The Atlanta-Journal Constitution and The New York Times, Compare and Contrast

I just subscribed to The New York Times on Sundays, so this morning there were two papers when I opened the door.

I couldn't do a true comparison of the time it takes to read each as I learned that a lot of what is on NYTimes.com on Saturday is in the Sunday print edition. It took about an hour to read the AJC and about two hours to read what I hadn't already read in the NYT.

Much more color in the AJC. Much more substance in the NYT.

Lots of graphics in the AJC. Competent writing in the NYT.

No locally written book reviews in the AJC. The 28 page New York Times Book Review section.

Good coverage of the Braves in the AJC. Nothing beyond box score in the NYT. What's up with that?

For good measure, I read Creative Loafing, Atlanta's "alternative" weekly which is owned by a company that publishes "alternative" weeklies in a bunch of cities. Twenty minutes. But I skipped the ads for strip clubs, the personals, plastic surgery ads and the music reviews.

125 Visitors To Go At About Four-Thirty on Saturday Afternoon

Swear Words and a Thought About Our Societal Wimpiness

It is 6:16 p.m. on Friday the tenth of August, in the year of our Lord, 2007. According to my home page weather it is 102 degrees outside of my abode. Inside, when I walked in about fifteen minutes ago, it was 86, as I turn off the air when I leave in the morning. The humidity is way up, I'm not going to talk about wet and dry heat. Insert some swear words, it's hot.

As most of you know, I live in Atlanta. It's hot here in the Summer. I grew up in Michigan without AC. There was a bit of hot, but you could abide it.

I used to go out to Vegas with friends once a year to play golf, gamble and eat. One of those years, a friend and I were talking after we had gotten there about looking out of the plane at the desert and the beginning of the mountains. My thought was, if I'd seen that in the seventeen or eighteen whatevers as I was moving West, I'd have turned back. Of course, turning back, I might have faced the Southeast's oppressive humid heat, or the Northeast's frigid cold without the benefit of electricity and its wonderful effect on my comfort.

Seems to me that I owe my parents some thanks for having borne me at a pretty good wimpy era in history.

Last Contest Update

As of 3:00 p.m. EDT, the blog has had 7,321 visitors with a current average of 44 a day. Weekends usually have a bit less traffic. So, Monday, Tuesday?

If you don't know what this is all about or want to refresh yourself on the rules, scroll down to previous contest posts.

A Blog Kind Of Thing.

I regularly read Curmudgeon, the author of Second Effort. He lives and works in "undisclosed locations" in the Chicago area. He's a White Sox fan and thus is suffering from clinical depression at this current point in time.

He did a post that referred to another blogger, Chris, that created yet another round-robin post thing. This one intrigued me. The deal is to go back in your archives and dredge up a post that you like. Put a link to it in your post and a link to the post where you found the idea. A traffic builder of sorts.

Other than the embedding URLs and my lack of ability to do it, I liked and feared the idea. Is there something out there in the archive, early on, that I like, that I want re-exposed?

I settled on http://ratherthanworking.blogspot.com/2006/10/golf.html and I am tired of trying to get that to read as the title of the post from last fall.

So read the old post, tell me what you think. Go over to, damn, another hyperlink. Go over to the Recommended sidebar and click Second Effort. Scroll down to the post that is titled something like "Best Shot" from Wednesday of this week. If nothing else, you find a guy that can write.

On that last subject, when you are done with the instructions above, or if you want to ignore them, go to the sidebar and click Pole Hill Sanitarium. The Doctor has a really good post today about Barry Bonds, society and a few other things. Some amazing writing and cogent thoughts.

Black and White? Or Green?

Atlanta, "the city too busy to hate," has found the time, when it comes to our public hospital, Grady Memorial.

The City of Atlanta straddles the border between Fulton and DeKalb (de CAB) counties. Like most big cities, we have a huge public hospital that serves most of our uninsured, poor, elderly, etc. It has one of the best trauma centers in the country.

