Out With The Old

I don't like going so long without posting, but I've been going through a major upheaval at work and it has all but consumed me over the last two months. In short: Business has fallen off, my friend and boss was let go along with several others, and our entire office was moved across town to integrate with one of our sister companies.

Amazing that something so agonizing and painful could be summed up in so few phrases.

In any case, I'm ending the year in a new office (with a window -- something I haven't had in nine years) and beginning the new year as a smaller cog in a larger machine.

A New Year's Prayer

Quotable

"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have." -- Thomas Jefferson

A More Perfect Union

VOTE

Phabulous

10,235 days.

That's how long it's been since I watched the Phillies win their last -- and first -- World Series. I was living in Ohio at the time. It was tough being a Philadelphia fan in the midst of Indian territory.

I'm looking forward to the parade. Too bad I probably won't be there. My company just isn't quite hip enough to save us all the trouble of catching the "Red Flu" and close for the afternoon. No, it's month end -- when all the groups must lay their numbers at Accounting's altar so the books can be closed on schedule.

Any deviation and, well, mayhem would ensue it seems....the Sun rising in the West, cats and dogs sleeping together. And we wouldn't want that.

I'll just have to attend the parade the next time they are World Champions. They can wheel me to the curb for a better view after they wipe the drool from my chin after I have my Metamucil.

Pants On Fire

I haven't been posting a lot recently. And to that a friend asked, "What's the matter? Politics not pissing you off?"

It is, actually. And as such, I offer the following rant:

I hate that political campaigning -- especially the race for the Oval Office -- is a business of lies and deceit, fear mongering, and the deployment of weapons of mass distraction. No matter what a candidate says, their opponent will accuse them of lying, even if they aren't, and even if their accusations are lies themselves -- as if saying the same thing over and over again will make it the truth.

To wit: Obama has repeatedly described his tax plan that will give relief to 95% of Americans -- the middle class ($200K per year and under). The only ones to see a tax increase would be those earning over $250,000. Yet a current attack ad by the GOP has several people saying that "I'm Joe the plumber", and "Obama wants more taxes from me to pay for his spending?". Summing up with "Higher Taxes and Trillion Dollar Spending".

What? Is no one listening or does no one care? Are there really that many middle class Americans who are peeved that they might not be able to buy a $250,000 business because of Obama's proposed tax plan? Frankly, I wish I were one of them.

But I'm not, and neither are most voters. The unfortunate thing is that the sheep will buy into the GOP bullshit that Democrats will just tax and spend. Well, guess what? The policies of the last eight years have screwed this economy and this nation, especially the middle class, and now someone has got to pay. Period.

Who's it going to be? The middle class? Again? Still? Haven't the rich been getting richer long enough? We are in serious debt. Only taxes and thoughtful governmental spending will get us out of it.

McCain says he won't raise taxes on anyone. It's the typical GOP battle cry. Well, thanks....the rich and the corporations love that, while the middle class continue to get socked with the lion's share of the bill with no relief in sight in a McCain administration.

It's all part of the American Illusion that the Republicans are constantly selling. You know the one -- We could all be rich some day in this great nation, so don't you dare raise taxes on anybody, especially the rich, because you won't want those taxes on your wealth once you've ascended to the Inner Circle".

Wake up call. Most of us will never realize that part of the American Dream and earn hundreds of thousands a year. But enough of us buy into this fallacy to keep the rich laughing all the way to the bank while our economy flounders, our currency retreats, our armed forces bogged down in a seemingly endless exercise in the cradle of civilization, and our standing and respect in the eyes of the world shrivels.

And speaking of respect, I lost quite a bit of what I had for John McCain when he pulled his hat trick and decided on Sarah Palin as his running mate. Even the Europeans are mocking her. She is, without a doubt, the most frighteningly ignorant and unqualified candidate ever to be involved in a Presidential race since Warren G. Harding. And she scares the shit out of me. That she should be allowed anywhere near the Oval Office for any reason is unconscionable. God forbid. And yes, that is an impassioned plea to the Almighty for His divine intervention.

I shudder to think of what this nation could achieve if every voter were actually informed and cast their ballot based on the real issues and what was best for everyone -- not just believing the lies and giving in to baseless fears.

Which brings me to another point about the Republicans vilifying Democrats as being elitist and intellectuals -- like that's a bad thing. I mean, really....let's not do anything rash like put someone intelligent, educated, and well-spoken in the highest office in the land.

And what's wrong with being elite? We want our elite pilots to fly our fighter jets and our elite athletes to compete in the Olympics. I'd like an elite politician to lead this country. I don't want someone I can share a beer with. I happen to be an intellectual (sorry, but it's true) and I want the leader of the free world to be in a league far over my head, thank you very much.

Unfortunately, too many voters will just take the shortcut to thinking and cast a vote based on fantasy and misinformation while believing that they will just let the system "work things out" and everything will be fine.

Guess again. We ARE the system. And if we don't make thoughtful, informed choices to put people in place that will represent our interests and further the greater good for the greatest number, then the system doesn't work. Or it works against us, and we'll soon be griping all over again about how bad is the economy, the healthcare system, the housing market, the foreign policy, gas prices, ad nauseum....

I'm looking forward to this election being over. Although I'm a registered Republican, I consider myself an Independent or Centrist and am voting Democrat. The GOP hasn't been doing a very good job representing me or my interests lately.

