Blogging a bit on the lessons learned in life

Gifts that Keep Giving and Reflections on Paterno

2012-01-25T22:24:00.002-05:00

It has been an interesting week and obviously quite a few things have happened since I last posted here.

A few words on Joe Paterno

Assuming the Sandusky allegations are true at least in some part, Paterno's failure to deal with it makes him supremely human at a minimum and perhaps worse. The questions do not personally interest me too much. Sandusky's alleged crimes (I believe they are almost all going to be true) are heinous. So it seems hard to forgive Paterno for not doing more. However, does anyone stand-up every time they see an injustice and intervene? I doubt it. Whether it was watching a bully hassle someone else, listening to damaging gossip, or even doing some of these activities. I am sure that the answer is that there is nobody who does not at some point turn away and not stand up for justice.

The gulf may seem pretty big, between letting a pedophile go on in the face of credible accusations and say letting kids pick on someone that they think is a nerd or a loser, but they are part of a long spectrum of the human willingness to let evil go on rather than do what it takes to deal with it.

Paterno's accomplishments were great and had Sandusky not been part of his story, his would be a complete story of a man committed to his players and his school, with enormous success.

But, Sandusky will be part of his story too. So, no matter how great his other accomplishments, we know that he had a chance to stop a monster. Let's not pretend there weren't others that could have stopped him as well.

I am sure Paterno wished he never met Sandusky. I am sure Paterno wished he had acted on Sandusky's allegations. I am sure most of us, the honest and decent ones, wish there were things we could go back and do differently too. I am thankful I haven't faced the same evil that Paterno did in Sandusky. While I hope that I would have taken it more seriously than Paterno and stopped it, I also hope I don't have to cross that particular bridge.

The GOP Just Keeps Giving and Giving

OK. I am still sticking by my Romney prediction. But Newt is the most wonderful comet I seen in recent memories. The human Halley's comet. Newt has been a human atom bomb exploding all over Romney. Well, perhaps more accurately, allowing Mitt to blow himself up.

Romney grew up with a silver spoon, regardless of his rough family history, and he simply doesn't connect with the people living a regular life. He might even be a capable President, but I think he wants to be President because it is the only toy left he has been allowed to have. He is mind boggling.

Newt's tax plan, laughably, is just red meat for his voters. It would dramatically reduce tax dramatically for the rich and make the deficit worse. Who is conservative now dude? (PS Romney's tax plan will also make the deficit worse, just not as bad as Newts).

I am falling asleep, so I have to come back to this.

South Newtarolina and Bigger News

2012-01-19T22:18:00.002-05:00

Newt's on a roll. Again. Who would have thought it was possible. The pugnacious one is back to his bad boy ways. I don't think Wife #2 is going to do much to change that. You'd think she'd be happy to be free of the Newtster, not a bigger ex. (I know, I know, stereotypes are bad, but that is the way it will play).

The bigger news for me was the growing story about Romney parking millions in the Caymans and touting a tax plan that would benefit mainly people like - who else - Romney himself. I thought the hoopla over "I like the be able to fire people" was overblown. As any employer knows, you will have to let people go from time to time, and it can end up being a significant headache. Even when the individual is doing great harm to the company. However, a much better answer would have been, "I don't like to fire people because it can be hard to replace people and it can be disruptive, but it know how important it is to be able to fire someone if they are hurting everyone else."

I have NO sympathy for parking your money in the Caymans so you can avoid paying taxes in the US. Particularly from a guy that wants to be the President of the United States. Because what smacks of leadership like sneaking off your millions to the Caymans when the country has huge deficits. "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." Mr. Romney, that means keeping your money here so that it can invested and loaned to Americans and, yes, you can help with the deficit by paying a few more taxes. All Presidential candidates have to have pretty big egos, but that isn's the same as being selfish. Mr. Romney is selfish and self absorbed. (OK may be not as bad as Trump).

Final note, Romney's tax plan will do two things: add a lot to the national debt AND pad the pockets of the richest Americans. A significant portion of our debt is a the fault of the Bush Tax Cuts which also padded the pockets of the richest Americans. Now Romney plans to double down. How can that be good for the USA.

If it ain't broken . . .

2012-01-18T22:00:00.002-05:00

. . . don't fix it.

PIPA and SOPA appeared to be stalling today. Not a minute too soon.

The bottom line is that the music industry and MPAA have been held hostage by the belief that piracy of music and movies is more than a fringe activity. It wasn't that long ago that they were after internet radio stations because someone streaming 8 or 16 lines was going to break their hold on business. Of course, the selection of CDs in BestBuy is pretty small these days, because the RIAA was fighting to erect a chainlink fence against a rising tide. They even managed to get some individuals fined a lot of money for putting music on illegal peer-to-peer networks. I don't particularly feel bad for people that wholesale copied and distributed vast numbers of music tracks, because it was never moral to do that. However, getting a handful of people, doesn't necessarily preserve your monopoly on distribution and doesn't replace getting a distribution method that works with the technologies of today.

Piracy of entertainment materials usually involves some false equation about how X billion dollars is lost to piracy each year. It is actually only lost if, if you closed the loop on piracy by making it technologically impossible, if you assume the pirates would actually pay that money to the film or music company. In large part, I don't believe that will happen, that money will simply never existed.

Because we're not going to irradicate the technological ability to stop piracy, what the MPAA and RIAA and everyone else needs is to figure out how to deliver the product safety and effectively.

I am sympathetic to their complaint, but make it easy enough for more people to get what they want at a resonable cost. Piracy won't go away, but most people aren't law breakers to start with. They just want to access music or films and they don't mind paying a fair price for it.

Get with it.

Massive College Road Trip

2012-01-15T20:41:00.001-05:00

Well - been on the road - in a giant loop through potential colleges for my daughter. Small to large, isolated to in big cities, DI to DIII, coed to a female-only campus. I am exhausted, but we're off to one more "Junior Day" tomorrow.

So - did we find anything out? We narrowed a few things out and identified probably what we should be looking at: bigger schools are better. Not really into the women's school.

This trip involved about 15 hours of driving over 3 days. Tomorrow ... 5 more hours. So, I'll be going to be bed soon.

But lots of stuff has been going on in world:

I am poor at predicting the football future: Packers are out and LSU got shutdown completely by the Crimson Tide.
Romney may be fading in the SC polls. We can only hope, in order to keep the GOP race exciting. However, he still seems to have it in the bag to me. He must have been insufferable as a classmate . . . but he has the tools to be successful in pursuing his cause d'jour.
I will say, though, it is all about him (despite what he says). I'll bet you $10,000¹
Someone is murdering Iranian nuclear scientists.
I am intrigued by the Russian protests. I am somewhat happy to see some pressure put on Putin.
Debt crises continues to loom in the Euro Zone. Ugh.

I'd do some more, but I need to get to bed. I've got to get up at 6:00 AM tomorrow.

Later.

¹ Not really, I don't have an $10,000 for a meaningless bet like Romney does.

abc's NH GOP Debate and Romneycon

2012-01-08T08:30:00.002-05:00

I made it through the whole GOP debate and I'll have to say the biggest loser was "abc" news. The questions and conduct of the debate were ridiculously poor. I think CBS has a debate today (1/8) and the bar for conduct has been set ridiculously low. Henceforth perhaps we can refer to ABC News as "abc news" - all lower case - until they earn a upper case.

It sure looks like it is all over and the 3rd best candidate has all but warpped it up. We can now start referring the GOP convention as Romneycon. If no one has trademarked the term, I'd like to start right now with Romneycom^TM.

Since I will probably spend the next 9 to 10 months bashing Romney, let me at least throw in a few positive observations: Romney is smart, polished, and he was successful in business.  While I find him incredibly annoying, he is not GWB and will likely do a far better job than "The Worst President of All Time." He also never seemed to answer a question in the debate - he just jumped to a pre-prepared script. Even when asked a simple Yes or No question, he wouldn't even state a Yes or No.

Why is Romney so irritating: because his marketing groomed scripts all were perfectly designed to hit on GOP conversative hot points. Romney started grooming his message for the 2008 elections and has been effectively running for President for 6 years. It shows.  While Romney is no George Bush, he is yet another George Bush: a son of wealth and entitlement without a connection to the poor, the sick, and the old.

Of the also rans:

Why is Rick "Moonshine" Perry still on stage? Does he really think we're going to declare war on Iraq a second time in order to put troops back into the country? Perry is so 90s.  That crap might have worked in 1999 or 2000, but the US does not want a loonier George Bush.

Huntsman is obviously the guy with real experience in foreign affairs and massively successful in terms of GOP governing - having done so in Utah. However, how flaky is it to break out into Mandarin in a debate where much of you constituency does not trust China and does not understand Chinese. Also, while I completely agree, how can you be a true conservative if your marriage isn't threatened by gay marriage. (My marriage isn't and I don't know anyone's who would admit that gay marriage is a threat to their marriage, but bashing and holding down gays is a conservative litmus test just like global warming).  Huntsman, spare yourself further aggravation, please.

Newt sounded smart when he ever he deigned to answer a question. Unlike Romney, he actually answered questions. I feel back that he didn't savage Romney for being the biggest flip-flopper of all time. Newt's so called big score was that the government wasn't giving money to the Catholic church for child placement because, gasp, the church wouldn't follow the dictates of the government with respect to same sex households. This is a worthy and interesting debate, but why would the government ever give money to a religious organization: doing is exactly the same as government funding specific religions. However, it does serve as a reminder of the many good things that organized religions do - particularly a large on like the Catholic Church.

Ron Paul tried to widdle Sanctorum down a little bit, but it was not completely whole hearted. Ron is too old and too Libertarian for the GOP. He has some utility because he helps show that Romney will never state a concrete position on anything. At least Ron Paul always has a concrete position on everything.

[Side story: My sister's neighbor is a big Ron Paul supporter. The irony is that he just had his second free government-paid for knee replacement, but under a Ron Paul government he would have to live with too painful and debilitating knees.]

