Letters From Ripley

Lilyhammer

2012-01-29T05:12:00.000-05:00

So this is the story. Frank has been a mob guy all his life. Things have gone wrong, and Frank has some different prospectives than what he had twenty years ago. He has grown some feelings, some humanity, and perhaps matured a bit in his older years.

Frank has decided to stand against the mob and say some things to take them down a notch. After the court case is done....Frank needs to be "relocated". Typically, this means you get sent off to Arizona, Idaho or some remote sections of Maine. Frank has been watching the winter Olympics at the time, which featured Lilyhammer, Norway. Franks says to the relocation guys....that he'd like to relocate to Lilyhammer. In a real location scenario.....you can't be sent out of the country....it just won't happen. But in this script, they comply.

The start-up of this TV mini-series stops at this point, and you get the idea of who Frank is. Yes, it is Steve Van Zandt who is playing this Swedish TV series character.....our guy from the Sopranos. Who else could you have playing a Jersey mob guy?

According to Norwegian news....over half the adult population watched the first of these episodes in the past week. This has excited the network who produced the eight episode series. But here's an interesting side to the story. The network knew they had a masterpiece....so they signed a deal with NetFlex, and you can download the series in the near future. I'm predicting that around three to five million Americans suddenly discover that various European productions are worth watching, and this trend toward more unusual stories like this occurs.

The icing on this cake? What you should know about Frank and his arrival in Lilyhammer.....a kind of rural area of Norway.....is that he eventually comes around to realizing that his old Jersey methods....might be required in Norway. You can move a Jersey guy to Norway, but you can't take the Jersey out of him.

It might be worth watching, if you download it from NetFlex.

A California Story

2012-01-28T10:46:00.000-05:00

California has this committee or board that they call the California Air Resources Board. Basically, they have the authority to meet, develop new rules and control a great deal of the state's future. Their agenda? Mostly to make fresh clean air. This week....they made up a state rule that required by 2025.....one in seven cars new cars sold in the state must be electric or zero-emission.

Most dealers and car companies went along with this rule established. The used car folks? Well....they spoke and said that this would change sales in some ways....that they weren't entirely happy with the deal.

You can imagine the scene in 2026....you want a regular car....at the right price, and you can't get it as a resident of California. So you drive over to Vegas....price non zero-emission car, buy it, and drive it home that night to your place in California. I'm guessing an entire market will start up by that point. You chat with Norm, a new Ford dealer in Montana.....he has the vehicle at the right price. He puts it on a flatbed trailer and brings it to the state border of California....and you pick it up there. I suspect half the new vehicles in California will be bought out of state by that point.

Electric cars have one serious problem....in that you are going to charge them up with electrical power. If you knew the cost of a nightly charge on your vehicle....and your monthly electrical bill was going to approach five times what you currently pay....you might be laughing over the silly idea of electrical vehicles. If you note your electrical charges over the last five years....they move up almost yearly. Your consumption might be the same as five years ago, but general cost spirals upward. You toss in thirty evenings of a charge on your vehicle.....and it just might not be that practical.

The non-emission car? There aren't many negative comments....except they continually have to be tuned up. If you only have a once a year inspection to worry about....with $300 likely going to your mechanic to ensure your zero-emission car passes the inspection....maybe that's ok.

I suspect that folks will ask stupid questions as we approach 2025, and eventually realize what this board really did. They might have good intentions, but the end result might shock folks.

Grafenwoehr

2012-01-28T05:41:00.002-05:00

Comments made yesterday indicate that Grafenwoehr (Americans typically call it "Graf")....will see American soldiers finally leave. The US government indicates that the brigade kept there....has been selected to be one of the two removed from Europe. They also said that they'd keep the post open, and the training range operational.....bringing in some troops from the states on a month-by-month basis to conduct training. So your unit in Georgia might get a notice to deploy 400 guys to Graf for thirty days of training.

The impact? Well....there's about forty million dollars a year spent by Americans in the Graf community. This covers beer, food, apartments, car repairs, etc. From the 7k Germans who live in Graf....around 3k of them work in some fashion for the Americans (on-post and off-post). Some grill burgers....some do transmission work....some serve beer.

I imagine most Germans from Graf woke up this morning and mostly are in an anxiety attack. Some built huge houses and rented out the bottom-half of the house to American families, at an exorbitant amount of money ($2k a month). Who will rent at that rate? No one. A local German probably wouldn't pay more than $800 max.

Pubs and pizza operations? They will suffer greatly. Even if this training deployment deal occurs.....the guys coming in for thirty days will mostly train, and probably only get three days off during their deployment. So out of a dozen pizza operations around Graf....most will close. Same way for pubs.

Back in the 1990s....I was sent to Graf for two occasions. The first one was this overnight trip. I went with a second guy and we installed a satellite system one afternoon. We were going to stay overnight. So we looked for a hotel opening on post....nothing. They gave us three possible places off-post, and each was full (at 6PM when we drove to each). We branched out five miles....just driving....nothing. We drove to some fancy hotel about twenty miles away, and it was full. So around 10PM that night....we drove back to Graf and slept in the Volvo station wagon. I learned then that Graf has some serious limitations.

My second trip? A two-week adventure via the Air Force.....to stay in some 1960's style building with just bunk beds. No toilets and almost no heat. We got up and walked 200 feet to some building that had showers and toilets. It had hot water from 5AM to 7AM, and 5PM to 7PM....and that was all the hot water they had. If you walked over to the civilized part of the post....they had this million-dollar gym and a great movie theater. But it just wasn't a place that you wanted to spend two weeks.

In two years as the brigade leaves Graf and the locals wake up to the new reality....I'm guessing that a 1k Germans eventually are forced into leaving the area. You'd have to drive almost an hour to get to any real town with potential jobs, and even that might be limited. In ten years.....the town will shrink down to 3k people....with various empty houses just sitting there.

It's a sad end to Graf. It probably deserves better. The German government might come in and offer up some incentives to start manufacturing there, but you aren't going to have any technology-smart folks around this town. And I doubt that it will find a way to keep the population up to where it is today. Americans will remember their time around Graf. I'm guessing five hundred thousand Army guys (active and retired).....going back to the 1950s....will raise a beer tonight.....to the time they spent at Graf.

Simply Observations

2012-01-28T05:22:00.000-05:00

Some legal guys woke up and analyzed the Italy cruise ship sinking and how you would sue. The tickets have this simple clause on the back....you sue in Italy, period. Some lawyers think they can still take this to the US courts. The problem with the Italy deal? Well....you as the guy suing....have to come up with ten percent of the anticipated winnings. You want $2 million....you need $200k to deposit into the court. Then you have to come up with lawyer fees ahead of time....so figure $300k that you need for that. Out of 4k passengers on-board.....if you can find twenty folks who do this.....then you might be lucky. The odds of winning, in my humble opinion....better than fifty percent, but it's not a guaranteed deal. After a bit of pondering....I like this ten percent deposit deal. If we had this in the US....it would stop about forty percent of all lawsuits, and we'd stop having $10 million winnings. I agree it might put fifty thousand lawyers out of business, but maybe that's not a bad thing.

The US Transportation Department's chief....has a son, who was detained as he was trying to leave Egypt. This kid (Sam LeHood), helps a pro-democracy group (so-called). The US is trying to settle up this business. What the Egyptians basically did....as he attempted to get through customs....was check his passport and realize that he's been one of those people stirring up the Egyptian population (so they hint). The guys running Egypt have been on a long period of difficult times....with a continual rising of the population. It's not normal to have this kind of business in Egypt. They settled back.....did some thinking....and then came to the conclusion that some Americans are at the base of this. The Americans are using various strategy tools, public relations, and new technology to persuade a base of people to get up and start complaining. I pondered over this. Typically, most businesses in the world have a contract with a French or English company who takes former special forces people.....and if someone raises a flag in a really rough neighborhood.....then the company activates the contract and has the former SAS guys yank the guy in trouble....out of the country. It works ninety-nine percent of the time. The kid needs to be saved by British ex-SAS guys. Naturally, the US government would never allow this, and the kid likely will be arrested at some point....to spend years in an Egyptian prison. The problem, if you figure this out....if you go as an American to raise hell in some foreign country.....you typically end up in their prison. The Egyptians got smart, and know who is making trouble.

Come Monday....our DC Occupy guys are supposed to be out of the two federal parks in DC....at least in terms of camping. They can protest all day, and stand around....but they can't camp out. The cops are relaxing this weekend, and suspecting major problems all of next week. Lots of overtime, and probably some major problems within a block or two of the White House. I suspect a thousand protesters will swarm the Congressional offices on Monday and make life miserable for those guys. Several battles will erupt over this order. The problem is.....businesses around McPherson Square were suffering and the rat population had grown proportionally over the past couple of months. Most folks thought they would stay until December, and leave....but they didn't. My humble opinion is that hundreds will be arrested over the next two weeks, and eventually....they will find this nifty non-federal park about two miles away....near gang territory, and start camping there. A few Occupy guys will overdose on drugs....a few will be shot....and life will go on for Occupy. We might want to pray for them a little bit.

The President hinted a bit that he might find some miracle method of fixing college tuition costs....so it levels off a bit. To be honest here....I doubt that any law passed by Congress....would make it through the Supreme Court. Most colleges are not going to allow some limitation to take place. If it did occur, then pay raises would dramatically level off, and professors would be hostile toward that idea. It sounds nice, but I think it's just PR campaign and not much else.

Simply Observations

2012-01-27T05:10:00.000-05:00

The massive cuts announced by the Pentagon yesterday? Well...it's an amusing thing. They are designed to take almost a decade to accomplish. So, it looks good for about six months, then some war episode will occur in Central America, Asia, or the Middle East....and the President will announce various planned cuts are now suspended. The odds of all the planned massive cuts happening? I'd rate it less than ten percent. It was a decent public relations event.....and not much else.

The $14k offering that the cruise line will make to the Italian cruise passengers? Well....I'm guessing the majority of folks will turn it down and consider a massive court case. The problem I see is that you go with some massive case, with a dozen lawyers....and sit back for a five-year court operation. When it finally ends...after the lawyers get their cut....you end up with $70k (my humble opinion). The cruise line will figure the game out and sell off a boat or two....declare bankruptcy, and it could be another five years before some judge can release all this money. I might be thinking $14k would be worth it....then I figure the taxes here, and I probably only get $9500 after the IRS gets their money. $9500 for a 3-hour cruise gone wrong and losing my luggage?

Do I care much if Pat Sajak had a few drinks between shows (Wheel of Fortune)? No. Was he drunk when spinning the wheel? You can't find a single example of such behavior. I've watched eight different updates from local and national news over the past two days, and don't see much to report. Folks who worry about this....ought to demand a breathalyzer for news folks, TV weathermen, game show hosts, and US Senators. We might be shocked at how many are tipsy or drunk on a daily basis.

This Bob Dole negative talk over Newt? I kept thinking.....Bob who? Then it hit me.....he was some minor Republican party Senator from the eighties and nineties. He is apparently throwing his support behind Mitt. I thought that was pretty neat....326 Dole-supporters....now supporting Mitt. This might help out in Kansas....maybe.

Finally, a publisher in Germany has been in a major fight to reprint "Mein Kampf" (Hitler's book....his one and only book). The German government has a ban on the book....you can't find it on any shelf, or print it. Even if this publisher gets some legal understanding.....it'll be curious just how many copies might be sold. My humble guess....less than twenty thousand. To be kinda honest....you can likely buy the book at a digital book site, and download it to your Kindle in Germany. The German cops probably haven't figured out that angle to the deal yet. The fear of Mein Kampf? It's a fairly difficult book to read, and I'm guessing most folks will stop after a dozen pages. But the problem is that you just need some dimwit in Bavaria to read it....get all peppered up.....and start making speeches....to restart the whole Nazi movement. One guy....is all it takes.

My Neighborhood

2012-01-26T18:20:00.000-05:00

Across the river, in DC....there's this effort underway to build a trolley-car line....roughly thirty-seven miles within the District of Columbia. Cost? Well....it's figured at $1.5 billion and you can bet on it approaching $2 billion, and maybe costing even more than that.

The first part of this was supposed to be active in 2013. No one is expecting that line to be finished....because of various issues, and meet that anticipated opening. The trolley-cars are all foreign made, and electrical. Because there's a law in DC forbidding high-voltage trolleylines (going back one hundred years)....folks aren't sure if the city council will have the guts to fix this issue.

So we come to today's little item of interest. The city paid almost half a million....to tell them how this will change DC. You would have thought a report like this would have been created ten years ago when they first discussed the matter, and been part of the planning process. It wasn't.

The report says that property values (property taxes would be related) will escalate, possibly up another seven billion dollars over the next decade or two. In fact, they kinda hint that most poor folks in eastern DC....will likely be forced out as they discover various offers for their houses, and just leave DC. The black voting ratio? They don't cover that topic....but it's very likely that half the black population in eastern DC will be gone within two decades....if this trolley-car line is ever completed.

The idea here....if you think about it, is that the report convinces various big players in DC politics to climb onboard and accept expenditures for the trolley. Stores, apartments, condos, and various construction projects will eventually come because of the new trolley system.

I suspect if half the population would have realized the implications back a decade ago....of the black population being eventually pushed out....then it wouldn't have been accepted so much by the city council.

DC by 2030? I'm guessing it will be this interesting transformation....with less crime....less drugs....and maybe less corruption. Some European-style trolley-cars will be roaming across the landscape and some idiots will claim it almost looks like Amsterdam. And the likely three billion dollars spent....will seem like a great idea.

Occupy Camping

2012-01-26T05:01:00.000-05:00

This week, Congress (mostly the Republicans) called up the National Park Service management guys and asked some tough questions on the Occupy guys camping out in DC on Park Service grounds.

It wasn't much of a friendly situation. I watched the video of the meeting, and you can tell that the Park Service guy probably didn't want to have to explain things. The question came up....if rules exist that forbid camping on federal grounds, then how does Occupy continue to exist for weeks and months on two different sites in DC?

Well....the Park Service guy explained that if you are protesting, then your Constitutional rights fall into place, and none of the Park Service rules are enforced at that point. You can see a bit of disbelief on the faces of the Representatives at the meeting.

I sat and pondered over the explanation. I would have asked the Park Service guy another question at this point. If you suggest that Constitutional rights trump parks rules.....then could a guy from Bama travel by RV to the Grand Canyon Park entrance....put up a sign on the RV saying he was a "99-percent" protest guy and demand free entrance? Then after entering.....could he freely park the RV for weeks and months at some parking lot along the Grand Canyon....just camping out, rather than paying the $30 a day for a site deal?

I'm guessing the Park Service guy would have grinned at that point and said no....that you can only be a 99-percent guy if you hang out in Wall Street or Washington DC. Then I would have grinned and told him he'd best fire his legal staff for their advice.

The way this works....the Park Service in DC has a couple of lawyers for advice. They tend to be told by senior management that there is a end-result to where they want to be. So someone hinted that they wanted Occupy to be allowed free access within any forbidden camping rules.

Congress has come back, and it appears that the National Park Service will have to force the guys out at some point in the near future. It might be days....it might be weeks.

Here's the curious thing. They can only chase them out of National Park Service lands. The city actually has open parks.....city property, not federal property. Occupy could move and be in friendly territory. The mayor might not be happy.....but folks could be legally camping. There is a problem with this idea. Most all of the District's open property (parks and such).....are nowhere near the capital or the White House. Most is a pretty fair walk from the METRO stations. Some of these parks are in the northeast and southeast areas....where you could be shot after the sun goes down. Occupy guys aren't willing to walk a fair distance....nor would they have the guts to camp in areas where gang activity is possible. Nor would they be happy having to walk three miles to get over to the protest area.

For a brief moment.....I had these ideas of traveling the US with a big RV....and a 99-percent sign on the side, and just staying freely at national parks. I guess that just won't work in the real world.

The State of the Union Speech and the Heartland

2012-01-25T17:51:00.003-05:00

Somewhere out in the heartland today....at some Quicky-Mart, ten folks met around 7AM. A journalist could walk in and interview the ten with two general questions.....did they watch the President's State of the Union speech last night, and how would they compare to past speeches they saw.

So Gus, the proprietor of the Quicky-Mart speaks first. To be honest....Gus worked eighteen hours yesterday and was still on duty when the President appeared, plus he had the channel there in the Mart turned to CNN to view this. But Gus was moving back and forth....making coffee, working the cash register, and didn't think he really saw more than eight minutes of the entire speech. As for comparisons? Well....he remembers one of the Carter speeches because his wife made him watch it one night, but to honest....he hadn't ever viewed more than ten minutes of any of these speeches. Frankly, he didn't care much anyway.

Karl, the local pig-farmer, admitted that he did make it back into the house in time to watch the speech from the kitchen table. But then he admitted that his wife wanted to discuss issues with the dishwasher....his son spoke of problems with his truck's transmission....and his daughter was hustling dad for $70 to pay for fancy shoes from Sears. All total, he thinks that he watched ten minutes of the speech. As for other comparisons....well....beyond George Bush and Reagan.....he couldn't name any of the previous presidents, and frankly didn't think speeches meant much.

Miss Tammy, the Baptist minister's wife admitted that she was leading prayer study with two women, which she named.....but most folks in the Quicky-Mart knew that both were out of town last night.....so Miss Tammy was likely have "relations" with some guy that wasn't watching the speech. She said she had watched all of the Union speeches over the past twenty years....but no one much believed much on that either.

Bob, the Pepsi truck-driver, admitted that he watched about thirty minutes of the speech....mostly on mute....while he discussing septic tank issues with his cousin. He did think the President dressed well. As for previous speeches....well....he did note that he'd seen all of Bill Clinton's Union speeches....mostly because he was living in Grandma's house at the time, and she was an absolute supporter of Bill Clinton.

Tubby, the former union guy on disability at age 35, said that he had four TVs running and was watching the Union speech along with some basketball game, a World War II movie, and some Latino channel with lusty gals. Tubby survives mostly on pain-killers.....so he didn't even remember previous Presidents or their speeches.

Marvin, the girl's basketball coach from the high school....watched the entire speech. He cited quotes and appeared to know most everything that anyone could memorize. Then he mentioned that he had a young lady from the team over at his house while watching this.....and the crowd got kinda quiet. It was best not to ask further questions to Marvin.

Dan, the rural carrier? He didn't even know the speech was on, and was watching a 1994 Chinese martial arts and disco movie that he'd found on NetFlex's list of international movies. Dan then admitted that he didn't have a dish, a cable-TV set-up, or antenna on his roof.....and that he had been renting either Beta Videos, or DVDs for the past twenty years.

Jimmy, the retired pipe-fitter, spoke of watching almost an hour of the speech. He wanted to compare to Reagan's 1984 speech, or possibly Carter's 1976 speech, or possibly Obama's 2009 speech. He kinda admitted that he watches twelve hours a day of C-SP*N, and four hours of CNN, with an hour at the Quicky-Mart in the morning, and barely five hours of sleep per day.

Winslow, the retired Marine barked out that he'd been out in the pasture target-shooting at the time, and missed the whole speech. He also admitted that he'd in military action for most of Bush's eight speeches, Obama's previous three speeches, Clinton's eight speeches, and Bush's (the Senior) four speeches. In the Marines....watching speeches was for sissy-boys....as far as he was concerned.

So finally, they come around to "Flick". "Flick" calmly admitted that he had viewed the speech and cited six major problems with the contents, then went to Obama Union speech version 3, where he cited nine problems. Then he went to Obama Union speech version 2, where he cited five critical errors. Then he went to Obama Union speech version 1, where he cited fourteen problems. But he carried on....going down the list of how screwed-up all of George Bush's speeches were, those of Clinton, Bush (the senior), and even Regan's speeches. Tears were shed as he portrayed these hour-long speeches as something of a worthless nature that men are called to perform year after year. He gave woeful moments of the analysis conducted after the speech, and how some news folks were dimwits or idiots. Then he finally came to true measure of the whole thing....that it's a speech that is forgotten in less than three days by most all who view it.

The journalist walked out at that point. He couldn't use any of their comments because they were too realistic.....not meeting his expectations of people wanting political chit-chat from the local newspaper or news channel. They could have all watched wrestling or Wheel-of-Fortune....and been just as entertained. That's the sadness of politics...it just ain't the same as Hulk Hogan beating the crap out of some new wrestler called Dinky Dan.

Only in America.

A Life Change

2012-01-25T06:54:00.000-05:00

In the last couple of days....I've awaken to realize that the PowerBall Lotto deal has gone from a buck a chance....to two bucks a chance. I stood there in front of the Latino lady at the Pentagon in a state of shock.

Now, I admit....I am from Bama....from a dry county....and heavily influenced by the Baptist Church folks. At some point, I drifted over to the dark side, and got into paying lotto on occasion (typically when it's more than $40 million.....$5 million just ain't enough to get excited about). So I throw in about $300 a year on lotto. Winnings? Well....sadly, I've never won more than $12 off a ticket. Maybe in a year....I might win $50.

So I got all curious....why double up the cost of one ticket? Well....these PowerBall guys got smart. They did a few changes and now say that they will likely have a $200 million winning situation monthly....which drives tons of folks to toss $40 a week into PowerBall. In the old days....you had a $200 million chance maybe twice a year.

This is kinda like an addiction. Guys stand around during these weeks when the PowerBall winnings were around $200-$300 million, and talking how they'd buy this and that. We probably waste four hours every week....talking to our co-workers, wives, husbands, strangers on the street, and ministers....over this possible winning situation. So to double up on this....it means a constant fantasy situation where guys talk almost daily throughout a month...over what may or may not occur.

This may not be a good thing.

It was already bad enough that we talked constantly about NCAA football or basketball, or American politics....but now a continual talk over how you'd live the life of a wealthy millionaire? I've got a bad feeling over this.

The Bigfoot Dilemma

2012-01-25T06:10:00.001-05:00

Over the past couple of days....there's this topic that has drifted around the internet....from a show that features the hunt for Bigfoot. The topic? If you spot Bigfoot....should you shoot him?

It has been taken as a serious topic by some, with vast discussions over the reason to fire away, or just wave at the big fellow. Some folks believe a dead bigfoot....even if it's the last of the breed.....is good to help prove a point.

I pondered over this topic. I personally have zero belief in the Bigfoot legend now. As a kid, I watched the tape of the Bigfoot walking through the woods over a thousand times. I think for twenty years....I wanted to believe in the legend. Then eventually, some guy came out and admitted that this was a commercial effort to sell a video to TV stations throughout the 1970s. It was simply a guy in a guerrilla outfit.

So back to the topic of firing away at Bigfoot. Here's the issue. On any given day in America.....there are probably a dozen guys on the run in the woods....wearing guerrilla outfits, and pretending to be Bigfoot. They are trying to scare up some tourists, relatives, or teenagers. If we all start firing away.....we will end up with a hundred dead guys, whose wives are demanding to know why Karl was dressed up in a guerrilla outfit, and if he was skipping work or fishing to play some game. Eventually, a bunch of Senators will have to convene and offer up legislation making it illegal to shoot a Bigfoot.....just to save a hundred white guys a year from certain death (note: no black guy would have dress up in a Bigfoot outfit, nor would a Latino guy). The sad thing is that folks would jump on top of this legislation and say it was a government cover-up, paid by Bigfoot millionaires, and it's even more reason to shoot to kill Bigfoot.