Contrary to the abject horror the Republicans are anticipating if Obama is elected, it should be a tremendous benefit to have a Democratic President backed by a fully Democratic Congress. It might actually be possible to get this country back on track quickly and decisively. Granted, the possibility also exists that we could just as quickly make monumental blunders, but I'm counting on the former rather than the latter.

So, get thee hence and read -- a lot. Go to the candidates' websites and inform yourself on their issues; their foreign policies, their healthcare plans, and their economic goals. Then temper that information with some reliable third party data (preferably non-partisan).

And vote! In the words of Bob Schieffer's mother, "It will make you feel big and strong".

Quotable

They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself. -- Andy Warhol

Behind Blue Eyes

In Memoriam

Paul Leonard Newman 1/26/1925 - 9/26/2008

It seems I had just lamented the loss of a gifted musician only to follow it up with the loss of one of the finest actors of our time. Paul Newman was not only an Oscar winning and seven time Oscar nominated actor; he was also a great humanitarian, entrepreneur, director, and racing enthusiast.

I've enjoyed his films ever since his debut in 1954's "The Silver Chalice". It seemed that, no matter what character he portrayed, I believed him.

There are thousands of tributes to him on the Internet and I've poured through a few hundred of them. Of those, I've selected three. The first is a scene from "Hud" - An Unprincipled Man

The second, a photographic tribute set to a remake of one of my favorite songs.



And finally, I couldn't resist this tribute to Paul that includes two more of my favorite screen legends -- Marlon Brando and James Dean.



Thanks for the memories, Paul. You are sorely missed.

Quotable

"Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt."

Herbert Hoover

31st President of the United States (1929 - 1933)

Declination Zero

Well, it's here. Fall has arrived as of 11:44:18 EDT this morning. At that moment, the sun was directly over the equator -- crossing into the Southern hemisphere -- at the equinoctial point on the celestial sphere where the celestial equator and the ecliptic intersect.

Suffice to say that if I were a Druid, I'd be planning a party -- just not the no-holds-barred debauchery that goes on for the Solstice.

The Great Gig In The Sky

In Memoriam

Richard William Wright 7/28/1943 - 9/15/2008

Today we bid a sad farewell to one of Pink Floyd's founding members, Rick Wright. Not only did Rick's musicianship contribute enormously to Pink Floyd's sound, he also wrote, among other things, two commercially popular tracks from Dark Side Of The Moon; Us And Them and The Great Gig In The Sky (his current gig, presumably).

So in his honor I post this, his greatest gig, for your listening pleasure.

When Falls The Coliseum

Rome shall fall.

My wife was reading aloud to me snippets from a disturbing article she came across online. It was reporting on ten large US corporations (huge might be a better word) that are in trouble and will be laying off staff to stay competitive, cut costs, regain profitability, and basically hold on to their reason for existence.

The corporations in focus are set to lay off tens of thousands of employees -- some numbers nearing hundreds of thousands. I don't remember all of them, but I remember a few; RiteAid, Blockbuster, Merck, IBM, Ford Motor Company.... The list goes on.

IBM? Ford Motor Company? These long-standing pillars of American business are institutions in their own right. And they're crumbling. Case in point: Ford sold only 155,000 units last year. Back in the day, 155,000 units was what they might sell of only one particular model -- out of many. Now it's their total sales.

And what's happening to the combined several hundred thousand jobs that Americans are losing? Well, some are being eliminated completely. Others -- and you knew this was coming -- are being out-sourced to India and Asia.

I have no qualms with anyone, no matter who and where they are, earning a living. But I take the greatest possible exception to big corporations putting countless Americans out of work just so the bean counters can avoid any red ink on the bottom line.

At the risk of sounding nationalistic, I'm a firm believer that American corporations, based in the US, employ Americans. Cheaper labor overseas? Maybe so, but I happen to believe that many Americans would spend a little more for a high quality product made in the USA - and if everyone's working, instead of looking for work, they would be able to afford it.

This is one of the political issues I'm keeping an eye on. At the moment, I'm officially a Swing Voter, but the candidate that can really bring jobs back to this country may just win my vote -- one way is to remove the tax incentives for companies that ship jobs overseas.

There is no Coliseum in the United States, but some of its metaphorical pillars that have stood for a hundred years are toppling and all we seem to be able to do is cover our ears so we don't hear the crash. It's as if the warning flags have been waving for so long that they've become tattered and unrecognizable.

It's time to reclaim our standing in the world before it really is too late. We've been resting on our laurels and now we can no longer see past them. Will we literally out-source ourselves into destitution to the point that we no longer produce anything in this country except overpaid executives? And what about the farther reaching effects of our imploding economy? It's time to take our fingers out of our ears.

And when Rome falls -- the World.

Oh, By The Way....Which One's Pink?

I've been listening to a lot of Pink Floyd lately. It seems to have a soothing effect that I can't get any other way. I don't have a lot of opportunity to listen at home, but my vehicle has a six CD changer and my drive to work averages forty minutes.

Perfect.

One way to or from is sufficient to listen to an entire album. Of course, it will require a round trip to complete The Wall, which is what I listened to on the way in today. The remaining four slots are populated by Meddle, Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here, and Animals.

