This Blog has been moved

I am moving my blog to WordPress because I am sick of all the blogger jibber-jabber. Well, overall, Blogger worked pretty good, but not great and per the suggestion of my brother I shall try something new.

Go Here Now
http://dan.kokopop.com/

Blog Templates

Why do all the easy, free blog templates have these wide margins on each side. It just makes things hard to read. Making matters worse, the HTML is pretty complicated for a simple design (probably because blogs are now required to DO much more than just provide a space to write something). Anyway, I'm sure I'll change this one when I have time to find something I like better. Last time I changed, I forgot to add my google analytics to the code, so I don't even know if my readership has swelled into the thousands (or at least more than 2).

In other news, I'm sick. I'm pretty sure it's the flu, although not of the swine variety. My whole body aches and my head in congested, but no fever or coughing. Everyone seems to be sick.

The Onion

Watch the videos on the Onion's.

Hilarious.

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/pre_game_coin_toss_makes

Guantánamo Bay and Gun Control

Just a quick thought on the two recent Congressional debates. The first is that they are stalling the closure of Guantanamo Bay because they don't know what to do with the current prisoners. Apparently no one wants them in their town. I'm pretty sure they are going to into a prison and not some work release program. Why would anyone care if there were terrorists in their local supermax prison. They aren't any more dangerous than the other serial killers or domestic terrorists housed there. Or why not just build a new prison just for them, which would be fine since they have a different set of rights (although I think that is not the best use of tax payers money). I live with 20 miles of two major prisons (Riker's Island and Sing Sing) and I couldn't care less. People don't escape. This whole thing looks bad for Obama who couldn't get a single Congressman to take these people (in exchange for good will and some extra funding).

The other thing is the latest Credit Card legislation. This bill is designed to protect consumers from being abused by Credit Card companies. However, the Republicans included a law allowing concealed guns into national parks. What? How is this legal? Now, I don't have is the gun law is good or bad, but I know it has nothing to do with credit cards. If Obama had some marbles he would veto the bill and insist that Congress sends him two different bills, one for each subject.

The Plauge of the 20th Century

Samaritrophia: A hysterical indifference to the troubles of those less fortunate than oneself

Samaritrophia is the suppression of an overactive conscience by the rest of the mind. "You must all take instructions from me!" the conscience shrieks, in effect, to all the other mental processes. The other processes try it for a while, note that the conscience is unappeased, that it continues to shriek, and they note, too, that the outside world has not been even microscopically improved by the unselfish acts the conscience has demanded.

They rebel at last. They pitch the tyrannous conscience down an oubliette, weld shut the manhole cover of that dark dungeon. They can hear the conscience no more. In the sweet silence, the mental processes look about for a new leader, and the leader most prompt to appear whenever the conscience is stilled, Enlightened Self-interest, does appear. Enlightened Self-interest gives them a flag, which they adore on sight. It is essentially the black and white Jolly Roger, with these words written beneath the skull and crossbones, 'The hell with you, Jack, I've got mine!"

- Kurt Vonnegut, God bless you, Mr. Rosewater

Poor Euclid

I am currently reading “Is God a Mathematician” by Mario Livio, a book that my brother sent me over the holidays. First, I need to say that 98% of the book has absolutely nothing to do with god or religion in any way. There is about 5% that has to do with philosophy, but it is basically a straight forward history of mathematics. I would bet that the name of the book and subsequent references to God where added after the book was already written. It was a marketing ploy through and through.

I just finished the section on non-Euclidian geometry and it was just silly. Let me explain, for thousands of years, geometry was the basis for much of math and logic. Euclidian geometry is the math we all learn in school. By stating several undeniable “truths” or axioms, people are able to extrapolate more complex concept and truths. These truths were used as the basis for all other mathematical adventures. They include things like: if you have a triangle the sum of all the angles inside the triangle is 180. You can make any triangle you want and it will always match that truth. Another one is: the shortest distance between two points in a straight line. Seems simple, right? Than along came some smart-ass mathematician who said, “well, what if reality only existed on the surface of sphere.” Under this premise, Euclidian geometry falls apart. Triangles will have more than 180 degrees and the quickest way between two points in a curve. People have dedicated their careers to what the math would look like on such a circular reality. In fact, people just kept creating new ways that reality could be shaped and researched the math in their new world. This includes realities shaped like saddles, cones, lines, ellipses, and countless other shapes or functions.

Now there is some utility in concepts like this. A plane travelling from New York to Paris cannot travel in a straight line because that would mean it would have to go through the crust of the earth. The plane has to calculate the best possible curve to reach its destination. However, the curve is still not the shortest way, it is just the shortest way that we can realistically travel. The true shortest path is through the earth’s crust. Non-Euclidian geometry may be useful, but how can anyone consider it a way of describing a reality beyond the arbitrary rules it creates for itself.

Non-Euclidian also allows Mathematicians to do things like calculate the rules of geometry with more than three dimensions. So a cube would have length, width, height, and something else. What would be the math if this meta-physical fourth physical dimension (not time) existed. So they create this alternate reality and an alternate math and claim that the truths that exist in that world are true mathematical truths (which conflict with Euclidian geometry).

(Side note: It is this ridiculous logic that allowed physicists to add extra dimensions into their calculations in order to have their theories fit their observations. This is at the core of M-theory, which I do not even consider a scientific theory since it is based on evidence that can never be proven or disproven.)

Anyway, I am thinking about creating Lipka-Geometry. I will calculate a new math based on the concept of a reality that only exists on the surface of my face. What will a triangle look like? What is the shortest distance between my left ear and my right eyebrow? Uggg, poor Euclid.

Arlen Specter (R or D)

What, what, what? Arlen Specter , the 30 year US Senator from Pennsylvania was a middle-republican his entire life, but this morning he dropped the GOP and wants to be a Democrat. I despise political parties and believe they have a tremendous negative effect on progress and democracy. I believe that once elected everyone should be forced to be an independent and not have any political affiliation. And I don’t care if he changes his party, but what is important is whether he changes his politics. It would have been more appropriate if he just become an independent. However, Specter has no interest in fairness, democracy, his constituency, or anything else except for his own ability to get re-elected. He stated, with all honesty, that the only reason he is doing this is because he feared losing the next republican primary. I don’t know why he didn’t learn from Lieberman than he could have run as a Republican and if he lost than run again as an independent.

