How Do Supreme Court Justices Determine Someone's Sincerity?

The Supreme Court justices were asking questions in a  case where a condemned man wants to have his pastor pray for him and touch him while he's dying.  The lower court sided with Texas, so if the Supreme Court had done nothing, he wouldn't have been allowed to have these last contacts with his pastor. 

 The AP story reported by Jessica Gresko said they're asking questions like:

“What’s going to happen when the next prisoner says that I have a religious belief that he should touch my knee. He should hold my hand. He should put his hand over my heart. He should be able to put his hand on my head. We’re going to have to go through the whole human anatomy with a series of cases,” Justice Samuel Alito said.

Yeah, this claiming religious privilege could get out of hand. This claiming religious privilege could get out of hand.  Why, a baker might refuse to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple because it goes against his strongly held religious beliefs.  What's the difference between a religious belief and a personal prejudice?  After all, Southerners claimed the Bible supported slavery.  What if people believe that Jews killed Jesus (something I've been told on more than one occasion), do they have the right to impose the death penalty?

"Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh also expressed concerns about what a ruling for the inmate would mean for requests in the future, with Kavanaugh asking whether all states would have to offer equivalent accommodations.

What if, he asked, one state “allows bread and wine in the execution room right before the execution” or allows the minister to “hug the inmate.” Do other states have to do the same?"

I get that this question deals with setting precedents. Why are they so worried about some decency for a dying man? But maybe they should look at all claims to do or not do something based on a religious right. 

"Arguing for Texas, state Solicitor General Judd Stone II also told the justices that Ramirez’s request is just an attempt to delay his execution. Justice Clarence Thomas seemed to agree, asking what the justices should do if they believe Ramirez has “changed his requests a number of times” and “filed last minute complaints” and “if we assume that’s some indication of gaming the system.'”

'He [the prosecutor] also said it’s hard to know how a spiritual adviser might react during that time. That person could faint or stumble and jostle the IV lines, he said. “Anything going wrong here would be catastrophic,” he said.'

Really?  More catastrophic to whom?  Certainly not the person being put to death. 

Think about this.  Five of the Supreme Court Justices are Catholics and one more was raised Catholic.  All but one is strongly anti-abortion, but they have much less problem with the death penalty. It's good they are not bound to the Pope's position on everything.  The AP article says they've been less interested lately in staying executions, except when there's a religious aspect. 

The Court has already defined 'religion' pretty broadly.  From the Free Dictionary Legal Dictionary

"To determine whether an action of the federal or state government infringes upon a person's right to freedom of religion, the court must decide what qualifies as religion or religious activities for purposes of the First Amendment. The Supreme Court has interpreted religion to mean a sincere and meaningful belief that occupies in the life of its possessor a place parallel to the place held by God in the lives of other persons. The religion or religious concept need not include belief in the existence of God or a supreme being to be within the scope of the First Amendment."

This puts a burden on the Justices to determine if a belief is sincere.  That's hard to do in any event, but the Justices never see or hear the actual person whose case is before them.  This is, in fact, moving from interpreting the law to discerning a person's sincerity.   How do you interpret someone's deeply held beliefs in the first place.

? And  for those who belong to established religions how do you determine if someone actually believes the institution's doctrines or not?  Surely we have seen examples of, say, anti-abortion voting politicians who arranged abortions for their pregnant mistresses.  For a dying man, I say, risk being wrong and let him have his last request.  So what if he turns out to be gaming the system?  He's going to die.  

Most Western,  actually most,  countries have abolished the death penalty.  But our conservative Supreme Court justices seem to have no heart.  They're hung up on the myth of all people can be rich if they just put their minds and backs into working hard.  And punishment takes precedence over empathy and kindness.  So, they have to ascertain the difference between a legitimate religious belief or being gamed by a condemned man.  

Goodbye Rafer Johnson

One more hero in my life moves on.  The picture below was taken two and a half years before I'd enter UCLA as a freshman.  The legacy of Johnson and C.K. Yang and their great sportsmanship (Is there a non-sexist term?) was one of many attractions UCLA held.  At that time, California students who graduated in the top 12.5% of their high school class, were automatically admitted.  Tuition my first semester was something like $68.  And we lived a 30 minute bike ride from campus so my parents were pleased they wouldn't have to pay room and board.  

From LA Times

The Photo Description:  "Rafer Johnson puts on a weightlifting demonstration for Boy Scouts at UCLA in July 1960 as his track teammate C.K. Yang kneels and smiles.  A little more than a month later, Johnson would edge Yang for the decathlon gold medal at the Rome Olympics."

From LA Times:

"He was something special at UCLA

‘Greatest of all Bruins,’ Johnson remained a regular at many events.

By Ben Bolch

Sixty years after he edged a UCLA training partner on weary legs in one of the most dramatic finishes in Olympic history, Rafer Johnson ’s presence continued to blaze on campus like an inextinguishable flame.

He was a regular at track meets and basketball games and gymnastics meets even as his health declined, always graciously accepting requests to pose for photos with anyone who asked. He was also a confidant to longtime athletic director Dan Guerrero, serving as a special advisor who offered wisdom and guidance that no pricey consultant could match.

