Happy birthday to Dad...

...happy birthday to Dad! Happy birthday dear Daaaa-aaad! Happy birthday to Dad!

On the right track

Well, things are starting to look up for the new laptop. I've been wrestling with it since Monday afternoon, but after a whole bunch of trouble, I'm finally in the process of reinstalling everything. It's sad when you can say that and it's a good thing! Still, with the things I've learned from this week's troubles, the final setup is going to be quite a bit cleaner and better than the original, and I'll have excellent images of the system when I'm done, so I won't ever have to do this again! ;)

This afternoon, it's prom pictures and the off to the synod assembly in Grand Forks.

Major computer woes...

For those of you who may have tried to e-mail me since Monday, I've been experiencing some pretty challenging computer issues this week. Lots of plain-text interface work, playing with partitions and Master Boot Records. Fun, fun, fun. For the moment I'm back into Windows, but no guarantees I'll have access five minutes from now. As much as I hate to say it... the phone might be a better option until I get this sorted out. =\

And you thought YOU were scared to go into the hospital...

...turns out that the ones most scared of a stay at the medical center are the doctors themselves. In this month's TIME Magazine, a cover feature exploring the American medical system from a unique perspective: that of the doctor-patient.

In many ways American medicine is top-notch, but that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of very good reasons for your stomach to be rolling as the nurse straps the plastic bracelet around your wrist. From computer snafus to inexperienced residents to simple human goofs, the American hospital can be a scary place.

Consider this short excerpt from the article:

[D]octors are reluctant to be hands-off when it comes to a loved one's care. Until proper safeguards are built into the system, what a patient needs most, many doctors agree, is a sentinel--someone to take notice, be an advocate, ask questions. Now that the family doctor has been squeezed out of that role, someone else has to step in. But even a doctor--family member may not be able to counter the complexity of the system. Dr. Berwick of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement tells the story of his wife Ann's experience when she developed symptoms of a rare spinal-cord problem at a leading hospital. His concern was not just how she was treated; it was that so little of what happened to her was unusual. Despite his best efforts, tests were repeated unnecessarily, data were misread, information was misplaced. Things weren't just slipping through the cracks: the cracks were so big, there was no solid ground.

An attending neurologist said one drug should be started immediately, that "time is of the essence." That was on a Thursday morning at 10 a.m. The first dose was given 60 hours later, on Saturday night at 10 p.m. "Nothing I could do, nothing I did, nothing I could think of made any difference," Berwick said in a speech to colleagues. "It nearly drove me mad." One medication was discontinued by a physician's order on the first day of admission and yet was brought by a nurse every single evening for 14 days straight. "No day passed--not one--without a medication error," Berwick remembers. "Most weren't serious, but they scared us." Drugs that failed to help during one hospital admission were presented as a fresh, hopeful idea the next time. If that could happen to a doctor's wife in a top hospital, he says, "I wonder more than ever what the average must be like. The errors were not rare. They were the norm."

After he publicized his experiences, Berwick was besieged by other doctors saying, "If you think that's terrifying, wait until you hear my story." One distinguished professor of medicine whose wife was hospitalized in a great university hospital was too frightened to leave her bedside. "I felt that if I was not there, something awful would happen to her," he told Berwick. "I needed to defend her from the care."

If you're sick, it's still far and away the best thing to go to the hospital and seek treatment. But it's clear from the cases cited in the article that the best our system has to offer is by no means a guarantee of excellent care. Caveat emptor, indeed.

A smile on my face!

Ever hear of David Bernal? He's a dancer whose style... well, it just needs to be seen. (David's the third dancer in the video - wait for it. It's worth it.) David, who performs under the name Elsewhere, saw his brief appearance at a Korean-American talent show become part of the booming Internet viral video phenomenon. Thanks to some anonymous person who uploaded Elsewhere's video, and millions of others who have downloaded it, e-mailed it, and forced their friends to watch it, Elsewhere has found himself dancing for everyone from Steve Harvey to Jay Leno.

