Mark's Notebook

All Articles - November 2004

Credit reports -- free for all

San Francisco Chronicle

By Kathleen Pender

Starting Wednesday, residents of California and 12 other Western states can get a free copy of their credit report from each of the nation's three major credit bureaus once every 12 months. By September 2005, at the end of a phased rollout, residents of all 50 states will have the same opportunity.

Free credit reports were mandated by the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, the reincarnation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The new law "is a hard-fought victory for consumers," says Jennette Gayer, a consumer advocate with CalPIRG.

Consumers can request their reports from Equifax, Experian and TransUnion from a single, jointly operated Web site, address or phone number.

To request a report, go to www.annualcreditreport.com (the address must be typed in your browser). The site is being tested today and many users have been able to get their reports, although it is not officially live until Wednesday. You can also request a free report by calling (877) 322-8228 or mail a request to P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281.

At the Web site, you first enter some basic information, such as name, address, Social Security number and date of birth. Next, select the bureau or bureaus from which you want a report. After selecting each bureau, you will be asked some questions to verify your identity. For example, you may have to identify your mortgage company or the balance on a credit card.

Those who check their reports on a regular basis should be able to spot and correct potentially costly errors and make life harder for identity thieves. In California, victims of identity theft can get a free credit report every month for a limited time.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/11/30/BUGFGA3H1H1.DTL

Ambulances stop delivering patients to emergency room

San Jose Mercury News

By Barbara Feder Ostrov

Ambulances stopped delivering patients to San Jose Medical Center's emergency room Monday and its trauma center was shut down in preparation for the downtown hospital's closing next week.

San Jose Medical Center will still accept walk-in patients to its emergency room until the hospital closes at 5 p.m. Dec. 9. The hospital also will treat some walk-in trauma patients, depending on the severity of their injuries.

But nearly all trauma patients are transported by ambulance, and they will now be taken to the county's other two trauma centers at Stanford Medical Center in Palo Alto and Valley Medical Center in San Jose. Many services at the hospital already have been shut down; there are about 50 patients in the hospital now, compared to a usual patient population of 110 to 150 during winter months.

The nearest hospital is Regional Medical Center of San Jose, owned by the same company, which is 2 1/2 miles away. Regional has applied to open a trauma center to replace the one that closed at San Jose Medical Center, but approval by county officials could take months.

http://www.mercurynews.com:80/mld/mercurynews/news/10301486.htm

Mark says:

What the newspapers don't report: SJ Medical Center is closing because 30 percent of their patients don't have insurance, yet the hospital is required by law to treat them. So many of the patient bills go unpaid.

Who Is John Stott?

New York Times

By David Brooks

Many people are misinformed about evangelical Christians. There is a world of difference between real-life people of faith and the made-for-TV, Elmer Gantry-style blowhards who are selected to represent them. Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson are held up as spokesmen for evangelicals, which is ridiculous. Meanwhile people like John Stott, who are actually important, get ignored.

If evangelicals could elect a pope, Stott is the person they would likely choose. He was the framer of the Lausanne Covenant, a crucial organizing document for modern evangelicalism. He is the author of more than 40 books, which have been translated into over 72 languages and have sold in the millions. Now rector emeritus at All Souls, Langham Place, in London, he has traveled the world preaching and teaching.

His is a voice that is friendly, courteous and natural. It is humble and self-critical, but also confident, joyful and optimistic. Stott's mission is to pierce through all the encrustations and share direct contact with Jesus. Stott says that the central message of the gospel is not the teachings of Jesus, but Jesus himself, the human/divine figure. He is always bringing people back to the concrete reality of Jesus' life and sacrifice.

There's been a lot of twaddle written recently about the supposed opposition between faith and reason. To read Stott is to see someone practicing "thoughtful allegiance" to scripture. For him, Christianity means probing the mysteries of Christ. He is always exploring paradoxes. Jesus teaches humility, so why does he talk about himself so much? What does it mean to gain power through weakness, or freedom through obedience? In many cases the truth is not found in the middle of apparent opposites, but on both extremes simultaneously.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/30/opinion/30brooks.html?th

In The Hospital

They wheeled me into pre-op at 7:00 pm as promised. Surgery commenced around 7:30, and at 9:30 I awoke in post-op with Mary at my side. This was on Tuesday, October 12. I was in the hospital until Friday the 15th.

The first night I only wanted to sleep. The nurses woke me up every hour to check vital signs. This didn't bother me. With all the meds in me, I didn't care about anything.

I mostly slept between around 11:00 pm and 3:00 am the whole time I was in the hospital. I was never really comfortable enough to sleep the night through, even with all the drugs. I did sleep a lot during the day, though, since staying awake was way too boring. I hate TV, and I didn't have enough energy to read a book.

Mary visited me every day. Some days I had to chase her away so she could get her own things done. Pastor Eddie Munoz from Calvary Chapel visited me one day. My Aunt Roe visited me one day. And Kathleen and David Brandt also visited me, and they helped Mary with a lot of things at home.

The first morning (Wednesday) they tried to get me to urinate. I couldn't do this lying on my back or lying on my side. The nurses even tried to help me, letting me stand up by the side of the bed and holding me steady. But nothing. I'm not really sure whether this was the result of medications or just a "shy bladder." But Mary says the medications do shut everything down. Anyway, eventually they did put in a catheter because they were worried about the bladder becoming distended. This was an experience, but not as gruesome as I anticipated. The worse part was having it in for a day and feeling it "tugging" all the time. Eventually they pinned the tube down to the bed to keep it from tugging. This helped a lot. For the most part, it just gave the sensation that I was peeing constantly.

That very first day they sent an occupational therapist (OT) in the morning and a physical therapist (PT) in the afternoon. The OT helped me with things like putting on socks and pants. This is not so easy when you can't move your leg, and when you can't place weight on one leg. The PT showed me how to get in and out of bed without placing weight on the foot, and she showed me how to use the walker. It felt good to get out of bed and "walk" around. But it was relatively painless because of the medications.

They gave me some soap and water, and Mary washed me up a bit.

I was quite heavily medicated the whole first day of recovery. Before surgery, they had given me two doses of morphine, plus a spinal. But the spinal wasn't effective, so they administered a general afterward. So the whole next day, I had all the benefits and drawbacks of both. The spinal lasts 24 hours, so until about 7:30 on Wednesday night I felt no pain, which was a great benefit. But when they administer the general, they must shut down the digestive systems. So that whole first day I could not eat or drink anything. My stomach just did not work, and everything came back up. Fortunately I was getting some fluids through the IV.

After 7:30 on Wednesday night, as the spinal wore off, I did start feeling some pain. They started giving me Vicodin then. It was supposed to last only 3-4 hours but I actually took just one per day, usually in the morning.

I definitely did not get as much attention from the nurses during the day as at night. At night they woke me up every hour, but during the day they did not ever respond when I pressed the button. Fortunately for all of us, I was not very demanding. But there were times when Mary sat with me during the day, and even she could not find a nurse anywhere. My roommate, an elderly gentleman, got lots of attention. And apparently we were right next door to a room where they tried to restrain drug addicts and other malcontents. I only faintly heard a row one time.

On Thursday I started eating again, and passed a little gas. I took these as good signs that digestive systems were back online, and I asked them to remove the catheter. It took a while to get approval for this, but eventually they relented. It was a real milestone when they let me use the walker to access the restroom, and I was able to urinate on my own. Yes!

We hoped that I would be released on Thursday, but an internist became concerned that my blood oxygen count was low. I tend to be asthmatic and short of breath anyway, but they were particularly concerned that my BOX level dropped after using the walker for PT. The physical therapists also noticed that I was not nearly as steady on the walker the second day, and I had some nausea in the middle of one of my walks. We think it was natural that I was not in as good form the second day, since all the anesthetic had worn off by then. Anyway, the doctor ordered up a bunch of lung scans that didn't happen until late Thursday night, so release before Friday became impossible.

Things went well on Friday. With some breathing exercises, my BOX levels became acceptable. I did well on the walker. I had my first bowel movement since the surgery. I got up and washed myself in the bathroom. I even sat up in a chair to eat lunch. But the doctor did not make rounds until after dinner, so we twiddled our thumbs all day. Eventually they released me around 9:30 pm and we got home right around 10:00 pm. It had been just about 72 hours since I got out of surgery.

In all, I think the doctors and nurses took good care of me, and in particular the internist took extra steps to diagnose a potentially dangerous condition. Mary was also very helpful. She tried to be there every time I talked to a doctor or physical therapist, so she could remind me later of things I might forget.

Fogerty's revival

San Jose Mercury News

By Brad Kava

The swampy sound of Fogerty's music sounds as if it came from the delta, but he had never been there. "So many of my great icons were from Mississippi," said the 59-year-old, who wrote nine Top 10 singles for Creedence Clearwater Revival from 1969 to 1971, but stopped playing them after fights with his record label, Fantasy, and its owner, Saul Zaentz.

The flash: "I realized, there is some wise guy with a big cigar who owns your songs, but you need to be singing your songs."

You can hear the result on his current tour, which began in June at Saratoga's Villa Montalvo and hits the Grand Ballroom in San Francisco on Wednesday. He mixes rarely played Creedence classics with material from his excellent new album, "Deja Vu (All Over Again)."

The album, his first in seven years, features a wide range of styles: some scathing Vietnam and Iraq war politics in the title cut; a couple of surprising countryish tunes, accompanied by Dobro player Jerry Douglas and bassist Victor Krauss; and some up-tempo material, inspired by the same rock 'n' roll lightheartedness as "Louie, Louie."

The album is only 35 minutes long. Keeping the album short, he says, is a way to make sure there will be others to follow. It also cuts out the excess that plagues artists who feel compelled to fill 72 minutes of disc space with a couple of good songs and lots of filler.

The title cut harks back to one of his early hits, "Fortunate Son," written during the Nixon administration and -- déjà vu -- these days applied to George W. Bush. Fogerty, along with Bruce Springsteen and Dave Matthews, campaigned for John Kerry largely in opposition to the war in Iraq, which Fogerty compares to the Vietnam War.

The biggest surprise in the new set is in some of his influences, stretching from bluegrass masters to current rockers Smash Mouth and Good Charlotte, bands his sons, 13 and 14, turned him onto.

The album is exquisitely produced, fine sounding in the car or on headphones. Creedence was always a car band, Fogerty says. He always understood that people can only hear a little at a time -- guitar or vocals -- on a car radio, so he kept things simple.

