I think my Fourth Amendment rights got trampled this week, but I’m not exactly sure. Thursday night, Rita and I went shopping after dinner,  the kids staying with their dad as they normally do. Just after nine we got home and settled in for the night. Then a loud knock was hurt on the door that caused us both a lot of consternation. We opened the door to see…the police.

What was alarming wasn’t their presence but that the male officer asked if I could step outside for a minute. Of course, having watched my share of “COPS” and “Law and Order”, I didn’t like being asked to step outside without being told what for. However instead of getting out the handcuffs, the cop just explained there had been a call for some very loud screaming to the point in which the police suspected a murder. Now in Cougar Country, “murder” is this concept that sort of akin to an Elmore Leonard novel. It happens, but it’s almost never random and oozes subplots and intrigue.

The other police officer, who was female, went inside to chat with Rita for a minute. No sooner had I started some small talk with the other one, than their conversation was over and I asked when the caller reporter hearing the scream. The male officer said about half an hour ago, which we thought was probably when we were still shopping. In any case, that was that we thought.

But then, about ten minutes later…the cops returned asking if we would allow a search of our unit. Now, as you can imagine…Rita and I were pretty darn certain they wouldn’t find a body so we obliged. Only the female officer went in and…she noticed the fact that the kids room was empty. But beyond that, she walked in such a way that she obvious found nothing exciting and thanked us upon leaving.

Relieved, Rita and I tried to relax and put the whole thing behind us. It occurred to me though, that I might have reacted the wrong way. Not in the sense of being ridiculous or suspicious, but if I should have not stepped outside until I asked the police if they intended to search or arrest me. (In this case, they decided to perform a search of our place but obviously didn’t have a warrant.)

Now you might think this is some sort of academic question…that if you are innocent you have “nothing to worry about.” But I disagree because I think the innocent do, have plenty to worry about. The police are not, after all, omniscient and rely on the evidence they collect to make decisions. People can be arrested as you can imagine on suspicion alone. Moreover, any good defense attorney will tell you that the way to win is to argue the evidence itself. For, the state must prove the evidence suggests the defendant committed the alleged crime beyond any reasonable doubt.

And that is perhaps the most unusual part of the story. Recently, we have had a large number of new neighbors move into the complex. Many, we noticed, have pets or other animals. Is it possible that the new tenants simply thought they had heard shrieking when in fact it was something else? And why did they think it came from our unit which actually has a exterior wall? (We have only neighbors on one side.) What evidence were the police really looking for, and as you can imagine, would anyone really be able to tell?

Meanwhile, despite how many lawyers I know, it’s still not so obvious what is the proper way to engage the policeman at your door who won’t tell you why they are there at first. Not because I really care about last Thursday, but because there’s always a chance next time the lawmen won’t agree with us and go home.

A momentous occasion happened this weekend, one destined for the history books. Rita finally agreed to get the sports tier on cable. Yes, I know, it may seem insignificant to you but as things go, this was a truly epic change.

Nursing a bad hangover, Rita still was sleeping on Saturday when USC at Washington kicked off. However, I didn’t get to see the game because it was blacked out on local television and cable. (For some really odd reason, ABC/ESPN elected to show Nebraska at Virginia Tech instead.)

Instead, I had to break it to her after the fact that U-Dub had basically held court on USC all game, and then in the final minutes chipped in a field goal to win it. She thought I was joking…since Washington was 0-12 in 2008. But you know, the school did hire USC old offensive coordinator as head coach and then he turned around and lured Nick Holt, the defensive coordinator for the Trojans to Seattle….

But I digress.

I then had to break it to Rita that Kansas State at UCLA was also blacked out locally, but available on the sports tier channel Fox College Sports Central. (As far as I know, there was no way to see USC/Washington). She asked if we could order the service right then and there…but I had to explain…you need to actually pick up the box to do that and the cable company offices were in fact, closed. So as a compromise we went out to dinner at the Fox Sports Grille and watched UCLA take the bulldozer to the Wildcats.

As you can imagine, the bill wasn’t ridiculous, but it was more than the monthly cost of the subscription. In fact, it was almost the same as the cost of adding the digital cable receiver, a DVR box rental, and the sports tier for the whole month. Rita sheepishly replied after we left that maybe it was cheaper just to get the sports package after all.

Of course, UCLA has a bye next weekend, so it’s not the most pressing concern. But it' is always good when a domestic dispute has a positive resolution, no?

Lately, I have needed to check TV Guide’s website more often to see when various football games start. That led me to look at the fall TV line-up because…ironically I don’t watch much broadcast television anymore outside of sports or PBS. At first, I felt almost guilty because it makes me so culturally illiterate to ignore what’s on prime time TV. But upon closer inspection I realized that I have been vindicated. There’s not much on these days, except for a handful of franchise shows like CSI, and reality programming.

