The Meltdown

So everybody has been affected by the meltdown, at least everybody with either a mortgage or investments in the stock market. And we all wonder, "what is the root cause?" I believe one gentleman from a financial forum I read pins it to the special interest lobby of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac:

Fannie [Mae] and Freddie [Mac] had such powerful lobbyists that no attempt to reform or regulate Fannie and Freddie could make it through Congress. In all fairness, there were a number of Republican Senators and Congressman who have been sounding the alarm for at least 15 years. They knew it was only a matter of time before the taxpayer would have to bail them out. They were voices crying in the wilderness. There was no way to stop such large special interests. Fannie and Freddie spent tens of millions of dollars lobbying congress. Is there something inherently wrong with that? Government sponsored enterprises spending millions to lobby the government?

So, who were the lamebrains obstructing reform?

Since 1989, 534 individual legislators recieved money from Fannie and Freddie. Who recieved the most? Chris Dodd, Democrat from Connecticut, Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and the Senator who had a couple of special arrangements with Countrywide, Fannies biggest customer. Who was second in line? A newcomer, who had only been in congress for three years, the junior Senator from Illinois, Barack Obama, who now blames Bush for the problem, and says he's going to run a different kind if Washington, free of special interests. There's a sucker born every minute.

Change you can believe in? So long as you believe, "The more things change, the more they stay the same".

The Speech

I didn't see Sarah Palin speak last night, but many blogs and newspapers couldn't stop talking about it. So I did something I rarely do, I read the speech.

Read it.

She SHOULD be our next vice president in 2008.

She SHOULD be our president in 2012.

I won' t say I'm in love, but bloody hell, where have the Republicans been hiding her and are there any more principled people like her in the party who will lead it?

Stuff - mainly news

The NY Times must be wishing for a Ministry of Truth and the Memory Hole (see George Orwell's 1984)so we mere mortals wouldn't be able to see what they said in 2006 and 2007 and what they were forced to report in 2008.

Stories on Sarah Palin and why the Democrats are going nuts with her selection for VP.
Here
here
here and here.

Monday Roundup

Well the Olympics are over. My wife watched the closing ceremonies, said it was too long and carnival like, the opening was much better.

If someone wrote a book that was widely publicised and later turned out to be 100% false (ok maybe was only 99.9999999999997% false) and it was his area of specialty, one would think this person would not be considered an expert worth listening too. Especially if this person insists that the original premise is still valid. Well think again.

Liberal protesters in Denver try to recreate Chicago in 1968 (by provoking the police into responding to them). However, as much as they tried to goad the police into attacking the demonstrators (who did have a permit), they were not successful. I guess there were too many video cameras around so the protesters couldn't start a riot by throwing bottles or something and then blame the police.

Mother nature has a sense of humor.

Senator Obama says we should think of the community and not just ourselves in how we live our lives. Will he follow his own advice when it comes to HIS family?

Doofus

That's Cuba's Angel Matos, an Olympic Taekwondo athlete, kicking a referee in the head after being DQ'd. Nice. Said ref required stitches in his lip. The World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) is recommending a lifetime ban for Matos and his coach.

"We didn't expect anything like what you have witnessed to occur," said WTF secretary general Yang Jin-suk. "I am at a loss for words."

You got that right. I, too, would be at a loss for words right now if I was the secretary general of WTF.

This is a shameful act, disgracing yourself, your team, your country.

Olympic Burnout

Burnt out today. No commentary. Will be back tomorrow.

By the way, Nastia was robbed. ROBBED. Is there any more random way of breaking a tie than that? I could swear I was in Las Vegas at the Circus Circus coffee shop drinking a cup of Joe, sawing at the wafer-thin 1.99 Porterhouse and eggs special watching the keno numbers light up on the board with a grease pencil in hand.

"Oh, 8...15...32...there's 20...and 9.1! 9.0! 9.1! I win!"

It was like they just threw each athlete's scores into a hat, mixed them up, and let each athlete pick one at random. Better would have been rock-paper-scissors--at least that's a contest. Soccer has a shootout so maybe they could have done something gymnastic-y for 30 seconds to impress the judges. Heck, let them compete in one of the ancient Olympic competitions--Greco-Roman wrestling. Clinch, hold, lock, and pin their way to a gold.

But, no, they do what is in its essentials, the gymnatic equivalent of high spade in the hole splits the pot. No, thank you. The scoring in this Olympics has been confusing and almost counter-intuitive. How can you LAND ON YOUR KNEES AND STILL WIN SILVER?

And I still think the Chinese girls look like they belong in a Beverly Cleary novel.

So I guess I'm not so burned out that I'm still good for a bit of rantage.

Peace, out.

What Did You Expect?

Amid all the cheering for the athletes and the enjoyment of the games, we should never lose site of the reality that China is as driven home by an article on China's purported plan to allow protesters.

The applicants? 77 of them for various causes, not the obvious ones we might think of (Tibet, religious oppression), but things such as development projects displacing residents, homeless, welfare.

How many of these protests have been approved? Zero.

Rights groups and relatives have said some applicants were immediately taken away by security agents after applying to hold a rally...

Now that's sort of chilling with a I-can't-believe-this-happens-in-the-21st-Century sort of way. The Chinese government response? As Wang Wei, VP of China's Olympic organizing committee said,

"We think that you do not really understand China's reality. China has its own version and way of exercising our democracy."

Their own version apparently involves rubber hoses, black cars, and state run media. Democracy, freedom, or rights in China?

Not bloody likely in my lifetime.

PHELPS

AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT???

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT???

*AIRPLANES AROUND ROOM*

*KERMIT THE FROG*

The Olympics and stuff

My wife has not been able to get to bed before 1:30 am since August 8. That is about when exhaustion takes over and she can't watch the Olympics anymore. On the other hand, I've watched a little bit but am not glued to the TV like she is.

As for the Chinese women gymnasts, they do look young, but as my wife said, our niece looked 12 last year and now looks 16. She grew a lot and got rid of her braces and if you saw her you would think she is 16/17 not 14. BTW, her father is a black belt in Brazilian Jujitsu if anyone tries to bother her.

So are the Chinese cheating in women's gymnastics? I don't know and at the end of the day, it just doesn't matter. Why? because the ideal of the Olympics is dead and has been dead for decades. The Olympics have been and always will be giving the host country a chance to show off their city. But what about fairness to the athletes from the countries that follow the rules? Well they will have to work harder to compete against underage competitors (who will have their own problems dealing with disappointment and stress of competition). It may not be fair, but then again, neither is life so deal with it and move on.

On to Georgia. Maybe we need to sell some of our cold war surplus M1 and M2's to Georgia for $1 each, load them on ships and send them to Georgia ports escorted by a carrier group and maybe lease a Los Angeles class sub to them as well for maybe $10 a week to open the sea lanes from Russia's blockade. What about Turkey and the Dardanelles and them not liking US warships passing through them? Well if the try to close the straights, well we have a lot of troops just south of them and their troops have/are invading Iraq to suppress the Kurds, we can make life hard for them too if they wish. Yes, this is wishful thinking of sending tanks and making sure the Georgians are properly supplied. Easy to say, hard and risky to do. But if we don't stop Russia here, where do we stop them? The Baltic states? Ukraine? Poland? Germany? why them and not Georgia? What makes them more valuable then Georgia?

On a personal note, work has been nuts and will continue to be so for another month or so with all the changes here, so the boss will be making most of the posts, thanks for making them.

Ranting and Raving...

...I watched the women's all-around this evening. At every turn, it seemed the world and its evil-minion-proxies were against Shawn and Nastia. Logic (and the announcers) could not explain the inexplicable scores even in the face of the Chinese mistakes and American triumphs.

"IT'S FIXED!" Shaking my yellow fist at the glowing blue screen, I uttered all manner of plots and conspiracies involving Nellie Kim, the Chinese, the Illumanati, an alien with velcro, and the grassy knoll.

Even remembrances of Michael Phelps' domination in the 200 IM, a race I judged to be his toughest remaining, and Lochte/Piersol going 1-2 in the 200 backstroke could not quell the seething anger I held within.

