Om Mani Pad Butt: In Which I Shit on Buddhism

"Let not one deceive another nor despise any person whatever in any place.  In anger or illwill let not one wish any harm to another."

 The Metta Sutta, a Buddhist sutta.

"This spirit of tolerance and understanding has been from the beginning one of the most cherished ideals of Buddhist culture and civilization.  That is why there is not a single example of persecution or the shedding of blood in converting people to Buddhism, or in its propagation during its long history of 2500 years.  It spread peacefully all over the continent of Asia, having more than 500 million adherents today.  Violence in any form, under any pretext whatsoever, is absolutely against the teaching of the Buddha."

 'What The Buddha Taught' by Walpola Rahula (emphasis mine).


When I abandoned the Catholicism in which I had been raised and believed on Easter in 1988, I spent the next two or three years in a state of spiritual flux before I eventually came to the conclusion that there was no god.  During that period, I took an interest in Buddhism and added to my library Walpola Rahula's 'What The Buddha Taught', from which I quoted above.

Though I ended up rejecting Buddhism as a package, I did find a lot in the religion that appealed to me and which I incorporated, with varying degrees of success, into my life.  In some ways, Buddhism has a lot in common with Christianity, with both religions admonishing us not to set too much store in the material things of this world.  And Catholicism and Buddhism both have nuns and monks.

One valid criticism that Western Christians have made of Westerners who rejected Christianity and embraced various forms of Eastern religious and spiritual traditions is that they idealized the East while having a shallow understanding of it and overlooking some of the very flaws that turned them off to Western religions.

Regardless of our knowledge of Buddhism, many of us in the West likely hew to notions of Buddhists, particularly Buddhist monks, as being gentle, peaceful folk who would never harm anyone.

This stereotype, whether it was ever really true, is increasingly being shown to be false in at least two Buddhist majority countries.  In both Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) and Sri Lanka, Buddhist monks have been instigating violence against the Muslims and other religious minorities in their respective countries.

First, Myanmar.  This article from The New York Times paints a frightening picture:

Images from Meiktila showed entire neighborhoods burned to the ground, some with only blackened trees left standing. Lifeless legs poked from beneath rubble. And charred corpses spoke to the use of fire as a main tool of the rioting mobs.

One video posted to Facebook by Radio Free Asia on Friday showed Muslim women and men cowering and shielding their heads from flying objects as they fled their attackers. Onlookers are overheard shouting, “Oooh! Look how many of them. Kill them! Kill them!”

Just as in western Myanmar, where more than 150 people have been killed in clashes between Buddhists and Muslims over the past year, those behind the violence in Meiktila tried to stop images of the destruction from getting out. On Friday, a group of Buddhist monks threatened news photographers, including one who works for The Associated Press, with a sword and homemade weapons. With a monk holding a blade to his neck, U Khin Maung Win, the A.P. photographer, handed over his camera’s memory card. (Underlined for emphasis).

While the violence has only recently flared in towns like Meiktila in central Myanmar, the situation with regard to the Muslim Rohingya minority in Arakan, a coastal state on the Bay of Bengal near Bangladesh, has been festering for a number of years and looks to be getting worse.

From a Human Rights Watch report:

The Burmese government is systematically restricting humanitarian aid and imposing discriminatory policies on Rohingya Muslims in Arakan State.

Arakan State’s Rohingya population also faces widespread hostility from the majority Burmese Buddhist society. The violence in Arakan State in June between Arakanese Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims was followed by planned attacks on Rohingya and Kaman Muslim communities in various townships in the state in October.

More recently, disputes between Buddhists and Muslims resulted in violence in the central Burma town of Meikhtila on March 20 to 22, which has spread to other parts of the country. During the violence, at least five mosques were burned down and an unknown number of people died as mobs and Buddhist monks attacked Muslim residents and set fire to Muslim homes, businesses, and places of worship. The violence in Meikhtila has displaced 12,000 Muslims, according to OCHA.

“The unfortunate lesson from the violence in Arakan State is that so far the government does little to hold accountable those who violate the rights of Muslims in Burma,” Robertson said. “By failing to stop violence and prosecute those who incite it, the country’s leaders are failing the test of reform.”

And then there's Sri Lanka.

Several people have been injured in Sri Lanka's capital, Colombo, when Buddhist monks led hundreds in an assault on a Muslim-owned clothing warehouse.
Buddhist monks were filmed throwing stones at the storage centre of popular garment chain Fashion Bug in a suburb of the capital on Thursday night.

After some Muslim groups called a strike in protest against a growing Buddhist campaign against their lifestyle, including halal food classification, a hard-line Buddhist party in the governing coalition issued a statement saying: "Sinhalese Buddhists should be determined to teach such Muslim extremists a lesson that they will never forget".

Perhaps the Sinhalese Buddhists would be wise to heed the words of the Buddhist Emperor Asoka Maurya, who declared in one of his Rock Edicts:

"One should not honor only one's own religion and condemn the religions of others, but one should honor others' religions for this or that reason.  So doing, one helps one's own religion to grow and renders service to the religions of others too.  In acting otherwise one digs the grave of one's own religion and also does harm to other religions.  Whosoever honors his own religion and condemns other religions, thinking 'I will glorify my own religion.'  But on the contrary, in so doing he injures his own religion more gravely." 

Happy Chocolate Bunny Day!

I've just been too damned busy to post anything new of late, for which I apologize. It's just so hard to find the time given all I have on my plate, but in the spirit of Easter, hopefully I will be able to resurrect this blog.

But for now, I leave you with an obligatory clip from Monty Python's Life of Brian:

Why Did China Fall Behind?

"Moving on from here, we shall tell you next of a large and very splendid city called Suzhou.  The people here are idolaters subject to the Great Khan and using paper money.  They live by trade and industry, have silk in great quantity and make much silken cloth for their clothing.  The city is so large that it measures about forty miles in circumference.  It has so many inhabitants that no one could reckon their number.  I give you my word that the men of  the province of Manzi [southern China], if they were a war-like nation, would conquer all the rest of the world."

                                                                 The Travels of Marco Polo (circa 1300)


"The Empire of China is an old, crazy, First rate man-of-war, which a fortunate succession of able and vigilant officers has contrived to keep afloat for these one hundred and fifty years past, and to overawe their neighbors merely by her bulk and appearance, but whenever an insufficient man happens to have command upon deck, adieu to the discipline and safety of the ship.  She may perhaps not sink outright; she may drift some time as a wreck, and will then be dashed to pieces on the shore; but she can never be rebuilt on the old bottom."

                                                                             Lord George Macartney (1794)


There are a number of topics that historians and those who take an interest in history love to discuss and debate.  Among the more popular ones are the reasons for the collapse and fall of the Roman Empire in the West or whether the Confederacy could have won the Civil War.  Another subject of historical interest is the mystery of why China, which had seemed so far advanced a half millennium ago, fell so far behind the European powers.  

