AllieOooops Cave

Miss AllieOoop

2010-01-04T22:18:00.001-08:00

Happy smile. Golden retriever happy. She's always a pretty happy dog, but she keeps that smile on continuously this time of year. Christmas is special for her; a house full of people, lots of food around to beg for, and kids. Oh, the kids! She just loves having kids in the house, someone to play with. Normally, the excitement is limited to going out to Hat Rock State park and checking out all the ducks and geese. Actually, any ride in the pickup is pretty exciting for her, just to get out of her normally humdrum routine of marathon naps. We generally don't have many visitors, so when the clan gathers, she really enjoys being a part of the welcoming committee, a job she takes seriously.

Once she has everyone properly welcomed, she pretty much turns her attention back to the kids, or sniffing around to see if anyone has dropped a cookie, or nut, or anything that she might consider food. That doesn't necessarily agree with what we might consider food however. Anyone eating gets her special attention. If the kids aren't in the mood for playing with her, she just mingles with the crowd, soliciting bites of a snack, a pat on the head, or scratch on the back, or anywhere else for that matter.

The one thing she is most proficient at is shedding hair. She has nice, long, thin hair, which requires a lot of brushing. This process gives up a fair sized hairball, that otherwise would make it to the carpet or the furniture. She loves getting brushed, so this is good. But she still manages to shed a lot of hair, and not showing any signs of running out soon. She seems to be shedding a little less since we changed her diet over to Dog Lovers Gold dog food, which she loves. The only downside is having to buy it either in Spokane, or in the Willamette Valley. Since she has started eating this food, which actually is food, she has gone from 88 pounds down to about 78, and feels so much more solid. There's actually muscle there now where there was only lots of fat before, and she's feeling better, actually gets out and runs around like a real dog. Her butt was wide enough to set a platter on, but no longer is she Ms. Waddle. She has some spring in her step now, and can trot right up the stairs, where before it was a real effort for her.

Due to her allergies, the vet has always recommended a lamb and rice formulation to help out with that, and we have never fed her any cheap dog food - always Iam's, Science Diet, and a couple varieties of Purina formulations. Iam's came highly recommended, so we got her that for quite some time. She was pretty listless and never at any sort of higher energy level, so just assumed that was part of her personality. After doing some reading, we decided to try working some other brands into her diet, and went through a few of the higher priced, commercially available spreads. Getting her of the Iam's was the first good step, she started responding a little to the change, more energy and just acting like she felt better. In the meantime, I decided to try to find some more information on the internet about dog food, and found there is no lack of information, or opinions on that subject. My son, who was visiting in the middle of this quest for info, asked if we had tried the Dog Lovers Gold. We had never heard of it, much less tried any. We brought up the web page(s), did some reading, and he called a friend, whose brother is a distributor for this food. He pointed us in the direction of the nearest dealer, and after reading about how it was made compared to most of the rest of what's on the market, we went and got some. After being on this diet for nearly a year now, she has lost 10 pounds, feels a lot better, is shedding less, and her allergies and hot spots have taken a serious backseat. Good Stuff!!

I did mention that she is still shedding. We didn't realize how much really, until we got our new vacuum cleaner, a Dyson DC25 Animal. This is an awesome vacuum for cleaning up dog hairs, and everything else a vacuum is supposed to do. We pick up enough dog hair each time we vacuum, in a month or so, we could build a whole 'nother dog! It was not cheap, but we don't have to buy bags for it, and is asthma and allergy compliant, and does the job it's supposed to, so we'll see. It rolls around on a ball, so is easy to maneuver and get into tight spots, and very easy to push around. We are liking it. It also came with a little small powered brush that goes on the end of the hose, for use on furniture, in the car etc. The hose is so stiff and short, I question how much use it would be in a car, but another length of hose would cure that problem.

This is really starting to sound like an infomercial, so I'll stop it here. I do not sell either the dog food, or the vacuums, although I have considered peddling the dog food in this area. It would be nice if someone did - driving to Spokane or Portland to pick it up is a bit excessive - so we have to plan ahead a little - just pick it up while we are in the area. DUH!

More to follow, but in the meantime, you can check out the Christmas pics (and others) here.

Smokers Are Really Gonna Fume With This One

2009-02-17T03:07:00.000-08:00

WE NEED MORE TAX MONEY! The eternal cry from Washington, and most of the state capitols as well. Guess what?

Tax Increase Effective April 1st, 2009!

SCHIP Cigarette And Tobacco Tax Rates

Product	Cigarette and Tobacco Tax Rates on April 1st
Cigarettes	$1.0066 per pack
Large Cigars	52.75% of manufacturers price; cap of 40.26 cents per cigar
Little Cigars	$1.0066 per pack
Pipe Tobacco	$2.8311 per pound
Chewing Tobacco	50.33 cents per pound
Snuff	$1.51 per pound
RYO	$24.78 per pound
Cigarette Paper	3.15 cents per 50 papers
Cigarette Tubes	6.30 cents per 50 tubes

Just casually glancing down through this list, one item really stands out. The RYO (Roll Your Own) will cost an additional $24.78 per pound. Considering you can buy a pound of the stuff for around $15.00, this is a huge increase. Prices per pack of factory rolled cigs will be up over a dollar a pack, or $10.00 per carton, which is a little less than a 30% increase in taxes. Once more they are taxing the people that can least afford the higher taxes. The RYO crowd generally consists of people that can't afford to pay the already overtaxed factory built cigs, so now they get whacked again. So what was Mr. Obama telling us about lower taxes for da po' folks?? That really is who this is aimed at.

This huge increase for the RYO , tax class J tobacco, no doubt was bought by the big 3 cigarette making conglomerates. Increasing the cost of the RYO tobaccos will probably make the RYO more expensive than the factory built cigs, not to mention put out of business a lot of smaller family owed tobacco farms that have provided the cheaper alternative to the big business way of life. How handy! It's too bad that the smaller farmers don't have the lobbying clout the big corps do. Sad really.

There's no doubt it will cause a lot of people to quit smoking, which is a good thing, but that will represent a loss in tax revenue when they do. Then who are they going to look to, to continue the childrens health care initiatives? Wouldn't it make more sense to tax alcohol across the board? They wouldn't even have to go with the full 2000% increase like they did with the RYO stuff, say maybe just double or triple the present taxes on all booze, beer, wine etc - just think of all the revenue that would generate, and it would be spreading it across a much larger segment of the population, so there would be more people paying it. As a concession to the big business dudes, they could just tax the hell out of supplies for the home brewers, so as to level that playing field like they are doing for the tobacco industry. And, think of the kids! Kids are growing up in homes where parents drink, become subjected to abuse, the effects of which can last a lifetime. There would be less people involved in carnage on our highways, along with attendant higher insurance costs these drunk drivers are putting on all of us. Let the boozers pay that extra with some good hefty increases on alcohol taxes.

And it shouldn't stop there either. The excess money they are collecting is supposedly going to pay for children's heath care services, if the states actually do use it for that, and not all of them are. Ohio funded their mandatory emissions testing for cars with that money. The second hand smoke smokescreen that they have thrown up I believe is just to give people something to blame everything else on, while they aren't looking at the pollution being discharged from industry in this country, and the rest of the world for that matter. Everyone in the world smoking cigarettes as fast as they could, wouldn't even start to make a dent in the pollution index. Big business and corporations would just as soon keep it that way, keep people fighting with other people over their health issues, so it takes the focus off of them, the very ones who are putting literally tons of pollutants in the air every minute. I'm not saying cigarettes are good for you, but in the overall scheme of things, there are much worse offenders out there.

Tobacco taxes have been one of the faster growing taxes over the past few years. On the Fiscal Facts page of the Tax Foundation website there's an interesting little chart, that show while personal income taxes are actually going down, all the others are going up, pretty radically in some cases.

Tobacco Taxes are a Fast-Growing Source of Government Revenue

Tax Category (BEA)	Percent Change in Collections from 2000 to 2005
Special Assessments	79.5%
Severance Taxes	69.8%
Taxes on Insurance Receipts	55.1%
Taxes on Corporate Income	50.8%
Tobacco Taxes	44.7%
Property Taxes	37.6%
Air Transport Taxes	26.3%
Payroll Taxes	25.3%
General Sales Taxes	22.7%
Customs Duties	19.9%
Motor Vehicle Licenses	17.9%
Alcohol Taxes	13.4%
Gasoline (and Diesel Fuel) Taxes	13.3%
Personal Income Taxes	- 3.1%
Source: Tax Foundation calculations based on data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, Dept. of Commerce

They also mention the fact that taxes on tobacco products increased three times faster than alcohol taxes, the other major "sin tax" from 2000-2005, with the reason being only about 20% of the population smokes, while drinkers vastly outnumber that amount, so special interest groups, while pushing public health issues, have been able to pull along the non smoking majority to support the campaign to tax the smokers. Makes sense to me. "John Stuart Mill would call it a tyranny of the majority: politicians have identified an unpopular minority and forced punitive taxes on them."

