A Fond Farewell: As It Stands is Moving On

 

By Dave Stancliff/For The Times-Standard
It’s been a good run.

After five years of writing this column for the Times-Standard, it’s time to call it quits. I don’t think I can put my feelings into words, but I’ll try.

When I made my reappearance in the world after years of crippling depression due to my PTSD in 2006, I took on the roll of publicity director for the first North Coast Stand Down in Ferndale. The event was meant to “Give veterans a hand up, not a hand-out.”  

As rewarding as it was to work with homeless veterans and their families, I only did it for two years because it took a mental toll on me. Putting myself “out there” was no easy proposition. I wasn’t used to being around people. I still avoid large crowds. 

The good news was, it whet my appetite to communicate with people. Glenn Simmons, editor of the now defunct Eureka Reporter, offered me some space on the Op Ed page in 2007, and I was off!
After the Eureka Reporter folded up, I hooked up with the Times-Standard and the rest, as they say, is history.

The words that wouldn’t come out after all those dark years of battling the disability that forced me to retire as a newspaper editor, began to flow once again.

I was able to look at the daily news and not get angry because I had an outlet. Writing. Purging myself on subject after subject was a positive experience and I settled into a comfortable groove. After 265 columns (give or take a couple) the time has come to close this chapter in my life.

Five years have passed in a blink of an eye. After over 30 years of living in Humboldt County, my beautiful wife and I are moving to Oregon. I never thought I’d move from this area. I should have known better. Never say never. Life is too unpredictable for that!

I can’t say I had a particularly favorite column. To me, each had its moments when readers commented and I got feedback.

I am proud of one column I did about Humboldt County not having a prescription disposal program like most of the rest of the country had at the time. A man I admire, Jimmy Smith (then Country Supervisor) read the column and got proactive.

Thanks to Jimmy, we now have an excellent prescription disposal program on the north coast. He took positive action as opposed to some other local pols who felt I was trying to embarrass them!

Writing an OP ED column can be a merry game. It can also get old. Forgive me, but my interests are going in new directions.

I’ve been a consultant for Learnist this last year, a hot new social learning website. I get to create and curate learning boards on practically any topic you can name. Politics and News are what I’m most known for, but I’ve done boards on everything from world travel to Elvis Presley’s first concert!

So you see, I won’t quit sharing things with people. The benefit of being able to do my job from home is immense. I still have PTSD. It doesn’t go away. You learn to live with it. Working online has been a resurrecting experience for me. It started with this column, which has a history of appearing in four different newspapers.  

Why leave Humboldt County? That’s harder to explain. I don’t want to say anything bad about it. I’ll always love this area. I have family here, so I’ll return to visit from time to time. The climate change won’t make much difference to me as I’m indoors more than out. It is just time.

I can’t begin to thank everyone who has encouraged me to write again, and those of you who have read my column on a regular basis. You know who you are, so I won’t embarrass you by saying your names.

I cannot end this column without acknowledging and thanking the following three people:

* My dear friend Margaret Searles, an author and editor who lives in Mckinleyville and whose invaluable input on every one of my columns is deeply appreciated.

* Times-Standard Assistant Editor, Mark Valles, who I’ve had the pleasure of working with for just over a year. His strong editorial and copywriting skills have the editorial page looking better than ever!

* Times-Standard Editor, Kimberly Wear, who I worked with for several years prior to Mark. I enjoyed her small talk about her family. Especially around October when she took her daughter to the Pumpkin Patch in Arcata. Always the professional, she’s a nice person to know.

  I guess that’s about all I have to say about that…other than thanks for the memories!

As It Stands, it’s time for me to walk on down the road…

Oops! Another embarrassing moment for a Republican Pol!

 

Exposed! Voter fraud is not as rampant as Colorado's secretary of state has been claiming.

Just when you thought Republicans might stay out of the news for a month or two without making asses of themselves, one of their political luminaries, Secretary of State Scott Gessler (R), announced last month that 155 possibly illegal voters went to the polls in the November 2012 elections - out of more than 3,050,578 voters in Colorado.

Today, a review by Boulder County's top prosecutor has found that all 17 instances of allegedly fraudulent voters in his county were, in fact, verifiable U.S. citizens, The Boulder Daily Camera reported.

You have to hand it to these conservative hammerheads who never stop trying to limit minorities from voting, they’re determined. They’re also rabid racists, and determined.

