I'm both socially and fiscally liberal, but also believe in some personal responsibility

Some people say they are socially liberal while being fiscally conservative. I'm both socially and fiscally pretty liberal. Basically I tend to support higher taxes and I recognize a good role that government spending can play. Where I may sound "conservative" is in the role of personal responsibility. Rather than just blaming everything on corporations and the rich, I try and see what we can do, ourselves, to improve society. How can we live for a better environment, better health and so forth. Things like bicycle culture. I think about how can we be responsible consumers. If we want better conditions for workers, I ask how do we treat the workers in the businesses that we are consumers at? Are we impatient, or do we give them a break? As workers and professionals, do we gouge consumers and institutions with our high prices and salaries? If we want to tax the rich, do we, at least, put out enough effort to cast a vote come election time?

My walk home from the first grade in Pullman, WA.

One hears that kids aren't allowed to walk very far by themselves these days. I guess people were less afraid in my first grade days around 1961. I walked quite a ways to my school. Maybe around 1/3rd of a mile. It did scare me, however. I felt I had to avert my eyes from this scary looking knot of wood in the fence. Years before my first grade, a tree had grown through the fence. When they cut it down, they left a knot of wood ingrown through the fence. I would run to get past it.

Regent's Hill Dorm Complex in background.



The rest of my walk was through the WSU district of fraternities and sororities. That used to scare me also. Today, I'd be erotically turned on by shirtless college guys, but back then they scared me. They were throwing footballs across the street and I was afraid the ball would hit me. They would toss the ball up over my head to their buddies across the street so it never hit me, but I always hesitated walking by. One time I convinced myself that it would be okay to keep walking even when I saw someone poised to toss the ball. I thought I could get over my fear if I kept walking so I proceeded. Just then, the ball hit a telephone cable causing it to bounce back and fall right in front of me. It didn't actually hit me, but I was back to being scared again.



Area where the ball bounced off the phone line hasn't changed much since those days, but this image was taken in 2017.

One time, I got to talking to a student as I was walking home. He befriended me and invited me to his home which was a rambling student rental house. He introduced me to his buddies and showed me around the house. Main thing I remember was in the kitchen; the largest peanut butter jar I had ever seen. After asking me my name, my new found student friend looked up my parents and gave them a call. They came and got me and they were a little concerned that I had been too trusting. My parents admitted that it was a good experience, this time. They said I was lucky because you never know who you might encounter.



My first grade school building had only 2 grades. Kindergarten and first grade. 2nd through 5th grades were in a different school. Today, that old school building is a small shopping center. It serves the college neighborhood. My first grade teacher used to scare me also. Her name was Miss Schmidt; a strict teacher of German heritage. Today, her classroom is a less scary Jimmy John's sandwich shop.

My walk from school took me through Regent's Dormitory Complex. Part of it was up on pilings.





The complex had little courtyards that were like Japanese gardens. During Easter, dorm residents used to hide eggs around and invite neighborhood kids over for an Easter egg hunt.

The I think the Sculpture is called Rain Forest. There's a similar work in Bellingham by the same artist. It's in front of the Wade King Fitness Center at WWU. Artist for both sculptures, James FitzGerald.



The final push home was over Regent's Hill which was right past the dorms. Our house was on a dead end street just behind the hill. My dad took a home movie of me walking down the driveway to first grade. In the background is a concrete bucket swinging from a crane as Streit/Perham Dorm Complex was being built behind the back fence of the neighbors across the street.



My first grade year was 1960-61. Photos taken later years on various visits to Pullman.

People say that was a more innocent time, but I don't know. I think per capita violent crime is lower now in the US than it was back then. Even then, Pullman had its share of drinking problems, but I was pretty oblivious to that. Now that so many stories of child abuse, and so forth, are coming out, I decided to share this happier story. People are more aware of the problems these days. Still, most of the time, I guess, like in this story, things aren't so bad.

More colors for the rainbow flag? Okay. It's lost and gained colors during it's lifetime.

New pride flag divides Philadelphia's gay community.

More colors on the rainbow flag? I'm pretty "live and let live." Whatever. As long as people aren't fighting about it, but too bad, there does tend to be friction. The phrase, "we've met the enemy and he is us" comes to mind. It's really up to us to have diverging perspectives without being disagreeable.

According to WIKI, the original gay pride flag had more colors anyway. It had hot pink and more than one shade of blue. The flag was streamlined with those colors dropped, in part, because lack of availability in pink cloth, back in the late 1970s, I guess.

