February Showers Bring Santa Monica Flowers

It's the second or third straight day of rain in Santa Monica and this is December weather!  When the rain went from cold shower to drizzle, I took the opportunity to do my daily (sort of) walk-about.  I noticed that blossoms have started popping all over despite the still-cool temperatures!  

I don't know the name of most of these lovely plants but I am delighted by them just the same. 

Yellow flowers seem to trumpet their beauty.

Blossoming jade plant.

Even Birds of Paradise have bad hair days when it rains. 

Then there's this adventurous blossom, first on the tree to show its delicate pink, happy face.

I just love the flora and fauna of Santa Monica.  It's never dull and I am always charmed by the surprise of newly opened flowers or cactus blooms.

It's like Spring only without the Spring temperatures.  

I don't know what this is but it's wonderfully fragrant. 

This handsome, regal cactus has an about-to-blossom red bulb where a flower will soon peek through.

A wild and wonderful orange-red plant, dripping in rain. 

Santa Monica Rain

Roiling grey-black clouds

Paints macadam-like bottoms

`cross blue-sky canvas.

Rain clouds. 

Storm's here.

Walking Santa Monica

Today, I saw two interesting things during my almost-daily walk-about in Santa Monica: coins in cement and a big blue angel.  I'm somewhat aware of the story behind the big blue angel but not the coins in cement.

The big blue angel is actually a human-size sculpture that, I believe, was created as part of the 2000-2001 "Community of Angels" art project that sponsored the creation and placement of hundreds if not thousands of angels -- each one with a unique theme and name -- all over the City of Angels. 

This angel currently lives outside Santa Monica's  Angels Attic on Colorado and 5th St. 

The basic angel shape was pretty much the same although some had halos, tin man bodies or other minor variations but each was "dressed" by different artists.  There are several of these angel sculptures around Santa Monica.  I have yet to find the name of this angel (close up it looks like it's covered in mostly blue marbles).  As I recall, after the art project was officially over, many of the statues were auctioned off and moved to various locations around the Los Angeles basin.  The book, "A Community of Angeles: Los Angeles" is a photographic history of the project and its resulting angels.  Several web sites offer photos of some of these truly wonderful and imaginative angel sculptures.

Then, there are the five coins in cement.  I would never have noticed them except I happen to have stopped right by them to contemplate the state of my untied shoe.

Five coins (top to bottom, left of center) cemented into the sidewalk along Wilshire Blvd., between 11th and 12th.

I would have had to get on my hands and knees to get a really good look (and photo) of the coins but from my vantage point, they appear to be five U.S. coins that were pushed into wet cement. The coins appear to be (from curb to store front): penny, penny, nickel, penny, dime.  One wonders about the story behind the eighteen cents. 

Today in Santa Monica

I'm so lucky.  Truly lucky.  I live in Santa Monica, CA, and I LOVE where I live in Santa Monica.  To be honest, I hate how the traffic has become horrendous and dangerous because the Santa Monica City Council did not plan well for the tremendous building growth the Planning Committee has allowed -- and I hate all the ugly "industrial" high-rises the Santa Monica Architectural Review Board has inexplicably approved -- but I love living in Santa Monica.  I live just under one mile from the beautiful Pacific Ocean.  I can (and do) walk to the grocery store, dry cleaners, deli, drug store, local tavern with 2 pool tables (I just learned to play), bank, post office, Coffee Tea and Bean (or as I like to call it, "Coffee, Tea and Me") and every specialty boutique shop you can imagine.


Today as I walked to the bank, deli and grocery store, I took iPhone pics to share a little of why I love living in and walking around Santa Monica. 

Lovely pups waiting for their pack leaders to pick them up from "Healthy Spot".  

Local tavern, PJ's Sports Bar & Grill,  with 2 dart boards, 2 pool tables, jukebox, a grill and full bar.  

For the longest time I just called this place, "the bar on the corner of 11th and Wilshire"; its signage is relatively small and they have no web site -- yet it manages to do a brisk business. It's just a neighborhood tavern in the middle of Santa Monica!

This is my dream "store" 

where some of the most wonderful classic cars are shown (and sold) -- and then there's...

this wonderful red truck with palm tree reflections in the window. 

More little Santa Monica surprises to follow.