Johnson’s legacy as a decathlon champion and humanitarian, not to mention his trusted friendship, made it especially meaningful for Guerrero to be part of dedicating the Betsy and Rafer Johnson Track last year at UCLA’s Drake Stadium.

“It’s not a stretch for me to say that Rafer was the greatest of all Bruins,” Guerrero said Wednesday upon learning of Johnson’s death at his home in Sherman Oaks at age 86.

“When you think about it, apart from his athletic prowess, which placed him in history among the most heralded of all athletes, he passionately and selflessly and humbly dedicated his life to better people and our society whether it was through his work with Special Olympics, mentoring young students or his commitment to civil rights. He was a giant, there was no question about that, and while this description is probably thrown around rather capriciously, in this case it’s true. . ."

 Here's a second article they have titled:  Appreciation: Rafer Johnson was more than a great athlete; he was a great man

And if you can't get into the LA Times, here's the Wikipedia entry on Rafer Johnson.

*I'd note that Wikipedia says that C.K. Yang died January 20, 2007 at age 73 in Los Angeles.  

Anchorage Is Close To A COVID-19 Cliff

I've been tryin to keep my COVID-19 posts in separate place from my normal blog posts.  But things are getting worse fast, so here's today's update.  We're about to go off into significantly faster spread.  We already have, but it could get even worse.  And hospital beds could get scarce, not only for COVID-19 patients, but for everyone else.  We need some serious isolation but it appears our governor is following Trump's lead.   The table with all the numbers are in the COVID-19 tab just below the orange blog header above.  Here's a direct link.

Thursday, October 29, 2020 - Sit down.  6 new deaths.  That matches the highest death count on Sept 25.  We've had nine deaths in the last three days.  There were 12 new hospitalizations.  With yesterday's 13, that's 25 in two days.  34 in the last three days.

There were 359/349* new resident cases and our current total cases is 14,456.  That total increased by 3600 cases since last Thursday!  It took us 5 months (March-August 8) to get our first 3600 total cases.

There are 7932** active resident cases now in Alaska. Plus 412 non-resident active cases.  

There were about 3700 new tests reported today and our Test Positivity jumped to 8.1.  (We skipped 7 altogether.)   

There are 67 COVID-19 patients in hospitals plus another 22 suspected COVID-19 patients in hospitals.  We're down to 27 available ICU beds.   This is not a good time to have any kind of emergency health problem requiring an ICU in Alaska.  At this rate we're a week or two away from no available ICU beds unless they can set up some new ones.  The overflow hospital set up at the Alaska Center early on is now closed, though I suspect it still could be reopened.  (I have a call into UAA Public Relations office and will update this if I get something more definite.)

The sun just came out.  Take solace in such simple pleasures.  

*I determine new cases by subtracting yesterday's total cases from today's.  The State's dashboard often has numbers that are slightly different because they are constantly updating and correcting (say, moving a report to a different day or from non-resident to resident, etc.).  So I report the daily new resident cases with two numbers:  mine/State's.  

**I should emphasize that these are 'reported' cases.  Active case totals are a bit sketchy because they have to subtract recovered cases and those reports seem to be a lower priority.  If people don't self report the State has to track them down.  So take this number with a grain of salt.  It's a ballpark figure  

Bev Beeton, I'm Glad I Got To Know You

 The Anchorage Daily News has an obituary for Beverly Beeton this week.  

I was a faculty member at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) when Dr. Beeton became Provost.  She was a formidable presence.  My description of her at the time was something like this:

"I've never seen her wearing less than $1000, and she speaks like Katherine Hepburn.  Does anybody speak like that naturally?"

My sense was that Dr. Beeton had a one hell of a facade, one that had been carefully developed.  I made a goal of finding the human being behind that facade.  It wasn't a high priority, more like a curiousness.  

One day the opportunity came.  I was chosen to chair the committee that nominated the people who would get honorary degrees.  And Dr. Beeton, as Provost, oversaw that committee.  She invited me out to lunch to talk about how the committee would work.  

A couple of years before that (my dates are a little fuzzy, but it was close to that time) I had gotten a grant to create a class that would focus on women in public administration.  The proposal was to get five prominent women public administrators and give them the freedom to design a class to "pass on the wisdom of women administrators."  We had three women who had been state commissioners, one Native Alaskan woman leader, and a Superior Court judge (who eventually would become an Alaska Supreme Court Chief Justice.)  They were given the freedom to design the class and Arlene Kuhner, an incredible English professor, and I would figure out the mechanics of making it work.  

The structure they gave us was a panel of women administrators each week addressing a different topic with lots of time for Q&A. They invited the women administrators and set up the subject, Arlene and I took care of all the academic work, though the five women, if I recall right, got to see some of the work the students did.   It was a great class and I learned a lot.  I recall one of my students, a man from China, telling me afterwards how impressed he was that all these women were so smart and capable and how it made him realize how China was wasting so half its human resources by not giving women equal access to important positions.  

