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Saturday, February 6, 2010
Thursday, February 4, 2010
JJ: Bassing
My family probably started bass fishing before they moved to Montana, as the South has a plentiful supply of Largemouth. Some of my earliest memories were of Grampa Streit and Uncle Bill and the strings of bass they brought home from the slough.
Uncle Rudy selected my first fishing pole, a Shakespeare spin-cast rig. Actually he got me my second rod too, after I snapped the first one off in the car door a couple of days after I got it. Mom paid for them but had Rudy buy them.
Rudy was an avid fisherman, and for many years towed an old Herter's fiberglass boat with an Evinrude 18hp outboard around the valley. He used that boat till the day it shifted on the trailer and the tire wore a hole in it, then upgraded to a newer aluminum boat.
The bass in the slough spawned in the ponds -- potholes -- on Louden's island, and would congregate just off the entrances in the spring waiting for the water to get high enough for them to swim into the spawning grounds. Rudy discovered that trolling a small fluorescent orange spoon was the best method for catching them then, and Mom and Aunt Minnie and I followed his lead. We caught a lot of bass.
A little later in the spring, I used to love fishing for them with a topwater plug called a popper. Cast it out, let it sit for a couple of minutes, then twitch it. When the ripples died out, reel it in a bit and twitch it again. Repeat, till the lure was back at the boat or a fish struck it. When a bass would hit the plug it would go airborn instantly, and continue to jump and fight till it was in the boat. Sometimes they wouldn't bite the lure, but would bat it with their tails. In either case, it gave me an instant adrenaline hit that I never got from trolling or fishing other lures.
After the spawning season I used to go out in the evening and putt along in the boat parallel to the shore and cast a plug in. Once in a while I would misjudge the distance and the lure would go over a limb, and once in a while a bass would see the lure danging in the air and come clear out of the water to grab it. I rarely landed one that struck that way, but I had a lot of fun trying.
The bass used to lay in the shadowed water under those low limbs waiting for prey, and I suspect they got more than one bird that way.
When the water was at its warmest, the bass would congregate in the entrance to the slough, taking advantage of the colder river water there. They were extremely shy then, and it took real sneaking/stalking to get up close enough to drop a lure in without spooking them away.
Rudy often used a rubber worm in the weeds when the water was low and warm, but I never had much luck with that method of fishing.
In late grade school and through the high school years I spent every available minute out on the slough. The flood of 1964 ended the great bass fishing for quite some time, and work and the military kept me off the water for a number of years. By the time the bass population recovered I'd lost interest in fishing.
TBC
(Me)
Uncle Rudy selected my first fishing pole, a Shakespeare spin-cast rig. Actually he got me my second rod too, after I snapped the first one off in the car door a couple of days after I got it. Mom paid for them but had Rudy buy them.
Rudy was an avid fisherman, and for many years towed an old Herter's fiberglass boat with an Evinrude 18hp outboard around the valley. He used that boat till the day it shifted on the trailer and the tire wore a hole in it, then upgraded to a newer aluminum boat.
The bass in the slough spawned in the ponds -- potholes -- on Louden's island, and would congregate just off the entrances in the spring waiting for the water to get high enough for them to swim into the spawning grounds. Rudy discovered that trolling a small fluorescent orange spoon was the best method for catching them then, and Mom and Aunt Minnie and I followed his lead. We caught a lot of bass.
A little later in the spring, I used to love fishing for them with a topwater plug called a popper. Cast it out, let it sit for a couple of minutes, then twitch it. When the ripples died out, reel it in a bit and twitch it again. Repeat, till the lure was back at the boat or a fish struck it. When a bass would hit the plug it would go airborn instantly, and continue to jump and fight till it was in the boat. Sometimes they wouldn't bite the lure, but would bat it with their tails. In either case, it gave me an instant adrenaline hit that I never got from trolling or fishing other lures.
After the spawning season I used to go out in the evening and putt along in the boat parallel to the shore and cast a plug in. Once in a while I would misjudge the distance and the lure would go over a limb, and once in a while a bass would see the lure danging in the air and come clear out of the water to grab it. I rarely landed one that struck that way, but I had a lot of fun trying.
The bass used to lay in the shadowed water under those low limbs waiting for prey, and I suspect they got more than one bird that way.
When the water was at its warmest, the bass would congregate in the entrance to the slough, taking advantage of the colder river water there. They were extremely shy then, and it took real sneaking/stalking to get up close enough to drop a lure in without spooking them away.
Rudy often used a rubber worm in the weeds when the water was low and warm, but I never had much luck with that method of fishing.
