The Written Word

Yesterday Ole Blue The Heretic posted about literacy and it’s decline in the modern world. The Literate and Illiterate War

I fear that the implied conclusions; that despite the shocking sums our nation spends upon education we are getting less able to comprehend the written word, may just be true. It is a disturbing concept to contemplate.

I fear that it just may be true because of a surreal experience I had at work a couple of years ago.

I work for a large and formal institution. One of my major functions in that environment is the writing of factual information that is provided to the general public. This institution prides itself on employing the very best and brightest, and in my view the culture is such that those who do not meet that very high standard are very quickly let go, or leave on their own due to the stress involved with trying to meet the expected mark.

My surreal experience from a couple of years ago came when I attended some writing classes offered by the institution that employs me. The classes were designed to teach us how to write for the fourth grade reading level.

These classes were provided because the institution had learned that the average person could read and comprehend adequately at that level, but no higher. It was suggested that if we wanted to be understood, we had better ‘dumb ourselves down.’

Clear and reasoned thinking requires language. Without adequate words we cannot reach correct conclusions based upon rational thought, nor communicate those conclusions to others. Language is the basis of thought, the basis of human existence at any level above barbarism.

If we loose language, we loose our ability for thought. If we ‘dumb down’ our language we restrict our ability to think. Indeed, our mastery of words is the most important capacity possessed by humanity. That we, as individuals, would allow ourselves to loose our mastery of language is unthinkable to me. That any normal adult would allow himself or herself to remain illiterate our even to remain at a fourth grade reading level is shocking to me.

Words are the richness of humanity, without their mastery we miss out on so very much.

Just a quick run through my little blogroll shows this. In addition to The Heretic we have Honey, A Girl in Short Shorts, Cascade Exposures, and One Minute Writer.

Ms. Honey writes of love, intimacy, and a delightful pervyness that adds tremendous color to everyday life. A Girl in Short Shorts communicates complex and dull political theory in an entertaining and humorous way. Cascade Exposures is a photography blog, it communicates via images, yet even so it requires words for without words the images would loose important context and perspective. One Minute Writer is a simple and fun tool that will help to improve mastery of language for those who use it.

Each of these sites, and the communicators behind them understand the importance of words, of literacy. It is disturbing to me that apparently so many in our society do not.

Damp But Not Drowned

Last Friday we had a little flood here at my house. Today we had a big one. Roughly five inches of rain in the past 24 hours on top of all the rain we have received over the past week pushed the Skykomish River well over its banks.

Luckily, for the second time in a row, my home wasn’t damaged, and I believe that all of my neighbors have survived the flood as well. It all started about 6:00 AM when I awoke to a view of water covering all the lowland to the south of my house, with much more obviously on the way.

Unlike last Friday I was unable to post periodic updates here because I was needed to help evacuate a friend and his possessions from that lowland. That took a bit of the day and when I was done it was time to start moving some of my own things to the higher ground behind my house.

All the while time seemed to crawl as we watched the water rise and rise, waiting for 4 PM, the time when the National Weather Service said that the River would crest here. Luckily it did before doing major damage, and better yet about an hour early. It’s been going down since then, and I imagine will be back in its banks by afternoon tomorrow.

There is, unfortunately only one road in and out of the tiny community I live in, and one section of that road did suffer fairly severe damage today, and remains impassable tonight. With luck a crew will be here to fix it in the morning, and with a bit more luck the fix will not take long.

The Skykomish, and ultimately the Snohomish Rivers below me continue rising tonight, and major flooding is predicted in the valleys. I can only hope that the people living downstream get off as lucky as we did here.

The Republican Party 3

Relatively smart people, the people who run our nation, from both parties, understand that this nation needs large numbers of immigrants if our economy is to survive. We need the population growth that immigration brings for it increases the scarcity and therefore value of all American investments. Homes, stocks, gold, bonds, assets of every kind and class.

This is why despite years upon years of politicians screaming about the need to close our boarders, to stop illegal immigration; no effective step to do so has ever taken place.

