SeraAvion Blog

Veterans Day Nov 11

fs46 — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:19:10 +0000

This was once quite a day to celebrate when I was a youngster. I can remember running around town on my bicycle and seeing all the veterans from the Spanish American War up to WW ll lining up for the parade through town. It was exciting yet solemn.

This photo I took at an reenactment at Lebanon, ME this year. The old soldier was looking at the exhibit of photos and drawings of the battle of Iwo Jima while the screen was showing photos of the event. I knew the photo was there when I entered the building. I had only a moment to take the snap, then it was gone. But this says it all to me. The old man with the motion to show life is still moving within him and yet the history of his life has been frozen for all time in the still photographs around him. And then the whole episode is over and gone. I left at that point. No photo I took after that would be as good or say silently as much.

A Typical Day

fs46 — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:09:48 +0000

A Typical Day

I turned on the television and learned that I had a choice between watching “Lockup” on MSNBC, where we can observe conditions and people behind bars for an hour on a daily basis, or the news that reveals a convicted insane killer has escaped while on a “field trip” to a local fair (Did he at least stay long enough for the ice cream and elephant ears?), or I could watch a formerly elected government official under indictment, dressed rather gayly, dance with a “Star”.

I watched the two hour introduction of a new season of “House”, instead. This is where a obnoxious but talented doctor who is addicted to drugs spends time in a mental facility scheming to get out, all the while abusing fellow patients and having an affair with a married woman until he shows remorse, hurt, seeks solace with the chief doctor and gets out the next day. Wish it was that entertaining, that easy for redemption and to get out of a mental hospital. But previous episodes have created dedicated followers out of myself, my wife, at least one of our children and many friends. This is our weekly Vicodin.

This has become our national addiction. Violence. The obvious; the guns and poor excuses for carrying them, or acts upon people that may have justification for survival, is all fodder for the maw of the news beast that can’t be satisfied. They say that good news can’t sell newspapers, but I dare say that the bad news not only sells papers but instructs. The more that we hear of terrible events, the more we give permission for their continued emergence. It has become accepted behavior. The more we see or hear of it, the more it numbs us to future acts.

We can’t expect that a child that grows up with interacting in video games with murder and beheadings will be able to decipher well the reality of their lives when those emotions are pushed to the limits. They won’t think of what the next move or consequent is with reasoning based on daily life. Not if they have spent an inordinate amount of time behind a keyboard and its keystokes deciding the fate of an image that will result in gore.

The gratification of playing these games leads no where. You can’t take that score with you to school or work and expect it will increase your ability or wage earning. Recently, the news carried a story about a young boy having accumulated over a million points playing “Guitar Hero”. All of the people interviewed talked about how great this boy is and what a great achievement he had reached. OK, this is the next day. Now what? What has he come away with? What has any child come away with after watching this news, if they could be torn away from playing that ridiculous game for 10 minutes?

Certainly, the parents must realize that that behavior is not going to get them a better place at the earnings table of life. It doesn’t add to their education. They are not learning what is important in the financial world. They can’t even read a ruler of tell you who the first President of the United States is.

What it is saying is frightening. Whether you put the blame on the news outlets or the parents or even the stores that sell these items, these children and many adults have become isolated, antisocial, and unable to control their emotions in times of stress.

I find myself wondering where it will go from here. The Republicans have not stood up and condemned this behavior that is acted out in their behalf. Even Joe Scarborough, although, I applaud his recent sentiment to Romney to call out to Glenn Beck and stop reinforcing his hate, he hasn’t gone far enough and called out from his bully pulpit and denounced all of the hate mongers like Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Michael Savage and many more. Until we collectively demand an end to this outrageous behavior of name calling and carrying signs and guns that seek to cause a confrontation, we will just escalate towards it. You would have to be living under a rock to not know what will happen next.

Certainly, the parents must realize that that behavior is not going to get them a better place at the earnings table of life. It doesn’t add to their children’s education. They are not learning what is important in the financial world. They can’t even read a ruler or tell you the name of the first President of the United States.