I'm not sure what dug this hole that can only be filled with Floyd -- maybe the barely organized chaos of my day to day needs to be countered by steady rhythms, haunting lyrics, and timeless guitar as only Pink can provide.

The Wizard of Speed and Time

This always made me smile. Back in my college days, this film short was a huge cult classic -- stop-motion animation at its best. At least, for a low budget 1979 film it was at its best. I found this on YouTube. There are a couple versions -- slightly longer and updated -- but this is the original. Hope you enjoy.

OBX Haiku

Sand between my treads

Atlantic in my rear view

Off-road on the beach

Check Engine

I hate idiot lights. It's like your car's way of saying, "Excuse me, but I've got an issue here that you couldn't possibly understand. How about taking me to someone who has a clue?"

I actually have a clue, but that's about all. One time, the light came on the morning after I got gas at a station I had never patronized. "Bad gas!" Maybe not -- it went out half a tank later, only to return after the next fill-up at my normal place.

Today its illumination mocks me with its silent, ominous mystery. I'm taking it to a mechanic before the light just changes into what it really signifies -- $$$ -- the Check Wallet light.

Summer's Almost Over!

How many times have you heard that? I've been hearing it for weeks -- usually from the sun worshippers who have been waiting all year for summer to arrive. It seems that they're no sooner showing off their base tan before launching into woeful lamentations about Summer's end.

These doomsayers need to be bludgeoned with the large, desktop version of the Audubon calendar in my humble opinion.

Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I'm still referencing the Gregorian calendar. It looks like roughly thirteen weeks between the Summer Solstice and the Autumnal Equinox and that means that Summer is barely half over -- or half begun.

So how about a little optimism? Another seven plus weeks of calendar Summer, followed by nice weather and, if we're lucky here in the Northeast, an Indian Summer to bring us well into the Fall.

There we are. It's mid-Summer. Buy more sunscreen because it's not nearly over yet.

Missed Memory Minutes

I can be an insufferable purist about a few things -- especially movies and television shows. Show me the message that "this program has been formatted to fit your screen and edited to run in the time allotted" and I'll be excusing myself to another room to catch up on my reading.

To me, that message means that the entire program will not be shown as it was originally intended. I grumbled somewhat about this in a previous post. Pan&Scan will literally cut out a third of what the director wanted me to see while advertising quotas eat up time that used to be the now missing moments of the story.

I experienced this empty frustration anew last night when I decided to back up from my computer screen and passively enjoy a trip down Amnesia Lane with the crew of the Enterprise.

"The Trouble With Tribbles", written by David Gerrold, is among my top ten or so ST:TOS episodes. It's light, humorous, clever, and fun. And fortunately doesn't take itself too seriously.

Unfortunately, I know the episode so well that I was aware - and irritated - every time a scene was clipped short or a sentence or two missing from the dialog in order to allow for the requisite advertising minutes. As we already know, nothing is sacred -- least of all forty-something year old TV shows.

Go figure -- in 1967 there weren't as many things to cram down our throats as there are today, so twelve minutes out of the hour was sufficient to inundate us with those "must have" products. Now we need about twenty minutes an hour to pay the piper on network TV.

This is why I'm happy to pay for HBO and Showtime. Maybe I can start a letter writing campaign to get them to show old TV shows in their original format. I'll bet they'd be surprised just how many people would go for it.

Beach Bound

We're headed for the First Town in the First State -- Lewes, Delaware. I took the picture above at one of my favorite spots on the planet, Cape Henlopen, Delaware, shortly before sunset near the inner Harbor of Refuge lighthouse.

It will only be a long weekend, so it will doubtless be as unsatisfying as it is wonderful.

Hiatus Terminus

A fortnight later and everything is pretty much how I left it. I won't call it writer's block because that's lame, but as soon as I think of a term considerably less lame, I'll apply it.

We're celebrating four years of marital bliss today -- albeit with minimal fanfare. She's taking a pilates class after work and I'm getting my hair cut. We're headed to the beach for a long weekend, however, and will do the majority of the celebrating between re-applying sunscreen.

It's been a busy couple weeks that just ended with our finding out that our cat is diabetic. Poor little guy. At least we know not to blame him for his *ahem* inappropriate behavior. He'll need to be on insulin, which means two injections per day for the rest of his life. If he lives another ten years, that's 7300 injections, $6000 for insulin, and about $2000 for needles....plus the additional visits to the vet.

We had been considering pet health insurance. Don't think we aren't kicking ourselves for not acting a bit quicker on that.

And he has a mild urinary tract infection that we're treating with antibiotics every day. Oh, the many faceted joys of pet ownership.

I plan on posting more regularly again. Of course, I'll have to be careful that the wind doesn't kick up and get sand in my keyboard.

The Price Of Speed

I heard a rumor. I don't usually comment on rumors, but the source is pretty informed and reliable and has no history of relaying bad information.

It seems that some ISPs are going to start identifying "bandwidth hogs" (users who do a lot of downloading, uploading, streaming of video and audio, etc...), throttle their available bandwidth, and then inform them that they can reclaim their original performance for an additional premium.

Say what? For example -- If I pay WhizBag Cable $40 a month, I get about 1 MB per second download speed no matter what I do or how much I use the service. I'm a higher end user, so I stream video (think CNN, YouTube...) and download music. A lower level user is paying the same $40 a month, but only uses email and occasionally surfs the web.

