Discourse of Distractions

Safety Third

2010-07-01T21:27:00.003-04:00

About a year ago, I saw part of a TED talk by Mike Rowe. You can see it here. From time to time, this gem is pushed to the forefront of the chaotic studio control room that is my mind.

The video starts with an amusing talk about his experiences in sheep castration on his show "Dirty Jobs," but the part I have mulled over time and time again is his brief discussion on "safety" on his other show "The Deadliest Catch." It starts 12:54 into the talk. He describes his epiphany on safety regulation and how they can give a worker (or user of a given tool or piece of equipment) a false sense of security - factitious safety, if you will. The worker trusts that all safety regulations, labels, and any one of a myriad of "safety" items will keep him safe. He puts so much trust in these things that, to varying degrees, he eventually relinquishes responsibility for his own safety.

Don't get me wrong: Safety training is very important. Important because it imparts knowledge - mental tools - for one to protect one's self. But too often the physical tools and book regulations can be a smokescreen. The very point the crab boat captain makes when he says, "My job is not to get you home alive. My job is to get you home rich. If you want to get home alive, that's on you."

In light of the recent passage of new financial regulations by the House of Representatives, I posit that the same is true for financial safety. In my younger years, I was very pro-regulation and pro-government. My mind was bent on seeing the government fix that which was wrong, unfair, or unsafe...but that was before I realized it's really ALL just smoke and mirrors.

Financial regulation gives the consumer/investor a false sense of security. Financial regulation is simply a maze of laws and rules that unscrupulous people learn to navigate in order to find as many loopholes as possible. New rules simply mean they look for new ways around them, while the well-intentioned, law-abiding investor places his money in a system wrought factitious safety.

Regulation encourages the investor to assume that Uncle Sam has everything protected. The reality is the regulators and the firms are in bed together. Wall Street traders learn the ropes, wine and dine with the Who's Who in the world of finance then move over to the public sector, where they end up regulating friends.

The best regulator is the investor's own mind. For example, in a wide-open, unregulated stock market, rather than relying on the myth that the Government is the fiduciary vanguard of all, investors/consumers would be use their own brain as their safety net when deciding what to do with their money. This encourages the investor to be fully educated as to their investments - or to not be an investor at all (which might actually be a good thing.) Caveat emptor should be viewed as the mantra of the consumer, rather than the harbinger of the unscrupulous seller.

Never Personalize Diplomacy

2010-03-24T20:24:00.004-04:00

Ms. Clinton is was a poor choice for Secretary of State. She is a politician, not a diplomat. One should never personalize diplomacy as she did with her comments here.

"Pakistan is close to my heart. Pakistan’s struggles are my struggles and I am committed to the success of this (strategic) dialogue,"

She has negated what little credibility she had and rendered worthless any future words to India she might proffer.

A Reboot for the Health Care Debate

2009-12-31T01:26:00.005-05:00

I agree with most of what President Obama's health care plan calls for. However, I do not agree with the creation a full-on government-run health plan to compete with insurance. An insurance company that receives its funds via our taxes (rather than having to actually earn it) would essentially wipe out all other insurance companies...with the end result being a single-payer government health plan. Whether or not this is the actual goal of the left is not really important, is it? With a government plan, it is the end result - not just the first step - that should be considered.

What I see as the big issue no one is addressing is that insurance is supposed to be about spreading risk. However, health insurance companies don't really spread risk - not evenly anyway. They give breaks to what their actuaries see as "healthy people" and jack up prices, deny coverage and/or summarily terminate policies for what they see as "unhealthy people". Insurance companies also give huge premium breaks to large corporations while small businesses and individuals have no such advantage. This disparity in premiums can be addressed by our federal legislature.

Additionally, there are other problems that can be addressed by law without creating another federal bureaucracy. Here are some ways I see health care can be reformed:

1. By law, for any given insurance plan, an insurance company's rates must be made equal for all people. Yes, that means that "healthy people" will pay more and "unhealthy people" will pay less. By ensuring equal cost per plan, the consumer can make an informed decision without jumping through hoops full of paperwork and applications with each company to find out what their rate will be. If the premium for a plan is too high, the consumer can go elsewhere. This is where the administration's original Health Insurance Exchange program can help with consumer choice.

2. Instead of assuming the burden of managing a health plan for employees and re-negotiating cost year after year, employers can simply subsidize the cost of whatever insurance the employee chooses via the Exchange. This reduces administrative burden on the employer. This also allows the employee to choose their own plan (as opposed to restricting them to the plan employer has chosen as in the current common model).

A minimally acceptable dollar amount (TBD) of the employer subsidy should be tax-free to the recipient (i.e. the employee). Any subsidy amount above the minimum is taxable as income. (This is to keep employers from using the tax-free benefit to pay for "health plans" that might include services like elective plastic surgery, day spas, a three-meal-a-day "health food plan" or other perks not directly related to health care. In other words, no tax free "face lifts" or "healthy" slush funds for corporate executives.)
The employee chooses the company and plan they desire. The employer's subsidy payment is paid to the insurance company via the Health Insurance Exchange. Any additional cost beyond the employer's subsidy is assumed by the employee and can be deducted from their pay and sent along with the employer subsidy. In this model the employer does not need to keep track of where to send each employees' insurance payments.
A minimally acceptable dollar amount (TBD) paid as insurance premiums for each of an employee's dependents should be considered non taxable income.

3. Medicare is expanded to include unemployed persons receiving unemployment benefits, the disabled or otherwise indigent/unemployable citizens.

4. Providers continue to have the option of participating with Medicare or not. Providers whose local market share in their specialty exceeds an acceptable threshold (i.e. monopoly or near-monopoly) are mandated to participate with Medicare.

5. Insurance companies cannot terminate coverage for any medical reason. Once an application is accepted, they assume coverage for all health care of the covered persons under their plan.

6. The Federal Health Reinsurance Corporation (FHRC) is established to ensure the solvency of insurance companies and to act as a safety net for insurance companies that may go bankrupt. The FHRC has oversight authority of insurance companies and may prosecute individuals responsible for fraud or criminal negligence. (The FHRC is to the health insurance industry what the FDIC is to the banking industry.)

