After a fairly easy trip, we arrived here in DownEast Maine last Monday. Our Camp (what Mainers call a lakeside cabin used in the summer) was all readded up and waiting for us - even up to fresh flowers on the dining table.
We have listened to the loons, watched the hummers in our window boxes, and stopped for the wild turkey chicks on the camp road. I'm sure as soon as they discover we're here, the raccoons, foxes, and coyotes will try to pry the top off our garbage can [they can't - it's clamped on and the can is hooked to the side of the shed - a couple of years ago a bear tried and even he couldn't].
This part of Maine seems to be seeing a better-than-average early tourist season [We're about 25 miles from Bar Harbor] but rural areas are still the poorest part of New England. While the high price of gas will slow the tourists [and locals] down some, our two-lane roads are still jammed this week.
Life here at the lake is very slow, for us anyhow. We have had the usual visitors and expect many more but we spend most of our time watching the rocks grow.

The camp's been all fixed up - or so we are assured, and our fixer-uppers will be there to help us unpack when we arrive Monday afternoon. I'll keep you posted about what we find.
It will certainly be different weather - we hit a new all-time heat record yesterday: 105.
DownEast Maine has been in the 40s.

Well, we got the bad news today. The cabin has slipped and will have to be re-leveled, which means none of the windows will open, the plumbing is probably broken etc. The folks in ME assure me they will have it fixed in three days, but having re-leveled it myself several times over the years, I don't have too much hope. We intend to leave in about two weeks, but may have to delay. Sigh.

For the past couple of weeks my wife and I have been trying to buy a new car. Our needs are fairly simple and pretty firm. As we drive to Maine from Florida every year and must access our Maine cabin down a long, rough, steep road; we must have at least all-wheel drive [four-wheel-drive is better but that now comes only on jeeps and very large SUVs].
In addition we wanted a CR recommended mid-sized SUV/crossover with a 6 cyl engine in a light color. Not hard to find? Think again. We looked around and settled on a Hyundai Santa Fe. There is not apparently one to be had meeting our modest requirements in the whole US. We looked at a Honda Pilot [ larger, but smooth fold-down seats were necessary] There is not one of those around either. Ditto for Toyota. Subaru was not to our taste. Cost was not really much of a concern. Apparently the manufacturers have already stopped making this year's models and nobody wants all-wheel drive.
As a result we will be driving our '03 Honda CR-V to Maine for the seventh time [80K miles on it - getting well broken in]
I had wanted an SUV with a little more cargo space - two wheelchairs plus our stuff for three months makes for tight packing and Honda's redesign of the CR-V has cut out a lot of cargo space, so we didn't want a new one of those.
I suppose I'll order what I want next Fall when next year's models come out, but I really did want to drive something a little quieter and with a little more power up this year.
It looks like we will be having an exciting Summer in Maine. My wife's nephew is getting married at our place [ second marriage - lots of grown kids and maybe a grandchild or two] The woods will never be the same

The assassination of Osama Bin Laden may be the beginning of a new era of US foreign and military policy.
Our present policies have not stood us well since the collapse of the USSR. Our entire psyche seems to have developed a sort of "Policeman of the World" mentality which has led to both internal and international problems including our citizens' attitudes toward their government and to some extent toward themselves.

The Pentagon white paper A National Strategic Narrative by "Mr. Y" may well have the same impact as George Kennan's "Letter from Moscow" which set our cold war "Containment" strategy toward the USSR and its allies. This new analysis discusses American values, the importance of Education, our economic changes, and our place in a competitive world economy. Check it out.

