I [Michael] sent a letter off to our congressional delegation yesterday, expressing to them my sentiments on the Iraq war.  Here it is:

****** 

I have come to the conclusion that it is time to get our military and our money out of Iraq.

Before the Iraq invasion, Colin Powell stated that it would take 500,000 men to take and hold Iraq.  Rumsfeld disagreed and determined to enter with fewer than 150,000.  While that was more than ample manpower to defeat the Iraqi military, it was inadequate to provide security after the occupation, as witnessed by the looting of Iraqi museums and government offices directly after the invasion.  Poor planning on our part deprived the Iraqis of their national heritage and of the records necessary to investigate abuses (and claims of WMD) by the Hussein regime.

The current troop “surge” may be helping Baghdad (or at least stabilizing the level of violence), but violence in other parts of that nation is rapidly escalating.  We have never been able – will never be able – to provide security for all populated areas in Iraq, nor can we patrol their roads in between the cities.

As a result, much of the money we are spending on Iraqi reconstruction is given to insurgent groups in exchange for the safe passage of goods.  AMERICAN TAXPAYERS ARE FINANCING THE INSURGENCY!

Bring our service personnel home.  Stop all payments for reconstruction.  Our national humiliation over this outrageous situation will only be compounded by our continued funding of their corrupt government and the insurgents.  Our national security is being further endangered with every bribe paid to insurgent groups.

Politicians want their constituents involved in the political process.  I am ready, and I will do everything in my power to support good policy, and to defeat any politician who promotes failure.

******

Of course, I am under no delusions about Alaska's congressional delegation: they will probably do nothing to bring the troops home, and good luck cutting off funds for the Iraqi government.  Still, I sent the letters off to both senators and our lone house member (although the house has little to say on the matter if I remember my high school civics class correctly).

I think everybody should write to their government representatives. This was my first (and hopefully last) letter to Don Young, but I have written both of my senators (Ted once and Lisa two or three times) about various issues not related to foreign policy.  My previous letters to Lisa have been neutral and balanced, my letter to Ted was in praise of his bill to raise CAFE standards to 40mpg.  In the past, I have received thoughtful written responses back from them each time I've commented on the issues.

It will be interesting to see how they justify funding the insurgency.

Posted at 7:55 PM YDT

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The fireweed blooms are off of most stalks around town, although there are still a few blossoms at the top of the plants in our back yard.  There are leaves on the ground too, just a few, but enough to notice.  Sheryl goes back to work tomorrow.

It is the end of summer.

The summer went out in fine style.  All last week we had glorious weather, sunny and warm (for here) with cool nights.  Our creeks both went dry again and remain so despite the little bits of rain we've seen in the last two days.  The mosquitos have been pretty tame as well, as mosquitos go.

This is the first full summer we have spent in Juneau since Sheryl and I got together, in fact the first summer I've stayed put since 1999 (when I began the MAT program).  We had a lot of things on the agenda, which was part of the reason for remaining in town (although we did not get as much done as we planned to), and we're also trying to economize now that we've got an expensive mortgage.

Luckily, the two loans we have on this place are fixed rate, so the recent meltdown in the sub-prime market (for those folks who follow that sort of thing) hasn't affected us.

Not a whole lot of news here, given the low profile we've maintained this year.  The kids are both doing fine.  Becky continues to make outstanding progress: she's been out of diapers through the summer (since her birthday when we told her that four-year-olds don't wear diapers), her language is developing exponentially both in vocabulary and in putting ideas into words ("I put on my shoes, we go to the store, we buy some candy, then we come home!").  She hasn't quite started telling stories yet, but that can't be far off at this point as her ability to pretend is quite well developed.  Michael is also talking more and more, mostly in single words (though he does say phrases like "boat in the water"), but he can identify a wide range of items and is using names now like "Daddy" and "Bucket" (Becky), and he uses gestures to fill in the blanks.

I am playing the guitar more regularly too.  I still have minimal feeling on one side of my damaged finger and on a couple of chords I can't tell if it is landing correctly until I hear the notes (or don't hear them, as the case may be), but at least my wrist is giving me minimal trouble now and I can play every chord I did before the injury.  I retrieved my song list from an old computer file, removed many songs I can't remember any more (or don't want to remember in a few cases), and added some new songs.  Today the list stands at 256 songs that I feel are doable, but I keep remembering songs that either never made the list or that I've learned since the last time I put it together (back in '92), so it's possible I may wind up somewhere around 300.  Once upon a time I had over 600 songs on the list, but it's been over fifteen years since I've sang many of them, and my memory has its limits.

I have also started singing as half of a duet again, with a woman I've known for over ten years (we did an opera together in 1997 and have been in a couple of other shows together).  I don't know what will become of our duet, but the bars are supposed to go smoke-free in January and I've been feeling somewhat nostalgic about the old days with Ray and Annie, and Sheryl is all for me doing something outside of the house to keep my sanity.  As if my sanity were really in jeopardy (it isn't, or I don't think it is).

