An Award

Yes, I got an award - "Thinking Blogger." I get to put a sticker on my blog (if I can figure out how to do it) and everything. Well, not everything, that's pretty much it.

Someone got the idea of creating "[t]he Thinking Blogger Award [as] an effort to build a network of blogs linked together outside of the usual search engines." Fermicat, the author of Cosmic Cat elected me and four others as her "Thinking Bloggers.''

Having looked through the other blogs she lists, and a few listed by the blogger that elected Fermi, the main criterion for selection appears to be writing posts that aren't about the relative merits of Howard K. Stern and Larry Birkhead as fathers for what's her name's daughter, Snoop Dogg (unless you use him to make a point in a serious treatise about society, and you mention Imus in it) or everyday events in your boring life, unless you can make them poignant or funny. Another common trait is their insistence on using correct punctuation, syntax and other fast disappearing conventions. They write in paragraphs, people. Imagine it.

Fermi's review of my blog included the words "interesting," insightful," "humor," "very high quality" and "thoughtful." OK, the last two were descriptions of the people that leave comments, not about me. I guess I need to thank the little people that got me to where I am today.

Thanks Fermi. But now the hard part, I'm supposed to elect five thinking bloggers. You'd think in the Blogosphere, that would be an easy task. How many thinking bloggers could there be? Six? Well, if you look at my "Recommended" sidebar, you'll see that there are lots of choices.

I don't think it's cheating to name them in the anointed five, so I'm going to give them a

1. Collective Best. See Recommended Sidebar. I read all of these people all the time. For the most part, they are the "very high quality, "thoughtful" people whose coat tails I grabbed to get this honor. If you haven't read them, or haven't read them lately, do so. Now. They include some left-leaners (I don't think anyone that skews way right reads me. Ryan, other than your unfortunate gun habit, you don't qualify as right-wing.), libertarians, futurists, downright funny people, a hasbian,some contemplative, gentle people and one scientist and cat person.

Now, in no order of ranking, some people I've started to read recently and who would have soon been placed in the Recommended Sidebar:

2. Letters I Wish I'd Sent written by Bob Johnson. Bob is a Canadian living in Calgary. For the past month or so he's been running for President of the United States. Bob is smart, funny and a really good writer. He vowed yesterday to write better, but less, so you'll have to live with just his quality, if he keeps his vow which I've got a buck against as he had a post this morning.

3. Second Effort by Curmudgeon who writes from "an undisclosed location" in Chicago. Curmudgeon is a lawyer. I didn't want to include him in this list as he's gotten several other awards lately; but, you can't ignore talent. He often says he's not political or controversial; but, when he takes on a subject that is, he tends to write a post that is a mini-tour de force. He's funny too. One fatal flaw, he's a Cubs fan so he obviously has some deep seated self-loathing problem.

4. This Woman's Journey by Monica. I've just very recently started reading Monica and have been struck by her passion and the, not poetic (though she writes some poetry), but flowing nature of her posts. Cadence, not in the Sousa sense of the word, but read her and tell me if you agree.

5. Dooce by Dooce. Actually her name is Heather Armstrong. She makes a living writing her "mommy blog" about her husband and their daughter and dog. Not my typical fare; but, she is very, very good at writing. Whatever she is telling you about, she puts you there with her. Funny stuff.

Those of you elected, on the large assumption for some of you, that you actually read this, you're supposed to elect five and only five thinking bloggers of your own, with a link back to this post (continuity of network and stuff like that).

Once again Fermi, thanks, this time for telling me how to add the links in the body of the post. Now I have to figure out how to add the cool sticker.

Beer And Taxes

Since it's that time of year, I got this in an Email forward today:

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this: The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing. The fifth would pay $1. The sixth would pay $3. The seventh would pay $7. The eighth would pay $12. The ninth would pay $18. The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until on day, the owner threw them a curve. "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20." Drinks for the ten now cost just $80. The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his "fair share?"

They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from every body's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay. And so: The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings). The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings). The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28% savings). The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings). The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings). The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings. "I only got a dollar out of the $20," declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man," but he got $10!" "Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I!" "That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!" "Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

Choosing Pastimes

I don’t get much immediate feedback/satisfaction from my job. I’m usually doing a bunch of things that have different endpoints. When you finish any one thing, you just move on to the next thing.

Coveting satisfaction I’ve gravitated to hobbies and recreation with short-term results. Some might think these choices are the result of a short attention span.

In high school, for a bit in college and for a couple of years, about ten years ago, I played pool. There’s great satisfaction in seeing and executing a series of shots.

I got hooked on photography for a while. See something. Compose. Decide on exposure. Shortly after, feel good that what I saw appears in the slide.

Golf which I thought of, wrongly as it turns out, as a big un-level pool table gives the same quick satisfaction, unfortunately given my skill level, less often. Think about where you want to go. Decide which club, if you hit it correctly, will take you to where you want to go. Swing. Damn, it worked. Even less often, string four (very, very seldom three) shots together on a hole, or two or three pars in a row. Life doesn’t get much better.

Posting on the blog in a way is similar. No real pressure. Write something relatively short, yep that reads pretty good. A positive comment or two and all’s right with the world.

I’m going to play pool this afternoon with a friend. I haven’t played in a year or two. Once I find my cue, I hope to experience some of the old magic.

CBS, The Goose And The Ganders

Leslie Moonves, the President and CEO of CBS Corporation said yesterday that the firing of Imus, CBS's Golden Goose, "is about a lot more than Imus." CBS had dumped Imus, he said because Imus "has flourished in a culture that permits a certain level of objectionable expression that hurts and demeans a wide range of people. In taking him off the air, I believe we take an important and necessary step not just in solving a unique problem, but in changing that culture, which extends far beyond the walls of our Company."

Though his statement carries a publication date and time of about 11:00 a.m. yesterday and GM, Sprint/Nextel, Staples, Proctor & Gamble, TD Ameritrade and Bigelow Tea had pulled their ads on CBS, resulting in the loss of millions of dollars in ad revenue, earlier in the week, I take Mr. Moonves at his word that the firing was all about getting "objectionable expression" off of the airwaves and not about money.

That being the case, I assume that CBS will be doing something soon about the formats on its Ganders, four "Urban" and "Urban Adult" radio stations it owns, two in Atlanta and two in Charlotte, that play racist, misogynistic, anti-police, anti-family, anti-education urban music.

This is a no-brainer right? If Moonves is a little slow about changes, Rev. Sharpton and Rev. Jackson will be on him right away calling the same corporations, urging them to pull their ads again, right?

When pigs learn to fly.

Why Some People Get Paid To Write

http://www.kansascity.com/182/story/66339.html

The link will take you to an opinion piece in the Kansas City paper by a black writer. He talks about the real tragedy of the Imus circus. As the title says, some of us deserve to get paid.

36 Seconds Shouldn't Bother Me, Should It?

pentagon.mil That's what Sitemeter listed for the domain that was the 2,755th person that has visited my blog at 11:55:07 a.m. this morning. Every now and then I see how many people, and generally where they're from, have hit me. As of about 6:15 p.m. today, I'd had 24 visits, including someone from pentagon.mil getting an early start on his or her lunch hour, right?

Here's what Sitemeter had for "Detail" for the visit:

IP Address

140.185.55.# (The Pentagon)
ISP

The Pentagon
Location

Continent
:
North America
Country
:
United States (Facts)
State
:
Virginia
City
:
Alexandria
Lat/Long
:
38.7909, -77.0947 (Map)
Language

English (United States)en-us
Operating System

Microsoft WinXP
Browser

Internet Explorer 6.0Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; DoD OGC; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; InfoPath.1)
Javascript

version 1.3
Monitor

Resolution
:
1280 x 1024
Color Depth
:
32 bits
Time of Visit

Apr 12 2007 11:55:07 am
Last Page View

Apr 12 2007 11:55:43 am
Visit Length

36 seconds
Page Views

1
Referring URL
http://www.google.co...&hl=en&start=90&sa=N
Search Engine
google.com
Search Words
statements obtained by torture
Visit Entry Page

http://ratherthanwor...bad-coercion-ok.html
Visit Exit Page

http://ratherthanwor...bad-coercion-ok.html
Out Click

Living Next Door To Alicehttp://livingnextdoo...oalice.blogspot.com/
Time Zone

UTC-5:00
Visitor's Time

Apr 12 2007 11:55:07 am
Visit Number

2,755

Just some secretary surfing. They thought they'd do some light reading, so they did a Google search on "statements obtained by torture." That brought the off duty (right?) employee to my post awhile back titled "Torture: Kind Of Bad. Coercion - OK."

