PLEASE DO NOT TOLERATE INTOLERANCE. PLEASE?

I went to public school with black kids. From 4^th grade (1950) to graduation from high school (1958). I traveled with students from my high school in ’56, ’57 and ’58 all the way down to the Florida Keys, before any interstates. In New York we heard of racial discrimination in the South, and there surely was discrimination in New York. But our schools, transportation, restaurants, hospitals and other places certainly were “mixed use.”  So, when I saw the KKK billboards about Niggers and Kikes and Spicks  in South Carolina and Florida, and when I saw the drinking fountains and bathrooms marked “white only” I was dismayed and sad. I went to school in Miami in 1958, and the city was segregated. This was 4 years after Brown, but well before the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

And then the other day I downloaded a list of really dumb things Republicans have said over the past 40 or so years. Just today, after reading the little blurb below, one of them struck me like lightening.

First integrated classroom In July 1955, six black children completed their first week at Griffin Elementary, a one-room schoolhouse in rural Monticello, Ky. It was the first public school in the state, and by some accounts the nation, to become racially integrated. (AP Photo)

 
I went back to the list to see if I remembered it correctly. Yes, I did. This one is from Dwight Eisenhower, President of the United States

36. “These are not bad people. All they are concerned about is to see that their sweet little girls are not required to sit in school alongside some big overgrown Negroes.” ~ President Eisenhower commenting on racial segregation after the Brown vs. Board of Education decision.

He was talking about White parents opposing black children being integrated in Public Schools in the South. And I thought OMG, if the President held that philosophy in 1955, it is no wonder we needed the Civil Rights Act. Throughout this period I was mostly oblivious. A White Boy from New York, liberal and integrated early. Even after experiencing the South as a high schooler it didn’t really sink in. It did in the 60’s though. And stuck. That is why I hate intolerance.(is that an oxymoron?).  So don’t get me started.

But think about where we were a scant few decades ago, how far we have come, and the forces that (who) are now working to attenuate the progress. Please, think about it. And please for whatever you hold Holy, DO NOT TOLERATE INTOLERANCE. Of anybody. For any reason. Ever.

Thank you.

Image: http://brianmengini.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/intolerance.jpg

Fusel Oil and My Father

Max and I (remember Max from some older posts? Old high school bud? Band of “Mad Scientists”?) decided to make some kick-ass alcohol stuff based on apple cider. In those days(1955) on Long Island there was a thriving local orchard industry, and several nearby orchards produce their own apple cider. In the winter only. In three days it was a bit fizzy and in a week it was positively intoxicating. It was really alcoholic. You could get a buzz from a pint or two.

We decided to get a couple of gallons and make “apple jack”, a concentrated liquor made by “freeze distillation” or freezing the liquid until only the alcohol and sugary water was liquid. Then you poured off the “liquor” and got a serious buzz. My father warned us about “fusel oil” and the blindness and sickness it could produce. Yeah Pop.

So we froze the stuff, poured off the syrupy liquor and drank it. Whee!! Got a real buzz, but a terrible hangover too. We moved on to other things and did not become the kings of illegal liquor. But, I was talking to a friend of mine today, a natural products chemist, and asked about “fusel oil.” Blank expression. No idea what it was. So, when I could, I “Googled” it. SHOCK!!!

Old Dad was RIGHT!!! Fusel oil, AKA fusel alcohol (a toxic mixture of several organic alcohols and other crap) is a byproduct of fermentation and toxic as hell in concentrations above normal fermentation. Specifically it is really concentrated and toxic in “freeze distillation”.  We only did that one batch and neither of us went blind. But old Dad was Right. How the hell did he know that? Simple. He was the product of the Great Depression where millions of people made their own booze, and a bunch got into real trouble with fusel oil. Sorry Pop. You were right. But you were DEAD WRONG about the other cause of teenage blindness. My vision is still 20/20.

http://swagreasons.com/i/AppleJack.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applejack_(beverage)

People Who Are Not MORONS are Under Attack

 

