British Monarchy Expenses Should Be Transparent

Perhaps the old country of England is changing. Queen Elizabeth II recently announced that Prince Charles is taking over some of her duties. 

More transparency of royal financial taxes and expenses would be a huge change for the better. This post explains my position, and extends a challenge.

1. Myth: British royalty doesn't have power

It does. 

The British are supposed to revere their monarchy and not complain. The main virtue in England is to get along with stiff upper lips when necessary.  Citizens of the small beautiful green island nation value peace, civility, and cooperation. And these goals are truly laudable ideals.  Except it's untrue that monarchy doesn't exert influence over the British. The methods they use can be sharply stark and psychologically cruel while coated with a veneer of charm and beauty.

In England, the three million unclaimed pounds the monarchy takes from Cornwall citizens, by inherited right, is an unfettered display of raw power. With this recent example, England doesn't deserve to call itself a democracy, as it does, if royalty can descend on municipal offices and make off with taxes. Most democracies would call that an act of theft. In England, the monarchy calls those funds entitlements and the royal tradition of the rights to the taxes has prevailed unchallenged.

2.  Myth: British royalty isn’t expensive 

It is. 

Millions of tax dollars fund British royalty. And British Commonwealth nations rationalize the costs of sponsoring royalty. The venerable institutional office supposedly costs every person only a tiny affordable amount each year. The theory is the costs and benefits of royalty are spread around the population.

Ask me, however, and I say the true costs aren't that clear. I would prefer to have visual proof before I can agree to that. And I believe the total cost of employing the army of people associated with the support of royalty is a huge cost at the expense of individuals.

It’s probably not possible to reduce all the costs of the British monarchy to the form of a balance sheet. But it would be nice if an effort could be made to publish a rough outline of such a list of royal taxes and expenses paid by the government. And the sheet should be available to everyone online for free.

3. Myth: British royalty is democratic

It isn't. 

A major issue many internationals have with the British monarchy is that the finances, rights, and powers of the monarchy remain mysterious and private. 

One well-known historic right of British royalty is the right to bestow titles and elevate commoners to the aristocracy. And the Honors List is clearly one such incestuous poorly-understood system. Titles favor one person and family over others visibly for a lifetime. This bad habit promotes permanent, deeply ingrained, undemocratic social inequality. For the Honors Lists often bear scant similarity to the actual importance to society of the contributions of individuals so honored and titled. Easy for me to say this, many extremely hard-working, deserving, and worthy British scientists are repeatedly ignored by Her Majesty.

It's high time for Britain as an independent country and head of the Commonwealth to take this opportunity. Aim for more equality by showing the public the true costs of the monarchy. So many of the public relations efforts of The Firm are secret and priceless. Royals assert they do important work. It's another wonder of the world why they do it, and don’t tire of it. Must be well-rewarding if they say so. And it would be nice to know exactly how well they're rewarded for their hard work every year in tax forms, for example, or a financial balance sheet. 

Boston Marathon Bystander Gives Firsthand Account

Here’s an email sent me Tuesday afternoon after the Boston Marathon on Monday. I'm preserving the privacy of the participants at their request and edited very little. True story.

*********************************************** 

“Thank you all for your concern.

 

We’re staying briefly, on our way to Spain from Utah, in a furnished apartment just off Boylston Street, behind the Lord and Taylor Department Store a block before the finish line of the Marathon.  This morning (Tuesday) the whole area is cordoned off, but happily we've just got back into the apartment.  We can’t see what’s going on out on Boylston Street because our windows face the other direction.  There’s yellow crime scene tape stopping traffic – foot and car – all around the area, and lots of police.  Our car is in a lot under the building and we don’t dare take it out anywhere, because we won’t be able to get it back here if we do.

This is DK’s third Boston Marathon, and he's done others to qualify for it.  I did one marathon some years back but find they take far too much time to train for.  I do distances between 5K and half marathons, but walk every step - fast.  I did 31 races last year, and three in February when we were in Florida.

Yesterday morning I went downstairs to see the wheelchair winner whiz by.  I was standing behind the crowds – three deep – right across the street from where I presume the second explosion occurred.  The atmosphere was jovial and encouraging, just what you’d expect.  A while later I met up with DK’s mother and two nieces (and two babies) and we watched the elite runners fly by on Hereford Street. We went back to the apartment for lunch and then headed out to see DK.  We avoided Boylston Street, even though we were right there at the finish, because there were so many people there.  We could never have got to the front of the crowd to have a clear view of him, so we went down to Commonwealth Avenue and got a good spot there, about two-thirds of a mile from the end.

DK had left for Hopkinton on a bus from the Common at 7 a.m., along with thousands of other runners.  He had started the race about 10:45, and was running a bit slower than he wanted.  Yet he looked good when he passed us. He ran up to us, gave me a quick kiss, and headed down the underpass to turn onto Hereford Street.  The nieces headed home, walking across the Mass. Avenue bridge to Cambridge (and eventually all the way to Harvard Square!). 

TK (DK’s mom) and I headed back to the apartment where we’d arranged to meet him.  We hadn’t walked a block when we heard a huge kaboom.  We looked at each other, confused.  Not thunder, since the weather was okay.  A cannon in honor of the Patriots Day holiday Massachusetts was celebrating?  Weird.  Then another.  Even more confusing.   I looked back at the underpass and was astounded to see it empty, meaning the runners had been stopped:  OMG, something terrible’s going on. 

Very quickly there were streams of policemen on bikes riding headlong toward the finish.  Police motorcycles and cars came screaming by.  Somebody mentioned explosions at the finish.  I calculated that DK couldn’t have had time to get to the end, and held onto that thought.  He had to be okay.

TK and I worked our way back toward the apartment through pandemonium.  People streaming away from the race and we were going toward it.  Policemen gesturing wildly, cars coming and going, people on phones, everyone looking around wildly.  I’m sure I wasn’t the only one thinking of 9/11.  We were turned away from going through the Prudential Center and when we walked all the way around the outside of it, we were turned away from the little road leading to our apartment.

