Here's the problem, depending on how you look at it, Obama isn't a liberal

The Republicans are beside themselves getting ready to lambaste Obama for whomever he nominates to be the next associate justice on the Supreme Court, having no interest in the choice itself, rather positioning for the mid-term elections in November.

The Media is predicting that he will nominate someone who isn’t very to the left. Media is right in its prediction.

Think it through, Obama isn’t a liberal.

Bailout: he continued W’s too big to fail plan for “saving” the economy and has floundered ever since. He and Bush succeeded in making banks “profitable.” If you are a person or a small or mid-sized business, have you talked to a loan officer lately? The recovery is reserved for the corporations whose excesses were wiped out by government money.

“We’ll be out of Afghanistan and Iraq, in (whatever the lie was).” Now he chides the guys that play with those countries and they pretty much ignore him.

Guantanamo, no more needs to be said.

Don’t ask, don’t tell, a simple stroke of the pen. And now that I think of it, so is Guantanamo.

Health care, no matter what you think, the plan he and the Dems settled on is middle of the road. No public option. Nothing of real import for several years. Look back over proposals in the last couple of decades, there are lots of Republicans that then promoted similar “reforms.” Have you notice that there isn’t an insurance or drug or hospital company that has come out and said anything against the plan? They haven’t because they will profit from an increased pool of payers and still negotiate all the important stuff that will keep them from paying the payers.

And for those of you excoriating him and the Dems for the cost, total up what we’ve spent and will spend on the bailout, a bipartisan effort. Make sure to factor in the yet to come losses on what the Government took over in the residential real estate market and the yet to fully collapse commercial market.

What the GOP thinks, and won’t tell you, is that they aren’t at all worried about Obama as a Socialist, Progressive, Liberal, Commie, Pinko. They are pissed that they don’t have much influence in where the pork is going.

Obama is a Chicago streetwise Pol, nothing more, nothing less. Indeed, he doesn’t do it as well as his predecessors did – Tip O’Neill, Lyndon Johnson, Ted Kennedy, even Bill Clinton. They understood the art of the deal. Obama seems to think that any deal is a good deal.

The only thing anyone with a brain can celebrate about the last election is that Sarah Palin doesn’t hang out at Blair House.

The Supreme Court isn’t going to change with Obama’s appointment. It is actually going to skew more to the right. The continuing “swing” vote, without any influence from Justice Stevens, will continue be Justice Kennedy, who can be easily swayed by the right on the Court.

Get ready for stronger 5-4 anti-civil liberties and pro big business and government opinions. The new guy or girl won’t have much influence for some time to come, even if he or she is wont to exercise it.

Then too, I wouldn't want McCain to have kicked off and Sarah to have been inquiring potential justices as to just why we have three branches of government.

Is Sarah Palin worthy of a response from the President?

Sarah Palin as the Republican candidate for President in 2012 would be the fulfillment of the Democrats’ fondest wishes. Can you imagine the multiple daily gaffes? The debates? Priceless.

That said, why did Obama engage in a media spat with her about the nuclear treaty he just signed? Flippancy and the absence of substance are her middle names. Tit for tat does not become the President.

If a response was necessary, would it make more sense for say the Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs to note, as Obama said, that the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs (notorious wimpy pacifists) were on board with the treaty. And maybe go a bit further and wryly note that most responsible Republicans were also on board?

Sometimes off the cuff is good, more often it is not.

To use Palin’s playground bully analogy, sometimes it’s appropriate to let the ineffectual bully punch you in the gut. And smile. Letting others comment on the silly bully.

Unbundling

Spirit Airlines is all over the news with its new charge to put a bag in the overhead bin. I just read that Ryanair is again considering making its toilets coin operated.

Read your Internet or cell phone bill and find all the little “fees” that are really just increases to the “low” price you hear in the advertisements.

While beverages and desserts have traditionally been “unbundled” on restaurant menus, I’ve noticed that main dish prices are holding steady accompanied by spikes in drink and dessert prices.

I met my friend the cop for lunch yesterday at a middle of the road chain restaurant. I had a kind of French dip sandwich* and fries with a pretty good pickle slice. Not too bad and not overly expensive at $7.99. Then I looked at the bill and found out my iced tea was $2.39, about a third of the price of the meal, beyond the unreasonable line.

* Beef on ‘Weck Pos, not too bad, a touch salty.

Nike and Tiger: How Low Can You Go?

Pretty damn low. Watch this commercial and come on back:

http://www.tmz.com/2010/04/07/nike-tiger-woods-earl-woods-golf-nike-commercial-tigers-dad-for-new-commercial/

So, if you caught any of Tiger's press conference earlier in the week, he was heartily sorry. He let everyone down. Mea culpa. Mea magna culpa. And so on, other than giving any details of what led him to where he is.

And that was fine with me, especially when coupled with his crowd friendly demeanor during his first practice round.

Now we find out it's all fodder to sell sports apparel. Don't ask me questions; but, I'm going to use my bad behavior to promote Nike stuff. And I'm going to invoke my dead dad, who I didn't listen to, to do it.

Here's part of what Billy Payne, the current chairman of the Augusta National Golf Club, had to say today in his annual speech, before the commercial ran:

"But as he now says himself, he forgot in the process to remember that with fame and fortune comes responsibility, not invisibility. It is not simply the degree of his conduct that is so egregious here; it is the fact that he disappointed all of us, and more importantly, our kids and our grand kids. Our hero did not live up to the expectations of the role model we saw for our children.

"Is there a way forward? I hope yes. I think yes. But certainly his future will never again be measured only by his performance against par; but measured by the sincerity of his efforts to change. I hope he now realizes that every kid he passes on the course wants his swing, but would settle for his smile.

"I hope he can come to understand that life's greatest rewards are reserved for those who bring joy to the lives of other people. We at Augusta hope and pray that our great champion will begin his new life here tomorrow in a positive, hopeful and constructive manner, but this time, with a significant difference from the past. This year, it will not be just for him, but for all of us, who believe in second chances."

Seems to me that Tiger is more interested in the kids and grand kids buying Nike stuff and has a way to go to live up to Payne's and my standards.

Two Gadgets I Missed and One I Might

I’ve been accused by some people of being gadget-happy. On a continuum, I’ll admit I skew gadget rather than Luddite.

But, I’m not an early adopter. I tend to jump on bandwagons when there's been an iteration or three, and then, only if it’s useful to me. I didn’t get my first computer until 1983. I didn’t get my second computer till the mid-nineties. Why such a gap? I had a secretary that typed a whole lot faster than I did. I went back to the computer when clients and friends started asking for my Email address. I didn’t get a cell phone until I got similar questions about my cell number.

I dabbled on the Internet for the second half of the Nineties, only becoming fully immersed when it had developed into something that replaced the way I did my job.

I never got a PDA, not finding it useful as I had a real live person, my secretary, to keep track of obligations. I scoffed at smart phones until Apple changed the game with the iPhone. Now, with a smart phone, I have a limited computer, .mp3 player, PDA and phone everywhere I go.

But, as it turns out I missed a gadget. It wasn’t until recently that I discovered that an iPod was more than an .mp3 player. I never knew it was a baby Internet connection. Would I have bought one if I knew? Probably not. It was never fully evolved, lacking the cell phone function that the iPhone and its progeny supplied.

Will I succumb to the allure of a pad/tablet/slate? Right now, I think I won’t, though I laughed at the smart phones early on. The new neither/nor devices seem to be over-sized smart phones and under-sized laptops, each of which I’ve got. Then too, they’re missing important parts of both the other devices: the phone function of the smart phone and full computer functionality of a laptop.

Is there something in there that will fulfill a need? We’ll see.

Google Tricks

As a public service:

http://www.nytimes.com/external/gigaom/2010/04/02/02gigaom-10-simple-google-search-tricks-58674.html

I especially like the first one. For those of you that are lazy:

"Use the 'site:' operator to limit searches to a particular site. I use this one all the time, and it’s particularly handy because many site’s built-in search tools don’t return the results you’re looking for (and some sites don’t even have a search feature). If I’m looking for WWD posts about GTD, for example, I could try this search:

GTD site:webworkerdaily.com."

Cliche: Teenager Wanted

I have a buzz in the home theater sound system. Then there’s the fact that the system speakers are unbalanced.

Then there are the mini-speakers that I’ve hooked to the Apple Airfoil specialized sub-WiFi network to play Pandora and music I’ve stored on the computer. The problem? I can’t get the main-left speaker to talk.

Then there’s the fact that I have four remotes, which operate together, but inconsistently. Three of them are Samsung remotes that are all supposed operate the other devices (TV, theater and Blu-ray). Then there is the Comcast remote that is also supposed to turn on and off the other devices. They don’t play well together. Sometimes you “turn off” the system and it turns off. Then sometimes, not.

There are lots of wires and there are the aforementioned WiFi and sub-WiFi systems.

I won’t bore you with the Comcast bedroom remote and its love/hate relationship with the TV and the cable box on top of the TV.

Debo, don’t say it.

Sixth grade politics, which unfortunately are killing people

What’s his name Karzai says he may have to go over to the Taliban because, in my words, the West is pressuring him to be a bit less corrupt.

This is the very reason that we should not have ramped up our presence in Afghanistan. It will never, ever be what we say we expect and are spending billions of dollars and tens of thousands of lives to accomplish.

Go over to the other side Karzai. Get your graft from opium. Oh, and when that warlord that is a bit more savvy that you are, takes over, remember that you're assured of being an historical footnote.

Resurrrection isn't enough

I remember sunrise service. Even in Michigan, without much sun, there was a bit of sparkle in the sanctuary, I’m thinking supplied by the music.

I like the idea of Easter.

Everything is messed up, we’ve been doing things wrong. And then God makes us a deal. All you’ve got to do is believe. Hokey as it is, believe and you will be forgiven, rise up… fill in your own ending.

