Brian Crane authors a comic called "Pickles." Today's strip resonated with me as it explored the definition of "geezer." Two older gentlemen are talking and one says "geezerhood is not defined by age. Its determined by behavior."
His litmus test for geezerhood is the longest distance you've ever driven with your turn signal on. His companion replies, "28 miles." He then asks "how fast were you going?" Answer, "40 miles in the fast lane."
Nailed it! And geezer should definitely not be gender specific
Please don't ask me those questions, I'm busy driving and the turn signal is annoying me with that constant clicking.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Back fom San Franciso
As I write this Hazel and I are on the way back from San Francisco after spending a week visiting friends and family. Considering weather and the recent flight cancellations by Delta our trip has gone smoothly.
This trip was a little more rushed since Hazel had to be back to teach so we didn’t get to see everyone or do everything we would have liked. Maybe next time, the third time will be the charm and we will get to see DeYoung Museum.
I never fly now without thinking about 9/11 and about security – hard not to do as you walk and those around you walk barefoot or in stocking feet pass often brusque and serious looking TSA employees. And, listening to the PA caution us to report any unattended or “suspicious” looking bags I decided to do just that. I’m not really sure what a “suspicious” looking bag is like – does it have shifty eyes or loops and wire attached to red sticks?
Hazel and I arrived at our SFO gate and as we went to sit down I noticed an unattended bag! Mmmmm this could be serious, does no one take our safety seriously. I decided to watch it and see if someone returned. Since I had to go to the counter in a futile effort to get Hazel and I seated together I waited until that was done and still no bag owner.
I asked a woman sitting a couple seats away if it was her bag or did she know who it belonged to? No but she though it might be someone standing in the line at the counter. I went over and asked everyone if the bag was theirs’ – again, No. I looked around to see how to report this unattended bag. It didn’t seem to be productive to stand in line at the airline counter again and better yet, TSA was just around the corned.
So I went around the corner and saw a man in TSA uniform. Ahhhh, this will take care of that unattended bag. I told him about the bag at gate C40. He told me it probably belonged to someone that had just stepped away and they would return in 5 minutes or so. Now he was friendly and even smiled. Okay. Someone did return…after we had been there 20 minutes. God I feel safe when I fly. No terrorist are going to penetrate our security!
I’ll have to tell my other TSA story sometime.
Well we got on the plane and I encountered another story. Our flight was going to continue on from Atlanta to Russia, was overbooked, and big, meaning slow to load. Finally got aboard and sat in my comfy middle seat next to a young woman that appeared to be sleeping. She was slouched down in a diagonal posture that had her leaning into my seat area. This meant I had to jostle with her for seat space. She didn’t seem to understand that she was crowding me and the only way to give her room was to lean into the person on my other side.
I could have politely asked her to shift back into her space but she had shifted a little so I knew she was awake and certainly aware of our close proximity. Instead I commenced to read my newspaper, moving as needed to turn pages and change sections. Suddenly she said “Will you stop moving, I’m trying to sleep!” I hadn’t expected that and not wanting to be at lost for words said “I don’t give a damn!” I continued to say, “I can’t give you more space, I am the size I am and these seats are small.” She was lucky I am not a big man.
She didn’t say anything more nor did she slug me. In fact in a short while she shifted so we both had room and the remainder of the trip was flown in “relative” comfort. Aren’t all things relative? About that close proximity to a young woman? After all, I am a grumpy old man that reports unattended luggage - what do you expect?
This trip was a little more rushed since Hazel had to be back to teach so we didn’t get to see everyone or do everything we would have liked. Maybe next time, the third time will be the charm and we will get to see DeYoung Museum.
I never fly now without thinking about 9/11 and about security – hard not to do as you walk and those around you walk barefoot or in stocking feet pass often brusque and serious looking TSA employees. And, listening to the PA caution us to report any unattended or “suspicious” looking bags I decided to do just that. I’m not really sure what a “suspicious” looking bag is like – does it have shifty eyes or loops and wire attached to red sticks?