It was getting cold and we had little information on what was happening, and we had no idea where DK was.  I was worried about him getting cold.  That happens so quickly when you stop running and it was getting to be late afternoon on a cool day. 

I tried to text DK and check the news on my phone but was worried about using up the juice too fast.  So many people called and texted and emailed but the phone lines were jammed and I wanted to conserve the charge so had to make quick updates. 

Meanwhile, DK was running up Hereford Street when the first explosion happened.  He'd turned onto Boylston Street and could see the finish line a few blocks ahead when the smoke from the second explosion burst out.  Suddenly a policeman stood in front of him blocking his way, stopping him from going further and telling him to leave the area.  He made his way to the packet pickup area and was lucky to get his bag (so he had some clothes to put on).  

After that, DK headed to a place as close to the apartment as he could get. Thank goodness he was a few minutes slower than he planned.  And thank goodness we didn’t find a spot to wait for him on the sidewalk outside the apartment.  

We searched for DK through all the thousands of people in that big area. TK happened to gaze in a certain direction when her son appeared, ten feet away. And to our great relief, thank goodness we finally found one other.

We wandered idly along a nearby street as the police turned everyone away from the area.  A lovely couple offered DK a cup of water.  A hotel lobby allowed us in and we spent a little time regrouping, grateful for the warmth. But it didn’t have a television so we were getting information piecemeal.  The T (subway) had been shut down as well as the Mass Ave. bridge, and it was evident we weren’t getting back into the apartment any time soon. 

We had a call from a friend, and the three of us including TK spent the night at their house in Milton.  MP and WP are truly wonderful people who welcomed us very graciously.  We went from feeling like refugees to royalty immediately.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.

We both had many people try to contact us, wishing us well.  It was really wonderful to hear from so many friends, but we simply couldn’t respond to everyone.  Thank you for understanding. 

And heartfelt wishes to those who were terribly injured, including friends of MP and WP.  Presumably we'll be leaving for Spain on Saturday night.  We have even more reasons to light a few candles over there now."

*********************************************

And here's another of FK's later emails to me: 

“It was a very intense experience...Yesterday (Monday) was remarkable.  Such confusion for the ordinary person, but the police swung into action immediately and within a few minutes there were so many ambulances they stretched over blocks....We had to show our ID and keys to get back into our apartment today (Tuesday).  Thank goodness the area right here is still restricted and the police/security presence is very heavy.  Thank goodness our flight to Spain wasn't scheduled today...It was an experience that reminded us of the many things we're grateful for.”

Thanks go out to the writer, my sister. Have to thank her for allowing me to share it. Amazes me that family members of mine survived the attacks. Isn't it an amazing description?

NRA Has Blood on Its Hands

Now it appears that pro-weapon adherents the National Rifle Association of America (NRA), and other pro-gun lobby groups, are finally coming out into the media with eyes blazing hot with aggression after turning down earlier requests to appear following the shooting of twenty-eight people in a small primary school in Connecticut.

The NRA alone is bankrolled by an over three-hundred million dollar budget PER YEAR. And in the last week they've been getting their message act together. The supposedly fancy idea that the NRA is trying to blast through our consciousness is supposed to be, drum roll please: Every elementary school should payroll a security guard paid for by OUR taxes!!! If this isn't the most stupid, reckless idea that some kind of highly-paid consultancy outfit could come up with, I don't know what is...Don't these shooters and pro-shooters know that education takes place in many areas of life, and classrooms exist all over the country?

All of these riflers and gun-toters and association members and those who enable them need to become more educated and informed of the truth that most of us already know factually and experientially, and realize that the way to go is not "a gun for a gun"...any more than buying an anti-car to destroy a car, or an anti-computer to destroy a computer, would stop sales of cars or computers. So the associations are clearly working to sell more guns and help the weapon industry survive. There can't be any other explanation. They need to help the gun industry, they argue, because guns last for generations and get handed down. They think we won't have any rights left if we don't allow weaponry for private defense.

But what is there left to defend that is valuable and intrinsically unique to America? A house that costs the same after almost twenty years, like mine was, even though I "invested" twice the price of the house in repairs?...Or the financial system, where the American economy is owned by Asia?...Or how about health insurance, where private insurance won't cover many episodes and tests?...Or job security, where there isn't any? Or, take security, where we're told by these gun clubs that the proliferation and easy availability of guns will lead to lifestyles of greater security? Who cares about those who are small-minded enough to actually believe guns defend America? If guns defend America, and not philosophy and lifestyle, I pity and feel sorry for the future military state of the country. General Petraeus, before he was shown to make a human error, almost ran for office and would have appointed military men like him, and the Republicans almost hijacked the voting process to disallow those less likely to vote against them.

And good riddance if weapons and weapon-makers disappear...The military will survive quite well and is one of the rare wings of the American government with reliable financial support.

Political figures are assassinated by weapons of various kinds, and sometimes they're killed despite the best practices in security technologies. Where there's a will, there's a way, and where someone has the desire to kill, that desire is going to have more chance of being successful depending on the attendant availability and accuracy of the weaponry.

An easy way to cut back on violence is not to use guns. If guns aren't anywhere around, they can't be used. Make sense? Don't tell me it doesn't. It's obviously, absolyoutely true.

I am not in any way bankrolled by anyone to make these peace-loving remarks, and the gun lobby is a thousand times more bankrolled than their opposition--simply peace-loving individuals like me. I haven't any proof whatsoever that the associations have any interest whatsoever in promoting peace as a conscious objective. In their policy and mission statements, they seem to have more interest in provoking anger and violence and gun sales, than in having an open, carefree, peace-loving society with open classrooms and fields. And shame on them. HUGE SHAME. Blood is on their hands. 

