5 December 2006

This is going to be a confused day. I hadn't been feeling good yesterday, restless and irritable and not simply because of the news of the number of Democrats who are finding their previous ethics violations are disqualifying them from running significant party posts (except maybe for Reid) so before I went to bed last night I took a tranquilizer. Well, that worked so well that I slept solidly until just after 9 this morning, subtracting several hours from an already-short day.

(For many years, as a child, I was convinced that I was not a native of this planet. No, I wasn't from some world like Krypton, where the extra gravity had given me unusual physical powers, it was more the simple observation that this planet did not suit me very well. For one thing, I lived in the California Mojave desert much of the time, and I got sunburned easily. One time I got burned so badly that I had to be put in bed for a couple of days. How could I possibly be native to a planet where merely going outdoors too long without protection would kill me? I mean, the same would be true of either the Moon or Mars, after all, even if the time periods might be somewhat shorter.

Even more bothersome was that the length of the day was all wrong. Although I never had the freedom to run enough experiments to know for sure, I figured that I belonged on some world where the day was 25-50% longer. I liked to sleep for 10 hours, maybe even a trifle more, and I like to stay up until the wee hours, even until sunrise. So if a "normal" (for you earthly people) 8 hours of sleep would get me to bed at midnight and up by 8, I'd like 4-6 more hours of 'up' time and 2 more of 'sleep' time...

Only way you can figure it is that I come from a planet with a kinder sun and at least a 32-hour day. Plus, of course, there was the other obvious tip-off that my 'parents' never seemed quite right, somehow, it was obvious that I wasn't really related to them...)

As I predicted, the day went to pot. I glanced only briefly at the NYTimes front page (another suggestion that I don't really live here) but failed to get it copied in time and now I see they have changed it. As I recall it said something to the effect that Gates had testified that we had failed in Iraq. Big, bold headlines.

Mr. Gates’s most direct statements about Iraq came during exchanges with Senators Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who will take over as the panel’s chairman, and John McCain of Arizona, who will become the top-ranking Republican.

"Do you believe that we are currently winning in Iraq?" asked Mr. Levin, who has pushed for announcing a date to begin withdrawing American troops from Iraq. "No, sir," Mr. Gates replied, adding that he did not believe that the United States was losing, either.

Mr. Gates also appeared to differ slightly with Mr. Bush’s frequent declaration that Iraq is the "central battlefield" in fighting terrorists. Asked if he agreed with that description, Mr. Gates called Iraq "one of the central fronts in the war on terror" but said the United States also faced a "dispersed" enemy of Islamic militants worldwide.

Nancy Pelosi says the whole war is entirely in Afghanistan, if you remember her comments on the subject. And I think I'll still stick with the Old Master, O. B. Ladin, who says that Iraq is the central battlefield.

I have to laugh. If there is any place in the world more hypocritical than Washington it has to be Hollywood! Yeah, I know...it's close. Anyhow, apparently Mel Gibson has made yet another great film and some people don't know what to do...

Other studio chiefs have said they would not work with Mr. Gibson in the future but would not say so for attribution because they didn’t want to endanger their future business dealings. At least one influential publicist has declined to work on an "Apocalypto" Oscar campaign because of objections to Mr. Gibson's views, but would not say so publicly for similar reasons.

And yet, can the 5,830 voting members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences -- an organization that like broader Hollywood, includes many people who are Jewish -- ignore a film that may well be considered by critics to be among the best of the year?

See, should they follow their pocketbook or their position? They don't want to say what they think because they are afraid it might cost them what they value most in the world...money.

Yet, Mr. Weissman added, those who saw the movie and believed it deserving would vote for it. "The movie academy is of full of professionals; they will respect a good movie," he said. "If the guy made a classic film and it’s absolutely brilliant -- hey, I’m Jewish -- I’d probably embrace it. But going in, I’m shocked and dismayed at his behavior."

