The Heroes of 9-11

Recently declassified government photo of the work at the 9-11 site. Public domain

A lot of articles are going to appear about the threat of further terrorism, the losses, how America has changed et cetera, but for the moment, I want to look in to the past, not to see the evil that perpetrated these attacks, but the heroic people who rose to meet them. Some of the stories will be familiar, nearly common knowledge even, but some of them will not be. All of them, however, demonstrate what makes America great.

Todd Beamer

An accountant at Oracle, Todd also taught sunday school with his wife Lisa for six years and had two children, David and Drew. After their plane was hijacked, Todd and other passengers made attempts (13 successful) to call home by both in-plane and cell phones*. Todd, in his, did not quite get through but instead ended up on the phone with GTE Supervisor Lisa Jefferson*, and, as he and others were told of the attack on the WTC, a resolution was made to jump the hijackers. After briefly panicking when the plane jerked southeast, Todd recited the Lords Prayer with Mrs. Jefferson,* and then is quoted as having said "You guys ready? Lets roll." 4 months after his death, his youngest child and only daughter, Morgan Kay, was born.

Lieutenant Heather Penny

Stuck between a logistical rock and hard place, the USAF had a difficult choice to make that morning: take time to properly arm its aircraft, or catch up to the planes quickly. When the choice was made however, Lieutenant Penny didn't question it, but simply to the sky with her orders to ram flight 93. Not even equipped with gun ammo, her F-16 had nothing but its own physical force to stop the terrorist plane before it reached Washington. When asked about the experience, she had nothing to say but this: "We had to protect the airspace any way we could"

Fabrizio Bivona

Just as some are inspired to die for their country, some, in outrage, are inspired to live for it. That describes the fate of NYC Paramedic and Firefighter Fabrizio Bivona perfectly. Many of his fellow paramedics didn't come home that day, and left alive, he has seen firsthand the real impact that 9/11 has had on 1,000's of survivors and families. He describes himself as having served on counterterrorism teams "before it was popular," and appreciates the progress and attempts at progress that were made by the Bush administration, but also laments the "politicization of homeland security." Inspired to act, this common man made an unsuccesful attempt at a US Congressional Seat to raise hell, and though preferring the notion of others stepping up to fulfill this noble cause, has not ruled out making another attempt in the future, saying he is thoroughly disgusted by the Obama administration on this issue. "I see the frontline to the survival of America—where the front lines have been drawn—is now inside our government. For me, I always want to be where the fight is."

Joe Irizarry

Prior to 911, Joe had an ordinary boring life of driving the subway trains underneath Manhattan. At the Courtlandt Street subway station, at the foot of the towers, Joe arrived just in time to have his train literally shook by the impact of the planes. Knowing something was wrong, he looked around him, and saw people en masse fleeing the debris of 9/11, and kept his doors open several minutes to offer refuge from those running away from a mysterious smoke he did not know the source of. "The smoke was coming down so I had no idea what was going on in the streets. I just wanted to make sure the people were safe." According to witness Linda Di Silvio, he executed his good decision well, being in charge and keeping the whole train car of people under control. "Joe was, you know, the brick there." Finally, when he knew it was too close to collapse, he gunned it out of the station for Continental Avenue, the end of the line. Joe would not realize he was a 911 hero until he made it to the crew room, and was told about the towers collapse.

Mike Cammarta

22-year-old Mike Cammarta, a former Little League World Series participant, left just one last message to his family when he rushed in to the WTC on 9-11: "I am going to the World Trade Center, a plane just hit it. Just tell everyone I am all right." He was stationed at Ladder #11 as a student, hoping to graduate from Fire Academy to carry his Uncles badge and the tradition of his family. He was even to take his uncles shield number, 1138. Throughout all his days, he counted the experience of playing right-field in the Little League World Series at the age of 12 as one of the most fantastic of his life, and on the 5th Anniversary of the 911 attacks, Little League International commemorated him with his uniform number permaneantly affixed to the stadium walls and admittance to the Hall of Excellence of the Peter J. McGovern Little League Museum.
Welles Crowther

A successful NYC equities trader, Welles still found the time to serve his country as a volunteer firefighter, and in the finish, he would give far more time then he ever realized. Still a young man not even yet over his youthful eccentricity of carrying a red bandana, he helped someone to safety who then, wondering who had helped him, had somehow gotten a hold of his mother. His mother sent a picture, and immediately the helper was known to be Welles. Welles himself perished, but the people he helped lived.