With all the political rhetoric about Medicare and Social Security [both are financially supported through FICA taxes] there seems to be a lot of misconceptions about the program.
In the first place, Medicare was designed, as was Social Security, as an insurance program. That means all of those of us who work or worked contribute to it. While these payments are handled by the IRS, you will have noticed on your W-2 form that Social Security withheld is listed separately from income tax withheld. Since 1990, the total FICA taxes withheld from your paycheck amounts to 7.65% of your salary. your employer contributes a like amount - if you're self employed, you contribute the whole amount. A total of 2.9% of that amount is Medicare Hospital insurance. Unlike Social Security, there is no upper limit on the income you have which is taxed. If you make $1M/year, you will pay medicare part A on the whole amount.
If and when you sign up for Medicare part B [pays physician office visits] you will be charged $110.50/mo. which will be withheld from your social security payments [unless you make over $80K/yr. - in which case you pay more]. Medicare part B pays 80% of your office visit costs, after a yearly deduction. You must purchase private insurance to pay the rest. Currently I pay a little over $200/mo for this medigap insurance - which is an interesting commentary of the economics of the private health insurance system.
In addition you may sign up for Medicare part D which pays a percentage of your drug costs. This currently costs me $35.80/mo. and is also withheld from my social security check.
Obviously, as you can see from the above, Medicare is not free and, like Social Security, is remarkably self sustaining. Both social programs currently have healthy surpluses despite the fact that medicare contributions have not kept up with the skyrocketing cost of American health care.
Medicaid, which is healthcare insurance for the poor, is another program administered by the States through federal government grants.
While Social Security and Medicare are items in the federal budget - very large items [they totaled over $1.113 trillion in 2009] they are not part of the deficit - in fact if Social Security funds were not lent to the government at very low interest, the deficit would be higher.
Considering how much more efficient Medicare is than private insurance (a recent $60K operation I had cost Medicare about $20K - medicare doesn't pay at the private rates) - making Medicare universal would surely result in the costs of US health care dropping to those of all other developed nations on earth - many of which have better health care than we do.

What do we want from our government?
A brief suggestion about how we can live happily ever after

The Federal, State, and local governments in the US share the responsibility for giving citizens those inalienable rights we hold so dear. We have given the government responsibilities in a number of expensive areas :
Protection (Armed Services, Police, etc),
Infrastructure (roads, utilities, Parks, government owned structures, legal protection, etc),
Health (Food & Drug Adm, Medicare, Medicaid, EMR, etc),
Social programs (Social security, unemployment ins,) education in all its forms, foreign and domestic aid, etc)
Economic programs: (money supply & regulation, debt service, etc)

In all these areas the government actions are subject to political control and considerable public scrutiny. The government is subject to public view more than any other social or economic institutions.
Despite constant cry about waste and bureaucracy, our government is actually pretty frugal and well-run. Most of its operating problems are probably the result of conflicting political control and demands. These sorts of problems are the result of our democratic legislative process and will always be with us.

Government income comes from a small number of pretty well defined sources: Mostly Taxes.
The Federal Government collects income taxes in a rather complicated manner - mostly from withholding of part of salaries or other financial transactions, but it does depend upon voluntary filing and compliance. Other federal taxes include excise (on certain consumer products - everything from gas to tobacco) and tariffs on imported goods. State and local taxes are mostly income and sales taxes, property taxes, and excise taxes.

Another major source of income is the issuing of bonds - important to keep all levels of government going when expenditures exceed income and as the backup guarantee for savings and mortgage investments. The Debt Service (mostly interest on government bonds) mentioned above is an important government expenditure - how much it is depends on the confidence investors (bond buyers) have in the government.

All governments try to balance their income and expenses. It is obvious that massive capital outlays - building and replacing infrastructure - unexpected catastrophic expenses, etc, cannot be pay-as-you-go - that's what the government debt (bond sales) are for. A frugal and economic government will not use its borrowing power to pay regular ongoing anticipated expenses except for very limited time periods.

A fairly simple solution to the current US deficit problem - which stretches from the Federal to Local spending would be to decide which responsibilities we want the government to assume and then tax ourselves enough to pay for them. Who gets taxed for how much is a political decision, but it seems to me that at the least we should go where the money is and tax the wealthiest in proportion to their wealth. A millionaire can afford a 40% income tax rate that would crush a factory worker trying to feed a family on the 2010 median income (approx $35000). Currently most millionaires pay less than 12% of their gross yearly income. Most corporations pay far less than individuals (In 2009, corporations paid approx $138 billion of over $2.1 trillion in income taxes collected.)
Obviously the current tax collection system has some loopholes.

Here are some of my suggestions:
Determine what responsibilities we want the government to assume - those I have listed above are a much abbreviated list of the most essential.

Determine the most efficient way to provide them consistent with our values. An example would be Medicare:
If it is made universal and for-profit insurance providers were removed from the programs, it would be cheaper and US citizens would pay a smaller percentage of their income for health care - as do most citizens of the world's developed nations.

Generally removing private for-profit companies from basic government services should make those services more economical - if the services are administrated fairly and openly. No citizen should be required to participate in offered services, but all citizens should be taxed to fund democratically decided government responsibilities.

