Which Senator has the Hummer?

from Bankrate.com

Dr. Charles Kenny, a psychologist and president of consumer psychology firm Kenny & Associates, has interpreted consumer buying behavior for GM, Toyota and Nissan. He notes that on its face, the purchase of a new car is almost always designed to fulfill emotional needs because, as a pure economic purchase, it's a bad investment. . .

Emotional needs filled by the purchase of an auto range from validation of sexuality to pure power.

"What's a bigger, more powerful, more intimidating vehicle than a Hummer?" asks Dr. Kenny. "With 99 percent certainty, when a person buys a Hummer, there's a strong power need to dominate others."

I was at Costco on DeBarr on Saturday and so was this vehicle with this license plate.


I called my State Senator's (Johnny Ellis) office, but his aide didn't know who had #3. He told me Ellis didn't use a Senate license plate. He suggested the Legislative Information Office. Mike at the LIO said he thought legislative license plates had the same privacy protection as other license plates, but would check. He called back and said the information wasn't public.

I called the DMV. Jody explained that I could come in, fill out a form, which had check boxes for my reason for wanting to know, and pay $10 to get the information. (There also are a number of websites that will get you reverse license plate information for a fee.) I also asked why Legislative licenses weren't listed on the DMV page with all the special licenses. Jody said that was because they no longer give out legislative license plates.

I found the form online on the DMV form page. (It's the Motor Vehicle Record form under Motor Vehicles and Trailers.) The form mentions AS AS 28.10.505 which says:

d) AS 28.10.505. Disclosure of Personal Information Contained in Motor Vehicle Records.
Personal information may be disclosed by the department upon proof of the identity of the person requesting a record and representation by the requesting person that the use of the personal information is strictly limited to one or more of the following uses:

(1) for use by a government agency, including a court or law enforcement agency, in carrying out its functions, or a private person or entity acting on behalf of a government agency in carrying out its functions;

(2) for use in the normal course of business by a legitimate business or an agent, employee, or contractor of the business, but only

(A) to verify the accuracy of personal information submitted by an individual to the business or an agent, employee, or contractor of the business; and

(B) if the information submitted is not correct, to obtain the correct information, but only for the purposes of preventing fraud by pursuing legal remedies against, or recovering on a debt or security interest against, an individual;

(3) for use in connection with a civil, criminal, administrative, or arbitration proceeding in a court or government agency or before a self-regulatory body, including service of process and the execution or enforcement of a judgment or court order;

(4) for use in research activities, or in producing statistical reports, if the personal information is not published, redisclosed, or used to contact an individual;

(5) for use by an insurer or insurance support organization, or by a self-insured entity, or an agent, employee, or contractor of an insurer, in connection with claims investigation activities, anti-fraud activities, rating, or underwriting;

(6) for use in providing notice to the owners of towed or impounded vehicles;

(7) for use by an employer or an agent or insurer of an employer to obtain or verify information relating to a holder of a commercial driver's license that is required under 49 U.S.C. 31101 - 31162 (Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act);

(8) for use in connection with the operation of private toll transportation facilities;

(9) for use in connection with a legitimate business operating under a contract with the department;

(10) for bulk distribution for surveys, marketing, or solicitations if the person who is the subject of the information has provided written consent to the release; and

(11) for any other purpose specifically authorized by law that is related to the operation of a motor vehicle or related to public safety.

(e) Personal information contained in an individual record may be disclosed, without regard to the intended use of the personal information, if the person who is the subject of the information has provided written consent to the release.

None of those apply to me, so I have to find other ways. By the way, although Jody said DMV no longer offers legislative plates, this section of the code was also still on line:

Sec. 28.10.181. Registration of unique and special vehicles and vehicles used for special purposes.


(f) Vehicles owned by elected state officials. The department shall issue special registration plates to each incumbent elected state official for display on noncommercial motor vehicles owned and driven by the official. The department shall number or design the plates so that registration by an elected state official is indicated upon the plates. The registration plates issued under this subsection remain with the owner of the vehicle only during the official's term of office.

So who's driving the hummer with State Senate plates?


We aren't talking about a lot of people here. There are 20 people in the State Senate. We can start with the people in the Anchorage area.

