Feeling Like My Old Self Again

Last night I was up until 2:30.

Yesterday I spent most of the day working on a difficult writing project.  I'm having my website, as well as the blog here, completely redesigned from scratch.  When I started the project with John David, I didn't realize quite what I was in for.  Turns out, he's not just a web designer; he's a marketing guy too, and he's chock full of good ideas.  So he sent over this Creative Brief that was a few pages long, with lots of questions written out in italics having to do with my objectives, my audience, and their demographics, and some particularly difficult questions about brand character and the competition (!)

During our initial conversation about the Brief, I had to have him explain the concept of brand equity to me.  After a little simple math, I calculated my brand equity at about $1.95.  So, it turns out there's lots of room for improvement around here in the Online Personal Brand Development department -- and now I have a Pro on the case!  As we wrapped up the conversation, I thought he would be ready to get off and running, but he managed to turn the tables on me at the last minute.  "Why don't you take this document and write out your responses and send it back to me," he said.  It seemed like a completely reasonable request at the time, but in reality it was a challenging assignment, to say the least.

I've been working on it over the past few weeks, sort of off and on, when I haven't been sick with the pneumonia or drowning in student work to grade.  Yesterday was my self-imposed deadline for getting it done and back to JD.  This coming weekend is ATLOSCON, and I absolutely had to get the Creative Brief out of my hair before then, otherwise it would have been 2 more weeks of delay.

My writing-a-difficult-essay process works like this:  I write a bit, maybe for half an hour or so, then get hungry or thirsty.  So I allow myself to go to the kitchen and get some noms.  Then I come back and write some more.  Then I decide to put on some music, but usually have a hard time finding the right thing in my iTunes.  Sometimes I can write to music but  it usually has to be something I'm not that familiar with, or it will distract me too much.  The late Beethoven piano sonatas can be good to write by, as they are more contemplative, I think -- except for the Hammerklavier.  Then I write some more.  I have given up being bothered by my wandering mind's interruptions.  I think my subconscious just needs some breathing room sometimes, and it lets me know, when the flow of ideas gets interrupted.

After a bit more writing, I will have a sudden realization about a particular passage in a Beethoven piano sonata, and have to go look up the Wikipedia article to get an answer.  Yesterday's Beethoven distraction had to do with the structure of the second movement of his Piano Sonata #5 in C minor, Opus 10 No. 1. (Wikipedia describes the movement as having sonatina form - meaning a simplified sonata form with no development section.) I've been studying that sonata lately; it's an interesting one because it is an early work, and it foreshadows many of his future compositions in C minor, like the Grand Sonata Pathetique, the 5th Symphony, and his lesser-known 32 Variations in C minor (among others).  Now that I'm sitting here thinking about it, I've had to put on the Coriolan Overture (also in C minor) to see if I can find any similarities there.  (Coriolan always makes me feel like I'm in a spy movie.  It has a dramatic element that sounds like Jason Bourne doing parkour over the rooftops of Berlin, alternating with a tender, somewhat more romantic (but still dramatic) second theme.)

See?  I'm doing it right now.  I'm trying to write this blog post, and Beethoven has me completely under his spell.  Anyway, I finally got through my writing project yesterday, reread and edited it, and sent it off.  Then I shifted gears around dinner time and took the dogs for a long-ish walk over in Echo Park.  We don't tend to go over there for walks, but I like that area, and my thoughts of moving out of this house have returned (along with recent reports from neighbors that the dog that attacked Paul and I last year has been seen loose in the neighborhood again).  So, you could say we were doing a bit of reconnaissance towards the idea of possibly moving, perhaps next year sometime.

All afternoon, I'd been hitting the coffee pretty hard. After our walk, I was pretty excited about all the good work I'd gotten done, and my brain was still snapping along pretty well, so I resumed working on my ATLOSCON talk.  This involved going back through old photos, deciding what images to re-scan, and realizing that I had my own new photographs of Louis Sullivan's Auditorium Building, as well as his Chicago Stock Exchange Trading Room, which was installed at the Chicago Art Institute after the Stock Exchange was tragically torn down in the '60s or '70s.

