Northside Grocery Store Robbery - just some quick thoughts

I was watching the report from KTUL, and the interview with the mayor and councillor Henderson.

Here are a few quick thoughts:

1. The robbery and the 124 police layoffs have nothing to do with each other. You can argue prevention, but the most you can do is correlate the event with the lack of police. There is barely a connection unless one or all of the 124 policemen were or could have been in the store at the time of the robbery.

2. Northsiders: This is your big chance. Someone knows something about this robbery, and you need to report it. Crime is one of the stated reasons that businesses don't want to operate on the Northside. Someone needs to turn someone in. If this person isn't caught, you can kiss continued growth goodbye. The owner pretty much said he wasn't going to put up with it.

3. No safety tax. The police eat up most of the taxes already. There's a better solution. the bottom line is, right now, we can't afford the number of police we've employed in the past. Be safe and keep your eyes open.

Digital Nation

I watched a great documentary on PBS last night on Frontline titled Digital Nation - life on the virtual frontier. Correspondent Douglas Rushkoff takes on several thought provoking topics which interested me greatly.

One of the subjects: Multitasking. I've always been suspect that this was an effective way of going about life. The studies show that many people believe that its a super-efficient way of being productive. But when put to the test, multi-tasking leads to error. Here's a clip on "Multi-tasking Mentality:



and multi-tasking at MIT:



If you find some time, go enjoy the program online. It's 90 minutes long, and since you can open up multiple windows on your browser, you can do other stuff too. No need to waste all that time.

How To Stage Your Own Groundhog Day

I love Groundhog day. If anyone needs a good recipe let me know. I like mine DEEP-FRIED.

How To Stage Your Own Groundhog Day
Uploaded by Howcast. - College experience videos.

Blog Rut

For those of you who blog, you know that it is a lot of work. If you are like me you get in these long blogging spurts, and then burn out. Then there's that stress I feel when I go a couple of days without posting. Then there's those stupid stats. I shouldn't even look at them.

I often feel bi-polar about blogging - I'm sure it comes off in my writing.

Blogging has been sparse around here. Part of it is work, part of it is burn out. But it's not like there aren't a bunch of other blogs to read.

I really appreciate people coming around and reading. I'm surprised I get any hits at all. I don't think I've ever told anyone I blog, and yet I have friends and acquaintances come up to me all the time and tell me they've read my blog. It's flattering.

I gotta change that banner picture. Update: Done.

Well, me and my son are sitting here in front of the computer, me typing, him battling General Grievous on Lego Star Wars (DS). It's the way we hang out.

I'll get around to blogging at full speed soon. I know its coming. It's just around the corner.

The Swan Song of an Old Violin

I have a friend who recently came across two old violins in his mother's garage. Since he knew I played the violin, he asked me about them. I told him to take them to Tulsa Violin or Tulsa Strings to have them looked at.

As my friend was talking, I found myself getting more curious about these old violins. He told me these violins were purchased in the State of Washington in 1947. I then asked to look at them. As fortune word have it, he had them in the car, and his wife went eagerly to get them.

Upon first sight, these violins were in really bad shape. They were extremely dirty, but that was the least of my worries. But now I felt I had a challenge. I said "let's get together and see if we can clean these up with some oil and part out one and get at least one of them playable - just to see if they are worth fixing. So this past Sunday after church and a nice lunch, we pulled the violins out.

Here is a list of things that were wrong with them.

Both had been in a garage for many many years. Weather effects these fine instruments in a bad way. More on that later.

The tail gut was broken on both of them.

The tailpiece saddle on both of the instruments was missing.

One was missing a bridge.

As I mentioned before, these violins were really dirty.

After looking at both of the violins, it was evident that the worst one of them was not going to make it - at least not by me. So I concentrated on getting the better one in playable condition.

Let me describe this violin:

This violin was hand made. There were slight nearly imperceptible saw marks on nearly every part of the body and back, and wood chisel marks around the scroll. I showed my friend how someone had hand-carved the scroll so beautifully, and how one side was made slightly different than the other side. It appears the purfling had been painted on. The back was a solid piece of wood - a rare find nowadays. There was no tailpiece saddle and the tailpiece gut was broken. The tailpiece had some very pretty mother of pearl inlay. There was a very good bridge in the violin case. The pegs would not hold in the pegbox, and they looked as if they didn't belong with that violin. The soundpost was intact. There was some separation between the back and the side at the place where the tailpin goes in. This worried me greatly.

I spent about an hour cleaning. Then I started putting the violin back together. It looked much better - like one of those old beautiful violins that have taken a beating and is just begging to be played. We used some pegs from the other violin.

