In a recent Internet discussion, the subject of Hillary Clinton's gender presentation came up. Several people in the discussion said that their main objection to Hillary Clinton was how masculine she was. Here is my assessment of that complaint.

My perspective on the masculine perception is that it has a lot to do with the way Hillary uses her voice, her hair, her eye contact, and her body language. (Not that "use" is exactly the right verb for all those aspects, but you can see what I mean.) She doesn't shrink in any way. She stands her ground, and while women are generally conditioned to say excuse me and I'm sorry, even when the onus doesn't fall on them to do so, she doesn't engage in that kind of self-justifying behavior.

Recently, I read that in one culture other than American, women are trained to raise the pitch of their voices and speak in kind of a falsetto at work, in deference to male coworkers and bosses. The automatic labeling of Hillary as masculine comes from, in my estimation, this kind of deep-rooted filter that women should act like princesses or children.

In person, Hillary Clinton strikes me as beautiful. Her media position at this time has as much to do with how she looks as anything. I wish more people could see her and see her real smile. I am pleased and proud that Mrs. Clinton knows how to handle ridiculous attacks on her gender. She puts them in their rightful place, expected but silly.

        

        

Angry Motorists Torch Speed Cameras in England

If you click that link, you'll see a picture and story about a burned out red light camera, an automated camera that takes pictures of speeding drivers and sends the pictures and tickets to them in the mail.

If you click the photo in the story, you'll go to the website of a group that resists these cameras by destroying them. I confess, I think it's funny, even though there is a cost to the public treasury.

I think that this kind of enforcement is fundamentally unfair and inappropriate. There are several reasons.

I.  A camera is not the same as an accuser.

Our adversarial court system is set up so that people accused of a crime can confront their accusers in court. A ticket based on a photo leaves the accused person with no one to confront. There is no way to confirm that the camera and other measuring devices were working properly at the time the picture was taken, even if the camera can be said to have been working properly when it was set up. Since accused people cannot confront their accusers, this method of enforcement does not conform to constitutional requirements.''

II.  A camera captures information unrelated to public safety purposes.

When a camera takes a picture and creates a permanent record of that moment, that action is like a search and seizure in my opinion. The picture can answer questions like, which car, did what, when and where. The picture can also show cargo and number of passengers, which goes beyond the scope of the intention of the camera. When the camera captures and divulges information that would ordinarily be covered by Fourth Amendment protections, it is infringing on citizens' constitutional rights.

III.  Cameras don't prevent accidents.

The cameras do not appear to be making any difference in preventing injuries or collisions.

"Thedata are very clear," said Dick Raub, a traffic consultant and a formersenior researcher at Northwestern University's Center for PublicSafety. "They are not performing any better than intersections withoutcameras."

Thus, citizens put up with an infringement on their constitutional rights that doesn't appear to serve a public safety purpose.

IV.  The cameras may create unsafe conditions.

The flash on the speed and red light cameras is between 300 and 400 watts. This wattage is commonly described as not blinding to motorists. However, depending on road conditions and an individual driver's eye strength, the flash may be blinding for up to twenty seconds. Senior drivers may be flash blind for a longer period because their eye lenses are more brittle due to aging.

What to do...

Vote no on red light and speeder cameras.
Contest red light tickets as appropriate.
Don't speed or run red lights.

        

A little bit of snow in Portland, Oregon!
A White Christmas after all.

I hope you have a happy holiday and shower the people you love with love!

        

"There's a hole in the world like a great black pit,
And the vermin of the world inhabit it,
And its morals aren't worth what a pig could spit,
and it goes by the name of London.
At the top of the hole sit the privileged few,
Making mock of the vermin in the lonely zoo
Turning beauty to filth and greed
I too have sailed the world and seen its wonders,
For the cruelty of men is as wondrous as Peru
But there's no place like London!"

"No Place Like London" by Stephen Sondheim

A film version of Sweeney Todd starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter is currently playing in theaters. The film can be summed up in one word: bloodbath. Since Todd is a barber who cuts throats, arterial spray is nearly a separate character in the movie. In addition, in this film, Helena Bonham Carter offers one of the best acting performances of the year, and certainly one of the best of her career, which is saying a lot. Johnny Depp is stellar as usual and portrays without missing a beat, someone completely consumed with revenge.

