Politics:
Well I have just contributed to MoveOn.org and volunteered. I have no idea how my skills or help can be used by MoveOn to bring about change, but I am willing to try almost anything. The federal government is no longer my government; it does not represent me, it fights wars I do no support, it's leadership deliberately misleads the voting public as a matter of policy, and it protects the interests of the extraordinarily wealthy over the interests of ordinary working class Americans. It is time for a change, and hopefully that change will happen before a revolution does, though I am no longer sure our political system will allow that.

Politics:
If you live in Virginia, here is a state government run website that will tell you what your ballot will look like so you have time to research your choices before going to the polls:

Polling_Place_Lookup

Please vote smart - know your choices, check the voting records of any candidates with experience in office.

Project Vote-Smart will take your nine digit zip code (which you can get from usps.gov) and tell you a little about your elected officials and their voting records.

This has been a non-partisan public service announcement.

Get your nine-digit postal code:
Plu4 Lookup Site

Check what your ballot will look like (if you are in Virginia):
Virginia Polling_Place_Lookup

Check the voting records of anyone in office already (see if they are really representing YOU):
http://www.vote-smart.org

Virginia Vineyards:
On Saturday, October 25th, we took my brother, his girlfriend, and my mother out to Stillhouse Vineyards in Hume, Virginia, to taste a little wine and see the Autumn foliage. The foliage was disappointing, but the Cabernet Franc was awesome. I normally dislike Chardonnay, but Stillhouse and Naked Mountain both have Chardonnay wines that are actually pretty good. It is an interesting argument for the effects of terroir on a grape, as these two vineyards are effectively neighbors; both are just off exit 18 from I-66 and only an hour or a little more outside the Washington beltway in some really pretty country.

We developed a flat tire on the way back, so we pulled over in front of the "Cowboy Mercantile" in Hume to install the spare, and before we had all gotten out of the car a resident appeared with tools in hand to help. I was sufficiently well prepared that I actually did not need his help, so he entertained everyone with local jokes while I changed the tire. What a friendly place, we must go back for some country bicycle riding.

October 18th

Anniversary Dinner:
Erci and I went to Tuscarora Mill restaurant in Leesburg, Virginia for our 10th wedding anniversary. The food and service were both extraordinary, and the atmosphere was romantic and rustic. I had a beef tenderloin entree that was worth writing home about. Dinner for two will set you back around a hundred dollars, but it is worth it for special occasions. I must get back and walk around old Leesburg, I had no idea it was so interesting a place to visit. The part of Leesburg I usally see (along the U.S. highway 15 bypass) is a horrid collection of strip malls and is completely indistinguishable from any other strip mall in America. Lucky for us, we read about Tuscarora Mill online, and actually drove into Leesburg for dinner, and the heart of the town is full of little tourist trap stores and interesting architecture, a place where parking is scarce and everything is actually within walking distance. Nice, must go shopping the next time my Mom visits Virginia.

October 11th and 12th

La Belle Compagnie:
Had a fantastic weekend photography session with the folks of La Belle Compagnie and a few auxilliaries recruited for the weekend. We shot bits of the faire, Sir Geoffrey and family sitting to dinner, and some cook and cooking shots. La Belle Compagnie is well on it's way to having a "coffea table picture book" of life in late 14th century Hampshire, England. The project has turned out a bit bigger than many of us first imagined, but also a lot of fun. November will be time to shoot the main parts of the big medieval faire.

Spam and Telemarketing:
A federal judge has ruled that the FTC overstepped it's authority by creating a national "do-not-call" list. The chief arguments of the lawyers arguing the case on behalf of the marketing associations are insanely ludicrous. This has absolutely nothing to do with the first amendment, and everything to do with control over the phone line that you and I lease from the phone company. Simply put, if you pay the bill on a leased phone number, no one should be allowed to call that number without your permission, period. Not telemarketing weenies, not politicians, not charitable organizations, not religious organizations, not public television stations, not even the local paper. No one, unless you - the paying subscriber agrees. First amendment my ass. This is insane. All Americans should simply disconnect their telephones in response. Then who will the idiots sell their junk to?

Likewise, the person who pays the monthly charges to maintain an internet presence and who is therefore paying for an email address should have exclusive rights over who can send that email address a message. If an address is provided for by an employer, then the employer should have control. If the address is provided for by an individual, no one should bug that person without their permission. Why is all this so difficult to understand?

People, please boycott the companies that call you and send you unsolicited commercial email. Please vote against the politicians that flood your mail boxes with their campaign fliers. Make them pay for the mistake of abusing YOUR paid for access.

Propaganda:
Hypothetical Question: If the United States were a fascist dictatorship with state run media, how would that state run media be any different than the mainstream news media we have today?

Personally I am disgusted with the mainstream news media in the United States today. The news organizations are all tightly controlled by a very small number of "competitors" - all of whom have the exact same motivations, to expand their revenue base through targeted advertising. This leads them all to get very friendly with the government that helps the big corporations who have things to sell. The good news is that there are a few voices in the wilderness willing to speak out and tell an alternative point of view. Here are my current favourite sources of news:

• Deutsche Welle is a great source of world news, lately surpassing the BBC in professionalism and impartiality. Aside from their website, DW is carried on several smaller public television and public radio stations around the United States as German Journal.