Paths to Perfection…..NOT!

fs46 — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 14:14:10 +0000

Fascist! Nazi! Communist! and any other outrageous label you can think of, are all directed at one man. It doesn’t matter that he has had the reins for only 9 months. It doesn’t matter that all of the troubles in this country occurred under the previous administration ( previous Vice President also mocks him). It doesn’t matter that lies, damnable lies and just plain misleading and wrong information is spread about his being an undocumented worker even by members of the U.S. Congress and U.S. Senate. They all hate him. They all hate the fact that he is President. Even his opposition in the Presidential race that was spoken of and given credit in the last Presidential State of the Union address doesn‘t stand by him.

It doesn’t matter that the decorum of the U.S. Congress was disrupted for the first time in over 150 years and members of the same party see nothing wrong with it. Well, maybe they do, but we don’t know that, since there is silence on their part and silence after an act means condoning it. No, none of this matters. The President knows this, but the rest of the Congress, Senate, Tea baggers, Republicans, radio and TV traitors and a good part of the American population don’t.

They have not taken the time to really look at the problem, the solution, or the result of their actions. They are all like petulant children. If they can’t have their way, they will cry and make a fuss and they don’t care who they hurt as long as it all goes their way. Americans have grown so selfish that they are unable to see the real problems and solutions. For this, they will pay with their lives. They have been for many years, they just haven’t seen the real enemy. The IED’s are there in front them and they keep driving into their path. MOF, the insurgents don’t even bother hiding them anymore. They know how stupid and mindless they have become.

If you don’t know who I am talking about, you are probably one of the blind. Let me restore your sight, although you may wish you stayed in the dark. Here it is. A bright new day and here is the insurgent that has done its best to destroy this country and its inhabitants while they financially supported it with literally their last dollar. The insurance companies. These are the greedy bastards that you sent your money to for health care and they then denied your claim, dropped you from the policy and or refused to reinstate you, all the while and up and to the end, taking your money. All of your money. As much of your money as they could get. And if that was not enough, when they went broke investing your money into prime mortgages and any other get rich quick scheme, they got you to bankroll them again. Boy, are you stupid!

Guess what! They are about to go under again. Within a year, we will have in this country another major collapse of the banking system. Oh, you didn’t know that the banking system is also part of the insurance system. I have a bridge in Brooklyn I like to sell you twice.

Civil War Enactment (or should we be getting ready again…)

fs46 — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 00:51:40 +0000

This was taken at Rollinsford, NH Sep 5,2009 during an encampment at the Gov. Wentworth House. These men are devoted to keeping history alive. They stood in wool suits for 8 hours answering questions and showing just how the men marched, lived in tents and cooked in the open. They are more in touch with the present as well as the past than most of us. Go sometime to a history enactment and learn something new about your country and the men who have fought to keep it.

Teddie

fs46 — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 12:10:07 +0000

There will be only one person that will ever be known by many with that nickname. And we will remember where we were when we heard the news.

Cash for My Clunker, or I Just Wanta know…

fs46 — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:51:28 +0000

Cash for Clunkers or I just wanta know

By now, unless you live under a rock and get your news on clay tablets, you know that this program has been under duress and ran out of money in the first week. Congress then voted a measly two billion more. So, by using simple math, that means that this program ran out of money again last week Thursday at 4PM, give or take a dollar.

I was/is in this program with my local Ford dealer. I won’t go into all the sordid details other than to say the dealer hasn’t got approval yet and won’t give me the car under the rules of the program. Nor have any of the Government agencies or political entities followed this up during the news of health care and both Michaels. ( Like I said, there was probably no mention of Michael on the clay tablet.)

But what I want to know is how this was created. As each day goes by waiting for approval or denial or nothing at all, I wonder how this all happened. I can just imagine the people of politics involved with this program.

“How shall we stimulate the economy in regard to the auto dealers who haven’t been able to make a profit in two years?”

“Well, they need to sell cars and people can only drive their clunkers for so long before they need to replace them.”

