Talk Radio

Something I seriously miss in North Carolina is KGO Talk Radio and especially Ron Owens. It is a pleasure to hear balanced discussion on issues. Sure, there are some extreme views expressed at times but Ron does a good job of keeping the discussion grounded and avoids hysterionics.

Social Driving

As I again get accustomed to driving in the bay area I am struck by the wonderful community we enjoy with frequent social intercourse. For example, "Move it, the lights changed!", "Take one or the other - make up your mind!" or "Same to you buddy!"

Travel to San Francisco - Some Obversations

I like flying out of Wilmington. A small airport is nice - you can park close to the terminal, the cost is low, and the crowd isn't. Passing through security is fast and the people are generally cordial (they might know you socially).

The flight to Atlanta was only about a third full - when did you last experience that? The flight to San Francisco was a totally different story. Delta now charges for bags. They call it an excess baggage fee - I guess they think you should have no bags. Actually that is what many tried to do by taking their luggage on the plane. I understand that if they then had to check their bag they wouldn't have to pay the $20 bag fee. So, we had a line on the gangway checking their bags - they never intended to carry them aboard, and another line trying to get off the plane because all the overhead bins were full. That in turn meant we were supposed to keep our coats and other smaller bags in our laps and theoretically under your seat. Ha!

We arrived around 11am on a flight that was 30 minutes early. I was truck again how clear the air is in the fall. The low humidity makes the air sharp and especially clear, something you rarely see in Carolina.

It took me nearly a half hour to acclimatize to driving in the bay area. There is a totally different feeling that I do not experience in other major metropolitan areas. It is sort of like driving in the Grand Prixe. Motorist know that they really have to be to be reckless and driving WAY over the limit to be nailed. That means people drive to the level of what they feel is reasonable safety - not what is written on a sign. That translates to 70 mph in the slower lanes and 75 to 80 in the faster lanes (65 mph speed limit). I see them traveling at 70+ around Raleigh but those are more likely to be the exceptions or at least the top speeders.

California has a 12% unemployment rate but that dose not seem to be the case in high tech. In fact there may be some signs of hiring in that sector. I thought I saw some suggestion in some of the freeways being a little less clogged but that was not the case at the In-N-Out Burgers - crowded as always.

Speaking of In-N-Out Burgers - they put fast food restaurants like McDonald's and Burger King to shame.

Run with the Greats

I was watching TV news last night and realized I am great. I have something in common with the rich (or used to be) and famous. I'm sure you'll all be impressed that Madoff and I have the same golf ball retriever in our bags. $29.99 at a local golf shop - but think about what we have in common - we both were fishing in waters for our balls. He just chose better waters.

Now, Madoff kept his ball retriever in a slightly more expensive bag (I'd guess $2000 to $5000) and might have played at courses slightly more expensive then I do but still, you have admit that great minds...

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

The families that lost members in the 9/11 attack are divided as to whether Khalid Sheikh Mohammed should receive a trial in New York. I do not believe he should be tried under present laws. I would, instead, want congress to pass terrorist legislation delineating what an act of terrorism is and stipulating that one found guilty of terrorism can receive the death penalty by some means that includes prolonged cruel and unusual torture. If they randomly kill innocents then they should receive extraordinary punishment. They should not receive the same rights to counsel nor guarantees under our Constitution.

Yeah, I know, the argument would be that the subject wasn't really acting as a terrorist, after all, he was misguided or mentally unbalanced because he ate Fruit Loops.

Web Cams

Aside from our wanting Josh and Pam to get their cam working so we can get a grandparents fix, web cams can show some interesting (exterior) shots such as the WECT web cam on the USS North Carolina in Wilmington. Note I am not discussing porn sites!

I was looking at the cam sponsored by the Ephraim Yacht Club in Wisconsin. I presume it showed a view of Lake Michigan which is nice to just see another part of the country. The only downside on this particular sortie was when I read about the club reminder of the Labor Day closing party. My God, I had forgotten about living in a place where the summer season ends and winter begins on Labor Day! I always got depressed in the fall when living in New York and in Chicago. I was faced with another long dreay winter.

