Uninsured... What to Do?

It's February (almost), but I'm just now putting together a personal budget for 2009. The times, they are a'changin', and I want to be in a more secure financial position than my someone "spendiness" has often left me.

One of the things I was contemplating was renters' insurance. I'll still look into it next week, but we did have a devastating corporate wrinkle this week:

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State Farm Insurance withdrawing from Florida property market

1.2 million will be forced to find property insurance somewhere else. A hurricane? No. State Farm applied to hike its property insurance rates by 47% and Tallahassee turned them down.

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Sigh.

I was revisiting why in the heck I ever dropped my renter's insurance, which I'd obtained, like a good independent woman, when I got my first post-divorce apartment in 2004. Looking back, I stumbled across this entry I made for a couple of internet sites. It answered the question of why, gave me a good laugh in thinking about my second ramshackle single-girl abode, and came complete with one of the favorite poems I'd written. Here it is:

Uninsured, but I have untold wealth in family pictures...Jun 24 '06

OK, so I'm renting now. A small house, 2 bedroom, charming, 25 years old and a little the worse for wear. Yard is the worst in the neighborhood. Landlords (friends of mine, never rent from friends) are do-it-yourselfers. A small twist of wire will make the air conditioner work again, that decrepit old water heater will still work if we put a doohickey on it and turn the temperature down. That 60 foot dying tree...we'll cut it down one of these weekends, I'm sure we'll get to it before hurricane season.

As I begin my second year in my snug little nest, I've been billed a scandalous amount for renters insurance. The cost went up 300%. That's 300%. I could shop around, but I'm not a veteran and USAA is the only reasonably priced game in town. Everyone else feels the backlash of hurricanes, whether you own, whether you rent. I decided not to afford the insurance. My worldly possessions are more of comfort than expense.

I have located all of the boxes of photographs on the highest shelf....and they will be easy to load into the back seat of the car if I need to run for it. Many of the most precious have been scanned onto a share website, so I will never lose them, no matter what. And while I was at, it I recalled a poem from last year...

A Walk Through the Photographs

A task I dread and yet as I wander

Through the pictures of our lives

Now a birthday, now a trip to a place unknown…

Some unfocused, some duplicates

Some that make me laugh

Some that make me remember

What we all were, our family.

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I try not to take the best of moments for myself

As I go through the albums and boxes

The record of those years

Some happier than others

Some years of change

Some years of sorrow and loss

The memories, the days of our growth.

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I can’t help but smile and yearn

For the ability to travel through time

To recapture what once was and yet…

Some things are best left undone

Sometimes nothing seems to hold as much joy as

Some of what we all have now.

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And so, I spend a moment giving thanks.

For all that we experienced, for all that it meant

And still means…for the texture of those times

For the four of us and the four of us

Some still here and living life

Some just a fond memory

Some the very fiber of my existence

Now, and until the end of time.

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Photographs just don’t do it justice.

~ quidrock, 2005

That's Andrea and Tom, with Snuffy... 1992

BLOGTHING!!!!

I like this one. Join in.

You Remember 100% of 2008

You were paying attention during 2008. And you remember what happened really well. You'll be able to talk about 2008 for years to come... Even when most people have forgotten what went down.

How Much Do You Remember 2008?

Er ist ein Monster

Pope lifts excommunications of 4 bishops

Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre was a Catholic rebel. He denounced the mass implemented in Vatican II and continued to serve a Latin mass, and to lead a worldwide movement against the church's more modern dogma from Paul VI on. Dissent is not a welcome competency for Catholic officials.


Pope Benedict XVI has lifted the excommunications of four bishops consecrated without papal consent 20 years ago by the late French ultraconservative Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, the Vatican announced Saturday. (They were excommunicated along with Lefebvre himself, in 1988; note that the long-dead Lefebvre was not included in this forgiveness... he not only consecrated these 4 but led a group known as the Society of Saint Pius X to split from Rome...something I predict will happen with the American Catholic Church if Benedict is Pope for long.)