In late grade school and through the high school years I spent every available minute out on the slough. The flood of 1964 ended the great bass fishing for quite some time, and work and the military kept me off the water for a number of years. By the time the bass population recovered I'd lost interest in fishing.
TBC
(Me)
Saturday, January 30, 2010
JJ: Photos from the Past
Mom & Dad's wedding day: Tom Riedel, Dad, Mom, Mary (Pat) Riedel
Mom with me.
Dad with me.I often wonder, had he lived, if he would have been happy with the way I have turned out. Perhaps some day I will know.
Then again, I suspect I'd be a different person if he had not died so soon, when I was just two.
TBC
(Me)
Friday, January 29, 2010
Crouching What? Hidden . . . Huh?
This latest craze in Vampire Romances and Supernatural Stuff in general is getting amusing. It tickles me when all the competition forces publishers to use tricks like this.In case this goes over your head, I am referring to the cult movie, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, that came out in 2000 and which the above title obviously draws on.
.
I blame Anne Rice, Stephanie Meyer and Bram Stoker. Harlequin has even hopped on the train with their new Paranormal Romance series.
And all this proves to me is that romance really does suck.
(Me)
Thursday, January 28, 2010
The SOTUS, 2010
That speech will make history for Justice Alito's mouthing of "Not true" during Obama's very unclassy attack on the Supreme Court and for the fact that Obama, a constitutional law professor, was also factually wrong.
In his attack on SCOTUS, he said "And it's time to put strict limits on the contributions that lobbyists give to candidates for federal office. Last week, the Supreme Court reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests -- including foreign corporations -- to spend without limit in our elections. "
Oops. Congress passed the Foreign Agents Registration Act in 1996, which prohibits independent political commercials by foreign nationals or foreign companies. And that law that SCOTUS struck down has been controversial simply because it was unconstitutional, violating the First Amendment.
It was also interesting because Hilary wasn't there.
FACT CHECK: Obama and a toothless commission
By CALVIN WOODWARD
The Associated Press
Published: 8:36 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2010 Small Type
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama told Americans the bipartisan deficit commission he will appoint won't just be "one of those Washington gimmicks." Left unspoken in that assurance was the fact that the commission won't have any teeth.
Obama confronted some tough realities in his State of the Union speech Wednesday night, chief among them that Americans are continuing to lose their health insurance as Congress struggles to pass an overhaul.
Yet some of his ideas for moving ahead skirted the complex political circumstances standing in his way.
A look at some of Obama's claims and how they compare with the facts:
___
OBAMA: "Starting in 2011, we are prepared to freeze government spending for three years. Spending related to our national security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will not be affected. But all other discretionary government programs will. Like any cash-strapped family, we will work within a budget to invest in what we need and sacrifice what we don't."
THE FACTS: The anticipated savings from this proposal would amount to less than 1 percent of the deficit — and that's if the president can persuade Congress to go along.
Obama is a convert to the cause of broad spending freezes. In the presidential campaign, he criticized Republican opponent John McCain for suggesting one. "The problem with a spending freeze is you're using a hatchet where you need a scalpel," he said a month before the election. Now, Obama wants domestic spending held steady in most areas where the government can control year-to-year costs. The proposal is similar to McCain's.
___
OBAMA: "I've called for a bipartisan fiscal commission, modeled on a proposal by Republican Judd Gregg and Democrat Kent Conrad. This can't be one of those Washington gimmicks that lets us pretend we solved a problem. The commission will have to provide a specific set of solutions by a certain deadline. Yesterday, the Senate blocked a bill that would have created this commission. So I will issue an executive order that will allow us to go forward, because I refuse to pass this problem on to another generation of Americans."
THE FACTS: Any commission that Obama creates would be a weak substitute for what he really wanted — a commission created by Congress that could force lawmakers to consider unpopular remedies to reduce the debt, including curbing politically sensitive entitlements like Social Security and Medicare. That idea crashed in the Senate this week, defeated by equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans. Any commission set up by Obama alone would lack authority to force its recommendations before Congress, and would stand almost no chance of success.
___
OBAMA: Discussing his health care initiative, he said, "Our approach would preserve the right of Americans who have insurance to keep their doctor and their plan."
THE FACTS: The Democratic legislation now hanging in limbo on Capitol Hill aims to keep people with employer-sponsored coverage — the majority of Americans under age 65 — in the plans they already have. But Obama can't guarantee people won't see higher rates or fewer benefits in their existing plans. Because of elements such as new taxes on insurance companies, insurers could change what they offer or how much it costs. Moreover, Democrats have proposed a series of changes to the Medicare program for people 65 and older that would certainly pinch benefits enjoyed by some seniors. The Congressional Budget Office has predicted cuts for those enrolled in private Medicare Advantage plans.
