Lost titles.

For some reason, Blogger won't let me edit the title box. The box is there, with the familiar "Title:" in front of it, but the box isn't clickable (strange word). I've tried it when I create a post and when I edit a post, neither one works.

Sometimes, I hate PC's.....

Last week, my family went on vacation. Most of my readers are family, so they knew that and probably were there. For the outsiders, we went to Myrtle Beach and rented a house for the week.

With 5 kids, spouses, fiancee (congratulations again to Kayte and Kevin) and the one grandson, we had a house full. Each "child" took one night to cook dinner. The menu for the week ranged from stir-fry to low-country boil, from crock-pot enchiladas to burgers and dogs, from bbq chicken to chicken pasta alfredo with grilled salmon. What a feast!

Weather was good, family was great. My wife and a couple of the girls took over 600 pictures, I took about 5 rolls (I'm still on film).

I'm back now and catching up on blog reading. I'll also be blogging more this week. I know you missed it...

The steer is back!

I visited a new BiLo store today and they have a steer on the top of the store. Now to most people, that doesn't mean much. But back in my day (makes me feel good to say that), all BiLo's had steers on top. These were made out of fiberglass and were frequently the target of drunk rednecks who needed some practice, but they were there.

The number of steers on top of the store somehow related to the size. A one-steer BiLo was small, a two steer was medium and a three steer BiLo, well, that was something else. I, of course, worked at three steer BiLo (there should now be an atmosphere of hushed respect and awe in the room as you read this).

We were proud of our three steer BiLo. When the company went through a buy-out in 1977, we were the three steer BiLo closest to the main office. The buyers-to-be were slated to tour our store early on Saturday morning. We brought in specialists from all over to make sure our store was the finest. In the meat department, where I worked, all trays were stacked to a perfect 6 inches. I saw the specialist for my area measure each tray carefully.

Saturday came and, since it was the first of the month, the customers came. They liked the fact that the trays were stacked nealty and some even noticed that the meat seemed a higher grade (it was - trying to seduce the buyers). Funny thing was, they bought stuff! Which meant that the perfect 6 inch trays weren't perfect any more.

We constantly fought to keep everything looking just so. Mean time, we had extra workers so that the prospective buyers would see how good we were. From 8am until around 5 or 6 pm, we fought to keep things pristine (a losing battle). Finally, the prospective buyers came and after a fast walk through where they barely looked at my department, they went away.

Dilbert could have been there.

But the steer has always been important to me and sometime around 1981, the new owers decided to upgrade the image and get rid of the steers. I guess they all went out to fiberglass pasture (you can't let a steer go to stud).

Today the new BiLo Superstore has a steer on top. Just one, it's not the same class of store I worked at. But at least the steer is back...

Why would you do that to your ear?

At lunch today, I saw a guy with an earring. No big deal, lots of folks have those. But this earing was like a washer. Note that it wasn't a washer hanging down, it was a washer IN THE EAR LOBE!!!

The hole in this guy's ear was big enough that you could stick your big finger through the middle of it (if you wanted to stick your finger through a hole in this guys earlobe).

Why would anyone do that? You can't believe it's good for you. What does it prove?

Health Care reform

The other morning I heard about a new approach to health care reform. It focuses on using the free market system as the basis.

Anything starting with the free market system gets my attention. I've only read part of the information so far, but it looks interesting. Look for details at http://www.freemarketcure.com/. I'll be reading more...

Catholic mass

I have led a protected life. Until last night, I had never visited a Catholic mass. My nephew's son was being baptised, so I went and had a special seat up front (which is tough on a back-row baptist). The service was (I think) a normal service with a baptism at the end.

My overall impression of the service was that it was very structured. The feeling I got was much like I got at a service I used to go to by Messianic Jews. They sang a lot of the prayers, a lot of responsive reading, lots of "blessing to you", etc.

I listened to the prayers (most were in English) and can't say I disagree with most of what was said. They asked Mary to pray for them, asked John to pray for them, I'm not sure I've ever thought about a person who had died praying for me. I'll have to think of what that means.

The service was a feast for John the Baptist (I was glad they acknowledged that he was Baptist). They also talked about a feast for Mary. I never thought about feasts like that.