Maybe if we could get back to that basic premise. Believe.

Nope, there needs to be some follow through. That’s where we’re messing up. Again. Believe.

You can’t do that endless loop. Us people have to figure out the follow through.

Might work for getting to the fill in your own ending part and make things a bit better here on earth.

For those of you not yet experiencing Spring

Fracas closes school cafeteria

The post title is the title of an article at AJC.com today. I haven't read the article, I'm not interested in unruly kids; but, I haven't seen the word fracas in a long time. I kind of like it. Fracas.

I'm waiting to see "Rhubarb in produce section of area grocery store," or is that too much to hope for?

And, I seem to have nothing else to say.

Finally, Something to Report

The Georgia Legislature hasn’t been a lot of fun this year. They’ve been wrestling with billion dollar deficits, not leaving them much time for traditional hijinks.

But, yesterday my faith in my representatives’ lunacy was reinforced. The Senate voted for a bill that will limit driver license applicants to taking the written test in English:

From AJC.com:

“Murphy, chairman of the Public Safety Committee, said it was a safety issue. Drivers who can’t read road signs pose a danger to everyone, he said.”

That makes sense to me. We don’t want foreigners exiting freeway entrances and entering the freeway on the exits. We all want a safe Georgia.

“But critics of the bill point to the fact that illiterate Georgians are still allowed to drive and are helped with the test.”

What says the sponsor in response?

“[Senator] Murphy said his bill targets non-English-speaking people who can’t read traffic signs and emergency messages, he said the bill doesn’t account for illiterate Georgians.

“We have to make an exception, and we are not going to take them off the road,” Murphy said.”

As to the foreigners, he isn’t targeting them, “[i]t is amazing how many people cannot read English who are driving. You should have to have a basic understanding of English to be able to drive. And it gives them a great incentive to learn English.”

What a public servant. A great safety proponent and as a side benefit he’s teaching people to read English, not all of them, just the ones that can’t vote against him.

The Big Boys' and Girls' World That We Don't Live In

The GOP is getting a lot of bad press for approving $2K in “meals” at a racy nightclub in LA. Accompanying the opprobrium for that are reports on the costs of meetings in Hawaii, car service charges and private jet charters.

Let’s skip the racy nightclub and move on to the town cars, jets and fancy resorts in exotic locals.

I’m shocked by the fact that the GOP, the recipient of the largesse, has to front the freebies to get the green stuff.

But I’m not surprised that the venues are expensive. If you are going to woo the rich, I guess it makes sense to do the wooing where they are. The people that give the big bucks live in those kinds of places. When traveling, they don’t use a Motel Eight frequent traveler card. They plop down an AmEx black card for their suite, car service and jet charter. Thousand dollar dinners are not a once in a lifetime experience. It’s what they do. And they aren’t just Republicans. If the Dems are courting their rich, I assume they are spending the same kind of money to be where their rich are.

Going back to my shock earlier in the post, the idea of the GOP or Dems as salesmen just never occurred to me before. I’m used to the political “scandal” of my representatives jetting off with lobbyists to the Super Bowl at the lobbyists’ expense. Here in Georgia, David Ralston, our new Speaker of the House, thinks it’s ground breaking that he has proposed legislation to require lobbyists (not legislators) to report (not limit) what they spend on legislators on a quicker timetable. I guess reporting graft quicker will reduce it in his mind; or, maybe he just wants the status quo to continue, throwing the reporting requirement out as a sop to us people.

Which takes us back to the GOP scandal. Face it, the big boys and girls think, and they are probably right, that they are above us, bullet proof. Yeah, there’s an occasional Rangel and maybe a Steele (here in Georgia a Richardson, the last Speaker) that goes down. But that leaves the rest of them (here in Georgia, Ralston and his friends) to do as they will.

What is a partner?

"Partnership - a cooperative relationship between people or groups who agree to share responsibility for achieving some specific goal.” From Google, of course.

Back when I became a partner in a law firm, I was a partner, not a “law partner.” I would introduce Joe or Sue, “my partner” who could help the client with a particular problem. It was obvious that Joe or Sue and I weren’t an item, or if we were, that we were also lawyers and that was the context in which I was introducing them.

Then, more and more lawyers started adding “law” to the description.

We’ve struggled for a few decades on describing an unmarried couple that were more than “boyfriend” and “girlfriend.” Significant other was current for a while but never really caught on. Then partner caught on with its variations like “life partner” and “domestic partner” and caught on again as a description for a non-heterosexual couple. I couldn’t be just someone’s partner any more because that was taken.

The meaning of nouns often broadens and we have to add an adjective to describe the sub-categories. A century ago, a guitar was acoustic, but the latter word did not need to be said because it was subsumed in the noun. Then Les Paul came along and we needed adjectives, acoustic and electric. And often now, an electric guitar is just a guitar – it has become the main meaning of the noun.

What brought this post on was an article about a gay high school kid in today’s AJC.com. He, as opposed to the girl in Mississippi, will be allowed to go to his high school’s prom in middle Georgia with his boyfriend. The article had the necessary quotes from townspeople. The local hairdresser was opposed. The owners of a music shop had split opinions, but rather than being described as partners or co-owners, they were “business partners” with opinions about a budding partnership, no adjective, between the two teens who would be attending the prom.

Whether or not an adjective is needed, choose your partners carefully.

Is it just me?

Think back in time, some of you, to when you read a paper paper.

Just how did you read it?

I’ve always started at the front, even as a kid, you couldn’t start with the comics.

Front page, second page, and so on. No flipping to page seven to finish the article you started with. You get to it at whatever page it continues on, which may be after the second or third article you started on the first page.

And at each page, you read what’s there, if it interests you, before you move on to what you’ve started on previous pages. By the end of a Sunday paper, back in the days when it was a real paper, you might have five or six articles going by the time you got to the end of a section.

I have no reason, much less a good reason, for this method of reading, other than maybe efficiency.

Just how weird am I?

Is this a new trend?

I eat lunch every now and then at a restaurant called Roxx on Cheshire Bridge Road. It’s a bit pricey for an every day lunch; but, the food is always very good. The service is good, though it can be annoying. The servers follow what is apparently a required script, not listening to what you say (or your body language that is screaming stop, I know what I want) reciting the script as fast as they can get it out of their mouth (kind of like a kid reciting the poem he just memorized).

But, that’s not what the post is about. The last couple of times I’ve been there, the server brings back the change in the little booklet as always. But, the change is rounded up or down to the nearest dollar. If the bill is $10.24, you don’t pay the 24 cents. If it’s $10.76, they charge you $11.00. (I’m don’t know what happens to a $10.50 bill.)

In the scheme of life, it isn’t a big deal and when leaving a tip, I factor the overage/underage into the tip; but, for some reason it annoys me.

Yet Another Thing I Don't Understand

NYTimes.com has an article today about media plans for pay walls on the new iPad.

It says the Wall Street Journal is going to charge $17.99 a month for a subscription on the iPad

A quick Google search took me to WSJ’s subscription page. You can get a subscription for both print and online access for about $13.00 a month, online only is $8.50 a month, or $9.50 a month less than it will cost you on the iPad.

I’m assuming that the “regular” online subscription won’t work on the iPad. Why does WSJ think it can get more than double its current Internet price on the iPad? Early adopters have a lot of disposable income? The high price is an “opening offer” which will drop if demand is weak?

The article says that Reuters and Newsweek will offer their products on the iPad. Will they have pay walls? A little longer Google search didn’t turn up an answer; but, I did find some thinking on the evolving business model for media on the Internet at Newsweek.com by Andrew Zolli:

“Many new digital platforms are brewing, and early on in the development of each one there will be a battle for the business model—a fight to figure out who will pay. The advent of every new device is another chance to turn it all around.

“When I buy the dead-tree version of my local newspaper, I have no expectation that it should be free. If I pick it up and walk out of the coffee shop without paying, that's stealing. But when I walk upstairs to my office and log on to the Web site for the same paper, I feel a divine right to access the entirety of that paper—and 10 years of its archives—for free. Yet when I use another little computer invented more recently (Amazon's Kindle, say) to access that very same newspaper, I do pay. And I expect to pay. When the market floods this year with the iPad and its inevitable clones, I'll expect to pay on those as well.

“In the long run, the first decade of the Web could come to be seen as a momentary aberration—an echo of '60s free culture when we all took the bad, digital acid. So, media companies, on behalf of all misdirected Internet visionaries, I'm sorry. We like you—we really do—and we don't want a world without you. If you can hold on until we all have new kinds of screens, and new sets of expectations, you'll be fine. You'll be different, but fine. Just, please, don't take my word for it this time. Ask around.”

I wonder if the couple hundred thousand people that pre-ordered the iPad and those that will follow them are ready to pay for what they get free, or much cheaper, on their current computers?

Does Newt Gingrich subscribe to the "she was asking for it" theory of rape?

Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House and Georgia representative, gave a press conference here in Atlanta this morning. As reported by Jim Galloway at AJC.com, he said:

“Just as there was no place for the kind of viciousness against Bush and Cheney, there’s no place for viciousness against Democrats.

“I would condemn any kind of activity that involves that kind of personal threat.

“But look, I think there’s something very disingenuous about the Democratic leaders who attacked the tea party movement, who refused to hold town hall meetings, who refused to go back home, who kept the Congress locked up in Washington, and are now shocked that people are angry.

“I think the Democratic leadership has to take some moral responsibility for having behaved with such arrogance, in such a hostile way, that the American people are deeply upset. So let’s be honest with this. This is a game that they’re playing.

“People should not engage in personal threats. I’m happy to condemn any effort to engage in personal threats. But I think the Democratic leadership has to take some real responsibility for having run a machine that used corrupt tactics, that bought votes, that bullied people, and as a result has enraged much of the American people.”

