Announcing a Project

New stuff is happening in my life almost faster than I can process it, and I'm Taking Action to help myself with that. I'm starting two new blogs and asking for your help to keep me going (no $ involved). I've got two things that I've got to get out; one as in "out of my system" and the other as in "out and into the world." I'm going to try to pull off the process without coming off like any of the following:

• a pompous asshole
• an out-of-control crank
• a disaffected scholar with a wacky pet theory
• that red-faced old man with the cardboard sign covered with multi-colored, hand-scribbled lines from the Bible who used to hang out around the Illinois state house in Springfield.
• Donald Duck

Here's what's going on:

I've been going through some of what the Chinese call Interesting Times in my interior life. As I wrote to a younger friend the other day, at 62 I've reached a point where I no longer have the stamina to continue to ignore the pain and the grief that I've carried around all my life about what was done to me as a child and the grief I feel about the loss of the entire life I didn't live as a result of it.

At the same time, and on a totally different subject, I've got what I think is a really important "message" that I'm going to try to write about (with your help) as clearly and concisely as I can say it -- to the point that it actually becomes a publishable book (or something). Wow, "message" is a heavy word. Very portentous. But the message itself isn't. The message itself is incredibly simple; so simple that in the history of mankind it's been universally ignored by nearly everyone except "crazy people."

We're at a point in the world, and in America specifically, where if we continue to ignore this simple fact, we have the ability to screw this poochie to a point beyond repair. There really are two Americas* and they exist in very different realities, and between those realities exist critical irreconcilable differences.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. That's a paragraph from the foreword to the book. First I'll expose the simple reality, and then I'll explain how to use it to save the world (starting with America). But this post is about revealing the project(s), the difficulties that stand in my way of pulling the whole thing off, and the kinds of things I'd like you to do to help me do that if you're interested in coming along for a crazy ride.

Mechanics

I'm not going to try to do all that in this space. The Grumblebear is going to keep grumbling and posting occasional current stuff here. To facilitate The Project, I'm going to start two new blogs: one that will be a mix of dumping the shit about my childhood trauma and how it's impacted my entire life and also some writings about the process of writing the second blog. Most of the readers here are personal friends and many have similarly screwed up family backgrounds. You're invited/encouraged to participate in this blog (working name: Blog P1). I'm pretty sure parts of my story (both my autobiographical shit and the part about writing the book) will resonate with parts of yours, and if that happens, please join in. The second blog (Blog P2) will be the book itself in working-draft form and your participation via the comments section there would be equally welcome.

Help!

Something you can do right now to help is to share any information/experience you've got about a good place to host this stuff. I'm looking for a space with tools a whole lot less basic than what I've been able to figure out on Blogger -- or at least any of the blogger templates I've been able to find. I've got a blog tool on my personal web site and I'll fool around with it a little bit and also dig a little deeper into blogger while I'm waiting for feedback in comments or email. When I've got the right host and/or template, I'll post the URLs here.

I don't intend to go into a big deal about my ADD in this post, but I've written a bit about how it trips me up elsewhere on this blog, and ADD is the reason I'm asking for your help. I've learned to accomplish stuff in spite of the roadblocks it throws up, and an essential part of what's necessary for me to do that is interaction with friends (or friendly strangers). So if any of this sounds like it might be interesting to be a part of (or you just love me enough to give it a try) I'd be honored to have you along for the ride. I promise you can get off the wagon at any time, but I can't promise to return you to where you started. ;-)

(More when the blog sites are up.)

Best 'Shaving Cream' Also the Least Expensive

For whatever reason, I'm one of those guys who can't shave with an electric shaver.  I've tried them all, and they all tear my face to shreds, with little red spots all over (especially on my neck) quickly followed by so many zitts that you'd think I was the world's oldest adolescent.  I've got a really tough beard that grows at bizarre angles to my face and skin that's so tender that a mere touch leaves a mark that lasts for hours.  Gotta love those Celtic genes, eh? 