I just worked right on through until about 1:45, and finally decided I really should go to bed if I wanted to be at all productive today.  By the time I finally got into bed and watched a couple of videos online to help my brain turn off, it was 2:30.  Somehow I woke up at 7 feeling good.  I was expecting to be completely dragged out and hungover feeling, but I'm surprisingly refreshed today.  I even tried going back to bed after feeding the dogs, but it just wasn't working for me.

Since I felt pretty good, I decided to started my day with a relatively light dumbbell workout, which I have done a few times over the past few weeks, now that my thumb has returned to mostly-normal after my surgery back in early February.  Working out first thing in the morning always gives me a tremendous sense of efficacy, and it really is the best way I can think of to start the day.  Perhaps today will mark the start of the return of that excellent habit.

Then I was checking out my Google Reader feed, and saw this excellent post from Trey, on the objectivist virtue of integrity.  It's really a solid, thoughtful bit of writing.  He observes,

The simplest possible definition or explanation of the virtue of integrity that I can offer is this: consistency.  Integrity is about always always always pursuing your values in the same way according to the same principles.

Reading it really helped me resolve a lot of the things I've been wrestling with over the past few months.  Basically, since the middle of January, I've felt completely down and out, first from the hand surgery and recovery, which was closely followed by the bout of pneumonia.  This has definitely been one of the most depressing periods of my life; I think it has rivaled 2004, which I refer to as my Dark Year.  At least this latest experience was relatively short-lived by comparison.

Towards the end, Trey sums up with, "Integrity is about serving your larger goals.  This is why when I stop to think about my career, I am always absolutely ruthless. "  This just completely hit home for me.  

I've had a clear sense over the past couple of weeks, as I've returned to work and seen some new opportunities opening up for me, that the clouds were parting and the sun was coming back out again.  But there were nagging doubts lingering in my mind, just like the cough lingers as your lungs work to get all the junk out after the pneumonia has cleared up.

But today is different.  I'm through indulging in any more self-doubt.  It really is an indulgence that I simply cannot afford any more of, and am no longer willing to engage in.

Today the sun is back out, and it's shining down on me.  And it's the same sun and same blue sky that shone down on Louis Henri Sullivan in Chicago the 1890s when he was at the height of his powers, and it's the same sun and blue sky that shone down on Ludwig van Beethoven in Vienna in the 1790s when he was writing that early C minor sonata that planted seeds for those future masterpieces.  

And now, I'm going to go out and be absolutely ruthless.



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5/24/11 Update:  Link added for John David

Israel Rally Update

Last Sunday afternoon I went down to the Pro-Israel Rally in front of the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles.  You can read the whole essay I wrote on why I was attending here.

The Consulate is located on Wilshire Blvd just east of San Vicente Blvd, and near the line between Beverly Hills and L.A.  Here is my overview of how the whole thing was set up, in the form of a marked-up satellite view:

They had closed Wilshire Blvd all the way from San Vicente on the west to Crescent Heights on the east.  I parked a few blocks north of Wilshire on San Vicente.  When I walked back, I learned that they had not just closed Wilshire to car traffic at San Vicente, but were not letting pedestrians through either.  They were diverting all pedestrians through the residential neighborhood to the north, and making them enter the rally area off of La Jolla.  I'm not sure why they did this.  Let's just say I'm sure they had their reasons, as the police presence was very heavy, and security looked extremely well coordinated.  There were LAPD, as well as Beverly Hills PD, and also lots of other private security peopleguys.

Here is a closeup of the rally area, with the area outlined in red where the crowd was the densest:

This map must be a little old because the 2 buildings on the northwest corner of the intersection weren't even there anymore.  That's where there were paramedics and TV news trucks were set up.

Here's how it looked when I arrived, taken from that northwest corner and looking southeast towards the consulate:

And another view in the crowd:

Some of the signs people were holding:

This makes a good point.  The people living in Gaza are not free,

they are living under dictatorship.  Hamas doesn't exactly 

recognize freedom of speech, for example.