Take a close look at the last two paragraphs. The Dems are playing games and as result have responsibility for the anger and rage that led to personal threats against them.

“Man, that tight sweater, that short skirt, the way she was walking, she was asking for it dude. Can you blame me?

And you know what? There are people that will nod their heads in approval of what Gingrich said and the rapist’s defense.

A Well Written Essay on the Hypocrisy of the Ruling Class

By Glenn Greenwald:

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/03/22/democracy/index.html

Now here’s a law that’s going to work

Part of the new health care act will require any restaurant with 20 or more outlets to display calorie counts for its offerings.

If you order a Wendy’s Triple with cheese, large fries and a Frosty are you going to pay any attention to the fact that the little display on the wall or the tiny print on the menu says that they have a couple of thousand or so calories in them?

On the other end of the scale, you are at Capital Grille, a high-end steak chain with your sweetie. You order a bottle of wine, a couple of appetizers, entrees, sides and maybe you split a dessert because you feel guilty about all those calories, prominently displayed on the wall of the hallway on the way to the restrooms.

Remember back when the “nutritional labels” became mandatory on food labels at the grocery store? Did that change your buying habits?

I’d really, for the humor value, love for the law to be amended to require the restaurants to do the nutritional label “serving” notice thing. Just how many “servings” are there in a Wendy’s Triple or a Capital Grille 20 oz. sirloin?

As a change from my recent concern with the world, this post is about a serious hole in the retail world’s offerings

I’m talking about steamer inserts. Laugh if you will; but, somewhere along the line I lost a very nice flat bottom, stainless steel insert that had a hundred or so little holes in the bottom that fit perfectly into two stainless steel pots that I’ve got. It worked wonderfully for corn on the cob, asparagus, green beans and so on.

I’ve missed it, not all that often but often enough.

I’ve made do by putting a “spatter screen” over the pot and kind of covering that with a lid. I’ve wandered the Internet looking for my lost friend. I’ve been to Target, Sam’s, Wal-Mart and Cooks Warehouse (pricey but cool). It’s made and for sale with its pot friends, not as a single. That's not totally true. My friend isn't worth (sorry friend) the lowest price of $55 that I saw.

So I broke down and bought something I don’t need and don’t really want, a metal colander ($7.99) that has handles that will rest on the sides of the pots with enough of a “well” in it that I can maybe properly steam the food, if I figure out a way to cut off the base and then put it in the well of the colander to create a flat surface to put the vegetables on.

I wonder how much a precision hack saw costs?

What is it with this obsession with bazzilion megabit a second Internet?

Google is going to spend some big amount of money setting up 100 or so megabit Internet in a city or two. I keep reading stories about how we’re slackers compared to the rest of the world’s broadband speed.

Yes, U.S. broadband speeds are a lot slower than they are elsewhere.

But, the DSL at work and the cable at home work almost instantaneously. The cable streams movies quiet nicely. Even the 3G and WiFi on the phone are OK, not good, but OK.

I understand the need for more bandwidth, but more speed? For what?

Google acts against its economic interests and for open access to information: Dumb? Naive? True to its motto?

Google just announced it is shutting down Google.cn, its Chinese search site. It will maintain a Chinese language offshore site, which the PRC can easily block. Google doesn’t make much money, relatively, in China. If China doesn’t block the offshore site, it won’t lose much at all, in the short term.

But, Google is giving up a 400 million person market in which it has about a 35% share. That market is going to grow with or without Google’s participation.

Google entered the market with the idea that it was doing good, even with censored results. It left the market apparently concluding that the good done didn’t outweigh the residual bad of censorship.

I don’t know if Google thinks that down the road China will change and it can re-enter the market, or that it thinks that China won’t change, but it’s not willing to play by its restrictive rules. Either way, a shareholder might bitch; but, its withdrawal does tend to demonstrate that it takes the “Do No Evil” stuff seriously.

You know you're in trouble when...

…you’re looking for a nice restaurant and Yelp’s top five for traditional restaurants for the area includes TGI Friday’s (which is also the second best steak place), two Coney Island hot dog joints and a “pub and grille” that a reviewer said was “OK” because it had pool tables (it is rated number one for steaks).

Under “new American,” there are seven choices, one of which is a Chili’s.

The Italian section looks more promising, Olive Garden isn’t among the picks.

I’m going to Dearborn, Michigan Fourth of July Weekend for a convention of sorts. There will be some downtime and a friend suggested we put together a dinner away from the hotel.

I wandered around the Internet and found some of the places that were there decades ago when I lived there as a kid; but, when I was a kid, fancy wasn’t in the budget. Restaurants consisted of A&W Root Beer Drive-ins, the previously mentioned Coney Islands and once a year a trip to Frankenmuth, a couple of hours North of town, for all you can eat family style chicken dinners. I don’t think my friends are going to settle for what I thought was great as a kid.

Hedy, between you and your parents, and I know you’re from the fancy side of town, is there anything good in Dearborn?

A Common First Day of Spring Mistake

It hit seventy here yesterday, it was in the mid-sixties even after dark. So I left a window open when I went to bed.

I woke up about 5:30 a.m. to the sound of the furnace coming on. I'd forgotten to shut it off (set at sixty) last night.

It's off now for the season, unless our crazy winter makes one last appearance.

Shorts on the golf course later today.

So Obama's a Liberal?

From AJC.com:

The Barr Code
Government claims right to assassinate citizens abroad

6:00 am March 19, 2010, by Bob Barr

Early in February, our country’s top intelligence official, Dennis Blair, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), testified to the House Intelligence Committee, that the US government asserts the right to kill US citizens travelling, working or living abroad, if the government had evidence those citizens were in some manner involved with terrorist activities. Such assassinations could be carried out without providing a court any evidence that the targetted persons are in fact guilty of any terrorist or terrorist-related activities; and without providing to such person any of the constitutional guarantees to due process, right to trial, right to confront witnesses, and so forth, which they normally would enjoy if charged with offenses while in the United States.

This startling position continues a policy reportedly instituted by the administration of President George W. Bush in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The policy also is contrary to the long-established view that those rights such as guaranteed a person under the Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the Constitution, are not limited to the place in which a person is found at any particular time; but rather are to be enjoyed by U.S. citizens wherever in the world they may be, by virtue of being Americans. Apparently, even during times of declared war, such as World War II, the US government did not practice assassination of its own citizens who might have gone over to the other side.

Already, according to former CIA official Philip Giraldi, writing in the April 2010 issue of The American Conservative, three American citizens have been placed on the list for possible assassination.

..............................

So, why don't they just off the "bad" guys being held in Guantanamo? They aren't even American citizens. Save a whole lot of arguing about where and how to try them. Pop! Problem over. Change we can believe in.

How fast is your Internet?

Mine is "fast enough" at the office, at home and on the phone, if the phone is connected to WiFi and not 3G.

But really, what is the speed? According to a piece at LaTimes.com, that depends. The author checked his home Internet at a number of speed check sites. The results varied wildly. I did the same checks with the same variances. From 1.5 megabites a second up to over 20. (I have Comcast cable at home.)

The over 20 megs a second site has ties with the providers, I wonder what that means? Check for yourself:

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lazarus19-2010mar19,0,6451217.column?page=2

For those of you that don't read the comments: more Beck!

I’m on a Glenn Beck jag. J and I have been going back and forth on his, and his fans’, sanity this week.

I tender into evidence the following (Curmudgeon, I know I haven’t authenticated it, it’s from HuffingtonPost.com):

"They intend to vote [on the health care bill] on the Sabbath, during Lent, to take away the liberty that we have right from God," King said.

"Faith has been perverted," Beck responded, then repeated. "They are going to vote for this damn thing on a Sunday, which is the Sabbath, during Lent."
Beck continued:

"Here is a group of people that have so perverted our faith and our hope and our charity, that is a -- this is an affront to God."

Though Beck conceded that he didn't believe that the Sunday vote was consciously chosen as a plot against God, he did find the timing apt.

"I think it's absolutely appropriate that these people are trying to put the nail in the coffin on our country on a Sunday -- something our founders would have never, ever, ever done. Out of respect for God."

Oh No! The Framers are turning over in their graves, Deists though they were. And, God’s a Republican! My thinking is He’s independent, perhaps not even registered to vote.

I Bit the Bullet

I’ve been engaged in a mini-debate with J in the comments to a post about Glenn Beck earlier this week. J in so many words said my opinion (Beck’s a goofball and a buffoon) isn’t valid as I hadn’t put in the research time.

I just did, listening to seven or eight “Beck Talks” segments on his website. He took on a bunch of the issues that are current in the news, attacking the liberal position on each and saying not much of anything of substance, just a series of sweeping generalizations that I’m sure play to the fan base. I also read a couple of transcripts of segments from his radio show. He doesn’t come off as well there, kind of a not so smooth and very right wing Howard Stern, bantering disjointedly with his sidekicks, Stu and another guy who's name I forget.

One plus, he didn’t cry once.

I have to say, I didn’t hear any crazy talk. Just the typical talk radio stuff; and, it was smoother than some I’ve heard, not on a par with Limbaugh and Hannity (comparing smooth not quality), but equally as biased.

I amend my opinion: He’s a typical talk radio/TV guy (as long as he doesn’t cry). He isn’t overly interested in facts and logic (both of which could be used to attack many liberal positions). He’s interested in playing to his audience, he does it well. Indeed, he’s better at it than his opposite counterparts at MSNBC, but again, as equally biased.

He and they are what’s wrong with political discourse in America. Extremism sells. Nuanced debate puts people to sleep. You can’t sell Carbonite and gold (two big Beck sponsors) if your audience is asleep.

A Question for the Audience

I’ve come across “.perl” files twice in the last couple of months, both times on U.S. Government sites where there used to be .pdf files to be downloaded. Nothing that I’ve got, that I know of, will open them. Google sends me to sites that talk about Perl as a programming language.