Luckily, we haven't gotten around to finding Loch Ness Sea Monsters in the Tennessee or Mississippi Rivers.

Just Observations

2012-01-25T04:44:00.001-05:00

The State of the Union speech. I watched about twenty minutes of the "show", and then flipped it over to some basketball game. I've probably watched a dozen of these speeches over the years, and they are mostly all boring speeches, without anything of substance. Folks clap and occasionally stand up. The networks try to pan the cameras to catch Senators falling asleep. At the end.....a bunch of commentators come on and try to explain what the guy said....because you mostly didn't grasp anything (by their belief). I personally think it's a waste of time for a citizen to watch this "show". Up until the 1930s....most regular people in America never heard or watched the State of the Union speech....then radio came along, and we've been stuck listening to it for the past eighty years. All in all...a bunch of words that you really can't say much about.

The warships. If you notice naval movements over the past couple of days....we've put an aircraft carrier down against Iran. Basically....nothing much should happen. Course, Iran would love to fire off a dozen missiles and hope that the carrier would sink....it'd be like a five-star moment in Iranian history if they could accomplish such an effort. The odds? One in a million. And the base where the missiles come from? If I were an Iranian military guy on the installation....I'd be in my car leaving base the minute that the missiles were fired.....the carrier isn't going to stand down and let your missile game be played out.

The encryption case. There was an interesting case that came up yesterday out in Colorado. Some gal is up on bank fraud charges, and she's got a laptop with lots of data on it.....all encrypted. The judge ordered her to turn off the encryption so the cops could view the data. I'm guessing that it'll go up the next step, and likely to hit the Supreme Court within weeks. I can understand the motivation of the attorney general and the cops....but frankly, I can't think of any Constitutional law that says you aren't allowed to encrypt anything. Up until five years ago.....most encryption that a typical citizen would buy....was beatable. Things have reached a point now.....where you could pretty much lock down a laptop entirely, with no hope for the cops. I'd even say that within five years....your teenage daughter or son will have cheap or free encryption abilities to deny you use of their home laptop. It's a trend that simply isn't going to be reversed.

Finally, the Sundance Fest. This is the fancy movie fest that's held out in Utah....run by Robert Redford. Basically, Mr Redford came out yesterday and said that the fest is supposed to be for the "99-percent" (referring to the Occupy folks and their agenda of the regular citizen). I paused over the commentary....wondering how anything related to the fest got paid for, without the 1-percent crowd paying for it. Everything, from the fancy parties, to the dinners....is mostly all covered by rich folks....the 1-percent folks. So you've got some idiot like Mr Redford who wants to make a political statement....grinning at the camera...while he still kisses up to the 1-percent who deliver the $15k of fancy wine from California. And for you folks who have various fests and special functions in your cities....you might want to examine who really pays for these (it's not the 99-percent....trust me).

Davos

2012-01-23T05:19:00.000-05:00

Once every year, I write up on the Davos meeting, which is annually held in Davos, Switzerland. It's where close to 2k political figures, economic experts, wannabe journalists, and mega-billioniare folks meet. For five days, they typically have meets to discuss various economic things going on and how they can change, reverse, or modify events. They also huddle in small groups, sipping expensive wine, and chat on how they can make another billion or how to convince folks in global warming concepts.

The meeting is coming up this week at the resort town, high in the Swiss Alps. This week's major topic? Someone has decided that capitalism is obsolete ("outdated and crumbling"), so they need a way to replace capitalism. Some folks are thinking capitalism can no longer exist.

So these 2k folks will be walking around this week and talking up their alternate plans to capitalism. My humble guess is that an exceptionally large amount of booze will be sipped this week, to help create a mental state where they can imagine a world without capitalism....that works in a really great manner to create jobs, wealth for the working class, and allow for people to dream of a better life. The more booze you consume.....the more ideas you likely come up with, but later forget when you wake up the next day.

I never take Davos serious. Guys like Al Gore typically show up and chat up global warming. Billionaires walk around and try to get tips on the next trend....to make another billion in profit. French hookers show up to amuse the poor economic wizards that show up. And everyone guzzles up lots of booze, which makes tons of money for the Swiss government because of their tax structure.

An alternate to capitalism? Go for it. The odds are that you can't find such a system unless you have some government tightly controlling the entire agenda, and then you have a bigger problem than economic woes.

The highlight of this game in Davos? I usually sit around and watch CNN because they always put two or three journalists there, and they get to meet a bunch of guys who chat on fake topics and you get a laugh over how real journalists try to portray a fake subject. Everyone dresses in black, and look like they stepped out of a Paris men's shop. No one wears $49 shoes, or walks around in a $15 sweatshirt after the meetings. All in all....it's mostly all fake, with wannabe folks talking and journalists trying to report this as serious, when you want to laugh.

The Rights of the Dead

2012-01-23T04:57:00.000-05:00

By late yesterday, some analysis had been done by the South Carolina's Attorney General over voting on Saturday. The Attorney General....Alan Wilson....decided that he had to call up the US Justice Department, over possible voter fraud. The issue? Well.....953 dead folks voted in the Saturday Republican primary.

I know it's a bit shocking. Typically, dead folks vote Democrat (what we've been told over the past decade since folks started noticing the dead voter trend).

We could analyze this and come to several conclusions. First, the dead folks were mostly independent voters and decided to dump Obama, and hang with Mitt or Newt or the Rick guy or that Ron Paul dude. No one has ever interviewed dead voters to determine their affiliation, and one might suspect they were more Democrat than Republican, but maybe folks are wrong on that account.

Second, typically....dead folks only voted in major elections....and not primaries, so this creates a new window of opportunity. If we can get more dead folks out in the election, it might mean more votes for Republicans during this primary season.

Third and final, some state investigators are going to show up at various homes and ask some stupid questions. Some widows, and widowers are going to be asked how their dead husband or wife (for over a year), came to vote in the primary. Some nephews are going to be bluntly asked if they used Uncle Karl's absentee ballot that came in the mail. Some folks are going to look at the postal delivery guys and suspect that they intercepted the absentee ballot that came. I'm guessing that a dozen folks are going to face state charges and have to find a lawyer.

So here we are....stuck with 953 dead folks voting in South Carolina's primary. Yeah, they might have all voted for Ron Paul....that's my thinking on this. I'd like to believe that anyway.

Two Styles of Debate

2012-01-22T12:17:00.000-05:00

What worries the Obama team about a Newt situation? Newt has hinted that he wants a Lincoln-Douglass style debate forum. For those who aren't familiar with this 1850's style....a moment to explain the modern debates, and the Lincoln-Douglass method.

Today, if you hold a Presidential debate....there's a moderator or a group of moderators. They get to ask any question they want, and phrase it in a method to help or hurt the guy at the podium. Several opportunities have arisen over the last four decades where the moderator probably triggered an eventual bad moment for the candidate. We could be honest here and admit that it was probably more Republicans hurt by this method, than Democrats.

Over the past decade, after July....there's a bit of discussion over the debate sequence, the quantity of debates, and who sits on the moderator table. Even the location of the debate, will often come up to be a problem.....when some university in Wisconsin is selected....which is hot Democrat territory, or some arena in North Carolina where a large number of independents might be in the audience.

So we come to the Lincoln-Douglass style. You agree to meet in some town....maybe in a open theater, a university, or even a town square. No moderator. You agree to a couple of topics already established. One guy starts with a open statement on something and gets ten minutes to talk up his topic. The other guy gets ten minutes to free-chat over what was said. The second guy typically has no speech in front of him, and is working strictly on real old-fashioned debate techniques. They go back and forth for two hours, discussing probably six to eight topics at length. A smart guy can beat a weak guy in this style of debate.

To be honest, Newt is fairly unbeatable in a Lincoln-Douglass style situation. The President would look weak....and perhaps dismal in this style of debate. In a moderator-debate.....a weak guy could come out ahead, with just a stupid question or two on the smart guy.

It's pretty good odds that President Obama would not agree to such a debate. Newt would demand it, and at best....there might be two debates agreed upon....with one being a Lincoln-Douglass debate in some big Democratic university setting. I'm guessing Newt will not be happy with one, and demand a minimum of three, but the President just plain isn't going to be stupid enough to doing something like this.

My humble guess is that we get to see one Lincoln-Douglass debate at best. Now, the second debate with the moderator? Well....if I were the moderator, I'd prepare myself to be tossed up one side and down the other by Newt. The moderators selected....will carved up as badly as the President.

So, I'm thinking the President and staff would really like Mitt to come out winning in Florida. If he doesn't, this Lincoln-Douglass topic will come out and a dozen folks will spend weeks thinking how they can counter Newt in October, and it won't be pleasant for anyone.

Why the Media Boys Might be Worrying

2012-01-21T12:04:00.000-05:00

So you come to July, and you've got a Presidential race with Newt and the President. You work for ABC, NBC, CBS, the PBS crowd, or CNN.....and you'd like to have a payraise or better deal in 2013. You gaze over at how Newt manhandles media analysts and news folks.

Over the spring of 2012.....Newt has dumped a good bit of negativity over various networks....except Fox News. Numbers have slipped for most of the major networks....except Fox. The independent folks? Well....they just aren't watching in the numbers that existed in 2008. Commerical advertisers? They have smiled at the negotiation table and asked for ten and twenty percent off what was the normal advertising rates. Things aren't going well.

So you stand there in August, and your news division chief, and the CEO....want you to run negative news pieces against Newt. You start to ask about a new contract and guaranteed pay raise....which they laugh about. You bring up the lowering numbers of viewers. They don't care. So you smile and suggest that you might run their negative piece....but it'll look like something that a 2-year college kid would produce down in southern Mississippi.

Things go back and forth, with PBS and a few newspapers working the frontlines because most of the network guys are worried about their future and their economic prosperity. The White House guys can't understand why their game strategy isn't being being played aggressively.

The second wife of Newt brought out for another tour? Well...the only folks watching her in August of 2012....are Democrats. Nobody much cares for another round of hearing her complain about Newt being unethical.

I know we are a couple of months away from the real ending of this primary business.....and Mitt could still win. But I'm thinking the last person that the President or the media want to face in the fall....is Newt. He's capable of throwing questions right back at the wannabe journalists. People like that attitude. And it's likely to bring in ten percent of the national independent vote just because of attitude alone.

Just my two cents of observation.

The Truth About School Meals

2012-01-21T11:32:00.000-05:00

Some folks out in Los Angeles decided that school lunches just weren't right. They weren't nutritional. They didn't have health aspects that kids ought to be eating. So they went into turbo mode, switched over completely, and actually won some food awards for improving nutrition in the schools. So the kids took one look at the new menus.....and said no. They wouldn't eat the stuff. You had new fangled vegetarian curries, fancy and healthy tamales, special salads, and plain healthy Thai noodles. And this simply wasn't going to be touched.

So you imagine the crowds of kids....now going into the lunch room.....with stuff that they've brought from home....loaded with all the bad stuff. The school cooking staff have done just about everything by the book, and made nutritional experts happy.....but it won't be touched by the kids.

I grew up in a rural school in Bama. For nine years....it was probably a decent meal that they cook, for a lousy 40-cents. You always had some soup....loaded with potatoes and a few small pieces of meat each week. You had some small piece of roast beef with a heeping serving of mashed potatoes. And you tended to always get some piece of cheap cake without much frosting on it. Kids generally ate the stuff, but I have to admit that it did have a taste to it.

As I switched over to another school in the tenth grade....I came to face a cafeteria staff that was a notch or two lower than the previous one. I might have eaten once or twice a week in the place....but usually I'd have a Snickers bar somewhere and got by with that. The pizza they did cook....was a second rated Chef-Boy-r-D type, and usually loaded with too much cheese (probably the free stuff that they got from the federal guys). I think over the last three months at that school before I graduated....I never ate anything they cooked. I didn't have much respect for these types of operations.

Then I went off to the Air Force, and discovered some of the best chow possible. They made up great grilled ham and cheese sandwhiches in 90 seconds flat. You got a plate full of stew that probably had an abundance of sodium in it.....but it filled you up. I admit that they probably spent $1.50 for what we ate, but you cleaned up the plate.

The problem with these school menus is that you have to deliver something of nutrition that only costs around a buck for each kid. The truth is.....the kids just won't touch it. So you have this choice....don't cook nothing for them and allow them to bring stuff of a zero-nutritional value situation into the school, or give them food at a higher cost with lesser nutrition. Some parents will get all disturbed because they want everyone at the school to suffer and starve.....to save them from sugar, sodium, and fat. In a way, it's a lose-lose-lose situation.

My advice to you punk kids....get some saltine crackers....some cheese....some peanut butter....a Snickers bar.....a Pepsi....a bag of peanuts....and make yourself happy. These fools running the schools usually sneak back to the teacher's lounge....eat a 1,500 calorie Burger King meal that they had delivered by Joe the custodian at the school.....and you just have to accept the fact that they don't care much about your own meals.

The Doom Indicator?

2012-01-20T07:08:00.000-05:00

The story came out in Germany in the last couple of days....the German banks have been noted....stashing cash in the European Central Bank....rather than loaning it out. Reasoning? The experts say that the banks now suspect that a 2008-like economic event is on the horizon....another meltdown.

The amount? Around 528 Billion Euro (figure 700 billion dollars). This is apparently more than what they had stashed at the height of the recession (so says the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung). It's a fair amount of capital, if you ask me.

The amusing side of this is that the stock market in Germany really liked this news, and the market has been positive the last couple of days, with the Euro gaining a bit against the dollar. You would have thought folks would be curious about why fear over the future exists....but these are Germans and when you stash money....it can only be good (in their mind).

I'm thinking that another recession is likely out of their vision. It might be a year away....maybe eighteen months. But they aren't stupid about things like this. It also means less money to loan, and only major companies will be able to expand, with everyone else forced to stay careful and avoid expansion.

2012 Review of MAS*H

2012-01-20T06:52:00.000-05:00

I sat the other night and tried to watch two episodes of M*A*S*H. I hadn't watched it in twenty years. I finally came to a conclusion after watching the two episodes....that it was pretty lousy humor, and the one episode from the last three years....was purely dramatic stuff with punch-lines that simply didn't work. I hate to say it....but it was mostly a lousy comedy as the years have gone by.

The anti-war wit that continually comes up? It becomes a moment that demands a 'mute' protocol. It makes me wonder how the show survived, but then the competition in those days really wasn't much to brag about.

My Neighborhood

2012-01-20T05:13:00.003-05:00

Down south of where I live....is the town of Charlottesville, Virginia....a university town...about two hours away. The town council decided in the last week....that it wanted to ban all wars, and to make sure no war started up with Iran. It was a nifty little piece of resolution. Typically....from my experience....most towns have 500 problems to worry about: folks wanting to have chickens in the backyard, some guy losing his liquor license for selling to underage kids, zoning issues, wild dogs, crime, shootings, bankruptcy issues, tax problems, rats, corruption on the city council, library issues, lack of snow removal, grass cutting problems, and sewage issues. The city council down at Charlottesville decided that they had enough time to push the top 1k problems to the side, and discuss the problems of war, and then vote to ban it. I wouldn't worry about this becoming a trend. Most towns in Virginia have enough real problems....to keep them occupied. And in the DC city council....they mostly worry about ethics problems, getting arrested for corruption, and ways to line the pockets of folks who elected them into office.

The local cops came up and arrested two METRO employees here in DC yesterday. Their crime? Well....they had the guy who goes to the machines during the day to clear out the cash from the charge-up machine near DC area subway stations. They are typically assigned a guard who walks with them to a number of machines. Some local establishment which sells lotto cards.....got to noticing this METRO guy coming in with bags of coins.....up to $500 in each bag, and he'd buy lotto cards (lots of them). So they finally called up METRO and reported this (three years after it started, says the cops). The accusation is that both the cop escort and the METRO guy stole hundreds of thousands of dollars. No one can be sure about this....because there are no receipts. So folks are asking the METRO office which handles this kind of business why their internal system.....which counts money as it's inserted into the machine....never noticed a trend. I suspect that a third person is involved.....helping to hide the losses from the machine. The comical thing is that they think all of this cash came from one machine at one station. And yes, the METRO guy did win lots of cash with his lotto cards. I suspect he was smart enough never to put anything into the bank and just filter the cash out. Added to this mess after the news media broke the story....is that the METRO folks have suspended the chief of the office that is supposed to monitor the machines....suspecting he is either an idiot or simply didn't ever ask questions about missing funds. The question I have.....if this guy got away with it.....how many more guys got away with it as well? There might be a million a month that is disappearing from METRO, and they don't even grasp that.

We've got a state representative here in Virginia who has come with this great idea....selling state-sanctioned medical mary-j-u-wanna out of the Virginia ABC-liquor stores. It'd be a state-sponsored thing. The issue here is that....well...over half the state smokes the stuff on a weekly basis, and the other half is fighting like heck to stop drug sales, period. Added to this....the DC folks are going full-speed ahead to sell medical mary-j-u-wanna legally throughout the district....with taxes added, of course. It'll turn into a comical thing if over the next decade....everyone is selling state-approved medical mary-j-u-wanna and all our tax problems go away....all via the liquor sales shops.

Finally, there is a Virginia legislature effort to put a 20-cent tax on each plastic bag you use at the grocery store. There is an apparent discussion going on, and it's not just one nut-job talking over the issue. I had to sit there and laugh....this would amount to $1.20 tax on me....every time I go and shop. I pondered over this a while and realized that I could buy a thousand of these bags online for less than $20 and just buy my own personal supply of plastic bags to get around this issue. With all the various issues that we have in Virginia, I am at a loss of explaining how this rates in the top 500 problems. Course, the legislature could have taken up banning war.....and since that topic had been taken by some small town....they decided plastic bags was a good second choice.

Eternally Left With Bush's Fault

2012-01-19T17:47:00.000-05:00

Just across the river from me....is Maryland. There is this reputation with Maryland. They spend a ton of money on roads, infrastructure, education, teachers, teacher's pensions, and lots of state stuff. While the economy was booming....they had tax revenue to cover just about every single dream that Maryland had....at city, county and state-level. Well.....since the boom came to an end....there's problems.

This week, the state governor....Martin O'Malley....has come to propose his 2013 budget, and needs $311 million more. So he's proposing lots of new taxes to reach this plateau. His aimed target to get the extra money? The wealthy of course. But we are coming down to a point where folks making $100k....are starting to get into a wealthy status.

The blame here? Well....Governor pointed out that this was Bush's fault. Bush has been gone for three years now, and it's almost comical how this comes up these days.

I can imagine 2015 rolling around and the new Maryland governor.....Democrat Winston "Tubby" McClain (a used car dealer from Rockville), addresses the need for new taxes....blaming it on Bush.

As 2019 rolls around, and the new incoming Maryland governor....Democratic Miss Margo Kaine, formerly a topless dancer in Baltimore....addresses the need for new taxes.....blaming it on Bush.

As 2023 rolls around, and the new incoming Maryland governor....Democratic former midget wrestler Max Rail....addresses the need for new taxes....blaming it on Bush.

Eventually, some idiot will ask journalists who this Bush was because they don't remember the guy. At that point....everyone will go into a fit because voters simply forgot Bush....so they have no one much to blame things on.

As for the rich leaving Maryland.....well.....yeah. There are statistics over the past four years to show some rich millionaires have packed up and left. It's not a lot.....but you have to wonder about those who remain, and just how dedicated they are to being Maryland residents.

The 'Truth" about Keystone

2012-01-18T17:29:00.000-05:00

If you noted US press today....Keystone came up a thousand times. So let's stand back a moment and examine what the media didn't tell you.

First, no one in Keystone, or the Republican Party, or the Democratic Party ever promised that all the oil flowing from Canada to Texas....was going to be sold on the US market. It's likely that the oil would shifted to Texas....got put on tankers, and sold to various African countries or European countries. So if your dreams were an American-controlled oil market, dream on. It would never happen.

Second, these thirty thousand jobs? Well....they would have lasted three years max, and then around 1,500 jobs would have been made into ever-lasting and permanent jobs. These jobs would guard the pipeline....check it for leaks, and manage the whole thing....plus work the terminal down in Texas to refine the mess or sell it on the market. Realistically.....you'd get one fair boost for three years and nothing much else.

Third....ever noted the path of the pipeline? It crosses only states which are pure Republican-win states in 2012. It didn't cross into Iowa or Wisconsin or Missouri. If it had....it'd been pure heck for the President to avoid this mess. He doesn't care about these states or their job potential.

Fourth....now that we've crossed the US off the list....there's just China as a customer, and the Keystone guys just lost ten percent of their profit margin. The Chinese can smile every time they meet Obama....he gave them a five-star moment in the business world.

So finally.....the President can approach the environmental crowd and show them his wounds from this 'terrible' fight....and insist that he saved America for them. It looks great for a guy who has virtually nothing to show for four years of effort on the environment. For the Republicans....it gives them a great tool to win in right-leaning states for November. It's a win-win for everyone, and we can all go to drink a Canadian beer tonight. Keystone won just as well....except with the Chinese.

Simply Observations

2012-01-18T07:46:00.047-05:00

The Obama administration came out yesterday, via the Interior Department, with an interesting ban. Roughly fifteen years after they became a problem....the government finally decided to ban the import of various "big" snakes (Anacondas, Pythons, etc). Most folks in the southern half of Florida will tell you that there is a serious problem. The experts don't even want to guess how many there are in the Everglades. So if you want a "big" snake.....you will have to buy one from an American guy, thus driving up the prices across the nation. This is something that should have been done a decade ago by the Bush administration, but they just didn't want to handle the problem. The sad thing here is that someone should have stood up back in the 1980s and said something then.

A couple of days ago....about half-way between Miami and London....some automated message deal came on...on board a British Airways jet. Somewhere around 3AM....this automated voice came on and say something to the effect....'crap, we are about to ditch the plane in the water....hold tight'. I admit, it probably was a bit more British and official....but it basically awoke everyone on the plane, and they went into a huge panic within seconds. It was bogus, and the airline is trying to figure out the cause (probably some Microsoft glitch). Passengers were peeved, and holding the folks responsible. They want some kind of compensation for almost crapping in their pants. The sad thing here is that most of the British guys were probably wasted and didn't even realize a message had been played. Probably half of the British women onboard were also 'toasted', and didn't realize anything until hours later when they landed. Not to slam the Brits too much.....but few would ever waste a chance on board a plane....not to be fairly drunk.

There's this odd story out of Iraq. The Iraqis are wanting back a piece of a Saddam statue that was torn down at the beginning of the invasion of Iraq, when everyone got all peppy and tied up dump trucks to Saddam statues and were yanking them down left and right. Somewhere in the midst of this mess...some British solder got the "butt" of a Saddam statue, and hauled it later back to the UK, where he made it into some artistic deal. He felt he'd make money off Saddam's butt.....but never has. Meanwhile, word got back to Iraq, and frankly.....they want Saddam's butt back. You can imagine the British authorities reviewing this case. Some British lawyer is asking stupid questions, and some foreign office dimwit is talking about the respect you owe Saddam's butt. It's like one of those Monty Python episodes, if you ask me. And I wouldn't ship it back to Iraq. I'd probably take over one of the Queen's private gardens and bury six feet under some weeds.

