Will Geithner get the ax?

Some of my readers hate these hard-core, sometimes political, sometimes financial stories. Sorry, please read it anyway.

In case you missed it, Timoty Geithner is the Secretary of Treasury and he's come under a bit of fire. Some people have called for his resignation or that he be fired. Some of the mis-steps include:

1) He spent his confirmation hearings explaining why he failed to pay some of his taxes (and of course he wants you to pay yours)
2) He muffed the rollout of his most important policy initiative, the bank rescue plan.
3) He failed to stop AIG from paying out $165 million in bonuses -- which reminded Congress and the public that he was one of the people who presided over the AIG deal in the first place.
(source here)

But President Obama has full faith in the Secretary. On his recent pop-culture appearance, the President said "He is a smart guy, and he's a calm and steady guy."

I also heard he went on to say "Timmy, you're doing a heck of a job." - No wait, that's what the former president said to one of his agency directors. And all of the liberals made fun of that. It will be interesting to see how this is remembered....

**** Corrected typo - thanks to my editor ****
**** Another minor correction ****

Arena football

Last night was the inaugural game for Greenville's new Indoor Arena football team, the Force. I fondly recall the previous team, so when I heard the game was on, I had to go. It was a bumpy start, but a good game and everything I hoped. Good entertainment at a low price.

The start of the game was delayed due to a carpet error. Seems the team purchased the field carpet (astro-turf) from another team that folded. So instead of saying the "South Carolina Force" it said "Austin Wranglers" and had the wrong logos. No matter, astro-turf is astro-turf right?

Well the second problem was that the purchased astro-turf was too small. There was about 10 yards at the back of each end zone that wasn't covered. Now these players are used to getting injured, but the idea of slamming your head on unprotected concrete isn't too attractive. Come to think of it, the idea of slamming your head against astro-turf protected concrete doesn't sound too attractive either. But regardless, the league wouldn't let them start until the concrete was covered. (true story - see here)

So, a quick trip to Lowe's brought in the astro-turf for one end zone. Wait a while, then come up with some carpet backing for the other end-zone. After an hour and a half delay, we were ready to start (the Lowe's trip may not have happened, but that's what those of us in section 100 decided).

Another mis-step when the announcer started his yelling. He asked the 3500 fans if we were ready to meet our Greenville Drive team. Uhhhh, that's the baseball team. Ok, he tried again, our Greenville Force. Uhhh, right team, but they try to pull from a bigger geography. Third time's the charm, our South Carolina Force. Yeah!!! It made for great jokes for all of us.

Once the game started, the referees with their whistles were a little like Barney Fife with his gun and bullet - ready to go off whenever they moved. But after setting the stage early by throwing flags like confetti, they settled down and let the play begin.

The game was all I expected. Sure it started slow and the players weren't professional. But most were local heroes, coming from colleges in the area (quarterback from USC, kicker from Clemson, head coach from Clemson). The quarterback made a beautiful pass to a small kid in the stands (way over the head of the intended receiver). We learned about rules that we didn't know, like you can kick a field goal on a kick-off and get an extra point. And one rule we never understood, when a kick-off was fielded by our team and the player stepped into the end-zone, giving the other team a point.

With the delayed start, the game went way past my bedtime. I left at the end of the third quarter. Our team was behind, but we would have left even if we were winning. And they didn't pull it out after we left, losing 39-18. But I will go back. The next game is April 11, just before my birthday (STRONG HINT here). Which comes back full circle as my first arena football game was for my birthday about 9 years ago.

And with that, I can't resist this ending since it's our team name - may the Force be with you.

Did you get a $1m bonus?

Everyone is talking about the bailouts at AIG. Everyone thinks it's ridiculous. I didn't get a $1m bonus, how about you?

But with all the talk, there comes down some very specific facts. So far, the best article I've seen is by The Motley Fool (seen here). Now for those who don't know, The Motley Fool " is a multimedia financial-services company dedicated to building the world's greatest investment community." For financial matters, it's a good magazine. It's not political, it's financial.

The Fool says that the outrage over the bailout is bogus. It says that it's all a "distasteful combination of a populist pandering and lack of diligence." According to the article, the bonus plan was developed last September and filed with the SEC. That means anyone in the government could have read it. Also, "back in December AIG's CEO sent a letter to Congressman Elijah Cummings, a senior member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, walking him through the bonuses and the reasoning behind them." Where was the outrage then?

But more importantly, if the government is going to continue to hand out big checks ($170Billion for AIG), shouldn't it at least KNOW about this stuff?

Now congress is looking at ways to tax the bonuses. I saw an article today that said they were looking at a 90% tax. Well another Fool article (here - free registration required) explains the ramifications of this action. See, AIG was legally bound to give out the bonus. They had contracts to fulfill. But it's a scary thing if congress can effectively voids these contracts with the stroke of a pen. And to retroactively tax an activity, well, what taxes will come about next?

One more note on the AIG debacle. Many people are suggesting that the people should return the bonuses. I haven't looked at the details to know if I agree with that or not. One thing I will say, is I agree with Chuck Thinks Right, the politicians need to lead by example. Any politician that received any contribution from AIG should return the money to AIG, who can then return it to the government (not the politician).

Can you do your job TOO well?

Suppose that you were in a job where a lot of people were doing the same thing. Now suppose all of the people around you were failing at their job, but you were succeeding. The boss comes around, you would expect he would praise you, right?

Well not if you were a bank. Seems a bank in Massachusetts was doing a good job. Actually, an exceptional job. They had NO bad loans. While this article isn't clear, I would assume they got no TARP money since they had no Troubled Assets that needed Recovering (that's the TAR part of TARP).

But instead of praising the bank, the FDIC is criticizing them. Saying they should have taken more risk. Helped out "the community" more. Now I'm all about helping the community. Search back through my blog for the word VITA and you'll see the way I'm doing this now. Taking every Friday & Saturday afternoon, not to mention the classes I went to before that. But that's my choice.

If this bank wants to help the community, there are lots of ways they can participate. I'm willing to bet they already help in a lot of ways, they've just chosen not to write bad loans. Isn't that what got us into this trouble?

Verizon Freedom Essentials

Today I received a call from Verizon. They wanted to help me save money. Since saving money is always a good deal, I decided I'd talk to them (even though I figured they really wanted to sell me something).

So they proceeded to look at my service records and offer me the Freedom Essentials plan for only $49.99. This sounded like a good deal to me, so I asked how much I was currently paying. Turns out Mr. Victor Allen couldn't tell me that, he didn't have access to that information. All he could see was that I have a different vendor for my regional long distance and a third vendor for my out of state long distance.

True, I told him, the reason was that Verizon didn't offer a regional long distance so I used my cell phone for all long distance.

Realizing that he was quickly losing a sale, Mr. Allen asked if I had a computer. Yes, I said and he quickly offered me DSL service for only $19.99. I asked if they really had DSL service in my area, because they hadn't had it in the past. After checking, Mr. Allen was disappointed to find out that it was not an option.

So, if you're going to call me to sell me something, I have two suggestions: 1) Know what service you're giving me today and what it costs {especially if you claim to save me money} and 2) Know what services actually are available BEFORE you offer them to me.

Wanted

I saw this ad in the paper that read "Wanted 30 People Who have difficulty hearing and understanding."


Do you think I could send them my kids?

What were you thinking?

Last week, a Greenville bank was robbed. The bank robber walked into the bank, "pointed the gun at two women and forced them into an office where he presented a note demanding money" according to The Greenville News. Police snipers surrounded the building, SWAT team was deployed, FBI was on the scene and the robber walked out in handcuffs about 2 hours later. No one was injured.

By all accounts, the alleged robber, Bruce Lee Windsor, was a good man. At age 43, he was a deacon in his church, married for 16 years with four children from 11 down to 3 years old. Apparently, he had a real estate business that had gone south. His sister appeared at his bond hearing and said that he had "just snapped". His pastor spoke and said he was "one of the best fathers I know anywhere," and that his role as deacon at Brushy Creek Baptist Church included visiting shut-ins.

Several people at my church knew Mr. Wilson or knew someone who knew him. One lady is related to him by marriage (I'm unsure of the details).

I have just one question for Mr. Wilson: WHAT WERE YOU THINKING??

The obvious answer is that he wasn't thinking. Something possessed the man (and I do believe in a literal possession by evil spirits) and made him walk into the bank. The two women hostages were likely frightened out of their minds by the ordeal as were their families. Families of other bank employees were likely affected also.

I was at a meeting with someone who found out his daughter was across the street. He and his wife were also affected, as they worried about their daughter.