Anybody know the particular way I’m stupid this time around?

Top O' the Morning to You...

from my half German, half Scotch/Irish person. I'm off to find something green to wear.

Not a Word

I just spent a little time skimming NYTimes.com, LATimes.com, FoxNews.com, and CNN.com, trying to find out what the provisions of the ultimate health reform bill that is going to be voted on this week actually are. Nothing in the first three sources. CNN was promising for a moment with a headline “What’s in the House and Senate bills?” But it turned out that was a 5-slide slide show that said next to nothing about what’s in the bills.

From all the back and forth in what I did see, the “plan” now is for the House to simultaneously adopt the Senate bill passed a few months ago, coupled with changes to it necessary to get enough votes in the House to pass the newest version by “reconciliation.” What are those changes? It doesn’t appear that they’ve been worked out yet.

I hate to take the GOP’s side; but, is a Democrat in the House being responsible casting a vote for a bill when he or she hasn’t a clue as to most of its contents? Are the Democrats being responsible even scheduling a vote this week when as of mid-afternoon on Tuesday, the contents aren’t fully known to anyone?

But, the Republicans bear part of the responsibility for this farce. It is hard for a GOP defender to argue that the party has not been the party of No. It decided months ago that it would use health care reform for political purposes in this Fall’s mid-term elections. And which “wing” of the party do I blame? Not the ultra-conservative, reactionary, tea party types. Nope, the majority of the party that isn’t crazy. With them, I blame not the ultra-liberal wing of the Democratic party. Again, most Democrats are moderate (and even if they aren’t, their constituents are).

Lop off the fringe members on the left and the right and there’s more than sixty people in the Senate and 200 whatever in the House that, if they had any courage could sit down together and craft and pass a health care reform bill. It is their fault that that isn’t happening.

Scary Stuff

Click the link, http://www.quantcast.com/glennbeck.com, for a chart from something called quantcast. I went surfing looking for validation of my unsupported opinion that Glenn Beck would have an audience of minimally educated, low income people.

While the figures are for his website, I would assume they should be roughly valid for his TV show. As you can see, 70% of his audience has some college and/or grad school. 58% make at least $60K a year. Read the chart for the rest of the horror.

To hold to my beliefs, it is necessary to conclude: Women are smarter than men. White people are dumb whether or not they have an education or make good money. The older they get, the dumber they get. We need more kids born.

I’m not sure what I think about this

Justice Clarence Thomas’ wife has formed a non-profit Tea party organization as she finds “herself among those energized into action by President Obama's ‘hard-left agenda.’"

http://huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/14/virginia-thomas-tea-party_n_498283.html

She and Justice Thomas of course have every right to espouse the politics they believe in. But, the Court and now the spouses of the members of the Court seem to be becoming more and more overtly political.

It used to be that Justices didn’t say much of consequence outside of the opinions they wrote. Now they all seem to be spouting off. The Chief Justice is troubled by the fact that the President and Congress are politically motivated. Justice Ginsburg openly is supporting ending judicial elections (though I happen to agree with that view). Justice Scalia delights in popping off in speeches.

Justices are people. People have opinions and biases. But, judges hold a unique position. They are called upon to apply law to facts without bias. They don’t of course always do that. But more and more they have little compunction about making their biases public.

Now we have their spouses playing politics, to an extent parlaying their status as the spouse of a justice to get attention for their views. (Her public partisanship is a bit ironic, her husband says little, having not asked a question at an oral argument in a number of years now.)

The more and more publicly passionate “law” becomes, the less and less moral authority it has. The more and more it’s the big kid dispensing his or her brand of school yard “justice.”

Something Things I Wish Websites Would Do For Me

It’s just a little button. But it would be so helpful. A real time saver.

I just finished reading an online article in this week’s New York Times Magazine. The Magazine’s articles tend to run many pages (NYTimes.com articles often run several pages). At the end, you have two choices to get to where you started. You can hit the back button however many times it takes to return to where you started. Or, you can hit Home or the Times logo to get to the main page and then navigate your way back to where you found the article and resume your surfing.

Why not a button to take you to the page that had the article’s hyperlink?

And while I'm at it, though I think I may have written this gripe before, websites, quit making me click to "continue reading this article" unless it is really long as discussed above. Advertisers have to be on to this page view scam. Big offenders recently are AJC.com and CreativeLoafing.com. Stop it.

Family Feud

Long time readers will know that one of my brothers is a Marine. As I understand it, the present tense is correct, once, always.

He read an article on FoxNews.com about a very brief interview with a Navy Seal and his lawyer about pending charges against the Seal and two others for assaulting an alleged terrorist they had apprehended.

My brother sent me the link and gave me his thoughts about the charges using the theme “you can’t handle the truth!” from the Nicholson/Cruise movie A Few Good Men.

Here’s his raw Email (published with his permission and encouragement) and then my quick response. Then I’ll write a bit more.

Him:

As I have said before Jack Nicholson is the real hero in the movie “A Few Good Men” not Tom Cruise. Some of you don’t understand the line that Jack said in the movie as he portrayed the USMC Lt. Colonel . What was that line you ask? “You can’t handle the truth”.

So why start with a reference to an old movie? Because a Navy Seal is on trial for giving a “fat lip” to a murdering coward. Remember the Fallujah incident of the American that was killed and then dragged around town, burned and then hung from a bridge while the citizens of that city celebrated? I remember. This guy and two other Seals captured the bastard that killed him and tortured his body in public. He is on trial because the guy has a fat lip. I am tired of this Political Correctness and ACLU crap that this country seems to think they must maintain. This country for the most part can’t handle the truth. They want safety but they won’t let those who do the job of ensuring it carry out the mission without oversight into things that they can’t understand and “can’t handle”. So what if the guy got a fat lip from a Navy Seal that captured him??? IMO he is lucky that is all he suffered. It is WAR people. Wake up. Let those that are trained do a job most of us don’t understand do it without reprisal.

Maybe it was the physical beatings that I took from my Marine Corps Drill Instructors that jade me to this. Maybe I understand more than some others do because of what I went thru. If you care to watch another movie, “Full Metal Jacket”. That is what I endured. I got regularly punched and knocked onto my ass from DI’s that had contempt for me. They screamed at me just inches from my face one minute and then whispered into my ear hate and contempt for my sorry ass the next minute. They told me I was not worthy to be a Marine in THEIR Corps. They told me softly and they told me loudly. They told me with pain. I proved them wrong. I took their words, their punishment and their pain. They told us that if we could not survive what they were dishing out in Boot Camp how would we ever survive being a POW in a time of war. How could we perform our mission under pressure?

Even if the guy did get punched who cares. I don’t.

Me:

I read the article and did a search for news reports. I can't find anything that sets out the facts of the incident. Without them, I don't know what he did, when he did it and what the specific charges are. If the bad guy got the injury during the apprehension, I don't think the Seal did anything wrong, probably. If the guy was in custody and restrained and the Seal was taking little vengeance, the Seal probably violated the [UCMJ]. Even if that's the case, it's understandable and I would hope he wouldn't get slapped too bad. That said, and this has nothing to do with me being liberal, everybody knows the rules of the game. For a poor analogy, if I'm speeding and get a ticket, it's no defense that the speed limit is too low or that everybody goes as fast as I was going. I broke the law and have to face the consequences.

Should the [UCMJ] be changed to allow a Seal to after the fact take out his anger on a terrorist? Probably not in my liberal view.

As to the "you can't..." Oh, I can take it. I know full well that a lot goes on in and around war that doesn't pass legal muster. It doesn't bother me too much; but, again, like the Nicholson character, the Seal, a CIA operative, you get caught, you know what's coming.

Finally as to how you were trained, as you know, that is for the most part a thing of the past. I think it should be. My proof: the military is turning out some pretty good Marines, soldiers, sailors and Seals with the new "kinder and gentler" training.

So, we have the visceral reactions of the hero (he is, he’s decorated) and the lawyer. Neither is sufficient.

What are the core issues?

First, we are at war whether we want to be or not. War is not pretty. There is truth to the broad defense of the warrior of “you can’t handle the truth!” There is also truth to the proposition that we should be “better” than our enemies. Is an eye for an eye the best answer?

I don’t know what the Seal and his friends did, I still can’t find a media report that includes anything but reports of the reaction to the charges against them.

Beyond the timing of the offense, if there was an offense, that I seized on in my Email response, what is it that we should be telling our warriors? And let’s be realistic here. There are those among us, I’m included, that don’t want violence, guns, war. I want it all to “poof” go away. It isn’t going away for the most part because of the huge cultural differences between the “Western” nations and the “rogue” countries and groups. We can pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan tomorrow and we will be attacked at the next opportune moment.

So, again, what to do with a Seal that we need, that we have trained to have a hair trigger, that may have reacted (and it’s the wrong word) inappropriately? Or that flat violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice?

We’ve faced this issue for the life of our country. The old people start the war and the young go to fight it. Every now and again, the young’ns, having been wound up, screw it up.

I can’t help but revert to my legal background. If he attacked the guy when he didn’t need to, he has to face the consequences. That said, he was conditioned to react with violence, should we have a few more co-defendants, a bit older?

There’s more here that I’m having trouble articulating, feel free to weigh in.

Buckets and Thimbles

There are a number of news reports about Bill Gates not being the richest guy in the world any more. He’s been passed by a Mexican mogul named Slim (look for his picture and you’ll understand why his name tickles me.)

What struck me is not that Bill is now only number two (and that Warren Buffett has moved down to three on the Forbes Billionaires list). Rather it is the fact that all three billionaires' net worth went up, substantially, from last year:

Slim from $35 billion to $53.5 billion.

Gates from $40 billion to $53 billion.

Buffett from $37 billion to $47 billion.