Finally, up in LeRoy High School, of New York state (north of New York City, but south of Rochester), there's this group of girl students at the local school.....who all show symptoms similar to Tourette's Syndrome. This all involves body movements, tic's, and verbal responses that are typically not what you'd utter in front of Grandma (damn, f***, s***, etc). The school is a bit disturbed by this.....it's more than one or two (maybe going up to a dozen young ladies). So far, no guys are involved. I read through five different articles. Basically.....I think the whole thing is bogus and the girls are just playing everyone for a fool. Statistically, you can't have a cluster of say twelve young teenage girls suddenly appearing within a six-month period with Tourett's symptoms, all in the same school. To accomplish this....they'd all need to do some type of drug that triggers such an event.....either legal or illegal. So I'm sorry girls.....but I just won't buy it.....I think the act is bogus. This reminds of a SouthPark episode, for some odd reason. Right now.....parents from the local area are demanding answers, and it looks like the county and state health folks are descending down on the mess. Looks like a $250k study needs to be conducted....if you ask me. I can say this though....if it is a drug....it'll run across the US in a matter of months, and every single kid will want to have it.....to mimic Tourette's Syndrome. Schools will go into a panic mode as millions of kids utter four-letter words on a hourly basis. Maybe the Russians are behind this (something Ron Paul would suggest).

My Neighborhood

2012-01-18T04:25:00.002-05:00

We've had several curious episodes in my neighborhood.

First, the Occupy dudes were supposed to have a big huge converging of members up on capital hill yesterday. Originally, there were supposed to be almost a million coming to DC. Then the permit for the march and protest....said 10k would be showing up. So yesterday, there simply were 'hundreds' that showed up to converge on Congress. It is the middle of January....although yesterday's weather was mild for January. If they had aimed for a Saturday episode....then the Occupy leadership could have bused in forty thousand folks from the six-state region around DC, but Congress wouldn't have been open on Saturday to greet them. Maybe we need some kind of rule requiring Congressmen to work an occasional Saturday....so more protesters could protest against them.....just to be fair.

Second, DC passed a funny 'rat' bill a few months ago. It basically said, if you as a professional rat-catcher...come to acquire a rat or two, then you are required to remove them from the District and transport them to a suitable wildlife area. Course, there are no wildlife areas in DC (it's hard to squeeze something like that into a six by six mile area). So naturally, this brings up the hostile feelings of the Virginia Attorney General, who has finally realized that the DC professionals are driving across the river and dumping rats off into Virginia wooded lands. He says the rats need to be put down where they are caught.....pure and simple. I'm guessing he might try to introduce a bill into Virginia's legislature that requires the importation of rats into Virginia to require a license, and $10 fee. If caught dumping DC rats....then maybe a $10k fine would be appropriate. It's sad that government activities have come to the point where they tell you when and where you can kill a rat (which is never), and some other political figure wants to stop you from dumping on their soil.

Third, some Occupy folks tossed a smoke bomb or two over the fence toward the White House. Naturally, this was timed so that the First Couple were out of the house.....partying it up for the wife's birthday. Secret Service folks got all peppy, and about half of the eight hundred folks at the back-gate suddenly disappeared when the smoke bombs got tossed over. Based on the President being out of the White House at the time....my humble guess is that this was mostly scripted.

Fourth, that idiot who fired a couple of rounds at the White House with his AK-47 back in November and got caught? Well....the feds finally came up and decided that they will try him for at least seventeen charges. Frankly....unless he can convince folks he is crazy....he's looking for a minimum of fifty years in prison. So far, he's been acting fairly nuts, but no mental health professional will declare him insane. I'm guessing he's got an uphill battle here and might ought to think about admitting to a couple of charges and hoping for a deal for twenty-five years in prison.

Fifth and final, the DC city council is moving closer to the mary-j-u-wanna situation. This week, the council approved a bill which would limit the number of cultivation centers and sales centers in each district. Some residents of DC....especially from northeast and southeast....suddenly came to realize that they might end up with a hundred cultivation centers and probably just as many sales shops. You can imagine vast stretches of neighborhood....being just dope sales points. So you are now limited to five cultivation 'farms' and one sales shop in a district. This is all for medical marijuana, not to confuse with real marijuana (each plastic baggy will be stamped, so that makes it official).

Simply Observations

2012-01-17T05:06:00.000-05:00

After watching the news all weekend over the Italian cruise ship business....I'm kinda amazed that folks seem shocked that such a event can occur. At some point in a interview....some Americans were shocked that none of the Italian cruise liner workers spoke English. Some advice for folks who dream of a cruise but have never been on one: boats can sink, and unless you board a cruise ship in Baltimore or Miami....don't expect a bunch of cruise ship employees to speak English. This kinda reminds of the guy I worked with, whose wife demanded a vacation to Peru. They went off to Peru, and the wife got all sick off food poisoning, and spent most of the two weeks in some hotel room trying to recover. People just don't grasp all the dangers in traveling in strange environments. Stick to Route 66, and Motel 6.

In Arlington over the weekend....we had an unusual event with METRO. Some fire started in the tunnel between the Pentagon and Pentagon City. The METRO guys say it was just a debris-type fire.....nothing special. How it started? Well....they won't say that part. There is high voltage that runs through all the tunnels but that typically wouldn't start a fire. The shocking thing is that the fire was noted at 5PM exactly, put out around 5:10, and regular service started back up by 5:13. That's the first emergency I've seen in two years where it didn't take two hours to get things back into operation.

Finally, the Wikipedia folks claim that they will shut down their site tomorrow (Wed) for 24 hours....fussing over a bill in congress that would disturb their general operations. This protest might upset a couple of thousand folks, but I doubt if anyone notices the shutdown. We did pretty well without Wiki for two hundred years.....twenty-four hours wouldn't amount to much, if you ask me.

The Problem with Dopers

2012-01-17T04:28:00.000-05:00

This is what we know....compliments of the Northwest Florida Daily News....cops from the Okaloosa County Sheriff's office get a call to come out to a house. They arrive. Here's a gentleman who is laying on the floor. This guy is the son of the home owner. He is kinda throwing himself around on the floor, and talking about Governor Mike Huckabee (our Fox guy, former Arkansas Governor, and 2008 Presidential contender), Jesus and people were full of ****. The cops didn't detail out the **** because this is Florida and folks don't generally cuss in public.

The cops finally make a decision after talking to him....enough is enough....and arrested him for felony battery and felony resisting arrest. If you notice the word 'felony' twice, that generally will get you more than sixty days in jail. The cops say that he was using bath salts....thus was all doped up.

The amusing part to this story is that the guy let the cops know that he seriously wanted to talk to Governor Huckabee, then turned around to talk to an invisible "friend" who turned out to be Jesus.

I pondered on this. Back a hundred years ago, if folks had come upon someone who was speaking with Jesus....they'd listen to the guy for a day or two, and giving him a chance to explain things. This is mostly because they didn't have any real drugs, and alcohol didn't cause you to run around talking to invisible folks. Since the arrival of various drugs today.....it doesn't take much for folks to determine you are nuts and have you hauled off.

What I always find curious about these folks.....they always pick Jesus. I'd be picking Churchill, Davy Crockett, Thomas Jefferson, or Steinbeck. I would imagine out of a thousand people who dope up and talk to invisible folks...almost all talk to Jesus. They won't talk to Moses, or Luke, or Samson.

My guess is that the worst thing you could ever do....is get doped up on something, and leave the TV channel on some religious channel for six hours. It probably messes up your mind eternally, and it's like some kind of brain-washing session.

As for this guy from Florida? Well.....he'll eventually wake up and ask what happened. It'll be explained by some Sheriff's guard at the jail named Jimmy. This guy will be amazed at the stuff he did and not remember anything. The guard Jimmy? He will be asking if the guy feels closer to Jesus and probably hand him a pamphlet from the local Baptist church. Two weeks later and out of jail on bail....the guy joins up with the church...shows everyone how to bath salts, and suddenly you've got three hundred folks talking to Jesus on a daily basis. It could happen.....you know.

Only in America.

The Sincerity of a Tear or Two

2012-01-14T10:33:00.004-05:00

There are stories out of Asia this weekend that North Korea has gone onto a new type disciplinary situation. A number of folks complained that their co-workers, neighbors, or associates just weren't showing sincere sadness or despair upon the death of their beloved dicator....Kim Jong Il.

So, there is evidence that the government is handing there labor-training camp sentences to folks who are accused of such a 'crime'.

The deal is that you should have been going to organized weeping events after the death, or that you didn't show real crying, or that you just weren't genuinely upset by his death. Every company had organized weepings. Every neighborhood had meetings where you could throw yourself on the floor. Every office had meetings where you could act all upset for hours at a time.

Sadly, for a stoic type character (John Wayne, Gary Cooper, etc).....who'd just raise a whiskey glass and utter some Irish death poem....with just a faint tear in one eye....that wouldn't have been enough. You needed to act emotional so that people felt you were convincing in your grief.

I sat and watched around three minutes on the German news with women throwing themselves down on the ground, and men holding each other while they wept tears for the camera crew.

The sad thing is that if you are sentenced here....then you get sent off for six months of training, enjoy a three-quarter rationed meal each day, and have to memorize all these Communist sayings to make folks think you are a serious Communist. I'm also guessing that you need to weep a good bit and pretend you really are grieving....six months after his death....over the dictator dying.

The sad thing here is that there are twenty-four million folks in North Korea. To be kinda honest....less than 10k have ever personally met and shaken the 'fragile' hand of Kim Jong Il. Maybe another six million have seen him at parades. The vast majority (my humble opinion) probably never met the guy except for pictures at the manager's office at the pig farm, the public school they attended until age 15, or at the local village doctor's office where some color picture was hung. I'd even be guessing that less than forty people really knew Kim Jong Il in a personal way....and they might have been the only folks who really did shed sincere tears.

Kind of a sad way to end the final chapter on the life of Kim Jong Il.....if you didn't weep enough....you get sent off to some prison-camp. Most North Koreans would have been in utter shock over what transpired with Princess Di's death and funeral....if they'd witnessed that whole episode. Those were all real tears....and nobody had to suggest a prison-camp deal for the fakers.

Simply Observations

2012-01-14T06:23:00.000-05:00

Not that I really care, but about four years ago....the Larry King Show on CNN started to dwindle in numbers. I hadn't watched Larry King for at least eight years, so I didn't care. About a year ago....CNN finally hinted to Larry that he ought to retire, and he did. So here came this British guy, Piers Morgan. I watched twenty minutes of his show one night....and then I gave up on him. The CNN numbers for Pier's show? Almost at the same level that Larry King had when he stepped down. A full year, and no advancement on the spiraling numbers. This week, Piers came out and said the second year would be different. He was going to have more fun and actually be more opinionated, thus bringing on fantastic new viewers in 2012. My humble opinion is that Piers can linger at the dismal side of viewership for the rest of this year and maybe next....because there's no one ready to step in and fix their problems. If he thinks being heavily opinionated helps....go for it. Larry King was never that type of guy and it's the kind of act that would turn off most folks.

This credit ratings episode in Europe on Friday? Well....it carved up a number of countries and made them all appear weaker. Naturally, it was done late in the day....so the Euro rate wasn't affected yet by it. Come Monday....The Euro rate will likely go up several cents to the dollar. We are slowly edging the Euro from it expensive point of 62 Euros to 100 Dollars (2008 rate), to where it stands today, 76 Euros to 100 Dollars. My humble guess is that in a month or two....it's going to be near 82 Euros to 100 Dollars. The truth is that most European countries are only a step behind the US in dismal economics. Greece may be six steps ahead of the US, and California by itself might be a step ahead of the US as a whole.....but life goes on. A bunch of fancy analysts will waste time on Monday explaining why France is screwed up, and 40k Americans will wonder where France is.....while asking Johnny Junior to find it for them on the map.

There is this publication called Education Week.....which naturally speaks out on education. They came out this week and assessed states and the nation. Bama ended up with a "C", while the US itself ended up with a "C-minus". The factors in such an assessment? Well....somehow they measure the chance of success, which is odd factor and kind of debatable in Bama. Then they measured K-12 achievements, testing, the teaching profession and school finance. If Bama paid teachers more and spent billions on school infrastructure....they might have gotten a "A-minus", although this is all some game with words and the factors. This all brings us back to "chance of success". I went to school with folks who ended up as truck drivers, gas station managers, and farmers. Frankly, they don't give a damn about success.....it's more about happiness in life, and most are fairly happy living in the town where they grew up, making $30k a year, driving a 12-year old Ford F-150, watching high school football on a Friday night, and helping their cousin Claude dig up a septic tank. I would probably give Education Week a "F-plus" (if there was such a grade), because they may have written up qualifying rules that really don't mean much....later in life. The sad thing is that some idiot will appear in the Montgomery legislature and quote Education Week like it was some piece out of the Bible, and then beg them to tax the state more so that teachers would have bigger salaries, and thus move up to a "B-plus" on Education Week's listing.

This is all stuff that I can't make up.

My Neighborhood

2012-01-13T18:29:00.000-05:00

The local paper (the Examiner) did up an article on DC's local government.....involved in a dramatic roadtrip to talk up statehood for the District. The plan by the city council? Travel in 2012 to all fifty states.

You can imagine this boondoggle episode by the mayor and his buddies on the city council. They travel into your state.....sit down with a couple of Democrats at some capital luncheon. They talk up how they'd like to be a state, and everybody hugs each other. They might get the Channel Nine news team from Salt Lake City to interview the mayor....with folks in Salt Lake wondering why some idiot would travel to Salt Lake City to talk about some impossible dream over becoming an actual state.

The way that they talk this traveling business....each member will pay his own costs from his $19k office supply budget. The curious thing is that if you don't spend the money at the end of the year....it drops back into the general fund bucket.

So it's a curious story. A dozen odd political players from DC.....trying to travel cheaply around America. Their little speech is mostly bogus and not worth listening to. The folks from the state they are visiting....they try to be friendly, but there just isn't much interest in giving two senators to some area that's the size of Austin or Huntsville. So they sip booze and talk up the choice of lusty ladies, then go sit in the hotel bar for four hours before leaving at 5AM to meet the $99 cheapo flight back to DC.

My suggestion? Take the cash and rent one Greyhound bus. Then get yourself a "Juan" driver, $800 of cheap beer, and just run around the country in three weeks. Try to sleep at the Motel Six for the most part....share rooms....and buy cheapo Captain Hook fish meals. After you get back.....talk big about the ten thousand folks you met....including a bunch of folks at welcome centers across the nation, and how everyone felt Washington DC ought to be a state.

Sorry, but I can't make this kind of stuff up......a bunch of guys just taking city money to travel around and meet other idiot political folks and lusty women. Man, it just doesn't get better than this in DC.

Simply Observations

2012-01-13T06:13:00.000-05:00

Natalee Holloway, our Bama gal who disappeared in Aruba....was finally declared dead yesterday. It took over six years, but her father finally said enough.....and figured there just wasn't going to be another outcome to this story. I can imagine the situation and it's really something you'd not wish on anyone. You can't really have closure on this deal....no matter how you play the cards. From the very beginning....I didn't have any optimistic thoughts on this. Aruba isn't the perfect little island getaway that most folks think of. There's lots of drugs and booze, and you can end in the company of various bad characters. It is a sad deal for Bama, and for the Holloway family.

I sat and watched over this pardon episode with the Governor of Mississippi....Haley Barbour. My impression is that almost no one in the Governor's office did any real research, and there had to be some kind of stupidity issue tied into this mess. For this reason, I'd like to suggest that no Governor or President ought to be given full pardon power. They ought to be able to recommend a guy for a pardon, to a three-man group who would meet three months later to read over the situations and if the majority of the three men agree....then it's a done deal. Barbour, in my humble opinion, is an idiot and probably did a fair amount of damage to his reputation as he wrapped up his final week in the Governor's job.

Finally, some Amish guys up in Kentucky....have stood up and said that they have some religious conflicts with those red triangles that you have to hang off your buggy (by state law). Most Amish....99 percent of them, have no issue and readily obey various states which require this. Apparently, this 'sect' of Amish, thought that the red color was too flashy and conflicted with God. I sat and pondered over this....God did make the rainbow, redwood trees, and the color red. It's hard for me to see how red is some flashy color and conflicts with God. On the other side of the coin, I'm of a religious sect that has problems with small cars, and believe that they are the work of the devil. I know some other folks who believe that God personally engineered and built the Ford F-150, and have driven one such vehicle for the past twenty years of their life and cannot imagine a day without God's handiwork. Once you start inflicting God onto vehicles, tags, or road safety....you've probably attended one too many church meetings and need to go spend three weeks in New Orleans....to cleanse your spirit.

Simply Observations

2012-01-12T05:17:00.001-05:00

Here in the northeast, we have this odd story. Virginia college kid....goes to New York City for Christmas holidays....disappears on 30 December in the Big Apple....hasn't been seen since. His family back in Virginia and his buddies at Virginia Commonwealth University....are all in a panic mood. The kid, Ian Burnet, has been gone two weeks now. The folks he was visiting with? Well....they saw him on the 30th....and then the kid left his cellphone there in the apartment....walking out to check out the city. I looked at the address they gave for the apartment....139th Street and Riverside Drive. It's about three minutes walking from the harbor. I'd hate to suggest it, but I would suspect the kid probably walked over....met up with weird character....got robbed.....and got tossed into the harbor. This being December....he had about sixty seconds of survival time, and then went under.

"I promise you, change will come." This is a quote from yesterday and President Obama. Personally, I would have avoided making a comment like this, but you get all charged on the campaign trail and say silly things occasionally. Maybe change will eventually come....2015, maybe 2016.....or maybe into 2017 when the next guy comes along. Who knows?

I went to the doc yesterday. The last time I went over was in October. I walked in the front door, and came to be surprised that his staff of five folks had completely turned over in less than 100 days. I made some comment to the front-desk gal and she had this comeback....like a quote that she'd been told to offer...."some people had left". Then she wanted me to know that my insurance company hadn't paid for October's episode, and the doc wouldn't see me unless I paid now....$214. I was kinda aggravated by this. I knew nothing had come from my health insurance company, so obviously....the doc's folks had never submitted the bill like they were supposed to. So I said fine....give me a receipt. Well....they had a printer problem....it'd be tomorrow. So I responded....fine....send me a PDF to my email account. Then she looked at me oddly and said that they didn't have scan capability, and they didn't have internet in the office. So the best I could get was a fax....the next day. Something just doesn't add up here. I'm used to German doctors rushing into an office....asking five questions....signing some form, and moving onto the next patient. This guy barely does five patients an hour, and I doubt that he's clearing that much money. If I were picking a business that might go bankrupt....his operation would be at the top.

Finally, here in DC....the folks are busy trying to write up a gay divorce law. You see....they got all pumped up and passed a gay marriage law last year....but never thought for a minute about how you'd divorce your new spouse. So they've had to become a bit creative because folks offer up some evidence that they reside in Washington to get gay-married. Well....folks move around and there's all kinds of problems because forty-odd states don't and won't carry a gay divorce clause. The idea is that as long as one spouse claims Washington as a living location.....they can use this discussed gay-divorce deal. The humorous side to this is that they rushed in to create gay marriage but never created an escape situation.

Only in America.

The Problem with Disabilities

2012-01-11T05:52:00.000-05:00

Things as you know....down in Greece over the past twelve months....have gotten pretty bad. This past week....the folks that run the Greek health business (their national "ObamaCare" system)....got around to adding some more folks with issues to the list of official disabilities. This new group includes: voyeurs, exhibitionists, pedophiles, pyromaniacs and such.

It was a shocker to the Greek government folks who mind the dwindling and spiraling downward national welfare fund. Naturally, you would normally get Greek welfare for falling onto the national disability group. But some Greek political folks were apparently awake at the time......realizing the mess they were going to create, and said "nope". There wasn't going to be any national welfare going to folks like this but they would allow healthcare help to them....just to be nice about this.

The logic that started this mess? Well....because all the financial mess underway....these poor folks with various controversial health issues have kinda got 'dumped'. No one wants to waste time with them unless there's some cash from the government involved.

This brings me around to some pondering as we edge closer to 2013 and our own national healthcare program. Will folks like this (pedophiles, exhibitionists, pyromaniacs, criminal behavior type folks) get covered with the new US government program? Well....we don't know. The rule book hasn't been published yet, and my guess is that we won't see the rule book till after the November elections.

Once we notice some of these criminal behavior issues listed in our national program.....it will bother a number of folks. I'm guessing that it bothers a number Greeks today.

Years ago, the Germans started some bold and significant alcohol rehabilitation state-care plans. They tied an interesting ending to them. The first rehab program was generally an out-patient deal which went on for months. Once you confirmed that you failed on that program.....they had this great 60-90 day in-patient plan (you actually got paid your paycheck while attending some farm-like setting). Finally, if you admitted that second chance didn't work.....you got one third opportunity which generally went on for three to four months. At the conclusion of that.....you were finished and weren't going to get any more alcohol help. No one admits how many people fall into the three failures-routine, but I'd be guessing at least a couple thousand Germans have proven that nothing much helps. How much was wasted on this? It's best not to ask.

I'm guessing the Greeks are asking, and bothered that they barely get any real healthcare or prescribed drugs currently, and things will just get more bothersome as time goes by.

What We Are

2012-01-10T18:09:00.001-05:00

Some smart guys did a survey over at the CDC (your Center for Disease Control), and came this great discovery....we've got a huge issue with binge drinkers in America.

The numbers say that thirty-eight million Americans drink (binge is the more appropriate term) four times a month on average....drinking at least eight drinks at a time. Then they showed statistics that say that young adults and old geezers....probably drink more often (five to six times)....compared to the average guy.

For most of us....the real comparison is that one out of eight Americans is a pretty hefty consumer of beer, wine or booze....on a regular basis. I thought about this, and eventually came to realize that this isn't much of a discovery. I've known about this for forty years. I could have told these guys the facts. You can walk into military enlisted club and watch guys consume pitchers of beer, or some guys at a sports bar consuming a couple of whiskey shots and a dozen Budweisers. You can talk to former Marines down at the VFW hall who talk over Nam and sip ten beers before they leave for the evening. You can go down to the porch of some sixty-year old ladies and watch them toss back three big pitchers of Tequila mix.

Yes, we are a binge nation, and we've been that way for two hundred years. We drunk whiskey crossing America. We drunk beer while building subway tunnels under New York City. We drunk cheap wine while fighting the Nazis across France. We mixed all kinds of liquor while developing the nuke bomb. We built the Panama Canal while consuming booze. We voted for various Presidents while intoxicated. And we talked to beautiful blondes on the boardwalks of New Jersey while trashed on cheap beer from the local casino.

I'm sure the CDC wants to rush out now and fix this....mostly by taxing booze more....so it would distract us and force us to consume less. For some reason, I don't think this logic really carries much weight. There are a thousand ways to brew our own beer, distill our own whiskey, and bottle up our own wine. We saw the vast results of prohibition and how nothing really came out of the efforts.