'Peace Activists Don't Use Knives and Clubs'

Apparently other boats in the flotilla were boarded and

searched, without incident.  See www.FlotillaFacts.com

This is the main reason it is important to support Israel,

and this is why I was at this event. Read my previous post

for a more complete explanation.

This one is pretty self-explanatory.

Israel's enemies seek to undermine her moral right to exist and to defend herself.

This is called 'delegitimization' and is also one of the central issues of this incident.

Here is the crowd a little later, around 3pm:

Fliers & Handouts

In addition to the signs, a number of people were handing out fliers.  One very good one was from an organization called Stand With Us.  They were promoting these websites:

• www.FlotillaFacts.com: This appears to be a good source of facts regarding the flotilla that have been ignored in the anti-Israel reporting that has dominated the issue.  For example, there were other boats in the flotilla that were boarded and searched peacefully, and without incident.
• www.ShameOnTurkey.com: More info on Turkey's relationship to the whole incident;
• www.StandWithUs.com: Seems to be a general Pro-Israel information clearinghouse, specific to this organization, with info on other events and updates.

There was also an organization called the Israeli Leadership Council, promoting a project called Tzav8.org which lets you register for rallies and counter-protests that come up on short notice.  Their whole mission statement is too long to reproduce here, but I found it pretty interesting and encourage you to check them out and read it for yourself.  I plan to sign up for their emails, even if just to know what's going on in the world of protests and counter protests.  They also have a facebook page at facebook.com/tzav8.

Another leaflet I came home with was from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, titled "2010 Top Ten Anti-Israel LIES".  This one is pretty eye-opening as well, and you can read it online at www.wiesenthal.com/toptenlies

I was looking in the crowd for Gideon Reich, who I knew from the OActivists List would be there and possibly distributing some leaflets as well, but we missed each other. (It was a pretty big crowd!) He wrote up a nice blog post about his experiences at the rally, which you can read here.

The Crowd and My Overall Experience

I have to say, the overall mood was really much more of a rally or festival or celebration, than one of protest or counter-protest.  Everyone was smiling and friendly, and it was easy to approach and talk to just about anyone.

The speakers were really hard to hear, unfortunately.  That's really my only complaint.  I also found myself wishing there were a beer tent, but then I would remind myself that this wasn't really a festival, even though it seemed like one in some ways, and I could go to the bar later.

I was tweeting the whole time too, and I just found this cool app where you can revisit your old tweets, called TwimeMachine.  Through the magic (not really) of TwimeMachine, you can revisit your old tweets.  Here is a log of my tweets that day, courtesy of Twime Machine.  To read them chronologically, start at the bottom:

Crowd Size Estimate

One report I read indicated that LAPD estimated the crowd at 2,200.  At the time, I estimated the crowd as closer to 8-10,000. I thought I had tweeted that, but a quick check of my tweet log above shows that I must have been distracted or something and decided not to tweet it.  I wish I had, because my quick math shows that I was probably pretty close without going over, and would have likely won the Showcase Showdown if this were The Price is Right.

Here's how I defend my number:

I took the satellite image from above, imported it into AutoCad, and scaled it appropriately to the graphic scale shown on the map (omitted from the cropped image above.)  Then I traced a polyline around the red outline I drew.  According to ACad, the area encompassed by that line is around 50,000 square feet.

When designing a lobby or other closely packed standing space, the building code calls for 5 square feet per occupant.  50,000/5 = 10,000 occupants.

From my pictures, you can see that the crowd isn't exactly packed in shoulder-to-shoulder for that whole area, but they are that dense in some places.  Also, there were lots of people milling around outside the red-outlined area.  Plus, there were people coming and going the whole time.  So, if you took everyone who attended at some point during the afternoon, and packed them into that space, I think you would at least fill the red outlined area, if not exceed it.

So, perhaps the more accurate figure is 10-12,000 people.