The two quotes at the top of this post serve as convenient bookends to the period when Europeans received their first popular eyewitness account of China possessing vast riches and power and ending when they realized the Chinese empire had become a hopeless anachronism.  So, somewhere in between that time, something happened to cause China to fall from its height as an object of wonder and admiration down to the level of pity and scorn.

The China described by the Venetian Marco Polo was ruled by the Mongols, whose various khanates stretched from the Pacific Ocean to Eastern Europe, which some historians have dubbed the "Pax Mongolica".  The Mongols would be driven out of China in 1368 and replaced by the last native Chinese dynasty known as the Ming.  The early Ming emperors were energetic rulers who expanded their territory south into present day Vietnam and north against their former Mongol rulers.

It was during the reign of the third Ming emperor, known as the Yongle emperor, that a series of treasure fleets were sent out that sailed through the Malacca Strait into the Indian Ocean, some venturing as far as the Red Sea and possibly to the coast of present day Mozambique.  The treasure fleets, consisting of several hundred ships, some reportedly up to 400 feet in length (by way of comparison, Columbus's ship the Santa Maria was about 85 feet long) were launched on their first of seven voyages in 1405, with the seventh and last voyage ending in 1433.

Right about the time that the era of the Ming treasure fleets was drawing to a close, at the other end of the Eurasian landmass, the Portuguese were spearheading what would become the European Age of Discovery.  Over the course of half a century, Portuguese navigators pushed further and further down the coast of Africa until in 1488 they reached the southern tip and were poised to enter the Indian Ocean.

So why was it that it was the Portuguese who circumnavigated Africa and came to dominate the Indian Ocean, instead of the Chinese sailing into the Atlantic and discovering Europe?

The short answer is that the Portuguese, as well as the other European kingdoms and states, desired the goods of the Orient, and wanted to trade directly with the lands of east Asia, thus bypassing the hostile Muslim states that dominated the Middle East.  In other words, the Europeans were driven by a want of things.  The Chinese, on the other hand, felt they had all that they needed and saw no need to explore foreign lands.

One possible reason for China's stagnation is that being the largest and most powerful state in East Asia made it complacent.  Portugal, by comparison, was a poor country inhabiting a strip of land on the Atlantic coast that was hemmed in by Spain.  The Portuguese had nowhere to go but out into the sea to seek their fortunes.

China's view of itself and the world around it may have been roughly analogous to the Roman Empire at its peak during the 2nd century C.E.  H.G. Wells, in his sweeping historical work, The Outline of History, makes the following observations about Rome:

"In one field of knowledge particularly we might have expected the Romans to have been alert and enterprising, and that was geography.  Their political interests demanded a steadfast inquiry into the state of affairs beyond their frontiers, and yet that inquiry was never made.  There is practically no literature of Roman travel beyond the imperial limits..."

"Yet Rome was content to feast, exact, grow rich, and watch its gladiatorial shows without the slightest attempt to learn anything of India, China, Persia or Scythia, Buddha or Zoraster, or about the Huns, the Negroes, the people of Scandinavia, or the secrets of the western sea."

A similar mindset can be detected in the letter of the Qing dynasty's Qianlong Emperor to King George III of England in response to Lord Macartney's mission to open China to trade in the 1790's.

"You, O King, live beyond the confines of many seas, nevertheless, impelled by your humble desire to partake of the benefits of our civilisation, you have dispatched a mission respectfully bearing your memorial. Your Envoy has crossed the seas and paid his respects at my Court on the anniversary of my birthday. To show your devotion, you have also sent offerings of your country's produce."

"Our dynasty's majestic virtue has penetrated unto every country under Heaven, and Kings of all nations have offered their costly tribute by land and sea. As your Ambassador can see for himself, we possess all things. I set no value on objects strange or ingenious, and have no use for your country's manufactures."

While Western ships began to frequent China's waters from the 16th century onward, and some Westerners, particularly Jesuit missionaries, became resident in the Chinese imperial court, there does not seem to have been much, if any, effort on the part of the rulers of the Chinese empire, be they native Ming or later on the Manchu Qing, to send ambassadors to the European powers and learn more about them.

I remember reading somewhere that one theory for why Europe was able to advance technologically so fast was precisely because it consisted of a multitude of smaller countries that were in competition with one another.  Because China was the preeminent power in East Asia, there was no local competitor to spur her on to innovate.  The one nation in the region that had the potential to play the part of that competitor, Japan, would itself turn inward in the early 17th century and stay that way for another two and a half centuries.

China's age of exploration, if one could call it that, was largely due to the vanity and pretensions of the Yongle emperor, and once he had died, there was no one else capable or interested in patronizing such voyages.  One factor in ending the treasure fleets was the conflict at the imperial court between Confucian advisors, who considered the fleets to be wasteful extravagances, and the eunuchs, with the former opposing them and coming out on top in the struggle.  If the Chinese court was not going to sponsor a long distance naval voyage, there was no one else to turn to.

In Europe, by contrast, there were a multitude of potential patrons.  The Genoese navigator Christopher Columbus claimed that one could reach the wealthy kingdoms of Asia by sailing westward into the Atlantic.  If the king of Portugal turned him down, he could try his hand with the French court.  If France wasn't interested, there was always Spain.  And once Columbus returned from his voyage, evidently having found some hitherto unknown lands, it spurred an interest in further exploration of what would turn out to be the Americas by the other naval powers of Europe.  Magellan is another illustrative example.  He was Portuguese, but when the king of Portugal declined to support his plan to find a way to sail around South America to reach the Spice Islands of the East Indies, again the Spanish monarchy was willing to bankroll a navigator who was not one of their own.

The Ming cannot be entirely faulted for ignoring the potential threat from European navies during the duration of their rule.  In fact, on several occasions, the Ming navy was able to inflict defeats on the Portuguese and the Dutch.  The real existential threat to their survival came from their northern and western land frontiers.  While the Mongols were expelled from China in 1368, they remained a powerful opponent well into the 16th century, even capturing a Ming emperor in battle in the mid-15th century.  The Mongols were soon eclipsed in the north by the Jurchen, more commonly known to us today as the Manchus, who themselves would succeed in conquering China in the latter half of the 17th century.

Still, if one Ming ruler, the Yongle emperor, was the initiator of China's great treasure fleets, another Ming monarch, the Wanli emperor, played a critical role in crippling the dynasty's survival.  After showing some early promise, during the remainder of his reign, which straddled the last two decades of the 16th century and the first two decades of the 17th century, the Wanli emperor basically stopped doing his job.  Jonathan Spence, in The Search for Modern China, writes, "For years on end he held no court audiences to discuss key political events, gave up his studies of the historical and philosophical texts that lay at the heart of Confucian learning, refused to read state papers, and even stopped filling the vacancies that occurred in the upper levels of officialdom."

