Greece Odyssey Presents Arthur Miller’sThe Crucible

As always, the high school students in the town of Greece, NY put on quite a show. In the last few years, I have thought that it is a waste of attend professional theatre when I can see fabulous plays, brilliantly performed, by high school students. Last night’s performance of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible at Greece Odyssey High School was spellbinding. I knew little of the Salem witchcraft trials before seeing this play, but I quickly became absorbed in its intrigue and emotions. After seeing this play, I want to read more about the Salem witchcraft trials.

Leigh Ryan, always scintillating, starred as Abigail Williams (kneeling on the floor in the top picture below), while her nemesis Elizabeth Proctor (center, bottom picture) was played superbly by Carolyn Dunne (who had another big moment in the life of Greece Odyssey a few months ago).

Friday (okay, Saturday) Waterfowl Blogging

No Cuts In Social Security

The President speaks, and produces a plan that cuts benefits for many most people, while not providing any noticeable increased benefits for anyone over the existing program. See Brad DeLong or Kevin Drum for details. My bottom line: no plan that cuts Social Security benefits is necessary (there is no crisis), and no plan that cuts Social Security benefits is acceptable to me.

Update (4/29/05): Atrios rightly points out that the President’s plan fails miserably in comparison to the “do nothing” plan, in which everyone gets full benefits until sometime around 2050, and 74% of planned benefits thereafter.

Hacker Deletes Own Hard Drive

A hacker, upset at other hackers, asked for his nemesis’s IP address. The nemesis then provided not his own IP address, but the hacker’s IP address. When the hacker then went ahead and tried to delete his nemesis’s hard drive, he wound up deleting his own hard drive. Nice!

Gas Prices, Again

Last time I looked, gas was over $2.30 a gallon. Certainly, that is the highest in history. And with President Bush meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, and recalling the strong words from then candidate-Bush about how a United States President should handle OPEC, I expected great things. Think Progress has this handy checklist:

• Strolled through wildflowers — check
• Stood up for pro-democracy Saudi activists — no check
• Called for democratic reform in countries that aren’t Saudi Arabia — check
• Called for democratic reform in Saudi Arabia — no check
• Talked about old agreements to lower gas prices in ten years — check
• Worked out new agreement to deal with today’s sky-high gas prices — no check

Paris Hilton Tax Cut, Part II

We discussed how the so-called “Paris Hilton Tax Cut” would eliminate $2 trillion in taxes collected by the United States Treasury over the next 20 years, a tax cut that would directly benefit the 3,000 or so richest Americans. Now Kevin Drum points us to an article in the Los Angeles Times detailing some of the things that this nation can’t afford — things like basic health care for our nation’s citizens. Here are some of the lowlights:

In Tennessee, Gov. Phil Bredesen plans to end coverage for more than 320,000 adults, many of them elderly. In California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to shift more Medicaid recipients into managed care and require some to pay monthly premiums.

…In Missouri, where nearly one in five residents is enrolled in Medicaid, Gov. Matt Blunt is poised to sign the most drastic overhaul of all: a bill that would eliminate the program entirely in three years.

Pseudoscience would waste teaching time

PZ Myers of Pharyngula has an editorial in today’s Minneapolis Star-Tribune. He explains why Intelligent Design Creationism is not science and should not be taught. Intelligent Design Creationism has produced no research in support of it; and in fact its proponents aren’t even doing research. What they are doing is lobbying to convince people that it belongs in public schools, while hiding the fact that there is no evidence in support of that theory. Pseudoscience? Definitely!

The 46 Best Freeware Utilties

Almost every utility program you could ever want, free!

New Photoblog

I have added a photoblog listing under my BlogRoll, which contains three websites containing some very striking photos. Two photoblogs have been mentioned previously, Express Train, by Travis Ruse and Toxic Rochester, by the world’s only dead blogger Nathaniel Rochester. The new one is Hungaro. Here are a sample of the photos by Hungaro.

