Grumbles From Arenal

Oh, my aching back

2012-01-23T09:00:00.001-06:00

"There are more fools in the world than there are people." -- Heinrich Heine

(This is an excerpt from an article that appeared on August 24, 2011, at the link found below this piece):

Is that MRI for back pain necessary?

Back surgery is one of the best documented examples of expensive medical treatments that drive up health care costs while not always helping patients, and sometimes even hurting them.

And the latest Medicare data show that doctors frequently order MRI back scans for patients who haven't tried recommended treatments such as physical therapy. An MRI often prompts surgery.

I saw this article when it first appeared, and just had to save it for the opportunity to add my commentary. I guess it has had ample opportunity to ‘age,’ so maybe it is time to add said commentary.

This is a rather strange factoid to see jump up as suddenly as it did, because the basic conclusion of the article is the exact same thing that I, and many other professionals, have been saying for many, many years! There is and has long been, a tendency to over-diagnose (as in, running too many expensive diagnostic scans and tests) and over-treat back complaints (as in, entirely too much unnecessary surgery, too soon).

The results of these two things are really frightening, if you look at the big picture. Too often, diagnostic scans are misread, misinterpreted, or outright ignored, and serious diagnoses are given to relatively benign conditions. A very wise Orthopedic Surgeon, who I knew many years ago, said that the wisest course of action with back complaints is to do nothing. When there is any need for something to be done, he said, the wisest course was to keep treatment simple and minimally invasive. Physical Therapy, along with some education in how to cope with back problems, in general, in his opinion, went farther, caused fewer problems, and cost less money. Time, he said, was the greatest healer of back problems.

And, you know what? I did not need this latest study to know that he was right. Anecdotally, I can tell you I have talked to many people over the years who reported back problems – hell, I’ve got a ‘bad’ back, myself. And, I have come to realize that they generally fall into one of two camps: those who did not receive much beyond PT, some rest, some education, maybe some muscle relaxants; and, those who underwent CT Scans, MRI’s, EMG’s (with Nerve Conduction Studies), and whose treatment all too often included surgeries.

Guess how many of those who had back surgery had bad outcomes, and guess how many of those who did not have surgery are still going strong. Worse, I remember an investigation I did some years ago into multiple complaints (not to mention multiple malpractice actions) against one particular back surgeon in Texas. Now, this was only one guy, in one city, and he was not even the worst of the bad guys. What I remember most clearly is that I obtained and studied the case histories of a good number of patients who not only had bad outcomes, but whose medical records totally lacked any objective diagnostic information to suggest any need for surgeries.

Worse, I remember a situation where a physician – who was not even an orthopedic surgeon, by the way – convinced a large number of patients, diagnosed with “Intractable Pain,” that they needed to let him place an electrical device into their spines, the purpose of which was to somehow stimulate the spine into ignoring their chronic pain. These patients were a mixed bag of “failed back surgery” and/or other types of pain patients whose reported pain could not be controlled by other, more conventional methods. Most of them happened to be individuals who had reportedly been injured at work, and had not been able to return to work due to their intractable pain.

At that time, orthopedic protocol required that patients undergo a full psychological workup prior to undergoing surgeries, or the placement of such implants, in an effort to provide some indication of whether they were suitable candidates for invasive procedures. Turned out that, while all of them were indeed referred to see a psychologist, the testing rendered, without much personal interaction between this psychologist and the patients, was mostly leaning towards identifying these people as poor candidates for this implant, because they were mostly identified as being chronic complainers of pain, regardless of what interventions were attempted (in short, very close to being outright malingerers).

The ‘Surgeon” went ahead anyway, at a cost of many thousands of dollars per patient, and none of them were ever able to return to anything resembling a normal life. Most were disabled for real, after months to years of questionable ‘care,’ that ultimately did affect their physical abilities. What can I say? The ‘Surgeon’ was a good salesman.

Ultimately, even though a good number of patients’ lives were irretrievably damaged, nothing was ever done to the physician, even though we made a great case against him. Part of the problem is that these patients allowed him to do what he did, willingly (for whatever motives), and they had to assume a portion of any blame.

My point? Obviously, never allow your doctor to go straight to MRI’s or other expensive diagnostic studies, until time has had a chance to work, along with mild therapy and treatment. Below is the link to the article that got my attention: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/08/24/139923555/hospitals-have-got-your-back-maybe-a-little-too-quickly?ft=1&f=1001

Price Reduced!

2012-01-02T10:49:00.002-06:00

For Sale, Lease or Rent: This Piece of Paradise

Sale Price Now Reduced!

This two year old 2 bed, 2 bath cement block home sits on a secluded plot (2166 sq meters, or about ½ acre) on a very quiet road that actually runs all the way down to the water’s edge of beautiful Lake Arenal. (The water is just 500 meters from the front door).

This is the last house on the road down to the Lake. There is a heavily wooded, deep gully on one side (the Ticos refer to this as a montaña, or a quebrada), with a little stream at the bottom. This ensures a nearly constant, fresh breeze. Water is paid once a year, and currently is only about $72.00 per year, with no meter. The water is cold, and crystal clear, with nothing added. There are two septic systems (aguas negras, for toilets, and gray water, for washer, showers, and sinks). The house is available with Kenmore washer and electric dryer, Whirlpool Gas Range,

Maytag refrigerator, and a 2005 Suzuki Grand Vitara, XL7, with current Marchamo and Riteve would be included with the sale (pictured below). Also included will be one queen size bed, with frame and one King size bed, with frame. Additional furnishings are negotiable, including wall-mounted Samsung Plasma TV, Sharp Surround Sound system, and small appliances, including Sharp Microwave.

Part of the Living Area is pictured above.

Ceiling fans are installed in both bedrooms, and in the living area, plus two more are on the front porch, which is completely screened. Also included on the front porch is a round concrete table, with three concrete benches, completely tiled.

Front of the house features a recently completed and oversized carport, and there is an enclosed (screen, metal, and wooden bars) garage cum workshop attached to the back of the house.

This is the workshop/bodega, at the back of the house.

One dusk to dawn yard light is attached to the back garage, and motion sensors are mounted at opposite corners of the dwelling itself, plus another on the new carport. The floors throughout the house, and also in the garage and on the front porch are ceramic tile.

Solid wood doors, and beautiful wooden kitchen cabinets are featured. Windows are all protected with iron bars. The ceilings throughout are high, with beautifully stained wooden beams. Reduced Price: $175,000.00. Monthly rent is negotiable, with renter being responsible for all utilities.

Walmart: A (quick) study in Love/Hate

2011-12-14T11:18:00.001-06:00

“Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but some abuse the privilege”. - Unknown

Why are some folks so upset with Walmart? You know, I get so tired of these whining idiots who make claims like, “Walmart has ruined many small towns,” or “Walmart is responsible for making China what it is today.” Where do they get these silly ideas? Are they totally ignorant of modern history? Where were they during the sixties, seventies, and eighties?

First, let’s keep in mind that each and every generation, from the beginning of time, has seen change of one kind or another, and pinned responsibility in the wrong places. More recently, while folks my age pretty much agree that growing up in the fifties was an idyllic period in history, we are just as wrong as all the generations that came before us (‘cause we all know that the ‘Good 0l’ Days’ only exist in the memories of us old folks). And, as for the death of small town America, that was written way back at the beginning of the Industrial Age, and anyone who continues to deny it today is simply foolish.

The death of small town America was starting to be obvious as early as the sixties, and the death of Downtown America was evident at the same time. But, what really caused this? You certainly cannot blame Walmart, because they were not only not the first store of this kind, but the first Walmart did not open until 1962, the same year as the first Kmart and the first Target. At the same time, we saw, across the country, the establishment of a myriad of similar stores – Govmart, Globe, Fedmart, Grants, Woolco, and many others. These stores took over the retail spot earlier occupied by variety stores, such as Woolworths, S. S. Kresges, and so forth.

Variety stores, also referred to as ten cent stores, ‘the five and dime,’ or simply ‘dime’ stores, got their popular name because most of the items for sale in them only cost five or ten cents. They had much more class than today’s ‘dollar’ stores, but their merchandise was much the same quality, and variety. If one wanted clothing, one went to J. C. Penney, or to the local department store (another dinosaur). Auto parts were found (at least in my part of the world) at Western Auto, a great chain, also an extinct species. Groceries were purchased at the local food store, or maybe at Safeway (wow, I think this chain still exists).

What killed off all those dinosaurs? Competition, plain and simple. And, it was not Walmart alone. Here’s how it happened, and how it keeps on happening:

As for Walmart selling nothing but stuff made in China, I’m not going to cite any facts or figures for you, but I am going to tell you this: (applying logic, here’s how it goes) – you, the American consumer, demand decent quality for a fair price, no? Walmart, as a purveyor of goods, for a profit, realizes that they need to be able to offer you what you demand, right? How the hell are they going to stay in business if they don’t show a profit? And, how are they going to show a profit if they cannot provide you, the consumer, with what you demand?

So, they search the world over, looking for good products at a fair price. Actually, for Walmart, they no longer have to do much searching, since most decent manufacturers now bring their product to Walmart, hoping that it will be acceptable to their buyers, who after all, are looking for whatever you demand.

Now, don’t try to tell me that you disagree with any of this, because you know this is how it works. It is most certainly not the fault of this particular retailer (or any other retailer, for that matter) if the best products, for the best prices, happen to come from China. If you must blame someone, blame the Republican Party, the GOP, and big business (as in the owners/stockholders of major brand names). They are the ones who decided, beginning way back in the sixties and the seventies to start exporting work, from first our heartland, to our southern states, and borders, and then, overseas, first to Mexico, and then, very quickly, to Asia. Read your history!

I remember this happening and watching it happening right in front of all of us. We lived in El Paso, Texas, from 1970, until 2004. First, in the late sixties and very early seventies, large American manufacturers began to relocate their factories to places where they could find cheaper labor than they had in Indianapolis, Sheboygan, St. Louis, Erie, Gary, Rolling Hills, or wherever plants used to be. They found cheaper labor, and all kinds of tax breaks and other incentives from communities and even States located along the U. S./Mexico border, and in many southern states. I remember the excitement as Hallicrafters (a major supplier of radio communications equipment during WWII) came to El Paso. (I actually worked in their factory for more than two years, as an electrical technician). Then, Tonka Toys, then many apparel manufacturers came to town to join those who were already there (Farah had one of the world’s largest manufacturing facilities right along I-10). Lee Jeans, Levis, Wrangler, and many others also set up shop.

But, a funny thing happened. Once these big names arrived along the border, it did not take long before they realized that even cheaper labor was right there across the border. So, one by one, those who were able to do so, began to move their manufacturing to Mexico, and today El Paso, once a major manufacturing center, is nothing more than a great big warehouse for all the finished goods that cross the border from Mexico every day. And, of course, once these big names set up shop in Mexico, it did not take long before they heard the call of even cheaper labor over there in Asia, and guess what? Mexico has a good number of empty factories, now also, just like we do.

Who is to blame for this? NOT Walmart, folks. They, and others like them, only try to make you, the consumer, happy. We can’t hope to successfully boycott them (and, frankly, the very idea of trying is absurd). Hell, they even have their own subculture today. Haven’t you heard of, and seen those pictures of ‘Walmartians?’ Of course you have.

Ramblings on turning 65

2011-11-30T11:56:00.000-06:00

NOTE: (I began writing this on June 25th, my birthday).

“Now some of you may encounter the Devil's Bargain, if you get that far. Any old soul is worth saving, at least to a priest, but not every soul is worth buying. So you can take the offer as a compliment. He tries the easy ones first. You know like money, all the money there is. But who wants to be the richest guy in some cemetary? Money won't buy. Not much left to spend it on, eh gramps? Getting too old to cut the mustard. Well time hits the hardest blows. Especially below the belt. How's a young body grab you? Like three card monte, like pea under the shell, Now you see it, now you don't. Haven't you forgotten something, gramps? In order to feel something, you've got to be there. You have to be eighteen. You're not eighteen. You are [65] seventy-eight. Old fool sold his soul for a strap-on. Well they always try the easiest ones first. How about an honorable bargain? You always wanted to be a doctor, well now's your chance. Why don't you become a great healer and benefit humanity? What's wrong with that? Just about everything. Just about everything. There are no honorable bargains involving exchange of qualitative merchandise like souls for quantitative merchandise like time and money. So piss off Satan and don't take me for dumber than I look”. - - - - Wm. S. Burroughs

Well, today’s the day. I am now 65 years old. There were times when I did not expect to reach this point. There were times when I thought I’d be truly decrepit when I reached this point. There were fewer times when I naively thought today would be just like any other day. But, now it’s here, and I hardly know what to make of it.

On the one hand, I do not feel all that well. But, part of that (I hope) must have to do with the fact that the doctor put me on anti-hypertensive medication for the first time just one week ago, and I think I am still adjusting to what the medicine does to me. At any rate, I feel very sleepy most of the day. Hopefully, this will ease over time.

Meanwhile, today is very muggy, we’ve already had a pretty good rainfall, and I’ve been sweating, as I worked to prepare some ribs. That’s right. Honest to Gawd, an entire rack of Pork Spareribs. - - - And, of course, right there, we have a side issue. I paid ₡3,500.00 per Kilo for said ribs. That’s like $7.00/Kilo, or $3.50 per lb. I brought back some newspaper grocery ads from our recent trip to Texas, and HEB (one of the best supermarket chains in the world) featured Pork Spareribs at $1.57 lb. - - At any rate, I did a brine soak overnight, and then made up a rub, with those ingredients that I had on hand, which I applied just before I lit the fire.

Now, I know that many will argue as to the best way to get good ribs, but this is what I know: Using local charcoal, which is not very good, but adequate, I made a very hot fire (shop vac helped here). I seared the ribs to black, on both sides. Then, just like always, I banked the coals, all around the sides of the grill, and placed the rack in the middle, closed all vents and the lid, and walked away. I returned to the fire after two hours, and turned the ribs over, and left them again, for two more hours. They were good! Really, really good. We had friends over, plus sent a couple of plates up to another neighbor, who was feeling under the weather, and all that was left at the end of the day, were a couple of small pieces. - -

Where was I? Ah, yes, reflections…………

We are blessed this summer to have three of our grandchildren staying with us. Yes, we brought Tristen (13), Aislynn (9), and Bryan (18, and a brand new High School Graduate) back down with us from our trip to Texas. We did get to see most everybody while we were there, and Blanca and I got to experience some of those good things to eat that we never can find down here (Long John Silver’s Fish & Fries, Der Weinerschitzel’s Chili Dogs, Rudy’s BBQ, a couple of decent burgers, and, of course (and just for me), DQ.

We came back to find that the oven has not fixed itself, and we really have no clue where to find someone who might be able to get it working again. We ask everybody we encounter, but no one knows who can really work on a gas stove. I suppose we could call the people that came to look at it when it was under warranty, but I was not really impressed with what that guy did when he came. Plus, I shudder to think what they might cost for a house call that I have to pay for.

I did find a choke cable repair kit at an auto parts in Arlington, and brought that back with me. Bryan, our grandson, helped me to put that in, and then, I bought a new battery for the Torito, so it is back on the road, after months of not being able to use it.

Electrical consumption was minimal during our absence, but now, with three more bodies in the house, I know it is going to jump way up there. Even though I know we did pay for a lot more than we ever used in the past, I know that with the exorbitant rates ICE charges, our bill will soar again, and the difference this time is that it will be due, at least in part, to some actual use.

As to being older, inside me is that same skinny young kid who was drafted way back in 1965, but now, he finds it hard to push his way out, past all the accumulated poundage, not to mention the years of experience and the scars that the years have laid on this old body.

I wish I could say that I am wiser for it all, but I think the only outward appearance of wisdom is that sometimes (rarely) I do know enough to stay silent when an opinion is asked for by some family members. That would be situations where I know one or the other of my kids or grandkids is not going to listen to me anyway, or more likely, those situations where I know my wife is going to ignore me altogether.

This thing started out to be titled as ‘reflections,’ but I have wisely (I believe) decided to call it ‘ramblings,’ since there is no one topic, and little of what I have written so far really applies to achieving this new age. I certainly do not feel wiser. My wife will happily tell you that that is for sure.

Life does, apparently, go on. I am just trying to take it one day at a time. We have been working our way through some TV mini-series, and movie series, with the grandkids. We have watched things like “Band of Brothers,” “The Pacific,” the “Back To The Future” movies, “The Lord Of The Rings” trilogy, and are now most of the way through Harry Potter. Yes, we know that we cannot yet see the final Harry Potter movie, nor can we see the latest “Pirates of the Caribbean” yet. But, we struggle on.

We did get the oven fixed, and I am still mystified as to what was wrong with it in the first place. At the cost of about $110.00, a technician came to the house late Tuesday afternoon, with his wife and child in the car. He didn’t spend ten minutes here, and all he had to do was make an adjustment to a valve at the very bottom of the oven. He claimed that it likely gets clogged with grease (I can personally vouch for the fact that there is no grease anywhere near the oven itself), and that is why it needs to be adjusted. I haven’t a clue as to what it is, exactly, that he adjusted. I did get down there myself, but only saw the one main orifice, and the air vent that may be adjusted. So, now, I guess I need to find another valve (the tech said that there is a brass screw down there somewhere that can be adjusted), so that I can save the bucks next time around. The problem that I am having here is that we have had mostly gas ranges for all of our married life, and never, ever did we have any problems with one until we came here, and, bought this stove!

Here’s some food for thought. We have, as I said before, had the pleasure of our grandkids visiting this summer. I know that I have long groused about the poor quality of public school education in the U. S. But, I have been very pleasantly surprised to learn that our 18 year old grandson, the one who just graduated from high school, has a surprisingly large store of information packed away inside that late-teen-age head. He needs to work on his vocabulary and English language skills (too much texting?), but he is able to converse intelligently on a wide range of topics. So, maybe there is hope for the future, after all.

Our granddaughters, meanwhile, are as delightful as always, being very sweet young ladies, with inquiring minds. We now count less than a month until they all depart. Bryan will return to Texas for a sort of farewell tour, with plans to go to Austin and spend time with some of his uncles before he heads back to El Paso to report for active duty with the Army in early October. The girls, of course, are very anxious to get back to Arlington, where they will first meet their new baby brother, Julius, and then get ready for the start of another school year.

Grandma will stay in Arlington until at least November, to help out with that new baby, while I will stay here to hold the fort down. Meanwhile, our property is for sale, if you’re interested…….oh, and, uh………I have reduced the asking price.

Quick update: as of today, Nov. 30, 2011, I am in Texas myself, along with Blanca and the grandkids. I seem to have an eye problem which was being improperly treated by those stalwart Tico docs of the Caja, and am hoping to get it fixed while here. We are set to return to Costa Rica on Jan. 9, and I feel time pressing in on me, since I got here on Nov. 8, and have had nearly three weeks wasted by a doctor here in Arlington. I am to see another eye surgeon on Friday, the 2nd, and hopefully, he can get me on the right path.

GMO food, Organic Food, Ethically killed food, and the human condition….

2011-11-23T07:56:00.000-06:00

"The surprising thing about young fools is how many survive to become old fools." -- Doug Larson

This thought recently occurred to me: Does it make any sense at all for any person who wants to sell me something to knowingly offer me something that, in the long or short run, is going to cause me serious harm? I mean, if I was in the business of producing anything that I wanted people to buy, wouldn’t I run out of customers if I deliberately killed them all? So, where do these ideas of Monsanto as an evil-empire-set-on-killing-us-all-with-their-genetically-modified-foods originate? The same applies to the ideas of a cattle or chicken rancher administering various antibiotics to animals raised for food, or other medications/chemicals designed to ensure their health and fast growth. If that is so harmful to the humans who consume these animals, wouldn’t he, the rancher, soon run out of customers?

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like I keep running into very vocal people who insist that they will only eat “organic” food, and that the meat they eat must have been dealt with “ethically,” whatever that means. I mean, obviously, it is OK with these people that somebody else killed the chicken or the pig or the cow that they eat, but the killing must have been done ‘humanely.’ Give me a break. I can accept the idea of religious philosophies directing how food is raised, killed, or prepared, because believe it or not, many of those ideas have some ancient basis in reason. As a for instance, pork is indeed very deadly, if not raised carefully, and cooked thoroughly, so it makes sense for a religious leader to just say, “Hey! Don’t eat that pig. It’ll kill you!”

But, to try to tell me that the chicken that laid my morning egg has to be maintained in such and such a fashion, or that the meat on my plate had to come from a contented cow, raised only eating specific foods, not given certain types of medicine or supplements (all the while, relying on all kinds of phony supplements oneself) is just a bit too hypocritical for me.

I especially am put off by people who say such stupid things as “I want to eat the same things that my grandparents ate.” They really don’t seem to grasp a few basic facts of life, or of history, for that matter. Our grandparents did indeed seem to eat a lot more than we do, and everyone has seen Hollywood versions, and maybe even read written versions of stories that depict the family sitting down to a breakfast where there are platters heaped with fried eggs, huge, thick slices of fried ham, huge hot biscuits dripping with real butter (not to mention ham gravy), and all kinds of side dishes.

What we tend to overlook, however, are two very important differences between those folks, and us folks. One, they tended to live a shorter life than we do/will, and they went out and worked their butts off after consuming that huge meal. They did not go sit at a desk all day, peering at a computer screen. No, they went out and pitched hay, mended or built fences, tended to livestock of every stripe, built barns, planted crops, weeded crops, dug irrigations ditches by hand, and cut down monster trees with hand saws, and so on.

So, unless you’re prepared to go out and work off a huge meal, don’t try to emulate your grandparents by eating such meals. But, to get back to the idea that it is wrong to ‘genetically modify’ our food, or to infer that Monsanto and others are out to poison us is just plain absurd. For one thing, nobody complains when they see the development of hybrids (see Burpee seeds), or the result of years of selective breeding. What do you suppose those are if not genetic modification, of a simpler variety?

While I do think it is kind of crappy for Monsanto, or whoever, to have developed so many varieties of plants that cannot be reproduced (thus forcing the grower to go back to them for next year’s crop), at the same time, I have to admire the fact that they did develop such a thing. That’s truly ingenious. And, hey, isn’t that really the result of the demands from consumers for things like seedless watermelon, or seedless grapes? And, let’s not totally overlook the fact that those seeds generally have built in – as the result of years of research on the part of Monsanto, or whoever – a better resistance to certain outside influences that might threaten a crop.

All the farmer has to do is seek another source for his seed corn, or whatever. At the same time he can go back to what his ancestors did, and simply hold out a portion of this year’s crop as seed for next year’s crop. All of that having been said, we, as consumers, need to keep in mind that we are at least partly responsible for these developments. We all want more and more quantity of wheat, corn, veggies, or whatever foodstuffs are grown, for less and less effort or money. We demand it. Because of these demands, the family farmer is long gone. What we have now is the corporate farm, which has grown out of our ever increasing demands. What we have now are much larger crops coming from larger fields and farms, and using anything that will grow faster, healthier, and cheaper.

If the end result is a minority of people who turn their noses up at the produce of the American farm, then maybe we should advise them to follow Marie Antoinette’s directive, and just let them eat cake.

Now, I will freely admit that there does appear to be a very small minority of people who – for whatever reasons – cannot tolerate some of the additives found in either the hybrids, or genetically modified seeds, or even some of the things given to food animals during their raising. Those people, in another time, another place, likely would not have survived early infancy, or childhood because they would have succumbed to any one of a multitude of things that used to kill kids. But, thanks in large part to the same science that has given us genetically modified foods, and hybrids, they now do survive infancy only to then fall very ill with conditions like celiac disease and other food sensitivities. There are a number of options for those thus affected, most of which do involve the avoidance of foods that the majority of people can and do eat.

But, ultimately, since those with these problems are such a tiny minority, it is not logical, reasonable, or at all realistic for the majority of people to have to give up anything in order to handle these problems. So, when folks start crying about the food producers are evil because they have modified our food, they need to remember another thing about cake…………they say that you cannot have your cake and eat it, too.

Heads Up, Y'all

2011-10-28T11:49:00.000-06:00

OK, I guess it is time to provide some sort of an update on happenings around us.

Don't know if I have mentioned this before, but I have been having problems with my left eye since shortly after we moved to Costa Rica. First, and this has been ongoing, I experienced a sensation of having something in my eye, like an eyelash. Nothing helped to alleviate this, and I tried everything I could think of – eye wash with a Boric acid solution, eye drops, and went to see an ophthalmologist in Liberia, who was recommended as the best in the entire province of Guanacaste.

He was not cheap, he did do a pretty thorough exam, but he said he could not find anything other than maybe the tear duct was clogged and inflamed. He said he cleared it, and he gave me eye drops, mostly steroids. I returned to see him, and all he offered was that maybe I had some sort of allergy, and he thought I should see an allergist, in San Jose.

I asked the doctor at our local clinic (the Caja) for a referral, and he gave me one. I ended up seeing the same specialist that I had seen as a private patient, and he had nothing better to offer me. He did prescribe some allergy drops (Patanol), but the Caja pharmacy hardly ever stocked it, and it was too costly to buy on my own (the one time I bought a little vial of this stuff it cost something like $64.00). Meanwhile, I have noticed over time that my vision in the left eye has deteriorated, to the point where I can no longer read, even with reading glasses.

Finally, I got the name of another specialist, this time in San Carlos, and saw this guy (a Dr. Vega) a week ago last Friday. He said that I have a corneal tear (not a good thing to have, but it explains that sensation of always having something in the eye) and also said that my diminished vision is due to a cataract.

Now, I can accept the possibility of a corneal tear, mostly because (after he mentioned it as a diagnosis) I do seem to remember the symptoms of this condition do seem a lot like what I have experienced. Regarding the possibility of a cataract, however, I have trouble accepting that as a possible diagnosis, because all I have noticed is diminished visual acuity, and no limiting of the visual field that I thought was the classic and most prominent feature of a cataract.

The doctor in San Carlos wrote me a detailed referral to see another specialist, in San Jose, and estimated that it should cost less than two million colones (about four thousand dollars in real money) for the two separate surgeries that he thinks I need. Of course that does not include the cost of travel to and from San Jose, and who knows what other expenses might arise.