The odd parallel is that I was living in Los Angeles at the time of the actors’ strike years ago, and I can tell you unfortunately it’s all related. In fact, the strike hastened the use of reality TV because actors were not available…but as market share declined…became cheaper as well.

But this isn’t what drives me nuts. Oh no. It’s that cable has become a farm system for the major networks. Now that ABC, CBS, and NBC, Fox own over half the cable channels themselves there’s really nothing good there either. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I find stuff I like but….

Again, you might think that this is a good thing….a sign of moral and cultural victory that I watch less and less TV. But the truth is, I’d argue the same problem has affected all media, be it radio, music, or books. Art after all, is merely the history of culture. And to that end, it is perhaps culture that is in the greatest decline.

Not high culture, not low culture, not ethnic culture, not religious culture. No, television and other media convinces me that humans are losing the ability to communicate and connect with one another. Not because of the impact of something menacing like say, the Internet or the “lack of morals”. No it’s something far weirder something more having to do with media being owned by few entities and Wal-Mart only stocking a handful of books. It’s the commoditization of art. It’s about constantly reaching to old ideas or sequels to create new art instead of developing fresh content.

The situation is far from hopeless though. I suspect something shall fill this void. And it seems likely to be correlate to whatever dynastic changes occur as the Baby Boomers fade away and leave their children in charge. For now though, I find myself spending ever longer and the bookstore, online, or watching TV and finding less and less.

Imagine my shock last night, when after cleaning up the abode for a couple hours to see “Meet the Press” tackle the subject of unemployment. More specifically, they cited an article in that artifact of a bygone era, “Time” magazine.

David Gregory seemed almost to delight in reading the following quote before addressing the panel:

America now faces the direst employment landscape since the Depression. It's troubling not simply for its sheer scale but also because the labor market, shaped by globalization and technology and financial meltdown, may be fundamentally different from anything we've seen before. And if the result is that we're stuck with persistent 9%-to-11% unemployment for a while — a range whose mathematical congruence with that other 9/11 is impossible to miss — we may be looking at a problem that will define the first term of Barack Obama's presidency the way the original 9/11 defined George W. Bush's. Like that 9/11, this one demands a careful refiguring of some of the most basic tenets of national policy. And just as the shock of Sept. 11 prompted long-overdue (and still not cemented) reforms in intelligence and defense, the jobs crisis will force us to examine a climate that has been deteriorating for years. The total number of nonfarm jobs in the U.S. economy is about the same now — roughly 131 million — as it was in 1999. And the Federal Reserve is predicting moderate growth at best. That means more than a decade without real employment expansion. [link}

Anyone who has read my blog knows that more than once, I predicted that unemployment would continue to rise not because of some inner nihilistic streak…but because the unemployment rate turns on those LOOKING for work not those who NEED it or who are, as they say UNDER-employed. Plenty of people ready to retire two years now find themselves having to curtail those plans and that’s a major contributor to the rate. (Indeed, I wouldn’t be surprised as I’ve said if we get to 15-20% unemployment sometime this decade not because the economy collapses but because suddenly work, not investing, becomes the only way to support oneself again.)

More revealing, I thought, was this excerpt from later on:

If you look at the three great job busts of the past 100 years — the 1930s, the early 1980s and today — you find an important difference. The Reagan recession ended with workers returning to jobs that were the same as or similar to the ones they had lost. But 1930s joblessness was structural. The jobs people lost — largely in agriculture — never came back. Workers had to move to the industrial sector, a transition helped by the demands of a war.

What struck me the most about this statement was its simplicity. That what really happened in 1983 was that out of work people simply went back to work as if nothing ever happened…while the Depression buried American agriculture alive like a dust storm on the Plains. But as you might know, it was the recession of the early 80s that began the slow, grinding decline of the Rust Belt. And while John Steinbeck was not around to chronicle workers’ plight and ensuring relocation to the Sunbelt…it happened nonetheless.

And this is why the piece suggests that people were able to go back to the same line of employment as before. Because just as the Rust Belt exodus began, so did the Sun Belt Renaissance start. It is no coincidence that foreign car companies opened factories not in the union strongholds of Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania but in places like Tennessee, Mississippi, and South Carolina. So this swap, if you will was actually a net loss….if only because the absence of unions and a lower cost of living allowed Nissan, Toyota, and BMW to pay their workers less.

Thus with the manufacturing base slowly in decline…you can imagine that many workers felt their only option was the service sector. But as big box stores crushed their competition using economies of scale, and educational costs increased faster than inflation choices continued to evaporate. That is, until the 401k made everyone believe they too could be rich someday and the leave the work to someone else.