Ret. Sargent Major Tony Rose

After his office was nearly taken out by the impact of the plane on the Pentagon, the Sargeant Major, feeling hot and dark like Hell, searched for a way out. Barely finding it, he heard the cries of those still inside, and with a few other survivors, found a flooded utilities that was just cool enough to pry through the wreckage. Working in shifts and having to tunnel their way around fallen electric live wires from the ruined walls, they gradually carried seven survivors to safety, while confronted with the sheer gruesomeness of the attack in the form of the body parts of a small child.

Gary Smiley

There's an old cynical saying that "No good deed goes unpunished," and certainly this maxim has been true for Gary Smiley. One of the most decorated living paramedics of 9/11, Gary Smiley suffered through extensive surgery and medical care to recover from the 9/11 attacks. During this process, he was shortchanged by the Fire Commisioner of NYC during his period in the hospital, not being given full pay and being held back for elite assignments as he recovered from his 9/11 injuries. He has had to face NYC in lawsuits as a reward for his heroism, lawsuits in which Commisoner Salvatore Cassano has claimed, and still claims, he somehow earned his current position. Cassano was responsible, according to His Honor Morgenthau, for ignoring a smoking gun warning that caused the fatal fire at the Deutsche Bank after the towers collapsed.



*APPENDIX - 911 Conspiracy Theories surrounding cell phone usage on flight 93

It is often said that cell phones cannot be used at 10000 feet. However, when looking at the assumptions behind the prediction that the cellular "handshake," could not be carried out, I noticed a few inconsistencies:

1 - Not all of the calls were cellular, some of them were using in-plane phones (including Todd Beamers.) The "handshake" phenomenon may also help explain why Beamer was not able to get through to his wife and kids, but instead ended up on the phone with a business manager for the in-plane phone service.

2 - Only a total of 13 calls out of 33 passengers on board were successful. Considering as nearly all passengers on the plane had cell phones, and most who failed would've tried several times, this seems somewhat consistent.

3 - Somerset County is flat and underpopulated. As a result, their will be fewer cellphone towers for the same area by far. This may also explain why similar phone calls did not occur on the other flights. It may also help explain why the terrorists were not expecting cell calls to be a problem - they may have been thinking like our conspiracy theorists.

As a result, I think we can conclude that the cell calls were in fact valid.

The Vain Hubris of Sustainability

Whenever anyone talks about sustainability, there are three basic facts that need to be understood:

1 - Nothing you build will last forever.

2 - There's no such thing as something for nothing.

3 - Throughout history, industrial economies have changed from one resource to another, usually without so much as a headline in the newspaper.

Since number three is the fact that is most surprising to many, I will begin with it. 200 years ago, houses and buildings were constructed almost exclusively from wood and brick. In those days, efficient methods for making both were common, but steel took days to manufacture, and had to be made from already well processed pure iron. Both the fuel and time needs were tremendous to conduct two separate chemical processes each taking days. Further, the quantities made were whatever you could fit in a single crucible.

Bessemer discovered a fast process for making steel in 1855, so fast in fact that it only took 10-20 minutes. The result was the first steel buildings and ships. With Steel, the size of structures increased tremendously, and the skyscraper, along with its steel elevator, became not only a possibility but something neccesary to provide commercial space for the fast growing cities. It also allowed for the internal combustion engine, whose fine moving parts cannot be made effectively from other materials, and with it the car and the airplane.

The Bessemer process could remove many impurities from the original iron ore, and together with the Blast Furnace, silion and silicates, manganese and permanganates, carbon, and sulfur could all be effectively removed. The one thing it could not effectively remove, however, was phosphate, so for the process to work, low-phosphate ores had to be used.

Unfortunately the world began running out of low-phosphate ores in the 1950's, so what did the invisible hand "do"? It introduced two new processes. The first was the Basic Oxygen Process, which took slightly longer (30-40 minutes) but could remove phosphate from the molten steel and had tighter control over the chemistry, allowing new alloys such as Boron Steel to be produced for the first time, and Stainless Steel (also known as Chromium Steel) to be produced inexpensively, and the exact carbon content to be dictated to a hundredth of a percent. The cost is a little higher, but you get higher quality with it. The second was the Electric Arc Process, which for inexpensive steel needs would recycle scrap metal effectively. Between these two, quality improved, new resources were used, and the world did not end, while the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur would set a record for the tallest building in the world a few decades later.

