My Take: Resistance is Futile

The situation that developed in Washington, DC, last evening with the firing of the acting Attorney General and replacing her with another person in the span of about 15 minutes demonstrated everything that I was afraid of with the new administration. This is not a taping of the reality TV show The Apprentice, this is government in a dangerous and complex world.

Signing the Travel Ban Executive Order

Briefly, the situation that transpired was documented in a NY Times article titled, Trump Fires Acting Attorney General Who Defied Him. From my uninformed vantage point, the problem centered on the fact that the administration did not vet the Immigration Executive order through the Department of Justice before issuing it. 

The drama could have been avoided had the Attorney General been given the opportunity to comment on the legality of the immigration ban and they could have been asked whether she could have support it. The drama would not have played out in the news and the acting Attorney General could have provided her reservations and then quietly resigned rather have the splashy after-dark drama occur which further obfuscates what the administration is trying to accomplish.

Travel Ban Airport Demonstrations

The type of theatrics which are documented in the Times article are an unnecessary sideshow and undermine confidence in the administration to work collaboratively and to be inclusive of those who possess an alternative opinion.

This Executive Order has become one of the most contentious of the new administration partly because of the shock effect. Homeland Security was unable to prepare for implementation and it was unevenly enforced. Vetting the Order might have enabled it to be handled evenly and reduced the confusion associated with its implementation.

My Take: Regardless of the opinion of the legal experts, the Travel Ban Executive Order was going to be signed. The administration could have done a much better job, however, of ensuring they were aware of the potential backlash and human toll its promulgation was going to cause.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Monday Musings - January 30, 2017

1. Wow, the first month of 2017 is almost over.

2. Orioles pitchers and catchers report in 14 days. Baseball is coming!

3. Orioles Opening Day is 63 days away!

Squirrel at the Feeder

4. We bought 25 pounds of raw peanuts for the birds over the weekend. The cashier at the feed store asked if it was for squirrels or birds. I responded Blue Jays, but the squirrels get a lot of them as well. 

5. I wish it would get warm enough to get out for some golf. 

6. There is a lot of confusion in the U.S. right now about the direction of our government.

7. The first week of the new President's administration had seen some campaign promises fulfilled.

HEADLINES

8. Amid protests and confusion, Trump defends executive order: ‘This is not a Muslim ban’ - Washington Post

9. What is an executive order? And how do President Trump's stack up? - Washington Post

10. Tulip: The heaviest mortar in the world - Russia and India Report

11.  Donald Trump's travel ban fundamentally changes American history - CNN International

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

What Does the Low Emission Car Sign Mean?

I came across a new sign in a parking lot yesterday that caught my attention. It seemed pretty straightforward until I started things about the meaning of the sign. And after doing some internet research, I became thoroughly confused. 

What is a low emission vehicle? 

I did some research. In my mind I was thinking about hybrid vehicles, perhaps. But would the designation low emission include electric vehicles? It should since they have no emissions, right? 

I expected to find a fairly restrictive list of vehicles. As I searched, it quickly became apparent that many, if not most, newer vehicles meet the requirements as a low emission car. Even more exciting, there are multiple lists. 

Apparently the most definitive list is at GreenCars.  I did find another list as well at another site. They do not appear to be the same. I did not find any electric vehicles on the second list. 

Turns out that most new vehicles meet the requirements for low emissions. I found many hybrids and even my favorite electric cars on the lists as well, but the numbers and types of cars which meet the requirement for low emission vehicles is much larger than I ever would have imagined. 

While the large number of vehicles assessed to be low emissions is a good thing, I did not find any of the vehicles I own on the list. 

So check out the list of low emission vehicles because you may, through no fault of your own, have one and can use one of these newly designated parking spots. 

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Why is there Trash Everywhere?

Highway Litter

It is bad. 

And getting worse every day. I am appalled at the trash along the highways. Where does it come from? Do people really throw trash out of their cars as they speed at 70 mph along the highways? Does the State of Maryland really allow refuse trucks to travel without securing their loads? Apparently so.

Trash from my Yard

It is a problem even in our neighborhood. Yesterday, Chris and I filled up garbage bags with the trash that has been blowing into our yard. I was not amused. I could tell that the trash was not ours, because we do not eat at the restaurants nor shop at the stores represented by the ads on the trash. 