There is absolutely no excuse for this type of action. Mr. Wilson should have known that this is only going to make things worse. His wife and four kids will now be in the same fiscal problems they were in before, now he's not there to help them. I told my wife that I think he took a coward's way out.

The charges against him will likely keep him in jail for the rest of his kids' childhood. He can face 30 years for the robbery, 30 years each for each hostage taken and 5 years each on 2 counts of weapons charges. And that's just state charges, he could also face federal charges.

There were better ways out. Mr. Wilson had probably counseled people in his church to ask for help. He could have called lenders and explained the problem. He could have declared bankruptcy and still protected his house.

What seems odd to me is that the day after the robbery, the TV show Flashpoint (one of my new favorites) showed three "average men" who had hit rock bottom who held a company CEO hostage. One of the men threatened a dramatic suicide.

Hitting rock bottom is no excuse for this kind of behavior. It only makes matters worse. Even if Mr. Wilson was possessed (as I believe), he will still have to bear the consequences of his actions.

Girl Scout cookies with Grandpa

The little girls in our neighborhood know that I'm a sucker for Girl Scout cookies. Actually, for anything that they're selling. Christmas stuff, fruit for their band, whatever. But Girl Scout cookies are my favorite.

This year, with the kids being out of the house (see here) and my ever-round midsection, I decided to cut back to two boxes. Those coconut carmel things with chocolate drizzled over them and the peanut butter sandwiches. These are my favorite for two reasons: 1) I like the flavor and 2) they're the least favorite of other people (so I get more). The two boxes came a couple of weeks ago. My wife went to the door and the little girl stuck them out and said "Here, that will be seven dollars." I wish I had been able to see that.

Last Saturday, I came in after doing my VITA/TCE thing. My almost three year old grandson came up to me and said "Grandpa, we cain't eat all your Girl Scout cookies." The way he said it was so sad, it sounded like he had tried his best, but just couldn't do it. I think I gave him an extra cookie right then (sorry mom).

Yesterday, he came over for a while. I poured us a small glass of milk, one of the glasses with a large mouth. Then I got us each two of the peanut butter sandwiches (the coconut cookies are already gone) and sat down beside him. I showed him how to carefully and artfully dunk the cookie into the milk.

At first he was a little skeptical, then he started sucking the milk off the cookie and re-dunking it. I decided not to dunk my second cookie into the glass after that. But at least I've taught him about one of the good things in life. Girl Scout cookies with Grandpa.

The State of the Union Lite - Part 2

Well, I guess my message yesterday, really didn't get through. I fully expected some different responses. In reviewing what I wrote, I guess I watered it down somewhat.

My major beef this year (and last) is why have a response? Why must the party not in power feel the need to contradict the president and give their own view?

Typically, the response just sounds bitter. The response is written ahead of time without hearing what the president has to say. Who are they fooling? That's not a response, it's a presponse. It's like voting on a trillion dollar bill without reading it. But that gets to the economic spending package again.

The Republicans have a chance to show that they can be in politics without being bitter. They can take the high road and NOT have a presponse every time the president grunts (no disrespect to the president intended). Yes, the Democrats did it for 8 years, but that's no excuse.

Will this happen? I seriously doubt it.

The State of the Union - Lite

Last night was President Obama's first address to Congress. I admit, I did not watch, nor have I read the transcript. I watched a couple minutes of his Chief of Staff's explanation of what he said, and I watched the 11 o'clock news and saw some of the president's comments. I also did not watch Gov. Jindal's response, but I did see him talking as I flipped channels. I intend to read both speeches.

However, I wanted to make some comments similar to my comments from a year ago (seen here).

The purpose of the State of the Union, as prescribed by the Constitution, is to "from time to time" address the Congress. Think of it as the CEO telling the Board of Directors where he plans to take the company. It's a good time for him to challenge the congress on the direction he wants to take the company. He is, after all, the President. I'm not sure why, but the press all billed this as NOT the State of the Union, maybe because this administration is still new. He does need more time to evaluate before he makes an assessment. I wish more time had been spent evaluating things before the economic spending package was passed, but that's another story. I respect the president for addressing congress.

But I do have four specific problems:

1) This is supposed to be an address to congress. While I didn't watch, I suspect most of the speech was addressed at the TV cameras.

2) It's supposed to be "from time to time". Recent tradition has been to do this every year. Maybe President Obama will change things, we really don't need it every year. The current administration is still too new to make a "state of the union" speech, but I'll give a pass on that.

3) Why have a response? Why must the party not in power feel the need to contradict the president and give their own view? Typically, the response just sounds bitter. The response is written ahead of time without hearing what the president has to say. Who are they fooling? That's not a response. It's like voting on a Trillion dollar bill without reading it. But that gets to the economic spending package again.

4) The political pundits. I didn't listen last night. I'm sure they said how great the speech was and how President Obama reassured everyone. How he inherited the debt (and ignored that he's doubled it) and that this is the worst recession since 1929 (or was it 1982?). I'm sure there were some pot shots taken on Fox. Where in the Constitution does it say that political pundits are required and can we please only make it "time to time"?

It will be a couple of days at best before I can digest the President's and Governor's speeches. Not sure if I'll blog about them, but I do intend to read them.

Social Networking at it's best

I heard a commercial a few weeks back on the radio that focused on social networking. I can't remember what the commercial was for (which questions the effectiveness of the ad), but I think it might have been McDonald's.

Seems a guy was really in to social networking. He had just received a virtual high five from a friend and was looking for a way to spend some of his virtual bucks in another virtual game. Some real friends ask him if he wants to go to McDonald's (or the advertiser's) and he explained that he had to wait on a virtual reply.

The focus was on real networking with real people - - and of course the now forgotten advertiser.

Last night, I had dinner with an old college Friend that I met through Facebook. A couple of weeks ago his sister found me and then I found him. We haven't seen each other in around 27 years, but he commented that we hadn't changed that much, just that we had both put on a couple of pounds (well, understatement is a good thing).

We talked over dinner about our careers, our interests and our families. It's amazing how many times in the last 27 years our paths have nearly crossed, even working for the same company for about three years at one time and never knowing it.

Not sure when we'll have a chance to get together again, we live about 4.5 hours apart, work took me to his town. I make this trip every 2-4 months, but often have dinner plans with a client when I get here.

But at least something positive can come out of social networking.

Salary caps - good for the goose, good for the gander

"Good for the goose, good for the gander" is a saying I heard often from my mom & dad. I've been thinking a lot about the idea of salary caps and I have to say it bothers me.

The idea is that companies that take bail-out money (banks, auto companies, etc) would cap salaries of their CEO's etc at $500,000. In the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit that I would NOT be affected by this cap and probably won't be affected for at least the next 2-3 years.

But I got to wondering, if this is good for bank and auto CEO's, why not for other people? I saw this article that writes about two college presidents that make $900,000 and $1.4million. Seems like those colleges take scholarships handed out on the federal level, shouldn't they be capped also? (I'm ignoring the football coaches, as that will start a different argument).

More importantly, how about politicians? Well, the president is typically the highest-paid official, his salary is only $400,000. But if you tack on his expense account, travel account and entertainment account, he's over the cap at $569,000. Reckon President Obama can afford a $69,000 pay cut?

And how about past politicians? Remember, what's good for the goose is good for the gander. According to an April 2008 article, the Clintons made about $20million in 2007. Now since there's two of them, they would be capped at $500,00 each, so they get a cool $1million. Shouldn't they give $19million back to the government (in fairness, they did pay about $5.1million in taxes and typically gave around 10% to charity - that means they are only $12million away from this cap).

Let's not stop with education, business and politics. What about sports? Seems that Tiger Woods makes about $227million, LeBron James $40m and A-Rod $35m just to name a few. (thanks to Sports Illustrated for the reference). And if we look at the left coast (Hollywood), George Clooney rakes in $15m (paltry compared to Tom Cruise's $25m) according to bankrate.com.

Once we dictate what CEO's can make, why not stop there? Why not establish salaries up and down the line? We're already dictating the minimum wage. It's the middle class that's left out of the picture.

Ok, my opinion should be clear, but just to be sure: I'm against salary caps.

Free for only $12.95

This morning I saw a commercial on television for a Free Credit Score from Equifax and it piqued my curiosity. I follow my credit report with the real no-charge (I hate to say free) credit report at annualcreditreport.com, but you don't get a credit score. So logging on to equifax.com/freescore, I looked for the catch.

It turns out the score is free, but you pay $12.95 for the other stuff you get for free: Credit monitoring (which you can get for free at annualcreditreport.com),. unlimited Equifax reports (you only get 1 per credit union at annualcreditreport.com) and "An explanation of what your score means and how it compares to national averages."