• Democracy Now is a strong alternative voice to the mainstream U.S. media. While it is very definitely biased, it's bias is eloquently stated and maintained specifically because the mainstream media news sources are all biased the other way. Democracy Now is carried on Pacifica Radio and on Free Speech Television (aka: Dish Network channel 9415). By the way, both Pacifica and Free Speech Television are excellent examples of what radio and television could be. Pacifica has excellent jazz music as well as political commentary and world news. Locally we can pick up WPFW, 89.3 on FM radio. Sadly they only have a RealAudio feed, and I do not trust RealNetworks' software on my computers.


• BBC News is still a pretty reliable source for world news, though they have not been very critical of the Blaire decision to support Bush's private war on Iraq, and they appear to have been manipulated from time to time by very large corporate interests lately. They are no where near as biased as any of the major U.S. media news channels. Many National Public Radio stations carry a BBC News feed from time to time, and some university based public television stations and BBC America all carry BBC News.


• WAMU, 88.5 is my local National Public Radio station, and the home of both the Diane Rehm Show and the Kojo Nnamdi Show (both are excellent talk radio shows with very good moderators and lively discussion about current issues). WAMU is also the home of The Big Broadcast, which is rebroadcasting of classic old dramatic radio shows. We pick up WAMU on FM 88.5 or via the internet.


• NewsChannel 8 in Washington, D.C. is a 24 hour local news service, and though they are a subsidiary of Allbritton Communications Company and biased much like the big national U.S. news media, they are more tightly focused on local issues.

I hope you can find reliable and unbiased news sources in your area.:

Politics:
According to Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States the following quote can be attributed to Gustavus Myers' History of the Great American Fortunes:

The whole institution of Law saw nothing out of the way in these conditions, and very significantly so, because, to repeat over and over again, Law did not represent the ethics or ideals of advanced humanity; it exactly reflected, as a pool reflects the sky, the demands and self-interest of the growing propertied classes...

Wow. That was 1910 and yet Mr. Myers quote nearly exactly describes the situation we have in America today:

The current Bush administration ruthlessly and efficiently represents their constituency. It exactly represents the demands and self-interest of a small selection the extremely wealthy, and it manipulates the law, and the American people into serving those interests without regard to human life, human suffering, and human rights. The really, really sad thing is that roughly fifty million voting Americans still believe the illusion rather than opening their eyes to see how they have been exploited, again, by their government.

Sad. Frightening. Any suppressed society, held down long enough with no peaceful way out will eventually rise up in violent revolution. America appears to be a long way from that, but how far is it really?

Falconry and Hawking:
I just found out that my cousin Kyle has trapped a Red Tailed Hawk he is calling Red October and he hopes to hunt with her this Autumn. I am somewhat envious of Kyle, in a good way. I have been fascinated by falcons, owls, and hawks as far back as I can remember. That fascination was honed when I first read Phillip Glasier's beautiful book "As the Falcon her Bells" (which covers forty years of the author's experiences with raptors of all kinds). I never got involved in hawking myself, and I am fascinated that Kyle (many years younger than I) is doing what he wants to do. Go for it Kyle! I am very much looking forward to seeing Red October fly this Thanksgiving when Erci and I head out to Arizona to visit family.

Speaking of Red Tailed Hawks, one visited my workplace on September 26th and I was fortunate enough to have a camera in my office. There are several pictures of our visitor here, and to the right is the best of them for your enjoyment.

Personal:
Today is my mother's birthday, and I was able to call her but unable to talk a lot because I have a very sore throat. I am extraordinarily fortunate to have a mother with whom I am very close. She is someone I can talk to, someone I love, someone I respect enormously. She has spent most of her life helping people struggle through their lives and find happiness and delight in the little mysteries of life. I am looking forward to her next visit (she lives a few states away) later this month.

Bookshelf (politics and history):
I am currently reading "A People's History of the United States: 1492 - Present" by Howard Zinn, which is a real eye-opener of a book. U.S. History completely unlike I learned in school. This book is already on my must read list, get a copy now! The world dislikes our government for many, many reasons and this books helps us understand those reasons and perhaps with that understanding we can do something about it.

Computers:
I am writing this on my Apple PowerMac G4 Cube, which is silent, operates on very low power, and plenty fast at it's original 500MHz. I deplore the trend in consumer desktop computers to race faster and faster without any regard for energy consumption nor ergonomics. Most modern multiple gigahertz computers are far too noisy to be near our ears, yet people spend their money on these odd contraptions and then spend more money on expensive speakers for them so they can play music louder than the noisy machine. Seems silly to me. I want more computers to come out like the nOrhTec GP+ or the Apple G4 Cube. Both are cool, quiet, energy efficient, fast machines. Neither runs the crap operating system from Redmond.

First Posting:
This is a first post to my new blog space, powered by the web application Blogger (www.blogger.com). I hope to share a few thoughts here, and perhaps someone will find it useful or entertaining, perhaps not. I decided to set up a blog a while ago, and Erci embarrased me into setting one up by doing her own blog, and then I got pushed into it even more by being asked by my local Soka Gakkai District to update the District Calendar using blogger.com's web application.