That narrow world view is making them miss the boat however. There's a whole world of more lucrative taxes they could impose on the masses. The majority of people in the U.S. are overweight, so why not tax obesity? It's a health care problem that is costing us beeeelions every year, just battling the onslaught of diseases, immobility etc, not to mention how it could improve the worlds food supply. I can envision a monthly weigh in for all taxpayers, of course to be done at your local health clinic or hospital, being as how they are the ones that are going to benefit from all this. Anyone heavier than that weight they always have hanging on the wall in those places would be taxed at a dollar per pound they are over the allowable weight, plus the $25 weigh in fee to cover the clinics involved costs. Then next month, do it all over again. The end result will be a marvelously healthy bunch of broke Americans, and the tax coffers would overflow. Coupled up with the tobacco taxes, we will all live longer, healthier lives. It will totally screw up the actuarial tables used for Social Security, because everyone will be living longer, so on that dole for longer, but, if the economy ever picks up again, all these healthy people could go back to work, and put off retiring until the age of 75 or 80. The gift that keeps on giving.

Or, how about pass a law for genetic testing so that people who are prone to producing "genetically flawed offspring" can start paying their fair share too. And what about people who have babies that can't afford them... placing a huge burden on society to care for the kids they could not provide for. State sponsored sterilization sounds like a good answer for you too. An oxygen tax for those of us who are still breathing could also be productive. The proceeds could be used to clean up the air so that it's fit to breathe. Be very, very careful what you wish for, you just might get it.

I know I have talked to this guy

2009-02-01T22:59:00.001-08:00

Mujibar was trying to get a job in India .

The Personnel Manager said, 'Mujibar,

you have passed all the tests, except one.
Unless you pass it , you cannot qualify for this job.'

Mujibar said, 'I am ready.'

The manager said,
'Make a sentence using the words
Yellow, Pink, and Green .'

Mujibar thought for a few minutes and said,
'Mister manager, I am ready'

The manager said, 'Go ahead.'

Mujibar said,
'The telephone goes green, green ,
and I pink it up, and say,
Yellow, this is Mujibar.'

Mujibar now works at a call center.

No doubt you have spoken to him.
I know I have.

Treasury watchdogs to keep eye on lobbyists - HAHAHAHA

2009-01-28T00:03:00.000-08:00

There's a nice little article (click on title to go to the article) in the Washington Post about Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner issued new guidelines yesterday aimed at eliminating the influence of lobbyists on the $700 billion financial bailout program by restricting their contact with officials who are reviewing applications for money and deciding how to disburse it. This seems to have some of the lobbyists and the companies they work for just a little worried. They fear the congressmen just won't be able to figure out how to disburse all that money unless they are there to hold their hands through the process, and getting their pockets filled at the same time. They claim their main interest and purpose in life is to educate these congressmen, so they will make the best choices. It seems all good educations are expensive.

Lobbyists actually do a great job of educating, and not just the politicians. Thanks to these same lobbyists, we all got a refresher course. Not only did they manage to push through a sloppily put together package in record time, that had no strings attached, no accountability for how it was spent or what it was used for, they are still on the payroll of many of the same banks the citizens have had to bankroll. Maybe getting rolled by the banks would be more to the point.

Personally, I think it's wrong for any bank, who was in bad enough shape that they required bailout money, to be paying millions for lobbyists. Of course the last time, it just happened to coincide with the annual bonus season, so it helped out immensely there. CEO's were able to once again play Santa Claus before opening their own little golden parachutes and presents. Why are not these people being prosecuted? This is just plain wrong. Most of these same banks won't even talk about what they are doing with this money, and the ones that are talking, say they are sitting on it, waiting for the economy to bounce back, and then they will be in great shape. Helllooooo out there - that money you are sitting on was supposed to be what was going to get the economy bouncing again - so, as a result of the banks doing the little nest egg tricks, that money has already lost 25%, and none of it is getting circulated back into the economy. My guess is, when round 2 gets disbursed, all these little piggy banks that have their snouts in the public trough one more time, they will still be paying bonuses and great CEO wages, still paying lobbyists, even if there's an attempt to hamstring them some, and not a lot will change. They still won't have enough to loan out to the masses for house and car loans. The commercial real estate bubble, and the credit card bubble have yet to pop, so as soon as they go through this money, watch and see what's coming next. The government doesn't have, and won't be able to print enough money to buy up all the toxic paper that's being held by these bankers now, so the taxpayers will once again take it up the you know where.

It probably hasn't occurred to anyone in gubmint yet - but it might just be a good thing to let some of these too big to fail operations go ahead and fail. They are also too big to fix. Then they could start spending their money and direct it from the bottom up, putting people to work in the process, and the banks could earn their money the old fashioned way. Making loans, charging interest, etc. They might be inclined to do a little more due diligence when it comes to loaning money out than when the only requirement was a fairly normal heartbeat.

2009-01-27T04:41:00.001-08:00

For anyone who bowls in the northwest's tournaments, you may recognize J.K., pictured here sitting on the horse. Then again, you may not. She isn't normally dressed up for the bowling tournaments like she is here. When she isn't busy selling brackets or paying out money, or any of a dozen other things she helps out with, you might be seeing her with a needle and thread, and lots of little beads. Did I say lots? Many thousands of those little hummers, all neatly planned out and attached to the backing material.
Watching her doing it makes you wonder how she does it without getting cross eyed and punctured, but she buzzes right along on what has to be a long journey.
All the bead work on the horse represents at least 3, or more, years of working on it, off and on I assume, but there is no instant gratification with this type of labor. And it's absolutely beautiful. The picture doesn't really do it justice. We need to talk her into getting some close up shots of all that handiwork. This picture (and I have others) was taken at the Christmas parade in Pendleton this last year. Nice work JK. (It's okay to smile for pictures.) You can click on the picture to enlarge it a little.

This Says it All

2009-01-27T00:28:00.000-08:00

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Monday, January 26, 2009

YOUR BEST SOURCE FOR THE UNBIASED MARKET COMMENTARY YOU WON'T GET FROM WALL STREET

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Warning: Megabanks Could Fail Despite Federal Aid
by Martin D. Weiss, Ph.D.

Dear Subscriber,

The time has come to issue one my sternest warnings to date: Bank of America and Citigroup could fail despite the most radical government rescues of all time.

Right now, after recent close calls with instant death, these two megabanks are on life support, receiving massive transfusions of government capital. But they're still hemorrhaging, and no one in Washington has found a cure.

Already, they have received capital injections of $90 billion ($45 billion each).

Already, this bailout is larger than the total combined capital of PNC Bank, Suntrust Bank and State Street Bank — all among America's ten largest.

Yet, ironically, that $90 billion is still a drop in the ocean compared to their massive exposure to risky assets.

The shocking facts revealed in the banks' own balance sheets and in the OCC's Quarterly Report demonstrate the enormity of problem:

Massive Risks at America's Megabanks (bill. of dollars)
	B of A	Citi	B of A + Citi
9/30/2008 Total assets	1,831	2,050	3,881
All derivatives	38,186	39,979	78,165
Credit default swaps	3,291	2,467	5,758
Exposure to defaults by trading partners	177.6%	259.5%

Fact #1. Too big to save. Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup, Inc. have combined assets of $3.9 trillion, or 43 times the size of the Treasury bailout funds they've received to date.

Fact #2. Bigger losses ahead. Even before any further declines in the economy, an unusually large portion of their assets are already in grave jeopardy — commercial real estate loans going sour, credit cards loans tanking, auto loans sinking, and residential mortgages turning to dust. Now, as the economy continues to tumble, avoiding much larger losses will be almost impossible.

Fact #3. Big derivatives players. Bank of America and Citigroup are the nation's second and third largest high-rollers in the derivatives market, with a combined total of $78 trillion in these bets outstanding. That's over ten times the derivatives that Lehman Brothers had on its books when it failed last year.

Fact #4. They've bet far too much on each other's failure. Bank of America and Citigroup are also the second and third largest participants in the most dangerous derivatives of all — credit default swaps. These are the big bets that financial institutions make on the failure of other major companies.

But participants in this market are like shipwrecked sailors in a sinking lifeboat betting fortunes on who will live and who will survive: If a company bets too heavily on failures and too many companies actually fail, who's going to make good on those bets?

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And unfortunately, betting on each other's demise in huge amounts is exactly what the nation's megabanks have done. At their latest reckoning, Bank of America and Citigroup held credit default swaps with notional values of $2.5 trillion and $3.3 trillion, respectively. (See OCC report, pdf page 23.)

Total between the two: An astounding $5.8 trillion!

This number is not directly comparable to capital. But just to give you a sense of the magnitude of the problem, Bank of America and Citigroup's combined credit default swaps are more than sixty times larger than the $90 billion they've received so far in capital infusions from the Treasury Department.

Fact #5. JPMorgan Chase is not far behind. Right now, Washington and Wall Street are still counting on at least JPMorgan Chase to pick up the pieces after major failures and shotgun mergers.

But according to the OCC, among the three megabanks, JPMorgan Chase is actually the most heavily leveraged, with over 400% of its capital already exposed to the risk of default by trading partners. Bank of America's and Citigroup's exposure (177.6% and 259.5%, respectively) is also wild, but JPMorgan Chase's exposure is obviously far greater.

Fact #6. JPMorgan Chase's derivatives could double the size of the banking crisis overnight. On the day that JPMorgan Chase needs to join the ailing Bank of America and Citigroup in Uncle Sam's intensive care unit, the derivatives mess doubles immediately.

