A 16-Year-Old Sailing Around the World! Shame on the Parents? No.

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Friday June 11, 2010 · 6:17 PM PDT

2010/06/11 · 18:17

Abby Sunderland has been found. A rescue boat is en route to rescue the sixteen year old traveler, who had wanted to become the youngest sailor ever to circumnavigate the globe.

I think this will be a brief diary (though usually, when I say that, it turns out to be an 800-page novel). The point many will want to make about this event is that it is folly to allow a person of this age to try something of this nature. It could have ended in tragedy.

I honor this person for the attempt, and I honor her parents for allowing it. As long as it is undertaken with careful preparation, I say it's not only acceptable, it's necessary. People like Abby Sunderland and her parents are necessary.

Poll

226 votes Show Results

Should a 16 year old be allowed to sail around the world solo?

226 votes Vote Now!

Should a 16 year old be allowed to sail around the world solo?

Yes

90 votes

83 votes

No Opinion

8 votes

Only when Vetted by a Competent Authority, like the Coast Guard

41 votes

Other

4 votes

Historical Background of Israel/Palestine

Villagejonesy

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Sunday June 06, 2010 · 5:49 PM PDT

2010/06/06 · 17:49

Last night, I was responding to a diarist who was frustrated by the whole I/P conflict. After posting what turned into a very long post on the historical background, and reflecting that I'd done so often over the last few days, it occurred to me that it might be good to provide some historical background on the conflict.

THIS WILL NOT BE COMPREHENSIVE. I hope, of course, that many of the most important points will be included; but with so many incidents, over a century and a half even at the narrowest reading, I can't even hope to include most of the most important points, let alone all of them. If you feel this has left out some vital occurrence, please include it in your comments. That is why you're here. Please contribute.

And, God forbid: Listen. Listen with respect. If you're honest, you'll know that there is pain on both sides. If people feel disrespected and hated, treated with contempt, that is far more painful, more lasting, and more impossible to overlook in the interests of peace, than any beating or even murder. This is only my opinion, speaking from a comfortable armchair, but having known what it is to be hated and treated with contempt and disrespect.

Poll

54 votes Show Results

The Israel/Palestine Crisis is:

54 votes Vote Now!

The Israel/Palestine Crisis is:

Irresolvable; once blood has been spilled, it's no longer possible to make peace.

0 votes

Irresolvable; once hatred takes hold, they will hate forever.

5 votes

Resolvable, possibly; but I just don't know. The wrongs are too serious for me to be able to call it.

3 votes

Resolvable, inevitably; who can make war forever? And look at Northern Ireland. They've made peace. It will happen.

16 votes

Resolvable, but only when the groups are all separated.

3 votes

Resolvable, but only when they learn to live together.

10 votes

Resolvable, but not until blood stops being spilled.

4 votes

Resolvable, but not until hatred and sneering contempt cease.

7 votes

Other (see my comment).

6 votes

Let's Use the Oil Spill to Push Hybrids and Electric Cars

Villagejonesy

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday May 22, 2010 · 1:29 PM PDT

2010/05/22 · 13:29

I'm right in thinking that the US Government still owns 61% of General Motors, right?

A lot of us, including me, were something just short of incensed that President Obama chose to champion oil drilling off our Eastern Seaboard. We were only "saved" from this by a catastrophe so huge that it beggars the imagination.

And we all know what the oil spill in the Gulf represents (except for what we don't know, about the harmful environmental impact, for example, since what we don't yet know could fill a library).

Can we now overhaul our entire conception of oil use? Can we push for electric cars in all our cities yet? Can we use our stewardship of GM to push them to bring back the electric car they killed? Or to make more hybrids, such as those that Toyota has eaten some niche lunch with?

Gee... we need to use less oil... we run a big country... and now the country we run has taken ownership of 61% of what was the biggest auto manufacturer in the world. Shall we not connect the dots?

Poll

13 votes Show Results

The government should use its stake in GM to coordinate a massive change in our auto fleet makeup, and push electrics or hybrids

13 votes Vote Now!

The government should use its stake in GM to coordinate a massive change in our auto fleet makeup, and push electrics or hybrids

Yes! About time, government takeovers and market distortions happen anyway

7 votes

Yes! For the short term--but, once they've set it up, the government should get out of the business quickly

3 votes

No! There are other imperatives for our energy and transit policies

1 vote

No! It's market distortion, though electrics and hybrids are essential

1 vote

Yes for another reason

0 votes

No for another reason

1 vote

God I hate this "pie!" stuff

0 votes

Illegal Immigrants? Treat 'em Like North Korea Does!

Villagejonesy

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday May 21, 2010 · 6:33 PM PDT

2010/05/21 · 18:33

North Korea, the Marxist/Stalinist dictatorship? Someone wants us to be more like them? Can't be a right-winger saying that, can it?

Oh yes, they can be just that illogical.

You'll remember Ray Stevens as the author of 70s comedy songs such as Gitarzan and The Streak, the humour of which owed as much to their obviously sweetened laugh and applause tracks as to their lyrics.

Well, he's back, and weighing in caustically on the immigration question, with this song, "Come to the USA" (video below the fold).