So, I have concluded that I need to see a doctor in the states, especially since I am paying for Medicare already. I have therefore made reservations to go to Texas in early November, after making some calls to various doctors' offices and to Medicare. I have no idea how much time might be needed, but am giving myself two months to take care of this. I can only hope this will be adequate. Any questions, give me a holler, and I'll try to keep things up to date here, and on Facebook (for my faithful Facebook friends and followers).

Meanwhile, Blanca is still in Texas since she took the grandkids back in August, so she will just wait for me, and then we'll return home in early January.

Taking Care..............

2011-10-09T10:32:00.002-06:00

"We Americans live in a nation where the medical-care system is second to none in the world, unless you count maybe 25 or 30 little scuzzball countries like Scotland that we could vaporize in seconds if we felt like it." -- Dave Barry

Why is everyone so upset about this issue regarding Ron Paul’s attempt to say that it is not the job of government to provide free health care for all? Where have all these people been since forever? And, why do people make statements like this: “My (brother, sister, husband, friend, relative, or whatever) died because he/she/they did not have insurance…..”? A lack of insurance is NOT going to kill anyone. I’m sorry, but it just ain’t gonna happen!

Now, don’t get me wrong, I do agree that a certain amount of government involvement in health care is a good idea, and the thought of truly universal access to health care is a very attractive, albeit lofty, ideal. However, all you have to do is look at those nations that have attempted to achieve this, and/or are attempting to do so right now, and you might get an inkling of just what is entailed in pursuit of such a lofty goal.

First, do not throw the Constitution, the Bill Of Rights, or even the Declaration of Independence at me. They do NOT address this issue. Never did. Second, remember the world of the folks who wrote those venerable documents. Did any government, anywhere have any thoughts of addressing this issue? No, I don’t think so. It was indeed the responsibility of the individual, the family, and the community to care for those who needed it. The only thought given to such an idea was to simply put it under the general heading of charity, and go on about other things. Granted, a big part of this is simply that people didn’t generally live all that long, anyway, and when they sickened, they usually got better on their own, or died. It was as simple as that.

Some of the people who might have needed assistance from their family or their community would have included widows, orphans, and those too ill or infirm (such as the aged) to work and support themselves. There was no welfare office, no food stamp program, and no such thing as Medicaid.

Jump forward to the Twentieth Century. By that time, government had grown (oh, how it had grown), and had indeed assumed too many of those responsibilities that rightfully should still belong to families, first, then the community at large (sans government entities). This is part of what makes a nation strong, having a solid family support system. We all know that, and we all acknowledge that. Apparently, this has led to too many people who now believe that it is the government’s job to care for them, from cradle to grave. That is not the way to build a strong nation, folks. It might well lead to some kind of Orwellian horror, or even to a “Brave New World,” but those are not necessarily such good ideas!

Now, I grew up in the 50’s. We did have some limited food programs, if you will, in the form of a county agency that dispensed surplus foods. I recall peanut butter, butter, canned chicken, flour, generally items that would be considered to be mostly staples, and they were packaged in very generic containers. And, I know that there were such governmental entities as County Health Departments that did things like give us our Polio Vaccination, when it was first developed and made available.* When someone needed healthcare, first line of defense (and, offense, as well) was mom’s home remedies, that she had learned from her mom. Then, in a small town, as a last resort, the ill person might be taken to the local doc, and he would be begged to provide some relief. He was paid if possible, when possible, with whatever of value the people could scrape together.

Larger communities built county hospitals, supported by the tax payers, and yes, this is government involvement in health care. As far as I know this system still exists in most cities across the nation. People who are ill, and who do not have a doctor, or the means to pay a doctor, go to the county hospital! So, where have we got this demand, and this belief that medical care is not available for those who can’t afford it? Beyond the fact that these community hospitals do exist, and do provide care, we have organizations across the country such as the American Diabetes Association, the American Cancer Society, MDA, etc., etc., and on and on. Those organizations do assist those who cannot pay in seeking appropriate care and treatment!

Very recently, I have seen a video online where a lady reports that her brother died of cancer because he was unemployed and did not have insurance, and she thinks Ron Paul and those others up on that stage with him, are just terrible, cruel, heartless people. It makes me want to scream. So what if he had no insurance? So what if he was unemployed? How did he let himself get into a position where he was not prepared to seek alternative employment when he lost his last job? I know that I changed direction more than once during my career, changing jobs (because I got fired) at the age of 56 (older than her brother, by the way), then, again, at 58, and finally, accepting (I was actually recruited for this) my last job at the age of 57. I then decided to retire at 62 mostly because I was laid off from that last job. Ultimately, who is to blame for this lady’s brother not being prepared to go out into a new field at 55? Not me, and certainly not the government!

I know people who were in their fifties at the time that they went to work as clerks in convenience stores after long careers in fields like IT. My point is that I am well aware that it is hard to find work after about 50 years of age, but there is work out there, if one is willing to consider some alternatives to what one might have been accustomed to doing. And, it is certainly not the government’s fault if a person lacked the education to pursue other avenues. Keep in mind that very often, those people who took jobs like this still had no insurance, but they did know that if they were ill, there were free clinics, and there was the county hospital system where they could seek care. There are always alternatives, and there is always a solution, so please don’t just blame the government, or worse, demand that the government take care of you, unless you’re also able to remember just who the government is! (Hint: We are the government. Remember Junior High Civics?)

So, frankly, imho, Wolf Blitzer asked a loaded question deliberately, and phrased it in such a way as to throw it into the same category as that old one about, “do you still beat your wife?” And, of course, the others on that stage said nothing, and that is because – even though they are Republicans, with whom I personally disagree – they are right.

Speaking as a Nurse, who has more than thirty years experience, I must say that there is another, and very significant, element important to proper health care. That element rests with each and every one of us. Whoever we are, whatever our health, whatever our socio-economic status, we must assume at least fifty per cent of the responsibility for our own care. I mean that we must do what the doctor tells us to do. We must share all pertinent medical information with the doctor and his/her staff. We must strive to do at least minimal things to maintain a healthy condition, such as practice moderation, try to get exercise, try to eat sensibly, and so forth. I say this because too many times I’ve seen too many people who want to blame the caregiver for a worsening of their condition when it was the patient himself who failed to do what he/she knew to do.

Lest I overlook another factor here, be advised that I am not a supporter of Ron Paul, or any other member of the GOP. I support the President, first because he is the President, but also because I believe he wants to, and is trying to do the right thing. My opinions, as expressed herein are strictly my opinions, and are not meant to suggest that they are a reflection of the views of anyone else, no matter what political stripe decorates their back. I like to think that this is a logical position to take, and that it has nothing to do with politics, because ultimately our health is our responsibility, and caring for it should not require any assistance, interference, or direction from any government.

* County Health Departments did a lot more than that, and I know because I worked in Public Health for ten years, but their accomplishments are not my topic right now.

Who Is In Charge Here, Anyway?

2011-10-02T13:19:00.001-06:00

Majority/Minority

"There is no nonsense so gross that society will not, at some time, make a doctrine of it and defend it with every weapon of communal stupidity." - - Robertson Davies

I was taught as a child that America was founded on a principle that while we’re all equal, we should, as a nation, always strive to do what is best for the majority of the people. What was the phrase? Something about “we must do the most good for the most people……..”? That means, we do not force the majority to do a thing for the benefit of any small minority – ever! Doesn’t anybody remember this phrase: “Majority rules!”??? This was, of course, with the understanding that the Constitution does protect the basic rights of any minority at the same time.

So now, someone please tell me why have we allowed ourselves to be taken hostage by all these splinter groups, these minorities of ‘Mothers of left-handed, spastic mutes,” and other wacko idealists? Why is it that we have allowed the Constitution to be so twisted that it no longer supports the ‘most good for the most people,’ but instead is now interpreted to mean the majority should now acquiesce to every demand made upon it by whatever minority screams and cries the loudest? Worse, we pay for this with our tax dollars! (Well, those tax dollars that are not being tossed away on yet another stupid war).

Here’s a revelation for ya: The ADA is a very bad law. There, I said it. Why is it a bad law? For one thing, it hurt a lot of businesses, especially small ones. I recall a number of small businesses that had to shut down because they could not afford to provide wheelchair ramps, or rails and other fixtures at their entrances, or in their bathrooms, or even to set aside handicapped parking. For another, it diverted a lot of tax dollars from being able to help a majority of people with real and pressing needs (you know, like hungry people, homeless people, people with mental illness, and like that; but those are no biggies, right?), to catering to the needs of a very small minority. That is, frankly, un-American, and just plain dumb.

I also recall - vividly - working in a facility that had to install all the handicapped-access gewgaws, only to see them never get used. Ever! And, this was a Public Health Clinic! And, when was the last time you saw a truly handicapped person park in any handicapped spot, anywhere? For that matter, how often do you drive into a parking lot, and marvel at all the empty spaces right up close to the entrance of Wally World, or the Mall, because apparently all those handicapped folks for whom these spaces were created do not appreciate the effort that has gone into this convenience, or maybe they are staying close to home, because they can’t find a decent paying job (much like everybody else in this economy). Or, you go into the public bathroom in a restaurant or a movie, or even a store, only to find that there is always one stall empty. And, that is the handicapped one, right? This whole sorry scenario is a perfect example of the majority having to give way to a minority.

Take a look at public education. It has dumbed down over the last thirty or forty years, in response to demands by minorities of every stripe. You have to provide ‘special education’ programs for every individual who is not quite up to average physically or mentally. Why? Who is really helped by these programs, and who is harmed? As for who is helped, I’ll tell you, in one compound word: nobody! Who has been harmed? All of us, since our young people can no longer compete on any level internationally. As a result of the dumbing of America, we no longer produce well-educated anything. It may be true that our young people are perfectly prepared for the world we are leaving them (a world where we no longer make anything except hamburgers) - a world where we no longer provide much of anything of value. A world where they won’t have to think for themselves, because we are passing along that need, along with our ability to do so, with every new law that takes from the majority and gives to the minority.

This is wrong, and if someone does not realize this, and begin to take steps to reverse this process, you can kiss goodbye any expectation that the U. S. can hope to be a leader in any area. We may well continue to be a world leader, but we will only lead in the lowest achievement scores, as we become a quiet backwater nation peopled by sheep, who will be little more than a mat for the rest of the world to wipe its collective feet on.

Speaking of education, I remember when a grade of ‘C’ was considered to be average, and an easy acceptance that – at the end of the day – most of us are indeed just that – average. And, you know what? There is nothing wrong with being average! (That makes us, after all, a part of the majority of the people on the face of this earth!) Sure, we can all strive to do our best, and try to achieve beyond our abilities. But, that doesn’t mean everyone who makes the effort should automatically be granted some sort of special dispensation just because they made the effort. That means that those who actually reached that goal, those who demonstrated that they are above average, should receive a better mark for not only their effort, but for their achievement! (btw, in other words, a ‘B’ was considered to be a good grade).

To further illustrate what I’m talking about here, below is the Mission Statement of a school District where I once worked as a school nurse. The district in question is the Ysleta Independent School District, located in El Paso, Texas. They adopted this absurd statement back about ten years ago:

All students who enroll in our schools will graduate from high school, fluent in two or more languages, prepared and inspired to continue their education in a four year college, university or institution of higher education so that they become successful citizens in their community.

When they started flaunting this line of crap I was, to say the least, flabbergasted, amazed, dumbfounded, and left pretty much speechless. I am over the speechless part by now, however. What kind of insanity is this? How can anyone propose that they can take a group of kids, from all walks of life, with all kinds of socio-economic, not to mention cultural differences, and accomplish such a lofty goal?! They should have skipped all that folderol, and just settled for “successful citizens in their community,” for crying out loud!

Read my lips: NOT everyone is average! One minority of us is above average! Another minority is below average! That is life, people! You cannot change reality, no matter what you smoked back in the 60’s! Not everyone can graduate from high school, and we all know that. Not everyone can learn a second language, and we all know that! As for everyone going on to higher education, fahgeddaboudit! Ain’t gonna happen! Can’t happen in the real world no way, no how! Or, to put it more simply: You can’t fix stupid! (OK, it is also more expensive than ever to afford a college education, so that lets a whole lot of people out, without even considering their intellectual capacity for higher education).

What’s worse, I distinctly recall, at that very same YISD, there was either a written or tacit policy that said all students were to achieve passing grades of 80 % or higher in all subjects! No such thing as pass or fail. There was no room for failure, even for those dummies who always do, and we all know there are more than one or two of them in any given group of students! That was a totally unreasonable expectation!

What’s worse, what we have achieved is to cheapen the efforts of those few who are exceptionally gifted, those few who can and do better than the rest of us. How can they avoid adopting an attitude of “why try to do well, if that dummy over there is going to get a mark nearly as good as mine, and he/she won’t even have to try to earn it?” Doesn’t anybody remember when grades in school were earned?

I have preached along these lines before: maybe, just maybe, progress is not always achieved by changing everything that we do, and the way in which we do everything. Maybe progress should be measured by a demonstration that we can continue to produce a certain percentage of overachievers, while overall consistently producing a good crop of average achievers. You know, that sort of status quo worked for several generations, long enough for us to show the world what a real leader is and can be. But, someone started messing with our system, back in the 70’s and 80’s, and now, we are not a world leader, nor are we showing the rest of the world our heels, because they are overtaking us, easily. And, guess what? Those other countries are not necessarily using totally new methods, but some of those same methods that used to work for us.

And, now we come back to another growing minority, one that wouldn’t even exist if not for certain exceptional folks having done some exceptional things. This is not an easy pill for some folks to swallow, but here it is: Due to major advances in scientific research and Medicine, people are living longer overall, and, at the same time, there are fewer birth defects, and many crippling diseases have been effectively eradicated. Because of the lower percentage of birth defects and the eradication of so many childhood diseases, we now have fewer crippled children growing up in our midst. However, also due to advances in Medicine and Science, we also now have babies born prematurely who survive where a short fifty years ago, they would not have had much chance for survival. Unfortunately, a portion of those who survive their premature births are left with crippling conditions. So, we have a two-edged sword at work here.

Our very advances have created a new class, if you will, of handicapped people, and a new and slightly different minority. I remember going to school with kids who had contracted Polio, and this left them with different levels of physical handicap. But, today, for those who are paying attention, you will not see many mildly handicapped kids, but kids who are in need of special equipment, like motorized wheelchairs, and computerized vocoder devices that speak for them. And, just in case you think I’ve overlooked another phenomenon of scientific progress, let me acknowledge that today we also have significant numbers of kids growing up with conditions that did not even exist a few short generations ago. I’m talking about kids with severe allergies (in part to things that did not exist a few short generations ago) and food sensitivities (celiac disease, et al). Some of these kids would not have survived infancy, let alone childhood, just a few generations ago.

A significant adjustment in the world around them has been made, and is being made, for this minority. And, a lot of that adjustment is being made under new laws that did not exist fifty years ago, and at tax payer expense. I am not offering any specific conclusion beyond this simple observation: that this minority does exist, and that their existence is impacting what others (who outnumber them) have to do to accommodate them.

So, where are we headed? All I can offer is this thought. So many things in the world seem to occur like the movement of a pendulum. Super strict morals swings to rather liberal morals, or attitudes towards science or religion swing from acceptance to rejection, in patterns, much like the swing of a pendulum. Maybe this current trend of the majority catering to minorities, like the sickening demands for political correctness, will gradually swing back the other way, and the majority can once again resume their role in leadership while worrying less about how they speak to that role.

For Sale: Price Reduced - 2 Bed/2 Bath Home - Price Reduced

2011-09-20T16:54:00.001-06:00

Own your own little piece of Paradise

The nearly new (move-in was late August of 2009) 2 bed, 2 bath cement block home sits on a secluded plot (2166 sq meters, or about ½ acre) on a very quiet road that actually runs all the way down to the water's edge of beautiful Lake Arenal. (The water is just 500 meters from the front door).

There are presently no neighbors between this home and the Lake. There is a heavily wooded, deep gully on one side, with a little stream at the bottom. This ensures a nearly constant, fresh breeze. Water is paid through the end of the year, and currently is only about $72.00 per year, with no meter. The water is cold, and crystal clear, with nothing added. There are two septic systems (aguas negras, for toilets, and gray water, for washer, showers, and sinks).

The house will sell with Kenmore washer and electric dryer, Whirlpool Gas Range,

Maytag refrigerator, and a 2005 Suzuki (pictured below) Grand Vitara, XL7, with current Marchamo and Riteve. Also included will be one queen size bed, with frame and one King size bed, with frame. Additional furnishings are negotiable, including wall-mounted Samsung Plasma TV, Sharp Surround Sound system, and small appliances, including Sharp Microwave.

Part of the Living Area is pictured above.

Front of the house features a recently completed and oversized carport, and there is an enclosed (screen, metal, and wooden bars) garage cum workshop attached to the back of the house.

This is the workshop/bodega, at the back of the house. The car is no longer parked there.

Solid wood doors, and beautiful wooden kitchen cabinets are featured. Windows are all protected with iron bars. The ceilings throughout are high, with beautifully stained wooden beams.

Asking price is $215,000.00 cash only, but financing may be obtained, in part or in whole, through Gap Investors (http://www.gapinvestors.com/ - - - Talk to Glenn Tellier) Contact Blog owner, John (grumblesfmarenal@aol.com), for more information, and/or more photos.

We have met the enemy, and we're done for...........

2011-09-16T08:48:00.000-06:00

Well, we’ve formally been introduced to the real CCSS (commonly known as the Caja), and cannot say anything very positive about it. Now, we had heard all the stories, but up to this point in time (more than two years living here, and nearly that long as members of this system), had not actually experienced for ourselves this particular aspect of the system.

Here’s the background: Blanca and I have been going to the local clinic on a regular basis, seeing the doctor every six months or so, mostly to keep up with our prescription medications. Some time ago, Blanca noticed an abnormal growth on her right wrist, and asked the doctor (that was there on that particular day) about it. That doctor didn’t really say anything, so she let it be. On a more recent routine visit, a different doctor asked her about it, wanting to know how long she has had it, and even commented that something should have been done about it many months ago, when it was first mentioned to that other doctor.

This doctor she saw on the recent visit gave her an order for an urgent x-ray of the wrist, and we drove down to Cañas, to the Caja hospital there, and they did the x-ray. The x-ray department gave Blanca the films, and she brought them back to the local clinic, waited to see the doctor again, and he then gave her an urgent referral to see an Orthopedist. Any referral of this nature (to see a specialist) means a trip to Liberia, unless it is a very serious problem, then it means a trip to San Jose. We had already been through this process when I was referred for an eye problem, so we made plans to go to the Caja hospital in Liberia at our first opportunity.

This is where is begins to get just a bit weird…………you see, in order to even request an appointment with one of the specialty clinics in Liberia, one has to go in person (which for us means a drive of two hours, one way). There is simply no way to call and request an appointment, or to go online to do this. Don’t ask why. No one knows why. So, we had to wait until near the end of the month, because we did not have enough money to take such a trip earlier.

We drove up there on Wednesday, July 27. I might mention that we did have some other business to take care of that day in Liberia, but the first thing we did was go right to the Caja hospital, and find the Orthopedic Clinic. They first told Blanca that their first available appointment would not be until July 29. That is July 29 of 2012! But, since she was not in their system (never having been seen at that hospital before), she had to go to medical records and get her basic info (the standard CCSS info) entered into their system. Never mind that There are less than five million people in this country and that not all of them are members of the Caja, and that one computer system should be able to handle all of them, nationwide. This is Costa Rica.

By the time she returned to the Ortho Clinic from medical records, the first available appointment had already changed to July 30. That’s 2012, by the way. Every effort to point out to the young lady at the reception for that clinic that the referral said urgent was met with what can only be described as complete and total indifference.

So, here we are. My wife has something – a great big lump – growing on the outside edge of her wrist. And, there is not much we can do about it. Our best option would likely be to seek an appointment with a specialist – maybe in Guanacaste, but more likely in San Jose, as a private patient. Then, if she needs to have some sort of procedure done, we would have to pay out of our own pocket and use a private hospital. Now, I grant you that this would be much less expensive than doing this in the States, but that is not really my point here. My point is that the government of Costa Rica, in all its wisdom, has made it a requirement for legal residence that all residents pay into the social security system, at least for health care. So, obviously, I am now left with one glaring question: why ask us to pay for something that cannot deliver that for which I am paying?!

The local (Costa Rican) news has been filled with reports of the crisis in their health care system for months now. It is underfunded, overstaffed, rife with corruption at every level (as is most everything in this government), and basically not doing the job for which it was created. So, let me ask my main question once again? Anyone want to buy a little 2 bedroom house, with an absolutely gorgeous Lake view?

Didn’t see this coming……(Part II of II)

2011-08-07T07:51:00.001-06:00

“We’re gonna boogie back to Texas, eight beats to the mile” – from the song, Boogie Back to Texas, by Ray Benson & Asleep At The Wheel

- - - -
NOTE: This was written some months ago, but since nothing has ever been forthcoming from either ICE or the Tico Times, all of it still holds true.
- - - - - - -

Regarding the January bill for electricity, a breakdown of the bill showed a total of 1,489 Kwh used, from 01/01 to 02/01, with meter readings of 013514 – before, to 015003 – after, and included taxes of ₡10, 994.80. To be fair, I had discovered a problem during January with the electric water heater that I repaired towards the end of the month. (I had to replace the pressure relief valve, because it was stuck in an open position, causing the heater to be constantly heating). I had hoped that this problem would have proven to be the cause for such a sudden jump in one month’s usage. I no longer see that as even close to possible. As an update, our bill for the month of February (paid on April 1) was only ₡12,000.00, so we thought whatever problem had occurred had now been fixed, and that the huge amount was simply a reader error. Wrong! Checking online in late April, the new bill, for the month of March, had jumped back up to ₡205,000.00 again! We went back to ICE, and then had to wait for any further action from them, until after Holy Week, and ultimately, even longer. That was because the administrator of the local ICE office took an extra two weeks of vacation, so we ended up waiting until the week of May 9. This is because no one in this God-forsaken backwater is willing to ever accept any responsibility for any damn thing! That means, that when the boss is out, there is no one to step up in his place. And, of course, even he, upon his return, is not willing or able to do anything that doesn’t strictly follow whatever interpretation of the rules that he understands.

So, putting this unfortunate mess together with all the other problems we have been having here in paradise, this question has arisen: Anybody want to buy a beautiful view?

As of 05/23/2011: I had been walking up to the light meter once a day for the previous 40 days, noting the reading, and then putting it down on a list that I have created on the PC. I have also totaled up all of our bills from the first month we moved into this house, and compiled monthly usage, in KwH, and amount paid out for those twenty months. We have been charged for using an average of 773.1 KwH per month, or 25.77 KwH per day. Over the 40 days of my direct monitoring, our use is averaging only 16.3 KwH per day, which would be a total of only 489 KwH in thirty days, well below what we have been paying all along. We are doing nothing different over these last 40 days than we had done over the previous twenty months, in terms of electrical usage here in the house. Granted, there have been times when we ran the air conditioner (a wall unit) for short periods, but we are not currently using that, and haven’t for some time. Other than that, the fridge is plugged in all day and all night, we use the washer and the dryer as needed, we use various ceiling fans, and so on……..oh, we are now turning off the water heater for all but about one hour a day.

When ICE’s meter reader reported his monthly reading, as of May 02, his total usage for the month of April came in at 591, also well under the average we have been paying all this time. Since my daily recording did not begin until April 14, I also believe that this in and of itself is pretty conclusive proof that consumption prior to my securing of the meter box and prior to my now daily meter reading was indeed above our current average. Not to mention, that I have to conclude that our real consumption was always below the amount that was being billed to us.

Now, to further clarify matters (or, maybe muddy the waters; I don’t know), you should know how our electricity gets to our house. When we paid our contractor to run electric, water and phone to our property, back in late 2008, it was with the understanding that the lines would run underground, and for lights and phone, they would come from our neighbor’s property. To affect the electric hook up, our contractor had to place our meter on a pole on our neighbor’s property. This means that what we paid for, and were presented with, was one metal box (paid for by us) with two meters in it. Our line runs from our meter, straight underground. The metal box has two doors that meet in the middle. What we realized in April is that those doors had been open for months, as long as we could remember. We never opened those doors, and it never occurred to me to place any particular significance on the fact that those doors were wide open, and had been that way since I don’t know when.

So, I am facing one logical (to me) conclusion here: somehow we have been over billed by at least $100.00 per month, give or take, for the last twenty months (yeah, that’s about two grand). I have no idea of whether that is because somehow our electricity has just disappeared into thin air, somewhere between the neighbor’s property, and our house, or someone has been ‘borrowing’ our electricity (our meter does sit on someone else’s land, out of sight of our house, so the ‘borrower’ could easily hook on right at the meter), or maybe ICE’s meter reader has a way to affect the output of our meter.???? I don’t know………have no clue……….

We have met several times with the ‘coordinator’ of the local office, and other than trying to pin the blame on something in our house that is using too much juice, his only concern is how are we going to pay this outrageous bill. We have talked to him until we are blue in the face, trying to get across that it is not possible that we have used this much juice, trying to get across that it is simply unconscionable for him to expect us to pay for electricity we never used, and that the amount is simply too much for folks on a pension. I suppose that what is most frustrating about his response is that he appears to be agreeable to our face, stating that he understands what we are saying, but ultimately, he has made absolutely no effort to accommodate us, or to appease us, or to help us.

We even went to see the main guy in nearby Tilaran, at the suggestion of our Priest. That guy only referred us to the controloria (not sure what the English language/gringo version of this would be, but it’s for complaints and resolution of same) of ICE, who - he says - will give us satisfaction. So, we called them on May 9 or 10, and tried to give them the whole story. They said that they would investigate and have a response for us within ten days……………………

The morning after our visit to Tilaran, the ‘coordinator’ of the local office showed up at our house, before we even finished breakfast, along with a tech (who waited for him in the official company truck; he was obviously serving as driver, as per my earlier impressions of this fine organization – see my Blog entry of Wednesday, January 5, 2011, titled: The Spy Who Came For Dinner (and never left), or The Men From I. C. E). He told us that he couldn’t sleep the night before for worrying about our situation, and he offered us all sorts of verbal reassurances that he would try to help to resolve our situation. He wanted to see the water heater, and tried – as do they all – to focus our attention on something within the house being some sort of energy hog. We both pretty much gave it to him with both barrels, but ultimately had no idea what he thought he was going to do. He did say that he looked at the meter (I doubt it) and found it to be just fine, with no signs of any sort of tampering. He tried to say that maybe there is some sort of ‘artifact’ that is intermittently using up too much energy. I, of course, countered by showing him my printout of the daily meter readings, with their new and much lower average daily use as compared to all the many months since we moved in here. I offered my opinion that there are probably not even any businesses around here that consume as much energy as we have been billed for over these months.