Reason: The bank has $9.2 trillion in credit default swaps, almost twice as much as Bank of America and Citigroup combined.

Fact #7. Stocks crashing. Shares in failed banks are worth zero, and that's where Bank of America's are headed. Citigroup's are already close, making it almost impossible for the company to raise capital from investors.

In light of these facts, how can the government save America's megabanks?

Wall Street is hoping that the Obama administration will create a separate, government-run "bad bank" to take bad assets off their hands. And some pundits are even proposing that the U.S. government nationalize the big banks in trouble. But ...

Neither approach addresses the obvious reason our nation's banks are in the ICU to begin with: Excess debts and risk-taking. In fact, these "solutions" would merely pile on more of the same. Meanwhile ...
Both approaches spread and transform the contagion from a Wall Street debt crisis into a Washington debt crisis, as the federal deficit explodes to as much as $2 trillion in fiscal 2009.

My Forecast: Washington Will
Ultimately Lose This Epic Battle!

No matter what the government does, it cannot patch back together the busted market for mortgages, derivatives and especially credit default swaps.

It cannot stop a pandemic of loan losses among large AND small banks as the economy sinks and traditional bank lending goes bad.

It cannot stop the contagion of falling confidence, fear and panic. It cannot outlaw gravity or stop investors from selling. Nor can it turn back the clock and reverse years of financial sins.

So don't count on Uncle Sam to save your bank, your business, or the economy.

Keep up to 90% of your money in cash.

Avoid bank deposits as much as possible, using mostly short-term Treasury bills or equivalent.

Above all, focus on building up your own resources and finding alternative sources of income or profits. For specific instructions on precisely how, click here for our free one-hour video, "7 Startling Forecasts for 2009." But you don't have much time; it goes offline tomorrow.

Good luck and God bless!

Martin

Um, this ain't lookin' good!

Bankers, Bailout, & other B words.

2009-01-24T05:50:00.000-08:00

After reading a NY Times article, and a couple others, it's obvious there needs to be some changes made in the banking industry. All of the so-called major banks that were the recipients of bailout money all seemed to have a few things in common. They had enough money to pay millions, per quarter, for lobbyists. Some have discontinued the practice since getting the money, most have not.

Mr. Obama, I think, is on the right track with lobbyists, although I don't think he went far enough. Browsing through the Constitution, I couldn't find the part that says Representatives shall pass laws, and fund our government solely by bills presented to them by lobbyists. I can see where it probably saves the congress critters hours and hours of work having this stuff drafted up by outside attorneys working for some special interest group, but that's what we pay the congressmen to do. It's just another fine example of the consumer/taxpayer footing the bill for big businesses to get laws passed that don't even start to have the taxpayers best interests at heart. Congress has turned into a subservient branch of big business. It's really nothing new, but they used to at least try to hold it down to a dull roar, but it's become pretty blatant the last few decades.

I did find the first amendment to the Constitution:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting
the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the
right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a
redress of grievances.

The part about congress making no law prohibiting the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. I seriously doubt the founding fathers had in mind for that to mean the bankers could peaceably assemble, conjure up some BS that they were "too big to fail", spend millions on lobbyists to petition the Government for a redress of grievances, and then gift the banks billions of dollars, and with no strings attached as to how they were to use that money. The congressmen, of all people, should have seen through that one. Most of them are lawyers, or at the very least, well educated in SOME field, or should be.

I wasn't in favor of the bailouts when they first started talking about them. Then along comes the auto industry with the same song and dance, but they were met with a little more reluctance by Congress, but also being too big to fail, managed to scoop up a portion of the mother-lode. The most incredible part of the bank bailouts (round 1), was the no strings, no accountability part of it. Like I said, I wasn't in favor of the bailouts from the start, and I was assuming that they had to use the money to kick-start the economy, make loans, re-do mortgages that were putting people out on the streets etc. Never in my wildest dreams did I conjure up a scenario that the money was just being given away, but that's what it amounted to. CEO's were still getting obscene salaries, bonuses, and golden parachutes, while the banks were using the money to pay stockholders dividends, to buy up weaker banks, or in some cases, just sitting on it for a rainy day fund. So, the economy just continued into ever tighter little swirls, picking up speed heading for the drain. The government has already calculated that 25% of that first round of money is lost - gone - never to be seen again, at least until the taxpayers pony up one more time to replace it.

There is an obvious cure for all of this, unless the government decides to nationalize the banks, and they probably should at this point, but as far as bank management's salaries are concerned, and the same could apply to any company getting a part of the bailout money; set up salaries similar to the variable rate mortgages, make the pay commensurate with performance. A base salary would be set up for each job in management, and that would be what they get paid. If the bank surpasses a preset percentage of profits, funds would be set aside in a trust, part of which could be an increase in salaries for the managers, and all bonuses and severance packages. This would all be money from profits. If there are no profits, there are no increases in salaries, bonuses or severance packages. In order to protect themselves and the rest of the world down the road, after 5 years of contributing to the fund, they could be eligible to tap 20% of the increased salary and bonus money, 40% after 10 years, 60% after 15 years, etc. If the business loses money due to their poor management, they would lose that much money from their trust. This would give them enough incentive to follow the rules, keep their stockholders best interests at heart, and to perform the jobs they are hired to do. It makes no sense at all to give an outgoing CEO or other high ranking corporate type a multi-million dollar parting package for losing his employers billions of dollars, but that's what has been going on. Pay based on performance is one thing, and not a bad thing, but those kinds of packages for failed managers is just ludicrous.

I don't think for a minute they would ever go along with such a deal, unless it was the only deal in town. Instant gratification is the order of the day for that bunch, even if it means the taxpayers have to pay for their mistakes and poor judgement. If they had previously had some constraints on what they were getting involved in, we wouldn't be in the mess we are now. Paying those already overpaid so called executives (according to the results they produced) more money, with no strings attached, has to go down in history as the all-time stupidest stunt of the US Congress. "And hurry, it has to be done in 2 weeks, or we are doomed!!!!!" At least they got the "we are doomed" part of it right. If given some time for analysis and due diligence of the problem, I would hope Congress would have come up with a different solution.

As long as there are lobbyists in DC, and until Congress is censured for doing business with them, and for accepting gifts from them, I'm thinking deporting them to the nearest GITMO type camp, along with the bankers that caused this meltdown, for some mandatory retraining and ethics classes. It wouldn't be the type of boondoggle they are used to, but they might learn a new language, learn how to wrap a towel around their heads, and see how the other half lives in this world. A different sort of entitlement.

Snoopdog Express

2009-01-19T01:41:00.000-08:00

Ok, maybe this should be filed under “rants”, or possibly round-filed, but on the other hand, nobody reads it anyhow, so it doesn’t really matter. It does give me a chance to practice my method of typing, if nothing else.

After our regular Sunday night bowling league, the team met up as usual for coffee & pie, to commiserate about our bowling, and our normal general chit-chat session. Of course, being this close to the inauguration, a few words were spoken about politics, as might be expected. It did get me thinking about a few things though, and one of those things was an article I read about “entitlement programs” that needed to be worked over by the next administration. Briefly, the article talked about how past administrations, with the best of intentions, talked about overhauling and updating the Social Security and Medicare programs that are about to break the bank, but somehow they were always put on the back burner, and left for the next administration to handle. It just seems to be a job nobody is really wanting to tackle, as it could lead to political suicide if they upset too many folks.

A few years back, when folks were spun up about the congress-critters voting themselves raises every year, they put a program into place that cured all that. Automatic raises each year that don’t have to be voted on to accept, only voted on if they wanted to turn it down, as a group. Needless to say, that doesn’t happen. The automatic “COLA” (cost of living allowance) this year stealthily slid by most without notice, giving our senators a nice $4,000 a year raise, from ~ $168,000 a year to a nice tidy sum of ~ $174,000 a year. (Considerably more if you are the Speaker of the House, or a in a few other positions). Then the question came up about who pays the salaries of their staff, which in some cases is considerable. Of course the taxpayers pay it, it doesn’t come out of the congress persons salary. If it did, they would all be in the hole.

So, while digging around on the Internet for answers to these and other questions I found a great website. It’s called LegiStorm. Their site was started to provide some transparency to the processes and goings on at our capitol. In their words:

LegiStorm launched in September 2006. Our web site is dedicated to providing a variety of important information about the US Congress.

Based on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, LegiStorm’s first information product was a database of congressional staff salaries but we have now added other valuable information, such as the most comprehensive database of all privately financed trips taken by members of Congress and congressional staffers.

The information is provided in a strictly factual, non-partisan fashion. We have no political affiliations and no political purpose except to make the workings of Congress as transparent as possible. We expect this resource to be useful to journalists, researchers, lobbyists and current and would-be staffers - as well as regular citizens who simply want to know how their representatives spend public money.

You can be sure that there are more such legislative resources to come from LegiStorm. You may register for updates by subscribing to our newsletter to learn when we launch major new features on the site or when we update our congressional salaries data.

This, my friends, is some fascinating reading. You can pick your state, pick your rep, and his staff, and see where they are traveling, for what, and who is paying for it. It would almost be amusing, if not so tragic, to think that these are the same people holding the banks and auto industry accountable for how they are spending their company’s money. Some of the boondoggles found on this site would make GM and Ford’s exec’s use of private jets look pretty frugal. If Mr. Obama wants to curtail unnecessary government spending such as he has alluded to, his committee could start looking here. There should be somewhere in all of government somewhere, like the GAO possibly, that has this information boiled down even further, and be able to give us some totals on some of these figures.

