The War on Christmas...not!!

There seems to be a major push by the talking heads on the Fox News Network and certain conservative fundamentalist Christian leaders to convince the country that there is a concerted effort by the hated liberals and ACLU to eliminate Christmas from the nation's vocabulary. First of all, this is total bullshit since the practice of giving gifts at this time of year drives about 35% of our economy. Second, I could be wrong, but I seem to remember that our Constitution prohibits the establishment of a state supported religion/church. We are a pluralist society in that our significant numbers or our fellow citizens practice almost every religious faith extant in the world today other than Christianity. Sure, the majority of us still claim to be at least nominal Christians, but it is not the same as it was 100 years ago.

Way back when, there were only two major religions represented in any numbers in this country: Judaism and Christianity. All other religious faiths were either confined to ethnic ghettos (like Chinatowns) or had so few adherents as to be effectively invisible. Therefore, it was not inappropriate for towns to set up Christmas decorations. After all, most of the tax money which supported those displays came from those same nominal Christians. However, today a significant percentage of those taxes now comes from people who do not have the same attachment to Christmas. It is time, therefore, to let the public sector put up non-sectarian Winter Holiday decorations, and to let the churches and private citizens exercise their rights by setting up Christmas displays on church grounds and other private properties.

We all know that businesses, especially retail businesses that are owned or run by non-Christians, will always support this major holiday in December. After all, the few weeks between Thanksgiving and December 25th traditionally comprises about 35% of most major retailers' annual revenue. In the past, non-Christian retailers happily promoted the season since it was in their economic interest to do so. And that has not changed. Muslims, Hindus, Jews and followers of a host of other religions are happy to take Christian's money...and they are equally happy to encourage others to find reasons to exchange gifts as well.

So, no, there is no "War on Christmas". There is only a pluralist society trying to find a way for all its members to enjoy the beginning of winter. If you want to insist upon wishing a turbaned Sikh or an obviously Hassidic Jew "Merry Christmas", then it is your right to show your boorishness and general lack of sensitivity. OTOH, if you say it with warmth and a genuine desire to say something nice to people, as opposed to a militant "in your face" delivery, I think "Merry Christmas" is appropriate in the same way "shalom" or (I think this is correct) "salam" is coming from members of those cultures/religions.

So, to all I send wishes for a Merry Christmas meaning may the beginning of winter be filled with friends, family and Peace on Earth, goodwill towards all mankind.

Ocean Power Delivery Limited

Now, this is cool. One has to wonder why it is a Scottish company that is leading the field, or, more to the point, why there is (as far as I know) no American presence here at all. Over 50% of the world's population lives within 100 miles of a coast line, and that means that this form of power generation could supply a significant portion of the world's electric power needs. The more of these machines built, the greater the economies of scale and the lower the cost per kilowatt/hour of generated power. There is literally no pollution and especially no generation of greenhouse gases, and, when one of these tubes reaches the end of its useful life, they can be recycled. As far as I'm concerned, it is a no-brainer. All we have to do is be willing to subsidize the initial couple of thousand tubes to bring the cost per unit down to a point where they are competitive with fossil fuels power plants. Once they become a primary source of power, they will no longer need to be subsidized.

Then there is an additional benefit for these things. They could be built in places where one does not have a lot of boat traffic and used to generate hydrogen through electrolysis. An installation of sufficient size could both generate the hydrogen and provide the power needed to run the terminal. Can we think of how this would impact the oil industry? The possibilities boggle the mind!

So, I took my wife to the ER today. She woke up feeling like the Wrath of God, and went downhill from there. The cough she had been practicing for the past two weeks had finally decided to play for bigger stakes. Anyhow, by 11:30 we were off to the ER to see just what was going on. About 12:30 I called into the store to inform them that I would not be there for the start of my shift, and possibly would not be there at all (Turned out to be the latter: it counts as a sick day, though, since I spent it at the sick people place...) Going to the ER was the right thing to do. They found pneumonia in her right lung and decided to keep her there at least overnight.