So tonight, you can sit at the bar and drink your sixth shot of Jacky D's while thinking over the fact that except for the Russians.....we are the biggest binge drinkers on this Earth. And while we can try out to out-binge the Russians....we just aren't that good as the Russians. Maybe that's a good thing.

Between a Rock and Virginia

2012-01-10T17:34:00.004-05:00

We have a funny rule in Virginia....that if you want to run in a Presidential primary....you have to come up with 11k folks signing a petition in the state. Oh, and from the 11k, you have to have 400 folks as a minimum from each voting district. Don't ask me why....it's the Virginia way though.

So, this major problem has occurred, which affects me greatly. Apparently....only Ron Paul and the Mitt...were able to get their petitions into the systems and stamped ok. The Rick duo? Nope. Newt? Nope. And that Huntsman guy? Nope.

I'm in a major state of pondering. Two choices....from one far extreme to the other extreme. To be honest, I just can't vote for Mitt, under much of any circumstances. And I really can't find logic to vote for Ron Paul. So I have to think of this problem as to who I will vote against (the worser of evils). And the answer?

Yes, I'm voting for Ron Paul in the Virginia primary. There is only the logical reason of voting against Mitt Romney.

I'm guessing across the state now....that over half of Republican voters are stuck in this silly mental state. They wanted the other choices, but faced with this situation....they will vote for Ron Paul.

Here's the sad thing. A dozen major dimwits will appear that night on TV and analyze the number and try to explain to America why Ron Paul won the Virginia primary. It will be bogus reasons across the board. Most of America will believe we are nuts, and simply unable to come to a rational candidate. We Virginians will be labeled in various ways....sadly....because four other guys couldn't find 11k voters to sign a petition in their name, or they thought they were paying the right university kid to do all of this....and simply lost track of things.

So Ron Paul wins in Virginia and represents this shocker across America. The truth? Some old Republican guys decided to rig up the rules to have a shocker of an election, and draw attention to the state. Nothing more.

My vote? Totally wasted, but maybe it pushes Ron Paul up over the edge and facing President Obama. There's no telling what happens at that point.

The Reality of Saving Folks

2012-01-09T16:41:00.002-05:00

Last year, we had a banner year for suicides on the DC METRO system. We had nine folks attempting it and seven successful. They all want to jump in front of the train at the last second (forget the bus system....no one ever wants a bus ending). Last week....going into 2012, we had two episodes. So the pressure got turned onto METRO for 2011.....they were told to do something. You can imagine management folks meeting and just groping anything to make the public happy.

So they said for 2011, that they'd train all of the 960 station managers and train engineers....but so far....they've only gotten to 180 folks. They are supposedly trained to "spot" suicidal riders. I sat and pondered over this.

The train engineers all sit in the cab....toward the front of the train. As they pull into the station....they might have two seconds of advance thinking or vision to grasp if some idiot is a jumper. The station manager? Well....they all tend to sit in their little cubicle shack, and they might walk around one hour out of the eight that they stand on duty. This $250k that they spent on this training program....was probably totally wasted.

The METRO folks also talked about this sign posting deal....where you'd have this 1-800 number to call and identify some guy looking "freaky". I sat there thinking over this. By the time you dial the number and mention the location....it's likely to be already too late.

The truth of the matter is that a suicidal person who wants a METRO ending....wants someone to help them with what they can't do. The odds of someone stopping the guy? I'd say less than one percent. But the public wants to put pressure on the METRO management.....you have to do something, even if it's all fake and doesn't really change the outcome. So thousands more will be spent in various training seminars and signs....and we simply have to accept that part of the deal.

Math and History Issues

2012-01-09T05:29:00.001-05:00

So, this is what we know. A couple of teachers at the Beaver Ridge Elementary School in Norcross, Georgia....decided to combine math and history into the same topic area.

They wrote a math quiz....which this is an example of their test: "Each tree had 56 oranges. If eight slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick?" Naturally, you'd sit there a moment as an adult....thinking over this....a slave involved in a math question?

Parents got ahold of this test, and went into a fury about the quiz questions involving slavery and beatings.

Based on comments by the school leadership, they did their best to defend the teachers but you get the impression that they also probably told them never to combine history and math ever again. Course, you might see a couple of science and English literature questions, or some health and PE questions....but that's ok. Mixing history with any other topic just confuses kids....if you ask me.

I always hated wordy math questions because it simply wasn't clear about what was important. You'd have some joker of a teacher who'd write a fancy quiz question like: If Joe bought sixteen cases of Pabst, twelve cases of Budweiser, and one case of Pepsi.....paying $104 for the whole purchase....how much did each case of beer cost? The answer is.....if you didn't say the price of each individual soda or beer, then you can't calculate the number. Course, a 12-year old kid would still try to come up with an answer....without knowing all the information.

As for the slavery quiz question? For the life of me....I can't figure out how this would teach you much about history. Picking and selling oranges wasn't a commercial operation until 1900's....so you wouldn't have found any slaves in Florida doing such a thing. Course, you can't explain that to a math teacher because they never took any history classes. From a business standpoint....the idea of having eight guys standing around one tree to pick....doesn't make any sense either....with it being like having three guys changing a light-bulb or two guys changing your oil in the pick-up.

My guess is that a bunch of school teachers will awaken from a slumber and try to combine classes in the future. The questions will be like.....if Randy was running away from a T-Rex, and the T-Rex could run eight miles per hour....how many seconds of survival does Randy have? Or, if Wanda was mixing meth as a business and making $32 an hour for her work....how long would it take for her to accumulate a million bucks? Or, if Dale was married six times, and paying alimony to five wives...amounting to $666 per ex-wife, then how much money would Dale have left from his $5k a month salary at the Piggly Wiggly?

Only in America.

Just Observations

2012-01-09T04:13:00.000-05:00

There were two Republican forums this weekend. The Sunday morning deal ran pretty good and I gave it four stars. The Saturday evening deal? Well....it was run by George Stephanopoulos, and he pretty much made himself as foolish as possible. Several of the questions ended up being pointed enough that you knew some Democrat wrote the question for George, and he didn't read or grasp what he was asking. I thought the guys on the stage carried themselves well enough....even Rick Perry, through these comical "George" questions. Bottom line? I wouldn't expect George to be invited back again for any such debate.

Yesterday, Sunday, I sat and watched about twenty minutes of this 'remember Tucson' episode, where Congressman Gifford was shot a year ago. Big media ceremony...although I don't think that many folks from Tucson were involved in the deal. Not to really blow a hole in this media deal....but no one sits around and remembers the first of these big massacres in the US (18 July 1984, the McDonald's in the San Ysidro, California). Twenty-two people died in that episode.....counting the shooter himself, and nineteen more were injured. The shooter, James Huberty, was a nut.....just like the Tucson kid. Jame Huberty should have been arrested weeks and months prior to the event....just like the Tucson kid, but never was. Media attention from the McDonalds massacre? None.....no cameras stand around on 18 July and no one ever remembers that occasion.

Yes, the Denver Broncos did win another overtime game yesterday....with the amazing Tim Tebow. I rarely get into this football stuff, although I have to admit that I intentionally watch the Broncos now because of the Tebow-fever. If they have to win, Tebow delivers.....at least you would like to believe that. Assistance from the almighty? Well.....it's hard not to believe that, but then if you were a Packers fan, you'd believe that Vince Lombardi is working is magic straight from heaven and might know more strategy than God himself. Just a humble opinion on that.

Finally, there are about a million Bama folks who are living and breathing on this upcoming LSU-Bama championship game. They'd like to engage in conversation....at the local store, at church, at the county CO-OP, at the local Catfish Cabin, and at the Piggly Wiggly. Last year was Auburn's opportunity, and this year ought to be Bama's opportunity. I would imagine that at least another million Bama folks are fed up with the hype and the whole NCAA football thing....and secretly would like LSU to win. That's the problem in living in a die-hard football state....you kinda stretch things to the extreme. The worst possible thing you could do on Monday night....is call up your Bama neighbor eight minutes into the start of the game and insist on talking about hunting, or your's aunt's health, or church business, or ask about the best weed killer options. It might upset them greatly as you take away the thrill of the game.

Back in Bama

2012-01-08T05:59:00.000-05:00

Back in my home state of Bama, there is a discussion going on in the capital for 2012....over school books. There's this idea of moving over to each kid in Bama having an electronic tablet of sorts, and all school text books being issued digitally to each kid. The state is estimating this shift to cost in the range of $800 million....which is a heck of a lot of money.

The experts say that the current pricing of text books is about $90 each....which makes it pretty difficult to buy new books on a regular schedule.

The problems with a e-book situation? Well.....you can figure that it'd cost $200 for each kid to get his e-book and at least ten percent would damage their e-book each and every year. Most parents would have issues over this replacement situation and some probably would not be able to readily pay for such a replacement.

In the 1970s when I attended school....we still had some books dating back to the late-1950s (our English Literature book for example). I can remember one science-related class where the teacher had to correct the material written into the text book because over a period of eight years....the text book had outdated information in it.

This e-book episode sounds kind of interesting but I just can't see kids being able to make this work. There's always the batter-charge episode.....where the kid might show up for a class and his e-book is 'dead'.....so he just smiles at the teacher because he can't recite some Shakespeare line from his e-book. Or you might have some young gal who figures out how to add more books to the e-book, and is sitting in a math class and reading some French novel.

My guess is that the political folks will talk on the subject and eventually just give up. Real books will stay on for a while in Bama (maybe for forty more years). Heck, my old 1958 English Literature book might still be in use for all I know.

When Dinosaurs Fade

2012-01-07T11:51:00.000-05:00

I read alot of business news....and this week, there was this brief article over the spiraling Sears operation. Some business folks are thinking that Sears just might go under this year....or possibly be bought out. They haven't been able to get the market-share to survive.

I kind of grew up with Sears. As a kid, it was the one of the only two major shops in the local town where I grew up....until around age eight, then K-Mart arrived. The local Sears building wasn't that big. You could walk the entire building in about three minutes (at a good pace). I doubt that they had more than a hundred and fifty parking spots in the car-lot. You typically went there strictly for tools, clothing and Christmas tools. That was about it.

After K-Mart arrived....my folks tended tended to give them seventy-five percent of the business. The local Sears operation survived until the big Mall came in the early 80's, and then Sears shifted over to it. The old Sears store? Well....the last time I went through town....it was still there.

In the two years I've been living in Arlington....I've been in the Sears shop once. I wanted some men's pants, and what I found was reasonable dress pants for a fairly cheap price, but they weren't anywhere near the quality I was expecting.

I suspect that Sears will be bought off and turned strictly into a clothing and tool operation....no household appliances or such. They might mess with the name a bit. They might totally redesign the buildings to look different.

The sad thing here is that some smart business guys screwed up over the past decade, and made Sears into something that just didn't attract folks. And they could have done better but they never understood the brand name. We end up with an dinosaur of sorts.

Normal Living?

2012-01-07T06:56:00.000-05:00

So by now, you've watched this news piece where last year.....some fourteen year old Texas girl was apprehend by the cops....told them in plain English that she was from Columbia....in the US illegally, and went to the immigration folks....to be deported. She was flown down to Columbia, where she told them....in plain English....that she was twenty-something...from Columbia originally, and she was given all the necessary ID necessary to assimilate back into Columbia society. She was for all practical purposes....a Colombian citizen. The silly thing is that she didn't speak Spanish, and somehow, this all made sense even to the Columbia cops. Somehow, her parents track her down, and yesterday....she gets flown back into the US.

Personally, there are some bits to this story which don't ring true.

The cops and immigration control in the US (our Home Security folks)....never sat and thought about the fact that the punk kid didn't speak any Spanish at all. This kinda bothers me. You'd think that some idiot would have stood there and asked her to say a few words in Spanish....just to feel secure that she was a foreigner.

The other part to this story is that it took a bit of detective work to make this discovery occur. The gal could have spent the rest of her life in Columbia.

A nut case? Well.....I can't think of too many folks who would dream up some escape like this. Typically.....if you really wanted to escape from your folk's house.....you'd jump on a Trailways bus and run off to Vegas or Chicago. The worst case scenario would have been to get some local truck driver to just dump you off in Idaho and get a job with some Boise Shoney's Big Boy by convincing them you were eighteen.

At age sixteen, Kit Carson had decided that normal life just wasn't enough for him....and ended up with a group who headed out to Santa Fe, and just plain never went back to any sort of standardized lifestyle. I can understand this desire. But to pick Columbia?

So, here is my bet. This gal stays six to twelve months with her family, and leaves again. I don't think she will accept anything relating to normal living. She might not wander off to Columbia again, but she probably won't be staying around too long. Just my bet.

Our Occupy Folks

2012-01-07T06:37:00.001-05:00

The Occupy folks in DC have gone into a new strategy of sorts. You have to remember...there are two Occupys in DC. Occupy One....the 1960's hippy generation group, which is made of more mature adults and a bit more tidy than Occupy Two (the 20-year old punk group)....has finally decided that winter is too much.

Occupy One is moving to a indoor situation for the winter. Thanks to some local supporter with access to housing support....the folks are sleeping well at night, in a heated house. They might still be in a sleeping bag situation, but they won't freeze to death. Occupy One has also decided to go on public access TV and get their message out. This means that the local cable guys are giving them an hour or two to publicize their message.

The Occupy Two folks? Well....the young guns are going to make the best out of the winter situation and continue on with their rat friends. Well....yeah, the city health folks are a bit worried now about the rats over in McPherson Square. The locals are getting worried about the growth of the rat population and I suspect that something significant has to happen in the next month to fix the rat issue. Letting loose sixty cats might help but then they'd mingle and suddenly you'd have two thousand cats roaming the President's neighborhood at night.

I sat and pondered over the mess. Personally, you couldn't pay me enough to camp out in the midst of January for weeks and weeks at a time. No easy toilet situation. No heated area. Food out of a can or just plain sandwiches. All of this....just to look good on camera for some Japanese news crew or the Today Show?

What happens after early November and the election? Well....I'm not sure that the folks will leave. They might get used to sleeping outside and mingling with Washington DC folks on the street. They might just become permanent street folks....like the other permanent homeless folks. The truth is that nothing much changes with the election, and that might just confuse them enough to just make this a lifestyle thing....and doing it for the rest of their lives. Kinda sad, if you think about this possibility....wasted lives on the streets of DC.

My Neighborhood

2012-01-06T22:58:00.000-05:00

Over the past couple of weeks here in DC....a number of folks have been noticing this rotten fish smell in the Metro stations. It wasn't the typical subway smell that most folks were used to. It was pretty bad, even for my nose.

So this week.....someone came out in the local area and discussed commentary that they had picked up via Metro employees. Apparently, Metro had purchased some new and different kind of brake pads there in 2011.....organic brake pads. Don't ask me how you make an organic pad....but it was different from the old fashioned type.

As they started using the new organic pads.....everyone started to pick up on this rotten fish smell....even the Metro employees. Naturally, you'd think that they would have bought a small supply to test before bulking up, but that's not the Metro way. They bought alot of these organic pads. So after a while, they discovered that they'd have to go organic and then go back to the old pads, then reverse back to the organic pads.....hoping that the public didn't really get offensive with the awful smell.

How long will the rotten fish continue? Well....no one is really certain. Returning the vast supply purchased? Well....no, the vendor didn't like that idea. So this might be a long, long, long period to accept a dead fish smell in the bowels and tunnels of Washington DC.

My Job

2012-01-06T05:43:00.000-05:00

Up until two months ago in my work place....the Pentagon....we had this building-wide requirement involving safety masks. You were issued these $250 masks which would provide around three hours of safe air....just a filter, not a tank. Besides being issued a mask.....you had a couple hundred of these cabinets that hung off the walls of the building....where extra masks were stored.....mostly for visitors. Toward the end of 2011....some bigwig in DC made the decision that these were no longer needed.

So in the building, the decision was made to take down these cabinets (all hung by four screws, mounted into the wall). The two guys came by yesterday. I had one cabinet in my vault. It took around 30 minutes for them to remove the cabinet....fill in the holes made with putty....and do a neat job. Painting comes later.

I asked the guy....how much this one act of removal would run? His response....$75. So you can figure you paid $75 last year to mount this cabinet, and $75 this year to remove the cabinet.

I then asked the guy....how many of these would be taken down. He figured in the ballpark of two tractor-trailer loads....all palletized. Then I asked what become of these cheap metal cabinets....three foot by three foot. He figured they'd end up at the Defense sales lots.

So you can imagine these sell in four months.....forty-odd pallets of these cheaply made cabinets (likely all made in Mexico, and already showing some rust signs)....bought up by some guy from Mississippi who trucks them back and puts them into a warehouse. The end use? Who knows?

Probably over a million was expended in this 18-month long episode, with nothing gained. The positive side is that we are keeping people actively employed....fixing and unfixing things like this.

The Solo War

2012-01-06T05:26:00.000-05:00

We have returned to an era that hasn't existed since 1941....a one-war capable country. To be honest, with the exception of WWII and the Iraq/Afghanistan war period.....we haven't ever needed the two-war capability. Because of all of the budget issues and lack of action by Congress and the Senate....we are validating the one-war capability once again.

How does this all relate? Fewer tanks, aircraft, and Army troops. Fewer generals. Fewer rifles and bullets. Fewer bases.

The truth is that we really don't have a comparable opponent in the world. China might be a worthy opponent, but why would they fight the country that they literally own? Russia? They haven't maintained their military and would be lucky to look good against the country of Georgia. Iran or Iraq? They aren't exactly the mother-of-all-opponents. In our own hemisphere? Venezuela is about the only country that might raise a fuss or do something stupid.....but half the population would welcome us onto their shores.

So you are left with terrorism, narco clubs or gangs, and serving as rescue help. The truth is....if you admit these things....then a one-war capability is all you need.

Acceptance of this deal? Well....that's a different story. Republican candidates will make a big deal out of this. A bunch of fancy pants think-tank guys will show up on TV and mount up on the horses to defend the two-war idea. Radio commentators will fan out across the heartland and defend the ability to fight both Tonga and Libya at the same time.

So a couple of years from now.....someone will stand up to count all the generals within the military and find that we mostly have the same exact number of them but a huge decrease on the enlisted side. A think-tank will convene and simply say that you need a bunch of high-ranking generals....to think over serious problems....like a one-war fighting strategy. The generals will all wink at each other, and the matter will just drift off.

Only in America.

When a Tune Doesn't Work

2012-01-05T05:20:00.001-05:00

Here in Virginia....they had a bunch of third-grade kids who are in some music appreciation-type class. They apparently wrote up and performed a "Occupy" song. It took me a while, but I finally found the lyics:

Some people have it all, but they still don’t think they have enough

They want more money, a faster ride

They’re not content, never satisfied

Yes — they’re the 1 percent

I used to be one of the 1 percent

I worked all the time, never saw my family

Couldn’t make life rhyme

Then the bubble burst, it really, really hurt

I lost my money

Lost my pride

Lost my home

Now I’m part of the 99

Some people have it all, but they still don’t think they have enough

They want more money, a faster ride

They’re not content, never satisfied

Yes — they’re the 1 percent

I used to be sad, now I’m satisfied

’Cause I really have enough

Though I lost my yacht and plane, didn’t need that extra stuff

Could have been much worse, you don’t need to be first

’Cause I’ve got my friends, here by my side

Don’t need it all

I’m so happy to be part of the 99

I sat there and read it three times. I'm kinda amazed that a bunch of eight and nine year-old kids could write stuff like this. In fact....I'd like to meet them but I'm guessing that they mostly would discuss Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, and professional wrestling. Their vast knowledge of the banking sector, shameful investment schemes, and left-wing politics is probably limited to some degree.

So word got out, and parents in this school district over near Charlottsville, Virginia. You are mostly in the middle of nowhere (southern side of the state)....with only two key local things. One is the home of Thomas Jefferson, and the other being a major state university. Parents asked a bunch of questions, and the school finally tried to avoid saying anything negative about whoever was involved, and that they would be a bit more careful about future song topics.

My guess is that they won't be allowing the kids write up any Jesus lyrics, get-doped-up lyrics, live free with Nazi lyrics, or I-love-my-pistol lyrics. Once you open up the door and start free-style song writing....heck, you might end up with some Lynyrd Sknyrd tune:

Big wheels keep on turning

Carry me home to see my kin

Singing songs about the south-land

I miss 'ole' 'bamy once again

And I think it's a sin

Well I heard Mister Young sing about her

Well I heard ole Neil put her down

Well, I hope Neil Young will remember

A southern man don't need him around anyhow

Sweet home Alabama

Where the skies are so blue

Sweet home Alabama

We sure don't want eight year old kids writing up tunes like this.....they might end up as rock stars.

As for the adults involved in this episode? Well....I'm thinking they are grinning and smiling over what they accomplished. Got themselves on the front page of various newspapers, and earned a status symbol. My advice....if this is the best tune you could dream up....you'd best stay working at the county garbage dump or keep flipping burgers over Wendys.

The Time Travel Obama?

2012-01-05T04:42:00.000-05:00

I usually pass on stories like this....but temptation was just too much.

The story came out yesterday that a new conspiracy theory does exist. Some guy.....who is a Washington (state) lawyer....says he was part of a time travel program developed by the DARPA folks. At some point, in the 1970s (he was careful to avoid exact dates)....he was in a project called Pegasus. He says the program was going on in California, which involved the "Mars training class" and that they had ten young college punks who were to travel in top-secret form via teleportation, to Mars.

Who was in this group of ten? President Barak Obama, of course.....as a college kid at the time.

The White House has come out and admitted the President never was in such a program and never has traveled to Mars.

It is a nifty story, you must admit. Course, if you were going to do time-travel.....wouldn't you prefer to use the Earth instead and halt the Nazis in 1938 instead? Or stop Lincoln's death in 1865? Or save Marilyn Monroe? It'd sound really great if twenty-year old Barak Obama jumped at the last second and tackled Jack Ruby before he shot Oswald....thus giving all of us a chance to hear the factual side of what Oswald might have said in the weeks and months after the shooting of Kennedy. Obama could have walked around the corner, clicked his heels and returned to the 1980s.....and probably found events slightly changed.

If you want to dream up some really oddball story like this....it helps to be more realistic. I'm thinking this lawyer guy from Washington probably had a long weekend event with Jack Daniels, and watched all the episodes of Lost in Space over three days.

My Neighborhood

2012-01-05T04:19:00.000-05:00

Two interesting political events are underway in DC this week.....which concerns the District (not the nation). They aren't likely to be mentioned in any state or local press that you read.

First, our mayor...who has finally made to 365 days in office....is on a recall effort as of this week. Mayor Gray has kinda suffered through 2011. There are various ethics episodes that made him look either incompetent or absolutely unethical....take your pick.

DC has an interesting recall situation. First, you need forty-five thousand signatures of registered voters in the District. You have to find forty-five thousand folks who agree that Gray has to be recalled. The odds of meeting that number? I'd give it less than fifty-percent. Even if they did hit the magic number....you'd expect the signatures to be challenged every step of the way.

One expert from the District claimed that you'd need a minimum of $150k to face off this legal challenge to the signatures.

Then the city has this nifty rule.....of the eight city districts within DC.....you need to have at least ten percent of the registered voters within five of the districts...to make a recall legit. So you can imagine this deal where you get forty-five thousand folks signed up but the vast majority come from three districts, and you never cross the line to the ten-percent rule.