With the emperor asleep at the wheel, the dynasty entered a period of terminal decline.  The tax structure collapsed, leaving the dynasty without the means to pay its armies to defend against the Manchus as well as deal with the internal revolts that ended up bringing the dynasty down.  So, while the European naval powers were making technological advances in a wide range of fields, the Chinese at this critical time were held back by a lack of effective leadership, which in turn led to government collapse.   Perhaps if Wanli had been a visionary and dynamic emperor, he might have attempted to learn how small nations so many thousands of miles away could send ships across vast oceans into Chinese waters.  In an autocratic society, change comes from the top down.  China needed its equivalent of Russia's Peter the Great, a ruler with the wisdom to recognize that his empire was backward and who possessed the force of personality needed to drag his empire, kicking and screaming, into modernity.  But no such leader was forthcoming.

A Spanish Jesuit, Alonso Sanchez, acidly observed in 1581 that "the Chinese are so arrogant that they consider themselves the cream and flower of the world, and it seems to them there is no understanding except theirs, and no-one but they knew any laws or customs.  Thus they look down on all other nations, considering them beastly."

China was ultimately held back by its self-imposed conceit that it was the center of civilization and that any relations with other nations was viewed through the prism of receiving tribute from barbarian states.  The Jesuit Sanchez, quoted above, was also of the belief that China was militarily weak and that the Spanish king Philip II should send an armada to conquer her.  We know that Philip did eventually build an armada to attempt to conquer England, which did not end well.  While the balance of power had gradually tilted in Europe's favor by the late 16th century, because of the sheer distance involved, it would not be until the Opium War of 1839 to 1842 that a European power, namely England, possessed the means to project sufficient force to crush China.

As a history lesson, China is a case study of what can happen to a great power when it takes its superiority for granted.

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In writing this post, I relied on the following books, which I recommend if one has a further interest in this topic or Chinese history in general.

The Travels of Marco Polo.  I have the Penguin Classics edition.

The Immobile Empire by Alan Peyrefitte.  This is a fascinating book about Lord Macartney's mission to open China to British trade in the 1790's.  Peyrefitte interweaves his story with written accounts from members of the mission as well as the Chinese officials and the emperor Qianlong himself.  One can see how how both sides ended up talking past each other rather than to each other.

The Search for Modern China by Jonathan D. Spence.  Spence's sweeping work covers Chinese history from the late Ming up to the era of Deng Xiaoping.  The edition I have was published in 1990, so it is possible that later editions of this book cover the post-Tiananmen era.

A Jesuit In The Forbidden City: Matteo Ricci 1552 -1610 by R. Po-chia Hsia.  I only just started reading this book on my Nook several days ago.  It was the source for my quote of the Spanish Jesuit Alonso Sanchez.  As a well educated Jesuit missionary in late Ming China, Matteo Ricci is a valuable source of information about China during that time period.

The Outline of History, Vol. 1 by H.G. Wells.  This was one of the books that really got me into history.  Thank you to whichever of my parents was responsible for buying it.  It's one major weakness is that it is suffused with the author's racial views of nearly a century ago, which have long since become outmoded.

When China Ruled The Seas: The Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne 1403 - 1433 by Louise Levathes.  It's a work of popular history, just over 200 pages, not including the notes and the index, that covers the treasure fleet voyages and their historical context, without the outlandish claims of Gavin Menzies.

Magical Thinking Gets People Killed

Some three dozen people were killed yesterday during a stampede at a train station in Allahabad, India during the Kumbh Mela festival.  The festival is described as "the largest religious gathering on earth" which takes place every 12 years "on the banks of the 'Sangam'- the confluence of the holy rivers Ganga, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati." 

So, what happens at this Hindu religious festival?

From The New York Times article linked to above:

"Those who bathe in the conjoined waters are cleansed of their sins and given blessings that extend through several generations, Hindus say. Pilgrims make the trip not just for themselves but for their children and grandchildren.

N. K. Auddy, a consulting engineer from Kolkata, was taking part in his first Kumbh because his daughter recently gave birth to his first grandchild, and he was hoping for a divine blessing for the child. “I want him to have a good future,” Mr. Auddy said."

Seriously?  How does one measure the difference in the lives of children or grandchildren of those whose ancestors bathe in the rivers and those who don't?  It obviously didn't make a positive difference in the lives of the pilgrims who were trampled to death.

If Mr. Auddy's grandson is to have a good future, he'll be better served by having a loving, supportive family, access to a good education, clean drinking water and decent health care.  I don't see how bathing in a river with millions of other people, which is not particularly sanitary, is going to provide a better future for his descendants.

The Tragedy of the Rhino

 

 

 

Since at least from the end of the Ice Age about 12,000 years ago, the human race has had a growing impact on the natural world.  We have expanded into virtually every area of the globe, cutting down forests, draining swamps, turning fields into farmland, fishing the oceans and building factories that have spewed pollutants into the atmosphere. 

 

By sheer virtue of the size of the population of the human race, which is now counted at over seven billion people, we simply can't help but have a negative impact on the Earth's ecosystems and the other species that inhabit them.  On land, we have encroached on the habitats of numerous species, while the weapons in our assault on the oceans have included overfishing and the release of our sewage and agricultural runoff to create oceanic deadzones.  Then there is the threat of global warming.

 

We're a veritable bull in a china shop, destroying so much around us.  Even the most environmentally conscious of us realize that while we can take steps to mitigate the damage, it is simply impossible for humanity to stop all or most of it, unless we are all prepared to commit mass suicide. 

 

We take it for granted that the decline of most forms of wildlife and the loss of natural wilderness is the unavoidable collateral damage caused by the dominance of our species on this planet.  Still, we cannot help but be shocked and outraged when an animal finds its very existence imperiled because of the misguided beliefs of a significant number of people.

 

The animal in question here is the rhino and the threat to them comes from increased poaching due to a recent and rising demand for rhino horn powder in Southeast Asia, particularly Vietnam.  The chart below, from the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC, displays annual death tolls for rhinos in South Africa.

 

This Conde Nast Traveler article on the rise in rhino poaching notes that "[t]his current poaching spike, which follows years of relative calm, began in 2008 after a Vietnamese government official claimed to have been cured of cancer after taking rhino horn."

For centuries, the powder from ground rhino horns have been a staple of traditional Chinese medicine.  Rhino horns are composed mostly of a protein called keratin which can also be found in the hair, skin, and nails of humans, along with horse hooves and the horns of other animals.

"Overall there isn’t much evidence to support the plethora of claims about the healing properties of the horns. In 1990, researchers at Chinese University in Hong Kong found that large doses of rhino horn extract could slightly lower fever in rats (as could extracts from Saiga antelope and water buffalo horn), but the concentration of horn given by a traditional Chinese medicine specialist are many many times lower than used in those experiments. In short, says Amin, you’d do just as well chewing on your fingernails."

According to TRAFFIC, "Four main user groups have been identified in Viet Nam: the principal one being those who believe in rhino horn’s detoxification properties, especially following excessive intake of alcohol, rich food and 'the good life'. Affluent users routinely grind up rhino horn and mix the powder with water or alcohol as a hangover-cure and general health tonic."