Do we, as voters truly believe that if our federal government wanted to stop the flow of illegal immigrants it doesn’t have the resources or the knowledge to do so? The very thought is absurd. Illegal immigration continues because our leaders, from both parties, understand that if it is stopped our economic engine will fail.

We need immigrants. It would be better if all were here legally, but increasing the quotas for legal immigration is political suicide, so instead our politicians simply refuse to effectively enforce our laws against undocumented immigration. A very odd, but effective solution.

The trouble with all of this is that a large, and vocal segment of the Republican Party has worked to perfect the art of the vicious attack upon immigrants. They are lied about, their effect upon the economy is lied about, they are made scapegoats for perceived cultural decline, and blamed for bloated local government budgets. To an extent, blocs within both parties do this, but the bloc within the Republican Party is I think larger, and I know much more vocal.

Needless to say, immigrants do not much enjoy this. It’s just no fun having your teeth verbally kicked in each and every day. Such unfair and unreasonable verbal abuse leads to anger, lots and lots of anger.

I firmly believe that the vast majority of our immigrants from Mexico and other Central American countries are conservative. They work hard bettering themselves. They raise families. They attend church. Many of them, perhaps even most of them are natural fits for the Republican Party.

Our Hispanic population could be a large and vibrant part of the Republican Party, could bring millions of voters to our ranks, for our candidates. We should, as a party, be courting this population, recognizing the benefits it brings to our nation, and welcoming it with open arms.

Instead we bitch about immigration, we assign blame for the problems we have caused to immigrants. It’s no wonder that they vote against us by very large percentages.

Are we as a party willing to give up our easy scapegoat in order to start winning elections again? I certainly hope so.

The Republican Party 2

I think that most Americans instinctually understand that theocracy is evil. More than 200 years of religious freedom seems to have seeped into our basic understanding of life, and the areas of it in which government must not tread.

I think also though that great numbers of Americans fear that the Republican Party is seeking to create a theocracy right here in the United States. I don’t think that is true for the party as a whole, but I do think that the fears are justified, because certainly a large segment of the party, the fundamentalist social conservatives, are trying to do just that. They are trying to create an American theocracy, and they see the Republican Party, and their power within it, as the vehicle in which to do so.

Anti-gay
Anti-gay marriage
Anti-abortion
Anti-pornography
Anti-death with dignity
Anti-sex education

Pro-prayer in schools
Pro-taxpayer funded faith based social programs
Pro-taxpayer funded private schools
Pro-abstinence education
Pro-F.C.C. airwaves regulation

This is their platform, a platform they have been increasingly successful in getting the Republican Party as a whole to adopt. Unfortunately for Republican moderates, traditional conservatives, libertarians, and economic conservatives it also is a platform that spells doom for our party at the ballot box. Most Americans just don’t agree with it. More importantly, most Americans are afraid of such a platform, and what it would mean for our nation. Americans fear theocracy, and are right to do so.

In this time of party rebuilding Republicans need to think long and hard about these issues. We need to decide if our party is to stand for smaller, smarter, more efficient, and limited government, or if it is to stand for bloated theocracy. Government ala Leviticus, or government ala Jefferson.

I stand with the latter. I believe that the overwhelming number of Americans do as well. I hope that the rest of my party wakes up soon.

Red, White, and Blue

Blog colors today, in honor of Veterans Day.

My heartfelt and sincere thanks to each and every veteran, the men and women who gave so much to protect and preserve the freedoms we all enjoy.

A Girl In Short Shorts

Becky C. provides a daily dose of classically liberal thought in a unique and entertaining manner on her blog Just A Girl In Short Shorts Talking About Whatever.

A chance to read, ponder, learn, and laugh. What could be better than that?

The Republican Party

The Republican Party, my Republican Party, is in horrible shape following our most recent elections. It has lost the support of the American people, and party leaders don’t seem to have any idea why, or how that support can be regained.

I think that there are a number of things the party must to do become relevant once again, and perhaps in time I will post about all of them here. Today I intend upon writing about only one of the problems my party is facing.

That problem is it’s current lack of inclusion. Not all that long ago the Republican Party prided itself on being a ‘big tent’ where everyone could feel welcome, where everyone was welcome. That is not the case now, and the party is worse off because of it.