For years, I've been using a manual razor and shaving in the shower, which softens my beard even more.  A few weeks ago, I was out of my favorite shave cream (Edge for sensative skin) and desperately needed to knock the whiskers off my face.  Being an inventive sort, I grabbed a bottle of hair conditioner someone had left behind (I've got nothing to condition) and slathered it on my face.  All I can say is 'WOW!' 

Plain old generic (store brand, in this case) hair conditioner gave me the smoothest shave I've ever had and left my skin feeling like a million bucks.  Who knew?  An 88-cent (for 32 oz) bottle of generic hair conditioner beat the hell out of the $3.50 (for 8 oz) shaving cream!

I can't certify that this stuff works as well for non-shower shavers, but I'll bet it does. 

Why I Hate O'Brien Auto Park

When I moved 'permanently' to Spain, I sold my wonderful old 1999 Saab 9-5 Sportswagon to a friend. After all, why should I keep a car in the states and pay for insurance, parking and keeping it maintained? I was living elsewhere, and if I needed a car for the month or so I was here, I could rent one for a whole lot less than the cost of insurance alone.

Last spring, when I knew I was coming back to the states to live (and gas was around $4/gal), I researched the current market and decided on a Toyota Prius. As time for the move drew closer, I began hunting for one somewhere near my home on the internet. What I discovered was that a) there were none available for immediate delivery and b) the wait for delivery would be somewhere between 3 and 6 months!

In desperation, I called an old friend who's a manager at the local megadealer that handles Toyota in the Champaign-Urbana area: O'Brien Auto Park. He had one (and only one) available for sale, and although it wasn't a color or a feature package that I wanted, I arranged to buy it over the phone from Spain.

The color wasn't all that important. I've lived with other white cars before and survived. It pissed me off to pay an extra $2500 for features I didn't want--the most expensive of which was Toyota's absolutely worthless navigation system. (Incidentally, features that I didn't know I wanted until I had them turned out to be the proximity entry/ignition system and the premium sound system which apparently is the only way to get built in bluetooth for my mobile phone--standard equipment in the EU where hand-held mobile usage has been illegal for several years. The other worthless feature that cost quite a bit is Toyota 'automatic' climate control, which is anything but.)

I say I called Pat Hos in desperation because although I've bought cars from Pat (and the wonderful Jim Stephens) several times before, my experiences with the O'Brien service department is an entirely different story, and the idea of laying down $28,000+ for a new car that (due to the hybrid technology) was going to be tied to O'Brien for service made my skin crawl.

I totally love my Prius. It performs as advertised and then some. Until this weekend, it's been faultlessly reliable and I've even learned the work-arounds on the climate control (things my Saab took care of automatically that have to be adjusted manually on the Toyota 'automatic' system). The navigation system continues to baffle, but a $300 Garmin dash unit will take care of that next time I venture into unfamiliar territory. And until this weekend, I haven't had to deal with O'Brien service.

Sunday afternoon, I went out to make a run to Lowe's and found the car totally dead. No power anywhere. A quick jump, however, and Steve and I were rolling again. The hybrid battery system reported 'full' and the car performed beautifully on the engine or the battery. At Lowes, it wouldn't go again. A jump and it's fine back to home. Today, it's dead again, and I call O'Brien's service and tell the woman what's happening. She asks when I can bring it in. I tell her I can't bring it in because it's dead (Steve, the designated jumper was at work.). She tells me she can give the number of a tow service. I tell her I'll call AAA, and thank her for the wonderful Warranty service. (If this had been my Saab, they'd have had somebody out to start it within 20 minutes.)

So I drive the car out to O'Brien, follow the signs to the Service Department, park the car and turn it off to go inside. Whoops! This is the service department for everything except Toyota, which is 100+ yards away. The car is dead again, so I trek the distance (14 degrees outside) and am met by a chirpy service 'consultant' to whom I tell my story. He sends me back to the car (on foot) with a 'porter' to get the VIN and mileage (inaccessible since it's all digital and digital is dead along with everything else). We trek back and chirpy Douglas tells me to sit down and wait while they figure out what's wrong with it. I ask him if Pat or Jim is on the premises (wanting to vent to a friendly face) and he tells me he couldn't tell me that.