I believe Specter would vote for anything to preserve his seat in the Senate and that is the very worst that a democracy can become. The democrats could say “Senator Specter was elected to represent the interests of Pennsylvania and of the United States. We hope that he does that regardless of any political party. However, let us be clear that the Democratic Party stands for the people it represents and all elected Democrat officials are public servants and will always put the best interest of the people above themselves. Senator Specter does not seem to value these beliefs and although we welcome his support, there are no seats for people who only care about re-election in our party.” Of course, I give the Democrats too much credit; most of them would do the same thing to save themselves.

How could a US Senator say that this was only about re-elected? It would be so easy to just say “The Republicans are too far to the right and like the new Democrats. They rock and I want to be part of this great, new winning team. “

The more important thing is that this gives the Democrats a potential filibuster proof majority in the Senate. They only need one more seat, which should (eventually) go to Al Franken, the actor/democrat from Minnesota. That race is being contested and will be going to court in June. Now the Republicans may live and die by that race and they have all the incentives in the world to delay the outcome for as long as possible. And unlike Al Gore (who gave up the Presidency because he thought it was best for the country), the Republicans won’t go down so easy. And just thinking about Al Gore conceding make me throw up in my mouth.

This could change the entire landscape of Congress. The democrats could pass healthcare reform and anything else they wanted. This could be two years are tremendously risky and potentially helpful legislation. And the New York Times online put the story on the cover all morning and now the entire story somehow disappeared. The Jets trading up for Mark Sanchez was a bigger story, but alas, that is another story for another time.

Born to be a Politician

"What we require is that those who take office should not be lovers of rule. Otherwise there will be a contest with rival lovers. What others, then, will you compel to undertake the guardianship of the city than those who have the most intelligence of the principals that are the means of good government and who possess distinctions of another kind of and a life that is preferable to political life?" - Plato

Plato explained that our political leaders must first be trained and educated before they ever have the opportunity to be corrupted. That is that our young students should be taught the beauty and usefulness of math, science, history, philosophy, and the arts. The brightest should be chosen to further study economics, governments, law, and diplomacy. The best of those should be chosen to participate in the public sector (even at a young age) to get real exposure to the realities of effective and ineffective governance. The most talented and capable of these young adults will continue their studies and eventually become the politicians of the next generation. Politicians will have a context to understand their role and the experience to do it well. They will be chosen for their abilities and not their actual desire or love of politics.

This goes directly against the current method in which politicians rise to power. Today, those people who are the most power hungry, who desire to rule, who will do anything to get to the top; well those are the ones who end up running our government. And should we expect anything different from a system that encourages the very worst people to be most capable of achieving the most powerful positions in government.

Our “leaders” are not the best and the brightest, they are not our shining light. Some are very dedicated and capable, but almost all of them love to “rule” and do not love to be effective public servant. Here is a portion of the powerful politicians (US Senators, US Congressmen, Governors, and Mayors of large cities) who have been indicted in the past 15 years. Sadly, I couldn’t find a complete and if anything has one, please let me know.

Rick Renzi
William Jefferson
Mark D. Siljanderl

Tom Delay
Ted Stevens
John Doolittle
James Traficanta
Michael Meyers
Rick Renzi

Dan Rostenkowski

Rod Blagojevich

Brian Krolicki

Eliot Spitzer

Don Siegelman

Marion Barry

Joe Bruno

Scooter Libby

Larry Craig

Bob Ney

Tom Delay

William Janklow

James Traficant

Gold

The US Department of the Treasury has 11 Billion dollars in gold. What is this for? Are we just showing off? Shouldn't we sell this instead of borrowing money from other countries or raising taxes? I know it's not that much money compared to the rest our spending, but its something. It's not enough money to be an emergency fund, so why bother having it at all. Plus, what is the cost to house and protect our precious gold. I think we are only a decade away from achieving the alchemist dream and turning lead into gold, making our stash worthless. Start selling now and give the money to homeless veterans, abused children, cancer research, malaria nets, new road construction, or cheaper Yankee tickets.

Justice or Karma

Ted Stevens, the crazy, former US Senator from Alaska was convicted of seven felony counts of ethics violations last year. Based largely on this trial, he narrowly lost his re-election bid last November. Today, the US Justice Department is dropping all charges because they “discovered a new instance of prosecutorial misconduct”. Basically, the prosecutor illegally hid evidence from the defendant.

Now, let me be clear that I despise Ted Stevens. He was a conservative who spent 40 years putting the interests of the Republican party and Alaska above the interests of the United States. Consistently he would drive tax payers’ money (money from all 50 states) to Alaska. Alaska takes twice as much federal funds as it puts in. This is the inherent problem with the US Senate; giving equal power to someone representing 350,000 people and someone who represents 18,000,000 people. And Ted Stevens abused this undemocratic system to the detriment of the other 350,000,000 people in the US.

Anyway…there are two major issues going on here. The first is that the Justice Department is just dropping the charges. If he is guilty then he NEEDS to be prosecuted. It is appalling how public officials are simple above the law. From Nixon to Elliot Spitzer, public officials just go free. These are the people who should be the most accountable to the law, the people that should be examples of justice to the rest of us. And don’t get me started on George Bush, but if he broke the law, that he needs to be help accountable too.

However, let’s say that Stevens was innocent, well then the US Justice Department just changed the election for a US Senator (one of the most powerful position in the country). Not to mention (at the time) a possible filibuster-proof majority for the Democrats in Congress. No matter how much I think the country is better off without Stevens, it is completely unethical that he lost his Senate seat. If the Justice Department was run by Democrats at the time there would be a national uproar, but I say there should be one anyway. This is the kind of crap the CIA would do; fix an election by smearing the opponent. Hell, let’s put him on trial for corruption and hide evidence that could provide his innocence.

Justice, it’s about justice, not Karma.

Legacy of Ashes: Book Review and Analysis. Grade A-

I just finished Legacy of Ashes by Tim Weiner, the history of the CIA. Let me first start by trying to explain what the CIA is actually supposed to do.

1) Gather intelligence outside the US: Until World War II, the US had no agency to gather or organization facts about governments and people outside the US. There are somewhat legal ways of doing this, such as utilizing spy satellites or by simple having people go a country and do some fieldwork. The second way is to have spies; that is to have people pretend to be someone else in order to get/steal information. The third way is to bride, blackmail, or torture people to get information.

2) To manipulate the people and leaders of foreign countries: This includes propaganda (such a fake radio or news stations or spreading rumors), sending money to political leaders, rigging elections, regime change, and supporting coups. I can see how this is related to gathering of intelligence, because you can only manipulate those in another country if you have accurate information about them.

