No Toots If You're Toting

RTW New Service. Atlanta.

Beginning this summer, servers in Georgia restaurants will question patrons ordering drinks.

"Very good Sir, Bombay martini, olive, very dry. And, may I ask Sir, are you packing?"

"Why yes, a Glock nine mil. Oh yes, I forgot, I'll just run it out to the car. Could I have extra olives?"

"Yes Sir, I'll have your cocktail to you before you're back."

Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue just signed a bill allowing people with carry permits to bring their weapons into restaurants and state and local parks and onto MARTA buses and trains. The "tradeoff" is they can't drink there if they're armed. They can re-arm at their car after they get loaded inside.

Restaurant owners, small animals and MARTA drivers are "up in arms," with the latter demanding bullet proof shields. A spokes-animal had not been heard from at the time of publication.

Inexplicably, gun owners cannot bring their weapons into the work place, dry or wet, they must leave them in their car in the parking lot. The USPS exception we surmise.

Update on Political Racism

The other day I did a post about how racism might impact this year’s presidential election.

I posited that the racial bias would come from the political parties, though disavowed by the bigwigs and the candidate.

I forgot about the actual people that are racists.

As it turns out, the there’s a bar in Metro Atlanta whose owner says he’s not a racist. You be the judge. He’s selling tee shirts that have “Obama 2008” on the front over a picture of Curious George, the children’s book character from the fifties or sixties. George is eating a banana.

Mike Norman, the owner of Mulligans in Marietta, Georgia said “those offended are ‘hunting for a reason to be mad’ and insisted he is ‘not a racist.’ Norman said he sees nothing wrong with depicting Obama as Curious George. ‘Look at him . . . the hairline, the ears, he looks just like Curious George,’ Norman said…. He said he views it as just coincidence that the character on the T-shirt is a monkey.” AJC.com.

Dimensions

4 x 3. 16:9. Stretch. Zoom 1. Zoom 2. I’ve even got one that says “fit screen.”

I have a 40” screen now. Why does nothing recorded on DVD fit the screen? Why does it waste two inches at the top and two inches at the bottom (or more sometimes)? Those are expensive inches.

In case you’re wondering, I just started “Gone Baby Gone.” So far so good, but back in the old days of only a 4 x 3 aspect ratio, I didn’t know what was outside the box. Now that I’ve got a bigger box, I want it filled.

Race and Politics in 2008

Would Obama be a less appealing candidate if he looked like 50 Cent

and talked (style not substance) like Al Sharpton?

Would Obama, saying and doing exactly the same things, be more acceptable if he was a white male?

I think the answer to these questions, put to “White America,” is yes. Therein lies what will be a major and mostly unspoken challenge to Obama’s general election campaign. He’s black, and that still matters to a lot of people. Those people "see" and "hear" 50 Cent and Al Sharpton when they think about black people.

Obama has to overcome White America’s aversion to people like Al Sharpton, Jessie Jackson, Louis Farrahkan and the multitudes of rap and hip hop artists. (This is a generational issue for the most part. Under thirty White America isn’t really White America anymore.)

Young voters aside, race will matter to more people than will admit to its importance to them. An April AP/Yahoo poll found 8% of white voters uncomfortable voting for a black person.

And the campaigns know it. Hence, Bill Clinton’s comparison of Obama to Jackson. Descriptions of Obama as “articulate” (as opposed to?). North Carolina Republicans' Obama/Wright attack ad and McCain’s tepid request that they not run it.

“'Americans want a respectful campaign. Do we have to go to the lowest common denominator? I don’t think so.’ But McCain told reporters [in North Carolina] that he may not be able to micromanage the situation here. ‘I cannot in my role dictate to the North Carolina Republican Party what their message is but I can condemn it.’” The Candidate takes the “high road” and the operatives sling mud. We won’t see any prominent Republicans engaging in racial politics; but, we will see mailings, state and regional advertising, soft money spending, all toying with race, all quickly, and not so quickly, “condemned” by John McCain.

I wonder if it will work?

Think Some Good Thoughts...

for someone who would not want to be mentioned. Don't know if it will help; but, it surely can't hurt.

What Do You Use?

I just did a Google search for the term “search engine” and was amazed at the results. There were no paid results. Number one? Alta Vista. Then, in order, Dogpile, a Wikipedia article about search engines, Ask.com, Yahoo, and then a bunch of garbage. No Google or MSN on the first page.

An Associated Press article on AJC.com reported that Bill Gates said that Microsoft is going to go its own way after walking away from a deal to buy Yahoo. The article says that Google has 58%, Yahoo 22%, and Microsoft 10% of the business.

What’s up with the famous algorithm?

I haven’t used anything but Google for years now. It for the most part works; and, works giving me what I want within the first five or so results.

I have noticed that it skews to blogspot. Using Sitemeter.com and Google Webmaster Tools, I see that I get weird hits that are obviously not responsive to what the searcher was really looking for. For some odd reason, last week a lot of people in other countries were typing “rather than” into Google and getting me as the third result. I’m high on the results of searches for “buying beer” “on Sunday” and “in Georgia.” I still get a lot of hits from a search for “Federal Judge Song” for a post I did soon after I started the blog that linked to the actual song on another site. Why does Google send people to me to send them to the source? I’m number five on a search for “eldridge cleaver” whom I’ve mentioned twice. I’m number seventeen for “ijaza” which I talked about in a post.

But, I still use Google, often many times a day. What do you use? Does Microsoft have a chance? I’m going to go to Alta Vista and search now, then try Dogpile.

President Obama?

A very small part of me wanted Hillary Clinton to get the nomination. What?

If she were the nominee, it would simplify my decision. I could never vote for her, so I'd be left with deciding between McCain and whoever runs as a Libertarian, probably the latter.

Now I have to look at what I like about Obama and what I fear.

Likes:

1. He will get us out of Iraq "sooner," though not fast enough.

2. He won't have people like Cheney and Gonzales around him.

3. He won't blatantly violate the protections afforded us by of the Bill of Rights.

4. He may appoint two or three Supreme Court justices so as to move the Court back to the middle.

5. He'll probably close Guantanamo and make the Justice Department try the detainees in Federal Court, or let them go.

6. With Congress, he might devise a rational immigration policy.

7. I won't cringe when I hear him talk as I do when I hear Bush talk.

Fears:

1. He'll try to spend us further down the road to national bankruptcy.

2. He'll try to tax the country into "economic and social health."

3. He'll try to make the country an economic isolationist and a social globalist.

4. He'll try to move the regulatory pendulum too far.

5. It will turn out that he really is a smooth-talking lightweight.

What will really happen? Of course, I don't know. But all of my "likes" items, except the fifth, can be done without Congress. That's good. The first two of the "fears" items, require the cooperation of Congress. That's good.

I guess I have to ponder that fifth fear.

One Thing At A Time

I read an article yesterday about cell phones in the classroom. The writer bemoaned that they were a given, calls and text messages sent and received. So what to do, what to do?

My response? Shut the phone off or get out of here.

I’m always put off when people interrupt or ignore. You’ve been there. A conversation is in progress. A person in the group, or a person walking up, starts talking about whatever they find to be compelling, not what was being discussed.

Polite people stop talking when interrupted and the conversation is lost.

You are talking to someone on the phone, or, you’re talking to someone in person, and their phone rings. They stop talking to you, answer the phone, not saying “I’ll call you back,” rather, completing that transaction, then getting back to you.

Someone walks up to you while you’re talking to someone else and you say “hang on a bit till I’m finished here;” and, you get a look that says you are odd.

I’m probably a throwback, my friends say I am. I don’t always answer my phone, even when I’m not involved in “something.” I turn my phone off when I get home and often forget to turn it on till mid-morning.

I don’t always answer my business phone, rather I wait until I’m done doing what I’m doing and then listen to the voicemail and return the call.

“Multi-tasking,” a recent word and concept, is not a good idea. One thing at a time, gets more done, quicker, and more importantly, better.

Yahoo's Yang: No Doesn't Always Mean No. Please?

The Microsoft/Yahoo deal isn’t over. The founder of Yahoo (what the hell is he doing negotiating a multi-billion dollar deal) seemed like a defeated small time negotiator in a session with Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer this weekend, in an interview reported today.

“’They chose to walk away after we put a price on the table, and they didn’t want to negotiate,’ Mr. Yang said.” NYTimes.com.

“Doggone them. I’d have eventually come down. I’ll still come down. Steve?” RTW News Service.

Walking the Walk, Second Try

Over the weekend, I did a post that I intended to be directed to the failings of lawyers. I didn’t quite get there, as my example was too prominent in it. You can read it here. Read the comments, especially Dilf’s and my response.

Here’s what I wanted to say in the post, which may not interest you, as it’s really a narrow, “professional” thing:

I’ve been a lawyer for now almost twenty-one years. To be a lawyer, you have to have a license. To get a license, you have to graduate from an accredited law school, and pass the bar exam and the background check. You then become a member of the “Bar.” I have a nice little laminated card that I’ve used exactly once, to avoid the line for the magnetometer in a municipal court, something you can’t do since 2001.

To misuse a legal phrase, quid pro quo, something for something, requires a return of some quo for the quid we have.

As lawyers, we see ourselves as privileged. There’s an unspoken noblesse oblige’ thing going on. Maybe it’s broader, a matter of “professionalism.” Here’s an online definition of the word that I kind of like:

“An occupation, the practice of which directly influences human well-being and requires mastery of a complex body of knowledge and specialized skills, requiring both formal education and practical experience.”

Whatever the genesis, lawyers have a tradition of giving back. No boos now. Almost all lawyers that I’ve known over the years do free legal work – pro bono – for the good. But not always, and too often, we leave it to “the system.”