7. Small businesses shall receive sliding scale tax credits for payment of premium subsidies. The sliding scale is based on profit per employee. The higher the profit per employee, the lower the tax credit per employee.

8. Health care providers and drug companies may receive tax credits for providing quality care and free medication to uninsured persons under a Health Care Pay-It-Forward program. Provider tax credit (amount TBD, but should be on par with Medicare reimbursement rates) is dependent upon the quality of care. Quality is measured by comparing outcomes of a providers insured vs. non-insured patients. Significant discrepancies in quality measurements disqualify the provider from receiving any tax credit for that period. The federal government (agency TBD) has authority to audit any health records of non-insured patients covered under the program to ensure compliance with quality reporting guidelines and to abate fraud.

140

2009-12-31T00:42:00.005-05:00

One hundred forty - The number of banks that failed in 2009. (see list)

That's almost triple the number of banks that failed in all the prior 8 years. Here's the breakdown since 2001:

2009 - 140
2008 - 26
2007 - 3
2006 - 0
2005 - 0
2004 - 4
2003 - 3
2002 - 11
2001 - 4

The 140 total includes 16 banks that failed in December 2009. Is the recession really slowing down?

Screw Yu

2009-12-31T00:10:00.007-05:00

Yesterday, Akmal Shaikh, a British national, was executed by Communist China. Apparently, he was tried and convicted of trafficking heroin, one of many capital offenses in China. I don't know all the details of the case. Apparently, Shaikh suffered from bipolar disorder and had significant delusions of grandeur - which may or may not have allowed him to be "tricked" into transporting the heroin.

According to news sources, in response to a British diplomat's criticism of the execution, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Jiang Yu said, "Nobody has the right to speak ill of China's judicial sovereignty..."

To that I say: Screw You, Jiang Yu! Try and stop me! I live in a nation where freedom of speech is guaranteed by our constitution. I can speak all the ill I want of your oppressive "sovereignty" and you can't do a thing about it.

Comparison and Contrast

2009-04-30T14:50:00.002-04:00

Here is the same story as written by two Asheville newspapers:

4/28 Mountain Xpress: Tupelo Honey Cafe closed for clean-up

4/30 Asheville Citizen-Times: Clogged sewer forces Tupelo Honey to close

What a difference. The Mountain Xpress story is far more informative and 2 days earlier than the other one. No wonder the C-T is doing so poorly.

An Open Letter to Governor Perdue

2009-04-23T10:47:00.002-04:00

Dear Governor Perdue,

As a citizen of our great state, I am disappointed in your decision to not attend the events celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park - the most visited national park in the United States.

This is a park that many North Carolina citizens worked hard to establish. Citizens like Horace Kephart and George Masa worked tirelessly to preserve and protect the area and ensure its stability and viability for future generations.

Ms. Perdue, the citizens of western North Carolina are taking your decision as a personal snub of the mountain region. For far too long the mountains have been treated as a place of second-class citizens. Your rationale that the travel expense would be too great doesn't hold any water with us. You have a western residence in Asheville. It is my plea that you will make use of it and represent our state at this event.

The Blizzard of '93 (Part 3)

2009-03-03T19:27:00.007-05:00

I don't recall the exact time it happened, but exhaustion quickly overwhelmed me. I struggled to speak and think. I was unsteady on my feet. I made my way to my room, turned on the heat and TV, and climbed into bed. I made a brief phone call to my wife, then quickly dozed off.

I woke up in time to catch some of the news Sunday evening: more snow. I worked a relatively uneventful Sunday night - or at least I don't recall anything significant. In fact, other than the the snow climbing to about 2 feet and high drifts in the parking lot, I don't recall much about Monday, either.

By Tuesday morning the snow had stopped and the sun was starting to shine through. As a few employees trickled in, I took my queue to exit. I walked outside and checked the road. It was still snow covered, but it had been plowed and packed down, so I knew the VW would make it out. Walked back in, grabbed my coat, and told the rest of the staff I was going home.

I made it out to the highway where the trucks had plowed enough to open one lane. The rest of the road was under 2-3 feet of snow. In my tiny car, I felt like I was driving through a World War I trench. Along the way I encountered a lady hitchhiking along the narrow path. I had never picked up a hitchhiker before, but, given the circumstances, I relented this one time. She was nice enough and needed a ride no more than a mile down the road.

When I got close to my apartment, I floored the VW and drove into the driveway as hard as I could. I pushed the VW into the deep snow until it could go no further. I wanted to make sure it was good and stuck, so that I wouldn't have to go anywhere for a while. After a while, I called the owner of the hotel to let him know I made it home and that I really needed a couple days off. He told me in his Bombay accent , "It is not a problem. Take some time off and I will give you hundred dollar bonus." I was making about $5.75 per hour at the time, so $100 was about 2 days' pay. This was in addition to the roughly 20 hours overtime I'd earned. While I was happy about the extra money, I was happier about being home - especially given my wife's troubles while I was gone...

My wife was safe at home, but caught a nasty cold. Due to the deep snow, she was not able to get out to the doctor or even down to the drug store. Our landlord's daughter came by (on horseback) to use our phone because theirs had gone out. She gave my wife a ride to the gas station down the street to see if they had any medicines. She said riding into a gas station on horseback where no cars were able to get in was quite surreal. Fortunately, they had some meds (unfortunately at typical gas-station rip-off prices, but at least she was able to get something).

A day later, as she was tossing some old popcorn outside, she slipped on the icy steps. As she fell her bottom hit every single step on the way down. She was OK, but she sat still for a moment, stunned. She then slowly crawled back into the apartment. The fall resulted a very black and blue bottom.

The Blizzard of '93 (Part 2)

2009-03-02T19:28:00.001-05:00

A short time later, Ross, one of the desk clerks, was able trudge in by foot from his home a couple miles away. We agreed that so long as it was just the two of us, he would work 12 hours during the day and I would cover the other 12 at night. (We both ended up working longer than that. Many tasks arose that required someone to be away from the desk, so we covered for each other quite a bit.) I set aside three rooms on the first floor for Ross, Mary and me.