So, lawyer that I am, I decided to test my theory that our friend at the Pentagon was surfing during the lunch hour. I Googled "statements obtained by torture." I'm less happy. Here's me:

Rather Than Working: Torture: Kind Of Bad. Coercion: OK.
It will not use statements obtained by torture. It will use physical evidence obtained by torture. Coercion? No problem, coerce away, the statements and ...ratherthanworking.blogspot.com/2007/01/torture-kind-of-bad-coercion-ok.html - 60k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

This result, unfortunately for my theory, was found midway through the tenth page of results. I guess our, now my, Pentagon friend was working when he or she clicked on my blog.

But s/he was only there for 36 seconds. Can't do much reading in that little time. How fast can you cut and paste, for later more leisurely reading? Just tried it. Quite fast, thank you.

OK, so far I've written this with a somewhat humorous intent.

Some righteous outrage: What the hell is a Pentagon employee spending time searching Google for people talking about statements obtained by torture for? I'm not a terrorist. I'm not a threat to the security of the United States. If I were, I certainly wouldn't be stupid enough to post my thoughts on Blogspot. The Pentagon has no rational reason to worry about the fact that I think its coercion, or whatever it wants to call it, is violating the Constitution.

I'm going to stop now. I haven't really thought this through and the more I think, the more pissed I'm getting.

If you go back to the detail section, you'll see that my new friend "out clicked" to thomaslb's blog, "Living Next Door To Alice" which is in my "Recommended" sidebar. If any of you in the sidebar want me to take you out of the list, let me know (the Email address is in my Profile). I think thomas and I need to start reading The Patriot Act.

One positive thing, I guess, the NSA, CIA or whomever isn't sharing Predator info or the results of their warrantless searches with the Pentagon, otherwise, my new friend wouldn't be using Google.

Enough Already

The soft news industry had an interesting convergence this week.

Cable TV "news" and radio talk shows have been obsessed with Don Imus and the Rutgers womans' basketball team. MSNBC has fired Imus. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson want him gone from CBS radio.

The Reverends Sharpton and Jackson of course have a bit of a pot and kettle problem given Tawana Brawley, Heimetown and Jackson's scholarship for the Duke University accuser, now determined to have been less than truthful, the other story this week. It's too easy to take a shot at them for their attacks on Imus.

But Snoop Dogg has weighed in on Imus' defense of himself and his statement seems to go right to the heart of the differing treatment of a Sharpton or Jackson for their past "indiscretions" than an Imus for his stupidity. When asked why it's OK for him to use the 'ho word, Snoop said:

"'It's a completely different scenario,' Snoop told VH-1. " "'[Rappers] are not talking about no collegiate basketball girls who have made it to the next level in education and sports. We're talking about hos that's in the 'hood that ain't doing sh--, that's trying to get a n---a for his money. These are two separate things. First of all, we ain't no old-ass white men that sit up on MSNBC going hard on black girls. We are rappers that have these songs coming from our minds and our souls that are relevant to what we feel.'"

We have a double standard for judging stupid remarks by "old-ass white men" and professional race-baiters in this country. Reverends and rappers are allowed to make a living dividing the races. A long-in-the-tooth former disc jockey that needs a haircut, suffers the same fate as the stupid white guys that came before him: Fuzzy Zoeller's fried chicken comment about Tiger Woods lost him a Kmart sponsorship, George "Macaca" Allen lost a Senate seat, Jimmy the Greek saying black men are bred to be better athletes got fired by, I think, CBS. The list is longer.

All of our candidates for President are weighing in on the controversy. Obama wants CBS to fire Imus. Clinton characterized Imus as going "way over the line." Pandering to a different base, Guliani and McCain criticized Imus but were willing to forgive. None of the candidates has criticized Sharpton or Jackson since charges have been dropped against the lacrosse players. Jackson even managed some innuendo in his comment about the dismissal: "I hope that all involved will be safe and will outlive their scars. It came to a rather dramatic and mysterious close. We can hope that the young people involved will not be permanently scarred and damaged."

I've only heard Imus a couple of times over the years. Didn't like him. I've heard Sharpton and Jackson for too long. All of them, plus Snoop should shut up. The Country needs to get back to what's important: why hasn't the kid with the hair gotten voted off of American Idol? I know it's a big story because NPR did a segment on it this morning.

Did Pacman Get Justice?

One of the papers I read in the past day or so had a bunch of pictures of NFL players who have had recent run-ins with the law.

This morning’s USA TODAY reports that the Tennessee Titan’s, Adam “Pacman” Jones, “facing felony charges in two states” has been suspended for the ’07 – ’08 season. The Cincinnati Bengals’ Chris Henry,” arrested four times in three states since 2005,” has been suspended for half of the upcoming season.

The owner of the New England Patriots said “I hope this sends a message to people in our league for how to conduct themselves. We have to be careful. People in America can’t relate to overindulged athletes not acting responsibly.” His statement nicely juxtaposes the two competing issues – punishment for crime by the government and protection of profit by professional sports leagues.

Neither player has been tried or convicted on any of the charges. Roger Goodall, the NFL’s commissioner, invoked the league’s “conduct detrimental to the game” power. Warren Sapp, an Oakland player, reacted “Oh, that ‘we can do whatever we want’ rule.”

I’m waffling on which side to take in this. The lawyer in me wants to read the NFL’s player agreement “conduct detrimental” clause. My inner lawyer also understands the New England owner’s “send a message” stance. He doesn’t want anything happening to slow down the money train. I shake my head and roll my eyes somewhat at both Sapp’s naiveté (you signed the contract didn’t you Warren?) and the owner’s disingenuous labeling of the players as “over-indulged” (who does he think was the supplier of the excess indulging?).

I’ve read a lot lately about the “thuggery” problem in professional sports. Most sports writers and cable “news” show hosts are middle-aged white guys. They are put off, to put it mildly, and alienated, to put it strongly, by 20 year old millionaires who sport dredlocks, tattoos and assorted “bling.” The pundits’ audience, mostly middle-aged white guys, and the writers’ audience, guys, from twenty to fifty something, also react negatively to the “thugs” due to a varying combination of generation, culture and wealth differences. To some extent, for some of the audience, substitute race for the word culture in the last sentence.

So, the title to this post is misleading. Justice has nothing to do with the issue. Pacman will receive justice down the road when he goes to court. Right now, the issue is what does professional sports do with its spoiled kids. For decades it did nothing. As with “performance enhancing” drugs, it has done nothing until seeing an issue with potential negative impact on revenue. From the leagues’ points of view the problem is framed by money. “What do we have to do to keep these kids out of the media?” First, publicly wap a couple. Pacman would have made $1.29 million this season. Henry is going to be out $435K. Sorry guys, but you are the medium for the message to your fellow delinquents. Next, set up some counseling and support programs for the rookies according to the article. After that? Once a year hold a meeting where police tell the players they can go to jail for doing the things they do (part of the NFL’s newly announced thuggery policy).

My conclusion: Corporate America makes a poor, and late to the party, parent. Society needs to wap some parents upside the head. then set up some real counseling anf support programs for them to make up for what their parents, the thugs’ grandparents didn’t do for them.

"Judge Gone Wild"

I am happy to report that Bellsouth/Cingular/SBC/AT&T wireless internet is quite fast in the DFW Holiday Inn.

