While the world (locally) sleeps
Something woke me around 2:30 a.m. I tossed and turned for about 25 more minutes and then gave up on trying to fall asleep again. Since I am now wide awake, I figured I might as well blog. Thus, this collection of random ponderings.
* * *
The government hadn't even finished determining it would be shutting down before the finger-pointing began. Considering that the Republicans control Congress and the White House, it is difficult for them to escape the blame. Except for the fact that getting the latest continuing resolution passed in the Senate requires 60 votes and the majority of the Republicans there is only 51 to 49.
The last government shutdown was in 2013. Back then, citizen Donald Trump had a few things to say about the shutdown.
Of course, now he is singing a much different tune. It is the fault of the Democrats He is never to blame for anything. A previous president had something very different to say on where responsibility resides.
That famous sign says it perfectly. If the job of the president; as Mr. Trump said a little over four years ago, is to get all the people together in a room and make the deal, why can't he do that? After all, he wrote a book titled "The Art of the Deal."
A Fox News poll taken during the 2013 government shutdown laid blame on the various players in this drama. 20%, fully one-fifth of those polled, blamed both sides for that fiasco. Republicans got the blame from 42% of those polled, while President Obama was blamed by 24%.
Who do you blame?
* * *
I'd have read the story in the L.A. Times about the steep increase in the price of season seats for the Dodgers even if someone I bowled with back in the late 1970s wasn't featured prominently in it. But he was.
That's Bill Snoberger and his fiancée Mary Jones. Their season seats in the nosebleed section known as the "Top Deck" have gone up 45% over the last two years. Last year's package was $315 from the prior year, and now they've been hit with another increase; $505.
Top deck tickets are a bargain compared to other sports, but season seats is a big commitment. Pro football teams play 8 regular season home games. That's after 2 preseason home games. The NBA home season is 41 games after a number of preseason home games that vary due to some being played off-site. The NHL schedule is roughly the same with the recent expansion. The Dodgers play 81 regular season home games and 1 or 2 preseason games at home during the "Freeway Series."
The top deck seats at Dodgers Stadium will run Bill and his fiancée $16 each, per game next seaon.
The NHL website says full-season ticket packages for the Kings start at $40 per game.
The cheapest full-season ticket package for the Lakers start at $38 per game.
The cheapest full-season ticket package for the Rams is $45 per game, although that price is expected to skyrocket beginning in 2019 when their new stadium will be used.
Let's do the math:
Dodgers: $16 * 81 home games = $1,296
Kings: $40 * 41 home games = $1,640
Lakers: $38 * 41 home games = $1,558
Rams: $45 * 8 home games = $360
According to the website Statista dot com, the average price of a Dodgers ticket rose from $20.09 in 2006 to $31.90 in 2016. The CPI inflation calculator says that $20.09 in 2000 had the buying power of $27.88 in 2016.
In the end, when you love your team, you write the check.
* * *
"A sentence of seven years for manslaughter is not out of the ordinary" is a line from a story in the San Jose Mercury News regarding the sentencing of 40 year old Yarenit Malihan.
She killed a 3 year old child while she was driving under the influence (DUI). The plea deal she reached with prosecutors called for that seven year sentence reference above, but her total time behind bars will probably be less than that amount with time-off for good behavior.
Is this appropriate? Does your response to that question change when informed that at the time of the DUI where she killed someone, she was out on bail pending another DUI charge? Or that she was arrested for public intoxication AFTER her second DUI?
How about when you learn that she is the wife of a Alameda County Deputy Sheriff?
Why not order people charged with DUI who are granted bail to abstain from alcohol/drugs or face immediate revocation and forfeiture of that bail?
* * *
Best sign from all of the women's marches held yesterday?
Maybe this one:
* * *
* * *
The government hadn't even finished determining it would be shutting down before the finger-pointing began. Considering that the Republicans control Congress and the White House, it is difficult for them to escape the blame. Except for the fact that getting the latest continuing resolution passed in the Senate requires 60 votes and the majority of the Republicans there is only 51 to 49.
The last government shutdown was in 2013. Back then, citizen Donald Trump had a few things to say about the shutdown.
Of course, now he is singing a much different tune. It is the fault of the Democrats He is never to blame for anything. A previous president had something very different to say on where responsibility resides.
That famous sign says it perfectly. If the job of the president; as Mr. Trump said a little over four years ago, is to get all the people together in a room and make the deal, why can't he do that? After all, he wrote a book titled "The Art of the Deal."
A Fox News poll taken during the 2013 government shutdown laid blame on the various players in this drama. 20%, fully one-fifth of those polled, blamed both sides for that fiasco. Republicans got the blame from 42% of those polled, while President Obama was blamed by 24%.
Who do you blame?
* * *
I'd have read the story in the L.A. Times about the steep increase in the price of season seats for the Dodgers even if someone I bowled with back in the late 1970s wasn't featured prominently in it. But he was.
That's Bill Snoberger and his fiancée Mary Jones. Their season seats in the nosebleed section known as the "Top Deck" have gone up 45% over the last two years. Last year's package was $315 from the prior year, and now they've been hit with another increase; $505.
Top deck tickets are a bargain compared to other sports, but season seats is a big commitment. Pro football teams play 8 regular season home games. That's after 2 preseason home games. The NBA home season is 41 games after a number of preseason home games that vary due to some being played off-site. The NHL schedule is roughly the same with the recent expansion. The Dodgers play 81 regular season home games and 1 or 2 preseason games at home during the "Freeway Series."
The top deck seats at Dodgers Stadium will run Bill and his fiancée $16 each, per game next seaon.
The NHL website says full-season ticket packages for the Kings start at $40 per game.
The cheapest full-season ticket package for the Lakers start at $38 per game.
The cheapest full-season ticket package for the Rams is $45 per game, although that price is expected to skyrocket beginning in 2019 when their new stadium will be used.
Let's do the math:
Dodgers: $16 * 81 home games = $1,296
Kings: $40 * 41 home games = $1,640
Lakers: $38 * 41 home games = $1,558
Rams: $45 * 8 home games = $360
According to the website Statista dot com, the average price of a Dodgers ticket rose from $20.09 in 2006 to $31.90 in 2016. The CPI inflation calculator says that $20.09 in 2000 had the buying power of $27.88 in 2016.
In the end, when you love your team, you write the check.
* * *
"A sentence of seven years for manslaughter is not out of the ordinary" is a line from a story in the San Jose Mercury News regarding the sentencing of 40 year old Yarenit Malihan.
She killed a 3 year old child while she was driving under the influence (DUI). The plea deal she reached with prosecutors called for that seven year sentence reference above, but her total time behind bars will probably be less than that amount with time-off for good behavior.
Is this appropriate? Does your response to that question change when informed that at the time of the DUI where she killed someone, she was out on bail pending another DUI charge? Or that she was arrested for public intoxication AFTER her second DUI?
How about when you learn that she is the wife of a Alameda County Deputy Sheriff?
Why not order people charged with DUI who are granted bail to abstain from alcohol/drugs or face immediate revocation and forfeiture of that bail?
* * *
Best sign from all of the women's marches held yesterday?
Maybe this one:
* * *
posted by me at 5:13 PM
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