At one time, Zaentz, of Fantasy Records, sued Fogerty, claiming that his new material was too close to his older work, which the record label owned. The court ruled in favor of Fogerty.

Although he is often criticized for seeming to repeat himself musically, Fogerty compares his approach to that of artists like Irving Berlin, Chuck Berry or Bo Diddley, who created a wealth of songs in a signature style.

John Fogerty
Regency Center Grand Ballroom,
1300 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco.
8 p.m. Wednesday.
Tickets $42.50, (408) 998-8497, www.ticketmaster.com

http://www.mercurynews.com:80/mld/mercurynews/news/10290925.htm

Company Hopes to Take Outsourcing to a New Level: Africa

Washington Post

By Mary Ellen Slayter

Rising Data Solutions opened the first outsource call center in Ghana, a West African nation of about 20 million people. The company circumvents the country's limited telephone infrastructure by relying on voice-over-Internet protocol.

"Outsourcing is here to stay. Period," said Karim Morsli, the Gaithersburg company's chief information officer. "But we give people an option to India."

Morsli said Ghana's low cost of living, stable democratic government and literate, English-speaking population make it well- suited as an outsourcing location. He said his company can provide call-center outsourcing for 25 to 30 percent less than what it would cost in India.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18825-2004Nov28.html

Mark says: Sigh.

Cruel irony -- Gehrig's disease expert stricken

San Francisco Chronicle

By Carl T. Hall

Dr. Richard Olney first got interested in the neuromuscular disease known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, when the daughter of his favorite teacher in junior high school died of it.

In June, Olney, 56, regarded as one of the top ALS clinicians in the country, was diagnosed with ALS.

At first, Olney suspected the instability he began noticing in his right knee, and later a progressive weakening in both legs, was caused by compression of a disk in his spinal column. But after three surgeries failed to halt the early symptoms, Dr. Robert Layzer, Olney's colleague in the UCSF neurology department, confirmed that the culprit was ALS.

Despite the surgeries, the weakness spread to his arms. Lately it's noticeably affected his speech. It will, in all likelihood, keep getting worse, eventually making it difficult even to swallow, or breathe. Then it will end.

ALS is marked by the degeneration of select nerve cells, originating in the brain or spinal cord, that drive the muscles. One of its more unsettling characteristics is that it spares most parts of the brain, including the cortical neurons that underlie alertness and conscious thought. So patients get a front-row seat at their own demise.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/11/29/ALS.TMP&nl=top

Mark says:

My Uncle Marvin had this disease. He lost speech and other motor skills but remained quite alert.

Online shoppers warned to be vigilant

San Jose Mercury News

By Dan Lee

Security experts tell of an underground world where spammers, hackers and other miscreants devise schemes to steal personal information such as passwords or Social Security numbers. These criminals even hawk lists of stolen credit card numbers in Internet chat rooms.

Experts say reputable companies will never send e-mails asking for personal information. Instead of clicking on any e-mail link, users should restart their browser and type that company's address to make sure they are connecting to the real Web site.

Tips:

Shop at sites that provide SSL, or Secured Sockets Layer, technology that encrypts credit card numbers and other information that is sent over the Internet. A "lock" icon appears on such sites, and their address begins with "https" instead of just "http."

If you use a separate card just for shopping -- and not recurring bill payments -- it will be less of a hassle if the shopping card has to be canceled.

Don't use the same password for everything. Use a different password for every site.

Carefully research e-commerce sites you are not familiar with.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/10282987.htm

Square and Round Dance Calendar - 140 new events posted

Posted 140 new events to the square and round dance calendar. These include events such as:

• San Jose area events for 2006, 2007, and 2008
• San Diego hoedowns for 2005
• North State hoedowns for 2005, including Mt. Shasta, Yreka, Anderson, and Santa Rosa
• Vermont hoedowns for 2005
• Square dance events in Scotland!

http://www.mixed-up.com/cgi-bin/calendar/search

Transplanted Traditions for Troops in Iraq

Washington Post

Turkey Trot and Holiday Feast Offer Respite at a Base Warmed by thoughts of Home

By Jackie Spinner

Some Thanksgiving traditions, like the Turkey Trot, can be transplanted -- even to the palm groves and farm fields near Baqubah in eastern Iraq. But Thanksgiving Day brought more than a race to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the Army's 1st Infantry Division, whose soldiers are among the 138,000 U.S. troops in Iraq who celebrated the holiday away from their families.

Civilian cooks, with soldiers supervising them, prepared a multi-course meal for the troops. Large silver platters in the center of the dining facility were filled with shrimp cocktail, which soldiers nibbled on while waiting in a long line to reach the servers, in white chef's hats and aprons, dishing out freshly carved roast turkey, prime rib, smoked ham and Cornish hens. There were also fresh crab legs, cornbread stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans and hot rolls.

The cooks started Wednesday and worked through the night to make Thanksgiving dinner for 2,013 people. The food was imported from the United States to Kuwait, Abuan said, then sent by truck to a military base in Balad, just north of Baghdad, and on to Warhorse.

"Getting through the holidays means we're that much closer to going home."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13014-2004Nov25.html

Square and Round Dance Calendar - 100 new events posted

Posted 100 new events to the square and round dance calendar. These include events such as:

• Pace So-Cal for 2005
• Cook's Barn for 2005
• Texas and Oklahoma Advanced and Challenge weekends for 2005
• Challenge dancing events in Sweden and Denmark
• Bay Area gay dances for 2006-2008

http://www.mixed-up.com/cgi-bin/calendar/search

McCloud Dance Country, Summer 2005, 20 Dance Workshops

9 Round Dance Workshops
4 Plus Workshops
4 Advanced Workshops
2 Challenge Workshops
1 Ballroom Workshop

http://www.mixed-up.com/cgi-bin/calendar/search?C=A&search=mccloud

Zahir's succeeds far from crowds at restaurant row

San Jose Mercury News Restaurant Review

By Sheila Himmel

For 24 years, the tall, courtly Zahir Quddus, an immigrant from Afghanistan, has greeted customers and fed them dependable Continental cuisine in a semi-undisclosed location. He has begun to warm it up with plants and paintings, and the round, open fireplace performs nicely at this time of year.

Salads include Greek, Caesar and spinach. The Kentucky limestone lettuce salad ($5.75) comes with a lot of bay shrimp and a little too much vinaigrette, but the lettuce is a nice change of pace from field greens. It's a tasty, light butter lettuce with crunchy ribs.

Mary likes the Greek salad; Mark likes the Limestone.

On to entrees, with a page each for chicken, seafood, veal, beef and surf-and-turf. Your server also will recite the daily specials, reflecting the Continental range of longtime chef Luis Saldivar.

Mary likes the pepper steak. Mark likes the salmon piccata, which we had served at our wedding reception here.

For dessert, a pyramid shape shows up as a chocolate mousse.

Mary says this is a true chocoholic's delight. Mark says the look on Mary's face as she eats it is worth the price.

Bread is fresh. Service is earnest. The many white-shirted, neck-tied servers take their work seriously, and Quddus makes a point of visiting each table.

Zahir's Cafe
1380 S. Main St., just south of Great Mall Parkway, Milpitas.
(408) 946-4000

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/columnists/sheila_himme
l/10238253.htm

Update: Accident Recovery

We had x-rays done last week. Earlier this morning we visited the doctor, the orthopedic surgeon who did the emergency surgery. He says things are healing up nicely. There is one section along the main fracture that is not getting as good a blood supply, so it is healing more slowly. Also, the second small fracture is healing up OK but not perfectly. But it is healed up enough that I can start moving my leg more.

Note: I made a mistake in the description of the x-rays. If you take another look at that journal entry, I've noted the mistake and corrected it.

The heads of the screws are sticking out a ways out of the bone. It is not unusual that as the bone joins back together it shrinks a little. The only potential drawback is that a bursa might form where the screws stick out. This could result in some bursitis later.

He also noticed some arthritis forming in each hip, on the pelvis, a little more on the left than the right. These are bone spurs. You can see them clearly on x-ray #1, but you have to know where they are. These might cause some pain in the future. He did give us some advice about supplements we can take to relieve arthritis: Chondroitin and Glucosamine Sulfate. These are advertised a lot on the radio, but the doctor says the research shows that they really do work, not just to relieve the pain, but to actually restore the cartilage.

He gave me some advice on some kinds of exercise I can do. The first thing he suggested was a stationary bicycle, which was the first thing I had thought of. This is a good way to get all the muscles moving without having to bear a lot of weight.

Others have suggested water therapy, and I asked him about this. He says it is very good to "lie in the water and kick." There might be enough room to do this in the hot tub at our local gym.

The gym where we are members has one major drawback. It is on the second floor of a large building and there are two large flights of stairs outside the entrance. I definitely can't navigate the stairs in my walker, and I don't really want to "hop up on one leg" without the walker. So I might look into getting a temporary membership at another local gym that is on ground level.

Our chiropractor suggested that we might want to pursue physical therapy at their facility. They have a treadmill where they can suspend you overhead to reduce the weight you're bearing. It is a nifty setup that I used once before when recovering from a bad back. They can start you out with just a little weight bearing (1/4 of body weight), then increase it incrementally until you're bearing full weight. The doctor wrote me a referral so that the insurance will pay for the physical therapy. If you need this kind of PT, I recommend them.

Health Now Medical Center
Fremont at Mary
Sunnyvale, CA
408-733-0400
http://www.healthnowmedical.com/

So, the bottom line is now I can start bearing weight on my left leg, but only just a little. I must still use the walker. Since even a cane bears only 30% of your body weight, I won't be eligible to use that for a while yet, when I'm able to bear 70% weight on my own.

Our next appointment is in early January, and the doctor wrote us a requisition to get more x-rays then. Since San Jose Hospital is closing, we'll have to visit the radiology department at Alexian Brothers (now "Regional"), which is closer to our house anyway.

Since the doctor approved that I can start bearing a little weight on the left leg, we're going to celebrate tonight by going to our favorite restaurant, Zahir's. They were closed for a while but recently reopened. We had our wedding reception there and we've been back many times. I wish we could say that we will diet afterward, but tomorrow 24 people are coming over for a huge Thanksgiving dinner. And we have lots to give thanks for.

Zahir's Cafe
1380 South Main Street, Milpitas, California 95035
408 946-4000
http://www.zahirscafe.com/

There was a good review of Zahir's in last Sunday's Mercury News.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/columnists/sheila_himme
l/10238253.htm

San Jose named safest big city 4th year in row

San Jose Mercury News

By Crystal Carreon

For the fourth year in a row, the capital of Silicon Valley is also the capital of safest cities with populations of more than 500,000.

