Words to live by...
"How beautiful it is to do nothing, and to rest afterward."
[Spanish Proverb]
(The right to looseness has been officially given)
"Everyone carries a part of society on his shoulders," wrote Ludwig von Mises, "no one is relieved of his share of responsibility by others. And no one can find a safe way for himself if society is sweeping towards destruction. Therefore everyone, in his own interest, must thrust himself vigorously into the intellectual battle."
Apparently, the crossword puzzle that disappeared from the blog, came back.
...Crack, maybe?
When I was young and (more) stupid, I took drugs. At one point, I was experimenting with amphetamines and smoking pot. This had an interesting effect on me; I waffled between laid back and uptight. I drove (I admitted I was stupid) on this combination and was successful in (a) not getting in an accident and (b) not being stopped by the police. The amphetamine would get my brain to believe we were moving too slow while the pot insisted we slow down as we were going too fast. It would seem to me that anyone watching my car roll down the street would have seen it speed up, slow down, and speed up; repeat seemingly endlessly.
Some people, few of whom I would suspect being under the influence of illicit drugs, do this on the freeway. Their cars drift some 5 MPH above and below some mean that the rest of us can only guess at.
My ex's father did this one time for some 80 miles as we rode with her parents to visit her brother's family in Whittier. Press the gas pedal, back off the gas pedal... again and again... I had a feeling of getting a low speed whiplash. And it wasn't all that rhythmic at times, the intervals of speed ups were sometimes longer than the slow downs... and vice versa.
Flash forward to present day and I was exposed to it numerous times on the 620~ miles from our home to Biloxi on Thursday. These were not old cars (such as I drove back in those earlier days in my life), they were fairly new ones. Ones that probably had that wonderful device: Cruise Control. Yet, few seemed to have it turned on. Only the ones slo-o-o-o-o-owly creeping up as I rapidly approach the slow moving truck in my lane. Obviously, theirs were on and set to, oh, one mile per hour faster than I had set mine. Yet, somehow, those same people had dashed up to get into my blind spot before turning on the Cruise Control.
Here's a suggestion: when you are approaching a slower moving car, press on the gas pedal just a bit... just enough to widen the differential in speed so that you move past him... especially if you see there's a slower moving vehicle in front of him.
It's just common courtesy. Really.
I have a suggestion for the whizzes at the car makers... How about setting up a synch control for the Cruise Control? That is, as cars pass a transponder on the side of the interstate, it reads the speed of the traffic and syncs all Cruise Controls so equipped to that speed as the pass. First, it would sample the traffic to determine spacing and effective speed (the speed at which traffic flows smoothly based on traffic density). After a sufficient sampling, it would start syncing all Cruise Controls to that speed, overriding whatever the driver had previously set. It would not turn on any Cruise Control units or turn any off. That would still be up to the driver.
Or would that be too Big Brother-ish?
Once again we are off on a little road trip. A simple journey to Biloxi for a few days. I've been considering what to do about the blog and have decided it will be spotty. I will post if something comes to mind... or not.
Not overwhelmed with the road trip. We've been on a few already this summer and just one is, for me, enough. Still, I don't mind all that much.
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Hello, my name is Douglas (waits for murmurs of "Hello Douglas" to die down) and I am an addict. My "drug" of choice is Freecell. Yes, I admit it... I am hooked on solving Freecell games. I am so addicted that I was gleeful when I learned I could "cheat" in Windows 7. Of course, I have cheated this way ever since I started playing solitaire card games... with real cards instead of virtual ones... as a young child. I never considered it wrong. I just figured that solitaire was not like life. I have since learned that some... let's call them "offenders"... believe life should be that way too and have found a way... let's call them "lawyers"... to help them get "do overs."
After a few years of blissful fudging of the rules, I purchased a tablet computer. A fine little machine that has almost become a constant companion. I then, of course, found an App for Freecell. So, now I spend a lot of idle time playing Freecell on my tablet. One would think my addiction is being fed almost painlessly, without problems like withdrawal symptoms.
To a great extent, perhaps my addiction is well enabled by technology. Only one small problem... the tablet App does not let me cheat.
I cannot escape a loss by "opting out" (as I call it) by backing up to the beginning and then "X-ing" out of the game. No... the tablet Freecell App doesn't care... the App just retains that game for the next time I execute it. I must either successfully finish the game or admit defeat. I cannot escape this even by shutting down the tablet. The next time I boot it up and open the Freecell App... there is that game staring back at me... smirking... taunting me... exposing my fragile ego to almost certain humiliation at its digital hands.
So far, I have not found a deal which I could not beat. Though it has taken some time to do the hardest ones... something like just under 90 minutes for the longest solve time and it takes some pigheaded stubbornness to play one game for 90 minutes!... I still have a perfect record of no losses after some 2000+ games.
The App also does something else: it keeps statistics. Not merely the number of games won and lost but the longest (89:52) and shortest (01:30) winning times, fewest (86) and most (1147) winning moves, average winning time (05:47, currently), and something called "Wins Without Undo" (1075, currently).
Why do I do this? I have no idea. I could blame my mother for introducing me to solitaire card games. But I know it is my fault for being addicted, it was (and continues to be) my choice to play.
As someone who went through 2 years of breathing problems in the late 90's, I pay attention to articles like this. During that period, I spent two separate weeks in hospitals being given steroids (prednisone) and with that O2 providing "nasal cannula" draped over my ears. It was a bit like wearing a leash.
Additionally, I made more than a couple of visits to emergency rooms when my lungs got so clogged that breathing was impossible. Same scenario as above but only for a few hours. What if the EMTs could have given me an injection of this stuff? That's where this is headed, you know. Maybe those with severe respiratory problems could someday carry an emergency supply in a syringe. Much like Type 1 diabetics carry insulin. Or those who have severe allergic reactions carry epinephrine.
It's a strange feeling when you can almost breathe and the lack of oxygen begins to take effect on the brain. When it happens slowly, over weeks and months, you adapt. You restrict movement and you rest more (but it doesn't help much and seems to help less each time). When it happens quickly, there is not much you can do except seek help (and strongly consider just letting "it" happen). I was lucky. I could often cough strongly enough to clear a passageway and get some air into my lungs, giving me time to wait for the EMTs to show up or to be driven to the ER. Driving myself was simply not possible.
I once told my mother that if I ever had to carry an oxygen bottle around in order to live that I wouldn't, that I'd take a quicker way out. But I have learned I wouldn't, I would tolerate that bottle, that I would cling to life...
But this invention, this breakthrough, may save hundreds of lives each year. And maybe we won't need that O2 tube in hospitals one day but have our oxygen in that IV mix...
