More stuff on Creativity & Suicide

I found another web page about Creativity & Suicide, this one by professionals, so it shows it just not me that noticed this trend. http://www.wga.org/health/creativity_suicide.html

This gives food for thought too"
Manic-Depressive Illness and Creativity http://www.wga.org/health/creativity_bipolar.html

Judge candidates advertises on beer glasses

OK, OK, I know the last three posts were pretty serious & depressing, so, back to BEER !!
Wow, too bad I didn't print my ads on beer mugs when I ran for Municipal Court Judge back in 1988. Maybe I would have won !? I learned a lot from that election, mostly, I learned I didn't want to run for anything ever again. I would run for a hand crafted beer though.
The real beer page has a lot of fun stuff on it, click around while you are there
Dave
http://www.realbeer.com/news/articles/news-002565.php

Don't Blame Newsweek

When I started this blog way back last month, I had intended to stay away from discussing the prison abuses in Irag, Afganistan and 'Gitmo despite the fact that its obvious the abuses were casued by the Bush administrations "wink, wink, nudge, nudge" and open approval for torture (sorry Monthy Python http://bau2.uibk.ac.at/sg/python/monty.html; here is the script of the skit but it sure losses a lot in just a bare reading! http://bau2.uibk.ac.at/sg/python/Scripts/NudgeNudge,KnowWhatIMean) .

But now that Newsweek is being blamed for the riots in Afganistahn, I am compelled to at least mention it.

"The story about Americans abusing the Koran in order to enrage prisoners has been out there for quite some time. "
"As Riley used to say on an ancient television sitcom, "This is a revoltin' development." There seems to be a bit of a campaign on the right to blame Newsweek for the anti-American riots in Afghanistan, Pakistan and other Islamic countries."
"...the story about Americans abusing the Koran in order to enrage prisoners has been out there for quite some time. The first mention I found of it is March 17, 2004, when the Independent of London interviewed the first British citizen released from Guantanamo Bay." For the rest of the article:
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/22026/

I found another story on this issue:
"If there is a political playbook for right-wing conservatives these days, it no doubt begins, Step #1: Whenever possible, blame the news media.
What to do if the U.S. invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq have sparked a persistent and bloody resistance that eats away at the president's political capital?
Blame journalists.
That's exactly what the Bush administration and its rhetorical attack dogs are doing with the "scandal" over Newsweek's story on the desecration of the Koran at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo."

"First, it's not clear whether U.S. guards in Guantanamo or other prisons have placed copies of the Koran on a toilet or thrown pages (or a whole Koran) into a toilet. Detainees have made such claims, which have been reported by attorneys representing some of the men in custody and denied by U.S. officials. Newsweek's retraction is ambiguous, suggesting they believe the incident may have happened but no longer can demonstrate that it was cited in the specific U.S. government documents, as originally reported.
Given the abuse and torture -- from sexual humiliation to beatings to criminal homicide -- that has gone on in various U.S. military prison facilities, it's not hard to believe that the Koran stories could be true." read the whole article: http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/22022/

Bush: Worst President Ever?

"Herbert Hoover may have triggered the Great Depression, but he didn't invade another nation on false pretenses, authorize torture of prisoners, or try to stack the courts. "
"President Bush's actions and policies have destroyed America's image as a nation that adheres to a set of core values, such as the rule of law, humane treatment of prisoners, presumed innocence, trial by jury and respect for international laws."
read more
http://www.alternet.org/story/22057/

Turn in your family or go to jail

The party that claims it is for smaller government and rights of the individual is at it again.

"Neighbors spying on neighbors? Mothers forced to turn in their sons or daughters? These are images straight out of George Orwell's 1984, or a remote totalitarian state. We don't associate them with the land of the free and the home of the brave, but that doesn't mean they couldn't happen here. A senior congressman, James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), is working quietly but efficiently to turn the entire United States population into informants--by force.
Sensenbrenner, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee Chairman, has introduced legislation that would essentially draft every American into the war on drugs. H.R. 1528, cynically named "Safe Access to Drug Treatment and Child Protection Act," would compel people to spy on their family members and neighbors, and even go undercover and wear a wire if needed. If a person resisted, he or she would face mandatory incarceration.
Here's how the "spy" section of the legislation works:
If you "witness" certain drug offenses taking place or "learn" about them, you must report the offenses to law enforcement within 24 hours and provide "full assistance in the investigation, apprehension and prosecution" of the people involved. Failure to do so would be a crime punishable by a mandatory minimum two-year prison sentence, and a maximum sentence of 10 years."

