Montebello E-News

 October 9, 2008 

A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835 – 1910,
better known by the pen name "Mark Twain", was an American humorist, satirist, lecturer and writer.  Twain is most noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has since been called the "Great American Novel", and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. He is also known for his quotations. During his lifetime, Twain became a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists and European royalty. 

[Do we see how this ties to “Unkind Words” in last week’s E-News?  If Twain’s remark points to a centuries-long trend, we might conclude that we habitually try to avoid intellectual labor, deep thought.  Technology becomes another way for us to avoid.]  

1.  Are We Fooling Ourselves?

2.  The Beat of a Different Drummer, Part 5

3. Announcements

4. Fun Facts about Women

5. The Flashback Quarterback:  Who Loves You, Baby?

6. Be Aware and Share:  The Things Which We Do Not Know about Ourselves

7. About Montebello E-News and “My Montebello”

Are We Fooling Ourselves?

Arctic Has 90bn Barrels of Crude
by Carola Hoyos, July 23 2008  

The Arctic holds as much as 90bn [billion] barrels of undiscovered oil and has as much undiscovered gas as all the reserves known to exist in Russia, US government scientists have said in the first governmental assessment of the region’s resources.  

The report is likely to add impetus to the race among polar nations, such as Russia, the US, Denmark, Norway and Canada, for control of the region. ...  Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008 http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8b73777a-58e1-11dd-a093-000077b07658.html  

Are we fooling ourselves?  We might relax at the thought that there would be more oil, but what are possible, even probable, consequences of extra oil?  

·        war, as countries try to claim oil reserves;

·        procrastination by energy-sector leaders, that is, big oil companies, in making a big move to alternative fuels;  a short-term fix gives them reason to postpone what is prudent for the public;

·        less concern over conservation;  expect old driving and buying habits to return.

If you answer the multiple-choice questions below and e-mail to lessonanswers@mymontebello.com with “Lesson answers” in the subject field, you will be credited toward a “certificate of recognition in community affairs” to be awarded in 2008 by a local nonprofit organization. 

1. What is the news?

(a) There is more oil than previously thought.

(b) The Arctic ice cap is growing.

2. Why is this news not good news?

(a) The chance of war increases.

(b) People will have less reason to adopt good conversation habits.

(c) The oil companies will have more reason to postpone conversion to alternative fuels.

If a man loses pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured, or far away.
Henry David Thoreau, July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862,
 was an American author, naturalist, transcendentalist, tax resister, development critic, sage writer and philosopher. He is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay, “Civil Disobedience”, an argument for individual resistance to civil government in moral opposition to an unjust state.

…We have valued grades and scores more than learning. We have forgotten to teach you that all understanding begins with wonder and with following unexpected discovery in unknown directions. We have tried to stomp the wonder out of you by getting you to choose a track and stick with it. We have asked you to excel in every endeavor and to avoid anything that might diminish your record of excellence. When we rewarded you only for following all of our rules and not for making any of your own, we did more to close your minds than to open them. … I am sorry that we have taught you to value economic success over passionate engagement with your work. …  http://www.theroot.com/id/46623
Melissa Harris-Lacewell  

If you were to combine the two quotations above, what would you conclude?  That we have taken the “different drummer” out of the classroom?  

Let us continue our respite from talking about problems by talking about solutions.  Here is another story from Tactics of Hope:  

It may sound strange to say, but Katrina actually accelerated our understanding of what could be accomplished by local entrepreneurs in Louisiana.  I [Tim Williamson] as called into the state capital, Baton Rouge, and met with the Southern Women’s Action Network (SWAN), right after coming home from the storm.  With $100,000 and a firm blessing from SWAN, we took to the streets, searching for, identifying, and rewarding female entrepreneurs who were starting up business again.  There was so much rubble and decay… .  We all felt tattered, distraught and isolated from the rest of the country.  Yet here was reason for extreme faith that we would resurrect urban life again.  It came not from the government, but from the streets, the local entrepreneurs.  One by one we found individuals who were giving reason for life, to begin again.  