Those who tend to be pro-guns also tend to use blasphemy and carry guns, and they offend me personally...I don't like them as individuals, and feel immensely sorry for them on a personal level. They are uneducated in, unhelpful to, and ignorant of, a peaceful existence. I feel sorrow for their pathetically misguided pro-gun stance, and anger at their deluded aggression and power by brute force. They simply can't be branded as individuals worthy of my trust.

And I will keep writing for the peace that I want and say what I wish to say voluntarily.... And saying nonsensical arguments pro-gun isn't going to help society become more peaceful, so there's no point in wasting energy saying them in comments or trying to change my mind. Thanks for reading my harmless, free outburst of aggression in favor of stricter gun control. 

Turn in your weapons, please, or dispose of them, along with saddening, sickening pictures of  aggressive killings. Weapons, hunting, and shooting aren't noble. And personally, I don't think gun ownership is at all NICE. Guns don't belong in nice houses.

Should the Press Be Given Freedom?

The Old Power of The Traditional Media

Having a discussion with friends on American Thanksgiving last week about freedom of the press, we agreed that newspapers and television news programs in the past had too much power. Journalists gathered together news from various sources and synthesized the various pieces into a coherent whole.The traditional media gave the public measured news stories, one at a time.

 We had to be content with whatever was considered organized at a level worthy of being thrown our way. We had to take what we were given and didn't have any choice, however disorganized and unbelievable the results appeared. The press was powerful enough to be able to shape the news any way it chose and did not have the accountability and public voice of disagreement that we have now, except in those exalted "Letters to the Editor." Amazingly, some people who believe they can influence the public still write those letters. Yet now, even the most exalted traditional journalists are subjected and exposed to the often humiliating language, bad grammar, and ill-will of their online comment sections.

With the chaos of the proliferation of online news aggregators, twitter-sphere and blogs, those aging traditional outlets aren't the single source of news they used to be. And more importantly, and progressively, they haven't the power they once had to make their single point of view the only one available.

If someone makes a statement that is incorrect, thousands of voices can be heard trying to correct and sway public opinion. Twitter and blogs help form new public opinions beyond the influence of the traditional media and current governments.

The Daily Mail Online

Tina Brown mentioned in an interview with Slate that she reads Daily Mail Online.  I have admired and followed her career from years way back in the seventies as editor of Tatler magazine to recently as founder of The Daily Beast. So I have to admit to surprise that she reads it.

The Daily Mail was, maybe still is, considered a tabloid newspaper by many in the United Kingdom but she said it has something for everyone. So bravely I began to read it online, not having been a tabloid reader ever before in my life, I can honestly admit, even when I lived in England. Tabloids are famous for saying what the public wishes to hear however crass. We have to wonder whether they make up salient details in some of their stories. And I expected to be disappointed with the quality and believability of articles. 

Instead, I have to admit the Daily Mail Online is a very content-rich site, and one of my favorite new finds despite my lingering doubts on content, as I do with many sites, by the way. Read it and it will probably swiftly become one your favorite bookmarked sites too.

Today, for example, the venerable American news source The Wall Street Journal mentioned that Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), had not settled any official amount with the maid who accused him of a horrible act in New York City. But the Daily Mail Online, in their article, said the two had settled for an amount in the region of 3 million dollars (And it's not necessarily accurate). 

How to explain the disparity? Now perhaps the Wall Street Journal gave out only one version of their story and did not update it. If the Wall Street Journal doesn't update the story tomorrow or Monday to match that of the Daily Mail Online, what's the truth? And where did the Daily Mail Online get its' number?

It's true that having part of a story can be confusing, but it's not evil on the reader's part to have only one section of a story and want to hear the whole truth. The Wall Street Journal is doing nothing wrong by not updating. At the same time, it's not telling the whole truth. So it's either withholding the truth or else it hasn't verified the truth and doesn't know the whole story. Perhaps the number in the settlement is incorrect, and we don't know whether the number has been verified, if the Daily Mail Online takes the trouble to check facts and verify as strictly as the Wall Street Journal. Many of us doubt it, and yet we take the story in the Daily Mail Online:

1) at face value, as the truth

2) we're the opposite, skeptical. We don't believe it and take it with flakes of salt, or

3) we withhold judgment until the truth comes out

Freedom of the Press

In answer to whether the press needs freedom? Absolutely yes, it must be permitted and encouraged. Having freedom of choice is another basic freedom of human life, if we're good and lucky and we happen to live in a country that supports freedom of choice as a matter of policy and public opinion. And whether the truth is ultimately won or not, the point is that voices of the press should have freedom of expression. 

For me, the shock of hearing the Presidential candidate(s) in the debates of 2012 speak without regard for the truth was a tipping point.  It is said that one powerful candidate actually lied about thirty times in the first forty-minute debate! They made many points sufficiently far off the mark and unverifiable that any journalist would have been completely unable to speak up and stop them at every inconsistency or outright lie. It would have been impossible for anyone to stem the barrage of falsehoods the candidates tossed around so casually and unremorsefully. I, for one, had less rather than more respect when I heard these untruths.

Freedom to intrude, however, by anyone including journalists is not news, not admirable, and difficult for editors to stop. Details in news stories, especially salacious ones, reel in readers. We have to wonder how the Daily Mail Online got its number in the DSK settlement.

The source of the news doesn't really matter to most of us. The truth matters, but not how the truth was discovered. Laws govern us based on the truth, and many courts revolve around details, what they were and how they were found. Details in the news are all part of the chaos of daily life out there.  But the truth does matter, we all prefer that. We need truth to evolve with progressive attitudes and laws. And it takes all sorts of freedom to discover the truth: freedom of choice; freedom of expression; and freedom to ask questions and do whatever is necessary to find the answers.

Life is messy and reading these news aggregator sites, our modern online newspapers, can make it even more so.

