Here it is mid May , and already the temp is in the nineties in the afternoon. Today my yard maintainers came in and ruthlessly attacked all our azaleas and camellias. They will grow back during the next half-year and bloom out nicely next spring - I hope.
The oil spill seems to have headed away from Florida's gulf coast - at least so far - and the fishing and beaching is still delightful. We had fresh (very fresh) caught grouper for supper the other night - yummy.
Unfortunately all the publicity has led tourists to think FL is affected and they are staying away in droves - not good for our economy.

I've watched the Greek fiasco with some interest. Over sixty years ago I was a cadet on a merchant ship delivering cargo to Greece. Even in those days it was a giveaway - several thousand tons of UNRRA wheat. The Greek economy was in such bad shape that the going rate of exchange was 15,000 Drachma to one dollar. I remember eating the top of the menu in a local restaurant and the cost being the equivalent of a couple of cents.
Greece was just coming out of a civil war with communists and seemed to feel constrained to become basically a socialist economy - for political purposes. As long as they had an independent monetary unit and policy, they were responsible for their own economic problems and though they always had a volatile and contentious work force, they were not too tempted to borrow themselves into insolvency.
Apparently when Greece joined the EU and adopted the Euro, the government saw possibility of irresponsible borrowing and spending beyond their wildest dreams. Hire everyone - give them everything that asked for - issue bonds based on the Euro and not worry. After all, their money and bonds were tied to the rest of the European Union and they would not be allowed to default.
Well, now we see the result of a policy the U.S. learned was folly of over 200 years ago: You can't divorce money from national politics - that's one reason we abandoned the Articles of Confederation (where each state was still more or less sovereign) and adopted the Constitution and a strong Federal Government. The European Union must now back up Greece's folly to their own detriment. I predict the partial break-up of the EU with Greece ultimately left to its own devises.
Many feel that the U.S. is going Greece's route. Not so, At least two tax increases, to pay for the current up-front deficit are planned. Our entitlements are still easily manageable.

The degree of animosity seen in daily life - Politics,  Blogs, Business dealings, casual relations,  even among family members seems to have reached a new level in the past year.  Is this because of increased cable-TV hate-mongering,  the increased friction caused by overcrowding, the economic downturn, all of the above?

I see I haven't blogged here in almost a month! Sorry about that.
My birthday was last week - I am now starting my ninth interesting decade. I hope it's not going to be quite as interesting as the last eight (Remember the old Chinese curse).
I remember as a child, going out to watch the Pan Am seaplanes land - and in my early teens watching four torpedoed ships burning off the beach all at once. I remember driving a Red Cross truck through four foot deep water to rescue flooded out hurricane victims.
I remember the poverty and strife of postwar Crete. I remember riding through miles and miles of fire-bombed rubble outside Nagoya. I remember as a 20-year-old sailing away from Korea after the war started. I remember my time later as a light-weapons infantryman. I remember meeting the president and having him tell me to my face that he was trying his damnedest to get us out of Viet Nam (He was lying). I remember the night we were driving through Newark when the rioting and burning started. I remember watching Neil Armstrong live take his first steps on the moon. I remember sitting on a glacier eating a lunch of reindeer stew.
I remember sitting on a beach at Bali - and diving into the water right on top of a sea snake. I remember climbing the pyramid at Boroburdur. I remember riding a hydrofoil to Macao - and also one to Capri.
I remember hearing about my students - killed in Viet Nam. I remember my wife in intensive care (for four days - hospital for another two weeks) with a head injury causing permanent brain damage (loss of balance )
I remember watching the otters on our lake beach and hearing the loons every night.
I remember my first computer - a mighty Apple II with 48K memory - it coast more than my present MacBook Pro 17.

Do Societies naturally decay?
Is there some kind of process by which Nations rise and fall through History?
Is part of this process a kind of "Dumbing Down" of the population?