From TRAFFIC's report The South Africa-Viet Nam Rhino Horn Trade Nexus, "Collectively, this group personifies the cultural concept of 'face consumption', whereby extravagant usage of something rare and expensive becomes a means to flaunt wealth, status and success amongst friends and associates.  These consumers probably account for the greatest volume of rhino horn used in Viet Nam today... Popular websites drive this usage with an endless stream of slick come-on slogans: "to improve concentration and cure hangovers", "rhino horn with wine is the alcoholic drink of millionaires", and rhino horn is "like a luxury car".
 

In a possibly dismal foreshadowing of what awaits the rhinos of Africa, the last Javan rhino in Vietnam, which lived in Cat Tien National Park, "was shot and had its horn removed in early 2010."

South Africa is home to the majority of the worlds remaining rhinos,  But as The New York Times reports, sadly, "The number of rhinos poached in South Africa has soared in the past five years, from 13 killed in 2007 to more than 630 in 2012. The prehistoric, battleship-gray animals are often found on their knees, bleeding to death from a gaping stump on their face."

Having identified the problem, the question is what can be done to solve it?

One idea that has been proposed is legalization of the trade.  Why not raise rhinos specifically for the purpose of harvesting their horns?

The Conde Nast Traveler article quotes an Albi Modise, spokesman for the country’s Department of Environment Affairs, who points out that "There are now potentially three billion end users of rhino horn [in Asia] and only 21,000 rhinos left in South Africa.”

Unfortunately, there is no magic bullet.  Putting a stop to the slaughter requires addressing the trade in rhino horns along the entire trade chain, from making it harder to kill rhinos to changing the attitudes of consumers of rhino horn powder in Vietnam and other Asian countries so that the demand is reduced.  That could take years, during which rhinos will continue to be decimated. 

An idea that occurred to me was flooding the market with a counterfeit product.  Is it possible to fool consumers by selling them keratin powder made from alternate sources while slapping a picture of a rhino on the packaging?  There are ethical considerations though to such an approach, particularly when Western governments and businesses press countries like China and Vietnam to crack down on counterfeiting of American and European products.  If it is wrong for China to tolerate counterfeit Viagra, for example, then it may seem hypocritical to them for us to promote counterfeit rhino horn powder just because we think it is a worthy cause.

One day, the large scale poaching of rhinos will come to an end, either because we were successful in stopping it, or because there will be no more rhinos left to kill.



Prostitution Is Already Legal For The Rich

Several years ago, when I took one of my kids to a doctor appointment, several of the clerical and medical assistant staff, all female, were gathered towards the back of the area behind the counter, talking amongst each other.

I guess they were talking about relationships with men, because one of them then declared loud enough that I could clearly hear her, "I don't want a boyfriend, I want a sugar daddy."

Another time, when I was getting a cleaning or some other dental procedure at my dentist's office, the dentist and the hygienist were conversing with each other.  Apparently, the hygienist was in some kind of sugar daddy relationship and the dentist was asking her questions about it.  When he asked her how old the benefactor was, she demurred.  I then blurted out "He's fifty."

The hygienist must have been impressed at the accuracy of my guess, because she then admitted that the man was 49.  Neither she nor the dentist asked how close I was to the right answer, but to me, it just seemed to make sense.

In order for a man to play the part of a sugar daddy, he needs to be wealthy enough to do so.  For most of those men, that probably does not come until they are in their late forties or early fifties when they are well established in their careers and are in their peak earning years.  The mortgage has been paid off.  The kids have been put through college.  If they're married, they may still love their wives but are looking for the excitement of being with a younger, more energetic women.  These are men who are nearing the end of their prime and want to relive their youth while they are still relatively healthy and fit enough to do so.  (As an aside, I just want to acknowledge that not all sugar daddy or benefactor relationships are exclusively older, wealthy males with younger, financially struggling females.  There are also male benefactor-male relationships, female benefactor-male relationships and female benefactor-female relationships.)

There are a host of websites that those seeking a "mutually beneficial arrangement" can go, such as  sugardaddyforme.com or seekingarrangement.com. 

I suppose the idealized version of these types of relationships is one of a successful, wealthy benefactor with an altruistic streak who wants to pamper and spoil a younger recipient and help them pay for their education or otherwise give them a chance to better themselves in some meaningful way in return for an exciting or fulfilling relationship where sex sometimes happens.  I don't doubt that in the spectrum of these sorts of relationships this does happen.  But then there's the other end of the spectrum.

Mac McClelland wrote an article for Mother Jones describing some of the encounters she had with would be male benefactors when she set up an account with one of these web sites for research for her article.  From the opening paragraph:

Few things are less appetizing than a man four years my father's junior, a dumpy, pasty, greedy-eyed man in a gray suit who says he doesn't care to screw fat women because they're harder to overpower, asking me over a big bowl of warm apple crisp if I like anal sex. But since he's just offered me $3,000 a month plus perks—gifts, dinners, shopping sprees—to get naked with him once a week, I keep my tight young ass in its place, laugh politely, and pick up my fork.

She goes on to write, "[He] puts proprietary hands on my shoulders and hips before we even get our cocktails and starts bartering for carnal treasure by the time dessert comes by asking me if I'd want to "hang out" once a week. I ask if "hang out" is a euphemism for "screw"; he says yes; I say that I wouldn't consider it for less than $5,000 a month. He counters with $3,000."

For the purposes of writing this article (seriously!) I registered for a free 30-day trial membership just to get an idea of what was waiting out there for me if I were actually wealthy enough to be some young woman's sugar daddy.

Here's a sampling:

1. From a 22-year old single woman in Manhattan, "My favorite sexual position is doggie style because it feels the best.  I enjoy giving and receiving oral, and I am VERY good at it." (Capitalized in the original).

2. From a 27-year old woman from da Bronx, "I love singing and dancing specially when I'm drunk.  I love being drunk because that's the time that I can express my feelings but watch me when I'm drunk because I'am (sic) wild!!!"

3. From a 24-year old single in Manhattan, "I could be your own Asian Barbie that you can play with."

Of course, not all or even most of the ads were that explicit or suggestive.

4. From a 27-year old Manhattanite, "Down-to-earth, sincere, genuine and kind, intelligent and well-educated… I love to go out dancing, watching movies, theater and sports. I also love to sail and horseback riding and entertaining!"

5. From a 25-year old in Manhattan, "I'm an attractive, passionate, sensual girl, with a good sense of humor. I am well educated and keep myself in a good shape. I enjoy reading, arts, fine dining, shopping and explore the city. I am trustworthy, honest and discreet. I am working on my masters degree, but I also have a flexible schedule."

6. From a 26-year old in Manhattan, "Fun, kind and classy young lady that loves to have fun and have intellectual conversations...(I am not your average girl on here) I take very good care of myself and have a beautiful, toned and slender body. The finer things in life are a great joy to me...what can I say, I LOVE luxury goods!" (Capitalized in the original).

When you get right down to it though, these benefactor relationships are simply a form of prostitution that is available only to the wealthy and it cannot be prosecuted because it is not a matter of payment for an encounter where sex is expected, like busting a john for trying to pick up a hooker on a street corner.  Instead, these are relationships in which sex is expected but which encompass more than sex.  It is impossible for law enforcement to police it because it is not an effective use of their time or resources.