Determine what amount of income the government needs to provide those services and responsibilities and tax everyone accordingly in the most fair and least hurtful manner. As a matter or principle, all citizens should pay some tax, however slight, as their civic responsibility.

The current political suggestions that we cut taxes and spending as a way of getting out from our current recession- generated economic problems is precisely what Hoover and his administration tried in 1929-33, with disastrous results. To repeat the same solutions continually and expect different results is one definition of insanity.

The recent unrest in North Africa, especially Libya, has led to the controversial U.S. involvment in attempts to overthrow Gadhafi and save the people of Libya from a bloodbath. The revolutionary movement seems to be unstructured and without either leadership or coherent purpose - except his overthrow. Here is a situation where there is great temptation for the U.S. to step up once again and impose our notion of acceptable government on the region - ignoring the age-old culture of the region as if it were that of uneducated savages.
They aren't and we shouldn't.

We always beat the season here. My yard is full of azaleas - the white ones so bright that you can't look at the bushes without sunglasses. Our Lorapedlum hedges are bright magenta and our dogwood (we have the pink variety) are doing their thing. So far the only things missing are the Camellias - I guess the buds must have gotten nipped.
We took a ride out in the countryside yesterday to look at a small farm which my nephew is considering buying and saw the wild wisteria and other wildflowers which are so common here - lots of dogwood. this time of year, this area supposedly has the greatest variety of flora of any part of the U.S. Our road and most of the others we drove on were "Canopy Roads"which, as I think I've mentioned, have the spanish moss drooping live oaks meeting across them. Many roads have "low clearance"signs posted. Hitting a live oak branch (which may be over two feet in diameter) with the roof of your truck would do major damage to the truck, but not much to the branch.
The farmhouse we looked at was built in 1935 by the Farm Home Administration (?). Small - tiny by today's standards, but very solidly built. The floors are heart pine - now almost instinct.
This week, maybe we'll drove down to the Gulf and pig out on the local seafood. There is no evidence of the oil spill - and never was along this part of the "Forgotten Coast". The only fairly large town, Apalachicola, may be getting its first traffic stoplight one of these days. further west along the coast (Panama City, Pensacola, etc) its's pretty much over-developed, but not here.

Recently - well not really recently - I have been forcefully reminded of the impact of pain on the quality of life.
When I had my knees replaced, I thought I could scale back the rather serious pain medicine (Indomethecin) I have been using for some years. A few days with Naproxin (Advil - but stronger) disabused me. It seems my arthritis wasn't just confined to my knees but is everyplace. My left shoulder, for example, has been completely destroyed by it - at least according to the Orthopedic surgeon, in addition to hands, elbows, back, feet, I guess all 200+ bones.
I had little pain with the operations but it was explained that my threshold was so high that what would really hurt most people, I felt as "discomfort".
The point of all this self-pity is to comment on living with physical pain and learning to do what you can and not cry over what you no longer can. I think many of us allow disability to overcome our sense of adventure and cause us to give up all thought of doing anything that may be a failure. My wife and I (she's in a wheelchair and almost blind) have somehow manage to keep pretty active, and are looking forward to the four-day drive to Maine in June. We are certainly not house-bound but do regret not being able to hike.
We enjoy eating out, sightseeing, picnicking, and travel. Now if I could just figure out how to get us into a sailboat.....

For many years now Science Fiction authors have speculated about Computers taking over our world. Issac Asimov, for example, had the kindly supercomps provide us humans with our own tidy little humans-only universe. Other speculators have imagined world with computers - both kindly and menacing - running things.
Well, for some years now, the concept has been taken up by serious science. The Singularity concept now not only steers much of astro-physics, but has now been taken up by the Futurists - those who try to scientifically predict future trends. They say that by 2045, computers will surpass human intelligence. There is lot about this on the web and recently Time Magazine featured a popular article about the concept.
How we handle this Singularity will tell us much about whether or not humans will remain at the top of the food chain.
I'll comment more about this both here and on Socrates_Cafe.