The determination is based on 2003 FBI crime statistics for murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault and motor vehicle theft.

Compared with other urban cities, San Jose's homicide rate remains particularly low at about 2.8 percent per 100,000 people.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/the_vall
ey/10252513.htm

More Visas For Foreign Workers: Quota Raised to Fill High-Tech Jobs

Washington Post

Associated Press

Congress is letting employers hire 20,000 more foreign high-tech workers under a special visa program after businesses reached the annual ceiling on the first day of the government's fiscal year.

The popular H-1B visas are granted to foreigners in specialty professions such as architecture, engineering, medicine, biotechnology and computer programming. Under the program, employers must pay foreign workers the prevailing wage for their job fields and show that qualified U.S. workers are not being passed over.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6204-2004Nov22.html

Uh, hello? Qualified US workers not being passed over?

New Tools to Help Patients Reclaim Damaged Senses

New York Times

By Sandra Blakeslee

Using novel electronic aids, vision can be represented on the skin, tongue or through the ears. If the sense of touch is gone from one part of the body, it can be routed to an area where touch sensations are intact. Pilots confused by foggy conditions, in which the horizon disappears, can right their aircraft by monitoring sensations on the tongue or trunk. Surgeons can feel on their tongues the tip of a probe inside a patient's body, enabling precise movements.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/23/science/23sens.html?th

Earthquakes and Faults in the San Francisco Bay Area

A USGS map depicts both active and inactive faults and earthquakes magnitude 1.5 to 7.0 in the greater San Francisco Bay area.

http://pubs.usgs.gov/sim/2004/2848/

Many Who Voted for 'Values' Still Like Their Television Sin

New York Times

By Bill Carter

In interviews, representatives of the four big broadcast networks as well as Hollywood production studios said the nightly television ratings bore little relation to the message apparently sent by a significant percentage of voters.

With "Desperate Housewives" and "C.S.I." leading the ratings, television shows are far more likely to keep pumping from the deep well of murder, mayhem and sexual transgression than seek diversion along the straight and narrow path.

"Desperate Housewives" on ABC is the big new hit of the television season, ranked second over all in the country, behind only "C.S.I." on CBS. This satire of suburbia and modern relationships features, among other morally challenged characters, a married woman in her 30's having an affair with a high-school-age gardener, and has prompted several advertisers, including Lowe's, to pull their advertisements.

In the greater Atlanta market, reaching more than two million households, "Desperate Housewives" is the top-rated show. Nearly 58 percent of the voters in those counties voted for President Bush.

The divide between what people accept as proper in public and what they choose to enjoy in their private lives is, unsurprisingly, nothing new in the history of the world or this country.

"When the Pilgrims who landed on Plymouth Rock left behind writing, it was William Bradford's, and you can clearly see what they believed in and what their values were," said Robert Thompson, professor of media and popular culture at Syracuse University, referring to the colony's first governor. "Then you look at the court records and you see all kinds of fornication, adultery and bestiality."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/22/business/media/22tube.html?th

Some Hard-Liners in Turkey See Diversity as Divisive

New York Times

By Susan Sachs

Under pressure from the European Union and civil rights advocates, Turkey has started to reassess the way it has treated religious minorities.

Prime Minister Recip Tayyip Erdogan's government has prepared legislation that would give Christian and Jewish foundations more freedom to manage their own assets and elect their board members. Parliament is expected to vote on the bill before Dec. 17, when European Union leaders are to decide whether to open accession talks with Turkey.

For many Turks, even a discussion of religious or ethnic minorities raises fears of separatism. Some have argued that lifting government controls on religious institutions, whether Muslim or non-Muslim, would undermine Turkey's secular foundations. And Turkey's president, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, recently warned that drawing attention to Turkey's sectarian or cultural diversity harmed the state.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/21/international/europe/21turkey.html?th

Books I'm Reading Now

Since starting to spend more time on the computer, I've been reading less. But I've started some new books (and finished a few) over the last month:

• What on Earth Are We Doing?: Finding Our Place As Christians in the World, by John Fischer.

  I always like to be reading a book by John Fischer. His kind of Christianity, inherited from the late Ray Stedman of Peninsula Bible Church, is the most genuine. This book is about being Christian instruments of healing in a decaying society, instead of remaining isolated from the very society that needs us so much and where Jesus sent us to save individuals.

• Azusa Street Till Now: Eyewitness Accounts of the Move of God, by Clara Davis.

  An ultimately disappointing book about the history of the 20th-century American Pentecostal movement, with a tip of the hat to the Charismatic movement of the 1950's and 1960's.

• The Power of a Praying Husband, by Stormie Omartian.

  I read this book about a year ago with the object of understanding my wife better. Now I've read it again with the object of actually praying.

• Protestantism in America: A Narrative History, by Jerald C. Brauer.

  I always like to be reading a history book, and this one is a good follow-up to the last one I read, American Faith. Its outlook is more evangelical than American Faith, but its conclusions are much the same: that the 17th-century movements that have had the most effect on American society were the Quaker and Baptist; and that the influence of the middle colonies, where religious freedom was paramount, far outweighed the influence of Puritan New England and the Methodist South.

• Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music, by Mark Allan Powell.

  An exhaustive encyclopedia of all CCM acts, including 1970's icons like Love Song and Marsha Stevens, and their 1960's precursors like Ralph Carmichael.

• The Billboard Guide to Contemporary Christian Music, by Barry Alfonso.

  Not nearly as exhaustive as Powell's book, and quite disappointing. One would have expected a Billboard volume to have more breadth.

• Mostly Harmless, by Douglas Adams.

  Mostly boring. Inferior to the previous installments in his "trilogy".

• Constructing Accessible Web Sites, by Jim Thatcher et al.

  Just a little something I grabbed to read while fixing up my crashed computer. I've finished about 25% of it, and it's pretty pedantic so far, and not very useful. But the remainder of the book promises to be more practical.

• Danny Goodman's Javascript Handbook, by Danny Goodman.

  A quick read, covers lots of interesting topics.

• Essential CSS and DHTML for Web Professionals (2nd Edition), by Dan Livingston.

  Another quick read. Really just a quick introduction to CSS, then an examination of menus with a little animation.

X-rays of a Hip Fracture

Here are the two most recent x-rays of my left hip. The first shows the four screws. The fracture is barely visible, if at all. The second x-ray shows the small "chip" that wasn't fastened with a pin. The red arrows points toward the "chip."

CORRECTION:

We saw the doctor on Wednesday November 24 and he corrected us. The red arrow does not point to the "chip." The yellow arrow does. It is hard to see it. It is in the yellow circle. It is shallow (about 14 inch thick) and long (about 1 to 1-12 inches long). It has healed up OK but not perfectly.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Of Webcams, Videoconferencing and Marines

Well, I installed the Logitech Quick Cam Zoom (White) software again. I had to download it from the Logitech web site, because the install CD did not come with Mac OS X drivers. Because the computer crashed catastrophically after the last time I installed this software, I downloaded it again just to make sure ... I even downloaded it twice again using different browsers. No differences between any of the files.

Anyway, the driver and program installed OK. The camera will zoom in but not out. All the zoom and focus is in software. The unit cannot be focused manually in hardware (e.g. with a ring).

We used Yahoo Messenger to chat with Mary's son Matthew today. Matthew is with the Marines in Iraq. We have the opportunity to chat with him sometimes. We can view his webcam, but when he tried to view ours, his computer crashed. We have no idea why.

Mary's son Aaron gave us another webcam that someone gave to him. This webcam came without any software, documentation, or much identifying information. It does say "IBM PC Camera" but no model number. By plugging into the Mac's USB port and querying USB Prober, I was able to determine that it is manufactured by Xirlink. That was enough to help me find documentation and drivers on cameratechsupport.com, a neat site that I'd never seen before.

There were lots of complaints about the PC Camera on Amazon, in particular poor picture quality, lack of focus control, and over-sensitivity to light conditions. There were also warnings on the cameratechsupport.com site about particular problems with Yahoo Messenger, including image reversals and multiple images.

The PC software installed without problems on Mary's Dell laptop. We did the reboot as advised. The PC recgonized the USB camera immediately and installed all the drivers without even asking. Image quality was poor at first until Mary used the manual focus ring to adjust it. We also found that it does not require nearly as much light as the Amazon reviews might lead one to believe.

We were able to use Yahoo Messenger to chat with each other from adjacent bedrooms in the house. Photo quality of the PC Camera was at least as good as with the Logitech Quick Cam, and perhaps better.

We hope that when we chat with Matthew again that he will be able to see his mom without crashing. He has been gone since early September, and while we have seen him on the webcam, he has not seen us.

References:

• Logitech
• Yahoo Messenger
• www.cameratechsupport.com
• Net Camera web page for PC Camera
• Amazon page for PC Camera

A Gluten-Free Thanksgiving

In all honesty, we're actually getting a lot of help. We've delegated almost everything except the turkey, gravy, and stuffing to others.

But, in fact, here's what we need to keep track of:

• No wheat flour to be used in cooking the turkey. We plan to use the same method as last year. The turkey gets baked in a plastic bag. Substitute rice flour or potato flour.

• No wheat flour to be used in making the gravy. This means the gravy must be made from scratch; all gravy mixes in the store have wheat flour. (I found a company on the internet that might make a gluten-free mix, but it's too late to order it.)

  Why does a gravy mix have to use wheat flour, when corn starch works much better as a thickening agent?

• No bread crumbs to be used in making the stuffing. Last year I made a rice stuffing that everyone loved. It has celery, cranberries, apples, and maybe nuts (I don't recall right now). The recipe comes straight out of Betty Crocker, my favorite cookbook.

• We need to buy gluten-free corn flakes and gluten-free sour cream for someone who's making a special potato dish.

  Why would corn flakes have to have wheat flour in them? Wouldn't one expect them to be made of, um, corn?

  Why would sour cream have to have "modified food starch?" Isn't sour cream supposed to be a dairy product? Doh!

Negotiators Add Abortion Clause to Spending Bill

New York Times

House and Senate negotiators have tucked a potentially far-reaching anti-abortion provision into a $388 billion must-pass spending bill.

The abortion language would bar federal, state and local agencies from withholding taxpayer money from health care providers that refuse to provide or pay for abortions or refuse to offer abortion counseling or referrals. Current federal law, aimed at protecting Roman Catholic doctors, provides such "conscience protection" to doctors who do not want to undergo abortion training. The new language would expand that protection to all health care providers, including hospitals, doctors, clinics and insurers.