It wouldn't be. Hard work would not triumph over petty and parochial politics. We would be robbed yet again by jealous would-be superpowers. And I hadn't even thought about the IOC's yanking of softball and baseball from the 2012 games.

Having worked myself into a good froth, I was ready for the last two events.

And then...Nastia absolutely kills the beam and floor. She owns it. Dominates. She kicks sand in their 90-pound-weakling faces, steals their girls, and rips the back cover ad from their comic books. Charlie Atlas wouldn't be able to save them now.

And so, breathing a sigh of relief, I turned my attentions back to determining and proving China's gymnasts are not eligible to drive.

How was your night?

Makes You Go, "Hmmm"

Apparently, there is a case to be made for under-aged Chinese gymnasts, as ESPN is reporting the Chinese organ, Xinhua, itself reported He Kexin was 13. Thus, ESPN concludes, she would have been "ineligible to be on the team that won a gold medal".

Interestingly enough and predictably, mums-the-word:

The Associated Press found the Xinhua report on the site Thursday morning and saved a copy of the page. Later that afternoon, the Web site was still working but the page was no longer accessible.

The paper reported He's age to be 14 this past May, although that was quickly corrected. In a statement, He herself backs the party line,

"my real age is 16. I don't pay any attention to what everyone says."

Because, of course, her word and her Chinese-government-issued passport is proof enough (end sarcasm here). Granted, she won and won going away, even at whatever-age-she-is. There is no question about that.

The question is not just, "Are the Chinese playing by the same rules for age?" You should be able to guess what my answer is to that. The question really is, "Are the Chinese abiding by ALL the rules?"

How else might they be cheating? Frankly, without an open society or viable third-party verification, we will never know He's age as it has been lost in the misty and redacted past of state revisionism.

Ergh

Is it me or does the Chinese "women's" gymnastics team look like a slumber party of 10 year olds? There is no way they can be older than 12...13, maybe.

My wife tells me they do things in China where the girls are taken from their families at 3 and subjected to hormone treatments to delay their periods and things like that.

And this is the spirit of amateur sport?

Men's Gymnastics

Filed under the Olympic Patriotism Department.

We watched the men's gymnastics team went through the high bar last night (aside: why only one for them and not two like the women? Did somebody say, "No sissy two bars for us! Just one solitary, manly rod of steel to hang like an ape from."). I was on the edge of my seat as Spring was flying through the air, seriously, it just looked like the guy was borderline crazy and out-of-control. Then when Horton stuck his landing, I basically Kermit-the-Frogged-screamed.

Of course, for those of you scoring at home, it was disappointing to watch the team fold like napkins in the floor and horse. Still, they did well enough to secure a medal and even appeared for a moment to be in contention to pull off one of the biggest upsets in Olympic history for the silver.

Congrats.

Miracle on (Melted) Ice

4x100 swim relay team.

Excuse me, that should be the world-recording holding, Gold-medal winning, French-smacking, wave-drafting, chest-pounding American 4x100 swim relay team.

HOLY FREAKIN' COW.

How is it possible to out-swim the freestyle world-record holder over the last 25 meters? That was impressive, improbable, impossible, impressive, unforgettable, unreal, unbelievable, unimaginable. I cannot imagine how Lezak pulled it off because I thought at the turn he was a goner.

Oi.

That it was against the smack-talking French...yeah, well that's just extra icing (butter?) on the croissant. Prenez que vous claquez les Français parlants! (tanks Babblefish for the most-likely hacked up and mutilated translation)

This will rank #2 in my Olympic moments behind, of course, the Miracle on Ice.

Once Again, With Feeling

More on how the Chinese handle protesters, this time at the consulate in San Francisco. One of the protesters hung from the outside of the Chinese consulate--considered sovereign Chinese territory--hence, the protester was on Chinese soil. Apparently, Nyendak Wangden fell 15 feet, fracturing her wrist:

The Tibetan rights group says their members were confronted on the roof. They claim a man pushed away one female group member from the climbing anchors, while a woman cut Wangden's rope.

She cut it while Wangden was still hanging from it. Nice. I'm telling you, these Red Chinese don't mess around, do they? If this is how foreign trespassers are treated, imagine what they do to their own subjects.

Americans "Shocked" at Chinese Oppression

Several foreign visitors to China voiced their opinions in Tiananmen Square: the expected "Free Tibet", government-mandated abortion, religious oppression, and the Tiananmen massacre. I commend these souls on their bravery. The Chinese government, of course, moved in and in an understandable show of restraint (given the media scrutiny), only showed the unruly visitors the square's exit after the usual "show-me-your-papers" song and dance.

...plainclothes security agents and police officers tried to block the banner with umbrellas and started shoving the group when they tried to walk around the square. The agents eventually pushed them out of the area and made them sit nearby for almost an hour, checking their passports, before letting them go...

The protesters reaction? Bordering on naive.

"It's so shocking being an American ... to see the blatant oppression," [one of the protesters] said.

It bears saying again. What part of oppressive government did we not understand? The leopard does not change its spots, even if the leopard (or, if you prefer, dragon or panda) is dancing for your enjoyment at the moment.

Freedom to speak is a great thing, let us; however, NOT fall into an ethno-centric trap and assume everybody else in the world enjoys the same things. Shocking, yes. Surprising...not so much.

Hmmm

Going to Boston for a business trip in a few weeks and I just realized, my return flight from Boston-Logan will be 9/11.

Damn terrorists.

Newsflash: Sky is BLUE!

In an "unexpected" move, China has censored web access for the media during the Beijing Olympic games.

...International Olympic Committee (IOC) press chief Kevan Gosper told Reuters that both he and the international media had been taken by surprise that some politically sensitive websites had been blocked.

Note to the Olympic committee and media: What part of the term, repressive government, do you not understand? It is easy to see how a country willing to ruthlessly and bloodily suppress Tibet (not to mention commit the brutality of the Cultural Revolution) would be more than willing to inconvenience a few journalists.

Did nobody expect this? How naive.

Face it, the Olympics may be a propaganda opportunity for the PRC, but it will do nothing to substantively change the character of that nation.

Watchmen

I just read the Watchmen for the first time, since I didn't read it the first came out, I guess I just wasn't interested back then. I just finished reading it to see what all the hubbub was about and since my professor-friend from church was kind enough to loan it to me.

First thoughts: Dated. Paranoid. Leftist. Fantasy. (not necessarily in that order)

Second thoughts: *Excellent* characterizations. Excellent depth of back-story and a well-thought out plot, although dated--as I said, the plot of the story comes across as a paranoid fantasy, which is kind of fun. Interesting symbolism, the foreshadowing worked will. The whole idea of Mr. Manhattan and squid creatures I thought to be Moore’s nod to the marrow of comic books: supermen and weird aliens. It was executed well without being overdone. I also enjoyed the interweaving of the "historical" pulp comic within the storyline and the various epistolatory interludes--a great device to download large amounts of backstory with a minimum of storyline interruption or silly flashbacks. It really was a book that I had to think through as opposed to the story lines of other comics.

In all, I can understand why many consider this so great. On the other hand, I’m glad I read it now rather than twenty years ago—my tastes have changed and I enjoyed it much more today than I would have then.

Someone made fun of Obama

And it was a newspaper too, in Europe no less.

Of course by posting the link, this blog could be shut down like others that have yet to acknowledge Obama as the savior.

He ventured forth to bring light to the world
The anointed one's pilgrimage to the Holy Land is a miracle in action - and a blessing to all his faithful followers by Gerard Baker

And it came to pass, in the eighth year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores of the Great Lakes had been laid barren, that a Child appeared in the wilderness.

Daily Mutterings

Let me state for the record I'm not a huge fan of mortgage bailouts. I could be made to understand why the government feels the need it has to "do something" about this pressing concern--because the chattel (voters) are clamoring for relief from "predatory lenders" who took advantage of them. "It's not our fault," they cry, "We wouldn't be in this position if it weren't for the big, bad wolf with huge eyes, and big teeth, and 0% down mortgages. Besides, it's for the good of the economy."

What a fairy tale.