“ How about we help them buy those new cars?”

“How would we do that?”

“First, we’ll give an incentive to purchase the cars but offering cash for their clunkers.”

“How much to start this program?”

“I was thinking no more than one billion. If they need more after, say a month or two, we’ll look into it.”

“How many cars do you think they will sell?”

“ Let’s see. Probably no more than 5 cars per dealer, but we’ll bump that up to seven just to give us a margin.”

“We need to write some tough rules and penalties for the dealers and the customers but we won’t waste time following this up or imposing them on the dealers. We’ll also leave them open to interpretation so that they can be argued over while we’re trying to do something else.”

“You know, a real good thing to do is to change them every day, or even change them back and forth in the same day! I particularly like the one that says the customer has to sign over his clunker and leave it with the dealer at the time of the purchase and then find a way home!” laughter

“But who’s going to run this program. We’re all kinds of busy here with health care and cap and trade and over seas agendas and the war in two countries.”

“Oh, I agree. We can’t use lawyers because they don’t know anything about cars and there always looking for a lawsuit. We can’t use anyone with an economic background because they will find someway to tell us we can’t do this. We can’t use any one with customer service or customer advocacy background as it will appear that the Government is bias toward the customer. We can’t use anyone with dealership experience because they will probably find someway to screw the customer.”

“Well, that about leaves us with half a dozen immigrants and a few al Qaeda over here on a scholarship. “

“ Good, look into it. Oh, see if Cheney is available. He likes to write the rules as he needs them. Just don’t let him water board any customers at the dealership.” laughter

And so it might have gone. The people involved, like in the health care debates, argue over their politic affiliation rather than for the good of the people. It becomes obvious that we are more interested in rewriting our religion to fit our moral verbiage than to see a common interest that benefits us all, even if we have to concede a little. Our children’s generation of the “ME” persona has infected us all. Never has the saying, “Insanity is inherited. I get it from my children.”, been more true than today.

“How shall we stimulate the economy in regard to the auto dealers who haven’t been able to make a profit in two years?”

“Well, they need to sell cars and people can only drive their clunkers for so long before they need to replace them.”

“ How about we help them buy those new cars?”

“How would we do that?”

“First, we’ll give an incentive to purchase the cars by offering cash for their clunkers.”

“How much to start this program?”

“I was thinking no more than one billion. If they need more after, say a month or two, we’ll look into it.”

“How many cars do you think they will sell?”

“ Let’s see. Probably no more than 5 cars per dealer, but we’ll bump that up to seven just to give us a margin.”

“But who’s going to run this program. We’re all kinds of busy here with health care and cap and trade and over seas agendas and the war in two countries.”

“Oh, I agree. We can’t use lawyers because they don’t know anything about cars and they’re always looking for a lawsuit. We can’t use anyone with an economic background because they will find someway to tell us we can’t do this. We can’t use any one with customer service or customer advocacy background as it will appear that the Government is bias toward the customer. We can’t use anyone with dealership experience because they will probably find someway to screw the customer.”

“Well, that about leaves us with half a dozen immigrants and a few al Qaeda over here on a scholarship. “

“ Good, look into it. Oh, see if Cheney is available. He likes to write the rules as he needs them. Just don’t let him water board any customers at the dealership.” laughter

And so it might have gone. The people involved, like in the health care debates, argue over their political affiliation rather than for the good of the people. It becomes obvious that we are more interested in rewriting our religion to fit our moral verbiage than to see a common interest that benefits us all, even if we have to concede a little. Our children’s generation of the “ME” persona has infected us all. Never has the saying, “Insanity is inherited. I get it from my children.”, been more true than today.

Playboy rose

fs46 — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 20:14:59 +0000

During one of the few days here in the Northeast without rain, I captured this image just outside our bedroom. The next day, it was gone. Taken with a Nikon D300 using flash.

Reverse Yourselves

fs46 — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 17:33:52 +0000

This a manuscript for a three act play that was found in a dumpster close to downtown Cambridge. We didn’t happen upon it, we went looking for it. We call it

Reverse Yourselves

Scene I Act 1

Enter the black man who is an acknowledged scholar on the history of race relations in the United States. We find him in the front yard of his alleged home.

