Have I got a proposition for you...

Proposition 31 this time.

This is a measure that puts the state on a two year budgetary cycle.  It takes roughly $200 million from sales tax revenues for funding of local programs.  That's one of the points that the opponents want to use to make you vote no.

First things first.  California's annual budget runs in the neighborhood of between $95 billion and $100 billion.  So taking $200 million sounds like a lot in the abstract, but it's only 1/5th of 1% of the total budget.  Barely a drop in the bucket and not a good reason to oppose some of the good things this one does.

Prop 31:

Prohibits the Legislature from spending more than $25 million unless they cut other spending or increase revenues.  In other words, it's a live within your means rule.

Permits the Governor to cut the budget unilaterally in the event of a fiscal crisis if the Legislature fails to act.  So the elected representatives get first crack at dealing with an emergency.  But, if they do as the morons in D.C. did with the fiscal cliff, the Governor has the power to deal with the crisis.  I may not like this Governor but I like the idea of his office having the ability to act in emergencies.

Requires performance reviews of all state programs.  Wonder how the government bureaucrats will react to having their work monitored and evaluated?

Requires publication of all bills three full days before a legislative vote.  How can that be anything but good for the people. 

You can always tell a lot about a bill by those who support it and those who oppose it.  Those leading the charge in favor of this Prop are a retired CA Supreme Court justice, a retired Superintendent of Public Instruction, and a Stanford Professor.  The opposition is mostly organized labor.

Labor has an agenda in trying to keep every dollar they can in the control of the State Legislature.  It's that $500 billion in unfunded future pension liabilities that every single one of us is on the hook for.

I'm voting YES on Prop 31.  All I ask is that you learn what you can about this and vote your conscience.

Thanks.

So they're calling Sandy a 1 in 100 year storm...

calling it a "super storm" and all this other hyperbole and it's mostly a crock.

Sandy is unique in only a few aspects.  One is the size of the storm.  It is the largest hurricane in Atlantic history in terms of the area it covered, both in total and in the area covered by tropical storm force winds.  But there have been typhoons in the Pacific that were even larger in area.

Sandy's eye went ashore in a very heavily populated area, and even though it was only a Category 2 storm, it had plenty of storm surge and caused damage.  But it was only a Category 2 storm.  Let's look at the categories.

For comparison, Hurricanes Katrina and Camille (1969) were Category 5 storms.  Camille came ashore with sustained winds of more than 190 miles per hour.  259 people died from Camille.  1,833 people died from Katrina.  So far the death toll from Sandy stands at 122.  Tragic, but nowhere near as bad as other hurricanes have been.  In comparison, the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane killed more than 4,000 people.

The damage estimates from Hurricane Sandy stand at $25 billion.  Serious, again even tragic.  But the damage total from Katrina exceeded $80 billion.  More than three times worse.

Hurricane Sandy was a major storm.  But it wasn't even the storm of the century.  So far in the 21st century, that's Hurricane Katrina.

Cheating again but I have a good excuse...

I suspect I'm going to be up later tonight than I was the past few nights and I may sleep later in the morning.  Since I have class, that might force me to skip the morning blog if I don't get a headstart tonight.

Tonight I saw something that truly frightened me.  I don't believe that fines will stop people from driving and texting, or driving and talking on their cellphones.  But I actually saw an idiot reading a book in rush hour traffic on the 405.  You can't convince me there's any safe speed above zero to be reading a book.  Glancing at a map, or written directions is one thing.  It's just a glance.  But reading the book held above the steering wheel is just unsafe.

We're skipping trivia on Wednesday night.  One of our team will no longer play as a team of three, and we don't have four players willing and available to play tomorrow night.  I suspect that our Wednesday night outings will soon end.  Especially since there's a new "league" to play in on Thursdays that has a big final event in January or February.

The Lakers showed me nothing to be excited about tonight.  They won't win anything if they can't play defense.  Winning basketball is more about keeping the other team from scoring than it is scoring yourself.  Defense wins.  It's true in most sports.  In football a defense can create turnovers and those can lead to direct or indirect points.  The baseball team that has the best defense and the best pitching will win in the long run.  Hockey teams that shut out their opponents will win eventually.

I'm a supporter of civil rights.  Of equality of treatment.  But for civil rights leaders in Minnesota to cry foul because the roster of the Minnesota Timberwolves basketball team doesn't have "enough" black players on it is ridiculous.  Blacks make up 75% of the players in the NBA.  Blacks represent 12% of the total population.  I think on the face, the NBA has done more than its share to promote diversity.  The T-Wolves tried to sign two black players as free agents in the off-season, but both chose to go elsewhere.  That they would deliberately be signing more white players than black players is just dumb.  They want to win.  They're going to sign the best players available without regard to the color of their skin.  But suddenly, they're a racist organization.  Those civil rights leaders in Minnesota need to shut up and go bother the Nazis in Skokie.

Las Vegas police have arrested the moron who stole $1.6 million in Venetian Casino chips.  The casino cancelled those chips and replaced them right after the theft, so the thief wasn't going to get paid anyway.  Now he gets to spend some time in the gray bar hotel.  Another Darwin Award nominee, even though he didn't manage to kill himself.

FEMA uses the Waffle House index to determine where to send assistance first.  Seems that Waffle Houses stay open under the harshest conditions, so when one actually closes, or starts serving a limited menu, that's where help is needed most.  Why doesn't someone get them some help with most of their menu, which sucks aside from the waffles.  The waffles are pretty good though.

In 2000 we had hanging chads.  Now we have a hanging crane.  What c-word for Words with Friends will pop up in the news next?

So Disney and George Lucas were negotiating on the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney.  Robert Iger (CEO of Disney) and George were on the way to lunch when they got around to haggling over the price.  Lucas suggested the next street sign with a number on it, in billions.  Good thing someone painted a big dot after the 4, on the 405 sign.  Otherwise Disney would be in a lot of trouble.

BTW, did you know that Walt and Roy Disney are the only siblings to ever be Grand Marshals of the Rose Parade?  I think I mentioned that the other day and said something in error.  The current Rose Queen is the 95th, but the parade itself is well over 100 years old.  My bad.

One last factoid.  Christopher Lee is 90 years old.  He was therefore, 80 years old in 2002 when Star Wars II, Attack of the Clones opened, and that means he was in his very late 70s when he filmed his lightsaber fight scenes.  Did he do that himself or have a double?  The answer can be found in tomorrow's blog.

High Executive Personal Assistant  is another want-ad subject line that caught my eye.  So is the executive saying he's high-level, or that he's just high?  I didn't see any 420 friendly references in the ad, so maybe he just needs an assistant to edit his syntax.

Last ad today.  There were separate ads for female go-go dancers and for male go-go dancers at a club in West Hollywood.  At the same club?

More excerpts from help wanted ads...

"Female Dancers wanted for hugely successful Mid-East and multi-genre troupe. Local gigs/international contracts. Must have: ballet/jazz/Latin or bellydance training; outgoing personality; excellent rhythm; 19-26 yrs. 5'5"-5'9" NO tattoos."  None at all?  I know a number of women who have tattoos these days.  Guess they'd better not consider dancing as a career.

"The schedule is a set schedule and will include one weekend shift. Candidates applying must be flexible."  If the schedule is set, why is flexibility so important?

"Do you use methamphetamine regularly?

The Addictions Research Laboratory in the Department of Psychology at UCLA is seeking individuals age 18 to 50 for a study of medication and genetics; this is not a treatment study for methamphetamine use. The principal investigator in this study is Dr. Lara Ray, Assistant Professor of Psychology at UCLA. This two week study involves spending a total of 10 days in an inpatient facility. You will be asked to provide a DNA sample, complete questionnaires, take study medication for 4 days, and complete two methamphetamine administration sessions."  How many meth users are going to see this and say "cool, free meth"?

This is from an ad looking for sperm donors:  "Must reside close enough to our facility to visit 2-3 times a week."  Only 2-3 times?  What's he supposed to do on the other days when he wants to make a deposit?

This is from an ad looking for Asian egg donors:  "Are you eggceptional?"  That's punny.

"We are seeking busty girls for modling.  Please email recent photos and contact number to apply.  Good pay $"  Apparently cleavage is more important than spelling.

This is from an ad looking for undercover retail store security:  "Must have the ability to read and write English.  Bilingual and Military a plus. Must have reliable transportation and be in good physical condition for handcuffing is part of the job." Okay, who wants to call the grammar police?

"Sit down forklift operator needed. Position is through agency."  There are jobs for forklift drivers who don't sit down on the job?

I'm not cutting and pasting this one, but there's an ad out there offering $21.00 per hour to clean the houses of the "rich and famous" including a $1,000 sign-on bonus.

"Seeking part-time night nanny, with flexible hours for a big household in Venice Santa Monica.  Your hours would be 10PM-6AM, and would include light nannying and housekeeping duties."  What kid is up between those hours and needs a nanny?  Unless this is for some wealthy person who doesn't want to get up to give their kid a bottle in the middle of the night.

"Hours will fluctuate with economic conditions."  A polite way of saying when business is bad, you don't work much.

"Attn: Professional Sales Persons; Seeking only tax resolution experience only."  Would you like to borrow another only?

 This last one doesn't warrant copying any part of the ad itself, the subject line says it all:  "In-home Lice Removal Technician". 