Lastly, Sanctorum. He peaked relatively early and made a good showing for himself. Sanctorum
appears less cerebral than everyone except Moonshine, but he nice seemed to wrap himself up as a "cause guy" and somewhat defty combined that with a belief in government to put his previous government experience into prospective. All a moot point, because unless Newt and Ron Paul drop out, he'll never have enough votes to catch Romney.

So it all about Romneycom^TM now.

Getting all Sanctorumous

2012-01-05T20:23:00.000-05:00

A bit lagging here - since I started this the day after the Iowa Caucus - but we are now about to New Hampshire and SC.

First - Meeechigan sports:

Woo hoo. Michigan wins a bowl game and gets 11 wins in a season. I stayed up to the bitter and was rewarded by a Michigan victory. It was almost like watching a car crash where we popped out in the end standing with a beer in our hand: Va Tech dominated the game play but managed to make catastrophic mistake after catastrophic mistake. I was still sooo happy for the outcome.
Michigan lost to Indiana in basketball. IU had the bulk of the flashy plays and somehow looked way better, but the Wolverines only lost by 1 point. While it was an important loss, if Michigan had started playing before 12 minutes were past in the 1st half, we would have handled Indiana. Good and bad.
Need to check into college hockey.

Second - politics:
Back to reality or what passes for reality in the Republican primary: I didn't follow the news for a few days and all of a sudden Rick "man on dog" Sanctorum wins even though he loses in Iowa. I would say that Sanctorum comes across as more authentic than Romney. Rick dedicated himself to Iowa, so I guess he deserves some credit for it. BUT HE LOST. Still, as of January 7th, he was surging in SC, presumably picking up Newt's and Bachmann voters. We can forget NH because conservatives and tea partiers don't control the vote in NH. Good for us, but bad for them, the Tea Party folk and social conservatives have too many choices and did not have enough leaders to thin out the herd prior to the primaries.

I will miss Bachmann even though I find her political positions some of the worst. But some of her attacks on the others candidates were glorious.

Obama finally got off of his ass and made some recess appointments. The Dems were idiots on holding out on Bush's appointments and the GOP were idiots to do the same thing to Obama. 'Nuff said, barring gross incomptence the President should have a lot of freedom to appoint who he wants, that should be part of his victory.

Romney is close to locking this thing up.

Most important trend so far: what were going to see from the super PACs in this election. Expect the most negative and heavily advertised election ever.

Brief note on the future:

Time to re-define the middle class down, so we can still have a middle class.

Happy New (and End) Year

2011-12-30T16:15:00.003-05:00

Lack of Posting = Death (to a blog)

I sort of fell off the wagon quickly trying to deal with a end of year work blitz and trying to help my daughter with looking a lacrosse schools. However, no blog should miss the chance of end of year summaries and predictions.

The ability to predict what will happen was one of humans many evolutionary advantages.

Predictions for 2013, not in any order

The Higgs Boson gets formally found.

Mitt Romney wins the Republican primaries.

The Presidential election seems like it is a coin flip right now - but call I must: Obama wins a 2nd term as President. The reasons I think this will happen are pretty mundane: 1) it is hard to dump a sitting President, 2) Obama has some genuine accomplishments, and 3) the Tea Party line the GOP is forced to tow is not popular with independents. Even though the economic picture looks grim, the GOP has nothing new to offer except - you got it - tax cuts for the rich.

We will see little or no progress on the deficit this year and the reasons will be entirely political.

Iran will not detonate a nuclear weapon in 2012, but already has the material to make one or more bombs.

We will not make it out of Afghanistan in 2012, but we will by the end of 2014.

Sports:

The Packers will (sadly) win another Super Bowl.
LSU will win the National Championship by defeating Alabama.
We will not get a football playoff system for BCS level teams, despite the fact that every other NCAA football division has a play-off system.
I don't care enough about pro basketball, baseball, or hockey to make any predictions about that.

Highlights of 2011

My family and kids are all did well.

Son successfully left for college.

Family trip to Chicago and San Franciso. I highly recommend doing the Alcatraz tour. We also did Muir Woods which was highly enjoyable.

US gets OBL.

Michigan football is relevant again.

US gets out Iraq.

UNC won Men's soccer championship.

TCL cancels Kate plus 8 after more agonizing years of rants than ever should have been shown.

Best form of Teenage Birth Control: MTV's Teen Moms

Bad highlights of 2011

My sister passed away.

The VA earthquake that shook our office building was pretty exciting, but it damaged the Washington Memorial. Something I wanted to go to the top of.

The Japanese earthquake, tsunami, and subsequent reactor meltdown. It reminds us that if it did happen the past, it can happen again.

The Republican debates.

Celebrity nuisances: Charlie Sheen, Lindsay Lohan (oh where have you gone Freaky Friday?), the Kardashian brand, Russell Brand,

TLC Shows that encourage irresponsible behavior: The Duggars/19 kids and counting, Sister Wives

The Tea Party holding the entire country hostage in order to prove they could hold the entire country hostage --- thus dumping the stock market down, getting the US downgraded, and adding to long term financial uncertainty.

Living with the impact of the sole of object of the GOP being to keep Obama from being a two term President.

Happy New Year!

Here is hoping for a prosperous New Year for everyone.

(Belated) Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T20:01:00.001-05:00

Merry Christmas!

Sorry I did not get a post out earlier on this. My sister and brother-in-law are in town, so there were multiple family related activities.

Some friends of ours got news that a family member has a previously undiscovered late stage cancer in the last couple of days. This family recently lost another member to cancer. While I don't mention specific names in this blog, if you can say a brief prayer of strength for those are dealing with loss and an uncertain future, please do so.

While I got some nice gifts today, I was happier reflecting upon my family.

Peace

The Killer B

2011-12-22T00:43:00.001-05:00

This dog was promised by the pound to be may 50 to 55 lbs - max. How, may you ask, could they be off by 60%? He was supposed to be a lab mix. Why do you think they thought that? It boggles the mind.

Oh so quiet

2011-12-21T23:02:00.001-05:00

Finally got the Christmas cards put together today. Obviously all of them won't make to the recipients by Christmas day.

Here are some random thoughts:

Chaz Bono is probably the person I least want to hear about in 2012 ... clearly his/her 15 minutes of fame has gone on way too long. Way too over exposed.
I have been intrigued by the news regarding the possible hints of the Higgs Boson. Ignoring the ridiculous hoopla surrounding the nickname the "God particle," it will be cool if they actually manage nail it down. I had a brief stint working on an accelerator experiment at Brookhaven National lab, but I make no claim to understanding anything that is going on.
The E-Cat cold fusion story was somewhat mesmerizing as well. It seems like a comet, flaring brightly then cooling to the point of disappearing. Scam or no scam? If it is real, it would be a game changer.
35 Bowl games seems excessive, but why do some many sports people seem intent on complaining about it.
We were almost spared a season of the NBA. Now we are almost ready for tip-off on Christmas day. For basketball, college is where it is at.
In case you missed it UNC won the NCAA soccer championship.
This is a bit late, but a remarkable story about how my daughter's field hockey team won the NC state championship (for the 4th year in a row). It might has well have been a TV story.

Happy Holidays all!

Turn that smile up side down President Romney

2011-12-20T18:44:00.002-05:00

Romney's appearance on Letterman's show as pretty amusing. It shows a nice sense of humor and the guy looked pretty handsome. But that is not the story of the day. The story of the day is PAC money unleashed to savage Newt. Once Romney was actually threatened, the dogs came out. And this is against a Republican. Wait till the real election, when that unlimited money starts to flow. We're going to see the ugliest election in years.

Romney was smiling it up for Letterman, but behind the scene he's hot under the collar and that smile has been turned upside down. (Of course, if you had just spent the last 5 or 6 years running for President only to have Newt face you in a few weeks - you would do the same thing).

The Tea Party continued it's single-handed attempt to re-elect President Obama by yanking John Boehner's chain. The nasty human lap dog needed only to know how high to jump. Even if it meant hosing Senate Republicans and making himself look that like an idiot.

So, what's next? I don't know. But I am sure it will be stunning.

Worse yet - after mangling various portions of his Presidency by either ignoring Republican's completely or by kowtowing to the Tea Party Republicans - Obama is now campaigning. Something he has proven extremely capable at doing.

I am not the biggest fan of the job Obama has done, but if the stock market is higher in October than it is right now and the employment rate is better - in the face of 18 months of likely Republican obstructionism - the GOP will be rightly punished.

Then may be we will get grown-ups back in control of the GOP.

Holy Smokes, What are they Smoking?

2011-12-19T23:04:00.002-05:00

Republicans continued to take aim at their own feet today when the House decided not to take up a bill that would have provided a two month extension to the payroll tax cut. I am not sure that I know the reason other than it must be a tea party snit fit. The whole tax cut extension debate smacks back to the summer and the willingness of the House Republicans to shake the confidence of the world in the US willingness to fund our debt. Have no doubt, these are the kind of people that would shoot your dog for barking, yell at your kids for walking on their lawn, and make fun of the poor.

My favorite GOP point about the tax cut is that "it ought to be funded."

May be we should repeal all the Bush tax cuts unless they were funded. Stunning and deafening silence. Of course, but the GOPers are the world's biggest hypocrites on that front. Oddly though, there are some of them that are angry at George W. because he created massive systematic deficits by cutting taxes without addressing spending. Of course, one can abort history, and all they had to do was "just say no." So, like I tell my kids, if you did it, then you've got to own it.

Sorry my Tea Party pals, but you guys are just as responsible as George W.

What ever that Koolaid is that they are drinking, I think it is time to cut off Newt's supply. Perhaps we could just abolish all courts and elect Newt King of the United States. Sheesh.

