GrouchyOldMan's New Writeups

ObamaCare and the GOP Alternative (essay)

2009-11-06T17:01:43Z

Getting Grouchy

I guess I am getting a little more grouchy lately, whether from the simple cantankerousness of aging, or being driven to distraction by a world that seems to have lost its mind. I'm a self-confessed NewsWonk and my daily routine includes at least scanning a dozen or so news sources each day. The problem is that lately, there's not a single "above the fold" news topic on which I agree with the mainstream media consensus opinion. Either I'm suffering the first humiliations of OldTimers, or things are getting pretty loopy out there.

Here's an example. The Republicans put forward a health care reform bill for consideration by the House of Representatives. It's about 200 pages long, and available online for anyone to read at: http://www.gop.gov/solutions/healthcare. That's newsworthy in and of itself considering…

Death Panel (essay)

2009-08-31T21:09:15Z

The Death of Discourse

It strikes me as sad that America seems to have lost the ability to have a rational discussion right at the time we need it the most. Polarization, distrust and the mendacity of committed ideologues from both sides has crippled our communal thought process and left us at the mercy of partisan politics. We've been inundated with finely honed hyperbole that spins the facts, dodges direct questions and distorts the issues while tugging at our emotions.

The current push to reform our health care system is a case in point and the specific subject of "Death Panels" is an excellent example of the problem. President Barack Obama has complained repeatedly in recent weeks about the "misinformation" being disseminated about his plan to reform health care. As one example of this misinformation, President Obama has mocked the notion that death panels are included in the bill as a right-wing scare tactic…

Are personal messages protected by copyright? (person)

2009-07-29T18:31:01Z

I was asked to research the issue of whether the recipient of a personal communication (letter, email, E2 /msg etc.) has the right to publish the received materials or if the original author of the communication retains copyrights to the content.

This is a murky area of copyright law, but I found some clarity at the Publishing Law Center website: http://www.publaw.com/biography.html

Here's their review of relevant precedents:

Copyright Infringment

Allegations involving copyright infringement frequently occur when the author of an unauthorized biography makes use of the subject's published or unpublished letters and papers or possibly from oral conversations the author may have had with the subject.

In Salinger v. Random House, Inc., the author's use of extensive quotations from unpublished letters written by J.D. Salinger, the subject of the biography, without Salinger's permission was deemed to be

…

Zen in the art of fly fishing (essay)

2009-07-20T16:21:37Z

House of sand and biting flies

I wandered over to the Herring River marsh this morning to find the place infested with no-see-ems, and some guy with a surfcasting rig in MY SPOT on the bridge. Inauspicious beginning to the day, especially in light of the hard rain all night and thickening storm clouds on the horizon. I found myself grumbling under my breath and turning down a path that led me towards curmudgeonly solitude. As I stopped to step over the railing I happened to look up and was struck by the quiet beauty of the saltmarsh. Little terns were diving into a ball of baitfish and an egret stood on one leg pondering the water flowing past him. Fishing.

I felt the cranky lines in my face dissolve into a smile as I remembered that this wasn't really about catching fish anyway. My spirit was at peace again and I slowly turned back up the path towards the bridge, amenable to a little…

Spring is Beautiful (idea)

2009-01-31T00:13:45Z

Spring is beautiful

how many times will it be recited?
like the pledge of allegiance
indivisible and mumbled

- Igloowhite, Spring is beautiful

A worthy question, how many times indeed? At the risk of being obvious I'd say: As long as it is true.

Spring IS beautiful in the most fundamental way. The emergence of new life from the low frigid ebb of winter is one of life's most primal lessons. Any individual can experience the beauty of Spring directly, using their own senses. There is no need for assistance or interpretation of Spring's beauty, just objective, first hand observation. Spring actually is beautiful and virtually every healthy creature…

slow food (idea)

2008-10-21T00:19:55Z

"Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity."
~Voltaire

The Oppposite of Fast Food

The Slow Food¹ or Local Food movement has been pushed by chefs, gardeners and those who appreciate good food worldwide. In the words of the official SlowFood.org website:

Slow Food is an idea, a way of living and a way of eating. It is a global, grassroots movement with thousands of members around the world that links the pleasure of food with a commitment to community and the environment.

Or, in the succinct words of USA Today, "Slow food is everything that fast food is not." There are currently over 200 chapters of Slow Food USA, all focused on promoting a connection between the food we see on our plates and the…