I’m as guilty as my brethren. I do pro bono, not criminal, usually helping someone with a problem that economically doesn’t justify hiring a lawyer or helping someone that flat can’t afford to hire and pay a lawyer. I give money to the legal aid folks. But I don’t go out and find people that need help.

Then someone like Gary Hilton comes along. The poster child, albeit of the “Chucky” variety, for the need for lawyers to live up to their obligation as lawyers. To return to the example of the weekend’s post, there shouldn’t be a need for a law that requires the State to provide him a lawyer when he needs one. We, the lawyers should step in. We didn’t and that’s a failure.

Walking the Walk

Late last year or early this year, a man named Gary Hilton gruesomely raped, tortured and killed a woman in the North Georgia mountains.

Fairly quickly, he got arrested. In exchange for a life sentence, he confessed and led the police to where he’d left the woman’s body.

He currently lives in Jackson, Butts County, Georgia, in a not pleasant prison.

As it turns out, he’s suspected of murdering an elderly couple in North Carolina, and was recently charged with murdering a woman in Florida. Florida sought to extradite him. He’s fighting it. Though I’m a lawyer, I know nothing about criminal law other than to refer people to a criminal defense lawyer that I practice with. That said, I was surprised to learn that the current state of the law in Georgia does not afford a person facing extradition on criminal charges a lawyer, as the extradition proceeding is a “civil matter.”

So, a couple of days ago, after having filed a handwritten petition opposing extradition, Hilton faced a trial judge without a lawyer. He argued that he should have a right to a lawyer because, since extradition would result in a criminal proceeding, the extradition process itself should be considered a criminal matter, which under the Sixth Amendment requires that he be given a lawyer. Made some sense to me.

“State Bar of Georgia, lawyers, dedicated to the promise of justice for all.” That’s how a Bar TV ad ends. I’m not a fan of lawyers, as a group, getting involved with politics. I think it’s especially silly to have feel-good concept PSA’s to improve our “image.”

For the purpose of this post, I’ll assume that the judge that ruled that Gary Hilton did not have a right to a lawyer for his extradition hearing this week correctly applied current Georgia law. A criminal defense lawyer might have been able to better make Hilton’s argument and failing, provided a record for an appeal that might change the law. But Hilton didn’t have a lawyer. Where were we, the Georgia lawyers “dedicated to the promise of justice for all?” He’s a fairly detestable guy; and, a lawyer volunteering to represent him would be taking on a thankless task. But, if we mean what we say in the TV ads where we “talk the talk,” one of us should have been in Butts County next to Mr. Hilton, nauseating as he is.

"Are You Now...

“…or have you ever been a member of…”

That’s how the famous question posed by Eugene McCarthy starts. He was ferreting out Communists in the early Fifties.

Our current national obsession with all things primary got me to thinking. I don’t know, and I don’t think I’ve ever known, a single actual member of the Democratic or Republican parties (beyond a few actual candidates that I’ve met). I’ve voted for Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians and Independents. Most of my friends skew to the Republican side of things, but they aren’t Republicans. Many of you who read me skew to the Democratic side; but, are you actually members of the Democratic Party?

Here in Georgia you just register to vote, you don’t declare a party membership; though, in the primaries, you do have to make a choice as to which primary you want to vote in. In other states that make you declare a party when you register, are the voters really members of their declared party? I’m thinking they aren’t, for the most part, though a twenty minute Google search isn’t giving me any hard numbers.

So what’s my point? We, the practically independent electorate of the United States, get what they, the Dems and the GOP, give us. Two relatively small groups of people control the process that produces our state and federal governments. And that process leads to division as the candidates “play to their base.”

At a local level, people actually participate in government. Town councils, county commissions, school boards. In most places, the candidates, while nominally party members, are elected or defeated, based on their performance, or promise of performance. “Sue’s done a good job.” But to reach that next step, Sue has to declare and hew to the party line. If she just has good ideas and a strong work ethic, she’ll go nowhere at a state or federal level. She has to put time and effort into pleasing one of the two groups, time and effort that has no productive result.

I don’t have a solution to what I’ve laid out as a problem. The days of the town meeting are gone. Our leaders aren’t really accountable to us. They spend their time insuring their position in their party so as to be their party’s choice in the next election cycle. Then they mouth the platitudes they’ve calculated will trigger our votes, and start the process over again.

The End of the World as We Know It

Warren Buffett’s company, Berkshire Hathaway, had $1.6 billion in pre-tax losses in the first quarter of this year, related to derivatives, what ever those are. Net income per share fell from $1,682 to $607.

If the financial guru of the past thirty or so year's income is down some sixty percent, times are a bit bad.

From the article: “In Friday trading, Berkshire's Class A shares fell $300 to $133,600, while its Class B shares fell $12 to $4,448.”

I’m not sure if the title of the post is serious or sarcasm. If I had ten class A shares as my worldly worth, I don’t suppose I’d be too worried.

Here's A New Pitch

I just powered up the Dell laptop. I got a popup, not identified as from Dell, that told me that my battery may be “nearing the end of its useful life.” It gave me the handy option to click a button and buy another battery. Now I'm wishing I'd clicked it and confirmed that Dell had planted a little ad in the software, rather than clicking "don't show me this [garbage] again."

The computer is just over a year old. I’ve used the battery, rather than the power cable, maybe ten times.

Just how stupid does Dell think I am?

The Last Time I Did This...

…my post was referenced in a review of the blog, not very complimentary. The reviewing blog is something with the phrase “we’re rude get over it” in the title, which I can’t find using Google. (Interesting, as if you type ratherthanworking or rather than working into Google, I’m the first result. No iteration of we’re rude… got me anywhere. If I could find it, I’d give you the link.) I’m not sure why it reviewed me, though it did. I got a less than positive review. Some of the criticism: no color other than the shirt in the photo; they wanted to know if “Recommended” in the sidebar came with a guarantee; they didn’t like that I wrote about politics. It went on. They especially didn’t like my titles, one of which was “I Just Watched a Movie.”

Well, I watched a movie last night. It might not appeal to all of you, or most of you. It will be panned by Rick, were he to ever watch it. But, it is really well done. It chronicles the Sixties, starting with the “age of innocence,” moving to the “age of Aquarius,” Then it moves to the age of outrage against the war, that other, former, war. All amplified and illuminated by the songs of the Beatles.

It’s called Across The Universe. It doesn’t “star” anyone. The actors are all, to me, unknowns, twenty somethings who are great singers. Of all things, it’s a musical. The fourth one I’ve liked in my lifetime. One was Oliver. Another was Hairspray. Then there was Rocky Horror Picture Show.

It has levels and levels of references to the era. Homage to everything and everyone. There’s a Jimi Hendrix/Billy Preston character. There’s a Janice Joplin. There’s a young Yoko (Prudence in the movie). It ends with the rooftop scene of the Beatles’ last concert. (Hey) Jude and Lucy (In the Sky With Diamonds) get back together. Some is contrived, some is inspired. There's a cameo by Joe Cocker singing Coming Together.

For those that didn’t live the Sixties, or lived it as a prepubescent, the references won’t mean much, though I’d still recommend it as a piece of emotional history. It captures what kids and young adults were thinking and feeling back then. All the stratas of society, bound together by a decade of change.

Or, if you just like the Beatles, listen to the music, remixed and rearranged, and well done. Four out of five stars for me. Here’s what imdb.com has to say: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0445922/

Here's what the New York Times has to say: http://movies.nytimes.com/2007/09/14/movies/14univ.html

Five More Cuts...

…till you get money for free, with a ¼% bonus for your trouble:

Fed Cuts Rate To 2%

It's Bush's secret plan to bring the Chinese, Saudi's, etc. to their economic knees.

Clinton's Green Mile

Clinton's newest attack on Obama is that he "can't close the deal" as evidenced by his loss in Pennsylvania.

That probably depends on what you're counting. Obama has won the popular vote in 26 of 43 primaries. He's ahead by 500K or 600K in the overall popular vote, depending on how you count it. He has 1489 delegates to Clinton's 1,333. Using popular vote, he's won 26 states to Clinton's 17 (including FL and MI). Using delegate count rather than popular vote to determine a primary winner he has 29 primary wins to Clinton's 13 (2 ties). From Clinton's "big" win in Pennsylvania she picked up 10 net delegates (83 to 73). Using delegate wins in big (CA, Il, NY, OH, PA and TX) versus small states as a predictor of electoral votes he won 2 of the 6 big states to date and 28 of the 37 small states to date.

I can't find any statistics for it; but, Obama, by all reports, does much better with independent voters than Clinton does.

If the Democrats used the same delegate system as the Republicans do, like McCain, Obama would already have the nomination locked up.

Clinton is a "dead [wo]man walking" for the next month or so. The deal is closed, the paperwork just hasn't been signed yet.

(Statistics are from RealClearPolitics.com.)

Old Men Are Often Stupid

Read this article from Slate.com. Then go to the link in the article to the list of Senators, including John McCain and both Georgia Senators, that voted against cloture on a bill that would extend the statute of limitations for sexual discrimination in the workplace beyond the current six months after the first act of alleged discrimination. And read their explanations. It’s 2008 and women have to put up with this shit.

I’d write more, but I’d get more angry and the article says what I’d say better.

Are You Jealous?

My friend the cop gave me tickets to Santana tonight. Chastain is an amphitheatre here in Atlanta. We even get to park in VIP as my friend will wave us in. I'm told there is a really good blues band opening.

Once the Braves lose to the Mets, I'm going to warm up with a CD or two.

Sorry you're working Rick

Excessive Consumption By Design and For Convenience

I read this piece by David Pogue, a technology writer for The New York Times. In it he notes that 25% of the electricity used by appliances, computers, TV, etc. is used while they are "off." His solution is to connect them through power strips so that one flick will turn off a brace of wattage guzzlers.