So, at the lunch,  after discussing the committee work, I mentioned the class and how it had been run as a lead in to this question:  "You're the most senior woman administrator at the university (this was before we had any women Chancellors).  You must feel somewhat isolated."  The ice was broken and from then on we had an entirely different relationship.  We talked about that isolation, about the problems of sex discrimination, and lots of other administrative issues.  

I remember one time she told me that she wanted to set up a more objective evaluation system where administrators and faculty would have to develop measurable outcomes.  That was something I had my graduate students do for their jobs in one of my classes.  But I always told my students that it was useful for them to do for their own jobs, but it was impossible to do really well. And it was easy to misuse the results of such measurements.  Especially if someone just focused on the numbers and not the context of the numbers.  There are just too many important, but hard to measure aspects of their jobs. 

My response to Bev (by then she was Bev to me) was that it was a difficult but interesting exercise and suggested that she set up an example of how to do it for her own job as Provost.  Her response was, "My job is just too variable and complex to be able to do that."  My response was, "That's what every other administrator and faculty member will say.  If you can't do it for your own job, then it doesn't seem fair to ask others to do it."  I never heard about that project again.  

But this started out being about getting past the facade and learning about the real human being inside.  After our first lunch and the committee meetings that followed, I was in her office for something and mentioned that my daughter, a Steller Alternative School student at the time, was taking a spring break hiking class in Utah.  I had resisted at first.  Why do Alaskan students need to go to Utah to go hiking?  Well, she countered, we're going to learn about Utah too.  I asked a colleague of mine who was from Utah for an assignment for her.  He suggested she read Wallace Stegner's Mormon Country.  She agreed she would. 

When I explained this to Bev, she really opened up.  She'd grown up in rural Utah in a not particularly academic setting.  She felt very much like she didn't belong there.  She really wanted to get out of Utah, as far away as possible.  She was even a fashion model in New York, I think, for a while - which began to explain her very un-Alaskan high style way of dressing.  She got herself through school.  But essentially became as different a person as she could.  And once I got past that facade, I got to meet a very warm, accomplished, and charming woman.  

We didn't become the kind of friends who see each other out of work  - though I did run into her once on a garden tour.  We didn't have a lot of opportunities to talk about non-university issues.  I only learned from the obituary, for example, that she'd been married twice and had children but we were allies of a sort who liked each other at the University.  

One other observation.  Bev was a smoker.  When the university banned smoking indoors, small knots of people could be seen huddled outdoors in the dead of winter, smoking.  It created a cohort group of people from various parts of the university hierarchy who had smoking in common.  Their basic connection was that they were smokers, but they got to develop other things they had in common as well.  

I haven't seen Bev in years, but my world is poorer knowing she is no longer with us.  

This wandered a bit.  It's memories, not an academic paper.  It is a reminder that there is a human being inside all the people around you.  A person who is hidden behind whatever facade they've intentionally or unintentionally formed.  Try to talk to the human being - especially in these days of high conflict - instead of just to the facade.  

Ripples And Waves Of George Floyd's Murder

I read this in yesterday's Los Angeles Times:

"With its soaring arches, international flags and globe-topped tower, the Von KleinSmid Center for International and Public Affairs is one of the most prominent buildings at USC. Its namesake, the late Rufus B. von KleinSmid, has held a place of distinction as the university’s fifth president.
But on Thursday, USC announced it had stripped Von KleinSmid’s name from the building as the university at last reconciled with his disturbing leadership role in California’s eugenics movement.
The scholar, who is credited with expanding the university’s academic programs and international relations curriculum as president from 1921 to 1947, believed that people with “defects” had no ethical right to parenthood and should be sterilized. His “Human Betterment Foundation” was instrumental in supporting the 1909 California legislation that authorized the forced sterilization of those deemed “unfit” — essentially anyone nonwhite, said Alexandra Minna Stern, a University of Michigan history professor and expert on eugenics.
His active support of eugenics is “at direct odds” with the university’s multicultural community and mission of diversity and inclusion, President Carol L. Folt announced.
“This moment is our Call to Action, a call to confront anti-Blackness and systemic racism, and unite as a diverse, equal, and inclusive university,” Folt wrote. 'You have asked for actions, not rhetoric, and actions, now.'”

This name removal has special meaning to me because I spent seven years as a graduate student in this building.  I never spent much time thinking about who Von KleinSmid was and I certainly didn't know about his role in the eugenics movement in California.  

And it makes me think of my days as a UCLA undergraduate when I actually did think about the names that were put on buildings.  A new basketball arena was built on campus in the years the Bruins were first winning national championships.  Although the obvious name for that arena was Wooden Pavilion, it was named after an oil company owner who donated money.  That started me thinking about the names on all the buildings.  I didn't necessarily want to change them.  I just wanted to put up big plaques that detailed how the building's namesake had earned the money that he'd used to buy his rich man's name carved onto the building.  

