Monthly Archives: December 2010

A “Turbo” Christmas to remember..

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(First posted at TheZoo December 3, 2007)

This Christmas story takes place around 11 14 years ago..

At the time, our son Sean was around 10 years old. Sean is a special kind of guy. He was born with Down Syndrome, and he is also hearing impaired. Language has always been really tough for him, and he has always been extremely difficult to understand. His use of expressive language is limited, and he was stubborn enough at that point in his life that he refused to learn more than a handful of signs (ASL).

Sean LOVES Christmas. It has always been his favorite time of the year. He gets more excited about Christmas than all of us in our family put together. We have a line of photos that we put up every year, all with his visits to Santa at the mall, for each and every year. It wouldn’t be Christmas without visiting Santa.

This particular Christmas, the movie “Jingle All The Way” (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) came out. In case you haven’t seen this movie, it is the story of a dad (Schwarzenegger) who is a workaholic and doesn’t spend enough time with his family—always seeming to let them down. His young son, Jamie, is enamored with the “red hot” action figure Turboman, and it’s all he wants for Christmas. Jamie’s mom (Rita Wilson) had asked the dad to pick the doll up for their son weeks before Christmas, but dad was too busy and forgot. She asks him again two days before Christmas if he remembered. He lies, saying he had (intending to do it the following day – Christmas Eve), and to his horror he learns that there are none to be found anywhere. It is a wild ride of a movie as this dad goes nuts trying to lay his hand on a Turboman doll for his son – along with LOTS of other frantic parents.

So.., it comes as no surprise that all Sean wanted for Christmas that year was a Turboman doll. (Sean has always LOVED movies). He wrote “Turboman” everywhere. (His writing skills have always been excellent). He pointed to the calendar, and to Christmas Day (Dec. 25th), and would then hand me pieces of paper with “Turboman” written on them. I began to find his notes in my purse. Then, he started writing SANTA and TURBOMAN together..

I started to have an uncomfortable feeling in the pit of my stomach..

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The Watering Hole: December 23 – Slide Rules

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Back in the days before electronic slide rules did not exist, engineers and physical scientist relied on a primative device called the slide rule. . This device did not have any buttons and no batteries to run down.

A good slide rule could replace many mechanical devices including the adding machine and the Spirule for root locus diagramming.

Slide rule accuracy was an issue during WW II where artillery forces and navigation were crucial. The Norton bomb-sight was actually a combination of three slide rules with two directional velocity sensors and a gradient calculator. I am aware of slide rules lengths of 72 inches used for airfoil design.

The slide rule is based on Euler’s work with logarithms.

Today, the common slide rule is but a fading memory, but it was used by people vibrantly alive today in their daily work.

This is our Open Thread. Please feel free to add your thoughts on this, or any other topic that comes to mind.

The Repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”

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Many folks are curious about the effect of the repeal of DADT. Here’s the text of the bill signed by President Obama:

H.R.2965 — Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010 (Enrolled Bill [Final as Passed Both House and Senate] – ENR)

–H.R.2965–

H.R.2965

One Hundred Eleventh Congress

of the

United States of America

AT THE SECOND SESSION
Begun and held at the City of Washington on Tuesday,

the fifth day of January, two thousand and ten

An Act

To amend the Small Business Act with respect to the Small Business Innovation Research Program and the Small Business Technology Transfer Program, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010′.

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Watering Hole: December 20, 2010 – Profound Quotes and Something Special

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Some profound statements:

“You can’t wake a person who is pretending to be asleep.”  ~Navajo Proverb

“Believe those who are seeking the truth.  Doubt those who find it.”  ~Andre Gide

“You’ve got a lot of choices.  If getting out of bed in the morning is a chore and you’re not smiling on a regular basis, try another choice.”  ~Steven D. Woodhull

A few quotes from Will Rogers:

“An economist’s guess is liable to be as good as anybody else’s.”

“Ancient Rome declined because it had a Senate, now what’s going to happen to us with both a House and a Senate?”

“Do the best you can, and don’t take life too serious.”

A few quotes from Mark Twain:

“A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain.”

“Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living.  The world owes you nothing.  It was here first.”

“Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable.”

A few quotes from the Dalai Lama:

“Whether one believes in a religion or not, and whether one believes in rebirth or not, there isn’t anyone who doesn’t appreciate kindness and compassion.”

“Love and kindness are the very basis of society.  If we lose these feelings,
society will face tremendous difficulties; the survival of humanity will be
endangered.