In it, he wears a festive sombrero, and portrays himself as a Mexican illegal immigrant, coming to America to pick up all kinds of "free stuff" such as "welfare, education," health care, and other goodies.

The funny thing, though, is how much of the song is devoted to comparisons with countries such as Iran and North Korea. In these countries, he notes approvingly, the police state apparatus is so well-developed that they'll throw you in jail and "you might never be heard from agin."

So... we should be more like the Marxist police state of North Korea, then?

Poll

37 votes Show Results

Is the Economist's Guest Worker Program a good idea?

37 votes Vote Now!

Is the Economist's Guest Worker Program a good idea?

Yes! Let them all in; the door's already open for money, factories and jobs to go out, anyway

6 votes

Yes! But only some; we can't have unlimited guest workers coming in here

2 votes

No! But we need to let more PERMANENT residents in

1 vote

No! Keep the numbers the same!

0 votes

No! We need to get RID of a bunch of immigrants that are already here, too

24 votes

Alternative explanation? (I'd offer you pie, but without immigrants picking the fruit for it, you're out of luck)

4 votes

I Thought HIR Was Supposed to Reduce My Unpayable $1700 Doctor Bill?

Villagejonesy

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday May 18, 2010 · 3:37 PM PDT

2010/05/18 · 15:37

I have received a medical bill of $1700. I am unemployed, and my unemployment payments run out this month. How am I supposed to pay this?

I contended before the HIR bill's passage, as I still contend, that if those like me are still left with crushing medical bills, in any great numbers, this will damage the Democratic Party more than simply letting the bill die would have done.

The websites for Medicare, Medicaid, Medi-cal, and Healthy Families say that as a single man without kids, and not being elderly, I am ineligible for these programs. One responder on DKos said that single people without kids WOULD now be covered by Medicaid, but that website still reflects no such thing. How, exactly, am I to get help paying this bill? I can't pay it.

Villagejonesy

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday May 16, 2010 · 8:55 PM PDT

2010/05/16 · 20:55

Oh, I'm mad. I clipped out all of the entries I was going to do for this part 2 from my part 1... and then forgot to paste them before I cut something else from another document. But, well--some good with the bad, I remembered Etta James, and a lot of other good acts, because of the mistake. Hopefully I remembered enough great gospel, soul, blues, pop, and other fine acts from

THE 1960s!

That you can

DIG, MAN!

Can you dig it? If not, then do add your own links below, because that's where it's at, and that's what's happening, and that would be really just far out and groovy and gear and fab and The Most. Include your own favorite colloquial synonyms for "Good," too!

NOTE: Yes, I do blur the strict boundaries a bit. A few songs are from the early 70s, a few artists had careers that were identified with one or two or more decades, some early 60s stuff is missing, boo hoo. I don't do strict in these diaries! But please do add your own if your favorite's not here.

Enjoy!

Villagejonesy

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday April 14, 2010 · 12:17 AM PDT

2010/04/14 · 00:17

Point of Order: I've seen literally HUNDREDS of posts, by now, claiming that "it's time to get to work and hold our representatives' feet to the fire! And make darn sure they fix what's wrong with the bill!"

But...

NONE of those posts, none that I can remember reading, say which things, exactly, will supposedly be fixed later.

And, disturbingly, I've not yet received an answer when I've asked people, some of them VERY well informed, dozens of times, the following question:

There's been talk of making a new bill, to vote for or against a public option. But isn't it obvious that this will be nothing but theater? Because if not, if the President and the Speaker were going to ride herd and ensure the public option darn well passes, then wouldn't they have made darn sure it passed as part of THIS bill?

Villagejonesy

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday April 02, 2010 · 4:36 PM PDT

2010/04/02 · 16:36

Checked the date--no, it's not April Fool's Day any longer. Yes, a Florida urologist, following the Health Care Reform vote, has announced that he'll now refuse to treat Obama voters.

Doctor Cassell, of Mount Dora, central Florida, said that he wouldn't quiz patients as to their party membership, but has posted a sign, saying that if it caused Obama voters to go away, "so be it."

Poll

126 votes Show Results

Is this doctor kidding?

126 votes Vote Now!

Is this doctor kidding?

It's a free country, and he has the right to say "go away, Obama voters"

30 votes

Doctors should treat people, not segregate by political party. Israeli doctors treat Arabs, and Arab doctors treat Israelis, so this guy should get over it.

90 votes

None of the Above

6 votes

Music from the FIRST Two-thirds of the Twentieth Century--Swing Me! + More

Villagejonesy

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday March 26, 2010 · 4:01 AM PDT

2010/03/26 · 04:01

This diary was originally for the first half of the twentieth century. But the words "First Half" ended up being insufficient: so this is the first two-thirds. Some of the Coltrane and Miles Davis bits go into the 1960s.

So, don't panic if it brushes against some blues, gospel or soul, but doesn't hit what you need it to. The next part of my 1960s diary, with the Gospel, Soul and Blues will hit a lot of what I may miss here. Be patient for that! It'll come... so the borders are a little squishy. Hope you understand. But this stuff is great. And, please forgive me if this isn't complete--those decades contained so much great stuff, I'd never have gotten to sleep, if I hadn't stopped some time!

