Misterimpatient

My daughter and I spent all too brief a weekend in coastal Maine, in the town of Friendship. You must know it, it’s a few miles east of Waldoboro. We were gathered with about 2 dozen members of our extended family, all derived from my wife’s family. On my side of the ledger there is just me and my brother. Lots of kids around ranging from 3 year to, I think, 17. Various careers and hobbies. All nice folks. No television. Not one minute. Games. Charades. Singing songs. Laughing. Talking. Some quiet time. A movie. Rain. Lots and lots of rain.

I have to find a way to do this more often. Its good for me and it’s good for the kid.

Later…

Filed by misterimpatient at 10:48 pm under Patter
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I think the less said, the better:

Filed by misterimpatient at 7:24 am under Patter
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I work for a company based out of the UK. I have, it seems, assumed responsibility for carrying forward one of the great traditions: Sending a copy of the Declaration of Independence to “all” on July 4th. The tradition includes this response from King George which is sent in reply by one or more of my UK colleagues:

King George III’s Response to The Declaration Of Independence
The Court of King George III London, England
July 10, 1776

Mr. Thomas Jefferson
c/o The Continental Congress
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Dear Mr. Jefferson:

We have read your “Declaration of Independence” with great interest. Certainly, it represents a considerable undertaking, and many of your statements do merit serious consideration. Unfortunately, the Declaration as a whole fails to meet recently adopted specifications for proposals to the Crown, so we must return the document to you for further refinement.

The questions which follow might assist you in the process of revision:

1. In your opening paragraph you use the phrase the “Laws of Nature and Nature’s God.” What are these laws? In what way are they the criteria on which you base your central arguments? Please document with citations from the recent literature.
2. In the same paragraph you refer to the “opinions of mankind.” Whosepolling data are you using? Without specific evidence, it seems to us the “opinions of mankind” are a matter of opinion.
3. You hold certain truths to be “self-evident”. Please elaborate. If they are as evident as you claim then it should not be difficult for you to locate the appropriate supporting statistics.
4. “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” seem to be the goals of your proposal. These are not measurable goals. If you were to say that among these is the ability to sustain an average life expectancy in six of the 13 colonies of at last 55 years, and to enable newspapers in the colonies to print news without outside interference, and to raise the average income of the colonists by 10 percent in the next 10 years, these would be measurable goals. Please clarify.
5. You state that “Whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new Government….” Have you weighed this assertion against the possible alternatives?
6. Your description of the existing situation is quite extensive. Such a long list of grievances should precede the statement of goals, not follow it. Your problem statement needs improvement.
7. Your strategy for achieving your goal is not developed at all. You state that the colonies ought to be Free and Independent States, and that they are “Absolved from All Allegiance to the British Crown.” Who or what must change to achieve this objective? In what way must they change? What specific steps will you take to overcome the resistance? How long will it take? We have found that a little foresight in these areas helps to prevent careless errors later on.How cost-effective are your strategies?
8. Who among the list of signatories will be responsible for implementing your strategy? Who conceived it? Who provided the theoretical research? Who will constitute the advisory committee? Please submit an organizational chart and vitae of the principal investigators.
9. You must include an evaluation design. We have been requiring this since Queen Anne’s War.
10. What impact will your program have? Your failure to include any assessment of this inspires little confidence in the long-range prospects of your undertaking.
11. Please submit a PERT diagram, an activity chart, itemized budget, and manpower utilization matrix.

We hope the above comments will be of use to you, and welcome the re-submission of your revised Declaration of Independence. The due date for unsolicited proposals is July 31, 1776. Ten copies with original signatures will be required.

Sincerely,

Management Analyst to His Majesty George R III

Some how I find the traditional reply grows old with age while the original declaration remains fresh and alive. Odd how that happens.

Another reply received which I really enjoyed link me to this recasting of our declaration. I wish it weren’t so true.

Later…

Filed by misterimpatient at 10:04 am under Patter
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Excellent fireworks last night in Milford Massachusetts. Just one problem: They didn’t start until 10pm. I am awake most mornings before 5:30. It’s a long long trip to 10:30pm and then the long wait in the car waitingin traffic to get home. I propose some alternatives.

The only requirement for successful fireworks is dark (and maybe dry but nevermind). Two simple solutions come to mind:

There you have it. Two simple and, no doubt, soon to be wildly popular solutions to an age old problem.

No need to thank me.

Later…

Filed by misterimpatient at 8:41 pm under Patter
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The Supreme Court decision in the Hamdan case is a defeat for the Bush administration, but not a huge one. The court basically said that all our government has to do is play by the rules of war as they exist today. They can’t change the Geneva Convention unilaterally but they can ask Congress to change the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) as it applies to these detainees. This goes rather a long way toward getting Bush/Cheney what they want.

If Bush had gone to Congress late in 2001 or early 2002, he would have gotten what he wanted. Instead, he (and more likely Cheney) decided that they would make a stand for presidential power. This was just one case in point. I doubt I need to point out the others.

This entire presidency has been about the accumulation of imperial presidential power. Along the way they’ve worked hard to gut the social systems, such as they are, but ultimately, I think the Bush presidency will be remembered for how it tried and to some extent succeeded in that power grab.

My prayer for today: Good health to the 5 members of the Supreme Court that voted against the administration in the Hamdan case.

Later…

Filed by misterimpatient at 5:28 pm under Justice, sometimes, Slightly left of Center
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I dropped in at the local Whole Foods market today. Littering the parking lot where abandoned shopping carts. Is it so hard to return these to one of the many “depots” around the lot for just that purpose? I wouldn’t have thought so. It’s a lovely sunny day as well. Returning mine probably took all of 45 seconds.

A lady who was returning her shopping cart to the depot had her little baby in one of those removable car seats that also fit over the rails of the shopping cart. She had only a small bag of groceries. Ever sociable, I remarked that I thought the carts arrayed around the parking lot were a sure sign of the social decline of America. She remarked it was probably mothers who would be arrested if they left their kids unattended in their cars for the 45 seconds it takes to return the cart. In her case, a police officer threatened to report her to DSS (Department of Social Services) if she caught her leaving her child unattended while she returned the cart.

I’m going with my theory but still, her experience was informative.

Later…

Filed by misterimpatient at 2:04 pm under Patter
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