As I put some old gut strings I had laying around, I could tell that this violin had some promise. But as I put the bridge under the strings, and began to raise it to pull the strings taught, I heard the first glimmer of hope. I plucked one of the strings and it rang out like a bell. A full tone with some back to it. The sound was actually beautiful - just the pluck of the string. I was getting really pumped up at this point, and it was evident that we had a good violin here.

After we got the strings tuned up. I began to play. I played that violin for an hour. It was so beautiful. I told the owner that this was a very nice violin, and I compared mine to his by playing the same tune on mine and everyone said they could tell there was a huge difference in tone. His was far better than mine. Half-joking, I told him I would trade mine for his.

I've often been told that violins have a spirit, that they are alive and the good violins are begging to be played. I had never experienced that before, until I played this violin. It was so easy to play and responsive to my fingerings. I shifted effortlessly up the fingerboard. The subtleties in my normally weak vibrato came out strong. It was like the violin was thanking me for playing her.

The party was suddenly over when I was re-tuning the G-string. As I moved the peg back and forth and pulled the bow across the strings, the hide glue holding the neck to the body gave up the ghost and the entire beautiful lady collapsed upon herself. Suddenly it was a two piece violin kit.

To say the least, I felt as if I had witnessed a death. The room went quiet after my (literal) wailing of her death, and I was told later there was real pain in my face. Playing that violin was like the old lady's swan song. Just one more song before it died. It was a particularly solemn Handel violin sonata. She sang it well.

I truly hope the violin can be repaired. There are no wood breaks, just old dry hide glue giving way to neglect.

People Don't Litter the Earth, Plastic Bottles Litter the Earth

The fallacy that people can't do anything on any such scale that would affect the environment, and therefore global warming is a farce, is evident when considering the smaller scale subject of litter and trash. The United States doesn't have the litter problem we used to have pre-1970's (we do have a trash problem), but if you've ever been to a third-world- country, you can see the effects that human trash and litter can have on the environment. Litter and other forms of pollution have adverse impacts on human health and safety on a broad scale. Consider for instance, the residential community of Smokey Mountain, Philippines:


On a lighter note, here's a story from the Onion on How Bad For The Environment Can Throwing Away One Plastic Bottle Be?' 30 Million People Wonder :

...All agreed that disposing of what would eventually amount to 50 tons of thermoplastic polymer resin wasn't the end of the world...

Ha!

I'm much less interested in advancing an ideology than I am advancing factual information.

A Short Question About Insurance

I've never been a proponent of the government telling citizens they have to buy private insurance. Of any kind. Even when I discussed this with a conservative lawyer, with regard to my concerns about mandatory auto insurance, I said this:

"I don't know why every one has to carry liability insurance on their car?"

He went off on the importance making sure everyone is covered for the public good, make society safe, protect property from loss, etc., virtually all the reasons people carry auto insurance in the first place, whether they were required to own coverage or not.

So here is my question:

If the government can require people to buy auto insurance,
what's the difference in requiring people to buy health
insurance?

Please, if you respond, the issue of cost is not part of the question. I might note that many people can't afford car insurance, and they just take their chances. The fundamental question is: Is it proper for the government to require its citizens to carry insurance, with a discussion of the difference between car insurance and health insurance. I would appreciate any insight.

History of Haitian Revolution - But Not Pat Robertson's Twisted Version

Early this morning, suffering from a bout of insomnia, I watched Egalite for All: Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian Revolution:

The story of the 1791-1803 Haitian Revolution and its leader, former slave Toussaint Louverture (1743-1803), is chronicled. Included: excerpts from diaries, letters and public pronouncements; reenactments; interviews with Haitian and American historians.

It was the only successful slave insurrection in history. It grasped the full meaning of French revolutionary ideas — liberté, eqalité, fraternité — and used them to create the world's first Black republic. It changed the trajectory of colonial economics...and led to America's acquisition of the Louisiana territory from France. "It" was the Haitian Revolution, a movement that's been called the true birth moment of universal human rights. Vaguely remembered today, the Haitian Revolution was a hurricane at the turn of the nineteenth century — traumatizing Southern planters and inspiring slaves and abolitionists, worldwide.

It was an educational and entertaining documentary, and since I was unfamiliar with Haitian history, I learned a great deal. The show airs again tonight on OETA at 9:00 pm, and if you are the least bit interested in the French/Haitian History sans Pat Robertson's twisted "pact with the devil" version, I would encourage you to watch.

Update: I'm not a "TV guy," so when the listing said tonight on OETA OKLA they meant on COX CHANNEL 112 or digital 11.2. I'm sorry if that's messed anyone up. Other wise, it will be on at 2:00 am on January 16th.