3) To use force to complete #2. This includes assassinations, bombings, secret para-military operations, and I will also include providing the weapons and cash for others groups to do this dirty work for you (such as giving arms and money to a drug lord in order for him to overthrow the country’s communist leader). Now, it is this power which seems to be the cornerstone of all of the CIA’s problems. The CIA’s concentration on these missions led to an almost complete failure to achieve any of the goals listed above.

The CIA has failed horrible in its mission to protect the United States or the interests of the United State. During the entire cold war, they failed to understand even the basic elements of the Soviet Union, never placing a high level spy anywhere in Russia (on the other hand, the Soviets infiltrated the very highest levels of US intelligence). Time and time again the CIA positively made a judgment (based on their analysis) only to see the exact opposite happen. For example, one day they wrote that there is no chance that the Soviets would invade Afghanistan, only to see 180,000 troops attack less than a week later. They lied to Presidents and Congress to cover up their mistakes and to increase their budget. After each failure, congressional panels or presidential review teams would go over the operations of the CIA and every single time they would conclude that the CIA was not only failing to achieve its missions, but that is was incapable of doing so. Those reports were followed by a demand for change, which would and could never happen. The foundation of the CIA would never allow it to change and it never did.

One of the biggest atrocities of the CIA was its policy during that cold war to oppose any socialist-leaning leader anywhere in the world. And the easiest way to do this was to support right-wing military groups. With direct CIA cash and weapons, dozens of military coups took place, leading to some of the most horrible dictatorships in history. The Shah of Iran, "Papa Doc" Duvalier (Haiti), Rafael Trujillo (Dominican Republic), Castelo Branco (Brazil), General Suharto (Indonesia), Robert Mobutu (Congo), just to make a few. Their goal was only to stop the Soviet Union even if it meant the destruction of democracies and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of foreigners.

To give the CIA some credit, these actions did cause financial havoc in the Soviet Union. Of course the CIA didn’t know this as they thought the Soviets were getting stronger all the time.

By the 1970s the CIA had failed so many times that the President no longer trusted anything they said. The conundrum was that Presidents often wanted to see change in other countries and there was no other agency that had any authority to conduct such missions. So the CIA (unable to complete any of its tasks effectively) continued to be asked to achieve extremely complicated and often impossible goals. They were sent to overthrow Cuba, they failed. They were sent into Loas and Cambodia during the Vietnam War to stop the supple of arms and supplies to North Vietnam. They failed. Over and over again, they failed to achieve their goals, based on two main factors, 1) the inability to gather or analyze intelligence and 2) the use of horrible tactics based on that intelligence.

The CIA was a disaster, both internally and in its missions. They missed 9/11, they were wrong about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, they just have been imploding over the past 40 years. Yet, they still refuse to recruit American with families from other countries, although those people have the linguistic and cultural knowledge that they so desperately needs.

Well, back to the actual book. It was very well written and captures your attention from the very first page. It is a non-stop exploit of the CIA done in a reasonable accurate way. I say reasonable because the author (who is former Pulitzer-prize winning journalist) seems to have a certain hate for the CIA. I’m sure this is based on the real experiences he uncovered, but still I wonder if we gave fair treatment to the few CIA successes that there were. Additionally, a significant amount of information is still classified (although I believe if there was anything positive in there, it would have been made available).

This book makes me sad and ashamed of our government. Presidents had the power to change or stop this, but they didn’t (in fact every President used the CIA to conduct illegal missions). Congress had the power of oversight and continuously failed to understand, change, or hold the CIA accountability for anything. We assassinated democratically elected leaders, gave weapons to terrorists, and tortured innocent people. We did this in the name of national interest, but the ends did not justify the means.

FYI, here are two little things I learned. The CIA tried to assassinate Castro at least three times (once handing a sniper rifle to the wood-be assassin and another time giving an assassin poison pills to drop in Castro’s coffee). One of the assassins was captured by Castro and spilled his guts. Lee Harvey Oswald had been in contact with the Cuba government on a regular basis. If you were Castro and you knew Kennedy kept trying to kill you, what would you do? Ohhh, the CIA did not tell the Warren Commission (or anybody else) about their failed attempts to kill Castro or their knowledge of Oswald.

During the Clinton years, everyone knew Osama Bin Laden was a threat. The CIA was trying to find and kill him. Several times they said they had him and Clinton ordered air strikes only to later find out that they just bombed civilians (and the Bin Laden was long gone). After being wrong a few times, Clinton refused any more attacks unless the evidence was overwhelming. Since the CIA was basically guessing all the time, Clinton passed on dozens of possible opportunities.

National Energy Day OFF

I propose to have a National Energy Day Off on Monday, June 22, 2009 (the second day of summer. On this new federal holiday, there will no work, no driving, no computers, no electricity, no air conditioning, etc. (exceptions below). On this day, one of the longest days of sunshine during the whole year, people will walk and play like the old days. All offices will be closed and their computers, lights, and electric signs will be shut off (they should actually shut them off on the Friday evening beforehand). Don’t drive anywhere, don’t listen to the radio; just relax. Maybe help for kid open a lemonade stand for people walking by. And at night, we can safely use candles instead of lights (we had a black out the day and it was just fine with candles).

We could save 19.6 million barrels of oil and 10,454,795 Megawatts of energy in just one day. We could raise awareness about the issues of the environment and of energy use. We could do something as a true community for the betterment of the world.

Of course, we will have to use some energy and gasoline. If it is really hot, the elderly and the young can use air conditioners. We can keep our refrigerators plugged in and people with emergency equipment can still use them. People will still have to drive to work at hospitals and police or fire stations. But let us try and limit what remains open to most critical. This will not be like Christmas Eve, when some things are closed, but there are still dozens of restaurants, convenience stores, supermarkets, and shops still open. All of those will be closed on the Energy Day Off.

Since this should be a federal holiday, why don’t make it a federal contest. The states with the biggest drop offs in the percent of energy they use will get cash block grants for renewable energy projects.

This is something that would actually be easy to do. Find me one person that is against this and I will remind them they will also get the day off from work, which is nice too.

Land of Confusion

I wasn’t as interested in Barack Obama’s national speech as much as Bobby Jindal’s response on behalf on the Republicans. In case you don’t know, Jindal is 37 years old and is already the Governor of Louisiana (the youngest governor in the country). He is definitely one of the brilliant people; he went to Brown University, graduating with honors in biology and public policy. Although he was accepted by Harvard Medical School and Yale Law School, he chose to pursue a political career at Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar. He was Louisiana’s Secretary of Heath at 25 years old, than was the youngest-ever president of the University of Louisiana System. He went off to work for the Bush administration, than became a Congressman, than Governor. On a personal note, his real name is Piyush and his family came here from India when his mother was pregnant. And this is nothing personal, but he looks one of Ronald Reagan puppet, who dressed up like Superman from the Phil Collin video for Land of Confusion.