OK, you get the point, read the rest of the article http://www.alternet.org/rights/22048/

After reading this I thought it may be a hoax, how could the REPUBLICANS back such a measure!!?? so I did a little research, yep, this is a real bill sponsered by a real republican.
Read the bill here http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h109-1528
or here http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:H.R.1528:

CDC admits beer drinkers may be healthier - but won't credit beer

Is beer health food? I always thought so :)
After reading the article click around the real beer web site, its a lot of fun.
"Two new health studies released in April can be confusing enough to cause you to reach for a beer. It appears that while moderate drinking may be part of a healthy lifestyle, the alcohol itself might not be why you are healthier. And it seems that while red wine might be good for you, it's no better for yourblood pressure than beer. The details:" http://www.realbeer.com/news/articles/news-002535.php

Creativity and Suicide

Well, it happened again. Some writer I enjoyed reading killed him/herself. This time it was Hunter S. Thompson. I thought why does this happen so often so i started researching it. The two both interesting site were

Signs of Suicidal Tendencies Found Hidden in Dead Poets Writings
http://www.namiscc.org/newsletters/July01/suicideprevention.htm

Scanning Literary Verse for Literal Clues to Suicides from: The Los Angeles Times - August 27, 2001 by Renee Tawa http://www.plathonline.com/articles/LAT082701.html

I tried to make a list of wroters who committed suicide and came up with the following list in less than 15 minutes. I'm sure there are many I missed

Richard bratigan 49 suicide
Hunter S Thompson suicide
Edward Abby, 62 long illness
Ernest Hemingway suicide
Jack Kerouas 47, alcohol related causes
Sylvia Plath, 30, killed herself in 1963
John Berryman, Pulitzer Prize-winning poets, leaped off a bridge
Anne Sexton, poet, 45, left her car running in a closed garage
Sylvia Plath, celebrated poet and novelist, who stuck her head in a gas oven
Hart Crane,
Sergei Esenin,
Adam L. Gordon,
Randall Jarrell,
Vladimir Mayakovsky,
Sarah Teasdale
Stefan Zweig Austrian-born writer, he and his wife committed suicide together; in Rio de Janeiro Brazil in 1942 http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/szweig.htm
Natalie Jackson, not a writer but hung out with the likes of jack kerouc Neal Cassidy, William Burroughs, she slit her throat and fell off a roof to her death

Is Iraq Viet Nam on Speed?

At 30: Iraq and the Vietnam Syndrome

If you started reading this Blog from the bottom, then you know that it was the realization that the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe and the end of the Viet Nam War was both on April 30th, threw me into a philophisical spin that ended up with me looking for a way to express my views, hence this weblog.

I ran across this article comparing Viet Nam and Iraq. http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/21912/

This comparison is something a lot of people don't want to make, but if we can't learn from our mistakes, then we shouldn't make mistakes, right?

At the beginning of Iraq War II there was a lot of talk about "we have learned not to repeat our mistakes from Viet Nam". Come to find out what that really meant was limiting information such as embedded reporters, no pictures of flag drapped caskets and no counting of cilivian dead.

One good change that was apparently made was that soldiers no longer shipped out to the war zone as an individual, but would tarvel only with their units. A pressing need for more soldiers in Iraq has apparently caused that change to go down the tubes as I met a 18 year old soldier here in the State of Jefferson a few weeeks ago that has orders in- hand to ship out to Iraq alone.
I asked him what happened to 'unit only' movements and he said that if the Army reclassifies a soldier away from their regualr job (Military Occupational Specialist or MOS ) and designates them as a "security specialist" then that person will go alone and be attached to unit already fighting, just like Viet Nam.

Below are excerpts from the article:
================================================================
"Yes, we have not yet been in Iraq 10 years. But military officials have said that we probably WILL have to be in Iraq for 10 years.