The USC building name change is but one result of George Floyd's death.  The renaming of the Southern military bases has gotten much more attention along with the pulling down of statues of people of dubious honor.  I think my plaque idea still has merit.  By simply tearing down a statue or erasing a name, we lose the opportunity for a lasting history lesson about power and ideology and how eventually both of those change.  Von KleinSmid's name should no longer be honored on this building, but the history of how it got there and why it was removed should be prominently displayed on a plaque on the building.  So that people can start wondering who among the prominent people of the current day have pasts that their money is able to cover up.  

And that statues that are being torn down should be put into appropriate museums so the history of the wrongs done by the people they were originally supposed to honor can be told.  It's important for people to see how prominent people of one age are often prominent because those in power could hide their misdeeds.  

But I'd also like to point out a phrase that's been used too often in the media lately:  "...sparked by the death of George Floyd."  

George Floyd's death was the place where the fire was ignited this time.  But the firewood of racism, sexism, and injustice is littered across the country, around the world.  Police kill about 1000 people a year for the last five years.  Blacks make up a larger proportion of those deaths than they do of the population.  But more whites are killed, so this isn't just a black issue.  In any case, Floyd's death alone would not have gotten so many people out in the streets.  His was just the last straw.  A death among many, but one that was egregious and captured on video. And without the video taken by a 17 year old young woman, the reaction wouldn't have been the same.  And if we hadn't been in a pandemic with most people cooped up at home for the previous month, and laid off or otherwise free from work obligations, the mass protests surely wouldn't have had so many people, nor lasted so long.  These demonstrations are the result of hundreds of years of injustice and cruelty.  The successes of the MeToo movement showed people that the powerful can, sometimes, be overthrown.   There have been outbreaks of outrage before that have been put out.  This outbreak is simply the largest by far.

But will we get more substantive change than just the toppling of a few statues and the changing of names on buildings?  Will the institutional structures that have reinforced racism - the red lining, that kept blacks in poor neighborhoods and kept the value of their houses low;  the poor schooling in those neighborhoods that kept blacks less educated and less likely to get into and succeed in college;  the lack of jobs in those neighborhoods;  the lack of jobs for blacks outside those neighborhoods due to poor schooling and movie and television reinforced images of blacks and Hispanics as dangerous criminals; and racist police and judicial treatment of blacks for all those reasons?  Will these things change?  

Not all at once, but there's going to be a big shift.  

Blogger note:  I'd love to add a picture to this.  I'm sure somewhere I must have a picture of former  the Von KleinSmid Center hidden away among my slides.  It is definitely a distinctive architectural statement, though a bit odd.  If I can find one easily in my stuff, I'll add it later.

Memorial Day Comments Follow Up [UPDATED]

Oliver left this message on my Memorial Day Covid Count post in which I questioned the extreme level of honor we give to all military and veterans:

"Or do we reserve such days to glorify those who are sent off to kill people overseas?
The United Nations General Assembly designated January 27—the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau—as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. I would wager that some people are very thankful for those who went overseas rather than disparage them. My dad was one of those people and I am dam proud of him."

I started a response comment, but felt it should be more than just a comment, that it deserved a post of its own.  Here it is:


Oliver, I understand that there have been situations where taking up arms was a necessary form of self protection. My paternal grandparents died in a Nazi concentration camp, possibly Auschwitz, so I understand that argument and thank your father for fighting Nazi Germany.   My father and step-father both served in the US military during WW II after fleeing Nazi Germany.

 But let's be clear. The US did not go into WW II to liberate concentration camp victims. The State Department consciously restricted visas for Jews fleeing the Nazis. The British and US military passed on disrupting concentration camp infrastructure during the war. The US public opposed joining the war in Europe and it took Pearl Harbor to change that opinion.

WW II ended almost 75 years ago! What good wars would you like to cite since then? What about the various countries in which the US is killing soldiers and civilians right now?

There are legitimate reasons to go to war. But there are few legitimate reasons to start wars. My point here was not to dis-honor veterans, but rather to point out that our adulation of them is way out of proportion.

Soldiers are victims of what Eisenhower - the hero of WW II - called the military-industrial complex back in the 1950s. Nine percent of US homeless today are veterans. We go to war because it serves the war industry.

 By elevating soldiers as the greatest possible heroes, we make it easier to lure 18 year olds into joining the military. Poverty is another structural way to recruit soldiers. And let's not forget all the well-paid mercenaries the US uses now. We haven't started building monuments to them yet.

The nationalism that accompanies this adulation (American flags are as important to Memorial Day as Christmas trees are to Christmas) also has the effect of demonizing the people of other countries. Vietnamese were 'gooks' not humans, so they were acceptable targets.

 We should honor legitimate war heroes, but we shouldn't glorify war. We should stop creating more war corpses and shattered veterans. That was my point.

I'd recommend a few resources, one 80 years old - Upton Sinclair's Lanny Budd series, starting with World's End (available at the link free), and these contemporary ones: this Youtube on rethinking Memorial Day featuring Danny Sjursen. Let's continue this after you've checked out these links (particularly the last two, since the first one is pretty lengthy.)  (Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle.)

[UPDATED  May 31, 2020: And here's a reassessment of the US role in WW II and the idea of 'the good war.']