So now, the Republican Party of old white guys has a black leader of their national committee (Michael Steele) and young Indian as their spokesperson. And don’t say that the Republics aren’t all white. In the past 80 years, there have been exactly three Black, Republican Congressman (including both the House and Senate). On the other side, the Democrats have 36 Black Congressman in the House as this very moment. I know diversifying is a good thing, but who are they kidding, 95% of African Americans voted for Obama and it wasn’t because he is Black, it is because the Republicans have never cared about the actually helping the African-American community (in my opinion).

Anyway, back to Jindal…I had heard that he was the next great thing. A republican Bill Clinton (super-smart on policy, but also very charismatic). Everything looked good, that is until he spoke. What a terrible speech. I know he wants to get his name out there, but he spent about a ¼ of the speech talking about himself. Honestly, nobody cares about you, tell us about the state of the country. He looked very uncomfortable and over-prepared, it was very high-school. And the content was just as terrible. This was the jist of what he said, “Americans can do anything. Obama is right out the situation, but wrong about the solution. Americans are better than great. Our solution is tax breaks and not the kind of tax breaks that failed with Bush, but some new kind of magical tax breaks. Did I mention how great you are and how you can do anything. And the only thing that stops you from being a superstar if government, yes the same government I am part of somehow. PS, American can do anything.” No joke, he said “American can do anything” as least five times. The fact is that Republicans had eight years to try and see if tax cuts help everyone or just the rich. They proved, without a shadow of a doubt, that Republican policies only helped the super rich, not even the middle class, but only the very wealthy. How can they keep trying to say that tax breaks are a good idea, it just blows my mind. And the republicans can’t even go back to family values and religious tactics as George Bush was their poster boy for that too. They can’t be strong on the military since they are viewed as completely incompetent in that area. The only option left is be “not a republican”, and I guess that is Bobby Jindal. He is the “new” Republican, but the problem was the he combined the inexperience of someone new with the same ideas that have failed in the past.

Is the CIA reading this?

Recently, I finished listening to the Pulitzer wining book, “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” by Junot Díaz. Normally, I think reading a book is more enjoyable than a book on tape, but I don’t think this was the case for this book. There was a good amount of Spanish slang that was used and without the context of the person’s voice, I don’t think I could have understood what they were talking about. Anyway, the book was an astounding work of literature; every sentence was beautiful and impactful. It was not written in any type of stream of consciousness, it seems that each word was carefully analyzed and constructed. This made for great reading (well, listening); however, the plot was just average. In reminds me of “The World According to Garp”, in that the writing was great, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.

The real reason I wanted to post was not actually about Oscar Wao, but about the CIA. It seems like every time I read about the recent foreign policy of the United State, the CIA is playing a prominent and often unimaginable immoral role. In Oscar Wao, they talk pretty extensively about the history of the Dominic Republic, especially the torturous reign of General Trujillo. Because Trujillo was anti-Cuban and anti-communist, the CIA’s supported him for decades until Trujillo order the assignation of Venezuela's president Rómulo Betancourt. After that, the CIA worked with Trujillo opposition leaders to have El Jefe (Trujillo) shot to death. It seems that the CIA is everywhere, often doing horrible things (sometimes achieving goals in the national interest of the US, other times they just created more problems).

As thus, my next book (real book, not tape) is “Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA” by Tim Weiner. I just started it and I am already completely entrenched in the story. Hopefully the book will justify some of the actions of CIA because it would just be too depressing if it doesn’t.

How to Download the Presidential Inauguration of Barack Obama

At my school, we were trying to play the live inauguration of President Obama this morning, unfortunately, the streaming videos were skippy and almost unwatchable. For the kids, their attention and focus was lost and thus a moment to connect with a historic event was also lost. I thought that after it was over, the video would be all over the internet, available for download within minutes. To my amazement, there was nothing available, nothing of poor quality, nothing at all. Why is this, who would stop us from sharing or downloading this video. Surely, our free media would post it for the people to listen to, but no, there was nothing. Although I'm sure I will get in trouble for this, I found a way of accessing a high quality network copy of the video. Go to...

http://ht.cdn.turner.com/cnn/big/politics/2009/01/20/sot.obama.inauguration.duty.cnn_576x324_dl.flv

Save the file to your desktop. Windows Media Player cannot play with file type, but other media players can. I highly suggest VLC Media Player (www.videolan.org/vlc/) which I have used for a few years. Or you can use SUPER Video Encorder (www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html) to convert this video to .avi or whatever you want.

Good Luck to you and good luck to our next president

Predictions – Part I: Technology and Science

At the end of 2004, I made some predictions about the upcoming year and I thought it was time to try again. I predict the following for 2009…

Getting Online: Google finally reveals a 10 year plan to provide free wireless internet service to every city in the US. From a business perspective, the financial benefits of having a captive online audience (Google would be the required homepage and search engine) are going to quickly exceed the costs of building a wireless network. Personally, I think this is something the government should do as access to the internet increases commerce, education, and equality.

Energy: This is more of a hope, but 2009 could start the beginning of a new age of energy production. I don’t expect too much this year, but if the United States whole-heartily invests in the research, production, and implementation of natural sources of energy (solar, winds, tidal, etc), it would fundamentally change the underlying economics and planning for both emerging and growing areas. Furthermore, this technology must be a gift to the world, given freely for all to use. I guess I will have to wait a few decades to see if this is the moment when it all started to change. I hope the oil producing countries see the writing on the wall and diversify before its too late.

Space: Once again, we will learn nothing useful from our exploration of deep space. Although it is truly interesting, it just won’t prove to have a more holistic value back here on earth (again).

Technology: Cell phones will become more expensive than laptops. Speaking of, why can’t laptops come with a wireless mouse embedding in the casing (kinda like that Bluetooth headset built into the phone). Also, why don’t laptops have the option to have Ooma built in (free phone service). It could link to your wireless connection and even have a bluetooth headset build in (right next to the mouse).

Entertainment: The beginning of the DVR revolution. In a few years your DVR will allow you to access any show that was on, on any channel, within the last month. Currently, the biggest Tivo DVR can record 1,350 hours of regular tv. That is enough to record everything your ten favorite channels, 20 hours a day, for seven day. This uses a 1 terabyte hard drive. Increase that 10 terabytes and can record 20 channels, 24 hours a day, for an entire month. Everything will always be “on-demand”.