From the aforementioned Mother Jones article:

"Under California law, solicitation is to offer or accept anything of value for sexual services," says former San Jose police chief and Hoover Institute fellow Joseph McNamara. "But this is right on the line. If the relationship exists for some time and the guy is mega-rich, he can give you whatever he wants; it's not prostitution anymore. Let's face it—a lot of relationships are like that. It's a common thing."

Such benefactor type relationships may be on the rise in recent years, at least for college students or recent graduates, due to the high cost of college education, accumulated student loan debt, and a lousy economy where one either cannot find a job or at the very least a well paying job.

On the one hand, I can understand if student or recent graduate is looking to enter into an arrangement with a wealthier, older person for a relationship that offers the prospect of being able to not only make ends meet, but if they're lucky, enjoy some of the finer things in life in return for putting out for their benefactor once in a while.  On the other hand, as the father of a daughter who will likely be a college student a decade from now, I would certainly hope that she would never feel the need to seek out such an arrangement for herself.  As someone who styles himself a feminist, I want her to feel rewarded and be able to succeed because of her talents and intelligence instead of being just a commodity for an older man with cash to burn.

Have A Happy 2013!

Another year is upon us.

Meanwhile, 2012 was my most productive blogging year since 2009, when I had 79 posts.  In both years before that, I had over 200 posts each year.  2009 saw a steep drop, but 2010 was even worse, when I managed only 33 posts.  Last year saw an increase to 59, while this past year I was able to achieve a little more than that.  Still, it's a far cry from my golden age, which I don't expect to ever achieve again.

Like a lot of bloggers, a number of factors conspired to hamper my productivity.  For starters, I just don't seem to have the time that I used to have.  I also find myself sometimes falling short in the inspiration department.  There are moments during the day where I think of topics to write about, but then when I'm home later on, I forget what it was that had interested me earlier and I just spend my time surfing the Internet.

I can't promise that 2013 will see a concerted effort to revive this blog to a semblance of what it once was.  At times I veer from wanting to throw myself into making this a venue for impassioned and informed commentary to the other extreme of just throwing in the towel and shutting the whole thing down.  By the end of 2013, I like to think that I will have definitely chosen one or the other.

Anyway, I wish any and all reading this a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year.

Richard Dawkins on Al Jazeera

 

 

In case you haven't seen it yet, you might want to check out the interview/debate between Richard Dawkins and a Mehdi Hasan of Al Jazeera above.

 

I felt that Dawkins should have done a better job when the interviewer brought up Stalin and Mao Zedong.  As I argued here, Stalin's atrocities were made possible because he ruled a state that had inherited a centuries long tradition of absolutism from Russia's tsarist predecessors.  The same can be said for Mao Zedong, who became dictator of a country that had been ruled by emperors for millennia.

 

One could also bring up the millions who died during China's Taiping Rebellion, which was led by a failed aspirant to the civil service who styled himself to be the brother of Jesus Christ.

 

To me, the whole argument of whether or not religion is a force for good in the world and whether the world would be better without religion is a stupid argument.  The way I see it, the world would be a better place if more people would be good regardless of whether they were religious or not, just as the world would be worse off when more people are bad, again regardless of whether they are religious adherents or atheists.

 

The problem with the communist dictators is that they were radical utopians who had no check on their power.  But this is not merely an atheist problem.  One can see strains of this radical utopianism among various Muslim movements throughout the world today, such as the Salafists, whose vision of an ideal society is to live as the prophet Muhammed and his early followers did in 7th century Arabia or the Muslim purists who have recently seized control of large swathes of Mali in western Africa.  It all boils down to the belief that you possess the one true way of living and that everyone else is mistaken and you're going to force them to live the way you want them to regardless of how they feel about it.   One of the hallmarks of a free, pluralistic society is that you have to accept that some members of that society will have beliefs and behaviors that offend you or you find to be mistaken but who otherwise do not infringe on your personal life.  It's the idea that we can all find a way to coexist as long as we respect one another's boundaries.

A Glimpse At The Prison Industrial Complex

Today, in the course of reviewing documents for my job, I came across a copy of a letter completely unrelated to what I was looking for, and so does not fall under the scope of client confidentiality.

Most people have likely heard of the term "prison-industrial complex", which basically means that certain groups in our society derive a monetary or other benefit from incarcerating more people in prisons.

The letter I came across provides a glimpse of one facet of this complex, namely our politicians in New York State.  It is a letter dating from January of 2000 from a New York state senator named Hugh Farley, to the then Republican Senate Majority Leader, Joe Bruno.

It reads as follows:

"If this year's budget includes authorization for a new prison, the Hale Creek site in Fulton County has always been favored by the Corrections Department.

Although Fulton County has long been at the top of the list, in recent years Senator Stafford has received a prison, I stepped aside for Senator Present when he needed a prison, and Senator Nozzolio has received a prison.  Now it should be Fulton County's turn.

I do hope, Joe, that you will do everything you can to ensure that we have a prison in the budget and that it is located in Fulton County."

This letter is interesting to me for two reasons.  First, it is clearly implied that prisons were doled out to state senators in New York like some kind of reward for loyalty or service to the Senate Majority Leader.  Second, Senator Farley's plea to Bruno to ensure funding for a prison in the budget is not couched in terms of a societal need, such as "Hey, we have an exploding prison population and need more prisons to address overcrowding!"  Rather, he wants funding for a new prison, because, dammit, he just wants one in his district and it's his turn.

Presumably, politicians like having prisons put in their district because it provides jobs for construction companies and construction and corrections officers union members.  It probably goes without saying that the beneficiaries of these contracts make campaign contributions to these politicians, while the unions give the senators their endorsements come reelection time.

Of course, it's no secret that this sort of thing does go on.  It's just that the letter I quoted, which was clearly not intended to be read by the public, really illustrates the corruption involved from the political side of things, with prisons budgeted for and dispensed like candy to state legislators.

God's Quarterback Part IV: Tim Tebwho?

Remember way back in the 2011 NFL season, when Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos won six games in a row?

As I wrote in my first post on Tebow, some Christians claimed that it was a sign from God:

Tim Tebow’s pastor, Wayne Hanson, says he knows why the Denver Broncos are 7-1 since installing Tebow as quarterback – it’s the player’s faith.

“It’s not luck,” Hanson said according to TMZ. “Luck isn’t winning six games in a row. It’s favor. God’s favor.”

Hanson, who runs the Summit Church in suburban Denver, said the Broncos wouldn’t be winning games if God hadn’t decided to reward Tebow’s religious beliefs.

Cut to the 2012 season.  Tim Tebow has been traded to the New York Jets to do, well, something.  Meanwhile, the Denver Broncos acquired veteran quarterback Peyton Manning. 

Surely, God would punish Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos for getting rid of Tebow, as televangelist Pat Robertson pondered.

Well, let's see how that turned out.

From the NY Daily News:

Peyton Manning threw for 304 yards and three touchdowns Sunday to lift Denver to a 38-3 win over Kansas City that sealed the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs for the Broncos.