Defaulting borrowers and lenders alike are equally at fault for low lending rates, bizarre mortgage products, and fast 'n easy money. It's not solely on the shoulders of the lenders. They made the money easy, but somebody reached into the cookie jar and took far more than they could eat--"Their eyes were bigger than their stomachs."

Borrowers and lenders made their bed, they should be made to lie in it. Many families could have emulated the neighbors (now in danger foreclosing) and taken out variable rate loans with 0% down to buy their houses; many could even have used such techniques to buy "more". They did not. Fiscal prudence forced them to accept the reality they could not (should not?) afford "more" where their neighbors pretended the economy would supply their desires. Historical insight reminded them of the adjusted maxim, "Whatever goes down, must come up." Too bad the neighbors didn't look to the past.

What part of cyclic economies did the neighbors not understand?

Economies run in cycles and grow in spurts. The incredible growth in recent years must inevitably result in a time where the gears of the nation must rest and catch its breath. 'Tis natural. It's like pruning a tree, the deadwood--the inefficient companies, the bad fiscal decisions, the poor lending practices--must be cut away and burnt. Hence, I see no reason why the government should bail out greedy corporations or greedy borrowers. The problem with a bailout is that the welfare of the greedy lot will be forced upon those of you who were fiscally conservative, or smart enough to know when to refinance.

eBay

EBay profit rises but shares fall 5 percent: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

EBay listings surged 19 percent from a year ago, after suffering declining growth much of last year. But growth in active users eluded the company, rising a mere 1 percent.

I'm not terribly surprised by the apparently plateau of eBay's userbase at all. It almost mirrors my own experience as a buyer and seller of used goods and trinkets through the auction site. I used to buy a lot and sell a little over the years since 1994 (I think). I've bought and sold Hot Wheels, electronics, software, games, ephemera, printer suppliers, and camera equipment.

But, I've decided to avoid buying anything there. Frankly, I've grown tired of:

• Auction Fees--too many fees for this service: listing fees; final value fees; fees to bold your auction; fees to use templates; fees to use an automated listing client; etc etc etc. There is no end to fee-age.



• PayPal Fees--as an eBay buyer/seller, you are virtually locked into their payment system, PayPal, which charges you an extra few percent for allowing others to pay you through the system. This on top of the auction fees.



• Fraudulent sellers--I bought a new cell phone on eBay and that was a BAD MISTAKE. The phone was marked by Sprint as stolen and the seller disappeared. "No matter", I thought, "there is the Buyer protection guarantee." HA! Little did I know what a farce that is. It took a month of going through all of eBay's steps to resolve the matter with the seller (no response) and filing the proper paperwork, to only have eBay deny my $200 claim. Luckily, I had used a credit card through PayPal and I filed a claim in 15 minutes over the phone with my credit card company and received a credit without a hitch. PayPal sucks and this incident was the beginning of the end for me on eBay. I no longer feel safe in ordering from any seller there.



• Pricing -- You have to know your prices on eBay, even for commodity goods. Just because it's on eBay, it's not always a good deal.



• Counterfeit or Misrepresented Goods -- It's well known that eBay is a thieve's den of counterfeit goods. How do you know what you're getting? I've ordered used stuff on eBay and they showed up as not quite the same thing as listed. And the seller? Nowhere to be found. Jerks. And if you want it resolved? Heaven forbid you'd want...



• Customer Service -- Since you're ordering from any number of people on eBay, you're beholden to varying levels of customer service. Some are good, some are great, but some are just lousy. It's difficult to gauge and frustrating to resolve if you need to return or resolve anything.

So, it is no surprise that I have relegated eBay to the back burner of my Internet shopping, unless I'm looking for something truly odd or weird. I am of the opinion any money I might have saved shopping on eBay is better spent on piece of mind and customer service from more reputable online dealers. "You get what you pay for," is not always the case at eBay--sometimes you get less.

Sucks to be Northrop Right Now

It is highly likely the Air Force will reopen the tanker contract previously won by NGC and subsequently protested by Boeing. At stake is $35 billion. Obviously, the winner today is Boeing's KC-767AT proposal and NGC's KC-45 proposal the loser, but I argue the real losers are the armed services who will have to endure yet another delay before a replacement tanker will come online to replace the aging KC-10 and KC-135 fleet.

I ask you, after the Boeing fiasco where that company was penalized for rigging the first attempt to award the contract, how did the Air Force blow this one? I would have thought all of the t's were crossed and the i's dotted; now it seems the Air Force dotted the former and crossed the later.

Although the KC-45 airframes produced in Alabama, they are EADS designed Airbus A330s, a European product. Boeing 767s are produced and designed in Seattle. Is this a case of parochial protectionism? I would argue we need to overlook such concepts, for it is far better to procure best-of-breed products, we would be endangering our servicemen and women to do otherwise. Of course, where products involve sensitive or classified information, I argue to keep it all onshore. The tanker, though, is an airframe, not communications encryption.

One might also suspect a deep conspiracy--with defense dollars dwindling for new development because of ongoing war commitments--this could be a ploy by the brass to further delay committing money to this project on the contractor's dime until a new fiscal year comes about.

In the end, we taxpayers can only watch the DoD as it compounds newer and more ingenious ways to budgetary disaster.

MMmmmmm

"Yes, give me the Blattaria Lovers special. Extra legs, please."

Pizza Hut caught for roaches in the pie. Mmm mmm good!

Congratulations

Thank you, Colombia, for taking on FARC and freeing American hostages and a highly-celebrated French-Colombian politician. It would seem the rebels were deceived into giving up the hostages, being tricked into thinking they were being relocated. For their efforts, the rebels who accompanied the hostages, "were neutralized".

With much prejudice, I would imagine.

Welcome home, Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell--still employees of Northrop Grumman Corp--after five long and bitter years of captivity. During my stint with NGC, I remember the occasional press release coming across my inbox concerning their status and company's efforts at seeking a resolution. In the end, it took bold military action.

I hope all the rescued will be able to transition back to freedom in due time.

As for FARC...so long, suckas.

Here's an Idea...BUDGET

So, California finds itself in another budget deficit brought about by a combination of a declining economy and increased spending. So obviously, the answer is to raise property taxes by reassessing businesses benefiting from Prop 13. In the article, the union-backed California Tax Reform Association calls assessment of business property under Prop 13 "poor fiscal and land-use policy". The gist of the article is to flog the idea for yearly property reassessments of businesses for the purposes of taxation.

Wrong-headed move my friends. This just shows the problem of the public mindset towards government spending.

The liberalists intend for you to believe the woes of a budget deficit are brought by the underpayment of taxes by businesses and, although not explicitly stated but certainly meant, those citizens in certain tax brackets. After all, it is a truism in American politics that "faceless" corporations and the "rich" are getting away with robbery. In short, the CTRA wants us to buy into the idea "not we're spending too much, it's that we're not making enough".

How many of us have fallen to that line of argument in our own personal fiscal operations? I'll raise my hand as long as you raise yours. But the first rule of mastering your personal finances is not getting a higher paying job or winning the lotto. The first rule is to control your spending.

The solution to California's fiscal problems is to spend less. Don't create additional programs. Don't allow the status quo to drain the treasury. Don't raise taxes. When there isn't any money in the checking account, don't charge up the credit card. What's true for the kitchen table budget is true for public government.

Riding into the Sunset with Bill

Mr. Gates recently reduced his role at Microsoft, effectively beginning his ride into retirement--a life of philanthropy, apparently (and good for him).

And so, I thought it would be appropriate that I should, in part, ride along with him--selling my shares in Microsoft which I have held since 1993 . Perhaps holding so long was not one of my better judgments in view of the last few years of non-performance, but I'm more of a buy-and-hold kind of guy and Microsoft had treated me okay over the years.

So long Bill, and thanks for the 4-bagger.

Is this blog endangered?

Not from low readership or from infrequent postings, but from mighty Google itself?

The political views of the contributors tend to be more right then left leaning and Google appears to be shutting down sites that have posted anti-Obama posts. The thing is most of those sites were pro-Hillary not pro-McCain.