"It's something we've had a longstanding interest in," said Douglas Johnson, a spokesman for the National Right to Life Committee. He added, "This is in response to an orchestrated campaign by pro-abortion groups across the country to use government agencies to coerce health care providers to participate in abortions."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/20/politics/20spend.html?th

Mark says: This doesn't sound like an anti-abortion provision to me. It sounds like a freedom-of-choice provision.

In Time of Turmoil, Graham Offers Soothing Words

New York Times

The Rev. Billy Graham spoke on Thursday at the 92,000-seat Rose Bowl, the beginning of a four-day crusade that organizers say is his 416th worldwide and his next-to-last.

It was 55 years ago that a young preacher drew thousands to his tent revival in the streets of Los Angeles.

Dr. Graham returned to Southern California this week an old man, shuffling along on a walker, having suffered a broken hip and a leg in the last year. He spoke for 30 minutes on Thursday evening at the 92,000-seat Rose Bowl, the beginning of a four-day crusade here that organizers say is his 416th worldwide and his next-to-last. Dr. Graham's final evangelical crusade, health permitting, is scheduled for June in New York City.

Dr. Graham's testimony was free of incendiary topics of the day like gay marriage, Islamic fundamentalism or the presidential election. He told The Los Angeles Times this week that though he phoned President Bush to congratulate him on his victory, he has not told anyone who he voted for.

People at the crusade said they were pleased that the idea of moral values had bubbled into the national debate, but they also said it was a mistake to think that Mr. Bush enjoyed their support simply because he is an anti-abortion Christian. Their concerns, they say, are like other Americans' and range from the economy to Iraq to self-sufficiency to sizing up a man who they believe means what he says.

The state of the American culture is alarming, many of the faithful said. The litany included the explosion of pornography and gambling, half-naked starlets on television, the dissolution of the traditional family, drugs, violence.

It is not so much that conservative Christians want to push their moral values on others, they said, as it is that they feel others are pushing their values upon them. The debate, to them, is whose values will be the voice in the public square.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/20/national/20graham.html?th

What Is Gluten Intolerance?

It is sometimes hard to communicate what we can eat and what we cannot. This information comes from the misc.kids Allergy and Asthma FAQ.

A common allergy is to gluten, a mixture of proteins found in wheat and other grains (rye, oats, barley etc.). Gluten is the portion of flour that gives a porous, spongy texture to bread. It is also used as a base in cosmetic powders and creams. Reactions range from runny nose and itchy eyes to upset stomach to severe gas. In children (and adults!), personality changes can be a symptom - inability to concentrate, irritableness, crankiness, difficulties with mental alertness and memory. Some research indicates there may be a connection between attention deficit disorders and undiagnosed gluten allergies.

Severe reactions to wheat occur in the condition known as Celiac-Sprue. For people with this condition, the intestine reacts strongly to gluten products. The small cilia on the intestinal wall gradually flatten, reducing the ability of the intestines to absorb nutrients. This is a serious condition leading to malnutrition. The treatment consists of avoiding wheat and gluten in any form. In Western cultures, this can be VERY difficult. Remember that other grains such as rye and oats can cause problems, since they contain small amounts of gluten. It is unknown whether a child will outgrow this condition, but the current safe opinion is that gluten must be avoided for life.

It can be difficult to avoid gluten in processed foods. It's used as a starch, binder, bulking agent, formulation aid, stabilizer, shaper, thickener, emulsific filler and as a glaze. Some foods labeled "wheat free" may still contain gluten. Even things like lip gloss, make-up, shampoo and hand cream can contain gluten.

It is possible to have good food without eating a wheat-based diet. A number of cuisines are not based on wheat and provide alternatives around which to center your diet. Chinese, Indian, and other Asian countries often center the diet around rice. Some Eastern European countries use other grains such as millet and buckwheat.

A number of substitutes for wheat in baking are available. For gluten free baked products, a mixture of rice flour, potato starch flour, and tapioca flour can be used.

Any baking done without wheat will take practice; you have to learn a whole new way of doing it. The products are not exactly like wheat products but are tasty and satisfying. Most are as easy to make as the wheat version (after a few initial failures while learning). For many cookies and cakes, the results are very good. For breads, the results are better termed satisfactory but still quite good in their own way.

Companies Forced to Fight Phishing

Washington Post

By Brian Krebs

Phishers now focus almost exclusively on banks and online shopping sites. During the past 10 months, nearly 60 percent of their attacks targeted Citibank or US Bank, according to the Anti-Phishing Working Group. EarthLink and America Online are the targets for about 3 percent of the scams.

Phishers profit by stealing personal financial information and teaming up with international criminal syndicates that include computer hackers, virus writers and identity thieves. Working together, they fence the stolen data and cover their tracks by routing their e-mails and Web sites through multiple Internet hosts.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61916-2004Nov19.html

Related stories:

A Brief History of Phishing

Before mid-2003, most phishing scams arrived in text-heavy e-mails. They were rife with spelling errors and poor grammar that tipped recipients off. But phishers are honing their writing and design skills, creating messages that are more difficult to discern as forgeries. Here is a brief timeline of the development of phishing.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59350-2004Nov18.html

How to Fend off Phishing

The best way to avoid becoming a phishing victim is to remember that real companies almost never send e-mail asking you to submit personal data. The message might include fancy graphics, trademark symbols and an authentic-looking e-mail address in the "from" line, but all of that can be easily faked. Here are some easy ways to tell.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59383-2004Nov18.html

Phishing Schemes Scar Victims

An estimated 1.8 million Americans gave out personal information in phishing scams in the last year. It is becoming one of the most prevalent means of identity theft, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59349-2004Nov18.html

Phishing Feeds Internet Black Markets

Washington Post

By Brian Krebs

Thousands of consumers are taken in each month by phishing, a rapidly growing form of fraud that blends old-fashioned confidence scams with innovations in technological trickery. The crooks often are members of criminal networks that traffic in stolen data, perpetuating a crime that can haunt victims for years after it was committed.

The scammers make a few small credit card charges or take little bites from the bank account. Then they stop, giving the account holder a false sense of security. In reality, their data is being moved into online black markets. There, it is sold to criminal gangs based in places such as Russia, Ukraine or West Africa. The gangs profit by using the data to open new credit lines for buying high-priced items that they sell for cash.

Another trick that harkens back to the dawn of the World Wide Web is starting to see new life: fake online storefronts that harvest credit card information. In these scams, thieves build Web sites hawking everything from sporting goods to contact lenses at bargain-basement prices, advertising the wares with large doses of spam. The Web sites look authentic thanks to pictures and descriptions of goods lifted from real online stores.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59347-2004Nov18.html

MIT Wants to Make Computing as Easy as Breathing

Washington Post

By Leslie Walker

The MIT professor and researcher explained that the prototype wasn't about size or shape. It was about the invisible wiring on its silicon chip, designed so it can be reprogrammed to allow one device to perform many tasks, allowing a cell phone to morph suddenly into a TV or scanner. Today's computer chips, by contrast, are pre-wired with fixed sets of instructions.

He wants to redesign chip software and hardware for the mobile age, creating chips that can power chameleon devices. If devices were chameleon-like, he reasons that people could get more done with less gear, theoretically making computing more mobile. Also, devices embedded in "intelligent" rooms and stationary objects could accomplish more simply by retrieving new instruction sets.

"Call it a universal logic chip that can do anything."

"About a year ago, we started developing the operating system, which needs a lot of properties, including the ability to be rapidly configurable."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58945-2004Nov17.html

Google Plans New Service for Scientists and Scholars

New York Times

By John Markoff

Google Scholar is intended as a first stop for researchers looking for scholarly literature like peer-reviewed papers, books, abstracts and technical reports.

The new Google service, which includes a listing of scientific citations as well as ways to find materials at libraries that are not online, will not initially include the text advertisements that are shown on standard pages for Google search results.

However, company executives say it is likely that advertisements will eventually accompany search results on Google Scholar. One academic publishing executive, John Sack, director of HighWire Press at Stanford University, said that such advertising could be quite profitable.

"The commercial reason for doing this is that you can target areas with high-quality, high-payback ads," Mr. Sack said. "An advertisement that goes next to an article on cloning techniques is probably going to be for services that are pretty expensive."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/18/technology/18google.html?th

Mark says:

Well, doh! Isn't this what the web was designed for? Except for the ads, of course. Capitalism at its finest.

First, they hijack a free service for commercial and frivolous use. Then they want to charge to use it for its intended purpose.

Under the Cover of Islam

New York Times Op-Ed

By Irshad Manji

Secular Europe can't quite grasp the life of a liberal Muslim.

From Amsterdam to Barcelona to Paris to Berlin, people incredulously ask me one type of question that I'm never asked in the United States and Canada: Why does an independent-minded woman care about God? Why do you need religion at all?

To a lot of Europeans, still steeped in memories of the Catholic Church's intellectual repression, religion is an irrational force.

Not so in North America. Because it has long been a society of immigrants seeking religious tolerance, religion itself is not seen as irrational.

The mass immigration of Muslims is bringing faith back into the public realm and creating a post-Enlightenment modernity for Western Europe. This return of religion threatens secular humanism, the orthodoxy that has prevailed since the French Revolution. Paradoxically, because many Western Europeans feel that they're losing Enlightenment values amid the flood of "people of faith," they wind up sympathizing with those in the Muslim world who resent imported values that challenge their own.

Why do I, an independent-minded woman, bother with Islam? Religion supplies a set of values, including discipline, that serve as a counterweight to the materialism of life in the West. I could have become a runaway materialist, a robotic mall rat who resorts to retail therapy in pursuit of fulfillment. I didn't. That's because religion introduces competing claims. It injects a tension that compels me to think and allows me to avoid fundamentalisms of my own.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/18/opinion/18manji.html?th

How do I do this?

A Programming Problem

I want to distribute a CD that has PDF and HTML files on it. It will have a searchable database of the documents on the CD. There will be about 7000 documents on the CD. The documents can be searched by specific content that I can specify, but not by their internal content. So I will construct a database that allows this kind of searching.

I want the input and output to be in HTML. That is, the user enters their search criteria into an HTML form, and the browser returns a list of the documents that match their criteria. I would like this CD to work on PC, Mac, Unix, whatever. So I need to construct the database in a common language.

It could be done in JavaScript, and such things are commonly done this way. But JavaScript is quite slow for this particular purpose. The database has about 7000 records and 10 fields.