Recently I was asked this: what is the best screen kiss?  My answer: it's a tie between the Colin Firth/Renee Zellweger kiss in "Bridget Jones's Diary" and the Joel McCrea/Jean Arthur kiss in "The More the Merrier."  What's yours?

The Zen of Mr. BoJindo Sitting

Tomorrow, Friday, May 21, 2010, my beautiful daughter Nia will participate, fully capped and gowned, at Irvine Valley College's graduation ceremonies and will come away with an AS in Computer Management Information Systems.  During the time she completed the course requirement she ran a business, moved from Orange County to Northern California, qualified for her local Search and Rescue group in El Dorado county, earned several computer networking certifications and attended to the daily demands of official pack leader to the mysterious Mr. BoJindo (a Korean Jindo dog, regarded as a national treasure in Korea).  

Yesterday, Nia left Mr. BoJindo with me so I could care for him while she takes care of last minutes details.  It's one of those things I'm glad to do, not just because I love this dog, but because it's something I can do in support of Nia's efforts.  Now she can take a day or two to celebrate her achievement in public, in front of strangers and friends and me.  Mr. BoJindo won't be there and that's a shame because he's a major force of comfort, direction, distraction and discipline in her life.  He's been part of Nia's journey since 2002. 

Mr. BoJindo is an exceptionally beautiful, incredibly smart dog, rarely barks, doesn't jump up on people or the furniture and can hold his pee for 24 hours.  Despite this seemingly perfect dog, he has "rescue-dog" issues.  What ever happened before Nia rescued him from a looming date with a needle, left a scar of fear in his dog-soul that we've never been able to help him overcome. He's a much more secure dog now than when Nia first got him but certain electronic sounds -- like microwave beeps -- still result in an immediate full-body fear-freakout attack of shaking and adrenaline-induced canine escape.  The first time I left him alone in my apartment I returned two hours later to a half eaten couch.  Some sound had freaked him while I was gone and he tried as hard as he could to escape the apartment by clawing at the back door then clawing and biting at the couch which blocked a possible window escape route.  He's done much more damage in reaction to his fear -- the entire back seat of Nia's convertible has been re-decorated by Mr. BoJindo -- in that she no longer has a back seat.  He's run away many times -- once in Runyon Canyon -- but he's always returned (although it looked like he had a dispute with a coyote when he returned from the Runyon Canyon romp).
Nia takes him almost everywhere, including vigorous hiking treks, attired in his red doggy backpack.    

There's a tinge of resentment when Nia says her life has revolved around this dog -- not something she expected or wanted when she accepted the responsibility of being a rescue-dog owner -- annoyed at the memory of having to find him when he ran away, or having to teach him how to socialize with other dogs or having her car vandalized, but she never betrayed the bond that developed in Mr. BoJindo when he looked to her for his welfare.  She could have returned him to the shelter.  She could have found someone else to take him. Instead she chose to become the human Mr. BoJindo needed so this one creature could have a good life. 

Nia has been cause in the matter of Mr. BoJindo's transformation from an insecure, nervous canine who didn't seem to know how to wag his tail, to a more secure, serene, trusting companion capable of teaching -- in the way dogs teach -- us to be better humans.  Now he does a happy dance when Nia returns from some errand or puts her shoes on to take him for a walk. He actually spins in circles, snorts, jumps up in the air and twists around in one fluid movement, the whole time wagging his tail in the widest possible arc.  I want to video tape the greeting -- he only does it for her -- because if his expression isn't one of pure joy, then there is no such thing.  He has become her rescuer too.  Through lonely times, financial hardship, threatening events, exhaustion, his presence in her life created demands and discipline that made her look outside herself, that indirectly demanded she was capable of giving, of achieving, of enduring just a bit more.  In return Nia got to experience being a loving, committed, tender, powerful leader -- responsible for a life depending on and waiting for her.
With every challenge, every effort, every achievement in her life, I am ever more profoundly proud of Nia -- but the person she is today, she couldn't have become without Mr. BoJindo. 
Sacramento State has accepted Nia for the Fall semester.  I'm giddy at the notion she'll go on to complete her Bachelor's degree -- maybe even pursue a graduate degree.  I don't know.  What ever she decides to do, I know she'll do well.  For her loved ones, tomorrow's ceremony is for celebration of what she's achieved so far.  Nia's name will be called and her loved ones will rise to applaud, hoot and holler in support and appreciation.  But one loved one will not be in the bleachers.  Mr. BoJindo will spend that time at a  PetSmart Doggy Hotel for a few hours because there are no accommodations at the school for four-legged friends no matter how vital to the measure of one's character, education and achievement.  