My Neighbor's Solar Panel Plan

Contributing to the mess was the refuse caused when one of our neighbors had solar panels installed earlier in the week. We collected many items from the yard, some labelled Vivint Solar--apparently the workers are not very caring of the environment and the wind brought their droppings into my yard. I obscured our neighbor's name and address because the problem was not theirs, but rather it was the installers. 

Why can't trash and litter be controlled? Are people so shallow as to believe that if it isn't in their yard, it isn't a problem? We live at the bottom, literally, of the street. That which our neighbors don't control ends up in our yard or in the wooded area near our house. It really is appalling. 

We are destroying our environment through our carelessness. And no one seems to care.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Doomsday Clock

Movement of the Doomsday Clock

The keepers of the Doomsday Clock had not made the news in two years. I guess they decided to make a statement yesterday by moving the minute hand forward by 30 seconds. 

During the Cold War, the Doomsday clock and the placement of its hands was a regular sight on the national news. 

The statement follows:

“For the first time in the 70-year history of the Doomsday Clock, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Science and Security Board has moved the hands of the iconic clock 30 seconds closer to midnight,” the organization announced today.

The Scientific Bulletin‘s board issued this clarion call: “It is two and a half minutes to midnight, the Clock is ticking, global danger looms. Wise public officials should act immediately, guiding humanity away from the brink. If they do not, wise citizens must step forward and lead the way.” (Their emphasis.)

Apparently, the movement of the hands by 30 seconds, the first 30 second movement of the hands ever, is their evaluation of our new President's first week on the job.

Some have called for the Doomsday Clock to be retired, one blogger wrote a thoughtful piece during 2012 hoping to speed along the clock's demise. The article, The Doomsday Clock moves toward Midnight? Meaningless appeared in The War Room, a blog about Politics and Foreign Policy which ended its run during December 2016.

It is kind of scary that the Doomsday Clock is back in the news. 

I guess it has been an unsettling first week on the job. 

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

My Take: Really, A Wall?

I do not have great memories of places that are walled.

Berlin Wall Exhibit
Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum

I remember the Berlin Wall! President Ronald Reagan succeeded in ending the Cold War and that brought the wall down. 

Then there was the Kurt Russell movie Escape from New York. A scary movie about a wall keeping criminals in Manhattan and the President crash landing in the middle of the chaos.

Decades ago, when I was in junior high school (this was the time before there were things called middle schools) I remember that in history class (yes, it was history and not social studies) I remember discussions about how the United States was the greatest country on the planet and we were fortunate to have the longest undefended borders. Both the borders with Mexico and Canada were undefended. I believe there were places along the both borders where crossing between countries was as easy as driving across county lines in the United States.

Later, I remember that while stationed in Germany during my Air Force career, one day the family was on a trip to the Maginot Line driving along back roads of Germany and suddenly, we crossed into France. There was not a formal border crossing--that is during the 1990's. It made me a bit uneasy that crossing countries even in the time before the European union could be done so easily. The Maginot Line was a wall of sorts--it failed miserably.

And now, the United States is about to build a wall along the Mexican Border. Walls are designed to keep someone out and others in. That is a simple fact of walls. There are stronger than fences. Robert Frost wrote a poem, Mending Wall, about how walls crumble. The poem is a notional conversation between two neighbors walking the stone wall dividing their property and repairing it. One neighbor wonders why there is a wall at all. 

He only says, "Good fences make good neighbours."

Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder

If I could put a notion in his head:

"Why do they make good neighbours? Isn't it

Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.

Before I built a wall I'd ask to know

What I was walling in or walling out,

And to whom I was like to give offence.

China has the Great Wall, although it is of little practical use now. Cities during medieval times used to be walled. Castles and Keeps were walled to prevent the roaming hordes from stealing in.

What are we walling in or out? Are we sure?

Have we lost the American Dream and should we now retire the Statue of Liberty that great monument dedicated to the inclusiveness of America?

Mending Wall begins:

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,

That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,

And spills the upper boulders in the sun;

And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.

  
And that is My Take. 

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Highway Problem

I drive daily. Most people I know drive daily. Collectively, we expect that the highways we drive on are well constructed and safe. 

