The people of the Earth desperately need to start working together. There are global disasters happening as you read these words that, if they can be solved at all, will require - not ‘benefit from’; not ‘need’; require - all the people of the Earth if they’re going to be solved.

Six months ago, there was virtually nothing that even most people felt the same way about … unless you’re willing to count something like greed. Then Obama was elected. I admit, this is just a moment of celebration, caused mainly by the realization that we’re not going to have to suffer through another four years of Bush-like stupidity. The hard work is still to come and everybody won’t agree once we get down to cases. But, Hey! It’s a start.

Something just happened that might actually create another moment of unity. The Somali pirates might have just gone too far.

In case you haven’t heard, they just captured a Saudi oil tanker three times bigger than an aircraft carrier loaded with $100 million in oil. The previous shock of capturing a freighter loaded with Russian tanks, ultimately headed for Sudan, was mainly embarrassing because it caught people with their lies hanging out. But it has still created a situation where the US and the Russians are at least cooperating on something. (That situation is still a stalemate, by the way. The pirates are still holding the freighter and the warships are still just watching it.)

Taking the Saudi tanker was big enough to cause the world price of oil to reverse course and start going up again! Capturing your odd freighter or yacht isn’t going to move the real world power brokers. But this will. As I said, ‘greed’ does seem to be one constant that people can agree on.

The other unique thing about this incident is that it happened 450 miles out to sea! Military types agree that there’s really no way that all that ocean can be patrolled. If they can seize a ship as far away as Denver, they can’t be stopped on the open ocean. And once they seize it, the pirates really do have the upper hand. Remember, in spite of the fact that they’re surrounded by enough firepower to win a war, the pirates that seized the freighter are still holding it.

The only way the ‘world’ will solve this problem is to remove the safe haven in Somalia that allows the pirates to operate. That means going in and cleaning out Somalia once and for all. And that means that the ‘world’ is going to have to agree to do it.

That’s more than just a start.

My family has been enjoying the benefits of fresh-air dried clothes for a while now. If you haven’t signed the petition to ask our commander in chief to install a clothesline at the White House, you might want to check out my blog, The Right to Dry!. On that subject, ColorComments reader RPMcMurphy suggested that I check out the Baldo strip for November 15. I did better than that. I got permission from the owners to republish it here.

(Click the strip to see a full sized version.)

2008 © BaldoPartnership

Anybody watching the news knows that gays aren’t taking the victory of Proposition 8 in California … ummmm … laying down.

One of the more interesting stories about it is the money struggle between Bruce Bastian and Alan Ashton. These two heirs to the Word Perfect fortune are on opposite sides of the struggle. Bastian is gay, Ashton is Mormon. Both dumped a million dollars into the fight. Who knew back in the 70’s that our local software miracle would lead to this?

If you’re interested in exploring more about in this strange story of money and conflicting cultures, I highly recommend the tell-all book by the third partner in Word Perfect, Pete Peterson: Almost Perfect!.

It’s also interesting that the New York Times article about Ashton’s last minute contribution totally missed this connection. But our local paper, the Salt Lake Tribune, has a great piece on it!

I have a prediction about how all this is going to turn out.

First, let me state my point of view up front.

• I think gays are born that way due to genetics. It’s not that unusual in nature. There is homosexual behavior in lots of animal species. There’s no reason to think we’re any different.

• If homosexuality is genetic as I think it is, then it’s likely to be linked to other genetic features. One that seems to stand out in my experience is creative ability. Gays seem to excel at anything that requires artistic talent. Bruce Bastian is a good example. Peterson’s book makes it clear that Bastian was the creative side of Word Perfect.

And gays are just learning how to be really organized as a cultural type.

What they have lacked in the past has been a specific target. Yes, gays have their celebrations and protest marches. (One is held yearly right here: Celebrating Gay Pride in Color Country.) But their efforts have been unfocused and general. The New York Times story makes it very clear that the Mormons, much more than evangelicals or Catholics or any other group, made the difference in Proposition 8.

Other religions have taken on the Mormons in the past. (And vice-versa. The official defining book of Mormon doctrine, the D&C, refers to the Catholic Church as the “great and abominable church, which is the whore of all the earth”.) But as long as it doesn’t break out into gunfire, these kinds of disputes can be expected and pretty much ignored. They’re both fighting with the same weapon: “I know my church is true. God told me!” Today, they’re not really fighting each other anymore and they’re all trying hard to play down embarrassing facts in their histories.

The gays are something different. Not since Johnston’s army invaded Utah in 1957 have the Mormons faced such an enemy.

I can hardly wait.

Yesterday, the headlines from California screamed that “over 100″ homes were lost to the wildfire in Montecito. Today, that figure has increased to “over 150″ and a new fire in Sylmar, just north of Los Angeles, is threatening over a thousand homes.

These things weigh heavily on my mind because I’ve seen the smoke looming over the home I spent twenty years building. My heart goes out to those people.

Let’s switch subjects for a moment, however.