Health Care, American Style

Once again, the rumors fly at my company of more impending layoffs. And that means that once again, I have to contemplate the possibility of being without a job and without health insurance. What I find extremely frustrating about living in America, which is the most advanced technological society in the world, is that 40 million people (and perhaps me in a few months) do not have health care. This contrasts sharply with European, Canadian and Japanese health care systems, where health insurance is universal.

Kevin Drum at The Washington Monthly points out some recent analyses of US versus other health care systems. The other systems, which cover every citizen, cost less per person than the US system, provide higher quality care in most cases and provide shorter waiting periods for most health care services.

To take just one example, covered in much more detail by Ezra Klein:

Japan is 8–11 (three way tie) on fairness of cost distribution and #1(!) on attainment of health care goals. Their system’s performance, overall, puts them at #10. America, to compare, is 54th in fairness(!), 15th in goal attainment, and 37th in overall performance. All that and we only have to spend a bit over twice as much to get it! What a deal!

Yes indeed, a great deal.

Tired of High Gas Prices?Who You Gonna Vote For?

Think Progress quotes George W. Bush, then governor of Texas, campaigning for President of the United States: “The president of the United States must jawbone OPEC members to lower the price” and promised that as president he would “convince them to open up the spigot to increase the supply.” Think Progress goes on to say:

Flash forward to April 2004. Saudi Arabia led the fight within OPEC to cut production to keep prices high. But President Bush kept mum. He “refused to lean on the oil cartel” and refused to even “personally lobby OPEC leaders to change their minds.”

Update (4/23/05): President Bush hosts Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah at Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas this weekend. What do you think he’s going to do? Should he ask for favors? Or should he demand that they increase production, as Bush promised the nation way back in 2000?

Pet Peeve

Since there is [tongue-in-cheek mode on] nothing important [tongue-in-cheek mode off] happening in the world today, let me comment on something very minor that annoys the daylights out of me.

I rarely eat at the fast food burger type places. I refuse to eat at McDonald’s any more, but when I did eat there, I would order a hamburger, and I was always asked if I wanted cheese with that. It didn’t matter what McDonald’s restaurant I was at, it was always the same. It must be corporate policy. And yet, hamburger is a completely different menu item than a cheeseburger. It was a blatant attempt to influence me to spend another ten cents (see I told you it was something very minor) and increase their corporate profits.

That was one of the reasons why I stopped eating at McDonald’s. When I wanted a fast food burger, I would go to Burger King. I never used to have particular problem at Burger King. But now, in the last year or so, I am seeing the same problem at Burger King.

There have been times when I have wanted to grab the cashier by the throat and yell “Excuse me! There are two items on the menu — a hamburger and a cheeseburger. I ordered a hamburger, do you understand what that means?” But of course, it is not the cashier’s fault. And so I haven’t done that. I have also felt like just exclaiming “What kind of burger place is this, if they don’t know that a hamburger has no cheese on it?” and then cancelling my order but that really wouldn’t do any good. I think I will just stop eating fast food burgers.

So what is your pet peeve?

I Skept, Therefore I Am

And with those words, Socratic Gadfly hosts the sixth Skeptic’s Circle! Read all the fine articles while they are still warm! We particularly enjoyed the fine article by Saint Nate, in which he tries some cold medications that deserve wider skepticism. In fact, this is a topic we have been concerned about ourselves.

Jackie Robinson Day

Derek Lowe of the Dodgers wears a “throwback” jersey to celebrate the 58th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s first major league appearance, the first time a black man played in a major league baseball game in the 20th century.

The Paris Hilton Tax Cut

I was going to write about the repeal of the estate tax passed by the extremist and irresponsible Republican majority in the House of Representatives (now headed for the Senate), but then Neera Tanden at Think Progress says it for me. Note: the tax cut we are discussing affects only those with estates valued at $3.5 million or more, hence it is called by some the Paris Hilton Tax Cut.