I guess the Recession hasn’t hit everybody. From the Forbes.com article:

“In his annual shareholder letter Buffett wrote, ‘We've put a lot of money to work during the chaos of the last two years. When it's raining gold, reach for a bucket, not a thimble.’

Many plutocrats did just that. Indeed, last year's wealth wasteland has become a billionaire bonanza. Most of the richest people on the planet have seen their fortunes soar in the past year.”

I got to get me one of those buckets to replace my thimble.

In Praise of a Good Ol' Boy

I was hanging out after work today with Big Rick and my friend the cop. You saw the picture of the truck in the post below.

Neither Rick, nor the cop, are liberal, commie, pinkos like me; and, we all agreed on our Georgia Government’s decision to blatantly violate the law.

A year or so ago a young woman was murdered while hiking in the Georgia mountains. Her killer was arrested and confessed. He’s doing time.

Hustler Magazine made an Open Records Request for the crime scene photos, which show her nude and mutilated body. The head of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said no, you want them, sue me.

Thing is, Hustler is legally entitled to the pictures. There are times when legal just doesn’t get it. This is one of them.

If the State loses in a trial court, I say appeal. If it loses there, keep up the appeals. If the end result is you have to comply, block out the body and start the process all over again.

Every now and again it’s a good thing that a good ol' boy says that ain’t right.

Where the Words, I Think, Add to the Picture

You don't get the full down hill tilt from the picture. I'm thinking about the physics of the situation - inches from the bumper of the car, put it in park, turn it off, open the door, rush to the bed of the truck, get the chunk of wood (click the picture if you want to see it a bit more clearly) and jam it in below the left rear tire of the car.

And the aftermath - it's in the parking lot of a bar. Run the above sentence in reverse after a few adult beverages.

Comcast is the Worst Internet Provider In the World, with apologies to Keith Olbermann. TWO UPDATES

Here’s how I spent part of the last hour. See below the transcript for the rest.

dave>
Comcast keeps taking over my search engine.

analyst Sonia has entered room

Sonia>
Hello Dave_, Thank you for contacting Comcast Live Chat Support. My name is Sonia. Please give me one moment to review your information.

Sonia>
Hello, Dave!

Sonia>
Thank you so much for patiently waiting on the queue. How's your day so far?

Dave_>
Fine, I just was online with s tech named Kathleene, I have Firefox set to use Google to give suggestions if I type a bad URL. For some reason you have decided to redirect me to customer.comcast.com (which gives lousy results). Kathleene had me delete Recent History which took me back to Google; but, you took it over again. I don't want that, how do I get rid of you?

Sonia>
Oh I see.

Sonia>
I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this might have been causing you.

Sonia>
No problem!

Sonia>
I would be very glad to assist you on that.

Sonia>
Dave, all you need to do is to turn off the Domain Helper.

Sonia>
Kindly log-in to http://dns-opt-out.comcast.net .

Sonia>
You will need to log-in using the primary username of your account.

Dave_>
If that works fine; but, why did you opt me into it without my asking? Very annoying.

Sonia>
That's by default, Dave. That's why you have an option to deactivate the service/feature if you want to.

Dave_>
Again, bad business. I would like the option to opt in rather than having wasted the last half hour trying to get rid of it. Thank you for your help, assuming it works

Sonia>
It will surely work, Dave. Once you deactivate the service, it will be fully deactivated within 24 hours.

Sonia>
The technicians who will be working on this will send you a confirmation email confirming the successful process.

Sonia>
Then when you receive the email, reset your modem so the changes will fully take effect.

Dave_>
Are you telling me that you took over my computer and won't give it back for a day? Check out the raging post I'm about to write about this foolishness at ratherthanworking.blogspot.com. And now you tell me I have to reset my modem? This is garbage. I know I shouldn't bother you with this as you aren't in charge; but, this is really outrageous.

Sonia>
Dave, I understand how you feel regarding this issue. As I said, within 24 hours, not the whole 24 hours. As soon as you deactivate this feature from your account online, the account technicians who are in charge of this will be working on this right away, then they will send you a confirmation email once the process is completed in the system. The modem reset will refresh your connection from the system so the changes will fully take effect.

Sonia>
I apologize if these steps was not directly given to you by the previous analyst so you should have saved some time troubleshooting the other way.

Dave_>
I fully understand, still totally wrong on Comcast's part to take over the computer and make me go through all this. It isn't the first tech's fault, it is your employer's fault. It may be time to go elsewhere.

Sonia>
I understand, Dave. Are you able to log-in to turn off the feature?

Dave_>
I'll stop with you and do that. If it doesn't work, I'll be back. You really ought to tell a "power that be" that this is a bad policy. People don't like their computers being taken over and then being forced to "opt out." Leaving now.

And the “Thank you for your help, assuming it works?” It didn’t. I logged in, gave my user name and password – no access to “Domain Helper,” I get an endless loop asking me to log in again. I’m tired of this for now. I’ll harass them tomorrow while I’m sitting at the car dealer in the morning while they check out why my check engine light and electronic stability control not working light came on about 4,000 miles before the warranty expires.

TO THE RAMPARTS! DUMP COMCAST!

It seems I’m not a happy consumer at the moment.

UPDATE:

I'm at the car dealer waiting to hear what my next problem's solution is. I went online and found a Comcast blog dealing with its roll out of the Domain Helper "feature." Someone named Scott McNulty with Comcast extolled the virtues of the fact that Comcast unilaterally has hijacked all of its customers' browsers, re-directing any mistyping of a URL to its DNS server which gives you Yahoo search alternatives to your misspelled URL and, surprise, Ads!

I spent some time reading customers' comments on the hijacking and found not a one that was happy. The majority were as irate as I was in the transcript above. Another "surprise," most had the same problems I had - you couldn't get rid of the "service." But, one unhappy customer noted that Google has a free DNS server service. I am now the pround custodian of an "8.8.8.8" route to the Internet, having end run the bastards at Comcast.

It's another pretty day in Atlanta with a projected high in the low sixties. And, I must be living right - I just saw them pull my car up outside. Nothing too bad could have happened in forty minutes.

SECOND UPDATE:

I've got to say that after the fact, Comcast does respond, quickly and in force. When I got to the office from the dealer (O2 sensor went bad for the second time) I had an Email from a guy in their corporate complaint office that was quite apologetic, though still defending their hijacking as a "service." I responded in a bit more detail about what bothered me. About 15 minutes ago I got a response to that from someone else in the same office with another apology and as you can see below in the comments, yet another response, with another apology and offer of help.

I suppose the quick, multiple apologies, coupled with each of my correspondents saying they were going to pass my complaints on to the people that make these (to my mind stupid) decisions is about as much as I can ask beyond getting the couple hours of my life back. And, since Clapton, not Comcast, is God, I guess that isn't in the cards.

It's 70 degrees here in Atlanta

Blue skies. That's it, other than I'm quite pleased even though it is Monday.

With Apologies to Jim Donahue

Jim writes The Velvet Blog, see Recommended side bar. Jim doesn’t like Cablevision, one of the main TV providers on the East Coast.

His hated provider is in a battle this weekend with Disney, the owner of ABC, the broadcaster of the Oscars later tonight. Last I knew, Jim isn’t going to see the Oscars unless he hooks up an antenna.

But, I read something this afternoon about Cablevision and Senator Kerry wanting to arbitrate the dispute. That is stupid. Disney/ABC wants more money for what it provides to Cablevision. Cablevision doesn’t want to pay more money. Both equally reasonable or unreasonable depending on which of them you are. As a Cablevision customer, I’d root for your provider in the long run, the other side in the short run (now a couple of hours).

Arbitration? Just what is an arbitrator going to decide? There isn’t any law to be applied. One side wants to pay less, the other side wants more paid. Both perfectly acceptable outcomes.

How dare that mean Disney cut off it’s programming to the Cablevision subscribers! Were I the evil Michael Isner, I think the president of Disney, I’d do exactly the same thing at exactly the same time, when I had leverage. Were I running Cablevision, I’d be demonizing Mickey Mouse for his evil manipulation of the Oscars. Damn the little rat!

Business, pure and simple.

Postettes

Some little things, nothing of any consequence.

I really should read recipes more thoroughly before I start them at 5:30 p.m. expecting to eat by now, (7:30 p.m.). I am now “cooling completely” the combined tomato and béchamel sauce for the lasagna that may start baking in say 45 minutes. I wonder if they sell home blast chillers. And, just why do I have to do this to something that's going in a pan with noodles, spinach, ground chuck and cheese and then is going into a hot oven?

From NYTimes.com:

“Perhaps concerned that his repeated suggestions that the Holocaust might not have happened have become less shocking over time, Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad upped the ante on Saturday, telling intelligence officials in Tehran that the destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 was staged.”

I know it’s for home consumption; but, just how is it that you deal with someone like this? I’m thinking you don’t, you just marginalize the country as best you can.

I hope marginalizing Iran doesn’t cost too much, I saw a headline that says all the stuff we’ve been doing over the past 18 months is going to cost something like 7 or 8 trillion bucks.

Do you want a car that has “go kart handling?” Whenever I hear a Mini Cooper ad that boasts that, I think I want a bit more for six figures, including a size that doesn’t look like it was designed for the clowns at the circus to pile out of.

This being Oscar weekend, I have Hurt Locker and District 9 on Netflix. Maybe it’s time to finish this and watch one while the lasagna sauce “completely cools.”

It’s going to be in the low to mid sixties tomorrow here in the Peach State. My tee time is Noon.

Think it’s ok to throw a few cubes of ice in the pot?

Clean Slate

They’ll break my heart in a couple of months, but right now, like every other baseball fan in the country I know my team, the Atlanta Braves, is set to go all the way.