So United Teachers L.A. didn't sign off...

on a grant proposal and a $40 million grant slips through the fingers of LAUSD.  Did they do the right thing?  The union says the district would have had to spend more money than the grant would have brought in.  But if one believes news reports, the real reason is that teachers don't want standardized test scores to be used in any evaluative process concerning their effectiveness or performance in the classroom.  That's part of on-going negotiations that might have been impacted by this grant.

It's not fair to use standardized testing to evaluate teachers in classrooms where they have no control over the quality of the students they are teaching, or any influence over the instruction those students received in prior years.  But there needs to be some kind of performance measurement for teachers.  Lawyers are evaluated by other lawyers.  Accountants are evaluated by other accountants.  Plumbers are evaluated by other plumbers.  Every other profession and in fact, every other job I'm aware of has some kind of performance evaluation system.  I understand the argument of teachers against using standardized testing for performance evaluation.  I don't understand their intransigence in fighting any kind of performance evaluation system whatsoever.

Soapbox dismounted.  Got a 9.785 from the German judge for my dismount.  Woo-hoo!

So Tom Cruise isn't going to press charges against his neighbor for climbing onto his property while the neighbor was allegedly drunk.  I'm wondering if the neighbor and Tom are close, if Tom just doesn't want the publicity from this to increase, or maybe the neighbor has some incriminating info about Tom that he keeps secret.  I know, I know, I think the worst of people.  Blame it on my negative opinion of Scientology.  Ever since I read "Nickel and Dime-a-netics"....er "Dianetics", I've felt that it was a cult.  My observation was confirmed by the account of one member of  the graduating class of Pali High 1965, some of whom had their first ten years post-high school chronicled in a great book "What Really Happened to the Class of 65".  Jamie, one of those grads, went into Scientology and actually got into the Sea Org.

I'm pondering why TV news people talk about power outages as though the people whose power is out can still hear them and will get information about when their power will return.

Rory McIlroy beat Tiger Woods in an exhibition match in China.  So how is it that McIlroy got only $1 million for the event while Woods got $2 million?  Appearance fees were paid, no fee for who actually won.  Guess even in the wake of all his scandals, Tiger is still the bigger draw.

Deep sea fishing is supposed to be fun.  That's why most people do it, right?  But for one guy it was very lucrative.  He landed a 465 lb marlin that garnered him a prize of more than $2 million.  And he's not even famous like Tiger Woods.  He was the lucky one to catch his big fish (two people caught bigger fish but at the wrong moment) while some tournament was in session.

Most dangerous job in college sports at the moment is being the quarterback for the Maryland Terrapins.  They've lost four quarterbacks to injuries, three of whom suffered ACL tears.  Their new quarterback is a freshman linebacker.  They'd better protect him, they have only one option left, if he goes down.

What does your bank charge you for an overdraft?  Depending on the fee and the amount of the bounced check, that fee may represent a 5,000% annual interest rate or worse.  Fortunately, I suspect most of you never bounce a check.  However, banking fees are moving in the direction of ridiculous.  I'm sure you've seen the new commercials.  Take a photo of a check and deposit it without visiting an ATM or a live teller.  That saves money for the bank.  Yet some banks are starting to charge a fee for every check you deposit in such fashion.  That's some serious greed.  Charging you for something that saves them money.

Do you remember that series of bumper stickers?  The ones I was just reminded of by bankers.  One said "Bankers Do it With Interest - Substantial Penalty for early withdrawal".  "Pilots do it with lift and thrust."  "Athletes do it longer"  and so on.

Time for a change of pace, so here we have...

a sampling of items from the want-ads.

"Proficiecny in English, spoken and written..."  Including proofing ads placed by owner.

"- located on the west side of Los Angeles (not east of West Hollywood)"  Obviously something wrong with people who live on the "wrong" side of West Hollywood.

"Film/TV /graphics /producer , needs a personal assistant to handle personal shopping : filing, copying, answering phones, website & social media maintenance, making personal appointments, running errands (business and personal), travel arrangements, keeping track of my schedule, and more. . .depending on the experience level of the person hired. Fluency in other languages is a plus, particularly Spanish and French.
Groceries laundry pick up etc... A lot of organizing
I have a small dog she comes to work everyday with me.
Personal vehicle necessary, mileage paid. Start at 15 hours per week. $12.00
NOTE: We expect a lot of responses, and we will read each one and each resume. If we do not respond to you, it's only because we didn't feel it was the right fit. Thanks for understanding."  'We'??  Tri-lingual for only $12 an hour????  Wow.

"Kindly include resume and a photo."   A photo for a position as assistant to an Astrologer?  I guess.  If it were a psychic, he would already know what you look like.

"Does "i love gelato". instead of "I love gelato." make you cringe?"  I never had feelings that strong about gelato.  But I do hate lack of capitalization, except of course for e.e. cumings.

"In the body of the email please answer the following question:  You've accidentally scheduled a meeting in Santa Monica from 2pm to 2:55pm and another one in West Hollywood at 3:00 pm. None of these meetings can be rescheduled, what would you do?"  Damn good question.  Sounds like one meting has to be rescheduled or someone's going to have to be in two places at once.

"Part time position available for female receptionist at a Medical Marijuana Doctor's office. Looking for someone who not only has good reception skills, but is also good with communicating to and bringing in patients. Need to be able to multitask, work under pressure, and be precise. We'd prefer someone who is familiar with the Prop 215 laws but not necessary. Full training and support available. Please email your resume along with a pic if possible. We will contact you based on your resume."   Female??  Another moron who isn't aware that gender discrimination is illegal, except when hiring Hooters Girls.  Pic if possible?  You think anyone who doesn't send a pic will get a response?  I think not.

Looking for a self motivating, trustworthy, and reliable individual who can work well and..."  What kind of well?  An oil well?  Water well?

"Need a Female Personal Assistant that's bilingual Spanish/English. Please email me your resume including a picture of yourself."  Translation:  I'm looking for a bilingual date.

This last one for a part-time job in Houston requires posting the full ad.  It speaks for itself:

"ATTENTION
hostess/party girlBE A STAR AT OUR ESTABLISHMENT!!!
WOULD YOU LIKE TO MAKE $650.00 and MORE WEEKLY
IF YOU LOVE YOU, THAN WE WILL TOO!!

* MUST LOVE TO LAUGH AND SMILE AND BE VERY SOCIALABLE. PERSONALITY IS VERY IMPORTANT!* MUST BE 18 AND UP AND HAVE A VALID I. D. AND/OR PASSPORT.
* MUST DRESS FOR SUCESS IN DRESS OR SKIRT- AND HIGH HEEL A MUST!!

WE ARE LOOKING FOR LADIES ALL COLORS, SHAPES, AND SIZES.

IF YOU THINK YOU GOT WHAT IT TAKES PLEASE
CALL"

Only one heel?

I'm cheating again, writing tomorrow morning's entry...

the night before.  But I'm at loose ends.  I'm taking a break from the fiction stuff I'm working on, I've done my reviews of all films seen to this point, and so I might as well get a head start on the morning entry.

I was disappointed by "Chasing Mavericks", because the true story it is based on is so compelling and we got so little of what Paul Harvey would have described as "the rest of the story", following Jay Moriarity's famous ride at Mavericks.

I loved the visuals of "Cloud Atlas" and didn't have too much trouble following the multi-layered non-linear structure tying six separate stories together, but still felt that there was too much going on and it detracted slightly from the visual awesomeness that the filmmakers managed to achive.  If there were a Best Oscar for visual presentation, it would be a strong contender.

My breathing was a bit worse this weekend and that bothered me a bit.  I talked to the doc about it and we're going to do some tests over the next few weeks.  It may be that we need to take a different medical approach to some treatment issues.  Will let you know what happens.  For now, just know that I am sucking air after any serious exertion and that is a major pain in the ass.  Or lungs.

Ah, a good night's sleep.  Not the hours I'd have chosen if given a choice, but I'll take them.  9:30 to 4:30 is 7 full hours.  Longest night of sleep I've had in awhile.  Feels good.

The Giants sweep the Tigers and win the World Series.  I bet the Dodgers paid more to their players on a 'per game won' basis this year than the Giants did, but who went to the post-season and who went home?

Every person who defends public employee pensions says "well, they don't get Social Security so the pension makes up for that."  The problem with that idea is that these employees also don't pay into the Social Security system and the money they don't pay in is supposed to fund a pension.  So there's no need to make that pension come to double or more of what a Social Security old age payment would be.

I'm playing multiple games of Words With Friends at the moment, and pondering why the heck I keep getting three or more I's in more than one game at a time.  Would someone please tell the vowel fairy to be just a tad less generous?  Worse yet, in other games I couldn't buy a vowel even if I had Pat Sajak's wallet.

The newscasters are all blathering about how huge Hurricane Sandy is.  It was at best a Category 2 hurricane and its gale force wind diameter was just over 900 miles.  In 1979 there was a typhoon in the Pacific that was named "Tip" and it was a Category 5 storm with gale force winds spreading over a 1,380 mile diameter.  It kill more than 50 when it made landfall in Japan.

There's an urban legend about a "hurricane party" that was held at the Richlieu apartments in Pass Christian, MS, during 1969's Hurricane Camille and that all but one of the partygoers died.  In fact, 23 of the residents of that building chose not to evacuate, although no party was held.  Eight of them did die.  Warning to evacuate should not be ignored, is the point of this anecdote.  Mother Nature doesn't get furious often, but when she does, look out.

