June, 2004 Week 4

Monday June 21 , 2004

We can put television in its proper light by supposing that Gutenberg's great invention had been directed at printing only comic books.

Robert M. Hutchins, educator (1899-1977)

School for Michael didn't work out... there is no way he can do the work of a 'normal' Sophomore in Algebra... no way. They put him in a class with 'Regular ED' kids and he was like ditch digger at a Quilting Bee... He is really frustrated... so are we. Mike is a first degree hedonist, he needs constant supervision.

"B" had fun and seems to enjoy his new school... the kids there are so needy that he looks like the model child... Cindy is doing well at Vasquez...

Tuesday June 22 , 2004

We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love on another."

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), Irish-born English writer, "Gulliver's Travels"

An article in the NYTimes written by David Brooks... a conservative who I occasionally read just to to keep in touch with the what is getting them excited. What I enjoy about him is that he takes an interesting concept, like Religion in Politics and twists and teases it till it's turns in to another simplistic shallow Republican Good vs Evil; Enlightened vs Duped. I don't like it much but I agree with him today... the fact that John Kerry is not openly religious is one of the reasons he isn't ahead of Bush. Bush discovered Jesus when he was told he could be Governor of Texas... made a big deal of it, he wears his religion on his sleeve and that is the extra oomph gets him elected governor and president. Unless the candidate professes a strong belief in Jesus, Santa Clause and the Tooth Fairy then he is doomed. I hate it but it's true... Freedom of Religious and Freedom from Religion are one in the same to me... not to a Republican... The Republican party will never elect a Jew or a Muslim or an Atheist... Even though you will never find two Christians who believe the same thing you will never see anyone but a Christian nominated... let me rephrase that, you won't find anyone not professing to be a Christian nominated for any political office. The only way a Republican Jew can get elected is to deem himself to be a Democrat... Like Lieberman...

Wednesday June 23 , 2004

A local coffee shop has a way to make sure that children are well behaved. A sign advises parents that all children left unattended will be given two shots of espresso and a free puppy.

I took off to Boston at 0730, I went through Las Vegas and decided at the last minute to go through Zion National Park... mistake... it cost me $10.00 just to ride through the park... pretty petty of them... I rode up the Carmel Mountain Valley ... beautiful ride... and stayed at a KOA in Richfield, Utah... I have never stayed at a KOA before.

Thursday June 24 , 2004

I got a pretty early start and rode through the Rockies... it was a bit overcast and Vail and Loveland passes were a little chilly... I made it to Fort Collins and called Cousin John at work to let him know I was in town... I met him at his house about an hour later, Carrie showed up about 15 minutes after that. We went out to an Italian place for dinner, it was a long wait but the food and company was good... John was off to Texas in the AM,

Friday June 25 , 2004

I got another early start for Orvil's home outside Des Moines... it's a long ride. Carrie said I could save some time [not distance] by going due north to Cheyenne, Wyoming and getting on 80 West... I did... I noticed that Colorado is relatively free of Billboards when I crossed the State Line and the Billboards were about 40 feet apart all the way into Cheyenne... they thinned out as I headed East. I wonder what the Republicans think about the Billboards... the ones in Colorado must lament the restrictions to free enterprise, and the ones in Wyoming must be afraid someone will put one in their back yard....

I was going at a pretty good clip through Nebraska, following a line of cars doing about 95mph just past Grand Island I got back up to speed and was pulled over for doing 86 in a 75 mph zone... he wrote me up for ding 85... out of the kindness of his little black heart. He called it speeding... I sort of resent that... 'Exceeding the Speed Limit' perhaps but the term Speeding implies recklessness and endangerment to others... I was just keeping up with traffic, the problem being that they saw the cop... I didn't. Well, I deserved it I guess... the world is now safe from 61 year old grandfathers on BMW's terrorizing the highways. The experience sort of soured the day...

I got into Colfax Iowa about 1830... Sheryl had a hamburger ready for me... Orvil and I talked for a while but his back was causing him considerable pain so we retired early...

Saturday June 26 , 2004

I decided to hook up my Radar Detector in an attempt to reduce the possibility of having a replay of my encounter with the local constabularies. Orvil and I spent about an hour in the morning extending the cord to the battery jack, the one I had was too short...

I left about 0800 and rode up to Waterloo to see Cousin Jeannie and Aunt Leah... I had a map from MapQuest to find my way but it was no good... It had me looking for roads that didn't exist... it took an extra half an hour of stumbling around to get to her house. Jeannie is a busy girl, she is a full time babysitter for two of her grand children in the evenings during the week, holds down a job and visit's her Mom Leah three times a day... Leah is 92 and living in an assisted living facility about 10 minutes from Jeannie's. Leah seemed to have a difficult time remembering me, she is very dependent on Jeannie... I am really glad I had an opportunity to stop by.

Jeannie and I had lunch and talked about family... it was a nice visit.

I took off for Iowa City about 1330, a made a wrong turn and lost about an hour. I rode as far as I could, I got a Motel in La Salle, Illinois...