I can prove it:

We have five starting pitchers that based on past performance could be the best rotation in baseball. In games so far they haven’t given up a run in the Grapefruit League. (Of course you have to do a bit of cherry picking of their performances, shake well and hope they all have career years. Then too, one is coming off ligament surgery; I’m sure that won’t be a problem.)

We are deep, deep in the bullpen. (This is leavened by the fact that our new set-up guy and closer are over 40 and the closer is coming off ligament surgery.)

We have a new first baseman that is something like 6’6” and has hit a ton over the years. (Did I mention he’s coming off….)

Chipper Jones, our third baseman is a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame. (He can’t have another abysmal year like 2009 – it just isn’t possible – he’ll return to All Star form, I’m sure.)

Our 2009 blue-collar outfield is going to out perform itself, aided by a 20 year old future superstar right fielder who’s played about ten games above the AA level.

And the rest of the team that I haven’t mentioned is solid (they really are).

So this could be the year we return to glory. Or not. I’m betting on the under.

Depending on your job, take your kid to work day is not always a good idea

My dad was a butcher. I never handled the knives or the slicer. I was allowed to empty the trash and mop the floor. I also got to return the “this number next” plastic cards from the wall to the hanger thing on the top of the meat case (for you youngin’s that is the predecessor of the little piece of paper with a number on it that you pull out of a dispenser).

I haven’t read more than the headlines; but, apparently an on duty air traffic controller let his son talk to pilots over the tower radio. The controller and his boss are suspended. I imagine there was no real danger. Still.

Pizza

This is a comment whore post.

I’m surfing and watching a Travel Channel show on pizza around the country.

The best pizza: not as thin as New York, not Chicago deep dish. Spicy. More than an average amount of tomato sauce. A good amount of cheese, your choice among the traditional. Best with tomato sauce, then toppings, then cheese on top. Toppings? No California stuff, chocolate or other dessert things. Beyond tomato, some onion and if you want peppers OK, but that’s it for vegetables. Mushrooms are a must. The basic fatty meats are a good idea: Italian sausage, pepperoni, bacon of some sort, hamburger if you like. It needs to be bubbling hot, reheated is acceptable but not recommended. Cold doesn’t get it (sorry Pos).

OxHaDe. HaDeOx. DeOxHa. DeHaOx, HaOxDe, OxDeHa

I think that’s all the permutations. And I think my point is that the three leading candidates for the Republican nomination for Georgia’s next Governor are toxic chemicals, best buried away where they can't poison anyone:

John Oxendine, our current Insurance Commissioner, openly extorts money from insurance companies and their employees and threatens other politicians with public outing of their connections to people that he may investigate. He then goes hunting on land owned by insurance executives and his son shoots someone a‘la Dick Cheney. He takes shots at the next two in the list for resigning their current positions to campaign (in Georgia, if you are a state official you can’t solicit money during the legislative session, he doesn’t need it because he’s way ahead in extorted money).

Karen Handel, recently our Secretary of State, who never saw a non-Republican that she thought wasn’t an illegal immigrant. Georgia has the distinction of having to have all of its voting laws and plans pre-approved by the Justice Department due to past shall we say past racially discriminatory indiscretions. Ms. Handel has been shot down by the Feds, I think, three times now on plans to inhibit minority voting by ID schemes.

U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal (until yesterday when he resigned to campaign) used to be a Democrat (which really isn’t a Democrat in Georgia) until he found it more useful to be a Republican back in the early nineties after he got to Congress. He thinks it’s a good idea to have the President once and for all put this Birther stuff to bed by publishing his birth certificate, not that he thinks he’s a godless, commie, bastard foreigner mind you. He also has defended threatening the state’s director of the Department of Revenue because the latter thought that it might be a good idea to add to the number of body shops that could certify that a total loss car had been properly repaired so as to get a rebuilt title beyond those owned by Rep. Deal (from which he’s been making about $150K a year) because his partner in the deal is also his constituent and it’s his job to represent his constituents’ interests, or something equally as silly that I can’t quite remember. (I checked, that is a sentence.)

We’ve also got some guy named McBerry running who says he isn’t a racist but says that 1850 was the best year Georgia has ever had and thinks we all ought to pay more attention to the Tenth Amendment.

And some of you think I’m crazy for not being a Republican.

Back to the Basics

I’ve mentioned over the years that I practice a boring offshoot of law – most of my clients are in some way involved in the construction business. Most of what I do concerns contracts, statutes and regulations, their drafting, interpretation and arguing about.

Over the years I’ve learned that something I learned in grade school is of great help in figuring out what an insurance or government contract “means.” Diagramming. If you are old enough, you remember writing a sentence and drawing lines to show nouns, verbs, etc. The same concept works for contracts.

My exercise this morning and the early part of the afternoon was to take a contract, an incorporated regulatory clause, a set of drawings and a set of technical specifications, all of which conflicted, in substance and as to method for resolving conflicts in the provisions. The answer is worth some significant bucks.

So, I took out a piece of paper and divided it into four columns, one for each type of document, and put the conflicting provisions next to each other. Then I applied each of the conflicting methods of interpretation to the substantive conflicts, wending my way through the maze.

One path through is good for my client, the other, not so much.

To provide a bookend to my antiquated method of the practice of law, I actually have to go to a law library and root through real, live books because the legal rules for choosing which rules of interpretation to use (your head hurt yet? mine does) are in and of themselves esoteric and not to be found in the online resources I have. I hope I remember how to use a card catalogue, though that is online.

Advertising is Expensive

I have two email addresses that are hosted by a Go Daddy reseller. The reseller ceded its accounts to another reseller that I can’t find anything positive about on Google, and found a bit of negative stuff.

So, I went to the source, Go Daddy. Clicking the Google paid link at the top of the search results that says “$1.99,” takes me to a Go Daddy Site that has that price for 3 months if you sign up for much longer. The cheapest price, if I sign up for three years, is $4.24 a month per address.

I’m currently paying, and the renewal is, $9.99 a YEAR for each address.

That’s a lot of expensive cleavage I’ve seen on the TV ads.

I guess I’ll go with the unknown. Sorry Danica.

Cross-pollination

A lot of the blogs I read are publishing less often over the past few months.

I know that I could go to your places and forage among your favorites or whatever you call them.

But, I’m lazy: give me some links in the comments of places you frequent.

A Question We Need to Answer

I’m not at all sure where we are on insurance reform after the photo op earlier this week. The only thing I took away from the “summit” was that President Obama was unkind to Senator McCain.

I’m about to delve into a subject that I’m not qualified to write about; but, what else is new?

Insurance simply put is people joining together, pooling money to protect themselves against a contingency that they expect would cost them more than their contribution to the pool than if they incurred the risk on their own. Well, not so simply put.

You can arguably reduce health care cost by culling people of higher risk and those that can’t pay the going rate; but, if you do, you really only transfer cost to public health, Medicare and Medicaid budgets. Those in good health and those with disposable income still pay the cost of health care for those in poor health and those without enough money.

Who is in the pool that is sharing the risk?

Unless we want to decide as a society that only those that can afford to care for their own health should be afforded care, we are left with some paying more than others. Think it through, I pay more than some and less than some for roads, police, fire protection and so on. The question becomes is health care a necessary societal cost. If it isn’t, we can quit talking about it. Let it go as it is with many getting inadequate care at a high and rising cost to all of us. Or, quit funding health care to those that can’t pay and see where that leads.

If you take health care for the country’s population as a societal necessity, the best way to provide the most care for the least cost is to make everyone participate and use economy of scale and regulation to keep cost in line.

Sorry to some of you; but, that is universal health care, public option, whatever you want to call it. You can start from the private side if you want with regulation of coverage availability and scope and cost of coverage; but, you get to the same point.

The private sector can do what it is doing now. It won’t provide health care that extends to our entire population, indeed, it won’t provide health care for those that now have it at a cost that we can afford over time.

It’s time to be honest. Do we want real insurance or not?

Which path?

I got two calls this morning, from two different executives with the same client.

The first discussed an ongoing lack of response from a federal agency on an application. “Is there any way I can force these people to do what they were supposed to do months ago?”

The answer is maybe; but, my response was to suggest that I write a very low-key letter that outlined the application process with the dates of all of the activity to the highest level person involved and asked if there was anything I could do to speed the process along, advising I’d be calling the person in a week or so.

That’s probably enough to get the person off the person’s ass. If not, a copy of the letter a level up may well work. If not then, it’s time for law stuff.

My second call was for advice on how to do something that probably can’t be done given the law concerning the issue. We talked about the options given that reality and came up with something that we can do that will almost certainly give the same result without the bad legal results.

In both matters, I could have charged ahead, threatening and bullying, charging more money for my scorched earth campaign. Then too, over time, I wouldn’t have the client and I wouldn’t have been doing my job. And I wouldn’t have enjoyed what I was doing.

Good lawyering, business and karma?

Down Home Justice

Just before the first of the year there was a party up in the northern Atlanta suburbs. Some kids got arrested for drinking.

As it turns out the party was at the home of a lawyer who is (temporarily, of her own choice, not) a magistrate judge. Attending were other local legal luminaries including people from the local solicitor’s office, the people that prosecute such under age drinking.

According to the police report the lawyer/magistrate threatened the responding police with her connections and said that it was better that the juveniles were drinking at her home that out on the roads.

So, soon after the affair, she undertook the representation of one of the underage drinkers and worked out the following plea arrangement with the solicitor’s office before the police report had been completed: $150 fee, alcohol counseling and a 150 hours of baseball practice with the college baseball team that he was a member of as community service, with expungement of the matter after completion of the requirements of the sentence.

When questioned by the Atlanta Journal Constitution reporter, the solicitor allowed as how he might change some of his policies in future cases.

I've changed my mind about what I think about Tiger

My last post kind of took the view that we all imbue Tiger with our viewpoints. He's good, bad or indifferent depending on what we bring to the equation. My unstated conclusion was that I don't care what he's done, it's none of my business. I've changed my mind.

