Society
We are healthy only to the extent that our ideas are humane. Kilgore Trout -Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions, Ch 1.
Egotist, n. A person of low taste, more interested in himself than in me. -Ambrose Bierce
Whitewater Rafting Trip Spreadsheet
The Rafting Trip Planner is a free Google Sheet designed to manage whitewater rafting trip expenses, deposits, reimbursements, logistics, and meals. It was created by rafting enthusiasts and has been used successfully for many multi-day whitewater rafting trips, from 3-day weekends with 8 rafters to 21-day Grand Canyon trips with 24 rafters.Touring with Ted
I just read today that my old Army buddy Ted Withycombe died last November in 2017. Ted and I had not kept in touch after our Army service, so it was a spur-of-the-moment Internet search that found his obituary. It brought back some old memories of my friendship with Ted, particularly the bicycle trips in Europe we made together. My sincere condolences to his family and friends.
Oregon Scribbler.
Supporting Law Enforcement
I have always supported law enforcement - it is a basic need in a country governed by laws, and our police put themselves at risk to enforce the laws on our behalf. For this the police deserve our appreciation and our full support. Yet full support is not unconditional support. Police wield a great deal of power, and they sometimes abuse that power; when they do, they, like anyone else who is in a position of public trust, must be held accountable.
Christmas 1958 - Steve, Tom, and Grandpa Wiebe. Family.
So Long, Steve
My brother Steve, Stephen Alton Wiebe, died recently of heart failure; he was 66 years old. Steve's wife, family and friends were around him at the end of his life, a life whose last years were painful and difficult. Steve, my older brother, is no longer suffering. I will miss him.
Apocalyptic politics
Donald Trump's latest international provocation, the decision to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, marches Trump-backing evangelicals a step closer to their deeply held desire for the fulfillment of Biblical end-times prophecies. A recent CNN article by Diana Bass suggests that, for many evangelicals, Jerusalem is about prophecy, not politics. I would partially agree: It is about prophecy, but it is also explicitly about politics.
Citizenship: Making sense of hysteria
With the never-ending wave of hysteria being promulgated daily in the news media and on the internet, how do we make sense of it all? How do we deflect the emotional pull of anger, greed and hate, all cousins of fear, that are often brought to us by those who wish to drown our better selves in the worst emotions, so as to persuade us to think or act in some certain way? How do we find a way to think and act responsibly when our politicians, pundits, preachers, programs and parents promote their agendas, at times with little regard for truth or ethics or morality, while with the deepest cynicism, couching their points of view in the language of truth and ethics and morality?
Crude, Rude, and Impolite
Today's Republican Party, in choosing a clearly unqualified candidate for the presidency, in choosing to wallow in the deepest trough of political mud in my memory, in choosing to embrace the grossest of lies and the most laughable of conspiracies, in choosing to generate fear and hatred instead of exercising civilized, reasoned judgment, has embraced my 5th grade teacher's admonishment for a ten year old's bad behavior: "Crude, rude and impolite".
Oregon Scribbler.
The Law of Political Scruples
In the world of politics, the degree to which scruples are exercised is in inverse proportion to the degree to which moral rectitude is claimed.
What could be more fun than to use some dry mathematical humor to add some refinement to this political epigram? And so is born the Law of Political Scruples.Political epigrams
In the world of politics, the degree to which scruples are exercised is in inverse proportion to the degree to which moral rectitude is claimed.
Political ideologies, or ideologies wielded in the service of politics, share the property that they can erase any reality that contradicts them.
(1). See also The Law of Political Scruples.There is "spin", and there is bearing false witness
One of the most difficult things for me is to watch politicians, governments, corporations, and organizations of all stripes, tell lies in order to persuade their intended audience to support them. This is clearly a naive reaction on my part: Why be perpetually bothered afresh by something that is pervasive and nearly universal? After all, "everybody cheats", and the most important thing for these entities is that they survive, they prevail, or that their influence waxes rather than wanes, not that they do the "right thing". To this question I have no pragmatic answer, except to say that I believe that honesty has more potential to make people and organizations successful, to make the world that more loving place called for by the major religions, than does the selfish manipulation that is the lie. The lie all too often gets you what you want, but at what cost to others, and at what cost to yourself?
Family.