Along with the PR has come the inevitable commercial work, as Madison Ave. does its best to cash in on Elsewhere's Internet fame. Sometimes this works, and often it fizzles. In this case, the dancer's got the moves to pull it off.

And for that, I'm grateful. Just take a look at this spot for Volkswagen's Golf GTI, featuring Elsewhere, two other dancers, and one of the best cinematic moments of all time...

If it's not broke, DON'T FIX IT, please!

Grrrrrrr... my web host recently implemented a new "feature" called Quick Blog. Having already used blogging software of my own choice for years, I ignored the announcement and went on with my life. However, it appears that Catalog.com was a little assertive in how they implemented that new "feature" - it apparently takes over whatever-your-address-is.com/blog and redirects it to this Quick Blog... even if you haven't told it to.

As I write this, no one will be able to view it, because my blog as it has been for the last four years is no longer visible on the Internet, thanks to this "feature." Not the home page, not the individual entries - nothing. Not surprisingly, my site's stats show that whereas I typically receive between 40 and 60 page views at bobschaefer.com each day (and 142 on Tuesday alone), I'm now down to 21 on Thursday and 10 today. That doesn't mean that no one's trying to view my site - what it means is that my blog pages (which have the stat counter trigger embedded in them) aren't making it to anyone's screens. Instead, Catalog.com's error message is popping up, telling them that my blog doesn't exist there anymore. Needless to say, the error message hasn't been configured to trigger my counter. *snort*

So, while my site's traffic is down by 75-85% and my visitors are getting inexplicable messages telling them that I my blog no longer exists where it's always existed, I get to wait for Catalog.com to straighten out the mess their "feature" has caused, and hope that guests other than my family (who will keep clicking anyhow) bother to try again later.

Did I mention, Grrrrrrrrrr?

I think the change in web hosts I've been kicking around for months might finally be due...

So, here's hoping you're able to read this sometime soon. As of right now, however, I'm waiting for Catalog.com to pull their heads out and fix this.

Nice shot!

Jason sends along this web page, with some outstanding landscape photography. Dan Bush, of Albany, Missouri, happened upon the shot(s) of a lifetime one evening, and happened to have all the equipment, skill, and opportunity he needed to snap a dozen of the best rainbow images you're likely to see anytime soon. I'd post a thumbnail here to grab your attention, but I don't want to stomp on Dan's rights to these fine pictures. You'll just need to click on the link if you're going to find out why I'm so impressed...

Weekend photo project

I've been experimenting with some inexpensive flash units for my "ghetto studio" this week. Here in Hutchinson at my parents' house, I decided to try a portrait of Molly, their West Highland white terrier. The photo itself was taken on the floor of the living room, with two flashes balanced precariously on various furniture. Molly's an old girl, and I didn't want to pester her into moving somewhere when she was resting, so I needed to make do with what she gave me!

Fortunately for me, Molly's always been photogenic. (When I posed with her in one of my HS senior pictures, everyone commented on what a cute dog that was. Gee, thanks!) There's some Photoshop tweaking going on to minimize the background clutter, but the bulk of the photo is what the camera and flashes gave me. Mom's happy, and therefore I'm happy. =)

Click for a larger version...

Do you suppose they take VISA?

Opening bills is no fun. I admit it - I've nearly had my jaw drop at some of the cell phone bills I've received. But I ain't got nothing on Yahaya Wahab.

Yahaya Wahab said he disconnected his late father's phone line in January after he died and settled the 84 ringgit ($23) bill, the New Straits Times reported.

But Telekom Malaysia later sent him a bill for 806,400,000,000,000.01 ringgit ($218 trillion) for recent telephone calls along with orders to settle within 10 days or face legal proceedings, the newspaper reported.

Just to put that into a little bit of perspective, the Gross Domestic Product of the entire world in 2004 was right around $40 trillion - a pittance compared to Yahaya's supposed phone bill!

Telekom Malaysia is apparently aware of Yahaya's impending financial crisis, and plans to "address it." Hopefully with something a little better than offering him the installment plan...

Mr. Jesus Goes to Washington

One more from the Times (yes, I suppose I am a bit smitten with the Gray Lady). This time I'm linking to Garry Wills' excellent commentary on the futility of trying to co-opt Jesus for political purposes - a very popular passtime these days. He writes:

THERE is no such thing as a "Christian politics." If it is a politics, it cannot be Christian. Jesus told Pilate: "My reign is not of this present order. If my reign were of this present order, my supporters would have fought against my being turned over to the Jews. But my reign is not here" (John 18:36). Jesus brought no political message or program.

This is a truth that needs emphasis at a time when some Democrats, fearing that the Republicans have advanced over them by the use of religion, want to respond with a claim that Jesus is really on their side. He is not.

That's a warning those of us on both sides of the aisle need to take to heart.

"Not far from foresaken."

The other day I posted a humorous suggestion by the humor site The Onion that North Dakota shoot for building the world's largest strip mall. For a far more sobering picture of the realities small-town North Dakota faces, consider this feature in today's New York Times Magazine.

"Our perception of what a small town is has changed," [one North Dakotan] says. "Today, Williston is a small town. Just like our perception of small farms has changed. It used to be one quarter. Today, 10 quarters is a small farm."

Professor Stenberg agrees. And when it comes to predictions, he says the area will either redefine itself and rebound or it will be "last one out, shut the lights off." Like many other people in the area, he's doggedly optimistic. Or at least he wants to be. But pressed to say what he thinks northwest North Dakota's small towns are going to look like in 20 or 50 years, he sighs and answers: "I don't think they're going to be there. There may be a historic marker there, but that's it."

Not easy to read, but probably important for anyone who cares about these parts and the people who live here. Recommended.

For further helpful reading, pick up a copy of Kathleen Norris' excellent book, Dakota: A Spiritual Geography. Norris writes with both a deep love for the people of the Dakotas as well as a clear, perceptive eye. I wish I had read it three years ago when I first became a pastor here - it's that good.

A Real Alternative to RealPlayer

If you're like me and despise the bloated, pushy beast that the RealPlayer has become, there's good news: You don't have to choose between loading crapware on your computer and not being able to access a good share of the Net's media. Nuke RealPlayer if you've already got it, and load up the free and lean Real Alternative instead. You'll be glad you did. (Windows users only - sorry.)

Deep wisdom on income taxes

Sometimes a piece is written that is just so overwhelming reasonable that you can't help but say, "Well, of course! Why aren't we doing things that way?" Such is the case with the following op-ed piece in today's New York Times. The author, a professor of economics at the U of Chicago, makes what may well be the single most brilliant and practical suggestion I've heard yet for simplifying America's insane tax system. This should be read by everyone who's ever spent hours sweating over the "easy" 1040 form - the one with an instruction booklet as long as some magazines I subscribe to. And it should be required reading for every last member of the House and Senate - Prof. Goolsbee's approach has been tried and found extremely successful by the only American economy that comes close to rivaling the federal one - California's.

I don't generally buy into the "information wants to be free" argument, but in this case, I think this piece is important enough to reprint here in full. Prof. Goolsbee's case needs to be heard, and locking it up behind a password-protected newspaper site won't help it get the exposure it needs to really get this change on the agenda.

(Yes, it's struck me that perhaps the password-protected Times site still will give this article considerably more exposure than my little blog. Every little bit helps, however.)

So, please take the time to read this piece, and see if you aren't as convinced as I am that this makes too much sense not to do. If so, let the people on the Hill know where you stand. You can do it online, for free.

April 7, 2006

Op-Ed Contributor

Why Tell the I.R.S. What It Already Knows?

By AUSTAN GOOLSBEE

Chicago

THE Internal Revenue Service filing deadline is almost upon us, forcing us once again to fill out exasperating tax forms. Spurred on by the grumbling, Congress will most likely make noises about introducing tax reforms that never come about. Experts will again bemoan the deductions and loopholes of the system and the complexity of the alternative minimum tax.

Rather than rehash the same old debates, though, we would do better to aim at the middle and ask why most Americans have to do their taxes at all.

You see, many people do not have a complex tax situation. They don't itemize. They get income only from simple places — like wages from their job and interest from their bank. And here's the kicker: this information is already sent directly to the Internal Revenue Service by taxpayers' employers and banks.

Indeed, for many Americans, literally every line they fill out on their tax return is information the I.R.S. already has. (If you don't believe it, try not filling out the "wages" line on your tax return next year and see what happens. You'll receive a notice that states your wages — and assesses a penalty for not reporting them.)

And yet these same people are forced to spend hundreds of millions of hours and several billion dollars each year preparing and filing their taxes.

That expense in time and money is as much a part of the tax burden on Americans as the check that goes to the federal government. And unlike the tax payment, this part of the tax burden doesn't generate any revenue for the government, though part of it goes into H&R Block's pocket. It is, in the words of the economists, pure deadweight loss.

Which is why the I.R.S. should eliminate it. With a small adjustment in processing procedures, the revenue service could send you a tax form already filled out with the information it has for you — a Simple Return — rather than a blank tax form. You would simply check the numbers against your W-2 and 1099 and then sign it. That would be it. If you didn't want to participate, you could just throw the Simple Return away and do your own taxes the old-fashioned way.

A system like this is already used in Denmark and Sweden. Last year, California tried a version for its state income tax. According to the California Franchise Tax Board, the system reduced the time people spent doing their state taxes as much as tenfold; around 95 percent of the people who participated in the pilot project said they would use it again.

Even without fundamentally changing the tax code, plenty of Americans — as many as 40 percent of taxpayers — would be able to qualify for a Simple Return. According to research I did for the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution, this could save middle-class Americans up to $2 billion per year in tax preparation fees and 250 million hours of time. At the very least, the program would represent a triumph of common sense over bureaucracy for millions of people.

Here's another way to think about it: A Simple Return would be the equivalent of giving a tax cut to the middle class but at little cost. Indeed, when the Government Accountability Office analyzed this type of tax system in 1996, it claimed that it would save the I.R.S. money because it would reduce the error rate on the tax returns that people file. (California found this to be true in its pilot project.) For the cost of modernizing the computer matching system within the I.R.S. and the Social Security Administration, we could eliminate the compliance burden for more than one-third of American taxpayers.

Many experts say we should tackle complexity where it is most obvious — the top income brackets. After all, they argue, nearly 40 percent of taxpayers use the easier forms like the 1040EZ.

But the instruction manual for even the 1040EZ form is 36 pages long. Is it any wonder that almost half of the people filling out the simpler forms still pay a tax preparer to do it for them? Our system is driving people to tax preparers who then get paid for filling out information that the I.R.S. already has.

As we contemplate tax reform in the coming year and beyond, many will ponder grand changes to the tax system like moving us from an income to a consumption tax or eliminating the mortgage interest deduction. But tax revolutions are a tough sell these days. And we could do a lot worse than relieving Americans of the burden of doing busywork for the I.R.S.

Austan Goolsbee is a professor of economics at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.

Bismarck, are you listening?

There are those in this country who favor turning this state (and the surrounding plains states) into one grand buffalo commons, where the herds and the tourists can roam free. But I personally prefer the genius of The Onion, "America's Finest News Source," which surely lays out the future of North Dakota - the Strip Mall of America!

Of course, The Onion's tongue is firmly in cheek, but as a transplanted Dakotan, I have to appreciate the sly references to obscure (to most of America) places like Oriska, Eldridge, and Tower City. Kudos to The Onion for taking what could have been just another jab at "flyover country" and giving us in North Dakota something to laugh at along with the rest of you!

Hat tip to Jeff for the link!

The Gospel According to... Judas?