An alternative would be to do this in Java, which would be much faster. But it doesn't seem possible to make a Java applet that just outputs text into the browser window. (Not picture text, but text text with links etc.)

Really, I want this program to behave like a CGI, but I don't want to require the user to have a web server, only a web browser.

Other similar projects get around the slowness of JavaScript by creating large indexes. For example, the Blue Letter Bible does this to allow you to search for specific text in the King James version of the Bible. This is a huge search task but the optimizations have made it relatively painless.

But the large audience for the BLB project makes that huge optimization effort worthwile. In contrast, the audience for my proposed CD would be quite small, and I want the project to entail as little effort as possible. I already have a similar database on the web site that uses a CGI built in C++, so creating the CD might possibly be a matter of porting the C++ code to Java.

If I could find a way to load the resulting text as HTML into a browser window. There's the rub.

Progress Report: Recovery from Bicycle Accident

We have an appointment for follow-up with the orthopedic surgeon on November 24 (the day before Thanksgiving). In preparation, we have to have x-rays done again. We plan to do that tomorrow afternoon (Thursday).

After experiencing a lot of pain the weekend of November 6-7, things have gotten a lot better. I have a lot more mobility in my hip, and pain is infrequent. I usually have pain after sitting in a hard chair, like in my computer room, in the kitchen, or at church. But a lot less pain when sitting in the softer chair in front of the TV. :-)

We hope that the doctor will OK me to start putting weight on the left leg next week. The initial estimate was six to eight weeks, and we just passed the five week mark. We are encouraged by the much-decreased stiffness and pain over the last few days.

Report urges 6-month delay for hospital closing

San Jose Mercury News

By April Lynch

The imminent closing of San Jose Medical Center should be postponed until June to limit the health care difficulties that are likely to follow, according a report released Tuesday.

Emergency room patients, trauma victims and senior citizens living near San Jose's downtown will be among the groups hit hardest when the hospital closes its doors Dec. 9, the report found.

HCA officials did not respond to calls seeking comment Tuesday. But the for-profit company has given no indication of delaying San Jose Medical Center's closing, and local officials and residents don't expect the hospital to keep its doors open longer.

The company has focused on plans to expand Regional Medical Center of San Jose, another hospital it owns about two miles away. HCA has also proposed moving San Jose Medical Center's trauma center to Regional, but county officials have final say over those plans and are not rushing their review.

San Jose Medical Center handled more than 31,000 emergency room cases last year, and that care will now fall to other local hospitals. About 1,900 patients received care at the hospital's trauma center last year, and the county's two remaining trauma centers at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center and Stanford University Medical Center will now have to expand their services.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/the_vall
ey/10202602.htm

CARE Official Abducted in Iraq Presumed Dead

Washington Post

By Karl Vick

The British government concluded Tuesday that Margaret Hassan, a British-Iraqi relief official who worked on behalf of poor Iraqis for more than 20 years, was probably killed by kidnappers who seized her in Baghdad a month ago.

The abduction of Hassan, 59, had provoked outrage among Iraqis. Hassan had remained in the country in support of humanitarian efforts during and after the U.S. invasion, defying risks that led most aid organizations to withdraw from Iraq.

British officials reported Hassan's likely death after studying a videotape provided by al-Jazeera television in which a blindfolded woman was shot in the head at point-blank range.

There have been more than 170 kidnappings since April, and at least 34 people have been killed. The killings of hostages have brought widespread condemnation from among Iraqis, who often say such atrocities sully the image of Islam.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54134-2004Nov16.html

Diplomacy and Darfur

Washington Post Editorial

Cease-fires, undertakings and protocols have been negotiated and signed; still the genocide continues. Two U.N. Security Council resolutions have condemned the government's behavior; still the genocide continues.

Sudan's rulers believe they can exterminate tens of thousands of people in Darfur and get away with it. Its strategy remains unchanged: to cement control over Darfur by decimating the tribes that back various local rebels. The government has participated in unprovoked assaults on villages, murdering men, raping women and tossing children into flames that consume their huts.

There is little prospect of security for Darfur's people -- and therefore little prospect of a return to destroyed villages, a resumption of agricultural production and an escape from starvation -- without a serious peacekeeping force. More than a year and a half into Darfur's genocide, the United States and its allies have proved unwilling to consider that kind of commitment.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55673-2004Nov16.html

Not funny at the time?

Annette Woodruff says:

I read through your notebook and enjoyed the humorous description of your accident.... although I don't suppose you thought it was funny at the time.

Mark replies:

Actually, at the time I was in pain, but I did think it was quite funny. My first thought was "I fell down and I can't get back up!" My second thought is that now I have much more in common with my retired round dance friends than I ever wanted to! (Most of them are elderly.)

Valley gains 4,300 jobs in October

San Jose Mercury News

By Margaret Steen

Santa Clara County's job market continued its recovery in October, adding 4,300 jobs, the most in that month since 1997. The county's unemployment rate dropped two-tenths of a point, to 5.3 percent.

The county had 846,000 jobs, up 4,300 from the revised September figure, but still well short of the peak of 1,070,200 reached in December 2000. Still, it's not clear whether the numbers signal an improvement in hiring in the tech sector. Much of the growth came from seasonal gains in government and education and health services. The manufacturing sector lost 400 jobs.

"They don't hire those people unless they have real customers ready to spend money," said Donn Ledwick, owner of Professional Search Associates in San Jose. "To me that's just a key indicator that we might be looking at a sustained period of uptick in the tech market."

Candidates "are not as readily available for work as they were six months ago," said Grace Coquia, recruiting manager for the professional services division of Manpower in San Jose. "The market has really turned."

Still, it's not yet an employees' market. Employers continue to be very picky, asking for applicants who are an exact match for a long list of qualifications.

http://www.mercurynews.com:80/mld/mercurynews/news/10193641.htm

Cue sheet index updated - 50 new cue sheets added

Here is a sampling:

And That Reminds Me, Foxtrot, V+2, Vogt
All You Ever Do, Two Step, II+1, Seurer
Always, A Taste Of Samba, Cha ChaJiveSamba, IV+2U, Dufrene
Baby You've Got What It Takes, Jive, III+2, Helms
Cha Cha Bonita, Cha Cha, V+1, Molitoris
Coquette II, Two Step, II, Connelly
Dancing On The Ceiling, Quickstep, IV+1, Shane
Dark Waltz, Waltz, VI, Vogt
Dipsy Doodle, Two Step, II, Connelly
Don't Break My Stride, Cha Cha/Foxtrot, III+3U, Allred
Don't You Remember, Waltz, VI, Gosselin
Fais Do Do, Two Step, II+2, Dufrene
Fields Of Athenry, Slow Two Step, IV+1, Taylor
Forever In Blue Jeans, Cha Cha, III, LaBau
Guitars, Cadillacs Two Step, Two Step, II+2, Winze
Harbour Lights, Foxtrot/Jive, IV, Seely
Illusion Of My Life, Argentine Tango Vals, V, Noble
Once Again, Waltz, II, Lewis
People, Rumba, VI, Shibata
Perfidia Bolero, Bolero, V, Nolen
Rumba Concerto, Rumba, VI, Goss
Shamey Shamey Shame, Jive, V+2+2, Woodruff
These Foolish Things, Mixed, IV+1, Bahr
This Is Our Dance, Waltz, III+2, Borengasser
You Left The Water Running, Jive, IV+2, Read

The best place to look for your cue sheets is always here:

http://www.mixed-up.com/round/all-over/

Mac Programs I Know and Maybe Love

These are the programs I use regularly on my Mac G4 tower. I'd like to really say they are the "best", but my comments might sometimes indicate otherwise. So don't necessarily take this list as a recommendation.

Since I had to re-install all of these within the last day, it seemed like a good time to enumerate them.

Applications

• Eudora email. I've been using Eudora on every kind of computer for 10 years.

• Backup Toolkit, from FWB Software (no longer supported, but works well.)

• Peak LE and Deck LE, from BIAS. These are music and audio editing programs. I use these products, but I don't recommend them. They are not necessarily as easy to use as competing products. And registering them is always a nightmare, even when just upgrading.

• Adobe Acrobat 6, For posting cue sheets and fliers online.

• Code Warrior, from Metrowerks, a development environment for Mac OS X.

• MP3 Rage, from Chaotic Software, lets you manipulate the fields in MP3 files.

Vital Utilities

• Doublecommand key swap extension, from Michael Baltaks. I use this program to swap keys on my Microsoft keyboard, to make it easier (on my wrists) to use it with a Mac. Specifically, I swap the "control" and "command" keys (to a PC user, that's the "control" and "Windows" keys).

• Launch Bar, from Objective Development. An amazing file launching program.

• Lite Switch X, from Proteron, an application switching program.

  A funny graphic from the Proteron page:
  (The rest of their site is equally informative.)

  

Internet Stuff

• Yahoo Messenger, for chatting with my son Matthew who is serving with the Marines in Iraq. This is our newest toy. Well, except for the Logitech webcam we bought to use with it. My computer crashed when I tried to install the Logitech software. Maybe a coincidence.

• Mozilla and Firefox, from Mozilla, web browsers that I use for testing my site.

• Netscape, a web browser that I use for testing my site.

• Opera, a web browser that I use for testing my site.

• RBrowser, a graphical FTP program that I use for backing up my web site.

• Limewire.

Palm Stuff

• Palm Desktop, which I use with a Palm Tungsten C.

• iSilo X, which lets you store web pages and whole web sites on your Palm device for later viewing.

• Memo Safe, from DeepNet Technologies, which lets you encrypt sensitive information in your Palm's memo pad.

  NOTE: The original posting incorrectly said that we were using PDASafeID, a cumbersome program from Handmark.

• Documents To Go, from Dataviz. Lets you view MS Word and Excel files on your Palm device. Came bundled with the Palm Tungsten C.

All The Usual Suspects

• Mac OS 10.2.8, from Apple. I have install disks for 10.3.3 (Panther), but I haven't been brave enough to try it yet.

• Graphic Converter, from Lemke Software. This program came bundled with the computer. Nevertheless, it is the best.

• Microsoft Office, especially Word, Excel, and Powerpoint.

• Toast 5 Titanium, from Roxio. For burning CDs and DVDs.

• Real Player, for listening to audio posted online.

• Windows Media Player, from Microsoft, for listening to audio posted online.

• Safari, from Apple, a browser that comes bundled with the computer. The fastest web browser I have ever used.

• Canon i560 printer driver.