Bernard Fellay, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, Alfonso de Galarreta and Richard Williamson are the 4 in question. Of them, Williamson, British-born, is controversial (perhaps abhorrent is a better word)for his views on the Holocaust. Bishop Williamson denies that six million Jews were deliberately slaughtered during the Holocaust and has embraced the infamous anti-Semitic forgery "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" as fact. In Sweden this week, Williamson strengthened this point of view by saying "I believe there were no gas chambers" and only up to 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps, instead of six million ...


It is unlikely that Benedict... John Paul's own personal "Darth Vader", who never should have been proclaimed Pope, was unaware of Williamson's position (Benedict is German, himself, and joined Hitler youth, but it has been proven that he did so against his will, and that he and his family rebelled against the Nazi regime, with Benedict even deserting from the military). Benedict doesn't really care, in my opinion...his proclamations in the last 4 years have created strains between the Catholic church and the Orthodox church, Protestants, Islam, and the Jewish faith. He even declined to see the Dalai Lama, spurning Buddhism.

It's with deep shame that I watch this man (who advocates strongly against the use of condoms) bring a Nazi sentimentalist back into the fold of the church. Don't think that he'll bow to world pressure to repudiate the act, either. He doesn't mind the shock and outcry from Jews the world over.

Have a little taste of the anti-Semite, Williamson's politics, below. A bigot.



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A Good Laugh

Thanks to Andrew Sullivan's blog for this snippet from the Ellen show. Believe me, it will make you smile...even laugh out loud. We all need a little Gladys from time to time.

quid

Biden, Biden, Biden

Early pundits on the VP and what could be a gaffe filled veep career... love the Darth Vader contrasts!

What A Day!

Praise song for the day.

~Elizabeth Alexander, 1/20/2009, Obama Inaguration.

Each day we go about our business, walking past each other, catching each others’ eyes or not, about to speak or speaking. All about us is noise. All about us is noise and bramble, thorn and din, each one of our ancestors on our tongues. Someone is stitching up a hem, darning a hole in a uniform, patching a tire, repairing the things in need of repair.

Someone is trying to make music somewhere with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.

A woman and her son wait for the bus.

A farmer considers the changing sky; A teacher says, “Take out your pencils. Begin."

We encounter each other in words, Words spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed; Words to consider, reconsider.

We cross dirt roads and highways that mark the will of someone and then others who said, “I need to see what’s on the other side; I know there’s something better down the road.”

We need to find a place where we are safe; We walk into that which we cannot yet see.

Say it plain, that many have died for this day. Sing the names of the dead who brought us here, who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges, picked the cotton and the lettuce, built brick by brick the glittering edifices they would then keep clean and work inside of.

Praise song for struggle; praise song for the day. Praise song for every hand-lettered sign; The figuring it out at kitchen tables.

Some live by “Love thy neighbor as thy self.”

Others by "first do no harm," or "take no more than you need."

What if the mightiest word is love, love beyond marital, filial, national. Love that casts a widening pool of light. Love with no need to preempt grievance.

In today’s sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun.

On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp -- praise song for walking forward in that light.

Lynne's notes: Although I would have laid this out in the more traditional lines of verse, I love Alexander's poem for its simplicity and its ability to recognize a great day in the eyes of the ordinary.
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Martin Luther King Day 2009

"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men." ~~ Martin Luther King

One wonders how much better a place this world would have been if Martin Luther King had gone on living.

We celebrate his birthday today, but more than that, we remember his spirit. His tombstone, pictured above, is a reminder that many young men die too soon for a cause. MLK died fighting for his own cause, leading and championing his way of life. I only wish that the same could be said for the more than 4,200 soldiers who have died in the War in Iraq. They went there to fight for a false cause. And even more critical is the fact that nearly 31,000 of their comrades have been wounded and sent back home, never to be the same.

