California, Angela Merkel, and Dancing With a Train

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I was thinking of California and Angela Merkel today.

Los Angeles County is being hammered by wildfires, causing damage on an epic scale. The destruction is heartbreaking and it will only get worse in the coming days. There are stories of bulldozers being deployed to push aside cars abandoned by fleeing residents so that emergency crews can be deployed.

For California, like much of the West, fire and water are a fact of life. However, California has a very poor track record when it comes to wildfire mitigation tactics, allowing fuel loads to build on forest floors and in canyons.

Then there is the issue of water. In a state where five years of precipitation can fall within a single year, dams and water systems are essential to capture that bounty before it flows into the Pacific. Yet it will take nearly 20 years, if ever, to build water systems that are already funded. A dam may  be made of of concrete but it is constructed through red tape.

All of this lack of preparation is combined with a dearth of first responders, fire hydrants running dry, and a lack of crisis leadership. Watch the following clip of the LA Mayor, trying to respond to a reporter’s questions.

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At Long Last…

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… and probably too late for the largest portion of the British ruling cadre (such as it is, and to include their national establishment media, political and intellectual class) to emerge with any honor and credit – now that the industrial-scope sexual trafficking and abuse of mostly white lower-class British girls at the hands of Moslem and Pakistani men has blown up into an international concern. Abuse which was enabled and hastily buried away from attention because .. well, musn’t hurt the delicate feewings of a favored minority class by pointing out rampant lawlessness on their part. One mussent point anything so infra dig, don’tcha know, because they are an essential and obedient voting bloc for the Ruling Cadre … and the segment of the population that they prey upon are so … (shudder) deplorable. I mean, one just doesn’t! It would be so raaacist…

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Enslaved by Devices, 1920s Version

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One frequently observes people who appear to be the captives of their phones and other screen-based devices, and many concerns have been raised about the effects of this behavior. Reading Merritt Ierley’s book “Wondrous Contrivances: Technology at the Threshold”, I was amused to see the following passage in a chapter about a letter written in the mid-1920s concerning the then-new technology of radio. The letter was sent to NYC radio station WEAF by a man whose family had just acquired a receiver:

It is 5:25 PM–you have just finished broadcasting; you have practically finished breaking up a happy home.  Our set was installed last evening.  Today, my wife has not left her chair, listening all day.  Our apartment has not been cleaned, the beds are not made, the baby not bathed–and no dinner ready for me.

A little quick on the trigger, I’d say…good grief, they’d just gotten the radio the previous evening.  I wonder what happened over the next few days, and how common this experience/reaction was.

Some reactions, though, were much more positive about the influence of radio.  Writer Stanley Frost thought radio had the ability to reach out to “illiterate or broken people,” making them “for the first time in touch for the world around them,” and reprinted a letter received by WJZ in Newark:

My husban and I thanks yous all fore the gratiss programas we received every night and day from WJZ…The Broklin teachers was grand the lecturs was so intresing…the annonnser must be One grand man the way he tell the stories to the children.

And in an article titled ‘Radio Dreams That Can Come True’, Collier’s Magazine asserted hopefully that radio could lead to a “spreading of mutual understanding to all sections of the country, unifying our thoughts, ideals, and purposes, and making us a strong and well-knit people.”

Thoughts?

Random Thoughts (6): Cam Skattebo Edition

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One

Several months I wrote about the changing sociology of college football. I decided that with the conference realignments, NIL money, and transfer portal nonsense it was time to dedicate my Saturdays to something more useful like taking naps or digging holes in the backyard.

Then just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.

My hometown ASU had its greatest season in 30 years. Picked to finish last in the Big-12, it not only won the conference championship but gained a spot in the college playoffs where it took Texas to the brink.

This great story was personalized by the most compelling college football player in years, Cam Skattebo. Cam didn’t receive a single FBS scholarship offer coming out of high school and instead started his college career at FCS Sacramento State as linebacker. He transferred to ASU, switched to running back and became a human wrecking ball. Take a look at the highlights from the Big-12 championship game against Iowa State and last week’s playoff game against Texas.

With ASU out, I’m done with college football for good. For reals this time.

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Joe Awards Some Medals

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Joe Biden seems to corrupt, if not destroy, everything he touches. However, with the recent announcement of Presidential Medal of Freedom awardees he might have done some good.

I don’t care for the Medal of Freedom program. The basic concept is good, to recognize “an especially meritorious contribution to (1) the security or national interests of the United States, or (2) world peace, or (3) cultural or other significant public or private endeavor. However, the execution thereof has become somewhat comical.

Take a look at some of the past awardees. Barack Obama awarded 118 medals, more than any other president, and to such “notables” as Jean Kennedy Smith and Angela Merkel, who has reminded the world that while you can take the girl out of East Germany you can’t take East Germany out of the girl. There was also one for Marlo Thomas, no doubt for having to put up with Phil Donahue for all those years. The real shrieker was the one for Joe Biden. In fairness, there were some strange ones for Republicans as well. Can anyone give a reason for Trump picking Devin Nunes?

So, what was originally a good idea, to recognize truly exceptional people who have had an extraordinary impact on the country and the world, has now come perilously close to something between a political gesture and a participation trophy.

So let’s turn to Joe Biden and his prior picks.

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