Annualcreditreport.com gives you three truly free credit reports per year. You can space these out every four months and you will be up to date on your credit report pretty frequently. If you're married, your spouse can check his/her report every four months also. Space these separately and every two months one of you can check their credit report. I check ours in odd numbered months (getting ready for March).

Last year we received a notice from some strange company that they were collecting an old debt. We felt we didn't owe it, so we requested more information. After waiting almost 30 days (the limit the company had to respond), we received a notice asking for more information from us: driver's license, address history, etc. I checked and none of it was required, so I sent a new letter asking for the origin of the debt.

This second letter included a request that the company clean it off my record and reported that I was following the law. I also explained that if I did not get sufficient response, I would send the next letter to the Attorney General.

Within 30 days (barely), I received a letter that the debt was cancelled, my report was cleaned. I've checked a couple times, and nothing unexpected is on my credit report.

So here's the moral to the story: You should check your credit report frequently, but ONLY use the annualcreditreport.com site. It's really free (doesn't have a catchy song and commercial) and is accurate. You can do this three times a year per person and stay up to date.

Oliver North Day

Today I spent a good part of the day cleaning out files. I changed jobs back on February 1 (actually 2nd since 1st was a weekend) and I needed to get rid of a lot of junk. Anything with a customer name on it had to be shredded (not that anyone really cares) and anything labeled "confidential" saw the same fate, even if it was years old.

I saw some documents from as far back as 2003, there were probably some older. Maps from airports to hotels that I've forgotten about and some others that I wish I could forget.

At the end of the day, I had four large bags of shredded paper. Fawn Hall came home from her day of teaching and tutoring and we had dinner.

Oliver North's got nothing on me...

Economic Spending Package - Hurry up and wait

Last week I posted a note about the economic spending package (see here). One of my comments said that our president was running around like Chicken Little saying the sky would fall if the bill wasn't passed quickly.

As I expected, the bill passed quickly. However, the president changed his tune a little and waited four days to sign it. So what happened while he waited? Well, according to this article, quite a bit.

"Based on the average daily job loss in January, four lost days amounts to more than 77,000 lost jobs. In addition, four days is worth more than 35,000 foreclosure filings, based on averaging the 274,000 foreclosures and notices posted in January."

So what did Senate leader Harry Reid say? "Sitting idly by is not an option." Well, actually he said that after the Senate passed the bill and before the president sat idly by.

And what did the president say? "We'll begin making the immediate investments necessary to put people back to work doing the work America needs done." Of course he said this on Saturday, the immediately waited three more days before doing anything.

So why did the president wait? "The White House explained that it waited until Tuesday to sign the bill because the clerk of the House didn't deliver it in its enrolled form until mid-day Monday."

But the most important part of this story is the final line: That meant it took longer to prepare the bill for (President) Obama's signature than it took for lawmakers to read the final compromise version in its printed form."

Actually, I doubt any lawmaker read the bill in its entirety before voting. For me that should be good enough to vote no. Would you sign a contract without reading it? (maybe that's part of our foreclosure problem).

VITA/TCE Certified - Update

About a month ago, I reported that I was VITA/TCE certified (see here). I thought I'd offer an update.

VITA stands for Volunteer Income Tax Assistance and TCE stands for Tax Care for the Eldery. Locally, it's administered through the United Way, but the IRS provides the training material, the software we use and some of the hardware (some laptops). The goal is to help those with low-moderate income with their taxes. We do e-filing for both federal and state (SC).

I went through a few classes (it started out as six, but after the first three, much was repitition) provided by two VITA site coordinators. The key to remember in all of this is that V stands for volunteer (as in no-pay). At the end of the classes I had a good feel for the software, a better understanding of taxes, and a little bit of information on how the process works.

I've now spent three Saturday afternoons and two Friday afternoons preparing taxes for others (still haven't done my own yet). I've probably filed taxes for over 30 people (I wish I had counted). For their privacy, I can't say a lot about them, but I will say I have been pleasantly suprised at the attitudes. No one has gotten upset at me and with only one or two exceptions, they haven't asked the government to do more for them. Most are very polite, with several of the young adults being overly polite (yes sir, no sir, thank you sir).

There has been some challenges, like the 3 year old girl who pulled the fire alarm, but there have also been some very good points, like the three young boys, around age 10, who were quietly waiting for over an hour, then helped stack chairs while someone else helped their mom. We are looking for them to come back next Saturday to help stack chairs again.

The site coordinator at one of the sites I work came in this last Saturday and announced he was late because he had been in prison. I'm sure some of the taxpayers raised an eyebrow, but he later explained he was working with Prison Fellowship Ministries, like my blog-friend Neil.

I have another two months to go, but so far, I'm enjoying providing this service to others.

Baked Chicken Spaghetti Casserole Recipe

I have to give credit to the folks at CDKitchen for this recipe (see here). I made this for dinner Tuesday night and it was very good. I'm looking for ways to "improve" it, so if you have ideas, please post them here.

The recipe says it takes two hours, but I don't think it took me that long and I'm slow. I'll post the full recipe here with my alterations.

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons margarine
1 cup celery, chopped (we didn't have it, I thought about water chestnuts, but didn't have that either)
1 cup onion ,chopped (I used 1 large onion, didn't measure)
3/4 cup green pepper,chopped (I don't like green peppers)
1 teaspoon flour (I used about 3 tsp)
1 1/2 cup chicken broth
1 cup milk
1 can cream of mushroom soup
black pepper
2 cups chicken breast cooked and cubed (I boiled two chicken breasts, didn't measure)
12 ounces spaghetti cooked and drained (I didn't measure)
1 cup Mexican blend cheese ,shredded (again, didn't measure)
buttered cracker crumbs (we had garlic & herb)

(I started the chicken cooking and the spaghetti. I guess the folks at CDKitchen just assume. Once the chicken was ready, I started the sauce cooking)

Sauce: Cook celery, onion and green pepper in margarine. Stir in flour, chicken broth and milk , cook until thickened and bubbly. Add mushroom soup. (My goal was a thick sauce)

In a 9x13 baking dish, layer a layer each of the sauce and spaghetti. Repeat layers again. Top with cheese and cracker crumbs. (note it didn't say to add the chicken. I made a layer of spaghetti, then a layer of chicken, salt & pepper to taste, then repeated. Then I poured the sauce over it all).

Bake at 325F for 45 min or until bubbly. ( I cooked for 30 minutes, then added a layer of cheese and a layer of cracker crumbs and cooked 15 more minutes).

I thought about adding some chopped broccoli. I would have like for the finished product to have more color, maybe some green and red. The broccoli would add flavor and green, not sure what for red. I also like crunchy, celery would have added some, so would water chestnuts. I'd like to find something else.

I shared the recipe with a friend who is vegetarian. For her, I suggested portabello mushroom instead of chicken. I'm sure there are many variations.

Any other suggestions?

P.S. This made 6 servings. I eat the last leftovers for lunch today...

Newest Duke Scholar

I meant to post this last week, but got otherwise occupied. Seems my oldest grand-daughter (barely 2 months old - see here) has already been accepted at Duke University. Yep, they contacted her and extended a special invitation. They sought her out.

She's already attended one day and at the end of the day they were so amazed they awarded her a certificate. Seems she's going to be helping some of the older students work on a research project (see here).

Now, my son was a Duke TIP scholar (see here), but that was when he was old, like in the 7th grade or something. Kayden is getting into this way early.

And of course, I'm sure it's because of something her grandfather has already been teaching her...

Economic Spending Plan - Too big to fail?

My frequent readers will know that I like cute titles. I thought of a couple for this post "Part Deux - No Duck" or "Like Prego - It's in there!" I decided to be somewhat sincere instead and ask the question - is the economic spending plan too big to fail?

Last week I heard comments that there was a bailout for Hollywood in the plan. Seems movie theaters weren't making enough money and actors were underpaid. I think the spending plan was to buy leftover popcorn after the movies were over. However, on more research, it looks like that has been removed.

I also heard there was spending in the plan for starving artists. Always looking for a handout, the NEA had some $$ placed in the bill for them. I have no idea if this is in or out. My question is, if this stays in, do I get a choice on what is deemed "art"? Or at least the government? Somehow I doubt the artists will allow that.

Included in the plan is (was?) money to re-sod the grass on the National Mall (I was there last summer, it needs it), money for Head Start, Pell Grants and college loans, money for new computers for the State Department, and restrooms in national parks.

There's also money for infrastructure. There's a list of infrastructure projects at this WSJ site, but some include a waterfront duck pond park and dog park, a senior center and aquatic facility, sports parks, and life style centers.