The Helen Thomas Incident

There were several signs, of the homemade variety (as opposed to all those pre-printed ones I showed you above) declaring "Helen Thomas is a Nazi" and that sort of thing.  I was completely unaware of the incident of the previous Friday, and didn't really know what was up with this.  I got some info from one of the other protesters at the same time the tweet came through from my twitter friend @shlevy : "Affiliated with White House press, made a statement that the Jews should leave "Palestine" or some such."  Then I realized that I had, in fact, heard of Helen Thomas, the old lady that sat in the front row of the White House Press Corps, mainly out of tradition, but I had no idea she was such a fearless bigot.

You can always count on your tweeps to help fill in the blanks and connect the dots!

It wasn't until I got home and read the news that I realized the incident was relatively fresh, and I then didn't feel like I was out of the loop for not knowing.  I usually spend Friday and Saturday out in the workshop welding furniture, and miss out on the news those days.  If I were to sit down in front of the computer on a Friday or Saturday morning, I could blow an hour or two very easily, just indulging my inner news junkie.

Then came Monday morning's news of her retirement. I found this pretty interesting in the big-picture context.

On the one hand, Israel's government is left alone in the world, to defend her actions regarding the flotilla.  Many ships were boarded, in international waters,  to be searched for weapons and contraband.  All but one of these searches were conducted peacefully.  One erupted into the ugly spectacle we have all read about and seen video of, and for which Israel is universally condemned.  Israel has every right to conduct these searches, in the interest of her own self-defense against Hamas, and their never ending volley of thousands of rockets into Israel.  Note that these rockets have been launched after the Israeli pull out from Gaza in 2005.

Yet, on the other hand, the kind of speech delivered by Helen Thomas is resoundingly condemned and vilified, and her immediate retirement is the result.  Her speaking engagements are canceled, and she is put out of the Press Corps.

I'm sure that in the Arab world, Ms. Thomas is being celebrated.  Many accounts have surfaced that she was always known to be anti-Semitic, only that her timing and choice of words were extremely poor in this case, and they got the better of her.

Summary

Somehow, Hamas is seen by most as a legitimate body which is to be taken seriously and negotiated with in good faith.  Yet, Helen Thomas is instantly delegitimized by her own remarks, which are essentially the same thing Hamas is saying.

If only the world would wake up to the fact that Hamas and their brethren march in lockstep with Thomas and her ilk, and they mean it.  America needs to wake up to the fact that Israel's enemies are America's enemies;  that Gaza needs to be freed from Hamas; that, in fact, peace activists don't use knives and clubs; and that the delegitimization of Israel is wrong.

Only then can there be the real possibility of peace in the Middle East.


6/10/2010 Update to the Update

It has been pointed out to me that I did in fact tweet my crowd estimate, just before leaving the rally.  I somehow managed to crop my screenshot of the Twime Machine search at the wrong spot.  Here is the full tweet log, with my crowd estimate at the top:

A Small Lesson in Leadership

Today we have a true anecdote that illustrates a lesson in leadership.

The other day at the gym, after finishing up my workout, I headed into the steam room to stretch a little bit and warm down before heading home. There was no one else in there, but another guy came in just a moment later. We'll call him "the Slob". He went and sat down on one of the benches. A couple of minutes later, a third guy came in. We'll call him "the Other Guy". He sat down and we were all minding our own business.

I was stretching and touching my toes, and couldn't see what happened next, but the audio was utterly disgusting.

I clearly heard a complete, four-part SNORT -- HACK -- SPIT -- SPLAT!

It came from the direction of the Slob.

Generally, if someone so much as coughs in the steam room, I head for the door. I don't get all in peoples' faces for coughing, since I know that sometimes a lungfull of steam can go down wrong or get caught in your throat and trigger an uncontrollable cough. I just don't want to hang around in that newly-germ-laiden air.

At this point, I was not about to hang around in there after the Slob's unbelievably crass display. But what came screeching to my conscious mind in the split second before I headed towards the door was that this guy needed to be called out on his behavior. I looked up and my gaze went from the Slob to the Other Guy.  We were looking at each other, both with the same look of disbelief that said, "did that guy really just spit in here?"

I spoke up. "Did you just spit in here?"

The Other Guy followed immediately with "Yeah, did you just spit in here?"