Hazel and I arrived at our SFO gate and as we went to sit down I noticed an unattended bag! Mmmmm this could be serious, does no one take our safety seriously. I decided to watch it and see if someone returned. Since I had to go to the counter in a futile effort to get Hazel and I seated together I waited until that was done and still no bag owner.
I asked a woman sitting a couple seats away if it was her bag or did she know who it belonged to? No but she though it might be someone standing in the line at the counter. I went over and asked everyone if the bag was theirs’ – again, No. I looked around to see how to report this unattended bag. It didn’t seem to be productive to stand in line at the airline counter again and better yet, TSA was just around the corned.
So I went around the corner and saw a man in TSA uniform. Ahhhh, this will take care of that unattended bag. I told him about the bag at gate C40. He told me it probably belonged to someone that had just stepped away and they would return in 5 minutes or so. Now he was friendly and even smiled. Okay. Someone did return…after we had been there 20 minutes. God I feel safe when I fly. No terrorist are going to penetrate our security!
I’ll have to tell my other TSA story sometime.
Well we got on the plane and I encountered another story. Our flight was going to continue on from Atlanta to Russia, was overbooked, and big, meaning slow to load. Finally got aboard and sat in my comfy middle seat next to a young woman that appeared to be sleeping. She was slouched down in a diagonal posture that had her leaning into my seat area. This meant I had to jostle with her for seat space. She didn’t seem to understand that she was crowding me and the only way to give her room was to lean into the person on my other side.
I could have politely asked her to shift back into her space but she had shifted a little so I knew she was awake and certainly aware of our close proximity. Instead I commenced to read my newspaper, moving as needed to turn pages and change sections. Suddenly she said “Will you stop moving, I’m trying to sleep!” I hadn’t expected that and not wanting to be at lost for words said “I don’t give a damn!” I continued to say, “I can’t give you more space, I am the size I am and these seats are small.” She was lucky I am not a big man.
She didn’t say anything more nor did she slug me. In fact in a short while she shifted so we both had room and the remainder of the trip was flown in “relative” comfort. Aren’t all things relative? About that close proximity to a young woman? After all, I am a grumpy old man that reports unattended luggage - what do you expect?
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Glenn Beck's Asteroid
Today's New York times had an article by Glenn Beck that I have provided a portion here:
" NEW YORK (CNN) -- Let's say a giant asteroid was headed toward Earth right now and experts say it has a good chance of ending civilization as we know it. Let's also say that we've known about this asteroid for years but even as it gets closer and closer our leaders do nothing.
"Don't worry," they tell us, "The next administration will figure something out."
With the future of our country at stake, would Americans really sit back and tolerate that kind of inaction? Of course not -- we'd be sharpening our pitchforks and demanding answers.
Well there may not be a space asteroid heading toward us, but there is an economic one -- and the threat to our future is just as severe.
You might think that I'm talking about the recession (sorry: potential recession) or credit crisis, but I'm thinking bigger. Much, much bigger.
Let me give you three numbers that will put this economic asteroid into perspective: $200 billion, $14.1 trillion, and $53 trillion.
# $200 billion is the approximate total amount of write-downs announced so far as a result of the current credit crisis.
# $14.1 trillion is the size of the entire U.S. economy
# And $53 trillion is (drum roll please) the approximate size of this country's bill for the Social Security and Medicare promises we've made.
While no one will ever mistake me for Alan Greenspan, it seems to me that the third number is quite a bit larger than the other two. It also seems very few people care.
According to the latest Social Security and Medicare Trustees report (and I use that term loosely since it has the word "trust" in it) released earlier this week, the economic asteroid will first make impact in the year 2019 when the Medicaid trust fund becomes insolvent.
Only an immediate 122 percent increase in Medicare taxes and a 26 percent increase in Social Security taxes can prevent (or more likely, delay) its impact.