By the time Ross relieved me on Sunday morning, the sole vending machine had been picked clean. Fortunately, I had already procured a small stash of items, so I had a few snacks to ration. The 24 hour convenience store down the block closed up shop by Sunday afternoon. One guest came back from there to report the worker had locked the doors and posted a sign that read "Sold Out of Everything." A few guests forced their way through the deep snow to Denny's a couple miles away only to find out the restaurant had nothing left by the time they arrived.

Realizing that we all needed food, I called information and asked for the "Emergency Operations Control (EOC)" non-emergency number. This was the 911 call center back then. I told the operator that we had nearly 90 rooms of people who had no access to food. She told me someone would call me back shortly. A few minutes later a man called and asked what we needed. I told him we mainly needed food and water. He said a truck would be by to deliver some items shortly. Within an hour a large, almost "monster" truck pulled up at the front door. Out hopped a man who I recognized as Vice-Mayor Gene Ellison. He brought water, crackers, loaves of bread, peanut butter, jelly and a large, unsliced bologna with some paper plates and a few plastic utensils.

I went into the abandoned restaurant area to look for a table. Most of them were damaged, dusty, and too unwieldy for me to move on my own. I did find a couple saw horses and an unused door that was probably meant as a replacement for a guest bathroom. I moved them to the lobby and Gene and I started loading up the table with the items.

As guests started making sandwiches, Gene made sure everyone knew who he was and that he had brought the food in from a local charity. It might have been good PR for him if not for the fact that the guests were ignoring him as they lined up for food...

The Blizzard of '93 (Part 1)

2009-03-02T02:37:00.004-05:00

It was March 12, 1993, around 10:15PM. I hopped in my car to drive from my apartment in Weaverville to my job at a hotel in Asheville. Snow had been falling steadily for a few hours. The roads were pretty slushy and starting to freeze. Although it had no heat to speak of, my little '71 VW convertible made the trip just fine.

The hotel was an older one, built in the 1960's. It had restaurant and bar space, but neither had been used since the early 80's. The hotel was five stories high with 92 rooms. Although it had an elevator, the doors to the rooms all faced outside with access provided by walkways surrounding each floor.

Throughout the night, it continued to snow hard. During my rounds at night I could see the utility lines collecting snow. By the next morning the snow was about a foot deep - too deep for the morning crew to come in to relieve me: no housekeepers, no desk clerks, no maintenance, no manager. I made the first of many calls to my wife - to whom I had been married less than a year. This first call was to let her know I wouldn't be home any time soon.

During the day Saturday I checked in a steady stream of guests, most of them local folks who had lost power. (The owner gave me permission to lift the "no locals" rule due to the storm.) I remember one young couple who had apparently checked in the previous day. They came down to use the pay phone in the lobby around noon. They had asked earlier in the day if I knew how the roads were. Despite telling them I had no idea since I'd been at work the entire time, they asked me a couple more times that morning.

Eventually, the young man asked me if I could give them a roll of quarters for a 10 dollar bill. I did. They walked over to the pay phone. The guy used it first. He was visibly upset, but talked in a rather hushed tone for a couple minutes, then hung up. Next it was the girl's turn. She dialed the number, slipped several quarters into the slot and waited. Unlike her companion, her words were clear in spite of her sobbing.

"Mom?...Hey." (pause) "Um...I'm in Asheville." (another, longer pause) "I rode down here last night with Michael."

From the rest of the conversation, I gathered that she and Michael drove down from Tennessee the day before. I'm not sure how old Michael was, but it was clear that the girl was still young enough to be in high school. She explained how she skipped class on Friday to spend the night with Michael in Asheville. The couple had stayed in their room all evening and all night, oblivious to anything but each other. The next morning, they woke up to find that they were snowed in. The volume of her voice remained fairly steady, but I wasn't able to catch much else due to other guests at the desk. She continued talking until she ran out of quarters, gave her mom the hotel's phone number, her room number and a hurried good-bye, then walked with Michael back to the elevator.

As night set in, snow fell heavily and surface depth approached two feet. I had taken one of the spare TVs and hooked it up on the lobby to keep up with the news and weather. The snow was forecast to continue through Monday night. It became clear that I would not be going home any time soon even if other staff members were able to come in.

I was the only employee and worked straight through until about 8 o'clock Sunday morning (33 hours). Mary, one of the housekeepers, came through the front door with one of her children in tow. With the hotel approaching capacity and snow piled up on the walkways, normal housekeeping service would have been impossible. We talked it over and decided it best to ask all the guests to bring their sheets and towels down to the laundry room to exchange for clean ones. Mary would work on the laundry each day until more help arrived...

Pandora's Box

2009-02-27T21:42:00.001-05:00

Votes do not decide what is right, nor do they decide what is true. People will vote for whatever is convenient. Lies are very convenient because you don't have to do anything about them, you just have to believe.

This goes for BOTH sides. Both the Republican AND Democratic parties lie - deeply and often.

It doesn't matter which side you choose. By picking a side and fighting against the other you support the fallacy that there are always only two sides to every issue. Reason is tossed away in favor of party mantra and lies.

Many Democrats, Republicans and independent citizens were against the stimulus bill - if only because no one really knew what was in it.

Anyone who says they were or are FOR the bill is either a liar or a fool unless they read all 1000+ pages of it (and even then may still be a fool).

Reflecting

2009-02-10T13:01:00.002-05:00

The agenda is obvious: more nationalization of private enterprise and more socialization of services such as health care. It's an agenda accompanied by a developing personality cult where the public's elevation and perception of a single man is placed above the principles of liberty. A failed war and a tanking economy create a voting public willing to throw unfettered power to his government.

The present circumstances facing America today?...or is this Germany in 1933?

Nationalist-Socialist (Nationalsozialismus in German; nazi for short)

Behind Closed Doors

2009-01-24T01:15:00.005-05:00

President Obama signed a Presidential Memorandum behind closed doors. Unlike all the other orders he's signed in this first partial week of his presidency, this order was purposefully signed, according to Bill Burton, a White House spokesperson, "without coverage by the media, late on Friday afternoon.”