There were things I didn't agree with. The priest said the baptism took away original sin. I believe baptism is a sign, an outward sign of an inward change. I don't get hung up about when you get baptised, I know a lot of Baptists are very picky about that. But I feel like, if it's a sign of obedience, it really doesn't matter if you did it after you accepted Christ or even if you did it. Yes, you should, but it won't keep you out of heaven if you don't.

I would have more of a problem with someone who didn't want to do it. Why not? But then I'd have a problem with someone saying it was required. Why? Baptism doesn't save you.

All in all, it was a good service. And I saw a lot of things I had never seen before.

Florida and back

I spent the last week in and around Boca Raton Florida. One day of vacation, then a class for four days.

This is the wrong time of the year to visit southern Florida, it's very hot and subject to a lot of showers. We had heavy rain the day we arrived (Sunday) and Monday. Tuesday-Friday threatened rain and there were some showers but not too bad.

Florida is spread out. Reminds me of Dallas that way. You can't go from one thing to another without getting in a car.

We had good eating, sea food two nights (hey, we were on the ocean), steak one night, italian another.

I met a co-worker from Singapore. We talked about culture a lot and the differences.

Overall a good trip...

Plum Island

A century ago, people came to a crossroads in their lives and had to choose a direction. Today, we live inside microchips with a million paths opening and closings every nanosecond. What's worse, someone else is pushing the buttons.

That's a quote from the book, Plum Island (PI) by Nelson DeMille. It wasn't on my summer reading list, but a recent weekend trip found me without one of my books, so I bought PI. It's my third DeMille novel (Lion's Game and Nightfall being #1 & #2). Like the first two, it's a thriller.

John Corey (quoted in the first paragraph) is the main character and I'm not sure whether I like him or not. I think that's DeMille's point. I find myself rooting for him and then disgusted by him. I want him to end up with one of the ladies in the story and then find myself surprised that I can get that involved in "romance".

The language is rough, but it fits the characters. I've seen novelists who insert profanity for effect, DeMille is better than that. There's also some no-no's, illicit sex, violence, mention of drugs, but I don't recall any illegal drugs.

Overall, I give the book a B+. (I'm a tough grader). I hope others can enjoy the book.

Jobs that no one will take

The immigration thing is heating up again. Quite frankly, I'm not sure where I sit on this, but I have one hot button that everyone seems to hit. It's the comment that we need illegal immigrants because there are jobs here that no one will take. I've heard this from republicans and democrats alike so it must be true.

I have a one word answer to that argument: BALONEY.

I'm a believer in the free market. If there's a job that needs to be done, someone will sign up for it. If not, the wages are too low. Trust me, you're not likely to see me on the back of a garbage truck or digging ditches. Even if the pay matched my current salary, I probably wouldn't change jobs. However if the pay was double what I was making today, I might dig ditches on the side. (Of couse all the jobs would be taken long before that).

So, let's assume that construction jobs could no longer be filled by illegal immigrants. The wages for these jobs would go up. The cost of my next house would go up. What goes around comes around, inflation would result. That's not necessarily bad, that's always been the case.

The low inflation of the last few years and the prosperity in that time has largely been built on the backs of these illegal immigrants. I wish this had been different and yes, I personally have benefited from this behavior (not directly). I do believe we have an obligation to treat the people who are here now differently than those who are not here.

I'm not suggesting amnesty, nor am I suggesting shipping all these people back home. I really don't want to make that the focus of my point here. What I really want is for all of these politicians to stop saying that we need these people because there are jobs that Americans won't do.

City data website

Very cool website with information about your city. Information about racial make-up, crime rate, climate, economic, etc. All of the information is probably somewhere else, but I found this while looking for something eles. Go look at http://www.city-data.com/.

I'm not sure I believe all of the data, it says we average 3 inches of snow in January. Actually, if we get 3 inches of snow ALL YEAR it's considered a lot.

3 inches of snow is a major winter storm for us. The schools and businesses close. Everyone goes to the store to by milk and bread (it's required by regional ordinance). People start making hot chocolate and realize that the powder is infected with little bugs, so they throw it out.

Overall, a good site. Just not sure I believe the 3 inches of snow in January....

Man does not live by Google alone

After a brief hiatus, I'm back. Just been too busy. This morning, I'm going to do something different for me and point to some news articles. Those who know me, know I've become fascinated with the law, anything that combines law and technology is even better.