Let’s be clear about what happened this week in Washington. The House of Representatives passed full and permanent repeal of the estate tax despite the fact that our debt is now over $7.7 trillion. Despite the fact that full repeal will cost $290 billion in the next decade and $2 trillion over the next 20 years. Despite the fact that this same Congress is likely to make billions of dollars of cuts to health care for those in need through cuts to Medicaid, cuts to education, and cuts to veteran programs. Despite the fact that keeping the estate tax for estates worth over $3.5 million would make up a quarter to half of the Social Security solvency gap. That, by the way, is well below where the estate tax stood when President Bush took office and would exempt more than 99 percent of estates from the tax.

Health Care, USA vs UK

Avedon Carol, an American now living in the UK, writes at The Sideshow:

To me, though, the priceless fact of UK healthcare is this: I pay for it when I can pay, and I get it when I need it. What that means is that, yes, when I’m getting a paycheck, money comes out whether I’m sick or not, but when I’m ill, I get healthcare whether I have money to fork-over or not. I don’t feel that money coming out of my paycheck, but believe me, as someone who grew up in the US, I am acutely aware of the fact that when I'm thinking about seeking medical care or advice, I know with a certainty that the price is not an issue.

When I was getting ready for my eye surgery, I didn’t forget that even some people I know who have health insurance in the US would have had to write-off their eye if they’d been in my situation because the cost of surgery, two nights in the hospital, and after-care might not all be covered and what they still would have had to produce out-of-pocket would have broken them. Someone with no insurance wouldn’t even have been able to consider it. (And that’s leaving aside the four weeks I spent house-bound while I kept my head in the necessary position to make sure the procedure works. Would your employer give that to you?)

I get the care I need when I need it, and so far it’s been good care. I never have to think about whether I can afford it. Like I say, priceless.

Kevin Drum at The Washington Monthly adds:

And keep in mind that this is Britain, which is generally thought to have one of the worst national healthcare systems in Europe.

It’s funny, isn't it? Conservatives keep telling us how bad healthcare is in the socialist hells of Europe and Canada, and yet the people who actually live in Europe and Canada mostly like their healthcare just fine. In fact, they like it better than most Americans like American healthcare (see Exhibit 1 in this report). They pay less for it than we do, too (see Figure 1 in this report).

Marc Danziger may think that “If I had a chronic or serious disease, and insurance, I'd rather be here,” but I can’t figure out why. After all, Europeans seem to get pretty good treatment for chronic and serious diseases, even compared to well insured Americans. I’m afraid the alleged advantages of America's healthcare system continue to evade me.

The UK system sounds very nice to me, and I have health insurance. I recently had foot surgery and I am acutely aware of how important health insurance is — without it, I’d have to walk in pain for the rest of my life. Imagine how the 40 million or so Americans who don’t have health insurance feel. No, instead of imagining, read this report (link via The Washington Monthly) about what it is like to live without health insurance. Then get on the phone to your congressman and demand that steps be taken to ensure adequate health care for all.

Economic Results

The Los Angeles Times informs us: (link via Steve M at No More Mister Nice Blog)

For the first time in 14 years, the American workforce has in effect gotten an across-the-board pay cut.

The growth in wages in 2004 and the first two months of this year trailed inflation, compounding the squeeze from higher housing, energy and other costs.

In other words, four years after Republicans controlled the executive and legislative branches of the government, three-plus years after Republicans passed a bill that provided tax breaks for the rich which were supposed to stimulate the economy (pdf), and after four years of the Bush administration doing absolutely nothing to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, Americans everywhere see the effect right in their paychecks.

The last time this happened was 1990-1991. See if you can remember who was President then.

The article also talks about how rising health care premiums eat deeper and deeper into paychecks.

The squeeze is especially intense on the 47% of the workforce whose employers don’t directly provide their health insurance. For lower-income workers, who are more likely to be uninsured, the falling value of their wages is even more serious because they’re more likely to live paycheck to paycheck. And rising food and energy prices take a proportionately higher toll on the poor than on the rich.

But not everyone is suffering financially.

The effective 0.2-percentage-point erosion in workers’ living standards occurred while the economy expanded at a healthy 4%, better than the 3% historical average.

Meanwhile, corporate profits hit record highs as companies got more productivity out of workers while keeping pay increases down.