Soon a woman sees him trying to get in a door. She calls the police.

The police get the report and send a patrol car to the address, while now the black man is inside the alleged house.

The officer in charge of the investigation is not only a long time veteran but one who has the added job of training other officers in dealing with minorities and persons of other ethnic backgrounds.

Scene II Act I

The officer has entered the house after talking with the black man. They are alone and cannot be heard.

The officer is next seen talking to the black man after asking him to come outside where he immediately handcuffs him and takes him to jail.

Final scene Act I

The black man is released within hours and returns home. News crews and television stations clamor for more information. The police refuse to back down in their actions, although they do drop the charges against the black man.

Act II

Several days later, the President, a black man also, makes a remark that the police acted “stupidly”. News crews and television clamor for more information.

Act III

All things in Congress, Senate come to a halt as the President holds a news conference and announces he will drink beer with the two most publicly identified figures in this drama. The woman caller is not invited to drink beer with the President, but the Union Rep and his family are.

Ed Note: Fortunately, the ink started to fade from the original at this point and we are left, for want of a better description, “locked out”.

The Characters

A black man who is a scholar and good looking in the camera and has a tremendous following with every person being interviewed saying he is a close personal friend and refers to him as, “Skip”. He wants an apology and he threatens to sue.

The Officer is young and good looking in the camera of the “visit the gym everyday” type who refuses to apologize for his arrest of the black man. His chief in the station and his union rep and everyone else in this station and every other police station in the country agree he shouldn’t apologize. They all threaten to sue for defamation.

The President who is young and good looking without the camera and has a beautiful wife who says nothing during this event. The country goes on hold while everyone waits for him to apologize for his remarks of “Stupidly”. All the Emergency rooms go from being full to empty. The banks announce they have had a record profit for this quarter and are giving themselves huge bonus’s because they think they deserve it. Nobody listens to them. The far off wars are really far off. Even the crazy old fool and his daughter have to go to an AA meeting to get anyone to listen to them anymore.

Unseen character, a woman, isn’t heard from and has no lines to speak until threaten with bodily harm. By this time, filming is done. She isn’t even asked to join the cast party as they strike the set. She has to buy her own beer.

Costs for production are believed to be minimal as we think there is some left over TARP money lying around.

Ed. Note: We think this will quickly overtake any proposals for the filming of Michael Jackson’s life and could be followed up with books, more films and possibly a theme park being started in an unused corner of the Harvard Yard.

New Yorker

Outs & Murders

Current Issue 2009

This a manuscript for a three act play that was found in a dumpster close to downtown Cambridge. We didn’t happen upon it, we went looking for it. We call it

Reverse Yourselves

Scene I Act 1

Enter the black man who is an acknowledged scholar on the history of race relations in the United States. We find him in the front yard of his alleged home.

Soon a woman sees him trying to get in a door. She calls the police.

The police get the report and send a patrol car to the address, while now the black man is inside the alleged house.

The officer in charge of the investigation is not only a long time veteran but one who has the added job of training other officers in dealing with minorities and persons of other ethnic backgrounds.

Scene II Act I

The officer has entered the house after talking with the black man. They are alone and cannot be heard.

The officer is next seen talking to the black man after asking him to come outside where he immediately handcuffs him and takes him to jail.

Scene III Act I

Scene IV Act I

Several days later, the President, a black man also, makes a remark that the police acted “stupidly”. News crews and television clamor for more information.

Final Scene

Ed Note: Fortunately, the ink started to fade from the original at this point and we are left, for want of a better description, “locked out”.

The Characters

Costs for production are believed to be minimal as we think there is some left over TARP money lying around.