Weight Loss and Other Inexact Sciences

Another hurricane is on the way to us here in the Atlantic northeast. Sandy is meeting a western front, and creating a nor'easter to rival the Perfect Storm of 1991. A major movie was made from that one, so we're dreading what's in store for us. Forecasters and radars (which one ignores at one's peril) predicted Sandy will be here early next week, the last few days of October. Might not be as bad as all that, I hope not. Might not happen at all. But Holy Flying Dinosaurs, the television media has already begun scaring the living daylights out of us...

And yet how often are weather events correctly forecast? Weather Science is an inexact science.

Earth Science is not an exact science either, but Italy is going to imprison seven Earth Scientists to six years in prison for incorrectly issuing false reassurance that a major 6.3-magnitude earthquake that ultimately happened on the 6 April 2009 and killed 308 people would not follow weaker tremors. An open letter to the Italian president from 5000 international scientists asserts the charges are unfounded. A case of injustice if I've ever heard one.

If this post is going to be about inexact sciences, there are thousands of examples. But what are the exact sciences?

(W) Exact Sciences:

An exact science is any field of science capable of accurate quantitative expression or precise predictions and rigorous methods of testing hypotheses, especially reproducible experiments involving quantifiable predictions and measurements. Physics and Chemistry can be considered as exact sciences in this sense.

The term implies a dichotomy between these fields and others, such as the humanities.

Weight loss is definitely another inexact science in general. There's a wonderful BBC documentary by Dr. Michael Mosley I've watched twice this week about the 5:2 diet. This article describes the diet that might actually work, and inspires this writer. For two days a week, women eat 400-500 calories, and men eat 500-600. The other five days a week are unregulated. Any amount of calories is fine, up to about 2200. In this way, the BBC announcer claims he dropped fourteen pounds in six weeks.

I wrote about another diet way back in this post -- the "Sociable Diet." Any way to lose weight that works, like making money, is the best way. Be inspired. And listen to scientists even if the science is inexact.

Help End Corporal Punishment

The issue of corporal punishment in schools has arisen again. The school year has begun around America, and so have reports of an old-fashioned system of physical punishment sanctioned by the Supreme Court.

An article here specifies which states do and do not allow corporal punishment. By law, localities govern who can administer punishment.



Parents here in New Jersey are not allowed to use spanking as a form of discipline with my children, and haven't been for at least three decades. Spanking was thought to lead to more violence and child abuse and would have brought complaints and been swiftly punished with instant removal of the child by the New Jersey Department of Children and Families, within which is the relevant, formerly scandal-plagued Division of Youth and Family Services (DYFS).

I'm surprised to see corporal punishment still exists. According to this firsthand video, a female student in Texas with good grades was not responsible for doing anything wrong (her friend supposedly cheated) and yet this student was punished. A school administrator even wants to expand the policy to allow educators of both sexes to use the paddle. (This administrator obviously expects his local parents to approve. Currently, only administrators of the same sex, by law, can administer physical punishment in that high school.)

Do you agree with all current local policies on corporal punishment or should they be the same nationwide? Is corporal punishment necessary, and the best method to keep kids in line? Do you see it as child abuse? Should parents be allowed to spank?

After all, if parents can't spank their own children (in some states), why can educators just go ahead and punish, and legally get away with it without oversight?

I would rather see the corporal punishment policy entirely deleted from the books, and educators properly educated so they would not resort to corporal punishment at all.

And why is physical punishment more prevalent in the Southern states?

Most important, why hasn't the Supreme Court assumed leadership of the problem? Why doesn't the Supreme Court take a more aware, better-educated, more homogeneous, nationwide approach?

Sorry, only questions and opinions. I'd rather have answers and powerful solutions.

Saudis Are Misguidedly Planning "Cities for Women"

Saudis are taking sex segregation to the extreme. For the supposedly virtuous goal of "educating" women, Saudis have submitted plans to build the first "city for women" with several more planned. And men will not be welcome.

Yet women like to live with men, and men like to live with women. To forcibly separate the sexes is unnatural. Is it bound to fail in the long run or will it help Saudi Arabia be a stronger country?

The problem in Saudi Arabia has arisen that educated Saudi women are leading the country. The powers that be want to keep the women within the country, so are constructing a place for them to live.

Is this really the way to go about it? Of course, westerners don't think so...

While women in the Western World have argued for equality for generations--with mixed success--they have continued to live with men. They need men.

I suppose the idea is that the country as a whole will be stronger if these educated women are kept within the country by choice. Men will only be visitors.

Just saying, I think the idea is unnatural and short sighted. I hope this experiment fails, for I personally wouldn't want it to spread.

The Importance Of Online Learning

There isn't any need to feel guilty about spending time on the internet. Our computers have become the new mecca where we can find almost unlimited resources. When we do one thing, we are not doing another, but we should try to find the best way to allocate our time. It's truly our most precious resource.

Read from new sites around the internet. Learn more about your personal interests. Become more well-read about world events. Google people you know and don't know, and discover interesting experiences others have had that can help you. Now is the time to learn everything you have always wanted to know but did not dare to ask parents, family, teachers, or anyone else by making use of the internet.

Socialize, too, of course, but allow time to grow and nurture the places within yourself in desperate need of attention. We all have areas we need to improve upon. Be humble enough to know it, and feel gratitude for all the benefits surrounding us in our daily lives.

Our minds are hungry and thirsty for knowledge. We need sound minds in sound bodies. Life isn't only about getting ahead for oneself. It's truly important to expend your efforts for others, to help at the appropriate time and in the best possible fashion.

When I awoke this morning, and noticed my familiar electronic appliances awaiting my attention, I thought of how much our lives have changed, fortunately for the better. If we control computers and use them as our slaves, we'll discover how much greater personal growth and higher learning benefits us as long as we don't allow computers to dominate us as human beings.