Other than overcast skies and a ten degree drop in temperature, Hotel Row at DFW looks remarkably like Hotel Row at ATL or in any other big city. I've always liked the Dallas skyline but I won't see it this trip as my meetings are in Bedford, next door to the airport.

I'm watching Fox News, Greta Van Susteren. She doesn't apparently do a lot of preparation for her interviews. She interviewed Joe Francis, the man behind the Girls Gone Wild videos. Joe is on his way to Florida to turn himself into U.S. Marshals pursuant to a U.S. District Court warrant.

Joe got into a bit of trouble when seven under-aged girls sued him when their escapades were included in one of his videos.

Greta and Joe just couldn't get over that he was being sent to jail in connection with a civil case. Here's a hint for Greta next time she gets perplexed by a legal question: Google. The query "girls gone wild jail" brought up an ABC News story from last Thursday that explained that Joe had been found in contempt for failing to appear at an emergency hearing about his reneging on a settlement reached during a mediation. Most judges, especially federal judges, don't look kindly on that sort of behavior.

Greta was also perplexed when Joe said the Judge was putting him jail until he agreed to pay the plaintiffs more money. A bit of web surfing uncovered that the Judge has ordered Joe to pay the plaintiffs' lawyers' fees in connection with the hearing he didn't attend.

I guess Greta's to be forgiven as I'm sure she's distracted because there's a hearing tomorrow where Anna Nicole Smith's baby's DNA results will be announced. That was the lead story on the show, her head was probably still wrapped up in all of that.

Oh, the title of this post. Joe Francis had a good line in another interview about his take on the Judge in his case. He called him a "judge gone wild."

"Alton, well I'll just wait till after the tasting."

Two readers commented that they wanted to know what I was going to say to or about Alton Brown at the end of a post yesterday about him and coffee.

The actual plan was to do a paragraph or two in yesterday’s post berating Alton for suckering me into going to a store called Cool Beans where I suckered myself into spending a lot of money, as it turns out, unnecessarily. But the post was long enough as it was, so I quit while I was ahead.

(For those that didn’t read the comments to the coffee post, Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, at $39.00 a pound, is, well, pricey. Good coffee, but too mild for my taste.)

That was pretty much it.

Now that I’ve explained that, I suppose I could critique Good Eats.

Before that I suppose I should do some prologue, as is usual:

"Prior to his cooking career, Brown received a degree in drama from the University of Georgia. He then worked in cinematography and film production. In that field, he is probably best known for his work as the director of photography for the R.E.M. music video "The One I Love." He also worked as a steadicam operator on the Spike Lee film School Daze."

Courtesy of Wikipedia.

I like the show, but less than I did a few years back. The show’s main hook is a geeky, scientific approach to cooking. I didn’t see as many molecule models in high school as I see on the show. It gets a little old.

The other theme is gadgets, lots and lots of gadgets. According to Alton, the only “unitasker” in a kitchen should be the fire extinguisher. He doesn’t really believe that, as evidenced by the probably twenty or so pots and pans that hang over the stove and the admittedly kind of cool “pushpop” measuring thing he uses to measure and plop:

"PLUNGER AND PLUNGER JR. Item: ABRN AB1001

Mayo. Molasses. Shortening. Peanut butter. Honey. Cooking with the really sticky stuff? – that’s when The Plunger becomes The Hero. Pile in the gooey ingredients to the perfect measure (cups, ounces, tablespoons, metric, whatever), and then squoosh out every last particle into your bowl by pushing on the base – no waste. The big guy is a 2-cupper, with Junior sidekick weighing in at 1 cup. Shipped as a two-item set, Plunger and Plunger Jr."

Senior and Junior are $13.88 for both. I didn’t look for S&H.

I do have the exact same colander he uses on the show.

And I want an electronic scale though I have no use for it.

I also want a “Pasta Express” shown on a late night infomercial. This handy item looks like a coffee press, it just costs more. You boil some water and pour it in and, magically it seems, in just about the same time pasta cooks in a pot, you have pasta cooked in the Pasta Express. After all “The Pasta Express features thermal conductivity, which allows the pasta to get thoroughly cooked while inside;” and that’s a direct quote from the website. When I saw the infomercial, I swear, my body contained no artificial substances, illegal substances or any combination of hops, malt, barley or yeast. I know this has nothing to do with Mr. Brown; but, like the scale and two plunger set, it is something that I want, but won’t buy.

For today, here’s my order of purchases, first a coffee conical burr grinder (yeah, I know I didn't talk about it, but I want one), then an electronic scale, only then the Express.

So, to sum up this review of Good Eats, I still watch it. That’s more than I can say for Emeril or Rachael Ray, without even mentioning Iron Chef, America.

An Easter Homily

From the Sermon On the Mount:

And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.


Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.


Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

The Gospel According to Matthew.

The Beatitudes provide a philosophical basis for an Augustinian view of Christianity that I’m not comfortable with. “Don’t worry about your suffering now, you’ll get yours later on in Heaven.” I know that isn’t all to be learned from them, or even an accurate interpretation; but, that “lesson” is often all that is taken from them. This attitude gives license to the powerful and creates acquiescence in the masses. Coupled with the “render unto Caesar” rule, people get the idea that they are stuck with government that is anything but godly.

My libertarian mindset and conservative fiscal viewpoint are having a hard time accommodating these socially liberal sentiments because to change, money and regulation would have to be applied.

Well, the Sunday morning Homily is supposed to make you think. I’m thinking, I’m just not done yet.

(Impetus for this post provided by posts this morning by Lifehiker, Hedy and Becky (Girl In...). See Sidebar.)

Alton Brown And A Pound Of Coffee

Before we get to AB, as he’s known, and the caffeine, some prologue is in order.

I really like coffee. Don’t tell me that McDonald’s makes good coffee. Don’t tell me that any diner, restaurant, fine or basic, makes good coffee.

I drank drek for years. Taste, OK, caffeine, oh yes.

When I was a partner at a pretty fancy law firm, one of the best things about my office was that it was about twenty feet from the kitchen. Yes, a kitchen. Not a break room. Not only did we have a real live kitchen; but, next door, off the lobby we had a wet bar that opened on to the lobby for events. Without talking about leather, mahogany, oak and artwork, you have an idea of why lawyers cost so much. (So as to differentiate, King & Spalding, a white stocking firm here in town, lives next door to a Ritz Carlton hotel downtown. Its lawyers can place an order from the kitchen of the hotel for lunch.)

So, back then I drank drek. It was close, and it was an excuse not to continue doing what I was being paid to do. As coffee goes, it wasn’t bad, every bit the equal of a restaurant.

One day, the office manager bought or rented an amazing machine to replace the coffee station. You picked your own flavor of coffee from a rack. The coffee was in a little plastic “shot cup” which you put into a hole in the machine. The machine punched a hole in the top and bottom and shot hot water though it and into your cup. Not yet real live coffee, but very close.

I lived in Miami for most of the Eighties. Café Cubano. While in law school, I was a clerk (intern) at a small law firm downtown. As the newbie, one of my duties when getting off the train was to stop and get the stuff. Every block in downtown Miami has a storefront that sells it. All you have to do is hold up a finger and say “uno.” A real barista would do things with the machine and give you a Styrofoam cup that had espresso, sugar and infused milk in it, Café Cubano. With it you got a few plastic shot cups. Warning, unless your Mothers Milk came with sugar and caffeine, a little shot cup is all the caffeine you need for a four or five hour period. Drugs have their attractions, but they aren’t the equal of this wonderful way to start the day.

Big Tony, who I’ve mentioned in a previous post, is Cuban. Tony introduced me to homemade espresso. Not at all hard to do despite what you see on TV and see at Starbucks or Caribou. All it takes is a little pot metal thingy that has a water reservoir at the bottom and a tube running up from it to bubble over the grind above it. A baby percolator. Add some sugar and hot milk, or skip the milk, and you have a kick ass shot or two of espresso. One more very important element, use Bustelo coffee. It makes a big difference.