The panel on “Meet the Press”, however, was quick to point out that if the economy was going through a structural change, new industries would be necessary to replace old ones. And that aside from “green jobs”, the President had done little to flesh this out.

Of course, new opportunities exist. The real question is how long will America grapple with this transition and just how influential we will be on the world stage when it is complete. My own suspicion is that it will take much longer than we would like and will cost us dearly, but not everything.

Despite what you might think, it’s been fairly quiet ‘round these parts. In fact, the big development last weekend was…the mosquitoes. It’s been awful dry this summer in Alta Sonora leading me to think nothing of being outside in just flip flops at a pool party this weekend. It might have helped if I actually had gone into the pool…but Justin really wanted to toss a football around. Soon, I was referring a touch football game between a handful of kids.

Upon getting home, I began to feel that predictable itch. But I have to say, I didn’t think it was so bad. That is until I woke up in the middle of the night. I first tried to rub my ankles against the mattress. Then I used my toenails to scratch. And before it was over, after two hours of torment, I washed my feet to reduce the dryness.

Of course, this occurred despite using anti-itch cream. As you can imagine, it’s difficult to apply that stuff at work while wearing dress socks and slacks.

Today, however, was better. And I expect things to improve unless Mr. Staph decides to drop in for a visit. (Note, it doesn’t “look” infected.)

Dedicated readers of my blog will remember that just about this time last year…I also provided plenty of nourishment for the local mosquito horde after lingering in the twilight at the pool.

Some things never change, I guess.

Last weekend, there was finally time to do a lot of stuff I had been putting off: oil change for car, haircut for me, marching the kids to the library…and oh yeah a teeth cleaning at a dentist Rita referred me to. As you can imagine, these type of errands are hardly carefree…all it takes is one bad look from the mechanic, hair stylist, or dentist and you can be reaching for your wallet. However, as luck would have it, I finished the oil change and haircut before lunch and without incident. No major repairs, no hair loss. I told the kids I would be back after a one hour teeth cleaning.

I never made it. It was dinner time before I came home and the news wasn’t good. No, I didn’t have some awful disease…I had something completely reversible—for a price. The last time I had dental insurance (think 2002)…I didn’t have any cavities. As a result I had my wisdom teeth removed (to be safe) and paid about $2000 for the general anesthesia and a co-pay for each tooth. And then for years on end…I had no insurance and never had much pain or discomfort.

Although I’ve had dental insurance for the past two years, I didn’t realize at first how important my choice of plan was. So for that reason I continued to delay my visit until I learned that as a dental PPO patient, I had limits on coverage per year. Hence I went last weekend….about one month before my coverage turned over.

The visit began with dental X-rays. They proved to be a major chore because of the small size of my mouth. The assistant and hygienist had a hell of time trying to fit the blocky probe (because you see they now use digital imaging) into my mouth. And then, afterwards she began to clean. She found enough gum separation to suggest a “deep cleaning” (which cost money as you might imagine). So I told her to wait and see what the dentist himself found.

They had already locked the door to the office for the day by the time he arrived. A younger guy, he also happened to be a UCLA alum and had done his grad work at USC. (Amazing I tell you.) He started his diagnosis with an interesting question: “Did you ever wear braces?” (I thought he was impressed on how straight my teeth were…as some people are.) Instead he remarked that I had a form of decalcification that was common among people with braces. Or soda drinkers…. (That’s not me…never.)

In any case, he basically decided that I had several cavities near the gum line. In many cases that would require crowns. That didn’t sound too bad…until he said it would require 6-8 visits over hour half a day in the chair. Now I’ve had tons of dental work done thanks to my parents and their idea that raisins make a great snack….but I haven’t done a 6-8 hour marathon. Hell, the wisdom teeth extraction took maybe 3 hours.

But then afterwards I told the dentist that it sounded like this could be about “five figures”. He disagreed with that gut reaction and waited to see what the office manager would do after running my insurance. Sure as anything, she noticed that the total amount of work recommended would require a patient co pay of around $10,000. This is because my benefits max out at $2000 a year. I told her that I would try and schedule the work as soon as I could…but that the dentist’s position that I should get it all done as soon as possible was likely wishful thinking.

Especially after I brought the estimate home to Rita. :)

You might think however, that my dental insurance is not particularly good. However the office manager was quick to point out: “You have really good insurance.”

I’m sure I do….But I don’t know what you are supposed to do to defray costs like that. Especially because if you noticed….the “health care debate” hasn’t mentioned dentistry at all. And that’s a shame…mostly because if there’s one part of your body that is disproportionately impacted by diet it’s your mouth. And if there’s one thing that has caused health care costs to rise in the past few years…it’s diet…spurred by the proliferation of corn syrup.

But hey, it could have been worse. At least my car doesn’t need a new transmission or anything….