30 November 08 - 00:30In Sickness and in Health

DATELINE - Houston - Thursday and Friday nights Marla was being a great mom.  Our daughter was suffering from what might be gallstones, but whatever it was, it was the second night of doubled over in pain torment for the daughter.  Marla had already taken her to the emergency room the night before and after they finished scratching their chins and injecting two shots of morphine, they sent her home.  Ok, they did do a few sonagrams and x-rays so they knew what the situation was.

When they got back I asked Marla if they had given the young lady a prescription for pain.  

"No, they gave her two shots of morphine at the emergency room."

"Why two?"

"Because the first one wore off and the pain returned, so they needed to give her another."

"And when this one wears off???"

Fortunately the pain stayed away for a while, then it returned later the next night.  Marla calls a couple of dozen physicians, but they are home.  So finally she manages to get the emergency room doctor.  He agrees to call in a pain prescription.  Marla checks the last prescription she had gotten and gives the doctor the number for the Walgreens down the road.  Marla zooms off to Walgreens to get the meds.

I get a call, it's Marla, hopping mad.  The idiotic Walgreens pharmacists are ready to go home and she is informed that they never got a call for a prescription.  Marla calls the doctor, yes he did, Marla engages in another flurry of activity with the boneheads and then she calls me.

"What is the number on the prescription in the refrigerator? This Walgreens doesn't have the prescription.  It must be at another Walgreens"  

I gave her the number, she thanks me, hangs up, and calls the number.  "Yes, the prescription is ready."

As Marla leaves the store.  I get another call.

"Those pharmacists must have thought I was nuts," Marla tells me.  "As I left the store I noticed I was in CVS, not Walgreens."

No wonder the prescription was at the Walgreens down the road!

Lincoln - default - Leave a Comment - § ¶

25 November 08 - 09:09God will take care of you.

[This is a joke, son.]

There was a very religious man named Jim, who lived near a river. One day, the river rose over the banks and flooded the town, and Jim was forced to climb onto his porch roof.

While sitting there, a man in a boat came along and told Jim to get in the boat with him.

Jim said, "No, that's okay. God will take care of me."

So, the man in the boat drove off.

The water rose higher, so Jim climbed onto his roof. At that time, another boat came along, and the person in that one told Jim to get in.

Jim replied, "No, that's okay. God will take care of me."

The person in the boat then left.

The water rose even more, and Jim climbed onto his chimney. A helicopter came along and lowered a ladder for him.

The woman in the helicopter told Jim to climb up the ladder and get in.

Jim said, "That's okay."

The woman said, "Are you sure?"

Jim replied, "Yeah, I'm sure God will take care of me."

Finally, the water rose too high and Jim drowned. Jim got to heaven and was face-to-face with God.

Jim said to God, "You told me that you would take care of me! What happened?"

God replied, "Well, I sent you two boats and a helicopter. What else did you want?"

Sometimes we don't get the message.  Are you listening???

Lincoln - default - Leave a Comment - § ¶

25 November 08 - 00:25A hidden agenda can spoil the recovery

Obama Quote:  “The auto industry needs to present us with some clarity in terms of the dollars,” Obama said. “Are they describing for us an auto industry that is focused on retooling, understands that we’re entering into a new energy economy, that is going to be competitive globally?"

If only Obama would say something that is 100% on target.  As you may have guessed, Obama is not a role model for me in any way, but I do wish him well as president, because he is my president!  Anyway, my "hero" is Charles Kettering.  Boss Kettering was an officer in General Motors for years.  He was amazingly prolific in the realm of bringing about change and invention.  He also had the ability to grasp a situation and to see it with great clarity. When GM execs were complaining some years back about sales, Kettering noted that if you make what people want they will buy it.  That is the part of Obama's statement that misses the mark.

Kettering was a dreamer, yet he was pragmatic and saw things as they were and made the best of things.  Obama is a dreamer, but not a practical man.  He sees us driving around in electric cars without creating a molecule of carbon dioxide whether we like it or not.  If Obama trys to seize the troubles of the automotive industry to realize his dream of plug-in cars, we will not be competetive globally.  To try and drive the automotive industry in that direction is a short sighted and wrong minded as the wishful thinking that the auto industry has had holding on to high margin huge automobiles.

