The Need to Blame

The weekend’s news brought stories of how the Gulf oil spill is the equivalent of Hurricane Katrina with respect to the government’s failure to cope.

There seem to be two aspects to dealing with catastrophes: prevention and response. We always assign blame for failings in either.

To put the two more recent events and blame for them, in context, Bush didn’t get much flack over the response to 9/11. Why?

Let’s compare and contrast.

9/11 was a “man-made” event, the result of terrorism and our failure to anticipate and prevent it. Katrina’s devastation was a combination of an act of God and human failure (the levees). The oil spill appears to be the result of human failure; Obama is doing his darnedest to draw attention to BP’s culpability for it. Bush deflected any blame for 9/11 on the part of the U.S. Government to anticipate and prevent by focusing our attention on Al Qaeda; but, he didn’t have a convenient terrorist group when it came to Katrina. He, the Corps of Engineers, FEMA and Brownie took the necessary fall.

There was no plan to deal with the severity of any of the three events. Obama seems to be running a better PR effort for the oil spill than did Bush with Katrina. Neither dealt with the aftermath of 9/11 very well in the larger context of stopping terrorism and foreign adventurism; but, over time the need to blame lessens as other events overtakes us.

We humans need devils to blame for things that a benevolent god wouldn’t do to us. Our politicians know this and provide them for us. What they don’t do is take the lessons presented by catastrophes and apply them going forward. A case in point, the financial meltdown of the last couple of years. Who’s to blame? Greedy, rapacious banks. What’s being done about them? Little or nothing. But don’t blame our “leaders” entirely. We taught them to show us a devil or two and things would be OK until the next time.

The Public Broadcasting Pledge Drive Death March

I’m not sure I’m right about this; but, I think that WABE radio here in Atlanta has been conducting a pledge drive since New Years Day, starting at 12:01 a.m. OK, that’s not fair, it started a couple of months ago. Really? Last week or the week before.

Public radio talks a lot about how it has no commercials; but, if you add in all the corporate “announcements” and the time it spends begging two or three or four times a year, does it spend more time on actual programming than commercial radio? I’m thinking it’s a push.

And let’s look at public TV. Have you noticed that at the end of a program, there’s about ten minutes of promos and announcements? And that’s not to mention the break or two during the show for the same. And I’m not going to talk about the concert shows that they air twenty or thirty times a year with the really annoying nasal people telling you that if you “love Do Wop like I do, you’ll pick up the phone and make a call.”

I’ve solved the TV harassment with a DVR. Go to begging and I go to fast forward.

Back to WABE, I’m not sure, as I tune it out in my head when they go into beg mode; but, I think they’ve gone to a number of donors rather than number of days or dollars model: we will quite harassing you when we get 12,750 of you to give us some money. That’s what I think I heard in the car on the way home today. Don’t give? We’ll keep this up forever.

So you know, I give money, on the condition that I’m not on any of their lists and they don’t harass me. They broke their promise once and I threatened to stop giving, they apologized and promised to leave me alone. We’ll see.

But here’s the problem, when they do this pledge garbage, I’ve got my choice between listening to the garbage on the way to and from work and Neal Boortz, a second tier talk radio guy, in the morning, or Sean Hannity, a major league boor at night. Or sports radio with equally annoying people talking about stupid stuff.

So, I’ll end this by asking that all of you go to WABE.org/support. Give them a buck, if enough of you do, they’ll quit and I can listen without cringing. Thank you in advance for your support of my sanity. If you do, maybe Ira Glass will call me and interview me about a new opportunity for extorting money.

Which way do you skew?

There’s a piece at Slate.com that identifies your “political leanings” based on your news sites of choice. It seems to me the study that underlies the test has all kinds of methodological problems; but, the results are interesting:

Sites Visited:
Financial Times (81% conservative)
Technorati (37% conservative)
Salon (34% conservative)
NPR: National Public Radio (28% conservative)
Slate (49% conservative)
Los Angeles Times (45% conservative)
Washington Post (37% conservative)
The Huffington Post (30% conservative)
The New York Times (40% conservative)
Fox News (88% conservative)
CNN (54% conservative)

At these sites, the readership is on average 48 percent conservative, 52 percent liberal

Your isolation index is -34, meaning that, on the bell curve of all readers, your news diet is 34 percentage points to the left.