As It Stands: RNP flips out and bans news outlets they don’t like! Election 2016

By Dave Stancliff

I’m simply stunned at what the Republican National Party (RNP) has done. The party that was thrashed in the last two presidential elections and who vowed to change some things the next time around – read appeal to minorities – is totally gone off it’s tracks.

The train derailed when they voted Friday to bar NBC News and CNN from partnering with them in hosting the 2016 presidential primary debates! Apparently one of the things the GNP decided to change was who gets to report on them. They don’t like being criticized – poor sensitive darlings – and have decided to cut off any legitimate coverage of their political election coverage.

Too bad. They just don’t play well, and like a pack of petulant kids, are pushing out their lower lips: “We’re done putting up with this nonsense,” RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said ahead of the vote to ban NBC News and CNN. “There are plenty of other outlets. We’ll still reach voters, maybe more voters. But CNN and NBC anchors will just have to watch on their competitors’ networks.”  

Can’t you see Priebus wiping the snot away from his nose after making this announcement? The whole pack of idiots aren’t going to stop there however. The clowns are talking about having Rush Limbaugh or Mark Levine as the moderator for “their debates.” No kidding. They’re that pissed off about having inconvenient facts surfacing about their candidates.

I really do wonder what world these guys live in? Unrealistic ideals are one thing, but to ban any news sources that don’t fit in with their view of the world is scary, senseless, and stupid. What really set the RNP off? I’ll tell you.

NBC Entertainment, a subsidiary of NBC News, is planning on doing a documentary on Hillary Clinton in 2015. CNN is also guilty of planning a a show about her – a biopic on the former secretary of state, next year. Reince Prince Priebus warned that if each network did not cancel planned projects about Clinton, each network’s news division would be barred from participating in official Republican primary debates in 2016.

There you have it. Let’s see if the Democrats ban Fox News from their election coverage. Somehow, I doubt it. But, politics being politics, they might show how stupid they can be in spite of what I think. 

As It Stands, controlling media coverage in America is too Nazi-like for my comfort!

 

As It Stands: Meet a New Cute Mammal today

  Good Day World!

TGIF! The weekend looms…meanwhile I’d like to introduce you to a new mammal! He’s new to us, but has been around for a long time.

Brass band buildup….ta da! Say hi to Olinguito (you can call him Fog for short if you’d like).

I can’t wait to see the Olinguito stuffed toy line and the avalanche of other marketing ideas that will surely following this cute critter. Panda’s are going to face a new challenge to their cute mammal monopoly. The world is being introduced to “Fog” by the Smithsonian Institute. Here’s the low down:

A new mammal species has been confirmed by scientists, and it's already melting hearts. The olinguito, described as a cross between a house cat and a teddy bear, is the first new carnivorous mammal identified in the Western Hemisphere in 35 years, and it's considered one of the cutest scientific finds in recent memory.

Photo by Mark Gurney- The newly named "Olinguito" lives in the "cloud forests" in the Andes. Its scientific name, Bassaricyon neblina, comes from the Spanish name for fog.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Kristofer Helgen talks about the introduction of the olinguito — a member of the raccoon family who is being described as a cross between a house-cat and a teddy bear.

"It's certainly the cutest new species described in a long time," Roland Kays, director of the Biodiversity and Earth Observation Lab at North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences said.

In addition to cat and teddy bear comparisons, "it has a bit of monkey and raccoon thrown in there too," said Kays.

The researchers describe the entire olingo family, including a first-time analysis of the elusive olinguito, in the Aug. 15 edition of the journal ZooKeys.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

As It Stands: Jetpacks For All & the Oldest Rock Art in North America

         Good Day World!

It’s not just another Thursday…it’s today. You can’t buy it back. No amount of regret will change that.

The alternative? Live it like it’s your last day.

Speaking of days – ancient ones that is – wait till you read the second article I’ve selected for you below: imagine rock art that’s 14,800 years-old and you can see it in Nevada.

The first article is fun. Did you ever see that guy in a jetpack that unexpectedly landed in the middle of a football game years ago? It was pretty cool, but I doubt if anyone in that football stadium ever suspected that someday they too could fly around like Rocket Man of comic book fame.

With that thought in mind: 

That jetpack you always wanted? It's almost ready

If the engineers at Martin Aircraft have their way, you will soon have your very own jetpack: Aviation authorities in New Zealand have given the Christchurch-based company the green light to begin manned test flights of its jetpacks.