My humble guess is that you'd need to be fairly organized and aim forty folks to handle your recall petition and hopefully have each group balanced out to get the minimum ten-percent. I'd also guess that you better aim for seventy thousand signatures, just to be on the safe side.

My advice to the Mayor......don't worry....you got your job for three more years and you can safely retire at that point. The city has a guaranteed deal that no recall effort will ever be successful. Pretty smart planning, if you ask me.

The second event? Well....our local city councilman.....Harry Thomas Jr....is fairly close to a deal with the federal prosecutor. His crimes? Harry set up a neat charity fund, and then asked the city to toss funds into it....for low-income kids. The city handed over $300k. Harry spent a majority of the money on a new SUV, golf, and air travel holidays. Someone figured out the whole scheme.....and then the IRS folks got involved.

Harry has been smart about this....never admitting guilt. But then he came back to say he'd pay the $300k back....in six installments ($50k each).....no mention of interest. The first installment was supposed to occur in the last week, but didn't happen.

So the word from just about every news organization in DC is that he will resign from the city council within the next seven days.....and then get a nice deal with the federal prosecutor, with no jail time. Naturally, most locals are upset about the idea of him walking off.

I sat and pondered over this. A DC city councilman makes $130k a year. Figure taxes (federal and local), and he walks away with $85k. It's enough to live a good life in DC, but based on various comments.....I'm thinking that Harry has been living the good life for the past six to eight years....over-spending, and basically broke. Making this $50k payment? I'm guessing that he is trying to procure a loan via banks and they won't touch him. A personal loan? Not having status as a city councilman means you don't have many special friends ready to loan out cash like this. My humble guess is that he makes two payments, and then declares bankruptcy, and avoids any more payments.

What happens next to Harry is the curious part. He has no real talents, other than being the son of a famous Washington DC political figure from the 1970s. He does have a degree in marketing, and maybe he could hook up with some real estate syndicate in the District which is buying up property and building new upgraded neighborhoods. He might not be making the $130k a year anymore, but maybe he needed a kick in the seat of the pants to clean up his act. Who knows?

Just another day in the neighborhood.

My Neighborhood

2012-01-04T06:22:00.001-05:00

We are always a bit odd here in the DC area. The cops are on the look-out now for a robber who hit a local drug store. The guy walks in....all bandaged up....to include his face and head. He demands drugs, not cash. He gets his pain-killers, and walks out.

The best that the cops can say.....he's around 200 pounds and maybe 25 years old.

For creativity....I'd give the guy 5-stars. But if he's only doing this for $200 worth of pain-killers, it's not much of a deal and you risk a couple years in prison for almost nothing. The sad thing is that the pharmacy gal could fake you out and give you some kind of special bowel-movement pills instead, and you'd be sitting on the toilet all afternoon.

Why METRO Sucks

2012-01-04T02:51:00.001-05:00

About every two weeks.....I'll blog a moment of something with our local subway system here in DC. I'll admit....it is a huge operation and it would be a miracle if it ran perfectly. The curious thing is that little episodes pop up that always amaze you.

Someone brought this up today. There are METRO parking lots where you drive in....park your car....and ride on into DC or wherever. Naturally, METRO charges for this parking. You typically pay in some fashion, usually by swiping your card.

So this interesting episode starts at the end of the day....and the exit machine won't read your card. So there is this guy at the gate and he has these forms. As you drive up to the gate....you have to fill some blocks out.....telling why you should exit without paying. You explain that forms are a waste of time and just raise the gate. He refuses, and forces you into looking at the forms. You can figure there is probably about sixty seconds of thinking and quickly jotting these things down....name, address, phone, and reason for exiting without paying.

Now, you can also imagine forty-odd cars lined up to leave and each one having at least two minutes involved in this game. No, the guy doesn't hand these out to folks in a row....he waits for each driver. You can also imagine the hostility of everyone....this being the end of the day.

I sat and pondered over this. It's paperwork to explain why METRO had to allow a free exit....but where does the form go? Does it get put into a vast warehouse of cabinets where thirty-two million other METRO forms reside? Who reads this form? A $70k a year employee who analyzes why sixty cars exited freely at one parking lot? What if the driver lies on the form and signs it as "B. Obama"?

Behind all of this....with all the various issues and complaints....I have come to suspect that METRO has a strategy in place.....to convince fifty percent of its riders to just give up and drive into DC. I realize this is a bit extreme....but to have almost daily events occur, where stupid accidents occur, or escalators fail continually...you have to believe that a bold strategy is in place.

Just another day in America.

The Iowa Game

2012-01-04T02:37:00.000-05:00

Back around the second week of December....I felt Newt had the game all fixed up in Iowa. Instead, here is Romney and Santorum running down to the final hundred votes. The confidence level still isn't good over who won, and there will be some recounting over this episode.

How does Rick Santorum suddenly arrive? Amongst the dozen factors that you can ponder over....there is this "Reagan-factor". On a scale of one to ten....which guy looks and talks mostly like Ronald Reagan? And Santorum gets almost a nine on this curious factor. He's not great at debates, and he doesn't have a long list of accomplishments in life. But if someone had a memory of what made Reagan interesting....then'd he'd probably look at the things that Santorum says.

As for New Hampshire? Rick Perry is virtually finished, and I doubt that Bachmann can survive another week of operational costs. Newt might still be able to win New Hampshire (he was tossing lots of capital into the campaign there).

So on we go. Looking for someone who might look like some B-movie actor-turned-California governor, who impressed enough Republicans and a few Democrats.....and created this fantasy period of the 1980s. We'd all like to repeat that experience, for some odd reason. We'd all like to go back to the Fleetwood Mac and Super Tramp era, and do it all over again.

Slim and Trim Caveman Joe

2012-01-03T18:33:00.000-05:00

Some smart guys sat down and figured out the diet of our ancestors.....Caveman Joe. Naturally, they then listed all the possible foods that Caveman Joe ate, and then had some tests with real people.

The items? Well....Caveman Joe ate mostly fish and some fairly lean type meat....figure chickens and birds of various varieties. He also ate seasonal vegetables and fruits. And he probably ate a good bit of nuts (unsalted of course, and rarely if ever....roasted).

The diet folks have examined this and generally found that the test players generally fixed up some blood pressure issues and this turned out to be a good decent diet. The negative? Well.....no wheat products (bread, etc). Beans didn't get included in this listing....mostly because it would have been difficult to cook the beans without the right pots.

Caveman Joe also didn't have dairy cows standing by to provide milk....so calcium wasn't a thing that he came by naturally.

All in all....Caveman Joe would have been a lean kind of guy and maybe a bit healthy....but if you throw in various predators, snake-bites, and long winters with possible food shortages....then he really had some problems in surviving.

The comical side of this is that a number of folks are walking around and talking up this ancient diet for folks. They are making Caveman Joe's diet sound swell and thus convincing folks to go extreme. There are some factors that folks miss on this though.....Caveman Joe didn't have tobacco to smoke, beer to drink, or fresh strawberries from Honduras flown in to eat each week. He used what he had, and nothing more. You didn't gain much weight because there weren't alot of sugar products around and almost preservative-type foods sitting on the shelf there in the cave.

I think's nifty how we have all this awesome brain power just sitting around these days and actually thinking about odd things like this. Maybe eventually....they might even figure out how Caveman Joe made up for a lack of soft toilet paper or nightly entertainment.

Dulles

2012-01-03T05:17:00.000-05:00

I finally used the Dulles International Airport that we have locally here in Virginia. I have to admit.....it is probably the best airport in America. I know the folks in Atlanta and Miami hate to hear that....but I think it's the truth.

First, I have to admit that the TSA folks that work over there....probably have a pretty positive attitude. Going and coming.....they were the friendliest TSA folks that I've come across.

Second, ease of getting around? They go out of their way to make everything simple.

Third, getting to and from the airport is fairly simple. I ended up using the METRO bus to get over there....for seven bucks. I returned via a commercial shuttle operation for ten bucks. Everything worked like the advertisements said.

The curious thing? There just aren't any fast food operations (McDonalds, Burger King, Pizza Hut, etc) at the airport. I noticed this trend at Detroit and Atlanta recently.....where they brought in all types of fast foot at better prices. Dulles appears to be fighting the trend.

The Love of Law

2012-01-03T05:12:00.000-05:00

I sat and read over an odd news topic today.....40k new state laws that passed as in effect as of 1 January. The list goes on and on....safety laws, work laws, school laws, etc. You can imagine this massive political group of sorts....lawmakers from every state....working day and night....to put into effect 40k new laws.

The odds of these being enforced? Well....we'd probably have to make a law that they had to be enforced, and that's the sad thing about such a high number of laws.

Colorado passed a law that says if a football coach, at any level in the state, has a player who gets hit in the head....then he has to remove the kid from the game, and the kid has to be certified by a real doctor....before he can return. You might need forty kids on your team....just to possibly have enough players at the forth quarter to complete the game. Naturally.....doctors stand to profit off this because they will have to examine lots of kids during games, and immediately after games.

Illinois made up a law that says if you say anything on a website against another student or a school employee....then the school can expel you. So if you commented about the school's terrible meals cooked by some half-wit in the school cafe area.....you could be kicked out. Or if you made up a list of all the slutty girls in your school....you could be kicked out. The possibility of this being enforced? I'm guessing less than one percent.

And for 2013? I'm expecting just as many new laws....if not more. One way or another, we are going to fix America....even if it takes twenty million laws.

2012?

2011-12-31T06:40:00.021-05:00

2012 will end up being this fascinating year where nothing is accomplished politically. No significant bills will be passed. No fixes to the budget. We end up with a do-nothing political year.

The election? Nothing much. Newt wins the convention but it really doesn't do more than McCain accomplished four years ago. Obama walks through the election without a lot of interest but he's just competing against Newt, which helps in the end.

The financial year? I don't see housing and the mortgage business improving. If you wanted a cheap $150k house in Phoenix....you've still got an opportunity for all of 2012. Wall Street will stumble along and probably be slightly on the plus side by the end of 2012. Unemployment will go down one percent, but no more than that.

Some Hollywood folks will fall. Some college football coaches will be pointed at for child abuse. Lindsay Lohan will be arrested again, and again. Katie Couric will reinvent herself and find another job....then discover that no one really cares to watch her anyway. Someone will write another Hitler book. Some gal will accuse Herman Cain of having an affair with her for forty years. Some Congressman will admit that he thought he was gay, but he's not.

More or less....2012 is just 2011, but just a bit more fancier.

I am curious how Occupy really does end.

I'd like to know if Bama can beat LSU to be number one.

I suspect that some American guys will be put up on charges in Mexico for Fast and Furious.

I'm betting that Obama's citizenship episode comes back up one more time.

And I think that the disapproval rate for President Obama will be around sixty percent when he's re-elected in November. We may be all unhappy, but we really don't have much in the way of options. So we suck it up and just move forward for four years of severe negative activity.

The ID Saga

2011-12-29T10:17:00.000-05:00

Around the US....almost every week, there's this arguement going on....over voter ID. The Republicans want a standard ID check at the door as you come in. The Democrats don't want any ID involved, because most poor American lack the ability to get a standard ID....so they'd be unlikely to vote (or this is often used as the best argument).

A hundred years ago....some guy with a funny accent could show up at the county office....simply swear he was a local resident and citizen.....and they'd let him vote. To be honest....nobody in America ever had a standard ID until driver's licenses came along. GI's had this paper type ID with their serial number (not their social security number) and that didn't really flip into a picture ID until the 1970s (thanks to those kindly Kodak Instamatic guys).

I found it fascinating that after I joined up with the Air Force.....they issued out a second card to me....the meal card. With this fine piece of cardboard ID....you got a free meal at the chow-hall. Without it.....you paid. Later, the Air Force introduced me to the line-badge....which meant I could drive out on the runway. Then they introduced me to the Air Force driver's license. Later, there was a security badge to enter secure areas.

Today, the only way I can operate a US military computer....is with a nice chip-like card which I insert into the keyboard. Without that card, I don't get access. If I forgot my billfold? Well.....I might as well turn around and go home.

I've been conditioned in various ways to accept ID cards for just about any and all reasons. The more you associate yourself with any act of public trust.....you end up having to accept an ID.

So I come back to voting. Any idiot could register in five different states today and vote five different times. My humble guess is that well over 100k Americans vote in multiple elections. As for illegal voters? I'd be guessing well over 200k illegals vote throughout the US. We've accepted this as normal. Some folks would like to dismiss the problem without fixing it.....but it just wouldn't be fair (so the Democrats would say).

The comical side of this is that you ought to be showing some kind of ID to enter a hospital or to get a narcotic, but you never hear that argument much. Same for opening up a bank account or cashing a check. The same ought to be clear for getting a credit card via someone.

Europeans? Well.....if you show up at any election building.....you have to show your national ID card, period. No exceptions. The cost? Typically around $20 and it usually lasts for ten years. If you were pretty poor off....you'd get a certificate from the welfare folks and you get a free card (typically).

It's mostly all a game. A bunch of illegal voters vote, and it's best that we just all accept that. Eventually, the illegal voters will tend to vote Republican, and then you can bet that we hear some big words on the necessity of fixing the issue. But you have to wait on this.....patience is the key.

My Political Forum Questions

2011-12-28T05:46:00.009-05:00

Back in 2008, in the heat of the election period....I wrote 63 questions which I thought any guy running for President ought to answer. Frankly, these ought to be pulled out and used for the Republican guys running for President right now. My guess is that they'd prefer my questions stay hidden.

1. Can you name all fifty states and their capitals?
2. Explain the concept of the bill of rights.
3. Name any neighbor who borrowed stuff but never returned it.
4. Identify five presidents since 1900.
5. Are you saving energy by using twenty-two times the amount of power that a normal American family uses?
6. What should you do when bitten by a rattlesnake?
7. Who won WWI and WWII?
8. Isn't Brittney Spears the most beautiful woman in the world? (Yes or no only)
9. Should Lance Armstrong run the 2009 Tour de France?
10. Hank Williams or Elvis, who was better in the end?
11. The Pacer, was it the worst car ever made?
12. Should Zombies be declared authorized voters?
13. Should Brittney Spears play Joan of Arc for Mel Gibson?
14. Is Elvis truly dead?
15 If you made any public speeches....were any directed toward circus folks, dwarfs, Texans, or abstract art?
16. Have you ever been in Memphis, New Orleans, or St. Louis (negative points if you have)
17. Do you keep at least six guns in your house or car? (bonus points if yes)
18. Do you believe in Bigfoot, Loch Nessie and aliens? (bonus points if yes)
19. If you had to dig a septic tank, would you call a cousin or a neighbor for help?
20. Have you ever paid more than $19,999 for a car? Cite the model and brand if yes.
21. Would you pay $350k for a $240k house? (negative points if yes)
22. Would you toss out forty percent of your paycheck to cover a mortgage?
23. Would you buy a $300k house with only $30k in down payment?
24. Who was the best Bond?
25. Have you ever been in a Wal-Mart? (Negative points, if no)
26. Explain in detail any speech that Alan Greenspan has given (positive points, if you can't)
27. Where is Gitmo?
28. Show a 8x10 photo of any tatto on your body or your wife's body (in color please)
29. Provide all of the names of your dogs that you've owned since 1988.
30. Describe on a plain piece of paper your feelings toward Tonga.
31. Do you know anyone from Red Bay, Alabama?
32. Provide a listing of friendships and girlfriends, since 1978. Use red ink if they are former friends now.
33. Which weighs more? A ton of bananas or a ton of peanuts?
34. Which Star Trek commander would you prefer to be Janeway, Kirk or Picard?
35. Have you ever shopped QVC?
36. Have you ever watched wrestling?
37. Have you ever forgotten your wife's birthday?
39. If you lived in a dry county, would you honor the laws of that county?
40. If your minister was a nutcase, would you be willing to say that in public?
41. If a bunch of union cars and US car makers came up to you and asked for $50 billion...would you ask why they can't make cars that folks want or just hand them the $50 billion?
42. Does it bother you that the car union guys get $17 million a year in Viagra, which is built into the cost of every single car made?
43. Do you have a problem with burning leaves in October in your front yard?
44. Have you ever bought a mower that you felt very dissatisfied with?
45. If Tab was the only drink left on the face of the earth....would you accept it and drink it?
46. On a hot day...cold beer or cold wine cooler?
47. Whats your belt size?
48. Can you cook up your own breakfast?
49. If a bunch of Harvard/Princeton/Yale/Colombia business school graduates came to you and said they had bankrupted America...would you halt the entire business school program at these four universities?
50. How many times should a guy be allowed to vote on election day in America?
51. Do you know any hippies?
52. Do you mow your own grass?
53. Are there any true explanations to putting a septic tank in the front yard instead of the back yard?
54. Is Keith Olbermann of MSNBC a dope?
55. Give five good reasons why any guy should stay 30 years in the Senate.
56. Have you ever dated a deranged man or woman?
57. When was the last time you attended a county fair?
58. Do you know any women who wears a blouse a size too small?
59. If you needed help...who you would not call and why?
60. If you had to talk real personal to someone....would you do it on the front porch or the back porch?
61. Why do most Democrats take money from bankers and most Republicans from oil companies?
62. Can you point to Mongolia on the map?
63. Are you a forgiving kinda guy or a revengeful kind of guy?

The truth is that a guy who can answer all of these honestly.....ought to be the President....no matter what party he is stuck to. The sad thing is that most of my questions would be avoided at all costs.

The Underwear State

2011-12-27T04:38:00.019-05:00

Alabama is one of these odd places where political folks meet in Montgomery and come up with varied ideas for laws.....which tend to rub folks in the wrong way.

This past week....a Democratic figure came up with the new bill....going after punk young guys who wear the pants several inches lower than their underwear. It is the fashion....throughout the US. But in Bama, it's started to bother folks. You just don't want to see some 16 year old kid with pants about five inches lower than his underwear.

So the proposed bill says there would be a fine of $25-$150, if some law enforcement figure came to find you in such a condition, and gave you a ticket. You can imagine this scene....wannabe Barney (your town's one and only cop) gets this ruler and starts to chase after seventeen year old punks.....to measure their pants-display. With all the possible crime in the world.....he'd waste his time with folks displaying their underwear.

The problem with youth today....is that they want to do something that makes them odd and different. If a bunch of old guys started to wear their pants five inches lower than their underwear.....then they'd have to do something different....probably wear women's underwear instead, or wear green turtle-neck sweaters.

I see this likely passing and becoming a law. The Republicans could stand up and fight it.....showing they want folks to have the right to wear pants five inches lower and that the government has no right to regulate underwear display (Ron Paul would say this). The same guys would then want to regulate tube tops for women because too much is being displayed.

I see 2012 being an exciting year in Bama. Guys will figure out that you just don't wear underwear and show off a lot of skin instead. Then the state will have to mandate that all Bama men must wear underwear.

At the end of this mess....we end up with a reputation across America....as the underwear state. It sure was a lot better when we were just the cotton state.

If it's not one thing.....it's be another.

65k Problems

2011-12-26T04:20:00.000-05:00

The Army came out late last week, and admitted that maybe around 65k graves at the Arlington Cemetery might be "wrong".

It's one of those odd deals that you'd only admit to around Christmas time and hope that everyone was missing the story.

The jest of this story is that they've had a lot of problems and they felt they needed to really check out the entire cemetery. So they pulled out the paper records, and then walked the entire cemetery. There's some problems, but they just aren't sure about them.

A paper record might indicate that the guy's day of birth was X, when it was Y. It might indicate a middle initial of T, but the stone says "J".

How many man-hours might be needed to sort through the 65k cases? I'd be guessing that five guys could spend the next ten years sorting through this. Some cases date back to the Civil War, so it'd be an interesting detective episode to get into. The amount of paper records wrong? You just can't tell. The stones wrong? Well....it might be fifty percent. New stones? Well.....yeah.....there might be a bunch of new stones made up.

All of this is going to worry the old GI's who had this dream of being buried off at the cemetery. They might actually decide that being buried in Red Bay or Ripley, is good enough. You sure don't want any wrong info chiseled into some stone and have your buddies come up to visit. It get back home that your middle was "C", when for all those years.....you kept saying it was "A". Guys will sit around the bar for years....wondering what the C stood for, and wondering why you never claimed "C". Naturally, they will assume it's some oddball name like Clovis or Chipper. It's the kind of reputation that you'd rather not get.....especially after you've passed on.

A House Loan

2011-12-26T04:11:00.000-05:00

I've been in Germany for over a week, and the big news episode.....is this odd loan deal with the German President....President Christian Wulff (note, he's not the Chancellor).

A couple of years ago.....he comes up and wants to buy a 500k Euro ($700k) house. He needs a loan. The banks have no issue with the deal but they have to make a profit. Some rich millionaire's wife, who is a friend of Wulf, with almost no percentage points. You could call it a free loan of sorts, or a heavily discounted loan. They fixed up the papers, and the house was bought.

Well....this all has gotten out and folks are determined that there is some corruption here. So far, they can't find much of anything. Even the state prosecutor admits there is no law to prevent such a loan, and no law to stop a political figure from taking such a loan. So the news folks continue to chat about this daily, and how unethical this all appears.

Adding to the mess....there are lots of folks from various parties who aren't talking about this at all. My perception is that they really don't this to take off because they have the same kind of loan arrangement. The banks are kind of peeved because they don't want folks to get any funny ideas about personal loans for large sums of money.

Disgrace? Well, if the political figure hasn't done anything illegal, then it's not much of a disgrace. As for being unethical? It's kind like sitting at a bar and having some guy offer to buy you a drink, and you might be the mayor or the city council guy for the town. Where do you draw the line? A drink? A golf game? A meal? A trip over to Vegas? A house loan?

The comical side of this is that he has to go into some bank....work up a quick loan to cover the house, and pay back millionaire's wife. You can imagine the bank guy sitting there and grinning for ten minutes before even starting a discussion.

A Different Ending

2011-12-23T04:24:00.012-05:00

I watched Castaway with Tom Hanks for the sixth time. I have to admit, it's one of my top ten movies. I have this one problem though with the movie....the ending.

The end is where Tom realizes his wife became his ex-wife and moved on. Tom is in a pick-up in the last three minutes....trying to deliver this one package left from his island experience.

This scene at the crossroads of some rural area in Texas is a heartbreaker. You are pretty down because of Tom and his wife breaking up. Tom delivers this item to the house that is unoccupied and leaves. He drives back out to the crossroads, and is pondering his direction in life.

This gal drives up and they talk for about a minute. There's something in the air. You see this one glimmer of hope in his life. They part. He stands there for thirty seconds, and then drives off in her direction.

Frankly, I wished that they'd toss in another two minutes and show Tom and gal sitting on the porch as the sun goes down across Texas. It would been a better ending. Instead, you end up with a five-star movie, and wishing it could be just a little bit better.

Just Observations

2011-12-22T09:30:00.000-05:00

The new version of the Apple I-Phone.....is not really selling well in Europe. Various excuses being given, but it's probably going to be discounted rather quickly and dumped to secondary sales companies within a few weeks. You can blame the financial crisis or just plain value of the 4S.....doesn't matter. I sat in a German phone shop on Saturday and noted that almost no one was asking over the I-Phone.....most were looking at the various android phones.