I have the pleasure of transiting two of the top 30 (numbers 6 and 22) traffic bottlenecks in Maryland on a daily basis.  I have gotten used to it. I don't enjoy the mess, but I have grown accustomed to the traffic jams. 

The real problem with traffic bottlenecks are the other drivers who believe that by sheer will power and aggressive driving they can beat the system. Sadly, they often wind up creating larger problems for the other drivers as they cause accidents.

Accident on the Jones Falls Expressway
from the Baltimore Sun

My commuting problems are light when compared to others in the region. I read about a roadway, that I fortunately do not traverse, that has near daily accidents in the same location. The Baltimore Sun reports  Baltimore seeking solutions to near-daily I-83 crashes 'at the Pepsi sign.' Reading the article makes it clear that this roadway is not just dangerous, it was under-designed for modern vehicles and traffic volumes. 

Is it the road's fault? Partly. But from my experiences during my daily commute, I know that many drivers do not understand the physics of driving. Hydroplaning or driving too fast on ice means that the vehicle will be operating under the paws of physics and not taking inputs from the steering wheel or brakes. 

Sometimes, though, the road is partially responsible. As drivers we expect the roads to be designed to meet a certain standard. When they are not up to standards, bad things occur. 

I am happy that I only traverse two of the 30 worst bottlenecks in Maryland on a daily basis, at lease I don't have to use one of the worst designed highways.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Rainy Mondays

There is something "just about right" when considering a rainy Monday.

It celebrates the beginning of the work week with the tears of the workers falling on the land to remind us that the weekend is a long way off. 

Yesterday was windy, rainy, and cool, it is hard to say cold when the temperature thankfully remained above freezing. Although the weather was not particularly nice, it was better than the alternative: snow. We received about six-tenths of an inch of rain, translated into the white stuff that falls from the sky that would have been almost 8 inches of snow. By some measures, on average one inch of rain translates roughly into 13 inches of snow--but that number can vary a bit.

The rain was better.

I made a funny decision as I left my car yesterday to cross the parking lot into the building where I work. The wind was blowing so hard that I decided not to risk my damaging my umbrella and kept it folded. I probably looked amusing caring a folded umbrella in a rainstorm to the building.

It was Monday, after all. What more can one expect?

Tuesday?

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Monday Musings - January 23, 2017

1. It is the first Monday of President Trump's administration. I wonder what is in store for the country.

Art in a Store in Baltimore

2. When is a fact not a fact but an estimation? It seems that some people are having problems with reality.

3. Which piece of art do you like? The wave or the octopus. I like the wave.

4. Wandering around Baltimore on a Saturday evening is an interesting experience, there are lots interesting characters on the streets.

5. Baltimore Restaurant Week is an event not to be missed. Chris and I went out with Patrick and Tina and had a fantastic dinner at a very reasonable price.


6. "Because we're a great nation, our challenges seem complex. It will always be this way. But as long as we remember our first principles and believe in ourselves, the future will always be ours. And something else we learned: Once you begin a great movement, there's no telling where it will end. We meant to change a nation, and instead, we changed a world." - Ronald Reagan

Farewell Address to the Nation, January 11, 1989

Headlines

7. Women’s March leads to 2nd-busiest day in Metro history, just trailing Obama’s 2009 inauguration - Washington Post

8. Shootout at Texas mall leaves one dead, seven wounded - The Daily Star

9. Dollar slips, shares wobbly after Trump's protectionist address - Reuters

10. At Least 18 Die as Tornadoes Sweep Southeast - NY Times

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

In the Record Store

Chris in the Record Store

No, it wasn't a scene from the 70's, it happened last evening in the Fells Point section of Baltimore. Chris was shopping in a real record store, The Sound Garden,  which was selling new vinyl records as well as old classics.

It was a scene that brought back memories of times gone by when we wandered through the stores looking at the rows and rows of vinyl records. The rows of records were fun to look at. New, remastered oldies were everywhere. the return to the warm sounds of vinyl records is truly alive. 

The store also had rows of CDs--remember them? 

The way we listen to music has definitely changed. It seems we no longer own actual copies of the music, everything is delivered from the "cloud."

A stroll through a real record store reminded me of how it used to be.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD