A Sunday morning problem with getting your news online

Simply put, you’ve already got it.

I played golf this morning, 13 and a half holes before the heavens opened and got back home early. Clothes are now in the dryer and dishes are in the dish washer.

Computer fired up, I have no news to read because all of what is traditionally in the Sunday print paper was online yesterday, and I read it then.

I didn’t want to do this; but, I think I have to go clean the kitchen, or something. Damned Internet.

Advice for the Democrats

Keep your heads down and your mouths shut.

And, if Sarah Palin needs any help as she wanders the lower forty-eight jabbering to adoring crowds: wardrobe, a spare suite for the kids, get it to her.

If she’s on the ticket in ’12, Obama has eight years in office. It’s as simple as that.

Do What?

I don’t know just how I feel about the current health care debates; but, there’s a proposal out there that I just don’t understand.

As proposed by some in the Senate, if you don’t buy health insurance, you can be fined, up to a $1,000 for an individual, more for a family.

“In a revamped health care system envisioned by lawmakers, people would be required to carry health insurance just like motorists must get auto coverage now. The government would provide subsidies for the poor and many middle-class families, but those who still refuse to sign up would face penalties.

Called 'shared responsibility payments,' the fines would be set at least half the cost of basic medical coverage, according to the legislation.”

NYTimes.com

The car insurance analogy is false. Mandatory auto insurance, to my knowledge, is only for liability coverage – a reasonable social requirement: I shouldn’t be able to skate if I hurt someone or damage their property. But, if I don’t want to pay for comprehensive or med-pay or other non-liability coverages, so be it, I’m on the hook for my damages in the event of an accident, unless I can collect from the other guy.

As it stands now, if you don’t buy health insurance and you have money, you pay for your health care. If you don’t have money, you get welfare or medi-one or the other. So, if under the new plan, I don’t buy health insurance, I pay for my care and pay a fine. Why?

It’s a tax on socially risky people, people who don’t subscribe to the plan. They can pay for the cost of their risky behavior, without burdening others; but, they aren’t a good example – they’re going their own way, we can’t have that. So let’s encourage them to become part of the crowd and if that doesn’t work, let’s collect some extra money to give to the other people.

This is the worst kind of socialism: we are going to make you do what we think is the right thing, even though there’s no economic cost to us if you don’t.

I shouldn't have to do this

This, being learn how to make sausage gravy, said gravy to pour over a biscuit, the second part of the post.

Gravy first. Consistency: not watery and not paste, erring on the heavy side of liquid. Sausage: chunks, “flavor” doesn’t get it. Spice: it needs to be peppery, I’m not sure what else.

Then the biscuit: dense, not fluffy, not soft. Kind of like a steak or burger: charred on the outside and melting on the inside. Except, charred isn’t the word I’m looking for. Crust? No, but almost. And buttery, an absolute. For breakfast, just plain. For lunch or dinner some spice. Breakfast, Mrs. Winners. The other meals, Popeye's. Close, but there must be better.

And, you can’t get any of this in Atlanta, which prides itself as being the capitol of the South, other than the fast food biscuits. How can that be?

A quest! Any suggestions are appreciated.

Something New at Netflix

Netflix didn’t used to work on the weekend. For some reason, it is: a Netflix disk received by Netflix on Saturday, is now actually received by Netflix on Saturday, not on Monday. And, more importantly, Netflix sends disks on Saturday that are received on Monday.

Bonus.

Read the Ingredients

Taste as you go would be the second rule, after the title. I am trying to salvage some red beans and rice. The ingredients in Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning starts with “salt.” There’s other stuff, but all I can taste, having put what the recipe called for into the pot, is salt, salt, salt. I didn't read and I didn't taste till after too much of was in the pot. I don’t think you can unsalt, we’ll see.

UPDATED: Google gives me conflicting information. Putting a raw potato or some rice in a bag will or won't absorb the salt. I don't have any potatoes, the "instant" rice bag is soaking away.

SECOND UPDATE: The rice kind of works, it's less salty, though still too salty. That coupled with eating it with unsalted rice, may save the day.

FINAL UPDATE: The plain rice and the rest of the spices in the dish took care of the salt. Good, but HOT.

What is passing for thought at American Thinker

I got a forward of an article on americanthinker.com by L.E. Ikenga: Obama, the African Colonial (I couldn't find a link that worked: Google the title, it's all over the Internet - Limbaugh is talking about it).

The author is a first generation American, her parents emigrated in the 1970's from Nigeria.

To sum up her article:

1. There are two types of Africans, her kind that is shaped by traditional tribal, pre-colonial democratic values; and, the other kind that she doesn't like, those shaped by "the ideals of the European imperialism that overwhelmed and dominated Africa during the colonial period."

2. The bad guys talk a good game; but, you just can't believe them, they lie at every turn.

3. Barack Obama's father was one of the bad guys, a Marxist - no facts or analysis - he just was.

4. Obama wrote Dreams From My Father, which spoke well of his father and his heritage.

5. Obama is using colonial African politics to despotically impose his Marxist will on an unsuspecting America so as to drive democracy to its knees.