I'm pondering why anyone really cares that two actresses from the same cancelled TV show wore Minnie Mouse costumes.

I'm pondering why Dianne Feinstein is running campaign commercials at all, let alone with some slightly specious claims, when she couldn't lose this election even if she were arrested for selling crack in the Tenderloin.

I'm pondering why these political consultants choose to start commercials for Props by saying "Have you heard about Proposition XX?"  Do they all have to use the same tired line?

I'm pondering cheerleaders.  Not just in general, but in specific.  Pro football has cheerleaders.  Pro basketball has cheerleaders (love watching the Laker girls).  Pro hockey has no room for cheerleaders, they'd be in the way on the ice and no one would see them standing on the other side of the boards from the players.  But why doesn't pro baseball have cheerleaders?

Hill Street Blues lasted 7 seasons.  Third Watch lasted 6 seasons.  But only the first two seasons of either show are available on DVD.  L.A. Law isn't available on DVD in the U.S. at all.  Well, you can buy season 1 on Region 2 DVD and it will probably work in your U.S. DVD player.  But the other 7 seasons aren't available. 

Lots of older shows have their entire run available.  Why can't the shows I want to watch become available on DVD?  I just finished watching season 2 of Third Watch and there are four more seasons I cannot view.  No network is running the re-runs so that's not the reason for holding them back.

We have a quiz in class today and I need to read carefully and answer slowly.  The one question I missed last quiz was the final question and I got into a hurry to be done and missed the "trick question/trick answer" thing by not reading carefully and slowly.  Lesson learned.

If movies were reviewed based solely on their visual presentation...

"Cloud Atlas would score very close to 100 out of 100.  But that's not the only factor in evaluating a movie and sadly, there are parts of this film that don't match the incredibly high level of its imagery.

Don't get me wrong.  It's a very good film, bordering on brilliance.  It just doesn't maintain that level throughout, with some sequences being much better than others.  Based on the 2004 best-selling novel by David Mitchell, it tells the same six stories, although not in any particular order or structure.

The six stories in the novel are set in approximately:

the 1850s
the 1930s
the mid 1970s
the early 21st Century
a dystopian future
a post-apocalyptic distant future.

The main themes involve reincarnation and we see the same actors portraying the various characters in their various incarnations.  Not every actor is in every story, but it's close, and the cast is first rate.  Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving, Bae Doona, Jim Broadbent, James D'Arcy and Jim Sturgess all deliver strong performances.  Better still, they manage to be consistent in their high level of acting achievement even when playing different characters in different time periods.

It would be easy to get confused as the films leaps from story to story, but because of the depth of the acting and the astonishing visuals, most viewers will be entranced.  The scenes set in "Neo-Seoul", which is located near the ruins of the original Seoul are the most stunning.  There are a few tiny things that are reminiscent of the Wachowski siblings own "Matrix" trilogy, but not enough to raise any real fuss over. 

I'm not going to get into any details about the six stories themselves, as they all deserve to be seen and experienced as the writer/directors adapted Mitchell's novel.  As previously mentioned, the intertwining of these stories is complex and requires you to pay close attention.  But seen on their own, each of the six tales is engaging and is a complete story within itself. 

I'm so sick of campaign stops being shown on TV...

that I'm wishing Steve Martin had been right when he did a bit back in the 1970s.  He posited that politicians should learn to play the banjo, so they could step off of the plane at a stop and say, "I'm going to talk about politics in a minute, but first a little "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" and then they could start playing the banjo.

It's the weekend before the weekend before the election and the endorsements are flying.  All who were surprised that the very liberal New York Times endorsed the President for reelection, raise your hands.

Saw a movie yesterday, "Chasing Mavericks" that I did not know going in was based on a true story.  I am pondering whether or not their marketing campaign should have been stressing that fact.  The true story that the movie is based on is very compelling.

I am pondering if I arranged my movie weekend subconsciously so that the situation that has arisen today would do just that.  I'm going to a theater right by a Chick-Fil-A but that fast food place will be closed since it is Sunday.  Did I subconsciously remove the temptation to stop there?  Is it no longer unacceptable to shop there since they're on the record saying they will no longer donate to hate groups?  The owner of this location is on the record saying he doesn't agree with the philosophy of the company's CEO in making those donations.  Doesn't matter, they'll be closed and there will be no Chick-Fil-A for me even if I was going to rationalize that it would be okay.

I just listened to a young voter on TV describing why she will be voting for Mitt Romney.  She said something about agreeing with the philsophies of President Obama, but that he's gone away from where she agrees with him and she likened it to a "bad break-up".

I'm pondering why the son of a sitting member of the House, who works for his dad's campaign would even "humor" someone discussing how to commit voter fraud, knowing that there are people out there looking to 'entrap' people into going on the record saying they support voter fraud.  He's either the biggest idiot in politics, or he had no problem with voter fraud.  There is no third choice.

I'm pondering why the man and his son sitting in front of me at the movie yesterday thought they were in their living room and carried on a conversation about the film until I finally "shushed" them firmly.  Adults who talk in movie theaters grew up as kids who talked in theaters.

I am reminded of an incident that happened years and years ago (in fact, it was when the "Godzilla" film with Matthew Broderick in it came out).  I got to the theater early, got a good seat and just before the movie started, a woman came in with her husband and kid.  The kid wouldn't shut up once the movie started and I told the woman she needed to make the kid be quiet.  "He's just a kid". "That doesn't make it okay for him to ruin the movie for me."  "You can move."  "I was here first, and the theater is packed now.  You move or keep the kid quiet."  Apparently her kid's right to blabber on and on was more important than my right to enjoy a movie.

Sports teams do dumb things sometimes.  The Oklahoma City Thunder just traded away one of the best "sixth men" in the game when they couldn't reach a deal on a contract extension.

I'm actually glad we're only having one team trivia/pub quiz this week, considering the final exam in my course will be Friday or Monday.

Today, instead of pondering, I've decided to....

do something else.  I'm going to look at things and talk about what I'd do if I were in charge.  By being in charge I don't mean suddenly the emperor or king of the U.S.  I mean if whatever I wanted to have happen would be immediately put into effect by the elected leadership, or other government functionaries just because I thought it to be a good idea.  It seemed like a nice change of pace.

If I were in charge, the length of time traffic lights stay yellow would be made uniform and that information shared.  All drivers would be told just how much time that is.  Cameras would be put up at all major intersections and anyone who enters the intersection and doesn't get across before the light turns red would be cited.  We need to teach that yellow means caution, not accelerate.

If I were in charge, the presidency would be for one term of six years.  All of the time Presidents spend running for reelection during their first term means a lack of focus on running the country.  One six year term means that the next election is someone else's problem and the incumbent can work solely on the job we elected them to.

If I were in charge, anytime there was more than three people in line, in the 15 item or less checkout line, the register would automatically stop accepting new items for purchase after 16 for each customer.  This would stop people with too many items getting into this line and making others wait.  When there was no line, the express checkout could be used by anyone.

If I were in charge, any business that is required by law to have a public restroom would be required to keep it very, very clean.  No one should ever be forced to use a "Trainspotting" like restroom just because nature is calling and that's the only alternative close enough to be used.

If I were in charge, we would use abandoned military bases and other such facilities in remote areas to house the chronically homeless.  Housing and food would be provided and they wouldn't be allowed to return to the city where they formerly slept on the streets until they were capable of self-sufficiency without having to panhandle or engage in similar behaviors.  And yes, no drugs or booze would be allowed at these facilities.  Harsh, cruel, but it would make life better for more than just those who chose not to care for themselves properly.

If I were in charge, diet soda makers would have to find a way to sweeten their drinks without aspertame or other substances that we are beginning to discover actually encourage drinkers of these beverages to eat more than before.

If I were in charge, doctors and other medical professionals would be required to provide a 25% discount to patients who are kept waiting more than one hour.

If I were in charge, we'd re-do Obamacare.  Everyone would have a mandate to get insurance and a public option would be available for those who can't get coverage due to pre-existing conditions.  Once everyone was covered, risk would be shared across a much broader pool and per-person costs for insurers would shrink without their having to take on the burden of pre-existing conditions.  The public option would be subsidized by a tax on health insurance company profits, malpractice insurance company profits, medical malpractice attorneys, drug manufacturers and a reduction in the ability to deduct medical expenses on tax returns.

If I were in charge, movie theaters would be limited to showing only six trailers before the feature film.  I'm tired of seven or eight trailers and waiting 20 minutes for the feature to start.

If I were in charge, the Game Show Network would be added to all basic cable plans.  There's no reason that something showing almost entirely reruns of game shows that aired years ago be part of a premium package.

If I were in charge, cities would no longer be able to install parking meters where time paid for disappears when that vehicle pulls away from the curb.  Time purchased is time that should be available to anyone, so that the same minutes aren't paid for two or three times over.

If I were in charge, federal, state, county and city governments would contract out as many services as possible as part of the solution to the ever growing problem of under-funded pensions.  Hermosa Beach parking enforcement is the perfect example.  That department has 10 employees whose total compensation ranges from $67,367 to $93,000 per year, including health and retirement benefits.  For what are basically "meter maids".  A private firm could do all of their functions, much more cheaply and would be required to offer these people first crack at the jobs, although they'd be making less money and the public would no longer be on the hook to provide them with lucrative pensions.

