The Blaisdell Blog

I have come close to getting kicked out of one or two places, almost none of which involved alcohol.   Among them, is the time we were touring the site of a huge earthen, “saddle” dam in Hemet , California .   The series of dams being constructed would eventually create Diamond Valley Lake .   This reservoir almost doubles the surface storage area of Southern California and provides a six month emergency supply in case of an earthquake. At the time we were on tour we were being apprised of the efforts being made to preserve a particular, obscure species of ground squirrel.               While it was assumed that everyone present was squarely in the squirrel’s camp, I was taking an economist’s view of things.   It turns out that this particular type of squirrel was so picky about its breeding parameters (I can only wish that some of people had the same instincts.) that it was well on the road to ex...

Derek Jeter retired this year as the shortstop of the New York Yankees.   His final contract was for $12,000,000.   In contrast, my last contract as the principal of a large elementary school was just short of $80,000.   In our last year of employment, Mr. Jeter made 150 times more money that I.    Now, if I were one of the pouting, petulant, whining types, I would say that this isn’t fair (no, “ faaaaaaaaaiiiiiir ”).   Jeter and I should be paid the saaaaaame .   I’m as impooooooortan t as he is.   This, of course, is bullshit.   Is Jeter worth $12 million?   They paid him that amount so, by definition, he is.   On the other hand, I doubt Mr. Jeter could take a room of 32 sixth graders of uneven talent, preparation or even simple luck and teach them for an entire year with the success I had.   To be able to teach well is a rarer skill than most people think, but the fact is that more people are qualified to teach tha...

[I published this column a year ago, and it was picked up by the local paper.   Dad, this one’s for you.]   There is a photograph on the wall of my sister’s home that is both precious and haunting to me.   It is a restored, blown up and framed photo of my father on his way to the South Pacific during World War II.   It was taken by an Army photographer from a small tender craft as my Dad’s ship, the S.S. Monterey, left harbor.   In a happy accident, the picture was taken with a close up of Pfc. Frank G. Yatckoske front and center.   He is in the midst of a host of soldiers leaning over the rail, all smiling and mugging for the camera.   My father is leaning out from the rest, his arms braced on the rail of the ship, his smile—a straight, wide grin filled with mischief—is set in a young, lean, handsome face.   Every man on that ship seems filled with enthusiasm, bonhomie, even a sense of adventure. Those poor young men didn’t have a cl...

We were having some repair work done on our motor home in San Antonio a while back, and had to take our meals out.   As a result, we had both breakfast and lunch at two separate diners.   Nothing fancy, just food.   In both cases we ended up sitting at a booth next to a young mother, her toddler and two older women who could have been siblings or friends.   One child was a boy, the other a girl.   Both were clean and well cared for.   Both were about the same age and both were Hispanic.   In both cases, we were eating in blue collar neighborhoods where money was not missing, but dear.               As both meals progressed, it became evident that the two children were surrounded by two entirely different types of parents.   The baby girl (at breakfast) was talked to and played with by the women with her.   She smiled and interacted with all of them.   The boy (at lunch) ...

Today is Election Day.   Oddly, I am not going to ask you to vote.   [More on that later.] Voting patterns are interesting; some are predictable, others present a mystery.   For example, why do Minnesotans vote more than anyone else in the country?   Why are Texas and West Virginia , two states with nothing in common in size, geography or demographics, at the bottom of that list of voters?   If you are female, older, and well educated you are more likely to vote.   Eighteen to 29 year-olds are the least engaged—strange for people who are sure they know it all.   Hispanics vote the least, followed closely by blacks.   Why would any citizen not vote?                If I had my way, every eligible citizen would be given a free picture ID, periodically updated with no more than a 7 year old picture and a valid address which they would use to vote.   Voting should be easy...

Today is Election Day.   Oddly, I am not going to ask you to vote.   [More on that later.] Voting patterns are interesting; some are predictable, others present a mystery.   For example, why do Minnesotans vote more than anyone else in the country?   Why are Texas and West Virginia , two states with nothing in common in size, geography or demographics, at the bottom of that list of voters?   If you are female, older, and well educated you are more likely to vote.   Eighteen to 29 year olds are the least engaged—strange for people who are sure they know it all.   Hispanics vote the least, followed closely by blacks.   Why would any citizen not vote?                If I had my way, every eligible citizen would be given a free picture ID, periodically updated with no more than a 7 year old picture and a valid address which they would use to vote.   Voting should be ea...

Halloween used to be a children’s holiday.   In an Eisenhower-era America Halloween was a chance for children (usually about 10 and under) to dress in silly costumes, parade the neighborhood for candy and defy our fears by making fun of ghosts, goblins and other ghoulies.   Mom would put a paper sack over our heads, cut out some precarious eye holes (probably the scariest part of the whole evening).   She would dress us warm, throw us out the door and tell us to stay together.   That was it.   We would come home an hour later, cold but with a city block’s worth of treats in our sacks. The worst thing that could happen was forgetting at which house the Jehovah’s Witnesses lived.   [ The small white stucco at the top of a steep set of overgrown stairs on the hilly side of the block .]   That place was always a disappointment.   You went up the hill and only got a copy of the Watchtower for your trouble.    The best place to go was t...