As of May 23, we received a visit early in the morning from a technician from ICE, who wanted to deliver a letter from Mario, that coordinator at the local ICE office. We refused delivery, although I did manage to make a copy of the letter. Essentially, he repeats again that the meter is OK, is well secured (my bad; I was the one who secured the damn thing, back on April 14, remember? And, incidentally, he knows that fact, because we told him. As a matter of fact, I asked him repeatedly both in his office, and at our house, why had his meter reader never reported that the meter was not secured, and/or why his meter reader had not secured the meter, but he never once answered me). His letter also noted that we have a lot of appliances and devices in our house that (obviously) use a lot of electricity. Apparently, taking a twist on the famous Latin quote (OK, I think it was originally expressed in French by DesCarte as "Je pense, donc ju suis), “cogito, ergo sum,” he has concluded that these things exist, therefore we must be using them 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Again, all he wanted is for us to pay the frickin’ bill. So, we did, borrowing the money from a friend.

I have contacted the Tico Times, hoping that they might be interested in doing an article about this situation, and one of their staff writers is apparently gathering information, but so far…….nada………no response has been received from the Controloria; the letter from Mario is dated May 16, by the way, even though he didn’t try to get it delivered until May 23. As of August 7, today, there has still been nothing from The Tico Times.

So, here we are. No longer waiting on tenterhooks for something over which we have absolutely no control; we did wait for ICE to do something, but obviously they have another cash cow here (new math in Costa Rica: Gringo = $$$). We find ourselves becoming more and more suspicious of everybody, every day. We feel that we are no longer able to trust anyone around us – not our neighbors, not our supposed Tico friends, definitely not anyone in any ‘official’ position with ICE. Our dream of the Pura Vida is pretty much gone, and we will indeed gladly sell out and go back to Texas, if we can just find someone who is better able to cope with all this than we have proven to be.

Didn't See This Coming (Not so soon, anyway!)

2011-08-04T09:08:00.000-06:00

Rule No. 1: Never lose money.

Rule No. 2: Never forget rule No. 1. ~ Warren Buffet

NOTE: This was written some months ago, and has already appeared at Top 10 Costa Rica. Things have not changed since I wrote it, and ICE has never responded to our complaints, nor have the folks at Tico Times ever followed through, despite numerous emails to the editor and the assigned reporter.

(Part I of II)

When we started the process of applying for residence here in Cost Rica as pensionados, one of the provisions with which we had to comply was to show proof of a monthly income (pension) of at least Six Hundred Dollars ($600.00). We were able to do this, and that fact alone helped us to be well on the way to legal residence by the time it became necessary for us to actually move here (check back on old posts on my blog to see the sequence of events).

We knew, as does anyone anticipating retirement, that one day we would be faced with the reality of an ever rising cost of living, while our income remained at whatever level it began. That is what is meant by the term, ‘fixed income.’ The sad fact of life that we have now had to face is that it already appears that the rising cost has started much sooner than anticipated, and in a place where we thought we would be somewhat protected – Cost Rica. You see, when we started that process, the cost of living was pretty reasonable here. But, sadly, that is no longer the case.

One of the things we used to brag about to friends and family back in the states, and one of the major factors in our belief that the cost of living was reasonable here was that – for many years – electricity was cheap here. Guess what? Not only is it no longer cheap, but the cost of electricity was already too high by the time we arrived here in late April of 2009. Worse, it continues to climb and there is no rational explanation for this.

The reality is that Ticos still do not make much money themselves. The reality is that every business of any size that I have ever seen in this country employs way too many workers. The reality is that I have yet to observe any truly efficient organization in operation in this country. The reality is that Costa Rica brags to the world about its ‘soon-to-be-reached-goal’ of carbon neutrality, while blithely overusing pesticides and herbicides at a truly staggering rate. The reality is that Costa Rica – despite truly draconian laws to regulate these things – allows a multitude of over-polluting vehicles to ply its very bad roads, highways, streets, and byways. The reality is that everything costs too much here!

First, did you know that nationwide there is a 13% sales tax in place? On each and every single item purchased across the entire nation! I’ll bet you that is just about the highest you will find anywhere! Second, did you know that just about every item one might want to purchase in a hardware store, or an electronics store, or a department store, or a novelty store, or a variety store, or even a ‘big box’ store has to be imported into the country? (And, worse, most of the stuff sold in these stores is imported from China, so you can imagine the quality of the goods). Because of that importation, you should be aware that Costa Rica imposes large import duties and taxes, and – of course – you, the consumer, have to pay for the transportation costs.

To go back to the lack of efficient organizations here, I know that I have touched on this before, but you should be aware that it is not possible for a new business owner to operate efficiently because Federal law requires that job duties be very sharply defined and limited. That is why it is necessary to deal with three people in order to purchase one small item in a hardware store, or any of the others listed above. Now, some family businesses can get away with only the business owner dealing with customers, but that is always going to be a small business, where you are likely to make only one purchase at a time, anyway.

The goal that I have been heading towards here today is this: Remember that magic $600.00 income level that has to be proved each month? Well, it is reaching the point where we should be able to do this by showing the folks at Immigration (when it is time to renew our cedulas) just one monthly receipt, the one for electricity. For the month of January our light bill hit ₡235,983.00 (that’s $471.97 at 500 to the dollar, but since the dollar continues to fall, it was more like $476.00 at the time I paid the bill).

That is frighteningly close to the amount I have to be able to prove having changed, and suggests that serious measures need to be taken to avoid total disaster. I keep hearing of Ticos and ex-pats who pay less than ₡15,000 per month, and I readily admit that we do use things they obviously do not. I know that we have an automatic washer and an electric dryer, we have ceiling fans throughout the house, and even on the front porch (hardly ever use those, though). We have fluorescent (long tube type) light fixtures in the kitchen, both bathrooms, one closet, and the guest bedroom. We have a large, American refrigerator. And, then there is this list: toaster, waffle iron (got its first use since we moved here just today, though), coffee maker, blender, and an electric skillet (that gets used a lot), plus a microwave oven that gets a lot of use. My computer is on most of the day, into the night, with an all-in-one printer/fax/copier, large monitor, and a router, all working constantly. Large screen plasma TV, and when we are not watching TV, we usually are watching a movie, either streamed (very poorly) or from a DVD, or the PC’s external HDD. The stereo system, connected to a CD changer, goes much of the day. Let’s see………what else? We do have a 220 volt window unit air conditioner that has not been used for more than a year simply because of what its use did to one month’s light bill. One large yard light burns from dusk to dawn, and there are three motion sensor lights on all night.

Compare us to the Ticos, and you’ll see that they may have a single light bulb hanging from a wire in the ceiling, only a suicide shower head for hot water, maybe a Tico style washer, but no dryer, small (very small) refrigerator that has to be manually defrosted, a Tico style coffee maker that makes only one cup at a time, maybe one outside light that only gets turned on with noise or visitors, no PC, no TV (or only local channels, used for short periods of time), and, that’s pretty much it. No wonder their light bill is so small.

Meanwhile, day by day, our dream of life in paradise is turning into something else, and I can’t say I like what it is turning into. Wish us luck.

Here is what ICE currently charges for electrical consumption, per their website:

Primeros 200 KWh a ¢ 67/kWh

De 201 a 300 KWh a ¢124/kWh

Cada kilovatio adicional ¢139/kWh

And, in American Money, that is:

$0.13 per kWh

$0.25 per kWh

$0.28 per kWh

The Princess and the pea…..

2011-07-16T09:47:00.001-06:00

NOTE: this has already appeared at top10CostaRica, and was originally written some months ago…………..

"All human situations have their inconveniences. We feel those of the present but neither see nor feel those of the future; and hence we often make troublesome changes without amendment, and frequently for the worse." - Benjamin Franklin

We all remember the story of the Princess who couldn't sleep, even with many mattresses piled one on top of another, all because of a little, tiny insignificant pea. You know how it is……that one little thing gets under your skin, and you just can't get away from it. It pesters and festers and generally drives you nuts. Finally, you have to either give in to it, and do whatever it takes to make it go away, 'cause there just ain't no way you can live with it, or you simply explode. Right? You know what I'm talking about.

Well, my little thing that is pushing me right now is more like the sum of many little things that is growing larger every single day. And, I am reaching that point where I will have to do something about it.

"Now, what could this 'little pea' that is starting to fester have been caused by?" you ask. Well, I'll tell you. I really did not expect this to happen so soon, but here it is: I am getting tired of putting up with all the crap inherent to living in Costa Rica! There. I said it. I am tired of dealing with public and private employees who are so apathetic to the needs or wants of their customers that they flat refuse to do anything. I am tired of having to pay so much more than a thing is really worth. I am tired of finding a product that I like one month, so I buy it, and then can't find it again for six months. I am tired of constantly telling the people at the Super or the hardware store, or wherever, to please order more of something, to be met with reassurance, but never any action. I am tired of going to the hardware store to buy four of something only to find that they have just two or one or three in stock and no clue as to when or if they will ever have the total that I needed. I am tired of the lights going out for seconds to minutes to hours at a time. I am tired of not having a decent internet connection. I am tired of driving on really bad roads that never get fixed properly. I am tired of an attitude of, 'well, it happened; I don't know why it happened; it wasn't me, so get over it; I hope it doesn't happen again; just keep on paying the bill, though, 'cause you don't want to lose the service?/utility/options/use of.'

I am tired of paying too much for a lousy beer! The cheap beer here still costs over a dollar a bottle in the so-called Super markets! I am tired of reading in the local press that gasoline is going up again. I am tired of the electric, the phone, the whatever constantly going up in cost, but never improving in terms of reliability, or constancy, or consistency, or quality, or (God forbid) service. I am tired of never being able to find certain food items, or even the ingredients to make your own. I am tired of trying to complete phone calls to loved ones back in the states with lousy connections that cause all kinds of pauses, static, loss of signal, leading to only frustration for all concerned.

We had one spot on the infamous Lake Road, near Nuevo Arenal, that had been only one lane wide for more than ten years. (Someday, when you have the time, ask me how this came to be). With the recent heavy rains, that one lane became threatened and it was finally obvious that the entire road was going to be out if something was not done – fast. The fine folks from MOPT finally brought in truck loads of monster big rocks, and a couple of back hoes, and started in to fill the massive hole. They did bring the level of the washed out portion of the road nearly up to the level of the small amount of pavement that was left, but then apparently abandoned the project, leaving a slightly wider road, but most of it is now mud, and nobody is willing to risk driving over that mud, because no effort was made to pack it down, or to put gravel over the surface.

Note: I started writing this back in March, when I was feeling particularly fed up with it all. Now, here it is April 11, and that spot on the road is still the same – enough pavement left for one car to pass, slowly, and then, mud and dirt and rocks to the right, where only the bold dare to pass.

Meanwhile, we are now preparing to make a trip to San Jose tomorrow because we learned that our drivers' license renewals necessitate that we first go to a Consejo de Serguridad Vial (Council of Road Safety), or Cosevi office in downtown San Jose to change the license numbers from our passports to our cedulas (we did get our licenses about four months before we got our cedulas). It seems that there is no one – in the entire lazy-assed nation – capable of going onto a computer and changing these numbers, other than in that office. Of course, in speaking to some friends here, we have been told that (just like everything else in this silly place) it all depends on who is across the counter or the desk from you whenever you need something done. If it is a typical Tico/a, then you will be sent elsewhere. If it is a smart, ambitious, capable, and caring individual (a true rarity), you can get whatever it is that you need.

It seems that this couple, who have lived here for more than twenty years, had different expiration dates on their drivers' licenses. She went to Liberia, to the Ministerio de Obras Publicas y Transportes (Ministry of Public Works and Transport) or MOPT, location there, some months ago, and renewed her license. The person with whom she dealt noticed that her license showed her old cedula number, so he changed it to her new one, while he processed her renewal. No problem. When her husband later went to the same place, the (different) person that he encountered immediately said, "Oh, no. You cannot renew here because your license shows your old cedula number. You have to go to San Jose."

He did, too. He did just what we have to do tomorrow. First, we go to a Cosevi office near downtown, to ask that they please change the numbers on the licenses, and then, we schlep over to La Uruca, where drivers' licenses for the entire country originate, to get them renewed. So, this process, which already was more inconvenient than it should be, (involving a trip to our Provincial capital), will now take up an entire day, burn up one or two tanks of gasoline, use up who knows who how much time and energy of a government that can ill afford it, and serve only to further piss me off.*

I'm telling you. If only somebody would come along and offer me what our million dollar view is worth, I think I'd take it and go back to Texas!

*The truly high cost of obtaining a driver license in this sorry backwater has been chronicled in another post.

GMO food, Organic Food, Ethically killed food, and the human condition….

2011-06-24T07:45:00.001-06:00

"The surprising thing about young fools is how many survive to become old fools." -- Doug Larson

This thought recently occurred to me: Does it make any sense at all for any person who wants to sell me something to knowingly offer me something that, in the long or short run, is going to cause me serious harm? I mean, if I was in the business of producing anything that I wanted people to buy, wouldn't I run out of customers if I deliberately killed them all? So, where do these ideas of Monsanto as an evil-empire-set-on-killing-us-all-with-their-genetically-modified-foods originate? The same applies to the ideas of a cattle or chicken rancher administering various antibiotics to animals raised for food, or other medications/chemicals designed to ensure their health and fast growth. If that is so harmful to the humans who consume these animals, wouldn't he, the rancher, soon run out of customers?

Maybe it's just me, but it seems like I keep running into very vocal people who insist that they will only eat "organic" food, and that the meat they eat must have been dealt with "ethically," whatever that means. I mean, obviously, it is OK with these people that somebody else killed the chicken or the pig or the cow that they eat, but the killing must have been done 'humanely.' Give me a break. I can accept the idea of religious philosophies directing how food is raised, killed, or prepared, because believe it or not, many of those ideas have some ancient basis in reason. As a for instance, pork is indeed very deadly, if not raised carefully, and cooked thoroughly, so it makes sense for a religious leader to just say, "Hey! Don't eat that pig. It'll kill you!"

I especially am put off by people who say such stupid things as "I want to eat the same things that my grandparents ate." They really don't seem to grasp a few basic facts of life, or of history, for that matter. Our grandparents did indeed seem to eat a lot more than we do, and everyone has seen Hollywood versions, and maybe even read written versions of stories that depict the family sitting down to a breakfast where there are platters heaped with fried eggs, huge, thick slices of fried ham, huge hot biscuits dripping with real butter (not to mention ham gravy), and all kinds of side dishes.

So, unless you're prepared to go out and work off a huge meal, don't try to emulate your grandparents by eating such meals. But, to get back to the idea that it is wrong to 'genetically modify' our food, or to infer that Monsanto and others are out to poison us is just plain absurd. For one thing, nobody complains when they see the development of hybrids (see Burpee seeds), or the result of years of selective breeding. What do you suppose those are if not genetic modification, of a simpler variety?

While I do think it is kind of crappy for Monsanto, or whoever, to have developed so many varieties of plants that cannot be reproduced (thus forcing the grower to go back to them for next year's crop), at the same time, I have to admire the fact that they did develop such a thing. That's truly ingenious. And, hey, isn't that really the result of the demands from consumers for things like seedless watermelon, or seedless grapes? And, let's not totally overlook the fact that those seeds generally have built in – as the result of years of research on the part of Monsanto, or whoever – a better resistance to certain outside influences that might threaten a crop.

All the farmer has to do is seek another source for his seed corn, or whatever. At the same time he can go back to what his ancestors did, and simply hold out a portion of this year's crop as seed for next year's crop. All of that having been said, we, as consumers, need to keep in mind that we are at least partly responsible for these developments. We all want more and more quantity of wheat, corn, veggies, or whatever foodstuffs are grown, for less and less effort or money. We demand it. Because of these demands, the family farmer is long gone. What we have now is the corporate farm, which has grown out of our ever increasing demands. What we have now are much larger crops coming from larger fields and farms, and using anything that will grow faster, healthier, and cheaper.

If the end result is a minority of people who turn their noses up at the produce of the American farm, then let them eat cake.

What’s with all the do-gooders always crying about cruelty to animals, anyway?

2011-06-02T06:47:00.002-06:00

There are too many people, and too few human beings. - Robert Zend

I keep stumbling into these pitiful cries for assistance, all over the ‘net:

“Help stop pet abuse” – “Please save Beto (or, Paco, or Spot, or whoever)” -

“My Tico neighbors leave their dogs tied up in the back yard all week…..” and like that. Oh, and, then there is evidently a monthly ‘election’ to see what animal shelter (operated by more do-gooders) gets a donation, right here in Costa Rica (take a look at CRL).

And, I have a short message for the people who seem to obsess over the fate of various dumb animals: Hey! Get a life! We have so many other important things to worry about in this small, little, teeny, tiny corner of the world………..if y’all have the time and the resources to waste on someone else’s pets, or worse, on strays, then maybe you need to re-evaluate your life.

It is not bad enough that some folks waste their time worrying over things like the evil machinations of Monsanto, or the importance of Organic Food (and only Organic Food), or the pressing need for food supplements, or the questionable efficacy of homeopathic medicine (is that an oxymoron, or something?). No, they also have to get themselves all worked up over the status of domestic animals…….or, in Costa Rica, non-domesticated animals. It is actually funny to listen to some gringos go on and on about how animal abuse is so bad. But, they lack all understanding of certain facts of life.

This is Costa Rica. They have different laws. They have different traditions. They have a different culture. They have a different language. And, hey! Guess what? It is their country! So, along with all of those differences, here’s another heads up for ya: They have a very different attitude towards pets! For one thing, their word for a pet is ‘mascota.’ And, that translates directly as ‘mascot.’ Look it up! (Oh, well, here you go: “A person, animal, or object believed to bring good luck, especially one kept as the symbol of an organization such as a sports team”). Now, that is not quite the same idea that comes to mind, in English, when talking about the family dog, is it?

So, let’s get to the point of this little rant. Gringos who go around declaiming and decrying the abuse of animals here are seen as meddlers, ‘Metiches.’ Now, here in CR they may say instead ‘entromedio’’ because metiche is not really a Spanish word, but comes from one of the many Indian dialects that are native to the Americas. But, basically the idea remains: a nosy person, one who is butting in where they are not only not welcome, but not needed.

I have to wonder about people who can find so much time to devote to the welfare of animals. I suppose it is a very altruistic thing to do, and I’m sure the animals appreciate it, but it just seems to me that with all the trouble in this world between people, and all the things that people do to each other, maybe, just maybe y’all could spend a bit of time trying to help your fellow man. At least maybe find ways to prevent human abuse. How about all the little kids that are hungry? Maybe some time could be found for the ones who lack decent clothing. What about the ones who are denied an education?

And, here’s another surprise for you. You do not have to go any great distance to find kids that need your help. They are right there, next door, down the street, or on the next block. And, by the way…………….? That statement applies equally back in the States as it does here in Costa Rica.

ABC News does “Made In America”

2011-05-20T06:19:00.001-06:00

The one function TV news performs very well is that when there is no news we give it to you with the same emphasis as if there were. - David Brinkley

ABC News, in the states, recently ran a feature story over the course of a week, where they reported the outcome of a little test they conducted. They cited Moody's Economy.com, as having postulated that if every American spent an extra $3.33 on U.S. made goods every year, it would create nearly 10,000 new jobs.

They persuaded a couple (Anna and Jon Usry, who have two kids) in Dallas to let their people (Reporters, including David Muir) go into the family's home, and remove everything by way of furniture, fixtures, and appliances that was not made in America. The first result was that, as reported on Tuesday, everything in the house was removed, except the kitchen sink, which reportedly was the only item made in America. Incidentally, the shot showing that sink also included the faucet. The family was then shown to be eating PB&J sandwiches the night of the removal, and sleeping on the floors, in sleeping bags (likely made in China, but nobody said).

Watching the first night of this coverage, I thought that this was a good idea, and may actually help Americans to figure out how to help themselves. So, I eagerly tuned in the next night. By the end of the second night, my eagerness had turned to mere curiousity, and by the end of the week, I was beginning to wonder why they started this thing in the first place.

To say the least, there are a few parts of this entire story that bother me. First, while a family of four may well be a typical American family, this particular family has a stay-at-home mom. That just strikes me as being way out of the norm. Secondly, I really thought that most brand name appliances are still American (Kenmore, Amana, Maytag, etc.?). Next, I think I should mention that the street these people reportedly live on is a short distance from where we most recently lived in the Dallas area. This has to be what I would call an upper middle class area, marked by homes valued significantly above the norm. So, that is another thing that troubles me about this story – the simple fact that these folks are above the mean, rather than being truly typical.

OK, back to the story: The next morning, the lady and at least one of the reporters began calling and searching online to find American made replacements for all of the items that were gone. The report showed that it took them over an hour just to locate an American made coffee pot (or, maybe it was a coffee maker)! [Editor's Note: a follow-up the next night reported that the search for an American made coffee maker was not successful, as the closest they could come was a device that was only partially made in America.] However, they persevered, and the second night of this ongoing story showed that the producers were able to find enough products to refurnish the Usury's home. There were some items that could not be replaced, and the story as told by ABC News almost seems to pass over them very lightly. First, it was reported that the flat screen Panasonic TV has been replaced with a painting by a local Dallas artist. Then, it was mentioned, almost as if in passing, that the house would be dark, if an exception had not been made. That is because nobody is making light bulbs in the U. S. any more. So much for GE and Sylvania, huh?

That second night of the story also revealed that the only kitchen appliances that could be found were high end products - Viking Brand and Sub-Zero and Wolf. The old appliances were reported as GE. Pricing information so far indicates that going All-American is significantly more expensive all around than using some imports, especially in the kitchen. The fridge, from Sub-Zero ran over $3,000.00, and the microwave (Wolf) ran around $500.00, and I think the stove was even higher.

They did not report on what alternatives might be out there for a family that wants a television, or a stereo, or anything else by way of entertainment, and ultimately, I cannot see that there is any alternative. Maybe Boze for sound, but I just don't see any American made video equipment. Ultimately, while I watched each night, I did not get a feeling that this story was carried out to any real end, and I now have more questions left unanswered. I will give them this. They did bring out an 'expert' on Friday, who stated that it is not necessary to actually follow this thing through to the exclusion of all products not made in America. After all, he said, "We now live in a global economy, so it is all right for some things (electronics, maybe?) to be made elsewhere." I don't know, but I was left with a feeling like maybe ABC News just copped out, when they discovered what any normal consumer could have told them before they started: You cannot hope to fully furnish a home in the U. S. today with only American made goods. Does anyone out there remember Ross Perot, and his 'giant sucking sound?' That sound has turned into silence, as we discover that what he warned about happened all too fast.

The truly high cost of driving in Costa Rica.

2011-05-13T12:02:00.001-06:00

If you haven't found something strange during the day, it hasn't been much of a day. - John A. Wheeler

Here is one of the many things nobody tells you about this place, and you have to learn for yourself: There is absolutely no rhyme or reason for anything ever done by any government agency, entity, or employee. The same pretty much holds true for private enterprise, as well, but since we're going to be talking about driving and licenses to drive here, let's concentrate on the Agency that is responsible.

First, that Agency is called Cosevi (officially named Consejo de Seguridad Vial, which translates as the Council of Road Safety). They have got to be one of the strangest entities in the history of bureaucracy. First of all, in order to obtain our first CR licenses, we learned that there is only one location in the entire nation where a foreigner (extranjero, in Spanish) can obtain a license to drive. The least painful way in which to obtain this license is to have been in this country for less than ninety days, and to be in possession of an active license from any U. S. state.

If you meet these two pre-requisites, then by going to that one location, in La Uruca, a part of San Jose, one must first pay the necessary fee (at present this is ₡11,000, or about $22.00), then go to a nearby "medical" facility with the words "Dictamen" posted outside. In this place, one pays another ₡15,000 (about $30.00) for a "doctor" to "certify" that you are medically OK to drive. Most folks who have gone through this report that the examination these doctors conduct consists of them asking if you have any medical conditions, if you are right- or left-handed, and then they ask you to read a line on an eye chart across the room, and tell them the color (red) that they point to on that eye chart. This place also has to stick your finger to check your blood type (unless you have documentation of it on your person, that is acceptable to them; i. e., in Spanish, and certified and authenticated).

After paying these fees, one must then go to the actual line for licenses, which is located way back at the first building close to where the public parking lot is. (Cosevi occupies a pretty large land area, a bit larger than a city block, and has things scattered all over that area, with the licensing line at the entrance, the bank where one must pay the license fee all the way at the front, and then, the medical facilities are located out on the street, nearby). As long as you have paid all fees, and have the documents from that in your possession, along with your current license, then you will be allowed to enter this first/last building, and take a seat, along with about fifty other people. Once you reach this point, the line usually moves rapidly, and the new license will be issued on the spot.

That first license was obtained by us before we had achieved our primary goal of obtaining legal residency. Cosevi, in all its wisdom, does issue a unique number to each and every license in the nation, but doesn't use its own system to create those numbers. Instead, they issue a license based on one's Passport Number for non-residents, or one's cedula number, for residents. That means that our licenses had a wrong number on them, since we are now residents, with legally issued cedulas. In order to renew our licenses, which were issued for only two years in the first place, we first had to get the numbers on our old licenses changed to match those cedulas.

Once again, in all its wisdom, Cosevi, for whatever reasons, is capable of making this change at only one location in the entire nation, and that is - you should have known this was coming - NOT in La Uruca, where the drivers licenses are issued in the first place. No, this is near downtown San Jose, in an area known as Paso Ancho (wide pass, and don't ask). In case you have never visited the city of San Jose, think of narrow, poorly paved streets, very few of which go in a straight line. Consider that very seldom will you ever see any sort of street sign, and there is absolutely no numbering (or other identification) of any dwellings, or other buildings. Once in a while, you may encounter a street name on a corner building, but that would be like every ten blocks, or maybe more. I made some maps on the PC, before we ever left home, and these maps do show very clearly, where we needed to go. What I forgot, and what makes it nearly impossible to find your way in San Jose, is that lack of street names and numbering. How can you determine where to go, if you can't determine where the hell you are?