Gay men will find no welcome home in the Republican Party, unless of course they are hidden deeply in the closet, and prepared if found out to swear that they aren’t really gay, Satan made them sin in such a horrible way.

Lesbians will find no welcome home in the Republican Party, unless of course we consider the sexual fantasies of Republican Congressmen everywhere, and their delight in dreaming of two lipstick lesbians in passionate embrace.

Swingers will find no welcome home in the Republican Party, even if they are married to the ever so striking Jeri Ryan.

The Polyamorous will find no welcome home in the Republican Party; its a slippery slope from “group marriage to bestiality” says one Republican State Senator to another.

Those who mix a dab of pain with their pleasure, the ever adventurous Sadomasochists will find no welcome home in the Republican Party, unless of course it’s a husband spanking his stay at home wife, for non erotic reasons, because God said that ‘man is the head of woman.’

Those who make amateur porn will find no welcome home in the Republican Party, because porn is a ‘horrible addiction that destroys lives, families, and society.’

The current Republican Party, my Republican Party is positively obsessed with sex. Sex is almost all the party leadership can think about. Who you fuck and how you fuck. Those are now the litmus tests for being a ‘good Republican.’

This is of course nonsense. Gay men can care deeply about limiting government. Lesbians can value their Second Amendment Rights. Swingers can support a strong national defense. Polyfolk can stand for law and order. Sadomasochists can hope for lower taxes. Amateur porn stars can support family values. Unfortunately, none are particularly welcome to do so within the Republican Party.

It seems to me that the party is so very busy making those who pursue alternative sexualities unwelcome that it hasn’t bothered to notice just how many such folks are out there. Hasn’t bothered to notice that the party has driven millions of people from it’s own base.

Perhaps someday our party leaders will figure this out.

Perhaps someday Republicans will start getting some good sex, so that they can stop obsessing about the good sex other people are getting.

Sex, who you fuck and how you fuck, should not be a concern of any political party, sex and politics just aren’t all that closely related. When the Republican Party, when my Republican Party figures this out, it will start to regain some of the support is has lost these recent years.

The Falls

Photographer Jan Bussey was in my neighborhood today, capturing the deep winter water as it cascades over the Falls.

It was a gray afternoon at Sunset Falls

Fire And Flesh

An all-consuming fire, controlled only with tremendous care, dangerous heat, rolling flames. Orange, blue, white, and red, even the vapors burn, all is consumed, all reduced to ash, to nothingness. Anything placed within the crucible quickly changed, quickly consumed, quickly burned to nothingness. Everything touched by the fire suffers this same fate, this same plunge toward nothingness.

A woman’s lust, passion, desire, controlled only by her will, through her care, hot, dangerous, propelling her forward when it is released, propelling her to consume as it seeks satisfaction. Hot, quick, wet, unstoppable, a need so raw, a lust fully given sway, her lover to be consumed by her, reduced to ash by her, to nothingness by her. Her lover changed, spent, by her touch, her ministrations, he quickly reduced by the pleasure she takes, the sensation she gives. A passionate plunge to nothingness, to the little death, at her hands, through her body, by her lust.

Such encounters, such a woman, such passion, such lust, these we seek. Never a woman cold, unexcited, uninteresting, vanilla, devoid of passion, without lust. Such women, such encounters leave us cold, cannot spark our interest, cannot satisfy our desire. Only a woman sizzling, excited, clear in her desires, at peace with her lusts, flowing with passion, only such a woman can truly excite.

We seek a woman like the fire. A woman who gives heat, who must control her lusts lest they rule her, a woman who consumes, who leaves us spent, who violently finds her own satisfaction, her own pleasure, giving us ours in turn. Wet, raw, lustful, consuming us, reducing us to ash, reducing us to nothingness. A passionate plunge we may take together. It is she we seek, she we desire, she we need.

No Second Drafts

When I started this blog, not so very long ago, I decided that I must live by two rules:

Honesty. I needed to put my personal truth into this blog.

