Odd Days: When I get old, buy me a motorcycle

Some people laugh when an old fart goes out and buys a Harley. Or when they see an old fartess riding a bicycle down the street. Well, you won't catch me laughing. I have every intention of being one of those fartesses...when I get old.

So I thought of this because my father asked me to buy him a mobile phone for Hanukkah. Although I've always thought of my dad as an adventurer, he never managed to jump securely onto the technology bandwagon. He takes flying leaps, clings by his fingertips for a short time, then lets go and falls haplessly back into old habits. (This is in marked contrast to my mother who owns and uses every new gadget invented over the last three decades.) I know this about my father because Durf gave him a mobile phone some years ago. We have no idea where that phone is, but I can assure you that my father never put his fingers on the keys. Moreover, he has been using a *corded* phone his entire life.

He might be 85, but things are about to change:





And that's the way it's going to be for me, too. I have adventures scheduled out for the next 20 years or so. But the time will come when I'll undoubtedly retire my bicycle. At that time my nieces and nephews will probably be looking around for something to keep me engaged with the world. I'm putting them on notice. Buy me a Harley!

Song.

Pakistan and testosterone.

I was just thinking that I should blog something, since I haven't in a while. And my last few posts were on voting and capital punishment, not exactly big yuks. Ideally my funny bone would kick into action now and I'd write something whimsical and smart, but it doesn't seem to be happening. So I'll plod through another annoying topic, Pakistan.

Pakistan is really irritated with us right now because NATO accidentally killed 24 of their soldiers. Maybe they could overlook that, because shit happens, but they were already pissed because we offed Osama bin Laden - not that we didn't have even more reason to be pissed because they were hiding him. But, as the illustrious Michelle Bachmann said, Pakistan is too nuclear to let fail, which seems to be the prevailing opinion.

I don't buy it, though. My first inclination is, "Let's just nuke them into a parking lot and start over." But that is just testosterone talking, and really is much to my dismay. I have a love/hate relationship with testosterone that more often falls on the "hate" side.

So, what to do? Currently we give Pakistan billions of dollars a year, while their citizens burn our flag and call us the Great Satan, or whatever the current term is. Since the accidental killing of the soldiers, even the Pakistani leaders are jumping on that bandwagon. For all we spend on aid and our military, the pissant bureaucrats who run Pakistan seem to be in control. We are blackmailed by their nuclear weapons and strategic location.

As a general principle, it is wrong to give in to blackmail. And so it is with Pakistan. I think it's time to stop paying them to treat us like the weak kids in the hallway. Turn off the aid and impose sanctions.

What about the nukes? It's about time that we realize that eventually terrorists will get nuclear weapons. You can't put the genie back in the bottle. The money we give Pakistan would go a long way toward securing our borders against terrorists. More important, we must negotiate from a position of power, not cowardice. It is almost certain that someday we will suffer another horrible terrorist attack. The best defense against that, as it was in the Cold War, is the threat of retaliation.

It's a frightful and depressing situation, but 2 = 2.

Odd Days: Thanksgiving

The last time I went to Bellingham, I whined about how much I don't like Bellingham. So this time I'm not going to do that. Even though it rained and blew coldness at us the entire time we were there. Even though the casinos STILL ALLOW SMOKING.

But there are excellent reasons to go to Bellingham for Thanksgiving. First, there is:



















Dad's annual martini. And second..


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Dad's annual phone call to all living family members. And third...























The incomparable Mount Rainier (when you can see it). And finally...

















There is the return to Colorado and its incomparable beauty!
Sappy maybe, but entirely true.

SheSez: No Capital Punishment, Part II

I have this urge to respond to two of Durf's comments and then offer up a final conundrum.

First a small quibble. I do *not* believe that most of those who abjure capital punishment are more concerned with protecting the guilty than the innocent. I suspect that the majority are fearful of executing an innocent. But even if it were the case that the majority simply oppose executing another individual, I'd be willing to bet it is more about the issue than the individual. Certainly true in my case.

As for the emotional response, I can't say I feel sorry for those who have committed murder and are about to die. I am, simply, horrified that we see execution as a solution to one of society's problems.

Now the conundrum. What do we do with murderers if we don't gas, hang, shoot, or fry them? Lacking a better solution, I thought dropping them (all of them) onto Gilligan's Island would work for me. Drop them and forget them. Of course if any of them build a boat and try to return to civilization, I guess we'd have to shoot 'em.

He Sez: Capital Punishment, Part 2.

The arguments against capital punishment are, as always, that it is more important to save the guilty than to protect the innocent. Just as drunk drivers are sometimes sentenced to view numerous photos of horrific traffic accidents, perhaps those opposed to CP should be required to view photos of the victims of capital crimes. That might remind them that there is more at stake than a squeamish feeling in their stomachs.

There are only two reasons to think that CP is barbarous: religion and emotion.

The religious statement is that all human life is special and must be protected. Fine, believe what you will.

Even rational people, however, are subject to the tugs of emotion. Preservation of the species is the strongest human instinct, even stronger than preservation of self, so when we see someone in a vulnerable position it is usual and normal for us to want to save them. When Saddam Hussein was found in a hole in the ground, picking fleas from his scraggly beard, I saw many letters and op-eds expressing sympathy for him. The same did not occur after the assassination of Osama bin Laden, perhaps because we did not see him in a vulnerable position and our emotions were not aroused.