New Yorker

Outs & Murders

Current Issue 2009

Only a Stone’s Throw

fs46 — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 17:13:10 +0000

My wife came home last night after work and told me of a mention she heard on the Fox News radio regarding the suspension of the Cash for Clunkers program. We had been worried about this from the first time we heard of the program last week. And now we were worried that our deal would fail. We really only considered buying a new car because of this program. Several dealers that we had gone to in our small community had already done over 30 deals and had the cars for the program stored in their back lot. They had voiced the same concern saying that the program only accounted for each dealer to sell seven cars! Some of them were already trading out the new cars and taking the old ones in hoping that they would get paid soon by the Government. That means they fronted the 35 or 45 hundred dollars and let the customer drive off in a new car. If this program were to stop, these dealers are going to be left to collect the money from their customers who only came in because they could afford the deal. They probably wouldn’t have been able to qualify otherwise or have wanted to have the increased payment from a full priced car.

But the White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, today, reassured us that the program would continue. For how long is a guess. It would be a disaster to have the program fold or fail right now and the anger from the consumers would be far reaching to the 2012 elections. My guess is that it might continue for another week at most and then end even with the increase of funds from Congress. Maybe they could use some of that TARP money that has been returned by the banks?

So I was looking thorough the local papers on line to find out more about the current state on this and noticed a story about a car junk yard dealer and how his son had seen this program and gotten his dealership classified by the Government to handle the junk cars from the dealers in this program. From this, I could see how it would employ many people. Like the old story of the boy tossing a rock through a window, it would employ a policeman to investigate, a newspaper reporter, a photographer for the local paper, a clerk to file a report from the policeman, a window glazer to replace the glass, a carpenter to repair the damage to wooden frame, a painter to touch up after the carpenter, a rug cleaner, an insurance company, perhaps a trip to the doctor for anxiety and a new paddle after spanking the kid. Everyone wins except the kid. Bills are paid, new items bought and the local economy is restored and maintained. This is what a program like this does. Let’s hope a few more stones are thrown by the Republicans.

Sarah Palin

fs46 — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:15:05 +0000

Sarah Palin. It evokes emotions on both sides of the political aisle. This is not a person that one can be apolitical about even briefly. Now at the risk of defending myself and my constitutional rights for free speech, no matter how rumor laced or even out right wrong in my statements I am, I will proceed.

She is a quitter. Sorry folks, but you can’t say I was the Governor without saying I quit and then run for President and quit in the lame duck years because you don’t like what they say about you.

Her children. She brought them out on the stage. She talked about them. She paraded them. You can’t complain about the coverage once you open the door.

Hillary Clinton. If ever a woman was vilified in the press, it was her, throughout her husband’s time as President and during her subsequent campaigns as a NY Senator and Presidential candidate. She carried herself with dignity throughout. It was what men expected of her. (Men run this political world right now.) Look where she is now.

Sarah whines. And answers every criticisms with another inane remark. My wife says it reminds her of a high school girl she knew that had to get the last word in edgewise. Annoying.

She likes to pick unusual places for political statements. While talking about something, I forget what, there was this guy in the background killing turkeys. This says a boatload or pant load about what you shouldn’t do on your next campaign stop. There is actually a good opportunity here for her to do training films for the GOP. They could some right about now. Just remember that when asked to join a parade, don’t march with the clowns.

Sarah is/will be a hypocrite. She is constant in her complaints about the media but there is a rumor (OK, Sarah, sue me!) that looks like she is going to work for them very shortly to make up the deficit she created during her half term as Governor. You may wish to have more Michael Jackson coverage after hearing her take over Hannity’s or Rush’s spot. (I just knew that if I talked long enough, I could MJ in there somehow.)

BTW, when you are running for political office, your talking points had better be acceptable in the lower 48 and not just for the folks at home. Here in suburban NH, I don’t give a rat’s ass about her being able to field dress a moose. It is not high on my priorities for abilities in political office. Turkey killing doesn’t work. Shooting wolves from an airplane doesn’t work either. Expensive. All that gas and pollution for one or two wolves?

All the jokes have been told, the rest is just sad. She has a following based on her appeal as a woman and her good looks. Sometimes, we Americans just don’t see any farther than that.