3-30-2010 Tridextrous

This was a day of busy—three scoops of busy. The reason I imply too busy is that even though I engaged in activities which saw completion, still there was a feeling of loose ends. There were loose ends in the sense that there is more to be done for most of the activities, and there is a feeling that I could have let something slip between the cracks. That could have happened, but I didn’t have time to review mentally and see if it did happen.

I got email from Ellen Brady saying I am a delegate and chairman of precinct 4904 as well as chairman of 4015. Well, it may mean more work but it will just be an extension of the work for 4015. The difference will be the vote as a delegate. I’ll have to decide if I will vote for Matheson or not at the convention. The pros and cons are fairly straightforward. When his democratic district was gerrymandered and Republicans outnumbered Democrats by far, he surprised everyone by winning anyway. But to do so and to keep his seat he had to veer far to the right and become a “Blue Dog” Democrat. He doesn’t vote in accord with my beliefs on abortion, health care, or cap and trade, and he probably votes Republican on other issues as well—like on gun control. But he is a Democrat, so he counts as a Democrat for purposes of determining a party majority in the House. I am also told that he helps many Democrats down the ballot as well. So, on a purely practical basis, he helps Democrats, thus logic tells me to vote for him. However, he does not represent any of my views, so my desire is to vote against him.

But, again, reality impinges. I am told that the person running against Matheson is not impressive and is highly unlikely to win in a contest with the Republican. Thus the practicalities tell me to vote for Matheson, but my heart tells me to vote against him. What it may come down to is that if he is sure to win, or sure to lose the nomination, I will be free to vote the way I would like to vote. The decision is the same in the general election. If he is sure to win—or is sure to lose—and if there is a liberal to vote for, then I would vote for the liberal. But if it looks close then I would probably vote for Matheson. Of course it would help to know how it would all play out in the long run. It appears that Utah will be extremely conservative for a long time to come. The only bright spot at the moment is Caroon running for Governor. I could vote for him with a clear conscience. But I can’t believe that he has a real shot at winning. Utah is a far right state and the vote is strongly influenced by person to person pressure among Mormons. There is not much reasoning or thinking and analyzing as a method of deciding how to vote. Voting is influenced by the interpersonal factor everywhere, but it is more so in Mormon Utah.

Finally we spent time at two meetings about playing the organ. One was a monthly meeting of the LIFE chapter, the group of us who volunteer to play at senior centers and nursing homes. The audience is not demanding (they only hear, I’m told, what you play right, they don’t hear the mistakes). The other meeting was the weekly organ lesson. I continue to improve on hearing and following the beat. It doesn’t come naturally for me, but if I practice I can get it. I am now committed to playing for a senior center. I’ll play Snowbird along with 9 others who will play. I will have to practice. The song I really want to master is Georgia. It is harder, with a host of cords to play. If I can learn it and keep in practice with it then I could play it at a concert. I could also add some variations that would make the music more interesting. It is still amazing that musically disabled me can learn anything about music. It definitely helps me keep my brain in shape, so for that reason alone it is worthwhile to play the organ.

Today I started doing our taxes, started entering data in the database, did some banking. That may sound like a lot, but it wasn’t. I didn’t exercise (bad boy, bad!) and piddled away the morning hours allowing myself to get redirected a lot. The evening wasn’t much to shout about either. As we were doing the taxes Lorri pulled out a W2 for $4500. It turns out that just after the first of last year she helped NIMUS do some work and got some money for it. She said it was a surprise and we could use it for a trip. That was nice but I was a little shocked and not sure I appreciated her keeping a secret like that.

The passage of the Health Care bill is still a big deal and it is beginning to look as though the Democrats may benefit from it if they can maintain a good positive spin on it. The Republicans are angry and very negative, even delaying the Senate action for no good reason. All that negativity could be a drag for them and could end up losing them seats in the fall if they don’t knock off the flailing around. So far the Democrats are keeping up a positive message, the polls are shifting and people are starting to recognize that there was good stuff in the bill even if the Republicans misrepresent it.

Michelle was full of energy today and seemed upbeat. Even though I hold my breath with her because her lupus can take a bad turn quickly, it was nice to see her be positive. She joined Twitter and started tweeting and is having fun with it.

My printer fouled up a little today and my computer was really slow. I think it is getting close to time when I should order a new computer and maybe a printer as well. I’d have to do a lot of programming but it might not be all that bad since I just recently loaded Windows 7 on my desktop computer and am reprogramming it anyway. Still, something is holding me back – I think it is the idea of spending the money. There is a place on the internet where I could select the parts I want and they would put them together and burn it in. So long as it could be made to include a good i7 processor, a good motherboard, USB3 and the new kind of memory, it should be a no-brainier. I may tinker with the sight tomorrow and see how feasible it is.
-end-

3-23-2010 On Mindless Anger

Today I exercised, went to Organ class then went to the caucus meeting. We learned some new techniques at the first- "Bob" from Chicago was there and showed us how to change presets while playing, change octaves, and change the “Genie” and “Orch+” buttons.

At the political caucus (which Utah has instead of primaries) Lorri (my wife) got elected delegate and I got elected Chairman and Lorri Vice Chairman. Michelle (daughter) didn’t go but I offered to make her secretary or treasurer; she didn’t respond. How much more work all this will involve will probably be in our control. I explained to Lorri, who is very angry with Jim Matheson, that he may not vote the way we want on certain issues but his presence as a Democrat means we are more likely to be the majority party in congress and thus have more power. She realizes that is important. We also learned that his opponent is not likely to win the congressional seat. So we are stuck with a difficult choice. If he is in the House it is probably better for us than if a Republican is there, but it is still unsettling since he doesn’t vote or speak for our point of view.

The big event this week was the Health Care legislation passing the congress and being signed into law. The Republicans (or Repubpubs or Refoxicans) are furious. A Lou Harris poll shows that 57% of Republicans think Obama is a Muslim, and 24% think is may well be the antichrist. 45% say he is doing the same things that Hitler did…. What kind of place do we live in? What are members of the human species really like? How much reason and how much violent-gang-emotional thinking is there? Previously I was aware that the bond is primal among humans and easily overrode reason. I got additional evidence for this notion when a story in the paper talked about a woman writer who joined a fundamentalist church and described how the members have a very strong friendship bond that runs amazingly deep. They do not, however, think about the political positions and other teachings their leaders give them. They simply act –and donate money—as the leaders tell them. They will even mistreat children to follow the dictates of their leaders.

The most recent example of the people following without thinking was to see some people being interviewed about the passage of the Health Care bill. They simply repeated the concerns and points of view of the Republican leaders. They are angry about the supposed loss of freedom, supposed government takeover of Health Care, etc., parroting Bannor and McConnell. Passage of the bill was, to them, the worst thing to happen in American history. It is also disturbing that despite some minor outbreaks of violence the Republican leaders make no effort to tone down their followers. They seem to believe that the most extreme of the followers are the one who hold their futures in their hands, so they must not contradict what they say, no matter how absurd. Oh people, what are you but brain-dead organisms sitting in a mind numbing echo chamber. It is depressing and discouraging even though the majority got something accomplished. The anger is a disturbing element, the high level of anger. I remember when I first saw that level of anger when the vote recounting was going on in 2000 in Florida. At that time I thought that, well, if they are that upset maybe we should let them have their turn in the White House. Now I realize that they are always that mad and giving them power is not the answer.

Alas!