___
OBAMA: The president issued a populist broadside against lobbyists, saying they have "outsized influence" over the government. He said his administration has "excluded lobbyists from policymaking jobs." He also said it's time to "require lobbyists to disclose each contact they make on behalf of a client with my administration or Congress" and "to put strict limits on the contributions that lobbyists give to candidates for federal office."
THE FACTS: Obama has limited the hiring of lobbyists for administration jobs, but the ban isn't absolute; seven waivers from the ban have been granted to White House officials alone. Getting lobbyists to report every contact they make with the federal government would be difficult at best; Congress would have to change the law, and that's unlikely to happen. And lobbyists already are subject to strict limits on political giving. Just like every other American, they're limited to giving $2,400 per election to federal candidates, with an overall ceiling of $115,500 every two years.
___
OBAMA: "Because of the steps we took, there are about 2 million Americans working right now who would otherwise be unemployed. ... And we are on track to add another one and a half million jobs to this total by the end of the year."
THE FACTS: The success of the Obama-pushed economic stimulus that Congress approved early last year has been an ongoing point of contention. In December, the administration reported that recipients of direct assistance from the government created or saved about 650,000 jobs. The number was based on self-reporting by recipients and some of the calculations were shown to be in error.
The Congressional Budget Office has been much more guarded than Obama in characterizing the success of the stimulus plan. In November, it reported that the stimulus increased the number of people employed by between 600,000 and 1.6 million "compared with what those values would have been otherwise." It said the ranges "reflect the uncertainty of such estimates." And it added, "It is impossible to determine how many of the reported jobs would have existed in the absence of the stimulus package."
___
OBAMA: He called for action by the White House and Congress "to do our work openly, and to give our people the government they deserve."
THE FACTS: Obama skipped past a broken promise from his campaign — to have the negotiations for health care legislation broadcast on C-SPAN "so that people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituents, and who are making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or the insurance companies." Instead, Democrats in the White House and Congress have conducted the usual private negotiations, making multibillion-dollar deals with hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and other stakeholders behind closed doors. Nor has Obama lived up consistently to his pledge to ensure that legislation is posted online for five days before it's acted upon.
___
OBAMA: "The United States and Russia are completing negotiations on the farthest-reaching arms control treaty in nearly two decades."
THE FACTS: Despite insisting early last year that they would complete the negotiations in time to avoid expiration of the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty in early December, the U.S. and Russia failed to do so. And while officials say they think a deal on a new treaty is within reach, there has been no breakthrough. A new round of talks is set to start Monday. One important sticking point: disagreement over including missile defense issues in a new accord. If completed, the new deal may arguably be the farthest-reaching arms control treaty since the original 1991 agreement. An interim deal reached in 2002 did not include its own rules on verifying nuclear reductions.
___
OBAMA: Drawing on classified information, he claimed more success than his predecessor at killing terrorists: "And in the last year, hundreds of al-Qaida's fighters and affiliates, including many senior leaders, have been captured or killed — far more than in 2008."
THE FACTS: It is an impossible claim to verify. Neither the Bush nor the Obama administration has published enemy body counts, particularly those targeted by armed drones in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region. The pace of drone attacks has increased dramatically in the last 18 months, according to congressional officials briefed on the secret program.
(Me)
In his attack on SCOTUS, he said "And it's time to put strict limits on the contributions that lobbyists give to candidates for federal office. Last week, the Supreme Court reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests -- including foreign corporations -- to spend without limit in our elections. "
Oops. Congress passed the Foreign Agents Registration Act in 1996, which prohibits independent political commercials by foreign nationals or foreign companies. And that law that SCOTUS struck down has been controversial simply because it was unconstitutional, violating the First Amendment.
It was also interesting because Hilary wasn't there.
----------
The Associated Press put together this synopsis of Obama's speech versus known facts.----------
By CALVIN WOODWARD
The Associated Press
Published: 8:36 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2010 Small Type
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama told Americans the bipartisan deficit commission he will appoint won't just be "one of those Washington gimmicks." Left unspoken in that assurance was the fact that the commission won't have any teeth.
Obama confronted some tough realities in his State of the Union speech Wednesday night, chief among them that Americans are continuing to lose their health insurance as Congress struggles to pass an overhaul.
Yet some of his ideas for moving ahead skirted the complex political circumstances standing in his way.