We aren’t to Alton Brown yet, nor to the pound of coffee. Patience.

When I left the fancy law firm, one of my vows was to cut down on the eight or ten cups of coffee that I drank each day. One of the few vows I’ve kept in my life. Here’s how I did it. There is no mechanism for making coffee in my office. But, modern existence does require a caffeine infusion shortly after waking up. Mine comes, don’t boo or hiss, by way of QuikTrip, a convenience store/gas station chain in the Southeast. A big cup of Columbian or French blend is about a dollar and it is as close to real coffee as you are going to get short of paying way too much at Starbucks or Caribou.

We are getting close to AB and the pound.

On the weekend, starting the day requires a paper, not online, newspaper and coffee. I used to supply the latter part with a Mr. Coffee; but, a few years back, I bought a coffee press and started buying real live coffee beans. What I buy varies. Colombian. French Roast. Mostly though, Millstone or Starbucks. Good but still not what should be.

OK. Here we start with Mr. Brown and the pound of coffee.

I TiVo Good Eats, Alton’s show on the Food Network. This last week he did a show on espresso. I won’t go into the whole thing; but, he, if you didn’t know, lives and films in Atlanta. He did a segment in the espresso show about buying the right beans at a place called Cool Beans in Marietta.

This morning, after reading the paper and drinking some Colombian coffee, I decided to check out Cool Beans. (Fermi, it’s just off the Square in Marietta.) Cool Beans is a smaller, funkier and better Starbucks or Caribou. It has about 25 or 30 types of beans for sale. I perused. Some were the typical Colombian, French Roast, Kona. I saw “Jamaican Blue Mountain.” I’d heard of Jamaican and Blue Mountain and decided to get a pound. The barista weighed it out as I pulled out a credit card. “That will be $39.00.”

I am not poor or a cheapskate; but, I’m not a spendthrift. I had in my subconscious head a number in the high teens. Think about this with me.

I couldn’t just say never mind. Some manly thing I guess. So I had this very nice blue bag of coffee that had hand written on it “Jam. Bl. Mtn.”

I came across Tony this afternoon and told him about my purchase. He suggested that the price might include a “happy ending.” My thought was that it had an ounce of grass nestled in the middle. We both agreed that it better be pretty good tomorrow morning.

Alton, well I’ll just wait till after the tasting.

OZ on NPR

I just finished listening to a montage of the songs from the Wizard of OZ on WABE, 90.1, in Atlanta. At moments, I was happy; but, I was left with annoyance. A bar, two or three of a song, and then a change, when I wanted to hear more. WABE calls the show "Light Classics."

My critical response, light or not, finish what you start.

Happy Easter

The picture shows last year's participants in a little known Augusta National tradition - the Easter Egg Hunt. As you can see, most of the participants are waiting for the signal to converge on the lighter green grass area (otherwise known as the 16th Green) where the eggs are placed. HAPPY EASTER!

The Most Beautiful Place On Earth

Well, probably not, unless you play golf or love the game:

http://www.masters.org/en_US/index.html

The link will take you to the main page of the Masters Tournament website. There you will see a live shot of Amen Corner, the 11th, 12th and 13th holes at Augusta National.

This time of year I wish that I were a ridiculously rich old guy (the noveau riche and any kind of woman need not apply) so that I could be a member, wear a green jacket and wander around this place. I wouldn't wear one of the floppy hats they favor though, they make me look too much like Gilligan.

Newly Recommended

I've been reading a blog for the past month or so, Letters I Wish I'd Written, by a Canadian who announced today that he is running for President of the United States. The campaign has legs given his stance on the Karmulastan issue.

See the Recommended sidebar. Check him out, some good stuff.

CORRECTION

RTWNews Service, in its short history, now several hours, has prided itself in its fair, balanced, accurate and complete reporting. Given this brief history, it has not had the chance to be accused of being unfair or unbalanced; but, RTW is deeply chagrined by charges, yes substantiated charges, that it has not been accurate and complete in its reporting.

RTW, like it parent company, ratherthanworking.blogspot.com, has readers that don’t post comments. RTW, in a past life, met some of these readers, and they continue to be acquaintances (given the necessity of objectivity, RTW cannot admit to friendship). These readers, by way of phone calls, and even in person, provide comments on RTW’s reporting efforts (eg. “Dude, you are way off on that one.).

Two readers, shortly after the publication of “On Pace,” set out below, with only brief thought, pointed out several problems with the article (yes, it’s an article, not just a lowly post, given RTW’s aspirations).

RTW is not authorized to divulge its readers’ exact identities; but, given the non-response of one and the “whatever” look of the other, it feels justified in identifying them as “Big Rick” and “Big Tony.”

Big Rick said, “Dude, Damon didn’t get traded, he was a free agent. Blah, blah, blah.” It turns out that BR is correct. Mr. Damon did indeed sign with the Yankees sans the predicate step of having been traded for Mr. Coco Crisp. It further turns out, that at a very contemporaneous time Mr. Crisp, who played not for the Yankees, but rather the Indians, was traded to the Red Sox in, and we stress “a multi-player deal,” exactly, almost, as reported by RTW.

Big Rick, in a fit of pique, went on to complain that RTW’s reporter was way too involved in this Internet thing and provided evidence for his conclusion – said reporter is way behind on his reading (which he trades with Big Rick) – hence, Big Rick finds himself lacking reading material more often than he would like, and to make matters worse, finds himself annoyed that all those books he has lent RTW’s reporter are just sitting on the floor, unread, next to the reporter’s couch. RTW intends to discuss this matter with its reporter.

Big Tony, who seldom reads RTW as it tends to stray past the one page limit of his patience, pointed out the same inaccuracy in the article and went on to note that RTW missed reporting a number of very important aspects of Renteria’s (remember him?) “on pace” start this year. Renteria is on pace to hit 486 RBI’s as well as tie, and subsequently win, 162 games by way of a homer. RTW upon reflection, feels these are important omissions on its part and vows to work harder in the future.

RTW has issued a written warning to its reporter, placing it in his permanent file. Its reporter again tried to reach Mr. Crisp for comment. Mr. Crisp is MIA, at least according to the reporter, and unavailable for comment.

On Pace

Atlanta, GA. RTWNews Service.

Atlanta Braves shortstop, Edgar Renteria, 6'1', 172 lbs., having hit two home runs in yesterday's opening day win over Philadelphia, is on pace to hit 362 dingers for the year, which would break the current record held by some guy who allegedly took performance enhancing drugs. The svelte infielder hit fourteen round trippers last season. His agent has said nothing about the obvious financial implications of this pace on Renteria's prospects going into his option year in 2009.

Boston Red Sox officials, who traded Renteria following the 2005 season to free up salary to sign the hard-hitting Johnny Damon, offered no comment on their outcast's amazing start. Damon, who was then traded to the Yankees (as part of a multiplayer deal including someone named Coco Crisp), only hit 24 home runs in the 2006 season and went 0 for 2 in New York's opener, said something about letting his hair grow to kick-start his lackluster start to this year's campaign.

Mr. Crisp, despite a diligent search of several grocery store cereal aisles, could not be reached for comment.

Copyright 2007, Ratherthanworking News Service.

"The President Would Be A Fool...."

Here's a blatantly copied post by thomaslb at Living Next Door To Alice (see Recommended sidebar). He's absolutely right; but, given that Bush is incapable of acting in a politically astute manner, Bush will ignore his advice.

"If you want to read for yourself the text of H.R. 1591, the bill that would tie emergency war funding to a phased troop withdrawal redeployment, you can find it HERE .It's amazing how non-specific it is. It gives the president $200 million dollars to give to Pakistan, Jordan, and anybody else he wants to. He has to report to congress who he gave it to, but other than that there are almost no strings attached. They just trust him to spend it responsibly.Here's the bit about troop redeployment:

(2) COMMENCEMENT OF PHASED REDEPLOYMENT FROM IRAQ- The President shall commence the phased redeployment of United States forces from Iraq not later than 120 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, with the goal of redeploying, by March 31, 2008, all United States combat forces from Iraq except for a limited number that are essential for the following purposes: (A) Protecting United States and coalition personnel and infrastructure. (B) Training and equipping Iraqi forces. (C) Conducting targeted counter-terrorism operations.

