Let me be quite clear on this: my daughter is not going to pledge allegiance to healthy dirt. I will teach her all I believe about stewardship of the world. ... But I am not going to raise an eco-freak who tattles on Daddy to the Block Captain because I threw away a grocery bag that had a rip, instead of cutting it up for note paper. She is a resident of the planet earth, but she is a citizen of the United States of America. While that distinction will be meaningless in second grade I will not undercut her eventual understanding of the concept by pretending that we all pledge allegiance to dirt, crabgrass and crocodiles. Respect them, yes. Start the day with an oath bowing our heads to decreased atomospheric particulate levels, no.---Lileks

*sigh!

The stats are the same, weight, no more pages read, nothing much else done either. I did discover that I miscopied the one page I need for tomorrow. This is something the heir needs to sign so I can close the estate without having to make an accounting. Yes, I have all the receipts, but what a pain. It'll have to wait. I got all the other paperwork at least started, but I wrote this up and then apparently didn't save it.

Rich got over 1000 softballs this year. We've reached the point where if he only gets 6 or so, we're disappointed.

I went to see Tuck Everlasting. Rory Gilmore meets Lucky Spencer. I really enjoyed it. Then I stopped to see a friend who's been pretty much housebound. (He's one of the things I feel guilty about, in fact.) He's doing much better now. He's not on oxygen any more, though he's still having a terrible time getting around. He's into Ultimate Online. He's too late to be able to buy a house, though, so he was looking into Earth and Beyond. I found this all out after I'd monopolized the conversation for 30 minutes or so raving about the estate. D. said maybe he should make a Will, and I raved for another 10 minutes. He wants to leave his body to science, but the hospital doesn't take fat people, so he's looking into a body farm. OooooKay. He also says the State has a lien on the house, so when he dies they get it all.

ObGoe: a comment on this Bill Quick article:

I think that there's something to this "think globally, act locally" thing.

Surely the US and CA should treat domestic gun owners at least as well as it treats foreign tyrants. After all, the former are, according to their detractors, potential murderers while the latter have killed&raped more people than the Kennedy clan.

The North Korea deal ("we'll get rid of our guns/not buy more if the US will give us fuel oil and build us a power plant or two, except that we won't give up anything, but thanks for the stuff") is probably applicable.

How about it Quick? Will you promise to not buy more guns and give up some that you don't admit having in return for free electricity and gasoline? Yes, you can have the same "oops, I lied; can I have more stuff?" renewal option.

I can think of one obstacle - Quick might not be willing to talk to Jimmy, not even for free electricity and gas. However, I suspect that gun owners should be able to get someone to take on that task for less than they're paying for power, at least if the deal's term is long enough.

Jimmy might even get another Nobel Prize out of it.

Posted by Andy Freeman at October 22, 2002 07:03 AM