So, needless to say, although we did make good time from our house, to San Jose, we then spent at least an hour just trying to find our first destination, the Cosevi location in Paso ancho. We then made our way onto the grounds of this office complex, discovering along the way, that this is where Ticos go to take their driving license exams. After an interminable wait, along with a goodly number of other people who had reason to request changes on their licenses (apparently a number of errors occur in the production of licenses, or else maybe all the Ticos waiting had to do name changes, or something), it was finally our turn. Blanca had the misfortune to be attended (and, I use that word in full knowledge that this person demonstrated a physical and mental capacity to just barely manage attending to his own personal needs) to by a man, who evidently had the use of only one finger for entering information into his PC. The female, next to him, who attended me shortly after Blanca's ordeal began, was finished with me, and providing assistance to the cretin dealing with Blanca long before that guy got halfway done. Ultimately, both did enter the proper information into their respective PC's, and gave us printouts attesting to that fact. They then said we could proceed to the offices in La Uruca to renew our licenses. It was nearly noon by this time.

Now, here is where I want to explain a bit about what it has cost us to comply with the requirements of having a drivers license in Costa Rica. We had to get up early in the morning, like around 5:00AM. We then drove to San Jose, via the new toll road, and then trie to find the first of two places we had to visit, as described above. Then, after we completed those requirements, we had to find the other location, where the actual license is issued (and, where we went through the motions described above in the third and fourth paragraphs), and comply with whatever was required at that place. Ultimately, these are the actual expenses we had to meet on this one day:

₡15,000(X2 for 2 people) for "medical' exam

₡11,000 (X2 for 2 people) for license

₡30,000 (X2 for going and coming) for gasoline

₡ 7,000 for tolls on the Autopisto Del Sol

₡10,000 for lunch in Santa Ana

₡ 500 Parking

30,000 Dictamen

22,000 Licenses

60,000 Gasoline

7,000 Tolls

10,000 Lunch

500 Parking

₡129,500 $259.60 Total cost for two people, without considering the length of our day (over twelve hours)

What more can I say? Oh, yeah, in case you were wondering about what pertains when one does NOT possess an active license from another country, and/or has been in Costa Rica for more than ninety days……….in that case, one must take a written – in Spanish - and actual physical driving exam, and yes, there is only one place in the nation where this may be done – (Paso Ancho for the driving part, and I think the written; and, then over to La Uruca to actually get the license). And, before I forget to mention it, by law, the driving exam must be done in a vehicle that has a standard transmission. No automatics. The law may be changing about this little detail, but changing laws here takes a long, long time…………Pura Vida, Mae!

Now, if I can just have your attention for a moment or two……..

2011-04-28T16:37:00.001-06:00

There are people who, instead of listening to what is being said to them, are already listening to what they are going to say themselves. - Albert Guinon

A new study has come to the attention of the fine folks over at NPR (up at NPR?), and I just have to share. It seems, after all these years, that ADHD may not actually be a true medical diagnosis in the sense that it defines a specific medical condition that might be susceptible to a specific medical treatment or regimen. "ADHD, it's just a couple of symptoms — it's not a disease," Dr. Lidy Pelsser of the ADHD Research Centre in the Netherlands told All Things Considered weekend host Guy Raz. As a matter of fact, the study suggests that some simple, but restrictive dietary changes may be of most benefit to kids who are considered to have the manifestations of hyper activity.

While the study, published in The Lancet, the well regarded British publication, does show that diet changes will not necessarily help all kids with these outward symptoms, they do help the majority, so now the issue becomes one of educating physicians to recognize the symptoms and learn the correct ways in which to change the diets. The study showed that it only take about five weeks to affect a marked change in most kids, and that certainly would be a time well spent, especially if it could mean getting away from the overdependence on drugs.

Taken together with other recent studies about homeopathy, CFS, and others, this also illustrates another very significant point. As has been said so many times before, we are what we eat. And, let's face it. While it is true that the diet we follow today might resemble the diet we had as kids, or even the diet of our parents, that is really all it does: resemble the diet of yesterday. Today, we don't make much from scratch anymore; instead, we buy a package that contains a mix that has been pre-prepared, so all we do is assemble the ingredients. Those mixes are not the same as what mom made. Likewise, everything we eat today has had more preparation done before we pick it up off the shelf at the supermarket, or even from the refrigerated display case in the store, than what mom bought.

Likewise, even when we buy fresh fruits or vegetables, except in rare cases, those items are not as fresh as the ones mom bought from a fruit stand along the road, close to home, now are they? So much of the food that today's working mom provides to her kids has changed, that it was inevitable that those kids would start to show some effects. And, here is one that – in my opinion – should relieve a lot of anxiety on the part of a lot of moms. The fact is that this condition (and who knows how many others?) is not the fault of the parent, not a genetic disorder, and more importantly, not something that requires more and more medication.

Now, don't get me wrong. This published report of the study does not specify what dietary changes are needed, but I will bet money that the new diets will focus on more natural things, and fewer prepared and processed foods. And, that is not a bad thing, is it?

And, by the way, please don't bring up any ideas about genetically modified foods, or organic products, or any of that other crap. My point here is the same point I have tried to make before: just eat a balanced diet, whoever you are, and you will most likely be just fine. Or, as my father used to like to say, "Don't do as I do, do as I say."

Please take the time to read the report (I was going to include it here, but decided it is much simpler for anyone interested to just go to this URL): http://www.npr.org/2011/03/12/134456594/study-diet-may-help-adhd-kids-more-than-drugs?ft=1&f=1001

That beautiful view shown at the top of this page could be yours.

2011-04-22T08:18:00.002-06:00

For Sale: This Piece of Paradise

The nearly new (move-in was late August of 2009) 2 bed, 2 bath cement block home sits on a secluded plot (2166 sq meters, or about ½ acre) on a very quiet road that actually runs all the way down to the water’s edge of beautiful Lake Arenal. (The water is just 500 meters from the front door).

There are presently no neighbors between this home and the Lake. There is a heavily wooded, deep gully on one side (the Ticos refer to this as a montaña, or a quebrada), with a little stream at the bottom. This ensures a nearly constant, fresh breeze. Water is paid through the end of the year, and currently is only about $72.00 per year, with no meter. The water is cold, and crystal clear, with nothing added. There are two septic systems (aguas negras, for toilets, and gray water, for washer, showers, and sinks).

The house will sell with Kenmore washer and electric dryer, Whirlpool Gas Range,

Part of the Living Area is pictured above.

Front of the house features a recently completed and oversized carport, and there is an enclosed (screen, metal, and wooden bars) garage cum workshop attached to the back of the house.

This is the workshop/bodega, at the back of the house. The car is

no longer parked there.

Solid wood doors, and beautiful wooden kitchen cabinets are featured. Windows are all protected with iron bars. The ceilings throughout are high, with beautifully stained wooden beams.

Asking price is $245,000.00 cash only. Please don’t ask for any kind of financing, or other consideration.

Contact Blog owner, John for more information, and photos.

Do you suppose school board members ever went to school?

2011-04-11T08:01:00.002-06:00

For every person who wants to teach there are approximately thirty people who don't want to learn--much. - W. C. Sellar and R. J. Yeatman, And Now All This (1932) introduction

You may have read recently that I've been watching local TV news from Austin, TX, via my slingbox here at home in Beautiful downtown El Aguacate. Lately, the news is full of a new and urgent financial crisis facing the Austin Independent School District (AISD). It seems like every school district of any size up there in Texas (and, I'm sure all the other states as well) gets into trouble once or twice every decade. Big, big financial trouble. And, they always act like it is a big surprise! No one saw it coming. No one predicted it, expected it, was prepared for it, can handle it.

Yet, they have these top heavy administrations – every damn one of them – and a big part of their administrations includes bookkeepers and accountants, and payroll, and folks like that. Yet, no one seems to be sharing information, or some damn thing. How could they not foresee a crisis? Long before a crisis becomes a crisis? Especially, when anyone who has ever been associated with a school district can tell you that there are no entities out there capable of wasting more money faster than a school district (OK, the federal and state governments do a pretty good job of this, too).

Speaking from personal experience (I was a school nurse for two years, and my wife is a retired classroom teacher) I can tell you that the amount of waste on any given day on any given public school campus is nothing short of disgraceful. The campus where I worked actually had a walk-in safe, just like a bank. This was an older building, so by extrapolation, I would surmise (or, I did some time ago) that it is not at all uncommon to find a walk-in safe on a public school campus. Do you know what was in that safe? Expensive items that were either stockpiled, or just too expensive to be left out where anyone could grab them. This was around 2003 – 2004, OK? Included in that safe were things like Sony digital cameras (the very best ones, but already obsolete), the campuses supply of walkie-talkies and chargers, cassette recorders, blank tapes, blank CD's, spare batteries, reams and reams of copy machine paper, spare ink cartridges for copy machines, and just tons and tons of things that nobody used, and that was mostly obsolete.

Now, this of course goes along with something else I noticed years earlier, in connection with my wife's classroom materials. The stuff that really gets used in a given classroom is usually the stuff that was purchased by the teacher her/himself. As far as I know, the districts still provide computers and equipment to classrooms, but you know what? If a working computer finds its way into a classroom, the odds are that it will not be accompanied by a working printer, or any kind of internet service/connection, or up to date software, or adequate hardware. Going back to the first computers we saw coming into the classroom, I clearly recall mostly Mac products, that were obsolete the day they arrived in the classroom, and that were never put to any use due to know one knowing how they operated, but also to the simple fact that a computer is no good without up to date software that can be routinely and periodically updated via the internet.

Something else, just as an example of campus waste that I recall was this: My wife's classroom was provided with a very new and fancy giant laser disc player. These first disc players were developed after the VHS and Betamax tape formats had already been in common use for some time. They featured discs that were even bigger than the old vinyl LPs for music, and they did provide for a much better quality video than any tape format. My wife's classroom also had a television monitor, on a very large, and complicated metal stand, with wheels. But, try as she might, she was never able to acquire a simple cable to connect that fancy movie player to the monitor, so despite the fact that she even had a couple of movies for showing in the classroom, her students never saw scene one.

I also clearly remember one year, just before the start of the school year, my wife asked me to help her set up the classroom, because that particular year she was to have something like half a dozen computers in the room, all to be put on one or two tables, so that they could be networked to one printer. What a sorry mess that was. There was no equipment provided for networking, some of the computers were MSDOS systems, some were MS Windows-based systems, and some were Apple products. But no two computers had the same operating system present, since even though there may have been more than one Windows PC, they each had different versions of Windows, at different stages of upgrade (that's right: Win 3x, Win95, Win98, and none of them with any updates since date of installation). And, of course, since the classroom had no connection to the internet there was no way to update any of the Operating systems, even if one had the time and patience to make the attempt.

This was what I saw in her classrooms each and every year – obsolete equipment that was never complete. She was lucky to have one working computer capable of being connected to the internet, in all the years that she taught. And, she usually had to bring that one home in order to connect to the 'net.

So, now we see on the Texas news that Dallas is offering a $10.000.00 cash incentive to any teachers who are willing to resign voluntarily, and then, a member of the school board in Austin suggested that Austin do the same thing. I listen to these idiots making these proposals, and I have to shake my head in wonder. If y'all are so hard up that you have to cut jobs, where the hell do you think you are going to get the money to payout that much money to those poor bastards that are stupid enough to accept your offer?! Meanwhile, of course, parents are protesting at every school board meeting, and on the streets in front of various schools, screaming "Don't close OUR school!" But, one has to ask, where were those parents before the school districts got in trouble? How many of them have even bothered to look into what was happening at any campus near them prior to this 'crisis?' How come they stay away from their District Board meetings in droves, and fail to watch what their Boards are doing? I'm just sayin'……….

I Fear That The Blush Is Off The Rose……..

2011-04-04T15:10:00.001-06:00

For what is the crime of burglarizing a bank, compared with the crime of building one?"
Bertolt Brecht

Rule Number One: The House Always Wins.

OK, here's the thing: As most expats who retire in Costa Rica learn, sooner or later, there is no easy way to ensure that we can receive the money from our pensions or other income when we live here. I (quite possibly due to serious naiveté on my part), used to believe that this was mostly due to international banking laws that prevented easy bank to bank transactions. For ourselves, we decided to open an account in our local branch of BNCR some years before we actually moved here. This was handy, and – at the time – it was not too difficult to do.

After obtaining our cedulas (legal residence) we knew it was also a good idea to have a banking presence here to (if nothing else) more easily prove to the Costa Rican Immigration people that we were indeed bringing in the minimum required amount of dollars each month. When we applied for pensionado status the requirement was that we change at least six hundred Dollars per month into Colones. That amount is almost laughable now, when you consider that our electric bill for the month of January was already in excess of $400.00 (and, no, we do not have the air conditioning running; haven't used it for more than a year)! Yes, that's right – over $400.00 in one month's time! And, we really don't know why this has happened, but we had become used to paying over $200.00 per month. Oh well, that's another story and will no doubt be related at a later point in time.

I started out here to relate a really crappy occurrence that has caused us a certain amount of harm, a lot of discomfort, and tremendous inconvenience. But, I'm still setting this up so that you can understand what happened (God knows why). After we arrived here, I had to figure out a way that would be most economical while being the least wasteful of time. After all, we do have monthly obligations/bills to pay. After a certain amount of trial and error, here is what I had become accustomed to doing each and every month:

First, a couple of years before we moved, I opened an account with a bank in the states that allowed me to have our pensions and social security deposited directly, provided me with a way to pay bills online, and reimbursed me for any and all ATM charges worldwide. Sounds good, right? At first, after moving here, I would go into the local bank, present my Debit card to a teller, and ask to have $1500.00dlls moved from my American Bank to my checking account at BNCR. There was a fee (1.75% of the total?) for this, but I guess I didn't really pay attention to that, as I was thinking about convenience. Then, at the end of our first year here, I received notice from my American Bank that Visa had set new, lower limits on the use of their debit cards. The new limits were set at $1,000.00 per transaction, and per day, where the limits used to be $1500.00.

This had the immediate effect of telling me that the sort of movement I had been doing was too costly (yeah, yeah; I know; it was already too costly). So, I tried to think of an alternative. Here is what I came up with, after thinking about it. I decided to hit the ATM (right outside the front door of the bank, after all) as many times as it would take to hit my daily limit, as many days as it took to meet my local needs for one month. I found out, by trial and error, that I could get up to ¢200,000.00Colones per transaction, with no fee charged by either my American Bank, or BNCR! So, I then asked for that amount, got it, and then immediately fed my card back into the machine, and got another like amount, and then, decided to press my luck, and did it a third time. This worked! Then, I took the cash inside and deposited it to my BNCR account. So, this meant that I could make one trip to the bank each month, and get enough money to cover my needs, without paying that local fee, and at the same time get around that daily limit imposed by Visa.

So, this became my routine. Up until March 1, that is. When I put my card in for my first of three transactions, I got all the way up to completing the confirmation of the amount of cash that I wanted, then a message popped up on screen saying that the ATM had lost contact with the Central Computer. I did get my card back, thinking that the first transaction was a no-go, so I then tried to do my normal three quick transactions. I only got receipts and cash on two out of the three, and on that third attempt I saw the message saying that "that's all, folks," indicating that I had reached my daily limit.

So, worried that maybe my U. S. bank had paid, but not me, I immediately went into the local bank to report this, and to ask for their assistance in recovering (if necessary) my money. (Time out for a little aside here):

Now, here may be where I got off on the wrong foot, but I'm not sure. My thinking went like this:

I May have a problem with an ATM.
Said ATM belongs to BNCR (says so right on the maquina, and all around it, and even outside the little booth).
Said ATM lost connection once. Paid out and printed those little receipts only twice, even though I completed – on my end – the steps for a third pay out.
Just to be very clear here, their ATM did not dispense money or receipt on one out of three attempts.
It is my money. It is their ATM. It is their responsibility. (Sound reasonable? I thought so).
Their responsibility so they (BNCR) owe me that money.
It is their ATM, so they have to have access to it and to its records.
It is their ATM, so their camera will show that I inserted my card and my info three times, but only got paid twice.
I only have two receipts showing that I only got money twice.
Their records should immediately show that I did not get my money. Or, at worst, at the close of business that day, they should easily see that they have got more money than they should have, right?

Well, I guess I was wrong on all counts. The young man at the 'information' desk told me that there was nothing that the bank could do since I was using an international debit card. This was strictly an electronic transaction between two banks, and this local branch (which accesses the ATM from within the bank, by the way) cannot access the ATM records. He said I had to contact my bank (in the states) and report the incident to them, and then wait for them to submit a claim to BNCR. He did say that I could talk to the Branch Manager if I wanted, but he knew that there was nothing that could be done.

I figured that this should be a relatively simple thing, quickly resolved, so I came home and got on Skype to call my U. S. Bank. The young lady in Phoenix to whom I spoke said, "No problem. I will credit your account."

Next day, I checked my bank online and found nothing had been done, so along with my wife, I returned to BNCR. This time we did ask to talk to the Manager, who told us essentially the same crap the guy had told me the day before. The transaction involved an international card, was strictly electronic in nature, they could not access their own ATM's records, and they could not do anything until they received a claim from my U. S. Bank.

When I called my U. S. Bank that day I was given information that differed significantly from what the lady had told me the day before. Now, I learned that the Bank had turned my call into a dispute that had been referred to the Dispute Resolution Team, who now had ten working days to review my complaint and decide what action to take. Then, it would take who knows how many more days for any resolution of my dispute!

So, we gave them six or seven (working) days, and returned to BNCR yesterday, after seeing online that we are still missing that money. Again, we were stonewalled, as we learned that the person in the local branch, to whom we witnessed the Manager assign this for follow up was not only not present, but had done nothing by way of follow up. The Manager did take the time yesterday to place several calls to various people at the main bank in San Jose, spent a lot of time on her computer, but ultimately told us we still have to wait for our U. S. Bank to submit a claim.

According to her, BNCR cannot check their ATM records for any overage until and unless they receive a claim. I am sorry to be so dense and so obtuse, but I cannot understand how this could be. I used to be a bookkeeper many, many years ago. So was my wife. We both recall how the books/accounts had to balance each and every day, one way or another or they could not be closed! So, I guess this means that BNCR does not really care from day to day whether or not their accounts are in order. I wonder what they would do if I had somehow managed to abscond with this much of their money?

Do you suppose they would let me tell them that they must submit a claim, and then wait while I process their claim? Do you suppose they would wait for me to make up stories to justify my dragging my feet? Do you suppose they would let me give them their money whenever I felt like it, without gouging me with late charges, interest, and handling fees? But, wait. Since it is their ATM there is no way it is ever going to pay out more than I ask for (remember rule number one?) is there? I mean, there ain't no way an error in my favor is ever going to happen!

Ultimately, my U. S. bank did make a provisional credit to my account, as of March 10. That did not become permanent, however, until the end of the month. As far as I know, they are still waiting for BNCR to give the money back to them.

The Speech That Should Be Made By Every American High School Principal.

2011-03-25T11:33:00.001-06:00

There is a talk radio guy named Dennis Prager. He was a fixture on the radio in Southern California for around twenty years before he went syndicated, and now he can be heard across the country. He wrote a column last year, sort of thinking ahead, and he titled it as "A Speech Every American High School Principal Should Give." He originally published it on July 13, 2010, and it very quickly spread around the internet. Unfortunately, as all too often happens today, it was attributed to several different (but for-real) principals across the country, and now has become something of an urban legend. In an effort to avoid that continuing (the urban legend part), I am forwarding it, and posting it on my Blog, so that people can read what he had to say, and form their own opinions about it:

To the students and faculty of our high school:

I am your new principal, and honored to be so. There is no greater calling

than to teach young people.

I would like to apprise you of some important changes coming to our

school. I am making these changes because I am convinced that most of the

ideas that have dominated public education in America have worked against

you, against your teachers, and against our country.

First, this school will no longer honor race or ethnicity. I could not

care less if your racial makeup is black, brown, red, yellow, or white. I

could not care less if your origins are African, Latin American, Asian, or

European, or if your ancestors arrived here on the Mayflower or on slave

ships.

The only identity I care about, the only one this school will recognize,

is your individual identity -- your character, your scholarship, your

humanity. And the only national identity this school will care about is

American. This is an American public school, and American public schools were created to make better Americans.

If you wish to affirm an ethnic, racial, or religious identity through

school, you will have to go elsewhere. We will end all ethnicity-, race-

and non-American-nationality-based celebrations. They undermine the motto

of America , one of its three central values -- E Pluribus Unum -- "from

many, one." And this school will be guided by America 's values.

That includes all after-school clubs. I will not authorize clubs that

divide students based on any identities. This includes race, language,

religion, sexual orientation, or whatever else may become in vogue in a

society divided by political correctness.

Your clubs will be based on interests and passions -- not blood, ethnic,

racial or other physically defined ties. Those clubs just cultivate

narcissism -- an unhealthy preoccupation with the self -- while the

purpose of education is to get you to think beyond yourself. So we will have clubs

that transport you to the wonders and glories of art, music, astronomy,

languages you do not already speak, carpentry, and more. If the only

extracurricular activities you can imagine being interested in are those

based on ethnic or racial or sexual identity, that means that little

outside of yourself really interests you.

Second, I am not interested in whether English is your native language. My

only interest in terms of language is that you leave this school speaking

and writing English as fluently as possible. The English language has

united America 's citizens for more than 200 years, and it will unite us at this

school. It is one of the indispensable reasons this country of immigrants

has always come to be one country. And if you leave this school without

excellent English-language skills, I will have been remiss in my duty to

ensure that you are prepared to compete successfully in the American job

market. We will learn other languages here -- it is deplorable that most

Americans only speak English. But if you want classes taught in your

native language rather than in English, this is not your school.

Third, because I regard learning as a sacred endeavor, everything in this

school will reflect learning's elevated status. This means, among other

things, that you and your teachers will dress accordingly. Many people in

our society dress more formally for a meal at a nice restaurant than they

do for church or school. These people have their priorities backwards.

Therefore, there will be a formal dress code at this school.

Fourth, no obscene language will be tolerated anywhere on this school's

property -- whether in class, in the hallways or at athletic events. If

you can't speak without using the "F-word," you can't speak. By obscene

language I mean the words banned by the Federal Communications Commission

plus epithets such as the "N-word," even when used by one black student to

address another, or "bitch," even when addressed by a girl to a

girlfriend. It is my intent that by the time you leave this school, you

will be among the few of your age to distinguish instinctively between the

elevated and the degraded, the holy and the obscene.

Fifth, we will end all self-esteem programs. In this school self-esteem

will be attained in only one way -- the way people attained it until the

state of California decided otherwise a generation ago -- by earning it.

One immediate consequence is that there will be one valedictorian, not eight.

Sixth, and last, I am reorienting the school toward academics and away

from politics and propaganda. No more time will be devoted to scaring you

about smoking and caffeine, or terrifying you about sexual harassment or

global warming. No more semesters will be devoted to condom-wearing and

teaching you to regard sexual relations as only or primarily a health issue. There will

be no more attempts to convince you that you are a victim because you are

not white, or not male, or not heterosexual, or not Christian. We will

have failed if any one of you graduates from this school and does not

consider him or herself inordinately lucky -- to be alive and to be an

American.

Now, please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of

our country. As many of you do not know the words, your teachers will hand

them out to you.

I totally agree with what Mr. Prager wrote there, and I would also like to hear that every high school principal in the nation would give such a speech. But, I fear that few would have the courage to do so, and fewer still would have a job for very long after saying things like this. That's kind of sad, isn't it?

More Food For Thought.

2011-03-18T07:56:00.001-06:00

If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience. - George Bernard Shaw

"What do they got that I ain't got? Courage!" – The Cowardly Lion

Many years ago, long before any of us was born, as I may have mentioned before, the first American Army was called a militia. And, from the online dictionary.com, I have borrowed this: [In U.S. history], "the whole body of men declared by law amenable to military service, without enlistment, whether armed and drilled or not" (1777). The idea of creating this force was then pretty much the only reasonable option open for a group of loosely connected colonies to provide for their own defense against what they viewed as a serious threat to their peace, security, and freedom. That was then, and this is now. We have fast forwarded some two hundred plus years, and now let's take a look at the huge Military Industrial Complex (MIC), that has effectively replaced that little militia. This MIC is controlling huge resources of the once proud nation that grew from those humble beginnings of that poor, ill-equipped and totally untrained militia.

And, it is time to ask ourselves why do we still need to have such a powerful military? (Granted, we surely went out and made us a whole bunch of new enemies subsequent to September of 2001.) But, apart from having become the biggest bullies on the block, why do we need to have more than a token military force?

And, now that I think of it, what happened to being admired and looked up to as the world's leader in everything? Nowadays, instead of being innovative, or original, or capable of providing so much of what the world wants or needs, we are simply seen as greedy, as we enmesh ourselves in a pursuit of other peoples' raw materials (read oil). We are so greedy that we have pursued wars in places no one had ever heard of, or if we had heard of them, we quickly dismissed them as being insignificant. We make war on people who did not, as a nation, ever do us any harm.

And, now, we are so distracted by these senseless wars, and we have expended so much of our precious resources on these wars, that we have forgotten what got us here in the first place. Worse, our economy is so deep down in the dumps that the politicians are grasping at straws looking for quick fixes (while ignoring some of the obvious solutions). First, and most obvious, if we were to make the MIC just sorta shrivel up and die, then if we were to close down the horrendously expensive Pentagon, and go through the Federal budget looking for military BS programs that only serve to waste money, I bet we could clean up a huge part of our deficit, and improve the economy by doing so.

Don't forget, a lot of American Industry was able to make the transition from a war footing, at the end of WWII, and knock out huge quantities of manufactured goods that the world wanted, and that made our economy one of the strongest the world has ever seen. That could be done again, with minimal effort. For one thing, and think about this just a bit, we still make too much weaponry, too many weapons. Too much effort is spent in seeking a market for those weapons (to the point of creating meaningless wars?), when the whole world would be so much better off without the weapons and without the wars. So, instead of listening to the politicians who always claim that we have to 'oh, so gradually' disengage ourselves, let's just pull the hell right on out of the Middle East! We didn't get into these wars 'oh, so gradually!'