It's a curious episode to note out in LA. The city has spent millions on the Occupy crowd downtown....from clean-up to increased cop protection. The mayor finally came up this week and hinted that cuts had to be found in the normal budget.....to continue to cover Occupy costs. No one is much saying anything yet....mostly because it's just a chat situation presently. You'd think that they'd pass a tax on the Occupy guys to pay for their increased cost.....but no one wants to suggest that.

Finally, the cops down in Louisiana got called out to the local Wal-Mart.....couple of drunk guys had taken over the disabled scooters that the store kept......and were playing bumper car. They ended up arresting a guy or two over this. For years, I've been waiting for an episode like this....because there is simply too much temptation. Imagine Saturday night coming up.....you've had several beers, and you'd like to have some fun. You drive up....with Gus, and take over the scooters at the store, and drive around for thirty minutes. Wal-Mart ought to be charging for this opportunity.....and make some cash off their scooter operation.

The British

2011-12-22T09:14:00.000-05:00

I'm taking my Christmas leave off in Germany again, and the big story of the week involves the British and the potential fall of the Euro.

Several weeks ago, there was this mass meeting of finance wizards from various European countries. They came to this agreement at the end.....with the exception of British. Things kind of dissolved quickly, and the British got labeled in some fashion as a dimwitted kid on the block who didnt' grasp the big picture. The British kind of labeled everyone else in Europe as the idiot of the group who didn't grasp the mess at hand.

So this week, it got out that the British are putting together this massive rescue plan to bring one million British citizens out of Spain, when the Euro collapses.....and another 50k British citizens from Portugal.

The thought here is that these retired British all have accounts in Spanish banks, which are in Euros.....not Pounds....and that they will be left without any funds. So planes, trains, ferries, and buses are being put onto a chart and somehow....though the graces of God and the Queen.....these one million Brits will be saved from dire circumstances.

I sat and pondered over this mess. Frankly, these one million Brits are all fifty and over. They are retired, living off their pension or their disability.....and frankly, they've gotten use to consuming good cheap Spanish booze, and lounging in nice warm temperatures. Some have been in Spain for over twenty years and can't imagine a single day in England ever again.

So here is some British government guys who are planning this "rescue", where the double-decker red bus pulls up in some Spanish village....loads up 35 senior citizen Brits.....gives a few Brit ales on the way back....dumps them on a ferry, and then lands them on British shores. There, they will be bused to some refugee camp in the middle of the highlands....where they will dine on soap and biscuits for weeks and weeks while ten thousand British government guys contemplate where to house them permanently. Who pays for this? That is the curious question.

How many British from the million would accept this deal? I'm guessing less than ten thousand. That's the insult of this entire plan. Tens of thousands of man-hours put into building up a massive rescue, that the vast majority will refuse.

Somehow, I see this Monty Python movie coming out of this, where Gus, Henry and George are all activated in some Walsh village to bring some bus down to Spain, for a rescue. They get lost and eventually end up in Italy where they accidentally rescue some Germans instead, and get into serious trouble with the British foreign office because they did the wrong kind of rescue.

And while all of this is going on.....the Euro just continues to stumble along. That's the funny part of the story.

The Tree

2011-12-21T05:13:00.016-05:00

Years ago, in my youth while in the Air Force....some guys over the weekend prior to Christmas had decided to go out and procure a Christmas tree for the barracks. I figured they would venture down to the BX and pay $20 to buy some small tree on the Boy Scout lot. I was wrong.

They came back with some "wild" Spruce pine that they had cut down within the base. It was a nice enough tree, but I kept looking at it and wondering about where they had found the tree. They'd done this all at night and nothing much was said.

Monday came around, and there was this observation made within Civil Engineering over the weekend. Some pine tree which had been in front of the wing headquarters....had been removed. Various folks were upset about this....mostly all senior leadership.

I came back that afternoon to the barracks and viewed the tree. It was probably the headquarters tree, but you couldn't be sure. Around the middle of the week....the First Sargent came around for an inspection and viewed the tree. He probably knew it was the tree too....but kept quiet.

The day after Christmas....a couple of the guys took down the tree and removed all evidence. Nothing was ever said again about the episode.

The comical side of this is that if the tree had been figured out.....people would have gotten disciplinary paperwork and been punished in some fashion.

Story of the Year?

2011-12-20T09:20:00.010-05:00

My nominee for story of the year?

The fall of Herman Cain ought to be in the top five stories....but it won't be number one or two.

The Occupy folks? Well....they'd be closer to number twelve, if you ask me. There's nothing significant accomplished with the boys and their camping trip.

Between number one and two: the lack of any accomplishment by the Senate and the House would be one of the stories. Neither did anything for 365 days....worth mentioning. You can go back almost seventy-five years....and not find another year like this. They could have taken the whole year off, and just sat back in their home state.

The other top story? The Penn State story, and the fall of Joe Paterno. There were a thousand ways to end the career of Coach Joe, but you wouldn't have imagined this as the end piece.

In some ways, you would have expected the President, the Iranians, the Greeks, the Euro, or maybe even global warming to be in the top.....but it just wasn't that kind of year for stories.

The Hulk Story

2011-12-19T06:25:00.018-05:00

Sadly, years ago, I got into the TV wrestling stuff. I realize it's all fake....but it is pure entertainment.

This past week....the Hulk Hogan divorce episode went into turbo. His wife, Linda.....has been trying to put Hulk down on the mat in various ways. So she came out with this accusation that Hulk had a gay thing with fellow wrestler Brutus "the Barber" Beefcake.

It is true that they wrestled on various occasions, and likely thrown each other down on the mat in various positions, but I doubt that they ever got into a physical sort of situation. Hulk fell on the floor laughing when this came out. Hulk then came out and said her comments come mostly because her career is lagging and this is about the only way to get media attention.

In some ways, this is simply wrestling mat-talk, that has crossed over from the ring, to personal lives. I think most of these people get addicted to mat-talk and fantasy wrestling themes.....and it just lives on in various other ways.

Course, now....a bunch of gay guys will have this active fantasy of Hulk Hogan being gay. Who knows....maybe this was planned. You might see more wrestling fans come out to events....who are there to watch their fantasy guy Hulk wrestle with some other guy.

My Neighborhood

2011-12-18T09:10:00.018-05:00

We have this oddball comical affair going on in Arlington. The city is trying to buy a seven-story building (the Thomas building) around on 14th Street north. It's a business-related structure. Talk over this purchase has been going on for weeks.

The problem with the issue is that the county only intends to use five of the stories for business-related efforts. The other two stories are supposed to be renovated and made into temporary apartments for homeless folks in Arlington. You can figure it'll house around 100 folks.

Once word got out....everyone in this neighborhood got furious over the city's intent.

The cost? Well....it's been sitting on a $25.5 million offer for a long while. The present owners just aren't happy about the offer, but frankly, they apparently haven't been getting many other offers. Adding to this mess is the idea that the city may launch into eminent domain to acquire it, and just end all this negotiation business.

The locals around this neighborhood are getting into their own legal situation....trying to stop the purchase and prevent this all from happening.

Arlington is this odd area for homeless folks. Property values are such.....and apartments rent for so much....that you can't find a structure for someone who is pulling in $1k a month in this area. You need to basically relocate outside of the region or head down to Richmond. So if you did draw social security only, or some disability payment, or some military pension.....you just can't survive or find a place to call home in Arlington. It's that simple.

I can understand the charity side of this, but frankly....thrusting homeless folks into some high-cost neighborhood, and thinking locals will accept having homeless folks standing around their condo area or some restaurant....just won't work. You can gaze over at DC, and see how they've attempted this and screwed up.

Christmas Ornaments

2011-12-17T08:42:00.011-05:00

I get my old hometown newspaper....from Bama. This past week, they had a front-page story. The local library makes up Christmas ornaments which they sell each year.....to mark something special about the community. Folks buy these for around $8. In Europe, it's a traditional thing there. Usually, there's scenic things like some chapel, or a Christmas tree, or some kids by a fireplace.

The ornament featured in the paper? It's the old city jail from around 90 years ago.

I tried to make some Christmas sense out of this. City jail? For Christmas?

There are a couple thousand possibilities for a ornament, but the city jail wouldn't be on my list.

The Republicans

2011-12-16T13:29:00.001-05:00

We are a couple of weeks away from the primary season, and I will make my one and only prediction blog over this mess.

Newt wins Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshire. From that point on out.....he wins another twenty states. He'll stumble a couple of times, and Romney will pick up around twenty states. Ron Paul might actually win one state.

They meet off at the convention, and Newt barely wins. Independents aren't exactly happy over the choices, and some idiot in the spring of 2011 might come out with a third-party attempt. I'm not sure who, but the fact is that most independents just aren't happy over Newt being the choice.

I'm predicting Bachman as the VP, sadly....and the stage dance become McCain version 2.0 as far as most people are concerned.

Other than interesting debates with the President....I dont' see Newt winning more than forty-eight percent of the national electoral college. Obama will carry sufficient votes, and walk into a second term.

Most folks will be happy over the Republicans picking up another five Senator spots, and still holding the House. Life will be the same....nothing changes. The President will face four additional years of lousy legislative work accomplished, and most folks become whiners over the Washington crowd we have in place.

I realize it's a lousy prediction that might disagree with most.....but things all have this scent of McCain and Palin....which, frankly, doesn't go too far.

Baseball

2011-12-15T13:05:00.031-05:00

I rarely ever blog over baseball....ever since the whole steroid episode occurred. Two topics came up over the past week....and I thought I'd make a comment.

Barry Bonds is for his sentence tomorrow. The comical side of this is that it's simply for lying to a grand jury, and not really for taking the steroids or doing all the home runs while juiced up. The prosecution wants Barry to spend at least one year in prison for lying. The defense thinks Barry ought to have some walking-around probation time, some fine, and community service...nothing more.

The truth is that we've got prisons full of plenty of bad characters, and we don't need to waste time with some loser like Barry Bonds sitting in a federal prison and wasting our time or money. I'd give Barry home arrest for two years and not allow him to do anything outside of the home except medical appointments or rehab meetings. Put a ankle monitor on the dimwit, and just let him roam his house for two years.

The sad thing is that he twisted up baseball completely and laid out a home run record which is mostly all bogus. Up until age thirty....he probably was doing natural home runs, and after that point....you just don't know.

The second topic is this contract that Albert Pujols signed with the Angels for ten years and $254 million. There might be six baseball clubs in existence who might be willing to spend in the region of money that Puljols wanted, but almost every club would pass on this deal.

The problem is that you lock a guy in, and seventy-five percent of the time....there's an injury or some motivational episode....and you get stuck five years later with some overweight loser that you'd like to dump, but you can't. With Albert, you might have an exception, and the Cardinals were willing to make a fair offer. The problem is that St Louis just isn't a club that makes tons of money. In a really successful year, everyone is smiling....but that only happens fifty percent of the time.

About twenty years ago, you started to notice clubs passing on contracts that went past four years. You'd notice guys with major issues, and three years still left on their contract. Dumping the guy wasn't practical, and you couldn't trade the guy away. So you started to see this amusing act of one club swapping a loser to another club, for another loser....just to freshen up the lineup and get someone different.

Albert will arrive in California, and my guess is that for most part.....he delivers, brings in millions of extra fans throughout the ten-year period, and maybe helps the club win a world series along the way. He might be worth the money. You can only hope this all works out.

The Story Behind the Story

2011-12-15T04:55:00.018-05:00

Lindsey Lohan ended up in the news a couple of days ago. To be honest, I don't really follow the gal too much and think she's mostly one of those folks without any talent and just hanging on for the initial ride.

The story? Lohan flies out to Hawaii, for some kind of party or such. She loses her purse, which happens to have $10k in cash. She finds the purse eventually, without the $10k in the purse. She was all upset about this, but was lucky that she had ID's left in the purse so she could make the flight back to the mainland.

So why would any idiot walk around with $10k in their purse? Simple. Drugs.

If you want some cocaine or speed.....you got to pay in cash. The National Enquirer and the rest of the press didn't really want to tell the whole story.

The comical side of this is that she ended up in Hawaii at some big party....and didn't have any cash to buy drugs for herself or her special friends. It probably turned into an embarrassing episode. She had to beg for a bit of drugs off people that didn't normally buddy-up to Lohan.

My Neighborhood

2011-12-14T05:10:00.000-05:00

This is a pretty simple story of how one stupid thing will encourage an illegal thing.

Across the river, into the land of the "District" (DC)....a mighty council has sworn to defend the city from the invaders....chief, cars.

To park in the mighty land of the "District", you have to buy a $338 parking permit. This fee allows a mere mortal to park in residential areas or campus areas upon the streets of the protected kingdom.

So for years, this mighty council has protected the "District".

Across the "District", we have had this invasion for years and years, mortals from other lands. These young men and women have come to several different campuses, to engage and improve their intelligence. They've talked their parents into paying a $100k for four years of nifty upscale learning. And the young punks would like to bring their cars up....while they learn.

So the mighty council has come to decide that the out-of-district punks.....will not be allowed to buy these $338 permits at the end of 2012. No permit....no car parking. It is that simple.

What the mighty city council of DC has decided....is to entice the wealthy parents to come and discuss the matter with them. Perhaps money....even $500 on the side....would help to motivate the city councilman into doing something.

My prediction is that a dozen guys will figure out this brilliant scheme....buy excess city parking passes, and then sell them to the punk kids. Figure a fifty dollar fee somewhere in this mess, and you've got this great money-making venture that even some fifteen year old kid in DC might take advantage of.

Imagine Johnny Junior, twelve years old, and going down to the city office to buy ten $338 permits with his life savings. No one will question Johnny Junior about this....mostly because it's DC. Johnny Junior will put up a stand on some street corner and sell his ten permits for a $500 profit. The next day.....he buys another ten and sells those. Over and over, Johnny Junior does this. A year passes, and the DC city council is told that some punk twelve year old kid owns two-hundred parking passes in the "District". Suspicions arise, and eventually....the cops come to question Johnny Junior. You can imagine Dad almost weeping here....the brilliance of Johnny Junior, and the cops wanting to cart him off to jail for illegal parking permit profit.

You just can't make stuff like this up....that's the sad thing.

Not a Nice End

2011-12-14T04:13:00.022-05:00

If you have twenty minutes, there is an outstanding article over at FT.com which discusses the possibility that America just might not recover on the jobs market.

If you live in the heartland....you know that TV production in America left in the 1980s. Laptops and printers are mostly all manufactured overseas today. Your coffee machine? Likely made in a foreign country. Your lamp over the desk? Foreign country. The brake pads you bought last week.....likely made in a foreign country. Your t-shirts? Probably a fifty-fifty split.

The truth is that we got the logistical price of shipping down, and then turned shipping into an art. A guy running a Dollar General store in Mississippi can forecast the amount of liquid soap he needs each week, and some distributor sitting in Texas can put a case onto a delivery truck for the guy within thirty minutes. The liquid soap manufacture could be sitting in Mexico, and just drives a truck across to the warehouse in Texas every other day.....to meet the quotas. This all helped to cheapened products and lessen storage requirements and overhead. The sad thing is that it helped to get rid of ordinary jobs that most Americans filled.

Here's the thing that ought to worry you. We are getting smarter on this manufacture business, and there's just much of a reason to reverse this whole trend....unless some massive earthquake occurs in China and destroys the TV manufacture business. That might shift production....but it's a "if". Otherwise, we are heading toward a nation that simply doesn't manufacture much of anything.

Your buddy, Karl, who barely graduated from high school? He won't go into some plant and manufacture TVs. Your buddy Dave, who wasn't that smart in school.....won't be out there manufacturing brake pads for Chrysler. All of these guys will be stuck with almost no occupation except making pizza or picking up your trash. It's not a pretty picture, if you think about it.

Just a Simple Opinion

2011-12-14T03:37:00.000-05:00

Congress did pass a budget bill last night......234-193....last night. It'll go to the Senate now. The issue with it....is that it contains the language that the Keystone oil-pipeline project will go through. If you remember the President's comments a month ago.....he won't allow any decision to be made on the pipeline until after the 2012 election (twelve months away).

The senate will get this, and I kinda expect this to be close. They would need sixty vote to pass it. There aren't enough Republicans to get past the fifty point. However, there might just be ten Democrats who want to see the pipeline start up.

So there is this threat in the next three days of the Senate passing this....and the President having to veto a jobs-creation situation. A shovel-ready jobs-creation situation, I might add.

There's virtually nothing the President can say here to make any sense. Come the week after the election of November 2012....and he announces that he'll now approve the Keystone project.....it'll make him look fairly foolish.

Frankly, I suspect that the Canadian company involved in this mess, simply aren't going to wait around. They will likely find another way to export the oil out. The 18k jobs that would have been created? It'll upset a bunch of folks to watch all this happen, and unemployment being forced to continue on.

I'd hate to even suggest this.....but even Jimmy Carter would have likely approved the Keystone project.

And if the Senate does pass it, and the President vetoes it? No budget, and we enter this pretty bad week where a bunch of Senators have to sit around Washington when they had plans already made up in their home states. You just can't make stuff like this up....that's the sad part to the story.

Well.....Yeah

2011-12-14T03:24:00.000-05:00

Not that it really matters much....but around eighteen months ago....as the economic crisis was thrilling Americans and some Congressmen decided to save America with a stimulus package....there was this one little piece of the stimulus....destined for Washington DC.

There's this local company....Fort Myer Construction Corporation....which eventually got around $425k-approximately....to spruce up and fix up this nifty park in the middle of Washington DC. We are talking about an area between one and two acres. The water fountain was going to be fixed....new trash cans puts out....new fencing....new light poles, and fresh new sod.

The park? McPherson Square. A block or two north of the White House.

Well, yeah, this is the park where the Occupy guys have taken over.

Well, yeah, the sod has been completely destroyed.

Well, yeah, the garbage cans are pretty much trashed up.

Well, yeah, the whole park will have to be renovated from top to bottom when Occupy finally leaves, and it will cost a minimum of $500k to fix.

Well, yeah, it is forbidden by National Park Service rules to camp out....period....at McPherson Square. Even homeless people are forbidden from camping out there (they can sleep on the benches, but that's the limit).

Well, yeah, no one from the National Park Service can explain how Occupy got around the rules that usually work for 99-percent of Americans.

Well, yeah, some Republican congressman finally did figure out this mess today and asked the National Park Service to explain how all this came to be.

The sad thing is that you just can't make stuff like this up.

It's Just a Game

2011-12-13T04:12:00.000-05:00

I sat and watched the big fight at the end of the Cincinnati-Xavier basketball game....several times. You rarely see a fight in basketball...mostly because the ref's keep things under control. This was the end of the game, and ref's were barely keeping control of the game.

In the aftermath now, there are prosecutors talking about charges against players. State charges. You could get time in jail, forced anger management episodes, or possibly a fine.

I'm guessing the NCAA has a guy reviewing the tapes and discussing some excessive punishment to be dished out. The universities involved.....have tried to preempt that and dish out some substantial punishment. I'm guessing that the NCAA bosses might want to make an example out of this, and maybe toss on another five games of suspension.

The problem that I see is this "gangsta" type attitude that some players in the college ranks have taken. Disrespect is openly discussed....so retribution has to be part of their game. Frankly, in the college ranks...this won't work. A number of fans will be turned off and probably identify certain teams as thugs only, and not basketball players.

In the end, the game isn't a sport anymore....it's just entertainment. I suspect no one wants that. But how you turn this behavior off....just isn't as obvious.

The Cost

2011-12-12T07:07:00.021-05:00

Some folks sat down and looked a Rod Blagojevich and the eventual cost to the nation. As he runs off to prison....we (regular tax payers), will pay $25,378 a year to safely tend to his sentence in prison.

We end up with a bill for at least a quarter of a million....to feed, house, and guard Blago.

At some point in six years....we also end up paying him $15k a year as his pension for being a congressman.

The sad thing is that it's a waste of time and money. It would have been simpler to just send Blago off to house-arrest and mandate he stay in his house twenty hours a day....no public contact, no speeches, no travel. Instead, we simply increase the prison population by another body, and feed the guy three square meals a day.

It would have been just as fair to just force Blago to quarantine himself for a decade and not speak to reporters. But we can't cross the line to realize the type of characters that ought to be in prison.

The Truth Issue

2011-12-10T07:19:00.001-05:00

Months ago, my brother had updated me over local town issues back home in Bama. The town council, the mayor, the one and only policeman, the auxiliary cops, and the citizens of the town were in a uproar. The meetings became lively and entertaining....which most folks were thrilled with all the animation and accusations. Hostile feelings were laid out, and fears of vast crime waves were discussed in open dialog. You would have thought you were in the midst of Memphis or Atlanta with all the crime talk.

Eventually, the auxiliary cops were released (fired would have been the more appropriate word), the one and only cop left town to be a problem for some other town, and things settled back into the regular dull stuff that you'd expect.

The truth is that across America....more and more folks are being drawn into political confrontations. Maybe it started with Rush, Oliver North, and Fox News....but with Time, Newsweak, MSNBC, ABC, and the Huff-a-lot Post....lots of folks are prepared for a fight...just in their local towns of 500 residents. Neighbor against neighbor. Cousin against cousin. Minister against minister.

This week....and it won't appear in your local news or the national news....a town out in Rhode Island has crossed the next boundary in this political fight business. The North Providence town council has determined that it'd be real helpful to make everyone speaking at a town council meeting.....to swear to tell the truth, before they can speak at the meeting. There are two divisions here. There's the business side of the council meeting where this truth requirement will be enforced, and toward the end of meetings....there's this open forum where you can just stand up and get your couple of minutes of open speech, without swearing on the truth.

The hint here is that when you come up for a business license or to stop a business license....you have to swear to tell the truth. If you want to rezone your property....you have to swear to tell the truth. When you want a permit for a parade, you have to swear to tell the truth. Then when the end of the meeting comes around and you want to talk about stupid cops or drunk teenagers or wild religious events occurring in the woods around town....then you don't need to worry about the truth.

You can imagine this scene. Some fight has erupted over the three cops in town, and everyone coming to talk business over the failures of the cops....having to swear to tell the truth. A truth czar in the corner of the room to monitor truth? Or maybe some vast limit to the discussion because no one....even the city council....knows the truth?

I can see the first problem coming up where some guy wants to talk about business licenses, and then tells the city council that he's of a religious sect that cannot be forced to swear. Some smart guy on the council will then ask if he can "honor the truth"? The guy will tell the councilman that this sounds like swearing....while trying not to grin.

I would imagine that eventually....there will be a limited audience to town council meetings. You get the council and maybe twelve folks allowed in the room. You can watch the meeting on some closed circuit TV deal, but no other participants allowed.

The problem is that we've become kind of confrontational. Just accepting bad town management won't work anymore. Just accepting corruption with the Mayor hiring his cousin to manage the town parks department....won't work anymore. Just accepting dimwitted wannabe cops won't work anymore. Just accepting poor judgement with the volunteer fire department chief....wont' work anymore.

So the next step here....is just force people to tell the truth. It's merely buying twelve months of time until you realize that folks are lying on a daily basis. And then what?