Is Google trying to shut down the free exchange of ideas? Will they try to help Obama with their search results? I don't know, most likely not as that would not be in the best interest of the shareholders and they not the management are the ultimate owners of the company.

Ok, our readership is so vast (all two or three of you per week), Google is likely to ignore us but then again they could shut us down for not following the corporate line.

The American Citizen Won

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the District of Columbia cannot ban a citizen from keeping a handgun at home, throwing out one of the nation's strictest gun control laws.

Writing for the 5-4 majority, Justice Antonin Scalia said that the Constitution protects an individual's right to keep and carry a gun.

The only bad news was the decision was 5-4, it should have been 9-0. Its a reminder that elections count and if you don't want the USSC to reverse it when the next president appoints two more liberal justices, vote in November. Sitting on the sideline is not an option, it is the same as voting for the other person.

Thursday Update

US military shoots down separating missile in test

And they said it couldn't be done. Good job America. Yes we need it unless you want to trust our survival on the kindness and rational behavior of North Korea or Iran.

Another increase in Federal spending. Only $845 billion over 13 years or $65 billion per year or $197,000 per person in the US per year for additional foreign aid to be spent by the United Nations. I don't know about you, but don't we have things we could do with this money at home or better yet, not spend and let our kids have a lighter debt load?

The USSC is going to learn a lesson one day

Court rejects death penalty for raping children

Justice Kennedy says the punishment does not fit the crime. Will the "all wise" justice please explain what punishment will fit the crime? How does one become un-raped? Now if they were to hold the scum who did this until the child was an adult and then let the now adult have 15 minutes to explain why what the scum did was wrong while the scum was tied down and crowbars were available to the now adult person, then maybe I might agree.

But Kennedy and the other four justices seem to forget that the courts are only effective when the people think the courts are working. When people think the courts are not working, the courts will lose their power because the people or the government will simply ignore them and then it becomes mob rule or he with the biggest gun rule. And judging from the comments, the people are believing the courts are not working.

New Update

Three stories to share with today.

1. Florida needs energy (as does everyone else), but doesn't want to have oil rigs off its coast. Its ok for other States or countries to have them but Florida should be spared the sight of them.

Actually, replace Florida with California and the story could just as true here. But with $5 a gallon gasoline, maybe that view will change.

2. Oregon has depended upon the Federal Government for timber payments for much of its budget. Now those payments are ending and the local governments are crying. Here is a solution, allow more economic activities on your land and the budget problem can be solved.

3. A female Christian reporter wrote an article critical of some of the cultural practices of her community. The Christian community has denounced her saying she as a Christian woman has a duty to defend the faith and not say or write anything that may bring the Christian community into a bad light.

Of course if the above was true, the ACLU or the Canadian equivalent would be up in arms along with many secularists to protect this woman and the paper that dared to print the story.

However, replace Christian with Muslim and the above paragraph is true. However, I don't hear anyone coming to the defense of the reporter or the paper. Do you?

Nutcase

Chavez continues his war against capital as he sets a 60 day ultimatum for cement companies to strike a deal over the nationalization of their assets in Valenzuela. Mexico based Cemex, Switzerland's Holcim Ltd, and France's Lafarge SA would become minority owners in the units they built in Valenzuela. Generously,

the companies could negotiate over continuing as minority partners in their units and over compensation for the loss of their assets

How nice.

According to Hugo, I can barge into your house, demand you sell it to me, and then allow you to negotiate to keep part of what you already own. If Chavez is so hot to own these companies, why doesn't he go out and tender an offer to buy shares? This is not an issue of eminent domain and the public good--unless you deem that it is in the public good for the government to monopolize industry--it's an issue of deprivation of property. It's easy to deprive faceless corporations, despite the reality these corporations are really a collective of thousands of employees, myriad suppliers, and customers that are as personal as you or me. In the end, all corporate entities boil down to people. Where will it stop?

Maybe today it's a company, tomorrow it may be the individual.

Bugs and Oil Barrels

A silicon valley firm claims to have genetically engineered a strain of bacteria to produce a petroleum by-product near to distilled gasoline--somehow the company, LS9, has convinced a few E. coli to poop gas, which is the highly technical term. The article goes on to present their claims as well as explain to us their discovery is "carbon-negative".

Can this be true?

Frankly, I'm skeptical. Remember a few years ago in 2003 when turkey offal would be converted into light crude via thermal depolymerization? "It's the silver bullet!" we (or at least I) thought. Five years later, they're still relying on subsidies for a profit and fighting the local government to even stay open (apparently nobody likes the smell of turkey offal).

This current fad for green technology and the resulting gold rush for alternative fuels feels like a haven for snake oil salesmen and hucksters looking for easy money from soft-headed capitalists. This firm's claims sound too much like a penny stock spam email than real scientific results:

Mr Pal holds up a small beaker of bug excretion that could, theoretically, be poured into the tank of the giant Lexus SUV next to us. Not that Mr Pal is willing to risk it just yet. He gives it a month before the first vehicle is filled up on what he calls “renewable petroleum”. After that, he grins, "it’s a brave new world".

or (emphasis mine)

Bob Walsh, 50, who now serves as the firm’s president after a 26-year career at Shell, most recently running European supply operations in London. "How many times in your life do you get the opportunity to grow a multi-billion-dollar company?" he asks. It is a bold statement from a man who works in a glorified cubicle in a San Francisco industrial estate for a company that describes itself as being "prerevenue".

As much as I want to believe we can simply grow gas and lesson our dependence on imported oil (and I do hope we get there one day), the truth of the matter is our foreseeable future lies in oil pipelines and not in pipe dreams.

F-35B First Flight

sdd_f35testb_012
Originally uploaded by kawfeadikt

A long time coming, and much anticipated. The F-35B (BF-1) lifted off for its maiden flight yesterday, flown by British pilot, Graham Tomlinson--a nod to our allies who are in line to purchase the B variant along with our own Marines.

This aircraft cannot come soon enough, replacing an aged Harrier fleet and providing expanded capabilities to the USMC. Next up in the program for Lockheed-Northrop-BAE will be the C variant, the replacement for the Navy's F/A-18.

Even now, as the B variant begins its test program, AA-1 continues its flight testing, there are A and B test articles in production, the first C variant (CF-1) has probably begun assembly, and LRIP is beginning for all variants as well.

The ONLY downside to my current job is missing being on the "inside" of the JSF program. Not only were there great amounts of satisfaction from participating in the aircraft's development, but observing everything coming together in an intricate dance to produce each variant was wondrous. Heady times for the engineers there!

This is Canada???

If this can happen in Canada, it can happen in the US, our constitution notwithstanding.

A Christian pastor has been given a lifetime ban against uttering anything "disparaging" about gays. Not against anything "hateful", let alone something legally defined as "hate speech". Just anything negative.

But he must give a false sermon; he is positively ordered to renounce his deeply held religious beliefs, and apologize to his tormentor for having those views.

And then that pastor is ordered to declare to his entire city that he has renounced his religious views, even though he has not.

Our Best Export Yet

They said American education was circulating the porcelain bowl of defecation. They said American children were falling behind the world and would soon serve others rather than be served themselves. They said America was growing soft and lazy. They were all wrong. For Japan, mighty Japan--the country burgeoning with genius children of mad intellectual skillz--is undergoing a cultural change more amenable to an American model of education with much "success":

For the audience of menacing mothers and feisty fathers, though, the sight of 25 Snow Whites, no dwarfs and no wicked witch was a triumph: a clear victory for Japan's emerging new class of “Monster Parents."

For they had taken on the system and won. After a relentless campaign of bullying, hectoring and nuisance phone calls, the monster parents had cowed the teachers into submission, forcing the school to admit to the injustice of selecting just one girl to play the title role.

How dare a play cast a lead role. How dare one individual shine above others, casting the rest in dreary gray mediocre tones. The horror! The INHUMANITY!

What a sad commentary on culture, values, and self-worth.

Uh oh.

Tragic. Steroids stool pidgon and girlfriend found dead.

Jacobs [the victim] said [to an ESPN reporter]: "The kinds of people I know about could put a bullet in the back of my head."