I’ve had a really nice weekend. I played golf yesterday, poorly, with Bill. I don’t think I’ve mentioned him here. Bill is just a guy; but, I know him on golf courses. The great majority of the people you meet on a golf course live up to the venue. What that means is that you do things the way you are supposed to do them. You follow the rules, stupid as they often are. You keep your own score and tell it to your partner (honestly, even though you were off in the woods and a bear or the Pope wouldn’t know how many times you flailed at the ball).

(As an aside and a discussion of the etiquette and attraction of golf, do a word search on the blog for “Sergio.” I wrote a post early on here about a day at the same golf course that I found the people I’m going to talk about today.)

Back to Bill. Neither he nor I are Tiger. I can write this as he won’t care if I do and he isn’t going to read it anyway. But here’s one of the things about golf. Bill has a blind eye and he’s had a stroke. To look at him he’s not much (that’s OK for me to say, he says it). But, he’s learned to take what he’s got and play pretty good golf. Think about it. You are going to try to put a golf ball in a hole that’s forty or fifty feet away, up, down and sideways, and you have no depth perception. You decide where to aim based on your experience there the times before. You don’t boom any shots at anytime because there’s that half of your body that doesn’t work too well; but, you do well enough by using what you’ve got to get it to where you can use what you’ve got again.

And here’s another thing about golf. We often get paired up with someone else or a couple of people. No one ever says a word or looks askance.

Golfers have a thing about “giving” a putt that’s a foot or so from the hole. I watch out for that because they also have a thing about picking it up and tossing it to the recipient of their conceded putt. Bill can’t catch one of those given his vision; so, I’m vigilant. If his ball's close and I see a new friend about to…, I quietly mention that they should hand him the ball.

Back to today and my new thoughts about Tiger.

Bill and I played again today, the weather here is wonderful. It hit about sixty-five. The course was slow. We were playing by ourselves behind foursomes and the going was as much stop as go.

Steve was following us. Driven by his mother and caddied by his sister (she’s five and will be six in December. She had a Barbie umbrella that gave her a certain elan, though she doesn't say much. His Mom is thirty-three but don’t tell anyone, you learn a lot when you get Steve talking). Steve’s eight. He’ll be “nine this October 16th.” On the tenth hole, the ranger asked if we’d play with Steve to slow us down and speed him up (there’s a logical basis for that that I won’t explain). We agreed and introduced ourselves.

Steve’s Mom never left the cart; but, she had an eagle eye on him. He knew the rules. On one hole he started to line up his chip even though he wasn’t the furthest away from the hole. His mother hissed “Steve” from the cart. You see he’s a kid, and he’s a guy, and he instinctively played ready golf because Bill had a bit of a walk to get to his chip from a bit further off the green. In a casual round, it was right for him to shoot while Bill was walking. He knew it and gave me a rueful look and his Mother a little kid grimace. Busted but not totally legit. He also backed off his shot and waited for Bill.

Finally to Steve and Tiger. Steve’s a black kid. He was wearing perfectly creased black slacks, a white golf shirt and a black Nike cap. He did everything the way Tiger does, down to the stooping behind a putt and cupping his hands around the visor of his cap to focus on the break of the putt. The Tiger fist pump after a made putt.

I’d hate for all his Mom’s work at teaching what’s wonderful about the game and his obvious love of the game to be harmed (at eight, soon to be nine, despite his playing the game as a gentleman as he should, he couldn't resist running and skipping between shots).

Kids also emulate adults beyond the visor cupping – he saw the way I putt and for a change, I wasn’t too bad. A couple of holes later he was mimicking a set up rhythm I use.

Me and Tiger for role models. Jeez.

So, Tiger owes it to Steve not to fuck up publicly again. Not too elegant a way to end this; but, that’s what I think.

So, did you see your Tiger?

Since I have an Internet presence, I guess I have to weigh in on the latest number of minutes to fascinate us – thirteen and a half.

You’ve got to hand it to him, he said nothing, reading a speech all of which had been leaked, managed to get boycotted by a golf writers’ group finally bold enough due to his troubles to call him out on his controlling ways, replayed on every media outlet in the western world and dissected by every pundit and writer, boycotting or not, paid and or not, with access to a computer and a website.

The phrase empty vessel comes to mind, augmented by the video of his too large collar, filled by paean and pan.

High of Sixty

Need I say more than I have a 11:50 a.m. tee time tomorrow and another one on Sunday at the same time when the high is sixty-three.

Let me see if I've got this straight

I've been hearing for a long time now that banks aren't lending any money. They got all the bailout money and used it to to buy good (versus the bad that they had) assets.

So today, the Federal Reserve raised the discount rate, the rate it charges banks - the folks that aren't loaning any money.

Yeah, I'm sure I'm stupid, I'm sure I'm missing something.

Banks aren't lending, so to get them to lend, increase the rate they pay for the money they lend out, except they aren't lending it.

Feel free to leave any wisdom on the issue that you may have in the comments.

Both Too Much UPDATED

AppleInsider.com says that NYTimes.com is mulling over a charge of between $10 to $20 a month for its product when it goes behind some sort of pay wall.

I very much doubt that I'd pay anywhere near that much, even if it is one of the gold standards, especially given all of the other pretty good sources of news out there. That much total a month? Maybe.

I know I've said this too much recently; but, the only way that paying for content online will work is something on the cable/satellite model, hopefully with the ability to pick your news "channels."

Google or Apple is ready made to provide the pipe for the content. Both have an App store/market. Apple has experience with ITunes.

What I don't understand about current media is its apparent insistence on the town square marketing model. There's the butcher shop, the baker, the farmers' market, the hardware store and so on. Please patronize each of us with our own overhead, without the benefits of economy of scale.

That's good if everyone lives in the little town and can walk to the square. Kmart killed some of them. Then Home Depot, Lowes and of course Wal-Mart. Having been brought to death's door by the Internet big box model, media insists on atomistic behavior, each source being an island unto itself, come into my door, no my door! Pay me! Even the big boxes have reacted to the EBays and Amazons of the Internet, creating ways to drive business to themselves, and make it pay.

What media doesn't understand is that it doesn't sell a physical thing like a big box store does (and what book publishers will soon discover with their pricing). What it sells has value but it has to create a way to bring people to the value at a price that they will pay (what Amazon has provided for publishers). That way is a return to the old bazaar, really just a digital town square. One entry, choose what you will at the price that equates supply with demand.

Content can't divide and conquer. Each source on its own will only whither and die.

UPDATE: Since posting, I've gotten thinking that I'm not the sole audience for news. I can afford to pay. The old advertising model got people that can't pay, or pay much, access to hard news. Right now, I see those people slowly frozen out of the news stream, the very people that need to have access to hard news mainstream, unless we count E!, TMZ, Fox, CNN and MSNBC to be sufficient news sources, which I don't. I've got some thinking to do.

The Veg-O-Matic Has Arrived

My Germanic stainless steel blade, high strength, plastic slicer and dicer has arrived. Don't pay for shipping at Amazon, it got here first thing in the morning on the second business day after I ordered it.

It's pretty cool. I whipped out some thin and thick tomato slices right away. It has this other piece that makes thin and thick rectangles (juliennes). I haven't quite figured out how to make cubes - I think you have to slice them horizontally before you put them into the safety guard thingy and then slice them again.

Pos, from what I can see so far, it will slice meat as long as it is less than about four inches wide.

I'm not sure if it's worth what I paid for it; but, it does work and so far it's pretty slick.

My picture is next to stupid in the dictionary

First, a heartfelt thank you to Apple and Migration Assistant; but, we'll return to that below.

Friday night I was doing the usual, reading, surfing, watching something on TV. I came across an article that talked about getting rid of duplicate and unneeded files on your hard drive. I sent the link to my office Mac and downloaded a recommended program on the Macbook that would get rid of a lot of the detritus on my hard drive. I'm not going to tell you the name of the program. I strongly recommend you not do it, unless you are less stupid than I am.

So I used the program. Rather than getting rid of junk, I got rid of a number of programs, my entire Mail program and files, all of the Favorites in Firefox, and so on and so on.

Yesterday, I brought the Macbook to the office, connected a firewire cable, fired up Migration Assistant and about twenty minutes later, what was on the Mac Mini was on the Macbook, or so I thought.

Later on at home, I fired up the computer to get on line and download a program that had gotten zapped. Nothing in the Mailbox, nothing in Favorites. Damn.

So, about an hour ago I got back to the office and surfed on how to export those files from the Mini to the Macbook. I printed out some stuff and turned on the Macbook to do the exporting.

I noticed that on starting up there were two "Users," the new me and the old me which caused me to remember the program telling me it was going to call me something else. I clicked the lower one (the new me) and there was all my stuff right where Migration Assistant had put it, below the old me that had the gaps that I had found last night. If that wasn't a model explanation of what happened, sorry - I think that's what happened.

I have to break myself of the habit of doing things too fast. It usually works but clicking your way through a program that you don't know anything about wasn't one of the brighter things I did this weekend, twice.

Take this North Central and East!

It's only been snowing for a few hours. The weather people are beside themselves with the event. High tomorrow is about forty, we'll enjoy the blizzard while we can.

Blade Escalation

I got a beer with my friend the cop after work today. Our conversation meandered as it always does. We discussed tomatoes as I had made myself a couple of bacon and tomato sandwiches last night. I mention that I was going to stop by Target and buy a serrated knife, something I don't have and have meant to get for a long time.

My friend mentioned that he has a mandolin that he likes but that he doesn't use all that much. We discussed cost and I said I'd stick with my seven or so dollar cost factor for a cheap knife.

Well, I didn't feel like stopping, it's too cold and the Target on Druid Hills, and Druid Hills itself, are madhouses after work.