Why Do we think we can continue to allow our government to out-spend its income? Americans are pretty much agreed on what basic government services we want: A comfortable environment (good roads, drainage, protection from bad guys, - both foreign and domestic, etc), basic assurance of "the pursuit of happiness" which includes security in our old age, education, economic stability, and a strong place in the world.
All these things cost us and we tax ourselves in order to make it possible for the government [local, state, and national] to provide these basic needs. So why are we so reluctant fully fund our government budgets? These budgets are decided by our elected representatives and failure to support them while at the same time demanding the services means that we must borrow and that's never as economical as balancing our budgets and paying as we go. Currently over 26% of our tax income is spent in just paying interest on our growing debt - and growing.
Here's my proposal: Figure out how much we need to fund our budgets after careful review and calculate how to allocate taxes among us so as to cause the least harm to individuals and our economy. This is most painlessly done with a graduated income tax where all those employed pay something and those able to pay a higher percentage of their income without material damage to their standard of living pay substantially more. Historically, the most prosperous era of our nation's economy occurred when the highest income tax rate [ on those making over $100K} ranged from 90% to 60% [1945-75]. Obama's idea of raising the rate on those making over $250K from 32% to 39% would be a small start - might encourage those making that much to work a little harder to revive the economy - maybe hire a few more people - what they spend there is not part of their income and so is not taxed.

I am, as usual, fascinated by the political scene - both here in Florida and in Washington.
Florida saw fit to elect a political newcomer - no previous governmental experience of any kind - as governor.
Rick Scott's main claim to fame was his having dodged a prosecution as the company he founded was indicted for having defrauded Medicare of almost three Billion dollars or something like that. He did spend over seventy million dollars of his own money to win the governorship over a well-qualified democrat.
During the campaign he refused to meet with editorials board of news media - who almost all recommended his opponent.
He seems confused by the idea of "Public" office and has attempted to keep solid control of all news from his office.
Florida has currently a $3.5 billion budget deficit - which, according FL law must be resolved, but our new governor just announced that he will cut taxes. Florida is one of the few states without an income tax, which means government revenue is often very difficult to measure - if the tourists don't come or we stop consumer spending, tax collection is way off .
Scott campaigned on "Let's get back to work" - FL has an 11% unemployment rate - but has not come up with any suggestions, except attracting new industry by cutting controls and requirements in such areas as environmental protection. Visiting sunny Florida may become a thing of the past.
On the other hand, last week we were the only state without snow (Even Hawaii had snow on the volcanos).

2010 was not a particularly good year for me and my family. I spent too much time in hospital and rehab and my wife spent too much time battling colon cancer and eyesight failure. This prevented us from going to Maine for the summer as we have for the past forty years, and greatly curtailed our enjoyment of life.
Hopefully, all (or most) of that is behind us. My wife's battle with cancer culminated with a serious operation which has left her stronger and feeling better than she has in years - unfortunately her eyesight has continued to deteriorate (Fuch's disease) but that has slowed.
My arthritis led to bilateral knee replacements and I can now walk without pain for the first time in a decade (I know, why didn't I get it done sooner? Because I could live with it until immobility became too pronounced). My carpal and Ulnar tunnel problems seem to have been solved and we are looking forward to being able to travel once again.
Our only close relative's marriage has ended in a bitter, but uncontested, divorce and he seems to have found happiness for the first time in years. His ex-wife and her family seem to be trying to assuage her guilt by making up to us - something she certainly never did before. Ahh well, life as a soap opera will certainly continue.
Fortunately we seem to be in a position where we can watch the economic and political changes which have and will take place without too much worry. My wife now watches a lot of political and financial TV and is fascinated by the shallow and short-term thinking of the politicians, pundits, and experts - and irritated by their self-serving disregard for the welfare of the country - and consequently their own long-term welfare. The fast buck and re-election seem to be their only goals.

Well, tomorrow I go in for Carpal tunnel and ulnar nerve decompression surgery (That's hand and elbow slicing for those of you without a med dictionary) I have plenty of symptoms of Carpal tunnel - have had ever since the knee surgeries- but I don't know about the elbow surgery - I have had no symptoms of that which I can detect - I'll ask the surgeon (Talk about waiting until the last moment! But have you ever tried to contact an MD during the holidays?)
I think the Carpal tunnel is the result of my having to push myself up out of chairs as I am re-strengthening my new knees. I just got a easy-lift chair as I certainly won't be able to get out of a recliner without help - at least until my hand heals. The whole procedure is a day-long out-patient thing. I'll keep you posted if anyone is interested.

HA! Apparently everyone has either stopped checking this site or they are not interested in commenting on the US's Debt problems - I don't blame you.