Not that I'm pointing fingers at any one thing, but this just seems a little bit too coincidental to be a robbery gone bad. Coverup? Possibly. If it it, this will end up messily for sports in general, although I caution it is far too early to speculate (publicly) about who.

California made a mistake yesterday

Yeah, so what else is new.

But Prop 98 was defeated almost 2 to 1 while Prop 99 won by 2 to 1.

Prop 99 was put on the ballot after Prop 98 qualified and basically was offered as a sham to divert attention from Prop 98. Its the same story that happened back in the 1970s with Prop 13 and Prop 8. But in that case, the right proposition won.

In a nutshell, Prop 98 would have prevented eminent domain when the government was going to give the land to a private entity to be developed. Your church would not have its building and land seized and sold to Costco so they could build a store as a city in LA County tried two years ago. It also would end rent control on all rental units as the person who lives in the unit vacates the unit due to death or moving on. That was the provision that sunk the proposition because the opponents scared seniors with stories their evil land lords were going to evict them and raise the rents.

Prop 99 in a nutshell would only prevent eminent domain on owner occupied residences when the land was to be given to a private entity for redevelopment. But that is the only a small minority of cases, less then 5% of all eminent domain abuses. So the church in the above case, would not have protection, the apartment owner or even house owner who rents the house can still have their land seized for a private party redevelopment as well as any businesses who are not as classy or as profitable as the city would like.

But Prop 99 people had better marketing skills then Prop 98 people and they won so we got a bad law that will not correct the problem as people will find out.

About time

South Dakota county of Union approved a rezoning ballot measure to allow a new refinery to be built in the county. The measure won 58% to 42%. This will be the first new refinery built in the US in 30 years. Of course those who opposed the measure have vowed legal action to void the election, and failing that to fight the permitting process to delay and hopefully cancel the project.

Can the oil companies play hard ball with those people and refuse to sell them gasoline since they don't like refineries or anything to do with the oil industry?

Life

Make some commitments and then keep them. That is the hard part.

Have been feeling very frustrated last two or three weeks because I don't seem to be getting things done I know I need to do and I'm not taking care of myself like I should. I also know my wife is not doing the things she needs to do as well.

So we had a good talk yesterday and looked at what we wanted to get done over the next few weeks and the time we were going to be willing to commit to it. The hard part is keeping the time commitments (whether getting to the gym or putting into business) and getting to bed on time as well.

So now the hard part, how do we keep each other accountable in our commitments without appearing to nag each other all the time.

Any suggestions would be welcome.

Life in the UK

Two stories about life in the UK, both point to the same thing, the downward spiral of a once (and still) proud people who are giving up the freedoms their fathers and forefathers fought and died for.

In the name of convenience and security, let the government take care of every problem. But to do so, the government must have more and more power. So in the end, the government is blamed for everything bad that happens and the people have no freedoms left because the government needs the ability to snoop to solve the problems. Why do we (humans) always seem willing to trade our freedoms for convenience or supposed safety and security?

Next, I thought the UK had freedom of religion. They may have it on paper, but not in practice.

18 Years

I've been working since late December to take a picture a day for at least a year, and I will say it's been pretty hard some days to find something different, something interesting to photograph. I will also say it's been a very rewarding undertaking; I've gotten used to taking my camera (and assorted gear) everywhere I go, I've been working to overcome my inhibitions in photography, and I've more than once enjoyed looking back at the previous five months.

Today, I just read of a man who took a photo a day for 18 years, long before digital cameras were invented. 18 years! Wow. My limited experiences over five months multiplies my appreciation for what he did. It even inspires.

18 years of Polaroids. Think about that. Under the link, see some of his photographs, including the one taken on the day he died in 1997.

The collection is being put on the web by friends here.

Something to do this weekend

Stolen shamelessly from Castle Argghhh!

Good morning, everyone! Just wanted to drop you a note to update you on the status of our Operation Love From Home 2008 4th of July card drive for the troops. Sadly, we are still far, far short of our 5,000-card goal... we have in our possession slightly less than 1,500 cards. We've extended the deadline until JUNE 14, 2008. Please do all you can to help get the word out, and send in a card or two! :) Every single card/letter helps tremendously, and truly makes a very real difference! An empty P.O. Box means less 4th of July Thank You cards & letters going to our troops. :-(

So what is "Operation Love From Home?" - 4TH OF JULY CARD DRIVE FOR DEPLOYED TROOPS

The Mission: To collect at least 5,000 "thank you" cards for troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan. The majority of the cards collected will go to a unit currently stationed in an extremely harsh and remote area of Afghanistan.

The Reason: Being away from home and living in harsh conditions with combat & constant danger is difficult ~ our troops need to know we have not forgotten them!!! Mail from home helps to keep our troops' morale strong, making a very real difference in their lives. It keeps them motivated and focused when they know we care about them!

The Address: Send your signed, unsealed thank-you cards to the following address:
Mrs. Kathy Orr OPERATION: LOVE FROM HOME P.O. Box 1660 Loganville, Georgia, 30052
ALL CARDS MUST BE RECEIVED NO LATER THAN SATURDAY, JUNE 14, 2008.

The Guidelines:
The cards can be handmade or store-bought (letters are just fine, too). This is a great pportunity to get your Scout troop, school, church and other civic organizations involved in doing something to show support for our troops. Please do not write the date on your cards Please, no glitter on the cards. Because of the intended destination of the cards, nothing "shiny" should be sent for safety & security reasons.

For those of you that have been deployed you can attest to the power that receiving mail from home can do for one's moral, it really does mean a lot to them to receive mail.

David M

Parties not ideas die

The Republican party is said to be out of ideas and is looking at a defeat in the November elections.

However, the ideas of Conservative thought are alive and well and when implemented, seem to work.

Now how do we get the party to adopt the ideas that work and thus win elections to IMPLEMENT the ideas that the party campaigned on.

History Lesson

When Muslim's conquer Christian territory, its a permanent victory and nothing can be done about it.

When Christians conquer Muslim territory, its an illegal occupation that needs to be rectified in the future (think Spain).

And if Jews take land from the locals who made it a desert and make it a garden (Israel), then holy war must be started to reclaim the land and return it to a desert.

Those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it.

Five-Sided Memorial

Most days I go to work, come home, and think no more of work until the next day. Clock in. Clock out. Today was a little different as my company participated in a meeting at the Pentagon (yes, THAT Pentagon). It was kind of cool as we navigated through the building's rings to our meeting room. Most of the day was spent in the meeting, then into the center courtyard for lunch at the cafe there. It was an interesting day, to be sure. After the meeting, one of the guys working there escorted us through the building and down to the west side.

The west side, where Flight 77 plowed into the facade September 11, 2001.

I saw the chapel there. I looked through the yellowed windows towards the sky in the direction the jet crashed from. I read the names of those killed--many of them held rank; many of them did not. The six of us wandered in silence, in contrast to the bustle and buzz of the rest of the building. Flowers, some of them dried by age, left by others. New Testaments, bound in camouflage, left by the Gideons.

Never forget.

Memorial Day Gratitude

May 17th, 2008
Originally uploaded by kawfeadikt

A heartfelt thanks to all the men and women to have gone before us to preserve our nation and to even extend the hope of freedom to others.

(Taken at the Torrance 2008 Armed Forces Day parade.)

News Roundup

Who will win in November? Good question, but most likely the "experts" will be wrong again. They were for McCain then said he was dead politically and now he is the Republican nominee. Clinton was the Democratic nominee the pundits said and Obama was only testing the waters or looking for a VP slot. Now he is the likely nominee. It will be interesting to watch.

Obama takes a cheap shot at McCain on the Senate floor. Of course the bill being voted on didn't need Obama's vote to pass, its popular legislation. The more controversial bills where his vote could make a difference are a different matter.

As the 1970's theme song goes "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time". Poor little boy is whining he doesn't like jail and doesn't know how he will survive 8 months of it.

A reminder on who said there were WDM in Iraq and when.

Have a good weekend and remember Monday is Memorial Day, make it more then just a day off work or school. Remember why we have the day and who made the day and our country possible.