Why can't missile manufacturers help to make affordable aircraft? Who needs tanks and Jeeps, and HumVees and stuff? Outdoorsmen? Sell to them, then. As for firearms, nobody honestly needs them (not even the cops, if truth be told), nor ammunition for such, so either turn to manufacturing something else, something that is actually useful, or go out of business. I know. I know. That's heresy, isn't it? But, so what? Maybe it is going to take some major changes to actually achieve improvement in this world.

And, finally, here's a thought. We still have too many homeless people in the U. S. A., don't we? How about, since we are going to close it down anyway (in my little dream scenario, that is), we just open up the Pentagon for as many homeless as can cram in there? I bet that would be a lot of people, wouldn't it?

Free at last; thank Gawd almighty, I am free at last…….

2011-03-14T08:18:00.001-06:00

"Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste no time reading it." - Moses Hadas

I think I have done a good thing after not too much soul searching. I have decided to stop reading the online AMCostaRica.com every day. I had been an almost fanatical reader of that so-called news source for some years. But, gradually, it began to dawn on me that Mr. Brodell's rag is not so much a news source as a combination platform for his politics and merchandising along with a national source for gossip and innuendo. I noticed that he only prints a certain kind of reader letter, and that he tends to run stories that keep reader anxiety at a high level.

An excited reader is what he seems to want, and he can have them. I have removed the link from my browser, and have resolved to stick with the online Top 10 Costa Rica,
Tico Times, and InsideCostaRica for my online news fix each day. You see, one of the things that sticks in my craw about AMCR is the tendency to run controversial stories, not always based on fact or logic, and then fail to ever accept letters to the contrary from readers (unless, of course, he can stir up more controversy in such a way as to continue to support his own opinions, while keeping readers' anxiety levels high).

So, if you put his content together with the fact that his pages are mostly advertising, what are you left with? Very little, actually. Therefore, this was an easy decision to make, and one that should have been made a long time ago. I am now into my second week without it, and missing it less every day. While it may have been helpful at times to provide semi-current reports of weather or maybe outages of the 3g Kolbi cell phone network (as if I need an outside report of such an event, since I am usually one of the first to know), overall I find that I can exist quite well without it.

So, now that my morning news fix has been altered, what do I now look for? I am not sure why, but I have been looking for more news from back home (Texas). But, that might be coupled together with the fact that we are more often able now to watch live television that originates in Texas (Austin). So, that now, by looking online I can flesh out some of the fluff that the local Austin stations talk about. Right now, for instance, the school district in Austin is facing a huge budget deficit. Surprise! (That gives me an idea for another piece - later).

Well, it is no longer morning, I got my news fix already, but now I see that the day is waning, and it is about time to turn on the TV and catch up on national and Austin news and weather. Maybe I'll have a beer, too………care to join me? (sure beats reading AMCostaRica, don't it?)

Another Syndrome Bites The Dust………

2011-03-10T15:08:00.001-06:00

Lord, what fools these mortals be! - William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), "A Midsummer Night's Dream", Act 3 scene 2

Oh boy! I can hear the uproar now. This goes right along with my recently expressed opinions about Homeopathy, and the demand for 'organic' foods, and the (imagined?) need for huge quantities of so-called food supplements, not to mention the fixation of some people on only eating 'health foods,' and let's not forget the needless worry over gene manipulation in food, or the mistaken belief that immunizations for children should be refused (leading to an increase in diseases that had almost been wiped out) and all that other stuff. I know. I know. By now your'e wondering what in the world am I talking about, right? Well, here's a recent news article:

Chronic fatigue syndrome has been controversial ever since 1984, when a cluster of cases in an upscale Nevada resort town attracted national attention.

Now a British study in The Lancet is likely to open another chapter in the medical saga.

Comparing four different treatments for CFS, researchers find that psychotherapy and gradual increases in exercise were clearly better than specialist care or an approach favored by many CFS advocates called "adaptive pacing," which helps patients live within their limits.

The results were quite clear," Dr. Michael Sharpe of the University of Edinburgh told one reporter. "When a therapist worked with the patient to help them do better over time, it produced better function and less fatigue." Sharpe is the paper's senior author.

The two therapies that proved superior in the study are:

Twice-a-week cognitive behavior therapy to change the way CFS patients think about their devastating fatigue, or to reduce their fear of exertion; or
Similarly frequent sessions that gradually increase a patient's activity level, within the patient's ability.
Would you believe this is very close to what some folks said about this thing many, many years ago? In other words, "get up off your lazy butts, and get moving!" And, of course it was all in their heads, and while it is true that this will piss off a whole bunch of folks, can you imagine how many folks are now vindicated? This so-called syndrome (along with some other prominent diagnoses over the last twenty or thirty years) rightly deserves to be shown for what it is in fact, and maybe now some folks can get on with their lives. Can you imagine how much money was tossed away seeking treatment for this condition over the years? How many charlatans made huge amounts of money by offering treatments for this condition? How many people were duped into paying for all kinds of treatments that really could not have ever been efficacious?
Now, not long after I found the reference you can see linked below, I saw one of those scrolling lines while watching an American TV news program, that mentioned that it is true that Lyme Disease and CFS share certain diagnostic commonalities, but a simple blood test will confirm Lyme Disease, so that indicates another door is closed to those who wanted to cling to the mistaken belief that CFS somehow has a viral cause. Want to know more? Here is the URL for the article I found referenced on NPR: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/02/18/133865482/psychotherapy-and-exercise-look-best-to-treat-chronic-fatigue-syndrome?ft=1&f=1001

Lawrence of Who?

2011-03-05T07:44:00.001-06:00

Fanaticism consists in redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim. - George Santayana

So, what is really going on over there? You know, over there in the Middle East?

We may well be witnessing some truly remarkable events in and around the Middle East of late. First Tunisia, then Egypt, maybe Iran, maybe Libya, maybe Bahrain, maybe Yemen, and who knows? The more pressing question, however, is what is behind this apparently sudden uprising of the people in these various countries? If, indeed, a large part of these uprisings are due the use of social networking web sites and tools, how long will people in these kinds of countries be able to continue to make free use of these tools? And, more importantly, who or what will take the place of the former leaders of these various places after the dust settles?

Will we see that this entire domino effect was actually and clandestinely started by something or someone sinister, with ulterior motives (Iran)? Maybe it was all intended to cause the downfall of various governments just to supplant whoever was in power with more religious fanatics like the Ayatollahs? In other words, is this all just a prelude to a larger portion of the world's population coming under the sway of religious zealots? Not a good thing, from most vantage points, unless of course one is a religious zealot.

Or, will we see some democratic governments emerge? That possibility is pretty hard to visualize, at least for me, given the history of that part of the world. The traditions, the cultures, and, unfortunately, the religious beliefs as I understand them to be in those places just do not lend themselves to any movement that can lead to a democratic form of government. They sure can lead to a populist movement (Iran), but the end result is seldom much good for the average Mahmoud on the street. So, I am very skeptical of a good long term outcome over there.

I am also troubled by the little information that is coming out of Tunisia, where this began not so long ago. On the one hand, there was the report of rather significant numbers of Tunisians fleeing that place, and seeking refuge in Italy. That, together with a denial of any problems on the part of whoever is in charge in that unfortunate nation, and a refusal of any outside assistance, is very troubling.

I know it is too soon to have any answers to my questions, but I - for one - am hopeful that some folks who've never had it might finally begin to see what it is like to live in freedom. Time will tell. Oh, yeah, I saw something clever the other day about what is happening in Egypt. Somebody asked the question, "Do you suppose this whole thing in Egypt is just a pyramid scheme?"

Please just send me an email!

2011-02-27T15:46:00.001-06:00

If The Phone Doesn't Ring, It's Me. ~Song title by Jimmy Buffet

They always say (don't this sound like a cliché, though!) that confession is good for the soul. In some cases, maybe it is good for more than that. So, here goes: I really don't like to talk on the telephone. There. I said it. Don't know just when this dawned on me, but it has been there for a good while……funny, I don't feel any better for having said it. Maybe later.

Here's the thing. I spent a lot of time on phones during my working life, especially the ten years I spent as an investigator for the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners, and the years I spent as a Telephonic (I guess that might just say a little bit right there, huh?) Case Manager. To make matters worse those last nearly four years also involved being lied to by just about everyone I talked to on the phone, so you can see I might just be a bit leery of using the damn thing.

But, you know, I think it goes deeper than that. When I grew up, we didn't always have a phone in the house, and our parents' generation had a totally different attitude toward not only general phone use, but proper telephone etiquette. Their generation used to have to pay for most calls by the time used, and/or had to depend on mostly party lines, where several households might share the same line, so there was always a rush to complete a phone call, in order to avoid tying up that line. Therefore, the natural standing order in our household was that personal phone calls were limited to three minutes (I really don't know why this was the magic number, but that is what it was; maybe, in the truly old days, the first three minutes were free, and then Ma (grandma?) Bell started charging?). Then, again, maybe this just has to do with the fact that studies have shown that the average phone call does indeed (and has forever) last(ed) only three minutes.

I know that a lot of folks will find this hard to believe, but do you know that you can indeed finish most conversations in less than three minutes? Yes, you really can! I know that there are folks who can spend an hour or more easily, but the sides of those conversations that I have heard are mostly about nothing, with a serious amount of repetition thrown in. Worse, and here is where my wife really shines, I have seen her spend a whole day with her mother or her sister, and then come home and call them on the phone, and still talk for an hour! Wonder what they did all day long, while they were together………

As you may have heard before, I spend a lot of time on the computer, and that means online. I long ago learned to use, and to appreciate the use of, email. It can be as detailed as you might want it to be, or as short and sweet as a couple of words, maybe with some emoticons thrown in for good measure. (I hardly ever use emoticons, since I think they are a strange affectation, and no, I didn't use the old style keyboard creations, either). But, email does it for me. Creating a message, and receiving replies within minutes is – to me – pretty cool. I get that nice warm, fuzzy feeling of being in close contact with someone important to me, and that is enough to keep me going.

I expect that I will continue to make do very well without giving in to texting or tweeting, or whatever the next big social network thing might turn out to be (or, is more likely already spreading around the globe, but I don't know it 'cause I'm still stuck back here liking email). And, that's OK. As a matter of fact, it is pretty good. Although I have noticed lately that some folks seem to already be abandoning email as a primary method, or even a casual method of communication. I say that because I recently sent out some blanket emails to everyone in my address book, partly as a test, and mostly to inform all of those folks of some plans that I had. Part of that message informed all and sundry that their failure to respond to my message in some manner or form would result in their being deleted from my address book. I did in fact dump some folks, and so far nothing disastrous has occurred as a result. So, maybe I did a good thing.

Any way I look at it, I can say that telephoning as a means of communication isn't my favorite, and video conferencing is no better. A big part of this may well be the fact that – with my lousy internet connection – Skype no longer works for me, and our landline is really poor quality. This has caused all phone calls to be such a chore as to be more trouble than they're worth, simply because it is so hard to understand and to be understood with a bad connection. So, after all that, if it is all the same to you, please send me an email, and I'll get right back to you……….Now, I just hope that my family is reading this, and understands why I don't call.

545 PEOPLE

2011-02-22T08:14:00.001-06:00

This old newspaper column was first written about 1985, by a man named Charlie Reese. It has been edited from time to time since then, to keep parts of it relevant, and I am reprinting part of it here, since it now circulates freely via the internet. Charlie, who recently retired, by the way, was a columnist for the Orlando Sentinel:

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them..

Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The President does.

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but PRIVATE, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a President to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits..... The President can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who was the speaker of the House? Nancy Pelosi. She was the leader of the majority party. She and fellow House members, not the President, can approve any budget they want. If the President vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red ..

If the Army & Marines are in Iraq and Afghanistan it's because they want them in Iraq and Afghanistan ...

If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way. (Editor's Note: this is not exactly true. Members of Congress do pay into social security just like everybody else, since about the time this column was first written).

There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.

They, and they alone, have the power..

They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.

Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees...

We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!

Editor's Note: Funny thing is that we thought that they had been voted out of office, first in 2008, but not much changed. So, then, just a few months ago, another sweep was conducted, remember? I don't know about you all, but I'm still looking for some significant change……….

Brother, can you spare a……..dollar? (adjusted for inflation).

2011-02-21T15:12:00.001-06:00

If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion. - George Bernard Shaw

You know the economy really sucks, and has been in the doldrums for a good little while now. And, no matter what anybody has said or done, it is not exactly all better yet, now is it? All the bail outs have come and gone, and I guess some of them may have helped, but I'm not sure who was helped, are you? I know that the reports are that Ford and GM are both doing better now, but I really don't know that. I know that there seem to be fewer banks, fewer big companies in general, fewer mom & pop establishments, and ever bigger conglomerates (as in, monopolies) than there used to be. I can't see that as a good sign, though, for the life of me. For there to be bigger companies with less competition does not fit my idea of good. Not for the consumer, anyway.

We moved here to Costa Rica because we became convinced that we could not afford to live in Texas on our little pensions. That has turned out to be a questionable decision, since we hit major inflation here, and the first year here, we saw the dollar lose a serious amount of value against the local currency. You see, the dollar was running as high as ¢590 (Colones) to the dollar just a couple of months after our arrival here last year, and now is averaging less than ¢500. That means that just for our mortgage payment alone we are paying $170 a month more than we were a year and a half ago. Add to that what we pay for everything else (gasoline somewhere in the neighborhood of $4.50 per gallon), and, you might get an idea of what we are facing.

Something else that is costly, and I don't know why, is tires for the car. I put a set of new tires on our 2005 Suzuki Grand Vitara XL-7 in February of 2010. I already had to replace two of them late last year, when one had a blow out. The two that are left from that full set already show serious wear. We cannot have put that many miles on the tires, because nothing is really that far away from us! I have no choice but to conclude that this is a combination of poor quality tires (for way too much money) and really bad roads.

So, back to the economy: what is it going to take to fix it? I would certainly hope not another war. Not any kind of increase in foreign aid, surely. Not more expenditures for pork barrel programs, and stupid government programs. No more bailouts, please. No more subsidies for big oil, big energy, big coal, or any other big anything (all of which pretty much suggest to my mind nothing more than friends of the GOP, and/or huge lobbies).

And this brings us to one logical fix, suggested by a reader of the St. Petersburg (FL) Times, just over a year ago, in response to a request by the newspaper for ideas:

There are about 40 million people over 50 in the work force. Pay them $1 million apiece severance with no taxes due on it, for early retirement with the following stipulations:

1) They MUST retire. Forty million job openings - Unemployment fixed.

2) They MUST buy a new AMERICAN Car. Forty million cars ordered - Auto Industry fixed.

3) They MUST either buy a house or pay off their mortgage - Housing Crisis fixed.

It can't get any easier than that!!

P.S. If more money is needed, have all members of Congress pay their taxes.

There was a bit more to the idea, but that is the gist of it, and I – for one – think it would be a good place to start. I would, of course, like to see them extend this offer to some of us who were forced into early retirement through loss of our jobs, as far back as, say, 2008. Speaking only for myself, I'd say it was not at all pleasant to lose not only my job, but our home, and two cars, simply because we could not keep up with the payments on my very small (at that time) pension. And, I would be delighted to promise to go out and buy a house and a car. So, how about it? Any lobbyists out there interested in taking on a good cause for a change? How about just a PAC? Anybody?

Physician, heal somebody else…………… please!

2011-02-17T16:14:00.002-06:00

You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time. - - Abraham Lincoln, (attributed)

A recent online report from NPR got me to thinking. The report had to do with an international effort, over the course of one weekend, for people all over the world to deliberately consume mega-doses of homeopathic remedies, to demonstrate that not only are these so-called medicines quite harmless, but they are apparently anything but effective. One aspect of the report had to do with people who took massive quantities of whatever it is that homeopathy recommends for sleep, with not only no one falling asleep, but with no visible effect whatsoever. The report certainly piqued my interest in this subject, one which I must admit I had never paid much attention to, so I did some research, which led me to the following (this was taken from: http://www.homeopathy-soh.org/about-homeopathy/what-is-homeopathy/ )

About homeopathy:
Homeopathy is a system of medicine which involves treating the individual with highly diluted substances, given mainly in tablet form, with the aim of triggering the body's natural system of healing. Based on their individual symptoms, a homeopath will match the most appropriate medicine to each patient.
The idea of treating 'like with like'
Homeopathy is based on the principle that you can treat 'like with like; i.e. a substance which causes symptoms when taken in large doses, can be used in small amounts to treat those same symptoms.

For example, drinking too much coffee can cause sleeplessness, agitation and even palpitations, but when made into the homeopathic remedy Coffea it can be used to treat all these problems. You may already have come acress this concept in conventional medicine e.g. the stimulant Rilatin being used to treat ADHD, or small doses of allergens such as pollen being used to de-sensitise allergic patients. However one major difference in homeopathy is that substances are used in such tiny doses that they are completely non-toxic.

Scientifically it cannot yet be explained precisely how homeopathy works, but new theories in quantum physics are going some way towards shedding light on the process. What we do know is that a carefully selected homeopathic remedy acts as a trigger to the body's healing processes.

By the time I had reached this last paragraph I was confused. I asked myself, and now, I suppose I am asking anyone, how can we believe such a convoluted statement as one that first admits that something cannot be explained, and then suggests that quantum physics (a topic about which very few of us know anything) might possibly help us along the way to see how it works. Then, we are told, that even though no one can explain how this works, some collective 'we' do know that homeopathic remedies trigger the body's healing processes!? How can that be? If they can't explain how it works, how am I supposed to believe that it does work at all? And, exactly what kind of healing is involved in going to sleep, fa cryin' out loud!?

As for comparing their rationale to the use of a drug as controversial as Ritalin or to the use of pollen in attempts to treat allergies, please don't ask me to go there. Not only is the use of Ritalin highly questionable for any purpose (look at the history of law suits involving this drug), but so is its use in the also highly controversial area of ADHD, a so-called diagnosis that may finally be coming under some serious scrutiny. As for the use of pollen to treat allergies, the statement provided by these folks is, to say the least, just a bit disingenuous. When pollen is administered, as in immunotherapy provided by a Board Certified Allergy Specialist, it is not ingested by mouth, or in pill form, as are the homeopathic remedies. Instead, together with other allergens, it is injected, and not just once, but over a period of time, sometimes lasting for years, until the body has developed a higher tolerance to the specific allergens that have caused the patient's symptoms in the first place. (from NPR's report):

And, now there's a $1 million challenge on the table to makers of homeopathic remedies from magician and professional skeptic James Randi. If a rigorous double-blind, controlled study finds the remedies work better than plain water, Randi's educational foundation will fork over the money.

[Recently, earlier this month,] hundreds of skeptics in more than 25 countries took megadoses of the remedies to demonstrate they do nothing. It was the second annual event organized by the 10:23 Campaign. One bunch in West Virginia took 1 million times the recommended dose of a homeopathic sleep remedy and didn't die — or even fall asleep.

As the federal National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine put it in an overview:

Homeopathy is a controversial area ... because a number of its key concepts are not consistent with established laws of science (particularly chemistry and physics). Critics think it is implausible that a remedy containing a miniscule amount of an active ingredient (sometimes not a single molecule of the original compound) can have any biological effect—beneficial or otherwise. For these reasons, critics argue that continuing the scientific study of homeopathy is not worthwhile. Others point to observational and anecdotal evidence that homeopathy does work and argue that it should not be rejected just because science has not been able to explain it.

So, imho, we are left with more questions than answers about this fairly common method of health care. But, hey, if anybody out there thinks they can meet that million dollar challenge, I'd sure like to see their results. Ultimately, since there is no existing scientific proof of its efficacy, I'd say it would probably be best to avoid such 'therapy' altogether, and stay with methods that are known to work. Frankly, I think I'd sooner accept treatment from a good local curandero/a.

It Is Never Too Late, You Know…….

2011-02-10T16:29:00.001-06:00

Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.
- Ernest Benn

And, now, some more questions: What is wrong with us? The rest of the world is leaving us behind in so many important areas like education, health care, scientific development, industrial strength, and I suppose I could go on, but I hope you get the picture. We used to be so proud (at least we were when I was a boy) of our factories, and our work ethic (remember the American Work Ethic?), our inventiveness, our good-old-fashioned-that's-the-American-Way. Have you seen the acres and acres of abandoned factories that still exist in cities like St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Akron, or wherever (pick a city; pick a state)? One word fits these places: sad (well, a lot of other words fit, too, but I'm going with that one). How have we let this happen?

Damn it! We led the world in just about everything! Now, take a look, if your ethnocentric-ly brainwashed mind can allow you to do so, at the rest of the world! First, most of those countries we grew up feeling sorry for have surpassed us in many of the more significant areas usually referred to as 'quality of life.' And, we are now pretty much a joke among those who used to be our friends and allies. If that is not bad enough, we are universally considered to be stupid, rash, brash, overbearing, aggressive, uninformed, uneducated, and, incompetent (OK, it is nothing new to be thought of as rash, overbearing, aggressive, uninformed, etc., for Americans, but it is so much worse today, and we all know it). While we have been distracted by what amounts to so much BS (the senseless wars on Terror, Drugs, Poverty, et al), our educational system has gone to pot ('no child left behind, my A$$'!), and that means that our ability to create, to discover, to invent, and therefore to exceed, has gone with it.

And, you know one aspect of all this that really gets me is this: should I dare to suggest that maybe right about now, we need to take a very close look at who and what we are, and maybe, just maybe, we as a nation might need to consider that some of the old educational methods were not so bad, I will be jumped on as reactionary, resistant to change, obstructionist, and all kinds of other 'bad' things. I know that it is always thought to be 'bad form' to ever think about reverting to something old, you know, anti-progressive, old-fashioned (as if that is a dirty word), etc. But, you know what? If a thing works, why does it need fixing? If our generation received a good public education, and if the greatest generation (that would be our parents' generation) received a good public education, why did our generation have to start trying to change everything? I mean, it was our parent's generation that developed so many marvelous things (have you seen that list of things that are commonplace today, but did not exist along about 1950? It is mind boggling!) that simply did not exist when they were born. And, they did this while surviving the Great Depression and fighting the biggest war in the history of the world.

People from all over the world wanted to attend an American University, and while many still do, what is the quality of the education that they receive today, compared to just thirty years ago? Pretty lousy, from everything I've read and seen. Today's high school graduate is physically retarded as well, and barely literate, and why? Let me count the ways……..no discipline in the schools, or at home; no manners taught to anyone; no concept of etiquette; no physical exercise; no real content taught in any school; no abilities or talents developed (due to limited or nonexistent budgets) for any arts, or for that matter, anything requiring the use of the hands (as in no metal shop, no wood shop, no drafting); kids no longer learn anything by rote, because that is too taxing on their poor little psyches, or some damn thing.

You know what? I'm tired of it! I say, it is indeed time for change. Let me go farther. It is a time to ask some hard questions, and face some hard facts. I know that it has for too long been common in the U. S., when confronted by a problem, to simply throw money at it. What a waste! Or, the politicians' other (stalling tactic?) answer: maybe we need to appoint a committee to study the situation. Bull Shit! Or, worse, let's hire a 'professional' consultant to look at the situation, and offer us some 'professional' recommendations for improvement. Isn't professional just another word for whore? Who needs that sort of consultation or the recommendations of a whore? Not us. As I said, look at what worked, or what works. Consider reverting to some of those methods, if whatever crap we're stuck with now is not working.

One small suggestion here, by the way: maybe instead of pouring all those billions of dollars "overseas" (foreign aid), we should end all those handouts to others, and keep some of our money at home, to help ourselves. Now, I know that some folks will say that the amount of our dollars that goes to foreign aid is only 1% of the overall national budget, but I would ask them to consider this: 1% of how many Trillions of Dollars has to add up to a significant amount of cash, now, doesn't it? Just a thought, you know……….? After all, we damn well got ourselves into this fix, and we damn well cannot count on anyone else in the whole wide world to help us get out of it. All we have to do is start.

I’m just sayin’………..

2011-01-31T16:47:00.001-06:00

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive. - Thomas Jefferson

You know, it was pretty bad when a certain ex-president was able to lead us all down a fear-ridden garden path by lying to us. And, it was pretty bad that millions of fools chose to believe him and to follow him to the point that they re-elected the man to a second term, even after he had been proven wrong. It was actually worse that these same millions were so quick to turn on their fellow citizens whenever the existence of certain fictitious WMDs was questioned labeling the questioners as traitors. And, of course, it is really bad that we are still embroiled in a larger and (by far) worse quagmire than ever before in our history. It is downright sad that after adequate numbers were able to elect a new President, with a promise of change, that those other voices have become louder than before, and now have turned on that new President and any who support him or his efforts to bring about that promised change.

For some strange reason, hate and fear are now given a more prominent place from which to shout their terrible slogans, and hate has joined fear to provide a continual distraction, which takes the attention of the American electorate away from the real issues that face our once great and proud nation, and away from the very real threats to our freedom, and the very ideals of our democracy. The wool is firmly in place over the eyes of the majority of Americans, and we Americans now spend too much of our precious time and energy arguing among ourselves, while the tail has begun to wag the dog. Does anyone remember Dwight D. Eisenhower's very timely words of warning, from January of 1961, regarding The Military Industrial Complex?

One of the biggest distractions involves the screaming, irrational voices that clamor for the current sitting U. S. President to show them his "long-form" Birth Certificate, to prove to them that he is indeed a citizen of the U. S., and born on U. S. soil. These fools totally ignore that their candidate was born in Panama (John McCain; look it up). They ignore and shout down any attempt to ask them to stop and use logic or any kind of rational thought in seeking the answer that they want to their demand. Even those few moderate Republicans who initially hoped that this might be a real issue long ago abandoned this pursuit when they realized that it is a dry hole. No amount of reason will penetrate these people's minds, because they tune in daily to get their reinforcing 'shots' of hate and fear and lies and untruths from the likes of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and just about anyone who works on air for FOX 'News.' (Note: the word, news, when used with FOX, is italicized and in quotes because this is not a real news network. It is one of the World's largest and worst examples of a propaganda machine. It does Joseph Goebbels proud.)