Is This Your Ballot

As an avid reader of this blog, you are well aware of the close Senate race in Minnesota. 2,500,000 people voted and as they tally the ballots it looks to be within 100 votes. State judges have already verified all of the regular votes and are now going through the "questionable" ballots. These are ones where the voter did not clearly and correctly indicate their preference. Luckily (and very fairly) the judges and the law, can say a vote counts if the "intent" was clear. In an amazing quirk of transparency, you can actually view all of the questionable ballots online (you can even click on them to see the exact reason why they are in question). This is wonderful and I wonder what would happen if it came down to one vote and one ballot which was in question. What if that was your ballot and you just slipped while writing and didn't make a clear mark. What if you knew that was your ballot, would they let you state your intent? It would only work if somehow you could prove it was your ballot; maybe it was a tiny rural voting and you were the only one who votes, but that is quite unlikely. Anyway, check out the website. http://senaterecount.startribune.com/ballots/index.php?review_date=2008-12-19&index=8

New Year

This mostly a re-post of something I wrote two years ago, but I think about is this time of year... Why is December 31 the end of the “year”? Well, first what is a year; on earth it is the time is takes to complete one full orbit around the sun, more specifically 365 Days, 5 Hours, 48 Minutes, 46 Seconds. In order to keep track of how many times we go around the sun, it is convenient to keep track of each orbit by designating one day as the officially beginning and end of the year. But why December 31st, that date has no astrological significance at all (it does have cultural significance; some say it celebrates Jesus’ briss, actually many European countries used to start their new year on Christmas, while others start their new year on Easter). And Christmas was most likely modified to fall near the winter solstice (also known as Yule; it celebration the shortest day of the year). But we most recognize that the solstice (and all seasons for that matter) has nothing to do with the closeness to the sun, it has to do with the tilt of the earth. Think about the orbit of the earth around the sun, it goes in an ellipse, not a circle, so logically you would think that the summers and winters would happen twice a year, not once (click here or see below). However, summer and winter are dictated by whether or not a particular hemisphere is tilted towards the sun, so even though, right now, New York is several million miles closer to the sun then during July, it is colder now because we are tilted away from the sun. I believe that the New Year should have a direct significance to the obit of the earth, either the day the earth is closest (aka the perihelion) or farthest (aka aphelion) from the sun. If we were to create a New Year’s date for other planets this would surely be the most reasonable, so why not for us. Randomly I choose to celebrate the earth’s aphelion as the indicator a new year, which for 2008 happens to be January 4th at 3:00pm. And until I get better information I deem this year to be 4,404,000,008. Enjoy

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US Auto Industry - Should it say or should it go now?

Whether it is throwing money away or not, I don’t understand how Congress is not authorizing cash or loans for GM, Ford, and Chrysler. From a political point of view, I see it as a no-lose situation. If the car companies recover then they are heroes and if they don’t recover nobody will remember the money and they can always blame the car companies for being inefficient. As for President Bush, this is a last chance to have something positive on his resume. If he authorizes a bailout and the companies recover, then he can always say that he single-handily saved the US auto industry (which might actual be true). And if he authorizes the money and it ends up just be wasted than he would still be the second worst President ever. Imagine adding the destruction of the US auto industry to his record of having the largest attack on US soil under his watch, not catching those behind the attach, destroying our international credibility, royally screwing up a war (after lying about the reason to have the war in the first place), ramping up of debt to ridiculous levels, having the housing market and stock market crash, have the entre financial system crack down, drastically increased unemployment, and a recession.

As for the auto industry, you are the ones to blame for the problems you are in. Actually, I blame the stock market as well. One reason I hate the stock market is that companies are too concerned about short-term goals and profit and don’t invest in long-term stability and growth. Why invest in higher efficiency cars when they won’t be ready for ten years, well that was already 10 years ago and it may be too late now.

As a tax payer, I have no problem helping the auto industry, assuming that they can be forced to try to be self-sustainable. Also, they have to break up how many brands they each have. GM needs to break off from Cadillac, Chevy, Saab, and Saturn, while Ford needs to splinter off Volvo and Jaguar. This way the very worst smaller companies can be allowed to fail without bringing down the whole system.

However, I want that money to come from military spending. We can’t afford ballistic missiles, nuclear submarines, laser defense systems, and stealth fighter right now. We have to prioritize.

More Hours in the Day

If I was to rank the technological advancements that have made my life easier, number 1 on the list might be DVR. There have been many things that have added to my efficiency, effectiveness, or enjoyment, but nothing has made my life easier. DVR (or Tivo) actually seems to give me more hours in the day. For example, I was watching the Giants game yesterday and I paused the game in the first quarter, than did 20 minutes of housework, went back to the TV and put the game back on. After skipping the commercials for a bit, I was back to live TV. I gained 20 of time that I would never have had. For every hour of TV I watch on DVR, I gain 15-20 of free time. I gain even more time if it is a sporting event (it saves the most time for baseball, which more than half ½ of the game is commercials or waiting for the next pitch. Sure I might miss some commentary, but that is only a minor loss. And eventually, advertisers will start replacing commercials with product placements, but I don’t care about the either. It is possible that the cable companies and networks will demand that DVR won’t allow someone to skip commercials. This could happen and it would suck, but I think it would only be temporary. As computers and TVs get twisted together, you will be able to record your shows through other internet/computer-based services.

All of this is great, and I haven’t even mentioned the convenience of watching a show whenever you want, always having Molly’s show ready to go, or allowing Lindy to pause a movie so I give my mostly irrelevant (but irresistible clever) comments.

Tails! You are a US Senator.

The Senate race in Minnesota has still not been decided. There were millions of votes casts and it is coming down to a few hundred. Reports are coming from all over that ballots have been lost, destroyed, miscounted, or are invalid. Some people wrote notes on the ballot making them invalid according to state statutes. There is a law on the books that says if the overall vote is a tie than they actually flip a coin. Imagine, the representation of millions of people would rest on a random heads or tails. I think this would be the perfect time to have a re-vote. New people could register and everyone votes again. It’s called democracy and if people really believed their vote counted than they might actually get out to the polls. We are spending hundreds of billions to bail out the banks, but we can't find a few million to restore a basic democratic principal. I say, let them vote! Again! Although this is a big deal, it would be a huge national story if a Democratic victory in Minnesota would give them a filibuster proof majority in the Senate. Right now, the Democrats have 58 seats, but 60 in the key number, not 59. Too bad, I wish that there was more attention given towards how voting actual matters.