No drafts. I did not want to re-write endlessly, to loose my personal truth while searching for the perfect word, the proper phrase.

When this blog is read it is as it came directly from mind to Mac. No rewrites, no revisions, no second drafts. The writing would likely be better if that were not the case, perhaps much better. Some part of my truth would though be lost. That truth which I cannot sacrifice here.

Crush

A question was asked on Honey’s Hive today: “Tell me about your first crush.”

The answer I left there:

Is it terrible that I honestly don't think I can remember? Perhaps there were too many, perhaps the memories have become tangled.

Is not a crush, that first early passion for another, one of the most amazing feelings in the world?

Should we limit crushes to childhood, to young adulthood?

Shouldn't we as adults live free, free to experience crushes, free to discover new love, free to explore that first bloom of passion for and with another?

I think that I am blessed for I love easily, have loved often, and been loved in return.

Of course in time the crush fades, love matures or dies. We cant however loose it, for it lives on in our memories forever.

Land And Water

As I look out my window this morning there is land where land should be, and water where water should be.

Floods in the mountains are quite violent but short-lived. Unlike the lowlands we do not suffer flooding for days or weeks at a time.

Final Flood Report

The river has fallen, the danger has passed. As always, tomorrow will be a better day.

The River And Erotica

It seems, I suppose strange that I should include a post about erotica in the middle of so many posts about nature at her most vengeful.

Strange that I should be thinking of erotica on this day when I am directly impacted by natural disaster.

I say in way of explanation that it is pleasant to think of erotica, horrible to contemplate ones home washing away.

A diversion, a gentle and needed diversion on this day.

Skykomish River Crest

The latest warning from the National Weather Service predicts that the river at my home will crest in about one half hour, at 4:00 PM.

It seems that my home, and my neighborhood, has been spared a similar disaster to the one they suffered almost exactly two years ago.

Erotica

Is erotic writing less serious, less important, less meaningful than writing on other subjects? Are cock and cunt, fucking and sucking, cumming and bliss somehow less valid when described in writing than other things, other activities? Are those who write of family oriented subjects somehow more important writers than those who write of sexuality? Is not sexuality one of the most powerful areas of every individual’s life? Should it not be explored in writing, celebrated in the written word?

These questions I ponder today.

3:05 PM

The rain has stopped. Now the river should fall.

2:00 PM Flood Report

The level of the South Fork of the Skykomish River has risen slightly since my last report, yet remains just a bit below the level at which it will do major damage.

The rain continues unabated with now over three inches since midnight.

I remain hopeful that the river will crest at some point this afternoon.

Noon Flood Report

The water levels in the Skykomish River seem to be remaining steady. Low enough to preclude major damage to homes in my area. The rain continues to fall heavily, now over two and a half inches since midnight.

I’ve just driven our road, and it remains open to the highway. We also still have both electrical and phone service, which makes the watching much more pleasant.

Verizon seems to be going to great measures to keep phone service for us; they have a crew in the neighborhood taking care of any issues that arise.

If we do loose electricity, the blog will go dark as I need the satellite modem to post, and don’t think it would be wise to hook that system up to ‘dirty’ generator power.

Skykomish River

The view out my front door at 10:30 AM.

Important Flood Link

National Weather Service Flood Warnings For Washington State

If you live along a river in Western Washington you need to pay close attention to this site today.

Flooding In Western Washington

Today history seems to be repeating itself along the South Fork of the Skykomish River.

Floodwaters are very high, with some of my neighbors having water in their yards. I don’t think that the waters are high enough to have entered anyone’s homes yet, and I hope that it stays that way.

I sent Mrs. CM out a few hours ago to prevent her becoming trapped if the flooding destroys our roads as has happened so many times in the past. I’ve not been down the road from our house since she left, so I do not know if it remains passable at this time.

At my home the water has almost covered the granite slab that protects us, if it does cover the entire slab that is the time when I must begin to worry. For now I’m simply watching. It will likely prove to be a very long day here, and amazingly wet as we have had over two and a quarter inches of rain since midnight.