Recovering from a Computer Crash

After 22 months, my Mac G4 tower finally crashed big time. I was installing the driver for the Logitech Quick Cam Zoom White when it happened, but after examination I'm not at all certain that's what caused the problem. Anyway, the computer would no longer boot. The initial screen (with the large gray apple and the clock movement at the bottom) never goes away, but a random color pattern appeared on the screen above the apple.

Well, no problem. I have installer CDs here; I can boot from them and diagnose the problem. But the computer will no longer boot from the Mac OS X installer CD or the Hardware Test CD. Hmmm ... I've seen this before, on our computer at church. In that case, we had to attach an external drive and install OS X to that drive. In this case, since I have three internal hard disks, maybe I can install OS X to one of the extras. But I have to disconnect the problematic internal drive first. This is not so easy since I have a broken hip and crawling around on the floor is painful.

Anyway, I've installed OS X to another internal drive, I've re-mounted the first drive, and the process of repairing disk permissions is happening now while I type away on Mary's PC. (On a side note, Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 for PC really wreaks havoc with my site. The margins are all wrong and there is a horizontal scroll bar that isn't necessary.)

So here are my questions:

• Why won't the Mac boot from the CD even when holding down the "C" key per instructions?
• What does someone do when they encounter this problem but they don't happen to have an extra drive around?

OK, the diagnostics report that there are bad "extents files" or something like that on the disk. In human-speak, this means that thre are some "invisible" files known only to the computer, and they are critical for knowing where my own real files are, and those invisible files are corrupted. The Apple utilities can't fix it, and I don't have any other utilites like Norton.

Well, this gives me an opportunity to do some housecleaning. The process of restoring the disk to working condition looks something like this:

1. Since I can mount the bad disk, I can copy all its files to one of the other disks.
   Note: I did this using a backup program, to make sure I get everything.

2. Wipe the drive clean.

3. Install the OS that came with the computer (Mac OS 10.2).

4. Upgrade to the latest version of the OS (10.2.8), and install all the latest security updates, etc.

5. OK, first major problem. I can't access my own files on the other disks. I can view them, but I can't change them or move them around. This is a Unix and Mac permissions issue. First, I have to change all the owners to me. Then I have to change the "uchg" flag that has kept the files locked even though they belong to me. Changing the owners requires using the Unix "sudo" and "chown" commands. There is some information about the "uchg" problem and how to fix it here.

6. Install the applications that came with the computer, and upgrade all of them to the latest versions.

7. Install my most critical program first: email. Then copy all my old mailboxes back from the backup copy.

8. Install all the other programs I use regularly (it looks like there are about 25 of them).

   Note: I made it a point to install everything using the installers. I did not just copy my programs back from the backup copy. There are two reasons: (1) It makes for a cleaner, smaller install; and (2) it avoids problems should one of those applications have been corrupted by the crash.

   Note: when your application files get corrupted, they can become dangerous. When your document files get corrupted, you might not be able to read them any longer, but they shouldn't mess up your computer.

9. There are still a few random drivers like scanner and Zip drive that I haven't re-installed yet.

10. I still have to copy all my old documents back over from the backup copy.

    Note: This is easiest if all your document files are in well-defined places on your disk. I put most of my files in a "Personal" directory at the root of the disk. For large projects like audio files, I put them in their own directories at the root of the disk. The worst place for your files is the "home" directory your computer makes for you. This is because the computer also puts preference files and other corruptable files there, and when you restore your backup you don't want to retrieve those potentially bad files. If you avoid leaving your files there, you won't get confused when you restore your backup.

It seems I'm back up and running now. The crash occurred at 1:15 pm on Sunday. It's now 4:45 pm on Monday. Deducting eight hours for sleep, it has taken me 19 hours to fix this mess, and I'm still not quite done.

Purple America

Color Coded Election Results By County

Using County-by-County election return data from USA Today together with County boundary data from the US Census' Tiger database, they produced a graphic depicting the results. Of course, blue is for the democrats, red is for the republicans, and green is for all other. Each county's color is a mix of these three color components in proportion to the results for that county.

The results are more realistic and revealing than the state-by-state maps used by the news networks.

http://www.princeton.edu/~rvdb/JAVA/election2004/

Cue sheet index updated - 100 new cue sheets added

There are over 100 new cue sheets from various sites. Also, Roundalab updated over 100 of their cue sheets to PDF files. These are way too many to list, but here is a sampling of the very newest dances:

Big Blue Frog, Two Step, II+2, Scherrer
Boom Boom, Cha Cha/Merengue, V+1+U, Rumble
Back Home Again, Two Step/Foxtrot, III+1, Gomez
Beauty And The Beast, Bolero, V+2, Kincaid

Can't Wait Until Tonight, Rumba, III+1, Geiger/Jarmuth
Comme Un Garcon (Like A Boy), Cha Cha/Foxtrot, III+2, Woodruff
Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Jive, IV+2, Lillefield
Christmas At Our House, Waltz, II+2, Woodruff

Flim Flam Man, Foxtrot, III+1, Scherrer
Footloose, Two Step, II, Rumble
Five Guys Named Moe, Quickstep, VI, Goss
Fingersnap, West Coast/Jive, V+1+1, Woodruff

Going To France, West Coast/Foxtrot, V+2+1, Woodruff
Gaelic Morning, Waltz, II, Ackerman

Harvest Moon, Two Step, II, Ackerman
Honky Tonk Jive, Jive, V+2, Walz
Hot Hot Samba, Samba, IV, Moore
House Of Blue Lights, Two Step/Single Swing, III+2, Oliver
Home Grown Tomatoes, Two Step, II, Young
Hope, Waltz, VI, Lamberty

I Heard It Through The Grapevine Cha, Cha Cha, IV, Pyles
I Love You More, Bolero, IV+2, Hamilton
Jingle Bell Rock, Jive, IV+2, Rotscheid
Just A Closer Walk, Two Step, II+1, Frisella
Keep Me From Blowing Away, Waltz, IV, Scherrer

Letkiss, Mambo/Two Step, IV+1, ECTA
Little Black Book, Two Step, II+1, Mouser
Libertango, Tango, V+1, Lamberty
Love Don't Live Here Any More, Two Step, II+2, Woodruff

Me And Millie, Two Step, II, Pyles
Manhattan, Foxtrot, V+1, Lillefield
Mama Inez, Rumba, IV+2+1, Barton
My Way, Rumba, V, Szabo
My Bonny Lassie, Two Step/Cha, III+2, McCurley

Once In A While, Foxtrot, III+1, Micketti
On My Own, Rumba, III+1, Pilachowski/DeLauter
Painted Rose, Foxtrot, V+1, Martin

Respect, Cha Cha, IV+1, Scherrer
Rock Right, Jive, IV+1, Woodruff
Roll Out The Barrel, Polka/Two Step, II, Cibula
RosesForElizabeth, Two Step, III, Bliss
Rumba My Way, Rumba, III+2, Silvia

She's 2 Hot To Go, Two Step, II, Lillefield
She's No Lady, Two Step/Jive, III+2, Roberts
Sergeant Preston, Mixed, IV+1, Woodruff
Some Broken Hearts Never Mend, Two Step, II+2, Paull
Something To Talk About, Cha Cha, IV+2, Gomez/Salas
Speak Low III, Rumba, III+2, Steinke
Sunflower II, Two Step, II, Elliott

Too Much Fun, Two Step, II, Pyles
That Darn Cat, FoxtrotWest CoastJive, V+2+1, Woodruff
That's The Way I Like It, Cha Cha, IV+1+3, Szabo
Tango Reverie, Tango, IV+2, Nelson
Things You Do, The, Two Step, II+2, Oren
Trapeze Quickstep, Quickstep, IV, Bingham
Tres Hombres Paraglidos, Tango, III+1, Booth
True Love Ways, Slow Two Step, IV+1, Brown
Tu Nombre (Quisiera Decir), Rumba, V+2, Cibula
Tulane, Jive, VI, Fisher
Tuxedo Tango, Tango, VI, Moore

Un P'tit Foxtrot, Foxtrot, IV+2+1, Tucker
Uptown, Jive, V, Francis

Warm and Fuzzy Foxtrot, Foxtrot, V, Pyles
Waltzing With You, Waltz, II+1, Scherrer
Way You Do, The, West Coast, VI, Shibata
Way You Do, The, West Coast, VI, Shibata
Waltz Serenade, Waltz, II, Tirrell

The best place to look for your cue sheets is always here:

http://www.mixed-up.com/round/all-over/

29 New Cue Sheets Posted

13 Jours En France, Waltz, VI, Doi
13 Jours En France 5, Waltz, V+2+2, Doi
A Taste Of Mine, Bolero/Cha Cha, VI, Doi
Beautiful Ohio, Waltz, VI, Doi
Bei Mir Bist Du Schon, Jive, IV+2, Doi
Besame Mucho 3, Rumba, III+1, Doi
Danny Boy, Bolero, V+2+1, Doi
Everybody Loves Somebody, West Coast, V+2, Doi
Fly Me To The Moon, Waltz, VI, Doi
La Golondorina, Rumba, IV+2, Doi
Let's Dance, Quickstep, V+1, Doi
Lorelei, Waltz, V+2+U, Doi
Lorelei 4, Waltz, IV, Doi
Nata Per Me, Rumba, VI, Doi
Opus 39 No. 15 (Brahms), Waltz, IV+2, Doi
Opus 64 No. 2 (Chopin), Waltz/Viennese, V+2+U, Doi
Red Sails In The Sunset, Foxtrot, IV+2, Doi
Rose Room, Foxtrot, V+2, Doi
Sans Toi M'ami, Bolero, III+2, Doi
Scheherazade, Waltz, V+2, Doi
Schubert's Serenade, Waltz, IV+2, Doi
There's No Business Like Show Business, Quickstep, VI, Doi
They Say It's Wonderful, Foxtrot, VI, Doi
With A Song In My Heart, Rumba, V+2, Doi
Sunbeam (Rayo De Sol), Rumba, IV+2, Sechrist
Warm And Fuzzy Foxtrot, Foxtrot, V, Pyles
Carousel Rumba, Rumba, III+2, Auriene
Sweeter Than You, Slow Two Step, IV+2, Hilton
Bizness Of Luv V, Foxtrot, V+, Sechrist

The most recently posted cue sheets always appear here:

http://www.mixed-up.com/round/all-over/recent.html

Cue sheet submission guidelines are here:

http://www.mixed-up.com/round/all-over/submit.html

Food allergy vaccine promising

San Jose Mercury News

By Esther Landhuis

A new vaccine developed by a Stanford-led research team could one day enable millions of food allergy sufferers to fearlessly bite into a peanut butter sandwich. Tested in dogs thus far, the vaccine curbs allergic reactions to peanuts, milk and wheat.