Costco

Molly and I went to Costco the other day to get some basic supplies. Lindy has a Costco membership, but had taken the card with her to work. She thought that if I went to the customer service, they would give me something so I can shop, but alas, that was not the case. I was denied the ability to spend my money because I was not the actual member. Why is this? Why are these bulk warehouse stores the only ones to have memberships? Isn’t there a market for bulk items by themselves? If Costco charges 2% more, they would still have great prices for people willing to purchase bulk items. Wouldn’t that 2% cover everyone’s membership and just imagine how many more people would shop there. Walmart has proven that if you have enough customers you will make a huge overall profit, even if you are only making a tiny profit on each item. Furthermore, Costco doesn’t have a trial or test membership. Why not offer people a test drive and then they can see the benefits for themselves. If Lindy never had a membership, I never would have gone there in my lifetime (since I wasn’t going to pay $50 for something unknown). Sam’s Club also requires a membership. Either there is a market out there for a bulk, warehouse style store that doesn’t require a membership or the idea of a membership store should expand to other areas.

Political Dream Team or Playing it Safe

Barack Obama says he wants to change the politics of this country, but now I hear that he is going to nominate Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State. I am not a Hillary Clinton supporter for many reasons, but most importantly I just don’t like the idea of family legacies in government. Although I believe Hillary is a good Senator and a very competent person, she represents the political ideology of the Bill Clinton Administration. There is nothing wrong with this and I believe Bill Clinton was an excellent President and his ideas were progressive, although still within the tight framework of the currently political structure. Bill Clinton did not bring significant positive change to the system, his impact was felt in particularly program areas. How can Barack Obama make fundamental change if he is represented by the more much conservative (conservative within the progressive genre) Hillary Clinton all around the world. Furthermore, the Clintons presence will detract from Barack’s ability to become the clear leader of this country. I respect that he surrounds himself with very smart and independent people, but he must be the single, focused representation of a government in transition. Hilary Clinton may represent experience and talents, but she doesn’t represent “hope”.

Or am I looking at this all wrong. Maybe Obama is just trying to create a Political Dream Team. Was he just putting the best of the best into every conceivable position? Hillary Clinton is one of the most popular politicians in the country, why not put her in one of the most powerful positions? But the idea of a dream team doesn’t always work. For years, the US put together a basketball Dream Team to dominate the Olympics. This worked for a while, but as the other countries became more talented and began to utilize a more balanced “team” approach, the started to get the best of the US Dream Team. Sometimes having the right role players, where everyone knows what to do and doesn’t have ambitions of their own (besides the success of the team) is the best way to go.

the LAST dragon

Nooooooooooooo! They are remaking Berry Gordy's the Last Dragon. The greatest action, adventure, love, kung-fu, coming of age, drama of the last 100 years. This movie is perfect in every way. Re-releasing the original is a great idea; expose a new generation to the awesome power of The Last Dragon.

Samuel L. Jackson will be playing Sho'nuff, and although he is a huge Hollywood action star, you just can't replace the original. How can we stop this? Did they wait until Julius Carry III passed away before the starting production because they knew that he would never allow this to happen. How can we stop this?

I call upon Taimak, Vanity, and all those from the real Last Dragon to join me in a crusade to stop this travesty. Together we will get to the final level, we will find the secrets to the golden glow, and our minds, body and souls shall become one.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081030/film_nm/us_jackson

Banking Bailout - How much is $700,000,000,000

Big numbers are hard for people to process. 700 billion can start to sound like 300 billion, or 900 million for that matter. It becomes like sand grains or moon strands, magically big, past the point of counting; an amount you sit with a nephew and contemplate in wonder.

- It is one third of the total amount of money received by the federal government in 2007, including social security, income tax, corporate tax, and all other receipts.

- It is nine times the amount spent on education in 2007.

- It is 35 times the amount spent on all foreign aid in most years.

- It is $140 billion more than has been spent on the Iraq war since the invasion.

- It is $120 billion more than that spent on social security benefits.

- It is 7,000 times bigger than the Sierra club’s yearly budget.

- Its over twice the amount of all money given to all charitable organizations in the United States in any given year.

- It is more than $100 for every person in the world.

Ohhh, and don’t forget where this money is coming from. We are either borrowing it from other countries through government bonds (China is stockpiling these bonds) or we are just printing money, which will lead to inflation.

Jets - This is their (other) year

The Jets are an amazing 7-3 and in first place in the AFC east. Over the past six years, the Jets have had a winning season (and made the playoffs) every other year. On some basic level this makes sense. All NFL teams have a salary cap and thus the talent level is pretty consistent. If a team has a good season, the following year their schedule with be tougher, likewise if they are horrible, they will play other bad teams the next season. So is it fair to say the Jets are just good against poor teams? Yes, but who cares.

The Jets invested heavily in winning this year, signing a series of veteran stars, of which almost all of them have worked out. Farve, although past his prime, is still a significant upgrade over Pennington. Fanica and Woody, also over the hill, are still a huge upgrades and has steadied the offensive line. Calvin Pace has been excellent and Kris Jenkins is a dominant force on defense, actually helping to stop the run for the first time in my lifetime. 1st round draft choice Vernon Goldston was a complete bust, but Dustin Keller has been decent. Late round pick Dwight Lowery has only been average, but still an upgrade over what they had. Combined with young stars, like Darrelle Revis and Kerry Rhodes, the team is vastly more taltented than they were last year. Still, they have huge weaknesses at CB and Safety, which better passing teams will attack (see Denver week 13).

Anyway, although they are in first place today, the playoffs are definately not a lock. In reality, the Jets have only have a one game lead over Miami, New England, Baltimore, and Indy. Buffalo and San Diego are still in the mix, but basically three of those first five teams will make the playoffs. And if the Jets lose to 10-0 Tennesee this week, they might drop out of being one of those top three. After that their schedule gets easier, but I think it will come down to last week or two.

No matter what, the signing of Farve and everyone else was a great move. Even if the Jets don't make the playoffs, it will still have been an interesting season. Even if the veterans breakdown next year and the Jets suck again, I won't worry beucause the year after will be a good one again.

Got Any Change?