In the wake of the events of this last week, I look at MLK's quote about misguided men above. And I conclude that this country is ready to be led by men and women who are not misguided. I hope for a less divisive political landscape in the years ahead, and I hope the errors of the new administration; and I expect that they will make them; will be few and far between, and that we can heal this land of ours.

A Good Blogthing to Start the Year

Your Word is "Think"

You see life as an amazing mix of possibilities, ideas, and fascinations. And sometimes you feel like you don't have enough time to take it all in. You love learning. Whether you're in school or not, you're probably immersed in several subjects right now. When you're not learning, you're busy reflecting. You think a lot about the people you know and the things you've experienced.

What's Your Word?

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Quote about my ongoing quest in 2009:

"If you really want something in life you have to work for it. Now quiet, they're about to announce the lottery numbers. "
Homer Simpson

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GONE!!!!

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HURRAY!!!!

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All my wishes come true.

"Confidence is what you have before you understand the problem. " --Woody Allen

"American professional athletes are bilingual: they speak English and profanity. " --Anonymous

"Men occasionally stumble on the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened." --Sir Winston Churchill

"An epitaph is a belated advertisement for a line of goods that have been permanently discontinued." -- Irvin S. Cobb

"Never vote for the best candidate, vote for the one who will do the least harm. " -- Frank Dane

"Men are what their mothers made them." --Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sportsperson of the Year - 2008

Was There Ever Any Doubt?

Phelps.... he thrilled and amazed us all.

Person of the Year - 2008

"O"

As redundant as it might be, I have to nominate, for my personal "Person of the Year", the same man who was my "Person of the Year" for 2007.



It will come as no surprise. Time magazine agreed with me, this year, however.



Quoting from the Quid 360 blog, last year at this time, seems to be the smartest thing to do. There is little more that is left to be said, other than Obama seemed to have filled the expectations I had for him and surpassed them all.....




Person of the Year...................Entry for January 02, 2008 and January 16, 2009:

A reviewer of Republican persuasion said of Obama: "I respect and admire him as a thoughtful and eloquent American with a compelling story."


That is why I believe him to be the "person of the year 2007"....he uplifts others, he speaks from his heart, he believes in his vision with passion, he states it eloquently. There is little artifice. There is much to be admired. He is perhaps untested; he may not have the experience in federal government or on the world stage that is thought to be a prerequisite for the highest office in the land.


When all is said and done, Obama may fade away and become yesterday's news. And even if he does, what he accomplished on the national stage in 2007 is more than did any other single contributor. And when his year and this election fade away, Obama's words about what needs to be made right (not what is wrong) in America today, from Audacity, will linger:


"We say we value the legacy we leave the next generation, and then saddle that generation with mountains of debt. We say we believe in equal opportunity but then stand idle while millions of American children languish in poverty. We insist that we value family, but then structure our economy and organize our lives so as to ensure that our families get less and less of our time."


We've been doing these kinds of things for years, for decades...we are our own worst enemies. Electable or not, I cherish Barack Obama for giving us a wake up call in 2007.



And perhaps those 5 or 6 great speeches in 2008, perhaps that victory against the odds and Hilary, perhaps that truly amazing cabinet will all be for naught in the face of the limitless obstacles he (and we) face. But for right now, for 2008, Barack Obama is definitively the Person of the Year.

Guantanamo -- Our Dachau???

This morning in a discussion with a friend of mine, we mutually agreed that if the crimes we have committed at Guantanamo were to go unpunished; to be pushed under the rug of the crisis in our economy over the next year or two; that we both did not know how we could live with ourselves.

I am reminded that this is the 7th anniversary (since January 11, 2002) of our momentus decision to "host" prisoners that were ostensibly "captured enemy combatants", deprived of the Geneva Convention, who could be held without communication or trial. About 770 detainees, that we know of, have been housed at Guantanamo since that date - nearly 500 have been released. McClatchy papers, who were allowed to interview 66 detainees, developed an opinion that 89% of those once held there had no ties at all to the Taliban. I give you the pictures that shocked the world at their arrival, above, along with my personal talisman photo, to never forget Guantanamo, the hand in the fence, above.