Why was this done away from the cameras and reporters? Because it's a shameful act. The order was to restore government funding (i.e. our tax dollars) of international groups that distribute abortion information or perform abortions. It's something I'm sure he's not particularly proud of, especially in light of those who beg for him to put an end to the deaths of 1400 black children every day.

This week he also signed an executive order that Guantanamo Bay be closed within a year. Now, we've already released a number of detainees, 12% of which have gone back to Al Qaeda, including one just promoted to the "senior ranks of Al Qaeda in Yemen." Supposedly, we've released the ones seen as the "lowest threat." This leaves the worst of the worst still there. Many will be released while others may stand trial, but where will they go? (Will they be sent to federal prisons on American soil? Can you think of a more fertile ground for their message of warped Islam, violence, and hate than in the minds of disaffected offenders in a penitentiary?)

So, the same week he decides to close Guantanamo Bay and likely release enemy combatants only to scheme another terrorist attack, he approves more of our already misused tax dollars to be spent ripping off arms, legs and heads of more unborn children.

Shirley Ducker, please pay your bills!

2009-01-19T15:45:00.005-05:00

Dear Shirley Ducker,

I am the unfortunate recipient of your former telephone number. I know this because I receive several calls per week from collection agencies asking for you. I started working from home over four years ago. For my company-provided business line, I was assigned the phone number that used to be yours. A few months later, the calls started.

It does not seem to matter how many times I tell them that they have the wrong number, or that they've reached a business and there's no "Shirley Ducker" here - and to please take the number out of their system. They keep calling, and calling, and calling.

So Shirley, on behalf of my sanity and your creditors, I beg you: Please pay your bills.

American-American

2008-12-24T07:49:00.000-05:00

"Let every man honor and love the land of his birth and the race from which he springs and keep their memory green. It is a pious and honorable duty. But let us have done with British-Americans and Irish-Americans and German-Americans, and so on, and all be Americans...If a man is going to be an American at all let him be so without any qualifying adjectives; and if he is going to be something else, let him drop the word American from his personal description."
- Henry Cabot Lodge

The USSA

2008-11-10T17:51:00.011-05:00

Two more banks failed on Friday, mostly thanks to greedy investors, greedy consumers, and 30 years of government mandates.

The FDIC's list of failed banks since October 1, 2000.

A day later...

2008-11-05T23:38:00.002-05:00

I found a rather thoughtful post by a reader on a local news site:

The campaign comments, attacks and other BS are just to rile the followers to demonize the opponent. Then, when it's over, they hug and say, "Great Game", while the citizens are still angry and feel let down or overjoyed. It is a game, a game of power and greed and the citizens usually pay the heaviest price with hard feelings on one side and glee on the other. So it is with politics. No accountability for the perpetrators, the politicians and their staffers, the pundits who "charge up the spectators/voters" while they play the game. Where's the dignity in any of this?

I agree. I've been disappointed with both parties since I registered to vote at age 18 (back in the 80's). I registered as an independent (unaffiliated in NC) voter. Back then, I was conservative leaning, but didn't fully identify with the Republican party. Neither party fully matches my views and the Libertarian Party is, to borrow a phrase from Lt Gen Russel Honoré, "stuck on stupid" by pressing fringe issues as a platform rather than concentrating on critical social and economic freedoms.

In this election, both sides did a lot of mud slinging and told many flat-out lies.

The "McSame" name was very unfair to a man who has been a centrist for his entire career working both sides of the aisle and often clashing with "mainstream" Republican leadership. The Obama campaign was not so much running against McCain, but against W. They succeeded in that.

The Republicans so obviously tried to paint Obama as a terrorist-friendly, Manchurian candidate in order to "scare" the people into voting against him. The fear from 9/11 has dissuaded; the scare tactics stopped working two years ago as evidenced in the 2006 election, but the Republicans failed to remember it.

I think this election drove the wedge a little deeper into the political and social divide we have in this nation. I hope Barack and his eventual Cabinet will be wise enough to know it needs healing. He clearly has the ability to inspire this nation, so long as Biden and Pelosi don't shoot off at the mouth too much.

United we stand, divided we fall.

Thirty miles and a dollar

2008-10-12T01:46:00.008-04:00

On Saturday, I was in Spruce Pine, NC where I saw this:

Of course, I had to stop and fill up. We haven't seen gasoline this low in quite a while.

On the way home, I passed this station:

A mere thirty miles away, gasoline was a full dollar more per gallon. I never buy gas in Mars Hill for this very reason. From what I can tell, they always have the highest prices in Western NC.

This reinforces my prior post. If you don't like the price of something somewhere, find it somewhere else. Competition at its finest.

Gas Price Grouches

2008-10-06T20:59:00.005-04:00

I saw a recent comment to an online story about gas prices in the Carolinas. The guy was complaining that one station charged $3.99 per gallon when he heard another one a short distance away was charging $3.59. He asked if that much of a price difference was price gouging.

Due to Hurricane Gustav and Ike, supplies from the Gulf Coast were interrupted for an extended period of time. Throughout the supply shortage, people were constantly talking about "gouging." I don't doubt that there was some gouging, but basic 10th grade economics explains that as supply decreases, prices increase. Not simply because the seller can sell for more, but because his cost also goes up. Sellers also would like to provide their product to as many customers as possible, so they don't have to turn away other customers. In this way, increased prices encourages some consumers to buy less - to buy only what they need versus what they want.

I remember the scene in It's a Wonderful Life where George Bailey is trying to prevent a run on the Bailey Building and Loan. He asks all the depositors to withdraw only what they need for the short term rather than closing their accounts. The first man insisted on getting every penny. Most of the crowd agreed to take a smaller portion of their total balances. Thus, the building and loan stayed in business and everyone was able to get what they needed.

Unfortunately, local media created a panic by telling consumers, "fill up now or you may not be able to later," there was a run on gasoline in Georgia and the Carolinas. People panicked. Everyone made a dash for gasoline and stations ran dry. It has taken some time for stations to get back to normal supply levels. Many stations only have 87 octane, while others have gas one day and don't the next. However, some gas stations have been able to stay open over the last week or so.

