Anchorage Daily News Attempting To Doing Its Job - Demer's Port Story

Some of us still believe that newspapers are supposed to do more than carry grocery ads and the weather.  They're supposed to be one of the watchdogs on private and public sector organizations.  But with the changing news environment and newspapers getting slimmer and slimmer (both the product and size of the news staff) the serious reporting of what is going on is not happening as much.  

The Sunday Anchorage Daily News had a big front page story on the Port of Anchorage  hinted at the kind of things newspapers should be doing.  I say hinted because while it brought up a number of important issues, it didn't go very deep and I didn't see anything saying this was part 1 of a series.  But here are some key things it said:

The completion date for the massive dock replacement project at the Port of Anchorage has been pushed back to 2021 from a target of 2011 set before major construction began.

The price tag, which was $360 million as of 2005, has escalated to $1 billion.

Some engineers are questioning whether the new dock can even be built as designed. Much of the work done in 2010 involved dismantling construction from just a year earlier.

So, the port that was supposed to be completed this year for $360 million is now set for ten more years and the budget has nearly tripled, and it may not be technically feasible.  

But there are still a lot more questions to be asked and answered.  Like who is overseeing Port director Bill Sheffield's performance and salary?  Does it reflect the fact that this project is way behind schedule, way over budget, and the method he chose against the recommendations of the engineers isn't working.  The man will be 83 years old this year.  He's got 18 years on me, but I know I don't have the energy I had 20 years ago.  And I've just spent time in LA with people in their 80s and 90s.  Some are still in reasonably good shape, but not nearly good enough to run a multi-billion dollar project.  Look, I understand that age, by itself, is not a reason to fire someone.  My mom worked - not full time at the end - until she was 85.  If the Port construction was finishing up this year, or wasn't way over budget, or the method chosen wasn't failing, I wouldn't have brought it up. 

When we went on the port tour in  they offer to the public every summer, there were lots of flags raised about how this was actually going to be funded.

My August 2009 Port post includes a 16 minute video from the tour.  That's way too long so I included an index with times and topics.   I think the most relevant part came at the end of the video:

• 10:51- How does the port make its revenue? Who owns the port?
• 11:20- Lease land
• 11:59- Dockage
• 12:34- Wharfage or tonnage
• 12:51- How much do they make and how do they use it?
• 13:30- What's the total cost of expansion? ($750 million) And how funded?

Here is are my highlights from the tape:

Guide:  "Our [the Port Authority's] job is to make sure the streets are clean and the lights are on and the plumbing works and the place can function. . . We just lease them [I believe this is the shipping companies, but I'm not sure] [ the land."

Yeah right. And the Port Authority isn't also wheeling and dealing (that's not necessarily bad) to get the partnerships and money to make this 3/4 billion dollar project work? [That was in 2009, the ADN story has it at an even $1 billion now - a 1/3 increase in 18 months.] I think they do a little more than clean the toilets.

Then, we don't cost you anything, we give you money:

"We get zero property tax dollars download to run the port. None. In fact, we give the Municipality about half a million dollars of revenue every year to help run city hall. We pay our own payroll, we pay our own bills. . . After the bills are paid we have anything from $2.5 to $5 million dollars that we put toward the expansion project ourselves."

Except as he goes on, it's not quite that clear. OK, this is a private/public partnership. He said

"the construction project doesn't belong to the Port of Anchorage, doesn't belong to the Municipality of Anchorage. It belongs to the Department of Transportation, Maritime Administration."

Of the $750 million that will be needed for the port expansion, 50% will come from the Feds, 25% from the state, and the rest will have to come from 'us'. Out of the profits or "any debt financing we choose to do." Probably they will float a revenue bond in 2015 and they'll have 20 years to pay it off.


And the head of the Port is Bill Sheffield, who proved to be a good enough business man to make a good profit selling his Sheffield Hotels to Holland Line, was governor - and almost impeached for construction dealings - and then was appointed head of the Alaska Railroad, which now owns the Airport Depot that was built with Federal and State money (tens of millions of dollars) and is only used four months a year by the cruise lines. And it's named for Sheffield. And now he's the director of the Port of Anchorage at the age of 81 years. While he started out as a Democrat and was elected Governor as a Democrat, most of his fund raising lately has been for Republicans.

This begs to have some external scrutiny that goes well beyond bus rides and hot dogs.