Marking today's dubious "anniversary", Andy Worthington posts this on his Huff post blog:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-worthington/seven-years-of-guantanamo_b_156903.html

From my Yahoo blog on this topic, on June 22,2007, I repeat my own somber take on what I consider to be the United States' greatest societal/military blunder in the name of war, since the WWII Japanese internment camps:

"A stench of despair hangs over Guantanamo," Mark Denbeaux, a lawyer, said

In 1975, I visited Dachau, a concentration camp/memorial to the Holocaust in a sleepy suburb of modern-day Munich. Germany has no choice but to expose its conscience to the world and with Dachau...it is within its borders. Nothing of the sort will be done with Guantanamo, the US "prison" that is a global mark of shame beyond our borders. Talk in these last two years from the administration made me think they would shut it down, with ample time before Bush is ousted to try to deep six the facilities, destroy the evidence and obliterate anything that would allow the world to point the finger at Bush and cronies, after they no longer control the horizontal and vertical. That didn't happen.

But maybe that's just the cynic in me. Rather than post the news, I post information about something nearly as strong as the physical evidence that WILL survive Bush. The prisoners' poetry - it will carry the unflinching words (possibly lost, somewhat, in translation) that will tell the story to American scholars who will pierce our shame and bring it into the light someday:

DETAINEES’ POEMS By NAFEESA SYEED, Associated Press Writer
DES MOINES, Iowa - The story behind a book of poetry written by Guantanamo detainees could be as compelling as the poems themselves. Prisoners, denied pens and paper, wrote some of the poems by scratching verses onto foam cups with pebbles. Other poems were translated into English by linguists with security clearances but no literary credentials.
"It was a long and draining project," said Marc Falkoff, a law professor who represents 18 detainees.
The University of Iowa Press will release "Poems From Guantanamo: The Detainees Speak" on Aug. 15. The volume, featuring 22 poems by 17 detainees, will be only the second English-language book written by Guantanamo prisoners. The only other book written in English is "Enemy Combatant: A British Muslim's Journey to Guantanamo and Back," by Moazzam Begg, a Briton who was detained for two years before being released in 2005 and whose verse is also included in the upcoming compilation.
The compilation emanated from letters written by prisoners to Falkoff, a law professor at Northern Illinois University who represents one Pakistani and 17 Yemeni detainees. Last year, he received a letter written in verse, prompting him to check with other lawyers and discover that many Guantanamo prisoners were writing poetry.
Falkoff, a former literature professor, hoped that publishing the poetry would provide a fuller understanding of the inmates. But first the work had to endure a gauntlet of government censors, who wouldn't release much of the work. Attorneys initially sent poems written in their original Arabic and Pashtu to a center near Washington, D.C., where translators with security clearances produced English versions. Government officials then determined whether the poems could be released, in either their original or translated versions.
Falkoff said detainees, some of whom have been in custody for five years without a court hearing, turned to poetry as an outlet to express their frustration and yearning. For many, it was a way to persevere.
"None of these poems were written with the expectation that they would be read perhaps beyond a small circle of their fellow prisoners," he said. "Some of the poems are exceptional, absolutely stunning; some are more pedestrian."
Joseph Parsons, acquisitions editor for the University of Iowa Press, heard about the poems and approached Falkoff about publishing the work.
"Because it's such a salient topic, a current event, we all felt the sooner we could get it out the better," Parsons said.
Parsons plans to market the book widely at commercial and academic bookstores. Falkoff's royalties will go to the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York. None of the poets will earn money from the book.

http://www.amazon.com/Poems-Guantanamo-Detainees-Ariel-Dorfman/dp/1587296063/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231706164&sr=1-1

In my sadness, I'm reminded of a favorite famous poem by William Stafford:

A Ritual....
If you don't know the kind of person I am
and I don't know the kind of person you are
a pattern that others made may prevail in the world
and following the wrong god home we may miss our star
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For there is many a small betrayal in the mind
a shrug that lets the fragile sequence break
sending with shouts the horrible errors of childhood
storming out to play through the broken dyke
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And as elephants parade holding each elephant's tail,
but if one wanders the circus won't find the park,
I call it cruel and maybe the root of all cruelty
to know what occurs but not recognize the fact
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And so I appeal to a voice, to something shadowy,
a remote important region in all who talk:
though we could fool each other, we should consider--
lest the parade of our mutual life get lost in the dark.
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For it is important that awake people be awake,
or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep,
the signals we give -- yes or no, or maybe--
should be clear: the darkness around us is deep.

The darkness around us has been deep. I pray that we bring this into the light, so that it may never happen in America again.

9 Days

There are only 9 days left of the Bush Administration.

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For most of it, I've felt the same way as the baby does, above.

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For sheer comic relief though, I will miss him. There are moments in this video, below, where he even appears (gulp) cute. Not a positive attribute in a Prez. Still. Enjoy.

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"A clever man commits no minor blunders. " --Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

OLC - Larger than life

The OLC, the federal Office of Legal Counsel has played a big role behind the scenes in the Bush constellation; more so than any other office in terms of impact. I've been reading and have been impressed by the positions taken, the top form rhetoric, and the blunt integrity of the newly named OLC chief to be, Dawn Johnsen. The "Notes From a Burning House" blog, featured Greenwald's article about her position on torture and the American stance on it... I had read it earlier, and here is the same link that Algernon used.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/01/05/olc/

And just what is Johnsen passionate about? Her words:

"whenever any government or people act lawlessly, on whatever scale, questions of atonement and remedy and prevention must be confronted. And fundamental to any meaningful answer is transparency about the wrong committed. . . ."

Not a lot of people know about John Yoo, but he is featured in the most recent biography of Dick Cheney. Yoo was of counsel at the OLC, and was utilized to write neocom treatises of "the law" that allowed Cheney and his own counsel, David Addington (think Darth Vader) to promote the use of torture to the President. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who knew nothing about this area of the law, went along for the ride.

That's Yoo, above. And featured, from his now famous (infamous?) "torture memoes" are his words:

"If a government defendant were to harm an enemy combatant during an interrogation in a manner that might arguably violate a criminal prohibition, he would be doing so in order to prevent further attacks on the United States by the al Qaeda terrorist network. In that case, we believe that he could argue that the executive branch's constitutional authority to protect the nation from attack justified his actions."

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The memo concludes......" that foreign enemy combatants held overseas do not have defendants' rights or protections from cruel and unusual punishment that U.S. citizens have under the Constitution. It also says that Congress 'cannot interfere with the president's exercise of his authority as commander in chief to control the conduct of operations during a war."

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And thus the simple concepts, torture is OK, in times of war, the executive branch has imperial powers. John Yoo. Tool of Cheney and Addington. Absolutely heinous. Most people want to be remembered for the words they wrote in their lifetimes. Yoo will spend a lifetime living them down.

There is entirely not enough poetry.....

in the world, or on this blog. Resolved: That in 2009, I will share, at least weekly, some of the poetry I love (or wrote) on this venue.

This is a curious poem; I wrote it about a friend of mine, who was entirely too invested in a relationship that, to the outside world, was going nowhere. I don't think I've published it anywhere before...not on Pearlsoup, not anywhere, methinks.

In re-reading it now, I can feel parts of me in the poem.....

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Your Small Seductions


She’ll not be a pawn for your truth,
Nor follow you blindly or silently.
She’ll not sacrifice self for love
Or give away name or integrity.

But she is prey for your small seductions
Glances melting,
Touches burning,
Casual endearments,
Pursuing to the point of being pursued.
Sharing thoughts but holding back
From shared experience.