Of course the price that the lower end user pays will not go down, but in order to continue using the bandwidth that I've been paying for, I now have to pay a premium as the penalty for making full use of what was available to me. Apparently my usage has been subsidised by the folks who don't use the Internet as much.

The argument was made that it's going to be like the Turnpike -- the more you drive, the more you pay. That analogy doesn't work for me -- even if it's applicable from a certain point of view. I just see this as yet another way to be nickel and dimed to death by the service providers (any service). I realize this is all an intrinsic part of free market capitalism, but it doesn't mean it's right.

Tell Me A Story

A friend and blogger bud recently posted about the thief who lives in all of our homes and steals our time -- that thief being the television. I must confess a mild addiction to the damn thing, but in all honesty I enjoy a good, well-told story. And since I don't know any real storytellers of the oral tradition, I read, watch TV, and go to the movies.

Whether many of the stories being told deserve our time and attention, let alone airtime, is another matter completely.

But a thief? You cannot, sir, take anything from me that I will more willingly part withal...except my life... - Hamlet Act II, Scene ii

In my case it's my time and attention, not my life -- even though I'm willingly parting with little slices of my life to sit sedentarily and tan my retinas in the glow of the television's CRT. How many hours? It depends on the time of year and what's on. Summertime is great because I don't have to schedule my life around a half a dozen (or more) shows that I want to see -- although TiVo lets me watch the shows when I want, I still need to carve out the time.

I sometimes deliberately avoid what looks like good quality programming so I won't get roped into yet another good story. At least I know myself. If I see the pilot episode and enjoy it, I'm probably hooked. If I make it a point to miss the pilot, then I can rationalize not ever watching it again.

It's kind of like my mindset about going to the movies. Get me to a movie after its already started, even just five minutes, and you won't get me into the theater. I want the full experience or none at all. And yes, I'm one of those people that watches the credits -- all of them. And no, it's not because I'm looking for my second cousin's name who's a Key Grip.

Matt Who?

A friend sent me this link to the website Where The Hell Is...Matt?
I confess that I'm not exactly sure what this project is all about other than maybe that dancing guy on the Internet.

But I guarantee it will bring a smile -- and who can't use more of those?

No Punch Line

I love to laugh, but the world has just gotten a little less funny. So it is with great sadness that I lament the death of one of the greatest comedic geniuses of our time, George Carlin.

The Media is filled with the reports as well as snippets of his humor and insights. I won't redirect to every last one of them, but I will post one of his recent bits about the things that bring us together. Of course, in typical Carlin fashion, the language is not suitable for Sunday Brunch with the family. You've been warned.

Clean Freak

My wife and I were fired today -- not from our jobs; by our cleaning woman. Why? Apparently we were just too much trouble to please. We had the audacity to ask for certain things to be addressed -- specifically the blinds and ceiling fans -- that she wasn't willing to do, despite her initially agreeing to do them.

But that wasn't the impression we got when we hired her. Actually, the first impression we got was that we returned home after the initial cleaning to find that she had broken our house. Okay....just the bathroom. The door to the powder room has an extremely tight tolerence (like the thickness of a dollar bill) between it and the sink. She somehow managed to inadvertantly body-slam the sink and pull it out of its mounting that held it flush with the wall.

So now the door hits the sink every time it's opened. She denied it at first, but then admitted it. Don't worry, I'm bonded. Fine. We agreed that we'd try to take care of it, but let her know if we weren't successful -- at which time her bonding would come into play.

In any case, she told us at the outset of our brief relationship, Just let me clean the way I clean. I promise you'll be happy. Well...she continued to do things that we felt were unnecessary while leaving incomplete the couple things that were important to us. Were we out of line? It's not like she was doing us any favors. We were paying for this service. Shouldn't we feel free to slightly tailor the service to our situation?

"No", it seems, is the answer. Although she had asked us to leave notes with any special requests, those notes -- although, I presume, read and understood -- were never acted upon. So when she called to change the cleaning day from Thursday to Friday for this week, my wife called her back and left a message that we needed to discuss the items that weren't being addressed.

That's when Tina's sister (yes, the Putzfrau's real name is Tina) called my wife and informed her -- rudely -- that our business relationship had reached an end. Though she didn't say in so many words, the jist was that we're too much trouble and we make unreasonable requests. Say what? "Is this how you want to handle this?", my wife asked Donna (Tina's sister who we didn't even know existed before she made the phone call that Tina wouldn't).

And now we're Putzfraulos. It's likely we would have released her anyway since we were paying for service that didn't satisfy us, but the fact that she left us in a lurch the day before she was to clean for us compelled me to take up the mantle of Instant Karma.

I called Tina and left her a message (she rarely answers her phone) that we would now like her to take care of the bathroom sink that she savaged. She's bonded, she broke it, she admitted it, and now she needs to make it right. I'm not sure just how far I'm willing to take this. I know a couple guys that could probably fix my sink in an hour and charge me nothing but dinner, but I feel like rattling her cage a bit for the crime of child-like behaviour and unprofessionalism.

Whether she steps up and does the right thing or plays duck and cover remains to be seen. In either case, we'll be screening a bit more carefully the next cleaning service we let into our home.