And, of course, I am still working on the Mozart Fantasy.  For several months I quit looking at the sheet music and concentrated on playing the parts I had committed to memory, and gradually built up my speed and accuracy.  Now I am back into the score, committing the last three pages to memory, and I've been quite surprised at how quickly I've been accquiring the rest of the piece.  For some time I've had the notion in my head that I wanted to have the entire piece memorized by the first anniversary of beginning it, although I harbored significant doubt about how realistic that was (the page of 32nd notes was very intimidating).  Now I believe I'll accomplish my goal well within the year (mid-October is when I started it, according to the blog), but as always, fluency lags well behind memorization.  I have also started working on Mozart's Sonata in C-major (the most popular of Mozart's works), which gives Sheryl and the kids a little relief from the Fantasy.

And that's about it. Now we go into another school year, and watch autumn creep in.

Posted at 8:48 PM YDT

Updated: Sunday, August 19, 2007 9:23 PM YDT

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Yep, that's right, it's the third Wednesday of the month.  Actually, I [Michael] found myself somewhat annoyed when I saw my column in this morning's newspaper.  They changed the headline.  Originally, I titled the work "Autism and the Blame Game", but the newspaper headline was "Autism's Source: Chemicals?"

I think their change of headline was a bad choice because it immediately prejudices the reader, and because my original headline was an integral part of the beginning and end of the piece, but there's nothing I can do about it now except gripe.  There: I have just griped.

They also ran the article in a single column, so a scan of it (my practice until now) would make for a rather tall picture.  So, rather than scan and paste, I'll just post the text this month.  And I'll leave my original headline on it too.

  Autism and the Blame Game

  At Home With The Kids

  By Michael Wittig

  I may be to blame for my daughter’s autism.

  Last year the Israeli army released a study in which men over 40 were found to be almost six times as likely to father autistic children as men in their twenties.

  Or maybe it was my wife. Another study, released in July of this year, suggests that women who live near agricultural areas where pesticides are used produce offspring with higher incidences of autism.

  Perhaps the pharmaceutical industry is to blame. Some people claim their children became autistic after getting immunizations in which mercury was present in trace amounts, pointing to a 1998 case study (this study was later retracted, but the premise remains popular).

  There are many published studies claiming to have found autism links. Personally, I believe most of these studies have merit, but they all miss the point.

  The Autism Society of America claims that one in every 166 children born today is autistic. They also claim this number has been increasing, although some of the increase is probably due to an increased awareness of autism spectrum disorders in our society.

  I accept the premise that autism rates are on the rise, and I have my own theory as to why: we live in a world dependent upon chemistry.

  We use pesticides to deter insects and other pests from eating our crops in order that we may have enough food to eat. We feed hormones to livestock to speed their growth rate or increase their milk production. We add preservatives to processed foods to prolong their shelf life. We vaccinate our population to control the spread of disease, and use medicines to limit the impact of diseases we do contract.

  Without these chemicals most of us would die from disease or starvation, if we were lucky enough to be born at all.

  Chemicals drive our industries and create products we buy and use every day. These industries and many of their products add chemical pollutants to our air and water. People also use chemicals of all sorts, often improperly and to excess, causing more pollution in our environment.

  New chemicals come into use daily. Occasionally, chemicals are banned from use because their harmful effects become readily apparent. Unfortunately, the harmful effects of many chemicals are not readily apparent, and interactions between chemicals often cause unintended consequences.

  Mankind has always been exposed to chemicals, but the complexity and concentrations of chemicals to which we are exposed surged during the past century, especially within the last fifty years.

  This is the same time frame during which autism rates have been rising.

  All my life, I have been exposed to chemicals. The same thing is true of my wife. The same thing is true of every last one of us. Every year we add to our lives, we add more chemicals into our bodies.

  Is it so much of a stretch to imagine that a lifetime of exposure to many chemicals increases the risk to our unborn children? Is it hard to believe that young children in a chemistry-dependent society are at a greater risk from these chemicals?

  This is my autism theory. I have no proof other than the circumstantial evidence provided here, but I have seen many other theories presented with less evidence and accepted as fact.

  If this theory is correct, what are the prospects for my children, for all our children? What of their children? Is there anything we could do to reduce the risks to them?

  We could choose to buy organically grown foods, or at least wash the fresh produce we buy. We could avoid meat from animals tainted by added hormones, or fed with pesticide-treated feeds (most store-bought meats). We could cut out processed foods laden with preservatives. We could filter the water we drink.

  We could also encourage our children, and all people who want to have children, toward an active lifestyle. Exercise increases the body’s metabolism, and flushes toxins from flesh and bone.

  Lifestyle changes like these may or may not reduce the risk of autism, and some of these changes would be difficult for many people. Then again, wouldn’t taking better care of ourselves be better than playing the blame game?

Posted at 7:50 AM YDT

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The Juneau Empire decided to launch a Travel section in the paper and asked for submissions.  Some people need only be asked once:

Posted at 7:54 AM YDT

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