Senate-G Lyda Green (R)-Matanuska-Susitna
Senate-H Charlie Huggins (R)-Wasilla
Senate-I Fred Dyson (R)-Eagle River
Senate-J Bill Wielechowski(D)-Anchorage
Senate-K Bettye Davis (D)-Anchorage
Senate-L Johnny Ellis (D)-Anchorage
Senate-M Hollis French(D)- Anchorage
Senate-N Lesil McGuire (R)-Anchorage
Senate-O John Cowdery (R)-Anchorage
Senate-P Con Bunde (R)-Anchorage
Senate-Q Thomas Wagoner(R)-Kenai

So, I started calling offices. Now I was curious about who had plates on their cars and who didn't.

• Aides in the following offices said their Senator did NOT use the plate on the car:
• Ellis
• Dyson
• Davis
• Wielechowski (mother has it framed)
• [McGuire - staff member called back after the post]
  
  
• Aides in these offices said they did have the plates on their cars:
• Green - She's got number 1
  
• Cowdery - but didn't know the number and would call back
• Huggins - has it on his truck, but she didn't know the number
  

• Aides in these offices weren't sure and said they'd check and get back to me.
• French
• McGuire, [staff member called back several days later. She doesn't use her plates.]
  

• And no one answered the phone here so I left a message:
• Bunde
• Wagoner
  

While I was calling, a friend who has good sources called me about something else and said he'd check. He just called back. Number 3 is NOT an Anchorage area Senator. My source says that Number 3 is Lyman Hoffman of Bethel, a Democrat!

I haven't confirmed that through other sources, but my source is generally quite reliable. But if he's wrong, I hope someone will tell me. And if he's right, an independent confirmation would be nice.

Google Searches

Here are some of the search words people used to get to this site in the last couple of weeks. Some leave me scratching my head. Some leave me wanting to hear more of the story. Others make me wish I'd had more information for the person.

• if mayo clinic turns down request
• this doesn't sound hopeful
  

• Conduction cooker
• I meant to put up more information on the INnduction cooker hot plate we bought in Chiang Mai, but I never got around to it. I loved it. It doesn't get hot. It starts instantly, and when you change it to a lower level in changes instantly. And stops instantly. But you do need to have the right pot - aluminum and glass won't work. Wikipedia says:

An induction cooker uses induction heating for cooking. A ferromagnetic or ferrimagnetic coated pot is placed above an induction coil for the heating process to take place. This type of cooktop(or, stove top, range, etc. And in British English often times called a hob) does not work with non-ferromagnetic cookware, such as glass, aluminum, and most stainless steel, nor with ferromagnetic material covered with a conductive layer, such as a copper-bottomed pan.
if you were born in 1908 how old are you now

We returned the aluminum pot we bought and replaced it with a stainless steel pot that worked fine. Also got a stainless steel frying pan.

• alaskan old people rituals sending old people to die on iceberg
• No comment
  

• country road westen style hadn bags wholoesale
• No idea how this got to the person to this site
  

• is child sex a sin?
• What I find interesting is that these could have various meanings. My first reaction was, "You have to ask?" But, if say, this was a 15 year old wondering whether having sex with another 15 year old, it isn't as stark, say as it would be about a 45 year old contemplating a three year old. This got the searcher to a post on Eliot Spitzer.
  

• how much different vocabulary does a three year old know
• Interesting question, again not sure what post this got the person to.
  

• alaska news, a man,sexual,dog
• ??????
  

• the anger wat temple history
• was this person looking for Angkor Wat?
  

• shameless sex thoughts
• to Eliot Spitzer again
  

• what do monks eat for lunch
• I didn't have the answer for this person. Thai monks don't eat after 12 noon.
  

• pigs are they dumb or smart
• I think this got to a post on BP's dumb smart pigs
  

• N begich jewish?
  
• this came from someone in California
  

• what kind of anchorage do you know
  
• this came from Poland
  

• bulbul birds for sale in the usa
  
• This one from Albuquerque, got me upset. Why would someone want to buy a bulbul? I have seen a few in little cages in Chiang Mai and when you see how much fun they have flying around, you know how monstrous caging them is.
  

• black tailed japanese rooster tattoo
• The post with the Burmese man's tattoo on his back has attracted a number of hits, few, I suspect, looking for what they got
  

• how will i come 2 know my true love
  
• This one came from Bombay. What would you tell him? her?