Realizing that Americans have become pretty much numb to these kinds of ridiculous sounding proposals, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson tried to up the ante this week. "Without change," he said, "Rising costs will drive government spending to unprecedented levels, consume nearly all projected federal revenues, and threaten America's future prosperity."
Now, I know we're all worried about important sounding things that none of us understand, like CDO's, SIV's, and Credit Default Swaps, but did you hear what our Treasury Secretary just said?
"Rising costs will ... consume nearly all projected federal revenues ..."
Translation: Every single tax dollar that is sent to Washington will be used to pay for just these two programs.
That means no money is left for anything else. Nothing. No Department of Defense or Homeland Security, no Department of Energy, no Department of Justice, no Environmental Protection Agency, no Internal Revenue Service. Actually, knowing our government, they'd probably keep the IRS going somehow.
Of course, none of this is exactly breaking news. Our leaders have known about this rapidly approaching asteroid for years now and they've done nothing but debate it. At the same time, I'm a realist. I understand that this stuff is "the third rail of politics," but our leaders' negligence on this issue is damn near criminal. No, correction, it is criminal.
Americans aren't afraid of the truth. In fact, we crave the truth only slightly more than we crave a leader who will actually give it to us. But part of the problem with this issue is that numbers followed by 12 zeroes aren't very relatable to the average American. Instead, try this on for size.
A million seconds is 12 days. A billion seconds is 32 years. A trillion seconds is 32,000 years. And 53 trillion seconds? 1.7 million years.
In an article that will appear in an upcoming issue of my magazine, Fusion, former Comptroller General of the United States David Walker tries a different tactic. He writes that our unfunded promises translate into "an IOU of around $455,000 per American household."
Wow. Does the size of our debt hit home now?"
What further astounds me is that Washington wants to provide Universal Health Care - how in hell will they fund that?
It is laudable that our politicians want to extend this benefit (aren't they altruistic). This reminds me of the American household that has maxed its credit cards, borrowed against all the equity in their home, has debt payments way beyond their means, and then buys a luxury SUV. When do they pay the piper?
" NEW YORK (CNN) -- Let's say a giant asteroid was headed toward Earth right now and experts say it has a good chance of ending civilization as we know it. Let's also say that we've known about this asteroid for years but even as it gets closer and closer our leaders do nothing.
"Don't worry," they tell us, "The next administration will figure something out."
With the future of our country at stake, would Americans really sit back and tolerate that kind of inaction? Of course not -- we'd be sharpening our pitchforks and demanding answers.
Well there may not be a space asteroid heading toward us, but there is an economic one -- and the threat to our future is just as severe.
You might think that I'm talking about the recession (sorry: potential recession) or credit crisis, but I'm thinking bigger. Much, much bigger.
Let me give you three numbers that will put this economic asteroid into perspective: $200 billion, $14.1 trillion, and $53 trillion.
# $200 billion is the approximate total amount of write-downs announced so far as a result of the current credit crisis.
# $14.1 trillion is the size of the entire U.S. economy
# And $53 trillion is (drum roll please) the approximate size of this country's bill for the Social Security and Medicare promises we've made.
While no one will ever mistake me for Alan Greenspan, it seems to me that the third number is quite a bit larger than the other two. It also seems very few people care.
According to the latest Social Security and Medicare Trustees report (and I use that term loosely since it has the word "trust" in it) released earlier this week, the economic asteroid will first make impact in the year 2019 when the Medicaid trust fund becomes insolvent.
Only an immediate 122 percent increase in Medicare taxes and a 26 percent increase in Social Security taxes can prevent (or more likely, delay) its impact.
Realizing that Americans have become pretty much numb to these kinds of ridiculous sounding proposals, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson tried to up the ante this week. "Without change," he said, "Rising costs will drive government spending to unprecedented levels, consume nearly all projected federal revenues, and threaten America's future prosperity."
