Stuff

Blogging from the dentist’s waiting room.

70 degrees and sunny sunny sunny at 10:45. Love fall.

I like comments that demonstrate the commenter hasn’t really read what was posted. I guess Challenger3 was assigned the task to spin the “mosquito” business at Gallery Place.

Labor Day isn’t as much fun when you don’t actually labor anymore.

Refinanced my mortgage for 4.75% for 20 years with a half point. How’d I do?

Terrible winds last night until dawn. Allergies love that. Humidity back to single digits in the afternoons. Bye bye monsoon season.

idle thought

The Times had a photograph of some folks at the Glenn Beck rally in Washington today.

Two businesses came to mind.

It would be good to have sunscreen to sell. These people are pasty.

It would be bad to have an all-you-can-eat buffet nearby. These people are big eaters.

Idle thought

I’ll wager your HOA or neighborhood newsletter doesn’t have instructions for where to call if you spot a bear or if one is annoying your pets.

Idle thought

Modern life may in fact bring on more anxieties than our ancestors faced. And the constant barrage of drug advertisements and self-indulgent articles and books on this and that and every other ailment surely makes us more self-aware than they were.

Even so, I assume human beings have faced emotional problems beyond their control for centuries — and they were every bit as miserable as us, without any of the understanding, or any of the possible remedies.

It’s a wonder to me that the human race has lasted this long.

Idle thought

Poor Shirley Sherrod. I see now she wants to meet the president to talk about race. Next thing you know she’ll want a talk show gig.

Hon, it’s not about you.

This story is about the news media. It’s about “journalists” who don’t check their sources, either because they are incompetent, or much worse, because they are malevolent in using anything to promote their political agenda.

And, to a lesser extent, it’s about politicians, who cowed by the news media, fire people without due process.

It’s about our broken systems.

The White House’s wrong and gutless reaction

. . . to the whole Shirley Sherrod business just makes me sick.

(A few months ago Sherrod, USDA Georgia Director of Rural Development, gave a speech at an NAACP dinner. She told a story about not helping a white farmer as much as she should have 24 years ago — and went on to tell how she realized quickly that was wrong. She did help, so much so that Sherrod and the farmer even became friends, confirmed by the farmer’s wife who told CNN, “She helped us save our farm by getting in there and doing everything she could do.” The point of Sherrod’s story at the dinner had been that people needed to look beyond race. That was what she had learned 24 years ago.

But a right-wing zealot edited the video of Sherrod’s speech, eliminating the whole point of her story. There was an outcry that she was a racist. The White House reacted to the outcry by forcing her out of her job.)

UPDATE: Apparently USDA Secretary Vilsack is taking credit for firing Sherrod. The White House should tell him to correct the decision. They aren’t reacting to the event, which was positive. They are reacting to the shameful, lying, agenda-driven, right wing, out-of context depiction of the event.

Idle thought

Hail storms are no fun in a house with seven skylights.

Bigger than peas, smaller than marbles.

56 degrees and an inch of rain, though.

Idle thought

At this writing it’s 67-67 in the Isner-Mahut match at Wimbledon.

Really, don’t you think it’s time to go to PKs?

Idle thought

Well, we all know now what that seemingly out-of-place H in McChrystal stands for.

Hubris.

Idle thought

I think Stanley is going to have a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day Wednesday.

Idle thought

Give a four-year-old a vuvuzela and they’ll blow it annoyingly for six or eight minutes and then drop it aside.

What kind of morons blow on the things for 90+ minutes?

Idle thought

122 franchises in American professional team major league sports and the Boston Celtics are my 122nd favorite.

Just sayin’.

Idle thought

BP will be sued and the possible damages from the Deep Horizon disaster could amount to $100 billion or more.

But the Supreme Court will throw the penalties out, as they did with the Exxon Valdez mess.

After the Exxon Valdez spill, Exxon fought a $5 billion fine for punitive damages for two decades. It won. The fine was cut down to $4 billion, then to $2.5 billion. The case eventually made it to the Supreme Court, which found that Exxon’s actions were “worse than negligent but less than malicious,” and vacated the fine. The judgment limited punitive damages to the compensatory damages, which were calculated as $507.5 million.