Coburn Town Hall This Friday January 15

From Nancy Rothman and the Republican Womens Club of Tulsa County:

We hope you will join us this Friday evening for a very important town hall meeting with U.S. Senator Dr. Tom Coburn.

U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. will be holding a town hall meeting in Tulsa on Friday, January 15, 2010. Dr. Coburn will take questions and address important issues for Oklahoma and the nation.

"I encourage everyone to attend and participate in this town hall. These settings provide not only a chance for Oklahomans to hear my views on current events but also give me the opportunity to hear directly from the people I am representing in Washington," said Dr. Coburn.


Tulsa Town Hall meeting
Friday, January 15, 2010
5:30 - 6:30 p.m.
Spirit Bank Event Center
South Banquet Hall
10441 S. Regal Blvd. (105th and S. Memorial)
Tulsa, OK 74133


We hope to see you there for this very important event.

Filling in a Loop Hole - Public Meeting Scheduled.

One of the things that will kill the growth of a city this size is holes - or dead spaces in a highway system. Many large cities have installed loop highway systems. In Indianapolis, where I lived for a long while, it was I-465, part of the Federal Highway System. That highway around the city was an indispensable for moving people all the way around to every part of the city.

Houston has several loop highways around it. I won't mention the advantage Oklahoma City has over Tulsa in the highway department.

Besides the inner-dispersal loop, which only serves a small area downtown, Tulsa doesn't have a loop. The only places that are easy to get to in Tulsa by highway is Broken Arrow, Joplin and Oklahoma City.

Never mind what naysayers might say about taxes and toll roads and the like, cities are known and grow by the quality of infrastructure they have put in place. It takes money. Its a well known fact that the infrastructure of Tulsa is rapidly failing. The tax proposals in place to upgrade the streets in Tulsa has been determined by an independent auditor to be merely "regular street maintenance." No one, including me, likes taxes of any kind. I've been against nearly every tax increase ever - except when it involves roads or education.

We must build roads and fix the roads we have, every chance we get. This should be priority number one - even if they are toll roads.

To that end, tomorrow January 13, 2010 at the Tulsa County Chandler Park Community Building - 62nd West Avenue and 21st Street - there will be a public meeting to discuss plans for the Gilcrease West Expressway. The meeting starts at 5:45 pm and registration begins at 5:15.

The Gilcrease West Expressway proposal helps Tulsa get a missing part of an important loop in our highway system and Tulsa needs it. From the City of Tulsa website, Mayor Bartlett says this:

"The Gilcrease Expressway is an important and required priority for regional economic development in Tulsa, surrounding cities and Tulsa County, we're going to get it done."

This part of the loop will help fill in a portion of highway from the Tisdale Expressway through Sand Springs, and over the river, and eventually over to I-44 on the West Side. With current funding, it will take until 2052 to complete this project. That's really not acceptable, if you ask me. So some kind of funding facility will need to be put in place on top of the current funding.

This brings me to the bridge.

I've been told that plans are being made for a toll bridge across the Arkansas River. I'll be interested in hearing about that. If I understand correctly, a group of investors are already lined up to make a private toll bridge a reality. What won't work for South Tulsa may work very well for West Tulsa.

Linked here is a Tulsa World report that includes a map of what the loop may look like. Unfortunately, it looks like the perfect completion of a loop would be impossible, as a straight section would be missing from 244 through I-44 on the east. To build that idea would take serious fundage, and take out a swipe of residential/business areas between Memorial and Mingo.

On Snow Removal - but not by me.

Here's an example of another Tulsan being resilient during arctic weather.

Tulsa World's Wayne Green has a great blog entry titled Snow Removal is Social Engineering. It's the second entry down. I cannot see a way to link to individual entries. It was in part a criticism of Senator Inhofe's position that the stimulus money (except for road building) is being spent on "social engineering" (which is what I do to my child when I make him brush his teeth (sarcasm)). It turns out that Mr. Greene shares my love of sidewalks.

Here's an excerpt:

...If you build highways, you subsidize car ownership, encourage suburbanization and encourage air pollution, and that's just the first three ways that come to mind about why road building is social engineering. This all came to mind as I was walking to work last week after the blizzard and saw crews from the city scraping snow off the parallel parking places in front of Tulsa Community College. The snow ended up on the sidewalks.

Here's the ironic moment: TCC was closed (the school is always closed during the week between Christmas and New Year's Day). No one was going to park in those parking place.

But some people – me for example – were going to want to use those sidewalks.

A nearly bankrupt city was using money to encourage driving (that wasn't going to happen) and discourage walking....

I'll refer you to the entire blog. Please read.