A Northern Economics feasibility study completed in 2006 raises some questions. To be successful, they have to get a mileage-based carrier, steal fuel barge business away from Nikiski (does Anchorage really have to screw over small Alaska towns to succeed?), and they have to keep out unions ("carriers say they will only use the new facility if it were non-union.") Here is the executive summary:

Executive Summary
This report presents the findings of a study to evaluate the feasibility of establishing a consolidation and distribution center at the Port of Anchorage with the intent to serve coastal and riverside communities in rural Alaska. It contains an analysis of the feasibility of the concept, as well as marketing arguments that can be used to present the concept to transportation companies.

The findings of this study include:

The concept could result in cost savings. While the cost of transportation may be slightly higher with this concept, the inventory holding cost savings may offset the increased cost of transportation.

Freight rate savings on cargo shipments could require a mileage-based carrier. At present, the price for sending cargo to western Alaska is the same or very similar whether it originates in Anchorage or Seattle. To generate savings for residents of western Alaska would require a carrier who would charge for cargo shipments based on the distance traveled, rather than the market rate.

Incentives could be required to encourage a mileage-based carrier. In order to attract a mileage- based carrier, incentives could be required to make up for the lost revenues that would result from charging lower prices than the industry norm.

Anchorage has an opportunity to increase its fuel barge business. The Port of Anchorage is the preferred location for fuel sales in Cook Inlet. Estimates vary about the percent of fuel that is sold in Anchorage versus Nikiski, but capturing additional sales from Nikiski could substantially increase the Port’s market share.

Need to work on the key issues: Attracting a mileage-based carrier. One of the key issues that must be addressed is the identification and recruitment of a carrier that is willing to charge mileage- based rates. This would represent a break from the industry norm for the concept to work and it is vital that a carrier be identified who is willing to do this.

Need to work on the key issues: Union vs. non-union. Another key issue is unions. Carriers have expressed a high level of concern about union work rules and have said that they would only use a new facility if it were non-union. While the Port of Anchorage is an open port, this is nonetheless a significant issue that needs to be addressed in order to attract customers for a new facility.

So, Demer's article today is a good step, but there is a lot more issues to examine.  There is a little more online, but not a lot.  There's a two minute slide show narrated by Bill Sheffield that says how important the port is, some letters from Mark Begich and the Assembly, and a the initial dive team inspection report which is almost a whole page long and much of it describes how difficult the work is.  Read it - how the diver sees things in 0 visibility water:

The New Port of Anchorage is located in the Cook Inlet basin. The water visibility in this area is zero. The inspection diver used two methods for inspecting the sheet pile interlocks First he feels the interlock for uniformity to see if the thumb of the sheet pile was out of the joint. Then he would scrape out debris from the pile interlock using a thin knife blade. The next step is to utilize a clear water bag and an underwater light. The water bag is placed over the joint and the light is shown into the bag. Next the diver presses their face plate against the bag. The bag, light, and diver adjust till the diver can see the joint. This method can be difficult because dirty water can remain in the joint or there can be debris left can make is difficult to see the joint. Also you are looking at a small area. For more thorough inspection, the area can be cleaned using a water blaster that provided a 20,000 psig water stream.

We live in a democracy folks.  As they say, freedom isn't free.  We all need to either get informed or let people abuse the system since they know we're more interested in Palin gossip than in how the Port Authority, Board of Game, KABATA, and other agencies operate.  While most Alaskans don't pay any state taxes, they money spent on this comes partly from state revenues, mostly from federal revenues, and they're expecting the Municipality to help them float a bond soon.

Let the ADN know that there should be more of their budget doing this sort of work.  I'm guessing that Lisa Demer would love to have more time and staff to do a lot more on this story.

Pat Dougherty   Senior Vice President, Editor 907-257-4303

Patrick Doyle    President & Publisher            907-257-4210

Harold and Maude - The First Time Is Still Memorable - UPDATED

[If you read the original post, skip down to the updated part below.]

Sometime in 1972 (August, see updated below) we went to the movies. I don't remember what we went to see, but we were unsatisfied when it was over. Back then they still had double features. So we stayed for the second feature, which we knew absolutely nothing about.

At the end we looked at each other and I think I asked, "Are we sick? Why were we laughing so hard?"  And other people in the theater, which wasn't very crowded, weren't responding as we were.  So we invited a friend and went back the next night with him to see if he was as 'sick' as we were in thinking this was so hysterically funny. 

Seeing a great movie without knowing anything about it before you go is one of the great joys of watching movies. The same thing happened when I saw The Graduate. I was in Bangkok and just wanted to get out of the heat and went to see this movie I'd never heard of. A common feature between the two is the great music.