I am pro-Jewish--or, at least, pro-Israel--but does it never occur to Mr. Weisman that there are others besides jihadists Muslims who are likewise shocked and dismayed at their behavior?

I don't subscribe to the idea of Jew: good, Muslim: bad, Protestant: good; Catholic: bad; Republican: good; Democrat: bad...you need to see that there can be good and bad on both sides, seems to me. Okay, okay, so the only guy I'm taking is Lieberman, what the hell, it still proves my point.

I'm just laughing at the Hollywood guys who stand on principle until it comes to principal.

Experts say you'll want to pick a path and have a plan to make the most of your retirement years.

Yeah, sure...who was it said life is what happens to you while you are planning it?

Nancy Schlossberg, author of "Retire Smart, Retire Happy: Finding Your True Path in Life," identified six retirement styles that are tied to personality types. Are you a Continuer (wanting to do more of what you've been doing, but in a different context), an Adventurer (looking to do something new), a Searcher (taking advantage of this opportunity to finally find your niche), an Easy Glider (content to go with the flow), an Involved Spectator (still in the game but happy not to be a key player), a Retreater (ready to just give up; not a propitious choice), or some combination thereof?

I wish I had a better memory, I recently read a quote I would like to attribute that went something like this: "Would you like to give God a good laugh? Tell Him your plans."

I'm 72 now and I've made so many plans in my lifetime that they would fill a pretty good book. I never really knew what plans were until Microsoft invented Excel after I learned to program in Basic somewhat earlier. Boy, I can show you some plans you wouldn't believe!

So what am I? A Continuer? Hell, no. I thought I might be, I really expected to move down to Costa Rica and continue doing what I knew best, real estate, but there's a sad fact of life attached to that business which most people find out sooner or later: it is a HELL of a lot harder to do well than it seems. As the salesmen sang in that memorable scene on the train in "The Music Man", you gotta know the territory. It can be done, to be sure, but it's a tough, tough job to do right. I took a stab at it here and decided I really did not have the dedication necessary to do that all over again a third time (the first time in Walnut Creek, the second in Jackson).

An Adventurer, looking for something new? No, not really. A Searcher, taking the opportunity finally find my niche? Hey, maybe that's closest. I've always been a writer, a blogger before I knew what a blog was. I've written some pretty good poetry, some musical adaptations that spanned the range from pretty good to not so good, some truly abominable short fiction, all by my own estimation.

On the other hand, there are the other two categories, Easy Glider and Involved Spectator. I don't like either one of those, possibly because they fit too well.

I look back at my life from age 72 (not that that is old, I keep telling myself despite reading the obituaries) and find I am astonished at how many things just seemed to happen to me because I went with the flow...the two categories really overlap, in my estimation.

I find myself sitting here in Costa Rica in an unfinished house, with no idea when or where I'll find enough money to complete it, three dogs who just sort of showed up and couldn't be kicked out, a new 3-year-old son who includes all of the above, and I realize that NONE OF THIS is what I had in mind when I, ah, retired.

To be sure, I'm in Costa Rica, I got that far, but the rest... I like cats, not dogs, and I didn't do all that good of a job with my own kids forty years ago. And I wanted to live on a beach and scuba dive every day.

I wish I had written this lady's book and made her money (she left out the Wishful Thinker category), but I'm generally pretty happy with what I'm doing, sometimes fearful, sometimes worried, sometimes apprehensive, but most of the time seeing the glass half-full.

My advice to her readers would be two-fold. One: give up on the planning. Two: take to heart the old saw, that success is getting what you want but happiness is wanting what you get.

Wait, I've reconsidered. Don't give up on the planning, making plans is lots of fun. Spreadsheet projections are particularly enjoyable to create.

House Postpones Drilling Bill

Leaders pull the offshore drilling measure, a signal that the bill did not have enough votes.

See, they want the US to be energy self-sufficient but not by drilling in the US where pollution might occur as a result.