Drilling Bits

At the behest of our President, it is now before Congress to decide whether or not to lift the ban on offshore drilling -- so that we can take the befouling of our aquatic ecosystems to a whole new level in the name of reducing Americans' pain at the pumps. So what if we'd be eroding wetlands, contaminating the water with chemicals, polluting the air, killing fish, and dumping waste, right?

We want cheap gas, dammit! And as Americans, isn't it our birthright to have every convenience, no matter the cost? "There's no excuse for delay", our GOP President has said (Is GOP the acronym for the Gas and Oil Party?).

Well....have you got three to five years? That's the realistic delay between the start of offshore drilling and the actual delivery of that fuel to the gas pumps. Where are gas prices going to be then? How about spending the next three to five years ramping up the development of alternative fuels? Improving and expanding our public transportation? Anyone?

I've previously made references to Europe on this subject because they're paying more than twice what we are to fill up. In all fairness, however, they were forward-thinking enough to lay the groundwork years ago with more fuel efficient vehicles and better public transportation. We're playing catch-up and we don't like it. We want quick convenient fixes and we expect our government to wave its magic sceptre and make the bad things go away.

It's time to wake up and smell what we're trying to scrape off the bottom of our shoes. The demand for oil will only increase -- especially in the BRIC nations [Brazil, Russia, India, China] -- so we need to decrease our demand as soon as possible. Putting a short to mid-term band aid on the problem that could decrease the urgency to develop alternative fuel sources isn't the answer.

Six dollars a gallon? Bring it on. I'll pay it. I won't like it, but if I know it's temporary and there's an end in sight I'll manage. I'll also be more likely to drive less often, carpool if possible, ride public transportation, walk, and conserve in general.

I'm hoping Congress does the right thing and leaves the ban in place. Our planet shouldn't have to suffer further to pay for our impatience and lack of vision.

Down (and Out) Sizing

Today was a Dark Monday -- not because of weather or any celestial event. The company let three people go today. One of our sister companies -- owned by the same conglomerate -- laid off a half a dozen good employees.

Apparently the new term is "rightsizing". I'm certain it was anything but right for the folks who were shown the door after ten plus years of service. They did nothing wrong, but in today's environment that's immaterial since there is no longer any such thing as "job security". In fact, that quaint old notion should probably be removed from the American lexicon. It disappeared by the end of the 70s if I'm not mistaken.

Unfortunately, the corporations have to bend in order to avoid being broken by the current economic landscape. In the case of my employer, it means cutting off fingers to save the hand. In my case, I'm holding out hope that I may be one of the prehensile thumbs that they just can't grasp the business without.

Third Sunday In June

Friday The 13th

Oooooohh....Friday the 13th.

I don't know how many of you are paraskevidekatriaphobic, but if it makes you feel any better, Friday the 13th isn't -- and hasn't been -- any more unlucky than any other day of the year unless you happened to be a Templar Knight in 1307 when Philip IV of France had most of them killed.

There now, don't you feel better? -- a service I am only too happy to provide.

Nature Flexed

Did you get those bad storms and wind last night? Here in parts of the Northeast, around 8 o'clock, we had 60 to 80 mph gusts that pushed our neighbor's birch tree over and onto our roof and new fence.

So I took the day to deal with the neighbor, the insurance company, the fence people, and the tree removal service. It's going pretty well. The owner (next door) called a tree service and they were here at 7:30 this morning with a cherry picker. By 8:30 they were gone and so was the birch tree. An hour ago, a different crew showed up and ground the stump. Twenty minutes later, all that remained of the thirty foot birch was a large divot-shaped scar in the neighbor's yard.

A bit sad, really. I know for a fact that the winged residents of the property had a fondness for that tree. And it was a nice part of the view from the deck.

The roof is fine. The fence isn't destroyed -- and the damage is relatively minor. We'll want the panel replaced that was bent, but I can do that myself since the posts don't need to be re-sunk and we can pick up a replacement panel inexpensively. It could be worse (can't it always?).

This all made for a very exciting dining experience last night since I was in the middle of grilling salmon on the deck right next to where the tree leaned over. We then laughed in the face of death by eating dinner as usual as the fallen tree loomed menacingly outside the dining room window. My rationalization was that we'd hear the fence breaking if the tree were going to come down any further and thusly have time to get out of the way with the dinner service intact.

I'm thrilled that my theory wasn't put to the test.

Quotable

"The United States economy is like a poker game where the chips have become concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, and where the other fellows can stay in the game only by borrowing. When their credit runs out, the game will stop."

-Marriner Eccles
Chairman, Federal Reserve
1931 - 1934

Mercury

The temperature at 5PM today as reported by my vehicle. Ouch.

More Racing Kudos

This post comes courtesy of a fellow racing fan and reader, KaiserMichi:

BMW won their first ever Formula One Grand Prix yesterday - their first ever as a stand-alone team, that is. Nevertheless, it was won by Robert Kubica, a young man from Poland who is one helluva driver. So yesterday´s Grand Prix not only saw the first win by BMW, but also added the twentieth national anthem, the Polish anthem, to their repertoire. By the way, Kubica is also leading the driver´s standings. Ferrari leads the Constructeurs table, but only by two or three points.