I just got done surfing mandolins. Did you know you can pay $400 bucks for one? Or you can pay about fifteen with twenty one star reviews.

I succumbed to the cheapest five star rating for $40 bucks, tax, tag and title.

If you need anything sliced, diced or julienned on German steel blades, let me know sometime after five to nine days from now (Amazon Super Saver Free Shipping).

I'm having flash backs to the old SNL bass-o-matic bit and Ron Popiel's spray-on hair.

Too Much

There was MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and now Google Buzz.

As best I can tell, the latter is better Facebook with a link to Twitter, if Google is to be believed (I'm holding out for the Wikipedia article).

The only thing I made sure to find out about Buzz was to make sure I can turn it off when Mountain View enables it on my phone - I can.

It isn't a sign of age, I have friends in my range and older that are on Twitter and Facebook; but, for the life of me, I can't figure out what their fascination is with them.

I was on Facebook for about an hour after Big Rick sent me an Email inviting me to join and friend him. Now don't get me wrong, Rick's a funny guy, a smart guy. His first words on Facebook were "just got to work, twelve hours to go." I cruised around his friends' places and got similar declarations of their beingness.

I resigned (though it took me several attempts to fully delete all my information - I think).

Google is apparently going to use its algorithms and GPS to send me more beingness pegged to my location and predilections, from people that it finds out I know from my contacts and from their friends and friends of friends. I guess they are hoping they've got a ready made Facebook list by way of people that have Gmail.

If I want to talk to you or write to you, I know where to find you. The same is true coming back this way. And if I don't know how to find you, hasn't that told me that maybe you don't want to know what I've got to say? Hell, I don't put enough thought into what I write here, do you really think you want to be pushed my random thoughts? The answer I assure you is NO.

Whoa!

Now and again you're somewhere and you're struck by someone.

For me it's usually what I refer to as "alive eyes." It actually happens with both sexes, though it's women that I notice, and I suppose there's some attraction going on.

Tell me you know what I'm talking about.

This has nothing to do with what the person says or, really how attractive they are overall. You have a sense that they are, well, something special. You get it from their face. Big eyes, taking in the world around them.

The inspiration for this post was actually something else, the new Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover girl. She is stunning in most every way. Wouldn't it be wonderful if in person she had the eyes?

Alive eyes are seldom a wrong indicator. Their eyes don't necessarily indicate that you'll like them. Just that there's a brain in there.

I'm not explaining this well. Potter Stewart said he knew something else "when he saw it."

Next time you're in the neighborhood, and I see an example, I'll let you know.

A Favor Please

I registered with Google Analytics late last month. So far it is mostly baffling me.

Part of that is that it doesn't really explain what it "tells me."

As has been the case for the life of the blog, by far the biggest search hits here have been "The Federal Judge Song" and "How to Strip Speaker Wire." There are a lot of people out there that want to hear the song (the site where I found it is dead, I put an update at the top of the post telling people that, but Google still has me as the number one site for any variation of the search). There are a ton of people who want to strip wire. Here's the secret. Don't get any tools, get a lighter and burn the end off the wire. That's it. I continue to do a service to scores of people a month. I'm also good for helping people reheat pizza and not finding them whether they can buy booze on Sundays.

Back to Google Analytics. Who the hell are the two thirds of you that are unique visitors? The other third of you? Setting aside those of you that come from the searches mentioned above and others, there are still a bunch of you that stop by here and actually read what I write to the tune of about 30 a day (Google says that the overall average stay is about a minute and a half).

So, regular commenters, go on about your business. Those of you that I know read and never write, go on too. The rest of you, who are you? What got you here? What keeps you coming back? Tell us about yourself.

$2 plus million...

was spent a couple of minutes into the game.

Not much controversy. Mrs. Tebow is happy that she gave birth to Tim.

I'm happy she did.

Then too, there are women that die giving birth and some decades ago, they had no legal choice to choose life for themselves were giving birth to be a death sentence for them.

In the scheme of Super Bowl commercials, it wasn't much, though the Bud Lite and Dorito commercials played near it, weren't all that memorable.

Dilution, the price paid for so much money.

Though the Bud Lite commercial showing the almost end of the world, as I type this, was funny.

UPDATED: About a half hour later, any of you guys going to buy "Dove for Men?" That commerical has to be one of the worst wastes of money I've seen.

And, the Saints are still in the game.

UPDATE 2: Almost the fourth quarter. Saints have still got a chance. The commercials still suck.

UPDATE 3: Up by 7, 5 minutes left. De may be Dat.

FINAL: Yes they are!

Super Bowl Preparation and Prediction

Chili is in the crock pot. Later it goes into the frig to marinate, then simmer again for a while tomorrow.

That's it as far as preparation.

As to predictions, the Colts will probably win; but, I hope not. I've been to New Orleans a number of times over the last couple of years. The people I've met there are fun loving. They live and die by the Saints and have died by them for decades now.

As much as the City has gone through, as much as the people have strived to return from, I'd love to be there, not Miami, during the game, win or lose. Not being there, I'd love to see them jump up and down if Who Dat becomes Dat for this year.

That's not too much to ask I'm thinking.

Saints by one or more.

Quandary

I have a T-Mobile G1 Android smart phone, one of the early baby computer phones, after the IPhone.

In many ways it does as much as my desk top or laptop, and more when it comes to mobile search. A Google search for something commercial tends to give some local results. I'm assuming this is based on my IP address, though I'm not sure. I don't enable GPS unless it's needed for an application I'm using.

Anyway, starting today, if I go to the phone browser which is Google by default, there's a pop up that asks me if I want to give the "website" (duh, Google) access to my location. I have my choice between never, cancel and yes. A Google search doesn't tell me what this new question means for what Google will get beyond what it now gets.

Since Google is now in bed with the NSA on the China stuff….

So far, I'm clicking cancel.

The Forgotten Value of Knowing How Widgets Are Made - Part 1

Regular readers know that I’m not very good at math or economics. A few months ago I did a post that confessed I was lost when it came to understanding just what the hell happened to the world’s economy and what should be done about it.

I’ve been thinking about it off and on since.

In the late Nineties and continuing to about 2006, I went to Florida, Destin and Apalachicola in the Panhandle, a lot on the weekends.

In Apalachicola Bay there’s a small island, St. George, where I rented houses on the beach a number of times. There was a whole row of these skinny, three-story houses. They were great for the weekend – steps to the beach, maybe a quarter mile to the little town square where you could walk to get supplies, breakfast, lunch and a beer and return to cook your fresh shrimp and corn on the cob on the barbecue on the deck for dinner.

It always amazed me how cheap they were to rent – considerably less than a nice hotel on the beach cost. And, I came to realize that almost no one actually lived in them full-time.

Mid-way through my Florida weekend years I started going to Destin. It and its neighboring towns, Seaside (the location where The Truman Show was filmed), Watercolor, Santa Rosa are gorgeous. Think of the row of three story beach houses on St. George Island on steroids.

I stayed at a friend’s house in Santa Rosa. He had bought it in the low hundred thousands a few years before. He, and thousands like him bought up the beach as market values increased to double and triple what they paid for the properties.

Like on St. George Island, most of the houses weren’t lived in full time. Their owners came down for a few weekends a year and rented them to tourists the rest of the time. And also like St. George Island, the rents were cheap – there was a lot of competition.

The “plan” all along the Florida coast and in Arizona, California and other resort areas was to buy low (or relatively low as prices rose), pay for insurance, maintenance and the mortgage with the rental income and then sell and double or triple your money. To do that the hordes of investors took out interest only mortgages so that their costs approximated their income. Why pay principle when equity increased every month and you could use it to “trade up?”

And it wasn’t only snowbirds that succumbed to the call of easy money. American industry and the banks started to operate on the same plan, as did many of rest of us when it came to buying into the American dream of owning a home.

Then it all fell apart. Why is that? Well that’s the widget story, which is coming soon to a blog near you. Stay tuned.

Beware of the Corruption of Our Youth

Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss doesn't want to get rid of "Don't Ask Don't Tell" as he feels it will lead to all kinds of problems.

From Talking Points Memo:

"'[The Military] must maintain policies that exclude persons whose presence in the armed forces would create unacceptable risk to the armed forces' high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion.'

"'In my opinion,' he said, 'the presence in the armed forces of persons who demonstrate a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts would very likely create an unacceptable risk to those high standards.'

"Why, if gays are allowed into the military, Chambliss said, soon the armed forces will allow all sorts of other things.

"Like what?

"'Alcohol use, adultery, fraternization, and body art,' said Chambliss.

"'If we change this rule of 'Don't Ask, Dont Tell,' he asked, 'what are we going to do with these other rules?'"

So, those of you that are veterans (Big Rick, Larry), confirm that none of those things happen now. If that's the case, I'm against the gays in uniform, hell, in society too, if they're going to lead to all of those horrors. First they threaten marriage and now there are going to be a bunch of straight, drunk sailors driven to getting tattoos and looking for love in all the wrong places. Say it ain't so!

Truth in Campaign Accounting

The Atlanta Journal Constitution has an article today about a nifty political practice.

Apparently there is a "me too" factor in political support. People want to back a winner. Winners have a lot of campaign funds, which attract more campaign funds, and so on.

So what does a cash strapped candidate do? Borrow money and lend it to the campaign.

Three of the four of five candidates for the Republican nomination have each borrowed about $250,000 and then loaned it to their campaign. It isn't spent mind you, it just sits there swelling the perceived contribution total.

Look at all that money in the account! A lot of people must support so and so.

"Asked if the line of credit was a tactic to appear to have more money, [one candidate's campaign manager] sighed.

“'If that’s how it’s perceived, that’s how it’s perceived,' he said. 'It is what it is.'” ("Damn, there goes another scam.") Pesky reporters.