Long ago I was a teacher. When you write an essay or research paper you are supposed to have facts, analysis and conclusions. No facts and no analysis gets you a failing grade.

In Threes

Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson died in a period of 48 hours.

I was never a fan. McMahon was on the couch when I was watching Johnny Carson. Fawcett was the least desirable Angel to my mind. Jackson? The Eighties were a musical wasteland for me and he got flat weird after that. For the same period, without the really bad crazy, Prince was better.

Drama, Confrontation, Passive Aggression and Psychic Ability

Mostly I write stuff here that goes unnoticed or at least uncommented. Now and again, people write comments, usually about a bit of the post that seemed an aside to me.

Then there is my diatribe about my recent experience with UPS and a UPS Store. Scroll down a couple of days, the hyperlink didn't work, and I'm lazy.

I’m tickled by a person that commented, discounting everything I said, and branding me “a dick” based on the picture on the blog. Less than handsome? Yes. Graying and balding? Guilty. Not a snappy dresser? No way – that’s a tuxedo below my head!

Maybe laying out a lawyerly case for my umbrage with UPS and its franchise is res ipsa loquitur (look it up) proof of dickness. I’ll leave it to you.

Sadly, though I don’t think I’m self-righteous, sometimes I am a crusader. And I veer into mankind-saving when I’m not careful. I’m so far zero for however many attempts; but, I will persevere.

We need to make the world safe from major corporations! Walmart – watch out, I haven’t been too pleased with you this year! Anon, how are you with clothes that have bad seams and luggage with defective zippers?

Men on the Moon and GPS in your pocket

Just over forty years ago, we stepped onto the Moon. I watched the first lunar landing back then sitting at a picnic table next to Healy Lake in Michigan. A cousin was camping there and invited us over for a Moon landing cookout. The grill was cast iron; the plates and utensils were plastic. The TV was black and white with rabbit ears and had maybe a ten-inch screen. It did have transistors rather than tubes. It was plugged into a generator. You could barely make out Armstrong stepping on to the surface.

Now, I have computers thousands of times (millions?) more powerful than Apollo 11 had. Hell, my Google phone with its disappointing GPS may approach the computer that sent three men to the moon, landed them and returned them to the earth. Back then, turn a switch, and the world and the moon came through the air right to you. We seldom turn switches these days, we push a button or icon or two to be with almost anyone and anything tens of thousands of miles away and it just seems normal. The Moon landing then, and my GPS now, don’t seem out of the ordinary to me.

I wonder what will happen in 2049 that will seem ordinary to those around to experience it?

Two Jobs' in One Day

Steve Jobs, non-possessive, and Apple should say exactly what each wants to day about each of them or both of them, regardless of what the tech world wants them to say.

If you don’t want to buy another Apple product, or invest in Apple because you aren’t sure what Jobs’(hah) health is, so be it.

But, the choice is theirs, not ours.

Something Else I Don't Like

I know "Steve Jobs's liver" is the correct way to write it but I refuse to do it. "Steve Jobs' job longevity is threatened by Jobs' liver" is the way it's said and the way it should be written, The Elements of Style be damned.

A Fried Baloney Sandwich and the Braves

The Braves – Yankees game just started, nothing – nothing at the end of one.

Dinner is going to be a New York baloney sandwich: Saute some onion, simmer some sauerkraut, fry some baloney. Put some rye bread in the skillet for a minute or so. Assemble with some spicy mustard.

And, no, I don’t know if it’s a New York style baloney sandwich, I made that up; but, substitute a hot dog for the baloney and a bun for the bread and it is a New York street dog.

Sans Sidebar

I have a sidebar still, picture, recent posts, recommended, archive. I just can't see it when using my phone or office computer to access the blog. Some of you have told me the same thing. Home computer, just fine.

Welcome to the minimalist edition of Rather Than Working.

Trendy gone wild

From an article at NYTimes.com:

"He mixes Pimm’s with Polish bison-grass vodka, along with freshly pressed apple juice and a dose of St-Germain elderflower liqueur."

Hotlanta

As used here, the word is not an amalgam to describe the city’s culture. Rather, Atlanta is and has been, just flat out hot.

It’s 94° as I write this, which is about average for this time of day, maybe a degree or two cool, for the last week. Summer, when it comes to weather, started ten days or two weeks ago. I’ve gotten used to it.

No golf this weekend as I called too late in the week to get a tee time before 11:00 a.m. which would be just a crazy time to start.

The high is supposed to be about 90° all week, a respite.

Happy Father’s Day to those of you that fit the description. Happy Sunday to the rest of you.

UPS and UPS Stores are on my Shit list

On a regular, sporadic basis I send letters that I have to prove got there. When I do, I use UPS or Fedex. I got used to using UPS since Big Tony was a vendor. Before him and since his passing, I’ve not had a problem, other than the fact that the UPS Stores that I’ve gone to have no bedside manner.