Post script:Mr. BoJindo did not stay at a doggy hotel after all.  Instead he stayed in the car (windows rolled down and plenty of water available) in the school's parking lot. Since the event was held out doors it was easy to check on him several times to make sure he was okay.  When the ceremony was over, we got Mr. BoJindo out of the car and both graduate and companion could enjoy the occasion. 

What's all the Fuss About the F.C.C.?

Today's headlines: U.S. Courts Curbs F.C.C.'s Authority on Web Traffic

So, what's the big deal? Isn't this just big government trying to intervene with the "free market". Why should we be concerned? What's "net neutrality" got to do with me?

First -- what Comcast and the others want to do is block or discriminate against user's access to the web. If you like to visit You-Tube or Google news, your access will be limited or you'll be charged an extra fee when you do visit those web sites. These national ISPs (Internet Service Providers) are considering blocking those big bandwidth web sites when their customers reach an arbitrary amount of download for the month. So, you not only pay for the physical "pipe" and internet service provider that allows access, you also would pay for how much and what web sites you chose to visit. How long a "walk" is it to assume that, given the freedom to spend as much as they want on political campaigns, these broadband providers will block access to political blog sites, political action organizations or government web sites? It's a cheap way to control information and free speech. I know -- I am heavily influenced by George Orwell's "1984" -- I admit it. But this seems like a disaster waiting to happen gradually. This issue isn't dead. The F.C.C. may appeal the U.S. Court's decision. I hope they do -- and the F.C.C. needs to hear what tax payers think and want.

My position is, the tax payers "own" the internet.  In the same way Ford did not build the roads upon which his cars drove, Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, Time Warner, et al. did not build, create or otherwise make the internet possible. Comcast, Time Warner, Verizon, etc. were created as free market businesses that made the internet commercially viable. They created a commodity: internet access. Nothing wrong with that -- it's entrepreneurship at its best. However, the American tax payers paid for the original infrastructure via the Defense Department and many academic entities made it usable for the public via standardized protocols for internetworking, software and hardware. When the general public originally got access there were no ISPs (internet service providers). ISPs were born out of a need for easy access that didn't require the knowledge of unix. As access to the internet became more popular many local ISPs were born. As browsers and portals were developed along with a way to find web pages that only required a domain name instead of an IP address, national ISPs like AOL and Earthlink quickly became ubiquitous. Eventually the companies that marketed the physical medium (cables and phone lines) saw the dollar signs and dove into the internet by offering their own in-house ISPs to their consumers who had to have a phone line or cable connection in order to have internet access. I acknowledge that corporations made the internet commercial but without the F.C.C. as a watchdog on behalf of the tax payer, for-profit corporations will do what they want to make more money, not to make the internet more accessible, faster, less expensive, etc. As we all know public corporations have repeatedly proven they cannot be trusted or expected to regulate themselves to benefit the consumer or do what's in the public's best interest. They only regulate themselves to benefit their shareholders -- which, of course, is their job. The internet access is now as vital a communication link as phone service (the infrastructure for which was also originally paid for by tax payers) was until the internet.
If you still defend the corporations, look at history. Back when AT&T was broken up and the phone system turned over to 7 regional Baby Bells, the F.C.C. required, among other things, that each Baby Bell maintain, repair and build out the phone system infrastructure in their trust. Today there are still huge rural areas with growing populations in this country where the phone system has not improved since the 1950's. You need look no further than Victorville and Twenty-nine Palms, CA, where some residents have been told they will have to pay thousands of dollars to have Verizon bring a phone line from the nearest pole to their home so they can have a working phone. There are portions of Playa del Rey, CA, that cannot get DSL because Verizon add or install the equipment required for DSL. They've had 10 years to install the equipment but they haven't because it'll be too expensive. Yet, Verizon is decommissioning DSL equipment in areas where fiber optics has been deployed. It's hard to see Verizon's side of the argument when they make such stupid choices about the service they provide -- or won't provide. They benefit from our tax dollars (take a look at the tax breaks and federal grants these telecommunication corporations get) but, like the banks, won't ever consider the public's best interest. That would be like expecting a crocodile to be vegan. Where once hundreds of millions of Americans paid pennies in taxes to deploy phone service across the entire country, the telcos' version of "building out" is to demand a few under-served people pay thousands to have the same phone access as the vast majority in this country. Unfortunately, the "free market" can never see beyond the next fiscal quarter. It doesn't take much thought to understand it's in the best interest of everyone to have access to both phone and the internet without being charged unaffordable infrastructure or access costs.  