I will, however, point out my dismay that Obama seemed to take personal claim to the US getting Osama. Obviously it was the culmination of years of hard work but the intelligence agencies and the military. A gutsy call, but lets be real

Kind of reminds me how Republicans seem to attribute the fall of Communism to Reagan, even though it was the culmination of years policy that started after the end of World War II.

Please grow up before you screw this country up for even a longer time.

Are Entrepreneurs Patriots and why Taxing the Rich is OK

2011-12-17T07:52:00.000-05:00

I spend some of my time attending venture capital (VC) meetings where companies with novel products seek out investors for their products. The products are a mix of common sense applications, sure misses, and some technological brilliance. Many of these ideas are developed at public universities, which have offices whose sole job it is find companies to move that technology into the private sector. Other times the idea comes from an expert teamed with engineers who come up with a solution to an identified problem.

There is nothing automatically unhealthy about all this - thought it comes with a couple of observations: the research at public institutions sometimes seems poorly focused around economic realities and the research often done at significant public expense does not seem to provide much return on investment to the public. The first problem is, I think, largely a problem of how we fund research in this country. The government puts a lot of tax money into research, without enough thought given to what it will mean economically. This is not intended to slight basic research, but what I see coming out is often too far from what the VCs want. The second issue is that the deals seem to heavily put the money into VCs, but gain little back to the institutions, where this money could fund other research or fund the education of future researchers.

I suspect other countries do a better job of this. However, I've talked to some Canadians once and it seemed like the government was funding the research and then taking the next step of developing the products - then they would sell the product farther down the line. This smacks of government being in direct competition with the public, which seems like a very dangerous path to follow, since the government never will never go out of business because it is inefficient or makes bad decisions.

Yet, letting "entrepreneurs" cherry pick the best things coming publicly funded research and turning big profits without a big pay back isn't great. It is an insiders game. Further, I've seen the very same people tying up the IP (intellectual property) in the US, but then developing the technology abroad where they can profit more quickly. Again, cherry picking the intellectual fruits of the US education system, but blocking the development in the US while they profit from it abroad.

No ones breaking the law and entrepreneurs are not patriots. It doesn't mean they are evil or that their actions don't bring some great products to the market that benefit the US. Sometimes they do. That is when capitalism is working its magic. However, the source of these victories is because we paid taxes, those taxes got used to build universities, those universities educated engineers and doctors, and these people did their research of the public dime. But we won't all benefit equally. This is just the type of thing that the Occupy movement understands at an abstract level, without articulating the details.

We need a better way. Probably one that has government work in a more directed toward economically useful findings. And, when the money (taxes) society investments generates a great idea, we ought to at least fairly tax those that derive large benefits from them.

DC Circuit

2011-12-16T23:26:00.000-05:00

OK - I enjoyed the cut of Bachmann taking down Newt in the GOP debate. Otherwise no politics today. Ron Paul is my favorite of the current pool of candidates. He is the most consistent candidate in his libertarian positions. He had a few nutty moments in the debate, I do believe he is speaking the truth as he sees it.

I completed a round trip from NC to "the District" and back in less than 11 hours picking my son up from college. Sadly with all of my Father's troubles this fall I was unable to visit him at school during the fall. I met a few kids in his dorm. When I pulled up there was a kid throwing up into the garbage can outside the front door. I presume some irresponsible post-finals partying, at least I hope so.

The ride back was pretty enjoyable. George Washington was rated as the most political active school in the US and we talked about politics for about an hour and a half.

The school sent a rather humorous note about how my child would be changed from his first semester in school. I can't really cover it hear, just to say that going to college for one semester is not an excuse for boorish behavior. If he starts acting like they implied he might, he is going to have a rude awakening coming.

My daughter is still getting recruitment messages from different Division II and III schools. Some of these schools I know and others I have never heard of. Mostly they seem to have losing records. Once we see what her SAT scores look like, we'll try to see if any of these schools match up. I am not too fond of the idea of her going 8 hours away to play DIII lacrosse where I will never see it.

I guess DI schools and perhaps DII programs get solicited by enough players that they don't have to fish as hard for talent. Probably even more established DIII programs have a same situation.

The weekend my plans are: take the youngest to a party, get a Christmas tree, visit with my Dad, and do some work. We're also doing luminaries on Saturday. Should be a busy weekend.

Everyone else - have a great weekend.

Tell it ain't so - - - Newt is starting to fade

2011-12-15T23:06:00.002-05:00

It looks like Newt may be starting to slip. The GOP better find the Huntsman fast. Otherwise they are going to find that Romney = Dukakis. I'm just saying.

Huntsman has a historically conservative record . . . but we know what his mistake was . . . and you all remember watching him get off on the wrong foot. I know the suspense is killing you, but he acknowledged that be thought that man's activities contributed to Global Warming. I know, I know, Huntsman crossed the line and the base has yet to forgive him for it completely. I think they will, eventually, but it may be a bit longer.

Huntsman's ability to actually take a position like could be magic in the general election. The Global Warming Litmus test has never made a lot of sense to me for a couple of reasons, but, because it is kind of a recognized litmus test. So Huntsman's ability to actually say something the majority will find reasonable, even at some political cost to himself within the base, he was able to do it. Further, the guy is obviously very smart and very articulate.

It may be too late, but if the GOP rushes away from Newt, they may have to go to Huntsman.

Someone I'd like to talk about next is Ron Paul.

Trumpapalooza

2011-12-13T22:54:00.001-05:00

Donald Donald Donald Donald ... the next you decide to ~~run another episode of the apprentice~~ hold a debate, please make sure that the ~~apprentices~~ candidates are willing to appear on your show.

I still like Trump, but he was not and is not a serious candidate for the Presidency.

So, we are left to decide whether this was true ego or just a poorly over estimated stunt in order to gain publicity. I am banking on the latter, that it was a stunt gone awry.

Donald, my friend, please call up Sarah P. and arrange a few motivational talks in stadiums away from the cameras for a while. You guys can look back on your days of glory.

A deeper question is whether the GOP primary process and sideshow nature of the primaries is going to continue long enough to hurt the GOP next November? Greater minds than I will have to figure it out. I kind of assume that it will settle down pretty soon once a few candidates run away. But, this stuff is just too rich to not enjoy.

Meanwhile, Obama is slowly honing his message and act. Must be making more than a few conservatives crazy with worries right now.

Sleep well my liberal friends, sleep well.

Will the Tea Party elect a Gingrich for Christmas?

2011-12-12T20:31:00.003-05:00

Certainly Dr. Suess must be spinning in his grave. Spray Newt green and add some facial hair,and you can almost see Jim Carrey’s version of the Grinch. Who else but a Grinch to say that thePalestinians are a made up people and have no claim to the land where they wereliving. Of course, at some point,Jerusalem may have been populated entirely by Jewish people. However, if you are going to use that kind ofgrounds to expel inhabitants of the land and give it to someone else – then mostAmericans better start packing because – by Newt’s rules, we’re going to havereturn the continuous 48 to Native Americans. I am sure Newt will give his house up first to demonstrate his highideals (unless may be he is a hypocrite or something).

So who gives us Newt - certainly a much more dangerous candidate that Romney - none other than the world's angriest constituency: the Tea Party. They are angry because there exists a government that has the audacity to collect taxes. Because they are angry they need an angry candidate. Granted, they tried Rick Perry - but he wasn't ready for prime time. They tried Bachmann - but she wasn't ready for prime time. Finally, they figure out that Newt's actually smart enough to make Tea Party politics somehow sound rationale - and he can do angry.

Bless his soul, though, because Gingrich may actually spare us serial candidate Mitt Romney. Mitt's seems like a great family guy, but if you've spent the last 6 years running for President and failing, you are not meant to be President. This also spares us the whole excuse that people don't like Mitt because he is Mormon. No - he changes his positions like a wind vane and is weak. What GOP candidate gets whiny about the way he is handled by a Fox reporter? Really, the interview was too rough? Aren't you supposed to be man enough to be leader of the free world?

So - take a few minutes to thank the GOP - because they have scored a Christmas hit. The Grinch (oh I mean the Gingrich) is here for the holidays. We still got 12 more shopping days to do - let's see what else appears under the tree!

PS - Toprove things could get worse for me personally, we had to put down our olderdog today. We had him for 15 years, whichis pretty old, but he had dropped from 18 to 14 pounds in about a month. That can be many things, but nothing we weregoing to save him from.

PPS - OK - I got some perversely good news: once I write off my losses for the year I won't owe almost any federal or state taxes. Meaning, I will possibly be able to get all of my estimates taxes back. That is like two years of tuition payments for my son's college. Woo hoo. (Yes - it also means that I made so little that my write-offs come close to equaling my profits - but I'm trying to be positive).

Commerative Blogging

2011-12-10T15:11:00.001-05:00

Admittedly, I found that I have a tendency to make a bold statement or two about planned activities - only to abandon the effort.

None the less, I will attempt to come back to this blog over the next year as a small tribute to my sister. She died of a heart attack at the age of 54 in October. My sister was a somewhat avid reader and supporter this blog, particularly my more extremist political posts. She lived in Wisconsin where she was active in various left wing political causes, was a fan of the Ed Show, and supporter of numerous liberal organizations, such as the South Poverty Law Center (which I find somewhat annoying).

The past few years have been pretty tough: my Mother died at the beginning of 2010, my business has shrunk from 25 employees to 15, my Father was diagnosed with Parkinson's, moved to be closer to us, and now is in the dying; and my sister passed away. My Father has stopped eating very much, developed a bad wound, and mentally is often significantly disoriented. Those are the bigger things, but there have been other defeats and insults along the way.

In any event, as I shrink down some of my efforts, I will try to take a little bit of that time to write. Now that the world has been prematurely deprived on my sister's liberal outrage, I feel that she would have wanted me to express a little for her.