This is not the only example. When strikes and labor politics made the price of coal more expensive, Americans switched to heating with oil and natural gas. Before this, Europeans had switched from firewood to coal as the great forests of Europe were gradually axed away during the Middle Ages, but those castles, those great Cathedrals, and all the splendor of medieval art and music was made with fireplaces burning wood, and those were still around when the wood went away, and before then, it was far easier to go outside to axe a tree then to go underground and risk your neck mining for coal.

No power plant or road we build today is going to last 60 years, so why are we thinking in terms of 600? We should only consider what power sources will still be available 60 years from now when building that plant, and the free market has a device for that too, it's called a futures market. Investors buy up resources now to sell them later at a higher prices, creating a clean and smooth and flat distribution of resources when the market is sufficiently large and well informed, and they do try to be both for their own self-interest. And if people really will benefit from more expense now to avoid expense later (e.g. flourescents), they will buy them, but they probably don't, as they are already in debt and one dollar not repaid now will be a dollar repaid with interest later.

Lastly, and addressing number two, whenever something is used, something is lost, and that includes the materials to build solar panels, and the materials used to make the materials to make solar panels, as plastics and long complex molecules are almost always involved. There is always chemistry involved, and always wasteage, and the free market is a far better evaluator of what the true costs of that wastage is then some government bureaucrat whose never had a job outside of bureaucracy, or scientist specifically trained to only see from the perspective of his field. There is more to cost then electricity and fuel - even things like transportation, labor, land, and the space and finances lost from holding inventory are significant. The reality is that sustainability is not sustainable, as nothing is and we will see when the climate changes and the wind no longer blows where it did, or we run out of some chemical required in the manufacture of solar panels, or even great dust and ash from a supervolcano eruption block the sun. Everything must shift with its right and proper season, and this includes all sources of energy. Sustainability is a vain and impossible notion.

Out West Newspaper

WyrdLight-McCallum www.wyrdlight.eu, license: c.c.a.s.a 2.5-gen

Have you ever wondered where to buy a wooden Indian? Do you want to know how the border between US and Canada was made, or what crazy German (hint) thought of it? Do you like puns made by extremely cheesy Western small business owners? Is your mind dirty with jokes about outhouses? Do you just love photographs of wide open roads?

If so, have we got a treat for you! "Out West was a quarterly "on-the-road" newspaper founded in 1987 by roving editor/reporter Chuck Woodbury, who spent much of the following 13 years exploring the two-lane highways of the American West in an RV searching for stories about whatever he found interesting." No longer published, having printed its last issue in 2000 with a final subscription base of 10,000, this gem of the open road is now almost totally available online for free, along with links to resources about RV's, RV camps, a bookstore in an RV, and lots of crazy odd pictures that once showed up in the magazine.

I found this magazine by mistake when searching for a good short history of the Pig War, the almost conflict (in some ways analogous to what is currently happening in Egypt, but a bit more toned down) that ended with Kaiser Wilheim I proclaiming an official, general, easily recognizable border between America and British possessions in North America. In finding it, the pictures and content immediately made me miss home, and the wide open spaces of Washington State along with the humor and charm of its people. In particular, no where else in the world would a electric company put up a sign saying:

"Let us remove your shorts"

Or would you find a business that specializes in shipping Wooden Indians!

The eccentricities and hopeful love that the writer, Chuck Woodbury, showcased are great attributes of the great land called simply the West, and though many people have cried and sung about its passing away, really, it's still there. It's changed a bit, the industries and jobs are different, and in a few places open space has been lost, but overall, the West is still live and well.

We'd recommend this great old paper to anyone!

Chuck Woodbury still runs a blog of short, about bi-monthly posts out of rvtravel.com. Our Prayers are with him over recent loss, and that he may stay as lively and curious as he has always been and, with promise, will always be. He still travels and lives life with wonder as he did in his Out West Newspaper days.