I just hope the auto industry is not lieing when they say their cost structure is the same as Toyota's.  If this is so, they need to get some economical cars with some snap to them.  People want choices, and the choices they want go beyond AC or DC.  Please Mr. Obama, be realistic.

Lincoln - default - Leave a Comment - § ¶

24 November 08 - 14:1425 Ounces of Gold

For those of you worrying about inflation, here is a comparison.
100 years ago a Fort Model-T similar to the one in the picture cost about $500.

In the same year (1908) gold was sellinf for about $20/oz.

You could have purchased that model T for 25 oz of gold.

Today a new Ford Taurus costs around $24,000.  

This year the price of gold has been around $800 an ounce and sometimes even above $900/oz

At $800+ per ounce a new Ford Taurus would cost only a bit over that 25 oz of gold.
Hmmmmm.

Looking at the features in a new Taurus it would seem a 2008 Taurus is a better deal.  Let's check.  There are more similarities than I expected....
As a comparison,

• The 1908 Model T got about 21 miles per gallon (some say more, some say less).  The new Taurus gets upwards of 28 miles per gallon.
• The 2008 Taurus has keyless entry, so does the Model T.
• The Model T has leather seats standard, the standard Taurus does not, leather costs extra.
• The Model T has climate control.  A top to control the rain, and a split windshield to control the air.  The Taurus also includes climate control.
• The 2008 Taurus has radio commensurate with the times.  The 1908 Model T has radio capabilities commensurate with its time.
• The Model T has spark advance and throttle on the steering column, the Taurus has its speed control on the steering wheel.

Both cars have four wheels, etc., however, although the similarities are many, the Taurus does have things that the Model T does not, a trunk, for example.  You also get free air bags in the new Taurus.  In the Model T you would have needed to bring these along.  Also, there are other conveniences on the Taurus, like an electric starter, automatic transmission, interior lighting that does not depend on the moon or sun to work.

In fact, I would be willing to bet that if you could get a Model T for 25 ounces of gold or a Taurus, you might pick the Taurus.  Especially after a test drive of each.  But that is another story.

Lincoln - default - Leave a Comment - § ¶

22 November 08 - 21:59How's that again, Obama?

A recent news excerpt....

Obama's plan: create 2.5 million jobs by 2011
November 22, 8:46 AM
by Darrell Proctor, Employment News Examiner

"President-elect Barack Obama today outlined a plan to create jobs and help the nation's economy by rebuilding infrastructure, modernizing schools, and lessening dependence on foreign oil.

Obama wants to create 2.5 million jobs. He would focus on rebuilding the nation's roads and bridges, remodeling older schools, developing alternative energy sources, and producing more efficient cars.

He said legislation backing his plan would be one of his first priorities after he takes office Jan. 20. He wants those new jobs created by January 2011...."

--------------------------

This news article excerpt is just one of many that came out today.  Please don't think I am singling out Darrell Proctor.  I simply am using the lead on his article, which is the same has a thousand others, to point out the idiocity of the statement in the headline,

"Obama's plan: create 2.5 million jobs by 2011"  Why so few?

Do your homework, people.  Bureau of Labor Statistics at this site [http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsatabs.htm] allows you to not only use the technology of my youth (reading data in newspapers), but allows me to use the technology of today, mining data right from the source. BLS Link

I can find two great pieces of data on this site.  First I can find the total number of employed people, second I can find the total number of unemployed people.  If I add these together, I can get the total number of people who are employed and unemployed.  I am sure this is a fairly crude way to estimate the workforce, but this is it.  The number of people working (employed) and the number of people looking for work (unemployed).

For purposes of this discussion, the numbers are so obvious that dissecting definitions is not necessary to realize the obsurd nature of Obama's plan.

Here is what I found.

In the years 1999 to 2007 the average number of people entering the workforce (increase in people wanting to work) was 1.7 million per year.  Obama wants to add 2.5 million jobs over a period of  three years (2009 through 2011).  Obama would add 833,000 jobs per year, or about half the number of people entering the workforce every year.

How is that again, Barack?  And what about the recently unemployed?  Bad luck for them under your administration?

Just to pick up the jobs lost this year and the number of people entering the workforce between now and 2011, we need to create 5 million jobs for the new workers and over a million for the recently unemployed (increase in unemployment for 2008).  To really get on track and be doing something we need to get to 7 and a half million jobs, not 2 and a half million.  I learned to read, do addition, and figure simple numerical statistics in my ordinary public school in the USA.  Where did Obama learn his math?  Where are the other 5 million jobs, Obama?  Maybe you meant 2.5 million jobs a year for the next three years.