Most recently, this evil man, Glenn Beck, has incited his listeners to some truly hateful threats of physical violence against one person, that person being 78 year-old Frances Fox Piven, an American Sociologist, formerly on faculty at Columbia University, and today, still on faculty at New York's City University. (see this link for a full report: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1349723/Widow-78-receives-death-threats-Glenn-Beck-attacks-economic-views.html). Mr. Beck spent some seven minutes of his Jan. 5 'program' on FOX ranting against her for a paper she co-wrote with her now deceased husband, in 1966, a short two years after this idiot (Beck) was born! This rant, during which he said things like her 55-year-old article was a call to 'overwhelm the system and bring about the fall of capitalism' was of course swallowed hook, line, and sinker by his fanatic listeners. Reportedly, his temper had flared over a more recent article she wrote for The Nation praising the demonstrations and civil disobedience that took place in Britain and in Greece over the last few months of 2010. 'Is that not inciting violence?' he asked. He slammed her as an 'enemy of the Constitution'. She has received multiple death threats, and despite formal requests to FOX to curb Mr. Beck's enthusiasm, FOX 'News' refuses to control his rhetoric because, in their words, he has "quoted her accurately," and because Mr. Beck has never threatened her.

Let's put this in context of the also recent shooting in Tucson (Jan. 8, just a few days after this particular rant). No, no, no. I am not trying to directly link these two separate events. But I am saying that rants of this nature are bound to lead to actual physical violence because all too often these radical, right wing so-called 'conservatives' resort to threats of physical violence when they find that their arguments (which usually lack all sense of logic or reason since they are so often based on fear and hate mongering) are falling on deaf ears. That has to inevitably lead to real violence, and one wonders what can be done to curb some of this.

Granted, I have done little more than suggest something here. But, to go back to my original concern, having to do with that entity Mr. Eisenhower warned us against, all those years ago, let me ask you some questions:

Who benefits from war and other acts of aggression? (Hint, the initials are M-I-C).

Who has one of the more powerful lobbies working for them in Washington, D. C.? (M-I-C) (This may well be the single largest and most powerful lobby, if you include some areas that are normally listed as being representative of other interests, such as Misc. Business, Communications/Electronics, Transportation, Other, Construction.)

Who has very strong influence over most Representatives and Senators (as in, 'in their pocket'), maybe the strongest? (M-I-C)

Who was really behind our 'incursion' into Iraq, not only the first time, 1991, but more recently, in 2003? (M-I-C)

Who really controls the Pentagon? (that's right, M-I-C; or, 'you betcha,' as one tea party-er might say)

In what field did Dick Cheney work prior to becoming Vice-President-In-Charge-Of-Evil? (M-I-C)

I'm just sayin'………..

Does this make me a reactionary?

2011-01-24T08:22:00.002-06:00

Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish. - Euripides

I remember when I was young, and some of you do, too (remember when YOU were young, that is), that just about every liquid that one wanted to buy came in a glass container, upon which a deposit was paid. With this simple ploy, people easily learned to take care of glass containers, and they were recycled in a manner much simpler than any recycle program of today. The same containers were taken back by the bottler (whether that might be of soda pop, beer, milk, juice, or whatever), washed, and used over and over. Even motor oil was more economically dispensed (in bulk, actually) at the local service station in glass containers that were kept on the premises, so that they could be used and re-used over and over. For greater quantity, depending on the liquid, one gallon glass 'jugs' were common, as well. Granted, not all glass containers were in fact recycled, but we all know today that glass is easily recycled, right?

A glass milk bottle looked much like this, but I don't remember foil closure. What I remember was a paper, or card stock lid.

Also, paper and cardboard were much more widely used for packaging and for transport, from the manufacturer, to the wholesaler, to the retailer, even to the consumer carrying his grocery purchases home in the cardboard boxes that the store had accumulated during the shelf stocking process. Some of you remember that when buying groceries, the 'box boy' put our purchases into boxes (the same boxes that the merchandise was in when it was delivered to the store; what a concept), and this made it easy to carry the stuff to the car, or even all the way home by whatever means we had at our disposal (the basket over the front wheel of a bike?). There were also paper sacks, of different sizes and material, depending on whether you were bagging groceries or hot nuts (yes, you could also buy cashews, peanuts, just about any variety of salted nuts, that were kept warm, under a heat lamp in a display case (most commonly in the drug store, but some other places offered them as well), or bulk candy, or a loaf of bread, or whatever. And, of course, the 'box boy' did become a 'bag boy' for a time, before the use of plastic bags become more widely spread.

And, of course container manufacturers also discovered that heavy paper, or light card-stock could be coated, first with wax, and then, later on, some kind of plastic. This coating then allowed containers of paper to be used to hold at least non-carbonated beverages. So, we had milk cartons (I guess we still have them, in smaller sizes), and juice cartons. But, the world – not just the U. S. – has gotten lazy, and has found it more convenient to ignore the possible cost savings that are available with just a bit of effort.

So, we are overwhelmed with crappy plastic bags that won't last through very many re-uses, we cannot find cardboard boxes at the supermarket because they have cut a deal with somebody to recycle them. Milk and juice and soda pop, and even beer is now being put into plastic containers that just take up room in landfills, with little chance that they will ever contribute anything else to the environment. And, as if aluminum cans aren't bad enough, have you noticed that some brewers are now trying to force aluminum bottles on their suckers, er, um…..customers?! Coors & Bud, I believe……..

For those of you who live in the U. S., maybe you are not aware that much of Latin America still uses glass bottles for Coca Cola, and other soft drinks, and for beer. When you want to buy these products, you must first pay (yes, this is an initial added cost) a deposit on however many full containers you want to buy. But, once that deposit has been paid, from then on, all that has to be done is to take the empties to whatever store you choose, and exchange the empties for full, paying only the cost of the actual product. Over time, this should reduce production costs since the manufacturer should not have to pay for an ongoing demand for new containers. At worst, a portion of the containers will obviously be lost to breakage or other loss, but at best, this will be a fraction of the current replacement cost for all new containers. This does – in a manner of speaking – force people to recycle, but it also saves so much money, while helping preserve our environment. This obviously means less litter along the sides of the roads, and less trash to be picked up with the rest of the garbage. Isn't that a good thing?

And, speaking of packaging in general, does anybody remember how things like Lincoln Logs, or Tinker Toys were packaged? The package in which these toys were sold was a cardboard tube, with a metal bottom and a screw-on metal top (made of tin, I believe), right? Now, what is wrong with that kind of packaging? If it got damaged, or worn out, or in some other way became trash, it would degrade naturally, a lot quicker than any plastic container/package you can think of. Anybody remember Cellophane? Cellulose? Celluloid? These were plastic like materials, made from wood, or cotton, or (little irony here, no?) Hemp. No oil! What a concept!

So, here's my contribution to a new world order, a cleaner environment, prevention of global warming, less trash in the oceans and landfills, lower packaging costs, more bang for the buck, and that warm, fuzzy feeling we all want so bad: Let's take a step back, instead of all the time thinking we have to go forward. Instead of more oil demand, let's decrease that demand, and find ways to meet at least one need the old fashioned way, by using organic materials for packaging!

You say wasted time; I say grist for the mill….

2011-01-17T12:28:00.002-06:00

I always find it more difficult to say the things I mean than the things I don't. - - W. Somerset Maugham

I just realized (and, I know what you're saying: What took me so long?) that no one bothers to read what others post on any of these forums! Someone asked a really stupid question over on CRL on a Sunday morning not too long ago, along the lines of "what do you all think of 'our' bull fights?"

First, of course, I was confused as to just who the poster considers 'us' to be, because her post was also advertising for a bilingual receptionist for some place I never heard of, likely in the Central Valley. So, I first thought that maybe this place that needs a bilingual receptionist also puts on bull fights, and she's looking for some feedback from wannabe receptionist type persons.

But, then it occurred to me that maybe she was referring to the National Sport of Costa Rica (which is nothing more than simple Bull Riding, where some drunks are allowed to get into the ring where the 'rides' take place, before, during, and immediately after each ride). For some reason that I have yet to fathom, a number of misinformed gringos seem to think that this sport is equivalent to Bull Fighting, which is, of course, a 'bull' of another color, or maybe just so much Bull Puckey.

So, I posted pretty much that. I mean, I asked if her business was putting on bull fights, and then asked if she might not mean instead of bull fights, bull riding. I attempted to explain that the sport is properly bull riding (maybe because the main attraction appears to be that young men get up on the backs of the bulls in question), and not fighting (likely because there are no gloves, no swords, no knives, or guns involved), and that for me, personally, it is not very interesting. The next time I looked, there must have been a half dozen other posts (OK, maybe three – but that's half of half a dozen, and by today's standards, that's pretty close, isn't it?), all referring to Bull Fighting, and ignoring reality. So, they're off and running, all reinforcing one another's misinformation, compounding the error of the Original Poster (incidentally, this is shortened to simply 'OP' when posting to a forum, which is an insider term, for frequent users of online forums).

Eventually, though, somebody did notice my post, and then a couple of the other members decided that I was wrong, with one guy even going so far as to say that what takes place in Costa Rica is a corrida de toros, when what happens here (where I live) is called competicion de monte, which is competition of mounting (riding? Hello?), not bull fighting. He also said that he had found a lot of pictures online by googling corrida de toros that depict bulls with "swords sticking out of their withers." What he didn't say was that the pictures that pop up all link to Spanish bull fighting, not Costa Rican bull fighting. He then corrected my Spanish, saying that it has be competencia, because competicion is a gringoized (spanglish) word, and that his google of corrido de toros resulted in tons of hits, and implied that those hits all had to do with Costa Rica.

Now, the correct word may well be competencia, I don't know. I just remember the other, and that is the one that I use when talking with local Ticos. Another member of that forum, female this time, criticized me for not getting out enough, because she has personally seen 'clips' of all kinds of bull fighting, and never once did anyone intentionally try to get on top of a bull.

I really don't know how I am going to break this news to Tulio (our builder and friend). You see, he is the one who has educated me about bull riding, and he himself is a former champion bull rider. He has showed me the televised competitions, and even taken me to more than one redondel (that I could have sworn he called a rondel) to see a local level competition. I mean, what do I tell him? "Tulio, I don't know how to tell you this, but you see……..well, it's that…….I mean……oh, hell! You don't exist! That's because there is no such thing as bull riding competition here in Costa Rica. It's all about a bunch of idiots who tease a bull right up to the point of total frustration." Yeah, I can see that working very well. Actually, the events that I have attended, with Tulio, began with the introduction of the young men who are competing. Then, just like in an American Rodeo, they take turns riding bulls against the clock. When their individual rides are ended (usually with the young man being thrown), the idiots (who are already in the ring) then distract the bull by teasing it mercilessly. From my perspective, these idiots take the place of the Rodeo Clown, common to the American Style Rodeo. So, I figure the Tico event organizers save money this way.

Not a very clear image, but this is from a competition of bull riding, taken in 2002, at Playa Puerta Soley.

Well, another day has come, and the moderator of said forum has closed the thread, and admonished yours truly, saying that the event as witnessed by her, and all the others does NOT involve bull riding, only what I would call bull-baiting. She also took umbrage at my characterization of the Central Valley as the center of the known universe (I suppose I did get a bit sarcastic in my references to the CV), reminding me that she doesn't "believe it is fair to blame people for living in the CV for your error," whatever that means. My point was, and still is, that just because they have seen one event does not make it whatever they call it. You see, they persist in saying that the sport they are talking about is bull fighting, but I have never heard the term corrida de toros used here by any Ticos, and I have never seen any matador, or picador, or capes in use.

So, it has been brought home to me once again that I really HAVE been wasting my time on these forums. I know that I always referred to having wasted my time, but I'm finally realizing that I really was wasting my time. Really! A lot! Big waste! I mean, who cares, right? But, then, wait a minute. Think of it this way……..it all serves as grist for the mill of my Blog, now doesn't it? So, I guess I'm not going to give up the time-wasting forums, just yet, after all. Stay tuned.

Isn’t it about time to bring the issue of gun ownership to the forefront?

2011-01-14T08:53:00.002-06:00

The fascination of shooting as a sport depends almost wholly on whether you are at the right or wrong end of the gun. - P. G. Wodehouse

The Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, the so-called 'Right to Bear Arms' Amendment, was ratified on December 15, 1791. The exact wording of this amendment says: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

Beginning late in the second half of the century just past, this Amendment became the center of a fierce and protracted argument between two factions. On the one hand are those who proclaim that this amendment guarantees us the right to own a gun. On the other hand, are those who say that not only have the times in which we live left this entire idea behind, but that those who claim that this amendment gives us the exclusive right to own firearms have misinterpreted the amendment.

The simple argument to counter those who believe that this amendment continues to give us the right to own guns is to point out that none of us are members of a militia, since our nation no longer (and, has not for many generations) requires the continued existence of a militia. Instead, we have a standing Army which exists to provide us with that security the Constitution also guarantees to us. Yes, I tend to agree with this second interpretation, because I do not see how we can accept part of this statement without accepting all of the statement. No militia, no arms. It is as simple as that.

Maybe if we were under threat of an imminent attack by an enemy force it would make sense to maintain a militia. But, first of all, consider this: how long has it been since any army attacked us on our shores? Secondly, what good would a standing militia have done against the idiots who hit us on September 11? The answer to the first question is nearly two hundred years, when we were attacked by the British, during the course of the War of 1812. To answer the second question, just consider how much good it did us to have the FBI, the CIA, all the Armed Forces of the United States, all the local law enforcement of an entire nation, not to mention an active U. S. Customs Service and the U. S. Immigration and Naturalization Service all in place and active up to and including that infamous day.

Beyond the lack of a militia, there are more compelling reasons for us to no longer cling to this antiquated idea. It may have made sense when we each had to put our own meat on the table, but think about it. If you have a choice between going to the supermarket, or a good meat market, where you can buy any cut of meat you want, or go out and either freeze your butt off, or sweat it off, then get filthy dirty in the process of finding an animal to kill, then you have to dress it. Have you ever dressed a fresh kill? I didn't think so. Would you really want to? Do you have any idea how much it might cost you if you add up all the costs of outfitting yourself properly, transportation to and from the site of your kill, storage of your fresh meat, and so on? Now, logically, doesn't it really make more sense to go pay six bucks for a pound of decent beef, and all you have to do is decide how to prepare it?

Those who favor gun ownership also make the claim that legitimate farmers or ranchers need firearms, maybe if one of their animals needs to be 'put down,' or also to protect the land and livestock of the farmers or ranchers from natural predators. This is not only a lame argument to present, but it is simply not true. When an animal has to be put down (cow or horse with a broken leg, for instance) one can either slit a major artery with a knife, or call a vet, or bash the animal on the skull with a hammer. As for predators, how many are left, after how many generations of being hunted and killed on sight? Or, think about this: before firearms were available to the common man, what did farmers use for these purposes?

Next, and think very hard about this, now: if no one was allowed to own any sort of firearm, against whom would any of us need protection? And, while you're at it, think about this: how many murders, per capita, occur each year in Great Britain, where not even the cops carry firearms? "Britain has a long tradition of unarmed police officers walking the beat with only a truncheon for protection." - - (source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/1156341.stm). And, in case you're wondering about per capita murder rates, here is the most recent data I can find: The U. S. ranked 24^th, and the United Kingdom ranked 46^th, according to Seventh United Nations Survey of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems, covering the period 1998 - 2000 (Source: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Centre for International Crime Prevention). This translated to these rates: for the U. S. - - 0.042802 murders per 1,000 people, and for the United Kindgom - - 0.0140633.

I know. I know. You are going to say that any competent statistician (or incompetent one, too, for that matter) can make any set of numbers say anything he wants them to say (at least that is pretty close to what my old professor of Statistics used to say). I agree with that, but I also know that if I hadn't included some numbers, some smart ass somewhere would for sure ask me to cite some numbers, so there you go.

My contention here remains that if guns – all guns – were truly outlawed, and if all guns were thus eventually turned in, collected, confiscated, purchased, whatever; and, if there was no such thing as a gun dealer or a weapons sales business or a purveyor of same or a seller of same or a black market dealer in weapons, then not even the criminals would have access to guns. Yes, this means that weapons manufacturers who wanted to stay in business would need to find another product to manufacture. And, would that be so bad? And, yes, I know that this doesn't mean that someone with a knife would be stopped, but it seems to me that there are a hell of a lot less mass murders being committed with a knife than with any kind of gun, now aren't there? And, doesn't that sort of suggest that a future without guns might well continue the same pattern? And, wouldn't that be a good thing?

We really don't need more pictures like this in the world.

Part III – being the third head of our modern Tico version of Cerberus*

2011-01-10T10:24:00.001-06:00

The wonderful, marvelous, modern, new 3g Kolbi internet service is here - - NOT! You know, I am of course used to dealing with mostly American utilities and service providers. I also have been a customer of Skype for some years, and they are European, I believe. I will freely admit that the ‘service’ provided to me over the years from cable providers in the states was not always all that good, and I did not find them to be particularly customer oriented, but generally, they did not offer a service that they were not prepared to deliver. And, with the exception of the cable company, most utilities that I dealt with – all my life – have been quick to apologize for service interruptions, and even to issue a credit for extended service interruptions. Skype, for example, just recently experienced a worldwide outage that lasted for some hours. Personally, I was not even aware of this outage, and before I became aware of it, Skype had issued me a credit as a means of apologizing for the outage. Not only that, but I have received three apologetic emails from them since the outage.

Now we come to my alteration of Winston Churchill’s famous quote. ICE has a very small market, compared to just about anybody, right? That’s the ‘few; I referenced. Then, take the value we ‘few’ receive from ICE, especially with this Kolbi thing. That is the ‘little’ I mentioned. As for the “many,” I mentioned, that would be the many, oh so many, too many employees of ICE.

By the way, the name, Kolbi, it has been explained to me, is the national frog of this little country, and I gotta question the use of such a symbol for this particular purpose. I mean, many things come to mind when I hear ‘frog,’ but none of them inspire anything resembling what I might want from a service or product – you know, the little things like, oh…say, reliability, dependability, strength, value for money; stuff like that). OK, maybe if they were quick to “hop” to providing service? But, we all know better than that, don’t we?

Once more, here’s the thing: back in December of 2009, that young man I mentioned at the beginning of this epic, came home to spend his holidays with his parents. He came to see me the day after his arrival in our area, very excited to tell me that he believed ICE (his employer) was about to offer the solution to what I had been complaining about for months. That would be the solution to my lack of a reliable and fast internet connection (because all I had available to me, up to that time, was dial up). You see, he knew that I really wanted to be able to watch American Football, via my Slingbox, that was already set up back in Texas. He excitedly told me about the Kolbi data card/modem. He mistakenly said that they were going to provide download speeds of 1Gbps (that’s Giga Bit Per Second), which certainly got my attention.

He then went all the way to Tilaran the next day to get his own data card. He came back that afternoon and showed it off to me, with his laptop, in my little living room. We both understood that this was new, and that ICE was saying that there was an introductory price for the present because they were acknowledging that their system was not complete, so they could not promise the top speed just yet. The understanding that we both had was that we were going to pay a very small amount per month until the system was truly up and running, and able to provide a high speed, then we would automatically get the highest speed, and our bill would go up accordingly.

Oh, he was wrong on so many accounts! First of all the top speed promised was and is an occasional foray up to a certain point, but by no means was it being promised to be a consistently high speed. And, it certainly was not anywhere near 1Gbps. It was only 1Mbps (MegaBitPerSecond)**, and the wording is something like, “capable of speeds up to,” as opposed to something like, “offering sustained download speeds of 1Mbps.” Here we come to another area that might require a bit more explanation: I have found a web site that does a real speed test, one that offers the user an explanation for why their (ICE’s) supposed high speed internet ain’t. It is provided by a thing called VisualWare, and is located at this URL: http://myspeed.visualware.com/servers/namerica/iad.php?testtype=-2&codebase=speedtest.phonoscope.com&message=Speed%20testing%20help%20aids%20in%20customer%20pre%20qualification&location=USA:%20Houston,%20Texas&ver=8&map=namerica&codec=speedstd&codectext=Standard%20View&width=600&provtext=Phonoscope&provlink=http://www.phonoscope.com/

I know, that’s a long URL, but the test provided sure serves to make me feel bad about my connection. Yes, I said bad, and that is just what I meant to say. What I get from their speed test is not just download and upload speeds, but also a very important little item that they label as “Quality of Service,” which is the best indicator of whether or not one really has a broadband connection. If this percentage is low, one cannot hope to do something as simple as complete a satisfactory VOIP call, let alone ever hope to stream video or have a video conference, via VOIP. Would it surprise you to know that my ‘Quality of Service’ is rarely up to snuff? Just now, this morning, I ran a test, and it is actually pretty good for me, at my location. Here is what the results look like:

(Just click on the image to bring up a larger size).

My download speed is rated at 974Mbps, which is pretty good for the Kolbi, and the upload speed of 291Mbps is really good for Kolbi. Mind you, that upload speed is not as good as I would like it, but it’s better than the 150, or less that ICE usually gives me. Now, you may have noted that the overall Quality of Service is 84%, which, according to this web sites, is not really adequate for video. However, that being said, would you believe that 84% is better than I usually have? And, it is raining cats and dogs right now! Go figure. Oh. One more thing. You may have noticed that the site thinks I am in the U. S. A. That is because I use a VPN to hide my true location, since Costa Rica is noted to be a center of serious worldwide internet fraud, and many legitimate web sites, all over the world, block IP’s that are read as being in Costa Rica.

Now, to carry on, let me sum up. I signed up for an internet connection that I thought would give me adequate speed to do what I most wanted to do, which is watch American TV via my Slingbox/Slingcatcher combination. My research has taught me that speed alone is not what I need for acceptable video streaming. You see, without an adequate upload speed, whatever website you go to for downloading, doesn’t know that you want to download unless you tell them, and you can’t tell them if they can’t receive your information because your upload speed is so slow as to not be able to reach them. Beyond that, if the connection that you achieve is not clean (jitter and other obscure technical terms apply here), you cannot hope to stream video, no matter how fast your download speed might be.

So, here I sit, more than a year into this thing. The outages have been frequent, inexplicable, and extensive. Never once have I heard an apology from ICE. Even though I have gone in person to the local ICE office many times, never an explanation for outages, never an explanation for why they still are not delivering what I am paying for, never an explanation for why the service is so bad, and certainly, never any offer of credit or refund for the times when service was out. In short, I sit here now telling you that more than one ICE employee has actually told me that I have two choices: (1), Accept what they laughingly offer, or (2), don’t. Can you imagine any reputable business, anywhere in the world having the audacity to offer a service that they cannot deliver, and then having the chutzpah to continue charging for the service that they do not deliver, simply because they know that their customers have no choice in the matter?! Can you say monopoly?

To get back to that question asked in Part I of this opus, about how they can charge so much for so little: Yes, I know a large part of the answer is obvious, and I’ve already touched on it. That would be simply the fact that there are too many Chiefs and not enough Indians. But, it goes beyond that: There are too many employees, period. There are too many folks who don’t want to work. There are too many folks who can’t think beyond a very narrow set of parameters, as in beyond their own little job description. There are too many folks who are either afraid to accept, or simply incapable of accepting, any responsibility for ever making a decision. The saddest thing of all is that monopoly is a dirty word to most of us, but it is not only in Costa Rica that the concept is alive and well. Look at the size of AT&T once again. Look at the size of Exxon/Mobil. Does anyone out there remember what Teddy Roosevelt did?

*Cerberus – according to Greek Mythology, this was the three headed dog that guarded the gates of Hell. I know that ICE has more than three heads, but in my case there are only three that apply – electric, phone, and Kolbi. And, I don’t think you can argue that once in (a paying customer of ICE) there ain’t no place else around here that so closely approximates most accepted descriptions of Hell as the inner workings of ICE.

** Clarification of those measurements: mega means million, and giga means billion, so giga is 1000 times mega.

Part II: Skating On Thin _ _ _.

2011-01-08T12:01:00.001-06:00

A continuation of a little something about our mutual friends at ICE started yesterday……….

I, for one, have no choice but to go to them (ICE) for telephone service (landline), cell phone (if I wanted one bad enough to deal with them for this, too, but fortunately I don't need one), and the current bane of my existence, their marvelous, up to date, dependable, reliable, clean and sharp 3g service, known as Kolbi. But, first, let me tell you about how we got a landline connected at our house.

We knew, while construction was going on, and while we were waiting for our cedulas, that we could not even think of asking for a phone until that pesky little residency thing was finalized. So, we didn't. Once we got our cedulas, however, and even before we took our first trip back to Texas (for an event that we knew was coming, our oldest son's wedding in October of 2009), I went to ICE to request a phone. I carefully explained that I already had undertaken to have the line run from our neighbor's property to ours totally underground. What I asked of them was to provide the line from the road down to that pole, and make the connection. There was no need for any digging or for any additional poles to be placed. Just run the line, right? I also explained that we had a document prepared by our attorney, with all necessary signatures, that gave us – and ICE – permission to run any lines needed over the neighbor's property.

They said there should be no problem, and upon accepting my deposit, they printed out a document that they said should be posted in a prominent location for their representatives to see when they got to the property to assess what was going to be needed for our connection. We then posted that notice on our house, explained everything to the caretaker, and took our trip. This notice was essentially to their (ICE's) representative/engineer, to see upon his arrival at our property, explaining to him that all fees had been paid, and even listing our eventual phone number. His job, as I understood it, was to simply look over the situation, walk the property as needed, and give the go ahead to the folks in the office to go ahead and run the additional line (on existing poles, from the road, over the neighbor's property, to the pole on her property where they were to connect to our line) required.

Upon our return from our trip, we were of course disappointed to pick up the phone, and to see that it still did not work. Timeline to this point, by the way, looks about like this: request to ICE, in their office, was made by me, and a deposit paid, on or about September 15. We left for Texas on Sept. 20, and returned from Texas on Oct. 10. So, we're only talking about three weeks and a couple of days at this point.

We naturally asked our caretaker what had happened, and found that he really didn't have a clue. He thought that someone had come from ICE, but wasn't really sure (you should be aware that this is as much due to his being a few fries shy of a happy meal, as to any actions on the part of any ICE representative). He just couldn't tell us anything.

So, I went to ICE, and learned that they didn't really know what had happened. I next asked them to please send their engineer, or whatever, back, so that I could actually talk to him. He came. I showed him my documents. I showed him where my line ran underground. I showed him where the pole is located on my neighbor's property. I showed him where the line runs, on her property, from the road. He said he understood that ICE did indeed have her permission to run my line on her property, and he said that he would give the go ahead for the connection.