As I had said in my post about the Indianapolis 500, I love auto racing but rarely can make the time to enjoy it. I still occasionally daydream about piloting a Ferrari around the circuit at Monaco, but for now, I'll have to make due with an AWD Mercedes driven barely within the boundries of legality.

Maybe in another life.

Red Shirt

Cringeworthy Credit

We only have a couple credit cards and we like it that way. Years ago, I almost got into trouble with several cards of my own and it was a couple years paying them off and reducing the number of accounts. Now I have one plus my bank card and my wife has two. One of her cards -- an old one she's had for years -- only has a $300 limit. We almost never use it, so we figured it was time to increase the credit limit or close the account.

We can sneeze $300. That's not meant as a conceit or to sound like I'm gloating (I'm not). We're not rich -- we're middle class. It's just that $300 is really not a useful amount of money to us when we could pull the same from our checking or savings and not owe the interest. In the event of an "emergency", it would have to be a modest one to be handled by a mere $300 in today's world. A $1000 limit seemed like a fair increase request based on her standing as a long-time good customer.

So we called customer service to put in the request. Not surprisingly, the toll free number we dialed connected us to the Philippines. The exchange was difficult, to say the least. Our representative, Mai, certainly spoke much better English than our Filipino, but the frustration wasn't because of the language barrier.

We were informed that they could approve a $100 increase "at this time", but we were welcome to call back and request additional increases. I tried to explain that throwing us a bone in the form of such a small increase was practically a waste of time. Couldn't we talk to anyone who could approve a larger increase all at once? No.

Maybe I'm not as clear on all this credit crap as I think I am. Don't they want to extend people credit? Isn't that how they make money? Or are we now what Big Credit considers "deadbeats" (customers who don't make Big Credit money on late and over-limit charges) because we pay in a timely fashion and don't draw out modest purchases with minimum payments for several years?

Then the other penny dropped. We had agreed to the increase thinking that we'd call back later and try to get someone else or a supervisor to assist us. ...And there will be a $25 charge for your increase and you'll see that on your next bill. Exqueeze me? Baking powder? We have to pay $25 to get a $100 increase and we haven't even used the card? Do the math. We could conceivably run up $175 in charges by calling back for enough $100 increases to get to our $1000 limit.

Thanks, but no thanks. My wife's other card gives her regular credit increases just for being a good customer -- at no charge. Maybe Big Credit isn't inherently evil across the board, but I could see where this particular minion was going to get their two cents whether we used the card or not.

We left the card alone for now -- no credit increase and no cancellation. We'd had all the customer service we could handle. It wasn't Mai's fault. She's working and doing her job and in all likelyhood, reading from a script. A script whose plot favors either the rich or the poor, in my opinion.

The rich get the best offers because Big Credit desperately wants them to use their money for the bigger things in life and the poor are goldmines because they're a good bet to get behind and over their limit (fees and more fees) and end up paying many times the value of small purchases by dragging them out for years with minimum payments.

Here I am, stuck in the middle with you. It's okay though, saving for a few months and paying cash the old fashioned way makes for a better night's sleep.

One A Day

I'm a Scotch drinker. I'm not certain exactly how that came about, but I think I got there by way of a friend who first introduced me to Cognac -- the better varieties of which aren't too different from single malt scotch...at least as far as my palette is concerned (doubtless to the horror of true scotch purists).

An interesting bit of trivia: If it's from Scotland, it's Scotch (but people from there are Scots). The Irish make Whiskey and in America it's called Bourbon. It's basically the same drink made in different places.

My first taste of Scotch was probably when I was in my late teens or early twenties. It was a blend. I was certain I would never drink it again after it went down like paint thinner. People enjoy this? My throat felt like I had been gargling with drain cleaner.

The Cognac was a very different experience. It had a bite, but not the angry claws of the blended liquors. Remy Martin XO and Louis XIII emerged as two of my favorites.

Years later at a band practice, our bassists father offered us drinks and opened up his Scotch cabinet. I cringed. I didn't want to be rude or prude, but I could feel my throat constricting as he poured us all a glass. That which does not kill us, makes us strong. -- Nietzsche

I took a sip and... <insert Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" here>

Um....what kind of Scotch is this? I don't remember what he said other than "single malt". Ahh...vive la difference. I had no idea there was Scotch that was this....well....good. The next time I found myself in a bar, I ordered one for myself. Sure, Pal...what kind?

Oops. I new nothing about Scotch other than I liked it. My mind raced. All I could think of was the scene in Highlander where Christopher Lambert orders a drink. Glenmorangie, please.

I had chosen wisely. It was smooth with earthy aromas and a nice finish. Since then, I've experimented with several others -- The Glenlivet (at least the 15 year old, if you please), The Macallan, The Dalmore.... Glenmorangie has a cool motto: Crafted by the 16 Men of Tain. I have no idea what that means, but I like it.

So I've taken to having a glass (two if I'm being indulgent) every day. If I had to justify it, I'd say that it's been shown that a drink or two a day for men over 40 helps reduce the risk of heart attack -- along with other benefits. But that's not why I drink it.

It's been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues. - Abraham Lincoln

Historic

He made history last night.

Will he make it again in November?

My crystal ball is still in Beta testing, but I'm thinking Yes. If it were to come down to the strength of his oratory, he should just be sworn in immediately.