This bill is turning out to be worse than a bill signed by the previous president that included a tax break for wooden arrows. And the current president is running around like Chicken Little, saying the sky will fall if we don't sign this bill now. Many will say that this is politics as usual, but I thought we were promised change in this administration.

Mr. President, here's the change I suggest. Don't press for this bill. If it gets through congress (it probably will) it should not be signed. Instead, pull out pieces that are good (there might be some in there). Explain why it's good (e.g. it creates jobs) and package it as a bill by itself. Have congress pass the bill and then sign it. Instead of one big bill have several smaller bills.

I seriously doubt President Obama will have time to read my blog today (I hear he has a busy day planned), so I'll ask you, my reader, to pass the word around.

My final thought on this for the day is a quote (Mark Twain? Will Rogers?) that said "As long as congresss is in session, your wallet isn't safe."

Dumb quotes from politicians

I had a discussion the other day with a co-worker about a certain former vice president. I won't say which vp, but I will say there were potatoes involved.

My comment was that, with the news media following you every day, all day, you're bound to say something that sounds stupid sometime. In fact, the whole conversation started because I had said something like "we need to be prepared for every known problem and even for unknown problems." She accurately pointed out that you can't really prepare for unknown problems and I was reminded of this old quote.

But I decided to look for some dumb quotes from politicians. I decided that the current president is still on his honeymoon and finding dumb quotes from him may be difficult and I frankly didn't want to work that hard. I wanted to be bi-partisan, so I looked for quotes by both Republicans and Democrats. I offer below some quotes by two former presidents and two former vice presidents and two former candidates. In some cases, I cite the source, in others I don't. Sue me. I also did no checking to see if these are correct, it's just not that important. My point stands: You can find something stupid on everyone.

Bush: "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." —Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004


"Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country." —Poplar Bluff, Mo., Sept. 6, 2004

Cheney:
"I had other priorities in the sixties than military service." –on his five draft deferments, April 5, 1989


"I'm up in the Senate most Tuesdays when they're in session. The first time I ever met you was when you walked on this stage tonight." --Vice President Dick Cheney to Sen. John Edwards during the vice presidential debate, despite the fact they had met on at least three previous occasions

Kerry:
"You bet we might have." (that's definitive)

"I actually did vote for the $87 billion, before I voted against it." (standing up for what he believes in - at the moment)

McCain:
"I spent several years in a North Vietnamese prison camp, in the dark, fed with scraps. Do you think I want to do that all over again as vice president of the United States?"


Bill Clinton:
"I'm sure I spent more time in Texas than anybody else who had run for President recently." (George H. Bush?)


"The last time I checked, the Constitution said, 'of the people, by the people and for the people.' That's what the Declaration of Independence says." - Bill Clinton (Note that the statement quoted was from the Gettysburg Address)

Al Gore:
"There was never any doubt in our minds that men and women were equal, if not more so." (Source: NY Times, 08/12/00 - he must have read Animal Farm)


"A zebra does not change its spots."

Graham Says Obama Is 'AWOL' on Stimulus Debate

For those of you unfamiliar with SC politics, Senator Lindsey Graham is about as far from conservative as you can be and still be in the Republican party. I told someone last year that he had never met a compromise he didn't like.

So him saying President Obama is not showing leadership is disheartening. I've read the article (here) and I'm not 100% sure I know how I feel about this. It just seemed a little unusual....

Digital TV - another change

Ok, the latest word is that the conversion is off. NY Times says that we'll hold off the conversion until June. See here.

So we've been planning this since 1996, and we get to the end of the conversion and hold the presses, let's wait four more months.

Then we decided not to wait, now we're waiting again.

On, off, back on and now back off.

Can't we just get it done and over with?

Broadband Stimulus - Part 2

I don't often post on the same thing this quickly, but a combination of a busy day yesterday and updates to the topic forced this on me.

A NY Times article seems to point out some of the contradictions in the broadband stimulus part of the economic spending plan. I encourage you to read it.

There are three things it points out that I took to note:

1) "it will take at least until 2015 to spend all the money on infrastructure to deliver the service — vastly limiting the stimulating punch." - Where's the stimulus?

2) "$110 million in tax breaks in the Senate bill that could benefit large Internet service providers." - So we bail out the big guys again?

3) "The broadband effort also runs another risk inherent to government stimulus spending, by reducing private investment." - enough said

There is a discussion by a NC congressman about providing access to rural areas and bringing them onto an equal ground with more urban areas, especially in the areas of education, health care and apple pie (that last part is my add-in). I would ask the congressman, if he thinks it's such a good idea, why doesn't the state provide it? Why should this be a federal bail-out?

Broadband stimulus

One of the items in the current spending package (I've decided not to call it a stimulus package) is some funding to help provide more broadband Internet connectivity to rural areas. The idea is to wire areas to the Internet in much the way they were wired to electricity during the New Deal era.

But it also seems like before we start wiring up Ma & Pa Kettle's house, we ought to make sure they want to use broadband. A survey done by the Pew Internet & American Life Project says that 2/3 of Americans that don't have broadband today, don't want it. The problem isn't availability. The problem isn't price. They just don't see any reason for things to move faster than with their dial-up modems In fact, "19 percent of dial-up users, for example, say that 'nothing' would get them to upgrade, not even lower prices." (see here)

Now you may think this is crazy. You're reading my blog and probably have some sort of high speed connection. But you're not the one targeted by this. Who is? Why it's the big Internet companies who stand to make the most from it. So let's call this the Internet bail-out part of the current spending plan.

A better way to handle this is to let the Internet providers fight it out themselves for speed. Charter is hawking a super-fast 60Mbps downstream Internet services (I think I'm running at 3Mbps, maybe 5Mbps and it works fine for me). Verizon is upgrading it's FIOS and is drooling over the possibility of getting some bail-out money. (see here)

Another option for high-speed Internet is to use a "cellular" card or "air card" as it is sometimes called. These cards can be used almost anywhere. When I travel, I sometimes find that they are faster than the hotel's "high speed connection."

The broadband stimulus needs to be cut out of the economic spending plan

R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me

I recently had a discussion with another blogger about respect. He pointed out that he believed respect was earned. In some ways, I agree with him, but in other ways I disagree.

Wikipedia defines respect as "esteem for, or a sense of the worth or excellence of, a person, a personal quality, ability, or a manifestation of a personal quality or ability." What a mouthful. It gives an example a salute in the military as a sign of respect.

But a salute in the military is based on the number (and type) of stripes the person is wearing. If a man approaches you with more stripes than you, you had better salute.

The same goes for the job world. On Monday, I start a new job (in the same company). I haven't worked for my new manager before and when I've worked with him, it's been on a peer level. But I have to respect him. When a decision is made, I have to respect the decision. Whether I think it's the right decision or not, I have to respect it (or go find another job).

Politicians deserve a certain degree of respect. In my last post, I quoted a congressman from Florida who made some pretty stupid statements. I don't know the man, and while he said something stupid, I still owe him some respect. When he speaks again, I'll listen carefully to see what value he might have. He represents the people of his district and he deserves to be heard.

A couple of our former presidents are low on my respect list. One lied on television to all Americans, told our daughters that oral sex didn't matter and then only told part of the truth when he knew he would get caught. But he was still elected by the American people (twice) and I have to respect that. When he speaks, I listen carefully to what he says.

The other president I refer to was never a "bad" president (he was never accused of any crimes that I know of), but was pretty lack-luster. The only military action during his term ended in failure. But I still listen to him. I was greatly disappointed when he spoke badly of a sitting president, something no other former president has done except during an election. But the next time he's on TV, I will listen to him again. He deserves that respect.

I've made no reservations in showing the areas I disagree with the current president. But I've read his speeches in detail and understand why he does the things he does. And I respect his opinion. And respect that he was elected by the American people. I may disagree with his actions and I may even "lobby" against them here in my blog. But I respect him and I respect his position.

The Rescue Plan - Why didn't we pass it sooner?

A few weeks ago, I posted my feelings on the rescue plan (see here). I said it reminded me of a pyramid scheme as we were going to keep borrowing to get out of the borrowing mess.

However, Representative Alan Grayson of Florida has explained it and now I'm wondering why we didn't pass it sooner. Rep Grayson said the bill would "shelters the homeless, and heals the sick. It helps us to look forward to a day where we beat our swords into plowshares."

MAN!! If it does all that, it's got to be good. I would have liked to have seen a little raising of the dead, but I guess I can settle for this.

(see the story here)

More to come later....