Our Current Murder Laws

Farmland of Bentley, North Dakota. Image by Andrew Filer, license cc 2.0 generic

One of the most critical of all laws is trespassing. Without it, property means nothing, hard work means nothing, and no one has any security at all, not even in their own home. It also protects something deeper and more sacred, a kind of respect that only can come from such borders and barriers.

One of the most sacred human rituals is the funeral. Yet, there are people out there who would let silly politics get in the way of the most important events in anyones life, one of the few things that truly demonstrate how valuable an individual human being is. There are people out there who see it as a moment to talk, to intrude, to threaten, to intimidate, and to steal from families and loved ones their chance to say goodbye.

It has long been accepted that when you trespass on somebodies land, you have the right to kill them, so when you trespass on somebodies very life and soul, shouldn't you have the same right? It may not be your land permaneantly, but as you're laying the body to rest, its your land, and your time, your last time together, the time to say goodbye, and why should you allow such foul and awful beings to contaminate that hollowed ground? Should they not clean away their foul footsteps with their very blood?

Obviously, no one should harm these people now. They are now entitled to the same sacred protection they denied others, and even if the law is not changed, it has a value to itself, so do not let our nation become lawless for that is even worse then this, but if Westboro protesters showed up to my funeral, I would hope my family would have the right to tell them to leave at the point of a gun, and if they don't, kill them as the common crooks that they are.

It is a travesty of justice that our current legal system does not allow such. This must change, and if you feel angry, if you feel upset, I ask you to, along side me, campaign for good laws, better laws in any way you can. Honor the dead by making sure that future dead are honored, and then their name shall be hollowed alongside those you have protected from such defilement:

"Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness!
You have relieved me in my distress;
Have mercy on me, and hear my prayer.

² How long, O you sons of men,
Will you turn my glory to shame?
How long will you love worthlessness
And seek falsehood? Selah
³ But know that the LORD has set apart for Himself him who is godly;
The LORD will hear when I call to Him.

⁴ Be angry, and do not sin.
Meditate within your heart on your bed, and be still. Selah
⁵ Offer the sacrifices of righteousness,
And put your trust in the LORD." (Psalm 4, NKJV)

"Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." (Romans 12: 21)

Do not be a hypocrite. God calls us not only to be right, but to be at peace, and to be peaceful to his creation, especially at the level of America and all of its citizens. Therefore, do nothing worthless, and do nothing against the law which has a value in and of itself, but seek to work with the law to make it better. We have a democracy, use it!

Hope's for Whiners!

Neve Glacier and Snowfield Peak, courtesy of the US Geological Survey. Public Domain

There's something about the traditional name for the Saturday before Easter that kind of gets on my nerves.

I always hear people talk about HOPE, as if it's some kind of penultimate important good. Usually these people think of themselves as victims, people who believe that there hope has been stripped of them by somebody else, people who believe that unless someone else gives them their change back, they won't be able to make enough money to eat. But WHY????

And further, even if we are hopeless, helpless and hapless, (. thank You, the Holy Spirit, for language, thank You for poetry, thank You for song and thank You for beauty and feeling. Amen.) why not just keep breathing and look down the road, and appreciate all the little things in your life? Why don't we take things one step at a time, not looking back, and not really looking forward either? Why don't we just accept those who are before us, and the task and work that is in front of us, and understand that no matter what is done to us, we still have the CHOICE to make the best of it. Further, without hardship, trial and, yes, suffering, you would never grow, you would never learn, you would never become strong and learn the pride and joy that comes from strength, and you could not truly have life. And without goals of YOUR OWN that you've made for YOURSELF to do YOURSELF, you eliminate the best kind!

For me, Easter is not really about Hope, it's about Love. A loving, beautiful God who, not even asking about the cost, took from our shoulders the only thing that could truly break us, the only thing that we have no choice over, the only thing that we CANNOT overcome on our own. The thing that, by it's very definition, is outside of our control. Death, and the imperfection that, by every angle and understanding be it biological, moral or otherwise, caused it. Through Christ, all of us can truly live.

Titian, Ancona Crucifixtion, 1558

Is Sexism Bad?

Male & Female Hansi (Chinese Characters) side by side, with archaic Japanese meaning "Husband & Wife" or married couple. The female character (left) is a nurturer as the artistic aura of the image conveys, while the two characters that symbolize masculinity (right) are a hand holding a hoe and a rice field, the laborer. Courtesy of Wikimedia user AnonMoos.