And what do you think happened next? Did the Slob apologize? Leave the room in embarrassment? Act with any contrition at all? Amazingly, none of the above. Rather, he got defensive and belligerent. Defensive and belligerent! It actually turned into an argument!

See why I called him "the Slob"?

After a few moments of arguing about the appropriateness of spitting in the steam room (!), during which the Other Guy and I were completely unable to convince the Slob of the inappropriateness of his behavior, the Other Guy said, "That's it. I'm reporting this to the front desk." He stormed out and I followed him, not really sure where this was all going to end up, but just kind of automatically.  I certainly wasn't going to hang around with the Slob any longer, and the Other Guy might need backup.  Plus, I wanted to complain to management too, given the argument and all.  I wasn't sure whether he was going to march all the way to the front desk right then and there -- it seemed like he was maybe going to.  He was in his swimsuit, but I was only in a towel.  Anyway, off we went to complain to someone.

Often, there will be someone on staff in the locker room, whether they're just in there to use the restroom or whatnot, but at this point none was in there.  Then the Other Guy went to the phone on the wall, right next to the entrance from the main gym. I've always seen that phone but never seen anyone use it. There was a slightly comedic moment when he went to pick up the receiver. There are no instructions or anything with the phone, no sign reading "To report a spitting incident, dial '0' for an operator". It's just a phone with a keypad and some different line buttons on it. He stared at it for a second, shrugged, dialed '0' and said "Front desk? I want to report an incident. A guy just spit in the steam room..." He described the Slob, what he looked like, what kind of shorts he was wearing, etc. He told the front desk peopleguy that he had just seen the perp leave the steam room and out towards the pool. Then he said, "If you don't believe me, here's another guy who witnessed it too; talk to him" and he handed me the phone and walked away.

I took the phone and confirmed what he had said, and told them that they should throw the guy out, or at least deal with it in some way because it was completely unacceptable.  In the end, I don't know whether they threw him out or exactly what happened.  I got dressed and left, and I think the Other Guy did the same.

But here are the lessons I took away from the incident:

1. When you see something going on that isn't right, say something. Make the effort. Take a moment to bring it to someone's attention (preferably someone in a position to do something about it.) You never know when your action might inspire someone else to take action and join your effort. If I hadn't spoken out, it's quite possible that the Other Guy wouldn't have spoken out either. I certainly hadn't planned on calling the front desk. Yet, by my speaking out, the Other Guy was inspired to take even further action on the matter than I would have done.

Also, I really like my gym, and I don't want it to be the kind of place that this sort of thing can go on.  The management and staff work really hard to make it a nice place for people to work out and improve their well being, and I don't want people like the Slob bringing it down.  Hopefully the Slob will have learned some manners, although this seems dubious to me.

2. Upon further reflection, I came up with the concept of the Threshold of Outrage. People hold their own standards of what is acceptable, what is unacceptable but not worth worrying about or mentioning, and what is beyond the pale. I find that lately I have been lowering my own T of O, and it has had a lot of benefit. Especially when I can see that I do have a positive impact on things when I make the effort.

By lowering your threshold of outrage, and making the effort to speak out, one exhibits leadership - a quality that is in desperately short supply these days.

Now, go forth and speak your mind, and feel free to do so in the comments below!

Mohammed Boobquake Cartoon

Recently, over at Free Colorado, Ari Armstrong posted an excellent piece on censorship and the First Amendment.  After describing how Comedy Central caved and censored a recent South Park episode, he wrote:

Thankfully, not all Americans are prepared to cower in some corner as terrorist goons shred the First Amendment and impose theocratic censorship. Some Americans are taking a stand.

Dan Savage proposed May 20 as "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day." This idea has been picked up by Michael Moynihan at Reason and Allahpundit at Hotair.

I propose only a slight modification to the plan: to protest death threats made by freedom-hating terrorists, Americans should draw Mohammed -- and publish their drawings -- by May 20.

I was all set to draw up a little Mohammed cartoon and put it up in time for the event.

Then, from out of nowhere, we had the BoobQuake!  Recently, an Iranian prayer leader scolded women who dressed immodestly, claiming that it was the cause of earthquakes.  One Jennifer McCreight blogged about it and then created a Facebook event around the idea, saying:

Time for a Boobqauke.