Alaska COVID-19 Count - April 4, 2020 - 2 New Deaths, 1 New Hospitalization, 14 New Cases

The numbers on the new charts are squirrelly - yesterday there was a total of 147 confirmed cases and today it says 171.  But it says there are 13 new cases.  My math makes that 14 new cases.  The press release for today says 14 on the top and 13 on the bottom.

The total number of tests - looking at the cumulative table comes out to 6040.  But yesterday it was 6016 - and the new tests table shows 197 new tests.

We had gone five days without a new death, but we got two today, which is the most in one day.  The press release says the death was an Anchor Point man who acquired the virus and died Outside of Alaska.  Because he's an Alaska resident, he's counted in our statistics.  That may account for the two different counts of new cases.  That means there have only been 3 deaths from COVID-19 in the State of Alaska (another Alaskan death was also Outside).  The second death today was a woman in Fairbanks.

Also one new hospitalization.  (The State's hospitalization number is total, cumulative.  Not how many are in the hospital today.)

So the format is great, with lots of useful interactivity.  But the numbers don't add up right.  There was an understandable discrepancy when they changed the reporting time.  But that was a couple of days ago.

I've also found the State Data Hub which has a lot of explanation of the statistics.  For instance this explanation of how changing the data to match national standards means people are counted in their state of residency.  So Alaskans who contract the illness and die Outside are counted in Alaska.  Here's the explanation for another oddity in the count:

"Today you will see on the dashboard that 11 new cases are reported, but the cumulative count only increased by 10 cases since the non-resident case was removed."

So I'm tracking based on the number of total confirmed cases and figuring out the new cases based on the number of total cases the day before.
And I'm using the chart that shows the cumulative number of tests and not paying much attention to the chart that shows the tests by day.  That way I can stay consistent.

My calendar chart.

CONFIRMED COVID-19 CASES ALASKA MARCH/APRIL 2020
Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
new/total	hos=hospital		12th  = 0/0	13th = 1/1	14th = 0/1	15th = 0/1
16th = 0/1	17th = 2/3	18th = 3/6	19th = 3/9	20th = 3/12	21st= 2/14	22nd= 8/22
23rd=14/36	24th =6/42 1 hos 1 dead	25th = 17/59 3 hos 1 dead	26th = 10/69 3 hos 1 dead	27th =16/89 5 hos 2 dead	28th = 13/102 6 hos 2 dead	29th=12/114 7 hos  3 dead
30th=5/119 7 hos 3 dead	31st= 14/133 9 hos 3 dead
April 2020		1st=  10/143 9 hos 3 dead	2nd=8(6)/149 13 hos 3 dead	3rd=8(11)157 15 hos 3 dead	4th=14/171 16 hos 5 dead
				4/3 - State #s (11/157)don’t match yesterdays’       /149)
		Hospital and dead figures are total to date, not new on that date

Here's a screenshot of the state's numbers for today (for the record) and below I'll paste in the actual chart (which changes daily so you can't track what it said yesterday.)

If you click on the image it will enlarge and focus better.  The interactive version of this is below.  However, the one below changes everyday, so the one above is our 'archive' version for April 4.

*Cases depicted in the map above represent residency of the infected person, and may not reflect where the person was located when tested positive. For example, the case shown in Petersburg Borough represents an individual who had residency status in Petersburg but was not currently residing there at the time of infection.

My Running Chart by date and data

Alaska Covid-19 Data NewFor... by Steve on Scribd

After another overnight snow, today warmed up to what might be the warmest day of the year.  We went for a nice walk.  Most of the walk we didn't see others.  But around our neighborhood there were dog walkers and joggers, but all well away from us.

Did Health Experts Show These Predictions To Trump? Imperial College Report Summary

[You have to click on the embedded tweet below yo see the whole thread.  When you get to the original's Tweet, click on show thread.]

]
Trump seems to be taking COVID-19 more seriously - or at least how his response may reflect on him.  This Twitter thread summarizes the findings of the Imperial College predictions - if we do nothing, if we take moderate precautions, if we go to total self-isolation.

Many of us may not be here next year.

We can now read the Imperial College report on COVID-19 that led to the extreme measures we've seen in the US this week. Read it; it's terrifying. I'll offer a summary in this thread; please correct me if I've gotten it wrong.https://t.co/AwE2cHIbeJ

— Jeremy C. Young (@jeremycyoung) March 17, 2020

Corona Virus View From Seattle -It's Getting Personal

Things have changed radically just since Friday when I took the train down to Vancouver, WA to attend the Citizens Climate Lobby Northwest Regional Conference.  While there hadn't been any questions about not having the conference, we were all introduced to the elbow bump in lieu of shaking hands.  And told to wash our hands regularly.

But since I got back things have gotten noticeably edgier.  Six people have died in Seattle already.  Our daughter declared that she will drive us to the airport tomorrow instead of letting us take public transportation as usual.  While I don't think of myself as elderly, I am in the higher risk age category. What's a little scary about this is that people can carry the virus with few or no symptoms, meaning it can spread much faster and wider than other epidemics.

Then I see this Tweet this morning.