In the flood of November 2006 a major logjam was created on the granite slab, right in front of our house. That jam is growing exponentially today. It’s creation did ruin what was a wonderful beach for us, but there is a benefit as well because it is serving as a breakwater, keeping the force of the river out towards the center of the channel and away from our banks. I don’t know if it will continue providing that service if this becomes a major flood, but for now it is offering us a good measure of protection.

An interesting way to wake up this morning as the river remained low late last night; I must hope that it does not grow any larger throughout the day today

Wild Water

My home and office are situated in a very unique location. On the exact outside of a 90-degree turn in a major and swift flowing river. The channel in which that river flows is within two feet of my buildings. This of course makes for a world-class view as we look perfectly and directly upstream, but it also makes for danger when the river overruns its banks.

The river makes this bend because my home and office are built on a massive slab of granite. The exposed slab is hundreds of feet long, and when the river crashes into it, there is no possibility but for the water to make a radical course change. This granite slab is also of course the only reason that buildings can stand here, as it serves as a very secure base, and without it the buildings would be swept away as the land eroded from under them.

Exactly two years ago today, at almost exactly this time of day, our river began flooding. I was on the phone in my office, looking out the large windows at the river, which was now flowing into my yard. Watching as massive trees floated down the river at extremely high speeds, hit the granite slab upon which our home is built, and exploded from the shock of impact.

Then one did not.

It jumped the slab, and hit the building in which I was standing.

My office deck, two stories high, collapsed and water began flowing under the building through the hole created when the log hit.

I ended my conversation, and we evacuated the building. Taking our most valuable items, turning off the electricity, and the gas. We moved next door into my house.

The water continued to rise all day, the office building was hit again and again by trees that had fallen due to the rising waters, and even my house was hit despite it being slightly elevated, and better protected from the raging waters.

We were however one of the only homes in our neighborhood that did not have water inside, because the land falls away after our buildings. At some point in the night we rescued a neighbor who lives beyond us, and was carried away by the waters. The warmth of our fire soon revived him enough so that he could join our vigil. At 9:00 PM the water began retreating, our buildings still standing.

The next morning neither my office building nor our house had intact decks, a massive pile of logs covered what was our yard, and many of our neighbor’s homes were destroyed. We were without a roadway, no way out other than walking about four miles to the highway, for about two weeks. Electricity and telephone were restored sometime after that.

It is the price one must pay for living in one of the most beautiful spots on earth. Horrible rain today, and in previous days, has me thinking about two years ago, has me looking at the river outside of my big windows today.

Change In America

President Elect Obama was not my first choice, my second, or even my third. I am however looking forward to his administration with a great deal of interest. Interest because of his striking lack of governmental experience.

Our next President has held political office for such a short time that we have no way of possibly understanding what caliber of President he will be. He could be one of our greatest, one of our worst, or anywhere in between, and I don’t think that anyone in this nation can have a reasonable understanding of how he will perform in the office, good or bad.

I think that change is exactly what our nation needs at this time, but I know that change is only good if it is change for the better. We will have change, but will it be change for the better? That is what I am longing to discover.

I hope that he has a remarkably successful Presidency. He certainly has all the tools he needs to do so. I just wish that he had held previous offices long enough so that we could better know. I suppose however that such knowing would kill this interesting curiosity I am currently feeling.

Election Recap

Earlier today I posted about the races and candidates that I truly cared about. It's now time for a recap of the results of those races.

WON Rick Larsen for United States Congress D
LOST Dino Rossi for Governor R
LOST Jason Osgood for Secretary of State D
Allan Martin for Treasurer R TOO CLOSE TO CALL
WON Brian Sonntag for Auditor D
WON Doug Sutherland for Commissioner of Public Lands R
LOST John Adams for Insurance Commissioner R
WON The Republican Slate for 39th LD State House
LOST Yes on Initiative 985
WON Yes on Initiative 1000
LOST No on Initiative 1029

It seems that I am batting .500 tonight. Not bad in my book.

Of course these are guesses based upon the current numbers. They might not hold because Washington has a unique and ineffective election system which makes it impossible to know definitive results until days, sometimes weeks after the election. Hopefully that will be changed at some future point.