So, and atheist student in Oklahoma requested that copies of the 10 commandments be removed from the walls of all the class rooms. Predictably Christians from all over, including the Westboro Baptist Church, screamed “Foul”. “Christianity is under attack” and other nonsense.
What if that same boy had wanted to post a humanist statement in all the classrooms? Or a Muslim student wanted to post some rules from the Qur’an in all the classrooms? I bet the Christian parents and students would have a fit.
That is because they are not for religious freedom; they are for religious imposition, but only their own. One parent said: “If other kids don’t want to read the Ten Commandments, then they don’t have to,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean that they have to make everyone else do what they want.”

See the problem? This parent really wants exclusive rights to display religious crap. This is absolutely UNAMERICAN. It really pisses me off, but then I am only an American who believes in religious freedom, not one who believes that this is a Christian Country that has the Right to Impose Religion on us all.

Just saying.

Read more: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/05/12/atheist-and-christian-high-school-students-protest-over-ten-commandments/#ixzz2TNtyNATu

Image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZhOJQxLhjsVs0mzx3NiZSmudXYj3E7h4KA8tNndPKcah_JKUNLJjppgaUyVOTm-EqmPmcSqXxZYXTkhC57O8YRU2MOj7Lu9pnekHiVQWa-5V97tqxMKNRR5uAJywwUxNtfrEWlXEhjjmZ/s400/Oppression.jpg

Valley Fever? Be Glad You Didn’t Get Histoplasmosis!!!



Histo clusters like a starry night

Valley Fever AKA Coccidiomycosis is a fungal disease found world-wide, but is endemic in the American Southwest. You get it by breathing in the spores from ground dust. It can be deadly or debilitating, but often goes undiagnosed. Bad breathing problems as lungs swell and squeeze the air out. With swollen lungs, breathing enough air in and out becomes difficult and anoxia results. Not a pretty picture.

Transition to a group of students and faculty from Thomas University returning from a field trip to Nicaragua which included visiting some abandoned silver mines with plenty of bats. A few of us got sick on the way home while others had a delay of a few days. A few didn’t get sick at all, damn them. Two nearly died, and the rest, 10 or so were sick in degrees. Sally and I were really hit hard. High fever, low blood oxygen, swollen lungs so we couldn’t breathe and coughing. The group became a study group for the CDC which was quickly called in to help diagnose and manage the outbreak. A savvy Doc in Thomasville  recognized the cluster of people getting sick and called for help. The Florida Department of Health and the Georgia Health Department also got brought in. We were all very sick puppies.

The CDC doctors knew it was either Coccidiomyciosis (valley fever) or Histoplasmosis but the symptoms are nearly or exactly the same. So they put us through many tests and finally concluded the disease we all had was Histoplasmosis.  Not good. No real treatment except “experimental” drugs that insurance doesn’t pay for, that don’t work all that well and have nasty side effects. The good news is that most people eventually get better, while some eventually die. In our case (Sally’s and mine) our immune system got the upper hand finally and we were left with many little nodules in our lungs, places where the fungus was walled in by health tissue and kept sequestered by the immune system. But we were warned: if your immune system gets reduced, you will probably have an outbreak that, along with whatever caused the immune system to fail, might just kill you.

So we group of hardy adventurers now carry the seeds of a real disaster in our lungs. Which leads me to the advice in the banner: Vally Fever? Better that than good old Histo. (Some of the participants of this adventure  will read this. Hopefully you are all still going strong. We are. But I will never forget the remark of the radiologist who read our chest x-rays: “Looks just like a starry night. See all those little white dots? That’s the bug!!!” He was thrilled. We were less so. )

Article on Valley Fever: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/05/13/181880987/cases-of-mysterious-valley-fever-rise-in-american-southwest?ft=3&f=1001&sc=nl&cc=nh-20130513
Image: https://pathwiki.pbworks.com/f/chest%20xray%20calicified%20densities.jpg

 

Cicadas: 17 year Boon or Government Cover Up?