I live in Seattle, I have all symptoms of COVID-19 and have a history of chronic bronchitis.

Since I work in a physical therapy clinic with many 65+ patients and those with chronic illnesses, I decided to be responsible and go to get tested. This is how that went.

— sketchy lady (@into_the_brush) March 3, 2020

There's a long thread about all her failed attempts to get help.

The basic advice from everyone seems to be to wash your hands and not touch your face.

I didn't understand the power of a sneeze until one day we were outside on a sunny day some distance away and man sneezed.  The sun was just right to light up the arc of droplets that flew from his face out about three feet.  It was about three or four times the size of his head.  The light on the droplets was beautiful if you didn't think about what it was.  And I suddenly understood how easily germs fly from person to person.  I didn't have my camera ready for that moment, but I've looked on line for something similar.  This is the best I can find:

This sneeze is not nearly as beautiful as the droplet waterfall we saw that day, but it gets the point across.  If you don't have a mask, sneeze or cough into your elbow.  Certainly away from other people.

It Appears That Ruth Sheridan Has Left Us [UPDATED]

I got an email the other day saying that Ruth Sheridan had passed away at 101 years of age.  Ruth was an activist to the end.  I didn't know Ruth well, but I did see her frequently at various events around town - often at Bear Tooth movies, and often at protests.

I got the email because the writer had found a post I did in 2018 that had a picture of Ruth Sheridan at a protest against tightening immigration regulations and wanted permission to to send
copies to friends.

Anchorage's Ruth Sheridan at 100 July 2018.

She also wrote:

"January 25th would be her 102nd birthday.
Unitarian Fellowship is hosting a remembering of her and her life (Celebration of Life Service) from 2-5PM that day.
All welcome."

Luckily we'll be in town that day.

I'd note the tentative nature of the post's title.  I hate to post 'facts' when I get them from just one source, especially someone I don't know.  This does look pretty genuine. And I thought I'd post this to give people a heads up for the event on January 25.    I couldn't find any online confirmation when I got the email or even now.

I did find this 2016 note from the ADN in 2016:

"In addition to those 10 women, long-time Anchorage community and political activist Ruth Sheridan was named as the recipient of the Arliss Sturgulewski Award. This is a special award, which is not presented every year, said YWCA Board President Carrie Lindow. She said the previous honorees have included the late Iditarod champion Susan Butcher and Sturgulewski herself."

UPDATE JAN 19, 2020:  Here's a link to Ruth Sheridan's full obituary in the ADN. ]

LA Shots, Discussion With Waiter At Persian Restaurant [Updated]

Here's from a couple of nights ago.

We've had sunny days and I have not being able to ride the bike.  I can pretend to walk normally now, but the right knee is still bigger than the left.  But now when I do something wrong, I feel pressure instead of serious pain.  The pressure is a buffer that stops me before I get to the pain part.  And I can move the leg more - obviously enough to walk.  Getting into the car required some thinking about how to position my leg to get it in.

It also means that I let J do the driving today, which means I can take pictures.  I had an eye appointment.

We could see the mountains in the distance, but the sun seems to have gotten rid of most of the snow we saw last week.

The doctor's office is in Beverly Hill, but it still costs much less than it would in Anchorage.  Besides, I've been going to this doctor since 1975 as he reminded me today.  "You're one of my oldest, no I should say, longest regular patients."  We were both young back then and we've seen each other once every one to three years or so all this time.  We talked about grandchildren today. He has a new granddaughter as of Saturday.  And I'm also one of the most distant patients he has.  Last year when I asked him how long he'd be practicing, he said as long as you keep coming, I'll be here.  We'll see.  Here's what my eyes looked like today.  Or one of them at least.

This vehicle was in the parking lot behind his office.  Is there any hope for global warming when people have enough money they can buy toys like this and they do instead of working to slow down global warming?  But, of course, I know nothing about the owner of this vehicle.  I'm creating a persona based on big wheels.

On the way back we decided to go to a Persian restaurant in Westwood.

While I eat very little meat, Persian lamb shank once a year is one of the exceptions.  And as I was paying, I realized this was a good chance to ask someone with Iranian connections about the US assassination of General Soleimani.  While I kept hearing quotes about what an evil man he is and how many Americans and civilians he's killed, I thought about how the US helped get rid of President Allende in Chile in 1973.  And all the civilians who have died as 'collateral damage' of US strikes in the Middle East.

The waiter said they weren't allowed to talk about this in the restaurant.  And then he did.  I didn't tell him I was a blogger or ask for permission to post his comments, because I didn't think about it until we left.  So I won't.  But did just recently get back from visiting his family and he's worried things will get worse for them because things will get worse for everyone.


Here's the window of a bakery we passed.

And a Persian book store.

Meanwhile I checked and the subways in Santiago are working again, but protestors are still out on the streets.  I guess since they aren't being violent, we don't hear any more about it.