I'm amused because if only the US acted like the empire complainers said it was, they would have simply kept all of the oil from Kuwait and Iraq and sent it home at production cost for a few bucks a barrel, none of this $70 market price crap, and Americans would be back to quarter-a-gallon gasoline.

America not only isn't even an empire, it won't even drill for oil where it can.

The next time some idiot tells you that Iraq was all about oil, check him out on this.

Come on, now, try to be fair. Can you even imagine, in your wildest dreams, the Washington Post quoting this?

What do they finally quote him as saying, inside, where only the wonkers (I did NOT say wankers) read?

Gates also told the panel that "it's too soon to tell" whether the Bush administration made the right decision in launching the invasion in March 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein.

Gates said a "great deference" should be shown to the judgment of generals once a policy is decided that they have to implement, and he emphasized that one of his first steps as secretary would be to "urgently" consult with U.S. ground commanders in Iraq. "When you treat the professionals in an organization who deliver the mission . . . with respect and you listen to them . . . I think that everybody is better served," he said.

Bush has said repeatedly that he trusts his generals and will do whatever they tell him. Hello? Hello?

Gates responded later that he has no intention of coming to Washington "to be a bump on a log and not to say exactly what I think, and to speak candidly and, frankly, boldly to people at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue."

Several Democrats, while applauding Mr. Gates’s forthrightness and willingness to consider new tactics, questioned whether Mr. Bush would follow his advice on a new strategy. "Senator, I’m not coming here to be a bump on a log and not say exactly what I think," Mr. Gates told Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts. He added: "There is still only one president of the United States. He will make the final decision."

Surely you are kidding me that I am the only person who thought that Rumsfeld acted as a bump on a log?

I'm telling you, folks, this is better than vaudeville ever was. If you can read the MSM newspapers and not burst into laughter then you have my sincere sympathies.

These guys are the funniest things since Laurel and Hardy, who never smiled, either.

Wait until tomorrow, when the Old Pharts will come out with the same ideas Bush has held all along, the new Democrats will declare them to be new, Bush will 'submit' and agree, and everybody will jump on Bush for not doing it sooner.

What a day, what a night. Retirement, doing nothing, is just so much fun. The dogs wanted out for a final run this evening so I turned them outdoors, then heard all hell breaking loose in the front yard. I dashed down the steps and the three of them had managed to corner a young cat, fighting on her back in the middle of them.

I am a cat person, God has played a huge joke on me giving me three stray dogs to adopt because I had no choice, so I tore down the steps in a rage and grabbed dogs by collars and tails and whatever else came to hand, yanking them off. I don't know how they caught her short of the nearby tree, I'm not at all sure what they really had in mind, and in the melee I got the idea that she might have been defending herself fairly well, she was on her back with all claws extended, but I was ready to kill the dogs.

I grabbed Poco by his collar, yelled at Carol to grab Sabrina's, and figured little Trinket would give up when they did. I threw the dogs inside and went back out, but the cat was gone. Thank God, I don't need another trip to the vet with a wild injured cat after hours on a Wednesday night, and not even my cat, I'd have a fine time trying to explain that part. These people simply do not understand our concern for animals, it's as simple as that. I'm not being judgmental, only recognizing that it just doesn't exist in the vast majority.

The saddest part of my life is that I'm not going to get to have cats again. Poco is Gomer Pyle with fewer brains, he chases cats because he doesn't know any better and never will. As far as I can determine, Poco is incapable of being taught almost anything.

Sabrina is the dog world's blonde. She is beautiful, with gorgeous blue eyes, friendly and amenable, but as dumb as a box of rocks.

Trinket is smart, obedient, but all too easily led astray. (Hmmm...that strikes a chord...)

While I'm on the subject, why, Mr. Billionaire Gates, can't all of your damn Microsoft programs get along?

I learned more today about ASCII and HTML codes than I ever wanted to learn.

There isn't any one definitive answer you can print out to handle every situation.