C/Net has an article about a county in Pennsylvania who looked for a person using only Google. Seems the guy was behind on his taxes and (as required by law) the county tried to find him. The taxes were on some vacant land, so the notices posted on the land went unnoticed. The county tried to send him a letter, but had the wrong address (provided by Google).

However, had they tried a phone book (remember those things?), they would have found him and he would have happily paid his taxes. Instead, the county sold his property. For those who think this is justified, the time-frame was fairly quick. The taxes were (apparently) due the first of 2004, notices were posted in July & August 2005 and the land sale took place in early 2005. For folks that own land far away, that's short. The courts thought the county should have done more than just google the man.

For the full article, look here.

In slight contrast, the courts have ruled that you SHOULD use Google to find a person. A case in Idiana (which I learned last night borders on Lake Michigan) centered on a plaintiff trying his best to find a defendant, but not trying via Google. The judge chastised him. See that story here.

So the moral to the story is a two-parter: 1) Always use Google and 2) Google alone is not sufficient. Also, I'm a little disappointed. I always say that Google knows everything, I guess it just ain't so...

P.S. If anyone is offended by my subject line, sorry, that's just my style of humor.

Oh be careful little mouth what you say (or blog)

That was a song I learned as a child. It seems all the more important today. As someone who posts his full name in blogs (many people post pseudonyms), I take a risk that someone will be offended with what I have to say.

Now it seems, that it may impact a court case. In a medical malpractice suit, a doctor was found to be blogging about the trial. Apparently, he had some negative comments about the jury. When the fact that he was the author of a blog was revealed, he settled quickly rather than have the contents of his blog revealed to the jury.

The sad thing is, nothing in his blog (apparently) implied that he was guilty or innocent. So why would his blog comments matter? I guess it goes to character, which he was changing between blog & court room. The blog showed his true character. Maybe the jury would have seen that and he would have lost. Still it seems the jury should be more concerned about facts.

Oh be careful little mouth what you say....

(Full article is here)

Blue Moon over North America

It's true! Today's a blue moon. NASA says "At 9:04 pm Eastern Daylight Time on May 31st, the full moon over North America will turn blue."

See the full article at here.

(OK, I know I'm violating my own principle by posting a few lines with out adding any real value. But hey, what else can you say about a blue moon?)

Morning in America

When was the last time you really felt good about being an American? I don't mean just because your favorite candidate won or just because you found some money in your sofa. I mean real joy. The kind that sticks with you even when bad things happen.

Reagan had a TV commercial that started out "It's morning in America". Americans (in general) like the Teflon President and felt good about America. Even when things got bad, I felt good. I felt like things were going to get better.

What was odd, was Reagan had another commercial about "a bear in the woods" that encouraged anti-Soviet fears. Even with this stirred up fear, somehow you knew things were going to get better (they did, the Soviet Union outspent itself and dissolved - when was the last time you feared an ICBM ontop of your head).

In looking at the current crop of presidential wannabees, I don't see anything to be hopeful about. Instead, all I see is candidates who want to stir up problems. I wish they would give me some hope. After all that we've been through in the last couple of decades, we need hope. It's morning in America, but is a new day dawning or just another day like yesterday?

Insurance

Lately, insurance has been on my mind a lot. Seems like we use insurance for two reasons: 1) to pay for things we don't expect and can't afford if they happen (e.g. fire in the house) and 2) to obtain privileges for mass-buying.

The second really isn't insurance. Say that you're going to go into the hospital for a procedure (an event near and dear to my back). The procedure "normally" costs $17,000, but since you have good insurance, it will only cost $10,000. Your part will be around $1,000. (yes, this is a real experience, numbers are close). So the $17,000 minus the $10,000 is discounted because of your "group buying" or discount procedures. Your insurance company has negotiated the stay with the hospital.

Why is this insurance? What if you had no insurance and were going to pay out of pocket. Or suppose your insurance company isn't a good negotiator?

The first thing listed above is real insurance. It's to pay for things we don't expect and can't afford. You have a traffic accident. You didn't mean to, that's why they call it an "accident". Otherwise it would be a purpose. You hit someone, they go to the hospital. Can you afford their hospital bill? (see the numbers above). Insurance pays.