My feelings are mixed. I believe the country is just as ready for a black president as it is for a woman. I think Hillary's would have been a remarkable presidency. Think about it -- The President and the First Gentleman, who would also rightly be addressed as "Mister President".

Frankly, in the state that the country is in now, it may have been a huge advantage to have two presidents in the White House. Maybe that would help get things done in half the time. Regardless of anyone's opinions of the Clintons, they are very good at the business of government and getting things done.

But the fat lady is only warming up. Will Hillary be asked to serve as Vice President? If so, then she's almost a shoe-in in 2016 if Obama has a popular presidency. If not, she could still conceivably run again. Why not? Nixon did it. After losing to Kennedy in 1960, he came back to get elected to our highest office in 1968.

Time will tell. Until then, I'll look forward to casting my vote and watching history unfold.

Going Back For Seconds: Part 2 - The Answer

So the question of the $50 and $75 fuel-up cut-off has been de-mystified.

It seems that the $50/75 limit is imposed because that's what Visa and Mastercard (and other credit card issuers) will reimburse gas stations for fraudulent gasoline purchases. My fictitious scenario of a stolen card fueling up an entire convoy wasn't as far from the mark as I thought.

This really isn't all that surprising. Of course Big Credit will protect itself at all costs. If it inconveniences the rest of us in the least, well -- they could care less. And I'm confident that Big Oil would back them on this even though they are in a win/win situation regardless of gas purchases being legit or fraudulent.

The bar needs to be raised. Actually, the bar needs to be razed, but that's definitely not going to happen. The $100 fill-up is now a reality for a lot of vehicles and I can't imagine that the risk to Big Credit would be more than negligible to at least lessen our time at the pump if not our pain.

Twins

I'm a Gemini. We're flighty. So today I'm taking off. I'll leave you the video of my favorite song from the most brilliant concept album ever made. From 1979, this is the video of Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb from "The Wall".

Going Back For Seconds

I couldn't resist the graphic even though this post isn't exactly about the price of gas.

Does anyone know the real story behind why some gas pumps will cut you off at $50 or $75 when you swipe a card? This little phenomena was only an occasional irritant a few years ago when filling my truck with a 35 gallon tank. At $2 per gallon or so with a nearly empty tank, it was easy to hit either of those limits.

I had asked at a few of the gas stations as well as contacting my credit card companies -- both pointed the finger of doom at the other. I find it hard to believe that I can order $10,000.00 of computers on my Corporate Amex, but they cut me off at $50 of gasoline.

Currently if I want to fill my tank at $4 a gallon, I have to do the whole dance twice because I'm getting cut off nearly every time -- and my gas tank in the new vehicle is only about half the size of the old truck's.

Add to this the doomsayers' (read - experts') predictions of $5 to $6 per gallon if we have a hurricane this season that knocks out some of our refining capacity (like Katrina) and there will be a lot of people spending even more time at the pumps swiping their cards twice just to fill up their tanks.

I'm sure that at one time....long ago....somebody, somewhere thought that it was a good idea to put a limit on gas credit purchases. For example: If someone stole my credit card and attempted to fuel up an entire convoy of trucks to the tune of several thousand gallons, I would be singing the praises of the genius whose software feature thwarted their dastardly plans.

But as that is unlikely to happen, I think it's not too much to ask that the pumps get an upgrade. When swiping the credit card to fill up is like opening a vein, must we really be forced to do it twice?

This Just In

The following was forwarded to me as a joke. I didn't laugh out loud, but as with a lot of humor, there's just enough truth in it to make it both funny and a little bit depressing.

Important Info About Your Tax Stimulus Money

The Federal Government is sending each and every one of us a $600 rebate. If we spend it at Walmart, the money will go to China. If we spend it on gasoline, the money will go to the Arabs. If we purchase a computer it will go to India. If we purchase fruit and vegetables it will go to Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala. If we purchase a good car, it will go to Japan. If we purchase useless crap it will go to Taiwan and none of it will help the American economy.

The only way to keep the money here at home is to spend it on prostitutes, weed, beer, and tattoos since these are the only products still produced in the USA.

Thank you for your help and please support the USA.

The Tribe Has Spoken

A couple news stories had me wondering if maybe we're not screening teachers closely enough. This story from South Florida tells of a 5 year old autistic boy who was "voted out of his kindergarten" after the teacher, Wendy Portillo, first asked the children to discuss what they didn't like about him, then had them vote on whether he should be kicked out of the class.

And this story from Mississippi is about a twelve year old honor student who was voted by her class as the most likely to be pregnant by age 19. Another was voted most likely to contract HIV and another most likely to get murdered.

These "assignments" came from teachers; adults who should know better, or at least adults who should have a clue how hard it is being a kid without an authority figure stepping in and deliberately making it worse.

To the credit of the 12 year olds, they didn't want to participate at first. The students initially refused to vote, but the teacher overruled them. The 6th-graders then were horrified to see their names listed on the chalkboard, ranked in lists for everyone to see.

It's sad that our educational system is in such a state that we allow teachers like this access to our youth. Do they just slip through the cracks? Are they generally good teachers until they just snap one day and make such a bad judgement call that we're all left scratching our heads?

Of course, in some of these instances, the school systems circle the wagons and protect their own, shutting out the parents and insisting that they have their own internal processes that will resolve the situation.