A look at some of Obama's claims and how they compare with the facts:
___
OBAMA: "Starting in 2011, we are prepared to freeze government spending for three years. Spending related to our national security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will not be affected. But all other discretionary government programs will. Like any cash-strapped family, we will work within a budget to invest in what we need and sacrifice what we don't."
THE FACTS: The anticipated savings from this proposal would amount to less than 1 percent of the deficit — and that's if the president can persuade Congress to go along.
Obama is a convert to the cause of broad spending freezes. In the presidential campaign, he criticized Republican opponent John McCain for suggesting one. "The problem with a spending freeze is you're using a hatchet where you need a scalpel," he said a month before the election. Now, Obama wants domestic spending held steady in most areas where the government can control year-to-year costs. The proposal is similar to McCain's.
___
OBAMA: "I've called for a bipartisan fiscal commission, modeled on a proposal by Republican Judd Gregg and Democrat Kent Conrad. This can't be one of those Washington gimmicks that lets us pretend we solved a problem. The commission will have to provide a specific set of solutions by a certain deadline. Yesterday, the Senate blocked a bill that would have created this commission. So I will issue an executive order that will allow us to go forward, because I refuse to pass this problem on to another generation of Americans."
THE FACTS: Any commission that Obama creates would be a weak substitute for what he really wanted — a commission created by Congress that could force lawmakers to consider unpopular remedies to reduce the debt, including curbing politically sensitive entitlements like Social Security and Medicare. That idea crashed in the Senate this week, defeated by equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans. Any commission set up by Obama alone would lack authority to force its recommendations before Congress, and would stand almost no chance of success.
___
OBAMA: Discussing his health care initiative, he said, "Our approach would preserve the right of Americans who have insurance to keep their doctor and their plan."
THE FACTS: The Democratic legislation now hanging in limbo on Capitol Hill aims to keep people with employer-sponsored coverage — the majority of Americans under age 65 — in the plans they already have. But Obama can't guarantee people won't see higher rates or fewer benefits in their existing plans. Because of elements such as new taxes on insurance companies, insurers could change what they offer or how much it costs. Moreover, Democrats have proposed a series of changes to the Medicare program for people 65 and older that would certainly pinch benefits enjoyed by some seniors. The Congressional Budget Office has predicted cuts for those enrolled in private Medicare Advantage plans.
___
OBAMA: The president issued a populist broadside against lobbyists, saying they have "outsized influence" over the government. He said his administration has "excluded lobbyists from policymaking jobs." He also said it's time to "require lobbyists to disclose each contact they make on behalf of a client with my administration or Congress" and "to put strict limits on the contributions that lobbyists give to candidates for federal office."
THE FACTS: Obama has limited the hiring of lobbyists for administration jobs, but the ban isn't absolute; seven waivers from the ban have been granted to White House officials alone. Getting lobbyists to report every contact they make with the federal government would be difficult at best; Congress would have to change the law, and that's unlikely to happen. And lobbyists already are subject to strict limits on political giving. Just like every other American, they're limited to giving $2,400 per election to federal candidates, with an overall ceiling of $115,500 every two years.
___
OBAMA: "Because of the steps we took, there are about 2 million Americans working right now who would otherwise be unemployed. ... And we are on track to add another one and a half million jobs to this total by the end of the year."
THE FACTS: The success of the Obama-pushed economic stimulus that Congress approved early last year has been an ongoing point of contention. In December, the administration reported that recipients of direct assistance from the government created or saved about 650,000 jobs. The number was based on self-reporting by recipients and some of the calculations were shown to be in error.
The Congressional Budget Office has been much more guarded than Obama in characterizing the success of the stimulus plan. In November, it reported that the stimulus increased the number of people employed by between 600,000 and 1.6 million "compared with what those values would have been otherwise." It said the ranges "reflect the uncertainty of such estimates." And it added, "It is impossible to determine how many of the reported jobs would have existed in the absence of the stimulus package."
___
OBAMA: He called for action by the White House and Congress "to do our work openly, and to give our people the government they deserve."
THE FACTS: Obama skipped past a broken promise from his campaign — to have the negotiations for health care legislation broadcast on C-SPAN "so that people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituents, and who are making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or the insurance companies." Instead, Democrats in the White House and Congress have conducted the usual private negotiations, making multibillion-dollar deals with hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and other stakeholders behind closed doors. Nor has Obama lived up consistently to his pledge to ensure that legislation is posted online for five days before it's acted upon.
___
OBAMA: "The United States and Russia are completing negotiations on the farthest-reaching arms control treaty in nearly two decades."