Our Christmas this year is complicated by a relative's divorce. We are still friends with his ex-wife, and are rather anxious about how his grown children will handle the celebration at our house with him and his new GF. The ex-wife won't be there. Any suggestions?

At last we seem to be focusing, albeit reluctantly, on our country's financial and economic dilemma. The Republicans are demanding a return to normalcy, pretty much as Harding and Hoover did, and claim the answer is to "Grow the economy", thus ending the Recession. I have a few questions about that tack: Why should the economy grow? For new jobs to be created, there must be a basic need for whatever those new employees would make or do. That presupposes a rise in demand for what they produce, be it industrial products, infrastructure, service, or whatever. Just what is it that is not available that is demanded?

Also part of the dilemma is the massive public debt - increased many times, mostly because of our financing of expensive wars and programs by borrowing rather than paying for them with tax money. Actually reducing taxes when you know you will need the money was at best a stupid idea - and has meant that for the past several years the growing debt service (The interest we pay to China for all those bonds they hold) has meant that there is less and less tax money to pay for more and more expensive wars and programs - which we seem incapable of ending.

Sensible solutions would seem to me to tap sources of money that we have right here in the United States, namely re-start taxing those who can well afford to be taxed at reasonable rates. The upper rate for personal income tax should be returned to 70%, as it was before Reagan began the process that started this mess. The tax rate for corporations should also be a progressive scale. Remember our income taxes are on net INCOME; if your "small business" doesn't have an income, you are not taxed, and a way to increase your "small business" income is to produce more of whatever you do - that generally means more employees. If you pay your employees health insurance, that is part of their income and they should pay tax on it - that's only fair, isn't it? Generally, business expenses are deducted from your profits and it is your profit that is taxed.
Also, perhaps more of us would take our tax problems more seriously if all of us who had incomes were obliged to pay at least some income tax - might give us a sense of responsibility for our government's finances.

Other parts of the solution would certainly include re-evaluating our government expenses. What we are spending that is productive of "The Public Good" such as Medicare, Social Security, unemployment insurance, healthcare, and infrastructure maintenance are obviously reasonable government expenses that are for the public's good and make our nation stronger, but I can think of ways to make even these expenditures more reasonable and efficient. Wars in far-away places are harder to rationalize.

It seems to me that Al Qaeda has won its war. The idea behind terrorism is to terrorize the enemy and to date, the enemy (us) seems to be well terrorized. We have fought two costly wars and instituted expensive and irritating domestic airport and other screening techniques in response to vague threats by a nebulous enemy. Al Qaeda doesn't need much membership - all it seems to need is a internet web presence and a few fanatics willing to kill themselves publicly. Our problem seems to stem from the initial decision to treat these thugs as some sort of enemy force and declare "war" on them instead of treating them as criminals and using the criminal justice system. We have over 100K soldiers in Afghanistan and have just begun to deploy our main battle tanks there - It is estimated that there are between 25 and 50 Al Qaeda operatives AT MOST in Afghanistan. Talk about using a cannon to kill a mosquito.....

Here in the U.S. travel has become slower and less convenient because of our official fear of terrorists. Almost all of the arrests and detainments because of this self-imposed inconvenience have been private citizens objecting to some aspect of it - not to terrorists. Those suicidal idiots who succeeded on 9/11 would have been detected by then-existing methods, if those responsible had been alert. Those caught since have been mostly caught because their shoe and underwear bombs failed to detonate - not by screening techniques.

What would happen if we reduced our screening to alert profiling?

Most Americans seem to be agreed on the seriousness of the U.S. public debt and continued budget deficits.
Individuals who find themselves in like circumstances (Owing a great deal and spending more than their income) generally solve their financial problems by spending less, budgeting to pay off their debt, perhaps finding a higher source of income or going bankrupt; but nations are not individuals and must solve their financial problems in different ways.
An obvious first step would be to increase the government's income (Raise taxes) while balancing the Federal budget and setting aside some funds to reduce the Federal debt. Even this simple solution is complicated to actually put into practice: Much of the nations economic well-being is actually based on the debt - Government bonds are the final basis of our banking system and currency, for example. Any tax increase would be political suicide for those legislators proposing it.
Americans seem to have become addicted to the idea of instant gratification without regard to the future - hence our credit-card over use. The average American probably spends in excess of ten percent of his total income in credit card interest and fees - in some cases even more than that. The Federal debt is now in excess of 12 trillion dollars and the debt service (interest we pay on it) is about 26% of all federal outlays. That means we Americans are paying over 1/4 of our taxes just to finance the debt. how long can this go on?
Anyone have a solution?