While I am admittedly a bit beaten down, I hate to be a whiner. I have numerous things to be thankful for, which is part of slowed down my blogging in the first place. My kids have been gems - one a freshman at George Washington, a daughter who has good grades and is getting recruited to play lacrosse in college, and a wonderful middle school student. My wife remains amazing. Our dog Baxter is destroying significantly fewer things than he did previously. I still have a business and a job (even though I did lose a lot of money this year).

So, what does the future hold? Hopefully a better balance between the good and the bad.

Peace to everyone!

Reagan's 100th B-day - Who's legacy

2011-02-10T22:11:00.001-05:00

Reagan's 100th birthday just passed by. There was various articles on his legacy. It led me to feel that Reagan doesn't really have a legacy of his own. Even during the Presidency, I had the feeling that people imposed their ideals of him on him, regardless of whether they migth be his ideals.

After his departure, there almost immediately began an effort to get things named after him, such as National Airport in Washington DC.

Airline bad luck or ... MLK Day ... Wake County Schools

2011-01-20T00:08:00.002-05:00

Air Luck?

I am on the road - writing from Silver Springs MD. I was supposed to fly up from NC today in order to be ready for a meeting tomorrow morning. Surprise - for the 2nd time in a row - my flight couldn't make it and I ended up driving. So .... all future trips will be by car and I have $1,100 in flight credits to use from non-refundable tickets.

MLK Day passed generally peacefully. It finally raised itself to national attention, but a GOP school board is ending school busing for diversity - setting up a re-segregation of parts of the school system. Wake County is home of Raleigh, the capital of NC. North Carolina has been a fast growing area in recent years and Wake County has benefit from one of the more successful public school systems in the country.

So - you might ask - why fix what isn't broken?

Good question - no good answer. However, leave it to the Colbert Report to provide some insight to the workings of Tedesco (a GOP wanker):

Word of the day is disintegration.

These guys are a special piece of work. They recently decided they wouldn't seek accreditation for the school district because they didn't want to share information with the accreditation organization. They also hired General Tata to take over running the school system. Meanwhile agitators are trying to make it so that all people can vote for any of the school board members. The GOP has a 4-3 advantage and it not necessarily a majority rule because of the districts. (However, I am not sure that is really the issue at all and I don't really have an opinion about their process because I don't know how it came to be - though the board is clearly legitimately elected under their rules.... this ain't Florida after all).

Later gator.

3 Weeks and more

2011-01-13T22:35:00.002-05:00

Wow - it has been a long time without a post. Happy New Year Everyone! Merry Christmas! Tres Reyes! and whatever else I missed.

Things are going OK - I guess. Kind of odd and intense. I am not sleeping quite enough.

The Destroyer (Baxter) has continued to grow even bigger. His large square pit bull head hold massive powerful jaws that render everything to small shreds. Naturally this dog is not to be trusted - though he seems good natured.

Christmas passed pretty well. I got 6 things, two of which I bought myself.

We passed my the anniversary of my Mom's death due to heart failure just after the start of the year. Things remain so rentlessly busy that it doesn't leave much time to reflection.

Michigan got trounced by Mississippi State ending Rich Rod's reign. Brady Hoke is in and it seems like a better fit. We'll see.

Anyway, I've spent the last month or so feverishly working on a website. I'll probably have to pay someone to make me a decent template, but that hasn't stopped me from creating the SQL templates and edit screens for databases. I locked up a domain name, but I won't attempt to put it online until I get it farther along. I have learned a lot about PHP, MySQL, Apache, and a bit of new form options. Once I get the website going, I'll probably start making a Web/EDC system for clinical trials. I wrote one using SAS and SAS/Intrnet. However, this can be much better and development will much easier.

It still amazes me all the things you can get for free on the web. The fact that you can download the Apache web-server, PHP, and MySQL for free and be working on a fully functional database driven website is mind boggling. I am just running the website off a desktop in my house and working on a laptop most of the time, editing the files on a shared drive.

This is a long term project. I suspect it will be about 2 more months to bring it on line. If I get it up, I'll post the link here.

Business is a bit down and slow right now. I thought we had outlasted the recession, but the recession has caught up with us. I hope that it heats us before we have to layoff anyone else. That is kind of depressing. We have a lot of our money in business related property that we would lose if things go real far south. That would do a lot to destroy retirement. So, for my kids sake as well as my own, I hope that doesn't happen.

The NC-Va Tech is almost over. Both teams haven't been exactly an example of greatness.... but UNC may be able to pull it out.

Peace everyone.

Very Sleepy ... Must Fall Asleep

2010-12-16T23:59:00.002-05:00

Wasted strokes: for some reason I always type "http://" or "https://" before every web address even though my browser will figure it out. What angle of human nature causes me to do that.

Anyway it is midnight and I'm about to fall asleep. I had checked a bunch of data records from raw data to a derived data set used in analysis. It looks right, so some people need to come to grips with what the data are telling them.

OK, I drifted off, so I'm getting off.

Happy and welcome news

2010-12-12T21:10:00.002-05:00

We would have celebrated this weekend, had it not been quite so busy. My son got accepted to George Washington with an early decision. We had toured the campus in the spring and there was a clear connection for him at that time. GW has a lot of internships available within or around the government and my son is highly politically aware --- though he's almost libertarian --- so I'm sure it will be interesting. Other choices were American University and University of Maryland.

All would have been great and I do have a warming feeling about "Fear the Turtle," but it was certainly a nice way to spend the weekend. Not to mention, not having to worry about it for another three months.

Odd Debacles and Warm Feelings

2010-12-09T20:57:00.003-05:00

First - a feel good story for the holidays - Katie the Star Wars fan saved by fanboys (and girls).

OK the the commercial is over - almost. My daughter is named after George Bailey. At the time my wife was pregnant with #2, we did not know whether it was going to be a boy or a girl. We were watching "It's a Wonderful Life" and we were considering naming a boy "George Bailey ..." (... being my last name). We got a wonderful girl instead, but we lost the George. A tough thing because that name has been around for 3 generations or so.

Anyway, I watched "It's a Wonderful Life" with my daughter for the first time and she didn't shed a tear. Actually the length of the movie was long for her teenage attention span, but what a great movie it is. I can't watch the movie without getting choked up, but that is that.

Odd thought: If aliens show up and enslave us in a 2012 or something, could it be that, ala 2001, perhaps they had manipulated us along the way until we were smart enough to make good slaves. Now that would be a truly evil set of creatures - spending millions of years genetically tinkering with some animals until they got the perfect set of people to capture.

Lesson learned: I recently lost it with the my youngest soccer club. I finally just pulled her from the team and we'll look for a different one. I had become an insane parent - but, in a way, I think I had been forced into it - because I don't think I should pay for someone to tell me how bad my kid and I are. Anyway - as I slowly gain some perspective - I realize multiple jerks were involved and I was only one. Further, as a result, I came up with a plan that might generate some money. It would be a nice little bit of irony if I was somehow rewarded for being a crazed "soccer dad."

We picked up a few new clients in the last couple weeks. After a very hard year. So, hopefully no more layoffs.

Miscellaneous --- the tree's been up since Saturday. I got the lights on Sunday, but still no ornaments. Better go water it.

Later.

Richey Rich

2010-11-21T19:57:00.001-05:00

As we knew when Reagan first preached it way back when: trickle down doesn't work, giving the rich massive tax breakddddddddddddddddddd

Guilty Pleasure versus So Glad You are Gone

2010-11-17T21:22:00.002-05:00

Having teenagers in the house means you watch a few different shows - may be not all of the way through - but at least a big.

Guilty Pleasures:

Glee, Secret Life of the American Teenager, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit

Glad You are Gone or Looking forward to When you are Gone or Will be Gone:

Huge, 16 and Pregnant, Sister Wives, 19 and Counting, anything involving Sarah Palin or Kate Gosselin

Secret TV theory:

TLC is run by Mormons. Not only do they routinely go out of their way to promote massive families, they also promote polygamy. Next years TLC big hits will be the Glenn Beck reality show and a reality show based on a family that goes from millionaires to living in poverty by shoveling their money into the "Church of" Scientology.

If only I were a freak enough to have my own TLC series.

Bush Memoirs

2010-11-17T20:59:00.002-05:00

OK - I'm tempted to read a copy of the Decision Points - but only if I can borrow it.

Bush was a stunningly bad President and his totally willingness to do what he wanted to regardless of the outcome helped put us where we are today with the deficit, the economy, and in Afghanistan.

Will he opt out of accepting responsibility by using the "it was a hard decision and did what I thought best" approach to not accepting responsibility OR will he own up to it?

Bush is like the drunk uncle that always ruins the party - it is a wreck by you can't help but want to see what he is going to do.

Sweet moves

2010-11-17T20:54:00.003-05:00

Watch this trick play ... and be glad you weren't playing defense ... so you don't have to watch over and over again for years to come.

(Link found on the MichiganZone website)

10 weeks of dental work comes to an end

2010-11-17T20:42:00.002-05:00

Over two months ago I went for a routine cleaning. That lead to a series of fillings, some gratuitous and some justified. One back tooth had decay under a filling, which lead to first a filling and then the need for a crown. The initial filling traumatized the root. A root canal was completed . . . and the crown placed. Total cost about $3,000.

Dentists are clearly better than tax collectors, but they always seem to involve both pain and cost.

I'd rather have my teeth go as long as possible, don't get me wrong, but it is what it is.

Veteran's Day Ups and Downs

2010-11-11T20:37:00.005-05:00

I started the day getting a root canal on tooth number 15. Way in the back.

At about lunch time, I got a call that my aunt passed away today. Her death was apparenlty pretty quick, either a heart attack or a stroke. My aunt had pulled the rope for assistance in her home and by the time they arrived, she was already dead. She was a kind soul who made an amazing grape pie. We spent summers and Christmas's with her family. I recently drove my Father to see her and blogged about the drive from Oxford to NC. My aunt was cared for by her daughter and seemed very thankful for where she was.