Passing through the day, I marveled again how much our world has changed and how important it is to keep moving ahead, and not fall behind. facebook - an online business focused on friendship and goodwill, without any visible products, funded by online advertisements - went public and made its founders fortunes. What would our great-great-great grandparents have thought of the idea as an investment?

I've been feeling very guilty about falling back on the frequency of my posts recently because of moving and all the annoying tiredness brought on my unpacking and the various employment hats I wear, as writer, and recently a real estate agent. This online newsletter is a purely voluntary effort on my part. When I look back at the over seven hundred posts in my blogs, I think of how much fun it's been to write them. If I can help one person answer a question they've had, it will all have been worth the time and effort. While I can't seem to stick to a schedule...some days I write three posts, and then am too busy for a few days to write another...I hope my readers forgive me, and use these words for personal purposes. If we all shared what we know, then we'd all know more.

Princeton Study Finds Uninformed Participants Tend To Side With Majority

Here's an interesting point taken from the Princeton Bulletin today:

• "A Princeton-based research team found that uninformed individuals — as in
those with no prior knowledge or strong feelings on a situation’s outcome — can
actually be vital to achieving a democratic consensus. These individuals tend to
side with and embolden the numerical majority and dilute the influence of powerful
minority factions who would otherwise dominate everyone else. This finding
— based on group decision-making experiments on fish, as well as mathematical
models and computer simulations — challenges the common notion that
an outspoken minority can manipulate uncommitted voters and can ultimately
provide insights into humans’ political behavior. The research team was led by
Iain Couzin, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology."

The uninformed tend to side with the majority, rather than being manipulated by an outspoken minority. I find this news very reassuring and forgiving, whether it reflects another era, or today's divisive rule from Washington.

Maybe We Should Be Grateful

These last few days I have been watching the Costa Concordia ship lying submerged in the Mediterranean Sea near Giglio Island with great interest. It has not completely sunk, and for that we should be grateful.

I'm not exonerating the captain from steering the ship onto rocks and leaving it as soon as possible to save his own life, thus creating a shocking vacuum of power when it was most needed.

Perhaps the fact that the ship landed where it did, and was almost completely evacuated in two hours, is little short of miraculous. If the ship had been in open water, it might very well have sunk quickly, bringing catastrophic loss of life. As it is now, Carnival Cruises and Costa Lines will have to carry most of the financial burden.

How quickly people forget these disasters. I went on a cruise, four of us in my family, around the Greek islands in March 2007, on the Louis Cruises Sea Diamond. One week after we disembarked, the very next cruise, the Sea Diamond, carrying about 1,537 passengers, hit rocks off the island of Santorini in the afternoon. We saw photos of crew members we had spoken to only days before. She sank overnight, fortunately after passengers were evacuated through rough waves, and only two passengers died.

Here is a good photo of the Sea Diamond:

Sea Diamond 

 Here is a photo of the Sea Diamond before she sank:

Sea Diamond, April 5, 2007

The point is, these incidents are disturbing, and yet neither involved loss of life, only loss of enormous, important ships. We could have been on it, but we weren't. For that we  count our blessings.

Here were three of us posing. We had a fabulous trip.

Dignify Your Students

According to this article, a public high school, somewhere in Texas, in a town called McKinney, has denied human and civil rights to students. School administrators have removed the doors from individual stalls in the bathrooms. Administrators assert that students cannot be seen sitting on toilets from the hallways, supposedly making the situation tolerable. 

They should have their awesome power removed.

To me this horrible situation sounds like a travesty of justice for students involved, and a breakdown of civil society. The administrators sound as if they are inhuman, incompetent, and just plain rude.

Shame on these administrators. How they injure the psyches of of the precious students who have been entrusted with their care.  If they are capable of such incivility, then I wonder how else their students are suffering. 

Students of all socio-economic backgrounds are supposed to be treated with respect and dignity. They are supposed to be inspired by example, not by clumsy, heavy-handed inhumanity.

Respect deserves respect. I feel the opposite for those administrators. I have called them and left two messages to protest because this subversion makes my blue blood boil.

Be Nice

Please be nice, every day of the year.

I've been hurt..really, really, hurt. Not physically, I'm not talking about physically...emotionally is what I mean.

If you've been hurt, too, know that you will find safety and peace here.

Sometimes people have said things to me that have hurt me to the marrow of my bones, and made me wonder why I am bothering to live...they have hurt me that much.

I am talking about women here. (I'm not thinking about men)...and I'm a woman. The truth is, some women can be inhuman. They have slapped me, and said unimaginably inhuman things. They look like humans. They act like humans, too, because they eat and get sick like humans. They aren't clones from another planet. Unfortunately, they're homegrown.

If you know any so-called women like that, beware of them. Stay away from them. Hide in a safer place, even if you're the only one who knows and cares. Please know that I understand, and I feel your pain. I can't do anything about it from here at my computer, at my desk, where I sit and compose these phrases. But they are said in truth from my heart, and I know. Believe me, I've been there.

It causes me anguish that even in an era when we have so many wonderful reasons to live, some people can be unkind and hurt others. Being nice is a conscious decision, an attitude, and a responsibility we should all embrace.

Kneeling At The Sports Pedestal

Sports madness at The Ohio State University continues even after all these years, despite the "bowl ban"...How could it not?

In the wake of the Jerry Sandusky controversy at rival Pennsylvania State University, a news feature announced a new coach for the Buckeye Football Team, Urban Meyer. He was hired for a contract worth over $27 million for four years hard labor.

Okay, you might call it sour grapes. My husband used to be a mathematics professor at Ohio State, doing hard labor for peanuts, relatively, measured in the thousands of dollars, rather than millions. Yet no one in the entire world, not just America, could do the exact same academic discipline in mathematics as my husband could do because he invented it. We left. He's at a much better place at Princeton University.

Back then, Columbus, Ohio, seemed football-crazy every fall. All the traffic lights were green around the stadium after a game. Hotels filled, food sources benefited…Obviously, nothing has changed about the way the University rewards the sports program for tourism and entertainment reasons.