At play with Uncle Ron
Ron Wiebe, my Uncle Ron, my Dad's youngest brother, died recently. I will miss him. He was a good man, a man of heart, a man who lived his life with passion, and shared his joie de vivre with everyone around him.Evolutionary zinger: Bats, moths and mites
When Fred Rickson taught his section of General Biology at Oregon State, I made sure to attend all of his lectures, as he opened them with his evolutionary zingers, hoping that his students would would be enticed to be more prompt than usual. My favorite was his zinger about the three-way symbiotic relationship between a bat, a moth, and a mite.Evolutionary zinger: Ants and acacia trees
I treasure the science education I obtained at Oregon State University. One standout class was General Biology, a portion of which was taught by professor Fred Rickson. He did not like people slipping in late, so he gave short teasers promptly at the start of the hour, which he entitled evolutionary zingers, hoping that his students would enjoy the stories sufficiently to show up on time. It definitely worked for me. I was not in the habit of attending a lot of lectures, but the intricate stories of complex life told by professor Rickson were as attractive to me as nectar "fountains" are to acacia ants, the subject of one of his zingers.Pocket Review, Title Broadway Danny Rose, Studio MGM/UA, Rating 4.5,
Broadway Danny Rose (1984)
Director: Woody Allen
Pocket Review
Broadway Danny Rose: A movie that never gets old
The top of my Woody Allen movie list is reserved for Broadway Danny Rose'. The movie opens with a scene at the Carnegie Deli, with a bunch of (actual) Borscht Belt comedians swapping stories on a lazy afternoon, and one of them begins to tell Danny's story. Danny is a very small-time theatrical agent in New York City, kind of the Charlie Brown of agents, who never seems to get a break. He works his butt off for small-time acts: Balloon folders, waterglass musicians,one-legged tap-dancers, stuttering ventriloquists, and the like.
Book review, Title The US Constitution, Author United States, Rating 4.0,
The US Constitution
United States
Book review
So slender a thread
In one good hour the U.S. Constitution can be read from front to back. It is written in relatively clear language and still has the capacity to surprise.
Book review, Title The Global Public Square, Author Os Guinness, Rating 2.5,
The Global Public Square
Os Guinness
Book review
Halting steps to soul freedom
Os Guinness' The Global Public Square oscillates between a Utopian call for a universal human rights and a sectarian application of those rights, as if the author was of two minds, wrestling with the views of Roger Williams and James Dobson.
Life, education, and life-long learning
We each are given a precious life and can choose to do with it what we will. We can act in our natural self-interest and seek safety, material wealth and pleasure, or we can act outside of our direct interests, enriching our lives through the consideration of others. Our lives are most meaningful and worthwhile when we love others. The elements of life to be savored most are those that are founded on the humble idea that we are all human beings who are worthy of consideration.
Oregon Scribbler.
Milestones of our courtship
While doing some spring cleaning, Cindy came across some discrete milestones of our courtship, perhaps a short and selective history of Cindy’s path to my heart, assisted by her pal Snoopy.
La main gauche est maladroit
I came across this provocative double-entendre comic from the great Bizarro Comics. As a left-hander, I laughed my head off.
World cup philosophy
My brother Peter showed me a comic from the witty Existential Comics that captured the Zeitgeist of the world cup this year, or is it l'esprit du temps? Such questions are to be decided on the pitch.
Punctuated equilibrium
American football combines two of the worst things in American life: It is violence punctuated by committee meetings. – George Will, occasionally lucid, occasionally witty. Re-quoted from Lexington, the Economist.
Vox de intellectu – the voice of understanding
"There is always an easy solution to every human problem - neat, plausible, and wrong."(H.L. Mencken, Mencken Chrestomathy, p. 443 )
is a brand-new website dedicated to presenting and analyzing news and public policy. Rather than oversimplify for the sake of concision or demagoguery, Vox.com intends to provide more depth of coverage in an accessible way. Ezra Klein, a well-known journalist, leads the effort. 
Oregon Scribbler.
Celia’s Lullaby
My mother, Celia Wiebe, has loved music for as long as I can remember. She often played music on the record player when we were growing up, mostly classical, and encouraged her children from their earliest ages to listen and to participate. She also sang around the house, and with her children; sometimes she sang solos or duets with my father in church. Her soprano voice sounded wonderful to me when she sang.Pocket Review, Title Get Shorty, Studio MGM/UA, Rating 4.5,
Get Shorty (1995)
Director: Barry Sonnenfeld
Pocket Review
Get Shorty: A movie that never gets old
The wry premise of this movie: the best training for a Hollywood producer is loan-sharking.