Lincoln - default - Leave a Comment - § ¶

14 November 08 - 22:39Create jobs, Ban the EPA

Here is a quick excerpt/quote that gets me going......

Coal power plants may have to limit emissions

By Paul Davidson, USA TODAY

"About 100 proposed coal-fired power plants in the USA may be required to limit their greenhouse gas emissions after the Environmental Protection Agency was blocked Thursday from issuing a permit . . . .  The EPA's appeals board said the agency didn't adequately justify its decision last year . . . .  The panel sent the case back to the EPA's regional office. . . ."

My take on the EPA is probably best described as disillusionment.  Here is why....

I left college in the winter of 1974 to become a physical science teacher.  My major was physics, my minor was math, and I had a heavy concentration of sociology and psychology courses.  I had more than enough credits for a minor in sociology, I simply did not have the correct combination.  Why do I mention this?  Because a person does not study anthropology, sociology, city government, psychology, and all that without an interest in people. 

I even signed up for an ecology course from a professor who had lived with his family of four on an acre or two of land.  They lived without buying anything to sustain them (food and energy) that they did not grow.  The only concession he made to this was to barter food for coffee, lamp oil, and probably a few other things. This man used honey from his own bees for sweetener, a cow and a goat for milk, apples, squash, and berries for vitamin C, made bread from his own wheat, etc.  This guy lived and breathed what he taught.

I was very much for the environmental movment and supported it fully.  I did, however, start to question things when I saw the heavy handed unbalanced nature of the agency at work.  Here is a short story about something that happened in the late 70's.

A semi-retired cabinet maker in a very small, very rural, town was talking with a lumberyard owner about hardwood, particularly oak, mouldings.  The cabinet maker indicated he could make these on equipment he had in his garage and would be happy to provide the lumber yard with a limited stock.  One thing led to another and before you know it the man had moved out of his garage into a vacant building on the edge of this town of less than 1000 where he started purchasing additional equipment hiring people to make more and more mouldings.

The business was not very large, but it did employ a handful of people in a town where a handful is a crowd.  The only problem was his growing pile of sawdust.

I really don't know the details, but the man was learning the business as he went and while attempting to solve the sawdust problem the EPA came along to help.  Their way is to be onerous and bully small or large businesses to figure something out while they apply punitive measures to punish the poor hapless business owner into submission.  You will not see a"lets help each other and work together" attitude here.

What did he do?  The man remembered he was semi-retired and closed the business.  The employees and their families?  They were s**t out of luck.

Was the man irresponsible? No he was not.  Was the EPA irresponsible? No they were not.  The problem is that the EPA cannot be constructive and they are populated by people who are not balanced in their viewpoint.  The EPA can only serve to eliminate and repress.  They create, construct, or build nothing.  They facilitate nothing.  They are merely here to protect the environment.  Get a load of this from their website (Google EPA history to find this at www.epa.gov).  Here is their mission. 

"[The] EPA's mission is to protect human health and to safeguard the natural environment—air, water, and land—upon which life depends."  

How do they do this?  With an agency which is multiple agencies within agencies at all governmental levels with all manner of different rules and ways of doing things.  Their idea of assistance to businesses is laughable and I watched a former employer burn over two million dollars of his own money trying to develop a business model which the EPA was the major obstacle in the project.  Currently the project is on hold, perhaps even permanent hold, no thanks to the EPA.

I will let you read the excerpt above from the USA TODAY news website.  Read with your eyes open, read between the lines, discover through inference, whatever you call it, note that the EPA is appealing to itself.  It as already dictated to itself to get to the point of needing to appeal to itself.  In my opinion it is the structure of the EPA which has created an expensive tax hungry monster that is easy for "environmentalists" to manipulate and which also has had a great deal to do with killing jobs in the United States.

The EPA offers no technology, only creates the need for it.  Again, from their website,

"From regulating auto emissions to banning the use of DDT; from cleaning up toxic waste to protecting the ozone layer; from increasing recycling to revitalizing inner-city brownfields, EPA's achievements have resulted in cleaner air, purer water, and better protected land."