Which other country on the entire planet, at a major university funded primarily through taxes, had fans who agreed that a coach of a single sport deserved greater rewards of money and outside benefits than the most brilliant scholars at that same university and the President? The practice is widespread across America, I hear, and how crazy is that?

Imagine if this scenario were turned around. Supposing football became associated with the least prestige and monetary reward within the university? Suppose many of the players received life-threatening concussions from playing the sport? As a consequence, wouldn't decent citizens take pity on the players and, with a flash of decently good conscience, stop the program? But I'm dreaming of utopia.

Ohioans and the parents of Ohio State University students keep cheering for football. They pay their football to the detriment, at the cost, of the primary university function -  the teaching and researching duet, as my family can attest. They their football coaches on an ivory pedestal. Professors aren't paid much, aren't on an ivory pedestal, because the sports program needs the money, or so the rumor mill says.

And exactly what is the history of American football?

Modestly it expanded from a game history suggest was played between Harvard and McGill University in 1874, following an earlier 1859 game between Princeton and neighboring Rutgers University. That's it! It is popular, but it doesn't have the history of many venerated fields of discipline that the university is mandated to provide to students to provide a worthwhile education.

The sport of American football is new, unproven, and anti-academic. The culture is clubby, jock-strapping, and unfriendly to women except as cheerleaders. Paying astronomical rates to sports coaches at universities is also new, and completely newsworthy. Why have universities taken to rewarding sports at the expense of academic pursuits? It's insane.

Private universities do not focus on  popular football mega-events, not on the same scale. Certainly, football programs sell tickets and may fund other sports programs if that's true. But that doesn't mean they should lack oversight and authority by the university administration and boards.

I think universities are unbalanced when they reward sports more than the disciplines that they ethically, often with government funding, have the mandate to fulfill.

And exactly where are girls, women, females, children, and infants, in all this talk of football? Forgotten, irrelevant, useless, unnecessary???...

If Helmets Aren't Enough To Protect Players, What's the Solution?

Dear National Hockey League Commissioner:

Picture of a canary bird and a coal miner

Why deny overwhelming scientific evidence that brain injuries in hockey players are caused by the sport? Why be so bold except to protect your future business?

More important: what is your solution?

                 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today, an important article in the New York Times concerns the tragic death of a 28-year-old hockey star. Scientific proof has made into fact some suspicions deeply-held by many, that sports stars are dying in record numbers from degenerative brain diseases. Doctors who analyzed and studied his brain tissues and brains of similar sports stars believe there is no longer any doubt whatsoever that many sports cause and worsen health issues that can lead to needless premature death. Such brain diseases are diagnosed posthumously.

The business of sports in general continues to expand. At the same time lingering health issues of living players are ignored and categorically denied by bosses because players get   injured and treat themselves in different ways. The sports business depends on denying  such problems, but morally, it's wrong.  It's obvious to see the problems that degenerative health issues would imply for the world of sports.

I say SHAME on all those who profit from blood sports -- "blood" being contact sports that injure the brains and bodies of players for life outside the game. Pure greed is easy to recognize.

My best wishes and condolences go to those families who have made the ultimate sacrifice for any sport.

Luckily, this is not my personal problem. In my family unit, we prefer not to watch blood sports.

Does Driving Encourage Premarital Sex?

In countries where women have been driving for generations, the answer is negative. We wonder where the science could be behind that idea? We in the western world believe just as premarital sex encourages more premarital sex, driving encourages more driving....They are two different activities.

Does the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia sincerely want more drivers? Perhaps that is the real issue in such countries that do not encourage women to drive.  Everyone has to be persuaded with good reasons, which I give below because I believe Saudi Arabia should encourage women to drive.

Driving is a good skill to learn and can make girls safer if they have the option of not entering a car with drivers they do not feel comfortable with, and so they will not be kidnapped. 

Driving for women is an important human right and a good idea, and of course, they need to have the option of driving lessons.

If women drive, they can, among other activities:

1) help drive their families for food shopping

2) drive sick and old women who feel safer with a young girl

3) drive cars to schools

4) take pets to veterinarians and drive horse vans

5) go shopping for food and clothing by themselves

6) girls can safely go to movies with their girlfriends

7) some women prefer to drive enormous trucks and help the economy

They might be safer at night in their own car than in a bus, walking, or driving in someone else's car. They can use their own car if the other driver is not a safe driver or does not wish to drive, or they do not wish to enter a certain car. Of course, they have to learn how to drive, follow the legal rules of the road, and practice safe, defensive driving.

As a mother of two girls in New Jersey, both of mine have learned to drive, and have their own cars. They learned to drive first in classroom lessons, and then instructor-led outings in a car with dual brakes. Rules of the road here are so strict that girls and boys cannot drive until they are seventeen, and only fully when they are eighteen. Many teenagers delay driving a little longer...Students growing up in New York City itself often do not learn how to drive at all.

We want what we want, and life doesn't always give us what we want even if we deserve it.

Shame On Republican Disablers of Female Power

Shame on those ugly elitist tramps swinging through Washington, and calling themselves politicians.

Women are going to die on floors of botched abortions because of their mistakes, according to former Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Another law in this over-litigated society called the "United States" of America is going to hurt women.

This has been a hard week for women internationally, however the news is sliced, diced, or spread...Beautiful Mme.Tymoshenko of Ukraine, with her adorable blond braid, sentenced to jail for seven years, despite achieving a pact to provide heating in freezing winter months for her people. What's up with that aberration of justice?

And that actress in Iran who was sentenced to death...for ACTING?

We hear about those Ugandan child murders on the rise...

It makes me wonder how on earth American Republican men (and they are primarily men) expect women to put up with their gross misjudgments. Of course, Republican men passed a law against women. They shouldn't have had any say in abortions in the first place.

