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Musings Report #49 12-4-16 An Extremely Inconvenient Barn--and an Unlikely Solution
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For those who are new to the Musings reports: they are basically a glimpse into my notebook, the unfiltered swamp where I organize future themes, sort through the dozens of stories and links submitted by readers, refine my own research and start connecting dots which appear later in the blog or in my books. As always, I hope the Musings spark new appraisals and insights. Thank you for supporting the site and for inviting me into your circle of correspondents.
Thank you, new Patrons and Subscribers
Thanks to everyone who became a patron or subscriber in the wake of the Washington Post's baseless accusation that oftwominds.com is "Russian propaganda."
I have a lot of exciting (at least to me) content lined up for the Musings in the months ahead--2017 promises to be a great year for ideas and solutions.
Seeking an Attorney to Go After the Washington Post for their Libel of oftwominds.com
Let's say (as my friend GFB observed) the Post has published a list of people that beat their spouses, with zero evidence of this outrageous behavior.
Would the people slandered have a case against the Post? If the answer is "yes," then don't the people on the Post's bogus "Russian propaganda" list also have a legitimate claim against the Post?
If you are an attorney who is willing to work on contingency, or if you know an attorney with experience in similar cases of public slander by the mainstream media, please contact me at csmith@oftwominds.com. Thanks!
An Extremely Inconvenient Barn--and an Unlikely Solution
An old friend of mine, Michael Hamman of San Francisco, recently made the news in this lengthy but highly entertaining account of his battle to preserve his unique home from big-money property developers: An Inconvenient Barn.
I visited "The Barn" a number of times shortly after Michael acquired it, and wrote a feature piece for the SF Chronicle about Michael's living quarters in The Barn. Renewing bay history / Historic boathouse now home to 21st century living/working styles (May 18, 2002)
We attended private dinners in the Barn as well as larger parties. Time constraints as the blog and my books sucked up all my time limited recent visits to The Barn, but I knew the story well due to my visits early in the process of turning a hulking, heavy-beamed tear-down into a classic (albeit small scale) San Francisco icon.
A couple of things popped out of this story:
1. “Every time you’d meet a neighbor, they’d either speak very highly of him or they’d be pissed at him,” says Barbour. “There are a lot of people who are really annoyed by Michael Hamman. I’m sure he knows that. And it’s not like you have to coax it out of them.”
This was very funny to those of us who have known and worked with Michael for years (or decades). He is a tireless champion of the underdog and more than willing to fight City Hall for a good cause.
2. Offers of Big Money had zero impact on Michael. “They had to realize that their money was not the be-all, end-all atomic bomb they had imagined it would be. Not for me.” (Read the story to find out why Michael rejected a multi-million dollar offer.)
3. The Big Money developers were not Bad Guys. "In fact, Build Inc. was not the big bad bear of Hamman’s envisioning. Within city development circles, the company has earned a reputation for fairness and equity."
4. The city obstructed Michael's project due to pressure from political enemies. It cost Michael $100,000 to overcome the insider lobbying against him.
5. A solution was achievable, and at a lower cost to the developer than the prior offer.
The story offers multiple interpretations, of course but the main point to me is: the majority of small property owners and developers would have given up in the face of such strong opposition--or attempted to cram their goal down the throats of their opponent in court.
The takeaways for me: be perseverant in pursuit of what you hold dear, but listen to opponents and try to find common ground for a mutually beneficial solution.
Summary of the Blog This Past Week
A Moment of Gratitude for My Readers and Supporters 12/3/16
Beyond Income Inequality 12/2/16
The Role of Technology in Limiting Privilege and Bias 12/1/16
Six Narratives on the Ascendancy of Trump 11/30/16
The Corporate Media's Gulag of the Mind 11/29/16
The Engine of Inequality: Privilege 11/28/16
Best Thing That Happened To Me This Week
Oftwominds.com was on the "list" the Washington Post published of purported "Russian propaganda" sites--heh.
Market Musings: Optimism and Change
This sounds too simplistic to be profound, but I think Americans' basic default setting is to favor optimism and to see change as either optimistic or potentially optimistic.
When Trump's unexpected victory first hit Wall Street, the futures markets took a deep dive, verifying the cliche that Wall Street doesn't like surprises.
But by the following morning, stocks rallied and did not look back, despite a rising number of good reasons to be cautious about the stock market--for example, rising interest rates, global uncertainties, and the US dollar's relentless rally, which will eventually spress Corporate America's global earnings when overease earnings are converted into USD.
None of these issues matter at the moment, and they might not matter for some time. The desire to be optimistic about the future was like a pile of dry straw awaiting a match. It didn't have to be Donald Trump that ignited the dry tinder; the prospect of change was the match.
From Left Field
The Fungi in Your Future: A new start-up reimagines fungi as a multi-faceted, “programmable” material.
Three Trends for the Next 50 Years -- JA is a relentless self-promoter but he has some good ideas...
My Unhappy Life as a Climate Heretic: My research was attacked by thought police in journalism, activist groups funded by billionaires and even the White House.
Has the internet become a failed state? -- more like The Wild West...
Jim Webb Addresses America’s Elites, Donald Trump, And Foreign Policy In Keynote
The Orwellian War on Skepticism (via U. Doran)
Malfunction on Land Keeps a Fleet of Planes From the Sky (via Joel M.) -- complex systems break down, and the breakdowns have expanding consequences...
How obesity became the new face of disability in America (via Joel M.)
“We enable people to a degree by saying oh, you know, you’re disabled, you’re too fat, here, ride the scooter, park in the handicapped spot, and we give them pills,” he says. “Western medicine isn’t set up for prevention. We’re set up to triage and treat. People come in after a heart attack and I put a stent in. But we don’t talk to them about how to prevent the heart attack from happening."
Drug shortages in U.S. emergency rooms on the rise --scary...
I Asked Academia's Most Vocal Critic Why College Is a Waste
Marche Turque de Mozart (2:56) Pianist Yuja Wang's comic crowd-pleaser of a musical mash-up....
Un duo qui swingue (3:49) two young ukelele wunderkinds--fun!
"The mass of the people don't really notice anything, but just repeat whatever their rulers tell them." Plato
Thanks for reading--
charles |
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