[UPDATED Jan 4, 2020 12:20 am:   Since I shortchanged you on the discussion fo the assassination, I thought I'd offer this insight from Chris Hedges.  Hedges resigned from the NYTimes after an award winning career covering the Middle East and other key areas.  He's way out of the mainstream, but that's because he isn't afraid to take on the taboo subjects of American journalism.  Here's the link to the article  and an excerpt:

"The targeting of Soleimani, who was killed by a MQ-9 Reaper drone that fired missiles into his convoy as he was leaving the Baghdad airport, also took the life of Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iran-backed militias in Iraq known as the Popular Mobilization Forces, along with other Iraqi Shiite militia leaders. The strike may temporarily bolster the political fortunes of the two beleaguered architects of the assassination, Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but it is an act of imperial suicide by the United States. There can be no positive outcome. It opens up the possibility of an Armageddon-type scenario relished by the lunatic fringes of the Christian right.
A war with Iran would see it use its Chinese-supplied anti-ship missiles, mines and coastal artillery to shut down the Strait of Hormuz, which is the corridor for 20% of the world’s oil supply. Oil prices would double, perhaps triple, devastating the global economy. The retaliatory strikes by Iran on Israel, as well as on American military installations in Iraq, would leave hundreds, maybe thousands, of dead."] 

Being A Tourist In Town Where I Grew Up - The Observatory, Travel Town, Visiting Dad

A spectacularly clear day when we left this morning for the Griffith Park Observatory.  The freeway was fairly empty and we made great time, with views of mountains all around with lots of snow.  More than I remember ever seeing.  Not just Mt. Baldy and Mt. Wilson, but all the way around.  Here's just a portion from the Observatory.

 Once we got to Los Feliz, just below the Observatory we hit traffic.  The Observatory doesn't open until noon and it was only 11:45 am, but it was a great day to see views from this spot and everyone was there.  I remember as a kid coming often with my dad and even bringing my son here when we still lived in LA.  The parking lot was where on the right about where that car is.

There is still a lot fairly close, but it was full and most people parked below in the Greek Theater parking lot and walked about a mile up.  A continuous stream of people.  It was like a pilgrimage.  People from all over the world.  You can see a bit of the crowd in the picture below.

Below you can see the Hollywood sign from the upper deck of the Observatory.  

One of the telescope domes.

Inside was pretty chaotic.  But admission is free and there are lots of great astronomy exhibits.  You do have to pay for the planetarium shows

 Here's some of the art deco designs along the roof.

Then off to the other side of Griffith Park to Travel Town.  

Another free attraction.

Although it doesn't call itself a museum, it seems much more a museum than yesterday's visit to the Cayton Children's Museum.




If the photo isn't clear enough, it says:  "DEDICATED TO PRESERVING FOR POSTERITY THE VARIOUS TYPES OF TRANSPORTATION EQUIPMENT THAT HELPED BUILD OUR STATE AND OUR NATION."

The highlight for the kids was the two loops around Travel Town on the miniature train.  And buying snacks in the gift shop.

I took this picture of the hillside from the train to show how green things are after the recent rains.




And about a mile from Travel Town is the cemetery where my father is buried, so we went to visit him as well.  It too is in Griffith Park, a place that he and I spent a lot of time when I was a kid.

 As we pulled up near the grave site, there were deer visiting too.

The light was great as the sun was getting lower in the west.  Sunset in LA has been right about 5pm these days.  (LA is on the east side of the Pacific Time zone, so it's light at 6am, but dark early now.  Check a map.  LA is further east than Reno, Nevada!)

AIFF 2019 - Features 2 : Dying and Ghosts, Maybe He's Not, Tossing The iPads, Road Trip [UPDATED]

The Anchorage International Film Festival begins this Friday.

Here's a quick overview of the second half of the Narrative Features.  The first half is here.
[UPDATED Dec. 6, 2019 - I've confirmed that Those Who Remained will be showing - Thursday at the Museum at 7:45pm]

Laugh or Die

Director:  Heikki Kujanpää

Finland

103 minutes

Showing:  Sun, Dec 08, 2019 6:00 pm
Bear Tooth Theatrepub

"In a detention camp in 1918, a group of Finish actors are sentenced to death. When an important German general arrives, the camp’s vicious commandant forges out a cruel plan: The prisoners have to perform a play - and if they can make the visiting general laugh, they will be spared. Due to the brutal conditions within the camp, this goal seems to be impossible to reach. But after some time, even the commandant’s wife starts to sympathise with the prisoners, watching them rehearsing dressed up in woman’s clothes."

LAUGH OR DIE - TRAILER - TIFF 2019 from Tromsø Int. Film Festival on Vimeo.

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Straight Up    [If we still had a gay-la night this year, this would be the feature]

Director:   James Sweeney

USA

95 minutes

Showing: Saturday Dec 07, 2019 8:00 pm  Bear Tooth Theatrepub

From Keith Uhlich at the Hollywood Reporter:

"Todd's truth is that he doubts he's the gay man he thought he was. Years of failed dating, and a disgust/fear of the bodily excretion that is the primary ingredient in a Dirty Sanchez, have brought him to this point. Clearly, as he tells both his sarcasm-prone therapist (Tracie Thoms) and his befuddled friend group, he must be straight. That in itself is another deflection, though it will take a feature film's length of time to identify the real culprit. (Hint: It's the L-word — not that one.) Until then, he'll work through his hang-ups with struggling actress Rory (Katie Findlay), with whom he meets-cute in a library and who proves to be in almost every way his soul mate. 