No one asks this question, but many extremely successful men and women are sexist against the other gender. The reasons that, as far as I can tell, are given for Sexism being bad are mostly flawed. See, we assume that because it has some similarity to Racism (so does the tendency of airlines to charge seniors and kids different prices then adults, and for that matter patriotism) it therefore must be bad, but racism has no basis in the human character and no function in tight knit relationships.

To clarify, by "Sexism" I mean the tendency of people to hold the other gender, or its' perceived attributes, in contempt. I do not mean the tendency to discriminate in the workplace, sexually harass, or worse. These things are acts of Greed, Lust and Violence, are against human rights, law and public safety, and should always be illegal. The Sexism I mean is simply believing that the other (masculinity or feminity, or men or women) is inferior to your own. In other words, Sexism in your mind.

The reason I believe Sexism could be healthy is because it allows you to define yourself and have deep root in your own character, rather then a character imposed from outside. Assuming they practice sexism, masculine women and feminine men tend to look down on man and woman, while masculine men and feminine women tend to look down on the traits, femininity and masculinity, as masculine women and feminine men are criticized for not complying, and must hold their own against society and try to balance themselves, while feminine women and masculine men are defined within those traits and fight those who fight against them. I have no scientific studies on this, but my own personal experience seems to validate what my reason contrives.

It also creates a hierarchy of dominance within the family, preventing fights and working towards the happiness of all. You will have to be careful how you choose your mate, of course, but once you have selected one who is willing to be inferior, and wants to be taken care of, the rest should be easy. Further, as long as you are not trying to force this on someone who is not willing (which never works anyways) there really isn't a moral crime in it, as some people are genuinely weaker in character and want a big strong papa or mama bear who can take care of them. Avoid embarassing them in front of their friends, of course, but otherwise it seems mutually beneficial. I know a lot of strong families have stayed together this way.

Does this actually mean you have legitimate reason to look down on the other gender? No. But then again, can every country in the world really be the greatest?

Sex, Virginity and Raunchiness

Adam & Eve by Domenichino , Grenoble, Musee de Beaux Arts, courtesy wikimedia

Ah the good ole SVR! How thankful we are for thee. You break our hearts, intoxicate our minds, dominate our lives, give us wives and children and bequeath on us one of the greatest single pleasurable moments of existence. You are, in many ways, the essence of the flesh. We were born as a result of you and, for many of us, die inside through your obsession or are destroyed in horrific relationships seeking you. You are a humbler, a destroyer of dignity, something that sinks us to our lowest moments and we cannot open the door to let others see us in our horrific, grotesque perversions - but we're smiling anyways.

Some of the stupidest things people do as a result of sex. Walking the rails on cruiseships, crude indignified jokes, trouble with the law, pick-up lines, referring to genitalia by pet names, humiliating yourself in public places, submitting to strange satanic rituals, or, in some rare cases, even letting someone suck your blood or lock you in a cage. But sex can also be the center of true love, an almost mystic, magical experience between two people who truly love each other. It can be the deepest, most powerful relationship you ever have, something that builds you, strengthens you, defines you.

It can also be a cheap joke with the laugh on you, as denoted by the marker and pancake syrup on your face. I suppose lust can be an advertiser, something that forces you to get to know someone better and thus forge that true relationship, but it is a hard road, a painful road, one that I would not wish for anyone. Yes, there is a better way.

I know it is unfashionable to speak of monogamy in this day and age. Maybe that says something about this day and age. That close relationship can exist outside of marriage, but it is rare, and the fact that you have not been given to anyone else before does help in all ways. Marriage is about, more then anything, loyalty and sacrifice, and it is from great sacrifice that great commitment is forged. We live in a very superficial time where dignity is a non-issue, but a great joy comes from it, and I wish for those who read my blog a better way of life.

If you've already been engaged in raunchy behavior, and have lost your cherry, don't fear. Beyond the fact that it won't help, it is NOT impossible to find that deeper bond, it just becomes more difficult. For those who have not yet done such, I advise you to continue your current good behavior and look for love, not lust, in those you date.