If I were in charge, WalMart, Target, and the like would have to provide adequate security for those who line up and wait for Black Friday sales, to prevent anyone from being trampled when the doors open.  Line up first, get in first.  Line up 19th, get in 19th.  If there are 100 TVs at a certain price and everyone wants one, then the first 100 who lined up get one.  None of this racing through stores to beat everyone else to a bargain.  As people enter, they get the one bargain they want most.  The rest go based on supply and demand once that first bargain is in their cart.  Customers who fight over items will be ejected and allowed to purchase no sales priced items.  Idiots who are dumb enough to do like last year and use pepper spray or Tasers would go to jail for assault.

If I were in charge, restaurants and other retail businesses that have been operating for more than 30 years would be allowed a waiver of compliance with the Americans with Disabilities act relating to customer access; if the cost of bringing the facility into compliance would be more than 15% of the business' annual gross revenues.  Lawyers who make a living suing places into ADA compliance when there aren't any real complainants are the dregs of society.  A 50 year old burger joint shouldn't have to go out of business because it doesn't have a wheelchair accessible toilet when the cost of installing one would eat an entire year's profits.  There are other burger joints and there is takeout.

If I were in charge, no new apartment buildings could be constructed without either window air conditioning or central air conditioning in cities that experience 30 or more days per year with temperatures of more than 85%.

If i were in charge, applying make-up while driving would be the same offense as talking or texting on a cell phone while driving.

If I were in charge, jaywalking could only be cited if there was an oncoming car withint 50 feet of the violator.

If I were in charge, outsourcing jobs would come with severe tax penalties.  So severe as to strongly discourage such outsourcing.  Maybe a tax penalty equivalent to 125% of the difference in salary between the newly outsourced job and the salary of the old position here in the U.S.

If I were in charge, all trade rules with other nations would be changed to work under the terms of a new law known as the Trade Mirror act.  If that other nation imposes restrictions or tarriffs on U.S. exports to that nation, the U.S. will impose the same exact restrictions and tarriffs on their exports to the U.S.  These rules would apply to items partially produced in the U.S. on a pro-rata basis based on how much of the item was built here and how much there.

If I was in charge, the sub-minimum wage for employees who make tips would be eliminated.  Restaurants could just raise prices and pay the minimum wage to servers, and patrons would just tip less and spend the same amount of money.

I have yet another Proposition for you.  Prop 36.

It's a simple concept.  Three strikes and you're out.  Commit a third felony of any kind, with two prior "serious" felonies already on your record and you go to prison for a mandatory 25 year to life sentence.  Get the habitual felons off the street once and for all.

But some object to this.  They cite a particular case where a criminal with two violent felonies already on his record got a three strikes sentence for stealing a slice of pizza.  Jerry Williams was on the Redondo Beach Pier in 1994 when he decided he wanted some pizza.  He later told police it was the result of a game of "Truth or Dare" with family members that led to him stealing the pizza.  He said he never even ate it, just threw it into the ocean.

However, he terrorized the four children who were trying to just enjoy eating a pizza while on the Pier.  He had four prior felony convictions, robbery, attempted robbery, drug possession and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle (that's the reduced charge from car theft).  He should have been charged in the pizza case with theft by intimidation.

The issue here is that many believe that a third strike should be a violent or serious felony in order to send someone away for 25 years to life.  There's an argument to be made for that position.

The purpose of Proposition 36 is to ensure that third strikes are only given out for serious or violent felonies.  That those who were sentenced to a third strike sentence for a non-serious, non-violent felony have their sentence reduced.

Someone who has two strikes against them already needs to go out of their way, to go above and beyond to ensure there isn't any chance of their being charged with a felony crime.  That's a logical position as well.

I take this view.  Someone who has two violent felonies, two serious felonies, or any combination of these that make two strikes should face serious consequence if charged with and convicted of a third felony.   But we elect judges to exercise discretion and the current law doesn't permit discretion.  We need to pass a new Proposition, but not this one.  One that gives judges discretion in cases where a third strike isn't serious or violent, but mandates the three strike sentence for someone who has two felony convictions that are serious or violent in nature already and gets convicted of a third violent or serious felony.  Give judges discretion in cases where it is warranted and mandate these life sentences where they are called for.

I'm voting NO on Prop 36 because, while there is a problem with the three strikes rule as presently constituted, it doesn't solve the real problem.  I'll wait for a better solution and let lawyers and judges work to find ways to be lenient where leniency is warranted for these felons.  Someone will eventually offer a workable, realistic solution to this issue.

All I ask is that you educate yourself on the issue and vote your conscience.

Talk about a bully pulpit...

There is a group of religious leaders who want to challenge a law that I happen to believe in.  It's the Johnson Act of 1954.  It's purpose was to prevent non-profit, charitable organizations from engaging in political activities.

There's a sound reason behind this law (several actually).  Primarily, to prevent people from taking a charitable deduction for money they give that is used for political purposes.  Picture it this way.  The Koch brothers have billions already, and spend tens of millions on political activities.  Assuming for a moment that they pay the top tax rate of 35% on some of their millions in annual income, being able to make donations for political purposes would greatly enhance the value of those donations.

Take a $5 million dollar donation that they made this year to a PAC.  If that PAC was actually a recognized charity and they could deduct this contribution (and assuming that their adjusted gross income was more than $10 million in 2012), then Uncle Sam is paying 35% or $1.75 million of that donation in lost tax revenue.

That's just wrong.  Never mind that if we're going to have a complete separation of church and state in government, then church needs to stay out of the business of influencing who serves in government.  I don't want to go to practice my faith and have my religious leader telling me how to vote and who to vote for.

It's the same for non-religious non-profits.  Take my former employer.  Please (just kidding).  It's a school.  Should the school be in the business of influencing which candidates get into state office, when those candidates are involved in regulating the school?  They could support candidates who promise to pass legislation favorable to private schools.  AIDS Project L.A. is a wonderful organization, but it shouldn't be working to put officials into state and federal office who will spend more money on AIDS programs that they themselves administer.  It's a form of corruption that the Johnson Act was designed to prevent.

Some will tell you that this is a violation of the First Amendment right of people who work for non-profits to free speech.  That's not the case.  They have the same free speech rights as everyone else, in their private lives.  But as representatives of charities that have applied for and received exemption from taxation, they accepted limits in return for exemption from taxation.  If you can't handle the limits, stop being a non-profit charity and say whatever you want to, personally and professionally.

It's four o'clock in the morning, dammit....

yes,, that's a song lyric.  A lyric from Sir Elton John no less.  And now that I've had a few hours sleep to reflect on the doctor's appointment from yesterday, i have to make a few changes.

The emotional eating is something that I will probably continue to struggle with and may have to go see someone for help with.  But I am at the point where I can cut back on my intake of diet soda.  Not cut out entirely.  But if I can start out by cutting it in half, and then in half again, and keep reducing it, eventually I'll get to a point where I'm taking in enough to continue to enjoy the taste, without going to excess.  Saying I'm cutting it out completely would be an invitation to fail utterly.  One thing I can do right away is keep a bottle of cold water on the night stand rather than other beverages.  That will begin tonight (I had to throw out the two water bottles I'd had in my room, they were too old to be safe to drink from).  So for anyone who is worried I'm not taking the doctors seriously and trying to put myself back into that hospital bed for another year or two, that's not my plan. 

I'm pondering just how many political candidates and their operatives are going to firmly insert their feet into their mouths this campaign season.  There is a plethora of Republicans saying stupid stuff about rape, among other things.  There is a growing number of Democratic operatives who are allowing themselves to be entrapped into saying things about voter fraud that they might not have actually been thinking or planning.  We'll never know where the entire truth of such things is because of the "gotcha" nature of those who are recording such statements.

I'm pondering this new "toll" road in Texas where you can pay and drive 85 mph.  Now for some reason they're going to enforce speeding on this road more stridently, because apparently some think that going five or eight MPH over the speed limit of 85 is worse than going a few miles per hour over 75 MPH limits, or 65 MPH limits.  Yes, there's a math factor involved, the faster you're going, the less reaction time you have in an emergency.  But this is ignoring the point that in most situations, for most drivers, going 73 in a 65 MPH zone is already too dangerous and should be enforced.  Too many drivers don't have the reaction times to handle that.  Maybe someone should re-release "Red Asphalt" to the big screen.

I'm pondering just how difficult it must be to be either of the two mothers who recently turned in their teen-aged sons because they had committed murders.  My heart goes out to those women.  That must rank among the most difficult choices they ever faced or will face.

I'm amazed that the Brits have an actual medal that is awarded to animals for gallantry in serving the military, police or rescue forces.  Recently a deceased springer spaniel that had been trained to sniff out explosives and was on duty in Afghanistan.  His handler was killed in a 2011 firefight and the dog died of a massize seizure hours later.  The man's mother is convinced the dog died of a broken heart.  Now "Theo" has been awarded the Dickin medal.

California's richest man is Larry Ellison with a net worth of more than $40 billion dollars.  Wonder how he feels about Prop 30 since he'd probably be hit hardest.