Given those missions, it is always short of money. The shortfall is made worse by the fact that its patients come from all over Metro Atlanta and to an extent, Georgia; but, its public funding comes primarily from Fulton and DeKalb taxpayers.

The Hospital is currently undergoing its latest and most serious crisis. It is projected to run out of money sometime late in the year. To date, the crisis has been addressed by pontification by the various camps of politicians. There's a "Grady Summit" scheduled for Monday. Earlier in the year a "Task Force" appointed by Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, issued a report that among other recommendations, promoted the creation of a non-profit corporation to take over the day-to-day running of the hospital from the Grady Board.

The Board has ten members, three appointed by the DeKalb and seven appointed by the Fulton, County Commission (the disparity is historical - Fulton had a lot more people in the Forties when the Board was created). The Grady Board and the Fulton and DeKalb commissions have a majority of members who are black. The Task Force has a white majority. Ah, now you know where this is going.

Joe Beasley, regional director of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition said last week "It's about race, if we don't know it and don't deal with it, we're just whistling Dixie." Mr. Beasley is black.

Retorted A.D. Correll, white co-chairman of the Task Force, "this is about green - not black or white, it's about money. We simply have got to quit talking about political power and talk about how we're going to pay for care for people of this community. I don't give damn who's in charge."

Beasley sees the non-profit corporation proposal as a "white" power grab. He wants the Hospital bailed out; but, he wants operations to be controlled by the current black majority Board, the Board that ran the Hospital for the last seven years, losing money, resulting in the current need for an immediate $120 million bailout.

This rhetorical war also needs to be seen in the context of the last several years of Fulton County "secessions." For years there has been conflict between the northern and southern parts of Fulton County. Most of the southern population is black, with whites holding the majority in the north. Property in the north is more valuable and brings in more property taxes, the primary source of county funding, which are spent by the majority black government in the south.

North Fulton residents after years of trying, got the State Legislature to authorize referendums to form cities in the north part of the county. So far we have three new cities: Sandy Springs, Milton and John's Creek. The result is less money going to the county and less to spend in the south. Though the rhetoric about these events has died down, there were allegations of racist motivations for city creation.

So what is the motivating factor? Racism? Money? A combination of the two? "Color" is certainly involved. "Control" is a factor - if money comes from outside the two counties, should control remain with the counties? Absent the ability to control spending, should the State and/or the region throw money at the very real problem? I dunno.

Contest Update

Visitors are picking up; though comments are not. Current visitors are 7,210 with an average of 45 a day. If that holds up, the winner will visit next Monday.

$$$: Three Balls: Glavine, A-Rod, Bonds

Credit first. The idea for this post comes from, as often, The New York Times, online. There was a quick piece on Bonds and A-Rod and their respective 755th and 500th home run balls.

A-Rod's ball is estimated to be worth $100K; but, the guy that got it says he may settle for a boatload of Yankee signed stuff. A-Rod says he would like the ball.

Nothing in the article about who caught Bonds' penultimate ball; but, the "experts" say the next one could be worth more than $600K.

Quietly last night, Tom Glavine pitched his 300th winning game, going into the sixth inning. The closer, I think Wagner, gave him the last ball and a hug. Priceless?

P.S. Blogger spell checker thinks contractions are misspellings; but, it gives a big OK when you type A-Rod.

Contest Update

With all the dither of the jerkstore recently, I forgot my promise to give you an update on progress toward 7500 visitors.

As of a few minutes ago there have been 7153. Still clicking along at an average of 38 a day.

If you've happened along and have no idea what I'm talking about, scroll down a little over a week ago and read the contest announcement and rules.

If traffic holds to current patterns, we will reach the destination on or about August 16.

Sorry Folks

Seems I've attracted a stalker. Until I block the attacks, your comments will be a little slow in showing up on the blog.

Inframaintenance

Structures require maintenance.

You change the oil and sparkplugs in your car. The filters for the house air conditioner and furnace get replaced periodically and you paint the siding now and again.