Sunday June 27 , 2004

I got an early start and headed out across Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. In Youngstown Hwy 80 and hwy 73 merge for about 10 miles, I wanted to stay on 80 but I missed the fork in the road where they diverged... I was about 75 miles down the road before I noticed that I had missed my turn... I was disappointed in myself and decided to continue on down to Hwy 70 and see my Sister-in-law and her husband instead and hit cousin Barbara on the way back... I traveled on for a while and stopped for gas. I put my helmet on top of the pump and filled up, I got to talking to a guy next to me and got distracted... I rode the bike over about 100 yards and parked to go into the restaurant... as I was heading for the door I remembered my helmet... I went back to get it and it was gone... I looked all over the place... I finally had to head out... there is no helmet law in Pennsylvania so I tried to continue on... I made it as far as Somerset and quit... I don't like riding without a helmet, it's more comfortable and I feel a lot safer... There was a Harley Davidson place in town and the whole town seemed to be crawling with bikers of every description. I talked to a lady riding a Sportster and she said there was a place about 4 miles out of town that sold Motorcycle and Snowmobile Accessories... I rode over there and the sign said they would be open on Monday at 0900. I got a room at a Knight's Inn and waited... This would cost me the better part of a day but worth it...

EUROPE'S VOTERS GO SEMI-COMATOSE

June 21, 2004 Geneva – The last time I stayed at Geneva’s storied Hotel du Rhone, the summer of 1958, a room, with breakfast, cost 20 Swiss francs, then US $4.80. An African nationalist leader was assassinated in the chic lobby bar by French intelligence agents, or `barbouzes,’ who had laced his champagne with cyanide; and I got a big wet kiss on the cheek and a bear hug from Egypt’s rotund King Farouk.

Geneva is quieter these days. The world has passed it by. One feels in a total time warp. My old high school, the Ecole Internationale de Geneve, remains a bastion of civilized internationalism in our era of manic nationalism and religious crusading. The city core is largely unchanged. Even a ghastly old night club I went to when I turned 16, complete with a juggler, acrobat, and exotic danseuse, has reopened.

The Swiss like things this way. Having refused to join the EU, they are content to watch the storms and passions of the outside world pass them by. The only thing that changes here are the prices – up, never down.

The good citizens of Geneva have been observing with interest and some scorn recent elections to the toothless European parliament, and efforts by the EU’s 25 leaders to forge a new constitution.

For many years, the world’s most boring political spectacle was the endless wrangling between Canada’s provinces and federal government. But this title now goes to the European Union, a bureaucratic monstrosity so complex and impenetrable that even its well-tailored legions of overpaid, do-nothing bureaucrats don’t understand how it work or what they are supposed to be doing besides preparing economic reports in 20 languages that no one reads .

Last week’s elections produced a dismal voter turnout and severe punishment for governments that either backed President George Bush’s jihad in Iraq, or those that tried to trim ruinously expensive pension programs - the nemesis of all of Europe’s welfare governments.

Only anti-EU fringe parties did well. Most shocking, voter turnout in the EU’s former communist states was abysmal: 20% in Poland; 17% in Slovakia. So much for the `liberated’ East thirsting for democracy.

It used to be said money was the Achilles Heel of democracies; but today, voter apathy has become a greater menace. Only half of Americans bother to vote in presidential polls; far less in congressional and state races. Even here in Switzerland, the world’s oldest and purest democracy, where all major issues are determined by referendum, voter turnout has plummeted to 25%.

Voter fatigue across the EU and the complexity of ballot issues, are in part to blame, but it’s also clear that western Europeans, besides producing too few babies to restock their nations, are just too lazy, indifferent or brained-numbed from TV to bother voting. Unless voting is made possible via TV sets or the internet, voter indifference threatens to open the way to government by unelected bureaucrats or even dictatorial regimes.

Europeans are also vexed by massive political confusion. No one is sure who is in charge of what. National governments are battling with EU bureaucracies, regulations are in flux, and there is massive overlapping of regulatory functions as the supra-national EU regime is imposed on formerly independent states. On top of all this, people are still trying to figure out the difference between Slovaks and Slovenes, where exactly Vilnius is located, and how to translate the Swedish word for raw herring into Maltese.

Difficult as things are for the EU, Britain is doing its very best to make them worse. Tony Blair has imposed so many restrictive conditions to British EU membership, and so many demands for veto power, the UK is barely part of a united Europe.

This past weekend, weary leaders representing 430 million voters, finally hammered out an agreement for an EU constitution that pleased no one and left the union still pretty loosey goosey. This pact must now be approved by referendums in the EU member states, and already a great hue and cry of protest is being raised. Most Europeans desire the EU, but only on their own terms, and provided their oxen do not get gored.

The British want it both ways: all the commercial benefits of EU membership while serving US interests, and keeping their currency, tax and labor laws, foreign policy, and the right to make the world’s greasiest sausages. Britain’s `Daily Mail’ just sneered that the real US Ambassador to Britain is Tony Blair.

The French, and other angry Europeans, accuse the Brits of being a Trojan Horse for the Americans and grumble about kicking out `perfidious Albion.’

So far, it’s Euro-chaos on a grand scale. Rome was not built in a day and neither will be Brussels. Give Europe ten more years to sort out the mess and figure out such life and death issues as how many pickles go into a regulation Euro jar.

Posted by Eric Margolis at 01:24 PM | Comments (0)