That gives Bush an awful lot of leeway. He could make the argument that "protecting infrastructure" is what they're doing already. It sounds to me like we're still going to kill anybody we want, and we're still going to have our hands on the oil spigots, and the puppet Iraqi government must still dance when we pull the stings. The president would be a fool to veto this. It gives him everything he wants. Again."

The Value Of A Public Forum

This will be the third post in a row on the same thing, but probably the last.

In reading the comments to my first post on David Hicks, I got to thinking that beyond the basic problems the “trial” presents with coercion, torture, due process and the like, the biggest damage the process is doing is reducing confidence in the justice system.

Ron Davison at RWorld.blogspot.com talks about the necessity for transparency in government. The need is especially great in the courtroom. Just where does that word, court come from? “Court is an English word known since 1175, from Old French curt, from Latin cohors (‘enclosed yard,’ and by extension, perhaps associated with curia ‘sovereign's assembly’, those assembled in the yard; company, cohort, from com- ‘together’ + stem hort- related to hortus ‘garden, plot of ground’.” Wikipedia. Courts are places where people gather, places for public discourse, pronouncements, government communication with citizens. When people are brought before the court, it is by nature a public process. As it evolved, a person was thought be entitled to due process in public. The king’s soldiers could come get you in the dead of night, but the king had to present his case against you in daylight in front of your peers. The transparent process created a public acceptance that the process, and the result, was fair.

Now the Hicks case, in and of itself, is neither a testament to or a cause for damnation of plea bargaining. Plea bargaining is a reality in any justice system. But, the Guantanamo process under which Hicks was tried is a perfect example of how not to administer justice so as to maintain confidence in the justice system. No one but the participants know who did what to whom.

Did the government torture or coerce Hicks? We don’t and probably won’t know because the issue could not be brought up in his defense. Is Hicks a depraved terrorist that the government somehow just slapped on the wrist? The process, or lack of process will never let us answer that question with any degree of certainty. The list of questions that will not be answered because of the non-public forum is long.

In a society that chooses its leaders, it is essential that the governed be able to make informed decisions about those leaders’ conduct. We have public meetings, records and courtrooms. When leaders act to raise a curtain in front of citizens, there is to my mind a rebuttable presumption that they are up to no good. Add the amazingly light sentence Hicks got to the presumption and I am left with conclusion that the government has something to hid. I have less trust, make that almost no trust, in the government. That isn’t a good thing.

The king in Guantanamo is picking up people in the dead of night, keeping them, and us in the dark, and emerging into the “light,” announcing that justice has been served – we just aren’t going to talk about it. Most of us aren’t overly concerned with Hicks or his fellow detainees. Maybe it’s overly dramatic, but I remember the old poster:

First they came for the Socialists, and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for me, and there was no one left
to speak up for me.

Publicity and due process do their parts to ensure that you and I aren’t left alone in the middle of the night to face the king’s soldiers.

Intelligent Search? Not Yet.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7704388615049492068 is an interesting hour and a quarter video on AI and search.

Worst - An Update

One of David Hicks' lawyers is quoted by The New York Times online regarding his client. “He says that if he is the worst of the worst, and the person who should be put before a military commission first, then the world really hasn’t got much to worry about.”

The Worst Of The Worst

Donald Rumsfeld described the prisoners at Guantanamo as the "worst of the worst."

The first of these worst to be tried, David Hicks, received the following:

Nine months of imprisonment in Australia. The maximum sentence he was facing was life.

He is barred from talking to the media for a year.

He was required to admit that prosecutors had sufficient evidence to convict him of the charges that were brought against him (not that he was guilty of the charges).

He had to recant his allegations that he had been tortured and he can't sue the government for mistreatment.

Finally, if he writes a book, proceeds go to the Australian government.

I practice law with a criminal defense lawyer. I recited what is set out above and asked him what he thought. "He was tortured and they don't want him talking about it." That seems about right to me.

The stupid part about this deal from the Administration's point of view is that he will be out on the street in February of next year and in June 2008 he is free to talk about his torture, just as the '08 election campaigns are heating up.

My New World

I’ve just completed a complete renovation of my communication and media life (except for getting an HD flat screen that I can't make myself buy because I have two perfectly good, but now obsolete, TV's).

Being the born negotiator that I am, I’m especially pleased to have upgraded most things with about a twenty percent reduction in cost.

The biggest cost reduction was getting rid of the home phone line that I haven’t made a call on in years. Its sole purpose was to make a nightly call to DirecTv to update the pay per view menu. As I never bought pay per view, I was wasting money.

I also found out that Bellsouth has been ripping me off for a few years now on my business phone service. Finding the right person to talk to reduced the monthly bill by about forty percent.

I plowed my savings into broadband wireless Internet, which it turns out is faster than my office DSL and of course is completely portable. A word of caution if you are considering wireless, make sure you get a G3 connection. It is what gets you the DSL like speed.

Since Bellsouth wouldn’t let me use its Email domain on Cingular without paying it for dial up every month, I got a business and personal domain for a ridiculously low yearly price and will dump the dial up in a couple of months when I’ve gotten everyone using the new addresses.

There is one thing left that I could get, but I vow I will never get, one of those Bluetooth ear buds. Looks dumb. And if I got one, I’d have to go out and buy a complete new black on black wardrobe or go hip hop, getting a pair of sunglasses to wear indoors with a chain or three. Then I’d have to change the blog – Rather Than Working by DMC, no that’s taken, DaveMC. Peace Out.

Our Arab Cousins

"In beloved Iraq, blood flows between brothers in the shadow of illegitimate foreign occupation and hateful sectarianism, threatening a civil war" said King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia to Arab leaders as reported in today's New York Times online.

The conference dealt mostly with a regional approach to Palestinian/Israeli issues. Maybe the quote is a throw away line; but, if Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region are ending their silence and non-involvement in Iraq, I think it is a good thing. If the Arabs are serious about us leaving, they as a practical matter have to step up to the regional plate. Maybe this is a signal of a first step.

The Greening Of Atlanta

This is not a post about recycling, energy efficient use of resources or anything of the kind.

This is a post about about pollen.

People flying into Atlanta for the first time often comment about the tree cover. Other than the business districts that stick up into the sky and the connecting expressways, from the air, Atlanta looks like mostly untouched forest. Under the trees there are a lot of us living here. But again, this post isn't about us; it's a post about what all those pesky trees do when their sap gets warm in the spring and they see the other cute trees all around them:

They throw out pollen. Pollen by the billions and billions of particles. The trees started their mating dance a week or ten days ago. They do it in order, by species.

From the Atlanta Allergy and Asthma Clinic's website:

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Today's Pollen Count: 3,905

This is the amount of pollen particles measured within the last 24 hours in a cubic

meter of air.

Major Pollens Present: Pine, Oak, Sweet Gum, Sycamore, and Birch

POLLEN COUNT
0-30 Low
31-60 Moderate
61-120 High
Over 120 Extremely High

The site then had a March calendar showing daily counts. The last two days they were over 5000. These readings will keep going for the next couple of weeks.

March Madness is big in Atlanta; but, I'm willing to bet that more people in Atlanta at this very moment are talking about pollen than are talking about Florida's chances this weekend.

Car washes here live for this time of year. There are lines at the full and self service places. A futile gesture it is, as a clean car in the morning is green by afternoon.

I used to have a car with teal paint. The green stuff blended right in. Now my car is black with a green sheen. Kind of like the old "candy coating" without the luster.

At least the trees are happy. All God's creatures should have their moments in the Sun. (Sorry about the lack of space between the paragraphs in the second half of this post. Blogger doesn't want them and doesn't pay attention when I hit Enter.)

I'm Wireless

This post comes to you courtesy of a wireless Internet connection. I am a happy cyber-camper.