Trash Trash Trash

Image courtesy Nick of Canberra (Wikipedia username dsfrg.msc)

I was walking down 68th Street from Alki Beach in Seattle, when I saw the most trash next to a sidewalk I'd ever witnessed. Coffee lids, napkins, beer bottles, various varieties of broken glass, very used straws, food and slightly decomposed food containers, all lined the street and in some cases were underneath the tires of cars. The worse part is that a public trash can was available, slightly under a block away.

So you literers out there, tell me, why must you deposit trash? Why must you leave your mark on every neighborhood like a little doggy? Why do your legs seem unable to carry you an extra 50 feet to that nearest trashcan? Is there any kind of service, like little kids on bicycles with a big trash bin on their front, that we could provide you with to make fulfilling the law slightly easier? Do you just plain hate the city? If so, are there any buildings, services or roads we could remove to make you hate the city less?

If so, please call the city police immediately, notify them you are a literer interested in changing the city, give them your address, your phone number, precisely when & where you littered last, and, just to prove it, the name of a few people who were with you and they'll handle the rest. Trust me, this kind of stuff makes their day!

Classic American Cities - Seattle

Downtown Seattle from Gasworks Park (Mine,public domain). Above: Pioneer Square, 1917, C.F. Todd

I grew up just across Lake Washington from the mighty metropolis of Puget Sound. This city, renowned for it's coffee, it's hippies, and it's software and businesspeople, has a complex personality at once laid back and pretentious, hot-headed and calm, Western and modern, rebellious and traditional, and both outspoken and quiet.

Courtesy of National Parks Service. Public domain.

The downtown area of Seattle was originally a tideflat with islands. In the center of the above picture is a triangle of three streets, known as the Denny Triangle. That triangle was an island that the first part of downtown Seattle was built off of. Today, you have to walk several blocks to the water and the docks. Garbage and landfills were used to fill the tideflats, depositing additional land off of the triangle for more city to be built. In addition, Seattle, in 1907, destroyed a hill and deposited the dirt that was contained in it across the lowpoints. Denny Regrade:

Public Domain. Courtesy of Wikimedia

The hotel in the background still stands, known as the Josephinum, at 1902 Second Avenue. To this day, the attitude of being able to shift mountains and proudly, perhaps even foolishly, see no obstacle is a major part of Seattle's character.

The University of Washington has been a part of Seattle since 1861. It's original campus was on University Street in Downtown, although it is now located near the Montlake Cut about 5 miles Northeast. The University, according to William Spiedel in his book "Sons of the Profits," was fonded off of leasing a land-grant contianing nearly the entirety of the Lake Washington shoreline. The land was leased out for building of industrial facilities too large for a homestead, and lead to the development of Seattle's Eastside off of industry (of which almost none remains today, except at the North and South ends, Kenmore and Renton.)

Ballard is a Scandinavian ethnic neighborhood to the Northwest of downtown.

Ballard from the air, Walter Siegmund. Gnu License 1.2

To this day, the Ballard high school mascot is the Vikings, and many Ballardians are commercial fishermen. The area has a very different social ambience to it, a feeling more down to earth then the rest of Seattle, very welcoming, and very humble. The scandinavian immigrants are part of why Western Washington is different from any other Western State, and you will find them throughout the state, but make sure, when you are in Seattle, to take a trip to Ballard, the epicenter of it. And don't be surprised when you hear hymns in Norwegian at church.

One of the many fine Scandinavian traditions carried over to Seattle is celebrating Midsummers Day, also known as the summer solstice. In Fremont, a traditionally hippyish neighborhood near Ballard, they have a nude bicycle race every summer solstice.

Seattle does have a tradition of Seattle Nice, and Washington State being partially Scandinavian and partially Scots-Irish, it can be considered roughly a mix of Minnesota and Colorado. The very happy side to their nature is they do tend to be welcoming and open. The dark side to their character is they have a tendency to expect people to be perfect and emotionless. And their "nice" does not cover you when you say extremely stupid things, or what they pereceive as such - nor does it prevent them from trash talking. They do have a sense of honor, however - witness people working in Seattle and you will see some of the most dilligent and motivated workers you have ever seen. And despite their tendency to trash talk, both aggresively and passive aggresively, they And they can be very free-spirited and entrepreneurial, though some of that is now disappearing.