I've mentioned this before, but today was a new low...

for being made to wait for things at the VA.  The quality of the care when you're being cared for is superb, don't get me wrong.  But waiting, waiting, waiting gets old, old, old.  In fact I could feel myself aging as I sat there.

I was trying to kill several birds with one stone.  I nearly had to run up there this past Tuesday when the geniuses who maintain the medications for the residents appeared to have let me run completely out of one drug on Monday.  But they found a few days supply in another bottle they'd "overlooked", so I added that to the to-do list for today's appointment.  I also tried to get them to move a blood test from Monday to today.  That was an abject failure, although I did get it moved from Monday to next month when I have another appointment.

In order to get my drug refill I had to stand in line and talk to a pharmacy technician.  I had refills left on the prescription but I still had to sit and wait after that, to talk to the pharmacist.  I waited twenty minutes for a 90 second consultation.  Yes I knew how to take the drug.  No I wasn't abusing the system by coming in for an in-person refill rather than calling and doing it on the phone to be mailed out.  Then when all the rest of the day's activities were done, I went to the pharmacy and had to stand in line for 30 minutes while watching all the people in front of me being told their prescriptions weren't ready yet. 

There used to be a nice system in place.  A TV monitor was set up in the pharmacy waiting area, and your name would pop up when all of your medications were ready.  Only then would you go and get in line at the window.  That TV monitor has been out of service for months now.  So people sit, wait and then when they get bored, they line up to be told "not yet".

As to the actual appointment, it was scheduled for 1:30.  I got there at 12:50 to check in early and have my vitals taken so I'd be ready well before my 1:30 appointment.  The doctor finally called my name at 2:40 p.m.  Then he spent an hour going over my various issues including going to get his attending physician to order more tests.  I'm supposed to go back in 2 months but the earliest appointment I could get for next time was January 31st.  My math tells me that's more than 3 months.  "Sorry, that's the first available".  I happened to overhear two other waitees talking and one said "I finally got tired of waiting and told the nurse I had to be expedited because I have another appointment."  Asshole.  Wait like the rest of us.  You're just making the system worse.

So on my free, rest day this week, I spent almost five hours at the VA and I'm exhausted now.

This story needs a bit of a history lesson...

and it begins back in the late 1970s.  The military in general and the Air Force in specific was dealing with one of the unexpected issues of converting to the all-volunteer force.  There were more and more families where both adults were military personnel, and more single parents with partial or full custody of their children.  As a result, the issue of who would care for these children in the event of a deployment.  One parent in a couple where both parents are military can't just stay home and take care of the kids.  The needs of the service take priority.  A single parent can't be exempted from deployment to take care of a kid.

The upshot is that all branches of the military required personnel who are single parents, or married to other military personnel, to make appropriate dependent care arrangements.  I remember my commander nearly shitting a brick when one single parent said her dependent care arrangment was to put her two year old daughter on a plane home to her own mother in event of a deployment.  In fact she'd bought an open one-way ticket to "document" her arrangement.  He counseled her and she eventually found someone local to take care of the kid until the mother could arrive and take over.

Now we get to the case in the news today.  Rebecca Edmonds was a military "brat" growing up in a family where Dad served in the Navy and the family was constantly relocating due to transfers.  She decided to pursue her own military career and went to college to become a nurse on a ROTC scholarship.  She took the oath of office as an officer and in fact was sworn in by her father. 

The problem is that she discovered a few weeks before she took her oath of commissioning that she was pregnant.  The Air Force doesn't permit single parents to enlist or accept a commission as an officer.  That includes women who are pregnant at the time of enlistment or commissioning.  People who become single parents after joining the service are a different mater entirely.

So she was removed from the service.  The Air Force has called what she did "fraud" and demanded repayment of nearly $100,000 they paid for her education.  She's paying a little each month from her earnings as a pediatric nurse toward what is owed.  She's also appealing the decision to remove her from the military and caring for her ten month baby.

There are several issues here and before getting to the military one, let's look at one that I'm having trouble wrapping my head around.  Edmonds points out at length that the reason she didn't abort her baby in order to avoid this problem (which I'm not advocating, btw) because she's a practicing Catholic.  Maybe I'm confused but how is it that a practicing Catholic gets into the position of having to consider an abortion.  Is the Catholic religion's proscription against pre-marital sex so much less important than the faith's prohibition against abortion?  Apparently so.  But a sin is a sin, is a sin, right?  Aren't both of these what Catholics refer to as "mortal sins?"

But okay.  She's young, attractive and after all, I remember my late father telling me an old joke.  The difference between Catholic co-eds and Jewish co-eds is that the Catholic girls have the fake jewelry and the real orgasms.  So she felt it was okay to have pre-marital sex.  Fair enough.

Why is it that the Air Force will tolerate people who are already on active duty becoming single parents and as long as they make an adequate dependent care arrangement there is no further penalty?  If an Air Force member gets divorced from his or her civilian spouse and suddenly is a single parent, they don't get kicked out.  If an Air Force member already serving gets pregnant, she isn't shown the door.  Why is this any different?  They spent $100,000 training her.  Get their money's worth, make her a military nurse and let her work out a system where her son will be properly cared for if she's forced to deploy.

In the scheme of things...

we've all heard about discrimination based on something in a specific niche.  As an example, take a woman's blouse versus a man's shirt.  The logical reason given by a dry cleaner as to why it's more to dry clean the blouse makes no sense.  That the buttons are on the left side versus the right side shouldn't make something more expensive.

I dealt this week with a different form of discrimination.  I needed to buy a dress shirt because while I've regained lost weight, my clothes in my storage unit are still way too big.  Not that I planned to try to dig them out by myself, that would have takens hours and hiring of day laborers to move furniture would have been involved.  So I went looking for a shirt.  My size wasn't available at the first two stores I hit.

So I went to a "big and tall" store and found a shirt.  At twice the price I would have paid at either of those two places I first looked at.  Ultimately I bought that shirt but before wearing it, I shopped further and found one in the same size at a "normal" store and it was half the price.  So why was the shirt at that special store twice as much?  It was the same size as the one that was the usual price.  That means it wasn't because there was a lot more fabric, which would have been a logical reason I could understand.

I believe that the higher price is the fact that the market is a captive audience.  Tall guys can't shrink themselves.  Big guys can lose weight but that's a major struggle.  If you're on the cusp between the big and tall world and the regular size world, you pay big time if you fall on the wrong side of that cusp.  Me, I'm returning that overpriced shirt today.  Funny thing, the less expensive one looks much nicer.

I have music in my head, so I'm going to share it.  If you listen and any of it gets stuck in your head, it will go away eventually.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxJFjO4Skgo

Heard that on the 70s at 7 last night after predicting they'd play it.  The other prediction I made that they ended up playing was:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_3QqzI23sE

On the way home I wanted to hear an 80s song, but of course the radio didn't play that one.  So here it is now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_3QqzI23sE

There's just something about a good song with great sax riffs.

Today I need to sit down and review the two films I saw on Tuesday.  I also have to go fight the parking lot battle that parking for a VA appointment is.  Fortunatey my experience has been that it isn't as bad on Thursdays for some reason.

I'm pondering how was Jerry Sandusky's first night in the real prison.  He was moved there yesterday and will be "evaluated" for a week to determine his level of security risk.  Any fool knows that there's an extreme risk of his being murdered if he's allowed to enter the general population at any time. 

Reggie Jackson.  Albert Pujols.  Babe Ruth.  Three of the all-time greats of baseball history in terms of career accomplishments.  But Pablo Sandoval?  He joined the other three as the 4th player in MLB history to slug three home runs in one World Series game.  World Series heroics make players who were somewhat known into household names.  Just think about Don Larsen.  Well, he is nicknamed the Kung Fu Panda.

I'm pondering why hurricanes and typhoons, both types of tropical cyclones, spin in different directions.

Is Emma Watson going back to the Ivy League to finish her education just in case that movie career thing doesn't work out?  Or does she just want to finish her education for herself, which would be a good thing.  Guess we'll never know for sure.  After all, Brooke Shields graduated from Princeton, even though her courses at Princeton did not include any in history, math, philosophy, economics, world literature or science that required a lab.  How do you get an Ivy league education without any of those course?  I guess being a gorgeous, six foot tall model and actress who had done half a dozen movies and published her own autobiography her sophomore year might have helped.

I'm pondering the course of events that led to a 12 year old Irish girl having to sue her mother and father over the loss of her sister and friend due to her mother's drunk driving.  The mother was BANNED from driving, but did it anyway.  What the hell does it take to get drunks to stop getting behind the wheel?

I'm pondering how a monkey in Tampa can get almost 90,000 likes on Facebook and I can't get above 64 followers on Twitter.

So Donald Trump has taken time out from adjusting his toupee...

and made an offer that President Obama will probably refuse.

He offered to give $5 million to any charity that the President chooses, the moment that President Obama releases his college transcripts and his passport records. 

Presidential candidates don't release their college transcripts.  It isn't part of the vetting process.  It is not necessary.  I don't know why Trump thinks there is something in there that could become an issue in the campaign. 

Presidential candidates don't release their passport records.  Only idiots continue to think there's any issue involving the U.S. citizenship of President Obama.

But the right answer to this is not to acede to Trump's request.  Nor is it to tell the Donald to just shut up and fire more celebrities.  Then again it's worth noting that this is probably just to generate more publicity for the upcoming edition of Celebrity Apprentice.

