danajohnhill.org | Hard Times Come Again No More

ORLANDO – Airports are fascinating places.  But they are no longer fun places.  When I was young, you could go to the airport, make your way out to the terminal, and watch planes land and take off.  You could accompany your loved one to the gate, or wait there for her arrival.  Those days are long gone.  Now, the best you can do is drop someone off at the ticketing area or wait for them at baggage claim.  The security screening process is a hurried and intimidating experience.  Will they harass me about my toothpaste?  Oh, no, the next guy’s bags are coming off the X-ray conveyor belt and I haven’t got my shoes back on!  I wish that lady on the intercom with the grating voice would stop trying to make people feel guilty about not giving up their seats.  And I wish the Licorice family would report to Gate 107.

Filed under: Rantings, Transportation on August 13th, 2009 | No Comments »

Debate is healthy–essential, even–to a thriving democracy.  But debate requires that all parties tell the truth.  Dishonesty poisons social discourse, and invariably prevents us from arriving at common ground and reaching important goals.

I am extremely troubled by the misinformation–lies, really–being spread about the proposed health care reform slowly winding its way through Congress.  The misinformation takes many forms, but at its heart lies a straw man.  That is, some of those who strongly oppose health care reform are deliberately distorting what reform would mean in an effort to make change appear undesirable.  So, for example, they make outrageous claims that, under the Obama plan, the elderly will face forced euthanasia (or any sort of euthanasia), when, in fact, all the proposal would do is give patients the option of discussing advanced directives regarding life-support should they ever suffer a perpetual coma.  There is nothing wrong or even scary about that.  In fact, in the wake of the Terry Schiavo calamity, you would think that everyone would be in favor of such a logical proposal.  But, by misinterpreting what the legislation would do, those making false claims are able to frame the debate in new terms.  If all you hear are people screaming at their congressmen at town hall meetings, you, too, might walk away with the wrong ideas of what health care reform would look like.  (There is a curious similarity between some of those screaming about health care and others screaming about President Obama’s citizenship.)

Another common refrain amongst those who–for whatever reason–oppose reform is that citizens of other nations which have some form of national health care (“socialized medicine!”) or single-payer program (which isn’t even on the table here in the USA, though, mark my words, it will happen in my lifetime) receive much worse care than Americans.  Generally, these arguments point to the “long waits” that patients must endure before receiving essential treatment.  I don’t doubt that patients needing elective operations occasionally have to wait their turns.  But I strongly suspect that the more horrifying claims are greatly exaggerated.  Moreover, when you consider that many tens of millions of Americans are not able to receive those procedures at all, waiting a few weeks doesn’t seem that bad.

But, others who claim that “America has the greatest health care system in the world”, which is demonstrably false if you use almost any measurable criteria, like to make different, more terrifying false claims.  A hilarious one appears in the latest Investors Business Journal.  It suggests that the British public health system is terrible because of “rationing”, and that “the stories of people dying on a waiting list or being denied care altogether read like a horror movie script”.  If, the article states, the bureaucrats don’t believe your life is worth saving, they cut you off, and “you get to curl up in a corner and die”.  Now, you might expect such a shabbily written and poorly researched article to cite ridiculous and unreliable tabloids like the New York Post, and this one does.  And you might also expect it make the sinister insinuation that American patients will be “compelled” to pull their own plugs, so to speak, and this one does that, as well.  But you probably would not have believed that anyone who receives money to write words could make a mistake this stupid:

People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn’t have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless.

Investors Business Journal probably ought to have asked British scientist Stephen Hawking, who lives in the United Kingdom, where they have the National Health Service, if he agreed with that premise.  He would probably have told them that he “wouldn’t be here today if it were not for the NHS”.  That is, in fact, exactly what he told The Guardian.  The ignorance of facts displayed by the Investors Business Journal is not unlike that demonstrated by those fools who claim that, even if President Obama was born in Hawaii–which they’re not willing to concede–he cannot be an American citizen because his father was Kenyan, which is clearly wrong.

It is, of course, appropriate to discuss what this health care reform will cost and how we will pay for it.  And it is entirely understandable that many who oppose abortion would be troubled to think of their money going to cover abortions.  I resent that even a penny of my tax dollars goes to pay for chemicals that the state of Florida uses to kill human beings strapped to a table.  So, their concerns are fair, and we should discuss our options.  But intellectual dishonesty makes legitimate debate impossible, and the fanatics who insist nothing is wrong with what we have, or who seek to make the perfect the enemy of the good, are only making things worse.

Filed under: Current Events, Health, Politics, Rantings on August 12th, 2009 | No Comments »

I follow a number of photographers’ streams on Flickr, the website where I keep tens of thousands of my own photographs.  I have met none of these photographers in person, though one, whose Flickr name is Gato Ranch, lives in north central Florida.  She has many pictures of nature and bands.

On her stream today, Gato Ranch, whose real name is Jana, posted something that I found disturbing.  The Gainesville Sun has taken one of her photographs, and, without her permission, posted it on their webpage in conjunction with a story.  Worse still, in spite of the fact that the stolen picture had her real name and a copyright symbol, the Sun gave her no credit, and posted a link for readers to buy the image.  From them!  It is the most blatant copyright violation I’ve ever seen.

Jana tells me that she notified the Gainesville Sun of their violation, but this isn’t the first time they have done this to her, so one must assume that this is par for the course with them.  She doesn’t believe that they copied the picture from Flickr, but from MySpace, which explains the low resolution.