This set of questions is Socrates_Cafe's latest topic for discussion.
There is some evidence that there is a sort of "dumbing down" in modern America, in that the National Assessment of Educational Progress - here -reports that the current student generation will not have the same level of advanced education as their parents have. There are lots of anecdotal reports about students' poor performance and the neo-cons have taken this phrase as a sort of rallying cry.
C.T. Iserbyt, in her book The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America grumbles about the replacement of "solid teaching" with an attempt to "Socially integrate " students while enhancing their self images so that no one is allowed to fail and thus presumably attain their correct intellectual and social level. This results in a lowering of educational standards and teachers spending all their time on those students less likely to succeed while ignoring the brightest.
Teachers themselves are supposedly not trained to impart information - to teach - but rather to develop some kind of social consensus in their classes while "guiding" their students toward understanding in those subjects they find interesting. As a teacher for many years, one interested in educational techniques and philosophy; I fancy myself knowledgeable in this area.
There are basic problems with our educational system (both public and private) here in America. these problems range from the economic (We don't want to pay enough for our children's education) to confusion over what and how we want our children taught. Currently there seems to be no push to encourage teachers to teach. the era when most teachers actually imparted new information to their students and taught them how to use it seems to be only a dim memory - nowadays the idea is to "guide them to understanding" through the use of standardized texts and curricula with the primary focus on scoring well on standardized tests based on said rather simplistic and uninteresting curricula. Student motivation is often poor and the teacher has to spend even more time trying to get the class's attention. There is little incentive for a teacher to stay in teaching - a job often offering only minimal pay and few challenges for the intellectual.
Aside from problems with education, the "Dumbing Down" idea seems to have sprung from the idea that there is some evil conspiracy to make us more controllable, or that TV - the ubiquitous whipping boy - offers such simplistic trash that it actually warps our minds. Another school of thought suggests that it is due to the "mongrelization" brought about by the influx of undesirable foreigners bent on corrupting us - both mind and body.
The fact that virtually all Americans sprung from such stock seems to have eluded the critics.
Do cultures rise, decay, and fall according to some sort of social Darwinian evolution? There is no clear evidence other than the obvious fact that cultures do change as they are influenced by outside influence. Some cultures had little such - China and ancient Egypt for example - and lasted millennia with relatively little culture change. The U.S. on the other hand has always encouraged both change and universal education, and so has changed dramatically during the past couple of hundred years - and will continue to do so.
Are we "dumbing down"? Assuredly not. Are we undergoing rapid culture change? Absolutely.

I've been watching the president's group meeting with Demo and GOP congressional leaders and find it about as I expected - a bunch of politicians taking the opportunity to spout sound bites.
The seem unable to come to grips with a few self-evident - to me at least - facts.

1. The US healthcare system is expensive for a number of reasons - our attitude toward healthcare, the fact that it's controlled by insurance companies, and the lack of effective oversight.
2. To start from the point of view of what's good national health care, instead of how can we reign in insurance costs is a better way to go.
3. Just about every other solution to this problem used by other countries is both cheaper and more satisfactory as far as results go.

A logical solution would be to develop a national healthcare system which covers everybody and for which everybody who can afford it pays.
Our current total expenditure on health care is over 2.5 Trillion dollars a year or about $8162 per capita. Canada, Germany, and the UK, who have the next most expensive systems each spend about half that amount per capita, yet we decry those systems as being unsatisfactory. Unlike the US, these countries have no loud political or popular demands that their systems be changed.
In the US, private insurance expenditures seems to be rising at a rate twice that of government (medicare).

A government managed program, paying private physicians (as in UK and Canada) and paid for through a tax increase would result in a substantial decrease in over-all healthcare expense. Medicare expenses are, for example much less per capita than private insurance (Medicare does not pay at the insurance rate which is inflated as the higher the payments, the more the private insurers make). The increased taxes should be a good deal less than the private health insurance premiums - for one thing, a single payer system would have a far larger pool to in which to spread the tax/pay-outs.

The question remains, will the American citizens like such a system? The seniors certainly seem to like Medicare - which is such a system.

Socrates_Cafe Has asked about ethics in politics.
I think some ethical behavior would be a good idea - especially if it includes acting as you were elected to behave - that is in the best interests of and in accordance with the wishes of those you represent. I cannot believe that our congressmen were elected to spend their time in obstinate one-up-man-ship and collecting donations for their re-election campaigns. Soliciting campaign donations from special interest groups that not only don't represent the desires of the majority of the citizens you represent, but actively work against those desires is not only unethical, it's evil.
Even if the elected officials don't behave in such a manner (There are a few!) but condone or accept such behavior on the part of their party peers, they are not acting ethically and contribute to the voter's distrust and disgust toward all elected officials.
Political parties are probably a necessary evil -they unite those with the same general political outlook and enable them to get their ideas turned into legislation and active government - but they also depend on compromise. Sometimes ethical compromise.
Should "Bi-partisanship" mean compromise of your ethical beliefs in order to get needed legislation passed? Probably not - but what is an ethical belief when it comes to running a developed country and when should such beliefs be modified for the "Greater Good"
That was a dilemma faced at the beginning of the US's history by the third president -Thomas Jefferson. He considered himself very ethical (and is so regarded by history - well mostly anyway). Jefferson had to decide whether or not to accept Napoleon's offer of the sale of the French Louisiana Territory (Basically Alabama, Lousiana, and everything West of the Mississippi and north of the Missouri Rivers) Jefferson thought he did not have the constitutional power to accept - but he did. Was he right (and ethical) in so doing?
On the whole, how ethical has the US government acted lately?

Socrates_Cafe has asked this question - here's my take on this subject:
Yes we have Free Will - but that freedom is constrained by our fundimental biological nature. We can do what we choose but our choices must fall within our limitations as humans - we can't breathe under water or fly - or can we?
Actually there seems to be no limit to our ability to do what we wish, except that internal value system we receive from our parents and culture - and which we seem to be able to override at will.
Some would say our actions are "Predestined" by God, yet almost all religions have the concept of individual free choice to be good or bad and the free choice to overcome the evils of our nature and be redeemed.
The Existentialists say we have no choice but to have free will and freedom- that we cannot deny it, however uncomfortable that makes us - we do not have the choice to blame any one or any thing else for our decisions and actions.
They are probably right

Country Mouse or City Mouse? - A Featured_Grownups writing prompt. has suggested this as a topic.