The United States Constitution is a document so beautiful that it implies divine intervention.    It is the law of the land.   Simple in form and only 4 pages long in its original hand written form, it created our government, allowed for change, and, most important of all, preserved to the states all matters not mentioned in the Constitution itself.    This preservation of power for the states is a key part of the document, and it does so with both subtlety and grace.    For example, in Article 4, Section 4 the constitution states, “The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government.” The states are guaranteed the right to their own representative body of government.   Laws are not only to be made by the states, but their right to do so is guarded by the federal government.   There is a clear implication that the government will always be answerable to the people.   The consummate good ...

The world is too heavy today; let’s take a walk on the light side. The Huffington Post had a fluff piece (oh, God, the double entendre has started already) a week or so ago about the meanings, deliberations and judgments concerning the practice of women shaving—well—ummh—parts, yes, let’s call them parts!   Ignoring the frequently heated comments that accompanied this article, and excusing the questionable subject matter to begin with, what I immediately thought of was, of all things, my mother.   No, not for the reason you might think.   Read on. My mother was a Victorian leaning woman in all matters save those economic and vocational.   She thought all women should work outside the home and keep a tight eye on income and outgo.   She had a paying job every day of her life, trained more than one of her bosses and expected each of us girls to pay for our own clothes and transportation the day we got our first paycheck.   Beyond that, however, she wa...

The next time someone tells you that Republican funding cuts are at fault for our anemic response to Ebola, please tell them they are either liars or the unthinking dupes of liars.   Here are some hard facts: (1)   In 2000, at the beginning of the Bush administration, the CDC budget was $26 billion.   By 2006 it was $30 billion.   In the last gasp of the Bush administration, it allocated an extra $10 billion that went into effect in 2009. (2) The Obama administration has consistently requested cuts in CDC funding, specifically as late as the 2013 and 2014 budgets.   (3) In January, the Republican-controlled House passed legislation that increased CDC spending for 2014 by $567 million which is $300 million more than was requested by President Obama.   (4) Since the passage of Obamacare, the CDC has received a dedicated stream of $3 billion/year from the Affordable Care Act as additional funds.   They have chosen to spend less t...

On October 25, 1415, Henry V of England laid some serious hurt on the French at the Battle of Agincourt at Pas-de-Calais , France .   Part of the success of this campaign was due to Henry’s use of the longbow, but part of it also goes to the creative use of military indentures.   These legal contracts required all of the English captains to provide specified amounts of men, material and time to the King’s cause.             An indenture was a document, written in duplicate and then torn along a jagged line, like little teeth ( dents ), in the paper.   One portion of the contract was in possession of each party and when the required conditions and period of service were fulfilled, the parts reunited and the debt was considered paid.   Many of the people who first came to this country from England came as indentured servants, worked off their debt and became the backbone of the country.   ...

Nine thousand years ago a man died along the Columbia River .   About 40 years old, he stood 5 feet 7 inches tall and his 160 pounds were all lean, compact strength.   He was no stranger to injury.   In his life, he had skull injuries, 5 broken ribs and a spear point lodged in his pelvic bones.   In each case, he recovered, which means he had someone to care for him.   At the time of his death, cause unknown, he was buried with dignity.                He is called Kennewick Man.   He came to North America long before the peoples currently called Native Americans arrived.   DNA evidence proves he is not related to them.   If there is a real, “first” American, it is this man, most closely related to two far flung groups: Polynesians and the Ainu of Japan.   If you are a Native American, and think you have an historic right of ownership to North America , look over your s...

The idea of helping people disabled by accident or illness is a good plan.   It allows us to both express our better angels and give back some of the benefits which come from living in the richest country in the world.   But the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, and a bureaucracy is Hell incarnate.             I doubt that the first plans for disability payments included the possibility, nor even the probability , of spending $260 billion per year on 14 million people.   But there is no, “Murphy’s Law” addendum added to legislation.   While you may want to do good, others just want to do well.             The types of diagnoses that make up disability have changed a great deal.   In 1961 heart disease topped the charts with 25% of all disabled.   By 2011 that group only made up 10% of disabled individuals, and had fallen to third...

Omar Gonzalez spent the last year or so telling friends that the government was trying to spy on him.   He was sure people were trying to break into his home.   He put his cell phone in a microwave.   Gonzalez would have been just one more increasingly crazy street person, until September 19 th when he decided he had to tell the President that the atmosphere was collapsing.   At that point, Omar became the luckiest man in America .   I can imagine no other explanation for why he is not dead.   Mr. Gonzalez, armed with a knife, leaped over the fence at the White House.   Despite the presence of Secret Service personnel, trained guard dogs, locks, barriers, and snipers all evidently on stand down because—well—force is so…so…Republican, Gonzalez sprinted across the lawn, and through the North Portico door.   He over-powered a guard at the door, ran through the foyer and on into the East Room where he was finally subdued.   Thankfully, he ig...

Under a microscope an Ebola virus reminds me of a sailor’s double half hitch.   It is a virus of African origin, a hemorrhagic fever, meaning it causes intense bleeding, frequently from every orifice of the body, in the later stages of the disease.   There is no cure and no vaccine (what we are trying is only in an experimental stage).   It has a mortality rate of from 90% to 60% depending on the medical care a patient receives and the simple luck of ones DNA.   The virus, like all viruses, is designed to live on.   A man who has survived Ebola can transmit the virus in his semen for up to seven weeks after he is declared, “cured.”   Like HIV, which also began in equatorial Africa (face it, those moist, warm, dense forests are natures Petri dish) Ebola virus disease (EVD) typically emerges periodically in small villages of Central and West Africa , near tropical rainforests.    Ebola’s natural host is probably the fruit bats of the tropics....