But, when it comes to this kind of work on big stuff, "out of sight, out of mind" prevails over "pay me now or pay me later."

It's been pay me later time for a couple of decades now for our public utilities.

I've lived in Atlanta for the last twenty years. I used to work in the heart of downtown and parked in the "pigeon pit," which is an area where the streets years and years ago were built up above ground level so the railroad tracks didn't interfere with street traffic. Even back then, the concrete structures were falling apart. Chunks of concrete had fallen out, exposing the rebar in the piers. Our solution? String metal "netting" under and around the concrete so people and cars didn't get hit by the falling debris.

Starting a few years back, a couple of decades late, Atlanta started spending a couple of billion dollars to save our water system.

This morning's paper reported that there are 18 bridges in Metro Atlanta that score under 10 on the 1 to 100 structural integrity scale the feds use in inspecting bridges. The paper reported earlier in the week that Georgia DOT spends about $100 billion a year maintaining bridges but that to bring bridges up to proper maintenance levels would take more than a billion dollars.

When and if we pull out of Iraq maybe the money can be spent on some of the more critical inframaintenance we should have been doing. Probably not. In six months, our bridges and water and sewer pipes will be back out of public sight and out of our public mind.

FDR, Truman, Johnson, Reagan, Bush I, Bush II, You and Me

President Bush's Speech About September 11, 2001

Leonard Pitts' Editorial, September 12, 2001

My post yesterday got me to thinking about September 11 again. I’m going to make a small effort to not refer to it as 9/11.

I mentioned in the post that President Bush made one of his few compelling addresses to the nation on September 11, 2001. That got me thinking about Leonard Pitts’ piece the next day in The Miami Herald. I remember tears as I read it.

Leonard Pitts is no George Bush; and, George Bush is no Leonard Pitts. Our President is a privileged white, Anglo-Saxon, right-wing, religious-right guy. Leonard Pitts is a now privileged, but not always, black, left leaning, moderate at best, religious guy who doesn’t insist you and I live his religion.

Having now reread the speech and editorial, it strikes me as to how wrong, in many ways they both were.

Both were, understandably and rightly outraged. Both extolled the resilient nature of the American people. Who said what?

"These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat. But they have failed; our country is strong.

Did you want to make us fear? You just steeled our resolve.

When roused, we are righteous in our outrage, terrible in our force. When provoked by this level of barbarism, we will bear any suffering, pay any cost, go to any length, in the pursuit of justice.

Today, our nation saw evil, the very worst of human nature. And we responded with the best of America -- with the daring of our rescue workers, with the caring for strangers and neighbors who came to give blood and help in any way they could.

As Americans we will weep, as Americans we will mourn, and as Americans, we will rise in defense of all that we cherish.

This is a day when all Americans from every walk of life unite in our resolve for justice and peace. America has stood down enemies before, and we will do so this time.

As Americans we will weep, as Americans we will mourn, and as Americans, we will rise in defense of all that we cherish."

The quotes alternate between the two pieces. There’s a bit of a difference in style, but the tone is the same. If you care, go to the links to the speech and the editorial and find out who said what.

Here’s some Charlie Daniels for you:

In America

We'll the eagle's been flying slow, and the flag's been flying low, and a lot of people's saying that America's fixing to fall.

But speaking just for me and some people from Tennessee, we got a thing or two to tell you all.

This lady may have stumbled but she ain't never fell. And if the Russians don't believe that they can all go straight to hell.

We're gonna put her feet back on the path of the righteousness and then God bless America again.

And you never did think that it ever would happen again In America, did you? You never did think that we'd ever get together again.

Well we damn sure fooled you. We're walking real proud and we're talking real loud again in America.

You never did think that it ever would happen again.

From the sound up in Long Island out to San Francisco Bay, and every thing that's in between them is our home. And we may have done a little bit of fighting amongst ourselves, but you outside people best leave us alone.

Cause we'll all stick together and you can take that to the bank.That's the cowboys and the hippies and the rebels and the yanks.