Opps

ID-protection ads come back to bite pitchman

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Todd Davis has dared criminals for two years to try stealing his identity: Ads for his fraud-prevention company, LifeLock, even offer his Social Security number next to his smiling mug.

Now, Lifelock customers in Maryland, New Jersey and West Virginia are suing Davis, claiming his service didn't work as promised and he knew it wouldn't, because the service had failed even him.

Ouch.

Stupidity

Struggling Ohio village mulls income tax to get share of lottery winner's payout

AMELIA, Ohio (AP) — Officials in the southwest Ohio village of Amelia say they are resisting the urge to quickly pass a local income tax to get a share of the $196 million lottery ticket that was sold there. The windfall could mean more than $1 million to the struggling village of about 4,000 people east of Cincinnati. But Mayor Leroy Ellington says he wants to hear what residents have to say before the village council decides.

Questions:
1. What is to prevent the winner from moving before collecting the ticket?
2. Retroactive laws are not constitutional and
3. If the government promises no one else will get taxed except the "rich", well that was how they got the amendment to the constitution approved for income taxes, only the rich will be taxed.

Do you feel rich?

Simply Amazing

The currency of the United States discriminates against blind people the courts have ruled.

It also discriminates those who are color blind and illiterate or do not know how to read Arabic numbers.

And judges and lawyers wonder why people seem to think Shakespeare's line "The first thing to do to improve society is to kill all the lawyers", while often taken out of context is not such a bad idea in theory.

More feel good environmentalism. Wind is clean, coal is dirty energy. Of course no one is counting how much energy was used to build the wind farm verses the coal plant in their calculation.

The Anti-Human Agenda

Go read the article, very good.

A tongue-in-cheek comment from my university said if we could just get rid of the students it would be a great place to work. Some environmentalists think if we could just get rid of all the people on the planet it would be a great place to live. Generally over-population is a major part of the environmentalists’ argument that humans are causing all the problems, including climate change. Satire is a good measure of this position typified by the bumper sticker that says, “Save the Planet, Kill Yourself.”

Ironman

Well tonight I did something I rarely do. In fact, I think I was in college the last time I did this.

I went to a movie on opening night.

Normally I manage to go to 1 movie every 2 years, and those are usually discount tickets shows.

But this was worth the price of admission. The movie was fun and yes the good guy won (if you were hoping the bad guys would win, this is Marvel comics not Animal Farm).

So wife and I enjoyed the movie and made for a nice date night, especially after the crazy weeks we both had.

Go see the movie, but leave your 5 year old's at home, they will get bored in parts and scared in others. But for the rest of us, its a fun picture to see.

May Day

May 1st is Labor Day for most of the rest of the world. The US will celebrate it on September 1 this year. One reason we don't celebrate it with the rest of the world is political. The communists basically co-opted the day long ago and turned it into a day for pro-communit parades and propaganda.

Much of Western Europe and parts of Asia adopted May 1 as its labor day due to the efforts of the socialists parties in those countries.

Today, most of the people who are celebrating May 1 as labor day think about politics and what this day symbolizes about as much as Americans think about politics and what September 1 symbolizes when we celebrate our labor day. There will be some politics but most people are more concerned about getting away for the long weekend and will be on the road or at friends house or hosting a BBQ for friends.

That is your political and historical trivia for the day.

For those of us living in the Western United States, good news on the snow pack. The Colorado River will start to refill this year which is good.

Cost of Oil and Ethanol

The use of ethanol made from corn has helped increased the cost of food to consumers. The corn used for ethanol is feed corn, not sweet corn humans eat, and by corn being diverted to ethanol, its not available to feed chickens, cattle or other animals. Even when the plant waste from ethanol plants are used as feed stock (which it is), the cost of feed has been increasing for the last few years.

But before you run off and invest in farming, it is still a risky investment, one bad storm or harvest could ruin the crop and the farmer is out of business.

But if you really want to reduce the cost of oil, reduce the cost of gasoline, reduce our dependence on imported oil, then we need to start drilling. Its as simple as that. Decisions made 10 years ago are coming back to haunt us now. Will we continue to compound the problem or will we fix it by allowing more drilling now so prices will be lower in the future.

California gun owners face further harrassment

I admit I am using the headline of the article.

This is very bad new for gun owners.

AB2062 is scheduled to be heard on Wednesday, May 7 in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.Sponsored by State Assembly Member Kevin De Leon D-45), AB2062 would require that law-abiding gun owners obtain a permit to buy handgun ammunition and would impose severe restrictions on the private transfers of handgun ammunition. Applicants for a "permit-to-purchase" would be required to submit to a background check, pay a $35 fee, and wait as long as 30 days to receive the permit.

Make Ethanol and the cost of food increases

If you use food crops for fuel and a farmer can make more money turning food into fuel, guess where he will sell his crops to make fuel and not food.

Well now with the increase in wealth around the world meaning more meat is being eaten, it means more grain is needed to feed the animals and with more crop land going to ethanol and with bad harvests in Australia for the last two years, it means there is now a food shortage.

Suddenly, global warming isn't as important as feeding people.

Even here in the US, people can't get as much of the type of rice they want. Which causes hording which makes things worse. There isn't a food shortage in the US (unlike other countries) but there isn't as much of the type of food some people want so people will panic. Each cheaper rice instead of the premium rice and you will be fine.

More on the law of unintended consequences

Most of Columbia's exports to the US enter duty free (no tariff on them). Most of the US exports to Columbia have a tariff (tax) on them making them more expensive.

The free trade agreement between the US and Columbia would remove most of the Colombian tariffs on US products thus making US exports cheaper there and so we can increase the sale of US products there. See how much the tariffs are costing US manufacturers.

The DEMOCRATIC Congress is opposed to the Colombian Free Trade Act because it will hurt American jobs.

Wait, increasing US exports to Columbia will hurt US workers??? Are these people that ignorant, stupid or blind? Enquiring minds want to know.

How did we get so lucky?

Well if your a Republican that is. Times of London (not necessarily a Republican friendly paper) has an interesting article about the Democratic primary.

May Obama and Clinton continue their primary fight and may they decide to fight in a take no prisoner manner.

A screeching halt

To updating this blog that is.

The boss is still suffering from information overload so hasn't updated in a while, he needs to either clear out his cache or install more ram into his head so the overflow won't shut down postings.

I'm still learning my new job and don't have as much time to post as before and we have had many drop dead dates so no time to post. In addition my company's year end was March 31 so had all the year end stuff to do.

So all that to say we will try to get the blog back on track to posting on a regular basis.

Thanks for stopping by.

PS, our first tasting party was a success and we are holding a second on Tuesday April 29 at our place. If your curious about it, please email me or visit the MyMonaVie website link in the upper right hand side of the blog.

Public Educators make us proud /s

Randy Castro, who attends school in Woodbridge, Va. Last November at recess he slapped a classmate on her bottom.

Yeah, hang the guy for harassing a girl, make him register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

Oh yeah, here are a few more details:

Randy Castro is in the first grade.

In another incident:

vice principal, Kerry Wilson, "acting on a tip," discovered a fellow student to have a handful of ibuprofen tablets in her pocket. The other girl said she got them from Savana, who denied it. She had no tablets in her own pockets or in her backpack. Vice Principal Wilson, whose mind works in interesting ways, then decided that Savana might be hiding the ibuprofen in her cleavage or her crotch.

So, without contacting the girl's parents, he ordered a school official to strip-search Savana. She was obliged to expose her breasts and "her pelvic area."

So who should be written up as a sex offender? The boy in first grade who slapped a classmates butt or the vice principal who had an 8th grader stripped searched (he wasn't observing the search) for ibuprofen?

Are you sure you want your kids to go to public schools?

April 15th is around the corner

Well another week has come and gone and I'm now just getting to post something, anything.

Its been another full week at work, learning my new job and trying to get that work done. Over the next two weeks have to get all our budgets entered into the main system, but first the budgets have to get finalized. Oh and I have to take next Thurs and Friday off or I go over the max vacation accrual.

They still haven't brought anyone in for either my old position or another accountant whose last day was the 7th. I don't know how the close will be completed this month but I have my new job to do and won't have time to worry about the old position.