I am a Country Mouse who enjoys the convenience of the city. Along with most of my peers, I try to "countrify" my urban home and get away to the country whenever possible.
The most successful I ever was at "Countrification" was to purchase a twelve acre tract with the house completely hidden from the road by trees and distance and from my neighbors by creeks and ravines. This was in Bloomington, IN and if you've ever been there, you know what I'm talking about. My drive was a quarter-mile long! Unfortunately keeping all that land up became too much for us and we had to move back to FL - but we did move to the Tallahassee outskirts which have a lot more trees than people. We still keep our place in the Maine woods - there every summer since 1970- and that is REALLY rural. We did not get electricity until 1982 and access is several miles down dirt roads and jeep trails.

I find myself in the rather strange position of looking at this one not as a beginning, rather as an ending.
I will be 80 in April, which rather limits my expectations about greeting 2020 - but you never know.
I've been blogging on xanga probably longer than you have - It certainly has changed - not always for the better - and I certainly have seen a world change - not always for the better. Unlike many of my generation, I am not particularly dissatisfied by the world that emerged from the twentieth century.
I really enjoy the opportunity to have a few friends I have never and will probably never meet. Their viewpoints and ideas are fascinating and certainly help color my own. Thanks, you guys.
A phenomena most young folks don't seem to understand is that many of us old farts don't think of ourselves as old and come up against our age-related disabilities with somewhat of a shock. Also many of us have a lot of trouble seeing the world through "new eyes" and worry that the world we grew up in and found comfortable no longer exists and isn't coming back.
I do not count myself among that group, rather I really like this Brave New World.
I would caution my younger readers that the "Age of Excess" is over. The world you grow up in will will be one where a lot more thought about expending energy, resources, and income will be necessary. I think "Living within your means" will be a lot more prevalent than the "Spend, Spend, Spend - uphold our way of living and our economy" ideas your parents grew up with.
As a child of the Great Depression, I find this changing attitude somewhat familiar and satisfying.

Even though our family rule is: "If you can't eat it or drink it - or possibly wear it, Don't give it - we have too much stuff already", this Christmas my wife received one of those Insignia digital picture frames from her nephew.
I didn't think it was much, but found it came with a gig of memory and is very easy to access from a Mac (just plug in the included USB/mini cord and it appears on your desktop)
I just uploaded about 700 photos into it - using about half the memory - it will run for hours without repeating itself. She is very pleased. It's super easy to change,dump, and load new photos - I recommend it heartily.
What did Santa bring you for Christmas?

Happiness is a repaired computer.
My long personal computing career has always been limited to Apples - my first was an Apple-II purchased in Feb. 1982 - I was by no means the "first on the block" but they were just becoming popular. That was followed by an Apple IIe and an Apple IIGS. I still have a software IIGS simulation program that lets you run apple-2 stuff on a Mac (not the new ones with the intel chip, however) I finally threw out boxes and boxes of 7.25" floppies a few years ago - some with the first "Basic" programs I ever wrote. I still have boxes and boxes of 400K & 800K 3.5" floppies if anyone wants them
I stuck with Apple IIs for about ten years, waiting until 1993 to get my first Mac - a color classic. A couple of years later I bought my last Desktop - A powerMac 7500 which I tinkered with and added to until I got my first laptop - a PowerBook G3 "Lombard" in 1999. It still works very well, thank you, even though the battery is shot.
Three years later I purchased a titanium PowerBook G4 which also is still running despite a broken hinge. That's the one I've been using since my latest - a MacBook Pro 17 - lost its internal HD.
This is the first catastrophic failure I've had that I couldn't fix myself - I'd actually replaced the HD in the Lombard - just took careful tinkering and tiny fingers - but fortunately there is an Apple re-seller - Guru in town who was able to remove the HD, strip out and save most of the data, and replace it with a faster, bigger one - all in less than 48 hours.
Unfortunately I had not backed up finances, photos, correspondence, etc since last June, so I was much relieved when he was able to retrieve most of the data. I'll back up more often in the future - I keep telling myself.