She's the Hepburn to his Tracy (don't you doubt that Katharine and Spencer get name-checked). And the duo grow closer as they play house in the sunlit California residences that they look after to make ends meet. The pair heatedly dissect Alanis Morissette's "Ironic" and participate in an uncomfortable "Truth or Dare" evening. They even go to a party dressed as Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman in the movie version of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, which begets an exegesis on the sublimated homosexuality of Newman's injured character Britt."

Here's a fund raising video link.  You'll either decide this is someone you want to spend 95 minutes with or not.


Straight Up - Seed&Spark from James Sweeney on Vimeo.

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Team Marco   

Director:  Julio Vincent Gambuto

USA

90 minutes

Showing:  Saturday Dec 14, 2019 10:00 am

Anchorage Museum Auditorium

This film's world premier was October, 2019 at Mill Valley Film Festival, so we're seeing it pretty early on.  In the interview below it is touted as a great family film - it's showing Saturday morning at the museum.  

From silive

"The title character is obsessed with his electronics and hardly leaves the house. But when his grandmother dies and his grandfather moves in with his family, Marco’s life is turned upside down and he’s forced to play outside.
When “Nonno” introduces him to bocce and the neighborhood crew of elderly Italian men, Marco finds a connection to other people “in real life” -- and inspires a team of neighborhood kids to put the devices down and band together to take on his grandfather and his pals.
'This film is really about getting kids up and off their iPads and into the world," Gambuto said. "This is my love letter to Staten Island and all the communities involved in it. It is quite possibly everything I wanted from this experience.'"

Here's part of an interview with the director and other members of the film crew after the premier at the Mill Valley Film Festival in October of this year.

TEAM MARCO – Mill Valley Film Festival Q&A from Mill Valley Film Festival on Vimeo.

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The Ghost Who Walks 

Director:  Cody Stokes

USA

100 minutes

Showing:  Tuesday Dec 10, 2019 6:00 pm  Alaska Experience Theatre - Small

For St. Louis fans, this is done by a St. Louis native in St. Louis.  It's also fairly new (this year) and hasn't been seen by that many folks yet.  From St. Louis Magazine:

"Just as writer/director Cody Stokes’ career began to take off in New York City—meaning that he was traveling a lot—his first child was born. The St. Louis native began thinking about what it means to be gone and miss things back home, from his, his wife’s, and his child’s perspectives. He knew he wanted to make a film about it. But rather than create a simple kitchen sink drama about fatherhood, he set it in a world beyond, made it exciting, turned it into a crime thriller. “I wanted people to feel like they’re going to watch some sort of Liam Neeson movie but by the end be completely moved,” Stokes says. And he shot it in St. Louis, having moved back home with his family. The Ghost Who Walks screens as part of the St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase later this month."

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Those Who Remained (Someone To Live For) 

Director:  Barnabás Tóth

Hungary
89 minutes

Showing:  Thursday, Dec 12  7:45pm
Museum

Another film only recently shown brings us a post Holocaust story of survivors.  

"Many films deal with the suffering of the Holocaust years, but far fewer focus on those who managed to return from the camps. The achingly tender Hungarian drama “Those Who Remained” fills that gap. Perceptively directed by Barnabás Tóth, it taps into a deep well of honestly earned emotion as it tells the story of two traumatized survivors whose relationship helps them to heal and provides them with someone to live for. Set in the period between 1948 and ’53, the period drama also takes on the purges of Hungarian politician Mátyás Rákosi’s Communist regime. Following its world premiere in Telluride, this exquisite, poignantly performed tale will be released in North American by Menemsha Films.
After the war, the gentle but haunted Dr. Aládar “Aldó” Kőrner (Károly Hajduk), 42, returns to his ob-gyn hospital practice. His wife and two small boys perished in the camps, and he lives alone, with only his medical journals for company, until Klára (Abigél Szőke), a 16-year-old force of nature, storms her way into his life."

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Vanilla 

Director:  Will Dennis

USA

87 minutes

Showing:  Tuesday Dec 10, 2019 8:00 pm  Alaska Experience Theatre - Small

Everything about a film is how it's carried off.  Here's a snippet from one reviewer who thought it went well:

"We have an odd couple on the road, so funny stuff happens – and this is a funny movie.  Naturally, the audience is waiting for the two to jump into bed together.  But Vanilla is fundamentally a portrait of these two people, both comfortable in their ruts.  Elliot is posing as an entrepreneur, and Kimmie is posing as a comedian-in-the-making; something is going to have to shake up these two so each can grow.  Kimmie seems utterly intrepid, but we learn that she can be paralyzed by self-consciousness, just like Elliot.
Vanilla is written and directed by its star, Will Dennis, in his first feature film.  It’s an impressive debut, rich in character-driven humor."

Vanilla (Official Trailer) from Will Dennis on Vimeo.



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