A week went by. Nothing happened. So, I went again to ICE's local office. Now, I was told that the engineer, after talking to me, and after reading the documents that I had showed to him, and after being given a copy of said document, had reportedly gone to the trouble to speak directly to the neighbor, asking for her verbal OK. Again, reportedly, she had denied permission. So, I asked how could this be, and why did he feel that he had to talk to her, in the first place. In my presence the clerk placed a phone call. She told me that she was calling my neighbor personally (my neighbor happened to be in San Jose that day, so she called her on her cell). I, of course, only heard one side of the conversation. The clerk concludes her call and says the neighbor has just denied permission to her, yet again.

So, here I am, truly pissed at my neighbor, with whom I haven't spoken for a time, but who had recently, on the street in town, agreed with me that ICE could run my phone line through her property whenever they wanted to. So, next, a friend of ours, a Tica, and a truly lovely lady, went with Blanca (my wife), to talk to our neighbor. Again, she (our neighbor) couldn't be nicer, and repeated that she had no problem with ICE running my line through her property. She also repeatedly said that she had never once denied ICE any permission to go through her property. As a matter of fact, all agreed that this was the most logical way to hook us up. This was again communicated to the local ICE office, by me and by the neighbor.

What we finally figured out was that ICE wanted to run the line down the road, maybe fifty meters west of where our neighbor's line runs, and make me pay for all of the posts that this would take, so that the line would then be ready for future use for any other people who might happen along. I guess I should mention that we are on a public road (at least according to the municipalidad that has authority over our area. And, here we have yet another Costa Rican idea that is similar, yet very different from what gringos might be used to – municipality might mean a city government, but here it refers to what is more like a county-wide jurisdiction), and let's face it, it is sort of logical for a public phone line to run along a public road. However, we were very much aware that we were the only ones on said public road, and that the shortest route between us and the nearest lines, was to go across private land, and that is all we were asking for in this instance. But, evidently the fine folks at ICE had decided that by stalling my request, I would eventually agree to pony up the significantly larger amount of money that it would take to do what they wanted, as opposed to simply acceding to my original request.

It only took a few more weeks before one day two guys showed up in a little truck, with a bunch of ladders and stuff, and in less than an hour, they routed wire from the road, along our neighbors existing poles, and hooked us up right where we had asked for it all those weeks before. And, here is another twist: Those two guys? They were sub-contractors to ICE, because ICE evidently doesn't do any actual connections in our area! However, the phone is still working, albeit less than totally clear at all times, over a year later! But, here is the thing: yes, the phone is pretty much there, but not really all there, if you know what I mean. Lemme 'splain:

Not too long after the phone was finally connected, we started to run into people who asked us what was wrong with our phone because they had tried to call, but never could get through. Turns out, as improbable as this sounds, that the ringers on three separate phones all got fried at approximately the same time, so that if someone was calling us, we had no way of knowing since our phones made no sound! Not only did that happen, but the caller ID ceased to function. So, I had to buy a separate item, a ringer that I stuck on the wall, and it connects to the phone jack, and a phone then connects to it. As if this is not bad enough, we also have noticed that many times the phone rings, we answer it, and there is no one there. People trying to reach us tell us the phone rings, but then just stops. We easily confirmed this because many times when we answer no one is there, so we hang up, and then the phone rings again, and we do this over and over until we find someone on the other end who tells us that they have been trying for numerous times to reach us.

Naturally, there is nothing that ICE can do, and I can sort of see their position. You see, in order to connect us the subcontractors had to run easily over a hundred meters of line, probably more, from the road down to the pole where our line was waiting. My guys, the ones who ran our phone line underground, from the house, up to that pole, had left at least 20-30 meters of coiled line hanging on that pole. The sub-contractors didn't bother to cut off the excess, but connected to the end of that coil. So, I have at least 200, maybe more, meters of phone line running down here, without benefit of any sort of equipment to maintain a strong signal. Undoubtedly, some of the original signal strength, as found in the main line, up on the road, has been lost, so I can't ever expect to get a clean phone connection, without even more expense.

There is more to come, so stayed tuned for Part III.

The Spy Who Came For Dinner (and never left), or The Men From I. C. E.

2011-01-05T15:59:00.001-06:00

Winston Churchill said: "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." I say: "Never in field of utility service was so little owed by so few to so many."

Note: This piece was written at the request of the publisher of Top10CostaRica.com, and has already been published at that site, prior to some further editing.

Part I of III

Oftentimes, when thinking about certain local institutions (OK, just one, really) I recall those evil organizations from the spy movies and from television back in the early sixties. You know; the enemies of all mankind, the ones who wanted to take over the world. Our only hope was a James Bond, or maybe Dean Martin, in his role of Matt Helm. Wait a minute! What a strange twist of fate! Matt Helm was an agent of I.C.E. (Intelligence Counter Espionage). And, they were the good guys! Now, this is ironic, to say the least. We have come full circle! We have met the new, modern enemy, and he is ICE (say it quickly, with a Texas accent, and you'll see that I have made a pun, intended), but, of course, he was the good guy! Go figure.

This is most definitely NOT about good guys, 'cause even though there may be some good guys in the current employ of Costa Rica's ICE, none of 'em are in a position that might allow them to make any changes for the better, as in save us all from this evil. No, as a matter of fact, the good guys I know at ICE suffer right along with the rest of us, shrug their shoulders, and say, "Pura Vida, mae."

Now, one young man who I actually know, and who happens to work for ICE has a degree in Electrical Engineering, and is moving rapidly upward in the hierarchy at that institution (do you suppose, btw, that they named it as an institution however many years ago that they named it, because they knew how closely it would come to resemble bedlam?). Unfortunately, this young man is involved with the electrical supply side of things, rather than the internet 'service,' which is where I have the most problems with ICE.

But, just because I have more problems with their internet that is not to say that their phone service is anything to brag about, nor is their provision of electricity lacking in problems, or spikes on a meter. Actually, here is some real irony for you. Costa Rica can rightly be proud of the fact that ICE does manage to supply an adequate quantity of electricity for the entire country, with little or no sullying of the environment. But, that statement, just like reality, completely ignores the quality (as in, dearth of it), and one has to ask, at what cost, as in "Boy, are their rates ever steep!"?

Now we all know that this is a very seriously labor-intensive nation (one has to deal with three people just to buy one lousy nail at our local hardware store! I used to say screw, but realized that is not appropriate, since the end result is that the purchaser is pretty much well screwed upon his/her egress from the building. But that's another story). And, we know that there does not appear to be any business (other than maybe a Chinese restaurant owned/operated by a family of Chinese immigrants) that ever operates efficiently. Here is just a glimpse of how ICE tops anyone else's attempts at being not only labor-intensive, but seriously wasteful of resources and – naturally – money:

This entity must possess the largest fleet of company owned vehicles (not just per capita, but period) in the entire Western Hemisphere. An example: that young man that I referred to above, who works for ICE, (currently at a lower executive level, but moving up) recently told me how, when the executives have to attend a meeting away from their home office, this will result in the following: say there are four guys from said office going to the meeting in San Jose. Since one of the signs of a successful, one might even say upwardly mobile, ICE exec is to have an assigned car and driver that means that four different cars, with four different drivers will all make the trip. Multiply that by however many execs are attending from different parts of the country, and you get an idea of how many wasted man hours and how much wasted energy this represents. Just take a drive along any of the country's horrible roads. I guarantee you that you will see more vehicles with an ICE logo, usually with only one or two people in them, than you will see of anything else.

Now, what has me totally discombobulated, not to mention confused is this: I do not believe that any other nation on the face of this earth can make as strong a claim to be providing mostly clean energy. But, why is it so expensive? I mean, we are all aware that we pay more per kilowatt hour than any of us paid back in Gringolandia. The hydroelectric plants are in place, and some of them are really old. Windmills have been up and running for many years now. Geothermal plants have been established for a good while. Granted, new plants – both geo- and hydro- in nature, are being constructed as I write these words, and that cannot be cheap, since all the heavy equipment required both for the construction, and for the actual production of electricity, has to be imported. But, as those idiots on ESPN's MNF like to say, "Come on, Man!" Why is your unreliable product so expensive?

In one recent day I counted eight (8) – yes, that's right ocho – power interruptions! All of very brief duration, granted, but what effect do you suppose that many stop/start cycles has on expensive appliances like refrigerators, air conditioners (at the beach), and so forth? I know what effect it had on my PC. The boot portion of the HDD was fried, and I had to spend a day, plus, doing a complete system restoration. The good news is that I am capable of performing this kind of technical feat on my own, but imagine what it costs those of us who have to rely on local expertise in these situations. And, tell me, please, what kind of electrical system is so unstable? To answer my own question, let me suggest that a poorly maintained, and poorly operated, not to mention poorly constructed system might well operate so inefficiently.

Because of all the bad reports I have heard about not only frequent power surges, but ICE's lack of involvement in restoring what their customers lose due to said power surges, and in the interest of protecting my things, I have purchased and installed a whole house surge protector device. I try to remember to unplug certain items at night, not to conserve energy, but in case of yet another surge that might fry delicate circuitry. I made my contractor show me the installed grounds, and I have gone out of my way to reinforce some of the poorly grounded items that I have found. My PC is now connected via one of those UPS devices. So, not only is the questionable service overpriced, but you have to go to extra expense in other ways just to protect your various electrical/electronic devices.

More important, however, is that no one ever asks out loud, and certainly no one ever offers any explanation, regarding the main question here: "How in God's sweet name does ICE possibly justify charging so much for so little?" I'll try to answer that, and other questions, a bit later. But, first let me remind you, just in case you forgot, that ICE is also charged with providing other services, besides electricity. However, since this thing is starting to take on a life of its own, and I now realize I have two areas to cover yet, I think I'll save that for Part II.

A confession of sorts…….

2010-12-30T13:21:00.001-06:00

"Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'" - Isaac Asimov

I confess that I read the online AMCostaRica.com most every day. I know that Jay is not the world's most professional journalist, and he does not employ the most conscientious of journalists to write for his electronic rag, but where he really gets my goat is in his selection of letters from his readers, where they freely express their opinions. I know that he likes (as would any responsible newspaper person) to see controversy stirred up, so as to stimulate people's thinking and get them talking. But, from my perspective he has a tendency to publish the stupidest, most insipid letters, and then chooses not to publish the responses that you know he gets to those letters. OK, maybe this is my sensitive feelings because it seems like he pretty much ignores all of my responses, no longer publishing any of them, and only acknowledges my responses to these letter with an occasional email, pointing out where he thinks I have it wrong. Be that as it may, I no longer bother sending him anything, since it makes no sense to waste the time I spend on it.

However, just today I was going to really go off on a Mr. Colborn, because his letter is nothing more than a rant from a professional victim, but then I saw the second letter Jay published today, from an Alana Shaffer, of Sardinal. All bets are off. No contest, this lady's letter is screaming for somebody to try to set her straight, even though I know this is not a reasonable goal, since she is most likely a card-carrying, paid-up-member of the Flat Earth Society. But, here goes, anyway:

Please, lady, cite for us just one legitimate scientific study that supports your misinformed beliefs. I know that she likely does not believe in science, while she blithely goes on watching television, and movies, talking and texting, taking her medicine and her 'supplements,' and, of course, avoiding like the plague any food that is not organically produced. And, of course, she likely has no idea of where her food really comes from, and ignores the fact that science produced most of things that make her life easy and comfortable. She also probably believes that the gardener who weeds out his carrots, and removes the plants that don't grow quickly is not interfering with any "natural selection," but completely allowing God's plan to move forward. Likewise, she is blissfully unaware that the pig farmer and the cattleman have deliberately, for many, many generations, interfered with natural selection in order to produce more meat for less cost, with more disease resistance, and so on. All of which constitutes the oldest and simplest methods of genetic manipulation, but she would not see things this way. But, wait. She's probably a vegan or a vegetarian, so as not to interrupt any delicate balance of nature.

She says that genetically modified foods are "proving to be far inferior, severely allergenic, and sometimes even lethal to the consumer." Proven by whom? Inferior in what way? Where is her proof of these ridiculous charges? Give me a break! She obviously did not even read Jay's original article (http://www.amcostarica.com/wednesday.htm#77) to which she made reference, did she? She believes that chocolate is a fruit of the Gods, "designed perfectly for our consumption," does she? I will bet dollars to donuts that she has no concept of just what goes into making that fruit of the Gods palatable for human consumption. I'll bet she also has no knowledge of just how the ancients first used this 'fruit,' either. She probably, in her total ignorance, believes that one just goes out and picks a Hershey bar off the tree whenever the mood strikes one. To get back to my request for her to cite any authoritative source of information to support her claims, let's be clear that it will not satisfy this request for her to do one of those loaded Google searches, either. You know the one. That would be the one where she inputs something like, "harmful effects of genetically modified food production," rather than simply inputting "genetic modification of plants." Unfortunately, this lady is like so many others who make up their mind with minimal information, and nothing, not Hell nor High Water, will change their minds, once they have committed to a life-long system of misguided beliefs and values.

I think that what bothers me most about people like this is that they are not satisfied with clinging to unreal ideas, but want to impose their skewed beliefs onto others. And, then, I fall into the trap of speaking out and trying to show them the errors of their ways, even though I know full well that their minds are closed to new information, or anything that does not fit their preconceived idea of what is right and proper. Oh, well, pura vida con o sin genetically modified food.

Tranquilo, Mae……..

2010-12-25T14:34:00.001-06:00

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. - - Martin Luther King Jr. (1929 - 1968), Strength to Love, 1963

NOTE: this article has already appeared, in slightly different form, at Top10CostaRica.com.

I recently posted a link on this Blog to the report of the study that shows people who watch FOX News are less than optimally intelligent. I believe that this explains a bit about why I get into so many pointless discussions online. Folks who do not expose themselves to more than one source for news tend to make quick judgments that are all too often incorrect. I, on the other hand, like to hear all the evidence, or points, or sides to a story before I make up my mind on a given topic.

This likely has to do with two major influences on my thinking. First, in order to function well as a Nurse, one has to be observant enough to catch what is going on, and then be able to report objectively just what it was that has been observed. This is very important in dealing with the care and treatment of all patients. Second, later in my Nursing career, I worked for ten years as an Investigator for The Texas State Board of Medical Examiners. I received further training during that time that not only reinforced my already acquired abilities in this area, but that taught me how to gather, preserve, and present evidence in a legal sense.

Another factor in the way I look at things is that, while gathering evidence, noting my observations, and reporting these faithfully, I had to strive to maintain objectivity, because my responsibility was not to provide my own opinions regarding what I observed, or what I uncovered in the course of an investigation. Nor was it my responsibility to offer any sort of conclusions (beyond the obvious summarizing of an investigative report to say that the contents either served as evidence of a violation or did not), recommendations for decisions based on the information thus gathered, or to offer any direction for continued care, or handling of a given situation. That is not to say that I was prohibited from recommending in certain investigations that further action may or may not be appropriate.

Now the folks with whom I have trouble seem to be those who form strong opinions based on little real data, or hard evidence. This either leads to a tendency to forget one of the most basic premises of our legal system, the concept that says all men are innocent until proven guilty. Or, more likely, this is simply indicative that some folks have already forgotten this all important principle. For some reason, a lot of people have trouble with that concept, and I just don't understand that. To me it is so simple. Hold off on reaching conclusions about any given situation until you have the facts – all the facts. Don't let others direct your decisions or let others do your deciding for you. I could go on and on, but I'm sure you get the idea.

Most recently, I got into it with some of my Facebook 'friends' about the Wikileaks things, not because I tried to come out in favor of the leaker(s), but because I supported a public announcement that someone famous (Michael Moore, actually) had contributed towards the bail for Mr. Assange. Then, when I was jumped on for simply saying that was a good thing, I further pissed them off by asking them what had happened to the ancient legal tenet of one being presumed 'innocent until proven guilty.' That really set them off, because a good number of them are convinced (based on the little real information that the world has seen to date on this matter) that Mr. Assange is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors (some fools want to believe that this Australian gentleman is guilty of treason against the U. S.) as is the misbegotten U. S. Army PFC, who allegedly accessed and released certain videos and documents.

For those who might have a question about this, let me admit that there is nothing in the U. S. Constitution that says one is innocent until proven guilty, but this is such an ancient – as I said – tenet of law that it is commonly accepted to be as sacred as any other aspect of our legal system. And, it is contained in some actual statutes and written judicial opinions. It is expressed by one learned professional (whose name I did not get) thusly: "The mere mention of the phrase presumed innocent keeps judges and juries focused on the ultimate issue at hand in a criminal case: whether the prosecution has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant committed the alleged acts."

Maybe what I'm trying to say here is that we can easily apply this thinking to a lot more than just trial law. Obviously, this is not to say that one should hold a thing up to a legal standard, but what is wrong with waiting until all the facts are in before forming an opinion? Beyond that, we all know very well that no one charged with any crime is supposed to be tried in the press, now don't we? So, why do we let the press continue to do just that? Especially certain networks, like that one that is turning some peoples' brains to mush………….? I'm just sayin'………..

Seasons Greetings

2010-12-23T14:28:00.000-06:00

I would like to wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas and a Most Happy and Prosperous New Year. Thanks for stopping by, and thanks for hanging in there.

Help! There’s Wiki leaking all over my keyboard!

2010-12-20T16:32:00.002-06:00

Human beings are perhaps never more frightening than when they are convinced beyond doubt that they are right. - Laurens Van der Post

First of all, for those who might have a truly inquiring mind, and who are actually willing to take the time to read a somewhat less than flattering view of the somewhat odious, and ever ubiquitous FOX News Channel, please click on this link: http://www.alternet.org/story/149193/study_confirms_that_fox_news_makes_you_stupid

I just had to share that tidbit, hopefully with a few open minds. One major reason for wanting to share it would be that I suspect that all too many hotheads out there, especially some of those who like to get into heated arguments over Iraq, Bush, Obama, Wikileaks, etc. (always on the opposite side from me of course), have no other source of information. That explains why they seldom are able to muster any facts to support their blustering arguments, and why they inevitably resort to name calling, and threats of physical violence.

Having said that, now let me continue my diatribe about Wikileaks and government "secrets," and maybe a bit of history…..

Military Secrets, Treason, Espionage…….all of these terms are being bandied about in connection with the furor over the Wikileaks.

To my way of thinking none of these terms should be out there in connection with this current flare up in the war against the dissemination of information. Herewith, my further opinions and attitude about Wikileaks:

A military secret is something important concerning possible future plans, like where were the Allies planning to land when they launched their assault on the European mainland, or weapons development, like the Manhattan Project. Something so crucial that should it become common knowledge, as in the enemy finds out about it before it happens, it could truly screw things up for us. Treason would be if some pipsqueak, or even a General (like, oh, say, I don't know……..Benedict Arnold?) ran to the enemy and gave away one or more of these military secrets. Espionage would be if that pipsqueak provided classified/secret information over a period of time to an agent of a foreign power (the American is, of course, guilty of treason while engaged in espionage, and, as we all remember from James Bond movies, espionage is spying, and if one is caught spying, one is generally subject to execution out of hand). Releasing a video of a military action after that action has become history is not any sort of betrayal of a military secret. It is just embarrassing to the idiots who committed an atrocity, or outright murder of innocent civilians (like maybe My Lai, or this helicopter shooting civilians).

The argument offered on a recent Facebook 'discussion,' from one of these erudite debaters:

"It's not just the latest documents that I am concerned about. It's the one's that claim to show... US military shooting unarmed insurgents. Crap like that puts our soldiers more at risk...not counting the US civilians that are abroad. There were weapons behind the wall where they came out of. Remember, it's war and if you happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time hanging with the insurgents then so be it. You shouldn't be hanging with scum like that if you're innocent in the first place... and if you are then it's more than likely you deserve to have your ass blown off."

First of all, I believe this person was referring to some video that was allegedly accessed by that idiot PFC, in Iraq, or Afghanistan. And, here is my response: My understanding of the 'release' of this information/data/evidence was NOT to the Al Queada, or to the Taliban, or to the Insurgents, but to the world at large. That is because the America (speaking only for myself here) I grew up in does not kill innocent civilians, and if we do inadvertently harm civilians, we own up to it, instead of covering up our actions. Puts our soldiers at risk? How is that? Does he seriously think that the towel heads, of whom he apparently has so much fear, don't already know about this incident, and others, maybe worse? "There were weapons behind the wall where they came out of." ??? Huh? Whose weapons? What wall? Who came out of what? The wall? It was bad enough that his argument was based on fallacious data, but to be so incapable of expressing oneself clearly in presenting it, kinda destroys it all without me having to lift a hand to the keyboard here.

I won't even honor the rest of this semi-literate statement with a response, other than to say that the same idiot statement can be turned around, can't it? I mean, the enemy can say the same thing about any American civilians who are foolish enough to be over there.

Now, speaking off the top of my head, here, it seems to me that military secrets are not routinely found in any stack of I-don't-care-how-many Diplomatic Cables, nor would the release of the contents of I-don't-care-how-many Diplomatic Cables in fact, or in law, constitute treason or espionage. Again, this information that was given over to Wikileaks, and subsequently released to the world at large by Wikileaks, is simply embarrassing to those who wrote those cables because they obviously said the wrong things in the wrong places. The general proscriptions against revealing military secrets don't say that one should participate in any kind of cover up of the truth because that truth might be embarrassing to someone high up on the food chain.

I would like to ask some of those who are screaming for the blood of Mr. Assange, or that poor, befuddled U. S. Army PFC, where were you guys when Valerie Plame was exposed by members of the Administration of the former Prexy known as W? Were you not outraged when that scandal broke? You should have been, and if you were not, then shame on you. That was criminal, and who got punished for it? Remember 'Scooter?' Did he get executed? What a joke that was.

The facts are still these: we got involved in Iraq and Afghanistan because we were lied to by our own leaders. And, we let them get away with not only their lies, but their determination that our continued presence in those parts of the world is – or ever was - necessary. And, they are still busier than ever, doing all kinds of evil, while we are so busily distracted and picking at one another, fighting amongst ourselves, while they continue to further ruin our economy and our international reputation.

One of my Facebook acquaintances did acknowledge that some of the folks involved in the ongoing argument were ignoring due process, but then he blew his argument by going on to say: "I am sick of hearing how great these guys are when they are trying to destroy this country. The soldier that stole the documents committed espionage, and Assange did also by receiving the documents and mak...ing them public. 18 U.S.C. § 793 : US Code - Section 793: Gathering, transmitting or losing defense information: http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/uscode/18/I/37/793"

First of all, to try to stand up for "these guys'"rights is not synonymous with saying anything about how great they may or may not be. The further fallacy in this argument is that the actions of the PFC were of course not intended to, nor were they capable of destroying this country. His citing of U. S. law does him no good either, because he is taking things out of context.

Another of my FB buddies said, obviously referring to Assange: "Innocent until proven guilty? He owns the website, he admitted he's leaking the documents and threatening to leak more... He's GUILTY....period!" He was, by the way, talking about treason on the part of Mr. Assange. And, this statement actually comes from a rational and generally articulate man, whose father I admire greatly. But, he, along with the others is crying for blood!

Yet another person over there on Facebook, who claims to be presently in the military, said, among other things: "Espionage, in the 'good ole days', carried the penalty of death. The solider and Assange should be executed. due process here is nothing more than procedure. This has nothing to do with 'W'." (The mention of 'W' was the result of my accusing these guys as being the ones who used to call anyone who questioned 'W' a traitor).

There were others. The entire argument got started, by the way, because I had posted a comment on a link about how Michael Moore had put up some money for Assange's bond, in Great Britain, indicating that I thought that was a good thing. This from a lady: "Michael Moore should've had his a$$ capped a long time ago!!!"

And, then, another lady said: "We would never have won WWI or WWII with the likes of Assange and his website around. We must have National Security!! Treason.....1. A crime that undermines the offender's government 2. Disloyalty by virtue of subversive behaviour 3. An act of deliberate betrayal. By Assange's on admission....he is guilty. Treason is punishable by death." Let's see. How many holes are in that argument? Website in WWII? Did I point out here that Mr. Assange's nationality is Australian? How could he be guilty of Treason if he had something to do with American information?

It generally went downhill from there. I would add that I asked them to provide me with some facts to counter my statements and to show me where Treason or even Espionage might be part of all this, but you know what? This is what I finally got, after a day or two of waiting, taken straight from Wikipedia, as were most of their arguments:

Bradley Manning was an intelligence analyst assigned to a support battalion with the 2^nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division at Contingency Operating Station Hammer, Iraq. Agents of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command arrested Manning based on information received from federal authorities provided by an American informant, Adrian Lamo, in whom Manning had previously confided. Lamo said that Manning claimed, via instant messaging, to be the person who had leaked the "Collateral Murder" video of a helicopter airstrike on July 12, 2007, in Baghdad. Additionally, a video of the Granai airstrike and around 260,000 diplomatic cables were released to the whistleblower website Wikileaks. Manning was charged under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) with violations of UCMJ Articles 92 and 134, for "transferring classified data onto his personal computer and adding unauthorized software to a classified computer system," and "communicating, transmitting and delivering national defense information to an unauthorized source". While stationed in Iraq, Manning had access to SIPRNET from his workstation, from where it is alleged the leaked documents originated.
To which, I can only say: and…………..?

Then, he said: "Anything not released publicly by the government is classified. Face it, your arguement on these fools innocence is fabricated at best. I am military and I can tell you with absolute certainty what they did was wrong and is considered espionge. Your take on it is irrelavent. THe Army trator is in jail and the only jackasses who are backing the other fool are extremeist nutjobs like Michael Moore. Does this clarify things?"

I never said these people were innocent. All I had asked was what has happened to the principle of 'innocent until proven guilty?' My take on it is irrelevant? My take on a statement that assumes that if it was not released by the government it is 'classified' is not remotely irrelevant. Where do you suppose he got such a strange idea? Why, because he is "military," and I am not? Horse Puckey! By the way, the misspelling was his; not mine.

Yet another response from one of them said, "Treason plain and simple -- there is a Federal death penalty on the books for that one last used for the Rosenbergs (and rightly so) for giving the H bomb to Stailn."