"We're finally entering a realm where different treatment approaches for food allergy are being developed and really look like they're on the five- to 10-year horizon," said Dr. Robert Wood, a pediatric allergist at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center.

The Stanford work -- a joint effort with University of California scientists at Berkeley, San Francisco and Davis -- comes during an unprecedented rise in food allergies. In the past five years, peanut allergies in U.S. kids have doubled, and the number of Americans with food allergies has grown from 6 million to 11 million.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/10162659.htm

Mark says: Both Mary and I are allergic to both peanuts and wheat gluten. This study could mean a lot for our future health.

Powerless

We lost power at 9:30 this morning. Power was not restored until after 12 noon. The radio said that 4000 customers in our town were without power, and PG&E had no idea what was causing the problem, even at 11:30 am, two full hours after the outage started.

Whoa! I used to work for a company that made computer equipment that allowed electrical utilities to monitor stuff like this. PG&E had no idea what was causing the problem? Maybe they should have bought our product.

At 5:45, we lost power again. This time, the radio said that 500 customers were still without power from the 9:30 am outage. But at least now they knew that the cause of the outage was an automobile running into a power pole. Even without computers, how hard could it be to figure that out? Some poor shmuck sat in his car for two hours before someone noticed he had hit a power pole.

Anyway, now this was a new outage. We certainly should not be included in the 500 customers still hurting from the morning, because this was a new outage. So how many were affected by the afternoon outage, which lasted one hour?

Nowhere on the PG&E web site can one research these outages. You must call an automated 800 number to get any information. PG&E has a real credibility problem when

• They don't even know what caused an outage in a valley residential community (not in the hills), two hours after it happened;
• When you listen to the radio and all the information is old;
• When their web site doesn't give any information.

And, as Mary says, every year you pay more and you get less service. It's no wonder PG&E is in Chapter 11. They are a service company, and their service is inconsistent at best.

Liberal Christians Challenge 'Values Vote'

Washington Post

By Alan Cooperman

Liberal Christian leaders argued yesterday that the moral values held by most Americans are much broader than the handful of issues emphasized by religious conservatives in the 2004 presidential campaign.

Battling the notion that "values voters" swept President Bush to victory because of opposition to gay marriage and abortion, three liberal groups released a post-election poll in which 33 percent of voters said the nation's most urgent moral problem was "greed and materialism" and 31 percent said it was "poverty and economic justice." Sixteen percent cited abortion, and 12 percent named same-sex marriage.

Tom Perriello, an organizer at Res Publica, said the poll shows that "while there may be a solid 20 percent who are very focused on abortion and gay marriage, for most Americans of faith, there are other moral issues of greater urgency, and that's where the religious middle is."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38001-2004Nov9.html

Crisis in Sudan

Washington Post

By Ed O'Keefe and Jeffrey Marcus

An increasingly dire situation in Darfur in western Sudan has devolved into the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, according to international observers and the U.S. State Department. A State Department report issued Sept. 9 says that 1.2 million people have been displaced from their homes in Sudan while at least 200,000 have fled to neighboring Chad. As many as 405 villages have been destroyed and and more than 100 others significantly damaged. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reports at least 50,000 people have died as a result of the conflict between government-backed Arab militias and Africans in western Sudan.

• What Is the Situation in Sudan?
• How Did This Happen?
• What Is the International Community Doing?
• How Does This Relate to Sudan’s Civil War?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20765-2004Jul1.html

Related:

Sudan, Rebels Reach Accord On Darfur
Government Approves No-Fly Zone, Access to Aid

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38097-2004Nov9.html

After Accord, Sudan Camp Raided
Shelters Reportedly Destroyed and Residents Beaten

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41010-2004Nov10.html

Wanted by the Police: A Good Interface

New York Times

By Katie Hafner

How the flawed interface design of a police dispatch system became a municipal issue in San Jose, Calif.

"Such complaints have a familiar ring. Anyone who encounters technology daily - that is to say, just about everyone - has a story of new hardware or software, at work or at home, that is poorly designed, hard to use and seemingly worse than what it was intended to replace. Yet because the safety of police officers and the public is involved, the problems in San Jose are of particular concern.

"It's a prescription for disaster to develop a big system without testing it with users before it's launched. There are always issues in the user interface that need to be smoothed over.

"Officers say they are being distracted by the tasks they are expected to perform on the new system when their full attention should be given to what is happening outside the patrol car. Sergeant DeMers said one officer recently was so distracted by what he was doing on the 12-inch touch screen that he crashed into a parked car.

"The Chicago Police Department had similar problems in 1999 when it rolled out an ambitious computer system without having tested it with on-the-beat police officers first."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/11/technology/circuits/11cops.html?th

Mark says: Why didn't they come to me for a GUI consult?

Best Square Dance Club Names

Gnat Boxers
Wooster, Ohio
http://www.the-daily-record.com/past_issues/08_aug/990823dr2.html

And they told me the really big ones were in Minnesota. Oh, wait, that was mosquitoes.

Hippo Hubbubs
Berlin, Germany
http://hippo-hubbubs.gmxhome.de/we%20about%20us.htm

Explanation on the web page, if you can understand it.

Rubber Dollies
Berlin, Germany
http://rubber-dollies-sdc.de/

I don't even want to know.

Fallen Arches
Moab, Utah - home of Arches National Park
http://westerncosquaredancing.homestead.com/

Wish we'd known about this one when we were on vacation there.

Hoosier Corners
Richmond, Indiana
http://www.sharpsites.net/hoosiercorners/

Hoosier daddy, little girl?

Honorable Mention:
I could have sworn that I once saw an ad for a challenge club called the Blank Stares.

Fractured Femur Tales

Mary found this diagram on the internet, and she graciously marked it up with my injuries and the treatment.

The diagram on the left shows the two fractures. One sliced right through the neck of the femur, and the other was just a little chip.

The diagram on the right shows where they inserted the four titanium pins. Actually, they are screws with pins inside, so sometimes they call them pins, and sometimes screws.

To give an idea of perspective, the screws are actually about six inches long, and one-quarter inch in diameter.

You might notice that the pelvic structures in the two diagrams are not exactly the same. This has nothing to do with the surgery. Can anyone tell why they are different?

Progress Report: Accident

I have been in some pain since Saturday. Even took some pain killers on Saturday night so I could sleep. This is unusual since I have been doing well for a couple of weeks. It seemed a bit of a setback.

This last week has seen several milestones. Drove the car for the first time since the accident. Took a shower without Mary here to watch after me. I was able to tie my shoes by myself. Big steps forward.

But Mary thinks I overextended myself. Tuesday night at church was difficult because I got lost looking for the new restroom. Spent too much time on the walker. Also, I'm way overdue for a chiropractor appointment, and I think a lot of this pain is not in my hip but in my lower back.

Bill and Chris McCorquodale prayed for me at church Sunday. We need wisdom to know when to call the doctors and what to ask of them, and the doctors need wisdom.

If it seems that web site updates are coming slowly, this is why. If you're waiting for your cue sheet or square dance event to get posted, please be patient. Even just sitting at the computer can be painful. Lying in bed is the best therapy.

I typed up most of this on the Palm Pilot while lying in bed. I probably won't do that again ... way too much work.

I've finished up a bunch of books and started a bunch of new ones. Will post the links later. Also been keeping tabs on a bunch of new ideas for the journal.

The New York Times sends me the headlines every morning in an email. I've looked at a bunch of more conservative newspapers but none of them have a setup to send me a free email. Can anyone suggest a conservative newspaper that will send me an email every morning?

More later ...

Living for Today, Locked in a Paralyzed Body

New York Times

By John Schwartz and James Estrin

A.L.S., or Lou Gehrig's disease, is often described as a kind of living death in which the body goes flaccid while the mind remains intact and acutely aware. The prospect of being trapped in an inert body and being totally dependent on others drives many sufferers to suicide.

What keeps many patients alive, experts say, is a sense of having unfinished business - perhaps a milestone "like getting the last kid off to college," said Dr. Mellar P. Davis, a professor of hematology and medical oncology at the Cleveland Clinic.

Many patients, Dr. Ganzini said, have deep religious beliefs that help sustain them, and they are able, "to find hope in the future, find meaning and tolerate the daily ongoing losses that they are experiencing."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/07/health/07ALS.html?th

Mark says: My Uncle Marvin had this disease for a while before he passed away. We actually considered teaching him sign language so he could communicate. He could think clearly but he could not speak.

Martian Robots, Taking Orders From a Manhattan Walk-Up

New York Times

By Kenneth Chang

These days, when one of NASA's rovers drills a hole in a rock on Mars, the commands come from Lower Manhattan, from a second-floor office on Elizabeth Street, surrounded by dusted-off tenements.

"It is almost surreal. "You walk down the street and there are shoe stores, bakeries and here we're controlling some robotic mechanism on Mars."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/07/science/07mars.html?th

Time to Get Religion

New York Times Op-Ed

By Nicholas D. Kristof

Democrats need to give a more prominent voice to Middle American, gun-shooting, Spanish-speaking, Bible-toting centrists.

"Don't be afraid of religion. Offer government support for faith-based programs to aid the homeless, prisoners and AIDS victims. And argue theology with Republicans: there's much more biblical ammunition to support liberals than conservatives."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/06/opinion/06kristof.html?th

The Values-Vote Myth

By David Brooks

It was not throngs of homophobic, Red America values-voters that put George Bush over the top.

"But the same insularity that caused many liberals to lose touch with the rest of the country now causes them to simplify, misunderstand and condescend to the people who voted for Bush. If you want to understand why Democrats keep losing elections, just listen to some coastal and university town liberals talk about how conformist and intolerant people in Red America are. It makes you wonder: why is it that people who are completely closed-minded talk endlessly about how open-minded they are?"

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/06/opinion/06brooks.html?th

On a Word and a Prayer

By Steven Waldman

Religious voters love President Bush for reasons broader and more vague than merely his positions on specific issues.

"Christians feel misunderstood and persecuted and believe Mr. Bush's victory and presence in the White House is their vindication. The materials circulated in churches repeatedly made the point that Mr. Bush's open discussion of his faith had been mocked by elites, yet he persevered in defending his faith and, by extension, theirs."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/06/opinion/06waldman.html?th

Two Nations Under God

New York Times Op-Ed

By Thomas L. Friedman

In this election it seemed as though people voted not on President Bush's performance, but for what team they were on.

