The best of dogshaming.com...

The best of dogshaming.com...  Via reader and friend Simon M., this “Best Of” collection.  I visit dogshaming.com every time I need a smile – in other words, every morning after I write the ObamaCare debacle post.  It's never let me down yet...

Words in Europe...

Words in Europe...  Fascinating maps of a few selected words and how they're said across Europe.  At right is but one example (for “church”), many more at the link.  Etymology is far more interesting than most people realize, and these visualizations are a great way to convey that.  The creator needs to work on the color selection though – that purple, that green!  My eyes, they burn!

I really didn't think I'd ever see this day...

I really didn't think I'd ever see this day...  The ObamaCare debacle seems to be waking up some folks (like Jonathan Turley) that I thought were very soundly asleep.  Some aspects of this news segment remind me of the events immediately prior to Nixon's resignation, and about Jimmy Carter in the run-up to the 1980 elections.  Prior to the ObamaCare debacle, Obama seemed to be immune to such criticism – and now we're seeing it on C-Span.  Awesome.  And Megan actually sounds like an informed, engaged reporter asking intelligent questions – kudos to Fox News for having the cojones to do that!

Photo of the day...

Photo of the day...  An Icelandic waterfall...

How to opt out of ObamaCare – legally...

How to opt out of ObamaCare – legally...  This is important.  I'm keeping this tucked way for the day our COBRA coverage runs out...

California leads the way...

California leads the way...  in unions keeping a choke-hold on state government.  But maybe there's a way to fix it (besides just leaving).  I'm skeptical.  I think it's much more likely that California will completely implode than be fixed rationally through political means...

The wrong side of history...

The wrong side of history...  John Hawkins, writing at TownHall.com, has an excellent, short, and easy read titled “Why liberalism is on the wrong side of history”.  It's chock full of important ideas.  An excerpt:

It's a kinder, gentler version of George Orwell's horrific "boot stamping on a human face - forever." In the liberal version, it's a boot gently pressing you to the ground, forever, "for your own good" – as if liberals have the slightest idea of what "your own good" might be. Certainly, they believe they know what's best for you. It's what they were told by their college professors, the New York Times and their friends. There's a whole echo chamber dedicated to telling them exactly what they want to hear about how other people should be living.

The problem with that is not so much liberals living how they want to live; it's that liberals want to force everyone else to live how they want to live. They don't like guns; so no one should have guns. They like gay marriage; so everyone must be forced to like gay marriage. They like PBS; so everyone should be forced to pay for PBS. 

Do go read the whole thing, please...

ObamaCare debacle update...

ObamaCare debacle update...  Because, because!

Can ObamaCare be tossed?  The simple fact that this is being discussed, by both sides of the aisle, brings nearly to tears for the sheer joy of it!  Yesterday, Obama felt the need to state that he had no intention of repealing it while he was president – as if (and it could only be in his own party) there were those who believed otherwise...

Oh, the hypocrisy!  Just one Congress-critter felt the need to exempt his staff from ObamaCare: Harry Reid.  Ed Morrissey isn't impressed.  The only person who could exceed that stunning level of hypocrisy would be Nancy Pelosi – but at last word, she was not going to exempt her staff.

Another legal challenge to ObamaCare.  Bring 'em on!  There can't possibly be too many of these...

An epic split parody combined with ObamaCare opposition.  What more could I possibly ask for?  I love his motto: “Overhaul DC” Oh, yeah...

Another burned ObamaCare supporter.  This time, a health care reporter for NPR.   Enough stories like this and even the low-information progressives might wake up and smell the bullshit...

“Young invincibles” spurning ObamaCare. Apparently smacking them upside their pocketbooks works way better than smacking them upside their pointed little heads...

52% of young people (18 - 29) would like to throw Obama out of office.  Rob Long marvels at the attitude turnaround, and Reason has more...

No, Virginia, ObamaCare is not getting better!  Of seven live broadcast attempts to log into the ObamaCare website on Monday, only one succeeded – and that one was only successful if you think being put in a queue equals success...

ObamaCare offers more goodies for insurers.  Megan McArdle points out the lengths That One's administration is going to in order to keep the insurance companies from joining the opposition.  Definitely smacks of desperation...

Pro Publica on the new, revised ObamaCare site: thumbs down.  That's gotta leave a mark...

Another ObamaCare casualty: Next year, seniors will start feeling the pinch of ObamaCare's $300m raid on MediCare.  Sorry, mom...

Republicans see one remedy for Obama: impeachment.  Dana Milbank says it like that was a bad thing!

Some people are being “automatically” switched to more expensive ObamaCare plans.  Great.  Just great.

Lame government in action.  The software to calculate subsidies isn't finished yet, and nobody knows when it will be.  So That One's administration is telling insurance companies to estimate it, and they'll be paid whatever the estimate is – then on some fine day down the road, they'll square it all up.  What could possibly go wrong?  The worst part is that we already know who's going to pay for the “squaring up”: taxpayers.  Through the nose!

“A fraudster’s dream come true.” That's the ObamaCare web site being described.  Oh, goody...

Pater: bagging it...

Pater: bagging it...  The beautiful plant at right is Sarcodes sanguinea – the “snow flower” – that my dad and I saw lots of on the flanks of Mt. Lassen in June 2007.

Bagging it...

There are many ways in which growing up on a farm is profoundly different than growing up in a city.  One of these is that farmers tend to put their kids to work at a very young age, and my dad was no exception to that.