The question for President Obama becomes, “is change possible?”. Sure he can modify the tax rate, but is he going to raise taxes enough to make them compare at least equally with other countries (as a percent of our GDP, the US taxes a tremendously small amount compared to almost every other first world country). Maybe than we could make health care, college, and employment training free for everyone. The US spends 50% of its discretionary money on the military, but only 6% on Health and Human Services, 5% on Education, 2% on the Department of Energy, 2% on the Department of Justice, and 1% on the EPA. We spend 10 times as much on the military (not even including the wars) than on education. We spend 10X more money on the military than China does. Is that going to change? Are we going to mandate environmental changes now? Can these types of changes ever be implemented, even with a democratic majority in both houses of Congress. We know Obama says he wants change, but is it even possible. I say that he won’t even try. There is too much pressure on him and he will be conservative in choosing what he wants to focus on. This is not the change that people want, but it will still be an improvement and progress, but not true change.

http://thinkorthwim.com/2007/04/29/tax-rates-by-country/

Ohhhh-Bama

In early December of last year I officially endorsed Barack Obama. I don't want to take full credit (perhaps just 95%) for the fact that at that exact moment his campaign turned around and he started his earnest pursuit of the Presidency. For various reasons, my blog was shut down until this time (was it because I was secretly running Obama's campaign, or was I negotiating Brett Favre's path to Jets, or perhaps I was just job hunting.)

Anyway, election night is upon us. Go Vote. I am driving all the back to Connecticut to vote (see upcoming posts for why I am no longer living in the Nutmeg State.

Although it is a little late in the day, please comment with your predictions as to the final outcome. The person who is closest will win amazing prizes.

My final tally: Obama - 330, McCain - 208.

(fyi, when I restarted the blog, there were errors with my template and I had to change it now the fonts are all messed up, I will change this soon. Thanks.)

14-0

The Jets are the biggest underdog in the history of the NFL. They are playing the undefeated Patriots, in New England, and are 24 point underdogs. Some say the Patriots will run up the score again the Jets because the Jets caught them cheating and told the league (costing the Pats a bunch of cash and a first round draft pick). Tom Brady and Randy Moss are in line to set records and the Jets, well, they are tied for the second worst record in the league with only three wins (and two of those wins have come against the 0-13 dolphins).

Do you remember in the football movie "The Best of Times", when Robin Williams and Kurt Russell were playing that other fancy-pants, overconfident team that had superior talent, and the good guys were getting their ass kicked and than a force great than man decided to change everything. It may have been rain in the that movie, but this Sunday at 1:00pm, I predict the worst storm in 100 years to crash down on Gillette Stadium. Hot hail, tornadoes, blizzards. Real wrath-of-God-type stuff. Fire and brimstone coming from the sky! Rivers and seas boiling! Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes! Volcanoes! The dead rising from the grave! Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!

Well, all of that may need to happen, but in the end, when the sun finally creeps out from behind that unexpected solar eclipse, and the players wipe off the remnants from an exploded marshmallow man; at the moment the universe will come into perfect harmony as the game clock ticks its final tock and the scoreboard in all its electrically glory proclaims to the world a simple set of numbers, 14-0. And no, it will not be the Patriots record; it will be the final score. Jets 14, Patriots 0.

Almost There

23 and a half months down, two weeks to go. I am so very close to finishing my project at work, but the stress has been overwhelming. I have been working non-stop for over a year and it is all coming together (and sometimes apart) in these final moments. We are set to publish a 211 pages data book by the end of the year. The learning curve has been a cliff, but it might actually get done. I can't wait for this to be over to I can actually reflect on what I have done.

Barack Obama

In a move that will rock that nation, I am officially endorsing Barack Obama for President. Although only 40% of an ideal President, I believe he is still the best candidate. Below is a breakdown of the different attributes that have lead to my support of his candidacy.

Philosophy – This is one of his strongest attributes. He recognizes that there are problems that need to be solved right away, specifically regarding poverty, energy, corruption. He is a populist who is in touch with local communities (although his public relations department does not highlight this at all.)

Intelligence – His PR people are awful. I think their strategy is “the less you know about him, the less you can attack”. But I didn’t even know he was a lawyer, or that he went to Harvard Law school. Furthermore, I didn’t know he took his fancy law degree and decided not to pursue the big money, but instead focus on civil rights law. He is uber-smart, but it is very hard to tell.

Integrity – On the one hand he spent his life fighting the good fight, on the other hand, his campaign so far has almost completely ignored that fight. I don’t know who the real Barack is; he might be a champion of the people or he might be an unqualified politicians with no confidence. My decision to support him came to taking the chance that the former might be true. With every other candidate, especially Hillary, you know exactly what you are getting and it is not progress.

Results – Obama’s political career so far is a weakpoint. He hasn’t actually accomplished much of anything, although I’m guessing he is doing this on purpose (see above; if you don’t do anything, they can’t attack you).

War – He still doesn’t have a plan. He doesn’t have the guts to take a stance (but neither does any of democrat, except Biden).

Personality – Ok, I get it, he has a big smile, great, not what? Yes optimism is good, but it’s not enough (just ask John Edwards). He needs to show a serious side, but that means taking a stand on something.

Experience - Hmmm, ok he has no executive, military, or real political expereince. Ouch.

Intangibles - If you look at his entire life (which is very interesting) you will see a person who has endured struggles, lived overseas, and achieved success. To me, this is what support Barack is all about. He is different than the others, or at least he started off differently. He could be a radical progressive who has learned that you have to “play the game” in order to get to a position of power. Of course, a true leader and progressive would refuse to do that, instead they would choose to always believe in themselves regardless of consequence. And in doing that, one become a leader. But Barack isn’t doing that and therefore can’t resonate to the public what he would be like as President.

After I wrote all this, I did on those online tests were you say you think on certain issues and they say who matches up to your preferences. Barack was my top match at 73%, followed by Biden and Kucinich. Ron Paul was my top Republican at a 44% match.

Read more about Barack Obama’s life at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama

Getting Bigger

One of the great pleasures of Molly’s life is the knowing that she is going to be able to do more. She lets everyone know that she is getting bigger every day. And with this inevitable bigness, will come the abilities to ride a bike, know all the words to all the songs, read, touch the ceiling, fly, do flips, carry her own things, cook foods, have gum, and so much more. She knows that she is getting bigger and these future happinesses are just out there waiting for her and it brings her almost constant joy. The other night I thought she was asleep when she cried out for me. She wasn’t upset, but just felt the need to tell me that she could already jump because she has to feet, but she doesn’t know how to hop yet. And that she will know how to hop when she gets a little bit bigger. And she was so happy saying this, in the special way that her voice goes up higher and higher as goes gets to the end.