• at the height of its power (16th?17th century), it spanned three continents, controlling much of southeastern europe
  
• This one came from DePaul University. Looks like a test or essay question. Were they allowed to Google in a test? Ropi will surely tell us the answer to this one.
  

• audio of speech given by george washington on january 8, 1790
  
• This one from New Dehli, using US English. Let me know if you get a copy of the original speech on audio. I'd love to hear it. My post on this suggested that the quotes were bogus.
  

Anchorage Airport - pre-tourist, Bears in Boxes, Euphemisms

J got home this morning at 1 am. She's been in California for a week so she's had time to deal with the jetlag from Asia. I'm just up now (3:15pm) after a couple of very short nights. While I waited I looked around with my camera.


It's early May, not quite tourist season yet. The airport will be crowded at 1am by the end of the month. It seems that the airlines send their planes up here in the middle of the night so they can get them back to the lower 48 for the day flights. But for now it was pretty empty. Only one security line was open and there was no line.



In the past I've noticed that the bears in boxes at the airport were all shot by dentists like this one. What is it about dentists? They have the money to go out on expensive hunts? They have the ego to want everyone to see they killed the biggest bear around? Torturing people in their offices isn't enough, they have to go out and kill animals too? They have to prove they're as good as 'real' doctors? Do they get a tax write-off if they put it in the airport? I have a great dentist who I'm sure doesn't kill animals for fun. Actually the last time I went I got the new dentist and he plays rock guitar on the side. So, it's probably only a few who have this need to display their trophy kills at the airport.



And not all the bears at the airport (outside security) were killed by dentists. And notice the euphemisms. The dentist's bear 'was taken." This bear was 'harvested.' Why not just say "killed?"

The Merriam-Webster online dictionary does not include hunting in the definitions of harvest as a noun.

1. har·vest
Pronunciation: \ˈhär-vəst\
Function: noun
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English hervest, from Old English hærfest; akin to Latin carpere to pluck, gather, Greek karpos fruit
Date: before 12th century

1: the season for gathering in agricultural crops2: the act or process of gathering in a crop3 a: a mature crop (as of grain or fruit) : yield b: the quantity of a natural product gathered in a single season 4: an accumulated store or productive result

But it does include it in the definition of harvest as a verb.

2. harvest
Function: verb
Date: 15th century

transitive verb
1 a: to gather in (a crop) : reap b: to gather, catch, hunt, or kill (as salmon, oysters, or deer) for human use, sport, or population control c: to remove or extract (as living cells, tissues, or organs) from culture or from a living or recently deceased body especially for transplanting2 a: to accumulate a store of b: to win by achievement intransitive verb.

The etymology shows the word originally comes from old English and German for 'autumn':

O.E. hærfest "autumn," from P.Gmc. *kharbitas (cf. O.S. hervist, Du. herfst, Ger. Herbst "autumn," O.N. haust "harvest"), from PIE *kerp- "to gather, pluck, harvest" (cf. Skt. krpana- "sword," krpani "shears;" Gk. karpos "fruit," karpizomai "make harvest of;" L. carpere "to cut, divide, pluck;" Lith. kerpu "cut;" M.Ir. cerbaim "cut"). The borrowing of autumn and fall gradually focused its meaning after 14c. from "the time of gathering crops" to the action itself and the product of the action. Harvester "machine for reaping and binding" is from 1875; harvest home (1596) is the occasion of bringing home the last of the harvest; harvest moon (1706) is that which is full within a fortnight of the autumnal equinox.

The airport also seems to have copied the Singapore (and many other) airports by adding a transit hotel. With blankets even.

Kona I want you to know that unlike the Singapore airport, dogs are allowed to come greet the arriving passengers. And this dog was VERY happy to see his owner when she came out!

Back in Time for the Sandhill Cranes

I took Dennis Z up on his offer to show me the good craning spots when I got back. So at 6am this morning I drove out to Palmer. In the clip you can see, and even better yet hear, the sandhill cranes as they fly. For better pictures go to Dennis' site. (I can't find the cranes, this link takes you to his photos and maybe he'll see this and make it clear how to find the cranes.)