To become a superior society we have to give precedence to our intellects, not our hearts.

SheSez: No Capital Punishment

I am strongly against capital punishment (of the killing variety), but unlike Durf, I fear my reasons are more emotional than rational.

That's not to say I haven't considered the pros and cons he describes. And I've even formed an opinion or two. For example:

1. Durf suggests that although capital punishment is not currently a deterrent, it could become so. But I am of the opinion that killers are a different breed. I would be very surprised if a quick execution would serve as a deterrent.

2. As for disproportionately executing minorities of one sort or another, I do believe it is directly related to capital punishment. When a capital crime is committed, there is a blood lust response by the public and law enforcement. Someone has to pay. And I believe society finds it a lot more comfortable to pull the trigger on members of certain groups rather than others.

3. And finally there is the fear of executing the wrong person. But I wonder...are all wrongly convicted people created equal? For example, suppose the wrongly convicted person was a criminal. Is it less awful if he is wrongly executed? (I sat on the jury for a gang murder once and fully half of the members wanted to vote for conviction because even if the kid did not commit the murder, he was a bad person and belonged in jail anyway.) I too am horrified at the thought that an innocent might be executed. But it's not something I want to fix. It's just one more reason for abolishing capital punishment altogether.

Which brings me to why I am against capital punishment. Simply this: Most horrifying of all is the notion that we as a society might choose to solve one or more of our problems by killing another person. It's the ultimate in barbarity.

As to the alternative, I'll save that for another day.

He Sez: Capital Punishment.

I am *strongly* in favor of capital punishment. I think every politician in Washington should be thrown out of office because… oh, the other capital punishment.

Like abortion, CP is a life-or-death issue that inflames people's passions. CP opponents say that it is immoral, that it brings government down to the level of the criminals, that its imposition is racially biased, that errors are made, and that it is too expensive. I am neither for nor against CP, but there are logical arguments in its favor.

First, if anyone opposes CP because of their religious faith, so be it. Faith and logic are incompatible, and I do not question anyone's faith - not out loud, that is. But if religion is not part of your equation on the issue of CP, please read on.

The primary argument in favor of CP is that it is a deterrent. Persons contemplating committing a capital crime might be less inclined to do so if they knew they were risking their own lives. The current data do not support that hypothesis. Crime rates in states that have or do not have CP are essentially the same. Another argument is that CP is too expensive when considering all the legal hurdles that must be met. Both of those arguments are valid, but only because of the way CP is currently administered.

A person arrested for, say, murder knows that she would not face execution for many years, during which legal appeals would proceed. Furthermore, only a small percentage of those sentenced to death are ever executed. Those facts essentially eliminate the deterrence aspect of CP and put great strain on our legal system.

My proposal is that any person sentenced to death would be executed within 6 months after sentencing. Then not only would the threat of CP become a more effective deterrent, but also the process would be significantly less expensive than confining someone to prison for life.

Are blacks disproportionately sentenced to death? Perhaps, but that is a problem with our legal system that is not directly related to CP.

Is CP immoral and does it reduce the status of government? I argue strongly that it is not and it does not. The real question is whether it saves innocent lives, which it surely would do if executed promptly. A criminal might be ambivalent about the prospect of life in prison, but would surely find it hard to ignore the prospect of being dead within half a year. Lost in the argument that CP is immoral is the real immorality of putting many innocent lives in danger.

It is true that many persons sentenced to death have been vindicated, generally by the relatively new science of DNA analysis, which is now available at the time of trial. Nevertheless, it is realistic to assume that mistakes would be made and occasionally an innocent person would be executed, a tragic result. That is a small price, however, when compared to the hundreds or even thousands of innocent lives that could be saved by the deterrence that CP could and should have.

Humans will always make mistakes, but that should not stop us from trying to do the right thing, and the right thing clearly is to try to protect as many lives as possible.

Odd Days: Felled by Eccentricity

I've been meditating on the eccentricity comment by Anonymous. Perhaps there is a kernel of truth there.

I suppose nowhere is my eccentricity more apparent than in my pursuit of physical activity. I'm a junkie, I admit it. One of the reasons we moved to Colorado was so that I could be among my own kind. That's not to say I'm skilled at all of my endeavors. Quite the contrary. But what I lack in innate ability, I try to make up for in willpower and brute force. I suppose that's where the eccentricity starts to show.

In college, I made the basketball team, not by being a good shooter or a deft passer. I did it by being the roughest toughest girl on the court. Opponents would see me coming down the court straight at them and drop the ball out of sheer terror.

As a runner, I certainly have an eccentric style. I barely lift my feet off the ground, which means I can trip over a dime. And because I'm always looking at the scenery instead of the road, I spend a lot of time in splat position on the pavement.

And then there's dance. Whereas some might yearn for k.d. lang's skill, I want to be Savion Glover in my next life. Although aware that I haven't a graceful bone in my body, over the years I have stubbornly heeded Milton's clarion call, "Come, and trip it as you go, on the light fantastic toe." So when we moved to CO, I took up Zumba and tap. Determined not to fall behind, I practiced salsa and brush strokes *endlessly* in our basement. One can only do this at my age if you have OCD. The result: twisted knees and tortured hamstrings.

My bicycle injuries are unprintable.

Most recently I've taken up weightlifting for the feeble, fully expecting to look like Linda Hamilton one day soon.

I guess I'll cop to the eccentric charge.