The sending of tens of thousands of soldiers into battle ill-prepared culturally and militarily. Our soldiers in Iraq do not know who is on our side -- who they should save and who they should shoot. Sound familiar?
Destroying cities to save them (notably, Fallujah) and the killing of tens of thousands of civilians.
No Gulf of Tonkin incident, no weapons of mass destruction.
Yet despite all the above, very few in the mainstream media are calling for the a pullout in Iraq or even for setting a withdrawal deadline -- again, very much like Vietnam until the early 1970s.
Iraqization and Vietnamization.
Did I mention the enormous cost, $300 billion and counting for Iraq? The crippling of a second-term president's approval ratings?
There's even a new "domino theory": We must establish democracy in Iraq (apparently at any cost) to inspire American-friendly governments throughout the region.
As for the difference in the casualty count: For the parent whose child has been killed or badly maimed it makes no difference whether the son or daughter was one of a hundred damaged that week or one of a thousand. And every loss of limb or loss of life takes place in the context of more than half of the Americans back home feeling the war is "not worth it."
But let me turn this over to another baby boomer, a Vietnam veteran named Patrick Sheridan, who was permanently disabled in 1970 when a mine exploded under the personnel carrier he was riding in. He's not exactly one of Goldberg's effete antiwar vets nostalgic for the "good old days."

In an article in today's Bozeman (Mt.) Daily Chronicle, Sheridan warned that the U.S was reliving its Vietnam mistake in Iraq, getting involved again in a horrific internal conflict. "We've gotten ourselves enmeshed in a difficult, protracted war," he said, "that doesn't seem to be winnable at this point."

Radio on the Internet

In 1977 I went to San Jose to visit my in-laws, Steven & Linda Core. While they were at work I had a little time on my hands and started noodling around with the radio, trying to see what was on and I ran across KFAT Radio out of Gilroy, CA. My musical life has not been the same since. Alas and alack, KFAT no longer exits, but it did morph into KPIG radio. Since I have never lived within a FM wave of San Jose I only got to listen on visits out of my own area. Until the advent of the inetrnet that is. Miracle of miracles, I found KPIG on the Internet (not to be confused with Hog Ranch Radio, the pirate station high in the Sierras that broadcasts only about 10 days a year).
So I was in hog Heaven listenting to KPIG, no pun intended, on the internet until the **#**# ing lawyers got involved and KPIG had some liscensing issues with the music so they had to start charging to listen.

That is the bad news.

The good news: I've found some free stations that play that good 'ol Americana-canjun-celtic-hawaiian-country-psycho-jam-bluegrass type of music.

http://www.kfok.org/ is a community based public radio station that plays lots of different types of music but concentrates on the type of music one would heard at the Strawberry Music festival. http://www.strawberrymusic.com/ (if you go to this site click on fun stuff, then click on photos and go to fall 2003, you'll see "3 generations of Strawberrians", which is Nathaniel, Michael, Ron & me! ; note: I've lost 50 lbs since that picture was taken)

http://www.woodsongs.com/ is a weekly radio show that broadcasts on the net. BUT the real reason I'm passing this one on is because of the incredible archive of old shows that are available on demand. When you go to the site click on 'general store' and you'll arrive at the archive. I'm listening/watching to a video right now.

I've listened to http://www.kvmr.org/ for several years now, it is worth checking out, but you'll need to check out the program schedule to tune when there is something you like.

The best part? These sites are all free!!!

Enjoy
David

Public Radio and the news in the State of Jefferson

Besides the wonderful scenery, one of the great things about living in the State of Jefferson is Jefferson Public Radio JPR) http://www2.jeffnet.org/ , a National Public Radio (NPR) afflifate http://www.npr.org/ and the station I volunteer for, Northstate Public Radio http://www.kcho.org/ which is KFPR 88.9FM in Reding and 91.7 FM in Chico

A while ago I got tired of newpapers and stopped reading them. I get about half my news from JPR and NPR and about most of the rest from the internet. My internet sources are many and varied but about 40% are "standard" outlets such as
CNN http://www.cnn.com/,
BBC World Services http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/index.shtml ,
the Asia Times http://www.atimes.com/index.html,
Reuter's News Servcie http://www.reuters.com/news.jhtml
and Assocated Press (AP) just to name a few a few.
But of course, my favoite and most reliable source of News is the Daily Show with Jon Stewart
http://www.comedycentral.com/tv_shows/thedailyshowwithjonstewart/. I find it pretty sad that the only truly reliable news anchor is on a "fake news" show on the comedy channel!

JPR covers the entire state of Jefferson as shown on the map below and NorthState Public radio covers from the Oregon border to about the southern border of the State of Jefferson, but doesn't make it over to Humboldt or Mendocino county, as far as I know. The station has many, many 'translators' so maybe it does.