If Obama is serious about us "working together" to help one another, this job hungry monster is a good place to start.  Our country's fathers understood the need for checks and balances and did a great job of framing our government.  Too bad we have done such a shitty job of creating and managing the EPA.  Unfortunately Obama is on record as anti-coal as much as the EPA.

Just the way I see it.  Hug a tree, Eh?

Lincoln - default - Leave a Comment - § ¶

11 November 08 - 22:41The Marla Toy

Finally I have purchased a present that Marla likes.  No, not a new husband.  It's an Apple iPod Touch.  With this clever purchase, I solved the problem of the tiny television Marla likes so much going obsolete.  Marla loves her little television, but the iPod is better.

Marla already had commandeered Ashlyn's old iPod.  You know, the one that looked like a transister radio from the 60s.  Well, Marla was getting up in the middle of the night and huddling on the floor to play with it (the iPod Clunk, or whatever they call it).  I thought this would be a good thing to build on to get her for her birthday, and it was.

The only downside was that the Apple store site credit card setup section did not work with Firefox and she was becoming very frustrated, not knowing what was causing the problem.  Once we stumbled onto the solution (temporarily use Internet Explorer) things moved forward.  Now she can download free and "for pay" games, songs, and what not.

Marla likes this toy even better than the tiny television.  She had better like it, it cost four times as much!

Later.

Lincoln - default - Leave a Comment - § ¶

06 November 08 - 10:10It's her lucky day, eh?

(This is a joke, son!)

An old woman saved a genie's life. You can just about figure what happens next.  Yup, the genie is very grateful and offers to grant the old woman three wishes.

The old lady considers her first wish very carefully and for this wish, the old lady asks to become young and beautiful.

Kazaam! She became young and beautiful.

Excite, for the second wish, the old lady asks to be richest woman in the world.

Poof! She is the richest woman in the world in addition to her beauty from the first wish.

Thinking fast, for her last wish, with loving eyes, the formerly old woman points at the tomcat that has been her companion for the past 15 years.

"Please," the woman asks the genie. "For my last and final wish make my faithfull cat romantically in love with me as the most handsome man on earth."

The newly young woman was now breathless.  After all, this cat had been her best friend for so many years and strangely, now she was feeling rather in need of an attractive man.

Wham! The genie turns the cat into the most handsome man on earth. The man's gaze meet the woman's. Their eyes lock.  The room is charged with the electricity of the moment.  The woman can hardly believe her good fortune.

The genie leaves and the old woman feels even more attracted to her former tomcat.  The cat, now a handsome man, starts walking over to her.  His eyes lock their gaze on hers. The woman's heart starts pounding like it hasn't pounded in years. She holds her breath. Licking her lips, the thought of what is about to happen makes the woman light headed.

She looks up at the magic man, formerly her trusted pet, now a young handsome man who looks down into her eyes and asks,

"Now aren't you sorry you had me neutered?"

Lincoln - default - Leave a Comment - § ¶

05 November 08 - 22:39Tongue Tied and Brain Fried

A trio of quotes from the recent news that caught my eye.  Two from Scott and one from Alexis.

Here is a non-thinking newsperson for you.  The flip side is that the Laissez-faire regulation methodlolgy brought decades of prosperity.  It is just time to make a few tweaks, "reboot" (in the modern jargon), and get on with it.

What Obama’s election means abroad
By Scott Baldauf | Staff writer | Christian Science Monitor / November 5, 2008

"The current financial crisis, seeded in decades of laissez-faire regulation of American banks and hedge funds, also persuaded many that America needed new leadership."

Perhaps as Obama works on the misguided he can work on these two journalists.  Scott, as well as many others, do not understand that laissez-faire means "don't mess with it any more than you have to."  He even realizes as he writes that this method has worked well in the long run, but like so many whenever there is a bump in the road, he can only feel the bump and forgets the road before.

Although Scott is simply misguided with his thinking above, this misprint in his article is funny...

"Of course, as the son of a Kenyan goatherd, he’ll be Africa’s man at the White House, say Kenyans."  If you can't find it, you can't laugh.  Oh, what the hell, Scott meant "goatherder."  A son of a goatherd would, himself, be a goat.  Get it?

Another idiotic statment from a newsperson regarding Steve Fossett.