You just go and lay your hand on a Pittsburgh Steelers fan and I think you're gonna finally understand.

And you never did think that it ever would happen again In America, did you? You never did think that we'd ever get together again.

Well we damn sure fooled you. We're walking real proud and we're talking real loud again in America. You never did think that it ever would happen again.

Daniels wrote the song in the early Eighties, after the Iranian hostage crisis, at the height of the Reagan resurgence of patriotism. And of course, before September 11, 2001.

In yesterday’s post, I quoted from FDR’s “infamy” speech.

What do these four men say about us as a people?

Well, we seldom start fights; though some would argue that our peace-time activities foment fights.

We do fight back.

When the fight is life and death, so far we’ve won.

When the fight is far away, and in the near and middle term, not one that will destroy us, we wander away. Korea, Vietnam, Iran of Charlie Daniels fame, Iraq the first time, and it looks like Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran, this time around.

We talk big, we meddle. Then we seek the current version of “peace with honor.”

The terrorist attack against us on September 11 was barbaric. Without vigilance and action to prevent its recurrence, we will see another attack.

But, we tend to misdirect our anger. Korea in the Fifties, Vietnam in the Sixties, Iran in the Seventies, Afghanistan and Iraq in the Nineties and Iran now, do not threaten our way of life.

We fought Korea,Vietnam and Iran as surrogates for the Soviet Union. We fight with Afghans, Iraqis and Iranians as entities that substitute for the non-nations, the groups, that try to harm us. The new Soviet Union is Al Quada, Hamas, etc.

I think it’s time we identified the enemies we have and figure out how to deal with them.

Coming Attractions

Just left Big Rick, who, in his less than kind way, told me the blog has been sucking lately.

He reminded me that I have not finished the 9/11 story. He's right. Soon.

An aside, why is that day universally known as 9/11 rather than September 11? I've always thought that the latter is more elegant. I assume the label is a media construction, though I may be wrong.

I always compare the poor labeling, in my mind to "December 7, 1941, a day that will live in infamy." Different eras, different sensibilities?

I always thought one of the few speeches that the current President has given that resonated was his initial reaction to that day. It hasn't held up like FDR's but it's as close as he will ever get.

Feds And Cats Fight, Less Than One Hundred Miles From Guantanamo

Since we have a minor controversy running in the comments about my current, as Ron puts it, a-muse, in Stupid Government Stuff, immediately below, here’s a link to an explanation of the Federal Animal Welfare Act at the USDA site:

Furballs: Now Federal Offense

I’ll leave interpretation and application to the the Key West cat imbroglio to you. I just hope the cats' lawyers (now there's specialization) do better than the people representing the detainees. After further thought, with the same results as in Guantanamo, the cats will be detained in Key West for years before any possibility of release.

Stupid Government Stuff

My muse may be back.

Stupid Government Stuff

Not much more to say.

New Contest

In May, I think, I held a contest to be my 5,000th visitor which was won by Keith, see Recommended Sidebar.

Fermi probably was the actual winner, but, I couldn't tell from my Sitemeter statistics. I told her I'd run another contest at 7,500.

Amazingly, that mark is approaching. Sitemeter shows I've had sixty-seven hundred, and some change, visitors. The average per day is 38, but ranges from 30 to 60. Thus, with current trends, it should take three weeks to hit the mark.

I'll give you updates on numbers in a week. In the meantime, here are the rules:

Number 7,500, if a comment is left, wins. If number 7,500 doesn't leave a comment, the next visitor leaving a comment is the winner. The reason for this rule is that unless there is a comment which has a time stamp on it, I can't always identify the visitor on Sitemeter.

Comments must pertain to the post on which they are left. The reason for this rule is that I'm not doing this to drive traffic. The contest is intended to be something fun for me and regular readers. So, "which number am I?" doesn't get it. Also, though I have a couple of regular "anons" they can't win without a real live name and link, for the simple reason that, I can't contact them. This rule doesn't apply if you leave your name in the body of the comment like Debo does and I know where to find you.