SHAME, SHAME, SHAME ON THEM FOR hating WOMEN THAT WAY!

Let's hope the British government does the right thing and allows women to succeed the British throne. As if Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth weren't the United Kingdom's longest running monarchs, if memory serves.

On Kirtan Chanting

Those of us privileged to attend a yoga/writer's retreat  in Vermont recently as I did also learned Indian chanting  during our evenings, and benefited from sing-alongs led by a lovely, talented singer usually known simply as Yvette, or sometimes Yvette Om.

Yvette

I have been learning her chants by heart, aided by her CD "Into the Arms of Love" which I highly recommend. It is available at her website to order online, and makes the perfect gift for any yoga enthusiast, or buy it as background music, for meditation...She sings haunting Kirtan lyrics with the aid of her harmonium, other singers, and other musical instruments, such as the violin and sitar. 

Yvette

Please take a moment to buy it. You will soon find yourself adding quick chants throughout your busy days, and probably long, slow, chanting meditations,  as well.... Songs with titles like Sri Ganesha, Om Gam Ganapataye Namaha, Hey Ma Durga, Om Narayana, Om Namah Shivaya..Yvette's lovely lyrics will relax you when you allow her music to move you...

Is Mormonism a Cult?

Today, I am missing Sunday services at Washington National Cathedral. I like to listen to them for the quality of the service, the sermon, and the music. I will miss Cathedral Dean Lloyd's leadership.

Please give generously to Washington National Cathedral as they make repairs following the earthquake and subsequent hurricane.

Is Mormonism a cult?

Cult: a system of religious beliefs and rituals regarded as unorthodox.

The latest assertions of a Republican saying that Mormonism is a cult has me thinking. Even though I am not a Republican, and it matters not who said made this accusation, I am a Christian.

I also believe church and state are separate entities and should remain such. Wars have been fought over that division. At the same time, this is my platform to discuss my views on Mormonism, and you are most welcome to visit.

Mormonism has certain givens up front, aspects many mainstream Christians, including me, find very disturbing:

1. It's not inclusive and diverse...as this picture illustrates:

Mormon Tablernacle Choir and Orchestra

Even if a few diverse groups have joined recently, I remain skeptical. Assertions to that effect wouldn't cut it with me.

2. Why is it not ever going to be truly diverse?

Mormonism is elitist at heart and in principle, and only allows certain people to join because of their genetics and family history. It does not allow those who simply want to join if they change their beliefs. Newcomers would not be accepted into the inner sanctums with their children. 

3. Mormonism believes in Prophets alive until recently. That doesn't happen in Christian denominations. All our prophets died thousands of years ago...

4. Some of the initiation rites, the marriage bed pictured in online photos, if true, and marriage practices of taking multiple wives, if true, are still  rumored to be going on.  These practices are illegal, and can be unconstitutional and hurtful to under-age or female participants.

5. Certainly, Mormons might consider themselves different children of God by choice and aspiration, but how free are they in the eyes of the world if they aren't allowed in principle to do normal American activities inside America? What's so wrong with drinking coffee or tea from Starbucks,  for example, or drinking a bit of wine?

6. No other church gets involved in uniforms and undergarments for general participants. To me, that makes it suspect and leaves it outside the Christian umbrella. God is supposed to love us at all times.

6. Mormons look at The Book of Mormon as their primary authority. Christian churches, in stark contrast, use the Holy Bible as their primary authority.

I am not going to delve any more deeply into the religion and invite quibbles. Any one of the above reasons would be sufficiently major to make most individuals around the world eschew it and take it out of consideration if they wanted to make a change.

Ultimately, I do not think Mormons are free enough to be happy and flexible,  either, even if they are children of God (as we all are), because freedom to change and join religions is an important and useful value.

To conclude, even if the religion works for some, and Mormons feel cozy in their beliefs, nevertheless, in my final analysis, yes, ultimately Mormonism is a cult as well as a religion. What it is not is mainstream Christianity, and most American Christians I have spoken to believe it is not Christian. What do you believe...Is Mormonism a cult?

Again, please give generously to Washington National Cathedral.

American Healthcare Systems Needs Overhaul To Focus on Fair Access and Healthy Futures

The world will read this blog post, and probably correctly call their own health care system superior to the American model, despite any improvements that may have already been enacted here.

Doctors in America work in a system in which they routinely and unwisely lose interest in their patients and get away with it. Medical doctors in America refer their patients around other doctor's offices without caring about outcomes just because they don't have to, and get paid for it.

They do not automatically, and only rarely, request a follow up return visit. They just seek payment for referrals of patients to other doctors and forget who matters. I have had doctors at all levels do that, and it makes me angry at their irresponsibility. They don't get paid for caring. They get paid more for other so-called services, like ripping people apart in surgeries, whether or not they have had their medical education in the United States.

They are in it for the money, and they are not supposed to be and should care more for their patients. They do not know if patients have followed up on their ailments and they don't care if  patients don't follow the recommendations -- sometimes because patients can't afford to. If patients don't get treatment, doctors wouldn't know or care. I know because I have been treated that way, too, and I supposedly have good insurance that covers catastrophic incidents.

American medicine is a joke for most Americans, even me, a vacuous hollow of the good health care system the country could have if it ever got its act together. It is an extremely poor, inefficient system, as it has been for at least thirty years since I have lived, fortunately healthily, for the last thirty years in this country.

Here's a good example of a gross inefficiency of the medical system overall...Someone who has insurance in one state has to pay the bills for health services rendered in another state.

That's exactly what happened to a good, old friend of mine, my former cleaning lady, who lives in Florida and pays health insurance there. When she visited her daughter on holiday, she had emergency gall-bladder surgery in New Jersey. A couple of months later, she has been billed for more money than she makes in a year in Florida.