Reading that, I pictured my living room as it is right now. The following items are using electricity though the components are all turned off: TV, satellite receiver, home theater, router (it has no off switch) and two powered computer external speakers (no switch). In the kitchen/bath/utility rooms: refrigerator, microwave (so as to power the clock which is usually blinking "12:00"), water heater, alarm and two clocks.

In my office, I power down the computer and scanner when I leave; but, the phone still uses electricity to power the display and the printer has no off switch.

There's nothing I can do about some of the consumption; but, I can use the power strips in the office and my living room at home. We'll see how long my resolve lasts.

When Do You Quit On Someone?

Obama is getting flack for not calling out his pastor for his comments over the years.

Clinton stood by Bill during the Lewinsky imbroglio.

McCain thinks that the President is just fine, despite his Iraq adventure, his siege against fundamental rights and ineffective management of just about everything else.

When I thought of this post idea, I intended to say something about how Obama is right for staying at his church despite Wright’s intemperate statements.

Then I got thinking, if someone is wrong and you are a public person, don’t you have an obligation to say something, publicly, or suffer being tarred by the person’s conduct?

I think that Obama gets a negative chit for not having said something years ago about Wright. But the same thing goes for Clinton and McCain.

I think we have to judge them by their associations and positions. I’m not too upset with Obama about Wright, who’s not an important person. I’m more upset with Clinton’s “stand by your man” stance with Bill. I’m incensed by McCain’s pandering to what he seems to see as the Republican base, what blogs and the media call “neocons,” though I hate that word.

Interestingly, I think Obama believes what he says about Wright. I don’t believe a word of what Clinton said about Bill and Monica back in the nineties; and, I don’t think that McCain really agrees with how Bush has mismanaged his presidency. And that tells me something about all three.

Second There Was Wikipedia

If you want to know what the title means, go here:

http://britannicanet.com/?p=28

They're All Bastards

Read this article, or even a few pages of it and the assume that the article is only say one-third accurate.

Given my background, gross negligence comes to mind to describe the media. Malicious disregard for the the truth fits the "analysts." The government, well whatever disdain you had for the Bush administration and the Pentagon, quadrupole it. Here it is:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/washington/20generals.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp

Bastards doesn't quite do my opinion justice.

The Competition For Endorsements Heats Up

“'We don’t mind–actually we like Mr. Obama. We hope he will (win) the election and I do believe he is like John Kennedy, great man with great principle, and he has a vision to change America to make it in a position to lead the world community but not with domination and arrogance,' [Ahmed] Yousef said in response to a question about [Hamas] willingness to meet with either of the Democratic presidential candidates." FOXNews.com.

Senator Clinton's campaign released the following statement:

"Hamas is a Johnny-come-lately to the ranks of terrorist organizations. Campaign staffers are in intensive talks with high level Taliban 'Super-Mullahs' as we speak. An expected endorsement by the group has been delayed as the leaders ponder whether the Hamas popular bandwagon should be joined. We are confident that they will withstand the temptation of following the whims of rank and file terrorists, and exercise the judgment that led to their elevation to positions of influence within the world wide terrorist community." RTW News Service.

Senator McCain's campaign had no comment on these developments or on recent reports that the campaign planned to woo Al Quada once Osama bin Laden is located. RTW News Service.

Ladies' Lunch

I ate lunch yesterday at a Cracker Barrel, a faux country chain that puts its restaurants at Interstate interchanges around the south. If you haven’t been there, don’t go except for breakfast, which is pretty good. The other food is generic and bland.

I was seated across an aisle from two ladies who looked to be in their sixties. They were discussing a wide range of topics. I’ll stick with one.

Within that topic, I was struck by two things.

First, the source for almost every topic was “they said….” “They” had a lot of information.

I’ve found myself citing the same source in conversation, not too much given my legal background, but, some. “They” are better when accompanied by the grade school “who, what, when, where, why.”

Second, they (the ladies) sounded more like guys than women. The conversation was a staccato recitation of facts and opinions, mostly unrelated to each other. The kind of things guys throw at each other as non-sequitors.

They were equal opportunity dislikers. They didn’t like Bush’s Iraq adventure – “that’s his daddy’s war, I don’t care what anyone says.” They didn’t think Obama is honest – “I don’t trust him.” And “she’s no better.” “No she’s not.”

In Gwinnett County, Georgia, none of the candidates are safe if my aisle-mates are typical. Though, I don’t know that I trust their sources.

This Headline Made Me Smile

Iraq Cracks Down on Seat Belt Scofflaws

I haven't read the article and I'm not going to. In the midst of the strife over there, it's just good to know that traffic cops are doing their job.

The High Cost Of Food

There's been a deluge of news pieces about the rising price of food lately. The other day I saw an article about the national pizza chains' woes due to huge increases in the cost of cheese and flour. Then I saw a piece about how a drought in Australia was causing riots in Asia because there was less Australian rice to go around.

On the home front, fuel costs and ethanol subsidies are reducing the supply of wheat and corn for food production, increasing the price of foods that include those crops.

I'm not an economist; but, some brief internet research surfing led me to two federal programs that are idiotic in the face of the rising prices.

Back in the nineties, the Republican Revolution in Congress "reformed" the federal farm subsidy program. Instead of price supports, they transitioned to a "free market" program (with a seven year duration - you know how that turned out) that would pay farmers a base subsidy and allow them to do whatever they thought best with their land, as long as they didn't develop it. Texas had about 600,000 acres planted in rice at some point prior to the change. Texas now has something just north of 200,000 acres planted in rice. What happened to the rest? Landowners realized that they could make more money by kicking the tenant rice farmers off their land and grazing cattle, growing trees for timber, etc. One enterprising owner bought 75 acres of former rice farm and subdivided it into large home tracts. He marketed it in part by telling prospective buyers that they could put a house on one acre and get a couple of thousand bucks a year from the feds for "not growing rice" on the other 9 acres.

Then there's the federal "conservation" subsidy. Started as a way to protect land from erosion, it is now a program that pays about $2 billion a year to land owners to not farm 34 to 40 million acres (the sources varied, one described the area as the size of the state of New York).

A few billion dollars is chump change when it comes to federal spending. But, tens of millions of acres of diverted farm land is not chump acreage when it comes to food production. Stopping these subsidy programs won't in the near term, or probably in the long term, result in all of those acres returning to farm use; but, some will. In the meantime why pay money to people to do the opposite of what is in the national interest?

Words I Don't Like

Artisanal and Heirloom. They're annoying as they’ve been co-opted (another not favorite word) by advertisers and don’t mean what they used to mean.

Artisanal is an adjective for something made by an artisan, a person who hand makes things, especially mechanical things. Now it means bread or some other food made by a small, versus big, concern that uses allegedly fresh ingredients.

An heirloom is something passed down to you by your family. Seeds may be passed down from generation to generation; but, I doubt that most of the “heirloom” vegetables and fruits you see in the store are being sold by the recipient of their ancestor’s beneficence (I like that word).

I’m not much for trendy. I know that language changes, and it should; but, it shouldn’t be hijacked.

Resolution, Fatigue and Contentment

I spent, for me, a long day of thinking, talking and negotiating on my figurative feet today.

I had a mediation, which is a voluntary process to settle a lawsuit. I told my clients that there would be a lot of very boring sitting around, interspersed with some intense back and forth. They dealt with it better than I did. I get bored, I got bored, and impatient; but, you can’t let that interfere with the slow boring process of resolving the dispute.

You’d think that sitting around in a luxurious conference room in the Lenox area of Atlanta looking south from the twentieth floor south to Midtown and Downtown wouldn’t be tiring, and you’d be wrong.

I won’t go into details, one of my clients reads this blog. Doesn’t matter whether we settled or not; but, I always forget how thinking, constantly, is tiring.

So, I’ve been home for a couple of hours and I’m mellowing. I watched some TV, I surfed some blogs and listened to some Sirius blues. I just by accident hit a button on the remote that switched me to “Siriusly Sinatra” on Sirius Satellite radio. He’s just the thing. I’m transported to my childhood when my father wouldn’t let us listen to rock and roll. Frank, Dino, Dixieland Jazz, a time when there were no problems in the world other than the anxieties of being a child.

Contentment.

Newly Recommended; and, Now I Understand

I came across flights, I think, by way of a comment on a post by Pos at Niagaran Pebbles. Flights has some interesting posts that are quite well written.

Rather than working (hah! I that's the first time I ever inadvertently used the title in a post) this morning, I've been catching up on blogs for a few minutes.

Flights' author is Shawn Smith. He is a software developer. He did a post on Friday about the need to allow mistakes in software.

You've all read the forwarded Email about if Microsoft made cars, the car would periodically stop running, you'd pull to the side of the road, turn it off and then turn it on again. It would then chug along until the next "crash." Now I understand why software is so buggy.

"I have no problem putting something imperfect into the hands of the crowd and then watching it to see how and where it falls short - within reason." Shawn said in his post. As I am wont to write in posts, "huh?" Shawn goes on to say "[c]ompanies are understandably careful about everything they unveil that has their mark on it. When careful goes too far, however, one pitfall is a culture of fear, where people are afraid to make mistakes or deviate from what is safe and known and familiar." I get the point; but, a "process" that promotes "innovation" often masks "half doing."

My product, words and analysis, does not flow perfectly from my mouth or keyboard (as evidenced by these posts which are for the most part, dashed off); but, I don't throw my imperfect draft at my audience. I play with it until it is, within economic constraints, as perfect as I can get it. The phrase "economic constraints" is, I think the real reason that design products often reach their users "half baked."