It’s it too bad that this type of positive anticipation doesn’t last forever. I am not going to learn anything new or be able to achieve more things just by my continued existence. Perhaps that is another reason why it is so hard to be a teenager. I guess there a few things to look forward to in those years (like driving), but I don’t think it brings the same joy to get older as opposed to getting bigger.

To all: Sorry about making the blog non-public. Hopefully it won’t last too long and I should at least write more often.

Blood and Diamonds

Last weekend I watched Blood Diamond, and although it was entertaining (in a way) and very well acted, I believe it was actually a disservice to the atrocities associated with blood diamonds, child soldiers, and civil wars in Africa. And the reason I believe this is the same reason that I believe Schindler’s List was a disservice to the holocaust. My perspective starts with the belief that most people do not have a deep understanding of what really happened, from a realistic, historical perspective. Therefore, these movies have the opportunity to provide a valuable and educational message. Both movies show a somewhat feel-good story within the context of horrible events happening all around. In Blood Diamond, the story is almost completely made up, but impossible (particularly the part about finding his son). Both movies show the very, very rare exceptions their respective situations. I believe that someone unfamiliar with the actual history of the events might think that these events (large-scare protection of Jews, or a father regaining his son after he was made a child soldier) were somewhat common (which they certainly were not). In both genocides the cases of people committing brutal crimes outweighs those who tried to help by an overwhelming and very depressing number. Furthermore, Blood Diamond goes out of its way to make itself entertaining (adding in a love story and a Hollywood plot), which might make people think the entire movie was just more Hollywood exaggerations. The situations involving blood diamonds, civil wars, and child soldiers should be understood as a few of the most pressing issues in the global community. The real stories are worse than either movie portrayed. Perhaps the real stories are so horrible as to make them unwatchable by the general public. Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean that didn’t happen (and aren’t still happening).

Imagination

Can you teach someone to be creative? Often, creative abilities are usually thought of as skills that people just seem to have naturally. However, the more time I spent with Molly the more I think creativity is a skill, like math, reading, athletics, or anything else (of course people might have some positive or negative genetic predisposition to learning any skill). In school, there are specific classes on auditory creativity (music) and visual creativity (art), but there are no classes that focus on mental creativity. As parents throughout the country complain when music and art classes are closed, they should be equally upset that mental creativity classes don’t exist at all.

Although people might think that creativity isn’t something you can teach, everyday Molly is proving that theory wrong. Of course, all kids are creativity, but Lindy and I have actively tried to help Molly explore her creative instincts. Molly, like most children, loves storied, but more than books, Molly loves “imagination stories”, which are made up on the spot. I used to tell Molly imagination stories before she could talk and now we tell them together. Sometimes, I tell the whole story and I stretch my imaginative skills as an example of what she can do. Other times, she will tell almost the entire story. And when she gets stuck I might ask “did the people in the story go somewhere?” And I can see her thinking hard, pushing her brain to find the best possible answer. It is like a body builder who knows that last rep is the hardest, but it will help the most. I imagine her little brain straining to create that new idea and when she does it will stay with her and be a building block for the next idea.

Last night, at dinner, she invented a game called “Sam-I-am”, based on Green Eggs and Ham, in which she would be Sam-I-am, and ask me if I wanted a taco with a mouse or on a house or on a boat or with a goat. As impressed as I was that she remembered the book well enough to repeat what Sam-I-am said, I was overwhelmed with pride when she asked “Would you eat your taco with…your soda?” She stepped outside what was in her memory and tapped into something new. And I could tell she wanted to think of more things that weren’t in the book (which she did). She was proud of herself too, which makes immersion in any skill possible.

Creativity is not only good for telling stories and playing games, but it is a core component of some of the most useful skills that people, families, and societies need. Creativity is the basis of problem solving, inventiveness, philosophy, architecture, research, and most of the skills that can effectively contribute to progress.

Inspiration

My father is a pessimist, and old fashion pessimist. When talking about almost anyone in his life there is almost nobody that seemed to have inspired him. However, (besides sports heroes) there are only a few exceptions, well there are really two; two brothers. When my father talks about John and Robert Kennedy (especially Robert) his face lights up, he smiles, and his eyes look 30 years younger. There haven’t been any public figures in my entire life that has ever made me feel that sense of inspiration, brought on by their personal confidence, intellect, and convictions, that Robert Kennedy apparently brought to entire generation. A true leader, whose own convictions are those of the people, and who had the ability to convey his ideas and see them thought. No public figure I know meets that simple standard. I recognize that the media has played a role in forcing public figures to be especially conservative with their thoughts and their policies. The media’s intense search and focus on any negative, no matter how trivial, had forced public figures to only say something approved of already. I hope that this is the case for people our most current set of Presidential Candidates, as it would be too sad to think that they actually only believe in the genetic, safe, solutions that they show on debates and in their lives. Sadly, I can only hope that they really have good ideas, meant to promote progress, but are scared to share them. Since I have no first experience with a moral, realistic, progressive leader who transcends the pubic and just stated by they believe; and I am left with just hidden hopes. Even Bill Clinton, who I thought was an exceptional President, does not inspire me. As an Executive of our government he was more than I could have hoped for, but as a leader, he was just ordinary. Maybe it isn’t time yet, maybe those special people come only once in a generation, and I will wait for the person that I can talk to Molly about with the same delight that my father talks about those two departed brothers.

Jets and Cars

I am a Jets Fan. The Jets had a great season last year. The Jets will have another great season this year. Two of those sentences are true, the other is sadly all wrong. Last year the Jets had one of the easiest schedules in the history of the NFL and beating only one team with a winning record all season. In 2007, it they play a much harder schedule, and their team is only slightly improved. I’m realistically predicting 6-10, and optimistically going with 8-8. They can only go so far with no offensive line, no defensive line, only one cornerback and one safety, and no tight end. A few weeks ago I thought that since this season was most likely not going to lead to a playoff game, why not trade their injury-prone QB (to a team like Atlanta) to a first or second round draft pick. Give the backup a chance, and build for the future. Of course, they would never do something like that, because professional sports executives are terrified of making bold moved because their job is at risk if it backfires (if they do nothing, they can blame others for the teams failures). Anyway, it has been one game, and already the Jets QB, Chad Pennington, has gone down with mild injury. Too late for trade now.

In other news, I need to get a new car. I am looking for a safe, reliable, 4-door, commuter car. I would like to spend under $20,000 and was thinking of a low-end Honda Civic. The American cars a cheaper and offer better financing, but how do they compare in reality to the foreign cars. Any helpful hints, suggestions, or ideas?