Why did I write this blog? I donno'

Flu Shots

Just caught a brief segment on FOX where one of their medical experts was saying they made too much of the seasonal flu early on when it wouldn't be needed until after the H1N1 vaccine. Well, if that is the case, why can't I find any here? The local hospital, clinic, drug store and county health departments have none!

Forget the swine flu (whoops, probably upset the pig farmers - got to be pc). It ain't here!

Afghanistan Plan

The US Envoy to Afghanistan has reservations about sending more troops there. Lets hope this guy has more sense then Paul Brenner in disbanding the Iraqi army in 2003. That was a disaster.

I have to wonder about the timing of the Afghanistan envoy's (Eikenberry) caution to the president. I would think that if he had such reservations he would have already expressed them to Obama. Coming this late in the game suggests to me that he has been pressured to take this stand to bolster what Obama will do - send few relatively few troops.

A Special Day

Its raining and I am pleased. I have been working so hard on the house lately that a rainy day is an excuse to relax a little. And, it is rewarding too. Just this morning I took the time to do a little browsing on the computer and I learned the secret to making your dog poop when you want them to.

The Latest Thought

I continue to write this blog. But it never leaves my head. The press of accomplishing a number of projects, completing online studies, and lack of immediate inspiration while at the computer have blocked my writing muse.

Having said that, I was reading an editorial in the Washington Post. It said the recent election results in upstate New York in which the conservative Palin-Limbaugh-Beck candidate Hoffman was defeated reflected a middle of the road rejection of conservative Republicans. That resonates with me, I am tired of the rabble rousing conservative noise but equally dislike the Obama Democrats. I'd be happy to shove the likes of Limbaugh and Hannity into a sealed room with Pelosi, Franks, and Reid. Throw away the key.

I've been and am seriously thinking of changing from Republican to Independent. The theatrics of Washington politics disgust me and I am of the mind to throw all the incumbents out until I see politicians working together for the common good of America.

New Business Appraoch

I was listening to a radio talk show this morning. The host was ranting about all the chancellors, vice-chancellors, assistant chancellors, etc. that Carolina has in its administration. All receiving substantial salaries of $150,000 and more. It does seem excessive on the face of it but that's not what I am writing about.

The discussion sparked another thought. If I had the money to gamble with, it would be an interesting business philosophy to pay larger salaries to the "doers" instead of the bosses. For example, if I had a cabinet shop, the highest paid employees would be the cabinet makers, not the supervisors or managers.

The concept is that if you have superior operating personnel, whether it be professors, teachers, engineers, woodworkers, electricians, etc., the need for higher level managers is reduced. When hiring you would go out and find the best and pay them a premium. Product done with exceptional quality can negate the need for as much marketing, supervision, etc. Yeah, there are holes in this but is this worse then the way we operate? Food for thought.

Withdrawal

It has been a week of deprivation and the pain continues. It started last Monday when a landscaper came to install a drain line in our front yard. All of our utilities pass through the yard so I hired a landscaper to install the drain, explaining to them my concerns about severing one of the lines. Sure enough, less then ten minutes after they had started our TV/Internet cable was cut. It was not repaired until the following afternoon.

We had internet use throughout Wednesday but Thursday morning we had thunderstorms which cut power to the house...twice. The second time while I was rebooting the computer. Oh well, had to go into Wilmington so left it off. When we got home in the afternoon the computer wouldn't boot. Long story short - the hard drive died.

Still down at this point awaiting repair and hopefully back in operation next week but working only from a laptop is something like using a bicycle in lieu of a car to do all your errands. Gets the job done sort of.

Archie is House Trained! Whoopee!