It leaves my Father as the last remaining surviving member from his generation on my father's side. There is a living aunt, wife of my Mother's brother, on the other side. It was something to see them together. Each knew it was quite possible it would be the last time they would see other and, even though it was a short visit, it clearly involved some introspection on both of their parts.

Life should be treasured.

A lesson worth remembering on Veteran's day. A time to be thankful for my Aunt's 88 years and for not to forget the many people that lost their lives or gave part of their lives for this country.

This evening I picked up a copy of the Community Sporting News in Chapel Hill. An old friend of mine writes a column on the back. It so happened that he was talking about our old soccer team, the "Head Beers" and how it was some of the best times of his life. I was honored to see my name mentioned, even though I was just happy to be tagging along. The "Big Guy" as we called him was sort of a genius. At that time he was a single father driving around in a beat up Toyota mini van running Rainbow Soccer. Later he would get a law degree and work with the District Attorney. Given a different set of circumstances he might have been a CEO and taken on Donald Trump.

Happy memories I did not expect to find on a sober day.

Finally some victories

2010-11-06T21:45:00.002-04:00

Watched the first half of the Michigan-Illinois game. In case you didn't know, Michigan's defense is truly stunningly bad. There defense is occasionally really good. It was a classic shoot out today: Michigan 67 - Illinois 65.

UNC beat Florida State 37-35 to win tight ACC game. A nice victory for UNC after a tough start of the season.

After that I slipped over to watch East Chapel Hill High beat Chapel Hill 2-1 for the NC State Championship. My daughter was pulled up from JV to sit on the bench, so, as a result she gets a medal for being on the team (though because she didn't play wouldn't qualify for a letter - though she got one as a Freshman in Lacosse). She was ambivalent about the honor and that strikes me about right. The game, however, was pretty exciting. East Chapel Hill has won the title the last 3 years in row and will lose another set of key seniors.

Groundhogs Day All Over Again

2010-11-03T22:23:00.003-04:00

[Revised 11/4]

Back in '94 I was pretty shocked by Newt's Contract with America and what seemed like a conservative take over. After being carefully kept in check, it culminated in the disastrous reign of George W. Bush. The Big Dawg, irritatingly disrespectful of his office and egomanical, managed to keep thing righted for a while, but GWB blew the doors of the budget and threw us into an extensive and optional war. Crazy financial deregulation and wild (lack of rules) on derivatives took us to the brink of a depression. A terrified Bush signed on to massive pumping of capital into the banking system along with future fall guy Obama which probably averted a collapse of the financial system.

So where are we now?

I wish I had some decent charting software:

Goldwater/GOP Fringe come ashore and create a bridgehead

Nixon/Vietnam lead to disastrous Presidency of JEC after a generally competent though balance challenged Ford keeps things calm with an adult demeanor. Lack of charisma acute.

Country fizzles with oil shock, post-war ripples, and Iranian humilation. Conservative GOP starts organizing.

Reagan / Falwell marriage begats the new breed GOP.

Reagan sells acid in the koolaid story that you can have more tax revenue by cutting taxes without spending (Laffer leads to tears). Democrats become deficit enablers by going along with tax cuts without budget gets. Huge deficits result. An alzheimered president still has wits enough to see he was wrong starts reversing tax trend. Arms for hostages and glorification of law breakers involved in the deals indicate expansion of the new breed. Wheels rolling for Limbaugh, Fox, and the merry band of morons.

George H Bush, smart guy and all around hero type, acts to stabilize the budget. Results of his courageous action ultimately help get to the balanced budget under Clinton. The new breed GOP turns on the Good Bush largely because of tax issues. A thousand points of light are extinguished. Bush retires to work with GF and JC and makes a good ex-President

Clinton arrives in office riding GOP fatigue in the general public, triangulation skills, and anti-Bush sentiment in the new breed GOP. He is generally content to do little and ride out the budget fixes from GHB.

The New Breed GOP (now capitalized) rides to its first wave. The future Tea Party people are still engaged in the main stream of the party. Newt and his ilk work to drive out moderate conservatives. Rationality on the budget exits: they shut down government and try to impeach the President (thus ruining impeach for GWB - who really broke the law). The public realizes that Clinton isn't so bad compared to the Dick(s) like Armey and Newtie. Limbaugh reaches a relative peak (extensive pain pill use may be cause deafness).

Country sees last balanced budget.

GOP re-organizes now New Breed GOP is co-opted temporarily by the neocons. GWB, unlike Reagan or his father, develops a pathological belief in tax cuts and not reversing anything he has done regardless of the effect. GOP with help from Clinton-era government laws roll the dice with the world economy.

Crazy tax ideas started by Reagan (though he recognized the folly) now accepted as a form of dogma for the New Breed GOP. Deficits shoot through the roof - even though the economy is riding a bubble.

Afghanistan, 911, and Iraq all happen. The right turns farther right. Ultimately the neo-cons burn their bridges with the New Breed GOP - however, neo-cons and close relatives are now pretty much the GOP establishment.

Gigantic financial crisis occurs due to irresponsible deregulatoin of banking industry.

Country reacts and brings in Obama.

Democrats fail to take any meaning steps to control the budget.

Chronic high unemployment and stunted economy resulting from long term commitment to ship jobs oversees and avoid paying to educating its own citizens, leave the US in a vulnerable position with no easy fixes. Immigration laws are broken. People are now afraid, very afraid.

Obama screws the pouch in a number of ways and does nothing to address peoples fears about budgets.

The New Breed GOP finally takes control of the house ... a mixed bag of nuts capitalizing the fickle (growing) independents dislike of the establishment Democrats and establishment GOP.

A stunning victory for the right!?!

OK - so why groundhogs day? Because this revolution will be like every other one - lots of posturing and other stuff, but no real answers and no way to implement sweeping change - because their central beliefs (tax cuts without spending control/isolationist/kill the enemy before you compromise/government shutdowns are good) helped put us here in the first place.

This is 1994 all over again, without a brainy Newt in the lead. This is a more hostile, more superstitious, less compromising stream in the GOP.

Independents won't like what they see in the next two years and it is 1996 all over again.

Pessimistic? Sure I'm pessimistic. Until I see GOP (New Breed or Establishment) and Democrats have the courage to seek compromises on deep spending cuts OR a plan to avoid spending increases long enough for the tax revenue to catch up with spending --- were going to stay on the same treadmill --- running in place and losing ground.

Waning Energy, Tea Party Stuff, Near Death Experiences

2010-10-27T22:10:00.002-04:00

Just finishing reviewing (a first pass) through a 52 page report. I'll have to do it again tomorrow in more detail. I lost hours out of my day dealing with family related stuff. My day starts at about 6:15 AM and ends about at 10:30 PM most days. Rarely is there some totally down period. I don't read many books any more.

Work has been hellish for the last year. I think that is mostly over. A reduced staff, higher utilization, and a realigning of some employees. That has taken a significant emotional toll of its own.

My Mother's death in January and the resulting activities in helping my Dad resettle in NC also takes some energy. I am very happy he is here, however, and I wish both my parents had moved long ago like we wanted.

So - blogging got stopped for a long time - due to waning energy and interest (and a bit of playing EVE online).

Still, I experience outrage and disbelief when I'm allowed to concentrate on politics. The Tea Baggers (nasty term for Tea Party, since they tend to use the Democrat Party) offer up continuing proof of the idiocy of the American public. (To his credit, recently a founder of the movement lambasted the people that coopted it). The Tea Baggers are something the Morlocks from H G Wells The Time Machine. They are some bastardized and warped descendent of Reagan and the 1994 GOP that has been morphed by Limbaugh, Fox News, Hannity, etc. They are angry angry people without a coherent solution to anything. Tax cuts (they like that), smaller government (the only profess to like this, but they really don't want any cuts), and oooo foreigners are bad.

The Tea Baggers are proof that public education as failed and that conservative talk shows have won.

Obama should have been so lucky to have let McCain win. Then we'd be that much closer to closing the door on Palin and all of Bush's left over economic shit would not be getting slowly pinned on him. Laughably, really, most Tea Baggers are really Bush protoges, though Bush did have some kind feelings toward Latinos that is not too apparent in the Tea Party.

I will say that GWB always had a gung-ho attitude. Obama can be too aloof sometimes to be sure.

OK - so that is all the outrage I can generate right now.

Someone in my office nearly choked to death at home this week. Only his wife being there to perform the Heimlich Maneuver saved his life. He came out of a happy dream slumped over the table with his wife saving him. On the way to a NDE. I hope I never have one myself. I'll work him for more details, but apparently he was headed out comfortably, only to be ripped back to the cruel world.

Final notes: NC state fair passed and I managed to avoid it. 5 Points to me.

Last Swings?

2010-10-26T19:58:00.002-04:00

My kids are growing up and, soon, out.

My middle daughter played field hockey last year and this year as a sophmore. She's leaning against playing next year so we drove across town to see what might be her last or one of her last games.

They won 5-0 and she scored two goals.

A victory that I can't help but feel a little sad about.

Sunday Stuff and the Dog's name

2010-10-24T21:53:00.004-04:00

Monday is come in about 2 hours and 6 minutes. It has been a long October and there is still one more week.

We still dealing with the new dog who must be about 6 or 7 months old now. He probably weighs in between 50 and 60 pounds and will settle in 65 pounds. Since he came from the pound they said he was part lab. We had the genetic testing done and he is >50% American Straffordshire terrier and about 1/4 collie mix. E.g. he's a pit bull mix. He's really quite a handsome dog and good natured, but he is a destroyer ... meaning we hope we'll survive to the end of his teething. Also, take seriously that these dogs can be difficult to potty train. The fellow has a couple of times stood halfway out the door and peed half in and half out.

The dog's name is Baxter. We wanted to name him Petey after the Little Rascals' dog, but my older daughter made a scene about not wanting to name the dog after something out of a movie (she never having seen the show). My son slyly suggested Baxter and it was accepted. It was a bit of revenge on his part since, Baxter is the name of Ron Burgundy's dog in The Anchorman. About two weeks later when she found out where the name came from, she commented, "That's something boys would find funny."