Like any industry that delivers its product, the number of trucks petroleum suppliers maintain is based typical fluctuations in normal market conditions. Petroleum suppliers don't keep a fleet of unused tanks and trucks sitting around just in case they have to double or triple their normal deliveries. Thus, it is taking a while to get all the stations filled up again.

Because local suppliers have had trouble keeping up with demand, some stations have resorted to suppliers that are farther away. Generally, the farther the gasoline has to be shipped, the more it will cost. The result is a wide range of prices at the pump.

Here was my response to the posters question:

"Gouging? Would you rather both stations charge 3.99? No...it isn't gouging. It's called competition.

If all stations charged the same price, there would be no consumer choice and no competition. When gas stations collude to charge the same price, it's called price-fixing and it's illegal because it harms the consumer.

Furthermore, if someone buys at the 3.99 station because they were too lazy, too stupid, or too apathetic to shop around, it's their own fault for not being an informed consumer. Unfortunately, a lot of consumers are all three - lazy, stupid and apathetic.

If people stopped buying at the 3.99 station, the station would either have to lower the price or not sell as much gas...which means less people going in to buy drinks, snacks, etc...which means less profit. If someone is willing to throw away an extra $6 bucks for 15 gallons of gas, why should the government step in to protect the man from himself?

If the government were to dictate gasoline prices, the politicians would be flooded with even more Big Oil lobbyists and more Big Oil campaign contributions. THEN how much do you think gas would cost??"

That last paragraph sums up government price controls on most any commodity. If the price of a commodity is dictated by the government and that commodity has a strong (i.e. wealthy) lobby, the government becomes a hotbed for corruption. Example? How about a different liquid commodity purchased by the gallon? Got Milk?

Whose mess?

2008-09-29T22:48:00.008-04:00

I had planned on writing a post about our current economic situation. In doing a lot of research, I've found that it would be more than one post's worth of material. I may still post what I've typed (in parts), but in a nutshell here are some interesting bites:

An entree from the New York Times, 2004.

A dash of conflict of interest

A dollop of truth.

And a small video helping to go with it:

This is for desert. Like any desert, take your time with it...pause (literally, with the pause button) often, because the best pieces go by pretty fast:

Government interference in the mid 90's (forcing banks to lend to people with bad credit) caused demand for housing to go up. Basic economics: as demand goes up, prices increase. The "solution" meant the "affordable housing" was no longer affordable for those trying to by later.

For those who had already purchased, the house they bought (via the easy loans) went up in value due to the higher demand/prices created by the easy money. Thus, many of those home owners went back to the banks to dig into the equity - equity based on the artificially inflated new value of their home.

For example, say someone bought a house in 1996 for $100,000 (no money down, all financed...yes, the government mandate forced banks to offer no-money-down home loans to people with poor credit in some situations). Then in 1999, because of the higher demand for housing (again, caused by the easy loans), the value of that same house jumps to $180,000, suddenly the buyer has a little over 80,000 in equity! So he refinances his home to cash-out, buy a car, go on a vacation, whatever.

Unfortunately, many of these loans were variable-rate...so, as the prime rate increased sharply (2003-2006) in an attempt to curb inflation...inflation caused by all the extra "easy money" people were borrowing...mortgage payments on a large number of bad-credit loans also went up. The "favor" given to people with bad credit, ended up being their undoing. They bought houses on variable rate loans when rates were very low. Very low rates have little room to go anywhere but up. (You can't have negative interest rates. Banks won't pay you to take out a loan, unless, of course, you're a politician.)

That's all for now. I'll post more of my take later this week.

Unassuring Insurance

2008-08-06T15:19:00.007-04:00

A few weeks ago, I got my mobile phone wet. OK, it was more than wet; it was drenched. It was in my fishing vest. While I was wading in a river, I slipped and fell down to my knees, which caused my vest and everything in it do get wet.

When I got home, I shook out as much water as I could. Then I put it in front a fan and let it dry for a couple days. I turned it on and, to my surprise, it worked fine - except for the ear speaker. If I plugged in a headset, I could hear, but no dice on the phone itself. I used the phone like this for a while, but decided to go ahead and file a claim with that special insurance Verizon wants you buy when you get a new phone. The company is "Asurion." It is supposed to replace your phone if you lose it, get it wet, run over it with your car, etc. There's a $50 deductible.

The phone arrived today. The phone had a "protective" film over the screen which I promptly began to peel off. I got no more than a fourth of the film off when the plastic/glass screen decides to come off as well. Not good.

I then examine the phone and see that the Motorola logos which are present on both the front and back of my original phone are not on the replacement phone. (Original Verizon phone on left; Asurion replacement on right)

The box it came in did not say Motorola, it said "Asurion." I wonder if the replacement Phone is some cheap after-market knock-off. Maybe it's a refurbished phone, but Motorola requires them to remove the logos because they don't want their brand associated with crap.

Either way, I called Asurion again and told them about the problem. The lady I spoke with actually laughed like she thought it was funny. Maybe she was thinking, "There's another one!" because this happens all the time. Anyway, she transferred me to a "technical represetative" to get a new phone shipped out to me. I re-explained the problem to him. In scripted prose he agreed that I certainly could not be expected to keep that phone. They are shipping me a new one to be delivered tomorrow. I told him I didn't want another after-market piece of junk, I wanted a real replacement. He said that all of their phones are refurbished and they don't carry new ones for replacment. (This, by the way, is not what Verizon said to me when they sold me the insurance. I was clearly told it would be a true, new replacment of the original phone.)

Regardless, I guess I'm stuck with whatever piece of junk they want to send me. Word of advice: if you don't want a crappy replacment, don't buy the insurance. Save your money and buy a new phone in the event you break yours. In my opinion, Asurion insurance is crap.

UPDATE: I got the replacement for the replacement on Thursday. It appears to be a true Motorola with the proper markings, etc. Incidentally, although the front glass does appears to be raised slightly above it's "seat", it is staying in place and does not appear to be in danger of coming out. Due to the similar Asurion box and no-name charger, it is obviously not a new replacment, but is better than the prior phone they sent me. Only time will tell if it holds up.