Seattle is, unfortunately, effeminizing right now as every shop and business has decided that if they paint the walls pastel, create a painting of a wineglass somewhere and sell tacky merchandise they will make more money. Add to this some recklessly bad transportation policy (like charging $6 to get in to the city from the Eastern Suburbs, and wasting billions on a rail system expected to carry 20,000 passengers) and it comes down to this: If you want to Seattle, hurry, it may not be there tomorrow.

They will learn eventually, though. :(

Jesus has commandeered this blog! Hallelujah!

I know I have not always placed my priorities well in life. I've been worried, been working myself beyond prudence, have even occasionally missed the day of rest. That's why God inflicted me with an ulcer, a peptic ulcer, even though I'm only 20 years old.

See, in life, nervousness is a common decision, an understandable decision, and the worse decision we ever make. It makes us worse drivers, worse thinkers, worse performers of good works. But even more then that, focusing our lives on everyday concerns drains us away from what we should really be concerned about, what we do with our life!

Jesus wants us to lighten up, trust him a little, and be thankful for all the beauty, friendship, and bounty he surrounds us with. And if you don't believe in him, still, reconsider letting your life revolve around worry, and at least appreciate the glory of the mountains, the sun, and human love and heroism.

So next time your life seems to be running itself down the drain, ask yourself, what am I living for?

CARPE DIEM!

The Almighty Dollar -- or Why we SHOULD spend more on Healthcare

From InvestorBizDaily, "The Attack on Doctor's Hippocratic Oath":

Ezekiel Emanuel sees the Hippocratic Oath as one factor driving "overuse" of medical care. He is a policy adviser in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and a brother of Rahm Emanuel, the president's chief of staff.

Dr. Emanuel argues that "peer recognition goes to the most thorough and aggressive physicians." He has lamented that doctors regard the "Hippocratic Oath's admonition to 'use my power to help the patient to the best of my ability and judgment' as an imperative to do everything for the patient regardless of the cost or effects on others."

Of course, that is what patients hope their doctor will do.

But President Barack Obama is pledging to rein in the nation's health care spending. The framework for influencing your doctor's decisions was included in the stimulus package, also known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Now, I, being a fallible human being like most other Americans, do not understand completely Obama's health care plan. This is very suspicious, especially since, while I may not like the man's policies, I would generally accredit him with being a decent communicator. But, there is one particularly disturbing aspect of Obama's plans, the algorithms.

Although not quite as sinister as the SkyNet from Terminator, it too may terminate you. If your care is found to be too expensive, your cancer too aweful, you not worth it, it will let you die, not even granting you the dignity of a bullet to the head, another blood offering at the altar of balanced budgets in a manner of cruel neglect.

This is being done in the name of economic progress. Although Obama does not even have the certainty that this will work, he has bet his presidency, his country, and the lives and dignity of many vulnerable people on the idea that through reducing health care expenditures, we can save our "economy." But what is an economy anyways? Why is it so sancrosanct? Why are we willing to sacrifice ourselves and our loved ones for the sake of dollars? And why do we even trust this fellows plan?

In fact, why do we even have an economy? Why do we even have wealth? If we're not even going to take care of our own people, why are we even trying? Why don't we just go home?

Look, I know of fewer better spendings of our wealth on this earth as human beings, our petty dollars, then saving peoples lives and keeping them well. Why are we calling medical research and cutting-edged treatments "waste?" Because they don't make us more money? And is that even true...

The really sad thing is how many people seemed to have jumped aboard this bandwagon. I, as an American, have never felt this discouraged at my own people. That my own fellow citizens cannot seem to see what they are creating through their desire for, I don't even know what, is one of the most striking blows I have ever received when looking back at my own country.

And further, even from the practical side, what happens if we face a new threat? What happens if there's a big virus outbreak, like the Spanish flu, and this entire society we have sacrificed so much for crumbles before us, disgracing us and spitting on our name for our own lack of foresight.

For the sake of the fourth most basic human economic need (after clothes, shelter, and food), 20% (about where it lies) is not unreasonable. But I fear many people do not even realize what they've done. I don't think they even see that it could be their loved one, or themselves. I support making coverage more universal, but this is not the right way to do it. We just need to accept that a little more money to cover the remainder of our population is both right and justified, and seek other, more worthy, places to scratch out a balanced budget.