Living in an fairly isolated part of Far Norhtern California, I feel very fortunate to have not one but TWO great listener supporter stations. Now a days we have internet radio, but I'll leave THAT for another post!

Oh yeah, I STILL haven't found the spell check yet.

This is a modern renditon of what the State of Jefferson should look like. Personally, I think the original State of Jefferson of the 1940's did not extent much south of Redding.

The State of Jefferson

What exactly is the State of Jefferson you ask? Jefferson is located in the mountain border region of northern California and southern Oregon where I live. If you'd like to review the background information click here for the State of Jefferson Web page, hey this IS a (web)blog, right? home page http://www.jeffersonstate.com/;
history page http://jeffersonstate.com/jeffersonstory.html

There have been many attempts at forming a new state comprised of northern California and southern Oregon, but none has gained so much attention and retained it as the secession movement of 1941. They sucedded every Thursday.
The abundant supply of minerals and timber in this region was largely inaccessible due to the lack of sufficient roads and bridges into the rugged mountain border country. The local pioneering people grew weary of unfulfilled promises from Salem and Sacramento to help fund sufficient highway projects in the region while building campgrounds in the cities where there were more votes.
Representatives from the mountain border counties involved met in Yreka, CA on November 17, 1941 to form an alliance to obtain federal aid for the construction and repair of bridges and roads. The Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors voted to allocate $100 to research the possibility of seceding from the state of California and joining the other counties to form a new 49th state. The Yreka Chamber of Commerce was very instrumental in persuading the Board.
The local newspaper ran a contest to name the new state and the winning entry was Jefferson. The winner of the contest pocketed $2 for his efforts. Yreka was designated the temporary state capital where the ‘State of Jefferson Citizen’s Committee’ was formed. They proceeded to stop traffic on Highway 99 outside of town and handed their ‘Proclamation of Independence’ out to travelers.
Jefferson made the papers nearly every day, competing with headlines of Germany's ravaging of Europe. The San Francisco Chronicle sent a young reporter, Stanton Delaplane, to cover the events. He traveled the rain-soaked roads to speak with locals to get a feel for the secession movement from their point of view. He got stuck in the mud down the Klamath River but that did not stop him from writing a series of colorful articles on the rebellion which earned him the coveted Pulitzer Prize.
On December 4, Judge John L. Childs of Crescent City in Del Norte County was elected governor. A torchlight parade complete with horses, marching bands and sign-carrying young people riding in trucks was held in Yreka followed by a ceremonious inauguration held on the courthouse lawn.
Hollywood newsreel companies were present to record the events, including the highway barricades. The State of Jefferson was off to a banner start.
The newsreels were to air nationally the week of December 8, but tragically on December 7th Pearl Harbor was bombed and the State of Jefferson rebellion of 1941 came to an end. The people of the region went to work for the war effort and good roads were eventually built into the backcountry to access strategic minerals and timber. These same roads have helped countless numbers of rural families make a living from the land that continues to produce abundant, quality natural resources.
The State of Jefferson 'state of mind' remains in the hearts and minds of people everywhere.

Gloria and I at Walt Disney World Christmas 2004

My camping rig at its old home. That is the old owner in the doorway, killing spiders or cleaning. 

April 30, 2005

This is my first post to my new Blog. It will be a combination of a tradinational Blog in that I will be sharing interesting links from the web and a journal, in that I will be telling you whats up with me, at leastr toa certain exetnt, I am after all someting of a private guy.
I haven't found spell check on this thing yet, I'll do the best I can, but with these fat, slow fingers, you'll have to put up with the errrors.

What got me thinking about starting a blog was the realization yesterday that April 30, 2005 is the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the Fall of Berlin, I.E. the day Hitler committed suicide and the 30th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0429/p06s01-woap.html

That strikes me as a weird coincidence, but I have no idea what it means, if anything.

Remember the song & story about Casey Jones the railroad engineer? Well, that is a true story of him dying in a crash and today is the 105th anniversary of that event. http://taco.com/roots/caseyjones.html.

Today was also the opening day of the 1939 world's Fair http://xroads.virginia.edu/~1930s/DISPLAY/39wf/frame.htm

April 30th is also Willie Nelson's birthday ! http://www.willienelson.com/

I'm not a fisher but I heard today is opening day for trout season .

What a day, huh?