Testing the connection showed that it is faster than my office DSL by about double on downloads and about the same speed on uploads.

As an aside for those who read my unhappy posts last month about DHL's incompetence, I should note that it delivered the wireless card this morning on time.

It's Time To Get A Domain Name

I started out with a Mindspring Internet account in the 90's. Earthlink bought Mindspring, but let me keep my Mindspring Email address. I had to dump Earthlink about five years ago because I needed high speed Internet at home at the time and Earthlink didn't offer it in my area.

I signed up with AT&T Broadband for cable TV and internet. AT&T promptly sold that division to Comcast, which wouldn't let me keep my Email address. So I switched to Bellsouth for internet and cell phone service, the latter division called Bellsouth Mobility. Then Bellsouth and SBC combined cell operations and called it Cingular. Bellsouth then sold itself, and its share of Cingular, to AT&T. A flow chart is available for those that need it.

I'm getting an express/air card for my new laptop on Monday (if DHL delivers it when they say they will) so I stopped by the Cingular store this morning to see what I had to do to set up a Cingular wireless account, cancel Bellsouth dial up and transfer my Bellsouth Email address to the new wireless account.

I discovered that the "New AT&T" is a confederation not a republic. Cingular won't do anything with my Bellsouth Internet account. Worse, Cingular says that Bellsouth won't let me transfer its Internet account to Cingular. The only way I can keep my Email address is to pay a monthly bribe to Bellsouth and then use the Bellsouth Email address on the Cingular wireless account. One account for the price of two, what a deal.

So, I think it's time to get off the ISP merry-go-round and get a domain name. Then when AT&T tells its Bellsouth customers, and I know it will, that they can't keep their Bellsouth Email addresses, I won't care, because I won't have one.

No Mr. Gates, I'm Not Guilty

I don't let Windows automatically download updates. I let Bill tell me he has something for me by displaying the little yellow shield. After a few days or weeks of annoying pop up dialogue boxes telling me again that there are updates available, I go to the "Update Center" where it is recommended that I let Microsoft automatically download whatever it has cooked up for me. I decline and choose "Custom."

A couple of weeks ago, Custom told me it had two "Critical Updates" for me. I usually download these. One had a vague description that didn't give me a clue as to what it was, nothing new there. The other had to do with a "security issue in blah, blah, blah." I said OK to both downloads.

When they were ready to install, the two updates were described again and the little box told me I would have to restart Windows after installation. The vague description had changed to "Windows Genuine Advantage Notification." There was a link to get "more details." Clicking it, I learned that Bill was going to put a little "camera" in my computer that would tell him if I installed bootleg Microsoft software. Nothing was said about what would happen then. Plague of locusts on my motherboard probably.

I cancelled the download, went back to the update center and downloaded and installed the blah, blah, blah update.

Now every other day or so, Bill tells me he still wants to put the camera in my computer. Balls that man has, brass balls.

This is really a great ploy. Everyone remembers the periodic pawnshop stings that every local police department runs. Set up a shop, buy the swag from the bad guys, record the transaction and then invite everyone to a party where they are arrested.

Microsoft doesn't make people come to it, it comes to them. It gets everyone, honest or not, to put a camera in their computer and then busts the bad guys with little muss or fuss.

I don't and won't buy counterfeit or bootleg software. But I'll be damned if I'm going to download an applet to give Microsoft even more information about me.

I'll Write You A Prescription For That

Minnesota has a law that requires drug companies to disclose payments they make to doctors.

From a NYTimes online article today about such payments, I offer you these tidbits:

From 1997 to 2005 drug companies paid in excess of 5,500 Minnesota doctors (20% of the doctors in Minnesota) more than $57 million. One of them a Dr. Grimm, was paid $798,000.00. He said the lectures he was paid to give were unbiased.

Some 250 Minnesota psychiatrists got $6.7 million.

A number of doctors said that lectures they were paid by drug companies to give to other doctors were "gentle marketing pitches." Former drug company sales reps said they hired doctors to make speeches to influence prescribing habits. "The vast majority of the time that we did any sort of paid relationship with a physician, they increased the use of our drug" said a former Bristol-Meyers-Squibb and Johnson & Johnson rep. "[I]t all comes down to ways to manipulate the doctors."

A 2004 government sponsored advisory panel recommended that more people should take cholesterol-lowering drugs. Eight of the nine members of the panel had financial ties to drug companies.

I don't think physicians purposely mis-prescribe because of drug company bribes. But I'm less sure about over-prescribing and prescribing a more expensive drug than I was before reading the article.

Living Up To The Blog's Title

When I logged into my Blogger account yesterday to publish a post, I noticed that it was my 99th. I then looked back to figure out how long I'd been doing this. Friday will be six months.

That's 16.66 posts a month and a post every 1.3 days. Those professional people have it easy.

I don't have anything significant to say on this important occasion, so I'm going to steal from a comment I left to a post on Ron Davison's site, http://rwrld.blogspot.com/. He did a post about bloggers not taking over the media world. I agree we won't. I said this:

I think bloggers are like softball league players. We've thought, read and written most of our lives. In school and then to make a living.

We've read the "home run" by a Sy Hersh in an article or in a novel by say, Thomas Russo. Can we write a home run? No, the Hershes and Russos nail it. But we enjoy the swing and take pride in a solid double.

Why softball and not Single A baseball? The latter is full of young'ns trying to make the Bigs. In the world of writing, they're working for a regional newspaper or at Fox or CNN, behind the cameras, waiting for the break through.

Though we think, read and write, we aren't trying to make it thinking, reading and writing. But we do like the occasional bow to the applause of the crowd, our fellow bloggers that read us. Same thing as a solid double on Sunday afternoon at the park in front of friends. Given the medium, the only thing we are missing is meeting for a beer at the neighborhood bar after the game.

So, today's softball game is over. Join me for a toast at the cyber-bar. Here's to you, those I read, who kindly read me. I'm looking forward to more of the same over the next six months.

Letters. I Get Letters.

My previous post gets the award for most responses. In addition to the six comments on the blog, I got three by Email and one in person. Only about forty people have read the post so far, so that's almost a 25% response rate.

I was struck by life hiker's comment. I think he rightly asserts that people don't need guns for two purposes that advocates promote, protection from rogue government and bad guys. He goes on to say that most gun related deaths are in the criminal on criminal and suicide categories. There's probably little sympathy for the "victims" in these categories.

There is a third category that I touched on in my post. Accidents and friend/relative confrontations. The three year old and domestic violence scenarios in the post. If guns weren't available the accidents don't happen. If guns aren't available domestic and friend violence will take fewer lives.

Banning guns and/or assigning civil liability for their wrongful use to manufacturers and owners will never fully deprive criminals of weapons. But over time it will reduce unneeded death. There is of course a trade-off among the remaining sympathetic victims. A homeowner will be shot by an intruder on occasion and a few three year olds will grow up that otherwise wouldn't.

Moving on, Eric and Ryan raise two other points.

Eric hunts and points out that it serves the purpose of culling herds of deer. He notes that he has thirteen rifles and shotguns (I don't know how many are too many, but you're bordering on it Eric). Maybe the way to deal with the issue is to greatly increase the level of proficiency and stability that needs to be demonstrated to get and keep a long-gun registered (something along the lines of getting a pilot's license) and provide a mechanism for the manufacturer/owner/user to pay the cost of the accident regardless of negligence (here, something along the lines of demand toll pricing for vehicles that is underway in Japan and being considered here). You have the right, but to exercise it, you must agree to pay the cost incurred by others. This mechanism would address Ryan's concerns and Tom seems willing to go along with it, though grudgingly.

That leaves Hedy and thomas. Hedy, you've had too much exposure to Chicago politics; but, seriously, my clarifications above might serve to sway you to full blown support for my views? Though, like my views, thomas's bullet control isn't going to fly, I like it. Simple, almost elegant.

Next surefire topic for the study group: bestiality - I'm agin it. I dare you to say I'm wrong.