Afghanistan is a nation with an interesting history - which can be summed up as attempted domination by the rulers of adjoining nations for the past several hundred years.
This state is made up of more than a dozen rather disparate tribal/cultural/linguistic groups with only one over-riding similarity. They are almost all Muslims, but even here they are divided among major (Sunni & Shia) and minor denominations within Islam. The tribes do have a web of common Islamic beliefs and culture.
There are two major languages spoken - Dari Persian, and Pashtun - and several minor languages, but many Afghans are bilingual. The government has always (well, almost always) been a traditional rather weak central monarchy with local and area tribal rule. Since Afghanistan has long been a buffer state between unfriendly neighbors (most recently Great Britain and the USSR), the development of a strong central government along with natural resources and industry has lagged well behind its neighbors: Turkey, Iran, and Pakistan.
Our invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 was to deny Al Qaeda a safe haven there and seems to have been successful. The Taliban and Al Qaeda seem to have disassociated themselves and less than 100 Al Qaeda fighters remain in Afghan territory - at least according to the CIA.
Currently our policy seems to be to control, disarm and dismember the Taliban so as to prevent its return to power and thus once again provide Al Qaeda with a safe haven. To do this we have attempted to strengthen and encourage the growth of a fairly liberal national government - one which continues the guarantees of personal freedom and civil rights.
There are (at least) two major problems with this policy:
For most of its existence, Afghanistan has not had a strong central government - and when it did have one, that government was seen as repressive; and second, Afghan tribal society tends to be quite conservative and traditional - with traditional Shari'a Islamic law as the basis for moral authority - which runs counter to the civil rights inclusions in the National Constitution, especially women's rights.
To achieve our current stated policy goals we will probably have to deal directly with the local and regional tribal governments - as we ultimately have done in Western Iraq. The real authority in Afghanistan lies with these local authorities but we have not yet resolved how we can breach the considerable moral and cultural beliefs which separate us.
Will the US be willing to back a strong group of regional governing bodies against the Taliban even if these rulers are essentially undemocratic and authoritarian, or must we remain as the central authority enforcing the power of the weak and corrupt central government?

Peace, Love, Joy, Happiness. Maybe some of you remember this oft-chanted slogan of the flower children.
Some of them actually meant it but alas, the movement - however influential it was - lacked staying power and the number of practicing "flower children" is greatly diminished.
I was not a flower child - I taught and encouraged them as a young teacher. Unlike my peers, I was delighted by the movement, which I thought had an amazing underlying moral base. Most of my fellow teachers of the time focused on the superficial - long hair, different (or no) clothes, lack of "proper" respect for us elders - who of course knew what was best for them - and all the other inter-generational differences.
The flower children grew up, entered the hard cold world of today and became the likes of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates (not that those two super geeks were ever practicing flower children - but they were surely influenced by the movement).
I like to think they made the world a marginally better place just for having been - they certainly made it uncomfortable for the complacent.
I've tried to keep the peace, love whenever possible, be joyful and happy even during adversity. It really has worked- at least for me

I've been thinking about veterans and what it means to be one. Here are a few comments:

I'm a veteran (1951-54, the forgotten war - Korea) - which has never been a big deal to me - most of the males of my generation are veterans. If you didn't volunteer, a board made up of "Your friends and neighbors" volunteered you. Most of us waited to be drafted, but I did not. For reasons which seemed to me to be both sufficient and personal, I enlisted in the Army for a three-year hitch.

During that time I was assigned to an infantry regiment, very briefly to a combat engineer company, and for most of my enlistment, to the Transportation Corps as a maritime instructor (Before enlisting I had been in the merchant marine - I was actually in Korea when the war started).

I very much enjoyed my time in the Army, but it was by no means the high point of my life as it seems to have been with many of my peers. My service did point me toward my life's work (teaching). I was offered several inducements to stay in the Army (Promotion from SGT to SFC, a Warrant, even an offer of a job as a civilian GS-3) but I wanted to go back to college.

The GI Bill of that time along with a couple of scholarships and later a Graduate Assistantship allowed me to stay through graduate school. There were a lot of fellow veterans in my classes; it's been said that we, along with the WW2 vets, changed the American college landscape and American society.

Veterans of wars since then have had it both better and worse - better because the casualty rates were less, worse because combat tours were less well-defined and the civilian attitude toward veterans seems to have been less accepting and concerned.

The advent of "All volunteer" armed services has further separated veterans from the civilian world - there are fewer of them. In my day, as an "RA" - regular army enlisted- I was somewhat of a curiosity among my fellow soldiers.
That RA in front of my serial number did get me some consideration and respect from senior NCOs - which I took full advantage of .

All in all, I'm glad I had the opportunity to serve my country and I'm sure I made a contribution to the success of our efforts in Korea. For many years I stayed in touch with friends I made in the Army - it's surely a place where I came in contact with people I never would otherwise have known - and enriched my life and understanding of our nations culture and society.

The Featured Grownups site has a new topic: Seasons' Greetings - A Featured_Grownups writing prompt.
When I was a kid [a very long time ago] the major holidays were anything but times of relaxation and celebration. My mother ran a flower shop and of course the holidays were her busiest time - getting those boquets out the door and delivered required all our help - or at least as much as we could give right on through the holiday.
And as if that wasn't enough at Christmas, my father's job called for him to supervise one of the US's first Christmas Eve yacht parades (late '30s - early '40s). He had to oversee (an often design) the decorations, the route of the parade (Through the major waterways of Miami Beach) and keep the yachts in order and troubleshoot the multitude of last minute problems. If we got home before daylight on Christmas day, we were lucky. That day was spent mostly sleeping.