I did try to tell him that he was wrong mostly because he is comparing apples and oranges (the secret of the HBomb alongside a video that show us up), and that my take is most definitely not irrelevant. Again, I tried to point out that treason is not when you try to bring to the light a potentially embarrassing situation for some few high ranking individuals, but something much more serious. Of course, that effort went over like a lead balloon, as his response read:

John, all I can say to that is I know history, I know th military and I know the government. Embarrassing or not it was classified information. The only reason your ok with it is because it is about the Bush presidency. If it would have been about Obama you would have a different stance. It is not regime or partisan that ANY file released without the declassification of the U.S. Government is a crime. Your take is very irrelevant and the fact that others agree with you only shows an ignorance of reality. This reminds me when Bill got caught diddling Monica. All the sudden liberals wanted to redefine cheating. However, if there 'spouse' did the same thing he did it was cheating. Lets use an example: You son takes your videos of things you did in private. I'll let you create an example in your head, and sells them on the internet. Would you say, oh, its not important, it is just embarrassing. You'd beat his ass. If your neighbor took those video tapes and sold them to your other neighbors what would you do? Try to stop him? Go to the police? Think about it.

So, I had to ask him how he can equate the idea of a personally embarrassing video or Bill getting caught to this situation? I pointed out that, first of all, there are no videos for my son - or anyone else - to get hold of. I mean, just how stupid does he think I am? Secondly, this 'Liberal' (that term was evidently intended to be me) never - ever - considered any redefinition of cheating when Bill was caught with his, er, um, member in the cookie jar! This one (yeah, this is me) thought, "What a stupid thing to do!" I was taught not to do things that might embarrass me, like shoot a "private" video. As for me being "OK" with this wikileaks thing, I told him that has nothing to do with Obama or Bush. It has to do with reality, and the fact that some folks can't seem to remember what is real, and what is fake. And, btw, I served in the Army, too, and I know just how screwed up our government can be (remember the government is US, and if we have let it get so messed up, then shame on us - all of us!

Yes, just when I thought it could not get worse, it did, as he actually posted this:

When I said Treason I was referring to that PFC in the 10th Mountian division who gave him the materials. He took an oath and betrayed his fellow soliders. Ike had Private Slovak executed for less than that.

I then tried to point out that he was getting farther and farther from the truth and from reality, as I corrected the spelling of Pvt. Eddie Slovik's name, and pointed out that he was nothing more than a simple deserter! And, I again tried to point out that the oath taken by him, me, or any other private soldier doesn't say anything about letting in some light, where the higher-ups want darkness!

This was his response: The bottom line is you simply cannot have a functional military where information is allowed to be leaked.

And, I said that you also should not pick out a situation like this one – that did not involve true military secrets - and scream treason, espionage, or whatever, when it is not. Information of a sensitive nature, that might be threatening to the well being of the troops, maybe, but not information that reveals that those same troops have overstepped the bounds.

My main antagonist then came back with: They are one in the same. If you think war happens without someone getting killed that shouldn't get killed you are very naive. With Al Qaeda killing anyone indiscriminately we are the ones held to a moral standard. We try to maintain that ...standard to civilize and professionalize war, but reality is innocents die. Yes, it sucks. we as Americans find it repulsive, but it is a reality. Airing our dirty laundry does nothing but endanger our troops, the troops of our allies, and every American. This isn't utopia, and it will never exist.
John you need to read the UCMJ. There is no 'private' soldier. It is not a soldier's job or responsibility to shed light on anything. THe 'higher-ups' have a better image of the big-picture than a grunt who knows only his job. There are reasons generals get payed so much. They have huge responsibilities.This is about crime and justice, that's it.

All of that, while saying to the other poster, XXXX you are absolutely correct. The military is in the business of killing people and breaking things.

As I had previously stated to them, their responses were getting farther & farther from reality, and the actual topic under discussion. I pointed out the the proper English phrase is "one AND the same." And, I asked him "when did I suggest that I believe war doesn't involve killing?" And, "When did I say that it is a soldier's job to shed light on anything?" I also told him: "Don't try to tell me that I am supposed to be a perfect little sheep, and go along to get along, like the German people did under the Nazis, either. Yeah, that's right. Blindly follow where fools and a sick Corporal lead us? I am not concerned about "airing our dirty laundry" in front of others so much as exposing the truth to the American people, because (apparently y'all have forgotten) it is our country that has now earned this terrible reputation in the world community, and I - for one - did not ever vote for this crap."

Of course he wasn't through yet: I forgot. Farther and farther. Back to your original post, the above is what the fuss is all about. Michael Moore is an idiot. The two fellas responsible for this leak, should be prosecuted and punished according to the laws of the UCMJ and the U.S. Desoite what you think all the fuss is about.

At that point I broke it off, saying, "I'm sorry, but since you don't even have the basic facts straight, how can anyone have a discussion with you? Y'all have a nice day."

‎I think the next post came from a twitter: The great thing about Democracy is that we can even have this debate. At the end of the each election day all of our points of view are totaled up and reflected by the new Congress. I am sure you remember the "Pentegon Papers" an...d similar dirt from SE Asia back in the 70's. War is messy and the politics behind the war effort back in DC have historically been a messy business -- kind of like making sausage you really want to stay out of the factory and stick with the supermarket. We could have had the debate over Vietnam or even WWI with some of the leaks that happened back then in the traditional press. Some of us like myself were in the Army and that background forms our belief system on these sorts of issues -- disobeying lawful orders is very bad with severe penalaties and we had that drilled into our heads from day one at boot camp. I really do respect your point of view and at the end of the day can agree to disagree. Take care, XX

Well, what can I say? I do think that this wikileaks thing is less important than some would have us believe, and I think it probably helps those who want to keep us distracted from real issues that are really demanding our full attention. I don't like what is happening. I don't understand why we still have a presence in that part of the world, and I really don't like how it seems that we are our own worst enemy.

Dear Santa: What’s a Wiki?

2010-12-17T10:35:00.002-06:00

Admin Note: A shorter version of this piece has already appeared at http://www.top10costarica.com/

"I think that we have a classification system in this country that is in fact not even beneficial to the intelligence agencies," [because it keeps information from being effectively shared] - John Perry Barlow, founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, on NPR's On Point with Tom Ashbrook show, December 16, 2010.

What he said. And, much, much more! Not only do I agree with what Mr. Barlow said, but I believe it is just plain wrong for anyone to now come forward and use terms like treason, or espionage in connection with this latest tempest in a teapot. In the first place, please do not try to tell me that this thing involved "Military Secrets," or even seriously classified information. Maybe if we were in a real war, and we were talking about weapons, and plans and things like that, you could persuade me of this weak idea. What we have here (Iraq, Afghanistan, all of that crappy area) is a war started for only one reason. Well, all right. Two reasons: first, W's stupidity and W's buddies' greed for oil. We got a bill of goods called Weapons of Mass Destruction, and allowed that airhead and his buddies to send in elements of our "all volunteer" military to piss away as much of our national budget as they could.

I mean, come on. If this was a real war, and if we really needed to get involved in a real war, we would have allies, without having to blackmail, beg, or bully others into acting like they were helping us. We for sure would not have had to go it alone, which you know damn well (if you've been paying attention) is what has happened. And, if it was a real war, then we might have real military secrets, and the need to worry about their discovery.

As I understand it, the furor over this Wikileaks thing has come about 'cause a lowly Army PFC, assigned to an 'Intelligence' Unit in Iraq, somehow had access to a couple of (as in two) classified videos and to hundreds of thousands of State Department Cables. None of this crap can remotely be thought of in the same context as a true military secret, because all they are in fact is information that is embarrassing to the idiots that were responsible for whatever snafus that have now been revealed. Now, I already understood that the term Military Intelligence is one of history's most obvious oxymorons. So, I gotta ask, right up front, how the hell was a misfit, high school dropout assigned to Intelligence duties? And, exactly what are his qualifications to be an Intelligence Analyst?

Beyond that, what is all the huhu, anyway? Has everyone forgotten Daniel Ellsberg? What has happened to our nation, and to us, that we have reached a point where we actually believe in all these so-called 'wars'? The War On Terrorism…..The War On Drugs………..The War On Poverty……..Take all of these together and they turn out to mean nothing more than a War on our ability to think for ourselves, a War on sanity, a War on human intelligence (as in the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations).

We all know that the War on Drugs has been a total failure, and a humongous waste of time and money, not to mention lives. The War On Poverty, in my opinion, cannot be said to have been any sort of success, if we still have it (poverty) with us. As for the War on Terror, the Terrorists won that a long time ago. Remember when we were told that if we let them cause us to change anything about how we lead our daily lives, they will have won? Well, remember also when airplane travel was fun? Ain't much fun anymore, is it?

If we have all this sophisticated technology, this modern equipment, that (according to Hollywood) is so precise as to pinpoint the exact location of a given individual wherever he is on the planet, at any point in time, why is it that we never found Osama Bin Laden? Why is it that we could not overcome a bunch of ignorant, dirty, towel-headed camel jockies in Iraq, Afghanistan, or Pakistan? How is it that we consider Pakistan to be our "friend," for that matter? Why are we now guilty of having made the same mistake that the Soviets did (remember how we laughed at them?) regarding Afghanistan? You know, the Q word, their huge Viet Nam style screwup! Yes, that's right: Quagmire.

What business do we have over there? What business did we have when W sent our Troops into Iraq? WMD's? What WMD's? I suspect that we are all agreed that the real (you know, the real, verdad, true) reason behind our involvement in the messed up Middle East is OIL, right? So, how come we haven't yet gained total and complete access and control over all that frickin' oil? What do we have to show for all these years of stupidity over there?

Our own country is a shambles, with a crumbling infrastructure, an insurmountable National Debt, a currency that has lost too much of its value, a healthcare system that is a joke, rampant unemployment, greedy politicians of whatever 'party' totally ignoring the needs, nay, the demands of their electorate………..should I go on? Look at us. Americans of every stripe, every social strata, every differing philosophy sniping at one another, arguing with one another over what is right, and what is wrong. On the one hand, we have the Republicans resorting to that old W stratagem (the one that was so effective in starting us down this wrong path), fear. "You're a traitor if you question the Administration's decisions and actions," was the cry of the Bush Administration. Now, on the other hand, we have the Democrats, looking like a bunch of inept, incompetent wannabes, accomplishing nothing. And, largely due to the Republican's intransigence, the President faces constant criticism for not doing something, because he is pretty much powerless to do anything, since he has no support from any quarter.

I have an idea. Pretty simple, too. What do you say, we pull out of the Middle East, entirely? No U. S. presence in any of those 'stans, or 'rans or 'raqs or whatever. Warn all Americans to avoid travel to that part of the world, 'cause if they do, they're on their own. That's not enough. Add to that no foreign aid for anyone over there. No loans. No 'international commerce' of any kind with anyone over there. No American involvement whatsoever. Then, stand back and let them kill each other, 'cause that's what they're good at. If we're not there at all, they can't justify any jihad, any mass hatred for the "Infidel," right? Sooner or later, one of two things will happen. Either one of them will emerge victorious, or there will be none of them left anyway. Then, if y'all really, really, really want to, go on back in and suck up all the oil, um, uh, oo, ah………pick up the pieces.

No huhu. No Americans getting killed for nothing. No more billions and trillions of Dollars poured down the black hole that is the Middle East. No more hate poured upon us by that part of the world. Oh, yeah, let me really piss off some of you who might have been leaning towards agreeing with my great idea: there will be one exception to those parts of the Middle East that we abandon, and that is Israel. But, our involvement with that tiny nation will be limited to assisting them to protect themselves from any overlapping of the bloodshed that will engulf the Middle East.

Can anyone tell me what this is?

2010-12-15T14:01:00.000-06:00

I know it is a fuzzy image, but it was the best I could do with what I've got. I can tell you that it is from the opening credits on NYPD Blue, and it has mystified me for years. Anyone?

A New Farce Unleashed

2010-12-05T13:57:00.001-06:00

Ordinarily he was insane, but he had lucid moments when he was merely stupid.

Heinrich Heine (1797 - 1856)

NOTE: this was obviously written some weeks ago. I apologize if it is out of date, but I still wanted to get it out there (here).

Sometimes I feel like I'm missing something. One glaring situation where I get that feeling is the recent and current border incursion on the part of Nicaragua into Costa Rica's far Northeast area, around the Isla Calero. I had a very tough time finding a map or other image to show me exactly where this disputed little island is really located, but after finding it, I have to ask even more questions than the one I started out with here. When I said that I feel like I'm missing something, what I was aiming for was this: how in the world can a nation that is so poor that it cannot feed its own people – to the point that significantly large numbers of them have fled to Costa Rica, another poor nation, in an effort to find work, and thus feed their families – manage to support any kind of meaningful military? For those gringos who are not aware of it, Costa Rica actually serves the same purpose for Nicaragua that the U. S. serves for Mexico and much of the rest of Latin America. Ticos don't want to do manual labor anymore (even though there is not much else to do here), so you'll find – all over the country – that the most menial, lowest paying work is almost entirely performed by Nicas. Nicas, I might add, who are glad to have the work. They flock to this country in large numbers, and many of them are working here illegally.

Please understand that I have never personally visited Nicaragua, and have no plans to do so. But, I have talked to a number of folks who have been there, both Ticos and gringos. They all agree that very generally Nicaragua has better roads than Costa Rica. Also, please understand that I not only have no stake in this dispute, but I also have no claim to any particular knowledge of anything about it. So, whatever I say here is simply me, speaking my opinion on a subject of which I know very little. To further expand on my first question, however, I want to repeat that I can't understand how Nicaragua can't feed its own people, but can have a standing army, and decent roads.

What's more, I can't help but note that the actions being taken by that nation, and the public statements coming from their leaders sure sound familiar. Isn't this a typical socialist (Socialist in the worst way, as in Communist – Soviet Union, Red China, North Vietnam, Cuba, et al) move? I mean, they go into a place, and when caught, start out by lying outright, defying the world to do anything about it! In particular, this was always effective for the bad guys of the fifties and the sixties (up to the actions of people like that idiot in Iran, or Hugo Chavez, in Venezuela today) since their claims are so outrageous that the rest of the world is distracted from the fact that these lying thieves actually have their sticky little fingers in somebody else's cookie jar. And, worse, as in this present case, their move has been against a virtually defenseless little nation.

It is interesting to talk to people here of late, especially the Ticos, because no one really knows what to do, or what might help them. There are voices clamoring for all Nicas to be forced to return to their homeland, but RIGHT NOW! This is actually a pretty good idea, in my opinion, because it is my understanding that the numbers are so significant that the government of Nicaragua could well be overwhelmed in taking care of so many people all at once, and that would certainly generate some world notice and perhaps some action. To be honest, however, It is really a bad idea, though, because then the Ticos would find out just how much their precious little 'Switzerland of the Americas' has been infiltrated and even changed from what it used to be. There would be nobody left to empty the overflowing slop jars of a nation so beset by lassitude as to be incapable of doing such things by themselves, and Ticos would not react well to that.

Ultimately, though, as has long been the custom here, Ticos are looking for outside help, even if it means military intervention by a nation stronger than Nicaragua because their national psyche just cannot get around the fact that they are truly powerless, have always been so, and will always be so. They not only have no military, but they have told themselves (and the rest of the world) for so long that they are better off without a military, that they actually believe this. They cite a higher level of education and better health care, but ignore the realities of the fact that their universal health care system is fraught with gaps in care, lack of proper materials and even medications, and delays running into the years for certain treatments. As for their education system, I guess it is OK if your goal is to have a nation of semi-literate, untrained, stuck-in-the-19^th-century inepts.

I know that the most recent speculation (and, actually, this is not at all recent, although previous versions have featured different players) has to do with a plot by Iran, Venezuela, and Nicaragua to create a new canal across the isthmus to rival the Panama Canal. (Maybe I just answered my big question, though: the reason Nicaragua can afford a military is that they have received aid from places like Iran and Venezuela). That may well be true, but this is a pretty underhanded way to go after such a goal. Why not come out into the daylight, and get the cooperation of those affected by such a plan, and turn it into a money-maker? Maybe that would solve Nicaragua's glaringly obvious poverty, and lead to them being able to keep their own boys home on the farm, as it were.

Then, the morning news brought the announcement that a small fleet of military vehicles, made in Germany (Mercedes Benz, no less) had been successfully imported into Costa Rica, via the Port of Limon, on the East Coast, destined for (drum roll, please) Nicaragua. That's right. They were, as I wrote this, on their only slightly delayed way up the east coast, bound for the very area that was currently under dispute! Say what? Talk about a comedy of errors! OK, maybe these trucks were not headed directly for the Isla, but there is no way that Costa Rica should have allowed the government of Nicaragua to save money by shipping through a port located in Costa Rica. Make them pay more, and use the Panama Canal.

Next, we got the news that the Fiscalia of something or other, here in Costa Rica, had issued an arrest warrant for the former Sandanista leader, Commandante Cero (General Edén Pastora) for charges having to do with the destruction of the environment. And, I believe there was also a scene played out in the border area, where reporters were massed together to interview him, but they were on the Costa Rican side of the border, and since he was aware that Costa Rican authorities were standing by, he stayed on his side of the border.

Well, who knows how this comedy will play out? Certainly not I. Whatever happens, I don't see any good here for either the people of Costa Rica or those of Nicaragua.

Just When You Thought I Have Mellowed.

2010-12-04T10:03:00.001-06:00

"Strange as it seems, no amount of learning can cure stupidity, and higher education positively fortifies it." - - Stephen Vizinczey, An Innocent Millionaire

Some days I have to ask myself where do these people come from? I can't help it, but I read AMCostaRica every day, since it does seem to provide the most news, in one location, about this place. But, it seems that the strangest people in Costa Rica also read it, and what's worse, they have to write to the editor to express their self-centered opinions (much like me, huh?). Yesterday's issue, however, seemed to have reached a new level of ridiculosity, if there is such a word. Take the letter from a Tony McCeath, who says he lives in San Ramon:

Mr. McCeath's letter starts off with what appears to be a legitimate statement of facts as they may well apply to Costa Rica, but turns out to be just another rant about squatters. How sad. Personally, I am just a bit tired of all the whining about how poor gringos have been taken advantage of after having purchased land in a foreign country, and then – in essence and in reality – showing that they lacked the foresight to provide for its security in their absence! Come on, folks! All of us who have even visited one or two times were made aware that it is legal to obtain ownership of land here with simple possession. In order to avoid any problems as an absentee landowner, all one has to do is make a few informed decisions: First, don't buy land or property at all unless you plan to be here keeping an eye on it yourself. Second, if you do buy property, with the intent of being an absentee owner, make arrangements with someone to care for it, and to watch so as to safeguard it from becoming attractive to a potential squatter. Third, don't take trips without also arranging for someone to watch over your property.

As regards this person's complaint about having his passport checked as he travels about the country, I'm not really sure what he is saying. He said that he has lived here for two years. So, I would have to ask why is he still carrying his passport? I put mine away the day I got my cedula, and haven't thought about it since. I have encountered police and immigration checkpoints on rare occasions (well, actually, there is one on the road to Liberia, near Pijije, that is always active, and appears to be mostly checking buses traveling to and from Nicaragua). On those occasions when the officials asked for ID, they did not actually ask for my passport, so I showed them either my Costa Rica drivers' license, or my cedula. And, as for the complaint about Costa Rica being two-faced and having attempted to enter a 'Friend of the Court' plea regarding the U. S. State of Arizona's recently enacted law, the Editor has already provided the clarification that this was rejected.

And, finally, we get his complaint about how much money recent Court decisions in Costa Rica have cost a Canadian company. Don't think he has much right to complain about this topic, and I don't think that I could care less either way. Any business operating in any foreign country should know enough NOT to spend money needlessly, while learning how business is done in that country. Essentially, therefore, the same simple warning that we, as potential property owners here should have heeded, applies to a company that wants to do business here. And, he concludes with a suggestion that "we" ought to consider suing Costa Rica. I have to say, What?! Who is 'we?' Now, I can't speak for Mr. McCeath, any more than he can speak for me, and, with all due respect, please consider this: We are not citizens of this country. We are merely (in my case, at least) temporary residents. We have no franchise. Isn't it just a bit presumptuous of us to propose to dictate to this nation how it conducts its business? I mean, didn't you know any of this before you decided to live here?

And, then, I saw the next letter, and have to ask: Who is Ann Boyd, and where has she been hiding herself all her life? Who does she think she is? How dare she presume to judge the people of Haiti? She has written one of the most ill-informed letters to an editor that I think I have ever seen, that's who she is! Has she no sense of history? Why does she think that an entire generation, the world over, is known as the Baby Boomers? In the wake of each and every natural – or manmade – disaster in the history of the world, there has been an increase in births roughly nine months later! Remember the brown-outs and Black-outs that struck the East Coast back in the (what was it) the 70's or 80's? Population is affected, disaster strikes, and any number of people find that they are without lights, or TV, or any outside distraction. What do they do with themselves? One thought comes to mind right away: go to bed, early and often!

She castigates the people of Haiti, who apparently have nothing better to do with themselves, in the wake of that poverty-stricken country's recent disasters, than to procreate. Doesn't Ms. Boyd realize that this is indeed God's way to make up for any decrease in population, anywhere in the world, throughout written history? Does she actually think that life in that country was so good before their most recent disasters?

Well, I've got news for her: The world has more folks living in poverty than it does otherwise. More people go to bed hungry each and every day than otherwise. More people live without (oh, electricity, television, potable water, bottled beverages, frozen foods, processed foods, supermarkets, just to name a few things), than otherwise.

Get over it. But, also, take a look at a mirror – quick! You have the nerve to say that children are a gift from God, and to offer your wishes that God bless those children?! That would suggest that you have chosen to read your Bible very selectively, lady. That same Bible also says something about not judging others, unless you want to be judged yourself, doesn't it?

Meanwhile, over on another site, called USExpatcostarica.com, a lady recently wrote a story all about St. Mary's School Guachipelín, Escazú- San Jose, C.R., Says "NO" to FAILING 1st Grader who wishes to attend their school! ----

Do I need to mention that I got into it with the lady in question? The article is all about how her kid, with ADD & possible dyslexia, had failed first grade at an unnamed school. The family then reportedly began looking for a new school for his next school year, and one of those looked at was the above named school. She is upset because they told her that their policy is that they do not accept any student that has failed any previous grade. Now, she claims in her letter that the family's psychiatrist, who is in the process of evaluating the kid, has told them that he needs to learn in English, as this is his first language. She goes on to complain that the school also reportedly told her that they teach at least three classes in Spanish, so they don't feel that they could properly meet the doctor's recommendation.

Now, she is totally angry, going on about the kid's rights, and how she is going to sue this school. Personally, I don't understand this gringo attitude that says a private school cannot set its own standards, and I said so. I also said that it is not proper for us to expect government intervention into everything little thing that does not go our way in this world, but of course, I am just an evil, uninformed all around bad guy for having dared to disagree with her and her complaint. We have had too much back and forth on the above mentioned page, so I think I'll just let her go on ahead and pursue her legal case, while she will conveniently overlook what is important here. Like so many before her, she will follow a path where she has to place blame for all of life's blows elsewhere, dedicate her life to some real or imagined battle, and ultimately, the kid will end up suffering, because she can't help overdoing her battle.

What probably pushed my buttons in this situation was that the lady mentioned (in her first response to my admonition to get over it) how she and her husband are forced to live here in CR because he requires 24/7 total care for an undisclosed condition, and they can't afford such in the states. But, her article was all about how 'we' had been involved in pursuing educational goals for their child. How can someone who requires 24/7 total care participate in meetings at schools, and this lofty pursuit of education for 'their' kid? That information, coupled with her insistence that her child has 'rights' is what got me going.

In case I haven't mentioned it before, I have a real problem with this medical diagnosis of ADD/ADHD/and all variations thereof. I also have a real problem with the persistent overuse of Ritalin for kids with this diagnosis. And, I might as well admit it I have a real problem with all the un-intentioned aftereffects of the ADA, and all the bending over backwards that the PC crowd has force fed us for, what, a generation or more, now? I'm sorry, but I do not believe that kids with learning disabilities belong in a regular classroom. A good teacher knows that their teaching must be focused on the slowest learner, the dumbest student, if you will, in the class. That way, the teacher can be sure that all the students will get the message. When we force the teacher to constantly dumb down the teaching, what do we get? What we get, is what we got: more and more social promotions, more and more 'graduates' who are functional illiterates, ignorant, and unable to cope with the real world (maybe like this lady).

I am also, of course, less than impressed with people who somehow expect the "government" to provide for their every need. You know the ones. They resort to lawsuits at the drop of a coffee cup in their laps (sorry; couldn't resist). If all of the above is not enough, I also have a more serious problem with gringos who come to live in Costa Rica and expect – nay, demand – that they receive the same benefits they expected in the states. So, since all of this is true, and since I have a big mouth (as in, access to a keyboard), I have to speak up. That's enough for now, I guess. You all may talk amongst yourselves.

A very busy week

2010-11-23T07:00:00.001-06:00

I guess it might be a good idea to acknowledge some of the pending/current goings on for the extended Dungan family about now.

This weekend just ended saw our daughter, Blanca, and her family traveling to Austin, from Arlington on Saturday. First, they picked up Andy, the oldest boy, at the airport in Austin, and then they all attended the UT vs. Florida Atlantic Football game. They then got together with Blanca's two brothers, who live in Austin (AD & Bucko), and partied.

This week will also mark these special occasions:

22^nd – birthday of AD²'s bro-in-law, Gene Perez. Happy Birthday, Gene.

23^rd – Anniversary of youngest brother, David, and his wife, Sue. Happy Anniversary!
24^th - birthday of our favorite niece, Melissa. Happy Birthday, Meli.
4. 25^th – birthday of older brother, Dennis. Happy Birthday, Bro.
5. 25^th – Thanksgiving. We have a lot to be thankful for, here, and want to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving. Hope to do what everyone else does, too, and watch football until I fall asleep in front of the TV.
6. 26^th – The most happiest of all occasions, a wedding! Big Brother Mike, and his lady, Miss CJ, will tie the knot in Virginia, which used to be known as the state for Lovers (lovers of what, I know not). Felicitations and congratulations to you both!
7. 30^th – birthday of our youngest, Andrew. Happy Birthday, Bucko!
Hope everyone has a great week. We will try for one down here!