It also will give you an idea of the kind of money that Microsoft, Time Warner, MPAA, RIAA, and other private industry is willing to spend to get these folks to see their side of the world, and to explain how poorly they are being treated by those nasty consumers. This is the path big business is taking to get the legislation they write pushed through as law. Sony BMG Music v. Tenenbaum — the case about a guy who allegedly downloaded seven songs over Kazaa years ago when he was 17 and who is now facing a damages claim of $1 million dollars. If he had gone into Walmart and shoplifted a CD with 7 songs on it, would the RIAA or Sony BMG Music be able to sue him for over a million in damages? Hardly, but through some of the legislation they have managed to wine and dine their way through the congress, it could turn out that way. Not to mention the fact that a private company can use those same laws, which are criminal laws, to litigate civil actions against a person. The case mentioned above is now being litigated, and there are some constitutional questions that need to be addressed, but it’s looking like a real cat fight coming up.

Mr. Obama’s line by line, program by program, analysis of what’s to stay, and what will go, should be interesting. It looks to me to be a daunting task, but a few more government agencies will no doubt be created to handle it. Another domain for an empire builder somewhere. Have a good day!

2009-01-17T20:29:00.000-08:00

"We the People"~ NOT~ "We the Corporations"

2009-01-12T21:29:00.000-08:00

The events of 9-11 were terrible, shocking, and a wake-up call for us all. The world was at our doorstep, eager to help and to do their part in finding and dealing with those responsible. America, and some of the rest of the world, was eager to see justice done, and perhaps suffered a bit from tunnel vision, and bought into the fiasco that became the Iraq war. Colin Powell went to the U.N. and made the case for invading, and did an admirable job. He was duped right along with the rest of us about the non-existent WMD. Mr. Bush was so bent on being a "war president" and gaining the political capital that goes with it, they pushed hard to get backing from the people, congress, and the U.N. We all know the story, I don't need to repeat it here. We were led into the quagmire by deceit, half-truths, and outright lies. Even when it started to become obvious we were wrong, that there were no WMD's, and that Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11, instead of saying Oooops, sorry, and preparing to leave, we started building bases all over their country, like we were planning to be there for 50 years or more. (Overseeing "our" oil interests no doubt)

In the process of doing all of this for Iraq, we became the poster child and number one recruiting tool for Al Qaeda. These people have been fighting each other over there for a few thousand years now, and not because they are hell bent down the road to democracy. There are no disputes going on there that they couldn't resolve without our "help". They were doing so long before we got there, and will do so long after we leave. Trying to steal their oil won't change their ideology or help their appreciation of a democratic way of life. They just want to get on with life. Leaders will come and go, the sun will keep coming up in the east, whether we are there or not.

The same goes for Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the rest of the stans. The Taliban has reached a point where they are having to turn away fighters who want to help them in the "war" against the U.S. The soviets couldn't conquer these people with twice the manpower we have there, not to mention, there is no longer a point to being there. Osama bin Laden, if he is still alive, is not reason to enough to expend this country's resources, manpower and money, to accomplish little more than to wear out our welcome in that country, and the rest of the world. If they need help with farming projects, education, technology or whatever, fine, do it through the U.N. That's what they are there for. A massive buildup of troops is unwarranted for a seven year old failed mission, if they even remember what the original mission was.

Warfare is never pleasant. It is seldom fair, and circumstances often allow for thinking the ends justify the means. As inhumane as war can be, there's a limit to what civilized nations have decided that could, and could not, be done - as set out in the Geneva conventions. It is also pretty well spelled out for our military as to what is, and what is not, acceptable behavior within their Codes of Conduct and the UCMJ. The Constitution, which the Bush administration called "just a damned piece of paper", lays out a system of checks and balances designed to keep the government in line and functioning during war and peace.

In just eight years, they have managed to trample the constitution, break treaties, ignore the Geneva conventions, institute programs of abuse and torture to illegally held prisoners, who are still being held without charges, implemented illegal wiretapping on US citizens, then passing laws retroactively to cover their misdeeds. Any time he felt like doing something that was illegal, no problem, that's what signing statements are for. (King George) It puts him above the law of the land. I do not believe for a second that he has the intellect to come up with all these schemes on his own, nor was alone in the planning and execution of them. These things need to be corrected as early as possible, and the people responsible censured. To be able to walk away from totally devastating one country's infrastructure; killing, maiming and uprooting, by some accounts, upwards of a million people, and illegally imprisoning and detaining thousands more, while bulldozing our own country over the side of a cliff economically is just more than what should have to be tolerated. After all that, he still hasn't found bin Laden, the country is nearly broke, Cheney and his cohorts have made a fortune doing business with the US, from a foreign country so they don't have to pay taxes on it here. Is it any wonder other countries hate us?

I know the Obama mantra is Looking Forward, not behind, but how much credibility will we, as a country have, if these guys get away with all of this? When this country has, in the past, done things the right way, taken the high road, fought the fair fight, the rest of the world maybe didn't love us, but they did respect us. Ask any foreigners now what they feel about the U.S., and respect will be very low on the list, and will stay that way for a lot longer than it took to get us here. Mr. Obama's own credibility will suffer if it appears he tacitly condones the actions of the past administration, and it will take more than some great oratory from him to get past this. He doesn't need to make it a personal thing, we have a Justice department, or what's left of it, that should handle this, if world courts don't do it first. Making government transparent going forward is a great gesture and fine idea, but we need transparency backwards for a few years also to gain a better understanding of the type of thinking that was going on, so that we don't ever allow it to go this far again.

Never in my 65 years have I felt the shame I have felt for this country in the last few years. I tried to reconcile my thoughts with what was going on in the world, and things didn't add up. This is not my country. My country does not torture. My country does not do illegal wiretapping on it's citizens. My president would not get on national TV and lie. Business and industry in my country has laws that must be abided by, therefore protecting our retirements, savings, our banks, and our industry. My country, in my mind, was better than that. Maybe not perfect in all respects, but generally fair and even handed. Okay fine - I am naive, I have a naive belief in the basic honesty of politicians and people in general, which puts me pretty much in the middle of most people. My shame is not only for what our country has done around the world to others, nor even what we have done to ourselves. I am totally ashamed that I bought into the story, hook, line and sinker, and felt like there was nothing I could do, until election time anyhow. I didn't question the mental midget much more than most other Americans. I knew we didn't have the "big picture", and "they" know what they are doing. WRONG

Most Americans are too busy trying to earn a living to spend a lot of time following all the laws our hardworking congressmen are passing year after year, ( & here's hoping they enjoy the nice raise they just gave themselves to help them through these hard times) nor have they figured out that most of the laws are sponsored by, and lobbied for, by big business, who does not have the consumers best interests at heart. This has held true with the banking industry, politicians getting "lobbied" to pass favorable legislation for less regulation, easier access to feed the greed, the stock market, big pharmaceutical companies, one large software company, automobile manufacturers, aircraft manufacturers, insurance companies, the recording and movie industries, numerous defense contractors, and governments themselves, all hire lobbyists to make their case for some of that big government money through legislation. The amount of money spent on lobbyists per year would make a hell of a dent in our national debt. Why do we put up with it? Do not these congressmen understand they are elected to serve the people? It's "We the People" NOT "We the Corporations" in case you haven't checked lately.

Warm and Fuzzy

2009-01-10T23:31:00.000-08:00

From an email that's apparently making the rounds on the intertubes:

As I reflect on 2008, I can say we had a great year:

Blacks are happy; Obama was elected.

Whites are happy, OJ is in jail.

Democrats are happy; George Bush is leaving office.

Republicans are happy: Democrats will finally quit saying George Bush stole the election.

And all of us are so happy; The election is finally over!

I think 2009 will be even better: Immediately after his inauguration, Obama will balance the budget, revive the economy, solve the real estate problem, solve the auto industry problem, solve our gas/alternative energy problem, stop the fires and mudslides in California, ban hurricanes and tornadoes, stop identity theft, reverse global warming, find Osama, solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, get rid of corruption in government and achieve world peace .

Then on the 7th day, He will rest.

My best wishes for 2009

"The government cannot give to anyone anything that it does not first take from someone else."

The New You

2009-01-06T21:09:00.000-08:00

OK, for everyone who has made (year after year) a New Years Resolution about taking off a few pounds, getting a little more exercise, or ideally, both, a recent series of articles in Bicycling magazine should be required reading. It’s all about people that have lost in excess of 100 lbs from riding their bikes. I’ve been suffering from the winter doldrums here this year, having a hell of a time getting motivated to get out there and start pedalling. After reading this article, I’m pumped up like a 700 x 20, and ready to roll. It’s amazing what trips our triggers sometimes.

I’m thinking back to when I resumed the pedalling regimen this last time. I’m thinking I had just zipped past my 62nd birthday. I have always enjoyed riding, and thought it would be fun to get back into it. So, it’s off to the local bike shop to check out what was available. If you have read any of my past rants about sticker shock, I won’t bore you with details again, just suffice it to say I left there cross-eyed, confused, and indignant. And bikeless. I really felt like someone was trying to get into my knickers there. I needed some time to think it over and do a little more research on the matter.