B. What is the nature of criticism? Can one be critical without seeming disagreeable?

To be a critic means many things but the universal nature of criticism is the judgment of the critic of the work or idea being criticised is applied against a standard.
Some critics seem to enjoy being as nasty as possible and raking the author/artist over coals the critic has provided; but criticism is also one of the fundimental methods by which we learn and polish our artistry.
To be critical, means in the most positive terms, to be serious and thoughtful about what you are criticizing.
Most of us can probably remember examples of both sarcastic, vituperitive criticism and criticism delivered in a helpful, even kindly manner - and sometimes both critiques were about the same thing!
Being a critic may be enjoyable, but what makes a "Good Critic"?
Perhaps another interesting question would be: When is criticism called for, when is it not?

As everyone who has ever looked at an illustrated calendar has observed, New England with its plethora of Maples, Birches, Oaks, and Puckerbrush is at its most beautiful this time of year. Looking across our lake, the islands and far shore are literally ablaze with Reds Oranges, Golds, and Rusts, punctuated with the dark green of the Spruce and Pine.
Our bird feeder is under constant attack by the resident Chickadees, Nuthatches (both red-breasted and white-breasted) as well as a pretty aggressive Hairy Woodpecker. Our resident Red Squirrel has to wait her turn - which upsets her considerably. The ground under the feeder is overrun with Juncos and Chipmunks.
Unfortunately, all this excitement means the birds and beasts are readying themselves for cold weather - as are the ladybugs - who find our nice warm cottage just to their liking and who have begun to scurry around in surprising places.
Our neighbor has been patiently baiting one of our local bears (Stale donuts and molasses). I don't know whether he has gotten more than automatic photos of it yet - or what he plans on doing with it when he does shoot it. Mainers do a lot of hunting and generally eat what they kill. We have no shortage of bears, moose, deer, partridge or turkeys and if you walk in the woods this time of year you had better not wear white and be sure you have on a blaze orange hat and vest.
Our heaters and franklin stove can't keep up with freezing weather - nor can we; so we are leaving shortly - following Fall down through the mountains all the way to North Georgia and then down to Florida's "Forgotten Coast" - the panhandle area. We live about 15 miles south of Georgia and about 20 miles from the Gulf - a block from another lake - one where Canada Geese winter over and make their usual mess.

How has the economic downturn affected you personally? What changes have you made in your life to save money, pinch pennies, stretch your dollars? What thrifty tips can you share (places to shop, coupons to use, places to eat, etc.)?
From: Featured Grownups

Once again, I think this is a situation where your generation and background makes a difference in how you have been treated by the recent economic downturn.
As a child of the Great Depression (1929-40 - I was born in 1930), I learned some frugal ways early on. My family lost much during that era and my parents really never recovered their previous status. There were actually times when my family did not know where their next meal was coming from, and as sort of decayed Semi-upper class people (They had the breeding and the contacts, but never regained the wealth) they were never really happy in their later life.
I did not develop particularly frugal habits as a child, but I did inherit a healthy distrust of risk and debt.
Eventually I inherited a little money but never invested any I did not think I could afford to lose. Also my frugal wife insisted in getting our money's worth and delaying gratification until we could buy without debt - a practice which seems to be notably missing nowadays.
I made three "flyer" investments: In a software company ; A Federal Savings & Loan; and a liquor store. Yup, all three went under within three years - but I did retrieve some mighty fine wines from the liquor store. Undeterred, I continued to invest , now in Mutual Funds and US T-bills (I liked the idea of the US treasury sending ME money). In the mid '80s I sold the mutual funds and from then on have only invested in Non-taxable muni bond funds, CDs and money market funds. That means we never rode the stock market up during the great bull market - but also we never lost anything (Except those software,S&L and Liquor store stocks, and that was only a couple of thousand dollars).
More importantly, we never tried to keep up with the Jones and never went into debt. Our credit cards are, for example, paid off each month and we paid cash for our last three houses (made a killing on sales of two of them).
Recently, i did move some money from a bad insurance company investment to an investment trust (ING) it lost about what everyone else lost - but has a guaranteed pay-out, and was not an important part of our portfolio - which is now mostly a Revokable Trust for our heirs.
We spent our working lives as teachers, retired early and now have a net worth comfortably into seven figures, with a yearly income of six.
The recent downturn has not changed our spending habits at all - why not? Because we simply followed the general rule of not spending any money we did not have.

Well, Summer is definitely past up here in the North Woods. After a beautiful September - crisp and cool nights and days, we are beginning to experience the delights of steady cold, clammy, drizzle. Except for the Loons, our lake is deserted.
Our cabin is a good deal more comfortable than it has been in past years - we have added a good deal of space and electric baseboard heaters throughout the cottage - as well as new draft-tight windows.
We will be here for another week or so and then make our annual snowbird trek down to North Florida.

We will sort of follow Fall colors down. It is possible to drive the length of the East Coast without getting into too many traffic jams, but you have to be creative - and it does take a little longer.
We will take a whole day just to get to Southern Vermont - driving West through the Maine Western Mountains and then down through the White Mountains of NH. We'll visit our grandniece's organic farm in Southern NH.
Next we drive down through Western MA, take the Taconic Parkway down through NY and drive across Northern PA and down through MD, WV,and western VA following the Appalachians and the Shennandoah Valley until we reach the Smokies. Asheville and Sylva NC should be beautiful this time of year.
We drive the length of GA - from Tallullah Falls to Tallahassee FL, avoiding Atlanta and any other big city traffic.
We will have to follow main routes because finding handicap facilities on back roads is almost impossible but it is possible to avoid a lot of traffic and enjoy the trip.