Here’s the link to the article: http://www.slate.com/id/2252247/

It didn't capture everything I read. I would imagine that Google News is pretty middle of the road. The local AJC is actually starting to skew conservative. I guess I'm going to have to start clicking on the New York Post, the Drudge Report and Beck and Hannity's websites to get my skew back towards the middle.

Don't Say it Debo: Finale

If anyone is wondering about the title of this short series, Debo is the proprieter of A Blue State of Mind (see Recommended sidebar) who chides me for buying gadgets. I'd vow that this is the last gadget, but I'd probably be struck by lightning.

Anyway, the system is in and up and running with the help of Bill the Engineer. My problem at the end of last evening, that I could get sound on TV and a DVD but no picture, was the result of the first rule of electronics: somewhere along the line an HDMI cable had pulled out of its port and I hadn't rechecked connections. It doesn't bother me that the TV says the picture is coming in on HDMI 1 and the system says that the sound is on HDMI 2 - it works.

We will return to regular programming here at Rather Than Working soon.

Don't say it Debo: Part 2

I have some irony working tonight. If you haven't read the last post, please do.

So, I set up the new home theater. Some comedy along the way. Did the firmware update download. It won't let me calibrate the sound system, it says the speakers aren't correctly connected. It won't let my connect to my wireless network. It won't let me watch TV. The only thing it will let me do is watch a Blu-ray movie, the thing that led to me buying the system in the first place.

I have a call in to Bill the Engineer. In the meantime, I'm watching Law Abiding Citizen. The sound, just fine, on all of the many speakers.

Don't say it Debo

In my own defense, I wouldn’t be doing this had the Blu-ray player not crapped out, which it did over the weekend.

I’m getting an all the bells and whistles home theater system with Blu-ray, wireless Internet and network connectivity, seven speakers (rear wireless), 2 HDMI in, and a bunch of other stuff of which I know not.

Stop laughing Debo.

The Problem With Purity

Simply put, it doesn’t work.

Good and evil. Democracy, communism, socialism, theocracy. Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians. Islam, Christianity, Buddhism. Black, White, Yellow.

I’d love to be a libertarian. John Galt, Dagny Talbert, Howard Roark. Rugged self-sufficiency in an attractive package.

I think I’d love to be religious following the “one true light.” But there are lots of lights.

I could even be a communist if I could overlook communism’s utter practical failure as a way to run a society.

Purity of position reduces communication and prevents problem solving.

“We” don’t talk these days, “we” being the various groups interested in an issue. Each group of we’s develops a doctrine, once it’s in place, well it’s a doctrine, the discussion is over. Ideological purity is entrenched. Each group of we’s then promotes and tries to extend the influence of its doctrine, bumping up against the trenches of a competing ideology.

Raw capitalism versus socialism. Christianity versus Islam. Western nations versus Asian ascendancy.

The solution is the merger of groups; though, I’m not at all sure, indeed, I haven’t a clue, how to do it.

Pains In the Ass

People, probably, well certainly, including me, can be pains in the ass.

Everyone should act just like we expect them to act, right? Ain’t going to happen of course.

But, what do you do when you have someone going out of their way to be a pain in the ass in your life? Ignore, engage? Be passive, aggressive? Mix it up?

Professionally, I know the answer to the question, I get paid nicely to play the game. And, I should probably apply the professional approach to the personal pain in the ass; but, it’s not as easy. It makes me appreciate my corporate clients’ occasional distress; and, it makes me remember why I try not to represent actual people who have the unfortunate trait of taking things personally.

Yet Another Disliked Word

Co-worker is way too bureaucratic/corporate for me. I work with people, they work with me. Do we “co-work?” No we don’t. “What’d you do for lunch today?” How would you answer the question? “My co-worker and I had lunch together” or “I ate lunch with a guy I work with.” (Yeah, I know, the second response should read …with whom I work.) If you choose the first response, chances are you work for the government or a big corporation; and, you’ve surely worked there too long.

I suspect the word was coined by some HR person, probably employed by a school system that wanted gender-neutral nouns in the employee manual. That’s enough right there to justify its banishment.

Where would unions be today if their organizers had shouted “co-workers unite!” way back then? Well, maybe that’s a bad example.

Indulge me, stop it!

I've been screwing this up awhile; for a while, I'll get it right

As a service to the readership, from the Grammercurmudgeon.com

Grammatically, a while is a noun phrase in which "a" is an article and "while" functions as a noun meaning "a short period of time"; awhile is an adverb meaning "for a while." In other words, the meaning is the same, but the structure is different: the word awhile has "for" built into its meaning.