I’ve never thought much of the Gainesville Sun.  In fact, I have a hate-hate relationship with that paper.  They publish unsolicited Craigslist-style rants in their letters section, which I feel violates all standards of journalism; they have been adversarial in their coverage of WUFT-FM, where I work; they have misquoted me in articles, and acted offended when I alerted them to that fact.  They are simply a bad newspaper.  Now I see they are also criminals.

Shame on you, Gainesville Sun.

So, I have a polite request for anyone who reads the Sun online:  if you ever see any photographs you recognize as mine, please let me know.  If it can happen to Jana, it can happen to me.

Filed under: Gainesville, Photography, Rantings on June 17th, 2009 | 2 Comments »

When we bought this house in 2005, we also began procuring the tools and paraphernalia associated with home ownership and gardening.  Among these were loppers, shears, and pruners.  I remember being very particular about what I bought.  I wanted tools that were manufactured in the United States.  I sometimes had to go out of my way to find them: Home Depot for the shears, Target for the pruners, Wal-Mart for the rake, George’s Hardware for the machete.  But, in the end, I got all American-made tools.

I was in Lowe’s last weekend, and on my way through the garden department I came across a display of Fiskars tools.  They made my loppers, pruners, and shears.  If I had considered adding more Fiskars equipment to my collection, I won’t anymore: all their products are now made in China.  Just to check and make sure I wasn’t mis-remembering what I bought, I went home to check.  Sure enough, each piece is stamped “Made in USA”.

This situation troubles me deeply.  It means that there was once a factory somewhere in the United States, where people like you or me were employed, where people had healthcare and retirement benefits, where people enjoyed company picnics and softball games.  One morning, a mid-level manager probably received a memo from the factory owner–who probably received a memo from Fiskars–stating that the plant was being shut-down so production could be moved off-shore, where labor costs a small fraction of what it does in America.  The mid-level manager probably went out on the floor that afternoon and told everyone that they’d better start looking for work somewhere else.  Some of the lucky ones may have found jobs quickly.  But I suspect many others didn’t, and shortly thereafter lost their health insurance, and maybe their cars and homes.  Their town, if it is small enough, sees some people move away, while the ones who stay have a lower standard of living.  Property values drop, and so does tax revenue.  Schools get worse, and the next generation has fewer opportunities to make something of themselves.  Crime goes up.  So does the divorce rate.

What is it worth to prevent this?  About $2.00, apparently.  That’s the difference between what I paid for my made in USA pruners and the ones now made in China.

The United States’ trade deficit is astonishing (something like $800 billion).  If you believe the Milton Friedman-types, all this is good, since it means the dollar is strong, and that consumers are able to buy more things at lower prices.  To the first point I respond: that’s nice when I travel overseas, but I’m not in the business of trading currency, and, even if I were, I wouldn’t be betting on the dollar, since we owe China trillions, and by any standard our CAB looks pretty bad.  As to the second point: low prices are nice, but what you don’t see printed on the price tag is what I wrote above – the death of manufacturing in America.

We can deceive ourselves into thinking that we have it good, when we go to Wal-Mart and find aisle after aisle of cheap, made in China merchandise.  But if things go on like this, there will come a day when retail, hospitality, and other service  jobs are the only thing left for people without a college degree.  The middle class will disappear.

Filed under: Current Events, Rantings on June 9th, 2009 | 2 Comments »

Earlier this year, I purchased a Fender ‘65 Reissue Twin Reverb guitar amplifier from my local independent music store, Lipham’s.  I not only got a great deal, but I was glad to support local business, particularly one that’s been around for so long.  I’m not saying that Lipham Music is the best store in history–their selection is fairly modest, and they seem to be stocking many more Chinese-made instruments these days–but they do sell Fender and Martin guitars, and, what’s more, they’ve outlast most of the other shops in town.

Last night, after dinner, Miriam and I went somewhere I haven’t been in a long, long time: Best Buy.  I used to go there a lot in days of yore, especially back when HDTV was just being introduced, and I was eager to see what it looked like.  Their service was always lousy (not as lousy as Circuit City, of course), and just about everything I ever bought there broke within two years, but they’ve always had a lot of stock.  Last night, I discovered a new department in an area where CRT televisions were once displayed.  Best Buy now sells musical instruments.  They have drums, keyboards, DJ equipment, and guitars, including Fender and Gibson.

A number of things bother me about this.  First, I don’t think their staff cares about these instruments, since I found every guitar grossly out of tune.  Second, their prices were absurd.  The same Twin Reverb I bought for $899 at Lipham’s was marked $1,699 at Best Buy.  Maybe that’s what they’re going for elsewhere, but it just seemed extreme to me.  Finally, I think musical instruments are just Best Buy’s latest passing fancy.  That’s what troubles me most.  In a worst-case scenario, here’s what I imagine occurring:

1. Lipham Music loses sales to Best Buy.  There are only so many new electric guitars and amplifiers–particularly higher-end models–that will sell each week in Gainesville.  If Lipham loses those sales, it could hurt them significantly.  Lipham’s closes.
2. Musical instruments make up so little of Best Buy’s bottom line that they give up on the endeavor.
3. Gainesville has no music store.  Since Best Buy’s decision is made at the national level, they don’t care that Gainesville is left with nothing.

I don’t know how likely this scenario is.  I may just be paranoid.  But I know that I’d never get a deal on an amp at Best Buy like I did at Lipham’s, and Best Buy doesn’t have the tradition of heritage that Lipham’s does.  After all, a little more than ten years ago, the Best Buy was a Montgomery Ward.  Lipham’s has been in business for fifty years.  But these are hard times.

I hope they can weather the storm.

Filed under: Gainesville, Rantings, Technology on May 30th, 2009 | No Comments »