I no longer have to depend on Motel internet connections - can even go online while we are driving ( I won't) thanks to Verizon's G3 broadband network. I anything exciting happens, I'll let you know

To answer Socrates_Cafe's three questions, I find I have to wander off the track a bit.
a. What about your life is the most satisfying?
I suppose freedom from worry about financial matters - something I haven't had to worry about or a very long time. Fortunately I've been able to live my life pretty much on my terms - My career - teaching - was one I loved every day. I suppose it's unusual for people nowadays to be delighted with our jobs but my wife (also a teacher) and I really did love our work. Since I had some inherited income, my wife and I could spend at least two months of every year traveling, studying, sailing, or camping. That's how we found our second home here in Maine.
While we were teaching we had pretty good health and never had to worry about expensive health issues.

b. What part of your life do you dislike most?
In the past few years our health has deteriorated dramatically. My wife has had serious and life-threatening problems for the past eight years which have resulted in her being confined to a wheelchair. My arthritis is such that I can't do much but push her. We still travel - mostly just to and from FL & ME by car - and have had to give up boating. Fortunately we are able to afford our health care, unlike some others we know. We have long been on medicare and really appreciate this example of the "evils of socialized medicine". Too bad all Americans don't have it.

c. How would you improve your life?
We have already begun. We moved back to Florida, giving up our over-large house and 12 acres of field and woods in Southern Indiana. We have made major upgrades on our Maine lake cabin - it is now pretty much disabled accessible - no mean feat when you are at the end of a rough dirt road and down a rock ledge. We added all sorts of modern conveniences we should have had years ago - spending our kids inheritance (just kidding).
We have done what we can about our health (Cataract laser surgery and all that stuff - remarkable - we can now see)
We are workers for and contributers to those working to change our country's health care system to make it more affordable and humane.
BTW, Health INSURANCE ain't Health CARE, in case you didn't notice.

Now is a good time for our government to re-focus its efforts to destroy al Qaeda and get out of the business of trying to protect the people of Iraq and Afghanistan from themselves.

My wife and I have been on a continuous vacation since we retired from teaching in 1985 - and enjoyed almost every minute of it.
Since 1970, much of our vacation time has been spent in our cottage on a lake in Downeast Maine. It became a cottage when we finally got electricity in 1982. For the first twelve years it was a cabin where we used Aladdin lamps and cooked with gas - which we hauled in. We had a 30 year-old gas refrigerator (Don't ask how we got that down to the cabin) and we hand-pumped water up from the lake, which was also our bathing pool. One sabbatical year we stayed until late October - our bathing was pretty brief that month! Oh yes, we also had a wood stove for heat - one thing we had plenty of was wood.
We have lately upgraded the cottage by adding a wing with two more bedrooms, very little of the cabin remains as we bought it. Nowadays our yearly taxes cost more than half of our original purchase price - but of course then there was no road within a quarter mile and then it was just a logging trail. Times of changed, we actually have street signs and a street address - of course the road is still little better than a jeep trail but FedX and UPS do have to deliver - not that they are especially thrilled when they do. Our mailbox is at the head of the private road - about two miles away.
Our vacation spot is spectacularly beautiful -a very large lake ( two+ miles wide and six+ miles long) with high hills and a mountain at one end. It is a deep lake carved out by the mile-high glacier that covered the area twelve millennia ago.
We stay here from about July first until mid-October. By then all the foliage has Fall colors and New England is at its most beautiful. As we drive down to Florida, we sort of follow the Fall south.
Life is good.

Looking at health care from the individual's standpoint; I think most if not all of us would like our health problems treated as promptly as possible at the lowest cost to us by the most competent physicians available.
To be sure, some religions direct health care toward different practitioners or religious guides, but I think even the most devout Christian Scientist would get a broken arm set and splinted.
Traditionally, here in the US we have, for the most part, turned to private practitioners for our doctoring. Unfortunately, the dream of an old family doctor with his little black bag, was obsolete many decades ago. Modern medicine requires complicated technology - which won't fit in that bag; and an esoteric skill set far beyond the dreams of that old family doctor of our great grandparents (that YOUR GGparents - I actually remember him - most of his patients died quicker than they do now).
The medical business is now a gigantic enterprise which most developed nations have learned to deal with in a business-like manner. Just as government seldom encourages individuals to build roads or battleships or recruit their own armies, so they have taken over the business of health care, deciding sensibly that allowing some to get rich on the backs of others sickness and misery is bad politics.
We Americans, however, have allowed, even encouraged, such a situation and stuck with it despite the pain and suffering - both physical and financial - it has caused a growing number of our fellow citizens. A lucky few of us have the benefits of government run health care. Of course such a system has all the bureaucratic disadvantages of any such hugh system, but remarkably at the patient-doctor beginning of the chain,there are few problems and much satisfaction.
Do you know anyone who has abandoned Medicare after trying it for a few years? It isn't mandatory, you know - you have to sign up for it and agree to have the modest monthly payment taken out of your social security or other retirement check. You can, if you wish, continue to make private arrangements.
My point is, of course, that our present system is unsustainable and must be changed. The obvious change is to move to a system where we have absolute control over the system and its administration - which we would have in a government - run single payer system. We do still have the political power of the world's greatest democracy .
Many physicians have indicated that they would prefer to be salaried employees, but I think such a system would work better if they remained private (as in Canada) and accepted fees for their services.
I think a part of any good health care system would be active recruitment of the "best and brightest" with scholarships to medical, nursing, and med-tech schools and the guarantee of jobs on graduation.
How would such a utopian system be financed - by taxes of course. The total should be lower that the present for-profit system costs us even insuring all those who presently are unable or unwilling to carry health insurance. Such a system is pretty popular in every other country that's tried it.