Our older half-schwanzer half-jack russell is now nearly 15 years old. I think he hears about 5% of the things we say and sees about 50% of what he used to.

We attended a Halloween house party on Friday. They had Valentino and the Piedmont Sheiks playing. I'd seen them play before at a music bar and they are really good.

Otherwise - mostly attended family sporting events - one girl had a lacrosse tournament while the other had two soccer games. Most everything was a loss.

Layoffs and In the Book

2010-10-21T21:39:00.002-04:00

I'm reading the Biology of Doom bit by bit. My Father has a short role in the book and I have had it for some years. So, I thought I would peruse it. Stashed at the old house is my Father's pistol from his officer years - I'd like to get it if I can when my sister cleans out the house. He was drafted into the Army and did some interesting things - most of which he has never talked about as it was classified I guess.

We lost three employees at work this week - not died of course - but left or let go. As an employer I can't talk about the details - except to say that it sad and maddening at the same time. This is a time when young people value social connections more than their jobs and employers. I have now stopped thinking people will know how to behave when they come to us, I just tell them what they need to do in a job: serve the company and their bosses by giving their best and being honest. If you look aside when someone steals or badmouths everyone else, you are at best enabling. I say at best, because you are much worse.

So we take a few steps back.

I have learned my lesson over the last few years that loyalty is as crucial as intelligence and a good work ethic.

I know a fair number of successful people who built companies and sold them. They surrounded themselves by good managers and made their companies first at all costs. They took with them and enriched the people that helped them and were there in the crunch. These guys aren't inherently nice or nasty, they just are doing what it takes to succeed.

Obamacare comes to town (no tort reform)

2010-10-20T22:39:00.004-04:00

For good or bad (on the grand scale) this much seems to be true: Obamacare will finish off individual doctor's practices, reduce innovation in medicine, and ultimately cause a massive centralization in medical care providers and innovators. Ultimately, I suspect, that the providers will begin to purchase up products and producers until small innovators will be more and more pressed out.

The MDs ability to maintain individual practices is going away for a variety of reasons coming out of medical legislation over the last couple of years: breakdown in fees for service, bundling of payments, electronic records requirements, and incentive/penalties around medicare payments. All of these will force MDs to join up or "partner" to hospitals. (This may be good or bad for patients, but it certainly changes who will choose to be MDs).

I attended NASS (North American Spine Society) in Orlando a few weeks ago. I spoke with several surgeons who agreed the best artificial disc in use was available in Europe and the company has NO PLANS TO PURSUE APPROVAL in the US. That is because the path to approval has gotten so onerous and the future re-imbursement iffy. This will continue to happen without reform aimed at easying approval and offering companies some form of legal protection. (Though admittedly some companies have behaved badly).

In a separate discussion, if you practice medicine in NY/NJ, you face a much higher chance of getting sued. Is it because MDs are worse there? Does Obamacare reduce the risk of insurance for the MDs? No ... it just forces them into larger groups who will bear the cost.

Not worried yet? Look into the coming shortage of MDs and specialist MDs going forward. Not a pretty picture at all.

Obamacare isn't totally stupid, but it is based on looking away from some of our current biggest problems and homogenize/reduce care (I'll avoid the use of ration here).

What do we really need:

A path for training more MDs that is cheaper and values MDs appropriately (E.g. fund higher education).
Reform of medical malpractice and tort law - replaing it with a superfund to pay for legitimate medical cases. This will have set payouts and operate as a general insurance funding by fees across the system.
Easing of approval process, but an increased tracking of product safety and value for response (this is something consistent with Obamacare).

So... Obamacare isn't all bad in concept ... but it will end private practice, fail to address MD shortages, and continues to lead toward a stifling of medical innovation. But we still need to big government solutions.... which no Tea Partier will like.

Fall Colors and Incredibly Boring Travel Links

2010-10-18T22:08:00.005-04:00

I just completed a blitz of driving. Thursday I flew into Detroit/Ann Arbor to help my Father emtpy his safety deposit box and pick up some stuff. I could see there was a soccer game at Huron High school, my alma mater. We had the distinction of being River Rats, something I found rather pleasing then and still now. I never knew any of the famous people listed on the Wikipedia page for the school.

On Friday, we then drove to just north of Cincinnati on Friday. Saturday, we started from Oxford OH (Home of Miami of OH University) headed south on OH 127 then went on US 71 towards Columbus. It was then a jaunt down highway 35 through Chillocothe (which had a very bady smelling odor) and Gallipolis (we debated the pronunciation) on the way to US 64. US 64 ran into Charlestown, a city which my son holds in some disdain for reasons I can't understand, where we got US 77 and the West Virginia turnpike.

The colors were pretty spectacular and the sky cloudless almost the whole way.

I thought I was going to get a ticket in VA just a bit after the Big Walker Mountain tunnel. If you drive through VA avoid speeding - unless you find yourself on US95 - then everyone seems to zip along. Anyway, I had coasted down a hill and nearly reached 80 mph when a cop pulled out onto the highway just as I passed. He flipped on his lights then drove past me and pulled over another car.

After Fancy Gap you head down a long long hill with this incredible view towards NC. You can see the oddly shaped Pilot Mountain and Mount Airy (it should remind you Mount Pilot of The Andy Griffith Show).

After that, though, and hour and a half on US40 from Winston-Salem to Burlington is not exactly enjoyable.

The whole trip went from SE OH, WV, VA, and NC.

On Sunday, I drove to Greenville NC (home of ECU) for my youngest child's soccer game. They played horrible and lost 3-1. Then it was back in the car for 2 more hours of driving. The purple and yellow was out everywhere on Sunday, since ECU upset NSCU on Saturday. The town was reasonably impressive.

Total time 4.5 + 9 + 4 = 17.5 hours of driving - but beautiful fall colors.

As the links indicate .... not too exciting though.

20 Years and Counting

2010-10-13T22:28:00.002-04:00

Married 20 years today. Looking forward to 30 or 40 more years.

Marriage counts:

3 kids
3 dogs
3 guinea pigs (2 surviving)
2 minature hamsters
perhaps 15 fish

4 Christmas inflatables

2 houses (1 sold)
1 condo (for sale)

4 cars

1 neighbor alienated

Snappy Birthday

2010-10-11T21:14:00.002-04:00

365 days and counting to the big five-oh. Say a prayer for me.

Massive Past Deletes and Odd Energy

2010-10-10T21:56:00.004-04:00

To post again?

It has been over a year or year and a half. In that time, my Mother passed away, we got a new dog, my Father has moved into town, and things have moved on. My business has contracted - though may start growing again - I've had various personal conflicts and mental batterings.

In all, I would say, rather tiring. However, I abandoned playing an on-line game for lack of time, so I may now have enough time to blog a bit.

The Internet has a memory of three to five years

At one time I had about 700 to 800 posts between two sites. I deleted them all. Starting over at some point. They don't seem the readily searchable any more.

I was proud of a few, but not that many were very good.

My real world identify has quite a few links. It takes a while to unravel them. I don't think they could be eliminated. However, as time goes by, if I get out of business, they will go so far down into Google as to functionally disappear.

This should give some hope to people who have posted all sorts of stupid stuff on the web.

Interesting stuff from the past week:

Attended NASS for a couple of days in Orlando.

Jeb Bush was flying on the same plane as me. I didn't pester him.

Saw a kind of good talk by Daniel Ariely.

Learned that physicians will never be in private practice again once the latest set of government laws are fully enacted. I feel very bad they will be regulated so heavily. Just as they are being chased out of their profession - we are faced with a future deficit of general practioners and specialists. You should be very afraid about the future of medical care.

UFOs, Ghosts, and Guilty Pleasures

2009-07-19T20:24:00.003-04:00

I admit that I like to read The Anomalist - it is interesting compilation of links and mini descriptions of websites dealing with ufos, ghosts, odd-wildlife, and other stuff. But do UFOs and ghosts actually exist? If you Google "best ufo evidence" you'll get 150,000 links (or something) but does that really mean anything. If you Google "John Galt" you get over a 1,000,000 links, though John Galt is both a fictional character and real people with that name.

Links, of course, don't prove anything. It will never by possible to definitely prove there are no UFOs or ghosts. It may be possible to prove that UFOs exist and that they are aliens from a different planet. I don't rule out that ghosts exist, though I've never seen one and I hope I never do.

Things that I consider to have no value as evidence: pyramids, etchings in stones from ancient peoples, and probably everything before the modern era. What we do have photos and incidents that people experience or things recorded on radar. We have the Roswells and triangular ships and flying cylinders.

What to make of all this? I don't really know. One of the biggest things weighting against UFOs seems to me to be that they are so random AND the lack of physical evidence. Do you really believe the government could cover that much successfull at covering stuff up? I don't. Of course you can be a conspiracy buff and think that 1) the US never landed on the moon and 2) the government is covering up contacts with extraterrestials.

Hmmm. Lost my train of thought.... must be rays beamed into my house causing me confusion.

Who Lied to Pelosi?

2009-07-12T22:37:00.004-04:00

I'll just forward you the this link about how Republicans trashed Pelosi when she claimed the CIA had lied to her. The blog post misses the point that Pelosi claimed they lied to her about waterboarding, but they were certainly lying about something. The details of the program we don't know yet, but as it was under the order of Dick Cheney, don't count me as surprised if it involves torture.

Obama has been trying to cut a "balanced" line were he doesn't divulge the details of the torture. What things have pointed to is that the highest levels of the Bush administration were endorsing torture. A truth commission without legal penalties would still be useful. Obama isn't cutting this far enough to the left.

What is interesting is that Cheney has been keep his head lower these days. I'm not sure why, but he is an old man and may be he is just getting some rest.