For those of you who are interested or who may have their knees (or other joints) replaced sometime: Here's an update on my progress:
I had bilateral surgery done on Aug. 30. I moved from the hospital to a rehab hospital five days later. I was there twelve days and came home to four weeks of twice-a-week home physical therapy. By the time I left the rehab center, I was able to walk with a walker or cane but needed to push or pull myself out of a chair or off the bed. I was able to drive within a day or so of getting home and could do the grocery shopping within a couple of days. Because my wife is wheel-chair bound, we kept a 9 to 5 housekeeper companion for the first week (She had been with my wife ever since I went for the operation).
Within a week of getting home, I was beyond where I was before the surgery. I used a cane at first, and still do occasionally; but am now completely mobile and walking around the block. It's nice to be able to move and walk without the constant pain I've had for the past several years. there are, of course several left over problems - my feet and back ache occasionally and I'm not about to run a mile.

This type of surgery is one of the more complicated orthopedic specialties and there are a lot of gruesome web sites explaining the procedure in detail. While I am at the upper end of who gets it done, age wise; I had no particular problems. I'm surprised at how quickly I've recovered.

1. What was the average monthly private sector job growth in 2008, the final year of the Bush presidency, and what has it been so far in 2010?

2. What was the Federal deficit for the last fiscal year of the Bush presidency, and what was it for the first full fiscal year of the Obama presidency?

3. What was the stock market at on the last day of the Bush presidency? What is it at today? "

Answers: scroll-down
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:

Answers:
1. The private sector, in 2010, through September, has added 863,000 private-sector jobs, which is an average of 96,000 jobs created per month. In the final year of the Bush administration, after eight years of experimenting with the conservative economic agenda, the economy lost 3.8 million jobs, for an average of about 863,000 jobs lost per month. [source http://www.bls. gov/data/ #employment ]

2. The deficit has gone from $1.416 trillion to $1.291 trillion, a decline of $125 billion. For the deficit hawks who keep track of such things, it's one of the largest, quickest declines in nominal terms on record. [source http://www.cbo. gov/ftpdocs/ 119xx/doc11936/ SeptemberMBR. pdf ]

3. Since day President Obama took office, the Dow, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 have increased 40%, 74%, and 47%, respectively. See finance.yahoo. com for the respective indices on the appropriate dates.

Historically, the rise of democracy, both in the US and around the world has led to a lessening of aristocratic political power. This does not mean that the upper classes have not tried to subvert democracy to their own ends. Probably in modern times, the high point of democracy in the US was that period of the New Deal through the first decade after WW2 (1932-55) This was the high point of union membership and most Americans were of like mind as far as their economic and social viewpoints were concerned. This was also a period of great prosperity for all classes despite the much higher top income brackets ( 0ver 80% for part of the time, never less than 60%. If the Bush tax cuts are renewed, the maximum bracket will remain 35% ). Even during that period a sizable part of the citizenry was denied basic civil rights in some states. The Civil Rights and "Hippy" movements marked the beginning of political polarization and the American individualistic basic values along with the marked economic boom led to a lessening of interest in unions and politics, allowing the politically focused upper classes to gain control of political parties which first acted in concert and now are violently opposed.
The American "Tea Party" movement is basically that of disaffected middle class white americans who feel dispossessed of their political control. It has been fairly easy for wealthy TV demagogs and their even wealthier corporate backers to take control of the movement and steer it into supporting policies which will, if implemented, probably be directly opposed to the average TP member's interests (e.g. changes in Medicare and Social Security).