In the construction business there's a document called an RFI or Request for Information. It's sent by the user to the architect/designer when there's a hole or ambiguity in a drawing or specification. In effect the user, usually a contractor, is asking "please clear this up" or "please fill in the blank."

As a construction lawyer, one tell-tale sign of a badly designed project is a large number of RFI's. It means that the architect/designer did not think the project through and relied (or hoped) that the mistakes and holes in the design would be caught by the contractor. The designer has been using the contractor as its quality control department. Some architects/designers do this as a matter of practice. Others resort to it because of budget. Whatever the genesis, it means problems for the user.

Now, I understand the use of a "Beta" product. But, a Beta should not be used as a quality control process which is the responsibility of the designer. A Beta should be a last, user oriented, look at the all but finished product.

In a way, I'd like to see this process imported to the law. "Dave, your analysis on this issue has a lot of holes in it." "Your Honor, it's a Beta brief, I'm looking for your user notes." "Oh, oh, I'm sorry, I'll get them to you in a week. When can I expect to see Version 1.1?" "Your Honor, my plan was for a Service Pack in the short term." "Very well, the Court will take the matter under advisement."

Overused Phrases

"Spot on" is OK when it is used by British people to describe something that is ideal or accurate; but, it shouldn't be used by someone living in Iowa. Just doesn't sound right. To put the point another way, only people who can credibly say "spot on, old boy" should be allowed to use the phrase. Say it to yourself out loud. If it rings wrong, you shouldn't write it either.

Throw Away Post

This site will show you the number one song (Billboard) for any date back to 1890. I plugged in my birthday and wandered through the music of my life.

I of course knew all of the songs and the artists when I was a kid. By the early nineties, the titles of the songs weren’t ringing a bell and I recognize maybe half the artists. Another sign of age I guess.

I Don't Know How You Do It

Live up north that is.

I moved south twenty-five years ago, first to Miami and now in Atlanta. Every now and then I'm forced north. Yesterday was such a day. Weather.com said Bloomington, IL would have a high of sixty and would be cloudy with some showers. Lies! All lies!

Given the weather prediction I wore jeans and a sports coat. (I was going to a factory, hence the jeans. I also wore steel toed shoes.) I walked out of the Bloomington airport into a gale. Twenty plus mph winds, driving light rain. It may have been forty degrees. The weather got worse as the day went on.

Before my exodus south, I lived in Michigan, Nebraska, Minnesota, Ohio and briefly, in West Virginia. Living in all those states, I can remember what I felt yesterday: a moment of resolve as my mind and body internally steeled themselves before opening the door to the outside.

My client picked me up at the airport in a rental car. They come equipped with a heavy duty ice scraper and a long snow brush. I have an ice scraper in my car, somewhere; and, I use it once every year or so.

I got up this morning and put on a wind jacket as the temperature was in the mid-fifties. The high today is going to be in the high seventies. There is a blue sky with fluffy clouds. All of the trees have now budded. Looking out the window there are white and lavender flowers on the trees. Down the road in Augusta nature is in full riot mode.

I'll leave you with a few pictures. God finished up his work at Augusta National, realizing he couldn't do much better.

I Want To Be A Government

Earlier this year, Shirley Franklin, the Mayor of Atlanta, announced that because of something like stupid accounting (that’s not a quote) she had just learned that the City was about $70 million short. Lots of talk: early retirements, layoffs, tax increases.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported today that the Georgia Department of Transportation may be a BILLION dollars in the hole due to spending state funds based on expected federal funds that it wasn’t entitled to.

Then there is the fed its self, just about to give out something north of a HUNDRED BILLION BORROWED dollars to stimulate the economy. We won’t talk about Bear Stearns or Iraq.

Given the bucks, I’ll settle for being a township (we don’t have those down here, but, I’m willing to move up north). I’ll just spend a bunch of money and then announce that I’d not been paying enough attention. I won’t apologize. I’ll just announce that the rest of you people in MY township are going to have to hunker down, tighten your belts and help us to get through this crisis.

Don't Believe What You See On TV

I’m a fan of “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” on the Food Network. The host is a guy named Guy Fieri. He’s a bit weird looking, but funny.

I’ve decided that whomever chooses where he goes needs to do a bit more homework and that whomever stages the segment is really good.

I just watched a show that featured the Marietta Diner. It’s on US-41 Northwest of Atlanta. On the show it looked great, the food appetizing, everyone there, customers and staff, was happy and friendly.

In reality, it’s overpriced and the service is terrible, given my three or four visits. My last time there was a couple of weeks ago for lunch on my way back from the Cobb County Court House.

As I walked from the parking lot, I realized I had no change to buy a newspaper. I sat at the counter. And sat. And sat. A waitress finally came over (after having stood at the other end of the counter talking to someone, overtly not looking my way). “What do you want?” I had my dollar bill in my hand. “Coffee, and could I get four quarters for a newspaper?” “You’ll have to go over there (gesturing vaguely towards the cashier as she walked away).”

So I walked over to the cashier and waited in line for a couple of minutes for my quarters, went outside, got my newspaper and sat down. My coffee was there, after having sat in the warmer for, in my best estimate, an hour too long.

I waited another five or so minutes. During that time, another waitress, used to using that part of the counter as a staging area, stood there looking over my head, talking to the busboy and putting doggy bag Styrofoam on top of my newspaper. I moved my newspaper. “Oh, sorry, I’m not used to someone sitting here.”

My waitress came back. “What do you want?” “I’ll have the pork chop special.” She walked away before I could ask her to change out the stale coffee.

Long wait. She was still talking at the other end of the counter, studiously not looking my way.

She approached and slammed down my lunch, never looking at me and walking back to the other end of the counter. I looked at my lunch. It did include the menu advertised mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables, but not a pork chop to be found. Instead it had what appeared to be brisket chunks in a tomato sauce.

You know what’s coming next. I looked forlornly down the length of the counter as she ignored me. I had to be somewhere soon so I started eating what I hadn’t ordered. Not real good, but it was edible.

Next time, I’m going to time my visits with the Food Network crew. Oh, I left a decent tip and still can’t figure out why.

Irreconcilable Differences

It wasn't destined to last. I knew that going in. But as in all such matters you ignore what you don't want to know.

There were signs along the way. Time spent together while the mind wandered to other more enjoyable activities. Thoughts about the cost: Is it really worth it? Small moments of doubt about honesty.

We parted company last night. I reached my limit during the phone call. "If we charged you $1.75 a week, would you stay?

I started Sunday home delivery of The New York Times last year, getting a deal for the first few months. When the price went up, I called to cancel and was talked into staying with a rate of about $2.25 a week. It turned out that wasn't a permanent rate, it was another promotion. Looking at my credit card statement this month, I found out they'd bumped it up to just over $7.00 a week without telling me. Hence the offer of $1.75 a week when I called to cancel.

It's for the best. As the weather is nicer, I find myself reading less of the paper. I can always read it online, at least the price is right.

Mysterious Traffic Jam Solved: UPDATED

You've all experienced them. Traffic slows or grinds to a halt. You creep along for a while and then traffic starts moving again. No sign of an accident, no one getting a ticket.

That happened to me today; but, the mystery was solved. I could see traffic picking up about a half mile ahead. When I got nearer, I could see a van on the side of the expressway with a police car facing it. As I got nearer, I saw a man and a woman walking in the direction of traffic and a policeman walking backwards in front of them. Then the cause appeared. The lady was leading a llama.

A bit ahead of them, there was a horse trailer, or I suppose properly, a llama trailer pulled over with an "animal ambulance" next to it. Same size and configuration as a human ambulance. A paramedic (?) was walking toward the human/llama procession.

It was then time to speed up. There's a story there that I'll never know. Had the llama just wandered on to the expressway and the police, ambulance and hauler dispatched to handle it? Had the llama escaped the trailer and was it being rounded up? Had the man and woman let it out of the van (it was maybe four foot tall and would have fit in the van) to let it stretch it's legs?

What do you think? Well, here's the UPDATE: ajc.com reports what actually happened, less interesting than my surmise.

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/northfulton/stories/2008/04/04/llamas_0404.html

$694,000,000.00 and Change (thanks to Life Hiker (see his comment))

That’s how much has been contributed by people, PACs, previous campaigns and “other” to all of the presidential candidates through February 29, 2008 according to fec.gov. It doesn’t count the $42.9 million that Romney gave himself. The news today reports that Obama took in $40 million in March with Clinton getting about $20 million.

That totals three quarters of a billion dollars. About $254 million to Republicans and $500 million to Democrats.

There’s seven months to go till the election.

I’m thinking were aren’t likely to get a result that’s worth the money.

Too Many Topics

My choices are,

Me being less than happy with MasterCard/BankAmerica.

Me winning the first bid protest I've had in a very long time.

A strange case I mentioned awhile back in a post that has gotten stranger.

My meeting a multi-millionare executive of a multi-national company that stopped in the neighborhood bar on his way to a local executive airport to hop a private jet to play a practice round tomorrow with un-named people at the Augusta National Colf Club. In the event you aren't familiar with the venue, check out the Golf Channel at any point next week.

A fascinating man.

I'll settle for telling you that I'm about ten minutes into the most depressing movie in the history of movies, and one of the best, Leaving Las Vegas.

Write to ya'll later.

Adopted By Asians

To wrap up the Biloxi trip, Bill, one of the guys that went down for the weekend, introduced me to Pai Gow poker Sunday afternoon. He described it as blackjack/poker for dummies, saying he'd played it years ago before starting to play blackjack. He was right and wrong.

