February 18, 2014

BookBub, etc. In my net-wanderings, I ran across www.bookbub.com which advertises itself as a place to “Get great deals on best selling ebooks....” Of course, they want you to use their website for your ebook purchases and so they send you a daily (easily deleted) email featuring the “purchase(s) of the day.” If you do not have an ebook reader, as is the case with several of my friends, the daily list is still a good way to just look at titles you might want to add to your local library list. I also peruse the weekly Christian Science Monitor's book review and forward it to several friends.

Neighborhood clean up. There is probably no urban city that does not have at least one rundown area in need of improvement. A PBS news segment (Tuesday, February 11th) highlighted the problem facing San Francisco as it struggles deciding how to improve “the Tenderloin,” the city's only remaining urban, working class area. An earlier experience did not go well: a largely African American neighborhood was “improved,” i.e. the area was simply razed and the poor displaced. As a result, the city passed a series of zoning ordinances and development regulations which now make it very difficult, some would say impossible, to improve conditions in the Tenderloin.

Monkey Wrench Gang. Another PBS news segment on that same evening investigated what appears to have been a home-grown terrorist attack on a San Francisco area electrical sub-station. (Thankfully to little effect.) In 1975, Edward Abbey wrote his most famous book, The Monkey Wrench Gang, about a small disgruntled group who set out to sabotage what they see as environmentally damaging projects. (a good read) There appear to be parallels.

More winter weather in the South. Once again, the unusually low-dip in the jet stream ushered in another bitter dose of rain, sleet, and snow throughout much of the deep south and up the eastern seaboard. The freezing rain/sleet will no doubt coat power lines and trees, very probably resulting in another round of electrical power outages.

     Amazingly, there has been no mention of the obvious solution for “downed” power lines: bury them. In our neighborhood in southeast Denver, power is usually interrupted only when a negligent contractor digs up/cuts a line, not when we have sleet/ice accumulations on the trees. Just another example of America's woefully outdated, improvident infrastructure. “Pay me now” (increased property taxes) or “pay me later” (your plumber's bill). The tax increase might actually be less than repeated plumber's visit!

The Tea Party. Former US Senator James DeMint (R, SC), now head of the conservative Heritage Foundation, said on last Sunday's “Face the Nation” program that there is no real Tea Party. Rather, it is just Americans all over the country who favor limited government, with due attention paid to controlling the nation's debt and spending. Taken at face value those three items are probably on the minds of many Americans, left- or right-leaning. Of course, what matters most can be found in answering the old saw, “Whose ox is being gored?” Assuredly, money can be saved by cutting program X, but at what cost and, more importantly, with what unintended consequences? For example, cuts to food stamps contained in the recently passed farm bill.

Spending and employment. The numbers are out and, once again, the economy is sluggish. The obvious is not stressed enough in the popular press: the unemployed are severely limited in what they can spend. (Hopefully, food for the family tops the list, ahead of cigarettes, alcohol, drugs.) Job creation is the key to the nation's long term economic recovery, not long-term spending programs, no matter how well intended.

Olympic coverage. It is had to keep track of the events and results, what with the many time zones between Sochi and Denver and the hodgepodge of stations covering the games, all of whom want to subject you to as many commercials as possible. Unsurprisingly, there was this one absolute statement by a top Russian official: If the Russian men's hockey team wins the gold medal, the games will have been a success; less than gold and they are a “bust.” Meanwhile, the American women's hockey team plays for the gold, with the Russian women out of medal contention. A victory for Title 9?

Thank you for reading, cheer the athletic endeavors of all the Sochi participants, and please feel free to leave a comment here or with my email, davidvito41@gmail.com