During my lifetime racial attitudes and relations have certainly changed. I grew up in the south and when I began to teach, public schools were still well segregated. I had the first Black student in our area to attend a white HS in my classes (He was a very bright kid whose mother was a teacher and who wanted him to get the best possible public school education. For a year or so we could brag that 100% of our Negro graduates graduated from Princeton with high honors)
After he graduated from HS we were asked by the Superintendent's office to collect his schoolbooks so that they could be fumigated before they were reissued. I told or principal that I would comply - in the presence of a couple of newspaper reporters to insure it was done right. We never heard about this request again.
When the schools desegregated and bussing began a few years later, there was a fundimental change in the attitude of parents toward the schools - parental support dropped way off - probably because of the loss of neighborhood schools. Racial attitudes of the students gradually improved, however, as proximity showed the kids that the "others" weren't so bad after all. This was slow, and real acceptance took a long time; it seems to have been more of a social class thing, with members of the higher social classes (upper-middle, semi-upper and upper) accepting each other first. I think integration of the lower-middle and working classes is still rather spotty - probably due to job competition.
In the segregated South, sometimes the only mark of self respect a lower class White could muster was his feeling that he was superior to his Black neighbors, and when he thought they would have a chance to outdo him, his prejudice hardened. Just as many Blacks remain frustrated by the slow pace of integration, some Whites have hardened their resistance into real class and race hatred - hence the "White Power" - Neo-Nazi and other gangs that have broadened their prejudice to include almost any other ethnic group in America that isn't just like them.
I think race relations got an enormous positive boost with the election of Obama, but I am saddened by such groups as the "Birther" movement - which is clearly a manifestation of prejudice.

During the past several decades, medicine and its delivery systems have certainly changed - mostly for the worst IMHO.
My wife and I have been on medicare for many years and find that system generally pretty good. There is little or no restriction on what MD or hospital you use but it does suffer from two problems: As it was originally set up it was supposed to be self-funding - sort of part of the Soc sec system, but the inclusion of medicaid and the lack of oversight has led to problems both in funding and in payments. For example, the 80% of MD bills we pay costs each of us $96.40/mo. taken out of our soc sec. The so-called drug benefit (actually a pharma goldmine) costs an additional $32.50 - also taken out of soc sec each month. Not bad, really. The additional 20% coverage (we use AARP health ins.) costs us a total for both of $380.50. You can see how unbalanced the system has become - $96.40 for 80%, $190.25 for the additional 20% - and that's with AARP negotiating the best price.
Apparently any shortfall in the medicare part of our insurance is paid out of soc sec revenue - which may be why that system is in fiscal trouble. Medicare payment schedules ( generally about half what the MDs charge insurance) are supposed to be set by a board of MDs, bureaucrats and just plain folks - how it actually works is difficult to determine.
The President's idea of some kind of non-political oversight board made up of MDs and other interested parties to set rates and suggest/mandate procedures which work - not enrich the medical establishment - is a very good one and may well be the making of any reform passed.
Here' a personal anecdote: Our personal doctor (A nice, attentive, skilled young MD) was talking costs with me last year - he is quite open about such things. He was complaining that he billed patients over $450K last year but received only about $320K in actual payments. Apparently the discrepancy was in refused insurance payments and the reduced payments he gets from medicare (They pay 80% of their pay schedule - not his) and the payments, which are handled at the state level are often delayed. He like the AARP insurance - they pay much faster than any other that he sends claims to.
Bottom line: No one , patients, doctors, hospitals, most other providers like the present system- I think secretly many practitioners would like to see a single-payer system emerge. Then they would know where they stand and be more able to predict income.

Socrates Cafe asks "What has been the most important change in Western Civilization during the past 109 years?
I've thought of a good many:
The development of technology - especially electronic technology.
The fundimental discoveries concerning the nature of the Universe.
The Rise of Democracy around the world.
The expansion of basic scientific knowledge.

My choice is,however, not on any of these, rather that which made them all possible:
The most important change in the world during the past hundred or so years has been the development of almost universal education and literacy which has made all the above possible.
People tend to underrate this most important Basic Institution, but it is fundimental to all civilization's progress.