So with this diary here, it's not the 1960s, as in the psychedelic Beatles and later. It's the stuff from before that. You dig? The kind of music that sends you, and that is the most, Daddy-o, and you know it!

Poll

21 votes Show Results

What was the best of the 20th Century's Music, before 1960?

21 votes Vote Now!

What was the best of the 20th Century's Music, before 1960?

Blues

7 votes

Swing Jazz

6 votes

Bebop

1 vote

Other Jazz

2 votes

Crooners like Sinatra, and his Whole Big Magilla

0 votes

Standards like Cole Porter, All That

2 votes

Classical's Last Gasp

1 vote

Old Rock and Roll!

1 vote

Latin Jazz, Mambo, other Latin Sabor!

1 vote

Other?

0 votes

What Makes Good Comedy?

Villagejonesy

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday March 23, 2010 · 4:16 AM PDT

2010/03/23 · 04:16

My friends and I were talking about this. What is it? What is it that makes us laugh? What is funny? What makes things funny?

Villagejonesy

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday March 22, 2010 · 3:30 PM PDT

2010/03/22 · 15:30

God, you guys--don't get me wrong, I do love him. I love his show. The travel porn, and the food porn, all together, with fun local people... the fact that the fucker gets to have almost exactly the life I want... the fact that he spoke truth to hairstyle (that is, in calling Jim Jarmusch's films tedious and pretentious, which really needed to be said)... the humour... the behind the scenes look at the chefs du cuisine, and the impossibly hard work they do, and the respect he shows for that...

And I love the real people that he finds, who show him around kindly, with a big, hearty Argentinian/Greek/French/Island/whatever it is this week Welcome.

But damn it: sometimes the whole "Down with the Common Man" thing seems to be his way of working out a balance for his otherwise insufferable Ivy League SMUGNESS! (I know, he dropped out after two years at Vassar--is Vassar actually one of the Ivies, or just a fellow traveler?--before succeeding very well at the Culinary Institute of America.)

Poll

118 votes Show Results

Anthony Bourdain: Too Smug for Our Own Good?

118 votes Vote Now!

Anthony Bourdain: Too Smug for Our Own Good?

GUCCH! Can't STAND his smugness...

18 votes

Yes, he is, but I love him anyway...

51 votes

Not smug, but there's another reason I can't stand his show

4 votes

What the? COMPLETELY wrong, diarist--he seems very kind-hearted and self-effacing to me

18 votes

Belgian endive and kalamata olive PIE! with a savoury roux containing champignon and Cotes de Beaune reduction, and the merest dusting of freshly ground nutmeg

27 votes

Is the World Now Too Nuts for Traveling In?

Villagejonesy

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday March 20, 2010 · 3:56 AM PDT

2010/03/20 · 03:56

I know, I know--there are more important things to worry about than whether people get to take a vacation!

But it's part of life, and that part of life has changed quite a bit.

It changed when our parents or grandparents, who used to have to take week-long ocean voyages, to get to places completely alien to anything they'd ever known, were finally able to look at color photographs in glossy books, and later on the internet, of places they were able to fly to within a day. The crazy shrinking of the globe had what seemed its apogee, when Britons were able to jet off to Greece for vacation, for a $20 airline ticket on Ryanair or another low-cost airline.

And then... it happened. The Downturn.

How has the Downturn changed everything? How has it changed things for you? How has it changed things for travelers in general? Is it permanent? Is it bad? Is it good for the environment? How is travel for us now?

Poll

174 votes Show Results

How is leisure travel for you now?

174 votes Vote Now!

How is leisure travel for you now?

I never get to anymore--bad economies are bad!

18 votes

It used to be an adventure, but it sucks because of security concerns

32 votes

It used to be an adventure, but it sucks because it's no longer a care-free world economically

8 votes

I never could stand it in the first place

5 votes

I LOVE it! It fires my imagination, stirs my soul, and satisfies deep-seated longings

59 votes

It's fine--there are nice bits about it, but let's not go overboard

14 votes

It's going through a bad phase, but it'll get better again

14 votes

We went through a good phase, but it's bad and will never get much better

8 votes

The adventures are just beginning--traveling will be even better soon

8 votes

The diarist let his mouth get away from him in this poll again--Pie!

8 votes

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RSS

A 16-Year-Old Sailing Around the World! Shame on the Parents? No.

Historical Background of Israel/Palestine

Let's Use the Oil Spill to Push Hybrids and Electric Cars

Illegal Immigrants? Treat 'em Like North Korea Does!

I Thought HIR Was Supposed to Reduce My Unpayable $1700 Doctor Bill?

1960s Music Diary, vol. 2: gospel, blues, soul, etc.

What are These "Fixes" to Health Care Reform, Since the Public Option was Crushed?

Florida Urologists Announces he Won't Treat Obama Voters

Music from the FIRST Two-thirds of the Twentieth Century--Swing Me! + More

What Makes Good Comedy?

My Love-hate relationship with Anthony Bourdain of the Travel Channel

Is the World Now Too Nuts for Traveling In?