A little background: she was visiting her daughters in New Jersey  when she was admitted. They looked after her when she was discharged from the hospital. She lives alone in Florida, so it was actually better for her to have the operation in New Jersey and stay afterward with her daughter's family. She also knew and trusted some of the doctors who performed the operation because she used to work cleaning the hospital for thirty years and felt familiar with it. Another of her daughters works at the hospital...

Which brings us back to the paperwork and the expenses  she submitted from  her New Jersey hospital that are now being rejected by her Florida insurer. Does this make sense to charge her to pay more for a required procedure than she can  make in one year? In her sixties, she labors in a job requiring a lot of physical effort. She might have spent a few more expensive days in the hospital in Florida had she done the procedure in that state. She would certainly had a lot more personal trouble since she hadn't anyone to help her post-discharge. She is understandably disputing her bills.

In an even more extreme case, an article called "Stuck in Bed for 19 Months, at Hospital's Expense" in the New York Times today tracks a case in an extravagantly inefficient American health care system that lacks accountability for long-term patients without insurance. The profiled patient had previously made $400 in cash each week, and been abandoned by his wife and children who could not afford his care, although he ultimately returned home.

"For the $1.4 million in services that [the hospital] had provided, total reimbursement to the hospital from Medicaid was $114,000...

If he had been insured or immediately eligible for Medicaid or Medicare, he might have gone to a nursing home after a week or two, where the average daily cost in New York is about $350 — and where he might have had steady companionship. Or he might have received a home health aide in his apartment, which could have cost even less, depending on the required hours. 

For hospitals---that treat many illegal immigrants, the health care plan enacted last year does nothing to solve this liability...During debates about reform, lawmakers insisted that the plan’s benefits not extend to the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants...Nor is this likely to change."

Hospitals keep patients and can't efficiently care for them; they don't automatically transfer them to less expensive  locations. This inefficiency is another example that hospitals fail to address. Even if hospitals say they don't have the money, by not improving this practice they have, in fact, consciously condoned it. They  actually allow patients  like him to stay at a place that normally charged over USD$2,000 a day instead of  forcing them to transfer to another  less-expensive alternative at $350 a day.  Why are the 'powers that be' not ashamed of this administrative malpractice. Why are they not held accountable for their inefficiency?

Either expense will appear nonsensical and outrageous to my international audience.  Yet, America lacks the business and political will to improve health care. Meetings between hospital, long-term care facilities, and the government should have taken place to care for this patient instead of making me, a taxpayer, help pay for his excessive bill and their mistakes. Let's face it, many mistakes have been made that have not been corrected yet. There should be financial incentives to reward results in the best interests of the long-term health and longevity of the patient. Successful diagnoses  obviously need to be followed through with intelligent treatments. Treatments and results matter to patients. America has a system where doctors are better rewarded for referrals and invasive surgery than long-term results, and have the wherewithal to sway politicians with graft.

If you are an international visitor, or on business, in the United States, and happen to land in the hospital, these extremely high bills will have to be paid.

What about patients who are airlifted to safety only to have to pay more than they can afford? They have no choice but to pay, unless covered by the appropriate insurance.

Instead of being an intelligent, broadly inclusive health care system, the bureaucratic rules are unintelligible at times, disconnected, and open to inconsistency and misinterpretation on an individual level. 

It should have made taxpayers in America revolt by now. Oddly, that has not happened. Businesses could not change the health care system; the inefficient American health care system has led giant car companies to bankruptcy.

Sensible rules to reward follow ups and make records of results need to be formed by the government,  as the British and Canadian governments did after the Second World War, or else all that is left is inefficiency and chaos. The rich might or might not pay for high end treatments, but every taxpayer loses overall in the American health care system. And that's not being caring, charitable, or compassionate to patients. For this reason, the American government must rule where businesses do not for the greater good of all patients. I just hope I don't get sick; the risks of getting sick are too horrific and expensive for me to imagine.

Washington National Cathedral's Jarring News

Here's a copy of a letter from the National Cathedral today. I hope they don't mind if I reprint it since it offers clues of the recent earthquake-related damages. From the pictures I am posting, the damage appears to have pushed pieces to lower sections of the roof rather than onto the ground. It makes me wonder whether it was planned that way, and proved a tremendously good idea if it was. Fortunately, the rose window pictured online in last Sunday's service, and indeed all 231 stained
glass windows, were spared in whole.  

Interior of Washington National Cathedral 

Dear Friend,


The National Cathedral sustained significant damage
yesterday in the biggest earthquake to hit the East Coast in more than
70 years. Fortunately, no one was injured and damage to the interior
seems to be limited. Every assessment indicates that the Cathedral is
structurally sound, but the exterior has suffered visible damage.


As a special friend of the Cathedral, we want
you to be informed with the latest updates about this national
treasure. To learn the latest information, visit www.nationalcathedral.org.


Here is what we know so far about damage
to the building's exterior:

• Three of
  the four pinnacles on the central tower, at the highest point of the
  Cathedral, have broken off—luckily onto the roof, which is reinforced by
  concrete.


• Some of the flying buttresses also
  suffered major cracks, especially around the historic apse at the
  building's east end. The extent of that damage is still unknown.


• One large finial fell from the northwest tower onto the
  Cathedral lawn. Due to its size and weight, gravity has lodged it into
  the ground.


• A number of the Cathedral's beautiful
  exterior sculptures and carvings were damaged, particularly on the
  central tower.

An updated photo and
video gallery showing details of the earthquake damage is now available
for you online.


As we assess the damage and begin the hard
work ahead, please visit our website for continual updates: www.nationalcathedral.org


Thanks to your help, our efforts to
rebuild and restore the nation's Cathedral start today.

Interior of Washington National Cathedral

 Actual photographs of the damage can be seen on the Cathedral website here and here. Meanwhile, we'll just have to stay tuned. Dean Lloyd is magnificently handling the challenge, as always. Now if only he could stay... 

UPDATE: The Atlantic and The Washington Post have interesting reports.