My suggestion? Open up town council meetings with free beer for everyone but you have to drink a cup of beer every ten minutes....while the whole meeting is done as the audience is standing. If you can't do the ten-minute cup, you have to leave the room. I figure around forty-five minutes into the meeting....things will turn interesting. And no one will remember much of anything the next day. The bad part is that most everyone in town will want to attend these meetings....for the free beer. But this is America, and maybe this is the best way for democracy to work....cup by cup.

Only in America.

Simply Observations

2011-12-09T18:25:00.000-05:00

A minor story of sorts has been out for a few days. Qaddafi's son apparently tried to hustle up a entry visa into Mexico. Several folks were involved, and at some point....I imagine the CIA folks kinda knew what was going on and just called up their Mexican counterparts, and then laid out the whole mess. I sat and pondered over this. What if they hadn't screwed up, and Qaddafi Junior arrived in Mexico. My guess is that he had this stash of ten million dollars in cash, and within six months....he would have attempted this crossover into Texas. You can imagine this scene.....down at the Quicky-Mart....here's some Latino-looking guy who speaks mostly lousy Spanish. You buddy up to him and even introduce him to your cousin Wanda who is a trailer-trash gal and desperate for a husband. Months later, you discover he's Qaddafi Junior, and things are pretty messed up then.

Yesterday, some Senators in DC finally woke up and gave their blessing over the snow plan for DC. It's a comical episode. From ten months ago....we had this weird frontal system that suddenly shifted and around noon at the Pentagon....the weather guys freaked out and announced that serious snow was coming by 4:30PM. So there's this order given throughout the Capital region. If you lived far off....leave at 1:30 in the afternoon. Everyone else was supposed to leave by 2:30. Well....half the folks left on schedule, and the other half waited till 4:00.....which was naturally too late by that point. The new plan is that when they say leave.....you leave....or you stay in place until your normal time to leave (5:00PM typically). The Senators were all happy over these greatly changed plans. I sat there and just kinda laughed....basically, nothing changed. People will leave when they want to leave, if snow is approaching. The comical side to this is that the Senators wasted lots of time listening to this mess, but won't do nothing over taxes or the budget. Go figure.

Finally, it was announced that a movie will finally be made on former DC Mayor Marion Barry. Today, Marion sits on the city council....and is fairly cleaned up. Back in 1979, he was destined to be mayor of DC for life. He couldn't be knocked down....no matter what he said. He had found the perfect ratio of votes in the district....which was to guarantee him a lifetime situation. By 1990, he was burned out....sipping heavy on alcohol and doing cocaine daily. He was busted by the cops, and his lifetime mayor situation dryed up. In 1995, he decided to come back. Curiously, within weeks....he discovered the city budget was non-existent and that he'd have to beg money from Congress to survive. He did one term as Mayor....finding all this extra work as exhausting, and then retired to be a city councilman (where he still stands today). Who will play Marion? Eddie Murphy. A comedy or a drama? That's the problem here....it ought to be a bit of both. Curiously, Marion has been trying set up a slam-dunk recently for Marion Junior to step right in and occupy his council seat. The odds? Actually better than sixty percent chance that it will happen. The thing about DC....is that it needs a guy like Marion.

Phallic-Advice

2011-12-09T17:50:00.000-05:00

A couple of years ago, I stumbled across this Muslim advice column. It was run by some Muslim cleric in Europe who mostly took questions from his audience, and prounced how Muhammad would handle a certain problem.

Typically, some Yuhab dude would ask what he should do when his twin sisters are wearing bright-colored shoes. The cleric did his "Marshall Dylan" type stance....try to reinforce the general rules of simple colors. Then some guy from France asked what he should do when he had funny feelings when showered with the guys after a soccer game. The cleric would come back and suggest that it would be better if he went straight home after the game and avoided the locker room.

For a month or two, I hung out weekly reading this advice. It was stuff like Ann Landers, and frankly, I can understand why some naive guys needed advice like this. You can't run off to Dad or Mom to ask stupid questions like this. And you can't talk about this kind of stuff with your cousin.

This week, someone happened to run into another cleric column, where there was this bit of advice given. The advice was: Islamic women ought to stay away from bananas, zucchini, cucumbers, carrots, and phallic-shaped vegetables. For those of you from Boaz, phallic-shapped means kinda like the shape of a man's special tool. The reason given for this advice? Well....if an Islamic woman saw these items....they might suddenly think of sexual things.

Naturally, this advice got out today, and tens of millions of folks read it. Some folks who are moderate Islamic-types....kinda got offended. It's suggesting that you need to dump bananas, which is a pretty serious thing, if you think about it.

Now, I grew up in Bama, and I could actually imagine advice like this being given out via Baptist ministers I had around in the 1970s. Women shouldn't mow grass with push-mowers, because of the vibration they give. Women ought not sit in the middle of a pick-up which has four-on-the-floor because the shift knob might bump them and vibrate at the wrong time. Women shouldn't watch Burt Reynolds because that musty hunk of man might make them daydream of Hollywood star guys. Sadly, it was always advice geared toward women....while the advice toward men was mostly...don't drink or cuss.

I can understand the cleric's advice here. He probably got it from his cleric when he was twenty-one. His cleric back in the 1920s....got it from his cleric who was born in 1875. This is probably some kind of advice that has been around for 1,600 years. The sad truth is that maybe a quarter of all Islamic men have never allowed bananas or cucumbers in their house ever, and they daydream about having a nice green banana all day at the office, but can never come home to find one single banana on the counter.

My advice here...if this is the biggest thing that you worry about.....you really don't have much of a life. I'd suggest you hook up the U-Haul trailer, pack the family up, and move to Memphis. You need some adventure, and there's some pretty lively action going on nightly. Bananas, cucumbers, and zucchinis ought to be the least of your concerns. Get a life.

The Secret Answer

2011-12-09T06:12:00.000-05:00

We had another shooting here in Virginia yesterday....down at Virginia Tech. Cop shot after pulling a car over. At this point....no one is sure about motives.

Adding to this....some guy was seen walking along the interestate....south of Arlington yesterday. State cop pulls up, and attempts to talk to the guy. Confrontation occurs, and the cop attempts to push him into the back seat of the cop car. Things go out of control....both the cop and the suspect end up getting shot (we still don't know where the gun came from or if it's the cop's gun).

Shot rung out yesterday over across the river at the Anacosta Metro station. No motive, no suspect. No one injured.

Commentary early this morning is strong about the need for gun reform in the United States. I noted a couple of British papers already talking about the out-of-control situation that we have. Guns need to be maintained and locked up. Most Europeans and a fair number of Americans want to point out how so few Europeans die from guns. We could do more, by observing the European model....the hint tossed out.

I've spent almost twenty years of my life in Europe. I came to note this one odd difference between Europe and the US. Drugs. On any given day in Frankfurt, if I gave a random drug test to 1,000 people off the street....it'd be an interesting result. My guess is that twenty-five percent would show some weed usage. One percent might show some cocaine use. And twelve folks would show LSD usage. When you observe these numbers....it says something.

The same test in the US? I'd be guessing around thirty-five percent of the folks would show weed use. And then you'd find this odd ten percent group who would show PCP, Meth, Crack, Cocaine, or some heavy-duty drug usage.

If I inflicted PCP, Meth, Crack, Cocaine or heavy drugs on ten percent of Germany's population.....the yearly murder rate would escalate significantly. It might not equal the US rate because of their gun control.....but these folks would find sledge hammers, knives, or just a golf club to kill someone with.

When you look at the murder numbers in Iowa in the 1960s and compare to today....it has barely moved up a notch or two. When you look at Detoit, Memphis, DC, or LA.....the drug boom since the 1960s goes hand in hand with the murder rate in these cities.

The cops really don't want to drug-test these murder episodes when they catch the guy because it simply adds another layer onto the legal defense. The dimwit can blame the drugs and get a lessen sentence because everyone feels sorry that the idiot was doped up on PCP when he shot five people in a 7-11.

So when the European stands up and wants to really stomp down hard on gun control.....ask them if drugs make any difference in behavior. He'd like to just skip over that topic, and regain control of the conversation. The truth is.....if we didn't have the serious drug problem.....the murder results would diminish overnight.

The Nut

2011-12-09T05:32:00.000-05:00

For months, I've been watching the Bradley Manning case develop. He is the punk kid, who got into the Army, was accepted in the intelligence field, was given a clearance, and eventually downloaded tens of thousands of classified messages which he turned over to the Julian Assange crowd (WikiLeaks).

We are edging closer to the Army court case, where Bradley Manning will likely face justice.

This week however, the defense team and the media have kind of laid this list of problems with Bradley. Frankly, he was a "nut" from day one, and the Army should have seen this, and never allowed him beyond basic training.

At some point before the whole WikiLeaks episode pointed off to him.....he started to unravel. His unit actually sent him to a post psychologist for an eval. The kid was so unbalanced, that the psychologist recommended that his weapon be taken away, and that he relieved of night-shift duty. With the same stroke of the pen, he recommended that the kid be given low-stress work because that's all that he could handle.

The Army documented several episodes where he attempted to assault someone or actually did assault an individual.

At one point, someone attempted to revoke his clearance, but it appears that it just didn't happen.

On the face of various comments made, it's obvious that he should have been put out of the Army when the mental issues started to surface. At the very least, his security clearance should have been automatically revoked. But it never occurred.

Years ago, I worked in an office where we had an individual who displayed a huge amount of mental and emotional issues. The individual was classified as suicidal and required a huge amount of Air Force mental health attention. With the aide of prescription drugs (maximum amount that could be prescribed), the Air Force forged ahead and simply refused to engage the idea that the person was "nuts". As a contractor at at that point, all I could do was observe.

From start to finish, it took almost two years to finally kick this individual out of the Air Force. The final effort? The supervisor decided that since emotional issues and being crazy were totally acceptable.....he merely documented the person's weight issues, and in three simple months....had the sufficient reasons to kick the person out. Again, no one would revoke the security clearance or stand up to declare the individual a nut. They had no issue in training the individual on weapons or allowing them to handle classified.

I'd likely make the case today that well over 2k folks reside within the Department of Defense (my numbers and not theirs), who are mentally unstable and ought to be kicked out. For the most part, we are simply waiting in a stand-by position....refusing to acknowledge they are crazy. It's acceptable, and that....is really crazy.

Lying and Misleading

2011-12-09T05:11:00.000-05:00

There was this episode in DC yesterday....concerning the Fast and Furious situation. The Attorney General had been called down to explain things to Congress.

Representative Sensenbrenner: “Tell me, what's the difference between lying and misleading Congress, in this context?”

Attorney General Holder: “Well, if you want to have this legal conversation, it all has to do with your state of mind and whether or not you had the requisite intent to come up with something that would be considered perjury or a lie," Holder said. "The information that was provided by the February 4th letter was gleaned by the people who drafted the letter after they interacted with people who they thought were in the best position to have the information.”

It's hard to corner the average American citizen and ask them to explain the difference between lying and misleading. The guy at the local used car lot....misleads on a daily basis.....he never lies. The Mayor of your local town who is trying to explain why he spent $100k of city funds on fancy artwork for his office....always misleads, and never lies. The guy caught driving 90 mph in a 60 mph zone, always misleads, but never lies. Your local weatherman on Channel Four, always misleads, but never lies.

Your Senator is never lying when he tells you that he is representing you in DC....but he is misleading you because he's also representing four Taiwanese billionaires, a Texas oil company, the Ford motor car company, a Brazilian beer company, sixty-two millionaires spread out through the US. Your Representative is never lying when he says that he's working for tax reform, but he is misleading you because he writes tax code every week to help some American special interest group get more tax credits.

You can never go to jail for misleading people. There's no law on the books for misleading. You typically can't be fired for misleading.

Lying is special and different. The problem is.....when you ask a dozen people off the street....they just can't really explain the difference between lying and misleading. That should tell you something, which Attorney General Holder can't really talk about.

The Seven Percent

2011-12-08T18:23:00.000-05:00

The federal news carried this odd item today. If the Labor Department carries out its idea....then the government will be forced, via it's contract companies that it uses (particularly Homeland Security and the Pentagon), to hire seven percent of their contractors....as disabled folks.

You can imagine this new contract where company X is given a contract to hire 200 really smart guys. Then the HR folks gets the contract and here's this mandatory rule sitting there....fourteen of them have to be handicapped or disabled. So you start looking for qualified folks, who will accept a seventy-percent cap on the salary package to start with, and be disabled.

In the office, we got to discuss this odd item. First, you might want to hire some smart computer IT folks, who can lift a server or put a printer onto a table.....but if the guy is disabled....he might not be able to lift more than five pounds.

Then you have the issue of being mentally disabled....where you suffer panic attacks or stress attacks on a daily basis. Or you might have multiple personalities, and run around talking like John Wayne for six hours a day. Or perhaps you end up with two new contractors who are bi-polar and could potentially go off their meds on any given day.

What idiots dreamed this up? That would be a curious thing. I could understand hiring a bunch of disabled GI's who came back from the war. It might make perfect sense. But mandating this.....means that you end up with some potential guys just walking up and being hired within the system, whose chief qualification, was a disability and not their technical skills.

It'd be an accident waiting to happen, if one day....in the midst of some government nuke plant.....an incident occurs where several mentally disabled folks were all in charge of emergency management. Eventually, some government panel would stumble across the records and come to realize that these folks were all part of a government agenda deal. Everyone would stand there and wonder how to write up a critical report, when it looks bad upon the government's own rules.

So here you are, depending on a seven percent rule. And maybe, it'll all turn out OK. Maybe.

Simply Observations

2011-12-07T18:01:00.000-05:00

Here in my local area....the DC folks have the most stringent gun laws in America. One of the city councilmen finally stood up and has offered a change to the city's law. They would dump the vision test required. I sat and paused over this. There are various reasons why you need to have a gun.....but here they are....basically saying a blind guy could buy a gun....with the new change. If I had to pick out any law that was necessary....the vision test would be number one. So why toss it? My guess is that a couple of local citizens came to the city councilman involved and said they couldn't pass the current vision test (extremely bad vision).....so to make these folks happy....he'd write up a deal to toss it. Pretty odd deal, but this is DC.

Some scientists came up and have found this planet, where they are fairly confident there is life. Course, it'd take over a hundred years for us to travel there....at present conditions. The key feature they think....LOTs of water. Most folks have come to this conclusion that there are a thousand linked "threads" which lead to us existing on Earth today. Each one had to occur....with sequence being of some importance. The odds of a repeat? Well....if bacteria exists here....it has to exist on other planets, and in the end.....there has to be some common theme for the evolution of bacteria. Statistically, it's kinda like walking in Vegas with $100 in quarters, and figuring that one slot machine over the next five hours will win (even if it's just a quarter in winnings). So we are in a pretty hopeful phase.....to find Alien Al somewhere, and hope that he's friendly.

Finally, there's a research company called Apco Insight, who decided to poll Occupy DC, and tell us lots of fascinating things about the "boys". There's a curious thing....with two groups existing....for some odd reason, they picked the young punk group....not the older, more settled, hippy group. So we learn: (1) most are 34 years old or younger, (2) most of the DC crowd are less educated than the Occupy Wall Street crowd, (3) the biggest criticism of the group? No organization, and (4) ten percent admitted they were Republican. I sat there for a while....pondering the last item. So out of a hundred-odd folks....you had ten Republicans. Course, maybe they were lying....you can't tell. But if they weren't.....should we suspect they've done so much in drugs.....that they can't comprehend anything much, and being a Republican as a Occupy guy is ok? Well....I'd hate to suggest that. The sad thing is that we could dope up a hundred Republicans, and they'd likely all vote for Ron Paul, but never remove anything the next day when we bring up what they did. The Occupy guys might be of the same variety.

The Spanish Problem

2011-12-07T06:55:00.001-05:00

I read British newspapers almost daily. Occasionally, you come across one of those oddball stories that you need to analyze a bit. The Telegraph featured this story.

There's a Spanish county out there....which has gone over its school budget and they are frankly in a worried state of mind. So much so.....that they need to cut back on some things....to ensure a balanced budget. So one of the things they picked out....was excessive use of toilet paper by kids in the school. So they've come to issue a limit on consumption. You, as a student, get approximately 80 feet of toilet paper use per month (actually 25 meters, but it comes out pretty close to 80 feet).

I did some checking. A standard quilted Northern double roll has 352 two-ply sheets and runs about 117 feet long. So you'd get approximately three-quarters of a roll for the whole month, or around 240 sheets (more or less).

That means over the course of twenty days of school.....per month.....you'd get 12 sheets per school day. My guess is that the average kid uses double that....typically. Some adults might even use forty sheets a day.

I see two possible solutions to this. First, you could just say adios to the school providing any toilet paper and force everyone to bring their own rolls to school. Course, then everyone would be sharing, and tossing various diseases back and forth as they shared their roll. It'd be kind of comical as you asked Johnny Junior each morning if he had a fresh new roll of toilet paper in his backpack, and then dad would eventually add up the excessive toilet paper being used by the whole family.

My second solution would be to add some items to the diet of the kids.....so they didn't use the bathroom but once every two days. Course, you can imagine some 4th grader sitting in the school bathroom for sixty minutes with a pretty complex problem bothering him, and the teacher wondering if he'd ever come back to class. The positive is that he'd cut his toilet paper consumption in half.

Hopefully the Spanish folks don't get around to analyzing their water bill and figure out that Johnny Junior is flushing twelve times before he leaves the bathroom.

The 51 Percent

2011-12-07T03:36:00.001-05:00

For weeks, there's been this continual mention with the Occupy folks and the media over the term "99 Percent" and "1 Percent". The Occupy guys are wanting the public to side with them in this media war of sorts....in that 99 percent of America are the regular people who ought to be running America.

I came to realize something last night....the real percent number to pay attention to.....is fifty-one percent. That's the magic number who determines your Senators, your Representatives, your City Council, your Governor, your President, and even taxes.

It take fifty-one percent to win any election, so it's pretty simple. Your entire life is determined by this magic fifty-one percent....and it has been that way since the day you were born. Tax payers don't vote (check out Wal-Mart, Pennys, and Texaco). Citizens vote....including wealthy citizens and poor citizens.

The sad thing about fifty-one percent is that the Occupy guys probably don't fall that many times into that category. It's true in 2008 with President Obama, but after that point.....the fifty-one percent crowd went into a vastly different direction.

I'm guessing around November of 2012....some Occupy guys will come to discover fifty-one percent and how it really fits into life. Then the Occupy guys will go home.....get jobs with Pizza Hut or the local parks department, and go back to trying to pay off their $70k loan to the government for those stupid college classes they took.

Entitlements

2011-12-06T17:46:00.000-05:00

Over the past two months.....I've noticed this one odd thing with the media and with the Occupy Wall Street crowd (Occupy Washington fits just as well). Almost every time they get drawn into a long-winded discussion....they want to talk about "entitlements". It's a weepy moment....over folks being entitled to education, college, free loans, free pensions, free healthcare, and a dozen other odd things which they feel are simply an entitled thing because they are Americans.

There's this odd group of Americans who never uttered "entitlement" or "entitled" over their entire life. George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Meriweather Lewis, William Clark, Robert E Lee, Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, Buffalo Bill, Andrew Jackson, Eisenhower, Kit Carson, Chief Joseph, and Ben Franklin.

Somewhere out in the heartland.....people are gazing over the Occupy folks and wondering if they missed a history lesson or two....or perhaps a vast history lesson....where people didn't stand around and wait for their entitlement. If they had.....it probably was already too late to find your place in life.

This invention of entitlements...was a pretty nifty idea. The problem is that you can't explain it. Should toilet paper be an entitlement? Should zero percent car loans be an entitlement? Should fresh orange juice be an entitlement? Should foreign language be offered in your school.....as an entitlement? Is fresh air an entitlement? After a while....it'd be best to go off and think over just how this whole conversation comes up....and maybe you might want to pause and ponder a bit.

A Netflex Stumble

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

The postal folks came out today and said that they've started making plans to turn next-day delivery....into 3-to-4 day delivery. You can imagine the millions who locked themselves into the Netflex experience....thinking over how this will work to their advantage in the future.

The odd thing to this postal announcement is that we are actually going back to standards that we had in the 1970s.

Postal changes in the year 2030? I'm thinking we will retreat even further and that 12-day delivery service will be the norm by 2030. You mail a letter to someone on the 5th from Bama, and it arrives in Texas on the 16th. You will ask how and why it takes so long.....and some postal guy named Gus responds that it takes that long to go all the way from Bama to some sorting complex in Chicago, and then get trucked all the way to some small town in Texas (call it Star-Route-XXL).

I'm guessing the Netflex guys will sort through this deal, and finally come to admit that mailing is going to fall apart sooner, rather than later.

Twenty Years Too Late?

2011-12-05T23:08:00.000-05:00

I noted over the weekend....that the NFL Super Bowl folks have signed up Madonna for their half-time show. For me personally....I don't care. I haven't watched a half-time show since the early 1980s. The odd thing for this selection? You've got a singer who is twenty years past her prime and this was the best that the Bowl guys could come up with.

You won't find any teenager who listens to Madonna's songs today. It's mostly folks over forty who can name five top Madonna songs.

I'm guessing she bent over backwards to get this gig, and the NFL got all excited over the possibility of signing her to the show. You can imagine the meeting....five or six guys over fifty years old.....all former NFL guys in some capacity....and getting excited over meeting "the" Madonna. They went home that night bragging over the meeting and deal worked out....while their 18-year old son kept wondering who this Madonna gal was or if she was some Latino singer from Brazil.

The problem with the NFL guys who run the business side....is that they've pretty much locked themselves into a time-machine and stayed 1980s. They will talk for hours about Reagan, the Love Boat Show, and sports facts from that era. So in the weeks to come....we will get a mega dose of Madonna one more time and try to relive some 1980s experience.

Dirty Harry @ Occupy?

2011-12-03T06:43:00.003-05:00

There is a report out of the San Francisco Gate (from the folks at the Chronicle)....that LA cops used a dozen-odd undercover guys to check on and spy over the Occupy LA camps before the raid this week. The report suggests that this spy effort went on for several weeks and that it was simply to learn of the Occupy intentions...nothing more. The undercover cops weren't supposed to sleep over at the camp...just blend in and listen to the chit-chat.

This would likely make a great Hollywood script. LA cop "Joe" meets up with some dimwitted divorcee from Portland, and falls in love with the gal. Undercover cop "Karl" meets up with some yoga Marxist guy who stays mostly doped up and gives great advice on home repairs while spouting off some Marxist quotes. "Joe", the undercover guy who is six months away from retirement....meets up with a Vegan gal who owns a honey business in Idaho and decides to marry her but he can't admit his work over the past forty years....so he keeps telling her that he was some American Sandinista guru on the run for the whole time.

You have to imagine this crew of twelve guys. They dress up in funky clothing at the locker-room at the station.....then get dropped off blocks away. They walk around for six hours....mostly drinking coffee and eating donuts. They listen to some dimwits talk about the bad economy, who often blame Bush, and wonder about the $88k they owe on college loans. Then the cops return to the station....report everything they heard...mostly all crap. The bosses at the station are just sitting there and wondering why the Occupy guys won't go out and get a job. And the Mayor is sitting in a pit of worries....if the Occupy guys ever figure out the spies are in the camp....he'll never be able to stand up in front of Democrats ever again.