The Singapore Bird Park cost me S$18 admission (about US$13). With gas at $3.71 a gallon at Costco, I figure the trip to Palmer and back means my admission to see the cranes was about US$15! I wonder if folks had a little meter in their car like the odometer that you could set at $.00 when you start a trip and it would calculate how much it cost you in gas money at the end of the trip, people would start changing their driving patterns radically.

Anyway, I haven't driven a car in two and a half months, so my gas cost whatever it cost back in December or January so it was probably a little cheaper.

Note: I intended the title to mean that I got back to Anchorage in time to see the cranes before they moved on. But as I read it now, it reminds me that when you see the Sandhill Cranes you go back in time millions of years with this prehistoric species. For incredible descriptions of these birds, see the section beginnings of Richard Powers' The Echo Maker.

Two and a half months of junk mail

I guess it could be a lot worse.

Savoring Anchorage on Foot

The customs people smile in Anchorage. I was out on the street at 10. No taxis at the international terminal. The number 7 bus won't be by for 45 minutes. As I walk to the domestic terminal, I'm thinking about walking home. We did it in Chiang Mai and here it's delightfully cool, almost chilly 45°F (7°C). I know lots of people in Anchorage would say, "You can't walk home from the airport." Well, I like doing things you can't do. And I've been revved up not having a car in Chiang Mai and all watching how some people in Taiwan are passionate about reducing global warming and their concern for Alaska's ice and polar bears. Let's do it. But is there a way to walk out of the airport?

There is. Just stay on the sidewalk closest to the terminal and keep walking. You have to go right at the first small street and then left. Then you get back to the main road out of the airport and this sign.

After crossing the road, there's even a sign which tells you which way to walk to Anchorage, so I kept going.

While some water is out, Lake Hood (the white in the background) is still frozen. Made a pit stop at the Millennium Hotel then kept going.

Oh. Gas is a little more expensive than when we left. Stopped for pancakes at Gwennie's. I'm really in Alaska. (That picture is even too bad for me to post it.) Just outside of Gwennie's I saw a 36 bus coming. The little wheels on my suitcase are saying they've had enough and this bus goes within a block of my house. The driver stopped between bus stops to let me on. And now I'm home. Headed for the post office to pick up the mail.

Almost Home

An hour out of Taipei. I'm busy reading Maimonides for a book club meeting Sunday. I figured I could put a serious dent in it on an 8 hour flight.

For those of you who forgot what airplane food looks like, it still comes with the ticket on international flights.

Less than an hour out of Anchorage

Taipei (Taoyuan) Streets and Tzu Chi Foundation

The China Air hotel is in a suburb of Taipei called Taoyuan. I went out walking this morning. I don't have much time so I'll just post the pictures.

But I stumbled into the Tzu Chi Foundation, which is a Buddhist Charity that does some things like the red cross. They had a global warming exhibit and they found a volunteer named Alex who spoke English and spent a couple of hours showing me around.

Later, on the bus, I met a woman named Jo who's been living in Bali for the last ten years. Interesting stories, but you're lucky, I don't have time.












Bookstore at Tzu Chi Foundation.
Global warming puppet show. My being from Alaska had extra meaning for them.
Alex, my guide, with the bamboo bank. The master said every volunteer should put in 5 cents every day. I asked about other sources of funding. Alex's reply - our money is in everyone's pockets.
We had tea. The whole place was as elegant as this tray of tea.

And then vegetarian lunch.
There's even a proper way to hold the bowl.

Here's the Bali resident on her way to visit the US.

And a fancy porcelain vase on exhibit in the airport.

Singapore Hawker Markets

I made it to Taipei fine. The weather's wonderful - that means not sauna like. Here's a bit of video from the hawker stands at Newton Circle Wednesday night, before we found out Kona wasn't well.



So I ordered the barbecued stingray since it's a local speciality and some morning glory (a favorite stir fry dish in Thailand). We got home to find that Kona wasn't well, so we left the food and went to the vet. When we got back the swordfish was still tasty.

Money Laundering

It's 11:12 am Thursday in Singapore. My plane to Taipei leaves at 2:40pm. Since the Anchorage flight leaves Taipei at 4:15pm, I have to overnight in Taipei - courtesy of China Air. So even though I could make it through the next 48 hours with the clean stuff still in my suitcase, I decided to do some laundry. There is a washer and dryer in the apartment here.

It would have been better had I taken my wallet out of my pants first.