Anyway, I'm not going to hold my breath for much GOP outcry about this, though I do expect some. The door has finally cracked open and some light is breaking into dark place the GOP was living.

I'll watch how far the lefties blogs push this. Who's head will the call for?

Bad Habits

2009-07-11T08:17:00.002-04:00

I've gotten in to a bad habit of starting posts and not finishing them. That is a no-no if you are trying to keep a blog up.

Tid-bits:

Let me give one last thank you to Sarah Palin for contributing to the last nine months. "Sarah the Barracuda" she was and is. Sarah was not ready for to be President of the US in a clutch, a looney decision by John McCain, but a spectacle to be sure. I'll try to let her rest in piece without much more derogatory commentary from me, unless she dares to step back into the national spotlight. For instance, on a book or speaking tour (he he he).

The economy is in a terrific mess. I don't think there is any quick way out. If we're going to do stimulus spending, lets do stimulus spending by building infrastructure and have the government perhaps buy things made in America. In other words, if we're handing out money to people, get something in return if at all possible.

A co-worker was telling me about a writer that explained the more bureaucracy you have, the less individual responsibility you have. This is an important point in understanding government that I want to get into.

But now I have to go run 4 miles. So - I'm posting this as is - so I don't lose it.

Looney tunes (Sarah Palin quits)

2009-07-04T08:31:00.003-04:00

Calling Daffy Duck:

Sarah Palin doesn't want to play any more, so she's taking her ball and going home. Sarah apparently just can't take the heat and so she's gonna stay out of the kitchen. She doesn't want do the stuff other lame duck governors do - so rather than just not do them as governor - she's just going to quit being governor.

To quote Captain Renault, "I'm shocked" to find that Palin isn't going to finish her commitment to the people of Alaska. You could just knock me over with a feather.

On a serious front:

I'm going to begin exploring how I can protect myself in the coming US debt disaster.

I'm throwing out my previous faint hope that Obama might really try to better than Bush, but his plans are just a different form of deficit spending.

Economic trouble continues:

If you missed the unemployment numbers ... you must have your head in the ground. They weren't good, but nature of the world economy and certain the GOP policies have done much to make recovery harder.

Rather than generating a trillion or two of additional deficit spending on government insurance, we should be spending money to make medical school affordable: lets churn out educated people to do the work, set up a fund to replace medical malpractice, etc. We take MDs and medical professionals for granted and they'll just pull out at some point.

More importantly the Democrats in particular and the GOP with somewhat less guilt have done too much to fund social programs ... the problem is, of course, that no one can accept the truth: there isn't enough money to eliminate all suffering and at least some of those suffering choose to keep on doing the things that put them there.

Happy July 1 - Political Comments

2009-07-01T00:46:00.003-04:00

The SCOTUS got it right on the Sotomayer/Firemen case. Sorry liberals, Sotomayer's nonsense about being a better judge than a white male doesn't pass snuff either. Still, I don't see knocking her out of the job because of just those things.

Al Franken wins in MN: Rarely is a man so obnoxious unduly deprived of something you'd of rather not see him have due to an even bigger jerk. Oh well. There you go.

Obama's gigantic expenditures on healthcare won't be a cure all for health care, but it will be one more nail in our collective coffin. On an interesting side note, Obama's policies included partial government funding for getting insurance through COBRA. Now my previous employees get to pay less for insurance and I cover the government portion until such time as it decides to pay me back the difference. (My faith is low, but it will probably work out, and I do see some value in the plan).

(Non-political) The US lost a heart breaker to Brazil in South Africa. Wow - who new we could play so well - but who was completely surprised by the second half choke (even if we were playing Brazil). Donovan proved to be a man despite being kind of skinny and all. We already know Howard was a man. Plenty of other good play from the US, though we're still 3 or 4 quality players short of being able to compete consistently.

Later dudes.

Burning bridges faster than you can say...

2009-07-01T00:37:00.002-04:00

I am obviously nearing some proverbial breaking point, having got in the face of 4 clients in the span of about 4 days. This kind of trend will have me out of business faster than you can say I'm a stupid idiot. It is bound to back fire in the last case - just perpetrated about 15 minutes ago - where I told a client that he couldn't talk to me a certain way .... and that I would be happy to provide him his code library and instructions of how to use it (not instructions on where to put it).

About six hours earlier I engaged in a few holds barred verbal battle with a client about a $250k project - because I wasn't going to cut enough out to suit him and I was willing to not get the before caving to unlikely demands about someone that doesn't know my business.

Before that I partly chewed out a customer for essentially whining to me about having to work the weekend - after he caused me to have to work while on my vacation in the UK.

Normally I would have let all of these things go. This can't be a good sign (unless additional assertiveness is a good thing).

Hope you guys are more in control that me these days.

Ups and Downs

2009-06-27T07:28:00.002-04:00

Congratulations by my Son

He passed his black belt training last night (Friday 6/26) and is now a first Dan. He did well in the testing.

Governor Scandals

Scandal hit all sides of the aisle in North and South Carolina:

In NC, our past Governor's associated may have pulled some strings to create a high paying state education job for the Governor's wife. There were other things going on as well with respect to foreign travel. Messy.

In SC, I hope the Governor carried on an affair and eventually ran off leaving the state without leadership for some days. This strikes me as worse than Clinton, who lied about an affair, but didn't abandon his governmental responibilities and the GOP impeached. They guy should resign (like Clinton should have) and spare his state. Both guys seem to have equal sense of honor.

Celebrity Deaths

Michael Jackson died under expectedly sad circumstances. I wasn't much of a fan of anything post-Motown. His life seemed somewhat tragic, but his life was his responsibility, so it is tough to offer up much on it.

Farrah Fawcett died of cancer after a good fight.

Ed McMahon died at 86 after having had the opportunity to do lots of fun stuff. Lucky guy.

Iran's Leaders Now Seek Execution for Dissenters

Iran's leaders suck. If "kill'em all and led God sort'em out" doesn't come to mind with the latest round of crap from Iran's clerics, it should. These guys make Dick Cheney appear as a sympathetic leader. Of course, let's face it, your society issued in a theocracy that gives it leaders ultimate power to decide who is a lawbreaker and then condones upon those leaders the ability to determine who should be executed for breaking their laws. You're living in something worse than a dictatorship - which may have many of the same attributes, but doesn't claim that your execution is the will of God.

It is going to take a lot of deaths and dying in Iran before government gets better.

Don't Write Long Posts

2009-06-27T07:27:00.001-04:00

I worked and worked on a long post about Obama's health plan mess --- but never could get it done, hence, no posts.

Back to atomized thoughts.

Return to the Good Old USA

2009-06-22T16:39:00.002-04:00

Home Scene

We finally returned at last from 10 days of power touring.

Things went pretty well, but Treasure of the Sierra Madre came to mind as everyone got more and more tense.

The Good:

The UK really is more expensive that Disney World, so I can feel better about Disney if we ever return.
Atlas Shrugged is still going great guns half way through the book.
Things at work were in pretty good shape when I returned.I think the trip will be a good memory and exposure for the kids.
Next year, we can go to the beach again.

The Bad:

The UK really is more expensive that Disney World, so I regret the cost of the trip.
I have some bad sinus infection or cold that is still going on right now.

I let my 9 year old control the digital camera and she took >500 photos. I'm guessing 40 to 50 are worth printing out. Thankfully it uses a rechargeable battery, so there has been no real additional cost to me yet.

World Scene

Iran is still having fits with internal dissent. Evidence of vote rigging continues to accumulate. Deaths, water cannons, home invasions: nothing like a hard crack down to demonstrate that a theocracy serves the will of the people.

China wants Google to only return Chinese sites if the request is made from within China: nothing like the fear of knowledge to show your state is about controlling the people, not serving the people.

Loserville

Bloggless trip

2009-06-18T17:13:00.002-04:00

Been traveling in the UK with the family. We're not getting along that well and it violates the 5-day trip rule we should follow. Various bad things have happened, though we have seen some interesting stuff and had decent weather most of the time.

Meanwhile, Iran is having some quality times: possibly relecting one of the world's biggest assholes. Fortunately, we're given hope for a saner Iran with enough people making a scene that may be the next set of elections will see some real change. Of course, that is "real change" given the only people that can run have to be approved by the real holders of power, the Muslim clerics. E.g. separation of church of state have no meaning in Iran. Complain as I might about the Right, we live in a democracy.

Hope all is well.

I'll return next week.

Super G

The Right Killed Again - Getting Ready for More

2009-06-14T04:25:00.002-04:00

Are you ready for the Civil War?

Last week the Right wing paranoid talking machine sent a gunman into the Holocaust museum.

We'll see a decent chance someone will manage to take out Obama at some point.

Read this (what should be chilling) column by Frank Rich. The Right didn't express outrage at the murder of an MD because they welcome the violence turned against those that "brought it upon themselves" for going against their wishes. Now, of course, Obama isn't really a citizen and is the first "Muslim" President.

Iran possibly re-elected Ahmadinejad, but the extreme nature of the voting results makes it seem likely significant voter fraud was involved. If not, then we know that Iran is after the bomb and we can expect it to pursue a more destructive policy line in the future. Sad.

Travel reviews

2009-06-13T19:00:00.002-04:00

Completed a very expensive day in London - but most days here are probably like that.

We saw Wicked at the Apollo - Victoria theater. The show was great. Fortunately I didn't know any of the plot, so it was all of a surprise.

Kids behaved pretty well. I had to carry my 9 year old on my shoulders a bit tonigh --- she's way too big on that. No rain yet and a moderate amount of sun.

Hope to offer more, but wishing the best to all right now.

Super G

London Callling

2009-06-12T16:20:00.002-04:00

Won't post a rant right now - though one is due of course.

I am in London with the whole family. It took many hours of travel and about 8 hours in weather delays on Thursday before we got on a 10:10 PM flight from Newark to Heathrow. We arrived without issue after that and spent about 4 hours walking around the sights close to our hotel.