Guns Again

I recently wrote a post about the Second Amendment and said that it did not allow people an unfettered right to have guns. At the end, I said that I’d do a post about why, regardless of what Law says, we should not let people have guns.

This is it.

First, some disclosure about my bias.

I grew up in a house with guns in it. All of them were long-guns. My father was a World War II vet. He had a rifle and a shotgun. When I turned about twelve he bought me a JC Higgins (Sears) .22 caliber rifle. All three of those guns are now in the custody of my youngest brother. As the eldest child, when my father died, the deal was, they were mine. In case my kid brother cares, I, hereby publicly, cede ownership to him.

When I was seven or eight, my father said “come over here David.” He had the rifle out and started to tell me about it before he taught me to clean it.

“Guns are made to kill. You only pick one up if you intend to kill something. All guns are loaded. I don’t care if you know it’s not loaded, it’s loaded. If you pick up a gun, until you are ready to shoot something, you never point it at anything. You point it down or up. Your finger is never on the trigger, until you are going to shoot something.”

I paid too much attention probably. Guns scare me. Literally. I think I have too much respect for what they are and can do to “things.”

All of the men in my family have guns. Most of my friends have guns. They collect them and shoot them on a regular basis. They talk about them, while I stare off into the middle distance.

Irony: I am a very good shot. Rifles, shotguns, handguns. Some years ago I went target shooting with a friend that was a state trooper. He lost, I won, the accuracy contest.

But, there is a difference, a big difference, between picking up a gun in a controlled environment, not pointing it at anything, until you decide to “kill” the target and pulling a gun deciding to kill someONE in a chaotic environment. My bet is that the best of us shots in the controlled environment will be utter failures in the chaotic environment, shooting the furniture, if we are lucky, and if not, someone that is innocent.

So there’s the bias.

As it stands, people die because people ­(not the military, the National Guard, police) have guns. If we take away guns from people, people will still die; but, I think less than die now, and over time, I think a lot less.

If we ban guns, in the short term, law-abiding people will turn in their guns (probably not all will, certainly not some of my friends). But, some kids won’t find the guns in the closet (tell me you never explored what was in those nooks and crannies when your parents weren’t around) and off themselves. A Columbine-type kid won’t have access to the weapon that kills the kids in his class because his law-abiding parents got rid of it. The dysfunctional family, otherwise law-abiding and having turned in their guns, won’t have them when events escalate. They’ll be left with fists and an odd knife or two. A bruise, a scar and a divorce. They and I can live with that.

“If we take away the our right to have guns, only the criminals will have guns.” Absolutely right – for a while. Over time, those criminals will have less and less access to guns. Think Britain and Japan. They have their problems, but firearm deaths are not high on the list.

If fewer normal people don’t have guns, fewer normal people will die. Short term and long term.

I haven’t asked a friend, a police officer in Atlanta, if he would prefer that citizens didn’t have guns. He’s one of my friends that collects them. Maybe he disagrees; but, I have a feeling that if you polled all of the police, using a secret ballot, you would find that they would rather not have to face their day knowing they may come across people with guns. They all would have the same stories of little old ladies that defended themselves with their late husband’s rusting Colt 45; but, they would have to, if pressed, tell you about their tears when they responded to the dead three year old that was just playing with something that was laying around the house.

OK. You don’t like my legislative agenda. How about this? Absolute liability.

You have the right to keep and bear a dangerous instrumentality. Let’s pass a law that says you will bear the economic consequences of that right. Starting with Colt and Glock. Ending with you the buyer. Oh, that bad guy burglar, he stole it and shot someone! Remember your slogan, “guns don’t kill people, people do.” He, a people, couldn’t have done it unless Colt manufactured it and you bought it. So why shouldn’t you, you’re a people, and Colt, a fictitious people (oh yeah, and its shareholders) get to pay the pain and suffering, reasonable value of the lost life, consortium, etc. of the little old lady or the three year old and their families? Sure, we’ll ding the bad guy shooter; but, what assets do you think he has? You and Colt, the enablers in this deal, jointly and severally liable, will just have to pick up the slack. What’s unfair about that?

OK. You don’t want to take the hit. Let’s take you out of the equation. Only Colt and Glock have to pay. How long do you think they will make guns, if they have to pay for every life that is taken by illegal use of one of their products? Let’s say they hang in there, NRA life members that their executives are. What price will they charge to pay for the economic consequences of their beliefs? Can you afford the real economic and social cost of your belief in the Second Amendment, as you interpret it? Gun manufacturers and owners are harming the rest of us, and getting a free ride. I think they should put up or shut up.

Newly Recommended

I've been reading Just A Girl In Short Shorts Talking About Whatever for the past month or so. According to Becky she is a "recovering attorney," a mother, a teacher, a libertarian, a neofeminist and some combination of bisexual, gay and straight. She's believable as all of those things. Whichever label she's donning for a post, she's a good writer.

The Next Step For The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Is To Go To Bubble Dialogue Over Cartoons

As some of you know, I live in Atlanta, Georgia. The home of the New South. The “city too busy to hate.” Martin Luther King, Jr. The financial center of the Southeast, unless you live in Charlotte, Orlando or Miami.

When I moved here there were two papers, The Atlanta Journal, as I remember was the afternoon paper, and The Atlanta Constitution, was the morning paper. They were, and are, owned by the Cox media conglomerate. Back then, they had different news and editorial staffs. Somewhere in the 90’s the papers hyphenated and began publishing only in the morning. The separate editorial staffs stayed on, and kind of stay on now. There are some knee-jerk liberals and their counterparts on the right.

What has always distinguished the local paper(s) has been its/their abiding mediocrity. They/it have always been pretty piss-poor when it comes to journalistic ability. The writers delve into news as far as the first point of resistance. On a regular basis they miss one of the “who, what, when, where, hows” in stories. There are exceptions to all of these criticisms of the paper; but, if you read The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune or one of several other papers on any kind of regular basis, you will notice the differences. I’m not talking about editorial point of view. I am talking about basic reportage. The “W’s” mentioned above. The AJC has never been very good.

But, it is the only game in town; so, I read the paper. My preference would be to hold the paper, be it while drinking coffee in the morning, or while eating lunch, or as a happy surprise when there’s nothing to read, before I hit the bed. Now, I read the AJC and the NYTimes online. Except on Sunday morning. Sometimes on Saturday. I hesitate to say it; but, civilization as I know it requires newsprint in your hand soon after you wake up on a weekend.

Though it has been coming on for awhile, the AJC has succumbed to joining the general dumbing down of America as a New Years resolution in 2007.

It started with the move of a fascinating daily feature called “Peach Buzz” from the second page of the “Living” section, the puff stuff, to the second page of the “Metro” section, which for the most part reports on local hard news. Peach Buzz reports on the comings and goings of Elton John (for those of you who don’t know, he has a two floor condo in a high rise here and is often sighted at local stores, he’s a really nice guy, spends a lot of money here and supports a lot of charities, as reported in the Buzz), who in the world of hip hop visited the currently trendy restaurant, bar or club (that has a publicist), you get the idea. The Buzz also tells us how old every celebrity in the United States is, starting with the oldest. I like that feature less and less each year as I age with the celebs. OK, that stuff is now hard news.

Last month, the AJC announced that it was cutting its newsroom staff by as much as sixteen percent by early retirement offers.

On Sunday, I read the final deathblow to print journalism in Atlanta. (As an aside, television news in Atlanta is and always has been abysmal. Radio news has pretty much one station, WSB, which is pretty much a local audio version of the old CNN Headline News before it hired Nancy Grace. No depth by format. As an aside rant to this aside, WSB has a morning reporter named Richard Sangster that has an annoying voice. He is relegated to breaking news. When he is introduced he invariably says “yeah [anchor name] the [cops, authorities, bad guys] are beside themselves on this one…yada, yada… Richard Sangster, WSB News, Live at yada, yada”).

OK, AJC. Sunday. The “Perspectives” section, which is the trendy name for the Editorial section.

