our loans. Maybe we can repossess a local dealership while we're at it and turn it into a handball court or something.

On a personal note I became a staff writer for an online magazine, which of course shows how desperate some online magazines are for staff writers. They actually pay me for writing, which is a nice change from what happens to my fiction. I'd tell you what happens to my fiction, but there are no age controls on this site. Sorry.

By April or so it became apparent that Hillary wasn't going to win the nomination. Unlikely as it seems, a person who could never ever have stood a chance at mid-century actually became the front runner. That's right, an Hawaiian looked good to take it all. Not only that, but there's a rumor that his father might have been from Africa. Heavens! And on the other side of the contest, old John and his "Straight Talk Express" made it all the way to the convention, at which point the famous bus was pulled in for service and not seen again until after the election. That might have been okay except that he stood up Dave Letterman. Better you insult your mother if you're running for office. Katie Couric, of course, liked the interview a lot.

Of course the economy continued to make news over the summer as the price of gasoline rose to new heights. Highways emptied of oversize, unnecessary hardware, leaving drivers of ordinary sized cars somewhat dazed and confused. Meantime, as the price of oil rose, so did the price of everything else. In fact, by October, Everything Else was selling for record high prices, while the price of oil was dropping like a rock. The airlines, typically unaware that they might need to explain a price policy to someone wanting to, oh I don't know, fly on an airplane, redoubled their efforts to extract extra money out of passengers even as their expenses fell.

With all due respect to business schools everywhere, and that ain't much, I must confess that I am confused how somebody can work for a month overseeing a company's demise, and walk away with twenty-five million dollars! No kidding, there's been a lot of that sort of thing going on this year. It seems especially bad when you consider that I offered, publicly, to do the same job for only three million on my funny pages a few years ago. What ever happened to saving the stockholders' money? I tell you, ethics is just a word, huh? Well, I'll repeat the offer now, although inflation has upped the price to five million dollars. I will take your company in any condition and run it into the ground within two years. Half up front, half upon liquidation/acquisition. Call today before the twenty-teens are all booked up!

Tonight, in the first seconds of 2009, they're going to blow up the Strip again. They have lowered the launch points, which might make it interesting for those on the ground. It will also make it harder to see the show from anywhere but the strip. Downtown there will be a show on Fremont Street featuring tributes to performers from the last century who for the most part simply refuse to die. Well, this century is young. We've hardly had time to make any meaningful mistakes yet. One or two maybe, right George? Yeah.

So anyway, I hope you enjoy 2009 as much as you've enjoyed 2008, maybe even more. One thing, though, I am not asking if it can get any worse! Oh, it can, it can, and I don't want to be the one to spit in fate's eye. 2009 will be wonderful, just you wait and see!

Write you next year!

Steve

Labels: Politics, Reviews, Social Commentary

Yes, I did correctly predict the outcome of this presidential election on June 18th. The link under the title of this post will take you to my unedited prediction. So, I really did tell you so. So there!

And now, as a service to those who just can't stand the thought of a President Obama, I offer the following. As in the late 1860s, when some people left the country for another country to the south, some of you may wish to do that yourselves. If so, here's a link to a Wikipedia article that you may find useful:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_Mexico

Now, if you're serious, here's a link to actual information and resources to set the process in motion:

http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/fqimig.html

Now, why would I be so snide? Well, it has to do with the casual way that some folks calling themselves "conservatives" have dismissed people like myself. Here are some sad facts, if that includes you.

Most of the country lives in cities. True, we don't know the difficulties of rural living, but then neither do most Americans. We have, for example, African-American citizens who we see, and work with, every day. Nothing in particular happens as a result. Know what else? We have people who primarily know a language other than English, and they're common as anything. In the really up-and-coming parts of the country, Latino people are not a minority. They're sometimes even a plurality, which is the most any ethnic group gets in our part of America these days. Yes, my country friends, there is no majority ethnicity where I live. We're stuck finding ways to get along with people no matter where they or their ancestors came from.

It is not normal to live in Alaska. At all. There are fewer people in Alaska than in the city of Las Vegas Nevada. And Las Vegas is only a bit over a quarter of the people in Clark County. Alaska is a beautiful place, but it isn't typical in any sense of the word. If it were, it wouldn't be special. They do take more tax money than they contribute on a Federal level, so of course they hate us urbanites who pay for their roads and bridges. Why shouldn't they? (Go ahead, I dare you to answer that one.)

The rising generation believes in working together for a common cause. That's not a boomer thing, but it's a sensible thing. Frankly, the boomer day was mercifully short. Clinton, then Bush. I'd have hated to slip any further, if you get my drift.

So, once again, I told you so!

Steve

Labels: Politics, Social Commentary

.
As noted much earlier, I gave up on trying to pick at the campaign ads. I'm just glad that they're almost over. I voted a couple of weeks ago, myself, the second day I could do so in Nevada. I didn't think it would work, but the political calls almost stopped after I voted. Apparently the various campaigns get a list of who isn't worth bothering any more. I did get a call from somebody today urging me to vote on Tuesday, but I told her that they wouldn't let me do it again.

So, thanks to some amazingly bad tactics by McCain, the worst of which has to be thinking that Governor Palin would attract Clinton supporters (Hillary not Bill,) and a smooth, glitch-free, genuine sounding two-years and more effort by Obama, I believe that my prediction from last summer is safe. Well, that's okay with me. I did my part. I've never been a party joiner by temperament, but the total volume of personal lies and misinformation coming from the red side of the campaigns in the past couple of decades finally choked me to the point where I couldn't continue. Great Googley Moogley, attacking Kerry's war record? Give me a break, please! Now Obama is a terrorist Muslim extremist bent on destroying America?