What President Obama should do is get hold of one of the major donors to the DNC and/or PACs supporting his candidacy.  Ron Burkle, George Soros or someone like that.  Get them to agree to put up their own $5 million and then that person can make a public counter-offer.

"I've discussed Donald Trump's very generous offer concerning the release of President Obama's college transcripts and passport application and records with the President.  He has authorized me to make the following counter-offer.  The President will release his college transcripts and passport records within 24 hours of the release of all of Mitt Romney's personal and trust tax returns for the years 1999 through 2009, and I will in turn donate $5 million to the charity of Mitt Romney's choice.  My offer expires 24 hours prior to the expiration of Mr. Trump's offer on October 31st.  I also hope to write this check."

There will be a few, not many, but a few who will wonder that the President ignored this offer and why he didn't seize the opportunity to put some money into a worthwhile charity or charities.  This will diffuse the issue and put the onus on Mitt Romney.

I have a Proposition for you, edition 34...

Proposition 34 is one that we've seen before.  The writers want to end the death penalty in California.  It applies retroactively to those people sentenced to death who are currently waiting imposition of sentence on the famed "death row".  It requires persons convicted of murder to forfeit funds they earn while in prison to be applied to victim restitution funds or restitution orders against them specifically.  All who would have been or were sentenced to death would instead be sentenced to Life Without Parole, commonly referred to as L-WOP by those in law enforcement.

I believe in the death penalty.  As proper retribution and as a deterrent.

But I also believe that you can't make a mistake with a death penalty sentence.  Our system of justice is imperfect.  There are probably between 1 and 5 people in prison out of every 100, or 1,000 who were wrongfully convicted of their offense.  With the death penalty being such a final thing, the old adage better 100 guilty men go free than 1 innocent man be wrongfully executed is a good argument in favor of this proposition.

However, I have a better one.  Plain old fiscal reality.  There's a study that shows the State of California spent $4 billion to execute the 13 men convicted of the death penalty since it was brought back.  We spend just under $200 million annually more to continue the death penalty process than we would on just giving these men and women sentences of L-WOP.  That's a billion dollars every five years.  In this time of budget austerity, where we can't afford to implement programs we'd like to implment, that's wasted money.

I'm voting YES on Prop 34.  You should educate yourself on the various issues involved and make your own choice.  But please, get out and vote.

Last night, I didn't get to sleep at all....

no wait.  That's a lyric from a song, and it's also the title of the 5th Dimension song.

Actually I slept until 5:54 a.m. and wish I could have slept longer.

But that may have had something to do with what a long day yesterday was.  I left fairly early in the morning to get to AFI by 9:30 in order to get parking and get to the first of two screenings that day.  Thanks to the fact that there was really nowhere to sit down and have lunch, lunch between screenings was a bag of pretzels from the snack machine.  Then I had to fight rush hour traffic and go from Hollywood to Orange en route to Santa Ana.  I needed something at a mall in Orange (there's a Sears there).

Six employees in the appliance department greeted me in unison when I walked in.  I almost felt bad that I wasn't there to buy a washer or television.

I was exhausted by the time the second screening was over and I got more and more tired as the day wore on. Clearly I'm more deconditioned than I thought and after I finish this class, I need to get back to walking to build up some stamina.  Or maybe this is as good as it will get.  Time will tell.

I'm pondering many things today.  One of which was the cost of a shirt I bought this week.  I needed a work-type shirt in order to not be in sweats/t-shirt when I meet someone who may end up offering me a part-time job for next year.  The same quality shirt in the same approximate size was $40 +tax at the "big and tall" store, but only $19.99 at Sears.  Why is that?  Because it's at the bottom end of the captive market that big and tall stores cater to?  Probably.  Another incentive to watch what I eat, if I can find the mental discipline to do so.

I ponder why I'm struggling with that mental discipline.  That's a whole blog in and of itself and I'm not ready to write it.

I ponder why it is that the things that are the worst for your body are the ones that taste best.  If fresh fruits and vegetables tasted like Baby Ruth bars, the world would be a healthier place.

Why was I able to buy gas for 37 cents a gallon less than anywhere else around here at a regular old Shell station today?  Did they get a big shipment on sale?  I hear that some Costcos will be selling gas below $4 a gallon this week.

I'm not pondering whether or not to go back to where we played trivia tonight, when their next game happens on November 24th (no one wants to go there on Nov 6th, which is election night).  I won't be going.  I'm sick and tired of the same team winning.  They have Brits on their team, and the British hostess asks too many British-centric questions.  Even if my teammates and I do know who Henry VIII's 4th wife was, who was on the throne at the time of the sinking of the Spanish Armada, who was the first man to walk on five continents and some of the other British-centric question's answers, I'm just tired of that focus.  The hostess also does a lousy job of research and won't accept when she's wrong and a question has another answer besides the one she claims is the only one.
  
Why does everyone assume the message on Heidi Klum's t-shirt is meant for Seal?

Did owners of strip clubs really think they would get away from arguing that lap dances should be tax-empt because they are "artistic performances?"

Did Arby's really fire an employee who had been with the company for 23 years who fled a knife-wielding robber by going out the drive-thru window?  Yes they did, but it sounds like she got the ax (no pun intended) not for fleeing the robber, but for allowing herself to be alone in the restaurant in violation of policy.  Apparently this wasn't the first time she'd done that either.

I'm cheating again....

writing the morning entry the night before, because I have to leave early in the morning.  I will probably walk out the door around 7:30 or so and may not be back until after 11 p.m.  That's a day that's too long and I will be completely and utterly exhausted.  But there's no choice.

I have two screenings to attend, back to back.  They won't finish until 3 in the afternoon. I could then fight rush-hour traffic to get from Hollywood back to Culver City to sit until 5:45 and then drive a lot more to get to trivia.  Instead I'm going to drive straight to the area where trivia is being played (probably save 50 mile of driving by doing that) and run a few errands in that area.  If I have enough time, I have a book to read.

That almost all got overcome by events.  Turns out that for a moment it appeared I was out of one of my medications and it's a critical one.  So I almost had to cancel my Tuesday plans to see screenings to go coax a refill out of the V.A. system.  Fortunately it turned out there were enough left that I can get the refill at my regularly scheduled next appointment (Thursday).  Speaking of regularly scheduled appointments, one popped up for next Monday during class-time which may mean taking that session's quiz on Friday, promising not to reveal the answers to anyone and then missing part of class for that doctor's appointment.

I wrote about my feelings over the debates I didn't watch, my friend's numerous, difficult to follow postings on FB and the whoppers told by the candidates directly on my FB page, so no need to say more here.

I'm pondering why the new sleeping pill I took for the first time last night didn't work as advertised.  The doctor did say to give it a few days.  So I shall.

I'm pondering how Robin Leach, former host of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" can find today's reality TV any more offensive than the pablum he used to host.

I'm pondering just how many errors there are in the textbook and workbook passed out in the class I'm taking.  The review problem for chapter 20 (which I believe we will be tested on) contains two errors that are so big, you can't possibly get anywhere near the right answer without seeing the correctly prepared "answer" document.  We always had trouble with errors in the texts, they are written on very short deadlines and there isn't enough time for full proofing.  But this mistake is just unforgivable.  I'm just glad I found it to save the rest of the class from getting so much material so wrong.

I'm still conducting my experiment on a dating site, to see if more women will respond to one of two identical profiles where the only difference between the two is that one makes significant mention of his financial success while the other merely mentions being employed and lists a moderate income.  But doing that had me pondering the memory of a personal ad I saw a long time ago.  It was from a woman who listed her age as 45 on her profile, but then in her essay says "I lied about my age, I'm really 55, but I look and feel much younger. So don't think of me as 55.  Think of me as 45."  That had me scratching my head.

So did a story one of my old friends told me about finanicial aid applications at private schools.  These applications require the applicants to list the make/model/lease payment or purchase price of their cars, along with info on their houses, savings accounts, other assets and so on.  He got a visit from a parent to drop off her application and she said "you can't count the $140,000 Maserati against us.  It's necessary to my husband's psychological being."

I'm actually making mention of this because we've talked a little bit about who makes up the middle class.  There was a letter this past Sunday to the L.A. Times financial columnist who gives advice from a family trying to decide if they should go into debt to pay for an Ivy League education for their oldest child.  "We're of middle class means" the letter reads and then it goes on to say 'between us we earn about $185,000 per year".  That's not middle class at all.  That's in the top 5% of family incomes all across the nation.  It may seem lower in a high-cost of living area, but it ain't middle class by a long shot.

I'm pondering why, with all the personal ads out there about people who enjoy long walks on the beach,, the beaches aren't really crowded at night with people taking romantic walks.

I'm pondering why it is that our armpits seem to be the one spot on our bodies where odor is at its worst.  Was that by design?

I'm pondering where or not there will be time to run by Philippe's to grab a French Dip sandwich today.  Probably not because the combination of parking and long lines makes visits there lengthy in nature.

And finally I'm pondering the fact it isn't even 5:00 a.m. yet.

The verdict is in.

Apparently, one of the names under consideration by the Washington area newspaper that didn't want to call the football team there the Redskins any longer, was definitely racist.  This from a former resident of the area who remains a major fan of the Redskins.