Anyway, the Bear Tooth is showing Harold and Maude Monday at 5:30 and 7:45. It's a great chance to see it on a big screen with other people. I don't know how it will hold up over all these years, but if you haven't seen it and you like surprises, irreverence, love, and Cat Stevens, you should go.

And if you know nothing about this movie - DON'T READ ANYTHING BEFORE YOU GO. JUST GO. If someone tries to tell you about it, close your ears and leave.

Meanwhile Cyrano's is doing a stage version. [There's a spoiler in their announcement so don't read it if you haven't seen it.] Not sure how this would translate. Harold and Maude as a movie was perfect. Not sure anyone could improve on it.

UPDATE: 12:45 pm - I wasn't sure if it was 1971 or 72, but the first Harold and Maude website I looked out said it came out in 1972.  But this morning I looked at others and some say 1971 (and the Bear Tooth is showing this on the 40th Anniversary).  So I went looking for my journal from back then and found this page in the back where I tried to keep track of all the books and movies (have * before them) I read and watched.  It was August 1972.  (5th from the top)

The  Harold and Maude Homepage on its very dense trivia page says:

Release Date of Harold and Maude: 20 December 1971 (USA) -

So, we saw it, in LA, seven months later.  But believe me, no one knew anything about it at the time.  As I said, it was the second bill (and it seems the first movie, the one we went to see, was so unforgettable that I didn't even note it in my journal.)

The H&M Homepage also has this note from someone:

In 1973, I did a report for a U.S.C film class wherein I described how Paramount had mishandled the promotion of "Harold And Maude," one of my favorite films. Imagine my happiness when I was able to be one of the Music Editors of "Foul Play" and finally got to meet this hero of mine on the dubb stage on a daily basis. I presented Higgins a copy of my "Harold and Maude" report and asked if he could sign my "Harold and Maude" hardback book. He said with a smile, "Sure, if you autograph your report." .  .  . Another favorite is Harold saying he enjoys being dead. Maude then cheers, "...They're just backing away from life. Give me an L. Give me an I. Give me a V. Give me an E. L-I-V-E, Live! Otherwise, you'll have nothing to talk about in the locker room." This scene is the one Higgins was given as an test audition at Paramount when he was trying to become the director of "Harold And Maude." [NOTE: He was the writer, Hal Ashby was the director.] Higgins later said that, in trying to impress Paramount, he felt he kind of rushed directing the scene and should have taken longer. I went to Colin Higgins' memorial after his death from aids and was terribly sad over the loss of such a young talented writer/director. I sometimes think that Higgins, being gay, perhaps could relate to the oppression that both Harold and Maude endured. I still remember his face...amazingly handsome. But, of course, Higgins' true beauty was within his soul. His memory lives on in a Colin Higgins Foundation which gives grants to people who have faced or fought bigotry. I often wonder what he might be writing in our times today. wolfwail@allvantage.com

 I tried to email wolfwail, but it came back undeliverable.  But his report on poor promotion may explain why eight months after the release, we saw it as the second feature of the double bill and knew nothing about it until we saw it.   And why it was originally a commercial flop.


The most informative piece (and it clarifies my understanding that this started out as a student project) I've found on the film comes from TCM:

It all began as a thesis film for UCLA film student Colin Higgins who first developed the idea for Harold and Maude as a twenty-minute short. When he showed the script to his landlady, Mildred Lewis, the wife of a Hollywood producer, she suggested they form their own production company and shop it around to studios. Eventually the script found a home at Paramount where Howard Jaffe was first slated to be the producer but later passed the project on to Charles B. Mulvehill. Peter Bart, the vice president of production at Paramount then, had seen Hal Ashby's The Landlord (1970) and was impressed by the way the director had handled the movie's complex racial issues in the context of a satire. On the basis of that, he asked Ashby to direct Higgins' fledging effort as screenwriter and associate producer. "To me, Harold and Maude was a symbol of that era. It would have been unthinkable in the '80s or '90s. In those days...people would walk in, wacked out, with the most mind-bending, innovative and brilliant ideas for movies. Harold and Maude was written by a pool cleaner." (from Easy Riders, Raging Bulls by Peter Biskind). . .

Although Ruth Gordon was always the front runner for the role of Maude, Higgins had initially written the part of Harold for rising actor and aspiring musician John Rubinstein (Zachariah, 1971), the son of conductor Arthur Rubinstein. Character actor (Midnight Cowboy, 1969) and future director (Parents, 1989) Bob Balaban also tested for the part but Ashby favored Bud Cort, a New York stage-trained actor who had recently attracted attention for his unique screen presence in such films as Robert Altman's M*A*S*H (1970) and Brewster McCloud (1970). When Cort finally did a trial rehearsal with Gordon (the screen tests were filmed by Haskell Wexler), it was immediately obvious he was the right choice.