Founder Glenn Martin began experimenting with jetpacks about 30 years ago, after spending his youth watching "Thunderbirds" and other action-packed TV shows, Agence France-Presse reports.

Rock art in Nevada believed to be oldest in North America

On the west side of Nevada's dried-up Winnemucca Lake, there are several limestone boulders with deep, ancient carvings; some resemble trees and leaves, whereas others are more abstract designs that look like ovals or diamonds in a chain.

The true age of this rock art had not been known, but a new analysis suggests these petroglyphs are the oldest in North America, dating back to between 10,500 and 14,800 years ago.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

As It Stands: You’re not going to get me to lose weight by humilating me!

Good Day World!

Some people mean well. For example, those enthusiastic advocates of fitness who tell us to get off of our lazy asses and to work out.

We are an obese nation these days. No doubt about it. Having said that, I don’t believe you’re going to help someone by humiliating them and expecting them to do something beyond their physical capabilities. 

Enter the motivation gurus who come up with all kinds of cute little exercise routines that are about as useful as quicksand in your front yard! We are not all created equally. Those skinny guys and gals who prance around on our TVs demonstrating the surefire way to fitness are already fit. Get it?

They don’t need the exercise but we’re supposed to think we’re going to look like them if we do everything instructed. Regardless of our body type. That’s about as realistic as believing politicians really work to serve people!

Throw in the products touted by these phys-ed fanatics and you’re bound to be the next Hulk Hogan or Gywneth Paltrow! False promises, I tell you! It’s deceiving to make people think they can miraculously transform their body into a hunk or hunkette.

I’m not saying we don’t need to exercise. We do. But within our physical realities. For some, that just means walking 20 minutes a day. Goading people to perform physical acts with smart ass memes and quotes is not productive…it’s elitist and unrealistic.

I suppose those who are fit enough to enjoy being challenged like this find the popular “get fit” memes and quotes fun. I’m happy for them. But I can tell you right now, humiliating me for the sake of motivation is the wrong way to go.

The following article is what set me off on this rant:  

“So you’re on the couch entering hour three of a Pinterest binge. This is a time when you probably could use a little motivation to get yourself to finally log off and drag your butt to the gym.

That’s essentially the point of “fitspiration” – a cutesy, Internetty term for images and slogans meant to inspire people to meet their fitness goals, hundreds of which are posted and pinned every day on image-heavy social media sites like Pinterest, Tumblr and Instagram.

And a lot of “fitspo,” as it’s nicknamed, does a great job of doing what it’s intended to do: inspire people to get and stay fit, say body image experts and fitness bloggers.

But mixed right into those healthy messages are also some sneakily harmful underlying themes. “A lot of these things are very reasonable -- they say things like ‘Just start,’” says David LaPorte, a psychologist at Indiana University of Pennsylvania who has studied body image and social media. “Or, I love this one: ‘Failure isn’t falling down; it’s refusing to get back up.’

“The trouble is when you surround all those good messages with images of people that are unattainable for most women, quite frankly,” he says.” Read story here

Time for me to walk on down the road…

As It Stands: The Movie Jerry Lewis Made & Never Released Surfaces, But Not in Theatres

Good Day World!

Most people are unaware that Jerry Lewis wrote, produced, and starred in a movie – “The Day The Clown Cried” - in 1972. That’s because he never released it, knowing it was a clunker upon finishing the project. So the movie stayed hidden all these years.

But on August 10th, YouTube user Unclesporkums uploaded perhaps the longest clip (it's a 7-minute "Making of Footage" collection of clips) to ever publicly surface of the film in the past 41 years, which introduces the movie mistake to a whole new generation. Lewis plays a circus performer who is taken by the Nazis after making fun of Hitler.

In the concentration camp where he's sent, he amuses the children with his routine, and eventually walks with them into a gas chamber. The last scene involves Lewis' clown (Helmut Doork) and the children laughing while the gas surrounds them. hole new generation. (A nearly 1-minute "behind the scenes" clip is also available.)

The film was not made as a comedy; it was to have been Lewis' first foray into serious drama. But after test screenings went terribly wrong, Lewis (who told Dick Cavett in 1973 that he'd planned to release it at the Cannes Film Festival) pulled the film. When he was asked about the movie at Cannes this year, the 87-year-old Lewis said, "It was all bad and it was bad because I lost the magic. You will never see it. No one will ever see it, because I am embarrassed at the poor work."