Bele Chere if you dare

2008-07-20T14:17:00.005-04:00

Bele Chere is almost here once again. Did you see the title graphic in that link? It says "30th Anniversary." That's some nice spin by the Bele Chere folks, but it's wrong. Then again, the decision makers in the City of Asheville have never been accused of being math whizzes.

The first Bele Chere was in 1979. The "first anniversary" of Bele Chere was the festival in 1980; the 10th anniversary was in 1989; the thirtieth anniversary will be in 2009. A couple wouldn't call their wedding day their "first anniversary." However, calling it "The 30th Annual Bele Chere" would have been correct. It's simply the difference between counting cardinally and ordinally. Let's give the Bele Chere marketing department an F for math, and an B for spin.

I have mixed feelings about Bele Chere. I have been to Bele Chere several times...maybe ten. I like the food, even if it is overpriced. I like to look at the art, which I rarely buy. I don't particularly care for the concerts, although I do recall one year when "Beatlemania Now!" was particularly enjoyable. The parts of Bele Chere I dislike outweigh the parts of it that I like. What's not to like? That's another discourse of distractions....

From 1992 until 1997, I worked at three different Asheville area hotels - mostly during the night shift. I came to absolutely hate Bele Chere festival due to all the problems it caused and complaints we received from guests. Some Bele Chere revelers would go party and get drunk during the day, perhaps go to a bar or two later that night, then come staggering into their rooms in the middle of the night and try to continue the party (or fight, as the case may be) through the night. We received more complaints from other guests due to noise, more damage to rooms, and had to ask more guests to leave due to Bele Chere than we did for any other event at any other time of the year - including the so-called "rowdy" Honda Hoot and Harley Owners Group events. (Incidentally, I don't recall those two groups causing any problems at any of the hotels where I worked.)

I recall my first Bele Chere as a hotel employee. As I drove into the parking lot at work around 10:45 on that Friday night, I saw a drunk man down at street level yelling and cussing at another drunk man above him on a 2nd floor balcony. Apparently, this argument had been going on for a while. The man above, having heard enough of the man below, decided to end the conversation by pouring his beer out onto the head of lower fellow. Unfortunately, the lower man's anger grew and, after staggering around in a failed attempt to avoid the stream of brew, he fired up another louder, stronger volley of epithets. This was but an ominous overture to the events of that and future weekends of Bele Chere.

Thus, Bele Chere started off started off on the wrong foot with me. I guess I've always felt that the festival had to prove itself to me. What else don't I like? I can't stand the heat. I wish they'd move it to early September as a kick-off to the Autumn tourist season. It would be a nice follow-up to the NC Mountain State Fair.

I also abhor the moronic parents that let their kids run around unsupervised. I recall one year at Bele Chere where a group of about 15 teenagers (ages 13-17, I'm guessing) decided it would be fun to run from one end of Bele Chere to the other as fast as they could without regard for any of the people crowded into the streets. As they ran, they pushed over people, tipped strollers, and bumped art displays to the ground. Eventually, the police caught up with them and kicked them out of the festival, but by the time that happened their damage had already been done.

Lastly, while Bele Chere isn't exactly a sea of inebriation, there are quite a few boozed up people, some of whom can't hold their alcohol any more than they are able to master basic English grammar. It's one thing to go to a bar, a club or a party where you naturally expect to see intoxicated people. But Bele Chere isn't a bar. It's a public street festival complete with children and the elderly. However, APD seems to be able to stop the occasional brawl fairly quickly.

I often hear about how much money Bele Chere and tourism bring to the Asheville area. I don't doubt that large sums of cash exchange hands as a result tourism. In my own participation in the great American pastime that is the family vacation, I have disposed of more than my fair share. However, my experience speaks that very little of that money goes to the tourism workers. In my years of working in various hotels in Asheville, my wage averaged about $1.25 above the (then) minimum wage. Housekeepers made less. (I eventually wised up, went back to college, changed careers and got out of the hotel business for good.)

What's up with Google Maps?

2008-07-12T13:39:00.009-04:00

While looking through some old photos I've taken during a hikes around Mt. Mitchell, I was curious about some of the other peaks in the area. I went to check out Google Maps to see if I could figure out which direction I had taken a few of the shots. To my surprise, Google Maps is totally screwed up when it comes to topology in that area. I've tried to force myself to see the image correctly, sort of how you can force yourself to see either the old woman or the young lady in this classic illusion photo. It just doesn't work. The light/shadow effect added to these images are all wrong.

For example, look at this area north of Black Mountain:

Notice how the map shows the Blue Ridge Parkway in a valley? This is obviously wrong. The parkway runs along and around the tops of the mountains. The map also shows the the North Fork Reservoir (the dark area near the center) on a mountain top. I guess the water from the surrounding streams in the watershed has to flow up hill. Google depicts the elevations reversed. I'm not sure if this is an issue with Google, the provider of their data or my eyes.

Nice going, "Mom."

2008-07-05T00:54:00.004-04:00

I briefly visited one of my in-laws (Johnny, uncle to my wife) on the 4th. It was sort of a family reunion. One of the many children running wild in the yard (I know not his name nor his mother's; my wife's father was one of 15 children and it is much too difficult for me to remember their names and those of the 2-3 generations of offspring) was climbing on a rather young Bradford pear tree.

Bradfords are a very soft wood and tend to split easily. The child's mother yelled at him to "get out of that tree right now!" When the child asked why, the mother said, "Because Johnny's gonna whip you!" The child quickly climbed down.

Her ignorant comment immediately reminded me of this post by zen. I imagine the reason she didn't say, "because I said so," is that she had let this child get away with ignoring her so many times in the past, she knew her word carried no authority with the him. If she had said, "because you might break it," i imagine his response would have been a look of confusion because she had failed to teach the child any sense of respect for other people's property. Instead, she threatened the boy with violence, albeit deceitfully and vicariously.

Johnny is a very nice guy and certainly would not whip someone's child, whether a relative or not. This mother, in her stupidity, has now instilled distrust and fear in this child - a fear that Johnny, given minor cause, will physically harm him. I wonder how many times in this child's life she will teach him lessons like this - and what type of person he will grow up to be.