Now the "Bamas", which is one of the names that was under consideration, is definitely racist.  But the "Half-Smokes", which is another name doesn't seem all that racist in my book.  In case you've never been to D.C., half-smokes are a type of hot dog. Usually a blend of pork and beef, coarsely ground, and much spicier than ordinary hot dogs, they are an area favorite.  Ben's Chili Bowl is one local restaurant that serves the half-smoke and theirs are famous.  Bill Cosby has commented on them and stops in every time he's in town.  President Obama had a half-smoke at Ben's.  The half-smoke is the official hot dog of the local baseball team, the Washington Nationals.  But in the mind of one pundit, the name is still racist, and the Nationals are a bunch of racists for using that as their official hot dog.  Did I mention this is from a white pundit?

I was listening to a radio talk show yesterday focused on breast cancer and the female host was really interested in presenting all sides of the equation, including the fact that men get breast cancer.  Did you know that Richard Roundtree, best known for his role as "Shaft" had breast cancer and underwent a double mastectomy?  That the football player, Brian Piccolo who was made famous in the 1971 TV film "Brian's Song" regarding his cancer and his close friendship with teammate Gale Sayers, probably had breast cancer?  He had a cancer that required the removal of his left "pectoral muscle" that ultimately spread elsewhere and killed him.  There are other famous men who also suffered from breast cancer.  But since 98% of the victims of breast cancer are women, too often these men are completely ignored and forgotten.  My favorite 5K race to run was and remains the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.  I'd love to see a cure.  I watched my dad's 4th wife suffer from breast cancer and I didn't even like her very much.  But I felt awful watching what that disease did to her.

I will bite the bullet (or whatever is close at hand) and force myself to go buy a pair of pants and a shirt today.  Once I do, then I can order more stuff on-line at a lower price and not have to go out and shop.

We have two people who eat in the dining room at the same meal time that I do.  Both have horrible coughs.  One never covers....okay, almost never covers her mouth.  The other covers her own mouth, but in spite of the fact her couch is worsening weekly, she continues to smoke like a chimney.  With a cough like that, more and more smoking will ultimately cure the cough completely.  By making her cease to breathe.

I have now gone to the drugstore twice to buy batteries and left both times with other stuff but not the batteries.  That's something else I have to take care of today.

To do the research I wanted to do the other day into what internet dating looks like today as opposed to when I was doing it, I had to sign up for a "free" membership on a couple of sites.  It's only free as long as I don't want to contact any of my potential matches.  Well now I keep getting matches and it's reminding me of my age.  I still want to think of myself as being late 30s and interested in dating women from late 20s through late 30s. But that's just some fantasy in the recesses of my mind.  I'm in my early 50s and women in that age range don't want guys in my age range.  Unless of course we look like Brad Pitt OR have a wallet the size of Tom Cruise.  Then we would do very well with those women.  Time for another experiment.  I'm going to alter the "financial stability" of my faux profile and see if the responses change.  Should be interesting.

I was having a conversation with someone about scriptures over the weekend.  Not so much the contents (a subject to be avoided) as about who actually wrote them.  This particular scripture is generally accepted to have been written by one individual.  The person I was having this discussion with wouldn't let go of her contention that it was undoubtedly written by a group of people and rather than allowing her to offer this argument and then pointing out that it made no difference if one or many people wrote what was written, it didn't change what was written; I stuck to the fact that it is generally accepted that it was one person.  I lost the opportunity to point out the key issue because I wouldn't let go of an unimportant side issue.  Lesson learned.

Tomorrow I'll ponder some imponderables that occur today.

This goes under the "you've got to be kidding me" file:

There's a student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo who works for the student newspaper.  He was doing an article on the university system and how it is inappropriate and possibly illegal for professors to inform students how politics, specifically Prop 30, might influence the Cal State system.  The writer needed a copy of an email written by the Cal State Chancellor to University Presidents on the issue.

The request was initially denied, but he applied under the California Public Records Act and they had no choice but to approve his request.  Then they said he would have to pay twenty cents to have a copy of the email sent to him.  And, they wouldn't accept payment over the phone by credit card, or by having someone bring the cash to the required office in Long Beach.  He was welcome to come to Long Beach and review the email or pay the twenty cents by check and get the email sent to him (via email).  But they wouldn't send it to him until payment had been received.

Fortunately, he found a source that gave him a copy, before his deadline and the story ran.  But the idea that this kind of thing goes on within the educational system is horrific.

I woke up this morning feeling like...

I'd won a lottery prize.  That's because I managed to sleep until 5:26 a.m., latest I've slept in days.  I didn't do anything different.  Perhaps because I was so tired of waking between 3 and 4 in the morning, my body fought to sleep longer.  Whatever happened, that extra hour plus of sleep is much appreciated.

Things I'm pondering today begin with the fact I have to go clothes shopping, something I loathe.  I'd rather watch be forced to watch re-runs of Paris Hilton's now cancelled reality show than go shopping for clothes.  Or be forced to sit through "Pluto Nash", "Leonard, Part 6", "North" or "Being Human", some of the worst movies ever made.  Okay, okay, I'd choose to clothes shop if the choice was that or "Being Human".  But the others would still be preferrable.

I'm pondering a survey about which jobs are held by people who feel that their work makes the world a worse place.  The average rate of such feeling among most jobs is around 1%.  But more than 38% of fast food workers hold the opinion that producing and selling fast food makes the world a worst place, the highest percentage on the survey.  What's really surprising is that the next highest result, dealers of gambling games in casinos feel they're making the world a worse place in numbers less than half of the fast food worker population.  Apparently seeing people losing their money tugs at their consciences.  But not enough to hand back the tips they receive.

I'm pondering just how sick I am of presidential polls.  The only important poll takes place on election day.  I don't care that Gallup is the most prestigious of polls, or that it is showing markedly different results than the other polls.  Polls can become self-fulfilling prophecies if people believe strongly enough in them.

I'm pondering why I had to stand in line for 20 minutes yesterday to get a sandwich at the deli at Ralph's.  Especially when it took the woman working there that long to make only 3 or 4 other sandwiches before she got to me.  This wasn't slow, this was glacial in the speed of movement.

A good friend of mine is going to be a very happy camper when he learns that Olympic swimmer Missy Franklin will be going to UC Berkley to continue her swimming career.  He's a major fan of the Cal Bear.  I had limited exposure to Cal, when my late godparents (both alumni of Cal) took me to the Lair of the Golden Bear summer camp for two summers in my youth.  The counselors were all students and there were a variety of competitions during the week of your stay.  Win a competition, get a tiny trophy.  And a kiss from a counselor of the opposite sex.  After winning a few trophies my first summer there and enjoying the kisses, I went out of my way to win an armful of trophies the following summer. ;)

I'm pondering the weekend box office reports and how they'll look later today when the predictions for the full weekend start rolling in.  For Friday, "Paranormal Activity 4", with its low budget is leading the pack in total gross with $15 million in one day of release.  Conversely, "Alex Cross" is not doing well which doesn't make sense to me.  The novels of James Patterson sell millions of copies.  He's responsible for the sale of 1 in every 17 non-hardcover books in the U.S. His works have outsold those of Stephen King, John Grisham and Dan Brown combined, in recent years.  But apparently, the readers of those novels aren't going to see this film adaptation of his 12th novel featuring Alex Cross.  "Kiss the Girls" was a box office success with Morgan Freeman in the title role, although "Along Came a Spider", the next film with Freeman as Cross was not.

But the best film out this weekend is winning at least one battle.  Per screen average when all is said and done for this weekend will go to "The Sessions", the wonderful film starring Helen Hunt and John Hawkes.  I'm just pondering why films like that are always limited to art houses and don't seem to make it into the mainstream unless someone in them wins an Oscar.

I'm pondering an issue of parking again, but this time it isn't idiots parking oversized cars in compact spaces.  This is a whole different issue.  I watched someone hold up six or seven cars from moving because they wanted a specific parking place and were waiting for the occupant to back out of it.  There were two other open spaces within five spaces of that one the person could have taken but they wanted that space.  Was it that important to park right next to Panda Express that six or seven cars should sit there, burning gas and waiting for you to get the space you wanted?  Walk a few feet.

George McGovern has died.  RIP.  He was ill...

for some time and was non-responsive in hospice care for several days prior to his death.

His legacy will be a failed presidential campaign and one of the central reasons he failed was a very bad decision.  Actually, two bad decisions.  The first was to appoint Senator Thomas Eagleton as his running mate with only a cursory background check.  The second was to remove him from the ticket because of his prior mental health issues after having said he would back the man "1000 percent".  It cost him dearly.

In the 1972 presidential campaign, I was 12 most of the time, 13 for the last two months of the campaign.  But I worked as a campaign volunteer when able, for the McGovern campaign.  Yes, I, who many remember as a Republican (I've been an independent for a long time now) worked for a Democratic political campaign.  There was a cute girl involved, but I did believe at that time I was working for the right guy.  I just didn't trust Nixon.  Turned out, I had good cause.

But today, in the wake of Senator McGovern's death, I want to remember the man's legacy for something he himself discovered late in life.  He went into business and his business failed.  He wrote about that failure and it's something everyone should read.  Here's a link to the article, titled "What I Know Now:  Nibbled to Death"

http://www.inc.com/magazine/19931201/3809.html

For those who don't want to read through the whole piece, here's the important part:

"The second lesson I learned by owning the Stratford Inn is that legislators and government regulators must more carefully consider the economic and management burdens we have been imposing on U.S. business."