Now, I know we're all worried about important sounding things that none of us understand, like CDO's, SIV's, and Credit Default Swaps, but did you hear what our Treasury Secretary just said?
"Rising costs will ... consume nearly all projected federal revenues ..."
Translation: Every single tax dollar that is sent to Washington will be used to pay for just these two programs.
That means no money is left for anything else. Nothing. No Department of Defense or Homeland Security, no Department of Energy, no Department of Justice, no Environmental Protection Agency, no Internal Revenue Service. Actually, knowing our government, they'd probably keep the IRS going somehow.
Of course, none of this is exactly breaking news. Our leaders have known about this rapidly approaching asteroid for years now and they've done nothing but debate it. At the same time, I'm a realist. I understand that this stuff is "the third rail of politics," but our leaders' negligence on this issue is damn near criminal. No, correction, it is criminal.
Americans aren't afraid of the truth. In fact, we crave the truth only slightly more than we crave a leader who will actually give it to us. But part of the problem with this issue is that numbers followed by 12 zeroes aren't very relatable to the average American. Instead, try this on for size.
A million seconds is 12 days. A billion seconds is 32 years. A trillion seconds is 32,000 years. And 53 trillion seconds? 1.7 million years.
In an article that will appear in an upcoming issue of my magazine, Fusion, former Comptroller General of the United States David Walker tries a different tactic. He writes that our unfunded promises translate into "an IOU of around $455,000 per American household."
Wow. Does the size of our debt hit home now?"
What further astounds me is that Washington wants to provide Universal Health Care - how in hell will they fund that?
It is laudable that our politicians want to extend this benefit (aren't they altruistic). This reminds me of the American household that has maxed its credit cards, borrowed against all the equity in their home, has debt payments way beyond their means, and then buys a luxury SUV. When do they pay the piper?
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Its About the Oil?
I have heard and still hear the refrain that the Iraq war was really about the oil. Well why not? Why shouldn't it be?
Oil exploration has uncovered the existence of huge oil fields in Iraq which rival the Saudis'. Imagine Saddam Hussein remaining in power with the control and economic clout this much oil represents, especially when oil has risen in demand by the Chinese. A dictator that admired and copied Hitler. A dictator that through past action had proven himself a serious threat to world stability. A dictator that wanted to drop nuclear bombs on Israel.
Now its popular to to retract your vote for invasion (Hillary) or to have voted against it (Obama) but if they had there way, I wonder how precarious this world would be today. We are a country which has to consider its self-interest. To withdraw now without influence can have devastating consequences.
I dislike the way we handled the aftermath of the invasion, we screwed up big time! But it is not the time to compound it.
Oil exploration has uncovered the existence of huge oil fields in Iraq which rival the Saudis'. Imagine Saddam Hussein remaining in power with the control and economic clout this much oil represents, especially when oil has risen in demand by the Chinese. A dictator that admired and copied Hitler. A dictator that through past action had proven himself a serious threat to world stability. A dictator that wanted to drop nuclear bombs on Israel.
Now its popular to to retract your vote for invasion (Hillary) or to have voted against it (Obama) but if they had there way, I wonder how precarious this world would be today. We are a country which has to consider its self-interest. To withdraw now without influence can have devastating consequences.
I dislike the way we handled the aftermath of the invasion, we screwed up big time! But it is not the time to compound it.
Spam Messages
I was checking my email spam folder in case an errant message had landed there.
I was tempted to open one due to its subject line. "Hillary Wants to get Laid"
Decided my conjecture about the contents would be better then the reality so I deleted it unread.
I was tempted to open one due to its subject line. "Hillary Wants to get Laid"
Decided my conjecture about the contents would be better then the reality so I deleted it unread.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Exploring Blogs
Occasionally I like to browse other blogs to see what people have created. I especially like the creative blogs that contain art or photography. When the mood strikes I simply click on the "Next Blog" at the top of my blog and see where it leads me.