The concern and debate over the American method of educating our young people has heated up. While it does not seem to be a major political issue in the upcoming election, it does underlie some of the populist movements which are currently so ubiquitous.
Education is a subject I know something about - I was once a candidate for a PhD at Harvard with the History and Philosophy of Ed as my field (I got married and bought a sailboat instead of finishing the degree). I was designated as a Master Teacher in the short-lived Florida program to identify such and I taught for many years in the Public School system at the HS and College levels.
Traditionally, Education, as a Social Institution, has had three major responsibilities: To impart information, to develop skills, and to civilize the students. Teachers have been traditionally trained to do these three things, but our modern world has badly skewed their ability to do so.
In today's world most of the information youngsters get is not from their teacher - it is from the massive modern media institutions over which the schools ( and family) have no control. The modern teacher is seldom seen as a "font of knowledge" and most teachers cannot themselves begin to keep up with all the information and misinformation currently bombarding their students.
In the realm of skill development, popular judgment holds teachers responsible for the poor showing of their students - probably rightly so. The basic skills ( the old reading, writing, and arithmetic we all loved) are more difficult to teach than most people think. First the teacher must have pretty complete mastery of the subject. If the teacher is a product of the failing system, he/she is probably poorly prepared - I know I was shocked by the poor preparation of College students I was supposed to be teaching how to teach. One way to overcome this problem is to hire the best - not the worst - college graduates into the teaching field. Since the best teachers are those who love to teach, every effort must be made to identify, encourage, and hire these fairly rare individuals.
Incidentally, the skill subject that is traditionally among the most difficult to teach - Math - is actually one of the easiest. The secret is motivation. I personally know how easy it is to motivate students in this field. For some years I volunteered to teach the "Unteachable" in this subject - the secret was assuring them a lot of personal success and making the subject practical in their terms. For example, I taught my 15-year-olds how to fill out and submit their own income tax returns - nothing motivates a 15-year-old quite as much as the prospect of getting money they did not expect.
Skills competency is not as easy to correctly measure as you might think and the popular standardized tests are often skewed. Individual teacher tests, reviewed by their peers are probably a better way to go - after all the teacher should know what he/she has tried to teach better than anyone else.
Most of my personal teaching career was teaching Affective (Civilizing) subjects - History, Sociology, Social Studies Seminars, etc.
That area of teaching, probably the most difficult and certainly the most controversial, is well worth another essay all on its own - stay tuned.
Today in America, there is considerable criticism of our school system and many different proposals to improve it: Doing away with tenure, charter schools, home and on-line schooling are some of the most common. The subject of tenure - a much misunderstood concept - seems to be under attack right now. Apparently the basic idea - a way to protect teachers from local political pressure and allow them to teach without fearing reprisal - has been forgotten. Now it is seen as a way to protect incompetent teachers. In practice, incompetency is most often to result of poor administrative oversight and reluctance to deny a poor teacher a continuing contract because of difficulty in replacing him or simply because its too much trouble to make a case. A lot of educational problems can be laid at the door of incompetent school administrators.

Well, I now have two new knees - actually the same old ones all re-polished with titanium glue-on bearing surfaces. A very long op ( with everything lasting fro 9AM until about 3:30 PM) but well worth it. I recommend it to all of you - especially if you are into maschochism.
They say I will be up and walking and out of the rehab hospital in about ten days - I sure hope so. Right now I still have considerable trouble going from horizontal to vertical but can use a walker pretty well for at least ten steps. When they say physical therapy here they really mean it - pretty intense starting at - would you believe - 4AM and lasting all day.
This is a really new experience for me and I'll keep you posted if anyone's interested.

Tomorrow at 6AM I am supposed to show up at the hospital to get both my knees refurbished. The op will take at least a couple of hours - I had to store some blood - followed by several weeks of rehab. I don't think I will take thecomputer to the main hospital, but will set up in the rehab hospital.
I will be gone for about a week, I suppose.
Wish me luck.

The U.S. is a country somewhat different from most: The "native" population is a small minority, while the majority of us are the descendants of wave after wave of immigrants - most voluntary, but beginning in 1619 (The year before the Mayflower landed he Pilgrims) also the importation of slaves.
During our over four hundred year existence as a culture (234 years of them as an independent nation); we have had many different attitudes toward new immigrants - but the attitude were very often hostile. For the past several hundred years newcomers have mostly had to start at the bottom of the social order and were despised by the existing citizenry.
In the first half of the 19th century there was actually a political party with some considerable power in many states, (The American, or No-Nothing Party) that was actively anti-immigrant. In 1856 they ran an ex-president of the US (Millard Fillmore) as their candidate - he won eight electoral votes).
The greatest waves of immigration in the 20th century were at the beginning - the US wanted industrial laborers and encouraged immigrants from Europe. While Orientals had been practically excluded after the large importation of Chinese and later Japanese laborers in the mid and late 19th century, Europeans were encouraged until 1913-17, when federal laws were passed restricting the number of new immigrants from certain areas. These quota systems were reduced during the 1920s until we have our very restrictive present system.
Excuses for quotas ranged from cultural (The Eastern and Southern Europeans were "different") to economic (They will take jobs from "Real" Americans). We have somewhat the same attitudes today, but our immigration system is confused by the question of political refugees, so we have, for example, the strange problem of any Cuban who reaches land being admitted, while any Mexican who reaches the North bank of the Rio Grande being excluded. Those Florida Cubans seem to have a very different political outlook toward immigration than California Mexicans.
We have approximately 12 million undocumented persons in the US currently, many of them brought in as children and who know no other life. It is practically a well as morally impossible to expel four percent of our population and the obvious solution seems to me to "document" those already here and implement a system encouraging those who wish to come here to do so in an orderly manner without nearly the number of confusing and restrictive quotas and exceptions.
Your Comments?