Had a company like Comcast or Verizon been given the contract to create a phone system across the U.S. back in the early part of the 20th Century, you can bet your last dollar only the richest individuals and corporations would have phone or internet service today. Net neutrality is not about government controlled internet access. It's about regulating what corporations do to those who pay for access. If the corporations are not regulated on behalf of the consumers, we may become like today's Italy where all the TV, newspapers and radio outlets are owned by one person -- who happens also to be the head of the country. Glenn Beck's got it exactly backwards. Net neutrality promotes and preserves free speech.

It's clear I'm not on the side of the broadband providers. I don't own stock in any public company and I work for a local privately held, family-run ISP so I'm both informed and biased in my viewpoint. If net neutrality is thwarted, my company will most likely benefit because those dissatisfied with VerizonOnLine, Comcast, TimeWarner etc. will switch to us or other local ISPs. My view is from a tax paying consumer's point of view.
We need the F.C.C to regulate the internet on behalf of the tax payers who -- knowingly or not -- paid for the internet infrastructure. There are other organizations whose view is more expansive and erudite than mine and well worth reading: FreeTheInternet.com (part of FreePress.net) and ColorOfChange.org are two. Here's a link to the F.C.C.

To be more informed, here's a site that lists arguments for and against net neutrality: http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/EPO0633.pdf. Take a read and make up your own mind.

Beating Bumper-to-Bumper Traffic

I love it!

Congress Should Abort H.R. 3962

Abortion is an extremely difficult, private and highly sensitive issue. To some it's an issue used as a political and religious rallying call for fundraising and a flash point for both the sincerest of believers and those who make a living spewing inflammatory rhetoric. This is not a simple black-or-white issue. Even those who've gone through an abortion do not all have the same opinion about whether a woman's right to choose should be governed by powerful lawmaking strangers or if a woman has the inalienable right to govern her own body.

First, despite what any man, religious leader, teacher, media mogul, doctor, social group, family member may say, this is, intrinsically, a woman's issue that must be faced at one of the most vulnerable moments in a woman's life. One might argue that regardless of the woman's situation, the choice is made under medical and/or emotional duress. Other's may be involved but until the day a male can get pregnant, pregnancy and all it's accompanying physical manifestations, conditions and complications are unique to women.  The only sacrifice a man makes to a pregnancy is a teaspoon of wriggly sperm bits. The woman's entire body is sacrificed to the effort of growing a baby. I love men, but for this topic: all men need to shut up and stay out of this issue.

According to a study of mortality rates in pregnant women, every minute across the planet a woman dies during labor or delivery. One abortion detail I've never heard thoroughly discussed is the medical necessity for abortion. All abortions are part of the medical discipline (except the egregious and illegal back alley abortions). Birth control pills and abortion pills (RU 486) -- both pharmaceuticals -- required extensive medical tests and trials as part of the Federal Drug Administration's approval protocols. Abortion is often necessary due to a condition unique to pregnant women called eclampsia where, among other causes, the fetus produces a protein that seriously endangers the mother's life. As of 2008, records show that worldwide, eclampsia is responsible for 12% of deaths in women during labor, delivery or post-delivery. Research also demonstrates that pre-eclampsia, the more dangerous variation of this condition, occurs in as many as 10% if all pregnancies. There's no sure way to predict who will be afflicted although there are some common factors. Eclampsia can occur as early as 20 weeks into pregnancy although it's more common to show up in the second or third trimester of pregnancy.   Even though this condition is as old as Eve, doctors still can only diagnose the condition and treat the symptoms (high blood pressure, blood clots, muscle aches, brain damage, pain, seizures and much more).  Despite that, virtually no significant funding campaign has been dedicated to eclampsia research so this hellacious condition can be prevention or cured. The only cure is for the mother to miscarry or give birth -- which often also kills the mother and/or the child. Other than that, the only other option a doctor has in order to save the mother's life is to remove the fetus via a surgical procedure -- which is an abortion.