Generally most blogs seem to fall into a few categories. Among them are the "grand baby" blogs posted to show the new baby to grandparents, friends and relatives. N one have babies as cute as Maya and Tyler. And, there some that like to talk about entertainment mediums such as movies, TV, actors/actresses, etc., there are hobbies, political discussions, or organization oriented such as "Save the Cockroaches." A few are entrepreneurial and the blogger is trying to sell something...tonight is was a quilter - I like them too because they usually create the product with there own hands and some are very clever. Viva capitalism.
Over the year or two I've done this I've noted a continuing shift to more of an international flavor (at least on Blogspot). Tonight, to develop a statistic I counted the number of blogs that were in English as opposed to some other language (e.g. Senegalese.) Drum Roll...the results are 5 English, 15 Other language.
My God, they are over running this country. Everybody knows we own the Internet.
Generally most blogs seem to fall into a few categories. Among them are the "grand baby" blogs posted to show the new baby to grandparents, friends and relatives. N one have babies as cute as Maya and Tyler. And, there some that like to talk about entertainment mediums such as movies, TV, actors/actresses, etc., there are hobbies, political discussions, or organization oriented such as "Save the Cockroaches." A few are entrepreneurial and the blogger is trying to sell something...tonight is was a quilter - I like them too because they usually create the product with there own hands and some are very clever. Viva capitalism.
Over the year or two I've done this I've noted a continuing shift to more of an international flavor (at least on Blogspot). Tonight, to develop a statistic I counted the number of blogs that were in English as opposed to some other language (e.g. Senegalese.) Drum Roll...the results are 5 English, 15 Other language.
My God, they are over running this country. Everybody knows we own the Internet.
Insurance
Last year we went to a Cinco de Mayo celebration at our neighbors home. The hot topic of conversation was how every one's home insurance had jumped. I recall one homeowner had a 35% increase. I wasn't sure at the time what my increase had been but knew it was pretty reasonable. Well the insurance police found me this year and yup, I had a serious jump. My homeowners policy rose 50% over last year. Good thing I didn't have any claims and there were no hurricanes, floods, fires, earthquakes, tornadoes, ice storms, boll weevil infestations, burning bushes, parting seas, or mudslides. I guess the odds are that we will have another hurricane because after all, the last two years have been mild.
Also renewed my boat insurance. Now, that stayed about the same...except the policy is written with so many restrictions and clauses (e.g. if the moon is in the first phase when sunspot activity declines but Uranus burps)...well you know...huge weasel room. I strongly suspect that insurance companies now hire ex-politicians.
Oh, and since my yacht is getting older, I had to have it hauled and surveyed with resultant things like - replace fire extinguishers, flares, new battery $300) for the EPIRB (even though the old one is fine) etc. etc. Cost for the survey and changes were more then the policy. Trouble is, if I shopped around, the other companies would want it surveyed too - and last time I got quotes, they were a third higher. The devil you know.
Anyway, with costs like that I will henceforth call Drambuie a yacht! And my home is a mansion! Psst, don't tell the IRS.
Also renewed my boat insurance. Now, that stayed about the same...except the policy is written with so many restrictions and clauses (e.g. if the moon is in the first phase when sunspot activity declines but Uranus burps)...well you know...huge weasel room. I strongly suspect that insurance companies now hire ex-politicians.
Oh, and since my yacht is getting older, I had to have it hauled and surveyed with resultant things like - replace fire extinguishers, flares, new battery $300) for the EPIRB (even though the old one is fine) etc. etc. Cost for the survey and changes were more then the policy. Trouble is, if I shopped around, the other companies would want it surveyed too - and last time I got quotes, they were a third higher. The devil you know.
Anyway, with costs like that I will henceforth call Drambuie a yacht! And my home is a mansion! Psst, don't tell the IRS.
Sunday, March 09, 2008
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