Here is a 2004 excerpt from a satirical website:

In 2004, the harmlessness and notoriety of the cicada prompted Brandon Breeden, head writer of the website Cicadaville.com, to spread satirical rumors about how cicadas are "vicious killers seething with deadly venom," and how "children are [cicadas'] primary source of nutrition." As a result, Breeden received emails thanking him "for the truth about cicadas the government's been keeping secret."

Then, as now, wackos cried “chicken little” and blamed the government for not protecting the people. It is beginning again, and probably the same wackos who see a government plot behind everything are getting upset. Here is an Obama administration person on the subject:

 The Obama administration currently has no plan to suppress the 'cicada invasion,'" an administration official tells me. (Partly because, as off-putting as they sound and appear, cicadas are good for plants and the affected environment.)

The reproductive phase of this critter doesn’t have mouth parts, so can’t bite or feed on anything. The females have a strong shape prong they dig into tree branches and lay their eggs in the furrow. Then they die.  The trees heal and the grubs fall into the soil, attach themselves to roots and begin a synergistic relationship which benefits both. So the next time you hear someone worrying about the “17 year locusts” (they aren’t locusts which are related to grasshoppers), tell them to worry about something else. If they tell you it is a government cover up, walk away. You know for sure they are MORONS.

Information: http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/05/political-history-cicadas-ronald-reagan
Information: http://ideastations.org/cicadawatch
Image: http://static.ideastations.org/nymph-adult-promo.jpg

A Father's Regret: One of Them Anyway

I don't remember what prompted the angry outburst. Maybe when I found my plate block stamps helpfully separated into single stamps so I could use them easier. Maybe when we were cleaning out the nook under the house and he dropped an antique punch bowl. Maybe something else.
But I remember what I said in anger: "Matt, if you do that again I will cut off your fingers!!!". Then within microseconds of the words coming out, I realized a couple of things; One, it was a hollow threat because I would never do that and; two, he will realize I didn't mean it. But I said quickly "I am sorry I said that. I would never hurt you. I just got mad."
The words were out before the brain really engaged. A frontal lobe failure. And not just some brain, but MY brain. And he was a young child. Maybe he didn't know that I wouldn't hurt him.
I know probably most parents say things in anger to each other or their kids that they don't really mean, and mostly the things we say get forgiven. But obviously not all of them get forgotten.
The lesson in this? Try to be very careful what you say. Because even if you follow up something nasty with "I'm sorry", the words may cut too deep to be excised.
And I am truly sorry.
Please, just be careful.
Image: https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/p480x480/922870_484950154909697_353493361_n.png

Little Angels Pissing Contests

 

I was reminiscing with my brother the other day about some of the things we did when we were kids. I would have been less than 10 and he less than 13 (based on where we lived at the time.) We eventually got to the “dueling stream pissing contests” we would get into. One of us would start to wee, and then quickly the other would unlimber and try to knock the stream to the side with his stream. Lots of fun. Then Tom said “remember the cigarette butts?” Oh yeah, I said. Pop would pee and sometimes throw his unfiltered Chesterfield butt in the toilet afterwards. He usually didn’t flush if he knew we were next. So Tom and I would both stand in front of the bowl and try to “sink the butt” with our powerful jets of pee. We would often shred the butt to pieces, but only if we didn’t get diverted by trying to knock the other’s stream aside. Uninhibited kids do amazing things, don’t they? Anyone else ever engage in this kind of jousting?

Image: Angelic brothers

Christians, Atheists, Agnostics and Others

I know lots of people. Most but not all are Christians. There are a sprinkeling of other types including atheists, agnostics, and Buddhists. No Muslims though. Not from choice or exclusion but rather from a lack of opportunity. See, I don’t seek out people based on their religion.

