Category: commentary

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More Non-News

Well the Governor got back from his trystip. One of these days, the Republicans will learn that if you take the moral high-ground, you have got to live the moral high-ground. Democrats can lie, steal, cheat, pillage, and plunder and get away with it. If Republicans want to protest, they have got to be better than perfect. Some party discipline please. And maybe some training is in order. Carter and Clinton got to be President. Maybe some defectiveing Democrats can provide some lessons in Lie, Steal, Cheat, Pillage and Plunder 101.

In other non-news, Andre Bauer.

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Non-News

Governor Sanford was away for a while. I guess that I would not have noticed if it had not been for the tizzy that everyone seems to be in. He was in Argentina or on the Appalachian trail. Sounds like a game of “Telephone” may be responsible for the accurate information. If Assistant Governor Andre Bauer wandered away I doubt that anyone would notice. Unless he was trying to fly an airplane with the brakes on. Or land with the wheels up.

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Smart Move

I see in the news that Sen. Pelosi has decided that she has nothing more to say about what she may or may not have been briefed on the CIA’s investigative measures. When you are in a hole, stop digging. I suspect that Mr. Panetta will find other things to talk about as well.

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Less than Total Recall

A small spat seems to have developed between the Director CIA Leon Panetta and Senator Nancy Pelosi. Normally I would guess that Senator trumps department with a budget. But Panetta seems to be sure that his agency under the previous director did in fact let the Senate Intelligence Committee know what was going on. Perhaps Sen. Pelosi would benefit from some H.E.R.D. Hydrotherapy for Enhanced Recall and Disclosure.

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Blast and Fire

In a land far away many years ago, I would sing to my children as I pushed them on the swing.  Recent events at work brought to mind this song:

Every morning about seven o’clock
There were twenty tarriers drilling at the rock
The boss comes along and he says, “Keep still
And bear down heavy on the cast iron drill.”

Chorus
And drill, ye tarriers, drill
Drill, ye tarriers, drill
For it’s work all day for the sugar in you tay
Down beyond the railway
And drill, ye tarriers, drill
And blast, and fire.

The foreman’s name was John McCann
By God, he was a blamed mean man
Last week a premature blast went off
And a mile in the air went big Jim Goff

Chorus

And when next payday comes around
Jim Goff a dollar short was found
When ‘e asked, “What for?” came this reply
“You were docked for the time you were up in the sky.”

Chorus

And Drill ye tarriers drill. And Blast. And Fire.

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CO2

My father has been studying CO2 for a number of years. He is convinced that the folks that want to reduce CO2 are the same folks that have starved the third world for years. Ask yourself, “Is <fill in a name here> making any money from this <fill in a noun here>? Try substituting “Al Gore” (who is selling “carbon credits”) and “scam” (just exactly do you get for a “carbon credit” and how is that different from blackmail? Who gets the commission on the sale? Just exactly how did this transaction change any production/consumption relationship?) and you will get the idea. Meanwhile, who is paying for this? Not the mbillionaires, you can be assured of that. My father has sent a letter to the ELCA. Update: The Bishop has referred the letter to his collegues for recommendations.

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Chicago, Chicago, that toddlin’ town…

When 2 years of campaigning concluded with Sen. Obama’s election, I wondered when the corruption in Illinois would re-emerge in the headlines.  Now we know.  What continues to surprise me is that the only “scandel” I can recall connected with Sen. Obama was some piece of real-estate he may have gotten a sweet deal on.  I will not be surprised if there is more to come.  If Sen. Obama is actually as squeeky-clean as he appears at this time that will be a good thing.  What we do not need is a Spiro Agnew type episode.  And perhaps the press was not snoozing on watch during the entire Presidential Campaign.

On State Street, that great street, I just want to say
They do things they don't do on Broadway

And hopefully not what they appear to have been doing in Springfield.

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Microsoft Software

I spent a perfectly frustrating day trying produce results with Microsoft software. I normally use Excel and although it is not as good as it was around V4 or V5 and does support more rows than it did back then it cannot hold a really large number of rows (more than 65000). So I thought I could put my data into an Access database…silly me. If I thought that Microsoft Excel was clueless about dates and more importantly times, I had not reckoned with Access. Access, what a piece of junk. I spent all afternoon trying to get the mainframe to format the data in a way that Access would read it in without success. I even got it to recognize that the dates were dates and the times were times but when it read it in, #NUM error. And of course there is no log, no message, no nothing. Junk. And absolutely no help to resolve the problem. Another reason to not use Microsoft products. If they were available without charge, they would be overpriced.

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Calm voice of reason

With all of the noise and furor associated with the current financial distress, it is a relief to read someone who comments with wisdom and sanity. Check out Irving Wladawsky-Berger. Dr. Wladawsky-Berger was with IBM for 37 years and currently advises Citigroup and is a visiting professor at MIT.

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Unsweet

I keep finding that products that I have used for years because they do not have evil chemicals in them have been reformulated to include nasties like sorbitol (causes diarrhea) and aspartame (gives me headaches). Wrigley’s Doublemint gum is a prime example. It contains sugar so it does not qualify as sugarless AND aspartame.