 Wikipedia  has other interesting points on the movie such as:

The film is ranked number 45 on the American Film Institute's list of 100 Funniest Movies of all Time, and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 1997 for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." The film was a commercial flop in its original release, but it has since developed a large cult following.

Wikipedia also says Roger Ebert didn't like it:

Critic Roger Ebert, in a review dated January 1, 1972, did not care for the film. He wrote, "And so what we get, finally, is a movie of attitudes. Harold is death, Maude life, and they manage to make the two seem so similar that life’s hardly worth the extra bother. The visual style makes everyone look fresh from the Wax Museum, and all the movie lacks is a lot of day-old gardenias and lilies and roses in the lobby, filling the place with a cloying sweet smell. Nothing more to report today. Harold doesn’t even make pallbearer."

If you've seen the film before and are going to see it again now, the Harold and Maude Homepage trivia page is full of interesting - and not so interesting - tidbits.  Here are some examples:

In all shots of Ruth Gordon (Maude) driving the hearse it is being towed because she never learned how to drive a car. - Director Cameo: Hal Ashby, the bearded man seen briefly in the amusement park arcade. - Cameo: Cat Stevens, the composer and performer of the original music for the movie can be seen in one of the funeral scenes. He is the person behind which Maude hides after she tries to get Harold's attention by hissing.  

 Cat Stevens originally did not release "If you want to sing out, sing out," or "Don't Be Shy" for public just so that more people would go to the theatres to see the film merely for those two songs! He finally released the songs in 1984. - Cat Stevens' CD, "Footsteps In the Dark," is his only album that features the songs "If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out," and "Don't Be Shy," and is also his only album that made a public reference to Harold and Maude.

The freeze frame of the Jaguar hearse in midair in the final sequence is the result of an accident. The single camera capturing the action did not start filming until well after the car had careened off the cliff, and since only one hearse had been prepared for the film, it was impossible to reshoot the shot.

 The Chasen family mansion is actually the Rose Court Mansion in Hillsborough, California, south of San Francisco. The butler in the film (Henry Dieckoff) was the actual butler of the house -- the original script called for him to drop the lemonade tray after "Sunshine" does her Juliet imitation, but the butler thought it unbutler-like, and so Vivian Pickles had to do it!

 In a comment, Anon says (s)he saw it with Play It Again Sam.  As you can see from my journal, I also Play It Again Sam right before seeing Harold and Maude, but I really don't think the main feature that night Play It Again Sam.  If it were, we might not have stayed to see Harold and Maude.

Harold and Maude - The First Time Is Still Memorable - UPDATED

NOTE:  I've updated this post and wouldn't normally leave this one up, but since there are several comments already, I'll leave it.  There's a lot more information about the history of the film in the update.

Sometime in 1972* we went to the movies. I don't remember what we went to see, but we were unsatisfied when it was over. Back then they still had double features. So we stayed for the second feature, which we knew absolutely nothing about.

At the end we looked at each other and I think I asked, "Are we sick? Why were we laughing so hard?"  And other people in the theater, which wasn't very crowded, weren't responding as we were.  So we invited a friend and went back the next night with him to see if he was as 'sick' as we were in thinking this was so hysterically funny. 

Seeing a great movie without knowing anything about it before you go is one of the great joys of watching movies. The same thing happened when I saw The Graduate. I was in Bangkok and just wanted to get out of the heat and went to see this movie I'd never heard of. A common feature between the two is the great music.

Anyway, the Bear Tooth is showing Harold and Maude Monday at 5:30 and 7:45. It's a great chance to see it on a big screen with other people. I don't know how it will hold up over all these years, but if you haven't seen it and you like surprises, irreverence, love, and Cat Stevens, you should go.

And if you know nothing about this movie - DON'T READ ANYTHING BEFORE YOU GO. JUST GO. If someone tries to tell you about it, close your ears and leave.

Meanwhile Cyrano's is doing a stage version. [There's a spoiler in their announcement so don't read it if you haven't seen it.] Not sure how this would translate. Harold and Maude as a movie was perfect. Not sure anyone could improve on it.