What is the game and when will it end?
When will you set her free with the truth of your
Intentions, your ego, your state of mind?
Can you live without her, or love with her?

Such is her nature
That she is too afraid to ask,
Too proud to admit that
She may not be able to survive the truth.

~quidrock 2005

My Best Books of 2008

Usually my list of books (and the one on movies) makes some obscure listing in Epinions or a list on Amazon. Having enjoyed Bob's piece on what he read this year that were at the top of his list, I decided to publish here. The books on this list were either released in 2008, or late in 2007:

1. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson.

New English translation of a Swedish best seller; a journalistic thriller about power and corruption that was “unputdownable”. Larsson died in 2004, leaving this and two other manuscripts. He’s got a genius for drawing people in, and the plot was taught, thrilling, and surprising in it’s treatment of sexuality. Although the rest of my list is not necessarily in my order of preference, this was clearly my number one novel of 2008.


2. The Condition by Jennifer Haigh.

This was a complex book about family relationships and redemption, set in New England. Memorable characters are compelling, and a return to form by an author who created a memorable debut a few years ago with “Mrs. Kimble”.

3. Angler: The Story of the Dick Cheney Vice Presidency, by Barton Gellman.

Gellman and his writing partner from the Washington Post won a Pulitzer Prize for their series on Dick Cheney. That led to more research, and eventually this tome of the Cheney Vice Presidency, on the eve of its demise. The account is mesmerizing, bringing the intuition that Cheney was behind most of this President’s white house decision making into reality, and showing how he was able to do so, while still maintaining his own secretiveness and low profile. There are some relatively shocking things that come to light, all made more real by the recent interview of Cheney on ABC, where he admitted that he played a key role in torture, including waterboarding; and that he thought it was “appropriate”. He also espouses the recommendation that Obama should keep Guantanamo Bay open and that “it has been very well run”. My Word. He doesn’t even hide in plain sight.


4. The People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks.

In the manner of “The Da Vinci Code”, Brooks, one of our finest fiction writers today keeps the reader moving between modern day Europe and a variety of historical situations where an ancient, valuable Hebrew Haggadah (sometimes known as the Sarajevo Haggadah) made an appearance, and was somehow touched or modified by a tragedy of that century. These alternating chapters illustrate how the prejudice and hatred of centuries passed are sometimes repeated in today’s world of conflict.


5. The Given Day, by Dennis Lehane.

A gifted author of “Mystic River” and the Kenzie Gennaro novels turns to historical fiction and paints a rich portrait of historic Boston and its police union. While I hate that Lehane has given up thrillers, this book was consuming and rich in writing style and plot.

6. JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters by James W. Douglass.

Conspiracy resurrected by the release of new material from Washington, this book brings new insight to the forces arrayed against JFK. Brilliant and insightful writing.

7. On Chesil Beach, by Ian McEwen.

Although it was written in 2007, I didn’t pull it from the stack on my nightstand until early this year. It still haunts me. Heartbreaking tale of lost love and dashed expectations, this is a beautiful, short read that will stay with you a long time. One caution; too overtly sexual for some.

8. Child 44, by Tom Rob Smith.

Terrifying first novel about the hunt for a serial killer in Cold War Russia. There are some brutal features in this book, but the ending was telegraphed a little too soon. Well written, with a twist.

9. Brass Verdict, by Michael Connelly.

Without a doubt, in the world of murder mysteries, despite Coben, despite Crais, my favorite author is Michael Connelly. Connelly brings back Mickey Haller, the rogue criminal attorney from his “The Lincoln Lawyer” (and then I had to reread that, too!) and pairs him with long-time protagonist cop Harry Bosch; for Bosch’s 15th outing. Can’t break this habit…Connelly is just too good.

10. The Last Lecture, by Randy Pausch.

Professor Pausch’s book of hope and inspiration as he fights terminal cancer doesn’t focus on the disease, but on living life with humor and generosity, and how they work to help you realize you may have reached some of the richest of your childhood dreams.