Only a select few have seen the film since Lewis packed it away, and one is comedian (and frequent voice on "The Simpsons") Harry Shearer, who saw a rough cut in 1979. As he told Spy magazine in 1992, it's no surprise that the film won't get a public release.” (Read more here)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

LA To San Francsico in 35 minutes via the new Hyperloop!

You might want to sit down for this piece of high tech news that may change the way you travel…soon!

It’s called Electromagnetic Acceleration.

Photo via Elon Musk / Tesla Motors / SpaceX ;A conceptual rendering shows the Hyperloop passenger pod inside a low-pressure tube.

It’s the high technology behind the high-speed transit concept that billionaire Elon Musk calls the Hyperloop.

Musk — who already plays leading roles in the SpaceX rocket venture, the Tesla electric car company and the SolarCity solar-energy company — unveiled his vision of the Hyperloop today.

____________________________________________________

The Hyperloop would send travelers through low-pressure steel tubes in specialized pods that zoom at high subsonic speeds, reaching about 760 mph (1,220 kilometers per hour). That compares with typical speeds of 110 mph (for U.S. systems) to 300 mph (in China) for high-speed rail travel.

_______________________________________________

The plan is aimed at cutting the travel time between San Francisco and Los Angeles to 35 minutes, at a price of $20 for a one-way trip. Musk said the Hyperloop arrangement could be implemented between any pair of cities situated up to, say, 900 miles (1,500 kilometers) apart.

For longer distances, air travel would probably be more efficient, he said.

In a blog posting and a 57-page PDF file about the Hyperloop, Musk said he came up with the plan out of frustration with the shortcomings of California's $68 billion high-speed rail project, which is just getting started. read story here

As It Stands: Sanjay Stands up for Pot - ‘We’ve Been Mislead’

Good Day World!

Just when I was wondering if any progress would ever be made after the Supreme court’s moronic decision not to recognize it’s medicinal values, along comes some good news!

A notable neurosurgeon discovers what it can do for people with epilepsy and completely reverses everything he’s said for years on TV about it being bad! More news like this will force the feds to give in to some sane marijuana policy some day…I’m just not sure when.  

“We have been terribly and systematically misled for nearly 70 years in the United States, and I apologize for my own role in that.” - Sanjay Gupta

Who is Sanjay Gupta?

Sanjay Gupta is an American neurosurgeon and an assistant professor of neurosurgery at Emory University School of Medicine and associate chief of the neurosurgery service at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia.

Why Did he Make Headlines on Marijuana Last Week?

Sanjay Gupta changes mind on weed but debate continues

The haze surrounding Sanjay Gupta's stance on medical marijuana use has cleared. The TV doctor says he just wasn't looking hard enough.

CNN's chief medical correspondent announced his change in heart Aug. 8 in an online op-ed, Why I Changed My Mind on Weed, promoting his specialWeed, a documentary premiering tonight at 8 p.m. on CNN.

Gupta says he used to oppose the use of medical marijuana. But after more research, he says he has changed his mind, and has apologized for earlier statements, including his 2009 TIME magazine article Why I Would Vote No on Pot. Story here

CNN's Sanjay Gupta Talks 'Weed' and His Evolving View of Medical Marijuana

Dr. Sanjay Gupta's views on medical marijuana are evolving. In a candid admission, CNN's chief medical correspondent wrote an op-ed this week, "Why I Changed My Mind on Weed," explaining that he reevaluated his stance on the use of marijuana in certain medical treatments. Story here

Sanjay Gupta documentary outlines his marijuana research findings

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s chief medical correspondent, apologized for his previous anti-marijuana stance after spending a year reporting on the subject. His findings are highlighted in a special called “Weed” that debuted Sunday and will be rebroadcast on Friday at 10 p.m.

Gupta called his research “stunning” and posted a mea culpa on the CNN website, “Why I changed my mind about weed.” In 2009, he wrote a piece in Time magazine explaining why he thought marijuana should not be legalized. While Gupta doesn’t specifically espouse legalization, he said he finds plenty of positives about cannabis.

“We have been terribly and systematically misled for nearly 70 years in the United States, and I apologize for my own role in that,” he wrote. “I hope this article and upcoming documentary will help set the record straight.” Story here

Time for me to walk on down the road…