“We find that if a person lives a very selfish life and is never concerned about the welfare of others, he will have few friends, and people will not take much notice of him.  At the time of his death, there will not be many people who will regret his passing.  Some deceptive and negative persons may be very powerful and wealthy, and therefore some people- for economic reasons and so forth- might portray themselves as friends, but they will speak against such person behind their back.  When these negative person die, these very same “friends” may rejoice at their death.

“On the other hand, many people mourn and regret the death of a person who is
very kind and always altruistic and who works for the benefit of others.  We
find that altruism, as well as the person who possesses it, is regarded as the friend of all, and it becomes the object of veneration and respect by others.”

And finally, my favorite quote from the tab on a Yogi Tea bag….

“Be so happy that when others look at you they become happy, too.”

This is today’s Open Thread.  Do you have any opinions on the above quotes or do you have a favorite quote that you would like to share?  It is a free for all so Speak Up!

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Sunday Roast: Rebooting the American Dream, Chapter 5

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Chapter Five of Thom Hartmann’s book, Rebooting the American Dream: 11 Ways to Rebuild Our Country, is called “Medicare ‘Part E’ – For Everybody.”

This week’s chapter is about the real need to keep up, maintain, and even expand the social safety net in this country.  Really, the social safety net is not a joke.  People are not choosing to

be homeless, or without healthcare, or sitting home waiting for that big time unemployment check — they want to work.  They want to contribute to society, and make it a better place for everyone.  That’s true of most people in the world, I think, but it’s also a big part of the American work ethic.

One great way to make this country stronger, more secure, and more productive is to make sure every single American has access to the healthcare we need, at a cost we can afford.  No one should ever have to worry about going bankrupt because of medical bills.

Medical care in the United States is about profit first, executive bonuses second, and medicine and the health of the people come in somewhere down the list.  To me, that is immoral.

We already have Medicare, which is a fairly comprehensive basic health insurance/health-care program that covers nearly all Americans over 65 years of age. It is, in essence, a single-payer health-care program. Obama and the Democrats could easily push to expand the Medicare program to allow Americans of all ages to participate in it, and all they’d need is a simple majority, not a supermajority.

And here’s the most amazing part: this would be totally consistent with what President Lyndon B. Johnson and the folks in his administration and Congress had in mind when they created Medicare in July 1965.

Yep!  President Johnson saw Medicare as a program that could be adjusted over time to lower the qualifying age incrementally, until all Americans could be covered.  Simple!!  I like simple.  I adore simple!   Continue reading →

(Updated) DADT vote in the Senate — REPEALED!!

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UPDATE:  With a vote of 65 to 31, the odious policy of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell has been REPEALED.  All service members will now serve their country completely honorably.  This is a great day in America!

On this historic day, December 18, 2010, having gotten past the intransigent Senate filibuster of EVERYTHING, the odious policy of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell will come up for a vote.

A little background first. Prior to President Reagan, the policy had been that “homosexual conduct was inconsistent with military standards.” It was okay to be gay provided you didn’t do anything that was gay. Under Reagan, this was changed to “Homosexuality is inconsistent with military standards.” Now you couldn’t even be gay even if you were celibate your entire term of service. (There was actually a Senator who, during the DADT debate hearings, thought that it would be impossible for gay people to be celibate for four years. This same Senator was once married to Elizabeth Taylor. Go figure.)

The current policy concerning homosexuality in the military can be found here. Rep Patrick Murphy’s bill ( found here ) would not so much repeal DADT, but repeals Section 654 entirely. In other words, there would be no policy at all concerning gays serving in the military. There are already military rules against public displays of affection in uniform, and that would not change. So the idea that gays will start making out while in uniform is just plain wrong. They wouldn’t make out in uniform any more than straight people would. Passage of this law would repeal the “Policy concerning homosexuality in the armed forces.” Which would mean that being gay would not be an issue in and of itself.

Please join us in the comments section and watch the vote with us here.

The Watering Hole: December 18 – Language

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The Tower of Babel

When I was about three months past three, my Mom gave birth to triplets. I took the event as best I could from being an only child to an also-ran. Three months after they were born, I ran away from home with the intention of going to Grandmother’s house. I stuffed a box of raisins and one day’s worth of undies into my knapsack. The police nailed me about a mile from home (I was actually on the right route for the venture), but that is not the subject of this post.

At about 8 or 9 months the triplets started babbling amongst themselves (They shared the same room). What was unusual was that I understood what they were saying. They spoke their own language on a steady basis until they were about two when they started to pick up English. My Father called their language “Triplet”. I acted as a translator. They actually kept using the “Triplet” language along with English until they were about 5. After that, I can only wonder.

This is our Open Thread. Please feel free to add your thoughts on this, or any other topic that comes to mind.