Creative destruction as an economic force is sometimes too difficult for people to internalize when they have lost so much, especially when the government has done so little to revitalize the well-being of families, neighborhoods and entire cities. ... I became witness to an incredible display of hope not covered by the news.  As I walked the streets still covered in the brown crust of floodwater, I found incredible displays of entrepreneurship, individuals who with pride and dignity were starting and reviving their businesses. ...  

We raised $500,000 in those early months after the storm.  We called it the Pay-It-Forward fund, lending start-up capital to individuals, who after succeeding with their business would repay the loan forward for the next entrepreneur to benefit from.  The funds came from outside donors and investors who believed in and trusted us.  Investors weren’t sure where their funds would go if they gave to the government, considering FEMA’s lackluster and uncoordinated strategies. ...

FOR EVERYONE.  Salt of the earth.  The REAL problems with salt are: 1- What kind of salt is being eaten, 2- How much salt is eaten, and 3- Where it's coming from.  The kind of salt most people have in their shakers is processed table salt. It's addictive and extremely acid-forming to the body.  During processing, it's heated to 1,200 degrees F--that's hot enough to melt cast iron! This causes negative changes to the natural structure of the minerals, and makes it very hard for your body to break down and eliminate any excess salt. Wow...Get this - For every gram of processed salt your body can't get rid of, it uses 23 times the amount of water to neutralize the salt. And all that excess fluid swishing around can lead to cellulite, arthritis, gout and kidney and bladder stones. The salt that our ancestors ate was a salt in its naturally occurring form--potassium alkali salts, found in non-grain plants. Unlike table salt, they're not highly processed; they're alkaline to the body and have other essential minerals like potassium and calcium. ...  From the July 8, 2008, newsletter of Holistic Blends Inc., http://www.greattastenopain.com.

I am so impressed.  

In the year 1007 a Japanese noble woman, Murasaki Shikibu, wrote the world's first full novel. Called "The Tale of Genji," it tells the story of a prince looking for love and wisdom. In its English translation it covers fifty-four chapters over 1,000 pages of text.  

The author who wrote the most novels ever also is a women. Dame Barbara Cartland (7/1/1901 - 5/21/2000) completed a novel every two weeks, publishing more than seven hundred twenty-three novels, which sold more than one  billion copies in thirty-six languages, making her the best-selling novelist of all time.  

The record for the fastest selling book of all time is also held by a woman: Joanne Rowling (b. 31 July 1965) - she has no middle name - writer under the pen name JK Rowling. Her Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and final book of the Harry Potter series, sold 11 million copies within 24 hours. It bettered the record of 9 million copies sold in the first day held by the sixth Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. In fact, the last four books in the series had set the record for fastest-selling book within 24 hours. Ten years after the first installment, some 340 million fans have bought Harry Potter books, ensuring that a woman becoming the world's first billionaire by writing books.  http://www.didyouknow.cd/words/firstnovel.htm

Remember what has been said about getting together with friends to establish the facts before deciding one way or another on an issue?  With regard to what is below, on whose side would you come?  The only correct answer at this point, as indicated by the passage which I have highlighted below, is, “I won’t know until friends and I look this over.”

This analysis of confidential data on Medicare Part D and Medicaid drug prices shows that the private Medicare Part D insurers pay significantly higher prices for prescription drugs than does the Medicaid program. In the case of the six million dual eligible beneficiaries, the Medicare Part D insurers paid $3.7 billion more in 2006 and 2007 to purchase the top 100 drugs for dual eligible beneficiaries than they would have paid if they had access to the lower Medicaid drug prices. This increase in costs represents a windfall to drug manufacturers. … From Democrats, US House of Representatives, http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20080724101850.pdf