Clutter Wars - New Carpet In

J has wanted a new carpet downstairs for years.  It didn't bother me at all.  I thought it worked.  But recently she ordered a new 'green' carpet and then painted the key room it's going in and it was due to arrive in Anchorage about when I got back.  (J stayed in LA a few more days and is due in tonight.)  Well, it got here earlier and there were two phone messages.  So when I called them, yes, it was possible to do it the next day, so yesterday they came and put it in.  I delayed this post so she wouldn't see the post before she saw the actual carpet.  I'm sure she won't have access to the internet before she gets home any more - and she wouldn't be looking here probably anyway. 

Someone could ask why this is in the Clutter War category. It would be a good question. Minimally, we had to clear the floor in the room and hallway and I'm hoping not everything will go back. In fact the sofa bed has been marked for disposal already. We'll see.

More Interesting Google Searches

It used to be that sitemeter would take me to the google page the searcher found and I could see the hits and the other sites the searcher found as well. It also hightlighted the words in each post that were in the search terms. But now I just get sent to the page - or photo if it's an image search - they found. So I have less information about why or how they got here.

But here are some search terms - mostly google - that got people here, my thoughts, and where google delivered them. 

we seen a pigeon egg on the floor what should wed do? - This Manchester searcher got to post on pigeon eggs in a nest in Juneau that had been blocked off, but probably didn't answer the question. Clearly though, one pigeon egg is too small for an omelet.

moral mushrooms - Got them to an archived post on mushrooms, but I'm not sure how moral any of them were. And there wasn't even a morel among them.


colorado house eating tiny insects - OK, so does this mean a Colorado house that is eating tiny insects? Or a house-eating tiny insects? I just got it. Termites. In any case, he got to my post on fruit flies or fungus gnats.

boat powered by a chainsaw The Slovakian searcher got to a post on the Anchorage Weekend Market which included a picture of chainsaw art. But I think using a chain saw to power a boat is much more creative.  (A Canadian has a YouTube up of this 4 foot R/C motor boat powered by a chain saw if you really need to see one, but don't go here unless you're really, really interested.)


how compatible are 5 jan 1982 and 19 nov 1990 born - Eight years apart. Not too bad. But this Australian inquiry didn't get the answer on my post on people born in 1910.


bill allen alaska democrat - Maybe this is totally innocent, but I can't help conjuring up an image of Southern Conservatives (this came from Rocky Mount, North Carolina) turning Allen into a Democrat to show how depraved we are. There's nothing in my post about the sex charges against Allen being dropped that mentions either Republicans or Democrats. The ADN story the post links to does say,

"And he and other officials of Veco Corp. were some the most important sources of campaign contributions for the Alaska Republican Party and its candidates."

But the searcher didn't use the link to read the original.

ufo files denali state park 2009 - I didn't know Denali State Park was a UFO hotspot.  My pictures were from June this year so it never got dark.  But why shouldn't UFO's come by in the day too?  I should have been looking up instead of down at the flowers.  In any case, Google got the searcher to an archive page that came up blank when I searched it for "denali'.


what is jury meandering - Is this where the jury gets bored and they start wandering around the courtroom? This got to a post titled 'meandering' but nothing with a jury in it. Was this supposed to be jury tampering?  Jerrymandering?

art of cloud scavenging women - This Norwegian searcher got to this picture of a lost cloud poster.

unnoticeable earth quack -There's a lot of these characters walking around, but you can't tell since many look like honest citizens.  Anyway, this person got to a post on a noticeable earthquake in Anchorage.

what do americans call rapeseed oil - Got to a post titled, can you guess? What Do Americans Call Rapeseed? This ones from Prescot, Lancashire, UK.  Sometimes people get a bulls eye.

what do americans call sex - another Brit got to the same place.

headline sept 2008 bailout -got this image from Sept. 2008.

is the family doomed - Someone in Cambridge, MA wanted to know and got to my affirmative post - The Family is Doomed.

 


in idaho about how many people know what a blog is - The only logical conclusion they can come to from the post they got is: none. This was called Does Idaho Exist - Why Everyone Should Study Philosophy? And the answer was no.