We are still having a tasting party this Thursday at our house at 7pm. Come on by if you can, will last till about 8:30.

Have a good weekend.

What a week

Well we finally got the March close done and the numbers sent to our masters accross the pond (I work for a foreign multi-national corporation). I'm moving from the accounting to finance departments, which means for this close I got to do both my jobs. Oh and March is also our year end so all the extra work in getting the year end numbers correct on top of the normal work.

I've managed to finish all my work at my old desk, email the reports to the people who need them, file my stuff and leave the desk clean. I don't think I should have to sit there anymore. That is until the temp finally arrives and I get to train them, while I'm trying to do my new job.

So its been a good week but a very busy week and am very glad for the weekend.

I think I seriously need a good drink.

Speaking of which, to the one or two people who visit this blog, tasting party at my place April 17 at 7pm.

What are we tasting? Well click on "My Mona Vie" to find out about the stuff.

Email if you need/want directions.

Keeping Perspective

Every single combat death and injury sustained by our fighting forces is a deep loss. But those who decry the 4000 military deaths related to the liberation of Iraq as somehow a disproportionate historic disaster do not have much perspective. A Navy vet reader of AT who prefers anonymity has produced a graphic representation to supply some perspective:

The perception and truth of Wal-Mart

Shortly before Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the U.S. Gulf Coast on the morning of Aug. 29, 2005, the chief executive officer of Wal-Mart, Lee Scott, gathered his subordinates and ordered a memorandum sent to every single regional and store manager in the imperiled area.

"A lot of you are going to have to make decisions above your level," was Scott's message to his people. "Make the best decision that you can with the information that's available to you at the time, and above all, do the right thing."

Gee, I thought all corporations only existed to gouge the poor consumer. The perception of Wal-Mart again does not live up to the reality of Wal-Mart. Of course Wal-Mart is a fierce competitor, is a big and therefore easy target to hate or envy, but they still remember they are a business and do not have a monopoly on the customers. If they don't do the right thing, someone else will and the customers will go there and that will be the end of Wal-Mart.

Too bad we don't have that option with public schools or even government, except by expensive options of the public.

Gee they are learning . . . . .

A state appeals court will reconsider last month's controversial decision that said parents who home-school their children must have a teaching credential.

The 2nd District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles granted a rehearing Tuesday, essentially voiding the 3-0 decision until it rules again. The decision will now allow home-schooling organizations that had blasted the decision to weigh in.

I guess the judges remembered that they are elected and could be forced to find other work if they went against the will of the people. Not to mention the California Supreme Court would likely reverse the appeals court.

Better late then never the judges remember that while they work for justice, and they realize they also work for us, the citizens of California and the bosses aren't happy and can fire them.

Status of Blog

Well the boss is suffering from information overload and I've started a new job at my current employer. This means that I'm currently doing my new job and my old job until they get a temp in to take over my old job.

As a result, posting will be light and so the traffic will again go back to zero. To those who do visit, thank you. Hopefully we (boss and I) will be able to get back to posting at least once a day next month.

Is this the US or USSR??

This could be quite frightening for us as a society. Click a link and go to jail.

Hat tip Instapundit.

Information Overload

Sorry, Andy (and whoever else might stumble upon this), about the frequency of posting but I've been overloaded. Not work-wise, but information-wise--with so much going on it was inevitable that I've suffered a case of info-overload and as a result, froze in the headlights. What to blog? What to write about? What to highlight? Do I have a take?

So, I'm in the midst of winnowing down my own personal blogroll that I cull news from in the hopes that I can focus a bit.

Yes, lets just rely on the police to protect us

The 911 system and the police departments are good. But they cannot protect us from crime happening to us.

A woman called 911 saying someone was breaking into her home, shots were heard and then silence. 911 couldn't save her. A 9MM or .357 magnum could have.

To those who say only police and the military should be allowed guns, please explain how a person will defend themselves in this situation? And you know the bad guys will always have guns if they are willing to pay enough to get them.

V22 issues

The article doesn't say why, but apparently the engines are wearing out faster then the manufacturer said they would. Not good news but at least they found the problem before any aircraft were lost.

More problems with the 787

Will Boeing please fix this plane and get it flying? Don't turn the Dreamliner into a nightmare please.

Ethanol

The promise of ethanol is fading as the laws of supply and demand are starting to be felt.

Also the law of unintended consequences such as the rise in all food costs because farmers grow more corn which means less wheat, rye, soybean etc. are grown. This causes all grains to increase in price which increases the cost of animal food (chickens, turkeys, cattle, etc all eat corn).

The extra corn being grown is turned into fuel so it also isn't available for food stuff so the food available is shrinking and the cost of food through out the economy is increasing.

So ethanol is contributing to the inflation we are seeing. Is it worth it? That is a question we as a society need to answer.

Yuppies unite

Interesting . . . . well sort of. Will this become a controversy? We will have to wait and see.

Another one is biting the dust

Borders bookstore has basically run out of cash, even though it make money last quarter.

Amazon and Barns & Nobel are likely to be quietly celebrating or rather celebrating behind closed doors at the fall of their rival.

California Politicians - make us proud /s

State Sen. Carole Migden has agreed to pay a record $350,000 in fines for 89 violations of state campaign finance laws that include using political funds for personal benefit and failing to disclose what her political committees purchased with credit cards, according to documents released Tuesday.

It only took until the second paragraph for the LA Times to say which party Migden belongs too, which is amazing since she is a Democrat. Of course the story is buried on page 2 of section B instead of front page above the fold. If Migden had been a Republican, that is where the story would have been.


Politicians wonder why we their BOSSES think they are bozos and shouldn't be trusted with anything. Well with behavior like this it only confirms the worst of what we think of them.

Sweeden a Cold War Ally?

Sweden may start competing with the US in the area of fighter sales to Norway and other potential JSF customers. Will the US allow that, given much of the technology in the Swedish fighters comes from the US? And if the US doesn't allow Sweden to sell its airplanes against the JSF, what will that do for US-Sweden relations?

Economics can have an important impact on defense policy.

Say it isn't so . . . . the end of the F-117

The Air Force will retire the last of the F-117s in Nevada next month.

The plane first flew in 1981 and entered service in 1983. The plane is young compared to our F-15s, F-16s, A-10s, B-52s, AWACs, KC-135 and a contemporary of the KC-10, B-1 and FA-18.

The F-22 is supposed to replace the F-117, but I do not think it can carry the same bomb load.

The AF is retiring the plane early to free up money for more F-22s, F-35s and new tankers.

Now I know I'm getting old when airplanes that were the cutting edge when fielded (I was a Jr in High School in 83) are being retired.

Its starting

Britain's armed forces are sending pilotless "robot" strike aircraft into battle for the first time, allowing controllers sitting at a computer outside Las Vegas to drop guided bombs on the Taliban in Afghanistan.

The "Reaper" unmanned aerial vehicle marks a major watershed for the Royal Air Force and has been rushed into service after senior defence chiefs identified it as a vital weapon in the fight against Taliban insurgents.

The only thing I have to say is when will they be armed with lasers (phasers would be even better) and can we use them to knock off more trouble makers in the world?

They Said if Bush was Reelected, the Courts Would be Rigged...

...and they were right!

(with apologies to the Instapundit)

Oil price bubble ready to pop?

Well this blogger thinks so. I hope they are correct.

Hat tip Instapundit.

Changes are coming

Today is my 7 year anniversary at work. In that time, the company has gone from being an up and coming independent telecom provider to being part of one of the largest telecoms in the world. Our annual revenue ($700M) is hardly a rounding figure to BT (British Telecom) revenue of $65 Billion.

After graduating from Pepperdine with my MBA, I was looking for a job where I could use what I spent all that money learning. I had sent out my resume and the day I had an interview scheduled with a small company (its profitable) that looks to go public in a few years, the VP of finance offered me a position in the finance side of the business. The timing of the offer was incredible. The VP was leaving for vacation the next day and if he had waited to make the offer when he got back, most likely I would have already given notice in order to taken the position at the other company. As it is, I will continue to work at BT but in the finance area instead of the accounting area.