The Part D benefit was designed to offer choice in prescription drug insurance, value for seniors through low negotiated prices, and overall low program costs for taxpayers. It is achieving those goals and exceeding expectations. The Majority report fails to recognize these benefits and instead makes inappropriate and unrealistic price comparisons. Politically appealing but substantively flawed changes like those advocated by the Majority would have serious implications for the prices paid by employers, unions, health care providers, and the uninsured. Likewise, changing the financial incentives in Part D could have a negative impact in the type of drug research and development that is conducted. … From Republicans, US House of Representatives, http://republicans.oversight.house.gov/Media/PDFs/20080723PartDReport.pdf

To understand the basis for the problems with the Medicare Part D drug benefit, you need only to recall that the program was designed by the Medicare privatizers in Congress, with the support of two of the largest lobby interests in the nation: the private insurers and the pharmaceutical firms. ... This example shows once again that health policy science is not complicated. It's the politics that are so difficult. One side is represented by individuals who want everyone to have affordable access to the health care that they need, and the other side is more interested in enhancing the private sector through measures such as ensuring windfall profits for the pharmaceutical firms.  One thing great about America is that it is our choice... but we do have to make a greater effort to be certain that everyone is making an informed choice.  From advocate Don McCanne, a retired physician, “Quote-of-the-Day”, July 25, 2008.

We might shake our heads at the donnybrooks in the legislative houses of other countries, imagining to ourselves how much better our democracy worked.  Then we learn tidbits like the following:  

Charles Sumner, January 6, 1811 – March 11, 1874, was an American politician and statesman from Massachusetts. An academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the antislavery forces in Massachusetts and a leader of the Radical Republicans in the United States Senate during the American Civil War and Reconstruction along with Thaddeus Stevens, who filled that role in the United States House of Representatives. ...  

In 1856, during the Bleeding Kansas crisis when "border ruffians" approached Lawrence, Kansas, Sumner denounced the Kansas-Nebraska Act in the "Crime against Kansas " speech on May 19 and May 20, two days before the sack of Lawrence. Sumner attacked the authors of the act, Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois and Andrew Butler of South Carolina, comparing Butler to Don Quixote and Douglas to Sancho Panza. He also ridiculed Butler for a speech impediment.  

... Most serious was his extreme insult of Butler as having taken "a mistress who, though ugly to others, is always lovely to him; though polluted in the sight of the world, is chaste in his sight—I mean, the harlot, Slavery." Not content to leave his assault on a political level, Sumner's three hour oration took a very personal and cruel turn as he began to mock the 59 year-old Butler 's manner of speech and physical mannerisms, both of which were impaired by a stroke that Butler had suffered earlier.  

Two days later, on the afternoon of May 22, Preston Brooks, a congressman from South Carolina and Butler's nephew, confronted Sumner as he sat writing at his desk in the almost empty Senate chamber. Brooks was accompanied by Laurence M. Keitt also of South Carolina and Henry A. Edmundson of Virginia. Brooks said "Mr. Sumner, I have read your speech twice over carefully. It is a libel on South Carolina, and Mr. Butler, who is a relative of mine." As Sumner, who was six feet and four inches tall, began to stand up, Brooks began beating Sumner severely on the head with a thick gutta-percha cane with a gold head. Sumner was trapped under the heavy desk (which was bolted to the floor), but Brooks continued to bash Sumner until he ripped the desk from the floor. By this time, Sumner was blinded by his own blood, and he staggered up the aisle and collapsed, lapsing into unconsciousness. Brooks continued to beat Sumner until he broke his cane, then quietly left the chamber. Several other senators attempted to help Sumner, but were blocked by Keitt who was holding a pistol and shouting "Let them be!" ...  Wikipedia

To learn about this newsletter, Montebello E-News, and the accompanying, growing Web site, “My Montebello”, visit www.mymontebello.com.  Also, you will find instructions and contact information for submitting announcements for publication in this newsletter, and for submitting stories to “Montebello Memories” at the Web site.