THE FACTS: Despite insisting early last year that they would complete the negotiations in time to avoid expiration of the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty in early December, the U.S. and Russia failed to do so. And while officials say they think a deal on a new treaty is within reach, there has been no breakthrough. A new round of talks is set to start Monday. One important sticking point: disagreement over including missile defense issues in a new accord. If completed, the new deal may arguably be the farthest-reaching arms control treaty since the original 1991 agreement. An interim deal reached in 2002 did not include its own rules on verifying nuclear reductions.
___
OBAMA: Drawing on classified information, he claimed more success than his predecessor at killing terrorists: "And in the last year, hundreds of al-Qaida's fighters and affiliates, including many senior leaders, have been captured or killed — far more than in 2008."
THE FACTS: It is an impossible claim to verify. Neither the Bush nor the Obama administration has published enemy body counts, particularly those targeted by armed drones in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region. The pace of drone attacks has increased dramatically in the last 18 months, according to congressional officials briefed on the secret program.
(Me)
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
JJ: Lucky One
In a few weeks I'll be 64 and beginning my my thirty-first year here in the store. This, combined with some recent deaths that touched me, has prompted some introspection and a long look back over the years.
I guess I can sum up my life so far in one word: Lucky.
Folks that really know me or have browsed through my autobiographical "HOM" blog posts know that I have had my ups and downs, though I've tried to emphasize the Ups more than the Downs.
Most of the bad things that have happened to me have been my own fault; a result of my carelessness, stupidity, ignorance or poor judgment. Most of the good things that have happened to me I have not deserved.
I was lucky in my family, my mother and aunts and uncles that watched over me and took time to be with me. I was lucky in the things that did or didn't happen to me when I ventured out into the world. I was lucky in the friends that I made -- there weren't many of them, but they were good ones.
Considering the chances I took so many times -- not "Hold my beer and watch this" events but things I did in the normal course of having fun -- I am very lucky to be alive. There were a lot of close calls and a lot of "Whew!" moments.
Even the "bad" things that have happened to me have seemed to turn out well. For example, my marriage, which was the most damaging thing I have ever been through, led me directly into the book business and gave me a vocation I love, as well as a daughter and grandson that I am very proud of.
I was spared the horror a lot of guys went through in Vietnam, and I guess I came away from that bloody country with a little greater sense of self worth and the realization that maybe I wasn't a big a coward as I thought I was. I was lucky.
I was lucky that Gordon and Lois Nail came into my life. I know that the years since would have been far different if it was not for their influence. Without them, I would be either dead or in prison by now.
I was lucky in the way Donal Grant and Gordon and Uncle Paul took an interest in me and taught me some vital lessons in what it meant to be a man. Each of them tried to set an example for me. Examples I've never lived up to, but that's beside the point. They sure did their best for me.
Lucky too in having a God that loves me and a hyperactive Guardian Angel!
TBC
(Me)
I guess I can sum up my life so far in one word: Lucky.
Folks that really know me or have browsed through my autobiographical "HOM" blog posts know that I have had my ups and downs, though I've tried to emphasize the Ups more than the Downs.
Most of the bad things that have happened to me have been my own fault; a result of my carelessness, stupidity, ignorance or poor judgment. Most of the good things that have happened to me I have not deserved.
I was lucky in my family, my mother and aunts and uncles that watched over me and took time to be with me. I was lucky in the things that did or didn't happen to me when I ventured out into the world. I was lucky in the friends that I made -- there weren't many of them, but they were good ones.
Considering the chances I took so many times -- not "Hold my beer and watch this" events but things I did in the normal course of having fun -- I am very lucky to be alive. There were a lot of close calls and a lot of "Whew!" moments.
Even the "bad" things that have happened to me have seemed to turn out well. For example, my marriage, which was the most damaging thing I have ever been through, led me directly into the book business and gave me a vocation I love, as well as a daughter and grandson that I am very proud of.
I was spared the horror a lot of guys went through in Vietnam, and I guess I came away from that bloody country with a little greater sense of self worth and the realization that maybe I wasn't a big a coward as I thought I was. I was lucky.
I was lucky that Gordon and Lois Nail came into my life. I know that the years since would have been far different if it was not for their influence. Without them, I would be either dead or in prison by now.
I was lucky in the way Donal Grant and Gordon and Uncle Paul took an interest in me and taught me some vital lessons in what it meant to be a man. Each of them tried to set an example for me. Examples I've never lived up to, but that's beside the point. They sure did their best for me.
Lucky too in having a God that loves me and a hyperactive Guardian Angel!
TBC
(Me)
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