We played for about an hour Sunday afternoon, me playing the beginner stripped down version of the game with Bill's oversight. The dealer deals all of the cards from the deck, including jokers to the six stations of the table that looks like a blackjack table and seven cards to him/herself. The object is to make up the best five card and two card poker hand. The joker can serve as an ace or any card in a straight or flush. If the player's hands are both better than the dealer's hand, you win the amount you bet. If you split the hands with the dealer, it's a push and your bet remains on the table. The dealer takes your bet if both of your hands are beaten by the dealer.

Then there's the "bonus" circle at each station. You can put a chip in it, a dollar up to the table maximum. If you do, and if your hand includes certain hands on a list like straights and flushes, you get a bonus. There's more to the rules, but that's the basics. Bill described this as a sucker bet, and he was probably right from a statistical point of view, but wrong from the Asian viewpoint.

As we played that first hour, and I learned, my goal was not to appear as stupid as I was. Stupid things I had to overcome: do not hold cards except over the table, do not let cards touch your body: cheating preventers. All cards can be face up, but only in order of play. Bill was to my left, he could not look at my cards until he had made up his hands and placed them face down on the table. This takes away any advantage you might gain by seeing the cards on the table before playing your cards. This rule was largely ignored.

Sitting to my right was a Chinese lady of indeterminate age. She took about ten seconds to arrange her hands and then would scold me. It was a bit unnerving as I was still at the stage of learning protocol. But, she had my best interests at heart as my stern taskmaster. "You no do that, this right." As she gestured quickly at my cards, me having no idea what she meant at first. "No pair together you no have ace or face." Thus I learned the next level of hand arrangement. If you don't have an ace or face card to put in your two card hand and do have two pair to put in the five card hand, you split the pair between hands to give you your best chance of winning both. If you have aces or face cards, you don't split other pairs. (Rereading this paragraph, don't get the idea that I'm being disrespectful to the lady by the way I'm structuring her comments. She spoke as I have quoted her. Her English was heavily accented, adding to the difficulty of understanding her. She was a smart lady, just impatient with me.)

Between Bill and the lady, and getting some pretty good cards, I won a hundred dollars in an hour which is very unusual.

After dinner (fried shrimp and fried catfish, Biloxi is the land of fried fish), I wandered back to the Pai Gow table on my own now.I was a bit better at the mechanics, but had added the handicap of now being not fully sober. And of course Bill and my Chinese lady were elsewhere.

I learned that you could show the dealer your cards and be told what the "House Way" of playing them was. When in doubt I showed them and got instruction. As this was going on an older gentlemen sat on my left. He didn't speak (or at least wasn't speaking) English. When I looked at my cards he would too (remember you aren't allowed to do this) and nod and smile if I did it right. If it was wrong, he'd shake his head no. I'd rearrange until I got a smile.

He left after awhile and a couple sat down. It turned out they were Vietnamese, though they spoke English fluently, living down the coast in Mobile. The wife became my new tutor. I learned some new aspects of the game. The dealer explained that I really should take the sucker "bonus" bet because that was "the only way to make any money." As he explained, everyone at the table nodded yes. Being analytic, my head said no; but, I couldn't say no to my new friends. I made the right decision, as I now learned the true nature of Pai Gow. There is a community of players with the goal of beating the House.

Part of the strategy of beating the House is using the bonus game. So, I joined the team, putting down my dollar chip in the circle, to be regularly scooped up by the dealer when I didn't win a bonus. Overtime, I won a few small bonuses, a couple of bucks. Over the course of the night, playing the bonus probably cost me twenty bucks, but gave me entry into the group.

At a point when I'd won a few bonuses, the husband half of the Vietnamese couple held up a five dollar chip to me and asked if he could support me. Of course, I had no idea what he was talking about. As it turns out, he was wanting to ride my current bonus luck. It is against the rules for him to make a bet on my outcome; but, he can support my luck by giving me a chip which I place in the circle for him. If I win the bonus, he gets the payoff on his portion of the bet.

I didn't fully understand this at first, but who was I to decline his support. "Sure, throw it in there." "No, you have to put it on the table." So I did, putting his $5 chip on my $1 chip. "No, it must go below your chip, it's support." So I rearranged them. As best I can tell there was no rules basis for the positioning, it was just symbolic.

For whatever reason, the support worked. I went on a mini-roll of bonus wins. During this period, a young Vietnamese woman sat down next to me. She noticed my luck and asked if she could support me. I of course accepted. The table was now a full team. I spent the next too many hours having a great time, winning a bit then losing it back with my new friends.

Two more things to end this ridiculously long post (I must be channeling Jeni).

Pai Gow, in English is roughly translated as garbage, junk, s**t. It refers to the worst hand which is seven off suit, non-sequential cards. The worst would have a nine as the high card. As the dealer reveals his/her hand, players seeing a lousy hand are happy and say, sometimes yell, pai gow.

Finally, I went out with a flourish. It was very late and the only players left were me and the Vietnamese girl. I decided to up my bets. I took everything except the hundred I started with and a $10 chip to leave as a tip and split it between the main bet and the bonus circle. I pulled a seven card straight, less one card, having ten or fifteen dollars bet on the bonus. The dealer dealt herself a straight flush, beating me on the main bet. One of her cards would have filled my bonus straight. The Vietnamese girl was livid, mad at the dealer for beating me on the main hand and depriving me on my bonus straight which would have paid me $750 (and her another $750 for her support). Of course, the dealer has nothing to do with what is dealt, the cards are spit out of an automatic shoe. Didn't keep the girl from what I took as swearing in Vietnamese.

We left with her muttering under her breath.

Other than lack of sleep, a great evening.

Beach Blogging In Biloxi, Briefly

I forgot my camera or I’d give you a picture out the window of the hotel. I have a room on the West side looking along the Gulf beach. The thing that strikes me is that Katrina took the buildings and left the trees. Huge old live oaks in rows along streets that used to have buildings. Mid rise casino/hotels stick up every half mile or so.

Gambling funds are down, but losing is leisurely and enjoyable. Five of us came down from Atlanta. The consensus is Biloxi is nice. It isn’t Vegas; but, that is good. We’re staying at the Grand Biloxi, owned by Harrahs. Everyone that works here is friendly as they take your money.

Two drawbacks. First, my AT&T broadband wireless internet is slooooooow. The normal 3G network isn’t here. I’m on EDGE, a bit faster than dial up. Second, it is Sunday morning and the only newspaper available is the Sun Herald, “South Mississippi’s Newspaper.” It’s about an inch and a half thick, most of which looks to be ads.

Enjoy your day, my goal is to lose more money while having fun. Big Rick swears he isn’t down too much.

Good News Update! The hotel wireless isn't restricted. I zoomed to the blog.

Big Rick Says It's Me

I’m betting it’s you. Rick and I had a beer at the neighborhood place today. I asked him if he’d read my post about taxing personal use of company cell phone use. He had. He went on to tell me that no one was commenting on my posts, something that I’d noticed. “You’ve lost all twelve of your readers.”

As it turns out, no I haven’t. I went to Sitemeter.com for the first time in awhile. All of you are visiting the site at exactly the same rate you have for the last five or six months, just over 30 hits a day.

You just have nothing to say. Or, if you have something to say, what I’m writing isn’t inspiring you to say it.

I learned from my visit to Sitemeter that my 15,000th visitor was here late last week. I thank you, whomever you are.

So, thanks for stopping by, quite regularly. I understand not leaving a comment. I read most of you regularly and don’t say anything. Sometimes, often, I love what you’ve written, I just have nothing to add, doesn’t mean I’m not here and appreciating what you have to say. That’s why you’re not talking to me, it is isn’t it?

Braves, Booze and Bombast

Since Fermi (Cosmic Cat, Recommended sidebar) is on vacation, I'm going to have to do her yearly rant on Georgia's Sunday ban of retail alcohol sales.

Here in our fair state you can go to a sporting event, a restaurant or a bar and drink adult beverages on Sunday; but, you can't buy them at retail and take them home.

Each year our Legislators and the Governor wrangle over Sunday sales. Our Governor, Sunny Perdue, a Southern Baptist, doesn't drink and doesn't have much use for anyone that does. Last year he weighed in on the debate saying that Sunday sales weren't necessary - people just had to be better time managers and buy their booze ahead of time.

This year the debate is spiced up a bit by two factors. Gwinnett County (north-metro Atlanta) is building a new baseball stadium to house one of the Atlanta Brave's farm teams. It needs a Sunday liquor license but doesn't qualify under any of the current exemptions. So our Legislators and Sonny Perdue are on board for a special statute to allow the stadium to sell booze on Sunday. Ditto with a special statute to let limousine companies sell booze to their patrons.

The Speaker of the House and the Governor don't get along. The former tacked a Sunday sales amendment onto the special baseball law. The Guv is threatening to veto it, which will piss off Gwinnett County and the Braves.

This year the Governor's theme is safety. He cites a study that examined New Mexico in the five years after it allowed Sunday retail alcohol sales and found an increased incidence of alcohol related accidents and deaths. Given his mandate to protect our safety, he has to give short shrift to his "Republican principle of individual freedom" and can't entrust us to choose for ourselves (unless we are Gwinnett County, the Atlanta Braves or a limo company).

The Nanny State is not the exclusive property of liberals. When coupled with religion, it's alive and well in Republican Georgia.

Everything Is Income

Back when I took tax law in law school (I had to, I didn’t want to) I took from the class the one rule of taxes in this our United States – everything is income.

I was reminded of this by a news story that reported that the IRS is going after companies that provide cell phones for their employees. In the event you didn’t know it, if you make a call on your company cell phone for a personal purpose, you must report the value of the call as income.

My bet is that most of us don't report that "income."

