Obama: What is progress?

“Progress comes when we open our hearts, when we extend our hands, when we recognize our common humanity. Progress comes when we look into the eyes of another and see the face of God. That we might do so – that we will do so all the time, not just some of the time – is my fervent prayer for our nation and the world.”

President Obama at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington

We feel the earth move under our feet

You are not entirely helpless during an earthquake.  There are some things you can do while it’s shaking, though it’s probably best to take measures before the shaking starts.

It was easy to guess the direction of today’s six-point-oh. Home for lunch, we counted forty seconds and could feel the shaking arrive from the southwest. “It’s out in the ocean, off Petrolia-big but not too close.”  We kept our minds off certain possibilities by analyzing the event as it happened. Turns out, we were pretty much right.  The epicenter was in the ocean off Petrolia. My hope is the volcano gods have released some tension and will go back to sleep now.

The high-schooler missed our recent 6.5 because she was taking a driving lesson and the car cushioned the effect of the quake. Today she was on the phone ASAP, wishing school would close and she could come home. These are the first real quakes local kids have experienced; it’s been a dry spell. We were due. Did you know Trinity County has less seismic activity than Humboldt?

Why do people vote against their own interests?

Food for thought from the BBC.

Old Whirlpool interrupts political theater

The State of the Union speech was vastly entertaining, especially when Obama chided the Supreme Court’s Republican majority to their reactionary faces. Crafting a speech is like baking a cake; Obama frosted this one Friday in a televised meeting with House Republicans. The President showed courage and assertiveness, pinning the opposition to their narrow-minded base of support. Meanwhile, the Republican Party’s national committee shrank that base further yet, passing a new litmus test for candidates. Toe the line, or out you go.

California’s Democratic legislators, faced with impossible budget deficits and mounting debt, voted (again) to pander to their own base. Their answer for health care is to waste time passing a dead-on-arrival government  health care plan.  Arnold vetoed the last one and promises to veto this one, too.  When it comes to health care reform, the left has a real problem. Inflexible leadership continues to defer solutions for political talking points.  I wish they would take an incremental approach, including  standardized reimbursements, price controls and re-mutualization, but it’s politically easier to support single-payer, no matter how lost the cause.  By playing inflexibly to their party’s own voter base, they are no different than the Republicans in Congress.

Obama made history. California’s leglislative Democrats only repeated it. 

We say good-bye to a 25-year old washing machine this weekend. The old Whirlpool gave up it’s last tub of water Friday afternoon, all over the floor.  Even though we were home we didn’t catch it in time to protect the wall. A new machine is on the way (matching dryer, too!) and I get to learn about wet sheetrock.  Have a warm weekend.

Steve Glazer to run Jerry Brown’s campaign?

SFGate, the Chronicle’s blog, reports it. Glazer is locally famous, again and again and again.

Neighborduck Watch, Day 2

Note: Neighborduck Watch Day 1 (below) sets the scene for this post.

At 6:15 a.m. it’s dark outside. I stepped out the door and aimed my mag-light at the spot where hunters often park. No reflection. Good.  I can see the spot from this computer desk. The front floodlights are on.  The neighbors down the road are up, too.  We are watching.  If we do get visitors, they will find a flyer on their windshield after their hunt:

Hunting this property is by written permission only.

Permission slip required on request.

Trespassers will be reported to Law Enforcement.

CA Fish and Game Code Section 3004: (a) It is unlawful for any person, other than the owner, person in possession of the premises, or a person having the express permission of the owner or person in possession of the premises, to hunt or to discharge while hunting, any firearm or other deadly weapon within 150 yards of any occupied dwelling house, residence, or other building or any barn or other outbuilding used in connection therewith. The 150-yard area is a “safety zone.”

CAMERAS ARE IN USE AROUND THIS PROPERTY

 Start-up information and supplies are available at the National Neighborhood Watch Institute. 

Update:  Maybe yesterday’s activity was noticed. Maybe our signs helped.  Whatever, no problems this morning. Good.