Well, it's now Monday and they finally found her a room last night. It took a while. I have to say the Somerset Medical Center is a nice hospital. The people are at once very professional and yet very warm, sympathetic and friendly. They know that, on the whole, you'd "rather be in Philadelphia" than in their fine facility, so they try to make things as comfortable and unintrusive as possible. I spent the day trying to be a quiet as possible by not coughing too much. What sort of worried me was that most of her symptoms, both the ones she had and a few of the ones she didn't, also applied to me at various times over the past two weeks. I don't know, every now and then I think of Jim Henson and understand how he could have put off going to the hospital until it was too late. I will bend heaven and earth to avoid trips to doctors, dentists and most especially hospitals.

Nope...no hospitals for me until/unless I am so sick I can barely move. And now I have to wander over to SMC to see when they are going to spring herself. I'm pretty sure we're going to have to cancel Thanksgiving at this house. We could be moving the feast up to my Mom's, but only if she gets some help in the kitchen. Cooking and cleaning up at her place is not the easiest. Face it, she's been living in that house for forty years as of next spring, and the kitchen is unchanged except for a new oven and a newish dishwasher. Pretty much everything about her kitchen, while it was once the absolute cutting edge, is now...old. And badly lit. However, even from her sick-bed, mi esposa has made it clear that we will be cooking the Turkey here. She wants to make the stuffing and control the cooking process. (she has not a great deal of trust in my Mom's ability to deal with a 26 pound bird. I have to say that I agree with her on this.)

Fire it up....

This blog has been inactive for the past year. I'm pretty sure that virtually nobody has its URL, and, therefore, am reasonably confident that my children won't stumble across this. So, I think it is time to resurrect this blog and let Marking(s) of Zorro lie fallow for a bit. Actually, I think that bloggers should reinvent themselves every so often. (Except that I'm not going to come up with a new online personna: I will stay "the old fox" as a way to connect back to the very first screen name I had online.

Yep, I've been around for a really, really long time as far as cyberspace goes. My first taste of being connected to "others" was almost 16 years ago. I joined Compuserve and stumbled across The Point. This was one of the precursors to what we now know as chatrooms and forums. While it didn't have the immediacy of the realtime chatroom, it was more than just a forum. Anyhow, one of the moderators of the Point went by the screen name of "Fox". As a goof, I adopted the Spanish variant, and we all got along famously. Well, after a while Compuserve and I parted way, and I moved over to Delphi (in part because of they were dabbling with the Delphi Pool) where I stumbled across a forum group called Our Lost Tribe (OLT). When I joined OLT, I stayed with the Zorro handle, but added the Viejo part just to distance myself from the cinematic Zorro. Through the ensuing years I have maintained my elzorroviejo personna, and I don't intend to let it go now. The interesting thing is that a Google search on "elzorroviejo" finds me in a lot of different places...except here. This doesn't show up...at least not yet.

So, I'm going to reactivate this Blog and see if it doesn't unblock me a little. Time will tell.

The one shining light from the Tuesday Massacre

The one shining light is that we elected three (count 'em, three) Democrats to the town council. This means, I think, that the Dems now either have a majority or at least parity on the town's governing body. I am thrilled about this. My only hope is that bush is egregiously bad over the next two years that the country finally wakes up and gives at least control of the legislature back to the Dems. The make up of Congress now scares the Bejezus outta me.

TV Host O'Reilly Accused of Harassment - EarthLink - General News

Jesus! I hope and pray that they nail the lying, two-faced thug on this one. His immediate counter suit and his polished onair counterattack lead me to believe that this was a well planned, well rehearsed response to something that he knew was, inevitably, going to come. He knew that his behavior was going to elicit a response, sooner or later, and he was damned well going to be ready for it. It was like a tripwire had been activated, and the couterattack just flowed.

I always knew that O'Reilly's monumental ego was going to be his ultimate doom. It appears that this very well could be the case. Of course, he could ride this out and continue on his bullying ways without even blushing about his attacks on Bill Clinton for essentially the same sort of behavior. To quote Mr. O'Reilly, "Shame on you!!"

Neighborhood WiFi networks, or, how to be cutting edge for cheap...

This is a very interesting little story about a possible future where the Comcasts and Verizons of the world find themselves on the outside of the "restaurant" with their noses pressed to the window. I read this and then think of my little neighborhood; you know, it could work.