It's a five star movie...if ever made. And of course, I'd want Clint Eastwood as one of the undercover cops. You can even imagine his talk with the 21-year old kid...."Listen punk.....you work and pay taxes like everyone else. Don't get any funny ideas about playing Karl Marx and lounging in Dad's basement the rest of your life. Clean your ass up, put on some decent clothing, comb your hair, and grow up. If you want to be some commie....go to Cuba or North Korea".

Saudi Conclusions

2011-12-03T06:19:00.001-05:00

Hidden in the news.....and you certainly won't see it mentioned on the NBC nightly news, or your local newspapers....there was this little item from Saudi Arabia.

The smart guys from the Saudi religious council (Majlis al-Ifta’ al-A’ala) did a bunch of analysis and eventually draw up a conclusion.

The facts were laid out that if the king was stupid enough to repeal the ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia....this would eventually result in few, if any, virgins. This lifting of the ban on women drivers would bring this massive surge in hookers, gay activities, and divorce.

I've tried to find the entire documentation and find the attributing conditions to this case....but they just didn't cite any piece of history that delivered on related facts.

Did women drivers in America bring on increased prostitution, gay business, or divorce? Not really. If you go back to the late 1800's.....we had a pretty thriving hooker business in America, and it likely relates to the same numbers today (in proportion). The same is likely true for gays. Divorces might be on the higher side, but we've created a pretty huge legal system to go hand-in-hand with this.

So guys are worried in Saudi Arabia. Just suggesting that the male population might shift over their affections to other guys.....worries folks. The idea of a thousand hookers suddenly showing up in Saudi Arabia? Well....to be honest....they likely already have a thousand hookers....so they'd just double the hooker population.

All in all....this kinda reminds you of these think-tanks in America who make dire predictions about global warming, evil Republicans, nuclear energy, the issues of peanut butter, cuts in Medicare, corruption by Democrats, union thugs, and the recovery of the New York Yankees (it would tear apart the eastern division). Yes, life would be so much better if women just stayed at home, watched QVC, and made muffins....while the Saudi guys worked hard at the office and just wanted to walk in the house and sip some tap water and discuss writings from the Quran with their wife when they got home. Yep....that's the dream.

My Neighborhood

2011-12-03T05:02:00.002-05:00

From across river, in DC....this is what we know....both the FBI and the IRS came to the home of DC city council member Harry Thomas Jr. Months ago, it came out that Harry arranged for a charity to be created in his name, and then turned around to ask the city council to dump money into that charity (city tax revenue money), and they complied. Then Harry took $300k in funds to pay for some personal items (an Audi SUV, vacations, assorted items, etc).

Eventually, someone figured this out. My general guess is that some other members of the city council over the past twenty years....have done the same thing and gotten away with it. Harry was just unlucky, in my humble opinion.

So the agents searched his house in DC for a number of hours on Friday. They took boxes of documents and computer hardware. Then they brought in a tow truck to his personal motorcycle, and his Chevy Tahoe. Harry's lawyer came over, and spent most of the day watching them....which I imagine that he'll charge Harry several hundred bucks for this "make-me-feel-better service".

Once Harry got caught in the scheme, he eventually came around and agreed to pay the city back. It would appear (based on several media reports), that he has yet to admit any guilt on the issue. In public, he generally comments that it's an ongoing investigation and we will eventually arrive at the truth.

There are a couple of observations here. First, the IRS is involved because Harry used the charity money in some illegal fashion and he should have paid taxes on the money that he used for personal use. While true in that he is paying back the money to the city.....that's his money going to the city. The original bucket of cash.....will be be determined in some fashion to be taxable. So there's likely another $100k that Harry will have to dig up somewhere, on top of the $300k he's paying the city.....for federal taxes, along with fees.

Second, it kind of amazes me that the feds only come to his house....several months after the fact. Harry should have been bright enough to shred every piece of evidence in his house, by the end of the first week when this whole story came out. If they get anything out of this search....it'll because Harry wasn't bright enough to clean up his own mess.

Third, after this mess came up....Harry ended up dumping this Audi SUV real quick. It was like a bad tattoo....which you couldn't show in public. So he bought the Chevy Tahoe. I'm guessing that he used the Audi as a trade-in....so the IRS will want to confiscate that as part of the deal. He probably won't get Tahoe back. Somewhere in the government sales business...in about twelve months (after the court case)....this Tahoe will be sold at a public auction. With low mileage of driving around DC.....this might be a pretty good deal, if you just knew where the sale was to be held.

Fourth and final....other members of the city council, plus former members....are likely sitting there in some pain right now. They probably have some issues in their closet....fake charity operations, bogus expense accounts, etc. If the feds dig into Harry and find connections back to them.....then this starts to get real messy.

I would imagine that Harry is sitting there and wondering how this whole thing will play out. Just invoking the IRS....has cost him another $100k in taxes, plus another $30k in lawyer bills. He needs that city council position to last out another five years....just to pay back these bills. This corruption game can really add up.

Dear Ginger

2011-12-02T17:34:00.000-05:00

After a week of watching the Ginger and Herman show....I've come to this observation.

For thirteen years....Herman was apparently paying Ginger for something. It might be rent money, business support money, whoring money, fix your transmission money, or perhaps even beauty shop money. We just don't know.

Ginger wanted everyone to know that she was having this affair and having hot lusty sex with Herman. Although she really doesn't mention the hot lusty sex now. She just keeps uttering "affair" and you keep thinking hot lusty thoughts with her wearing a waitress outfit, or a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader outfit, or perhaps a pizza employee outfit.

Ginger always avoids telling you how much she made each year....which the IRS might be curious about if it goes over a certain amount (gift money has a limit....you know). Ginger never mentions the hotels where they stayed....or the fancy booze she consumed.

So you are left with an enormous empty spot for this fantasy of Herman and Ginger. It'd be nice to imagine Herman lounging around a Vegas pool with hot lusty Ginger tending to him....but you just don't get that little piece of fact mentioned by Ginger. I'll keep waiting but I suspect that Ginger will wake up in two weeks....realize no more cash from the networks or her Democratic helper, or Herman.....and then start searching for a new rich honey-boy. Maybe some retired NFL quarterback will fill the void, but I kind of doubt it.

A Hundred Days Away

2011-12-02T17:13:00.001-05:00

It really won't appear much in your newspaper or your nightly news....but Detroit is on the verge of something rather unusual. The governor of the state of Michigan has sent word to the city....he wants to review their financial books....now.

Over the past six months....Mayor Bing and the Detroit city council has been on this path, to bankruptcy. The Mayor has been brutailly honest...they've got funding to continue on for about four months. At that point, the city will default.

The Governor has already drawn up his plans....approved by the state legislature....but it involves this city manager being put into place and a bunch of very usual powers. This city manager can't raise a dime on taxes....but he can fire employees, change the labor contracts without negotiations, sell anything the city owns, and change the entire budget, if he desires.

Naturally, this has upset the city council greatly. They can't imagine any 'outsider' coming in and spoiling what they have running. One gal on the city council wanted to compare this to Rosa Parks being forced to give up her seat on the bus.....but she couldn't or wouldn't explain how this bus would continue to run....without this emergency city manager in place.

There's a lot of fear now. The unions are actively coming to meetings and willing to chat over contracts. They might be willing to shift to a cheaper medical plan and possibly take a pay cut of some type. The Mayor is still optimistic, but with a hundred days left.....he has to move mountains, and I doubt that the city council will agree on his ideas on methods.

So my prediction.

Around mid-April....this guy will arrive in Detroit with several state troopers as his body guards. He'll have a list of a dozen impressive people who work for the city and collect salaries of $150k or more a year. They will be offered three minutes to consider a $20k pay-cut. They will refuse, and so will begin the massive cuts.

The forty-nine fire houses in the city? I would imagine that the engines will be shifted around and less than twenty-five fire houses will remain in the end. Some houses will burn to the ground with this new concept....but basically....they just don't have the money to run the size and scoop of the current fire department.

The 2,770 cops in town? Overtime will be canceled immediately, and several officers with no real job in life.....will be brought in and get notice to retire or quit. They might be lucky to have 2,400 cops by the end.

Vast areas of town will be auctioned off for $100 here and $1000 there.

The city council will meet nightly and complain about the terrible city manager. After twelve months.....most folks in town will notice a serious change in attitude. They might even ask why they need a city council. Maybe Detroit can change.....but it will be forced change....no matter how you slice it.

How Things Work

2011-12-02T16:40:00.000-05:00

I work for an organization in the Pentagon, which shall remain anonymous. It's safe to say that they have a headquarters above them....elsewhere (not in the Pentagon). Our little group of three hundred odd folks....require a couple of support agreements with several organizations....to operate and live in the Pentagon.

Yes, we 'rent' a spot of space, which we have an agreement with the Pentagon folks. This agreement provides space, cool air, water, repair folks, and all the things in life to survive. It's a simple agreement....couple of pages....nothing complicated. Real simple.

The other agreement (I handle both of these)....involves telephone service, which we receive via the US Army's little telephone organization in the Pentagon. They write up this simple three-page document, and it comes over to me. I bless it. My commander blesses it. Then it goes to our headquarters. Well....this year, there were problems.

It's a rather simple document and everyone in the Pentagon, from the Marines to the Coast Guard....from the Air Force to "Leon" (the big guy)....all sign their agreement, and life goes on.

My headquarters came back in August, and had problems. The telephone folks didn't really want to modify much of anything. Everyone signs their agreement without issue. The old agreement ended on 1 October. So naturally, there ought to be a new agreement in effect. There isn't.

So we are at the 2nd of December.....with numerous suggestions by the headquarters to modify this contract. They even sent me a template and suggested what the Army telephone guys had to change.

Well.....nothing much is moving. This morning came this odd event. Our organizational agreements lady calls me up and she just had the headquarters office chat with her. They've got this big 'red' spot on their deadlines list.....the telephone agreement between my organization and the Army telephone office.

I listened to her a minute....then realizing which agreement this was, and I asked what exactly she wanted. She wanted me to know that the headquarters folks were disturbed with the pace of things.

I reminded her that spring would likely occur and no agreement might be signed. As long as we pay our bill.....which we do....I don't think the Army telephone folks will move an inch to change their support agreement. In fact....we might go all the way to 1 October of 2012....without an agreement. "Oh my" was her reaction, but she kinda knows that I might be right.

You've got a bunch of folks who want to move the world.....and some Army telephone folks who want the world to stay contained on three simple pages with twenty-odd other customers from the same building. As long as we pay the bill....life will continue on. I just wonder if my headquarters might be stupid enough to withhold money eventually....to test the waters.

So, this is basically how things work in the Pentagon. Folks moving imaginary mountains, and folks stabilizing imaginary mountains. And somehow, I survive in the basement.....sipping tea, and wondering if "Leon" has problems like this on a daily basis.

The Euro Collapse and What It Really Means

2011-12-02T06:28:00.000-05:00

Around the year 2000, the Euro arrived with mostly just a light 'bang'. It had been discussed on TV for months, and various experts had explained that nothing much would change. The worst effect was people being forced to walk down to the bank and exchange their old currency for new currency. Some folks noticed that the change of cost....like watermelons, a bag of flour, or a sack of onions....went up one to two percent. The grocery folks didn't really want to answer this. Obviously, they had figured a method to squeeze a bit more profit out of folks in the very beginning.

So a decade has passed, and some participants in the Euro were just plain lying when asked how their budget plans were stacking up. They all wanted to look good....so they got a great rate by the bankers. So the Greeks, the Italians, the Spanish, the Irish, and the Portuguese.....mostly lied in the beginning, and have been sliding ever since.

When this blunt announcement is finally made in the coming months of the collapse of the Euro....it'll be a sudden event. Stocks will drop five percent over a one-week period. I'm guessing that almost everyone has sat down with a currency printer and coin maker in their country.....and gotten them to do a fantastic amount of work over a short period of time. From the moment of announcement....to the moment of release for the new currency....it'll be less than three weeks.

As the new money arrives....folks will accept the situation, and the Euro will come to an end. The stock market will recover within two months, and life will go on.

We will have returned back to the moment when the Greek currency was a joke.....when you could buy an Italian car for $10k.....and property in Spain will be dirt cheap. Everyone will have their own currency weakening game, and things will fall back into place quickly. The loser in this whole mess? It'll be twice as hard for the US to pretend that it's really weak.....and we will have to really stumble around....looking foolish....to get the dollar down to really dirt cheap levels.

All in all....it really doesn't mean much....except good cheap vacations to Greek islands with cheap Greek booze, and lusty dimwitted British babes on the beaches.

Simply Observations

2011-12-01T03:32:00.001-05:00

I've watched the "Ginger-episode" unfold with Herman Cain over the last week. She had his phone number and some texts, although she hasn't really put all the texts (13 years worth) out there. It is kind of strange that she wanted to rush out and admit everything....just to feel better. To be honest, she has yet to admit why she had to come out. My only question....would Ginger be willing to put her banking business out there and share with everyone the deposit info on a check or two in the last month? I'm guessing she had to be encouraged, and there's likely a $100k check sitting there. She stands to collect an additional $100k from various interview gigs over the next two weeks. As for the factual part of her story with Cain? I suspect it's a 50-50 shot at this point. At the very least, Cain is a mighty naive guy who just ran around helping different folks, and he financially helped Ginger in some matters. At the most....Cain had some 13-year affair with some Ginger gal. You have yet to get to the bottom line.

Back around 2006, Congress decided it needed to regulate and stomp out the horse-slaughter business. You can describe it as an other opportunity to regulate things and have more laws on the books. Over the past year....the government discovered that this merely created the end of the American side of the industry. From both Canada and Mexico.....they simply doubled up their slaughter business to make up for the business that the American industry lost. In a comical way, it just added more problems and abuse on horses....having to be shipped out of the US, for the butcher industry. So quietly, Congress and the President got around to a spending bill last month that restored the entire the American horse-butcher industry. It wasn't front page news, and I doubt that more than two thousand Americans even noted the huge change in regulations. As for the re-establishment of the American industry? It probably will take five years to bring things back to the 2006-levels. Then you come to the curious scenario....did a dozen odd lobbyists show up in DC for Mexican interests....to get some dimwitted congressmen to write a law.....shutting down the US horse slaughter industry, in 2006? Stranger things have happened.

Finally, what you really had to expect....another Bama episode with a foreign guy and their immigration law. Naturally, it wasn't a Latino. It was a Honda manager from Japan. Apparently, this all occurred down in the Lincoln area of Alabama. At least in this case.....they didn't arrest the guy....but it turned into another curious case. Some wannabe cops set up a roadblock (a growing trend in Bama) and caught the dangerous Japanese manager. The only reason he avoided the arrest? He was carrying his Japanese passport and actually had an international license with him. At this point....it's two out of two. I've yet to hear any arrests with Latinos. I suspect within a year.....most of these international car companies in Bama will come to the governor's office and let him know that they have a problem. It's hard to say if the Governor will admit that they screwed up or not.

Two Versions of Occupy

2011-11-30T16:48:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago....I spent a morning downtown in DC....at the Occupy "fest". At the time, I noted that there were two camp-grounds. It was a rather odd deal. Over at the Freedom Plaza (two blocks east of the White House), there's campground number one. Most of what I noticed were folks over thirty years old and a fairly organized operation. They had sanitary conditions, and had teams mounted up to accomplish various things....including clean-up duties at various times of the day. You didn't find any trash on the ground and they seemed to be fairly friendly folks. I'd almost label them the hippy generation of the 1960s and 1970s....leftover from the good times.

Down the street....to the northeast of the White House....was Occupy number two campground, at McPherson Square. It was a bit different. Here were mostly all young folks....all younger than thirty. I didn't see anyone over age thirty except the homeless folks who hung out around the area. They weren't quite as organized, and they weren't as sanitary. I kinda got the impression that they did a fair amount of booze, and drugs (way more than just weed, which the hippy group might have been doing).

This week.....the city sanitation folks and the National Park Service.....are both kinda look at the Occupy folks. I suspect they are looking more at group number two than the hippy folks. Rats are now being reported daily near McPherson Square. The sanitary conditions are now questionable. Various comments are leading one to think that by January....someone in DC is going to order the clearing of one Occupy camp.....perhaps even both.

So the news folks (the Examiner) got around to asking both groups how they relate, and this was a curious thing. They did try to show some unity, but the McPherson Square crowd are a bit more independent, and just not willing to share in the organizational skills. You almost get the impression that both have separate agendas and perhaps an end result that does not match up.

I also might offer this one odd observation. The hippy guys and their camp....was kind of prepared for real camping, bad weather, and snow. They were seasoned folks. They had camped out in their life and knew how to do it for weeks at a time. They've seen bad winters and two feet of snow.

The punk kids a couple of blocks away? They really weren't adapted to organized camping. I didn't come away with impression that they knew how to keep someone's backyard sanitary. They were the type that'd go camping in yard....trash it.....and just walk away smiling. The rats and the trash? Well....they'd just pretend it doesn't exist.

Here's the thing though....there are restaurants and coffee houses all around McPherson Square. They rely on the health department of DC. The political figures of DC and the city council....might want to give the boys continued reign....but eventually, this health code issue is going to determine the end of the camping experience. Along the way....a few punks are going to be bit by rats, and some folks are going to suffer some serious health issues. The hippies are going to mostly smile....because this time....they were right in the way they ran things.

Only in America.

Maybe You Should Ask First

2011-11-30T05:44:00.000-05:00

Here in the local area....an interesting development.

Word got out this morning that the District of Columbia city council is reviewing this idea of sports teams being used on car tags. They have eight professional teams in the region (soccer, football, baseball, football, hockey, etc). They figure a $25 fee to start with and $20 a year for these special tags.

The curious thing to me....is that typically the logos are precious to every single team. They just don't normally approve the use of such logos....unless there is money in the pot for them. Personally, I can't see them approving the logo, unless the DC council paid them money, and that typically isn't something that the council is used to doing. The DC council probably dreamed this up and got one team to agree to this....and I seriously doubt that the rest are going along with it unless a couple of bucks float their way.

The curious thing here.....how many folks would sign up for Washington Redskins tags? I'm guessing one out of every three cars.

A Happy Story

2011-11-30T04:56:00.000-05:00

Weeks ago....the city of San Francisco decided that Happy Meals from McDonalds, with the toy "gift", were evil. No matter what toy they offered, it didn't matter....they were all evil. So they had to be outlawed....wiped off the face of the Earth.

For the next day or two....you still have the "toy" option with the San Francisco McDonalds. Then, on the first....there will this little change.

When you walk into McDonalds....you will be able to buy the toy "gift" for ten cents, which will only be offered to you as a customer AFTER you buy the Happy Meal. The ten cents? Well....McDonalds said that they would merely take that "donation" and send it to the McDonald's support charity operation. The price of the Happy Meals? No change.....you basically pay the same price as before. So you have to toss down ten cents extra....to make that five-year old kid happy.

As you settle back to ponder over this....imagine the scene. The government of San Fransisco decided to regulate something...invoke more regulations....and dictate how a business would operate. The business did what they would naturally do....change. For you the consumer....you pay an extra ten cents that you didn't have to pay before. The "toy"? It was made in China for less than a twenty cents (my humble guess). So what the city did....was force everyone to pay an extra ten cents on every Happy Meal, for the stupid toy. The evilness of McDonalds? Put down entirely.....thank God for the wonderful city council.

Only in America.

How a City Sinks Itself into Debt

2011-11-29T17:30:00.000-05:00

You tend to know when a town has cash sitting around and desperately wants to throw it away or toss it to some favorite friend of the city council.

Here in Virginia....down in Charlottesville....the city council realized the cash flow was strong enough to reward someone.

The city council passed this fancy deal....to bring more diversity to Chrlottesville. The deal on the plate is simple. The city agreed that there will be a Charlottesville Commission on Human Rights, Diversity and Race Relations. The folks are already planning $300k to start this operation, and expecting the general yearly cost to be a minimum of $200k. The numbers come from the town newspaper, The Daily Progress.

Now, a smart guy would sit there and ask a few questions. How exactly does diversity cost $300k for a town of 43k folks? Well....you start with a commission of folks who appointed (seven is always a nice uneven number, which is what they selected). We might all admit that five folks would have been enough....or even three. But seven folks get picked for the deal. They are unpaid, but I'm guessing that all seven get airline tickets and hotel deals to attend national diversity conferences.....maybe in Orlando, or Hawaii....who knows?

Then you toss in a director who is hired to lead the city toward diversity (he makes $90k). Then you toss in an investigator who is supposed act like an advocate on occasion....and he would make $60k a year. Naturally, Wanda and Gus would require a secretary....who would be making $30k a year. Added to the trio, you can anticipate laptops, paper, and a bucket of cash (my estimate, $8k a year) to help make this trio fit into the situation.

You have to assume that the city likely has around 400 folks who fall into the police, fire and services departments. A full-time investigator? What if you go an entire year without any complaints? You just blew $60k. What if there's not much for the secretary to do? You blow another $30k. I can only assume that the director will find enough meetings to keep himself/herself looking busy.....but frankly....is a full-time guy like this worth $90k? And the conferences for the seven folks to attend? You can figure $10k spent on their requirements as they run off to Seattle or New Orleans each year for booze and diversity chat.

This is generally how a town gets itself deeper into financial issues when you gaze ten to twenty years ahead. They stand there and just want to admit they don't know how to cut city services and serve the fine people of the town.....by cutting manpower. They are hoping you are naive enough...not to ask stupid questions about what city employees do.

Letters From Ripley

Lilyhammer

A California Story

Grafenwoehr

Simply Observations

Simply Observations

My Neighborhood

Occupy Camping

The State of the Union Speech and the Heartland

A Life Change

The Bigfoot Dilemma

Just Observations

Davos

The Rights of the Dead

Two Styles of Debate

Why the Media Boys Might be Worrying

The Truth About School Meals

The Doom Indicator?

2012 Review of M*A*S*H

My Neighborhood

Eternally Left With Bush's Fault

The 'Truth" about Keystone

Simply Observations

My Neighborhood

Simply Observations

The Problem with Dopers

The Sincerity of a Tear or Two

Simply Observations

My Neighborhood

Simply Observations

Simply Observations

The Problem with Disabilities

What We Are

Between a Rock and Virginia

The Reality of Saving Folks

Math and History Issues

Just Observations

Back in Bama

When Dinosaurs Fade

Normal Living?

Our Occupy Folks

My Neighborhood

My Job

The Solo War

When a Tune Doesn't Work

The Time Travel Obama?

My Neighborhood

My Neighborhood

Why METRO Sucks

The Iowa Game

Slim and Trim Caveman Joe

Dulles

The Love of Law

2012?

The ID Saga

My Political Forum Questions

The Underwear State

65k Problems

A House Loan

A Different Ending

Just Observations

The British

The Tree

Story of the Year?

The Hulk Story

My Neighborhood

Christmas Ornaments

The Republicans

Baseball

The Story Behind the Story

My Neighborhood

Not a Nice End

Just a Simple Opinion

Well.....Yeah

It's Just a Game

The Cost

The Truth Issue

Simply Observations

Phallic-Advice

The Secret Answer

2012 Review of MAS*H