As it turns out, the nice folks at the LBS were carving some pretty good discounts off the price, and were steering me onto something they felt I might be happy with, so after much trauma, we forked over the money, bought the beast, and started riding once again. All equipped with my little blinkie lights fore and aft, and my reflective vest, I was commuting to work everyday - a whole mile and a half each way. This is fairly flat ground around town here, with a couple little hills probably not much higher than the average highway overpass. That first week about did me in. The last quarter mile or so on the way home was pretty much uphill. After spending all evening on my feet at the job, the ride home always started off refreshing me, but by the time I got home, going up stairs was bad, but going down stairs was even worse. My muscles had turned to jello somewhere on that little ride.

Thankfully, it didn’t take too long for the legs to start responding to calls for more speed, more power, more fun! Of course they responded with more cramps and jello at first, but then they decided they better shape up or else. I didn’t mark the calender, or really pay a lot of attention to how long the process took for the legs to adjust to the new call to arms ( or was that legs?) but it seems like in no time, they were wanting to go longer and harder. It feels good to feel good.

Besides not marking the calender, I didn’t step on the scales either. That wasn’t something in my normal routine. I was overweight, knew it, and didn’t feel the need for affirmation from a rusty spring that had sat on the bathroom floor for too many years. But after a couple or three months of very casual riding back and forth to work, I noticed my pants were starting to stretch out a little around the waist, shirts were starting to bag a little, so I got a clue I might be losing a little weight. I stepped on those lying scales in the bathroom, and they said right around 220. The last time I had gone to see the doc, they weighed me and said I was 235, but I know they always add a few pounds at the docs office, so I figured I might have lost about 10 pounds.

For some reason, I wasn’t all that excited about the weight loss, knowing my weight goes up and down with the seasons. I think it did make an impression on something in my brain, because I started to watch what I was eating a little more closely, not wanting to hurry up the process of gaining it back. If nothing else, a good day riding the bike tends to work up a good appetite! There are muscles screaming for more nourishment, and they are hard to ignore, and shouldn’t be ignored.

Somewhere along the line, I found some information in a biking magazine, or online, or maybe a great dream, I don’t really remember, but it was about the care and feeding of a cycling body, and parts of what they were saying didn’t make a lot of sense at first, and the parts that did make sense seemed like a lot of hassle and bother for such a casual rider as myself. But in the spirit of “WOW, I’m starting to lose some real weight here”, I was watching what I ate more closely than I had in a lot of years. Without going into all the details of all the nutritional mistakes I was making while riding on some longer rides now, let’s just let it suffice to say the body is your engine on that bike, and it needs to be properly fueled. I’m probably lucky to still be alive after a few of the stunts I pulled, but I survived and learned from it, but there are much better and easier ways to learn about this stuff. There is no end to the material available on-line from sports nutritionists, and other bike riders. Read it and learn - and lose the weight. I have lost more weight accidentally bike riding than I ever did on purpose trying many different diets. But it needs to be done right to maintain your health.

Bike riding is a good alternative to running if you have problems with your knees or other parts that can’t take the pounding that running can give you. If you do make cycling your main activity, you will still need to find ways to keep your core area and upper body in good shape also. Biking doesn’t help these area a lot, and in the interests of keeping the bones stronger in your old age, check out using free weights and other exercises that will keeps your bones in good shape. It’s good for you, and even fun, even for folks that have never thought of themselves as being “athletic” types. If you have questions on how to get started on the road to getting into better shape, ask or hire a coach or other professional - there’s a world of help available out there for you. You don’t have to go it alone.

WE NEED WHAT??

2009-01-05T17:24:00.001-08:00

We need what?

Just from casually reading the New York Times on-line edition since the election, and cruising around a few other on-line papers as well, the theme has emerged. We are in great need. Of course, we all have our immediate needs, but going beyond that, I am amazed at the amount of articles that have been written concerning all needs that people feel should be addressed as soon as Mr. Obama is sworn in, or before, if Georgie would kindly just step aside and let a more competent person start running the country. He has been a lame duck for quite some time now, bordering on being a totally crippled duck, but that’s an insult to a duck I suppose, and no doubt politically incorrect. I can’t really argue with the concept of his early departure, but I’ll not be holding my breath waiting for it to happen. As the man said, we only have one president at a time.

I’ve been sitting here wishing I had started cataloguing all these needs when I first started to notice the wave starting to swell. We could have written a comedy series from it. It should be intuitively obvious, to even the most casual of observers, some of Mr. Obama’s first challenges will come from reviving the economy, getting people back to work, and feeding and housing those unable to find work. That’s pretty much a given, and will be a full time task for the president and congress to get that ball rolling asap. Then we have the pesky little problem of what to do with our troops, do we bring them home, or leave them there and call them advisers. Pretty much the same deal for Afghanistan. Some articles have called for more offshore drilling, others shouting for the reversal of approval on offshore drilling. The very first thing that needs to be done is a total overhaul of (insert your favorite government agency here), and from the sounds of it, maybe overhaul them all. A new broom sweeps clean, and some of those agencies are getting a little musty. The FAA needs to be totally overhauled or restructured back to some semblance of what it was intended to be, the SEC is a total shambles, allowing banks and stock brokers to get in over their heads like they did, even after people pleaded with them to look into it. Farm aid is always a popular cause. Mr. Obama’s campaign promise of “no more pork” is an idea long overdue - but it might be a real pisser to implement. If it does happen, there will be a lot of unscratched backs running around in Washington D.C. and there’s nothing worse than an itchy politician.

More fuel efficient cars and mass transit are some peoples panacea for what ails the country. Fix that, lessen the dependence on foreign oil, yada, yada, yada. During the period when gas prices went out of sight, people actually did drive less, noticibly less. So much less in fact, government types are scrambling around trying to figure out how to implement a different type of tax, to make up for the shortfall of lost revenues from the gas taxes that weren’t collected while people were driving less. Maybe tax by the mile, yeah, that’s a good one. They finally get people convinced that more fuel efficient cars are actually a good thing, and that we should drive less, but then they want to tax the crap out of drivers anyway, because they are using less gas. So, from the consumers standpoint, what was that gain again? Ah, yes, a cleaner planet. That same clean planet that will be running the coal fired powered plants that produce the electricity to charge up all these cute little electric cars that can go 40 miles on a charge.

More things need to be addressed pronto also. Immigration reform, build the wall or another walmart? How about those guns? Some are afraid the prez is going to take them away, others are afraid he won’t. Gays & lesbians want to be treated like “other normal” folks are, Muslims feel like they are being “targeted” for traffic stops and airline no fly lists. Others are incensed that the government is able to listen in on all your phone calls, domestic and international, and snoop through your computer files in the TSA line at the airports, FEMA is no more than a bad joke, the Department of Homeland Security possibly worse, global warming is certainly going to be our demise, and all these things need to be fixed, the first week!!! Hispanics want more people in high office now that they are a force to be reckoned with politically. Reporters that travel are aghast at the condition of our airports as compared to those of other countries. The steel industry is mulling over how they might get their fair chunk of the business of selling steel to the government when all the infrastructure rebuilding starts, and it just goes on and on.

Every local government is looking up for a bailout, most state governments are feeling the pinch and needing money to continue the services and to keep building prisons. Some are calling for the exportation of all the Hispanics in prison because they can no longer afford to keep them, while the prison industry wants more stringent laws and sentencing guidelines so their business will pick up. Every one of these special interest groups have lobbyists that are going to bat for them to steer some of that federal money their way. Private companies are betting on the prison industry, building private prisons so they can rent out bedspace to the feds, so they can house all the illegal immigrants they are picking up. Big cities hire lobbyists, state governments hire them, as do federal agencies and just about every other special interest group. It’s beyond me how they can even think of getting rid of the pork until the lobbyists themselves are banished to the outback. Pork is what makes those folks tick. It amazes me that lower governments, such as state and local, don’t seem to consider downsizing their own empires so they can operate on money that they can sustain, without spending enormous amounts on lobbyists to score some federal funds for them. If the federal agencies would start to police their own domains as they were set up to do, we wouldn’t need nearly as many of them, banks and industry would be obeying the laws instead of making it, but that’s another story.

I know the squeaky wheel get the grease, which is why all the lobbying, spinning, and the showing of hands is taking place, hoping someone will grant a fist full of free money, in the name of restructuring. But if it’s business as normal in government with the new administration, not even the magical Mr. Obama will be able to effect much change in the status quo. He is only a human, and has a very big machine to beat back down. Good luck Sir.

Winter Riding - or Not! Part the second

2009-01-05T00:22:00.000-08:00

Winter rides have taken on a whole new meaning this year in eastern Oregon. The average winter here is normally mild, almost a banana belt compared to most of the country. Sure, we get some snow, cold weather, freezing rain almost every year, but it’s not usually a steady stream of it as it has been this year. Just about the time I thought we had already gotten our fair share of winter wonderland, the snow all melted, the ice cleared, the temperatures started climbing back up. Yahoo - comfy biking is right around the corner. WRONG!