But what about the small things? Here's an example I used recently. You go to the grocery store to buy a jar of pickles (and other things). Taking them out of the car at home, you drop the jar of pickles and it shatters. Who pays for the pickles? Well of course, you do. You are effectively self-insured against pickle-loss.

So we all have some degree of self-insurance. And most of us have some degree of other-insurance. What happens when the line blurs? Why do we expect our medical insurance to cover all (or part of all) of our medical costs? Are we just buying a block of medical coverage? We pay a flat fee per month and expect that to cover most of our costs. Sort of like paying $19.95 to AT&T and getting unlimited long distance. Or reduced cost long distance.

So, why all this rambling on insurance? I've recently seen an incident where a company was self-insured and suffered a large loss. Large is in the eye of the beholder. To the individuals who caused the incident, it's 1-2 year's pay. To the company, it's a blip. So who pays for it? No outside insurance company to foot the bill. It's sorta like the jar of pickles. If my 4 year old son had dropped the jar of pickles (my son is much older than 4) it would take several week's allowance for him to pay it back. For me, on the other hand, it wouldn't even be an hour's pay. So I would fit the bill, scold him for his carelessness and move on.

Let's hope that's what happens in the incident I saw. It was a big jar of pickles that got broke.

Cindy Sheehan resigns

I'm sure my friends on the left and the right will pick this up and there's very little "news" in this.

Cindy Sheehan has finally resigned from her self-appointed role as the 'face' of the American anti-war movement.

I confess, I never liked anything that she said or did. I am deeply sorry that her son lost his life and sincerely hope that she can learn to live with the grief that I'm sure this event has caused her. Those who know me personally, know that I can empathize with her, even if just a little, because of the grief I have experienced.

I guess I'm a little disappointed that she has finally learned the "frustration with an anti-war movement that she said 'often puts personal egos above peace and human life.'" Seems like she has finally woken up and realized that she's been used for all this time.

I hope she's wrong when she says ""Our brave young men and women in Iraq have been abandoned there indefinitely by their cowardly leaders who move them around like pawns on a chessboard of destruction." I look forward to the day when our brave young men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan can return home.

Without any malice, I say goodbye Cindy and I wish you the best.

Kurdistan

A very positive report this morning on NBC by Richard Engel that contained a side of the news seldom seen. The report talked about the economy and how it was growing in Kurdistan. It showed a woman who is teaching English at a university there and raising a young baby. One comment said that NO american had been killed there since the beginning of the Iraq war.

Kurdistan is a special part of Iraq. See the article here about a small group of Kurds who have made their home not far from my home. The article explains much of the history and why these Kurds support the US.

Americans for Fairness in Lending

I checked out the Americans for Fairness In Lending website. They seem to be legit. New organization with good ideas. A little bit political, but hey, most of us are.

My biggest problem is that they were started as an offshoot of ACORN and I vaguely recall hearing some bad things about ACORN but can't remember what.

Anyone out there have any idea about ACORN? good or bad?

Maxed Out

I finished the book. I don't want to post any comments yet, I'm loaning the book to someone and don't want to cloud his judgement.

I will post a couple of interesting notes, one is a reference to another book, The Two Income Trap by Elizabeth Warren. Sounds interesting, I'm going to add it to my list. Another is a website for the Americans For Fairness in Lending. I haven't checked it out yet, but intend to do so soon. From the book, it sounded interesting.

One item of interest is the Small Business Administration role. Suppose you want to start a franchise of Burger King. You go to the SBA to get a loan, run the business for a year, then go bankrupt. Who wins and who loses? Well, you lose, because your credit is damaged. You may lose your house because you may have guaranteed the loan that way. The SBA (and taxpayer) loses, becuase they probably won't get all their money back. And Burger King wins. They sold a franchise and collected full value. They probably buy back the franchise at a discounted cost and re-sell it.

Same applies to student loans. If you borrow a lot and can't get a job to repay later, who wins/loses? Same losers as above, the winner is the college.

There's something wrong here.

(note: updated link to correct website)

Maxed out

More about the book later, but one thing I learned. There are two crimes where the statute of limitation is greater than 10 years. Care to guess which two?

Murder and failure to pay student loans.


(Not verified, but it was in the book).