The flag is like the acronym. Gay is pretty limited so it becomes gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender; GLBT. Then there's more. Allies, questioning, gender fluid and so forth. GLBTQA...? The acronym can get cumbersome so it can be replaced with the word "Queer." An umbrella term? The "big tent?" That doesn't please everyone either.

Some folks might argue that the laws of physics, related to light refraction, doesn't allow brown or black to show up in real rainbows. Brown isn't part of that spectrum, but what is color anyway? Color is an artifact of our perceptions. The true refraction of light is just a gradation of frequencies on the electromagnetic spectrum. Brown and white are various mixtures of light frequencies. Black is absence of light.

I don't think the flag is necessarily cast in concrete. There can be many versions of it.

I've put lots of new photos on my Flickr Account in the past few months

I've put lots of new photos on my Flickr Account in the past few months. Unlike many photos, I enjoy putting captions and fairly detailed descriptions. Self expression including political views on sustainable economics. The descriptions seem to bring some traffic also as descriptions are not real common on Flickr. Also, of course, anything that relates to naked bike rides becomes popular.

Here are some recent tags I have added to.

Western Washington University

Bellingham airport trail open house

Ferndale

My photo stream from the top

WNBR Bellingham 2017 Fairly tame.

We shouldn't have Sharia Law or Leviticus Law. Separation of church, or mosque and state

Anti Sharia law marchers clashing with opposition. Craziness of culture war confrontation.

I would just hold up a sign saying "Separation of Church and State." It should also say "Separation of Mosque and State." It should then say "Variety of Religions Welcome."

Maybe a crowd of sign holding liberals would complain about my sign as they might say it's at the wrong time so its lending a bit of support to Islamophobia. The conservative organization, that's drumming up these anti Sharia marches, wouldn't really welcome me either. I'd be in the wrong culture war pew.

Really, I wouldn't want Sharia Law or Christian Law which, ironically stem from the same historic roots. Religion has some good benefits for individuals, but with all the differing faiths out there, the state needs to keep a neutral ground.

Toward end of article it says.

No area of the U.S. has legally implemented sharia, despite false reports on social media that Dearborn, Mich., enacted it.

According to the Pew Research Center, the U.S. has a population that is only 0.9 percent Muslim; and Liyakat Takim, a professor of Islamic studies at McMaster University, told the AP that the vast majority of U.S. Muslims oppose implementing sharia in the U.S.

Then there's the Constitution, which states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

Less clothing in public spaces can mean less place to hide explosives and weapons

Meme going around on Facebook. Drastic anti-terror measures in London has seen the introduction of Spartans to patrol the streets and underground.





When I forwarded the post I wrote.

Humorous anti-terror measures in London. However, more seriously, I think encouraging the public, not just the "Spartans, to be wearing less clothing in public spaces means less cover for hiding explosives and weapons. Saver spaces such as airplanes and so forth. Maybe these Spartans can inspire a new trend.

The police can be your friend

Trump's goofy tweet that goes, "At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is no reason to be alarmed!" is getting lots of criticism, of course. Trump took the mayor's comments out of context and didn't realize, I guess, that the mayor of London was saying not to worry about the presence of police on the streets. Yes, worry about the terrorists, of course. Another foot in the mouth moment for conservatives who could have gained some ground from the mayor's comment. When the mayor said don't worry about the police, conservatives could have said, ya, the police are good. Don't worry about a lot of police around. We need them. The mayor's statement could have been used as a praise for police given the significant amount of criticism that police get these days.

A report card on Trumponomics

Trumponomics report card drifts up in May. Boo. It seems mostly just about the stock market. Employment not so good in May; a weak data point detracting from Trump's, total in this report by Yahoo Finance columnist Rick Newman. Overall, Trump has gained, tho. Stock market weighs heavy in these figures, but stocks did better under Obama during his "first 4 month" report. Also better under George W. Bush in the first May of his term.

Does the stock market indicate economic success? In my opinion, success should be measured more by the level of happiness and fulfillment of people at the grassroots level.

Folks, on the left, say the stock market is mostly just for the rich. To some extent that's true, but I'll admit that rising stocks can benefit ordinary people with investments in mutual funds and retirement savings that are in stocks. Ideally, this can even help small savers more than, for instance, house values. In Seattle, where home values soar around $700,000, one has to be pretty wealthy to partake. At least with the stock market, small investors can partake for a few thousand, rather than a few hundred thousand, dollars.

Money is not necessarily the true measure of an equitable society. How happy, safe and fulfilled are the people? Both housing and stocks could be just inflationary bubbles.