One task my dad found for me when I was quite young was bagging oak leaf mold for resale at the retail nursery my family ran.  I'm not sure exactly how old I was, but I remember that the tools involved – shovel, three-tined pitchfork, and bag tie twister – were just barely within my abilities, so I'm going to guess I was 9 or 10.

For many of my readers, oak leaf mold is probably something you've never heard of before.  It's not the disgusting image that likely first came to mind – it's actually a very pleasant material to use; one that any gardener would feel right at home with.  It's what's left after oak leaves have been completely decomposed (composted) by fungus and bacteria.  When dry, it's very light and fluffy, almost black, with an earthy smell and a texture a bit like finely chopped peat moss.  The holly trees that were the bulk of my family's nursery stock liked acidic soil, and the oak leaf mold was the perfect soil amendment for them: it added soil acidity, and it also added other nutrients and the organic material needed to help the soil retain moisture.

My dad bought the oak leaf mold in bulk from a man in southern New Jersey (the name “Pete” springs to mind, but I'm not sure I've got that right) who had a big truck and the willingness to scout out and find natural deposits of oak leaf mold.  I don't recall ever seeing where it came from, but it must have been from deciduous oak forests growing in somewhat sandy soil, as the oak leaf mold he delivered had traces of sand in it.  Anyway, this fellow would on occasion deliver a load of oak leaf mold to us, and he'd unload it into a small mountain inside of one of our sheds.

For retail sale, though, that stuff needed to be bagged up into convenient, neat plastic bags.  To do that, my dad had purchased an industrial-strength gadget that we could mount the plastic bag into – a bit like the burlap bag holder at right.  Then we'd fill the bag with oak leaf mold using some combination of a shovel and a pitchfork, tamping it down as we went (if the oak leaf mold was dry, it would fluff up like a pillow).  When the bag was good and full, we'd dismount it from the holder contraption, then use a steel wire twist-tie and a tool similar to the one at left to cinch the top up tightly.

I remember my dad showing me how to do all of this, paying particular attention to how full the bags were.  He wanted our customers to feel like they were getting good value for their money, so he wanted those bags to look like they were bulging with the oak leaf mold.  It really did make a big difference how much you tamped it down; I'd guess you could add another 20% or so to the bag if you tried hard, and that really did make the bag look “stuffed”.  He told me that if the bags weren't full enough, he'd make me do them over.  Then he sealed the deal by telling me that he'd pay me for this work, on a piece work basis.  I've forgotten what the amount was, but it was probably 10 cents or so per bag.  But it would be the first thing my dad ever offered to pay me for – a big deal indeed for me.

So I set off to fill some of those bags.  If we had a video of that first effort, I suspect it would be fun to watch.  I remember that I could just barely poke the shovel into the big pile of oak leaf mold, and when the shovel was full it would frequently twist and dump its whole load on the concrete floor.  With the pitchfork, I could easily stick it into the pile, but it would frequently lose its load by slipping through the tines.  My dad, of course, made both of those actions look ridiculously easy – he could even hold a full shovel-load in one hand while holding the bag filler gadget with the other.

But the really, really tough thing for me turned out to be that tie-twister.  My dad made it look so easy!  Hold the bag closed with one hand, wrap the tie around with the other, then hook the twister tool through the loops and give it one easy little pull – and presto!  A sealed bag.  But when I went to try it, somehow it wasn't quite so easy.  The closed bag would escape me, and it would fall over and spill some.  I'd get the tie wrapped around the top, but the loops weren't lined up, so I couldn't get the twister tool's hook engaged.  Worst of all, I'd do all the other stuff correctly – and then I just didn't have the strength to pull the handle on that twister tool!

Every once in a while, as I was struggling with all this, my dad would saunter over and give me a little advice.  I'm certain now – though I never suspected it at the time – that he was struggling himself: to keep from laughing at me.  But he didn't – instead, he showed me how to hold the shovel, how to fill it just partially so the weight of its load was within my capacity, how to hold the filled bag with my knees so I could use both hands to wrap the tie around the neck, and most importantly – how to hold my arm next to my side so that I could actually apply my little muscles to the task of pulling that twister tool's handle.  I still remember the sweet feeling of victory when I was finally able to twist those ties.

When I'd finished with my bag filling for the day, I had a dozen or so bags filled and tied.  To me that seemed like a huge accomplishment, and I was tired.  My dad came over and inspected the bags, and there were a couple he judged to be not full enough.  He gave me a choice of either getting paid for the just good ones, or to take the time to redo the bad ones and get paid for them all.  I redid them, so I must have been a greedy little tyke :)  Then he sat down with me, paper and pencil, and we estimated how long it would take me to bag the rest of that pile.  At the rate I was going, it would take years – so clearly I needed to get more done each day.

When I look back on that now, I can appreciate (and be grateful for) the lessons I didn't even know I was being taught.  I had to earn that money with my labor – and he made it very clear that simply working hard wasn't enough – the work had to be done right.  He didn't shower me with praise for doing a small amount of work, but instead was happy for what I did and then gave me a good appreciation for what I really needed to accomplish.

My brother Scott and I had many, many such lessons over the next few years.  My dad's business at the time (landscaping, landscaping maintenance, and retail nursery) was an ideal vehicle for him to do this – there were always plenty of things within our capacity to do, some of which were genuinely helpful to him, and all of which could be used to teach us.  There have been many, many occasions over the years since then for me to be grateful for those lessons...