Digital TV Conversion - updated

You may have heard that the conversion to Digital TV has been delayed. CNN reports "The transition to digital-only broadcasts had been set for nearly a decade for February 17, 2009, but 6.5 million households, mostly lower-income, have not bought the newer digital TVs or converters for their old sets." (emphasis mine, full story here).

Congress, the ever caring, is worried about these 6.5million households. Now there are over 111million households (see here), so this is just under 6%. So why is it that we are worried about these 6% of Americans? Well according to the LA Times, "Consumers throughout America . . . will lose access to essential news and information" if the deadline isn't extended (see here).

But wait, people who have access to cable or satellites (or people who thought ahead) will have access to essential news and information. So, we're talking about people who don't have access to cable or satellites. People who only have access to the big networks. Which has been proven over and over to be left leaning. So, if we convert on schedule, those brain-washed by the left, won't be brain-washed anymore. Hmmm, maybe there's more to the story here... Oops I just lost my connection, guess I can't investigate any more.

** Update
Steve beat me to the punch (I guess I slept too late). See in the comments where he points out the vote did not pass and the digital TV conversion will proceed as originally planned. According to one report I read, "millions are unprepared". The switch will (at least for now) still take place on Feb 17. Digital TV sellers will increase prices until then....

Two funny stories from school

Both of these are true stories, I have to protect the sources. But both were relayed directly to me from an inside source.

First a middle school kid was suspended for two days. The reason why isn't important, the father emailed the teacher and told her he was very disappointed. Seems the young lad (middle school) had been having problems so the father had him write an 1800 word essay on discipline and the consequences of suspension.

What makes this funny is that my kids think I'm the only one that does this kind of stuff.

Second is a high school kid in a government class. The discussion today centered on Governor Blagojevich being accused of selling President Obama's Senate Seat. This high school senior said he thought it was fine. After every one expressed their surprise, he pointed out that they are selling pens used by Obama and papers, why not sell his seat too? (This kid is a football player, but unfortunately, he's not THAT good).

Blog reading diversity

I try to be somewhat diverse in my blog reading. Certainly most of what I read is stuff written by Christians who are politically conservative. But I read blogs about politics, religion, life in general and even a daily blog by a Miata lover (Brian almost makes me covet his red Miata).

But lately I've been looking for some greater diversity in what I read. My posts on contrary evidence, Super-heroes needing an antagonist and even on diversity itself were basically disguised attempts to look for another blog or two that I could read.

So if you know of a good blog from another view, especially a political or religious blog, let me know.

Contrary evidence

A couple of my readers might remember reading some of this before. But not more than two. I've never blogged about it, so it's fresh for most of you.

I've always made it a point to look for contrary evidence. Let's say I'm evaluating two options, A and B. All evidence points to option A being better. It's cheaper, lasts longer, cleans brighter and makes you look 10 years younger. There's a tendency to only look at option A. But the question is, what are you missing?

This seems to happen a lot in politics. If you like candidate A, you'll only see good things in what he does. And you'll only see bad things in what candidate B does.

In the last week, we had a significant change in political leadership. Some severely dislike the former president and refuse to even think anything good happened on his watch. Other dislike the new president so much, they complain about policies he hasn't even implemented yet.

It seems to me that if we fight Democrat vs Republican we miss so many opportunities to learn from each other. We miss a lot of the people who are impacted by the decisions made by both parties. And isn't that what we should be focusing on to begin with?

A sign of things to come

I have to start by saying that I'm not happy with the world reputation that we (Americans) have due to the problems at Guantanamo Bay Cuba. Frankly, I'm not sure what we should do with these prisoners.

As an American, I think everyone deserves a fair trial. The prisoners are not Americans, but I still think they should be treated with respect and humanity. My understanding of the interrogation techniques is more than I care to understand.

But I also know that what hap pend almost 8 years ago was the most horrific thing that has happened to the United States in my lifetime. More horrific than the current crisis we face. Both the economic crisis and the perception crisis around the world. And if it takes housing prisoners in Cuba and interrogation techniques more horrific than I can imagine, then so be it.

Unfortunately, it looks like we will loose that bargaining chip. For the last 8 years, we've done it ourselves, prior to that we, outsourced those actions to other countries.

The New York Times is reporting that a former prisoner in Cuba, who was released in 2007, has risen to become a new chief within the Al Qaeda network. Is this a sign of things to come? I hope not. See the full article here.

Every super hero needs an antagonist

The movie Unbreakable came out in 2000 and featured Bruce Willis as a superhero (who didn't know that's what he was) and Samuel L. Jackson as his antagonist. Batman needs the Riddler. Underdog needs Simon Bar Sinister.

This thought came to me about normal people too. Normal people need someone to hate. I was talking to someone recently who saw another person as a villain. When I pointed out some features of the villain that weren't so bad, I was greeted with contradictions and then a quiet stare. I changed the subject.

For the last eight year, President Bush has been the villain of choice for a lot of people. I believe he intentionally took that role, to be a lightning rod for those people. He knew some of his ideas were unpopular, there were several that I didn't like. But rather than pointing the finger, he decided to shield some of those around him.

The question is, now that Bush is gone, who will be the villain? We have a Democratic President, a Democratic Senate and a Democratic House of Representatives. The individuals who see Bush as the uber-antagonist won't see the same in the new president. Will it be Rush Limbaugh (who I can only tolerate in short segments, about once a month)? Some other right wing conspiracist?

Today, I have decided that I'm no super-hero. I don't need an arch-enemy (I'm probably my own). I choose to look at the world with open eyes and not to see the villainy of those who oppose my ideas. Instead, I will oppose their ideas and support their ideas when I agree.

For such a time as this - Bush?

I'm hoping some of the people who don't support Bush will read this and comment.

If you haven't heard Wayne Watson's song "For Such a Time as This", you should go right now and listen to it and see the words on YouTube (here). It's taken from the Old Testament book of Esther.

If you're not familiar with the book, you should go to a Jewish Purim play (hopefully Messianic Jews). They put the book on as a play. The one I attended was fun, involving the audience throughout. The premise of the book is that the Jews are living as slaves in Persia (modern Iran). During this time, Esther (who happens to be a "closet" Jew) is made Queen. Then Haman, a really bad dude, crafts a plan to kill all the Jews. It was at this time, that her uncle said "who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this."

The song is interesting to me personally, because I've seen in my life where God placed someone "for such a time as this." That person helped me through a particularly difficult time, but I found later that I helped that person also.

But back to my theme, I believe that President Bush believes he was made president "for such a time as this."

At this point, I won't deliberate whether I agree with him or not, I just want to stipulate what I think HE believes. I believe that everything about what Pres. Bush has done since September 2001 has been based on that. He believes that he is operating on a power, not given by the American people, but given by God.

I have to confess, in some ways, this bothers me. For him to put so much faith, and to control the nation by that faith, well, it's just a little scary. I can't find anything constitutionally wrong with this idea. But what if his power isn't from God? Well, I've decided that in that case, I'd let God take care of it. He's better equipped than me.

So, I'd ask you to read Pres. Bush's mind a little or at least evaluate what he's done the last 8 years and see if you agree. Does Bush believe that he was placed in the presidency "for such a time as this?"

Swing Vote - Movie Review

"Swing Vote" was our best Netflix pick in a long string of bad picks. If you haven't see the previews, it's like this: through an odd sequence of events, the presidential election comes down to one man's vote. That man is "Bud" Johnson, a worker in an egg sorting factory. He has a couple of weeks to make his decision and during that time, he's in the spotlight.

Courted by the nominees of both parties, he has to decide the next leader of the free world. All during the movie, I kept thinking, what if "Joe the Plumber" had to make that decision. Now while I might have agreed with Joe's choice, frankly I think the whole ordeal was grossly overplayed by both parties. And that's what happens in this movie.

What's interesting is to think about a given topic (say environmental protection) and where the republican and democratic candidates might stand on the topic. Then see where they stand in this movie, or better yet, where they stand when they try to when Bud's vote.

But is a single dad, with a 12 year old daughter who knows more about politics and politicians than he does. During his two weeks of fame, he and his daughter have secret service protection, yet she still manages to slip away. Bud is upset and yells at he secret service "you guys protect the President." To which they reply "she's smarter" (than the President).

During another banter with his daughter, Bud expresses his distaste for egg-salad sandwiches for lunch every day (remember he works at an egg sorting factory). His daughter explains "You want to eat better? Drink less beer."

The one downside to the movie was the profanity. Am I the only one in America upset with profanity? www.kids-in-mind.com (an excellent website for reviews) says that there are 38 instances of profanity. I think they missed a few.

