DoctorD's Observations

Birthday

I'm am discovering today what it is like to be 68.  Not too good!  One important thing went wrong early in the morning (a significant piece of mail was sent without a stamp).

But I did receive a number of nice greetings, and my wife and I had a pleasant dinner out.  And I am very aware that there are many people who don't last 68 whole years, or who at this age have illnesses or injuries worse than my own. So, there are things to be thankful for.

Which side are you on, boys?

Which political/economic program do you want?:

--giving more of taxpayers money to the very few wealthiest Americans, the economic and financial elite, those who need it the least?

--using taxpayers money to help create jobs, improve education, assist the unemployed, expand health care coverage, aid next-generation industries, encourage the housing market, improve roads and bridges (infrastructure)?

The Republicans are, to use an impolite word choice, solely in the business of raping the lower, working, and middle classes.  They have been engaged in a huge transfer of wealth upwards during the last couple decades, but they want to do it some more.  Apparently the lust for income and assets at the very top of the income scale is essentially insatiable.  So we read that Mel Gibson (to cite one recent example in the news) spends $600,000 each month to support himself.  Just himself.  For him, one month's income is more than I ever made by working for a decade.  I have enjoyed many of his movies, but really, this is ridiculous.

These--what shall we call them, plutocrats?--not only have wanted unlimited wealth for themselves, but they want to be able to transfer it do their heirs, tax free.  Really, aren't they trying to reestablish the kind of aristocracy that our democratic, republican nation has always opposed?

The Democrats, who once were in the position of being the protectors of the disadvantaged, now find that they have many more people to worry about.  Not only the poor and minorities, but also working families, home-owning families, small business owners.  Regular people, people like me and you..

The choice, going into the November elections, couldn't be clearer.  The Republicans transferred income upward.  Then they cheated millions of ordinary people out of their much more limited assets during their financial crisis and great recession:  homes, retirement savings, jobs, health insurance, pensions plans.

And now they want to keep the good times (for them) rolling.

Really, which side are you on?

Has housing ceased to be a good investment?

Real US Housing Prices

Down-shifting

It is increasingly clear that my expectations are "too high," and need to be lowered.

First, perhaps, my expectations for myself.  At my age and in my condition of health, I am not able to do "as much" or perform "aw well" as I used to.  That gap shows itself in many ways, physical and mental or intellectual.  In a kind of physical awkwardness, or lack of precision in movements.  In problems breathing for sure, and definitely in sleeping deeply.

So I need to get used to that, or those.

But, there are so many additional areas where the "standards" I have, what I learned from my parents, growing up in a good suburban city in the 1950s, with Dwight Eisenhower and then John Kennedy as presidents, set me up for frustration and disappointment.

So many people aren't as good as I would like them to be.  As moral, as kind-hearted or considerate.

Huge numbers aren't as smart, or as informed and reasonable.  This problem, it seems to me, is getting a lot worse, inflamed by the media, economic recession, and the shock of having elected a president who is a member of a "minority group."  But while it is especially true of conservatives, there is a fair amount of unthoughtfulness on the liberal side, too.

The political system isn't as effective as it should be.  The financial system.  The university system, the health care system, the legal system.

The system that provides our food (like eggs laid by chickens).

The transportation system, the roads and bridges.

The state of the environment.

I could go on and on.  In so many areas, things in the U.S. fall short of what they "ought" to be.  But, at the same time, perhaps I need to lower my standards for "ought."  Maybe this is as good as we can do any more?  Maybe I was brought up in a relatively golden time, when major accomplishments--putting a man on the moon, for example, or eliminating the heritage of slavery, the reducing the problems of paying for health care being experienced by so many of the elderly--could be considered possible, and actually worth attempting.  Eliminating billboards along our highways, keeping American beautiful--that was always one of my favorites.  Boy, that sure didn't happen!

Only a few of these kinds of good things are considered possible now, and proposals for good things are generally opposed by really powerful financial, corporate, and political interests, winning the support of well-organized but uninformed whack-a-doos.

And, maybe, that is just how it is.  Maybe I need to recognize all these shortcomings more clearly, but more calmly.

Maybe what I need is to downshift, to shift down, and lower my expectations.

The era we live in now is one in which things are getting worse.  That is how it is, and how it is going to be.  And, along with everything else, I am getting worse too.  I need to hold onto these realities more calmly.

Like the Buddha did.  Actually, I think it is fair to say, like our nation's Founders did:  they had a realistic appraisal of human foibles and fallabilities.

There is an example:  a word I can't quite figure out how to spell.  In the old days, in my young years, it wouldn't be a problem.  Now it is.  That is how things are now.

Complexity theory

"If the world were so simple 

That we could understand it

Then we would be so simple

That we couldn't"

=========================

I don't think I really wrote the above lines.  I think I must have read them, or something very much like them, years ago.  I do like the sentiment, though, and the unusual construction of the phrases.

If anyone knows the true original source, I would appreciate the reference.

Don't you agree that the world is so complicated?  How does one know for sure, for example, whether or not it is healthy to eat Gulf shellfish?  I doubt that there is any way to know for sure.

Interior deterioration

I've been having some heart issues again:  irregular heartbeat, breathing difficulty, sleeping difficulties too, a bit lightheaded.  Had a bunch of tests, and I will post something about the results when they are known.

To me, at the moment at least my big concern is that we will be able to go on our long-planned, long-anticipated road trip to Oregon.

Private sector job creation, 2008 - present

Job creation

For my students today

A Poet Takes His Ease

Last week I shared with you a half dozen poems

Written by me, myself or I

All alone, individually

Personal creations each one was

And most of them, auto-biographical also

Not this week, though!

I’ll try to get by with only a couple bits of posey

(Not more than that)

And each written by someone else, too

And why not?

Even Shakespeare I bet

Sometimes needed to pause 

Perhaps Rabbie Burns took time off

For the occasional round of golf

Kerouac smoked weed and

Li Po got drunk

There! I rest my case

Disconnected

We  were without any Comcast services for a while:  telephone, internet, and television.  As were at least some of our neighbors.  It is fixed now, but it is disconcerting to see how connected-dependent I am (we are). 

Guess we won't be moving to rural Montana, which in many other ways, I consider a desirable place to be.