Companies can avoid being hit for not reporting their employee’s personal use one of two ways. They can monitor the bills and file W-something-or-other on each employee for each phone call made. Or they can implement a plan that forbids their employees from using their company cellphone for personal calls.

If they mess up, the IRS is hitting the company for the taxes that should have been paid by the employees. Go after the easier target I guess.

I'm Risk Averse

"Said of an investor who, given the same return and different risk alternatives, will choose the security with the least amount of risk." From some site found by a Google search.

My definition is winning is not as important as not losing. This is probably not a formula for success in life.

Were I to win a thousand dollars, I'd be pleased; but, that pleasure is outweighed by the unhappiness I'd feel if I lost a thousand dollars. Winning or losing the money would make no difference in my life; but, I "value" one more than the other, seeing it as having greater utility.

I almost always look for the outcome in any situation that is "acceptable." Not a big score; but, not a big loss.

Given my personality, it's interesting that I play a form of "table stakes" poker for a living. Litigating and negotiating for large sums of money, not mine, my clients. There, the goal is usually to gain the best result under the circumstances. The best result can be losing, but losing less than could be possible in the circumstances. In practice, my personality is often a plus. I don't give advice that I think carries great risk (or better put, I include that advise and make clear the risks it involves).

Clients often want to hit a home run, until they understand the cost of hitting it. "Sue the bastards!" "What do you mean the fees are $X and chances are we can't get $Y?" "So what are the other alternatives?"

This weekend I'm going to Biloxi, the low rent Vegas. It has its pluses: one hour plane flight, no recovering from the three hour time difference experienced in Vegas.

With my personality, what am I going to do, you ask. Nothing that requires much thinking. No blackjack or poker (other than video which doesn't require counting or people reading and which actually has the worst house advantage). Some slots and roulette. The latter is a great way to win or lose slowly while being served "free" drinks. I know, it has one of the worst rates of return in the casino. But, I don't have to think. Five bucks on red, black or odd or even. Five bucks on one of the "third" bets - 1 - 12, 13 - 24, 25 - 36. It pays even money on the first five bucks and two to one on the second five bucks, though the odds are a bit worse than that because of the green 0 and 00, hence the house advantage. Or, eight single chip bets on interior numbers with two bucks split between 0 and 00. Pays 35 to 1 against odds of 38 to 1. Which is 35 to 10 or 3 1/2 to 1 given my bet, a little better than the 3 to 2 payoff on my, a bit safer, outside bets. Slow but sure losses are the probable outcome, with the chance of keeping some of the casino's money.

If I win, I'll let you know. I suppose that means that if you don't hear what happens, you'll know anyway.

Wall Street Journal access

Click on this link to get wsj.com free. There are two ways, one if you have Firefox and the other through Google News:

http://machinist.salon.com/blog/2008/03/21/wsj/index.html

Atlanta's Other Green

If you’ve ever flown into Atlanta during the day, on a day that smog isn’t suffocating, you know that we are a city of trees. Other than the long, long, long strip of high-rises along Peachtree from Downtown, Midtown, Lenox, the granite of Stone Mountain, the more recent high-rises on the Perimeter: the rest is trees.

There are trees and there are trees. We’ve just started the season of flowering trees. It will continue into April and cover every surface in town with yellow-green pollen. Interestingly, what we see is from pine. The rest we don’t see we just feel and breath.

I’ve had the windows open for weeks; but, I’ll have to close them soon or wake up choking. I washed the car for the last time last week for another six or so weeks. It’s a waste of time, water and money until late April.

But, we are entering one of the prettiest times to live in Atlanta. All of the fruit trees are about to bloom. Azaleas and all of their friends are on their way.

If you live in Atlanta, take a drive along Lullwater or the other residential streets near Emory University in ten days to two weeks. Budding heaven.

Then there is the most beautiful place on earth the first week of April. Augusta National Golf Club during the week of the Masters Tournament. The club has people that time the flowers when they can. If the weather is too cold, they use super dryers to warm the bushes to encourage the blooms. You don’t have to love or even like golf to love the views on CBS’s broadcasts.

Here’s a sample of the wonders that God and the greens keepers have wrought:

After realizing my pictures of the course are on the other computer and then going on line and seeing that my pictures are better, you have to wait. I'll update the post with a picture or two soon.

Do Two People Make A Difference?

The Georgia House of Representatives thinks so.

In Georgia there are two phases to a murder trial: Guilt deliberations and penalty deliberations. Currently, two unanimous votes are required, one on guilt and one on the penalty to be imposed. The Georgia House wants the second vote to only require a 10 to 2 vote to impose the death penalty. Our esteemed representatives don't want a couple of do-gooders to prevent "justice" from being served. Prosecutors' efforts (the "Peoples' representatives") to execute people are being foiled by hold out jurors.

If passed, Georgia would be the only state with such a statute. (Delaware and Montana judges decide sentences; and, Alabama and Florida juries make recommendations to the judge, who decides the sentence.)

If you think that a less than unanimous vote is morally sufficient to execute someone who has been unanimously found to be guilty, why not 9 -3, 8 -4, or 7-5? It seems less of a good idea with each reduced ratio doesn't it?

Here in Georgia a unanimous jury has to decide that you are negligent in an auto accident and what damages you should pay (several states allow split verdicts); but, our representatives would reduce that burden when if comes to the most serious penalty the government can impose. Does that make sense?

Even if you are in favor of the death penalty, do you really want to make it easy?

Justice Kennedy and The Sentence

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments yesterday about the Second Amendment. From the articles I've read, it appears ready to declare some form of individual right to bear arms, not beholden to "militia" needs.

The Courts' current "fifth vote" on closely decided cases, Anthony Kennedy, from his questions and comments, is firmly on the individual right side of the question.

His route to getting there is humorous.

The Second Amendment reads "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

According to Justice Kennedy the first two clauses about the Militia and security are surplusage: legal nothings there to reaffirm the existence and importance of state militias, divorced from the rest of the Amendment. He then reads the third and fourth clauses as if there was no comma between them (which I guess you have to do if you don't want them to be subjunctive), finding them to create a general right to keep and bear arms.

This is not English as I learned it in school, and I don't think it is English as used in the Eighteenth Century.

The good news, from my side of the fence - everyone, Justices and litigants, agreed that government can regulate firearms. The question becomes how much and how. We'll leave that for a decade or two of litigation.

Interesting, But Without Much Practical Meaning

That's what the eventual result of the Supreme Court's initial resolution of the meaning of the Second Amendment will be. Interesting from a legal scholarship point of view; without practical result across the country.

Why you say?

Oral argument is being held tomorrow on whether the District of Columbia's very strict gun law is constitutional. Put too starkly, does the Second Amendment protect an individual's unfetter right to keep and bear arms of any type; or, on the other side of the fence, is the right to bear arms connected to the need to have a militia, along the lines of today's National Guard?

The obvious answers are no and to some extent. No one argues that the Second Amendment allows me to build and arm a nuclear weapon. I can't drive an armed tank down the street. Currently, I can't have a fully automatic rifle.

But I have all of those rights when they are connected to defense of the country or a state.

The question becomes where the line will be drawn by the Court. It will likely split several babies and create constitutional litigation for years to come. In the interim, 44 states have language in their constitutions protecting the right of individual gun ownership. Whatever the Court decides, it won't invalidate those provisions.

Charlton Heston, James Brady and their respective supporters will have plenty to argue about in the years to come.

'“When a yacht is over 328 feet, it’s so big that you lose the intimacy,' says Tork Buckley, editor of The Yacht Report."

From an article in The New York Times about super yachts. The newest is 531.5 feet long.

Make up your own joke or social or political comment.

Two Recommendations

Having fixed the video connection from the home theater to the TV, I just finished a movie I started a couple of weeks ago, Love Always. Do rent it. It’s a series of sweet, bittersweet, and wonderful vignettes of people and their interactions with other people. None connected, except at the end. Kind of a Crash, without the violence and message.

The final scene is all of the stories coming together, put to the music of the Beach Boys’ God Only Knows, one of the prettiest songs ever written.

That led me to YouTube and a few versions of it. Here’s one coupled to the movie. The sound is pretty good.

That got me wandering Google for cuts from one of the best albums of all time (Doc and Pos), Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys which you can read about (at interminable length) here.

All and all, a successful audio and video evening.

New AV - The Final Post

When last I reported to you, everything with the new HD satellite and TV was working fine, with two exceptions.

The first, that the receiver would not talk to the computer so as to allow it to talk to the Internet so as to allow it to do whatever it is that it wants to do, still isn’t fixed. But no one at the satellite company knows how to make it work. My current plan is to ignore it.

The second exception was that the DVD player in the home theater would send audio to its speakers but wouldn’t send video to the TV. After much messing around, I found the problem – the installer had hooked the audio out on the home theater to the satellite receiver which would then require a connection from the receiver to the TV, something that wasn't there. I hooked it to the TV and it works fine. Standard definition DVD’s look great on the screen.

That’s it, two weeks have passed, and I’m ready to go on with my life.

Cat People Needed

I live in a complex. Lots of doors. For the past month or two there's been a little cat, mostly black with white feet hanging around the doors nearby. It used to run when I came near. I think I know where its owner lives, if it has an owner.

About an hour ago I ran out to get something I'd forgotten to make some dinner. When I opened the door, there it was, on the mat laying against the door.

I've always said hello to the cat before it ran away as I approached. Tonight, it didn't run away. As I talked to it and held out my hand, it approached and I rubbed its back as it meowed. It seemed distinctly unhappy as I left.

Here's my problem. If it is now approaching me, I'm thinking that it is not being cared for by its owner.

If I feed it, I'm gaining a cat. If I ignore it, I'm feeling guilty. I don't want a cat; but, I don't want it to suffer. Or, am I entirely misunderstanding the dynamics of cats and their owners?