–Greg

Neighborduck Watch

Most of the time, most country people prefer to be left alone. Up ’til today, our Neighborhood Watch group has been us and the guy next door. This morning turned into a surprise membership drive.  Neighbors were on the phone up and down the road at dawn.  One neighbor drove up to the house and knocked on the door. We called the Sheriff. Another neighbor called the game warden.

Neighborhood ranches attract poachers this time of year. Some hunters can’t resist one lake that is simply too close to town.  Self-respecting sportsmen won’t hunt the property because it’s too close.  With written permisson from a property manager, though, it’s legal, as long as they shoot from a far enough distance from any occupied dwelling. The law gives a resident 150 yards. Past that, it’s legal to shoot. The county almost looked at this issue in 1992, but decided to fall back on the state ordinance instead.

Before today’s sunrise, gunfire interrupted the night from a hundred yards away, jolting our neighbors awake.  Moments later, we watched from our kitchen, on the phone with a deputy sheriff, as a hunter opened fire 140 yards from our place.  We have measured these distances. The sheriff had sent a car by earlier, and they came out for a look but would not follow up on the illegal shooting. I’m disappointed in that decision.

The neighborhood is doing something about it.  Today we posted twenty-five No Hunting/Trespassing signs. More neighborhood watch signs will go up. The local game warden is being updated, and the property manager has agreed to require written permission so we can tell who’s a poacher and who is hunting legally. He is ready to write notes for the six or eight people he says can hunt the property, and we’re ready to remind them of the 150-yard rule. Anyone without a note is a poacher, and the property manager agreed to back up the neighborhood with trespassers. Anyone firing within 150 yard is violating state law and we are taking pictures. Maybe I can talk the ranger into parking in the driveway tomorrow morning. Coffee’s on.

This is not a town problem. Gunfire like this would mean something different in town. We live in duck hunter paradise, out here where most of the time, most people prefer to be left alone.

More here.

–Greg

Beach under siege by surf

 

 Loleta bottoms, Eel River delta, today.

Good people in Hard Times

by Greg

Last Friday began quietly enough at my desk. I expected most people would be looking ahead to the weekend, and I could catch up on paperwork, but two surprise office visitors and a chance encounter at the grocery store made last Friday different.  I changed the names so I could share the experience.

 ”Al” is about 60, a small businessowner and a caring guy. I’ve known him for thirty years and his wife’s family even longer. Al’s business is off, his wife is losing her job (and her health insurance) and he may be losing his wife.  He popped by the office on his way to a business appointment to share his circumstances and (I think) get some feedback. Al could only stay a few minutes. I hope we talk again soon. He has my home number.

“Jack” used to be a sales manager earning six figures. He had dropped in earlier when I was out, and left a card. Returning Friday, he waited about fifteen minutes t0 see if we were potential customers for his new employer. Jack’s  management job tanked, so he is selling business products now.  We talked about job ideas in Humboldt County and came up with pot-farming and the census bureau (it’s at census.gov and they are hiring). Jack may have to leave his ancestral Humboldt community to survive. He’s fifty, and he wrote down the census bureau’s web address before he left.

On my way home I stopped by the grocery store. ”Larry” was headed out with his basket as I approached the front door.  Larry is about eighty, a retired teacher who lives in the country.  I greeted him, “Happy New Year, Larry!” He gave me a look that said “oh, really?” and I replied,  “at least it’s not 2009, sort of like Obama’s not Bush”. We stood in front of the store for awhile, discussing Goldman Sachs (criminal), greed (pervasive), and the doctrine of Separation of Church and State (essential to protect religious freedoms). We agreed that GS is getting away with it,  growth-fueled speculation is unsustainable, you can’t take it with you anyway, and we don’t want government run by church or vice-versa.  I patted him on the back. “Happy New Year Anyway, Larry”.   

I hope to see Al, Jack and Larry soon. Maybe there will be better news.

Open thread on The Weather

8 a.m. Saturday. Humboldt County, CA.

It’s not raining. Yet.

1o a.m. Accuweather.com warns 

California will be hit hard by an onslaught of major storms this upcoming week. Each storm will cause mounting problems like flooding and increasing threat of mudslides. Take this threat seriously, and understand that this is not something we have seen the likes of in quite some time.

They predict rain by noon. It’s time to split some kindling.  Read more.