Overall, the movie was a good one. I give it an easy thumbs-up

when do you blog?

I blog at various times. Sometimes, I blog during slow time at work, when I'm waiting on someone to call me back (see yesterday's blog for an example). Sometimes I blog in the morning, when I'm going through my list of daily blogs.

Usually, I'm listening to the radio (via the internet), so blogs with music on them mess me up. I'm putting those on a special list, which I will view when I can.

Other times, I review blogs and create a new entry on my own when I'm listening to a boring conference call. Those seems to come up a lot this time of the year. Everyone is closing out for last year and starting fresh.

When do you blog? When do you read other blogs?

Failure to plan on your part....

Does not constitute an emergency on my part....

1) I went from one call to another most of the day today. People who tried to Instant Message me couldn't get to me. My answer to them - schedule something with me later. "No, I'll just try again." - OK, but it's going to be the same.

2) When you schedule something and I tell you there's a conflict, don't expect me to suddenly drop everything/.

3) Problems with your paycheck? I am not your personal banker. You should have planned better.

What a frustrating day.

VITA/TCE Certified

Last night I took the Basic Exam for the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) and Tax Care for the Elderly (TCE) Certification Course. It's pretty tough, with 30 questions ranging from filing status to dependency questions. You also have to fill out two complete 1040's along with supporting forms to answer some of the questions and then do a review of someone else's form. The test is administered electronically.

The big news: I passed!! I'm now officially certified. I've probable spent somewhere around 40 hours working on this and probably around 20 of those in the last 3 days. So this was a big victory for me.

Tonight I start the software training, 6 nights of classes, 2.5hours each night. Then I start preparing taxes the following weekend. Right now, I'm just enjoying looking at my laser printed - suitable for framing, certificate.

Oh diversity, where art thou?

Several years ago, I purchased a video tape (pre-DVD days) that was the original pilot for the original Star Trek series. You see, the original pilot was never shown on TV in it's entirety. When the "big shots" at NBC saw it, they asked for another pilot, one with a more western style. So Roddenberry went off and created a new one. The original pilot came back in pieces as a two part episode.

For the initial showing of the tape, I invited a lot of co-workers from my then new job. The tape had an introduction from Gene Roddenberry that explained (among other things) that the show practiced wide diversity at a time when television was not very diverse. Indeed, the show included males and females in roles of authority, blacks, Asians, and even aliens. One of my college friends told me that the show featured TV's first inter-racial kiss (Uhura and Kirk). In the last few years, we've learned that one of the stars (Lt. Sulu) was even homosexual, although he wasn't open about it at the time.

During the show, I realized that my group of friends lacked a lot of diversity. All were white males. However, we were somewhat diverse, one co-worker asked where he could go to smoke a cigarette.

So my question is, what is the value in diversity? Should there be diversity in everything? If your company is looking to be diverse, does that mean they will be recruiting smokers and alcoholics or is diversity restricted to skin color and sexual orientation/

It's come to my attention that my blog readers are not very diverse. I did have one self-described liberal reader (David, are you still out there?), but most are politically conservative. Most are Christian. I do have a mix of male/female.

If you have some liberal and/or non-Christian friends, I'd appreciate it if you sent them my way. My message hits a diverse set of topics and hopefully there is something for everyone.

Time Zone Shifting

Seems that when my kids were (and one still is) in college, they engaged in an activity I call Time Zone Shifting. They go to bed very late and then sleep until noon. It's as if they are living their life on Pacific time or Hawaii time or something.

Well, this weekend, I'm Time Zone Shifting, except in the opposite direction. Last night, I conked out about 9pm, then this morning I woke up at 5am. Not sure how I'll get back on Eastern Standard Time...

OK, I confess, I'm a hypocrite

My faithful readers know that I'm a conservative. Lower taxes, less government interference. If someone suggests additional government help for the jobless, I'll tell 'em to go get a job.

But when it becomes personal, I change my tune. And by personal, I don't just mean when it affects me. I mean when it affects me or those around me. Friends, neighbors, etc on an individual basis.

I've helped some people do taxes in the past and I went out of my way to make sure they got every dollar they could, even if it meant getting more in a refund than they paid in the first place. Maybe I don't agree with the idea of them getting money back that they didn't pay in (I never did), but if they have a chance of helping themselves, I'm all for it.

Same goes for welfare. I hate the idea of it. I think it's wrong. But if someone I know is entitled to collect some, I'll help them any way I can.

So why the hypocrisy? Basically, it comes down to this: if they don't take the money, it's not going to change anything, only make them poorer. By taking the money, they may be able to change their lifestyle.

This year, I've signed up to help with VITA - Volunteer Income Tax Assistance. I start my formal training next week (I've been doing some online training already). In respect to my clients-to-be, I won't blog about the details of anything I'll be doing. If I find that I can sprinkle tidbits into my blog, I might, but first priority has to be to protect the dignity and privacy of the people.

Wish me luck.

Do you believe this 100%

Earlie this week, I focused on some "facts" that I find almost unbelievable. Did you realize we're moving at over 1,000 miles per hour? Today, I'll get to my main point, do you believe the Bible 100%? I do, but I also confess that sometimes it's a little hard to believe it all.


When I first became a Christian, there were a lot of parts of the Bible I didn't believe. I mean creation in 7 days? A man swallowed by a fish, came out three days later and preached? Come on, let's get real. But as I get older and understand more, I begin to believe more. Most of the change came when I accepted the fact that God is god and I am not. If He truly is God, He can do anything He wants. Creating the world in 7 days seems to be easy enough. Why when you really get down to it, He only needed 6 days and most of that was just looking around at what He had made thinking "man, look what I did."


So, here's my point. Maybe you have trouble believing everything in the Bible. That's OK, God has seen and heard that before. He can handle it. The real key is do you trust Him to handle it? God said there is one way to Him, through His Son Jesus. Once you accept Jesus, the rest is easy. If He can create the world in 7 days, surely He can work with you to understand His Word.

If you haven't come to the point where you trust Him yet, or if you trust Him, but don't completely believe all the stories you've heard, then why not read His Word? Read the stories and ask Him to explain it to you. Then read some more.

How fast are you moving?

I had a thought the other day, how fast am I moving? We all "know" that the earth rotates about once a day (sometimes it seems faster), exactly how fast is that? Well it turns out to be easy to calculate, according to this website, the earth is about 24,901 miles in circumference, doing a little math tells me that it's a little under 24,000 miles in Greenville, SC.

And don't forget, we're moving around the sun in an orbit once a year (last year seemed very slow to me, maybe it was that leap second?) That's a journey of some 585 million miles according to this site.

So we're spinning at around 1,000 miles per hour and hurling around the sun at just under 67,000 miles per hour. And of course this ignores the fact that our solar system is traveling through the galaxy (thinking about the Milky Way makes me want a candy bar). My question is: Do you believe this 100%

I have to confess that I don't. Oh I accept it. I've been on a plane, the "fact" that the earth is round makes sense to me. I've made models of our solar system, seen the sun rise over the ocean and even seen it set over a different ocean. But somehow the numbers are just mind-boggling.

A couple of my readers will know first hand that I love those tea-cups at Disney World. You're spinning a cup that is on a spinning saucer that is on a spinning plate. You're spinning in three different directions at once. Hopefully, you have a good stomach and the walks of the cup will hold you in.

But what holds us on the earth? Well, you're probably thinking I've lost my mind, gravity of course! But do you believe in gravity 100%? Sure, I took physics in high school and college, I've done all the math and know that all masses have gravity. But if that's true, why aren't I attracted to things around me? I admit, I'm attracted to my wife, but that's a different attraction.

I remember doing the math in high school on gravity and the earth's gravity is so much, that everything else close by pales in comparison. But who measured the earth's mass? And how? did they use a big scale? No wait, scales measure weight, not mass.

By now you're convinced that I've lost my mind. That may be true. But there is an ulterior motive here if you'll be patient. I wasn't up too late last night, and I promise there's a point here. Simply put, how many things in life do you accept as being true without honestly believing 100%? You just accept someone else's word?

Let's think about that for a day and then I'll explain a little more.

Confessions of an Empty Nester

Back in August, I proudly proclaimed to the world (or at least the part that reads my blog) that my wife and I are now Empty Nesters. Over the holidays, our nest became full again for a short time period. The son returned from college, our oldest came for an extended visit with her hubby and our beautiful grandchild (note: our grandchild happens to be her daughter). Another daughter was in and out a few nights, some friends came over, more relatives and then we ended the year with the birth of our second granddaughter.