I live in an area where the cheap houses go for close to $400K. One would think that one could get 10 neighbors to pony up, say, three grand apiece for the initial membership in the co-op (covers initial equipment and set-up costs), and then pay a percentage of the monthly cost for running the network. Once a homeowner joins the co-op, that house is a member and the membership right transfers to a new owner should the original member move. Thus, the original cost could be addes to the house as a capital improvement. If the new owners don't want to take advantage, that's their option. When I think about it, right now I'm paying about $57/month for cable, $52/month for DSL, $40/month for cell phone and about $70/month for two physical phone lines. That's over $200/month for those services. If I can bring that cost down to even $150/month, it is well worth it to me.

I, for one, plan to follow this story as closely as possible. Hell, even if I have to keep my cell phone, it would still be worth it!

THIS is the problem

A local NJ lawyer and Blogger uses this interview" of John Kerry by Don Imus to putatively make the point that Kerry 1) does not have a "good" plan to get us out of Iraq and 2) that Kerry is still "flip/flopping" on at least this issue. Unfortunately, Hondo is totally wrong on this one. He misses the first point that Imus never asked the right question--and that when Kerry tried to steer the discussion to that question, Imus flat out cut him off. (The "right" question is, of course, just what Bush intends to do get us out of the nasty pickle he has gotten us into in the first place.) And he definitely misses the second point, which Kerry was able to get out, that the current president is presently muddying up the water even more so it is virtually impossible for him (Kerry) to formulate any sort of specific plan until after the elections. Once he is two months from office, he, and his staff, can begin the process of taking over the reins of policy and planning.

Personally, all I want to hear from Kerry is the acknowledgement that the situation is grim and is growing grimmer by the day. I don't expect miracles from him, but I do expect him to bend every effort to achieving the best possible outcome from our misguided initial military invasion. George Bush has been the worst president this country has had in my lifetime (and I go back to Truman). He has consistently done the wrong thing in almost every area he has touched (from the economy through civil liberties/human rights to the environment and culminating in the twin disasters of international relations and this war.) The last thing I want to do is "stay the course" with this person. I am uncomfortable about not supporting him while our troops are on the ground and being shot at, but I think, in the long run, it will be better to increase shortterm risk because, if we are successful, it will lower the long term risk.

Daily I become more convinced that it is imperative to remove Bush from office. If we fail at that this coming November, I fear the damage to this country will be irreversable by the time he is forced to repeal the XXII Amendment in order to make himself President-for-Life.

Cell phones and cars

I think the ban on cell phones is dumb. A cell phone is potentially no more distracting than singing along with the radio...or letting one of those talk-jocks raise your blood pressure, or even carrying on a conversation with a passenger. Of course, the key word is "potentially". There are too many drivers out there who can't be trusted to chew gum and tie their shoe laces at the same time much less do anything other than pay strict attention to the road when driving. For these people, giving them a cell phone while in a car is like handing a loaded gun to a toddler: the ultimate result is sure to be a bad one. So, until we figure out how to weed out the people who should not be entrusted with a couple tons of metal travelling at 51 feet per second (that's 35mph,) the rest of us will have to suck it up and live with the ban on cell phones.

OK, so I am being a law abiding citizen in this respect and am not driving around with one hand on the wheel while the other holds a cell phone plastered to my head. If I do have to talk to somebody not in the car at the time, I use a hands free headset, like the law requires. And I get really pissed when I see some other jerk still driving around with a phone plastered to his/(or more often than not) her ear. I'm going to start carrying my digital camera around so I can take pictures...and post them here. I realize that taking pictures while driving is probably more distracting than chatting on the phone, but 1)it isn't illegal, yet and 2)I am capable of doing at least two things at the same time.

So, if you drive around with a cell phone growing out of your head, look for your picture here in the near future.

I haven't had time nor energy to post about local stuff...until now

OK, One of the things I'm going to do here is post license plate numbers and vehicle descriptions of poeple I see with cellphones attached to their ears. As of 7/1, we here in the Garden State are supposed to do our cell phoning in cars using "hands free" technology. That means an earpiece and boom mike, for the most part. It doesn't mean for me to look over at the car next to me and see a cellphone plastered to the side of the driver's head. I have my first two licenses and vehicle descriptions on a piece of paper in the car (I wrote down the particulars when I was stopped...even though it meant reciting a mantra of license number and vehicle description until I could write them down. Tomorrow they'll be posted here. And I swear to God that I will continue to do this until said practise stops. I had to get a phone with a hands-free headset and all. If I have to do this, then the rest of my fellow Jerseyites have to do it as well.