When I studied economics at the University of Utah, “marginal analysis” was a popular theory. The idea is that if you’re at the store and you only have $50 in your pocket … (We’re in Never-Never Land already because today’s Americans don’t worry about not having enough money to pay for something.) … and you are trying to decide between a hat and a pair of shoes that both cost $50, then the one you pick will have greater “marginal benefit” than the other. Having an actual number, other than cost, would make a big difference to businessmen trying to use economics for something practical, like investing in a new assembly line — if it actually worked that way.

They told us at the time that the theory didn’t hold up too well in the real world. The main reason was that people didn’t spend their money logically. That is, people seldom ask themselves the simple question, “What do I need more?” And thus, the Marketing department became more prosperous than the Economics department because you could make a buck faster pulling the wool over people’s eyes and getting them to buy things they don’t need than trying to suggest that they behave logically.

Which brings my mind back to the present. The Forest Service is now spending up to fifty percent of their annual budget on fire supression. There’s precious little left over for campgrounds and trail maintenance (or … making things convenient for cattlemen who “own” grazing rights) when you’re spending billions more just to keep the place from burning down.

Yet, Bush insists that we “need” completely new, multi-billion dollar expenses like the missile bases he wants to build all over Eastern Europe. On top of Iraq and Afganistan! Poland is bargaining for more multi-billion dollar expenses to build up their own army as their price for letting us do it. Russia is using it as an excuse to put their own missile bases right across from ours and build up their troop levels on their side of the border. And earlier this week, the president of France said the missile shield in eastern Europe was misguided and would not make the continent a safer place.

What do you need more? Multi-billion dollar missile bases in Eastern Europe or better wildfire protection here at home?

Before you answer, let’s switch subjects again.

Conservatives like to give credit to Reagan for the breakdown in the old Soviet Union. He does deserve some, but it’s mainly for spending so damn much money on weapons that the Russians went bankrupt trying to spend just a fraction of what we were spending. Best selling author Tom Friedman (The World is Flat) makes a very good case that Reagan’s high-spending ways still wouldn’t have worked without the whipsaw oil crisis and oil price collapse that destroyed the base of Russia’s economy. In other words, Reagan was just lucky.

In any case, the old USSR did collapse and the world rejoiced. Russia was forced to retreat and negotiate with their neighbors rather than just sending in armored tank columns. They started working with their neighbors to control nuclear weapons instead of just building more. As oil prices have shot up, Russia is acting a bit like their old self again these days, but that just helps to prove the rule.

Now try to look at the US the way they do in the rest of the world. Bush looks a lot like Brezhnev (the USSR dictator who invaded Afganistan before we did) to the rest of the world. And we look a lot like the old USSR. There are people in other countries who cheer us on with our missile money-pits. (”Yeah! Dig more holes and fill ‘em up with money. The sooner the US goes bankrupt, the better.”)

Now what do you want more?

We got our first winter storm here a few days ago. Although there was snow on Pine Valley Mountain above St. George for a while, it didn’t last. You can only see it in the deepest ravines near the top of the mountain now.

And there was still at least one hummingbird here as recently as two days ago. I never saw them past October before.

The late afternoon sunset created this perfectly beautiful rainbow over Hurricane Mesa as the storm was moving out. Rainbows need … well … “rain”. That is, you don’t get them unless it’s warm enough for liquid water in the atmosphere. So I never saw them in winter, or even fall, up north where I used to live.

I can’t escape the feeling that the climate is actually changing even faster than the scary headlines about global warming say it is.

I claim credit for the phrase, “The Euphoria of Dispair.” I just enjoy each day as much as I can. And rainbows like this one help a lot.

Reviewing the overreaching executive orders is high on most lists. (The New York Times story - quoting unnamed sources - describing how secret executive orders have been used since 2004 for military strikes inside other countries is really interesting. The timing suggests to me that these are rats jumping ship now that it’s clear that things will be different. They’re trying to get into a position where they can say, “It wasn’t me! It was those guys over there.”)

Another top suggestion is the financial crisis. I wonder how many options will be left by January 20. How deep can the Bush-league idiots dig us in by then?

I have my own modest proposal. Let get rid of the liars!

The articles I’ve written here show that I was an early and strong Obama supporter. But even more than his qualifications, I was repulsed by McCain’s decision to try to lie himself into office the same way Bush did. The religious right, who seem to be more than willing to hide behind those lies because they hate the other things Obama stands for, have lost all moral authority. Some foundation of truthful dealing is the first condition of a functioning democracy. Obama’s decision not to stoop to their level is his highest qualification in my book.

But even though Obama has shown himself to be a better man than that, there are still plenty of liars around and this is his chance to clearly demonstrate that an Obama administration just won’t put up with it.

I have two in mind that we can start with.

• Congressman William Jefferson of Louisiana

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/15/AR2006021502752.html

http://www.klfy.com/Global/story.asp?S=9303188

• Congressman Charles Rangel of New York

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/11/nyregion/11rangel.html

These two corrupt office holders have their claws so deeply embedded in their districts that ordinary democratic processes seem unable to do the job. Like parasites that have dug themselves into the body politic, it’s going to take surgery to get rid of them. Utah has no grounds for feeling superior, however. We reelected Hatch even after it was clear how he enriched himself at our expense in the Snowbasin scam during the Winter Olympics.