 


on 12th near commercial drive vancouver tree with red leaves and white seeds flowers in fall - Wow, someone is googling to find out about a specific tree in downtown Vancouver. And the person got this picture, which looks like red leaves, but I think it was a flower from tree at Wat Pa Dara Phirom north of Chiang Mai.  The picture, in this case, has three of the words in the search terms - red tree flower. And they probably caught Vancouver from one of the archived titles.





wrapping japanese - I knew immediately what post they got to - one on Japanese cloth gift wrapping techniques.  And I assume that is what they were looking for.  But the image of someone wrapping up a Japanese man did flash through my head.  And then I saw on stage a group of Japanese rappers.  I'll assume they found what they were looking for.

i was born in alaska can i get the permanent fund money - This googler from a computer in O'Fallon, Illinois wants in on Alaska's oil money.  Being born here isn't enough.  You have to live here.  Mostly.  She got to a post about filing for an application.

opera house in oslo frozen ice -  OK, so googling is something you do in the privacy of your own computer and you don't have to be perfect.  But 'frozen ice'?  As opposed to the unfrozen kind?  Let's give the person a break.  It was from Oakland, California where they never see ice outside the freezer.  The person got to my post on the Norwegian Carl Nesjar's ice sculpture in Anchorage.  (I better check and see if I wrote 'frozen ice.' Whew! I didn't.)


killer bugs a power stamp nasty thorms and im using them - This came from a computer in Tel Aviv.  I'm sure it made sense to the searcher.  He got to a post that did have some nasty thorns, but I'm not sure about the rest of what he was looking for.
  
if u were born in 1909 in diead in 1920 how long ago was that - This one leaves me pretty much speechless.  But Google got this person to a post about people asking how old they would be if they had been born in 1909.

what is alaska's daylight in years -  I don't think this is like "what is Alaska's size in square miles."  Maybe someone else can deconstruct what this person wanted to know.  This surfer got to a page on Alaska's failed bill to end daylight savings time.  Another hint from sitemeter - the location is listed as City:  APO  State:  Armed Forces Pacific.  Maybe it's a soldier who was just assigned to Alaska, or considering Alaska, as a next posting.
  
caution paradigm invisible  - This is just an interesting thought.  I'd like to talk to this searcher to see what the person was thinking.  The result may or may not have been helpful:
Who Cut Off That Invisible Hand: Paradigm Outsiders Needed in Financial Crisis

sex drive shoe tree - some search terms exhaust even my fairly flexible imagination. Google directed this person to an archive page of posts in August 2008. There are three instances of the word drive. There's a 'shoe tree', but no sex.

"Only The Shooter Is To Blame" v "He is an anti-American operative with blood on his hands."

"Only The Shooter Is To Blame" is the title to a letter to the editor in today's Anchorage Daily News. Editors write the titles, but the letter writer does say:

The shootings in Tucson, Ariz., were the actions of one man and one man alone. Not because of Sarah Palin or Glenn Beck or any other conservative voice or anybody who wants stricter gun laws, or, better yet, no guns at all. And anyone who uses the murder of a 9-year- old girl* to make their point needs to re-evaluate their life.

There's been a clear defensiveness by some to deny any possible link between the level of confrontational rhetoric they've been using and violent acts such as the Arizona shooting.

Within hours of the shooting, every news report I heard included a right wing spokesperson strongly proclaiming there was no link between their confrontational  rhetoric and the violence. (I'd note that some left-wing rhetoric has gotten pretty testy too.)

The defensiveness of the right wing on this issue is understandable, because they lay blame on people they attack all the time.   And they knew immediately that they were vulnerable and had to immediately change the focus from themselves to others.  In this case, anyone who might link the violence to them. 

After all, here's what Sarah Palin said on her Facebook page on November 29, 2010:

Assange is not a “journalist,” any more than the “editor” of al Qaeda’s new English-language magazine Inspire is a “journalist.” He is an anti-American operative with blood on his hands. (emphasis mine.)

Aside from the off-the-wall link between Assange and al Qaeda and the insinuation-laden 'operative',  I would just say that Assange didn't tell anyone to do anything.  He merely passed on verbatim what US and other government officials said.  And we have no stories about anyone doing any violence because of the official documents published by Wikileaks.

So, if Palin thinks that Assange has blood on his hands - that publishing official government documents makes him responsible for potential violence by others - she has to believe that her cross hairs map and other provocative rhetoric means she too has blood on her hands - the real (not potential) blood of six dead and 13 wounded. 

But Palin never admits mistakes.  Instead, she deflects attention to her words by attacking her critics and claiming her own victimhood.   "Don't retreat, reload" could be translated as don't admit mistakes, but renew the attack.

"Especially within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn," she said in the video released on her Facebook page. "That is reprehensible."  [BBC report]

Here she is, using inflammatory (dare I say reprehensible?) language to change the subject and to blame someone else, the media, for inciting hatred.  Classic Palin.  (Don't even try to suggest to her that what the media say doesn't matter, because people are responsible for their own hate. )

Now, let's be clear.  I'm NOT blaming Palin for the shooting.