Fermi? Thomas?

Eating Their Young

Geraldine Ferraro just resigned from Hillary Clinton’s finance committee so as to not be a distraction after her recent comments about Barack Obama’s current success being because, at least in part, he’s black.

I’ll get back to her in a minute; but, I find her campaign’s reaction to be amusing. Howard Wolfson, her spokesman said “she ‘made clear she disagreed with them and she rejected them.’” NYTimes.com. This is of course a riff on her criticism of Obama’s mere “denouncing” of Louis Farrakhan’s comments in a debate. She insisted he should reject them. Obama responded "There's no formal offer of help from Minister Farrakhan that would involve me rejecting it. But if the word 'reject' Senator Clinton feels is stronger than the word 'denounce,' then I'm happy to concede the point, and I would reject and denounce." AP. I thought Obama had the better of the silly exchange.

Farrakhan after the fact said he didn’t care if Obama rejected and denounced him. Rep. Ferraro is making similar comments about Clinton’s rejection.

The Old Guard of the Left just doesn’t know what to do about this race.

Rep. John Lewis (Dem. Ga.) got his start with Martin Luther King. He’s a super delegate. He was pledged to Clinton. A few weeks ago he told a reporter he would switch to Obama. When the story broke, he retreated. He was inaccurately quoted. He was silent and not available. Recently, he officially switched to Obama.

Jessie Jackson has endorsed Obama; but, you don’t hear much from him. I’d give you odds, Obama has asked him to lay low. Al Sharpton hasn’t endorsed; and, again, I bet Obama hopes he doesn’t.

Bill isn’t a liberal icon; but, his involvement back in South Carolina, taking some subtle racial shots, didn’t help his wife.

Interestingly, Clinton’s remaining core supporters are blue-collar, white, union – groups that might respond to the subtle racial slams. Clinton counted on fealty from White Liberals and Black America. She and the White Liberal and Black, Old Guards now find themselves in the uncomfortable, and dicey position of trying to find wedge issues, but not issues that will totally alienate the other traditional constituencies if she pulls the nomination off.

You can’t really use young as an adjective for Senator McCain; but, he’s a problematic candidate for his party too. He’s in the process of trying to pander, but not too much, to the religious right wing of his party, at the risk of alienating the moderates and independents that are attracted to him.

The powers that were have been thrown some curves this year. They’ve spawned people that they don’t control; and, they’re not at all happy about it. They’re trying to figure out whether to just eat them and hope for the best; or, to let them grow and hope for the best; or, conclude that they don't really have any control any more and hope for the best.

Help Wanted. Experience Necessary?

In any single metric comparison you get an unenlightening result.

Though raised by Hillary Clinton to slam Barack Obama, John McCain "wins" the experience contest. He, quite simply has been around longer in public life.

I have 21 years of experience as a lawyer; but, that doesn't tell you a thing. There are lawyers around with less and more experience that are better and worse than I am.

Let's add a factor. Experience as an indicator of ability to defend our country, and for drama who's best at 3:00 a.m. Here you have to go beyond time in grade and judge what the contestant was doing while gaining the experience. Put differently, does the contestant's background indicate that he or she will make a good decision at 3:00 a.m. in the morning?

Looking at the contestants on stage, the winner is less clear. All are Senators, a collaborative position. None have spent any time as an executive charged with real time decision making. As far as exposure to foreign affairs and defense matters, McCain would appear to be the winner, with Clinton trailing by a good bit and Obama even further in the rear.

Next you get to what their time and exposure to the issues has led them to conclude. For our purposes, let's look at their views on Iraq. McCain plans to stay the course and "win." Clinton and Obama favor varying plans of withdrawal over a shorter period of time.

On this test there is no objective winner. We have to use our subjective views of the issue to choose a winner. If you like the Iraq war, think there is a chance of winning it, stabilizing the region, improving our security by being there, McCain's your winner. If you never liked the war, came to believe it was a bad idea, have no idea what "winning" it means, view the region as inherently unstable and not tied to our security interests, your winner is? Clinton or Obama; but then you're back to using another metric. Which do you think will do a better job of withdrawal and which do you think will deal with the resulting situation in the region better? Or, does the last question throw McCain back in to the race based on the "we're in a mess, what can be salvaged" line of thinking?

We can play this game, adding factors until November. But we won't be helped by the contestants. They will continue their single word and pithy sound-bite campaigning. Experience! Change! False Promises! In the end, for better or worse, we will go with our guts feelings about them.

What I Was Trying To Say

I like my post from earlier today; but, I played with it all day, clicking "Publish Now" finally, feeling that I hadn't pulled together and typed what was wandering around in my head.

As is often the case, there's a blogger out there that nails what I am trying and failing to say. He's also deadly with a short, perfectly crafted essay.

His name is Thomas. If you want the thesis and conclusion to my playful exposition earlier today go here to read what Thomas has to say about it (though I'd disagree with the murderous and lapdog adjectives he uses):

http://livingnextdoortoalice.blogspot.com/

Breaking News

From AJC.com:

Vatican releases new sins.

From RTW News Service (Atlanta):

The Sins, more accurately described as "sinful behaviors" (drug use, pollution, DNA manipulation and social and economic injustice (fraternal twins)), discovered late last week trapped in a closet in a lower basement in the Vatican's Dogma Department, expressed relief at their release. In a statement they said "we weren't used much back in the old days, just no call for us in those simpler times. We were wandering around without much to do back just before the turn of the last century when a janitor accidently locked us in a closet and put a wardrobe in front of the door." Two other "sinful acts," abortion and pedophilia were also found in the closet. A Vatican spokesman described them as matters that the Vatican was concerned about, but refused to discuss issues of venality and mortality with respect to any of the rediscovered group.

In other news:

Apple Records has re-released the Beatles' catalogue, adding twenty songs composed by Ringo in an attempt to stave off foreclosure sale of Neverland.

Kepler, Newton and Einstein have dusted off The Four Laws, adding six more to keep up with Moses, only to be disappointed by Vatican's apparent escalation attempt.

From The Onion:

"Scoops of the New Century" is the title of a piece about the recent hard hitting investigative journalism being practiced by upstart RTW News Service headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

I Just Watched A Movie

It’s called “The Chamber.” A Klan member died in Mississippi’s Parchman Prison gas chamber at the end. He had bombed a Jewish lawyer’s office, and according to the story, with help from another Klan member, accidentally killed the lawyer’s two young sons.

The movie, based on a novel by John Grisham, was a story of mitigation. The killer, played by Gene Hackman, did not intend for the kids to die; but, he was a bad man. He was a partial shill for the then Mississippi Sovereignty Commission and the higher ups in the Klan.

All of the elements are in place for you to feel sympathetic. Should we?

No. But should we kill people because they have killed others?

In this instance, a drama, set up to make the killer less than an evil man, the inclination is to say wait a minute. Over the course of the movie, faced with his grandson who returned to Mississippi as a lawyer to defend him in the last month of his life, he learned that he had done wrong.

To return to the last question, should we kill people who have killed others? Based on none of the above, my answer is no.

One, there’s a book in the lobby of my office published by the Innocence Project. It was put out over five years ago. It contains the stories of over a hundred people that were convicted of a crime and sentenced to prison or death; and it turned out they did not do what they were accused of. DNA established that they had not committed the crime.

Here in the state of Georgia, DNA has resulted in the last year alone, the release of three men imprisoned for rape.

We make mistakes. Our mistakes should not result in the death of an innocent person.

Two, killing people “legally” costs an enormous amount of money, and pain. Again here in Georgia, the state is trying to kill Brian Nichols. There is little question that he killed a judge, a court reporter, a sheriff’s deputy and a DEA agent he happened upon. He’s a bad man. His entire defense, costing millions of dollars, coupled with millions of dollars that the prosecution has spent trying to kill him devolves to should he be put to death. His attorneys have put out feelers many times about life in prison. The prosecutor says no, fry him at the cost of millions.

Three, which is a worse punishment for the ultimate crimes? The Unibomber, the Olympic bomber, the Kansas City bomber are all sitting in a “supermax prison” and complaining about the deprivation they face, and will face for the rest of their lives. I don’t have any sympathy.
Am I in any way more vindicated in my hatred of murder or rape if they were dead at a cost of many more millions and on the chance that one or more of them didn’t do it? To me, no.

I won’t go into the Eighth Amendment and the current debate about whether the electric chair, the gas chamber or lethal injection constitute cruel and unusual punishment. If you have decided it’s a good idea to kill someone, I’m not at all sure how it matters if you’re cruel in doing so.

Your thoughts?

A Corporate Practice That I Don't Understand

As you know I’ve got a new spiffy TV with HD capability. I still have not solved the inability to see (versus hear, which I can) DVD’s but that’s another story.

I had DirecTv and have switched to Dish. I didn’t cancel the DirecTv until today and I predicted to friends how that would go. I waited a week to make sure there wasn’t some huge problem with the new service, and there wasn’t.

A couple of weeks ago I’d gone online to check on upgrading to an HD dish and receiver. I then called. The rep confirmed what I’d read online, though I’d been a DirecTv customer for about five years, it wanted to charge me $220 bucks for the dish and receiver and about $6 more a month for the roughly equivalent programming that Dish offered.

I like what I had with DirecTv, so I asked if they would waive the $220, several times in several different ways. Nope. I pointed out that if they didn’t I would move to the competition. Sorry to hear that but nope.

So I moved. Today, the first thing the nice lady asked was why I was leaving. I briefly told her. She started to offer the switch to the new dish and receiver at no charge. I cut her off and explained in more detail that I had asked for what she was offering at length and had been denied.