The temps are back down into the teens, and the weather service has severe winter weather warnings out once again, calling for snow, just 3 -5 inches, and then freezing rain in the morning just to keep it interesting. As I’m writing this, I’m keeping an eye on the weather radar, and it looks like we have missed the brunt of the leading edge of the system that’s moving in, but the next cells are moving right at us, so I guess it’s just wait and see. Looking out onto the back deck, we have new snow, only about 3/8 of an inch, but it’s coming down pretty good.

Obviously this isn’t going to make for good road bike riding with my skinny tired carbon wonder. Stoking up the wood burning fireplace insert and hot chocolate is looking better by the minute. As much as I would like to be out riding, setting the spare bike up on the trainer and riding along with the Chris Carmichael training dvd’s seems a better alternative.

I know there are die-hard commuters out there who will be out on their bikes making their way to work in this stuff. Hat’s off to them. I don’t have the right equipment - clothes, bike, tires, spare boxes of Kleenex, or a destination I have to report to, that would get me out into this weather. Last winter, I rode nearly everyday, zipping off the bowling lanes, bike shop, 7-11, or whatever, but the only drawback was the cold. Non of the slippery, slidy stuff to contend with, which is where I have drawn my line. I’m getting too old and fat to be falling down on icy roads, just to say I made my commute. I’m not quite as committed as Yehuda Moon.

For those of you not familiar with Rick Smith’s Yehuda Moon & the Kickstand Cyclery, here’s a guy that understands cycling and most of all, people. It’s a great little on-line daily comic strip I feel is ready for world wide exposure, but I am perhaps a little biased towards this whole cycling deal. He has great story line (for a comic strip) and gets to the heart of things near and dear to the cycling community. I believe the whole series is still available for viewing at the above link.

A few more thoughts about the clothing deal. Being a male of the species, attention to the ladies side might have been lacking a little. My better half jabs me occasionally for ignoring that segment of the market. First of all, I'm not here to be plugging any business or other websites as their marketing tool. If I mention them at all, it's because I have used them and got some great products and service. Some of these outfits just go above and beyond, busting their butts to be the best they can be. If I get some really poor customer service, or find dealers that don't stand behind the products, rest assured they will also be mentioned, and not favorably.

On the ladies side of things, I have to put in a plug for the better half's favorite shopping site, Team Estrogen. This is a business run by a lady that is very much into cycling on a personal level, and very active in the promotion of cycling in the Portland, OR area. They have outstanding service, fine products, competitive prices, and a joy to do business with.

My other issue with cycling clothing as presented by the majority of LBS's. It isn't just the LBS's doings here, but it seems they think all cyclists are about 5'7", and weigh 135 lbs. Being over 6'2" and right at a couple hundred pounds probably doesn't fit the description of the average cyclist, but there are some of us out here that do fall in that category. Finding size XL anything hanging on a rack is somewhere between rare and non existant. This minor inconvenience prompts more online shopping when deep down, we'd rather be buying locally, and supporting the LBS's. I'm starting to think maybe they are ordering what fits them just in case they don't sell the whole inventory off each season. Maybe it's a hint for me to diet? Not a bad idea, but we kinda have to go with what we've got. This really isn't a big deal with jerseys, socks and that sort of thing, but when it comes to shorts, bibs, etc. I like to check out the chamois padding and see how they feel. The different brands from different parts of the world all seem to have their own sizing conventions, so going by size is no guarantee you will be able to use it. Most places will exchange it, but that can be a time consuming ordeal. WAH!!

* Winter Riding - or not!

2009-01-02T00:09:00.000-08:00

Cycling, whether pursued as a sport, an exercise regime, pleasure riding, or commuting, seems to be more clothing intensive than most casual participatory sports. When I first started riding my 2 wheeled steed, like most, it was just throw on a pair of shorts, a casual cotton tee, and off to where ever. After a couple longish rides (for me), I was starting to think maybe the shorts with a little padding wasn’t such a bad idea after all. A little chafing on some tender areas of the body is a great incentive. After much research on the internet, and talking to real cyclists, it was obvious how ignorant about cycling clothing I really was.

When I was a kid, I spent entire summers riding blissfully around an area that was probably within a 15 mile radius from my home, many hours a day. I don’t remember the pain associated with the seat, and seat contacting parts. There was no chamois in my shorts, no slathering on any type of lubricants or balms, and no fire in the nether regions. So what changed? Maybe time heals and I just forgot? That’s possible, as it was many years ago - or maybe, just maybe, they made better seats back in the day? I don’t suppose weighing 30-40 lbs less would have anything to do with that, but maybe.

The need for all the cycling specific clothing just kinda sneaks up on you. There comes a day that you find a real cycling jersey on sale for a price too cheap to pass up, so you gladly fork over enough to buy a dozen or so good tee shirts, all for just one real cycling jersey. You pack it up, take it home, all the time thinking, “Man, that was dumb. It can’t be that much better.” All that hype about wicking this, wind-proofing that, lighter than air, gonna make you go like the wind has got to be the marketing genius sitting back having a good chuckle, knowing I would read it, and run right out and pick up one of these amazing jerseys. One more longish ride, and once again, singing like the Monkees: “I’m a believer.”

OK, I’m a little dense, but I’m beginning to see a pattern here. These things are making the cycling experience a lot more tolerable, even enjoyable. So pretty soon I’m looking at more jerseys, more shorts, bib shorts, arm warmers, leg warmers, jackets that convert to vests, and lots of it high visibility colors, which makes me feel safer. No downside to this stuff. With all the specialty clothing available, it really doesn’t make a lot of sense not to use it, as long as you don’t start keeping track of this stuff on a dollars per pound basis. That part might drive fellow scrooges out there bonkers.

I have worn white cotton socks for years, for daily wear, and have drawers full of them. All white has worked out well for someone like me that can’t match up a pair of socks any other way. The laundry gods require a certain amount of sacrifices, and they take it in socks. I was talked into trying a pair of Smartwool merino wool cycling socks, and about freaked when I saw the $14.00 a pair price tag on them. Being Scottish, I tend to suffer from sticker shock more than most people I guess, but I thought that was just a little above and beyond what I would consider within reason. With great reluctance, I bought a couple pairs, and guess what? Yep, sure enough, I’m hooked on them too - and not just for cycling. They really are smart - in the winter they are warm, in the summer they keep the feet cool - how do they know? We now make a pass thru Joes (formerly G.I. Joes I believe) every once in a while to see if they are on sale. It’s one of the few places we’ve found that discount them any significant amount when they are on sale.

All the cycling specific clothing is cut to fit you while you are riding, so it might feel a bit odd when standing up straight. The backs are cut longer, the fit is more snug than what you are probably used to, the fabrics will be moisture wicking so the skin stays dryer, body temperatures being controlled by the wicking and special venting built into the better lines of cycling clothes. And that brings us back to the title here - winter riding - or not.

It’s been said many ways, many times, there is no bad day for cycling, only poor clothing choices. Cold weather presents a lot of challenges for those who have limited their cycling clothing to beating the summer heat. Cold can be miserable, wet and cold is even worse. A Swedish company, Craft, has this stuff all figured out. They have sports specific clothing for year around, starting with base layers, intermediate layers, and outer layers that will keep you toasty, well ventilated, and smiling all day. This really is special stuff. Competitive Cyclist carries a good selection of Craft clothing and has great reviews and descriptions of it. If you want a really good giggle while your browsing the Competitive Cyclist website, check out the Assos ultimate cycling jacket - only about $630 give or take a little. They do a great job of reviewing products, and carry some great stuff. Check them out. Next year maybe I’ll be a little better equipped than I was this year. Well, this year, I needed a snowplow more than a bike, grrrrrrrr.

The whole cycling scene was a source of continual bouts with sticker shock. Silly me, I thought you could buy a really nice road bike for around $500 but after looking at the bikes at that price point, I knew that wasn’t going to cut it, so about doubled it and got the bare minimum of what I was looking for. As it turned out, I have upgraded a couple times, so it would have been faster and easier on the wallet if I had gotten what I really wanted the first time. Used bikes don’t have a lot of trade in value, much like trading cars. The clothing is the part that sneaked up on me the worst probably. The clothes, much like the bikes, seems to follow the train of thought that less = more. There’s a point where it really makes sense to diet to shed all the weight possible there, first. Then the bike goes faster with less effort, all those spendy clothes fit so much better, and you look and feel good too. So once you wrap your head around the concept that the bike you really want is going to cost you a couple grand or more, that’s just the start. Adding up all those little pieces of lycra, spandex, and poly whatevers, just might double the price of the bike if you want to be prepared for any type of weather, and get the maximum enjoyment from your investment. And isn’t that what it’s really all about?

Happy New Year (or good riddance to 2008)

2009-01-01T15:14:00.000-08:00

Well, the year itself wasn’t all that bad I suppose. The good riddance was aimed more at the present administration and their totally inept and destructive ways. The year will bring an end to all that, so I guess that’s a high point we can take a little comfort from. Let’s just hope it doesn’t take 16 years to undo what the last 8 years has done to us.