"The Democrats have ceded to Republicans a monopoly on the moral and spiritual sources of American politics," noted the Harvard University political theorist Michael J. Sandel. "They will not recover as a party until they again have candidates who can speak to those moral and spiritual yearnings - but turn them to progressive purposes in domestic policy and foreign affairs."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/04/opinion/04friedman.html?th

Related:

The Red Zone

By Maureen Dowd

The president got re-elected by dividing the country along fault lines of fear, intolerance, ignorance and religious rule.

"Mr. Bush, whose administration drummed up fake evidence to trick us into war with Iraq, sticking our troops in an immoral position with no exit strategy, won on 'moral issues.'"

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/04/opinion/04dowd.html?th

The Day the Enlightenment Went Out

By Garry Wills

George W. Bush's victory signals the triumph of belief over fact.

"Can a people that believes more fervently in the Virgin Birth than in evolution still be called an Enlightened nation?"

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/04/opinion/04wills.html?th

You might need to register with NY Times to read these articles. It's easy and free.

Martin Luther on Good Works

This from today's devotions in Martin Luther's book. It is next to impossible to fully learn this about good works. This is why we have to remind ourselves every day to abide in Christ and not "do it ourselves."

Whoever doesn't live in me is thrown away like a branch and dries up. Branches like this are gathered, thrown into a fire, and burned. -- John 15:6

When I was a monk, I read the mass daily. I weakened myself with prayer and fasting so much that I couldn't have kept it up for much longer. Yet all of my efforts couldn't help me in the smallest temptation. I could never say to God, "I have done all this. Look at it, and be merciful to me." What did I achieve with all this striving? Nothing. I merely tormented myself, ruined my health, and wasted my time. Now I'm forced to listen to Christ's judgement on my works. He says, "You did all this without me. That's why it amounts to nothing. Your works don't belong in my kingdom. They can't help you or anyone else obtain eternal life."

So in this passage, Christ has passed a terrifying judgement over all works -- no matter how great, glorious, and beautiful they might appear. If these works are performed apart from Christ, they amount to nothing. They may appear to be great in the eyes of the world, for the world considers them excellent and precious. But in Christ's kingdom and before God, they are truly nothing. They don't grow out of him, nor do they remain in him. They won't pass God's test. As Christ says, they will be tossed into the fire as if they were rotten, withered branches -- branches without any sap or strength. So let others carve from these branches and see what they can create apart from Christ. Let them try to create a tree from its fruit. No matter what they do, all of their works will add up to a big zero.

Goblins On The Doorstep

Two very scary characters approach my door.

"Trick or trick!"

Isn't it a little late? Halloween was two days ago!

"It's never too late until the polls close. Trick or trick!"

Shouldn't that be "trick or treat"?

"I'm here for treats, but he just wants to trick you."
"No, he wants to trick you. Don't listen to him."

You guys come around every four years looking for treats.

"Don't give anything to him. He'll spend it all on pork in other districts."
"Don't give anything to him. He'll spend it on military conquests in other countries."

Those definitely sound like tricks.

"I'll make sure you can get health insurance when you get laid off and go looking for work at Wal*Mart."
"No, he'll make sure that when your job goes overseas, you won't even be able to get work at Wal*Mart."

So, what's the good news?

"He'll destroy our military superiority."
"He'll start drafting you and your children."

Now you're starting to scare me!

"He'll take away your guns."
"He'll teach you all about guns in boot camp!"

Ack!

"He'll make sure you never see your social security."
"He'll make sure you pay twice as much for social security as you'll ever see."

Go away!

"He'll kill all your unborn babies."
"He'll kill all your teenagers in foreign wars."

Aieee! They're even scarier than last time! Honey! Give them, something, anything, just get rid of them!

"He he he."
"We're gettin' a boatload of loot this time."
"I wonder if mom will let us eat it all tonight?"

Activities Of Daily Living

Mary's degree in Occupational Therapy has been a great help to me both in the hospital and during my imprisonment rehabilitation at home. Not only did she know all the right questions to ask while I was still in the hospital, but she knew how to set things up for me at home before I even arrived. Mary's friend Kathleen Brandt, who also has a degree in OT, helped her set up the house to make things easier for me.

Unless you have an elderly or handicapped relative, or yourself have restricted mobility, you probably don't think in great detail about such mundane daily activities as getting into or out of bed, taking a shower, using the toilet, getting dressed, or eating breakfast. But for someone with limited mobility, these can all be trials. They are called "activities of daily living" and they are the staple of occupational therapists.

In my particular case, there is one major physical problem, and two minor ones. The major problem is that I am not allowed to place any weight on my left foot, and ideally I should not even let the left foot rest on the ground. The minor problems are (1) that I cannot bend my left knee very much due to stiffness in the leg muscles above the knee, and (2) I am not allowed to separate my legs very much because this "abduction" exacerbates the problem of the one small piece of bone that could not be re-attached with pins.

Have you ever tried putting on pants when you are not allowed to put both feet on the floor? Have you ever tried putting on socks or tying your shoes when you cannot reach your foot? Have you ever tried getting out of bed without separating your legs, and without pushing with both legs?

From the first day I was in the hospital, occupational therapists and physical therapists worked with me to help me put on socks, put on pants, and use a walker to hobble around. It's not too difficult with aids like sticks and sock pullers, but it could probably be much more difficult for someone older, or who had multiple disabilities, or who had arthritis.

Mary was proactive getting things arranged for me at home. My brother Craig brought some items like a walker, a commode, and a shower chair that my mother and my aunt had used when they were ill. Pastor Eddie of Calvary Chapel San Jose sent a brother who lives near us, Gabriel, to install some aids in our house, and Mary's son Aaron also installed some aids. Here is a list of all the aids I am using or have used:

• Commode. I used this a lot the first three or four days after I got out of the hospital. Mostly because I was too tired to hobble all the way to the bathroom. Mary put it right next to the bed. Kathleen had the idea of putting water in it ahead of time to dilute whatever I might do into it.

• Reacher sticks of various kinds. One has a hook on the end and it is useful for picking up clothes or pulling up pants by the belt loops. Another has a grip and a trigger; it is more useful for picking up books or papers. It can also be used to reach items on the dresser without getting out of bed. There is also a long shoehorn that I haven't really used much until recently.

• Sock puller. This is a clever little invention. It is smooth plastic on one side, and terry cloth on the other. It has two rope handles. You curl it up and place the sock over it, plastic side in, and terry cloth side against the sock. Then you use the rope handles to pull it over your foot. The foot slides against the smooth plastic, but the terry cloth holds the sock firmly and pulls it up.

• Grab bars. Gabriel installed one on the wall opposite the toilet, and Aaron installed one diagonally in the shower. These help me to sit on the toilet or get into the shower while placing weight onto only one leg.

• Raised toilet seat. This makes it easier for me to sit on the toilet because I don't have to lower myself as far to sit, and I don't have to raise myself as far to stand up.

• Shower chair. This lets me sit in the shower, and it also helps me to get into the shower. The details of using it show how difficult it can be do so something as simple as getting into the shower, while not placing the left foot on the floor. Move the chair to one end of the shower. Holding onto the walker, lower my butt onto the chair so that my butt is in the shower but my legs are still out. Put my right leg into the shower. Stand on the right leg, hanging onto the diagonal grab bar. (Left leg is still hanging outside the shower.) Move the chair back a little. Sit down again. Angle the left leg into the shower. To get out, reverse the process, if I can even remember what the process was.

• Walker. I was released from the hospital late Friday night. Fortunately Craig brought an old walker, because the hospital supply did not deliver the new one until Saturday afternoon. I don't know how I would have got into the house if Craig didn't have something I could use temporarily. Mary bought a basket for it, and David Brandt modified the basket to fit the new walker.

Mary made lots of other little accommodations for me. The first day out we bought slippers so I would not have to worry about tying shoes. She also bought me pajamas and new sweats so I could dress in comfortable clothes without a lot of effort. We bought boxer shorts because they are much easier to put on than briefs.

Every day she fills six water bottles that she scatters around the house so I have some in every room. She put all kinds of paper plates, paper bowls, and plastic ware on the kitchen table so I don't have to carry them back and forth from the cabinet. And she put a trash can on the table so I can just throw them away when finished. She bought little cans of fruit so I can eat a snack at the table without rooting through the cabinets or using a can opener.

There are lots of web sites devoted to ADL. Just search for "activities of daily living" using your favorite search engine. My search also showed this commercial site that has photographs of all these kinds of aids:

http://www.disabilityproducts.com/

We did not buy our products from this web site. It just happens to show some good photographs. We bought all our supplies in person from this store located next to San Jose Hospital:

San Jose Medical Market
24 N. 14th St., Suite 140
San Jose, CA 95112
408-280-0416

Older NY Times Articles

Leading Muslim Clerics in Iraq Condemn Bombing of Churches
Tuesday, August 3, 2004

By Ian Fisher

Still, some Christians said they feared that the attacks were a frightening signal of a rise of fundamentalist Islam.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/03/international/middleeast/03iraq.html?th

Bombs Explode Near Churches in 2 Iraqi Cities
Monday, August 2, 2004

By Somini Sengupta and Ian Fisher

In the first significant attacks against Iraq's Christian minority, at least 12 people were killed and 27 wounded.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/02/international/middleeast/02iraq.html?th

Hug an Evangelical
Saturday, April 24, 2004

By Nicholas D. Kristof

If liberals demand more tolerance for gays and lesbians, then liberals need to be more respectful of conservative Christians.

"It's always easy to point out the intolerance of others. What's harder is to practice inclusiveness oneself. And bigotry toward people based on their faith is just as repugnant as bigotry toward people based on their sexuality."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/24/opinion/24KRIS.html?th

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Faith at Work

New York Times

By Russell Shorto

With the rise of office ministries and job-site prayer groups, will religion be the next workplace issue?

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/31/magazine/31FAITH.html

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Korean Missionaries Carrying Word to Hard-to-Sway Places

New York Times

By Norimitsu Onishi

South Korean Christian missionaries have become known for aggressively going to the hardest-to-evangelize corners of the world.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/01/international/asia/01missionaries.html?th

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South Korean Is Killed in Iraq by His Captors
Wednesday, June 23, 2004

By Edward Wong and James Glanz

An interpreter who dreamed of becoming a Christian missionary in the Arab world was beheaded by insurgents.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/23/international/middleeast/23IRAQ.html?th

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Last updated Monday 3 August 2009