And there are people who believe that crap. If you don't like what Obama is saying, by all means don't vote for him, but please be aware that all the negative crap you hear about him is being pulled from the collective, er, ears of the Republican presidential campaign advising staff.

Frankly, the way they've let the party bullhorn be taken over by states rights (!) and religious nuts, the Republican party deserves to disintegrate so that it can be reborn in a more reasonable form.

The other day John Stewart had the Socialist candidate for president on as a guest. Yes, there is a candidate from the Socialist party. That man, the avowed socialist, called Obama just another capitalist, which is of course what he is.

As near as I can tell, since the days of Reagan, the Republican cause has been increasingly hijacked by a rough coalition of religious wackos, greed-head Libertarian wannabes, and left overs from what used to be the Dixicrat contingent of the Democratic party. The only way such a rag-tag collection can appear coherent is to lie. Not just to the public, but to themselves. They've lied so much that they are convinced that they're right.

I've met a few Muslims in America. Oddly, they have jobs, or businesses, they're students in school (most of the girls wear the scarves where I teach,) and they would do just about anything for America, because, like any sane capitalist, they love this country. Not the picture painted by that idiot Palin, I know, but my version has the virtue of being true.

Once more, here's a quick guide to whether somebody is trying to flim-flam you with a bad argument.

If the explanation they offer is simple and easy to understand, and it feels good to believe that it's true, it almost certainly is wrong.

Think of how many times in the past few decades the Republican argument has been simple and easy to understand, and it felt good to believe that it was true. That, in a nutshell, is why I voted for the other guy.

Not that I trust the Democrats. See, I figure they are going to win, and probably win big, and they, just like the Republicans did, will start to think that they own the truth. They will, over the next ten to twenty years, begin to flim-flam themselves with explanations that are simple and easy to understand, and that feel good to believe are true. Happens every time.

But, just now, it's time to clean out the old idiots and install some new ones. It's what we do every so often, and every time the republic survives. It'll survive this. I promise.

Steve

Labels: Politics, Social Commentary

Economics in college starts with a course numbered 101. Since apparently those in charge of some of our largest financial institutions never had that course, I offer herewith a short overview of the topic. And no, economics isn't really dismal at all. It's fairly simple. I give you Economics 001.

The link under the title of this post takes you to the Amazon listing for the newest edition of the famous book Securities Analysis, by Benjamin Graham and David Dodd. There was no field called "Securities Analysis" before this book appeared. That there now is speaks volumes for how influential this volume has been. (Amazon has special re-issues of older editions for collectors, by the way.)

The book includes a long-term analysis of real value increase for various types of investment, tracked over a period of seventy-five years. This is real increase in value, not simply stuff that costs more dollars to buy.

Hey, you'll say, real estate, right? No, sorry. Real Estate, long term, appreciates a teensy-tiny bit, but not very much.

Oh, then bonds and other debt, right? No, actually, over the long term, if you want to lose money, then debt is the way to go. Not giving other people loans directly, like a bank, but investing in debt securities, like Wall Street has been doing so much of the recent decades. In a word, neither debt securities or real estate will do much for you long term.

Real estate will preserve value, but not increase it. Debt won't even do that.

What has been going on during this wonderful "Ownership" decade? Speculation in real estate and debt! Wowie! Can there be a connection between that fact and our current economic problems? Maybe? Could be? The book Securities Analysis came out in 1940. Maybe the war took people's mind off of the simple facts it presents. I couldn't say, but obviously the business schools aren't using this volume for anything more serious than a doorstop these days.

I'm not entirely kidding when I say we should consider shutting down Harvard and Yale and other prominent business colleges. Just look at the damage they do!

But, back to the topic at hand, you might ask, "What does appreciate in terms of real value over the long term?" The answer is productive industries. That is, factories that make things that people want to buy. Automobiles, for instance, or steel, or lines notebook paper, or corn chips or any thing that someone is willing to pay for. How much do stocks in manufacturing appreciate? Over seventy-five years the total gain in value was twenty-five percent. Put another way, over three-quarters of a century, making things people want to buy returned 125% of the investment it took to start the enterprise in the first place.

[That may sound like a small amount, but remember that over those decades many, many people made a good living producing the manufactured goods.]

So, if you want to make money and keep on making money, the thing to do is to produce something that people want to buy and keep selling it to them. Great googley-moogley, General Motors can't even seem to figure out how to make an automobile that people want to buy! How in heck can we expect to make money off of General Motor's debt? We can't, that's how. There's no way, no how, nada to be gotten from a company that has forgotten how to make items of value.

Oh, they can sell them. The automakers convinced Americans to buy SUVs because the SUVs are cheaper to make (fewer regulations for safety and fuel economy) and more profitable. Unfortunately, compared to most foreign automotive products, the average US-made SUV is like a poor cousin that looks like a car, but is so poorly put together that, sooner or later, and these days it's sooner, people are going to quit buying them. Still, the success of marketing SUVs and other products of, really, questionable value, led GM and others to put money into marketing and promotion that should have gone into making the product better and better. That, in short, is why GM is in trouble, and why Toyota sells so many pickup trucks these days.

GM's troubles are a part of the larger problem of not sticking to the fundamentals of a sound economy. Those fundamentals are, according to the guys who literally wrote the book, producing things of value and selling them for more than it cost you to produce them. All the slick marketing in the world won't overcome a cheaply made truck. And, all the wishful thinking in the world won't turn a debt security into a good investment.

Got all that? Okay, then.

Class dismissed!

Labels: Politics, Reviews, Social Commentary