2008 Debate #1

Economy.

Obama makes sense. Put McCain back on his heels. McCain. Nice of him to mention Kennedy. Kind of vague sometimes. Wants to eliminate dependence on foreign oil. Does McCain have a record of wanting to hold Wall St executives accountable? Has he voted for such regulations?

Lehrer wants them to talk to each other. Seems inappropriate. They both want to be professionals. McCain's comment "are you afraid I can't hear him" was good. Leave them alone, Jim.

"America is still the greatest producer, exporter, and importer." Is this true?

Fundamental differences.

McCain wants to get spending under control. Earmarking is bad, he says? Bears on Montana? Wasn't that a valid scientific study?

Obama: Abuse of earmarks, he suspended them in his state. McCain wants $300 million in tax cuts for the rich. Obama's tax cut is for 95% of American families.

McCain: Obama requested $932 million in his Senate career. Isn't that why he's representing Illinois? To stand up for their funding requests?

Business taxes. McCain ignores the loopholes.

McCain wants to tax health care along with giving everybody $5k for health.

Summer

Watching Le Tour on Saturday morning, starting at 5:30 am. My favorite part is the aerial coverage, seeing the French towns, castles, countryside, and especially the people who go to great efforts to attract the camera with elaborate displays as large as crop circles. I'm getting tired of the Saab commercials again. They're so annoying and I wouldn't buy a Saab even if they were affordable. We've been watching episodes of The Office on Netflix. We use Scott's laptop connected to the TV and it works very well. We're all getting attached to the show and have a hard time ending our viewing sessions. Last night we watched until around 1:00; the night before we were up til 2:30! I've gotten curious about the show and have been reading about it online. Tom and Amy were right a couple of years ago when they called it an uncomfortably funny show.

P1050882

P1050882
Originally uploaded by pipilo

Sunday at the Wild Animal Park. Susan and I walked around the park for about 3 hours this weekend. It's nice having the pass, so we don't have to stay there all day. It can be exhausting out there in the sun. We took the long walk around past the condors and over to the lions and cheetahs. This stork was my favorite. I have no idea what kind it is, but I could watch it walk around all day.

Pipilo maculatus

DSC_4342-s
Originally uploaded by pipilo

This spotted towhee just sat in these flowers screeching like a bicycle bell - no, higher and faster. Anyway, I got a nice photo of it with my D70 and 300 mm lens, even though it was pretty far away. I was reading on the web that it used to be called the rufous-sided towhee, but then people figured out it was different from the rufous-sided towhees on the east coast, so now it's called a spotted towhee and the one back east is appropriately called the eastern towhee. I guess that brown color is the "rufous" but I'm not really sure because rufous wasn't one of the colors in the Crayola box, not even in the 64-crayon box, as far as I can recall.

I walked today in the Torrey Pines Extension, a surprisingly large wilderness area in the middle of Del Mar east of the train tracks and north of Penasquitos Lagoon. I had only been to the Extension once before, a long time ago, and forgot how nice the views were looking across the lagoon to the beach. Also, it seems that you can get closer to more Torrey Pine trees at the Extension than you can on most of the trails in the main portion of Torrey Pines State Reserve. I'd like to go back there soon and explore more of the trails.

OB Pier

OB Pier
Originally uploaded by pipilo

We enjoyed a nice sunset in OB last night, with acai smoothies and a walk along the pier. Susan didn't like seeing the fish flopping around or hanging from the many fishing lines along the way. Bob and Scott said it was their first time out on the pier, although I remember taking Scott out to the end and eating at the Pier Cafe several years ago.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

$4.159 per Gallon

What's gasoline really worth? Should we be paying less than $4, or more? Other countries have been paying more for quite a while. It's not like we're generating more gasoline anywhere. It's a precious natural resource that we use to make polymers, medicines, and all sorts of useful things. We also burn it. Should we be paying such a low price for it? It's up around the cost of milk or orange juice, but we can get more milk any time. We can't get more gasoline. Mining the northern shore of Alaska will get us about 6 months more oil, they say. Is that really worth the trouble? What happens in 6 months, then? Will that be 6 more months of underfunded research into developing alternative energy? President Carter envisioned energy independence by the year 2000, then President Reagan scrapped Carter's energy policy to please big business. What would gas prices be like if we had been developing alternative energy strategies with full federal funding over the past 30 years? Would big business be suffering from neglect? Somehow, I think we would have managed to keep the economy going.

Back to the Blog

It's been quite a while since I used this blog. A friend started blogging during her trip to Europe, so I signed in to say hi, and realized it would be nice to start writing here again. I wonder if this photo will work. It's one of my favorite photos ever, showing Susan and the kids at Wonder Lake in Alaska, June 1994. This was one of our favorite vacations: three weeks in Alaska. We camped and stayed in B&B's, hiked, drove and drove, took pictures, viewed wildlife, and enjoyed each other's company more than anything.

War on Terror?

How does a country win a war on terror? What is terrorism? Isn't it a bunch of frustrated people lashing out against a power that's too great to fight with conventional warfare? Can we stop it by killing all of them? I suppose. But then wouldn't other people in that area of the world think that's a bad thing and wouldn't they be prone to lash out against us as well?