The test of which to use is to consider whether "for a while" may be used in the sentence where we intend to place (or have placed) the word awhile – without changing anything else.

Examples:

"I'll wait here awhile" is correct because we could also say, "I'll wait here for a while."

"I'll wait here for awhile" is not correct because we have actually used the word for twice, given that awhile = for a while: "I'll wait here for for a while."

"I'll be there in awhile" is not correct because we would not say, "I'll be there IN FOR a while."

"This may take awhile" is not correct because "This may take for a while" is not idiomatic English.

"My mother is staying awhile" is correct because we could also say, "My mother is staying for a while."

The two-word noun phrase (a while) is probably more often the correct choice than is the one-word adverb (awhile). Certainly, most misuses of a while / awhile involve using awhile where a while is the appropriate construction.

Talk quietly among yourselves after you've memorized today's lesson.

The Back End of Gay Marriage, So to Speak

The Texas Attorney General is appealing two trial court’s grant of a divorce to a gay couple. (Did I get my singulars, plurals and possessives right there?) His position is that Texas doesn’t have to grant divorces to gay people because “a union granted in a state where same-sex marriage is legal can't be dissolved with a divorce in a state where it's not.” (AP)

The two couples were married in Massachusetts where same sex marriage is legal. Texas has a constitutional amendment barring such marriages.

Having not researched the issue, I think the Texas AG has forgotten to read the U.S. Constitution’s Full Faith and Credit clause. "Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State." I think that means that Texas, like it or not, has to recognize the validity of the Massachusetts marriages and apply its divorce laws to the valid marriages just as it would apply them to any other valid marriage.

Be that as it may, I find the news more interesting in the larger context.

Seven jurisdictions now allow same sex marriage. People don’t settle down the street or across town from their parents these days. People, straight and gay, move, and move again. They take with them all the problems people have.

There is a natural progression in law in the U.S. towards uniformity. Most states deal with contractual obligations almost identically, same with traffic laws and so on. But, most day-in-day-out legal matters aren’t controversial. It would be interesting to track how “social” laws evolved with respect to black people from the end of the Civil War until now and overlay it on gay issues. From what I know about that evolution, the historical record doesn’t bode well for gay people. The Texas cases are just an early skirmish.

Is grade inflation linear or exponential?

Don’t worry, we aren’t going to answer the question; I just like the word linear and wanted to use it.*

But, I saw a headline that talked about private schools being a cause of grade inflation. Didn’t read the article, so I have no opinions about the headline’s premise.

But it got me thinking. I first heard about grade inflation a couple of decades ago. Presumably at some point in time grades given by instructors were accurate. An “A” was an “A,” and so on.

Then, for whatever reason (my understanding is that the original cause was social pressure) Teacher A gave Student A a better grade than was deserved.

Student A is all grown up now, equipped with the knowledge, or lack of knowledge, that teacher A provided. If Student A goes into education and becomes Teacher B he or she has a standard that’s inaccurate. Given that social pressure has remained constant (as evidenced by the headline), Teacher B gives Student B a hyper-inflated grade. Is an A given today really a C? Probably not, because in two more generations my model would make an A the equivalent of an F. It does make you want to look at a resume a bit more closely.

Or should I promise to never again write about any scientific subject?

*If you are really bored or really a nerd, here’s a numbing article about linear and exponential growth:

members.optusnet.com.au/exponentialist/Linear_Vs_Exponential.htm

Law? Just Common Sense.

You are a law student at a public university. You want to start a club on campus for Jewish students to keep the holocaust current in peoples’ minds. You register the club, get a cubbyhole office, an Email address and a few bucks as your share of the mandatory student activity fees the university collects.

You’ve had a few meetings, students are joining and you feel pretty good. A guy says “I want to join your club. You should know I’m a neo-Nazi. I know it seems odd; but, I want to be around to keep you Zionists honest.”

Quite rationally, you decline his request for membership.

He complains and the university tells you, let him join or lose your official status, along with the cubbyhole, Email address and couple of bucks. Reasonable or not?

Tomorrow, the U.S. Supreme Court is going to hear arguments in a club’s appeal against the University of California’s Hastings College of Law policy that any officially recognized club may not discriminate with respect to members.

The appeal is by a Christian group that doesn’t want to admit members that don’t agree with its beliefs “to ‘proclaim, love and serve Jesus Christ through the study and practice of law….’" (From WashingtonPost.com.)