“Free-trade effects: The good, the bad” is the title of the editorial. Those two words, good and bad, are important to remember because when you get done reading the editorial, beyond some disjointed factoids, I like that USA TODAY word, that’s all you are going to get. Some things are good others are bad. The editorial is like something done by a USA TODAY intern without supervision. Four charts and a picture of a car. An introductory paragraph and then four numbered sections with graphic arrows showing you which to read next (even though, remember, they are numbered). I quote from the first paragraph:

“President Bush wants to revive world trade talks – known as the Doha round – that were supposed to boost the economies of poor countries (good). The talks have stalled because the United States and Europe cling to protective farm policies at home (bad). Farm subsidies help:… A few large operators…Farm subsidies hurt:…Consumers[,] Taxpayers[,] Poor nations dependent on agriculture[.]”

There are more parentheticals with good and bad and other comments inside them. A few more facts, most without sources. NO analysis.

When I was in the fifth or sixth grade we had a unit in our English or Social Studies class on how to write and judge a news article or editorial. You were supposed to introduce your subject, lay out your facts and analysis and draw your conclusions. If the writer didn’t do that, you should discount what was written. If you were the offending author, you got a failing grade. To my mind the AJC gets a failing grade.

If the AJC doesn’t want to immediately go the way of the title of this post with bubbles and cartoons, it might want to take an interim step and use a :) rather than going to all of the trouble of typing the word good and a :( rather than typing bad in its editorials. That might increase its “readership.”

I Have A Problem With Labels. Thesis, Analysis And Conclusion To Follow.

My friends sometimes refer to me as a liberalcommiepinko. You have to say it fast, hence, no spaces. Beyond the problem that the three words mean different things, none of them, or all of them put together, describe me.

Those three words, or any other combination of words don’t describe you either.

Here’s the problem. Our senses take in too much. We have to pare down what is before our eyes, ears, nose and skin. To do that we filter. Scientists call it perception.

There’s danger ahead. Hair rises on the body. Nostrils flair. Muscles twitch. All these reactions are necessary to survival of people and lesser animals. Humans take it a step or a hundred farther.

Since I’m not qualified to describe the steps, I’ll skip to the result. We label. Threats, attractions, wants, desires. Biology becomes social prejudice. Yes, the same process allows us to think, talk, read. But as we do this we label what we perceive.

I’m a social liberal, unless being so costs more than “we,” the Country, the Americas, the world, can afford. So, does that make me a fiscal conservative? Not unless being one takes care of spending enough, public and/or private money to take care of the truly needy. So, I can’t be a libertarian because I want us all to put something in the pot beyond the minimum necessary to build roads, hire a few cops and defend our borders?

Liberal, conservative, libertarian, socialist, communist, fascist. All six words are, words. We can add more. Baptist, Southern Baptist, Catholic, Eastern Orthodox Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Buddhist, Moslem. Adjectives all, to describe, what?

Some more. Black, white, yellow. Caucasian, Asian. Nigger, Chink, Wop. Asshole.

Somewhere between necessary perception and resultant labeling, we took a step or two too far.

Ban adjectives.

Proposed new rule. If we don’t like something, we use full sentences, and paragraphs if necessary, to lay out the thesis, analysis and conclusion. No labeling short-cuts. Following this rule might mean that mid-process, we realize that the something isn’t something we have a reason to dislike and then label.

Second Amendment Update

The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled yesterday that the Second Amendment did protect a citizen's right to personally keep and bear arms. In doing so it struck down a very restrictive DC gun law. You can access the NYTimes online story here Court Rejects Strict Gun Law as Unconstitutional

This makes the second Circuit Court, out of twelve to take this view of the Second Amendment. One circuit has not ruled on the issue.

If you're interested in my views on which side of the issue is right, scroll down to my post on February 22.

For those that like Red/Blue State analysis. Gun toters need to move to DC, or the Fifth Circuit, the other Appeals Court that says individuals can bear arms - Texas, Louisiana or Mississippi. The Circuit that hasn't weighed in yet is the Second - New York, Connecticut and Vermont. Some liberal/conservative schizophrenia going on if you think federal courts are political animals.

Iowa Isn't Flat

Driving from Up North in Michigan to Nebraska, Iowa is almost there. It’s the last state to go, but for the last state. Michigan of course, Indiana, the little bit of it, Illinois, and then Iowa.

This is it, your mind is thinking, it's the fourth of five states.

Leaving Illinois, as you drive along I-80, there are long rolling hills. As you pass over a rise, there’s a milo field on your left and a cornfield on your right. Move up onto the next rise, and you see corn on your left and milo on your right. Repeat as necessary.

I’ve seen Iowa during the day, but I remember it at night. Iowa at night has a lot of sky. A million miles of sky. Stars provide your light. On some trips, the moon helps out.

Radio comes in and out. Some clear channel station out of Omaha. But, the music isn’t right, so you tune. Then it fades and you tune.

Truck stops are visible miles and miles before you get to them. Towards the end of the trip, almost a mirage sort of glow off on the horizon, were there a horizon. Then you’re through the glow and past it. Stars and moon reclaim the sky.

You’ve been driving for a lot of hours when you cross the river into Nebraska. Fatigue fades and you look for landmarks through Omaha and the short hop to Lincoln before you turn north for the last twenty miles or so.

That was then, on trips to college. Now I fly where I go. I miss those trips.

I was using Google to get information about a Veterinarian and clicked on a website for a practice in South Carolina. Midway through a listing of services such as puppy kindergarten, I found "Ferret Medicine and Surgery." Note that there are actually two specialties here, medicine and the subcategory, surgery.

"The scientific name of the animal is: Mustela putorius furo; this is a member of the weasel family: polecats, minks, skunks, ermine, etc. The animal was domesticated before the cat, probably by the Egyptians. The animals were brought over [to the US] 300 years ago on ships. They are very skilled at killing rodents."

The guy in the small picture is a weasel and the guy in the big picture is a ferret, according to my Internet sources. They look awfully similar to me. Does the vet that specializes in ferrets refer sick weasels down the road to his weasel specializing colleague?

In the old Budweiser commercial, two iguanas, Louie and Frank, hired the ferret to kill the frogs in a pond. The ferret dropped the Budweiser sign into the pond, apparently electrocuting the frogs. But the frogs weren't in the pond, and one of the iguanas had the classic line, "never send a ferret to do a weasel's job." From extensive Internet research, quoted above, I know that the Budweiser ferret really is a weasel.

Did the ad writers know?

They obviously hadn't read the quote above or they'd have known the ferret was doomed to failure as it specialized in offing mice and rats (and later raising Louie's ire by being a chick magnet).

Again from the Internet: "[t]here are a wide variety of frog predators. Animals that eat frogs for snacks include snakes, lizards, birds, and various small animals like hedgehogs."

Whoa! Lizards? "An iguana lizard is a popular family reptile.... These creatures are not recommended to keep as pets, because they are not friendly and prefer to hide rather than being handled and petted. They are not attached to humans and are often aggressive. Adults grow up to 7 feet in length."

Two, as large as seven foot, lizards, mortal enemies of frogs, send a wimpy little ferret/weasel, who they should have known couldn't do in a couple of what, six or seven inch frogs? Send a weasel indeed!

This just goes to show you that the Vet in South Carolina is right - pick one thing, like ferret medicine and surgery (ok, two things) research them well (like I did) and do them well. Otherwise, you'll make all kinds of mistakes, create a series of totally unbelievable ads and be left with only one positive result - you've sold hundreds of millions of bottles of a fairly pedestrian beer making billions in the process.

Breaking News

Swiss Accidentally Invade Liechtenstein is a headline in today's New York Times online.

I have this strange picture in my head of a Mack Sennett inspired movie, directed by Mel Brooks, with elements of William Tell, and The Mouse That Roared, starring Buster Keaton, Curly (the original), Richard Dreyfuss and Richard Pryor in a cameo appearance as an American con man on the lam, hiding out along the border as the invasion gets underway.