It has actually been several weeks since we have had a toilet incident with Archie. Maybe we can now say the War on Turds is over. At times he resorted to clandestine drops but we prevailed and life is much better around here.

We now just need to tweak a couple things.

Not Set In My Ways

People think just because you get older that you are set in your ways. That is blatantly untrue. Even though I turned the calendar on another year, I decided this morning to do something different. I flossed my teeth in a different pattern then I have always done! And I was not over stressed. I'm so proud of myself, maybe tomorrow I'll put my left shoe on before my right.

I am open to change Obama, just let the republicans do it.

Class Action Law Suit

I think we should sue the lawyers. They should be held liable for the convoluted misleading legalese they assault us on a daily basis. Maybe we can even get them jailed for assault. That would be fantastic because it would shut down Congress leading to a huge economic stimulus.

I digress, however, and returning to my proposal, whenever you sign up for a newsletter, new software, medical procedure or dog adoption, you have to sign some sort if statement that requires a lawyer to understand. We should sue all of lawyerdom on the grounds of obfuscation. We could get some of our money back and it would revolutionize those obdurate forms. Maybe then the forms would really be in plain understandable English.

It should be illegal to be required to sign a form only a lawyer that actually passed the bar would understand. You are in the emergency room with a bleeding hernia threatening your life and you are expected to sign one of those stupid forms. You say "I don't understand what this says." You are then told, hire a lawyer. Yeah, right!

Sunroom

They've started on the sun room addition to our porch.

Colin Powell

Hurray for Powell. He has voiced a thoughtful and balanced position on Professor Gates. A position that permits both sides to reach compromise and closure to an ugly incident. He made other observations as well about Palin, Russ Limbaugh and the republican party.

His comment about the republicans resonate with me, a moderate republican. He said, "If the party is going to succeed in the future, the advice I'm giving to my Republican friends is you've got to find some way to reach out and draw moderates and independents more toward the right so that we can build a party that will win..."

I agree and it would be good it they could - fire Russ Limbaugh. He has gotten too much power and abuses it. He is a problem for the party and they need to disavow him.

George Washington

This is a little known side of George Washington.

Harvard Professors Arrest

There are racial charges flying around in the aftermath of the arrest of Professor Gates in Harvard. That may be the case but possibly not the way the media reports it. It had better be acknowledged that blacks are sometimes showing racial bias to condemn whites. The arresting officer wrote in his report that he asked Gates to step outside the house to which Gates responded "Why, because I'm a black man in America?"

That can well be a racial judgement against whites. To jump to the conclusion that race is involved because he was asked to step outside his home may (I stress the word may) reflect bias on the part of Gates.

There is the possible scenario that someone had indeed broken into Professor Gates home and was inside with a weapon trained on the professor or if not directly threatening the professor, the thief might be hiding somewhere on the premises. Seems like that would be good police work to ask him to come outside...

So why did a black man automatically assume the request was racial inspired if we wasn't himself racist? There is probably much more to the situation but the way the media will handle this will not reflect these comments.

Blogful Fate

I've noticed that most bloggers at some point, some after only post, tend to stop or decrease the rate of blog (RAB). I follow one blog and it hasn't been updated since Easter. I think the Eater Bunny did them in. I am no exception to this phenomena (if you haven't noticed).

I continue to write blogs...but in my head when driving or when walking the dogs and picking up poop. Indeed they are brilliant monologues with humor and thoughtful, intellectual content.

The bogging sites just need new technology. Some gizmo that allows us to write and publish our dogs while stooping over dog poop, cursing our fellow drivers, or simply walking down the street. If blog sites did this, social networking sites would be sure to follow. If you are concerned about your RAB, you'd be sure to spend $49.95 for that gizmo. (P.S. I'm taking early orders if you want to send me money).

Just imagine walking down the street doing an entry to Facebook - something great as are most Facebook entries - "I'm walking down the street" and maybe a passerby thinking you are talking to them says "what?" So, you say, butt out, you are not a Facebook Friend.