I guess that's lawyerly enough. Oh, the prize. $50 credit/gift/etc. at the webstore of your choice that takes major credit cards.

You Asked For It

I've been posting a bit less lately. A missing muse?

The comments to my last post, which talked about not writing, were mixed. Some said write only when you feel like it and others said write.

First, I don't labor over the writing that appears here. That shows in more often than wanted, when rereading what I've written, lack of polish. The sub-heading to the blog says "Comments, and on my pretentious days, essays, on what on a given day interests, amuses, annoys or outrages me." The problem has been a lack of interest, amusement, annoyance and outrage. The world is out there, it just isn't tickling me to react.

So, here's how I've spent this cloudy, fairly humid, Sunday morning:

Up at about eight and started water to make coffee. I use a french press and yesterday I bought some estate Colombian beans from a shop called Cool Beans in Marietta. About a month ago, I took the glass "dishwasher safe" beaker out of the dishwasher and noticed a hairline crack.

This morning the hairline crack gave birth to wholesale collapse of the carafe when I plunged the plunger. The counter and the floor needed some scrubbing anyway.

I couldn't decide whether to go somewhere for breakfast, which for me is really just coffee and maybe a bagel, or go to Target and get a new coffee press.

Target won out. But, Target didn't have any coffee presses.

More decisions. There's a new Walmart fairly near me. Why would I have thought that Walmart, even an urban location would carry coffee presses?

There was a Waffle House on the way home. It had coffee, not very good. But it had the necessary caffeine. I also ate my weekly allotment of fat and cholesterol and read part of the paper.

Back home, I finished the paper and the coffee in a to-go-cup.

Online, I found that Amazon.com has replacement carafes that after you add shipping costs are about as much as a new press.

Off to Bed Bath and Beyond which sold me a very nice new Bodum coffee press. Before starting to write this, I made a couple of cups and am sipping the first as I type.

Next up in my very exciting life, clothes in the washer and dishes (not the new carafe) in the dishwasher.

To close, I think I'll wait for the muse before my next post.

I'm Alive...

there just isn't anything happening that inspires me to write about it. Not writer's block. I have subject blues.

That being the case, I'm going to tackle further research on setting up my new website. Content is all written. I just have to wade through getting a template that doesn't look stupid, getting a host (though I think I have that close to done), getting a credit card merchant account and meshing all of them together.

Fermi, you know any bright young Tech IT student that's brilliant but works cheap?

Micro-Lying

I just watched a documentary on PBS about facial expressions.

A vignette. A researcher tested a lot of people in various occupations as to their ability to detect people that were lying on a video. Across all groups, other than some Secret Service agents, the ability to detect a lie, was "a matter of chance." Fifty-fifty.

Then the researcher talked about the lying micro-clue: a twenty-fifth of a second of wrinkles on a liar's brow. They played a video of a person telling a lie, in slow motion, there were the wrinkles.

They then played that micro-second during former President Clinton's famous "I did not have sexual relations with that woman" press conference, back and forth as he told the lie. Wrinkle, wrinkle, wrinkle.

I suppose you could train your self to see this in real time. A worthwhile skill.

Half A Loaf

The New York Times reports that “[a] federal appeals court ordered the government yesterday to turn over virtually all its information on Guantanamo detainees who are challenging their detention, rejecting an effort by the Justice Department to limit disclosures and setting the stage for new legal battles over the government’s reasons for holding the men indefinitely.”

The Court though didn’t really order disclosure of “virtually all” government information. The government must turn over the information which is “reasonably available.”

“[D]etainees’ lawyers … said the ruling created the likelihood of fresh legal battles over what information in the government’s vast intelligence files was covered, and whether the government in fact produces all its information dealing with specific detainees.”

Seems to me that the Court has merely shifted the battleground, at least for the next year and a half that Alberto Gonzales is running the Justice Department. What do you think his staff will determine is “reasonably available?”