Denver (13-3) won its 11th straight and leaped past Houston for the top seed after the Texans lost to Indianapolis 28-16 earlier in the day.

I guess God likes Peyton Manning more than Tim Tebow.

As for Tebow, his lamentable season as the Jets most famous benchwarmer has come to an end.  He never got the chance to be the starting quarterback in a single game and the alleged reason for acquiring him, for running Wildcat plays, never really materialized.

Rumor is that Tebow will go to the Jacksonville Jaguars, which is probably the best thing for him.  If it happens, I hope he will get the opportunity to be the starting quarterback for a full season, and then maybe Pastor Hanson will see that there is nothing really miraculous about God's quarterback after all.

Hey Fox News, This Is What A Real War on Christmas Looks Like: 2012 Edition

While Fox News hypes a bogus 'War on Christmas' that consists of people saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" or nativity scenes on public property having to share space with Festivus poles, events in other parts of the world show us what a real 'War on Christmas' looks like.

Just like last year, militant Islamists in Nigeria, likely members of a sect called Boko Haram, carried out an attack on Nigerian Christians on Christmas Eve.

From the BBC:

Gunmen in the northern Nigerian state of Yobe have shot dead at least six Christians, the army and local officials say.

They say a church in Peri village near Potiskum, the economic capital of Yobe, was set on fire in an attack late on Christmas Eve.

The head of the Network for Justice human rights group, Zakari Adamu, told the BBC that the gunmen also attacked the homes of Christians following the attack during the midnight mass service.


And then we have Indonesia.

This article reminds me of how right-wing Christians in this country react whenever President Obama makes any kind of nod towards Muslim-Americans.

Conservative Muslim leaders are not stopping with edicts forbidding Muslims from wishing Christians a Merry Christmas. Now they want the President not to attend any observation of the holiday in an official or personal capacity.

Separately, the infamous hard-line Islam Defenders Front (FPI) said that Yudhoyono and Boediono would “undermine” Islam if they decided to attend the celebration.

Muchsin Ahmad Alatas, the head of the FPI’s campaign division, advised the President and Vice President not to attend the celebration. “They decided to attend the program because they don’t have sufficient understanding of Islam,” Muchsin said. “They should have consulted with people who understand Islam better before making their decision.”

It's one thing to tell a Muslim who is president of a Muslim majority country not to attend a Christmas celebration.  It's quite another when Christians themselves are prevented from celebrating their holiday.

The members of two besieged Christian congregations on Jakarta’s outskirts are worried that hard-line groups will not let them observe Christmas in their own churches.

Rev. Palti Panjaitan of the Filadelfia Batak Christian Protestant Church (HKBP) in Bekasi, West Java, said that his congregation was again banned on Sunday from holding services in their half-built church.

The last time I checked, there were no atheists, or as Fox News blowhard Bill O'Reilly likes to call us, 'secular progressives.' preventing Christians from attending midnight mass, tearing down nativity displays from private property, or burning down churches.  If Fox News were a legitimate news organization, it could instead focus on showing its viewers what real religious intolerance looks like.

God's Quarterback Part 3

Near the end of my last post on Tim Tebow last January, God's Quarterback Part 2, I predicted that for this year, "Tebow will probably have a season like Mark Sanchez of the New York Jets had in 2011, he'll win a game or two, then lose a game or two, and so on until the end of the season."

As a lukewarm Jets fan, it never would have dawned on me that Tebow would eventually be traded to the Jets.  When the trade was announced earlier this year, I had to confess I was extremely baffled by it.  Admittedly, I am not a super knowledgeable football fan, but the rationale for the trade, that Sanchez would remain the starting quarterback, while Tebow would be utilized as a quarterback in special plays, just sounded plain dumb to me.  Since then, experience has appeared to validate my doubts.
 
What I have frequently witnessed in some of the games I have watched is Sanchez leading the Jets on an offensive drive.  Then, when they would get within a certain distance of the other team's end zone, they would pull Sanchez out and bring in Tebow, who more often than not, would either gain little yardage or end up losing some.  Then Sanchez would come back in, his momentum disrupted, and throw for an interception.  On a couple of occasions, while switching from one quarterback to the other, the Jets would end up having to call a time out because it took too long.

At other times, Rex Ryan would have Tebow play in other positions, both on offense and defense.  I couldn't help but think that the Jets couldn't figure out what to do with Tebow.   While Tebow tries to project a gung ho eagerness to do whatever he can however Ryan wants to use him, it has to be killing him on the inside that he has gone from being a quarterback on a team that made it to the playoffs against all expectations to being essentially a spare tire on a mediocre team that has already blown its playoff chances for the season.

In my last Tebow post, I had expected that Tebowmania would fade once he had a full season as a starting quarterback with a mixed record.  Instead, he has had even that taken away from him, as he mostly sits on the sidelines sliding into irrelevance.  Even assuming the Jets give Tebow the chance to play a game as their starting quarterback, the damage has already been done.  I have to admit I feel bad for the kid.  To quote Switch's last line in The Matrix, "Not like this.  Not like this."

Hurricane Sandy - Surveying the Damage

The day after the winds subsided, I walked up and down a section of my rather lengthy block on my "disaster porn" tour to see how my immediate neighborhood fared.

The owners of this house at the first street corner east of my house must have been extremely grateful at how lucky they were.

The tree had fortuituously fallen at an angle somewhat diagonal to the house, which resulted in the house avoiding any structural damage.

Unfortunately, not everyone shared the same fate.

I was fortunate in that the large maple tree in my backyard did not fall, as it had swayed visibly at the peak of the storm, though the yard did end up becoming strewn with many large branches.

In one photo, you can see that a section of chain link fence was bent from the impact.  The house was also dinged in a few places, with the gutter being dented in a spot and one of the bulbs in the backyard floodlight getting knocked out and shattered.

I have since cut up the large branches with my chain saw and they are now in a pile in the back.  The Town of Oyster Bay does take them away once a week if you bring them to the curb, but with so many people having downed trees and branches, only a small amount can be put out at any one time.  If too much is left at the curb, they simply ignore it, so I will have to bring one bundle per week to the curb until the pile gradually disappears.  It's times like these where I wish I had a fire place so that I could burn it.

The front of the house also suffered some exterior damage, with small sections of roof shingles having been torn off.

The damaged areas of the roof are now covered by tarp, as we were hit with a nor'easter storm the week after Hurricane Sandy, so I had to make sure the exposed areas were protected so as to avoid further damage to the house.

All in all, my house didn't fare too badly.  Yes, the roof will need to be fixed and we will have to spend money to get the tree cut down in the back.  But these are minor inconveniences compared to the devastation suffered by many of my fellow Long Islanders who live on the South Shore.  It will be a long time before many of them experience a return to normalcy.

Ted Nugent Prison/Death Watch

On April 14, 2012, Ted Nugent declared at the National Rifle Association annual convention that, "If Barack Obama becomes the President in November again, I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year."