I trek another 100 yards or so to another building where Pat and Jim do their stuff (and where Pat is the boss) and recount my adventures to Pat, who drops his jaw, gets on the phone to the big-boss-in-the-sky to bitch about the lack of 'service', and gets me a Camry to drive while they screw with my car. An hour later, I get a call from chirpy Douglas telling me they've charged the battery and everything seems to be fine. When I arrive in person, he can offer no explanation of why the battery would be dead other than the cold.

On reflection, I'm willing to allow that for weeks I haven't driven the car further than to the grocery store and maybe hadn't run it enough to charge the battery fully, and that the cold weather is certainly a contributing factor, but for the thing to be totally dead, I'm still dubious about there not being something else wrong. Chirpy Douglas assures me their diagnostic computers say not. OK, we'll see. I'm certainly willing for everything to be OK now, and I'll make a point of taking it on the road for a charge-up in weeks where it goes no farther than the grocery store.

On the other hand, O'Brien's service department gets an F- for the way they handled this, from my initial call for help to Chirpy Douglas's "I wouldn't be able to tell you that" response to my question about whether Pat Hos and/or Jim Stephens was on the premises.

This is not the way to run a business that depends on customer goodwill--or it certainly wouldn't be if it were my business.

Reaction to the Burris Appointment

Mencken famously noted that "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people." As I recall, at the time he was writing about the advertising industry, but current events confirm its general applicability. Or maybe it's not intelligence but ignorance that's the problem.

The ignorance of the American public regarding our history and our government and how it operates has been thoroughly documented, and no better proof can be Found in today's headlines than the reactions to Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich's appointment of Roland Burris to fill the senate seat vacated by President-elect Obama.

I'm a huge fan of exploring all of the different shades of gray, but in this case there is no gray there. There is absolutely nothing to discuss, other than that Blago ought to have done the right thing and stepped aside to let Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn make the appointment. Period. The end.

The U.S. constitution requires that when a senate seat becomes vacant between elections, the governor of that state must appoint a replacement*. Until Blagojevich is impeached by the House (accomplished!) and tried and convicted by the Senate, he is the Governor of Illinois. End of discussion.

As for the Senate declining to seat Burris, this question has also been asked and answered by the seminal decision rendered by the Supreme Court in the 1969 case of Powell v. McCormack. Harry Reid should know better!

Blagojevich is an incompetent, immature, unstable, unpopular failure of a governor. His popularity ratings were in the low teens before the federal indictment--the Illinois version of George W. Bush, but without W's "charm." I think it's highly likely that he'll be found guilty of any number of criminal acts when his case finally gets to court (if Federal Prosecutor Fitzgerald's early leaking of the indictment didn't screw the pooch for the prosecution). And, the standards for an impeachment trial being being different from and less stringent than for a criminal trial, there's no question in my mind that he'll be removed from office by the Illinois Senate.

But none of that has happened yet. In the meantime, like it or not, Rod Blagojevich is still the Governor of Illinois and still required to appoint a successor to Senator Obama, and the Senate is still required to seat his appointee.


UPDATE:  As several friends have pointed out, actually the Constitution prescribes a special election to fill Senate vacancies unless the state has passed a law allowing for appointment by the Governor, which Illinois has.  The statement should have read "The U.S. constitution and Illinois law require that . . . ."  Sorry for the sloppy writing.  

Gideon Levy on the Israeli Invasion of Gaza

Haaretz reporter and editorial board member Gideon Levy, a strong critic of Israel's policies toward the Palestinians in general and Gaza in particular had this to say in today's paper:

This war, perhaps more than its predecessors, is exposing the true deep veins of Israeli society. Racism and hatred are rearing their heads, as is the impulse for revenge and the thirst for blood. The "inclination of the commander" in the Israel Defense Forces is now "to kill as many as possible," as the military correspondents on television describe it. And even if the reference is to Hamas fighters, this inclination is still chilling.