Are we trying to discipline terror? Will it go into the corner until it comes out reformed?

Are we being fair? Setting an example? Living the high ground? Do we know better? Would we be the terrorists if someone took over our country and tried to control our part of the world? Do the people in power ask these questions?

At the Zoo

  

Aboard the Midway

  

USATODAY.com - Tom Brokaw joins the battle against global warming

USATODAY.com - Tom Brokaw joins the battle against global warming

This is a good show. Watch it.

TourLink�

TourLink�

So this is the link to EF Tours "Tour Link" website. Supposedly it is meant to contain photos of our kids and their experiences. So far, three days into the tour, nothing. I expected a little more. Still, I suspect the kids are having a wonderful time over there in London.

The Da Vinci Code (2006)

The Da Vinci Code (2006)

We saw the Da Vinci Code last Sunday. I hadn't read the book, but found the movie to be quite good. I like the views of Paris and London in this movie, and Audrey Tattou in any movie.

Pipilo's Photos, Videos and Journals

Pipilo's Photos, Videos and Journals

Blogging

I forgot for a while that I had this blog. It was a good place to write for a while. Perhaps I need to bookmark it. I've noticed that I can tie this blog to some of my other blogs and photoblogs as well. One of these days I'll figure out how to do that.

Meanwhile, here's a link to
Cinema14.

PLEASE vote for John Kerry

Please get out and vote on election day. I urge to you vote for John Kerry. He's a good, honest man who has dedicated his life to public service and the good of our country. I hate to say this, because several of my friends and a couple of close relatives are going to vote for Bush, but I'm convinced that a vote for Bush is immoral, irresponsible, and bad for our country. Mr. Bush has flat-out lied to support his campaign, he has stolen our liberties, and he shows nothing but disrespect for our military volunteers and people who are less fortunate than he.

Even if you don't vote very often, and especially if you're in a "swing state" that may be decided by only a few votes, I hope you make time to go vote for John Kerry.

For me, it will be the most important action I take this year.

Thank you.

Red Sox win series!

This is unbelievable. The world seems different now. The Red Sox lifted themselves out of the cloudy curse just as the sun began hitting the moon after last night's total eclipse. Mom was online with me as the last out was recorded and pointed out that even the moon was red tonight. How nervous must the pitcher and first baseman have been while they were executing the third out in the bottom of the ninth? How interesting that the last out was made by Edgar Rentaria, who wore Babe Ruth's #3 on the back of his Cardinal uniform. How amazing that we aren't lamenting the Sox this year. This doesn't seem right, but I can get used to it.

Pair A Dice

Went to visit the Pair A Dice Ranch this morning. Drove right by it three or four times before we actually found it. It's nestled between a self-storage park and the San Gabriel River. I learned that one can ride a horse to the beach and back from this place, all along the river. It's a two-day trip. You can also go all the way up to Mount San Gorgonio, a four-day trip. Sounds like fun, nights would be spent camping. The ranch is all wet and muddy today. Horses in stalls, goats, dogs, and chickens running around. A pit bull is in a tarp-lined cage filled with bedding and other personal items belonging to Martin, the ranchhand who lives at the place, in the cage with the pit bull. The owner showed me a trailer that he bough for Martin to live in, but Martin would rather live in the cage. Once in a while he slaughters a chicken or goat for food, and cooks it in the burn barrel/grill. This is a life far removed from my experience.

LA

okay, so we woke up early, met at 4 am, and drove through the pouring rain to LA to visit Hansen Dam by 8. Got there 45 minutes early so we had breakfast at McDonald's. Some guy held the door for me and then asked for some spare change on my way out. I said no thanks, so he started giving me crap about it and talking to a bunch of people, apparently other beggars, about me. The bathroom was full of apparent live-ins, so I held it and went to order my food. Normal McD food: sausage biscuit, greasy hashbrowns, and too-hot coffee. Ugh. On my way out, the beggar said have a nice day, then thanked me for my smile. I don't remember having smiled. Maybe he saw me smiling inside that I was leaving the place.

Turned out that our 8:00 appointment was cancelled. I guess you can't visit a dam when it's raining. We walked out to the dam control house and noticed a stream of water passing under the dam, but it really didn't seem like much was going on. Lots of people were walking or running along the top of the dam, which was at least a mile long and 90 feet high. Not sure what the big deal was about the water, but it cancelled our 10:00 appointment at the Sepulveda Dam as well. Basically, we did nothing all morning but drive around LA. Got some nice views of the city, so it wasn't all bad. Then again, it's not the best looking city in the world either.

After a lunch in the food court at the Montebello Mall, we visited the water reclamation plant in Whittier Narrows. Nice place, if you like sewer water and chemicals. Having Curtis along made it worthwhile. He's an old timer with tons of experience running water reclamation plants. He felt like it was old home day, reliving his days at his own plants. Very enthusiastic, and informative as well.

In the evening, we arrived at the Residence Inn only to find that our confirmation number had been lost. Great. Fortunately, they had a few rooms at the same rate we had originally, so we're here.

Now that I've had a lousy day, it's time for the Red Sox to change the world and make it all better.