The clothing and colors of the film are grays, blues, blacks and browns, with red for accents. The use of color is perfect to portray despair and melancholy. The score of the film is great, emphasizing the misery of the human drama. (The only song I didn't like was "Johanna", which I found too poppy and out of character with the rest of the songs.) Digital effects are used to great advantage in this movie, with just a few touches highlighting emotions or circumstances of the characters.

I recommend this movie to fans of horror and macabre films. Of course, you have to be able to stand a little singing, but I really enjoyed the clever lyrics and sporting execution. Even Alan Rickman sings! I do not think this movie would be good for children. Hurry and see it with a friend. Prepare to be grossed out and enthralled at the same time.

        

The Glens Falls Post Star
Published: Thursday, December 20th, 2007

Editor:

Regarding a story that appeared in The Post-Star on Dec. 6: "Rep. Gillibrand announces she is pregnant."

First of all, I must admit that I am a male chauvinist and that there are, thankfully, differences between men and women. There are many occupations suitable for women and their physical attributes. Carrying a weapon while serving in the Armed Forces and firefighting are not suitable lines of work for women to prove that they are physically equal to men. How many male police officers feel comfortable with a 100 pound female backup?

And now, I have to add serving in the U.S. House and Senate as an occupation that may not be suitable for women.

Ms. Gillibrand's current pregnancy makes a strong case for my opinion. Ms. Gillibrand was elected to serve her constituency, and while she is away from her elected office she cannot perform those duties. The taxpayers who were duped into voting for her will have to pay for her medical benefits. Yes, Mr. and Mrs. Taxpayer, Ms. Gillibrand receives excellent health benefits, courtesy of her constituents. We will be without representation in Congress for a time leading up to and following the child's birth. There will be times when she and the new baby will visit doctors. You can add those days to the total that she will not be serving her constituents.

The current base salary (2006) for members of the House and Senate is $165,200 per year. I wonder if Ms. Gillibrand will do the right thing and reimburse the U.S. Treasury in the amount of $452.60, her daily salary, for each day that she is unable to perform her elected duties. For some reason, I doubt it.

RON BLACHUT
Queensbury

Sometimes my mind is blown by the things people come up with. When it comes to female backup, Mr. Blachut assumes that police officers will be uneasy. I think this is an assumption based on obvious data. But since he doesn't indicate a basis for the assumption, I am inclined to think that Mr. Blachut can't know for sure exactly what police officers think and what the situations are in which a woman's possible smaller size would not be a disadvantage.

The same thing is true of Mr. Blachut's assumptions about Representative Gillibrand's ability to fulfill the duties of her office. Pregnant women work all the time. New mothers work all the time. I am certain that Representative Gillibrand has both the integrity and the ingenuity to balance home and work responsibilities without neglecting her office. Further, a well baby check-up doesn't take all day. Representative Gillibrand may be able to have her appointments either before or after work hours, on lunch hours, or on weekends. And a refund? Please. Mr. Blachut is applying a double standard if he doesn't expect the same of any other politician who is away from work for personal reasons.

Having said all that, it is entirely offensive that Mr. Blachut combines his personal philosophy of male chauvinism with matters in the public arena. Beginning with the theory that women are "less than" men, Mr. Blachut arrives at a faulty world view. His world is one in which anything that is different is obviously substandard. In fact, Representative Gillibrand  has credentials from Dartmouth and UCLA that help her apply knowledge to the practice of politics. It shows that even though women may accomplish amazing things, they must always  be prepared for detractors who base everything about performance on details of biology.

        

Sometimes I feel as though I live in a modern world with my thoroughly modern computer and my smartest of smart phones, my indoor plumbing, my designer Al Gore Internets <3, you know, all my trappings. But then, sometimes, it's time to get real.

Women are being raped and murdered in Iraq for their refusal to follow conservative religious practices. This gets beyond the confusion of sex and rape. Rape is violence on a person's body, her physical sex. When women are raped, killed, and left in the garbage dump with notes labeling them as bad women it is an emergency for everyone.

I am going to include a copy of this article with a letter to my senators. Maybe that won't feed a solution, but I will be using my voice to object to this kind of treatment of women.