Unfortunately my wife and I both are having rather serious medical problems - hers a lot more serious than mine.
My problem is a very painful Sciatic nerve problem which makes it difficult for me to access this blog for more than a few minutes at a time - so I'll necessarily be brief.
My wife's problem is newly discovered serious colon cancer - we are still quite up in the air about how serious - all the pathology and CT scan reports aren't back yet.

Anyhow - I'm delighted at the response my last blog got - Thanks to all of you.

Immigration and Tax reform are two political subjects I have, as I think most of us do, fairly strong feeling about, but I think my reasoning may surprise some of you - I'll add them the next time I can sit down

I have been following some of the cable political channels and am concerned about the political attitudes of some of our congressmen and senators.
Obama inherited a horrible mess - two wars, a record deficit, and a deep recession which he has tried mightily to pull us out of, with mixed results. On top of that he has had to cope with the most massive environmental disaster of our times. His administration, which has had to act pretty conservatively [constrained by the economic downturn] seems to have been moderately successful in turning the economy around - at least partially.
During all of his term in office his every move has been unanimously opposed by the GOP minority. Attempts to include their ideas - many of which have, in fact, been included in legislation - has failed to win any support in the Senate - even in areas where the need for reform and support is obvious.
This has led to both polarization by political party in congress and dramatic loss of confidence in the congressional process by many voters. Obama and the Democrats seem to be blamed for ineffective action at a time when most of their attempts at prompt action have been thwarted by the minority.
What do you think Obama should do that he hasn't tried in each of these areas?
Iraq War?
Afghan War?
Deficit?
Economy?
Oil Spill?
Immigration?

Thanks for your considerate remarks. My wife's condition is stabilized - pneumonia under control and blood loss apparently contained. She has been moved (today -in fact) to a rehab hospital where even during the first few hours they had her up and moving - something the the last hospital badly screwed up - a nurse actually backed away from her as she tried to get back in bed and watched her fall on her face - cut lip and bruises. I was there at the time but could not grab her in time (I'm somewhat crippled also - no knees to speak of) You may be sure after I stopped shouting we had MD's Supervising Nurses, Hospital Directors, etc. all sounding like they worked for BP, crowding the room. No lasting damage (she had CT scan to check - remember that skier in Quebec last winter?) .
I'm sure they were happy to see the last of her and the Rehab center hospital is a much more attentive place. Things are looking up - she is more alert and stronger - though they still have her on oxygen - why has not been explained - she has never used it before.

For many years my wife and I cruised along, enjoying the good life - that is until 2001 (no not 9/11 - rather the preceding March)

That's when she was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, underwent a treatment which left her with General anxiety disease/Panic Attacks and later had a serious panic-related fall resulting in a subdural hematoma, resulting in permanent damage to her brain's equilibrium and balance centers, resulting in gradual loss of mobility. she has been confined to a wheelchair for the past several years.

She has been gradually loosing strength and faculties: eyesight, speech, ability to grasp, other motor functions and finally she became so disabled that I had to call 911. the ER gave her some quick tests and determined Pneumonia and very low hemoglobin count. She is now in the hospital, being given regular blood transfusions and is scheduled for a colonoscopy on June 2.

She is eighty-four and though she more-or-less miraculously overcame the Anxiety and panic attacks, the prospects of overcoming this last setback are, I'm afraid remote.

I will be writing more about her from time to time. she has had an interesting life - overcoming a good many obstacles and enjoying most of it.

If there are some gaps in my blogs, this might be the reason.