Well, as we all know now, President Barack Obama was reelected this past Tuesday.  That means that Nugent has until April 14, 2013 before he either dies or ends up in jail.  By my count, as of today, the Motor City Madman has another 157 days left to go.

Color me skeptical, though of course I wouldn't put it past Nugent to do something to deliberately get himself arrested just so he can say, "You see!  I told you it would happen!"

Hurricane Sandy - Weathering The Storm

Nearly four years ago, I wrote a post titled "The Importance of Emergency Preparedness."   In that post, I described some of the steps I had taken to be prepared in case my family and I found ourselves affected by a prolonged power outage or storm.

Well, as those of you who have been following the news know, Hurricane Sandy struck the New York-New Jersey area with tremendous destructive force, and I was finally able to put my disaster preparedness to the test.

We lost our power early on the morning of Tuesday, October 30.  I recall that my wife and I had both woken up around 3 a.m. and could see that we still had power because of the time being displayed on the cable box for the television in our bedroom.  At that point, I figured we had endured the worst of the storm and would not lose our electricity.  Several hours later though, we awoke to see that the cable box and the LED clock on our room were both dark and the air was cold.  We already knew that our kids schools were closed, as well as my office.  My wife also did not have to report to her new job in Queens for the day.

Without being able to watch the news or access the Internet on my computer, our only source of information about what was going on would come from a portable radio I had purchased for just this occasion.  Listening to 1010 WINS, we got a sense of the devasation caused by the storm, even though we couldn't see images of the worst hit places like the South Shore of Long Island or the New Jersey Shore.   We also knew that the loss of power on Long Island was widespread and that it could take at least several days or more for power to be restored.  We could also see with our own eyes, which will be the subject of a separate post, the havoc wreaked in our own neighborhood, with fallen trees blocking sidestreets and at least one house that had suffered physical damage from a fallen tree.

While we did not have electricity, we were fortunate to have hot water because we have a gas water heater.  We could also use our gas stove, though it would require using a barbecue lighter to ignite the flame.  I was not comfortable doing this though and decided that we would rely on our Max Burton tabletop stove that I had purchased years earlier but never really got to use.   The stove is fueled by butane canisters and I had nine of them.  One thing I would learn is how long it would take to deplete a canister, which turned out to be about every two days.  I am pleased to say that the stove worked very well and I enthusiastically recommend it.   We used it for canned soup and boiling water for tea and instant oatmeal.  My wife also cooked chicken and tilapia on it, though it ended up not being a good idea because the food soon spoiled because there was no power for the refrigerator.

And therein lies the first lesson I learned from Hurricane Sandy.  Do not buy meat, poultry, fish or other such perishables when you know a major storm is coming that might knock out your electricity.  For items such as milk, cold cuts, and other smaller perishables, I have made a mental note to self to buy ice before the storm hits and keep the items in a cooler.  One tip worth following that I will try to remember in the future is to freeze blocks of ice to help keep the freezer colder when the power goes out. 

Another demerit on my part was that I neglected to maintain our emergency food supply at adequate levels.  Not long ago, I had done an audit and saw that some of the items I had were well past their expiration dates so I had to throw them out, while others that were just a few weeks past the date I ended up eating so as not to let them go to waste.  Luckily, it ended up not being serious because shopping areas near us had power as early as the next day and we ate out as often as we ate in.  The second lesson from this experience was that I have to do a better job of maintaining my emergency food supply and be more mindful of the expiration dates.   This weekend I will work on reconstituting the supply to an adequate level of several weeks worth of food.

Thanks to the loss of power, our oil burner lay dormant, and with the temperature dipping down into the low forties, we had to endure a cold night.  In my post that I linked to in the opening paragraph above, I considered purchasing a kerosene heater.  Since then, I did end up buying one.  I had also bought a five gallon drum of kerosene.  In my ignorance, I did not realize at the time that kerosene over a year old should not be used.  So, after I set up the kerosene heater in our living room on the morning of October 31st, I had no means to fuel it.   I went to the Home Depot on Jericho Turnpike in Syosset and purchased a half gallon container of kerosene, which turned out to only fill the heater to half of its capacity.  I tested it out successfully during the day time.  During the night I turned it on and had it at its highest setting.   The living room became very warm, though the fuel became depleted after about four hours.

With the return of electrical power uncertain, I knocked myself for not having an adequate supply on hand.  Lesson #3 learned.  I returned to the Home Depot in Syosset on Thursday, November 1st, only to find that they no longer had any in stock.  I decided to try my hand at their store in Westbury, further west on Jericho Turnpike.  When I entered the store, I noted a number of people milling about where boxes of the kerosene heaters were stacked, but I did not see any kerosene fuel containers.  Not wanting to give up, I walked to the other end of the store and serendipitously discovered a box containing two 2.5 gallon containers of kerosene, which appeared to represent the last supply of kerosene in the store.  I eagerly snatched it up, grateful that I had enough kerosene for at least the next four nights.

As good as this was, it also led to another area of concern.  Among the victims of the widespread loss of power on Long Island were many gasoline stations.  This resulted in long lines of cars at the few gas stations that did have power.   The situation was further exacerbated due to people without power standing in line at these gas stations with gasoline cans to fill to provide fuel for the generators they were relying on to provide electricity for their homes.  The day before the storm, I filled my wife's car up, because she would have to drive into Queens for her job, whereas my driving was mostly local.  I started that Thursday with little more than a quarter of a tank of gas, and by the time I returned home with my supply of kerosene, the gasoline in my car was below a quarter of a tank.  By Friday, my wife's car was also down to about a quarter of a tank.

Friday night, I could see a long line of cars stretched out along the curb of the right line of the southbound lane of South Oyster Bay Road leading up to the Hess station at the corner of South Oyster Bay Road and Old Country Road.  I had already decided that it was incredibly stupid to wait in line with my car with the engine idling, as the hour or more wait would probably end up burning up all the gas I had before I could get into the station.  I had a couple of 2.5 gallon gas cans in my tool shed that I had used for gasoline for my old lawn mower.  I grabbed one of them and walked down to the station.  Several of the pumping stations there were dedicated for people standing on line with gas cans.  I was in line about roughly one hour when it was finally my turn.  After I filled it up, I walked back up South Oyster Bay Road past the line of cars.  A number of people asked me if the station still had gas and I told them yes, though there was no guarantee that there would still be any by the time they got there.  This situation would play itself out across Long Island, as desperate people low on gas would waste it driving around in search of stations and then idling in line while waiting for their turn to pull up to the pump.  In some instances, drivers with empty tanks would literally have to push their vehicles alongside the gas pumping station.

When I got home, I put most of the gasoline into my wife's car and then a little bit in mine.  I had boosted her gas supply to about 3/8 of a tank, while mine budged a little closer to the quarter line, not nearly enough to justify driving around looking for more gasoline the next day.   The fourth lesson from Hurricane Sandy was that it is imperative to obtain two 5-gallon gas cans to have on hand in case a future gas shortage arises.  However, I will have to wait a few weeks after all of this has passed us by, as gas cans are selling like hot cakes right now. 