        

There's a lot to be said for companionship and for having someone in your life who's always happy to see you, right? For a lot of people, that presence is a beloved pet, like a dog or a cat. Let's skip ahead to the 2007 World Series. Some kids who went to the game on a lark caught the fabled game-winning ball. Eventually, it ended up with pitcher Jon Papelbon.

At least one account says that Papelbon had the ball on a counter. His dog Boss reached up and grabbed it and tore it to shreds. Yeah, really. He ate the World Series-winning ball. I feel for Papelbon on a smaller scale. My pugnacious pug Isabella has eaten so much of my stuff: a Doc Marten boot, a flash drive, a leather dress shoe (yeah, OK, shoes are a theme) a handmade peach lip balm, a pack of gum, a law book. Ad infinitum!

But no matter what, Bella and I are best friends forever (BFFs, in case you really want to know.) I suspect that Papelbon may wish he had stored the ball in a dog-safe location or wish he still had the ball, but he's probably still thick as thieves with Boss, who, after all, showed alarmingly good taste in baseballs.

People need to remember that when they get a pet, it is a lifetime commitment. Animals have needs for care and interaction with their owners. It's not fair to an animal who understands things like where it belongs and who its people are, to all of a sudden leave the animal with no support. There are many aspects to lifetime pet ownership. One of them is the financial aspect of pet health. Even a pet in good health will need periodic shots and care. Sometimes, just like people, pets get sick or hurt. Taking them to the vet can add up to be an expensive proposition.

One good piece of advice I have heard from someone who works in an animal clinic is for people whose daily budgets can't take a hit from a big vet bill to get a credit card with a reasonably sized amount of credit on it. Then, put it aside specifically for pet expenses. Of course, daily life can intrude on the idea of an untouched credit card, but put it all in perspective. If your pet really matters to you, which I can imagine Moopsie Schwoopsie does, then you should be able to save this one card aside for any urgent matters or emergencies.

(By the way, this is your best plan of action because even though your soft-hearted vet may want to extend you a payment plan, she's probably been burned too many times to be able to do so. Those people who begged and pleaded when Flopsy's life hung in the balance were never quite able to settle their bill.)

Another important way to value your pet's life is to remember that sterilization keeps pets from becoming unwanted and getting euthanized. I think this is important, especially because sterilizing your own pet provides it with health benefits.

Oregon Resources:

• Neuter/Spay Assistance
• Link to coupons and loan assistance
• Animal Aid, assistance for vet bills besides spay/neuter

        

It's hard to remain optimistic when all the signs are bad. It's like telling yourself over and over that you don't have the chicken pox, while you scratch those itchy blisters on your stomach. Something that hasn't happened since 1976 happened this week: the Canadian dollar, the "Loonie," reached the same value as the American dollar. The bottom line is that the dollar is weak, weak like Superman impaled on a piece of Kryptonite. When people from outside the US can come and buy houses here, it shows that people are not making enough money to plan for the long term or invest in their own futures, thus, leaving markets open to buyers from elsewhere who can leverage the most strong currency.

An example of this on a very practical level is that an excuse for high gasoline prices is the war in Iraq and accompanying supply problems. At the same time, many workers have not gotten raises in the current quarter or even fiscal year to keep up with increasing costs. More money goes to fuel and less to products, ideas, and investments. This creates a spreading stagnation effect and then a drop in prosperity.

On a broader scale, the housing bubble is an example of the deep-rooted financial problems is experiencing. Construction went up, but then the ability of people to purchase went down, leaving the market with too many available properties for a rhythmic ebb and flow of supply and demand. It's odd that they call it a bubble, since bubbles are such happy, shiny things. In this case, however, the bubble refers to the impermanence and fragility of something that looks good. It's a visual metaphor for that old saying that, "What goes up must come down."

When President Bush tried to make a speech recently about the strong economy, in strong America, the room went entirely silent. That's how I feel about bright prognostications of the future. Greenspan says that there is, "less than a 50-50 chance of a recession in 2008."

What are we talking about here? A little under even odds? Those are still good odds. Oh America that I love, you have been bankrupted for an oligarchy of an ideal. When I fight for your restoration, I will fight not out of unlove. I will fight because I know your greatness. I will fight for the ideal of you that includes liberty and justice for all.