I know that Obama has no legal authority make this happen on his own. But he could make a statement that would have ringing consequences for his coming administration. After all, even McCain clearly denounced the corruption of Ted Stevens. In that one case, McCain achieved a higher moral standard than Obama. It wouldn’t hurt if Obama included Stevens in his condemnation too.

Think about this. For the first time in human history, the entire world is celebrating the same leader. Joy and happiness are erupting not only in America, where so many have worked so hard to make this happen, but across Europe, of course in Africa, in the Middle East and even in Asia. The BBC has reported that the people want Obama … President-elect Obama … in every nation they have surveyed around the world.

This has never happened before. Ever. Mankind stands more united now than ever before in all time.

Nelson Mandela, the legendary leader of the South African miracle, said it best, “Your victory has demonstrated that no person anywhere in the world should not dare to dream of wanting to change the world for a better place.”

There will be challenges. Already, Russia has announced that it may deploy new missiles in the Baltic in response to Bush’s agressive placement of American military hardware there. President Hamid Karzai in Afganistan has already bypassed Bush and has appealed directly to President-elect Obama to stop the bombing of civilians in Afganistan.

It will be a long 76 days before we can finally and gratefully get rid of the disaster that is Bush. It will be difficult for the world … it will be difficult for me … to accept that President-elect Obama will have no legal basis for his mandate for change until January 20.

I can hardly wait.

This message was posted by a reader in Libya in a thread on a different subject. I decided it should be here on the main page, so I’m reposting it. I’ve checked out the links and references. The election of Barack Obama is a message of hope from America to the world. This is a reply from the world to America. — Dan

————————————

After years, even decades of distrust, let’s seize this moment of unity, reconciliation and hope to send a message of warm congratulations and invitation to work together to the new President and the American people.

We’ve built a huge wall near the White House in Washington DC where the number of signatures on our message and personal messages from around the world will grow over the next several hours. We’ve also asked Obama to personally receive our petition from a group of Avaaz members. Let’s get to 1 million signers and messages to Obama!

Sign on at this link below and forward this email to others.

Yessssss, now it’s a long long way. Yalla (slogan of our beloved french Soeur Emmanuelle to overcome all difficulties) used in Egypt. We want to build not demolish, We want to be freed by implementation of international laws, and back the United Nations as the Sole Impartial Respected Power of the Globe “Congrats Obama: Let’s Do it Together”

— Manou

May you live in interesting times is reputed to be the English translation of an ancient Chinese proverb and curse. It is reported that it was the first of three curses of increasing severity, the other two being:

May you come to the attention of those in authority.

May you find what you are looking for.

(Wikipedia)

These times are more than just interesting. They’re amazing!

I just returned from my volunteer shift as a “poll watcher” for the Democrats in the Color Country district where I vote. It was interesting that the Republicans didn’t even bother to send any representatives. It goes along with the fact that there were no Republican lawn signs to be seen until a full month after dozens of Democratic signs were all along our main street. (See “Color Country - An Oasis of Reason“.) Maybe they think they have things so locked up here that they don’t have to even try anymore.

By 3:30, over 75% of the elegible voters in my district had cast their ballot already. The national record is only 64%. (Interestingly, it was set when Kennedy ran against Nixon … another “good” versus “evil” contest in my view.)

It seems unquestionable that this election will go down in the record books in lots of different ways. There could be some surprises!

Now that the election is over, it’s time to turn our attention to more important matters.

Like saving the Earth.

Last year, I wrote the Conservation blog, partly to celebrate the completion of our own backyard clothesline. You can see a picture the blog link above. I decided to check the current status of state laws, specifically Utah (we have a weak law protecting clotheslines), for an update and I have discovered that the “Right to Dry” is turning into a genuine movement. There are some cool web sites!

First, I want to turn your attention to the Right2Dry website. These folks want to send a petition to President Obama to put a clothesline at the White House! (Well … At least for one day for a photo op.) Neat idea! I’m signature number 729 on their list.

After having fun at their web site, check out “Project Laundry List“. These guys are a bit more serious. (Not that Right2Dry isn’t. But watching Barack and Michelle’s undies flapping in the breeze just seems more fun.)

This is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization which aims to demonstrate that personal choices can make a difference for the Earth and its people.

Oh Ja! Probably not enough. But every bit helps I guess.

There is a handy “Energy Savings Calculator” that you can download and run to find out both how much money you can save personally and how much pollution you can prevent. (It’s written as an Excel spreadsheet macro. Most PC’s disable Excel macros by default. You have to download the spreadsheet and enable it for running macros before you can use it. Lotta trouble … But it’s interesting once you get all that done. These guys need this converted into a real online calculator!)

And there is also an online store with interesting items like a table mounted five pound clothes washer and a hand operated spin dryer. This is a site where you can join up and get involved!

This stuff takes me right back to my university days in the 60’s! Such a great time! I wondered if I would see tie-dyed shirts and bong pipes somewhere. No such luck!