Dealbook Column

Idle thought

They say the good die young.

Juan Antonio Samaranch was 89.

Idle thought

The airlines claim to be losing $200 million a day while European airspace was closed. But of course that’s B.S. They’re hoping to be bailed out and so must start with a high figure.

At most they are losing $200 million a day in revenue. But how much should be subtracted from that $200 million for fuel not being burned, crews not being paid? And how much should be added back when the flights begin and the stranded passengers fill every seat? And how much more for the interest the airlines earned on tickets paid in advance for trips deferred?

Just sayin’.

But he has to

Byron, official co-son-in-law of NewMexiKen expected to return to Virginia from the U.K. today. Oops.

And now they’ve just cancelled his Sunday flight.

Don’t they know he has a flag football game to coach?

This reminded me of a true story involving a colleague while he was director of a government records center. A federal judge called and demanded a particular document, which Jim had no authority to release (not without the proper red tape).

The judge insisted. Not without trepidation, Jim stood his ground.

The judge said, “I’m sending a U.S. marshal by helicopter to bring either the document or you to my court.” (The judge was in Los Angeles; we were about 50 miles away.)

Soon enough the marshal arrived. Jim remained adamant. (He was right.)

The marshal said, let’s go tell the judge.

Jim said, “I can’t go.” The marshal asked why. Jim said, “I’ve got a little league game to ump.”

The marshal laughed, called the judge, and somehow his honor relented.

Jim umped the game.

But I wouldn’t have wanted to argue balls and strikes with him that afternoon.

Idle Thought

I was thinking maybe the Catholic Church could update its image some if the next pope were to take a more modern name.

You know, like Pope Elvis, Pope Usher, Pope Ronaldo — something like that.

Idle thought

One feels somehow particularly self-conscious driving by a sheriff’s work gang in a top-down sports car.

Idle thought about an idle thought

Wally suggests in a comment that writing about golf on TV is a perfect storm of inactivity.

But I’m thinking, Wally, that Richard Sandomir gets a tidy salary from The New York Times to write about golf on TV:

On another subject, Nantz evidently wanted to portray himself as a Woods critic.

On Saturday, he said he was disappointed in Woods’s frustrated outbursts, although most would not call his words very profane. On Sunday, Nantz came off as a scold when he called the language “foul.” Even some of Nantz’s colleagues said Sunday that Woods seemed less himself when he was not exhibiting his emotional side.

If Nantz and CBS don’t want to hear Woods, don’t aim a microphone at him.

But that would be a shame because I thought it was classic when Woods executed poorly and, again talking to himself, said, “Eldrick!”

Idle thought

Does Jim Nantz really think, as he just said, that “Tiger Woods, you suck!” (as said by Tiger Woods to himself yesterday after a bad shot) is foul language?

Fuck you Jim Nantz, you asshole.

Now that’s foul language.

Idle thoughts

You’d never known watching CBS that Phil Mickelson has a playing partner, let alone one currently in 10th place. His name is Yang.

And why is it the scoring graphic can’t be programmed to shrink the font and include more names when there are ties? As it is they always include the TV favorites (Tiger, Phil) at the top of the tie, even though the rules say the player with more holes played is actually ahead of others with the same score.

Great golf. Just needed to rant a little.

Idle thought

If you have an iPhone or iPod touch, the Articles app, even at $3, is worth considering. It’s a very attractive presentation of Wikipedia.

You can walk around with an encyclopedia in your pocket; might as well pay $3 to increase its usefulness. Very nice.

Idle factoid

Spirit Airlines is now charging $20 to $45 for a CARRY-ON bag.

Someone should file a class action suit against airlines claiming they are discriminating against people who are not hobos or nudists.

Idle thought

When I was a kid in Michigan, fall and the new automobile model year was a very big deal. Celebrities (ballplayers and such) were at dealers, searchlights panned the sky, music and free food.

But that’s nothing compared to the marketing of Steve Jobs and Apple. All this buzz.

And remember when people complained about planned obsolescence in cars — gotta have the latest tail fins? Ha, the auto manufacturers were small town hucksters compared to the computer industry.

Idle question

If you have house guests on April 1, 2010, as I expect to have, what is the correct answer to question 2 on the front page of the census form?