On Monday, April 26th, I will wear the most cleavage-showing shirt I own. Yes, the one usually reserved for a night on the town. I encourage other female skeptics to join me and embrace the supposed supernatural power of their breasts. Or short shorts, if that's your preferred form of immodesty. With the power of our scandalous bodies combined, we should surely produce an earthquake. If not, I'm sure Sedighi can come up with a rational explanation for why the ground didn't rumble. And if we really get through to him, maybe it'll be one involving plate tectonics.

So, who's with me? I may be a D cup, but that will probably only produce a slight tremor on its own. If you'll be joining me on twitter, use the tag #boobquake! 

She wrote up a more lengthy explanation on her blog here.   You can also read a quick summary over on Mashable, which is where I first discovered it.  I encourage you to join the Facebook group if you haven't already.

There is so much to love about the whole BoobQuake phenomenon (even for a gay guy like me!)  I normally wouldn't consider such an absurd statement out of Iran to merit the dignity of any response at all.  Yet, to meet it with such an off-the-cuff, sarcastic bit of silliness, and then to have that response take off like wildfire, like a mass demonstration, like a virtual taking to the streets of women with their cleavage -- the whole thing just restores my faith in humanity in so many ways.

When I was preparing my cartoon, I did a google image search under the cleric's name, Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi.  It was actually really hard to find a picture of the guy amid all the cleavage that came up!  WooHoo!

So, I figured it was time to draw that Mohammed cartoon early, and incorporate BoobQuake at the same time.  If I can't go running around showing immodest cleavage, I can at least do this.  (I am wearing a v-neck today, but it seemed pretty clear that it was womens' cleavage that caused the quakes.  Oh well.)

So, without further ado, here are Mohammed and Sedighi discussing the events of today.  Somehow my Mohammed looks a little Jesusey.  Oh well.  It's kind of hard to figure out how to show him that anyone would get who he was. 

Anyway, I hereby grant permission to reproduce the cartoon online, provided that a link is provided back to this post, and that the cartoon is presented unchanged.

I Passed My CSE!

I have hit a major milestone.  Last Saturday I got the letter.

"Congratulations.  You have successfully completed your recent California Supplemental Examination with the California Architects Board.  Enclosed is an Application for Licensure."

Then, further down the page:

"As a reminder, pursuant to Business and Professions Code section 5336(a) you may not represent to the public that you are an architect, put out any device that might indicate to the public that you are qualified to engage in the practice of architecture, or perform any architectural services in California until you are licensed by this Board.  A violation of this section is a misdemeanor."

So, as it turns out, after all the years of school and internships, after passing the 9 exams administered by NCARB, and finally passing the CSE (also known as the Oral Exam, because it consists of being grilled by a panel of 3 architects for roughly 2 hours) I am still not qualified to practice architecture.  Sigh.  The license will be issued in 6-8 weeks.

Even though the license is not required to design single-family residences, it is required to be able to call yourself an architect.  Most states, including California, take this very seriously and enforce it vigorously.  I have always been careful about this, even including a clause in my standard contract that acknowledges that I am not a licensed architect.

It also has me feeling a little overwhelmed.  I think that is why it took me until today to reflect a bit on it here at the blog.  I have been gradually working towards this goal for nearly 30 years, which is a long time.  And now, here I am (well, almost.)  It is definitely time to step back, evaluate things, and make some decisions about what to do next.  The little things are obvious: keep working on the furniture designs, keep practicing my piano, keep writing it all in the blog.

But in the big picture, I need a new focus.  I want to grow my practice and build lots of fabulous houses, and I want to do a lot more writing about design and the practice of architecture.  I need to sit down and spend the time to formulate 5- and 10- year goals.