With late term abortions outlawed, more women will die. I should say, more women have died because late term abortions have been outlawed. The incendiary prejudice against the procedure shamelessly spouted by religious leaders, "no-choice" groups, lawmakers and political pundits have done so at the cost of women's lives. What about those women? Don't they have any right to life when afflicted with a potentially life-threatening condition? The House health "care-less" bill, H.R. 3962 wants to exclude coverage for abortions. The bill would actually remove rights women have today. If that clause in the bill is not removed, women who are unlucky enough to be afflicted with eclampsia or pre-eclampsia will have to pay for the long term treatment and surgery out of pocket. So on top of enduring the agony of the condition, mourning the loss of a pregnancy, possibly a miscarriage or still birth, women must also cough up the tens of thousands of dollars for a procedure that saved her life.

Another potentially fatal condition during pregnancy is ectopic pregnancy where the fertilized egg imbeds in a Fallopian tube, the cervix, the abdomen, even in an ovary -- anywhere other than where it's supposed to be -- in the uterus. This happens with 1% of pregnancies. The mortality rate for a woman with an ectopic pregnancy is not as high as for a woman with pre-eclampsia or eclampsia. However, the mortality rate for the fetus is 100% because a fetus must be removed. Otherwise it will kill the mother. The removal of a fetus from the Fallopian tube is known as a tubal abortion. Another case where a condition exclusive to women -- pregnancy and all the associated medical complications -- is subject to exclusion in the House's version of the health "care-less" bill.

These are just two of the many complications and conditions unique to pregnancy, several of which require a form of abortion in order to prevent devastating or fatal harm to the mother.

The pro-choice position is to maintain the legality of a woman's right to choose what happens to her body in relation to pregnancy. The anti-abortionists want the legal rights of a fetus to trump those of the woman from whose body the growing fetus is nourished. Where is the equivalent law that trumps the rights of the male, from whose sperm the fetus is forming? The anti-abortionists want to give special legal privilege to both the fetus and the man involved in a pregnancy and remove a fundamental right from the woman who bears the fetus.

Making abortions illegal will not satisfy anti-abortionists. Some of the extremists in their crowd demand that birth control pills (not condoms) should be outlawed because birth control pills prevent sperm access to a ready egg (98% of the time). There will always be that next invasion of privacy and removal of rights over which to campaign.

Having listened to arguments on both sides of the abortion issue, it seems clear that the solution is to make abortions medically unnecessary not to just maintain the status quo or make abortions illegal or blow up abortion clinics and murder doctors while claiming to save babies. These medical conditions have killed women and babies since the first woman gave birth and are still killing our beloved women and babies. Awareness of these pregnancy-related medical conditions should be raised by both camps. Money should be raised to fund research that would cure or prevent all complications related to pregnancy. I would actually respect the "right-to-lifers" and take their message seriously if they made that effort. I would also respect anti-abortionists if they spent their collective energy manifesting an eternal fountain of wise and loving parents who would adopt, love and protect every child born from an unwanted pregnancy. Excluding abortions in the health "care-less" bill will not solve anything. It won't prevent women from needing and obtaining abortions. It won't prevent one abortion. It's likely to cause the death of more women than already die from pregnancy complications.  

Right now the anti-abortion language in H.R. 6920 occurs to me as a transparent manipulation to return women into their earlier second-class, servile chattel status.  It's not that surprising that it took 144 years after the Declaration of Independence for women to get the right to vote in this country's national elections.

But that's just my opinion -- and everybody's got one of those.

In Celebration of Civil Disobedience

In defiance of the law, Susan B. Anthony became the first American woman to cast a vote in a Presidential election on this date, November 5th, in 1872.  Thirteen days later a U.S. Deputy Marshall arrested her for voting illegally.  Her life was dedicated to assuring equal rights under the law for women. 


She didn't live long enough to see the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which declared: 

• "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."

When ever women vote in this country Susan B. Anthony lives. 

Thank you, Susan B. Anthony