I’m not going to talk about the Constitution and its provisions for rights of association, free speech and equal protection.

Rather, let’s look at this from a common sense point of view.

There’s twenty or thirty regular readers out there. Let’s start a club. Its purpose is to promote literate, rational and humorous expression by people in blogs. We’re up and running: conservatives, liberals, libertarians and independents all. We all agree, no stupid allowed. But then, there’s a hitch, Sarah Palin wants to join. We look at our credo. She’s not literate, nor rational and she’s only humorous if you like watching train wrecks. She refuses to take a grade school intelligence test. We say no, sorry Sarah, you aren’t one of us, scurry off to the Tea Party, Facebook (and we won’t Friend you) and Twitter. She complains to Blogger, Wordpress and all of the other services we use.

Who’s in the right, us, or Sarah?

Change the scenario a bit. We had the idea to start our club; but, given the billions floating around in stimulus money, we get a grant from a government agency, Health and Human Services, which had the idea to give money to groups to encourage them to include the less than literate, rational, humorous and intelligent among them with the hope that given the exposure, the unblessed could at least start batting .250. Sarah complains to HHS. Hearings are scheduled.

Who’s in the right, us, or Sarah?

The Court of Common Sense finds as follows: We are right the first time around. Sarah wins round two. Take their money, play by their rules.

A Perfect Storm of Choke Points

I saw an article today about Apple last week asking a Pulitzer prize winning cartoonist to resubmit an application for an iPhone app that it rejected last Fall, right after he publicly mentioned his rejection.

From NYTimes.com:

“[H]is app was rejected by Apple in December because it included cartoons that ridiculed public figures. Cartoons, it turns out, can violate Apple’s license agreement with developers, which states that apps may be rejected if the content ‘may be found objectionable, for example, materials that may be considered obscene, pornographic, or defamatory.’”

Said the cartoonist “he had not heard of ‘the whole concept of getting rejected for ridiculing public figures. That’s what I do. That’s my life!’ he said. ‘That’s a tough one to get around if you’re a political cartoonist.’”

There’s been a lot on the Internet about Apple’s closed system for the iPhone, and now, the iPad. If Apple doesn’t like you (Adobe Flash) you are out of luck.

On another related techie subject, a court just ruled that the FCC didn’t have the authority to regulate Internet providers like Comcast for technical legal reasons. The case was about “net neutrality,” the idea that Comcast or another provider can’t slow down or cut off a customer except for capacity based reasons.

From Wikipedia:

“[A]dvocates of net neutrality and associated rules have raised concerns about the ability of broadband providers to use their last mile infrastructure to block Internet applications and content (e.g. websites, services, protocols), particularly those of competitors.”

Then there’s the matter of competition for that last mile. Who is your ISP? Comcast, AT&T, Charter? If you’re out in the sticks, you may have a mom and pop provider; but, for the most part, Internet and cable are going the way of most other industries, fewer but bigger companies.

Now, let’s look at all these trends and couple them with the fact that the traditional broadcast and paper media are soon to be dinosaurs. Do you want Comcast and its fewer but larger friends slowing you down, or shutting off your access to your choices for information and entertainment? (We won’t talk about Comcast buying NBC, giving it with the incentive to give its new content business an edge.) I kind of like Steve Jobs; but, do you want him deciding what you can get on your iPhone and iPad?

Today we found out that Goldman Sachs may have been playing both ends against the middle, and it was regulated. Comcast, Apple and their friends are subject to few regulations. What are they planning that will have direct effects on your access to the world?

The End of the World As We Know It

The link will take you to the Los Angeles Times Website, humorously to the Entertainment Section.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2010/04/fox-news-cancels-hannity-taping-at-cincinnati-tea-party-rally-.html#tp

Fox News yelled at Sean Hannity for his plan to headline a Tea Party event in Cincinnati tonight, broadcasting his TV show from the event. He was summoned to NYC to do his show from the Fox studio.

Fox barring its stars from promoting a political view? Isn’t that horse out of the barn? What’s next, Glenn Beck admonished to be rational at least 25% of the time?

Ah Facebook

The following was intended as a Facebook “Update.” I typed it in and hit Share. FB told me no dice, The piece has 532 characters, over the 400 and some character limit. Facebook is apparently Twitter quadrupled, minus a few characters.