It has been suspected for a long time - that an unknown "Gospel of Judas" had been in ciruculation 150 years or so after Christ's death. The text is mentioned in Irenaeus' "Against Heresies," written around the year 180. Now the text has been found, and has been released to the world by the National Geographic Society.

In the new aprocryphal "gospel," Judas is portrayed as Jesus' friend and confidant, most honored among the twelve disciples. It is Judas that Jesus selects to betray him, knowing that he must be handed over in order for his work to be completed. Judas, as the strongest and best of Jesus' companions, is entrusted with this crucial task. The text, heavy with Gnostic theology, supposes Judas as the facilitator of Christ's great work on the cross.

If this plot sounds familiar, that's because it's been worked and reworked by modern scholars, writers, and film makers. Martin Scorsese's adaptation of The Last Temptation of Christ featured a very similar interpretation of the Judas character.

The new Gospel of Judas may not tell us anything new about Jesus, but it fleshes out the teachings Irenaeus condemned so fiercely. The early Church was anything but a monolith - this text just illustrates how the Church has struggled to know and understand its Lord through the centuries, and how the Holy Spirit has been active in that difficult process.

Results...

Seems to work well enough. I'm using the PerFormancing toolbar extension for Firefox - it allows me to post to any of my blogs from within my browser window. If you're a blogger using Firefox, I'd commend it to you - it's worth a look.

A test post

I'm trying out a new blogging tool, to see how well it does posting to my blog.

Task Manager explained

One of Windows XP's most useful tools is the Task Manager, a window that lists all the programs and bits of programs that are currently running on a PC. With a little know-how, it's possible to sort out which programs are eating up such a big chunk of your memory, or determine whether an app has flipped out, eating nearly all of your processing power.

Problem is, even geeks usually don't know what half of the obscure "processes" listed in the Task Manager are. My practice has usually been to Google a process I'm interested in - usually that provides enough information to know whether it's legit and necessary, as well as possible weirdness that might happen with it. But that's a hassle.

By using the Process Library's Quick Access tool, this is all simplified. It's a little piece of freeware that puts a blue "I" icon next to each item in the Task Manager. As long as you're live online, all you need to do to gather intelligence on any process is click its icon. Very useful, and recommended!

Wal-Mart - It's not just for shopping anymore

When I'm home to visit, my brother and I usually hit the Hutchinson Wal-Mart, often at pretty weird hours of the night. We'll roam the store, not necessarily looking for anything in particular, but just visiting and killing time. Maybe it's sad, but in Hutch at 2:30, it counts as "something to do."

Probably someone has joked about us taking up residence there, at some time or another. But what if we really did? What if we went to Wal-Mart, and never left?

I remember growing up being enchanted with the book From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, the 1967 Newbery-winning children's classic in which two young siblings run away from home and take up residence in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In a spring break experiment likely based off of fuzzy memories of the adventures of Claudia and Jamie at the Met, college student Skyler Bartels spent nearly two days living in the aisles of his neighborhood Wally World:

He lived off energy drinks, doughnuts, yogurt and Subway sandwiches.

He figures he slept four hours out of the 41 in captivity. He'd catch a few minutes whenever he could - in a Subway booth or a restroom stall, which isn't recommended, especially with the night stockers bursting in every five minutes.

'I got to the point,' he said, 'where I was adept at falling asleep on the toilet seat, which sounds kind of weird.'

The best place for dozing was lawn and garden, where the lights weren't so bright. Nobody worked there between 2 and 4 a.m. Bartels found a lawn chair, kicked back and wondered how life could be better.

Life would be perfect, he discovered, without the worker who showed up before dawn to stock plants. Bartels hopped up and pretended to be looking for home patio furniture.

(Full coverage available at Google News)

In a statement worthy of Bones McCoy, Wal-Mart spokeswoman Sharon Weber insisted, "We're a retailer, not a hotel."

Tip of the hat to Michael for the heads-up!

Hi ho, welcome to Bob's study. Yaaay!

How indescribably cool would it be to have a real Kermit the Frog perched on my credenza? Do you suppose that this would qualify as a professional expense...?