While we were happy to have everyone come home, we are also glad to return to empty nest status. I thought I would take these few pixels and bytes to explain some of the differences we've noticed. Despite the somewhat-racy subject line, I promise to keep this "G" rated. (Note: for the rest of this post, Empty Nest will be abbreviated E.N.)

1) An E.N. generates less trash. We're not sure why this is true. All summer, our weekly trip to the curb was with a full and often overflowing trash can. Now our trips are with a partially full can. One week we even forgot and the next week wasn't overflowing. It wasn't that the youngest son generated that much trash. Maybe we've just gone green?

2) An E.N. runs the dishwasher less. Ok, this is easy. We have 1/3 less dish usage. Actually, it's probably more like 50% less as he never used the same glass twice. And he eats like a horse, so the plates and silverware were always needing washed. Previously we ran the dishwasher at least once/day, now it's 2-3 times a week.

3) Milk stays colder in an E.N. refrigerator. This surprise came up over the holidays. I noticed that the milk was warm and seemed not as fresh. After fearing our relatively new fridge was dieing, I realized that we keep the milk in the door. During the holidays, the door was opened and closed A LOT more than usual. Being the avid CSI fans we are, we deduced that the door openings were not allowing the milk to stay as cold as before.

4) An E.N. doesn't generate as much laundry. This makes sense. In fact, last night, we had a towel party. We went through every towel in the house and rated them as 1) our bathroom, 2) guest bathroom or 3) donate. Our "towel party" as I called it, resulted in nice neatly organized bathroom closets.

Which brings me to my final point. Seven years ago, my wife and I combined two households into this nest. We kept just about everything and then added to it all. Our closets extend into another dimension of time and space, just like the twilight zone. Over the next few months, our goal is to reduce, reuse and recycle as much as we can to clean out this empty nest. Expect to see a few blog posts on this subject over time.

Email to the Today Show

This morning I sent the following email to the Today Show. I'll offer it here without additional comments unless you, my readers, comment. If I get any reply, I'll put it in another post.

I've always been a fan of NBC news. During the election my son (age 18 and a new voter) commented on how much he trusted Brian Williams and I responded that this spoke to his credibility. The today show with Matt Lauer, Meredith Viera, Al Roker and Ann Curry is my favorite part of the day. I don't get to watch it every day, but when I start the day with news, its NBC news and the Today Show.

I also like the local NBC affiliate's news team. Michael Cogdill has the same kind of credibility as Brian Williams, Gordon Dill's recent weight loss experience put a face on this story, I've heard Carol Goldsmith speak locally and I've seen Geoff Hart and John Cessarich at the local college football games. The team works to build their image both on and off the air.

But it's NBC's Today Show that is the focal point of my attention in this note. My loyalty to NBC's Today goes back a long way. I remember Bryant Gumbel and Katie Couric as two of my favorite ex-hosts.

However, this past Saturday morning, January 3 I turned the Today Show off. On that day, Dr. Nancy Snyderman was talking about the changes she was expecting in 2009. In the past I've admired her medical knowledge, but on this day she chose to introduce politics into her discussion. She talked about medical insurance and how "everyone knows that it's broken". This kind of comment seems devoid of any facts and pure opinion. She went on to say that she thought the new president would create an executive order to "end this ridiculous stem cell research ban." Even the most liberal senator and soon to be president would admit there are struggles on this issue, but Dr. Snyderman simply calls it ridiculous and asks for an immediate change. And all of this is done on a news show. It should be clearly labeled as commentary. (the quotes are from my memory and may not be exact).

I will probably continue to watch NBC News and the Today show. I may even watch Dr. Snyderman again. But please let her and your editorial staff know that if she begins to talk about politics instead of medicine I will turn the TV off again.

I’ve copied the local NBC affiliate (WYFF4) on this note. I couldn’t find a single email address for them, so I copied the three anchors I mentioned above.

Happy New Year!

Wow! What a way to bring in the New Year. My youngest daughter, who was (past tense) about 9 months pregnant had a doctor's appointment early New Year's Eve day. Just a status check, but after a few false alarms they were anticipating setting a date for inducing the labor process. Much to every one's surprise, they chose to induce IMMEDIATELY.

The night before, my son-in-law had experienced a lot of pain due to an infected tooth. So he had decided to sleep through the appointment. Zoom, off goes mom-to-be to the hospital (actually, she already was a mom - see here for her son's announcement 3 years ago). I was nominated to pick up my son-in-law to take him to the hospital. To make a long story short, we got to the hospital in plenty of time to witness the birth of a 9 pound 3 ounce little girl, Audry Dyann.

Late that night, my son-in-law had to go the ER. Funny thing, no dentists are open on New Year's Eve. So, I was nominated to sit with him until the ER docs could give him some anti-biotics and pain medicine.

We've spent the first few days of this year starting the spoiling process, a job we expect to continue for years to come. Audry joins her cousin Kayden Grace (see here) and both bring their parents a 2008 tax deduction. (Way to go girls!)

Audry, welcome to the world. In June, you will be joined by two new cousins. You will always be able to say you're a year older than them.

Christmas Dinner

Yes, I know that Christmas was 2 days ago. But we have an additional tradition in our family. We have a big sit-down dinner with the entire family.

See, our family is a little unusual. First, it's a blended family, my kids and her kids. We started the Christmas dinner before my wife and I got married. We realized that year we may not be together on Christmas day, at least not all of the family. So we make a strong effort to encourage all of the kids to come to this dinner. Sometimes it's a few days or even a couple of weeks before Christmas. Sometimes, it's after Christmas. This year, today worked best.

So far, we've had near 100% perfect attendance. One year, the oldest boy was otherwise occupied in Iraq. While he couldn't be there in person, he did make a video and spoke to each person at the table. I'm not sure if he realized it, but he went perfectly around the table and spoke to each person in perfect order. Maybe we are just that predictable. We tried to petition Pres. Bush to give him leave for our dinner, but unfortunately, that didn't work.

This year, we may have our second ever absentee. I'm still holding out hope.

It's hard for all of us to get together on Christmas day. Four of the five kids are married and have another set of parents to visit. Then there's grandparents and extended family to visit. I'm hoping to see the new movie "Four Christmases" so I can empathize with all that the kids go through.

I'm very thankful that all of our kids make a special effort to attend this extra event.

Merry Christmas! (still)

Happy Holidays

You hear that all the time now, "Happy Holidays". A few years ago, I made a big push to change it to "Merry Christmas" by asking a few cashiers "what holidays?" Once confused, I would say "you told me to have a happy holiday, I just wanted to be sure which one."

I can be mean that way, to the cashiers. When they ask me "did you find everything ok?" I typically answer "yes, you'll have to hide things better next time." (Stupid question deserves a stupid answer). What do they think, I'm going say something like "no, I have this list of 48 items, can you help me find them?"

A few years back, the stores starting banning the Salvation Army. Now, I've never been a big fan of those guys, but somehow banning them seemed anti-American or anti-Christmas. So, now I make it a point to drop whatever change I have in the kettle as I walk by. This year, our local television station highlighted a lady who is still ringing the bell at age 100. Margaret Helen Yockey is ringing the bell for her third year. She rings on the other side of town from me, so I want be seeing her, but I'll put some extra money in the kettle when I pass the store near me. (Read Ms. Yockey's story here). If you Google her name, you'll see her story was picked up by MSNBC and USA Today. I hope you're still ringing the bell for years to come.

Back to "Happy Holidays", I don't make a big deal about this anymore. Some of the cashiers are just plain tired. They are out their earning a $ (hopefully a few $$) and don't need me (or anyone else) to hassle them. I guess I've mellowed out a little, I just thank them and tell them "Merry Christmas". Well, sometimes, I still go hassle them some, but always in fun.

Merry Christmas to all.

Unusual Christmas songs

I love listening to unusual Christmas songs. Everyone has heard "Grandma got run over by a reindeer" (lyrics here). That song has probably been banned in several homes.

This year, I heard a new one: an old Ray Stevens song called "Bad Little Boy" by Ray Stevens. If you're like me, you start laughing when you know it's from Ray Stevens. The lyrics are here. Seems Ray "ain't gettin' nothin' this Christmas". Now most people will confuse this with the song "I'm Getting Nuttin' for Christmas" (lyrics here). But they are two different songs.

Yesterday, I heard one that I'm not sure I ever heard before. The title is "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas." You can find the musical version here on YouTube. I can just picture the little girl singing and marching to the song. You can find the lyrics (and youtube) here, but don't launch both websites at the same time.

What's your favorite "unusual" Christmas song?

Recession proof jobs

I think I've figured out a job that is recession proof. It's not glamorous, but it appears that this company has hired more people than they need to server their customers, and shows no signs of layoffs. The company? McDonald's.