The path of destruction is far and wide, going far beyond the obvious damage done in other countries. The damage done to the U.S. will take much work and money to even start to get us back to where we were 8 years ago. The most incredible part of this whole mess is that Bush and Cheney still appear to have no remorse for the “accomplishments” they have wrought on the country and world. It will still be years before we know the true extent of the damage, but if what we have already seen is an indication of things yet to be uncovered, it won’t be pretty. It’s hard to conceive that things could be worse than what we can see now, but the damage will surface eventually. Lost liberties, total chaos in the financial sector, massive unemployment, homeless people at an all time high, a total loss of respect worldwide, major upheavals and losses in our manufacturing base, are all just a few of the major accomplishments. You guys did a heckava job, you betcha’!! Oh, did I forget the total mismanagement of things like hurricane Katrina, leaving people there to die, and some did, needlessly. I also forgot all about the national debt brought about by the Iraq war, which was based on lies from day one. Seems I also forgot to mention anything about the lack of care our returning vets are faced with, which is a total disgrace, not to mention the decision by the pentagon to redefine what constitutes a “combat” injury. It seems if your legs are blown off by an IED while driving by in a SUV, that is now not considered a combat injury? That is just plain wrong. And comes from the government entity that cannot account for 2/3 of their budgeted money, and who wants yet more. Poor Mr. Obama is going to have his hands full methinks.

Of course, that may be BushCo’s saving grace. Obama’s administration is going to be so busy trying to straighten out this mess, they most likely will have little time nor the inclination to pursue the prosecution of his predecessors for what is already known, and much of what is bound to be uncovered. I guess the sun will continue come up every morning, and things will work out eventually, but it seems a little accountability is in order here. Having them before a world court would be a nice start.

Happy New Year!!

Oregon Governor Kulongoski Proposes Mileage Tax

2008-12-30T01:34:00.000-08:00

or How to Undermine the Path to More Fuel Efficient Vehicles. WTF is this guy thinking? Obviously, he is concerned that once Oregonians figure out a way to save a buck by investing in a fuel efficient vehicle, it becomes an incumbent duty to find a way to relieve the dumb taxpayer of said gain. I know it's a little more involved than that, but what happens when everyone quits driving? Tax ALL the money saved by not burning up our precious gas?

I can understand his problem. He needs to find a way to maintain the roads and infrastructure that are currently financed through gas taxes. Raising the gas tax, instituting a mileage tax, doubling car registration and licensing fees comprise most of the plan. I personally like user taxes when held to a reasonable level, but generally, more government spending and higher taxes on people in the middle of a flagging economy doesn't work. If people are allowed to see some financial gain in driving a smaller, more efficient car, they might be a little more inclined to sacrifice a little safety, comfort, and personal preferences. Take away that carrot, and anybody on the borderline, it might be a deal breaker. For those genuinely interested in saving the world will still get the most fuel efficient vehicle, use mass transit where available, and drive only out of necessity. The rest of the population won't make the move until there is no other choice.

The biggest offenders when it comes to wear and tear on the road would be the easiest to raise taxes on. Big rigs account for the majority of wear on pavement, and are already taxed by the mile. Increasing their taxes will no doubt piss them off for a while, until they decide to pass on that cost of doing business in Oregon. That cost will of course be passed on to the consumer and be spread out amongst the whole population, according to what they consume, the equivalent to sneaking a sales tax in through the back door. The upside is that only the rates for the truckers would change, there wouldn't have to be a whole new tax department to set up and staff, it wouldn't require people to pay extra for the equipment on cars and pickups to comply with a new GPS mileage system. Of course it will dawn on him pretty soon that he's missing out on all the people driving through his fine state and not paying their fair share, and will then institute a system of toll booths on all even and odd numbered roads.

He said: "Oregon should offer incentives for the purchase of electric cars (the “next generation of highly efficient vehicles”) and “a comprehensive transportation options program designed to reduce the number of cars on the road.” You might read that to mean you can take the bus or walk? Riding a bike is on his mind too, as long as you are willing to pay an excise tax on it. We all know how those skinny little tires wear down the pavement. I doubt that eastern Oregon will ever see any of the money to improve the biking infrastructure, regardless of the billions collected over the next few years. That makes a lot of sense - offer incentives for the purchase of electric cars (which ultimately will be charged up by power plants burning coal or natural gas, possibly other hydrocarbons,) then put an excise tax on bicycles, which really would be a clean mode of transportation that also doubles as a health benefit.
This is making me cross eyed. I suppose until we see the total package, we shouldn't start sniveling, but I'll say it again, taxing people harder during an economic storm hasn't historically been a great idea.

Beating up on the poor folks with doubling licensing and registration fees isn't a great idea during tough economic times either. It hits all the people, but not equally. People that are out of work may be able to walk or bike to get around and not have to buy gas. In order to get many jobs, a drivers license is required, and that won't be real high on the priority list of someone struggling to buy food. He should take a good look at the way California structures car licensing, according to size, age of vehicle etc. I think that might be what he's modeling his plan on, but he needs to consider that California is also in terrible financial shape, taxing the crap out of the people isn't doing much of anything except causing more people to leave the state now than there is moving in. (and most of the state roads are in terrible shape)

We will wait and see - maybe a nice little Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme is what he really needs.

Doood!! Gimme My Bailout!!!

2008-12-29T21:53:00.000-08:00

OK, I'm just a country bumpkin, not your average Wall St. maven or financial expert with multiple degrees in business admin, economics, or the like. I guess my number one question is Why? Also, number 2 and 3 is more why's. Why did this all slip by the so called banking regulators and auditing firms, and the omnipotent SEC? Why was there such a big hurry to appropriate $700 billion to give to the bankers so they could sit on it, or use it to buy up other banks. There hasn't been a significant amount of that money used for lending out as was intended, so why the big hurry. A few things come to mind, like maybe if we give them time to think about it, they will change their minds? So, they get their first installment, $350 billion, and sit on it. CEO's are still getting obscene salaries, bonuses are flowing like water, and it's business as usual, because there were no restrictions, oversight, or accountability as conditions to receiving this money. Even more incredible, when asked what they are doing with the money, the banks are refusing to answer. Kinda gives ya the warm fuzzies eh?
And now Paulson wants to speed up the process of getting the second half of that money to them. I don't mean to appear so heartless and lacking empathy for all the souls that are counting on that money to keep their jobs, but those banks are laying off people regardless. It seems they were grossly over-employing lots of people. Maybe they should review how they are doing business, and use a few of those folks to make sure they are complying with existing banking regulations. Granny stashing her money in a mattress or Mason jars is making more sense all the time. She lived through the depression in the 30's so had a better understanding of the bankers frame of mind and propensity to greed.

I'm not so sure I totally understand the phrase Too big to fail. Those banks, the auto industry, the airlines, and the rest of big companies with their hands out for a chunk of the bailout, are all saying they are too big to fail. It will put far too many people out of work, and aggravate an already bad employment problem. I don't see that much difference between these companies and smaller companies. The smaller companies have to operate in a responsible manner in order to survive - why do the big ones feel they should have a free pass to operate in a totally irresponsible manner because of their size. If anything, they should have at their disposal all sorts of expertise, skills, and resources that are not available to most small companies. If a company is too big to fail, that might be a good time to break it up into smaller, more easily managed companies. The smaller companies that have to monitor and manage their limited resources in order to survive probably deserve the helping hand more than their monopolistic counterparts who have grown too big to effectively manage. If left alone, made to get along without the bailout, they would find a way, or fail. If they do fail, that isn't such a bad thing. The business they lose will go to another company that has done things the right way, so where's the downside? Do we really need to support megacorps that can't manage their resources? With the banks, it's not just their assets that they risk while riding these bubbles up. The real people that are losing their money, savings, and retirements to these banks won't see a dime of that bailout money, so where's the urgency?
The sun will come up in the morning, the world will continue to spin, and it just might be a better world without the crooks who are running those operations. Banks were not meant to be a form a gambling - that was reserved for the stock exchanges and futures traders. Even they are starting to make slot machines look like a better bet.

The banking fiasco, however bizarre, is in a league of it's own, but like Major League Baseball, there is more than one league. The auto industry seems to be in a league by themselves as well. I'm not so sure I want to stick around for the worlds series here, but I have some mixed emotions about that mess. I hate to see millions of people put out of work on one hand, but on the other hand, they have taken an active role in getting to where they are. The UAW over the years has pounded the auto makers into submission. The job losses have been steady over the past decade, but they still insisted on a great retirement program with lifetime health insurance paid by the company, 2 years of pay after being laid off, all of which adds significantly to the price of a car. Think about this - $55,000 for a pickup is just a little outrageous. And they didn't notice that Toyota, Nissan, and a few other "foreign" brands that are built in this country by workers who have a lesser compensation package, were kicking their butts when it came to building reliable, cost effective transportation that people actually wanted to buy. They probably had many snickerfests about those dummies working for slave labor rates. Actually, the hourly rates of pay, disregarding the benefit package, weren't all that far apart. Another fact that seemed to be lost on them is that after most of the US manufacturing has been outsourced to other countries as we move to our service based economy, people have even less ability to pay those kinds of prices for Detroit iron. After the snickerfests are done and the dust settles, it will probably be even more obvious that bailing these folks out will not make them more productive, they will not be building cars people want to buy, the money will have been filtered back to the folks that mismanaged the companies and got them to where they are at. Ah, more warm fuzzies.

Most attempts at bailing out auto companies in other countries have not had good outcomes. If you have some spare time, check on all the big British car builders that were all bailed out numerous times. (Hint: When was the last time you saw a Triumph, or Austin-Healy dealer?)