Big Red

2008-07-03T01:22:00.010-04:00

I fish. I fly fish - for trout. I'm not a fanatic about it. I don't have a huge amount of gear and I've never taken a trip to some exotic locale to fish (although one day I might - and I'm not counting the family trip to Bimini when I was 10), but every once in a while when I have a free day, or a few free hours, I'll call a friend or two and we'll hit one of the local rivers.

This past Saturday I went fishing with one of my friends. I'll call him S. S and I went to fish a river that I had never fished before - he had fished there once prior. I'm withholding the name of the river for reasons that will shortly become apparent. We fished different sections of the river for a few hours, but the vast majority of our time was spent on one particular area. We didn't catch anything, but it was one of the best days of fishing I've had in a while - all because of Big Red.

S saw it first. It was the biggest rainbow trout either of us had ever seen up close. In this particular river, there are long stretches of steep rocks/rapids broken up by small pools where there are some fish. The fish can not move easily between pools when the water is low, like it has been recently.

S tried catching it with a hopper (dry). He said the fish came up rather quickly and looked at it, but decided not to bite. After that it ignored whatever he threw at it. He eventually walked up to where I was fishing to tell me about it. I thought he was exaggerating about the fish's size. I mean, I hadn't even seen a fish in this river yet, so how big could this one be? We walked back to the pool S was fishing in and didn't see it anywhere. The water was crystal clear so we were sure we weren't missing it. Eventually, we gave up and just started fishing.

I walked downstream a bit and started casting a stone fly nymph. I'm not sure what I was casting at because I still hadn't seen any fish yet. I cast several times as I let my mind wander - then I saw it. His huge red stripe stood out like Old Glory. He was about 15 feet away and was rather still. He was the Nautilus waiting to fill his prow with an unsuspecting meal. He had to have been at least 2 feet long, likely more. (I realize by western United States standards this dimension is not "huge," but here in the eastern US, it is. The biggest rainbow I've ever hooked was about 18" and he slipped off the hook as I beached him, so I never got to actually hold him.) I was as still as the boulder I was standing next to. All I could mutter was, "Oh my God!" He was every bit as big as S described him and then some. He looked like the Steelheads that you see on that National Geographic special where the big Brown Bear stands on a boulder and waits for a salmon to jump into his mouth. (Incidentally, the Pacific Steelhead and our hatchery-raised Rainbows are actually the same species. The difference here is that they don't ever go out to sea.)

S heard me and slowly walked back over. We watched him for a while. At one point, he came up to eat something off the surface of the water. Unlike most trout that make a quick splash and rapidly duck down below the sufrace, this guy slowly came to the surface and gulped in a mouthful of water and whatever bug he was trying to eat. It was like watching a whale come up to take a peek at a tour boat - pure grace in the turblence of the water. The fish was so big, rather than the basic curved left-right-left motion of smaller trout, it moved in an articulated motion as it hovered back to its "bed" .

I cast the stone fly upstream from him 3-4 times. It gradually dropped below the surface and floated by. The fish completely ignored it each time. He wasn't changing position very much, so I took the time to change to a dry fly - a pretty big one. He ignored it too. S tried an emerger, no bite. He eventually got spooked and hid under some laurel branches so we ignored him for about 10-15 minutes. We came back and he was out in the open again. We tried a few more times to catch him, but he was ignoring everything. It seemed as though he was even ignoring us! Eventually, we realized it wasn't going to happen. We gave up trying to sneak around. We just wanted a really good look at him.

I decided to see what would happen if I got close to him. I slowly started making my way towards him. There was no sand or silt in this part of the river - the bottom was solid rock - so my movement didn't stir up anything. I took my net and put it down in the water which was between 2 and 3 feet deep where he was resting. I slowly stepped towards him, an inch at a time, keeping my net slightly in front of me and to the left. My arm in the water up to my elbow, my waders tightened around my knees, then up to my hips. I eventually got the net to within about 8 inches of him. He was facing directly into it. The current kept pushing the net inside out and I was afraid the webbing would hit him and scare him off if I got any closer, so I planned to net him from there. He was gone before I was even sure I had moved. Had I four arms, each one brandishing a net thrice as large, it would have made no difference. He was a magician, a trickster, a master of the martial arts who anticipated my move. S was about 15-20 feet away on a boulder, towering above. He said it dodged the net off to my left and in a quick zig-zag-zig, he was all the way at the top of the pool in less than a second. I'm sure he was gloating.

We wanted him sooooo bad. This area is catch-and-release, but we had cameras and wanted pictures! We named him "Big Red" to denote his prominent coloring. I don't know when I'll get to fish again, but when I do I'm headed back that river, hopefully with my own bag of magic tricks.

Meals from the Past

2008-04-30T12:42:00.010-04:00

I saw a photo of an older-type Arby's sign on flickr today. I had thought Arby's ensured all these older signs would be replaced, but apparently there are still a few old ones around. These signs were the style Arby's used when I was a kid. Seeing this sign reminded me of childhood fast-food endeavors. For me, there were no "Happy Meals" at McDonald's. Oh...they were on the menu alright, but they weren't available for me. Why? That's another Discourse of Distractions.

When I was a kid, I did not like fast-food restaurants. In my childhood experience, the food was awful. You see, my father always chose and ordered for me and my brother. We never got to pick out what we wanted. At Arby's, dad would order a "Super." This is the one with lettuce, tomatoes, sauce, etc. At McDonald's, it was always a quarter-pounder with cheese. I hated cheese back then. A Whopper (with everything) was the standard fare at Burger King. To drink? MILK...always MILK - and not even chocolate milk - plain, white milk. My dad hated soda and would never order them for us under the guise that it would rot our teeth and eat away at our stomachs.

Happy Meals were introduced when I was 8 years old. McDonald's had commercials showing these really happy kids opening the box and revealing their new toy. I remember thinking those must have been some awesome toys to make those kids so happy, because I knew they didn't like that food!

Invariably, I ended up picking at my food, trying to get the bites I wanted while avoiding the onions, lettuce, cheese, pickles or whatever other strange tasting objects would be in there. The fries were OK, but fries and milk are not a good combo. Dad would get frustrated and try to guilt me and my brother into eating whatever he ordered. "I can't believe you won't eat. There's a man back there who sat down and took the time to make that burger for you, and you're just picking at it."