Now, first, you have to understand their vision. Yahoo reports that "McDonald's vision is to be the world's best quick service restaurant experience. Being the best means providing outstanding quality, service, cleanliness and value, so that we make every customer in every restaurant smile." (highlighting is mine)

A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I stopped at this McDonald's in Duncan, SC. This was in the middle of a lot of other activities (see here for a description). We stood at the counter and watched nearly half a dozen workers mulling around on the other side without caring the fact that we wanted to actually buy something. After waiting for several seconds, we decided that they obviously didn't want our business, so we left.

Then last Friday, I stopped in this McDonald's in Chapin SC on my way home from Columbia. I had skipped lunch and was tired and hungry. I only wanted a drink and something small. Why I went in, I'm not sure, but I waited a couple minutes while three workers discussed looking through the cash drawer for an Obama quarter (apparently, one of them believed that the new Hawaii quarter had President Elect Obama's face on it, something I seriously doubt).

And finally, this morning, I stopped at this McDonald's for a cup of coffee. The lady was quick and not impolite (but not great either) as she took my order and asked if I wanted cream and sugar, then asked how many. When she handed me my coffee, I asked where the cream and sugar was and she said it was in the coffee. Yep, she had mixed it in for me.

Now, I'm not sure that mixing the coffee for me qualifies as quality or value, but I typically like to mix it myself. But it strikes me that McDonald's is the kind of place to get a job that's recession proof. Apparently, it doesn't matter how bad the services is, you'll keep your job and stay in business.

No one ever expects a gourmet dinner at McDonald's, but they do expect the company to live up to it's vision of "quick" (not fast) food. And I expect reasonable service. Apparently, it really doesn't matter.

P.S. Not sure the links will work to the map sites, if you're interested in exact locations, let me know.

Is being transparent good or bad?

I'm going to break my own taboo hear and blog a bit about my job.

Several years ago, I heard a lot about people being transparent. It took me a while to understand that this was viewed as a good thing. The idea was that you could see straight through someone who was transparent. What you see is what you get. Their walk matches their talk. If they tell you something, they mean it. And it's real.


But my question is, is being transparent always a good thing?


In my business some managers are known as being transparent. In this case, that means that "stuff" flows right through them. If their boss says something, it flows straight down hill. You can be sure that any flack they get, you will get. If they get praise for something, they will pass that along as well.

Less transparent managers run interference. They realize that sometimes sales are affected by the economy and that no matter how many hours we work, we just can't always have an affect on customer decisions.

So which is better? Transparency or not?

A Rescue Plan! (Diego style)

Ok, watching Go Diego Go with my 2 year old grandson has warped my mind. Everyone is calling the bailout plan a "rescue plan" and my mind switches to a silly video (see here). I get to singing the little song every time I hear it.

Previously, I posted on pyramid schemes (here) and multi-level marketing (here). I also talked a little about profits (here) and said they were a good thing. My goal was to get to this post and after a few interruptions I'm here.

My thought all along on this bail out plan (excuse me Rescue Plan! - Diego is very emphatic) is that it reminds me of a pyramid scheme. Everyone is saying that the problem we have is because of bad home loans. Ok, I've blogged about that too (here, here, here and here). I've been talking about this for over a year. The problem I have now is with our solution.

We've decided that the way to fix the problem is to allow more people to borrow more money. See, the problem before was that they couldn't repay all that they had borrowed, so now we're lending them more. Makes sense, right?

This is like the pyramid scheme. As long as people are buying and selling homes, we can keep the economy flying. Once people stop and look at what they really have, it all falls apart. I really don't like the alternative (lots of foreclosures, depressed home values, layoffs, general depression), but I honestly believe the longer we delay this the worse it will be. Someday, we have to pay the piper and it won't be pretty.

My first granddaughter

What a busy week. I took a short trip (2 nights) to New York. On Thursday, I flew back to find out that our oldest daughter was going to the hospital in Raleigh to have her baby. I flew into Charlotte, so rather than drive to Greenville (home) I decided to drive to Raleigh. However, I had barely gotten off the airport property when my wife called me and she had car problems. I drove an hour to pick her up, only to travel the same roads back on my way to Raleigh. We arrived in Raleigh about midnight and went to our daughters apartment to sleep for the night (trusting that nothing would happen that night).

Early Friday morning we went to the hospital and spent the day waiting. Then about 8pm, she went in for a c-section. At 8:13, Kayden Grace was born. She weighed in a 9 pounds, 9 ounces and measured 21+3/4 inches long. Now that's a big baby. What I don't understand is that they measured her head at 14 centimeters. Why is the head measured in centimeters and the length in inches? Is this done to confuse the baby, parents and grand parents? Seems like a communist plot to me.

We've spent to weekend starting the spoiling process. This is the God given job of all grand-parents, that along with trying to outdo the other grandparents. We're starting out strong.

This is our second grandchild, the first girl. It's also the first in this "batch", we have another due later this month and two more in June. Hopefully, they will all be spaced out a couple weeks from each other so that Grandma gets to help when they first come home from the hospital. I like the idea of having them in batches, I'll have to encourage the kids to plan this way for the next batch.

When our grandson was born (see here), I said "babies were a sign from God that he intended for the world to continue. A miracle from God, babies teach us so much." Kayden Grace can teach her parents and grandparents all about love once again.

Welcome to the world Kayden. Audry, it's almost your turn.

Fly or drive?

A couple of weeks ago, the heads of the three big auto companies (GM, Ford and Chrysler) showed up in Washington singing the old "Brother can you spare a dime" song. Trouble is, they showed up in private jets. Congress railed them and sent them packing back to Detroit without a dime to show.

Looks like this time they've learned a lesson and will drive instead. (see here). I know I will have folks who disagree, but I'm not sure that having them drive is better.

The question is, if you were a stock holder, how would you want Mr. Wagoner to spend his day, driving or conducting business. Oh sure, he could go in a big car, hire a driver and sit in the back and conduct business. I can see him shuffling papers, talking on the cell phone with a fax and computer on his passenger side desk at 70 mph. But doesn't it seem that he would be more productive in an office where he could walk around even if it was at 30,000 feet.


It certainly was bad PR to show up in a private jet and ask for money. But I think the congressional reaction was a little off key on this one.

It's a recession!

Unless you missed the news, we are officially in a recession. You can see articles just about everywhere, here's one such article.

Everyone should be glad. We've talked about it for long enough, and just as many people predicted, we've been in a recession since late last year. If this had come out before the election, it wouldn't have changed the results, but may have increased the margin.

So, now that we have finally accepted the fact, what do we do about it?

Well, we have a couple of choices. We can wring our hands and go around crying and screaming, asking the government to bail us out. They've bailed out AIG a couple times, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase and several others. Why shouldn't I get my share? You know, Wall Street and Main Street (even though I don't live on Main Street).

Another choice would be to keep doing what we should have been doing all along. Work at a job. If you don't have a job, go get one. Unemployment is still very low, which means there are lots of jobs available. Spend on things that you need, but save for big things you need. Plan for the future, for the next car you need, for the house, etc. Don't buy things you can't afford.

I heard a reminder story a few months ago, that pointed out that during the feast years, Joseph stored up grain for the coming famine. A wise man. We should do the same. We know that a famine is coming, then a feast, then another famine. We don't know how long each will last or the time in between.

One more thing. To my conservative friends to the ones saying "Yeah Baby!" at the points above. Now is not the time to rub this in people's faces. Instead, it's time to be the way Christians are commanded to do and to help others. Give help to those around you. Give a job to a jobless person. Pay a friend's power bill, give them a grocery store gift card. Praise Him who allowed you to be in a position to do all these things and then do them.

For my previous comments on the recession see here and here.

Lots of children, lots of children

This Thanksgiving, my daughter announced that she has something new to be thankful about, she is now expecting a baby. That means that I now am expecting FOUR new grandchildren in the next 6+ months.

As it says on the right side of this page, my wife and I have five children between us. The oldest is expecting a little girl THIS FRIDAY. We'll wait and see the actual date. (No rushing). The youngest daughter is also expecting a little girl, the due date is a little fuzzy. Sometime between December 16 and January 1 is our best guess (I really wish they would schedule these things).

Sandwiched in between those are our other daughter (the one who just announced) due on June 6 and our oldest son's wife due June 17. The gender of these last two is yet to be determined.

We're all excited and can't believe that we are so blessed. My youngest son, took in the news and after pondering for a bit said "I'm the only one who's not expecting a baby". At 18 and still in school, I told him he could wait a while.