Also, I feel like I am at (or nearing)  decision point about whether or not to stay in California, and if not, where to go.  The regulatory regime in California (and LA specifically) is pretty iron-fisted; you end up spending huge amounts of time dealing with it, and virtually always to the detriment of the owner and/or the project (not to mention the heartburn and frustration it causes me.)  I have often found myself caught in between my client on the one hand, who wants nothing more than to finally realize a dream that they have been saving for, and working towards for years, or even decades, and now they have entrusted me with helping them to realize this dream; versus: a bottom-feeding bureaucrat who will only say "No, you can't do that" and is unwilling to provide a reason at all as to how or why the particular issue in question would cause a threat, nuisance, or harm to my client or anyone else.

I take my role of "dream realization agent" very seriously.  It is an honor to be chosen by someone to design a house for them.  It's not just designing a house - it is the creation of a shelter for their lives.  It is a tremendous thrill to be involved in such a positive expansion of the life of another.  And, I take property rights very, very seriously.  To have the government telling you what you can and cannot do with your property is a horrible perversion of the proper role of government.  Combine all this together, and you can probably see that I get very upset at some of the stuff I have to put up with, in order to practice my art.

And, I think I would be much happier, in the long run, if I were practicing in a place where the role of government in my day-to-day work life were more limited than it is here in Los Angeles, or in California.

I should also point out that, although I disagree with the regulation of my profession and the restriction of property rights perpetrated by the government, these are not worth being sanctioned by the State Board or getting thrown in jail.  I will practice within the law, whilst agitating for change.

I chose to become an architect, and am on the verge of finally realizing that goal.

Hooray for me!

Presidential Hypocracy

I was just driving home, half-listening to the news on the radio, when I was jolted to full attention by the following quote, spoken in the voice of President Barama:

“...because nothing should get in the way of a family and its doctor.”

As I said, I had only been half-listening, (maybe even only one-third-listening,) and the news broadcast switched to another subject after the quote ended.  Still, it didn’t take any effort at all for the news junkie in me to realize that he was talking about his latest efforts to get Congress to pass his healthcare legislation.

I wanted to jump up and point at the radio and shout “You Lie!” but since I was driving and it was raining, and driving in the rain in L.A. is pretty much like driving in an ice storm anywhere else in the country, I couldn’t really jump up and level my accusation.

Come on people, let’s do a little reality check here.  Is there not already a MASSIVE FEDERAL BUREAUCRACY and ENDLESS REGULATORY RED TAPE bogging down our healthcare system (and getting right in the way of a family and its doctor?)  For the President to make this particular statement, on this subject, in the context of what he is trying to do with healthcare in America, is utterly outrageous.  You can see it on YouTube here and if you scroll to 2:57 you will get the quote.  It is preceded by a pretty standard rant against the evil insurance companies, which of course completely drops the context of all the regulation that has them boxed into the dreadful state they are in these days.

Back when my Mom was still working as a nurse (Hi Mom!) I remember how shocked I was to learn that it was about a third of the man-hours of a doctor’s office that was given to regulatory compliance.  I’m sure it’s much higher now, probably close to half (or more?) as that was probably about a decade ago. 

Do we really need more of this?  How much red tape is enough?  Is there EVER enough?  The answer (from those holding the tape dispensors) is:  Clearly Not!   The problem with red tape is that the more of it you have, the more you need, to try to fix the unexpected problems that inevitably spring up as a result of the red tape applied to the problem in the first place. 

The red tape must be unraveled, not augmented.

And, there are so, so, so many good ideas out there for reforming the system, from tort reform, to reducing mandates and allowing interstate insurance competition, and encouraging those medical savings accounts, and many others, that there’s really no excuse for pretending that expanding the existing MASSIVE FEDERAL BUREAUCRACY and ENDLESS REGULATORY RED TAPE is the way out of this mess.  (Yes, I realize that if the RRT is really ‘endless’ then it is a logical contradiction to characterize it as ‘expandable’ but there are far worse contradictions at work in the halls of Congress, and believe you me, they will find a way to do it.)  And if you think this bill will somehow streamline things or pay for itself with its own efficiencies or some such nonsense, you are living in Fantasy Land.

I also fully realize that the kind of contradictory double-speak exhibited by President Barama in this example is the norm these days, and it practically comes out of just about every politician’s mouth all the time, but he is the President after all, and as such it makes him a pretty clear target for criticism.