You Put The Lime In The Coke, You Nut

This new Lime Coke rocks! Each time I have tried it, I am surprised by how really, really good it is! I keep saying to myself “Self!” (that’s what I call myself) “this stuff is awesome! Why didn’t they think of this years ago?” In fact, about two years ago, Coke came out with Vanilla Coke, and the joke was: this would be a great drink if they just left out the vanilla.

And kudos to Coke for a great marketing campaign, using a slight variation of the very catchy Harry Nilsson song “Coconut”. This is a very effective advertisement because the product is prominently displayed and mentioned every few seconds. (Other ads, like the ad for um ... I forget now ... that was playing during the NCAA basketball championships, where the woman goes “Orca! Orca!” you see a short skit that really has no reference to the product at all. But I digress…) These Lime Coke ads make clever use of the lyrics of the Nilsson song that anyone 40 years old or more (and a lot of younger folks too) will remember: “She put the lime in the coconut and drank ’em both up”.

Stop-Sign.com — Scam or Not?

Whilst I was watching a college baseball game the other night on ESPN, I saw a commercial for Stop-Sign.com, and immediately my “bullshit detector” went off. Stop-Sign.com claims to enable you to scan your computer for viruses and spyware directly from their website. They may be legitimate or not, I simply can’t tell, since I was unwilling to try it. The risk is that they will not only scan for viruses and spyware, but also for information they can use. I will never allow a website to scan my computer. Until I see some positive reviews for Stop-Sign.com, I will remain suspicious, and I think you should too. There are plenty of freeware and commercial products that have been very positively reviewed, and you should stick with these products for now. In fact, the May 2005 edition of Consumer Shopper contains a list of several freeware anti-virus and spyware removal tools that got positive reviews.

Along the way, I found two websites (here and here) that caught Stop-Sign.com engaging in suspicious behavior. The second website listed concludes that problems remain with Stop-Sign.com’s program, even though the company appears to have moved away from previous unsavory practices. Caveat emptor!

Culture of Death

Frank Rich in the New York Times:

When those leaders, led by the Bush brothers, wallow in this culture, they do a bait-and-switch and claim to be upholding John Paul’s vision of a “culture of life.” This has to be one of the biggest shams of all time. Yes, these politicians oppose abortion, but the number of abortions has in fact been going down steadily in America under both Republican and Democratic presidents since 1990 — some 40 percent in all. The same cannot be said of American infant fatalities, AIDS cases and war casualties — all up in the George W. Bush years. Meanwhile, potentially lifesaving phenomena like condom-conscious sex education and federally run stem-cell research are in shackles.

The Real Crisis In Social Security

The real crisis in Social Security is that Republicans everywhere have become emboldened in their attempts to destroy it. President Bush has irresponsibly tried to sow doubt about the obligations of the United States to repay its debts; Bush said that the Social Security Trust Funds are “just IOUs” and that “there is no trust fund”. But the United States Constitution says: “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.” (Article XIV, Section 4)

Arnold Schwarzenegger was irresponsibly trying destroy privatize the California public employee pension fund (CALPERS). CALPERS delivers stable, defined benefit pensions to hundreds of thousands of California retirees. Schwarzenegger apparently has backed down on his plan after massive public negative reaction. The governor’s plan was so radical and irresponsible that it “would have stripped public employees of death and disability benefits, according to an analysis by state Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer.” (Link via The Next Hurrah)

But make no mistake ... Republicans will irresponsibly continue to try again to destroy your security. It’s time people learned that a vote for most (but certainly not all) Republican candidates is a vote for social insecurity.

Leonard Nimoy Should Eat More Salsa Foundation

The people over at LNSEMSF have way way way too much time on their hands. (Link via The Presurfer)

What an Unexpected Surprise!