I understand that companies are in business to make money; but, there’s a point that they are dumb. When it’s clear that you are going to lose a client that it makes economic sense to keep, don’t you bite the bullet and make a bit less money? The stupid thing is, if I had been a Dish or cable customer and called DirecTv for the service, they would have installed the stuff free and given me a break on pricing just like Dish did because I was new to it.

Oh, and the HD stuff is cool. You’ve never seen golf until you’ve seen it in HD. I have to figure out how to have someone carry around an HD camera when I’m playing. Then I could watch the replay as I line up and be able to see the individual grains of grass that will govern the break of the ball as I hit it. Amazing.

Should I Feel Guilty?

As I’m typing, I’m watching (really listening to) a PBS broadcast of a Moody Blues concert recorded back in 1991. A few minutes ago, thanks to the wonder that is DVR (I do miss TiVo on DirecTv, not available on Dish), I fast-forwarded through the pitch for “new and renewing” members.

I probably should have done some research before writing this to find out if I’m right; but, don’t Public TV and Public Radio have just as many “commercials” as commercial stations? Yes, the “commercials” are a bit different.

“This program is brought to you by generous grants from General Motors, IBM, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Public Broadcasting Corporation, and viewers like you.” I’d, by the way, like to know the MacArthurs, they seem to have a lot of money, they sponsor most every thing on WABE in Atlanta.

Then there are the flat out commercials, especially on Public TV.

I don’t donate to either. I did for years, some years ago. I quit for a couple of reasons. The main one being what I said above, they are commercial TV/radio, with a bit of a different advertising model. Then there was the continuous junk mail and junk calls. “Hi Dave, we have you down on our list as someone who we can guilt into giving us more and more money, how much can we grab today?”

Finally, for the most part, Public TV is not very good anymore. Every good idea it had got grabbed by cable TV and made better. Food shows? Food Network. Nova? All the nature shows? The Discovery family of channels. Masterpiece Theater? BBC.

PBS is left with showing 17 year old recordings of the Moody Blues and breaking them up with guilt trips aimed at the Boomers that are watching.

I do listen to NPR in spurts on a regular basis. It doesn’t seem to have as much advertising. Should I send them an anonymous money order every now and again?

I Hate Agreeing With Her

Though she professes that she is just about to, maybe, release her tax returns, though she is quite busy now (like she has to root through the closet to find them), I know she doesn’t want to; and, I agree with her.

Anyone but an idiot knows she and Bill have made a bunch of money. When you can loan your campaign $5 Mil, you are quite comfortable.

That established, what’s the point? If she played fast and loose with her payments, I’m sure the IRS has already looked at it and blessed it.

Bill has been paid a lot of money by a lot of corporations, foreign and domestic. We already know that. Does the publication of the 1099’s naming the payers change her qualifications to be the President? I don’t think so.

I don’t want her to be the President; but, it has nothing to do with the fact that she’s rich.

If Obama, and God forbid, McCain in a general election, want to tar her with her and her husband’s big money connections, there’s plenty of public record out there to base the attack upon. The oriental guy from a few years ago. Whitewater.

Go further, maybe she, Obama and McCain should give sworn depositions about their pasts, hooked up to a polygraph machine. Interesting, but not relevant to the matters that should matter to voters. How many of you could pass those tests? I couldn’t.

In conclusion, I hate agreeing with her.

My Subcontinent Odyssey

We’ll see how quickly and calmly I can whip this out.

I realized today that an exchange of Emails was not going to work to make my computer not go to the Netgear site about 80% of the time when I clicked to go to a URL. So I called Netgear customer service. I spent about forty-five minutes with a “level one support engineer.” She didn’t have a clue what I was saying. I had to ask her to repeat about every third response. For the entire time, she did not understand that I connected to the internet on an aircard. Not DSL. Not cable. When she asked me how I connected for the fifth time. I tried to politely ask her that I be connected with someone else. She ignored me. She went back to another theme of her half of our conversation: if I could not find a Netgear Icon, I had no Netgear software on my computer.

I used my “big boy” voice and told her that I didn’t care if there was an icon, could she explain why my browser went to one of your blogs and then redirected to the Netgear welcome page if I didn’t have any of its software on my computer? She had no answer and said she couldn’t help me. She would transfer me to her supervisor. Alvin came on the line and solved the problem, I thought, in about five minutes.

When I went on the internet this evening the problem was back. I called again. After an hour of back and forth with a “level two support engineer” I said, “I don’t care if the router ever works, tell me how to make the browser go to the site I send it to.” He insisted that I’d been given bad advice from the others and that he would fix it. I said no. He said if I unplugged the router, I wouldn’t have the problem. I did so and tried some sites while I was online with him. They all went were I planned to go to. After I hung up, I tried a bunch more. So far so good.

Oh, and while this problem was going on, my start page on Google that was customized to give me various news sources had gone back to the generic page that invited me to customize it. Router on its way to the trash and the customized start page is back. Makes no sense; but, facts are facts I guess.

Now I have to figure out, again, how to let the satellite receiver talk to the computer.

I’ll keep you updated, unless I get a significant number of comments telling me not to bother you with this boring garbage. Pandering I know, but Pos says that people are reading but not commenting.

Thank God I Don't Do This For A Living:

mess with electronics and computers.

As regular readers know, I spent my weekend playing with a new TV and satellite service.
TV hookup and the resulting experience have been a dream.

If you’re looking for a flat panel, I highly recommend a Samsung 4071F LCD. Even if you aren’t watching HD, the picture is amazing, if anything, better than the display in the store where everything is set up to wow you.

But, after the fact I found out that I’m an early adopter of a system that the provider doesn’t know how to hook up: my DishTv receiver can be hooked up to a phone line or a high speed computer. I got rid of my phone line a couple of years back. As an aside, I’m a bit strange when it comes to phones. I don’t have much use for just talking on one. In person, talking is fine. On a phone, say what needs to be said and move along. Even before I dumped the phone, I had it forwarded to my office so as to not get calls. I now turn my cell phone off when I get home.

Anyway, when I ordered the service I confirmed with the sales rep that it would work hooked through my laptop which connects by “air/express card” to the Internet. I also have a friend that is an engineer for Dish and confirmed it with him. He said I needed an Ethernet cable and needed to allow “internet sharing” on the laptop.

The installer got there and started to hook up the box to the phone jack. I explained that he needed to make the connection to the laptop, pointing to it. “Does the installation package have an Ethernet cable?” He had a puzzled look on his face. I looked through the box, nope. I told him to forget it, I’d get a cable and do it later.

Later was the next morning. I got a cable and hooked it up. No connection. I called my friend and we spent the day back and forth on the phone and by Email. We established that a cable would not be enough, we needed to establish a gateway that would allow the box to top to the laptop and thus reach the Internet.

As I had a wireless router that I’d bought about a year ago but hadn’t used, I got it and realized I didn’t have the installation CD. So I went online and downloaded the software from Netgear’s support section. No connection. Further back and forth with my friend, and I learned that I could use the wireless router as a wired router and provide the needed gateway. It worked.

Then I found out that the Netgear software had insinuated its way into my browser, part of the time. I’d click on a site in my Favorites and instead of taking me there, it would send me to a Netgear registration site or to a Netgear page that told me that the URL was not one supported by the “Netgear support server.”

I’ve uninstalled the software, but that hasn’t solved the problem. I’m now exchanging Emails with Syed on the Subcontinent.

When that’s resolved I’ll move on to figuring out why the home theater will send audio to the box but not video.

Sorry

I got some comment spam. Who thinks I'm going to click on a link to "warlock gold?" So I turned on the stupid letter verification thing. Sorry.

The Original Remote Control Needs A Replacement

I think I’ve done a comment on a post, or a comment on one of your posts about the original remote control. If you read it and now have to read through it again, I apologize.

So when I was a kid, I was the oldest of three brothers. As the oldest, I had certain chores, especially in the early days, as the two younger brothers just weren’t old enough to do them. I cut the grass and shoveled the sidewalk and driveway. A lesser assigned chore was to serve as the household’s TV remote control.

Picture our living room. Hardwood floors with an area rug. As you entered the front door, the couch was immediately to your left. To its left along the “side” wall was my Dad’s and Mom’s chairs, then the bookshelves. They moved on into the dining room; but, if you looked to the right you’d see the television. A big console. I’m not sure what the size of the screen was, 15”, 18”? Tiny by today’s standards.

When settling in TV time began, Mom sat on the couch or “her” chair. My Dad in his. Us kids, for the most part laid on the area rug in the middle of the room.

“David, channel seven.” Twenty or so minutes later, “channel two.” I was an non-electronic remote control. It worked fine. There was only ABC, CBS, NBC and a Windsor, Ontario, Canada independent channel in the early years. Later on we got a couple of independent UHF channels.

Well, I’ve had my new TV since late morning yesterday. By physical count, I now have five operative remotes. I’m in the process of consolidation, but it’s slow. I need me a nine year old kid. Not to tell to change the channel. Rather, to accomplish the accommodation.

“David, make the home theater remote give the TV not just the audio from the DVD, add the video.”

“David, you know what I want to watch, create a favorites list without the shopping, religious, ethnic and porn channels.” Did you know that Jenna Jamison has her own porn channel?

“David, make the satellite receiver talk to the wireless broadband Internet. It won’t? Go to the store and buy an Ethernet cable, and when that doesn’t work, buy a crossover Ethernet cable and then pull out the wireless router that I couldn’t get to work a year or so ago. Can’t find the installation CD? Go on line and download it. For some strange reason it’s going to take an hour to open the compressed file? OK, I’ll do a post and watch the golf tournament in HD. If I want to watch individual blades of grass growing, I can see them."

So, how have all ya'll spent your weekend?