I would imagine this gentle, seasoned, elderly burger-maker peering with anticipation from from the back of the kitchen at me and my brother while my dad ordered our fare at the counter...how happy it made him when he read our order, like Santa Claus reading a child's crayoned wish letter...how meticulously he placed each piece of lettuce, each pickle, every stripe of ketchup and mustard as he dreamed of young voices shouting accolades to his handiwork...and how terrible I felt that this man's glorious, heart-felt creation tasted like crap. I hoped he couldn't see me sitting in the booth, but I knew exactly what I would have said to him if he did: "I'm sorry, burger man! It's my dad's fault! He doesn't know how to order for kids! Kids just want meat and ketchup, but my dad orders all this other stuff."

Steaming along, full circle.

2008-03-28T12:04:00.014-04:00

I saw this post on a blog today. I found it interesting because it involved two areas of interest for me: food (especially Chinese cuisine) and language...but I was already familiar with Joyce Chen and her Peking Ravioli (ravs). How? Well...that's a Discourse of Distractions.....

My wife and I used to have a microwave steamer. We received it as a wedding gift. It was a round Tupperware-type container about 8 inches tall and 8 inches in diameter. The bottom was concave rather than flat, but it had a flat bottomed basket to put inside. The differences in shape would keep the water in the bottom of the container and the veggies suspended above it in the basket. It also had a lid with a small vent. We loved this steamer because it quickly produced perfectly steamed veggies..slightly soft, but crunchy. It beats stove-top steaming/boiling any day.

(As a technical side note, the frequency of electromagnetic radiation produced by Microwave ovens is specifically tuned to heat water molecules. When a microwave cooks your food, it is actually heating the water in your food. The increased water temperature then heats/cooks the rest of your food. For an illustration of this, put two microwave-safe coffee cups in a microwave - one half full of water, the other one empty. Heat them on high for one minute. Feel the outer surface of the cups. The coffee cup containing water will be significantly warmer than the empty cup. This is because the microwave heats the water, which then heats the cup via conduction. In the case of the veggie steamer, the microwave heats the water in the veggies, as well as the water in the bottom of the container. The water in the bottom turns into steam. The steam rises through the basket and also cooks the veggies.)

Anyway...one day a few years ago my wife made something in our steamer to take to church for a lunch function. (I don't remember what she made. We often used it for non-steaming applications without the basket.) After the lunch, my wife went to retrieve our steamer, but it was gone. As this steamer was a rather unusual looking item, it is unlikely that someone mistook it for their own container. (It's a sad commentary that someone at church would steal someone else's food container.) Needless to say, we were disappointed. We were unable to find another steamer like it anywhere locally. For several years, we simply did without.

Last year, I searched online for a new microwave steamer. That's when I came across the Joyce Chen microwave rice steamer. It was a similar design to our old steamer. It was for rice, but I figured it would do just as well with vegetables.....and it does! We are happily eating microwave-steamed veggies again.

Because of this product, I became curious about Joyce. Was she a real person or just a marketing figure? I Googled her name and found lots of info. Cooking classes, cookbooks, restaurants, line of utensils, etc. However, I noticed Wikipedia didn't have an entry for her....so I started one. It's probably the source for the blog post I mentioned above. (hence, full circle)

During my research on Joyce, I read about how people in the Boston area came to use the word "ravs" for dumplings. It makes sense once you know the history. Where I'm from, dumplings are simply known as "steamed dumplings" or "fried dumplings" depending on how they are cooked. You will occasionally hear "pot stickers" for the fried variety.

I travel quite a bit for business and I am in the Boston area 2-3 times a year. If you've never been to the Boston area, you might be a bit surprised (if not slightly annoyed) at the way native Bostonians talk. There's the dialect (vocabulary) and the accent (way of pronouncing words). For example:

You know those chocolate sprinkles you can put on ice cream? They call them "jimmies."
The inexpensive, white canvas shoes (like Keds)? Bobos. Yes, bobos.
A milk-shake is a "frappe."

I can hear it now..."Hey kid! Don't drop your frappe or you'll get jimmies all over your bobos!"

I realize Bobos is an actual brand of shoe, but I'm not aware of any area where that term is used for shoes that are not actually Bobos. (Sort of like how some people use the word "Coke" for any type of cola, even if it's Pepsi.)

Then there's the way Bostonians pronounce words. Of course, there's the stereotypical dropped "r" like "pahk ya cah" for park your car., but there are some other unexpected variations:

Peabody is "PEE-b'dy" not Pee-body.
Stoughton rhymes with Dough-t'n -- not Stow-ton (rhymes with out-in) or staw-ton.
Newburyport is "newbryport" not new-berry-port.
Haverhill is "hayvril" not hayver-hill

But one example I do not understand is one that stands out in memory for me. Of course, this leads to another Discourse of Distractions...

On a particular business meeting in the Boston area, one of my customers asks me how far away my hotel is. Not knowing if I took the best route from my hotel to their office, I wasn't sure enough about the distance in either miles or minutes, so I simply replied that my hotel was in Woburn. I pronounced it just like it's spelled: Wo-burn - where Wo sounds like woe as in "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!" (Matthew 23:29)

The reactions of the customers varied from obvious confusion to all-out laughter. Had I stayed inordinately far away? Is that a bad area of town? No. They were laughing at my pronunciation of the word. One of the men says "Wo-burn? What's Wo-burn? It's woo-bin!" Woobin? How do they get woobin out of Woburn?

Then a lady says, "It must be his accent. That's why he says it wrong." (referring to me). My accent? My accent? No, no, no, dear. It's your accent. I dare say that the rest of the entire English-speaking world would pronounce Woburn just as I did: Wo-burn. The fact that the local populace removes the r, replaces the u with an i and inserts an extra o in the word, doesn't mean that I'm wrong. However, they were the customers, so I bit my tongue and proceeded to say "woobin," no matter how wrong it felt. Now, I'm just waiting for someone to tell me how to pronounce Faneuil.