However, my new job means my time to blog will likely be curtailed. I will have to see, so the boss may have to step up and contribute more or this blog might go semi dormant again.

I should be moving to my new cubical Thurs or Fri and then for the next month work two jobs, my new job and my old job since there is a hiring freeze in place. It will be interesting, especially since March is our company's year end.

Tanker Deal

Article in the Seattle Times saying the reason Boeing lost the tanker deal is their proposal was inferior to Airbus in all aspects. If Boeing expected to be handed the contract, well they have been given a rude awakening. While I would rather Boeing win then Airbus, I really do want the best contract to win and so far it looks like Airbus' was the best contract.

More trouble for Citi Bank

The bank is having more trouble with its loans and now some investors are saying the bank may not be able to be saved.

Thank you Bill Clinton

For convincing many young people that oral sex isn't sex.

Reaping what we sow.

PALS

Just don't let Homeland Security catch you trying to use this homebrew launcher to deploy your amateur ham radio antenna near an airport, you might get mistaken for somebody else.

Ethanol

There are a lot of reasons to doubt the wisdom of using ethanol as a fuel to replace gasoline. Eric Peters makes another one saying fires from ethanol has to be fought differently then gasoline fires and forcing the fire departments to get the training and equipment will be too expensive.

That is a straw man argument.

Anytime there is a change in the way transportation is powered (from horse drawn wagon to the
steam engine railroad to the diesel powered truck) there are costs for society bear.

There was a cost when passenger airplanes switched from propeller planes (burning aviation gasoline) to jets (burning kerosene) but we as a society made the switch because the reward for making the switch was worth it.

If burning alcohol as a motor fuel is worth it, the cost of equipping and training the fire departments to fight those fires will be worth it too. Saying we can't use alcohol because of the fire risk is a foolish argument that tries to win by fear not facts and gives the impression the author has other motives (maybe he owns an oil well) to fear ethanol.

King Dollar . . . . . .

Larry Kudlow over at NRO says we must make the dollar king again and make it strong. His argument is the dollar has been falling against the EURO and other currencies and this has lead to an increase in inflation in the US. It has also made imported commodities (read oil) more expensive since the countries that sell oil will demand more dollars to get the same purchasing power when the dollars are converted to their local currencies.

There is a problem with making the dollar king quickly.

You have to make people (foreigners) want dollars by giving them better returns on their investments. That means raising interest rates. Currently the US government is trying to head off a recession by lowering interest rates.

Kudlow says we should do what we did back in 1981-1982 to make the dollar strong. I'm not sure I want to see the government raise interest rates to 18% for US Treasury bonds. That will drive us into a deep recession for sure.

A longer but better way in my opinion is we have to decrease our imports and increase our exports. That means we have to cut spending so our government deficit is less (thanks to the tax rebates the deficit for the current fiscal year is expected to be almost $500 billion instead of about $100 billion). We also need to import less oil. That means drilling in Alaska and off the coast of Florida and California. We also need to promote more manufacturing jobs in the US so we do not have to import as much stuff but can export more. We can do all of this but it will be a slower process then just raising interest rates and will take more political capital. However in the long run it will make the US a stronger place.

If McCain (or Clinton or Obama) want to make the dollar king again, lets hear how they will do it in a way that will strengthen the country instead of hurt it.

Rock On, (Iron) Man

I used to read Iron Man(sm) back in college before I turned to the Mutants(tm) and Batman(sm)--yes, it was all part of my liberal arts education--and now old rust head is showing up on the silver screen. I have no clue why, but every time I watch the Iron Man trailer, I get more and more jazzed about the prospect of seeing it loud and large.

Might be the AC/DC guitar riffs or something. I'm off to do air guitar...ta!

State of the Blog

Well for the one or two people that visit this place, some interesting news.

This month (Feb) has been the most prolific in terms of posts in the history of the blog. With this post, we will have 85 posts this month which beat our previous best of 81 posts back in March 2004.

Of course given our traffic reports, not much of what we say is worth reading, but it is interesting to write.

Have a good weekend.

Tanker deal

The WSJ (subscription required) has just announced that Northrop and Airbus have won the $40 billion contract to build new tankers for the Air Force.

The tanker will be based on the Airbus A330 airplane. The Boeing plane would have been based on the 767 airplane.

While I would rather have had Boeing win, they deserved to lose because of their actions back in 2001. And because of their actions, the cost of the program has almost doubled, the planes still haven't been designed or built and the Air Force is still flying 40 to 50 year old KC-135s.

Ratting Out the Telemarketers

I keep getting called by some organization where the caller ID only shows "331", as I generally make a habit of not answering calls from number I recognize, I send them to my voice mail. However, they are so persistent I decided to snoop around. Good thing there is a website called "Who Called Us" that is a website containing user-generated reports about phone numbers--telemarketing or phishing. The 331 number is reported to be outsourced junk phone calls to India or Pakistan or even phishing.

The website seems to be legit and on the up and up and if nothing else, it's a good starting point for information.

Damn you telemarketers! Damn you!

Subprime Mortgages

Vulture Fund Deals With Delinquent Homeowners Lost by Subprime.

The market will find a way to make money out of this yet.

And this is a surprise?

In Texas, where they now have a lot of wind generators, had an emergency when the wind died down and the power fell. So the wonderful wind power has problems and we still have to have gas, coal or oil generators online standing by to replace power when the wind dies.

How is this supposed to help prevent global warming??? Or rather climate change?

He only got 77 years??

And his lawyer said he wasn't given a jury of his peers because 75% of the jurors were women. If they had been all men, especially fathers, they would have either given him death or asked to meet with him alone for 5 minutes. There wouldn't be much left of him at the end of the time.

Oh, what did this guy do to deserve this punishment? Well his goal in life was to be a pimp. He had books and DVD's that were a how to guide and was building his business by abduction, rape and all the other methods suggested in the books. Like I said, he got off light, provided he lives that long in prison. He may learn a lot more about pimping in there by being the pimpee rather then the pimper.

"decision-making for dummies"

decision-making for dummies
Originally uploaded by petit hiboux

This pretty much sums it up.

Love it.

(H/T: flickr blog)

The future of California??

New Jersey's Governor has unveiled a budget that cuts spending in absolute terms by $500 million from last years budget.

The NJ lawmakers are NOT happy with the budget which cuts spending in all areas, but they no longer have a choice.

California is or will soon be in the same situation. We currently are looking at a $16 billion dollar deficit for this year, which is half over, and a greater deficit for next year. A lot of programs are going to have to be cut because tax increases are not likely. People can say we should just raise taxes, but if the Republicans won't do it (thank goodness, State income taxes is already over 9% of income on top of federal income tax, not to mention sales tax and property taxes), then spending will have to be cut. Government programs are going to have to be consolidated or eliminated and Sacramento will not be able to micro manage each aspect of our lives.
The sooner we start the cutting, the less pain there will be. Its like getting into a cold pool. If you ease yourself in, its painful, but if you just jump in and get it over with, its a shock but its not as painful as the slow entry.

Iraq

Finally, news from Iraq. Well worth reading and supporting the people doing the reporting.

Our computers are mainly safe

Have you seen the news stories that its possible for bad guys to read your encryption keys on your computer? Well as usual, a true story has been turned into a crisis to sell papers with the NY Times leading the charge. Our data is safer then the NY Times realize.

Nader verses the Democrats

Ralph Nader is running for president again and PA Democrats are angry. In 1992, Democrats were happy when Ross Perot ran because if he had stayed out, Bill Clinton would not have won.

In 2000, the Democrats were angry with Nader because if he had not run, George W Bush would not have won.

Its funny to see people claim to want freedom as long as it won't hurt their election chances. Maybe some rich Republican should subsidize Nader so he can run again and again and again.

End of the world

New seed vault opens in Norway. While not a bad idea, I'm just glad the US taxpayers didn't have to pay for it.

They have calculated when the earth will end. And they have even come up with a way to save it by moving the orbit of the earth to keep it far enough away from the sun.

These folks have too much time on their hands. How about doing something useful, like finding a way to get 50 to 80% efficiency from solar power instead of the current 6 to 20%.