My wife and I start our annual trek to Maine next Monday. We will drive to Asheville NC on monday, Chambersburg PA on Tuesday, Chesterfield NH on Wednesday - where we will stop and check out our grand-niece's new organic farm; and then on to DownEast Maine the following day.
It's been over 100 here North FL for the past few days - that is when there hasn't been a violent thundersquall - the hail cools things off.
We will be ready for some cooler weather, though it is strange to be packing all that cold weather clothing (We will be in Maine until the leaves fall - generally in mid-October).
In the past, I have had to spend a week or so off-line until I could get things set up - no mean feat out in the woods. I have used a satellite (awful reception) and a dialup (never able to get over 26k download); but since last summer I have had a G3 wireless cell modem (Verizon) which gives really good broadband response - close to that of my cable modem. It also can be used on the road (My computer is a 17" MacBook Pro), so I need not miss a day of all this deathless prose.
If anything exciting happens on the trip, I'll describe it in glowing detail.

Socrates_Cafe's posting this week describes the nature of Intelligence and how it is measured. I started to write a comment but it got so long, that I've posted it here as an entry.

Here's what Soc had to say:
A characteristic of Humans is their superior intelligence - or at least we tend to think so. There is little doubt that, at least in Human terms, we exhibit a much higher range of intellectual skills than even our nearest non-human cousins.
This ability to reason, to think abstractly, to learn and use language, to be creative, to acquire knowledge seems to be the paramount human trait.

How smart would you like to be? Why?

Here's my comment:

I think part of this article was to show how much alike in intelligence humans are, but perhaps Soc didn't stress that enough. The "Bell Curve" is pretty high, indicating that the vast majority of humans fall within ten-fifteen points on either side of the 100 norm. If only two percent of the population are more than thirty points from the norm (on the high side) and only .1 percent are 50 points from the norm - that's not very many people.
Those high IQ societies like Mensa are mostly social clubs with "How you scored" as their only criteria for membership. It's considered bad taste to compare your IQ with anyone else's and Mensa, at least, will not even release the scores from their admission tests - it's strictly pass-fail.
Being smart is not necessarily a ticket to success - many super-smart people, members of TNS or ISPE, for example, report having a lot of trouble as youngsters with their social relationships and Asperger's syndrome (a type of high-function autism) is not uncommon.
Incidentally, if you want to watch a TV show where they do a pretty good parody of Asperger's; watch Bones. House is another, but Hugh Laurie doesn't do Asperger's as well IMHO
I have taught students with very advanced Asperger's. In a classroom they have the potential to be very real problems. Imagine having Einstein in your normal math class - a frantic, immature, very grumpy Einstein.
Note: The guy who killed the guard at the Holocaust Memorial was, for a brief time, a Mensa member.

I was fortunate enough to teach a number of very bright young people when I was working. They were fascinating, but sometimes a handful. Some were pretty arrogant, but the two smartest (One went with NASA and the other was pulled from his college to help design atomic subs - I don't think he ever bothered to finish even his BS degree) were pretty quiet and certainly did not impress their fellow students. My wife also specialized in teaching gifted kids - one of hers developed the software that drives your hard drive and another became a famous - very famous - model and TV personality.
On the other hand (This is unfortunately true) I taught a mass murderer - also pretty bright.

When I was young and first taught HS, I was assigned some "special " classes. Kids who were not supposed to be able to learn very much. I think the lowest IQ I ever taught was 63 - which is pretty slow; but the girl was really very sweet and well adjusted. She already had a job in a child-care nursery but needed that HS diploma to satisfy some ridiculous requirements. We were able to get her through all the required credits and tests to graduate. Those were before the "no child left behind" movement, when a HS diploma still had some meaning. During my teaching career I was often able to set my own class schedules. I always assigned myself at least one "special Ed" class to sort of offset the Advanced and Exceptional classes. I'll pat myself on the back a little and claim I did a pretty good job of launching them into our society. Teaching them was not a chore - it was as much fun as teaching the bright kids.

It seems to me that most people greatly simplify the effects of Religion on their lives. They tend to ignore the cultural implications - that is the part religion plays in our, and apparently every other culture that humans have developed.
Religion is one of the five great social frameworks (Family, Education, Government, Economics, Religion) that all cultures use to identify and interpret their basic cultural values.

When we twenty-first century Westerners talk about our beliefs, we make assumptions based on our basic value systems - occasionally these values come into conflict and the resolution of this conflict requires some value reinterpretation. Since in our culture, Religion is the primary framework we use for reinterpretation of some of our values, it isn't surprising that our definition of Religion tends to be important.

Psychologically, some sort of religion seems to be built into us; and there is little doubt that each of us tends to interpret this "feeling" to suit our own psychological needs. We seem to really create our God in our own image.
Given this fact, it's fairly easy for a dominating personality to "bully" us into their religious interpretation and to combine with the Governmental social framework to enforce compliance with at least parts of their concept of "True Religion".

There has been a lot written about the history and development of the "Mediterranean Religions" (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). I suggest you check out some of these histories with as open a mind as you can assume.