As for my gasoline problem, I realized that I had an ace in the hole.  My mom has a car but no longer drives because of the shape she is in.  I decided to drive down to her apartment to see how much gas she had.  To my tremendous relief, she had a full tank.  Plan A was to try and siphon some of her gas into my two gas cans, but alas, the siphon did not work.  So, Plan B, with my mom's permission, was to drive to a gas station that was pumping gas, park near it, and then stand in line to fill up my gas cans.  I ended up doing this twice on Saturday, November 2nd.  My wife's car was filled up to about 3/4 of a tank, while I had gotten enough to bring my car up to 3/8 of a tank.  I then scored another 5 gallons the next day, when I saw that the BP station at the corner of South Oyster Bay Road and Woodbury Road had gas while I was walking to Trader Joes.  With that, I was up to about 5/8 of a tank, enough to tide me for the week. 

My prediction, and time will tell in a few days, is that by this week's end the gas supply problem on Long Island will have significantly improved.   As more homeowners with generators have their electricity restored, they will no longer need to buy gasoline for the generators, which will ease up on the demand.  Concomitantly, gas stations that until now have had gas but were without power will come back online, thereby expanding the supply of gasoline.  By the middle of next week, barring some further adverse circumstances, the gas lines should be just a memory.

Speaking of generators, one of my most unpleasant memories of this whole experience will be the nearly incessant loud purring of our next door neighbor's generator.  At least now we will have peace and quiet again, assuming that the follow up storm we are experiencing today doesn't knock out the power again.  I don't begrudge people buying a generator for times such as these, but for me personally, it does seem a bit gratuitous.  Generators cost a lot of money and take up space that I really don't have.  I can live without electricity for a few days as long as I have hot water, heat, food and the means to cook it.  I do plan though to look into the possibility of obtaining some kind of large battery device that could conceivably power a refrigerator or other applicances for a day or two.

Lastly, during the eight nights without electricity, I relied heavily on, and indeed depleted, my supply of glow sticks.  I used two of them per night, one for our bedroom and one for the bathroom.  They generally last about eight hours or so, so I would wait until roughly 10 p.m. to activate them.  They are ideal for power failure situations at night, because they provide sufficient illumination to enable you to find your way around a room without being so bright that they make it hard to fall asleep or cause you to squint like you do when you turn on a light in the dark.  They are also a safe alternative to candles, which are a potential fire hazard, especially if left burning while one is asleep.

In conclusion, when it comes to rating my preparedness for dealing with the lengthy power failure caused by Hurricane Sandy, I would give myself a B-.  This has been a valuable experience that has revealed to me where my preparations were deficient and where I need to make improvements so as to be better prepared for the next time, as I have no doubt that at some point there will be a next time.  I also hope this post ends up being informative to those of you who read this in making your own preparations for handling a similar situation.

Hurricane Sandy - Like Living In The 1930's, But With Cell Phones

Sorry to say, but I haven't been able to post anything new here because it is now 9 days that I have not had electricity in my house.  The only way I can get Internet access is when I go to work, which is where I am typing this from right now.

Fortunately, stores near my house have power, so it is easy to shop or go out to eat.  While I can't watch tv, I do have a portable radio where I listen to the news.  So, in that regard, it feels like living in the 1930's.

Hopefully by the end of the week electricity will be restored and I can post about living in a post-Hurricane Sandy Long Island.  My heart goes out to the people who have lost their homes and their loved ones.   While I can lament the electricity and gasoline situation here, it is just a trifling inconvenience next to the terrible losses many other people have suffered.  Until next time.

Hurricane Sandy - Update

I haven't been able to post any updates since my initial post because my house lost power early Tuesday morning.  I managed to make it into my office at work today thanks to the Long Island Rail Road establishing partial service.

Once the power is back in my neighborhood, I will follow up with pictures of the damage in my immediate area, followed by a post on how well my family and I fared in terms of emergency preparedness.

Living History - Hurricane Sandy

Right now, we here on Long Island are getting battered by Hurricane Sandy.  Residents of the barrier islands like Fire Island and Long Beach on the South shore were told to evacuate.  Watching on the news, most places on the South Shore and the East End have been flooded.

I'm fortunate to live near the midway point between the North and South shores, so I am not concerned with flooding.  What is causing devastation for those of us who live away from the coasts is the high wind speeds that are knocking down trees.  For me, it is an issue of special concern because we have a large tree in the middle of our back yard that has already lost many large branches that have struck our house and battered a section of the chain link fence between our yard and our neighbor to our immediate right.

I went outside a short while ago, first to inspect the exterior of the house and then to check out the immediate neighborhood.  Thus far, my house has suffered some minor damage, but nothing to get terrible upset about.  A falling branch took out a light bulb near our back door and dented a small portion of the gutter.  Our deck and behind our garage is littered with large branches.  On the front of the house, I espied a couple of missing roof tiles and a portion of the siding lining on the front of the house has gotten unattached and is swinging in the wind.  It wouldn't surprise me if the entire thing comes off before the night is over, unless the wind slackens.

The biggest concern is that the entire tree may come down.  When the wind blows especially hard, you can actually see the ground on one side rise up as the leaning of the tree to the other side creates an upward tug on the roots.  I can only hope that the tree either remains standing, or if it falls, that it will fall directly westward and miss both my home and my neighbor's home.

After surveying my house, I walked up and down my block in both directions.  Across the street, the homes are without power.  While the lights have flickered on and off at times here, we have been lucky that we have not lost power.  I am prepared for that contingency though, having an ample supply of glo sticks and flashlights.  One of my neighbors across the street, an elderly Italian man who lives alone, had a whole section of his siding torn off on the east side of his house.  I gave him one of my glo sticks.

Further down the block, a large tree in the front of one of the houses came down across the front lawn, though the house itself appears to have been mercifully spared..

And that's how things stand in my little section of the world tonight.  Depending on conditions tomorrow, I will see if I can take some pictures of the damage for a follow up post.

Please Join Me In Welcoming Dinesh D'Souza to the Ranks of the Cultural Left

 

"You wouldn't hit a guy with glasses, would you?"

 

 

And now we can retroactively blame him for 9/11.

Oh, The Horror Of It!

USA Today has an article about the results of a survey by The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life that show that the percentage of Americans who do not affiliate with any religion has risen to 20%.

I haven't read the The Pew Forum's report yet.  What amused me though is the reaction of some of the religious persons quoted in the USA Today article.

First up is Rev. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptists Theological Seminary, who frets that "Today, there's no shame in saying you're an unbeliever, no cultural pressure to claim a religious affiliation, no matter how remote or loose."

Right, how dare we be open about being atheist, agnostic or just spiritual!

Then from North Dakota we have Wanda Melchert, who in response to The Pew Forum's report declares "we're praying about this. We feel there's a great need for people to turn back to God. When we lose that, it's dangerous for our country."

Really?  How so?

What is potentially dangerous is the possibility of violent religious reactionaries lashing out at a society that they feel they can no longer control.