Last night, my daughter and I enjoyed a fine dinner at the local Indian Restaurant, Thali. We ordered two dishes, and they arrived and were wonderful! But then the owner came rushing into the restaurant and came straight over to our table and asked if everything was alright. We both replied, honestly, that everything was very good. The owner explained that his regular cook was not available, and his son was doing the cooking and the he used the wrong sauce on our order of mushroom mattar. We insisted it was very good. After dinner ended, we were surprised to get a free order of mushroom mattar with the proper sauce to take home! Thank you, Thali! We will definitely be back!
Tags: Rochester

President Bush Flies To Rome For Pope’s Funeral

President Bush still has not attended even one funeral of United States servicemen killed in action in Afghanistan or Iraq. We see your values in action, Mr. Bush.

Fungal Fun Is Finished

With those words, Iron Chef America host Alton Brown brought Battle Mushroom to its conclusion. The battle pitted challenger Amy Lo against Iron Chef Mario Batali, and each chef used five different types of mushrooms, plus white truffles. While I complained about an earlier Iron Chef America episode, this one was scintillating. The dishes looked absolutely fantastic, especially the visually dramatic smoked chanterelle mushroom with sweet corn flan. When Battle Mushroom ended, for the first time, I applauded. And remember, I’m watching on TV, no one can hear me applaud, but I was so very impressed.

Gas at $2.27 a gallon

Today, I paid $2.27 a gallon for gasoline. That’s my all-time high. And I have begun re-thinking how I use my automobile. Should I carpool? Should I work at home? Should I stop running to the grocery store three times a week? Should I find entertainment closer to home?

A colleague of mine in England was complaining that to fill up his car, the cost in US dollars was nearly $100 (over $5 per gallon). And then I thought how glad I was to not live in England. But it nevertheless is frightening to me to think that gas might be at $2.50 soon, and the worldwide price of raw crude will be over $100 a gallon, three times what is was just a year ago. Unwanted lifestyle changes will be in order.

And what has the Bush administration done to help reduce the cost of gasoline, or to reduce our dependence on oil? Apparently, the answer is “not a damn thing”. The Bush administration’s energy policy is, to quote Steve Soto, “drill today, drill tomorrow, drill forever”. This enriches the energy companies and gives OPEC a huge lever into the American economy, neither of which are particularly desirable goals, if you ask me. But Soto also points out that the Bush administration has basically ignored other sources of energy and conservation, leaving America at risk. Not only that, Bush has forced congress to not put into place corporate average fuel economy standards, and has given tax breaks to companies that buy Hummers.

This lack of action on energy has scared many people, not just myself. Fortunately, a bi-partisan group of military and political bigwigs have begun making noise, saying that America is at risk unless we begin developing alternative energy sources and reduce our dependence on the consumption of oil. While they are bringing this up at this time, even if the United States government began acting immediately on their recommendations, no results will be seen for years. If we delay acting until Bush is out of office, the harm is even greater.

Prepare yourself for $5.00 a gallon gasoline.

New On The Blogroll

Garlicster is a blog devoted to garlic, and garlic recipes! Check out the recipe for garlic chicken! Yumm!

Today in Iraq is a blog written by three former officers of the United States Military. They bring their unique perspective about military matters to the discussion. Check out this exchange of e-mails between one of the bloggers and another officer in the US Military.

Although 3ID [3rd Infantry Division] and 1MD [1st Marine Division] took Baghdad, they lacked the resources to secure Iraq. Weeks of looting, murder, rape, riot and disorder followed, all directly attributable to Rumsfeld’s failure to follow the advice of the professional officer corps.

Inside Joke, Sorta…

It appears that I have been nominated for both the Pullitzer and Nobel prizes. See, Avedon Carol at The Sideshow did one time link approvingly to me, and … the rest, as they say, is history!

And back at you, Avedon! You are also hereby nominated for both prizes, and for the 2005 American League Cy Young Award as well.

Picture of Water on Mars

This picture is the first ever unambiguous, non-dabatable proof that there is indeed water on Mars.

Skeptic’s Circle, Part V

Quick, put down those cattle prods and click over to the fifth Skeptic’s Circle, hosted at Science and Politics! And then, check out James Randi’s annual Pigasus Awards, given to the most unbelievable statements or actions made during the last year. The winners of the Pigasus Awards are pre-notified of their award by ESP, but somehow the ESP method rarely if ever works. Enjoy!