Parkinson's Disease

Here is a link to an NPR story on Parkinson's, from a son's perspective.

www.npr.org/2011/06/18/137235480/dad-refuses-to-pass-down-inheritance-of-illness

I thought it did a good job of explaining how Parkinson's Disease (PD) is about so much more than tremors.

Politics again

So maybe this is lazy blogging, but here's another taste of our local politics, copies from our local paper www.columbian.com/weblogs/local-politics/2011/may/06/the-gift-of-gab/:

During Wednesday's work session on increasing the 911 tax, the men in the room far outnumbered the women. In addition to the all-male roster of county commissioners, county administrator and director of the Clark Regional Emergency Services Agency, there were male representatives from fire districts and other emergency response agencies.
And it was the men who had the biggest reaction to a comment by Commissioner Tom Mielke.
CRESA Director Tom Griffith was telling commissioners why 911 dispatchers can't take on additional work, which would be necessary if commissioners didn't increase the monthly excise tax from 50 cents to 70 cents. Ten dispatchers would be laid off, Griffith said.
Griffith was describing how he marvels at how fluidly dispatchers switch between conversations, as a dispatcher is often carrying on two conversations at once. A dispatcher might be relaying information to a police officer while also taking a call from a citizen who is reporting a crime or calling for medical help, for example.
It's difficult to keep all the facts straight, Griffith said.
"Isn't that the reason we have women to do that work?" Mielke asked.
Well, that stopped the discussion.
Commissioner Marc Boldt looked at me writing in my notebook and said, "That wasn't me who said that."
The rumblings in the room prompted Mielke to add, "That's a compliment, by the way."

County politics

Sorry, more politics. Our county intranet has a new spot on the county "reconfiguration," and it mentioned a new county mission statement (which we had never heard of, tho' supposedly adopted last year). Here it is. Ready? There's more, but this is just the intro:

• Mission and Values In 2010, the Board of Clark County Commissioners adopted the following mission statement:‘To better serve the will of citizens,’ or ‘…the will of the people’


• Explanation of Mission Statement The mission statement stems from the first words of US constitution’s mission statement, “We the people…” This is very different than the “We the elite…” wording implicit in so many other founding documents of the past.

Weather

Ooh, ooh, I haven't posted in over two months (except in my new blog: http://reportergaffes.blogspot.com). So quick make something up. We've only been back from vacation 10 days, so how have ya'll put up with this gray drizzle for most of the last 8 weeks? Nasty.

More politics

I probably shouldn't post this. I never intended my blog to become a political post, but c'est la vie. This morning's local paper had a story from our county business that I somehow didn't hear about this week. And it seems these comments should have run through the building like a fire storm. Does that mean we're becoming numb to idiocracy? After I read this story to hubby even he (a Republican) said "some Republicans have gone off a cliff."

The link is below; here's a taste:

[County Commissioner] Mielke said his parents took care of him, and he takes care of his family. He said homeless teenagers are "children who don’t want to abide by the rules of the house so they run away."

www.columbian.com/weblogs/local-politics/2011/jan/19/mielke-were-not-china-not-yet/

Horrific and Lucky

My cousin Rhochelle posted this information on Facebook. See the red VW in the middle of chaos? That is her daughter Lisa's car.

The two of them were at a stop when a SUV ran the red, crashed into another SUV or truck making a turn, and flew OVER their VW. The motorcycle rider was not killed, but three people in the SUV's were. Many other vehicles involved that don't show in this picture.

Contradictions: observations from a government employee

The elections are over, which just means the next ones are starting. Sigh. But during the lull, I have a few observations to make on regular citizens, and their thoughts about "the government."
My career in public service is at 27 years. Curiously, some citizens seem to spew more vitriol as time passes, although agencies have (I think) become more responsive to requests and even more proactive in citizen outreach. Anyhow, I won't cover 27 years of thoughts here, just recent contradictions:

Overall, some citizens want less government except when they want more.
a. National example: we should let businesses alone, and they will always do the right thing. Then during the BP oil spill, folks wanted to know why the government wasn't doing more.
b. State example (applies to both Oregon and Washington): we should cut our property taxes, and government will have to figure out how to spend less. Then people expect the state to fully support/fund the schools. And roads. And parks. And police/courts/jails. And mental health services.
c. Local example: public employees are overpaid so we should let private businesses do the work. Then when the City of Vancouver extends a contract for a business to operate the wastewater treatment plants, the newspaper readers comment, "We can't Hire/Train local people to do the same job for less than that?"

I previously blogged about voters who went for all the "R"s on the ticket. And that's their choice, but disregarding that the incumbent, non-R, Clerk of the Court (different from county clerks in Oregon) had been with the court systems over 30 years, and the challenger -- the R -- was a purchasing agent for a drywall company. So the voters were willing to "hire," that is vote for, someone and pay them $90,000 a year. Hire someone with no training or education in the position. Seriously.

Oh, and speaking of "overpaid public servants" let's talk retirement. The whole retirement conversation is very complicated, which makes it hard to have a conversation. And every jurisdiction is different, so we don't have the same problems as say New Jersey. Basically for Oregon, when I started in 1983, the design was equivalent to a private company plan (is that a 401(k)?) where the employee contributes 6% and the employer matches 6%. If you do the math on that over 30 years with interest, you can end up with enough to get half of your final salary for the rest of your life. (Really. If you start at say $20,000 per year salary and end at $40,000, and the interest earns on average 8%, your balance after 30 years will let you take out $2,000 per month for 37 years.) But tiny miscues on the design or execution of the plan can compound into large problems over time if not fixed immediately. One problem on the design was that employees could risk a higher portion of their contribution on the stock market, but the employer/agency share couldn't go there, so those years of 20% stock market returns meant the employer/agency couldn't make the matching share. The (reasonable) plan design never dreamed that we would have five years in a row with 20% returns! HUGE problem not really because of the design but because of unimaginable world financial markets. And when I do retire I do NOT get free paid health insurance. I will have access to buy it at market rates, which I think is about $800 or more per month.

There's more, but I've vented so I am okay for a little longer. Two divergent thoughts here -- thanks for your patience.