The unbridled aggression and brutality are justified as "exercising caution": the frightening balance of blood - about 100 Palestinian dead for every Israeli killed, isn't raising any questions, as if we've decided that their blood is worth one hundred times less than ours, in acknowledgement[SIC] of our inherent racism.

Read the whole commentary. I think you'll also find the comments interesting. Also good comments where Levy's piece is cross posted at Common Dreams.
(h/t: MKB)

Bush The Liberator

Olberman has this commentary on the Bush legacy:

My favorite Bush quote from the whole thing:

And for those who claim that we're "teaching to test," Unh hunh. We're teaching a child to read so he or she can pass the test!

And Americans "elected" this moron not once, but twice!

(h/t: Jenifer C.)

Armed Security Guards

There's a disturbing story by Linda Milazzo at AlterNet relating her near-fatal encounter with an armed Brinks guard at her local Albertson's store in California.  She nearly bumped into the guard as she was on her way into the store as he was coming out with his gun in his hand, pointing approximately stomach-height at whatever and whoever happened to be in its line of sight. 

California law allows licensed security guards to carry their weapons unholstered only in high-risk situations, and even then the gun must be pointed at the ground in the absence of immediate armed threat.

The comments section is at least as unsettling as the story itself.  I had no idea there were so many libertarian assholes out there.  Yes, the majority of the commenters were as outraged as the author by the behavior of the guard and the indifference of the Albertson's manager to her complaint.  But there were also plenty like this:

You obviously weren't looking where you were going. Just because you live in some tony suburb of L.A. doesn't mean you're immune to danger, in fact I wonder when the truly poor will start amassing in the neighborhoods of the truly wealthy instead of slaughtering each other.  It's L.A., for crying out loud.

or this gem titled "Come On"

Oh gosh, someone pointed a gun at you! Oh heavens! Not that! You must have PTSD! How awful! Sue them! Sue! Sue! Sue!

I don't patronize businesses that employ armed guards. And I make a point of telling the manager why: Any business that believes that its money is more important than my life is not for me.

I'd never thought about this issue until Menard's (a midwest based version of Lowes or Home Depot) opened its first store in my town.

They had two armed guards in the store and another on the exit gate from their lumber yard. I didn't think a whole lot about it until I purchased some stuff that I had to drive into the lumber yard to load into my back seat.

When I got to the gate to exit, the guard stepped out of his booth, checked my receipt and looked at the merchandise in the back seat. Fine so far. Then, he asked me to open my trunk. I refused, and the SOB put his hand on the butt of his gun! I told him that if he removed the gun from the holster I was going to call 911 (cellphone in hand).

He backed down on the gun, but he refused to open the gate until I opened the trunk, and I refused to open the trunk. We sat there for about 10 minutes with cars and trucks lined up behind me honking their horns.

Eventually a minor manager came out, and I explained Illinois law to him. The gate was opened (but not the trunk) and I drove to the front of the store, parked, and went inside where I explained to the general manager that I would never shop there again and why.

I'd like to say that I've never been back, but it's not true.  Since friends have told me that the armed guards were removed, I've popped in for the occasional sale item or when there was something I couldn't find elsewhere.*  On the other hand, I made my point with the manager, and who knows?  Maybe my bitching about it contributed to Menard's deciding to remove the armed guards from their stupid "home" store.

Since that experience, when I see an armed guard in a store, I find the manager, explain that I don't do business with companies that believe their money is more important than my life, and leave. 

Call me a crank, but the odds on there being random flying bullets in a place where there's already an armed guard is one hell of a lot greater than when there isn't, and it's not a risk I care to take for myself or my family.
- - - - - - -
*My little town, Champaign, Illinois, has got to be one of the most frustrating mid-sized towns in the world to buy building supplies.  Our Home Depot is too small to be useful, and our Lowe's is so badly managed that half the time they're not only out of the item I'm looking for, but it can take as long as three or four months for it to come back into stock.  (We also have the world's worst Target store -- for the same reason).