This from a man who didn't meet a regulation attempt he didn't like while in office.  Now, in the light of being an overly regulated business, he says government should more carefully consider the impacts of the burdens they impose on U.S. business.

States have the same issues.  Businesses have been fleeing California's heavier burden of regulation and taxation for years, and Prop 30 will only accelerate the process.  It's no good having a state with fine weather if all of the businesses that can choose to move elsewhere.  Hollywood has lost major amounts of film production to Canada and other states who are more willing to provide tax incentives to productions in return for their taking their money and jobs elsewhere.  There is a lesson to be learned and we aren't learning it quickly enough.

I hope the legacies of the late Senator George McGovern will be two-fold.  One, that mental health issues aren't in and of themselves disqualifying factors for a job, particularly when they have been treated, and/or are treatable.  Two, that legislators need to provide thoughtful, meaningful, productive regulation of business that manages to keep consumers and the rest of the population safe, without driving such businesses out of business.

I have a proposition for you....

and this time it is Proposition 33.  There is one and only one man behind it, and he has a very specific goal in mind.  Not to offer insurance discounts, which is how the prop is being sold.  But to unravel consumer protections that were enacted by the very famous Prop 103.

Remember Prop 103?  One of the consumer protections it provided was that it prevented insurers from charging much higher premiums to people who were purchasing coverage for the first time, or after a break in coverage.  Oh yes, it allows insurers to give discounts to people who have long-term coverage with another carrier, but that's just a ruse to make this bad idea seem more palatable.

George Joseph is the man behind this bad idea.  Mercury Insurance is his kingdom and he's donated virtually all of the $16 million that the campaign to pass Prop 33 is spending on getting the voters to vote in favor of the proposition.

But making insurance more expensive means that more drivers will be on the roads without coverage. More drivers without coverage means driving up premiums for uninsured motorist protection.  So these so-called discounts will end up being eaten by higher costs that will get passed on to the motorists anyway.

We've seen this crap before.  Proposition 17 was on the June 2010 ballot and it was defeated.  That was also backed by Mercury General.

Voting NO on Prop 33 is my recommendation.  But you should get educated on the issue and make your own choice.

It used to be at this hour that I'd get paid a lousy amount of money to...

say "3:22 on your Saturday morning, and if there's a song on your mind, something you're just dying to hear, pick up the phone and dial 796-1100 and I'll do my best to get it on for you on the desert's music radio, Klassy 100 FM."

Now I'm up at 3:22 and I'm not being paid poorly to play music on the FM dial, and there's no good reason to be awake.  Except that I am awake, thanks to the fact that the sleeping pills I'm taking are not working well.  They are great at helping to fall asleep, but they aren't working well at keeping me asleep.  That's what the doctor said on Thursday.  The new pills, which hopefully in combination with the old pills will help me fall asleep and stay asleep, are somewhere in the process of being shipped to me and I may get them by the time I've spent a week or ten days doing this more and more often.  Apparently getting up earlier and earlier judging by the past few days.  I would have waited to pick them up, but then I'd have missed the lunch served here at Happy Valley on Thursday and been forced to eat out yet again.  So, as part of my effort to eat here more often and eat out less, I told them to mail me the pills and got here in time for lunch. Which upset my stomach and make the rest of the day one of those days where you don't wander far from a restroom.

The district manager for H&R Block is supposedly going to finally show up at the class next week.  Maybe Monday, maybe Wednesday.  So that means today or tomorrow I have to go out and buy some clothes so I can wear something other than shorts and a t-shirt or sweatpants and a t-shirt to class so I look at least semi-human.  That should be fun.  I love clothes shopping with the same fervor that I love having an incompetent lab tech try to draw blood or maybe the same passion with which I just adore sitting in rush hour traffic watching idiots watch an accident that's on the side of the road.

I missed one question on Friday's quiz.  Because it was the last question and unlike the previous 15, I didn't keep going slowly and just wanted to get it done.  Had I gone back and re-checked it like I had the other 15, I'd have noticed I'd fallen right into the trap set by the test question's author.  I facepalmed myself gently when I saw what I'd done.  Interesting how we forgive silly mistakes made by others and are far less forgiving of them in ourselves, eh?

I actually enjoy listening to the radio talk show host that is on today from 4 to 6, and on again at the same time tomorrow, so I'm arranging my weekend around being able to sit in front of the computer and listen to her during those times.  Not sure if it's her sense of humor, the topics she brings to the table to discuss or just my own missing radio altogether that has me glomming on to at least some radio. 

The bad news is that I don't want what's for lunch here today.  The good news is that the movie I want to see would have kept me from having lunch here anyway.  The really bad news is that the situation is the same tomorrow if I decide to go see the only other movie under consideration for a weekend viewing.  Considering I'm seeing 2 movies on Tuesday at AFI press screenings, I may not be up for a film on both Saturday and Sunday.  I'll have to see.

I'm a fan of Star Trek, almost all of its incarnations (not a big fan of the "Enterprise" show with Scott Bakula as the captain), but I wouldn't fly to London to go to a  fan convention just because Captain's Kirk, Picard, Brooks, Janeway and whatever Bakula's character was named were sharing one stage. But I bet a lot of hard-core Trekkers did.  Why they did is beyond me?  It's one thing to enjoy a show and immerse yourself in its minutiae.  It's another to don pointy ears, wear uniforms and learn to speak Klingon.  Talk about going where no one else has gone before.....

Which is why it isn't surprising that in Britain, where this "reunion" was going on, we saw the world's first wedding ceremony performed in Klingon, by two people made up to look like Klingons.  Folks, the only real klingons in this world come from when you don't wipe your ass properly.

There's a battery making plant in Michigan built with tens of millions in government subsidies that sits idle, as there is no demand for the batteries it could build.  I'm not blaming the President or anyone in his administration, there are growing pains when you move in the direction of new technology.  But to be paying people to sit and play Monopoly all day is almost enough to make one think about moving to Michigan to take one of those do-nothing jobs.  Oh well, there are plenty of do-nothing jobs in government almost anywhere that one could get.

Maybe this why the economic future of the U.S. is in doubt.  The obsession of women with getting their hair "blown out".  I just read about a 23 year old in New York City who spends 15% of her annual salary having her hair blown out twice a week.  15%!!!  Beauty is expensive.  I remember taking my first wife to the beauty shop and it cost me $300 just to get an estimate.  The choice was fix her or fix the car.  Easy choice.  Fix her or sleep in the car.

Residents of Southern California would be so up in arms if Rupert Murdoch were to buy the L.A. Times and take the newspaper on a more conservative slant.  I can see their chief liberal apologist,  James Rainey suddenly looking for work elsewhere.  But I doubt it will happen.  The paper will likely be sold, but to someone other than Murdoch who has his own problems at the moments.

So yesterday I was sitting in the doctor's office at the VA...

when my cellphone rang.  It was the VA's tele-health computer, calling to see if I'd checked my vital signs that day.  Now I'd just had my vitals checked by the VA's nurse and entered into their computer.  So why was it calling me?  Does the computer at the VA not talk to the computer that calls me to demand my vitals seven days a week?  Apparently not.  I had to call the computer back after my appointment to give it numbers it should have already had.

Other ponderables today include the rationale behind Gallaudet University (a famous university for deaf students) placing their chief diversity officer on leave because she signed a petition to put the same-sex marriage law proposal on the ballot for Maryland's voters to continue.  There's something completely illogical about that notion.  The LGBT community adds diversity to a campus.  Gallaudet has a large LGBT community already.   Suspending her makes about as much sense as the logic that the reason that guy shot the Pope was that he wanted to go straight to hell and he did not want to have to stand in line to get in. (giving credit to Eddie Murphy for that old joke)

What would or could be so important that you need to text it while going 70 miles per hour on the freeway?  I have this mental image of a guy in rush hour traffic sipping coffee with one hand, holding his cell phone to his ear with the other, manipulating the steering wheel with his knee and generally presenting a danger to any other car on the road.  I've seen things close to that.  I saw a woman the other day stopped at a traffic light doing her makeup and she didn't put it down right away when the light changed.  She moved into the intersection and only then put down whatever she was putting on her face.

Reminds me of a time I had three women working for me in my Air Force office.  One insisted on arriving right at the exact minute the duty day started, and then she'd sit at her desk and spend 15 to 20 minutes "fixing her face". 

One of the reasons I hate the current political system is that we have to wonder about things like what is frequent prevaricator Deborah Wasserman Shultz avoiding questions about the fund-raising for the recent Democratic National Convention.  The fund-raising fell well short of the required goals, in spite of commitments to avoid special interest money.  Didn't someone say something about the most "transparent administration in history".  Don't get me wrong, both sides suck when it comes to stuff like this.  Mitt Romney never met a dollar he wouldn't accept as a campaign donation, even if it was from Satan.

I'd like to know what happened to the woman who died in a Metrolink station after she fell down an escalator backwards.  Yes, the elevator shouldn't have been broken.  But she was being pushed by an attendant.  The two of them should have known better than to attempt to negotiate an escalator on a wheelchair.  There are signs.  There is common sense.  Get back on the train, ride to the next station and walk or cab or bus back to where you were going.  The next station's elevator probably worked.