It's exactly then that I think the parents should assume the role of Tribal Council and vote these teachers out of their children's lives.

Vicarious

I'm compelled to share yet another wondrous Tool video. Vicarious is track 1 from their latest disc 10,000 Days and has been getting some pretty heavy rotation since its release. As usual, the animation and graphics are an amazingly bizarre, science-fiction, alternate-reality-nightmare hallucination kind of thing. Or maybe not at all like that, but it's something you don't see every day.

I could climb on a soap box and wax philosophical about the lyrics which speak to the Internet and reality television fueled voyeuristic society we've become, but maybe that's a rant for another time.

In Memoriam

Sydney Irwin Pollack 7/1/34 - 5/26/08


He will be sorely missed. A brilliant director and a fine actor -- here's a scene with Dustin Hoffman in "Tootsie", in which he directed and co-starred.


I remember always at least enjoying -- and some times loving -- any film that had his name attached to it. Sydney made the world a little better.... - George Clooney

And the final clip I'll post may be a bit dry for some, but as a film buff it's a subject close to my heart -- Sydney discusses Pan & Scan verses Widescreen.

Denied

First of all, congratulations to Scott Dixon on his trip to Victory Lane at the Brickyard on Sunday. He's the first Kiwi to ever win the Indy 500.

Regrettably, Danica was taken out of the race with 29 laps remaining after she was hit in pit lane by rookie Ryan Briscoe. After exiting her car, she went looking for Briscoe -- and a fight -- but was stopped by track officials. She later said that it was probably better that she didn't make it down there.

Gentlemen (and Ladies), Start Your Engines

Any racing fans looking forward to the Indianapolis 500 today? As much as I enjoy auto and motorcycle racing, I can rarely make the time to watch it.

But I can't resist the yearly Memorial Day weekend showdown at the Brickyard. I love the fanfare, the back stories, the drama, and of course the two and a half hours of adreneline-fueled, open wheeled excitement.

I'll be cheering for my favorite Fast Woman, Danica Patrick. After finally winning at Twin Ring Motegi in Japan, it's time for her to capture a victory at a major American race.

And let's give a brief nod to Janet Guthrie -- the first woman to qualify for both the Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500 back in 1977. Without her, there would be no Danica (as we know her).

Driven To Drink: Part 4 -- 1 In 6

I just read a report based on a study conducted by GMAC Insurance which found that 16.4% of, or about 33 million, drivers don't know the rules of the road.

That figure somehow sounds a bit generous to me. Based on what I see every day during my commute, I would have thought that it's one in six drivers who do know the rules of the road. Or maybe many of those 33 million flunkies live in my area. The Northeast scored pretty badly overall with the Midwest faring much better.

Or maybe even worse is the possibility that there are a lot of competent drivers on the road who know the rules, but don't care enough to bother. That jives pretty much with the general attitude of Screw you and get out of my way that a lot of drivers seem to have.

Take the GMAC Insurance National Driver Test. It's fun. At least, it was fun for me because I scored 100% (La-de-freakin'-da....right?). Yes, I'm gloating. It may be a conceit, but on the other hand it will not be me tailgating, failing to signal, keeping an unsafe distance, or turning into the wrong lane. I haven't had any points on my license for over eleven years and I (and my insurance premiums) like it that way.

So until the scores come up and the majority who passed the test actually drive like they did, buckle up and drive defensively. Drive a tank. But it had better be a hybrid tank with today's petrol prices or you'll only be driving to the poorhouse.

In The Name Of Humor

I listen to a local radio show on the way to work. They have a nice blend of witty banter, traffic and weather, interesting guests, creative (and sometimes bizarre) contests, a good music format, and intelligent as well as infantile, bathroom humor.

This morning they kicked off the holiday weekend by broadcasting their show from a bar at the beach. The place was packed and they chose fans from the crowd for the latest contest, Shock and Paw (or something very much like that). The hosts would ask multiple choice questions of two contestants who would "buzz in" their answers by pressing a button on remote controls for electric dog training collars that were fitted around the necks of two of the station's interns.

I always feel bad for the interns. The pay sucks, for one. Also, their internship -- whether it's a year or several -- is replete with enduring the obligatory hazing at the hands of the hosts. Any outlandish schtick that the morning crew thinks up is usually dumped onto the interns for everyone's entertainment. In their defense, no one is ever hurt -- well, not seriously or permanently -- and I've never heard the interns bitter at all. Maybe that's just the way the radio industry works.

Anyway, at the first Yelp from the interns after both contestants responded to the first question, I vacillated between laughing out loud and being disgusted and (mildly) horrified. One of the girls, after seeing her effect on the intern, said Dude, I'm so sorry! She didn't realize how the game worked. And the show's producer made sure to mention that both collars had been turned up to their maximum setting -- like for a St. Bernard sized dog.

I don't like the whole idea behind those collars. I think there are better ways to train pets without using pain and torture -- it's called conditioning using positive and negative reinforcement. And at hearing the way the interns screeched every time the button was pressed, it made me think of the poor animals that are subjected to this without any clue as to what's going on.

But the interns did have a clue and they put these ghoulish devices around their necks willingly in the name of humor. So with that in mind, I decided that it was more fun to be amused at today's idiocy rather than offended.

And as Steve Martin once said, "Comedy is not pretty".