For Atlanta readers: What was the Havana Sandwich Shop, which you know burned a couple of years ago, has now metastasized into two. The first offshoot was Havana Restaurant on Buford Hwy., just north of Clairmont. Recently opened is Havana Grill in an old fast food place in front of Northeast Plaza. The Grill is better. The "17" there is a Cuban Combo: a touch bigger, much juicer and a bit cheaper than the 17 at the Sandwich Shop or the Restaurant. Without Kool Korners, the Grill is the place to get a Cuban fix.

Now that’s short! Looks like Facebook isn’t going to work as a venue for my “short posts.”

But, 36 hours in business and I have thirteen friends. And one friend request from someone I haven’t a clue about.

I’m up-to-date about a new puppy, two people making out in a fast food parking lot, Farmville, Mafia Wars, the relative merits of the movie 2012 and a host of events in my friends' lives.

Now I have to figure out how to stop it from showing when I’m online and how to stop it from sending me an Email every time a friend posts something.

Ode to Annie

Well not really. Annie was non-plused that I wasn't on Facebook. I told her that I tried it for a couple of hours last year and it didn't seem to be my thing. She said it's the way to keep in contact. I said that's, in part, what the blog does. "So it's all about you?" I nodded, I was OK with that.

Most of the people I know are on Facebook. They seem to be constantly checking something on it.

So, as of about a half hour ago, I'm kind of on Facebook. To the best of my ability, I've set the privacy settings at no one but a friend can access the site (is that what it's called?).

What am I going to do with it? That's a good question. Maybe nothing. But here's my thought. There are times that I have a thought, more a snippet of a thought. Not worthy of a post; but, something that I might want to put out there. I'm too lazy to put it in an Email and then spam all my friends. And spamming isn't usually a good idea. But, if I put it out there and you decide you want to read my snippet, that can't be bad.

A blog in short form. Stop the laughter about me saying something in short form.

So, I'm not sure how this works. The name on Facebook is Evad Knat. Want to be my friend? It may well not last; but, I think Facebook divorces are pretty cheap.

Guess What Today Is?

I got an Email from a client this morning wishing me a good National Be Kind to Lawyers Day.

Thinking it was a joke, I Googled it and found that April 13 really is such day, it has its very own website: bekindtolawyers.com.

Now, I need a National Be Kind to Liberal, Commie, Pinkos Day and I’m set.

Why do Republicans say stuff like this?

From a Washington Post article posted Monday:

"In discussing same-sex marriage, ... Huckabee said, 'You don't go ahead and accommodate every behavioral pattern that is against the ideal. That would be like saying, well, there are a lot of people who like to use drugs, so let's go ahead and accommodate those who want who use drugs. There are some people who believe in incest, so we should accommodate them. There are people who believe in polygamy, so we should accommodate them.'"

Conflict of Interest and the Cost of Medical Care

Every now and then there are media reports about the big bucks that drug and medical equipment companies spend on physicians for “conferences,” “seminars,” “research” and other cover events for the payment of money or the gifting of travel.

We’ve all been in an examination room and seen that pretty much everything in it is labeled with the name of a provider. We’ve seen the good-looking young men and women “just checking in” with the receptionist to see if Doctor (why is there no “the” in front of the noun in the medical field?) so and so “had a moment.” When told no, or it would be a while, they smiled and left some pens, pads and a box of cookies.

A few years back, I had some peripheral contact with a company whose entire business plan was catering lunches for drug and equipment companies’ “learning lunches” at doctors’ offices.

I’m pretty sure that a physician wouldn’t prescribe a drug or treatment that would harm me because of a free pad, pen, lunch or even a seminar fee and all expenses at an expensive resort; but, might he or she prescribe a drug that just might not be the absolute best, or might be a tad more expensive because of the bribes?

In the same light, might I be “ordered” an MRI at a facility that the physician just happened to be a part owner of?

The answer to both questions is, I think, yes.

Have you ever been in a doctor’s office and been told “you’re due for an xyz test or procedure” and upon inquiry learned that you are “due” because the insurance company will pay for said test or procedure every so often even though it isn’t a medical necessity for you at that particular time?

I wonder if this kind of stuff will change under Obamacare? Probably not. How much do the companies spend on the bribes? How much more than a truly competitive fee for the MRI are you paying? How many medically unnecessary tests and procedures are ordered because someone convinced insurance companies they should pay for them? My thought is that it adds up.

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.