The census says 308 million people live in the US.  I don't know how many of them listened to what could be called inflammatory right wing rhetoric, but there are  3,146,418 registered voters in Arizona, and we know that 3,146,417 of them did NOT go out and shoot a politician because of talk radio or Palin ads. Maybe all of them, since I don't even know whether Loughner is a registered voter.

There are different types of relationships.  Here are a couple of points on the continuum:

• Direct cause and effect - Politician A says "We need to get rid of this politician" and listener B hearing this, gets his gun and shoots the politician.
  
  
• Influence -  No specific factor is the cause by itself, all factors collectively play a role.  Television and video game violence, family relationships, mental health problems, availability of guns, difficulties at school all seem to have been factors.  If you took one away, would it still have happened?  If that one existed without any of the others would it have happened? 
  
  
• No link at all - The politicians may be talking rough, but the shooter has never heard them and didn't even know Giffords was a politician when he shot her.  

Then there's the related, but different concept of 'blame.'

Even if someone's words cause another to do something bad, that doesn't necessarily make the speaker even partially responsible.  But it might - depending on what was said under what conditions.  Telling a woman to steal $10,000 for you or you'll kill her daughter is different from telling someone how to shoot a gun and then the person goes out and kills someone. 

So, I'm not blaming Palin or Beck or anyone but the shooter for the shootings.  But a lot of things did influence what he did, but we don't know enough at this point to know which ones were more important.  If the shooter tells us that he was inspired by a particular website or speech to do the shooting, would that change anyone's minds?



Let's look at this a different way:

Kids in China grow up to speak Chinese. Italian kids learn to speak Italian.

Indonesian kids tend to grow up to be Muslims. Mexican kids tend to grow up to be Christians of some sort.

What's my point?  People do lots of things they don't individually choose to do, but because of the influences of their families, their communities, their cultures. 

Individuals do things because they see and hear things and develop skills and use tools available in their environments.  308 million Americans were NOT influenced to go out and shoot a politician after listening to the rhetoric of people like Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck.   Palin and Beck's rhetoric did not cause Jared Loughner to be mentally ill or violent. Though their anti-government, anti-tax rhetoric may have played a role in Arizona's cutting back mental health funding.  But even at the old spending levels, Loughner may not have gotten care that would have prevented this. 

But the anti-government rhetoric with metaphors involving guns and targets MAY have steered Loughner to take out his personal frustrations on a Democratic politician instead of a community college class or his family. Or nobody at all.

If the national conversations were more focused on issues than on people;  if people with  different views were treated as well-intended but mistaken instead of as evil, un-American enemies, then maybe the shooter would not have shot anyone.  And maybe he would have.

But for someone like Palin who is quick to blame others - such as saying Assange has blood on his hands - to deflect attention to her actions by blaming journalists for a blood libel (has anyone counted how many times she uses the word 'blood'?) against her seems totally disingenuous and calculated.  But I can't know what's inside her head.  Part of me believes that she doesn't see the inconsistency, that logic is not one of her faults.  But the rest of us can compare what she says about her friends and her perceived enemies, even when they do the same thing, and we can see those inconsistencies. As we can and should do with all politicians.




*As an aside, I'd point out that people used the abduction and murder of nine year old  Amber Hagerman to make their point that there needed to be a better way to get police to react to missing children reports.  Because they did, we now have AMBER Alerts.   Again, consistency matters, not whether we agree or not on a particular point.

Now Why Would I Want To Do This?

I guess the glass-half-full view of this is that it is pretty straightforward.   I'm posting it so readers who aren't also bloggers see what kinds of offers we get:

Hey there,

We have been reading the articles on your website <http://whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com/> and are very impressed with the
quality of your information.  [These things always say how great your blog is without anything that is directly related to the blog.  Here at least they stuck in the url.]

We have a team of copywriters who specialise in writing articles on various topics and would like to write an original article for you to use on your website – this article will not be used anywhere else on the Internet.  [Possible translation: We're an advertising company and are looking for cheap web presence. The articles are about travel and driving trips with links to travel insurance or or lube.


In exchange all we ask is that we can have one or two links within the body of the article back to one of our sites. You can view a sample of the quality of our articles at

http://www.insu4less.com.au/blog/

http://www.lubebile.com.au/blog/  [I've left the links out and changed the urls, I really don't want to encourage them]

If you are interested in having us write an article for your website please just let me know and we would be more than  happy to have one written for you within two weeks.