So, when I hear statements (1) that we have to watch the Anti-American and Anti-Religion activities on college campuses it makes my blood boil. For starters, the so-called “Anti-Religion” crap is a tired retread of the right wing cry “They [whoever “they” are is never defined] are trying to kill Christianity” in America. Nobody with a brain bigger than a pea actually believes that. Well, a lot of people actually seem to believe that, but they are all pea-brained morons. The people pumping that crap out are shrewd manipulators of the public they control. But I digress.
I have been on college campuses since 1958. Continuously. I have seen the civil rights era, the Woodstock era, the Vietnam war era, the shameful Nixon era, the fall of Communism era. I have seen, heard and been part of many different kinds of protests. WAKE UP RIGHT WINGERS!!!! This is AMERICA where freedom of speech and association is guaranteed by the same Constitution that you thump about guns.

Calling for the separation of Church and State is not an attack on Christianity. Keeping religion out of public events is not an attach on Christianity. It is the exercise of a Constitutional Right. You know, like the one to bear arms? And for the umpteenth time, THIS IS NOT A CHRISTIAN NATION!! We do not have a national religion.

In America we all have the right to protest what we want, to be free of religious coercion and to hang around with whomever we want. GUARANTEED BY THE CONSTITUTION, so quit whining about the demise of your faith and read the Constitution instead of the Bible. You might actually learn something.

1. Private correspondence

Image: http://www.heardcitizen.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/we-the-people.jpg

Florida Governor RICK SCOTT taxes the POOR: AGAIN!!

 

“3. Florida
The poor in Florida pay taxes equal to 13.2% of their income, compared with just 2.3% for its wealthiest citizens. With no income tax and a 6% sales tax, Florida is among the more regressive of the states, and a recent increase in the exemption for business from corporate income tax adds to relative burden that the poor bear in the Sunshine State.”

This quote is from an article listing the 6 states that have the highest taxes on the poor. Florida is on the list. And now the Governor is getting ready to be regressive again: Internet sales tax. Oh, you say, what is wrong with collecting sales tax on internet sales? Probably not the poorest residents buy from the internet anyway. So what is the BIG DEAL?

Simple: Scott will sign into law a bill mandating collecting of internet sales tax ONLY IF the legislator makes it revenue neutral. REVENUE NEUTRAL!!! In other words, cut taxes somewhere else to balance the increase in sales tax collection. Which taxes? Most likely taxes that poor people don’t pay anyway. Most likely taxes that wealthy people pay. Most likely taxes that the cronies of the legislature and the governor pay. So the addition of more sales tax is regressive.

What a great big goddamn surprise. And from a Republican Governor, House and Senate. Who’da thought?

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/04/21/these-6-states-tax-the-poor-the-hardest.aspx
Image: http://hipiseverything.com/hipblog/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/rick-scott-by-donkey-hotey.jpg

 

Ten Tors: Not an Outing for the Casual Walker

Ten Tors Team with Fin Godfrey (far left)

Tor: a rocky pinnacle; a peak of a bare or rocky mountain or hill. (1)

“Ten Tors is an annual weekend hike organised and run in early May for 2,400 young people by the British Army on Dartmoor.” So starts the Wikipedia entry on Ten Tors. For the past several years, my nephews have taken the challenge and hiked the rugged terrain of Dartmoor. Although a “spring” event, the weather in England in the spring runs from beautiful to worse than awful. From warm and dry to freezing cold and raining or snowing. The young prople who take on this challenge of 35, 45 or 55 miles train for months, then after a gear check and briefing, strike out on the hike. They carry all the food, tents, clothes, cooking gear and first aid gear they will need to meet the conditions on the open Moorland. They purify water as they go for drinking.

These are tough young men and women.

This year my nephew Fin will lead a team 45 miles from Tor to Tor until all ten have been reached. He was chosen because of his experience on previous outings, his ability to navigate in the wilderness and his personality. No better choice in my opinion. He will lead the group to success and the entire family is as proud as a proud family can be.

All there is left to say is “GO FIN AND GO TEAM!!!!!”

Image: Fin (left) and some others I don’t know, including the team members
Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Tors
1. Definition: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tor