The Era of Open Information
The ascendant Era of Open Information might be described as freely available online content from a vast number of sources. Today, unlike fifteen years ago, I can access media that I had been entirely unaware of, or had no access to, or simply could not afford, via an Internet browser and a search engine, including any number of venerable magazines and newspapers, without paying for it. Will this last?
Oregon Scribbler.
Home brewing: Yeast is your friend
After many years on home brew hiatus, my son Jon and I have begun brewing beer together, now that he has finished his arduous post-grad studies and has time for something other than work. We have managed to brew two batches of beer so far, and a third is nearly finished conditioning. We have made all of the mistakes one can make starting out, but thankfully all of the beers are drinkable.Would you let your child play football?
Growing up, football and basketball were my favorite sports. I played plenty of tackle and touch football, on teams and with friends and family. Yet later as parents, when our boys played high school sports, my wife and I did not allow them to play tackle football: We felt that with the amount and severity of injuries in football, the risk was too high. Given the recent revelations of long-term injuries in football, the question can be asked anew: Would we have let our children play football today, or more urgently, would we want our grandchildren to play football today?
False confession? How is that possible?
In various studies of U.S. legal cases involving confessions, more than one quarter of the confessions are found to be false, and nearly all of those resulted in conviction. These same studies show high rates of suspects who waive their Miranda rights. Why would someone admit to something they didn't do, particularly if they would go to jail or be executed as a result? Why did they not avail themselves of the Miranda rights to refuse interrogation?
Pocket Review, Title The Incredibles, Studio Disney / Pixar Studios, Rating 5.0,
The Incredibles (2004)
Director: Brad Bird
Pocket Review
The Incredibles: A movie that never gets old
The best cartoons growing up were ones that were aimed at both kids and adults, like the Looney Tunes with Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, or the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. The Incredibles manages this multi-layered presence with masterful ease at feature length.
Pocket Review, Title Dumb And Dumber, Studio New Line Home Entertainment, Rating 3.5,
Dumb And Dumber (1994)
Director: Bobby Farrelly
Pocket Review
Dumb and Dumber: A movie that never gets old
This movie just makes me laugh. Usually, movies that feature juvenile humor begin to pale at some point, but Jim Carrey holds my attention as a completely oblivious, selfish idiot.
Movie Review, Title One, Two, Three, Studio MGM/UA, Rating 5.0,
One, Two, Three (1961)
Director: Billy Wilder
Movie Review
One Two Three: A movie that never gets old
This is a highly informed madcap comedy set in the heart of the Cold War, geographically and in time: Berlin of 1961, just before the Wall went up. Billy Wilder cranks up the pace from the beginning and leaves you out of breath at the end.
Book review, Title The New Jim Crow, Author Michelle Alexander, Rating 5.0,
The New Jim Crow
Michelle Alexander
Book review
The War on Drugs and Mass Incarceration
Michelle Alexander's book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness is an important and tightly argued treatise on the mass incarceration of black and brown people in the United States since the acceleration of the War on Drugs in the mid-1980's. Most of the incarcerations have been for low level possession, and have disproportionately affected minorities: According to federal figures, blacks and whites use drugs at a roughly equal rate in percentage terms, yet black men 12 times likelier to be jailed for drugs than white ones.
Family.
Glenn Jaeger, in Memoriam
Glenn Jaeger passed away recently. Glenn's father Nick married my grandmother Edna Wiebe after my grandfather died. Getting to know Glenn and Carol was one of the blessings of that union for me. We moved into the neighboring school district just before my senior year in high school, and Glenn and Carol took me in that last year to allow me to finish high school where I had started. They treated me so kindly, much more kindly than an obnoxious teenager might expect.Das echte Lied der Alpenkräuter
When I was growing up, my father taught us a little ditty from his Mennonite boyhood:
Dar war ein Mann in Tode Loch,Und kein er sahe Mann,Und im dem letzen Stunden,Stunden,Hat er das Alpenkreuter gefunden.It was a charming little tune. Eventually, my curiosity was aroused regarding its meaning, so ...
Knives? Guns? Or Disarm?
"The rationale of the National Rifle Association (NRA) is to never bring a knife to a gunfight. The preeminent concern of those most affected by violence is to insure that there is no gunfight in the first place."
- Jelani Cobb, regarding Perceived Threats, a discussion about the contrasting views of the NRA and the black community.
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