That changed starting a little less than two weeks ago. I sent a ground letter from the UPS Store at Toco Hills here in Atlanta (yes, I’m naming names) to a lawyer’s office about ten miles away. The address it was being sent to was 6000 Something, 325 Something, Atlanta, Georgia 303something.

Tuesday, I got an Email from the lawyer asking when he could expect to see what I’d sent him sometime before. I called and told him I’d sent it via UPS and asked him to check around the office. He called me back and said he didn’t have it. I went on line and found out that UPS had the package, had had the package since the day I sent it. UPS tracked its incompetence quite nicely. I seemed that it couldn’t deliver because it didn’t have a suite number, which it had, see the paragraph above. It nicely told via the website that it sent a POSTCARD to the recipient the second day, not calling me, the UPS Store, or Emailing either of us. Each day it updated the fact that it was waiting for a good address. (The recipient never got a postcard.)

So, I called the UPS Store and talked to a nice lady named Susie (not her name, she was the only polite person in this story). Fast forward, she told me on Wednesday that UPS, she thought, would be returning the letter yesterday and she would have it resent and call me

No call. I called the store and left a message. No return call. I went over this afternoon.

The two women there had little interest in my problem as I explained it. The one with an attitude cut me off in my explanation saying that Susie was not there, that I should come back on Monday and “file a claim.” She also made quite clear that the UPS Store was not responsible for the problem since UPS had picked up the letter.

I told her that we were going to solve the problem while I was there. “Susie’s not here.” “Give me the owner’s name and number.” The non-attitude woman said she’d call him. I explained the problem, he asked me to hand the phone back to his employee. She said uh huh a couple of times and hung up.

She called Susie who did not answer the phone. That was pretty much all the two ladies had for me.

Steaming, I left the UPS Store at Toco Hills. Keep that name in your head - don't go there. I got back to the office and had a voicemail from the owner. The letter was at the store, he was very sorry, though he clearly said I couldn’t have a refund because, the letter wasn’t resent to the recipient at the time it was sent back to his store (because his employee didn’t do that). I called him and he had no explanation as to why Susie hadn’t called me, why the letter had not been resent, why his employee was rude, why neither knew the letter was in the store. He offered to find out the answer to these questions. I told him to forget it, I’d go back over and pick up the letter and get it to the recipient on my own.

I drove back over and walked to the counter, “I believe you have a package for me?” The rude woman walked as slowly as she could to the package, picked it up and walked as slowly as she could to me. I took the package and walked towards the door.

She said, as sarcastically as I’ve heard in a long time “you’re welcooooome.”

I called the owner when I got to the car and described his employee’s conduct. He was apologetic saying his employee’s conduct was not acceptable. No it wasn’t. Is that the employee’s fault, or his for hiring someone with an attitude? I’m thinking more him than her, she’s just got an attitude, he’s running a lame business.

Boycott UPS and UPS Stores! There, I’ve got it out of my system.

Figuring out Iran

Iran's leadership over the last decade or so has faced the "can't keep 'em down on the farm once they've seen the big city" problem.

We did Iran a huge favor by decimating Iraq in the Gulf War. Its chief rival, militarily and economically, was in ruins, resulting in less need for costly defense and more oil money for internal development. Iran found itself in the seemingly golden position of being able to increase its standard of living, increase its influence in the region and improve its infrastructure (and fund some terrorism).

All of this happened in the context of the boom 90's and the first half of this decade. In '03, we took Iraq almost totally out of the picture, again to the benefit of Iran.

Then Iran, with the rest of us, met the recession. Oil prices and sales plummeted. The fuel for Iran's resurgence, oil money, ran into short supply. The problem it faced was that it had created a huge demand for what oil money could buy. More and more dissatisfaction was expressed by its people when the flow slowed.

Iran's demographics are very different that ours. We have a rapidly graying population. Iran has a very young population, something like seventy percent of its people are under thirty. This part of its citizenry never lived under the Shah and did not grow up in the fire of the Iranian Revolution in 1979. Rather they became used to increasing material goods, more and more free communication and its resulting knowledge of how the rest of the world lives.

Iran is facing what China faced twenty years ago. China's then totally repressive communist government is Iran's current repressive Islamic government. China's much less repressive today, Iran will be much less repressive in twenty years.

Khrushchev famously said in the sixties that the U.S. would bury itself; and, in some ways he was right. We've evolved or devolved depending on your point of view enormously, and we did it to ourselves. One of the few things Nixon did right back in the seventies was to go to China, accelerating its economic, and resulting social, revolution. China is dealing, ineffectively with the results, trying to put the cap back in the bottle. Iran can't stop the flow from the bottle and more than China can.

Since I ragged on Obama yesterday, I'll give him a shout out today. I think he's on the right track letting Iran deal with the fruits of its policies without our further intervention. It's doing a slow but OK job of evolving on its own.