It took about 5 hours to get onto a plane on the runway about 15 miles from my house. Only the end up tramped in the heat for an hour.

Anyway. We survived and we're here - and no swine flu.

I read about 150 pages of Atlas Shrugged - a pretty start for me. At least it is no Moby Dick and reads really quickly.

- Super G

Big old pile of Sh*t

2009-06-09T21:15:00.002-04:00

For a long time GM and Chrysler were advertisers on Rush Limbaugh's radio program. Now he is advocating you not buy GM cars in order to keep Obama's plans from succeeding. How many people have to be put out of work because the leaders Rush supported allowed the financial system to spin out of control? How many billions did we pour into the banking system to keep banks from failing - not because they deserved it but because they were "too big to fail."

Now apparently Rush and some other rightie talk show hosts are echoing a call to boycott GM products.

Where were they when Bush ran up the debt in order to give out tax breaks and fund an optional war in Iraq? Forget the fact that Bush's policies were already throwing us into deficits before the war. It was just bad policy.

They are right there: the Right. The giant ditto head machine. Openly saying they hope Obama fails and willing to take down as many American industries as it takes - and leave as many Americans unemployed as it takes.

While I never knew anyone like this, I think there were lefties that wanted things to go less than perfectly in Iraq because it was Bush's war. I find that kind of attitude disgusting. The human cost to our soldiers and the people in Iraq is not the kind of thing any decent person should trifle with just to wish ill upon a President they don't like.

However, when people become unemployed, some of them committ suicide, some of them turn to crime, some get ill and can't afford health care they need, some of them end up homeless, and some lose everything. What kind of sick group of people would wish that human cost upon the American people just because they don't like the President.

Argue the merits of policy all you want. Prove you're more of a defict hawk than I am. But if you listen to the piles of excrement that are encouraging you to boycott GM so Obama fails, you need to spend some time taking a hard look at yourself. You might find yourself staring at another sick pile of crap.

Slippery Bank Crap You Should Think About

2009-06-08T23:26:00.003-04:00

Banks, it turns out, are dying to pay back that government money if keeping interferes with executive compensation (read that massive payouts to the top insiders). But this little post isn't about that insidious greed, it is about another quick trick the credit card companies are pulling.

I recently went on a business trip and had my business card turned down. Turns out the credit card company had cancelled all of their business cards and I had been notified by mail (only I did actually get notified for another 5 days). The story was that they did not have enough capital to cover that particular credit card line and they had cancelled all cards in that line.

OK .... suppose you buy the line that my card cap of like $25k is enough to put a major bank at risk ... so you agree that their dire straights means they can't offer credit ... would you expect to see them offer me a new credit line and card within days of cancelling the old one?

What they are really doing is trying to re-establish more profitable terms with existing customers by (without warning) cancelling one deal in order to offer another.

Needless to say, we won't be getting another credit card set from that bank.

If you haven't already been hit - and I know multiple individuals who had credit cards cut their limits signficantly - keep an eye out for this new sleezy business operation. Shop for different credit card companies and read the fine print.

After all, they need to pay back that government pronto, because Daddy CEO needs another $25M bonus.

Socialism, Single-Payers, and Big Business

2009-06-07T22:15:00.005-04:00

(I'm about to start reading Atlas Shrugged, so I have not yet had that influence yet)

One thing I have come to understand better in the last few years is that not everyone can run a business. I've also learned that few people are good managers and the education system does poorly at preparing and differentiating the less capable.

Just as the Right warns, we are headed towards a deeper level of socialism and it will move the bar over towards few supporting more. A one-payer insurance system will penalize me and my employees. A true one payer system would possibly put me out of business or at least drastically curtail my future likelihood – but the previous statement is only about the impact of a single payer system. Preventative medicine sometimes saves a lot of money and suffering (like vaccines), but other preventative medicine doesn't necessarily save money (for instance smokers die off earlier and they aren't necessarily more expensive than non-smokers). One thing that must be true is that a single-payer, government controlled medical care system will ration access to medical treatments. You'll benefit if you aren't getting care under the current system and you'll lose some of your medical choices if you currently can afford better coverage.

I have spoken to a few MDs recently who are unexcited about a single payer system. One of them had developed cancer and will have to be treated for the rest of this life with a moderately expensive chemotherapy. While eligible for Medicare, he told the government to forget it, because he couldn't use it to get care from the people he wanted. In short, Medicare isn't some grand solution, it causes offices to operate on tight margins or augment through standard insurance to offset the costs.

If the Left wants to create a single-payer system and force everyone to participate, I suggest that they do it while leaving open private hospital systems and insurance. This must operate on a for profit - private insurance - system.

The Left has, however, got it right on executive compensation. No leader is worth $100 million dollars in a year. If he has helped them make $1G, then someone else could have too. The top levels of business is an inside game. One guys on the boards are often CEOs and it works in a circle. As a single employee or single investor, you are not getting the same deals as the Venture Capitalists who are in and out well before a company is public. This isn't about transparency, it is about who has the money and opportunity to make real money. You are a rube if you think $20
million dollar plus bonuses are good for business, good for America, and good for you.

Back to Altas Shrugged and John Galt. It seems an appropriate read right now with Obama's rescue. If only Ayn Rand had perhaps seen a corrupt system run into the ground chasing paper profits – but producing nothing – John Galt may have had a somewhat different speech.

What would be good is to make the path easier for small business (company with less than 500 or 1000 employees).

I can tell you that executive compensation from a small business doesn't have very much to do with the executive compensation at AIG … which is good really. But turning a small business into a huge business given the advantages that big business has – is like becoming governor on a 3^rd party ticket: it can be done, but the system is against you.

Tough Times for Other People

2009-06-05T21:40:00.002-04:00

This morning on the television there was a woman who was in the midst of bad times. Her husband had just died the previous year, she was working two jobs, she had just moved to the area, and was called from work by her son. When she arrived home a fire in the townhouses had spread to her roof and the firemen had poured fire into the place. In it was the bed she had just gotten the previous day, but never slept in.

Surely she must feel like the world is not her friend.

A plane broke apart over the Atlantic in a massive thunderstom leaving no survivors.

Unemployment jumped to over 10% in NC earlier, but seems to be stabilizing.

I recently talked to the parent of a girl that had failed to make the soccer team she really wanted to be on last year, but was trying again this year. I don't know if she made it.

Here is a post on the Another Monkey blog with links to several articles about the rape of children.

Take a little bit of time today or tomorrow to be thankful for the things you have and remember those who have been damaged by things beyond their control.

Late Night Revelry

2009-06-04T00:30:00.002-04:00

Well - not exactly a party. I've been getting some extra work in trying to complete some stuff before my family's trip to England and Scotland.

I'm getting excited, but I've still got 2 or 3 big things to complete by COB (close of business) on Friday. The pressure never really seems to let up, but employed remains better than unemployed.

Big news of the day was the wait for Obama's big speech in Egypt. We'll see. So far, Obama's out reach to the Muslim world has been useful and good. There is a bit more to give before domestic outcry will bring him back. Though, a theocracy can never be a democracy, by definition, so some countries can only go so far.

I will get - though it may take some time - to taking the Obama administration to task on the budget and spending. Not tonight though.

Here's hoping for an easier tomorrow (and weekend) - I've worked all but 1 of the last 19 days at least 6 hours. Ugggg.

Hitting the Road

2009-06-02T21:54:00.003-04:00

I'm drove from NC to DC and back to NC (4 hours + 4.5 hours) and went to a meeting in the span of 24 hours. E.g. I left at 5PM on day and got back at 4:20 PM the next day.

The meeting went well. A meeting with government officials.

I am happy to be back.

If anyone wanders back to this blog - I welcome you - and thank you for taking the time.

I'll probably be mostly political / opinion based these days. My son was just saying there wasn't much going on, but, of course, there are tons of things going on. Just not things he is interested in.

I'm looking forward to ranting a bit about the deficit, torture, shameless behavior, defects of the right and left, etc. Mostly you got the point is you saw "rant".

As I approach 50, I see myself as crankier.

It has been a year+ since I had the blog active AND I let supergworld.com go as well. Lots of things have happened: crazy work, firings, hirings, children's successes, difficult family situations, etc.

I'll try to relate a few of those things as well.

I'm off to bed now, it is 10:00 PM and I have to get up at 5:30. All of that driving has my eyes weary.

Best, Super G

The Right Kills Again

2009-06-01T22:39:00.000-04:00

Read enough Right-Wing blogs and you'll see that they every so often bring up the idea that there will be a civil war. That the Right is so persecuted they'll take up arms or Texas will secede from the union. And ever so often, someone on the Right listens to the talking heads and murders someone or blows up a building with children in it. So, whether you believe it or not, the Right is already prosecuting a violent war against the Left - and those that disagree with them.

Sadly, the Right then idolizes these murderers and rationalizes their behavior.

On Sunday, George Tiller was murdered in an act of domestic terrorism. This is one of the many shots in the civil war the Right has taken. It won't be the last.

I highly suggest that you read The Orcinus blog, an excellent dialogue on hate speak and the violence that it spawns.

Do not be fooled by the bloviating of the religious Right on this topic. They advocate murder and, with the likes of Bill O'Reilly, they are partners in crime. They are not righteous, but bullies going from threatening words to physical intimidation and they violence.

Rather than respect they law, the Right reserves for itself the ability to abandon the law to include torture, bombings, and the gunning down of someone never found guilty under the law.

Shall we gun down Dick Cheney for torture and starting a war that resulted in the deaths of 10,000s or perhaps 100,000s? Better we find a truth committee or we put him behind bars. Better we choose the law and civilization above the chaos the Right seeks to impose on us with a civil war --- if we don't bow to their demands (usually accompanied by a long whine).

Laughably, the Right claims the Left wants to bring down society .... when it is the Right that threatens civil war and carries out terrorist acts against Americans.