Kind regards,
Patria

This post is to remind you that I only put in links because they're relevant to the post and/ I find them useful and/or interesting. If I do post something someone asked me to post, I'll let you know. If I were to accept some sort of kickback (I never have) I'd let you know. But not all bloggers are like that and people like this are trying to take advantage of them. And you.

Seatac Free Wifi

The sky was blue, the sun was warm, I biked back down to the beach to say good bye.  And now I'm in Seatac (Seattle Tacoma airport) waiting to go on to Anchorage. Last time I tried to get wifi in Seatac you had to pay for it.  But I'd heard that there was now free wifi in Seatac, and there is. 

I try to post about the availability in different airports (now that I think about it, I didn't even try in LA), but remember that things change and check the date. 

They also don't have very many television sets in here so you can sit and relax without the news blasting out at you.  Anchorage Airport - are you listening?  Turn down those tv's.   Better yet, get rid of them. 

Who owns an airline ticket — you or the airline?

That's a question LA Times writer David Lazarus asks in an article today:

That's the intriguing question Santa Monica resident Peter Szabo faced during the holidays when he attempted to use just half of a $435 round-trip ticket that he'd purchased three months earlier from US Airways.

The carrier said Szabo, 32, would need to pay hundreds of dollars more to make just a single leg of the journey.

"Basically, they wanted me to pay an additional $350 to use only half of what I already owned," Szabo told me. "I can't think of another scenario in another industry that would compare. If I buy two tickets to the symphony or a Clippers game but only use one, I don't incur an extra charge."

It's one I've wondered about for a long time.  Any other ticket you buy - whether it's for a movie, a sports event, a play, a train - you can give to someone else to use or even sell if you can't use it.

But you're stuck with airline tickets.  Any changes you want to make, add an extra fee and possible even another fare.  To a certain extent, they could argue that they price tickets to encourage people to buy early, but you could buy early and then find out the fare went down.  And they used to sell bulk tickets to travel agents at lower rates and they could then resell them.  (I don't know if they still do that now that they've tried to cut out travel agents.)

The LA Times article goes through the craziness of the airline ticket policies and is worth reading. 

Meanwhile, it reminds me that we really need an effective organization that represents the needs of airline travelers.  I'm sure a good one would get lots of members.  Some organizations that represent airline passengers:

Flyers Rights - An organization that, according to its website, was founded in 2006 by Hanni to get the Airline Passenger Bill of Rights passed.  The website looks good and has interesting information, but also has gaps - not all pages have tabs to get back to other pages.  Travel Weekly published a critical article about Flyers Rights, but Travel Weekly is a travel industry website, so they have a vested interest in not having strong consumer groups. 

The Association for Airline Passenger Rights began in 2008. 

The purpose of the AAPR shall be to educate policymakers on travel-related information important to airline passengers, improve accessibility for passengers with disabilities and protect the consumer rights and responsibilities of airline passengers. Prior to AAPR, every aspect of the airline industry was represented in Washington, DC except for the people who pay the bills - airline passengers! The airlines, pilots, flight attendants, service crews, and air traffic controllers are all represented, and now AAPR will level the playing field by representing the interests of airline passengers.

The US Department of Transportation has a list of publications for airline passengers online.

The Airline Travelers' Association website is sparse and isn't accepting new members, so I wasn't even going to mention it, until I found this blog post that even questions whether it really represents passengers or airlines.

Pier Review

I've been going by Venice Pier at the end of Washington Blvd. on the bike while I've been here and today I decided to get off the bike and walk to the end of the pier.

Beachcalifornia.com has a brief description of the pier and some pictures.  Here's the beginning:

"Venice Pier, the 1310 foot wonder thatt's [sic] survived storms, weathering and a few earthquakes during its current lifespan (built in 1997), was reopened in 2006 after yet another devastating blow had closed it due to structural concerns."

Watching a wave break to the north of the pier.

Two officials walking on the pier. 

Although it was cloudy, it was very clear below the clouds.  Here's Catalina from the pier.

Looking south toward Marina del Rey. 

Out to the end of the pier.
















Ocean foam from the pier.

Looking back at Venice Beach from the pier.

Here's from 360Cities  (which gives an embed code and permission for non-commercial sites to use it)



Venice Beach Pier in Los Angeles [UPDATE: Pier Review 2, about a year later, has some amazing big surf from above shots.]


UPDATE:  Here's Pier Review 2 with some big waves.   And more waves from Venice Pier with my better camera.  And finally Rafael catching a great white shark from the end of Venice Pier.