Chrysler borrowed money from the Prudential Insurance company I think in the late fifties maybe. (There are alternative financing methods available apparently) It was a retooling loan that allowed them to come out with the "new look", tail fins and a pretty nice makeover. It gave them a product that could compete with GM and Ford, (not to mention Studebaker, Packard, Kaisers and a few others that weren't quite big enough to keep them from failing).

GM builds cars in Europe that compete, as does Ford and I think Chrysler. Is there some really good reason they can't build those same fuel efficient cute little beasties here? Making a car people can afford, and afford to drive, with emphasis on great mileage is what it takes to sell them over there, it might stand a chance here too.

The government has now deemed GMAC to be a bank, being as how they too were involved with subprime housing loans (had to get in on some of that free money that was going around), so now they are eligible for part of that $700 billion. There seems to be a pattern here, the more people you screwed over with loans they eventually wouldn't be able to afford, due to variable rates, or just not vetting their ability to repay. A really odd coincidence is that GMAC is jointly owned by Cerberus Capital Management (who also owns Chrysler) and by General Motors. The fact that Cerberus Capital Management is a consortium of some of the richest folks in the States, wasn't lost on some of the senators during their hearings, but it seems to not matter that they have enough money between them to finance a greater part of the national debt, they still want some of that TARP money.

John Snow, a top player at Cerberus, was the Bush administration's Treasury secretary before Henry Paulson. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, GMAC and Chrysler Financial were both major players in the sub prime housing loan scams, so considering who stands to benefit from this government bailout, it should come as no surprise as to where the money is headed. OK. Things are starting to clear up nicely now.

Also according to the WSJ, "Cerberus bought 51% of GMAC in 2006. GM has a 49% stake in GMAC. As a result of the Fed's move, Cerberus must reduce its interest to a maximum of 14.9% in voting shares and 33% in total equity. It will do this by distributing its positions in GMAC directly to Cerberus investors. GM will transfer part of its stake in GMAC to a trust whose trustee will be approved by the Treasury." This is a convenient way to get the money where it's most needed, right into the hands of all those poor rich folks, without the hassle of having to wash it thru Cerberus. Nice move. Don't hold your breath waiting for these two companies to gain solvency. Looks like they are in the grab it and go mode. And don't greive for the poor autoworkers folks. They might have to make some adjustments in life, as we all do, but there will still be a certain number of cars and trucks needed by people as soon as the redistribution of wealth is completed, so for them, it might mean working for lesser perks, but there will still be cars getting built by somebody. It might mean moving away from Detroit, but even that couldn't be all bad.

Is Alleyoop doomed??

2008-12-29T18:47:00.000-08:00

It seems that the Alley Oop comics are not dead. Although circulation in newspapers is dwindling, it is still being published in some newspapers. A bit of Googling actually turns up quite a bit of info of the subject, including wish lists of people that would like to see it in their local papers. Newspapers are having a tough time of it these days, trying to compete with the interwebs as a source of news.

This hardly comes as a surprise to anyone who has been reading newspapers for multiple decades. There was a time when reporters were actually journalists, did some digging to get news stories, and in doing so, gave "freedom of the press" the teeth our founding fathers envisioned when they framed our constitution. They are probably rolling, or even spinning, over in their graves at the way it's being done these days.

Of course the Internet is handy for many things - but I doubt anyone would foresee our "reporters" being outsourced to India, with instructions to construct stories from what they gather by Googling for information from certain areas of interest. I thought it was pushing it pretty hard when they "embedded?" reporters with military units that were invading Iraq. That alone should have screamed censorship by the government and the military as it would have been all but impossible for them to publish a story without dragging it by the "minders" first.

And then we get the whole story on the network's myriad of retired generals who all suddenly became "expert witnesses" on all that was happening on the ground during the invasion of Iraq. What they failed to mention to the viewers was that these same generals had daily briefings at the pentagon to get their lists of daily talking points. No bias or conflicts there, you betcha'!

Nothing like hiring the fox to watch the hen house. Fox news, as entertaining as they try to be, or as fair and balanced as they try to make you believe they are, have shown themselves to be little more than the mouthpiece of the administration, and that is so sad. They could have spent the same amount of energy and money to tell it straight up, the way it really was, instead of not questioning the party line, thus propagating that same line they were fed. Other networks carried much of the same, so they weren't all alone, so it begs the question - How many of the so called journalists writing those stories actually checked the veracity of what was being peddled to them? Not everyone was agreeing with the administration at the time - and what happened to their stories? They certainly weren't given any airtime. In order to get any sort of clear picture of what was really going on was to get your news from alternate sources, which wasn't all that clear at times either. Reading what some would consider fringe journalism, or even radical, often times told the story a lot straighter than the mainstream media was able to do.

It isn't so bad that reporters report what the dear leaders are spewing, but to not question the facts presented, or at least check them out, merely relegates the reporter to the role of a parrot. The current methods probably suit financially hurting newspapers , as they don't have to pay real journalists (if there are any left) so there's a few more ads that don't have to be sold. What is bad about the current method of the newspaper business, and news in general, is the lack of credibility. The past 8 years or so have shown the credibility of news gathering and lack of depth in investigative reporting suffering. This does little to help their circulation, and without circulation, no money to buy the necessities, like Alleyoop. Grrrr.

People buy newspapers for various reasons. Some people like reading articles that are days old when they read them. Others, the crossword is the main draw, and some the comics, sports, local news, or whatever. Most of that content is already available on the Internet, and available closer to real time. Seems like breaking news might be breaking the papers. It's a shame they couldn't take that inherent lag to get the news out to verify some of it, rather than depend on wire services to do it for them. It's still a credibility issue, even when delivered with their inherent lag.

Subscriptions to online content that does question what the administration is doing and saying would probably earn you a place on the no-fly list, and a special visit from the Dept of Homeland Security, but that can't be much worse than in-country phone taps, web crawlers, and other liberties that have been compromised in the last 8 years in the name of security.

Global Warming - finally!

2008-12-28T11:29:00.000-08:00

After the weather of the last few weeks, I was getting a little concerned that the global warming was going to miss us. With temperatures ranging from minus 6 to around the 25 degree mark so consistently for the last few weeks, there was little doubt about having a white Christmas, and white everything else, for that matter. With snow falling on a fairly regular basis, it was starting to add up. With snow being rather sparse in this part of the country, for the past few years anyhow, apparently the city decided that snow removal from city streets was not high on their to-do list. In recent years, there hasn't been enough to really worry about - this year it was starting to look like maybe time to revisit the concept.

Getting around town was doable for the most part, people weren't driving like idiots, well, most weren't. Today, the temperature is hanging around in the high 40's, and with a good breeze blowing, the snow is eroding. Melting too. A few more days of this, I might be able to get my pickup out of the driveway. Actually, we did a fair job of keeping the snow removal program going on the walks and driveway, getting out wasn't a problem. The problem was navigating the streets once out of the driveway. The car, which has front wheel drive, does much better in the snow than my pickup, which is rear wheel drive, and no weight in the back other than being pretty well filled up with snow. That helped, but wasn't really adequate. Enough snow has melted now that we can actually see pavement in a few spots, so a couple more days should take care of it.

Tips for Using Internet Explorer?

2008-12-28T05:20:00.000-08:00

Being as how I'm new to this blogging deal, I was poking around the gadgets that were available to include in the blog. There is some pretty fun looking stuff in there. Then, as I was scanning down through the gadgets, one caught my eye. "Daily tips for using Internet Explorer". I have a tip for you that you can use each and every day.

Don't Ever Use Internet Explorer !

That should pretty well cover that, however, to be fair to MS, they are making some progress. Innovation has never been their strong suit, but it's not really their fault. They are so busy trying to catch up to the rest of the world, they really don't have the time or resources to do any true innovations on their own. Hell, why innovate and come up with original thoughts and methods when copying is so much easier and cheaper? My intention here is not to be a Microsoft basher, there are others doing that quite adequately.

But, for those who don't realize there are alternatives to IE, I will mention a couple, and it won't cost you an arm, leg, or even a first born, so the price is right. The most popular alternative is probably Firefox, due to the many available add-ons for it that make your browsing faster, safer, more fun, and more productive. It's fast, reliable, and a joy to use. Oh, did I mention it's free? It is.

Opera is another popular browser that has been around for years, and has been a stable program touted by many as the best. They have been responsible for a lot of the innovations we now all enjoy with most browsers. I don't have any personal experience with it, so will leave it at that.

Google's new Chrome is an interesting browser if you are still stuck with using any of the Windows platforms. They took a little different tack to get to where they are, but it's obvious it was well thought out, although it might require you to make some changes in the way you think of browsing, searching etc, but once you see what and how they do it, you might just get hooked. Oh, did I mention it's fast? It's kinda like most things Google - not quite done, but they keep at it, and adding more features all the time. At the present, I don't think they have the add-ons capability that Firefox has, but it's coming. Probably just in time to coincide with the Google OS <---- RUMOR ONLY, so far. Actually, not having all the add-ons that Firefox has would be a deal breaker for me, and I probably am asking too much of these nice free programs, but I really am getting addicted to the add-ons being there. They are just so handy.