Fossett Remains Found In Sierra Nevada
By Alexis Ceck | eFluxMedia | November 4th 2008

"...Being a businessman, Fossett could afford to fund his daring activities, which included aviation and sailing, among others. ..."

Kinda makes me want to become a businessman right away so I can get the sailboats and airplanes thing going.  Lord knows all businessmen are rich.  Perhaps Alexis will realize this was a dumb statement at some time in his/her life.  This is an androgynous name being used on males 15% of the time, so I will guess Alexis is a girl.

Lincoln - default - Leave a Comment - § ¶

05 November 08 - 07:21Barack Wins

As my son said yesterday, " if Barack doesn't win we will know the election had to be rigged."  O'Reilly said it as well when he pointed out to a listener yesterday that if Barack doesn't win it will be the end of the poliing industry.

Well, the election wasn't rigged, the polling industry is intact, and we have a new president elect.

Now that the election is over, it is time to give the new regime a chance to go to work.  Although I consider myself Republican, I did vote for Obama in the primaries and I feel it is our duty as Americans to give this historic president a chance to deminstrate what Democrats can do to make America a great place to live.  Especially after my party did such a poor job over the last so many years.

I welcome, Obama, and wish for him to make us proud.  As for our part, we need to behave as good citizens and support the new administration when it comes in to office with our input and support where we agree, as well as input and suggestions where we do not.

It's the American way.

Lincoln - default - Leave a Comment - § ¶

02 November 08 - 23:27Livin' on Houston Time

Strangely enough, Marla and I are back in Houston.  We landed here when the company we were working for decided to reshape its employee list to not include me.  Marla followed later with an eye on marriage and family.

The marriage and family thing has sorta worked out, but that is not the point.  The point is, we are now in Houston.  I like Houston.  Better weather than Plano, better people, and better weather.

Did I mention, better weather.

I like the weather here, the traffic is nothing like the picture on the left for me, but it is for others.  Anyway, I did get hurricaned on, but I did not get earthquaked like the did in Plano.  The hurricane is not the part of the weather I like.  I am actually hoping that the hurricane that came through may be the last one for a while.

Hope, hope.

Anyway, once they reopen Galveston Island, I am hoping they will, again, have things like"Dickens on the Strand" and stuff like that.  I am also hoping that living close to the Galleria will increase my awareness of the commercial side of Christmas.

Its a beautiful day in Houston today.

And loving it!

Lincoln - default - Leave a Comment - § ¶

02 November 08 - 22:20Time for change?

As the election nears I am amazed with the feeling I get of emptiness with regard to substance from the information sources of 2008.  The blogs leave me pretty much cold, they are not balanced, nor are they meant to be.  The news media no longer knows how to cover politics, and the candidates seem to get more politically savvy every year.

The media has been moving in the direction of covering political elections in terms of statistics.  Sometimes it's like watching a race.  This person makes his move that one is ahead, this one is getting behind, someone is gaining ground.  Other times its like a chess game, the blue pawn is ready to capture the red knight by taking a state never before blue, but wait, the red king is moving into blue states and may very well capture them.  I feel sort of like a pawn that was captured and looking on from the sidelines.

And as for issues?  Did you know that McCain voted with the President 90% of the time?  No he didn't, the fricken' President doesn't vote.  Oh, maybe he supported the President 90% of the time.  What?  They're both Republicans, McCain voted with the REPUBLICANS.  I'll bet a bit of checking shows that Obama voted with the Democrats an even higher percentage of times.  What's that?  Let's talk about something else.

OK, we could, but nothing seems to be very important.  Did you know that Obama's middle name is Hussein?  Already heard it, eh?

Anyway, it is probably time for a change.  Instead of having a bunch of Republicans acting like Democrats, maybe we can go the other way this time.  And as for issues?  I think the big issue is women who return 1/3 of the clothes they buy, like Palin.  My wife does that, too.  It's disgraceful, they should make a decision and stick with it.  It may also be a sign of indecision on Palin's part.  We should amplify this.  I'm surprised the news media missed this angle.

Anyway, I saw this picture of an Obama $100 bill.  He wants to take these from the rich and give them to the poor.  To make the poor more comfortable with the money, the money has a more "poor boy" Obama on its cover.  And you know, he's right, he doesn't look like all those other guys on the one dollar bills.

Later.

Lincoln - default - Leave a Comment - § ¶